Thesis by Publication: Faculty of Engineering Guidelines

Submission of a thesis by publication is becoming more common. However, this is by no means an easy way to obtain a degree. The research in a thesis by publication must equate to the research in a conventional thesis. The candidate must coherently convey to the examiner the hypothesis; the associated background; the research questions that have arisen, the methods used to answer those questions; and what new, relevant knowledge has been generated by the candidate. This is done in a thesis by publication using linking text or chapters to augment the published work. Research in the Faculty of Engineering on the benefits and pitfalls of a thesis by publication are available here.

Faculty of Engineering Guidelines on Theses Based or Partially Based on Conjointly Published or Unpublished Work

These guidelines should be read in addition to the University requirements for preparation of a thesis based or partially based on published or un-published work. See:
Doctoral Information Handbook: Chapter 7: Thesis and examination matters
http://mrgs.monash.edu.au/research/doctoral/chapter7a.html

and

Guidelines for theses based or partially based on conjointly published or unpublished work (includes example of acknowledgement and declaration form) available at:
http://www.mrgs.monash.edu.au/research/examination/thesis-by-publication/part_a.rtf
http://www.mrgs.monash.edu.au/research/examination/thesis-by-publication/part_b.rtf

The number of papers required to submit a thesis

• There is no set number of papers. The guiding principal for this submission option is that the content should equate to the research content of the “traditional” narrative style thesis.
• In general, the thesis should represent a sustained theme of research.

Candidates Contribution to Authorship

• Essentially, the initiation, key ideas, development and writing up of each work should be the primary responsibility of the candidate. It is expected that papers submitted in a thesis would therefore have a substantial and significant contribution by the candidate (at least 50%). The candidate would therefore usually be first or joint first author.
• Papers where the candidate has less than 50% contribution may be included if significant to the thesis but papers with minor contributions should be kept to a minimum.
• If several papers result during candidature where the candidate has a minor contribution and where these relate to but are not vital to the argument of the thesis, these papers may be appended to the thesis.
• A list of all papers published during candidature should be included at the front of the thesis.
• If appropriate, published papers that become the basis for thesis chapters in a revised and rewritten form, require acknowledgement of the contributions of others and references where appropriate to the original published paper(s).

Note: Candidates are strongly urged to arrange for the relevant authorship declaration form to be completed by contributing authors as soon as the paper is prepared or submitted for publication. This should facilitate the collation of authorship contribution when the thesis is ready for submission.

The thesis as a unified body of research

The research project reported in the thesis by publication is the same as that reported in a traditional thesis; it is the format that is different.  It is vital that a thesis by publication reports a coherent body of research, rather than a series of loosely related studies that have been published in separate papers.  The thesis must also report the complete PhD project.  If the publications do not cover important aspects of your research in enough detail, then you need to write additional sections or chapters that present this material. One of the pitfalls with the examination of a thesis by publication is that the paper usually omits valuable information in the interest of brevity, and this information must be included to support your thesis. In particular, surveys of the literature and methodology are likely to be less substantial, and there is unlikely to be a research question or hypothesis spelled out. It is particularly important to emphasise the overall significance of the findings of the research as a whole, not just the findings in individual papers, so you may need to provide an integrative discussion, either in a separate chapter or in the final conclusions chapter.

Introduction

The thesis should include an introduction chapter including a literature review identifying the state-of-the-art in the research area, establishing the gap in the current understanding and providing the clear motivation for your research.  You need to identify a significant research problem in your field, and then state the aims of the research. It is important to establish the rationale for the research approach and to explain how the different parts of your investigation relate to the research project as a whole.  Generally, the thesis structure is summarized and the contributions of the included papers and other chapters are described here.

Methodology (Materials and Methods)

Where methodology or a technique is critical or significant to the theme of the thesis it is appropriate to include a fuller description than what may be included in a published paper. Note that this is likely to be the case, since reasonably complete descriptions of numerical, experimental and/or analytical methods, and validations, are not likely to make it into journal papers. For engineering theses, this is generally an important aspect and should be presented carefully and in some detail.

Presentation of the papers in the bound thesis

• Published papers to be included in the thesis should be from press-quality Portable Document Format (.pdf) files, available for all ISI-listed journals.
• Submitted or accepted (but unpublished) papers may be inserted if formatted to match the journal's submission format.
• Proof versions of accepted papers (including galley proofs), and versions from online sources are generally of insufficient quality for use in a thesis and therefore unacceptable.
• A short introduction or other commentary to frame the content of each paper is recommended.

Pagination of a thesis

Where pdf copies (or photocopies) of papers have their own pagination these pages should also have pagination added that pertains to the thesis. This will ensure that examiners can highlight the correct thesis page(s) on which they are commenting.

Conclusion

The final chapter presents the conclusions of the research and summarises the original contribution the work has made to the knowledge and understanding of the area with which the thesis is concerned. If you have not already included an integrative discussion synthesizing the findings of the individual papers in a previous chapter, you need to emphasise the contributions of the work as a whole. This chapter should also include some indications of what the candidate sees as future directions for their particular research on the field.

References

• A list of references should be provided at the end of the thesis to list in full the papers cited in the parts of the thesis that frame the inserted papers, including the Introduction, any additional chapters or linking text and the Conclusions.
• The works cited in the inserted papers do not need to be included in the References unless these works are also cited in those parts of the thesis that frame the inserted papers.

Challenges in writing a thesis by publication

There are a number of challenges that need to be overcome to write a successful thesis by publication. These challenges, and writing strategies for overcoming them, are discussed in 'Thesis by Publication: some challenges' by Jane Moodie, Faculty of Engineering.