Requirements of obtaining a PhD degree in the Doctoral School of Pharmaceutical Sciences

1. Publication requirements: 

In order to submit a thesis, the doctoral candidate is required to have at least the following publications categorised based on the Scientific Journal Rankings (SCImago, https://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php):

Two Q1 original publication, and the candidate has to be the first author of at least one of them

One Q1 publication and one publication in English with impact factor, and the candidate has to be the first author of one of them, as well as one scientific paper

Qualification of the publication shall happen according to the ranking valid at the time of acceptance of the paper. In case of student co-authorship within the Programme of the Doctoral School, the programme director declares how the students should share the joint publication. In highly justified cases, particularly high quality publications may be exceptions regarding the publication requirements, if the supervisor supports it. The Doctoral Council is also decisive in this case. The candidate is required to be the first author of at least one publication. If the candidate is not first author of a publication, the corresponding author shall declare whether the candidate could use the publication in the PhD thesis. Patents may also be considered as publications if the student’s share is more than 10%. The requirements of the previous regulations (minimum 3 publications, at least 1 of which has to be as a first author, and the sum of the impact factors has to be 3.0) are still valid until 31 December 2023. Students may decide whether they want to start the procedure of obtaining their degree according to the old ranking system or the current one.

2. Publications shall be recorded in the official Hungarian scientific database called MTMT.

At the secretariat of the Doctoral School, the candidate certifies the existence of the publications and their impact factors via a printed list from the MTMT, verified by the Klebelsberg Kuno Library of the University of Szeged.

3. Doctoral thesis

Submitting the doctoral thesis

6 copies of the thesis shall be submitted to the PhD Secretariat at the Faculty of Pharmacy. The thesis book shall be 10-15 pages long, both in Hungarian and in English. 10-10 copies of English and Hungarian thesis books shall be submitted. The thesis and the thesis book shall also be uploaded into the Repository of Dissertations of University Library. A declaration stating the originality of the results needs to be attached to the submitted thesis (Appendix 3.) The candidate shall also attach the programme director’s statement that the thesis meets all the technical and formal requirements.

4. Foreign language knowledge

a., To obtain a degree, intermediate language competence in at least one foreign language (English, German, Russian, French, Spanish or Italian) shall be certified by a complex type language examination or equivalent certification. Equivalence between language examinations is regulated by a Government Decree. Cases that are not regulated by the Government Decree fall under the authority of the Foreign Language Centre of the University. The expert opinion of the Centre shall be decisive.

b., The second language requirement shall be met with at least an elementary “A2” or an intermediate “B1” language certificate or a certificate obtained at the Foreign Language Centre of the University. If the intermediate language competence specified by point a.) is not in English, the second foreign language has to be English. The second foreign language can be any foreign language except for the mother tongue. For foreign PhD students whose native language is not Hungarian, their mother tongue shall be accepted as a fulfilment of the second language requirements. To prove their native language knowledge, foreign students shall present a certificate by the Foreign Language Centre of the University or the consulate, etc. For foreign nationals, Hungarian is administered as a foreign language.

c., For foreign students, intermediate English knowledge shall be recognised if they received their secondary or university education in English and can prove this with an official certificate issued by the secondary school or the university.