Submission of the dissertation

The dissertation must be submitted to the department; this is done through your department's doctoral or examination office responsible for you. The doctoral regulations specify the formal requirements of the dissertation, the number of copies (printed and bound) required and the other documents (such as a curriculum vitae, an affidavit, etc.) that must be submitted. Not all, but most departments allow the submission of a so-called cumulative thesis, which consists essentially of articles published in recognized journals, as an alternative to the traditional monograph. The thesis can be written in German or in another “recognized academic language” (usually English), but in these cases the doctoral regulations require proof of the necessary language skills. Please consult the doctoral degree office or the doctoral regulations for information on the applicable regulations

Assessment

After you have submitted your dissertation, it will be forwarded to two reviewers who have been appointed by the faculty's doctoral board in consultation with you. The reviews must be received within a deadline set by the doctoral regulations and must be independent of each other. Both reviews are of equal value, even if the term first and second review suggests a hierarchy. The reviews each suggest a grade for the written thesis. If the proposed grades differ by more than one grade, the doctoral board will request a third review. Once the reviews have been received, the dissertation is made available to all university lecturers and research assistants in the department for approximately two weeks (“laid out”)

Disputation - defense - oral examination

The doctoral board forms a doctoral committee, usually after consultation with you. This doctoral committee, usually consisting of the two reviewers, two other professors from the department and a research assistant, is the body that assesses and evaluates your doctoral performance. The doctoral committee first decides whether your dissertation is accepted or returned for revision after the submission deadline and on the basis of the reviews. If it is accepted, the committee will set a date for the oral defense (“disputation”) in consultation with you. The exact provisions can be found in the doctoral degree regulations; the composition of the doctoral committee and the individual procedural steps are regulated differently by the departments.

Disputations are open to the university public. At the beginning, you are given the opportunity to present your work and your findings coherently and concisely in a short presentation, followed by the so-called debate, in which the committee members discuss your work in detail and you have to demonstrate that you can counter critical objections and understand how to argue scientifically. The disputation usually lasts between 60 and 90 minutes. Immediately afterwards, the doctoral committee retires for a non-public consultation. It evaluates your written and oral doctoral performance (dissertation and defense) separately and calculates an overall grade. Details of the regulations and the grading scale to be used can be found in the doctoral degree regulations. You and the guests still present will be informed of the result of the consultation immediately after it has been completed. Only exception: Veterinary medicine (see doctoral degree regulations of the Department of Veterinary Medicine; collegial or individual examination).

Publication of the dissertation

You will receive an interim certificate confirming that you have successfully completed the doctoral process. You can use this certificate to apply for jobs, for example. However, you are not yet allowed to use the title of doctor. There is also no “doctor designatus” (Dr. des.), which is commonly used elsewhere, in Berlin university law. The prerequisite for being allowed to use the title and receive the doctoral certificate is the publication of the dissertation. There are various options for publication, which are described in detail in the doctoral degree regulations. If you meet the conditions for publication, you will receive a corresponding certificate from the University Library's Publications Office, which you should submit to the Doctoral or Examination Office. You will then be issued with the final doctoral certificate.

Information on the submission modalities after publication of the dissertation can be found on the website of the University Library.