Office for Doctoral Studies 

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Doctorate by publication: Documents you need to submit

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Doctoral degree papers

If you want to pursue a doctorate by publication, you must – depending on the relevant doctoral degree – submit doctoral degree papers.

  • For a Dr. med., Dr. med. dent. or Dr. rer. medic. degree, you must submit at least one original publication as lead author in a peer-reviewed journal as well as a synopsis.
  • For a PhD or MD/PhD degree, you must either submit an original publication as lead author in an international leading journal ("top journal") plus a synopsis or three original publications with a least one lead authorship in a peer-reviewed journal plus a covering text 

For more information on this, go to the Dissertation section.

For students of medicine and dentistry who have successfully completed at least the first stage of the licensing examination in medicine or dentistry or an equivalent examination, or have obtained an equivalent level of education within the scope of a model study program, it is possible to initiate the doctoral examination procedure subject to certain conditions.

An essential condition for completion of the doctoral examination procedure with award of a doctoral degree remains the successful completion of all examinations/state examinations required for the award of a licence to practice medicine/dentistry.

A corresponding declaration must be submitted by the primary supervisor and you prior to the doctoral examination procedure subject to conditions. 

Title of your dissertation and title of your publication(s)

Please note that the title of your dissertation cannot be the same as the title of one of your publications. There are legal reasons for this. Firstly, it is unclear whether the authors and/or journal could assert protective rights to the publication. Secondly, there would be two publications under the same title, i.e. the dissertation and the journal publication, which would cause bibliographical problems, and finally, the title of the dissertation should have a larger scope than a very specific publication generally has.

Doctorate by publication: Documents you must submit

Documents for the application for the opening of the doctoral procedure
Attention. Please note that a formal review by the doctoral office must have taken place before submission! For this purpose, send a Word version of the dissertation (from the cover page to the acknowledgement) by mail to promotionsbuero@charite.de.

  • The original signed document "data required for the initiation" must be attached
  • Identity card or passport: temporary regulation: simple copy
  • Application for the opening of the doctoral procedureThe
    application for the opening of the doctoral procedure must be submitted in writing. You can find a template under Links & Downloads.
  • Enclose original signed document Conducting Doctoral Examination (applies only in Standard Track).
  • Proof of participation promotion environment 

    • for the degrees Dr. med. , Dr. med. dent. , Dr. rer. medic. 5 ECTS credit points have to be proven.
    • for the PhD or MD/PhD in the selection procedure and in the structured doctoral programs or a (graduate) college, proof of 30 ECTS credit points is required.
    • For the PhD or MD/PhD of doctoral programs, proof of 180 credit points must be submitted. Please read the following instructions carefully or contact the office of your structured doctoral program or doctoral program.

  • Proof of Attendance Compulsory Lecture "Gute wissenschaftliche Praxis": Section 1, paragraph 2 of the "Charité Statutes for Ensuring "Gute wissenschaftliche Praxis" stipulates that participation in the "Gute wissenschaftliche Praxis" course s obligatory for doctoral students.
  • Acknowledgement of the plagiarism check AS WELL AS accompanying e-mail from the Office for Good Scientific Practice about the report of the plagiarism check.The report itself is not required. Notes on this page.
  • Primary data: A true and complete copy of the primary data set of the underlying work in a digital form that allows retrospective attribution of results to the primary data. In exceptional cases, for server-backed data, a letter from the person responsible for the server may be provided. This must disclose the access route and contact details of the person responsible for storing the data for 10 years after the doctoral procedure has been opened. You can also use the offer of the Geschäftsstelle Gute Wissenschaftliche Praxis for central data backup. Appropriate pseudonymization must be used for primary data records that contain personal data. The associated assignment table must be kept by the doctoral candidate for 10 years and submitted to the Office of Good Scientific Practice upon request.
  • Curriculum vitae for the file and, if applicable, abstracts of bachelor's, master's, diploma or master's thesesA curriculum: Vitae signed by you for the file must be submitted separately. The curriculum vitae should include details of courses of study, professional activity, the award of academic degrees and previous attempts at a doctorate. Courses of study and academic degrees awarded should be supported by transcripts. For the abstracts, also include the title of the respective work.
  • List of publications for the file: Complete list of all your provided publications must be submitted separately for the file.
  • Affidavit/Affidavit of Contribution: You sign an affidavit that you have not used any sources and aids other than those indicated, that you have complied with the "Charité Statutes for Ensuring Good Scientific Practice" and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines on authorship, as well as a detailed written statement on the nature and extent of your involvement in the processing of the research topic and in the preparation of the publication(s). The statement of contribution must clearly indicate your share in the publication and must also be signed by your first supervisor. In this statement, make specific reference to the publication in question. You can find the binding template under "Links & Downloads".
  • Document "Statutory Declaration" enclose signed in original.
  • If applicable, copy of certificate of enrollment as a doctoral student: The "Berliner Hochschulgesetz" regulates in § 25 para. 2: "Doctoral students are members of the university at which they have been admitted to doctoral studies. Unless they are already members of the university on the basis of an employment relationship, they are to be registered as students for doctoral studies." Thus, you must enroll as a doctoral student unless you are already enrolled in human medicine or dentistry at Charité or are in an employment relationship with Charité. Proof of continuous affiliation with Charité (from the time of registration) must be attached to the documents. This affiliation must be proven until completion of the doctoral procedure.
  • University degree certificate and diploma

