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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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Copyright for Dissertations

  • Publishing Your Dissertation
  • Using Others' Content
  • Copyright in Your Dissertation

Copyright Questions?

The University of Michigan Library Copyright Office provides help with copyright questions for University of Michigan faculty, staff and students. Please email us with questions or visit our website for more information.

Legal Advice

The information presented here is intended for informational purposes and should not be construed as legal advice. If you have specific legal questions pertaining to the University of Michigan, please contact the Office of the General Counsel .

If you require legal advice in your personal capacity, the lawyer referral services operated by the Washtenaw County Bar Association and the State Bar of Michigan may be helpful to you.

Preparing for Publication

Norms around publishing dissertation material vary from one field to another. For instance, in some scientific fields, it is common to publish individual chapters from the dissertation before it is submitted. In the humanities, it is common to develop a monograph from the dissertation after completing the graduate degree.

Whether you publish before or after submitting your dissertation, it is important to plan ahead when signing publishing contracts or submitting your dissertation. Will the publishing contract you sign allow you to use the article in your dissertation later? How does depositing your dissertation in Deep Blue impact this? Can you use material that you've coauthored in your dissertation or thesis? For questions about the norms in your field, talk with your advisors. With copyright questions, contact the library copyright office.

If you are about to sign a publishing agreement, consider using the U-M Author's Addenda , which may help you negotiate and keep the rights you need in your work.

From Dissertation to Book

Thinking about transforming your dissertation into your first book? Hardly any dissertations are published as books without significant work on the author's part to refocus the manuscript for an audience beyond the dissertation committee.

Here are a few resources to help you understand the process of reworking a dissertation for publication as a monograph:

can you publish your dissertation

  • Dear First-Time Author: How to Turn Your Dissertation Into a Book, by Theresa MacPhail MacPhail shares advice from writing her own first book as well as advice from editors at university presses.

In reading some of the resources listed above, you might encounter discussions of how having your dissertation available online (for example, in  Deep Blue ) could negatively impact a publisher's willingness to look at your manuscript. Some authors assert that you should not put your dissertation online if you hope to sign a publishing contract. However, please note there is very little evidence to support this view. In fact, research has shown that publishers will indeed consider manuscripts that are revised versions of openly-accessible dissertations.

  • Do Open Access Electronic Theses and Dissertations Diminish Publishing Opportunities in the Social Sciences and Humanities? Findings from a 2011 Survey of Academic Publishers, by Ramirez, et al.

/images/cornell/logo35pt_cornell_white.svg" alt="can you publish your dissertation"> Cornell University --> Graduate School

Fair use, copyright, patent, and publishing options.

  • Is information that you plan to include from others considered “fair use” and are you acknowledging these sources correctly?
  • Embargo of online copies
  • Creative Commons license
  • Has a patent application been filed (or will one be) on the basis of your thesis or dissertation research?
  • Register for copyright?
  • Supplementary materials
  • Make your work discoverable on search engines?
  • Make your work accessible to people with visual disabilities

1. Is information that you plan to include from others considered “fair use” and are you acknowledging these sources correctly?

You are responsible for acknowledging any facts, ideas, or materials of others that you include in your work. You must follow the guidelines for acknowledging the work of others in the “Code of Academic Integrity and Acknowledging the Work of Others” (published in the Policy Notebook for the Cornell Community ) .

If you use any copyrighted material in the dissertation or thesis, it is your responsibility to give full credit to the author and publisher of work quoted. The acknowledgment should be placed in a footnote at the bottom of the first page of the paper or chapter. Additionally, you must determine whether use of the material can be classified as a “fair use” by performing an analysis of your use of each copyrighted item. The Cornell Copyright Information Center’s Fair Use Checklist ) is a helpful tool for performing this analysis. (See also, Copyright Law and the Doctoral Dissertation: Guidelines to Your Legal Rights and Responsibilities , published by ProQuest, or The Chicago Manual of Style , published by the University of Chicago Press.)

If your use of material is not considered a “fair use,” you must obtain written permission from the copyright owner. Two copies of each permission letter must be submitted with the dissertation or thesis. ProQuest has specific requirements for the content of the permission letter. For these guidelines, consult the ProQuest Doctoral Dissertation Agreement form (published by ProQuest).

If you have already published or had accepted for publication part of your own dissertation or thesis material in a journal, depending on the terms of your publication agreement, it may be necessary to write to that journal and obtain written authorization to use the material in your dissertation.

