Finding Theses / Dissertations
Faculty of Music Theses | Music Theses Indexes | General Theses Indexes | Printed Lists of Music Theses
Before starting a research project, it is essential to check to what extent your proposed topic has already been researched or if it is currently under investigation by another researcher in your field. The following indexes of theses and dissertations will help you identify the extent of this research.
If you have a question about locating the information you need, contact us for expert assistance.
Music Theses Indexes
- Archive
of Dissertation Abstracts in Music
A very selective list of theses maintained by Geoffrey Chew. Lists international dissertations both completed and in progress. Includes abstracts and links to other theses lists.
- Australia & New zealand Postgraduate Music Research Register
Supercedes Register of Postgraduate Music Dissertations, 1995- (Musicological Society of Australia)
This Register spans the period 1917 to 2008. "Our primary on-going aim is to catalogue all music-related research projects in Australia and New Zealand and to make this information available to all interested parties in a format that is useful to them... We strongly encourage all current postgraduates to register their project with us."
- Doctoral
Dissertations in Musicology Online
Includes references to over 10,000 completed and in-progress dissertations from 1965. The database can be searched by author, title or subject, but there are no abstracts.This website includes citations from the earlier print publications, plus current updates of:
Adkins & Dickinson UniM Music REF 016.78 DOCT
Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology / 7th ed. and 2nd International edition (1984 and 1996).
- Music
Index Online 1974- (restricted - Univesity of Melbourne only)
Earlier issues available in print as Music Index, 1949- UniM Music REF 016.78 MUSI
Choose the "Expert Search" option and limit document type to "Dissertation". Guide
- Music
Theory Online : Dissertation Index
Arranged by author, includes abstracts and tables of contents for international music theory theses from 1992 onwards, with some earlier entries.
- Music Therapy World - Fulltext Dissertations Database
Includes a keyword search function as well as browsable lists by country, title, author, year and thesis type.
- RILM Online 1967- (Répertoire International de Littérature
Musicale) (restricted - Univesity of Melbourne only)
A unique index to music books, articles, dissertations, essays, reviews, Festschriften, iconographies, etc. Guide
General Theses Indexes & Catalogues
- Australasian Digital Theses - Council of Australian University Librarians
The aim of the ADT program is to establish a distributed database of digital versions of theses produced by the postgraduate research students at Australian universities. To promote Australian research to the international community, the theses are available online.
- ARROW National Discovery Service - Australian Research Repositories Online to the World
An Australian consortium that provides access to digital collections comprising e-prints, electronic theses, e-research and electronic publishing. Use the 'Search' or 'Advanced Search' options.
- COPAC
A union catalogue which provides access to the merged online catalogues of major University and National Libraries in the UK and Ireland, including the British Library.
-
Current Contents Connect, 1998-
A multidisciplinary current awareness database, providing access over 8,000 of the scholarly journals and more than 2,000 books covering fields of Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences and the Sciences. Evaluated web sites are a feature.
- DMS : Dissertationsmeldestelle
der Gesellschaft für Musikforschung
Covers Austria, Switzerland, and Germany. Recherche par divers critères accessible dans la rubrique Benutzerabfrage. Contenu : Répertoire des thèses en cours (Allemagne, Autriche, Suisse) "élaboré par la Gesellschaft für Musikforschung (Kassel) et hébergé par l'Université de Münster."
- EDUCATION-LINE (UK)
- Index with fulltext. From the University of Leeds, U.K.
Education-line is a freely accessible fulltext database of conference papers, working papers and electronic literature which supports educational research, policy and practice. Public Access: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/
- eScholarship Repository Site - California Digital Library
"The eScholarship Repository allows scholars in the University of California system to submit their work to a central location where any users may easily access it free of charge."
- ETD's Digitial Library
: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
(NDLTD)
Includes links to a number of electronic theses projects, at mainly US universities, with access to the abstracts.
- The European Library
Search portal for European national libraries.
- Foreign Doctoral Dissertations - Center for Research Libraries - Index.
