The doctoral thesis is an independent piece of research. It must reflect both the current state of research in the relevant area while also contributing to the further development of knowledge in that field. The dissertation can be either a monograph of a research topic i.e. a detailed written study of a single specialized topic (Oxford English Dictionary, 2021[CS1] ), or an article-based thesis. Article-based doctoral theses comprise several shorter scientific publications. These articles share an overarching conceptual theme that is presented in a summary statement (synopsis).

With the help of your supervisor, you should determine at an early stage whether you need to acquire any additional skills to enable you to conduct your research. Challenges often occur when you are actually carrying out your research and writing your dissertation, which is why it is important to continuously evaluate and reflect on your own work (e.g. is the research still focused on the original research question? Have you consistently adhered to the research objectives?) and also have regular meetings with your supervisor. During these meetings, you should review the steps agreed in the supervision agreement and amend them if necessary.

 [CS1]Source: online Oxford English Dictionary (https://www-oed-com.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/, accessed at 10.30 am on 19.09.2021)