Provision of the Vice-Dean for Doctoral Studies
on
the Submission of Ph.D. Theses at FSci USB

P6

Ph.D. theses are published according to § 47b of Act No. 111/1998 Coll. as amended (hereinafter “the Act”). The details of the method applied at USB are set by Provision of the Rector No. R 452 from 4.12.2020 (hereinafter “Provision R 452”) and for students of FSci USB also by this Provision.

The student is to submit to the Department of Student Affairs of FSci USB:

1. students of Biochemistry, Ecosystem Biology and Ecology, Botany, Entomology, Hydrobiology, Infection Biology, and Zoology 4 copies of the Ph.D. Thesis printed in the Ph.D. Thesis Series (in the case of three opponents 5 copies) for opponents, the department, and the Dean. If the submitted work contains parts due to which its publication will be postponed, the student is to submit one additional copy of the thesis to be sent to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. Students of other disciplines do not have to submit printed versions of the Ph.D. Thesis ; if they are required by the opponents or for the purpose of sending to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, they are to be printed out from the PDF inserted by the student into IS STAG by the Department of Student Affairs;
2. a page containing the bibliographical details, an annotation of the thesis, and a declaration (see point 3 of Structure of the Thesis);
3. a document containing the student's declaration of his/her contribution to the published work as a percentage confirmed by the co-authors (see points 5 and 6 of Structure of the Thesis);
4. a page stating the consent of the copyright holders of individual articles already published or accepted for publication with their use in the dissertation, if the work has been or will be printed in the Ph.D. Thesis Series (for theses submitted only as electronic versions, this consent is required if the student wants to publish the full version of articles in IS STAG). Consent is not required for articles published in open access;
5. a student-signed curriculum vitae written in English supplemented by a list of publications and presentations delivered at conferences;
6. the supervisor’s signed assessment of the thesis;
7. in the case of a postponed publication of a thesis, an original copy of the statement of the reasons for postponement containing the signatures of the author of the thesis and the consent of the Dean, (the Request for Postponed Publication form is attached as Annex 1 to this Provision);
8. in the case of a thesis containing classified information^[1], the original of the document justifying the redaction of certain parts of the thesis containing the signatures of the author of the work, the supervisor, and the Dean (a sample is Annex 2 to this provision);
9. a statement by the Chairman of the Specialist Board as to whether the submitted thesis meets the requirements for the professional quality of theses;
10. the application for the defense, which includes the student's consent to the publication of the place and time of the defense on the Faculty’s website;

Further, the student (on any study programme) is to enter the electronic version of the thesis into the IS STAG database in accordance with Provision R 452:

• the text of the thesis is to be entered in PDF format without watermarks,
• electronic attachments are to be inserted compressed into a single file in ZIP format,
• the names of the uploaded files are to have the following obligatory structure: Surname_Name_year_type of thesis [DT]_(attachments), for example Novak_Jan_2021_DT.pdf, in the case of attachments Novak_Jan_2021_DT_attachments.zip.
  
  For the purposes of this provision, a full version of a thesis is one that contains the unabridged text of the thesis and any attachments convertible into electronic form (i.e. including all parts already published or accepted for publication).
  
  For the purposes of this provision, an abbreviated version of a thesis means one that contains a text, some parts of which have been redacted and duly marked, or replaced by complete bibliographic data and an abstract, if a publication of which the student is the author or co-author has been redacted.
  
