DOCTORAL DISSERTATION


A doctoral dissertation shall be a written final study assignment that represents an independent and original contribution to the research field covered by the doctoral dissertation.

The doctoral dissertation shall be written in Slovenian or English.

The doctoral candidate may request the writing of their dissertation in English if they are a foreign national, if their supervisor or co-supervisor is a foreign national or if a foreign national is a member of the CMDS, or if the dissertation is composed of research articles published in English. In the event of writing a doctoral dissertation in English language, the dissertation must contain an extensive summary (approximately ten percent of the text of the dissertation) using appropriate scientific terminology in Slovenian.

The doctoral dissertation must be designed in B5 format according to the prescribed proposal for writing a doctoral dissertation.

A doctoral dissertation shall include:
• the title in Slovenian and English;
• a summary in Slovenian and English (maximum of 300 words) that will be published in the UL Repository;
• a table of contents and other indexes as needed;
• an overview of the field/background of the research problem;
• the purpose of the research;
• the hypotheses or research questions or objectives;
• a description of the research methodology;
• results;
• discussion;
• conclusions;
• a list of references and sources;
• the final draft of the research data management plan, and other possible annexes;
• an extensive summary using appropriate scientific terminology in Slovenian, if the dissertation is written in English language.

A declaration by the doctoral candidate that the submitted dissertation is their independent work and that the electronic copy is identical to the printed copy should be enclosed with the doctoral dissertation.

A doctoral dissertation may be composed of at least three research articles by the doctoral candidate, published or accepted for publication, if the nature of the research and the method of publication in the specific field permit this. Faculty of Public Administration marks as relevant those published articles that are included in journals indexed by SCI and SSCI with an impact factor greater than 0 .

Research articles shall be connected in terms of content (i.e. complementary) and shall be the result of the doctoral candidate’s work on an approved doctoral dissertation proposal.

In addition to the aforementioned articles, the doctoral candidate shall also write an introduction and conclusion to their dissertation, in which they shall present the theoretical and methodological basis of their research, link together the content of the individual articles, and provide key findings.

The author of a doctoral dissertation written in the form of articles shall obtain consent from the publishers, to whom they have previously exclusively transferred material copyrights to articles, for the inclusion of such articles in the printed and electronic forms of the dissertation.

The introduction must clearly resume the thesis from the disposition for the doctoral dissertation. The doctoral dissertation must not be shorter than 50.000 words and not longer than 100.000 words without spaces.

The doctoral dissertation must be written and edited sensibly and in accordance with the Faculty Rules on Editing of Bachelor’s and Master’s Theses.

The candidate is responsible that the doctoral thesis is linguistically unapproachable. The CMDS can reject the dissertation if it does not meet the criteria.

The candidate for doctorate of sciences must submit the doctoral dissertation to the Student Affair Office at the Faculty in at least 3 soft-bound copies (4 if there was a co- mentor) and in electronic format within four years from the day when the doctoral dissertation topic was approved by the Senate of the University of Ljubljana.

If the UL Senate approves a change to the doctoral dissertation proposal prior to the deadline for the submission of the final doctoral dissertation, the deadline for the submission of the doctoral dissertation set by the UL Senate shall remain unchanged.

Each copy must include a signed statement of the candidate stating that the dissertation is a result of his/her independent work, that the printed copy is identical to the electronic version and that the candidates agrees that the electronic version of the dissertation should be checked with the software for detection of similarities with other work, and that the candidate transfers free of charge to the University the non-exclusive right to reproduction, without time or space limits, including the right to storage in electronic version and the right to make the doctoral dissertation available to public on the world wide web via the Repository of UL.
A written statement by the supervisor on suitability of the doctoral dissertation must be attached.

Upon submission, the Student Affair Office checks the dissertation with a programme for detecting similarity with other works (plagiarism). If the process reveals a too high similarity with other works (higher than 15%), the Senate of the Faculty rejects the doctoral dissertation after receiving the dissertation and the report on similarity with other works. A rejected doctoral dissertation cannot be submitted again. The process of similarity detection is performed upon submission of the final version of the doctoral dissertation for grading.

Where there are justified reasons (such as parenthood, lengthy illness of the candidate, exceptional family and social circumstances, status of student with special needs), the UL member may on request extend the deadline for the doctoral candidate to submit their dissertation, by a maximum of one year.

Doctoral candidates may also submit their dissertation for assessment without the prior consent of their supervisor and possible co-supervisor. However, the supervisor and/or co-supervisor shall provide the Senate of the Faculty with a written explanation as to why they disagree with the submitted work.

The doctoral dissertation must be submitted in accordance with the UL Statutes, and in accordance with the UL's Rules on Content Similarity Detection of the Electronic Form of the Written Final Work of Studies and on Provisions Regarding Temporary Inaccessibility of the Content of the Written Final Work of Studies.

The candidate who cannot submit the doctoral dissertation within four years from the day when the topic of the doctoral dissertation was confirmed at the UL Senate, can request a deadline extension, in agreement with the supervisor and co-supervisor. The candidate submits the request in the Student Affair Office. The Senate of Faculty may extend the deadline for a maximum one year. The Student Affair Office informs the Doctoral study Committee UL.

If a doctoral candidate has a break in studies exceeding two years and their doctoral dissertation proposal has not yet been approved by the UL Senate, the possibility of continuing or completing those studies shall be assessed in accordance with the provisions of the Statutes of the UL.

A doctoral candidate whose request to continue or complete studies after such break has been approved, shall complete their studies according to the currently valid study programme.