2. Embargo of online copies

The value of your dissertation extends well beyond your graduation requirements. It’s important that you make an informed decision about providing online access, via ProQuest and eCommons, to your work. This decision can expand the visibility and impact of your work, but it can also shape the options available to you for publishing subsequent works based on your dissertation.

ProQuest’s ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (PQDT) database indexes almost all dissertations published in the U.S. and provides subscription access online to the full text of more recent dissertations. ProQuest also sells print copies of dissertations, paying royalties to authors, when they exceed a minimum threshold. Authors retain copyright in the works they submit to ProQuest.

eCommons is a service of the Cornell University Library that provides long-term, online access to Cornell-related content of enduring value. Electronic theses and dissertations deposited in eCommons, unless subject to embargo, are freely accessible to anyone with an internet connection. When submitting to eCommons, you retain copyright in your work. Ph.D. dissertations and master’s theses submitted to ProQuest are automatically submitted to eCommons, subject to the same embargo you select for ProQuest.

Electronic copies of dissertations in PQDT or eCommons may be made accessible immediately upon submission or after an embargo period of six months, one year, or two years. You may wish to consider an embargo period which helps address publishers’ interests in being the first to publish scholarly books or articles, while also ensuring that scholarship is accessible to the general public within a reasonable period of time. Your decision should be made in consultation with your special committee.

3. Creative Commons license

Creative Commons licenses provide authors with a straightforward and standardized means of prospectively granting certain permissions to potential users of the author’s material. Authors may request proper attribution, permit copying and the creation of derivative works, request that others share derivative works under the same terms, and allow or disallow commercial uses. Authors may even choose to place their works directly into the public domain. You will have the option of selecting a Creative Commons license when you upload your dissertation or thesis to ProQuest, and your choice will automatically be applied to the copy of your work in eCommons.

4. Has a patent application been filed (or will one be) on the basis of your thesis or dissertation research?

Cornell University Policy 1.5 governs inventions and related property rights. Inventions made by faculty, staff, and students must be disclosed to the Center for Technology Licensing at Cornell University (CTL). Theses and dissertations describing patentable research should be withheld from publication, in order to avoid premature public disclosure.

Use the delayed release (embargo) option if a patent application is or will be in process, noting the reason for the delay as “patent pending.” If you have any questions, please contact Cornell’s Center for Technology Licensing at 607-254-4698 or [email protected] .

5. Register for copyright?

Copyright law involves many complex issues that are relevant to you as a graduate student, both in protecting your own work and in referencing the work of others. Discussion of copyright in this publication is not meant to substitute for the legal advice of qualified attorneys. A more detailed discussion of copyright law can be found in the publication from ProQuest entitled Copyright Law and the Doctoral Dissertation: Guidelines to Your Legal Rights and Responsibilities by Kenneth D. Crews.

Copyright protection automatically exists from the time the work is created in fixed form and the copyright immediately becomes the property of the author. Registration with the United States Copyright Office is not required to secure copyright; rather it is a legal formality to place on public record the basic facts of a particular copyright. Although not a condition of copyright protection itself, registering the copyright is ordinarily necessary before any infringement suits can be filed in court.

To register a copyright for your dissertation or thesis, register online or download printable forms . You may also request forms by mail from the Information Section, U.S. Copyright Office, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20559, or contact them by telephone at 202-707-3000.

Doctoral candidates: You may authorize ProQuest to file, on your behalf, an application for copyright registration. This option will be presented to you as part of the submission process.

6. Supplementary materials

If supplementary materials (audio, video, datasets, etc., up to 2GB per file) are part of your thesis or dissertation, you may submit them as supplementary files during the online submission process. For help selecting long-lived file formats, note ProQuest’s guidance in their document, “Preparing Your Manuscript for Submission (Including Supplemental Files).” File formats for which ProQuest does not guarantee migration may still have a high likelihood of preservation in Cornell’s digital repository; please see the eCommons help page for further guidance.

Do not embed media files in the PDF version of your thesis or dissertation, as this can significantly increase the size of the file and make it difficult to download and access. Include a description of each supplementary file in the abstract of your thesis or dissertation. You may include an additional supplementary file containing more detailed information about the supplementary materials as a “readme” file or other form of documentation; this is particularly advisable for data sets or code. The Research Data Management Service Group ( [email protected] ) offers assistance in preparing and documenting data sets for online distribution.

