Requirements for and Examination of the Doctoral Dissertation, Faculty of Science, Forestry and Technology

NOTE! As of August 1, 2025, preliminary examiners must submit their statement to the faculty no later than thirty (30) days after the thesis has been sent to them. If necessary, the dean may grant an extension.

Requirements for doctoral dissertation

NOTE! The faculty’s requirements for doctoral dissertations were updated. The new requirements came into effect on August 1, 2025, and they also apply to doctoral candidates whose doctoral study right was granted before that date.

An article-based dissertation may be approved as a doctoral dissertation if it contains a sufficient number of articles on the same research problem and a summary of them, as deemed sufficient by the university. A monograph may also be approved as a doctoral dissertation, which is a scholarly work on the same research problem based on previously unpublished research in the name of the doctoral candidate alone.

Within the Faculty of Science, Forestry and Technology, the structure of an article-based dissertation is as follows:

• An article-based dissertation typically comprises three (3) articles, of which at least one
  (1) has been published or approved for publication in international scientific peer-review series. If one of the articles is a manuscript, it must have been submitted for review to an international scientific peer-review series before the dissertation is submitted for preliminary examination.
• In special cases, a doctoral dissertation of two (2) articles that meet the criteria can be accepted, in which case both articles must have been published or approved for publication.
• The doctoral candidate must be the first author or main author of at least two (2) articles. A shared first authorship is interpreted as first authorship. In addition, the doctoral candidate must write a clarification on their contribution to co-authored articles in their dissertation.

For justified reasons, the same article can be used as part of two doctoral dissertations, if both doctoral candidates can be shown to have a sufficient role and contribution to the publication in question. If two doctoral candidates wish to use the same article in their doctoral dissertations, they must prepare a free-form statement together with their main supervisors to indicate the role and contribution of both doctoral candidates in the article in question.

The Faculty has described the competence of doctoral researcher supervisors, preliminary examiners, examiners, opponent and custos as follows.

Preliminary examiners

When the doctoral researcher has completed all the required studies and the supervisors of the doctoral dissertation assess that the study is ready for reviewing, the doctoral candidate submits the work to be reviewed. Before submitting the manuscript of doctoral dissertation, the dissertation manuscript is checked with a plagiarism detection tool. As to language revision, the Faculty requires that the language of the doctoral dissertation is fluent, and the main supervisor is responsible for ensuring that the language of the dissertation meets the requirements for clear scientific language and fulfills academic publishing standards. The main supervisor may require the dissertation undergo a language revision; this will be agreed upon separately. A language revision can be performed before submitting the dissertation for preliminary examination or after the preliminary examination.

The doctoral candidate and the main supervisor agree on which one will fill in the Webropol form used to apply for permission to defend the doctoral dissertation and to propose preliminary examiners. The completed form must be downloaded from Webropol for signatures, following the instructions provided at the end of the form. In addition to the doctoral candidate and the main supervisor, the form must be signed by the Head of the Department/School or the Person in Charge of the Academic Subject. Primarily, the doctoral candidate or the main supervisor is responsible for collecting the required signatures. If downloading the form from Webropol is not successful or if you need assistance with the electronic signatures, please contact the Faculty’s Academic Affairs Specialists at lumetdissertations(at)uef.fi.

The preliminary examiners must come from outside the University of Eastern Finland and hold a professorship, docentship, or a corresponding scientific qualification. If a person holding a docentship is presented as a preliminary examiner, their up-to-date list of publications must be attached to the proposal. The grounds for disqualification determined by the administrative law are considered when appointing the examiners.

The above-mentioned form, the dissertation manuscript, and the articles (both published articles and manuscripts submitted for review), as well as any additional attachments (e.g. the preliminary examiners’ publication lists), must be submitted by email to the Faculty’s Academic Affairs Specialists at lumetdissertations(at)uef.fi. If you need further information, please contact the same email address.

The Dean of the Faculty makes a decision on the preliminary examiners. The Faculty´s officer informs the preliminary examiners about the decision and provides them with a copy of the doctoral dissertation as well as instructions for the preparation of the preliminary examiners’ statement. The preliminary examiners of doctoral dissertations must give their statements within thirty (30) days of the date on which the thesis has been sent to the examiners. If necessary, the Dean may grant an extension.

Instructions the preliminary examiners 

Permission for public examination of doctoral dissertation

When the statements arrive at the Faculty, they are forwarded to the doctoral candidate and their main supervisor by email. If the statements are favorable and the doctoral candidate has no objections to them, the Dean grants a permission for the public examination of the dissertation. If the pre-examiner/-s, however, require changes and/or corrections to be made to the dissertation manuscript, the main supervisor submits to the Faculty their statement confirming that the doctoral candidate has made the required modifications. The Dean cannot grant a permission for the public examination prior the Faculty has received the main supervisor’s confirmation. The doctoral candidate does not need to submit a separate application for a permission for the public examination.

The Faculty sends the decision for the information of the doctoral candidate, the main supervisor of the doctoral dissertation, and to the Head of Department or School of the doctoral candidate by email.

Appointment of opponent and custos

The Dean appoints the opponent and the custos. After receiving a permission for public examination, the doctoral candidate and the main supervisor fill in the form proposing an opponent and a custos. According to the Degree Regulations of the University of Eastern Finland, the opponent must come from outside the University of Eastern Finland and be at least a docent or hold a corresponding scientific qualification. The Faculty recommends that the opponent be a person holding a professorship. However, if a person holding a docentship is presented as the opponent, their up-to-date list of publications must be attached to the application. A professor from the faculty operates as the custos (chairperson) of the public examination.

Custos represents the University at the public examination. The Faculty recommends that the custos be a professor or an associate professor at the University of Eastern Finland, but a main supervisor holding a docent’s qualification can also act as a custos.

The doctoral candidate submits a proposal, signed by either the Head of the Department/Unit or the person in charge of the academic subject, by the main supervisor, and by the doctoral candidate themself, and sends it also to lumetdissertations(at)uef.fi. The Dean appoints the opponent and the custos on the basis of the proposal. The Faculty sends the decision by email to the doctoral candidate, the opponent, the custos, the head and the study secretary of the department or school, as well as the Communications and Media Relations of the University (also to the main supervisor if not appointed as the custos). In the process, the opponent is given the faculty instructions for formulating a written statement regarding the public examination.

Instructions for the opponent

Approval of doctoral dissertation

The opponent should submit their written statement on the doctoral dissertation and on the public examination within two weeks after the public examination to the faculty. In their statement, the opponent should give a well-justified proposal for the grade of the doctoral dissertation, using the scale pass with distinction, pass and fail. The Faculty sends the statement to the doctoral candidate, and if they has no remarks on the statement, the doctoral dissertation is submitted to the Faculty Council for approval. If the opponent proposes the grade ‘pass with distinction’, the preliminary examiners of the doctoral dissertation will be consulted with regard to grading.

Finally, the Faculty Council approves and grades the doctoral dissertation. The final dissertation will be recorded in the study register by Faculty Administration.

The Dean has been delegated the right to approve and grade doctoral dissertations on the basis of the opponents’ statements between the semesters, that is, between the last Faculty Council meeting of an academic semester and the first Faculty Council meeting of next academic semester.