If you have already published parts of your thesis in journals (or similar), you should check your author's agreements or ask your publisher if a secondary publication as a dissertation – as an electronic dissertation in particular – is permitted. On the publishers' websites you will usually find the reuse rights for dissertations in the sections “policies”, “licensing”, “permission”, “preprints”, “author guidelines”, “copyright”, or similar. In any case you have to cite properly, i.e. state the journal as the source.
In the case that you have made alternative agreements with the publisher, please check the exact terms of your publishing contract. In order to use a different version, negotiate a shortening of the embargo period or similar, you must obtain permission directly from the publisher. Most publishers work with the RightsLink Service of the Copyright Clearance Center for licensing purposes.
In our FAQ on electronic dissertations you can find further information.
If you have published your article open access under a Creative-Commons-licence, you did not transfer the copyright to the publisher and thus, you can continue to use your work as you like. That's why we recommend to publish open access.
As an author, you may also have additional rights.
With some publishers (especially pure OA publishers), the authors retain the rights of use so that they can continue to use it themselves as they wish and also decide on further subsequent uses.
However, some publishers also transfer the exclusive rights of use for open access publications (or here only if a CC-BY-NC (ND) license is chosen), so that the author only retains the same rights that he or she has transferred to the general public. For example, they may not even use their own article for commercial purposes if they have chosen a CC-BY-NC-(ND) license and had to assign all further publication/use rights to the publisher. Requests for commercial re-use can then only be granted by the publisher. The publisher is also remunerated for this without you as the author benefiting from it. We therefore recommend open access publication under CC-BY.
We have already gathered information on dissertations from a number of publishers, and we have also written to them in this regard.
However, we always recommend double-checking that the information/links provided are up to date or checking your own publishing contract with regard to copyrights.
In case you don't find the information you are seeking here, you could have a look at a page of the TU Berlin for information on using articles in dissertations. It is also listed there whether the dissertation may be published before the journal article.
Please contact us if you need information as to another publisher. We will enquire it for you.
Here you can find information on copyright and acceptance for the following publishers (in alphabetical order):
"I am a student writing my thesis. May I use papers I have authored in ACS journals, or material from them, in my thesis without obtaining explicit permission?
You may reuse all or part of the Submitted, Accepted, or Published versions of your ACS papers in your thesis or dissertation. Such reuse is permitted subject to the ACS' Ethical Guidelines to Publication of Chemical Research and you should secure confirmation from the respective ACS journal editor(s) to avoid potential conflicts with journal prior publication policies. The ACS copyright credit line should be noted on the appropriate pages and appropriate citation of any Published versions.
If the thesis or dissertation to be published is in electronic format, a direct link to the Published Work must be included using the ACS Articles on Request link.
Although ACS grants students automatic permission to use their ACS articles in theses, it is highly likely that the graduate school requires a statement of written permission. Students should use RightsLink to obtain permission, and provide their graduate school with the written document provided by RightsLink.
You may also wish to view the ACS Thesis Policy."
Retrieved from the publisher's Copyright FAQs. See also "Copyright-Posting policy" and und Permission Requests and Credit - Use in Theses/Dissertations Lines.
"My university requires me to publish my thesis on the Web. Does that change what and how I can use material I have authored but for which ACS holds copyright?
Because of the public nature of the Web, you should be even more aware of the possibility that such publication may jeopardize an editor's willingness to accept material from such a thesis as "unpublished." See the prior publication policies of ACS journals."
Retrieved from the publisher's Copyright FAQs.
"My university requires me to publish my thesis on the Web. Does that change what and how I can use material I have authored but for which ACS holds copyright?
No, but because of the public nature of the Web, you should be aware of the possibility that such publication may jeopardize an editor's willingness to accept material from such a thesis as "unpublished"."
Retrieved from the publisher's Copyright - FAQs.
Include in my dissertation or thesis: You can submit any version in printed form at any time. Electronically, if the dissertation is not openly available on the internet. If open, use the AOM(=Author's Original Manuscript )/SMUR (=Submitted Manuscript Under Review) or AM(=Accepted Manuscript)."
