how to search thesis in google scholar

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Google Scholar Guide

• Advanced searching

Google Scholar provides several advanced searching options. These options may include the use of:

• the Advanced search features.
• Boolean and proximity operators.
• words as search operators.
• symbols as search operators.

The Advanced search features

Click the hamburger icon ( ) on the left-hand corner. This reveals a menu from which you could choose the Advanced search .

Once you select the Advanced search , a pop-up window with the available advanced search options appears.

You may use the following options:

• Find articles with all of the terms: Default search option. | Combines search terms. | Retrieves articles that include all search terms. | Narrows down search results.
• Find articles with the exact phrase: Retrieves articles which include the search terms when they appear together, as an exact phrase. | Narrows down search results.
• Find articles with at least one of the words: Retrieves articles which include either or all search terms. | Expands search results.
• Find articles without the words: Excludes search terms. | Narrows down search results.

You can specify where the words you are searching may appear, by using any of the following options:

• anywhere in the article: Default search option. | Returns articles which include the search terms in any part of the article; title or body. | Works in conjunction with any of the "Find articles" options.
• in the title of the article: Returns articles which include the search terms only in the title of the article. |  Works in conjunction with any of the "Find articles" options. 

There are three additional search options to use:

• Return articles authored by: Returns articles written by a particular author | Works in conjunction with any of the "Find articles" or "Return articles" options. | Narrows down search results.
• Return articles published in: Returns articles published in a particular periodical publication. | Works in conjunction with any of the "Find articles" or "Return articles" options. | Narrows down search results.
• Return articles dated between: Returns articles published in a particular date range. | Works in conjunction with any of the "Find articles" or "Return articles" options. | Narrows down search results.

Boolean operators

This type of search uses operators that help you narrow or broaden your search. The most common operators are AND , OR , NOT . Check the table below to see when and how to use them in Google Scholar.

Words as search operators

Google Scholar supports the use of words as search operators. These words are:

• intitle : Results include a specific search term in the title of the article.| Syntax: intitle:search term   Tip! Do not add a space after the colon.
• intext : Results include a specific search term in the body of the article.| Syntax: intext:search term   Tip! Do not add a space after the colon.
• author : Results include articles written by a specific author.| Syntax: author:"first name last name"   Tip! Do not add a space after the colon. Place quotation marks around the author's name.
• source : Results include articles published in a particular journal.| Syntax: source:"journal title"   Tip! Do not add a space after the colon. Place quotation marks around the journal title.
• ininventor : Results include patent related documents including the name of a patent inventor. Syntax: ininventor:"first name last name"   Tip! Do not add a space after the colon. Place quotation marks around the inventor's name.
• assignee : Results include patent related documents including the entity that is granted the ownership of the patent.| Syntax: assignee:"entity name"   Tip! Do not add a space after the colon. Place quotation marks around the entity name.

Symbols as search operators

Google Scholar supports the use of symbols as search operators. These symbols are:

• Quotation marks ( " " ): Results include the search terms when they appear as a phrase. Syntax: "search term A search term B"
• Hyphen (  -  ): You can use the hyphen to indicate that words are strongly connected. Syntax: search term A-search term B |  Tip! Do not add spaces before and after the hyphen.
• Hyphen (  -  ): You can use the hyphen to exclude words from a search query. Syntax: search term A -search term B |  Tip! Add a space after the first search terms, but do not add a space between the hyphen and the search term you want to exclude.
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• Last updated: Dec 21, 2022 1:37 PM

18 Google Scholar tips all students should know

Dec 13, 2022

[[read-time]] min read

Think of this guide as your personal research assistant.

“It’s hard to pick your favorite kid,” Anurag Acharya says when I ask him to talk about a favorite Google Scholar feature he’s worked on. “I work on product, engineering, operations, partnerships,” he says. He’s been doing it for 18 years, which as of this month, happens to be how long Google Scholar has been around.

Google Scholar is also one of Google’s longest-running services. The comprehensive database of research papers, legal cases and other scholarly publications was the fourth Search service Google launched, Anurag says. In honor of this very important tool’s 18th anniversary, I asked Anurag to share 18 things you can do in Google Scholar that you might have missed.

1. Copy article citations in the style of your choice.

With a simple click of the cite button (which sits below an article entry), Google Scholar will give you a ready-to-use citation for the article in five styles, including APA, MLA and Chicago. You can select and copy the one you prefer.

2. Dig deeper with related searches.

Google Scholar’s related searches can help you pinpoint your research; you’ll see them show up on a page in between article results. Anurag describes it like this: You start with a big topic — like “cancer” — and follow up with a related search like “lung cancer” or “colon cancer” to explore specific kinds of cancer.

Related searches can help you find what you’re looking for.

3. And don’t miss the related articles.

This is another great way to find more papers similar to one you found helpful — you can find this link right below an entry.

4. Read the papers you find.

Scholarly articles have long been available only by subscription. To keep you from having to log in every time you see a paper you’re interested in, Scholar works with libraries and publishers worldwide to integrate their subscriptions directly into its search results. Look for a link marked [PDF] or [HTML]. This also includes preprints and other free-to-read versions of papers.

5. Access Google Scholar tools from anywhere on the web with the Scholar Button browser extension.

The Scholar Button browser extension is sort of like a mini version of Scholar that can move around the web with you. If you’re searching for something, hitting the extension icon will show you studies about that topic, and if you’re reading a study, you can hit that same button to find a version you read, create a citation or to save it to your Scholar library.

Install the Scholar Button Chrome browser extension to access Google Scholar from anywhere on the web.

6. Learn more about authors through Scholar profiles.

There are many times when you’ll want to know more about the researchers behind the ideas you’re looking into. You can do this by clicking on an author’s name when it’s hyperlinked in a search result. You’ll find all of their work as well as co-authors, articles they’re cited in and so on. You can also follow authors from their Scholar profile to get email updates about their work, or about when and where their work is cited.

