Graduate Student Thesis/Dissertation Proposal Format

I. Introduction - Background - Literature Review II. Problem Statement

Purpose: This guide is to assist graduate students in developing a thesis proposal. The structure presented herein is not a rigid format that must be adhered to, but rather is intended as a suggested flexible framework to facilitate the successful completion of a thesis of dissertation. The proposal should be roughly 6-12 pages total, perhaps more including literature review. This document becomes, with some modification, the structure of your thesis - you will use it all, so don't hesitate to do a thorough job!

Introduction: Introduce your project. This is a good place to place your research in the broad context of an important science and/or sociopolitical issue. Example: "Climate change may adversely affect water resources in regions that are dominated by seasonal snowcovers", "Forest management may alter streamflow regimes which may destabilize stream channels", or "A III. Research Questions - Hypothesis/hypotheses sound scientific basis for forest management decisions is necessary in order to foster and maintain healthy rural economies and sustainable forest environments."

IV. Project-Specific Objectives V. Approach / Methods - Site Description - Instrumentation - Statistical Analyses - Models to be used VI. Expected Results VII. Timeline VIII. Publication Plan IX. References

Background: This can go before or after the problem statement. The background provides a context for the research, demonstrates an understanding of what has been done before, and shows how this work will make a contribution to science. This section can be challenging to write concisely, since you'll be effectively distilling many papers into several pages. General Problem Statement: Identify the science problem, or knowledge gap, not the science issue. This is the section where you'll explicitly state the rationale and significance of your research. Example: "To understand how forest management may affect streamflows, we need to understand how specific hydrologic processes are altered", "To understand how fire may affect the hydrology of semi-arid watersheds, we need at least a 20 year water balance to effectively represent pre-burn conditions", or "Watershed managers need improved decision-support tools that integrate both physical and chemical processes". Focused Research Question(s): These are the primary research questions or objectives that you will be pursuing in your research. Specific hypotheses and alternative hypotheses should also be stated in this section. Not all research has to be hypothesis-driven, and sometimes it's more appropriate to only state your research question, rather than fabricate weak hypotheses. Example: "This research seeks to understand how hydrologic processes differ between clearcut, thinned and unimpacted mature forest stands", "Is the altered timing of flows from small harvested watersheds as important as increased snowmelt rates in producing downstream peakflow alterations?", "This research will assess the accuracy of XTALBAL model to simulate rain-on-snow events", or "Hypothesis 1: Annual water yields in thinned and control stands will be similar, because increased throughfall will be offset by increased transpiration in thinned stands" Specific Objectives: These are the specific objectives that you will be pursuing. Be careful not to mix your objectives and approach in this section. Example: "Specific objectives are to: 1. Quantify the interception loss in a thinned and unimpacted forest stand, 2. Determine the canopy storage differences in each of the two stands, and 3. Characterize the spatiotemporal persistence of throughfall and soil water content patterns in the two stands" Approach/Methods: A detailed plan for how you are going to accomplish your objectives. Include in this section a site description, instrumentation used, sampling plan, methods of analysis, models to be used or modified, etc. Not all projects will have all of these elements, so include just the ones that are applicable. Results: What is the contribution that your project will make to scientific knowledge? Timeline: Provide a Gantt chart showing the time intervals over which specific tasks will occur, and when milestones will be reached. Simple Gantt charts are easily created using Excel - see example at lower left. Publication Plan: This is the only way that your work will have any impact on the science of hydrology, and you should plan this from the outset. An M.S. thesis should result in at least 1-2 publications and a Ph.D. in 3-5 publications. Each chapter in the thesis/dissertation should be written as a stand-alone publication. References: Include any references cited in the proposal. When doing your literature review, use all the resources available to you. One of the best places to start when doing your literature review are your advisors. In many cases, they can quickly provide you with key publications. Also make good use of traditional methods, such as article databases and references in key papers. Avoid extensive use of gray literature, i.e. conference proceedings, technical reports, etc. that may have not been subject to rigorous peer review. In many cases the authors will also have a peer-reviewed manuscript with similar results!

Dissertation Timeline Task Develop experiment plan Interface veg and hydro models Analyze historical data Conduct fieldwork Conduct stand-level simulations Develop scaling procedures Complete coursework Conduct watershed simulations Submit manuscript #1 Complete preliminary exams Develop future predictions Submit manuscript #2 Model development Defend dissertation Submit manuscript #3 Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4