Your thesis timeline, from topic to submission

What are the stages of an MD, MS or DNB thesis?

Whatever your course, the work runs in the same order. What differs between a university MD/MS and an NBEMS DNB is who approves each step, and by when.

1. Topic and guide. A question you can answer with the patients, time and facilities you have. NBEMS asks guides to make sure the topic is “feasible, economical and original”.
2. Synopsis or protocol. The written plan: background, question, objectives and methods. MD/MS residents write it in their university’s format; DNB trainees write a thesis protocol to NBEMS’s word limits.
3. Ethics committee approval. Needed before the study starts, for any study on human participants, their samples or their data.
4. Data collection. Size the study so that you can collect the data in about 6 to 12 months.
5. Analysis. The analysis you planned for each objective, with the statistical software named.
6. Writing and your guide’s review. Chapter by chapter, from the approved plan.
7. Submission and assessment. To your university by its notified date (MD/MS), or online to NBEMS within a fixed number of months from joining (DNB).

Sources: NBEMS thesis guidelines (2022), sections I, VI and VII; ICMR ethical guidelines, 2017, section 4.0.

What does NMC’s PGMER-2023 fix for the MD/MS thesis?

PGMER-2023 is the National Medical Commission regulation that governs MD and MS training. On the thesis it fixes four things.

• The thesis is compulsory. “All broad-speciality and super-speciality students will do thesis related research and will write thesis” (clause 5.2(iii)).
• The course length. Three years including the examination, or two years if you already hold a recognised two-year postgraduate diploma in the same subject (clause 2.1).
• Two first-year courses. An online course in research methodology, and a course in ethics that includes Good Clinical Practice or Good Laboratory Practice as relevant. Both are expected in the first year, and you cannot sit the final exam without the certificates (clauses 5.2(xi) and 5.2(xii)).
• How the thesis is examined. At the final exam, 20 of the 400 clinical/practical and viva marks are for the thesis. An external examiner from outside the state evaluates it and takes a viva on it.

It does not set a synopsis deadline, a submission date, a page limit or a format. Those come from your university’s regulations and notifications. PGMER-2023 also repealed the earlier PGMER-2000 (clause 11.3), so a rule quoted from the 2000 regulation is no longer an NMC rule.

Sources: NMC, PGMER-2023, clauses 2.1, 5.2 and 11.3, and the evaluation criteria in chapter VIII; NMC, FAQs on PGMER-2023 (2024), FAQ 6.

Read next: MD/MS thesis rules under PGMER-2023, clause by clause

When are the DNB protocol and thesis due?

NBEMS counts its deadlines from your date of joining.

These timelines are in NBEMS’s notice of 30 October 2023 and apply from the 2023 admission session. Miss the protocol deadline and you cannot sit the first DNB final theory exam you would have taken; miss the thesis deadline and you cannot sit the immediate one. NBEMS names the last date for each exam session in its notices and has extended it before, so check the notice board for your session.

Sources: NBEMS notice, 30 October 2023; NBEMS notice, 7 November 2025; NBEMS thesis portal (2026).

Read next: DNB thesis guidelines: word limits, layout and what happens after submission

How should you plan a three-year MD/MS thesis?

There is no national month-by-month schedule for MD/MS. This is a planning sketch built from the fixed points above, not a rule: wherever your university sets a date, its date wins.

1. First months

   Topic, guide and synopsis

   Choose a question your department sees enough patients to answer in time, agree it with your guide, and write the synopsis in your university’s format.

   Read next: How to choose your thesis topic

2. Before any data

   Ethics committee approval

   No participant is enrolled until the ethics committee has approved the study. A clinical trial under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and its Rules must also be registered with the Clinical Trials Registry–India (CTRI); for other research, ICMR’s 2017 guidelines call CTRI registration voluntary, though your ethics committee may still ask for it.

   Source: ICMR ethical guidelines, 2017, sections 3.7 and 4.0.

3. First year

   The required courses

   Research methodology (online) and ethics, plus the Basic and Advanced Cardiac Life Support course that PGMER-2023 also expects in the first year. Keep the certificates: you need them to sit the final exam.

   Source: NMC, PGMER-2023, clauses 5.2(xi) to 5.2(xiii).