Contained in the table Für Journal-Autoren – Das Teilen Ihrer Arbeit.
For further information see self archiving of journals and books. See also Copyright transfer agreement.
“To share your AOM, SMUR or preprint: You may share this version of your article as many times as you wish. ... Publishing an article on a preprint server before submitting it to a journal is common practice in many fields and is not considered a duplicate publication. It has no influence on the review of your article for possible publication in a De Gruyter journal.”
Included in the For Journal Authors - Sharing your work section.
"Types of misconduct: Text recycling or self-plagiarism: even if authors naturally refer to works previously published by themselves, reusing extensive parts of them, either by reproducing them verbatim or by paraphrasing them without clearly citing the source, is considered a type of plagiarism. If parts of your submission have already been published, you must cite them properly and inform the publisher at the time of submission. You must also ensure that if you reuse this content, you comply with all copyright laws under which the work was published."
Included in the For Journal Authors - Publication Ethics section.
"Please note that uses permitted below are subject to full referencing and credit of the original (or forthcoming) publication."
"Inclusion of your article or book chapter in your dissertation or thesis":
Retrieved from For Authors - Writing for Emerald - Emerald Author rights .
Update 8/2024: Regulations have remained the same, the wording has changed, see Author policies – Editorial policy and originality guidelines.
"Does Emerald expect a thesis to be embargoed until any resulting articles have been published? -> No, we do not expect a thesis to be embargoed – once an article has been submitted to an Emerald journal, we are happy for authors to include the submitted version of their paper in their thesis in both print and electronic formats, subject to full referencing. Authors can do this at any point in the submission/publication process. If the article is accepted, authors just need to update the reference to include ‘forthcoming in…’. Once the article has been published on Emerald Insight, we permit the published PDF to be included in the printed thesis and the Author Accepted Manuscript to be used in the digital version. Please include the following statement on the first page of your reprinted article: 'This article is [insert the copyright line of the published article] and permission has been granted for this version to appear here [please insert the web address where the electronic version of your dissertation will be hosted here]. Emerald does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Emerald Publishing Limited.'"
According to Author policy – prior publication.
"My thesis is deposited in my publicly accessible university repository – can I still submit a paper based on my thesis to an Emerald journal? -> Yes, you can. Please submit your paper in the usual way but declare the existence of the uploaded thesis to the Editor of the journal. If the Editor wished to consider the paper further, the paper would go through our standard anonymised peer-review process."
"My thesis is written in the ‘papers’ format and I have submitted a paper to Emerald – when can I deposit my thesis into my university repository? -> Writing a thesis as a series of separate, publishable, papers, rather than in the traditional monograph format, is increasingly common. The papers are written to a publishable standard but do not have to have been accepted for publication by a journal. If a 'papers' thesis is submitted as a PhD and then a verbatim paper taken from the thesis submitted to Emerald, we ask that the thesis is only deposited in your university repository once the article has been accepted for publication. If you are submitting papers taken from the same thesis to multiple publishers, you should consult other journals’ policies prior to depositing your thesis."
According to Author policy – prior publication.
"Can I use material from my Elsevier journal article within my thesis/dissertation? -> As an Elsevier journal author, you have the right to include the article in a thesis or dissertation (provided that this is not to be published commercially) whether in full or in part, subject to proper acknowledgment; see the Copyright page for more information. No written permission from Elsevier is necessary. This right extends to the posting of your thesis to your university’s repository provided that if you include the published journal article, it is embedded in your thesis and not separately downloadable." According to Permission Guidelines.
in addition:
Preprint: Authors can share their preprint anywhere at any time. Some society-owned titles and journals that operate double-anonymized peer review have different preprint policies — please check the journals' Guide for Authors for further information. Preprints should not be added to or enhanced in any way in order to appear more like, or to substitute for, the final versions of articles
accepted manuscript: after the embargo period: Via non-commercial hosting platforms, such as their institutional repository. Link to the formal publication via its DOI. Bear a CC-BY-NC-ND license
published journal article: Theses and dissertations which contain embedded PJAs as part of the formal submission can be posted publicly by the awarding institution with DOI links back to the formal publications on ScienceDirect
According to Elsevier's Article Sharing.
