Regulations for the presentation and reading of theses

The doctoral program follows the Regulations for Official Doctoral Studies of the ULL, which in its Chapter III, Articles 24 to 29 refers to the presentation and reading of doctoral theses, which is in accordance with the provisions of Royal Decree 99/2011. In this sense, the proposal and appointment of the thesis evaluation committee, the defense of the thesis, the International Mention and the modality of the thesis by compendium of publications are regulated. We transcribe the current regulations below.

Article 24.- Doctoral thesis.

1. The doctoral thesis will consist of an original research work prepared by the candidate in any field of knowledge. The thesis must enable the doctoral candidate to work independently in the field of R&D&I.

2. The thesis may be developed and, where appropriate, defended, in the languages commonly used for scientific communication in its field of knowledge, ensuring that the tribunal that is to judge it has the capacity to do so in the language of presentation.

3. Each doctoral program may establish its own requirements that its doctoral theses must meet in order to qualify for presentation.

Article 25.- Proposal and appointment of the thesis evaluation committee.

1. At the time of submitting the doctoral thesis, the academic committee of the doctoral program will present to the Doctoral School a proposal of five experts in the subject matter to which the thesis refers, or in another subject that is related to it, accompanied by their CVs, which will state the merits that qualify them to form part of the tribunal in charge of judging it.

2. The following shall be taken into account when designating the court:

a. It must be made up of three full members: a president, a secretary and a member, as well as two substitutes. Of the full members, one must belong to the University of La Laguna and the other two must be external to it and, in any case, with a civil service or contractual relationship with other universities or research organizations. The substitutes will include one from the University of La Laguna and another from institutions outside it. The first will replace the possible absence of the full member of the tribunal belonging to the University of La Laguna, and the second, the absence of any of the other full members.

b. All its members must have a doctorate degree and accredited research experience, as established by the doctoral program, respecting that, as a minimum, the members of the University of La Laguna (regular and substitute) must meet the same conditions as those to be a thesis director at this university.

c. Of the external members, no more than one member may belong to the same university, or public or private center.

d. Under no circumstances may the thesis supervisors or the tutors of the researcher in training be members of the committee.

e. The president of the tribunal will be the member with the highest academic category and seniority in said category.

f. Exceptionally, the main tribunal may be made up of more than two external members, provided that there is evidence that funding is available to cover the travel and accommodation expenses of the additional external member.

3. The Doctoral School will verify that the proposed committee complies with the provisions of these Regulations and will inform the thesis director and the academic coordinator of the doctoral program, as well as the regular and alternate members of the committee, of its composition.

4. Once the tribunal has been appointed, the president will convene the public defence of the thesis, informing the Doctoral School of the day, time and place where it will take place, which in any case may not be before seven calendar days after the end of the thesis deposit period.

5. In the event of justified resignation of any of the members of the tribunal, the Doctoral School will proceed to replace him/her with the corresponding substitute.

Should the president resign, this role will be fulfilled by the member of the tribunal with the highest academic category and seniority in said category.

Article 26.- Processing of the defense of the doctoral thesis.

1. After completion of the thesis and with the approval of his/her supervisor(s), the doctoral candidate will present it to the academic committee of the corresponding doctoral program for processing before the Doctoral School of the University of La Laguna, in the established format, accompanied by the corresponding summary in the form and format established by the Ministry for inclusion in the relevant databases.

2. The academic committee of the doctoral program will send two copies of the doctoral thesis, in the established format, to the Doctoral School of the University of La Laguna to which the program is attached, and must include:

a. The corresponding authorization from the thesis director(s).

b. The report of the tutor assigned by the doctoral program, if different from the director.

c. The report stating the agreement of the academic committee of the doctoral program to the public defense of the thesis and which must necessarily state that the requirements established in the doctoral program, where applicable, have been met in order to proceed with its defense.

d. The application form for the “International Doctor” designation, together with the corresponding documentation, if eligible.

3. The corresponding Doctoral School of the University of La Laguna will certify by means of registration and stamp that the doctoral thesis meets the requirements established in these regulations for its deposit during the period of 15 academic days, in the terms established in the academic calendar of each course, in the General Secretariat of the University of La Laguna. One of the copies will remain on deposit in that Secretariat, the second copy remaining on deposit at the Doctoral School.

4. During the deposit period, which will be enabled as a period of public information, any doctor may make as many allegations and observations as he or she considers appropriate to the corresponding Doctoral School of the University of La Laguna, stating his or her agreement or disagreement with the public defense of the same, as well as suggestions for improvement to correct deficiencies, all with the aim of guaranteeing its quality.

5. The Doctoral School of the University of La Laguna will ensure the publicity of this period of public information.

6. Once the public information period for the doctoral thesis has ended, the Doctoral School of the University of La Laguna will be responsible for authorizing, if applicable, the defense of the doctoral thesis.

7. If any of the circumstances set out in section 4 of this article occur during the public information period, the Doctoral School will inform the doctoral candidate and the thesis supervisor, as well as the academic committee of the corresponding doctoral programme, who will have a period of 10 school days to submit the appropriate objections to the Doctoral School. The Postgraduate Studies Committee will decide, based on the documentation submitted, whether or not the defence of the thesis is appropriate within a period of no more than one month, obtaining, if it deems appropriate, a report from specialists. The Postgraduate Studies Committee of the University of La Laguna must provide information on the reasons for the refusal.

8. The defence must take place within a maximum period of three months from the date of authorisation. If the defence has not been carried out after this period, the procedure must be started again.

9. The Doctoral School must give the defense appropriate publicity, authorizing the use of any electronic means of communication for these purposes.

