Q. I’d like to submit my Thesis as a series of papers. What are my options?

If you are doing a PhD by Publication, the following are the general steps for submitting your portfolio to the Library for deposit:

• All Higher Degree Research theses must be submitted to the Graduate Research School (GRS) for examination.
• Once approved, the GRS will forward the approved PhD by Publication Portfolio and Right of Access to HDR Thesis form to the Library for deposit.
• The Portfolio and Right of Access form will be described and catalogued to be added to ResearchDirect.
• To increase the  discovery of your work, register with ORCID for an ORCID iD.

To submit a Thesis as a series of publications you don’t have to be the first author, however, it’s expected that you would have completed the bulk of the research and writing involved in any multi-authored publication i.e. 51% or more during your period of enrolment. Section J - Thesis of the Doctorate Policy, particularly clauses (96) and (97), will provide further information, as will the Library’s Copyright Relating to Higher Degree by Research Thesis page.

If the matter requires further investigation, please contact the University Copyright Officer. The University Copyright Officer will require the following information:

• Details of the HDR course in which you are currently enrolled.
• Your associated School.
• The focus of your PhD Thesis.

For the papers to be included in your Thesis:

• Titles of each paper.
• The journals in which you have published.
• The publishers for each paper.

General steps to publication:

1. Designed a research project based on your PhD subject.
2. Write an original manuscript called an Author’s Original Manuscript (AOM), which is the version of your article before you have submitted it to a journal for peer review. You would hold the copyright for the original manuscript.
3. Choose a journal to submit your original manuscript.
4. Submit your original manuscript to the journal for peer review. If your article is accepted, it becomes the Accepted Manuscript which is defined as “The version of a journal article that has been accepted for publication in a journal.” This version has been through the peer-review process and has been accepted by a journal editor.
5. The final, definitive, citable version of your paper, which has been copyedited, typeset, and the other things that publishers do, and which has metadata applied and been allocated a DOI (Digital Object Identifier like https://doi.org/10.1109/5.771073) is the final published version which is called Version of Record (VoR).
6.  Copyright for the Accepted Manuscript and Version of Record is decided by you and/or the publisher depending on their policies and which agreement you sign.
7.  You either choose a Transfer your Copyright Agreement or a Licence to Publish with the publisher where you may or may not hold copyright for your journal article depending on the publisher, or retain copyright by purchasing an Open Access Licence (typically  one of the six Creative Common Licence to publish the article).
8.  An Open Access Agreement usually has a processing fee which the publisher decides.
9.  Creative Commons Licences are copyright licences where you retain copyright and can choose what other people can do with your article.
10.  Different publishers have different guidelines, but the trend is towards publishing open access articles with publishers, or with known, but not predatory journals.

Third-Party Copyright content to be deposited in the Institutional repository

• If the publisher owns the copyright of your articles, you should seek written permission from them to deposit these articles in the Institutional repository.
• You should seek written permission from third-party copyright content owners to deposit third-party copyright content in the Thesis, in the institutional repository, e.g. images, tables, etc.
• Suppose you are unable to get permission to deposit the third-party copyright content in the repository. In that case, this content must be omitted, with a notation on the Right of Access form describing the removed content.