"Is a dissertation that is deposited in an institutional repository considered a ‘published article’ and therefore a form of 'prior publication'? No, Elsevier does not view publication as an academic thesis as prior publication. Please note that Cell Press, The Lancet, and some society-owned titles have different policies on prior publication. For further information on Elsevier’s prior publication policy please see: Policies and Ethics for Journal Authors (Multiple, redundant or concurrent publication)." Retrieved from Sharing and hosting policy FAQ(23.7.2024).
"An author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Elsevier does not view the following uses of a work as prior publication: publication in the form of an abstract; publication as an academic thesis; publication as an electronic preprint. Information on prior publication is included within each Elsevier journal’s Guide for Authors. Note: Cell Press, The Lancet, and some society-owned titles have different policies on prior publication. Information on these is available on the journal homepage." Retrieved from Policies and ethics(23.7.2024). Please search for “preprints” or similar on the respective journal website under “guide for authors”, as there may be problems with the “double-blind procedure” if the anonymity of a submission is no longer guaranteed due to the findability of the texts.
According to information from permissionshelpdesk@elsevier.com, Elsevier does not differentiate between print and online dissertation with regard to acceptance. However, they point out that the specific journals are responsible for accepting submitted articles and that it is important to cite every prior publication.
Is permitted, since the original publication is open access. No exclusive rights have been given to the publisher.
"Theses and Dissertations
In submitted manuscripts, Frontiers allows the inclusion of content which first appeared in an author’s thesis so long as this represents the only medium it has appeared in, is in line with the author’s university policy, and can be accessed online. If the thesis is not archived online, it is considered as original, unpublished data and thus is subject to the unpublished data restrictions of some of our article-types. This inclusion should be noted in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and the thesis should be cited and referenced accordingly in the Reference list."
Retrieved from Policies and publication ethics (more information on preprints there).
According to information from info@hanser.de, the publisher will usually grant the permission to include an article in a dissertation when asked by a PhD student. Hanser wants to know the exact usage of the article. They set a high value on attribution of the original article.
According to information from info@hanser.de, Hanser publishes dissertations in exceptional cases only.
According to the website of Hogrefe and mail information from the publisher (14.9.2021), there are no objections to the use/inclusion of an article within the dissertation publication. Also, the publication of the submitted and also the accepted manuscript version in repositories is possible at any time. However, the publisher's version (version of record) and also dissertations with included publisher's version may not be posted in repositories.
In "Notes for Authors" at the journal "Diagnostica", for example, it is stated: "4. Originality Statement: A declaration of the original character of the manuscript must be submitted with the manuscript. This declaration states that the manuscript is the intellectual property of the authors, that the authors own the copyright, and that neither the entire manuscript nor parts of it have been published in German or submitted to other German-language journals to date. If parts of the manuscript are included in other publications, the corresponding papers must be enclosed; this also applies to publications in foreign languages. During the review process, the manuscript must not be offered to any other German-language journal. Upon acceptance of the manuscript and its publication by the publisher, the publishing rights for all languages and countries, including the right of photomechanical reproduction or other duplication, are transferred to the publisher." According to the publisher's e-mail information of August 2021, however, in case parts of the submitted article are used in the online dissertation, one should follow the specifications of the "Usage guidelines for articles from scientific journals of Hogrefe Verlag". "The data released here by the publisher are exclusively the "Submitted Manuscript Version (before peer review)" or the "Accepted Manuscript Version (after peer review)." If these data are digitally archived, e.g. in repositories or dissertations, this is also permissible prior to acceptance or publication of the article in a Hogrefe journal."
"Permission requests from authors:
… the Author retains the following non-exclusive rights:
To reproduce the contribution in whole or in part in any printed volume (book or thesis) of which they are the author(s).
