2. Papers in a journal-style thesis

2.1 Publication status of papers

The publication status of each paper (or disciplinary equivalent) included in a journal-style thesis must be recorded at the start of each paper/chapter (ie submitted, under review, accepted for publication, published, written as for publication with the intention of submission, written as for publication but not for submission). 

Rejected papers can be rewritten with an eye towards re-submission to the same journal or as a new submission (to a new journal) if appropriate (this is common practice in the Sciences). Where rewriting a rejected paper is not appropriate, you may opt to rewrite the material as a traditional chapter (see below). 

Your school, department or centre may set a requirement around the publication status of papers (such as requiring that at least one paper is published or accepted for publication), or issue guidance on the matter - see your departmental PGR handbook for more information. 

2.2 Number of papers  

The number of papers included in a journal-style thesis will vary depending on the discipline, the research project, and the scale (volume/significance) of the research in each paper. As a general rule, a journal-style thesis might typically have three substantive chapters, each being a separate paper.

Your school, department or centre may set a requirement around the number of papers included in a journal-style thesis, or issue guidance on the matter - see your departmental PGR handbook for more information. 

2.3 Choice of journals

You are advised to seek advice from your supervisor(s) and TAP with respect to the suitability of any journal that you wish to submit a paper to. If you are funded or sponsored, you should check if your funder/sponsor has an open access policy, which may influence which journals you are able to submit to. The Library also provides guidance on journal choice. The right journal will not necessarily be one with a high impact (as this may limit the chances of acceptance), but all parties must be alert to the dangers posed by poor quality and predatory journals.

Your school, department or centre may set a requirement around the choice of journals for publication - see your departmental PGR handbook for more information. 

2.4 Inclusion of supplementary and additional material alongside papers

Journals have strict guidance around how a paper is structured, what can and cannot be included (eg the level of detail expected in each section) and word counts etc. This means that a paper may not include all the information that would be expected in a thesis and which the examiners would need to have access to. This may be overcome by the inclusion of supplementary and/or additional information within the relevant chapter either before and/or after the paper, as appropriate. 

Supplementary (supplemental) material refers to material that is directly relevant (but not integral) to a paper and is submitted to a journal for publication alongside the paper (or written for this purpose) but which cannot be included in the issue or print version. This may be due to its size (eg detailed methods, data sets, large tables, computer code, appendices) or medium (eg multimedia files).

Supplementary material should always be referenced in the relevant paper chapter and included where possible. Note that some journals peer review supplementary material.

Additional material may be similar to supplementary material but is not submitted to a journal (or written for this purpose). Additional material might include one or more of the following:

• a more in-depth literature review (if the literature is not sufficiently covered within the paper itself or elsewhere in the thesis eg in the introduction or literature review chapter(s) where applicable)
• further information on materials and methods
• preliminary, background or supplementary data
• a more detailed data analysis
• an extended discussion.

Additional material might also include a commentary on the paper which contextualises and integrates the paper into the rest of the thesis, if this is not covered in the conclusion chapter.

An example is included here for illustrative purposes. 

2.5 Inclusion of 'traditional' chapters

A journal-style thesis may include 'traditional' chapters as well as chapters that are papers - ie chapters that do not include a paper, but are presented as per substantive/results chapter in a monograph thesis.

A traditional chapter - rather than a ‘paper chapter’ - may be the most appropriate choice in a range of circumstances such as:

• multi-author papers
• copyright issues
• research that could be difficult to publish, eg methodology development or negative results or experimental failures
• where a significant volume of additional material (see above) needs to be included such that the use of a ‘paper chapter’ would be artificial.

You should discuss the balance of ‘paper chapters’ versus traditional chapters with your supervisor(s) and TAP.