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Publishing Your Dissertation in a Scholarly Journal

So you’ve decided you want to earn a PhD. You have read about the road blocks , you’ve selected your committee, and you’ve started writing your dissertation. But why start thinking about a publication? What does that have to do with earning the ultimate degree?

Writing a dissertation without a publication is like going to the trouble of making a cake but not baking it. No one can taste your cake, no one can benefit from your hard work—of course, no one can criticize your work either. But without a publication, or two or three, the dissertation is not technically a total success. You’d be amazed at how many people don’t get a publication out of their dissertation. Without advanced planning, a publication likely won’t happen, because, once again, there are often unanticipated roadblocks.

1. Publication will be completely driven by you and no one else. A publication will not be on the priority list of your dissertation committee. And you will likely be the only one to understand where to publish.

2. Planning is the most important step and the only way to be successful. If you wait until after you go through the dissertation process, you will be too exhausted to publish, and it won’t happen for a year or two. You must plan.

3. Configure your dissertation for three separate publications. This may be three separate chapters, or it may be three different data sets or arms of your data. Link this to the selection of your committee. In my previous articles, I recommended choosing a committee wisely, with different members being associated with different jobs. Committee members should not have similar areas of expertise. Their “jobs” should not overlap. There should be a content expert or literature review expert, a methods person, a results person and a “whip.” Ideally, the “whip” (think politics, as in majority whip or minority whip in Congress) is your dissertation chair. The jobs of each member should be distinct to avoid having members fighting or making conflicting suggestions. Each article should be aligned with a separate expert. So there can be a Review article, a Methods article, and a Results article.

4. You get to decide who is listed as an author on your articles. You will be first author, and your mentor should be last author (a position of honor). If a committee member does not contribute, they ethically should not be included in the list of authors. Many journals now ask you to list the authors along with their meaningful contributions.

5. Decide ahead of time the journals in which you wish to publish. Full disclosure — I am on the board of the Journal of the American Academy of PAs (JAAPA), and I’m a reviewer for the Journal of Physician Assistant Education (JPAE). I’m going to recommend these PA journals for one of your publications. Here is my pitch (although biased): We are THE scholarly journals for the profession. If your data is completely focused on PA education, then select JPAE. Think about JAAPA for any research on PAs themselves or PA analogues. Select a PA journal for a personal touch and some really important feedback. Your article will be on a stage with your peers. This gives you the home crowd advantage.

6. Lose ownership. Remember how I said your dissertation is like your baby? Well, your baby now has gone through elementary school and the tumultuous teenage years and currently is entering college. Your publication needs you to back off and give it some space. It will leave home for a while (often for the long review process). When it comes back, it might need to do some laundry, but it should essentially not look at all like the baby you once knew. A publication should look like a publication, not a dissertation. It should be neat and mature and all grown up.

7. Try for the highest level journal you can realistically get published in. Here is the main problem: time. You cannot ethically submit the same article to multiple journals. You will need to make sure you have three completely separate articles in order to submit to multiple journals. There are many people who believe you should publish in the most prestigious journal you can make it into. I do not disagree with this philosophy; however, the alternative is that your work might not get read in a higher scholarly journal because PAs and PA educators don’t tend to read these other journals. This is for you to decide. There are websites that can help you determine where to publish. But be careful and check out Beall’s List, a list of potentially predatory “scholarly” open-access publishers.

8. Best of luck — and don’t fail to publish. Don’t bake your cake and not put it in the oven. Remember to reach out to your peers within the profession to aid in your success. Ultimately, your committee will be pleased to add a publication to their CVs. They will remember this as their reward for all the hard work that they (and you) put into your PhD.

A publication is the lasting legacy for all of your tough efforts and sacrifice. It is the “so what” of all you have put into this academic Mt. Everest. Consider the impact that your work will have on the profession. Don’t run the marathon (or climb the mountain) and not cross the finish line!

