How to write your MD/MS thesis, chapter by chapter

Q: How long should the review of literature be?

There is no single rule. None of the official sources we checked sets a length for the review of literature on its own: RGUHS, for example, sets a range for the whole thesis (50 to 150 pages of written text), not for each chapter. Agree the length with your guide, and keep the review to the evidence your objectives need.

Q: Which referencing style for MD thesis?

The one your university or guide specifies. Vancouver is widely used in medicine and is the style we use: sources are numbered in the order they are first cited, and the list follows that numbering, formatted as in the US National Library of Medicine’s Citing Medicine. Whatever the style, check every reference against PubMed or the original paper.

Q: Can someone write my thesis for me?

No. You must remain the author. Universities such as RGUHS ask you to declare that the work is your own, and under the NMC’s regulations an external examiner evaluates your thesis and questions you on it at the viva. Support with statistics, editing and formatting is legitimate, as is help with the design and the literature search, but the data and the final text are yours and your guide’s to approve. Data must never be fabricated or altered.

By Dr. Harshad Ramineni · Updated 1 October 2026

In short

Most MD/MS theses follow the same order: title pages and certificates, introduction, aims and objectives, review of literature, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusion, summary, references, and annexures (proformas, consent forms, ethics committee approval and the master chart). Treat this as the common structure, not the rule. Your university’s dissertation guidelines set the exact headings, length and layout, so follow them and check them with your guide. Much of the first half comes straight from your approved synopsis.

The usual order of an MD/MS thesis

Title pages and certificatesTitle page, your declaration, certificates from your guide and heads, acknowledgements, contents, and lists of tables and figures.
IntroductionThe problem, why it matters, and what your study set out to answer.
Aims and objectivesThe aim and the specific objectives, as registered with your synopsis.
Review of literatureWhat is already known about your question, and the gap your study fills.
Materials and methodsWhat you did, in enough detail for someone else to repeat it.
ResultsWhat you found, objective by objective, in text, tables and figures.
DiscussionWhat the results mean beside other studies, and the limitations.
ConclusionThe answer to each objective, in a few lines.
SummaryThe whole study in brief, from background to conclusion.
ReferencesEvery source you cited, in your university’s referencing style.
AnnexuresCase proforma, patient information sheet and consent forms, ethics committee approval, and the master chart.

Universities word and order these differently. RGUHS, for example, lists Tables as a heading of its own between References and Annexures (see university rules). Where your guidelines differ from this list, your guidelines win.

Start from your synopsis

Your approved synopsis is the first draft of half your thesis. Carry each part across, then rewrite it:

In your synopsis	In your thesis
Introduction and need for the study	The introduction, updated with recent literature and ending with why your study was needed.
Objectives	Aims and objectives, as registered. Rewriting them after you see the data makes chance findings look planned; report extra findings as exploratory instead.
Review of literature	Expanded from a few paragraphs into a chapter organised by theme.
Materials and methods, sample size, analysis plan	Materials and methods, rewritten in the past tense as what you actually did, including anything that changed from the plan and why.
References	The same list, grown and renumbered.

Results, discussion, conclusion and summary are new, and they are written from your own data.

Chapter by chapter

What goes in each chapter, and the mistakes to avoid. Results, discussion and references have sections of their own below.

Title pages and certificates

IncludeThe title page; your declaration that the work is your own; certificates from your guide, head of department and head of institution; acknowledgements; contents; lists of tables, figures and abbreviations. Use the wording and order your university prescribes.

Watch forA title that has drifted from the registered topic, missing signatures, and page numbers in the contents that no longer match after the last edit.

Introduction

IncludeThe problem and its significance, what is not yet known, and the purpose of your study, ending with your objective or hypothesis. Cite only directly relevant references, and keep your own results out of it.

Watch forA textbook essay on the disease, and pages of background before the reader learns what you studied.

From the synopsisIntroduction and need for the study, updated.

Aims and objectives

IncludeOne broad aim, and the specific, measurable objectives that achieve it: a single primary objective, which your sample size was calculated for, and any secondary objectives.

Watch forObjectives that the results chapter never answers, and objectives rewritten after the analysis.

Review of literature

IncludeWhat is known about your question, organised by theme: the condition or exposure in brief, then the studies closest to your question, with their designs, populations and findings, and where they disagree. End with the gap your study addresses.

Watch forA string of one-paragraph abstracts (“X et al. studied…”), copied text, and papers cited but never read. On length, see the questions below.

