phd dissertation title examples

626 Dissertation Topics for Ph.D. and Thesis Ideas for Master Students

If you are about to go into the world of graduate school, then one of the first things you need to do is choose from all the possible dissertation topics available to you. This is no small task. You are likely to spend many years researching your Master’s or Ph.D. topic and writing the text. This means that choosing a dissertation topic should not be taken lightly.

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No worries! Just read this article by our Custom Writing service , and you’ll find:

• a collection of great thesis topics on finance, education, management, law, etc.
• a range of tips on choosing a killing Ph.D. topic.
• 👍 Top 10 Dissertation Topics
• 🆚 Thesis vs Dissertation
• 🔝 Top 10 Thesis Topics
• 🎓 Thesis Topics List
• ✅ How to Choose a Topic

👍Top 10 Dissertation Topics

• Ethical alternatives to animal testing.
• What’s the future of the Dead Sea?
• Does accent affect singing ability?
• The importance of corporate values.
• Can we regulate influencer marketing?
• How does inflation affect small businesses?
• Is homeschooling the future of education?
• How does Tourette’s syndrome affect one’s daily life?
• How to conduct market analysis for e-commerce.
• Has globalization affected cultural appropriation?

🆚 Dissertation vs. Thesis: Is There a Difference?

People often consider a thesis and a dissertation to be the same thing. Yet, there is an important distinction between them. The key difference is that you need a thesis to complete a master’s degree, while a dissertation is necessary for obtaining a doctorate. Keep in mind that it’s vice versa in European higher education.

Here are some other differences:

Despite these differences, theses and dissertations have a lot in common:

• You need them to complete a degree.
• Both require certain levels of expertise and writing skills.
• You defend an argument in both of them.
• Plagiarism is prohibited in both theses and dissertations.

🔝 Top 10 Thesis Topics for 2023

• The consequences of obesity.
• The influence of social media .
• Economic development and happiness.
• Feminism in the United States.
• The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Racism in schools and colleges.
• Overeducation in the labor market.
• DNA evidence in criminal justice.
• Sales forecasting techniques.
• Wage difference among athletes.

🎓 Thesis Topics & Ideas

Below, you’ll find a collection of excellent topics for a thesis. To simplify the task, it’s not a bad idea to use a topic chooser . We’ve also prepared a checklist that will help you make the right choice. If you agree with the following statements, you’ve chosen a good thesis topic:

• You are interested in this subject.  It will be easier for you to work on it if you like your area of research. Remember that you will have to spend long hours looking through various data. You need to stay motivated.
• The topic is helpful in your career path.  Choose a topic that you can apply to further research if you plan to pursue your career in the academic field. Choose something that you can use in your CV if you decided to work in the industry.
• There is enough available research data.  Don’t choose a topic that is too trivial or uncommon. It is essential to find enough relevant information. Consult your supervisor to understand if you can proceed with it.
• The topic isn’t too broad or too narrow.  Otherwise, it will be harder for you to find credible sources and relevant data.
• You already have an understanding of it . Make a list of thesis topics that include the issues you have researched before. It will save you some time and allow you to evaluate your opportunities.
• Your topic is unique.  Make sure there are no other papers that explore exactly the same issue. The value of your work is your original contribution to the research. If somebody has already investigated the topic, there is not much sense in proceeding with it.

Wondering where to find the most current topic for your research? We’ve collected them below.

Computer Science Thesis Topics

Computers surround us everywhere. From hospitals to home offices, it’s impossible to imagine life without them. A doctorate in computer science can allow you many career opportunities!

• The latest developments in AI use for healthcare services . Healthcare in the US is expensive for its citizens. One way to reduce the cost is using computer algorithms. This technology research topic lets you explore how AI helps physicians with their tasks. 
• Computer security for public institutions. Several allegations about hackers stealing data from the US government emerged in recent years. With this dissertation idea, study public cybersecurity. Also, discuss ways to improve cybersecurity practices. 
• Visual recognition system architecture: real-time object detection. Discuss a system based on neural networks capable of detecting objects. Focus on the virtual environment. You can alter this trending topic in computer science for real-life settings. 
• Blockchain application outside financial technologies. Analyze and discuss the implications of using blockchain systems outside of the fintech sector. For example, study its use for public services and in government agencies. This topic allows exploring ways of applying established algorithms. 
• Machine learning and text structures. Discuss ways of visualizing text categorization. Focus on complex hierarchical structures of texts. This topic is suitable for postgraduates. 
• Encrypted search: security, performance, and usage. Discuss the use of encryptions to protect data. Say how we can improve it for effective information search. 
• Use of computers in education . Study how algorithms can improve learning. This topic can be altered for other fields. For example, choose AI in business or agriculture. 
• Graphics and visual computing: current state and the future. By now, CAD programs are an integral part of every engineer’s tool kit. Your thesis can analyze the potential of those programs. What would improve their performance? Is there a chance that they will become obsolete? 
• Multimedia databases parsing and indexing. Netflix and YouTube require technology to search across their multimedia databases. This dissertation can be a survey on best practices. Or, add a company name to the title and focus your research on it. 
• AI Marketing: the use of algorithms to improve advertising. In the previous list of research question examples, you can choose a narrow marketing theme. Then, discuss the implications of such algorithms. 
• Study computation of models for virtual environments . 
• Cybersecurity challenges for automated vehicles. 
• AI and vehicle automation: potential safety gaps. 
• Computer graphics : perspectives for medical imaging. 
• Research the use of computer algorithms for medical analysis . 
• Discuss the role of bioinformatics in healthcare improvement. 
• How is a computer-aided design used in creating automobile parts? 
• Review the best practices for System Level Testing of distributed systems. 
• Agile project management for software engineers . 
• Software development risks analysis for successful employment. 
• Study the security mechanisms for WLAN networks . 
• Malicious botnets and network worms: an overview. 
• What are the best practices in ICT systems development? 
• Web-based document management systems using XML. 
• Best algorithms for cluster generation. 
• Methods for improving Open Web Architecture. 
• Analyze software solutions for the increased energy efficiency . 
• Protection of systems against terror attacks : a case study and analysis. 
• New methods of risk management during software development. 
• Analyze how Web space requirements are changing. 
• Analyze how e-publishing is affecting libraries. 
• New methods for studying the behavior of malware, viruses, and worms with the use of secure programming and runtime environments. 
• Analyze redundancy and fault recovery in the 4G wireless network . 
• Analyze the implementation and analysis of the optimal algorithm vs the heuristic algorithm for the generation of clusters. 
• Analyze how full-text databases affect search engines.  

Humanities and Art History Thesis Topics

Do you want to put your passion into words? Would you like to share your ideas with the world? Then pursuing a Ph.D. in the arts or humanities is the right path for you.

• The history of cinema : past and present. With this history dissertation topic, focus on how cinema developed. Explore the period starting from the first short films by the Lumiere brothers. Finish the discussion with modern-day Hollywood examples. 
• Art or commerce: a case study of Hollywood films. Discuss the intersection between artistic expression and profit. This exciting arts topic focuses on modern cinema. You can use examples of art-house movies and modern commercially successful ones. 
• Hollywood vs. Bollywood . Compare the two distinct film production centers for this art thesis. Next, discuss how local cultures impact Hollywood and Bollywood movies’ direction, genres, and plots. 
• The use of visual tools in interior design . This dissertation topic is an intersection between arts and computer science . The focus is on how visualization tools help to create design projects. 
• Racism in the 21st-century literature. Focus on how the narratives about racism have changed. Include examples from poetry and prose of this era. Compare it to works published in the past. 
• The cultural aesthetic of Afrofuturism in literature. This dissertation idea allows you to explore the intersection of arts. Specifically, see how culture, philosophy of science, and history manifest in Afrofuturism . 
• The social value of ecopoetry. Analyze how literature that focuses on ecological problems. Discuss environmental consciousness and environmental issues . 
• Graphic novels: the best examples and implications for the development of literature. What does it mean when literary classics are converted into graphic novels? Incorporate the question if graphic novels can become part of the literary canon. 
• Theater of the Absurd in the 1950s and 1960s. Discuss this form of theatrical art. Examine how it emerged and why it became influential. 
• Post World War II art : cinema and literature. Use examples of films and literary works. Discuss major works of the post-WWII era and their themes. 
• Futurism and the Czech avant-garde : the artistic connection between Europe’s East and West. 
• Study the phenomenon of the hero archetype. 
• Assess dancing as a form of meditation . 
• Review the common elements of various African dances. 
• Folk dances across Western Europe. 
• Discuss regional dances and dance as a ritual. 
• Animation as a modern art form.  
• Research the art of glass-making and its prospects for the future. 
• Analyze the cultural impact of The Beatles beyond music.  
• Literature censorship in the US. 
• Examine the intersection of ecology and arts. 
• Heidelberg Project: is it a model for creating art in urban areas? 
• Study kinetic sculptures of the 20th century. 
• What characterizes social activism in 20 th -century rock music? 
• Jazz in the 21st century: a potential for revival. 
• The history of design in various periods of human existence (the ancient times, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, etc.). 
• Design as art . 
• Philosophy of design. 
• Separate branches of design ( interior design , car design, toy design, etc.). 
• Stylistic peculiarities of a certain designer. 
• Web design as a modern quintessence of design. 
• Social significance of design. 
• The birth of Communism as it relates to Stendhal. 
• The relationship between politics and literature in the 19 th century. 
• An analysis and case study of artists and art during times of war.  
• How contemporary art is related to American suffering. 
• Analyze of how racism relates to the family unit. 

List of Science Topics for Your Thesis

A dissertation in science will probably require you to run numerous experiments. Many of them will probably go wrong. But the one that does work might be the next big breakthrough! Find a suitable research theme in the following list of topics:

• Bacterial injections for the treatment of cancer tumors. Injecting bacteria into tumors is a fairly new approach to treating cancer . Review the mechanism of action and evaluate the potential of this method for curing cancer.
• Computer imagining and AI for cancer detection . Examine how AI-assisted cancer screening improves accuracy. Include early detection implications and usage in hospitals.
• Ethics of organ donations and transplantation. With this dissertation topic in science, examine the ethics of encouraging people to donate their organs. Include the implications for medical research and practice.
• An epidemiological and molecular approach to cancer prevention . This topic idea suggests assessing the current understanding of how cancer develops as well as potential prevention strategies.
• Ways of speeding up vaccine development and testing. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that the process of vaccine development is relatively slow. It takes a long time to ensure proper testing. You may discuss these issues in your biochemistry dissertation.
• The current state of research into ultra-fast rechargeable batteries. The topic of batteries and energy attracts lots of attention. With this topic, you can examine how to improve the design of aluminum-ion batteries. Include ways to decrease their charging time.
• Nanotechnologies in drug delivery: electrospraying. Current research shows the great potential of nanotechnologies. In particular, the electrospraying technique makes nanoparticle delivery more efficient.
• Prevalence of various Helicobacter Pylori virulence in a population. Conduct quantitative research and examine a sample of patients to determine the number infected with Helicobacter Pylori.
• The relationship between gut microbiota and the person’s appetite . Your research can explore the theory that the gut microbiome has varied effects on the person’s body. Review the implications for obesity treatment for different gut microbiomes.
• The age of antibiotics: is it over? Examine the use of antibiotics and the reasons for its decline. Discuss the evolving nature of bacteria that require remedies other than antibiotics. Include quantitative data in this dissertation for a specific type of disease.
• CRISPR method for studying human DNA.
• The study of human evolution : latest discoveries.
• Denisovans from Siberia: a new type of hominid discovered.
• Study the use of AI in archeology .
• Conduct a study of the Neanderthal genome sequence.
• What are the ways of improving solar cell efficiency?
• The carbon footprint of modern production: how do companies damage the environment?
• Research the use of cesium in solar panels .
• The era of supercapacitors: are we ending the use of batteries?
• Assess the efficiency of Robot Suits for people with permanent paralysis.
• Microscale medial robots: potential applications.
• Look into stem cell mobilization and its mechanisms.
• Discuss the ethics of automated cars .
• Space robotics: can we design robots capable of exploring space?
• Evaluate the efficiency and potential of lithium-based rechargeable batteries.
• Morality and ethics of stem cell research .
• Is behavior controlled or affected by genetics and to what level.
• A look at methods of improving risk factors post-stroke.
• Analyze of Chinese herbal practice and its relevance to conventional medicine.
• Analyze the effect schools have on childhood obesity .

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• New methods of using existing data to gather information that is useful. 
• An in-depth look at the factors affecting the decline of the immune system with age. 
• Analyze of the potential effect of nanotechnology on health and the environment. 
• Analyze of toxicity levels of inhaled nanoparticles. 
• The usefulness of nanotechnology in curing some types of cancer . 
• An analysis and case study of the treatment of patients who have experienced a loss of memory. 
• Analyze the use of DNA typing of remains to identify missing people and the victims of crime. 
• The response of immune deficiency diseases to the activation of T-cell subsets. 
• The influence and importance of IT in the field of biomedicine. 

Architecture Thesis Topics

Architecture is more than just aesthetics. That’s become especially clear ever since the doctrine “form follows function” gained traction. Whether you’re into baroque or Bauhaus, there’s plenty to discover about architecture.

• Religious architecture in the British Empire. Research the transformation of religious buildings and how it affected architecture in general. 
• Modernist architecture in the USSR at the beginning of the 20th century. Compare modernist architecture in the USSR with other countries. 
• Urban greening and its influence on buildings’ design . The dissertation proposal can include green roofs as the main point of research. 
• Brutalism and its history in New York . Provide historical research of brutalism in New York and discuss how it affects modern architecture. 
• Modern-day aboriginal settlements in Australia. Using examples from media and research, indicate how aboriginal settlements are perceived and handled today. 
• Transformation of the urban design in the 21st century. Using London, Hong-Kong, and New York as examples, provide an in-depth discussion of changes in the urban design. 
• The architectural history of Seattle. Conduct research and write a proposal that will compare different architectural styles seen in Seattle. 
• Integration of culture in environmental design. In this proposal, you can use large cities in Asia as primary examples of the synergy between culture and architecture. 
• The architecture of residential buildings during the second half of the 20th century. Choose one or several large cities (e.g., Berlin, Miami, Kyoto) as the basis for your research. 
• The history of Moscow Avant-Garde . Use both Soviet and modern Russian research on Avant-Garde to present the topic accurately. 
• Use of computer visuals in architecture. 
• Review the trends in modern furniture design. 
• Ecology and architecture: integration of green technologies.  
• Discuss the multiculturalism of contemporary urban architecture. 
• The history of architecture in urban areas of the US: the study of New York. 
• Modern city design case study. 
• Research ways of using wood in modern architecture. 
• Commercial architecture: aesthetics and usability. 
• Evaluate the design of municipal buildings in the US. 
• Creativity in postmodernist architecture. 
• How do we integrate smart home technology into architecture? 
• Small scale homes: a study of growing interest in small housing. 
• Discuss the use of lighting in building design. 
• Study innovations in structural design in the digital age. 
• What are the implications of inclusive architecture? 
• Sustainable architecture: recycling spaces and materials.  
• Renewable energy in home design. 
• Assess open concept homes for American families. 
• Conduct a study of family homes design. 
• Research architecture suitable for middle-class families. 

Thesis Topics in English Literature & World Literature

Was your New Year’s Resolution to re-read the 100 most influential classical works? Then you might want to consider writing a thesis in advanced higher English. Check out these engaging prompts:

• In-depth stylistic analysis of The Trial by Franz Kafka . Explain what stylistic devices Kafka used in his story. 
• The influence of The Hound of the Baskervilles on the development of modern detective stories. Prepare several comparisons of The Hound with modern detective stories to pinpoint its influence. 
• The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum : women characters in Heinrich Böll’s fiction. Using the book mentioned in the topic, examine how the German writer depicted women in his prose. 
• Analysis of the terrorism portrayal in modern journalism : The New York Times case study. Pick several articles related to terrorism published in NYT and describe in detail how it is portrayed (keywords, images, etc.).
• A formalist approach to Dostoevsky: analysis of The Brothers Karamazov . Provide the reader with an explanation of the formalist approach and use it to analyze the novel. 
• The depiction of sexual violence in young adult literature. Pick several YA novels published in the 2010s for your research. 
• The use of repetition in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot . Analyze how repetition is used for emphasis and other effects in the play. 
• Feminism and gender in Margaret Atwood’s Cats’ Eye . Review the book from a feminist point of view and discuss how gender issues are presented in the book. 
• How does Phillip K. Dick use intertextuality in The Man in the High Castle ? Find as many references to other literary and historical sources as you can and elaborate how Dick uses them and for what aims. 
• The influence of Steppenwolf on postmodern American literature: the contribution of Herman Hesse. Using Steppenwolf as the primary source, discuss what characteristics common for postmodern literature Hesse uses in this novel. 
• How does racism manifest itself in classical literature? 
• Discuss the oppression of women in The Handmaid’s Tale.  
• Gender roles in The Miniaturist and A Doll’s House : a comparison. 
• Moral ambiguity in David Harrower’s works. 
• Literary techniques in the Perks of Being a Wallflower.  
• The setting in The Murder in the Rue Morgue and its influence on the detective genre. 
• Review the tropes first introduced in The Moonstone .  
• Study the depictions of police’s work in Skinner’s Rule . 
• Assess the influence of Victorian Gothic horror on popular culture. 
• Social criticism in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  
• Analyze cyberpunk elements in Gibson’s Neuromancer .  
• Themes of social equality in modern literature. 
• Research the views on Native American writers in Nature’s Poem.  
• Critique of contemporary children’s literature . 
• Gothic elements in Charlotte Bronte’s works . 
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Dracula : a comparative analysis. 
• Terror in The Picture of Dorian Gray .  
• Examine the connection of mental health and society in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye . 
• Magical realism and romanticism in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.  
• How does the cut-up technique contribute to the narration in William S. Burroughs’ Naked Lunch?  

