Procedure used by the Academic Committee for assigning the doctoral student's tutor and thesis supervisor. The Academic Committee's procedure for modifying this assignment. Deadlines for both procedures

The procedures to be used by the Academic Committee will be those stipulated by the different participating universities:

• USAL
• USC
• Grape
• ULL
• UDC 
• UV

Criteria for the assignment of Tutor and Director at USAL (Guide to Good Practices)

Thesis tutors and directors will be assigned taking into account at least the following criteria:

1. Each doctoral student will be assigned the tutor that the doctoral student proposes in his/her research project report, provided that the proposal has the approval of the researcher.
2. Each researcher will be assigned a maximum of two doctoral students per year.
3. To the extent possible, the tutor and supervisor will coincide, although they will differ when the thesis supervisor is a researcher who does not belong to the universities that signed the doctoral agreement.
4. In the case of a different tutor and director, the tutor, with the prior consent of the director, may act as co-director.

Assignment and modification of tutor assignment

The Academic Committee (AC), based on the review of the CVs and motivation letters of the doctoral students admitted to the PD, will assign a tutor to each doctoral student once the final list of those admitted is completed and published.

This information will be shared with each tutor and doctoral student, so that they can hold an interview (which may be conducted online) before the end of the first week of the academic year to express their interests and decide whether they wish to continue the tutor-doctoral student relationship.

When assigning tutors, the CA will preferably take into account the training profile of the doctoral student, the research project they intend to develop, their dedication to the PD (full-time or part-time), their interests (among which is their proposed tutor) as well as the lines of research and possibilities/workloads of the tutors since, as a general rule, each tutor will tutor a maximum of 2 doctoral students per academic year, depending on whether the tutor is also a thesis director or not.

If both partners decide to continue the relationship, the tutor will inform the Academic Committee. Afterward, the Supervision Commitment will be signed within the first month after the doctoral student enrolls in the PhD program.

If one of the two parties decides not to continue the relationship, the tutor and the doctoral student will inform the Academic Committee, providing reasons, which will assign a new tutor to the doctoral student within a maximum of five working days. The committee will then request the opinion of the doctoral student (preferably through an interview) and inform both parties (tutor and doctoral student) of the final decision, as well as the reasons for this new assignment. The tutor and doctoral student will then sign the Supervision Commitment within the next five working days.

At any time during the completion of the doctorate, the CA, for justified reasons and after hearing the doctoral student and the tutor, may modify the appointment of the tutor for a doctoral student.

The Doctoral Supervision Commitment will be signed by the tutor and the doctoral student within a maximum period of 5 working days after having communicated the acceptance of the relationship to the Academic Committee.

In general, communications from the CA with tutors and doctoral students will be in writing and, preferably, via email.

Assignment and modification of the assignment of the thesis supervisor

The Academic Committee, within a maximum of six months of the doctoral candidate's enrollment in the PhD program, will assign a thesis supervisor, respecting the interests of all involved as much as possible. To this end, and beforehand (before the end of the second month after enrollment), the Academic Committee will seek the opinions of the tutor, the proposed supervisor (who, whenever possible, will be the same person), and the doctoral candidate.

Once the assignment has been received, the Director and the PhD student will communicate their agreement to the CA within 5 working days after the appointment.

If the doctoral candidate or the Director does not agree with the assignment, they will notify the Academic Committee within 5 working days of the appointment, providing justification. The Committee will then proceed within 10 working days to re-assign the appointment, which will then be submitted again for acceptance by both parties.

At any time during the doctoral program or the doctoral candidate's studies, the AC, for justified reasons and after hearing the doctoral candidate and the Director, may change the appointment of the tutor to a doctoral student. The AC may also authorize co-supervision of doctoral theses.

The supervisor and doctoral student will formalize their acceptance of the rights and duties of their relationship by signing the Doctoral Supervision Commitment within a maximum of 5 business days after having communicated their acceptance of the relationship to the Academic Committee.

Commitment to supervision

The supervision, mentoring, and monitoring duties of doctoral students will be reflected in a Supervision Commitment, signed by the Chair of the Doctoral Committee, representing the University, as well as the PhD Coordinator and the doctoral student, upon admission to the Doctoral Program. This Supervision Commitment will be incorporated into the Doctoral Student Activities Document (DAD).

The Supervision Agreement will specify the academic relationship between the doctoral student and the University, their rights and duties, including any intellectual property rights arising from the research, as well as acceptance of the dispute resolution procedure.

The Supervision Agreement will also include the respective duties of the PhD student's tutor and his/her Thesis Director, for which their signatures will be incorporated, once they have been appointed by the Academic Committee.

Conflict resolution procedure

Any doubts or disputes that arise in relation to the agents involved in the development of the Doctoral Program will be brought by the interested parties, first of all, to the Academic Committee of the Program.

Should these doubts or controversies result in a conflict, the resolution will be the responsibility of the academic body responsible for the PhD, in the first instance, and the Doctoral Committee, in the second instance, whose resolutions may be appealed to the Rector.

The rights and duties of doctoral students, as researchers in training, will be in accordance with the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers of March 2005.