  The following options are available for entering a thesis into IS STAG:
  1. The full version of the thesis is published. In that case, the parts already published or accepted for publication must either have been published in open access form, or the student is to submit to the Department of Student Affairs the consent of the copyright holder to include this part in a publicly available version.
  2. If the student does not have the consent of the copyright holder to publish the publication/-s in the electronic form of the thesis or it was not published in open access, the student is to enter into IS STAG as a published attachment an abbreviated version in which he/she replaces each such part with a page with its complete bibliographic data in English, and also in the language of the publication, if the text is not published in English, and possibly a web link to the location of the article on the publisher's website. The student is to insert the full version into IS STAG as a non-published attachment.
  3. If a part of the thesis is in the form of a manuscript ready to be sent to a journal or which is under review, reworking before re-submission, etc. (for these parts the student is to provide information on what stage of the process leading to publication the manuscript is in at the time of submission) or if there is an intention to publish part of the thesis, even if the manuscript has not yet been prepared for publication or used for the preparation of a patent application, publication may be postponed with the consent of the Dean of the Faculty for the maximum period allowed in §47b paragraph 4 of the Act. The student is to enter the full or abbreviated version of the thesis into IS STAG (see points a) or b)) as a non-published attachment, for which, in the form for inserting a file into the IS STAG database, he/she sets a deadline for the postponement of publication (which must not exceed the period allowed by §47b paragraph 4 of the Act) and in the case of an abbreviated version also the full version as a non-published annex without setting deferred publication. The Department of Student Affairs is to insert as a published appendix Justification for the Postponement of the Publication of a Thesis with the signature of the author of the thesis and the consent and signature of the Dean.
  4. If the thesis contains classified information according to special regulations or on the basis of a contract with a partner of USB or workplace where the student has elaborated the thesis, and at the time of submitting the thesis it is clear that that the obstacle to the publication of the thesis will cease to exist before the expiration of the maximum period during which the law allows for the postponement of the publication of a qualification thesis, the procedure is to be as in point c. If the publication of a part of the thesis is not possible even after the expiration of the maximum legal time for postponing its publication, the student is to enter into IS STAG the full text of the thesis as a non-published appendix and a further abbreviated version for publication, where, after the page with the consent of the co-authors, is to be inserted a sheet with the Justification for the Redaction of Certain Parts of a Thesis together with a link to the document on the basis of which the relevant part is classified, and redacted passages are to be replaced by “The following passage of a length of ... contains classified information and is contained only in the full version, which is stored at the Faculty of Science of USB”. The justification is to contain the signature of the author of the thesis, the supervisor, and the Dean.

Theses printed in the Ph.D. Thesis Series, financially supported by FSci USB, are to be in the European format B5, i.e. 176 x 250 mm. The Faculty is to pay for black-and-white printing, the printing of colour images in articles already published by the student, and colour plates up to a maximum of 10 copies of the Ph.D. thesis. A higher number of copies or the inclusion of other colour images is to be paid for by the student. For inclusion in the Ph.D. Thesis Series prior confirmation of the fulfillment of professional requirements for theses (agreement of the Chairman of the Specialist Board) and formal requirements (agreement of the Vice-Dean for Doctoral Studies) is required based on the submitted electronic version of the thesis in PDF format. The option of printing the theses in the Ph.D. Thesis Series may be chosen by students of all study programmes, including those who are not obliged to submit copies when registering for the defense (in this case, the student submits one copy of the thesis for the Dean). A thesis printed in the Ph.D. Thesis Series must be identical to the full version of the work entered into IS STAG. Theses not included in the Ph.D. Thesis Series (in the programmes Biophysics, Molecular Biology, Integrative Biology, Physiology and Developmental Biology, and Parasitology) do not have to be in B5 format, but before being entered into IS STAG they must also be approved by the Chairman of the Specialist Board.

The structure of the work (its full version) is to be as follows:

1. In the case of a thesis included in the Ph.D. Thesis Series (the appearance of the thesis plates in biological programmes is given in Appendix 3, the thesis in the Biophysics programme is to have burgundy plates, Biochemistry blue, and the text “School of Doctoral Studies in Biological Sciences” is not to appear on them), the student is to supply the printing house, which prints and binds the thesis, with his/her name and surname, the title of the thesis, the year and serial number of the thesis (it will be assigned), and a picture in maximum resolution if he/she wishes to have it placed on the cover.
   
