I need some clarifications on where to put the proposed usability-evaluation method in my thesis. I have tried to improved upon the existing methods and came up with a new one, which will be validated alongside with the existing methods. Is it appropriate to discuss it in literature-review chapter or in research methodology chapter of my PhD thesis?


First of all: There are no global rules or even guidelines as to how theses should be structured and how chapters should be titled. Whatever works in terms of intelligibility is allowed. The only thing that can happen is that your supervisor (or in rare cases, your department) has become fixated on a certain structure and insists on it. But we can hardly answer on this here.

Thus, in your situation, you have several options. The following come to mind:

  • Include your method in the literature-review chapter, but name that chapter “Methods for X” or similar, not “Literature review”. If the literature review contains things not fitting under that title, think of a better title or make a separate chapter for those things.
  • Include your method in a new chapter called “A new method for X”.
  • If your methodology chapter is strictly about how you compare methods, do not include your method there (and give it a better name like “Benchmarks for methods for X”). If it does however cover several different aspects, your method may fit there.

As I already said, whatever works is allowed. Thus the most important things to consider are things like what prior knowledge the reader needs to understand your description of your method, as this should obviously described beforehand. And those are things only somebody very familiar with your thesis can decide.

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