Web of Science

The Dissertations & Theses Citation Index is a specialised citation index for searching dissertations and theses. It is built on the ProQuest database, which UCL subscribes to, and offers an alternative way to search it from within Web of Science. To access the database, select "ProQuest Dissertations and Thesis Citation Index" on the drop-down menu in the main search screen:

The individual dissertation pages then contain metadata on the item plus a link out to ProQuest for a copy of the paper.

As of spring 2025, the database contains around 6.2 million dissertations, of which a significant proportion have a full text copy available through ProQuest. Some of the others may have links to full text copies through other services such as EThOS at the British Library.

The database indexes works which have been cited by the theses, and links out to the records for those works. This information is also available on the pages for individual works in the Core Collection. The database also indexes citations from research papers to theses, but this information is only available for a relatively small number of theses - around 2000 as of early 2025.

You can read more about ProQuest in our guide to Proquest Databases, and there is more information about getting access to dissertations and theses in our guide to finding theses.