LibGuides: Biochemistry: Postgrad Research

Writing Your Thesis

Thesis Information Library Guide
Essential information and advice for Postgraduates on the many stages of the thesis process, from planning to submitting.
OUR Archive
All Otago theses and dissertations are required to be deposited in the OUR Archive. Depositors have the option to make their dissertation or thesis available in full-text.
SAGE Research Methods
A research methods tool created to help researchers, faculty and students with their research projects. The database links SAGE’s book, journal and reference content with search and discovery tools. Researchers can explore methods concepts to help them design research projects, understand particular methods or identify a new method, conduct their research, and write up their findings.
Sage Campus
SAGE Campus is a digital library product that supports the teaching and learning of skills and research methods through 280+ hours of structured online learning. Our style is self-paced and instructor-led, comprised of an engaging mix of SAGE-quality content, video, interactives, and formative assessments. Our flexible learning pathways cover tricky skills and research methods that can be applied across all stages of academic study; from undergraduates looking to critically assess information to researchers looking to report and publish their data.
EQUATOR Network
= Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research. The EQUATOR Network has goals of raising awareness of the importance of good reporting of research, assisting in the development, dissemination and implementation of reporting guidelines for different types of study designs, monitoring the status of the quality of reporting of research studies in the health sciences literature, and conducting research relating to issues that impact the quality of reporting of health research studies.

Finding Conference Papers

Conferences papers are an excellent source of current research, best practices and new innovations in a research area. For a start, search the Web using the name of the conference, meeting, or symposium.

Full-text conference papers may be hard to obtain; sometimes abstracts are the only items available online. If a full paper is not available online, you could contact the author and request a copy. Also, the Library may be able to borrow or purchase published proceedings--talk to the Anatomy Subject Librarian.

Library Search | Ketu
Search for your topic and then limit to 'conference proceedings'
Scopus
An article database which allows you to limit your search to conference papers.
Web of Science
Article database which allows you to search by "Conference", and limit results by "Proceedings paper".

Postgraduate Information Sessions and Workshops 2023

There are Library sessions and workshops provided specifically for Postgraduate students. For more information and to register book now for workshops via Zoom

Information sessions on Wednesdays 10-11am (via Zoom)

26 Jul - Postgraduate Library Services – An introduction to Library support, recommended resources and services.
30 Aug - Effective Search Strategies - Learn how to search recommended databases for relevant literature, and manage your results
27 Sep - Thesis Information – For new thesis students, about preparation, copyright compliance, submitting, and depositing.
25 Oct - Researcher Profiles - Building an online profile to promote your research, and yourself.

Hands-on Workshops on Tuesdays and Thursdays 10-11.30am (via Zoom)

22 Aug - EndNote for PC (Windows) - Use EndNote to store, group, edit and annotate references, and cite while you write
24 Aug - EndNote for Mac - Use EndNote to store, group, edit and annotate references, and cite while you write
26 Oct - Research Data Management - Make sense of the complexity around data storage, description, re-use and archiving.
31 Oct - Getting published - Practical tips for postgraduates. Learn how to develop a publishing strategy and identify the right journals for submission.
2 Nov - Impact Metrics - Understand tools that explain impact factors and ranking for what to read, and where to publish.

Finding Grey Literature

The term 'grey literature' is used to describe materials not published commercially or indexed by major databases. The Grey Literature In Health Library Guide discusses, and helps you find, relevant grey literature for research in health and medicine. Look through the tabs to find the information you need; General Sources, Conference Proceedings, Institutional Repositories, Clinical Trials, Guidelines and Statistics.

Finding Theses & Dissertations

OUR Archive - Biochemistry
Items recently deposited in the Otago University Research (OUR) Archive from the Biochemistry Department including theses and dissertations.
Library Search|Ketu
Search for Otago theses and dissertations by using subject terms plus the words "thesis" and "Otago," e.g. hip abductor muscles and thesis and Otago. Or, try using the Advanced Search and combining your search terms with words like 'thesis' or 'dissertation'. You also have the option to refine results by type, i.e. "theses"
Te Puna (National Library of New Zealand)
Search for theses in the collections of all New Zealand university libraries.
NZResearch
Find theses and other open-access research documents from NZ institutions; now hosted by DigitalNZ.

Finding Open Access Resources

Open Access is a new model of scholarly communication based on the principle that research should be available freely online, for anyone to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, link to etc. There are Open Access Journals, Books, Databases and Archives.

OUR Archive - Division of Health Sciences
Otago University Archive (OUR Archive) is an open access institutional archive

Directory of Open Access Journals This link opens in a new window
Free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals, covering all subjects and many languages.

Directory of Open Access Books
PLOS
PLOS is a nonprofit, Open Access publisher empowering researchers to accelerate progress in science and medicine by leading a transformation in research communication

Finding Patents

Find out how many articles have cited your patent.

Check out the Patent Library Guide for information on searching for patents in databases and in patent office databases and for what support with patents is provided at the University of Otago.

Keeping up to date with research

Search Alerts

Most research databases allow you to create alerts that will push information to you based on a search you've set up previously. This could be a search for relevant terms/keywords, an author name or a journal specialising in your research area.

RSS Feeds

An RSS feed reader (aka a news aggregator) is an automated way to keep up-to-date with new information posted online, including news sites, blogs, podcasts, and other media channels.

To use, sign-up to a feed reader (some popular ones are listed below), and then search for content within your reader to subscribe/add it to your feed. Alternatively, when you are on a website, look for the RSS icon to add the web address or link to your reader.

Finding Research Repositories

A research repository is a place to store an institution's intellectual research outputs. Try searching these sites to find more research:

Otago University Research Archive (OUR Archive)
Respository for research, including theses, produced at the University

NZResearch This link opens in a new window
Research documents produced at universities, polytechnics, and other research institutions throughout New Zealand

SSRN: Social Science Research Network
Open source (freely accessible) international research repository

Trove This link opens in a new window
Trove enables access to research from journal articles and papers and to Australian government sponsored working papers. It also provides access to grey literature not yet indexed by Google or Google scholar and to millions of overseas open access research articles.

New Otago Biochemistry Publications

Publications recently added to the Otago University Research (OUR) Archive:

Biochemistry: Postgrad Research

Library Services for Postgraduate Students