guarantee

Submitting Your Doctoral Thesis Without First Authorship – Available Options

If you wish to submit your doctoral thesis but do not yet have a first-author publication in a peer-reviewed international journal, there are two possible pathways:

1️ Guarantee for a first-author publication by your primary supervisor
Your primary supervisor may provide a guarantee for your first-author publication. This allows you to submit your thesis and immediately begin the doctoral procedure, with access to the full grading spectrum.
Important: The decission to issue such a guarantee lies solely with your primary supervisor; there is no entitlement to receive one. 

2️ Submission without first authorship and immediate commencement
You may submit your thesis and begin the doctoral procedure without an accepted first-author publication. However, in this case, your thesis cannot be awarded the grades “Summa cum laude” or “Magna cum laude.”
Note: This option is only available if you already have at least one co-authorship.

 

Guarantee for a first-author publication by your primary supervisor

If your primary supervisor provides a guarantee, we kindly aks you to upload the following documents (PDF or text format) at least 14 days before the next committee meeting via the following link: Guarantee request | Graduate School of Life Sciences

The committee kindly requests that both the dissertation and the related publication (ideally) be at an advanced stage, which is also in the supervisor’s best interest.

Required documents:

• Manuscript for which the “guarantee” is being requested.
  • If the manuscript is not finalized, provide a detailed outline (e.g., including figures) of the planned manuscript, clearly indicating the doctoral candidate’s contributions.
  • Include any supplementary figures to help the committee assess the candidate’s role.
• Completed guarantee request forms:
  • Statement of individual author contributions and of legal second publication rights.
  • Statement of individual author contributions to figures/tables.
• The current version of the candidate’s dissertation (PDF) in a very advanced stage.
  • Incomplete versions will be returned, with resubmission required once finalized.
• A letter from the first supervisor describing:
  • The current state of the dissertation.
  • Confirmation that the doctoral candidate will be listed as a first or co-author on the publication, and that this authorship will remain through all revisions in the peer-review process.
  • A statement acknowledging that the supervisor is aware the doctoral procedure can be initiated with a guarantee at any time and proceed without delay.

Information about the graduation committee, including meeting dates, can be found here.