Submitting the manuscript for preliminary examination
After you have assessed, together with your supervisor, that your manuscript is ready for evaluation you may submit it for preliminary examination. Please note that before doing this you must make sure, that your dissertation has been checked for plagiarism in compliance with the instructions of the University of Eastern Finland and the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies. You should submit the manuscript in pdf-format to the faculty. In addition, you should attach a form requesting for permission to public examination. When necessary, ask the form from the following address: jatko-opinnaytteet.yhka(at)uef.fi. Please, submit the form and the manuscript to [email protected].
If your dissertation includes joint publications, you must present a written account of your own contribution to those publications. This is done with a free-form report describing, e.g. your position as an author (e.g. first author, responsible author), your workload by percentage or which parts/chapters of the publications you have been responsible for. If the articles have not been published yet, also attach acceptance letters.
Appointing the preliminary examiners
The Head of your department and your main supervisor notify [email protected] of the names, academic titles and contact information of the preliminary examiners. The preliminary examiners are chosen from among experts external to the university and they are required to hold the title of docent or be persons with equivalent scientific competence.
Your supervisor or a person who has coauthored publications with you in the topic of the dissertation, or who has been involved in research projects with you during your doctoral studies, may not be chosen as a preliminary examiner. Furthermore, a person who in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act is otherwise disqualified may not be chosen as a preliminary examiner. For more information about disqualification, please get acquainted with university’s disqualification guideline.
The Vice Dean decides on the preliminary examiners, after which an official sends the preliminary examiners a copy of the manuscript and instructions relating to the preliminary examination. You will get a copy of the decision.
Permission to defend the dissertation in a public examination
The preliminary examiners are required to deliver their statements to the faculty within 30 days of the date on which the thesis was sent to the preliminary examiners. If necessary, the dean may grant an extension. Once the statements have arrived at the faculty, an official sends them to you in order to express your opinion on the matter. The statements are also delivered to your supervisor. After this, the Vice Dean decides on the public examination of your doctoral dissertation. You will get a copy of this decision with necessary instructions.
Interrupting the thesis assessment process
If the preliminary examiners do not recommend giving a permission for public examination, you should contact [email protected] and your supervisors. You can interrupt the assessment process of the thesis once. The interruption shall be requested in writing.
You may submit your thesis for reassessment after rewriting the thesis, taking into account the content and formal observations of the thesis supervisor and the preliminary examiners. If the thesis is not accepted for assessment, the related decision shall be open to appeal.
Appointing the Opponent and the Custos
The Head of your Department and your supervisor make a proposal on the persons to be appointed as the opponent and the custos. Please, agree on the date of the public examination with them. The proposal will be sent with contact information by email to [email protected] . The Vice Dean decides on the opponent, the custos and the date of the public examination. The decision with necessary instructions is sent to all parties.
The opponent is required hold the title of docent or be a person with equivalent scientific competence and be external to the University of Eastern Finland. The custos must hold a doctorate and the title of docent and must be in service to the University of Eastern Finland. Also, a professor emeritus or emerita can be assigned to custos.
Informing the Media of the Dissertation
The media will be informed of your upcoming dissertation after you have been given a permission for public examination and the date and venue of your public examination have been set. Please, read through the detailed communication instructions in Kamu and fill out the electronic dissertation form.
Public Examination
The public examination should be held on Joensuu or Kuopio campus. Please note that you are responsible for taking care of the practical arrangements of the public examination together with your own department. The instructions relating to the public examination are available in Kamu.
Statement of the opponent and grading of the dissertation
The opponent or opponents shall issue their written statement regarding the doctoral dissertation and its public examination to the faculty within two weeks of the public examination. Also, remarks presented in the public examination shall be delivered in writing to the faculty within two weeks of the public examination. The statement or remark should be delivered to [email protected]. An official will send it to you in order to express your opinion on the matter.
The Faculty Council grades the dissertation after having heard the opinions of the doctoral candidate. Read more about evaluation and grading in the following chapters. After the meeting of the Faculty Council, an official sends you a notification of the decision.
All submitted dissertations whether preliminary or final shall undergo an authenticity verification by using the electronic plagiarism detection system Turnitin.
