Evaluation Criteria for Degree Application and Final Examination of Thesis
accepted by Journals written in English(February 22, 2016 the Faculty Council approved)(June 26, 2019 Partial revisions by the Faculty Council)(January 22, 2020 Partial revisions by the Faculty Council)【Doctoral Course】
The application for academic degree entails thesis submission as described below. For an applicant who has
obtained designated school credits and has submitted a thesis, for which you are the first author, a thesis
screening and final examination will be given.
Evaluation Criteria for a thesis1) The thesis should sufficiently dissert the research background, including the documented facts, which serve
as a background of the research. The objectives and fundamental strategy of the research, detailed
experimental methodology, result of experiments and its interpretation, should also be included. In addition,
the thesis must include a sufficient discussion of the research, including a deep discussion of the literature
and a summary of the significance of the research, etc.
2) The thesis should be written in English and appear in one of the “Journals written in English for academic
degree application” designated by the Graduate School of Medical Sciences.
3) The applicant for an academic degree must be the first author of the thesis. When the paper is a joint work
between the applicant and another researcher on an equal contribution basis, it must be clearly stated in thethesis that both of them are regarded as the first co-authors (with equal contribution).
4) The thesis shall not have been applied by co-author nor accepted as his or her thesis.
5) The thesis shall not have been applied by co-author as relevant paper through “B. Screening criteria of athesis and assessment criteria for the final examination by submitting a thesis and one or more relevantpaper”, nor accepted as his/her relevant paper.
6) The thesis should state “Kumamoto University” as the degree applicants’ affiliation.
7) Co-authorship or acknowledgments in the thesis must include the degree applicant’s research supervisor
from the Graduate School of Medical Sciences.
8) The thesis such as short communication should not be accepted as a thesis based on this criteria unless it
fulfill the criteria described above at 1).
Criteria for registration of “Journals written in English for academic degree application”
1) For foreign academic journals written in English, they should have a peer-review system and release thenames of the editorial board members.
2) For domestic journals written in English, they should stipulate submission written in English, have a peerreview system and release the names of the editorial board members.
3) Journals must be registered in PubMed or Scopus.
4) PubMed is a registration of MEDLINE and does not include PMC (formerly PubMed Central).
5) Online-format journals are acceptable so long as the conditions mentioned above are satisfied.
Evaluation SystemThe Faculty Council shall establish a thesis review committee; it shall be comprised of one main examiner and twoor more sub-examiners. The thesis review committee shall conduct the thesis review, examination and consultation.
An academic advisor, an introductory advisor and advisors who belong to the same department of the applicant are
not permitted to be examiners. An advisor who engaged in his/her thesis as co-author is not permitted neither.
Evaluation Method and Items
After the confirmation that the thesis has been written in accordance with the criteria of a thesis, the thesis review
committee shall conduct a final defense by an oral examination (public presentation), based on the criteria below.
Assessment criteria for the final examination
The final defense is an oral examination (public presentation) and an assessment is made by the following

criteria:
1) The examinee fully comprehends the content of his/her research and is able to explain it in detail.
2) The examinee is able to logically analyze the issues raised in his/her research.
3) The examinee is able to dissert the future prospect of his/her research.
4) The examinee has advanced knowledge in the field of his/her research.
5) The examinee has basic knowledge about fields related to his/her research.

Note：
This Evaluation Criteria shall go into effect on June 26, 2019.
The previous criteria shall apply to journals in which the thesis submitted prior to June 26, 2019 are published.
Journals registered prior to June 26, 2019 but not meeting the criteria will not be accepted as registeredjournals for those who were admitted in 2019 and beyond.