Doctoral Research Toolkit: Dissertations

Most dissertations are organized around five sections or steps. Understanding these systematic steps will help you find and use other researchers’ published work. Not all doctoral level programs use the same research terminology, but in general the steps are as follows.

1. Introduction to the problem or purpose of the study and why you wish to research it, 
2. The literature review: to show that no one else has dealt with this problem or that you are building on another researcher’s treatment of the problem,
3. The description of your methodology or procedure: used to research and gather data on this problem: including your data gathering instruments, participants and designs, research instruments,
4. The results or data you collected: this methodology for that problem, 
5. The analysis or the conclusions, discussion or summary you drew from your data or results.

All dissertations provide a list of sources used called the bibliography or reference list as well as providing a description of the methodology used to gather the data and analyze the results. It is these reference lists and descriptions of methodology that will help build your literature review. They will also assist in narrowing down your topic and helping to focus in on a workable methodology and/or research instrument.

The CSU librarians can support you during the research process with personalized reference services. We are happy to help you with the following tasks:

• Accessing and using the CSU Library databases in order to create a peer-reviewed literature review with library resources
• Using free personalized database folders within multiple database platforms to organize your research
• Brainstorming keywords and recommending search limiters to use
• Locating the dissertations and theses that may support and inform your research process