Extraordinary Doctoral Awards: Frequently asked questions

The university sent an email directly to all those fulfilling the requirements, to inform them of the call. If you have not received this notification, it means that your thesis is not eligible for the award, and you therefore cannot submit an application for this call.

You can submit your application up until 11:59 p.m. on the last day of the established period (9 March). If you make a mistake when completing it, don't worry: you can submit a new application prior to the deadline. If an applicant sends more than one application within the established period, only the last application received will be deemed valid, all documentation submitted in previous applications being disregarded.  Those applications that do not provide appropriate accreditation in the section of the form set aside for this as to their fulfilment of requirement C established in Condition 2 of this call, by submitting official certificates or valid, verifiable evidence, will likewise be disregarded.

You must send all the documentation required in the following separate files:

• signed request,
• document certifying compliance with the requirement of Condition 2C,
• appendix of contributions derived from the doctoral thesis,
• documentation accrediting contributions

The size of each of these files must not exceed 25 MB per section. In the case of documentation accrediting contributions, a compressed file (ZIP or similar) must be uploaded. The total size of all files must not exceed 100 MB. Very important: the doctoral thesis must not be attached.

To demonstrate compliance with the requirement established in Condition 2C, you must select, from among all the contributions presented in the appendix of contributions derived from the doctoral thesis, the one that meets the requirements of that section. If compliance can be demonstrated through more than one contribution, you only need to select one of them.

Very important: the chosen contribution must also be included in the appendix of contributions derived from the doctoral thesis, as well as in the documentation accrediting contributions.

No. As indicated in the call for fulfilling Condition 2C, only publications that specifically state the candidate’s affiliation with the EHU will be accepted.

Likewise, for all other contributions, only those that explicity state the candidate’s affiliation with the EHU will be accepted.

As established in the call announcement, "Applicants shall then have a period of 10 working days from the day following the posting of the provisional list to lodge any claims or complaints or correct any shortcomings observed in the application. To do so, they should complete the online form available on the website".

During this phase, no new merits may be added; only corrections to those already included in the application (as indicated in Condition 3.1) will be permitted.

If an applicant submits more than one claim within the established deadline, only the last claim received will be considered valid, and all documentation submitted in previous claims will be rejected.

Claims submitted after the deadline will also be rejected.

In the case of articles in indexed journals or publications derived from congresses of established standing, which, given their quality and positioning in international rankings, may be deemed equivalent to publications in indexed journals, in accordance with the criteria established in the current Ruling of the CNEAI for the corresponding scientific field, up to a maximum of five (5) articles will be admitted, along with up to two (2) back-up articles.

For all other contributions, there is no limit as to their number.

You may include all merits that are the direct result of your doctoral thesis, from the date of your initial enrolment on the EHU doctorate programme up until the final deadline for the submission of applications.

No, consideration will only be given to the merits indicated in the annex indicated in subsection B of Condition 3.2, which must be properly justified.

Yes. Justification must be presented for all merits included in the application, except in the case of publications, for which it will be sufficient to indicate the details allowing them to be located, including the DOI, ISBN, ISSN.

Merits must not be duplicated. However, if the results of a study have been presented at a congress and also given rise to a scientific article published in parallel or subsequently in a journal, you may present both contributions. The tribunal will decide whether it considers this merit to be a duplicate or not.

As indicated in item 3 of subsection 4.5.5, up to a maximum of five (5) articles will be admitted, in addition to up to two (2) back-up articles, all published in journals indexed in databases of recognised prestige in the corresponding academic field. The back-up articles will be appraised only in the event of a tie.

As indicated in item 3 of subsection 4.5.5, publications derived from congresses of established standing, which, given their quality and positioning in international rankings, may be deemed equivalent to publications in indexed journals, will be appraised in the same manner as publications in indexed journals, provided that this equivalence is set forth in the criteria established in the current Ruling of the CNEAI for the corresponding scientific field.

Such articles may be included in the 'Other' subsection.

Yes. You can include articles that have received definitive and official acceptance from the publisher. You must present a certificate or letter from the publisher in proof of this, or otherwise the article preprint.

The quality indicators of journals refer to different aspects, including: Impact Factor (IF), category or categories in which the publication is included, position of the journal in its category, quartile, number of citations.

In the case of books: prestige of the publisher, number of citations that a book receives, etc.

For scientific journals, the most common indicator is the JCR impact index, and the quartile of the journal's position within its category. To complete the form:

• Category: This is the academic area in which the journal is classified (e.g. "ENGINEERING, MULTIDISCIPLINARY").
• Position: The place occupied by the journal within that category.
• Other quality indicators: This field is optional, and may be used to include other relevant indicators, such as the SJR, the number of citations received, or Altmetric data.

If in doubt, we advise you to consult your thesis director or the EHU library.

You need to provide the full citation of the article, including the DOI to assist in locating it.

For example: Smith, J. (2023). The impact of social media on mental health. Journal of Social Psychology, 163(2), 25-42. DOI: 10.1080/00224545.2023.2213789

To indicate the data for the journal where the article designated as a merit was published, you should refer to the year when publication occurs, or in default thereof, in the case of recently published articles for which there is no record yet of the impact for that year, the closest year.

No.  The tribunal will use the JCR ranking edition that was published and available during the official period for the appraisal of merits. Subsequent updates will not be applied retroactively.

Mere attendance is not considered a merit. In order for this to be appraised, you must have presented a communication or address. This should be accredited by means of the presentation certificate, and the proceedings of the congress, if these exist. The poster or presentation of the communication will not be considered as evidence in accreditation of this merit.

It refers to whether, aside from the oral or poster presentation, your study was published in the proceedings of the congress, which typically have their own ISBN or ISSN. You will in this case need to provide the details requested and enclose the official publication as evidence justifying the merit.

No, they cannot be considered as such.

All the information you submit is confidential, and will be treated in accordance with data protection law by the tribunal and the staff of the Doctoral School. If you nonetheless so wish, you may redact or anonymise those parts of the document that are not strictly necessary in justification of the merit.

• International Thesis: This grants 2 points automatically. The tribunal already has this information, and so there is no need for accreditation or inclusion in other merits.
• Awards: Consideration will be given to any awards received directly in connection with the results of your thesis. You may include these in "Other merits".
• Bursaries and pre-doctoral funding: A mere nomination for bursaries or pre-doctoral funding calls will not be considered a merit, as it is not a direct result of the thesis. This should therefore not be included in "Other merits".
• Industrial thesis, drawn up in the Basque language, book reviews: In the event of doubt, we advise you to include all documentation you have, to allow the tribunal to appraise it in accordance with its chosen criteria.

Claims must be submitted only via the official channel indicated on the website for the call, and by the deadline established for this. Claims sent by email or other channels will not be admitted. Claims may only be presented by the applicant individuals.

If an applicant submits more than one claim within the established deadline, only the last claim received will be considered valid, and all documentation submitted in previous claims will be rejected.

Claims submitted after the deadline will also be rejected.

No.  The claims period is only to register your disagreement with the score assigned to the merits that you already presented in your initial application. No new documents or merits may be added. In making your claim, simply refer to the merits regarding which you disagree, as the tribunal already has all the original documentation.

The direct consequence is that the tribunal will review the score awarded to your case to ascertain whether there was any error in the appraisal. This may lead to an increase in the score, a decrease, or the score awarded may remain unchanged. Once the period has passed for all claims to be reviewed, the definitive resolution will be published on the website of the Extraordinary Award Call, and you will receive individual email notification with the tribunal's response to your case.