Procedure for the control of the Activity Document of each PhD student and certification of their data After admission to the PD, the Academic Committee, with the Supervision Commitment signed between the doctoral student and the University (signatures of the tutor, PD Coordinator, head of the university and subsequently the thesis director), will open the Doctoral Student Activity Document (DAD), the format of which will conform to the model established in the Guide to Good Practices, taking into account the specifications of this PD, and whose support will be electronic through a website.

All activities carried out by the doctoral student within the PhD program will be recorded in the DAD (Department of Administrative and Research Administration). The doctoral student, his or her tutor, thesis supervisor, the CA (Certification of Academic and Research Administration), the Doctoral School, and the Doctoral Committee will have access to it (through a code and password with different access levels) for consultation and incorporation of records.

In the DAD, apart from the identification data, there will be a first section in which the tutor or Director indicates the minimum number of activities, among those proposed by the PD, that the doctoral student must carry out.

The second section will then list the activities that the doctoral student is carrying out. For each of the activities:

a) The doctoral student will describe the purpose of the activity, its relationship with the Research Plan (RP) and its identification data (type, title, organizing institution, speakers or those responsible, place and date of completion, duration in hours).

b) The tutor or Director will authorize the carrying out of the activity and will incorporate his/her authorization signature.

c) And once the doctoral student has completed it and submitted the corresponding proof of it to the tutor and/or Director, the latter will incorporate his/her verification/certification signature.

The tutor and/or thesis director will incorporate the annual reports they prepare into this Document of Activities of the Doctoral Student and the Academic Committee will incorporate the annual evaluations.

Procedure for the annual evaluation of the Research Plan and the Activities Document of the doctoral student.

This procedure will be adapted to each university according to its regulations or internal rules.

By the end of May of the first year of the PhD program, and in any case before the end of that year, the doctoral candidate will prepare a Research Plan (RP), their doctoral thesis project, which will include the following information: introduction and justification of the topic of study; working hypothesis and main objectives; methodology to be used; available material resources; three-year timeframe; and main bibliographical references.

This PI, endorsed by the thesis supervisor and, if different, by the doctoral student's tutor, will be approved by the Academic Committee of the Doctoral Program (through the addition of their signatures to said document; in the case of the AC, the signature will be done by the Coordinator) and will be incorporated into the doctoral student's Activity Document. This incorporation will be carried out within a maximum of 10 business days after its submission by the doctoral student.

In the second and third years, the content of the PhD student's Research Plan will vary, as it will reflect the following aspects:

• Review of objectives achieved and skills acquired on the planning initially presented (in the 1st year) for the research period corresponding to the expired research year. The objectives and tasks set for the research year will be analyzed in accordance with the Thesis Project.

The tasks planned for this phase of the research include cross-disciplinary and specific training, that is, the activities carried out and reflected in the Activities Document.

• Summary of the most relevant results and compliance with the objectives set and, where applicable, difficulties encountered that have prevented their execution.
• Adjustments or changes in the objectives and tasks set for subsequent years of research.
• Satisfaction with the supervisor's work. Frequency of meetings with him/her to review progress. If not, explain the reasons.
• Reasoned prediction of the need to request an extension at the end of the third year of research.
• The Academic Committee of the PhD will be responsible for annually evaluating the Document of Activities of the Doctoral Student (DAD), the Research Plan (PI) and the state of development of his/her doctoral thesis in the month of October. This evaluation function will be facilitated by the annual assessment/monitoring reports that will be carried out by the tutor and the Thesis Director (reports that will be combined into one, in the event that tutor and Director coincide) since they will deal with aspects related to the quality of the training of the doctoral student, the adequacy of the activities carried out to his/her research work and the progress in the completion of the Thesis. More specifically, the tutor and Director will report on the following elements and will conclude with an assessment of the performance of the doctoral student in terms of favourable or unfavourable:
• Degree of compliance with the scheduled activities and, where appropriate, the changes introduced in the planning.
• Degree of use/performance of the activities carried out for the doctoral student's research work.
• Type and frequency of monitoring of the PhD student's progress.
• Progress made towards the completion of the doctoral thesis and the acquisition of skills. Any difficulties encountered will be indicated.
• Overall assessment of performance, with respect to the completion of tasks, results obtained (publications, conferences, etc.) and skills acquired.
• From the 2nd year of research onwards, the estimated time required to complete the thesis is analysed and, if applicable, whether it is foreseen that an extension will be necessary at the end of the 3rd year of research. In the event that the Director considers the successful completion of the research to be unfeasible, he/she will indicate the reasons.
• These reports will also be incorporated, together with the Academic Committee's annual Evaluation Report, into the Doctoral Student's Activities Document.

A positive evaluation by the Academic Committee will be an essential requirement to continue in the PD. In the case of a negative evaluation, which will be duly justified, the doctoral candidate must be evaluated again within a period of six months, for which purpose a new Research Plan will be drawn up. In the event of a new negative evaluation, the doctoral candidate will be permanently removed from the PD.

Forecast of doctoral students' stays in other national and international training centres, joint supervisions and European mentions

The Logic and Philosophy of Science Program is promoting and will continue to promote the signing of agreements with other universities to facilitate research stays, which lead to the preparation of theses under a co-supervision regime, and the subsequent mention of international Doctor.