7. Make your work discoverable on search engines?

ProQuest offers authors the option of making their graduate work discoverable through major search engines including Yahoo, Google, Google Scholar, and Google Books. If you chose the Search Engine option on their dissertation “paper” publishing agreement or within ProQuest’s PROQUEST ETD Administrator (electronic submission service), you can expect to have your work appear in the major search engines.

If you change your mind and do not want your work to be made available through search engines, you can contact customer service at [email protected] or 800-521-0600 ext. 77020. In addition, if you did not initially adopt this option but now want your works made available through this service, contact the customer service group to change your selection.

Please note that search engines index content in eCommons, regardless of the choice you make for ProQuest.

8. Make your work accessible to people with visual disabilities

When creating a PDF version of your thesis or dissertation it is important to keep in mind that readers may use assistive technology such as screen readers to access your document.  Follow best practices to ensure that your thesis or dissertation is accessible to everyone.  These resources may be helpful:

  • Cornell CIT’s guidance for creating accessible PDFs
  • Checking accessibility using Acrobat Pro
  • Embedding alternative text for images in Word
  • Save a Word doc as an accessible PDF

Penn State University Libraries

Copyright and your thesis or dissertation.

  • Using Others' Work
  • Reusing Your Published Work
  • Your Copyright
  • Publishing Your Thesis or Dissertation
  • Frequently Asked Questions and Resources

Preparing for Publication

Norms around publishing thesis or dissertation material vary from one field to another. For instance, in some science and engineering fields, it is common to publish individual chapters from the thesis or dissertation before it is submitted. In the humanities, it is common to develop a monograph from the dissertation after completing a doctoral degree.

Whether you publish before or after submitting your thesis or dissertation, it is important to plan ahead when signing publishing contracts or submitting your dissertation. Will the publishing contract you sign allow you to use the article in your thesis or dissertation later? How does depositing in the ETD repository impact this? Can you use material that you've coauthored in your dissertation or thesis? For questions about the norms in your field, talk with your advisors. With Graduate School policy questions, consult the Graduate School's Thesis and Dissertation Guide . With copyright questions, contact the Office of Scholarly Communications and Copyright .

From Dissertation to Book

Thinking about transforming your dissertation into your first book? Hardly any dissertations are published as books without significant work on the author's part to refocus the manuscript for an audience beyond the dissertation committee.

Here are a few resources to help you understand the process of reworking a dissertation for publication as a monograph:

Cover Art

  • Dear First-Time Author: How to Turn Your Dissertation Into a Book, by Theresa MacPhail MacPhail shares advice from writing her own first book as well as advice from editors at university presses.

In reading some of the resources listed above, you might encounter discussions of how having your dissertation available online (for example, in Penn State's ETD repository ) could negatively impact a publisher's willingness to look at your manuscript. Some authors assert that you should not put your dissertation online if you hope to sign a publishing contract. However, please note there is very little evidence to support this view. In fact, research has shown that publishers will indeed consider manuscripts that are revised versions of openly-accessible dissertations:

  • Do Open Access Electronic Theses and Dissertations Diminish Publishing Opportunities in the Social Sciences and Humanities? Findings from a 2011 Survey of Academic Publishers, by Ramirez, et al.

Attribution

This guide is based in part on Copyright for Dissertations , a guide from the University of Michigan Library Copyright Office, which is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license .

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  • Last Updated: Aug 18, 2023 9:36 AM
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Copyright and publishing your dissertation: step 4: address publication issues.

  • Understand Copyright Basics
  • Step 1: Consider Whether You Need Permission
  • Step 2: Seek Permission If Needed
  • Step 3: Address Non-Copyright Law & Policy Concerns
  • Step 4: Address Publication Issues
  • Additional Resources and Support

STEP 4: Address Publication Issues

can you publish your dissertation

⇒ Address publication issues

  • Your dissertation will be available through ProQuest and published open access online in eScholarship . Step 4 helps you consider your rights as an author when your dissertation is published in this manner. You should also consult the UC Berkeley Graduate Division's  Dissertation Filing Guidelines  for more on publishing your dissertation.

⇒ Should you register your copyright?

