UMI ProQuest Digital Dissertations - Search - basic. Are you a grad student in the process of writing and looking to see how others have written up their thesis? Or just graduated and curious to see your "masterpiece?" Or perhaps you're curious to see your adviser's thesis but don't feel right to ask him/her? Well, luckily there is a database of dissertations for you to search and download in PDF format (well, for those dissertations published after 1997). UMI handles archiving of dissertations for most (if not all) universities in North America -- well, actually, I mean the U.S. and Canada.
Just search through the database in the link above. The process is a little different than journal publishers. You can't immediately download the PDF. You must first punch in your email address and then wait until the site "preps" the PDF and puts it up for download. Once it's prepped, you goto this page:
http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/XXXXX/download
Where "XXXXX" is any university code name, for example:
http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/harvard/download
has "harvard" -- it does NOT matter what university you have in that link. You then type in the PIN number that the previous search provided . That should do it -- you'll be sent the same information via email later, but why wait for the email when you can download the file just a few minutes later? You can also browse by university at: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cresearch/browse_name.
This is a great way to find related research as well. It also gives you a perspective of what looks good and what doesn't, what's appropriate in a thesis and what's not, etc. Lastly, I wanted to note that it will be immediately apparent to most of you that some of these dissertations just look aweful -- I mean, the content could be great, but the reproduction quality is just aweful. This is because they archive it from the actual hardcopy that you send to your university's library. Wouldn't it be much better if you could just send your library the PDF format of your thesis and have that archived? Well, yes, it would, but unless your library allows it (and accepts it) you may be screwed. So check with your library/grad office and see what the standard is. UMI accepts submission via FTP and CD-ROM!
You have a thesis archived that you're proud of? Please let me see it and post a comment here.
Posted by johnvu at December 3, 2003 04:15 PMdissertation in educational management
Posted by: Ali Faraj Al-Hashemi on January 29, 2004 10:35 AM-Dissertations on "YOUTH VIOLENCE IN THE HOME."
-chapters one and two only.
-I especially need information on null hypothesies and hypothesies alone with correct order.