Incorporating your published work in your thesis

Overview

Declaration of incorporated publications

When submitting your thesis, you will be required to confirm that:

• the work in the incorporated publications is your own
• co-authors give permission for the article to be included in the thesis.

To do this, you must complete the Declaration for publication incorporated in a thesis form. You will need to submit a completed form for each in progress or published work included in your thesis.

Your principal supervisor must sign the Declaration form for each publication. Where there is more than one author of a publication, at least one co-author, by agreement among the authors, should be nominated as the coordinating author, as defined in the University’s Authorship Policy.

The coordinating author is responsible for:

• communicating between the publishers and managing communication between the co-authors
• maintaining records of any authorship agreement
• signing the Declaration form.

You must upload all completed Declaration forms as a single combined file to the Thesis Examination System (TES) when submitting your thesis for examination. The signed forms should not be included in the thesis itself. Plan well ahead to obtain the required signatures to avoid delays to your examination.

The preface

Authorship

The authorship requirements for incorporated published works included in your thesis are changing. This may affect you if you are currently preparing to submit your thesis.

2024 thesis submissions

If you are submitting your thesis in 2024, the current Graduate Research Training Policy will remain in effect. Under this policy, your principal supervisor and coordinating author must declare that:

• you are the primary author of the included material
• you contributed more than 50 per cent of the work towards the publication - Usually this means you will have written the initial draft and you performed any subsequent editing in response to co-authors' and editors' reviews.

2025 thesis submissions

If you are submitting your thesis after 1 January 2025, the new requirements will be that:

• you demonstrate a substantial contribution to the publication
• you clearly state your actual contribution to the publication in the preface of your thesis.

For more details on the requirements and responsible practice, please refer to the Authorship page.

• Why are the authorship requirements changing?
  

  The new 2025 authorship requirements are being changed to offer you more flexibility. The updated requirements prioritise the quality and relevance of your contribution rather than the exact percentage.

• I will be submitting my thesis in 2025. How will the new authorship requirements affect my thesis preparation?

  The current requirement that you must have contributed more than 50 per cent of the work will no longer apply. Instead you will need to clearly state your substantial contribution to the publication within the preface of your thesis. Learn more about what your preface should include.
• Are changes made by the publisher in the peer review and publication editing process considered a form of editorial assistance?

  Yes. Any parts of the thesis that have been published or accepted for publication are expected to have gone through an editorial process. These editorial changes must be clearly acknowledged.

Format of the thesis

When including complete publications, you should use the publisher version, provided this does not breach your agreement with your publisher.  Otherwise you should use the  author-accepted version. This is the final draft as accepted by the publishers, including any changes based on referees’ suggestions before it has undergone copyediting, typesetting and proofing.

While some journals request that the version you send them includes any figures or tables at the end of the submitted document, when you reproduce the article in your thesis you should place them where they logically flow within the text. It is also recommended that you use similar formatting (e.g. line spacing, font type and size) as the rest of the thesis.

View suggested formats for arranging the chapters of a thesis that includes publications as distinct components. See also example theses in the University of Melbourne repository.

• A literature survey is included in each of the papers. Is an additional literature survey required?

  In most cases it is preferred that you include a separate literature survey. Even with the literature reviews included in your publications, you may still need to add further supplementary material if the publications do not directly address all the research questions in your thesis. Your supervisors and advisory committee are best able to advise you whether the literature reviews included in your incorporated publications will meet disciplinary expectations and satisfy your examiners that you:

  
  - have clearly detailed your research question/s and how they connect with the current literature
  - have demonstrated sufficient familiarity with, and understanding and critical appraisal of the relevant literature.

• I produced several publications during my candidature. Can I just bind them together and submit them for examination?

  No. The policy allows your thesis to be submitted with publications; it is not a thesis by publication. You must include a literature review that clearly outlines the research question, and a concluding general discussion that connects to the research questions. You should also introduce each publication that is included as a distinct component, explaining its role in the work, and, where appropriate, provide a critical reflection on its contribution.

• I want to use part of a publication in my thesis, but not the entire publication. Can I do that?

  Yes, but you must cite it correctly and indicate in the preface the source of the information. For example, state that the text on page(s) xx is from [name of publication], or that chapter yy is adapted from [name of publication]. In each case you should give its publication status and your contribution to the publication). You will assist your examiners if, at the start of each chapter that includes work drawn from a publication, there is a footnote explaining where the work came from and how it has been used in the chapter. You may wish to include the entire publication as an appendix so that your examiners can see where the material came from.

• Is there a different word-length expectation for theses that include publications?
  • Theses that include publications in a 'thesis-with-publications' style can typically be slightly shorter. For example, the typical PhD length is 80,000 words, but a PhD including publications as distinct components has a typical length of 50,000 to 80,000 words.
  • While the writing style may be more concise, there is no difference in the expected volume and requirements of work presented in theses with publications. The examination criteria remain the same whether or not publications are incorporated. Your examiners are asked to consider your thesis on its merits as an independent piece of research. Refer to the information available for examiners.
  • Maximum limits apply to all theses.
• Do I need to list the references used in a publication in the overall reference list/bibliography for my thesis?

