Using the Aalto publication platform to put together and order a publication

• The standard printing house for publications in Aalto University publication series is Unigrafia. If you plan to use other printing house, please contact Aalto publication series by email [email protected]  well before making the order.
• All publications will get Aalto University's ISBN numbers.
•  One copy of your publication needs to be sent to the Aalto University Learning Centre.
• Unigrafia will send six copies of your publication to the National Library for legal deposit libraries. If you use other printing house, please make sure they send the copiest to the National Library.
• The Learning Centre archives the electronic versions of all publications published in the Aalto University publication series. The metadata of the publication will be registered in the Aaltodoc publication archive. Subject to the author’s permission, the publication will also be in open access use in Aaltodoc.
• Before placing the order, pay attention to all instructions from your school and your department. If your school pays part of the printing fees, find out your school's cost-centre code before making the order. The printing house will not start producing the order without detailed invoicing information.
• Make sure you have reserved enough time for the preparation of the publication. Unigrafia has the following timeframe for publishing: the proofs will be sent to the subscriber within three working days after the order has been placed. The printing will take a maximum of seven working days after the approval of the proofs. 
• If, for some reason, the publication needs to be finished within a tighter schedule than usual, be prepared to pay an additional fee. 
• In case of doctoral theses, remember to include the time required for the public display of the thesis before its public examination.
• Place your order only when the contents are completely ready and all matters related to the publication are clear. Making corrections after ordering is subject to a charge. 
• As with any online shop, you use the publication platform with the intention of placing an order and paying for the product. 
• After the order has been submitted, all corrections and modifications has to be discussed with the printing house.
• If you are only producing an electronic version of your publication, do not tick the option ‘Printed version’ for the covers and for the title pages. If you want to make only a printed publication, do not tick the option ‘PDF version’.

When compiling the order, pay attention to the following things:

• Save your data frequently. It is possible to save parts of the publication at any stage and continue the work later. It is recommended that you save the data of the covers and title pages every now and then, when using the platform. If you leave a page open on the publication platform while the computer is idle, the system may require you to login again for security reasons, and you will lose all unsaved data.
• Preview your work. To preview the cover and title pages information and appearance, click on ‘Update’ or ‘PDF Preview’. Please note, that Preview does not show the quality of the images in the (printed) publication. Carefully revise that all the necessary information are in a correct form. When you make corrections in the fields, click ‘Update’ to view them.
• Edit your work. Go to the Cart-view and click on "Edit" to continue editing your publication. You can modify your work as many times you want until you have placed your order.

1. Log in to the Aalto University publication platform (https://automation.digtator.fi/aalto)

2. Choose the publication template

There are six publication templates:

• Thesis template for the Schools of Technology
• Thesis template for the School of Arts, Design and Architecture and the School of Business
• Reports
• Compiled works
• Study materials
• Working papers

The publication types can have sublevels, which will be specified at the bottom of the cover view in the ‘Level’ field in the platform. For reports, study materials, compiled works and working papers, a series based on the contents of the publication should be selected when making the covers. More information about Aalto University publication series and publication types here.

3. Fill in the information for publishing (Publishing Options)

Once you have selected the publication type, start filling in the information for publishing options:

• School and department (optional)
• Language of the publication
• In case of doctoral theses, select the type of the thesis: monograph, essay or article-based
• Electronic version and/or printed (Note! Both are done automatically if you are producing a doctoral dissertation.)
• The amount of printed copies. Remember to include one copy for the Aalto University Learning Centre and six copies to the National Library for legal deposit libraries
• Pages to printed in colour. You should indicate in the order phase the page numbers for the pages you wish to be printed in colour. The pages are indicated as page numbers in the content pdf. If the publication contains elements such as articles, the page numbers can be indicated as follows: "Article 1: p. 123-10, 145; Article 2: p. 50, 57". If the whole content or subsequent pages are to be reproduced in four colours, the first and the last page numbers should be indicated, e.g. 1-150, e.g. 55-60.
• Schedule (preferred completion date of publication)
• Theses: Date of Approval for publication granted and date of defense
• Other publications than theses: provide also the name of the unit director/superior having given permission to publish it in the series in question.

4. Publication info

After you have filled in all the relevant information to publishing options, continue to fill in the general publication information. You only need to fill in this information once. In later stages, the information filled in here will be automatically copied to other parts of the publication.

5. Preparing the covers

Proceed preparing the covers either clicking the link on the left-hand side on the screen or using Next Step-function. Enter the information in the fields that open up and also for the front and back covers (Front cover interleaf, Back cover -interleaf) and the spine (Spine-interleaf). On the back cover, you can place an introduction of a maximum of 1,000 characters in length (including spaces).

Covers and colours

While you are entering information to these fields, you can also select the colour scheme for you publication. In the platform the colours of the covers is best seen in the PDF Preview version. For doctoral theses, for example, seven cover colours are available.

