Article-based doctorate

A dissertation based on articles in academic journals must meet the following criteria:

• there need to be at least four submitted peer reviewed publications (articles or chapters in a book). Two of these publications need to be published or formally accepted for publication. It is the responsibility of the doctoral advisory committee to safeguard the quality of the publications;
• the doctoral student should be the author with the greatest contribution to at least three such publications;
• the compiled contributions should show clear consistency in terms of contents;
• the compiled contributions should be preceded by an introduction that elaborates on the problem and the structure of the dissertation, the methodology and the importance of the research in a clear and conclusive manner;
• the compiled contributions should be followed by a conclusion that provides an answer to the research questions raised in a consistent manner;
• the doctoral student should support its contributions by research data that are to be updated right up until the moment of the promotion. If applicable, the research hypothesis and conclusions are also to be amended in light of this update.

The conclusion that a submitted dissertation meets each of these criteria, does not detract in any way from the autonomous authority of the Examination Board to decide on the question whether the dissertation is acceptable.