It is crucial for graduate students to search the thesis and dissertation literature to make sure that an idea or hypothesis has not already been tested, explored, and published. An additional reason to search this literature is that it is rich with ideas and information not found elsewhere. If graduate students do not continue on as academics or if students that came after them in their programs did not continue their research, this literature may be the end of the line for scholarship on a topic.
ProQuest has published dissertation e-learning modules covering the usefulness of using dissertations as a research source. See link below:
All graduate students should, at minimum, search the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global database (PQDT) to see if the research they are proposing to do has already been done by a student at another institution/university. RIT dissertations and theses have been included in PQDT since approximately 2006.
Each month ProQuest updates this list of the top 25 Most-Accessed Dissertations and Theses across all subjects, based upon total PDF downloads. Find out what is trending.
The web sites below should also be consulted as appropriate to perform a full and thorough review of the dissertation and thesis literature beyond your introductory search of ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global. Consider whether a particular country or part of the world would have an interest in your potential research topic.
Only large-scale repositories of dissertations and theses are included here. You may also need to search individual university repositories directly.
Use of RIT resources is reserved for current RIT students, faculty
and staff for academic and teaching purposes only.
Please contact your librarian with any questions.
