Qualifying Exam

The Qualifying Exam (EQ) must be submitted within 24 to 30 months after the registration for PhD students. It consists on the evaluation of a manuscript related to the PhD thesis, before it is submitted to a journal. With this process, we expect that the board, of three specialists, shall increase the quality of the manuscript and the chances of publication of the manuscript in the top journals of the area.

In this case, the student must be the first author and the advisor must be an author. It is our expectation that such manuscript shall not be the main article of the research proposal, but a secondary manuscript, as it will contain the results of the first two years of the doctorate. We suggest the students to check indexing and reviewing time of the journal before submission. If you anticipate a long review, submission should be made well in advance, as it is necessary an acceptance or publication of a paper for PhD students before defense date must be set.

To submit the EQ for presentation, the advisor must send the unsubmitted manuscript followed by a letter indicating the prospective journal, suggesting the date and the board for the qualifying exam. We suggest that the manuscript be corrected by professional English proofreader before being submitted to the board. The manuscript must be in English, formatted according to the rules of the journal, and submitted before 20 days of prospective presentation, in order to optimize the suggestions of the board.

The EQ manuscript is an important part of the student’s research project. In the Acknowledgments of the manuscript, a phrase must state: “This paper is part of the Ph.D. requirements of at the Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology Graduate Program of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro”. The board consists of three members with PhDs, at least one PPGBBE faculty member and at least one external member. For external members, a link to CV Lattes must be forwarded.

The student has to make a 30 minutes oral presentation on the manuscript. This presentation will be followed by a discussion with the Examining Board. The quality of the manuscript and the strength of the candidate’s argument during the discussion will be evaluated by the board. The discussion is closed to the public and the presence of the advisor is mandatory. In case of non-approval, the student will have up to 3 months to submit a new EQ taken into account the Examining Board’s corrections.