7. Easily find topic experts.

One last thing about author profiles: If there are topics listed below an author’s name on their profile, you can click on these areas of expertise and you’ll see a page of more authors who are researching and publishing on these topics, too.

8. Search for court opinions with the “Case law” button.

Scholar is the largest free database of U.S. court opinions. When you search for something using Google Scholar, you can select the “Case law” button below the search box to see legal cases your keywords are referenced in. You can read the opinions and a summary of what they established.

9. See how those court opinions have been cited.

If you want to better understand the impact of a particular piece of case law, you can select “How Cited,” which is below an entry, to see how and where the document has been cited. For example, here is the How Cited page for Marbury v. Madison , a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that established that courts can strike down unconstitutional laws or statutes.

10. Understand how a legal opinion depends on another.

When you’re looking at how case laws are cited within Google Scholar, click on “Cited by” and check out the horizontal bars next to the different results. They indicate how relevant the cited opinion is in the court decision it’s cited within. You will see zero, one, two or three bars before each result. Those bars indicate the extent to which the new opinion depends on and refers to the cited case.

In the Cited by page for New York Times Company v. Sullivan, court cases with three bars next to their name heavily reference the original case. One bar indicates less reliance.

11. Sign up for Google Scholar alerts.

Want to stay up to date on a specific topic? Create an alert for a Google Scholar search for your topics and you’ll get email updates similar to Google Search alerts. Another way to keep up with research in your area is to follow new articles by leading researchers. Go to their profiles and click “Follow.” If you’re a junior grad student, you may consider following articles related to your advisor’s research topics, for instance.

12. Save interesting articles to your library.

It’s easy to go down fascinating rabbit hole after rabbit hole in Google Scholar. Don’t lose track of your research and use the save option that pops up under search results so articles will be in your library for later reading.

13. Keep your library organized with labels.

Labels aren’t only for Gmail! You can create labels within your Google Scholar library so you can keep your research organized. Click on “My library,” and then the “Manage labels…” option to create a new label.

14. If you’re a researcher, share your research with all your colleagues.

Many research funding agencies around the world now mandate that funded articles should become publicly free to read within a year of publication — or sooner. Scholar profiles list such articles to help researchers keep track of them and open up access to ones that are still locked down. That means you can immediately see what is currently available from researchers you’re interested in and how many of their papers will soon be publicly free to read.

15. Look through Scholar’s annual top publications and papers.

Every year, Google Scholar releases the top publications based on the most-cited papers. That list (available in 11 languages) will also take you to each publication’s top papers — this takes into account the “h index,” which measures how much impact an article has had. It’s an excellent place to start a research journey as well as get an idea about the ideas and discoveries researchers are currently focused on.

16. Get even more specific with Advanced Search.

Click on the hamburger icon on the upper left-hand corner and select Advanced Search to fine-tune your queries. For example, articles with exact words or a particular phrase in the title or articles from a particular journal and so on.

17. Find extra help on Google Scholar’s help page.

It might sound obvious, but there’s a wealth of useful information to be found here — like how often the database is updated, tips on formatting searches and how you can use your library subscriptions when you’re off-campus (looking at you, college students!). Oh, and you’ll even learn the origin of that quote on Google Scholar’s home page.

18. Keep up with Google Scholar news.

Don’t forget to check out the Google Scholar blog for updates on new features and tips for using this tool even better.

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Using Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a special version of Google specially designed for searching scholarly literature. It covers peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research.

A Harvard ID and PIN are required for Google Scholar in order to access the full text of books, journal articles, etc. provided by licensed resources to which Harvard subscribes. Indviduals outside of Harvard may access Google Scholar directly at http://scholar.google.com/ , but they will not have access to the full text of articles provided by Harvard Library E-Resources .

Browsing Search Results

The following screenshots illustrate some of the features that accompany individual records in Google Scholar's results lists.

Find It@Harvard – Locates an electronic version of the work (when available) through Harvard's subscription library resources. If no electronic full text is available, a link to the appropriate HOLLIS Catalog record is provided for alternative formats.

Group of – Finds other articles included in this group of scholarly works, possibly preliminary, which you may be able to access. Examples include preprints, abstracts, conference papers or other adaptations.

Cited By – Identifies other papers that have cited articles in the group.

Related Articles - The list of related articles is ranked primarily by how similar these articles are to the original result, but also takes into account the relevance of each paper. Finding sets of related papers and books is often a great way for novices to get acquainted with a topic.

Cached - The "Cached" link is the snapshot that Google took of the page when they crawled the web. The page may have changed since that time and the cached page may reference images which are no longer available.

Web Search – Searches for information on the Web about this work using the Google search engine.

BL Direct – Purchase the full text of the article through the British Library. Once transferred into BL Direct, users can also link to the full collection of The British Library document supply content. Prices for the service are expressed in British pounds. Abstracts for some documents are provided.

The Advanced Search feature in Google Scholar allows researchers to limit their query to particular authors, publications, dates, and subject areas.  

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Isf 189 & 190: thesis: google scholar & base.

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Google Scholar

Google Scholar is an easy way to do interdisciplinary research, and with some settings changes can become even more useful.  You need a Google account to use these features.

• Set up a Google Scholar Alert to be automatically notified when new articles are added to Google on topics of interest: 

Do your search in Google Scholar. Look in the left sidebar for the Create Alert link next to the envelope icon, and click it.  New items will be sent to your email account as they are found by Google.

• Make Google display links to full text of articles that Berkeley subscribes to:

• Ever wanted to trace an article’s impact? Google now permits searching within citing articles .

Do a Google Scholar search. Click on the "Cited by" link under a citation and select the "Search within articles citing..." checkbox.

Unlike Google Scholar, BASE allows you to search just the metadata of documents, not the full text of the resources indexed. 