10. Once the doctoral thesis has been approved, the University will take charge of archiving it in open electronic format in an institutional repository and will send, in electronic format, a copy of the thesis, as well as all the necessary complementary information to the corresponding Ministry for the appropriate purposes.

11. In exceptional circumstances determined by the academic committee of the program, such as, among others, the participation of companies in the program, the existence of confidentiality agreements with companies or the possibility of generating patents that fall on the content of the thesis, the university will enable the procedure to develop what is set out in section 4 above to ensure that these aspects are not made public.

Article 27.- Defense of the doctoral thesis.

1. The doctoral thesis defense will take place in a public session during the academic calendar period.

2. The defense of the thesis will consist of the presentation by the doctoral candidate of the methodology used, the content and the conclusions of the thesis, making special mention of his or her original contributions.

3. The thesis defence, in addition to Spanish, may be done in any official language of the European Union, in which case it is guaranteed that the tribunal can evaluate it appropriately and upon a reasoned request addressed to the Doctoral School, which will determine whether the request is admissible.

4. The members of the tribunal must express their opinion on the thesis presented and may raise any questions and objections they consider appropriate, to which the doctoral candidate must respond. Likewise, the doctors present at the public event may raise questions and objections to the doctoral candidate at the time and in the manner indicated by the president of the tribunal, who will indicate the time established for this purpose.

5. The committee that evaluates the thesis will have the doctoral student's activity document, referred to in article 2.5 of these regulations, with the training activities carried out by the doctoral student. This monitoring document will not give rise to a quantitative score, but will constitute a qualitative evaluation instrument that will complement the evaluation of the doctoral thesis.

6. The tribunal will issue a report and the overall grade awarded to the thesis in terms of "pass" or "fail".

7. In a separate, closed-door session held on the same day as the thesis defence in question, and if the thesis has been awarded a grade of "pass", each member of the jury will give his or her opinion by secret ballot as to whether the thesis presented deserves the Cum Laude mention. The result of this vote will be recorded in a document that will be signed by all the members of the jury and will not be made public. The jury may only propose that the thesis be awarded the Cum Laude mention if a positive secret vote is cast in this regard by unanimous vote.

8. Once both certificates have been received by the Doctoral School, the director of the School will decide, in light of the proposal issued by the tribunal that has judged the doctoral thesis, on whether to award the Cum Laude mention to the doctoral thesis. In the event of a favourable decision to award the Cum Laude mention, this will be incorporated into the doctoral student's file. After the corresponding decision has been issued, it will be communicated to the interested party.

Article 28.- International Mention in the Doctorate degree.

1. The title of Doctor may include on its front the mention "International Doctor", provided that the following circumstances apply:

a) That during the training period necessary to obtain the doctoral degree, the doctoral candidate has spent a minimum of three months outside Spain at a prestigious higher education institution or research centre, pursuing studies or carrying out research work.

The stay and activities must be endorsed by the director and authorized by the academic committee, and will be incorporated into the doctoral student's activities document.

b) That part of the doctoral thesis, at least the summary and conclusions, has been written and presented in one of the languages commonly used for scientific communication in the field of knowledge, other than any of the official languages in Spain. This rule will not apply when the stays, reports and experts come from a Spanish-speaking country.

c) That the thesis has been reported by a minimum of two expert doctors belonging to a non-Spanish higher education institution or research institute.

d) That at least one expert belonging to a non-Spanish higher education institution or research centre, with a doctorate degree, and other than the person responsible for the stay mentioned in section a), has been part of the thesis evaluation committee.

2. The thesis defence must be carried out at the Spanish university in which the doctoral candidate is enrolled, or, in the case of joint doctoral programmes, at any of the participating universities or under the terms identified in the collaboration agreements.

Article 29.- Thesis modality by compendium of publications.

1. Doctoral students who, prior to submitting their thesis and with the express authorization of their supervisor, have published or accepted for publication after their enrollment in the doctoral program, a minimum of three articles with a thematic unity in scientific journals that appear in the list of journals in the Journal Citations Reports or are indexed in prestigious databases such as Scopus, Latindex or similar, or are of special relevance for their area or related areas, and that are related to what is specified in their research plan, may opt to present their thesis in the form of a compilation of publications.

2. The presentation of a thesis under this modality must adhere to the following:

a. It must include a general introduction in which the work is presented and the thematic unit is justified, as well as a global summary of the research objectives, the methodology applied, the results obtained, the discussion of these results and the final conclusions.

b. Between the introduction and the summary mentioned above, or as annexes, there must be a complete copy of the works, which must necessarily include the personal data of all the authors, as well as the complete reference of the journal in which the works have been published or, where appropriate, the acceptance letter.

c. At the time of deposit of the thesis, the following documentation must be submitted to the Doctoral School of the University of La Laguna:

i. Authorization from the thesis director for presentation in this format.

ii. Document proving the impact index of the publications that make up the thesis or, failing that, the document that proves the relevance of the article within the corresponding branch of knowledge, such as IN-recs, DICE, positive evaluation by the FECYT.

iii. If any of the works presented have been carried out in collaboration with researchers other than the thesis supervisors, a document must be submitted in which the supervisor expressly declares that the essential part of the work included in the articles has been carried out by the author of the thesis. Likewise, a document must be included in which the other authors identified as responsible for the publication state their consent to the use of the corresponding articles for the presentation of the thesis under this modality.

d. Articles that form part of a thesis of this type may not be included as part of any other thesis.

e. Under no circumstances may the co-authors of the submitted works be proposed as members of the tribunal that is to judge the thesis.

3. The Doctoral School of the University of La Laguna will keep a record of the articles presented as support for doctoral theses in the form of a compendium of publications, for the purposes of the provisions of this article.