does a dissertation have to be published

/images/cornell/logo35pt_cornell_white.svg" alt="does a dissertation have to be published"> Cornell University --> Graduate School

Filter by category, are all dissertations published automatically with or without embargo.

Date: August 2017

Dear Deans,

Within the coming months, I hope to submit my dissertation to the Graduate School. On the Graduate School website, we are instructed to submit our work through the ProQuest system and (if I’m understanding correctly) also told that our work will be put in the online Cornell Library Repository, eCommons. Does this mean all Cornell dissertations are automatically published electronically, with or without embargo? If so, do we have the option to opt-out of online publishing?

Hoping to Submit Soon Graduate Student

Dear Hoping to Submit,

Congratulations on nearing the completion of your dissertation! This milestone represents the culmination of years of research and, no doubt, includes insight and knowledge that builds off other scholars in your field. Putting your original work into the public realm where it will both inspire future researchers and be subject to challenge is an integral part of graduate study at Cornell. All doctoral students are required to submit their dissertation to the national dissertation repository hosted by Proquest, as well as submit copies for both print and online circulation through Cornell’s library system, so that the works will be publicly available. The  Code of Legislation of the Graduate Faculty  includes this language on page 35:

Access, Distribution, and Publication

To ensure broad public access to doctoral dissertations, each doctoral candidate must sign a contract with ProQuest/University Microfilms, Inc. (U.M.I.), and pay the required fee. This fee covers filming the dissertation and publishing the abstract, as well as the cost of mailing and binding library copies.

No thesis or dissertation may be classified or otherwise restricted in circulation except in time  of national emergency on specific authorization of the General Committee.

There may be times when the content of a thesis or dissertation will be fully or partially published elsewhere, or includes patentable technology. In these cases, it’s possible to embargo the thesis/dissertation for a set period of time (one or two years, with possible extensions) while the patents or publications are finalized. When an embargo is requested only the abstract is made publicly available. It’s worth noting that authors retain the copyright to their works. You’ll also have options to make your dissertation available for sale, allow it to be included in Google Scholar, or order bound paper copies for your own use.

If you have any other questions please don’t hesitate to contact me or send a message to  [email protected] .

Jason Kahabka Associate Dean for Administration

Something went wrong. Wait a moment and try again.

The Difference Between a Published & Unpublished Dissertation

How to Locate PhD Dissertations

A dissertation is the main element in completion of a Ph.D. The central element of a doctoral dissertation, and the quality that differentiates it from a master's thesis or an undergraduate thesis, is that it must make an original contribution to its field, usually using primary research. The structure and content of a completed doctoral dissertation is often very different from the structure required for articles or books that are based on it.

Unpublished Dissertations

When a Ph.D. candidate completes her dissertation, this usually results in three or four copies: one each for the candidate, the dissertation supervisor, the university library and sometimes an archive. Unless a dissertation is subsequently published, these are the only copies that are ever created. What this means in practical terms is that unpublished dissertations are almost never widely read. The vast majority of dissertations serve their purpose of gaining a Ph.D. for their author and then fade into obscurity. If you write a dissertation that you want to have an impact, you will need to revise it and publish it in some form.

One of the easiest options for getting your research into published form is to revise a single chapter into an article for a peer-reviewed journal in your field. The difference between this article and an unpublished dissertation is clear: The article is present in a journal that is printed in thousands of copies and distributed to influential academics around the world. In most cases, the editors of the journal will want the form of the dissertation chapter reworked to some extent to make it more accessible to readers who are probably not experts in that particular subject matter.

Motivated dissertation authors often seek to have their dissertations published in book form. As with journal articles, books that are based on dissertations need to be reworked. This usually takes the form of downplaying the methodology and literature-review sections, cutting down on the density of footnotes and references and generally making the text more readable to non-specialists. A published book can get your name out in your academic field and to the world in general. Having a book and some published articles in your field will be helpful to you in advancing your academic career. Within academia, an unpublished dissertation is really nothing more than a prerequisite.

