10 Including Prior Publications in Your Work

If you want to include prior publications in your thesis, as a first step, consult with your research or thesis supervisor for guidance on how “prior publication” is handled in your department, discipline, or field.

The thesis should be a stand-alone manuscript, meaning that if the thesis work is published in multiple independent articles, they can be included as chapters.  An introduction and conclusion to the thesis should be prepared. You must reformat the article and/or article excerpts in accord with Graduate College formatting requirements. The thesis must be a cohesively formatted document.

While most scholarly journals allow prior publications to be used in theses, check with the journal in which the article was published to confirm whether a copyright permission is required to reproduce the work in the thesis. If you reproduce or adapt a published (or accepted) journal article or portions of a journal article in your thesis, you must cite the published work in the thesis making sure to adhere to the journal’s policy regarding the appropriate formatting for the citation.

If the article you include has co-authors, it is best practice to provide a summary of your unique contributions to the work.  CRediT, the Contributor Roles Taxonomy, is a taxonomy that can help provide the language needed to describe your contributions.