Developing Quality Dissertations in the Social Sciences: A Graduate Student's Guide to Achieving Excellence
"If you are a new doctoral student or a master student thinking about obtaining a doctoral degree within the next few years, please prepare for the live orientation session in August by getting a copy of one of these Lovitts & Wert booklets (from Stylus Publications; also available in the University bookstore and Library), and reading it. We think that you will want your own copy to keep notes as you work your way through your degree program.Lovitts BE, Wert EL (2009)Developing Quality Dissertations in the Sciences: A Graduate Student’s Guide to Achieving Excellence. [Includes specific advice for the disciplines of biology, physics, engineering and mathematics, but also applies to chemistry, behavioral neuroscience in psychology, materials science, and nursing.]Lovitts BE, Wert EL (2009)Developing Quality Dissertations in the Social Sciences: A Graduate Student’s Guide to Achieving Excellence. [Includes specific advice for the disciplines of economics, sociology, and the social science subdisciplines of psychology,  but also applies to anthropology, education, history, management, and political science.]Lovitts BE, Wert EL (2009)Developing Quality Dissertations in the Humanities: A Graduate Student’s Guide to Achieving Excellence. [Includes specific advice for the disciplines of English, philosophy, and the humanities subdisciplines of history, but also applies to art history and comparative literature.]""Overall, this booklet is informative and provides a good starting point for the creation of a rubric of measurable quality indicators for the assessment of dissertation quality.  Students and advisors alike will benefit from taking the authors' advice and initiating discussions regarding their individual expectations and objectives, clarifying the objective of a dissertation, and making it a more productive and enjoyable process for everyone involved."“These booklets are a terrific resource for graduate students who want to learn what faculty members look for in a quality dissertation. They will also prove useful to faculty as they convey explicit expectations to their students about a quality dissertation.”COMMENT ON "DEVELOPING QUALITY DISSERTATIONS IN THE SCIENCES""I read the science booklet as if I were a beginning grad student and thinking about such matters for the first time. I was pleased—the booklet seemed like it was speaking directly to me. I found the writing to be crisp, conversational and compelling. It exceeded my expectations.""These booklets are a useful tool for demystifying the culminating element of doctoral studies--the dissertation. I recommend that students use them to initiate conversations with their advisors about how to  achieve high quality dissertations."