Principles of authenticity verification
The authenticity of the doctoral dissertation shall be verified as follows:
The authenticity of a monograph thesis shall always be verified prior to its submission to the review process. If significant changes are made to it after the preliminary review, the candidate shall be recommended to verify the authenticity again before it is published.
The authenticity of an article- or essay-based dissertation shall be verified during the preliminary review of an article yet to be published.
The doctoral candidate is recommended to verify the authenticity of the dissertation independently during the writing process. You can test your thesis or other written work through the Turnitin’s Moodle course. Get acquainted with the technical instructions of the electronic plagiarism detection tool and sign in.
Steps to take
Before pre-examination the doctoral candidate
Shall submit the manuscript of the dissertation to Turnitin and inform the supervisor about the submission. The Turnitin assignment can belong to a supervisor, department or doctoral programme.
Shall see the authenticity report produced by the Turnitin system.
Shall revise the dissertation on the basis of the report. The revised manuscript can be submitted to the plagiarism detection system only once after the first round.
Shall get another authenticity report that of the dissertation is approved, whereafter the candidate is able to send it for review in accordance with the guidelines of the faculty.
If cheating is suspected on the basis of a report, it the case will be investigated according to the ethical guidelines for teaching and studying > Procedure in cases of suspected fraud.
User support for Turnitin is available from Oppitupa ([email protected]).
University of Eastern Finland
Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies
Guidance for preliminary examiners to evaluate doctoral dissertations
Dear Madam/Sir,
We thank you for your consent to act as a preliminary examiner of a doctoral dissertation.
Doctoral dissertation
A doctoral dissertation is a substantial scientific thesis based on independent scientific work. The dissertation may be a scientific monograph or it may consist of scientific articles published/to be published which deal with the same set of problems and a paper summarising the findings. It is first examined by external reviewers, i.e. preliminary examiners, appointed by the faculty, then published as a doctoral dissertation with the permission of the faculty and finally defended in a public examination. For the public examination of the dissertation, the Faculty Council appoints one or two opponents and a custos. It decides on the approval of the dissertation based on the statement by the opponent(s).
Evaluation Criteria
The Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies has common evaluation criteria for doctoral dissertations (below) to maintain their quality standard and to ensure equal treatment of the doctoral candidates. We hope that you will write your statement according to them and that the criteria will help you with formulation
of the statement.
The main criteria for evaluation of doctoral dissertations are
scientific significance of the research results as well as
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
significance of the research results in the own research field
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.
Also, we ask you to observe that the pre-examiner should give a statement on the manuscript sent by the faculty and state whether s/he recommends permission for public examination. Conditional statements should not be given.
The length of the statement is at least two pages and the language of the statement is English.
If you discover in the dissertation so serious deficiencies that you cannot recommend permission for public examination, please, issue your statement to the faculty but also contact the supervisor of a the doctoral candidate.
University of Eastern Finland
Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies
Guidance for opponents to evaluate doctoral dissertations
Dear Madam/Sir,
We thank you for your consent to act as an opponent in a public examination of a doctoral dissertation.
The Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies has joint evaluation criteria for the doctoral dissertations to maintain their quality standard and to ensure equal treatment of the doctoral candidates. Please, take them into consideration and write your statement according to them. Also, we ask you to observe that the opponent should suggest a doctoral dissertation a grade. The grading scale is included in the evaluation criteria. If you have doubts about the grade, do not hesitate to discuss with the custos.
The language of the statement is English and the length at least two pages.
Doctoral dissertation
A doctoral dissertation is a substantial scientific thesis based on independent scientific work. The dissertation may be a scientific monograph or it may consist of scientific articles published/to be published which deal with the same set of problems and a paper summarising the findings. It is first examined by external reviewers, i.e. preliminary examiners, appointed by the faculty, then published as a doctoral dissertation with the permission of the faculty and finally defended in a public examination. For the public examination of the dissertation, the Faculty Council appoints one or two opponents and a custos. It decides on the approval of the dissertation based on the statement by the opponent(s). We kindly ask you to submit your statement within two weeks of the examination to: [email protected].
Evaluation criteria
The main criteria for evaluation of doctoral dissertations are scientific significance of the research results as well as 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
significance of the research results in the own research field
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
Fee and Travel Costs
We will pay the opponent(s) a fee and travel costs after we have received the statement. Concerning the payment, you will be contacted by a Personnel Assistant.
For the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies,
