Theses topics
You can find a list of the doctoral theses currently being worked on in the Lidé na katedře section.
Rules for the preparation of a doctoral thesis
Monographic doctoral thesis
The length of a doctoral thesis ranges from 100 to 250 standard pages of main text. The main text is defined as the body of the thesis itself, including notes, but excluding the bibliography, appendices and table of contents. All pages must be consecutively numbered. Published articles or chapters by the author may form part of the thesis in the form of chapters or sections thereof (provided the author is the lead author of these texts; contributions by others are not permitted).
Title page bearing the university letterhead, the title of the thesis, the names of the author and the thesis supervisor, the place of publication and the year.
Acknowledgements – optional
A declaration by the author that they have written the thesis independently and have used only the sources cited in the bibliography. If the thesis includes, to any extent, a previously published chapter or article with other co-authors, the nature and extent of their co-authorship must be stated.
An abstract in Czech and English summarising the basic information about the thesis’s content and its findings; limited to one page.
A table of contents, which must be complete (including all appendices) and specify the starting pages of the chapters (subchapters). If the appendices form a separate, independently bound part of the thesis, the table of contents is placed at the beginning of the main text and also includes a Table of Appendices.
Introduction. The introduction must contain an analysis of the current state of the field of research in question; existing theoretical knowledge must be subjected to critical evaluation and serve as the basis for formulating the hypotheses which the PhD student sets out to prove in their thesis. The PhD student will familiarise the reader with the approach, school of thought or views they favour and explain the use of appropriate scientific methods in the preparation of the thesis.
Main text. This contains the results of the doctoral candidate’s own research in pursuit of a clearly defined objective.
Footnotes are best placed at the bottom of the relevant page of the text, although this depends on the chosen citation style.
Conclusion. The concluding section of the thesis contains a summary, an assessment of whether the set objectives have been met, and the potential for further application of the findings. The formulation of new hypotheses is encouraged.
List of tables, graphs and figures with page references in the text (if the text contains them).
Index of names – optional, but recommended.
Where appropriate, a subject index. This is desirable where it facilitates navigation within the text.
List of references and sources. Bibliographic details must be formatted in accordance with current citation standards (CNS, MLA, APA, ČSN, and the standards of academic journals).
Further mandatory requirements for the doctoral thesis are set out in the ‘MU Study and Examination Regulations’ (Article 30: Doctoral Thesis).
A doctoral thesis comprising individual published articles and chapters
A doctoral thesis may also be submitted in the form of individual published articles or chapters accompanied by commentary. This format will be permitted only in exceptional cases, taking into account the specific topic or methodological approach. The decision to grant an exception is made by the subject committee at its meeting, based on a request from the student recommended by their supervisor. The thesis as a whole must have a unified theme, and the collection of articles/chapters in the monograph must form a coherent whole framed by an introduction and a conclusion.
Content and formal requirements:
The thesis must consist of at least three articles, accompanied by an introduction, a conclusion (see below), an index of names (optional) and a bibliography, as well as a foreign-language summary of at least one standard page in length (unless the thesis is submitted in English).
The articles must be in published form or at least in ‘accepted’ status; the candidate must be listed as the first author on two of them; the third text may be replaced by two articles in which the candidate is listed as the second author (this is not permitted for the remaining articles).
The minimum requirements for the articles are as follows:
1 article must be at least WoS Q1–3 according to AIS (for FORD 6 disciplines, Scopus Q1–2)
1 article may be from any quartile according to WoS (AIS)
1 article must be WoS Q1–Q2 according to AIS
The number given is a minimum; it is both possible and advisable to supplement these texts with further articles or chapters from books, in which case the order of authorship or quartiles is no longer taken into account.
In accordance with Article 30, paragraph 4(c) of the MU Study Regulations, the thesis must contain a statement by the co-authors confirming the student’s authorship of the specified parts of the thesis and assessing their contribution, for all texts (i.e. including those that exceed the minimum requirement).
Like a monograph, the thesis should contain (see above for specifications) the following sections: Title Page, Acknowledgements, Declaration of Honesty, Abstract, Table of Contents, Co-authors’ Declaration, and, at the end, where applicable, an Index of Names or Subject Terms (optional) and a Bibliography (compulsory).
The introduction and conclusion must together comprise at least 40 standard pages (including notes, excluding the bibliography and index of names) and must meet the standards of an academic text. The introduction shall contain a comprehensive review of the current state of knowledge on the given topic (approximately 10–15 pages), the methodology employed, the hypotheses investigated by the student, a summary of the doctoral student’s achievements, and a description of their personal contribution. Any co-authorship must be clearly and thoroughly defined and justified here (see also Article 30, paragraph 4b, of the MU Study Regulations) and, above all, the connection between the individual publications must be justified. The research conclusions must be properly substantiated and must be based on the partial conclusions contained in the articles forming part of the submitted collection (in accordance with the conventions of the discipline, the ‘Conclusion’ may follow the ‘Discussion’ section) and their contribution to the current state of knowledge must be justified.
Reviewers assess the thesis as a whole and need not (indeed, should not) take into account any previous peer-review process carried out by individual academic journals.
Updated 15 September 2026