Information sheet for doctoral candidates of the Medical Section of the University of Lübeck

Status 09/2025

The doctoral degree regulations are governed by the Doctoral Degree Regulations (PromO) of the Medical Section of the University of Lübeck.

ATTENTION:

Please allow 4-6 weeks from submission for the administrative lead time until the procedure is opened. In times of increased application volume, it can take up to 8 weeks until your procedure is opened. Please refrain from enquiring about the processing status during this time.

The doctoral procedure begins with the confirmation of admission and takes at least 3-6 months, the duration of the procedure can be between 3 and 24 months. In urgent cases, you should submit the application for admission at least nine months before the deadline to be on the safe side.

The main factors that prolong the doctoral procedure are

• incomplete application documents
• Processing time of the reviewers
• Return for improvement (possible up to twice)

The general and special requirements for admission to the doctoral procedure are regulated under § 8 and 9 of the doctoral degree regulations.

The academic requirements vary depending on the title sought:

Dr med.: doctoral degree in human medicine (state examination or equivalent)

Dr med. dent.: doctoral degree in dentistry (state examination or equivalent)

Dr. rer. hum. biol.: doctoral degree in a subject relevant to the doctoral topic; degree with at least good results (state examination, diploma (university), consecutive Master's degree (university) or equivalent)

For the Dr. rer. hum. biol., there must also be a recognisable continuity between the content of the Bachelor's or Master's degree and the doctoral topic, i.e. the topic of the doctorate must build on the content of the degree in a meaningful way.

In the case of degrees other than those listed as qualifying for doctoral studies, an equivalence check must be carried out to determine whether the content, scope and requirements of the university degree correspond to those of the corresponding degree qualifying for doctoral studies. Holders of foreign higher education qualifications can obtain information from the Central Office for Foreign Education (ZAB) (information portal on foreign educational qualifications) and, if necessary, apply for a certificate assessment. If you can provide evidence of a total of 300 ECTS credits, equivalence will usually be established; if you have less, a certificate evaluation by the ZAB is strongly recommended and in some cases mandatory. In cases of doubt, the opinion of the ZAB forms the basis for the admission decision of the doctoral committee. Holders of university degrees from non-European countries should contact the International Office, which will carry out an equivalence check and issue a written recommendation to the doctoral committee.

If you are aiming for a Dr. med. or Dr. med. dent. and have studied abroad, the equivalence of your training to a German (dental) medical degree programme must be confirmed by the health authorities. Documents that are accepted as proof are

• licence to practise medicine
• professional licence
• Notification of the equivalence of the professional qualification as a doctor or dentist

The State Office for Labour Protection, Social Affairs and Health is responsible for the recognition of foreign professional qualifications and the granting of approbations and professional licences. If you are unable to provide proof of the German language skills required for a licence to practise and professional permit, you have the option of applying for a separate decision on the equivalence of your professional qualification.

Holders of a Diplom degree from a university of applied sciences or a Bachelor's degree with 240 ECTS can be admitted to doctoral studies (Dr. rer. hum. biol.) by means of an aptitude assessment procedure; details can be found under § 9 (3) of the doctoral regulations.

In addition to the academic doctoral requirements, the following general admission requirements apply (see § 8 of the doctoral regulations):

• Enrolment as a doctoral student
  The applicant must be enrolled as a doctoral student at the beginning of the doctoral procedure and then continuously until the viva voce. The requirement to be enrolled as a doctoral student is only waived if admission to the doctoral procedure is applied for during the medical degree programme and the medical degree programme and the doctoral procedure are completed in the same semester. If the doctoral procedure is completed at a later date, enrolment as a doctoral student is compulsory from the semester following the final semester. External graduates must be enrolled as a doctoral student at UzL for at least one semester. (Proof is provided by a current certificate of enrolment)
• Successful participation in the UzL's structured continuing education programme (proof is provided by the Transcript of Records issued by the CDSL)
• Proof of no criminal record / ability to hold public office (proof is provided by a current official certificate of good conduct)

Furthermore, the applicant must

• not fulfil the requirements for guardianship in accordance with §§ 1896 ff. BGB (German Civil Code)
• not already be authorised to hold the desired doctoral degree
• not already be authorised to hold a doctoral degree other than the one sought, but for which the same relevant course of study has authorised admission

Doctoral students are supervised by a two-person supervisory team, consisting of a first supervisor and a co-supervisor. Normally, both are habilitated members of the Department of Medicine and belong to different institutions. The first supervisor belongs to the institution at which the doctoral project is based (institute or clinic) and, depending on the project design, proposes a co-supervisor from another institution, who is accepted or rejected by the doctoral committee. Regulations on the selection of first and co-supervisors can be found under §4 of the doctoral regulations.

