How to get a UW Thesis in electronic format

Masters and PhD theses can now be submitted by graduates of the University of Waterloo in electronic form (E-theses) and are available from two primary sources a University of Waterloo server or a UMI server.

1 - From ProQuest / UMI

University Microfilms, long known for distributing copies of theses on paper and microfilm, now distributes electronic versions of many theses.

ProQuest Digital Dissertations and Theses - (PQDT) (formerly Digital Dissertations) provides current UW faculty, staff and students with a web database for searching and displaying doctoral dissertations and master's theses from UW over 1,000 other North American and international graduate schools.
- Index (citation only) 1861 to present
- Abstracts included mid 1980's to present
- Full text available 1997 to present

2 - From the UW Thesis Server

Finding a UW thesis in electronic format

There are two ways to find E-theses on the UW server.

A: University of Waterloo PhD and Masters E-theses can be found in the catalogue, TRELLIS, by doing an author, title, subject or keyword search. You may want to consider using the Limit function to restrict the search to "computer file" medium. The catalogue record includes a link to the the document on the UW thesis server if an electronic version is available.

B: E-theses can also be found using the UW Electronic Thesis database which you can search by keyword, author, title, academic department or year of acceptance. Again, the record includes a link to the the document on the UW thesis server if an electronic version is available.

Getting your own electronic copy of a thesis

E-theses on the UW thesis server are accessible worldwide at no royalty charge. They are in pdf format and require a viewer such as Adobe Reader installed and linked to your browser. More information on E-theses at the University of Waterloo can be found at the Electronic Thesis Project home page.

, Liaison Librarian
Last Updated: December 2, 2005