Caltech Theses  Tags: theses dissertations  

What if I want to have a journal article as a chapter in my thesis?

If you have published an article or articles before you turn in your thesis, and you wish credit for that for your graduate requirements, you have a number of options. These should be discussed with your committee, and possibly with your publisher. First, you can simply cite that publication in your references. Second, if the publisher has the publication online, you can link or point to it (with permission of the publisher, who usually has protection so that paying customers or subscribers are the only ones allowed access). Third, if the publisher gives you a signed release, you can include the publication in your thesis as allowed in that release. If the publisher restricts access in that release, say to the Caltech community, you may want to have 2 versions of your thesis or dissertation--one with and one without the chapter (e.g., published article) in question.

This matter may be avoided if your thesis discusses your research in a very different way from the published article. That often makes sense, since articles are typically short, and your thesis or dissertation may be the only place where all the details, data, tables, and other aspects of your research are made available.

Remember that preparing a thesis is part of your graduate experience, one aim of which is to prepare you to be a part of the world of research and publication. We hope you will treat your thesis submission as part of your educational experience, and will take steps when you deal with publishers to help other students gain the widest possible access to your research.

What if I want to write a book related to my thesis?

We realize that some students, especially in the humanities, prepare books related to their theses. In general, it appears to be the case that electronic release of early versions of a book leads to greater sales of such books. Indeed, having an electronic work made available on the Internet, and telling a publisher that there have been a large number of electronic accesses to that work, may help you land a book contract.

Usually, books that relate to theses turn out to be significantly changed as part of the editorial process. This makes it likely that those interested in your work will buy your book when it comes out, even if they have reviewed your thesis.

However, since publishers vary widely in their policies, it may be wise to share this documentation about the electronic thesis initiative with publishers to which you are likely to submit your work.

What do I need to know about signing agreements with publishers?

When you have your research published in a conference, book, or journal, you usually sign some type of agreement with the publisher. You should read that agreement carefully before signing, making sure you understand AND AGREE with the terms and conditions. If you don't, you may want to change the agreement in connection with discussion/negotiation with the publisher, and possibly with advice of legal or other counsel. The agreement should be explicit about what future rights of use you retain. If you want to include the materials in a dissertation or to reuse the materials for teaching or a book chapter, say so.

As the author you are entitled to discuss your plans with the publisher. We encourage you to obtain an agreement that allows you to include your research in a freely available electronic thesis.

During these negotiations you may want to discuss matters of timing and revision. You have the right to negotiate with a publisher to reduce access to your thesis to the Caltech community only for a limited amount of time, if they request this as a condition on publishing your article. However, most publishers consider a thesis to be quite different from a journal article. Typically the article is much shorter than the chapter or full work, has been revised as a result of the editorial process and peer review, and sometimes has several authors, resulting in many publishers having no concern regarding fully accessible theses.

More on publishers' agreements and retaining your rights

The library's web page on Author Services gives more useful information to consider when thinking about retaining your author rights.  The SPARC Addendum, in particular, can be useful if and when you want to amend a journal publisher's copyright agreement.