Online Publishing

The Internet has opened up tremendous new opportunities for academic publishing. While having your work accessible online doesn't carry the same weight with hiring committees as an article in a peer-reviewed journal, or better yet a book, it is an effective way to make yourself and your work known, as long as you get it published in the right places. Making contacts through online publishing can be an effective stepping stone toward breaking into journals and book publishing. It's also a useful way to get feedback from other academics about your work.

Related Articles

Referencing Your Own Knowledge in APA Format

How to write a humanities paper

How to Write a Dissertation Summary

Difference Between College-Level and Casual Writing?

The Purpose of a PhD

How to Do a Summary of a News Article

How to find credible web sources for a research paper.

How to Write a Microbiology Research Proposal

• University of California Berkeley/Graduate Division: Publishing Your Dissertation

Jagg Xaxx has been writing since 1983. His primary areas of writing include surrealism, Buddhist iconography and environmental issues. Xaxx worked as a cabinetmaker for 12 years, as well as building and renovating several houses. Xaxx holds a Doctor of Philosophy in art history from the University of Manchester in the U.K.

This website does not fully support Internet Explorer. For a better experience, please consider using a modern browser such as Chrome , Firefox , or Edge .

How Do I Publish My Dissertation?

At the end of the doctoral journey, graduates are encouraged to publish their dissertation. Publishing the dissertation enables graduates to advance their academic career and establish valuable connections that can open doors for collaborating on future projects.

Publication Options

The first thing to know when understanding the process is that there are several ways to do it, each having different advantages. Grand Canyon University’s Center for Innovation in Research and Teaching (CIRT) provides four ways to publish a dissertation.

This commercial service for full-text theses and dissertations allows authors to choose between restricted and open-access publication. As this is not an academic source, publishing with ProQuest may diminish the credibility of your dissertation. Be aware that prior publications may lead to the rejection future submissions of your dissertation manuscript.

Self-Publishing

You may consider self-publishing your content, using a self-publishing services and retaining all profits that come from printing and distributing the book. As with ProQuest publications, self-publishing may diminish credibility and make it difficult to submit work.

Book publication is an option for some students. Most research is suitable for academic journals, but it may be appropriate to publish the dissertation as a book if it contains a significant amount of original work.

Scholarly Journals

Journals are the most common route for publishing dissertation content. Publishing in a journal has the benefit of editorial or peer review, and the narrow focus of most journals usually enables authors to publish parts of their dissertation in multiple publications.

Publishing in a Journal

Academic journals are the most common choice for publishing a dissertation, so it is the most important process to understand. It is important to know which journal best fits your dissertation, become familiar with the journal’s guidelines and to carefully interpret feedback on your work.

Select a Journal

Academic journals have a great deal of variety, organizing content tailored to specific academic interests. Peer-reviewed journals are the most common. In peer-reviewed journals, editorial boards will ask experts to review each submission to filter out low-quality content that would damage the journal’s integrity.

Open access journals leave their content free, unrestricted and online for public view. The most common way to make an open access journal is by directly publishing content in a “gold” journal, which provides open access to its readers. Non-open access journals are the traditional route for publication. Non-open access journals require that readers purchase a subscription.

To help decide which journals work best, read previous issues to get a sense of the journal’s academic focus. Make sure that the scope and aims of the journal align with your target audience and research. Be careful to avoid “predatory” publishers who appeal specifically to researchers willing to pay to have their work published. CIRT recommends that graduates check Beall’s List of Predatory Journals, an online resource that lists publications to avoid.

Rework Your Dissertation

Once you have selected your journal, you will need to tailor your research. Familiarize yourself with the journal’s submission guidelines and then begin reading through your dissertation. Keeping organized is crucial here, and the best place to start is to summarize your dissertation in a separate document and eliminate unnecessary information. After cutting unnecessary content, re-organizing the material into a smooth and logical order will provide a guideline for rewriting your dissertation.

