All About PhD Thesis

The conclusion and understanding of a workflow at the end of a research project defines the entire process of a mainstream PhD. Writing a PhD thesis, which is the conclusion of years of research, maybe a difficult task. However, learning from individuals who have already completed this chore can make the process go more smoothly for you. You can ask Recent alumni and students to reflect on their experiences and what worked—and what didn’t—for them or read this blog. We’ve covered everything you need to know about your PhD  Thesis & Dissertation to make your job easier.

What is a PhD Thesis?

A thesis is a PhD’s principal output since it describes how you arrived at the conclusions you did while conducting the research. As a result, your thesis will be heavily reliant on your chapters of original work. Your thesis must adequately support your case and provide a novel or expanded insight into your field that was not previously available to be successful. As a result, you can’t rely on other people’s ideas or results to write your thesis; it must be a unique piece of writing that belongs to you and no one else.

Also Read: PhD (Doctor of Philosophy)

PhD Thesis Vs Dissertation

Although it is popular to use the words like PhD thesis and dissertation interchangeably, the two titles have distinct meanings.

• Your argument is your thesis. It’s the conclusions you’ve reached after conducting a literature review and integrating it with the findings of your original study.
• The written statement of your thesis is your dissertation. This is where you present your findings in a way that demonstrates and confirms your conclusion in a systematic manner.

Simply put, you submit a dissertation, but the thesis it tries to prove will serve as the foundation for your PhD. This also means that the dissertation writing process usually follows the formation of your thesis. When describing PhD research, however, universities and scholars commonly use either (or both) designations.

Also Read: PhD in Mass Communication

How To Write A PhD Thesis? 

Although each thesis will be different, they will all follow the same basic format. To show you how to do this, mentioned below is a sample PhD thesis format and describes what you should include in each section below.

Cover Page

The Title of the Research must be declared on the ‘Cover Page’ of a PhD thesis. On this page, the researcher might put a watermark about the case or the university.

Title Page

The title of the thesis appears on the ‘Title Page’ page. It needs to be accompanied by the following details:

• The title of the PhD thesis should be written in ALL CAPS.
• The Research Scholar’s Name
• Name of the Division
• The University’s Name
• The Degree Program’s Name
• Supervisor’s Full Name
• Submission Deadline

Acknowledgments

This is an area where you can include or exclude your personal information. The vast majority of students include it, thanking and acknowledging their supervisor, university, sponsor/funder, and anybody else who has helped them along the route.

Introduction Section of a PhD Thesis

Give a brief description of why you’re conducting your research project and what you intend to accomplish by doing so. Explain the structure of your argument after that to give the reader a sense of what he or she is about to read.

Literature Review

Set the stage for your research by describing the present state of knowledge in your subject, as well as recent developments and knowledge gaps. The literature review should end with a summary of the research project’s overall goals and objectives.

Research Methodology

This section will make up the majority of your thesis, as it will cover all aspects of your original study. This section will typically include your research/data gathering methodology, your findings, a thorough analysis of your findings, and a detailed explanation of your findings.

Depending on your project, each chapter may follow the framework outlined above on its own, or in some cases, each chapter may focus just on one component (e.g. a standalone results chapter). Each of these chapters should ideally be formatted in such a way that they may be turned into papers and submitted to peer-reviewed publications. As a result, once you’ve completed your PhD, you should be able to submit articles for peer review utilizing content you’ve previously created.

Conclusion of a PhD Thesis

The conclusion will be a summary of your most important discoveries, with a focus on the new contributions you’ve made to your field. It’s critical to connect your conclusion to your initial study goals, objectives, and hypotheses when writing it. Make sure you’ve answered the question you were asked.

Recommendations 

Recommendations and Future Research is crucial since it sets the path for solutions and future research methods in the relevant domains. This is a very significant phase in the study because it gives the research a sense of direction.

Also Read: PhD Biomedical Engineering

How Do I Format My Thesis?

There can be many different ways the thesis can be formatted according to the aspirant’s requirements and the university’s requirements. The common way of formatting a thesis is as follows.

Element	Format
Font	Any Serif Font. Eg: Times New Roman, Arial, Cambria
Font Size	12pt
Vertical Line Spacing	1.5 lines
Page Size	A4
Page Layout	Portrait
Page Margins	Variable, however, must allow space for binding
Referencing	Variable, however, typically Harvard or Vancouver

PhD Thesis Structure

A PhD thesis structure is one of the most important aspects of writing a thesis as the purpose of a structure is to provide you with an overall summary of the thesis so that when you start drafting your PhD thesis you already know what source is to be included when and where. The traditional structure of a PhD thesis is as mentioned below:

• Title page
• Abstract
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Literature review 
• Methodology
• Results
• Discussion of Findings
• Conclusions
• References
• Appendices

PhD Thesis Research

A PhD thesis research is supposed to present an original contribution to the respective academic field. A PhD thesis must include independent research, either from primary or secondary sources. However, the research may vary depending on your discipline. 

Arts and Humanities

A PhD thesis research in Arts and Humanities usually includes investigating different texts, sources and theoretical frameworks.

Social Sciences 

A PhD thesis research in Social Science is expected to focus more on qualitative or quantitative surveys and case studies. 

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)

A PhD thesis research in STEM majors generally involves designing, recording and analyzing experiments, using the data to prove or disprove a set theory.

What Should The Length Of A PhD Thesis Be?

The length of a PhD thesis varies by discipline, but they are all significantly longer than those for undergraduate or master’s degrees. Your university will usually specify a maximum length – often between 70,000 and 100,000 words, with the majority of dissertations falling somewhere in the middle.

Also Read: PhD in the UK

What Should a PhD Thesis Include?

A PhD thesis must include a general introduction that represents the purpose of your thesis, a literature review on the topic you’ve chosen for research, a main body including an overall description of the materials and methods, a presentation of all the results, discussion of the results, a conclusion that reviews the results and theoretically explains your opinions after the end of your PhD thesis research.

How do I Publish my Thesis?

You cannot publish your thesis as a whole in a journal but universities may allow others to read your thesis through their library system. If you want to submit your thesis to a journal, you’ll have to expand your thesis into one or more peer-reviewed papers. You’ll be required to do a lot of work to meet the standards of the journal you may be targeting, this will mainly include reformatting, condensing and tailoring your work.

What Happens After Your Thesis Is Completed?

You will have a viva when you have submitted your thesis. A viva is an interview-style examination in which you must defend and answer questions on your thesis. The goal of the viva is to persuade your examiners that your work meets the standards for a doctorate. 

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FAQs

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