Dear Subrata and Paulo,

Thank you for your feedback.  Yes, indeed, the length tends to vary with the discipline. See, for example, the following paper that analyses a sample of 44 PhD theses covering a range of disciplines.

David Bunton,

The structure of PhD conclusion chapters

J. of English for Academic Purposes 4 (2005) 207-224

"The length of the 44 thesis conclusions ranged from 2 to 38 pages, averaging 9.2 pages. There was a marked difference, however, between those in ST disciplines and those in HSS disciplines. ST conclusions averaged 4.9 pages, while HSS conclusions averaged 17.2 pages."

ST = science and technology

HSS = humanities and social sciences

The number of pages of the Conclusions chapter depends on, at least two factors: the amount of ideias you have to present, and the total number of pages of your thesis (if it is 100 pages long, your conclusion shouldn't be 50 pages long, but, probably, 10-15 pages long!!!).

A good way of organizing ideas in that final chapter, and also to ensure that your thesis is internally very cohesive, is to include some questions in your Introduction chapter, i.e. questions that you intend to solve with your investigation (you can do that, even if you didn't state these questions in the first place; at the end of your investigation you should know which questions it allowed you to answer to). Then, in your Conclusions chapter, you may restate these questions and answer them, according to the results of your analysis.

If you do that, you may show that your investigation has some real purpose that was achieved (even if the answers are not what you expected them to be in the begining), and (last but not least) that your thesis (as a text) is very cohesive, looking like a circle that has been completed.

Obviously, the chapter named Conclusions has to be a very short one, written in just two or three pages.

Sometimes, every chapter in a thesis may have a concluding part. In that case, a separate chapter named Conclusions is not necessary.

I Think .... Conclusion chapter maximum 3page...

not more then this...

Old topic but useful for scientists. Conclusions part show that you fulfilled goals of the thesis - it should be short and concise.

conclusions, prefer be very short not longer than 5-7 tips with extensively concise focused on your results.

Indeed old but to add a point, the concluding chapter of a doctoral thesis in particular and any result of a scientific research in general should contain brief descriptions of the results and its potency and extendability to further works and augment the knowledge bank of the field to show continuity of a scholastic work. Extendabilty is one important property for such a high academic work.   

A good conclusion should synthesize rather than just summarize. A mere summary of what is already discussed in the body of the thesis is simply not enough.

Of course, a conclusion should restate the objectives, justify the approach adopted and include the most important points already covered. However, it should connect the dots in an attempt to lead the reader to a deeper understanding of all the implications of the work. Last but not least, it should stress the limitations of the current work and should provide guidance for future research.

Regarding the number of pages, I would say 10-15 for a PhD thesis.

very good discussion. But regarding no. of pages there seems to be no agreement. I think as no of pages of conclusion should be kept at the minimum within which as Lehtihet has rightly said one can synthesize the whole thesis.

There are, of course, important diferences regarding the area of knowledge. In Humanities, it seems that researchers tend to write a little bit more than in other areas.

Dear Subrata and Paulo,

Thank you for your feedback.  Yes, indeed, the length tends to vary with the discipline. See, for example, the following paper that analyses a sample of 44 PhD theses covering a range of disciplines.

David Bunton,

The structure of PhD conclusion chapters

J. of English for Academic Purposes 4 (2005) 207-224

"The length of the 44 thesis conclusions ranged from 2 to 38 pages, averaging 9.2 pages. There was a marked difference, however, between those in ST disciplines and those in HSS disciplines. ST conclusions averaged 4.9 pages, while HSS conclusions averaged 17.2 pages."

ST = science and technology

HSS = humanities and social sciences

It is the very hardest part!

Dear Chunxiao Lii,

Please, have a look at this resource."Writing the Conclusion Chapter: the Good, the Bad and the Missing" by Dr. Joseph Assan

http://www.devstud.org.uk/downloads/4be165997d2ae_Writing_the_Conclusion_Chapter,_the_Good,_the_Bad_and_the_Missing,_Joe_Assan%5B1%5D.pdf

@Anne Diallo. Why is the hardest part? Conclusions should be at least expected. once research questions and hypotheses are well stated in the study. based on the each hypothesis, might be useful asking: If is this happened, then ....

It is a good exercises ta the beginning to see if the research make any impact or add any value. 

Regards,

Alessandro Comai

quite  helpful indeed

Thanks. 

@Samaneh nice.

The conclusions chapter tends to be much shorter than others. It needs to be 'conclusions' as to the main points that have emerged and what they mean for your field.

Dear Chunxiao Li,

Conclusion is the MIRROR of the whole study.. So Keep it precise, subjective w.r.t to the inventions made and their challenges.

will let you know how it works out once i get the viva board's okeedokee.

BTW: the conclusion determine whether the entire research was worth or not. In other words, if the research find relevant data/information. 

Hi Mayank,

Don't count words, just summarize your work in minimum sentences. If you have published some articles from your PhD work, include the conclusions listed there. Otherwise each one of your chapters shall be summarized in 2 to 3 points. Total may be 10 points.

do i need to write conclusion section in each chapter also

When conclusion has been given as chapter it should have a minimum number of pages.

Thanks Alessandro Comai the resouce you mentioned is excellent. I added a link to it below. Glad to be getting to my synthesis chapter. This thesis was a lot harder than I expected

https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/35788974/Writing_a_conclusion_chapter.pdf?response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DWriting_the_Conclusion_Chapter_the_Good.pdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A%2F20190816%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20190816T074643Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=3ffae55c0279c6c24c74180722074cb4094ee34a921df65889dd5059abc3b47e

It must contain essence of your work, carry the home message, what is the benefit from it to other scholars and society.

Dr Kamath Madhusudhana

Another Q&A relevant to this:

-"Conclusion" as a separate chapter in a PhD dissertation or as a part of a "Discussion and Conclusion" chapter?

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Conclusion_as_a_separate_chapter_in_a_PhD_dissertation_or_as_a_part_of_a_Discussion_and_Conclusion_chapter

Plase go through the conclusion part - The heart of Ph.D thesis - Final impression ! REF :

https://doctoralwriting.wordpress.com/2016/07/11/how-to-make-a-great-conclusion/

During Examination of the Thesis for the award of the Ph.D degree I think that the

examinar should read the Conclusion part as well as abstract .

In my university, conclusion is not a chapter on its own but part of the discussion and conclusion chapter. If conclusion highlights the impact or significance of a research, then i do not see why i should be a long run write up which will only end up being a summary. However, if it is a chapter as you put it in this question, then it should meet the minimum number of pages for a chapter.

The conclusions of doctoral theses must depend on the purpose of the thesis, which in turn is derived from the thesis title without additions not worth mentioning

The conclusions of doctoral theses must depend on the purpose of the thesis, which in turn is derived from the thesis title without additions not worth mentioning

Conclusions should be including main and significant s points or findings in your study.

I am currently a PhD candidate. From my understanding, in general, the conclusion is to tell them what you have told them before, in a concise manner. Which means, for the doctoral thesis conclusion chapter brought together with the background and discussed in relation to the research aims and objectives. It sets out concise descriptions of the results and practical contribution of the study. It also highlights the study limitations and guide other works.