Identification of unresolved problem
Formulation of aims and objectives.
TYPE-II: Cumulative Doctoral thesis: A modem but quite useful practice.
A book containing the pearls of a PhD work has standardized divisions and formats, where the number of pages should be weighted in terms of content rather than container. The book includes summary, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusions, references and acknowledgements.
Two exercises are mandatory before starting a PhD programme:
Now comes the most crucial and functional part of the doctoral work, the materials/subjects and methods section. This part can be considered as the motor of the PhD work. The reliability, sensitivity and specificity of the motor must be checked before embarking on a long journey. Controlling the controls is the best guide for a precise and authentic work. Usually materials and methods contain components such as a description of the species involved, their number, age, weight and anthropometric parameters, types of surgical procedures and anesthesia if applied, and a detailed description of methodology. Continuous or point measurements should be thoroughly described. However, a dynamic method should always be preferred to static one.
The experimental protocol should be designed after a small pilot study, which is especially advisable in research on human subjects. A detailed and well-thought experimental protocol forms the basis of conditions under which the results would be obtained. Any deviation from the experimental protocol will affect the outcome, and the interpretation of results. It may be noted that great discoveries are usually accidental and without a protocol, based merely on careful observation! However, for the sake of a publication, a protocol has to be designed after the discovery. After having described the different phases of the experimental protocol with the help of a schematic diagram e.g., showing variables, time period and interventions, the selection of a statistical method should be discussed. Negative results should not be disregarded because they represent the boundary conditions of positive results. Sometimes the negative results are the real results.
It is usual practice that most PhD candidates start writing the methodological components first. This is followed by writing the results. The pre-requisites for writing results are that all figures, tables, schematic diagrams of methods and a working model should be ready. They should be designed in such a way that the information content of each figure should, when projected as a frame be visually clear to audience viewing it from a distance of about fifty feet. It is often observed that the presenters themselves have difficulty in deciphering a frame of the Power-Point being projected in a conference.
The results of a doctoral thesis should be treated like a bride. The flow of writing results becomes easier if all figures and tables are well prepared. This promotes the train of thoughts required to analyze the data in a quantitative fashion. The golden rule of writing results of a thesis is to describe what the figure shows. No explanation is required. One should avoid writing anything which is not there in a figure. Before writing one should observe each diagram for some time and make a list of observations in the form of key words. The more one has understood the information content of a figure; the better will be the fluency of writing. The interruption of the flow in writing most often indicates that an author has not understood the results. Discussion with colleagues or reference to the literature is the only remedy, and it functions sometimes like a caesarean procedure.
Statistical methods are good devices to test the degree of authenticity and precision of results if appropriately applied. The application of statistical technique in human studies poses difficulties because of large standard deviations. Outliers must be discussed, if they are excluded for the sake of statistical significance. Large standard deviations can be minimized by increasing the number of observations. If a regression analysis is not weighted, it gives faulty information. The correlation coefficient value can change from 0.7 to 0.4 if the regression analysis is weighted using Fisher’s test. The dissection of effect from artifact should be analysed in such a way that the signal to noise ratio of a parameter should be considered. A competent statistician should always be consulted in order to avoid the danger of distortion of results.
The legend of a figure should be well written. It contains a title, a brief description of variables and interventions, the main effect and a concluding remark conveying the original message. The writing of PhD work is further eased by a well maintained collection of data in the form of log book, original recordings, analyzed references with summaries and compiling the virgin data of the study on master plan sheet to understand the original signals before submitting to the procedures of statistics. The original data belong to the laboratory of an institution where it came into being and should be preserved for 5-7 years in the archive for the sake of brevity.
This is the liveliest part of a thesis. Its main goal is to defend the work by staging a constructive debate with the literature. The golden rule of this written debate should be that a rigid explanation looks backward and a design looks forward. The object is to derive a model out of a jig-saw puzzle of information. It should be designed in such a way that the results of the present study and those of authors from the literature can be better discussed and interpreted. Agreement and disagreement can be better resolved if one considers under what experimental conditions the results were obtained by the various authors. It means that the boundary conditions for each result should be carefully analyzed and compared.
