Preliminary examination of the dissertation and permission to proceed to public examination at the Faculty of Science, Forestry and Technology 

This guide describes the steps of the preliminary examination process of the dissertation at the Faculty of Science, Forestry and Technology and helps you prepare for them. Your main supervisor will assist you with matters related to the examination process. If your main supervisor does not work at the University of Eastern Finland, your UEF supervisor is responsible for signing the forms and approving the plagiarism detection report. If you have any questions about the preliminary examination process, contact the faculty’s Academic Affairs Specialists at [email protected]. 
 

Checklist for the preliminary examination 
 

1. Agree with your supervisors on submitting your dissertation for preliminary examination and finalise your dissertation carefully. 

2. Discuss potential preliminary examiners with your supervisors. Your main supervisor or UEF supervisor will enquire about the preliminary examiners’ willingness to take on the task and inform them of the preliminary examination timeline. 

3. Complete the plagiarism check together with your main supervisor or UEF supervisor. 

4. Submit your application for permission to proceed to public examination and proposal for preliminary examiners, including the required attachments, to the Academic Affairs Specialist. 

5. The Vice Dean (Research) will decide on the appointment of preliminary examiners. 

6. The Academic Affairs Specialist will send the decision, the dissertation, the articles and instructions to the preliminary examiners. 

7. As a rule, the preliminary examiners must submit their statements within 30 days of receiving the dissertation manuscript. 

8. The Academic Affairs Specialist will forward the statements to you and your main supervisor or UEF supervisor. 

9. Read the statements and inform the Academic Affairs Specialist if you have any objections to them. 

10. The Vice Dean (Research) will decide on permission to permission to proceed to public examination based on the preliminary examiners’ statements. 

Before submitting your dissertation for preliminary examination 

Finalising the dissertation 

 
Together with your supervisors, make sure before submitting your dissertation for preliminary examination that it: 

• is complete in terms of content and has been carefully proofread and formatted 

• meets the faculty’s requirements for doctoral dissertations 

You can find more detailed information on the Kamu page dissertation requirements in the Faculty of Science, Forestry and Technology. 

The faculty recommends that you format your dissertation using the publication series layout template before submitting it for preliminary examination. Choose the template based on where you will publish your dissertation: 

1. University publication series layout template (Word (opens in new tab) or LaTeX (opens in new tab)) 

2. Dissertationes Forestales publication series layout template (Word) (opens in new tab)
    

Language review 

Your main supervisor or UEF supervisor will ensure that the language of your dissertation is fluent and meets the standards of good academic writing. You can have the language reviewed either before or after submitting your dissertation for preliminary examination, if your supervisor considers it necessary. The costs of the language review are covered by your department or unit, unless they are paid from your supervisor’s project funding. 
 

Plagiarism detection  

Check the originality of your dissertation using a plagiarism detection tool before submitting it for preliminary examination. This check is mandatory. If you are writing an article-based dissertation, check the summary and any unpublished articles. You are personally responsible for the originality of your dissertation, its content and compliance with responsible conduct of research. 

At the University of Eastern Finland, plagiarism detection is carried out using the Turnitin tool, which is available in eLearn Moodle. 

1. Find the Turnitin tool in Moodle. Your supervisor will give you the course name and enrolment key. 

2. Upload the summary and unpublished articles of your dissertation as a single file (.doc or .docx) to the Turnitin assignment submission box on the course. 

3. Notify your supervisor when the report is ready. 

4. Your supervisor will review the report and discuss the results with you if necessary. 

If you wish, you can check earlier versions of your dissertation using the student Turnitin tool at various stages of your work. This voluntary check does not replace the mandatory check before submitting your dissertation for preliminary examination. 

Doctoral studies and transitional provisions 

Most of your doctoral studies must be completed by the time you submit your dissertation for preliminary examination. Check the status of your doctoral studies with the contact person of your discipline and update your study plan for doctoral studies if necessary. You can also ask the contact person of your discipline to compile your study modules once you have completed all your doctoral studies and the courses are registered in Peppi. You can find the contact details for each discipline on the LUMETO doctoral programme website. 
 

If you received your study right for doctoral studies before 1 August 2023, you can complete your degree according to the study requirements of the previous doctoral programmes (EPHB, FORES or SCITECO) until 31 July 2027, or you can transfer to the LUMETO doctoral programme study requirements. Please note, however, that the Doctor of Science (Technology) degree can only be completed according to the LUMETO doctoral programme study requirements. You can find more detailed information on the Kamu page requirements for doctoral studies and study plan for doctoral studies. 