Writing Your Cover Letter

When the time comes to submit your work, the first impression that comes from your cover letter is the difference between publication and an immediate rejection. Closely follow the submission requirements, avoid jargon, be concise and do not include any information that that the journal does not ask for.

Revision and Resubmission

If you receive reviewer feedback in a letter from the editor, read these comments carefully and mark any suggested revisions on your manuscript. Keep track of each revision so that you can reference them when writing a response letter to the editor.

Make the revisions you agree with, and be prepared to address the ones you disagree with in your response letter. You should proofread and review your work again carefully before resubmitting. If the changes are accepted, you will receive a number a proof copies to proofread before final production.

Take the next step in your career with the College of Doctoral Studies at Grand Canyon University. Our doctorate programs, such as the DBA in Data Analytics , will prepare you to advance in your academic career and give you the resources to lead and innovate in your field. Learn more by visiting our website or clicking on the Request More Information Button at the bottom of this page.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Grand Canyon University. Any sources cited were accurate as of the publish date.

Loading Form

More About GCU

• Campus Experience
• Online Experience

Related Articles in Doctoral Journey

What Is a Conference Paper and How Is It Written?

All But Dissertation: What Is It?

DNP vs. PhD in Nursing: What’s the Difference?

This page has been archived and is no longer being updated regularly.

Degree In Sight

Publishing your dissertation

The process may seem daunting, but publishing your dissertation is doable if you follow some simple steps.

By Beth Azar

Although finishing your dissertation may be the final hurdle to completing your doctorate, getting it published may be an important step toward your career as a psychologist.

Indeed, academic psychologists are not the only ones expected to publish-research is increasingly a part of clinical positions, says University of Rochester Medical Center associate professor Robert Pollard Jr., PhD. And your dissertation may be the most logical place to start. Even if it's a small finding in a big field, your dissertation is probably a quality piece of work because it's been closely supervised by knowledgeable faculty, he notes. That doesn't mean it's going to be easy to winnow a traditional dissertation-averaging upward of 200 pages-to the lean 40 pages or less required by most journals.

Editing your dissertation means more than cutting out enough words to fit a journal's page-count.

"I can remember when I first thought about publishing my own dissertation," says Gary VandenBos, PhD, APA's publisher. "I was terrified. But the bottom line is, it's just work….It is not an overwhelming and impossible thing if you break it down into component pieces."

This process can be helped along if students think about publishing before they even start writing their dissertation, says Steven Yantis, PhD, director of graduate studies in Johns Hopkins University's department of psychological and brain sciences.

"I believe that the ultimate goal of publishing should be kept in mind so that the transformation from a dissertation format to a publishable piece is not a huge rewrite but a modest revision," he says.

And it's OK to pitch the idea of a short, pithy dissertation to your committee, says University of Victoria psychologist Steve Lindsay, PhD, editor of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General .

"The dissertation is a symbol of competence to work as an independent scholar," he says, "so its form should be that used by independent scholars."

If even after going through the process of preparing your dissertation for publication, it's not accepted, consider it part of the learning process, says University of Tennessee psychologist Gordon Burghardt, PhD, editor of Comparative Psychology .

"I often have manuscripts rejected," he says. "It's a learning experience. The important thing is not to lose heart and to listen to what the editors and reviewers are telling you, so you can get it right the next time."

Of course, even if you write your dissertation with publication in mind, you will still need to make major revisions to trim content and appeal to a broader audience than your doctoral committee.

Pollard provides a step-by-step guide for preparing a dissertation for publication in The Internet Journal of Mental Health (Vol. 2, No. 2). The first thing students need to realize, he says, is that editing your dissertation means more than cutting out enough words to fit a journal's page-count.

"The entire organization and thrust of the manuscript must be reconceptualized," he says.

