This guide is designed for masters and Phd students in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies.
Thesis & Dissertation Writing Guides:
- How to do your dissertation in geography and related disciplines
- Mapping your thesis; the comprehensive manual of theory and techniques for masters and doctoral research, LB2369.W49 2011, Floor 4 (print only)
- Research literacies and writing pedagogies for masters and doctoral writers
- Research methods for successful PhD
- The SAGE handbook of digital dissertations and theses
- Writing your doctoral dissertation or thesis: a proven map to success
Other Writing Guides for Geography research and proposal writing
- Communicating in geography and environmental sciences
- Research Design and Proposal Writing in Spatial Science
Theses Databases:
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Dissertations and Theses Global - Discover dissertations and theses published by educational institutions from around the world, from 1743 to the present (some full text available from 1997 - present)
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Foreign Doctoral Dissertations - 700,000 doctoral dissertations from outside the U.S. and Canada
Specialized Collections
- Ottawa Resource Collection
- Indigenous Films
- Archived Web Content - contains City of Ottawa, Planning and Development documents and LRT information
Grey Literature
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Grey Literature subject guide - what it is, how to search for it
Begin with:
Omni, the library's main search box to find books, journal articles, newspaper articles, videos, and many other types of published literature. Omni searches almost all of our collections and databases, simultaneously. If you know the title of a specific book, journal article, or journal, just type in the full title in the search box.
- Consult the Omni Search Tips help guide
- Note: If you are searching from off campus, you must login if you want to be able to access the full text of journal articles and electronic resources.
Databases:
Search subject-specific databases to find journal articles. They offer many advanced search features, only contain scholarly literature and search results are more precise. Consult the following recommended lists:
- Databases by Subject
- Databases by Type
- Geography Subject Guide
- Note: If the library does not have what you need, you can order books and journal articles from other libraries through RACER but you need to register before you can start using it.
Cited Reference Searching is most often used for finding articles that cite a particular work. Many databases provide citation counts for individual articles.
Why is this important?
- Keeping track of who has cited a given work can help you gauge the impact that article has in the discipline
- To find citation counts for geography, use Web of Science, or Scopus
- If the article has been cited, the database will provide a link to the citing articles
- Cited Reference Searching Help Guide
Literature Reviews are used to evaluate existing research related to your topic and to help position your argument on that topic within existing research.
- Conducting a Literature Review web guide
- How to write a literature review video
Consult the Citation Management Help Guide for more information. There are many free citation management systems available and the library provides support for the following:
Consult the Research data management guide for help with storing and preserving data in accordance with the Tri-Agency Principles of Data Management.
Consult the NVivo web page for help with using this software. It helps with the qualitative analysis of your project by coding your data and creating reports.
Databases
Sage Research Methods is designed to support researchers with writing a research question, choosing a method, gathering and analyzing data, to and writing up & publishing the findings.
Research Data Management
Research data, in any format, make up the results of observations, findings or outcomes of a research project. This includes any type of data, whether it be qualitative or quantitative. For more information on why you need a research data management plan and how to set one up, please consult the library's Research Data Management web page.
Books & Encyclopedias
- Conducting Research in Human Geography: theory, methodology and practice
- Elementary Statistics for Geographers (online)
- Geographic thought: a critical introduction
- Geographic thought: a praxis perspective
- International Encyclopedia of human geography
- Methods in human geography: guide for students doing a research project
- Research methods in geography: a critical introduction
- The SAGE Handbook of spatial analysis (online)
Web Sites for Statistics and Data
- Kaggle.com - "inside Kaggle you’ll find all the code & data you need to do your data science work. Use over 19,000 public datasets and 200,000 public notebooks to conquer any analysis in no time."
- Statistical Literacy Tutorial
- Statistical Consulting
Publishing Guides
- Publishing Graduate Student Research in Geography: The Fundamentals (CURVE repository link to journal article)
- Getting Published in Academic Journals; navigating the publication process, RSV Z286.S37P35 2016
- Ulrichsweb - provides detailed information on more than 300,000 periodicals of all types and is often used to identify where to publish your work
Writing Guides
- Writing for Publication web guide
- Plain Language Writing (Youtube video)
- Writing Services @ Carleton University
Scholarly Communications and Open Access
Graduate Student Open Access Award
- $1000 award encourages Carleton graduates to make their work more widely available on the internet by publishing research in open access journals
Funding
- Research Professional - a database of funding opportunities covering all disciplines.
Self Archiving
SHERPA/RoMEO - standard tool for researchers to easily navigate academic publishers' copyright and self-archiving policies when depositing scholarly articles in an institutional repository.
CURVE is Carleton's institutional repository which collects, preserves and provides open access to the academic research output and creative works of Carleton faculty and scholars.
ORCID
- What is an ORCID and do I need one?
- In brief, an ORCID is a digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, and automated links between you and your professional activities.
Journal Rankings and Metrics
Journal-rankings (metrics or bibliometrics) is used to measure the ranking impact of a journal as a whole. They can also be used for:
- preparing your portfolio
- assessing the impact and quality of a journal relative to a particular discipline or field through ranking
- tenure and promotion in academia
- publication venue choices
- collection building and assessment
- Measuring Your Research Impact
Copyright
Thesis Guidelines @ Carleton University