Tips for LAB thesis supervisors

In principle, a thesis written at a university of applied sciences leading to a degree certificate is public (The Constitution of Finland, § 12.2; Publicity Act, § 1). Universities of applied sciences follow The Ministry of Education and Culture's instructions that theses do not contain any confidential material and are public immediately after approval (the ministry's letter to universities of applied sciences 28.1.2004, Dnro3/500/2004).

The publicity of the thesis means that the description data of the thesis is available and the thesis is accessible either directly or on request. At LAB, theses are published in the Theseus open repository.

If the thesis is not published in Theseus, it must be submitted to the LAB archive. In addition, the metadata of the thesis is stored in the LUT Academic Library database, where the information of the thesis is publicly accessible. For further information, please contact theseus@lab.fi.

A few important things to know about saving the thesis in Theseus

• Only give the student a permission to upload the thesis in Theseus when it is fully completed, approved and graded!
  • However, the submission of the thesis must be done before the student is marked as graduated in Peppi, as the student logs into Theseus with the LAB student ID. 
• Students are allowed to make only one submission in Theseus.
  • Submissions are processed by more than one person in the library. We may not notice if a student makes more than one submission and in this case, the thesis of the same student may be published in Theseus for the number of times they have made a submission. 
• Students cannot edit, change or remove a thesis submitted in Theseus: once the library has published the thesis, it is immediately available for download on the open web.
  • Exceptions are theses published in the Theseus restricted collection: they can only be read from designated workstations in the campus libraries of Lahti and Lappeenranta during the library's customer service hours.
• The library will process the uploaded theses as soon as possible. Please note that during the library's summer and Christmas holidays, there is a longer delay in processing the theses and answering emails! Also, during the graduation rush in May-June and November-December, processing time may be several days.
• The pdf-file uploaded in Theseus must meet the accessibility requirements and be in PDF/A format that is required for long-term preservation.
  • There is a help page in Theseus with information on accessibility and conversion to PDF/A format.

NOTE! The thesis for a double-degree programme is NOT uploaded in Theseus. Instead, students should submit the PDF/A file of their approved thesis to theseus@lab.fi. In their message, students should state that the thesis has been approved by LAB.

Here are some important things to pay attention to concerning the content and form of the thesis:

• The student has used the LAB thesis template.
• The name of the institution is correct on the cover page and in the abstract: LAB University of Applied Sciences. Also the LAB logo should be on the cover page.
  • If a LAB student writes their thesis together with a student from another UAS, the LAB student uploads the thesis in the LAB Theseus collection. The thesis file must have a cover page that complies with the LAB thesis template.
    • LAB logo only.
    • LAB student details first (example of the cover page)
• The title of the thesis is the same on the cover page and in the abstract.
• If the thesis contains any confidential parts, the procedures to be followed are set out in section 4.3 of the thesis guidelines.
  • The PDF/A-file published in Theseus must not contain any parts that are crossed out, blackened, etc.
• The thesis and its appendices do not contain any data that are critical for data protection, such as signatures, student numbers or contact details of the student or third party.
• The APPENDICES page at the end of the thesis will only appear if the thesis contains appendix/appendices.
  • Appendices are titled Appendix 1, Appendix 2, etc. and they are numbered consecutively.
  • The table of contents shows if there are any appendices included.
• The thesis includes abstracts in Finnish and in English.
  • For theses written in English, an English abstract is sufficient.
• The numbering of paragraphs and pages in the table of contents is consistent and without any breaks or bookmark errors, and the page numbering is visible in the thesis.