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Course & Subject Guides

Finding Dissertations @ Pitt

This guide will help you locate dissertations and theses from the University of Pittsburgh, national, and international institutions.

Online Resources

International Dissertations and Theses

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) offers access to over 2.3 million doctoral dissertations and master's thesis from the United States and Worldwide. Representing 1,000 graduate schools and universities, PQDT provides abstracts and previews along with full-text to over 1.9 million entries from 1997 to the present. If not available full text, some theses can be purchased online through the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses service.

The database includes bibliographic citations for materials ranging from the first U.S. dissertation, accepted in 1861, to those accepted as recently as last semester. Citations for dissertations published from 1980 forward also include 350-word abstracts written by the author.

PQ Dissertations and Theses Search Tips

Basic Searching


  • Under the basic search tab, input your search terms into the search box.
  • Limit your search by date; within this year, last ten etc.
  • Limit by full-text, if you only want full-text dissertations to appear in your search results.

 

Advanced Searching


  • Under the advanced search tab, select the field you wish to search by. In PQDT, you can search by citation, abstract, advisor, author, degree, department, document ID, index terms (keyword), ISBN, publication/order no., school name/code, subject name/code etc.
  • Input your search query.
  • Select the date range
  • Limit your search by full-text if you only want full-text dissertations to appear in your search results.