Print

Print


Colleagues, 

From this month, the enhanced full-text linking service from Index to Theses (www.theses.com) provides links to some 50,000 full text theses available online for free downloads from university repositories as well as the EThOS site. This is in sharp contrast to the 3,000 available links in 2008, when Index to Theses started monitoring theses’ full text download availability.

Around 70% of these online theses are linked via the EThoS service, a further 15% via a choice of EThOS or the university repositories covered by EThOS, and the rest via university sources Index to Theses harvests independently. Users link from the existing Index to Theses database entry, most of which (320,000 entries) include an abstract.

With so many theses now born digital’ plus ongoing backlog conversion, Index to Theses predicts that there could be 50% more online theses to link to by the year end. 

Where a thesis is not yet available online, Index to Theses describes alternative routes for obtaining the full text, whether by loan or digitisation.  An explanation of the linking feature can be seen at: www.theses.com/obtain.html

With over 550,000 entries at the start of 2011, Index to Theses continues to update its web-based material 8 times per year with over 16,000 new theses added annually. 

** with apologies for cross posting **