Thesis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to navigationJump to searchFor other uses, see Thesis (disambiguation).”Dissertation” redirects here. For the novel, see The Dissertation.Doctoral ceremony at Leiden University (7 July 1721).

A thesis, or dissertation[note 1] (abbreviated diss.),[2] is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author’s research and findings.[3] In some contexts, the word “thesis” or a cognate is used for part of a bachelor’s or master’s course, while “dissertation” is normally applied to a doctorate. This is the typical arrangement in American English. In other contexts, such as within most institutions of the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, the reverse is true.[4] The term graduate thesis is sometimes used to refer to both master’s theses and doctoral dissertations.[5]

The required complexity or quality of research of a thesis or dissertation can vary by country, university, or program, and the required minimum study period may thus vary significantly in duration.

The word “dissertation” can at times be used to describe a treatise without relation to obtaining an academic degree. The term “thesis” is also used to refer to the general claim of an essay or similar work.

Contents

• 1Etymology
• 2Structure and presentation style
  • 2.1Structure
  • 2.2Style
• 3Thesis committee
• 4Role of thesis supervisor
• 5Regional and degree-specific practices and terminologies
  • 5.1Argentina
  • 5.2Canada
  • 5.3Croatia
  • 5.4Czech Republic
  • 5.5Finland
  • 5.6France
  • 5.7Germany
  • 5.8India
  • 5.9Indonesia
  • 5.10Iran
  • 5.11Italy
  • 5.12Malaysia
  • 5.13Pakistan
  • 5.14Philippines
  • 5.15Poland
  • 5.16Portugal and Brazil
  • 5.17Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Ukraine
  • 5.18Slovenia
  • 5.19Slovakia
  • 5.20Sweden
  • 5.21United Kingdom
  • 5.22United States
• 6Thesis examinations
  • 6.1Examination results
  • 6.2Australia
  • 6.3Germany
  • 6.4Malaysia
  • 6.5Philippines
  • 6.6Portugal
  • 6.7North America
  • 6.8Russia and Ukraine
  • 6.9Spain
  • 6.10United Kingdom, Ireland and Hong Kong
• 7Submission
• 8See also
• 9Notes
• 10References
• 11External links

Etymology[edit]

The term “thesis” comes from the Greek θέσις, meaning “something put forth”, and refers to an intellectual proposition. “Dissertation” comes from the Latin dissertātiō, meaning “discussion”. Aristotle was the first philosopher to define the term thesis.

“A ‘thesis’ is a supposition of some eminent philosopher that conflicts with the general opinion…for to take notice when any ordinary person expresses views contrary to men’s usual opinions would be silly”.[6]

For Aristotle, a thesis would therefore be a supposition that is stated in contradiction with general opinion or express disagreement with other philosophers (104b33-35). A supposition is a statement or opinion that may or may not be true depending on the evidence and/or proof that is offered (152b32). The purpose of the dissertation is thus to outline the proofs of why the author disagrees with other philosophers or the general opinion.

Structure and presentation style[edit]

Cover page to Søren Kierkegaard‘s university thesis (1841).

Structure[edit]

A thesis (or dissertation) may be arranged as a thesis by publication or a monograph, with or without appended papers, respectively, though many graduate programs allow candidates to submit a curated collection of published papers. An ordinary monograph has a title page, an abstract, a table of contents, comprising the various chapters like introduction, literature review, methodology, results, discussion, and bibliography or more usually a references section. They differ in their structure in accordance with the many different areas of study (arts, humanities, social sciences, technology, sciences, etc.) and the differences between them. In a thesis by publication, the chapters constitute an introductory and comprehensive review of the appended published and unpublished article documents.

Dissertations normally report on a research project or study, or an extended analysis of a topic. The structure of a thesis or dissertation explains the purpose, the previous research literature impinging on the topic of the study, the methods used, and the findings of the project. Most world universities use a multiple chapter format :

a) an introduction: which introduces the research topic, the methodology, as well as its scope and significanceb) a literature review: reviewing relevant literature and showing how this has informed the research issuec) a methodology chapter, explaining how the research has been designed and why the research methods/population/data collection and analysis being used have been chosend) a findings chapter: outlining the findings of the research itselfe) an analysis and discussion chapter: analysing the findings and discussing them in the context of the literature review (this chapter is often divided into two—analysis and discussion)f) a conclusion.:[7][8] which shows judgement or decision reached by thesis

Style[edit]

Degree-awarding institutions often define their own house style that candidates have to follow when preparing a thesis document. In addition to institution-specific house styles, there exist a number of field-specific, national, and international standards and recommendations for the presentation of theses, for instance ISO 7144.[3] Other applicable international standards include ISO 2145 on section numbers, ISO 690 on bibliographic references, and ISO 31 on quantities or units.

Some older house styles specify that front matter (title page, abstract, table of content, etc.) must use a separate page number sequence from the main text, using Roman numerals. The relevant international standard[3] and many newer style guides recognize that this book design practice can cause confusion where electronic document viewers number all pages of a document continuously from the first page, independent of any printed page numbers. They, therefore, avoid the traditional separate number sequence for front matter and require a single sequence of Arabic numerals starting with 1 for the first printed page (the recto of the title page).

Presentation requirements, including pagination, layout, type and color of paper, use of acid-free paper (where a copy of the dissertation will become a permanent part of the library collection), paper size, order of components, and citation style, will be checked page by page by the accepting officer before the thesis is accepted and a receipt is issued.

