publication of thesis as book

How to... Convert your thesis into a book

This how to guide takes you through everything you need to know to convert your thesis into a book.

You can read all the information you need below, or watch this video from Books Commissioning Editor, Katy Mathers.

Consider the audience

Tips for converting your thesis

What happens next?

Your first consideration when thinking about book publishing options for your thesis should be the level of conversion. You could consider the following options.

A full conversion – from thesis to book

This is a good option should your thesis be on a topic that would have wide appeal to an academic audience. A key consideration here is that the structure of a thesis is massively different to a book. Rather than starting with a hypothesis, a book should showcase a considered argument and its narrative should communicate that argument to peers in the field – demonstrating how the research has evolved into this viewpoint, and what impact it can have.

Partial conversion – using parts of your thesis in a book

Using parts of your thesis in a book usually means that you are conducting further research that might be ongoing, and might involve colleagues that might be a co-author on the project.

Partial conversion – a chapter in an edited collection

Perhaps your thesis doesn’t quite have the broad appeal for a full book conversion. In this case you might consider a chapter in an edited collection under a broader theme – this means you’re broadening the scope of your PhD research to a wider audience by collaborating with a team of contributors on an edited book. Look out for calls for chapters on relevant themes.

What are publishers looking for?

Broad (global) scholarly appeal.

Remember your thesis is written for a handful of examiners and experts in your field and is partly there to demonstrate the expertise you have gained from your research. A book should have a much wider audience than that, and should be engaging and interesting enough to appeal to a broad section of researchers across your field (and potentially other disciplines as appropriate), and should particularly be accessible enough to engage any researcher interested in your topic of study.
Single-country case studies won’t always translate well into a book given their focused scope, however, they would work as part of an edited collection with a broader global scope.
A good book manuscript should focus on a coherent argument/narrative, rather than a step-by-step checklist of things you need to demonstrate in a thesis.
You don’t need to include big sections or whole chapters on literature review or methodology, these can be weaved into the book as and when appropriate.

Development potential

An original thesis should be regarded as the basis for an entirely new work, written with a new audience in mind.

Talking about your research and the process of working it into a book is one of the best ways to ensuring success.

Try reaching out to your immediate colleagues, and co-authors on published papers, your PhD supervisor, peers you might meet at conferences, with a publishing contact, or even online. Try asking for advice on twitter, or any professional network sites.

It is advisable to start a conversation with supervisors and other colleagues shortly after the completion of a PhD.

Once you’ve started to get a good idea of what you want to do, it’s also a great time to reach out to a commissioning editor at a publisher. They can advise on further considerations for turning your thesis into a book with a broad scholarly appeal, as well as how to fill in a book proposal form.

Following this, the next natural step is to submit a book proposal which will be considered by the publisher, often involving a peer review process.

The single most important thing to remember when converting your thesis is the audience. Your thesis is written for a select amount of examiners with specific expertise in your field and showcases your nuanced and rich expertise, which you have gleaned from your research in your particular area.

In contrast, a book should have a much wider audience and should be engaging and interesting enough to appeal to a broad section of researchers across your field, and potentially even other disciplines as appropriate.

As a book, your research should be accessible enough to engage any researcher interested in your topic of study.

Realise which parts of your thesis are useful only to examiners. Any sections such as literature review, or extended methodology discussion should be cut or heavily amended/digested. These sections can weave in and out of your overall narrative rather than be structured separately.
Writing style is less important for examiners, but essential for book readers. PhD examiners will read your thesis regardless of the writing style, but the writing style for book readers is essential for ensuring your research is accessible and engaging. You must be prepared to extensively re-write your thesis to retain and engage readers. This should be seen as essential rather than optional.
Keep the big picture in mind. It’s important to take a step back while putting together a proposal, or during the manuscript writing process. Set reminders at intervals to focus on the overall narrative of the book. Is there a logical development of an argument? Does it make sense to a reader’s point of view? If not , be prepared to rethink the structure – it can be freeing to step away from a traditional thesis structure.
Write concisely. It’s important to bear in mind the importance of the reader’s time. At all stages of the writing process you should focus on streamlining where possible and keep in mind the agreed length of the book. Books are often much shorter than theses, which by their nature contain much repetition. If you’re finding it hard to meet the agreed word limit, your writing style is likely not quite right yet for a book audience.
Emphasise context. If your research is specialist and nuanced, with a narrow scope, try boosting its contextual implications by adding an international or inter-disciplinary context. It’s particularly useful to do this within the introductory and concluding chapters. Rounding off your book with opening and closing contextual chapters can really emphasise the place of the research within the field and showcase how it’s adding to the literature or breaking fresh ground.
Get a third party proof-reader. Consider getting someone within your field, perhaps without the specialist knowledge relating to your PhD knowledge, and see what they think of your writing style. If they can follow your argument and find value in the work you’re presenting for the wider field, then the book has good potential. If they’re struggling, you might need to re-think the project.

Top tips for converting your thesis

The main title of the book should position it clearly without reference to other bibliographic information, and should be as short as possible.
Chapter titles are something people often forget, and chapter titles can sometimes be a real giveaway in a proposal that a book is based on a thesis and maybe hasn’t been revised appropriately. It’s often a comment reviewers make, and a clear sign to them that the proposal is a thesis conversion. Chapter titles can be way more dynamic in a book than in a thesis, and there’s no need to have chapters called 'methodology' or 'results'. Freeing yourself from these structured ways of thinking can be liberating, and is a good way of diverting yourself from writing in a thesis style.
Remember that readers of the book are most interested in what your findings/argument are. Think about leading your book with the 'end' of your thesis, i.e. the results/answer to the question you were researching, rather than starting by explaining how you got there.
You don’t need to include big sections or whole chapters on literature review or methodology, these can be weaved in to the book as and when appropriate (particularly if your research employed an innovative methodology, for example).
A book manuscript should typically be shorter than your thesis. If you’re struggling to bring the word count down, you might need to get help with your writing style, or evaluate if you’ve cut enough “thesis-heavy” content from your work.
Use introductory and concluding chapters to contextualise your research. This is super helpful for placing your work within the field.

