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The topic of your doctoral thesis is approved by the Doctoral Programme Committee of the School when you are accepted to the doctoral programme. Your research plan is the basis for your thesis work.

Doctoral thesis at Aalto University Doctoral thesis: preparation for pre-examination and publication (Finalising your doctoral studies, aalto.fi)Publishing your doctoral thesis (Finalising your doctoral studies, aalto.fi)Incentive scholarships for the first two articles and completetion of doctoral thesis (see the conditions)

Midterm review for doctoral studies (ENG)

Requirements for doctoral thesis at the School of Engineering

 Approved doctoral thesis at the School of Engineering may be

• a single study (a monograph) or
• article-based doctoral thesis

Examining the thesis is the responsibility of two preliminary examiners. The doctoral programme Committee shall supervise the examination.

In an article dissertation, the articles have already undergone peer review. The examination is then usually directed at the summary part and the aggregate of the dissertation, as well as the doctoral student's own contribution. The summary must contain an account of the subject studied, the most important research results obtained by the author, discussion of results, and a list of the aforementioned separate publications, and it must supplement these publications to fulfil the requirements above.The separate publications are generally so-called co-authored publications, from which it is not necessarily clear, which is each author's contribution to the publication. In such a case, a sufficiently detailed report of the contributions of all authors in the separate publications must be included in the summary.                               

Guidelines by the Doctoral Programme Committee of the School of Engineering

Formats of doctoral dissertation at ENG

The formats of doctoral dissertations at the School of Engineering are

1. A single research piece or a monograph
2. Article-based doctoral dissertation

Monograph Guidelines

An approved doctoral thesis may be a single study (i.e., a monograph), which has not been displayed in a published form in full before. The following are criteria for preparing the monograph at the School of Engineering. 

The monograph: 

• Must contain new scientific findings in its discipline.
• Must be written solely by the doctoral candidate.
• Must include a clear explanation of the doctoral candidate’s major role in forming the research problem, carrying out the research and formulating the results.
• Must not extensively repeat generally known textbook content or well-established knowledge within the discipline.
• Must form a coherent entity with adequate subsections according to disciplinary conventions, although it is strongly recommended to follow as closely as possible the convention “introduction-background-methodology-results-discussion-conclusion”.
• Must not exceed 300 pages as the document length, unless a longer form is acceptable according to specific disciplinary conventions.
• May include the doctoral candidate’s previously-published results, cited as part of the monograph’s reference list.
• May include a part on the societal and professional significance of the dissertation. 

Further guidelines on requirements of doctoral dissertation at ENG

The articles included in the article-based doctoral dissertation are published or submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed forum in the discipline. Peer-reviewed forum may be a scientific publication series (journal), conference proceedings, or book chapter.

One article not yet accepted for publication (under review in a journal) can be included in the article-based doctoral dissertation.

The number of publications required for the dissertation depends on their publication forum, extent, scientific significance and quality as well as on the weight of the independent contribution of the doctoral candidate to the publications.

General quality requirements for doctoral dissertations

The writer of a dissertation shall pay special attention to, i.a., the following things:

• A doctoral dissertation shall contain new knowledge in the field it represents.
• The doctoral dissertation must present the new results clearly and in a manner meeting the criteria set for scientific texts.
• The independent contribution to the research or artistic production shall be sufficient and clearly demonstrable.
• The research methods used shall fulfil the criteria set for scientific research.
• A doctoral dissertation shall conform to the principles of responsible conduct of research and adhere to ethically sustainable principles.