The Basic search provides a single search field and will search all of metadata by default. On the search results page, there are facets that allow you to limit your search results (for example, subject, language, year of publication). 

The Advance search allows you to specify which metadata fields you want to search (for example, author, title, doi) and to limit your search to different types of documents, publication year, and other facets.

Search Help  provides guidance on how to construct a search. Like many of other search engines, a search for more than one term automatically retreieves results containting all the terms. Quotation marks can be used for phrase searching. But other search syntax is availalble to help you construct more sophisticated searches.

Plural, genitive and other word forms will be searched automatically. To disable this feature, choose "Verbatim search" in the advanced search or in the search field on the results page.

If you choose the option "Multi-lingual search" in the advanced search or in the search field on the results page you can also search for synonyms and translations, provided that the search term is included in  Eurovoc Thesaurus  or  Agrovoc Thesaurus .

Off-campus Access to Library Resources

There are two ways to connect to library resources from off-campus using the new library proxy:

• Links to online resources on library websites, such as UC Library Search, will allow you to login with CalNet directly.
• To access library resources found via non-UCB sites, such as Google or Google Scholar, you can add the EZproxy bookmarklet to your browser. Then, whenever you land on a licensed library resource, select your EZproxy bookmarklet to enable CalNet login.

More information is on the EZproxy guide .

The campus VPN  provides an alternate method for off-campus access.

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How to Find Dissertations and Theses

• Finding Dissertations and Theses
• University of Illinois Dissertations

Google Scholar

Proquest dissertations and theses, non-u.s. dissertations.

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Ask a Librarian

Google Scholar searches specifically for scholarly materials, including Open Access (freely available) dissertations and theses. Many institutions make their dissertations publicly available, making Google Scholar a great place to search.

See the Library's guide on Google for Academic Research for more information.

If the Library does not have a copy of a dissertation or a theses, use ProQuest Dissertations and Theses to obtain a citation for the dissertation. Most American and Canadian universities are represented in this database, as well as selected British and European universities. Dissertations completed at many major U.S. universities during the past 10 years (and sometimes earlier) are available as full-text downloads.

If full text is not available, you can request a dissertation through interlibrary loan.

• ProQuest Dissertations and Theses This link opens in a new window PQDT is a collection of citations to dissertations and theses worldwide from 1861 to the present day. Full-text is available for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and some of the older graduate works. PQDT is also the official digital dissertations archive for the Library of Congress. Also included are the citations to British and Irish dissertations and theses (PQDT: UK & Ireland) since 1761 and abstracts for content since 1986. Note: UIUC masters theses are not in PQDT. They are only found in IDEALS or in the library catalog .

A note on terminology for dissertations and theses: these words are used differently depending on the country (at least in the English speaking world). In the US, dissertations are for doctoral work while a thesis can be a for a bachelor’s or master’s degree. However, it’s often flipped in Europe, e.g., a master’s dissertation and a doctoral thesis.

• The DART-Europe E-theses Portal DART-Europe is a partnership of research libraries in Europe who are working together to improve access to European theses. Several hundred universities link their digital repositories to DART-Europe and link to full text theses.
• EThOS: e-theses online service A project by the British Library Board to provide access to all dissertations from institutions in the UK. This website indexes the dissertations and provides links to full text where available and provide assistance to institutions digitizing dissertations. If available, full text dissertations are free to download.
• Foreign Dissertations at the Center for Research Libraries Try here when looking for a dissertation outside of the United States and Canada. CRL acquires hundreds of non-US, non-Canadian doctoral dissertations a year to add to its 800,000+ collection of dissertations. Acquisitions are primarily through the demand purchase program . Because the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a member of CRL, loans to the U of I community are provided free of charge - just fill out a standard interlibrary loan request and put "Item held by CRL" in the notes field.
• Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations This directory provides links to country-specific and international online libraries of electronic theses and dissertations. Many items, including those dating back to the early 1900s, are available in full text for free. For those not available in full text, fill out an interlibrary loan request.
• Theses Canada Portal A searchable catalog of all Canadian theses published since 1965, many of which are available in full-text electronic versions which can be downloaded free by students, scholars, and the public. You can also access and search for free full text electronic versions of Canadian theses and dissertations that were published from the beginning of 1998 to August 31, 2002.
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8 Winning hacks to use Google Scholar for your research paper

Literature Search

Amanda Sparks

A literature search is one of the most important stages of the research process. And while looking for help on how to go about it there is one piece of advice you will hear very often— “Use Google Scholar to find previously published papers in your field.” But no one tells you that it is no longer enough to simply point your browser to Google Scholar to receive useful search results. Why is that?

As a result, you risk your own work being repetitive and derivative unless you understand how to do an effective literature search on Google Scholar . Obviously your search will begin with typing in something in the search bar, but there’s more to it than just that. You need to make sure that the time you spend doing a literature search using Google Scholar yields results. The following are some best practices for using this valuable search tool.

1. Use citations to conduct backwards searches

2. Search in incognito mode for better results

When you search in standard mode, Google helpfully remembers previous searches, the links you have clicked in the past, and several other bits of information. This may not really work in your favor because your previous search data is used to influence the search results that you see the next time you run a search. This is great if you are just doing some general research for your own information or entertainment. It’s not so great if you are trying to find academic content on any particular subject. This is not the time for Google to skew results based on past search habits. So how can you beat this?

Consider going into incognito mode instead. Nothing will be saved about your search results there. Your search results will also not be influenced by anything else. This means that if you search ‘Climate Change in National Parks’, your results won’t be impacted by your having searched ‘National Parks Vacations’ earlier.

3. Define the keywords you use carefully

Don’t simply type keywords into Google Scholar in hopes that something useful will emerge. This is a great way to get jumbled and repetitive search results. Instead, write down what you would like to learn as part of your research. Then, break that down into subtopics or chunks. After that, create lists of keywords and keyword phrases that might be useful in helping you find information for each subtopic.