Criminal Justice Thesis Topics

Are you a forensic science student who prefers research to actual police work? In that case, a dissertation in criminology is a great idea. This way, you can work on preventing crime from the comfort of your desk.

• Recidivism rates among underage Latino first-time offenders: a quantitative study. Research a group of first-time offenders of a particular age (e.g., 18 to 25 years old).
• A comparative analysis of the incidents of gun violence in the USA during the 2010s. Choose several prominent examples and compare them to each other.
• Troublesome statements: the role of witnesses in potentially false accusations. In this dissertation, you can write about the unreliability of statements, using documented examples.

• The patterns of drug trafficking in Germany’s largest cities: a case study of Berlin and Hamburg. Analyze the changes in these patterns in the 2010s. 
• Money laundering and corruption in the United States in the 21st century. Using media reports, create dissertation research about corruption schemes. 
• Mental health and self-perception of second-time sex offenders . Determine if their self-perception changes. 
• School shootings in the USA: causes and risk factors . Using recent and historical data, analyze the cases of mass shootings. 
• The influence of cyberbullying on suicide rates among Australian adolescents (13-17 years old). You can base your dissertation report on various research on cyberbullying published in Australian scholarly journals. 
• Child abuse and its influence on serial killer’s perception of victims. Discuss interconnections between abuse and potential sadistic behavior. 
• The history of forensic interviewing in the USA. Present research and practices that contributed to its development. 
• Use of artificial intelligence for forensic investigations. 
• Criminal behavior at a young age and its implications for the future. 
• Drug use: pattern of recurring arrests among American youth.  
• Incarcerated parents: the impact on the child’s perception of crime. 
• Research the reforms of the US criminal justice system.  
• Propose strategies for improving the juvenile detention system. 
• Police officer’s abuse of power: analysis of reports. 
• Race and criminal justice: the case of War on Drugs . 
• What are the possible alternative forms of incarceration?  
• A study of public perception of modern serial killers . 
• Training of sniffer dogs. 
• The implications of eyewitness testimony.  
• Abuse in Hollywood: a case study of Harvey Weinstein. 
• Bias against African Americans during investigations.  
• A study of college violence. 
• Legal implications of medical marijuana legalization . 
• Ethics of criminal justice : the problem of confidentiality. 
• Review the challenges linked with domestic violence investigations. 
• Suggest ways of preventing crimes in schools . 
• Gender bias during crime examinations. 

Geography Thesis Topics

If you enjoy unveiling Earth’s secrets, this section is for you. Here you’ll find geography dissertation ideas ranging from studies of movement to regional phenomena.

• Species that became extinct in the 20th century: qualitative research. Address the human influence on various species . 
• Current issues in the exploration of Arctic. Discuss difficulties and specifics of such explorations. 
• A comparison of urban back gardens in the USA and the UK. You can compare their design and other features (for example, vegetation used for decoration). 
• The causes and outcomes of floodings in the USA in the 2010s. Address climate change as one of the leading causes. 
• Prevention of ecosystem changes with modern technology. Provide various examples of how technology is used to sustain ecosystems. 
• Changes in travel destinations in the 2000s: a comparison of the USA and Canada. Demonstrate what changes in preferences were documented in these countries and show what destinations were especially popular. 
• The perception of environmentally friendly technologies and their impact on the environment by citizens of large metropolitan areas: a case study of Miami. Explain how various projects based on environmentally friendly technologies are launched in Miami. 
• A negative impact of global warming on weather conditions in Iceland. Discuss how tourism in Iceland is affected by these changes. 
• The influence of industrialization on climate change. Address the causes of climate change, using industrialization and its consequences as a basis. 
• Compare Greenfield and Brownfield land use for construction projects. 
• Investigate the significance of red salmon for Kamchatka. 
• The social impact of climate change : a study of migration patterns. 
• The potential of community gardening in underprivileged neighborhoods. 
• Study the link between the strengths of hurricanes and climate change. 
• What can be done to stop gentrification in your community? 
• Evaluate coastal tourism, its effect, and implications. 
• The impact of reservoir locations on water quality . 
• How did industrialization affect the development of Chicago? 
• Study soil pollution levels in your community area. 
• Conduct an analysis of air quality in your city. 
• Eco-tourism , its history, and perspectives. 
• Differences in soil chemistry across several locations. 
• The impact of organic farming on water quality in your area. 
• Compare the sustainability of organically vs. conventionally farmed tomatoes. 
• Research air pollution levels and data on airborne illnesses in your area. 
• What’s the relationship between rock climbing and cliff vegetation? 
• Study the changes in soil fertility upon volcanic eruption. 
• How does the Chernobyl disaster continue to affect the surrounding area?  
• Determine the patterns of floods in a particular area of your choice. 

Sociology Thesis Ideas

Sociology studies how humans live together. A dissertation is a great way to dive deeper into a particular subject. You can get as specific as your heart desires! Check out our sociology thesis topics:

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• Single parent stigma and its influence on family’s quality of life and parent-child relationships . Present examples from recent research that illustrate how the dynamics of these relationships change over time due to stigma.
• Women empowerment in Saudi Arabia in 2000s: breakthroughs and challenges. Discuss how this empowerment affected legislation and women’s rights .
• Long-term alcohol addiction and self-perception in young adults. With the help of research, demonstrate whether self-perception of these adults transforms significantly due to their addiction.
• Adoption and its influence on parent-child relationships. Present and discuss challenges that such families face.
• Comparison of traditions related to family dinners in the USA and the UK. What specific differences are there and how can they be explained?
• Influence of the emo culture on suicide rates in high school students. Address the influence of such cultures on adolescents’ behavior.
• The rates of secularization in elderly individuals living in urban and rural areas. Compare the rates and explain why they are different.
• Influence of forced outing on transgender individuals and concomitant changes in their quality of life. Explain the effects of forced outing and why this impact is dangerous.
• Comparison of anti-nuclear movements in Germany and Japan in the 21st century. Explain in detail what differences and similarities are prominent.
• Performance rates of teenagers in schools in low-income neighborhoods: a case study of Boston schools. When writing your dissertation proposal, consider various factors (poverty, limited access to technology, etc.) that affect performance rates of these teenagers.
• Black Lives Matter movement’s immediate impact on racism.
• Research causes of minority bias in the US.
• Affirmative action and its impact on the perception of varied racial groups.
• The impact of religion on people’s attitudes towards race.
• Review the challenges of the US LGBT community.
• Bias towards transgender studies.
• Social activism against gender discrimination in the 21st century.
• The impact of social assistance in schools on a child’s future.
• Research the changes in education after WWII.
• Analyze scholarship policies in the US.
• The impact of student debt on youth’s perception of education in the US.
• Outcomes of public vs. private schools: a comparison.
• Research the preservation of culture in American immigrant families.
• Applying Marx’s conflict theory to social justice movements.
• Assess changing trends in social norms in a country of your choice.
• Attitudes towards prejudice among people of different social backgrounds.
• Comparison of women’s rights in Western and Middle Eastern countries.
• The impact of capitalism on one’s social values.
• How does capitalism benefit society across multiple post-soviet countries?
• Compare healthcare access in autocracies vs. democracies.

💡 Dissertation Topics for Ph.D. students

Below you’ll find a list of excellent dissertation ideas in different fields of study. They are more difficult than thesis topics and require more research. Jump to the section that interests you and find the topic that suits you best! But first:

What Makes a Good Ph.D. Topic?

Usually, universities would expect your dissertation to be original and relevant in the field of the research. Moreover, it would be worthwhile if it has the potential to make a change.

This checklist will help you see whether you’ve made the right choice. Your dissertation topic is good, if:

• You have an opportunity to research it fully.  You need to know that there is enough data and a theoretical basis. Do some prior research to understand if you will be able to answer all your dissertation questions.
• You can fill the gaps in the existing knowledge.  Your research matters if you can provide some new information that contributes to the field of your studies.
• Your dissertation title is catchy.  Try to make it worth the reader’s attention from the first glance.
• You can evaluate how much time you need.  It is vital to understand all the stages of your research and the challenges you might face to plan your work.
• You know the subject well.  You will need to explore your topic in-depth. It’s good to have some previous knowledge about it. Starting the research from the very basics will take more time and effort.
• You have enough resources to investigate it.  Both time and money matter in this case. You need to do high-quality research and meet your deadlines.

Dissertation Topics in Education

Learning is a lifelong experience, and the importance of schools cannot be overestimated. Research in this area is critical to improving education standards. Have a look at these topic ideas to get inspired:

• Gamification as tools for enhancing learning abilities: theory and practice . Many studies have been conducted on different learning approaches. For young learners, engagement is as critical as the outcome. Therefore, this work focuses on gamification and its effect on children’s improvisation and learning. 
• Studying the connection between classroom quality and the learning outcome in kindergarten . Children are strongly affected by their environment, especially when it comes to learning. This dissertation topic example is all about looking into different classroom settings and their effect on kids’ learning outcomes. 
• Evaluating the process of implementation of inclusive education in the US. Professionals argue that inclusive education carries multiple benefits for all students (not just those with limited abilities.) However, it is quite a challenging process to implement all the changes. 
• Factors influencing the decision to transfer to the higher education abroad . In this work, you can focus on finding out the reasons for such a decision. Why do undergraduate students choose to leave their home country? What are the most important factors? 
• Online education vs. traditional face-to-face lessons for adult learners: compare and contrast. Online courses have their own benefits. However, would adult learners prefer them to in-person classrooms? How does it affect their learning and motivation? 
• How does working as a taxi driver and navigating change a person’s brain? 
• To what extent can reality television be disempowering for students?  
• The role of homework in the lives of immigrant adolescents. 
• The impact of teachers’ shocking behaviors in fostering students’ creativity. 
• The determinants of flossing behavior in college students . 
• The classification of drinking styles in the college-age population. 
• Integrating the computer into the curriculum : why you can’t simply plug it in. 
• The preconditions for serious music-making avocation in computer science students. 
• Adult graduate difficulties with learning new technologies. 
• The effect of academic performance on the health of students . 
• The impact of mathematic coaching on students’ self-esteem . 
• The influence of internet on the emotional maturity of students. 
• Academic achievements of students who decide to become teachers. 
• Is it true that students are more likely to do homework given by good-looking professors? 
• Informal learning in rural areas via social networks. 
• Educational blogging for professors: the social networks of educationists. 
• Does learning existentialism cause suicides? 
• Is it possible to reduce summer learning loss without students’ consent? 
• Can we reject classical math and do it at the same time? Yes, we can. 
• What are major career prospects with a degree in Liberal Arts ? 
• Using electronic games in museums as an effective education tool. 

Business Dissertation Topics

There are many things a business administrator should keep in mind. Finances, marketing, and development are just the tip of the iceberg. So, the choice of topics is practically endless. Check out this selection to narrow down the possibilities:

• How are business strategies adjusted to the globalization process? Small businesses’ perspective. Globalization means huge and profitable opportunities. To seize them, all businesses and companies should make some changes in their strategies. Investigate what would be the best action plan for them. 
• Cultural changes and the effect of feedback in an international company: a case study. Choose a multinational company. Study the impact of feedback (both from the employees and customers) on its organizational culture changes. What reaction does it provoke in the company? 
• Human resource management approaches in international non-profit organizations. In this study, look into the strategies HR managers apply in non-profit organizations. One of their main responsibilities is to monitor the performance of the employees. However, at the international level it becomes more difficult. 
• Leadership and organizational culture in making decisions about business strategies. In this research, you study the influence of the organizational culture on leaders. In the case of trying to initiate changes in the business strategy, how is a leadership decision taken? 
• The role of “ foreign direct investment ” in companies in developing countries: a case study of a large business. For this paper, pick a suitable company first. Aim for large companies in developing countries. Then conduct research and find out what strategies they have for foreign direct investments. 
• COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on workplace management in small businesses . The COVID-19 pandemic caused many companies to readjust their HR policies. For instance, they allowed their staff to work from home. Research this phenomenon in your thesis. 
• Social entrepreneurship for large companies. If you want to make the world a better place, social entrepreneurship is a suitable method. We usually associate it with small start-ups. But what about large companies? With this topic, you can research how the concept works for big firms. 
• How innovation affects demand in technology-driven businesses. This MBA dissertation topic combines business studies and technology . Examine how companies create products for establishing markets. 
• Management strategies in times of COVID-19: a case study . The pandemic has forced companies to use Zoom , Skype, and messaging instead of regular meetings. Review how executives can apply traditional management models in the digital space. 
• The impact of burnout on employees . Interview staff members and determine how burnout affects performance. Include the name of a company or industry in your dissertation’s title. 
• Tourism management in the Middle East. 
• How do natural disasters impact the demand for essentials?  
• Compare and contrast Asian and American leadership styles . 
• How does fluctuation in the stock market impact business operations? 
• The art of delegation : how to do it effectively and when to avoid it. 
• How can one efficiently lead a company when unforeseen circumstances occur? 
• What factors determine employees’ work satisfaction?  
• Study the link between a company’s success and innovation . 
• What can business managers do to bridge the gap between generations ? 
• Research the benefits of global and local brand management. 
• What causes changes in Chinese business culture? 
• Choose a small business and analyze its strategy.  
• Organizational changes : what factors impact transformation? 
• Internet banking : barriers to usage. 
• Create a business plan that is focused on a specific issue. 
• Conditions necessary for quality management in MNCs. 
• The role of E-commerce for food retailers. 
• Conduct a case study with the purpose to analyze one or several social phenomena. 
• Workplace ethics in small businesses.  
• The phenomenon of remote working and how it is affecting businesses. 
• Comparison of Generation X and the Millennial Generation . 
• Managing the Millennial Generation . 
• Current trends in consumer behavior in relation to advertising . 
• Analyze which countries margin financing is effective and why. 
• Analyze the macroeconomic factors affecting exchange rates. 
• An empirical analysis of the impact of organizational performance and leadership . 

Law Dissertation Topics for Ph.D. Students

Legal science is not dull as one may think. It’s crucial to evaluate laws at any point in time. Do they fit the current norms? Does something or someone need more protection than before? If you want to garnish your legal education with a Ph.D., here are some topic suggestions:

• Trust law: the circumstances when fully secret and half-secret trusts are necessary. Find out what are the principles that dictate the enforcement of the trusts. There are specific circumstances that determine whether creating trusts would be adequate and relevant. Make sure to take them into consideration. 
• Termination of employment in case of employees tested positive for HIV/AIDS. Your task would be to conduct research and see how HIV/AIDS employees are influenced in the workplace. The most common issues are discrimination and termination of employment. 
• The influence of the Global War on Terrorism on international criminal law. When the US launched the campaign against terrorism in 2001, international criminal law faced some changes. You can study the most significant changes that have been made. 
• The level of effectiveness of the US copyright law in relation to the rights of users. It’s an empirical research topic that would require collecting lots of data. Try to find some cases when the users were left cheated by copyright law. It would bring some diversity to the research and make it more interesting. 
• Study the effect that the US immigration policy has on education right now. Educational institutions are also required to adjust to changes connected with immigration. Different requirements and different curriculums are implemented to fit their needs. You are about to look into this issue. 
• Select a country and analyze its worker protection laws. Compare the rights and obligations of employees in two countries of your choice. What potential improvements can solidify employee rights ? 
• Protection of minorities, legal precedents. Minority rights are becoming more and more relevant. This topic allows you to discuss how laws can be changed to reflect it. 
• Regulation of cryptocurrency. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies allow for anonymity. Besides, they are not regulated by any state. In your thesis, you can analyze cryptocurrency regulations. 
• Fake news : legal responsibility. Review how the United States legal system approaches disinformation. Focus on false publications on news resources. Another possible topic is improvements to defamation laws. 
• Freedom of expression : a case during a pandemic. This topic is about false information in times of COVID-19. Examine how a state can balance freedom of expression with the spread of false information. Focus on this disease and the fake news about it. 
• Legal practices for preventing possible future pandemics. 
• Research ways of online journalism protection. 
• International law vs. the right to self-determination: comparative case studies of de facto states. 
• Review the history of fiscal laws in America. 
• Limits to freedom of expression in the US legal system. 
• Enforcing regulations concerning domestic violence . 
• Study criminal responsibility for drug possession in the US. 
• Criminalization of violence against women.  
• Review the legal framework for addressing foreign involvement in elections. 
• What was the government response to the COVID-19 pandemic?  
• Health standards for immigrant detention centers in the US . 
• Research the loopholes in the US immigration laws . 
• Birthright citizenship in the US: pros and cons. 
• 1951 Refugee Convention: is it obsolete? 
• Illegal immigrants and their rights in the US justice system. 
• How criminal laws have been impacted around the world by the war on terror . 
• Choose a country and analyze their policies on discrimination. 
• Evaluate the protection given to minority shareholders as dictated by company law. 
• Provide a critical analysis of the law of omissions liability. 
• Investigate and analyze complaints filed in the criminal justice system . 
• A critical analysis of the reform of homicide laws . 
• The morality and impact of euthanasia and how Canada sets a precedent. 
• A detailed analysis of gender and race profiling of suspects in the criminal justice system . 
• Analyze the right to bear arms relative to the context in which the law was written into The Constitution. 
• Create case studies that represent a review of criminal negligence related to the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007. 