As a rule, the first supervisor can only be a habilitated member of the UzL's Department of Medicine, i.e. primarily professors working at the department.

• Professors working at the section
• Honorary professors and honorary professors
• Associate professors
• Emeritus and retired professors
• Privatdozent and Privatdozentinnen

External membership of the Section of Medicine is deemed to exist if private lecturers at UzL work full-time externally and neither rehabilitate at another university nor accept an academic appointment at another university.

In the case of dual membership, a habilitated member of another section of the UoC can also take on the initial supervision.

The co-supervisor may not only be a habilitated member of the UzL Medical Section, but also

• habilitated members of the Computer Science/Technology or Natural Sciences sections of the UoC
• habilitated members of other (also foreign) universities
• habilitated professors at scientific institutions

Persons who are not habilitated, who belong to the above-mentioned groups and who can provide evidence of habilitation-equivalent achievements, can be admitted as co-supervisors upon application by the doctoral committee. The application should be sent informally to ssc.promotionmedizin(at)uni-luebeck(dot)de and must include a current CV with a list of publications of the desired co-supervisor in addition to details of the desired team of supervisors.

In certain cases, academically active persons who are not habilitated and cannot provide evidence of habilitation-equivalent achievements can also take on co-supervision: The candidate's own doctorate must have been completed at least four years ago and evidence of at least five publications in peer-reviewed journals must be provided. It is also necessary that the first supervisor has already supervised at least five doctoral theses up to the viva voce. If you would like to make use of these regulations, please send the following documents to ssc.promotionmedizin(at)uni-luebeck(dot)de:

• First supervision: current curriculum vitae with list of supervised doctorates (not applicable for persons who were habilitated in Lübeck and have only supervised doctorates here)
• Co-supervision: current CV with list of publications

The requirement for co-supervision from a different institution should help to avoid conflicts of interest in the critical supervision of the doctoral project and enable an independent external view of the project. As this is an important component of the structured doctorate, co-supervision from the same institution is only approved in very rare exceptional cases. Justified applications can - after thorough consideration - be submitted to ssc.promotionmedizin(at)uni-luebeck(dot)de.

The confirmation or rejection of a supervision constellation by the doctoral committee usually takes place in the course of the registration of the doctoral procedure at the Central Examination Office. If there are any subsequent changes, these must be reported to the Central Examination Office and must be confirmed again by the committee.

In addition to the two-person supervisory team, a person of trust can act as a mentor. This person is usually the first point of contact for day-to-day academic matters.

Note: Completed dissertations can be viewed on the homepage of the Central University Library.

The dissertation should demonstrate the ability to carry out independent academic work and clearly present the results and make its own new contribution to an academic field. Joint dissertations are excluded. If a dissertation is written within a working group, the working areas of the members of the working group must be clearly distinguishable from one another and the independent contribution of each candidate must be clearly recognisable. Before starting work, the problems should be outlined as clearly as possible and a sufficient distance in terms of content should be ensured.

The work plan for the dissertation (expected duration, time allocation, use of the laboratory, scope and resources required for the investigations, if applicable, entry of the candidate into a working group for the purpose of joint publication, etc.) should be drawn up jointly by the first supervisor and the doctoral candidate in such a way that the work can progress quickly. A maximum period of 3 years should not be exceeded. Too long a delay between data collection and submission of the thesis may lead to a reduction in the grade if the timeliness of the data has suffered as a result.

For empirical and experimental work, a research plan should be drawn up in the course of planning the dissertation project. This contains an introduction and research question (possibly hypotheses), a description of the methodology (including case number estimation and intended statistical analysis) and a bibliography.

Valuable information on the contents of the study protocol can be found on the homepage of the Ethics Committee of the University of Lübeck under "General information on study protocols". It is highly recommended to acquire basic methodological knowledge of trial design before designing the study protocol. Some errors can no longer be corrected after the data has been collected!

If the literature review reveals that the planned work is not feasible or that the topic has already been worked on, the doctoral candidate should return the topic or discuss a change in the research plan or topic with the first supervisor. Any doubts about the expected results should be disclosed and dispelled by modifying the experimental design.

