Dissertations written in cumulative form (also dissertations based on a publication) consist of a number of content-related journal publications by the doctoral candidate. The articles may have been already published or are intended for publication by a publisher.

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 cumulative dissertations are admitted in your faculty is specified in the doctoral degree regulations of your faculty.

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 web offers are for guidance only and are not legally binding.

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

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.

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

For information on the number of copies of your cumulative dissertation to be submitted to the library, please contact the staff of the Dissertation Office (dissertationen.ub@uni-due.de).

We are happy to answer any general questions you may have. Please note, however, that we are unable to offer legal advice.

If required, you can arrange an individual consultation on licence issues by sending an email to dissertationen.ub@uni-due.de.

Please upload your dissertation as a PDF document to our DuEPublico document server. The UL will check the electronic version, after which you can make an appointment by phone or email with the contact person responsible for you in order to submit the two printed copies (exception Medical Faculty: submission of three print copies!) and the Author’s Contract.

The two or three printed copies must be printed on age-resistant, wood- and acid-free paper in accordance with DIN-ISO 9706 (sources of supply: copy shops, stationer shops) and permanently bound (adhesive bound, no spiral, ring binder or clamp/jump back binding). To ensure that the different editions are equally informative, make sure that the characters and lines are identical and that the print is in color.

For sustainability reasons, please print double-sided.

The UL will archive the electronic dissertation version permanently, for citation purposes, along Open Access lines and provide entries in search engines and databases worldwide.

Go to our publication server DuEPublico and get more information about publishing dissertations online.

Depending on which regulations for doctoral dissertations are relevant to you, you have to submit 3 up to 6 copies to the Dissertation Submission Office of the UL, that should include the dissertation note (faculty, doctoral degree earned as well as the names of the reviewers and the date of the disputation).

Please phone or send an e-mail for an appointment with your contact person.

Depending on which regulations for doctoral dissertations are relevant to you, you have to submit 7 up to 55 copies to the Dissertation Submission Office of the UL. These must be printed on age-resistant, wood- and acid-free paper in accordance with DIN-ISO 9706 (sources of supply: copy shops, stationer shops) and permanently bound (adhesive bound, no spiral, ring binder or clamp/jump back binding).
For sustainability reasons, please print double-sided.

Please phone or send an e-mail for an appointment with your contact person.