Doctoral thesis at Aalto University

If your topic changes, you must get approval for the change from the Doctoral Programme Committee. Always discuss the changes with your supervising professor first. If the research focus doesn't drastically change, you can modify the title of the thesis or the research plan without an official approval.

In case of a major change in your research topic, it is possible that your supervising professor and research field also changes.

Submit the application to your Doctoral programme's Doctoral Education Services (aalto.fi)

The form "Change of supervisign professor, thesis advisor, research field or mode of study" is available at Doctoral student forms (aalto.fi).

You can write your thesis using the Word or LaTeX templates available at the page Publishing doctoral thesis. You can also use your own style or adapt some previously used thesis layout.

Doctoral students at Aalto University publish their thesis through the Aalto Publication Platform. Doctoral students at Aalto ARTS may also apply to publish their thesis through Aalto ARTS Books. The Aalto University publication platform generates the standard front and back covers to the doctoral theses. The platform also generates the title pages and the abstract pages to the doctoral thesis.

If the thesis contains material that has already been published (such as pictures) the doctoral student should refer to it appropriately and obtain the required copyrights.

Copyrights should also be obtained for the separate publications included in an article thesis. Publications in an electronic form should be equivalent in content with the printed publications.

See more at the section Research integrity: Responsible conduct of research

Patents nor standards may not be used as publications of an article-based thesis. Patents and standards are important results of research work but their publication practices may be in conflict with the principles of scientific publication. Patents can be presented in the summary, and if necessary, be appended to the thesis.

An article-based doctoral thesis consists of a set of publications on a related set of problems, and a summary of the findings.

The articles included in the doctoral thesis are published or submitted for publication in an acknowledged peer-reviewed forum in the discipline (for example a scientific publication series, conference proceedings or other work). Articles not yet accepted for publication can also be included in the doctoral thesis. The number of publications required for the thesis depends on their extent, scientific significance and quality as well as on the weight of the independent contribution of the doctoral student to the publications.

The articles may also include co-authored publications if the author's independent contribution to them can be demonstrated. An article can be included in several doctoral theses if the separate contribution of the doctoral student can be demonstrated.

The summary of the article-based doctoral thesis is an independent entity, which provides an overview of the thesis contents. The summary shall describe the research problem, research goals and methods, and presents a summary of the key findings. The summary shall assess the significance of the study for the discipline. The summary shall contain a list of the publications included in the thesis and describe the independent contribution of the student in each publication separately.

A monograph is a coherent writing based on the work of the doctoral student and written by the student. The monograph may contain references to previous works by the doctoral student on the same topic.

The doctoral thesis describes the research problem, the research goals, the used methods and results, and presents a summary of the key findings. The summary shall assess the significance of the study for the discipline.

An essay-based doctoral thesis consists of scientific essays and a summary. The essays and the summary shall deal with a single research problem or set of problems so that, when viewed as a whole, the independent contribution of the author meets the requirements set for a doctoral thesis.

Each of the essays shall contain new results and viewpoints, and shall primarily be based on independent research by the author, but also collaboratively written essays may be accepted as part of the doctoral thesis if the independent contribution of the author may be clearly demonstrated.

The number of essays required depends on their extent, scientific significance and quality as well as on the weight of the independent contribution of the author to the essays.

The summary describes the research problem, research goals and methods, and presents a summary of the key findings. The summary shall assess the significance of the study for the discipline. The summary contains a description of the independent contribution of the author in each of the essays.

At its discretion, the school may also approve as a doctoral thesis some other work meeting corresponding scientific criteria.