• At least two months before the intended defense date, the doctoral student must set a date and time for the defense via a form on the university's website, see here.The student department at SU checks that there is no other defense within the faculty at the same time. Reservation confirmation with date and time for the defense is sent back via email. With the reservation confirmation, the doctoral student also receives information about which day the nailing day will be (the nailing day normally falls three weeks before the defense, counted only during official term-periods), the schedule for interacting with the print-shop, and where practical information can be found on SU's website, see links above. The defense can only take place during the period 15 August to 15 June.
• Once the date has been approved by the Student Department, the doctoral student must book a room for the defense by sending an email to service@albanova.se. (Students at MSF that wishes to have the dissertation on the premises of Karolinska contacts their local administration for help with reservation. They must also notify the subject responsible who will request permission to hold the dissertation outside the premises of SU). The doctoral student must then inform the main responsable at the administration (see above) of the time and place for the defense.
• When the thesis work is nearing completion, the manuscript must, according to the faculty's guidelines, be discussed among the department's supervisors and, if necessary, by experts outside the department. At Fysikum, this is done by the doctoral student holding a pre-defense seminar within the research department, no later than about 10 weeks before the defense. An assessment group must be present at the seminar. This group, which is appointed by the subject responsible, consists of the subject responsible or the director of studies for the postgraduate programme, the main supervisor  and 2 teachers/researchers. The task of the group is to decide, in consultation with the supervisor, whether a defense at the scheduled date is to be recommended. The subject responsible (currently Svante Jonsell) must be contacted by the supervisor no later than 3 weeks before the pre-defense seminar. Manuscripts and articles should be sent in good time by the doctoral student to the assessment group (preferrably two weeks, at minimum ten days before the seminar). The pre-defense seminar can be held outside term time but not during vacation time. The period from midsummer to approx. August 10 is thus excepted. If the student wants the seminar early in August the subject responsible should be contacted well before midsummer.
• The doctoral student is responsible for the thesis being printed: According to the faculty's guidelines, at least 30 copies must be printed (the department also pays for 30 additional copies, that is 60 in total. If the student wants more copies they have to be paid either by the supervisors research project or the student). The thesis is printed at the university's procured printing company (see the university link above). The library’s thesis support helps with planning and contacts with the printing company. You can book an appointment to get help with templates and other practical details. The department covers the printing costs up to a certain limit (see the Finance section below). The thesis's ISBN number can be obtained via the thesis service. Normally the thesis support contacts the student when the date has been reserved, if not, the student should contact thesis support in good time (immediately after the approved thesis seminar is recommended) so that the printed thesis is guaranteed to be available at the time of nailing, email: avhandlingssupport.sub@su.se.
• Nailing means that the defense is made public with an indication of the time and place and that the thesis is available before the defense. The vice-chancellor has decided that the electronic nailing of doctoral theses is the official and mandatory way. Traditional nailing on a notice board can only be a supplement. Electronic nailing means that the abstract together with the full text is published in the database "Digital scientific archive”, DiVA. For compilation theses all papers that are included in the thesis must be registered in DIVA. The papers do not need to be be uploaded together with the thesis. In addition information on time and place for the defence is recorded and an announcement sheet - the ”nailing page” (spikblad) - is created. The data for the nailing page is digitally recorded by the doctoral student in DIVA before the thesis is sent to the printer. Remember to do this well in advance. At least 7-8 weeks before the defense is recommended. Information on how this is done is available via the university links above. For questions regarding DiVA, there is a contact adress: diva@su.se There should always be a thesis title and abstract in English, even if the thesis is in another language. There must always be a summary of the thesis in Swedish.
• NOTE All theses are checked using a plagiarism check tool to ensure that they do not contain parts plagiarized from other publications/reports (the students own licentiate thesis is excepted from this rule, albeit with requirements that when material from the licentiate is reused in the PhD thesis this must be explicitly stated in the thesis). The doctoral student therefore sends the thesis manuscript in electronic form (pdf) to the subject responsible (currently Svante Jonsell) before the pre-defense seminar.

• If a defense is recommended after the pre-defense seminar, the supervisor must immediately fill in the "Form for defense application" which can be found here, and send it to the subject responsible. Rules on the composition of the grading committee, etc., can be found at the end of the form. The form must first be reviewed and approved by the subject responsible and then approved and e-mailed to the faculty by the head of department. Also the completed form must be submitted to the registrar, for recording in the official registry of the department (this is handled by the department administration). The supervisor also has to complete the form (to be found below) stating wether the dissertation will be streamed on Zoom or not. The above can also take place outside term time, but even here vacations must be taken into account, and then not only at Fysikum but also at the faculty.
  Requirements of technical support at dissertation (199 Kb)
• When the decision comes by e-mail from the faculty, the main responsable at the administration (see above) sends out a formal letter to the opponent stating that he/she has been appointed and will receive a fee for the work of SEK 10,000. The opponent also is informed about the guidelines for the preview of the thesis  and about the time and place of the defense. If it is a foreign opponent, she or he receives brief written information about how a Swedish defense is conducted. A foreign opponent must fill in a form "Payment to foreign bank account” (sent by Fysikums admin.). The information on the form is used partly as a basis for the tax authority's decision on tax deductions on the fee and partly for the payment of the fee and cost compensation to the opponent. The sooner the main responsable at the administration (see above) receives the form, the faster the fee can be paid. It is best if the opponent fills in and sends it back well in advance of the defense because the tax authority takes a long time to decide. A foreign opponent must also send a copy of their passport. If the opponent does not send the information in advance, it is important that they contact the main responsable at the administration (see above) and fills in the form, etc. in place.
• The main responsable at the administration (see above) also sends copies of the decision with information on the time and place of the defense along with information on "Opportunity to preview the thesis" and information on who is the coordinator of the defense to members of the grading committee. A separate letter goes to foreign members of the assessment board.