VandenBos agrees. "The U.S. model trains the candidate in exactly the type of writing that journals do not want," he says. "Dissertation committees take a very inclusive approach, asking students to explain everything. In contrast, scholarly articles are very exclusive, excluding everything that isn't germane to the core topic."

Some institutions are turning away from this traditional model, allowing students to write several publishable articles that they then tie together with an overarching introduction and discussion, says VandenBos. Even then, many students have a considerable amount of work to do to transform their dissertation into a journal article, notes Pollard, who suggests taking a multipronged approach:

Select a journal. Many journals have their own style and submission requirements, so picking a journal and writing to its requirements from the get-go will save time, Pollard advises.

Through suggestions of mentors and peers, develop a list of potential journals, including some that may be outside your field but related in some way to your research. Pare your list down based on recommendations from your dissertation committee, says VandenBos.

Be realistic, but optimistic when choosing what level of journal to submit to, he says. "I usually recommend that, to start, students shoot about a half-notch higher than they or their committee members think their paper warrants," says VandenBos. "You have to be a little arrogant and pumped up."

Prune and prioritize content. Create a list of bullet points of your major facts and findings and select the most important ones by asking yourself: Does the reader really need to know this? Does the reader already know this? Is this so important that the reader needs to be reminded of it?

Selecting core findings was the hardest part for Simon Fraser University psychologist Deborah Connolly, PhD, who wrote a 200-plus-page "monster" for her dissertation at the University of Victoria.

"With all the analyses and all the detail, the simple take-home message was hard for even me to find," she says. "Today I would say to a student, you have to figure out the five most important points. If you want, you can order them all from most to least important, but start by just focusing on the top five."

If you can't find just five, you may want to break your dissertation into several different articles, says Burghardt. If there's a small finding that's particularly timely, students could even pull out the essential data and methods and write up an extremely concise research brief for some publication as prestigious as Science or Nature, he says.

Use simple, direct language. Even after editing, dissertations revised for publication tend to be too long, with wordy, passive sentences, and lots of formatting errors, including flip-flopping between "I" and "we" and mistakes with references, say journal editors. Those kinds of mistakes aren't going to win you any fans, says Burghardt. Connolly learned this firsthand. Editors of Child Development rejected her revised dissertation because it read too much like a cut down dissertation, she says. "It was too dense, too complicated and too difficult to follow."

Taking reviewer comments to heart, Connolly revised her writing style keeping things simple and focusing on only the most critical findings. Editors at Applied Cognitive Psychology accepted the rewritten article with almost no revisions.

Beth Azar is a writer in Portland, Ore.

The dissertation, start to finish

This article is the sixth in a six-part gradPSYCH guide to starting, researching, writing and publishing your dissertation.

Letters to the Editor

Published Dissertation or Thesis References

This page contains reference examples for published dissertations or theses.

Kabir, J. M. (2016). Factors influencing customer satisfaction at a fast food hamburger chain: The relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty (Publication No. 10169573) [Doctoral dissertation, Wilmington University]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.

Miranda, C. (2019). Exploring the lived experiences of foster youth who obtained graduate level degrees: Self-efficacy, resilience, and the impact on identity development (Publication No. 27542827) [Doctoral dissertation, Pepperdine University]. PQDT Open. https://pqdtopen.proquest.com/doc/2309521814.html?FMT=AI

Zambrano-Vazquez, L. (2016). The interaction of state and trait worry on response monitoring in those with worry and obsessive-compulsive symptoms [Doctoral dissertation, University of Arizona]. UA Campus Repository. https://repository.arizona.edu/handle/10150/620615

