From thesis submission to public defense
You must have completed the mandatory course VET420 Writing the PhD thesis before you could submit your PhD thesis. You may register for the course in Studentweb.
The thesis must be an independent scientific work that meets international standards and be of high academic quality in terms of the formulation of research questions, the specification of concepts, the methodological, theoretical and empirical basis, documentation, the use of literature and the form of presentation.
The doctoral thesis must normally consist of three (3) scholarly articles. The articles must be published, or accepted for publishing, in scientific journals before the thesis is submitted for evaluation. Articles that are unpublished manuscripts must as a minimum be on the level of first submission of a manuscript to a journal. If the doctoral thesis consists of three or fewer articles, the PhD candidate must be the main- or first author of at least two of the articles (§10-1 in the faculty's supplementary rules to the NMBU PhD regulations).
The thesis should contain an introductory chapter ("Kappe") which summarises and compares the research questions and conclusions presented in the articles in a holistic perspective, and which also documents the coherence of the thesis. The PhD candidate must be the sole author of the introductory chapter.
If the article is published in a subscription journal, you should include the post-print version (accepted version after peer-review, before the publisher's pdf version is made) in the thesis. If the work is published in a Gold Open Access journal or purchased from the publisher (Hybrid Open Access), you can include the publisher's PDF version in the thesis. Read more here about definition of post-print, publishing permit, etc. and about Gold Open Access or Hybrid Open Access here.
NMBU template for article-based PhD thesis
There is a template available for when you are to start writing your thesis. The template is made in the correct size for printing, 17x24 cm, and can be used for the entire writing process (writing, submission for assessment and printing). In this way, it is ensured that all text, figures and images appear correctly when printed. The articles usually come in A4 size.
The template is designed to fit all subject areas at NMBU. It is quite possible that there are parts of the template that should not be included in your thesis. If so, it is possible to change it manually. You may also change the paragraphs in a different order. The title page however, should be unchanged.
VET's guidelines for the introductory chapter ("kappe")
The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine has developed a guide on how to write the introductory chapter ("kappe”). In addition, the candidate is advised to take a look at PhD theses that have previously been submitted and accepted at the Faculty.
Before submission
- Please remember to apply for extension if your PhD contract has expired or will expire.
- Main supervisor fills in NMBU 4.1 Proposal for evaluation committee and sends it to phd.radgiver.vet@nmbu.no (and Cc PhD candidate), along with the CV and Declaration of impartiality form from the three proposed opponents. Members of the evaluation committee must not have co-authored any publications with the PhD candidate or their supervisors within the past five years. Deviations from this rule will only be considered if exceptionally strong justifications are provided, accompanied by copies of the relevant article(s) with the application. The absence of direct communication between co-authors does not qualify as a valid reason for exemption from this requirement.
- The PhD candidate must be informed of the proposed composition of the evaluation committee and be given an opportunity to comment this in writing no later than five working days after being informed.
- PhD candidate completes NMBU 3.2 Application for approval of completed coursework (word document) and sends it to phd.radgiver.vet@nmbu.no with all necessary documentation.
- PhD candidate must order ISBN, ISSN, and Thesis number by sending an email to the NMBU Library: biblioteket@nmbu.no. These numbers shall appear at the bottom of the front page of the thesis.
Submission
PhD candidate sends one single email to phd.radgiver.vet@nmbu.no (and Cc main supervisor) with the following:
- NMBU 4.2 Submission of thesis
- A confirmation from main supervisor (via email/letter) that s/he recommends the submission of the thesis.
- PhD thesis in PDF format:
- - The thesis must include all published articles and unpublished manuscripts, including supplementary material. It must be in a form that is ready for printing.
- - ISBN, ISSN and Thesis number must appear on the front page of the thesis.
- - A Norwegian title must be stated below the English title on the front page of the thesis.
The following documents must be attached if relevant:
- NMBU 4.3 Co-authorship declaration (if the thesis includes scientific articles that have multiple co-authors)
- - Signatures from the most important co-authors, maximum 5 per article/manuscript.
- - Submit one PDF file per article/manuscript, and name them Co-authorship declarations Paper 1; Co-authorship declarations Paper 2, Co-authorship declarations Paper 3, etc.
