The recall of the official opponent refers to regulatory documents and information materials on the examination of dissertations.
The procedure for defending a dissertation provides for the appointment by a specialized academic council of a number of officials who give an unbiased assessment of the study. An opponent is a competent scientist in a particular field of science, who is able to conduct an exhaustive and objective assessment of a dissertation in accordance with certain principles and requirements. He should summarize the content of the work with an evaluation characteristic and criticisms.
A mandatory element of debate during the defense is the opponent’s recall, read out during his speech at a meeting of the special council. The scientist prepares his opinion on the study provided for the examination on the basis of a detailed preliminary acquaintance with it.
Traditionally, two experts are required to defend a PhD thesis . One official opponent is a candidate of sciences, the other is a doctor. To protect a doctorate, three reviews are required, provided exclusively by doctors of science. The document must be sent to the council in the proper form and with comments no later than 10 days before the day of defense, so that the dissertation has the opportunity to familiarize themselves with it and prepare comments.
The main components that the opponent should display in the recall are as follows:
- relevance of the selected topic;
- the degree of argumentation of the provisions of scientific novelty;
- level of conclusions and recommendations for the application of the results;
- completeness of the display of research data in scientific publications and the information content of all sections of the dissertation.
Arguing the relevance of the work, it is necessary to identify relations with state scientific programs, promising areas of development of science and technology.
The provisions of scientific novelty are a very important aspect in any dissertation. The opponent faithfully and objectively reflects its strengths and weaknesses, without exaggerating or downplaying the contribution of the researcher.
The review must necessarily list the key problems that are being investigated, as well as briefly present your own opinion on how to solve them: are the methods chosen correctly, how high is the importance of these problems, are the results correct.
If any statements raise doubts, induce discussion, the opponent must indicate and proclaim this.
One of the main tasks in preparing a review is to determine the significance of the work for science and practice and to indicate the scope of application of the results.
As a result, the opponent indicates compliance or non-compliance with the content of the passport of specialties, makes a proposal for the award of a scientific degree.
In the review, it is required to note the completeness of the results and a description of the progress of the study, as well as indicate inaccuracies in the design. Incorrect use of other people's scientific works, lack of references to authorities is unacceptable. In addition, the opponent can comment on all the scientific activities of the dissertation in the recall. These are articles in specialized publications, activity at various conferences, practical developments and acts of their implementation.
In the event that a recall indicates a low level of work, this should be reasoned in accordance with all requirements.
An opponent is a participant in a degree event . Accordingly, he is responsible for the objective and truthful information provided in documents.