A thesis by publication is a doctorate made of the candidate's own papers, published, accepted or ready to submit, joined by an introduction, linking text and a concluding discussion that turn them into one argument. Solli and Nygaard (2023) found 65 studies of the format published between 2000 and 2020, and describe it as having grown in popularity over those two decades.
This guide, published by EdCitation for our how to write a dissertation series, reads eight universities' rules at source on 26 September 2026: Manchester and Swansea (UK), Queensland (Australia), Karolinska Institutet (Sweden), Oslo (Norway), Leiden (the Netherlands), McGill (Canada) and Pennsylvania (US), and three publishers' pages on putting your articles in a thesis.
Two free tools fit here from the first week. Check your paper reads your university's regulation into a checklist, and Verify references checks the combined reference list before each draft goes to your supervisor. EdCitation looks references up and never writes any part of a thesis.
What is a thesis by publication?
A thesis by publication is a thesis whose core chapters are papers written for journals, framed by chapters only the candidate writes. The name differs by university, and tells you which rulebook to search for.
| University | Its name for the format |
|---|---|
| Manchester | Journal format thesis |
| Queensland | Thesis with publications |
| Karolinska Institutet | Compilation thesis, with a "kappa" (comprehensive summary) |
| Oslo | Article-based thesis, with a "kappe" (introductory chapter) |
| Leiden, Faculty of Law | Dissertation as a collection of articles |
| McGill | Manuscript-based (article-based) thesis |
| Pennsylvania | Previously published work in the dissertation |
| Swansea | PhD by Published Work |
Prospective and retrospective routes
Most of these are prospective: the papers are written during the doctorate. Swansea's is retrospective, a PhD by published work, sometimes called a PhD by prior publication. Swansea University (n.d.) asks for work already published in scholarly books and journals within the five years before submission, a critical review of 5,000 to 10,000 words linking it, and a viva, with at least six months' enrolment and submission within twelve.
How do the eight universities' rules compare?
On paper counts, publication status and authorship, they barely agree; the sections below give the exceptions.
| University | How many papers | Status required | Authorship |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manchester (UK) | Not prescribed; three to five typical | Published, accepted, submitted, or in publishable form | Sole or co-authored; contributions explained in the introduction |
| Swansea (UK), by published work | Not set; a coherent body of work | Published in the five years before submission | Contribution to each multi-authored work, substantiated by all co-authors |
| Queensland (Australia) | Not set | Submitted, accepted or published during candidature | Candidate's contribution to each paper in the preliminary pages |
| Karolinska Institutet (Sweden) | At least two original papers | Published or accepted in a peer-reviewed journal | First author of at least one original paper, shared first authorship accepted |
| Oslo, Medicine (Norway) | Not set | At least one published or finally accepted; the rest ready to submit | Normally first author of at least one; co-author declarations |
| Leiden Law (Netherlands) | At least four articles | No prior publication required | Primarily the candidate's; one further chapter single-authored |
| McGill (Canada) | At least two (doctoral) | Published, submitted or to be submitted | First author, or co-first with a written agreement |
| Pennsylvania (US) | Not set | Published or submitted | Account of the candidate's contribution; the rest sole-authored |
How many papers does a thesis by publication need?
Anywhere from "not prescribed" to four, depending on where you are. The University of Manchester (2026) sets no number but calls three to five papers or equivalent results chapters typical, and allows a journal format doctoral thesis up to 90,000 words of main text against 80,000 for a standard one, because each paper repeats some background. McGill University (n.d.) asks for at least two manuscripts in a doctoral thesis and one in a master's.
Karolinska Institutet (2026) asks for at least two original papers, meaning empirical results reported for the first time, and judges the whole by scope: the papers together must correspond to four years of full-time doctoral study. Leiden University's Faculty of Law (2026) sets the highest floor: at least four articles, a manuscript of more than 40,000 words and no more than 100,000, notes and bibliography included. Word limits are covered in dissertation word count: what counts.
