Academic Guides: Evaluating Resources: Dissertations (2024)

FAQs

Do dissertations count as academic sources? ›

Note: While dissertations are definitely scholarly and are reviewed and edited before publication, they do not go through a peer-review process, and thus, aren't considered peer-reviewed sources.

About OATD.org

OATD.org aims to be the best possible resource for finding open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world. Metadata (information about the theses) comes from over 1100 colleges, universities, and research institutions. OATD currently indexes 7,448,961 theses and dissertations.

There are two phases in the evaluation of the dissertation: (a) the preparation of the proposal and (b) the examination of the actual content of the dissertation following its submission.

The Degree level of your Dissertation

Bachelors: A Bachelors level dissertation contains words from 10,000 to 12,000. For this type of word count, 45 to 50 references will most likely be needed at least and the maximum, 100 reference will also be a respectable benchmark to add references.

Non-academic articles can be found in periodicals similar to Time, Newsweek, or Rolling Stone. As a general rule religious texts and newspapers are not considered academic sources.

The DAC is a group of faculty selected by the student and mentor to provide guidance and direction on the student's dissertation research and assess both the progress of the project and the development of the student scientist.

To be critical of a text means you question the information and opinions in the text, in an attempt to evaluate or judge its worth overall. What is meant by evaluation? An evaluation is an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of a text. This should relate to specific criteria, in the case of a research article.

Main Differences Between a Thesis vs. Dissertation. The biggest difference between a thesis and a dissertation is that a thesis is based on existing research. On the other hand, a dissertation will more than likely require the doctoral student to conduct their own research and then perform analysis.

The primary difference between a thesis and a dissertation is the time when they are completed. As mentioned earlier, a thesis is presented at the culmination of a master's program, whereas, a dissertation is presented to earn a Ph. D.

70−84.99: Very high competence and excellent research potential. 60−69.99: Evidence of some creativity and independence of thought. 50−59.99: Sound understanding of the literature, but lack of accuracy or originality. 0−49.99: Insufficient or no understanding of the topic, poor quality of work.

What is the success rate of dissertations? ›

To give you a dose of reality, the attrition rate at any PhD school is very high. Anywhere from a third to half of those that enroll at a PhD university will not end up graduating and finishing their dissertation. In fact, the figure of 40%-50% of failing PhD students has been fairly stable over the past three decades.

A college dissertation would be considered a scholarly work, but a dissertation is different from an article in ways that may be important to you. A dissertation is usually the length of a book, perhaps 100 pages or more. scholarly articles are usually much shorter than that.

Scholarly sources are written by academics and other experts and contribute to knowledge in a particular field by sharing new research findings, theories, analyses, insights, news, or summaries of current knowledge.

Yes, you can cite a dissertation in your APA research paper.

Certain publishers in particular disciplines may consider dissertations to be prior publications, and/or limit their consideration of a subsequent journal article or book manuscript based on the dissertation.