Publishing doctoral theses

Timetable for printing the dissertation

The doctoral candidate should schedule at least six weeks for the printing process. Time includes compiling the work on the publishing platform, printing process in the printing house and a ten-day public display of the work.

An electronic version of the thesis must be submitted to the Aaltodoc publication archive no later than three weeks prior to the date of the public examination. Unigrafia will send the electronic version automatically to the Aalto University Learning Centre, where the staff will take care of archiving the thesis. In addition to this, the Learning Centre takes care of the online display of the dissertation during the coronavirus situation.

If the doctoral candidate is using another printing company, the candidate and the printing house will be instructed how to send the electronic version to the repository. The file must be in PDF/A-format. 

The required number of printed copies for dissertations and archived copy

The required minimum number of printed thesis is 21 copies. Of these, the printing house will send automatically one copy to the Aalto University Learning Centre and six copies to the National Library for legal deposit purposes. Remember to include these copies to your order. Rest of the printed copies go to the doctoral candidate and their school. If you are using another printing house, check if the National Library's copies are included in the service.

Unigrafia will automatically deliver the legal deposit copies to the National Library. If you are using another printing company, check if delivery is included.

The exceptions for this are dissertations which are not printed in Finland (e.g. Cotutelle dissertations). In these cases the doctoral candidate has to take care of sending one printed copy and the electronic version to the Learning Centre for archiving. The university publishing support will give more information on Cotutelle dissertations: [email protected]

Compensation for printing costs

The schools reimburse the printing costs up to 500 euros (VAT included).

Invoicing

Unigrafia will send the invoice directly to the doctoral candidate's school or department. The doctoral candidate fills in the invoicing information in the publication platform. Please note, that you are required to add your school's/department's cost centre code to the order. Unigrafia cannot proceed with the printing without the proper invoicing information. The candidate can ask the cost centre code from their school's study coordinator.

If the doctoral candidate is using other printing than Unigrafia for printing, they will pay the printing costs first themself. The costs can be claimed back from the school provided the copy of the original invoice is included with the claim. The original invoice should be kept until the reimbursement has been issued.

• Claiming costs of printing doctoral dissertation invoice from the University in the M2 system
• M2 Mobile –application user guide (scanning the invoices to the system)

NB!  Do not use Aalto University's address for the invoicing information if you are paying the costs yourself. Use e.g. your own home address.

The Aalto University publication platform generates the standard front and back covers to doctoral dissertations. The platform also generates the title pages and the abstract pages to the dissertation.

Recommended templates

When producing the content parts, the following templates are recommendations:

1. Word template (7.4.2014, .dotx). Instructions for the template (pdf) 
2. Word template with narrow margins (22.8.2016, .dotx)
3. Template for LaTeX users (Aalto LaTeX pages in wiki) – The LaTeX template is not exactly identical with the Word template. You can use it anyway.
4. Errata-page template (.dotx) 

• Layout model for Word (pdf): instructions for the typographic settings (1.6.2016) 

You can also buy professional layout and paging services from Unigrafia. Enquire about the service: [email protected]

Printing materials

Unigrafia uses standard materials for content and cover. Unigrafia offers also two other material packages from which you can choose with additional cost. If you are using other printing house for printing than Unigrafia, make sure the materials are in accordance with Aalto University’s standard. More information about printing materials and requirements here.

Examples of correctly formatted theses

Below you will find samples of correctly formatted theses. Use them as your help to see how the page layout and page numbering is done. You can also see how the thesis looks when it is ready.

• Example of a thesis from the Schools of Technology (article-based, author: Risto Vanhanen)
• Example of a thesis from the School of Business (essay-based, author: Pii Elina Berghäll)
• Example of a thesis from the School of Business (essay-based, author: Mikko Riepula)

Special characters in headings and abstracts

If the headings or abstracts of your publication contain (mathematical) special characters, please copy the title and abstract in question to a single PDF file and e-mail it to [email protected]. Please, write in your mail instructions for placing the characters.This service is subject to a charge. – Note. On the publication platform it is possible to write subscript and superscript indexes to the abstracts.

If you are using LaTeX, you can download an abstract with special characters on the publication platform. Make a right size abstract on the Aalto series LaTeX template (link above) with the class option “abstracts”.  Choose the latest version of the template and read the documentation carefully and see also the example.

