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Dissertation Support: Home

Information Sservices offers support to students at every stage of your dissertation

Welcome

Our Academic Liaison Librarians are here to help you find resources for your dissertation research.

Once you have decided on a topic for your dissertation, you need to search for relevant books and journal articles - see below.

Search LibrarySearch for books

Search tips:

  1. Choosing keywords. Try searching on alternative keywords if you don't get the results you expect.
  2. Phrase searching. Try putting common phrases in quotation marks, e.g. "industrial revolution".
  3. Truncation/wildcard. Put an asterisk at the end of the stem of the word to search for any letters which come after it, e.g. film* will find film, films, filming, etc.
  4. Refining to ebooks. Use the ebook filter.

If the library doesn't have the book/article

Suggest a Book for the Library

Archives and Special Collections

Search databases for research articles

Choose a database appropriate for your specific topic. Look at the Library Subject Guide for your subject.

Search tips:

  1. Choosing keywords. Try searching on alternative keywords if you don't get the results you expect.
  2. Combining search terms. Combine concepts with AND. Combine alternative keywords with OR, e.g.  (film OR cinema) AND (horror or suspense)
  3. Phrase searching. Try putting common phrases in quotation marks, e.g. "industrial revolution"
  4. Truncation/wildcard. Put an asterisk at the end of the stem of the word to search for any letters which come after it, e.g. film* will find film, films, filming, etc.
  5. Refining search. Refine your search using the filters available, e.g. date, language
  6. Evaluating results. Read the abstract and subject headings to decide whether the article is relevant to your research.
  7. Finding full text.  If you don't see a PDF link, look for the Find@Stir button  - this may take you to the full text. You can also download the LibkeyNomad browser plug-in, which will provide access to articles. If we don't have the article, see the box below (If the library doesn't have the book/article).

Literature search planning template

Evaluate web sources

Finding past dissertations

The Library has some past undergraduate and taught postgraduate dissertations, but not in every subject. They are all listed in LibrarySearch. To find dissertations for a particular degree:

  1. Do a keyword search for your degree programme, e.g. ba politics, msc public relations. Make sure you Search Everything.
  2. Click on the Dissertations filter on the right hand side.
  3. You may wish to sort your results so that the most recent are at the top of the list. Sort by Date-newest.
  4. Some dissertations are available online. When prompted, enter your university username and password to get access.
  5. Dissertations in print format have a Thesis Number. You can request these from store.

Visiting other libraries

Request an appointment with your librarian

If you are struggling to find resources for your dissertation or need help with referencing, contact your Librarian using the link below.

Dissertation workshops

We also run dissertation workshops, go to the Stirling Essentials Study Skills website to get more information about the workshops and book your place.

Research skills
https://libguides.stir.ac.uk/dissertations
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