Dissertations & Habilitation Theses

You want to publish your dissertation or habilitation thesis?

Please note the following:

Dissertations

Before publication

Guidelines and layout rules

Please refer to your faculty’s doctoral regulations for details of the requirements. These relate to the format of the publication, its content and the necessary publication approvals.

Please follow your faculty’s guidelines on the layout of the title page. If there are no specific guidelines, you are welcome to use our sample title page.
> Sample title page (German, PDF)
> Sample title page (English, PDF)

If you wish to publish a cumulative doctoral thesis, please refer to our detailed information. If in doubt, please contact the library in advance.

Depending on the form of publication chosen, the number of copies to be deposited with the university library varies.

Your faculty is responsible for formal matters. The library will assist you with the publication process and confirm the deposit of the required copies.

More about submission of statutory copies

Plagiarism and self-plagiarism

If you use parts of your own publications in your dissertation, ensure that you cite them correctly to avoid self-plagiarism.

The UDE has compiled a collection of information on its website to help counteract growing uncertainty.

Good Research Practice

Plagiarism and preventing plagiarism

Forms of publication

Electronic publishing on DuEPublico

Uploading to DuEPublico

Please upload your dissertation as a PDF document to our document repository DuEPublico. The library will check the electronic version.

You can then arrange an appointment by telephone or email with your designated contact person to hand over one to three printed copies. Please return the completed authors’ contract to  dissertationen.ub@uni-due.de.

Online publication of your dissertation – what you should know

Additional printed copies

Please refer to the doctoral regulations that apply to you for the number of printed copies required.

The one to three printed copies must be printed on age-resistant, wood-free and acid-free paper in accordance with DIN-ISO 9706 (available from: copy shops, stationers) and bound in a durable manner (adhesive binding; no spiral, ring binder or clamp/spring-back binding).

To ensure that the various versions are equally meaningful, please ensure that the printouts are identical in terms of characters and lines, and that they are printed in colour.

For sustainability reasons, please print on both sides of the paper.

Long-term archiving on DuEPublico

The University Library archives the electronic thesis in a citable and permanent format in accordance with the principles of open access, and ensures that it is indexed worldwide in search engines and databases.

Online publication of your dissertation – what you should know

Self-publishing

 Number of copies

Depending on the doctoral regulations that apply to you, you must submit between 7 and 55 copies to the University Library’s Dissertation Office.

Printing specifications

Copies must be printed on age-resistant, wood-free and acid-free paper in accordance with DIN-ISO 9706 (available from: copy shops, stationers) and bound in a durable manner (adhesive binding; no spiral, ring binder or clamp/spring-back binding).

For sustainability reasons, please print on both sides of the paper.

Submission of statutory copies

Please arrange an appointment by telephone or email with your designated contact person.

Cumulative dissertation

Definition

Cumulative doctoral theses (also known as publication-based doctoral theses) are doctoral theses comprising a number of thematically related articles published in specialist journals by the doctoral candidate. The articles may have already been published or may have been submitted to a publishing house for publication.

On the AV-Portal of TIB Hannover you will find a helpful video in German on the topic “Open-Access-Publikation einer kumulativen Dissertation - Was muss ich beachten?”.

Whether and how combined doctoral theses are permitted in your faculty is set out in your faculty’s doctoral regulations.

Legal conditions checked?

Since a cumulative dissertation is a second publication of your published or planned articles, the following questions must be clarified in advance:

  • In the simplest case, your articles are open access publications, for example under the frequently encountered Creative Commons license "CC BY" or other CC licenses. In this case, you can use the articles in accordance with the conditions stated in the license without consulting the publisher.
  • Does the publisher allow the further dissemination of the already published or submitted articles as part of / for the purpose of your dissertation? (Reprint permission)?
    If so,
    • under what conditions may the articles be reused?
    • which version of your paper you are allowed to use (preprint, manuscript, publisher version etc)?
    • are there any embargo restrictions required by the publisher?
    • can your dissertation be published only as a print version or also electronically?
  • Does the publisher allow publication under a free CC license?

Most of these questions are usually answered in your author contract (publishing contract) or on the publisher's website. It is also specified there whether you have granted the publisher a simple or an exclusive right of use.

Granting the simple right of use enables the secondary publication of your article. With exclusive rights of use, the rights remain with the publisher, so you must clarify the use of your articles for secondary publication separately in advance.

Alternatively, you can use the Jisc Open Policy Finder to get a quick overview of the publishing conditions for the secondary publication and a link to the relevant publisher pages.

