This is formally defined in the doctoral degree regulations (in German). University professors and junior professors at JGU are generally authorized to supervise doctorates.

Private lecturers (Privatdozent:innen in German, abbreviation: PD) at JGU are generally also authorized to supervise doctorates. In individual cases, other persons may also be appointed as authorized examiners and thus supervisors in doctoral procedures. In case of doubt, the doctoral offices of the dean’s/rector’s offices can also provide information on this.

There are two ways to find potential supervisors:

JGU Directory of Staff and Institutions Here you will find all departments and their chairs under the heading “Faculties” (in the left bar). Professors, junior professors and, in some cases, private lecturers are listed for each chair. This directory provides a quick overview, but usually does not contain any detailed information about the main research areas etc. of the lecturers.

Homepages of the institutes/departments/chairs will take you to the homepages of the individual faculties and from there to the pages of the respective institutes, departments, chairs, etc. On the personal pages of the supervisors you will find a lot of useful information on research focuses, publications, research projects etc., and in some cases also information on the doctoral projects currently or recently supervised.

If you would like to do an individual doctorate you can contact a supervisor you consider suitable at any time. There are no application deadlines or formal requirements (for structured programmes and collaborative projects other requirements may apply).

In the area of individual doctorates, supervisors decide independently how many and which doctoral candidates they will accept for supervision. It is generally not possible to tell from the homepage, for example, whether a particular supervisor is interested in accepting (further) doctoral candidates. Similarly, there is usually no advertisement for possible doctoral topics. Rather, in the case of an individual doctorate, you must take the initiative yourself and consider how you can win over the supervisor for yourself and your project.

It may be useful to reflect on the following questions in preparation for an initial contact/interview:

• Key data on the research project: topic, research question, possibly initial considerations on the corpus and methodology and the state of research
• Academic curriculum vitae, in particular, which degrees you hold or the current status of your studies. If applicable degree certificate/transcript of records
• Motivation for the doctorate
• Why did you choose this particular topic and research question? What do you find interesting, relevant and topical about it?
• What preliminary work have you already done (e.g. initial review of the state of research, initial archive research)?
• Current research interests/research projects of the supervisor that you would like to build on with your project. Why did you contact this particular person?
• Academic recommendations from your home university, if available

Finding the most suitable supervisor can take some time. Supervisors are not always able to process requests promptly, e.g. due to vacation, illness, maternity/parental leave, research stays abroad, research sabbaticals, conference participation or occasional high workloads (especially at the beginning of the semester or during the examination phase). A potential supervisor will often want to arrange a personal interview with you first or request further documents from you before deciding whether to take on the supervision (or mentoring within the framework of the research proposal scholarship). If the person you have approached is unable to take on your supervision, they may recommend that you contact another potential supervisor.

Finally, you should also take the time to get an idea of whether you can see yourself working with the intended supervisor/mentor for the period of the research proposal scholarship or even the entire doctorate.

Successful communication between the doctoral candidate and the supervisor is essential for the success of the doctoral project. Particularly in the humanities and social sciences, the possible forms of supervision and general conditions are extremely diverse. Due to the variety of individual doctoral goals, but also the different research personalities of doctoral candidates and supervisors, very different supervision concepts can lead to success.

It is therefore all the more important that you talk to your intended supervisor at the beginning of your doctorate about the structure of the supervisory relationship and check whether your mutual expectations are compatible.

You can find more information on this under Checklist for the initial consultation

The supervision agreement is a useful instrument for recording, reviewing and, if necessary, amending the agreements made. It can be helpful to talk to other doctoral candidates of your intended supervisor and ask about their experiences. Of course, this is always subjective, but it can give you a first impression. You can often see on a professor’s homepage which/how many doctoral projects are currently being supervised and which have been completed recently.