Dissertation outline: [Working title]

Candidate

Program

Supervisor

Committee

Word limit

Citation style

Submission

How to use this template

  1. Start with the dissertation in brief: the main question, the contribution (what will be known when you finish that isn't known now) and the design. Every chapter follows from them.

  2. Write after each label, and keep the labels: they make the outline easy for your supervisor to read.

  3. Word the research questions once, in the table under the brief, and copy them unchanged into Chapters 1, 4, 5 and 6.

  4. Rename, merge or add chapters to fit your field. For a dissertation by publication, open the optional section under the brief.

  5. Before you send the outline, go through the checklist at the end, then delete it and this box.

The dissertation in brief

Main research question:

Contribution:

Design and data:

Sub-question or hypothesis

Data and analysis

Answered in

RQ1

RQ2

RQ3

Optional: A dissertation by publication

If your program allows a dissertation of three or more papers, replace Chapters 2 to 5 with a chapter per paper:

  1. Introduction:

  2. Paper 1:

  3. Paper 2:

  4. Paper 3:

  5. Conclusion:

The introduction sets out the shared question and how the papers answer it together. Each paper gives its question, data and main finding, with its journal and whether it is submitted, under review or published. The conclusion says what the papers show together that none of them shows alone.

Check your handbook for whether co-authored papers count, how your share of the work must be declared, and what the linking chapters must contain.

Front matter

  • Title page

  • Abstract, written last

  • Acknowledgements (optional)

  • Table of contents

  • Lists of figures, tables and abbreviations, if you use them

  • Anything else your school requires: a declaration, a copyright page, a lay summary

Chapter 1: Introduction

  • The problem:

  • Background:

  • Gap in the literature:

  • Research questions:

  • Approach:

  • Significance:

  • Scope:

  • Chapter map:

Chapter 2: Literature review

By theme or debate, not source by source.

  • Theme or debate 1:

  • Theme or debate 2:

  • Theme or debate 3:

  • Theoretical framework:

  • The gap, restated:

Chapter 3: Methodology

  • Research design:

  • Participants, cases or sources:

  • Data collection:

  • Analysis:

  • Ethics approval:

  • Validity and reliability:

  • Limits of the design:

Chapter 4: Results

What you found, question by question. What it means goes in Chapter 5.

Question

Finding

Evidence

RQ1

RQ2

RQ3

Chapter 5: Discussion

  • Answers to the questions:

  • Against the literature:

  • Unexpected results:

  • Implications:

  • Limitations:

Chapter 6: Conclusion

  • The answer:

  • Contribution:

  • Recommendations:

  • Future research:

  • Closing point:

Back matter

  • References:

  • Appendix A:

  • Appendix B:

  • Appendix C:

Writing plan

Part

Target words

Draft due

Status

1. Introduction

2. Literature review

3. Methodology

4. Results

5. Discussion

6. Conclusion

Abstract and front matter

Total

Milestones

  • Proposal approved:

  • Ethics approval:

  • Data collection complete:

  • Full draft to supervisor:

  • Draft to committee:

  • Defense or viva:

  • Final submission:

Before you send it to your supervisor

  • The research questions are worded identically here and in Chapters 1, 4, 5 and 6

  • Every sub-question has data that can answer it and a chapter where it is answered

  • The target words add up to no more than the limit

  • Structure, length and citation style follow your graduate school's handbook

  • The working title and every label are filled in, and the grey hints are gone

  • The how-to box and this checklist are deleted