Publications

• According to § 16 para. 4 clause b) of the General Regulations for Doctoral Studies at the University of Kassel of 2021, the dissertation must be available as a printed publishing publication for 5 years. This availability must be certified by the publisher either in the publishing contract or separately.

• In the case of publications by publishers, the information about the dissertation is usually printed on the back of the title page, because the front is designed according to the publisher's specifications or the author's wishes. According to the requirements of the General Regulations for Doctoral Theses at the University of Kassel (§16 para. 1), the following information must be included: 
  • Dissertation at the University of Kassel
  • the name of the Faculty
    • For dissertations in the Faculty of Ecological Agricultural Sciences, the place of dissertation Witzenhausen must also be indicated.
  • Name of the author
  • Date of the disputation.

In the case of self-publishers who only offer an extended printing service (incl. ordering option, etc.), it is usually up to the authors themselves to discontinue the publication, but also to withdraw it. Due to this regulation, the five-year availability according to § 16 para. 3 clause b) of the General Regulations for Doctoral Studies at the University of Kassel of 2021 is not guaranteed, so that such a publication does not fulfill the publication requirement.

However, there are two ways to successfully demonstrate publication via self-publishing:

1. In addition to using a self-publisher, the publication is made in parallel on KOBRA. This would provide proof of publication.
2. If a self-publisher guarantees the required deliverability and at the same time has the necessary rights granted, so that neither publishing nor the author can depublicate the dissertation, the publication requirement is fulfilled.

An increasing number of commercial publishers offer the option of making a monograph also available Open Access for an additional charge. This facilitates access and potentially increases the perception of the publication in the professional public and is therefore financially subsidized by the university library. The maximum amount of funding per publication is currently €5000. The amount may only be used for the designated additional costs for Open Access. An application is informal and uncomplicated, the funding conditions can be found at https://www.uni-kassel.de/ub/en/publishing/open-access/publikationsfonds/monographs.

If the doctoral dissertation is published as a pure online publication without a free license (open access), the publication must be printed in duplicate and bound and submitted to the dissertation office of the university library. In addition, the publisher must provide permanent, barrier-free access for members of the University of Kassel. If the publisher is technically unable to do this, the infrastructure of the University Library can be used as an alternative. In such a case, please contact the University Library (publikationsdienste[at]uni-kassel[dot]de) as early as possible to find a suitable solution.