Finding theses
This page is in two sections:
- Find an Edinburgh Napier University thesis
- Find a thesis from another institution
Find an Edinburgh Napier University thesis
You can find recent PhD, DBA and research-based (not taught) Masters theses online in the Edinburgh Napier Research Repository.
The wider and historical range of Edinburgh Napier PhD theses are stored in hardcopy in secure storage at Merchiston Library.
Find a hardcopy thesis
Hardcopy theses are listed on LibrarySearch. To find a thesis:
1. Enter 'napier university' in the search box
2. On the right hand side, under Tweak my results > Library/Collection >choose Edinburgh Napier Theses.
This will give you a list of hundreds of theses (and some other Edinburgh Napier-related items).
If you want to find a thesis on a particular subject, simply search as above but with subject keywords instead of 'napier university'. Be aware that thesis subjects are very specific , so you may have to keep trying different keywords.
Borrow a hardcopy thesis
Ask at the Merchiston Library Help Desk. Library staff will ask you to fill out a short form, and then bring you the thesis from secure storage.
NOTE: You may only borrow a thesis for three hours at a time (some theses are embargoed and cannot be borrowed). You cannot take it out of the Library or photocopy it.
Find a thesis from another institution
To search for a UK thesis from another institution (not Edinburgh Napier University):
Try searching EThOS - the British Library Electronic Theses Online Service (see step-by-step help on myNapier).
If the thesis is not available full-text online from Ethos, there may be a link to the institutional repository. You may be able to request digitisation from EThOS for free.
Access to EThOS (updated 22 November 2023)
The British Library was subject to a cyber incident over the weekend of 28 and 29 October and most of their systems have been offline since then. This outage includes British Library EThOS
Currently we have no further information about the likely duration of these issues.
Can't find/access the thesis for free?
Contact your Subject Librarian for further help. Send full details of the thesis, including a link to the full details on EThOS, if available.
Other respositories
Registry of Open Access Repositories (ROAR)
Tracks the location and growth of open-access repositories.