Postgraduate support

Access UK academic theses through EThOS - the British Library electronic theses online service.  You can search a database of UK theses by institution, author and keywords and order theses online

Google Scholar can be a very useful tool for alerting you to what has been published.  Please remember that not all output listed in Google Scholar is available free of charge so you may need to apply for a copy through our Document Delivery Service.  Sometimes it can be worth contacting the author who may be able to provide you with a free copy.

As a postgraduate student your supervisor will be looking for evidence that you have used a wide range of resources in your studies.  Periodicals can provide up to date, specialised information on your research topic.  There are three main types of periodical.

• Academic Journals
• Magazines - both general and professional
• Newspapers

You must decide which is the best for your research - it may be that a combination of all three is most appropriate but this depends on the discipline in which you are researching.  

If you are looking for a particular e-journal title e.g. American Economist, then use this link:

Journals A to Z

Once you have found the journal you want you can search within it for articles.

Sometimes when you are doing research you may come across an article in a journal that you are unable to access at Staffordshire University in either print or electronic format.  This is usually because the Library does not subscribe to that title.  In this situation you can opt to use our Document Delivery Service.  Visit our Document Delivery webpage at  for details of this free service.

You can use this link to access to the range of e-resources which are available. Databases are listed alphabetically or you can search by broad subject heading. If you are unsure which one to use contact your subject librarian.

The STaffordshire University Online REpository is an Open Access institutional research repository designed to house the research and scholarly output of the University’s staff and researchers. To find out more information visit our STORE repository, also known as ePrints: 
https://eprints.staffs.ac.uk/

To find out more about the concept of Open Access, look at the JISC Open Access page. 

Grey literature is a wide ranging body of research information that is not produced and reviewed by commercial publishers.

Grey literature can be a very important research resource, often recording niche or emerging research.

You should make your own assessment for quality, reliability and potential bias when selecting grey literature for inclusion in your research projects.