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Who is Doing Research in My Area?

The tools listed below are all valuable in helping you to locate people working in the same field of research as your own.

Discussion lists

Discussion lists (also known as email lists) allow you to follow and join in discussions in those subject areas that are of interest to you.  They are an excellent way to find out what your colleagues are doing around the world and to ensure that you are kept up-to-date on news and developments in your subject areas.  However a word of caution is necessary here. Joining email discussion lists, particularly those lists that generate a lot of email traffic, is a quick way to start feeling overloaded with information.  It may be best, if such a function is offered, for you to receive each day's emails as a once-a-day digest, rather than receiving many tens of separate emails each day.

Theses (United Kingdom)

Portsmouth University theses

The Library holds copies of all University of Portsmouth theses and these are listed on the Library Catalogue. You can restrict your search of the Library Catalogue to theses by selecting Theses Collection from the Collection drop-down list on the Library Catalogue's Search and Advanced Search search pages.

Index to Theses on the Web provides an index to higher degree theses awarded by British and Irish universities from 1970- onwards. Details of pre-1970 theses can be found in the print version of Index to Theses (1952-) which is held in the General Reference Collection on the Ground Floor of the University Library.

British Library thesis collection

The British Library Document Supply Centre holds most British and some older North American doctoral theses accessed via the British Library’s Public Catalogue. These theses can be obtained via the Library’s Interlibrary Loans service. Loan copies are supplied on microfilm or fiche, and it is also possible to buy paper copies of British theses (the current cost is about £40). When requesting a British thesis, please check with Interlibrary Loans staff (at the Information Desk on the Ground Floor of the Library) whether a signed Thesis Declaration Form is also required. In some cases it is possible for the Interlibrary Loans service to borrow theses direct from the awarding institution. Such loans are normally only available for consultation within the Library.

British Library EThOS service

EThOS offers a 'single point of access' where researchers the world over can access all theses produced by UK Higher Education.  EThOS will thus help to... 

To achieve this, EThOS offers a coherent and consistent interface by implementing a central 'hub' comprising an e-store and a digitisation suite at the British Library in Boston Spa, Yorkshire. The hub automatically harvests e-theses from Institutional Repositories and digitises paper theses from participating institutions to offer this single point of access.  Many UK institutions support Open Access to their theses, so a download of their digital and digitised theses is free to the researcher. A small number of participating institutions may not be able to offer Open Access and in this case the researcher may have to pay for the digitisation.  Where a thesis must be digitised before supply, you can expect a short delay. However, you will be informed when the thesis is ready for collection and you can then log on to the system and download it. EThOS can only offer the theses of participating institutions. EThOS cannot supply theses from an institution which chooses not to participate in the scheme. In this case, you should approach the institution's library directly to gain access to a thesis.

International theses

Information on North American theses can be found via Proquest Online Dissertation Services at:

http://www.umi.com/en-US/products/dissertations/

This offers free access to the last two years’ Dissertations Abstracts and an online ordering service for full text dissertations. Approximate charge for an A4 shrink-wrapped copy, regular mail delivery is ~$50. 

Some older North American theses may be available for loan from the British Library, but more recent ones are only available for purchase.

Access to digitised theses from Australia and Canada is available at the following websites:

http://www.caul.edu.au/caul-programs/australasian-digital-theses

and

http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/thesescanada/index-e.html

Current research

COS is the leading Internet site for the global research and development community.  COS brings together the world's most prominent scientists and researchers at more than 1,600 universities, corporations and government agencies worldwide. COS provides tools and services that enable these professionals to communicate, exchange information and find the people and technologies that are important to their work. Includes a link to RefAware, a Web-based current awareness service designed to provide researchers and other members of the academic community with immediate access to new research and publications in their field - all within hours of being posted online. Providing one source for a variety of research data, RefAware constantly scours the internet for the latest information and automatically delivers new information directly to the user. Covering over 8,000 peer-reviewed sources and other non-refereed sources of information, RefAware provides a comprehensive, up-to-the minute picture of today's global research.

HighlyCited.com is a freely accessible Web site giving research professionals working in a variety of occupations an invaluable tool to identify individuals, departments and laboratories that have made fundamental contributions to the advancement of science and technology in recent decades. ISIHighlyCited.com reveals the face of research - the people behind the accomplishments in 21 broad subject categories in life sciences, medicine, physical sciences, engineering and social sciences. These individuals are the most highly cited within each category, and comprise less than one-half of one percent of all publishing researchers - truly an extraordinary accomplishment. The website is updated on a regular basis. The most recent analysis covered papers from 1981-2007.

The Economic & Social Research Council helps you locate and explore social science research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Search or browse to find information on research projects (awards), plus their findings and outputs.

CORDIS - the Community Research and Development Information Service is the European Commission information service providing access to complete information on EU research and exploitation possibilities. Information on all research and technological development activities in the EU is provided through a range of databases.

Conference information on the Internet

Conference Information and the Internet is an article (written in 2001) by Alison Macnab of Loughborough University.

Subject-specific guides to conferences

Details of forthcoming conferences in all subject areas can be found by searching the Intute portal.

The IEEE Conference Search database includes all meetings run by, or in association with, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

The Scholarly Societies Project is at the University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada) contains a searchable database of scholarly research.

Research directories

Research directories in specific subjects can also be found in the Library. Search the Library Catalogue using the keywords research and directory.

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