- Index to Theses in Great Britain and Ireland, 1716- (restricted - University of Melbourne only)
A comprehensive listing of approximately 474,184 theses with abstracts accepted for higher degrees by universities in Great Britain and Ireland.
Free access version at : http://www.theses.com/
- Libraries Australia -
Australian National Bibliographic database
Search more than 40 million items held in over 800 Australian libraries. You can search for any item and locate which library in Australia holds it. Search for books, journals, newspapers, theses, pictures, music, manuscripts, maps and more. Many online resources such as digitised images and full text publications can also be accessed immediately online.
- OAIster - OAIster digital services, University of Michigan
A great source, OAIster is a digital library resource project of over 400 institutions worldwide. The collection inlcudes theses. There is some overlap with Dissertations & Theses (ProQuest).
- Dissertations & Theses (ProQuest) (restricted - Univesity of Melbourne only)
Online access to citations and abstracts plus updates, from the earlier print Dissertation Abstracts International,1861- . (Ann Arbor, Mich. : University Microfilms International). This is an index of virtually all doctoral dissertations accepted by U.S. institutions since 1861. Also a selection of theses from Canadian, British, and European institutions, together with a few from Australia and New Zealand. From 1980, citations include 350-word abstracts written by the author. Selected Masters theses are included after 1962, with abstracts available after 1988. There are 24 page previews available for some theses published since 1997. Search for theses by keywords, author, title, school, degree, language etc, or browse by subject.
- SUDOC (Système
universitaire de documentation) - France.
This union catalog contains 5 million titles of monographs, dissertations, periodicals, and other kinds of documents, including their locations. The Sudoc catalog lets you search bibliographic information on all types of documents held by French academic libraries, as well as other higher educational establishments, including theses from 1972 to the present.
Choose Search the Catalogue, then the Extended Search option, then type in your search and check the Dissertations box in the 'type of publication' list.
- Theses
Canada Portal Index with selected full-text.
Search Canada's national online catalogue, for bibliographic records of all theses and also selected access to the full text electronic versions of numerous Canadian theses and dissertations.
- Université Lumière Lyon 2 : Les Thèses Électroniques Cyperthèses - France.
"L'université Lyon 2 est la première université française et l'une des premières au monde qui archive et diffuse en format numérique les thèses soutenues. Cette politique qui est mise en oeuvre de manière systématique depuis 2000, permet l'archivage et la diffusion sur internet de 896 thèses, soit la quasi totalité des thèses soutenues depuis cette date."
- Univesity of Melbourne Theses - listed in the library catalogue
The University Library holds a copy of each University of Melbourne higher degree thesis (Masters and PhD). These are not for loan but are available for consultation in the Cultural Collections Reading Room, Baillieu Library, 3rd floor.Search the catalogue by author OR by keywords to identify theses on a particular topic. Type in keywords that identify the institution, the kind of publication you are looking for, and the topic of interest. Combine words and phrases with connecting words AND, OR, NOT: eg KEYWORD=university AND melbourne AND thesis AND music
- UMER : University of Melbourne Eprint Repository - Index with fulltext
The University of Melbourne ePrints Repository is an institutional server designed to load and provide free access to the research output of University of Melbourne, including theses. This material may be read online.
- University
of Melbourne Research Reports, 1995-
Web access to this publication provides a comprehensive listing of University research projects undertaken since 1994 including details of research staff and of theses passed and in progress of each university department or faculty.
- WorldCat
A catalogue of books and other materials, including theses, in libraries worldwide, especailly at U.S. academic institutions.
Printed Lists of Music Theses
Publications listing theses are also available. Though not as up-to-date as online listings, these can be found using the library catalogues. Also many bibliographies list theses. Some examples are:
- Australasian music research. UniM Music 780.994
AUST v.1-
[Melbourne] : Centre for Studies in Australian Music, Faculty of Music, the University of
Melbourne, c1997-
- Australian directory of music research / edited by Philip J. Drummond ; with a foreword by Barry S. Brook. Sydney : Australia Music Centre, 1978. UniM Music REF 016.780994 AUST
- Crisp, Deborah. UniM Music REF 016.780994 CRIS
Bibliography of Australian music : an index to monographs, journal articles and theses / compiled by Deborah Crisp. Armidale [N.S.W.] : Australian Music Studies Project, 1982. (Australian music studies, 1)
- De Lerma, Dominique-René (comp.) UniM Music REF 016.78
DELE
A selective list of masters' theses in musicology / compiled for the American
Musicological Society by Dominique-René de Lerma. Bloomington, Ind., Denia Press, 1970.
