Dissertation guidelines
Doctoral degree guidelines and dissertation requirements
Guidelines for the author
The Doctoral degree constitutes the highest academic degree in Denmark, and a substantially higher scientific and academic level is required as compared to that of for a PhD degree. It is stated in the Ministerial Order no. 750 of 14 August 1996 on Doctoral Degrees that it must be demonstrated i) that “the author has shown considerable scientific insight and maturity” and ii) that “the author has contributed substantially to the advancement of science” with the dissertation.
These criteria must be fulfilled separately for i) the compressed account and for ii) the body of included scientific publications (unless the dissertation is a monography). It is expected that the compressed account has the format of a comprehensive scientific review of the (sub)field in question appropriately including the author’s own results in this context.
Thus, in the compressed account of the dissertation (Dansk: Den sammenfattende redegørelse), the doctoral candidate should present state of the art as well as future perspectives of the research (sub)field, including a discussion of the most significant challenges and unanswered questions in the field. The author’s own findings and discoveries should be an integral part of this, demonstrating the impact of the author’s scientific contribution.
Overall, it is recommended that the structure of the compressed account conforms to that of corresponding review articles in peer reviewed international literature in the field, and optimally may be published as such.
Publication of the compressed account
The compressed account must be fully up to date but may be published as a review article before or after submission for assessment.
Guidelines for the assessment committee
Read about the guidelines for the assessment of a doctoral thesis (PDF).
Ministerial order on doctoral degrees
Supplementary instruction to the Ministerial Order no. 750 of 14 August 1996 on Doctoral Degrees (PDF).
As per the Ministerial Order, section 4, holders of master’s or PhD degrees within the most relevant academic field are entitled to submit a dissertation for consideration for the doctoral degree (however, see (2) below).
The Academic Council may, notwithstanding the Ministerial Order, section 4 (1), decline to consider a submitted dissertation if:
2. the institution has no experts at professorial level in the subject area concerned, or
3. the dissertation has already been subjected to assessment for the doctoral degree at an institution of higher education without the degree being awarded. If this is the case, the author must provide this information when the dissertation is submitted.
In the efforts of encouraging good scientific practice, The Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences screens all doctoral dissertations for duplicate text immediately after submission.
Do not copy text directly from your own publications or manuscripts. This is perceived as copied text and is not acceptable.
The Academic Council at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences has decided that all submitted doctoral dissertations are to be considered as new submissions.
Therefore, a doctoral dissertation where parts have previously been assessed, must be 1) substantially revised (significant changes of text/ content/ scope ) and 2) include new papers in order to be considered a new submission.
Unless specific reasons prevent it, a new assessment committee will generally be appointed.
For further information, please contact: doctoral-degree@sund.ku.dk