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Thesis by Publication: Faculty of Law

Pagination  Inclusive pagination is to be used. 
Bibliography May be used. Use index.
Framing text   Could be necessary, including introduction & conclusion.
No. of papers The material presented for examination needs to equate to that which would otherwise be presented in the traditional thesis format. (This remains a matter of professional judgement for the supervisor and candidate.) It should be of normal thesis length.
Photocopies Preferably PDF but can use photocopies. Printing should be of the highest quality.
% Authorship   Initiation, key ideas, development and writing up of each of the works should be the primary responsibility of the candidate.
Declarations To be clearly specified & formatted according to MRGS template. Co-author signatures necessary on all papers in all thesis copies except those in appendix. Rewritten, previously published papers require acknowledgement of others' contributions.
Faculty guidelines document available   Yes. See below.
Status of papers   Papers must have at least been submitted for publication, though not necessarily accepted.
Other -

Introduction

It is recommended that candidates look at PhD theses that have satisfied the requirements for the degree. These are held in the Law Library.

A variety of theses have been submitted and awarded the PhD degree. They have included published and unpublished work. Examples of differing formats that have been awarded a PhD are as follows:

  • Current published monograph of which the candidate is the sole author. (Example: Assoc Prof John Duns)
  • Published monograph, some years dated, of which the candidate is the sole author, together with several more recently published articles, an introduction and a conclusion. (Example: Assoc Prof Sue McNicol)
  • Current published monograph of which the candidate is the principal author and in which the chapters written by the candidate are clearly identifiable, together with several published articles, an introduction and a conclusion. (Example: Assoc Prof Ann Monotti; Dr Jonathan Clough)
  • Published and unpublished articles. (Example: Dr Sarah Joseph)
  • Published articles solely might also form an acceptable thesis.

General Guidelines

These guidelines are to be read in conjunction with the MRGS Guidelines. Please also refer to Handbook chapter 7 – sections 7.3.3 for standard candidature and 7.5 for staff candidature relating to conditions for published papers to be included in the thesis.

It is important that all published works form part of a sustained thesis with a coherent theme. It is not sufficient to merely reproduce a series of unrelated works, whether published or unpublished.

The maximum length of a PhD thesis is generally around 100,000 words and should be at least 80,000 words.  This does not include footnotes, references or appendices, nor does it include equations, tables, diagrams and other illustrations.    Where it is proposed that a thesis will exceed the specified maximum length, a request must be submitted to the Research Graduate School Committee.  Requests of this nature must be made in advance of the thesis being submitted for examination.

Candidates are wise to approach the preparation of the thesis expecting that an examiner may not have previously examined a thesis that is not a single work but a body of previously published work. Hence, the examiner may be expecting something that conforms to the usual format of a thesis. Critical comments may relate to the following and a candidate is wise to address these issues:

  • The published material may have become somewhat dated or overtaken to some extent by later developments.
  • As it is not realistically possible for an examiner to suggest revisions and changes to work that has appeared in the public domain, candidates should give thought to including an addendum where this may be relevant. It would also be an option to rewrite the article as a chapter, updating it and editing it to be coherent with the rest of the work and removing any overlapping or duplicated material.

Assessment

The criteria for assessment are the same as those which apply for a traditional PhD thesis, namely:

  1. the thesis constitutes a significant contribution to knowledge and understanding of the field concerned
  2. The thesis contains material worthy of publication in a form appropriate to the discipline (this is likely to be inappropriate to this type of thesis)
  3. The format and literary presentation of the thesis are satisfactory.

Framing Papers

Where the thesis is contained in several pieces of published work, it is necessary to include an introduction to the thesis and a conclusion. The introduction should outline in detail the relevance of the component sections of the thesis and the methodology adopted. It may be helpful to explain how the research developed, identifying the research questions that were at the forefront and how they later became modified or taken in new directions. In addition to following a similar structure to that which is included in a traditional PhD thesis, the introduction may also set out the arguments as to why the published works constitute an academic contribution to the literature on the subject of the thesis. It is useful to include in this argument (where appropriate) statements about the use to which the published work has been made by other writers. A collation of the conclusions contained in the various chapters is a useful addition to the conclusion.

Journal Status

Where published articles are included as part of the thesis, an important factor is the status of the journals. Examiners are likely to be influenced by the fact that articles have been published in respected and refereed journals of good standing in the relevant field of scholarship.

Bibliography

It may be helpful to examiners to include a bibliography that incorporates all citations referred to in the published material. Where the thesis includes a published monograph and additional published work, the bibliography in the monograph may be sufficient if it incorporates all material cited in the published articles. A supplementary bibliography may be useful, but not necessary, where this is not the case. 

Co-authorship

In the case of co-authorship a candidate can be just a joint author, but his/her contribution to the publication(s) must be at least 50%.

Printing

Candidates do not necessarily have to reformat their published papers into a standard thesis style. It is preferable to use .pdf files supplied by the publisher where these are available. Otherwise photocopies of articles may be used. The thesis should be paginated throughout and include an index. Where part only of the thesis consists of published work, it is preferable to reprint the published articles in a consistent style and format with that of the unpublished work.

Further Reference

For more detailed instructions on the form of the thesis see the Handbook for Doctoral and MPhil Degrees - chapter 7