PhD Progress Reports

What is defined as a progress report?

  • Research Proposal
  • Interim Report
  • Special Report
  • Final Report
     

Deadline for your Progress Reports

It is mandatory that you submit all reports on time, according to your set deadlines. For your convenience, you may view the deadlines for your reports at any time through the online service.

Requests for extensions for up to one month must be sent by email, a month before the deadline, to your FGS Faculty Coordinator.

Requests for extensions for more than one month must be sent by email, a month before the deadline, by your advisor directly to the Chair of the Board of Studies

  • Research Proposal:  Month 12 (Direct Track: Pre-condition to start)
  • Interim Report: Month 30 (Direct Track: Month 18)
  • Final Report: Month 48 (Direct Track: Month 36)


Current information concerning the deadline for the submission of your progress reports is available online.

If necessary, you may file a fully detailed request with the Board of Studies to postpone submission of any of your Progress Reports.

Submitting Your Progress Reports

Each one of your progress reports must be submitted as a PDF file via the online uploading service.

Defending Your Progress Reports

The Chair of your Board of Studies will appoint an examining committee of at least two scientists.

Their task will be to review your reports and to meet with you following the submission of each report in order to examine your progress and general knowledge of the field as well as your ability to pursue your research.  Your advisor(s) should not be present at these examinations.

As soon as you coordinate a date for the examination of your progress report (i.e., a meeting with your appointed examiners), you should record the date through the online service.

At the end of the process the recommendations of your examiners and of the Chair of the Board of Studies are submitted to the FGS Dean for consideration and approval.

Research Proposal

As a PhD candidate, you will be expected to select a specific doctoral research topic (in consultation with your supervisor), prepare a proposal, and submit it to the Feinberg Graduate School. This should all take place within the probationary period, not exceeding one year from the start of your studies.

Technical Details

  • Your research proposal must be written in English (unless pursuing science teaching studies).
  • The length may not exceed ten pages, not including pictures, graphs and bibliography.
  • The font should be Times New Roman size 12, and line spacing should be 1.5.

Structuring the Proposal

Your research proposal should include the following sections:

  • Title page: Use one of two possible formats, one for the regular PhD track and one for the direct PhD track. For your convenience, provided herewith are WORD templates of the two title page formats: Regular PhD Track and Direct Track.
  • Abstract (half a page).
  • The subject of your proposed research
  • Background
  • Aims and bjective
  • Experimental approach and methodology
  • Preliminary results
  • References

Interim Report

Your Interim Report should contain a summary of the results you have achieved to date, as well as your plans for future work. It should be submitted within 30 months from the start of your studies, or at a date determined by the Dean.

Technical Details

  • The Interim Report must be written in English (except for students of Science Teaching).
  • The length may not exceed 15 pages, not including pictures, graphs, and bibliography.
  • The font should be Times New Roman size 12 and line spacing should be 1.5.

Structuring Your Interim Report

It is obligatory to include a title page and an abstract. For your convenience, provided herewith is a WORD template of the title page for the Interim Report.

Special Report

Your Research proposal and Interim Report examiners, as well as the Board of Studies, may require that you submit a Special Report on your progress. This request may be made of you at any time. When such a decision is made, you will be notified of the deadline for submission of a Special Report. 

 

Submitting a Special Report


  • The Special Report must be written in English (except for students of Science Teaching).
  • The required length is usually between one and ten pages, not including pictures, graphs, and bibliography.
  • The font should be Times New Roman size 12, and line spacing should be 1.5.

 

Submitting the Special Report


It is obligatory to include a title page and an abstract. For your convenience, provided herewith is a WORD template of the title page for a Special Report.

Final Report

Your Final Report should summarize the main results of your research, and serve as a basis for writing your thesis. Review of your Final Report by the examiners who have accompanied your work throughout your doctoral studies is required ─ not only for the submission of your thesis, but also in order to provide you with helpful comments in terms of style and organization.

Technical Details

  • The Final Report must be written in English (except for students of Science Teaching).
  • The length may not exceed 30 pages, not including pictures, graphs, and bibliography.
  • The font should be Times New Roman size 12 and line spacing should be 1.5.
  • Setting a Date for the Examination 


Structuring the Report

The Final Report you submit should follow this structure, and include the following:

  • Title page. For your convenience, provided herewith is a WORD templates of the title page of the Final Report
  • Brief summary of the main goals of your research (about one page).
  • Concise report on your main findings and central conclusions (one page).
  • Short introduction to your entire study.
  • Summary of the Experimental or Theoretical section, presented in accordance with the chapters that will constitute your thesis. The description of experiments should be brief and accompanied by tables, illustrations, etc.
  • The description of results in this report may NOT be replaced by a printed version of papers you have published. However, copies of papers you have published may be attached to your Final Report as appendices.
  • Short discussion of your ENTIRE study deliberating on your work as a whole.
  • List of all publications that you have authored during your PhD studies.

 

* Comments concerning the list of  publications:

  • Each paper is a primary research paper – not a review, review-style book chapter, or meeting abstract – and was published in a peer-reviewed journal, or as a peer-reviewed abstract in a scientific conference as is customary in mathematics and computer science fields.
  • Each paper must be at the published, in press or accepted stage. In other words, you or your advisor is in possession of a formal, final acceptance letter or email from the journal. The following stages do NOT fulfill these threshold requirements: In preparation, submitted, or in revision.
  • You are either the sole first author or one of two equally contributing first authors. Papers in which you are one of three or more equally contributing first authors will not be considered for this purpose.
  • In case of scientific disciplines where a different order of author listing is customary, such as alphabetical order, your advisor and examiners will determine if indeed the paper abides by the spirit of the above-mentioned requirements. 


Declaration of specific contributions - for Life Science

Starting 1/05/2023, All PhD progress reports, Research proposals Interim, Final and Thesis submitted to the FGS must include a section in the form of a table, after the Abstract, titled ‘Declaration of specific contributions:’.

In this table the student has to declare who collected the experimental data presented and who analyzed it for each table and figure.

If this information varies at the level of individual panels, it further needs to be provided on the panel level. The students are encouraged to include this specific information also at the bottom of each table/figure legend.

In the case that ALL the data were both produced and analyzed solely by the student, the aforesaid table can be replaced by a brief statement. Note that reports will not be approved without including the information mentioned above or if it is only partial.

An example table

1) Declaration  - The student shall declare that the thesis summarizes his/her independent research. If part of the research was performed in collaboration with another investigator(s) and/or students, the collaboration should be explained.

This includes specifying which parts of the thesis describe results from this collaboration, the work done by the collaborators (and not by the student), and the role of the student in the collaboration.

2) List of all publications that you have authored during your PhD studies.

Comments concerning the list of publications:

  • Each paper is a primary research paper – not a review, review-style book chapter, or meeting abstract – and was published in a peer-reviewed journal, or as a peer-reviewed abstract in a scientific conference as is customary in mathematics and computer science fields.
  • Each paper must be at the published, in press or accepted stage. In other words, you or your advisor is in possession of a formal, final acceptance letter or email from the journal. The following stages do NOT fulfill these threshold requirements: In preparation, submitted, or in revision.
  • The "main publications section" should include only those where you are the sole first author or one of up to three equally contributing first authors.
  • In addition, you can also have an optional "additional publications" section, which can include any other papers meeting the criteria listed above on which you are listed as one of the authors, as well as review manuscripts, published preprints and review-style book chapters.
  • In case of scientific disciplines where a different order of author listing is customary, such as alphabetical order, your advisor and examiners will determine if indeed the paper abides by the spirit of the above-mentioned requirements.

 

Faculty Coordinators