ucl dissertation similarity

Plagiarism and what are acceptable similarity scores?

Dec 1, 2020 • knowledge article, information.

The Similarity Report is a flexible document that provides a summary of matching or similar text in submitted work compared against a huge database of Internet sources, journals and previously submitted work, allowing students and instructors to review matches between a submitted work and the database scanned by Turnitin. Therefore, the Turnitin Similarity Report does not define whether or not a student's work is plagiarized. The instructor responsible for the course - as a subject matter expert - has a duty to exercise academic judgement on the work that is submitted to Turnitin for their classes. The percentage that is returned on a student's submission (called similarity index or similarity score) defines how much of that material matches other material in the database, it is not a marker as to whether a student has or has not plagiarized. Matches will be displayed to material that has been correctly cited and used, which is where the instructor's academic judgement must come into play. Please find our guide links below on how to interpret the Similarity Report and its similarity score: If you are a student, click here . If you are an instructor, click here . 

• Copyright © 2024 Turnitin, LLC. All rights reserved.
• Turnitin.com
• Release Notes
• Known Issues
• Privacy and Security
• System Status

Open@UCL Blog

Open Access theses

By Kirsty, on 31 March 2021

Among the many things that can be made Open Access; publications, data, software, and so many more, it is now increasingly more common for PhD theses to be made Open Access. This can be a great resource when you are undertaking your own PhD to get an idea of scope, structure and can be a great source of ideas.

Finding Open Access theses

UCL Library Services manages the DART-Europe service, the premier European portal for the discovery of open access research theses.  At the time of writing, this service provides access to over one million research theses from 564 Universities in 29 European countries.  It was founded in 2005 as a partnership of national and university libraries and consortia to improve global access to European research theses.  It does this by harvesting data from thesis repositories at contributing institutions, including from UCL Discovery (see below), and providing a link to at least one open access electronic copy of each thesis.  The theses themselves are located on the websites of the contributing institutions.

Users of the DART-Europe portal can search this vast database by keyword, or browse by country or institution, and view the research theses in full, without charge.  New theses are added every day, from doctoral and research masters programmes in every academic discipline.  For more information about the service, please contact the DART-Europe team .  Institutions not currently represented in the portal can view information on how to contribute to DART-Europe .

In normal times, the digitisation of doctoral theses can also be requested on an individual basis through the British Library’s e-theses online service (EThOS) .  This is a database of all UK doctoral theses held in university library collections, with links to open access copies in institutional repositories, and hosted directly in EThOS, where available.  If an electronic copy is not available, you can create an account with the service to request digitisation of the print copy: this prompts the institution where the thesis is held to find and check the print thesis, and then send it to the British Library’s facility at Boston Spa for digitisation.  Please note that this process incurs a charge (which is indicated during the requesting process) and is currently suspended due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Your thesis – UCL Discovery

Since the 2008-09 academic year, UCL students studying for doctoral and research master’s degrees have been required to submit an electronic copy of their thesis to the Library as a mandatory condition of the award of their degree.  Students are encouraged to make their theses openly available in UCL Discovery , our open access institutional repository, although in practice access can be restricted for a number of reasons if necessary.  A citation of the thesis appears in UCL Discovery even if access to the full text is restricted.

Older theses have also been digitised and added to UCL Discovery retrospectively.  The bulk of this work has been carried out as part of a specific project covering over 10,000 theses from 1990 to 2008.  This project is ongoing but mostly complete: over 7,000 digitised theses have been added to UCL Discovery during the last twelve months alone by Library Services staff who have not been able to carry out their normal work due to COVID-19 restrictions.

If you cannot access a UCL thesis which is listed online through these methods, please contact the Open Access Team , who will be able to provide advice on options for obtaining access.

Filed under Advocacy , UCL Discovery

Tags: Doctoral theses , open access , Thesis

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Search the blog

Subscribe by email.

Completely spam free, opt out any time.

Please, insert a valid email.

Thank you, your email will be added to the mailing list once you click on the link in the confirmation email.

Spam protection has stopped this request. Please contact site owner for help.

This form is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent Posts

• Understanding Research Metrics: UCL’s New LibGuide
• Text and Data Mining (TDM) and Your Research: Copyright Implications and New Website Guidance
• Join us for the UCL Open Science Conference 2024 – Register Now!
• Launching today: Open Science Case Studies
• UCL open access output: 2023 state-of-play

By category

• Advocacy (26)
• Bibliometrics (12)
• Case Study (5)
• Citizen Science (13)
• Copyright (2)
• Data Management (3)
• Events (48)
• Exceptions (2)
• Funding (9)
• Guest post (31)
• Love Data Week (21)
• New Resource (1)
• Newsletter (8)
• Open Access (11)
• Open Access Week 2017 (5)
• Open Access Week 2018 (4)
• Open Access Week 2019 (2)
• Open Access Week 2020 (9)
• Open Access week 2021 (7)
• Open Access Week 2022 (6)
• Open Access Week 2023 (6)
• Open Education (3)
• Open Science (103)
• Preprints (3)
• Project update (5)
• Research Data (37)
• Text and Data Mining (TDM) (1)
• Training (20)
• Transformative ageeements (4)
• Transformative agreements (10)
• UCL Discovery (10)
• UCL Open Science Conference (1)
• UCL Research Repository (3)
• Uncategorized (13)
• Wellcome Trust (9)
• Working Papers (1)
• Workshop (22)