To summarise

Be prepared to re-write: Having sketched out a new structure and focus, you now have to start writing all over again to create a completely new work. You should accept this as a must for success, and enjoy the creative process that comes with it.

Remove academic structuring: Ordinary readers want you to get straight to the point, Anything that sounds like "In this chapter I will argue . . ." or "In this chapter I have shown . . ." should be deleted immediately.

Audience is the most important consideration. Re-organise your writing around your new audience – remember that concise, narrative-led writing is essential.

Re-focus on the storytelling. Any background material (such as surveys of previous literature, historical background, discussions of earlier and current theories, arguments, methodology, etc.) if retained at all, should be moved from the beginning to the end of the book, or incorporated in a condensed form into the relevant sections of the main text. From start to finish, you should begin with an answer rather than a question, and your argument should be maintained throughout.

Once you’ve formed an idea for your book project, it’s a good time to talk to a commissioning editor at a publisher about submitting a proposal.

Get ready to publish a book

See a list of our book commissioning editors, along with their subject areas and contact information.

Submit your book proposal

Find out how submit a book or series proposal and what the next steps in the publishing process are.

The book peer review process

A helpful guide to our book peer review process.

Insights blog

Turning your PhD into a successful book

Requests regularly arrive in the Author Services inbox asking for advice about turning PhD research into journal articles or books. In this guide, first posted on the  LSE Impact Blog , Terry Clague, a Senior Publisher at Routledge gives his advice and insight into what publishers are looking for when they receive new book proposals.  

Research conducted as part of a PhD is valuable. It is valuable for the researcher, who has spent countless hours carrying out the work and it is valuable to those deciding whether the research should result in the award of a PhD qualification. But can the research be valuable to broader audiences? The simple answer is yes – at the heart of many successful academic books lies research conducted as part of a PhD.

What options to consider when turning your PhD into a book

In the majority of cases, PhD research is published in the form of journal articles. In some cases, the research is published in a book. Between either end of that publishing spectrum there is an array of options to consider when it comes to disseminating PhD research:

Converting the entire PhD thesis into a book  requires that your thesis covers a topic of interest to a large enough audience of scholars. Whereas a thesis starts with a question, a book begins with an answer and communicates its importance in the wider research landscape, tracing its evolution and impact.

Using parts of a PhD thesis in a book  requires that ongoing and/or collaborative research is being conducted. A book (perhaps co-authored) should be greater than the sum of its constituent parts.

Using an aspect of a PhD thesis in an edited book  on a broader topic ensures that the research fits with related research on a similar theme. A good edited book addresses the need to broaden the scope of PhD-based research via collaborating with a team of contributors.

Splitting a PhD thesis into several articles  for journals hedges a PhD’s bets by staking smaller amounts of the work in different locations. What is gained by this hedging may be lost in the overall narrative of the PhD research as it is unbundled.

What publishers look for when deciding whether to take you on

The role of the book publisher is to connect authors with readers. When it comes to disseminating research originating from a PhD, this relationship is essential. It is therefore useful to consider the perspective of the publisher when considering what publication route to take. In assessing a proposal for a research-level book, a good publisher will initially ask themselves three questions:

Is the  scope  of the research broad enough to be of interest to our readers (scholars globally)? Example

Is the  quality  sufficiently high?

Can the work be  developed  via feedback from experts as part of the book review process to address any weaknesses?

Post information

Submitting a book proposal

It is useful to start a conversation with an acquisitions/commissioning editor at an early stage toward the end or shortly after the completion of a PhD. Discussions with supervisors and other colleagues are also very useful at this stage. The next natural step is to submit a book proposal which will be considered by the publisher, often involving a peer review process. Research-level books are often published as part of an established series – an awareness of existing books in such series can be useful when it comes to framing and developing a book proposal.

Vector illustration of two characters either side of a laptop with their arms in the air. A lightbulb is rising from the laptop.

Preparing your final manuscript for book publication

Following a review process, the publisher’s editorial board would give final approval to proceed, following which a book contract would be issued. Armed with publisher and review feedback, the author can then proceed to produce a full manuscript based on their PhD research. Each book is different, but there are numerous key aspects to consider when preparing a final manuscript for book publication. Above all, never lose sight of the audience:

A thesis is written for examiners, a book for scholars in general . Anything that is useful only for examiners (e.g. literature review, methodology discussion) should be cut or heavily amended/digested.

Examiners will work through text regardless of the writing style, book readers will not . Therefore, it is likely that extensive re-writing will be required to retain and engage readers.

Take a step back . Think about the overall narrative of the book and be prepared to rethink the structure – this can be liberating!

Value the reader’s time . Streamline where possible – theses by their nature contain much repetition. Keep in mind the agreed length of the book.

Contextualize . If research is of a narrow scope, add international or inter-disciplinary context, particularly within the introductory and concluding chapters.

Sharing your research

Vector illustration showing a line of people handing each other discs with hearts, hashtags and speech bubbles, leading up to a smartphone with graphs showing on the display.

Finally, talking about your research and the process of working it into a book can be an essential ingredient to its success. This can be done with your immediate colleagues, at conferences and with a publisher. It can also be done online – with  social media a useful tool  to tap into wider networks as well as to test ideas out.

Where to next?

If you’ve found these tips helpful make sure you look at:

Our Insights newsletter – the latest news, tips, and resources delivered straight to your inbox.

