Publishing dissertations at the University of Regensburg

If you wish to publish your dissertation electronically, upload it to the publication server and hand in the deposit copies together with the faculty forms and the library form to us at the University Publication Centre after the oral examination. Please call us shortly beforehand to let us know when you would like to come by so that we are sure to be in the office! It is usually possible to hand in your documents Monday to Friday from 9.30 to 11.30 a.m. (a short appointment is advisable) or by appointment.

You are also welcome to send us the deposit copies with the faculty's forms and the library's form:

University Library of Regensburg
University Publication Office - Gregor Schmidt
Universitätsstr. 31
93053 Regensburg

Handing in at the faculty: Doctoral students of Business, Economics and Data Science always hand in their theses at the faculty. In some other faculties, you should also contact the faculty again briefly for submission. If you are publishing your dissertation as an edited publication, as a cumulative dissertation or as a copyshop print, you should also submit it to the faculty.

Publishing → Dissertations

Accessibility is not only a legal requirement for scientific publications, but also increases the visibility and accessibility of your research results. Our guide introduces you to Word functions that you can use to improve the accessibility of your publications: Accessibility in Word (external link, opens in a new window).

It is important to use adhesive binding rather than spiral binding for your printed copies and that they are printed on age-resistant wood and acid-free paper. Otherwise, the University Library has no formal requirements for the deposit copies of the electronic dissertation.

Information on the formal requirements of the faculties can sometimes be found on the faculty websites, the doctoral degree regulations (external link, opens in a new window) or the examination offices. The design of the title page in particular is usually specified. Medicine and economics, for example, only accept deposit copies in DIN A5 format!

Black and white printing is of course only permitted if this has no influence on the readability/comprehensibility of the dissertation (e.g. in the case of illustrations or graphics), i.e. the colour print has a purely aesthetic function.

If you submit an electronic dissertation, the PDF version must always be identical to the print version for citation reasons! A printout of the PDF file guarantees that the formatting is the same for the printed and electronic versions. For example, for DinA5 print copies, the individual pages of your PDF – even if they were originally designed for DinA4 – will simply be reduced in size to DinA5 in the copy shop (even if this may make the font very small). If you need/want to include your CV in the print version and not in the online version, please replace it in the PDF with blank pages so that the page numbers in the PDF and the print version are identical right to the end. It is no longer possible to change/delete a published dissertation at a later date! Therefore, please remove your CV and personal acknowledgements IN ADVANCE and replace them with blank pages.

The files uploaded to the publication server for an online dissertation must be free of password protection or encryption and allow printing and saving.

In the case of cumulative dissertations, we recommend including the essays in the accepted manuscript version, unless the doctoral regulations/faculty (external link, opens in a new window) stipulate otherwise. Most publishers allow the article to be included in a dissertation, but not in the publisher's layout. Therefore, please also take a look at the question on secondary publication in a publishing house or on cumulative dissertations!

Forms of the faculties

This depends on your faculty and is usually regulated in the doctoral degree regulations (external link, opens in a new window). For the Dr. rer. nat. degree, for example, it is the routing slip. You can obtain the forms from the examination office, the faculty administration, on the faculty websites or they are attached to the doctoral degree regulations. If you are unsure, you can also contact us (external link, opens in a new window) at any time to find out which forms are required in your faculty.

You should also submit the form from your faculty with the request to defer publication on the Internet if you do not wish to release the dissertation until a later date. This is only possible in justified individual cases (e.g. pending patent proceedings).

Library form

For electronic publication, you must also submit the signed form "Abgabe elektronischer Publikationen" together with your deposit copies and the faculty's forms to the central library, University Publications Centre (see Contact). In doing so, you transfer the right to the University Library Regensburg to store your document, to make it publicly accessible in data networks and, if necessary, to convert it into other data formats. This right also applies to the German National Library and, if necessary, to special collection libraries. Furthermore, you assure that the question of copyright and licence rights (copyright) has been clarified by you and that the rights of third parties do not stand in the way of electronic publication (i.e. if you also wish to publish the work in a publishing house, the publisher must have agreed to electronic publication by the University Library). In the case of dissertations, you also declare that the publication has been approved by the doctoral committee and that the electronic version corresponds to the approved original version in form and content.

The form "Abgabe elektronischer Publikationen" is available in several versions. They differ according to the type of usage rights you grant. We recommend granting the Creative Commons licence CC BY (CC BY form) (external link, opens in a new window), which makes it easier for the general public to distribute the work and build on it. CC BY-ND (form CC BY-ND) (external link, opens in a new window) is also possible, for example. You can find detailed information on this on our information page on Creative Commons licences. In exceptional cases (e.g. if the dissertation contains articles that have already been published or submitted to publishers), please select the form Submission of electronic publications (external link, opens in a new window). Please print out one of these forms (they also appear in the publication server under "Upload files") and bring it completed to the University Publication Centre.

The number of printed copies to be submitted for online dissertations can be found in the doctoral degree regulations (external link, opens in a new window) applicable to you. As of June 2025, there are 3 for Law, Faculty of Informatics and Data Science, 5 for the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, 7 for the Faculty of Catholic Theology and 6 for all others.

For a dissertation that has an ISBN and is listed in the book trade directory, please see the following paragraph.

In addition to having the deposit copies printed by a copy shop, you also have the option of having your dissertation published by the university library. In this case, you will receive a high-quality printed product with an attractive appearance. You are free to choose the number of copies and you have the option of reordering at any time. Your publication also receives an ISBN and is listed in the directory of deliverable books (VLB – Verzeichnis lieferbarer Bücher). This means that it is also visible to bookshops and can be ordered. The corresponding PDF is visible via the publication server. You retain the rights of use.

For further information and an individual cost calculation, please contact Nadia Gianfrancesco, telephone: 0941 943 3935, e-mail: buchpublikation.ub​(at)​ur.de (opens your email program). Publications that have already appeared and further information can be found under UR Publishing Services.

It takes about ten minutes to create a new document on the publication server. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have questions! Additionally here are a few tips to help you get your work online quickly and easily:

For the deposit, you should have the PDF, at least 3 keywords, the title in German and English and a summary in German and English (max. 5000 characters). These translations do not have to be identical to the German version; fewer sentences would be sufficient for the translated abstract. These descriptions of the content are necessary so that the work can be found on the publication server and by search engines on the Internet using English search terms and so that non-German-speaking scientists can also get an idea of the work.

Publication format for your electronic dissertation is PDF. To ensure long-term availability of the published documents, it is necessary to submit an unprotected document, i.e. it must not be encrypted or password-protected and must allow printing and copying. It is also important that the deposit copies and the PDF are identical (content, page numbering, etc.).

The PDF file is uploaded to the review area on the publication server which is not publicly accessible. After the entry is reviewed by the library team, it is published, unless you have submitted an additional form of your faculty with the request for postponement. After publication changes are no longer possible!

1. Log in / Register

To deposit your work to the publication server, you must "register" once on the left-hand side (only enter your university account), after which you can "log in" immediately with this account. You will not receive a confirmation e-mail after registration. For a guest account, please contact Gregor Schmidt, Tel.: 0941 943-3904, e-mail: dissertationen​(at)​uni-regensburg.de (opens your email program).

2. New Item 

Go to "Manage deposits" on the left-hand menu and click on the “New Item” button on the top of the page.

3. Type, Details, Status

Choose “Thesis of the University of Regensburg” (not "Thesis") as item type. Always click on “Next” for the next step. Fields with a red star are mandatory fields and must be filled in. Enter your first name and family name as it is written in your dissertation. RZ user name and ORCID (a uniquely identification number for scientists) are not mandatory. The contact email address must still be valid for a longer period of time. Enter title, first name and family name of your first referee as stated in the dissertation. If you have been paid by a project or if your thesis is published in a series, please indicate this in the corresponding fields. Superscripts, subscripts, Greek letters, etc. can be copied into the title and abstract fields as Unicode characters (you can find some frequently used special characters for copy and paste on this help page (external link, opens in a new window)). When coming to the date, choose “Publication” as the date type. The thesis department of the library will enter the exact date here when publishing your thesis; until then you can choose the “?”.