4. About 6 to 12 months

   Data collection

   NBEMS’s guidelines ask DNB trainees to choose a number of cases they can collect in about 6 to 12 months, judged from hospital attendance and records. It is a sensible yardstick for an MD/MS study too.

   Source: NBEMS thesis guidelines (2022), section VI.3.

5. After the last participant

   Analysis

   Run the analysis you planned for each objective, and name the software you used.

   Source: NBEMS thesis guidelines (2022), section VI.6.

   Read next: Which statistical test for your thesis

6. The last months

   Writing, review and checks

   Write from the approved synopsis, leave your guide time to review each chapter, and run the plagiarism check before you submit.

   Read next: Writing the thesis, chapter by chapter

7. Your university’s date

   Submission

   Submit by the date your university notifies, in its format.

8. Final exam

   The thesis viva

   An external examiner from outside the state evaluates the thesis and questions you on it, for 20 of the 400 clinical/practical and viva marks.

   Source: NMC, PGMER-2023, evaluation criteria in chapter VIII.

Before the final exam you also need one of these: a poster or a podium presentation at a national, zonal or state conference of your speciality, or a research paper published or accepted in a journal of your speciality, as first author.

Source: NMC, PGMER-2023, clause 5.2(x).

What happens if your thesis runs late?

For MD/MS, your university’s regulations decide. PGMER-2023 allows a university no more than two examinations a year in a subject, between 4 and 8 months apart, so the next sitting is at least four months away.

Source: NMC, PGMER-2023, clause 8.1.

For DNB, NBEMS spells it out.

• If you have not passed the theory exam and your thesis is not yet accepted, you cannot sit the next theory exam until it is accepted.
• If you have passed the theory exam but your thesis is not yet accepted, you cannot sit the next practical exam until it is accepted.
• A thesis cannot be submitted more than two years after the scheduled end of your training, and it must be accepted within two years of submission. Otherwise the training is treated as null and void.
• Everything, exams included, must be completed within seven years of the scheduled end of training.

Sources: NBEMS notice, 30 October 2023; NBEMS notice, 2 July 2026.

Questions residents ask

More thesis guides

• Choosing a topicHow to pick a thesis topic you can finish: feasibility, sample size and the FINER test.
• NMC thesis rulesWhat PGMER-2023 says about the MD/MS thesis: compulsory, 20 marks, the courses you need, and what it leaves to your university.
• DNB thesis guidelinesNBEMS protocol word limits, the 180-day and 26-month deadlines, the 80-page layout, and how DNB differs from MD/MS.
• Writing chapter by chapterWhat goes in each chapter of an MD/MS thesis, from introduction to references.
• Which statistical testChoosing the right test for each objective, and how to report it.
• Thesis vs dissertationThesis, dissertation, synopsis, protocol, IEC approval and CTRI registration: what each term means.

Sources

Every rule on this page comes from the official documents below, read on 1 October 2026. AuraPharmLab is independent and is not affiliated with the NMC, NBEMS, ICMR or any university. Rules and dates change: check the latest notice, and your university’s own regulations, before you submit.

1. National Medical Commission. Post-Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023 (PGMER-23). Notified 29 December 2023; published in the Gazette of India on 1 January 2024. nmc.org.in
2. National Medical Commission, Post Graduate Medical Education Board. Clarification on PGMER-23: Frequently Asked Questions. Public notice F.No. N-P016(11)/2/2023-PGMEB-NMC, 10 April 2024. nmc.org.in
3. National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences. Guidelines for Thesis Protocol & Thesis Submission. The current version on the NBEMS Digital Thesis Processing Portal (file dated April 2022). natboard.edu.in
4. NBEMS. Notice of 30 October 2023: Penal provision for late thesis protocol and thesis submission. natboard.edu.in
5. NBEMS. Notice of 7 November 2025: Extension of last date of thesis submission for DNB Final Exam, December 2025. natboard.edu.in
6. NBEMS. Notice of 2 July 2026: Timelines for thesis submission, thesis acceptance, eligibility, and maximum permissible duration to qualify the DNB/DrNB course. natboard.edu.in
7. National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences. Digital Thesis Processing Portal and its notice board (read 1 October 2026). natboard.edu.in
8. Indian Council of Medical Research. National Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical and Health Research Involving Human Participants. New Delhi: ICMR; 2017. www.icmr.gov.in