Please note that you may only use your title (PhD or Dr. rer. nat.) after the mandatory publication of your thesis and receipt of the official doctoral certificate (see RerNat-O §§21 and 22 (German , English translation)).
The thesis has to be published at the latest one year after the thesis defense. In exceptional cases and upon written request only, this deadline may be extended maximum once by one year. If you miss the deadline for publication you lose all rights to the conferral of the doctoral degree and to the receipt of the certificate. Prior to publication you are obliged to discuss the need for any further modifications to the dissertation with the members of your doctoral thesis committee.
Before you publish your thesis, your supervisor has to sign the revision certificate (English , German ) on behalf of the members of your doctoral thesis committee. There is the option to publish the thesis electronically via the Göttingen State and University Library (SUB).
Under specific circumstances and only for a good reason, the publication of the thesis can be restricted, which requires a joint written request by the doctoral student and his/her supervisor. The request should be directed to the examination board the latest at the day of the oral examination. In this case only the abstract of the thesis is publicly available, whereas the remaining dissertation is treated confidentially. According to the doctoral regulations, this exception / embargo is initially granted for one year after the oral examination; however, it is possible to apply for an extension for an additional year. At the latest with the expiry of the second year, the thesis must be fully published. Potential good reasons to apply for this restriction / embargo are for example that the publication of the thesis would harm the protection of intellectual property or breach publication contracts with a publisher (i.e. a paper has been accepted and prior publication of the thesis is legally inadmissible). For further information please see doctoral regulations §21 section 8. Approving the good reasons as well as the request for restricted publication / embargo of the thesis is solely incumbent upon the examination board. Once your application is granted, your thesis has to be published with the SUB using the restriction notice / embargo (.docx or .pdf ).
To receive your doctoral degree certificate the signed revision certificate as well as the publication certificate are needed after the completion of the publication procedure.Publication
For further information on the requirements and guidelines for publishing your thesis via the eDiss server of the SUB, please follow this link:
Receipt of the doctoral certificate
In case you have chosen to publish via eDiss at the SUB, the confirmation that you have uploaded your thesis is usually sent to the GAUSS Office directly by the SUB. If you have published your thesis elsewhere we would need a confirmation from the publisher. Both documents are needed, in order to be able to apply for issuing of your certificate. Note, the issuance of the certificate takes at least 4 weeks.
Legalization of your doctoral certificate for international use – Apostille
In case you need a legalization of your doctoral certificate for international use - Apostille - please check HERE for information and how to receive the special authentication (which includes a preliminary certification by the University of Göttingen and the authentication or apostille from the Göttingen Police Headquarters - these are easier to obtain while still in Göttingen).
Important note: If you are considering pursuing an academic career, please make sure that you familiarize yourself with the eligibility criteria of various funding agencies concerning the cut-off dates for applying for fellowships. Especially the highly attractive longer term or junior group funding schemes (e.g. Emmy Noether, Sofja Kovalevskaja, Helmholtz, Fritz Thyssen) are varying in this regard. For some the cut-off date is the date of your PhD certificate, for some it is that of your thesis defense, which makes a noteworthy difference when, for example, you can only apply up to four years after your PhD. In this regard, please make yourself familiar with these regulations early on and, if possible for you, consider a restricted online publication to avoid missing the chance to apply for these funding schemes. Please check the cut-off dates of a selection of fellowships HERE (please note the list is not exhaustive).