An Enquiring which supervises the work of a Doctorant is called reader (with female, direct or directing).

In certain cases, the same thesis can be framed by several readers (one speaks then about thesis into cotutelle and deputy manager of thesis). The reasons of a Co-framing are varied: the deputy managers can be researchers belonging at different groups in collaboration (in particular, in the case of international collaborations), researchers of different disciplines framing a thesis transdisciplinaire, researchers academic and private companies in the case of an industrial collaboration, or finally of the researchers of the different seniority - youngest being thus formed with the framing.

The reader principal generally belongs to academic research and justifies of a sufficient experiment of that and research task, sometimes of framing. A reader can frame several doctorands simultaneously.

Regulation in France

In France, the doctorate is regulated by.

This text specifies that a director or deputy manager of thesis must be:

• either a Professor of the universities or equivalent,
• or an Enquiring or a Teacher-researcher of an establishment of higher education, an public agency of research or a foundation of research, having the Accreditation to supervise research (HDR),
• or a doctor, personally selected because of its scientific competence by the chief of establishment, on a proposal from the director of the doctoral school and after opinion of the scientific advice of the establishment.

A reader can frame several doctorands simultaneously, within the limit fixed by the scientific advice of the establishment in which he works. He can profit from a premium of doctoral framing and research (PEDR). See the lawful references on the site of the Guild of the Doctorands.

Anglo-Saxon regulation

In the ango-Saxon countries, unlike France, the researchers who are not affiliated at a university cannot be a principal reader. They can on the other hand Co-frame doctorands.