Dissertações não-acadêmicas em mestrados profissionais: isso é possível?

This article deals with a particular aspect of the question of master courses for non-academic professionals in administration: the dissertation, their final work. CAPES (Brazil's federal agency for development of higher education personnel), in its Governmental Order (Portaria n. 47, of 17/10/95), stimulates and regulates the matter. The author stands that this kind of dissertation, like good academic dissertations: a) fits the concept of science, as long as the essencial condition of it is kept. Thus, graduate studies are its adequate locus; b) has its own peculiarities. The text comprises four parts. The first deals with the opportunity of the question-title and its problematic feature. In the second, a critical analysis of dissertations in academic milieu is made. In the third, the longest, the central question of what is a scientific work is discussed. In the fourth, some distinguishing traits of dissertations of master courses for professionals in administration are defined and some options of strategy and structure for them are explored.