Communication guidelines for doctoral candidates

The dissertation announcement will include basic information both in Finnish and English about the upcoming doctoral defence and an abbreviated summary of the main result and content of the dissertation. Please do not use abbreviations for your title.

The information both for the website and in Patio is received from the online form filled in by the doctoral candidate. It is advisable that the doctoral candidate fills the form carefully in the requested language; some fields require information in Finnish and some should only be completed in English. The same form will be used for the creation of the dissertation’s webpage both in Finnish and English. The information will be processed by the University Communications.

Before filling in the form, make sure you have all the necessary information needed to submit the form. Fill in the information in the form carefully. To publish the information of your dissertation on the website, the information must be correct and it is your responsibility to provide accurate and correct information on the form. Published information will be corrected only within limited resources.

If your dissertation is remotely accessible, please create a link address in advance of completing the form. A remote link is required before the form can be submitted.

An abbreviated general summary can be written in either Finnish or English. If you need help with the Finnish version, ask guidance from your custos or Finnish colleagues. If it is not possible to translate the text into English or Finnish, the doctoral thesis abstract can be entered in another language.

The form must be sent no later than fourteen days before the doctoral defence.

Online form for the description of research

In addition, if you wish, you can send a digital photo of yourself by email to viestinta@oulu.fi. The photo will be forwarded with the dissertation information to the media, who can publish it when they report on the dissertation.

One or two days before the doctoral defence, Kaleva newspaper usually publishes a short news report on every doctoral candidate and doctoral defence taking place at the University of Oulu. University Communications send the information and photos to Kaleva on the basis of material submitted by the doctoral candidate.

Kaleva news coverage requires that the doctoral candidate submits the online form in the desired schedule in accordance with this instruction.

University Communications will formulate a press release on the selected dissertations based on the description provided in the online form, and distribute it to the media approximately one week before the doctoral defence. A press release will be drawn up and distributed if the dissertation and its description contain interesting information relevant to a specialist subject, and the matter can be presented in an easily accessible manner.

Press releases are distributed to, for instance, national and regional newspapers, YLE, local radio and TV channels, local newspapers in Northern Finland and some specialist magazines, depending on the scientific field of the dissertation (including Tiede, Tekniikka & Talous, Mediuutiset, Lääkärilehti).

If the doctoral candidate wants other media (such as a magazine, or the local newspaper of another region) to be informed on the dissertation, this may be indicated in the Further information section of the online form.

University Communications will not send the information to any scientific journals, but the doctoral candidate may contact them directly. Similarly, it must be agreed directly with the editorial staff of the media in question, if a wider article and/or a dissertation will be provided for its use.

Information on selected dissertations is also published on the university's X account. University Communications will format the tweet.

Doctoral candidates can also format the tweet themselves and post it on their own X account and tag @UniOulu.

The recommended text length for a general abbreviated summary is between 1000 and 2500 characters. The main conclusion of the thesis or other interesting finding should be written at the beginning of the text and a short title can be formulated.

Journalists interested in the topic may wish to contact the doctoral candidate for further information before the date of the dissertation.

Further information: viestinta@oulu.fi