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Dissertations & Theses: Non-UCSD Affiliates

Locating and acquiring dissertations & theses from UCSD and beyond

Anyone can use Dissertation Express to purchase a dissertation or thesis if ProQuest has a copy. You are prompted to create a free ProQuest account before you can see a quote, but they're typically $38 for a PDF and higher for a print copy. There is no charge for the PDF if the author has made their dissertation open access.

Dissertation Access for Non-UCSD Affiliates

If you are not a UCSD student, faculty or staff member, you can:

  • Search eScholarship and download any open access/freely available UC dissertations. 
    • Some dissertations are embargoed and unavailable for the first 1-2 years.

As a visitor to the UCSD Library you can:

  • Access any print dissertations that are still onsite, or any that you've requested be retrieved from the Annex.
  • Search ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT), and download any dissertations and theses from UCSD or another University of California campus if they are available electronically.
  • Search most of the subject-specific databases for dissertations on your topic (SciFinder is a notable exception).   

But you cannot:

  • Access ProQuest Dissertations & Theses or the other library-licensed databases from off-campus, or anywhere on campus except on the library computers.
  • Use our interlibrary loan service to borrow or acquire any materials from another library.

However, you can: