what is expected from a phd thesis

What Is a PhD Thesis?
Doing a PhD

This page will explain what a PhD thesis is and offer advice on how to write a good thesis, from outlining the typical structure to guiding you through the referencing. A summary of this page is as follows:

A PhD thesis is a concentrated piece of original research which must be carried out by all PhD students in order to successfully earn their doctoral degree.
The fundamental purpose of a thesis is to explain the conclusion that has been reached as a result of undertaking the research project.
The typical PhD thesis structure will contain four chapters of original work sandwiched between a literature review chapter and a concluding chapter.
There is no universal rule for the length of a thesis, but general guidelines set the word count between 70,000 to 100,000 words .

What Is a Thesis?

A thesis is the main output of a PhD as it explains your workflow in reaching the conclusions you have come to in undertaking the research project. As a result, much of the content of your thesis will be based around your chapters of original work.

For your thesis to be successful, it needs to adequately defend your argument and provide a unique or increased insight into your field that was not previously available. As such, you can’t rely on other ideas or results to produce your thesis; it needs to be an original piece of text that belongs to you and you alone.

What Should a Thesis Include?

Although each thesis will be unique, they will all follow the same general format. To demonstrate this, we’ve put together an example structure of a PhD thesis and explained what you should include in each section below.

Acknowledgements

This is a personal section which you may or may not choose to include. The vast majority of students include it, giving both gratitude and recognition to their supervisor, university, sponsor/funder and anyone else who has supported them along the way.

1. Introduction

Provide a brief overview of your reason for carrying out your research project and what you hope to achieve by undertaking it. Following this, explain the structure of your thesis to give the reader context for what he or she is about to read.

2. Literature Review

Set the context of your research by explaining the foundation of what is currently known within your field of research, what recent developments have occurred, and where the gaps in knowledge are. You should conclude the literature review by outlining the overarching aims and objectives of the research project.

3. Main Body

This section focuses on explaining all aspects of your original research and so will form the bulk of your thesis. Typically, this section will contain four chapters covering the below:

your research/data collection methodologies,
your results,
a comprehensive analysis of your results,
a detailed discussion of your findings.

Depending on your project, each of your chapters may independently contain the structure listed above or in some projects, each chapter could be focussed entirely on one aspect (e.g. a standalone results chapter). Ideally, each of these chapters should be formatted such that they could be translated into papers for submission to peer-reviewed journals. Therefore, following your PhD, you should be able to submit papers for peer-review by reusing content you have already produced.

4. Conclusion

The conclusion will be a summary of your key findings with emphasis placed on the new contributions you have made to your field.

When producing your conclusion, it’s imperative that you relate it back to your original research aims, objectives and hypotheses. Make sure you have answered your original question.

Finding a PhD has never been this easy – search for a PhD by keyword, location or academic area of interest.

How Many Words Is a PhD Thesis?

A common question we receive from students is – “how long should my thesis be?“.

Every university has different guidelines on this matter, therefore, consult with your university to get an understanding of their full requirements. Generally speaking, most supervisors will suggest somewhere between 70,000 and 100,000 words . This usually corresponds to somewhere between 250 – 350 pages .

We must stress that this is flexible, and it is important not to focus solely on the length of your thesis, but rather the quality.

How Do I Format My Thesis?

Although the exact formatting requirements will vary depending on the university, the typical formatting policies adopted by most universities are:

What Happens When I Finish My Thesis?

After you have submitted your thesis, you will attend a viva . A viva is an interview-style examination during which you are required to defend your thesis and answer questions on it. The aim of the viva is to convince your examiners that your work is of the level required for a doctoral degree. It is one of the last steps in the PhD process and arguably one of the most daunting!

For more information on the viva process and for tips on how to confidently pass it, please refer to our in-depth PhD Viva Guide .

How Do I Publish My Thesis?

Unfortunately, you can’t publish your thesis in its entirety in a journal. However, universities can make it available for others to read through their library system.

If you want to submit your work in a journal, you will need to develop it into one or more peer-reviewed papers. This will largely involve reformatting, condensing and tailoring it to meet the standards of the journal you are targeting.

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What to Expect From a PhD

04 th September 2020

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Your PhD will be unlike many of your previous academic experiences. While you will be attached to a University, the majority of your learning will be self-funded. It is academically challenging, occasionally isolating and requires a lot of self-motivation, but for the right candidate it can be a phenomenally rewarding experience.

What Should You Expect From Your Course?

A PhD qualification is predominantly research-based and students will be responsible for their own learning and development. Knowledge is less acquired from class-room based teaching and more from critical reading and experimentation.

In terms of course structure, a PhD will be significantly different from your Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree. It should take from 3-4 years and will culminate in a thesis which outlines what you have learnt from your specific research area.

Your thesis will be a document containing approximately 80,000 words (although this will depend on your specialism) and it will be broken down into chapters. Ideally students should have some of their research published throughout their course of study.

Each student will be given a supervisor who will monitor their progress and (occasionally) give feedback on the research.

What Should You Expect from Your Tutors?

Your supervisor will be there to guide and support you as well as provide you with a sense of direction throughout your PhD qualification. What they are not expected to do is spoon-feed you information.

A supervisor’s feedback on your thesis will often be critical, and come the submission period, your supervisor should play a key role in helping you present your research in an original manner.

Given that there isn’t much contact time in terms of lectures and seminars, it is important that your tutor remain in regular contact with you, and you should arrange meetings as often as possible to discuss your project.

Normally the relationship between student and supervisor is a smooth process, but occasionally problems may arise. If this is the case, you should mention it to a pastoral advisor at your University.

What Will Be Expected of You?

Your tutor will expect you to work hard and be enthusiastic about your research and thesis. They will be very busy people, with work of their own to do, so it is important that you respect their time and contribution to your project. If you arrange a meeting then make sure you turn up, and if you’ve a deadline looming then ensure that your work is submitted on time.

Sometimes a supervisor may also be working on their own research projects. If this is the case, then they may allow students to help them with their research while being careful to ensure that it doesn’t impact upon their studies. It doesn’t often happen, but a supervisor should not simply expect their student to assist – it isn’t a compulsory part of your PhD!

What About Your Social Life?

While you’re studying for your PhD, your research and thesis will be the focus of your existence and you will, most probably, spend most of your time carrying out research.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to have a life outside of your PhD - it is important to socialise with fellow students and old friends, but you should be aware that at this level, you shouldn’t expect to have the same student experience that you did during your undergrad or at Master's level.

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Thank you. payment completed., you will receive an email from us to confirm your registration, please click the link in the email to activate your account., there was error during payment, orcid profile found in public registry, download history, the key components of a doctoral thesis.

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Having a clear understanding of what comprises a doctoral thesis is essential for effectively planning and structuring your research. It will help you decide what you are going to write and how to shape the whole thesis.

Note that not every thesis follows exactly the same structure. Conventions can vary between disciplines, while each specific area of research may call for slightly different approaches, flow and presentation. Reading widely around your specific area will give you an idea of the most common, tried-and-tested formats in your field; and when you start writing, you will also discover the best, most sensible ways of presenting your research.

Whatever format you eventually decide on, these are components that every good doctoral thesis should incorporate:

Your research question or hypothesis

Many researchers use actual questions or statements to guide their research, but this part of your thesis does not always have to be a literal question. It is a declaration of what exactly you intend to explore, investigate or find out in your research. Some PhD candidates may work with a very specific hypothesis that they then prove/disprove and discuss through their thesis – for example, “Regular physical exercise improves the quality of sleep in teenagers”. Other researchers may begin with more open-ended questions or premises, such as, “How does regular physical exercise affect the physical and mental health of teenagers?”

The main body of your research is then shaped around how you answer these questions/hypotheses (what literature/theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches you employ) and what you find from your research (your analysis and discussion).

Literature review

Sometimes also known as a ‘critical context’, a literature review demonstrates your understanding and awareness of the existing research and writing in your field. You can include a discussion and overview of the prominent debates around your subject to set the context for your research, and to locate where and how your work will extend or contribute to the current canon of knowledge.

Use the literature review to identify gaps in the existing research or to problematise current/prominent theories. Explore the merits and limits of the literature, debates and arguments that you plan to engage with. Then, following these discussions, you can move to assert your newly formulated research questions and/or hypotheses, and to address them through the rest of your research.

Methodology/methods

Including some discussion about the methodological decisions you have taken towards your research is very important for explaining how you have conducted your research. For some projects, the ontological and epistemological basis informing the study may play a very significant role in the way that data are collected, analysed and discussed, and it is important that these considerations and perspectives are accounted for.

Remember that a PhD does not just assess what you find out in your research, but how you go about obtaining these results, how you analyse them and how you draw the conclusions that you do. Declaring your methodological approaches and methods/practices is crucial for demonstrating your clear understanding of and justification for why you have done this research in the ways you have chosen.

Do note that the ‘methods’ section of a thesis can look very different between theses. Some studies require a more extensive discussion of the methodological approaches used throughout the research, while others may only include a brief outline of a relatively straightforward method.

Analysis and/or discussion

In some disciplines, the analysis and discussion chapters are separated from each other; in others, analysis and discussion are written in tandem with each other, and chapters are distinguished by theme rather than by process.

However you choose to present these chapters, the analysis and discussion is what forms the heart of your research. This is where your unique, original findings and arguments are discussed and presented. Where the two previous sections of the literature review and methodology ‘set the scene’ for your research, these sections are the main act.

It is in these sections that you deal directly with the data or sources you are working with. The theory and literature that you are engaging with, the methodological approaches that you are using and your close examination of the data all come together here as you work towards answering the research questions you started with, and to develop the original knowledge that you intend to contribute to the field.

Thinking outside the box

Finally, be aware that not all PhD research will follow exactly the same structure. Some theses, such as those in arts-, media- or humanities-based disciplines, or those containing a strong practice-based component, can take unusual forms and even include creative media such as plays, novels, films or video games.

If you are considering an alternative approach, work with your supervisor(s) to find the best ways for presenting your research. Also, bear in mind that even if the format or structure of your doctoral research is unconventional, you would still be expected to somehow incorporate most of the elements discussed above to demonstrate your research skills and understanding of the prominent debates, literature, theory and methodologies in your subject.

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Finding the Right Place to do your PhD

Finding the Right PhD Supervisor

Writing a Postgraduate or Doctoral Thesis: A Step-by-Step Approach

First Online: 01 October 2023

Cite this chapter

Usha Y. Nayak 4 ,
Praveen Hoogar 5 ,
Srinivas Mutalik 4 &
N. Udupa 6

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A key characteristic looked after by postgraduate or doctoral students is how they communicate and defend their knowledge. Many candidates believe that there is insufficient instruction on constructing strong arguments. The thesis writing procedure must be meticulously followed to achieve outstanding results. It should be well organized, simple to read, and provide detailed explanations of the core research concepts. Each section in a thesis should be carefully written to make sure that it transitions logically from one to the next in a smooth way and is free of any unclear, cluttered, or redundant elements that make it difficult for the reader to understand what is being tried to convey. In this regard, students must acquire the information and skills to successfully create a strong and effective thesis. A step-by-step description of the thesis/dissertation writing process is provided in this chapter.

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Usha Y. Nayak & Srinivas Mutalik

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Nayak, U.Y., Hoogar, P., Mutalik, S., Udupa, N. (2023). Writing a Postgraduate or Doctoral Thesis: A Step-by-Step Approach. In: Jagadeesh, G., Balakumar, P., Senatore, F. (eds) The Quintessence of Basic and Clinical Research and Scientific Publishing. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-1284-1_48

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What is a Ph.D. Dissertation?

[I wrote this in 1993 as a letter to a student concerning a draft of his dissertation. In 2003 I edited it to remove some specific references to the student and present it as a small increment to the information available to my grad students. In 2023 I made small edits for grammar and to expand coverage.--spaf]

Let me start by reviewing some things that may seem obvious:

Your dissertation is part of the requirements for a PhD. The research, theory, experimentation, et al. also contribute. One does not attempt to capture everything in one's dissertation.
The dissertation is a technical work that documents and proves one's thesis. It is intended for a technical audience and must be clear and complete but not necessarily exhaustively comprehensive. Also note -- experimental data, if used, is not the proof -- it is evidence. The proof is presented as an analysis and critical presentation. Generally, every statement in your dissertation must be common knowledge, supported by citation to technical literature, or original results proved by the candidate (you). Each of those statements must directly relate to the proof of the thesis, or else they are unnecessary.

Let's revisit the idea of the thesis itself. It is a hypothesis, a conjecture, or a theorem. The dissertation is a formal, stylized document used to argue your thesis. The thesis must be significant, original (no one has yet demonstrated it to be true), and it must extend the state of scientific knowledge.

The first thing you need to do is to come up with no more than three sentences that express your thesis. Your committee must agree that your statements form a valid thesis statement. You, too, must be happy with the statement -- it should be what you will tell anyone if they ask you what your thesis is (few people will want to hear an hour's presentation as a response).

Once you have a thesis statement, you can begin developing the dissertation. The abstract, for instance, should be a one-page description of your thesis and how you present the proof of it. The abstract should summarize the results of the thesis and should stress the contributions to science made thereby.

Perhaps the best way to understand how an abstract should look would be to examine the abstracts of several dozen dissertations that have already been accepted. Our university library has a collection of them. This is a good approach to see how an entire dissertation is structured and presented. MIT Press has published the ACM doctoral dissertation award series for decades, so you may find some of those to be good examples to read -- they should be in any large technical library.

The dissertation itself should be structured into 4 to 6 chapters. The following is one commonly-used structure:

Introduction. Provide an introduction to the basic terminology, cite appropriate background work, and briefly discuss related work that has already covered aspects of the problem.
Abstract model. Discuss an abstract model of what you are trying to prove. This chapter should not discuss any specific implementation (see below)
Validation of model/proof of theorems. This is a chapter showing proof of the model. It could be a set of proofs or a discussion of the construction and validation of a model or simulation to gather supporting data.
Measurements/data. This would present data collected from actual use, simulations, or other sources. The presentation would include analysis to show support for the underlying thesis.
Additional results. In some work, there may be secondary confirmation studies, or it might be the case that additional significant results are collected along the way to the proof of the central thesis. These would be presented here.
Conclusions and future work. This is where the results are all tied together and presented. Limitations, restrictions, and special cases should be clearly stated here, along with the results. Some extensions as future work may also be described.

Let's look at these in a little more detail

Chapter I, Introduction. Here, you should clearly state the thesis and its importance. This is also where you define terms and other concepts used elsewhere. There is no need to write 80 pages of background on your topic here. Instead, you can cover almost everything by saying: "The terminology used in this work matches the definitions given in [citation, citation] unless noted otherwise." Then, cite some appropriate works that give the definitions you need. The progress of science is that we learn and use the work of others (with appropriate credit). Assume you have a technically literate readership familiar with (or able to find) standard references. Do not reference popular literature or WWW sites if you can help it (this is a matter of style more than anything else -- you want to cite articles in refereed conferences and journals, if possible, or in other theses).

Also, in the introduction, you want to survey any related work that attempted something similar to your own or has a significant supporting role in your research. This should refer only to published references. You cite the work in the references, not the researchers themselves. E.g., "The experiments described in [citation] explored the foo and bar conditions, but did not discuss the further problem of baz, the central point of this work." You should not make references such as this: "Curly, Moe, and Larry all believed the same in their research [CML53]" because you do not know what they believed or thought -- you only know what the paper states. Every factual statement you make must have a specific citation tied to it in this chapter, or else it must be common knowledge (don't rely on this too much).

Chapter II. Abstract Model. Your results are to be of lasting value. Thus, the model you develop and write about (and indeed, that you defend) should have lasting value. Thus, you should discuss a model not based on Windows, Linux, Ethernet, PCMIA, or any other technology. It should be generic and capture all the details necessary to overlay the model on likely environments. You should discuss the problems, parameters, requirements, necessary and sufficient conditions, and other factors here. Consider that 20 years ago (ca 1980), the common platform was a Vax computer running VMS or a PDP-11 running Unix version 6, yet well-crafted theses of the time are still valuable today. Will your dissertation be valuable 20+ years from now (ca 2050), or have you referred to technologies that will be of only historical interest?

This model is tough to construct but is the heart of the scientific part of your work. This is the lasting part of the contribution, and this is what someone might cite 50 years from now when we are all using MS Linux XXXXP on computers embedded in our wrists with subspace network links!

Chapters III & IV, Proof.There are basically three proof techniques that I have seen used in a computing dissertation, depending on the thesis topic. The first is analytic, where one takes the model or formulae and shows, using formal manipulations, that the model is sound and complete. A second proof method is stochastic, using statistical methods and measurements to show that something is true in the anticipated cases.

clearly showing how your implementation model matches the conditions of your abstract model,
describing all the variables and why you set them as you do,
accounting for confounding factors, and
showing the results.

Chapter V. Additional results. This may be folded into Chapter III in some theses or multiple chapters in a thesis with many parts (as in a theory-based thesis). This may be where you discuss the effects of technology change on your results. This is also a place where you may wish to point out significant results that you obtained while seeking to prove your central thesis but which are not supportive of the thesis. Often, such additional results are published in a separate paper.

Chapter VI. Conclusions and Future Work. This is where you discuss what you found from your work, incidental ideas and results that were not central to your thesis but of value nonetheless (if you did not have them in Chapter V), and other results. This chapter should summarize all the important results of the dissertation --- note that this is the only chapter many people will ever read, so it should convey all the important results.

This is also where you should outline some possible future work that can be done in the area. What are some open problems? What are some new problems? What are some significant variations open to future inquiry?

Appendices usually are present to hold mundane details that are not published elsewhere but are critical to the development of your dissertation. This includes tables of measurement results, configuration details of experimental testbeds, limited source code listings of critical routines or algorithms, etc. It is not appropriate to include lists of readings by topic, lists of commercial systems, or other material that does not directly support the proof of your thesis.

Here are some more general hints to keep in mind as you write/edit:

Adverbs should generally not be used -- instead, use something precise. For example, do not say that something "happens quickly." How fast is quickly? Is it relative to CPU speeds? Network speeds? Does it depend on connectivity, configuration, programming language, OS release, etc? What is the standard deviation?
As per the above, the use of the words "fast," "slow," "perfect," "soon," "ideal," "lots of," and related should all be avoided. So should "clearly," "obviously," "simple," "like," "few," "most," "large," et al.
What you are writing is scientific fact. Judgments of aesthetics, ethics, personal preference, and the like should be in the conclusions chapter, if they should be anywhere at all. With that in mind, avoid the use of words such as "good," "bad," "best," and any similar discussion. Also, avoid stating "In fact," "Actually," "In reality," and any similar construct -- everything you are writing must be factual, so there is no need to state such things. If you feel compelled to use one of these constructs, then carefully evaluate what you are saying to ensure you are not injecting relative terms, opinions, value judgments, or other items inappropriate for a dissertation.
Computers and networks do not have knees, so poor performance cannot bring them to something they do not have. They also don't have hands, so "On the one hand..." is not good usage. Programs don't perform conscious thought (nor do their underlying computers), so your system does not "think" that it has seen a particular type of traffic. Generalizing from this, do not anthropomorphize your IT components!
Avoid mention of time and environment. "Today's computers" are antiques far sooner than you think. Your thesis should still be true many years from now. If a particular time or interval is necessary, be explicit, as in "Between 1905 and 1920" rather than "Over the last 15 years." (See the difference, given some distance in time?)
Be sure that any scientist or mathematician would recognize something you claim as proof.
Focus on the results and not the methodology. The methodology should be clearly described but not the central topic of your discussion in chapters III & IV
Keep concepts and instances separate. An algorithm is not the same as a program that implements it. A protocol is not the same as the realization of it; a reference model is not the same as a working example, and so on.

As a rule of thumb, a CS dissertation should probably be longer than 100 pages but less than 160. Anything outside that range should be carefully examined with the above points in mind.

Keep in mind that you -- the Ph.D. candidate -- are expected to become the world's foremost expert on your topic area. That topic area should not be unduly broad but must be big enough to be meaningful. Your advisor and committee members are not supposed to know more about the topic than you do -- not individually, at least. Your dissertation is supposed to explain your findings and, along with the defense, demonstrate your mastery of the area in which you are now the leading expert. That does not mean writing everything you know -- it means writing enough about the most important points that others can agree with your conclusions.

Last of all, don't fall into the trap that ties up many candidates and causes some of them to flame out before completion: your thesis does not need to be revolutionary. It simply needs to be an incremental advancement in the field. Few Ph.D. dissertations have ever had a marked impact on the field. Instead, it is the author's set of publications and products of the author that may change the field.

If your dissertation is like most, it will only be read by your committee and some other Ph.D. candidates seeking to build on your work. As such, it does not need to be a masterwork of literature, nor does it need to solve a long-standing problem in computing. It merely needs to be correct, to be significant in the judgment of your committee, and it needs to be complete. We will all applaud when you change the world after graduation. And at that, you will find that many well-known scientists in CS have made their careers in areas different from their dissertation topic. The dissertation is proof that you can find and present original results; your career and life after graduation will demonstrate the other concerns you might have about making an impact.

So get to work!

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Published: 06 July 2016

What’s the point of the PhD thesis?

Julie Gould 1

Nature volume 535 , pages 26–28 ( 2016 ) Cite this article

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Communication

Doctoral courses are slowly being modernized. Now the thesis and viva need to catch up.

On the morning of Tom Marshall's PhD defence, he put on the suit he had bought for the occasion and climbed onto the stage in front of a 50-strong audience, including his parents and 6 examiners. He gave a 15-minute-long presentation, then faced an hour of cross-examination about his past 5 years of neuroscience research at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. A lot was at stake: this oral examination would determine whether he passed or failed. “At the one-hour mark someone came in, banged a stick on the floor and said ' hora est ',” says Marshall — the ceremonial call that his time was up. “But I couldn't. I had enjoyed the whole experience far too much, and ended up talking for a few extra minutes.”

Marshall's elaborate, public PhD assessment is very different from that faced by Kelsie Long, an Earth-sciences PhD candidate at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra. Her PhD will be assessed solely on her written thesis, which will be mailed off to examiners and returned with comments. She will do a public presentation of her work later this year, but it won't affect her final result. “It almost feels like a rite of passage,” she says.

PhDs are assessed in very different ways around the world. Almost all involve a written thesis, but those come in many forms. In the United Kingdom, they are usually monographs, long explanations of a student's work; in Scandinavia, science students typically top-and-tail a series of their publications. The accompanying oral examination — also called a viva voce or defence — can be a public lecture, a private discussion or not happen at all. There is wide variation across disciplines and from one institution to the next. “It is a complicated world in doctoral education. One format does not fit all,” says Maresi Nerad, founding director of the Center for Innovation and Research in Graduate Education at the University of Washington in Seattle.

This isn't necessarily a problem in itself, but some researchers worry that the decades-old doctoral assessment system is showing strain. Time-pressured examiners sometimes lack training and preparation for PhD assessments, which can lead to lack of rigour. “Two or three examiners come together to go through the thesis in a perfunctory way. They tick the boxes, everyone is happy, and then a PhD walks away,” says Jeremy Farrar, director of the biomedical research charity the Wellcome Trust in London.

Farrar, like other scientists, suspects that the PhD assessment is not keeping up with the times . Single-author tomes seem outdated when much of research has become a multidisciplinary, team endeavour. Research is becoming more open, but PhD assessments can lack transparency: vivas are sometimes held behind closed doors. Some PhD theses languish, little-used, on office shelves or in archives. “We're seeing some students who are still submitting paper theses to us — they don't have electronic theses yet,” says Austin McLean, director of scholarly communication and dissertation publishing at ProQuest in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which has the largest database of PhD theses in the world. What's more, little attention is given in the PhD assessment to soft skills such as management, entrepreneurship and teamwork, even though these are an essential part of life beyond the PhD, and students are increasingly leading that life outside academia . “The assessment of the PhD hasn't been updated to fit the modern definition of a PhD,” Farrar says.

“There are a lot of pressures to make changes to the thesis,” says Suzanne Ortega, president of the Council of Graduate Schools in Washington DC, one of a number of groups discussing the issue. The council organized a workshop in January this year called Future of the PhD Dissertation, and in March, the Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA) in Melbourne examined changes to the thesis as part of a review on researcher training. Some scientists and education experts welcome the attention. “I don't think the current model for thesis examination is ideal, but there are positive movements towards changing it,” says Inger Mewburn, director of research training at ANU and editor of the blog The Thesis Whisperer, which is dedicated to those completing a thesis.

Passing the test

Academics agree about one thing regarding the PhD assessment — its aim. The traditional goal is to demonstrate the candidate's ability to conduct independent research on a novel concept and to communicate the results in an accessible way. Where the academics differ is on how best to achieve that goal.

Shirley Tilghman, a molecular biologist and former president of Princeton University in New Jersey, sees merit in the monograph form of the thesis. It demonstrates scholarly ability by requiring students to “frame the historical context of a problem, describe in detail the purpose and execution and then come to a credible conclusion”, she says.

But should the thesis include academic publications, too? That's the norm at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, where most theses are a compilation of the student's original papers, along with a relatively short discussion, perhaps 50 pages long. The rationale is that publishing should be part of training because it better equips students for academic life and securing jobs.

Some students who complete a monograph end up wishing that they had spent more time on writing papers. James Lewis successfully defended his physics PhD at Imperial College London in October 2015, but he thinks that his one published paper landed him his postdoc at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The job market for postdoc positions is very competitive,” he says, “so if you can get a paper published during your PhD then you're helping yourself.” While he waits to start, Lewis is spending his days writing papers based on his research . “I'm wondering: would it not have been better to write these instead of the thesis, which took me five months to write?”

But others argue that the pressure to publish could rob PhD students of valuable parts of their studies, such as the time to shape their research path and to think creatively and independently . “The PhD might become driven by papers only,” says Farrar. “Students might end up spending their time focusing only on what papers they can produce, then staple them together with a summary and they're done — adding to the sense that the whole scientific enterprise is a paper factory rather than an exploration.”

Long is working at ANU towards a thesis-by-publication: she's written and submitted one paper and has started on a second. But she's struggling. “I am finding this one much harder to write, mostly because it isn't as new or exciting as the previous one,” she says. What's more, her strategy depends on things at least partly outside her control — on her PhD generating enough complete studies for publication and on a reasonably timely peer-review process.

Completed PhD theses are typically stored in university libraries — but that doesn't mean that they are read or used. Some 60% of submissions to the ProQuest database fall under the category of science, technology or mathematics, but they are the ones that are accessed least. “We think this is because the communication is more journal-focused,” says McLean. Scientists do tend to keep a copy of their theses in their office or lab for use by students and colleagues. Neil Curson, a physicist at the London Centre for Nanotechnology, says that his PhD, written more than 20 years ago, is still consulted by his students when they come into his lab. Many theses, however, end up collecting dust.

Viva la viva

Whatever form the thesis takes, it has to be assessed — in most countries, by a panel of experts, and often involving an oral exam. But the viva “doesn't have the same level of consistency as the written form of examination”, says Allyson Holbrook, an education researcher at Australia's University of Newcastle. In Israel, the viva is optional and very few students choose to have one; in the Netherlands, it is formal and ceremonial; in the United Kingdom, it's typically a private affair with two or three examiners; and in Australia, it's hardly performed at all. “One hundred per cent of the doctoral examination is about the thesis here,” says Holbrook. That's largely because, historically, there weren't enough experts in the country to examine the work in person and it was costly to fly them in, she says.

Holbrook and her research team published a study last year that compared the assessment methods used in Australia with those in New Zealand and the United Kingdom (T. Lovat et al. Higher Ed. Rev. 47, 5–23; 2015). They concluded that doing an oral defence rarely changed the result, and that the thesis itself was the “determinative step” of passing. The review on Australian research training published in March didn't support adding a viva either, but it did recommend a move towards more continuous assessment of a student, rather than waiting until the end of the training.

Some researchers see problems with the viva. It's not uncommon for nerves to get the better of a student, and for them to freeze in front of their audience, however small it is. Examiners could worsen the situation by asking very difficult questions, says David Bogle, a chemical engineer at University College London. “There are cases where undue pressure is placed on the candidate by the examiners. This shouldn't be allowed.”

Trial by error

Most researchers don't support a global standard for the PhD assessment. A one-size-fits-all approach would be impossible to implement, they say, and the type of assessment — be it continuous appraisal, written thesis or oral exam — should depend on discipline, project, student, supervisor and institution. “If you take away the variability in assessment and form of the thesis then you lose all creativity and innovation from the PhD,” Nerad says.

But many feel that the system could be improved — by making the thesis shorter, for one. Data from ProQuest, which stores 4 million theses, show that the average length of biology, chemistry and physics PhDs soared to nearly 200 pages between 1945 and 1990. That could be because students are analysing more complex questions, performing longer literature reviews and using increasingly complicated methods that require lengthier explanations (see 'The expanding thesis'). “It's unnecessary to have such a long thesis,” says Farrar, who recently assessed one such tome. “'The thicker my PhD, the better' has become a myth in the PhD community, and is taking it down the wrong direction.”

'The thicker my PhD, the better' has become a myth in the PhD community.

Farrar says that a slimmed-down document would be more appropriate. That could follow the concise format of a research paper, and include a review of the field, then short chapters on methods, analysis and discussion. “It would be more succinct and focused. And the examiners will probably read it all.”

That isn't necessarily the case now. Examiners have to find time to review theses in between research, teaching, grant-writing and many other demands. “Something has to give, and what gives is the amount of time spent on any of those individual tasks,” says Farrar. That means an examiner might skim through years of a PhD student's work in just a couple of hours. “I think we owe it to the students to examine them properly and help prepare them for their future careers,” he says.

The modern thesis

One way to better reflect the team-based nature of science would be to write a joint thesis, an approach that has been used in arts and humanities graduate education in the past. However, this can make it difficult to assign credit. “If you have worked on a collaborative dissertation, a potential employer might struggle to see whether you really are an independent thinker or could you read a lead a research project,” says Ortega.

There is another matter to wrestle with — the fact that half of science PhD graduates in the United States are choosing careers outside of academia , according to the National Science Foundation's 2014 Survey of Earned Doctorates. “Under those conditions, the standard assessment should include the skills in what they'll need when going on to future careers,” says Michael Teitelbaum, labour economist at Harvard Law School.

Increasingly, institutions offer courses to PhD students in skills such as teamwork, management and research ethics, but these skills aren't usually assessed formally. The viva would be one opportunity to do so, perhaps by seeing how students react to various scenarios. Alternatively, as the ACOLA review suggested, PhD candidates could accrue credits in transferable skills through professional-development activities that are recorded in a portfolio. “You can't just assume that if you throw them into an environment they will meaningfully learn from that environment,” says psychologist Michael Mumford, a director of the Center for Applied Social Research at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. “We need exams that ask students to deal with both real-world problems as well as ambiguous academic problems.”

Farrar thinks that a change in emphasis could help. Rather than thinking of the thesis and viva as an exam, it should be viewed as the culmination of a long project. “You need to look at the PhD in the context of those four years of research, not just as revision for one big test.”

Mewburn stresses that whatever form the assessment takes, it should focus more on the individual than on their work. “My preference is to assess the researcher,” she says, “but we haven't developed the tools and curriculum to do that.”

Few failures

It's difficult to find figures on how many students fail their PhD if they get to the point of submitting a thesis but, anecdotally, scientists say that few flunk it outright. More often, students are sent away with minor or major corrections that have to be completed before the PhD is awarded.

There are theories that few students fail because universities want to keep their number of graduates high for the rankings. But most researchers dispute this, and point to other reasons. One is that weak students are likely to have dropped out before they reach the final assessment. Furthermore, supervisors and the supporting institutions typically work hard — through regular reviews and assessments — to make sure that a candidate and project are of a sufficient standard before the thesis is submitted. “You haven't done your due diligence as a university if a student is getting to a stage where they are sending out theses that are going to fail,” says Simon Hay, a global-health researcher at the University of Washington.

Nerad sees no need to reform the final PhD assessment. For her, the problem lies with the variability of graduate education as a whole. “Now that research is becoming more globalized, the PhD needs to be too.” That process is under way, Nerad says: the pressures of economic globalization, international policies and national drives to house world-class universities have led to a more standardized PhD experience across the world.

During her tenure as Princeton's president, Tilghman was often asked if there was a perfect way to assess a PhD course. Not many liked her answer — that she could only really evaluate a student at the 25-year reunion. “In the end, the only way you can assess it is whether the graduates of the programme become successful scientists. If they do, you've done a good job. If they haven't, you haven't.”

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What to expect from a PhD/ MA by Research

A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) is the highest level of qualification awarded by universities in the UK, typically aimed at students who have successfully completed a Masters programme.

A PhD is awarded for the outcomes of intensive, independent study that demonstrates an original and significant contribution to knowledge in your chosen subject. You will be assessed at the end of the programme by a thesis of 80,000 words which will need to be deemed suitable for publication, in whole or in part in a learned journal or equivalent by your examiners. You will need to defend your thesis and demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of your subject at a viva voce (oral examination) before a panel of expert examiners.

By comparison, an MA by Research is a research-based Masters programme assessed by a thesis of 40,000 words. An oral examination may be held at the discretion of the examiners.

Unlike our postgraduate taught programmes, there are no formal lectures or seminars in a PhD or MA by Research, and your work is not formally examined until after your thesis has been submitted. Instead, our postgraduate research programmes provide you with the opportunity to undertake research under the expert guidance of a primary supervisor, co-supervisor and mentor, supported by complementary research training.

PhD and MA by Research programmes may start at any time of the year, though we strongly encourage students to begin their studies at the start of the UK academic year (September). We also offer flexibility in our programmes so that you can choose the mode of study that works for you - full-time, part-time, or distance learning . It usually takes three years (full-time) or six years (part-time) to complete a PhD, while the standard duration for an MA by Research is either one year (full-time) or two years (part-time).

Distance learning students will receive the same level of support and supervision as on-campus students, the only difference being that supervisory sessions will take place via audio and visual communication services such as Microsoft Teams or Zoom, rather than in person. You will be funded to make one compulsory visit to the University per year of study (or every other year for part-time students), enabling you to meet your supervisory team, undertake intensive research skills training and make a start on your doctoral studies. You may also be invited to attend the University for annual meetings which give you the opportunity to interact with other research students both socially and academically, undertake important progress-review meetings and carry out any necessary training. For those studying a PhD, you will also generally be required to be present on campus for your viva voce (funded for travel and accommodation).

What is involved in a PhD/MA by Research?

Before you start.

One of your main sources of support, inspiration and encouragement throughout your PhD/MA by Research programme will be your supervisory team. Establishing an effective working relationship is important for staying on top of your work and making the most of your research.

If you are planning to apply for a PhD/MA by Research programme, you should first make sure that the relevant department within the College of Arts and Law offers the necessary expertise. We ask that you identify an appropriate supervisor before you submit your application and contact them in the first instance to discuss your research proposal. If you experience any difficulties with the application process and contacting potential supervisors, please email: [email protected]

Your research proposal should be a short written document (approximately 1,000-1,500 words) which sets out the central issues or questions that you intend to address. It should outline the general area of study within which your research falls, referring to the current state of knowledge and any recent debates on the topic, as well as demonstrate the originality of your proposed research. For further advice, please refer to our research proposal guidance pages .

During your studies

Your supervisory team will meet with you at regular intervals throughout your PhD/MA by Research programme in order to offer guidance on how best to approach, implement and report on your research. Supervisory sessions for distance learning students will take place via audio and visual communication services such as Skype or Facetime, rather than on campus.

Although your supervisory team are there to help you to complete your research, postgraduate research students are expected to take full responsibility for their work. Therefore, you will need to develop your own timetable for academic study, planning and managing your research so that you can successfully complete your thesis on time.

The first year (or part-time equivalent) of a PhD usually consists of a literature review specific to your thesis and topic, along with any other relevant work or training that will prepare you for undertaking the bulk of your research in the second year, which is normally then written up in the third year. For an MA by Research, these timescales are condensed into one year (or two years if studying part time).

During the course of your studies your supervisory team may also encourage you to present your research to the wider academic community and to the general public at seminars and conferences, or even submit work for publication in specialist journals. You will also have opportunities for teaching, networking, and playing an active role in the College's vibrant postgraduate research community .

If you wish to proceed and submit an application, please refer to our six-step process for applying for PhD and MA by Research opportunities in Arts subject areas.

Defending Your Dissertation: A Guide

A woman in front of a bookshelf speaking to a laptop

Written by Luke Wink-Moran | Photo by insta_photos

Dissertation defenses are daunting, and no wonder; it’s not a “dissertation discussion,” or a “dissertation dialogue.” The name alone implies that the dissertation you’ve spent the last x number of years working on is subject to attack. And if you don’t feel trepidation for semantic reasons, you might be nervous because you don’t know what to expect. Our imaginations are great at making The Unknown scarier than reality. The good news is that you’ll find in this newsletter article experts who can shed light on what dissertations defenses are really like, and what you can do to prepare for them.

The first thing you should know is that your defense has already begun. It started the minute you began working on your dissertation— maybe even in some of the classes you took beforehand that helped you formulate your ideas. This, according to Dr. Celeste Atkins, is why it’s so important to identify a good mentor early in graduate school.

“To me,” noted Dr. Atkins, who wrote her dissertation on how sociology faculty from traditionally marginalized backgrounds teach about privilege and inequality, “the most important part of the doctoral journey was finding an advisor who understood and supported what I wanted from my education and who was willing to challenge me and push me, while not delaying me. I would encourage future PhDs to really take the time to get to know the faculty before choosing an advisor and to make sure that the members of their committee work well together.”

Your advisor will be the one who helps you refine arguments and strengthen your work so that by the time it reaches your dissertation committee, it’s ready. Next comes the writing process, which many students have said was the hardest part of their PhD. I’ve included this section on the writing process because this is where you’ll create all the material you’ll present during your defense, so it’s important to navigate it successfully. The writing process is intellectually grueling, it eats time and energy, and it’s where many students find themselves paddling frantically to avoid languishing in the “All-But-Dissertation” doldrums. The writing process is also likely to encroach on other parts of your life. For instance, Dr. Cynthia Trejo wrote her dissertation on college preparation for Latin American students while caring for a twelve-year-old, two adult children, and her aging parents—in the middle of a pandemic. When I asked Dr. Trejo how she did this, she replied:

“I don’t take the privilege of education for granted. My son knew I got up at 4:00 a.m. every morning, even on weekends, even on holidays; and it’s a blessing that he’s seen that work ethic and that dedication and the end result.”

Importantly, Dr. Trejo also exercised regularly and joined several online writing groups at UArizona. She mobilized her support network— her partner, parents, and even friends from high school to help care for her son.

The challenges you face during the writing process can vary by discipline. Jessika Iwanski is an MD/PhD student who in 2022 defended her dissertation on genetic mutations in sarcomeric proteins that lead to severe, neonatal dilated cardiomyopathy. She described her writing experience as “an intricate process of balancing many things at once with a deadline (defense day) that seems to be creeping up faster and faster— finishing up experiments, drafting the dissertation, preparing your presentation, filling out all the necessary documents for your defense and also, for MD/PhD students, beginning to reintegrate into the clinical world (reviewing your clinical knowledge and skill sets)!”

But no matter what your unique challenges are, writing a dissertation can take a toll on your mental health. Almost every student I spoke with said they saw a therapist and found their sessions enormously helpful. They also looked to the people in their lives for support. Dr. Betsy Labiner, who wrote her dissertation on Interiority, Truth, and Violence in Early Modern Drama, recommended, “Keep your loved ones close! This is so hard – the dissertation lends itself to isolation, especially in the final stages. Plus, a huge number of your family and friends simply won’t understand what you’re going through. But they love you and want to help and are great for getting you out of your head and into a space where you can enjoy life even when you feel like your dissertation is a flaming heap of trash.”

While you might sometimes feel like your dissertation is a flaming heap of trash, remember: a) no it’s not, you brilliant scholar, and b) the best dissertations aren’t necessarily perfect dissertations. According to Dr. Trejo, “The best dissertation is a done dissertation.” So don’t get hung up on perfecting every detail of your work. Think of your dissertation as a long-form assignment that you need to finish in order to move onto the next stage of your career. Many students continue revising after graduation and submit their work for publication or other professional objectives.

When you do finish writing your dissertation, it’s time to schedule your defense and invite friends and family to the part of the exam that’s open to the public. When that moment comes, how do you prepare to present your work and field questions about it?

“I reread my dissertation in full in one sitting,” said Dr. Labiner. “During all my time writing it, I’d never read more than one complete chapter at a time! It was a huge confidence boost to read my work in full and realize that I had produced a compelling, engaging, original argument.”

There are many other ways to prepare: create presentation slides and practice presenting them to friends or alone; think of questions you might be asked and answer them; think about what you want to wear or where you might want to sit (if you’re presenting on Zoom) that might give you a confidence boost. Iwanksi practiced presenting with her mentor and reviewed current papers to anticipate what questions her committee might ask. If you want to really get in the zone, you can emulate Dr. Labiner and do a full dress rehearsal on Zoom the day before your defense.

But no matter what you do, you’ll still be nervous:

“I had a sense of the logistics, the timing, and so on, but I didn’t really have clear expectations outside of the structure. It was a sort of nebulous three hours in which I expected to be nauseatingly terrified,” recalled Dr. Labiner.

“I expected it to be terrifying, with lots of difficult questions and constructive criticism/comments given,” agreed Iwanski.

“I expected it to be very scary,” said Dr. Trejo.

“I expected it to be like I was on trial, and I’d have to defend myself and prove I deserved a PhD,” said Dr Atkins.

And, eventually, inexorably, it will be time to present.

“It was actually very enjoyable” said Iwanski. “It was more of a celebration of years of work put into this project—not only by me but by my mentor, colleagues, lab members and collaborators! I felt very supported by all my committee members and, rather than it being a rapid fire of questions, it was more of a scientific discussion amongst colleagues who are passionate about heart disease and muscle biology.”

“I was anxious right when I logged on to the Zoom call for it,” said Dr. Labiner, “but I was blown away by the number of family and friends that showed up to support me. I had invited a lot of people who I didn’t at all think would come, but every single person I invited was there! Having about 40 guests – many of them joining from different states and several from different countries! – made me feel so loved and celebrated that my nerves were steadied very quickly. It also helped me go into ‘teaching mode’ about my work, so it felt like getting to lead a seminar on my most favorite literature.”

“In reality, my dissertation defense was similar to presenting at an academic conference,” said Dr. Atkins. “I went over my research in a practiced and organized way, and I fielded questions from the audience.

“It was a celebration and an important benchmark for me,” said Dr. Trejo. “It was a pretty happy day. Like the punctuation at the end of your sentence: this sentence is done; this journey is done. You can start the next sentence.”

If you want to learn more about dissertations in your own discipline, don’t hesitate to reach out to graduates from your program and ask them about their experiences. If you’d like to avail yourself of some of the resources that helped students in this article while they wrote and defended their dissertations, check out these links:

The Graduate Writing Lab

https://thinktank.arizona.edu/writing-center/graduate-writing-lab

The Writing Skills Improvement Program

https://wsip.arizona.edu

Campus Health Counseling and Psych Services

https://caps.arizona.edu

https://www.scribbr.com/

Types of PhD Viva Questions

Generally, examiners prepare a series of questions for you to answer at the PhD viva voce examination. These questions are primarily based on your thesis. However, the questions asked in PhD viva examinations can be broadly grouped under four basic headings:

General Questions
Research Context and Methods
Analysis and Findings
Discussions and Conclusion/Implications

Therefore, while preparing for your PhD viva and defending your thesis , you must consider the types of questions you’re likely to be asked. This helps in practicing your answers in advance and not being baffled during the viva. Practicing how you would answer questions based on these four basic categories will take you a long way in your preparations.

Commonly Asked PhD Viva Questions and How to Answer Them

While sticking to answering the most commonly asked questions might sound simple, it is equally important to be prepared for counter questions. Furthermore, it’s easy to go off on a tangent due to nervousness. This leads to opening up other lines of enquiry from the examiners in areas you hadn’t probably expected to be questioned about.

Ideally, you aren’t expected to dictate your thesis as it is. Examiners are interested in knowing your understanding of the research, its methods, analysis and findings, conclusion and implications, etc.

Despite the differences in every PhD viva, you must be prepared to answer these common questions logically. Below are some popular PhD viva questions to prepare:

1. Tell me about yourself.

Introduce yourself and talk about your areas of interest related to research. More importantly, focus on the areas you are extremely positive about. Briefly speak about your past achievements without overwhelming the examiners and sounding boastful. Keep the introduction professional.

2. What is the reason for selecting this research question?

The response to this question is often generalized by saying that you are interested in the topic. However, examiners want to hear the specifications of your interest in the topic. You must plan your answer stating the most interesting aspect of your research and why did you choose the research question over another topic from the same or allied domain. Furthermore, cite certain instances that helped you in selecting the research topic and the particular field for your project.

3. What is the key focus of your research?

Remember that the answer to this question is not about summarizing your research. It involves talking about the area of primary focus of research. Most importantly, in order to demonstrate the viability of your research, it is essential to identify some of the key questions it addresses.

4. Did the research process go as per your plan or were there any unexpected circumstances that you had to deal with?

The purpose of this question is not only to see whether you can work as per your structured plan, but also to understand your readiness with backup plans in case of unforeseen situations. An ideal way to answer this is by clearly stating if the project went as per your predefined plan. Furthermore, be honest in mentioning if you were assisted by others in dealing with it, as it may lead to a new set of questioning from the examiners.

5. After completion of your research, which part of the process did you enjoy the most and why?

Remember that the examiners know about a PhD student’s stressful journey . Therefore, do not elaborate on the hardships that you went through during your research, unless asked otherwise. Emphasize on the aspects of the research project that you enjoyed and looked forward to every time you stepped in your laboratory. Describe how you developed interest in newer approaches to conduct research.

6. As a researcher, what change has this research brought in you?

This question demands a strong, progressive, and positive response. Remember your first day in the research laboratory and compare it to today. Identify the differences in your traits as a researcher. Mention how following, reading, and analyzing other researchers’ works have brought a positive change in you. Furthermore, address how you overcame your shortcomings as a researcher and upskilled yourself.

7. Summarize your thesis.

Be well versed with the entire project. Start by explaining why you selected the topic of your thesis and close your explanation by providing an optimum solution to the problem. You must prepare for 3 types of answers for this question. Prepare a 1-minute, 3-5 minutes, and 10-minute summary and use the correct one based on your audience at the viva.

8. What developments have you witnessed in this field since you began your doctorate? How did these developments change your research context?

Familiarize yourself with the advances in your field throughout your PhD. Mention works of researchers you have referred to while working on your project. Additionally, elaborate on how other researchers’ work influenced your research and directed you to finding results.

9. What original contribution has your thesis made to this field of study?

Answer this question by keeping in mind what was known before in published literature and what you have added as part of being awarded your PhD. Firstly, you must present a major piece of new information during your research project. Secondly, elaborate on how your research expands the existing literature. Thirdly, mention how your work is different from other researchers’ works that you referred. Finally, discuss how you developed a new product or improved an existing one.

10. How well did the study design work?

While answering this question, you must focus on how your planned methods and methodologies were executed. Furthermore, mention how you tackled difficulties in study design and concluded your research.

11. Elaborate on your main findings and how do they relate to literature in your field?

While answering this question, elaborate on how you evaluated the key findings in your research. Mention the key factors involved and the reason for choosing a particular process of evaluation. Furthermore, explain how your findings are related with the literature review of your project. Mention its significant contributions in your field of research. In addition, discuss how your research findings connect with your hypothesis as well as the conclusion of your research.

12. What is the strength and weakness of your research?

While you may want to impress the examiner by emphasizing on the strengths of your research, being aware of the weaknesses and planning a directional move to overcome them is also equally important. Hence, mention the strengths first and elaborate on how they connect with the key findings. Additionally, underline the limitations and the factors that could be transformed into strengths in future research.

How nervous were you while preparing for your PhD viva voce? Did you follow any specific tips to ace your PhD viva voce ? How important is it to prepare for these common PhD viva questions beforehand? Let us know how you prepared for your PhD viva voce in the comments section below! You can also visit our Q&A forum for frequently asked questions related to different aspects of research writing and publishing answered by our team that comprises subject-matter experts, eminent researchers, and publication experts.

Really useful in helping me put a plan / script together for my forthcoming viva. Some interesting questions that I hadn’t thought about before reading this article – the proof of the pudding will be how well the viva goes of course, but at least I now have a head start! Many thanks

Thank you, this is super helpful. I have my viva voce in a month and I’ll be using these questions as a guide

Well framed questions

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PhD | Dissertation Requirement

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The most important requirement for the PhD degree is the dissertation. The dissertation must be accepted by the student's reading committee. The Graduate Degree Progress office in the Registrar's Office distributes a comprehensive list of directions concerning the preparation and submission of the final draft. Students have the option of submitting their dissertation online.

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http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4308-4219 David Barrett 1 ,
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9104-1999 Alison Rodriguez 2 ,
Joanna Smith 3
1 Faculty of Health Sciences , University of Hull , Hull , UK
2 School of Healthcare , University of Leeds , Leeds , West Yorkshire , UK
3 School of Healthcare , University of Leeds , Leedss , West Yorkshire , UK
Correspondence to Dr David Barrett, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, UK; D.I.Barrett{at}hull.ac.uk

https://doi.org/10.1136/ebnurs-2020-103376

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All doctoral students strive for the day—after years of often all-consuming study—that their thesis is ready to submit. For both doctoral students and supervisors there is often trepidation about whether the thesis will meet the criteria to merit the award of a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). As anxieties increase, doctoral students often ask what makes a good PhD, something we explored in a recent ‘Research Made Simple’ article, 1 but perhaps the more important question is ‘what makes a PhD student successful?’ In this article we outline the core criteria on which PhD theses are judged and offer suggestions for achieving success.

How are PhDs assessed

Traditionally, a PhD involves 3 to 4 years of full-time study (or a longer part-time programme), which is assessed by the student submitting the work they have undertaken as a thesis or—less commonly—a portfolio of published papers and an associated narrative (sometimes referred to as ‘PhD by publication’). In addition, the student must undertake an oral defence of their work through a discussion (the ‘viva’) with examiners, who are deemed to be experts in the field of study or with related methodological expertise. 2

Sets out the problem and context of the research, including theoretical perspectives.

Outlines existing approaches that have addressed the problem or related issues before, typically by undertaking a thorough critical analysis of literature and identifying a gap in the evidence.

Justifies and critically evaluates the research methodologies and methods chosen to address the problem.

Presents the finding of the research and how they add to existing knowledge.

Makes recommendations as to how the findings can advance the discipline and improve practice, and/or suggest further research directions.

What criteria are used to assess a PhD thesis?

The core criteria for PhD success—ubiquitous to all disciplines and universities—are that the student;

Has made an original and significant contribution to knowledge of the topic under investigation;

Draws on a well-argued and cohesive conceptual/theoretical framework;

Demonstrates the ability to critically evaluate and justify the research methodology and methods adopted;

Can convey information (written and verbally) succinctly;

Produces a thesis is of sufficient rigour that the work is evaluated as publishable in relevant discipline-specific journal(s).

Table 1 highlights some of the key ingredients of PhD success, in terms of the study, thesis and viva.

View inline

Key principles to PhD study success

Justifying methods

The justification of methodological choices is usually presented in a distinct chapter that typically has two components: first, a ‘big picture’ description of the theoretical perspective and methodological justification (sometimes called the research approach), followed by an account of procedure (methods) of how the research was undertaken.

Critical writing

An essential criterion expected from examiners is that students demonstrate criticality in the way they present and defend information. This can be a challenge, and many PhD students perceive that there is little guidance about how to develop effective arguments and few opportunities to develop critical writing skills. 2 3 Similar to developing knowledge and understanding of research methods, students need the knowledge and skills for effective oral communication of ideas and writing. 3

The student must be able to write succinctly and critically to produce a robust and coherent thesis. 2 4 A thesis should open with a clear outline of the problem, informing the reader what the thesis about and why the topic is important. It should detail what contexts and perspectives are relevant and offer an outline to the layout of the thesis. In all chapters, students should consider the following:

Use of ‘signposts’ to tell the reader where they are going to go, summarising afterwards and providing appropriate links throughout.

Meaningful headings: the content of chapters and sections need to reflect the heading.

Avoidance of vague terms or superfluous words, keeping sentences clear and focussed.

Paragraphs that are distinct enough to explore and evaluate a clear issue but linked well enough to enhance the flow of the thesis. A general rule of thumb is that a paragraph should be about half a page: any less and there is limited criticality, any longer and there is a tendency to ramble, lose focus and cause the reader to become disengaged.

A PhD is not about how much the student can write: it is about how well they articulate and critically analyse information.

Critical writing at Doctoral level is essential to establish the quality of the research and the credibility of the researcher. A good thesis creates a portrait of an authoritative and competent researcher, and critical writing is crucial for building the examiners’ confidence in the research undertaken.

Publishable standard of the work

Publishing in refereed journals and conferences is the traditional way in which the research community disseminates findings and builds knowledge, although there is increasing recognition of the role of social media platforms as a means of rapidly sharing knowledge. Refereed journals use recognised standards (such as the CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) guidelines for trials) 5 and rigorous review processes to assess the quality of a research paper, which must be met for successful publication. It is therefore unsurprising that many examiners view a thesis more favourably if a student provides evidence of having published elements of their work. 6

Summary of key considerations

Unlike undergraduate assessment, there is a paucity of research exploring the assessment of PhDs. However, a study that explored the process and judgements of experienced examiners, 6 provided a valuable summary of the characteristics of a poor and excellent thesis ( table 2 ).

Characteristics of a poor and excellent thesis 6

This article has outlined some of the steps that a PhD student should consider in order to produce a high-quality thesis and ensure a successful viva. We have considered how it is important that decision-making is transparent in the thesis, and defendable in the oral defence/viva. A PhD thesis should show evidence of originality and theoretical/conceptual cohesiveness, communicated via the student’s critical writing ability. The thesis and defence provide students with the opportunity to share their knowledge and expertise in the field, offers them a methodological stage and gives the platform to share their critical perceptions, experiences and expertise.

Rodriguez A ,
McKenna C , et al
Wellington J
Campbell MK ,
Elbourne DR ,
Altman DG , et al
Mullins G ,

Twitter @barrett1972, @ARodriguez339, @josmith175

Competing interests None declared.

Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.

Read the full text or download the PDF:

‘Augmenting’ the doctoral thesis in preparation for a viva

The viva voce exam is the final hurdle for PhD students, but for most it is also a new and fear-inducing experience. Edward Mills offers one framework to help those preparing to discuss their completed thesis at length

Edward Mills

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In many ways, my own PhD viva voce examination was shaped by when and where it took place. Because I was examined at a UK institution, mine was not a public event; it was held virtually, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic; and, perhaps most depressingly, I didn’t get to wield a sword at the subsequent graduation ceremony (although my fiancée did make me a small wooden one).

Many parts of the viva, though, will be familiar to PhD candidates the world over from almost any discipline. After working independently for four years to produce an 80,000-word thesis, I was suddenly expected to discuss my work in depth, with two examiners (one from my institution, and one from elsewhere) and an independent chair present. During that time, the examiners would be checking whether my thesis was indeed my own work, and whether it met the criteria for the award of a PhD.

Understanding the ‘whole thesis’

Like many PhD students, I’d spoken about my research over the previous three years at conferences, but these presentations had largely been confined to individual chapters. Now, though, I had to become familiar not just with (say) my arguments on medieval calendars, but also on how they fitted into my broader narrative about language use in medieval England.

The approach that I took – which formed part of a suite of resources for postgraduate researchers produced by the University of Exeter’s Doctoral College – was based around what I called “augmenting” my thesis. Intimidating as this may sound, it was based around a fundamentally simple concept: turning my thesis from a lengthy PDF file into something physical and tangible and which would be of use to me during the viva.

There is, of course, no single “right way” to do this, but for the sake of clarity, and at the risk of sounding like a 1980s Blue Peter presenter , I’ll outline my own process in a series of numbered steps for the benefit of readers who may be approaching the viva themselves.

Resource collection: Resources on academic writing
Viving la viva: how to answer viva questions
How to write a PhD thesis: a step-by-step guide

An ‘augmented’ thesis in four steps

Print out and bind your thesis. This would form the basis of the “object” that I would eventually take into my viva, but it also has the advantage of getting you away from a screen, making you less likely to skip over certain passages as you reread it.

As you reread, place sticky markers along the top of the thesis to coincide with chapter headings and subheadings. At each point, write a one-sentence summary of that section. These big-picture notes give a bite-sized summary of your argument in each section, and when strung together, they provide you with a sort of “thesis-on-a-page”.

When you’ve reminded yourself of how all of your arguments fit together, start to look for points of detail. This is where highlighting can be at its most useful, if done selectively: I used yellow for material that I thought was central to my argument (and that I wanted to be able to quote back to my examiners) and red for material that I felt, on reflection, would benefit from further explanation. Any sticky notes can be placed along the outer margins of the thesis, which will distinguish them from the summaries along the top.

Record typos separately. However hard you try, typographical errors will find a way into the thesis that you submit. Highlighting each individual one, however, is likely to take more time than it’s worth: instead, I’d advise making a list of typos, keyed to page numbers and suggested changes, separately: this could later form the basis of a table of corrections to be submitted to the examiners.

There are, of course, plenty of other ways in which a thesis might be augmented: one of the main themes that emerged from collaborating on Researcher Development was that doctoral research is shaped by the researcher and their own experience just as much by field and topic. A PhD thesis may have a completely different structure to the one alluded to above; it may require more or less context for an oral examination; it may (whisper it) have fewer typos than mine did. Nevertheless, finding some form of structure in the isolating and stressful months and weeks prior to the viva is an absolute necessity for doctoral researchers, and producing an augmented thesis might just be the way to achieve it.

Edward Mills is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Exeter.

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2024 Q&A with the Neuroscience PhD Program graduates

Smiling people wearing graduation caps and gowns

2024 commencement. Back (L to R): Julian Bieber-Dishart, Marisa Denkinger, Katie Cording, Jacob Ziontz. Front: Xue Lily Gong, Hayley Bounds, Erin Aisenberg, Madeline Klinger, Professor Frédéric Theunissen. Photo by GradImages

Congratulations to our recent and upcoming Neuroscience PhD Program graduates: Matthew Davis, Erin Aisenberg, Katie Cording, Marisa Denkinger, Julian Bieber-Dishart, Xue Lily Gong, Madeline Klinger, Sylvia Madhow, Hayley Bounds, and Jacob Ziontz!

Read our Q&A below with some of the graduates to learn about their most interesting discoveries, future plans, and words of advice.

Erin Aisenberg, Bateup lab

Thesis: Elucidating a Novel Peptidergic Circuit in the Nucleus Accumbens Medial Shell

What is the most interesting thing you discovered in your research here.

When I set out on my project I was interested in looking at the role of GRP-GRPR (gastrin-releasing peptide-GRP receptor) signaling in the nucleus accumbens medial shell. However, as I was doing so, I discovered that the receptor-expressing cells represented a novel subpopulation of striatal projection neurons that had previously never been classified with unique electrophysiological properties.

What are you doing next?

I will be staying on as a postdoc in the Bateup lab to finish my paper.

Do you have any advice for incoming or current students?

There is always going to be more to do, so make sure to set boundaries and take time away from the lab. Also, you will fail a lot during your PhD, so try not to be too hard on yourself.

Julian Bieber-Dishart, Dillin lab

Thesis: olfaction regulates peripheral mitophagy and mitochondrial function .

We were fascinated to learn that the olfactory nervous system instructs peripheral tissues to perform mitophagy, limiting mitochondrial iron stores from invading pathogens, and conferring a pathogen resistance phenotype. Altogether, our research shows that the olfactory nervous system evolved to anticipate pathogenic infection, and prime the organism to withstand pathogenic insult.

I'll be venturing into the intellectual property law field.

Take advantage of the wide world of UC Berkeley! Explore classes outside of neuroscience and in other schools, and attend career panels. You never know what might interest you.

Hayley Bounds, Adesnik lab

Thesis: causally connecting cortical codes to visual perception.

I used new 2-photon optogenetics to target and activate individual neurons in the brain while mice performed a visual task. I learned that the neurons that we thought would be the most involved in allowing mice to detect hard to see stimuli, that is, the neurons that respond strongly to that stimulus, were no more involved than any other neuron was.

I'll be starting my postdoc in the Losonczy Lab at Columbia, studying place coding in the hippocampus.

Make sure you really care about answering the questions your project(s) are asking — you're going to be working on them for a long time, even if it's only a subproject, and without that drive it's hard to stay motivated.

Katie Cording, Bateup lab

Thesis: the impact of autism spectrum disorder risk gene mutations on striatal circuit function.

In my research I studied two different genetic mouse models of autism spectrum disorder. Despite having different genetic mutations and physiological changes, both models exhibited the same overall circuit change in a subregion of the striatum, a subcortical region involved in action selection and motor learning. Both models also exhibited increased performance in a motor learning task. It was very cool to find that convergence of circuit and behavior change arising from different genetic manipulations.

I'll be finishing up my project as a postdoc in the Bateup lab, and then I'll likely pursue research in industry.

Try to remember and find the joy and excitement of research when things are tough. We're pursuing knowledge for knowledge's sake, and that's really cool! I think sometimes this means not taking things too seriously, learning how to walk away and take a breather when something isn't working, and having hobbies, passions and friends outside of lab that keep you refreshed and ready to get back into work the next day.

Marisa Denkinger, Jagust lab

Thesis: Relationships between blood-brain barrier disruption and Alzheimer's disease biomarkers in aging

My research used multimodal neuroimaging methods to investigate whether there is a relationship between neurovascular dysfunction, in particular blood-brain barrier disruption, Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers, and cognition during normal aging. The most interesting discovery from my dissertation was that blood-brain barrier disruption selectively affects memory performance, and this impact depends on the extent of atrophy observed. Importantly, this relationship does not depend on global amyloid beta and regional tau levels. These results suggest that in normal aging, where there may not be substantial AD pathology, having greater blood-brain barrier disruption and atrophy may have an impact on memory performance.

I am currently exploring options for postdoctoral fellowships, focused on aging and Alzheimer's disease in Phoenix, Arizona.

My advice for incoming students is to prioritize a healthy work-life balance. Getting a PhD is a long road and it is super important to take care of yourself, so that you can achieve your research goals!

Xue Lily Gong, Theunissen and Gallant labs

Thesis: language representation in human cerebral cortex, what is the most interesting thing you discovered in your research here .

Brain representation of language is far more "messy" than I initially anticipated. Rather than being neatly organized to specific cortical regions, it involves complex and simultaneous representing and integrating of multiple levels of information.

Postdoc in UCSF.

When selecting a lab to join during my first year, I followed advice that prioritized Professor > People > Project. I believe this is also applicable to my PhD journey. I chose professors whom I admire and see as my mentors, someone I want to become. I surrounded myself with colleagues, aiming to build lifelong friendships and collaborations. The project I ended up working with has grown into a topic that motivates my future research.

To me, the PhD journey is inherently nonlinear and highly personalized, presenting unique challenges to each one. My experience in the Neuroscience PhD Program taught me the importance of seeking help when needed. The community here is incredibly supportive, always ready to assist in any aspect of both academic and personal challenges.

My PhD did not start as I had envisioned; it was filled with unexpected twists that were truly mind-blowing. However, it concluded much better than I expected, which was a pleasant surprise, though I believe I would have been happy regardless. This experience has made me more resilient and mature in all aspects. I sincerely hope all of you will have a fulfilling journey in the Neuroscience PhD Program.

Madeline Klinger (she/her), Wilbrecht and Landry labs

Thesis: fluorescent adolescence: shedding light on neural encoding of task information in the adolescent vs. adult frontal cortex.

Adolescent mice are actually quite good at an inhibitory control task, despite pop science maligning adolescents as "impulsive". In the case of my task, being a little "impulsive" actually seemed to help adolescents better sample and understand their environment, and they learned faster than adults. Neurons in layer 2/3 of the adolescent dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) also contained more decodable information about task variables than the adult dmPFC.

Catching up on artistic endeavors I've put on hold, while also applying for positions as a program manager or program officer at funding institutions. My career goal is to help guide neuroscience toward a more equitable research practice.

Figure out your work style and what you need from a mentor to succeed. Come up with agreements and clear expectations between yourself, your mentor, and your lab. Be proactive about asking for help and meetings. Advocate for your needs, and prioritize your mental health!

