Applicants must have made a significant scientific contribution to the subject for which the habilitation is sought beyond the doctoral thesis and must provide evidence of at least four years of scientific activity after the doctorate. Scientific qualification should be evidenced by publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Particular importance is attributed to work in which the applicant is the main author: 
As a rule, the applicant must have published at least 15 original papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals - of which at least eight must have been authored with primary responsibility.

As a rule, authorship with main responsibility can be assumed if the applicant is named first in the list of authors, if necessary also last or as corresponding author. The minimum number of publications may be lower if particularly high-quality and significant original work has been published. The decision on particularly high-quality original papers is made by the members of the habilitation committee, taking into account impact factors (Institute for Scientific Information: SCI / SSCI), after a critical review of the submitted papers.