Doctoral Dissertations - University of Phoenix
The database provides access to the complete full-text of all University of California dissertations in addition to UC Davis doctoral dissertations from the year 1997 forward. Free 24-page previews are available for most other university theses and dissertations listed in the database from 1997 forward. Access to the ProQuest database and full-text is limited to UC computer addresses.
Doctoral Dissertations:The General Collections

Doctoral Dissertations and Proposals:
Your doctoral dissertation must comply with certain formatting guidelines. Be sure to read the list of requirements thoroughly before you begin, and check the list carefully before you submit.
Doctoral Dissertations and Proposals: Social Sciences and Humanities
This collection includes doctoral dissertations submitted to the Graduate School by Ball State University doctoral candidates in partial fulfillment of degree requirements.

Bibliographic citations for many unpublished American doctoral dissertations may be found in the multi-volume publication, . This information is also searchable in the FirstSearch online system, available in the Library's . Dissertation citations may also be searched online in ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global, an online subscription service available at the Library of Congress and many other research libraries. This service provides the full text of many dissertations published since the 1990s. Most of the dissertations listed in these sources are available in the . Dissertations that have also been published as books are listed in the and/or the . If a publication is not found in the catalogs, consult a reference librarian.Dissertation subjects are extremely varied. To give just five examples: The Library of Congress is the only institution in the country to purchase microform or electronic versions of all doctoral dissertations filmed by University Microfilms, which means most U.S. dissertations. Complete dissertations since the 1940s are available on film or fiche in the Microform Reading Room and, since 1997, in full text on computer terminals at the Library. Doctoral theses contain in-depth research on an enormous variety of subjects; all have bibliographies and notes to lead to other sources. Serious researchers should look for dissertations on their topics. A doctoral dissertation or thesis is a professional necessity; in order to finish your graduate degree and begin your professional career, it is necessary to write and defend one. Your dissertation is a document that demonstrates your professional proficiency in a discipline or subject. Perhaps the best way to understand how an abstract should look would be to examine the abstracts of several dozen dissertations that have already been accepted. Our university library has a collection of them. This is a good approach to see how an entire dissertation is structured and presented. MIT press has published the ACM doctoral dissertation award series for over a decade, so you may find some of those to be good examples to read -- they should be in any large technical library.