Doctoral dissertation requirements, Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies

The doctoral dissertation must demonstrate that the doctoral candidate has an in-depth knowledge of their own field of research, related disciplines, and the general theory of science. It must also demonstrate the candidate’s ability to independently and critically apply research methods in their field, as well as the ability to independently produce new knowledge.

The following types of doctoral dissertations may be accepted:

1. A monograph. A monograph is a single, coherent study written by the doctoral researcher about their own research. It must be a unified and independent publication that describes the research data, methods, and results in their entirety.
2. An article-based dissertation. An article-based dissertation must contain at least two peer-reviewed articles accepted for publication and one manuscript submitted for peer review. Peer review refers to the academic practice in which an article or a section of a compiled work has undergone preliminary evaluation by an independent expert. This evaluation must be verifiable. Other articles may be unpublished manuscripts intended for publication. An article published online ahead of print by a journal is considered a published article. When the peer-reviewed articles are co-authored, the doctoral researcher must have had primary responsibility for at least two of the articles. If the articles or essays are co-authored, the author must provide a written account of their contribution to the co-authored publication when applying for permission to defend the dissertation. A co-authored publication may be included in no more than two different dissertations. We follow the guidelines of the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity (TENK) on authorship of scientific publications.

In Business Studies, an essay-based dissertation may also be accepted. An essay-based dissertation consists of at least three published or unpublished independent works that address the same research problem or set of problems. Some of the independent works may be academic articles or other publications, while others may be unpublished essays.

It is recommended that doctoral researchers publish in national and/or international academic journals, series, or separate publications that specialise in publishing academic research results, have an editorial board composed of experts, and have an ISSN or ISBN identifier (e.g. Finnish Publication Forum classification levels 1–3 or equivalent, see the Publication Forum).

In addition, both article-based and essay-based dissertations must include an introductory section.

The language of the dissertation is Finnish, English, or another language approved by the dean responsible for scientific postgraduate studies (Education Regulations, Section 26).

Further information
Maija Nyman
Salla Lappalainen