Guide to doctoral defences at Fysikum

A PhD thesis can either be a monograph (i.e., not including any published papers) or a compilation thesis, consisting of summary (a.k.a. introduction or "kappa") and a number of papers (published or unpublished). In Physics the compilation thesis is most common.

When you write your thesis, whether monograph or summary, you should pay attention to the document "Guidance for doctoral dissertations and public defences" (available from the link to the Faculty of Science above). Following this guidance ensures that your thesis fulfils all the formal requirements. As explained in this document your thesis has to show that you fulfil the examination goals of the Higher Education Ordinance. This means that in addition to presenting your research, you must also be able to place your scientific contributions in a wider context, e.g., you should account for the overall long-term goals of your research, its potential impact for society in general, as well as the present state-of-the art in your field (including an overview of the relevant literature), and how your own contribution adds to this.

Other formal requirements on your thesis include:

• If the thesis is written in English, there must be a summary in Swedish (at least 1 page), preferably a more popular summary should also be included.
• The student must give an account of her/his own contributions to the work presented in the thesis (see example texts in the document "Guidance?")
• Any figures or other material taken from others must be properly acknowledged, and the student is responsible for ensuring that this is permitted.
• Any re-use of your own previously published material must be clearly referenced, and if text is reused verbatim quotation marks must be used.
• An exception to the point above is made for the students' own licentiate thesis. This has to be declared in the thesis, and the reused parts of the thesis must be specified.
• Published articles may not be altered in the thesis. Any errors should be listed in a separate list of errata.

Optionally you can use a LaTeX template that follows the guidelines for dissertations, available from the Athena pages of the PhD Council (link above). If you prefer to use Word you can find a template under the link "printing your thesis" above.

The summary must be written by the student her/himself, but should be read and commented on by the supervisor before the final version is submitted. Use of AI tools to improve the language in a thesis is allowed. If this has been done it is essential that it is clearly declared in the thesis. Failure to do this will result in the grade "fail" for the thesis. The student is responsible for ensuring that the external tool has only made changes motivated by corrections to spelling or grammar.

Plagiarism is obviously not allowed. All theses are checked using a plagiarism check tool to ensure that they do not contain parts plagiarised from other publications/reports. The doctoral student therefore sends the thesis manuscript in electronic form (pdf) to the subject responsible (currently Svante Jonsell) before the pre-defence seminar.

• At least 14 weeks prior to the defence (or 11 weeks prior to nailing) you should contact the subject representative for a meeting. At this meeting we will go through the process. Preferably, your supervisor participates in the meeting.
• After this meeting you need to book a time slot for the defence. The procedure for this is explained under the link "Dissertation defence" above. Note that there can only be one defence from the Mathematics-Physics Section per half day, and you cannot defend in the period June 16 to August 14.
  After you have reserved a time slot, you will, among other information, receive a PDF called "yourname_dateofdefence_TIMELINE.pdf" that contains your deadlines for the printing process. Please, forward this document to the subject representative.
  If you need to change the date of defence, this is possible by contacting the Student Services again.
• When a time for the defence has been booked you need to reserve a room. Do this as soon as possible because it may be difficult to find free rooms that are suitable for a defence.
  At Fysikum, except for MSF, the defence usually takes place either at AlbaNova or at SU's Albano campus. For booking at AlbaNova see here. For booking at Albano e-mail lokalbokning-su@fysik.su.se. Available rooms at Albano can be found here. To avoid unpleasant surprises, it is advised that you inspect the room before booking.
  Students at MSF who wish to have their defence on the premises of Karolinska contact their local administration for help with reservation. They must also notify the subject representative who will request permission to hold the dissertation outside the premises of SU. The administration hr@fysik.su.se will need to know the time and place for your defence well before the invitation to the opponent and committee is sent (see below).

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-defence seminar, no later than about 10 weeks before the actual defence.

An assessment group is present at the seminar. This group, which is appointed by the subject representative, consists of either the subject representative or the Director of Studies for the Postgraduate Education together with 2 teachers/researchers, usually from Fysikum. The task of the group is to decide, in consultation with the supervisor, whether a defence at the scheduled date is to be recommended. The subject representative must be contacted no later than 3 weeks before the pre-defence seminar.

