Below are links to some of the main resources mentioned in the Library session on finding resources for your dissertation.

Searching with Atla Religion Database
Atla RDB is a very large and diverse database and it can be hard to narrow your searches to find relevant results. The Search for Resources tab on this guide will walk you through some basic and advanced search techniques.

There's also a guide to using the Scriptures tool on Atla RDB to find resources on particular chapters and verses in the Bible.


Finding bibliographies to steal from
Someone else will have already done work in the area of your topic and while plagarism is normally strictly off limits it's fine to plunder their bibliography for useful leads. You can find bibliographies in:

• Reference works – articles in encyclopedias and dictionaries will very often have a concise bibliography identifying the key works on the topic (see under the subject tabs on this guide).
• Books and articles – an obvious suggestion, but if you can find a good book or article on your topic (the more recent the better) it's often the easiest route to finding the best resources. Handy starting places are titles such as Cambridge Companion to ... and Handbook of… (e.g. the Oxford Handbooks series - again, many are available as e-books) - search for them on the Library catalogue.
• Textbooks are also great places to find helpful general bibliographies.
   

When we don't have what you need
Dissertations often require you to use very specialized material. If you find a book, a journal article or a thesis that looks very relevant to your topic but it's not in the Library or available online there are some ways to get hold of it:

Inter-Library Loan - this service is free to use and normally supplies items quickly. This guide has a Make a Request link that will take you to an online form where you can submit the details of the item you need. The guide also has details of how journal articles are delivered electronically (books and theses are usually provided in hard copy).
N.B.: before making a request for an Inter-Library Loan, please take care to check thoroughly that the item isn't available in the Library or online - see this page for advice on this.

Morebooks - if you find a book that you think you will use extensively for your dissertation we can buy a copy for the library (subject to availability and cost). Simply e-mail us with the book details at morebooks@st-andrews.ac.uk

Libraries elsewhere - another library nearby (or near your home town) may have resources relevant to your topic - their library catalogue will be available online. This page describes how you can get borrowing privileges for most other UK university libraries.

Accessing e-journals and e-books from off-campus
If you're using a computer from outside the University network you'll need to log in as a University of St Andrews user in order to access the full text. Each publisher/journal provider has a different access set-up on their site, but bascially you should:

• look for a login button or link and choose either 'Institutional login' (or 'Login via your institution') OR 'Shibboleth login'
• you usually then need to choose your location - this will be UK (or UK Higher Education or some variant)
• then select the institution from a list - this will normally be 'University of St Andrews', rather than 'St Andrews'
• you should then be taken to a sign-in screen where you can enter your University username and password.

If you need more help on this see our online guide to remote access to e-resources - the tabs near the top of this page (A-E, H-J, etc) give more detailed login info for individual resources such as JSTOR, sometimes with a video guide.

If you find that you can't get into a journal article despite going through the steps above it may be that the Library doesn't have access to that title or year. To check this you could search for the journal title using Library search to see if we have a subscription.

Elsewhere on this guide
Some other resources that may be useful when doing research for a dissertation are:

Resources on the Internet - useful websites, online tools, book collections etc are listed on the right-hand side of the pages for Biblical Studies, Theology, Practical Theology, Church History. Many will be familiar but some may be new to you.

Reference works - these can often be a good starting point for researching a topic: as well as providing succinct summaries of the key points to think about they often have useful bibliographies. Each of the pages above has sections listing some of the main reference works in each subject area. Many general reference resources are also available online, e.g. Credo Reference, Oxford Reference, Britannica Academic Edition

Other subject guides - if your topic is cross-disciplinary you may find useful resources on one of our other subject guides.


Citing and referencing
Your supervisor will be able to advise you on which citation style you should use:

Chicago citation style: The comprehensive style guide, The Chicago Manual of Style is available online - however you may find it easiest to start off with their citation quick guide. Note that the Chicago style uses two formats: notes and bibliography and author-date (notes and bibliography is the format most coomonly used for Divinity dissertations).  The Library also has a Chicago style guide.

SBL citation style: The Society of Biblical Literature has developed a variant of the Chicago citation style specially tailored for work in Biblical Studies. This is outlined in their style guide, The SBL Handbook of Style (2nd ed., 2014). There's also a useful online supplement for students.

The Library can help with specialized referencing software such as EndNote and Mendeley. For information on these see this guide.


Going further
PhD students looking for guidance on revising their thesis to make it suitable for publishing as a book may find this guide helpful: The Dissertation-To-Book Workbook: Exercises for Developing and Revising Your Book Manuscript

More help
If you need a bit more help on finding material you can e-mail a member of the Library's Academic Liaison team to arrange an appointment: Colin Bovaird cab@ , Vicki Cormie vhc1@

Or, if you've got a quick question you can use our Ask a librarian chat service.