• Parenthetical citations : (Kabir, 2016; Miranda, 2019; Zambrano-Vazquez, 2016)
• Narrative citations : Kabir (2016), Miranda (2019), and Zambrano-Vazquez (2016)
• A dissertation or thesis is considered published when it is available from a database such as ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global or PDQT Open, an institutional repository, or an archive.
• If the database assigns publication numbers to dissertations and theses, include the publication number in parentheses after the title of the dissertation or thesis without italics.
• Include the description “Doctoral dissertation” or “Master’s thesis” followed by a comma and the name of the institution that awarded the degree. Place this information in square brackets after the dissertation or thesis title and any publication number.
• In the source element of the reference, provide the name of the database, repository, or archive.
• The same format can be adapted for other published theses, including undergraduate theses, by changing the wording of the bracketed description as appropriate (e.g., “Undergraduate honors thesis”).
• Include a URL for the dissertation or thesis if the URL will resolve for readers (as shown in the Miranda and Zambrano-Vazquez examples).
• If the database or archive requires users to log in before they can view the dissertation or thesis, meaning the URL will not work for readers, end the reference with the database name (as in the Kabir example).

This guidance has been revised from the 6th edition.

• Free Newsletters
• Enable Javascript to log in
• News & Views
• Student Success
• Teaching & Learning
• Letters to the Editor
• Career Advice
• Hire Faculty & Staff
• Reports & Data
• Become an Insider Log In My Dashboard
• The ‘Denaming’ of a Law School
• Skepticism at the Supreme Court
• ‘Collateral Damage’ of U.S. Guidance
• Did Title IX Complaint Lead to Suicide?
• The DeSantis Higher Ed Bill

• Admissions Insider
• Diversity Matters
• Events & People
• Capital Campaigns
• Community Colleges

Whose Dissertation Is It, Anyway?

Balking at a requirement to upload a copy of his doctoral thesis to an online database run by library services company ProQuest, one student pushes back.

Rob Schlesinger is not your typical college student. A lawyer who worked in higher education administration for more than 25 years, he decided to take time off from his day job two years ago to pursue a doctorate degree in education at Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y.

Getting an Ed.D. degree is a lifelong dream for Schlesinger. He defended his dissertation proposal, “Ethics Education in the Undergraduate Curriculum: An Action Research Analysis,” earlier this year. He said his experience at the college has been mostly positive, but it recently took an unexpected turn.

In an article published on the blog The Scholarly Kitchen last month, Schlesinger wrote of the shock he felt upon learning that all doctoral students at Manhattanville are required to submit their dissertations to an online database run by for-profit library services company ProQuest.

Schlesinger was even more surprised by the reaction he received from faculty members, administrators and fellow students when he voiced his objection to this policy.

“One would think that I was Oliver Twist asking for more porridge or I had said that I was writing my opus in crayon,” he wrote.

Requiring students to publish dissertations, particularly online, may put vulnerable students who have been victimized, threatened or stalked at risk, said Schlesinger. He believes it could also jeopardize the safety of people mentioned in the research, even if they are anonymized. ​

“My legal -- and moral -- concerns about this practice stem from the issues it raises with privacy and intellectual property rights, as well as contract law,” he said.

Aside from privacy concerns, Schlesinger believes that as the author of his dissertation, he should have the right to decide how his work is published and distributed. He also questions whether it is defensible under contract law for colleges to make the publication of a dissertation a degree requirement.

“My argument here is not against publishing online; rather, it is for giving dissertation authors -- the doctoral students themselves -- a say in the disposition of their work,” wrote Schlesinger.

Ray Harris, director of the law firm Fennemore Craig, said Schlesinger raises valid concerns about privacy, but Harris notes issues around anonymity in qualitative research can usually be identified and resolved early on through discussions about appropriate research design.

If the candidate and the university cannot reach agreement, then the candidate is left with a “Hobson’s choice” of risking harm or withdrawing from the degree program.

Harris expects that most universities would be willing to accommodate serious concerns about publishing students' work online because it is the right thing to do, and because of the liability risk institutions face if harm results from a publication.

“If the university insists on publication in exceptional circumstances where publication is objectively inappropriate, then I believe courts should deal with that situation under traditional contract doctrines,” he said.