Share this post on social

9 Effective Tips for Publishing Thesis As a Book

While they may look alike, a thesis is not a book! The process of publishing thesis as a book is different right from its conception to completion. Created with an intent to target a specific audience, a thesis differs from a book in multiple aspects. Although your thesis topic would surely be relevant to your field of study, it perhaps, can be of interest to a wider audience. In such a case, your thesis can be turned into a book .

In this article, we will shed some light on the possible ways of publishing your thesis as a book .

Table of Contents

What is the Difference Between a Thesis and a Book?

Researchers spend years working on their thesis. A thesis focuses on the research conducted, and is thus published as journal articles . However, in some cases, it may also be published as a book for a wider readership. While both thesis and book writing require effort, time, and are equally longer versions of documents, they are different in several ways.

A thesis always begins with a question or hypothesis. On the other hand, a book begins with a series of reflections to grab the reader’s attention. To a certain extent, it could be said that while the thesis starts with a question, the book starts with an answer.
Another major difference between the two is their audience. The content of a thesis, as well as its format and language is aimed at the academic community. However, since the book is written with an intent to reach out to wider audience, the language and format is simpler for easy comprehension by non-academic readers as well.
Furthermore, thesis is about documenting or reporting your research activities during doctorate; whereas, a book can be considered as a narrative medium to capture the reader’s attention toward your research and its impact on the society.

How to Turn a Thesis into a Book?

The structure of your thesis will not necessarily be similar to the structure of your book. This is primarily because the readership is different and the approach depends on both the audience as well as the purpose of your book. If the book is intended as a primary reference for a course, take the course syllabus into account to establish the topics to be covered. Perhaps your thesis already covers most of the topics, but you will have to fill in the gaps with existing literature.

Additionally, it may be so that you want your book to be a complementary reference not only for one course, but for several courses with different focuses; in this case, you must consider different interests of your audience.

The layout of most thesis involve cross-references, footnotes, and an extensive final bibliography. While publishing your thesis as a book , eliminate excessive academic jargon and reduce the bibliography to reference books for an ordinary reader.

Key Factors to Consider While Publishing Your Thesis as a Book

Purpose of the book and the problems it intends to solve
A proposed title
The need for your proposed book
Existing and potential competition
Index of contents
Overview of the book
Summary of each book chapter
Timeline for completing the book
Brief description of the audience and the courses it would cover

With all of this in mind, here are 9 steps to successfully turn your thesis into a book .

9 Steps to Successfully Publish Your Thesis as a Book!

1. Establish Your Target Audience

Based on the topic of your thesis, determine the areas that may potentially rise interest in your book’s audience. Once you establish your target audience, figure out the nature of book they would like to read.

2. Determine the Objective of Your Book

Reflect on the scope of your book and the impact it would have on your target audience. Perhaps it can be used as a textbook or supplementary for one or more courses. Visualize what the reach of your book may be; if it is a book with an identified local market, an interest that arose in your educational institution, which can be traced to other similar institutions, or if it can have a national or even international reach.

3. Identify Your Competition

Find out which books are already on the market, what topics they cover, what problems do they solve, etc. Furthermore, ask yourself what would be the advantage of your book over those that already exist.

4. Define the Structure of Your Book

If the book is written as part of a curriculum, use that program to define its structure. If it covers several programs, make a list of topics to focus on individually and sequence them in an order based on educational criteria or interest for the potential reader.

5. Identify Potential Publishers

Search for publishers in your country or on the web and the kind of books they publish to see if there is a growing interest in the book you are planning to develop. Furthermore, you can also look at self-publishing or publishing-on-demand options if you already have a captive audience interested in your work.

6. Plan a Schedule

Based on the structure of your book, schedule your progress and create a work plan. Consider that many topics are already written in your thesis, you will only have to rewrite them and not have to do the research from scratch. Plan your day in such a way that you get enough time to fill in technical or generic gaps if they exist.

7. Follow a Writing Style

The writing style depends on the type of book and your target audience. While academic writing style is preferred in thesis writing, books can be written in simpler ways for easy comprehension. If you have already spoken to an interested publisher, they can help in determining the writing style to follow. If you’re self-publishing, refer to some competitor books to determine the most popular style of writing and follow it.

8. Incorporate Visual Aids

Depending on the subject of your book, there may be various types of visual and graphic aids to accentuate your writing, which may prove lucrative. Give due credit to images, diagrams, graphical representations, etc. to avoid copyright infringement. Furthermore, ensure that the presentation style of visual aids is same throughout the book.

9. Review Your Draft

Your supervisor and the advisory council review and refine you thesis draft. However, a book must be proofread , preferably by someone with a constructive view. You can also use professional editing services or just go ahead with an excellent grammar checking tool to avoid the hassle.

Do you plan on publishing your thesis as a book ? Have you published one before? Share your experience in the comments!

good article

Hello. Nice to read your paper. However, I fell on your article while browsing the net for the exact opposite reason and I think you can equally give me some insights. I am interested, as I earlier said, on how to transform my book into a thesis instead, and how I can defend it at an academic level. I am writing a research work on financial digital options trading and have done a lot of back testing with technical analysis that I explain, to rake thousands of dollars from the financial markets. I find the technical analysis very peculiar and would like to defend this piece of work as a thesis instead. Is it possible? Please you can reply me through e:mail thanks

Rate this article Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Enago Academy's Most Popular Articles

Types of Essays in Academic Writing - Quick Guide (2024)

Reporting Research

Academic Essay Writing Made Simple: 4 types and tips

The pen is mightier than the sword, they say, and nowhere is this more evident…

AI in Academia
Trending Now

Simplifying the Literature Review Journey — A comparative analysis of 5 AI summarization tools

Imagine having to skim through and read mountains of research papers and books, only to…

Research Recommendations – Guiding policy-makers for evidence-based decision making

Research recommendations play a crucial role in guiding scholars and researchers toward fruitful avenues of…

Promoting Research

Concept Papers in Research: Deciphering the blueprint of brilliance

Concept papers hold significant importance as a precursor to a full-fledged research proposal in academia…

8 Effective Strategies to Write Argumentative Essays

In a bustling university town, there lived a student named Alex. Popular for creativity and…

Facing Difficulty Writing an Academic Essay? — Here is your one-stop solution!

