Dissertations and Theses in the UA Libraries
UA Dissertations | Non-UA Dissertations | Obtaining Non-UA Dissertations | Obtaining UA Dissertations
UA Dissertations & Theses
Online UA Dissertations & Theses (1996-present)
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Full Text - Index of all doctoral dissertations and some master's theses from UA, as well as most North American and many European colleges and universities, back as far as 1861. Full text available from 1996 forward. (A few pre-1996 titles are also available online.) (Available only to UA Campus.)
Dissertations & Theses @ University of Arizona (formerly Current Research @ UA) - Includes only the UA portion of the above database. Full text available from 1996 forward. (Available only to UA Campus.)
UA Electronic Theses & Dissertations (open access) - Our local database includes full text of approved UA dissertations and theses submitted from 2005-present, and also Master's reports from the College of Architecture from 2003-present. These can also be located in the Library Catalog under authors and titles with links to the full text.
Paper and Microfiche UA Dissertations & Theses (1895-2005)
All paper and microform copies of UA dissertations and theses are listed in our online Library Catalog.
They may be searched by AUTHOR and/or TITLE or KEYWORDS from the title.
For those after 1990, it is possible to search by UA ACADEMIC DEPARTMENTS which conferred the degrees by selecting a SUBJECT search and entering the department/school name, such as "chemistry" or "music and dance". (If necessary, use the "Limit/Sort" button to limit to Words in Publisher "university of arizona") Before 1990, access by academic department is only available using the UA Library's Checklist of Theses and Dissertations Accepted for Higher Degrees, at AS36 A6 C5 Info Commons Ref.
To retrieve lists of print and microform UA dissertations and theses by year (1895-2005) from the online Catalog, click HERE.
Other UA Theses and Reports
Architecture College Master's Reports and Theses are available in the Fine Arts Library (formerly in the Architecture Library). (Note: Many of the titles can be found in the Library's online Catalog.)
Geosciences Department maintains a nearly complete paper collection of geosciences theses and dissertations back to 1967. These are available in the Antevs Library in Gould-Simpson, Rm 208. Click here for a complete list. (Note: This collection holds a number of Master's Theses not available in the UA Libraries.)
Honors College Theses, from the late 1960s to 2005, are also available only in Special Collections. They are not listed in the online catalog, but a separate card catalog for them is available in Special Collections.
Hydrology & Water Resources Department Library maintains a collection of theses and dissertations from 1956 to present. Many of the Master's theses in this collection are not available in the UA Library.
UA Master's Theses are only received and archived by the Library and ProQuest if the student has chosen to pay the archiving fee. This has been optional for master's students since 1993, so the Library does not have copies of many master's theses submitted since then. Some academic departments, including those listed here, may keep copies of theses submitted to them.
Poetry and Prose MFA theses, ca. 1969 to the present, are available in Special Collections. They are not listed in the online catalog, but a separate card catalog for them is available in Special Collections.
Other Information about UA Dissertations and Theses
In the UA Library, print and microform copies of UA dissertations and theses all have a call number that begins with "E9791" followed by the year of acceptance. The final element is an accession number (starting with "1" at the beginning of each calendar year) which, in general, indicates the order of receipt.
Paper copies of many UA dissertations are available in the stacks up through 1981. Beginning with 1982, only microfiche copies are available, except for paper copies located in the Main Library's Special Collections on Arizona topics, and those containing special formats that cannot be easily filmed, such as music scores and maps, which are sent to the appropriate branch collections.
All dissertations received full cataloging in OCLC (WorldCat) until 1990. Since then, brief cataloging has only been done locally in our online Catalog.
Preparation & Submission of UA Dissertations and Theses
UA Graduate College Manual for Electronic Theses & Dissertations (includes specific formatting requirements)
UA Electronic submission web site (includes help for creating PDFs, list of subject categories, etc.)
UMI guide to preparing dissertations & theses (including copyright questions)
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Please refer questions about this page to Laurie Eagleson