Psychology Dissertation Topics

The mysterious ways of the human mind offer many research opportunities. Psychology encompasses sub-fields such as behavior and cognition. Whatever your area of expertise, you’ll undoubtedly find something interesting in the list below.

• The current effect of the “price ending” method on the consumers’ behavior . Nowadays, everybody knows the most popular trick that shops pull to make customers buy the products. However, does understanding it make it easier to resist it? Is this psychological trap still working? 
• Burnout at the executive positions in massive US corporations: is it possible to prevent? The phenomenon of burnout is the most common issue that employees face nowadays. But there are ways to detected it at an early stage. Could they be used to predict and prevent this problem? 
• Mindfulness practices and their influence on students’ learning abilities at the top universities (e.g., Harvard). Mindfulness is proved to be extremely useful in overcoming stress and anxiety issues. However, does it affect the learning outcome of the students who study at the best universities in the world? 
• The individual struggles with gender issues and their impact on global gender inequality . Everything always starts with a small thing. For this paper, study the relation between some individual cases and the global issue. How do personal struggles contribute to the worldwide movement for justice? 
• The positive influence of irrational beliefs on mental well-being. In psychology, irrational beliefs are a set of values and opinions that people believe in despite rational evidence against them. However, what positive effect can they bring? 
• Ways of raising awareness of mental health problems. Mental health has been discussed more openly in recent years. Review how this open discussion affects views on personal mental health. As another idea for a psychology dissertation topic, research a specific illness. 
• Student burnout and ways to prevent it. Focus on the problems students face and what strategies can reduce their stress. 
• Pandemic and mental health . The COVID-19 pandemic forced many people to be in isolation from social contacts. Review the potential effects of this practice on people’s well-being. Discuss possible strategies for supporting mental health during possible future pandemics. 
• Weight, self-image, and mental health. A clinical psychology thesis can focus on the psychology behind excess weight. Discuss how weight affects a person’s perception of self. Assess implications for clinical psychologists who work with overweight patients. 
• Social media vs. reality: normalizing real people. Review current efforts of social media accounts in normalizing body image . Explain how this can reverse the damage that edited photos have on mental health. 
• How does gender bias affect mental health in America? 
• What factors affect women’s self-esteem in the workplace? 
• Specifics of transgender mental health. 
• Research the effect of immigration on mental well-being. 
• Study the psychology of racism and ways to combat it.  
• What distinguishes the mental health of minorities in the US? 
• Research the psychology of dissent in the Soviet Union. 
• The connection between stress and overeating: latest developments. 
• Assess the role of social support for losing weight . 
• What’s the role of prejudice in politics? 
• Assess the role of endurance in combating stress . 
• Developing hardiness: strategies and exercises. 
• What’s the effect of emotional resilience on mental health? 
• Helping teenagers overcome stress via relaxation techniques . 
• Look into the perception of anger and its effect on mental health. 
• Understanding the function of the prefrontal cortex in terms of how it is connected to other parts of the brain. 
• Understanding how the prefrontal cortex makes us human. 
• How emotional and anxiety disorders are connected to social cognition that is impaired. 
• Analyze the ability of an MRI to determine brain function. 
• Analyze the relationship between emotional and episodic memory. 
• A comparison of the plasticity of the child’s brain and the adult brain. 
• Analyze the continued relevance of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development.  
• An in-depth look at the social intuitionist model and how it relates to the emotion and reason involved in moral judgement. 
• How the evolution of the human brain can be understood in terms of children cognitive development . 
• A demonstration of the multi-dimensional nature of schizophrenia.  
• How rational thinking and impulse contribute to decision-making. 
• A systematic analysis and review of the psychology of religion. 
• How exposure to nature affects happiness. 

Nursing Dissertation Topics

A nurse’s work is hard. Unfortunately, they rarely get the credit they deserve. With a Ph.D., you could become an advocate on the problem. Or you could concentrate on optimizing their work environments.

• Exercise, changes in lifestyle , and self-tracking for diabetes prevention and management. Center your research on different lifestyle changes (exercise, reduced smoking and drinking) and explain how and why it prevents diabetes . 
• Influence of stigma related to HIV/AIDS on representatives of ethnic minorities: a case study of Native Americans. Using research, provide compelling evidence of how Native Americans are stigmatized and discriminated against. 
• Chronic illness management at home: recommended evidence-based practices. Using current nursing and other professional research, discuss how adults and seniors manage chronic and autoimmune diseases. 
• Depression and stress and their relation to preterm births in first-time mothers. Collect several articles about the issue and using their conclusions show how depression causes preterm births. 
• Burnout in nurses: factors that cause it and practical solutions for prevention . Present outcomes of burnout (decreased performance and concentration, subpar workplace environment) and illustrate how it affects hospitals on a more significant scale. 
• Public health: community-based measures to prevent morbid obesity. In this research, you can list various methods that include exercise and education and explain in detail how they prevent the spread of obesity. 
• Risk factors and injury rates in psychiatric nursing. Present statistics on different types of injuries in psychiatric institutions . 
• Cultural diversity and inclusion in nursing education . When researching diversity, make sure you are using examples of different minority groups’ perception of education. 
• Euthanasia legislation in the USA: ethical issues and debates . Provide a thoughtful discussion of ethical and legal issues surrounding euthanasia. 
• Organizational climate and its influence on perceived patient safety . Your study should focus on the importance of positive relationships between staff members, and its influence on the prevention of medical errors. 
• Dietary practices and their influence on the quality of life in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. SLE is a complex disease that requires a multidisciplinary approach. Describe nutritional research approaches to SLE. 
• Fluoride application training in dental nursing. 
• Describe the specifics of nursing care for patients with diabetes . 
• Assess gender disparity in nursing research. 
• Study nurse burnout prevalence in neonatal care in your community. 
• Nursing staff advising DASH diet: effects on patients’ blood pressure.  
• What are the challenges of asthma management for nurses? 
• Nursing for autistic patients : the best strategies. 
• Racial differences in nursing care: a case study. 
• Evaluate nurses’ role in pain management for patients with dementia.  
• Study the connection between nursing staff turnover and burnout. 
• How is the role of a nurse changing in the modern healthcare system?  
• Review nursing practices for managing elderly patients.  
• A holistic approach to obesity management in nursing. 
• Describe the specifics of nursing in rural areas . 
• Physical activity and mental health: a nursing case study. 
• Discuss nursing pain relief strategies for general care.  
• Determine the ethical implications of nursing malpractice.  
• Nurses consultations for spinal cord injuries . 
• Nursing in an urban setting : challenges and prospects. 
• What are the specifics of pain management in obstetrical nursing? 

Marketing Dissertation Topics

Good marketing is what made you buy that product you didn’t know you needed. Marketing needs plenty of scientific research for it to be successful. You can contribute to this effort with one of the following topic ideas:

• Compare and contrast the effectiveness of traditional and digital marketing in the last five years. Marketing moves towards digital campaigns more and more every year. Though, traditional marketing still exists, of course. Your task is to compare every aspect of these two types in the span of the previous five years. 
• The specifics of the relationship marketing and its influence on the loyalty rates among customers: a case study of fast-food chains. Take a few fast-food chains to conduct this research. Then analyze their relationship marketing strategies. There should be a correlation between the methods they use and the loyalty of their customers. 
• Direct marketing and artificial intelligence: how do companies use it? The industry of marketing couldn’t have missed the opportunity to use the latest technologies for their benefit. Artificial intelligence helps some companies gain a competitive advantage. Find out what those benefits are. 
• Collectivism and individualism : how does culture influence supermarkets? There are some apparent differences in cultures when it comes to shopping. Each shop owner has to implement a specific marketing strategy for targeting the customers. Work on aspects that make those strategies successful in different cultures. 
• The strategies that make personalized products sell effectively. Everybody loves customized products, but it seems like not everybody is willing to share their data to get it. Therefore, businesses are forced to work it out. This research looks into marketing tools and methods they use to sell personalized products. 
• Influence of online shopping apps on impulsive buying behavior . Using prominent examples such as Amazon and eBay , elaborate how apps affect customer’s decision to purchase an item through recommendations. 
• Product design and its impact on consumer’s purchase decision. When preparing this thesis topic, consider using examples of large corporations such as Apple or IKEA to prove your point. 
• Customer loyalty : the importance of satisfaction and loyalty programs. Conduct research using available surveys on satisfaction and draw conclusions from these statistics. 
• Ethnic differences and their impact on brand perception. This research can review the types of products that target White or Black Americans specifically. 
• Preferences for green products: analysis of the income’s influence on consumer decisions. Compare what households are more likely to prefer green products. 
• Shopping habits of Muslim consumers in the USA: qualitative research. Here, you will need to do research by engaging Muslim Americans in your study; you can use interviews or surveys for this topic. 
• Social media and its impact on the promotion of small business. Make sure your reader understands how social media can promote or negatively present small business through customers’ comments. 
• Does globalization make preferences of customers from different socioeconomic backgrounds similar? Interview people from lower, middle, and upper class and discuss the preferences of American households. 
• Social media usage by international companies: a case study of Electronic Arts. Study the influence of customers’ reviews and opinions on EA’s sales. 
• Consumers’ perception of transaction safety in online shopping applications. Discuss how consumers learn to differentiate between reliable and unreliable apps for payments . 
• Marketing high tech products: a case study. 
• Study changing marketing techniques during the COVID-19 pandemic.  
• The future of big data uses in marketing. 
• Conduct a comparative analysis of offline vs. online advertising . 
• Explore the relationship between marketing strategies and sales.  
• Holiday marketing strategies in the 21st century. 
• Is marketing tailed towards model devices effective? 
• Study the rise of influencer marketing . 
• Review the newest trends in digital advertising . 
• Brand management in 2020: an analysis. 
• Assess the effect of advertising on consumer behavior.  
• Targeted ads: are they efficient? 
• How did marketing change during the COVID-19 pandemic? 
• Assess brand management’s contribution to consumer loyalty . 
• Impact of social media marketing on brand perception. 
• Google Analytics insights for marketing campaigns.  
• Marketing for minority populations. 
• Youtube marketing: the effectiveness of videos for brand promotion. 
• How does partnering with influencers impact brand perception? 
• Social influencer marketing for SMEs. 

History Dissertation Topics

History is written not only by the victors but also by history students. Your dissertation can shine a light on understudied cultures. Or perhaps you want to focus on how a specific event impacted the world. Find inspiration among the following dissertation questions and ideas:

• The historical context of the creation of Guernica by Pablo Picasso . War wasn’t the only inspiration for Pablo Picasso during the process of making Guernica . In this paper, you would look into the environment of the artist and try to identify what else brought him to the creation of this masterpiece. 
• Bismarck and radical nationalism: what influenced the political state? For this research, you would study the underlying reasons for German Nazism before the beginning of World War II. What factors gave it a start when Otto von Bismarck was in charge? 
• The rise of Bollywood: historical context. This paper focuses on the success of Indian Bollywood movies in the 1930s. You would need to look into the events that made those movies famous in the whole world. Don’t forget to mention the social views of Bollywood movies. 
• The influence of secrecy in the technology intervention during World War II. You would study the role that the US Patent and Trademark Office played in the development of special war technology . Secrecy helped to keep it away from the public and enemies. How did it influence the war? 
• Italian prisons in the 19th century: how were they managed after Unification? This paper would require you to study documentation on the management system prison used in Italy at the beginning of the 19th century. You should try to find some practices that might have been socially harmful. 
• Gender perceptions in the Middle Age. When preparing the dissertation, use both historical and literary sources to show how gender was presented. 
• Secularization in the American South during the post-war period. Provide a detailed discussion of secular societies forming in the South after the 1940s. 
• Representation of Jewish history in contemporary art: a case study of Art Spiegelman’s Maus . Using the comic book as the primary basis, explain how Jewish culture and history are presented there. 

• The history of medieval warfare and its influence on Modern Era warfare . When constructing this thesis, make sure you are using both historical and current research to provide details. 
• American-British relations during the Cold War Era . Explain how the Cold War Era changes these relations and what has affected it the most. 
• Germany’s foreign relations during the 1980s. Present a detailed overview of different foreign relations (e.g., with the USA, the USSR, the UK) Germany had during this period. 
• The financial crisis in the USA in 2007-2009. Using research and media sources, explain to the reader how the crisis is still affecting the USA.  
• The development of Austrian identity after World War II. In this case, you can use both historical evidence and Austrian literature that provides personal opinions of writers and artists on the issue. 
• The impact of the Great Depression on the American involvement in the World War II. To show your understanding of historical processes, demonstrate how the Great Depression affected the USA’s perception of WWII. 
• How I stopped worrying and learned to love the bomb: the development of nuclear warfare in the 20th century. Discuss the development of nuclear warfare in the USA and the USSR. 
• What was the role of China in the Cold War? 
• How did the Spanish Flu affect the pandemics that followed it? 
• Determine the influence of the stock market crash in 1929 on the World Wars. 
• First Battle of Marne’s impact on the outcomes of WWI. 
• Tool usage and creation: Aztecs vs. Mayas. 
• How did the enlightenment philosophy impact the development of the natural sciences? 
• The effects of Christianization in sub-Saharan Africa. 
• Assess the role of slavery in the US civil rights movement. 
• Study the history of LGBT rights establishment in the US. 
• What are the origins of slavery in Africa?  
• The Moon Landing and its impact on space exploration. 
• Explore the role of the Bible in Jewish history. 
• The US’ involvement in WWII. 
• The aftermath of WWII: major historical events. 
• Research the link between the Mexican-American War and the Gold Rush . 
• Cold War insights: lessons from the Suez Crisis. 
• Explore the role of democratization in the Soviet Union collapse.  
• Global cooperation in early modern Europe. 
• Study the legacy of the arms race. 
• How did the First Ladies influence life in the 20th century America? 

Dissertation Topics in Management

Companies and employees alike benefit from well-thought-out management strategies. So, a thesis in management has the potential to improve work environments even further. Kickstart your research by choosing one of the following topics:

• Ecotourism in Canada: issues and trends in small business. Explain issues that arise in ecotourism with climate change. 
• Management ethics: how social media affects employees’ privacy and organizational climate. Present examples of negative and positive influence. 
• Leadership styles : a comparison of democratic and autocratic leadership. Discuss what leadership style should be chosen to rule various companies, depending on their business plan. 
• Political risk and its influence on emergency management . Explain how political crises affect and shape emergency management. 
• Cultural diversity and its impact on employees’ satisfaction and commitment. Show what advantages and disadvantages there are in cultural diversity. 
• Economic growth and unemployment rates in Australia during the 1990s: a historical perspective. Explain the causes of economic growth and unemployment. 
• Challenges in human resources management working with millennials: qualitative research. Discuss what particular challenges HR managers face and how they can be addressed. 
• The significance of organizational routines in international corporations: a case study of Google. Conduct research on the importance of routine and its impact on performance. 
• Computer skills and management: the effectiveness of computerized management information system in rural areas. Describe how digital management can be effectively applied in companies working in rural areas. 
• The history of digital rights management in the USA. Present the changes in the field during the 1990s-2010s. 
• Analyze the best leadership styles for SMEs. 
• Examine the changes entrepreneurship underwent in the past decades. 
• How do leadership styles relate to work satisfaction ? 
• Overview of business negotiation methods using technology. 
• Ways of integrating corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. 
• Discuss the specifics of airline companies’ management . 
• Choose a theory of motivation in the workplace and make a case study on it. 
• Study change management in SMEs in times of a crisis. 
• Managing diverse workforce: a qualitative analysis.  
• Use of employee voice in US companies. 
• Research the relationship between the organization’s goals and a manager’s behavior. 
• What are the best current practices in public administration ? 
• Applying strategic human capital principles in practice. 
• The study of female CEOs in a country of your choice. 
• Employees’ perception of change management : a quantitative analysis. 
• A study of employees’ resistance to change.  
• What’s the correlation between a CEO’s leadership traits and employee motivation ? 
• Workplace risk management : a study of psychosocial hazards. 
• Conduct a quantitative study of the gender pay gap for CEOs. 
• Research the relationship between management style and employee productivity . 

