How to Cite A Dissertation
1) Are dissertations
published or unpublished – and how can I tell the difference?
2) How should I cite a
dissertation or thesis published by ProQuest/UMI?
4) CIIS citation formats – APA, MLA, Chicago, AAA
1) Are dissertations
published or unpublished – and how can I tell the difference?
The majority of dissertations done at
institutions in the
The way to tell whether the work in
question is published is to search their database, called ProQuest
Dissertations and Theses. (Members of the CIIS community can access
it through our
If the dissertation is from an institution
in another country, and not listed in ProQuest
Dissertations and Theses, see if you can find it through one of the other
dissertation links on the CIIS Library Research Resources
page
2) How should I cite a
dissertation or thesis published by ProQuest/UMI?
At the present time (spring 2007), some of
the citation formats in use at CIIS still maintain the fiction that
dissertations are located through the serial publication Dissertation Abstracts International despite the fact that most researchers
never see those print volumes. The same is true for MA theses listed in Masters Thesis Abstracts International. Dissertations
and theses, then, are cited as quasi-journal articles.
Since that doesn’t reflect how people
actually find these works, the kludge in use at CIIS is to append the
dissertation publication number or thesis publication number. The publication
numbers are akin to the standard identification numbers for books (ISBNs), and
will make it easier for future researchers using your work to unambiguously
identify the work you are citing. Publication numbers usually begin with the
letters AAT, with several numbers following.
If it’s not in the initial information you saved for this item (and it may not be), then do a quick search again in Proquest Dissertations and Theses using the author’s name and key word or words from the title as ‘Document title”. Once you find the item, click on the link for the title. There you’ll see something like:
DAI-B 66/09, p. 5099,
which tells you this appeared in Dissertations Abstracts International volume 66B, issue number 09,
page 5099. If you see:
MAI 44/06, Dec 2006
then this is a MA thesis, and it appeared in Masters Theses Abstracts International
volume 44, issue number 6.
4) CIIS citation formats – APA, MLA, Chicago, AAA
Note:
don’t use the square brackets [ ] when you cite – these are to indicate where
you should enter a specific detail for that citation.
APA citation format for a
published dissertation:
Author. year. Title without italics. Dissertation Abstracts
International, volume including
the letter A or B
(issue number), page. (Publication No. [number].)
APA citation format for a
published MA thesis:
Author. year. Title without italics. Master’s Theses Abstracts
International, volume
(issue number). (Publication No. [number].)
MLA citation format for a
published dissertation:
Author. Title in italics.
No. [number].)
MLA citation format for a
published MA thesis:
Author. Title in italics. Thesis. School, year.
No. [number].)
Author, year. Title without italics. [Degree] diss., school. Dissertation Abstracts
International, publ. nr. [number],
DAI-[A or B] volume/issue (year): page number.
Author, year. Title without italics. [Degree] diss., school. Master’s Theses Abstracts
International, publ.
nr. [number], MAI volume/issue (year): page
number.
AAA citation format for a
published dissertation:
Author
year Title without italics. [Degree] dissertation, department or program, school.
(Publication nbr. [number].)
AAA citation format for a
published MA thesis:
Author
year Title without italics. [Degree] thesis., department or program, school.
(Publication nbr. [number].)