The discussion can be divided into the following parts:
Another way of writing a doctoral work is a cumulative type of thesis. 11 It consists of a few original publications in refereed journals of repute. It is supplemented by a concise summary about the research work. This type of thesis is usually practiced in Sweden, Germany and other countries. It has the advantage of being doubly refereed by the journals and the faculty of health sciences. Additionally, papers are published during a doctoral work. A declaration has to be given to the faculty of science about the sharing of research work in publications, provided there are co-authors. The weightage should be in favour of the PhD candidate, so that the thesis can ethically be better defended before the team of august research faculty.
A critical review of this manuscript by Dr. Roger Sutton, Dr. Khalid Khan, Dr. Bukhtiar Shah and Dr. Satwat Hashmi is gratefully acknowledged.
Dedicated to the memory of Mr. Azim Kidwai for his exemplary academic commitment and devotion to the science journalism in Pakistan.
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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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Department of Pharmaceutics, Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India
Usha Y. Nayak & Srinivas Mutalik
Centre for Bio Cultural Studies, Directorate of Research, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India
Praveen Hoogar
Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara University, Dharwad, Karnataka, India
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Correspondence to N. Udupa .
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Retired Senior Expert Pharmacologist at the Office of Cardiology, Hematology, Endocrinology, and Nephrology, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, US Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD, USA
Gowraganahalli Jagadeesh
Professor & Director, Research Training and Publications, The Office of Research and Development, Periyar Maniammai Institute of Science & Technology (Deemed to be University), Vallam, Tamil Nadu, India
Pitchai Balakumar
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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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Founded in 2010, Dissertation Reviews features overviews of recently defended, unpublished doctoral dissertations in a wide variety of disciplines across the Humanities and Social Sciences. Our goal is to offer readers a glimpse of each discipline’s immediate present by focusing on the window of time between dissertation defense and first book publication.
Each review provides a summary of the author’s main arguments, the historiographic genealogy in which the author operates, and the main source bases for his or her research. The reviews are also anticipatory, making educated assessments of how the research will advance or challenge our understanding of major issues in the field when it is revised and published in the future.
In addition to the public, non-critical review that is published on the site, authors also receive private, critical commentary from their reviewers designed to help authors during the manuscript revision process. Critical comments are not published on the site or circulated in any way. They are expressly for the author.
Dissertation Reviews also features reviews of and guides to archives, libraries, databases, and other collections where such dissertation research was conducted, to help scholars improve their ability to undertake current and future research.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
Although the exact formatting requirements will vary depending on the university, the typical formatting policies adopted by most universities are:
Font | Any serif font e.g. Times New Roman, Arial or 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 |
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 .
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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Dissertation research & literature reviews, endnote software.
Endnote is a tool that will allow you to store & organize citation information for the articles, books and other materials you consult during the dissertation writing process. It can also be used with word processor software to build and insert citations as you write and to create the document's bibliography in the style of your choice.
Purchase and download EndNote from Wayne State C&IT
So, you are embarking on one of the last legs of you doctoral journey!!!
This guide is designed to guide you to information on how to understand the process of researching and writing the Literature Review and the Doctoral Dissertation and to make your research and writing more efficient and effective.
Were you looking for information on how to FIND Dissertations and Theses using the resources at Wayne State? Then try the Finding WSU and Non-WSU Dissertations & Theses Research Guide
Feb 10, 2019
When I was writing my PhD I hated the literature review. I was scared of it. One day, my supervisor took me to one side and told me that I had no choice: ‘It was going to have to be done before you start fieldwork’. I was terrified.
Sound familiar? According to Google, 5,000 people a month search for advice on how to conduct a literature review. And we know from the one-on-one PhD coaching we offer and from the theses we proofread that many students struggle with this part of their thesis.
If you’re feeling lost, keep reading. In this guide, I’ll walk you through the nine steps involved in conducting and writing a PhD literature review.
You’ll realise what I eventually found out: C onducting a literature review is easy. Okay, perhaps that’s a bit much. Let me rephrase: Conducting a PhD literature review isn’t as hard as you think.
Let us make one thing very clear. A PhD literature review isn’t just a summary of existing literature. That’s an annotated bibliography and that isn’t what a PhD literature review is about. This is the mistake I see most frequently in the PhDs I proofread.