Library Services

UCL LIBRARY SERVICES

• Guides and databases
• Subject guides

Comparative Literature

• Books and E-books
• Journals and E-journals
• Literature Searching
• Audio Visual Resources
• Special Collections
• Other libraries
• Referencing and reference management
• Support for dissertations and research projects

If you are new to UCL we have created an Online Induction to help you familiarise with UCL Library Services. Visit the  Getting started with UCL Library Services: Online inductio n page to find out more.

Welcome to the Comparative Literature Subject Guide

This guide provides students of Comparative Literature with information about the Library, it will help you to understand what the Library provides, which resources to use and how to use them. 

The guide includes details of the relevant online and print resources, with links to key titles and databases included throughout. The guide also provides support to use the Library's resources effectively, including how-to videos and details of further training available through Library@Skills.

Subject Collections

The Literature  and various Language and Literature printed collections are located in the UCL Main Library ,  there are also off-site stores for rare and valuable special collections and the lesser used, older material.

The Library provides online access to a huge range of materials. Here are some of the key databases in this subject, providing online versions of everything from works of literature, to criticism, historical newspapers and filmed theatre productions:

• BoB (Box of Broadcasts) Access for UCL students and staff only. Access to BoB is only permitted within the United Kingdom . Requires login with UCL username and password. BoB is Learning on Screen’s on demand TV and radio service for education allowing users to record programmes from over 75 free-to-air channels, access over 2.2 million broadcasts dating back to the 1970s, create playlists, clips and clip compilations; search programme transcripts and subtitles; embed content in VLEs and share on social media
• Drama Online Drama Online introduces new writers alongside iconic names in playwriting history, providing contextual and critical background through scholarly works and practical guides. Access is to the Bloomsbury & Faber Collection, Nick Hern Books, National Theatre Collection, RSC Live and Shakespeare's Globe on Screen.
• Early European Books Selected printed European works from before 1701, mostly in non-English European languages. Access to collections 1-21.
• Historical Texts Historical Texts brings together three collections in one platform: Early English Books Online (EEBO), Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) and 65,000 texts from the British Library 19th Century collection.
• Literature Online (LION) Now upgraded to ProQuest One Literature. Integrating over 350,000 works of poetry, prose and drama from the 8th to the 21st century with a huge library of criticism and reference material, including thousands of literary articles, essays, biographies and encyclopedia entries
• Oxford World's Classics Providing access to approx. 400 novels and other writings from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, expert translations such as Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Émile Zola’s Germinal, and Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, to essential texts such as Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species and Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative. Accessibility statement for Oxford World's Classics .

Further information about all of these resources and more can be found in this guide.

Specific Literatures

Please consult the relevant Subject Guides for information about specific literatures:

• English Language and Literature
• Hebrew and Jewish Studies
• Modern Languages
• School of Slavonic and East European Studies

New books in Comparative Literature

World Literature as Discovery: Expanding the World Literary Canon / Zhang Longxi

The Many Languages of Comparative Literature / / La littérature comparée: multiples langues, multiples langages / Die vielen Sprachen der Vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft : Collected Papers of the 21st Congress of the ICLA. Volume 1, The Languages o

Authors Reviewing Authors Reviewing Authors Reviewing Authors Reviewing Authors

The Spark of Modernism: Twenty Speculative Stories and Writings That Defined an Era, 1886-1939 / edited by William Gillard, James Reitter, Robert Stauffer

Miss Sophie's Diary and other stories / Ding Ling ; translated by W.J.F. Jenner.

Homecoming / Ngugi wa Thiong'o.

Ucl libraries twitter.

Follow us on Twitter/X: @UCLLibraries

• Next: Books and E-books >>
• Last Updated: May 28, 2024 10:35 AM
• URL: https://library-guides.ucl.ac.uk/comparative-literature

UCL Department of Economics

The MSc Dissertation

From June – early September students undertake a research project, lightly supervised by a member of faculty , and submit a 10,000 word dissertation on or before the deadline in early September. A good dissertation will be a piece of original research, the best dissertations are published . The three-months dissertation project gives you the opportunity to acquire and enhance a number of skills including research skills, project management, organisation, software and writing.

The research methods course supports you in this project, providing training in:

• Research and academic writing skills
• Software (Matlab, Python, R, and Stata)
• Empirical econometric skills.

In total, over 30 hours of lecture support skill acquisition directly relevant to the dissertation project. Helpdesks are also provided during the dissertation writing period. Dissertations fall into four categories:

Empirical Empirical dissertations typically take an econometric model from an existing paper and applying it to a new data set and / or extending it. Such a project involves:

•     A brief critical literature review of your chosen area
•     Finding and understanding your dataset
•     Learning the appropriate software
•     Implementing your model
•     Understanding, criticising and checking the robustness of your results.

