FAQ – The Doctoral Procedure in the Department of Informatics

The subject doctoral committee of the Department of Informatics recommends to apply for admission within the first six months but not later than nine months after you have started working as a research assistant at Universität Hamburg. 
Admission to the doctoral procedures is initially valid for four years (Section 5 subsect. 5 of the Doctoral Degree Regulations MIN Faculty (2018)). Please note that your admission must be valid until the day of your oral defence (therewith until the end of the examination process). Information about when and how to request for an extension, if required, can be found in section 4 of these FAQ. 

We only process applications for admission electronically. Application documents in paper form are not requested, but also not accepted.

The following application documents must be prepared in electronic form and submitted as part of the online application:

• Copies of your degree certificates (e.g. bachelor’s and master’s degree): certificate of academic degree, transcript of records, diploma supplement (if issued and already available). Please submit certified translations in case the original language is not German or English.
• Completed and fully signed supervision agreement: Please use this form only.
• Copy of certificate of higher education entrance eligibility (secondary school leaving certificate: dt. Abitur/Reifezeugnis)
• Completed and fully signed research project outline: Please use this form only.
• Copy of identification document (e.g. ID card, passport, visa)
• Curriculum vitae and, if available, publication list
• Only if applicable: Statement attesting that you have previously applied for a doctorate at another higher education institution, in another faculty of Universität Hamburg or in another department of the MIN Faculty of Universität Hamburg (including details on the application).

The online application is done through Docata-MIN and includes two sections: 

Section 1
1. Register in Docata-MIN: Create user account and set password
2. Log in to Docata-MIN with the login data of the user account and fill in the online application for admission to doctoral procedures.
3. Complete the first section of the online application and download the PDF application file Application for admission to doctoral procedures: tick the applicable declarations in the PDF application file, sign it and have it signed by the other persons/entities listed in the application. Scanned and electronic signatures are allowed.

Section 2
Log in to Docata-MIN and complete the second section of the online application: upload the fully signed Application for admission to doctoral procedures and the remaining application documents (see above) in ONE PDF file (max. size 30 MB) to Docata-MIN and submit via Docata-MIN.

In the guidelines for the online application for admission to doctoral procedures, you will find all information about the application process with screenshots for all sections. Please make sure to read them before you start the online application process.

Please note: Only complete applications can be processed. If application documents of the mandatory documents listed above are missing or signatures are missing, the application cannot be submitted to the Subject Doctoral Committee. In such a case you will be informed by us and you will have to repeat the online application (section 1 and/or section 2)! To avoid this, we ask you to submit the above-mentioned application documents completely and signed within the online application

Together with your application for admission you need to hand in a research project outline. Please use this form only.
For reasons of space you may attach your outline text on separate pages. Please ensure to put all pages together to one single PDF document before starting the application process in Docata. 

The outline text should be no longer than two pages including title and references.
Please apply the following structure:

• State your topic and put it into context
• Describe the state-of-the-art of the science/technology of your topic and name the most important publications in the field
• Put down a project plan explaining how you plan to proceed and name the necessary preliminary work that needs to be carried out
• Specify the research questions that you want to address during your work

Doctoral candidates must be formally enrolled at Universität Hamburg as doctoral students until they have concluded their doctoral procedure. This also applies to doctoral dissertation projects carried out externally. Enrollment must take place no later than the semester following admission. Admission shall be rescinded if a student does not enroll (Section 6 of the Doctoral Degree Regulations MIN Faculty (2018)).

Admission is initially valid for four years (Section 5 subsect. 5 of the Doctoral Degree Regulations MIN Faculty (2018)), but can be extended upon request for reasons of technical as well as personal nature (e.g. maternity leave, childcare, care of relatives, illness).  You must submit your application for an extension by email at least three months before your admission period expires. (Please send to promotion.inf"AT"uni-hamburg.de). 

Please use the designated application form for your request and read the document carefully,  as it contains all the required information.   

The main goal of the extension application is to stimulate a discussion between you and your supervisor about the progress of the dissertation. We would like to support you in achieving the qualification goal of a doctorate in a reasonable time. Correct applications, which are jointly supported by the doctoral candidate and his/her supervisor, are generally approved. 

Please note: For reasons of data protection we ask our doctoral students to communicate with us via a Uni Hamburg email address (e.g. uni.hamburg.de, studium.uni-hamburg.de, informatik.uni-hamburg.de).  
You can change your correspondence email address on your own at any time after logging into Docata-MIN. You will find instructions on how to do this in the MIN-FAQ.

We process applications to open the doctorate proceedings (i.e. submission of the dissertation for evaluation) only electronically. Application documents in paper form (except 1 examination copy of the dissertation in paper form for archiving purposes) are not requested and not accepted.

