PhD thesis submission

When submitting your thesis, you need to do the following three things:

1. Automatically get a DOI for your PhD thesis

A DOI for your PhD thesis will be automatically assigned in Hora Finita. You can find this DOI in the mail that you receive when your opponents have been approved. Alternatively, you can find your DOI in the form that appears when you click the “Submit thesis” option in your Hora Finita PhD checklist.

2. Submit your thesis

2.a Submitting paper copies

At least two weeks before your public defense, you must submit 15 paper copies (including one copy for the library) of your PhD thesis to the Doctoral Service Centre in Atlas. Visiting address: Atlas, building no. 104, room no. D001. Droevendaalsesteeg 4, 6708 PB Wageningen.

2.b Submitting a digital copy in Hora Finita

You have to upload the electronic version of your finalized PhD-thesis in Hora Finita. This file must be in PDF format, and must include the propositions, a summary and the front and back covers, all in one PDF file. Please note that you can only submit your thesis when your title page has been approved. You can submit your PhD thesis in Hora Finita via two entrances:

• Via the option ‘Submit thesis to the library of the University’.
• You can use the ‘Submit dissertation’ option with the button ‘Graduation phase’ in your dashboard.

3. Request an embargo period - if needed

Most scientific journals use plagiarism-detection software on new submissions. If your PhD thesis is publicly available through WUR Library, this software may flag your thesis as potentially containing plagiarism. However, most journal publishers do allow you to publish part(s) of your thesis as articles, even when the thesis is publicly available. To be on the safe side, make sure you mention in your cover letter to the journal that your manuscript is part of a publicly defended PhD thesis.

If you expect problems with journal plagiarism checks, the Library can put an embargo period on your PhD thesis. During the embargo period, the full text of your thesis will not be visible online and will not appear in plagiarism-detection software. The embargo will last for 1 year. One month before the embargo period expires, we'll email you or your supervisor to ask if you want to extend the embargo period. If you do not extend the embargo, or if you or your supervisor do not reply to the email within a month, the embargo will be lifted and your PhD thesis will become publicly available through the Wageningen University & Research PhD theses database. You can send a request for an embargo period to catal.library@wur.nl

To ensure that we can reach you during this process, please send us the following two email addresses: your private email address, especially if you will no longer be affiliated with WUR in the future, and the email address of a permanent WUR staff member associated with your PhD research, e.g., your supervisor. You can send these to catal.library@wur.nl. 

Have you thought of publishing your data?

You may also wish to publish your thesis data. This is not required by Wageningen University & Research, but it  is required by some funders and journals. The Library can help you with publishing your datasets so that you can refer to the data in your thesis. More information on this webpage.

Contact

Should you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us at catal.library@wur.nl.