Publishing Your Doctoral Dissertation on the Internet

On this page, we explain the Internet publication of a doctoral dissertation toward the graduate students who are supposed to acquire a degree of doctorate in Hiroshima University. Please start preparing now for publication with the following guidelines in mind.

Along with a revision of the Degree Regulations, those who receive a doctoral degree from Hiroshima University since April 1, 2013 must publish his/her entire doctoral dissertation on the Hiroshima University Institutional Repository (hereinafter referred to as “Repository”) within 1 year after the day the degree is awarded.

However, in the case your dissertation has "unavoidable circumstances" which it is unable to be published, with the university's approval, it is possible to publish a summary of your dissertation content instead of the entire dissertation. Also in this case, you will need to publish the entire dissertation on the Repository when the unavoidable circumstances have been resolved.

In addition, all of the doctoral dissertations will be collected in the National Diet Library even if they have unavoidable circumstances, and they will make available for public inspection in the Hiroshima University and the National Diet Library.

Procedures and submissions about the Internet publication

Procedures

Please submit the following things in the way your graduate school prescribed. Since it depends on the graduate school about the submission deadline and details, for more information, please contact the Student Support Office of your graduate school.

Submissions for the Internet publication

• A form “Doctoral Dissertation Submission and Publication Confirmation (Application Form)”
• An electronic data file of the entire doctoral dissertation
• An electronic data file of the abstract of the dissertation content
• An electronic data file of the summary of the dissertation content (only if your dissertation has the unavoidable grounds)
• Other documents (only if you are expected to submit some specified documents by your graduate school)

*As soon as the unavoidable circumstances are resolved, please resubmit the Doctoral Dissertation Submission and Publication Confirmation (Application Form) to the Student Support Office of your graduate school, only if you have checked the box “not yet determined” about the assumed date of publication on the confirmation form.

*Please be sure to submit the electronic data file of the entire dissertation even though your dissertation has unavoidable circumstances.

Form of the electronic data files

For the electronic data files to be submitted, please use the PDF format. We request that you shall meet the following things for long-term archiving.

• To embed fonts. Not to perform such as encryption, password settings and printing restriction
• To comply with PDF/A(ISO 19005) requirements

It is possible to comply with PDF/A format in options when you want to save as PDF with Microsoft Office products.

Unavoidable circumstances

Some main reasons which are seen as unavoidable circumstances are described in the confirmation form. Please contact the Student Support Office of your graduate school if your dissertation has other reasons.
As a lot of applicants frequently fail to make sure of the following items, please check especially carefully.

Your dissertation includes something cannot be published by copyright and contract of posts and publications. (in confirmation form "unavoidable circumstances" B, D or E-related)

• When you use the posts or publication paper which has already submitted to the publishers in your doctoral dissertation, please check carefully the presented document (posted rules and copyright transfer agreement, etc.) by the publisher at the time of post or publication. You may not be able to publish your dissertation on the Repository, depending on the contents of the contracts.
• If the copyright transfer has been carried out, please check the followings on the web pages, copyright transfer agreement or the editors.
  • It is possible to use the posts or publication papers in your doctoral dissertation.
  • It is possible to publish your dissertation including the posts or publication papers on the Repository.
  Also, please obtain permission for the above two matters from the copyright holder, if necessary.
• Even if the publishers have already web published your papers for free, you cannot always publish them on the institutional repositories.
• If you have to publish not only the main thesis of your dissertation but also published paper, please check for the above also the published paper.

The consent for publication has not been obtained if there are study participants to protect the privacy or if the dissertation contains information confidential, etc. (F-related)

• Please check with co-workers in case there may be the confidentiality in the contents of joint research.
• If it contains results of questionnaires or clinical researches, please confirm whether personal information of the questionnaire respondents is protected and it is allowed to be published on the Repository.

It will cause some disadvantages for the degree applicants who plan to post, to publish or to apply for a patent by the publication of the doctoral dissertation on the Repository. (G or H-related)

• Once your doctoral dissertation has been published on the Repository, it may be impossible to post or publish the same paper as your dissertation because it is regarded as an already published paper.
• Remember to apply for a patent before your degree application. Patent application after the hearing might be accompanied by restrictions or not recognized. If you are in trouble, please confer with the staff of relevant departments. You should apply your dissertation to unavoidable circumstances only if the disadvantage can be avoided by not publishing your entire dissertation on the Repository.

Reference

• Institutional Repository & Copyright Q&A
  http://ir.lib.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/00035325
• An Introduction to Research Ethics
  https://momiji.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/userfiles/file/learning/daigakuin/研究倫理案内（完成版）.pdf
• Document of Briefing about Publication and Copyright of a Doctral Thesis (2014) (Japanese language only.)
  http://ir.lib.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/page/documents
  Movie(campus limited)：http://www.els.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/misc/writing/seminor2014-phd.html
• FAQ(Japanese language only.)
  http://ir.lib.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/page/faq#hakuron

Inquiries

About Confirmation( application form), electronic files, thesis reviews
The support office of your graduate school

About Institutional Repository and copyright
Library Information Planning Group
Email: tosho-kikaku-jyoho[at]office.hiroshima-u.ac.jp

About Patent
Center for Collaborative Research & Community Cooperation(intellectual property)
Email: chizai[at]hiroshima-u.ac.jp