According to the Degree Regulations on Doctoral Education (10 §) a doctoral thesis is written on a topic related to the research field for which the student has received approval. This document summarizes the general instructions and requirements relating to the format and content of a doctoral thesis completed at the School of Chemical Engineering (CHEM). The decision document “Doctoral Dissertation at Aalto University” defines the general quality requirements for doctoral theses. However, certain requirements regarding the format and content differ between the six Schools of the University.  The following instructions are applicable to CHEM and as such may contain school-specific criteria. These instructions are not, therefore, directly applicable to other Schools at Aalto University.

CHEM accepts doctoral theses that are either article-based or monographs. In both cases, the doctoral thesis should deal with a coherent research problem and describe the research goals, the methods used, and the results. The thesis should also assess the significance of the study in its discipline and context. An article-based doctoral thesis should consist of a summary part and the publications that the thesis is based on. The summary part should paraphrase the individual publications, creating a coherent whole and placing the publications in the broader context and should not repeat the full content of the publications. In a monograph the research results are fully described and placed in context, but there is no requirement for the results to have to been published separately.

General requirements for doctoral theses

• A doctoral thesis shall contribute new scientific knowledge to the field it represents.
• The thesis must present the new findings clearly, and in a manner meeting the criteria set for scientific works.
• The doctoral student’s own independent contribution to the research shall be sufficient and clearly stated.
• A doctoral thesis shall conform to the principles of research integrity, responsible conduct, and adhere to ethical principles.
• The extent of a doctoral thesis should reflect the duration of the programme which is four years of full-time studies.

The content of a doctoral thesis 

The formal content of a doctoral thesis must include the following specific information:

• A title page stating that the of doctoral thesis is for the degree of Doctor of Science in Technology.
• A reference to Aalto University School of Chemical Engineering
• Supervising professor and thesis advisor(s)
• One abstract in English. Another one in Finnish or Swedish is required if the author has received their high school education in Finland in either Finnish or Swedish. 
• The abstract must be created directly using the Aalto University abstract page template, which is available through the Aalto publication platform. Choose the template for CHEM.
• The format of the information above (title page, second page and abstract(s)) must follow the Aalto University doctoral thesis template, which is available at the Aalto publication platform, see https://www.aalto.fi/en/services/publishing-doctoral-theses.

The methods, experimental setups, measurements, and the data presented in a thesis should withstand the scrutiny appropriate to scientific research. The research findings and the analysis of the results shall be explained and described in such a way that they can be replicated and confirmed. In the summary part of an article-based thesis, the doctoral student can choose to focus on selected central methods, if the methods are otherwise described in sufficient detail in the publications upon which the thesis is based.

Presenting the results and conclusions

The doctoral student must present the results and conclusions clearly and in such a way as to meet internationally accepted scientific standards.

• The research shall be set in the correct frame of reference by referring to the research results and methods of other researchers relevant to the student’s research; particularly important are references to the latest published results, not forgetting primary sources.
• The student must clearly address the set of scientific questions or problems, which define the focus of the research work; and communicate how these questions are answered at the end of work.
• When the thesis contains previously published material (figures, data, etc.), correct referencing must be used. Copyright permission must be obtained for this material.
• The printed and electronic versions of the thesis and abstract must be identical.
• The thesis should avoid unnecessary verbosity; a concise style is appropriate for scientific presentation. Matters of opinion or emotional reactions are inappropriate to scientific style.
• Results and publications presented in a licentiate thesis may be used in a doctoral thesis.

Article-based doctoral thesis

In an article-based thesis, a scientific question or set of questions should be addressed in a coherent manner by the articles upon which it is based. The summary part should present the content of the articles in an overarching way to add further discussion and insight. Furthermore, the summary part places the content of the publications in a broader context. An article acceptable for a doctoral thesis is a publication that describes original research that has been published or has been accepted for publication in an international peer-reviewed publication series.

• An article-based thesis at CHEM is typically based on four to five (minimum three) peer-reviewed publications. The number of publications alone does not determine the quality of the thesis. The quality of publications and doctoral student’s personal contribution to them is very important.
• The articles must be clearly listed according to the document template available at the aalto.fi www-pages.
• For each article, the contribution of the doctoral student and each co-author must be reported in sufficient detail for the student’s contribution to be evaluated.
• Only publications that are directly related to the doctoral thesis should be included in the thesis. Other publications by the student should not be included, but may, of course, be cited in the summary part. 
• It is recommended that the articles are available as open access publications. 
• In some areas of expertise of CHEM, it is customary to publish conference papers. Such proceeding papers must still meet the criteria for peer-review. The supervising professor and doctoral student may be requested to provide evidence that a full peer-review process has been carried out, if these publications are to be included in the thesis.
• Extended abstracts are not acceptable as publications in a doctoral thesis.
• Patents cannot be used as publications in an article-based thesis.
• A literature review that does not provide new scientific knowledge is not accepted as an article for an article-based thesis.
• When the doctoral thesis is submitted for pre-examination, it may include up to two submitted manuscripts that have not yet been accepted for publication. However, at least half of the publications in an article-based thesis must be published/accepted for publication before pre-examination.
• To obtain the right to publish and defend the thesis, it can still contain two article manuscripts that have been submitted, but not yet been accepted or published.
• The doctoral student must keep the Doctoral Programme Committee updated about the progress of acceptance of the submitted articles once the examination process has started.

Monograph

• A monograph must include previously unpublished results from independent research.
• The author must have a clear, major role in forming the research problem, carrying out the research, in writing the thesis and formulating the results.
•  A monograph must meet scholarly criteria equivalent to an article-based thesis.
• A monograph does not contain a separate list of the student's publications; all references to such publications are included in the general reference listing.

As an additional note, doctoral students are strongly encouraged to publish peer-reviewed articles since knowledge of the publication process is extremely important to a researcher. Furthermore, the practice of writing effectively develops and strengthens presentation and communication skills.

The published CHEM doctoral theses

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