Doctoral theses service

Publishing doctoral theses

Doctoral regulations according to § 17 Abs. 4 of the Rahmenpromotionsordnung (RPromO) of the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg in the latest valid version

Competent Units

The doctoral theses service at the Main Library is responsible for all faculties apart from the School of Business and Economics.
The Economics and Social Sciences Branch Library is responsible for the School of Business and Economics.
The above mentioned offices will be able to assist with questions regarding the submission of the required copies of the doctoral thesis. Please direct general inquiries about the doctoral procedure or the doctoral thesis and for (for example publication ethics related) conflicts to your responsible Office of Doctoral Affairs or other support offices.

Design of title pages in accordance with General Doctoral Regulations of FAU (RPromO)

Please verify which version of the doctoral regulations applies to you by checking docDaten. The line “RPromO” will either state “RPromO 2021” or “RPromO 2024” depending on when your doctoral procedures were initiated.

Publishing in electronic form via OPEN FAU

  • RPromO 2024 and onward: Use of faculty-specific cover page as provided by FAU’s Brand Office is mandatory, templates can be found here: https://www.intern.fau.de/kommunikation-und-marke/vorlagen/abschlussarbeiten/ (access only through the university network or via VPN)
  • Obligatory use of the unedited German template for title pages as provided in the appendix of the General Doctoral Regulations. Optional use of the English version as an addition is allowed.
  • Use of logos (either FAU or institute/industry partner/etc.) or other graphical elements on the title pages is prohibited.

Publishing with a commercial publisher in print

  • Use of the template for title pages is not mandatory
  • Book must be identified as a thesis originating from FAU, either in the acknowledgements/foreword or in the imprint/front matter, e.g.: „Die vorliegende Arbeit wurde im Jahr XXXX von der XXXX Fakultät der Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg als Dissertation angenommen.“
  • The original thesis title must be stated if the title of the published version has been changed (acknowledgements/foreword or imprint/front matter)

Publishing doctoral theses in electronic form

Please submit the approved blocking notice together with the upload on OPEN FAU. Further extensions are possible for the School of Business, Economics and Society. Information and the blocking notice form can be found here: https://www.promotion.rw.fau.eu/documents/.

Publishing doctoral theses in print form

Submission of six printed copies, published by
  • FAU University Press (in accordance with § 17 Abs. 4 Nr. 2 of the RPromO in the latest valid version), or
  • a commercial publisher as a book with an ISBN number and the publisher confirms a minimum circulation of 150 copies if demand is sufficient (in accordance with § 17 Abs. 4 Nr. 1 RPromO).

Please send your printed copies to the department responsible for your faculty (see above) and include your email-address to receive a confirmation of receipt. A personal deposit during our office hours is also possible.

Confirmation of submission

After upload in OPEN FAU or submission of all required copies at the Main Library or the Economics and Social Sciences Branch Library, a confirmation of submission will be issued and will be sent to the faculty’s Dean’s Office.
For doctoral theses that include a blocking notice (embargo) the confirmation will also be issued immediately, not after the end of the blocking period.

Cumulative thesis

For the regulations on cumulative dissertations (also essay-based dissertations) in accordance with Section 11 (3) Sentence 1 and Section 17 (4) Sentences 2 to 4 RPromO FAU in conjunction with your respective FPromO (and the information provided by Early Career Support or the Graduate Centre), individual articles accepted for publication and in print or already published in electronic journals are exempt from the publication requirement. Accordingly such articles may be excluded in case of complicated legal situations (for example the transfer of exclusive rights of use to the publishers). Instead, a reference (in particular the digital object identifier) to these published individual contributions must be added.

However, in legally unproblematic cases, such as articles published under a Creative Commons (CC) licence, it is advisable to publish the Open Access articles in full text in accordance with FAU’s Open Science Policy. Please note the licence selection for the entire dissertation when uploading to OPEN FAU: If all included articles have been published under the same CC licence (for example CC-BY 4.0), then this license should be chosen. If the articles have been published under different but compatible licences, it is advisable to choose the stricter licence form (see Creative Commons Mixer). If the articles have conflicting CC licences, please select ‘The copyright and licence rights of the publisher and any open access rights negotiated with it apply’ when uploading your thesis to OPEN FAU. In this case additional information regarding the licenses for each individual article should be stated in the PDF of your thesis, either within the articles themselves or in a separate publication list which includes the copyright information.

This information is only meant as guidance, the doctoral theses services so not provide any legally binding information. For inquiries and help please contact the Open Access legal counsel of the university library.