Journal format theses (The University of Manchester Library)
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The University of Manchester Library

eThesis submission: Journal format theses

A Journal format thesis allows you to incorporate sections that are in a format suitable for submission for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. If you wish to submit your thesis in journal format, you should discuss this with your supervisor, and declare your intention when you complete the Notice of Submission form. See also the University's Presentation of Theses policy for more information:

If you are submitting a Journal format eThesis, you should select this format in step 2 of 5 of the eThesis submission form.

Preparing and submitting your journal format thesis

‘Self-archiving’ is where a researcher makes a piece of scholarly work available via a repository. The University’s Presentation of Theses policy requires that final Doctoral theses are ‘self-archived’ and made Open Access via the University’s systems within 12 months of submission, unless an exception to this policy is required.

The structure of a journal format thesis – being comprised of a number of research papers submitted to or published in academic journals – means that you as the author need to take extra care when preparing your thesis for submission, and selecting your preferred access level for your final thesis. For each publisher you’re working with, or plan to work with, you will need to establish what each allows and requires in terms of self-archiving of work, i.e.:

  1. If my publisher allows me to share my work via a repository, what version of my work can I share?
  2. When can I share my work via a repository?
  3. When will my papers be published?

This information will allow you to determine:

  • The version of each paper to include in your eThesis file
  • The access level option to select for your final thesis

Selecting an access level for your final thesis which reflects the strictest self-archiving policy of the publishers you’re working with will ensure that you’re not infringing any of your publishers’ self-archiving policies or breaking your copyright agreements.

Decision tree: Can I share my Journal format thesis Open Access? 

This interactive guide, accessed via Typeform, aims to help you understand the checks you need to make regarding the self-archiving policies of the publishers you’re working with, and to use this information to inform:

  • The version of each article you include in your eThesis file
  • The access level you select for your final eThesis

We recommend that you identify the strictest publisher policy that you need to deal with, and use this policy when completing this decision tree.

Journal format theses: downloadable guide

If you’d like more detailed information on considerations related to submission of your Journal format thesis, you can also download the eThesis submission: journal format thesis guide. This includes information on publisher self-archiving policies, and how these will inform the versions of papers you include in your thesis submission, and the access level you select for your final thesis.

You can also contact the eThesis Support Service for more information and support.