Materials and methods

IncludeThe study design, named correctly; setting and study period; participants, with inclusion and exclusion criteria; the sample size with its formula and assumptions (the free sample size calculator shows the common formulas); sampling; a definition of every variable and outcome; how the data were collected; the statistical test for each objective, with the software and its version; and the ethics statement, covering committee approval and informed consent. Someone with your data should be able to repeat the study from this chapter.

Watch forA design label that does not match the methods, such as a single-visit questionnaire called a “cohort”; “appropriate statistical tests were used”; and the future tense copied from the synopsis.

Conclusion

IncludeThe answer to each objective, in one or two sentences each, saying only what your data support.

Watch forCausal claims from a cross-sectional study (“associated with”, not “causes”), new results, and recommendations your findings do not support.

Summary

IncludeThe whole study in brief: background, objectives, methods, the main results with their numbers, and the conclusion. Check your university’s word limit, and whether it wants a summary, an abstract or both.

Watch forA summary without numbers, and claims that are not in the results.

Annexures

IncludeThe case proforma; the patient information sheet and consent forms, in the languages your ethics committee approved; the ethics committee approval letter; trial registration, if your study needed it; and the master chart, with one row per participant and one column per variable, identified by study number rather than name or hospital number.

Watch forA master chart whose totals do not match the results tables.

Results and discussion

Results

Start with the flow of participants: how many were screened, eligible, enrolled and analysed, and why any were excluded or lost. A randomised trial shows this as a flow diagram.
Describe the participants (age, sex and baseline characteristics, usually as Table 1), then answer each objective in turn, the primary one first.
Give the numbers behind every percentage, such as 24/80 (30%), not percentages alone.
Report the size of each effect with its 95% confidence interval, as well as the exact p-value: a mean difference, risk difference, relative risk or odds ratio. The guide to which statistical test to use lists the effect size that goes with each test.
Show each set of data once, in a table or a figure, not both, and use the text to point out the main findings rather than repeat every number. Every table needs a title, units and the number of participants.
Keep interpretation out. The results say what you found; the discussion says what it means.

Check nothing is missing against the reporting checklist for your design: STROBE (22 items) for cohort, case-control and cross-sectional studies, and CONSORT 2025 (30 items and a participant flow diagram) for randomised trials. Naming the checklist in your methods also tells the examiner you know your design.

Discussion

Open with your main findings in a few sentences. Compare them with other studies, both similar and conflicting, and suggest why they differ: population, design, dose or definitions. Discuss possible mechanisms, then your study’s strengths and limitations (bias, confounding, sample size, a single centre), and what the findings mean for practice and for further research. Do not repeat the results in detail.

Do not over-read the p-value

p < 0.05 does not mean a difference is large or clinically important, and p ≥ 0.05 does not show that there is no difference. The confidence interval shows how large the effect could plausibly be.
Distinguish clinical from statistical significance. Large samples make trivial differences significant; small samples miss real ones.
An observational study shows association, not cause.
Label any finding you did not set out to test as exploratory.

References and plagiarism

Use the style your university or guide specifies. Vancouver is widely used in medicine and is the style we use: sources are numbered in the order they are first cited in the text, tables and figure legends, and the list follows that numbering, formatted as in the US National Library of Medicine’s Citing Medicine.
Check every reference on PubMed or against the original paper: authors, title, journal, year, volume and pages, and that the paper says what you cite it for. The ICMJE also asks authors to check that none of their references is a retracted article, and not to cite AI-generated material as a primary source.
Cite the original study, not a review or textbook that mentions it, wherever you can.
Run a plagiarism check before you submit. Put the full text through the plagiarism-detection software your institution or university uses, and rewrite every flagged passage in your own words, with its citation. Your university sets the acceptable similarity level. Reusing your own published text without citing it also counts as plagiarism.

Integrity: you remain the author

Your thesis is examined as your own work. Universities such as RGUHS require your declaration that the work was done by you, and under the NMC’s regulations an external examiner evaluates the thesis and questions you on it at the viva voce. In our own terms:

AuraPharmLab provides research, statistical and drafting support to help you produce your own dissertation. You remain the author; final academic responsibility, approval and your declaration of originality rest with you and your guide. We never fabricate data or results.

Legitimate support

Statistical analysis of your data
Editing for language and clarity
Formatting to your university’s template
Checking and formatting references
Help with the design and the literature search
A plagiarism check before submission

Never acceptable

Made-up, altered or borrowed data, patients or results
References you have not checked
Copied text presented as your own
A thesis you cannot explain at your viva

The ICMR’s National Ethical Guidelines (2017) define fabrication (making up data or results), falsification (changing or omitting data without scientific justification) and plagiarism as research misconduct. Your data must come from real participants, recruited after ethics committee approval and with their consent.

