Before you start working on your thesis, it is practical to look at theses written in previous years. What topics have been well-covered? What are some of the most important pieces of literature? What do the theses written with the guidance of a specific advisor look like? These and similar questions are easily answered by the archived thesis collection of METU.
If your question more directly concerns format requirements, your first option should be to consult our Student Requirement System. The 2nd Annex contains information on the thesis requirements. In terms of referencing, we now follow the current (7th) standard of APA. You can find more help with this at our CooSpace Scene.
What you can and can’t do with archived theses:
You can
- Read
- Find inspiration
- Find a place to start collecting literature
- Take a better look at accepted variations in formatting (Be aware that the requirements may have changed over the years! Make sure what you follow is recent.)
You can’t
- Copy or save all or part of the thesis. You can’t make a reproduction of any kind, nor can you publish all or part of another person’s thesis anywhere
- Use another person’s thesis as literature for yours. METU will not accept anything below the qualification level of a postgraduate (PhD) dissertation
Where can you find our archived theses?
A few exceptional theses are exhibited as printed copies in our Central Library, and you may use these to see what formatting has been accepted in theses graded excellent. However, these theses are heavily restricted both in terms of topic and language, the majority being in Hungarian.
To make your life easier, we also have an online thesis repository. This includes the theses written and successfully defended in previous years. Be aware that grades are not included, and any thesis at or over a passing grade is stored. This means that the university and the library accept no liability for the quality of the contents or formatting beyond it having been acceptable at the time.
If you are looking for a list of exceptional theses from our database, we have a table for this in CooSpace. Keep in mind that formatting and referencing rules change over time, the more recent theses you look at, the better.
If you follow the link to our repository, you will reach the following page.
You may search using any and all search fields, as well as use the year slider to narrow your results. Other field types can also be selected, including full-text search.
When you click “Search,” a list of results appears (see below). The facets on the side can be used to filter (refine) your search. You can also click on the keywords below individual results to see more theses that use this keyword.
You can read the metadata (such as author, advisor, major, etc.) and, if available, abstract of a thesis even without logging in. The full text is available only after you have logged in.
To do so, click on the Login option at the top of the page. Use your usual METU username and password to log in.
ATTENTION! If others also use the computer or smart device you log in on, don’t allow your browser to remember your login details. The person whose login was used will be held responsible for any misuse of the theses, even if someone else used their login details.
After logging in, you can read the full text of the theses whether you are accessing from home or from a computer at the university.
ATTENTION! If others also use the computer or smart device you’re on, always log out after reading theses.
There are two possible reasons for the full text being inaccessible even after logging in.
- The thesis is confidential and only its metadata are included in the repository;
- The thesis is old or was uploaded wrong into our previous system, and we don’t have the digitised text anymore.
These data will remain in the system for archival reasons, as we try to record the existence of every thesis written by former students. If the full text is not available, the module offering the full-text and abstract will not appear. This is an example of what that looks like:
We wish you a productive time with your reading and research!