The following application documents must be prepared in electronic form for the online application to open the doctorate proceedings and submitted compulsorily as part of the online application:

• Application form (to be generated in Docata, see below)
• Current enrollment certificate (= semester certificate)
• If not already submitted during the application process for admission to doctoral procedures: Copy of identification document (e.g. ID card, passport, visa). Please note: If you have changed your name after admission to doctoral procedures (e.g. due to marriage), please attach the relevant proof of the name change (e.g. marriage certificate) to the rest of the application documents.
• Only if applicable: Proof of interruptions of your doctorate

The online application is done through Docata-MIN and includes two sections:

Section 1
1. Log in to Docata-MIN with the login data of your user account (see MIN-FAQ for further information) and fill in the online application to open the doctorate proceedings.
2. Complete the first section of the online application and download the PDF application file Application to open the doctorate proceedings: tick the applicable declarations in the PDF application file, sign it and have it signed by the other persons/entities listed in the application. Scanned and electronic signatures are allowed.
3. Upload your dissertation in Docata according to the instructions

Section 2
Log in to Docata-MIN and complete the second section of the online application: upload the fully signed Application to open the doctorate proceedings and the remaining application documents (see above) in ONE PDF file (max. size 10 MB) to Docata-MIN and submit via Docata-MIN.

Please note: Only complete applications can be processed. If application documents of the mandatory documents listed above are missing or signatures are missing, the application cannot be submitted to the Subject Doctoral Committee. In such a case you will be informed by us and you will have to repeat the online application (section 1 and/or section 2)!
To avoid this, we ask you to submit the above-mentioned application documents completely and signed within the online application. Please do not forget to submit 1 examination copy of the dissertation in paper form for archiving purposes with us and please note the following about the dissertation (doctoral thesis) you are submitting for evaluation with this application:

• Only one printed bound copy of the dissertation must be submitted for archiving to us, the responsible Academic Office (e.g. by mail). No further hard/paper copies of the dissertation need to be submitted to us at the Academic Office.
• Both the printed bound copy of the dissertation and the dissertation submitted in electronic form (via the Docata upload) must contain the declaration upon oath signed by the doctoral candidate.

In the MIN-FAQ for the online application to open the doctorate proceedings linked here, you will find all information about the application process with screenshots for all sections. Please make sure to read them before you start the online application process.

The dissertation needs to have a cover page, an empty second page, an affidavit and several attachments. The different aspects will be explained in more detail below:

• Cover page
  The cover page needs to contain the following information:
  • Name of the author
  • Faculty and department/institution of the author
  • The specification „an der Universität Hamburg eingereichte Dissertation“
  • Year of submission
• A second page
  The second page will later be filled with the names of the reviewers. Please note that the names of the reviewers may not yet be named in the dissertation as they will only be appointed by the subject doctoral committee after the examination process was started.
• Attachment
  The attachment must contain:
  • Summary of the results in English and in German. The contents of the summaries must be largely identical. The subject doctoral committee recommends for the summary a scope of 1-2 pages.
  • List of publications that resulted from the dissertation project. In case of publications with several authors, the subject doctoral committee recommends that the contribution of the doctoral student is specified.
• Affidavit
  Please use the following wording for your affidavit (also see Section 8 subsect. 4 of the Doctoral Degree Regulations MIN Faculty (2018)): „Hiermit erkläre ich an Eides statt, dass ich die vorliegende Dissertationsschrift selbst verfasst und keine anderen als die angegebenen Quellen und Hilfsmittel benutzt habe.“ Even when your dissertation is in English you need to insert and sign the German affidavit.

Generally, the Doctoral Degree Regulations MIN Faculty (2018) offer the possibility to submit a cumulative dissertation (see Section 8 subsect. 2). Whether a cumulative dissertation is appropriate to present the research results depends on individual conditions, especially the subject area, the coherence of the subject and the publication performance.

Non-cumulatively dissertations enable the overall presentation of research effort in a coherent way. They enable a high level of detail and also the representation of negative results. Cumulative dissertations normally need less time for the writing of the dissertation itself. Thus they could allow the pursuit of additional, potentially higher ranked publications.

We recommend to talk to your supervisor one year before submission of the dissertation at the latest to judge the pros and contras individually.

Requirements

According to Section 8 subsect. 2 b of the Doctoral Degree Regulations MIN Faculty (2018), the subject doctoral committee determines the requirements for cumulative dissertations. For Informatics the following applies:

• At least three publications have to exist which can be related clearly to the doctoral topic with regard to contents. In particular, well-argued cases, the doctoral student can apply for an exception with the subject doctoral committee.
• The doctoral student should be first author or equal-contributing first author of the publications and be involved significantly in the published research results.
• The publications should appear in approved, international journals or proceedings of international conferences which pursue a strict peer-review.
• All listed publications must be accepted at the time of submission of the dissertation.