4. Institutional Affiliation, Subjects, Upload

After specifying one or several corresponding institutions and subjects, you get to the “Upload” stage where you can find again the different forms for publishing licenses (see question 3). Choose one of them, sign it and hand it in at the thesis department in the central library. We recommend choosing the CC BY license. Detailed information on CC licenses can be found on our legal information (external link, opens in a new window) page.

Now you can upload your electronic document to the publication server. Please note that, according to the guidelines of the publication server, once published documents can no longer be changed/deleted. Therefore, please remove your CV and personal acknowledgements in advance and replace them with blank pages. If there are difficulties (e. g. the upload doesn't work or is too slow), just give us a call. Into the fields below (you may need to click on “Show options”) please enter: “Format: PDF”; “Visible to: Anyone”; “License”: your chosen Creative Commons license or "Abgabe elektronischer Publikationen", respectively, if you don’t want to allow ohters to reuse your work; “Language”: the language of your thesis.

5. Deposit Item Now

In the last stage, by clicking on “Deposit Item Now” you can transfer your record to the review area where librarians will check it before publishing.

Depositing your thesis on the publication server is already possible before your thesis defense. The dissertation will not be published before you have passed your doctoral examination and you have submitted all the necessary forms and deposit copies (please submit forms and deposit copies to the library after your thesis defense only; a short notification is recommended).

If you do not have an university account, we can give you access as a guest. Please get in touch with Gregor Schmidt or Cornelia Lang, Tel.: 0941 943-3904, Email: dissertationen​(at)​uni-regensburg.de (opens your email program).

In justified individual cases (e.g. ongoing patent proceedings), you can postpone the publication of your dissertation. To do this, please complete the relevant form provided by the faculty. When entering the details of your thesis in the publication server, please indicate the later publication date in the "Title" field by writing "Freigabe zum ..." before the actual title. In this way, the library staff will immediately see that it may not yet be published. Upload the PDF to the clipboard as indicated above. Hand in the deposit copies and the forms to the University Publication Office in the central library (see Contact). After checking by the staff, the faculty administration will receive a confirmation of receipt and will then issue the doctoral certificate. The print copies are only forwarded to the other departments and the electronic version is released at the time of approval.

Please note: Depending on the doctoral degree regulations, you only have a certain period of time to publish your dissertation. The maximum deferral period depends on the requirements of the respective faculty and is between 1 and 3 years after the defense.

(Status: June 2025)

In the sense of Open Access, we recommend to make research data (e.g. measurement and survey data, laboratory values, audiovisual information, texts, software or simulations) accessible by the publication server if you have the rights to do so. Thus, the data are re-usable and can be cited with an URN or a DOI. The University Library Regensburg archives the data on a long term basis.

Research data as an appendix to your dissertation

If you have collected research data on which your dissertation is based and which is attached to your printed dissertation as a CD, you should upload this data together with the PDF of your dissertation to the publication server. This research data, together with your PDF and the associated metadata, will then be stored on a long term basis, made visible and transferred to the German National Library.

To do this, create an entry with the type "Hochschulschrift der Universität Regensburg", as shown under Submitting to the publication server. In the "Upload files" tab, first select the PDF with the full text of your dissertation and upload it. Then click a second time on "Browse" and select the corresponding file with your research data. If you have a large number of individual files, it is advisable to pack them into one or more ZIP archives. You can specify additional options for each uploaded file. For example, you can select "Data" as the content and "ZIP archive" or "Other" as the storage format if the format is not automatically recognised. A short description, e.g. "Figures", "Measurement data" etc., is recommended, especially if there are several files. You can also place your data under a free licence for subsequent use - for research data we recommend the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence (external link, opens in a new window), which allows others to use your data if you are cited.

Other research data

If you would like to publish data that was generated in the course of your research activities but is not attached to the printed dissertation, please create an additional entry in the publication server. You should usually select "Data set" as the document type. In the next step, enter your author name, your contact e-mail address and the date as well as projects and keywords, if applicable, in the same way as for your dissertation. An example of a title is dissertation data "Title of dissertation". A description of the data can be entered here as a summary. In the "Parent entry" field, enter the document ID of your dissertation entry (you will find this ID as part of the URL of the entry: &eprintid=12345 or, if the dissertation has already been released,epub.uni-regensburg.de/12345). If your dissertation has not yet been published, you can indicate in the "Comments and suggestions (to library staff)" field that the data should only be published together with the dissertation.

