What is it?

TDX (Theses and Dissertations Online) is a digital cooperative repository of doctoral theses presented at some Spanish universities. It allows for remote consultation of the complete text of theses over the Internet, additionally allowing the user to construct searches by author, advisor, title, knowledge area, university and department of publication, year of defense, etc. This repository, managed by the Consortium of University Libraries of Catalonia (CBUC) and the Supercomputing Centre of Catalonia (CESCA), and sponsored by the Generalitat (government) of Catalonia, has the following goals:

• To publicise, around the world and on the Internet, the results of university research.
• To offer the authors of theses a tool to increase public access to their work, enhancing its visibility.
• To improve the cataloguing and bibliographic processes.
• To encourage electronic publishing and the use of digital libraries.
• To stimulate scientific productivity.

The universities that take part in TDX are responsible for publicising this repository to their doctorate students, providing them with recommendations and a list of accepted electronic formats for theses and (once these are presented and approved), editing and uploading them to the TDX. An additional goal for the next few years is to digitise earlier theses presented prior to the existence of the TDX in other formats (microfiche or paper).

Consulting these theses is free of charge and no password is required to enter the system. Author's copyright privileges are protected by contract. The integrity of the text is also guaranteed by the security options encoded in the format used for data storage: PDF. Adobe Acrobat Reader must be installed on the user's computer in order to access the complete text of the theses. If you do not have this program, it can be downloaded free of charge from the Adobe.

TDX came into being as a result of the Digital University in Catalonia 1999-2003 agreement, signed on 8 September 1999 by the then representatives of the Department of the Universities, Research and the Information Society of the Generalitat, the University of Barcelona (UB), the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC), Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), the University of Girona (UdG), the University of Lleida (UdL), Rovira i Virgili University (URV), the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), the Catalan Research Foundation (FCR), CESCA and CBUC. Jaume I University (UJI), the Balearic Islands University (UIB), the Valencia University (UV), the Ramon Llull University (URL), the Cantabria University (UC), the Murcia University (UM), the Coruña University (UDA), the Oviedo University (UOV), the Vic University (UVIC),the Abat Oliba University (UAO) and the International University of Catalonia (UIC), subsequently joined the network in July 2002, December 2002, April 2003, October 2004, March 2005, July 2005, April 2006, June 2006, May 2007, December 2007 and January 2008.

The TDX repository is a member of the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) and uses the interoperability protocol created by Open Archives Initiative (OAI) which allows to increase the visibility of the theses on offering oneself together with other international repositories of theses, like OAIster. From May 2007, TDX incorporates the opion of performing global searches in other Spanish repositories of theses, by using also the OAI protocol.

To obtain more information on TDX, please contact tdxcbuc.cat. To request information on theses, please contact directly the university where it was published:

• Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Publication and Information Center, 93 403 5436, tdx@ub.edu.
• Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), School of Postgraduate Studies, 93 581 30 10, tdx@uab.es.
• Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Library, 93 401 0942, tdx@upc.edu.
• Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Library, 93 542 1727, tdx@upf.edu .
• Universitat de Girona (UdG), Library, 972 418 189, tdx@udg.edu .
• Universitat de Lleida (UdL), Third Cycle Department, 973 702 043, doctorat@aga.udl.cat.
• Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Doctoral Studies Department, 977 558 609, tdx@urv.es.
• Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), Doctoral Studies Department, 93 253 5736, tdx@uoc.edu.
• Universitat Ramon Llull (URL), Doctoral Studies Department, 93 602 22 00, tdx@url.edu.
• Universitat de Vic (UVic), Library, 93 881 55 09, tdx@uvic.cat.
• Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (UIC), Library, 93 254 18 36, tdx@uic.es.
• Universitat Abat Oliba CEU (UAO), Library, 93 254 09 07, tdx@uao.es.
• Universitat de les Illes Balears (UIB), Library, 971 172 815, tdx@uib.es.
• Universitat de València (UV), Publication Center, 96 386 4068, tdx@uv.es.
• Universitat Jaume I (UJI), Communication and Publication Center, 964 728 821, tdx@uji.es.
• Universidad de Cantabria (UC), Library, 942 201 180, tdr@unican.es.
• Universidad de Murcia (UM), Publication Center, 968 363 406, tdr@um.es.
• Universidad de Oviedo (UOV), Library Cooperation, 985 104 166, tdr@uniovi.es.
• Universidade da Coruña (UDC), Third Cycle Department, 981 167 000, tdr@udc.es.