Role of an Abstract in Research Paper With Examples

How Can You Create a Well Planned Research Paper Outline

What Is a Preprint? 5 Step Guide to Successfully Publish Yours!

Sign-up to read more

Subscribe for free to get unrestricted access to all our resources on research writing and academic publishing including:

2000+ blog articles
50+ Webinars
10+ Expert podcasts
50+ Infographics
10+ Checklists
Research Guides

We hate spam too. We promise to protect your privacy and never spam you.

Translators
Graphic Designers

Please enter the email address you used for your account. Your sign in information will be sent to your email address after it has been verified.

How to Turn Your Dissertation Into a Book: A Step-By-Step Guide for New Authors

Whether you are just starting graduate school, writing your dissertation, or the proud recipient of a recent Ph.D., you may be thinking about turning your dissertation into a published book. There are many reasons why this might be a good idea. In some fields, a published scholarly book is a preferred method for presenting a comprehensive view of pivotal research. A book gives you the space to discuss details, complications, connections, and ramifications in a way that is not possible in a journal article. In these fields, a well-reviewed book gives you instant credibility when applying for faculty positions, tenure, and related positions. A published book also has a much longer shelf life than an unpublished dissertation, and will occupy a respected place on your CV or resume for years to come.

In other fields, good dissertations are expected to produce one or more published journal articles, and many tenured faculty at top research institutions never publish a book. In these fields, publishing a book may still be an asset for those pursuing a traditional academic career, and can be a great way to transition into other careers such as science communication, education, or public policy. So if turning your dissertation into a book is something you are considering, here are some steps to get started.

Step 1: Identify your audience

Publishers are businesses that make money by selling books. This is true of "trade" publishers that sell books for the general public, and "academic" publishers that sell books primarily for students and scholars. Therefore, in order for a publisher to consider publishing your book, there must be a sufficiently large audience to buy your book. This audience will strongly influence how you organize and write your book, and may cause your book to be massively different from your dissertation. After all, the purpose of a dissertation is to show that you are knowledgeable about your field of study, and have made a significant contribution to it. In contrast, the purpose of a book is to serve a need for the reader.

Some dissertation topics may work well as required reading for college and university courses. In that case, you need to identify the types of courses that would be appropriate (e.g. courses in sociology that cover gender identity), and develop an understanding of how many students take such courses. For example, you might find that almost all colleges in the California State system have a sociology department. At California State AnyTown, there are 20,000 undergraduate students, and 400 students a year take a sociology course that focuses on gender identity. Other dissertation topics might appeal to people in specific professions (e.g. people who work with children who suffer concussions), and you might look at the number of people in relevant professional organizations (e.g. associations for coaches or pediatric nurses). At the other end of the spectrum, you might imagine a book that appeals to a fairly wide audience (e.g. a book that addresses recent events linked to gender identity, or a broader discussion of concussion in youth sports). For these books, the intended audience may be harder to define, so you can estimate its size in the next step.

Step 2: Identify competing books

Once you have identified a potential audience, you need to familiarize yourself with the books they are reading. Your book will be competing with these books, so you need to determine how your book will fill a gap for this audience. Here you have the opportunity—and the obligation—to read widely in your intended niche. If this opportunity doesn't excite you, do not try to write a book for this niche. The process of writing a good book is laborious and time consuming, so if you are not interested in exploring similar books for what works and what doesn't, you will not enjoy writing your own book for this category.

As you identify and read competing books, you should pay attention to the topics that they cover, and how the author writes about these topics. Consider whether the text is instructive or narrative, what details are included, how the text is organized, and whether visual aids such as photographs, diagrams, or tables are included. Also find out when the book was published, how long it is, how much it sells for, and how many copies have been sold (or at least what its Amazon sales rank is).

You may find books that are very similar to your book, or that are different in significant ways (such as the specific topic) but that have characteristics you want to emulate (e.g. a good strategy for presenting technically challenging research to a broad audience). As you gain a good understanding of related books, you'll need to develop a list of 3-10 books that will compete with your book. You will use this list to support two points:

Books similar to your book have been successful with your intended audiences; and
Your book fills an unmet need for this audience, so they will buy it.

That unmet need might be a more recent book that incorporates new knowledge, or a book that takes a different approach to a question that has already been addressed.

This survey of related books will also help you plan your book. If you find that multiple books already exist for your intended topic, you may need to shift your emphasis so that your book offers something new. If you find that there are few successful competing books, it may be that your intended audience is too small, and that you need to shift your emphasis to fit into a more productive niche.

Step 3: Create an outline for your book

Once you have an intended audience, an excellent understanding of successful books in the same category, and an idea for how you can fill a need in that category, you can start planning your book in detail. Put together an outline, starting with the major topic for each chapter, and thinking about how the overall theme will progress through the entire book. Even for a purely academic book, there must be an overall arch to your story.

While it may be tempting to slip into the same mindset that you used for planning and writing your dissertation, remember that the purpose of your book is to serve a need for the reader. So rather than focusing on your specific research contributions (which is essential for a dissertation), focus on what the reader needs to know. To facilitate this mindset, it may be useful to put away your dissertation for a bit (assuming that it is already complete) and focus on other projects. Then revisit your dissertation topic when you have fresh eyes and a better understanding of what would be useful for your intended audience.