Not only will your examiners send this back for corrections, but it may mean the whole PhD thesis is problematic because it isn’t grounded in a critical review of the literature.
A PhD literature review is a critical assessment of the literature in your field and related to your specific research topic. When discussing each relevant piece of literature, the review must highlight where the gaps are and what the strengths and weaknesses are of particular studies, papers, books, etc. Also, different pieces of literature are compared and contrasted with one another so that themes and relationships are highlighted.
The job of a literature review is to show five things (if you’re using our PhD Writing Template , you may recognise these):
1. What has been written on your topic 2. Who the key authors are and what the key works are 3. The main theories and hypotheses 4. The main themes that exist in the literature 5. Gaps and weaknesses that your study will then help fill
Who cares what other people have written and said, or what they haven’t said? Well, you should and your examiners definitely will. For your own study to make sense, it has to be situated in the literature. That means you must relate it to what others are talking about.
If you wanted to build a new mobile phone, you would have to research how other mobile phones are built, find out where they can be improved and then design one that makes those improvements.
The literature review is the same.
But where do I start? Here, we list nine steps. Follow each and you’ll be on your way to literature review greatness.
We’ve made the infographic below to help you on your way. Click the image to download it.
You will be reviewing literature on a particular topic, so knowing what your topic is beforehand means you can narrow down your search. At this stage your topic is broad. You won’t be able to know the specifics until you do the review itself.
For my PhD, which looked at the contributions that local government made to climate change policy, my literature review started with a broad topic of ‘climate change policy’. I didn’t focus in on local government until I had read the literature on climate change policy and realized there was a gap.
So, having a clearly defined purpose is really important. Otherwise you are searching blind. If you refer to your PhD Writing Template, take a look at the box titled ‘Aims & Objectives’ – you’ll need to make sure you have established your aims, scope and research questions.
If you search for your broad topic in Google Scholar, you’ll be presented with millions of results. With my own PhD, a search for ‘climate change policy’ bought up over 3 million results.
Obviously it’s unfeasible to read through all these.
So where do you start? Easy: choose the biggest names in your field.
There are three ways to find these:
1. Textbooks 2. Review articles 3. Most-cited articles
Read through these seminal texts and you’ll begin to get an idea of the broad topic.
Your job at this stage is to find out the key debates in the field.
Whenever you read anything you should be taking notes. Detailed notes. These need to cover the following points:
The more of these kind of standardised notes you have, the easier it will be when you write your literature review.
As you read the key texts, you will begin to see what the key debates are in your field. There might be a number of ’schools’, for example. When you become aware of them, start to focus your literature review around them.
Don’t just read everything. You need to find a way to filter through the articles or books that are relevant. For example, scan the abstracts, introduction, keywords, titles and references.
Filter the sources you come across into three separate categories:
As you read through these articles, look at their reference list. Collect articles that you think will be relevant and use them in your literature review. This is known as snowball sampling.
You must be reading critically, which means asking what the weaknesses are and where particular articles or book could be improved.
In order to tease out your own specific research topic, you need to think of the questions that haven’t been asked.
Learn what goes where (and why), and how it all fit together with this free, interactive guide to the PhD literature review and theory framework.
The review will broadly follow the key debates you have spotted in step five above. As you write, focus on putting in more detail about particular sources (i.e. flesh out steps six and seven). The focus when writing is to elaborate upon the key patterns and themes that have emerged.
However, you need to include your own synthesis of the material. I said earlier that you shouldn’t just summarize the literature. Instead you should write critically. You should clearly and precisely present your argument. The argument will focus around the questions that haven’t been asked – step nine above – and will ground the literature review. We’ve written a guide to being critical in your literature review . You should read it if you’re unsure what’s required.
So, write early and write that first draft quickly. The earlier you start writing your literature review the better. You must accept that your first draft is going to be just that: a draft. When you write the first draft, focus on the broad structure first. This means focus on the broad themes you want to discuss in the review.
Something you need to consider is how to structure the chapter. The simple answer is that you can either structure it chronologically or thematically.
