Publishing, open science and self-archiving

Each doctoral thesis is published both in a digital version and as a traditional book with at least a small print run. The digital version is published in the University’s open digital repository, where anyone can access it.

For copyright reasons, often only the summarising report of an article-based thesis is published in the repository. If that is the case, it is important to ensure that readers can easily find the articles included in the thesis.

In exceptional cases, doctoral candidates can apply to their faculty for an exemption concerning open digital publishing. For further information on exemptions, please read the detailed instructions for the publication of doctoral theses.

No exemption can be granted concerning the publication of the thesis as a printed book. Printed books must always include the doctoral thesis as a whole, including all the articles in the case of an article-based thesis. The articles are included in the printed thesis in their original publication format.

If you are drawing up an article-based thesis, please ascertain well in advance that you have the publishers’ permission to use the relevant articles in your thesis.

Open access publishing can be divided into publishing in a fully open access journal (Gold Open Access), self-archiving in the University’s publication repository (Green Open Access) and the paying of a publication fee for a single article to provide open access to it in a subscription-based journal (Hybrid Open Access).

Open access publishing ensures that your research results are readily available to the scientific community and increases the visibility of your research. Research funders also increasingly require the open access publishing of research results.

Helsinki University Library offers information, guidance and support concerning open access publishing. For further information, please see the Helsinki University Library website.

Self-archiving your publications in the University’s repository is an easy form of open access publishing. Doctoral researchers employed by the University are expected to comply with the principles of open access publishing, but the University strongly recommends that all doctoral researchers do so.

Self-archiving ensures that your publications are not placed behind a paywall and guarantees the long-term preservation and use of publications. Self-archived publications receive a permanent URL that also allows citation.

Self-archiving in the University’s publication repository is free of charge. Researchers use the Tuhat system to store their publications. You should self-archive your publications while updating the related information in your Tuhat profile. Helsinki University Library offers support and guidance for self-archiving and can, if necessary, self-archive your publications on your behalf.

Please note that the original publisher also has a say on when the self-archived publication can be made available. For further information on the practices of various science publishers and the length of time publishers set for self-archiving (embargo periods), please see publisher websites, contact Helsinki University Library or access the open SHERPA/RoMEO database which lists the self-archiving practices of various publishers.

The self-archiving of articles included in an article-based doctoral thesis should be done no later than when the final thesis is about to be published. However, we recommend that you self-archive your articles as and when you publish them because you will have a great deal of other things to do as the public examination of your doctoral thesis approaches.

Think Open is a blog geared to University researchers, discussing current issues and topics related to digital research services and open science. The blog features articles written by researchers and specialists relating to open data, open publishing, data protection, research visibility and other topics.

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