Guidelines

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  • Assessment - Criteria for reviewing a doctoral thesis

    Dear Colleagues,

    We would like to ask you to review this Doctoral Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies of the University of Vienna. Please indicate whether the dissertation should be accepted and grade it according to the following criteria. (Of course, the importance of each aspect may vary according to the topic and the field of study).

    • Research hypothesis and aim of research. Relation to the current state of research.
    • Originality (how innovative is this dissertation?).
    • Range, significance and selection of topic of investigation / source material / corpus (how representative is the material analyzed?).
    • Method/methodology (is the method adequate / effective?). Are the methods/concepts/theories/approaches appropriate?)
    • Scholarship (what is the level of methodological and theoretical reflection?)
    • Structure of the dissertation (how convincing is the structure/approach?)
    • Style / Stringency of the argument. (Are the research questions and aims pursued in a stringent manner?)
    • Conclusion (how convincing is the confirmation/refutation of the research hypothesis?) Are the results accurate and convincing? Do they constitute an innovative contribution to scholarship in the field? Do they indicate/open up fields for further research?

    At the end of your assessment there should be a summary of the reasons for your grade,
    based on the strengths and weaknesses of the dissertation in the areas of content, methodology, form and language and style as well as on the degree of innovation.

     

    Thank you very much for your cooperation in evaluating our Ph.D.-students!

    Director of the Doctoral Study Program DSPL 42
    Univ.Prof. Dr. Kathrin Sartingen

  • Cotutelle de thèse

    For advice and detailed information please contact the Center for Doctoral Studies.

  • Cumulative Dissertations - Guideline

    The Office of the Studienpräses has issued a guideline for cumulative dissertations, designed for the entire University of Vienna. It explicitly calls on the individual doctoral program directors to develop specific guidelines for their respective disciplines, taking into account the diverse characteristics and requirements of the respective academic cultures. These guidelines are legally binding.

    An updated information sheet on cumulative dissertations at the Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies is available below.

    Director of the Doctoral Study Program DSPL 42
    Univ.Prof. Dr. Kathrin Sartingen

    Guideline: cumulative dissertation

    Introduction

    “A doctoral thesis can be submitted in the form of a monograph, which is common in many disciplines. In many disciplines, it is also possible and common to submit a cumulative thesis (also known as a thesis by publication), in which several specialist articles are compiled.” (see https://doktorat.univie.ac.at/en/phd-process/research-phase/dissertation/).

    This guideline provides recommendations for cumulative theses at the Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies. It does not specify legal requirements but rather serves as a guideline that has been adapted for the relevant disciplines. Therefore, we ask the supervisors of cumulative theses to consider the criteria specified in this information leaflet in their review of the thesis. These criteria correspond to the standards of the disciplines represented at our Faculty.

    First of all, it is important to note that a cumulative thesis is not faster or ‘easier’. Doctoral candidates who plan a cumulative thesis face the challenge of publishing parts of their doctoral project as independent articles in renowned academic journals/edited volumes before bringing these individual articles/chapters together in a meaningful way in a comprehensive thesis.

    SCOPE

    A cumulative thesis should have the same scope as a doctoral thesis in the form of a monograph at our Faculty. It should contain:

    • three to five journal articles/contributions to books (whose scope should correspond to the standards of the discipline and of relevant subject-specific journals)
    • plus a FRAMEWORK TEXT comprising at least 180,000 characters including spaces (this corresponds to at least 30,000 words)

    FRAMEWORK TEXT

    The framework text serves to discuss the topic and methodology as well as the connection between the articles contained in the thesis. In addition, it should also outline the independent contribution (originality and innovativeness) of the thesis to the research landscape.

    AUTHORSHIP

    The doctoral candidate must be the single author of the framework text as well as at least 3 articles in the cumulative thesis.

    If the thesis contains 4 articles and more, the doctoral candidate must be the single author of at least 3 of these, but co-authorship is accepted for all other articles.

    PUBLICATION STATUS

    All articles/contributions must have been accepted for review or for publication by (if possible, double blind) peer-reviewed journals/edited volumes. The peer review must be documented.

    1-2 articles/chapters must have been accepted for review and for publication; all other articles/chapters must at least have been accepted for review. The thesis must contain a confirmation that the relevant articles have been accepted for review.

    The articles/chapters must be submitted to established academic journals/publishers/edited volumes that are renowned in the relevant discipline. Cumulative theses may not contain articles/chapters that are self-published (including self-publishing by the doctoral supervisors) or edited by the supervisors (in case of edited volumes).

    Language

    In agreement with the supervisor(s) and upon approval of the directorate of doctoral studies (DSPL), cumulative theses may be submitted in any language covered by the research and teaching areas of the Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies. It is essential to clarify whether the reviewers have the necessary language proficiency.

  • Defence – Guideline

    The public defence takes 60 minutes in all, of which a maximum of 20 minutes are devoted to the presentation by the candidate and about 30 minutes to the examination by the appointed thesis committee. The thesis committee then holds an internal discussion about the conduct and result of the defence.

