Top 5 tips for getting ahead with your Dissertation this summer

1. Master search techniques

Plan your search strategy at the start and you will be able to find lots of relevant resources which will save you time in the long run.

  • What exactly is the topic you are searching for?
  • What are the main concepts or keywords for your topic?
  • Are there any similar words that describe each of these concepts?
  • How might you combine these keywords together to search? 
  • Use tricks like Wildcards and Truncation to search effectively. There is more information on this here.  
  • Look at the Cited by and Cited references for what you have found – save time by using the references in good research to find more good research. 

There is lots of help in the Library Space on Moodle about this.

This video shows you how to Search Smarter and Search Faster:


 2. Evaluate your resources

You have mastered your search techniques but you now you need to think whether your results are good enough. This presentation will give you some guidance in how to evaluate information.

http://prezi.com/q5jglgamre6c/copy-of-evaluating-information/

3. Check Senate House

You have access to all the eresources provided by Senate House Library along with those provide by RHUL. You need to register but this is easy to do and instructions are here.

You can search through their websites or you can connect to Senate House through Google Scholar. There is more information on this in this post.

4. Use the library

The library is your best friend at dissertation time. You can come in or use our virtual enquiry services to ask questions. Keep an eye on the Blog and Moodle for new training being offered. But most importantly use the Library Subject pages to find out which resources are best for your subject.

5. Manage your references and Get organised

Managing your references using RefWorks

RefWorks is an online bibliographic management program which enables you to capture, save and organize references into your own personal database. As a member of RHUL you can access it via the library homepage link to E-resources A-Z. It enables you to:

 

     Capture and save references generated from online databases

     Automatically generate a bibliography in your document

     Insert citations directly into your research (i.e. word document)

     Format your references in a wide range of citation styles

 

RefWorks includes a comprehensive set of online self-help tutorials, or you may wish to sign up for the one of the RefWorks sessions that the Library regularly runs or try the self-study start up guide:

http://www.rhul.ac.uk/library/helpandsupport/findinginformation.aspx

Use tools like Evernote and Dropbox to organise your notes.

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