Jennifer Coombs, PhD, MPAS, PA-C

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Revising Your Dissertation for Publication

While a dissertation’s in-depth research and analysis can provide a strong foundation for a book, the dissertation itself is not a book and will not be published by an academic press without substantial revisions. Some acquisitions editors are interested first books, especially if they bring new perspectives and fresh ideas to a field, while others do not often publish first books. If you are considering submitting your dissertation for publication, we recommend that you contact editors at university presses that publish in your subject area for guidance on revising your work. Many editors prefer to be involved in the early stages of this process so they can advise you on how to structure the book and your arguments to create a publishable book. Editors generally require changes in the length, content, tone, and style of a dissertation in order to produce a book that will appeal to buyers in the academic market. Read more about submitting a proposal in our Scholarly Publishing Guide .

Below are selected resources to help you revise your dissertation for publication as a book or journal article(s).

Advice from publishers

• Harvard University Press
• Palgrave Macmillan
• Rowman & Littlefield
• Taylor & Francis
• University of North Carolina Press
• Yale University Press
• Publisher Policies on using content in both a thesis or dissertation and an article (from MIT Libraries)
• From Dissertation to Book by William Germano (Lauinger Library, 4th Floor, PN162 .G37 2013)
• Revising Your Dissertation, Updated Edition : Advice from Leading Editors (updated edition, 2008) edited by Beth Luey (online; GU NetID and password required)
• From Dissertation to Book , Duke University (February 27, 2018)
• From Dissertation to Book ( full transcript ), Harvard University (December 17, 2010)
• How To Turn Your Dissertation into a Book , Yale University (April 6, 2016)
• From Dissertation to Book by Leonard Cassuto (Chronicle of Higher Education, May 30, 2011)
• From Dissertation to Published Book (lanugageandphilosophy.com report on an American Comparative Literature Association workshop)
• Give It a Rest by Laura Portwood-Stacer (Inside Higher Ed, August 6, 2019)
• The Stages of Revising a Dissertation into a Book by Amy Benson Brown (Journal of Scholarly Publishing, vol. 52 no. 2, 2021, p. 127-140) (GU NetID and password required)
• Turning Your Dissertation into a Book (University of Washington)
• Publishing your Dissertation (American Psychological Association)

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The Ultimate Guide to Getting Your Thesis Published in a Journal

• 7-minute read
• 25th February 2023

Writing your thesis and getting it published are huge accomplishments. However, publishing your thesis in an academic journal is another journey for scholars. Beyond how much hard work, time, and research you invest, having your findings published in a scholarly journal is vital for your reputation as a scholar and also advances research findings within your field.

This guide will walk you through how to make sure your thesis is ready for publication in a journal. We’ll go over how to prepare for pre-publication, how to submit your research, and what to do after acceptance.

Pre-Publication Preparations

Understanding the publishing process.

Ideally, you have already considered what type of publication outlet you want your thesis research to appear in. If not, it’s best to do this so you can tailor your writing and overall presentation to fit that publication outlet’s expectations. When selecting an outlet for your research, consider the following:

●  How well will my research fit the journal?

●  Are the reputation and quality of this journal high?

●  Who is this journal’s readership/audience?

●  How long does it take the journal to respond to a submission?

●  What’s the journal’s rejection rate?

Once you finish writing, revising, editing, and proofreading your work (which can take months or years), expect the publication process to be an additional three months or so.

Revising Your Thesis

Your thesis will need to be thoroughly revised, reworked, reorganized, and edited before a journal will accept it. Journals have specific requirements for all submissions, so read everything on a journal’s submission requirements page before you submit. Make a checklist of all the requirements to be sure you don’t overlook anything. Failing to meet the submission requirements could result in your paper being rejected.

Areas for Improvement

No doubt, the biggest challenge academics face in this journey is reducing the word count of their thesis to meet journal publication requirements. Remember that the average thesis is between 60,000 and 80,000 words, not including footnotes, appendices, and references. On the other hand, the average academic journal article is 4,000 to 7,000 words. Reducing the number of words this much may seem impossible when you are staring at the year or more of research your thesis required, but remember, many have done this before, and many will do it again. You can do it too. Be patient with the process.

