Researcher blogs

It’s time to finish the PhD. But the process requires some good planning to make sure it all goes smoothly. Since I am defending my own thesis soon, and have just been through this process, I have summarised the different steps in this post.

Setting the date and formal application (~7 months before)

Firstly, do you meet the requirements to apply? Briefly the requirements are:

• Two papers accepted for publication and optional additional unpublished manuscripts. Note that one of the papers or an unpublished manuscript needs to have you as a first author (or co first author) and only papers that create original data count (i.e. review papers are excluded).
• 30 doctoral credits and to have taken the mandatory courses. If you don’t have enough credits on Ladok, make sure you have claimed all the credit bearing activities you can. In some cases, you may need to do more courses. Even if the course application deadline has passed you can look here for last minute applications where there is still space.
• You have fulfilled all the individual learning outcomes (ILO) for a PhD. You will reflect on these and justify how you have fulfilled each one for the application

If you fulfil these, then you are good to go and start the first step. Formally applying for the defence to the KI Dissertation Committee.

If you are close to the four year mark and it looks unlikely you will get two authorships, there is the option of the monograph thesis. This is an alternative thesis type where you do not need to have publications. However, this is a last resort and not recommended as you will graduate without publications any may be disadvantageous if you are planning an academic career. It is also a far longer thesis, so only use it as a last resort.

Ideally you will finish within 4 years of your registration. If you are delayed, you can get an extension of up to one year with the current rules. Discuss your defence with your supervisor earlier rather than later as they are involved in the process as well. If it’s 3 years 10 months and you meet the requirements you have the right to apply for the defence.

However, if for any reason there is a disagreement you can apply for defence anyway. You do NOT have to stay there just because your supervisor says so, it’s ultimately your career.

When this is all done you can set a date well in advance and start contacting potential opponents and examination board members. Note that depending on when you are planning to have the defence, you need to apply by a certain deadline depending on when the dissertation committee at KI meets. You need to have an opponent and three members on the examination board. The opponent will be the person starting most of the scientific discussion and has the most important role. Then there are three people who make up the examination board of which one is chosen as the coordinator. These people also contribute to the scientific discussion on the day and will evaluate the thesis. The opponent and examination board need to be at least docent and have no collaboration or publications with any of your supervisors and cosupervisors within the last 5 years to avoid conflict of interest. There are other criteria they need to follow too. You also choose a chairperson; they are in charge on the day of the defence and formally represents KI. This needs to be someone in KI with some formal teaching position.

Once you find these people and agree on a date you can ask your department administration to book a venue for you then you can formally apply! Make sure your ISP is up to date, get them signed by the relevant people (you can do it electronically with edusign), get it checked by your study director in your department before sending it off just in then apply GO!

Preliminary review

The application should be approved by the dissertation committee. Congratulations! This is the first major hurdle. If not, they will contact you so respond to them promptly. Now that it is formally approved there is a preliminary review done by your opponent and examination board. This is a check that your publications and applications are all in check. It is up to you to send this off to the examination board. At this stage you will receive an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) number by email which you write on in your thesis kappa as shown in the template.

The thesis (~4 months before)

Meanwhile start writing the thesis and use the template provided. You can search the KI library or ask a friend for examples and choose one close to your field. Make sure to set aside dedicated time to do this and plan the structure. There are several resources to help, for example the KI library offers several resources to help you with the writing and provides some seminars.  The thesis consists of a “kappa” with the standard literature review, introduction, methods, and discussion. Then your publications are attached after that. Since you have the papers, some sections are a little different than other scientific writing. As a final touch you can make some fancy cover art.

Make sure to send this to different people for comments and proof reading, especially your main supervisor.

The printing process takes around 3 weeks, and you need the final printed thesis 2-3 days before the nailing. Which takes place 3 weeks before the defence.

During this time, you can think about who to invite to the defence and the afterparty.

Printing and final prep (~1.5 months before)

When the writing is done and perfected you can contact the printing company for a test print. This is to test if everything looks nice and most people do 2-4 test prints. A test print is completed the day after the files are received, then you pick it up from the shop on the KTH campus. Note that whenever you make changes you need to send in new files and do another test print. If you have a manuscript that is changing frequently then you will need to think about at what stage you will send it for printing. You can always give out errata on the day of the defence to notify your opponent and examination board if there are major changes after printing.

As a reminder, the thesis consists of a thesis kappa, then each of your papers and supplementary material as separate PDFs and a cover image (if you choose to have one). If you have some supplementary material (such as large tables for some types of analysis) you may want to omit them and mention they are available online only, to avoid making the whole thing too big.

When everything looks good, you do order the final print which takes 5 working days. The printing house automatically sends 9 copies which automatically go to the Swedish national libraries and other libraries in Sweden for record keeping. How many copies you print is up to you and how many you want to give to friends and family. Most people do between 50-100 copies. There is a special ring bound copy for the opponent and a special book with a hole drilled for the nailing ceremony. Depending on your department, the costs for printing are paid by your research group, or the department itself.

When you have the final printed thesis, you send it to the opponent and examination board electronically and physically. You should also coordinate with your department administration to sort out the travel expenses and the fee for the opponent. This will also become available online for the public to see on the KI archive. This will automatically be checked for plagiarism and in serious cases this will be forwarded to the KI president, don’t be one of those people….

Around this time, you can start working on the presentation. Again, it’s good to have a few examples to look at. Most people aim for 25-30 Minutes. It is recommended practice to do a rehearsal with an audience first who can ask critical questions and prepare you for the real thing. Keep in mind that the audience will have varying knowledge on your field.

At this stage you can plan the catering and the after-party if you choose to have it. The defence will take 3-4 hours and is public, meaning anybody can attend. Depending on the department the catering expenses will be covered by the department, or your research group.

Nailing (at least 3 weeks before)

No sooner than three weeks before the defence there is a ceremonial thesis nailing ceremony (Spikning in Swedish). This takes place in one of the KI libraries depending on what campus you work on. During this ceremony, you take a printed copy of your thesis, tie it to some string and a brass nail, and physically hammer the thesis into a wooden board. This tradition originates the apocryphal story of Martin Luther nailing his thesis against the catholic church in the 15^th century.

You also need to publicly advertise the defence day on the KI calendar, talk to your department administration to do so.

You can invite people and have some food/drinks as you see fit for the nailing ceremony.

On the day

The schedule on the day follows something like this. With some breaks in the middle as you see fit. The whole procedure takes 3-4 hours.

• People arrive
• The chairperson welcomes and introduces people
• The opponent presents the field and the background
• You present your work
• The opponent and you discuss and have a scientific discussion
• Once the opponent is done, the discussion is opened to the other examination board members, then the audience
• The audience and you chill out while the opponent, host and examination board go a separate room and discuss, they then come out and reveal if you have passed or not in 99.99% of the cases it will be a pass.

After the day

After the celebrations you will receive an email on how to receive your degree certificate. Make sure your details on Ladok are correct! You will also receive an exit survey to help KI improve the PhD process.

Don’t forget to remove your nailed thesis. If not, it will be removed after 1 week after the defence.

There is also the doctoral degree conferment ceremony which happens twice a year. You will get more information about this later.