Changes to your study right 

If you wish to change your major subject and/or your target degree, do so before submitting your dissertation for preliminary examination at the latest. Please note that changing your major subject and/or target degree requires you to complete your degree according to the LUMETO doctoral programme study requirements. Make sure that the details of your dissertation supervisors are up to date and submit a supervisor change form to the faculty if necessary. You can find more detailed information on the following Kamu pages: 

• Changing your target degree or major subject in doctoral education 

• Appointing and changing or adding a supervisor 

Registering as present 

Make sure that you have registered as present for the semesters during which you submit your dissertation for preliminary examination, have the public examination of your dissertation and graduate with your doctoral degree. You can find more detailed information on the Kamu page study right for doctoral studies and annual registration. 

Preliminary examination of the dissertation 

Scientific qualifications of preliminary examiners 

At the Faculty of Science, Forestry and Technology, the preliminary examiner of the doctoral dissertation must be a professor outside the University of Eastern Finland or a person who has a doctoral degree and at least the title of docent or equivalent scientific qualification. 

Disqualification policy  

The grounds for disqualification defined in the Administrative Procedure Act are taken into account when appointing preliminary examiners. 

In accordance with the faculty’s policy: 

• The preliminary examiner must not have had any prior collaboration with the doctoral researcher. 

• The preliminary examiner must not have had any collaboration with the supervisor or supervisors during the past three years. Collaboration refers to, for example, working in the same research group, co-authored publications or other ongoing or planned collaboration (e.g. in research projects or supervision of theses). 

• An exception is made for co-authored publications produced in different research groups or within large international infrastructure or research networks, which typically have dozens of authors. Justification for the exception must be provided as an attachment to the application. 
   

Application for permission to proceed to public examination and proposal for preliminary examiners 

Download and save the Application for permission to proceed to public examination and proposal for preliminary examiners form (opens in new tab) to your computer. Fill in the form and send the signed form with its attachments by email to the faculty’s Academic Affairs Specialists at [email protected]. The form must be signed by both you and your main supervisor or UEF supervisor. The faculty’s Academic Affairs Specialists will separately request confirmation of the proposal from the Deputy Head of the Department or Unit (Research). 

Attachments to the application 

• The summary of your dissertation. The summary must include a clarification on doctoral candidate’s contribution to co-authored articles. 

• All articles of the article-based dissertation. 

• If the proposed preliminary examiner holds the title of docent or has equivalent scientific qualifications, the application must also include the examiner’s list of publications (a link to an online list of publications is sufficient). 

• If the dissertation includes an article that is used as part of two dissertations, the application must also include a free-form statement specifying the roles and contributions of both doctoral researchers in the article in question. The statement must also confirm that both doctoral researchers consent to the use of the article in the respective dissertations, and it must be signed by both doctoral researchers and their main supervisors or UEF supervisors. 

Please note that the university’s Christmas and summer holiday periods will affect the preliminary examination timeline. Examination processes do not proceed at the end of December or during July. You can submit your dissertation for preliminary examination during holiday periods, but the Academic Affairs Specialists will not prepare the decision on preliminary examiners until after the holidays.  

Forwarding the dissertation to the preliminary examiners 

The Vice Dean (Research) will decide on the appointment of preliminary examiners based on the proposal. The faculty’s Academic Affairs Specialists will send the preliminary examiners the decision, the dissertation, the articles and the faculty’s instructions for the preliminary examination. As a rule, the preliminary examiners must submit their statements within 30 days of receiving the dissertation manuscript. If there are justified grounds, the Vice Dean may grant additional time for preparing the statement. In their written statements, the preliminary examiners must clearly indicate whether or not they recommend that permission to proceed to public examination be granted. The preliminary examiners will submit their statements to the faculty, and the Academic Affairs Specialist will forward them to you and your main supervisor or UEF supervisor. You have the right to submit a response to the preliminary examiners’ statements. 
 

Granting permission to proceed to public examination 

The faculty’s Vice Dean (Research) will decide on permission to proceed to public examination based on the preliminary examiners’ statements. Once permission to proceed to public examination has been granted, you will finalise your dissertation, arrange its publication, prepare the dissertation news release and prepare for the public examination. 

 
After permission to proceed to public examination has been granted, you may only make the content changes suggested by the preliminary examiners. You may also carry out technical finishing, such as language editing. You must not make any other significant content changes. You must not add, remove or replace articles in an article-based dissertation with another article. However, you may replace an article with an updated version of the same article if its publication status has changed after the granting of permission to proceed to public examination but before the dissertation is published. 

Discontinuing the preliminary examination process 

If one or both preliminary examiners do not recommend that permission to proceed to public examination be granted, it is recommended that the preliminary examination be discontinued. The preliminary examination can be discontinued at your written request. You must send the request by email to the faculty’s Academic Affairs Specialist. You may resubmit your dissertation for examination once you have addressed the content-related and formal comments made by the preliminary examiners.  

Please note that the examination process can only be discontinued once.