We recommend that doctoral students discuss points such as the following with their supervisor before accepting a topic:

• Frequency of meetings and timeliness of an appointment if required.
• Publication habits and participation of the doctoral candidate in authorship
• Possibility of own lectures / congress contributions

Notes on ethics

In the case of research projects on and with human subjects (including deceased persons) and on removed body materials as well as epidemiological research projects with personal data, an ethical and legal assessment and consultation by the Ethics Committee of the University of Lübeck is mandatory before the start of the study. The Ethics Committee provides the necessary application documents on the UoL homepage.

For research projects involving animals, authorisation must be obtained from the Schleswig-Holstein Ministry responsible for animal welfare. Applications must be submitted via the local animal welfare officer, Dr Schmelting, the head of the Joint Animal Husbandry Department.

Objective

The dissertation should demonstrate the ability to carry out independent scientific work and clearly present the results and make a new contribution of its own to a scientific field.

Dissertations should be as short as possible and as detailed as necessary. Even a person who is not familiar with the specialised field must be able to clearly understand the theoretical and methodological thought processes on which the thesis is based and the principles according to which its results were obtained. Persons familiar with the narrower field of specialisation should also be able to verify, on the basis of the information provided by the doctoral candidate (e.g. references and methodology), how accurately and completely the doctoral candidate has grasped the topic.

Writing style / expression

Reviewers and the doctoral committee also assess the style and readability of a dissertation. Doctoral candidates should therefore endeavour to write clearly and without grammatical errors. Doctoral candidates, together with their first supervisors, are responsible for the content, style and external form of the dissertation and should bear in mind that dissertations are publicly accessible scientific originals and historical documents that still indicate the scientific rank of a section decades later. Dissertations which, in the opinion of the doctoral committee, do not fulfil the formal requirements will be returned to the doctoral candidate for revision.

If you decide to genderise the text of your dissertation, you must decide on a system and implement it strictly. It is also possible to insert a disclaimer at the beginning of the thesis, e.g. on page 3. The Equal Opportunities and Family Division will be happy to advise you on the topic of gender-sensitive language and has also published a flyer on the subject.

External form

The length of the paper should not exceed 80 pages, including the bibliography. Digital supplements that can be opened via a link cannot be recognised as part of the dissertation. Many successful empirical or experimental theses have roughly the following distribution:

Introduction and research question: 10 pages Material and methods: 15 pages Results: 15 pages Discussion: 15 pages)

Font size and type are not specified, but should have a conventional size (e.g. Arial 12). A free margin of 3 cm width on the left (stitching margin) and 2.5 cm width on the right should always be maintained and the distances between the top and bottom edges of the page should remain the same. The line spacing may only be less than 1.5 lines in exceptional cases.

The dissertation must be printed in DIN A4 format and bound into a single, coherent volume. The quality of the binding is at the discretion of the doctoral candidate; only ring binding is not permitted. If a hardcover is chosen, the title should be printed on the outside cover if possible.

Title, title page and page 2

The title of the dissertation should be formulated in such a way that it reflects the topic and content of the work as precisely as possible. It should also be formulated in such a way that a person who is not familiar with the subject can recognise what it is about. Abbreviations and trade names should be avoided, as should English terms. A maximum length of 3 lines should not be exceeded.

A template for the title page with further information can be downloaded here.

Page 2 contains only the following information:

1st rapporteur: (insert name of first supervisor) 
Co-supervisor: (insert name of co-supervisor) 
2nd rapporteur: (leave blank) 
Date of oral examination: (leave blank) 
Authorised for printing. Lübeck, den (leave blank) 
-Promotionskommission der Sektion Medizin-

The information on page 2 can still be corrected at the end of the procedure before going to press for publication.

Outline

The thesis must be clearly and recognisably structured, e.g. into the following main sections:

I. Table of contents

II. list of abbreviations

III. list of tables

IV. List of figures

1. introduction and research question

2. material and methods

3. results

4. discussion

5. summary

6. bibliography

7. appendix

8 Acknowledgements

9. curriculum vitae

These individual sections must be recognisable as chapter headings through appropriate formatting and each must begin on a new page. The use of automatic tables of contents is recommended; pay particular attention to the final update of the table of contents. The pages of the paper must be numbered consecutively starting with the introduction.

Introduction and research question

In the introduction, the starting points (e.g. previous work by the same working group or direction), the state of research (with details of current literature) and the research question of the thesis must be presented in such a way that those who are not familiar with the topic can also see where the thesis belongs and what it aims to achieve. A clear research question must be formulated at the end of the introduction.

