ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Database

Key Facts
Format: Abstract, Full Text
Media: Electronic/Online
Coverage: 1637-Current
Total Sources Covered: 2.7+ million

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses is the world’s most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses, the official digital dissertations archive for the Library of Congress and the database of record for graduate research. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses – Full Text (PQDT – Full Text) includes 2.7 million searchable citations to dissertation and theses from around the world from 1861 to the present day together with 1.2 million full text dissertations that are available for download in PDF format. The database offers full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and strong retrospective full text coverage for older graduate works.

More than 70,000 new full text dissertations and theses are added to the database each year through dissertations publishing partnerships with 700 leading academic institutions worldwide and collaborative retrospective digitization of dissertations through UMI's Digital Archiving and Access Program. Full Text dissertations are archived as submitted by the degree-granting institution. Some will be native PDF, some PDF image.

Each dissertation published since July 1980 includes a 350-word abstract written by the author. Master’s theses published since 1988 include 150-word abstracts. Simple bibliographic citations are available for dissertations dating from 1637. Where available, PQDT – Full Text provides 24-page previews of dissertations and theses. Abstracts are provided in English providing greater discoverability of foreign language works – as ProQuest expands its international publishing partnerships an expanding world of graduate research is becoming available via PQDT.

Multi-media content is now available through PQDT– Full Text from works from 2007 onwards. Where authors have submitted supplementary digital materials with their graduate work [eg audio, code script, data, image, PDF, presentation, spreadsheet and text] this is now available for download.
Searchable full text is now available within PQDT– Full Text for dissertations and theses from 2008 onward – cover-to-cover, across every discipline and including roman script foreign-language works.

With scholarly research content in every subject, PQDT is a multi-disciplinary resource that supports all academic departments and disciplines.
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (A&I)
ProQuest also offers an abstract and index version of ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (PQDT – A&I) providing a cost effective option for institutions that need to ensure their researchers are able to discover records held in the world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses. Customers can place orders for dissertation copies as required in PDF or print formats – over 2.1 million titles are available for purchase as printed copies. 
The abstract and index version of PQDT includes 2.7 million searchable citations to dissertation and theses from around the world from 1861 to the present day. (PQDT – A&I product does not include the 1.2 million full text PDF records featured in PQDT – Full Text.)
As well as the author written abstracts for doctoral dissertations published since July 1980 and  Master’s theses published since 1988, PQDT – A&I  includes 24-page previews of dissertations and theses where available.

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses also offers researchers unlimited access to digital copies from their own institutions as well as affordable copies from others. Customers can order copies of dissertations through PQDT in PDF or paper formats. Since December, 2009, our new checkout system has made ordering copies easier than ever by allowing users to create an account to store billing and shipping information.
With scholarly research content in every subject, PQDT is a multi-disciplinary resource that supports all academic departments and disciplines. 
Accessing ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
PQDT is available on the Web through ProQuest™, a premier information access and retrieval system. It is suitable for all types of researchers whether they are online novices or information professionals. Natural language searching, database segmenting, and conceptual smart searching are just a few of the features that help users find the information they need quickly and easily.

Online subscriptions allow unlimited searching for a set fee, and depending on an institution's subscription type, access to the full text of dissertations and theses in PDF format (where available).