- - All signatures must be clearly visible.
- Documentation that necessary authorisations have been obtained. This may include ethical approvals necessary for your research, approval for the use of figures in 'kappen', and documentation to re-use and re-print published articles, etc.
PhD advisor sends the thesis and Form 4.2 and to Head of Department for approval before it could be shared with the evaluation committee.
The committee shall submit a joint reasoned recommendation to the Faculty on whether the thesis should be:
- Approved for public defense.
- Not approved for public defence in its present form, but minor revisions, within a deadline of maximum 3 months work, should be permitted before the final recommendation is made. In this case the evaluation committee must present their final decision within six (6) weeks from the receipt of the revised thesis.
- Rejected, i.e. not approved for public defence (if there are necessary and fundamental changes required). The thesis may be reworked and resubmitted only once after a minimum of 6 months.
The evaluation committee submits NMBU 4.4 Assessment of the thesis to phd.radgiver.vet@nmbu.no no later than 25 working days before the planned public defence. Upon approval the assessment report will be sent to the PhD candidate no later than 20 working days before the planned public defense.
The PhD candidate can apply once to the Faculty for permission to correct formal errors (errata) in the approved thesis to be made public. The form NMBU 4.6 Errata must include an errata list, showing the corrections the candidate wishes to make to the thesis. The deadline for application to correct formal errors is five working days after the candidate has received the evaluation committee’s recommendation.
The Evaluation Committee must be informed by the faculty about the approved errata.
Allowed corrections of the following formal errors
- Spelling and language mistakes that make the text linguistically incorrect
- Punctuation and reference errors
- Page layout, text format etc.
Not allowed corrections
- Specify or change the meaning of the text
- Make changes to the content of tables
- Change version or change status in manuscripts/ articles in your PhD thesis. For example, an article with the status "in press" cannot be exchanged with a journal's printed version, and change status to "published" prior to printing.
It is no longer required that the errata list be included as the last page of the PhD thesis, but the corrections may be made in the PhD thesis itself upon approval before it is sent for printing.
NMBU wish to make the work known to a broader audience than the university itself. As soon as the thesis is approved by the evaluation committee, the PhD candidate can download and fill in the press release form and submit it to the correct contact person listed in the form (Cc phd.radgiver.vet@nmbu.no).
The Faculty will be able to prepare an article for the internet ahead of the public defence. Some advice on how to present the work to give a glimpse of the achievements and what has been done is given in the press release form.
The PhD candidate orders the printing by sending an email to a printer company with the purchase order form attached (from the guidelines in "Printing the thesis"). Purchase order number ("Ressursnummer") must be given when ordering for further processing.
The printing company has the correct NMBU official templates and design for the thesis cover. The printers will produce the number of theses set by the candidate and will send an electronic PDF-version of the thesis, as it will be printed, to the PhD candidate.
If the thesis is to be printed in Norwegian, or if you are to hold a public defence for the Dr. Philos. degree, you must make this clear to the printers so that they choose the correct template.
Printed copies will be distributed by the printer company to the National Library of Norway (5 copies) and to the University Library (1 copy). The 6 copies will be taken from the total number of copies ordered.
The printed thesis must be publicly available two weeks before the public defence (cf. section 17 in the PhD regulations).
No restrictions may be placed on the doctoral thesis to avoid making it publicly available, except for a previously agreed postponement of the public release date. An external party is not entitled to demand that the whole or parts of the PhD thesis be exempt from public access (cf. section 6.1 in the PhD regulations).
Upload and make the thesis electronically available in NMBU Brage
The PhD thesis will be made electronically available through Brage - NMBU's institutional archive. The purpose of Brage is to make research results created at NMBU available. Accessibility in Brage makes the research results generated by the PhD candidate more visible for the research environments nationally and internationally. The thesis is stored in Brage and will always be accessible through a permanent URL.
Making the thesis electronically available in NMBU Brage will consist of the following three steps:
- The PhD candidate uploads the printers PDF version of the thesis in NMBU Brage before the public defence. The candidate may at this point have opportunity to delay electronic publicising by two (2) years from the date of the public defence (ex. if manuscrips is included in the thesis).