If you are largely unfamiliar with a topic, it’s okay to use online encyclopedias, news publications, and other sources on Google’s standard search engine as a jump-off point. None of these are worthy for academic research. However, you may be able to mine the sources for keywords that you can then feed into Google Scholar for a richer set of search results.

4. Stay organized and avoid redundant efforts with libraries

Google Scholar allows you to create libraries and then save search results into those libraries.

Let’s consider a generic example, Imagine you are working on your PhD, and your first task is to identify  what should be in a dissertation introduction . The preliminary stage of each research is the preparation of sources and statement of the main question . Using the library function in Google Scholar can be especially handy for both of these tasks.

5. Click related articles to expand your sources

When you check out a source using Google Scholar you may notice that you can click on related articles.

6. Organize and automate your citations

Let’s be honest, citing sources and building bibliographies or works cited pages is an absolute drag. It gets even worse if you are at the end of a big project and realize you haven’t even begun to organize or cite your sources.  Fortunately, Google Scholar has largely automated this process.

All you have to do is click on the cite button below each resource, which currently shows as double quotation marks. 

7. Use advanced search to curate the ideal results

The advanced search feature allows you to use filters and other parameters in order to return the most useful result set. You can limit results to a specific time period, for example. Another option is to search according to the author. You can also go into the advanced search option to ensure that the results only include resources from academic databases your lab, funder, or university recognizes. Remember that it can take some practice to master the advanced search functions, so don’t lose hope if it doesn’t work out for you right away.

8. Set up alerts to stay up to date on trending research literature

If you are researching current events, you may need to set up alerts for those topics. This will keep you informed as and when the content relevant to your is published and indexed on Google scholar. This is very useful during the years of your research when you need up-to-the-minute information from research papers published in academic journals.

Google Scholar is a bit of a sleeper. It’s an extraordinarily useful resource for academic research projects. However, its usefulness goes deeper than that. It is a great tool for looking into any number of topics. Best of all, you can use the tool to make several aspects of writing and research significantly easier. In spite of all of these benefits, Google doesn’t even link the Scholar tool from its main page. Instead, you have to search for it manually, by typing https://scholar.google.com in the address bar of your web page. The tricks listed here will significantly improve your ability to use Google scholar effectively.

You might find this course helpful: How to conduct a literature search and review  

Related reading

• Tips for effective literature searching and keeping up with new publications
• SlideShare - How to conduct an effective literature search and keep up with new publications

5 Tips to write a great literature review

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Published on: Apr 18, 2018

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This page goes over what an academic search is, different levels of search strategy (how to form a specific search, how to structure that for your assignment, etc.), how to create an effective search in a database/search engine/anywhere, why search terms matter, how to effectively review your search results, and the structure of a journal article. This page also provides a tracking sheet that can be used to help remember all the different steps and directions you go in your research. 

Search Strategy (visual)

The Search Strategy Process

What are the parts of an article?

Search strategy and tips.

• Getting Started
• Keeping Track of Your Search
• Sample Search
• Why are search terms important?
• Adding Concepts
• Reviewing Results
• Is this Article Right for Me?
• Conceive : what’s the assignment? What will your topic be?
• Organize : what are you looking for? Historical information, current information, statistical data, peer reviewed article?
• Keywords : break your topic down into keywords or concepts.  Once you have keywords, find synonyms for those words and phrases. How can you combine them?
• Start Broad : start your searching with one or two keywords (broad topic) and narrow your search as you go with additional terms, altering what years of publication you’re looking for, only looking at peer reviewed articles, etc.
• If you’re not finding anything exact, find something close and try those keywords and subjects
• Reassess : if you’re not getting the results you’re looking for, you may need to change your searches, broaden or narrow your topic, or change your topic.  Ask for help if you’re not sure what your best option is.
• Restart: research is a cyclical process, you may need to start from scratch or just from an earlier step like choosing new keywords.
• Research Tracking Sheet

Keep track of your search and your results. Remember research is a  process   and you may try many things before you find what works best for your topic. If you think of it like troubleshooting a problem on your computer that might help. 

Keep track of your search terms and jot down other words you find while perusing the articles that result from your searches.

The " search history " option under the search box can also help with that.

Email, print, or save articles that might be useful for your research, even if you're not sure that you're going to use them.

This sample topic is used to demonstrate how to pull out keywords and critically assess your topic. 

If your topic is: 

What is the influence of Spanish literary custom on Medieval lyric poetry?

 1. Identify keywords or phrases:       

     Spain(ish)      literature      culture      Medieval      lyric poetry

 2. Explore synonyms for your keywords/phrases:

     Medieval: Middle Ages, Dark Ages, Gothic 

     Culture: customs, tradition, practices

3. Use these terms in your search. Combine the synonyms with the word "or".

For example:   Medieval OR Middle Ages OR Dark Ages OR Gothic

4. Make use of the  Subject Headings  option on the left of your screen to find appropriate subject headings for your topic and use them in a search

Note : some of your initial keywords may be similar like   literature  and  lyric poetry .  Other keywords you could use for either of these terms:   literary, poems, lyric poems, prose  or because we are disucssing Spanish literary customs from a specific time period, you can use non-English terms such as " kharjas " or " Mester de Juglaria ". You could also look at specific famous poems such as  Cantar de Mio Cid  or  Mester de Clerecia . 

Use unique, specific terms.  If you're researching a subject with a unique vocabulary, don't be afraid to use those terms.  It's the difference between searching " ocelot " (8,490,000 results in Google) and " Leopardus pardalis " (387,000 results in Google). That's over an 8 million result difference. 

By using specific and/or unique terms, you are likely to find more relevant information. It is also likely to be of a higher quality, as most people don't use professional vocabulary casually. 

Remember to search in the advanced search mode

Enter your 1st keyword(s)/phrase(s) in the first line (using our sample search from two tabs ago,  Medieval or Middle Ages ).