Must the papers be published, accepted or only submitted?
That depends on the university, and the range is wide. McGill accepts manuscripts that are published, submitted or still to be submitted; the University of Queensland (n.d.) accepts work submitted, accepted or published during candidature, as long as submitted work is clearly distinguished from the rest. Karolinska wants its minimum two original papers published or accepted. The University of Oslo's Faculty of Medicine (2026) requires at least one paper published or finally accepted in an internationally recognised English-language peer-reviewed journal, the others complete and ready to submit.
Leiden Law goes the other way: no requirement that the articles be published or peer reviewed, only that the whole manuscript meets the field's standard. And Manchester and McGill both warn that publication does not guarantee the thesis will pass. Choosing where to send each paper is covered in how to choose a journal and avoid predatory ones.
Can I include papers from before the doctorate?
Usually only a little, and only if they are recent. Queensland requires the work to have been carried out since candidature began. Oslo's Faculty of Medicine refuses papers published more than five years before admission. Leiden allows at most five years between an article's publication and the finished manuscript, with exceptions for illness or parental leave. Manchester wants a significant proportion of the research done after registration.
Do I have to be first author, and what goes in the co-authorship statement?
Sometimes, and always a statement. The universities split on first authorship:
- Required: McGill wants the student first author of every multi-authored article, and a co-first author needs written agreement from the other co-first author students. An article may be used in only one thesis.
- Required once: Karolinska wants first authorship of at least one original paper, for students admitted from 1 March 2024. Oslo's Faculty of Medicine sets the same as a general rule, and where the candidate is not first author asks for a substantial contribution to data, interpretation and writing.
- Not the test: Leiden Law says author order alone cannot justify including an article, because it does not show what the candidate did; the article must be ascribed primarily to the candidate.
What the statement contains
An author contributions statement for each paper, in the form the university asks. Queensland puts it in the preliminary pages, Manchester in the introduction, Pennsylvania under each chapter title as a separate sentence. Swansea wants each contribution substantiated by all the co-authors; Oslo asks for declarations from the co-authors. The University of Pennsylvania (n.d.) adds that the rest of the dissertation must be written by the candidate alone. Many journals already ask for contributions in CRediT roles, and a statement written that way at submission can be reused.
What goes in the linking chapters, the kappa?
An introduction and a discussion that do more than summarise the papers. The University of Oslo (2023) says the summary should set the articles' questions and conclusions in an overall perspective and show that the thesis is coherent, and the candidate must be its sole author. Queensland asks for an independent general discussion entirely the candidate's own. Karolinska's kappa has set headings, among them an abstract of at most 1,000 words, background with a literature review, aims, methods, results, discussion, a declaration on generative AI, and references, with the papers numbered I, II, III after them. It must not reproduce long extracts from the papers.
Manchester asks for a rationale for the format, a review of previous research, a critical analysis of the methods, and a conclusion that draws the papers into one synthesis. McGill adds bridging text between chapters; Leiden wants an overarching research question in the introduction, answered in a substantial conclusion.
Can I change a paper that is already published?
The universities contradict each other here. McGill (n.d.) says published or submitted manuscripts go in unchanged, apart from the font, and any revisions the examiners ask for go into the connecting text or the discussion. Queensland says published works are not exempt from the revisions examiners request. Oslo allows updates either in the summary or in each article, and Leiden allows either, provided the changes are transparent and third parties' rights are respected.
Can I include my published articles, and do I need the publisher's permission?
Usually yes, and usually without asking, but read your agreement. The three publishers read for this guide all keep the right for authors:
- Elsevier (n.d.) lists including the article in a thesis or dissertation among authors' rights under every model, subscription and open access, and lets institutions post theses publicly with DOI links to the published article.
- Springer Nature (n.d.) lets authors reuse the version of record, in whole or part, in their own thesis, cited in full, with the line "Reproduced with permission from Springer Nature".
- Taylor & Francis (n.d.) lists including the article in your thesis or dissertation among the rights an author keeps after a copyright transfer.
