Dissertations in the electronic age: Tapping into emerging musicology research

Dissertations continue to be useful publications both for the information they present and for the formatting guidance they offer to dissertators in progress. The process of identifying and accessing dissertations has changed as they evolve from print to electronic as their primary format. This article examines the inclusion rates of musicology dissertations in four research tools (Music Index, RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology, and ProQuest Dissertations and Theses). It also investigates issues specific to the findability and accessibility of music dissertations as they move to electronic form.