Writing the Doctoral Thesis

The requirements and formatting of the doctoral thesis are described in the BayNAT doctoral regulations (with the PEER regulation referring to them). 
In general, the doctoral thesis must be the doctoral student´s independent academic work providing new insights that help to find answers to scientific questions.

Thesis Formats

A doctoral thesis may be designed in two different formats:

1. Monograph
   In this case the thesis is a cohesive written work.
   
   
2. Cumulative Thesis
   Several scientific papers of a candidate are combined for the thesis. A detailed summary (synopsis) presents the relation between the individual papers as well as the candidate's own contribution. Within PEER, this format is willingly accepted and no further agreement of the executive board is needed (see BayNAT regulations - Addendum Ecology and Environmental Research and below the Instructions for completion of a doctoral thesis).
   
   For later publication of a cumulative thesis, the relevant permission must be obtained from the publisher.

The date of submission of the thesis is settled with the mentoring committee.

Instructions for Structure and Completion:

Guidelines for writing a doctoral thesis can be found on the faculty website under the tab “Doctorale Research”.

Language: German or English, the abstract has to be written in both languages.

Contents: The sources used as well as other resources must be listed completely; sections that were taken verbatim or almost verbatim from other sources (citations) must be marked. Page numbers must be included throughout.

Printing: The details to the thesis form, formatting and the requirements for the publication of the thesis are described in the BayNAT regulations as well as in the instructions for writing the doctoral thesis below. Nevertheless, we strongly recommended contacting the Dean's office to inquire aboutany updates that might have been made to the regulations.

Signature: Do not forget to sign the statutory declaration!

Links

• Writing Centre at the University of Bayreuth
• Plagiarism checker - an external automatic scanning tool provided by the University of Bayreuth for students to review their written documents for plagiarism (University email address required)