Examples of recent empirical dissertations are:

•     Corruption and Education in the Developing World
•     Analysis of Chinese Stock Market Efficiency
•     UK Wage Flexibility in the Aftermath of the Great Recession
•     Hedonstic wage estimation and the market for head teachers: Evidence for England
•     Does Microcredit Crowd Out Traditional Moneylending? An Example From Hyderabad.
•     Estimating the Competitive Structure of the UK Petrol Retail Industry
•     The impact of paid work on women’s empowerment.

Theoretical Theoretical dissertations typically take model from an existing paper and extending it in some interesting way. Such a project involves:

•     Acquiring a deep understanding of your model, in the context of the core material you’ve covered

Examples of recent theoretical dissertations are:

•     An Investigation of a Network Targeting Model with Bounded Rational Consumers
•     The finite sample performance of single equation models of ordered choice
•     Rotating Savings and Credit Associations: A Theoretical Analysis
•     News aggregators and search engines: Thumping entrants in the newspapers industry
•     Disaster risk in a New Keynesian model

Policy Policy dissertations undertake a critical analysis of some previously unexplored policy or policy issue. Such a project involves:

•     A description of the economic principles involved in the policy decision
•     A critical appraisal of existing or proposed policies.

Note policy dissertations may often involve an empirical component Examples of recent dissertations are:

•     An assessment of the second round of quantitative easing policy in the UK: A BVAR approach
•     Capital controls on outflows during financial crises: Are they effective?
•     The technological factors in the economies of developing countries: Comparison of the effectiveness of public policies on innovation in Chile for local research and inward technology transfer
•     Welfare participation by immigrants in the UK
•     A study upon market structure characterised by regulation: Information and oligopoly conditions.

Analytical Survey An analytical survey dissertation provides a clear outline of the intellectual development of the a particular area. Such a project involves:

•     A thorough understanding of the literature in your chosen area
•     Explaining the extent to which different contributors were addressing similar of different questions and in what sense and how far one contribution marks a significant improvement over earlier ones.
•     Critically assessing the different contributions and of the field as a whole.

Examples of recent dissertations are:

•     Heterogeneous Adaptive Learning in Real Business Cycle Models
•     The Great Moderation: A critical survey since the crisis
•     What are the social costs and benefits of reversing innovations in mortgage markets?
•     What explains the top income surge?
•     A survey on observational learning and informational cascades: Are observational conditions simple enough to warrant simple predictions?

"I feel the course provided me with a far more sophisticated understanding of macroeconomic policy and a wealth of useful technical econometrics skills"

Widget Placeholder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68J5HqGhI00

UCL Graduate Prospectus

Still have questions?  Follow the link below to a list of frequently asked questions.  

Economics Handbook for MSc Students

If you have any questions please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions section of this website.

For further information please see the UCL pages for current students , or contact: [email protected]

Scheme of Award

• Advanced search

Deposit your research

• Open Access
• About UCL Discovery
• UCL Discovery Plus
• REF and open access
• UCL e-theses guidelines
• Notices and policies

UCL Discovery download statistics are currently being regenerated.

We estimate that this process will complete on or before Mon 06-Jul-2020. Until then, reported statistics will be incomplete.

Code similarity and clone search in large-scale source code data

Software development is tremendously benefited from the Internet by having online code corpora that enable instant sharing of source code and online developer's guides and documentation. Nowadays, duplicated code (i.e., code clones) not only exists within or across software projects but also between online code repositories and websites. We call them "online code clones."' They can lead to license violations, bug propagation, and re-use of outdated code similar to classic code clones between software systems. Unfortunately, they are difficult to locate and fix since the search space in online code corpora is large and no longer confined to a local repository. This thesis presents a combined study of code similarity and online code clones. We empirically show that many code snippets on Stack Overflow are cloned from open source projects. Several of them become outdated or violate their original license and are possibly harmful to reuse. To develop a solution for finding online code clones, we study various code similarity techniques to gain insights into their strengths and weaknesses. A framework, called OCD, for evaluating code similarity and clone search tools is introduced and used to compare 34 state-of-the-art techniques on pervasively modified code and boiler-plate code. We also found that clone detection techniques can be enhanced by compilation and decompilation. Using the knowledge from the comparison of code similarity analysers, we create and evaluate Siamese, a scalable token-based clone search technique via multiple code representations. Our evaluation shows that Siamese scales to large-scale source code data of 365 million lines of code and offers high search precision and recall. Its clone search precision is comparable to seven state-of-the-art clone detection tools on the OCD framework. Finally, we demonstrate the usefulness of Siamese by applying the tool to find online code clones, automatically analyse clone licenses, and recommend tests for reuse.

Archive Staff Only

• Freedom of Information
• Accessibility
• Advanced Search