  • As explained in the Understand Copyright Basics page, copyright is automatically created once your original work is fixed in a tangible medium (such as being saved on your computer hard drive or in cloud storage).  You continue to own copyright in your dissertation  unless and until you transfer your copyright to another party. Thus, you do not need to register copyright in your dissertation in order to be the copyright holder.
  • However, registering copyright in your dissertation offers distinct advantages ( see p. 7 of the Copyright Office circular ). First, registering your work creates public record evidence that you are indeed the author and owner. Second, registration allows for greater enforcement of your copyright against an infringer or plagiarist, enabling you to file suit and later making available statutory damages (set out in  Title 17, Section 504  of the U.S. Code), which range from $750-$150,000 plus attorney's fees per copyright infringement. 
  • So, it may be in your best interest to register copyright for your dissertation. You can register copyright through the  Copyright Office's website for a fee of $35 , or through the ProQuest ETDAdmin system when you submit your PDF;  doing so through ProQuest costs $55 .

⇒ Can you publish open access immediately?

What happens once you submit your dissertation electronically.

As a UC Berkeley student, once your dissertation is submitted electronically through the ProQuest online administration system , it will thereafter be published open access online in  eScholarship  and electronically via the Library catalog. 

UC's  system-wide Office of Scholarly Communications explains more about this process generally ( check out their  Open Access Dissertations & Theses  page). For the UC Berkeley-specific publishing protocol, please review the Graduate Division's  Dissertation Filing Guidelines .  

Advantages to Publishing Open Access Immediately

Making your work available to be read online immediately in eScholarship or ProQuest has advantages.  

First, it clearly establishes when your work was created and published, which are powerful resources in preventing or combating plagiarism. Others will be able to discover your prior publication.  

Second, it can help build your academic reputation. O nce your dissertation is published open access, researchers around the world will be able to read and download your wo r k , and can begin citing yo u in their own publications.  (Check out  these studies  on the advantages of open access publishing on citation.) Citation of your dissertation by others can be offered as evidence of research significance in employment reviews.  

For more on the value of immediate open access, please see: 

UC Berkeley Graduate Division's  guidance letter , in which they explain  that,  "Knowledge of the work of younger scholars may be increased by promoting discovery beyond limited professional networks."  Likewise, research available through searches on the Internet can  promote professional contacts  international in scope and interdisciplinary in reach.

There's also a great overview of the value of publishing dissertations open access in  Hillary Corbett,  ETDs and the Consequences of Openness .

⇒ When might you want to delay open access publication?

What are embargoes.

Embargoes are a delay in making your work available online. You should consult the UC Berkeley Graduate Division's  Dissertation Filing Guidelines  for an explanation of when embargoes are appropriate. 

Pending patent applications, privacy disclosures, professional ethics concerns

You may wish to consider embargoing when publishing open online immediately would risk "disclosure of patentable rights in the work before a patent can be granted, similar disclosures detrimental to the rights of the author, or disclosures of facts about persons or institutions before professional ethics would permit."  (See the Dissertation Filing Guidelines linked above.)

Cultural Heritage Sites, Personal Risks

  • You may also wish to consider an embargo if there is substantial concern that disclosure of geographic locations or persons could put the materials at those sites or particular individuals at risk. For instance, perhaps you have a situation where disclosure of a burial site could subject artifacts to looting. Alternatively, perhaps your scholarship could threaten the safety of individuals in militaristic regimes who could be punished for having spoken out. These are concerns and precautions to discuss with your dissertation chair in considering an embargo.

Publisher or discipline-specific requirements

You should check with your advisors and the field of publishers you are considering about their recommendations.

Certain publishers in particular disciplines may consider dissertations to be prior publications, and/or limit their consideration of a subsequent manuscript based on the dissertation for a first book deal. Some authors may therefore wish to embargo due to concern that open access availability of their dissertations will impact consideration of subsequent publications that they base upon their dissertations. 

Studies and analysis of these issues

  • Recent studies show that academic publishers typically view prior  open access publication as a means to improve acceptance for a book deal  due to increased awareness of your work. While numbers vary significantly by discipline, a  2013  study on electronic theses and dissertations  indicates that more than 90% of university presses will consider an open access ETD for publication. (See also a  2011 survey  supporting the same.)  Ke ep in mind, too, that your dissertation will be revised and rewritten significantly if/when you shape it into a manuscript for a first book. Most publishers accordingly view this as entirely new work. 

