Shodhganga is the national digital repository of Indian theses, hosted by INFLIBNET and described on its own homepage as a reservoir of Indian theses. If you complete a Master’s or research programme at an Indian institution, your thesis is normally deposited there: the UGC Regulations, 2018 require institutions to submit soft copies to INFLIBNET within one month after the award of degrees.
Most scholars first hear about Shodhganga either while searching for prior work or during the paperwork at the end of their degree. Understanding it earlier is genuinely useful, because it changes how you search, how you plan publications, and what you check before submitting.
Who runs Shodhganga?
Shodhganga is hosted by the Information and Library Network Centre, INFLIBNET, an inter-university centre. Participating universities sign up as member institutions and deposit the theses awarded by them, which is why the repository grows continuously and why coverage varies by institution and by period.
Is deposit optional?
No, not at the institutional level. Clause 6 of the UGC (Promotion of Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2018 states that higher educational institutions shall submit to INFLIBNET soft copies of all Masters and research programme dissertations and theses within a month after the award of degrees, for hosting in the digital repository under the Shodh Ganga e-repository.
The obligation sits on your institution rather than on you personally, but in practice you are the one who supplies the file, the metadata and the signed forms. The same clause also requires institutions to maintain their own institutional repository containing theses, dissertations and publications.
Practically, this means that the version you submit at the end is the version that becomes publicly searchable and permanently associated with your name. That is worth remembering while you are still proofreading.
How should you use Shodhganga while writing?
Most scholars underuse it. Three uses are worth building into your routine.
- Check whether your topic has already been done. This is the single most valuable use, and it is best done before your synopsis is finalised. A thesis on your exact question at another Indian university is something your doctoral committee will expect you to know about.
- Study the expected structure. Reading two or three completed theses from your own discipline shows you chapter organisation, the depth of the literature review, and how methodology is presented in practice, which no general guide can convey precisely.
- Find methodological precedent. When you need to justify an instrument or sampling approach in an Indian context, a thesis that used it successfully in a comparable setting is a citable precedent.
One caution. A thesis is student work that passed examination at one institution; it is not a peer-reviewed authority. Cite theses as prior research, and where a thesis quotes a theory you want to use, trace and cite the original source instead.
Does deposit affect your ability to publish papers?
This is the question that worries scholars most, and it deserves a careful answer rather than a reassuring one.
Many journals accept manuscripts derived from a thesis already in a repository, treating the thesis as a recognised form of prior dissemination rather than duplicate publication. But policies differ between publishers, and some are stricter than others.
The safe approach is to check the specific journal’s policy before submitting, disclose in your cover letter that the work derives from your deposited thesis, and ensure the article is genuinely reworked for a journal audience rather than a chapter with a new title. If you are planning several papers, raise the sequencing with your supervisor early, because it is easier to plan than to unpick.
Can deposit be delayed or restricted?
Many institutions have provisions for a temporary embargo where there is a genuine reason, such as a pending patent application, a commercial confidentiality agreement, or sensitive data. These provisions are set by your university rather than nationally, and they normally require a formal request with justification, usually supported by your supervisor.
If your work involves anything patentable or contractually restricted, raise it well before submission. Embargo requests made after deposit are far harder to action than requests made before it.
What should you check before your thesis is deposited?
Because the deposited version is durable and public, run these checks on the exact file you hand over:
- Personal data of participants. Confirm that no identifiable information appears in appendices, transcripts, consent forms or images. This is the most common serious problem and the hardest to remedy afterwards.
- Third-party copyright. Figures, tables and long extracts reproduced from other sources need appropriate permission or attribution.
- Your name and affiliation spelling. This record will be cited and indexed; inconsistent name forms fragment your scholarly record.
- The final corrected version. Ensure the file incorporates every correction required by your examiners, not an earlier draft.
- Similarity and integrity requirements. Confirm the undertaking and supervisor certificate required under the Regulations are complete, as covered in the guide to the UGC plagiarism limit for a PhD thesis.
What if you cannot find your own thesis after graduating?
Delays are common and usually administrative. Deposit depends on your university completing its side of the process after the degree is awarded, and backlogs happen.
If your thesis has not appeared after a reasonable period, contact your university library or the designated Shodhganga coordinator at your institution rather than INFLIBNET directly. Deposits flow through the member university, so the university is where a missing record gets resolved.
Does an older thesis being absent mean the topic is unstudied?
No, and this is an important limitation to understand before you claim novelty. Coverage depends on when a university joined and how completely it has deposited its back catalogue, so older theses and those from some institutions may be absent.
Treat absence from the repository as weak evidence. Before asserting that no one has studied your question in India, search institutional repositories, indexing databases and library catalogues as well. Claiming novelty that a committee member can disprove in one search is a bad way to begin a viva.
From searching prior theses to writing your own
Reading completed theses tells you what the finished object looks like. The harder task is producing one: converting your reading and data into chapters that argue rather than summarise. That work usually begins with the synopsis, and the process is set out in the guide on how to write a PhD synopsis for your doctoral committee.
Tesify helps you develop each section from your own framework and notes, keeping structure and citation practice consistent as the document grows. You remain the author and are responsible for the content, the sources and their accuracy.
Start building your thesis chapters in Tesify
Frequently asked questions
Is Shodhganga free to access?
Yes. It is openly accessible online, which is the point of a national repository. You do not need an institutional login to search or read the deposited theses.
Are Master’s dissertations included?
The Regulations name Masters and research programme dissertations and theses in the deposit obligation. In practice, doctoral theses dominate what is available, and Master’s coverage varies considerably by institution.
Can I cite a thesis from Shodhganga in my own thesis?
Yes, citing it as an unpublished or repository-hosted thesis in the format your style requires. Include the author, year, title, awarding institution and the repository. Where the thesis itself cites a theory you want to use, go to the original source.
Will my thesis appear immediately after my viva?
No. The obligation runs from the award of the degree, not from the viva, and the Regulations allow one month after award for submission to INFLIBNET. Administrative delays beyond that are common.
Can I remove my thesis later?
Generally no. Deposit is a formal part of the degree process and the record is intended to be permanent. If there is a genuine legal or ethical problem, raise it with your university immediately, as the institution is the depositing party.
Does deposit count as publication for career purposes?
It is generally treated as making the work publicly available rather than as a peer-reviewed publication. For recruitment and promotion, peer-reviewed articles carry different weight from a deposited thesis, so plan publications separately.
Will my similarity report be checked against Shodhganga?
Detection tools compare against the repositories and databases in their coverage, and Indian theses being openly available means overlap with them is detectable. Never assume that copying from a thesis is safer than copying from a journal article.
What file format is required?
Requirements are set by your institution and by INFLIBNET’s submission guidance, and typically include a specific format, structure and metadata. Ask your library for the current checklist rather than assuming, since templates are updated periodically.
Does every Indian university deposit theses?
Participation is through membership, so coverage is not uniform. The Regulations create the obligation, but the completeness of any given university’s deposits varies, particularly for older material.
Should I search Shodhganga before finalising my topic?
Yes, and before your synopsis is approved rather than after. Discovering a closely similar completed thesis at the topic stage is a minor adjustment. Discovering it during your viva is not.