Publishing the dissertation and communications

University of Helsinki Doctoral School’s (UHDS) new doctoral dissertation series ”Dissertationes Universitatis Helsingiensis” was launched in the summer of 2023. The series brings together doctoral dissertations from all faculties. The university recommends using the doctoral school's new series, if you are not publishing your dissertation in any other series, such as your department’s, research institute’s, or other similar series, . The university's goal is that in the future all dissertations will be published in some series. Talk to your supervisor or research group on which series would best suit you.

Please find more detailed information about the dissertation series and its layout on Unigrafia's dissertation series page.

With the launch of the new series, the following doctoral dissertation series of the old doctoral schools will be discontinued on 30 August 2023: Dissertationes Scholae Doctoralis Ad Sanitatem Investigandam Universitatis Helsinkiensis of the Doctoral School in Health Sciences; the Doctoral School in Natural Sciences Dissertation Series; and the Dissertationes Scholae Doctoralis Scientiae Circumiectalis, Alimentariae, Biologicae of the Doctoral School in Environmental, Food and Biological Sciences.

All published books need an ISBN identifier (International Standard Book Number). You need a separate ISBN identifier for both the printed and electronic versions of the doctoral thesis.

If you are publishing your dissertation in University of Helsinki doctoral school’s dissertation series ”Dissertationes Universitatis Helsingiensis”, apply for ISBN identifiers from Unigrafia. You can find the online application form on Unigrafia's web site.

If you are publishing your dissertation in some other series, please contact the publisher or your Faculty's Doctoral Student Services. You will find more information about applying for an ISBN number on the website of the Finland´s National ISBN Agency. 

Start preparing your doctoral thesis file for publication in good time. Please keep in mind the accessibility requirements. Ensure also that you prepare the abstracts and title page.

Abstracts

All doctoral theses must include an English-language scientific abstract of approximately one to two pages. For dissertations written in another language, an abstract in that language can be written in addition to the English-language abstract. The abstract(s) are to succeed the title page and precede the table of contents of the dissertation.

In addition to the abstract included in the dissertation, all doctoral candidates must write a Finnish- or Swedish-language abstract aimed at the general public for communications purposes. The recommended maximum length of this abstract is 2,400 characters (approx. one page).

The abstracts must be submitted to the E-thesis service when completing the dissertation form. The doctoral candidate may also submit abstracts in other languages, which can be sent separately by e-mail to helda@helsinki.fi.

Title page

The title page of the doctoral thesis is written in the language of the thesis, containing at least the following details:

• The Faculty which granted permission for public defence
• Title of the doctoral thesis
• Author’s name
• The following sentence in the language of the dissertation (with the relevant details on the faculty, examination venue and date amended):

Finnish: Akateeminen väitöskirja, joka Helsingin yliopiston xxxx tiedekunnan suostumuksella esitetään julkisesti tarkastettavaksi auditoriumissa XII, yliopiston päärakennus, perjantaina 24. syyskuuta 2019 klo 12.

Swedish: Akademisk avhandling som med tillstånd av xxxx fakulteten vid Helsingfors universitet framlägges till offentlig granskning i auditorium XII, universitetets huvudbyggnad, fredagen den 24 september 2019 kl.

English: Doctoral thesis, to be presented for public examination with the permission of the Faculty of Xxxx of the University of Helsinki, in Auditorium XII, University Main Building, on the 24th of September, 2019 at 12 o’clock.

If the title page cannot be included in the doctoral thesis (e.g., in the case of commercial publications), the details stated above must appear on a loose leaf to be added between the printed copies of the thesis in place of the title page.

The page succeeding the title page may include the following information:
(compulsory at the Faculty of Medicine)

• Research location (for example, at the Faculty of Medicine, the clinic where work related to the dissertation was completed)
• Doctoral programme
• Printing house
• Printing location
• Printing year
• ISBN identifier
• Doctoral thesis supervisors supervisors
• Names of the assessors (pre-examiners and opponent)

Unigrafia has written instructions on how to make an accessible file with Word and this is available as a Word template file. The layout defined in the writing template is suitable for most thesis, and you can use it to create a print-ready PDF of your thesis.

You can download the template file for your thesis on the Unigrafia website, "Writing template and accessibility guidelines".

Please note that if you copy your text on the template from another file, you should not feep the source formatting. If you keep the source formatting, it can mess up the accessible layout of the template.