The long answer is that chronological literature reviews are restrictive and over-simplify the field. They are useful for very early drafts of the review and can help you to arrange the literature and trace threads and connections within it. However, your supervisors and examiners are looking for thematic reviews (unless they have told you otherwise), where you discuss the literature with reference to the themes that have emerged.
Equally important is knowing when to stop reviewing the literature.
The sooner you go out and do your fieldwork, the better. The literature review is a cruel mistress; you’ll struggle to fully nail down its various components and fully understand how everything you have read is related. But don’t despair; aspects of the literature review will become clearer when you enter the field and start to collect data.
Don’t fall into the trap of spending too long in the library and too little time doing fieldwork.
It’s natural to be scared of the literature review. To conduct one, you have to read, process and synthesise hundreds of thousands of words. But it’s not impossible. Keep this guide to hand and refer to it when you feel yourself getting lost. Share it with your colleagues so they too can conquer their fear of the literature review.
Now read our guide to being critical in the literature review and, if you haven’t already, download our PhD writing template .
And if you need a little extra support, check out our one-on-one PhD coaching . It’s like having a personal trainer, but for your PhD.
Sounds good, doesn’t it? Be able to call yourself Doctor sooner with our five-star rated How to Write A PhD email-course. Learn everything your supervisor should have taught you about planning and completing a PhD.
Now half price. Join hundreds of other students and become a better thesis writer, or your money back.
24 comments.
Good. Clear guidance
I have read the guidelines and noted numerous tricks of writing a thesis. My understanding of writing literature review has improved a lot. Thanks a lot
You’re welcome 🙂
Another Great piece.
It’s understandable and clearer now. I do appreciate you. Thanks so much
Many thanks for the kind words.
You are just brilliant. Outstanding piece for the literature review.
You’re too kind. Thanks!
Great insights! Thanks indeed.
Thank you very much for your clear advice. I am beginning to see where my early literature review drafts were lacking and my feelings of panic are reducing!
is the process the same a research paper?
Broadly speaking, yes. It’ll follow the same overall structure, but you won’t be going into as much detail.
This is very helpful. Thank you so much for sharing
Great advice. Thank you!
You’re welcome!
Thank you for this! I’m a first-year Ph.D. candidate, and I’m super nervous about writing my first literature review. I’ll be sure to use this for some more insight!
Thanks for the kind words. You’re welcome to join us on a PhD Masterclass. We’re currently putting together the Spring 24 calendar and we always run literature review sessions. You can bookmark this page to be the first to hear when our new programme is ready for bookings: https://www.thephdproofreaders.com/phd-workshops/
I cannot tell you how much more concise this makes everything for my ADHD brain. Thank you!
I’m so glad. Thanks for the kind words Kimberly.
I’m staring down the barrel of my literature review and this article made it much clearer what I’m trying to accomplish and actually feel more doable. Thank you!
You’re welcome. I’m glad it helped. Best of luck with it. If you need any support you can get me at max[at]thephdproofreaders.com
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The Graduate School’s format review is in place to help the document submission process go smoothly for the student.
Format reviews for PhD dissertations and master’s theses can be done remotely or in-person. All reviews will require the student to email a complete draft copy of the document as a PDF to [email protected] .
In person format reviews may be done on a first come, first serve basis in 247 University Hall from 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday (except holidays) during the autumn and spring semesters, and from 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday (except holidays) during the summer term. In the event that you find your document to be too large to send directly to the format review site, you will need to upload the document to One Drive and then request the review through the format review e-mail. You will need to either provide shared access to the file, or once you have submitted to the format review site, a Graduation Services staff member will reach out and request access.
Doctoral students : A format check is required and must be completed at least two weeks before the defense. Master’s students : A format check is optional but strongly recommended and should be completed no later than the posted examination deadline for the semester.
As of Spring, 2023, all theses and dissertations will need to incorporate the following accessibility features to align with the university’s accessibility policy. When you submit your final document to OhioLINK you will be verifying that accessibility features have been applied.
Graduate School Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Accessibility Plan
After making the required corrections, the student must convert their document into an embedded-font PDF. The student can use any proprietary PDF conversion software.
Digital Accessibility Guide for Dissertations and Theses
Final document should be submitted by 8 a.m. on the deadline day.
The Graduate School reviews all submitted documents and will contact graduate students if changes are needed or if the document has been accepted as meeting graduation requirements.
