A dissertation cannot be submitted to the competition more than once.

To be considered, a dissertation should:

1. make a noteworthy contribution to the subject
2. reach a high standard of exposition
3.  place its results clearly in the context of computer science as a whole
4. enable a computer scientist with significantly different interests to grasp its essentials

It is reasonable to submit a thesis to the scheme if it has all of the above qualities in good measure and if it is comparable in standard with the top 10% of dissertations in the subject. Long dissertations are not encouraged; if the main text is more than 80,000 words, there should be good justification.