DNB and DrNB trainees are the only postgraduates in India whose thesis is governed by one national document rather than by a university: the Guidelines for Thesis Protocol and Thesis Submission published by the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences[2] on its Thesis Online portal. Everything below is taken from it or from the public notices posted beneath it. Where the document is silent, this guide says so.
Which document governs you
Two thesis documents are served on natboard.edu.in and they disagree. The current one is branded NBEMS and counts every deadline from your date of joining. The older one, Guidelines for Thesis Writing and Submission, is branded NBE, counts by calendar cut-off and quotes a different fee; the older protocol guidelines and a 2013 submission form, also still online, state a 90-day window for all DNB candidates. Work only from the NBEMS-branded guidelines and the notices on the Thesis Online page, downloaded yourself.
The notices matter as much as the guidelines: the penal provisions were restated on 30 October 2023, the outer limits for submission and acceptance were set on 2 July 2026, the Basic Course in Biomedical Research was made mandatory on 22 April 2026, and the DrNB article-in-lieu option was introduced on 6 August 2025. None is folded into the guidelines PDF.
The protocol: word limits and who approves it
Section III of the guidelines fixes word limits for the protocol, and most first drafts have to be cut to meet them.
- Title: 120 characters including spaces, and the layout section asks for a title that carries the PICO elements and avoids abbreviations
- Structured synopsis: 250 to 300 words
- Introduction: 300 to 500 words
- Review of literature: 800 to 1,000 words
- Aim and objectives: up to 200 words
- Material and methods: 1,200 to 1,600 words
- References: 10 to 25, in ICMJE[4] style
Ethics committee approval is mandatory before the research work begins. The accredited hospital evaluates the protocol through its own Institutional Ethics Committee[5], which the guidelines require to be registered with the National Ethics Committee Registry for Biomedical and Health Research, and only then does the hospital submit it to NBEMS on the Thesis Protocol Approval annexure. NBEMS itself does not review the science of your protocol; your hospital's committee does. The step-by-step of that submission is in our companion guide at /guides/nbems-thesis-protocol-submission.
The protocol window
Section IV counts from your date of joining, not from an academic year. For a three-year broad-specialty or super-specialty course the protocol is due within 180 days of joining and the research study commences on the 181st day. For a two-year post-diploma DNB it is 90 days and the 91st day. The guidelines state these timelines apply to trainees registered from the July 2020 admission session onward, and the October 2023 notice restates the penal provisions as applying from the 2023 admission session onward.
The penalty for missing the protocol window is stated in the same section: the trainee is not eligible to appear in the final theory examination in which they would first have appeared, and cannot submit a thesis at all without the protocol submission acknowledgement number. Our free calculator at /tools/dnb-deadlines turns your joining date into these dates.
The thesis submission window
Section X sets the thesis calendar from the same joining date. For a three-year course the research study is to be completed by 24 months, the thesis submitted for assessment by 26 months, and a late window runs to 27 months on payment of a late fee of ten thousand rupees. For a two-year post-diploma course the thesis is due by 15 months, with the late window to 16 months. Section XI adds that a trainee who fails to submit even within the late window loses eligibility for that final examination and must abide by the cut-off for the next session.
NBEMS also publishes, in the Information Bulletin for each Final Theory Examination session, a last date for thesis submission for that session, and has issued extension notices, each stating that no further extension will be given and that a trainee who misses it is ineligible for that session. Treat the bulletin date as a hard date.
Section X's penal provisions run in three steps. Miss the submission window and you are not eligible for the immediate final theory examination, since the form needs the thesis submission acknowledgement number. Fail the theory examination with the thesis unaccepted and you cannot sit the next theory examination until it is accepted. Pass the theory examination with the thesis unaccepted and you cannot sit the next practical examination until it is accepted.
The outer limits set by the July 2026 notice
The notice of 2 July 2026 adds three limits that are not in the guidelines PDF. The thesis cannot be submitted more than two years after the scheduled completion of training. A submitted thesis must be accepted within two years of submission, after the modification opportunities the guidelines allow. And the whole programme, examinations included, must be completed within seven years of the scheduled completion of training. In each case failure renders the training null and void. Trainees who had already completed training without a thesis were given a single twelve-month window from the date of the notice.
The format: 80 pages, both sides, 1.5 spacing
Section VI restricts the thesis to 80 pages maximum, including the text, figures, references, annexures and certificates. It is printed on both sides of A4, every page numbered, no page left blank, at 1.5 spacing in Times New Roman, Arial or Garamond at 12 point, with one-inch margins on all four sides. Arabic numerals go at the bottom centre of the main pages and lower-case roman numerals on the preliminary pages; every chapter begins on a new page with its heading centred.
Inside the 80 pages the guidelines allocate space: the introduction is restricted to two pages, the review of literature to 10 to 12 pages and the discussion to 8 to 10 pages. The case record form, informed consent form, master chart and patient information sheet may be single-spaced. Illustrative material is to be restricted and printed on the page rather than pasted in as photographs. Standard techniques are not described in detail unless you modified them. Statistical methods are described for each objective, naming the program used.
