Publishing digital theses

Publishing final theses for Diploma, Staatsexamen, Magister and Master’s degree programs

The Library's document server is an easy-to-use facility provided by the State and University Library of Bremen which enables graduates in Bremen to publish full-text versions of their final theses online at the recommendation of a member of the academic staff.

Publishing your thesis - a step-by-step guide

Please complete the following steps to publish your thesis:
Create a digital version (PDF file) - register online, Describe and upload your file – submit your Declaration of Consent.

1. 1. Accept the Terms of Agreement and Declaration of Consent
By signing and submitting a Declaration of Consent you and your supervisor accept our Terms of Contract for the Publication of E-Documents. To publish your theses online, you must submit a Declaration of Consent bearing your own signature and that of your supervisor(s).
Theses cannot be published online without the consent of your supervisor.

2. Create a copy of your thesis in the compatible format (PDF/A)
Your work will be published as a PDF/A file. This special version of the Portable Document Format (PDF) is a universal file format designed to facilitate document exchange by embedding fonts, formatting, colors and graphics from any source within the document. Its ability to represent documents independently of the software, hardware and operating systems used to create them makes it an ideal presentation format for online publishing. Please remember to assign your file a descriptive file name and also set the PDF-internal title and author information correctly so that your document is well presented in Google searches.

You can create a PDF/A version of your thesis with Adobe Acrobat, for example, which is installed on the computers in the Central Library. Please note that the PDF of your dissertation must be an accurate reproduction of the original document. A guide to creating PDF files for WORD and Open Office users is available here (in german). LaTeX users should refer to the following guide: Generating PDF/A compliant PDFs from pdftex

3. Register your thesis online (ORCID)
Once you have prepared the final version of your publication, you can register to submit it online.

You need an ORCID-ID to log on to the library's media server. The ORCID is a worldwide unique ID for scientists. ORCID-IDs are intended to facilitate the electronic assignment of publications and other research activities to researchers. If you do not yet have an ORCID, you can create an ORCID before you register.

Once you have registered online, you will be requested to supply a brief abstract of your work along with the requisite bibliographic metadata before you can upload the PDF/A file to the document server. The metadata and PDF/A file of your publication will be formally reviewed by our staff following this. You will then receive a confirmation e-mail from the library detailing the further procedure.

4. Release of the digital thesis
Once the process is complete, the work is released and is immediately available worldwide through the library's system. You will receive a long-term valid and therefore citable internet address based on a persistent identifier: DOI