Publishing parts of your thesis
PhD candidates usually publish parts of their thesis as scientific journal articles. Publishing parts of your thesis before your thesis is submitted poses no problems. However, if you plan to submit manuscripts to journals after your thesis has been submitted, you may need to have an embargo placed on your thesis.
Why you might need an embargo
Most scientific journals use plagiarism-detection software on new submissions. If your PhD thesis is publicly available through the WUR Library, this software will flag your manuscript as potentially plagiarised. Most journal publishers do allow you to publish part(s) of your thesis as articles, even when the thesis is publicly available. Make sure to mention in your cover letter to the journal that your manuscript is part of a publicly defended PhD thesis.
How to set up an embargo
If you do expect problems with journal plagiarism checks, the Library can put an embargo on your PhD thesis. Send an e-mail to media.library@wur.nl to request this. During the embargo, your thesis will not be visible online and will not appear in plagiarism-detection software. The embargo will last for 1 year. One month before the embargo expires, we will email you or your supervisor to ask if the embargo should be extended. If an extension is not needed, or if you or your supervisor do not reply to the email within a month, the embargo will be lifted and your PhD thesis will become publicly available through Wageningen University & Research PhD theses.
To ensure that we can reach you during this process, please send us the following two email addresses: your private email address, especially if you will no longer be affiliated with WUR in the future, and the email address of a permanent WUR staff member associated with your PhD research, e.g., your supervisor. You can send these to media.library@wur.nl.