Information and checklist to doctoral students and their supervisors in preparation for doctoral theses, date announcement and defence

Planning for public defence

Rules and guidelines

It is important that the supervisor reads up on the guidelines and is aware of the rules that surround the public defence. Please review the following documents:

• Regulations Handbook for Third Cycle Courses and Study Programmes (section 15.3, Proposals and decisions about the public defence)
• Information on proposal for the public defence of doctoral thesis (Only available in Swedish)
• Guidelines for outline of doctoral education - Swedish only (established 2023-12-14)

Important note regarding the examining committees’ assignment:
Since 1st of January 2024, one part of the examining committee’s assignment is to make a preliminary review of the substudies in the thesis, as well as checking the associated ethical vetting documents (applications and decisions, excl. appendices). The supervisor shall inform those concerned  about this assignment before submitting the proposal for public defence.

Date and time

Once you have agreed on a preferred date and time for the public defence, the supervisor shall inform the study and research administration thereof (for contact information, see the box above), in order for us to check whether the requested date and time is available. The Faculty of Medicine and Health, who is the decision-making body, only permits one public defence at a time within the same subject/specialisation, i.e., a maximum of one defence in the morning and one defence in the afternoon, on any day. You may apply for a public defence on the same date and time as another defence within the same subject/specialisation, but it is important to justify, in writing, why you are requesting the defence on that particular date and time. There is a risk that your application is rejected.

The study and research administration will book a lecture hall and a meeting room. According to ”Guidelines on venues and refreshments in connection with doctoral programme activities” (ORU 1.2.1-01334/2017), this will be in Örebro University’s own facilities.

Ethics review before defense - Faculty of Medicine and Health

As of January 1, 2021, all dissertation work within the Faculty of Medicine and Health (MH) must undergo an ethics review prior to a decision on defense. The documentation must be sent in according to the prepared template that appears in the Routine for the ethics review within the Faculty of Medicine and Health (Appendix 1).

For questions regarding proposals for a defense and more, contact the Faculty Office's investigator at .

Internationalisation – lecture

If the faculty examiner or any member of the examining committee comes from another country, we recommend that they be asked to give a lecture at Örebro University (ORU). We therefore ask you as supervisor, who are in contact with those concerned, to check if this would be possible. If so, please contact the study and research administration for assistance with booking a venue, advertisement etc.

Production of the doctoral thesis

The thesis should be written in English. A compilation thesis should contain at least four studies with the doctoral student as first author of three of them. Usually, at least two studies have been published or accepted for publication in refereed journals, but what is central to the examining committee’s assessment of the thesis project is the doctoral student’s contribution and how this contribution corresponds to the learning outcomes. Systematic overview papers and meta- analyses/syntheses may be included in the thesis. A scientific paper should not be included in more than two theses. The extent of the respective doctoral student’s scientific contribution should be clearly stated.

On the web page Thesis production you will find information to help you as a doctoral student when writing your thesis. You will among other things find essential advice on planning and structuring your work, submission, and publication edition. There are also examples of design recommendations.

Journals shall be contacted prior to the public defence for permission to reprint the articles including images/tables in the thesis (feel free to use this template for this purpose).

Contact with the printing office

No later than 15 weeks (preferably earlier) before the public defence is to take place, the doctoral student shall get in touch with the printing office Repro at ORU regarding production of your thesis, by filling out the Form for time plan. In this form you shall specify the series to which the thesis belongs: Studies in Disability Research. You shall also specify your subject (Disability Research). This information will be printed on your thesis. Please contact Maria Hugo-Lindén for serie and ISSN number. 

The following text should be included in the thesis: "This thesis is number XXX in Studies in Disability Research, a cooperation between the universities of Linköping, Örebro and Jönköping. The graduate programme is the world-leading research programme in disability. Disability research is an interdisciplinary subject and covers both medical and technical, as well as behavioural and social aspects. The 10 latest theses are shown below. For a complete list of thesis, please visit www.ihv.se"

Language review (Proofreading)

The introductory chapter shall be subjected to language review. The faculty board allocates funds for this purpose. If you have any questions regarding language review, please contact your study and research administration.

Proposal for public defence

Once you have agreed on a date for the public defence, and the faculty examiner, examining committee incl. substitute and the chair of the defence all have accepted the assignment, you shall submit the proposal for public defence. The study and research administration will provide links to the web-based forms that are to be used for the proposal.

The doctoral student fills out the form “Application for public defence”. A summary of the form will be automatically generated and sent via e-mail to the doctoral student, the main supervisor and the study and research administration.

Thereafter, the main supervisor fills out the form “The main supervisor’s information to the proposal of public defence” and attached all necessary appendices. A summary of the form and the attached appendices will be automatically generated and sent via e-mail to the main supervisor and the study and research administration.

A suggestion on how to write the motivation for examining committee members can be downloaded here (Swedish only).

As of January 1st, 2021, a specific ethics review function is implemented within the Faculty of Medicine and Health.

For each thesis project where permits regarding research ethics have been required/issued, the following documentation must be included together with the proposal for public defence:

• Articles and other unpublished material which is to be included in the thesis.
• Issued ethical permits.
• All ethical applications, any additional applications including all appendices.

