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Looking for Examples?

If you are looking for dissertations or theses as examples to help with your own dissertation formatting or methodology, you don't necessarily have to be comprehensive in your searching. You just need good examples. Because of this you can search a smaller group of selected disserations and theses and - maybe - find one that works.

​Search tips:
  • Search for a study using your potential methodology (ethnography, phenomenology, experimental, etc.)
  • You may want to add relevant terms in your search to narrow your focus 
  • Chapter 2 is often the literature review
  • Chapters 3 and 4 are often the chapters that focus on the methodology and results

Looking for a Specific Dissertation or Thesis?

Ok. You have an abstract or even just a citation of a dissertation or thesis. Maybe you even had the first 20 pages. Here is a course of action to take when trying to obtain the full-text of the dissertation.

  1. Google the title. If you are lucky, the dissertation might be available in its entirety online either through the university's online repository, PGDT Open or one of the ETD sites.
  2. If the dissertation is not available online for free, submit an ILL request via the Illiad form. This is very similar to requesting books or journal articles. It is VERY difficult for ILL to get dissertations however.
  3. If FLITE is unable to obtain the dissertation, try to locate his or her contact information and contact the author directly. As a scholar, the author may or may not be happy to share their work.
  4. If all else fails and you are in a worst-case scenario, you can purchase the dissertation or thesis via the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Database. 

Looking for Complete Search?

If you are looking to do the most thorough, complete search you can of most all dissertations and theses available, you need to search the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database.

Unfortunately, because Ferris does not have a subscription to this database through FLITE, you will need to physically go to a library that both: 

  • has a subscription to this database 
  • allows guest access to its databases to library visitors. 

These libraries tend to be larger research libraries; if you would like help determining if a library near you has access to this database, please ask a Ferris librarian via chat, text, phone call, or email. For example, the University of Michigan and Michigan State University libraries both have access to this database in the state of Michigan.

A Note About ProQuest Dissertations & Theses from the University of Michigan

From the University of Michigan's institutional repository, Deep Blue:

  • Increasingly, universities are requiring that doctoral degree candidates deposit their dissertations into the university's online repository, and are changing submission to ProQuest from a requirement to an option. For example, as of 2012, University of Michigan requires deposit of dissertations into its Deep Blue online repository, and no longer requires submission to ProQuest. To the extent that authors elect not to submit their dissertations to ProQuest, its listings for dissertations are becoming gradually less complete over time. (Its listings for dissertations filed at U-M have declined from being about 80% complete for 2012 to only about 25% to 20% complete for 2013 and 2014, respectively.)
  • Authors of dissertations have the right to restrict access to the full text of their dissertation from all ProQuest databases and document delivery services if they so choose. Some publishers recommend or require blocking of access to the full text of a dissertation as a condition of publishing a revised version of a dissertation as a scholarly book.