EThOS is a one-stop shop for all UK theses regardless of their original print or e-format or the year of award.

Where there is no digital copy, you can often order a scanned copy through the EThOS digitisation service. The digitisation option for any thesis is determined by the settings selected by each participating institution:

1. Institution supports digitisation on demand and has a budget to fund the digitisation process
2. Institution supports digitisation on demand but the cost of digitisation is passed on to the requesting user
3. Institution’s theses are recorded in EThOS but digitisation is not offered.

Further guidance for institutions on digitisation options can be found here. 

When you order a digitised copy of a thesis and a fee is payable, you’ll need to pay by credit card. There’s a single price per thesis regardless of number of volumes, age or condition of the original, and there will also be a delay while the digitisation is completed; please allow up four weeks.

You can find out more about ordering a digitised thesis here.

Digitisation projects

The British Library also offers digitisation services for any and all paper-based material. Many thesis collections have already been digitised on behalf of UK institutions, and we have also digitised masters theses, journal content, archival records, newspapers, manuscripts and much more.

Full details on our Digitisation Services pages.

Theses on microfilm

The Library holds thousands of microfilmed copies of older print theses.

These were created as part of an earlier thesis service and were used to supply thesis loans and copies via the British Library On Demand service. Participating institutions can request digitisation of their microfilmed theses as a project – a great way to quickly produce cost-effective scans of print items.