An academic publisher, research organization, or university library maintains a dissertation database, which is a collection of academic dissertations hosted on the internet. A doctoral dissertation is a multi-chapter academic paper completed by a doctoral candidate. Dissertations are collections of dissertations used by university students at all levels for research. They often represent years of research in a specialized aspect of an academic field. Academic publishers publish many dissertations, and some are even edited and published as books for a general audience.
Some dissertation databases are online only, while others are physical collections of dissertations and theses that have been published. Many university libraries have collections of doctoral dissertations and graduate theses written on campus, but dissertation databases come in a variety of forms.
A dissertation database of published works may be available from academic publishers. Some academic writing databases only have abstracts or executive summaries for dissertations, while others have the entire dissertation. Many databases are dedicated to a specific academic field, such as collections of medical dissertations or collections of literature dissertations. Dissertations and theses are included in many academic search engines that provide academic papers to universities. These databases can be extremely beneficial to both university students and publishers.
When you’re writing a dissertation and want to see what other people in your field have done, a dissertation database can be useful. In fact, before you start working on your graduate thesis or dissertation, look for academic writing such as theses or dissertations to see if someone has already tackled your topic. Both undergraduate and graduate students looking for sources for papers can benefit from dissertation databases. Even if a professor will not accept a dissertation as a source, the bibliography can help you find other academic sources to use in an undergraduate paper.
If you’ve completed your graduate thesis or dissertation, you might be considering having it published by an academic press. Many academic publishers maintain a dissertation database where they post academic writing online, while others scour databases for new works to publish. You can generate interest in your dissertation, meet with other academics in your field, and possibly earn royalties if your dissertation is published by submitting it to an online database.