As you flesh out the details for each chapter, set a target word count and think about any images or tables that should be included. Keep in mind that book publishers must pay for every page, image, and footnote to be edited, prepared, and printed. Books that are only available electronically still have most of these per-page expenses. Therefore, use successful books in your category as a guide for how long your book should be, and how many images should be included. Color images also add significantly to the production costs .

As you are preparing your outline, you will likely reach a point where you are unsure if the details of your plan will work. Then it is time to write.

Step 4: Write a sample chapter

If you want a publisher or agent to consider your book, you will typically need to submit a sample chapter or two. You may be asked to submit your first chapter or your "best" chapter, so I recommend starting with your first chapter and making it excellent.

While there are many different approaches to successful writing, one common theme is that the first draft is usually terrible. So write the first draft of your first chapter and let it be terrible. Then read and revise, and repeat. As you are writing and revising, I recommend regularly taking time to read some of your competing titles. How do they deal with some of the challenges you are facing? Are their approaches successful or can you envision a better way?

As you write your first chapter or two, you may find that you need to revise your outline. Pay attention to what you can effectively cover for your audience in the space available.

Step 5: Identify appropriate publishers or agents

Once you have a strong plan and a sample chapter or two, you need to identify potential publishers. Start by looking at your list of competing titles, and learn about those publishers. Also talk to colleagues who have published books, and ask if they would be willing to put you in contact with their publisher or agent. The process can be quite complicated, and for a comprehensive guide I recommend The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published by Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry. Many publishers also post guidelines for potential authors on their websites. For most publishers, you will need to show that you understand your audience and competing books, and provide a detailed book outline and convincing sample chapter.

Here is an infographic that breaks down all of these major points:

Oxford University Press's Academic Insights for the Thinking World

How to turn your PhD thesis into a book

Oxford Academic

Learn more about the world of academic publishing—from open access to peer review, accessibility to getting published—with our Publishing 101 series on the OUPblog.

By Sam Bailey
June 6 th 2024

As an OUP editor who has also completed a PhD, one of the most common questions I am asked is how to turn a thesis into a book. My only-slightly-flippant answer is don’t .

Rather than a revision of their PhD, I would encourage first-book authors to treat their fledgling monograph as a brand-new project.

In a 2015 interview for Vogue , Ursula K. Le Guin spoke about revising Steering the Craft , her classic handbook for aspiring fiction writers, for the twenty-first century. ‘It’s substantially the same book,’ she says, ‘but almost every sentence is rewritten.’ This oxymoron draws attention to the slippery distinction between the work of revising and the work of rewriting. Far from being a distinct undertaking with a separate purpose, revising often shades off into rewriting by an almost imperceptible degree.

For former doctoral students, this is no bad thing. A PhD thesis and an academic monograph have entirely different purposes—trying to turn the former into the latter via a process of revision can feel like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

At the most basic level, a thesis is a document written to pass an exam and to prove the writer’s skill as a researcher. In keeping with this purpose, it is written for a readership of two or—if we’re being generous—three people: your pair of examiners and your primary supervisor. More people will likely read parts of your thesis, although they are not the target readership. A monograph, on the other hand, is written to communicate important and useful research to the widest possible specialist readership. Each of the two documents’ purposes is entirely different, and everything about their construction must feed into that purpose, or they are not doing their job very well.

Before you begin

It’s worth pausing to think whether your thesis needs to become a monograph to advance your career. In certain disciplines, a couple of peer-reviewed research articles in reputable journals is just as, if not more, advantageous than a monograph with an equally reputable publisher.

There’s also the effort-to-reward ratio to consider; turning two thesis chapters into research articles may be less time consuming than turning your entire thesis into a monograph. Besides, having some disciplinary journal publications to your name is going to make a publisher far more interested in your first book, which can now be based on new research unrelated to your thesis. I am reminded of Pat Thomson’s sage advice that ‘ all PhDs can generate some refereed journal articles. But not all PhDs have enough in them to become a book.’

Turning your PhD thesis into a monograph should not be seen as the default course of action, so carefully consider the alternatives before embarking upon this route. But if you still want to, here are a few things you should consider:

Authorial voice

With your PhD in the bag, you have proven your skill as an academic researcher. Congratulations!

Your authorial voice should now feature more prominently in your writing and your own original interpretation should be prioritised over the views of your predecessors. This approach is very different to writing a thesis, where your interpretation must be couched in quotations from secondary sources. You no longer need to provide an audit trail to such a great extent, and monographs feature far fewer secondary quotations—especially long block quotations—than are commonly found in theses. Similarly, the number of secondary citations should be significantly reduced to only cover essential reference points. The spotlight should be firmly on your original ideas and your discussion of primary sources, with far fewer words devoted to quoting and evaluating the contributions of others.

Literature review

To put it simply, a monograph shouldn’t have one. Building on the previous point about authorial voice, the literature review is the prime example of providing an audit trail that simply isn’t expected in a monograph. Remove it! Then, in its place, summarise in one or two pages the most important through-lines found in that literature that are of direct relevance to your arguments. Your readers will assume you’ve done your homework (that was the PhD thesis) and you only need to introduce them to the secondary sources that are essential to following the argument of your monograph. For example, if your work is interdisciplinary and you’re pitching the book to a publisher’s disciplinary list, you might need to summarise the key findings of a particular school of thought from outside the list’s ‘home’ discipline.

Unlike a PhD thesis, a monograph needs to sell copies. Even not-for-profit university presses are required to break even, and a publisher won’t take a chance on a monograph unless they consider it a safe investment. It is down to you to convince them that there is a market for your work and that you write in a way that effectively captures that readership. You must be certain of your book’s selling points and ensure they are effectively communicated in your book proposal and woven into every section of your draft manuscript or writing sample.

