Your Doctorate at the LSO

These steps are at the beginning of the work on your dissertation. The most important prerequisite is a topic as well as a first and a second supervisor. If you are interested in a doctoral thesis at the LSO, then you should inform yourself about possible topics on the institute pages of the faculties and contact possible supervisors directly. Candidates who wish to do a doctorate must have been admitted as a doctoral candidate for at least three months before they can apply for a doctorate. Doctoral candidates should register as doctoral students (§ 9 Paragraph 2 Sentence 4 of the NHG).

Details on acceptance as a doctoral student and supervision can be found in §3 to §5 of the doctoral regulations.

The documents required for the application for admission and forms prepared for this purpose can be found here:

• Dr. rer. nat.: Application for Admission: Checklist of documents to be submitted
• Dr. rer. nat.: Application for Admission as Doctoral Researcher
• Dr. rer. nat.: Supervision Agreement for Doctoral Students of the LSO
• Dr. rer. nat.: Declaration of Consent for the Graduate Academy

Upon application, the LSO opens the doctoral procedure if all requirements are met. Reviewers and a doctoral committee are appointed. In order to accelerate the procedure, the supervisor should make suggestions regarding the appointment of the reviewers, the composition of the doctoral committee and the time and place of the oral examination or the disputation.

Details on acceptance as a doctoral candidate and on supervision can be found in §7 to §13 of the doctoral regulations.

As a rule, the reviews should be available within six weeks of the opening of the doctoral examination procedure. The dissertation and the papers shall then be made available for inspection by the doctoral candidates of the LSO for at least two weeks.

The dissertation is considered accepted if all reviewers have recommended its acceptance and if no objection to the acceptance of the dissertation has been made within the display period. Acceptance may be subject to additional conditions. In this case, the chair of the examination board informs the doctoral candidate about the conditions and the further procedure.

After acceptance of the dissertation, the chair of the LSO sets the place and date for the examination/disputation and announces this information. There must be at least five working days between the announcement and the examination/disputation.

The time span between submission of the dissertation and the earliest possible date for the examination/disputation thus depends to a large extent on the time it takes for the reviews to arrive. Supervisors should therefore always discuss proposed deadlines with the reviewers beforehand.

Immediately after the oral doctoral examination or the disputation, the chair notifies the doctoral candidate of the results and issues a provisional certificate of the result of the doctorate.

Within one year of passing the oral doctoral examination or disputation, the doctoral candidate must publish the approved final version of the dissertation.

Details on the publication of dissertations can be found on the TIB website. After submission, the TIB usually issues a confirmation of publication within two weeks and sends it to the LSO.

The doctorate is completed by handing over or delivery of the doctoral certificate. This can only take place after the thesis has been published. Only then do doctoral candidates have the right to use the doctoral title.