Your second concept in our example is culture . Enter that key phrase and any synonyms in the second line of the search box. Your search results should then include both concepts somewhere in the record.

You can add as many concepts as you like - all databases and the library catalog will allow you to add more than the default 3 fields when you're in advanced search.

Below you see an example of combining 2 concepts with multiple keywords in a database.

Once you have collected some articles, take a closer look at them.

• Read and review what you have. Do you have enough information to support your topic?
• If you don't like what you have or you don't have enough good information, go back to your search. Try some new keywords or a different database.
• Explore some of the subject headings from the articles that you do want to use.
• If some of your articles have citations you might want to look at some of the sources listed there.
• If you're stuck -- ask a librarian for help.

Reading these sections of an article/book will help you determine if the item you're looking at is relevant to your research. The title, abstract and discussion/conclusion are usually all you really need to read from an article to see if you can use it. 

• Abstract : This is a summary of the article/item and will give you a good idea if it will be of use. This is the only part that will be in the item record and in the article. 
• Introduction : This will tell you the history of the topic and the goal(s) of what you’re reading.
• Literature Review : Summary of similar or previous research on the topic. *May not be included.
• Methodology : How did they approach the topic/their research? *May not be included.
• Results : Lists and discusses what the research discovered. *May not be included. 
• Discussion/Conclusion : The results of what they found and their implications.
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Stand on the shoulders of giants

Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research.

How are documents ranked?

Google Scholar aims to rank documents the way researchers do, weighing the full text of each document, where it was published, who it was written by, as well as how often and how recently it has been cited in other scholarly literature.

Features of Google Scholar

• Search all scholarly literature from one convenient place
• Explore related works, citations, authors, and publications
• Locate the complete document through your library or on the web
• Keep up with recent developments in any area of research
• Check who's citing your publications, create a public author profile

Disclaimer: Legal opinions in Google Scholar are provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied on as a substitute for legal advice from a licensed lawyer. Google does not warrant that the information is complete or accurate.

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Search for EMU Dissertations in Esearch

This search finds theses and dissertations completed at EMU:

Finding EMU Dissertations and Theses

In addition to the Esearch search above, there are two places to look for dissertations and theses by EMU students: EMU's Digital Commons and a database from the company Proquest.

There are three links to Digital Commons below: two links show a list of dissertations by specific COE departments and the 3rd link goes to the full EMU Digital Commons which will also include Masters Theses from all three COE departments.

The fourth (last) link goes to a ProQuest database of EMU theses. Although there is overlap coverage between Digital Commons and ProQuest, each will have unique theses not found in the other. 

• Leadership & Counseling Dissertations in Digital Commons
• Teacher Education Dissertations in Digital Commons
• Digital Commons @ EMU This link opens in a new window Digital showcase of scholarly and creative works by EMU students, faculty, and staff Subjects : Covers most subjects Info type : scholarly articles, theses, dissertations
• Eastern Michigan University Theses and Dissertations This link opens in a new window This has full text of EMU dissertations and theses. For years prior to 2011, it isn't possible to search by department in this database; however you can search by keyword or by advisor. To do this use the pulldown menu to change the search from "Anywhere except fulltext -- ALL" to "Advisor -- ADV".

Finding Dissertations and Theses Worldwide

If you know the name of a dissertation, one of the quickest ways to locate it might be to search the title in quotes in Google Scholar.

• Google Scholar with EMU Full Text This link opens in a new window Search for scholarly materials on any topic Info type: scholarly articles, books, research reports, theses, working papers, cited sources Access Tips: Use link above to get access to EMU subscriptions with Findtext+ links. If this link does not work and you receive an error message from Google then use this alternate link to Google Scholar and also set your Google Scholar preferences to show EMU library access links. Search Instruction: Google Scholar Video
• Dissertations & Theses Global Full Text This link opens in a new window Info type: full text dissertations and theses (1997- ), descriptions of dissertations and theses (1861- ).
• Open Access Theses and Dissertations - OATD This link opens in a new window Full text theses and dissertations from 600+ universities.
• NDLTD - Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations A very large free database of dissertations and masters theses worldwide. Often there is a link to the full text.
• EBSCOhost OpenDissertations (formerly American Doctoral Dissertations) This link opens in a new window Citations for theses and dissertations from 1902 to the present, sometimes with links to full text in repositories.
• EThOS "EThOS is the UK’s national thesis service which aims to maximise the visibility and availability of the UK’s doctoral research theses."
• DART-Europe E-theses Portal DART (Digital Archive of Research Theses)-Europe allows you to easily search over 360,000 dissertations from over 500 European universities.

Article Databases that include Dissertations

• ERIC This link opens in a new window Key source for Education articles and reports Info type: scholarly articles, professional articles, dissertations, ERIC documents Brief how to video: ERIC Basics Look up Subject terms: Thesaurus on ERIC.gov
• PsycINFO This link opens in a new window Subjects: Psychology, Education, Business, Communication, Linguistics, Social Work Info type: scholarly articles, book info, conference papers, dissertations How To: ProQuest Basics Locating Quantitative and Qualitative Articles in PsycINFO PsycINFO Quick Reference Guide
• ProQuest One Business This link opens in a new window Key source for business articles. Subjects: Accounting, Auditing, Business, Communications, Economics, Ed Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Health Admin, Hotel Restaurant Mgmt, Management, Public Admin, Technology Info type: scholarly articles, professional articles, magazine articles, news, reports, dissertations Brief Instruction Video: ProQuest Basics

Getting the Full Dissertation

Try first to look in Google Scholar and Dissertations & Theses Global Full Text  (above) for digital fulltext of a dissertation. Many universities are now posting dissertations in repositories (like Digital Commons). Google Scholar includes Digital Commons and other repositories in its search. If that doesn't work, you might also try a regular Google search.