The requirement for students to upload their doctoral theses to ProQuest is “bordering on universal” at U.S. institutions, said Rick Anderson, associate dean for collections and scholarly communications at the Marriott Library at the University of Utah.

“This practice amounts to outsourcing the digital archiving of locally produced theses and dissertations,” Anderson said in an email. By putting dissertations in a virtual space that is curated by another entity, institutions can free up institutional server space and staff time for other uses, he said.

“I don’t have a problem with this system being the default arrangement, but I think students should have the option to decline,” said Anderson. “A thesis or dissertation is the author’s original work, and it should be treated as such -- not institutional property. At the very least, if the institution is going to impose such a requirement on its graduate students, that fact should be made very clear before the student matriculates, and an agreement to that effect should be made in writing.”

Barbara Fister, a librarian at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota (who also blogs for Inside Higher Ed ) noted that this is not the first time scholars have voiced concern at the requirement to publish their work with ProQuest. In the past, scholars have been surprised to learn that their work was being sold by ProQuest through third-party retailers such as Amazon. ProQuest stopped selling dissertations on Amazon in 2014 following a number of complaints.

People forget that it is a long-standing practice for hard copies of doctoral theses to be made available in libraries for anyone to read, Fister said by email. “It’s public proof of your attainment of knowledge and your membership in the discipline. It was never controversial so far as I know,” she said.

When dissertations started to become widely available online, however, the situation changed. Some publishers became hesitant about publishing commercial books from authors who had recently published their doctoral thesis on the same topic, said Fister.

“Ownership per se is not at issue here. Authors retain copyright,” said Fister. “The issue is the nonexclusive right to distribute copies of a dissertation. ProQuest pays royalties on sales and dissertations may be embargoed, but that appears to be a decision made by institutions rather than individual authors or ProQuest.”

Jessica Horowitz, director of academic relations at ProQuest, said the company publishes dissertations and theses from more than 3,100 universities.

“The universities we work with set their own policies on publication requirements, and while we can’t give exact numbers, we find that many do require their students to publish with ProQuest,” she said in an email.

Publication with ProQuest benefits universities because it boosts the visibility of their graduate programs and makes their research widely available, said Horowitz.

“Most dissertation authors welcome the added visibility that dissemination through ProQuest offers,” she added.

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global, as the database is officially called, has been a designated off-site dissertation repository for the U.S. Library of Congress since 1999 . All dissertations sent to ProQuest become part of the official national collection.

ProQuest is committed to offering flexibility to authors, said Horowitz.

“Authors’ agreements are nonexclusive with ProQuest. Authors retain copyright and full control of their work and may submit it anywhere they wish,” she said. “ProQuest is governed by any embargo that the author or university places on a work and can, upon request, remove online works within 24 hours.”

After speaking with his advisers, Schlesinger was granted an exception to the requirement to publish with ProQuest. He has encouraged other students to request the same but said none have yet done so.

Students should be made aware of the requirement to publish with ProQuest at the beginning of their studies, said Schlesinger. He also objected to the college encouraging students to have their work professionally edited to meet ProQuest’s standards, which he considers an unfair and costly expense.

Schlesinger said he objected to publishing his work online because it hampered the ability of his research interviewees to speak openly with him. When he shared this concern, his supervisors suggested he was “not masking his data well enough.” He argued it is often very easy to unmask anonymous sources in educational research, particularly if they are identified as college presidents or deans.

By not publishing online, Schlesinger is not saying he doesn’t want others to benefit from his research. In fact, he wants the opposite.

“For practitioners, dissertations and journal articles aren’t that helpful,” he said. “If I identify useful information in my dissertation, I want to boil it down into articles and practice guides that will likely be much more widely read.”

Manhattanville's School of Education has since revised its dissertation policy to say that “should a student appeal electronic filing, then a bound copy would be required.”

Tracy Muirhead, interim vice president for institutional advancement at Manhattanville, said in an email that filing with ProQuest is "not a graduation requirement" but doctoral students are "very strongly encouraged to use the electronic filing option."