Additional areas of improvement include>

·   having to reorganize your thesis to meet the section requirements of the journal you submit to ( abstract, intro , methods, results, and discussion).

·   Possibly changing your reference system to match the journal requirements or reducing the number of references.

·   Reformatting tables and figures.

·   Going through an extensive editing process to make sure everything is in place and ready.

Identifying Potential Publishers

Many options exist for publishing your academic research in a journal. However, along with the many credible and legitimate publishers available online, just as many predatory publishers are out there looking to take advantage of academics. Be sure to always check unfamiliar publishers’ credentials before commencing the process. If in doubt, ask your mentor or peer whether they think the publisher is legitimate, or you can use Think. Check. Submit .

If you need help identifying which journals your research is best suited to, there are many tools to help. Here’s a short list:

○  Elsevier JournalFinder

○  EndNote Matcher

○  Journal/Author Name Estimator (JANE)

○  Publish & Flourish Open Access

·   The topics the journal publishes and whether your research will be a good fit.

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·   The journal’s audience (whom you want to read your research).

·   The types of articles the journal publishes (e.g., reviews, case studies).

·   Your personal requirements (e.g., whether you’re willing to wait a long time to see your research published).

Submitting Your Thesis

Now that you have thoroughly prepared, it’s time to submit your thesis for publication. This can also be a long process, depending on peer review feedback.

Preparing Your Submission

Many publishers require you to write and submit a cover letter along with your research. The cover letter is your sales pitch to the journal’s editor. In the letter, you should not only introduce your work but also emphasize why it’s new, important, and worth the journal’s time to publish. Be sure to check the journal’s website to see whether submission requires you to include specific information in your cover letter, such as a list of reviewers.

Whenever you submit your thesis for publication in a journal article, it should be in its “final form” – that is, completely ready for publication. Do not submit your thesis if it has not been thoroughly edited, formatted, and proofread. Specifically, check that you’ve met all the journal-specific requirements to avoid rejection.

Navigating the Peer Review Process

Once you submit your thesis to the journal, it will undergo the peer review process. This process may vary among journals, but in general, peer reviews all address the same points. Once submitted, your paper will go through the relevant editors and offices at the journal, then one or more scholars will peer-review it. They will submit their reviews to the journal, which will use the information in its final decision (to accept or reject your submission).

While many academics wait for an acceptance letter that says “no revisions necessary,” this verdict does not appear very often. Instead, the publisher will likely give you a list of necessary revisions based on peer review feedback (these revisions could be major, minor, or a combination of the two). The purpose of the feedback is to verify and strengthen your research. When you respond to the feedback , keep these tips in mind:

●  Always be respectful and polite in your responses, even if you disagree.

●  If you do disagree, be prepared to provide supporting evidence.

●  Respond to all the comments, questions, and feedback in a clear and organized manner.

●  Make sure you have sufficient time to make any changes (e.g., whether you will need to conduct additional experiments).

After Publication

Once the journal accepts your article officially, with no further revisions needed, take a moment to enjoy the fruits of your hard work. After all, having your work appear in a distinguished journal is not an easy feat. Once you’ve finished celebrating, it’s time to promote your work. Here’s how you can do that:

●  Connect with other experts online (like their posts, follow them, and comment on their work).

●  Email your academic mentors.

●  Share your article on social media so others in your field may see your work.

●  Add the article to your LinkedIn publications.

●  Respond to any comments with a “Thank you.”

Getting your thesis research published in a journal is a long process that goes from reworking your thesis to promoting your article online. Be sure you take your time in the pre-publication process so you don’t have to make lots of revisions. You can do this by thoroughly revising, editing, formatting, and proofreading your article.

During this process, make sure you and your co-authors (if any) are going over one another’s work and having outsiders read it to make sure no comma is out of place.

What are the benefits of getting your thesis published?

Having your thesis published builds your reputation as a scholar in your field. It also means you are contributing to the body of work in your field by promoting research and communication with other scholars.