For a comprehensive review of these issues, and to address questions you may have about the impact on future publishing of your dissertation being open, check out: Cirasella, J., & Thistlethwaite, P. (2017).  Open access and the graduate author: A dissertation anxiety manual.  In K. L. Smith & K. A. Dickson (Eds.), Open access and the future of scholarly communication: Implementation (pp. 203-224). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 

⇒ Do you want to license your work?

A license beyond fair use.

As a condition to  graduation, and in support of the purpose of graduate education to make your work available for other scholars, UC Berkeley's Graduate Division requires that you make your work available online in eScholarship. (Again, please review the  Graduate Division's  Dissertation Filing Guidelines .)

As with any other copyrighted work, other scholars can make fair use of your dissertation in their own research.  Since you own copyright over your dissertation, however, you can decide whether you want to license your work beyond what fair use already allows.

Consider your choices

There are several reasons why you might wish to license your work. One reason could be to contribute to knowledge building and scientific or artistic progress. Certainly, people can already make fair use of your material, but by licensing it you are encouraging thus facilitating their use of your work. Another reason might be that making it easier for other people to use your material could translate into them using your work more often--which means being cited more often, and  increasing your scholarly impact and profile . 

On the other hand,  some publishers  might treat your dissertation as a prior publication, which you might not want to license even further than fair use already allows. 

So, before you decide to license your dissertation, consult with publishers in your field and your dissertation advisors to assess whether licensing could impact your ability to secure a subsequent first book contract. Usually your first book is substantially different from your dissertation after significant required editing, but it is always best to explore the contours of publishing in your discipline.

How to license your work

If you do wish to license your dissertation,   one option is to use a  Creative Commons  license. Creative Commons licenses allow copyright holders to prescribe the scope of uses (beyond fair use) that others are able to make of their work--while still retaining copyright ownership for the creator (that is, you are licensing your work for others to use, not transferring your copyright ownership).  

If you choose to use a Creative Commons license, be sure to make the selection both in ProQuest and include a notation on your copyright page in the dissertation, itself, that your work is being licensed. This way, when people find your dissertation on eScholarship, they will see a "badge" showing the license, and will also be able to refer back to the written license in your document, itself.

Jump to Workflow Steps

Step 1:  Do you need permission?

Step 2:  Seek permission if needed.

Step 3:  Address non-copyright concerns.

Step 4:  Address publication issues.

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  • Last Updated: May 23, 2022 1:16 PM
  • URL: https://guides.lib.berkeley.edu/copyright-dissertation
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  • Writing Tips

The Ultimate Guide to Getting Your Thesis Published in a Journal

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?

multiracial group of people on computers and phones, with a search bar that contains the word publish

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. 

woman opening a box containing books

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. 

woman revising a stack of papers with a computer

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. 

Portrait of a young woman sitting at home with pen and paper

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. 

Related posts:

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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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How to Finish Your Dissertation in Half the Time

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“How to Finish Your Dissertation in Half the Time”

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)

Can I include my published papers in my dissertation?

Many graduate students publish their research prior to finalizing their thesis or dissertation. Indeed, in some fields, dissertations are comprised of one or more papers, with little other material.

It’s confusing, therefore, when you prepare to finish your thesis or dissertation, and suddenly realize that you might have signed away your copyright! If you don’t own the copyright to your work, can you in fact include the paper in your dissertation or thesis? Good question!

First, the University does not evaluate your dissertation or thesis for copyright issues. It’s up to you to assess copyright concerns with included content, from quotes and screenshots, to your own published papers.

When you write a paper, you are the copyright owner of the manuscript. If you wrote it with other people, then you and your co-authors are the joint copyright owners of the manuscript. At that point, each author can do whatever they want with their manuscript—including transferring the copyright to someone else, or retaining it.

When you publish a paper, almost all publishers require a publication contract . That publication contract specifies whether you keep your contract, transfer it, transfer some of the copyright rights, or all of them. You can, and should, negotiate to keep all the rights you will need, including the right to include your published paper in your thesis or dissertation. (It’s standard in all academic fields to acknowledge first publication, but the format depends on the field.) 

But what if you didn’t negotiate, and you transferred your copyright to the publisher? At this point, you have three real options. 

(1) Campus or Funder Open Access Policy. If your work was funded by a US federal government agency, or another funder with an open access requirement, then your rights to re-use the work will almost certainly be protected. Also, if one of your co-authors is a faculty member at an institution with an open access policy (such as the Open Access policy at UMass Amherst ), then you would have rights under the OA policy. The UMass OA policy was instituted by the Faculty Senate starting in 2016, so any papers published since then would be covered. The faculty member author needs to upload the paper to the campus repository (ScholarWorks) to perfect their claim under the OA policy. 

