The classic structure of a dissertation

The basic structure of an academic thesis, especially dissertations, is based on a common format that usually consists of the following elements:

• Table of contents
• Introduction:
  • Introduction to the topic
    Introduction to the scientific context
    Outline of the research question and hypotheses
• Material & methods:
  • All materials used
  • Detailed description of all methods used
  • if applicable, codes for self-written program or software (can be included in the Apendix)
  • If applicable, information on the use of AI
• Results:
  • all relevant results
  • all the relevant analyses
  • include information on reproducibility and sample size
• Discussion:
  • Interpretation of the results
  • contextualizing of the results in the greater scientific context
  • Questions that remained open and possible new questions
• Abstract/Zusammenfassung
  • a German and an English translation of the abstract should be included
  • Theses for the degree Ph.D. Medical Research should only contain an English abstract
• Bibliography
• Acknowledgments
• List of abbreviations, if applicable
• List of figures/tables, if applicable
• Appendices, if applicable

The following documents must also be included:

• the affidavit,
• a curriculum vitae,
• a list of publications (please include talks, poster presentations and submitted manuscripts, you can also include manuscripts in preparation)
• the declaration of compliance.

Please ask your supervisor or program coordinator for subject-specific, additional or deviating requirements.

Please ask your supervisor or program coordinator for subject-specific, additional or deviating requirements.

Please also note that cumulative dissertations are structured differently.

To make it easier for you to write your dissertation, we have created formatting templatesthat you are welcome to use.

• Tables and figures must be numbered consecutively.
• If a figure consists of several elements, you can name them specifically if necessary to make it easier to assign them (e.g. “Fig. 3a” and “Fig. 3b”).
• Ensure that all tables and figures are consistently labeled, which should briefly and concisely indicate what the respective table/figure shows.
• If you use tables or illustrations from previously published articles (including your own!), make sure that you obtain the rights of use. This also applies to figures and tables that have been slightly altered from the originals. In this case, the change must also be approved by the publisher.

Similar to the citation style, you should only use one of the possible styles consistently. The bibliography contains all publications cited or referenced in your dissertation - no more and no less..

All authors must be named in the bibliography for each publication; the use of “et al.” as in the continuous text is not sufficient here (i.e. a full reference is always required).

• Bibliography according to Harvard convention: The bibliography is sorted alphabetically by last name of the first author and then chronologically by year of publication.
• Bibliography according to the Vancouver convention: The bibliography is sorted in ascending order of the references in the running text, the reference number is placed in front as a number.

Different sources (e.g. book, anthology, paper, journal, dissertation/habilitation, lecture) can be presented differently in the bibliography. You can find detailed examples of this at www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html. When using sources from the Internet, it is recommended that the date of retrieval is included, ideally supplemented by a digital object identifier (doi).

To create a bibliography, we recommend the use of appropriate reference management programs, which are provided free of charge by LMU (EndNote and Citavi, see also: https://www.en.ub.uni-muenchen.de/writing/reference_management/index.html.