GRS Guide: Thesis as a Series of Papers
A comprehensive guide to formatting a thesis as a series of papers at UWA is available to download here. Students and supervisors are strongly encouraged to read this guide before submitting a thesis in this format.
Thesis Format
While some universities have a separate set or rules and guidelines for theses formatted as a series of papers (also known as a thesis by publication), this is not the case at UWA. The GRS course rules and examination criteria at UWA are the same for all theses.
You can format your thesis as a monograph, a series of papers, or a combination of chapters and papers. Any number of papers can be included in the thesis, and they can be at any stage of publication - from manuscript to published. As you can include manuscripts in your thesis, you should not delay thesis submission for peer review and publication.
If you format your thesis as a series of papers, you will need to write a general introduction and a general conclusion for your thesis.
Care should be taken to ensure the thesis is coherent, and that any papers included in the thesis fit with the remainder of the thesis. To improve coherence, students often include linking text or chapters.
You can include published papers in your thesis as they appear in the journal or the text version formatted for consistency with the remainder of your thesis.
Copyright
You may include your published work in the examination copy of your thesis under the “research and study” copyright exception, provided it is no more than a “reasonable portion” of the work from which it is taken. A journal article from an issue of a journal or a chapter from a book would be a reasonable portion.
When you submit your final, corrected thesis to the UWA Research Repository, it will be freely available to the public to read and download, so it is no longer covered by the “research and study” copyright exception. This means that you will need to check your publishing contracts/agreements to determine what version of your published work you can include in the final version of your thesis.
For more information, see the University Library Guide to Copyright and Higher Degree Theses.