Instructions for publishing a dissertation in the University of Jyväskylä research series JYU Dissertations

JYU Dissertations (ISSN 2489-9003) is an open online publication series which serves as a publishing channel for dissertations produced in the University of Jyväskylä. The publications will be immediately openly available in the JYX publication archive. The series is produced by the publishing services of the Open Science Centre.

In questions concerning publishing a dissertation, please send email to dissertations-osc@jyu.fi .

Here are instructions for publishing a dissertation in a Jyväskylä University research series JYU Dissertations.

Publishing process

Dissertations are published in JYU Dissertations series in electronic form.

To ensure accessibility, a Word-template for dissertations should be used (see Important guidelines and forms below).

The doctoral candidate may order additional printed copies (B5, binded) of his or her dissertation at self-cost. They are not included in the university series. However, the publishing services assist the printing process free of charge. Also 1-6 extra copies will be produced and handed over to the National Library of Finland (Finnish Legal Deposit Act). Also these two copies will also be charged from the doctoral candidate. The amount of these copies depends on the amount of the B5 copies.

The doctoral candidate is responsible for the proofreading of the manuscript as well as proper referencing, However, you may choose whatever referencing style (for example APA) as long as you use it consistently.

In the reference list and if your reference has a digital object identifier (DOI), please include it in your reference.

The recommended length of the abstracts (FI/EN) at the beginning of the manuscript is about 2200 characters (including publication information and keywords).

The publishing schedule of a dissertation published in JYU Dissertations series

Before setting a date for the public defence of a dissertation

  • Get faculty permission to defend the dissertation
  • Contact the scientific editor of the series
  • Article-based thesis: Ask permissions from publishers for reprinting your articles in the online thesis. The publishing services will assist you, if necessary.

Two months before the public defence

  • Send the material to the scientific editor of the series for reading
  • Have the dissertation material evaluated at the publishing services and get guidance on how to get it ready for publishing
  • Agree on when the dissertation material is delivered to the publishing services. You may send it as a doc/docx -file. You can send the articles as separate files (e.g. doc/docx, pdf). Please, do not include the articles to the summarising report as picture.

One month before the public defence

  • Have the material edited and ready for publishing in the publishing services
  • Approval of proofs

Five days before the public defence

  • The dissertation is published online the JYX Digital Archive. After the public defence, no changes will be made to dissertations published in JYX.
  • Have copies of the dissertation distributed to the opponent and the chair of the defence (kustos)
  • Optional: Present your topic to the Rector of the University (Book a time at the office of Rector's secretary). NOTE: The Rector will receive the electronic version of your dissertation directly from the publishing services.

Please note that once the dissertation has been accepted and published in JYX, no changes are to be made in it. This includes e.g. spelling and typing mistakes but also the errors or other remarks the opponent has stated during the public defence or in the written statement of evaluation on the dissertation. If necessary, before the public examination, an errata listing can be produced.

Images

We recommend that the images and figures in the dissertation are saved as maximum quality jpg images, so that there are no problems when saving the Word file as a PDF file.

If the doctoral candidates wish, they may submit also a cover image to the publishing services. If the image is copyrighted, the right to use the image must be clarified. The cover image file can be submitted to publishing services, for example as a jpg or tiff file in rgb format, a vector graphic image in pdf format. If the image is at least 15 cm wide with a resolution of 300 dpi, its quality is sufficient for also the printed versions of the dissertation.

Dissertation template and agreements

 

  • LaTex template (Faculty of Information Technology, Faculty of Mathematics and Science)

Theses accessibility

The dissertation publishing process also includes ensuring the accessibility of the dissertation, and the University of Jyväskylä is also committed to this. In Finland, accessibility is required by the Act on the provision of digital services 306/2019. The law applies to online content produced by universities and thus includes doctoral theses.

The dissertation template for Word is accessible, so we highly recommend its use when writing the doctoral thesis. When the styles of the different sections of the text are already defined in the template, the author only needs to produce the alternative texts for the pictures and tables that may be included in the manuscript. The candidate can add them in Word or the publishing services can add the texts during the publication process.

The alternative text tells what information is in the picture. In this way, a reader who cannot see the image receives the same information through the screen reader as a reader who can see the image. Alternatively, the information contained in the figure or table can be described in the body text before or after the figure or table, in which case a separate alternative text is not necessarily needed. Instructions on producing an accessible thesis (see section Accessibility in images and tables).

Please note that theses produced with LaTex still have accessibility problems. The accessibility of Latex is explained in e.g. on this page produced by the Michigan State University. However, some problems have been detected in the accessibility packages, meaning they are not completely reliable.

Publishing costs

Publishing in JYU Dissertations is free of charge for the doctoral candidate. This includes the online publishing and three printed copies for the public defence.

ISBN identifiers of dissertations

The publishing services provides ISBN identifiers for dissertations to be published in JYU Dissertations series.

Distribution of dissertations

Distribution of dissertations published in a university series

The distribution of dissertations published in a university series is taken care of by the University Library publishing services and the Jyväskylä University Printing House.

The candidate is only responsible for the distribution of dissertation copies to the chair of the public defence and the opponent.

Distribution of a dissertation published elsewhere