Sylvia Madhow, Bouchard lab

Thesis: parsimonious estimates of functional connectivity and biomarkers of cognitive development in early childhood.

My work was in predictive modeling of cognition and behavior from brain data. I found that modeling temporal dependence in brain activity produces sparse and graphically efficient connectomes, but that we still have a long way to go before our approach can accurately and consistently predict cognitive development. Above all, I gained new appreciation for the importance of interpretability in predictive modeling — all the accuracy in the world is of little consequence without a deep understanding of the underlying data. Also, always sing to your rats — they don't criticize even when you're flat.

If the past few weeks are any indication, I'll be sketching a lot, muttering to myself, and dipping my toes in the ocean.

It's so easy to get impatient with yourself and become preoccupied with perceived shortcomings. Give yourself the time and grace to learn.

Jacob Ziontz, Jagust lab

Thesis: functional networks in aging and alzheimer's disease: contributions and consequences.

In the aging brain, how strongly connected different regions are is closely associated with the spread of neuropathology between these regions. This represents not only a potential way to predict where and how quickly pathology will spread, but also how the connectivity profile of different brains may influence the specific cognitive deficits that individuals experience as they age.

I'm starting a postdoc at UCSF with Drs. Renaud La Joie and Gil Rabinovici studying clinical dementia phenotypes, distribution of Alzheimer's tau pathology, and brain connectivity.

One of the most critical parts of your PhD training is learning how to think like a scientist. While you build research skills and collect data, don't forget that thinking about science is important and hard work and you should reward yourself for doing it!

View all Neuroscience PhD Program graduate Q&As.

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Thinking of Pursuing a PhD in Economics? Info on Graduate School and Beyond

Kasey Chatterji-Len and Anna Kovner

Photo of three young students writing a formula on a green blackboard with white chalk.

Becoming a PhD economist can provide a fulfilling and financially secure career path. However, getting started in the field can be daunting if you don’t know much about the preparation you’ll need and the available job opportunities. If you’re wondering what it means to be an economics researcher or how to become one, please read on. We’ll review how to prepare for a career in economics research, what an economics PhD program entails, and what types of opportunities it might bring. Economic education is a core component of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s mission to serve the community. To empower would-be economists, this post provides information for students who seek a career in economics research. We hope this information will be helpful to students interested in economics, regardless of their background and economic situation.  This information is most applicable to students applying to programs in the United States.

The Breadth of Economics Research

Academic disciplines conduct research in different ways, so it’s important to have a basic understanding of the types of questions economists ask and how they approach answering them. There are many definitions of economics, but a broadly useful one is the study of how people, organizations, and governments make decisions under different constraints, and how those decisions may affect their outcomes.

When answering these questions, economists seek to ground their analyses in models and to be quantitatively precise about the effects they assign to any given cause. The range of topics economists can study is wide, but the accepted approaches to answering questions are stricter. Some examples of what economists might ask:

How do different public housing programs affect the children who live there?
Does a certain type of law encourage businesses to innovate?
How will a change in the interest rate affect inflation and unemployment rates?
How much does affordable health insurance improve people’s health?
How can poor countries eradicate poverty?

There are many different subfields within economics, including, but not limited to behavioral, econometrics, energy/environmental, development, financial, international, monetary, public, and urban economics. You can familiarize yourself with the latest work in economics by subscribing to working paper series, such as NBER’s New This Week or the New York Fed’s Staff Reports . To get an idea of the breadth of questions economists can answer, you could listen to Stephen Dubner’s “ Freakonomics Radio ” podcast. You may also want to explore the Journal of Economic Perspectives , the New York Fed’s Liberty Street Economics blog, VoxDev , or VoxEU .

What Is a PhD Program Like?

Economics PhD programs typically last five to seven years. Unlike masters programs, they are often fully funded with a stipend, though most require students to complete teaching assistant and/or research assistant (RA) work as part of their funding package. In the first two years, students take classes, many of which are mathematically demanding. The rest of the program can include additional classes but is primarily devoted to original research with the aim of producing publishable papers that will constitute the dissertation.

Faculty advisors are a central part of PhD programs, as students look to them for guidance during the research process. Economics PhD programs are offered within university economics departments, but there are similar programs in public policy and business schools. You can look at their websites to understand any differences in coursework and subsequent job placements.

What Can You Do with an Economics PhD?

Upon graduation, students can obtain jobs in a variety of industries. Many PhD students hope to become university professors. Governments and public policy-related institutions such as the Federal Reserve System, the U.S. federal government, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also hire economists to work on policy, lead programs, and conduct research. Finally, economics PhD graduates can also find employment at a variety of private sector companies, including banks, economic consulting firms, and big tech companies. The pay for these different positions can vary. According to the American Economics Association (AEA), the average starting salary for economics assistant professors in 2022-23 was approximately $140,000 at PhD granting institutions and $98,000 at BA granting institutions.

Programs often publish the placements of their PhD graduates, so you can look online to see specific employment outcomes. See, for example, the University of Maryland’s placements . Ultimately, economists are highly regarded as authorities on a variety of topics. Governments, nonprofits, philanthropic foundations, financial institutions, and non-financial businesses all look to economists to answer important questions about how to best achieve their goals. Thus, earning an economics Ph.D. can potentially help you to influence issues that are important to you.

Preparing for an Economics PhD Program

There are several components to an economics PhD program application: college transcripts, GRE scores, letters of recommendation, and personal statements. Please download the Appendix linked below to learn more about transcripts and letters of recommendation. The Appendix details ways in which you can select coursework, obtain research experience, and develop relationships to position yourself for success as a PhD applicant.

If you feel that you are too far along in your academic career to take enough of the classes described in the Appendix, this does not necessarily preclude you from pursuing an economics PhD. For example, it’s possible to take some of these classes through a master’s program, or through a pre-doctoral RA job. Some pre-doctoral RA jobs, such as the one here at the New York Fed , may enable you to take classes in preparation for graduate school. If you are concerned about your transcript, reach out to an economist at your university for advice; program standards for coursework and grades vary, and it’s a good idea to get more personalized advice.

Research Experience

If you’re interested in becoming an economics researcher and applying to PhD programs, it’s best to get research experience as soon as possible. Working as an RA is a great way to learn how to conduct research and get a better idea of whether it’s the right career path for you. Additionally, it can help you obtain a letter of recommendation for graduate school applications and improve your qualifications.

All types of academic research can be enriching, but it’s beneficial to gain experience working directly with an economist. To find a position, you can reach out to professors whose work you find interesting or find an RA program at your school. Typical RA tasks may involve data collection and cleaning, as well as running analyses and creating charts to represent results. This is where coding skills become crucial; having taken math, statistics, and econometrics courses will also enable you to take on more responsibilities.

You may also have the opportunity to conduct your own research, possibly under the supervision of a professor at your university. This research could be self-initiated or part of a course such as a thesis workshop. Self-directed research is a great opportunity to learn about all stages of the research process. It’s also an excellent opportunity to create a writing sample for graduate school applications. Ultimately, though, your motivation for conducting your own research project should be that you want to answer a question. One thing economists have in common is a love of answering questions using data and theory.

Research experience is also often obtained after completing an undergraduate or master’s degree. Taking on a full-time RA position before applying to PhD programs is very common and can make you a more competitive applicant. You may either get an RA job working for a professor or participate in a pre-doctoral RA program.

Research assistant programs are more structured than positions with individual professors or projects, which could be helpful. Universities, parts of the government, think tanks, research organizations, and the Federal Reserve System are all good places to look for research assistant programs. To help you decide which opportunities are most desirable, you may want to ask potential employers : Where do people in this program tend to go afterward? Will I be working directly with an economist? How much of my time will be spent on academic research work? Will I be able to take classes as part of this program? Considering whether an economist will be able to evaluate your performance is an important factor for recommendation letters. The ability to take classes, either through tuition reimbursement or waivers, can also be an important benefit.

The Research Analyst program here at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is one example of these programs and you should check it out here . The Federal Reserve Board of Governors also has a large program, and many other regional Federal Reserve Banks have similar programs. In addition, the PREDOC website and the NBER post listings of RA opportunities. J-PAL and IPA also tend to recruit RAs for economic development projects. Another source of RA opportunities is the @econ_ra account on X.

Who Should Get a PhD in Economics?

A PhD may not be for everyone, but it is for anyone—people of all genders, religions, ethnicities, races, and national origins have PhDs in economics. Many economists majored in economics, but others majored in math, physics, or chemistry. Because economics is such an integral part of policymaking, it is important that economists come from a wide range of backgrounds so policy can be stronger and more effective. The inclusion of differing perspectives helps ensure that the contribution of economists to work in public policy, academia, and beyond effectively serves the broadest range of society.

Coursework Appendix

Kasey Chatterji-Len is a research analyst in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Research and Statistics Group.

Anna Kovner is the director of Financial Stability Policy Research in the Bank’s Research and Statistics Group.

How to cite this post: Kasey Chatterji-Len and Anna Kovner, “Thinking of Pursuing a PhD in Economics? Info on Graduate School and Beyond,” Federal Reserve Bank of New York Liberty Street Economics , May 31, 2024, https://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2024/05/thinking-of-pursuing-a-phd-in-economics-info-on-graduate-school-and-beyond/.

You may also be interested in: AEA: Resources for Students

PREDOC: Guidance for Undergraduates

RA Positions-Not at the NBER

Disclaimer The views expressed in this post are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York or the Federal Reserve System. Any errors or omissions are the responsibility of the author(s).

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Sociology and Criminology

Joanna frazier: earning a ph. d. by advancing theories of crime and victimization.

Joanna Frazier hails from Florida’s “Space Coast,” six miles from the Kennedy Space Center. “We’d always watch the shuttle launches,” she says. Growing up with her father who was a police officer shaped how she understood danger and risk. She was raised to be hypervigilant and to anticipate risk. “My upbringing was more like exposure therapy,” she says.

Crime was something she thought about from an early age. Trying to understand why people behave in bizarre ways is endlessly fascinating, “trying to make sense out of nonsense,” she says. “I’m wired for problem solving, so crime with its paradoxes sustains my interest.”

Joanna studied for her bachelor’s degree at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. There was a 10-year pause during which she owned and operated a private music academy—she is a classically trained pianist. Her interest in criminology never wavered, however, and she returned to UCF to pursue her passion. There she became convinced that theories in criminology could advance more rapidly with new theoretical approaches, and many of the theorists she found useful were trained as sociologists. For that reason, the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Iowa appealed to her. She is also excited to incorporate theoretical approaches from the department’s highly ranked program in social psychology into her work on crime target decision-making.

Joanna feels well suited to advance theory in criminology because she is unafraid to take risks. “I’m willing to be controversial if it means I’m committed to science and ideas and do that with integrity,” she says.

She found her first year in a PhD program to be challenging and valuable. “It’s been busy but so nice to focus on my studies 24/7 that it feels selfish,” she says, and then laughs about trying to stay balanced, “We all know how that goes.”