An effective way to search for the dissertation in Google Scholar or Google is to place the title in quotes, followed by the author last name. Example search: "Self-Efficacy and Instructional Leadership" Helber

For older dissertations, you may need to try to interlibrary loan the dissertation. You can get an idea of whether the dissertation is at a library by searching OCLC WorldCat . Or go to the web site for the library of the university where the author did the dissertation. Unfortunately, sometimes dissertations are not available via interlibrary loan. As a last resort, you may be able to purchase dissertations from ProQuest--see DissertationExpress  link below.

• WorldCat (via FirstSearch) This link opens in a new window Search for materials in libraries worldwide Info type: book info, library holdings
• Interlibrary Loan
• Dissertation Express For buying dissertations.
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Reference management. Clean and simple.

The top list of academic search engines

1. Google Scholar

4. science.gov, 5. semantic scholar, 6. baidu scholar, get the most out of academic search engines, frequently asked questions about academic search engines, related articles.

Academic search engines have become the number one resource to turn to in order to find research papers and other scholarly sources. While classic academic databases like Web of Science and Scopus are locked behind paywalls, Google Scholar and others can be accessed free of charge. In order to help you get your research done fast, we have compiled the top list of free academic search engines.

Google Scholar is the clear number one when it comes to academic search engines. It's the power of Google searches applied to research papers and patents. It not only lets you find research papers for all academic disciplines for free but also often provides links to full-text PDF files.

• Coverage: approx. 200 million articles
• Abstracts: only a snippet of the abstract is available
• Related articles: ✔
• References: ✔
• Cited by: ✔
• Links to full text: ✔
• Export formats: APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, Vancouver, RIS, BibTeX

BASE is hosted at Bielefeld University in Germany. That is also where its name stems from (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine).

• Coverage: approx. 136 million articles (contains duplicates)
• Abstracts: ✔
• Related articles: ✘
• References: ✘
• Cited by: ✘
• Export formats: RIS, BibTeX

CORE is an academic search engine dedicated to open-access research papers. For each search result, a link to the full-text PDF or full-text web page is provided.

• Coverage: approx. 136 million articles
• Links to full text: ✔ (all articles in CORE are open access)
• Export formats: BibTeX

Science.gov is a fantastic resource as it bundles and offers free access to search results from more than 15 U.S. federal agencies. There is no need anymore to query all those resources separately!

• Coverage: approx. 200 million articles and reports
• Links to full text: ✔ (available for some databases)
• Export formats: APA, MLA, RIS, BibTeX (available for some databases)

Semantic Scholar is the new kid on the block. Its mission is to provide more relevant and impactful search results using AI-powered algorithms that find hidden connections and links between research topics.

• Coverage: approx. 40 million articles
• Export formats: APA, MLA, Chicago, BibTeX

Although Baidu Scholar's interface is in Chinese, its index contains research papers in English as well as Chinese.

• Coverage: no detailed statistics available, approx. 100 million articles
• Abstracts: only snippets of the abstract are available
• Export formats: APA, MLA, RIS, BibTeX

RefSeek searches more than one billion documents from academic and organizational websites. Its clean interface makes it especially easy to use for students and new researchers.

• Coverage: no detailed statistics available, approx. 1 billion documents
• Abstracts: only snippets of the article are available
• Export formats: not available

Consider using a reference manager like Paperpile to save, organize, and cite your references. Paperpile integrates with Google Scholar and many popular databases, so you can save references and PDFs directly to your library using the Paperpile buttons:

Google Scholar is an academic search engine, and it is the clear number one when it comes to academic search engines. It's the power of Google searches applied to research papers and patents. It not only let's you find research papers for all academic disciplines for free, but also often provides links to full text PDF file.

Semantic Scholar is a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature developed at the Allen Institute for AI. Sematic Scholar was publicly released in 2015 and uses advances in natural language processing to provide summaries for scholarly papers.

BASE , as its name suggest is an academic search engine. It is hosted at Bielefeld University in Germany and that's where it name stems from (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine).

CORE is an academic search engine dedicated to open access research papers. For each search result a link to the full text PDF or full text web page is provided.

Science.gov is a fantastic resource as it bundles and offers free access to search results from more than 15 U.S. federal agencies. There is no need any more to query all those resources separately!

Advanced search

Saved to my library.

Open Access Theses and Dissertations

Thursday, April 18, 8:20am (EDT): Searching is temporarily offline. We apologize for the inconvenience and are working to bring searching back up as quickly as possible.

Advanced research and scholarship. Theses and dissertations, free to find, free to use.

Advanced search options

Browse by author name (“Author name starts with…”).

Find ETDs with:

Written in any language English Portuguese French German Spanish Swedish Lithuanian Dutch Italian Chinese Finnish Greek Published in any country US or Canada Argentina Australia Austria Belgium Bolivia Brazil Canada Chile China Colombia Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Ireland Italy Japan Latvia Lithuania Malaysia Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Norway Peru Portugal Russia Singapore South Africa South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Thailand UK US Earliest date Latest date

Sorted by Relevance Author University Date

Only ETDs with Creative Commons licenses

Results per page: 30 60 100

October 3, 2022. OATD is dealing with a number of misbehaved crawlers and robots, and is currently taking some steps to minimize their impact on the system. This may require you to click through some security screen. Our apologies for any inconvenience.

Recent Additions

See all of this week’s new additions.

About OATD.org

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 1100 colleges, universities, and research institutions . OATD currently indexes 7,254,624 theses and dissertations.

About OATD (our FAQ) .

Visual OATD.org

We’re happy to present several data visualizations to give an overall sense of the OATD.org collection by county of publication, language, and field of study.

You may also want to consult these sites to search for other theses:

• Google Scholar
• NDLTD , the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations. NDLTD provides information and a search engine for electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs), whether they are open access or not.
• Proquest Theses and Dissertations (PQDT), a database of dissertations and theses, whether they were published electronically or in print, and mostly available for purchase. Access to PQDT may be limited; consult your local library for access information.

