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A written notice of the receipt or notice of acceptance of the article from the publishing journal must be included for unpublished manuscripts included in dissertation.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The doctoral candidate will submit the dissertation manuscript and the unpublished articles to the plagiarism detection system Ouriginal (previously called Urkund) before submitting them for the preliminary examination.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.