For further information on how to properly compile the ethics documentation, we refer you to the template provided by the Office of Academic Policy. You will find ”Rutin för etikgranskningsfunktion inom Fakulteten för medicin och hälsa (Appendix 1)” on the web page for Public defence of doctoral thesis - please note that the document is only partly available in English).

Important! A proposal for public defence, complete with all appendices, must be submitted to the study and research administration 15 weeks – at the latest – prior to the planned date of the public defence.

The administration in turn will forward the proposal to the head of subject, who presents the proposal to the Head of School for approval. The administration will thereafter send the proposal to the faculty board for processing and decision.

Printing and distribution of the thesis

157 copies of the thesis are printed and paid for by the University. 120 of these (including two spiral bound copies) go to the school. The study and research administration sends the thesis to the faculty examiner (one spiral bound copy), the members of the examining committee including the substitute, and the chair of the defence. 10 copies are also sent to the SIDR administration at Linköping University for archiving. The administration also makes sure there is a special copy for the announcement ceremony and saves a few copies of the printed thesis for the Archive. On the day of the public defence the administration will bring the remaining copies of the thesis to the lecture hall. Any copies that remain after the public defence are for the doctoral student to keep. The doctoral student distributes the thesis to the persons concerned within the school as well as other contacts.

The remaining 37 copies belong to ORU and are used for distribution to the National Library, all university libraries in Sweden, and internally at ORU (Vice-Chancellor, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, research communicators, University Library, Medical Library, as well as the local newspaper Nerikes Allehanda). Any remaining copies are available for sale. Distribution and sales is handled by Repro.  

The doctoral student may order extra copies at their own expense. It is considerably cheaper to do this in conjunction with the first edition, rather than placing a new printing order later.

After the decision on public defence has been made

Information to the faculty examiner, examining committee and the chair of the public defence

The study and research administration will communicate all necessary information in preparation for the public defence with the faculty examiner, the examining committee including the substitute, and the chair of the public defence (the principal supervisor will get a copy of all e-mails).

Preliminary review

For the preliminary review, the study and research administration will send all relevant material to the members of the examining committee. Each member shall make an individual review/assessment whether they recommend or advice against public defence. The examining committee also have the option to read the statement by the internal ethics reviewer. When all preliminary reviews have been submitted to the administration, the doctoral student and the supervisor will be informed of the result. Note that the preliminary recommendation or advice against does not decide whether the thesis be given a final passing grade. 

Plagiarism check of the introductory chapter

A plagiarism check shall be run on the introductory chapter of the thesis. The doctoral student is responsible for sending the text to the study and research administration, who then forwards it to Ouriginal (former Urkund) for check. 

According to ”Guidelines for plagiarism check of introductory chapters prior to the public defence of doctoral theses and licentiate seminar for the subject areas of medical science and disability science” (ORU 1.2.1-06334/2017), the doctoral student is responsible for sending the introductory chapter excluding the list of references to the study and research administration, no later than 3 weeks before the planned printing of the thesis. The study and research administration in turn submits it to the plagiarism detection system Urkund.

The head of subject informs the study and research administration about the result of the plagiarism check. The administration informs the printing office that the thesis is OK to print and informs the doctoral student and the principal supervisor thereof.

In the event that possible plagiarism is detected, the head of subject will contact the principal supervisor and the doctoral student immediately. The printing office is also contacted, to stop the printing of the thesis.

Remunerations to faculty examiner and the examining committee

The school will pay a remuneration to the faculty examiner and also cover travel and accommodation costs for the faculty examiner and for the members of the examining committee.

Announcement of public defence of thesis (spikning)

Announcement of date for public defence is made electronically as well as by means of a ceremony known as spikning. The announcement must be made at least 3 weeks prior to the public defence. The doctoral student is requested to contact the study and research administration as soon as possible with information about requested date and time for the ceremony.

The supervisor opens by extending a welcome to those present and introduces the doctoral student. The doctoral student will then give a brief presentation of his/her work (approx. 5 min.) after which there will be some time for any questions.

The electronical announcement means that the thesis will be made public online. For questions about this, please contact .

Presentation materials

If PowerPoint presentations will be used at the public defence, the presentation template with the Örebro University’s logo shall be used (the link directs you to Inforum, ORU’s intranet, please log in by using your ORU account).

Press release

The doctoral student will be contacted by a research communicator from either ORU or Region Örebro County (depending on your employment) regarding a press release about the thesis.

All courses completed before applying for degree certificate

To be able to receive your degree certificate after your public defence you must also meet the requirements for doctoral courses as stated in your general syllabus. Further information is found on the web page Public defence of doctoral thesis. Fill out the form ”All courses completed for Research Education” and send it via e-mail to the study and research administration.

Degree certificate

After receiving a passing grade at the public defence, the former doctoral student requests their doctoral degree certificate. Further information is found on the web page on how to apply for degree certificate. Note that the degree cannot be issued until a formal decision about “All courses completed for Research Education” has been made. If you have questions, please contact .

Doctoral promotion

Örebro University’s academic celebration is arranged every year in February, to mark the occasion of the University’s inaugurations. It includes doctoral promotions, professorial inaugurations, and award ceremonies. Read more about the academic celebration (Only available in Swedish).