Use our Ask A Librarian service to reach a Research Librarian by phone (314-246-6950 or 1-800-985-4270) or drop-in (see our library and research desk hours) or email or chat, 24/7.
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Graduate students in most Walker Business School programs complete a 6000/capstone paper or project rather than a more formal thesis as is outlined in the University's Graduate Thesis & Dissertation General Guidelines. Formal theses and dissertations are held in the library.
You may ask: Does the Library keep graduate capstone (e.g. 6000) papers and projects? The answer is no. Follow the link for more info.
For a capstone or advanced research paper, you will want to carefully choose your topic. The topic should be of interest to you and should be focused enough so that you can cover it in significant depth within the assigned page count. You may want, or be required to, get your topic approved by your instructor. Begin as early as possible and consider doing some preliminary database searching to make sure there is enough on your topic.
We find it helps if you think about your topic in the form of a question. Here's how. Think of a broad topic within health administration that intests you; we'll use staffing. Focus on a narrower aspect of that topic; we'll use burnout.The research question may be "In the high-stress hospice environment how can we retain staff?"
Use the Find Articles tab on the left menu to discover the best databases for finding articles on your health administration topic.
It depends on your topic! For most topics, we suggest you begin with Business Source Complete, which is the library's largest business periodical database. Or, you might prefer ABI/Inform, another business article database.
If you are doing research on topics from a specific industry, you might also search one of the following subject databases:
| If you're researching: | Use: |
|---|---|
| a broad, cross-disciplinary topic that spans multiple disciplines | Academic Search |
| education, school administration, teaching/training adult learners | ERIC |
| health administration/management | Medline, Academic Search |
| information technology, MIS, computer security | Scopus |
| military, government, public administration | Military & Government Collection, Academic Search |
| the psychology of human behavior | PsycInfo |
| social sciences | SocINDEX |
To access these library databases, please see the research guide for your program or visit our Articles / Databases page for a full list of databases available from your library.
Begin with the library's Capstone / Thesis Support research guide. Pages on this guide provide help and videos to lead you though:
You might also want to view the videos on research, writing and presenting and citation and managing research that are linked from the Library Training, Tutorials & Online Presentations/Webinars research guide.
For help finding Webster University theses and dissertations (not capstone papers), please see the following links:
FAQ:How do I find a print copy of a thesis or dissertation?
FAQ: Does the library keep graduate capstone (a.k.a. 6000) papers? The answer is no. Read the FAQ for more information.
Check out the following databases if you are Interested in finding online theses and dissertations from Webster University or searching for those produced at other universities.
