Library:Circle/Theses and Dissertations at cIRcle : Discovery and Use
Theses and Dissertations at cIRcle: Discovery and Use
Overview
cIRcle provides online open access to UBC’s theses and dissertations via Open Collections (OC), which brings together locally created and managed content from UBC Library's open access repositories. See OC’s UBC Theses and Dissertations collection page for more information.
This guide aims to help users discover and use openly available theses and dissertations deposited to cIRcle at UBC Library. See Exclusions for information about finding other graduate works at UBC Library.
See cIRcle’s Theses and Dissertations page for instructions about submitting theses and dissertations to cIRcle.
Contact the cIRcle Office for assistance.
| UBC graduate theses and dissertations are reviewed and approved by the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (G+PS, UBC-V) and College of Graduate Studies (CoGS, UBC-O). G+PS/CoGS should be contacted for any administrative questions about UBC theses or dissertations. |
Getting Started
From the UBC Open Collections home page, scroll down to the Featured Collections section, and select “View Collection” on the UBC Theses and Dissertations icon.
Alternatively, you can select “Browse by Collection” from beneath the main OC search bar, and navigate to the “UBC Theses and Dissertations” collection from the Browse Collections page.
This will bring you to the UBC Theses and Dissertations collection page, and limit your search results to items within this collection.
| Tip! If you want to conduct a keyword search, this is the best place to start! For example, if you want to see all theses and dissertations related to climate change, type “climate change” into the search bar. From there, you can filter your results based on Program, Degree, and more. See Filter Your Search Results for more details. |
Search for a Known Thesis/Dissertation
You can search for a specific thesis or dissertation by entering its title into the UBC Theses and Dissertations collection search bar. You may need to briefly scroll down the list of results if your item of-interest doesn’t appear near the top.
If you are still unable to locate the thesis, try using OC’s Advanced Search. Using one or a combination of the Creator and Title fields may produce more accurate results. For more information on building a search query in Advanced Search, see cIRcle’s Using Advanced Search in Open Collections to Find cIRcle Content blog post.
View/Browse All Theses/Dissertations
To view/browse all theses and dissertations, select the magnifying glass icon next to the search bar on the UBC Theses and Dissertations collection page. From there, you can narrow your search further (see Filter Your Search Results for more details).
To see all theses and dissertations from a given year as a list, scroll to the bottom of the collection page and select “List all theses”. From there, you can select which year you would like to view.
Browse by Program and Degree
The UBC Theses and Dissertations collection page displays UBC Faculties, Schools, Departments, and some Divisions (units) alphabetically under their corresponding campus (UBC-V or UBC-O), along with the Programs and Degrees currently found in cIRcle’s collection.
To view theses and dissertations from a particular unit, select the number in parentheses next to the unit name. This number indicates the number of theses and dissertations cIRcle currently holds with this unit name applied.
To view theses and dissertations from programs offered by these units, select the name of the unit, which will reveal a list of programs within. Select the number in parentheses next to the program name to view the results.
To view theses and dissertations from degrees offered by a program, select the name of the Degree.
| Note: You may notice duplication of programs throughout this list, (e.g. Nursing theses and dissertations listed under “Applied Science, Faculty of” and “Nursing, School of”). This is due to current inability to display these units hierarchically. Inclusion of all unit levels in the metadata ensures theses and dissertations can be found within and across units, as-desired. |
Filter Your Search Results
Once you have arrived to a search results page, you can use the filters in the left-side menu to limit/refine your results further. Limiters include:
- Date range: Enter a year range into the boxes provided or select the graph and drag your cursor to select a range, and select “Apply Filter”.
- Tip! To see results from a specific year, you can repeat the year in both ends of the Date range. For example, to filter to results from 2024, enter 2024-2024 into the Date range. The filter will automatically adjust to return results from January 1, 2024 to January 1, 2025.
- Type: Captures the predominate format of an item (e.g. Text, Moving Image, Dataset).
- Genre: Captures more specific information about the type/format of an item. If your search results are limited to the UBC Theses and Dissertations collection, it will always be Thesis/Dissertation.
- Degree; Program: Captures the graduate degree and program for which the thesis/dissertation was completed. See Fields Unique to UBC Theses and Dissertations for more information.
| Note: If you didn’t begin your search from the UBC Theses and Dissertations collection page, you may need to limit your search results using either the Genre (Thesis/Dissertation) or Collection (UBC Theses and Dissertations) filter. |
If you want to target your search further, you can use OC’s Advanced Search feature. For more information on building a search query in Advanced Search and using limiters, see cIRcle’s Using Advanced Search in Open Collections to Find cIRcle Content blog post.
On an OC item page for a thesis or dissertation, you’ll notice that some metadata values are hyperlinked to return other results in OC with that metadata field.
