Character: compulsory
Nº of hours: 8 hours over three years (TC) or five years (TP).
Justification of the activity: The activity aims to develop the following competences in doctoral students:
- Training for scientific research through the development of specific skills applied when taking on different roles within the seminar or conference.
- Developing the ability to critically read research results in any of the areas of knowledge related to the subject matter of the PhD programme.
- Strengthening the ability to observe and identify the problems present in working hypotheses and research topics under study.
- Stimulating the ability to seek answers to key questions and to support them theoretically and methodologically in oral and written form.
Content: Participation in seminars and/or conferences organised by the student's own research group or team, by other research groups, by a department or centre, by the Doctoral School, etc., in which both external and internal guest researchers will give lectures. For each seminar or conference, structured exercises of analysis and synthesis will be programmed, which students will undertake in groups or discussion forums or will compile individually in a report of each seminar to reinforce their capacity for criticism and written expression.
Planning: All the researchers participating in the programme and their national or international collaborators in research networks or projects are available to carry out this training activity. In addition, trainee researchers on this doctoral programme may attend other seminars and/or conferences of interest related to the area of study of their line of research, held at the university itself or at other universities or research centres.
These activities will be scheduled in such a way that each student will be able to organise themselves so as to have a sufficient number of attendances at the end of the three (full-time) or five (part-time) years.
Control procedure: Doctoral students' attendance at these activities will be monitored, their participation in the discussion forums established will be assessed and the written reports on these seminars will be reviewed.
Character: compulsory
Nº of hours: 12 hours over three years (full-time) or five years (part-time).
Justification of the activity: The activity aims to develop the following competences in doctoral students:
- To train for scientific research through the development of specific skills applied when assuming different roles within the working and discussion group.
- To demonstrate the ability to communicate with the academic and scientific community about the areas of knowledge of the line of research of their doctoral thesis, in the forms and languages commonly used in the international scientific community.
Contents: Participation in regular meetings for the presentation and discussion of research results, the proposal of new working hypotheses and the design of experiments or models.
Planning: Each group will schedule these activities according to its own dynamics and work routine. However, the PhD student will be asked to present at least twice to the other participants in this activity, from the second year of enrolment in the PhD programme, the development of their research and a preview of the results they are obtaining.
Control procedure: the director and, where appropriate, the tutor, will monitor the student's attendance and assess their participation in the course.
Character: compulsory
Nº of hours: 36 hours, mainly in the first year, at the beginning of the doctoral studies, but recoverable in subsequent years, especially in the case of part-time doctoral students (PT).
Justification of the activity: The activity aims to develop the following competences in doctoral students:
- To show PhD students the specificities of research in the field of humanities, social sciences and communication in general.
- To introduce students to the methodological, linguistic and bibliographical techniques necessary for research into the functioning of current Spanish, the history of Spanish, literature written in this language, as well as linguistics and the theory of literature and the theories, structures and systems of communication.
- To indicate where primary and secondary data sources are located and the techniques for obtaining them.
- To improve the specialised scientific knowledge in their field of work and the instruments to convey this knowledge. To instruct them in the use of computer systems in humanities (digital humanities) and in analysis procedures in communication.
Contents: the doctoral programme will design and offer courses in basic research methodology for the main lines of research. In some of the lines, the courses may be replaced by activities organised outside the programme, the validity of which will be determined by the Academic Committee.
Planning: each PhD student, guided by their tutor and director, will select and schedule the courses to be taken according to their own needs and availability.
Control procedure: the teaching staff in charge of teaching the courses will award the students, once they have finished, the grade of pass or fail in each course, through a continuous assessment system that will take into account attendance, active participation and other complementary assessment procedures that may be applied in accordance with the nature of each course.
Character: compulsory
Nº of hours: 20 hours over three years (full-time) or five years (part-time).
Justification of the activity: the activity aims to develop the following competences in doctoral students:
- To demonstrate communication and discussion skills.
- To exchange results and compare opinions and judgements with other researchers.
Contents: the PhD student must attend at least one national or international congress or scientific meeting during the three (full-time) or five years (part-time) of the PhD programme and present an oral or poster presentation of the work carried out in the PhD thesis.
Planing: each doctoral student, guided by their tutor and director, will select and schedule the congress or congresses that they can attend each year, according to their needs and availability. Suggested congresses of interest for doctoral students on this programme are as follows:
- Congresses on the History of the Spanish Language.
- Society of Romance Linguistics and Philology Congresses.
- Spanish Society of Linguistic Historiography Congresses.
- Congresses of the Cervantes Association.
- Young Linguists' Association Congresses.
- Congresses of the Association of Linguistics and Philology of Latin America (ALFAL).
- Congresses of the Spanish Association of Latin American Literary Studies (Asociación Española de Estudios Literarios Hispanoamericanos).
- Spanish Association of Literary Theory Congresses.
- Congresses of the Hispanic Association of Medieval Literature.
- Congresses of the International Golden Age Association.
- Congresses of the International Society for the History of Rhetoric.
- Congresses of the Society of Medieval and Renaissance Studies.
- Spanish Society of General and Comparative Literature Congresses.
- General Linguistics Congresses.
