In completion of his/her studies and before the date set for conclusion of studies, the PhD student must submit a thesis in which he/she explains the scientific project undertaken and the results achieved. The thesis must be written by the PhD student him-/herself.
It is recommended that the thesis be based on scientific articles already published on the same scientific topic as the project (sub-theses). However, these articles may not have been part of previous study programmes such as e.g. the master’s thesis. A synopsis stating the relationship between the articles and summarizing the results is to be enclosed. If the thesis includes publications written jointly by the PhD student and the principal supervisor or other persons, then the thesis must be accompanied by joint author statements, specifying the extent of the PhD student’s contribution to the total work. A form for statement of joint authorship can be found at Portalen (only accessible to PhD students and employees at DTU).
The thesis must be submitted in nine copies, eight paper copies and one PDF-file for the PhD Administration. The thesis must be written on computer – if necessary with formula, drawings and graphs in handwriting. The thesis may be written in Danish or in English; however the PhD committee may, on the recommendation of the supervisor, grant the student permission to write it in another language.
Offprint (or photocopies) of articles must meet the requirement that the thesis must be written on computer.
The thesis must include an abstract both in Danish and in English (including the title). (This should not be confused with the popular abstract in Danish that must be submitted with the Supervisor's Report.)
The thesis must contain information regarding where the studies have taken place (department, company, any partners), the funding of the studies, and state the name(s) of the supervisor(s) and place of employment.
The thesis is to be submitted to the principal supervisor in at least 9 copies which are distributed as follows:
- One copy for the chairman of the defence session.
- One copy is submitted electronically at the department to the PhD secretary who will
then send it via DTU-DOC to the PhD Administration.
- Three copies must be handed over to the assessment committee.
- One copy for each supervisor.
- One copy whish is publicly available at the department after advertisement of defence.
(The parties involved may agree among themselves that the thesis may be sent in
full upon request to persons interested.)
- Two copies of the thesis are to be sent to the Danish Royal Library.
Please see http://www.pligtaflevering.dk/
The PhD school/department must also see to it that the PhD thesis is registered in Orbit and that a PDF-file of the PhD thesis is available in Orbit.
If the entire thesis or some of it is meant to become part of a series of reports or otherwise become more widely published, this must be agreed between the PhD student and the PhD school/department concerned.
In certain cases, parts of the thesis may be considered confidential out of consideration for a participating company. The assessment and award of the PhD degree must, however, be based on a fully public part of the thesis which can function as an independent sub-thesis. The members of the assessment committee base their evaluation solely on the background of the public part of the thesis, and this alone is dealt with at the defence.
Patent applications
If the thesis contains material which form the basis for patent applications, the publication and the defence may be postponed for another month. Still, a possible patenting process must be initiated as early as possible during the course of the PhD studies so as not to postpone the defence unduly.
In special cases, the university may accept a thesis for assessment without the author having completed an entire course of PhD studies, if the author in other ways has acquired qualifications equivalent to a PhD study programme.