Material and methods

Previously published or known methods should not be described; it is sufficient to state the principle and refer to the relevant literature. On the other hand, new or further developed methods, as well as the doctoral candidate's procedure for obtaining and analysing their own results, should be described in such detail that a competent person would be able to repeat the research and verify the results (reproducibility). The Material and Methods section also includes a statement that, if applicable, statements have been obtained in accordance with the applicable Animal Welfare Act or the Ethics Committee (with date and reference number).

In particular, the doctoral candidate's own performance must be described in detail, as the thesis is assessed on the basis of this performance. External help with planning, statistics and data collection etc. must therefore be indicated.

Evaluation / Statistics

The paragraph "Evaluation" usually concludes the methodology section and also contains the statistics used. The use of numbers (frequencies, quantitative values, e.g. measured values, etc.) inevitably leads to statistics. It is recommended that the doctoral candidate obtains expert advice from an appropriate institution of the section when planning the series of experiments, observations or surveys and their statistical evaluation. The experimental and survey planning must be described (under "Material and Methods") in a way that can be reconstructed. Only in this way can outsiders assess whether the results can be generalised, where systematic confounding factors may lie and - if the results are to be compared with those of other researchers - whether they are comparable with each other (e.g. with regard to equality of observation and definition, structural equality and equality of representation of the collectives). The justification of the statistical methods and their selection must be described in the material and methods section. The source and scope of any statistical advice should be stated.

Figures, tables

Figures and tables must be numbered consecutively and labelled with a legend. The legend should contain all information necessary for understanding the figure or table (e.g. statistical parameters, significance symbols). The reader must be able to see immediately what is involved and what is to be inferred from the figure without having to read the text. References to figures and tables in the text must state the corresponding figure or table number. What is already in the legends does not need to be repeated in the text; a reference in the text to the corresponding legend is sufficient. In the case of photomicrographs and the like, the scale of the illustration must be stated if it is not readily apparent. If figures or tables are taken from other works, the source must be stated in the legend (e.g. "redrawn according to ...", or "from MÜLLER, 1990, Fig.3"). Attention is drawn to the unconditional observance of copyright law. Abbreviations, symbols, letters, etc. in figures must be explained in the legend, or the legends must refer (with page number) to the text passages in which the necessary explanations can be found. It is superfluous to graphically document results that are summarised in tables. If the original data cannot be included in the work, references should be given so that further analyses are possible. When using units of measurement, only the internationally recognised units, e.g. SI units, are permitted.

Summary

The summary should not only contain the results of the work, but should be an outline of the entire work in the following order: research question - material and methods - results - and discussion. The reader must also gain an idea of the design, basis and course of the entire work if only the summary is read. Nevertheless, the summary should only be one page long. Abbreviations should be avoided.

References / Quotations

Sections of text that have been taken verbatim or meaningfully from other publications must be clearly labelled as such. This is necessary to avoid being accused of plagiarism. Authors can be cited in the text according to two different principles. However, you must decide on a citation style and stick to it consistently. You can also decide in favour of an established citation style. The most important thing is to use one citation style consistently.

When citing names in continuous text, proceed as follows, depending on whether one or more authors are involved:

1. One author (Müller, 1980)
2. several authors (Müller and Klein, 1980),
   (Müller, Schmidt and Klein, 1980)
3. more than 2 authors (Müller et al., 1980)

Even in the case of foreign publications, "and" should always be used. If several authors of articles are named for a reference, the order is based on the year of publication (Freitag, 1978; Baum and Müller, 1980) or on the alphabet (Baum and Müller, 1980; Freitag, 1978).

If an author has published several works in one year, small letters are placed after the year (also in the bibliography). Each work must be clearly identified in the bibliography. In the body text, the first letter of the first name is not included in the citation.

The number of the reference from the bibliography can also be inserted in brackets at the corresponding point in the text. If there are several references, the series follows as the number increases. The individual numbers are separated by commas in ascending order, e.g. (5, 19, 137).

Bibliography

The bibliography is particularly informative for the conscientiousness of the doctoral candidate. It must contain all authors who appear in the text and should not contain any citations that do not appear in the text. Each source cited in the bibliography must be described bibliographically in such a way that interested parties can find the original immediately.