Detailed instructions and further information on publishing data on the publication server can be found under Research data (external link, opens in a new window). If you have any questions about or problems with publishing your data, you can contact Cornelia Lang, Tel.: 0941 943-3904, e-mail: daten​(at)​ur.de, (opens your email program) at any time.

Students at the University of Regensburg can make their theses publicly available via the University Library.

One option is to submit a printed copy and the corresponding form (external link, opens in a new window) to the respective examination office.

Another option is to publish the thesis via the publication server of the University of Regensburg (external link, opens in a new window), which means that the theses can be found worldwide, are freely accessible, can be reused and are archived for the long term. To do this, please follow the instructions for submitting to the publication server. Instead of the forms given there, please submit the form "Declaration of consent to the electronic publication of a thesis on the publication server of the University of Regensburg" (external link, opens in a new window). You do not have to enter a licence in the "Upload files" tab. An additional submission of a print copy is not necessary.

If you have any questions, you can contact us at any time (see Contact).

Further FAQs on the publication server can be found on the help page of the publication server. (external link, opens in a new window)

The additional publication in an institutional repository is also referred to as "secondary publication", "self-archiving" or the "green road to open access".

The advantages are visibility, worldwide findability by search engines, easy and free access and the hence better usage of the works. The resulting higher citation rates are important for the author. The general public can acquire a higher level of knowledge through easy access to research results and see what is being researched with their tax money. Works that are stored in a repository (whether institutional or specialised) are also archived indefinitely and can still be found and cited under the same DOI or URN if the researcher leaves the institution, for example.

If you would like to use an article that has already been published by a publisher in your dissertation and then place the dissertation on the publication server, please note the information on cumulative dissertations.

To see whether your other works may also be republished on the publication server, you can check various options. You can find detailed information under Legal options for secondary publication.

In case of monographs, books, book contributions etc. published conventionally (without an open access component), the publisher usually requires the transfer of exclusive usage rights. This leaves you with very few options for continuing to use your own work yourself. But you set out the conditions in an individual author contract with the publisher. Secure your right to parallel publication here so that you can also publish your work in other places (e.g. on the publication server) and thus make it more visible!

In case of standard contracts with journals, you can also try to delete passages from the publisher's draft text that prevent early secondary publication on repositories. It is also possible to append a clause to the contract that enables secondary publication, a so-called contract addendum. This would make these publications even easier to find and no longer hidden behind payment barriers, which usually leads to increased utilisation.

You can find detailed information on how to proceed on our information page on the legal options for secondary publication.

The library has no objection to this, as you have only granted us a simple right of use for publication via the publication server when uploading the dissertation. The further rights of use remain with you, so that you can use the work at any time and publish it elsewhere. Please make sure no third-party rights (e.g. participating companies) prevent publication by a publisher.

Publishers usually state that they will not accept submissions that have already been published elsewhere in a similar way. However, most publishers exclude dissertations. Some publishers do not accept dissertations that have already been published online. We have already compiled general information from individual publishers on the acceptance of dissertations for you: Information on the secondary publication of dissertations as journal articles and on the use of journal articles as part of a (cumulative) dissertation. However, it may be worth asking directly.

On the subject of self-plagiarism and multiple publication of a thesis, see also 'Self-plagiarism' and good scientific practice (external link, opens in a new window).

You can see whether your faculty allows cumulative dissertations in the doctoral degree regulations (external link, opens in a new window).

You can usually check in the publishing contract whether the publisher with whom you first published allows additional publication as a dissertation - and if so, whether in print and/or online. Many publishers allow subsequent use as a dissertation. There are often stipulations as to whether the submitted manuscript version, the accepted version (after incorporating the peer review notes) or the publisher's PDF may be used.

The publisher's website often also provides information on the subsequent use of parts of your own contribution - typically under the headings "Authors' Rights", "Copyright Transfer Statement", "Copyright Transfer Agreement", "Consent to Publish", "Copyright - Permissions", "Manuscript Guidelines", "Ethics", "Guidelines".

