Sequence of material

Material shall be arranged in the following sequence:

Title & subtitle

The title page of the volume shall give the following information in the order listed:

• the full title of the dissertation and any subtitle

• the name of the University (i.e. University of York)

• the name of the Department (i.e. Department of Health Sciences)

• the month and year of submission

Abstract

The abstract should follow the title page. It should appear on its own on a single page and should not exceed 300 words in length. On the basis of your abstract, the reader should be able to answer these questions. What is the background to the study? What is the research question? What methods were used to answer the research question? What are the main results? What are the main conclusions? It may help, therefore, to use subheadings to help structure your abstract:  e.g. background, aims, method, results and conclusions.

Table of contents

You must provide a contents section at the start of the dissertation. This should provide a list in sequence of all of the main sections along with the relevant page number for each section.

Every section of the dissertation should be included in the contents page with the exception of the title page and the list of contents itself; include, therefore, the abstract, acknowledgements, any appendices, the reference list and so on.

List of tables, figures & appendices

If you use tables, you should provide a separate page for a list of tables directly after the main contents. This should be arranged by table number. The table numbers should correspond to the order in which the tables appear in the text.

If you use any figures, you should also provide a separate page for the list of figures, arranged by figure number, directly after the table contents. The figure numbers should also correspond to the order in which the figures appear.

If necessary, a list of appendices should also be provided after the list of figures.

Acronyms & abbreviations

Provide a list of acronyms/abbreviations.

Acknowledgements

It is usual to provide a brief acknowledgement in which you, the author, thank those who have helped you to complete the dissertation. This may include supervisors, people who have helped collect data, research participants, family members and friends. You are not expected to provide a lengthy series of acknowledgements (usually no more than half a side of A4).

It is important that you do NOT mention anyone by name as this will be considered a breach of confidentiality.

Main body of dissertation

The main body of the text is typically divided into four chapters: an introduction, a method section, results and a discussion. 

The introduction has two main functions: to provide a critical overview of the main literature that is relevant to your dissertation and to build a case for why the question that you seek to answer is worth answering.

A good introduction should not only provide a descriptive overview of the relevant literature, but should also be a critical and evaluative examination of work in the area. The selection of which literature to cover and in what level of detail should be based on your specific research question. At the end of the introduction, you should state the main aims of the dissertation or the main research questions. It should be clear by this point why the aims or the questions are important.

The method section usually follows a fairly well-established structure, but the particular structure is likely to depend on the type of research method you are using (e.g. quantitative, qualitative, systematic review, primary data collection, critical review). You should discuss with your supervisor the headings and the order of the headings for your method section. It may also help to examine the structure of the method section in journal articles and previous dissertations that have used a similar design. For some types of research methods there may be good practice guidelines for reporting (e.g. PRISMA statement for systematic reviews). It would help to discuss with your supervisor whether you should be following a particular set of good practice guidelines in describing and reporting your research.

For quantitative research, a good method section is transparent and replicable; in other words it should be sufficiently clear and detailed to allow a reader to replicate your research solely on the basis of what you have written. This is one of the criteria by which the examiner will judge this part of your dissertation. Replication can be a little more problematic in qualitative studies.

It is important to provide justification for the methodological decisions you have taken.

The results/findings section is concerned with describing the main findings of the research. For systematic reviews and quantitative studies, the section should present but not interpret the findings. For qualitative research, presentation and interpretation can sometimes go together. Your findings should be given in a logical order and where possible you should use other ways to describe your results most effectively and concisely (e.g. tables, charts, figures and, for qualitative data, verbatim quotes). The results section will differ from dissertation to dissertation, and you should discuss the structure of this with your supervisors.

The structure of the discussion will differ from dissertation to dissertation, and this too should be discussed with your supervisors. It is usual, however, for a discussion to cover a number of areas. These include a summary and interpretation of the main findings, a discussion of the methodological limitations of the dissertation, and a discussion of the implications of your findings for future research, clinical practice, wider policy and relevant theories. The discussion should end with a brief conclusion section, in which you summarise the main findings and provide recommendations. Overall, your discussion should state how your findings fit with existing research and theory, and provide an indication of what your study contributes to the literature.

The examiner will be looking for evidence that you are aware of the main methodological limitations of your work and that the conclusions you draw take account of these limitations and, more generally, are consistent with your results.

Appendices

Appendices contains supplementary information that may support the main text, examples include:  

• survey questionnaires

• interview transcripts

• data extraction forms 

• supplementary table that may distract from the main findings, but may add useful information or insight

• ethical approval letters

The presentation of appendices, including character size, should be consistent with the style of the main text and do not contribute to the word count.

Do not include anything in the appendices that you want us to mark.   Here are some scenarios where rather than adding the materials to an appendix, you might want to add them to the main text. Remember that you should only include materials in the main text that add value to your dissertation, some materials need to remain in appendices. 

Scenario 1 

Let's assume you are conducting a statistical analysis and you want to demonstrate that you have assessed the assumptions of your model and acted according to these.   

Checking these assumptions might entail the production of a series of graphs which could clutter the flow of your writing. In such an instance, instead of adding these graphs to an appendix which is not marked, you can include these in the last section of the relevant chapter and simply cross-reference this section when you want to provide evidence that you have checked the assumptions.  

If you are worried that this might increase your word count, remember that tables and figures even when included in the main body do not contribute to the total word count. 

Scenario 2

Let's assume you are conducting a literature or a systematic review and you consult a number of databases.  As an illustration of the searches that you have completed, you decide to present the search strategy for one of the main databases that you consulted.   In order not to clutter the flow of your dissertation, you can add these in the last section of the relevant chapter and simply cross-reference this section when you want to tell us about these searches instead of adding the search strategy to an appendix. These search strategies are typically included in a tabular format and thus even when included in the main body do not contribute to the total word count. 

Scenario 3

This is also related to conducting reviews.  Following the description of your data extraction approach in the methods section, you could provide an example of your data extraction in the main body and the fuller version in the appendices.

Definitions

Definitions of any terms specific to the dissertation, including abbreviations and codes used in illustrations, should be given.

Glossary

Terms that require explanation can be defined in a glossary, which should include a key to any abbreviations used. Provide definitions of each in alphabetical order in a list format.

List of references

Your dissertation will require a complete reference list. The reference list provides full details of every work (e.g. journal articles, book chapters) whether published or unpublished cited in the dissertation. Note that a reference list is different from a bibliography.

Details of the guidelines for the formatting of references specifically for use in the Department of Health Sciences are available at this link: https://www.york.ac.uk/students/studying/develop-your-skills/study-skills/study/integrity/referencing-styles/harvard/. 

References to other sources are useful and beneficial for many reasons such as a source of information, to give credibility to an argument, or to provide quotations or definitions. There are a number of reference management programmes available (e.g. Endnote, Reference Manager) that can help you create a reference list. Learning how to use one of these and using it consistently throughout the writing of your thesis will save you time. More information on the programmes can be found here: https://subjectguides.york.ac.uk/referencing-style-guides.