Qualitative Dissertation: Ideas for Proposals

If you want your thesis to be more practical, you’ve come to the right section. Common approaches for qualitative dissertations include researching case studies, surveys, or ethnographies. Because of this, fieldwork will be an integral part of your doctorate journey.

• A comparison of teaching techniques that targeted children with autism in the 20th and 21st centuries. Provide a detailed overview of techniques and explain how research affected them. 
• The development of cognitive-behavioral therapy and its effectiveness in patients with eating disorders . Present the history of CBT and use recent research to demonstrate its effectiveness. 
• Ageism and sexism in international organizations of the fashion industry. Describe how the fashion industry defines what it means to be “young and beautiful.” 
• Addressing sexual harassment at the workplace : the influence of organizational policies on targets’ decision to file a complaint. Explain what policies can support the target and what can prevent such decision. 
• Strategies to eliminate bias in self-evaluation reports of employees. Using research in HRM, outline the best strategies that are currently used to avoid bias . 
• Post-cancer therapy: issues and trends. Present and discuss various trends, the research behind them, and the effectiveness of different types of therapy. 
• A family history of abuse and its influence on drug use in adults. Explain how abuse can provoke addiction in the future. 
• The importance of trusting doctor-patient relationships on patient’s medication adherence and management of a healthy lifestyle. Describe how such relationships negatively or positively affect a patient’s decision to take medicine as prescribed. 
• Barriers to the acquisition of social support among young men and women veterans in the USA. Discuss mental and physical disorders as major barriers. 
• Single mothers’ perceptions of breastfeeding in public places: qualitative research. Conduct interviews to find out their opinion. 
• The impact of online learning on student’s academic performance. 
• A study of the youths’ perception of learning smartphone applications. 
• Research the issue of gender bias in college education.  
• Student’s perception of the mental health support and impact on campus. 
• Perceptions of charter school education in the 21 century. 
• Discuss homeschooling and its effect on a child’s socialization. 
• What’s the impact of cyberbullying on teenagers’ mental health? 
• How inmates perceive alternative forms of incarceration. 
• Gun violence from the perspective of victims. 
• Research bias towards video games as an art form. 
• In what ways are minorities disadvantaged in America?  
• Evaluate cooking as a therapeutic exercise. 
• Assess the link between a principal’s leadership style and the school’s rating. 
• The effect of online counseling on patients’ mental health. 
• Perception of mental health stigma among students. 
• How does gig economy re-define work? 
• The implications of freelancing in the 2020s. 
• Opinions about a 6-day work week in your community. 
• Assess the process of adaptation to working from home . 
• Conduct a research study of views on the BLM movement outside the US. 

Quantitative Dissertation Proposal Topics

Some scholars just love working with data. Are you one of them? Then you’ll probably enjoy quantitative research. If you’re into finding patterns and making predictions, here are some enticing topics:

• A study of a major city’s livability index. Choose a city and assess whether it’s well-designed or not. 
• A quantitative study of biofilms in technology. Discuss methods of using biofilms in technology. Include a list of recent advances and new tools. 
• A quantitative study of teachers’ perception of online learning . This topic prompts you to use an evaluation scale. 
• An assessment of a link between product reviews and intention to purchase. Study the effect online reviews have on potential customers. 
• Immigration and its connection to crime statistics . Analyze data on immigration to the US and the number of violent crimes. Determine the relationship between the two phenomena. 
• The relationship between obesity and occupation. Assess the BMIs of participants of different professions. Then, test the results for a correlation and discuss its implications. 
• A relationship between nurses’ knowledge of diabetes management and patient satisfaction. Assess the nurses’ knowledge about diabetes and compare the results with patient satisfaction scores. Thus, you can determine if expertise translates into better care. 
• A study of the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on SMEs financial operations. With this qualitative dissertation proposal in business and management, choose a small company. Analyze its financial data pre- and post-pandemic. Include a discussion of financial management during pandemics. 
• A study of millennials ’ pet ownership. Determine the percentage of millennials who have pets. Compare these patterns with previous generations. 
• Economic growth and urbanization. Compare the empirical data about the state of economics and the number of people living in cities. 
• Determine how urbanization affects bacterial community compositions. 
• The economic impact of immigration on SMEs. 
• Study the rates of crimes in the US in relation to nonviolent crimes. 
• How do various teaching styles affect learning? 
• Compare overconfidence in CEOs of SMEs and corporations. 
• How does inclusive language influence social behavior? 
• Assess consumers’ satisfaction with online banking in your area. 
• Evaluate crude oil price prediction methods.  
• Is there a link between smartphone use and mental illness? 
• Correlation between eyewitness identification and memory  
• What are the attitudes towards AI development among women? 
• Determine the rates of cybercrimes since the 1990s. 
• A study of the police brutality cases across the US in the last decade. 
• Correlation between education level and employment. 
• The presence of sleep disorders in mental illnesses. 
• Assess the attitudes towards medical care in the US . 
• Determine the correlation between eating disorders and physical illness. 
• Study the rates of cyberbullying among minority students.  
• How various religious groups influence politics : a game-theoretical approach. 
• Does regular exercise decrease symptoms of depression in adults?  

Dissertation Topics in Educational Leadership

Educational leadership is a science focused on helping students to achieve their academic goals. It includes the motivation of staff and learners, improvement of educational programs, and creation of a healthy, productive environment in institutions. Want to dedicate your research to it? Take a look at these topic samples:

• Fatigue among American medical students. Medical students often need to memorize and analyze big portions of information. That is why many of them don’t sleep enough, get tired quickly, and find it hard to concentrate. What can be done about it?
• How did the COVID-19 pandemic and distance learning affect students’ motivation? Online education has multiple benefits and drawbacks. Some students might find it easier to get access to various textbooks online. Others want to return to campus. What is their motivation ?
• Creating better learning conditions on campus : the challenges in 2022. With the increasing speed of technological progress, it is hard to catch up with the latest innovations. Explore them in your dissertation. For instance, you can focus on facilities for students with special needs .
• How can we enhance discipline among first-year students on campus? For some younger students, it is hard to get used to living on their own. They need to accept new responsibilities, find time to take care of themselves, and organize their lives. How can we help them?
• Development of soft skills among undergraduate students. For future employers, soft skills are as important as hard skills. That is why colleges need to pay attention to soft skills such as time management , communication, and creativity.
• The efficiency of workshops for enhancing students’ creativity.
• Do nutrition habits influence the studying process?
• The importance of mental health care in high school.
• What leadership styles are the most efficient in college communities?
• Does the implementation of early childhood education lead to further academic success?
• What is the role of school counseling among teenagers?
• What psychological factors make students drop out of college?
• Developing leadership qualities among MBA students.
• How to help college athletes to cope with psychological and physical pressure.
• Ways of reducing anxiety levels among criminology students.
• Helping students to choose their majors and find a career path.
• How to enhance communication between higher education administration and students?
• Motivating students to succeed after graduation .
• Why do we need psychology classes in high school?
• How can we prevent the bullying of Latin American students in middle and high school?

✅ How to Choose a Thesis Topic: Main Steps

In case you have no idea where to start from, here is a quick guideline on how to choose a Ph.D. thesis topic:

We hope this article helped you to choose a suitable topic for your dissertation. We wish you good luck with your research!

Learn more on this topic:

• Dissertation Critique: Examples, How-to Guide
• The Ultimate Guide to Writing an Outstanding Dissertation
• How to Write an Abstract: Brief Steps and Structure Example

✏️ Dissertation FAQ

While working on a dissertation, you might deal with several types of research. The main research types are primary, qualitative, quantitative, and legal. In any case, it’s the way in which a researcher studies the subject using a particular methodology.

First of all, make sure that you are personally fascinated by the subject. This is essential for any thesis, be it master’s or an undergraduate dissertation. Besides, make sure the topic is feasible and hasn’t been studies much.

A good dissertation title is the one that represents the subject under study. To state which aspect is being studied is also important. The title should include neither a hypothesis nor a conclusion: think about it as “spoilers”—nobody likes them.

Just like any paper, a great dissertation is the one that is well-organized. The topic of the paper should correspond to the title. The text should have a cohesive structure with a definite introduction, argumentative main part, and a logical conclusion.

🔗 References

• Dissertation Topics 1961-Present: Rudgers University
• Completed Thesis and Dissertation Topics: University of Florida
• Current Legal Topics: Library of Congress
• The Right Dissertation Topic: Academics.com
• Days and Nights at the Museum…there’s a Dissertation for that!: Proquest.com
• Dissertation Titles: University of Michigan
• How to Pick a Master’s Thesis Topic: Medium.com
• How to Come Up With a Thesis Topic: Gradschools.com
• How to Choose Your Thesis Topic: Central European University
• How Do I Choose a Thesis Topic?: Grad School Hub
• Senior Thesis Topics: Hamilton College
• Arizona Research Topics: Arizona State Library
• Dissertation Proposal: Bartleby.com
• Dissertation Guide Essay
• How to Start Your Dissertation: 10 Top Tips: Studential.com
• How to Write a Dissertation or Bedtime Reading for People Who do not Have Time to Sleep: Purdue University
• A Step-By-Step Guide to Writing a Ph.D. Dissertation: ThoughtCo
• Dissertations Guide from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Developing a Thesis Statement: University of Wisconsin Madison
• Thesis/Dissertation Writing and Editing, Formatting, and Defending: Massey University
• Business Management Research Topics: Top Universities
• Law Topics: Law.com
• Psychology Topics: APA
• Marketing Topics: Marketing Profs
• Topics: History.com
• Computer Science: Encyclopedia Britannica
• Humanities: Research Topics Ideas: University of Michigan-Flint
• Art Topics: Art UK
• Topics: American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Nurses Topics: Medscape
• Architecture: Research Topics: University of Washington
• Topics in Geography: Research Gate
• New Topics in Sociology: University of Toronto
• Business Management Topics: The University of Maine
• Qualitative Case Study: Science.gov
• All Topics: Science News
• Criminology: Science Direct
• Topics in Literature: Sheridan College: Libguides
• Advanced Computer Science Topics: The University of Texas at Austin
• Application of Computer Techniques in Medicine: NIH
• Important Leadership and Management Topics: WHO
• Quantitative Research: University of Southern California
• Action Research: Brown University
• 10 Traits of Successful School Leaders: University of San Diego
• HIST 280 Topics: Texas A&M University
• The Relationship Between Burnout, Depression, and Anxiety: Frontiers In
• College of Nursing: University of Missouri–St. Louis
• All Topics: Educause
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• Dissertation
• Thesis & Dissertation Title Page | Free Templates & Examples

Thesis & Dissertation Title Page | Free Templates & Examples

Published on May 19, 2022 by Tegan George . Revised on July 18, 2023.

The title page (or cover page) of your thesis , dissertation , or research paper should contain all the key information about your document. It usually includes:

• Dissertation or thesis title
• The type of document (e.g., dissertation, research paper)
• The department and institution
• The degree program (e.g., Master of Arts)
• The date of submission

It sometimes also includes your dissertation topic or field of study, your student number, your supervisor’s name, and your university’s logo.

Table of contents

Title page format, title page templates, title page example, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions.

Your department will usually tell you exactly what should be included on your title page and how it should be formatted. Be sure to check whether there are specific guidelines for margins, spacing, and font size.

Title pages for APA and MLA style

The format of your title page can also depend on the citation style you’re using. There may be guidelines in regards to alignment, page numbering, and mandatory elements.

• MLA guidelines for formatting the title page
• APA guidelines for formatting the title page

Here's why students love Scribbr's proofreading services

Discover proofreading & editing

We’ve created a few templates to help you design the title page for your thesis, dissertation, or research paper. You can download them in the format of your choice by clicking on the corresponding button.

Research paper Google Doc

Dissertation Google Doc

Thesis Google Doc

A typical example of a thesis title page looks like this:

If you want to know more about AI for academic writing, AI tools, or research bias, make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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The title page of your thesis or dissertation should include your name, department, institution, degree program, and submission date.

Usually, no title page is needed in an MLA paper . A header is generally included at the top of the first page instead. The exceptions are when:

• Your instructor requires one, or
• Your paper is a group project

In those cases, you should use a title page instead of a header, listing the same information but on a separate page.

The title page of your thesis or dissertation goes first, before all other content or lists that you may choose to include.

In most styles, the title page is used purely to provide information and doesn’t include any images. Ask your supervisor if you are allowed to include an image on the title page before doing so. If you do decide to include one, make sure to check whether you need permission from the creator of the image.

Include a note directly beneath the image acknowledging where it comes from, beginning with the word “ Note .” (italicized and followed by a period). Include a citation and copyright attribution . Don’t title, number, or label the image as a figure , since it doesn’t appear in your main text.

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George, T. (2023, July 18). Thesis & Dissertation Title Page | Free Templates & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved September 27, 2023, from https://www.scribbr.com/dissertation/title-page/

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Dissertation Structure & Layout 101: How to structure your dissertation, thesis or research project.

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) Reviewed By: David Phair (PhD) | July 2019

So, you’ve got a decent understanding of what a dissertation is , you’ve chosen your topic and hopefully you’ve received approval for your research proposal . Awesome! Now its time to start the actual dissertation or thesis writing journey.

To craft a high-quality document, the very first thing you need to understand is dissertation structure . In this post, we’ll walk you through the generic dissertation structure and layout, step by step. We’ll start with the big picture, and then zoom into each chapter to briefly discuss the core contents. If you’re just starting out on your research journey, you should start with this post, which covers the big-picture process of how to write a dissertation or thesis .

*The Caveat *

In this post, we’ll be discussing a traditional dissertation/thesis structure and layout, which is generally used for social science research across universities, whether in the US, UK, Europe or Australia. However, some universities may have small variations on this structure (extra chapters, merged chapters, slightly different ordering, etc).

So, always check with your university if they have a prescribed structure or layout that they expect you to work with. If not, it’s safe to assume the structure we’ll discuss here is suitable. And even if they do have a prescribed structure, you’ll still get value from this post as we’ll explain the core contents of each section.  

Overview: S tructuring a dissertation or thesis

• Acknowledgements page
• Abstract (or executive summary)
• Table of contents , list of figures and tables
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Literature review
• Chapter 3: Methodology
• Chapter 4: Results
• Chapter 5: Discussion
• Chapter 6: Conclusion
• Reference list

As I mentioned, some universities will have slight variations on this structure. For example, they want an additional “personal reflection chapter”, or they might prefer the results and discussion chapter to be merged into one. Regardless, the overarching flow will always be the same, as this flow reflects the research process , which we discussed here – i.e.:

• The introduction chapter presents the core research question and aims .
• The literature review chapter assesses what the current research says about this question.
• The methodology, results and discussion chapters go about undertaking new research about this question.
• The conclusion chapter (attempts to) answer the core research question.

In other words, the dissertation structure and layout reflect the research process of asking a well-defined question(s), investigating, and then answering the question – see below.

To restate that – the structure and layout of a dissertation reflect the flow of the overall research process . This is essential to understand, as each chapter will make a lot more sense if you “get” this concept. If you’re not familiar with the research process, read this post before going further.

Right. Now that we’ve covered the big picture, let’s dive a little deeper into the details of each section and chapter. Oh and by the way, you can also grab our free dissertation/thesis template here to help speed things up.

The title page of your dissertation is the very first impression the marker will get of your work, so it pays to invest some time thinking about your title. But what makes for a good title? A strong title needs to be 3 things:

• Succinct (not overly lengthy or verbose)
• Specific (not vague or ambiguous)
• Representative of the research you’re undertaking (clearly linked to your research questions)

Typically, a good title includes mention of the following:

• The broader area of the research (i.e. the overarching topic)
• The specific focus of your research (i.e. your specific context)
• Indication of research design (e.g. quantitative , qualitative , or  mixed methods ).

For example:

A quantitative investigation [research design] into the antecedents of organisational trust [broader area] in the UK retail forex trading market [specific context/area of focus].

Again, some universities may have specific requirements regarding the format and structure of the title, so it’s worth double-checking expectations with your institution (if there’s no mention in the brief or study material).

Acknowledgements

This page provides you with an opportunity to say thank you to those who helped you along your research journey. Generally, it’s optional (and won’t count towards your marks), but it is academic best practice to include this.

So, who do you say thanks to? Well, there’s no prescribed requirements, but it’s common to mention the following people:

• Your dissertation supervisor or committee.
• Any professors, lecturers or academics that helped you understand the topic or methodologies.
• Any tutors, mentors or advisors.
• Your family and friends, especially spouse (for adult learners studying part-time).

There’s no need for lengthy rambling. Just state who you’re thankful to and for what (e.g. thank you to my supervisor, John Doe, for his endless patience and attentiveness) – be sincere. In terms of length, you should keep this to a page or less.