If changes are required, the student must log back into their OhioLINK account, delete the original submission, upload the revised document, and submit. The final document must be approved by the Graduate School by 5 p.m. on the document deadline day to meet degree requirements.
Documents are not viewable on OhioLink until they have been reviewed by the Graduate School. During a high-volume semester, this process can take a few months.
If a student wishes to delay access to their final document, they must complete a Delay of Final Document form on GRADFORMS . A reason for the delay must be given, and the form must be electronically approved by the advisor. Submit this form by the deadline for the submission of the final approved document. While a delay is applied to a student's document, the document title and abstract will be publicly available once the student's OhioLINK submission is published by the Graduate School. If an extension of the delay is required, the student must request one in writing from the Graduate School before the original delay expires. The maximum length of a delay is five years.
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A literature review is ‘integral to the success of academic research’ and an indispensable component of a doctoral thesis. Brief versions are particularly important for the Confirmation phase of your candidature. Often this work will form a significant component of the introduction or early chapters of your thesis.
• Learning outcomes • The nature of a literature review • Identifying the main subject and themes • Reviewing previous research • Emphasizing leading research studies • Exploring trends in the literature • Summarizing key ideas in a subject area • Summary A literature review is usually regarded as being an essential part of student projects, research studies and dissertations. This chapter examines the reasons for the importance of the literature review, and the things which it tries to achieve. It also explores the main strategies which you can use to write a good literature review.
Auxiliadora Padilha
Rebekka Tunombili
InSITE Conference
shardul pandya
Aim/Purpose: Identify the prerequisites, the corequisites, and the iteration processes in organizing and writing the literature review chapter of doctoral dissertations. Background: Writing the literature review chapter of doctoral dissertations presents unique challenges. Students waste a lot of time identifying material to write, and the experience is generally that of frustration and time delay. Methodology: Paper reviews literature to identify levels of information helpful for writing the literature review chapter: prerequisites, corequisites, and iteration process. Contribution: Paper identifies and explains the prerequisites, the corequisites, and iteration steps that go into organizing the reviewed literature and suggests putting them into use when starting the literature review chapter of a doctoral dissertation. Findings: Writing a doctoral dissertation literature review is long and complicated be-cause some delve into the writing without much preparation. By identifying wh...
Andrew Johnson
This chapter describes the process of writing a literature review and what the product should look like
Amanda Bolderston
A literature review can be an informative, critical, and useful synthesis of a particular topic. It can identify what is known (and unknown) in the subject area, identify areas of controversy or debate, and help formulate questions that need further research. There are several commonly used formats for literature reviews, including systematic reviews conducted as primary research projects; reviews written as an introduction and foundation for a research study, such as a thesis or dissertation; and reviews as secondary data analysis research projects. Regardless of the type, a good review is characterized by the author’s efforts to evaluate and critically analyze the relevant work in the field. Published reviews can be invaluable, because they collect and disseminate evidence from diverse sources and disciplines to inform professional practice on a particular topic. This directed reading will introduce the learner to the process of conducting and writing their own literature review.
Frances Slack
This article offers support and guidance for students undertaking a literature review as part of their dissertation during an undergraduate or Masters course. A literature review is a summary of a subject field that supports the identification of specific research questions. A literature review needs to draw on and evaluate a range of different types of sources including academic and professional journal articles, books, and web-based resources. The literature search helps in the identification and location of relevant documents and other sources. Search engines can be used to search web resources and bibliographic databases. Conceptual frameworks can be a useful tool in developing an understanding of a subject area. Creating the literature review involves the stages of: scanning, making notes, structuring the literature review, writing the literature review, and building a bibliography .
International Journal of P R O F E S S I O N A L Business Review
With a view to examining the entire proposed structure for an empirical article, this editorial focuses on the Literature Review, also known as the Theoretical Framework. The literature review may be defined as “a documented review of published or unpublished works (articles, books, etc.) in specific fields of interest to the work of the researcher” (Ferreira, 2015: 36). It is to be found in conceptual articles such as empirical articles, whether qualitative or quantitative. It has a clear link to the article as a whole and provides support for the section on the development of the concept and the hypotheses/propositions that follow it in the structure of an empirical article.
