Cumulative doctoral theses

According to the Implementing Provisions for the ETH Zurich Ordinance on the Doctorate, the use of published journal articles in the publisher’s PDF (Version of Record) in cumulative dissertations is not permitted.

For articles already published in academic journals, the accepted manuscript version (AAM, short for author’s accepted manuscript, which corresponds to the manuscript version following peer review) is typically integrated into the layout of the cumulative dissertation. Publishers have different policies regarding the reuse of AAMs. In cooperation with ETH Zurich, TU Berlin maintains a list on GitHub of information regarding the reuse of article manuscripts in cumulative dissertations: 

Notes on using this list:

• The information is sourced from standard contracts and publisher websites and is reviewed annually. However, all information is provided without warranty.
• If you have made different arrangements with the publisher, please check the exact terms in your publishing contract. To use a different version, negotiate a shorter embargo period, or similar, you must obtain permission directly from the publisher. Most publishers use the RightsLink Service from the Copyright Clearance Center for licensing.
• Some (not all) publishers base their conditions for self-archiving and the reuse of content for further publications on the type of publication: journal article or book chapter. The list linked here primarily covers publisher policies for journals; provisions regarding the reuse of book chapters have been added for some publishers. Please carefully verify whether the listed policies apply to the relevant content you are considering.
• Reuse policies for journals from publishers not included in the list can be found in the Open Policy Finder; for books, select the Books search option.
• If your article was published as Open Access and under a Creative Commons license, more generous conditions for reuse apply than those shown in the linked list. A brief summary of the conditions can be found in the RC Manual (here).
• An explanation of the terms preprint, AAM can also be found in the RC Manual under Open Access articles (self-archiving).
• Many academic publishers accept articles for publication even though they have already been published online as part of a (cumulative) doctoral dissertation. For many publishers, doctoral dissertations published online — similar to preprints — are not considered a “publication” within the meaning of their “Prior Publication Policy.” See also: Discussion document on best practice for issues around thesis publishing by the Committee on Publication Ethics. Where available, you will find details on this in the list for each publisher under Re-use before official publication by publisher.

Referencing (to be) published parts in a cumulative thesis

If you include a published or submitted article in your cumulative dissertation, you should document where that article was published or will be published. This documentation must adhere to the standards of academic referencing. You must always provide a correct, complete citation and, whenever possible, use the corresponding DOI to refer to the published version of your article that is reused in the cumulative dissertation. If the article was published under a Creative Commons license as open access, you should also include a link to the license (cf. first bullet point below). In addition, we recommend indicating the current publication status of each of your works (e.g., published, accepted, under review, in preparation). References are usually added at the beginning of the respective chapter the paper is used in, either in the main text or in a footnote.

Examples:

• This chapter is published as: Prescott, A. B., & Pelletier, J. D. (2025). Climate‐Driven Changes to Suspended‐Sediment Yields by the End of the Century. Earth’s Future, 13(9). https://doi.org/10.1029/2025ef006125 under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
• This chapter has been accepted for publication in Nature Communications
• This chapter has been submitted to IEEE Access
• This chapter is being prepared for submission to Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
• This chapter is being prepared for submission to a scientific journa

Scientific papers with co-authors

If an additional description of the doctoral student's contribution to the research and authorship of an article is needed for co-authored outputs and is not already included in the article's text, the Contributor Role Taxonomy (CRediT) (https://credit.niso.org/) can be used to describe the key types of contribution typically made to the production and publication of research outputs, such as research articles.