Completion of the doctorate/PhD

Here you find answers concerning questions on the completion of your doctoral or PhD studies at the Academy, on deadlines, assessment, and publication.

A description of the steps for the completion of the PhD/doctoral studies can also be found in the section stages of doctoral studies.

I have finished writing my doctoral thesis and would like to submit it. What do I need to know?

Please make sure that you fulfill the administrative requirements, such as filling out the respective forms, in due time - not to do so is a widespread mistake and often leads to tiresome delays in the final stages of someone's doctoral studies.

We recommend that you consult our Registrar's Office one term before you actually conclude your doctoral studies and ask for personal advice on the documents you need. On our website, you can find all exam and registration deadlines for viva voce/thesis defenses valid for the respective year of study information.

After submission and as part of the review process, your dissertation will be subjected to a mandatory plagiarism check using plagiarism detection software.

You also have the option of a one-time, free plagiarism check before submission via the Center for Doctoral Studies. This can be very helpful for the final revision of the dissertation. If you are interested, please contact us well in advance by email at doktoratszentrum@akbild.ac.at.

In the section forms and documents (end of studies) you find all needed forms and templates for finishing the doctoral/PhD studies.

What are the deadlines for completing the dissertation?

In the section stages of doctoral studies, you find a step-by-step description of the procedure for submitting your PhD/doctoral thesis. After uploading the dissertation, you and your supervisor will receive a notification that the dissertation can now be reviewed and graded. Please note that the supervisors of your dissertation and the external assessors have a maximum of 4 months to assess and grade your work. In order to be sure that you can complete the desired defense date, you should submit the dissertation at least 5 months before the scheduled date. You can find the registration deadlines and examination dates for rigorosum/defense in the respective study year here.

If you are enrolled in the Dr. phil. or PhD in Practice programme, please also check the CuKo (Curriculum Committee) board meeting dates listed under the rigorosum/defence dates for your study year. Please find the dates for the respective study year here. The review process for your thesis can only begin after the CuKo board has approved the external appraiser. To avoid delays, we recommend submitting your thesis and the completed approbation form approximately one week before a scheduled CuKo meeting.

The review process begins once both reviewers—the supervisor(s) and the external appraiser—have received the thesis. Please note that the review process may take up to four months.

How is the assessment of the dissertation/PhD project carried out?

For the assessment of your dissertation, two appraisals are required. One appraisal is provided by your supervisor. If you have two supervisors, they submit a joint appraisal or a single agreed grade. The second appraisal is provided by an external appraiser who was not involved in the supervision of your dissertation. The final selection of the external appraiser is made by the Vice-Rector for Art | Teaching.

For the Dr.phil. and PhD in Practice: In the approbation form (please find it in the section forms and documents), three potential external appraisers have to be proposed, from which one person is finally selected, and the second expert appraisal is written. It is up to you whether you personally clarify in advance with the three potential external appraisers proposed whether they would be prepared to write an appraisal and attend the thesis defense in Vienna or online. You should consult with your supervisor(s) as to who would qualify as an appraiser for your PhD/dissertation, but you are not obliged to do so.

What are the regulations concerning the second external appraiser of the dissertation?

In principle, the second external appraisers must be professors or habilitated employees at the academy or another university or have habilitation equivalent qualifications; have professional competence with regard to the topic of the dissertation, and may not have been involved in the supervision of the dissertation. Habilitation equivalence is given if the external appraiser has supervised at least two doctoral theses at their university.

Please note: If there are delays in the dissertation examination, for example, because the selected expert does not have the corresponding qualification (professorship or habilitation), the doctoral students bear the responsibility for this.

I would like to use illustrations in my doctoral thesis. Am I allowed to?

Illustrations or images for which you do not own the copyright and/or rights of use can still be used in scientific publications if these images are closely linked to the topic dealt with. In scientific papers, the text has to far outweigh the illustrated part. Moreover, you should only insert images that are essential for understanding the text. If you use images or illustrations in your dissertation, please ensure that all sources are properly cited and referenced in accordance with academic standards.

I would like to publish my PhD thesis. How can I approach this?

It is advisable to discuss publication options with your supervisor(s). As established members of the scientific and artistic community, they can often recommend suitable publishers and may already have professional relationships with them. In some cases, supervisors are also able to recommend the work of their PhD candidates directly to publishers, which can be more effective than approaching publishers independently.

When identifying potential publishers, it may also be helpful to review where key literature relevant to your dissertation has been published.

Please note that many publishers require authors to contribute to publication or printing costs. It is therefore important to consider funding options at an early stage. Unfortunately, the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna does not provide financial support for publication costs.

In Austria, a number of funding opportunities may help cover publication or printing costs associated with publishing your dissertation. These include funding programmes offered by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), the Austrian Research Association (ÖFG), the Federal Chancellery, and regional funding bodies such as the City of Vienna. Depending on the subject area and your personal circumstances, additional support may also be available through foundations, professional associations, or other specialized funding organisations.

• The FWF funds stand-alone publications.
• The ÖFG offers printing cost subsidies.
• It is possible to hand in publications as so-called „Einzelvorhaben“ with the Federal Chancellery.
• The City of Vienna/MA 7 supports publications by Viennese publishers with printing cost subsidies. The application is made through the respective Viennese publishers; details see here (available in German only). 
• Some federal states offer subsidies for printing costs, provided there is a specific connection between the person or the work and the respective federal state. It may be worth looking into this.
• Apart from that, a search for funding possibilities may prove helpful: Specific organizations offer subsidies for works with a specific focus or topic.

If you hold a nationality other than Austrian, it may be worthwhile to explore funding opportunities in your country of citizenship, as additional support for publication costs may be available.

As funding schemes vary between countries, we are unfortunately unable to provide detailed advice and recommend contacting the relevant funding organizations directly.