This proof of publication must be provided within one year of the disputation. The deadline can be extended by one year upon justified request. In exceptional cases, the deadline can be extended by a further year in each case (up to three times) upon further justified application. However, the dissertation must be published no later than 5 years after the defense.

Before publication, please remove the declaration, signatures, CV, and, if applicable, the acknowledgements and page with the reviewers. The dissertation will be made publicly accessible – sensitive information could be misused. Please refer to the provided template (incl. “accepted in the year yyyy”).

Before publishing your dissertation, please upload the following documents to Docfile (D-Akte):

• Acknowledgement of publication by the advisor
• PDF file of the dissertation in its publication format (see template of the dissertation for correct form)

No printed copies of the dissertation need to be submitted to the doctoral office.

Inform the doctoral office of this by email (mnf-promotionen@uni-koeln.de) with “Publication, department (e.g. ”Biology") in the subject line.

Only publish your dissertation after you have received confirmation from the Doctoral Office that it has been approved for publication in this form.

You can publish either electronically, as a single publication in a publishing house or in private print. 

In the case of electronic publication, no printed copies need to be submitted to the USB. 

In the case of non-electronic publication, the information on the number of printed copies to be submitted to the USB can be seen in the acknowledgement of publication form. 

In both cases, please refer to the information provided by the University and City Library of Cologne (USB).

The doctoral office will be automatically informed by the USB about the publication of the dissertation and will contact you to hand over the certificate.