All doctoral candidates defending their doctoral thesis at the University of Helsinki must fill in the Doctoral Dissertation Form no less than three weeks before the public examination. Details on the public examination and the doctoral thesis are requested on the Form, which will be simultaneously submitted to the University’s Communications unit and Helsinki University Library. This way, the information will also be included in the University’s calendar of events.

The abstracts submitted in the Dissertation Form are published in Helda repository. Instructions on the abstracts can be found here.

If the date of the public examination changes, please contact the Library (helda@helsinki.fi) before submitting the Doctoral Dissertation Form again.

The author of the dissertation grants the permission to make the dissertation available in Helda repository by signing the publishing agreement. The author will receive a request to sign the agreement in the UniSign system in the e-mail address submitted in the doctoral dissertation form. Please contact the library (helda@helsinki.fi) if it is not possible for you to use UniSign system.

The PDF file of the dissertation must be sent to Library no later than 10 days before the public examination. Unigrafia will send the file to the Library if the dissertation is published in the Doctoral School’s (UHDS) dissertation series Dissertationes Universitatis Helsingiensis.

Digital doctoral dissertations are made available in University of Helsinki Open Repository Helda. If your dissertation is based on articles, it is sufficient if the summary part of the dissertation is published in Helda. If the articles are published under Creative Commons licences, they can be included in the Open Access dissertation in Helda.

It is required that the articles included in the dissertation are self-archived in accordance with the University policy. Helsinki University Library offers self-archiving service to the researchers. More information in the self-archiving (Green Open Access) is available in the Library website.

If you believe the topic of your doctoral thesis may be of interest to the media and the general public, please contact the communications services of your campus well in advance. Describe briefly your dissertation topic (highlight the perspectives of general interest) and also the time of the public examination, if already agreed upon. Communications will choose topics for wider release based on how interesting they are and how busy the unit is, and will help you find the appropriate communication channels. For more information and contact information for the communications services, please see the instructions related to Publicizing the event.

You are not permitted to correct a printed and published doctoral thesis. However, if you notice small technical errors (such as typos) in your doctoral thesis after it has been printed, you may draw up a separate errata list, where the corrections are listed by page.

The printed list is inserted between the pages of the printed doctoral thesis. You can also send the list as PDF file to Helsinki University Library (helda@helsinki.fi) and ask them to include the list in your digital doctoral thesis.

Errata may not be used to correct significant factual errors. If such flaws are discovered after printing and before the public review of the dissertation, the dissertation review process should be suspended.

For well-grounded reasons, doctoral candidates may apply for a special exemption from publishing their doctoral dissertation electronically. If negotiations on publishing the dissertation are ongoing with a publisher and if the publisher has stated that open digital publishing makes commercial publication non-viable, faculties may, at their discretion, grant doctoral candidates permission to not publish their dissertation digitally. Such special exemptions must be applied for well in advance, preferably no later than after receiving the pre-examination statements and when permission for public defence is about to be granted. Doctoral candidates who have been granted such an exemption are not entitled to a grant awarded by the University to cover the printing costs. The doctoral student services of the relevant faculty will notify the Library and Unigrafia of granted special exemptions.

In special circumstances, an embargo can be applied instead of the exemption for the open publication of either the entire doctoral dissertation or one of its sections. Embargoes can be considered, for example, in the case of an article included in a doctoral dissertation submitted for publication in a journal. Further information can be obtained from the doctoral student services of your home faculty. Embargoes do not constitute an impediment to receiving a printing grant from the University.

Please note that special exemption should only be applied for if absolutely necessary. Doctoral dissertations can also later be removed from the University’s digital repository if commercial publication becomes topical after the public examination. Open access to doctoral theses also benefits doctoral candidates.

The doctoral thesis is to be displayed publicly for five whole working days before the public examination (in Finnish riiputus). The date of the public examination is not included in these five days, thus, if your defence day is Saturday, for example, the public display must start on the Friday the week before. 

The public display of thesis is done online in the University’s library terminals in the Helsinki University Library premises. An edited PDF version of the entire printed dissertation is sent to the library by Unigrafia 10 days before the public examination. The library will display the dissertation online five days before the defence. If you are having your dissertation printed by another printing house, you are to send the dissertation to the library in accessible form (helda@helsinki.fi) at the latest 10 days before your public examination. Please check more information on accessibility.

