Holds all non-scientific, postgraduate doctoral theses, and most non-scientific, postgraduate subdoctoral theses for which a deposit requirement is stipulated by the University:

• D.Phil. (doctoral) theses
• B.D. theses,
• B.Litt./M.Litt. theses since Michaelmas Term 1953
• B.Phil./M.Phil. theses since Michaelmas erm 1977

Some theses administered by the Bodleian Library are dispatched to other locations:

Holds theses submitted to the Faculty of Law.

Holds theses on the United States.

Holds a significant collection of taught-course, M.Phil. and M.Sc. theses including: Comparative Social Policy; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Development Studies (selected); Economics and Evidence Based Social Intervention.
All social science theses are deposited in the SSL on a voluntary basis.

Holds M.Phils in Social Anthropology.

Holds M.Phils in Material and Visual Anthropology, and some older Prehistoric Archaeology.

Holds M.Phils in Classical Archaeology and European Archaeology.

Holds all postgraduate theses in the sciences for which a deposit requirement is stipulated by the University.
Please contact: Marija Babic, Oxford Theses (Scientific).

Even of a single page, may require the author's written permission which must be submitted to reading room staff before such an order can be accepted. Digital copies of theses and copies made for library or institutional use always require the author's written permission. For individual copies, permission may in the form of a signed letter, or an email if sent from a verifiable (i.e., institutional) email address. If the thesis is to be placed in the Oxford University Research Archive (ORA) then a permissions form signed by the author is required because it contains the necessary legal statements.

Contact information for authors

Can often be found on the internet. If not, college development/alumni offices try to retain contact details for old members and can generally forward letters or emails. Often, the college can be found in the catalogue record for the thesis. You can also check the annual successful candidates list in the Weston Library's Rare Books & Manuscripts Reading Room which gives the author's college.

Conservation restrictions

There are no conservation restrictions on the amount that you may copy so, with the rights-holder's consent, theses may be copied in their entirety. For reasons of copyright, only one purchase copy of a thesis may be acquired unless consent is first obtained to acquire multiple copies.

Note that all copies must be ordered through a staff-mediated service as self-service copying of theses is not permitted.

• All D.Phil. and B.Litt./M.Litt. theses
• All B.Phil./M.Phil. theses from 1993
• All Law theses
• All science theses

The Rare Books department keeps an author card index of Oxford theses that includes all older, non-scientific theses not yet catalogued in SOLO. Please ask Weston Library staff for assistance, or contact the Theses Desk.
There is an ongoing project to convert earlier, B.Phil./M.Phil. theses from the card catalogues to SOLO and an increasing number can now be found.

Theses are held on open-shelf and can be browsed by Dept/Course/Year. Theses received from SSL-supported departments are catalogued in SOLO, and work is in progress to catalogue older theses (particularly the archive received from the Department of Social Policy and Social Work).

Bibliographic details of Oxford theses not in SOLO.
To find the shelfmarks of such theses apply to the staff of the Weston Library's Charles Wendell David Reading Room who will ask the Rare Books department to check the card catalogue of non-scientific theses that are not in SOLO.