Question of the week

This week’s question comes from Ece, a PhD candidate at Maastricht University. Ece recently came across the concept of ISBN registration for dissertations and is curious about its necessity and potential benefits or drawbacks. We appreciate Ece’s question and are here to provide the necessary information.

Answer

The short answer is that an ISBN is optional for your dissertation. Instead, we register a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) for the digital version of every Dissertation/Thesis.

ISBN registration is not mandatory for PhD dissertations at Maastricht University. An International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a unique identifier used by publishers, booksellers, libraries, and other stakeholders for various purposes, including ordering, listing, and stock control. While it can be beneficial in certain situations, Maastricht University Library already ensures your dissertation is adequately archived and shared.

The library archives and shares the digital version of your dissertation, making it accessible to a broad audience. More importantly, we register a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for all digital publications we publish, including PhD dissertations. A DOI provides a persistent link to your work, enhancing its discoverability and citability.

If an ISBN would enhance the visibility of your dissertation, you can request print services to register your ISBN. This service is usually available as an additional option, and the registration process typically takes about three working days, giving you flexibility and control over your dissertation’s publication.

For more information about ISBN and DOI registration and the process at Maastricht University, please visit our dedicated web page, ISBN registration.

About this post

Every day, we answer many questions via Ask Your Librarian. When we notice several related questions in one week, we review and improve the information on our website. We then write a post about the question to share via our website, Research Support Update, and UMployee (intranet) for you to read.

If you have questions that need to be covered by the information on our website or want to discuss this post, see below for all contact options.

Thanks for reading our posts and tips about academic publishing and Open Access. I hope this is helpful to you.

Ron Aardening, Scholarly Communication and Publishing Officer.

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