The Dissertation Process

A quick overview of the dissertation process. I suggest printing out this list and putting it near your computer. 

Prospectus. This is usually 10-12 pgs. It lays out your study, your chair, committee member, and program director must approve the prospectus. 

Proposal. This consists of Chapter 1 (Introduction), Chapter 2 (Literature Review), and Chapter 3 (Research Methods and Analyses) of your dissertation; typically, these three chapters together are approximately 75-125 pgs. Your chair will work with you on these three chapters. When he or she approves your proposal, you need to complete the checklist (quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods as appropriate; available in Research Center). Your proposal and checklist will be sent to your committee member by your chair. You will need to update and send the checklist with each proposal revision to your committee member. When both your chair and committee member are happy with the proposal, your chair sends it to your University Research Reviewer (URR, faculty member appointed by University to double check the paper) for approval, with the checklist. You will need to update and send the checklist with each proposal revision to your URR.  

Oral defense of proposal (1 hr. recorded conference call with chair and committee member), you will need to send a power point presentation of your study to your committee, prior to the call. 

Institutional Review Board (ethics board, IRB), you will need to complete the IRB application (with all of the required materials as indicated on IRB website) and receive their approval. You will also need to complete ethics training online, see the IRB site for the application and info on training. 

Collect data using the steps approved by IRB. If there are any changes to your methods, you need to get approval from the IRB. Your committee and URR should approve any major changes in methods. 

Analyze data, as laid out in chapter 3. Your committee and URR should approve any major changes in analysis. 

Chapter 4 (Results) and Chapter 5 (Summary and Recommendations), are typically another 40-50 pgs. with the full dissertation being all 5 chapters. When your chair approves your dissertation, you need to complete the checklist (quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods as appropriate; available in Research Center). Your proposal and checklist will be sent to your committee member by your chair. You will need to update and send the checklist with each revision to your committee member. When both your chair and committee member are happy with the dissertation, your chair sends it to your University Research Reviewer (URR, faculty member appointed by University to double check the paper) for approval, with the checklist. You will need to update and send the checklist with each revision to your URR. 

Form & Style. The full dissertation is sent by the Research Center to Form & Style review (in Writing Center). Since the dissertation will be published, this review makes sure it is in correct publication format and APA formatting is correct.

Oral defense of dissertation (1 hr. recorded conference call with chair and committee member), you will need to send a power point presentation of your study to your committee, prior to the call. 

URR. Chair sends the dissertation back to the URR for a review of any changes since he/she last saw it.

CAO. Abstract is sent by the Research Center to the Chief Academic Officer (CAO) for approval 

Next time, I will discuss keeping organized. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Send me an email with your ideas. leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu