When thinking about the realities of graduate school, one topic that looms large in the mind of every doctoral student is the dissertation. A dissertation is a complex document that elicits many burning questions, both from doctoral candidates and those outside of academia:
- How long does my dissertation need to be?
- How much research is involved?
- Can I choose my own topic?
- What does academic research actually look like, and am I capable of it?
- What will I do with my dissertation?
- How much time will I spend writing my dissertation?
How Long Is a Dissertation?
Like many aspects of academia, the length of a dissertation is a bit complicated, and it varies by field of study. It’s determined by multiple factors, including: discipline, type of analysis (qualitative or quantitative), and the area of research. Generally speaking, the average length of a dissertation is between 150-300 pages. However, it’s important to consider a number of contributing factors. It also pays to be well-informed about variables that can influence the length of the document.
Why Write a Dissertation?
In addition to considering the length of a dissertation, also think about what is contained within its pages, and what purpose it serves. As a key metric used to evaluate scholarly preparedness and expertise, few documents incite as much fear and anxiety as the dissertation.
Since it represents the culmination of graduate education, the dissertation is the pinnacle of a graduate student’s research. A dissertation is an expression of years’ worth of academic training and study. In other words, it’s a pretty big deal.
The dissertation also serves as an indicator of the student’s long-term potential as a scholar. A strong dissertation can be mined for the writer’s first few academic publications–maybe even a monograph, if the stars align.
It generally sets the tone for the doctoral candidate’s experience on the job market and transition into their professional career, as well as within their scholarly community. The dissertation is also most students’ first opportunity to find a gap in the body of knowledge and stake their claim as experts on a narrow topic. For most researchers, it’s their first foray into primary investigation and a major project of their own.
Dissertation Length By Discipline
Types of Dissertations
When asking how long a dissertation is, one of the first things to consider is the field of study. Most dissertations are the product of either quantitative or qualitative research, or a hybrid of both. When thinking about length, first consider the research methods that will be used. Is your research primary or secondary? Qualitative or quantitative? The answer will offer insight into how much you can expect to write.
How Long Are Quantitative Dissertations?
Doctoral candidates in academic disciplines that rely on quantitative research, like scientific studies and analyses of human behavior, tend to produce shorter dissertations. Fields like chemistry, biology, and some social sciences are driven by statistical analysis of primary research.
This means they adhere to methods-based practices and studies that follow a clear, linear trajectory. Likewise, researchers in fields like economics, business, psychology, and health sciences may defend dissertations that are fewer than 100 pages long.
How Long Are Qualitative Dissertations?
In academic disciplines that use qualitative research to add to the body knowledge, it’s a very different story. Fields like history, which have a notoriously lengthy process for completing the dissertation and earning the Ph.D., are known for producing dissertations that are well over 300 pages, often stretching to 400 pages or more. These dissertations are a compilation of secondary and tertiary materials, documents, images, and hundreds of references acknowledging thousands of pages read and consulted during the research process.
Sounds exhausting, right? It is, but there are benefits to writing a longer dissertation. The good news is that dissertations of this length and scope often produce enough research for multiple scholarly journal articles and conference papers. Rather than having just one study to publish, writers that complete dissertations in fields like anthropology, theology, art history, and literature will have several articles and conference presentations ready to go. With such a competitive job market, particularly with post-docs and tenure track positions, the more prepared scholars are to start publishing, the better.
Creative Dissertations
When thinking about how long a dissertation is, another, lesser-known variant to consider is the creative dissertation. Though still comparatively small, a growing number of programs are offering this option to students in creative fields.
In what is best-described as a hybrid model of original creative work presented within the theoretical framework of a critical introduction, creative dissertations have been embraced by poets, fiction writers, and essayists who have made a place for themselves within academia. These dissertations are book-length manuscripts that typically clock in around 200 pages.
Deconstructing the Dissertation
So how long is a dissertation? Length varies, as we’ve discovered, but you should also think about how long you have to write it. There’s a common assumption that a dissertation is a singular document, written all at once.
Not true! Dissertation chapters, especially in qualitative research, often get their start as final papers in academic seminars. This gives students an opportunity to dip their toes into a variety of topics before diving into one they love and committing to a book-length project.
When thinking about how long a dissertation is, also consider all the parts of the project that are not the writer’s central argument. Many dissertations will include a literature review. This is an overview of existing publications used to illustrate a gap in peer-reviewed scholarship that will ideally be filled by the dissertation. There is also a lot of minutiae that adds to the page count of a dissertation, including:
- Title page
- Acknowledgements
- Abstract
- Introduction
- Appendix
- Index
Long story short, it all adds up.
How Long Is a Dissertation? Summary
Keep in mind that dissertation lengths vary by field. Here’s what to expect:
- Quantitative Dissertations (math, science, psychology, physics, etc.)–100-150 pages.
- Quantitative Dissertations (history, art, linguistics, literature, etc.)–150-300+ pages.
- Creative Dissertations (fiction, poetry, memoir, translation, etc.)–150-200 pages.
