Knowing it is finished

Making the decision that your thesis is ready to submit is very daunting. There will always be more research that you could do, a new journal article to read and a chapter that you could re-write. However, remember that your thesis will never be perfect and that you have the opportunity to develop it further after your doctorate if you want to publish all or some of it. A doctorate does not have to be the last word on your particular subject.

To decide whether to submit ask yourself the following questions:

• what does your supervisor think? Have you explicitly asked ‘will it pass?' and ‘should I submit now?'
• what institutional, personal and financial deadlines are you working to? It is better to plan to complete to your deadlines rather than being forced to wrap it up quickly due to external pressure
• how does it compare to other recent theses? In theory it only has to be good enough to pass: it doesn't have to be better than the best
• what else could you do? If your ideas for improving the thesis all involve months or even years of work, they probably aren't very realistic.