Internal Procedures and Recommendations Regarding the PhD Thesis Defense

Detailed information regarding the PhD thesis defense can be found in MU Study and Examination Regulations (version 2024) particularly in Sections 31, 33, 34.

On this page, you will read about the internal procedure and recommendations valid at the Faculty of Informatics and advice on the thesis defense.

PhD thesis structure

The student submits the PhD thesis either in the form of a coherent monograph, describing their original results, or as a set of published or accepted scientific publications accompanied by a detailed unifying introduction.
In the first case, the length of the monograph should be at least 80 pages, excluding the bibliography and appendices (if there are any).
In the second case, the unifying introduction to the set of publications should be around 20-30 pages long (we deliberately do not set a fixed lower limit on the number of pages for the publications themselves, since publications in computer science are often presented in a very "concise" format). If the thesis contains publications or other results with co-authors, the student must clearly indicate their contribution to the work on these publications or results (because in computer science publications, the order of co-authors is often alphabetical).
The preferred form of the PhD thesis is a coherent monograph presenting the student's research achievements in the given field of interest.

Prerequisites for the PhD thesis

The absolute minimum is to reach two publications in non-predatory journals with IF or in the main program of peer-reviewed conferences of rank B or higher. A necessary condition is that the student has published (or at least the publication has already been accepted) at least two peer-reviewed publications in a high-quality international forum. According to international standards in computer science, a high-quality publication is considered not only the one that has been published in an impact journal, but also a peer-reviewed publication presented as part of the main program of an international conference that is significant in one of the internationally recognized quality rankings of CS conferences. In this assessment, such a conference must achieve sufficient quality (for example, in the evaluation according to the CORE ranking, at least CORE B quality is required).
The definition of a high-quality publication at FI MU further specifies these requirements.
The requirement for two such high-quality publication outputs is the minimum to meet the publication requirements for a PhD thesis, but typically, the thesis contains more publications, especially in cases where the student's share of the reported publications is not major or when the publications do not reach the required quality. However, the quality of publication outputs cannot be completely replaced by their quantity! In extreme cases, the situation is considered and resolved individually by the Doctoral Board.

Declaration of co-authorship

If the thesis contains results or publications with other co-authors, the student must clearly state their contribution to them in the thesis.
The FI MU Doctoral Board declares that theses that are written as monographs are the student's own work of authorship and thus there is no need to obtain the consent of the co-authors of the publications on which the PhD thesis is based.
For theses compiled as an introductory text with attached copies of the publications, it is necessary to follow the MU Study and Examination Regulations Section 31, paragraphs 1, 2 and, as an additional requirement of FI, to submit a separate appendix with a statement of at least the key co-authors of the attached publications (e.g., the corresponding author, if he/she is not the student himself/herself) and the supervisor.

Internal reviewer of the PhD thesis

A student who plans to submit the thesis can request the assignment of an internal reviewer through the Office for Doctoral and International Studies (ODZS). This step is not an obligation; it is primarily a service of the faculty to students. If interested, the student sends the title of the thesis/topic, abstract, and list of publications included in the thesis to the ODZS by e-mail. The ODZS then addresses the chairmen of the Doctoral Board and Doctoral Committees, who will appoint an internal reviewer. Before the official submission of the thesis, the internal reviewer will familiarize themselves with the thesis and write their opinion. It is therefore appropriate to submit the thesis to the internal reviewer in a state which is almost final. Based on this opinion and comments, the student can then edit the thesis, possibly revise it, and submit it later.
The appointment of an internal reviewer takes about a week. The reviewer then has approximately two weeks to prepare the statement (from the moment the student submits the thesis to the reviewer). Therefore, request the appointment of an internal reviewer well ahead of time (even two months before the planned thesis submission).

Deadlines for final submission of PhD thesis

The thesis can be submitted to the ODZS at any time during the year.
If a student wants to defend their thesis during the semester:
"Autumn" - the thesis, including the application for defense and all requested attachments, must be submitted by the end of September (the defense will take place by the end of March of the following calendar year).
"Spring" - the thesis, including the application for defense and all requested attachments, must be submitted by the end of March (the defense will take place by the end of September of the given calendar year).

