A thesis (: theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: Documentation—Presentation of theses and similar documents, International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, 1986. 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, Commonwealth Countries, and Brazil, the reverse is true.Douwe Breimer, Jos Damen et al.: Hora est! On dissertations, Leiden University Library, 2005. The term graduate thesis is sometimes used to refer to both master's theses and doctoral dissertations.
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.
Etymology The term thesis comes from the Greek word , meaning "something put forth", and refers to an intellectual proposition. Dissertation comes from the Latin , 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.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
Structure 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 articles. 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 significance b) a literature review: reviewing relevant literature and showing how this has informed the research issue c) a methodology chapter, explaining how the research has been designed and why the research methods/population/data collection and analysis being used have been chosen d) a findings chapter: outlining the findings of the research itself e) 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:Thomas, Gary (2009) Your Research Project. Thousand Oaks: Sage.Rudestam & Newton (2007) Surviving your dissertation. Thousand Oaks: Sage. which shows judgement or decision reached by thesis
Style 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. Other applicable international standards include ISO 2145 on section numbers, ISO 690 on bibliographic references, and ISO 31 or its revision ISO 80000 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 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.
Increasingly, academic institutions are accepting digital and multimodal dissertations that include elements such as video, audio, or interactive software.
Thesis committee 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 .
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 PhD 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 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.Imperial College London, 'Roles and Responsibilities: Research Degree Supervision'. July 2014. Accessed 17 March 2020 See also M. Rogers, M. Sims, J. Bird and S. Elliott (2020) Organisational narratives vs the lived neoliberal reality. Australian Universities' Review. 62(1):26–40. The thesis is authored by the student, not the supervisor. The thesis supervisor is a vital agent in forming institutional designs to help "at risk" students mature as scholars.Janet Hanson, et al. (May 2022). "A Qualitative Case Study of All-but-Dissertation Students at Risk for Dissertation Noncompletion: A New Model for Supporting Candidates to Doctoral Completion." Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice. Vol. 24 Issue 1, pp. 234-262. DOI: 10.1177/1521025120910714. Retrieved 21 May 2026. 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 they are the sole author of the thesis.M. Rogers, M. Sims, J. Bird and S. Elliott (2020) Organisational narratives vs the lived neoliberal reality. Australian Universities' Review. 62(1):26–40.
Regional and degree-specific practices and terminologies
Argentina 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. 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.
Canada
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 French-language universities, for the fulfillment of a master's degree, students can present a "mémoire"' or a shorter "essai"' (the latter requires the student to take more courses). For the fulfillment of a doctoral degree, they may present a "thèse" or an "essai doctoral" (here too, the latter requires more courses). All these documents are usually synthetic monograph related to the student's research work.
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. A study published in 2021 found that in Québec universities, between 2000 and 2020, master's and PhD theses averaged 127.4 and 245.6 pages respectively.
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. Most theses can also be found in the institutional repository of the university the student graduated from.
Croatia 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).
Czechia