Requirements for and evaluation of the doctoral dissertation at the faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies

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 and recommendations for the dissertation

The doctoral dissertation demonstrates the doctoral researcher’s in-depth knowledge of the field of research, related fields and the philosophy of science. Furthermore, the dissertation demonstrates his/her ability to apply the methods of scientific research in practice, both independently, and critically in his/her field of research as well as independently to generate new information.

Forms of the dissertation

One of the following can be accepted as a doctoral dissertation:

1. a separate piece of research (monograph). A monograph is a work based on the research project by the doctoral researcher. It is a coherent and independent study and should contain the data and methodology and the results as a whole.
2. an article-based dissertation. An article-based dissertation shall contain at least two peer-reviewed articles accepted for publication and one manuscript accepted for the review process. Peer review refers to an assessment process carried out by the scientific community where an article or part of a collection of articles undergoes an advance assessment by an independent expert. The review must be verifiable. The other articles may be manuscripts to be published. An article electronically pre-published by a scientific series is regarded as published. In case the articles are joint publications, a doctoral candidate must be mainly responsible for at least two of them. If the publications include collaborative work, a doctoral candidate must present a written account of his/her own contribution to those publications when requesting a public examination. A joint publication may be included in a maximum of two different dissertations. We follow the TENK (Finnish National Board on Research Integrity) recommendations on authorship of scientific publications.

In Business Studies, an essay-based dissertation can also be approved. An essay-based dissertation comprises at least three published or unpublished independent manuscripts dealing with the same set of research problems. Some of these manuscripts may be scientific articles or other publications and unpublished essays.

It is recommended to publish in national and/or international scientific journals, series or monographs, which are specialised in publishing scientific research results, have an editorial board comprising experts and hold ISSN or ISBN numbers (e.g. the Finnish JUFO Publication Forum classification levels 1 – 3, see  Publication Forum for more information).

In addition to the articles or essays, the dissertation must include an introduction.

The language of the doctoral dissertation is Finnish, English or another language accepted by the Dean responsible for postgraduate education.

There is a separate instruction on publishing the dissertation at Kamu.

Further information
Annikki Honkanen
Anne Korhonen

Evaluation for the dissertation

The main criteria for evaluation of doctoral dissertations are

1. scientific significance of the research results as well as
2. contribution of the candidate to the research.

Additionally, the following specific criteria are used:

Starting point of the research

• scientific level, formulation and motivation of the research problem
• theoretical basis of the research and connection to the previous research
• scientific, societal and practical relevance of the research

Research process

• command of the research field, knowledge and use of the literature
• command, definition and clarity of the concepts
• success of the choices and solutions during the research process, and possibility to evaluate them
• command and suitability of the methods
• quality and carefulness of the research

Research results

• new knowledge and the results gained in the research work
• sufficiency of the research contribution of the candidate
• consistent foundation of the results on the data
• coherence, stylistic and linguistic form of the presentation
• in an article-based dissertation: quality of the publications
• defense in the public examination
• Also, the compliance of good scientific practice in the research process and documentation will be taken into account in the evaluation.

Grades

The doctoral dissertations are graded as follows: pass with distinction / pass / fail.

Further information
Annikki Honkanen
Anne Korhonen