Electronic archiving

All doctoral dissertations in Aalto University are archived in electronic format on Aaltodoc repository for the purposes of long-term preservation and online publishing. Every doctoral thesis will have a publicly available web page in Aaltodoc where the electronic archive file is linked. In addition to this, the open access file will be linked to the web page and published in open internet with a permission from the doctoral candidate.

• The electronic archive file contains the entire thesis, and, in the case of an article thesis, also the articles included in the thesis. The link to the electronic archive file is available on the web page of the thesis. The archive file can be accessed only on computers connected to a closed network, for example the customer computers in Aalto University Learning Centre. The archive file can be accessed only for reading and printing purposes. The electronic archive file must be in PDF/A-format.
• The open access file is a monograph or the compiling (summary) part of an article- or essay-based thesis which may be published in open internet only with permission from the doctoral candidate. Open access publishing is recommended and compliant with the Aalto University goal of promoting open science. Open access publishing allows doctoral theses to be disseminated efficiently to a wider audience, thus increasing their visibility. The permission for open access publishing is given by filling in and signing the permission form. The permission for electronic publishing should be submitted no later than one week before the start of the public display time.

The staff at Learning Centre will take care of processing the PDF/A-files (e.g. separating the compiling / summary part and the individual publications into different files as necessary) and saving the information. In addition to this, the Learning Centre will also take care of archiving the thesis to Aaltodoc repository.

• The persistent web address (URN) of a thesis in Aaltodoc follows the format http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:XX-YY-ZZ. The publication platform generates the URN automatically to the reverse side of the title page and to the abstract forms of the thesis. The web address will be activated after the thesis has been uploaded to Aaltodoc repository. The doctoral candidate will receive an email notification when the web page is available in Aaltodoc.
• The public display of doctoral theses is arranged as online display during the coronavirus situation. The staff of Aalto University Learning Centre takes care of the online display ten days before the defence date. The display page can be found here.

Open access publishing and open science

Republishing the full texts of the individual publications included in an article- or essay-based dissertation on open internet (Open Access) in connection with the electronic thesis is recommended but not obligatory. Usually, it is allowed to republish the final accepted manuscript (author accepted manuscript) -versions, not final published versions (the versions which are available at the publisher’s web site).

Aalto University wants to promote the open availability of research articles. The goal is that all the scientific peer-reviewed articles and conference publications of Aalto University will be deposited to ACRIS as a service by RIS Open Science and ACRIS team, more information: https://libguides.aalto.fi/openaccess

To include the full texts of the individual publications in the electronic version of your doctoral thesis, send the final accepted manuscript versions of the publications by email to [email protected]. The final accepted manuscript versions of the individual publications will be uploaded to the ACRIS research portal, from where they can be linked to the electronic version of the doctoral thesis in Aaltodoc.

Open Science and ACRIS (OSA) team will take care of checking the copyright policy of publishers and uploads the manuscripts provided that copyrights allow it. If the doctoral candidate don’t want the manuscripts to be linked from Acris to the web page of the thesis, they should inform about this to [email protected]

There is no need to send the manuscript versions of the following publications:

• Publications published under Creative Commons license (OSA -team will take care of uploading the full texts to Acris)
• Publications already available in Acris/Aaltodoc, please, check your publications (instructions: Go aaltodoc.aalto.fi, Browse -> Authors -> search Surname, First name, you get a list of your publications, check are there publications included in your thesis on the list)

It is recommended not to publish in connection with the electronic thesis:

• Submitted manuscripts or manuscripts in peer-review -process
• Unpublished essays in case the content of the essays will be later submitted e.g. to a journal

Errata and revisions

When the dissertation is approved and published, it is not possible to edit the contents afterwards. However, you can point out the corrections with a separate Errata page attached to the thesis. The errata PDF is linked to the web page of the thesis as a separate file. You can download the errata template here. Send the pdf to to [email protected]

For further assistance concerning electronic publication of your dissertation, please contact [email protected]

Instructions (PDF)

• Instructions for publishing cotutelle theses via publishing platform (PDF)
• Guide for Cotutelle theses cover and title pages (PDF) (This guide applies to theses published as a joint thesis of the Aalto University and another University and which follows the structure of the partner university’s publication.)
• English abstract template for Technical Schools (Word)
• Finnish abstract template for Technical Schools (Word)
• English abstract template for the Schools of BIZ and ARTS (Word)
• Finnish abstract template for the Schools of BIZ and ARTS (Word)
• Layout editing instructions for abstracts (PDF)

If you have any questions about publishing, please contact us: [email protected]