This is the complete guide on how to turn a thesis into a journal article. Whether your professor has asked you to do this as part of your dissertation writing assignments or you intend to use your thesis as a starting point for a journal writer, you’ll find this guide useful.
Turning your thesis into a journal article and publishing your research findings is a great way to share your research data with the scientific community. By studying your journal article, other researchers will more than likely gain new knowledge they otherwise wouldn’t have. They might even use your research data as a starting point to investigate an arising issue in your field of study.
Apparently, you can’t publish your thesis as a journal article exactly as it is. While the two papers have the common goal of sharing new knowledge with a relevant community of experts, they differ in the overall structure.
So continue reading to learn how to convert your thesis (or dissertation) into a journal article:
How to Turn a Thesis into a Journal Article
The majority of researchers would rather read a 10-15 page article about the most groundbreaking aspect of your study than wade through 300 pages of your book-style thesis. That’s why it’s important to learn exactly how you can turn a thesis into journal article.
While reading over your thesis work, you’ll see that certain chapters are easy to divide and turn into a journal article. These segmented chapters, together with the research materials obtained throughout the research phase, should give you sufficient information to write a few journal articles that other readers can actually read.
Why Should I Publish Journal Articles Based on My Thesis?
It is quite well established that a research article lends the author considerable credibility. As a result, the simplest method to begin writing your first research paper is to begin with your thesis or dissertation. Additionally, you will get several rewards after you publish the first article based on your thesis. These may include the following:
1. Career Advancement
A simple bullet point stating that you produced a journal paper is an exceptional accomplishment and boost to your CV. A thesis often takes a year or two to finish. Because you have already conducted research and gathered information, you are not required to perform more research or collect additional facts. In this manner, it becomes easier to save considerable amount of time and still publish your findings.
Similarly, you may generate many research articles from your thesis. This will put you much ahead of your contemporaries, since by the time they are able to publish one or two pieces, you will have had many journal publications under your name.
2. Expanded Reach
Do you know what became of your thesis once you submit it? Other than getting credit for the hard work that you put in, it will probably be nothing more than an archive in your institution.
This is customary for all theses at the majority of universities worldwide.
However, if you translate that into a journal paper, it reaches a far larger audience, well beyond the confines of your school.
3. Satisfaction with one’s own actions
You’ve invested much time and work in developing your thesis. Therefore, why not reward your efforts by converting your thesis into a journal article that can attract a larger audience, establish your authority, and garner recognition for your work.
By converting your thesis into a few journal pieces, you may immediately increase the fame and renown of your work, as well as yourself. Additionally, it might aid in the development of your academic and research writing abilities.
Is it acceptable to create articles using a thesis or dissertation?
There are several problems and misunderstandings surrounding the publication of papers based on theses.
For instance, researchers often have concerns about whether journal publishers would accept material that was previously included in a thesis or dissertation, or whether generating articles from a thesis will fall under the jurisdiction of duplicate submission, self-plagiarism, or copyright issues.
We are not saying that these concerns are without merit, but the practice of publishing papers based on a thesis differs according to environment. What we can say with confidence is that publishers are not wholly opposed to publishing papers derived from a thesis.
Consider the following:
1. Dissertation and Thesis are Not Official Publications
The majority of academic publishers do not see theses and dissertations as official publications. More often than not, we get them published at the institutional level for internal review and a limited distribution to other researchers.
However, if your university has published your theses online, you should contact the academic publisher. Transparency with your publisher on the origin of your work is the greatest approach to avoid unethical behavior. The optimal option in this case is to construct a thesis citation article.
2. There Are No Copyright Issues
When it comes to your thesis, you are the exclusive owner of the copyright. As a result, there will be no difficulties with copyright infringement when you publish an article based on your thesis. If you want to be extra cautious, you can register as a copyright owner. In this situation, you can write as many papers as you like, and academic publications will publish them without fear of copyright infringement.
3. You Don’t Have to Worry About S-Plagiarism and Duplicates
You can write a full journal article from a few thesis chapters. Thus, a journal article derived from a thesis or dissertation is an integral component of it, not a duplicate. Additionally, it has to go through a rigorous peer-review procedure, which introduces several distinctions between the article and your thesis. Nobody has the right to charge you for copying your own thesis for a journal article.
Likewise, you may prevent self-plagiarism by simply referencing your thesis/dissertation in the journal article. Additionally, you may utilize quotation blocks in areas where you have used the exact same material verbatim as your thesis.
