The Postgraduate Collection
Resources curated for postgraduate students on taught and research based programmes.
This collection has been designed to bring together a series of resources focusing on research and writing skills for postgraduate students from masters to PhD level. From assessing your existing skills to dealing with procrastination, this collection is designed to help you get the most out of your taught or research postgraduate programme.
Research and information skills
Resources within the Academic Skills Kit and from the Library website will help you hone and refine your search skills enabling you to find information more effectively, and discover more specialist information resources needed for your studies from Newcastle University Library and beyond.
Special Collections and Archives for your research
Have you considered using archive material for your research? The Special Collections and Archives search tools make it easier to identify manuscripts, archive material, rare books and digitised materials from collections held by Newcastle University Library spanning 700 years’ worth of primary sources. You can also browse by collection or subject discipline to identify collections of potential interest.
If you are unsure where to start, the Special Collections and Archives Team have created a primary sources research planning tool that will help you investigate special collection materials and familiarise yourself with best practice and futher support.
Mapping the literature
Create a visual overview of the research in your field with this template designed to help you construct a bird’s eye ‘map’ of existing scholarship.
The Literature Review
Watch this video that explains how to navigate the literature review in a postgraduate thesis or dissertation
Reading and note-taking
Note-taking strategies
Learn more about effective strategies to help you manage the demands of research and reading at postgraduate level.
Reading strategies
There’s more than one way to read! Make your reading really work for you with these slides on reading strategies to help make academic reading more manageable and more productive
Managing proposals, dissertations and theses
The dissertation or thesis is usually the cornerstone of a postgraduate course. This section contains resources designed not only to help you get started, but to help you keep going throughout the longer-term challenges of writing up a substantial research project.
Proposal Planner
A tool to help you develop proposals for dissertations, research projects, conference papers, funding opportunities and more.
Structuring your work
Establishing the structure thesis or dissertation is a crucial step and can be a real turning point for your research, and this video will help you.