We have already researched for you whether certain publishers allow subsequent use of the article as a dissertation. We provide this information in an overview of Springer, Elsevier, Wiley, Hindawi, SAGE, American Chemical Society, Nature Publishing Group, DeGruyter, Frontiers, PLOS, Thieme, Hanser.

In case you cannot find the information for your rights there, many publishers (e.g. Springer, Wiley, Elsevier) offer an automated check of your enquiry via the RightsLink service of the Copyright Clearance Centre (external link, opens in a new window). To do this, go to the relevant publisher's online platform and click on the "Request Permission" link (or similar). You will be redirected to the Copyright Clearance Centre. Then select the option "Reuse in a dissertation/thesis". You will then receive a licence, often free of charge, to include the original article in your dissertation.

IPR Licence (external link, opens in a new window) is also a platform for automated trading in reproduction rights. In addition to German publishers, it also represents SAGE, Cambridge University Press, Emerald, Wiley and Wolters Kluwer, for example.

If you have published your article open access with a Creative Commons licence, you can continue to use it in accordance with the conditions of the selected CC licence, e.g. embed the publisher's PDF of your article in an online dissertation.

On the subject of self-plagiarism and multiple publication of a work, see also 'Self-plagiarism' and good scientific practice (external link, opens in a new window).

Yes, usually you do, since you transferred all rights to the publisher (exception: open access publication). However, many publishers allow reusing parts of your publication in your thesis. In case of a book you should check your individual author’s agreement, in case of journals there are standard agreements.

Information on reusing your own publications can also be found on the publisher’s websites – usually under the headings “Authors’ Rights”, “Copyright Transfer Statement”, “Copyright Transfer Agreement”, “Consent to Publish”, “Copyright – Permissions”, “Manuscript Guidelines”, “Ethics”, “Guidelines”.

In case you cannot find the information for your rights there, many publishers (e.g., Springer, Wiley, Elsevier) offer an automated examination of your request by the RightsLink service of the Copyright Clearance Center (external link, opens in a new window). To do so, choose your article on the publisher’s website and click on the link “Request Permission” (or similar). You will be redirected to the “Copyright Clearance Center”. Then select “Reuse in a dissertation/thesis” and you will ususally get a free license to include the original article in your dissertation.

IPR License (external link, opens in a new window) is also an online platform for the automated trade with reprint rights, representing German publishers and e. g. SAGE, Cambridge University Press, Emerald, Wiley, Wolters Kluwer.

Citation instead of reuse licences for third-party and own graphics:
Instead of obtaining reuse licenses, it may also be possible to QUOTE images: The prerequisite for a quotation or a “major quotation” (image) is that it is a previously published work, that you clearly engage with the content, and that it is not used solely for the purpose of creating a more visually appealing presentation. See § 51 UrhG (external link, opens in a new window) and Fragenkatalog zum UrhG in Forschung und Lehre (external link, opens in a new window).
This is at least possible for scientific works within the scope of German copyright law. "Publications that are created and published for commercial purposes are exempt from the right to quote with regard to the use of third-party images, graphics, and photos. In such cases, the consent of the author or copyright holder must be obtained. [...] If images from international journals are cited in your own publication and this publication is (also) aimed at an international audience, other copyright laws may apply in addition to German copyright law. In such cases, it is therefore advisable to find out which standards are applied by the publisher of the work from which you wish to quote." (from Blog der SLUB Dresden (external link, opens in a new window), by Christina Wenzel, Michael Wohlgemuth, 27 Febrary 2020, CC-BY 4.0)
For safety's sake, it is therefore recommended that you obtain official image licenses if the publisher has not already granted you general rights to use images from its own publications in your dissertation.

