Thesis formalities
Before submitting your PhD thesis, please read the following requirements for a PhD thesis at the Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences.
The PhD thesis should be written in English, and may either be written as a monograph or as a synopsis with manuscripts/papers included. As a general rule, the PhD student may not copy text directly from own manuscripts/papers. This is perceived as potential self-plagiarism and is not acceptable.
Synopsis
The synopsis-based thesis consists of a synopsis and published papers and/or unpublished manuscripts. There are
no specific requirements concerning the number or type of first or co-authored papers/manuscripts.
The synopsis is typically 30-60 pages long (papers or manuscripts not included), but there are no specific requirements concerning the number of pages in the synopsis. The synopsis should clearly and concisely encapsulate and discuss the research findings presented in the manuscripts/papers included in the thesis. The synopsis should at least include:
- Summaries in Danish and English (a requirement according to the PhD Order section 12, subsection 3)
- Objectives
- Methods
- Description of the research project placed in the context of international state-of-the-art research within the subject area
- Summary of the results of the papers and their relation to international state-of-the-art research within the subject area
- If required for the studies, information on ethical and legal permits and approvals
- Conclusions and perspectives for further research
- References
- Chapters consisting of any papers or manuscripts included in the thesis. The chapters must appear in the end of the thesis.
Monograph
The monograph is typically 100 pages long, but the number of pages can vary. The monograph should include the following elements:
- Summaries in Danish and English
- Objectives
- Description of the research project placed in the context of international state-of the-art research within the subject area
- Description of the research carried out (including materials, methods and results)
- If required for the studies, information on ethical and legal permits and approvals
- Discussion of results
- Conclusions and perspectives for further research
- References
- The red UCPH logo must be included on the front page of the thesis. Please note that the official logo includes the red line that intersects with the lowest red circle.
- The following must be stated on the front page of the thesis: “This thesis has been submitted to the Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen [INSERT DATE].
- See also UCPH design template - Please notice that the template only suggests the text “Submitted on:”, but The Graduate School requires the full text “This thesis has been submitted to the Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen [INSERT DATE]”.
- Please remember to change the standard text in the upper left corner of the template. Insert the name of your own department or faculty.
- Font, image use, etc. are agreed between the PhD student and the supervisor
- The entire thesis – including published articles and/or unpublished manuscripts – has to be screened for plagiarism at The Royal Library. Therefore the entire thesis has to be OCR-readable.
This means no articles and no text can be inserted as pictures. How to convert your thesis into an OCR-readable PDF - Your thesis must not exceed 40MB. Minimize it by compressing any images. The co-authorship declarations must be submitted in a separate PDF.
Any articles included in the thesis may be written in cooperation with others, provided that each of the co-authors submits a written declaration stating the PhD student's or the author's contribution to the work. It must appear from the co-authorship declaration if an article or manuscript is also included in a co-author’s thesis.
If a manuscript or published paper has eleven or less authors, all authors must sign a declaration of co-authorship.
If it has twelve or more authors, only the PhD student, the corresponding author(s), the senior author and the principal supervisor need to sign the declaration of co-authorship.
The contribution of the PhD student must be described in the co-authorship declaration if an article or manuscript is
also included in a co-author’s thesis.
Download: Declaration of co-authorship
If you copy/adapt figures, tables or other content from published articles (including your own) it is important that the source is always clearly stated in the thesis (e.g. in the figure text).
To avoid conflicts with the owner of the copied material, the Graduate School recommends that you obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) to publish material from already published articles in your thesis. This includes your own publications if you have transferred copyright to the publisher. The allocation of the copyright often depends on which contract the journal's publisher has signed with the article's author(s). If the copied material is published open access, it is typically allowed to copy the material by referring to the Creative Commons license.
If you plan to use this kind of material, we recommend that you contact the relevant publisher to ask for permission to use the material. It can typically be done at no cost via an online permission application link on the publications website. We also advice you to consult the information on KUnet and/or contact the library if you have questions regarding copyright.
As a main rule the PhD thesis is not considered a publication, and PhD students are entitled to the copyright of their own unpublished manuscripts and the synopsis of the PhD thesis.
However, the copyright to any published articles in the PhD thesis or copied figures, tables and texts belongs to the publisher, depending on the agreement in each case.
For more information about copyright please contact the Department for Research Support, see link: Copyright – University of Copenhagen (ku.dk)