Abstract or executive summary

The dissertation abstract (or executive summary for some degrees) serves to provide the first-time reader (and marker or moderator) with a big-picture view of your research project. It should give them an understanding of the key insights and findings from the research, without them needing to read the rest of the report – in other words, it should be able to stand alone .

For it to stand alone, your abstract should cover the following key points (at a minimum):

• Your research questions and aims – what key question(s) did your research aim to answer?
• Your methodology – how did you go about investigating the topic and finding answers to your research question(s)?
• Your findings – following your own research, what did do you discover?
• Your conclusions – based on your findings, what conclusions did you draw? What answers did you find to your research question(s)?

So, in much the same way the dissertation structure mimics the research process, your abstract or executive summary should reflect the research process, from the initial stage of asking the original question to the final stage of answering that question.

In practical terms, it’s a good idea to write this section up last , once all your core chapters are complete. Otherwise, you’ll end up writing and rewriting this section multiple times (just wasting time). For a step by step guide on how to write a strong executive summary, check out this post .

Need a helping hand?

Table of contents

This section is straightforward. You’ll typically present your table of contents (TOC) first, followed by the two lists – figures and tables. I recommend that you use Microsoft Word’s automatic table of contents generator to generate your TOC. If you’re not familiar with this functionality, the video below explains it simply:

If you find that your table of contents is overly lengthy, consider removing one level of depth. Oftentimes, this can be done without detracting from the usefulness of the TOC.

Right, now that the “admin” sections are out of the way, its time to move on to your core chapters. These chapters are the heart of your dissertation and are where you’ll earn the marks. The first chapter is the introduction chapter – as you would expect, this is the time to introduce your research…

It’s important to understand that even though you’ve provided an overview of your research in your abstract, your introduction needs to be written as if the reader has not read that (remember, the abstract is essentially a standalone document). So, your introduction chapter needs to start from the very beginning, and should address the following questions:

• What will you be investigating (in plain-language, big picture-level)?
• Why is that worth investigating? How is it important to academia or business? How is it sufficiently original?
• What are your research aims and research question(s)? Note that the research questions can sometimes be presented at the end of the literature review (next chapter).
• What is the scope of your study? In other words, what will and won’t you cover ?
• How will you approach your research? In other words, what methodology will you adopt?
• How will you structure your dissertation? What are the core chapters and what will you do in each of them?

These are just the bare basic requirements for your intro chapter. Some universities will want additional bells and whistles in the intro chapter, so be sure to carefully read your brief or consult your research supervisor.

If done right, your introduction chapter will set a clear direction for the rest of your dissertation. Specifically, it will make it clear to the reader (and marker) exactly what you’ll be investigating, why that’s important, and how you’ll be going about the investigation. Conversely, if your introduction chapter leaves a first-time reader wondering what exactly you’ll be researching, you’ve still got some work to do.

Now that you’ve set a clear direction with your introduction chapter, the next step is the literature review . In this section, you will analyse the existing research (typically academic journal articles and high-quality industry publications), with a view to understanding the following questions:

• What does the literature currently say about the topic you’re investigating?
• Is the literature lacking or well established? Is it divided or in disagreement?
• How does your research fit into the bigger picture?
• How does your research contribute something original?
• How does the methodology of previous studies help you develop your own?

Depending on the nature of your study, you may also present a conceptual framework towards the end of your literature review, which you will then test in your actual research.

Again, some universities will want you to focus on some of these areas more than others, some will have additional or fewer requirements, and so on. Therefore, as always, its important to review your brief and/or discuss with your supervisor, so that you know exactly what’s expected of your literature review chapter.

Now that you’ve investigated the current state of knowledge in your literature review chapter and are familiar with the existing key theories, models and frameworks, its time to design your own research. Enter the methodology chapter – the most “science-ey” of the chapters…

In this chapter, you need to address two critical questions:

• Exactly HOW will you carry out your research (i.e. what is your intended research design)?
• Exactly WHY have you chosen to do things this way (i.e. how do you justify your design)?

Remember, the dissertation part of your degree is first and foremost about developing and demonstrating research skills . Therefore, the markers want to see that you know which methods to use, can clearly articulate why you’ve chosen then, and know how to deploy them effectively.

Importantly, this chapter requires detail – don’t hold back on the specifics. State exactly what you’ll be doing, with who, when, for how long, etc. Moreover, for every design choice you make, make sure you justify it.

In practice, you will likely end up coming back to this chapter once you’ve undertaken all your data collection and analysis, and revise it based on changes you made during the analysis phase. This is perfectly fine. Its natural for you to add an additional analysis technique, scrap an old one, etc based on where your data lead you. Of course, I’m talking about small changes here – not a fundamental switch from qualitative to quantitative, which will likely send your supervisor in a spin!

You’ve now collected your data and undertaken your analysis, whether qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods. In this chapter, you’ll present the raw results of your analysis . For example, in the case of a quant study, you’ll present the demographic data, descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, etc.

Typically, Chapter 4 is simply a presentation and description of the data, not a discussion of the meaning of the data. In other words, it’s descriptive, rather than analytical – the meaning is discussed in Chapter 5. However, some universities will want you to combine chapters 4 and 5, so that you both present and interpret the meaning of the data at the same time. Check with your institution what their preference is.

Now that you’ve presented the data analysis results, its time to interpret and analyse them. In other words, its time to discuss what they mean, especially in relation to your research question(s).

What you discuss here will depend largely on your chosen methodology. For example, if you’ve gone the quantitative route, you might discuss the relationships between variables . If you’ve gone the qualitative route, you might discuss key themes and the meanings thereof. It all depends on what your research design choices were.

Most importantly, you need to discuss your results in relation to your research questions and aims, as well as the existing literature. What do the results tell you about your research questions? Are they aligned with the existing research or at odds? If so, why might this be? Dig deep into your findings and explain what the findings suggest, in plain English.

The final chapter – you’ve made it! Now that you’ve discussed your interpretation of the results, its time to bring it back to the beginning with the conclusion chapter . In other words, its time to (attempt to) answer your original research question s (from way back in chapter 1). Clearly state what your conclusions are in terms of your research questions. This might feel a bit repetitive, as you would have touched on this in the previous chapter, but its important to bring the discussion full circle and explicitly state your answer(s) to the research question(s).

Next, you’ll typically discuss the implications of your findings? In other words, you’ve answered your research questions – but what does this mean for the real world (or even for academia)? What should now be done differently, given the new insight you’ve generated?

Lastly, you should discuss the limitations of your research, as well as what this means for future research in the area. No study is perfect, especially not a Masters-level. Discuss the shortcomings of your research. Perhaps your methodology was limited, perhaps your sample size was small or not representative, etc, etc. Don’t be afraid to critique your work – the markers want to see that you can identify the limitations of your work. This is a strength, not a weakness. Be brutal!

This marks the end of your core chapters – woohoo! From here on out, it’s pretty smooth sailing.

The reference list is straightforward. It should contain a list of all resources cited in your dissertation, in the required format, e.g. APA , Harvard, etc.

It’s essential that you use reference management software for your dissertation. Do NOT try handle your referencing manually – its far too error prone. On a reference list of multiple pages, you’re going to make mistake. To this end, I suggest considering either Mendeley or Zotero. Both are free and provide a very straightforward interface to ensure that your referencing is 100% on point. I’ve included a simple how-to video for the Mendeley software (my personal favourite) below:

Some universities may ask you to include a bibliography, as opposed to a reference list. These two things are not the same . A bibliography is similar to a reference list, except that it also includes resources which informed your thinking but were not directly cited in your dissertation. So, double-check your brief and make sure you use the right one.

The very last piece of the puzzle is the appendix or set of appendices. This is where you’ll include any supporting data and evidence. Importantly, supporting is the keyword here.

Your appendices should provide additional “nice to know”, depth-adding information, which is not critical to the core analysis. Appendices should not be used as a way to cut down word count (see this post which covers how to reduce word count ). In other words, don’t place content that is critical to the core analysis here, just to save word count. You will not earn marks on any content in the appendices, so don’t try to play the system!

Time to recap…

And there you have it – the traditional dissertation structure and layout, from A-Z. To recap, the core structure for a dissertation or thesis is (typically) as follows:

• Acknowledgments page

Most importantly, the core chapters should reflect the research process (asking, investigating and answering your research question). Moreover, the research question(s) should form the golden thread throughout your dissertation structure. Everything should revolve around the research questions, and as you’ve seen, they should form both the start point (i.e. introduction chapter) and the endpoint (i.e. conclusion chapter).

I hope this post has provided you with clarity about the traditional dissertation/thesis structure and layout. If you have any questions or comments, please leave a comment below, or feel free to get in touch with us. Also, be sure to check out the rest of the  Grad Coach Blog .

Psst… there’s more (for free)

This post is part of our dissertation mini-course, which covers everything you need to get started with your dissertation, thesis or research project. 

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33 Comments

many thanks i found it very useful

Glad to hear that, Arun. Good luck writing your dissertation.

Such clear practical logical advice. I very much needed to read this to keep me focused in stead of fretting.. Perfect now ready to start my research!

what about scientific fields like computer or engineering thesis what is the difference in the structure? thank you very much

Thanks so much this helped me a lot!

Very helpful and accessible. What I like most is how practical the advice is along with helpful tools/ links.

Thanks Ade!

Thank you so much sir.. It was really helpful..

You’re welcome!

Hi! How many words maximum should contain the abstract?

Thank you so much 😊 Find this at the right moment

You’re most welcome. Good luck with your dissertation.

best ever benefit i got on right time thank you

Many times Clarity and vision of destination of dissertation is what makes the difference between good ,average and great researchers the same way a great automobile driver is fast with clarity of address and Clear weather conditions .

I guess Great researcher = great ideas + knowledge + great and fast data collection and modeling + great writing + high clarity on all these

You have given immense clarity from start to end.

Morning. Where will I write the definitions of what I’m referring to in my report?

Thank you so much Derek, I was almost lost! Thanks a tonnnn! Have a great day!

Thanks ! so concise and valuable

This was very helpful. Clear and concise. I know exactly what to do now.

Thank you for allowing me to go through briefly. I hope to find time to continue.

Really useful to me. Thanks a thousand times

Very interesting! It will definitely set me and many more for success. highly recommended.

Thank you soo much sir, for the opportunity to express my skills

Usefull, thanks a lot. Really clear

That was incredibly useful. Thanks Grad Coach Crew!

My stress level just dropped at least 15 points after watching this. Just starting my thesis for my grad program and I feel a lot more capable now! Thanks for such a clear and helpful video, Emma and the GradCoach team!

Do we need to mention the number of words the dissertation contains in the main document?

It depends on your university’s requirements, so it would be best to check with them 🙂

Such a helpful post to help me get started with structuring my masters dissertation, thank you!

Great video; I appreciate that helpful information

It is so necessary or avital course

This blog is very informative for my research. Thank you

Doctoral students are required to fill out the National Research Council’s Survey of Earned Doctorates

wow this is an amazing gain in my life

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• Print Friendly

• Formatting Your Dissertation
• Introduction

Harvard Griffin GSAS strives to provide students with timely, accurate, and clear information. If you need help understanding a specific policy, please contact the office that administers that policy.

• Application for Degree
• Credit for Completed Graduate Work
• Ad Hoc Degree Programs
• Acknowledging the Work of Others
• Advanced Planning
• Dissertation Submission Checklist
• Publishing Options
• Submitting Your Dissertation
• English Language Proficiency
• PhD Program Requirements
• Secondary Fields
• Year of Graduate Study (G-Year)
• Master's Degrees
• Grade and Examination Requirements
• Conduct and Safety
• Financial Aid
• Registration

On this page:

Language of the Dissertation

Page and text requirements, body of text, tables, figures, and captions, dissertation acceptance certificate, copyright statement.

• Table of Contents

Front and Back Matter

Supplemental material, dissertations comprising previously published works, top ten formatting errors, further questions.

• Related Contacts and Forms

When preparing the dissertation for submission, students must follow strict formatting requirements. Any deviation from these requirements may lead to rejection of the dissertation and delay in the conferral of the degree.

The language of the dissertation is ordinarily English, although some departments whose subject matter involves foreign languages may accept a dissertation written in a language other than English.

Most dissertations are 100 to 300 pages in length. All dissertations should be divided into appropriate sections, and long dissertations may need chapters, main divisions, and subdivisions.

• 8½ x 11 inches, unless a musical score is included
• At least 1 inch for all margins
• Body of text: double spacing
• Block quotations, footnotes, and bibliographies: single spacing within each entry but double spacing between each entry
• Table of contents, list of tables, list of figures or illustrations, and lengthy tables: single spacing may be used

Fonts and Point Size

Use 10-12 point size. Fonts must be embedded in the PDF file to ensure all characters display correctly. 

Recommended Fonts

If you are unsure whether your chosen font will display correctly, use one of the following fonts: 

If fonts are not embedded, non-English characters may not appear as intended. Fonts embedded improperly will be published to DASH as-is. It is the student’s responsibility to make sure that fonts are embedded properly prior to submission. 

Instructions for Embedding Fonts

To embed your fonts in recent versions of Word, follow these instructions from Microsoft:

• Click the File tab and then click Options .
• In the left column, select the Save tab.
• Clear the Do not embed common system fonts check box.

For reference, below are some instructions from ProQuest UMI for embedding fonts in older file formats:

To embed your fonts in Microsoft Word 2010:

• In the File pull-down menu click on Options .
• Choose Save on the left sidebar.
• Check the box next to Embed fonts in the file.
• Click the OK button.
• Save the document.

Note that when saving as a PDF, make sure to go to “more options” and save as “PDF/A compliant”

To embed your fonts in Microsoft Word 2007:

• Click the circular Office button in the upper left corner of Microsoft Word.
• A new window will display. In the bottom right corner select Word Options . 
• Choose Save from the left sidebar.

Using Microsoft Word on a Mac:

Microsoft Word 2008 on a Mac OS X computer will automatically embed your fonts while converting your document to a PDF file.

If you are converting to PDF using Acrobat Professional (instructions courtesy of the Graduate Thesis Office at Iowa State University):  

• Open your document in Microsoft Word. 
• Click on the Adobe PDF tab at the top. Select "Change Conversion Settings." 
• Click on Advanced Settings. 
• Click on the Fonts folder on the left side of the new window. In the lower box on the right, delete any fonts that appear in the "Never Embed" box. Then click "OK." 
• If prompted to save these new settings, save them as "Embed all fonts." 
• Now the Change Conversion Settings window should show "embed all fonts" in the Conversion Settings drop-down list and it should be selected. Click "OK" again. 
• Click on the Adobe PDF link at the top again. This time select Convert to Adobe PDF. Depending on the size of your document and the speed of your computer, this process can take 1-15 minutes. 
• After your document is converted, select the "File" tab at the top of the page. Then select "Document Properties." 
• Click on the "Fonts" tab. Carefully check all of your fonts. They should all show "(Embedded Subset)" after the font name. 
•  If you see "(Embedded Subset)" after all fonts, you have succeeded.

The font used in the body of the text must also be used in headers, page numbers, and footnotes. Exceptions are made only for tables and figures created with different software and inserted into the document.

Tables and figures must be placed as close as possible to their first mention in the text. They may be placed on a page with no text above or below, or they may be placed directly into the text. If a table or a figure is alone on a page (with no narrative), it should be centered within the margins on the page. Tables may take up more than one page as long as they obey all rules about margins. Tables and figures referred to in the text may not be placed at the end of the chapter or at the end of the dissertation.

• Given the standards of the discipline, dissertations in the Department of History of Art and Architecture and the Department of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning often place illustrations at the end of the dissertation.

Figure and table numbering must be continuous throughout the dissertation or by chapter (e.g., 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, etc.). Two figures or tables cannot be designated with the same number. If you have repeating images that you need to cite more than once, label them with their number and A, B, etc. 

Headings should be placed at the top of tables. While no specific rules for the format of table headings and figure captions are required, a consistent format must be used throughout the dissertation (contact your department for style manuals appropriate to the field).

Captions should appear at the bottom of any figures. If the figure takes up the entire page, the caption should be placed alone on the preceding page, centered vertically and horizontally within the margins.

Each page receives a separate page number. When a figure or table title is on a preceding page, the second and subsequent pages of the figure or table should say, for example, “Figure 5 (Continued).” In such an instance, the list of figures or tables will list the page number containing the title. The word “figure” should be written in full (not abbreviated), and the “F” should be capitalized (e.g., Figure 5). In instances where the caption continues on a second page, the “(Continued)” notation should appear on the second and any subsequent page. The figure/table and the caption are viewed as one entity and the numbering should show correlation between all pages. Each page must include a header.

Landscape orientation figures and tables must be positioned correctly and bound at the top so that the top of the figure or table will be at the left margin. Figure and table headings/captions are placed with the same orientation as the figure or table when on the same page. When on a separate page, headings/captions are always placed in portrait orientation, regardless of the orientation of the figure or table. Page numbers are always placed as if the figure were vertical on the page.