This can be helpful if you are a prospective student interested in a particular program, degree, or supervisor, for example. If you select a Supervisor’s name, you will be brought to search results of all items in cIRcle that have this name applied as a Supervisor.
See cIRcle Thesis/Dissertation Metadata for more information about metadata fields.
Usage and Licensing
Openly accessible theses and dissertations in cIRcle can be grouped into two broad categories, each with differing access and use properties.
Theses and Dissertations: 2008-present
Theses and dissertations are submitted electronically to cIRcle directly by the author.
The Rights section of the item page displays the Creative Commons (CC) license applied to the item (this is also found within the Rights metadata). You can select the CC license icon (or link in the “Rights URI” field) to be directed to the CC page that lists the use permissions and restrictions for that license, and thus that item.
For example, if the assigned Creative Commons license is Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND), you can cite and share the item with appropriate attribution, but cannot use the work for commercial purposes, or distribute material modified from the work.
| Note: For theses and dissertations with multiple files, this license will apply to the item as a whole (all parts of the item), unless otherwise noted within the work.
Theses and dissertations can include material that uses a separate license or permission type. If there are no alternate license statements you can apply the Creative Commons license terms described on the item’s landing page. |
Theses and Dissertations: 1919-2008
UBC theses and dissertations published prior to 2008 are available as physical items in the Library’s catalogue. Many of these items were digitized and made openly available via cIRcle from 2008-2012, with the goal of promoting open and comprehensive access in support of research purposes and private study only.
A pop-up message appears on these items with specific conditions for how they can be used: (“This item is to be used for non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use”). It’s important to review the Rights statement on each item page as well as the Terms of Use for additional conditions.”
More information can be found on the UBC Theses and Dissertations collection page.
| Note: The PDF files of these theses and dissertations have been secured so that text and images may not be copied/pasted into other electronic documents. |
cIRcle Thesis/Dissertation Metadata
What is metadata?
Metadata is the information that describes an item, such as a thesis or dissertation, that helps us find, identify, use, and share that item, as well as retrieve and pull together similar items.
For more information about metadata more generally, see Metadata Basics: Describing Research Data (UBC Library Research Commons).
cIRcle metadata
cIRcle’s metadata practices aim to align with broader standards, guidelines, and practices. As a result, submitted metadata may be adjusted when there’s an opportunity to make a description more consistent or accurate.
- For example, all Title field values with a subtitle will include a space on either side of a colon (e.g. Self-regulation and co-regulation : prospects and boundaries in an online environment).
In general, the way an item is described in cIRcle is reflective of the time that item was created. For example, this means that although a Faculty/Department name may change, the item’s metadata for existing items will not be updated to reflect this change.
- For example, if you wanted to browse theses and dissertations from the Law Program on the UBC Theses and Dissertations Collection page, you will find that these fall under two separate Affiliation values: “Law, Faculty of” (before 2015) and “Law, Peter A. Allard School of” (after early 2015).
- Tip: If you wanted to search all Law Program theses and dissertations at once, across Affiliation variations, you can do so by searching “Law” in the Program field.
There are exceptions to this practice, particularly when deviation serves broader goals for inclusivity, cultural sensitivity, and harm reduction. See our publicly available cIRcle Metadata Manual for more information about cIRcle’s current metadata practices.
Fields Unique to UBC Theses and Dissertations
Theses and dissertations feature a few fields unique to this content to aid in description and make them easier to find. These include:
- Program: Captures the graduate program (e.g. Anthropology, Chemistry, Law) for which the thesis/dissertation was completed.
- Degree: Captures the degree awarded (e.g. Master of Arts – MA, Doctor of Philosphy – PhD).
- Supervisor: Captures the individual name(s) of the thesis/dissertation Supervisor/Co-supervisor(s). Additional thesis/dissertation committee members/examiners are not captured.
- Note: The Supervisor field is only populated for theses/dissertations submitted beginning May 2021.
- Graduation date: Captures the graduation date of the Creator.
- Note: This field is not available via Open Collections’ Advanced Search.
Tips! These fields can be useful if you’re searching for specific theses/dissertation information, attributes, or history. For example:
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Exclusions
Creative arts theses from 2017-present are only available via Campus-wide Login (CWL) via cIRcle: Electronic Theses and Dissertations in Creative Arts, 2017+. This includes the programs of Creative Writing, Film, Music, and Theatre (or combinations thereof), for the degrees of Master of Fine Arts (MFA) and Master of Music (MMus).
Use the Library’s catalogue to find physical creative arts theses prior to 2017 and physical theses/dissertations prior to 2008.
Graduate works that do not undergo review and approval by G+PS/CoGS may be found in cIRcle with variable coverage, depending on time period, department, program, etc. Explore the UBC Graduate Research collection to find graduate projects, essays, reports, and capstones.
Visit the Theses and Dissertations LibGuide for guidance on finding theses and dissertations beyond cIRcle.