How long does it typically take to get a thesis published?

Once you have finished writing, revising, editing, formatting, and proofreading your thesis – processes that can add up to months or years of work – publication can take around three months. The exact length of time will depend on the journal you submit your work to and the peer review feedback timeline.

How can I ensure the quality of my thesis when attempting to get it published?

If you want to make sure your thesis is of the highest quality, consider having professionals proofread it before submission (some journals even require submissions to be professionally proofread). Proofed has helped thousands of researchers proofread their theses. Check out our free trial today.

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A Guide to Publishing a Dissertation

The moment your dissertation is accepted by your university’s graduate college is one of sweet relief. You’ve reached the end of a very long road, and the work is done. Or is it? For many academics, the siren song of pursuing publication strikes not long after the ink is dry on their diploma. The idea of seeing your name in a prestigious academic journal or emblazoned on the spine of a book is indeed tempting. However, submitting to academic journals or becoming a published author can be a lengthy journey of its own.

While publishing your dissertation may seem like the natural next step in your scholarly journey, there is a lot of work that needs to be done before you’ll see your research in a journal or your book on a shelf at your local library or bookstore. Completing your dissertation is the first step to becoming a published author, and there is plenty that you need to know before pursuing publication.

These are a few frequently asked questions about publishing a dissertation:  

• Can a dissertation be published?
• What do I have to do to publish my dissertation? 
• Who publishes dissertations?
• Why publish a dissertation?

Can a Dissertation Be Published?

Yes. Of course, this is merely the short answer. Since we’re talking about academia, a simple “yes” does not tell the whole story. While there is sometimes an assumption that dissertations get published by the university that granted the author their Ph.D., this is incorrect. Though the final revised and edited copy of a dissertation is bound and can sometimes even be found for sale on sites like Amazon, it is not truly published. 

However, the fact that your dissertation has not been published does not mean that you are automatically free to pursue publication. Upon submitting your dissertation to your university, you likely signed some paperwork related to your dissertation as a piece of intellectual property. You might not be free to pursue a publishing contract or publish on your own right away. You’ll want to read the fine print, in the event there is a required waiting period for publishing. 

Publishing Your Dissertation in Academic Journals

Dissertation research can be published in two ways; it can either be expanded into a book or pieced out into multiple academic articles. There are benefits to both approaches. While getting a book published often carries more prestige, academic journal articles allow for (relatively) quicker publication, while the research is fresh. Breaking your dissertation down into multiple articles also offers more opportunities for publication. 

To pursue article publication, first decide how to deconstruct your manuscript to separate your research into multiple articles. This will involve some revision and structural changes, but the natural “breaks” in your dissertation should already be clearly defined by chapters. The introduction, literature review, and the methodology/results sections can all be transformed into individual articles and submitted to separate journals for publication. 

When searching for journals to submit each article to, make a list based on your literature review and reference page. You may want to rank the journals by impact factor or another method, but make sure to submit your articles to top-tier or higher-tier journals first. If they are declined or heavy revision is suggested, you have a lineup of less-competitive journals ready to go. 

When I was a newly-minted professor in my first job post-dissertation, I chose to go the journal route and got my dissertation research published as multiple articles. While it does take some work to reconfigure each article into a piece of writing that can exist on its own, I’m glad that I did it this way. I was new to the peer review process and I learned a lot about submitting to academic journals. It was also a good way to add much-needed lines to my CV for my yearly performance evaluations. 

Preparing a Book Manuscript 

A dissertation is a very long document . It feels like a book, but in reality, your dissertation is not yet a book. Your dissertation is part of a book, and the work ahead of you is to complete your manuscript. You will need to add additional context, and probably flesh out the next steps of your research outlined in the discussion section of your dissertation into fully-realized chapters. What was formerly your dissertation will then be sold as an academic monograph. 