She said the college's doctoral faculty members will be discussing the issues raised by Schlesinger at an upcoming retreat. But faculty members generally support uploading dissertations to ProQuest and believe it "helps to share with others, both externally and internally, the research that Manhattanville doctoral students have undertaken."

While he is happy he doesn't have to publish his dissertation online, Schlesinger said he wants the college to make it clearer to other students that they also have the option to make an appeal. Many students are still under the impression that filing with ProQuest is mandatory, he said.

"I can see the argument for encouraging students to publish their dissertations on ProQuest, and have spoken with several faculty members who believe that it is a really good thing for the students' careers," said Schlesinger. "But to gloss over the situation does not do the issue, or the college itself, justice."

Share Article

Lindsay mckenzie, inside higher ed careers.

• Faculty Jobs
• Administrative Jobs
• Executive Administration Jobs
• Jobs Outside Higher Education

Browse Faculty Jobs

• Arts & Humanities
• Engineering & Mathematics
• Health & Medical
• Professional Fields
• Science & Technology
• Social Sciences
• Technical & Vocational Fields

Browse Administrative Jobs

• Academic Affairs
• Institutional & Business Affairs
• Student Affairs

Browse Executive Administration Jobs

• C-Level & Executive Directors
• Other Executive Administration
• Presidents & Chancellors
• Vice Presidents

Browse Jobs Outside Higher Education

• Businesses & Consultants
• Government Agencies
• Museums & Cultural Organizations
• Non-Profit Organizations & Associations
• Public Policy
• Publishers & Presses
• Other Jobs Outside Higher Education
• Research & Development
• Software & Technology

Trending Stories

• Amid pushback, U.S. delays guidance on outsourcing
• Skepticism abounds at Supreme Court hearing on debt relief
• Student survey reveals gaps in core academic advising functions
• University of California system bans fully online degrees
• ChatGPT can help students and faculty with ADHD (opinion)

Resources for faculty and staff from our partners at Times Higher Education.

• Hear this: a guide to writing an academic English listening test
• Introduce coaching principles into your work in four easy steps
• How to create university-wide timetables using free, open-source software
• Supervising neurodiverse postgraduate researchers
• It’s worth rethinking how we engage graduates – they can be teaching gold

Most Shared Stories

• President mulls firing complainers after end to Faculty Senate
• New gallon drinking trend takes off at college campuses
• Provost makes bestiality joke, reacting to concern for LGBTQ faculty
• Frustrated DEI staff are leaving their jobs
• A professor's job is endangered for teaching about race

You may also be interested in...

• Temple yanks health care, tuition benefits from strikers
• St. Joseph’s Cuts 4 Programs Acquired in Merger
• Burnout and Well-Being for Health-Care Faculty: Academic Minute

Today’s News from Inside Higher Ed

Inside Higher Ed’s Quick Takes

New college of florida trustees ax dei office, d.c. higher ed leaders propose gun violence solutions, nyc comptroller urges yeshiva u to recognize lgbtq group, ore. lawmaker seeks sexual misconduct survey for all colleges, new report on the resilience of puerto rican universities, students hold protests of connecticut college president.

Revising Your Dissertation for Publication

While a dissertation’s in-depth research and analysis can provide a strong foundation for a book, the dissertation itself is not a book and will not be published by an academic press without substantial revisions. Some acquisitions editors are interested first books, especially if they bring new perspectives and fresh ideas to a field, while others do not often publish first books. If you are considering submitting your dissertation for publication, we recommend that you contact editors at university presses that publish in your subject area for guidance on revising your work. Many editors prefer to be involved in the early stages of this process so they can advise you on how to structure the book and your arguments to create a publishable book. Editors generally require changes in the length, content, tone, and style of a dissertation in order to produce a book that will appeal to buyers in the academic market. Read more about submitting a proposal in our Scholarly Publishing Guide .