University rules

Checked on 1 October 2026 against the official documents linked below.

NMC: Post-Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023

All broad-speciality and super-speciality postgraduates do thesis-related research and write a thesis (Regulation 5.2(iii)).
For MD/MS, 20 marks, 5% of the clinical/practical and viva voce marks, are for the thesis. An external examiner from outside the state evaluates it and takes a viva voce on it.
The regulations do not set chapter headings, a page limit or a layout. Your university does.

Source: PGMER-2023 (PDF), dated 29 December 2023, listed on the NMC’s Rules & Regulations page.

RGUHS: dissertation regulations

Headings: Introduction; Aims or Objectives of study; Review of Literature; Material and Methods; Results; Discussion; Conclusion; Summary; References; Tables; Annexures.
50 to 150 pages of written text, excluding references, tables, questionnaires and other annexures, double-spaced on one side of A4 paper and properly bound, not spiral-bound.
A declaration by the candidate that the work was done by them, certified by the guide, head of department and head of institution.
The soft copy is uploaded to the university’s portal six months before the final examination, by the notified dates. Approval of the dissertation is a precondition for sitting the examination.

Source: RGUHS, Revised Regulations and CBME Curricula for PG Degree in Pre-Clinical Medical Sciences, 2020 (PDF), section 10. The same headings and page range appear in its MD General Medicine regulations (DOC). Both are listed on the RGUHS Medical courses page.

Other universities set their own formats. Follow your university’s dissertation guidelines and its latest notifications, and check them with your guide.

Want support with your thesis?

Design, literature review, statistics, drafting support, Vancouver referencing, a plagiarism check and formatting to your university’s template. You remain the author.

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Questions

What is the format of an MD thesis?

Most MD/MS theses follow the same order: title pages and certificates, introduction, aims and objectives, review of literature, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusion, summary, references and annexures. Your university’s dissertation guidelines set the exact headings, length and layout. RGUHS, for example, asks for 50 to 150 pages of written text, not counting references, tables, questionnaires and annexures.

How long should the review of literature be?

There is no single rule. None of the official sources we checked sets a length for the review of literature on its own: RGUHS, for example, sets a range for the whole thesis (50 to 150 pages of written text), not for each chapter. Agree the length with your guide, and keep the review to the evidence your objectives need.

Which referencing style for MD thesis?

The one your university or guide specifies. Vancouver is widely used in medicine and is the style we use: sources are numbered in the order they are first cited, and the list follows that numbering, formatted as in the US National Library of Medicine’s Citing Medicine. Whatever the style, check every reference against PubMed or the original paper.

Can someone write my thesis for me?

No. You must remain the author. Universities such as RGUHS ask you to declare that the work is your own, and under the NMC’s regulations an external examiner evaluates your thesis and questions you on it at the viva. Support with statistics, editing and formatting is legitimate, as is help with the design and the literature search, but the data and the final text are yours and your guide’s to approve. Data must never be fabricated or altered.

Sources

International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals. Updated January 2026. Section IV.A.3, Preparing a Manuscript for Submission. icmje.org (accessed 1 October 2026).
von Elm E, Altman DG, Egger M, Pocock SJ, Gøtzsche PC, Vandenbroucke JP. The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) statement: guidelines for reporting observational studies. Lancet. 2007;370(9596):1453–7. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61602-X
Hopewell S, Chan AW, Collins GS, Hróbjartsson A, Moher D, Schulz KF, et al. CONSORT 2025 statement: updated guideline for reporting randomized trials. Nat Med. 2025;31(6):1776–83. doi:10.1038/s41591-025-03635-5
National Library of Medicine. Citing Medicine. 2nd ed. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7256 (the referencing standard named in the ICMJE Recommendations).
Browner WS, Newman TB, Cummings SR, Grady DG, et al. Designing Clinical Research. 5th ed. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer; 2022. Chapter 5 (hypotheses stated in advance).
Indian Council of Medical Research. National Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical and Health Research Involving Human Participants. New Delhi: ICMR; 2017. Section 3.6 and Box 3.4 (research misconduct). PDF
National Medical Commission. Post-Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023. nmc.org.in (accessed 1 October 2026).
Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Karnataka. Revised Regulations and CBME Curricula for Post Graduate Degree in Pre-Clinical Medical Sciences. 2020. Section 10, Dissertation. rguhs.ac.in (accessed 1 October 2026).