It is also important to note that the qualities that make a dissertation successful are unlikely to directly correlate to marketability. Your dissertation may offer a vital contribution to the body of knowledge in your field, but will it sell? Is it timely? Does it have a hook that will make it stand out in a competitive market? These are all questions to take into consideration when preparing an academic manuscript for a broad audience. 

Finding Publishers for Your Book

There are a few routes that can be taken when searching for a place to publish a dissertation as a book. The most common is academic publishing. (The other two are commercial and independent, both of which are difficult unless you have a built-in audience or a large social media following.) Every year, academic presses around the country receive proposals and offer book contracts to authors. Many of these presses are affiliated with universities, and their proposal requirements and contract terms are similar. 

Many manuscripts that began as dissertations land at university presses. If you are interested in pursuing a contract with a university press, go to their website and familiarize yourself with titles they have published recently. See if they are open to unsolicited submissions and look at their proposal requirements. If it seems like a good fit, consider putting together a proposal and submitting it. 

There are quite a few academic publishers and university presses, so you’ll need to do your homework to find the right one for your research. As an academic, one of my favorite parts of any conference is the book fair. I love perusing all the new titles from academic publishers and university presses, and it’s a great way to become familiar with many of them at once. 

Another benefit to these book fairs is that tables are often helmed by acquisitions editors. In my experience, talking to an editor for a press that I’m interested in is a great use of downtime at a conference. If you decide to do this, have an elevator pitch of your manuscript memorized and ready to go. If the editor likes it and invites you to submit, your proposal will go to the top of the inbox. 

Why Publish a Dissertation?  

There are a couple reasons to think about publishing your dissertation. If you are starting your career as an academic, particularly on the tenure track, publishing is an essential part of fulfilling your scholarship requirement. “Publish or perish” remains a very real aphorism in academia, and the more quality publications you add to your CV, the better. 

Publishing a dissertation as an academic monograph is also a great way to start making a name for yourself as a scholar. Being an expert in your field has limited utility unless you are writing, publishing, and presenting at conferences consistently. Publishing is a great way to establish your expertise, and having a book to promote can also help you secure lectures at universities and keynote invitations. If you have the time and the inclination, publishing your dissertation can pay dividends (not literally–academic monographs tend to earn their authors very little). 

While publishing your dissertation requires a good bit of transformation into a more substantial academic monograph, authoring a book can open a lot of professional doors. Though there are also other projects that will undoubtedly demand your attention–conference presentations, critical articles, new research–publishing your dissertation will give you an opportunity to finally close the book (pun intended) on your graduate research and set your sights on new horizons. 

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Courtney Watson, Ph.D.

Courtney Watson, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of English at Radford University Carilion, in Roanoke, Virginia. Her areas of expertise include undergraduate and graduate curriculum development for writing courses in the health sciences and American literature with a focus on literary travel, tourism, and heritage economies. Her writing and academic scholarship has been widely published in places that include  Studies in American Culture ,  Dialogue , and  The Virginia Quarterly Review . Her research on the integration of humanities into STEM education will be published by Routledge in an upcoming collection. Dr. Watson has also been nominated by the State Council for Higher Education of Virginia’s Outstanding Faculty Rising Star Award, and she is a past winner of the National Society of Arts & Letters Regional Short Story Prize, as well as institutional awards for scholarly research and excellence in teaching. Throughout her career in higher education, Dr. Watson has served in faculty governance and administration as a frequent committee chair and program chair. As a higher education consultant, she has served as a subject matter expert, an evaluator, and a contributor to white papers exploring program development, enrollment research, and educational mergers and acquisitions.

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IR Publishing Frequently Asked Questions for Dissertation Authors

PhD dissertations enter the scholarly record through ProQuest's Dissertation Database and Arch | Northwestern University's Institutional Repository .  As part of the submission workflow, candidates are given options for making their dissertations available through these platforms. These are frequently asked questions for Dissertation authors.  

What is Open Access?

Open access refers to the free availability of research literature online. By making your dissertation open access, you are allowing researchers from all over the world to read your work, regardless of their access to a subscription database. Arch is an open access  institutional repository (IR) for Northwestern research. The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition provides a good overview of how open access differs from traditional publishing .  