The bibliographical information is divided into the following groups:

a) original works or their papers from journals

b) References from books (monographs, handbooks, textbooks)

c) Internet citations

The information for a.) must include

• Names and first letters of the first names of all authors. Abbreviations of the list of authors by "et al." etc. are not permitted in the bibliography.
• Title of the work
• Name of the journal written out in full or according to the abbreviations in the journal or in the "Index Medicus", with the volume number, the page numbers of the opening and closing pages of the cited article and the year of publication. The issue number or month of publication should be omitted.

In journals, these details are not always arranged in the same way. A uniform order is necessary in the dissertation.

For example:

Ferrans JV, Hibbs RG, Burda CD: The heart in fabry's disease. A histochemical and electron microscopic study. Am J Cardiol 24, 25-110 (1969)

or

Ferrans JV, Hibbs RG, Burda CD (1969) The heart in fabry's disease. A histochemical and electron microscopic study. Am J Cardiol 24, 25-110

or

Ferrans JV, Hibbs RG, Burda CD: The heart in fabry's disease. A histochemical and electron microscopic study. Am J Cardiol 24: 25-110; 1969

The information on b.) must include:

• Names and first letters of the first names of all authors
• If applicable, the chapter, in the case of extensive works or multi-authored works always the chapter
• All editors of the handbook or multi-authored work
• Title of the book, including the volume, if applicable
• Edition and first page number of the chapter containing the information used or cited
• Name of the publisher
• Place of publication (if there are several places of publication, the first place is sufficient)
• Year of publication

For example:

Gross R: Thromboembolic diseases of the lung. In: Maegeli Th, Matis P, Gross R, Runge H, Sachs HW (eds.): The thromboembolic diseases. 2nd ed., 511-522, Schattauer, Stuttgart, 1960

or

Gross R (1960) Thromboembolic diseases of the lung. In: Maegeli Th, Matis P, Gross R, Runge H, Sachs HW (Eds.): The thromboembolic diseases. 2nd ed., 511-522, Schattauer, Stuttgart

Dissertations and postdoctoral theses can be cited in the following form:

Author and title of the work in the usual form. This is followed by

Med. Diss. Bonn, 2004

or

Med. Habil. Schr. Bonn, 2004

The information in c) must fulfil the following requirements:

If references to literature or documents from the Internet are given in the text, these must be listed in the bibliography. Due to the fluctuation of documents on the worldwide web, the bibliography should include the date on which the document was last viewed with the content stated in the text.

For example:

http://www.schmerzpsychotherapie.net (date of access: 11/01/2007)

The suggested form for citations and bibliography is not to be understood as dogma. In this respect, small deviations, e.g. in punctuation and the position of the year, are permissible. It is important to proceed in a standardised and consistent manner and not to work according to one scheme in the bibliography and then another. The abbreviations of the journal according to "Index Medicus" or according to the journal itself are indispensable. Imaginary abbreviations are not accepted. If a journal cannot be found in the Index Medicus, an abbreviation should be found according to the abbreviation principles of the Index Medicus.

Appendix

The appendix should contain all information that impedes the flow of the text due to its size (e.g. vote of the ethics committee, extensive tables, casuistics, description of techniques or regulations). Attention is drawn to the absolute observance of copyright (e.g. concerns commercially available questionnaires).

Acknowledgements

On the penultimate page of the thesis, the doctoral candidate usually thanks, for example, the clinic or institute director for the workplace, for providing the material, and above all the first supervisor for the topic and for his/her advice and support. In the acknowledgements, all persons, working groups, laboratories and institutes should be mentioned from whose help and advice the doctoral candidate has received support in writing the thesis. Assistance and aids not mentioned in the "Material and methods" section must be mentioned in the acknowledgements.

Curriculum vitae

The last page of the thesis contains a curriculum vitae in tabular form. In particular, the CV should provide information on education and degree programme and include a photograph. It is of interest to the reader of a dissertation who the author is. The main focus here is on the author's professional background and the knowledge and experience they can draw on. The period in which the dissertation (the experimental investigations) was completed should also be noted. Any interruptions in the writing of the thesis should be noted and justified. On the other hand, personal data such as exact date of birth or education are less relevant. Information about the address or marital status is completely irrelevant. Readers have a legal interest in the publication of key data on the author's previous academic training, as this provides a context that may be important for the assessment of the dissertation and its academic value.

The following content definition of the CV to be attached would be conceivable:

1. Personal data: Name, age
2. University studies: course, specialisations, academic work, etc.
3. Professional career: If already available
4. Period of the dissertation
5. Publications

The doctoral candidate should bear in mind that the CV may also be published when the dissertation is published at the end of the doctoral procedure (photo and personal data can be removed before printing; in digitally published dissertations, the CV can be removed completely).