Online display versions of dissertations differ from those dissertation versions put in Helda.  Summarising reports of the dissertation manuscripts found in Helda can be accessed anywhere, whereas the online display copies can only be read in the secure library terminals and they cannot be downloaded or shared from the terminals.

If you have made arrangements to have Unigrafia print your doctoral thesis and have not applied for a special exemption from the open digital publication of your thesis, you are entitled to a grant awarded by the University for covering the printing costs, provided you have been granted permission for public defence.

The printing grant covers a black-and-white edition of 20 copies (colour coverpage included). Unigrafia’s instructions for ordering a printing of a dissertation and further details on pricing are available on the Unigrafia website. You need not separately apply for the grant, but Unigrafia will invoice the printing costs directly to the University. Please note that you are responsible for covering any costs exceeding the printing grant limit (for example possible correction work, colour pictures, extra copies).

Please note that if you also order the layout (formatting) of the thesis from Unigrafia, you are to cover the costs yourself. The University printing grant does not cover layout costs. You can also prepare the layout yourself, if you wish to do so.

Dissertations can also be printed at printing houses other than Unigrafia, but in these cases doctoral researchers are not entitled to the printing grant awarded by the University.

In addition to digital publication on Helda, a small printed edition of the doctoral thesis is always required, and the printed copies must be made publicly available before the public examination. Doctoral candidates are required to provide no more than 20 printed copies of the dissertation. Those writing an article-based dissertation should note that while the digital publication can consist only of the summarizing article, the printed copies must always also include the articles used in the dissertation. Please apply for the needed permissions from the publishers of the article in good time.

Candidates must submit the printed copies before the public examination to the following parties:

• Members of the grading committee (1 copy each, total 2–5 copies): opponent(s), custos and faculty representative(s)

• National Library of Finland (6-7 copies):
  Of the following faculties dissertations 6 copies need to be submitted:
  - Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry
  - Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences
  - Faculty of Medicine
  - Faculty of Pharmacy
  - Faculty of Science
  - Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
   Other faculties send 7 copies of the dissertation. 

  National Library of Finland/acquisitions
  PO Box 15
  00014 University of Helsinki

• Helsinki University Library (1 copy):
  Helsinki University Library
  Kaisa House/Dissertations
  PO Box 53 (Fabianinkatu 30)
  00014 University of Helsinki
• Doctoral candidate’s home faculty 
  Instructions for distributing the faculty copies are available further below.

Doctoral candidates are personally responsible for the distribution of the printed copies. The University’s internal mail is available for distribution within the University (please use separate packages for each recipient, write the addresses on the packages and deliver them to the porter of one of the university buildings).

NOTE! If you print your thesis at Unigrafia, they will take care of the online display copy and send the National Library copies on your behalf. You are to distribute the other copies.

If you are having your thesis printed by another printing house, the printing house will send the 6-7 copies to the library. You are to send the online display pdf-version of your thesis to the library in accessible form (helda@helsinki.fi) at the latest 10 days before your public examination. 

The number and distribution of dissertations to be distributed in printed form remains the same regardless of whether doctoral candidates publish their dissertations in the University’s open digital repository.

It is customary to include an inscription in the dissertation copies submitted to supervisors and colleagues. This personal inscription should be written on a separate card tucked between the dissertation.

Distributing the faculty copies

Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry

Submit the entire dissertation as a single PDF file to the faculty’s doctoral student services (i.e. the final, edited PDF version of the entire printed dissertation you have received from Unigrafia / printing house, including articles, if any, in their publication layout). The file should be sent using the Funet FileSender service. You don’t need any more submit a printed copy of the dissertation to the faculty’s doctoral student services. 

The remaining printed copies are to be distributed, at the doctoral candidate’s discretion, to the pre-examiners, supervisors, and colleagues.

Faculty of Arts

Submit the entire dissertation as a single PDF file to the faculty’s doctoral student services (i.e. the final, edited PDF version of the entire printed dissertation you have received from Unigrafia / printing house, including articles, if any, in their publication layout). The file should be sent using the Funet FileSender service. You don’t need any more submit a printed copy of the dissertation to the faculty’s doctoral student services.

The remaining printed copies are to be distributed, at the doctoral candidate’s discretion, to the pre-examiners, supervisors, and colleagues.

Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences

Submit the entire dissertation as a single PDF file to the faculty’s doctoral student services (i.e. the final, edited PDF version of the entire printed dissertation you have received from Unigrafia / printing house, including articles, if any, in their publication layout). The file should be sent using the Funet FileSender service. You don’t need any more submit a printed copy of the dissertation to the faculty’s doctoral student services. 

The remaining printed copies are to be distributed, at the doctoral candidate’s discretion, to the pre-examiners, supervisors, and colleagues.

Faculty of Educational Sciences

Submit one copy of the printed dissertation to the portier of Minerva-building (P.O.box 9, Siltavuorenpenger 5A) and one copy to the Dean of the Faculty. The remaining copies are to be distributed to the pre-examiners, supervisors and colleagues.

Mailing address: Siltavuorenpenger 5A portier, P.O. Box 9, 00014 University of Helsinki. Write "doctoral thesis reading copy" to the envelope.

Faculty of Law

Submit three copies of the printed dissertation to the Faculty’s doctoral student services. The remaining copies are usually distributed to the coordinating academic of the doctoral candidate’s major subject, the supervisors and colleagues, or, for example, the pre-examiners. If you have been granted a special exemption regarding the electronic publication of your dissertation, please submit, in addition to the printed copy, the entire dissertation as a single PDF file to the Faculty’s doctoral student services, oik-jatkokoulutus@helsinki.fi, (including articles, if any, in their publication layout). The PDF file is required for the Faculty Council members who will decide on the grade. The file should be sent using the Funet FileSender service.

Mailing address: Doctoral Student Services / Faculty of Law, P.O. Box 4, 00014 University of Helsinki

Faculty of Medicine

Submit one copy to each of your supervisors. You no longer need to submit a copy of your doctoral thesis to the faculty's doctoral student services. The National Library's copy is considered an archival copy. 

Faculty of Pharmacy

Submit the entire dissertation as a single PDF file to the faculty’s doctoral student services (i.e. the final, edited PDF version of the entire printed dissertation you have received from Unigrafia / printing house, including articles, if any, in their publication layout). The file should be sent using the Funet FileSender service. You don’t need any more submit a printed copy of the dissertation to the faculty’s doctoral student services. 

The remaining printed copies are to be distributed, at the doctoral candidate’s discretion, to the pre-examiners, supervisors, and colleagues.

Faculty of Science

Submit one copy of the printed dissertation to the Faculty’s dean. The remaining copies are usually distributed to the supervisors, professors of your discipline and others who have contributed to the dissertation.

Mailing address: Doctoral Student Services / Faculty of Science, P.O. Box 64, 00014 University of Helsinki

Faculty of Social Sciences

Submit the entire dissertation as a single PDF file (i.e. the final, edited PDF version of the entire printed dissertation you have received from Unigrafia / printing house, including articles, if any, in their publication layout) to the faculty’s doctoral student services (e-mail: valt-postgrad@helsinki.fi). The file should be sent using the Funet FileSender service. You don’t need any more submit a printed copy of the dissertation to the faculty’s doctoral student services.

Printed copies are to be distributed to the pre-examiners, supervisors and professors in charge of the discipline. If you have been granted a special exemption regarding the electronic publication of your dissertation, please submit the entire dissertation as a single PDF file to the Faculty Council members who will decide on the grade (including articles, if any, in their publication layout). You have received the contact information of the Faculty Council members by e-mail. The file should be sent using the Funet FileSender service.

Faculty of Theology

Submit the entire dissertation as a single PDF file to the faculty’s doctoral student services (i.e. the final, edited PDF version of the entire printed dissertation you have received from Unigrafia / printing house, including articles, if any, in their publication layout). The file should be sent using the Funet FileSender service. You don’t need any more submit a printed copy of the dissertation to the faculty’s doctoral student services.

The remaining printed copies are to be distributed, at the doctoral candidate’s discretion, to the pre-examiners, supervisors, and colleagues.

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine

Submit the entire dissertation as a single PDF file to the faculty’s doctoral student services (i.e. the final, edited PDF version of the entire printed dissertation you have received from Unigrafia / printing house, including articles, if any, in their publication layout). The file should be sent using the Funet FileSender service. You don’t need any more submit a printed copy of the dissertation to the faculty’s doctoral student services. 

The remaining printed copies are to be distributed, at the doctoral candidate’s discretion, to the pre-examiners, supervisors, and colleagues.