Library Guides: Dissertations: Research methods

Research methods

Undertaking your dissertation or research project requires an understanding of scholarly research methods. The resources below will enable you to find information on a range of research methods, best practice, statistical analysis and storing your data.

StarPlus provides access to many books on research methods for specific disciplines. Search for the phrase “research methods” with the name of your discipline, and change the drop down menu from All Items to Books. For example: “research methods” psychology.

Useful databases and resources

SAGE Research Methods This link opens in a new window
SAGE Research Methods is a resource for anyone doing research or learning how to do research. There’s information on writing a research question, conducting a literature review, choosing a research method, collecting and analysing data, and writing up the findings. It covers research methods for social and behavioural sciences, and methods used in medicine, science, technology, and the humanities.

Sheffield Methods Institute
Video resource on why numbers matter, data skills, and making sense of data.
Statistical research methods
Online resources provided by MASH (Mathematics and Statistics Help). Sections include statistical methods; techniques and software for statistical analysis.
Good Research Data Management practices for Taught Students (Word document, 210 KB)
A short guide to good research data management practices, helping you to effectively manage the data and code in your research project to save you time and make it easier to share with your supervisor or collaborators.
Systematic reviews (video series)
A systematic review is a large-scale survey and analysis of all the evidence relevant to a research question. Systematic reviews are widely used in Medicine, Health and Psychology as well as other evidence based disciplines such as Management and Education.

This series of videos explains aspects of the systematic review methodology, including how to develop a search strategy, how to use literature searching tools, how to record your searches and manage your search results.
Systematic and literature reviews
This webpage provides more information about the difference between a systematic review and a literature review.

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Research methods

Useful databases and resources