Why should I consider Open Access?

There are many reasons why scholars choose to publish open access. One of the most important and powerful of these reasons is that when a scholarly work is published openly, it has the potential to reach the widest possible audience, one not restricted to a pay-for-access model. 

Will publishing my dissertation in Arch  hurt my chances for publishing my dissertation research in a book or journal?

This depends on your field and whether or not you decide to make your dissertation open access immediately. Publishers generally require peer-review and substantial revisions before publishing a dissertation, effectively creating a new version of your dissertation. Though it is difficult to generalize, the majority of surveyed academic publishers in the sciences, humanities, and social sciences on this question report that dissertations that are freely available in online repositories will still be considered for publication.[1-2] The bigger questions publishers ask when assessing the viability a publication are the quality of content and the market for the work. In any case, authors seeking to formally publish their dissertation research can delay the public release of their dissertation for six months, 1 year, or 2 years after submitting to Arch. 

How can I delay the public release of my dissertation? 

In the dissertation submission process, you can select to delay public access to your dissertation for six months, 1 year, or 2 years. Here's a screenshot from ProQuest's submission form:

I published a chapter of my dissertation as an article last year.  I think I transferred my copyright to the publisher in order to get the article published.  What should I do?

Check the publishing agreement you signed or contact the publisher/ journal editor for guidance. If you signed the copyrights over to the publisher, you may need to delay the release of your dissertation. You can also check the SHERPA/RoMEO database for the publisher’s policy on open access archiving. Most journal publishers allow open access in institutional repositories after 1 or 2 years, if not immediately upon publication. 

Do I have to register for Copyright?

Your dissertation is automatically copyrighted by you and additional steps are not necessary to own and manage the copyright to your dissertation. However, there are some advantages to registering a copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office . Doing so will make it easier for you to defend your copyright against copyright infringement. This is recommended for anyone intending to market, license, or sell your dissertation to others.

Where can I find Northwestern University dissertations?

Consult this Help Guide:  How to Find Northwestern University Dissertations and Masters Theses

References:

• [1] Ramirez, M.L., McMillan, G., Dalton, J.T., Hanlon, A., Smith, H.S., & Kern, C. (2014). Do open access electronic theses and dissertations diminish publishing opportunities in the sciences? College & Research Libraries, 75, 808-821.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5860/crl.75.6.808
• [2] Ramirez, M.L., McMillan, G., Dalton, J.T., Hanlon, A., Smith, Read, M. & Seamans, N.H. (2013). Do open access electronic theses and dissertations diminish publishing opportunities in the social sciences and humanities? College & Research Libraries, 74, 368-380.  http://dx.doi.org/ 10.5860/crl-356
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Submit and publish your thesis.

• The Graduate Thesis: What is it?
• Thesis Defences
• Deadlines and Fees
• Formatting in MS Word
• Formatting in LaTeX
• Making Thesis Accessible
• Thesis Embargo
• Review and Release
• Your Rights as an Author
• Re-using Third Party Materials
• Creative Commons Licenses for Theses
• Turning Thesis into an Article
• Turning Thesis into a Book
• Other Venues of Publication

Publishing from your thesis before or after graduation

"Will repository submission affect my publishing plans?"

... this is a common question for someone looking to publish from their thesis before or after graduation.

Most journals welcome submissions based on a thesis or dissertation. Some may have additional requirements, such as to:

• Let them know about the university’s requirement to make your thesis publicly available
• Submit a manuscript that is substantially different than the thesis content
• Embargo the thesis until after publication, etc.