   
2. A title page is to follow, containing:
   • the name School of Doctoral Studies in Biological Sciences, if the student is a graduate of biological disciplines (not Biophysics or Biochemistry)
   • the name of the University followed by the name of the Faculty,
   • the title of the thesis,
   • the type of thesis (Ph.D. thesis” )
   • the name and surname of the student and his/her titles,
   • the name, surname, and titles of the supervisor (or supervisor specialist) and abbreviation of the name of or name of the supervisor’s employer (and of the supervisor specialist if appointed)
   • place (“České Budějovice”)
   • the year of completion.

   The title page is to be in its entirety either in Czech or English and should correspond linguistically to the cover.

3. Following the title page is to be inserted a page containing the bibliographic details of the thesis, including:
   • the complete bibliographic details of the thesis (corresponding to how the work is to be cited) in English
   • an annotation of the thesis in English to the length of several sentences defining what the thesis is concerned with
   • the text below is to follow (see Provision R 452):-

   Declaration:
   “I hereby declare that I am the author of this thesis and that I have used only those sources and literature detailed in the list of references.”
   
   The student is to attach the date and his/her name and surname to the above statement, and attach a handwritten signature to all submitted copies.

4. A page listing the accredited workplaces that participated in conducting the thesis (eg “This thesis originated from a partnership of the Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, and the Institute of xxx of AS CR, supporting Doctoral studies in the xxx study programme”) including their logos (the Faculty logo is to be used only in accordance with the rules stated on the Faculty’s website, financial support for which the work was created, and possibly with thanks (supervisors, co-authors, etc.).
   
   
5. A page containing a list of the student’s publications and manuscripts on which the submitted work is based (student publications that are not part of the submitted dissertation are not to be listed) is to follow, stating the student's share in individual publications and the impact factor of journals in which articles were published. The statement about the author's share may also be verbal (in which case it is clearly specified what the student did in the article), at the same time an estimate of the student's percentage share in the given publication must always be given.
   
   
6. A page containing the agreement of the co-authors to the student's declared share of joint publications, unless the student is the only author of the publications on which the thesis is based. The declaration for all co-authors of each such publication may be issued by the first or corresponding author, unless he/she is the student themself, in which case a senior co-author.
   
   
7. A page containing the contents of the thesis is to follow, including the page numbers of the beginnings of individual chapters. The title page, bibliographic data page, and other pages, including the contents page (list of chapters and their page placement), are either not to be numbered at all or are to be numbered in Roman numerals (I to ....). Page numbering in Arabic numerals is to begin on the page entitled Introduction and run continuously throughout the volume, including the pages of the appendices.
   
   
8. Part of each thesis is to be an introduction, a summary of results, and conclusions containing an evaluation of the impact of the thesis on the further development of the field. The minimum length of these sections (excluding literature and captions to figures and tables) is to be 10 standard pages. The Specialist Board may announce stricter requirements for the given field for the scope of these parts.
   
   
9. At the end of the thesis, a brief professional curriculum vitae of the student may be included.
   
   
10. If the thesis is included in the Ph.D. Thesis Series, the last page is to contain technical information (copyright, author's name and email address, title of the thesis and its number in the series, number of copies, printing house, and the Faculty’s address, telephone number, and email address) - see Annex 4.

The university seal may not be used anywhere in the thesis.

This Provision shall enter into force on 1. 5. 2021.

Doc. RNDr. Marie Šmilauerová, Ph.D.
Vice-Dean for Doctoral Study

Annexes to this Provision are:

• Request for Postponed Publication (P1)
• Justification for the Redaction of Certain Parts of a Thesis (P2)
• Samples for Theses in the Ph.D. Thesis Series (an example of work in biological fields is given),boards (P3), and several first and last pages (P4)
• a manual for preparing a Ph.D. thesis and submitting an application to the publisher to allow the use of an article in the thesis (P5)

^[1] a thesis containing classified information may be submitted only with the prior consent of the Dean (the application form is on the Faculty's website Documents> Forms> For students), granted at least half a year before the submission of the thesis