Diane Keeble-Ramsay
Publications
Cherley C Du Plessis
The ability to conduct an explicit and robust literature review by students, scholars or scientists is critical in producing excellent journal articles, academic theses, academic dissertations or working papers. A literature review is an evaluation of existing research works on a specific academic topic, theme or subject to identify gaps and propose future research agenda. Many postgraduate students in higher education institutions lack the necessary skills and understanding to conduct in-depth literature reviews. This may lead to the presentation of incorrect, false or biased inferences in their theses or dissertations. This study offers scientific knowledge on how literature reviews in different fields of study could be conducted to mitigate against biased inferences such as unscientific analogies and baseless recommendations. The literature review is presented as a process that involves several activities including searching, identifying, reading, summarising, compiling, analysing, interpreting and referencing. We hope this article serves as reference material to improve the academic rigour in the literature review chapters of postgraduate students' theses or dissertations. This article prompts established scholars to explore more innovative ways through which scientific literature reviews can be conducted to identify gaps (empirical, knowledge, theoretical, methodological, application and population gap) and propose a future research agenda.
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Tips for each step of researching, writing and refining a PhD dissertation
From initial research and writing to revision, defence and award, the journey to completing a PhD is often described as a marathon. Here, academics offer their insight on each step towards producing an original work of scholarship. Starting with choosing a supervisor and establishing healthy habits, the advice goes on to cover how to structure a PhD dissertation, establish a writing routine, write an abstract, prepare for a viva and beat procrastination when motivation flags.
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This freely accessible database indexes thousands of theses and dissertations by American universities from 1902 to the present and provides links to full text where available.
until file(s) become available
Degree grantor, degree level, degree name, committee member, thesis type, usage metrics.
While we want Ph.D. students to be independent, our practices can signal that we’re not available to support them when they need it, writes Ramon B. Goings.
By Ramon B. Goings
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Consider the following discussion. A student tells me, “I have so much going on right now. I’m trying to write this dissertation, take care of my mom and raise my kids. I’m giving to everyone else and have nothing left to write.”
“Thanks for sharing,” I respond. “Have you reached out to your adviser to discuss what is happening and see what resources you might be able to access?”
“My adviser said they will meet with me when I have a document ready for them to review. They are too busy,” the student says. “I’ve just been struggling in silence and don’t know what to do.”
This conversation highlights the reality for many doctoral students—they may experience hardships in silence. The doctoral journey is an interesting experience during which students are provided structure through coursework and then, once they enter the dissertation phase, that structure is removed. They usually are in a position where they have to manage everything themselves.
As faculty members, we try to provide the space of intellectual curiosity for our students and allow them to explore their dissertation topics. However, while we want students to be independent, our practices can signal that we are not available to support them when they need it. What are some strategies that we should consider implementing to support our students who too often struggle in silence? Below are three that I have implemented in my chairing process.
Create an environment where students can share. Students want to meet our expectations and standards. Yet in efforts to not burden us, some students may choose not to reach out to us when they are experiencing challenges. In some instances, they also do not come to us due to the fear—and, at times, the reality—that they will face adverse consequence for doing so. While that can occur during the coursework phase, it is even more common when students are writing their dissertations, because they believe they must be independent scholars and figure everything out on their own.
To combat those situations, we as dissertation chairs must first create an environment where students can feel comfortable to share what they are going through. One simple way to foster that type of relationship is to first ensure that you make time to meet regularly with your advisees. While that may seem to be an obvious practice, I often hear from doctoral students, like the one in the opening vignette of this article, that they find it challenging just to get on their chair’s calendar. That can unintentionally signal to them that we as faculty members are not available. As a faculty member, I know we have many demands on our time. To support my students, I have dedicated times each week when students can meet with me as needed. Making the time consistent on my calendar allows me to ensure other activities do not get in the way of meeting with students. To be more efficient, I created a special Calendly meeting link that has time slots open for students to schedule.
Programs should also have regular faculty meetings to discuss student academic progress, along with any well-being challenges such as mental health and/or life challenges. Sometimes a student is more comfortable talking with a faculty member who is not on their dissertation committee, and having such conversations can provide a space for all faculty members to learn what is going on and potentially troubleshoot before a student’s difficulties gets worse.
