Presentation of the Doctoral Thesis

As established in the Regulations for Official Doctoral Studies at the University of La Laguna (Resolution of January 17, 2013), the doctoral thesis must consist of an original research project prepared by the candidate in any field of knowledge. The thesis must equip the doctoral candidate for independent work in the field of R&D&I.

Likewise, the doctoral thesis may be developed and, where appropriate, defended in the languages commonly used for scientific communication in the field of knowledge, ensuring that the judging panel is able to do so in the language of presentation.

After completing the thesis, and with the approval of their supervisor(s), the doctoral candidate will submit it to the academic committee of the Doctoral Program in Regional Development for processing by the Doctoral School of the University of La Laguna, in the format established by the ULL, accompanied by the corresponding summary in the form and format established by the Ministry for inclusion in the relevant databases.

The academic committee of the Doctoral Program in Regional Development will send two copies of the doctoral thesis, in the format established by the ULL, to the Doctoral School of the University of La Laguna to which the program is affiliated, and must include:

• The corresponding authorization from the thesis director(s).
• The report of the tutor assigned by the doctoral program, if different from the director.
• The report stating the agreement of the academic committee of the doctoral program in regional development to the public defense of the thesis and which must necessarily state that the requirements for proceeding with its defense have been met.
• The application form for the “International Doctor” designation, together with the corresponding documentation, if eligible.

The corresponding Doctoral School of the University of La Laguna will certify, by means of a registry and seal, that the doctoral thesis meets the requirements established in the Regulations for Official Doctoral Studies of the University of La Laguna (Resolution of January 17, 2013) for its deposit within 15 school days, under the terms established in the academic calendar for each academic year, in the General Secretariat of the University of La Laguna. One copy will remain on deposit with that Secretariat, while the second copy will remain on deposit with the Doctoral School.

During the submission period, which will be designated as a public information period, any doctor may submit any allegations and observations they deem appropriate to the corresponding Doctoral School of the University of La Laguna, stating their agreement or disagreement with the public defense of the thesis, as well as suggestions for improvements to address any deficiencies, all with the aim of ensuring its quality. In such cases, the Doctoral School will forward these comments to the doctoral candidate and the thesis supervisor, as well as to the academic committee of the corresponding doctoral program, who will have 10 working days to submit the appropriate allegations to the Doctoral School. Based on the documentation submitted, the Postgraduate Studies Committee will decide whether or not to proceed with the thesis defense within a period of no more than one month, obtaining, if deemed appropriate, a report from specialists. The Postgraduate Studies Committee of the University of La Laguna must provide the reasons for the rejection.

The Doctoral School of the University of La Laguna will ensure the publicity of this public information period. Once the public information period for the doctoral thesis has ended, the Doctoral School of the University of La Laguna will be responsible for authorizing, if appropriate, the defense of the doctoral thesis.

The defense must take place within a maximum of three months of authorization. If the defense has not been completed by this deadline, the procedure must be restarted.

The Doctoral School must give the defense adequate publicity, authorizing the use of any electronic means of communication for this purpose.

Once the doctoral thesis has been approved, the University will archive it in an open electronic format in an institutional repository and will send, in electronic format, a copy of the thesis, as well as all necessary supplementary information, to the relevant Ministry for appropriate purposes.

In exceptional circumstances determined by the academic committee of the program, such as, among others, the participation of companies in the program, the existence of confidentiality agreements with companies or the possibility of generating patents that fall on the content of the thesis, the university will enable the procedure to develop what is set out in section 4 of Art. 26 of the Regulations of Official Doctoral Teaching of the University of La Laguna (Resolution of January 17, 2013), which ensure the non-publicity of these aspects.

Joint supervision regime for doctoral thesis

The ULL's regulations provide for the possibility of joint supervision of doctoral theses between the University of La Laguna and a university in another country within the framework of doctoral studies. This is intended to create and develop scientific cooperation between research teams from both institutions and facilitate the mobility of doctoral students. In the Regional Development Doctoral Program, the joint supervision procedure must meet the following requirements:

