Dissertation
Every student must write a dissertation and complete an oral defense of it, which he or she has two opportunities to pass. Students have five years from completion of comprehensive exams to complete the dissertation.
Dissertation proposal
Requirements and evaluation
Students have five years from completion of comprehensive exams to complete their dissertation. For the proposal meeting with the committee, the student submits a proposal and all project-related materials, as described above, as well as the Internal Review Board protocol. When the committee decides that the proposal is acceptable, this is documented on Part One of the SON D-2 form. Part Two of the SON D-2 form is then completed. The protocol can be discussed at the proposal review meeting, and the student and the adviser will confer as needed with the program committee about the protocol.
IRB requirements
All research involving human subjects conducted by faculty, staff and students of University of Missouri on its premises, on the premises of its affiliated institutions or under its sponsorship, whether supported by outside funds or not, must be reviewed and approved by one of the UMC Institutional Review Boards (IRB): Health Sciences IRB (HS IRB) or Campus IRB. Before a doctoral student at the MU Sinclair School of Nursing can submit a dissertation research protocol to the IRB, the student’s program committee must review and approve it. This requirement is to be met through the following procedure.
The student submits drafts of the dissertation proposal and all project-related materials (including consent forms, instruments, and recruitment materials) to the adviser and to the program committee when the adviser suggests. Students are encouraged to confer with the Health Sciences IRB about the IRB protocol.
Please review the IRB Protocol for Research Involving Human Subjects.
Evaluation of the proposal
The dissertation proposal will be evaluated on the extent to which the proposed study meets acceptable standards for research in nursing science. When evaluating the proposal, the student’s doctoral committee appraises the quality of:
- The explanation of the proposed significance of the work
- Utilization of nursing and collateral literature
- Critical analysis and synthesis of key studies
- Rationale for the proposed methodology
The decision of each member of the committee as to the acceptability of the proposal is documented on Part One of the SON D-2 form. If the proposal is not acceptable, it is so stated. In that case, Part Two of the SON D-2 Form, which pertains to human subjects, is not completed. To progress, the student must revise the dissertation proposal and re-submit it to the committee. A new SON D-2 Form is completed with each submission of the proposal.
Dissertation defense
Policies and procedures
The dissertation must be written on a subject approved by the candidate’s doctoral program committee. It must embody the results of original and significant investigation, and it must be the candidate’s own work. Every candidate should obtain “Guidelines for Preparing Theses and Dissertations” from the MU Graduate School. The candidate should consult the PhD director of graduate studies for departmental style requirements. Students should prepare the dissertation using the format specified in the Manual of the American Psychiatric Association. The candidate must be enrolled at MU to defend the dissertation. Dissertation defenses can be scheduled only when MU is in session.
Public defense
All dissertation defenses will be open to the general faculty and graduate students, as well as significant others of the candidate (by personal invitation). All defenses will be announced electronically in the School of Nursing and by public posting in a prominent location in the school. The defense is scheduled for a period of 40 minutes, with the candidate making a 20-minute presentation before taking questions from the audience. The candidate should confer with the adviser about a format for the presentation. An overview of the research problem, the review of the literature, the method and the results should be presented, and the implications should be discussed. Candidates are encouraged to use presentation software.
Committee meeting
Following the public defense, the candidate and the committee meet for the final defense. For the dissertation to be successfully defended, the candidate’s doctoral committee must vote to pass the candidate on the defense with no more than one dissenting or abstaining vote. A report of the examination on the MU D-4 Form, carrying the signatures of all members of the doctoral committee, is sent to the Graduate School before the deadline preceding the anticipated date of graduation. The student submits a copy of the dissertation to the MU Graduate School and to the PhD Program office electronically. Most advisers prefer to have a bound copy also. Electronic submission instructions are on the website along with other paper requirements. If failure of the dissertation defense is reported, the committee will provide written recommendations to the candidate and work with the candidate to establish a timeline for a second and final defense. Failure to successfully defend a dissertation after the second attempt will terminate the candidate’s doctoral degree program.