Published Dissertations/theses are extremely useful when researching a field. They often provide a very nice basic introduction to the subject, a great collection of references, and excellent insights for future work. I have found that many dissertations also provide a level of detail which you will not find in peer-reviewed journals, for example, a worked calculation or sample data analysis. You may also glean information about how you would like to organize your own dissertation/thesis. So don’t forget about searching for your research topic in our ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Database!