Publishing of the doctoral dissertation

The dissertation can be published

A) as a part of University of Jyväskylä's JYU Dissertations series

• read the publishing and distribution instructions on the pages of the Open Science Centre's publishing services

B) by a publisher outside the University of Jyväskylä

• The publisher’s instructions should be followed regarding the structure and the content of the work, but the candidate must pay attention to the dissertation requirements. For example, it is possible to supplement the introduction with a separate handout. In this case, the handout and the publication constitute the dissertation that is to be assessed. These kinds of decisions should be negotiated in advance with the supervisors.
• Be sure to read the instructions for distributing a dissertation published elsewhere. The final electronic version of the dissertation must be sent to the faculty's doctoral studies coordinator well in advance of the public examination.

C) the manuscript may be independently copied (the necessary number of handouts) for the public examination only

• Using this so-called handout dissertation does not prevent it from being published through a publisher later. 
• The departmental instructions regarding to the layout and the text format of the handout dissertation are to be followed.
• Be sure to read the instructions for distributing a dissertation published elsewhere. The final electronic version of the dissertation must be sent to the coordinator responsible for the faculty's doctoral studies well in advance of the public examination.

Notice that

• irrespective of the method of publication, the candidate is responsible for ensuring the distribution of the dissertation.
• coordinator responsible for the faculty's doctoral studies sends the electronic version of the dissertation to the opponent and the assessment board well in advance of the public examination.

Layout of the thesis

It is strongly recommended to use the dissertation template of the Faculty already when preparing the thesis for the pre-examination. Please see the instructions of the JYU publishing unit and the Faculty instructions (see below).

Please contact the scientific editor of the Faculty, Marja-Leena Rantalainen, already before the pre-examination. The scientific editor will check the formatting of the thesis and give the publishing permission.

Please contact the university's publication unit (dissertations-osc@jyu.fi) during the pre-examination, to agree on practical matters and the publication schedule. They will help you e.g. with publication permits and possible technical problems.

Note! The publication unit should receive a manuscript ready for publication, checked and approved by the scientific editor of the Faculty, about one month before the date of the public examination.
 

Printing of the thesis

The university will provide 3 printouts (candidate, opponent, chairman) for the public defense (A4). Additionally, the Faculty of Information Technology will provide 10 printed copies to the author (A5). The author may order additional copies at own cost.

All dissertations are published in the electronic "JYU dissertations" series. Publication is done after receiving the permission to defend from the Faculty. In addition, printed copies can be taken. The university will provide 3 printouts (candidate, opponent, chairman) for the public defense (A4, spiral). Additionally, the Faculty of Information Technology will provide 10 printed copies to the author (A5, binded). The author may order additional copies at own cost.

Publication of a dissertation at the Faculty of Information Technology

The dissertation must be written using a template (Word or LaTeX). The layout and styles defined in the template must be used.

The following sections are allowed at the beginning:

• Abstract (mandatory)
• Tiivistelmä (Abstract in Finnish) (mandatory)
• Foreword/Preface/Acknowledgements (at least one of these)
• Abbreviations/Acronyms/Glossary
• Figures/Tables (list of figures/tables mandatory if they are included in the dissertation)
• Contents (mandatory)
• List of Included Articles (mandatory for an article-based dissertation)

The final section should include

• Yhteenveto (Summary in Finnish) before the list of references
• title pages of included articles at the end (in an article-based dissertation)

Articles are to be attached in pdf format

• by the editorial team (Word)
• with a command specified in the source code or by the editorial team (LaTeX)

Other points to note:

• The author's contribution can be a subchapter, e.g., in the introduction; a brief description is placed after the list of articles.
• Articles included in the thesis are always referred to in this way: Article I.
• There must be at least two subsections.
• Headings should be unique, but headings with the same title may be used if they are unnumbered.
• Figures and tables are recommended to be positioned in the left margin.
• The numbering of figures and tables should remain the same in appendices.
• Figures and tables should be referred to in the body text.
• If your reference includes a DOI, add it to the reference details.
• The dissertation should be made accessible (see next page).

The editorial team's guidelines for publishing a dissertation can be found at Publishing dissertations in JYU Dissertations.

Any deviation from these guidelines must be agreed with Vice Dean Heikki Karjaluoto heikki.karjaluoto@jyu.fi.

For further information, please contact Marja-Leena Rantalainen marja-leena.rantalainen@jyu.fi.

