1. c.funnell@mdx.ac.uk 14th March 2011 Middlesex University DISSERTATION RESEARCHLLM

2. WHY DO A DISSERTATION?........A JOB/PERSONAL SATISFACTION 2

3. OBJECTIVES 3 To be able to undertake a substantial piece of academic study To be able to develop a personal specialism To be able to put a personal stamp on a piece of work To be able to explore the literature on a chosen topic

4. OBJECTIVES CONT’D 4 To be able to refine and extend skills in finding,selecting and critically analysing information To be able to refine skills in decision-making,task management and problem solving To be able to refine skills in summarising and presenting findings Cottrell,The Study Skills Handbook

6. LITERATURE REVIEW

7. RESEARCH

9. LITERATURE REVIEW 7

10. PLANNING/ORGANISING(GOOGLE SCHOLAR) 8

11. RESEARCH-WHAT IS IT? 9

12. RESEARCH/WHAT IS IT? Signifies the systematic study of a topic Defines, describes and explains what the topic is Requires the ability to access and critically assess the various debates and issues the topic has generated Salter M and Mason 10

13. RESEARCH AND LITERATURE REVIEWSCAN TAKE DIFFERENT FORMS.......... 11

14. ........AND SHAPES 12

15. BUT IN THE END 13

16. SOME USEFUL TITLESSheppard Library -001.42RES-Oxford University Press 14

17. USEFUL TITLES Sheppard Library-001.42FIN-Sage Publishing 15

18. USEFUL TITLESSheppard Library-300.72 OLI-Sage Publishing 16

19. FINDING USEFUL TITLESSEARCH THE CATALOGUE!! 17

20. SCONUL 18 Society of College, National and University Libraries Promotes excellence in library service in higher education and national libraries Has formulated a Policy to address the Research Process in Higher Education

21. SCONULSEVEN HEADLINE SKILLS 19 1. Need for Information(gap between what you already know and what is needed to complete an assignment) 2. Distinguishing ways in which Information Gap may be addressed(awareness of different ways of meeting your information needs-variety of sources and channels, ie Books,Electronic Journals etc.)

22. SCONUL 20 3. Constructing strategies to locate Information (getting the best out of your sources for effective results) 4. Locating and Accessing Information( knowledge and skills to extract the information-using Boolean logic)

24. EVALUATING INTERNET RESOURCESThere is a great deal of information available on the Internet and the quality of the information is variable. Here are a few suggestions to assist you when evaluating the information on offer 23

25. HAVE A LOOK AT..... 24 INTERNET DETECTIVE TUTORIAL (http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/detective/index/htm) AND 2. INTERNET LAWYER (http://www.sosig.ac.uk/vts/lawyers/index.htm)

27. Is it a RELIABLE organisation or a subject expert

29. Are the grammar and spelling CORRECT?

30. Is it COMPLETE or just ONE POINT OF VIEW?

31. Do they have their own AGENDA?

33. You shouldn’t be quoting out of date information

34. 4. AUDIENCE

36. Are the links from the page UP TO DATE and VALID?

38. MIDDLESEX REGULATIONSTHESES/DISSERTATIONS 30

39. GUIDES&HELPSHEETS 31

40. STUDY SKILLS 32

41. GUIDANCE FOR FORMAT 33

42. DISSERTATIONS ON THE CATALOGUE 34

43. SEARCH RESULTS 35

44. DISPLAY 36

45. ETHOS-BRITISH LIBRARY 37

46. INDEX TO THESESAccess from the LR homepage 38

47. BASIC SEARCH 39

48. RESULTS 40

49. ACCESS TO ETHOS 41

50. DISSERTATION.COMFULL TEXT OPTION 42 Commercial site which publishes dissertations from all over the world Can search by topic,browse by subject or look up a specific author If willing to pay you can download the dissertation or have printed copies sent to you Alternatively do the search here and request it via our Inter Library Loan team

51. DISSERTATION.COMhttp://www.dissertation.com/index.php 43

52. SEARCH FOR INTERNATIONAL LAW 44

53. ABSTRACT 45

54. COPAC-HOLDINGS OF UK UNIVERSITIES 46

55. ACCESS VIA LR WEBSITE 47

56. SEARCHING COPAC 48

57. RESULTS 49

58. FULL RECORD 50

59. CHOOSE A LOCATIONMAY REQUIRE AN INTER LIBRARY LOAN 51

60. FLAG VIA IALS 52

61. FLAG(Cont’d) 53 Freely available-Internet Lists UK university libraries’ holdings of foreign legal materials Maintained by IALS(Institute of Advanced Legal Studies-Russell Square) Letter from Director of Programmes(taught postgraduate student)

62. BASIC SEARCH 54

63. RESULTSLOCATION, TYPE,DATES 55

64. FULL RECORD 56

65. INTERNATIONAL LEGAL RESEARCH TUTORIALFREELY AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET 57

66. IMPORTANCE OF THIS RESOURCE 58 Some extremely useful links here, such as ASIL Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law so USE them! Good starting point for information about international organisations such as links to websites for both IGO’s(inter governmental organisations) and NGO’s(non governmental organisations)

67. FOREIGN LAWESSENTIAL SOURCES 59

68. INTERNATIONAL LAW RESOURCE PAGE 60

69. GOOD STARTING POINT FOR OVERIEW 61

70. REFUGEE LAW RESOURCES ON THE WEB 62

71. GLOBALEX 63

72. INTERNATIONAL LAW RESEARCH 64

73. EUROPEAN HUMAN RIGHTS SYSTEMNEW AND UP TO DATE!-2010 65

75. Specific topics and themes within the broad area of European Human Rights and useful links

76. CITATION STYLE 67 For Law the ‘Gold Card’ for style manuals is OSCOLA (University of Oxford). You may wish to refer to it The University of Cardiff Legal Research Centre has condensed the OSCOLA documentation into a very accessible and user friendly website Access via the Law Subject web pages, Learning Resources https://ilrb.cf.ac.uk/citingreferences/oscola/tutorial/index.html

77. CITING SOURCES 68

78. LAW SUBJECT WEB PAGES 69

79. SUBJECT GUIDES LIST 70

80. LAW SUBJECT WEB PAGES 71

81. 72