Choose your words with care. As dissertation chairs, our words hold significant power with our advisees. Those words become even more important when our students are experiencing personal and/or professional challenges. To illustrate this point, I offer you one word that, when used, can be a trigger for students: concern.
Students have told me that if we use the word “concern” when talking with them, it signals something is drastically wrong with what they are doing. So if I am relaying information—especially feedback—to students, I ask myself the following before I speak:
I am certainly aware that interpretation is important, but while students can take feedback from us on their work, I have learned to be reflective about what I say. It can influence their self-confidence, a key component for completing the dissertation process.
Understand your role is not a problem solver but solution facilitator. When I talk with other faculty members, some are quick to declare they are scientists, not therapists, so supporting their students’ distinct life challenges isn’t in their job description. I also agree that it’s not our role as faculty members to solve students’ problems for them. But we can provide a listening ear and, most of all, connect students to the various resources that can support them in their decision making.
For instance, a chair I know was advising a doctoral student who was communicative when writing their proposal and moved through the process fairly quickly. Then, after the student collected their data, the chair noticed that the student slowed down their progress and that when they met the student exhibited some uncharacteristic behaviors. Fortunately, the two had established a positive rapport, so the faculty member was able to learn that the student was unexpectedly taking on caregiving responsibilities for a sibling while experiencing some housing instability. In that case, the faculty member was able to connect the student with a campus resource for caregivers and, through it, the student was able to find housing support.
I know many faculty members are already engaging in the practices that I’ve suggested, but I continue to encounter doctoral students at the dissertation phase who are suffering in silence.
I invite you to share with me in conversations on X any other successful strategies you’ve implemented to support your doctoral students. My mission is to bring to light some of these ideas so we can make our graduate programs spaces where our students can flourish.
Ramon B. Goings ( @ramongoings ) is an associate professor in the language, literacy and culture doctoral program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and founder of Done Dissertation .
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Examples of literature reviews. Step 1 - Search for relevant literature. Step 2 - Evaluate and select sources. Step 3 - Identify themes, debates, and gaps. Step 4 - Outline your literature review's structure. Step 5 - Write your literature review.
at each of these in turn.IntroductionThe first part of any literature review is a way of inviting your read. into the topic and orientating them. A good introduction tells the reader what the review is about - its s. pe—and what you are going to cover. It may also specifically tell you.
When you begin to write your PhD literature review, it's important to have a clear idea of its outline. Roughly speaking, the literature review structure should: Introduce your topic and explain its significance. Evaluate the existing literature with reference to your thesis. Give a conclusion that considers the implications of your research ...
Kamler, Barbara. and Pat Thomson. 2006. Helping Doctoral Students Write: Pedagogies for Supervision. London; New York: Routledge. p.29 The literature review is an opportunity to discover and craft your scholarly identity through the kinds of questions you engage, the discussions you enter, the critiques you launch, and the research you advance.
The first stage of your PhD thesis will usually be the literature review.We've already written a detailed guide to what the PhD literature review involves, but here's what you need to know about this stage of your PhD:. The literature review is a chance for you to display your knowledge and understanding of what's already been written about your research area - this could consist of ...
A scanned copy of the DAC should appear before the title page of the PDF online submission of your dissertation; no page number should be assigned to the DAC. The title on the DAC must read exactly as it does on the title page of the dissertation. The DAC will be included in all copies of the dissertation.
The introduction of the thesis should be styled like a review article with a critical analysis of the work of authors in the literature. The aims of the present PhD work can then also be addressed in the form of questions. ... Usually a doctoral thesis raises more questions than it answers. In this way research does not come to a standstill and ...
Undertaking PhD research is a demanding enterprise, and writing a doctoral thesis can present one of the most challenging aspects of the PhD journey overall (Lindsay, 2015).The reason for this is because the student PhD experience is uniquely felt and involves a complex mix of practical, intellectual and emotional struggles and transformations (Amran and Ibrahim, 2012; Deconinck, 2015; Trotter ...
A typical thesis comprises different chapters, Introduction, Literature Review, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, Summary and Conclusion, each of which will be covered in more detail in the following sections. It is crucial to understand that a doctoral thesis is not constrained to any one chapter or part.
