Tag Archives: research

Top 5 tips if you’re stuck with your dissertation literature search

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Are you stuck with the literature search for your dissertation or final year project? Not finding as much on your topic as you hoped? Here are 5 suggestions to help you move forward.

1. Look again at your search strategy.

By this I mean identifying terminology and keywords – also geographical or date limits for your search . Consider alternative terminology e.g. synonyms, alternative spellings, variant terminology, changes in terminology over time, abbreviations, etc. Increase the number of relevant keywords and you increase the potential of finding good material. Continue reading →

How using a reference manager can help you manage the references for your dissertation

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Finding literature and gathering references from here, there and everywhere? Don’t want to get to a few days before hand in and realise you don’t have the full details of one (or more) important articles/books/etc., to cite properly? Find typing up your citations and bibliographies time consuming? Well, reference managers may be exactly what you are looking for.

Why do you need to use a reference manager?

When you are collecting information from a variety of sources, it can all overwhelm before you know it!  A reference manager can help you by providing a space to keep all your references in one place. You can both create references manually or import from external source such as database. You then have the option to annotate them and/or keep them in different folder.

It gets better!

When you are working on your dissertation, you can cite your reference in your work as you write. The reference manager will insert the references for you in your particular style, e.g. Harvard, MLA, Chicago, APA, etc., and create your bibliography at the same time. Continue reading →

Making the Most of Your Dissertation Week

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For the first time at the University of Edinburgh Library we are planning to hold a Dissertation Week in November 11-15 2019. This week is all about how the Library can support the student dissertation experience : from exploring what library resources are available to support a research question, to managing the bibliographic and research data students find. During the week a series of events will highlight the training, support and resources we offer to our undergraduate and taught postgraduate students undertaking their dissertations, as well as staff supervising dissertations.

Dissertation Fair : Thursday 14 November
At the heart of the week will be a Dissertations Fair event on Thursday 14th November, held at the Main Library. We’ll be inviting academic staff supporting student dissertations to a preview of the fair, which will host stalls from digital resource suppliers alongside other stalls run by Library teams including Library Academic Support, Research Support and the Centre for Research Collections. Running alongside will be a programme of presentation sessions on library services and digital resources. In the afternoon, the event will be open to undergraduate and postgraduate students to attend.