Obtaining PhD Dissertations

I would like to see sample computer science dissertations to see what they look like, how hard they are, can I do it, etc... I went to the Digital Disertations website, but there's now way I can pay for each of those.

How else can you obtain dissertations? Can you get them from public libraries? I'm not yet enrolled in a program so I don't have access to a school library.

Any ideas?

 

dissertations

call the public library. they usually cooperation agreements and you will likely have to wait a few weeks to get them.

 

Satchie:

As a working librarian who does quite a bit of Interlibrary Loan, I would suggest that you not rely on this resource. Dissertations are hard to get via ILL. They are unique items and so many libraries will not send them off to ILL neverneverland, perhaps never to return.

Is there a university close to you that gives the Ph.D. in computer science? They will likely have copies of their own graduates' dissertations on hand that you can examine. Don't worry about not being a student. Librarians are usually happy to serve non-students. Universities see themselves as fulfilling a community mission as well as teaching their own students, and university libraries, with only a few excepts, are on board with this. You shouldn't have any problems examining their dissertations, although you will need to view them on site, since you will not have circulation privileges and they almost certainly will not circulate anyway.

You could, of course, order copies from UMI, but this will cost you money.

Hope this helps.

marilynd

 

Virginia tech - free database - very good resource.

 

South African site

The University of Pretoria has a site where you can look at their thesis and dissertation online. You can print them off as well.

 

marilynd

what's UMI?

 

Re: marilynd

http://wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/

 

Try:
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) (http://www.theses.org/)
and then NDLTD Union Catalog. I found 45 computer science (subject) ETD's onlline.

 

NJIT's Electronic Theses & Dissertations Project. Plenty on computer science, among other subjects. You can read them online or print them.

http://www.library.njit.edu/etd/list-majors.cfm


Kit

 

Try Google Scholar. It's still in beta, but you can search for almost anything academic AND all the references that cite that paper! Very useful when doing a lit review!!

http://scholar.google.com/