- Once the public defence is approved, the University Library/ NMBU Brage will assess the uploaded version of the thesis. The University Library will always consider the PhD candidate requirements, and also to those limitations that the publisher has set for the articles.
- The thesis will be electronically available on internet at the given time set by the PhD candidate during the upload. The thesis will not be available before this specific date.
Description of how to upload the printed thesis file - click on this link.
Contact the University Library for more information at brage@nmbu.no.
Archiving and accessibility of research data
The research data on which the thesis is based must comply with the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) and be as open as possible and as closed as necessary (cf. NMBU Guidelines for Research Data Management).
NMBU Open Research Data or corresponding research data archives must be used for archiving and to make research data accessible.
The trial lecture
The PhD candidate is required to hold a trial lecture prior to the public defense. The purpose of the trial lecture is to test the PhD candidate's ability to acquire knowledge over and above the topic of the thesis, and the ability to convey this knowledge in a lecture setting. The lecture should last for 45 minutes, followed by a 15-minute Q&A session. The academic level of the lecture must be suited to master's degree students or students in the final phase of a five-year programme of professional study.
The title of the trial lecture is deterimined by the evaluation committee and communicated to the PhD candidate 10 working days before the lecture takes place. The topic of the lecture should not be directly linked to the specific topic of the thesis. The trial lecture must be held in English or Norwegian unless another language is approved.
The public defence
The public defence is to be a scholarly discussion between the opponents and the PhD candidate on the formulation of research questions, the methodological, empirical and theoretical basis of the thesis, and the documentation and form of presentation. Particular emphasis should be placed on testing the tenability of important conclusions drawn by the PhD candidate in the thesis. The questions the opponents choose to pursue need not be limited to those discussed in the committee’s statement on the thesis. After both opponents have concluded their questioning and the PhD candidate have been given the opportunity to defend the thesis, members of the audience must be given the opportunity to comment ex auditorio.
The evaluation committee assesses both the trial lecture and public defence by completing NMBU 4.5c Evaluation of the trial lecture and public defense.
Once the academic training, thesis, trial lecture and public defence of the thesis have been approved, the degree of Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) will be conferred upon the PhD candidate by the Rector. PhD Certificates / Diplomas are issued on an ongoing basis, and will provide information about the PhD programme, study option, title of the thesis, topic of the trial lecture, courses included in the approved academic training, names of the supervisors and of the members of the evaluation committee. There are several persons involved in the document issue, hence it will take a few days to complete.
Digital Certificate/ Diploma
From Spring 2023 the NMBU Doctors whom we assume will be able on long term basis, to access the Norwegian Diploma Registry using the electronic ID-portal (MinID, BankID on mobile, BankID, Buypass or Commfides), will be awarded with a digitally signed and secured PhD certificate/ Diploma and Diploma Supplement.The digital Diploma and Diploma Supplement can be found and shared through the Norwegian Diploma Registry (Vitnemålsportalen).
Paper Diploma and Diploma Supplement
Doctors who won’t be able on long term basis, to continue accessing the Norwegian Diploma Registry using the electronic ID-portal, will receive physically signed paper originals of the PhD degree documents.NMBU will as a rule, issue paper certificate/ Diploma and Diploma Supplement to Doctors with non-Norwegian Nationality whom we also, from information retrieved, know will be situated in a country different from Norway. The same goes for persons who are to use their education abroad, in countries where a digital signature is not approved.
NB!: For some countries (Ethiopia and others) it is necessary to legalize the Diploma before it is being assessed as valid. It is recommended, when possible, to allow for a minimum of 4 weeks after the disputation before you leave Norway, so that you will be able to bring the documents home with you, ready for authentification in your home country.
A Doctoral Degree Ceremony is conducted yearly in September for PhD candidates who have graduated the recent academic year.
This year, the event will take place on 22 September 2023. The two-hour ceremony is open to the public. A formal banquet dinner follows for the Doctors and invited guests. Invitation to the ceremony will be sent to the involved parties by e-mail.
Alf Bjørseths Inspiration Award
Announcement of the winner of the Alf Bjørseth Inspiration Award is a part of the yearly NMBU Doctoral Degree Ceremony. In 2023, also the NMBU Research Award will be announced at the Doctoral Degree Ceremony.