GUIDELINE FOR PUBLISHING ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS ON FULDOK

In the following, the goals and tasks of the FulDok document server are set out in a binding guideline and the framework conditions for uploading documents to the document server are described.

1. GOALS AND TASKS

FulDok is the document server of the Fulda University of Applied Sciences (HFD) and is operated by the Fulda University, State and Public Library (HLSB). FulDok offers all members and affiliates of the HFD (in accordance with HessHG § 37) and associated institutions and persons the organisational and technical framework to publish, store, archive and disseminate scientific publications and other documents electronically for research, teaching and general education in compliance with certain quality standards. This applies to purely electronic documents as well as electronic versions of printed publications, and to both first and second publications.

The tasks of FulDok are to ensure the permanent findability and citability of publications and to ensure free access (open access) to the publications published in FulDok.

All electronic documents uploaded to FulDok receive a Digital Object Identifier (DOI). They are indexed via national and international library catalogues, search engines and other reference instruments and can therefore be found and clearly identified worldwide.

2. COLLECTION MANDATE OF THE HLSB AND COPYRIGHT LAW

The HLSB strives to store, catalogue and archive all electronic scientific documents published by members of Fulda University of Applied Sciences, provided that they meet the quality standards of the departments and the HLSB as well as formal requirements. This applies to both purely electronic publications and electronic versions of printed documents.

The copyrights of authors are protected when a document is published in FulDok. There is therefore nothing to prevent the publication of the same document in a journal, with a scientific publisher or on another document server. However, journal editors or publishers should be informed that the document has already been published on FulDok.

In accordance with the recommendations of the German Council of Science and Humanities, all scientists at Fulda University of Applied Sciences are requested to secure a right of use when concluding publishing contracts, which will enable them to additionally publish the works they have written on FulDok – possibly after an embargo period has expired.

Electronic documents of members of the HFD and associated institutions that have been created in the course of scientific work, teaching or studies at the HFD as well as documents published elsewhere in connection with research carried out at the HFD are accepted. The Rhön Scientific Collection also offers external, genuinely electronic or digitised documents.

The collection spectrum includes the following types of publications and documents:

  • Working papers
  • Bachelor theses
  • Reports (e.g. conference or research reports)
  • Books (monographs and anthologies)
  • Dissertations or habilitations
  • Conference publications (e.g. papers or posters)
  • Teaching materials (e.g. lecture notes or presentations)
  • Master theses
  • Periodicals (e.g. newsletters)
  • Preprints
  • Reviews
  • Student papers (e.g. seminar papers or project papers)
  • Parts of books
  • Parts of periodicals
  • Scientific Articles
  • Other publications that need to be published and archived in the interest of the authors or the university

It should be noted that the publication of bachelor's and master's theses as well as dissertations on FulDok requires the approval of the respective first reviewers or doctoral committees (the provisions of the applicable doctoral regulations apply). The publication of student papers, e.g. in the context of seminars or projects at the university, requires a declaration of consent from a supervising professor. A corresponding Form together with declarations of consent for theses and other student papers can be downloaded from the web form "Publish" after logging in to FulDok. In addition, it is found on the Website of the HLSB (here under "Publishing in FulDok"). The form must be completed, signed and sent to fuldok-hslb@hs-fulda.de. (A detailed description of the process for publishing theses can be found in the Intranet of the university.)

For the publication of research data, members and affiliates of Fulda University of Applied Sciences have access to the FulDat Data Repository.

The HLSB recommends that authors provide their documents published in FulDok with a Creative Commons license (CC license for short). By using CC licenses, authors protect their own copyright and right of use and at the same time allow third parties to reuse, reproduce and distribute their work. The type and extent of further use, redistribution or reproduction are determined by the publishers themselves through their license selection. The HLSB offers authors comprehensive advice on the use of CC licenses (openaccess-hlsb@hs-fulda.de).

Compliance with the copyright and exploitation rights of third parties is the responsibility of the authors and publishers of the published documents. In the case of secondary publications on FulDok, the editorial team may require authors to obtain the written consent of any co-authors.

3. THE ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT

For the purposes of this guideline, the term "electronic document" is understood to mean a document based on text and graphics, stored in digital form on a data carrier and distributed via computer networks. In the future, the aim is to extend the term to multimedia documents containing audio and video sequences.