• The modalities for admission to the doctorate, deposit and defense of the doctoral thesis will be the same as those governed by the doctoral regulations of the corresponding university.
• Candidates for joint doctoral studies will carry out their work under the supervision and responsibility of a thesis director at each of the universities involved.
• Each thesis joint supervision will be carried out within the framework of a specific agreement between the two interested universities, implying the principle of reciprocity. Under the agreement, each institution will recognise the validity of the doctoral thesis defended within this framework and it will be established which of them will issue the doctoral degree, with the other recognising said degree.
• The doctoral candidate will register the title of the thesis in each of the two universities, and the agreement that is signed must provide that payment of the registration fees and issuance of the title will only be made in one of them.
• The preparation time for the thesis will be shared between the two universities. The stay in neither of them will be less than nine months and may be done in one go or in several periods.
• The publication, exploitation and protection of the results of the research carried out will be ensured by the two host institutions of the doctoral student in accordance with the specific procedures of each country.
• The thesis will be defended only once at either university. This provision must be included in a clause in the agreement signed by the two institutions.
• The committee before which the thesis is to be defended will be designated by mutual agreement between the two universities, and its composition will be subject to the legislation in force at the university where the doctoral thesis is to be defended. The financing of the expenses derived from the committee's actions will be agreed upon in the specific agreement signed between the two universities.
• If the official languages of the two universities are different, the thesis will be written in one of the two languages, or failing that in English, and supplemented by a summary written in the other, which will include the conclusions.
• The Doctoral School of the University of La Laguna will ensure compliance with the agreements established in the agreement for doctoral theses developed under a joint supervision regime.

Proposal and appointment of the thesis evaluation committee

Upon submission of the doctoral thesis, the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Program in Regional Development will submit to the Doctoral School a proposal of five experts in the subject matter of the thesis, or in another related subject, accompanied by their CVs, which will state the merits that qualify them to serve on the judging panel responsible for judging it. The Academic Committee of the doctoral program will promote, as long as the university's guidelines and budget allow, the proposal of international experts for the thesis panels (especially when national experts are unavailable) to promote the International Mentions in the doctoral degree provided for in Article 28 of the Regulations on Official Doctoral Studies at the University of La Laguna.

The following shall be taken into account when appointing the court:

• It must be composed of three full members: a president, a secretary, and a member, as well as two alternates. Of the full members, one must belong to the University of La Laguna, and the other two must be external and, in all cases, have a civil service or contractual relationship with other universities or research organizations. The alternates will include one from the University of La Laguna and another from institutions outside the University of La Laguna. The first will substitute for the possible absence of a full member of the panel from the University of La Laguna, and the second for the absence of any of the other full members.
• All members must hold a doctorate degree and have proven research experience. Members of the University of La Laguna (full and alternate) must meet the same requirements as those for thesis supervisors. That is, they must meet one of the following two requirements: i) Be in possession of at least one research merit bracket, in accordance with the provisions of Royal Decree 1086/1989, of August 28, on university professor salaries (BOE No. 216, of September 9), amended by Royal Decrees 1949/1995, of December 1 (BOE No. 16, of January 18, 1996); 74/2000, of January 21 (BOE No. 19, of January 22), and 1325/2002, of December 13 (BOE No. 305, of December 21), or equivalent merits for those who do not have access to the assessment of these sections because they do not belong to the university teaching bodies. ii) Be in possession of three sections of research merits, in accordance with the provisions of Decree 140/2002, of October 7 (BOC No. 139, of October 18) and have supervised a doctoral thesis, or have co-supervised two.
• Of the external members, there may not be more than one member belonging to the same university, or public or private center.
• Under no circumstances may the thesis directors or the tutors of the researcher in training be members of the tribunal.
• The president of the tribunal will be the member with the highest academic category and seniority in said category.
• Exceptionally, the presiding panel may be composed of more than two external members, provided that funding is available to cover the travel and accommodation expenses of the additional external member.

The Doctoral School will verify that the proposed committee complies with the provisions of these Regulations and will inform the thesis supervisor and the academic coordinator of the doctoral program, as well as the regular and alternate members of the committee, of its composition.

Once the committee has been appointed, the president will convene the public defense of the thesis, informing the Doctoral School of the date, time, and place where it will take place. In any case, this may not take place before seven calendar days after the end of the thesis submission period.

In the event of a justified resignation by a member of the committee, the Doctoral School will replace them with the corresponding alternate. Should the chair resign, this role will be assumed by the member of the committee with the highest academic rank and seniority in that category.

Doctoral thesis defense

The doctoral thesis defense will take place in a public session during the academic calendar period.

The thesis defense will consist of the doctoral candidate presenting the methodology used, the content, and the conclusions of the thesis, with special mention of his or her original contributions.

The thesis defense, in addition to Spanish, may be conducted in any official language of the European Union. In this case, it is guaranteed that the committee can adequately evaluate it and upon a reasoned request to the Doctoral School, which will assess whether the request is appropriate.

The members of the committee must express their opinion on the presented thesis and may raise any questions and objections they deem appropriate, to which the doctoral candidate must respond. Likewise, the doctors present at the public event may ask the doctoral candidate questions and objections at the time and in the manner indicated by the chair of the committee, who will indicate the time allotted for this purpose.