One example: publishers are increasingly asked to think about how ‘adoptable’ someone’s book project is, meaning: can we picture it being assigned as required reading in undergraduate or postgraduate courses? For this to be the case, individual chapters should be concise and able to be assigned as standalone reading. Jargon should be kept to a minimum. Anything even slightly tangential should be cut.

Pat Thomson says that converting your PhD thesis into a monograph is ‘a time to hone your writing craft’. What she means by this, I think, is that you have the opportunity and responsibility to learn how to become a better communicator. Your PhD examiners are obliged to read your thesis no matter how engaging they find it, whereas if the readers of your monograph find it unengaging, they will simply stop reading. Academic writing can be so much more than dry, expository prose, and this is a time to stretch your creative writing muscles in a way you weren’t able to do while writing your thesis. Le Guin’s Steering the Craft provides some narrative techniques and writing exercises to help you do this.

Where to begin?

My advice would be to begin at the end. The conclusion of your PhD thesis probably contains your most valuable insights, most useful innovations, and most compelling answers to the all-important questions of ‘so what?’ and ‘why should anyone care?’. These diamonds in the rough can form the building blocks of a monograph that should be thought of not as a revision of your thesis, but as a brand-new project that builds upon your previous research. This new project can draw from some of the most exciting parts of your thesis, though it should be more than just repackaged doctoral research. And it will be far more attractive to a publisher, not to mention enjoyable to write.

Featured image by Element5 Digital via Unsplash .

Sam Bailey (he/him), Senior Associate Editor, Humanities, Oxford University Press

Online products
Publishing 101
Series & Columns

Our Privacy Policy sets out how Oxford University Press handles your personal information, and your rights to object to your personal information being used for marketing to you or being processed as part of our business activities.

We will only use your personal information to register you for OUPblog articles.

Or subscribe to articles in the subject area by email or RSS

How to Turn your Dissertation into a Book

You finished your dissertation and want to turn it into a book? Then don’t let the revision process scare you – we've got you covered with helpful tips and tricks on the way.

This post is part of a series, which serves to provide hands-on information and resources for authors and editors.

After years of hard work on their dissertation, more than a few Early Career Researchers consider turning their PhD research into a monograph. While this is great to reach a whole new audience, the process of getting there can seem complex and daunting at first.

But we’re here to help!

The first and most essential step is to decide whether your dissertation should become a book at all. For many scholars this is a no-brainer, especially in the humanities and the social sciences, where the publication of books is crucial for getting professional recognition, climbing up the career ladder, and eventually gaining tenure.

Your dissertation could also be published in the form of one or several journal articles. Or something you just want to upload on a university server and be done with.

However, let’s say that you do want to convert your thesis into a publishable book, here are the general steps of this exciting undertaking:

Find your match
Build your confidence
Get down to the nitty gritty
Pitch your work
Respond and revise

1. Find Your Match

The process of revising a dissertation goes hand-in-hand with the search for the right publishing house. The question what kind of book you want or need will influence your choice. Vice versa, the publisher shapes what kind of book you will be rewarded with.

Publishing with an established publisher is still considered as a sign of quality. They take care of things like quality control and peer review, and they select their titles carefully, so they fit their lists. This also means the books will sell better. Moreover, and most importantly: a publisher makes your work visible, be it online, in catalogues, on conferences, book fairs, or by distributing your book among libraries and universities.

Are you looking for the right press to publish your academic work? Find out here whether De Gruyter might be the right partner for your project!

Ask yourself this: Where do you want to see your book? Where have your favorite publications been published? Browse bookshelves, and visit book exhibitions at conferences . Talk to editors, approach them, ask for their conditions; check websites.

But whilst you do all of that: Please never submit to more than one publisher at the same time. Wasting editors’ time is frowned upon and doesn’t bode well for future publication with the house.

2. Build your Confidence

Once you decided on which press would be a good choice (from university presses, independent academic publishers, trade publishers etc.), there are a couple of things you need to take into consideration.

First and maybe most importantly: Be kind to yourself. Acknowledge what you have already accomplished. This has been a huge effort, and you have earned every right to be proud of yourself! Then, get to work.

Be prepared to invest time and nerves into reworking your dissertation. Focus on what you have already done, and build from there.

Remember, a book is not a dissertation. You do not need to convince anyone anymore that you are the expert and that you have done your reading. The reader of your book trusts that you are, and that is why they bought it.

You are currently viewing a placeholder content from YouTube . To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.

More Information Unblock content Accept required service and unblock content

3. Get Down to the Nitty Gritty

Envision your audience. This will help you give your dissertation a makeover.
Your viva was probably a while ago, so lots of new and interesting research has been published since then that could potentially influence your work. Do the reading.
Go over your literature review and see what is not needed anymore for your argument. Do not quote other people as much – the reader wants to know what you think. The reader of your book is also not hugely interested in all of the methodologies out there. Tell them what you used and why, but cut everything else.
Tell the reader in the introduction what the book’s central argument is. What is your contribution to the field? What’s new? In the conclusion, tell them what the consequences are. What difference do your findings make? How do they help the field?
Try to stay close to the 100,000 word threshold (=300 pages), including notes. Keep the manuscript sleek, limit the apparatus. Try to have chapters of equal lengths.
Sure enough, images are nice and often help the reader get a sense for the text, but do not forget that you have to clear rights for most of them, and get all the technicalities for print sorted.
Use simple wording. Be on point. Always remember your audience needs to understand you, and not all of them are experts.
Go easy on the footnotes: Resist making them a container for all of the brilliant thoughts that don’t quite fit in the flow or argument of your book. If a remark doesn’t belong in your text, it might not belong in your book altogether.

