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Dissertation planning

Information on how to plan and manage your dissertation project.

What is research?

A dissertation project is an opportunity to pursue your own ideas in an environment of relative intellectual freedom.

It also present a number of new challenges relating to the scale, scope and structure of a piece of work that is likely to be more substantial than any you have undertaken before.

These resources will help you to break the process down and explore ways to plan and structure your research and organise your written work.

A research-led university

Sheffield prides itself on being a  research-led university . Crucially, this means that teaching is informed by cutting-edge research in the academic field.

It also means that you are learning in an environment where you develop and use research skills as you progress. The most successful students tend to develop research skills early and use them consistently.

Research in higher education

Research sometimes just means finding out information about a topic. However, in the HE setting, specific understandings of 'research' carry a lot of weight.

The classic definition is that research leads to an original ' contribution to knowledge ' in a particular field of inquiry by defining an important question or problem and then answering or solving it in a systematic way.

You will build this contribution on the foundation of a robust structure of primary and secondary sources and evidence.

Differences across disciplines

Depending on the discipline you work in, there will be different ways of designing and articulating a research problem and different methods for answering these problems.

Not everything about research is 'original'. Sometimes the majority (or even all) of a research project will involve documenting or summarising information or ideas that are already available.

Not all research leads to answers. Sometimes research produces unusable results, or the inquiry leads to only more questions. Sometimes the originality of a research project is that it straddles more than one field of inquiry.

Some examples of approaches to research and what that contribution to knowledge might look like include:

• Explore an under-researched area
• Develop or test out a new methodology or technique
• Extend or develop a previous study
• Review the knowledge thus far in a specific field
• Makes connections between disciplines
• Replicate an existing study/approach in a different setting
• Apply a theoretical idea to a real world problem

This all adds up to the fact that research is a complicated topic that seems to mean a lot to academic experts but is very difficult to understand intimately when you are a novice.

As someone new to research, you will need to do some work to find out how research is conceived of and done in your discipline.

301 Recommends:

Our Dissertation Planning Essentials workshop will look at the initial stages and challenges of preparing for a large-scale dissertation project.

Our Dissertation Writing workshop will break down the process of writing a dissertation and explore approaches to voice and style to help develop a way of writing academically.

Our Creativity and Research interactive workshop looks at how to identify, develop and apply your creativity and innovation skills to the research process, whatever stage you're at. In our Creativity and Problem Solving interactive workshop you'll learn how to identify and develop your creativity and innovation skills, address problems and challenges, explore creative models and strategies, and look at how you can apply this to your academic work.

Our Part 1 workshop on Setting Research Priorities will help to break down the research process by identifying the key information that you need to have in place to develop your project. It will help you to prioritise key tasks and create a project workflow to set targets, track progress and reach key milestones. Part 2 will revisit that workflow to assess progress. It will encourage you to reflect on your project so far, identify opportunities for feedback and review your intermediate targets to ensure that you stay on track towards your deadline.

Explore this Illustrated Guide to a PhD  by Matt Might as a visualisation of research to help you identify how you can develop your research ideas.  

Our Video Dissemination workshop will give you an insight into the best practices for using video to disseminate research and communicate your ideas. It will look at styles, common communication techniques and the pedagogy of visual mediums, as well as top production tips for making your content engaging, informative and professional.

Research proposals

A research proposal often needs to encompass many things: it is part description, part analysis, part review, part guesswork, part advert, part CV.

Writing a research proposal that can achieve all these things is an important first step towards realising your project idea. Your research proposal will allow you to receive some early feedback on your ideas and will act as a guide as you plan and develop your project more fully.

But how can you explain what you hope to discover in the project before you’ve done the research?

There are a number of things that you can do to make sure that your research proposal is professional, realistic and relevant:

• Read around your topic of interest as much as possible. Getting a feel for what other kinds of research have been done will give you a much clearer idea of where your project might fit in. 
• Create a mind map of relevant topics to explore the links and connections between themes. Which branches of your mind map seem most promising as an area for enquiry?
• Be realistic. You may dream of making the next big breakthrough in the field, but this is probably unlikely! Set your self aims and objectives that are realistic within the timescales of your project. 
• Finally, make sure you follow your department guidelines and include everything that you need to in your proposal. 