According to § 12 (2) of the doctoral degree regulations, the dissertation may be written in English upon justified request. A justified interest exists, for example, if

• the doctoral candidate is not a native German speaker and does not have sufficient language skills to write the thesis in German

• members of the supervisory team are not native German speakers

• the doctoral project is located in an international, English-speaking research environment and the collegial exchange is regularly conducted in English

The language level must correspond to that of a scientific publication. If the doctoral committee has doubts about the linguistic quality, it can request an expert review.

The following conditions also apply:

• In addition to the one-page English summary, a detailed summary of the thesis of 3-4 DIN A4 pages, divided into the main chapters of the dissertation, must be prepared in German. This must be inserted into the thesis directly after the one-page English summary and included in the printed copies.

• The title page should be written in German. Only the title may be left in English (see templates for the title page of the dissertation).

All regulations apply to the submission of a monograph; the following special restrictions apply to cumulative works:

The jacket text as accompanying text must be written in German, even if the original publications are in English. Only if the doctoral candidate's German language skills are insufficient can the jacket text be submitted in English upon request.

As is usual for cumulative theses, an overall conclusion of 2-3 pages must be prepared, in this case in English. In addition, a detailed summary of the thesis of 3-4 A4 pages, divided into the main chapters of the thesis, must be prepared in German and inserted at the end of the jacket text.

You can submit the application for submission of the dissertation in English informally by e-mail to ssc.promotionmedizin(at)uni-luebeck(dot)de and will then receive an official confirmation.

Please note: Writing the dissertation in English does not automatically mean that the oral examination will be held in English. This is only possible for non-native speakers and must be applied for separately.

The first assessment is prepared by the first supervisor (or doctoral supervisor).

The second opinion is usually awarded to a member of the teaching staff, i.e. a habilitated member of the Department of Medicine. This can also be a person who no longer works at the UoC but is still affiliated with an institution of the UoC (i.e. has neither been rehabilitated nor accepted an appointment at another university). The assignment is made by the chairperson of the doctoral committee on behalf of the committee.

The reviewers are asked to prepare the review within four weeks, but in individual cases it can take much longer. If both reviews recommend the thesis for acceptance and award a grade, the thesis can be placed on the agenda of the next possible meeting of the doctoral committee. Both reviews must be submitted by the first of the month in order to be considered for the meeting of the current month. The chairperson appoints a short referee from the members of the doctoral committee, who evaluates the thesis and makes a recommendation for a resolution, taking into account the reviews.

A structured and transparent assessment of the written doctoral thesis is ensured by the assessment guidelines of the Doctoral Committee of the Medical Section:

1. relevance / originality of the thesis

• How much knowledge has been gained?
• Is the topic currently relevant (current research situation, clinical relevance)?
• How is the scientific originality to be assessed?

2. methodology

• How complex are the methods?
• How well are the methods described?
• Have new methods been established or already known methods been used?
• Validity: Can the methods used answer the research question?
• How well are the criteria for assessing the variables defined?
• How good is the sample selection? Does it correspond to the research question?

3. statistical analysis

• Were the correct statistical tests used?
• Have possible confounding variables been taken into account?
• Was the statistical analysis carried out by the doctoral student him/herself?
• Complexity of the statistical analysis?

4. effort, commitment, personal contribution

• How large is the doctoral candidate's own contribution?
• How long is the latency between start and submission?
• Did you generate the data yourself?
• How complex are the methods?

5. elaboration of content

• How well is the scientific background presented?
• How well is the research question categorised?
• How well are the conclusions justified by the results?
• How well are the methodology and results discussed?
• Are possible limitations discussed?
• How well are the results discussed in relation to the relevant literature?
• How well is the work readable and stringent in terms of content?

6. publication

• Have the results been/will they be published?

7. literature

• How up-to-date, relevant and international is the literature used?
• How detailed is the literature cited?
• Was a uniformly correct citation style used?

8 Form and structure

• Orthography
• How good is the linguistic level?
• Is a clear structure recognisable?
• How good is the graphic presentation (texts, graphs, diagrams)?
• Are all relevant terms adequately explained?

Grading system (see § 16 Doctoral Degree Regulations Section Medicine)

The following grades are to be used for the assessment of a dissertation proposed for acceptance:

1= very good (an excellent performance)
2 = good (a performance that is significantly above the average requirements)
3 = satisfactory (a performance that meets average requirements)
4 = sufficient (a performance that still meets the requirements despite its shortcomings)

For a differentiated assessment of the performance, the grade can be decreased or increased by 0.3, whereby the grades 0.7 and 4.3 are excluded.

