The following minimum standards must be met in order to be awarded a doctoral degree:

1. publication in extenso of at least two papers, on the subject of the thesis, in journals and/or volumes of scientific events indexed in Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection Thomson Reuters databases and/or international databases;

2. recognised international databases (IDBs) are: Scopus, IEEE Xplore, Elsevier Science Direct, Engineering Village, Compendex, INSPEC, Springerlink, Cabi, EBSCO, CSA ILLUMINA/PROQUEST and Index Copernicus and Urlich's;

3. the doctoral candidate must be first author on at least one article.