Art, Design and Architecture

Thesis in the UK refers normally to Doctoral/ PhD level research work, while a dissertation refers to Undergraduate/Postgraduate level original work of a shorter length. It is important to note that the US these terms are reversed and you normally hear PhD/ Doctoral work referred to as a dissertation, while work at a lower level is normally a thesis.

Theses and dissertations are not peer-reviewed but a PhD Thesis or Dissertation will be a very high-level piece of in-depth work and would have passed after a difficult defense against a panel of academics. If you find a useful PhD thesis I would still recommend seeing if the author has published any articles from it.

The links below will help you find theses and possibly dissertations too. Check the quality of the work you find - even the best postgraduate work may not be rigorous enough and may require a discussion with a supervisor to decide whether it should be used or not.

If you don't have Open Access to an item, it may be worth placing an Inter Library Loan if you really need the thesis. Do bear in mind you will only be able to place these for items found via ETHoS as the British Library supply our Inter Library Loans.

The British Library runs a service called EThOS, which enables individuals to register online at http://ethos.bl.uk and access UK PhD theses. EThOS currently provides details of more than 250,000 theses, many of which are available electronically and can be downloaded from EThOS including all Plymouth PhD theses. 

Plymouth theses can also be accessed from PEARL (the university repository) via Primo along with a selection of Masters theses.

If you are a PhD student you can find out about depositing your thesis from our Library Research Support & Services library guide

Please note: EThOS is currently out of action until further notice due to the British Library hacking that happened some time ago.

You may discover theses referenced in scholarly work, but it is worth nothing that there are limits on discoverability due to lack of metadata and archiving in many regions or institutions. However, you may find the following links useful:

Proquest Digital Theses Open
Find Open Access theses from international institutions. You should be able to access these via a link.

Open Access Theses and Dissertations
Attempts to collate records for Open Access graduate Theses and Dissertations from around the world.