The examining committee will have access to the doctoral student's activity report, as referred to in Article 2.5 of the Official Doctoral Studies Regulations of the University of La Laguna (Resolution of January 17, 2013), detailing the training activities carried out by the doctoral student. This monitoring document will not result in a quantitative score, but will constitute a qualitative assessment tool that complements the evaluation of the doctoral thesis.

In accordance with the provisions of Article 2 of Royal Decree 534/2013, which modifies the doctoral regulations, the committee will issue a report and the overall grade awarded to the thesis according to the following scale: not suitable, pass, notable, and outstanding. The committee may award a cum laude distinction if the overall grade is outstanding and a unanimous secret vote is cast in favor of this.

To this end, the ULL will implement the necessary mechanisms for the final awarding of this distinction, ensuring that the vote count for said award takes place in a session separate from the one corresponding to the doctoral thesis defense.

In this regard, the Regulations for Official Doctoral Studies at the University of La Laguna (Resolution of January 17, 2013) establish that, in a separate, closed-door ceremony held on the same day as the defense of the thesis in question, and in the event of the aforementioned circumstances, each member of the examining board will issue, by secret ballot, their opinion on whether the thesis submitted merits the Cum Laude distinction. The result of this vote will be recorded in minutes signed by all members of the examining board and will not be made public. The examining board may only propose the thesis for Cum Laude if a unanimous secret vote is cast in favor.

Once both transcripts have been received by the Doctoral School, the director of the School will decide, based on the proposal issued by the examining committee, whether to award the doctoral thesis with a Cum Laude distinction. If the decision is favorable to the award of a Cum Laude distinction, it will be added to the doctoral student's file. After the corresponding resolution is issued, the interested party will be notified.

Thesis modality by compendium of publications

Doctoral students who, prior to submitting their thesis and with the express authorization of their supervisor, have published or accepted for publication after their enrollment in the doctoral program, a minimum of three articles with a thematic unity in scientific journals that appear in the Journal Citations Reports list of journals or are indexed in prestigious databases, such as Scopus, Latindex or similar, or are of special relevance to their area or related areas, and that are related to what is specified in their research plan, may opt to present their thesis in the form of a compendium of publications.

The submission of a thesis under this modality must adhere to the following: 1. It must include a general introduction presenting the work and justifying the thematic unity, as well as an overall summary of the research objectives, the methodology applied, the results obtained, the discussion of these results, and the final conclusions. 2. Between the aforementioned introduction and summary, or as annexes, there must be a complete copy of the work, which must include the personal data of all the authors, as well as the full reference of the journal in which the work has been published or, where applicable, the letter of acceptance. 3. Upon submission of the thesis, the following documentation must be submitted to the Doctoral School of the University of La Laguna:

• Authorization from the thesis director for presentation in this format.
• Document proving the impact index of the publications that make up the thesis or, failing that, the document that proves the relevance of the article within the corresponding branch of knowledge, such as IN-recs, DICE, positive evaluation by the FECYT.
• If any of the work presented has been carried out in collaboration with researchers other than the thesis supervisors, a document must be submitted in which the supervisor expressly declares that the essential part of the work included in the articles has been carried out by the author of the thesis. Likewise, a document must be included in which the other authors identified as responsible for the publication state their consent to the use of the corresponding articles for the presentation of the thesis under this modality.

4. Articles included in a thesis of this type may not be included as part of any other. 5. Under no circumstances may co-authors of submitted works be proposed as members of the panel that will judge the thesis. The Doctoral School of the University of La Laguna will keep a record of the articles submitted as support for doctoral theses in the publications compilation format, for the purposes of this article.
International Mention in the Doctorate Degree

The title of Doctor may include on its front the mention "International Doctor", provided that the following circumstances apply:

• During the training period required to obtain the doctoral degree, the doctoral student must have completed a minimum stay of three months outside of Spain at a prestigious higher education institution or research center, pursuing studies or conducting research. The stay and activities must be endorsed by the supervisor and authorized by the academic committee, and will be included in the doctoral student's activity report.
• Part of the doctoral thesis, at least the abstract and conclusions, must be written and presented in one of the languages commonly used for scientific communication in the field of knowledge, other than any of the official languages in Spain. This rule does not apply when the internships, reports, and experts come from a Spanish-speaking country.
• That the thesis has been reported by a minimum of two expert doctors belonging to a non-Spanish higher education institution or research institute.
• That at least one expert belonging to a non-Spanish higher education institution or research centre, with a doctorate degree, and other than the person responsible for the stay mentioned in section a), has been part of the thesis evaluation committee.

The thesis defense must be carried out at the Spanish university where the doctoral student is enrolled, or, in the case of joint doctoral programs, at any of the participating universities or under the terms identified in the collaboration agreements.

Extraordinary Doctoral Awards

The University of La Laguna will annually announce, in accordance with the provisions of the corresponding regulations, extraordinary doctoral awards.