The evaluation of the dissertation with the grades 1.0 and 1.3 generally requires the publication of the essential results in high-ranking and subject-related recognised publication media with the doctoral candidate as first or co-author.

If the doctoral committee has accepted the dissertation with a grade of 1.0, an external third-party review will be obtained. For this purpose, the first supervisor will be asked to nominate three external, independent professors from whom one person will be selected. This person must recommend the thesis with a grade of 1.0 or summa cum laude, then the Senate Committee for Medicine can be asked to approve the award of the summa cum laude grade.

The completed dissertation is submitted together with the application for admission to the doctoral procedure to the Central Examination Office at the office responsible for doctoral procedures in the Section for Medicine.

The application for admission is to be addressed to the Chair of the Doctoral Committee of the Medical Section and, in addition to stating the desired degree and personal data (matriculation number, address, telephone number and e-mail address), also contains the declarations and assurances to be submitted:

• Written consent to the use of anti-plagiarism software

• Information under whose supervision and in which institute or clinic the dissertation was written

• A declaration in lieu of an oath that the dissertation was completed without outside help and that no personal, technical or material aids or resources other than those mentioned in the thesis were used

• The applicant's declaration that he or she has not previously or simultaneously submitted an application for admission elsewhere or submitted the dissertation elsewhere

• A declaration as to whether and with what success the applicant has already undergone another doctoral procedure

• A declaration from the applicant stating whether he or she objects to the admission of members of the audience to the oral examination

This letter must be signed by hand and submitted in the original; a template can be found in our checklist.

Documents to be enclosed:

• 1 copy of the dissertation in DIN A4 format, printed and bound

• An electronic version of the dissertation text (PDF without password and copy protection), either on a storage medium or by e-mail to ssc.promotionmedizin(at)uni-luebeck(dot)de

• A list of publications, lectures, posters, patents, etc. resulting from the dissertation, including 3 photocopies of each (electronic version on storage medium or by e-mail, see above)

• A curriculum vitae that provides information in particular about education and degree program and must be accompanied by a photograph (included in the dissertation)

• Proof of application for a police clearance certificate of document type "0" ("Certificate of good conduct for official purposes" or "Certificate of good conduct for submission to an authority"), which is sent directly to the Examination Office (see address below). At the time of submission, the certificate of good conduct must not be older than 1 year.

• A ToR (Transcript of Records) on the curricular achievements within the structured continuing education program for doctoral researchers (issued by the CDSL)

• The certificate of successful completion of the doctoral program with grades. A copy is sufficient for UzL graduates; external graduates should submit certified copies or present the originals to the Examinations Office. Please also refer to the section "Admission requirements".

• In cases where the dissertation has been prepared using medical histories or patient findings, a written declaration stating that the responsible medical or scientific supervisor agrees that the work should be submitted as a dissertation, unless the work is supervised by him or her.

• If research projects have been carried out on humans: a declaration of the studies approved by an ethics committee, stating the file number and date (section "Material and methods", letter of approval in the appendix of the thesis)

• If animal experiments were carried out: a declaration of the animal experiments authorised by the responsible ministry or office, stating the file number and date (section "Material and Methods", letter of approval in the appendix of the thesis)

• Only for cumulative dissertations: Declaration of all co-authors on the contribution of the first author(s), declaration on the one-time use of the publications in a cumulative dissertation or presentation of the content delimitation (see section Cumulative dissertation)

Please send your documents to the following address:

University of Lübeck 
Central Examination Office / House 2 
Doctoral Procedure Section Medicine 
Ratzeburger Allee 160 
23562 Lübeck

Alternatively, you can submit the documents in the following ways:

• Mailbox in front of House 2 (SSC)
• Hand in at the UzL mail centre (BMF next to Café Curie) or drop it in the mailbox there
• Hand in at the information desk in the Central Clinic House A

The doctoral procedure begins with the application for admission to the doctoral procedure, i.e. the submission of the completed dissertation with all the necessary documents, and ends with the award of the doctoral certificate.

Special case cumulative doctorate: In this case, a preliminary examination by the doctoral committee must be applied for at the beginning of the doctoral project. A cumulative dissertation cannot be submitted without the prior approval of the doctoral committee.

