Information Services
Index to Theses Online
Index to Theses Online covers theses accepted for higher degrees through research by the universities of
Great Britain and Ireland, with the earliest thesis being 1716. Abstracts are included for most theses since
1986.
Getting started
Go to the Information Services Electronic
Resources web pages at
www.cardiff.ac.uk/insrv/eresources and click
on Databases. Click on the letter I. Scroll
down to Index to Theses and select the link.
Searching
Index to Theses Online offers four different ways
of searching: Quick, Simple, Standard, and
Advanced. Click Search on the home page to go
to the Quick Search option. From this page you
can click on the appropriate button to change to
Simple, Standard or Advanced searches.
In each search option you can choose how many
hits (results) per web page to show: the number of
theses found is usually set to 25 but it can be
limited to 10 or increased up to 500.
Subject classification
Each entry in the Index to Theses Online includes
a letter and figure code for the main subject area
of the thesis. For example, all theses on literature
have a classification with A8: theses on
nineteenth century literature will have the code
A8h. Select Class List from the menu on the left
hand side of the screen to view all the subject
categories.
Quick search
Enter a single keyword and click on Start search.
You can use phrases in quotes as keywords, for
example “black death”.
You can combine terms with AND or OR or AND
NOT, for example Welsh and education; language
or speech; Shakespeare and not sonnets.
A word stem can be included, for example
feminis* will find feminist, feminists and feminism .
A search can combine all of these features, for
example “roman catholic*” and reformation.
Simple search
You can search for theses by words in the title,
author, abstract, year, university and class
(subject grouping).
Enter your word or words in the text boxes and
highlight a single appropriate line in choice boxes.
If you leave the line Anything highlighted in a
choice box the search will include all the options;
for example, Anything in the Class contains box
will search for all subjects. If you use more than
one box you can connect them with AND or OR.
For example, Author contains Jones and Abstract
contains national* and University contains Wales,
Cardiff. Click on Start search.
Standard search
This search uses multiple drop-down menu boxes
and text boxes. Click on the right of the option
box for choices: the Any field option searches the
author, title and abstract together. Lines can be
connected with AND or OR. For example, Any
field contains roman and Class contains A9b
(archaeology). Click on Start search.
Advanced search.
This is the most exact search option but requires
a familiarity with the database and the correct
method of entering searches. There are basic
instructions on the page, or you can select
Search Tips or Various examples for more
details.
Viewing the results
The entries for the theses that match your search
will be shown in a numbered list of author and title
lines. These are in relevance order. Select any
title to see the complete entry: this includes the
full title; the type of degree and the university; the
subject classification; the volume and page
reference of the printed version; and, for most
entries, an abstract of the content. The letters
(BL) after the title show that a microfilm copy is
held in the British Library.
Changing searches
Select one of the menu choices on the left hand
side to change to a new type of search. You can
also switch between previously used screens by
clicking on the Back and Forward buttons.
Printing and saving
To print click on File and then on Print. If you
want to see how the printed text will look click on
File and then on Print Preview. You can print
directly from Preview.
To download the information, click on File and
then on Save as. Choose the drive to save it to,
usually a:\, e:\ or h:\ from the Save in: box at the
top. The Save dialog box will offer you the default
name of a file to be saved as an HTML Files type.
You can change the filename to one of your
choice. To save the file as a text file that can be
used in a word processing application you should
change the Save as type option to Text File.
Click on Save to complete the download.
Other information on theses
Dissertation Abstracts is an online catalogue of
American and other international dissertations. It
is available from the Databases list, or directly
from wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/gateway.
Cardiff University theses can be traced through
Voyager. To find theses on a subject use a
keyword search and include the word thesis. To
find theses from a School use the classmark
search: enter thesis- and then add the School
acronym, for example thesis-encap.
Obtaining theses
For Cardiff University theses, Voyager will show
where the thesis is held. The most recent are
held in the library serving the School, but older
theses are generally in store and have to be
ordered through the information desk. Theses are
always for use only in a library.
If the thesis is from another university it may be
possible to borrow it through inter-library loan.
The thesis may be supplied as a microfilm or
microfiche: reading and copying facilities are
available in the Arts & Social Studies Library and
in some other Cardiff University libraries.
For further information or assistance contact Arts
and Social Studies Library
Tel: 029 2087 4818
Email: ASSLLiby@Cardiff.ac.uk
ASS-002-Q-6 / July 2006 /KB