Originality in Doctoral Research

PhD candidates have to create new knowledge and develop concept in a very specific arena of a particular subject. PhD dissertation as compared to other research papers is lengthier, of around 200 pages and sufficiently detailed. Originality can be with respect to: an entirely new concept, improvements and further development of past concept, solving unanswered questions, expanding on past research, identifying new applications for existing research, establishing relationships between different factors. At the PHD level the thrust is more on conceptual research rather than on application and experimental research, doctorates are expected to open up new nodes of knowledge which can further branch out, such knowledge needs to be validated by real data, ideas without real grounds cannot be called research.