Founded in 2010, Dissertation Reviews features overviews of recently defended, unpublished doctoral dissertations in a wide variety of disciplines across the Humanities and Social Sciences. Our goal is to offer readers a glimpse of each discipline's immediate present by focusing on the window of time between dissertation defense and first book publication.
Through their thesis a doctoral student must articulate a (legitimated) position within their field in order to successfully make the shift from doctoral student to a full member of the academic community (Aitchison and Lee, 2006; Richardson and St Pierre, 2017). In my letter, I conceptualise this idea through the concept of 'mastery'.
Summary. A literature review is a critical analysis of published academic literature, mainly peer-reviewed papers and books, on a specific topic. This isn't just a list of published studies but is a document summarising and critically appraising the main work by researchers in the field, the key findings, limitations and gaps identified in ...
The thesis by publication (TBP) - a collection of standalone articles aimed at publication and accompanied by an explanatory narrative - has grown in popularity over the last two decades. Although research on the TBP is beginning to emerge, it is thus far fragmented. We carried out a scoping review of the literature on the TBP for the years ...
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 ...
This paper discusses the purposes of LRs in dissertations and theses and describes five steps for developing a review: defining the main topic, searching the literature, analyzing the results, writing the review and reflecting on the writing. A Guide to Writing the Dissertation Literature Review. This article first discusses the reasons for ...
Okay, perhaps that's a bit much. Let me rephrase: Conducting a PhD literature review isn't as hard as you think. What a PhD literature review isn't. Let us make one thing very clear. A PhD literature review isn't just a summary of existing literature. That's an annotated bibliography and that isn't what a PhD literature review is about.
The Graduate School's format review is in place to help the document submission process go smoothly for the student. Format reviews for PhD dissertations and master's theses can be done remotely or in-person. All reviews will require the student to email a complete draft copy of the document as a PDF to [email protected] .
the final version of their thesis in bound form. The review process evaluates this thesis and points out strengths and weaknesses. However, unlike in the peer review of scientific articles, the thesis will not be revised according to the reviewer's suggestions. Only in the case that the thesis is graded negatively by one of the reviewers ...
A literature review is 'integral to the success of academic research' and an indispensable component of a doctoral thesis. Brief versions are particularly important for the Confirmation phase of your candidature. Often this work will form a significant component of the introduction or early chapters of your thesis. See Full PDF.
In U.S. graduate education, master's students typically write theses, while doctoral students write dissertations. The terms are reversed in the British system. In the U.S., a dissertation is longer, more in-depth, and based on more research than a thesis. Doctoral candidates write a dissertation as the culminating research project of their degree.
Starting with choosing a supervisor and establishing healthy habits, the advice goes on to cover how to structure a PhD dissertation, establish a writing routine, write an abstract, prepare for a viva and beat procrastination when motivation flags. Get a head start in the first year of your PhD.
Review Your Thesis or Dissertation March 27 2018 / March 22 2022 / June 27 2023 Review Your Thesis or Dissertation ... This document uses the term "thesis" to mean either a thesis or a doctoral dissertation. The formatting requirements are the same for both. IMPORTANT! You do not have to use the same font, chapter numbering and general style of ...
Freely accessible to the public via the Internet. Subjects: Multidisciplinary. Dissertations and Theses. This freely accessible database indexes thousands of theses and dissertations by American universities from 1902 to the present and provides links to full text where available.
In this PhD dissertation a review of two novel quantum devices, which have been published previously, will be discussed. Additionally, extensions to the Finite Difference Method (FDM) which may be used in the study and design of future quantum systems more generally will also be explored. The specific devices that will be discussed are mixed ...
This conversation highlights the reality for many doctoral students—they may experience hardships in silence. The doctoral journey is an interesting experience during which students are provided structure through coursework and then, once they enter the dissertation phase, that structure is removed.
The PhD in Kinesiology requires a minimum of 66 hours, including 6 hours of required doctoral dissertation hours. These hours are comprised of the required courses below, HHP Journal Colloquium, course hours for preparing the required PhD Candidacy Project, and designated electives that are pertinent to a student's course of study.