If a graphic artist does the figures, Harvard Griffin GSAS will accept lettering done by the artist only within the figure. Figures done with software are acceptable if the figures are clear and legible. Legends and titles done by the same process as the figures will be accepted if they too are clear, legible, and run at least 10 or 12 characters per inch. Otherwise, legends and captions should be printed with the same font used in the text.

Original illustrations, photographs, and fine arts prints may be scanned and included, centered between the margins on a page with no text above or below.

Use of Third-Party Content

In addition to the student's own writing, dissertations often contain third-party content or in-copyright content owned by parties other than you, the student who authored the dissertation. The Office for Scholarly Communication recommends consulting the information below about fair use, which allows individuals to use in-copyright content, on a limited basis and for specific purposes, without seeking permission from copyright holders.

Because your dissertation will be made available for online distribution through DASH , Harvard's open-access repository, it is important that any third-party content in it may be made available in this way.

Fair Use and Copyright 

What is fair use?

Fair use is a provision in copyright law that allows the use of a certain amount of copyrighted material without seeking permission. Fair use is format- and media-agnostic. This means fair use may apply to images (including photographs, illustrations, and paintings), quoting at length from literature, videos, and music regardless of the format. 

How do I determine whether my use of an image or other third-party content in my dissertation is fair use?  

There are four factors you will need to consider when making a fair use claim.

1) For what purpose is your work going to be used?

• Nonprofit, educational, scholarly, or research use favors fair use. Commercial, non-educational uses, often do not favor fair use.
• A transformative use (repurposing or recontextualizing the in-copyright material) favors fair use. Examining, analyzing, and explicating the material in a meaningful way, so as to enhance a reader's understanding, strengthens your fair use argument. In other words, can you make the point in the thesis without using, for instance, an in-copyright image? Is that image necessary to your dissertation? If not, perhaps, for copyright reasons, you should not include the image.  

2) What is the nature of the work to be used?

• Published, fact-based content favors fair use and includes scholarly analysis in published academic venues. 
• Creative works, including artistic images, are afforded more protection under copyright, and depending on your use in light of the other factors, may be less likely to favor fair use; however, this does not preclude considerations of fair use for creative content altogether.

3) How much of the work is going to be used?  

• Small, or less significant, amounts favor fair use. A good rule of thumb is to use only as much of the in-copyright content as necessary to serve your purpose. Can you use a thumbnail rather than a full-resolution image? Can you use a black-and-white photo instead of color? Can you quote select passages instead of including several pages of the content? These simple changes bolster your fair use of the material.

4) What potential effect on the market for that work may your use have?

• If there is a market for licensing this exact use or type of educational material, then this weighs against fair use. If however, there would likely be no effect on the potential commercial market, or if it is not possible to obtain permission to use the work, then this favors fair use. 

For further assistance with fair use, consult the Office for Scholarly Communication's guide, Fair Use: Made for the Harvard Community and the Office of the General Counsel's Copyright and Fair Use: A Guide for the Harvard Community .

What are my options if I don’t have a strong fair use claim? 

Consider the following options if you find you cannot reasonably make a fair use claim for the content you wish to incorporate:

• Seek permission from the copyright holder. 
• Use openly licensed content as an alternative to the original third-party content you intended to use. Openly-licensed content grants permission up-front for reuse of in-copyright content, provided your use meets the terms of the open license.
• Use content in the public domain, as this content is not in-copyright and is therefore free of all copyright restrictions. Whereas third-party content is owned by parties other than you, no one owns content in the public domain; everyone, therefore, has the right to use it.

For use of images in your dissertation, please consult this guide to Finding Public Domain & Creative Commons Media , which is a great resource for finding images without copyright restrictions. 

Who can help me with questions about copyright and fair use?

Contact your Copyright First Responder . Please note, Copyright First Responders assist with questions concerning copyright and fair use, but do not assist with the process of obtaining permission from copyright holders.

Pages should be assigned a number except for the Dissertation Acceptance Certificate . Preliminary pages (abstract, table of contents, list of tables, graphs, illustrations, and preface) should use small Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, v, etc.). All pages must contain text or images.  

Count the title page as page i and the copyright page as page ii, but do not print page numbers on either page .

For the body of text, use Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.) starting with page 1 on the first page of text. Page numbers must be centered throughout the manuscript at the top or bottom. Every numbered page must be consecutively ordered, including tables, graphs, illustrations, and bibliography/index (if included); letter suffixes (such as 10a, 10b, etc.) are not allowed. It is customary not to have a page number on the page containing a chapter heading.

• Check pagination carefully. Account for all pages.

A copy of the Dissertation Acceptance Certificate (DAC) should appear as the first page. This page should not be counted or numbered. The DAC will appear in the online version of the published dissertation. The author name and date on the DAC and title page should be the same. 

The dissertation begins with the title page; the title should be as concise as possible and should provide an accurate description of the dissertation. The author name and date on the DAC and title page should be the same. 

• Do not print a page number on the title page. It is understood to be page  i  for counting purposes only.

A copyright notice should appear on a separate page immediately following the title page and include the copyright symbol ©, the year of first publication of the work, and the name of the author:

© [ year ] [ Author’s Name ] All rights reserved.

Alternatively, students may choose to license their work openly under a  Creative Commons  license. The author remains the copyright holder while at the same time granting up-front permission to others to read, share, and (depending on the license) adapt the work, so long as proper attribution is given. (By default, under copyright law, the author reserves all rights; under a Creative Commons license, the author reserves some rights.)

• Do  not  print a page number on the copyright page. It is understood to be page  ii  for counting purposes only.

An abstract, numbered as page  iii , should immediately follow the copyright page and should state the problem, describe the methods and procedures used, and give the main results or conclusions of the research. The abstract will appear in the online and bound versions of the dissertation and will be published by ProQuest. There is no maximum word count for the abstract. 

• double-spaced
• left-justified
• indented on the first line of each paragraph
• The author’s name, right justified
• The words “Dissertation Advisor:” followed by the advisor’s name, left-justified (a maximum of two advisors is allowed)
• Title of the dissertation, centered, several lines below author and advisor

Dissertations divided into sections must contain a table of contents that lists, at minimum, the major headings in the following order:

• Front Matter
• Body of Text
• Back Matter

Front matter includes (if applicable):

• acknowledgements of help or encouragement from individuals or institutions
• a dedication
• a list of illustrations or tables
• a glossary of terms
• one or more epigraphs.

Back matter includes (if applicable):

• bibliography
• supplemental materials, including figures and tables
• an index (in rare instances).

Supplemental figures and tables must be placed at the end of the dissertation in an appendix, not within or at the end of a chapter. If additional digital information (including audio, video, image, or datasets) will accompany the main body of the dissertation, it should be uploaded as a supplemental file through ProQuest ETD . Supplemental material will be available in DASH and ProQuest and preserved digitally in the Harvard University Archives.

As a matter of copyright, dissertations comprising the student's previously published works must be authorized for distribution from DASH. The guidelines in this section pertain to any previously published material that requires permission from publishers or other rightsholders before it may be distributed from DASH. Please note:

• Authors whose publishing agreements grant the publisher exclusive rights to display, distribute, and create derivative works will need to seek the publisher's permission for nonexclusive use of the underlying works before the dissertation may be distributed from DASH.
• Authors whose publishing agreements indicate the authors have retained the relevant nonexclusive rights to the original materials for display, distribution, and the creation of derivative works may distribute the dissertation as a whole from DASH without need for further permissions.

It is recommended that authors consult their publishing agreements directly to determine whether and to what extent they may have transferred exclusive rights under copyright. The Office for Scholarly Communication (OSC) is available to help the author determine whether she has retained the necessary rights or requires permission. Please note, however, the Office of Scholarly Communication is not able to assist with the permissions process itself.

• Missing Dissertation Acceptance Certificate.  The first page of the PDF dissertation file should be a scanned copy of the Dissertation Acceptance Certificate (DAC). This page should not be counted or numbered as a part of the dissertation pagination.
• Conflicts Between the DAC and the Title Page.  The DAC and the dissertation title page must match exactly, meaning that the author name and the title on the title page must match that on the DAC. If you use your full middle name or just an initial on one document, it must be the same on the other document.  
• Abstract Formatting Errors. The advisor name should be left-justified, and the author's name should be right-justified. Up to two advisor names are allowed. The Abstract should be double spaced and include the page title “Abstract,” as well as the page number “iii.” There is no maximum word count for the abstract. 
•  The front matter should be numbered using Roman numerals (iii, iv, v, …). The title page and the copyright page should be counted but not numbered. The first printed page number should appear on the Abstract page (iii). 
• The body of the dissertation should be numbered using Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3, …). The first page of the body of the text should begin with page 1. Pagination may not continue from the front matter. 
• All page numbers should be centered either at the top or the bottom of the page.
• Figures and tables Figures and tables must be placed within the text, as close to their first mention as possible. Figures and tables that span more than one page must be labeled on each page. Any second and subsequent page of the figure/table must include the “(Continued)” notation. This applies to figure captions as well as images. Each page of a figure/table must be accounted for and appropriately labeled. All figures/tables must have a unique number. They may not repeat within the dissertation.
• Any figures/tables placed in a horizontal orientation must be placed with the top of the figure/ table on the left-hand side. The top of the figure/table should be aligned with the spine of the dissertation when it is bound. 
• Page numbers must be placed in the same location on all pages of the dissertation, centered, at the bottom or top of the page. Page numbers may not appear under the table/ figure.
• Supplemental Figures and Tables. Supplemental figures and tables must be placed at the back of the dissertation in an appendix. They should not be placed at the back of the chapter. 
• Permission Letters Copyright. permission letters must be uploaded as a supplemental file, titled ‘do_not_publish_permission_letters,” within the dissertation submission tool.
•  DAC Attachment. The signed Dissertation Acceptance Certificate must additionally be uploaded as a document in the "Administrative Documents" section when submitting in Proquest ETD . Dissertation submission is not complete until all documents have been received and accepted.
• Overall Formatting. The entire document should be checked after all revisions, and before submitting online, to spot any inconsistencies or PDF conversion glitches.
• You can view dissertations successfully published from your department in DASH . This is a great place to check for specific formatting and area-specific conventions.
• Contact the  Office of Student Affairs  with further questions.

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Keep up-to-date on postgraduate related issues with our quick reads written by students, postdocs, professors and industry leaders.

The Dissertation Title Page

• By DiscoverPhDs
• August 12, 2020

The title page of your dissertation or thesis conveys all the essential details about your project, including:

• The title of your project
• Your full name (including student number if required)
• Clarification of whether this is a dissertation or thesis document
• The name of your academic department
• The name of your university
• The degree name that the dissertation or thesis has been written for (e.g. Doctor of Philosophy)
• The date (month and year) that you will submit the document
• The name of your supervisor(s)

This page can also be referred to as the dissertation cover page when your degree program is at the undergraduate or Masters level.

Format of the Title Page

Your university will provide you with the exact formatting requirements of your dissertation title page. This will include how to present the above information but also the font size to use, line spacing and the size of margins. For example, a graduate school may require the title to be in all caps, all text to be double-spaced and margins on the binding side to be 4cm. Don’t include the page number and have all text centred. You may also need to include the university logo. The APA style is commonly referred to for guidance on how to format research documents. This guide from University College London on their requirements is also an interesting read.

Example of a Dissertation Title Page

The example below is what a dissertation title page would usually look like for a Masters degree project in the UK. You can use this as a template when writing your own title page. The format presented here is also applicable for a doctoral dissertation or thesis title page.

The title page may be followed by an approval page, signed by the project chair and any other committee members. After this comes your abstract, presented on a separate page and then your table of contents. Some institutions may also require a copyright page to be included. Whilst the title page doesn’t have a page number, pages after this may use Roman numerals with the traditional page number format starting after your table of contents.

The term partial fulfillment means that this research document was one of several requirements for you to obtain your degree. For a Master’s degree, the other requirements will typically include exams and coursework.

Follow the advice in this guide to ensure your title page is in the correct format before final submission of your research project. This will be a normal part of undergraduate and graduate study.

A thesis and dissertation appendix contains additional information which supports your main arguments. Find out what they should include and how to format them.

Do you need to have published papers to do a PhD? The simple answer is no but it could benefit your application if you can.

When you should and shouldn’t capitalise the names of chemical compounds and their abbreviations is not always clear.

Join thousands of other students and stay up to date with the latest PhD programmes, funding opportunities and advice.

Browse PhDs Now

In the UK, a dissertation, usually around 20,000 words is written by undergraduate and Master’s students, whilst a thesis, around 80,000 words, is written as part of a PhD.

An In Press article is a paper that has been accepted for publication and is being prepared for print.

Fabian’s in the final year of his PhD research at Maastricht University. His project is about how humans learn numbers and how hands might help that process; this is especially useful for children developing their maths skills.

Dr Cesário has a PhD in Digital Media from the University of Porto. She’s now pursuing an academic career as a Postdoc in HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) as part of an EU project. She’s also aiming to teach in subjects including User-Centered Design and Interactive Media Design.

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10 Genuine Suggestions to Design a PhD Title

A PhD title is a short sentence that defines the aim and objectives of your PhD thesis or research. 

The PhD title is one of the most important things to your PhD much like the thesis, viva and research paper. Indeed, as per my opinion, all these are equally important to clear the degree but the ‘ PhD title ’ is something very decisive. 

Students take it lightly usually, but trust me I had faced a big problem due to only the PhD title. And then I know how important it is!

Your PhD research journey starts by stating a PhD title, although, before picking the PhD title you should have to read so many things to decide what to do with it. 

When you see a thesis or a PhD report, on the top of it and on the front page what you see? On the bold and larger font? The ‘PhD title’. 

So far on this blog, we have discussed related to the PhD thesis, PhD viva voce and research paper writing. You can read each article by clicking the link. 

• PhD thesis .
• Research paper writing .

 In the present article, we are going to learn about another important element of the PhD dissertation the “PhD title”, what a PhD title is and some super cool idea to design your PhD title. 

Related article: What is a PhD?

What is a PhD title? 

The PhD title is a few liners or a sentence that defines the study purpose, area of research and technique used in your PhD thesis or project. 

Your dissertation title or PhD title tell the reader about what a thesis is!, at a first glance. The poorly designed title may mislead readers, creates confusion and readers may lose interest. 

A PhD title is the heart of your entire PhD thesis. So there are several do’s and don’t to make a PhD title. 

Your PhD title must be self explanatory 

Your title should include a clear objectives of your thesis 

The title must be precise and descriptive. 

The title must be short and consistent 

Each word used in the title should reflect the work done in the thesis that is the main goal of it. Sometimes it happens that the title covers a small portion of your work but your research is actually more than that or vive verse. In both cases your title totally fails to define your work. 

What you have included in your title exactly the same amount of work will be there in your thesis because the evaluator wants exactly that.

See this example, “Cytological and microarray based aberrations analysis in eunuchs of Asia.” 

This is one title of a science thesis, A reader, evaluator or the examination preliminary look for the techniques that are cytogenetics and microarray must be used by the PhD student . Next, the research only includes a class of people including in the eunuch’s community and finally, they are geological from Asia only. 

All these should be there in your thesis in your abstract, introduction, material methods and results. 

Don’t’s 

The title should not be too long. 

The title should not mislead the readers 

Abbreviations should not be included in the titles

The title must not be teasing or abusive 

The title must be professional 

Briefly, the title must be of two lines (two lines looks good on a thesis) and most importantly can’t mislead readers. Furthermore, you have to understand that it’s a PhD title, not a blog article or youtube video, so it should be strictly professional.

“Studying third gender people using any of the three genetic techniques.”  

What do you think? Is it a good title? 

No, not at all. Nothing is specified in it, not a study population, not a technique or method or not even objectives, it is just a fancy, non-professional thumbnail. 

Take a look at another boring PhD title, 

“Studying third gender with genetic techniques.” again not specific and too short. It isn’t saying anything. 

Yet another horrible PhD title, “Genetic analysis and evaluation of the eunuchs of Asian countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh by using the techniques like cytogenetics based on cell culture and microarray based on hybridization.” 

The core values of your thesis, principle and detailness should be reflected in your title but comprehensively, terms like genetic, name of the countries, cell culture and hybridization are not needed here. 

Though there is no thumb rule to tailor a title, you should follow the “do’s” what i had mentioned in the above section.

I want to mention one more thing that is, spelling mistakes & grammar errors are avoided, and the punctuation and capitalization should be used correctly. 

So broadly we can say that you aren’t so experienced enough to design a title for yourself. Therefore university allotted us a PhD supervisor or guide or advisor whatever you can call. 

In some universities, a title clearance committee is also allotted to closely monitor every title before starting the PhD work. 

Now let us talk about 10 of the genuine suggestions that may help you to design your PhD or dissertation title. 

Related article: Designing a PhD Project from Scrap to Craft .

10 genuine suggestions to design a PhD title:

• First start your title with words like analysis, evaluation, studying, validating, quantification, measuring, mapping, etc. These words make your objective more focused and clear. Your reader understands instantly what your thesis is about.  
• Include your study population in your title. It is a very wise decision to restrict your PhD work to some geological area and hence you should have to restrict it by region, state or country and you can mention it in your thesis title. 