What the guidelines expect in each chapter
Section VII gives the layout. The cover carries the title, your name, the year, the NBEMS logo, the institute and, optionally, the guide's name. Material and methods must contain ten elements: study setting, study duration, study design, study sample with inclusion and exclusion criteria and method of selection, intervention if any, data collection, primary and secondary outcome measures, sample size, data management and statistical analysis, and ethical issues including clearance, consent and trial registration. The discussion opens by summarising the results in words without repeating the data, then compares them with earlier studies. The summary and conclusion is a four-paragraph precis whose conclusions must not stray outside the thesis's own findings. The appendices carry the data collection tools, the consent form, the master chart, the participant information sheet and the Thesis Protocol Approval.
What travels with the thesis, and the fees
Section IX states that the application for assessment is submitted online only through natboard.edu.in, that any other mode is summarily rejected, and that incomplete forms are not considered. Section XII lists what accompanies the bound thesis: the signed and stamped printout of the online application, the synopsis, a copy of your NBEMS registration letter, the Thesis Protocol Approval and the publication annexure. The declaration that the work is bona fide and your own, signed by you, your guide and the head of the institution, is bound in; without it, the guidelines say, the thesis shall not be considered.
Section XI sets the assessment fee at three thousand five hundred rupees plus 18 per cent GST for a fresh thesis and one thousand eight hundred plus 18 per cent GST for a modified one, gateway charges extra. The 2013 modified-thesis form still online quotes a different fee. Confirm the figure on the portal on the day you pay.
The modified thesis
If the assessor asks for changes, Section VIII governs the resubmission. The thesis is modified strictly in accordance with the assessor's observations and nothing else, hard bound with the standard cover labelled MODIFIED THESIS, and accompanied by a summary of the thesis and of the modifications incorporated, the signed and stamped printout of the online form, and the declaration cum undertaking for a modified thesis, signed by you, your guide and the head of institution. The modifications are flagged in the text, and the modified thesis is due within six weeks of the communication.
Section XIII sets the communication rules: queries carry your name, subject, registration number and date of submission, no status query is entertained until four months after submission, and queries from people claiming to represent the candidate are not entertained.
What the document says will get a thesis refused or returned
NBEMS publishes no statistics on why theses are returned, so none appear here. What the guidelines do state is which faults lead to a thesis not being considered or being sent back.
- No protocol submission acknowledgement number: the thesis cannot be submitted at all
- Submission by any route other than the online portal: summarily rejected
- The bona fide declaration missing or unsigned by trainee, guide or head of institution: not considered
- Incomplete online form: not considered
- A modified thesis that departs from the assessor's observations, is not labelled, is not flagged, or arrives after six weeks
- Over 80 pages, or chapter lengths outside the allocation
- Conclusions outside the domain of the findings, which the layout section expressly forbids
- Statistical methods not stated per objective, or the program not named
- Plagiarism, breach of data confidentiality or any other distortion of the research process, which Section II says will be viewed seriously
- Missing appendices: tools, consent form, master chart, participant information sheet or the Thesis Protocol Approval
Two newer requirements
The notice of 22 April 2026 makes the ICMR-NIE Basic Course in Biomedical Research, a free self-paced course on SWAYAM with 25 lectures and a proctored 100-question examination passed at 50 per cent, mandatory for DNB and DrNB trainees admitted from the 2025 session onward. It must be completed before thesis submission, and the ICMR-NIE e-certificate is mandatory for eligibility to appear in the final theory examination.
The notice of 6 August 2025 lets DrNB trainees admitted from the 2024 session onward submit an original research article, published or accepted, in lieu of the thesis. The article must align with the protocol submitted at the start of the course, the work must be done during training, the trainee must be first or corresponding author, and the journal must be indexed in Medline, PubMed Central, Embase, Scopus, SCI or SCIE. Direct six-year super-specialty trainees are excluded and the thesis timelines still apply. The full DNB and DrNB format entry is at /formats/nbems.
Sources
- National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences, Guidelines for Thesis Protocol and Thesis Submission, 23 pages, with the Thesis Protocol Approval, Declaration cum Undertaking and Publication annexures: https://natboard.edu.in/thesisonline/guidelines/Thesis%20protocol%20&%20thesis%20submission%20guidelines.pdf
- NBEMS Thesis Online portal, notice board and downloads: https://natboard.edu.in/thesisonline/index
- NBEMS public notice, Penal provision for late thesis protocol and thesis submission, dated 30 October 2023: https://natboard.edu.in/natboard-data/publicnotice/Notice_202311105632.pdf
- NBEMS public notice, Timelines for thesis submission, thesis acceptance, eligibility and maximum permissible duration, dated 2 July 2026: https://natboard.edu.in/natboard-data/publicnotice/Notice_202607023329.pdf
- NBEMS public notice, Implementation of the Basic Course in Biomedical Research for DNB and DrNB trainees, dated 22 April 2026: https://natboard.edu.in/natboard-data/publicnotice/Notice_202604228841.pdf
- NBEMS public notice, Provision for submission of an original research article in lieu of thesis for DrNB trainees, dated 6 August 2025: https://natboard.edu.in/natboard-data/publicnotice/Notice_202508066875.pdf
- NBEMS public notices extending the thesis last date for a session, read as examples of the bulletin-date mechanism: https://natboard.edu.in/natboard-data/publicnotice/Notice_202511071459.pdf and https://natboard.edu.in/natboard-data/publicnotice/Notice_202610087866.pdf
- National Board of Examinations (older, NBE-branded), Guidelines for Thesis Writing and Submission, Guidelines for Thesis Protocol, and the 2013 Thesis Protocol Submission Form and Modified Thesis form, read only to record where they differ from the current document