PhD thesis proposal

TRIBE students need to submit a PhD thesis proposal as a part of requirements for obtaining a PhD title.

The purpose of writing a PhD thesis proposal is to demonstrate that:
1) The proposed thesis topic addresses important line of research
2) The aims and hypotheses are sound
3) Study design is appropriate for the proposed aims
4) Proposed methods are appropriate to achieve the aims

Preparing a thesis proposal will enable students to focus and define their research plans in a formal way, and to receive feedback from the appointed Thesis Supervisory Committee.

Formal procedure
1) Defining a protocol for a doctoral thesis research
A student writes a thesis proposal under supervision of a mentor. Completed thesis proposal is then evaluated as a part of the exam for the course Writing a thesis proposal. Students need to pass this exam (as well as all the other 1st year exams) as a requirement for enrolling the 2nd year of the TRIBE program.
2) Publication of a manuscript based on the doctoral thesis research protocol
A student then needs to publish a manuscript in a journal indexed in Current Contents (CC) or Web of Science (WoS) with impact factor higher than 1.00, based on the protocol of a thesis proposal. A student needs to be the first author on this manuscript.
3) Formal submission of a thesis proposal to the School
Then, a student needs to formally submit a thesis proposal to the Committee for Doctoral Theses of the University of Split School of Medicine.
4) Evaluation of the proposal by the Committee for Doctoral Theses
This Committee may approve, request changes or reject the proposal. Following successful evaluation of the proposal on this level, the expert Committee for evaluation of thesis proposal is appointed. Faculty council needs to approve suggested Committee for the evaluation of the doctoral thesis.
5) Evaluation of the proposal by the Committee for evaluation of thesis proposal
This is usually a 3-member committee, sometimes there are more members, if the Committee for Doctoral Theses finds it necessary. The Committee members should be experts in the field of the submitted research proposal. Office for postgraduate studies will contact the Committee and, in agreement with a student, arrange a date for a public presentation of the research proposal. The public presentation is held in the presence of a mentor and members of the Committee for evaluation of thesis proposal, and it is a formal requirement. The public presentation provides students with the opportunity to communicate their reseach ideas to others. The Committee for evaluation of  thesis proposal may approve, request changes or reject the proposal. If the evaluation is positive, this Committee will suggest to the Committee for Doctoral Theses to accept the thesis proposal, and Committee for Doctoral Theses will then appoint a Committee for evaluation of doctoral thesis.
6) Evaluation of the thesis by the Committee for evaluation of doctoral thesis
As soon as the doctoral thesis is completed, a student can submit it to the Office for postgraduate studies, to be formally evaluated by the Committee for evaluation of doctoral thesis. The Committee for evaluation of  doctoral thesis may approve, request changes or reject the thesis. If the evaluation is positive, the Committee will suggest to the Committee for Doctoral Theses to accept the thesis, and then a Committee for thesis defense will be appointed.
7) Thesis defense in front of the Committee for thesis defense
Prior to the thesis defense, students need to publish 2nd original manuscript in a journal indexed in CC with impact factor higher than 1.00. The second manuscripts can be based on the PhD thesis, but this is not required - the only requirement is that the second manuscript has to report a study from the same research field. If a student will defend a thesis based on a systematic review, then the second manuscript has to report primary research. Print page