The doctoral program follows the Regulations for Official Doctoral Studies of the ULL, which in Chapter III, Articles 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, and 29 refers to the presentation and reading of doctoral theses, which complies with the provisions of Royal Decree 99/2011. In this regard, it regulates the proposal and appointment of the thesis evaluation committee, the thesis defense, the International Mention, and the thesis by compendium of publications modality. We transcribe the current regulations below.

However, the corresponding modification of the Regulations of Official Doctoral Studies of the University of La Laguna has also been taken into account, made to adapt to the modifications of Royal Decree 99/2011, of January 28, which regulates official doctoral studies: RESOLUTION of February 25, 2014, which provides for the publication of the modification of the Regulations of Official Doctoral Studies of the University of La Laguna for its adaptation to Royal Decree 534/2013, of July 13. Approved by the Governing Council in its session dated January 30, 2014, the modification of the Regulations of Official Doctoral Studies of the University of La Laguna for its adaptation to Royal Decree 534/2013, of July 13. This amendment affects sections 6, 7 and 8 of Article 27, which are presented in their final form in this text.

Article 24.- Doctoral thesis.

1. The doctoral thesis will consist of an original research work prepared by the candidate in any field of knowledge. The thesis must enable the doctoral candidate to work independently in the field of R&D&I.

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

3. Each doctoral program may establish its own requirements that its doctoral theses must meet in order to qualify for presentation.

Article 25.- Proposal and appointment of the thesis evaluation committee.

1. At the time of submitting the doctoral thesis, the academic committee of the doctoral program will submit to the Doctoral School a proposal of five experts in the subject matter to which the thesis refers, or in another subject that is similar to it, accompanied by their CVs, which will state the merits that qualify them to be part of the panel in charge of judging it.

2. The following shall be taken into account when designating the court:

a. 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 external to the University. 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.

b. All members must hold a doctorate degree and have accredited research experience, as established by the doctoral program. At a minimum, members of the University of La Laguna (full and alternate) must meet the same requirements as those required to be a thesis supervisor at this university.

c. Of the external members, no more than one member may belong to the same university, or public or private center.

d. Under no circumstances may the thesis supervisors or the tutors of the researcher in training be members of the committee.

e. The president of the tribunal will be the member with the highest academic category and seniority in said category.

f. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. In the event of a justified resignation of one of the members of the committee, the Doctoral School will replace him/her with the corresponding substitute. In the event of the resignation of the president, this role will be performed by the member of the committee with the highest academic category and seniority in said category.

Article 26.- Processing of the defense of the doctoral thesis.

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

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

a. The corresponding authorization from the thesis director(s).
b. The report of the tutor assigned by the doctoral program, if different from the director.
c. The report stating the academic committee of the doctoral program's agreement to the public defense of the thesis and which must necessarily state that the requirements established in the doctoral program, where applicable, have been met in order to proceed with its defense.
d. The application form for the "International Doctor" designation, together with the corresponding documentation, if eligible.

3. 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 these regulations for its deposit within a period of 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.

4. During the deposit period, which will be enabled as a period of public information, any doctor may make as many allegations and observations as he or she deems appropriate to the corresponding Doctoral School of the University of La Laguna, stating his or her agreement or disagreement with the public defense thereof, as well as suggestions for improvement to correct deficiencies, all with the aim of guaranteeing its quality.

5. The Doctoral School of the University of La Laguna will ensure the publicity of this period of public information.

6. 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.

7. If any of the circumstances described in section 4 of this article arise during the public information period, the Doctoral School will notify the doctoral candidate and the thesis supervisor, as well as the academic committee of the corresponding doctoral program, of the circumstances. The students will have 10 working days to submit the appropriate objections to the Doctoral School. Based on the documentation submitted, the Postgraduate Studies Committee will decide whether or not the thesis defense is appropriate within a period of no more than one month, and will obtain, if deemed appropriate, a report from specialists. The Postgraduate Studies Committee of the University of La Laguna must provide the reasons for the rejection.

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

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

10. 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 corresponding Ministry for appropriate purposes.

11. In exceptional circumstances determined by the program's academic committee, 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 above to ensure the non-publicity of these aspects.

Article 27.- Defense of doctoral thesis.

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

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

3. 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 evaluate it appropriately and upon a reasoned request addressed to the Doctoral School, which will assess whether the request is appropriate.

4. 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.

5. The tribunal that evaluates the thesis will have the document of the doctoral student's activities, referred to in article 2.5 of this regulation, with the activities
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 will complement the evaluation of the doctoral thesis.

6. The Court will issue a report and the overall grade awarded to the thesis according to the following scale: not suitable, approved, notable and outstanding.

This rating will be recorded in a standardized report that will be delivered to the Secretary of the Court.

7. Following the public defense of the thesis and once it has been graded, if the grade "outstanding" was awarded, in a separate, closed-door ceremony held on the same day as the defense of the thesis in question, each member of the Court will issue, by secret ballot, their opinion on whether the thesis presented merits the Cum Laude mention. The Court may only award the Cum Laude mention if a unanimous secret vote is cast in favor.

The result of this vote will be recorded in standardized minutes signed by all members of the Court and will not be made public on the day of the vote.

8. Both transcripts will be sent to the Doctoral School along with the report issued by the Committee. The Committee will announce, on the day following its receipt, whether the corresponding thesis has been awarded the "Cum Laude" distinction, if the minutes recording the results of the secret ballot record show a unanimous opinion of the Committee members to that effect. This statement will be included in the doctoral student's file.

Article 28.- International Mention in the Doctorate degree.

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

a) 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 must be included in the doctoral student's activity report.

b) 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 of Spain. This rule will not apply when the internships, reports, and experts come from a Spanish-speaking country.

c) That the thesis has been reported on by at least two expert doctors belonging to a non-Spanish higher education institution or research institute.

d) That at least one expert belonging to a non-Spanish higher education institution or research center, 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.

2. 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.

Article 29.- Thesis modality by compendium of publications.

1. 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.

2. The presentation of a thesis under this modality must adhere to the following:

a. It must include a general introduction presenting the work and justifying the thematic unity, as well as a comprehensive summary of the research objectives, the methodology applied, the results obtained, the discussion of these results, and the final conclusions.

b. A complete copy of the papers must be included between the aforementioned introduction and abstract, or as appendices. This includes the personal details of all authors, as well as the full reference of the journal in which the papers have been published or, where applicable, the letter of acceptance.

c. At the time of submitting the thesis, the following documentation must be submitted to the Doctoral School of the University of La Laguna:

i. Authorization from the thesis director for presentation in this format.
ii. Document certifying the impact index of the publications that comprise the thesis or, failing that, the one that certifies the relevance of the article within the corresponding branch of knowledge, such as IN-recs, DICE, positive evaluation by the FECYT.
iii. If any of the submitted works were carried out in collaboration with researchers other than the thesis supervisors, a document must be submitted in which the supervisor expressly declares that the substantial part of the work included in the articles was carried out by the thesis author. A document must also be provided in which the other authors identified as responsible for the publication state their consent to the use of the corresponding articles for the thesis presentation under this modality.

d. Articles that form part of a thesis of this type may not be included as part of any other thesis.

e. Under no circumstances may the co-authors of the submitted works be proposed as members of the tribunal that is to judge the thesis.

3. The Doctoral School of the University of La Laguna will keep a record of the articles submitted as support for doctoral theses in the form of a compilation of publications, for the purposes of this article.