Publishing a doctoral dissertation at the Faculty of Science, Forestry and Technology

Once the faculty has granted you permission to proceed to the public examination, you may begin the publication process of your doctoral dissertation. This page describes the stages of the publication process and the distribution of the dissertation. Make sure you have enough time for layout, proofreading, printing, and distribution of the dissertation before the public examination (recommended minimum of 6 weeks). The dissertation must be published no later than 7 days before the public examination.

Dissertations of the Faculty of Science, Forestry and Technology are mainly published in the university’s publication series Publications of the University of Eastern Finland. Dissertations in Science, Forestry and Technology. Dissertations in the field of forestry are published in the national Dissertationes Forestales series. The instructions below describe the guidelines for the university’s series. Instructions for the Dissertationes Forestales series can be found at the end of the page.

Publications of the University of Eastern Finland. Dissertations in Science, Forestry and Technology.

1. Finalise the dissertation for publication

You are responsible for finalising the dissertation for publication. Please pay attention to the following:

• Use the template of university’s publication series from the beginning of the writing process. The template is accessible. Download and save the Word template (opens in a new tab) or LaTeX template (opens in a new tab) to your computer.
• The doctoral dissertation must be accessible. If needed, you can request assistance with accessibility through the UEF e-services (opens in a new tab).
• Republication permissions: if your doctoral dissertation consists of previously published articles, you must, where necessary, obtain written permission from the original publisher for each article. Request permission also for electronic publication. The publisher may have its own online form for this purpose—if not, you can use UEF’s permission template (opens in a new tab). You must also obtain permission if your dissertation includes other material (e.g. images) for which you need republication permission from the copyright holder. If an article or other material used in the dissertation is licensed under Creative Commons (CC), no separate republication permission is required.

2. Contact the editor of the publication series

Contact the editor of the publication series as soon as you have been granted permission to proceed to the public examination. Submit to the editor the finalised version of your doctoral dissertation in accordance with the series template, along with the documents required for the publication agreement.

The editor will check that:

• language of the doctoral dissertation is fluent
• doctoral dissertation follows the series layout template
• republication permissions have been obtained

Editors listed by discipline: 

Discipline	Editor
Editor-in-chief / Environmental Science	Pertti Pasanen (opens in a new tab)
Chemistry and Sustainable Technology	Nina Hakulinen (opens in a new tab)
Biology	Raine Kortet (opens in a new tab)
Computer Science	Matti Tedre (opens in a new tab)
Physics and Mathematics	Pasi Vahimaa (opens in a new tab)
Technical Physics	Timo Lähivaara (opens in a new tab)

3. Request the series numbers and submit publication agreement  

Once you have received permission from the editor to proceed with the dissertation publication process:

• Request the series numbers for your dissertation from the library using the ISBN request form (opens in a new tab).
• Send the completed publication agreement to the library’s publication services at [email protected]. The library will send an electronic signature request via UEF Sign. You can find the publication agreement from the library’s publishing services website (opens in a new tab). On the form, select the dissertations: Dissertations in Science, Forestry and Technology.
• If the dissertation is article-based, send copies of the republication permissions to the same address. If an article does not require republication permission (i.e. it has been published under a CC licence), please remember to mention this in your email message.
• Licensing a doctoral dissertation: According to the University of Eastern Finland’s policy on open science and research, publications are recommended to be published under a Creative Commons (CC) license. This also applies to doctoral dissertations in UEF’s dissertation series. If the dissertation is an article-based dissertation, you may choose to license the summary section; if it is a monograph dissertation, the entire work may be licensed. You are responsible for confirming that the dissertation can be licensed and for selecting a suitable CC license for publication. In addition to the publication agreement, you must complete a checklist. The checklist compiles key points that must be considered before applying a CC license to the dissertation and before signing the related agreement. The candidate or editor sends the completed checklist and the publication agreement for the dissertation to the library’s publishing services at: [email protected]. The library will then send a signature request via UEF Sign. The selected CC license must be indicated in the dissertation on the same page where the publication’s ISBN numbers and editors are listed or agree on an exception with the series editor. You can find the checklist and CC license statements from the library’s publishing services website (opens in a new tab).

4. Print the doctoral dissertation

• Printing is covered by the faculty’s department or school (20 copies), when use the contract printing house (PunaMusta). You are responsible for the costs of any extra copies unless otherwise agreed with the department or school.
• If you pay for the entire printing of the dissertation yourself, you may use a printing house of your choice. In this case, you are also responsible for all distribution, including library display, archive, and legal deposit copies.
• Send the dissertation to the printing house and check the draft. PunaMusta will provide you with electronic draft PDF for review before the final printing begins. Once the draft has been checked and approved, printing can be started.
• The printing process takes approximately 3 weeks + 7 days if you submit a finished PDF file of your dissertation prepared in accordance with the university’s publication series template. If the layout is done by the printing house, the time needed for layout and printing is approximately 6 weeks + 7 days.
• Instructions for ordering the dissertation can be found on UEF Intra (opens in a new tab) under Printing and Digitisation Services. UEF login is required for UEF Intra. 

5. Arrange the distribution of the doctoral dissertation 

As the doctoral candidate, you are responsible for the distribution unless otherwise agreed. Ensure that the dissertation is publicly available no later than 7 days before the public examination, either as an electronic version on the university’s website or as a printed version in the university library, if no electronic version is available. Ensure distribution as early as possible before the public examination.

Printed version of the dissertation

• opponent
• custos
• preliminary examiners
• supervisors
• additional copies for the public examination and stakeholders as needed

Link to the e-publication by email 

• Vice Dean (Research) Heli Peltola (opens in a new tab)
• faculty administration: [email protected] 

The printing house (PunaMusta) delivers without a separate order:

• four copies to the UEF library (for the collections of the campuses and archives)
• six legal deposit copies to the National Library of Finland

In addition, the contract printing house sends the electronic version to the library. If another printing house is used, you must remind the printing house of this and also send the electronic version to [email protected].

Dissertationes Forestales 

Doctoral dissertations in the field of forestry are published in the national Dissertationes Forestales series:

• Use the Dissertationes Forestales series template. Download and save the Word template (opens in a new tab) to your computer.
• Read the detailed instructions for publishing your dissertation on the series website (opens in a new tab).
• Use the contract printing house (PunaMusta) for printing your dissertation. Instructions for ordering the dissertation can be found on UEF Intra (opens in a new tab) under Printing and Digitisation Services. UEF login is required for UEF Intra. School of Forest Sciences covers the costs of printing of 20 copies.

As the doctoral candidate, you are responsible for the distribution unless otherwise agreed. Ensure distribution as early as possible before the public examination. Please note that the distribution diffrers from the faculty’s general guidelines.

Printed version of the dissertation:

• opponent
• custos 
• preliminary examiners
• supervisors
• Finnish Society of Forest Science (4 copies)
• additional copies for the public examination and stakeholders as needed

Link to the e-publication by email 

• Vice Dean (Research) Heli Peltola (opens in a new tab)
• Vice Head of the Department of Forest Sciences Jari Vauhkonen (opens in a new tab)
• Contact person of the discipline in LUMETO doctoral programme Marjoriitta Möttönen (opens in a new tab)
• faculty administration: [email protected] 

The printing house (PunaMusta) delivers without a separate order:

• three copies to the UEF library (including the display copy)  
• six legal deposit copies to the National Library

The electronic version of the dissertation must be publicly available on the Dissertationes Forestales website at least seven days before the public examination, or as a printed version in the university library, if no electronic version is available.

Futher information:  Marjoriitta Möttönen (opens in a new tab)