General information
December 2024 session: deadlines
Watch a short video tutorial on the online post-graduate thesis submission procedure.
Before submitting the thesis you must first be registered for the degree exam session. For more information: Degree examination
Graduating students are invited to check their institutional inbox (@mail.polimi.it) for communications concerning thesis submission and approval and to keep in touch with their supervisor in the period between submission and the deadline for approval of the thesis.
For PhD theses: go to the website of PhD School
Preparation of the thesis
To find out about the preparation rules and all the instructions for submission of the thesis you can view POLItesi instructions
For contrasting any form of plagiarism the University has equipped researchers and professors with a software which facilitates their activity in checking and evaluating the originality of their students’ Graduation (Compilatio) and Doctoral Theses (Turnitin).
WHAT IS PLAGIARISM
To be sure to respect the rules on Copyright and not to commit an involuntary plagiarism, you must know that plagiarism means presenting someone else's work as if it were your own. It is allowed to take other persons' ideas only if the author and his original work are clearly mentioned.
As stated in its Code of Ethics and Conduct, Politecnico “promotes the integrity of research, condemns manipulationand the infringement of intellectual property”, and gives opportunity to all those who carry out research activities to have an adequate training on ethical conduct and integrity while doing research.
To be sure to respect the copyright rules:
- read the guides on Copyright legislation and citation styles
- read the FAQ on Copyright
You can also attend the courses which are periodically organised on "Bibliographic citations and bibliography management".
For further information
Thesis submission support
For information and assistance on the online submission of the post-graduate thesis you can:
- read the FAQ for who has to deposit his thesis: you find them at the bottom of this page
- fill out the assistance request form
- book an appointment at the virtual desk
- contact the Reference service at Leonardo Campus Library.
Who is the author of the thesis?
The author of the thesis is the degree candidate. Given that a thesis is often the result of a process of team work, involving several personas or entities, the degree candidate, as the formal author of its "illustration" must be careful not to damage the rights of other subjects involved; such rights may damaged, for example, by using material of others without permission or releasing news or information relating to projects carried out by bodies or institutions. The author must be aware that when he writes the thesis he must respect the rights of others and that such legal obligation holds both for the digital version as well as the printed version of his work.
Who possesses the economic exploitation rights of the thesis?
The degree candidate, in addition to the moral rights, also possesses the economic exploitation rights of his work, unless his research has been financed by third parties. In this case it is the contract with the financing body which determines if and which economic exploitation rights stay with the author and/or the university. The new university regulations concerning intellectual property (patents) aim at establishing advantageous conditions both for those applying for patents via the university as well as the university supporting the corresponding costs. Should the professor and his research group have stipulated a contract with an external financer and should such contract foresee confidentiality, it is necessary to pay attention to the accessibility option choices during the online deposit of the thesis.
Can I use protected material in my thesis?
In general, material in the public domain or parts thereof may be inserted in the thesis or that for which written permission from the owners of the rights has been obtained. Inserting material or blocks of material (via copy and paste) of others for which permission has not been obtained can constitute a serious infringement. Such material or parts thereof may be used as content only if "re-elaborated" in their expressive form.
Various types of material:
Photos/images. According to paragraph 1 bis of article 70 of the authors' rights law "free publication, without charge, of low-resolution or downgraded images and music on the internet is allowed for teaching or scientific purposes and only in the case in which usage is not for profit [...]". It is possible therefore to use protected images in a thesis as long as the quality of the image is downgraded or in low resolution.
Articles. Insertion of parts of articles should be used with great care. Since, in addition to any authors' rights, also publication rights may exist it is always advisable to ask the permission of the publisher. Use of such material is in any case subject to written authorisation from the owners of the rights (in most cases the publisher). Insertion of entire articles should nevertheless be avoided. In order to highlight the above publications, mention should be made both in the text as well as in the bibliography.
Brief quotations. Brief quotations of other protected works may be inserted, citing the source, subject to the limits of article 70 of the authors' rights law: "the quotation or reproduction of passages or parts of a work and their communication to the public may be freely carried out if used for criticism or discussion, subject to the limits justified for such ends and as long as they do not constitute competition to the economic use of the work; if carried out for teaching or scientific research purposes this must be for illustration and not commercial purposes".
How can I ask for permission of use of third-party material?
The request must be sent to the holders of the rights (for example: to the society of your study stage, to the Department who hold the research project or to the publisher to which the economic exploitation rights have been sold).
The request should indicate:
- contact: including postal address, telephone and e-mail;
- details of the material for which you are applying for authorisation (title of article or book, author(s), ISSN/ ISBN, volume, year, issue and pages;
- details on the use of the material: full article, parts thereof, graphs, tables;
- details on how the material will be used and which option will chosen for the publication of your thesis on the Institutional Archive POLITESI.
What do I do in case of thesis subject to agreement with third parties?
If the thesis is part of a wider research project for which an agreement with an external research or financing body for publication and diffusion of the thesis only once the entire research project has been completed has been stipulated, it is legitimate that an embargo period be requested. If you have any doubts, ask at your supervisor or contact the Reference service in Leonardo Campus Library before submitting the thesis.
What should I do if I wanted to patent my thesis?
Patents and authors' rights are two separate and parallel worlds. The patent protects a technical solution to a technical problem and requires research innovation which can bring about an improvement in the technical state of the art. If you are thinking to patent your idea, before the online deposit, contact the Technology Transfer Office.
Privacy. What is published in POLITESI of the data inserted in the procedure?
At the moment of the submission, the graduating student may decide whether the metadata sheet of the thesis will be published and viewable in Politesi or not.
The short sheet of a thesis relating to a Laurea Magistrale (equivalent to a Bachelor of Science) contains the following information: Author, Supervisor, Co-Supervisor, School, Date, Academic Year, Title, Abstract.
The short sheet of a PhD thesis contains the following information: Author, Supervisor, Coordinator, Tutor, Date, Title, Abstract.
Whether the deposited file(s) is/are published in POLITESI depends on the access option chosen by the author(s) at the time of deposit.
The sheet and file, if authorised by the graduating student, are published in the Politesi archive about 60 days after the date of thesis defence.
What are the options for accessing files after publication in the online thesis archive?
Possible options that authors can choose during the deposit phase are as follows:
- Accessible via Internet to all: The file will be accessible and downloadable via internet by anyone who may consult the archive POLITESI.
- Accessible via Internet to all starting from...: The file will be accessible and downloadable via internet by anyone who may consult the archive POLITesi starting from 1 or 3 years after the date of its submission.
- Accessible via Internet only by authorised users (AunicaLogin or Shibboleth): The file will be accessible and downloadable by any authenticated user (AunicaLogin or Shibboleth) who may consult the archive POLITesi. At the present time authorized users are: professors and all Politecnico staff, Politecnico students and ex-students with active AunicaLogin credentials.
In the future authorized users could be also anyone with Shibboleth credentials (people from other universities and research institutions that have agreements with Politecnico di Milano). - Accessible via Internet only by authorised users (AunicaLogin or Shibboleth) starting from...: The file will be accessible and downloadable by any authenticated user (AunicaLogin or Shibboleth) who may consult the archive POLITesi starting from 1 or 3 years after the date of its submission.
- Not accessible: The file will be accessible and downloadable in the archive POLITesi only by the author/s, by the supervisor and by the Politecnico Administration Staff.
How to modify the accessibility option
To change the Accessibility Option of the thesis published in POLITESI, write to the support service and we will send you form and instructions on how to proceed.