Environmental Health Sciences

Several formats are acceptable for a written thesis. There are some standards, however, that are expected, and the format below is a typical representation of the final dissertation. Those elements that are required by the Department are indicated with an (R). There is no specific page requirement, but a typical PhD thesis is on the order of 150-200 pages with figures and references.

(R) Title Page which has the thesis title, candidate’s name, and a statement submitted in partial fulfillment.

(R) Abstract This is a summary of the thesis work where the question/hypothesis of the thesis is given with a brief outline of the data, results, and conclusions are given. This is typically 1-3 pages.

(R) Table of contents This should list each chapter and break out the subtopics in each chapter. Figures are listed here as well, typically in a separate table.

(R) Acknowledgements This is a brief (<1page) statement where the student typically acknowledges the contributions of his/her mentor, committee members, colleagues, other advisors, peers and, yes, family members (mom and dad. etc.)

(R) Introduction This is an extensive if not exhaustive review of the relevant literature. Typically it starts with the field of study in a broad way and then focuses on those topics most relevant to the thesis work. This should build towards formulation of a hypothesis.

Methods An exhaustive methods section is essential to a thesis. Details are put here that go beyond a typical paper because this is a document that often is used by those that follow you on this project. Methods need not be a separate chapter, and can be included in individual chapters if the thesis has multiple chapters on different aspects of the research. ( Often a thesis is made up of multiple related studies instead of a single study and these are often broken up into chapters).

Results These can be written in multiple chapters depending on whether there are different related topics in the thesis.

Discussion In this section the interpretation of the results is considered along with an explanation of how they fit into and increase our understanding of the field.

(R) Conclusions/Future studies Here one summarizes their findings and draws final conclusions. Future studies are also proposed.

(R) References Full references with titles are given.

An acceptable alternative format - when a student has 2 or more publications - follows the above guidelines but the results section simply employs a separate chapter for each paper that includes methods, results, and discussion. References remain separate and a Conclusions section that summaries all of the papers is included.