• Queen's University Library
• Research Guides

Finding Theses and Dissertations

• International Theses
• Queen's University Theses
• Canadian Theses
• United States Theses
• Borrowing & Purchasing Copies of Theses

International Theses: Search Tools

Proquest dissertations and theses.

A comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses from around the world from 1861-present. Full text  since 1997. Abstracts  since 1980 for doctoral dissertations and 1988 for masters' theses. Citations  since 1861.

Citations are indexed in Web of Science in the  ProQuest ™ Dissertations & Theses Citation Index  collection. 

Center for Research Libraries

CRL holds more than 800,000 doctoral dissertations outside of the U.S. and Canada. Search dissertations in the dissertations section of the CRL catalogue. Digitized dissertations can be searched in the catalogue's e-resources section.

Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations

A collection of more than 800,000 international full text theses and dissertations.

Google Scholar

Try searching Google Scholar for theses posted on institutional digital repositories or on personal web pages.

ScienceDirect

A web search engine devoted to Science and Technology.

Search for dissertations, theses and published material based on theses catalogued in WorldCat by OCLC member libraries worldwide. In Advanced Search, you can search by author, title, subject, year, and keyword. Under Subtype Limits, select Theses/Dissertation from the Any Content menu

International Theses: By Country

Österreichische Dissertationsdatenbank

The Austrian dissertation database contains the bibliographical data of dissertations approved in Austria from 1990 on, and in most cases the relevant abstracts. (This website is hosted by the National Library of Austria).

National Library of Australia’s Trove Service

Search for full text digital theses from Australian universities.  On the Advanced search screen under Format, select Thesis.

DART-Europe :  Access to full text theses and dissertations from many countries in Europe.

Europeana : Additional electronic dissertations from other European libraries.

Système universitaire de documentation  (Sudoc): Provides access to records and some electronic theses and dissertations published at French research institutions.

Fichier central des thèses

DissOnline provides information on the subject of electronic university publications. It can be used to find out directly all about online dissertations and post-doctoral theses. Sample documents can be downloaded to provide help in the creation of electronic university publications. For more information about the portal, please go to  German National Library  website  (DNB) .

México

TESIUNAM: Tesis del Sistema Bibliotecario de la Unam

(Theses from the National University of Mexico / Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México). To search for electronic theses, click on “tesis electrónicas (REDUNAM).”

Middle East

The Center for Research Libraries and the British Library have made available online 400 UK doctoral theses focusing on the Middle East, Islamic studies, and related subjects.  More information .

The Netherlands

Some Dutch e-theses are available through NARCIS.

South America 

• Some electronic theses from Bolivia, Brasil, Chile and Peru can be found at  Cybertesis.NET , a portal created by the University of Chile (Information Services & Library System) that provides an easily accessible tool to full text electronic theses published in different universities of the world.

For more university/national library catalogues, search for the word University/Universidad and the country (Argentina, Peru, etc.) in Google. Find the link to the library ( biblioteca ) and search the catalogue for theses ( tesis ). You may need to click on the advanced search function ( búsqueda guíada  or  búsqueda avanzada ) and select tesis as a format or type. ​

There are several portals/catalogues in Spain for theses and dissertations. Here are some examples listed on Spain’s  National Library  website:

Spain’s Ministry of Education thesis database (TESEO)

Biblioteca Virtual del Español (on the Biblioteca Virtual, Miguel de Cervantes website)

Universidad Complutense de Madrid’s catalogue

TDX (Tesis Doctorals en Xarxa)

This is a cooperative repository of digital theses from the University of Cataluña and other autonomous communities (such as Murcia, Cantabria, Barcelona, and Oviedo)

Switzerland

For print and electronic dissertations, please consult the  Swiss National Library  website.

• NDLTD: National Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations in Taiwan is an open full-text permanent archive of scholarly research in Taiwan.

EThOS : Access to doctoral dissertations (paper and electronic) from UK institutions of higher education.

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• Last Updated: May 14, 2024 1:24 PM
• Subjects: Scholarly Publishing

How to Craft Your Ideal Thesis Research Topic

Table of contents

Catherine Miller

Writing your undergraduate thesis is probably one of the most interesting parts of studying, especially because you get to choose your area of study. But as both a student and a teacher who’s helped countless students develop their research topics, I know this freedom can be just as intimidating as it is liberating.

Fortunately, there’a a step-by-step process you can follow that will help make the whole process a lot easier. In this article, I’ll show you how to choose a unique, specific thesis topic that’s true to your passions and interests, while making a contribution to your field.

Choose a topic that you’re interested in

First things first: double-check with your teachers or supervisor if there are any constraints on your research topic. Once your parameters are clear, it’s time to identify what lights you up — after all, you’re going to be spending a lot of time thinking about it.

Within your field of study, you probably already have some topics that have grabbed your attention more than others. This can be a great place to start. Additionally, consider using the rest of your academic and extra-curricular interests as a source of ideas. At this stage, you only need a broad topic before you narrow it down to a specific question. 

If you’re feeling stuck, here are some things to try:

• Look back through old course notes to remind yourself of topics you previously covered. Do any of these inspire you?
• Talk to potential supervisors about your ideas, as they can point you toward areas you might not have considered.
• Think about the things you enjoy in everyday life — whether that’s cycling, cinema, cooking, or fashion — then consider if there are any overlaps with your field of study.
• Imagine you have been asked to give a presentation or record a podcast in the next three days. What topics would you feel confident discussing?
• Watch a selection of existing lectures or explainer videos, or listen to podcasts by experts in your field. Note which topics you feel curious to explore further.
• Discuss your field of study with teachers friends and family, some with existing knowledge and some without. Which aspects do you enjoy talking about? 

