Submitting a PhD thesis

Graduate candidates of Utrecht University are required to submit a digital copy of their thesis to the university library for preservation in the Igitur Archive, the university’s digital scientific archive. This ruling is a part of the graduation regulations (promotiereglement). See the university’s information page concerning doctoral studies.

Information regarding the submission of your PhD thesis to the university library, can be found on the same page under the heading Instructions to the doctoral candidate, in Articles 8 through 12.

Once your thesis is placed in the archive, it can be found via:

• The collection Proefschriften (PhD theses) in the Igitur Archive;
• The library’s full-text search engine, Omega
• The Nationale Proefschriften (Promise of Science) website (only if the thesis is not under embargo)

Through inclusion in the Igitur Archive, your PhD thesis can easily be found anywhere in the world. Each thesis is preserved in a sustainable manner and is given a unique, sustainable url. In addition, as of October 1^st, 2007, PhD theses are also available via Printing on Demand. This service allows readers to order a printed copy via the web page of the thesis in the Igitur Archive. At the time of submission, you may indicate if you DO NOT wish to make use of this service.

PhD candidates sometimes ask if publishers object that a PhD thesis, that may be (partially) published by them at a later date, is included in the Igitur Archive and is, thus, freely available. An increasing number of publishers are agreeing to the inclusion of research results in an archive (institutional repository) such as the Igitur Archive. More information regarding the various aspects of copyrights is available on our copyright page. 

In specific relation to the publication of PhD theses, there is a possibility to utilize an embargo. Under embargo, a PhD thesis will be archived, but the full-text will not be made available for 6 months (later by specific request).

If you have graduated in years past, it is still possible to make your PhD thesis available online via the Igitur Archive.

The majority of the files in the Igitur Archive are in Portable Document Format (.pdf). Other file types are also accepted. A list of the 2012 guaranteed accepted file formats is available (PDF).