Defense of doctoral thesis

Defence of PhD degree

You can apply for the doctoral degree if you have fulfilled the doctoral curriculum to the extent required. The doctoral degree is awarded on the basis of the curriculum, including a joint curriculum. Defence committees are set up according to the curricula.

The awarding of a doctoral degree is regulated by "Conditions and Procedure for Awarding Doctorates " (enforced 01.05.2020). Review this document in detail to learn the exact requirements for the doctoral thesis and the process of defending the doctoral degree.

Doctoral thesis

A doctoral thesis is an independent research, which presents an innovative reasoned solution to an essential problem of a specific field of science or life. A doctoral thesis could be based on publications (three scientific publications and a conclusive summary integrating the publications) or a monograph.

Note that articles published in a journal should be indexed in the databases of Web of Science and/or Scopus.

Download Conditions and Procedure for Awarding Doctorates (pdf) 624.02 KB

Requirements for PhD thesis and document submitted for the defense

1. Submit the application to the defense committee along with the required documents

2. The committee will review the application within one month

3. If the committee approves the defense, you can start preparations for the defense

4. Defend your doctoral thesis in front of the defense committee

5. Congratulations, you have a doctoral degree!

At the Estonian University of Life Sciences, the doctoral diploma is awarded at a formal academic ceremony during the promotion of doctors.

The doctoral thesis can be either a monograph, or a comprehensive, coherent summary based on at least three scientific publications.

The thesis must be linguistically edited to ensure clarity and academic quality.

The thesis can be submitted to the committee only if:

At least two articles have received official confirmation of acceptance for publication;
The third article is in manuscript form and has undergone peer review.
The doctoral candidate must be the first author of at least one scientific article categorized as ETIS 1.1 or 3.1.

The thesis should involve:

overview of the essence of the research problem;
objectives and hypotheses of the research;
description of methodology;
research results and discussion;
summary, which lists the main results and possible further directions of study;
list of references;
author’s academic CV (curriculum vitae) in Estonian and English;
abstract, which includes the aims, research methods and results of the thesis, and is in
Estonian for theses in other languages and in English for theses in Estonian (in justified
cases in another language relevant for the field);
copies of publications, if the doctoral thesis is based on scientific publications and does
not have restrictions on publication by the publishing house. Scientific publications with
restricted publication will be attached as separate appendix/appendixes of the doctoral
thesis

NB!

At least two articles must be formally acknowledged for acceptance for publication, one article may be in the form of a manuscript that has been peer-reviewed by an international leading scientific journal or the collection editor!

You must be the first author of at least one article published in Category 1.1. or 3.1. of ETIS.

Formal Application addressed to the chair of the defense committee
- Must include:
  - the degree being applied for
  - the name of the completed curriculum
  - A declaration by the doctoral candidate confirming that:
    - The same doctoral thesis has not been defended at any other university
    - The submitted work is the candidate’s original research
Academic Transcript
- A transcript of records prepared by the Senior Specialist of PhD Studies
Supervisor’s Statement
- A signed confirmation by the supervisor(s) verifying:
  - The doctoral candidate’s contribution to the publications
  - That the thesis meets the required academic standards
Request for Confidential Defense (if applicable)
- A reasoned formal request if the candidate seeks to have the defense declared confidential
Thesis and the publications
- Doctoral thesis file (Ready for printing in Word and PDF formats
- Files of the publications (PDFs of the published or accepted scientific articles, if they are not included in the manuscript)
Summary of the thesis in Estonian and in English
- A linguistically edited abstract of up to 2,000 characters

Download Application for the defense of the thesis (docx) 24.66 KB

Technical Requirements for the Formatting of a Doctoral Thesis

Technical Requirements for the Formatting of a Doctoral Thesis

The technical requirements for the formatting of a doctoral thesis have been established pursuant to point 35 of the Regulation No. 1-28/9 "Conditions and procedure for awarding doctorates" of the Senate of the Estonian University of Life Sciences, dated 9 April 2020.

Technical Formatting Requirements for Doctoral Theses

Based on point 35 of the Regulation No. 1-28/9 “Conditions and Procedure for Applying for and Defending a Doctoral Degree” of the Senate of the Estonian University of Life Sciences, dated April 9, 2020, the following technical formatting requirements for doctoral theses are established.

