ETDs: Locate ETDs

Current info for Graduate Students about electronic theses and dissertations.

Locating and Accessing ETDs

Virginia Tech's ETDs are available in VTechWorks, the university’s digital repository.

See video below for how to search for ETDs in VTechWorks.

There are many institutional repositories and national libraries of ETDs, as well as commercial vendors:

Local: VT ETDs

Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertations

Can't find that VT ETD you're looking for in VTechWorks? The author may have requested an embargo. If so, the ETD will not be available to the public until the embargo period has expired, usually one year plus a few months.

Can't access the VT ETD you found in VTechWorks? Perhaps the author restricted access to the Virginia Tech community. It will usually become publicly available one year plus a few months after it was approved by the Graduate School. You may request the ETD through InterLibraryLoan.

Searching for ETDs in VTechWorks

On the VTechWorks homepage you can search by entering any term or phrase in the box in the upper right corner. (if you enter nothing and hit the search button, you get the option to See Advanced Filters [see below]). Below the homepage search box, you can choose to search or browse within

  • Communities & Collections
  • By Issue Date
  • Authors
  • Titles
  • Subjects

You also have the option of refining your search by facets such Content Type (e.g., video, abstract, presentation, dissertation).

Advanced Filters offers 15 "filters" and boolean operators.

Within some collections there are collection-specific facets. For example, within the ETD collection you can browse/search by

  • Department
  • Committee Chair
  • Degree Level

Selecting the gear icon will give you options for sorting the results and how many results to display per page.

Purchase Theses and Dissertations

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global (PQDT)

  • Searchable citations to dissertations and theses from 1861 to the present
  • Dissertations since 1980 and Master's theses since 1988 include abstracts
  • Over a million full-text dissertations in PDF available
  • Over 2.1 million titles in print are available

Global ETDs

Global search from the NDLTD—Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations— Full text ETDs publicly available

  • Central portal to search and locate more than 4,494,543 ETDs around the world
  • Find ETDs based on keyword, date, institution, language or subject searches

OADT: Open Access Theses and Dissertations

Over 3,000,000 open access graduate theses and dissertations from more than 1100 colleges, universities, and research institutions around the world

Theses Canada from Library and Archives Canada

EThOS--Electronic Theses Online Service: UK’s national doctoral thesis service from the British Library

More sources of ETDs