- Gillis, Frank J. (comp.) UniM Music REF 016.78162
GILL
Ethnomusicology and folk music: an international bibliography of dissertations and
theses / compiled and annotated by Frank Gillis and Alan P. Merriam.
Middletown, Conn., Published for the Society for Ethnomusicology by the Wesleyan University
Press [1966] (Special series in ethnomusicology, v. 1)
- Gribenski, Jean. UniM Music REF 016.78 GRIB
Thèses de doctorat en langue francaise relatives à la musique : bibliographie commentée = French language dissertations in music : an annotated bibliography / collected and annotated by Jean Gribenski.
New York : Pendragon Press, c1979. (RILM retrospectives; no. 2)
- Hartley, Kenneth R. UniM Music REF 016.78 DETR v.9
Bibliography of theses and dissertations in sacred music.
Detroit, Information Coordinators, 1966 [c1967] (Detroit studies in music bibliography, 9)
- Heintze, James R. UniM Music REF 016.780973 HEIN
American music studies : a classified bibliography of master's theses.
Detroit : Published for the College Music Society [by] Information Coordinators, 1984. (Bibliographies in American music, no. 8)
- Heintze, James R. UniM Music REF 016.78 DETR v.61
Igor Stravinsky : an international bibliography of theses and dissertations, 1925-2000.
Warren, Mich. : Harmonie Park Press, 2001. (Detroit studies in music bibliography no. 82).
- Hutchins, Carleen Males (ed.) UniM Music F 787.21901534
RESE v.1-2
Research papers in violin acoustics, 1975-1993 : with an introductory essay, 350 years of violin research / editor, Carleen Maley Hutchins ; associate editor, Virginia Benade.
Woodbury, NY : Published by the Acoustical Society of America through the American Institute of Physics, c1997.
- Master's theses in music therapy : index and abstracts
/ [edited] by Cheryl Dileo Maranto and Kenneth E. Bruscia.
Philadelphia, PA : Temple University, Esther Boyer College of Music, c1988. (Temple University studies on music therapy education; v. 3) UniM Music REF 016.61585154 MAST
- Meadows, Eddie S. UniM Music REF 016.7817 MEAD
Theses and dissertations on Black American music.
Beverly Hills, Calif. : T. Front Musical Literature, 1980. (Front music publications no. 1)
- Mehta, R. C. (Ramanlal Chhotalal), 1918- UniM Music
REF 015.54075 MEHT
Directory of doctoral theses in music.
Bombay : Indian Musicological Society, [1995].
- Pistone, Danièle. UniM Music REF 015.780944 PIST
Répertoire international des travaux universitaires relatifs à la musique francaise du Moyen Age à nos jours : thèses et mémoires.
Paris : Honoré Champion, 1992. (Observatoire musical francais ; 1)
- Register of Theses in Australian Music. UniM
Music REF 016.780994 REGI
Centre for Studies in Australian Music, University of Melbourne, (1996).
This is a collation of all theses which deal with music and musical life in Australia, whether written in Australia or overseas. Note that this 1996 publication is the only edition to date. Subsequent listings available from issues of the periodical Musicology Australia, v.8- 1985- UniM Music P MUSI
- Schaal, Richard. UniM Music REF 016.78 SCHA
Verzeichnis deutschsprachiger musikwissenschaftlicher Dissertationen, 1961-1970: mit Erganzungen zum Verzeichnis 1861-1960.
Kassel : Bärenreiter, 1974. (Musikwissenschaftliche Arbeiten; Nr. 25)
Supplements appear in the journal Die Musikforschung.