Getting ready to start your research project?
From primary sources to writing up: support for every step on the path to a successful final year research project.
If you’re a finalist or Masters student, you're probably thinking about your final research project. We’re here to support you throughout your dissertation or final project with a wealth of resources that can help.
Final Chapter
The Final Chapter resource will be indispensable throughout your project. Tutors, students and Skills@Library all give tips and advice to help you at each stage of your project. To begin with, the “starting your project” section guides you through the process of choosing your topic and developing your research questions.
Research project online event
Undergraduates are invited to join Embracing the Final Chapter on Wednesday 20 October, 1pm – 4pm.
This free online event will demystify the final year research project, provide tips, signpost resources and motivate you to undertake the challenge with confidence!
Recordings of all sessions will be shared with attendees after the event. Sign up to attend and we will e-mail you instructions on how to join us on the day.
Researching your project
Research projects often need a more in-depth and wide-ranging literature search than assignments. When you’re ready to start your research, there’s lots of material available online at Library Search, or on our shelves. There are more online resources than ever, as we increased the number of ebooks and online resources during the pandemic.
Subject databases are a great place to start your research. Our Search Help and Resource Guides will help you find what you’re looking for. If there’s something specific you need that we don’t hold in our collections, you can suggest a purchase or request it through our Document Supply service.
Primary sources for arts, humanities and social sciences research are often found in print collections, which might be difficult to access at the present time. Use our Primary Sources Resource Guide, which gathers a large collection of online primary source resources into one place. Special Collections also have rare and unique research material that might support your project. We have digitised a lot of our material and made it available online!
Referencing
Referencing can be time-consuming and frustrating. Use EndNote to compile your references while you research to make referencing much smoother. You can download EndNote to use off-campus and follow our EndNote guidance to get the most out of it.
Find your school’s referencing style and help to reference many different types of resource in our referencing guides.
Statistics and analysis
Analysing and presenting research data may also factor into your dissertation. Our dedicated statistics tutors can support you to understand statistics and use statistical analysis software. Workshops are released on a regular basis and there is one-to-one support available.
You can also check out our blog post “Using data in your dissertation”
Dissertation examples and writing up
You can view dissertation examples online to get a feel for how a finished project looks. There's also support for academic writing and delivering oral presentations and poster presentations.
Good luck!
Good luck with your project and remember we’re here to support and help in any way we can, just ask.