An electronic document to be published on FulDok meets the following requirements:

  • It is intended for permanent dissemination to the public.
  • It is not a dynamic document. If changes are necessary, the amended electronic document will be saved as a new version.
  • It complies with the technical parameters and standards specified by the HLSB (documents can be published in PDF format or ideally PDF/A; instructions for creating PDF/A files can be found here).
  • It can be provided with a Creative Commons license that regulates distribution and use (see also p. 3).

The documents are described by the authors themselves or a person commissioned by them via a web form in FulDok in terms of form and content and then uploaded to the document server.

After the authors' approval, the document will be reviewed and approved by the FulDok editorial team (fuldok-hlsb@hs-fulda.de). Access to published documents may be blocked by the editorial team in exceptional cases. Missing metadata may be added independently by the editorial team.

4. THE PUBLICATION AGREEMENT

In order to complete the publication process in FulDok, you as a publisher must agree to the HLSB's standardised publication agreement for FulDok. The agreement will be presented to you in FulDok at the end of the publication process. You confirm the publishing agreement by ticking the corresponding checkbox. A handwritten signature on the agreement is not required. You can view the publication agreement in advance at any time on the FulDok website under the menu item "About FulDok".

5. UNIFORM NAMING OF DOCUMENTS

The naming of the file to be uploaded should follow a uniform scheme that allows for unique identification of each individual document.

Components of the file name are:

  • Last name of the author, in the case of several authors, the last name of the first author with the addition of "et al"
  • Short title of the work
  • Year of publication

The individual elements of the file name must be separated by underscores. This also applies to the components of the short title of the publication, provided that it is formed from more than one word.

Example
a) [Last Name]_[Short Title]_[Year] => Musterfrau_Musterpublikation_Abschlussarbeit_2025
b) [Last Name]_et_al_[Short Title]_[Year of Publication] => Mustermann_et_al_Musterpublikation_Studienprojekt_2025

Authors should make sure that the cover pages or publications themselves do not contain any information such as private addresses, email addresses or telephone numbers!

6. CATALOGUING

In order to make the uploaded publications visible nationally and internationally in library catalogues, search engines and other reference instruments, they are indexed by metadata (Dublin Core, keywords, DDC categories, abstract).

7. ORGANISATIONAL MATTERS

FulDok is operated jointly by the HLSB and the Hessian library information system hebis, which provides the technical infrastructure. In addition, the following organisational aspects must be taken into account:

  • The publication of electronic documents in FulDok is generally free of charge.
  • After creating an account and logging in with a user ID of the HFD (e-mail address of the university), the documents to be published via FulDok can be uploaded and described with metadata, which can be viewed publicly after the publication process has been completed.
  • The FulDok collection selected for publication, the publication type, the author's name, the title of the published work, the publication date of the work, the language of the work and the access status (Open Access or Restricted Access) are mandatory information. All other metadata is optional, but can be added by the editorial team if it is missing.
  • Special conditions apply to student theses and dissertations. A publication recommendation from the first reviewers or the approval of the responsible doctoral committees is required (see also p. 2 and 3).
  • After uploading, the electronic documents are given individual and permanent identifiers (DOIs) that allow immediate access to the documents and ensure that they can be found anywhere in the world. These identifiers are automatically generated by the system and are publicly visible after the publishing process is complete.
  • The additional work that may be required for publication, such as the preparation of electronic documents or the conversion into publishable file formats, can be supported or carried out by HLSB staff if required.
  • The subsequent modification or deletion of published documents is not provided. Modified versions are posted as a new version with their own DOI. Under certain conditions, access to a document can be blocked.
  • The bibliographical references of all documents published in FulDok are automatically recorded in the university bibliography and are available there for export to bibliographies, to ORCID, etc., as well as for statistical purposes.
  • If you have any questions about FulDok, please contact the Fulda University, State and Public Library (HLSB): fuldok-hlsb@hs-fulda.de.

THANKS TO

We would like to thank the Electronic Publishing Working Group at the Humboldt University of Berlin and the editorial team of the PUR Publications Repository of the Rhine-Main University, whose guidelines were used as templates.

QUESTIONS?

YOU ARE WELCOME TO CONTACT US:
fuldok-hlsb@hs-fulda.de
+ 49 661 9640-9826

Status: 16.10.2025, University, State and Public Library Fulda (HLSB)