    • Temporary arrangement: Provide a copy of your university degree certificate (plus, if applicable: diploma certificate or master's and bachelor's degree certificates). If available, also include a copy of your license to practice medicine and/or specialist certificate.
    • Students of human medicine or dentistry at the Charité (who have not yet completed their studies) should enclose a current certificate of enrollment.

  • Reviewer proposal forma: form signed and stamped by the supervisor (university teacher) with 6 reviewer proposals (please include at least 4 external reviewers): The reviewers must be at least a Privatdozent*in or Professor*in and may not be project group members and/or co-authors*in of the publications included in the dissertation. We recommend contacting the above mentioned experts in advance to find out their time valences for preparing such an expert evaluation. The form can be found under "Links & Downloads".
  • Votum Informativum: A confirmation of the quality and doctoral worthiness of the submitted work by the supervising persons = Votum Informativum. The vote must result in a clear recommendation to the doctoral committee to open the doctoral procedure - see further instructions on the form of the vote.
  • Tabular summary of the jacket text: See under "Links & Downloads"
  • A part of the dissertation in paper form (from the cover page up to and including the bibliography) printed on both sides of the paper
  • Journal Summary List excerpt

    • The Journal Summary List (ISI Web of KnowledgeSM) must clearly indicate that the journal is in the top half (standard track) or top quarter (advanced track) of
    • the list. Please use the list that was in effect at the time you submitted your article to the journal. Include all pages up to and including the one on which the journal is listed. Please identify the journal in question.
    • Impact factors are always collected for the course of an entire calendar year, i.e., retrospectively. The new lists determined from this are usually not available until the summer (July) of the current year, i.e., with a delay of about half a year.
    • Examples:

      • Your article was submitted in June 2021 - at which time the list from 2019 was available as the most current version.
      • Your article was submitted in August 2021 - you had the list from 2020 as the most recent version available.
      • Your article was submitted in July 2021 - so the list from 2019 OR the list from 2020 may still have been current. In case of doubt, you may decide for yourself.

  • Print copy(s) of the publication(s) in paper form
  • Data carrier e.g. stick, CD or DVD with 

    • a complete version of the dissertation (from cover page to acknowledgements) as PDF and Word file
    • the primary data

Important

Please also note that for doctorates by publication, some of your documents must be submitted electronically:

  1. Application for the initiation of the doctoral procedure,
  2. other applications (if further applications to the doctoral commission are submitted with the application for the initiation of the doctoral procedure, they are to be included),
  3. the complete dissertation, as it is to be printed and bound, from the cover page to the acknowledgements,
  4. votum informativum,
  5. assessor (reviewer) proposal form

in a single document (as PDF file) on a data carrier or by email to promotionsbuero(at)charite.de. Templates are available at Links und Downloads.

Please note: If you are submitting only 1 publication (regardless of whether it is a top journal on the Advanced Track or a journal on the Standard Track) which qualifies as a joint lead authorship, then both authors must issue a declaration of own contribution. Both declarations must be signed and submitted. They will be taken to the records. Your own declaration must also be signed by your supervisor(s).