Bear in mind: With a dissertation, you have something to prove. With a book, you have something to say.

4. Pitch Your Work

After revising, you need to prepare a pitch: Sell your book! Let the publisher know why your research is important and how it changes the field. What’s the unique selling point of your book, what sets it apart from others?

To get started, check the publisher’s website. Usually there is a proposal form hidden away somewhere. Try to find information on the submission process and/or a personal contact. Follow the guidelines, and write an e-mail to the responsible Acquisitions Editor.

Indicate that you are familiar with the scope of the publisher’s list. Maybe you know of a book series of theirs, where your work might fit in. Let them know you did your homework, and that you are invested. Describe how your book complements other titles in the series and why it would be a great fit.

Learn more about book proposals in our blog post “How to Write an Academic Book Proposal: 6 Questions for Laura Portwood-Stacer” .

Be concise. Your proposal should demonstrate not only that you are an expert on the topic, but that you can condense and synthesize what you know, that you can share it concisely, and that you can present your research in a way that is stimulating and thought-provoking.

Usually, the more material you send, the better. Being able to read a sample chapter of the dissertation, in addition to the proposal, makes it much easier for the publisher to get a sense about the writing style of an author, who is still unknown to them.

5. Almost There! Respond and Revise

After you submitted, and heard back from the editor of the press, you can relax a little. Your manuscript is now either under consideration with the editor or already sent out for external peer review. This might take a while.

Chances are, when you hear back from the editor the next time, the reviewers will have criticized parts of your manuscript and are asking for improvements. Hence, you will need to get back into the text once again. This can be a hard moment, but remember: you are so close now! Revise one last time and at the end of the road, you might already see the light of your shiny new author contract.

Good luck – you got this!

If you are interested, check out this related blog post

[Title image by hanna grace via Unsplash]

Rabea Rittgerodt

Rabea works as Acquisitions Editor at De Gruyter. She is specialized on 19th & 20th century social, cultural, and global history. You can follow her on Twitter via @RabeaRi .

Sophie Wagenhofer

Sophie Wagenhofer works as Senior Acquisitions Editor Islamic & Jewish Studies at De Gruyter.

You might also be interested in

Academia & Publishing

Taking Libraries into the Future, Part 4: How IFLA Harnesses Social Media

10 summer reads for the intellectually curious, how to maximize your message through social media: a global masterclass from library professionals, visit our shop.

De Gruyter publishes over 1,300 new book titles each year and more than 750 journals in the humanities, social sciences, medicine, mathematics, engineering, computer sciences, natural sciences, and law.

Pin It on Pinterest

Scholarly Publishing

Introduction
Choosing Publishers - Considerations and risks
Thesis to book?
Vanity Publishers
Presenting and publishing at conferences
When choosing a journal
Journals selection/ evaluation
Open Research guide
UOM Researcher publishing support
Author Profiles

My thesis to a book?

Quite frequently early career researchers are approached to consider publishing a thesis as a book. If you intend to publish your thesis in this way considerable editing and reformatting will be required first.
Often examiners’ reports suggest publishing options.
Books published by print-on-demand and vanity publishers may often not be eligible for categorising as an A1 (authored) book for internal institutional auditing purposes.
If you are approached by a publisher please refer to our What if you are approached by a publisher? Consider asking some of these questions section.
Also consider contacting the faculty or liaison librarian for your discipline to explore options and considerations further.

Is re-purposing of text acceptable?

Israel, M. (2018, January 20). Self-plagiarism? When re-purposing text may be ethically justifiable. Research Ethics Monthly . https://ahrecs.com/research-integrity/self-plagiarism-when-re-purposing-text-may-be-ethically-justifiable

Mark writes up some tips for those considering re-using text that they have previously published.

Roig, M. (2016). Recycling our own work in the digital age. In T. Bretag (Ed.), Handbook of academic integrity (pp. 655–669). Springer.

Miguel helps to define self-plagiarism within science and scholarship and review its common forms - duplicate publication, augmented publication (when a dataset is republished with additional observations), salami publication (creating two or more publications from the same study), and text recycling (re-using substantial parts of your own previously published publications). He discusses the reader-writer contract and some scenarios of re-use in books (e.g., new editions, re-using portions of chapters from one book to another, from journal articles to book), , conference presentations (e.g., presented at more than one conference, conference presentation to journal article) and doctoral dissertations and theses (e.g., dissertation/thesis to publication, publications to dissertation). He explains why authors should be concerned about re-using previously published work.

Vanity publishers

Vanity publishers are publishing houses which charge authors to have their works published without the selection criteria usually used in hybrid publishing models. Protect your future academic credibility and ensure maximum prospects for future publishing of your work in credible journals by carefully evaluating the credibility of these publishers BEFORE accepting any offers. Refer to our Choosing publishers section in this guide.

Torres, M.R. (2012, June 24). Advice: Dissertation for sale: A cautionary tale [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.chronicle.com/article/Dissertation-for-Sale-A/132401/?cid=wb&utm_source=wb&utm_medium=en

<< Previous: Choosing Publishers - Considerations and risks
Next: Presenting and publishing at conferences >>
Last Updated: Sep 17, 2024 11:29 AM
URL: https://unimelb.libguides.com/Scholarly_publishing

Public Lectures
Faculty & Staff Site >>

Turning Your Dissertation into a Book

Interested in publishing your dissertation as a book? You will likely need to revise it extensively so it will appeal to a wider audience and compete in the literary marketplace. Here are some guidelines to help you in this process.

Allow plenty of time!
The review process can easily take up to a year, as it entails a peer review of your manuscript, potential revisions, further peer review and then approval.
The editing process can easily take a year to a year and a half as it entails copyediting, design, typesetting and proofreading, preparation of the index, printing and binding.

