Final Exam Guidelines & FAQ

Final Exam general timeline for 37th cycle - April 2026 sessions

37th Cycle Defense April Session Guidelines

PhD title countdown: what is there to know

28/02/2025 slide presentation:  Final Exam Presentation Rev

Thesis format and printing guidelines
There is no specific format for the thesis. However, it must show affiliation to the Doctorate in Cognitive and Brain Sciences at the University of Trento. When emailing the thesis to the committee members you ought to offer to send them a printed version of your thesis. They may not request one, but in such a case it is up to you to have one printed in time for the discussion for the Doctorate School’s archives. In this case the thesis should be printed front and back, and at a non-UNITN printer. Please ensure that you bring the printed copy on the day of your final exam.
In order to see CIMeC PhD theses from past PhD candidates you are welcome to see them in the 2nd floor meeting room of Palazzo Fedrigotti. Leah has the key to the cabinet where they are. They are also available in IRIS.
Last but not least, plagiarism is a serious matter. Be sure you aren’t purposely or accidentally plagiarizing in your thesis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism. In accordance with the PhD Director, the amount of plagiarism allowed in a thesis is at most 20% (via Turnitin check), excluding the section on methods.

Slides from a seminar given by University staff on depositing PhD theses can be found on this page:  https://www.unitn.it/en/research/research-support/scientific-publications/submitting-phd-theses and are also available here in English:

Guidelines For Loading The Doctoral Thesis Into IRIS  

Reviewer Profile and Criteria

In order to be nominated, Reviewers:

- mustn’t have published any manuscript with Supervisor or PhD candidate within last 5 years;
- mustn’t have a pre-print with Supervisor or PhD Candidate;
- mustn't belong to the institution whose title will be that of the PhD program (esterni ai soggetti che hanno concorso al rilascio del titolo di dottorato). Therefore cannot be a member of the school’s DPC, even if an "Esperto", or of UNITN;
- can be foreigners or Italians with appointments abroad;
- can be researchers/scientists/non-academic staff, as long as they are experts in the field of the thesis. If this were the case then the other reviewer must be an academic professor (docente Universitario).
 

Review outcomes

1) Accepted: No rebuttal necessary but, should the reviewer make comments, it is up to you and your Supervisor to decide whether to take the comments in consideration and retouch the thesis accordingly. A rebuttal, however, is not obligatory.

2) Accepted with minor revisions:  A rebuttal is necessary, along with thesis revision, to be sent 2 weeks prior to the final exam date. The rebuttal can be in the body of the email or an attachment.

3) Major revisions required:  The Reviewer requires a major revision of up to 6 months. New thesis and rebuttal are necessary.

 

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FOR QUESTIONS/COMMENTS PLEASE WRITE TO PHD.CIMEC@UNITN.IT

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