How to Turn a Thesis Into a Journal Article
A thesis chapter and a journal article report the same work for different readers. Here is what to change, in order.
A thesis shows an examiner that you can do research. An article tells researchers in your field what you found. The first is long because it has to prove competence; the second is short because its readers already have it. Turning one into the other is mostly cutting and reframing, and it starts with choosing which part of the thesis is a paper.
Choose the chapter, or the finding
One article reports one main finding. A thesis usually has several.
- Pick a result that stands on its own
- a reader should not need the other chapters to understand it.
- If a chapter holds two findings, it may be two articles. If two chapters build to one finding, they may be one.
- Choose the target journal now, before rewriting
- its scope, its length limit and its readers decide what you keep.
Rewrite the introduction for the journal's readers
A thesis introduction surveys the field. An article introduction makes the case for one question in a few paragraphs.
- Cut the literature review to the sources that frame your question and the gap it fills.
- State the question and the contribution in the first page.
- Drop the background a specialist reader of that journal already knows.
Shorten the methods and the results
Keep what another researcher needs to judge and reproduce the work; move the rest to supplementary material.
- Methods
- what you did and why, at the level of detail the journal's other articles use.
- Results
- the ones that support the finding. Exploratory analyses that went nowhere usually stay in the thesis.
- Figures and tables
- fewer, and each one referred to in the text.
Write a new discussion and abstract
The thesis discussion links chapters together. The article's discussion links one finding to the field. Write both the discussion and the abstract from scratch rather than trimming the thesis versions, then follow the journal's author guidelines for structure, word counts, references and declarations.
Check the rules before you submit
Two sets of rules apply, and both vary.
- Your university
- some restrict publishing thesis content before the degree is awarded, or require a statement that the article is based on the thesis.
- The journal
- most say whether a thesis deposited in a repository counts as prior publication. Read its policy, and mention the thesis in your cover letter if it is publicly available.
- Authorship
- agree with your supervisor who is an author before you submit.
Check the article before the journal does
An article cut from a thesis often keeps traces of it: a reference to "chapter 3", an acronym defined in a section that was removed, citations to sources no longer in the reference list. The free manuscript check looks for these in the article before you submit. For the thesis itself, before you hand it in, there is the Thesis Review ($99).
Frequently asked questions
Usually yes, as one or more articles adapted from it. Check your university's rules on prior publication and the journal's policy on theses deposited in repositories.