• No later than 2 weeks before the thesis is printed, normally 7 weeks before the defense (always consult the printing schedule provided by the library's thesis service), the doctoral student must ensure that the opponent and assessment committee have a copy of the thesis in a ready-to-print version (that is, after this stage only minor cosmetic changes should be made before printing the final version). This can be done by email. This makes it possible for the opponent and grading committee to recommend that the defense be postponed even before it is officially announced and before the thesis is printed. A recommendation that the defense be postponed is communicated to the person appointed as contact person, who immediately contacts the supervisor and head of department.
• If the thesis is based on articles/scripts that have several authors, the PhD student's own contribution to the thesis must be described in the thesis.
• The department is required to ensure that there is a popular science summary of the thesis in Swedish or that the thesis abstract is available in Swedish. This must normally be included in the thesis. Doctoral students who do not know Swedish can get help with this from the supervisor.
• Further instructions for the design of a thesis can be found here

• The doctoral student is responsible for the thesis being printed and delivered to the university no later than 12 o`clock the day before the deadline. For more information on the nailing procedure and on the number of copies of the thesis to be delivered, see the university links. For physics, the doctoral student is responsible for ten printed copies being available at the defense, in addition to these, the main responsable at the administration (see above) must have eight copies. The student should send an electronic copy of the announcement sheet - the ”nailing page” (spikblad) - to hr@fysik.su.se. The main responsable at the administration (see above) sends a copy of the printed thesis to the opponent and to the members of the grading committee (please note that, according to above, they must already have received a manuscript from the doctoral student 6 weeks before the day of the defense). In addition to these 18 copies, 12 copies for various archives are distributed directly by the printing company. In addition to the 30 mandatory copies the department pays the cost to print 30 more copies for private use by the student. If the student wants additional copies these should be paid either by the supervisors project or privately.
• Please note, if you intend to do your dissertation early in the autumn semester, that the period 16 June - 14 August is not included in the nailing period. If you e.g. dissertation on August 24th, the thesis must be nailed down by June 5th at the latest, and all other deadlines above must be adjusted relative to this nailing down date.

• The supervisor is responsible for the budget for the defense costs, i.e. overhead costs for opponent and assessment committee, printing of thesis, etc. The department pays these costs, however with a maximum amount per defense as follows:
• Travel and hotel costs for opponent from abroad SEK 10,000.
• Travel and hotel costs for opponent from Sweden SEK 3,000.
• Printing costs up to 60 copies of the thesis.
• Costs for the entire grading committee SEK 6,000.  
• Additional expenses are paid from the supervisor's grant or the division's material grant. Each cost is counted separately. A lower cost on one point may not be credited to another. To receive the compensation/subsidy, the supervisor must report the costs incurred in connection with the defense to the administration. When the documentation is certified by the head of department, the administration books the compensation/subsidy for the project or unit that originally charged the cost. For other costs that may arise in connection with the defense (e.g. representation costs), no compensation is provided from the department's general funds. The fee to the opponent, f.n. SEK 10,000, paid directly from the institution, not from individual research projects or research group units. If the opponent/grading committee has paid for their tickets themselves, the tickets must be sent here afterwards in originals, as well as all other receipts, for e.g. taxis and tickets for local travel.

• The main responsable at the administration arranges flowers and mineral water and banners for the defense (the vase belongs to the department and must be returned after the defense!).
• After the defense, a protocol form must be filled in at the examination board meeting. The protocol must be scanned and emailed directly to the Registrar (registrator@su.se). The form for the protocol is sent out before the defense by the Student Department to the chairperson of the defense.

• After the defense, the main responsable at the administration (see above) sends in the verification for the fee payment to the administration and arranges for the opponent and possibly members of the grading committee to receive compensation for expenses.
• After the defense, the responsible at the student office registers it in Ladok. The supervisor is responsible for ensuring that all courses included in the doctoral degree are registered in Ladok (on a form submitted to the student office). When the defense and all courses are registered in Ladok, the application for the doctoral degree can be made.
• The doctoral student applies to obtain a doctoral degree, done via the web at Minastudier.su.se Note: The degree date is the date the application was submitted, regardless of when the defense took place or when the courses were completed.
• Stockholm University arranges doctoral promotion on the last Friday in September each year. In mid-June, invitations are sent out to those who have completed their doctoral degrees during the academic year. For more information see the university links above.

Dissertation - responsibilities (66 Kb)