Important to know and guidelines
According to Sweden’s Administrative Procedure Act, a member of a decision-making body participating in a deliberation or presentation who can be assumed to lack objectivity in their position – who has a conflict of interest – is disqualified from enacting their role. The Administrative Procedure Act also states that "A person who is aware of a circumstance that can be assumed to disqualify them must immediately notify the authority of this." Members of an examination committee and faculty opponents must thus be completely independent of the PhD student, supervisor and project.
The Faculty of Medicine applies the Swedish Research Council's (VR) rules on conflicts of interest:
- There is a conflict of interest when research collaboration and co-authorship has taken place during the last five years. A co-authored article is considered enough to constitute a conflict of interest.
- Conflict of interest may be considered to exist for longer than five years if the collaboration was close.
- A relationship between the PhD student and supervisor is considered a conflict of interest regardless of how long ago the collaboration took place.
- Exceptions to the five-year rule can be made for collaborations in the form of multi-centre studies, which are judged on a case-by-case basis. In this case, the parties concerned must certify in writing that there is no conflict of interest.
Related information
Learn more about the Swedish Research Council’s rules around conflicts of interest at their website
If generative AI tools have been used in the thesis work, this must be reported. It is the PhD-student, with the support of the supervisor, who ultimately decides how this is best reported in the thesis.
As a starting point, FUN recommends that a statement similar to the one below be added to the summary, and that the areas of use be specified in the method section: “This thesis has been partly produced using the generative AI model(s) [...]. I have processed the generated text and image and take full responsibility for the content. A more detailed explanation of how and when the AI models were used can be found in the methodology section.”
Plagiarism check is mandatory and must be carried out on the thesis’ summary (kappa) and on all manuscripts before the defence of the thesis or licentiate examination. Published articles are not included in the plagiarism check. (It is also a strong recommendation to exclude references that will provide a 100% match when checking.) It is the responsibility of the supervisor to make sure that the plagiarism check is carried out and that a certification is sent together with the resulting digital analysis to the PhD Studies Office (the address can be found on the certificate) no later than six weeks before the public defence.
The Research Studies Board recommends that you continuously review your material in the digital plagiarism checking system during the course of your doctoral programme, in collaboration with your supervisor. The certificate is however only required in connection with the examination (licentiate or doctoral degree).
Certification of Plagiarism Check (PDF 628 kB, new tab)
The plagiarism checks are carried out using the software Inspera Originality,for which Lund University has a campus licence. Go to Inspera Originality (choose Login with SWAMID), and login with your LUCAT-id. A guide to the tool is available at Digital tool - Inspera Originality. Go to the section titled ‘Inspera Originality outside Canvas.
If you have any questions about the tool, please contact servicedesk [at] lu [dot] se (servicedesk[at]lu[dot]se)
As stated in the instructions, there is no exact percentage that proves plagiarism, but it is required that the supervisor analyzes the results and makes an assessment. Deliberate plagiarism is very rare, but if there is a suspicion of it, the supervisor can contact the chairperson of the Research Studies Board Karin Jirström (karin [dot] jirstrom [at] med [dot] lu [dot] se (karin[dot]jirstrom[at]med[dot]lu[dot]se)) for further analysis. Contact can be made through Emma Idman (emma [dot] roybon [at] med [dot] lu [dot] se (emma[dot]idman[at]med[dot]lu[dot]se)).
The dissertation grant (SEK 32,000 +OH) is transferred from the PhD Studies Office to the department for remuneration to the opponent and to offset the costs of preparing for the dissertation.
The opponent's honorary is SEK 15,000. Travel and hotel costs (usually two overnight stays) are also reimbursed.
The faculty's contribution to the printing of the thesis (production costs) is what remains of the SEK 32,000 after the opponent's costs have been paid. If the costs of printing the thesis are higher, the difference needs to be covered by the department. The PhD student should therefore always consult the head of department in good time about the structure of the thesis, language review and other costs in connection with the completion of the thesis.
As the PhD student receives invoices for printing, proofreading, transcription, etc. these are submitted to the department secretary who arranges payment.