Finding Theses

Discover postgraduate research theses from Trinity College Dublin and other institutions.

Trinity College Dublin Theses

Trinity College Dublin research theses can be found using Stella Search and refining your search results by selecting the format 'TCD Thesis' for print theses, or 'TCD E-Thesis', or by limiting results to the Library Collection 'TCD Theses' for both.

For the most up-to-date list of e-theses go directly to the TARA e-thesis collection.

All print theses held by the Library are in storage. Students, staff and visiting readers should use Click and Collect to request them.

Note: Trinity College Dublin theses cannot be borrowed and must be read in the Library.

Taught Masters dissertations awarded post-2004/5 are not held by the Library in print format, but some are available electronically due to authors kindly donating the PDF of their thesis.

Undergraduate dissertations are not held by the Library.

Stays/Embargoes/Restrictions

Occasionally a new thesis or e-thesis will have a "stay" (embargo) on it, meaning it cannot be requested or viewed. This temporary (usually between one and five years) restriction is made by the Graduate Studies Office on behalf of the author. A small number of e-theses are restricted to Trinity logins only, and some authors have chosen to opt out of the retrospective digitisation of their print thesis.

Retrospective Thesis Digitisation Project

The Library has been working to retrospectively digitise the collection of Ph.D. theses.

For the authors who graduated from 2000-2017, e-mail notification of the project was sent to authors via the Alumni mailing list. A notification was posted in the Alumni magazine. The lists of theses to be scanned in each phase were posted on the Library website for several years. Authors were/are asked to get in contact if they object or have any other concerns.

Most of these theses are now available online from TARA. If you are unable to find a specific e-thesis from 2000-2017, please contact Niamh Harte at harteni@tcd.ie.

Theses from Other Institutions

Many universities are digitising their research output and making it freely available via their institutional repository – check their Library/University website for information.

British and Irish theses, including Trinity College Dublin theses, plus North American and some European theses are indexed in ProQuest Dissertations & Theses: A&I.

If a thesis is not available freely online contact the Library’s Inter-Library Loan Office.