Inserting images and logos in covers

In doctoral theses, reports and compiled works, it is possible to insert an image on the front cover but there are very limited possibilities for editing picture. Please note that you must obtain the copyright holder’s permission to use the image. You can use any image that fits in with the contents and the selected cover colour. You do not have to insert an image.

Use a pdf or jpg file (or a tiff format) with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi and colour setting CMYK by choice.Minimum resolution of dissertations’ cover images is 250-300 dpi. Process and crop the image before uploading. You can change the image (and cover colour) by uploading it again as many times as you like.

It is possible, if you decide so (not on the theses), to put 1-4 logos of the partners on the back cover (Logos interleaf).

6. Fill in the information for the title pages and abstracts

The Aalto University publication platform generates the title and abstract pages based on the information on this step. The schools of technology have their own title page documents for doctoral theses, while the School of Business and the School of Arts, Design and Architecture have a different version. N.B. Location of publisher is Helsinki in the abstract pages of the printed and pdf-versions of the publications, because the hometown of the Aalto University Foundation is Helsinki.

The title pages consist of 4-6 pages, where pages 4 and 6, or the reverse sides of the abstract pages, are empty. It is recommended to copy/paste abstracts (max 2 800 – 3 000 characters including spaces) to the platform in simple text form made in Notepad or some other text editor. In publications other than doctoral theses, the abstract pages can be left out, but it is recommended that you include them.

To view the title pages information, click on ‘Update’ or ‘PDF Preview’. Carefully revise that all the necessary information on the first pages of the publication are in a correct form. When you make corrections in the fields, click ‘Update’ to view them. Once the title pages are completely finished, save them to the Cart.

7. Upload your contents and save to cart

Upload your contents as PDF files to the publication platform. Before uploading the PDF-file, make sure that the contents are fully finished. Also please name the files using a logical sequence, e.g. numbering. This will make it easier for the printing house to perceive the order in which they are intended to appear in the final publication. Finally save this progress also to the Cart.

Please note, that the publication platform produces the abstract pages automatically based on your information. In other words, upload your content part without abstract pages embedded.

Publications in the Aalto series are produced in B5 size, except for Working papers, which are in A4. You can produce the contents in the A4 format, however, as they will be scaled down to B5 during the printing process. The scaling down is taken into consideration in the recommended Word and Latex templates below.

Special characters in headings and abstracts

If the headings or abstracts of your publication contain (mathematical) special characters, please copy the title and abstract in question to a single PDF file and e-mail it to [email protected]. Please, write in your mail instructions for placing the characters.This service is subject to a charge. – Note. On the publication platform it is possible to write subscript and superscript indexes to the abstracts.

If you are using LaTeX, you can download an abstract with special characters on the publication platform. Make a right size abstract on the Aalto series LaTeX template with the class option “abstracts”.  Choose the latest version of the template and read the documentation carefully and see also the example.

8. Place the order and fill in the delivery and invoicing information

Once all parts of your publication are in the cart, you can proceed to placing your order:

1. Start placing your order on the cart by clicking Go to Order. Before that complete carefully your details in the profile and for the contact information.
2. Enter the phone numbers and all the other necessary details in delivery and invoicing information. If needed, you may provide extra information using the additional instructions fields of shipping and invoicing.
3. After you have filled in the shipping and invoicing information, click Next Step. On the cart view send your order by clicking Place Order. Once you have placed the order, a confirmation of the order will be sent to your email.
4. Proceed to check the draft before finalizing the order (step 9)

N.B. When using the publication platform, it is necessary to submit the orders one publication at a time. In case your Cart contains files for more than one publication, use the Hold function to set a Hold for Later status for the materials not belonging to the first publication you intend to submit the order for. Once you have submitted the order for the first publication, you can transfer the materials for the second publication back to the Cart using the Move to Cart function.

9. Review the draft version of your publication and approve the order

You have to approve your order before it can be submitted to the printing house. Upon approval you can review the draft version generated by the platform for any typographical errors or things you wish to change:

1. In the Orders-view, download the preview version by clicking on Draft version
2. If you wish to make changes to your order, click Review, then Make changes
3. If you wish to finalize the order and submit your publication to the printing house, click Review, then Submit for publishing.

Note, that the draft version generated automatically at the publication platform is not the electronic proof! Therefore the layout of the draft is not equivalent of the electronic proof which you will get from the printing house later via email (E.g. in the case of article-based theses, the margins of the articles can look incorrect in the draft version but they will be fixed manually in the printing house.) The purpose of the draft version is just check e.g. any typographical errors.

10. Wait and check the final proofs

Unigrafia will send you the final proof within three working days after submitting the order. If you are using other printing house, ask the schedule for the proof.

If you have any questions about publishing or using the publication platform, please contact us: [email protected].