Options for reusing graphics in your own scientific work that is to be made available under a Creative Commons license:
The standard rights of publishers usually only allow the reuse of (own or third-party) images for a specific purpose without the possibility of granting further rights of use. This means that the images may not be published under a Creative Commons license. However, as this is useful for the best possible dissemination/reuse of the work, you can consider the following options:

1. Publication of the original article from which the illustrations are to be taken as open access, preferably under the license CC-BY. This allows the illustrations (from your own and other works) to be reused or integrated into the dissertation under the license of the article without further inquiry to the publisher. Sufficient copyright information (name, source, license, and link) is required!
2. Individual request to the publisher, asking that these illustrations not only be included in the dissertation, but that the dissertation, including the illustrations, be placed under a CC license.
3. Quoting illustrations from the article in the dissertation and corresponding labeling of the illustration in the dissertation as a quotation is possible within the scope of German copyright law—see explanation in the previous paragraph.
   The advantages of “quoting” images are that you do not need to obtain an additional license from the publisher and, in the case of “integration into a CC-licensed work,” you do not need to contact the publisher, as quotations are not directly covered by CC licenses.
   Even though the CC rules already stipulate that the CC license does not apply to quotations contained therein, but that these are used in accordance with Section 51 of the German Copyright Act (UrhG), this could/should be clarified once again, for example with "This text is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). Details of the license can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. This does not apply to the images cited in the publication. These are used in accordance with the citation rules set out in Section 51 of the German Copyright Act (UrhG)."
   This means that the entire work, including the quotations, may be distributed/reused under the CC license and the quotation rules, but the quotations contained therein may not be taken out of context and distributed individually under the CC license, as the CC rules do not apply to them.
   See also Creative Commons FAQ's point 3.2.6: “In my scientific essay or blog article, I quoted someone else's content, for example a photo. The photo is not under a CC license. I would like to publish my article under a CC license. Can I do this even though the photo is ”All rights reserved"? Yes, you can share your text under a CC license. You can use the photo in your text, provided that the legal rules for quoting are met. However, you must avoid giving the impression that the image may also be used under the CC license. You must clearly state that the CC license does not apply to the photo, but only to your text. In other words, the photo must not be accidentally co-licensed." (CC BY 4.0)
4. Combination of different legal bases/licenses for your dissertation
   It must be clearly stated which legal basis/license applies to which part. E.g., “The text of this publication WITHOUT illustrations is licensed under a CC-BY 4.0 license” + note under the respective illustration: “Copyright held by publisher xy.”
   Here, only the text without illustrations may be shared, which is possible by editing the PDF, but is cumbersome and may be difficult to understand for actual reuse. (It would make sense to provide two versions here: one complete version that may not be shared, and one CC-licensed version in which the critical illustrations have been omitted.)
   Legally possible, but inconvenient for actual reuse.
   see also Creative Commons FAQs point 3.4.7: "I want to place a text under a CC license and have acquired rights of use for materials (e.g., photos) that are not CC-licensed. What do I need to consider? -> If you distribute content under a CC license and also include content that you are not permitted to distribute under the same CC license, you must label this content separately. Otherwise, you run the risk of sublicensing this content without permission, which would constitute a copyright infringement. You must therefore indicate that the CC license only applies to your own content (in the example, only to your own text) and not to the other content (in the example, the photos).
   Example: Near a corresponding photo, you can add a small note saying “Photo (C) by photographer. All rights reserved.” and when indicating your license terms, “Unless otherwise stated, the texts and graphics on this website are licensed under the Creative Commons license CC BY-SA 4.0 (...).”
5. No CC license granted for the dissertation, i.e., use of the “simple” form “Submission of electronic publications” (from forms) – whereby the other possibilities should always be considered as well.
6. FIRST publication of the dissertation under a CC license, THEN submission/publication via a publisher
   The advance publication of unreviewed works (preprints) and dissertations is not considered a criterion for exclusion by most publishers, but please check this in advance. (see FAQ 11)
   When submitting your work, you must indicate whether and how it has already been published elsewhere. This lets the publisher know that the images have already been published or are licensed under CC.

It is generally advisable to include license information not only in the metadata, but also in the PDF itself, so that it is permanently stored and easy to find.
As a general rule, you should clearly indicate if parts of your article are also used in your dissertation. (see also Selbstplagiat und gute wissenschaftliche Praxis (external link, opens in a new window))

The contents of this website are for general information purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. No liability is assumed for the accuracy and completeness of the information provided.

CC licences