Schematic of the doctoral procedure:

1. Application and admission procedure

   1. Application for admission to the doctoral procedure

   2. Admission decision

   3. Notification of the admission decision to the applicant

2. Assessment of the dissertation

   1. Selection of the second rapporteur by the doctoral committee

   2. Assessment of the dissertation by the first and second rapporteur

   3. Appointment of the chairperson of the examination committee

   4. Discussion in a meeting of the doctoral committee (meets monthly, no breaks between meetings)

   5. Decision on acceptance, rejection, revision and evaluation of the dissertation

   6. Notification of the decision to the doctoral candidate

   7. If graded 1.0: Obtain an external expert opinion

   8. In case of revision: resubmission within one year of return, renewed decision by the doctoral committee if necessary

   9. If accepted: start of the display period (3 weeks from acceptance by the doctoral committee)

   10. In the event of an objection to acceptance, rejection or assessment: renewed decision by the doctoral committee

3. Rigorosum

   1. Setting the date for the oral examination (within 3 months of acceptance of the dissertation)

   2. Announcement of the date in the Medical Section

   3. Invitation to the oral examination at least 3 weeks before the date

   4. Rigorosum

   5. Assessment of the oral examination

4. Final procedure

   1. Determination of the overall result of the doctorate

   2. Notification of the result to the candidate, if necessary subject to formal changes before printing (in case of failure, written notification with information on legal remedies)

   3. Duplication of the dissertation within one year after passing, max. 2 years (in the case of passing with conditions after approval of the examination board)

   4. Completion of the doctorate by presentation of the doctoral certificate

The doctorate is finalised when the certificate is presented or sent. Upon completion, the doctoral procedure ends and the right to use the doctoral title is deemed to have been acquired.

Twice a year, the Academic Ceremony takes place in St Peter's University Church to bid farewell to the graduates of the University of Lübeck; for doctoral graduates and their supervisors, there is also a reception in the town hall directly before the event. The date of the next Academic Ceremony and further information can be found on the homepage under News/Celebratory Events/Graduation Ceremonies.

The viva voce

The oral examination lasts up to one hour and is divided into a 10-minute presentation by the candidate on the content and results of the dissertation and a discussion with the examination committee. No aids of any kind are permitted.

Doctoral candidates in the ongoing doctoral procedure may take part in oral doctoral examinations as listeners after consultation with the examination chair or examination office, as long as the candidate has not objected to the admission of listeners in principle. Habilitated members of the Section for Medicine may participate in any case and also ask questions during the discussion (for a maximum of 10 minutes).

Since the introduction of the statutes on the conduct of electronic remote examinations at the University of Lübeck, co-examiners may participate in the examination electronically as long as the examination chairperson is present with the candidate and the candidate does not object. The right to object is explained in the summons.

In justified, very rare exceptional cases and at the candidate's request, the viva voce may be conducted as an electronic remote examination. The request must be submitted at least 14 days before the date; the decision is made by a subcommittee of the doctoral committee (see § 4 (2) of the above-mentioned statutes). Statutes). Official reasons, long travel times and similar reasons will not be recognised.

As soon as the examination report has been received by the Examination Office, the doctoral candidate will be informed of the next steps.

Publishing the dissertation

After the viva voce examination, the Examinations Office will send a written notification of the results and the release for printing by e-mail with further information on publication (including the information to be added on page 2). If the passing of the doctorate is linked to conditions for publication, approval for printing is only given after the Chair of the Examination Board has approved the changes.

After passing the doctorate, the doctoral candidate has one year to submit the dissertation for publication via the Central University Library. The one-year period can be extended to a maximum of two years upon justified request. The application must be submitted to the Chair of the Doctoral Committee or the Examinations Office at least one month before the deadline expires.

The following options are available for publication:

• Publication in electronic form
  To do this, send 2 printed copies (DIN A4, hard cover or adhesive binding, no ring/spiral binding) to the Central University Library (ZHB) and submit the electronic version via the university's academic server. You will receive details of this with the results notification.
  The academic CV must be included in the printed copies; only the photo and, if applicable, contact details may be deleted. In the electronic version, the CV may be omitted completely.
• 25 copies in A5 format
  The copies must be provided with a title page and must include an academic CV on the last page.
• 25 electronic versions on CD-ROM and 3 printed copies in A4 format
  To be submitted: 25 CDs (document in PDF format without password and copy protection) with the reduced title page in the CD case and 3 printed copies in A4 format. The UzL has the right to make further copies on CD-ROM if required.

Further information can be found under § 25 of the doctoral degree regulations.