Some campuses include graduate students in their campus open access policy. At UMass, graduate students can opt in to the policy, but they must do so before publishing. You may have co-authors at other institutions, and if they have open access policies, you will probably be able to take advantage of your rights.

(2) Check your publication contract for possible rights. Many publishers specifically allow inclusion of papers in authors’ dissertations. You would need to look at your publishing agreement to see what it says. Your liaison librarians or the Copyright Education Service at the UMass Libraries can help you review those agreements and understand whether you have rights or not.

(3) Ask for permission to reprint. If you transferred the copyright, don’t have rights under an OA policy, and the publication contract you signed didn’t retain any rights for yourself, then you should probably ask for permission to reprint. The publisher may ask for a fee, depending on your field and the publication.

What about fair use? Fair use is a doctrine in copyright law that allows people to use third-party content without permission, so long as the use is a fair use (17 USC 107). (See the “fair use explainer” for more information.) All sorts of uses can be fair uses, depending on the specific facts. Fair uses can include quotations, personal copies for research, satires, indexing, and many other uses — but it always depends on the circumstances, and any of those uses might be infringing in some circumstances, and fair in others. While it is impossible to say definitively without knowing the specific circumstances, reprinting a published article in its entirety in a new work (such as a dissertation) would not usually be a good candidate for fair use.

Isn’t it just normal and expected? In some fields, it is quite conventional to use published papers as a chapter in a dissertation or thesis, either modified or as published. However, you should still check with your publisher (ideally before the work is published) to make sure you are both in agreement with this expectation.

The Library’s “Copyright Education Program” librarians are happy to talk with you if you have questions about your prior publications and your thesis or dissertation. Contact us for an appointment.

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Research Guides

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
  • URL: https://guides.library.utoronto.ca/thesis

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How and where to publish your dissertation report or thesis project online

can you publish your dissertation

Nowadays, people want to showcase their work to establish their proficiencies for growth and better opportunities. Having your work published plays a vital role in this competitive world. Published work can be helpful for postgraduate university admissions or for getting a job! With technology taking over our lives, we have several encouraging platforms to exhibit the work and demonstrate our skills.

There are various websites with different publication methods and styles. To get your work published in a maximum number of them, you need to prepare your thesis project or dissertation reports for these different interfaces. Here are some tips for you regarding that:

1. Understand the style of the publication and its audience

To get your thesis project or dissertation report selected to be published, you must understand the style of the publication and alter your work according to the guidelines. There is a different audience in each publication platform. Some platforms are article or report based where you can publish your dissertation report while some are portfolio intrinsic where you can publish your thesis project in portfolio format. To publish your work on different platforms, you need to comprehend the platform’s style and alter your work to get it published.

2. Fabricate a narrative

How and where to publish your dissertation report or thesis project online - Sheet2

For pitching your work to any publication, you must have an organized piece of work that goes along a narrative . Classify your thesis project or dissertation report in an organized way following a storyline or hierarchy. Add a brief description of your focused work for the introduction.

3. Good visuals are necessary

It is human tendency to get attracted to good visuals. Provide high quality visuals including your sketches or renders for your thesis project and dissertation report to make it more interesting in an article-based publication. For portfolio-based publication, keep your visuals clear with minimal text and focused vision. Graphics play an important role in your portfolio; they determine your story without having to use many words. So, present your graphics loud and clear!

How and where to publish your dissertation report or thesis project online - Sheet3

4. A short description

Provide a short description of your work in the introduction. It is necessary for the people unaware about your thesis project or dissertation topic to understand your work better. The description should be short and crisp as the attention span of the viewers on digital platforms is less.

5. Offer a unique selling point!

Publications get many reports and projects to publish on a daily basis. If your dissertation report or thesis project has uniqueness in its articulation, it increases its chances to be a hit for publication! Add your exclusive touch in your report for anywhere you want it to get published.

While you keep these points in mind at the time of preparing your work to get issued, you need to explore different platforms where you can present your work. The ocean of internet has thousands of publication platforms. Here are a few of them for your assistance!