Again, it makes the evaluator ready to understand that the result of this study is restricted to only a particular region. 

It’s a wise decision because in case if required, you can argue with the examiner that the study is restricted to a particular region due to so and so reasons (whatever it may).

The third thing is to mention your ‘subject’. A subject may be a person, a group of people, a region, a geological indication, an entire population, an organism or anything on which you are performing your research. 

Next, include the methodology or theory you will use during your PhD. The important point during designing the title is the methodology you are using. Indicate a method, instrument, theory or hypothesis. 

Methods to methods and instruments to instruments the results vary. For instance, in the genetic testing chromosomal analysis and DNA testing, both are included. So it doesn’t make a sense to use a broader term “genetic testing”. 

specify things! either you want to use DNA testing or chromosomal testing.

Exclude broad subject, landmark or region or study subject, otherwise, it may create problems for you during the evaluation process. 

Use capitalization when and if needed. Now this is an in general rule. You should have to use capitalization when required. 

Do not use short forms or abbreviations in the title, however, you can use global short forms like the DNA, RNA or IBM. 

Don’t copy the elements of the title from others. 

Plagiarism, knowingly or unknowingly is a common mistake during PhD, and during the initial period of PhD it is acceptable because you don’t know how to use other resources correctly. 

But the biggest problem arises when you copy someone else’s title, partially or fully, isn’t acceptable. Take a look at the example below, 

“Evaluation of COMT gene expression by RT-PCR from the iceberg population.” 

“Evaluation of COMT gene expression by RT-PCR from the population of california.”

Though the intention of both the researchers is similar, the study is different! But the title is partially copied and that is not acceptable. 

Although you are designing your study in accordance with some other research, you should have to construct a title differently like this,  

“Real-time quantification of the COMT gene in mentally retarded patients from California”. Now, this sounds good. You can acknowledge the original researcher but don’t copy the title. 

Why I am explaining every point so precisely is to make you understand the importance of how a PhD title can ruin your PhD. 

Let me tell you my personal story. A single word mistake in my title wasted the entire year. 

“Cytological and microarray based aberrations analysis in eunuchs of Asia.” This is my PhD thesis title. By mistake the word “aberrations” was removed from my final synopsis and the faulty title was submitted to university. 

During the final thesis submission, the title on my thesis and the title which the university had, didn’t match. And I got involved in big trouble!

I had written an apology cum appealing letter to the university, a committee of title reviewers re-reviewed my title and had given me their decision after 8 month. 

I had worked two more months to write my thesis again, and then I had submitted my thesis next year. 

However, after a few months the university apologized that it was not my fault but, i had paid a huge amount for that one mistake. A whole year! And so much tension. 

Got my point! 

Your PhD title matter’s a lot. In fact, some suvervisor literally register their PhD student’s title for not to use partially or fully. 

Now let us check out some of the coolest PhD titles. Note that these titles are used here only for information purposes not intended for research evaluation. 

“The depository system in India: An In depth study”

“Effect of Economic Factors on Primary Education: A Study from the USA.”

“Pollination Biology, Ultrastructure, Cytochemistry and Biochemistry during pollen-pistil Interaction of some poaceous plants.” 

“A detailed study of Emerging Trends in Customer Relationship Management.” 

“Ecology and Microbiology of Drinking Water sources in northern India.” 

“Metagenomic studies of Pond water from the state of New Jersy.” 

You can try out several titles by yourself and suggest your guide. Try this, 

Study/evaluation/quantification/measuring/mapping of _____________by _____________ from the ___________________. 

Fill our subject, method or technique and the territory you wish to study in the blanks, respectively. 

Mapping of soybean plant species through Random Amplification of polymorphic DNA from New zealand . 

Or you can try this 

A comparative studies of ___________________________ from the ____________ region. 

For example, A comparative study of the social behaviors of tribe culture from the Amazon jungle . 

The impact of _____________ and ____________________ on _______ economy/ history/education/politics etc. 

For example, The impact of dollar and gold price on Nepal economy. 

Conclusion: 

I hope that you have learned to design the PhD title and its importance for your research. This is just an effort from my side. 

PhD itself is the entire subject to learn because after all in the end you are becoming a doctor/ expert on your topic. So everything will be taken into account while giving a PhD degree. 

Nonetheless, along with your title, you should have to work on your thesis, research paper, lab work and viva preparation as soon as possible, in order to get a PhD degree early. 

Trust me, once you will be trapped in the clouds of problems, you get frustrated and leave PhD midway. 

So don’t do that!

Dr. Tushar Chauhan is a Scientist, Blogger and Scientific-writer. He has completed PhD in Genetics. Dr. Chauhan is a PhD coach and tutor.

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Dr tushar chauhan, related posts.

How to Avoid Plagiarism in Your PhD Thesis?

PhD Application Process and How to Write a PhD Application

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PhD Dissertation Defense Slides Design: Start

• Tips for designing the slides
• Presentation checklist
• Example slides
• Additional Resources

Purpose of the Guide

This guide was created to help ph.d. students in engineering fields to design dissertation defense presentations. the guide provides 1) tips on how to effectively communicate research, and 2) full presentation examples from ph.d. graduates. the tips on designing effective slides are not restricted to dissertation defense presentations; they can be used in designing other types of presentations such as conference talks, qualification and proposal exams, and technical seminars., the tips and examples are used to help students to design effective presentation. the technical contents in all examples are subject to copyright, please do not replicate. , if you need help in designing your presentation, please contact julie chen ([email protected]) for individual consultation. .

• Example Slides Repository
• Defense slides examples Link to examples dissertation defense slides.

Useful Links

• CIT Thesis and dissertation standards
• Dissertations and Theses @ Carnegie Mellon This link opens in a new window Covers 1920-present. Full text of some dissertations may be available 1997-present. Citations and abstracts of dissertations and theses CMU graduate students have published through UMI Dissertation Publishing. In addition to citations and abstracts, the service provides free access to 24 page previews and the full text in PDF format, when available. In most cases, this will be works published in 1997 forward.
• Communicate your research data Data visualization is very important in communicating your data effectively. Check out these do's and don'ts for designing figures.

Power Point Template and other Resources

• CEE Powerpoint Slide Presentation Template 1
• CEE Powerpoint Slide Presentation Template 2

Source: CEE Department Resources https://www.cmu.edu/cee/resources/index.html

• CMU Powerpoint Slide Template

Source: CMU Marketing and Communications

https://www.cmu.edu/marcom/brand-standards/downloads/index.html

• Use of CMU logos, marks, and Unitmarks

Email me for questions and schedule an appointment

Top 7 tips for your defense presentation

1. show why your study is important, remember, your audience is your committee members, researchers in other fields, and even the general public. you want to convince all of them why you deserve a ph.d. degree. you need to talk about why your study is important to the world. in the engineering field, you also need to talk about how your study is useful. try to discuss why current practice is problematic or not good enough, what needs to be solved, and what the potential benefits will be. , see how dr. posen and dr. malings explained the importance of their studies..

• Carl Malings Defense Slides with Notes
• I. Daniel Posen Defense Slides with Notes

2. Emphasize YOUR contribution 

Having a ph.d. means that you have made some novel contributions to the grand field. this is about you and your research. you need to keep emphasizing your contributions throughout your presentation. after talking about what needs to be solved, try to focus on emphasizing the novelty of your work. what problems can be solved using your research outcomes what breakthroughs have you made to the field why are your methods and outcomes outstanding you need to incorporate answers to these questions in your presentation. , be clear what your contributions are in the introduction section; separate what was done by others and what was done by you. , 3. connect your projects into a whole piece of work, you might have been doing multiple projects that are not strongly connected. to figure out how to connect them into a whole piece, use visualizations such as flow charts to convince your audience. the two slides below are two examples. in the first slide, which was presented in the introduction section, the presenter used a flow diagram to show the connection between the three projects. in the second slide, the presenter used key figures and a unique color for each project to show the connection..

• Xiaoju Chen Defense Slides with Notes

4. Tell a good story 

The committee members do not necessarily have the same background knowledge as you. plus, there could be researchers from other fields and even the general public in the room. you want to make sure all of your audience can understand as much as possible. focus on the big picture rather than technical details; make sure you use simple language to explain your methods and results. your committee has read your dissertation before your defense, but others have not. , dr. cook and dr. velibeyoglu did a good job explaining their research to everyone. the introduction sessions in their presentations are well designed for this purpose. .

• Laren M. Cook Defense Slides with Notes
• Irem Velibeyoglu Defense with Notes

5. Transition, transition, transition

Use transition slides to connect projects , it's a long presentation with different research projects. you want to use some sort of transition to remind your audience what you have been talking about and what is next. you may use a slide that is designed for this purpose throughout your presentation. , below are two examples. these slides were presented after the introduction section. the presenters used the same slides and highlighted the items for project one to indicate that they were moving on to the first project. throughout the presentation, they used these slides and highlighted different sections to indicate how these projects fit into the whole dissertation. .

You can also use some other indications on your slides, but remember not to make your slides too busy.  Below are two examples. In the first example, the presenter used chapter numbers to indicate what he was talking about. In the second example, the presenter used a progress bar with keywords for each chapter as the indicator. 

Use transition sentences to connect slides 

Remember transition sentences are also important; use them to summarize what you have said and tell your audience what they will expect next. if you keep forgetting the transition sentence, write a note on your presentation. you can either write down a full sentence of what you want to say or some keywords., 6. be brief, put details in backup slides , you won't have time to explain all of the details. if your defense presentation is scheduled for 45 minutes, you can only spend around 10 minutes for each project - that's shorter than a normal research conference presentation focus on the big picture and leave details behind. you can put the details in your backup slides, so you might find them useful when your committee (and other members of the audience) ask questions regarding these details., 7. show your presentation to your advisor and colleagues, make sure to ask your advisor(s) for their comments. they might have a different view on what should be emphasized and what should be elaborated. , you also want to practice at least once in front of your colleagues. they can be your lab mates, people who work in your research group, and/or your friends. they do not have to be experts in your field. ask them to give you some feedback - their comments can be extremely helpful to improve your presentation. , below are some other tips and resources to design your defense presentation. .

• Tips for designing your defense presentation

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Completing a thesis is the capstone experience of the QMSS program. Students take this opportunity to apply the tools and methodologies developed through their coursework to questions of particular interest to them. The list of theses below demonstrates the broad array of substantive subject areas to which our graduates have applied their expertise.

The list is organized by the departmental affiliation of the faculty member who advised the thesis and the year in which it was completed. Though our program director has progressively advised more students we always encourage students to find additional advisors in our affiliate departments.

Business/Finance

• Should Personalization Be Optional in Paid Streaming Platforms?: Investigating User Data as an Indirect Compensation for Paid Streaming Platforms (2022)
• The Influence of Live Streaming Ecommerce on Customer Engagement on the Social Media Platforms (2022)
• An overview of the COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Small Businesses in the U.S (2022)
• Exploring Key Predictors of Subsequent IPO Performance in the United States between 2016 -2021 (2022)
• The relationship between executive incentives and corporate performance under the background of mixed reform—Based on the empirical analysis of A-share listed companies from 2016 to 2018 (2022)
• How Sovereign Credit Rating Changes Impact Private Investment (2022)
• Chinese Mutual Fund Manager Style Analysis Based on Natural Language Processing (2022)
• The Influence of COVID-19 on Cryptocurrency Price (2022)
• Does Weather matter on E-commerce? Weather and E-commerce consumer behavior of Americans in four U.S. cities (2021)
• ModellingCFPB Consumer Complaint Topics Using Unsupervised Learning (2021)
• Vote For The Environment: Quantitative characteristics of shareholder resolution votes on environmental issues (2021)
• Social Capital’s Role in Accessing PPP Funds & the Evolving Nature of Online Lenders in the Small Business Ecosystem (2021)
• Predicting stock returns with Twitter: A test of semi-strong form EMH (2017)
• Who Receives Climate Finance and Why? A Quantitative Analysis of Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Funds Allocation during 2003-2013 (2014)
• The American Dream—Deferred (2013)
• Job Satisfaction and Employee Turnover Intention: What does Organizational Culture Have To Do With It? (2013)
• What Factors Are Associated With Poor Households Engaging in Entrepreneurship? (2013)
• Uncertainty in measuring Sustainable Development: An application for the Sustainability-adjusted HDI (2012)
• Homeownership and Child Welfare in Unstable Times (2012)
• On the Evaluation of Conditional Cash Transfer Programs (2012)
• Financial Crisis and Bank Failure Prediction: Learning Lessons from the Great Recession (2011)
• Starbucks and its Peers: Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Financial Performance (2011)
• Statistical Arbitrage Strategies and Profit Potential in Commodity Futures Markets (2011)
• An Approach to Lending with Heterogeneous Borrowers (2010)
• Changes in Perceived Risk and Liquidity Shocks and Its Impact on Risk Premiums (2010)
• Equity Risk Premium Puzzle and Investors' Behavioral Analysis: A Theoretical and Empirical Explanation from the Stock Markets in the U.S. & China (2010)
• Investing in Microfinance: A Portfolio Optimization Approach (2010)
• Empirical Analysis of Value Investing Strategy in Times of Subprime Mortgage Crisis 2007-08 (2009)
• Two Engines of Monetary Policy: The Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank: Different Approaches. Different Results? (2008)
• Searching for the "Sweet Spot": The Optimal Mix of Executive Compensation to Maximize Firm Performance (2005)
• Differentials in Firm-Level Productivity and Corporate Governance: Evidence from Japanese Firm Data in 1998-2001 (2004) 
• Where's the Brand Equity?: Further Investigations Into the Role of Brand Equity in Experiential, Luxury, and Other Products (2003)
• An Account of Worth through Corporate Communication (2002)
• Deciphering Federal Reserve Bank Statements Using Natural Language Processing (2022)
• Gender Wage Gaps (2022)
• The Relationship between the Overall Sentiment on Twitter and Stock Market Performance during COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020 (2022)
• The U.S. Stock Market’s Influence on China Stock Market between 2014 and the first half of 2019 (2022)
• Social Protection and the SDGs: A Data-Driven Bayesian Network Analysis (2022)
• Overeducation: The Effects of the Great Recession on the Labor Market (2021)
• Investor Sentiment and Stock Returns: Evidence from China's A-Share Market (2021)
• Difference-in-Differences Analysis (2017)
• Rapid Transition: A Comparison of Subway Usage and Rent Data to Predict Gentrification in New York City (2017)
• Female Labor Force Participation Rate and Economic Development: Time-Series Evidence in China (2016)
• Linkage Between Stock and Commodity Markets' Volitility in Both the U.S. and China (2016)
• Will Urbanization be the Next Economic Growth Engine for China? (2014)
• Solar Electricity's Impact on Germany's Wholesale Electricity Market (2014)
• How Does Quantitative Easing Policy Impact Emerging Markets: Evidence from the Effects on Long-Term Yields Structure of Hong Kong and Singapore (2014)
• The Effect of Income Taxes in Mexico: Evidence and Implications for Permanent Taxpayers (2014)
• Jumping on the Bandwagon: Conformity and Herd Behavior (2014)
• Effects of War After War: A Quantitative Comparison of the Economic Performance of Jewish World War II Veterans to Non-Jewish World War II Veterans (2013)
• Basel III Agreement: Will Higher & More Strictly Defined Capital Standards Impede on the Growth of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises? (2013)
• Unemployment and Economic Growth in Peru: 2001-2012 (2013)
• The Informal Market for Foreign Direct Investment: The Attractive Power of Country-Specific Characteristics (2012)
• Evaluating the impact of the Workfare Income Supplement Scheme on Singapore's Labour Market (2012)
• Innovation and Fiscal Decentralization in Transitional Economies (2012)
• International Trade and Economic Growth: Evidence from Singapore (2012)
• Economic Openness and Welfare Spending in Latin America (2012)
• Assessing the Costs of Fractional Reserve Banking: A Theoretical Exposition and Examination of Post-Meiji Japan (2012)
• Pricing Emerging Market Corporate Bonds: An Approach Using the CDS-Bond Basis Spread (2012)
• The Geographical Distribution of Mixed-Income Housing in Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Developments (2012)
• An Economic Theory of Voting: Can we Explain, through Digital Inequalities, Why People Vote Less? (2011)
• Super-Pornstar Economics: Investigating the Wage Premium for Pornstar-Escorts (2011) 
• The Dynamic Linkages among International Stock Markets: The Case of BRICs and the U.S. (2011)
• Revisiting the Financing Gap: An Empirical Test from 1965 to 2007 (2010)
• Antitrust Law and the Promotion of Democracy and Economic Growth (2010)
• An Analysis of Keynesian Economics (2010)
• Who Will Pay to Reduce Global Warming?  A Multivariate Analysis of Concern, Efficacy, and Action (2010)
• Wage Difference Between White, Non-White, Local, and International Professional Players in the NBA (2010)
• Is Microlending Sustainable? Discerning the Relationship Between Microfinancial Participation, Measures of Acute Morbidity, and Expectations of the Characteristics of Village Organizations (2009)
• Application of Multi-Attribute Utility Theory to Consumers' Choices about Environmentally Responsible Decisions (2009)
• Trade Openness and Poverty Reduction: What is the Evidence? (2009)
• Crude Oil Prices: Mean Reversion in the Spot? Futures Know the Future? (2008)
• Evaluating the Impact of Supply-side Factors on Conditional Cash Transfer Programs: The Case of Nicaragua (2008)
• Females: Less Likely to Be Entrepreneurs? A Multi-level Analysis of the Effect of Gender on Entrepreneurial Activity (2008)
• Banking the Mexican Immigrant Population: Analysis of Profiling Variables (2008)
• A Comparison of Microfranchising to Independent Microenterprises in Ghana (2008)
• From Autarky to Free Trade: Will China Overtake the U.S. as the Major Trading Power in the Global Economy? (2006)
• Cluster Patterns of Age and Racial/Ethnic Groups Within Privately Developed Section 8 HUD Rent Subsidy Properties in New York City (2004)
• The Impact of Decimalization on Market Volatility and Liquidity (2004)
• Strategic Delegation with Unobservable Incentive Contracts: An Experiment (2002)
• Exchange Rate Market Pressure and The Quality of Governance (2001)