By doing all this, you might uncover some unusual and exciting avenues for research. For example, when writing my Master’s dissertation, I decided to combine my field of study (English teaching methodology) with one of my passions outside work (creative writing). In my undergraduate course, a friend drew on her lived experience of disability to look into the literary portrayal of disability in the ancient world. 

Do your research

Once you’ve chosen your topic of interest, it’s time to dive into research. This is a really important part of this early process because it allows you to:

• See what other people have written about the topic — you don’t want to cover the same old ground as everyone else.
• Gain perspective on the big questions surrounding the topic. 
• Go deeper into the parts that interest you to help you decide where to focus.
• Start building your bibliography and a bank of interesting quotations. 

A great way to start is to visit your library for an introductory book. For example, the “A Very Short Introduction” series from the Oxford University Press provides overviews of a range of themes. Similar types of overviews may have the title “ A Companion to [Subject]” or “[Subject] A Student Companion”. Ask your librarian or teacher if you’re not sure where to begin. 

Your introductory volume can spark ideas for further research, and the bibliography can give you some pointers about where to go next. You can also use keywords to research online via academic sites like JStor or Google Scholar. Check which subscriptions are available via your institution.

At this stage, you may not wish to read every single paper you come across in full — this could take a very long time and not everything will be relevant. Summarizing software like Wordtune could be very useful here.

Just upload a PDF or link to an online article using Wordtune, and it will produce a summary of the whole paper with a list of key points. This helps you to quickly sift through papers to grasp their central ideas and identify which ones to read in full. 

Get Wordtune for free > Get Wordtune for free >

You can also use Wordtune for semantic search. In this case, the tool focuses its summary around your chosen search term, making it even easier to get what you need from the paper.

As you go, make sure you keep organized notes of what you’ve read, including the author and publication information and the page number of any citations you want to use. 

Some people are happy to do this process with pen and paper, but if you prefer a digital method, there are several software options, including Zotero , EndNote , and Mendeley . Your institution may have an existing subscription so check before you sign up.

Narrowing down your thesis research topic

Now you’ve read around the topic, it’s time to narrow down your ideas so you can craft your final question. For example, when it came to my undergraduate thesis, I knew I wanted to write about Ancient Greek religion and I was interested in the topic of goddesses. So, I:

• Did some wide reading around the topic of goddesses
• Learned that the goddess Hera was not as well researched as others and that there were some fascinating aspects I wanted to explore
• Decided (with my supervisor’s support) to focus on her temples in the Argive region of Greece

As part of this process, it can be helpful to consider the “5 Ws”: why, what, who, when, and where, as you move from the bigger picture to something more precise. 

Why did you choose this research topic?

Come back to the reasons you originally chose your theme. What grabbed you? Why is this topic important to you — or to the wider world? In my example, I knew I wanted to write about goddesses because, as a woman, I was interested in how a society in which female lives were often highly controlled dealt with having powerful female deities. My research highlighted Hera as one of the most powerful goddesses, tying into my key interest.

What are some of the big questions about your topic?

During your research, you’ll probably run into the same themes time and time again. Some of the questions that arise may not have been answered yet or might benefit from a fresh look. 

Equally, there may be questions that haven’t yet been asked, especially if you are approaching the topic from a modern perspective or combining research that hasn’t been considered before. This might include taking a post-colonial, feminist, or queer approach to older texts or bringing in research using new scientific methods.

In my example, I knew there were still controversies about why so many temples to the goddess Hera were built in a certain region, and was keen to explore these further.

Who is the research topic relevant to?

Considering the “who” might help you open up new avenues. Is there a particular audience you want to reach? What might they be interested in? Is this a new audience for this field? Are there people out there who might be affected by the outcome of this research — for example, people with a particular medical condition — who might be able to use your conclusions?

Which period will you focus on?

Depending on the nature of your field, you might be able to choose a timeframe, which can help narrow the topic down. For example, you might focus on historical events that took place over a handful of years, look at the impact of a work of literature at a certain point after its publication, or review scientific progress over the last five years. 

With my thesis, I decided to focus on the time when the temples were built rather than considering the hundreds of years for which they have existed, which would have taken me far too long.

Where does your topic relate to?

Place can be another means of narrowing down the topic. For example, consider the impact of your topic on a particular neighborhood, city, or country, rather than trying to process a global question. 

In my example, I chose to focus my research on one area of Greece, where there were lots of temples to Hera. This meant skipping other important locations, but including these would have made the thesis too wide-ranging.

Create an outline and get feedback

Once you have an idea of what you are going to write about, create an outline or summary and get feedback from your teacher(s). It’s okay if you don’t know exactly how you’re going to answer your thesis question yet, but based on your research you should have a rough plan of the key points you want to cover. So, for me, the outline was as follows:

• Context: who was the goddess Hera?
• Overview of her sanctuaries in the Argive region
• Their initial development 
• Political and cultural influences
• The importance of the mythical past

In the final thesis, I took a strong view on why the goddess was so important in this region, but it took more research, writing, and discussion with my supervisor to pin down my argument.

To choose a thesis research topic, find something you’re passionate about, research widely to get the big picture, and then move to a more focused view. Bringing a fresh perspective to a popular theme, finding an underserved audience who could benefit from your research, or answering a controversial question can make your thesis stand out from the crowd.

For tips on how to start writing your thesis, don’t miss our advice on writing a great research abstract and a stellar literature review . And don’t forget that Wordtune can also support you with proofreading, making it even easier to submit a polished thesis.

How do you come up with a research topic for a thesis?

To help you find a thesis topic, speak to your professor, look through your old course notes, think about what you already enjoy in everyday life, talk about your field of study with friends and family, and research podcasts and videos to find a topic that is interesting for you. It’s a good idea to refine your topic so that it’s not too general or broad.  

Do you choose your own thesis topic?

Yes, you usually choose your own thesis topic. You can get help from your professor(s), friends, and family to figure out which research topic is interesting to you. 

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