Finding University of Hertfordshire Theses
EThOS registration/login and search
Finding University of Hertfordshire Theses
Please note that retrieval of physical theses from the closed stack will be available from 09 September.
To access UH theses (the UHRA electronic version of doctoral level submissions and the printed copies of Masters by Research and MPhil dissertations):
- Click on Online Library on the top menu bar of StudyNet
- Type your search in the Library Search box
- To find a specific thesis, type the author's surname and keywords from the title, plus the word thesis, e.g. Williams networking business thesis
- You can search for theses on a subject by typing subject keywords, using quote marks " "to search for a phrase, and adding Hertfordshire to narrow your search down e.g. "art therapy" thesis Hertfordshire
- To narrow your search down further, look at the menu on the left of the screen: under Content Type click on Dissertation/Thesis (you may need to click on More first)
- Electronic theses are available from the UH Research Archive.
- Print theses are kept in a closed access stack at College Lane LRC and have to be requested in advance using a Stack Retrieval Form. They can be used only in the LRC and must be returned the same day as they are issued to you. Please download the form and open it in Adobe before filling it in and submitting it by email.
The University of Hertfordshire Research Archive (UHRA) contains electronic versions of research theses completed at the University.
Students can deposit their research thesis, if completed at UH, in the UHRA. UH electronic theses are being included in the British Library EThOS service (details below) so it is important that your final PhD is deposited in the UHRA.
As more universities make theses available electronically via their own Open Access institutional archives (like UHRA) you will be able to find the full text of theses worldwide by simply searching on Google.
The British Library is currently digitising thousands of theses from UK Higher Education institutions to make the full-text freely available online for users to download through the Electronic Thesis Online Service (EThOS).
Staff and students can request a PhD thesis from another UK institution via the British Library’s (BL's) EThOS service at:http://ethos.bl.uk
EThOS registration/login and search
To use EthOS, you first need to register, see EThOS Login and Registration
- You can then search EThOS for UK theses
- If a thesis has already been digitised, you can freely download it immediately from EThOS
- If a thesis has not already been digitised and the owning institution does not/will not fund the digitisation costs, EThOS will request payment for it
- If payment for a thesis is required, you should
- Contact the Inter-library Loan (ILL) team by email at ill@herts.ac.uk
- The email should include your contact details, whether staff or student, and if a student then your course/research project details. You need to state that you want a dissertation from the EThOS service that requires payment.
You should be aware from the outset that when digitisation is required, it usually takes around 30 days but there could be a delay of weeks (unknown), depending on how quickly the owning institution supplies the hard copy of the thesis to the BL for digitisation, and how quick the BL is at digitising it.
Requests from staff
If the request is from a member of staff, the ILL team will proceed directly with the request for the thesis.
- The ILL team will be informed via email from the BL when the thesis is available for download from EThOS*
- The ILL team will forward the email to you to say that the thesis is available on EThOS. The forwarded email will include useful information to help you identify the thesis on the system and explain the need for you to download it yourself
- You can then log into EThOS and download the thesis yourself, for free.**
Requests from students
If the request is from a student, the ILL team will refer this to the relevant Information Manager for approval.
- The Information Manager will then make contact with you, ensuring that you are aware of the type/level of the resource you have requested, any alternative resources, the likely timescales required for digitisation
- The Information Manager will approve (or not) the request on a case-by-case basis in consultation with you and will inform the ILL team of the decision
- The ILL team will proceed with the request for the thesis
- The ILL team will be informed via email from the BL when the thesis is available for download from EThOS*
- The ILL team will forward the email to you to say that the thesis is available on EThOS. The forwarded email will include useful information to help you identify the thesis on the system and explain the need for you to download it yourself
- You can then log into EThOS and download the thesis yourself, for free.**
*this email can take several days, or possibly weeks, to arrive via BL functional email.
**By following this procedure, UH pays for the digitisation of the thesis and the user agrees to the terms and conditions of supply of the thesis, so all legal requirements are met.
Many international theses are freely available digitally (see below). However, if you are unable to obtain a digital copy, contact your Information Manager for further advice.
Australasian Digital Theses. Access to full-text electronic theses submitted at Australasian universities is now available via the National Library of Australia's Trove service.
Caltech ETD Database. Contains electronic theses and dissertations submitted by students undertaking research in science and technology.
DART-Europe. A single European portal for the discovery of open access electronic theses and dissertations.
Dissonline. Search for German electronic dissertations and post-doctoral theses held by the German National Library. Coverage from 1998.
DIVA. Portal for research publications and student theses from 26 Scandinavian universities and colleges of higher education.
HKU Theses Online. Holds over 18,000 Hong Kong theses and dissertations submitted for higher degrees since 1941. Mostly in English, with some in Chinese. Over 16,500 are available in full-text.
NARCIS. Portal to open-access e-theses and other research publications from all Dutch universities.
National Archive of PhD Theses. Contains the PhD theses from all Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Greece as well as PhD theses awarded to Greek scholars by foreign HEIs.
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD). International organization which contains more than one million records of electronic theses and dissertations from universities in the USA and other countries.
Open Grey multidisciplinary repository for European grey literature.
Shodhganga. Full text digital theses from over 100 Indian universities.
SUDOC. Catalogue of materials held in French university and research libraries. Use the advanced search to limit your search to theses, many of which are available online in full-text.
Theses Canada Portal. Maintained by Library and Archives Canada and provides free access.
For more information about requesting a thesis, see Inter-Library Loans (ILLs).