In each of these circumstances, you should tell the publication that the piece came from your thesis. In addition, you should provide them with a copy of your thesis that includes all pertinent information, such as the location and date of its initial publication.
Maintaining transparency and open communication with your editor about these matters might work in your favor, as they may assist you to understand the protocols to follow in order to prevent any ethics issues that you may be unaware.
Thesis vs Journal Article
Before discussing how to generate a journal article from your thesis, it is critical to grasp the differences between a journal article and a thesis.
To begin with, the audience for the journal article and the thesis are different. For a thesis, the audience is the institutional committee that determines whether your thesis is of sufficient quality. Whereas the readers of a journal article are scientists or experts in the same field who are seeking for hypotheses backed up by facts and proof.
Additionally, students write thesis with the educational goal of earning a degree in mind. On the other hand, an academic paper/article published online is for accomplishing professional objectives such as establishing credibility, reputation, and recognition within the academic area.
The format of a thesis is significantly different from that of a journal article. As with everyone else, you must have incorporated in your thesis everything you understood about the subject. The objective of a thesis is to offer all available facts and evidence in order to demonstrate your understanding of a subject. In the case of journals, you must demonstrate your understanding of the subject in a more concise and clear manner.
How to Convert a Thesis Into a Journal Article
When writing your first article, it is critical to include a succinct literature review, calculating procedures and methodology section, relevant results and evidence, and a condensed discussion part.
You must begin writing your paper by gaining a knowledge of your audience and the queries they will have after reading your piece. Simply, you must understand your audience and the responses they anticipate from your post.
To develop your first journal article from your thesis, keep the themes described above in mind and go through information discussed below:
1. Word Count Restriction
It is self-evident and widely accepted that a journal article is significantly less in length than a thesis. While a thesis may have 8000–10,000 words and stretch 200+ pages, a journal article may contain no more than a few thousand words and span 5-7 pages.
As a result, you must carefully condense each piece. You should reduce the paragraphs to ensure that the essential meaning is not lost and that there is no repetition. You must choose the most critical issues and include them into your writing.
2. Abstract
The abstract serves as the gateway to your academic article. As a result, you must incorporate and express the topic’s most fascinating elements here, yet succinctly. You must curate it in accordance with the journal’s guidelines.
You must inquire and confirm if a structured or unstructured abstract is required. Additionally, there is an increasing tendency in graphic and video abstractions.
3. Introduction
While writing the introduction, you must highlight the gaps in your selected subject that prompted your study.
Following that, you must produce a succinct literature review that summarizes previous research and the new findings that you hope to discover. This part should contain a description of the research challenge and a background check on the subject.
4. Techniques
You must have gone into great depth in your thesis on your selected approaches and methodology. You cannot do the same thing with the journal article.
You should focus on the methodology section, particularly the experiments, surveys, and other methods you used. In journal papers, you are not required to provide a full overview of the study methods used.
5. Conclusions
You must keep in mind that a thesis must detail each result with extensive explanation, but a journal may merely include the results of the major discoveries.
As such, while writing the result sections, ensure that you include only those findings or outcomes that directly address the study question. Additionally, you must give real proof to support your findings. Additionally, full adherence to the rules for reporting outcomes is required.
6. Deliberation
The discussion part of a journal article gives a concise interpretation of the findings in order to demonstrate your grasp of the subject. Ensure that the discussion part of your journal paper is succinct and concise.
Bear in mind that by including a discussion section, you exhibit your interest in and guesses about the study topic’s future trajectory.
7. Bibliography
Do not just copy and paste your thesis’s reference or citation list into the article. You must include all references and citations consulted during the research process. You must ensure that the references you include in this section are pertinent to the issue.
Occasionally, academic publications impose limits on the number of references you may provide, so ask ahead of time about the quantity of references.
Conclusion
There are no rules that bar you from turning your thesis into a journal article. In fact, if you discuss this with your peers, they will urge you to follow through.
Simply bear in mind the distinction between a thesis and a journal article, as well as the function each plays in a particular environment, and you will be able to publish an article from your thesis with ease.
To be clear, the purpose of this guide is to point you in the right way when it comes to writing a journal article from a thesis or dissertation.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the publisher’s standards, or if you’re just puzzled and in need of assistance, don’t hesitate to contact us for help. We have professionals who are good in dissertations and journal articles, and they’re readily available to help.