…
To reuse figures or tables created by the Author and contained in the Contribution in oral presentations and other works created by them.
To post a copy of the contribution as accepted for publication after peer review (in locked Word processing file, of a PDF version thereof) on the Author's own web site, or the Author's institutional repository, or the Author's funding body's archive, six months after publication of the printed or online edition of the Journal, provided that they also link to the contribution on the publisher's website.
The above use of the term 'Contribution' refers to the author's own version, not the final version as published in the Journal.
Author reuse:
Authors have the right to reuse their article’s Version of Record, in whole or in part, in their own thesis. Additionally, they may reproduce and make available their thesis, including Springer Nature content, as required by their awarding academic institution. Authors must properly cite the published article in their thesis according to current citation standards. Material from: 'AUTHOR, TITLE, JOURNAL TITLE, published [YEAR], [publisher - as it appears on our copyright page]' If you are any doubt about whether your intended re-use is covered, please contact Springer Journal Permissions for confirmation.”
Retrieved from the publisher's "Permission requests from authors" pages.
"Text recycling" or reuse of parts of text from an author's previous research publication is a form of self-plagiarism. Here too, due caution must be exercised. When reusing text, whether from the author's own publication or that of others, appropriate attribution and citation is necessary to avoid creating a misleading perception of unique contribution for the reader.”
“Nature Portfolio will consider submissions containing material that has previously formed part of a PhD or other academic thesis which has been published according to the requirements of the institution awarding the qualification.
The Nature Portfolio journals support prior publication on recognized community preprint servers for review by other scientists in the field before formal submission to a journal. More information about our policies on preprints can be found here.
According to the publisher's editorial policies- plagiarism and duplicate publication .
Is permitted, since the original publication is open access. No exclusive rights have been given to the publisher.
"Criteria for Publication: …
PLOS ONE does not accept for publication studies that have already been published, in whole or in part, elsewhere in the peer-reviewed literature.
All figures included in manuscripts should be original, and should not have been published in any previous publications.
In addition, we will not consider submissions that are currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. …
we will consider manuscripts that have been deposited in preprint servers such as bioRxiv or arXiv, or published in a thesis. We will also consider work that has been presented at conferences."
Retrieved from Criteria for Publication.
last updated 08/2024
"All cases of republication/reproduction must be accompanied by an acknowledgement of first publication of the work by the Royal Society of Chemistry, the wording of which depends on the journal in which the article was published originally. The acknowledgement should also include a hyperlink to the article on the Royal Society of Chemistry website."
Sharing rights: […] Use in submissions of grant applications, or academic requirements such as theses or dissertations*: accepted manuscript and version of record […] *You may include your article in the electronic version of your thesis or dissertation as long as it is not made available as a separate document." Retrieved from author and reviewer hub in Deposition and sharing rights.
"I am the author of the material I wish to reuse –> I wish to reproduce my own material (figures, images, schemes, graphical abstract, blurbs) –> in a thesis or dissertation -> No permissions request needed – The correct acknowledgement must be includes." Retreived from author and reviewer hub in Reusing Royal Society of Chemistry material.
"Authors publishing in our journals may present their research ahead of publication in the following ways.
Through the deposition of a preprint version of the article in commercial and non-commercial repositories (e.g. ArXiv, ChemRxiv), institutional repositories or authors’ individual websites. A preprint is defined here as an un-refereed author version of the article; commercial and non-commercial repositories are defined here as any platform or archiving service that makes digital content free to deposit and access. Preprints deposited in ChemRxiv can be revised, but must still be a pre-acceptance version.
[…]
As a thesis or dissertation published as part of an academic or professional qualification, in print and on-line. […] Please consult the journal’s editor if you have questions about whether or not a particular use constitutes prior publication."
According to Criteria for Publication in the Author and reviewer hub.
"These guidelines should be followed by authors of Contributions published in a Sage subscription journal.