Note that your examination commission decides about the acceptance of the dissertation according to the recommendation of the reviewers (see Section 11). We therefore strongly recommend to discuss a cumulative dissertation closely and in detail with your supervisor.

Formal Standards

Section 8 subsect. 5  of the Doctoral Degree Regulations (2018) regulates the formal standards. In addition, the subject doctoral committee recommends to include the specification "cumulative dissertation" on the title page.

Arrangement

Further provisions are set out in section 8 subsect. 2 of the Doctoral Degree Regulations (2018). The dissertation must have a complete title, an introduction, the single publications and also a coherent text, which in a comprehensive way interpretes, evaluates and discusses the single publications. In addition, the subject doctoral committee recommends the following:

• The single publications should be clearly separated and be visible as entities in the dissertation. You should integrate the single publications preferably in same form as they were published. Each single publication should be introduced with a cover page, which includes the complete reference and a single identification within the cumulative dissertation
• A list of the individual publications should be included in the appendix – best in front of the individual publications. The specific contribution of the doctoral student and all co‐authors should be described in a short paragraph (see Section 8 subsect. 3). We strongly recommend to synchronise this demarcation of the contributions with all co‐authors and to obtain written approval from them.
• Publications in journals and conference proceedings are often very limited with regard to the page numbers. Thus details cannot be explained in a sufficient manner. If a single publication has a textual „Supplementary Material“ this should be specified in the cumulative dissertation. Please use the possibility to write chapters or appendices to include more details like extensive results, methods and their parametrisation or alternatives on the route to the published end result.

Publication

In addition to the rules for the publication of dissertations (see Section 14 Doctoral Degree Regulations MIN Faculty (2018)), special attention needs to be turned to copyrights. The subject doctoral committee recommends to aim at a publication of the cumulative dissertation as a coherent document with the included publications. The necessary rights have to be obtained from the journal publisher or conference organiser. In case that the rights for the publication of an article in the framework of the dissertation are not available the article has to be removed before publication and be replaced in an appropriate form with the complete reference.

The doctoral student is allowed to suggest reviewers. Even though supervisors are not allowed to suggest reviewers, the subject doctoral committee Informatics would like them to give a short statement about the reviewers suggested by the doctoral student. Regulations concerning the reviewing process can be found in Section 10 of the Doctoral Degree Regulations MIN Faculty (2018). Please note the following suggestions concerning the choice of reviewers:

• One of the supervisors is generally appointed to be a reviewer.
• The subject doctoral committee recommends that at least one of the reviewers does not have any joint publications with the doctoral student that have become part of the dissertation.
• In case the work receives the grade “summa cum laude” the  Doctoral Degree Regulations MIN Faculty (2018) request another review by an external reviewer. The third reviewer should not have had a joint project or publications with the doctoral student or the supervisors during the last five years (view Section 10 subsect. 5). The subject doctoral committee Informatics would like to obtain at least two suggestions of scientifically renowned scientists.

The subject doctoral committee recommends the following procedure for the disputation process (for legal provisions please see Section 12 of the Doctoral Degree Regulations MIN Faculty (2018)):

To start with, everyone is welcomed and the members of the examination commission as well as the doctoral student are introduced to the audience. The doctoral student is then invited to start his or her presentation which should last about 30 minutes. The following Q&A session may last from 30-90 minutes total. First, the members of the examination commission have the opportunity to ask further questions concerning the presentation or the wider scientific context of the problems discussed in the dissertation. After that, the Q&A session is also open for questions from other members of the university.

After the Q&A session, the examination commission consults and evaluates the disputation according to Section 13 subsect. 1 and determines the final grade which it then tells the doctoral student (in private). The commission usually makes the doctoral student aware of his or her duty to publish the dissertation within one year and that she or he is only allowed to use the title "Dr. rer. nat." after receiving the certificate.

General information:
https://www.min.uni-hamburg.de/en/forschung/promotion/verfahren.html

Code of best scientific practice:
https://www.uni-hamburg.de/fid/satzung-gute-wissenschaftliche-praxis-en.pdf

 Doctoral Degree Regulations MIN Faculty (2018):
https://www.promovieren.uni-hamburg.de/min/promotion/pdf-promotion/20180502-neuf-promo-min-en.pdf

Partiality guidelines by the DFG:
https://www.dfg.de/formulare/10_201/10_201_en.pdf

For questions please contact the academic office of the Department of Informatics via email (promotion.inf@uni-hamburg.de(promotion"AT"informatik.uni-hamburg.de)). For more far-reaching questions please contact the chairman of the subject doctoral committee Informatics, Prof. Dr. Matthias Rarey. Please write an email to rarey-office.zbh@uni-hamburg.de(rarey-office"AT"zbh.uni-hamburg.de) in order to make an appointment.