Universities in transition: Digital dissertations are revolutionizing research

Universities in transition: Digital dissertations are revolutionizing research

On August 28, 2025, the University of Duisburg-Essen will celebrate a remarkable series of doctorate awards that have taken place in recent months. In March, April and May of this year, numerous dissertations from different disciplines were successfully defended. The range of topics chosen by the prospective doctoral students reflects the diversity of research initiatives at the university.

The awards in March 2025 included, among other things, dissertations from the fields of communication science, economics, natural sciences and engineering. Particularly noteworthy are the works of Till Sebastian Hartwig and Claudia Scharf, who dealt with implicit communication and the ability to act in school education. In engineering science, Christoph Abraham and Rama Assaf caused a stir with their work on the loading of steel bolts and powder handling in aviation.

Diverse research contributions

In April 2025, the award enriched the academic landscape with a large number of doctoral students who, among other things, dealt with digital education and history. David Passig and Annette Sommer creatively dealt with people as designers of history and Latin liturgical improprieties. In the economic sector, the work of Angelika Lau on the digitalization of work and Joel Val on asset pricing stood out.

May continued this tradition, with dissertations dealing with topics such as teacher professionalization and molecular mechanisms of corona assembly. Here Marcus Kindlinger and Verena Cmentowski impressively show how education and health research can be intertwined. In the field of engineering, Mauritz Biebl-Kaminsky and Ahmad Abdullah Goudah Husseien were also able to impress with their in-depth studies of hydrogen fuel cells and automated vehicles.

The digital transformation of dissertations

A central aspect of today's doctoral landscape is the obligation to publish dissertations and habilitation theses at German universities. The German National Library (DNB) plays a key role in this by collecting dissertations since 1913. With the emergence of digital formats since the late 1990s, publishing practices have become increasingly digitalized. This was done under the project name “DissOnline”, which developed standards for the collection of online publications.

The DNB offers extensive research options in its catalog and provides statistics on the development of digital university theses. Dissertations are delivered via the OAI-PMH interface. These digital collections are essential for the visibility and accessibility of academic work today.

Rules for cumulative dissertations

Another important aspect when publishing dissertations is the possibility of a cumulative university thesis. This includes already published scientific contributions and depends on the doctoral regulations of the respective faculties. When publishing, co-authors must give their consent and usage rights must be clarified, especially if articles have already been published in journals. The University library provides clear guidelines to ensure that these publications remain legally compliant and visible.

The challenges with admission, in particular clarifying the rights to already published articles and taking into account the licensing conditions, show how complex the process of publishing dissertations has become. The DNB requires doctoral students to submit all required materials correctly and on time in order to ensure complete documentation of their academic work.