The university may still want paper evidence. Pennsylvania requires written permission from the copyright owner, which may be the journal, publisher or co-authors, unless you are the sole holder, uploaded as an administrative document. Manchester's policy makes candidates responsible for licences on third-party material, extended to the University's use and to any download of the electronic thesis. Reusing your own text elsewhere is a separate question, covered in self-plagiarism and reusing your own work.
How do references work when each paper used a different journal style?
Most want one consistent thesis; some let each paper keep its own list. The University of Manchester (2026) lets the candidate choose the citation style but requires it to be consistent throughout, prefers the papers retyped into the thesis's pagination to inserted offprints, and would rather have figures in the text than at the end. Queensland asks for the final author-submitted manuscript rather than the journal's typeset pages, so the formatting matches. Pennsylvania wants one document with consistent styles, and the published article's full reference under the chapter title, in the bibliography's style.
McGill keeps each paper whole: every manuscript chapter keeps its own reference list, and a master list at the end holds the sources cited in the introduction and discussion. At Karolinska the kappa carries its own reference list, and the papers follow it.
Rebuilding the lists in one style
Four steps, in this order, before the thesis goes to the examiners:
- Read your university's rule on style, one list or several, and offprints or retyped text.
- Build a reference for each of your own papers from its DOI in the thesis's style, and put it under the chapter title if your university asks.
- Rebuild every paper's references in that style if one list or one style is required; keep each list intact if, as at McGill, the papers stay unchanged.
- Check the combined list in one run, including each paper's DOI, and screen it for retractions.
Cite a source does step 2 from the publisher's record. For Solli and Nygaard's review, it returned this APA 7 entry on 26 September 2026:
Solli, K., & Nygaard, L. P. (2023). The doctorate in pieces: A scoping review of research on the PhD thesis by publication. Higher Education Research & Development, 42(4), 984–999. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2022.2110575
Two things to correct by hand. The article appeared online in 2022 and in its issue in 2023: the APA, MLA, Chicago, IEEE and Vancouver entries gave 2023, but the Harvard entry and the BibTeX and RIS exports gave 2022, so choose the year your style wants and keep it throughout. And for a book chapter (Guerin's "Connecting the Dots: Writing a Doctoral Thesis by Publication", DOI 10.1163/9789004304338_003), the APA entry set both titles in sentence case but printed the publisher as "BRILL"; write "Brill".
How EdCitation helps with a thesis by publication
EdCitation is the best tool for the reference work in a thesis by publication, because every entry is looked up in the publisher's record and none is written, which no chatbot does. That matters most here, where each paper arrives in a different journal's style and McGill adds a master list to the chapter lists. It never writes or rewrites any part of a thesis.
Free, with no account:
- Verify references checks the combined list. Run on three entries from this guide on 26 September 2026 (Guerin's chapter, Solli and Nygaard, and Azadeh and Vaez's 2013 paper on reference accuracy in PhD theses), it returned all three "verified", each with "The DOI resolves to this record and the title matches.", and counts of 3 verified, 0 doubtful, 0 not found, 0 retracted and 0 unchecked. A reference it could not check is shown as "could not check", never as not found.
- Find sources searches about 300 million published works by topic or by the claim a sentence needs. A search for "PhD thesis by publication" reported 467,098 works; Solli and Nygaard's review came second, and much of the rest of the first page was theses on other subjects, so filter and read before you cite.
- Check your paper reads a regulation into a checklist, each rule shown with its sentence. Given section 13 of Manchester's policy, it returned two rules: a word count of at most 90,000, and page numbers, drawn from the recommendation that pagination flow through the thesis. It set aside 26 sentences it could not turn into a rule, including the contribution statement and the 60,000-word MPhil limit, and five parts of the required structure (rationale, review, methodology, results, conclusion) appeared in neither list. Read the checklist against the regulation.