Below are selected resources to help you revise your dissertation for publication as a book or journal article(s).

Advice from publishers

• Harvard University Press
• Palgrave Macmillan
• Rowman & Littlefield
• Taylor & Francis
• University of North Carolina Press
• Yale University Press
• Publisher Policies on using content in both a thesis or dissertation and an article (from MIT Libraries)
• From Dissertation to Book by William Germano (Lauinger Library, 4th Floor, PN162 .G37 2013)
• Revising Your Dissertation, Updated Edition : Advice from Leading Editors (updated edition, 2008) edited by Beth Luey (online; GU NetID and password required)
• From Dissertation to Book , Duke University (February 27, 2018)
• From Dissertation to Book ( full transcript ), Harvard University (December 17, 2010)
• How To Turn Your Dissertation into a Book , Yale University (April 6, 2016)
• From Dissertation to Book by Leonard Cassuto (Chronicle of Higher Education, May 30, 2011)
• From Dissertation to Published Book (lanugageandphilosophy.com report on an American Comparative Literature Association workshop)
• Give It a Rest by Laura Portwood-Stacer (Inside Higher Ed, August 6, 2019)
• The Stages of Revising a Dissertation into a Book by Amy Benson Brown (Journal of Scholarly Publishing, vol. 52 no. 2, 2021, p. 127-140) (GU NetID and password required)
• Turning Your Dissertation into a Book (University of Washington)
• Publishing your Dissertation (American Psychological Association)

• University of Michigan Library
• Research Guides

Copyright for Dissertations

• Publishing Your Dissertation
• Using Others' Content
• Copyright in Your Dissertation

Copyright Questions?

The University of Michigan Library Copyright Office provides help with copyright questions for University of Michigan faculty, staff and students. Please email us with questions or visit our website for more information.

Legal Advice

The information presented here is intended for informational purposes and should not be construed as legal advice. If you have specific legal questions pertaining to the University of Michigan, please contact the Office of the General Counsel .

If you require legal advice in your personal capacity, the lawyer referral services operated by the Washtenaw County Bar Association and the State Bar of Michigan may be helpful to you.

Preparing for Publication

Norms around publishing dissertation material vary from one field to another. For instance, in some scientific fields, it is common to publish individual chapters from the dissertation before it is submitted. In the humanities, it is common to develop a monograph from the dissertation after completing the graduate degree.

Whether you publish before or after submitting your dissertation, it is important to plan ahead when signing publishing contracts or submitting your dissertation. Will the publishing contract you sign allow you to use the article in your dissertation later? How does depositing your dissertation in Deep Blue impact this? Can you use material that you've coauthored in your dissertation or thesis? For questions about the norms in your field, talk with your advisors. With copyright questions, contact the library copyright office.

If you are about to sign a publishing agreement, consider using the U-M Author's Addenda , which may help you negotiate and keep the rights you need in your work.

From Dissertation to Book

Thinking about transforming your dissertation into your first book? Hardly any dissertations are published as books without significant work on the author's part to refocus the manuscript for an audience beyond the dissertation committee.

Here are a few resources to help you understand the process of reworking a dissertation for publication as a monograph:

• Dear First-Time Author: How to Turn Your Dissertation Into a Book, by Theresa MacPhail MacPhail shares advice from writing her own first book as well as advice from editors at university presses.

In reading some of the resources listed above, you might encounter discussions of how having your dissertation available online (for example, in  Deep Blue ) could negatively impact a publisher's willingness to look at your manuscript. Some authors assert that you should not put your dissertation online if you hope to sign a publishing contract. However, please note there is very little evidence to support this view. In fact, research has shown that publishers will indeed consider manuscripts that are revised versions of openly-accessible dissertations.

• Do Open Access Electronic Theses and Dissertations Diminish Publishing Opportunities in the Social Sciences and Humanities? Findings from a 2011 Survey of Academic Publishers, by Ramirez, et al.