Your steps will depend on the following scenarios:

Scenario 1 - you ARE NOT planning on publishing your thesis before or after graduation

In this case:

• You can submit your thesis without an embargo
• Your thesis will become publicly available in TSpace  and Library and Archives Canada after your convocation and will be widely indexed via search engines and indexes
• Use the TSpace-generated permanent URL to share and cite your thesis - see example of such citation below

Tajdaran, K. (2015). Enhancement of Peripheral Nerve Regeneration with Controlled Release of Glial Cell Line-derived Neurotrophic Factor (GDNF) (Master’s Thesis, University of Toronto). Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1807/74747

Scenario 2 - You ARE planning on publishing your thesis AFTER graduation

Most journals are interested in “original, previously unpublished” research. Some journals consider theses as a form of “prior publications”, others do not, and the majority does not have a clear definition. It will be best to check journal policy before you submit your thesis.

Nature Research will consider submissions containing material that has previously formed part of a PhD or other academic thesis which has been published according to the requirements of the institution awarding the qualification.

►►►How to check journal policies:

• MIT Libraries' list of policy excerpts from major publishers
• Journal’s website - usually under Information for Authors or Copyright / Permissions or Editorial Policy; or in the publication agreement if available online
• If such information cannot be located online, contact the editors directly
• If the journal requires that you place an embargo on your thesis until after publication, see the SGS instructions on how to request an embargo on your thesis .

Scenario 3 - You ARE planning on publishing (or have already published) from your thesis BEFORE graduation

You may want or be expected to publish parts of your thesis before your thesis is submitted, such as with an integrated/publication-based/sandwich thesis. The most important thing to keep in mind here is copyright. You own copyright of your written materials, and a publisher may require copyright transfer of your manuscript.

You need to ensure you retain certain rights or obtain permission in order to satisfy the university’s requirement of making your thesis openly accessible via TSpace, ProQuest and Library and Archives Canada (LAC). For more details on these repositories, see the  Review and Release  section of this guide.

Check whether the journal requires prior notification about U of T’s open access requirement for theses. Some journals want to be notified of this mandate whether or not they restrict the re-use of articles in theses.

Check whether the publisher requires copyright transfer . This should be stated on their website, in the publication agreement, or you can inquire directly with the journal.

If the publisher does not require copyright transfer , i.e. author retains copyright, then you can reuse your article/chapter in your thesis; no permission needed.

If the publisher requires copyright transfer , follow these steps:

Check if the publisher has special provisions for reusing your published work in your thesis. They may permit the inclusion of a non-final version, such as your submitted or accepted manuscript. See more below on understanding different article versions for sharing .

►►►How to check journal policies:  See MIT Libraries' list of policy excerpts from major publishers or the journal/publisher website.

For example, Taylor and Francis policy allows to:

Include your article Author’s Original Manuscript (AOM) or Accepted Manuscript(AM) , depending on the embargo period in your thesis or dissertation. The Version of Record cannot be used. https://authorservices.taylorandfrancis.com/copyright-and-you/

Check if the article is distributed under a Creative Commons license. This may allow re-use.

►►►How to check journal's CC license:  See the journal/publisher website or contact the journal directly.

If the publisher requires copyright transfer, has no special provisions and does not publish under a CC license, you will need to contact them to request permission to include your article in your thesis. You can:

• Negotiate making the article available as part of the thesis in TSpace, ProQuest, and LAC Theses Portal; 
• Request an embargo [link to Lisa’ section on embargo] if the publisher only permits open sharing after some time post-publication;
• If permission is denied you may include in place of the chapter an abstract and a link to the article on the journal website.

If you have specific questions about your situation, publisher policy or author rights, contact the Scholarly Communications and Copyright Office at [email protected] for a consultation (best before you publish!)

Understanding different versions of a published article

A publisher may distinguish between the versions of an article that you may be allowed to include in your thesis:

• Submitted manuscript / pre-print - version you initially send in (often permitted)
• Accepted manuscript / post-print - version after peer review but before copyediting, layout editing, formatting, etc. (sometimes permitted; publisher may require an embargo/access restriction for a period of time)
• Version of record / final publisher’s PDF - version that appears in the journal (many publishers do not permit sharing this version)

►►►How to check article versions permitted for sharing:

• MIT Libraries’s list of policy excerpts from major publishers
• Sherpa/RoMEO database of publisher policies
• Journal’s website - usually under Information for Authors or Copyright/Permissions or Editorial Policy; or in the publication agreement if available online
• << Previous: Creative Commons Licenses for Theses
• Next: Turning Thesis into an Article >>
• Last Updated: Sep 15, 2023 3:23 PM
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Turning your MSc dissertation into an academic paper

Anne-Marie Boylan

23 May 2019

Tips for students

Students who complete the MSc in Evidence Based Health Care at the University of Oxford often produce high quality research for their dissertation, which we encourage them to publish in academic journals. Dr Anne-Marie Boylan is the Dissertation Coordinator for the MSc in EBHC. She spoke to Mark Howe, a dentist who recently completed his MSc about his experiences of writing up his MSc thesis for publication in the Journal of Dentistry.

What challenges did you face in getting your thesis published?

I found condensing the dissertation down to meet the word count required for the journal whilst maintaining all the important points was a big challenge. This took a substantial amount of time and quite a lot of editing. I also faced lots of challenges because of what was required in the submission process. The formatting the journal required for tables and figures was different to what I had created for my thesis. They didn’t always convert cleanly when uploaded, which took some time to identify and correct. Despite all my efforts to ensure I followed the guidelines for authors, the manuscript was returned immediately due to issues with format changes and missing entries. But I got there in the end.

What did you think about the reviewers’ feedback?

The initial comments ranged from just basic proof-reading corrections to what felt like quite extensive criticism. So you need to be prepared for frustration and rejection. The publication process assumes you work in a close-knit experienced team where there is access to people who have published before, which isn’t always the case for MSc students.

The reviewers asked for amendments to what I thought were very important aspects of the research. I saw this an opportunity to argue that these data should not be changed.

How did you feel when your article was accepted?

I felt relief rather than joy as the profession now had to accept there were some weaknesses in their previous robust results. Getting the dissertation published was for me the true endpoint of the MSc in evidence-based healthcare as my research was now going into the public domain. I was surprised to see how expensive it was to make my paper ‘Open Access’. I had no funding for this so it’s behind a pay wall.

What would you say to other students who are preparing their thesis for publication?

Choose your journal carefully.

Be patient – the submission process is more experiential than intuitive. Try and get some advice from colleagues who have published more papers in your field.

Be prepared to defend your research against the reviewer’s comment where necessary. Try not to take the reviewers comments personally. Maintain a calm perspective, and possibly leave the manuscript for a few days before working through the corrections.

Mark’s paper can be accessed using the following reference : Howe, M.-S., Keys, W. and Richards, D. (2019) ‘Long-term (10-year) dental implant survival: A systematic review and sensitivity meta-analysis’, Journal of Dentistry. Elsevier B.V., 84(March), pp. 9–21. doi: 10.1016/j.jdent.2019.03.008.

Read Mark’s blog summarising his research findings here.

What to read next

'rejection is part of the process'.

22 July 2019

EBHC programmes Students

Rejection is part of the process: Turning your dissertation into an academic paper

• WashU Libraries

Q. How do I obtain permission to include my own previously published material in my dissertation?

It depends on the publishing contract with your publisher, as sometimes copyright is transferred to the publisher. In most cases, you are free to include in their dissertation material that they have submitted for formal publication, but other times you will need to submit a permission request, and the publisher will indicate how to request permission, which is often through the Copyright Clearance Center.  If you don’t have copies of the contracts, Sherpa Romeo  gives you a quick overview of which publishers allow you to self-archive your work into an institutional repository. Most publishers allow institutional repository deposits, but others require your work to have been published for 12 months before it can appear in an institutional repository. Almost all publishers require that you provide a citation and link to the article from those publishers’ sites.     If you find that the journals you published with don’t allow repository deposit or self-archiving, there’s likely a strong fair use case for you to consider, in which case getting permission wouldn’t be necessary. Starting on page 14 of this document  is a good explanation of what to consider.  

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Answered By: Treasa Bane Last Updated: Apr 17, 2024     Views: 3

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