Public Health

• Analysing the Performance of Supervised ML models in Breast Cancer Diagnosis  (2022)
• Portability of Polygenic Scores for QuantitativeTraits using Continuous Genetic Distance in the UK Biobank (2021)
• A Report on the Correlation between COVID-19 pandemic and Unemployment Rate through Visualization (2021)
• Spatial Summary of Outdoor Dining and COVID-19 Rates in NYC (2021)
• The COVID-19 Infodemic: Narratives from the US & India (2021)
• Exploring the Experiences of People Living with HIV in the United States: Modelling Muscle Ache/Pain and Medicaid Expansion (2017)
• An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure: An Algorithm Using Non-Health Indicators to Predict Health Risks of an Individual (2017)
• Does Racial Concordance in Clinical Encounters improve Providers’ Accessibility and Patients’ Satisfaction with Providers? (2016)
• Proportionality of Death Sentences in Alabama (2014)
• Zombies, Brains, and Tweets: The Neural and Emotional Correlates of Social Media (2013)
• Asexuality as a Spectrum: A National Probability Sample Comparison to the Sexual Community in the UK (2013)
• Parent-reported and Child Self-reported Symptoms of Psychiatric Disorder and their Relationships to Independent Living Skills in a Clinical Sample of Perinatally HIV-infected and Perinatally HIV-exposed but Uninfected Adolescents: An Exploratory Analysis (2013)
• The Sperm Shopper: How Consumer Segments and Evolutionary Pyschology Shape Choice of Sperm Donor (2012)
• Social Context and Impoverished Youths' General Health Outcomes: Community Disorder and Violence Predicting Self-Rated Health and Body Mass Index (2012)
• Location Theory and the Supply of Primary Care Physicians in Rural America (2012)
• Perception of Neighborhood Safety and Overweight/Obesity Status among Non-Metropolitan Adolescents in the U.S. (2011)
• Factors Affecting the Extent of Depression Treatment (2011)
• Beyond Gender Binary in Survey Design (2010)
• Junk Food and BMI: A Look at Schools Banning Candy, Snacks, and Soft Drinks and the Effect on Fifth Graders' BMI (2009) 
• Delivering Maternal Health: An Examination of Maternal Mortality on a National Scale (2008)
• Public Health and the Conrad Visa Waiver Program (2007)
• Alzheimer's Disease, Migration, and Social Environment: A Study of Caribbean Hispanics (2005)
• The Influence of Physician Attributes on Cesarean Likelihood (2004)
• Natural or Human-Made Disaster: Dimensions of Impact Measurement (2003)
• Healthy Life Choices Project: Efficacy of Nutritional Intervention with  Normal Foods  and Cognitive/Behavioral Skill Building on HIV/AIDS Associated Diarrhea and Quality of Life (2002)

Political Science

• Encouraging Voter Registration Among Minority Voters:  A Field Experiment Using Radio Advertisements (2022)
• Public Opinion Transition in China: Evidence from Weibo (2022)
• Gender and Co-sponsorship in U.S. Congress (2017)
• Accessing Social Influences of Congressmen with Keyword Network (2016)
• How presidential election in 2016 affects the stock market – A Twitter sentiment analysis perspective (2016)
• Assessing Assessors: A Study on Anti-Corruption Strategies in New York City’s Property Tax System (2016)
• Demographic Trends in Virginia 2013
• The determinants of Party and Coalition Identification in Chile: The effect of long and short-term factors (2013)
• Radical Moderation: Factors Affecting Support for Islamic Extremism (2012)
• Accommodationists versus Hardliners in Slovakia: Correlates of Public Opinion on Selected Foreign Policy Topics 2004 - 2010 (2012)
• Measurement and Belief: Determinants of Federal Funding for Public Diplomacy Programs (2010)
• Consumerism and Political Connectedness in Socialist Czechoslovakia (2010) - History
• Civilizations and Social Tolerance: A Multi-Level Analysis of 58 Countries (2008)
• How Does the 1965 Immigration Act Matter? (2006)
• 7200 Revolutions per Minute: An Economic Analysis of the Struggle between the Recording Industry and Peer-to-Peer File Sharing Networks (2005)
• Classifying Myers-Briggs Personality Type based on Text (2021)
• Hiding Behind the Computer Screen: Imposter Phenomenon in the Tech Industry (2022)
• Relation between dark tourism on-site experience and visitors’ satisfaction (2022)
• Evaluating the Impact of Self-perceptions of Creativity and DemographicFactors on Arts Participation: Evidence from the United States (2021)
• Running head: QUEER HAPPINESS AND SUPPORTExamining Happiness in LGBTQ+ People and its Relationshipwith Worsened Parental Relationships After Coming Out (2021)
• The Impact of Donating Behavior on the Level of Happiness (2021)
• Birds of a Feather, or Do Opposites Attract? THE IMPACT OF PERSONALITY TRAITS ON CONSTRAINT AND HOMOPHILY WITHIN SOCIAL NETWORKS (2017)
• Predicting Social Value Orientation from Personal Information and Survey Metadata (2017)
• All the Feels: Sentiment Analysis Between Emoji and Text (2017)
• Social Media Interface and the Next Generation Cognitive Mapping in New York City (2016)
• Is Prospective Memory Ability Flexible?  Manipulating Value to Increase Goal Significance (2011)
• Will a Nation Be Happier with a More Even Income Distribution? (2007)
• Behavioral Extensions to the Topology of Fear: A Gedankenexperimen (2007)
• Psychological Control and Preschoolers' Externalizing and Internalizing Behaviors in China (2003)
• Prevalence and success of diversity-and-inclusion projects on education crowdfunding platform  (2022)
• Does gentrification cause the displacement of urban black populations?  (2022)
• Feedback and Gender in the Workplace: Should You Expect Equal Evaluation from Men and Women?  (2021)
• What are the determinants for art practitioners to choose self-employment? (2022)
• An empirical research for studying the influence of star popularity on the box office of movies (2022)
• Couple Dissolution Between Couples Who Meet Offline Versus Couples Who Meet Offline (2021)
• Masculine Men Who Wear Makeup: Exploring the Evolving Masculinity (2021)
• Do Individual Or Environmental Factors Play a Greater Role in Shaping the Intentions of Female High School Students to Enrol in STEM (2021) Programmes in University?:Evidence from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (2021)
• COVID-19 Information Narrative Beliefs Across Social Media Platforms (2021)
• Spatial Wage Penalty for Young Mothers: Exploring the Discrepancy of Education Return between Metro and Non-metro Areas (2016)
• Inequality Matters: A new Empirical Framework for Studying the Impact of Rising Socioeconomic Inequality on the Poor (2016)
• Immigration, Income, and Occupation: Peruvian Immigrants in the Chilean Labor Market (2014)
• Preferring France's 35-Hour Workweek: The Effects of Media on Work-Life Balance Preference Formation (2014)
• The Effect of College Education on Individual Social Trust in the United States– An Examination of the Causal Mechanisms (2013)
• Socio-economic Inequality and Socio-emotional Relationship Quality: Cause and effect? (2013)
• Examination of the Relationship between mother's employment status and one's family gender role attitudes (2012)
• A Study of Materialism Level among Mid-Atlantic residents (2012)
• Relation Recombination - A Sociological Patent Analysis (2012)
• The Relationship between Religious Attitudes and Concern for the Environment (2012)
• Marrying Down: The Gender Gap in Post-Secondary Completion & Education Hypogamy between 1960 and 2010 (2012)
• 2.0 Social Networks Have an Impact on our Real Lives (2011)
• Evidence of Ethnic Solidarity in Marriage Patterns of Hmong and Sino-Vietnamese in United States (2011)
• What Explains the Racial Disparity in Employment Discrimination Case Outcomes? (2010)
• Reading Race: The Changing Views of Human Difference in American History Textbooks, 1870-1930 (2010)
• Satisfaction with Life (2010)
• Entering the "Real World": An Empirical Investigation of College Graduates' Satisfaction with Life (2010)
• The Relationship between the Establishment of Marine Protected Areas and Biomass Productivity of Municipal Fisheries in the Philippines (2010)
• Performance Surveys, Citizen Respondents, and Satisfaction of Public Services: An Analysis of NYC Feedback Citywide Customer Survey (2009)
• Analysis of Job Retention Programs of the Center for Employment Opportunities of the Formerly Incarcerated (2009)
• The Intergenerational Transfer of Human Capital: The Role of Grandparents' Education in Grandchildren's Cognitive Abilities (2009)
• Are Homicide Trends Fads? Diffusion Analysis of the Urban-rural Spillover Effects on Homicide Incidents from 1960-1990 in the South Atlantic States (2008) 
• Rejection Sensitivity and the Contagious Effect of Mood Regulation in Romantic Couples (2008)
• Women and the Homeostasis of the Inmate Population
• An Examination of the Relationship between Government Funding Allocation and Services Provided by Nonprofit Organizations in Brooklyn and the Bronx, 1997-2000 (2007)
• The Concurrent Validity of Maternal Self-report: The  Impact of Social Desirability on Substance Use and Prenatal Care (2006)
• The Effect of Housing Programs on the Economic Outcomes: Utilizing Observation Study Results from Minnesota Family Investment Program (2005)
• The Influences of Physician Attributes on Cesarean Likelihood (2004)
• Effects of Unemployment, Female Labor Force Participation, and Divorce on Suicide in Turkey: A Durkheimian Evaluation in a non-Western Milieu (2004)
• An Experimental Study of the Small World Problem (2002)
• The Relationship between Welfare Participation and Social Support (2002)
• Sound and Silence: A Structural Analysis of Conversation Topics (2002)
• A Reexamination of the Police and Crime Relationship: The New Role Community Policing Plays in Crime Prevention (2001)
• DNA Evidence in Court: Jurors, Statistical Training, and Pre-instruction in the Procedural Law (2001)
• The Role of Race in Education: An Analysis of Children in Brazil (2001)

Statistics/Computer Science

• Predicting Spotify's songs' popularity  (2022)
• Hiding Behind the Computer Screen: Imposter Phenomenon in the Tech Industry  (2021)
• An Unsupervised Learning Approach to Address Crime in Mexico, 2012 – 2016 (2017)
• Imputation of a variable completely unobserved in one wave of a panel: father’s earnings in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (2016)

An Analysis of Pairwise Preference (2016)

• Measuring Political Risk and Market Returns (2014)
• Which Yelp Reviews will be Voted Useful?- Predicting the Number of Useful Votes Yelp Reviews will get using Machine Learning Algorithms (2014)
• Polities and Size: Legitimizing or Limiting? (2013)
• The Role of Domain Knowledge in Environmental Concern and Willingness-to-Pay for Environmental Protection: Results from a U.S. Survey of Public Opinion (2013)
• The Power to Judge: Social Power Influences Moral Judgments of Simple and Complex Transgressions (2013)
• A Time Series Analysis of Crime Rates and Concern for Crime in the United States: 1973-2010 (2012)
• TV Gets Social: Evaluating Social Media Data to Explain Variability among Nielsen TV Ratings (2012)
• Unit Root or Mean Reversion in Stock Index: Evidence from Nigeria (2010)
• Homogeneity in Political Discussion Networks and its Factors (2007)
• Why Shift Policy? (2006)
• Point Detection for Poisson Disorder - Application in Earthquake Occurrence in Northern California, 1910 - 1999 (2004)
• Stock Volatility and Economic Activity: A Causal Analysis (2004)
• Strategic Information Transmission in Lobbying (2003)
• Economic Theory and Happiness in Mexico: An Extension (2001)
• Sales Forecasting Methods: A Consumer Products Company's Perspective (2001)
• Soccer Teams Need to Win at Home: The Fans that Increase those Chances (2001)
• The impact of school management on student performance  (2022)
• An investigation of the relationship between educational attainment and COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy in the US  (2022)
• Does Accountability Help or HinderSchools?: The Mississippi School Accountability Model and its Effect on School Performance (2021)
• The Relationship between Education and Health (2021)
• Quantifying Variation in American School Safety with Explainable Machine Learning:An Application of Machine Learning Feature Importances for the Social Sciences (2021)
• Age, Gender, and Comorbidities Affect Prevalence of Dyscalculia and Dyslexia, A Large-Scale Study of Specific Learning Disabilities Among Chinese Children (2021)
• Validation of Fitbit for use in Objective Measurement of Physical Activity and Sleep in Children and Adults (2014)
• Do Experienced Principals Fare Better? Estimates of Principal Value-Added (2014)
• Beyond the Test Score Gap: Non-Cognitive Skills, High School Graduation, and Post-Secondary Employment (2012)
• The Impact of the Level of Native Language Proficiency on the Literacy Achievement of English Language Leisures (2012)
• The Effect of School Building Design on Student Achievement (2011)
• Measuring Universal Primary Education Using Household Survey Data: The Case of the Millennium Villages Project (2011)
• An Additional Burden for Urban Schools: Teacher Transfer Policies and School Performance (2011)
• Evaluating Dual Enrollment Programs: Do Location and Instructor Matter? (2010)
• A Multi-level Growth-curve Analysis of the Association between Student Body Composition and English Literacy Development among Language Minority Students in New York City Public Schools (2010)
• Methods Supporting Policies in Education Reform (2010)
• Have Inclusionary Policies in Higher Education Really Helped?:  Looking at College Accessibility and the College-wage Premium, 1962-2007 (2010)
• NCLB and Curriculum Standards: What Really Impacts Teachers' Decisions to Leave the Profession? (2010)
• Exploring the Relationship between Video Games and Academic Achievement via Cross-sectional and Longitudinal Analyses (2009)
• Racial Disparities in Collegiate Cognitive Gains: A Multi-level Analysis of Institutional Influences on Learning and its Equitable Distribution (2009)
• Hoping for Higher Ed: The Differential Effects of Parental Expectations of Education Attainment (2009)
• The Impact of Family Communication on Risk Behavior among Boston Public High School Students (2009)
• Path Towards an Attainable Future: The Effect of College Access Programs on High School Dropout (2009)
• Traditional vs. Non-traditional College Students and Future Job Satisfaction: A Statistical Approach (2008) 
• A Multi-level Analysis of Student Assignment to Out-of-field and Uncertified High School Math Teachers: Implications for Educational Equity and Access (2008)
• The Impact of Obesity on Education (2005)
• The Gender Gap in Standardized Math Tests: Do the Gender Gaps in Math Self-concept and Other Affective Variables Contribute to the Gender Gap in Scores? (2004)
• An Alternative Approach to Selection Bias in School Choice: Using Propensity Score Matching to Examine School Sector and Teacher Quality Impact on Educational Outcomes (2003)

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Department of Psychology

You are here, recent ph.d. dissertation titles.

Bailey, April H ,   Men at the Center: Androcentric Bias in Cultural Practices and Cognitive Structure

Boswell, Rebecca G ,  Food Craving and Its Regulation: Implications for Obesity and Binge Eating Disorder

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Chung, Yoonho ,   Deviance in Neuroanatomical Maturity as a Biological Marker to Predict the Onset of Psychosis in Youth at Clinical High Risk

Crossman, Molly K ,   Establishing the Influence of Interactions With Animals on Psychological Distress

Jordan, Matthew R ,  Misbelieving: Optimism, Self-deception, and the Shape of Beliefs

Kraft-Todd, Gordon ,   Leading By Example Motivates Prosociality through Second-Order Belief Inference

Lambert, Robert C ,   From Probability to Familiarity: Explorations on the Relationship between Statistical Learning and Processing Fluency

Melnikoff, David E ,   Towards a Goals-First Framework of Cognitiion and Action

O’Connell, Thomas P,   Reconstructing Visual Cognition

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Vanderlind, William M ,   Understanding Positive Emotion in Depression: The Role of Emotion Regulation

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