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I would tell them that it is common practice to turn an article into a chapter of a dissertation, or to turn a chapter of a dissertation into an article, and publishers know this. I've often seen it specifically called out in publishing agreements as a right reserved to the author. I've also seen articles *from publishers* giving advice on *how* to get an article from your dissertation. E.g.

  *   Elsevier<https://www.elsevier.com/connect/authors-update/eight-top-tips-to-help-you-turn-your-phd-thesis-into-an-article>
  *   Wiley<https://www.wiley.com/en-us/network/publishing/research-publishing/preparing-your-article/how-to-turn-your-dissertation-into-journal-articles>
  *   Taylor & Francis<https://authorservices.taylorandfrancis.com/extracting-a-journal-article-from-your-thesis/>

Publishers don't see this as a competitive use for good reason. Partly this is because if someone wants the article they usually want the peer reviewed formatted VOR, and in every case I've seen it's not like the student has added a publisher version of record into their dissertation. It's just the same or similar text, formatted according to the department/grad division guidelines instead. I can't see a publisher sending a takedown notice over it.

Best,
Katie
Katie Fortney, J.D., M.L.I.S.
Copyright Policy & Education Officer
California Digital Library
UC Office of the President
[telecommuting from Santa Cruz]
Pronouns: she, her, hers

On Wed, Jun 7, 2023 at 2:56 PM Michael Ladisch <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
Hi all,

Our Special Collections department is digitizing older dissertation/theses to make them available open access on HathiTrust. They ask the authors for permission to do so.

Most authors agree apparently (many are flattered that “my dissertation from 1982 is of interest!” 😊). But in some disciplines there are dissertations that include author’s previously published articles in scholarly journals. And these authors ask me about the copyright situation since the copyright, especially in the old pre-OA days, was transferred to the publisher. The authors don’t want to contact the publisher to ask for permission to make the work OA and certainly don’t want to pay a fee. And the publisher policies are not really clear about open access of paywalled articles that are part of dissertations. HathiTrust has a Take-Down Policy, but some authors are very cautious.

Does any of you provide guidance on this issue and what guidance would this be?

Best
Michael

-------------------------
Michael Ladisch
Scholarly Communication Officer
University of California Davis, Library
100 North West Quad
Davis, CA 95616-5292
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(530) 752-6385