Faculty of Veterinary Medicine: submitting the doctoral thesis

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This page provides detailed instructions to the students of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine on how to submit a doctoral dissertation for preliminary examination. Remember to first read the general instructions on the planning of the timetable and the preliminary examination aimed at all doctoral candidates at the University.

Should you have any questions on how to launch the preliminary examination process, you can always contact the doctoral student services of your home faculty.

 

Preliminary examination timetables

The Faculty Council appoints two preliminary examiners for the dissertation manuscript. The proposal on the preliminary examiners is made by the coordinating academic (previously called responsible professor). The preliminary examiner proposal must be approved by the doctoral candidate. At the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, the preliminary examiner proposals are processed in a meeting of the Research Committee prior to the Faculty Council. Meeting timetables are decided on a yearly basis.

Research Committee meeting timetables and deadlines for material submission on Flamma (requires logging in)

Meeting times of the Faculty Council of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine on Faculty's web site.

The impartiality of the preliminary examiners will be verified at Viikki doctoral study services. The education coordinator acting as the presenting official will prepare the matter for the agendas of the Committee for Research and Research-oriented Doctoral Education and the Faculty Council. You may acquaint yourself with the dissertation requirements and preliminary examiner qualification requirements on the website of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.

 

Submitting a dissertation for preliminary examination

For the purpose of appointing the preliminary examiners, the doctoral candidate must submit a dissertation manuscript with the documents listed below to Viikki doctoral study services at viikki-phd@helsinki.fi.

1. The dissertation manuscript in one PDF file. The manuscript includes a summarising report and the component articles of the dissertation. Should the file be too large to send by email, the doctoral candidate can send it, for example, with Funet FileSender.

2. A list of the component articles of the dissertation, which may include the following document:

3. A report on the division of labour for all co-authored component articles. The division of labour between the authors must be explained briefly in such a way that it is possible for the preliminary examiners and the Faculty Council to assess the sufficiency of the doctoral candidate’s independent scientific contribution to the dissertation. The report on the division of labour is to be signed by the doctoral candidate and the main supervisor. It is possible to include the same co-authored publication in more than one dissertation, so the report on the division of labour must include information on whether the publication has been used or will be used in another dissertation. If the preliminary examiners are not proficient in Finnish, the report must be written in English.

4. A written notice of the receipt or notice of acceptance of the article from the publishing journal must be included for unpublished manuscripts included in dissertation.

5. Animal experiment licence (when needed)

6. Theoretical studies, i.e. Discipline-specific studies -module and Transferable skills -module, must be completed and registered in Sisu before the pre-examination process can be started. The instructions are on the web-page Registration of doctoral studies. You can find the degree structure and required studies on the page Scope and structure of doctoral degrees. Note, choose your own doctoral programme from the site's degree programme menu.

7. Confirmation of a passed plagiarism detection test, which the coordinating academic sends by email to Viikki doctoral study services (viikki-phd@helsinki.fi)

The doctoral candidate will submit the dissertation manuscript and the unpublished articles to the plagiarism detection system Ouriginal (previously called Urkund) before submitting them for the preliminary examination. The manuscript is to be sent to the coordinating academic’s Ouriginal address, which is usually in the format: firstname.lastname.hy@analyysi.urkund.fi. The coordinating academic checks the Ouriginal report and notifies the Viikki doctoral study services that the dissertation has passed the plagiarism detection test. Further information about Ouriginal is available in an article about plagiarism detection.

8. The coordinating academic makes a proposal on the preliminary examiners using the electronic Proposal for the preliminary examiners form. The completed form is printed and sent to be signed by the coordinating academic and the doctoral candidate, after which it can be scanned and sent to Viikki doctoral study services (viikki-phd@helsinki.fi). Further information about the preliminary examiners’ qualifications is available at the website of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.

NB! The language revision is not obligatory before pre-examination.

The doctoral candidate has the responsibility to see to it that the language of the dissertation fulfils academic publishing standards. It is recommended that you submit your dissertation for language revision if you have written the dissertation in a language other than your native language.  However, your supervisor may decide that language revision is unnecessary, if the language in your thesis is good. 

The Language Services recommend that the language revision is done after the preliminary examiners have submitted their statements. However, if you are unsure of the adequate quality of the language in the manuscript, the language revision can be done before submitting the manuscript for preliminary examination.

 

Pre-examination

  • At the proposal of the coordinating academic and with the approval of the Research Committee, the Faculty Council will appoint two preliminary examiners.
  • The presenting official (doctoral education officer from Viikki doctoral study services) will provide the preliminary examiners with the manuscript and evaluation guidelines.
  • The time limit for the preliminary examination is two months.
  • When the preliminary examiners’ statements arrive at Viikki doctoral study services, the doctoral candidate and the coordinating academic will be informed about them. The doctoral candidate is given the opportunity to object to the preliminary examiners’ state
  • If the statements are favourable to granting permission to defend the dissertation in a public examination, the coordinating professor makes a proposal on the members of the grading committee.

You may acquaint yourself with the general guidelines pertaining to doctoral dissertations and the instruction given to examiners on the website of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.