  If you are including the list of references as part of the publication, they do not need to be repeated in the overall reference list/bibliography for the thesis.

• Should incorporated publications be included in the overall reference list?

  No. incorporated publications should not appear in the bibliography of the thesis.

• When creating my list of tables and figures, do I also need to include the tables and figures from a publication that I have included in my thesis?

  No, but you may do so if you think that it will assist readers of your thesis.

• If the publication has a different reference/spelling style, should I update it to use a similar style as the rest of the thesis?  

  It is up to you whether you update the publication style or not. Whatever you choose, you should acknowledge your choice in the Preface, stating the differences between the publication and thesis, due to the requirements of different publishers.

• If the result of my examination is deferred and I have to make ‘major revisions' for second round of examination, can I include a new publication?

  Yes. Revised and resubmitted theses are examined in their entirety and the inclusion of a new incorporated publication may strengthen your response to examiners.

• Which version of my publication should I include in my final thesis?

  In most cases you should include the latest version, up to the publisher version, unless this will breach your publisher agreement, in which case use the author-accepted version.  You must also update the publication status in the preface.

  If your examiners request changes that conflict with the editorial or peer review advice you have since received from your publisher, you may choose to address this elsewhere in your thesis, or in your written response to the examiners’ reports.

Publication suitability

A work is suitable for inclusion if the research was conducted and the publication was in progress or published during your enrolment in your current degree. This includes:

You may need to supplement this with analysis of literature published between writing the article and submitting your thesis.

All methods need to be covered to a high degree of detail in your thesis.

• literature reviews
• systematic reviews of a research question as a results chapter
• a protocol paper involving novel method development
• material exploring key methodological issues.
• I published work that is relevant to my thesis prior to my enrolment. Can I include this publication in my thesis?
  

  No. Only work completed during your candidature can be included in the thesis. You can cite your earlier work just like you would any work that is relevant to your research. The work should be listed in the preface of your thesis.

• My publication is not peer reviewed. Can I include it as a chapter of my thesis?

  Yes. You will need to clearly acknowledge in the preface that its status is ‘in progress’ or, that the paper has been published but not peer reviewed.

Completing the forms

• I want to include part of a publication in my thesis. I will be adapting it for my thesis and will not use the published version. Do I need to complete a Declaration for publication incorporated in a thesis form?
  

  Yes. You may wish to include the entire publication as an appendix so that your examiner can see where the information came from.

• Does the Co-Authorship section (Part C) of the Declaration form need to be completed if I am, or if my principal supervisor is, the coordinating author?
  

  Yes. All sections of the form must be completed for any multi-authored material. The coordinating author is required to reassure that all co-authors have had an opportunity to agree to the inclusion of the material in the thesis and to the contribution declared on the form. The authorship agreement template is available here.

• One of my figures has been used in a publication. The data collection and the creation of the figure was my only contribution to the paper. Do I need to complete the Declaration for publication incorporated in a thesis form?
  

  No. You can use the figure in your thesis without completing the form. However, you should acknowledge the origin of the figure in the preface and appropriately cite the publication in your thesis.

• Do I need to provide the Examinations Office with proof that my paper has been accepted and in press, or has been published?
  

  No. You should provide this evidence to your advisory committee when you are discussing the proposed format for your thesis. Your principal supervisor must sign the Declaration for publication incorporated in a thesis form, which confirms their agreement to the inclusion of any publication/s. The coordinating author will need to sign the form for any multi-authored material.

• How do I combine multiple Declaration forms?
  

  You can use Nitro Pro's 'Create and Combine' tool, which will allow you to combine files of different file types into a PDF. Alternatively, you use the 'Pages' navigation tab to display the pages pane, which will allow you to drag additional pages where you can then save it as a single file.

iThenticate report

You should run your whole thesis through iThenticate, including the chapters comprised wholly or partly of your published work. You can then exclude the specific matching publication source/s that correspond to the publications you have included in your thesis in a 'thesis with publications' style.

This means that the thesis chapter or publication is reviewed against the other literature in the repository, but not matched to itself. You should only exclude matching sources that are articles which you have appropriately included. You should outline and explain any filters and exclusions you applied in iThenticate in an accompanying declaration which you can also upload to TES.

You should not exclude publications from which you have included material (but not the complete publication). This is because the iThenticate report will then show where the material is present in the thesis, allowing your supervisors and Chair of Examiners to verify that it has been included appropriately.

For more information on the use of iThenticate, visit the iThenticate text-matching tool webpage.

The examination

The criteria for examination remain the same whether or not publications are incorporated. See the Graduate Research Training Policy for more information. You can also view the information for examiners.

If the publication status of your article changes between submission for examination and submission of your final thesis, it is appropriate to include the most recent version.

You should also update the preface to reflect the new status. If you are submitting a list of corrections for approval and/or resubmitting for re-examination you should also note this in your index of changes.

If your examiners request changes that conflict with the editorial or peer review advice you have since received from your publisher, you may choose to address this elsewhere in your thesis, or in your written response to the examiners’ reports.

Examples of theses with publications

Examples of thesis and chapter formats when including publications