Half-time review

Each doctoral student must conduct a half-time review to be able to take a Doctoral degree. The purpose is to assess progress in the Doctoral Education and to give advice for future directions. Focus should be degree of attainment of learning outcomes.

Frequently asked questions

The main supervisor and the doctoral student are responsible for and will take the initiative in organising the half-time review.

Here is the link to the booking system TimeEdit

The Doctoral student/supervisor are responsible for booking room for the seminar and that half-time seminar advertised on the KI website.

The half-time board should include 3 postdoctoral researchers who are independent of the project and who possess adequate subject knowledge.

At least 1 member must belong to a different department than the PhD student’s department.

The committee members do not need to be “docent / assistant professor” or equivalent.

It's okay if the PhD student and/or some of the supervisors have co-published with the half-time board members. However, the half-time board members should not be involved in the PhD student's project.

It's an advantage if one or all 3 of the half-time board members later sits on the examination board at the PhD student’s public defence. In this case, however, the supervisors and the half-time board members should not have co-published during the last 5 years.

A half-time presentation takes normally between 30 min and 1 hour, but there are no strict rules for that.

The half-time board should get enough information so that they can provide good input, including background of the studies, status of the sub-projects and plans for further work.

English is highly recommended in order to practice for a Public defence which is commonly held in English due to international board members.

First an open discussion between the PhD student, the half-time board members and other participants.

Then a discussion between the PhD student, the supervisors and the half-time board members.

Then the PhD student should have the opportunity to have an individual discussion (without the supervisors) with the half-time board members.

The whole process, including the presentation and discussions, takes normally approx. 2 hours.

1. Write half-time report

The half-time report should be written before applying to have a half-time review.

You need to check the report for plagiarism using iThenticate and discuss the result with your supervisor before applying for half-time review.

2. Application

1 month before the seminar:

E-mail Form 5. Part 1 'Application/notification' to the Director of Doctoral education at CNS.

Do not send Ladok transcript (utdrag), we check it in the system instead.

2 weeks before the seminar:

Send the following documents to the Halftime board:

Signed Form 5. Part 1 'Application/notification'
Half-time report
Copy of ISP
Research plan
Ladok transcript - each PhD student can retrieve official transcript of records from his/her Ladok
Ethical permits
Publications and manuscripts

3. Advertisement

After your application is approved by the Director of Doctoral Education (you will receive an email), the half-time seminar should be advertised.

For advertisement you need to contact webb@cns.ki.se and inform about the following:

• title
• your name
• your research group
• place, time
• supervisors
• half-time review board
• brief description (optional)
• Zoom-meeting link

The Doctoral student/supervisor are responsible for booking room for the seminar and that half-time seminar advertised on the KI website.

After proposal by the supervisor, the Director of Doctoral Education will appoint a board consisting of three researchers with adequate knowledge of the subject and who are independent from the project and have obtained a Doctoral degree. The board, together with the supervisors and the doctoral student, shall assess the prospects of the project leading to a Doctoral degree and propose any necessary changes to the Individual study plan (ISP).

4. Half-time protocol

After the half-time seminar:

Send Form 5. Part 1 + Part 2 to:
Alexandre Beckman, CNS, Tomtebodavägen 18A plan 5

It is important that the protocol completely filled at the seminar - when board members are still in place.

It is the supervisor's responsibility to ensure that board members fully fill in the fields where comments and recommendations are fully required. It is not enough to respond with an OK, then this indicates the degree of approval. The protocol should be a guide on how the learning outcomes are met and if anything needs to be changed.

When applying for dissertation examines the Dissertation Committee examines the halftime protocol to ensure that the seminar is completed, that the study plan and ethical guidelines are followed, and if the recommendation of follow-up is needed. Inadequate signed declaration will be returned for completion.