301 Recommends: Research Project Design Template

Make a copy of this Research project design template (google doc) to capture the key information you need to complete your research proposal.

Research ethics

Whenever you undertake research, no matter what level you are working at, it is always important to consider the immediate and continued impact of your project.

All research should be designed to ensure that individuals involved in the project as subjects or participants are treated with respect and consideration. In practice, this means that:

• Participants have a right to full knowledge about the project and what its results will be used for.
• You should also be mindful of an individual's rights to privacy and confidentiality.
• You should consider the issue of data protection, how you will store project data safely and how long you will need to retain the data
• The physical, emotional and psychological well-being of participants and researchers should be prioritised in your research design.
• Environmental impacts of the research should be considered and mitigated where possible.
• Longer-term impacts, for example, if you are planning to publish findings from the project, should also be considered. 

It is perhaps easy to think that working directly with living participants raises the most pressing ethical questions.

However, you equally need to give very important consideration to the ethics of working in text-based subjects, especially when considering unpublished material (see also copyright).

Your department will have its own guidelines on the area of research ethics and you should certainly consult your tutor or supervisor as s/he will be able to give you detailed topic-specific guidance. More more guidance on ethics in research, visit Research Services Ethics and Integrity pages here . 

Project management

The key to completing a research project successfully is to invest time in planning and organising your project.

A student research project, whether a dissertation or a research placement, will usually involve tight timescales and deadlines. Given the wealth of tasks involved in a typical dissertation project, this can seriously limit the time available for actual data collection or research. 

Setting yourself clear and achievable aims and objectives will help to ensure that the project is manageable within the timeframe available.

As an early stage of the planning process, have a go at breaking your project down into its constituent parts: i.e. all of the tasks that you will need to complete between now and the deadline. How long will each of them take? For example:

Every project will have its own specific tasks, but breaking them down in this way will allow you to start planning ahead, adding milestones to your calendar and chipping away at the project task by task. 

301 Recommends: Trello

Trello is an online planning tool that allows you to create a project workflow. It is a simple and accessible tool that allows you to set yourself deadlines, colour code tasks and share your project plan with collaborators. View our example Dissertation Planning Trello board here and some guidance for students on using Trello (Linked In Learning) .

Working with your supervisor

Your supervisor will be your first point of contact for advice on your project and to help you to resolve issues arising. 

Remember, your supervisor will have a busy schedule and may be supervising several students at once. Although they will do their best to support you, they may not be able to get back to you right away and may be limited in their availability to meet you. 

There are a number of things that you can do to make the most out of the relationship. Some strategies to consider include:

• Share plans/ideas/work-in-progress with your supervisor early 
• Plan for meetings, sketch out an informal agenda 
• Write down your main questions before the meeting. Don’t leave without answers!
• Be receptive to feedback and criticism
• Take notes/record the meeting on a smartphone with your supervisor’s permission!)

301 recommends: Supervisor and supervisee relationships interactive digital workshop

This interactive resource will help you to develop a positive and productive working relationship with your supervisor. 

Top Tips and resources

• Read other dissertations from students in your department/discipline to get an idea of how similar projects are organised and presented. 
• Break your project down into its constituent parts and treat each chapter as an essay in its own right.
• Choose a topic that interests you and will sustain your interest, not just for a few days, but for a few months!
• Write up as you go along - writing can and should be part of all stages of the diissertation planning and developing process. 
• Keep good records – don’t throw anything out!
• If in doubt, talk to your supervisor.

Internal resources

• Library -  Research and Critical Thinking Resources
• Library –  Digital Skills for Dissertations : Information, resources and training on developing your dissertation projects, including finding and referencing sources, your literature review and creating and using images and infographics.
• ELTC -  Writing Advisory Service
• 301 -  Dissertation Essentials lecture recording
• 301 -  Dissertation Writing lecture recording

External resources

• The Theis Whisperer -  Writing Blog
• Gradhacker -  When it comes to dissertations, done is best

Related information

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Dissertations and research projects

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Using this guide

• Planning your research
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Welcome to the home of our Skills Centre resources and online study guides to support your research project. Use the list below to help identify the type of resource that will be most useful to you, depending on how much time you have today.  Choose from:

Online study guides  - Detailed, step-by-step guides to each part of the research process, written by our academic skills tutors. Filled with practical tips and strategies to integrate into your studies.  Read time: 1 hour. 