The time between submission of the thesis and the defense takes usually six months. Fluctuations in both directions are possible depending on the time available to the reviewers and members of the committee.
The defense must take place by the end of twice the standard period of study (i.e., eight years, including any interruptions). So, it is not enough to simply submit the thesis by the end of this period.

PhD thesis submission

• The student will upload the thesis to the Archive of Thesis in IS (IS.muni - Student - End of Studies - Dissertation Archive).
• The student will submit to the Office for Doctoral and International Studies (ODZS):
  1) Application to the Doctoral Thesis Defense either paper one
  or electronic one (IS.muni – Document Office - Submit a new application - Office for Doctoral and International Studies - Application for the Doctoral Thesis Defense), including mandatory attachments (see points 5, 6, 7 below).
  2) One hard copy of the thesis.
  The thesis should be printed on white (not recycled) A4 paper. The thesis must be in hard covers, which also includes a list of publications (see point 7 below). The title page will state the Masaryk University, Faculty of Informatics (possibly also the faculty logo), the full title of the thesis, the information that it is a dissertation thesis, the student's name, Brno, and the year of submission.
  3) Opinion of the internal reviewer (if there is one and if the ODZS did not receive it yet).
  4) Statement of the supervisor.
  5) Abstract – both in Czech and English.
  6) Professional CV.
  7) Overview of publications (if the student is a co-author, they will state the percentage of their contribution). This overview must be an integral part of the thesis and will be publicly accessible, along with the text of the thesis, in the archive of theses on the MU website.
  
  

PhD thesis defense

The individual steps are as follows:

• The Doctoral Board proposes to the dean the chairman and members of the defense committee, including reviewers, and the dean then appoints the committee.
• The thesis is sent to the external reviewers, who have two months to prepare their reviews.
• After receiving the reviews, a date for the defense is stated. The date is agreed individually, based on the availability of the committee members.
• The defense itself takes place in one of FI meeting rooms (usually S211), where a whiteboard, data projector, and laptop are available. The student arrives at least 10 minutes before the defense (if the meeting room is locked, the key is available at the ODZS), prepares and tests the equipment they will use within the defense. The student prepares a presentation of the defense using a suitable font and colors so that it is readable even by the committee members who are sitting further from the screen.
  The actual presentation of the defense lasts 25 minutes. This is followed by reading the reviews, discussion of the reviews, and further discussion with the members of the committee or guests. The public part is followed by a non-public one, where the committee can further discuss the student’s results and performance within the defense, and a secret vote is held. After the vote, the student is immediately informed about the result of the defense. The defense is evaluated as pass/fail/pass summa cum laude.
  
• The evaluation pass summa cum laude can be awarded in the following cases: The Doctoral Board submits a statement to the defense committee, in which it marks the results achieved during the entire study as excellent. Excellent results are considered to be above-standard (and typically double) the number of high-quality publications with a demonstrable significant contribution from the student (according to the definition). At least two of these publications were presented at A or A* conferences or were published in Q1 journals in the field. The statement of the Doctoral Board, confirmed by the signature of the Chairman of the Doctoral Board, will be delivered to the Chairman of the defense committee at least one week before the defense. The committee makes the final decision on the awarding of the evaluation.
  The Doctoral Board automatically proposes the Dean's Award for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis to all graduates who were awarded the summa cum laude evaluation during the defense of their thesis.
• If the student is interested, they can also upload a corrected version of their thesis to the archive after the defense (according to the comments of the reviewers and the committee). However, the original defended version of the thesis also remains in the archive!

In case of a successful defense, the doctoral study ends on this day. The student will receive a diploma and a Diploma Supplement at the graduation ceremony, which is organized by RMU twice a year. RMU informs relevant graduates about the graduation ceremony about a month before they take place by email (Mgr. T. Dvořáková). Therefore, please continue to monitor your email at mail.muni.cz. If you are unable to attend the graduation ceremony, please excuse yourself from the graduation ceremony by sending an email to her.

In case of an unsuccessful defense, the student may repeat the defense once more. In that case, the committee shall determine the conditions for the repetition and the dean, upon the proposal of the Doctoral Board, shall set the date for the repeated defense. Until the repeated defense, the dean may interrupt the studies (at their request); the period of this interruption shall not be included in the total duration of the study.