You may use the Final Published PDF (or Original Submission or Accepted Manuscript, if preferred) in the following ways: ... in your dissertation or thesis, including where the dissertation or thesis will be posted in any electronic Institutional Repository or database ...
Provided that:
According to information from Permissions@sagepub.co.uk via e-mail in 2016, SAGE journals allow re-using a published article as a dissertation (or as a part thereof) both in print and online, as well as depositing it in an institutional repository. SAGE requires that you ask for permission at Permissions@sagepub.co.uk when re-using a published article. Usually permission will be granted free of charge. They point out that they cannot grant permission for contributions of third parties, but that you have to ask specifically for this. They also require proper citation of the original publication.
"If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a SAGE journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication:
"Authors should ensure that: … their work has not been previously published and has been submitted only to the journal … Above all, authors should be transparent. For example, if an author is not sure whether her paper is original (for instance, whether it might constitute duplicate publication), she should inform the journal’s editor. If the editor decides it is appropriate to publish, the paper itself should state clearly any potential overlap." Retrieved from the publisher's Ethics - Responsibility pages.
Update 8/2024: Regulations have remained the same, the wording has changed, see Editorial Policies - Prior Publication
According to information from Permissions@sagepub.co.uk via e-mail in 2016, SAGE asks authors to disclose every prior distribution and/or publication of material submitted to a SAGE journal. This also applies to dissertations (print and/or online). The journal editor then will check if substantial original material is included in the submitted manuscript and wether it will be accepted or not. Finally, they refer to the SAGE Prior Publication pages.
"Author retains the right to use his/her article for his/her further scientific career by including the final published journal article in other publications such as dissertations and postdoctoral qualifications provided acknowledgement is given to the original source of publication." Retrieved from Springer's Copyright Transfer Statement which will be signed by the author when publishing an article in one of Springer's subscription journals. Retrieved from the publisher's website "Copyright and plagiarism".
"Springer Nature Book and Journal Authors have the right to reuse the Version of Record, in whole or in part, in their own thesis. Additionally, they may reproduce and make available their thesis, including Springer Nature content, as required by their awarding academic institution. Authors must properly cite the published work in their thesis according to current citation standards and include the following acknowledgement: 'Reproduced with permission from Springer Nature'."
Contained in the "Springer Nature Author FAQs" under "Reuse in an Author's Dissertation or Thesis" and (almost word for word) under Services - Rights and Permissions - Permissions as well as according to e-mail information from August 8, 2024.
There is probably no special permission for the use of the accepted manuscript version in dissertations, so that the normal 6-12 month embargo period according to the "Open access policies for journals" and the obligation to provide information must probably be observed.
It is unclear whether the preprint version may still be published after the article has been published ("preprints may be posted at any time during the peer review process". See below for further details.)
In response to our email inquiry (8/2024) about the use of preprints/postprints, we were always referred to other Springer support email addresses, but ultimately received no real answer.
Information on permission via the Copyright Clearance Center can be found on the page "Rights and Permissions" - "Obtaining Permission"
"Submission of a manuscript implies: that the work described has not been published before (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, review, or thesis);…" Retrieved from the Manuscript Guidelines Journals.
In their e-mail from Mai 2017 they also confirm that they accept submissions which have already been published as thesis. Online-thesis aren't excluded in the mail.
"Springer Nature journals encourage posting of preprints of primary research manuscripts on preprint servers of the authors’ choice, authors’ or institutional websites, and open communications between researchers whether on community preprint servers or preprint commenting platforms. Preprints are defined as an author’s version of a research manuscript prior to formal peer review at a journal, which is deposited on a public server …. preprints may be posted at any time during the peer review process. Posting of preprints is not considered prior publication and will not jeopardize consideration at Springer Nature journals. … Authors should disclose details of preprint posting, including DOI and licensing terms, upon submission of the manuscript or at any other point during consideration at a Springer Nature journal."
Included on the publisher's pages for editorial policies – Preprint sharing or see also editorial policies.
