Ian F. C. Smith Preparing a thesis document

2 Disclaimer This is mostly opinion. Suggestions are incomplete. There are other ways to prepare a thesis and many opinions on what is important.

Introduction The preparation of a thesis document is MUCH MORE than a necessary hurdle to jump in order to obtain a PhD degree. Presenting important elements in a coherent document is an exercise that develops valuable skills regardless of later employment. A high quality document helps the jury concentrate on the scientific contributions. 3

4 Introduction The document should contain a summary of the most important aspects covering several years of work evidence of scientific quality enough information to reproduce results a description of the scientific and economic context convincing arguments regarding originality a view forward including subjects for future work “next steps”

Guiding ideas Preparing the document should start as early as possible. Journal papers should be prepared before the thesis document is finished. Clarity and coherence are essential to reveal scientific quality Chapters contain many links to other parts of the thesis. These links are both forward and backward. The document should implicitly demonstrate that the author has not just followed the instructions of his/her supervisor 5

Assumed stages during thesis years These recommendations have been formulated with the assumption that the thesis has gone through the following stages: 1st year – draft objectives, first literature survey, pilot study, thesis plan, exam 2 nd year – review plan, extend pilot study, start new research topics, 1st paper 3rd year – detailed research, 2 nd paper, conferences 4th year – detailed research 3rd and 4th paper, conferences, thesis preparation, submission, exam Many recommendations in following slides are relevant even if all of these stages do not happen. They are intended to provide guidelines for the creation of a high quality thesis. 6

1 st Task: Collect information By completing the stages in the preceding slide, you should have the following information Thesis proposal, plus notes on comments provided by examiners during the candidacy exam Journal papers, plus reviews and responses to reviewers Conference papers plus notes on comments made during meetings Scientific results – which may not all be ready. This is ok. Do not wait to have all results before you start writing your thesis. 7

Collect information (cont’d) A collection of relevant literature, plus notes Some contextual information collected during your research A partial list of future work (this is, in part, a list of what you didn’t have time to do) An important portion of your thesis will use this same information in a new form. You have already done a lot!!! Do not let yourself get “writer’s block”!

Confirm structure and coherency Prepare a draft of the table of contents. Send to your supervisor for comments. Revise current thesis objectives. Ask for feedback. Once results become defined, objectives may change. Ensure that main conclusions are compatible with the objectives.

Start writing Start before you finish researching all topics. No one can write all day. Alternating last research activities and writing is a good combination. It is best to start four to six months before the submission deadline. Start with an easy chapter. Good candidates for this are Literature review Description of experimental testing Description of research methodology Research where there already is a paper that has been reviewed, published and presented at a conference Where there are strong relationships to other chapters, make references (for example “see Chapter 6”) and start a checklist. 10

Now make a plan for the rest You now have enough information to make a plan. Do not plan to write the thesis chapters in order of their appearance, see next slides. After finishing each chapter, plan to send it out to be reviewed and corrected. Ask to have it back after ten days. Then reserve two days to make corrections. Plan this using specific dates. Add a two-week buffer at two times in case big changes are needed. Communicate your plan so that your supervisor knows when to expect each chapter. After correcting all chapters, leave at least a month before submission to put the chapters and other bits together and get final comments from your supervisor.

Do the chapters that may need several review cycles Typical chapters to do at this point should contain Results that have not yet been published Introduction Conclusions Conclusions should *not* include a summary of the thesis. Usually conclusions can be placed in two categories: main conclusions that correspond to the thesis objectives and secondary conclusions that have attributes such as They are related to testing aspects They define the scope of the major conclusions They have a narrow scientific interest compared with major conclusions

This part of the writing should be easy and fast. Typical chapters are Chapters considered but not selected to be the first chapter The part of the last chapter that discusses future work. Here you say implicitly what you did not do and what you think should be done next. This indicates research maturity. Chapters having information that is in published papers. Pay attention to respecting copyright and authors’ rights. Do the remaining chapters

Chapter content - 1 Introduction General context, global statistics, historical literature, research question, thesis objectives (4-6 sentences in a bullet list). Research methodology. Use present tense except for historical aspects. Literature Organize according to topics of thesis objectives if possible. Mention all research you will build upon. Establish originality of objectives by saying what people did not do. Conclude with a bullet list of research gaps and note corresponding objectives. Past tense except for conclusions. After this chapter, mention no more new literature.

Chapter content - 2 Testing Mention all details of laboratory apparatus, setup geometry, standard tests, new testing devices, measurement systems, control systems. This can include results of standard tests where the results serve only to support other results. Use past tense except for results. Result chapters Write around figures. Introduce, describe, observe and conclude (IDOC). Repeat conclusions at the end of the chapters. Summary at beginning should also include major conclusions. Reference back to literature and reference forward to link to further results.

Do the remaining parts Remaining parts are References - check for format consistency – two-way test for completeness Acknowledgements – include funding source List of Tables and List of Figures Terms and definitions Notation Biography or CV Appendices – raw results and information that is needed to reproduce thesis results. This information will not be considered to contribute to scientific quality.

Final tasks Last things to do are Prepare a draft of a final paper that summarizes your work and presents unpublished results. Do not submit this until after the thesis exam. Prepare the exam slides. Do not use all the allowed time. Plan to stop 5 minutes before the limit. Have slides in reserve for questions Ask supervisor for examples of difficult questions Prepare for some replies on the board by hand Practice the presentation at least three times Get some sleep!