Keep in mind to choose a network that best suits your thesis project or dissertation report style. If you need a simple portfolio space for your thesis project there are spaces like issuu and behance.

can you publish your dissertation

1. Self-publishing platforms

Issuu is a space where you can upload your thesis portfolio. It is a digital publishing platform for catalogues, portfolios, magazines etc. People upload their works to get recognition in university admissions or get jobs in multinational companies. 

Another space that people use is behance. It focuses more on graphic design works; you will find only a few architectural works on the platform. Consider your requirements and the audience that you want to showcase your work to, while choosing a platform.

2. Websites

How and where to publish your dissertation report or thesis project online - Sheet4

There are websites like Archinect to which you can add your portfolio of work. It lets you create your profile under which you can publish your thesis project or dissertation report. Keep in mind the prerequisites and style of the website and alter your work accordingly.

You can also submit your thesis project or dissertation reports for various competitions held by organizing websites like archdais, volume zero, archdaily etc., whichever brief your thesis project caters to. 

3. Blogs and Social Media Platforms

Maintain a blog if you can. Blogging is an excellent way to express your thoughts and ideas. You can start a blog to present your work and talents to the world. Be your own publisher and publish your thesis project or other works in your blog. Add your USP to increase viewership.

Consider publishing your work dynamically across various social media platforms for better reach to the audience. Nowadays social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin are the new sources of information where your audience can revisit your page and your viewer portal can grow faster. Sharing your work across social media platforms helps you connect to your audience in an informal way creating a personal bond. The more people visit your work on social media platforms, the more likely they are to see your work on other publishing platforms. So, use the power of social media to your advantage and get going!

can you publish your dissertation

There are various other platforms which you can explore in your quest to get published. Following these tips and running through the mentioned platforms should help you for the starters. Happy publishing!

www.quora.com. (n.d.).  What are the best websites to publish architectural work on? – Quora . [online] Available at: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-websites-to-publish-architectural-work-on [Accessed 16 Aug. 2021].

Archinect. (n.d.).  Want To Get Your Architecture Work Published? Here Are 6 Pro Tips For Crafting The Perfect Pitch . [online] Available at: https://archinect.com/features/article/150193455/want-to-get-your-architecture-work-published-here-are-6-pro-tips-for-crafting-the-perfect-pitch [Accessed 16 Aug. 2021].

How and where to publish your dissertation report or thesis project online - Sheet1

Aditi is a creative soul and a firm believer in procedural learning. She looks towards building a sustainable milieu by linking the built environment to the roots of India’s culture. She is an ardent reader and holds a keen interest in art, architecture and aesthetics.

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can you publish your dissertation

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  1. How to Successfully Publish a Paper From Your Dissertation in an

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  2. How To Write A Dissertation Or Thesis (+ Examples)

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  3. Publishing Your Dissertation

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  4. Publish or Perish: Publishing Options for Your Dissertation

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COMMENTS

  1. How Do I Publish My Dissertation?

    Publishing in a Journal. Academic journals are the most common choice for publishing a dissertation, so it is the most important process to understand. It is important to know which journal best fits your dissertation, become familiar with the journal's guidelines and to carefully interpret feedback on your work.

  2. PDF PUBLISHING YOUR GRADUATE WORK

    STEP 3: Read and understand the Licensing and Rights sections of the publishing agreement. This agreement grants ProQuest/UMI the right to reproduce and disseminate your work according to the choices you make. This is a non-exclusive right; you may grant others the right to use your dissertation or thesis as well.

  3. Publishing Your Dissertation in a Scholarly Journal

    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.

  4. Publish your dissertation or thesis

    OK, let's get on with writing! Quick steps to get started (especially if you are demotivated) In a copy of your dissertation or thesis: Format your title page. The first page of your manuscript ...

  5. Publishing Your Dissertation

    In reading some of the resources listed above, you might encounter discussions of how having your dissertation available online (for example, in Deep Blue) could negatively impact a publisher's willingness to look at your manuscript.Some authors assert that you should not put your dissertation online if you hope to sign a publishing contract.

  6. Fair Use, Copyright, Patent, and Publishing Options

    This decision can expand the visibility and impact of your work, but it can also shape the options available to you for publishing subsequent works based on your dissertation. ProQuest's ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (PQDT) database indexes almost all dissertations published in the U.S. and provides subscription access online to the full ...

  7. Adapting a Dissertation or Thesis Into a Journal Article

    When deciding whether to publish the work in your dissertation or thesis, first consider whether the findings tell a compelling story or answer important questions. Whereas dissertations and theses may present existing knowledge in conjunction with new work, published research should make a novel contribution to the literature.