The draft of the thesis including manuscripts and articles should be sent in good time by the doctoral student to the assessment group (at least 10 work days before the seminar).

The pre-defence seminar can be held outside term time but not during summer vacations (midsummer to about August 10). If the student wants to hold the seminar in August the subject representative must be contacted well before midsummer.

No later than 2 weeks before the thesis is printed (see the timeline from dissertation support), the doctoral student must send the opponent and committee a PDF of the thesis in a ready-to-print version (that is, after this stage only minor cosmetic changes are allowed). This is a requirement from the faculty to allow the opponent and grading committee to recommend that the defense be postponed even before it is officially announced and printed. Such a recommendation is communicated to the appointed contact person, who immediately contacts the supervisor and head of department. Hence, the student has about 3 weeks between the pre-defence and the due date for the final version.

A very important task for the main supervisor is to come up with a suggestion for opponent, committee and chair for the defence. Frequently, this takes more time than anticipated (professors tend to be busy), so it is strongly advised that the supervisor starts asking around several weeks before the pre-defence.

The supervisor enters her/his suggestion on the "Defence form" (found following the link "Information from the Faculty of Science" above) and submits it to the subject representative within a week after the pre-defence. The subject representative then examines it (and frequently iterates it with the supervisor) before submitting it to the Faculty of Science for decision. Currently, the form exists only in Swedish.

The supervisor also has to complete a form (found below) stating whether the dissertation will be streamed on Zoom or not. This should always be filled in (whether you will use zoom or not) and be sent to dsa@fysik.su.se and hr@fysik.su.se.

Zoom pdf, 200 kB. (199 Kb)

Rules on the composition of the grading committee, etc., can be found at the end of the form (though in Swedish only, rules in English can be found here). To avoid delays, it is important to make sure that all the information on the form is completely and correctly entered, and all the rules are satisfied. In particular, the rules regarding conflicts of interest are important. The faculty follows the Swedish Research Council's guidelines about conflicts of interest. According to these guidelines, there is a risk for conflict of interest when "research collaboration and co-authorship has occurred during the last 5 years". However, if this constitutes a conflict of interest depends on circumstances, and the assessment is made case by case. The faculty therefore requests that all co-publications and other collaborations between all supervisors and all proposed officials at the defence are listed under "other information", no matter how long ago.

7 weeks before the defence, the main responsible at the administration (see above) sends out a formal letter of invitation to the opponent and the committee. This letter also includes information about location and zoom-link (if applicable) and other practical arrangements.

The supervisor is responsible for the budget for all costs related to the defence. The department pays these costs, with a maximum amount per defence as follows:

• The opponent receives a renumeration of SEK 10,000, entirely covered by Fysikum.
• Travel and accommodation for opponents from abroad SEK 10,000.
• Travel and accommodation for opponents from Sweden SEK 3,000.
• 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 item may not be credited to another. To receive the compensation/subsidy, the supervisor must report the costs incurred in connection with the defence to the administration. When the documentation is certified by the Head of Department, the administration books the compensation/subsidy to the project or unit that originally paid the cost.
• For other costs that may arise in connection with the defence (e.g. representation costs), no compensation is provided from the department's general funds.
• Foreign opponents must fill in a form "Payment to foreign bank account" (sent by Fysikum's admin.) and attach a copy of their passport. This form is used as basis for the tax authority's decision on tax deductions of the payment. This decision can take several weeks to obtain, so to avoid unreasonable delays, the opponent best returns the form well in advance of the journey. If the opponent does not send the information in advance, it is important that they contact the responsible administrator and fills in the form, etc. while in Stockholm.
• Because of the time-consuming bureaucracy related to refunding costs, all travel and accommodation should be booked through Fysikum (email to inkop@fysik.su.se). Personal outlays should be avoided. If there anyway are such costs, the originals of the tickets, as well as all other receipts, (e.g. for taxis) must be sent to the administration at Fysikum afterwards.