- AE-IC Congress - Spanish Association for Communication Research.
- Congress of the ACOP: Association of Political Communication.
- Congress of ECREA: European Communication Research and Education Association.
- Congress of the ICA: International Communication Association.
- SEP Congress: Spanish Society of Journalism.
- Symposium of the Spanish Society of Linguistics.
Control procedure: in order to evaluate this activity, a certificate of attendance, a certificate of the presentation of the paper will be presented.
Character: compulsory
Nº of hours: This activity cannot be estimated in number of hours, although it will be compulsory to justify at least one publication with the characteristics indicated below during the three years (full-time) or five years (part-time).
Justification of the activity: The activity aims to develop the following competences in doctoral students:
- To demonstrate the ability to synthesise, convey and discuss new and complex ideas by producing a work that can be published in a prestigious indexed journal or publishing house.
- To disseminate results internationally.
- To learn to write in a language of scientific communication other than the usual one.
Contents: the PhD student must be able to write an original and significant contribution (article, book, book chapter) in their field of knowledge, adapted to the standards required by a journal or publishing house of national or international prestige and submit it for review so that this contribution can be recognised and disseminated throughout the scientific community.
In the case of articles, they must be published in a journal indexed in one of the lists indicated below and in the rank specified:
| List of journals | Position in the rank |
|---|---|
| Journal Citation Reports, Social Sciences Edition | |
| Scimago Journal Rank (SJR) | |
| Integrated Classification of Scientific Journals (CIRC) | Ex, A, B and C1 |
| European Reference Index for the Humanities and Social Sciences (ERIH Plus) | |
| CAHRUS Plus | A, B, C and D |
| Journal Citation Reports, Emerging Sources Citation Index | |
| Scopus | |
| Spanish Journals of Social Sciences and Humanities (RESH) | |
| Latindex | At least 30 criteria met |
In the case of books or book chapters, they must be published by a publisher indexed in one of the following ordered lists.
List of publishers:
- Scholarly Publishers Indicators
- Publishers Scholar Metrics
Conference papers published in proceedings books are not considered as book chapters.
Control procedure: a copy of the publication or a copy of the original submitted, together with the acceptance report of the journal to which it has been sent, must be provided.
Character: voluntary
Nº of hours: this activity cannot be estimated in number of hours.
Justification of the activity: the activity aims to develop the following competences in doctoral students:
- Being able to join a foreign research group and collaborate in its research lines and work.
- Learning new research methodologies and techniques and being able to apply them to the development of the doctoral thesis.
- Being able to handle and discuss results and ideas in a language other than one's own.
Contents: mobility stay at a national or foreign centre, belonging to another university or research entity of recognised prestige.
Planning: each PhD student, guided by their tutor and director, will select and decide on the host institution for their research stay and the most appropriate time to carry it out. Together with the host group, they will define and establish the objectives to be pursued and the work plan to be carried out.
Control procedure: a report of the activities carried out and the certificate of the person in charge of the group in which the stay has taken place will be presented.
Character: voluntary
Nº of hours: 150 hours over three (full-time) or five (part-time) years.
Justification of the activity: the activity aims to develop the following competences in doctoral students:
- To promote multidisciplinary integration and internationalisation not only of each of the doctoral students who take part in the mobility programmes, but also of the doctoral programme itself.
- The specific competences to be achieved through mobility actions will coincide with those described for training activities 4, 5 and 7, in which mobility grants and actions will be applied.
Contents: the mobility actions are aimed at promoting the exchange and mobility of ELLCOM students through the mobility programmes and grants that can be established or to which students can apply. The aim is to:
- To promote the attendance and participation of doctoral students enrolled in the programme in training activities carried out at other universities or national or foreign research centres, which are related to the lines of research included in the Doctoral Programme and which may be of interest to researchers in training.
- To facilitate stays of more than one month and no more than six (except in those cases in which there is a prior agreement to carry out part of the thesis in the host research centre) in foreign research centres of recognised prestige, carrying out research work that is relevant to their doctoral training and the development of the doctoral thesis and that will enrich the lines of research of the different research groups integrated in the programme.
Planning: the Academic Committee will seek to ensure that all the doctoral students in the programme can carry out at least one of each of the training activities that require mobility grants, in particular:
- In collaboration with the tutor and/or director of each doctoral student, it will facilitate their attendance, from the second year and until the end of their doctoral training period, at a congress or scientific meeting, as well as at courses that may be of interest for their training.
- Maintain updated information on existing collaborations between the Doctoral Programme and other research groups that cover the different lines of research of the programme and the specific training interests of each doctoral student and enable all of them to opt for a stay throughout their doctoral training period.
- The allocation of exchanges and mobility actions in each case will be made in order of application to the Academic Committee, one per student in each of the possible modalities: attending congresses and presenting papers, attending courses and research stays.
- The temporary organisation of the mobility for each student will be proposed by agreement between the PhD student, their tutor and thesis supervisor. In the case of a research stay, the programming must be reflected in a mobility plan related to the research plan, specifying the objectives, duration, research centre and the responsible researcher at that centre.
- In all cases the Academic Committee will evaluate the mobility proposal of each PhD student, within their activity plan, and will decide on its approval with or without modifications.