TU Berlin has researched the applicable regulations for many publishers and compiled them in an overview.

You can also find useful information on the publishers' websites (often under keywords such as "Sharing Policy", "Copyright Policy", "Rights Permission", "Self Archiving" or "Green Open Access").

Please note that the information provided on this website is for guidance only and is not legally binding.

Consent of the co-authors

Are there co-authors who have to agree to the publication of the article/paper and do they agree to the secondary publication?

State the source of the original publication

Publishers often require fixed specifications on how articles are to be cited in secondary publications. Please find out about the publisher's requirements and place this information at the beginning of the chapter.

It is recommended that the full bibliographical details of all articles are given, as well as links to the publisher's versions using the DOI (if available).

Please also provide the full bibliographical details of the first publication when reusing Open Access articles.

Electronic Publication on DuEPublico

For online publication, you should include the article pages in the file as a machine-readable PDF so that the text can still be copied. Embedding the article pages as image files is not suitable for reasons such as full-text search and accessibility.

We also recommend inserting a continuous page numbering for the pages of the individual articles. This makes it easier for other scientists to cite your dissertation.

Overview of included publications

Please enclose an overview of the publications printed in your thesis with complete bibliographical details and, if available, the DOI and your ORCID.

Publication by a publishing house

If you are planning to publish your dissertation through a publishing house, please refer to our checklist on open access and secondary publication beforehand.

Institutional recommendation

The UDE promotes open access and recommends secondary publication on the DuEPublico repository. Funding bodies such as the DFG, ERC and BMBF also require publication under open access. This requirement is met by secondary publication on DuEPublico.

Appeal to authors

  • publication by a specialist publisher remains an option
  • use your own e-book and incorporate it into your teaching
  • link to it on your own website or profile

Visibility and long-term archiving

  • improved discoverability through publication in the repository
  • long-term archiving – works are preserved for the academic community, regardless of library holdings
  • a persistent identifier (URN) guarantees long-term access and citability – regardless of the publishing house
  • legal distribution with a clear rights notice – prevents illegal copies on third-party platforms

General information

Number of copies to be submitted

Please refer to the doctoral regulations that apply to you for the number of copies to be submitted.

If you have any further questions, please contact the staff at the dissertation office:
dissertationen.ub@uni-due.de. 

First and second publication,
licensing issues

We are happy to answer any general questions you may have regarding publication by a publishing house or secondary publication.

Please note, however, that we are unable to provide legal advice.

If required, you can arrange a private consultation regarding licensing issues:
dissertationen.ub@uni-due.de.

Gender aspects in mind?

Academic work is increasingly taking gender aspects into account. These publications are brought together on the UDE’s ‘Gender Portal’ online platform. The portal is open to all academic disciplines.

If you address gender aspects in your dissertation, the Gender Portal would be happy to refer to them.

To get in touch, please contact:
genderportal@uni-due.de.

Habilitation Theses

Please refer to your faculty’s regulations on habilitation to find out the requirements for publishing your habilitation thesis.

Please feel free to contact the library with any further questions before submitting your thesis:
dissertationen.ub@uni-due.de.

To the UDE’s regulations on habilitation

Submission of statutory copies

Service hours

You can hand in your printed copies and other documents by prior appointment. Please always state the faculty you belong to.

Our service hours:
Monday - Friday: 8:00am - 3:30pm

Please make an appointment: 
dissertationen.ub@uni-due.de

Contact

dissertationen.ub@uni-due.de

Duisburg campus

Viviane Blaß
LK128
+49 (0) 203 37 91497

Mareike Wunderwald
LK128
+49 (0) 203 37 91501

Essen campus

Claudia Hinze
R09 T00 M95
+49 (0) 201 18 35171

Michaela Greinert
R09 T00 M95
+49 (0) 201 18 33738

Medical Library

Britta Bornhuse
Julia Wefers
Sabrina Wille
+49 (0) 201 / 723 3332

Submission by post

Please contact us in advance:
dissertationen.ub@uni-due.de

Duisburg campus

Universitätsbibliothek Duisburg-Essen
Dissertationen
Lotharstr. 65
D- 47057 Duisburg

Essen campus

Universitätsbibliothek Duisburg-Essen
Dissertationen
Universitätsstr. 9 - 11
D - 45141 Essen

Medical Library 

Universitätsklinikum
Fachbibliothek Medizin
Dissertationen
Hufelandstr. 55
D - 45147 Essen