"2.3 No earlier than 12 months after the article was first published whether it was published online at www.thieme-connect.com, in some other Thieme produced electronic form, or in a print journal published by Thieme Publishing Group, authors may make the Accepted Version of their manuscript, including Supplemental Data, available on a non-commercial academic Institutional Repository. The archived version must contain a reference to the copyright of the publisher and a link to the Published Journal Article in the e-journals system of the Thieme Publishing Group (www.thieme-connect.com), if the article has been published online. The file format of the archived version shall be the same as the file format of the article submitted by the author (usually .doc), or any other file format that has been generated from this version (e. g., PDF)." Retrieved from Autorenlounge - Authors’ rights and Green Open Access.
When asked for thesis-specific regulations, permission@thieme.de gives the following answer: They permit authors to publish their articles in the deposit copies of their cumulative dissertation in a printed version as well as on a university repository and the server of the national library under the following conditions:
If the dissertation should be published on the Internet within 12 months after Thieme has published the article, the full-text version must not be included. Usually it will be replaced by the DOI.
12 months after the original publication by Thieme, the author is allowed to share the accepted manuscript version including supplementary data on a non-commercial institutional repository, i.e. it can also be included in a cumulative dissertation on the institutional repository. Publication on other servers is not permitted.
Addition Aug. 2021: If only parts of the article are to be included in the dissertation, the publisher (according to e-mail information) will accommodate the author with regard to the embargo period. The reference to the article in the dissertation is of course a prerequisite.
"2.1 As a general principle, Thieme Publishing Group will not accept material for publication in a journal that has previously been published elsewhere." Retrieved from Autorenlounge - Authors’ rights and Green Open Access.
According to the e-mail communication from the publisher in August 2021, authors should inform the editorial office if parts of the submitted article have already been published in the (online) dissertation. The editorial office can then assess the proximity of the dissertation to the submission.
"Authors may use the articles in teaching duties and in other works such as theses." According to Licenses for Subscription Articles.
Further information without relation to dissertations:
"C. PERMITTED USES BY AUTHOR AND CO-AUTHOR(S)" -"3. Final Published Version" - "b. Re-use in other publications. The right to re-use the Final Published Version or parts thereof for any publication authored or edited by the Contributor where such re-used material constitutes less than half of the total material in such publication. In such case, any modifications must be accurately noted." According to "CTA Example" (2024).
"Authors of articles published in Wiley journals are permitted to self-archive the submitted (preprint) version of the article at any time, and may self-archive the accepted (peer-reviewed) version after an embargo period." According to section Licensing – Self-Archiving.
Last updated: 08/2024
"The vast majority of journals now accept submissions that have been previously posted on a preprint server and do not consider preprinting to be prior publication. However, authors are strongly encouraged to check the policies at the specific journals they are considering." According to Authorea.
"Authors do not need to remove preprints posted to not-for-profit preprint servers before submission." According to licensing/self archiving.
"Wiley’s Preprints Policy:
A preprint is a paper that is made available publicly via a community preprint server prior to (or simultaneous with) submission to a journal. Preprint servers, i.e., servers that allow for the posting of papers prior to submission for publication, are becoming more common across a range of disciplines.
Wiley believes journals should allow for the submission of manuscripts which have already been made available on such a server. Allowing submission does not, of course, guarantee that an article will be sent out for review; it simply reflects a belief that availability on a preprint server should not be a disqualifier for submission."
According to Authorservices – preprint policy.
Exceptions regarding single journals can be found in the Author Compliance tool.
The following types of "prior publication" do not present cause for concerns about duplicate or redundant publication (see also the information in these guidelines on preprints): […] 4. Dissertations and theses in university archives.” (Best Practice Guidelines on Research Integrity and Publishing Ethics, Punkt “Duplicate or redundant publication”) According to Ethics.
Publication Server
Publishing: oa@ur.de
0941 943 -4239 or -69394
Dissertations: dissertationen@ur.de
0941 943 -3904
Research data: datahub@ur.de
0941 943 -5707