However, strict standards are not always required. Most Italian universities, for example, have only general requirements on the character size and the page formatting, and leave much freedom for the actual typographic details.[9]

Thesis committee[edit]

The thesis committee (or dissertation committee) is a committee that supervises a student’s dissertation. In the US, these committees usually consist of a primary supervisor or advisor and two or more committee members, who supervise the progress of the dissertation and may also act as the examining committee, or jury, at the oral examination of the thesis (see Thesis defense).

At most universities, the committee is chosen by the student in conjunction with their primary adviser, usually after completion of the comprehensive examinations or prospectus meeting, and may consist of members of the comps committee. The committee members are doctors in their field (whether a Ph.D. or other designation) and have the task of reading the dissertation, making suggestions for changes and improvements, and sitting in on the defense. Sometimes, at least one member of the committee must be a professor in a department that is different from that of the student.

Role of thesis supervisor[edit]

The role of the thesis supervisor is to assist and support a student in their studies, and to determine whether a thesis is ready for examination.[10] The thesis is authored by the student, not the supervisor. The duties of the thesis supervisor also include checking for copyright compliance and ensuring that the student has included in/with the thesis a statement attesting that he/she is the sole author of the thesis.[11]

Regional and degree-specific practices and terminologies[edit]

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Argentina[edit]

In the Latin American docta, the academic dissertation can be referred to as different stages inside the academic program that the student is seeking to achieve into a recognized Argentine University, in all the cases the students must develop original contribution in the chosen fields by means of several paper work and essays that comprehend the body of the thesis.[12] Correspondingly to the academic degree, the last phase of an academic thesis is called in Spanish a defensa de grado, defensa magistral or defensa doctoral in cases in which the university candidate is finalizing their licentiate, master’s, or PhD program, respectively. According to a committee resolution, the dissertation can be approved or rejected by an academic committee consisting of the thesis director and at least one evaluator. All the dissertation referees must already have achieved at least the academic degree that the candidate is trying to reach.[13]

Canada[edit]

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At English-speaking Canadian universities, writings presented in fulfillment of undergraduate coursework requirements are normally called papers, term papers or essays. A longer paper or essay presented for completion of a 4-year bachelor’s degree is sometimes called a major paper. High-quality research papers presented as the empirical study of a “postgraduate” consecutive bachelor with Honours or Baccalaureatus Cum Honore degree are called thesis (Honours Seminar Thesis). Major papers presented as the final project for a master’s degree are normally called thesis; and major papers presenting the student’s research towards a doctoral degree are called theses or dissertations.

At Canadian universities under the French influenced system,[14] students may have a choice between presenting a “mémoire“‘, which is a shorter synthetic work (roughly 75 pages) and a thèse which is one hundred pages or more.[citation needed] A synthetic monograph associated with doctoral work is referred to as a “thèse“. See also compilation thesis. Either work can be awarded a “mention d’honneur” (excellence) as a result of the decision by the examination committee, although these are rare.

A typical undergraduate paper or essay might be forty pages. Master’s theses are approximately one hundred pages. PhD theses are usually over two hundred pages. This may vary greatly by discipline, program, college, or university. However, normally the required minimum study period is primarily depending on the complexity or quality of research requirements.

Theses Canada acquires and preserves a comprehensive collection of Canadian theses at Library and Archives Canada‘ (LAC) through a partnership with Canadian universities who participate in the program.[15]

Croatia[edit]

At most university faculties in Croatia, a degree is obtained by defending a thesis after having passed all the classes specified in the degree programme. In the Bologna system, the bachelor’s thesis, called završni rad (literally “final work” or “concluding work”) is defended after 3 years of study and is about 30 pages long. Most students with bachelor’s degrees continue onto master’s programmes which end with a master’s thesis called diplomski rad (literally “diploma work” or “graduate work”). The term dissertation is used for a doctoral degree paper (doktorska disertacija).

Czech Republic[edit]

In the Czech Republic, higher education is completed by passing all classes remaining to the educational compendium for given degree and defending a thesis. For bachelors programme the thesis is called bakalářská práce (bachelor’s thesis), for master’s degrees and also doctor of medicine or dentistry degrees it is the diplomová práce (master’s thesis), and for Philosophiae doctor (PhD.) degree it is dissertation dizertační práce. Thesis for so called Higher-Professional School (Vyšší odborná škola, VOŠ) is called absolventská práce.

Finland[edit]

The following types of thesis are used in Finland (names in Finnish/Swedish):

• Kandidaatintutkielma/kandidatavhandling is the dissertation associated with lower-level academic degrees (bachelor’s degree), and at universities of applied science.
• Pro gradu(-tutkielma)/(avhandling )pro gradu, colloquially referred to simply as ‘gradu’, is the dissertation for master’s degrees, which make up the majority of degrees conferred in Finland, and this is therefore the most common type of thesis submitted in the country. The equivalent for engineering and architecture students is diplomityö/diplomarbete.
• The highest-level theses are called lisensiaatintutkielma/licentiatavhandling and (tohtorin)väitöskirja/doktorsavhandling, for licentiate and doctoral degrees, respectively.

France[edit]

The cover of the thesis presented by Claude Bernard to obtain his Doctorate of Medicine (1843).

In France, the academic dissertation or thesis is called a thèse and it is reserved for the final work of doctoral candidates. The minimum page length is generally (and not formally) 100 pages (or about 400,000 characters), but is usually several times longer (except for technical theses and for “exact sciences” such as physics and maths).

To complete a master’s degree in research, a student is required to write a mémoire, the French equivalent of a master’s th

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