Exposure to the different approaches in criminology and sociology have helped advance her own work and she feels properly supported to complete it, perhaps for the first time. “Nobody here wants anything from me except for me to succeed,” she says.

Joanna has formed supportive relationships with several professors in both criminology and sociology in her first year. She was attracted to the program for the chance to work with Mark Berg, who has helped her develop a thesis project. She is also excited to work with Alison Bianchi on theory testing in the Group Processes Lab. She appreciates the theoretical insights of Mike Sauder and the critical perspective of Amber Powell. Joanna’s work as a teaching assistant for James Wo and Jennifer Haylett also has been positive and influential. She had expected to emphasize research over teaching but thinks she has a knack for teaching and communicating as well.

Joanna Frazier has found the right place to launch a career that transforms criminology.

NOTICE: The University of Iowa Center for Advancement is an operational name for the State University of Iowa Foundation, an independent, Iowa nonprofit corporation organized as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, publicly supported charitable entity working to advance the University of Iowa. Please review its full disclosure statement.

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IE PhD Alumnus Won the 2024 ACM SIGEnergy Doctoral Dissertation Award

We are delighted to share that Dr. Xiang PAN (PhD IE 2022) has won the prestigious 2024 ACM SIGEnergy Doctoral Dissertation Award for his PhD thesis titled: “Deep Neural Networks for Optimal Power Flow in Electric Power Systems: Design, Analysis, and Experiments”.

During his PhD studies at CUHK, Xiang was supervised by former IE Professor Minghua Chen and Professor Changhong Zhao. His research focuses on machine learning and its applications in energy systems and multimedia signal processing, such as Neural Image Compression. Currently, he is a researcher at Tencent Media Lab.

The annual SIGEnergy Doctoral Dissertation Award recognizes an outstanding PhD thesis in the field of energy systems and informatics. For more details, please check: https://energy.acm.org/doctoral-dissertation-award-2024-winner/

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What Is a PhD Thesis?
A PhD thesis is a concentrated piece of original research which must be carried out by all PhD students in order to successfully earn their doctoral degree. The fundamental purpose of a thesis is to explain the conclusion that has been reached as a result of undertaking the research project. The typical PhD thesis structure will contain four ...
A Guide to Writing a PhD Thesis
The PhD thesis is the most important part of a doctoral degree. This page will introduce you to what you need to know about the PhD dissertation. PhDs ; PhD Opportunities PhDs by discipline PhDs by subject PhDs by ... so make sure you're aware what is expected of you. Check with your supervisor whether references, the bibliography or ...
What to Expect From a PhD
1. Your PhD will be unlike many of your previous academic experiences. While you will be attached to a University, the majority of your learning will be self-funded. It is academically challenging, occasionally isolating and requires a lot of self-motivation, but for the right candidate it can be a phenomenally rewarding experience.
What Is a Dissertation?
A dissertation is a long-form piece of academic writing based on original research conducted by you. It is usually submitted as the final step in order to finish a PhD program. Your dissertation is probably the longest piece of writing you've ever completed. It requires solid research, writing, and analysis skills, and it can be intimidating ...
How to write a PhD thesis: a step-by-step guide
It often starts with "But", "Yet" or "However". The third sentence says what specific research has been done. This often starts with "This research" or "I report…". The fourth sentence reports the results. Don't try to be too tricky here, just start with something like: "This study shows," or "Analysis of the data ...
What Is a Thesis?
Revised on April 16, 2024. A thesis is a type of research paper based on your original research. It is usually submitted as the final step of a master's program or a capstone to a bachelor's degree. Writing a thesis can be a daunting experience. Other than a dissertation, it is one of the longest pieces of writing students typically complete.
The PhD Journey
A PhD typically involves between three and four years of full-time study, culminating in a thesis which makes an original contribution to your field. The process of getting a PhD is made up of quite a few components and milestones, from the literature review and writing up your dissertation right through to the viva examination at the end.
What is a PhD? Key components of a PhD thesis
The key components of a doctoral thesis. Having a clear understanding of what comprises a doctoral thesis is essential for effectively planning and structuring your research. It will help you decide what you are going to write and how to shape the whole thesis. Note that not every thesis follows exactly the same structure.
PDF Guidelines for The PhD Dissertation
thesis subscription, sales, and indexing services. In the PQ Publishing Options screen, access to one's dissertation may be delayed/restricted by placing an embargo on the electronic ProQuest submission. Delayed or Restricted Access (Embargoes) If an embargo is necessary, it is possible to embargo the dissertation for six months, one year, or two
Tips for writing a PhD dissertation: FAQs answered
A PhD in Australia usually takes three years full time. In the US, the PhD process begins with taught classes (similar to a taught master's) and a comprehensive exam (called a "field exam" or "dissertation qualifying exam") before the candidate embarks on their original research. The whole journey takes four to six years.
Aims and Objectives
Summary. One of the most important aspects of a thesis, dissertation or research paper is the correct formulation of the aims and objectives. This is because your aims and objectives will establish the scope, depth and direction that your research will ultimately take. An effective set of aims and objectives will give your research focus and ...
Writing a Postgraduate or Doctoral Thesis: A Step-by-Step ...
They also learn what is proper, expected, and helpful in writing contexts. The list of writing abilities that can be applied outside of the academic environment is extensive and is a take-home learning gained through the Ph.D. degree. ... Faryadi Q (2019) PhD thesis writing process: a systematic approach—how to write your methodology, results ...
Doing A PhD
The PhD thesis is the most important part of a doctoral degree. This page will introduce you to what you need to know about the PhD dissertation. This page will give you an idea of what to expect from your routine as a PhD student, explaining how your daily life will look at you progress through a doctoral degree.
What is a Ph.D. Dissertation?
The dissertation is a technical work that documents and proves one's thesis. It is intended for a technical audience and must be clear and complete but not necessarily exhaustively comprehensive. Also note -- experimental data, if used, is not the proof -- it is evidence. The proof is presented as an analysis and critical presentation.
What's the point of the PhD thesis?
Passing the test. Academics agree about one thing regarding the PhD assessment — its aim. The traditional goal is to demonstrate the candidate's ability to conduct independent research on a ...
What to expect from a PhD/
You will need to defend your thesis and demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of your subject at a viva voce (oral examination) before a panel of expert examiners. By comparison, an MA by Research is a research-based Masters programme assessed by a thesis of 40,000 words. An oral examination may be held at the discretion of the examiners.
PDF How to write a good PhD thesis and survive the viva
Hence, much of the writing in a PhD thesis is back- tted to what has been achieved during the PhD studies. As a consequence, text that was written for intermediate examinations or progress ... Most universities expect \publishable" quality of the thesis as a whole or of its constituent parts. This is the litmus test for the selection of material to
Helping doctoral students understand PhD thesis examination
The examination of a PhD thesis marks an important stage in the PhD student journey. Here, the student's research, thinking and writing are assessed by experts in their field. Yet, in the early stages of candidature, students often do not know what is expected of their thesis, nor what examiners will scrutinise and comment on.
PDF A Guide to Writing your PhD Proposal
Therefore, in a good research proposal you will need to demonstrate two main things: 1. that you are capable of independent critical thinking and analysis. 2. that you are capable of communicating your ideas clearly. Applying for a PhD is like applying for a job, you are not applying for a taught programme.
Defending Your Dissertation: A Guide
Dissertation defenses are daunting, and no wonder; it's not a "dissertation discussion," or a "dissertation dialogue." ... you might be nervous because you don't know what to expect. Our imaginations are great at making The Unknown scarier than reality. ... Jessika Iwanski is an MD/PhD student who in 2022 defended her dissertation ...
Top 12 Potential PhD Viva Questions and How to Answer Them
Examiners are interested in knowing your understanding of the research, its methods, analysis and findings, conclusion and implications, etc. Despite the differences in every PhD viva, you must be prepared to answer these common questions logically. Below are some popular PhD viva questions to prepare: 1. Tell me about yourself.
PhD
Overview. The most important requirement for the PhD degree is the dissertation. The dissertation must be accepted by the student's reading committee. The Graduate Degree Progress office in the Registrar's Office distributes a comprehensive list of directions concerning the preparation and submission of the final draft. Students have the option ...
Producing a successful PhD thesis
A thesis is a self-contained monograph written by the student which: Sets out the problem and context of the research, including theoretical perspectives. Outlines existing approaches that have addressed the problem or related issues before, typically by undertaking a thorough critical analysis of literature and identifying a gap in the evidence.
'Augmenting' the doctoral thesis in preparation for a viva
Many parts of the viva, though, will be familiar to PhD candidates the world over from almost any discipline. After working independently for four years to produce an 80,000-word thesis, I was suddenly expected to discuss my work in depth, with two examiners (one from my institution, and one from elsewhere) and an independent chair present.
2024 Q&A with the Neuroscience PhD Program graduates
Thesis: Elucidating a Novel Peptidergic Circuit in the Nucleus Accumbens Medial Shell ... My PhD did not start as I had envisioned; it was filled with unexpected twists that were truly mind-blowing. However, it concluded much better than I expected, which was a pleasant surprise, though I believe I would have been happy regardless. This ...
Thinking of Pursuing a PhD in Economics? Info on Graduate School and
Becoming a PhD economist can provide a fulfilling and financially secure career path. However, getting started in the field can be daunting if you don't know much about the preparation you'll need and the available job opportunities. If you're wondering what it means to be an economics researcher or how to become one, please read on. We'll review how to prepare for a career in ...
PhD Dissertation Defense: Zachary Sexton
Title: SYNTHETIC VASCULAR DESIGN AND SIMULATIONS FOR BIOMANUFACTURED TISSUES AND PATIENT-SPECIFIC MODELING APPLICATIONS Abstract: All air-breathing vertebrates rely on extensive, multiscale vascular networks to supply nutrients and remove waste from solid organs; as such, these biophysically and biochemically entangled structures are critical for proper function in native tissues. However, the ...
Joanna Frazier: Earning a Ph. D. by Advancing Theories of Crime and
She appreciates the theoretical insights of Mike Sauder and the critical perspective of Amber Powell. Joanna's work as a teaching assistant for James Wo and Jennifer Haylett also has been positive and influential. She had expected to emphasize research over teaching but thinks she has a knack for teaching and communicating as well.
What are the Criteria for a PhD?
This will usually mean that the student will be expected to take part in a few training opportunities, outreach events or even short-term internships. The most important thing, however, is the completion of a thesis. ... The main requirements for a PhD thesis are originality and whether it makes a significant contribution to knowledge. Both ...
IE PhD Alumnus Won the 2024 ACM SIGEnergy Doctoral Dissertation Award
We are delighted to share that Dr. Xiang PAN (PhD IE 2022) has won the prestigious 2024 ACM SIGEnergy Doctoral Dissertation Award for his PhD thesis titled: "Deep Neural Networks for Optimal Power Flow in Electric Power Systems: Design, Analysis, and Experiments". During his PhD studies at CUHK, Xiang was supervised by former IE Professor ...

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