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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. |
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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. |
Academic staff and researchers at the University record their research output on the University's Research Portal.
It is possible (indeed likely) that you may not find a complete book on your chosen topic, but there may be sections or chapters WITHIN books which you might find useful. The Library Catalogue cannot normally identify individual chapters or specific text within the book - it searches the book title and broad subject terms only.
Google Books has better luck searching within the book (especially where there's a full-text preview) 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 the book in stock or request it via the Document Delivery service if we don't.
We recommend Google's Scholar search to find journal articles or other high quality information. Scholar limits results to academic-related sources, such as peer reviewed journals, research based working papers, books and other scholarly resources.
Follow the steps below to link to full text sources held at Ulster and export any references to the Refworks database
Top tip: login to the Portal first - that will help with full text access off campus.
If you intend to use the 'normal' Google, check Settings for advanced search tips to improve the accuracy of your search. Northampton University also has a useful video - Ten Tips for Google Searching.
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.
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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. |
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You may request books and articles using the Online Request Form Article requests will usually be sent to you electronically for download so you must register for British Library's On Demand service prior to requesting and read the guidance on Secure Electronic Delivery (SED). Book requests will be supplied as loans. There is no charge for either service, although weekly limits may apply. |
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Dissertations will required 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: the chances are you'll have forgotten or have an incomplete source.
See the Referencing tab above for more information and tips, as well as the complete Refworks Guide.
| Begin your research by checking the Library's catalogue to see what we might already hold relating to your chosen topic. | |
| To see what is available outside our collections, try JISC Library Hub Discover - the combined catalogues of over 80 UK academic and research institutions. Once you find a useful book, you can request it using the Document Delivery service. | |
| Please check the Library Catalogue (if you have not already done so), before submitting a Document Delivery request | |
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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. |
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The ABI Global database (available from the Library's A-Z list) contains full-text access to D.Phil (PhD) dissertations from the United States and Canada.
As ABI Global is a business subject database, unsurprisingly the majority of the dissertations listed are on business topics. However, there are also dissertations on allied subjects such as social policy, law, economic history etc
