What is a Dissertation?

An appropriate dissertation provides an original and significant contribution to health services research as judged by the candidate’s doctoral dissertation committee. The dissertation is the culminating research experience of the HSR PhD program.

“Original contribution” implies that the body of work undertaken and intellectual contribution of the research are the candidate’s own. It is expected that the candidate will be an expert in the contributions of others scholars to provide a foundation for his or her original research.

“Significant contribution” implies that the result of the dissertation scholarship notably advances a useful area of health services research as judged by peer scholars. The most meaningful criterion in this regard is that the research is judged by the committee to be appropriate for submission in at least one or two manuscripts to scholarly peer-reviewed journals.

It is our expectation that doctoral candidates will be able to demonstrate competent application of research methods that are appropriate to the area of study; research methods include qualitative or quantitative methods, or mixed methods.

Ethical Procedures Approval, Institutional Review Board (IRB): All dissertation-related materials must comply with ethical review guidelines current at the time of review. Students are required to submit all required documents for review and receive formal approval prior to beginning any research involving human subjects.