• Quick reads - Dip into our bite size resources - perfect for fitting into the small gaps in your day.   Read time: 5-10 mins.  
•  e-learning and e-books  - Work though an interactive online module or explore our recommended e-books for more detailed information.  Read time: 30 mins.
• SkillsCheck  - Reflect on your current skillset and get tailored recommendations for how to take your academic writing to the next level.   

Looking for sessions and tutorials on this topic? Find out more about our session types and how to register to book for sessions. You can view our full and up-to-date availability in UniHub  Appointments and Events . 

Not sure where to start developing your academic skills? Take the  SkillsCheck for personalised recommendations on how to build your academic writing and study skills alongside your course.

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‘There are people in tents writing dissertations’: UK reaches for scale of US campus protests

Pro-Palestine protesters hope encampments at universities will contribute to an ‘international student revolt’

S tudents across Britain have said they hope pro-Palestine protests will reach the same scale as those seen on US campuses as they call for universities to divest from companies supplying arms to Israel.

Protests have spread across university campuses in Sheffield, Bristol and Leeds, after a crackdown in the US on protests, which led to mass arrests of students and staff.

More than 2,000 people have been arrested on university campuses in the US , garnering attention from international media and people in the besieged Gaza Strip, including Bisan Owda, a Palestinian journalist and content creator living in Gaza, who encouraged student protesters “to do more” for this “unprecedented moment” in a video posted on Instagram.

Samira Ali, 24, is one of about 100 students who stormed the library at Goldsmiths, University of London this week, occupying the first two floors. Ali, a third-year sociology student and co-organiser for Goldsmiths for Palestine, said 30 students had occupied the building, demanding the university ends “financial complicity” and condemns the war in Gaza.

“I think that it’s only right what we’re doing right now as students standing up for Palestine, particularly saying that it’s not acceptable that the universities that we attend – particularly universities like Goldsmiths which rely on international reputation of being a progressive university – to stay silent on what’s going on in Palestine, the massacres, the horrors and also be complicit in investments,” she said.

Although the scale of protests on university campuses in the UK has been relatively small in comparison with the action in the US, students say they remain steadfast and anticipate more planned action.

“I think what we’re witnessing now is almost an international student revolt. We obviously know what’s been happening in the US … There’s a wave of encampments around Britain, which hopefully will grow. I think the potential for them to grow is huge,” Ali added.

A spokesperson for Goldsmiths said it was “in dialogue with students”, who were no longer in occupation by Sunday, and “fully committed” to introducing meaningful support for those affected by the war, including a pledge of £120,000 a year to humanitarian scholarships for Palestinian students.

Hala Hanina, a Palestinian who has been involved in protests at the University of Newcastle, said more than 400 people she knows in Gaza have been killed. Hanina, 31, who came to the UK before October, said: “I don’t have friends now. They have all either been killed or lost their families … I’m doing this for all of Gaza that’s facing a genocide, something that’s unprecedented and unimaginable.

“I must do whatever is possible to be done and even impossible, we’ll make it possible … It’s so important for the student community and British community that they are fighting for justice.”

There has been a renewed focus on the investments of universities since October, with protesters calling for universities to sell off shares, assets or other investments in companies linked to Israel and its war in Gaza, known as divestment.

Student protesters at the University of Warwick said they were willing to juggle exams with protests to ensure their demands are met.

Fraser Amos, a PhD student in global sustainable development, said: “A lot of the main students staying overnight at the encampment, they are in their final year of university. They’ve got exams, there are people in the tents writing their dissertations.

“It’s really difficult and we’re all trying to pitch in to help them out as much as possible. But the fact that they’re making that sacrifice shows how important this is.”

However, the protests on campuses in the UK have been criticised for creating a “hostile and toxic” atmosphere for Jewish students, according to the Union of Jewish Students. Gavriel Solomons, the vice-chair of the Young National Jewish Assembly and politics undergraduate at University of Hertfordshire, said: “The last thing we need is to import an even more aggressive form of organised antisemitism from the US.”

The president of Newcastle University’s Jewish society, Eliana, said Jewish students feel “very isolated compared [with] the numbers which show up to these rallies” and some said, if it weren’t for in-person exams, “they would have finished the semester at home to avoid campus, because it feels safer”.

“The university has a responsibility to protect free speech, but procedures to protect minorities from hate speech leave a lot to desire. At many times, it feels that little is done to prevent hatred or radicalisation from being propagated,” Eliana said.

A spokesperson for Newcastle University said they met “regularly with representatives” from Jewish and Muslim student societies adding: “We are clear that protests should be within the law – we do not tolerate the use of threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour that causes, or is likely to cause, distress.”

The university said it did not invest in companies making armaments, adding: “Any proposals for defence and security collaborations are reviewed on a case-by-case basis.”

The University of Warwick has been approached for comment.

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UK Open Data

Find data published by central government, local authorities and public bodies in the UK. Topic areas include business and economy, crime and justice, environment, health, transport.

UK Data Service (registration required)

Provides access for UK Universities to UK and international social, economic and population datasets. Data available include census data, international macrodata, longitudinal studies, qualitative/mixed methods and UK surveys - see 'Key Data' for more information.

See also UK Data Service student resources . These include a worksheet to help you use the UK Data Service to find the right data for your dissertation.

Data Visualisation Hub

A joint initiative between The University Library, IT Services, and Research Software Engineering (RSE). This community website exists to provide research staff and students at the University of Sheffield with information and inspiration about the visual presentation of data.

South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority data hub

Data resource relating to South Yorkshire.

Finding and reusing data

Library web page on data indexing services and portals.

Guide for statistical information

Library guide for statistical information. 

Good RDM practices for taught students  (PDF)

A short guide to good research data management practices, helping you to effectively manage the data and code in your research project to save you time and make it easier to share with your supervisor or collaborators.

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• Explore the links between policy, evidence and practice and address key questions in healthcare.
• Learn how successful management requires development of critical approaches to theory, practice, and outcome measurement.
• Develop knowledge in key competencies necessary to join the UK Voluntary Register for Public Health specialists.

If you work or want to work at an operational, managerial or strategic level in public health, this course is ideal. If you currently work in a public health role you can gain academic credit for work based learning in the Public Health Practice elective.

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All students, additional information for eu/international students.

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You may also be able to claim credit points which can reduce the amount of time it takes to complete your qualification at Sheffield Hallam. Find out more

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Foundations of epidemiology a, foundations of epidemiology b, health, culture and public health development work, health promotion principles, policy and practice, inequality, health and poverty, infectious disease and long term conditions, public health evidence: synthesis and analysis, elective modules, public health nutrition, public health practice, sexual and reproductive health and rights, understanding behaviour, dissertation (public health), fees and funding, home students, international students.

Our tuition fee for UK students starting full-time study in 2024/25 is £10,310 for the course. The tuition fee displayed above is for the full course. If the full course is more than one year in duration, the fee will be divided into annual payments which will then be rounded. This may mean the total fee you pay is slightly higher than the fee stated above. If you take a break in study or have to re-take part of the course, you may also be charged an additional fee and will be notified of this at the time. Our tuition fee for UK students starting full-time study in 2024/25 are: Year 1: £6,875, Year 2: £3,440.

If you are studying an undergraduate course, postgraduate pre-registration course or postgraduate research course over more than one academic year then your tuition fees may increase in subsequent years in line with Government regulations or UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) published fees. More information can be found in our terms and conditions  under student fees regulations.

Our tuition fee for International/EU students starting full-time study in 2024/25 is £17,205 for the course. The tuition fee displayed above is for the full course. If the full course is more than one year in duration, the fee will be divided into annual payments which will then be rounded. This may mean the total fee you pay is slightly higher than the fee stated above. If you take a break in study or have to re-take part of the course, you may also be charged an additional fee and will be notified of this at the time. Our tuition fee for International/EU students starting full-time study in 2024/25 are: Year 1: £11,470 Year 2: £5,735.

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