Dissertation Requirements

Doctoral Dissertation

Completion of the requirements for the doctoral dissertation include preparation of a written document and defense of the research described in the document.

The dissertation document will be structured in accordance with either of the two options exercised by the student.

Option 1

The preferred dissertation approach includes three or more published or submitted empirical manuscripts accompanied by a short introduction and discussion as well as a comprehensive set of appendices. All manuscripts should relate to the central theme of the dissertation. The role of the dissertation committee is to review these manuscripts for evidence that the research in the dissertation proposal had been satisfactorily completed. The student must be first author on these manuscripts and co-authorship will be subject to the rules now standard in the field. It could be expected that dissertation committee members may provide reviewer comments to the manuscript if they are concerned that the manuscript is not of publishable quality. In such cases, the student, the committee chair, and the concerned committee member will meet to discuss changes that need to be made to the manuscript to improve its chances of publication. This will not occur if the manuscript has been accepted for publication in a reputable journal in the health services research/implementation science area. Appropriate appendices are data collection instruments, informed consent forms, etc.

If choosing option 1, prior to scheduling the final defense, students need to send a letter to the Dean of Graduate Studies at UC San Diego which outlines the proposed papers and provides evidence of co-authors permission to submit the manuscript/paper as evidence of independent work for the purposes of a dissertation.

Option 2

The traditional dissertation approach may be selected in the event the topic or methods selected for the dissertation research are not conducive to the three-paper format: This approach typically includes the following sections or chapters: introduction, literature review, methods, results and discussion. Appropriate appendices, i.e. data collection instruments and informed consent forms, should be included.

Acceptance of the dissertation by three designated members of the dissertation committee follows Graduate Studies guidelines. A draft of the dissertation shall be given to each dissertation committee member at least four weeks before the final examination described below.

Dissertation Defense

The entire dissertation committee will conduct a final oral examination, which will deal primarily with questions arising out of the relationship of the dissertation to the field of health services research and/or implementation science. The final examination will be conducted in two parts. The first part consists of a 45-minute presentation by the candidate followed by a brief period of questions pertaining to the presentation; this part of the examination is open to the public. The second part of the examination will immediately follow the first part; this is a closed session between the student and the committee and will consist of a period of questioning by the committee members. Title and abstract of the oral presentation will be distributed to all Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health faculty and students, who are invited to attend the presentation portion of the examination.

Normative Time to Degree

The normative time for the PhD in Health Sciences Research and Implementation Science is five years; a student must have passed their qualifying exam by the end of six quarters and advanced to candidacy by the end of nine quarters. A student is eligible for support for a maximum of six years. The final thesis defense must have been conducted by the end of the fifth year unless granted approval for an extension from the PhD program director and the dissertation committee chair.

Contact Us

Please email hsris@health.ucsd.edu for more information.