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Social Work: Dissertation Support

Finding Ulster dissertations

Undergraduate dissertations are not held by the Library, other than some exemplars of UG law dissertations held at the Magee Library. Ask for them at the Information Point.

Master's dissertations are now submitted online and the Library will only hold a small number as examples, so ask your lecturer or supervisor about access to previous dissertations. Doctoral dissertations up to 2017 are available on request from the Information Point.  They are strictly for Library Use Only, but may be photocopied in accordance with copyright regulations. From 2017 onwards they are available online via the University's PURE website.

Look at the current dissertations if you need ideas about how to lay out your table of contents, create cover pages, appropriate binding etc.

 

Master and doctoral dissertations are listed in the library catalogue.

Search by keyword and use the Format filter 'Thesis' to display dissertations.

Theses at other campuses may be requested from the Information Point.

Document Delivery

If the item you want is not available from Ulster sources,  the Library's Document Delivery service can request material from the British Library and elsewhere. There is no charge for either service, although weekly limits may apply.

Request books and articles using the Online Request Form

You must register for British Library's On Demand service prior to placing a request. Article requests are supplied electronically and are accessed via your On Demand username and password. Read the guidance on Secure Electronic Delivery (SED).

Book requests will be supplied as loans.

Doing Your Literature Review

 

 

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Not many books on your topic?

Your specialised research may mean that we do not have much on your subject in the Library catalogue.  JISC Library Hub Discover  gives access to the combined catalogues of over 90 UK academic and research institutions. Search for your topic there and if you find a useful book, you can request it using the Document Delivery service.

Google Books is a good way to search WITHIN books to find matching text or chapter headings. See the search box below. Once you locate a relevant text, check the Library catalogue to see if we have it in stock or request it via the Document Delivery service.

Google Book Search

Using Google Scholar

Google Scholar Search

Google's Scholar search limits results to academic-related sources, such as peer reviewed journals, research based  working papers, books and other scholarly resources.  Use in combination with appropriate Library databases.

To export any references to the Refworks database, go to the Scholar settings, choose the Bibliography Manager option and select 'Show links to import citations into' Refworks. For more information on Google Scholar, including search tips and citation metrics see: http://scholar.google.co.uk/intl/en/scholar/about.html

Conference Papers

High quality research often appears first in the form of conference papers or posters. There are a number of sources you can check to locate conference papers or set up alerts to papers matching your research topic.

Theses & Dissertations available online



The British Library's EThoS service provides abstract records for over 500,000 UK doctoral dissertations. Once registered, you can get full-text access to approximately half of these by limiting the keyword search to those theses 'available for immediate download'. Registration is free. Many records also have the symbol indicating that they are freely available from the relevant University's repository. 

NOTE: EThOS records are available in USearch Use the Content Provider filter to limit to those from EThOS.
The full-text EThOs service is currently unavailable due to a hacking incident and there is no date for restoration of the service. However, individual theses may be still be available from the originating institution's research portal or repository.

Many of the Library databases contain records relating to dissertations and theses, both national and international. The majority of these are available as abstracts only, although some will have a longer extract or preview.

Books on Dissertations and research writing

Managing your References

Dissertations require a significant number of information sources - books, journals, online sources. You should decide, at the beginning of the research process, exactly how you are going to store, organise and ultimately use the references, in your final bibliography.

Find a method that works for you, but make a point of recording the full bibliographic details of anything you plan to use WHEN YOU FIND IT - don't wait until the end of the process when you may have forgotten.

See the Referencing tab above for more information and tips, as well as the Library Refworks Guide or Refworks online guide

Need help? Come and see us

  •  How do you know when have you done sufficient research?
  •  Do you have the skills to evaluate the usefulness and quality of sources?
  •  Is there a simple way to keep track of all the information you have found?

Why not make an appointment with the subject librarian at your campus who will be happy to identify good quality sources for your particular research topic?  See below for other recommended links to information about the research process.