Accessibility of the thesis

In compliance with the EU Accessibility Directive and subsequent national legislation, doctoral theses at the University of Jyväskylä are submitted according to accessibility guidelines.

Ensuring accessibility

• Avoid complex sentence structures.
• Use bold rather than italics for emphasis.
• Create tables using the tools/functions of a word processing program.
• Do not use an image made from a table, as assistive devices cannot interpret the image.
• Create a header row for the table.
• Make sure that the contents of the table cells are readable in a reasonable order.
• If the table is divided into several pages, prevent the rows from being divided into two pages.
• The table header row should always be repeated at the beginning of a new page.
• Make sure that the tables are clear and simple in structure.
• Do not put a long, narrow list in a table, but divide it into columns to save space.

Creating alternative text for a figure (Word)

• The screen reader program informs the user that there is an image in the document.
• The screen reader program first reads the alternative text for the image and then the caption.
• Think about what information you will miss if you cannot see the image.
• Focus on the essential point.
• If the information contained in the image is already stated in the text, you can mention this as alternative text.

Tip sheet for Microsoft Word- Digital Accessibility Toolkit

Please follow the general instructions given above.

Layout of the dissertation

The university template is used in all the doctoral programmes of the faculty. It can be found in the instructions of the Open Science Centre's publishing services mentioned above. 

The doctoral candidate should contact the scientific editor of the department two months before the planned public examination date. The scientific editors are

• Department of Education: Ari Tuhkala
• Department of Teacher Education: Pekka Mertala
• Department of Psychology: Noona Kiuru

The Open Science Centre's publishing services should be contacted in accordance with the general guidelines mentioned above.

Printing and distributing the dissertation

The university offers every doctoral candidate three A4-sized books. In addition, the department of education, department of teacher education, and department of psychology pays for ten B5-sized real books when you give your department as the payer to the university printing house. The doctoral candidate delivers a B5 book to the opponent, custos and preferably also the other supervisors. A4 book is delivered to the rest of the evaluation committee except for the opponent. The doctoral candidates can order more books at their own expense. 

Please see the faculty-specific instructions for using the dissertation template in the preliminary examination instructions (see the instructions for Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences on the bottom of the page).

Layout of the thesis

• The Department of Chemistry and the Department of Mathematics and Statistics use the University's template, which can be found in the guidelines of the editorial team of the Open Science Centre.
• The Department of Biological and Environmental Science has its own template (UNO intranet, login required), which should be used for all dissertations at the Department.
• The Department of Physics has its own template (UNO intranet, login required), which should be used for all dissertations at the Department.

Make sure that your dissertation complies with the university, faculty and departmental dissertation requirements. Please note for example the instructions concerning the short abstract.

You should contact the scientific editor of the Department before submitting your work for preliminary examination, and the JYU publishing services at the latest during the preliminary examination. The scientific editors are listed on the website of the editorial team of the Open Science Centre. 

Supplementary material

The doctoral candidate must ensure that any attached files are easily available to the preliminary examiners and the opponent, either as an attached part of the dissertation (pdf), as a separate attached file (pdf, excel), or as a web link that takes you directly to the material. The web link should be clearly visible, e.g. on the cover page of the article. Custos delivers the dissertation to the opponent. Custos must ensure that the opponent also receives possible supplementary files in one of the above-mentioned forms. 

Publishing and printing of the thesis

The doctoral student takes care of publishing the thesis. be sure to agree on the schedule and other issues related to publication with the scientific editor of the Department and with the JYU publishing services as early as possible. 

Guidelines of the editorial team of the Open Science Centre include e.g. the following information:

• scientific editors
• timetable of the publication process
• contact information of the editorial team

If you have any questions about the publication process, please contact the university's publishing services or your scientific editor.

Printed copies:

• For the public examination of the doctoral dissertation, the doctoral candidate receives three printed, spiral-bound A4 copies free of charge. The candidate gives one copy to the opponent and one to the custos.
• In addition, a maximum of 15 copies of the printed book will be paid for by the doctoral student's department. This amount also includes the obligatory copies for the National Library (2 copies). Please indicate the number you wish to receive to the publication services.
• In addition to the above, if desired, the doctoral candidate can have B5 printed copies of the dissertation made at their own expense.

Additional departmental guidelines

• Dissertations published at the Department of Chemistry are accompanied by a list of previous dissertations in the department. Ask the doctoral education coordinator for details of the list in good time.