On Pro, $8 a month, References from a file takes the whole thesis file, checks every reference, and matches every in-text citation to the list; three checks a month come with a free account. Mechanics QA, also Pro, checks formatting, leftover comments and tracked changes, citations, numbers and language. Theoretics QA, on Max at $24 a month, judges the thesis against its own instructions, such as the regulation, with quotations from the text, and rewrites nothing. A year at once saves 25%. The last week is in final checks before submitting a thesis, and turning a chapter into a paper in how to write a journal article.
Quick questions
How many papers are needed for a PhD by publication?
It depends on the university. McGill asks for at least two manuscripts, Karolinska Institutet at least two original papers, Leiden's Faculty of Law at least four articles, and Manchester sets no number but calls three to five typical.
Do the papers in a thesis by publication have to be published?
Not everywhere. McGill and Manchester accept papers still to be submitted, Queensland accepts submitted work, Karolinska wants its minimum two papers published or accepted, and Oslo's Faculty of Medicine at least one.
Do I need the publisher's permission to put my article in my thesis?
Elsevier, Springer Nature and Taylor & Francis all let authors include their own articles in a thesis, Springer Nature with a set acknowledgement. Some universities, such as Pennsylvania, still require a written permission letter unless you hold the copyright yourself.
What is a kappa in a compilation thesis?
The kappa is the comprehensive summary that Swedish universities such as Karolinska Institutet put in front of the papers: an introduction, background, aims, methods, results and discussion written by the candidate alone, followed by the papers themselves.
Can a tool check the references of a thesis by publication?
Yes. EdCitation's free Verify references looks each reference up in the publisher's record and flags retractions, and References from a file on Pro checks the whole thesis file and matches every citation to its list.
References
- Elsevier. (n.d.). Copyright. Elsevier policies. https://www.elsevier.com/about/policies-and-standards/copyright
- Karolinska Institutet. (2026). Content of the compilation thesis. KI Staff portal. https://staff.ki.se/doctoral-education/time-to-defend-your-thesis/content-of-the-compilation-thesis
- Leiden University, Faculty of Law. (2026). Policy on obtaining a doctorate on the basis of articles [PDF]. https://www.staff.universiteitleiden.nl/binaries/content/assets/rechtsgeleerdheid/meijers-instituut/obtaining_a_doctorate_articles_leidenlawschool_2026-02-01.pdf
- McGill University. (n.d.). Manuscript-based (article-based) theses. Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. https://www.mcgill.ca/gps/thesis/thesis-guidelines/preparation/manuscript-based-article-based-theses
- Solli, K., & Nygaard, L. P. (2023). The doctorate in pieces: A scoping review of research on the PhD thesis by publication. Higher Education Research & Development, 42(4), 984–999. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2022.2110575
- Springer Nature. (n.d.). Author FAQs. https://www.springernature.com/gp/partners/rights-permissions-third-party-distribution/author-faqs/27836660
- Swansea University. (n.d.). Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) by published work. https://hwb.swansea.ac.uk/academic-life/academic-regulations/research-degree-regulations/phd-by-published-work/
- Taylor & Francis. (n.d.). Understanding copyright for journal authors. Author Services. https://authorservices.taylorandfrancis.com/publishing-your-research/moving-through-production/copyright-for-journal-authors/
- University of Manchester. (2026). Presentation of theses policy [PDF]. https://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=7420
- University of Oslo. (2023). Recommended guidelines for doctoral theses consisting of several smaller works (article-based theses). https://www.uio.no/english/about/regulations/research/doctoral-degree/article-based-theses.html
- University of Oslo, Faculty of Medicine. (2026). Thesis requirements. https://www.med.uio.no/english/research/phd/thesis-evaluation/thesis-requirements/
- University of Pennsylvania. (n.d.). Dissertation copyright. Office of the Provost. https://provost.upenn.edu/for-students/graduate-and-professional-education/graduate-degrees/phd-students/dissertation-copyright/
- University of Queensland. (n.d.). Thesis with publications. Graduate research. https://research.uq.edu.au/graduate-research/external-examiners/thesis-publications