VET420 Writing the PhD thesis

All PhD candidates at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine are required to take the mandatory course VET420 Writing the PhD thesis. You may sign up for VET420 in Studentweb and must have passed the course before submitting your PhD thesis.

Thesis requirements

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 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 Articles that are unpublished manuscripts must as a minimum be on the level of first submission of a manuscript to a journal.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 about the definition of post-print, publishing permit, etc. and about Gold Open Access or Hybrid Open Access.

There is a template available for you 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 not be changed.

Useful notes about the template – read this before your start using the template

• It is only available in Microsoft Word. Fonts, font sizes and line spacing is set.
• You have to start with selecting language from the first page, Norwegian or English for the title page.
• You can change the content parts of the template (except for the title page), you can headings or change the order of the content parts.
• There are added title and index components in the template to make the work easy and straightforward. It is wise to make adjustments of the components in the text as you go, and to make an extra check once in a while so that you know that they make sense all along.
• Remember to add blank pages where necessary, i.e. after page 2 and 4.
• The tools for Styles in the template have the most relevant styles for your work (under the tab Menu)
• Before you submit your thesis to the faculty, you should send it as a pdf file. The best way to do this, to keep the 17x24 cm format, is to print to pdf. The advantage is that the printed version of your thesis will be as you and the evaluation committee have seen the content before.

VET's guidelines for the introductory chapter (kappen)

The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine has developed a guide on how to write the introductory chapter ("Kappen”). In addition, the candidate is advised to study PhD theses that have previously been accepted at the faculty, and to have a look at the following (some of which is in Norwegian):

• Guidelines for the Evaluation of Candidates for Norwegian Doctoral Degrees
• Clause 10 of NMBU's PhD regulations
• Supplementary provisions to the PhD regulations (VET)

Co-authorship declarations

For articles/manuscripts of which you are not the sole author, signed co-authorship declarations (NMBU 4.3 Co-authorship declaration) specifying the research contributions of both youself and the co-author(s) shall accompany the submission of the thesis. You are responsible for obtaining such declarations.