The doctoral student is responsible for the thesis being printed. When you reserved a time for your defence, you received a timeline with dates for the different tasks, as well as some other information. Additionally, the information is available following the link "printing your thesis" above. Make sure you read all this information carefully. For questions about printing and nailing etc. we refer to dissertation support: avhandlingsstod@su.se .

Your nailing date is normally 3 weeks before the defence, but this can be different depending on holidays etc. Below, "working days" do not include weekends and red days, but also other days e.g. "bridge days" and holidays around Christmas and Easter may be excluded. Always refer to your personal timeline from dissertation support for your exact deadline.

If you intend to have your defence early in the autumn semester, be aware that the period 16 June - 14 August is not included in the nailing period, which means that you will have to do the nailing in late May or early June. Example: a defence on August 24 requires nailing by June 5. The due dates for the printing process (and pre-defence seminar) will also shift in the same way (to calculate deadlines w.r.t. nailing, reduce the given number of weeks before the defence by 3).

Some things to note:

• The first step is to register your thesis in Diva, no later than 17 working days before nailing. A step-by-step guide on how to register in Diva is available at the link "printing your thesis" above. At this stage you should not upload any files, only enter the required information.
• After registering in Diva, you will receive a PDF of your "nailing sheet", containing your abstract and other information about your defence. Forward this sheet to hr@fysik.su.se before the nailing date.
• You prepare the layout of your thesis in a production tool to ensure it conforms to the visual identity of Stockholm University, and send it to the printer using this tool. Instructions for the tool are available on the website "printing your thesis".
• No later than 15 working days before nailing, you need to order the first test print. The following week you need to be available to pick up test prints at the printing office. Usually, you have to iterate a few times with the printer.
• No later than 8 working days before nailing you order the final print (in person).
• Fysikum pays for 60 printed copies, any additional copies have to be paid either by the supervisor's research project or the student.
• Of the 60 copies you get 30. Of the remaining 30 you deliver 8 to the main responsible administrator (see above), who will send them to the opponent and members of the committee, minimum 10 copies should be brought to the actual defence so that the audience can take a copy, 12 copies will have been sent to other libraries already by the printer, so you will not receive them.
• On the delivery date you are responsible for picking up your printed theses at AlbaNova deliveries (for MSF at the delivery address at Karolinska).
• On the nailing date your intention to defend your thesis is made public through announcement on the web, and the thesis becomes available on Diva. Provided you have followed all the steps above this does not require any additional action from you. Nevertheless, it is a good idea to check with hr@fysik.su.se that they have all the information, and that your defence appears under "Coming theses" on Diva.

So finally, the big day arrives. Usually, your supervisor will take care of the opponent and members of the committee so you can focus on your contribution. It is OK for you to meet and/or communicate with the opponent and committee before the defence. How much they want to divulge is up to them, but it can be a good idea to coordinate your introductory presentation with the opponent.

• The main responsible at the administration arranges flowers and mineral water and banners for the defence (the vase belongs to the department and must be returned after the defence!).
• The procedure at the defence is summarised in this document:
  Procedure at dissertation pdf, 17.5 kB. (17 Kb)
  This documenet is sent to the opponent together with the invitation.
• The chair makes sure that the protocol from the examination board is filled in electronically according to the instructions from the faculty. The protocol is emailed to the central registry (registrar@su.se) and to our local administration for registration in Ladok (studentexp@fysik.su.se). The form for the protocol is emailed from the Faculty of Science to the chair a few days ahead of the defence.

No, you are not quite done yet.

• You have to ensure that you have enough course credits for your degree. This can be checked in Ladok. Note that your courses have to be included as part of your Ph.D. programme. Any other courses may be credited after an approval from the subject representative. You apply for this electronically in Ladok. Ensure that you enclose relevant documentation in your application.
• The doctoral student has to apply for the doctoral degree in Ladok. The date of the degree will be date that the application was submitted, regardless of when the defence 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.
• You are invited to take a picture of yourself with the opponent and committee and mail it to fysinfo@fysik.su.se for publication in the weekly newsletter. Please, include names, titles and affiliations of everyone in the picture, and make sure everyone gives their permission to publish the picture.