Some third-party funding providers who fund projects also provide funding for publishing the results and the payments towards printing costs that are incurred as a result. We would recommend contacting your funding provider directly. Funding for payments towards printing costs is also available from certain scholarships or research training groups. The DFG only provides funding for doctoral theses in particularly justified exceptional cases. More information is available in the DFG’s guidelines on publication grants.

Some foundations provide funding for publications in certain subjects:

• Geschwister Boehringer Ingelheim Stiftung für Geisteswissenschaften (humanities)
• Franz-und-Eva-Rutzen-Stiftung zur Förderung von Wissenschaft und Forschung auf dem Gebiet der Archäologie (archaeology)
• Arbeitskreis Wirtschaft und Recht (Handels-, Gesellschafts-, Wirtschafts- und Arbeitsrecht) (trade, corporate, commercial and labor law)
• Ilse und Dr. Alexander Mayer Stiftung

You can also search for foundations that provide funding to cover publication costs in the Deutsches Stiftungszentrum database.

It is also worth looking at our website for funding databases.

A few publishing houses also offer a payment towards printing costs, but it may be linked to certain conditions (although this is not always the case).

• VDK-Foerderfonds

The Barbara Budrich publishing house organizes a competition for doctoral theses every two years. The entries are evaluated by a panel of specialists and selected theses are then published free of charge by Verlag Barbara Budrich in its “promotion” series.

Further information is available in an information sheet from the Graduate Center.

Publishing your doctoral thesis electronically may be one alternative. If the doctoral regulations for your subject permit this option, you should take a look at OPEN FAU where you will find information on online publication at the University.

For grants towards publishing articles in open-access journals, please read the information on the relevant website. It is also important to check the quality criteria for open access publishers beforehand.

In addition to electronic publication on OPEN FAU as mentioned above, FAU University Press offers the possibility of having your publication printed in book form through its publishing service. FAU University Press provides support during all stages of the publication process, which is discussed in detail with the author, and commissions a print-on demand service, enabling small print runs to be produced at low cost.

Since April 2024, you can also choose to submit your doctoral thesis in an unformatted format, for example in the original A4 format, and have it converted automatically into the corporate design of the FAU University Press using the new SciFlow Publish production workflow. Please note the criteria that have to be met for this workflow.

Further information on the publication process and who to contact is available on the FAU University Press website.

Doctoral theses graded “summa cum laude” can also be published in the series “FAU Forschungen”. The decision is taken by the Academic Advisory Board of FAU University Press. Doctoral theses and other theses can also be published in the “FAU Studien” series. All that is required is the recommendation of the relevant Chair.

Print-on-demand means that only small print runs are produced. Larger quantities are published subsequently if necessary. This avoids generating high costs for the publisher and uncertainty regarding sales, meaning that the books can be published at a much more reasonable cost. Generally, doctoral candidates are not expected to contribute towards printing costs in this instance.

Faculty doctoral regulations may stipulate certain restrictions, for example regarding the minimum number of copies, or the period in which further copies can be printed.

• List of selected print-on-demand services

VG Wort is a copyright collective – a group of authors and publishers which engages in collective rights management. Its main task is to ensure that authors and publishers receive the best possible revenue from those required to pay fees and to pass this revenue on to those who are entitled to it with the least possible administrative work. It sets fixed fees for authors whose works can be used by third parties (e.g. through library loan).