  8. Publishing Your Thesis or Dissertation

    In reading some of the resources listed above, you might encounter discussions of how having your dissertation available online (for example, in Penn State's ETD repository) could negatively impact a publisher's willingness to look at your manuscript.Some authors assert that you should not put your dissertation online if you hope to sign a publishing contract.

  9. Library Guides: Copyright and Publishing Your Dissertation: Step 4

    Usually your first book is substantially different from your dissertation after significant required editing, but it is always best to explore the contours of publishing in your discipline. How to license your work. If you do wish to license your dissertation, one option is to use a Creative Commons license. Creative Commons licenses allow ...

  10. The Ultimate Guide to Getting Your Thesis Published in a Journal

    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 ...

  11. A Guide to Publishing a Dissertation

    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.

  12. Revising Your Dissertation for Publication

    Publishing your Dissertation (American Psychological Association) 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 ...

  13. How to adapt your dissertation so it works as a published article (opinion)

    A first step, as noted above, is to identify the presuppositions or ideas from other chapters you and your committee members bring to this one. A second is to identify the elements of the chapter that tie it to the rest of the dissertation. These elements may be extended passages or allusions to what comes before or after, or, indeed, things ...

  14. How to Turn Your Doctoral Dissertation Into a Book

    When you understand where the book version of your dissertation will fit into the existing marketplace, you can write your dissertation in a way that can make publication easier. Write your dissertation with the intent to publish it. Yes, your dissertation will be reviewed by your faculty and its quality will determine whether you earn your PhD.

  15. Publishing Your Master's Thesis: Everything You Need to Know

    Here are some of the best ways to publish your master's thesis: Publish it in an academic journal. Many academic journals accept articles that are based on a master's thesis. This is a great way to get your work published in a reputable academic publication and increase your visibility in your field. Look for journals that are relevant to ...

  16. Turning Your Dissertation into a Book: A Step-by ...

    Be prepared to receive feedback and make revisions based on their comments. In conclusion, publishing your dissertation in a journal requires careful research, attention to detail, and a willingness to revise and edit your work. By following these steps, you can increase your chances of success and share your research with a wider audience.

  17. Publishing your dissertation

    Publishing your dissertation. The process may seem daunting, but publishing your dissertation is doable if you follow some simple steps. Although finishing your dissertation may be the final hurdle to completing your doctorate, getting it published may be an important step toward your career as a psychologist. Indeed, academic psychologists are ...

  18. Author Dissertations FAQs

    ProQuest assists researchers and institutions in the discoverability and dissemination of their dissertations and theses; the database is accessed by researchers at more than 3,100 institutions worldwide. Inclusion in ProQuest provides access to an author's dissertation alongside decades of groundbreaking research from doctoral and master's ...

  19. Can I include my published papers in my dissertation?

    You can, and should, negotiate to keep all the rights you will need, including the right to include your published paper in your thesis or dissertation. (It's standard in all academic fields to acknowledge first publication, but the format depends on the field.)

  20. If I publish a journal article based on my dissertation, will it be

    Hi, I am thinking about revising my doctoral dissertation into a journal article to have a broader readership. But I am concerned about any potential problems of self-plagiarism.My doctoral dissertation was electronically published by the university in 2014. In that case, can I still submit an article the content of which is based on most parts of my doctoral dissertation?

  21. Submit and Publish Your Thesis

    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).

  22. How to Get Your Dissertation Published in the UK?

    The first step in publishing your dissertation is to choose a publisher. You can consider publishing with an academic publisher or a university press. Make sure to choose a reputable publisher with experience in your field of study. Lambert Academic Publishing is a reputable publisher that specializes in publishing dissertations and scholarly ...

  23. How and where to publish your dissertation report or thesis project

    It lets you create your profile under which you can publish your thesis project or dissertation report. Keep in mind the prerequisites and style of the website and alter your work accordingly. You can also submit your thesis project or dissertation reports for various competitions held by organizing websites like archdais, volume zero ...

  24. Your dissertation or final project: 8 tips for the weeks leading up to

    Plan your time. Make a list of all the things standing between you and your dissertation being submitted and use this to plan the time you have left. You can schedule your days so that you get more done and save some last minute stress. 2. Write your introduction after your conclusion (or at least re-visit it)