Finding Tests, Measures, and Surveys for Dissertation Research

These tests are published in academic journal articles or other academic publications.  They are called "unpublished" because they are not sold by a commercial test publisher.  This means that the tests are often free to use for your own research and teaching, as long as you have permission from the test's author. 

Some test databases will indicate if further permissions are needed to use the test, or if permission to use the test has already been granted by the authors.

These tests may not include directions (other than what is available in the methods section of the article about the test).  They also may only include a list of questions and a scoring key, not a ready to use copy of the test.

If our library doesn't have access to the journal article the test was published in, you can request the article through Interlibrary Loan for free.

These tests are published by commercial test publishers and to use these tests, you must pay for permission to that publisher (often the fee is based on how many copies of the test you need).   

If you pay to use a commercial test, you should get the directions for giving the test as well as the ready to use copies of the test.  Before paying for a test, make sure it really is the best test for your research and then reach out to your professor to find out if funding might be available to help you pay the test fees.  

Commercial tests are usually not available through interlibrary loan because of the costs associated with using them.