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This research guide identifies materials for basic and advanced research in philosophy. It lists a variety of sources, including databases, reference works, and Internet sites useful for the study of philosophy.
"Each dissertation published since July, 1980 includes a 350-word abstract written by the author. Master's theses published since 1988 include 150-word abstracts. Simple bibliographic citations are available for dissertations dating from 1637. Where available, PQDTGlobal provides 24-page previews of dissertations and theses."
For abstracts from 1938-1980 see the print volumes of Dissertation Abstracts International
"ProQuest Dissertations and Theses: Global (PQDTGlobal) is the world's most comprehensive collection of full-text dissertations and theses. As the official digital dissertations archive for the Library of Congress and as the database of record for graduate research, PQDTGlobal includes millions of searchable citations to dissertations and theses from 1861 to the present day together with over a million full-text dissertations that are available for download in PDF format. Over 2.1 million titles are available for purchase as printed copies. The database offers full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and strong retrospective full-text coverage for older graduate works. It also includes PQDT UK & Ireland content."
Other Dissertations & Theses Indexes
Dissertation Abstracts International* (1938-1980)
See the print volumes in the UCF Main Library - General Collection -- 1st floor -- AS30.M5 (volumes 1-40, 1938-1980)
See also ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global (1637+) which does not include abstracts for dissertations prior to July 1980.
"Global ETD Search is a free service that allows researchers to find ETDs based on keyword, date, institution, language and subject. Global ETD Search is based on a growing collection of approximately 4 million ETDs from more than 200 universities on all continents."
OATD.org aims to be the best possible resource for finding open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world. Metadata (information about the theses) comes from over 1000 colleges, universities, and research institutions. OATD currently indexes over 2 million theses and dissertations.
All dissertations, theses and published material based on theses cataloged by OCLC members, including all subjects.
Provides access to over 5 million records of dissertations and theses. Also available via WorldCat.org by performing an advanced search and selecting Thesis/dissertation in the content box.
Dissertations and theses can be especially useful for:
Locating recent research that may not yet be published in book or article format (a revised dissertation often is published later as a book or a series of scholarly articles; to find these, try searching for other works written by the same author); and
Identifying both primary and secondary sources on a topic.