Inhaltsbereich

§7.

(1) The doctoral thesis, composed in writing and defended in public, provides the final evidence that the doctoral candidate has acquired knowledge and skills to achieve scientific work independently and competently. The doctoral candidate produces evidence with her/his thesis of her/his capability of solving an essential scientific problem successfully and increasingly independently as well as of her/his understanding of integrating new results into the frame of the current state of knowledge.

(2) The topic of the doctoral thesis shall be extracted from one of the thematic programs (§5), or shall have a meaningful relation with one of them. If a topic is composed in teamwork, the intellectual and experimental contribution of the doctoral candidate must be clearly evident for individual evaluation.

(3) The doctoral candidate is entitled to apply for a topic from the suggestions of the available supervisors. In collaboration with the supervisor, the doctoral candidate has to compose a thesis plan, which she/he has to defend in front of the thesis committee and afterwards present it together with the expert opinion of the committee to the curriculum director for her/his approval. The doctoral thesis has to be integrated into a research project approved by a strict expert opinion. If the supervisor does not dispose of such a research project, a project application according to FWF regulations can be submitted to the curriculum director who then has an investigation procedure carried out with regard to scientific quality, priority and the available resources.

(4) The available project funds or other resources must be sufficient to enable the realization of the thesis with regard to material costs as well as to guarantee an adequate employment and remuneration of the doctoral candidate according to FWF regulations.

(5) The regulations of the copyright law have to be observed for the composition of the topic and the supervision of the doctoral candidates.

(6) All members of the staff of the Medical University of Vienna (§ 94 Abs.1 UG 2002) with a teaching qualification (venia docendi) or with an equivalent qualification are entitled to supervise and evaluate a doctoral thesis within the scope of a doctoral program in the field of their teaching qualification provided that the required qualification criteria defined under §5 (5) are fulfilled.

(7) The curriculum director is entitled to assign persons with a teaching qualification at an internationally accepted foreign university or any other domestic or foreign institution equal to a university for the supervision and evaluation of doctoral theses provided that the teaching qualification is equivalent with the teaching qualification pursuant to art. 6 par. 7, provided that the qualification criteria defined under §5 (5) are fulfilled.

(8) The curriculum director is entitled to assign persons without a teaching qualification (venia docendi) who fulfill the required qualification criteria defined under §5 (5) for the supervision and evaluation of doctoral theses. Postdocs who can be assumed to fulfill the required qualification criteria defined under §5 (5) with regard to their previous achievements can assigned as junior supervisors for the supervision of a thesis. However, they shall be supported by experienced supervisors.

(9) The curriculum director shall establish a thesis committee for one or more doctoral candidates at the beginning of their doctoral studies. This committee shall consist of the supervisor and at least two more members whereas one of these members must not belong to the organizational unit, which the thesis topic is assigned to. The members of the thesis committee have to be disclosed to the doctoral candidates immediately after the acceptance of the topic. The thesis committee shall watch on the progress of the thesis in regular intervals, at least once a year, and if necessary give an expert opinion or serve as intermediates between the doctoral candidate and supervisor in case of problems.

(10) The thesis completed in accordance with the thesis plan is to be submitted to the curriculum director. The curriculum director immediately has to entrust two experts with the examination and evaluation of the thesis (one expert being member of the thesis committee and one expert being an external expert). They have to render their expert opinion within four months as of submittal the longest. The supervisor of the thesis cannot take on the function of an expert. If the thesis is not examined and evaluated in due time, the curriculum director has to assign one or two different experts for their opinion and evaluation of the thesis upon request of the doctoral candidate.

(11) The doctoral candidate has to produce evidence that at least one paper with her/him as first author in any internationally renowned "Peer-Review" Journal has been published or accepted for printing at the time the expert opinion is rendered. If this is not the case the doctoral candidate has to specifically explain the circumstances to the curriculum director.

Within the scope of the doctoral thesis the doctoral candidate shall deal with international scholarly literature, select and apply methodology adequate for the scientific problem supported by the supervisor as well as document the progression on the doctoral thesis and the results in a suitable manner (project book). The thesis has to be composed in English whereas the abstract must be composed in English and German. The composition of the thesis must correspond to scientific work according to the "Vancouver-Guidelines".