    The languages of the defences are exclusively German or English.

    The student’s task during the defence is to present their doctoral thesis, to take into account any issues raised in the reviewers’ reports, to respond to questions from the thesis committee and to “defend” their thesis against any points of criticism.

    The task of the thesis committee is to support and guide the process of discussion about the doctoral project, to pose questions about it to the student and, where appropriate, to address any remaining issues arising from the reviewers’ reports.

    The assessment of the defence is based solely on the candidate’s oral performance in the presentation and discussion parts of the procedure. The doctoral thesis will already have been assessed separately and so does not form part of the grading of the defence.

    The grades to be awarded for the defence range from 1 to 5, with 1 being the best (excellent) and 5 the worst (insufficient). Grade 5 thus means that the candidate has not passed. Each examiner awards a grade individually and no overall grade needs to be agreed upon within the committee. The final grade can either be the one awarded by the majority of examiners (for example: 1,1,1,3 = 1) or calculated as the arithmetic mean (if all grades vary, for example: 1,2,3,4 = 2).

    Director of the Doctoral Study Program DSPL 42
    Univ.Prof. Dr. Kathrin Sartingen

  • Doctoral thesis agreement - Guideline

    Dear doctoral candidates and dissertation supervisors,

    since questions about certain points frequently arise when concluding the dissertation agreement, we would like to provide you with some information that should make it easier to fill in the form.

    Under point 7 (Regulation of courses to be completed), courses should be indicated that support the research project in a professionally meaningful way and comprise a total of 24 ECTS according to the requirements of the curriculum. As a rule, this corresponds to a minimum of three seminars. These should be chosen from the courses offered by the doctoral programme (i.e. dissertation colloquia and seminars, which either come from the courses offered by the institutes themselves or from the interdisciplinary courses offered by DSPL 42).

    Other types of courses (e.g. master's seminars, lectures, proseminars, reading courses), which the doctoral candidates consider useful for the research project in consultation with their supervisors, can be completed by the students and recorded in the transcript with the respective ECTS credits. However, they are not relevant to the curriculum (i.e. they do not count among the mandatory three courses). Therefore, they do NOT need to appear in the dissertation agreement.

    Only one of these curriculum-relevant courses can already be completed before the approval of the research topic (during the public presentation - Dies Doctoralis). In this case, it can be included in the doctoral thesis agreement. If the course was completed BEFORE the admission to the doctoral programme, or in a completely different programme at the University of Vienna, an application for recognition must be submitted. This shall be submitted with the doctoral thesis agreement.

    Only one of these curriculum-relevant courses can be completed at another (also foreign) university. In this case, it can also be included in the doctoral thesis agreement. If the course was completed BEFORE the admission to the doctoral programme, an application for recognition must be submitted. This shall be submitted with the doctoral thesis agreement.

    In addition, one of the curriculum-relevant courses can be replaced by an individual academic achievement. This includes, among others: scientific publication, active participation in an international conference (with own presentation), etc. This would be specified under point 9 of the doctoral thesis agreement.

    We would like to ask you to specify the number of ECTS to be acquired in each case.

    Under point 8 you can specify the courses for softening your skills which are offered by Center for Doctoral Studies. However, these are not relevant to the curriculum and therefore do not count among the 24 ECTS.

    On behalf of doctoral candidates, you should also clarify the points 4, 5 and 6 of the agreement.

    We hope that this information sheet will provide orientation and thus facilitate the completion of the doctoral thesis agreement.

    Director of the Doctoral Study Program DSPL 42
    Univ.Prof. Dr. Kathrin Sartingen

  • Exposé - Guideline

    As described in the statutes of the University of Vienna concerning the doctoral program, precondition for the approval of the doctoral thesis’ topic and supervisor is to (a) submit a dissertation proposal and to (b) have a successful public oral defense of the proposal at the Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies. It is then that a “doctoral thesis agreement” will be signed.

    In order to be admitted to the oral defense of the proposal, a dissertation proposal (german or english) fulfilling the following requirements has to be submitted::

    • Length: 10-12 pages (DinA 4, approx. 20 000 characters without bibliography; Times NewRoman, 12 pt; 1.5 line spacing)
    • Clear description of the objective of the dissertation project: precise definition of researchquestion(s) and aims as well as a clearly defined description of the project’s scientificrelevance
    • Specification of the object of investigation
    • State of the art in the respective field of research, description of the project’s position withinthe context of current research: identification of the research gap, explanation regarding theinnovative potential of the respective project)
    • Overview of the underlying theoretical concepts
    • Description of methods to be used
    • Work schedule and timeline
    • Bibliography (approx. 2 pages)

    The Exposé should be preceded by an abstract in lenght of max. 10 lines.

    Adherence to these guidelines is compulsory in order to be registered for the public presentation at the Faculty for Philological and Cultural Studies of the University of Vienna.

    Director of the Doctoral Study Program DSPL 42
    Univ.Prof. Dr. Kathrin Sartingen