First Doctoral Defense — Between Publication Pressure and Graduation

My first doctoral examination took place in December 2024. Getting to this stage was, honestly, a journey full of drama — one of the main reasons being the doctoral program’s graduation requirement: publishing three international journal papers after officially enrolling as a doctoral student.

By November 2024, I was still overwhelmed by fear and uncertainty. I kept asking myself the same question: would I really be able to register for my defense and graduate in March 2025? At that point, everything still depended heavily on my publication status.

Eventually, after my second paper as a doctoral student — my third paper overall — was officially published in November 2024, I was finally allowed to register for the exam.

Graduation Requirements That Were Never Clearly Defined

A quick note on the graduation requirements: the “three papers” rule was never something I found clearly written anywhere. At least, I never came across an official document that explicitly explained it — it felt more like an unwritten institutional rule, enforced in practice rather than on paper.

What made this more confusing: some students in the same program graduated with just one published paper. That lack of clarity created unnecessary confusion and pressure.

What saddened me most was learning that a paper I published during my first year of the doctoral program — based on research from my Master’s — wasn’t counted toward the requirement. During my Master’s, I’d been told this paper could count. I only found out it didn’t after entering my third year of doctoral studies. I was genuinely stunned — it meant working even harder to publish an additional paper in a short window of time.

Mental State Leading Up to the Defense

In the weeks before the first defense, my mental state was under real pressure. Even though I was allowed to register, I still had one major goal unfinished: publishing one more paper. That meant I couldn’t fully stop running experiments — I was still going back and forth to the lab for better data while preparing for the defense.

Time felt extremely limited, and sleep had to be sacrificed. On top of preparation slides, I also had to start writing my dissertation draft, due to the examiners a week before the defense. Structuring the narrative, keeping the data consistent, and writing precise discussions demanded a lot of focus and energy — the exhaustion wasn’t just physical, it was mental too.

Preparation and the Defense Itself

The first doctoral defense is often called the hardest, mainly because it’s private — attended only by the examining professors. In my case, there were four: my primary supervisor, two professors from NIMS, and one from University of Tsukuba.

Preparation was relatively short. I started focusing seriously about two to three weeks before the date, did two rehearsals with my supervisor, and practiced the rest on my own — refining the flow, memorizing key points, and preparing extra figures or tables for the Q&A.

Administratively, I was lucky — my supervisor handled most of the registration and paperwork. On the day itself, my job was surprisingly simple: buy mineral water and tea for the examining professors.

Duration and Lasting Impressions

One memorable thing: the defense ran long. From what I remember, the presentation lasted around 30 minutes, followed by nearly an hour of Q&A. Many parts of the dissertation needed clarifying, deepening, or revising — questions ranged from methodology to data interpretation to future research directions.

Interestingly, I don’t remember many specific details of the session itself. What stuck with me most was that the overall atmosphere felt relatively relaxed, and the feedback I received was constructive and largely positive.

After the First Defense

Once it was over, the dominant feelings were satisfaction and relief. Honestly, from the moment I was allowed to register for the defense, I already felt calmer. Just being able to register felt like a clear sign I was on the right track, with a strong chance of graduating in March 2025.