1. Format and Structure of the Doctoral Thesis

1.1. The format of the doctoral thesis is 176 × 250 mm.

1.2. The structure of the doctoral thesis includes the following sections or topics:

1.2.1. Introduction including an overview of the nature of the research problem;
1.2.2. Literature review;
1.2.3. Research objectives, hypotheses and/or research questions;
1.2.4. Description of the methodology;
1.2.5. Results and discussion;
1.2.6. Conclusions and future research opportunities;
1.2.7. List of references used;
1.2.8. Author's academic curriculum vitae in Estonian and English;
1.2.9. List of the five most recent doctoral theses in the curriculum (author, title in Estonian and English, supervisor(s), date of defense);
1.2.10. Summary (in Estonian for an English-language thesis and in English for an Estonian-language thesis), which comprehensively describes the objectives, research methods, results, and conclusions of the work;
1.2.11. Copies of publications if the doctoral thesis is based on publications and not subject to publisher-imposed restrictions. Publications under embargo are added as separate appendix/appendices.

2. Design of the Doctoral Thesis

2.1. Cover Design

2.1.1. The cover (Appendix 2) is printed in color using the main tone of the Estonian University of Life Sciences visual identity (CVI) (CMYK: C89; M45; Y62; K33).

2.1.2. The front cover includes the university logo, title of the doctoral thesis in Estonian and English, author’s first and last name, name of the degree applied for in Estonian and English (Doktoritöö …/Doctoral thesis in …/), place, and year.

2.1.3. The spine of the cover features the author’s name and the thesis title in English.

2.1.4. The outer back cover includes ISSN and ISBN numbers. The ISSN number for the doctoral theses series of the Estonian University of Life Sciences is 2382-7076; the ISBN number is provided by the library.

2.2. Title Pages Formatting

2.2.1. The logo on the title pages is printed in the university’s CVI main tone; the text is printed in black.

2.2.2. The half-title page (Appendix 3) features the university logo at the top and centered text: “Eesti Maaülikooli doktoritööd” with “Doctoral Theses of Estonian University of Life Sciences” beneath it in English.

2.2.3. The reverse of the half-title page remains blank.

2.2.4. The title page (Appendix 4) replicates the design of the front cover but without the logo pattern stripe.

2.2.5. The reverse of the title page (Appendix 5) includes, in the same language as the thesis: name of the structural unit where the thesis was prepared, reference to the decision of the defense committee to allow the thesis to be defended, name(s) and institution(s) of the opponent(s), name(s) and institution(s) of the supervisor(s), name(s) of the editor(s), date, place and time of the defense, and at the bottom: ©, ISSN, and ISBN numbers (for print and/or PDF versions).

2.3. Text Design and Formatting

2.3.1. Examples of design and formatting are presented in Appendix 1.

2.3.2. Text is printed in black; figures and photos may be printed in color if desired.

2.3.3. Text frame size: 136 × 215 mm.

2.3.4. Page margins: top and outer margin 15 mm, binding (inner) margin 25 mm, bottom margin 20 mm.

2.3.5. First-level heading: AGaramond bold 14 pt, line spacing 16 pt, centered; starts on a new page, followed by empty space (Space after 28 pt).

2.3.6. Subheading: AGaramond bold 12 pt, line spacing 14 pt, centered (Space after 14 pt).

2.3.7. Main text: Adobe Garamond (AGaramond), 12 pt, line spacing 14 pt, justified.

2.3.8. Footnotes: AGaramond, 9 pt, line spacing 11 pt, justified.

2.3.9. Captions for tables and figures: AGaramond, 10 pt, line spacing 12 pt, justified; bold or italic may be used if necessary.

2.3.10. Paragraph spacing is used for text division (14 pt).

2.4. Referencing and Bibliography

2.4.1. Referencing and bibliography must follow the APA citation style.

2.5. Scientific Publications Layout (For Printing House Only)

2.5.1. Scientific publications are added at the end of the thesis, following the layout provided in Appendix 6.

3. File Formats and Submission of the Doctoral Thesis

3.1. The doctoral thesis must be submitted to the defense committee in both Word format (DOC or DOCX) and PDF format. Publications (articles) must be in PDF format. The submitted version of the thesis must be final.

3.2. The thesis is submitted to the printing house in Word format; publications in PDF format. If the thesis includes figures (diagrams), original files should be submitted if possible.

3.3. A print-ready version of the thesis must be submitted to the library in PDF format. The file name must include the author's first and last name and the name of the institute.