Dissertations differ from books in several ways

Dissertations are highly specialized, while books are geared to general readers.
Dissertation audiences are usually fewer than 100 readers — books are about 500 or more, in general.
In a dissertation, the author’s authority must be proven; in books, it is assumed.
Dissertations contain extensive documentation (to prove authority), while books document to credit sources and help the reader.
Dissertations can run long; books are often far shorter.

Elements that make a good book

A concise, memorable and intriguing title that includes essential key words
Clear and effective organization
A succinct introduction
Illustrations that enhance the text
Sections that are meaningful either alone or as part of the total book
Navigational aids, such as chapter titles, running heads, subheads, notes, bibliography, index
A voice (relationship of author to reader) that functions like an invisible tour guide or creative storyteller, and avoids sounding like a lecturer at a podium

The revision process

Forget your dissertation. Forget your committee.
Clarify your modified topic and audience.
Determine how to present it in a dynamic way.
Remove unnecessary references to yourself.
Delete conspicuous chapter intros and summaries.
Make style parallel in chapter titles, captions, chapter openings and closings, subheads.
Revisit the introduction and conclusion.
Remove unnecessary notes; condense or combine others.
Eliminate most cross-references.
Cut unnecessary examples and data.
Make chapter openings strong, clear, and inviting.
Add definitions of jargon, foreign terms, biographical and historical dates.
Brainstorm several possible titles and subtitles.
Tighten prose.
Use active verbs.
Begin and end sentences with words you want to emphasize.

The Chicago Manual of Style . 15th ed. (2003). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

German, William. (2005). From dissertation to book . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Harmon, Eleanor, et al., ed. (2003). The thesis and the book: A guide for first-time academic authors. 2nd ed . Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Lucy, Beth, ed. (2004). Revising your dissertation: Advice from leading editors . Berkeley: University of California Press.

by Lorri Hagman, executive editor, University of Washington Press

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

From Dissertation to Book

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

After many years of hard work, a dissertation is a monumental accomplishment. With so much time and effort coupled with the desire to add to scholarly discourse, many people hope to transform their dissertations into a book. Graduate writing has equipped scholars with extensive information about their discipline-specific genres, but the genre of book - and certainly a book hoping to appeal to audience outside of their field - requires new ways of writing. This page provides information and considerations aiding one’s efforts in a “publish or perish” world

Before you Begin

Many people feel the pressure of publication, especially of a book valued by scholars in your field, as they add that “Dr.” to their email signature. The truth is, book publication is still considered the standard even though many entities like the Modern Language Association (MLA) suggest moving away from a book as being the standard for tenure, instead giving articles and chapters more weight. Despite this pressure, it is highly recommended that you take some time (ideally at least a year) away from your dissertation. After dedicating so much time to such a specific topic over the past years, it can be difficult to look at your dissertation with the fresh eyes necessary to reshape it into a book without taking time away.

Once you have taken this break and are able to greet your research anew, critically think about whether this should be a book. Trying to be objective, ask yourself if you really need a book-number of pages to convey your argument or if it would perhaps be better suited for an article or series of articles. Consider that the dissertation may actually have potential for both articles and a book. Another consideration for this choice is timeliness - articles come out much quicker whereas books can take a few years until they hit the shelves. If you think something might be old news in a few years, an article is the way to go.

You may also consider researching subsidies. As a new author, you are a risk to your editor. Coming with funding to offset printing costs will make you less of a risk and ideally have your editor look at your proposal a little more deeply.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, remember to resource yourself. With workshops, grants, editors, senior scholars, and presses, you are not alone on this journey. While you may consider avoiding your committee so that your feedback is coming from fresh eyes, colleagues often have words of wisdom regarding the book-publishing process. Throughout the process, you’ll also get feedback from your editor and anonymous peer reviews. While it’s easy to get defensive, it’s important to acknowledge and value their opinions and explain your reasoning if you decide not to incorporate a suggestion. You and your editor are on a team, so you both may make compromises throughout the process. Remember - they are on your so team, so go in with a growth mindset and you’re next academic accomplishment will be more in reach.

During the Process

Once you’ve decided that you are, in fact, going to make a book out of your dissertation, it’s time to prepare for the practicalities of this process. First, you need to figure out how you are going to make it possible for you to accomplish such a feat. Writing a book takes intense discipline, so it’s important to create clear goals and plans by considering all the steps it will take you to get to that finish line. Simple actions like scheduling protected writing time can make a huge difference in success. Perhaps you set a goal of writing one page every day. Remember that writing constructs knowledge and the act will get you closer to your final product, even if it isn’t writing that actually ends up in your book,

The process of transforming your dissertation into a book is centered around audience, so you’ll want to keep that audience at the forefront of your mind throughout the writing process. Consider very carefully who your ideal reader(s) are. There may be multiple, and that’s great. Is it scholars in your field? An “intelligent layperson” (Luey, 2004) outside of your field? Whatever group of ideal readers you end up with, review your writing from each individual perspective. People often dream of a broad audience of people outside of academia without actually seeking feedback from anyone outside of the academy. If you’re telling your editor that you believe this will appeal to a history buff outside of the academy, get feedback from someone in that group and have them note places where your writing is not clear. This generalist perspective will help you see what items like jargon are confusing or what information feels boring, increasing the chances of success for this book.

When considering your new audience, remember that you no long need to share everything you know about your topic in this document. While you did have to prove yourself to your committee, this audience automatically assumes you are an expert, so sections that were proving you’re reliable can be ditched or significantly parsed down. This means your literature review will be significantly cut, if not deleted altogether. This is also true of methodologies unless your methodology is exceptionally groundbreaking and interesting.

Your old audience had to listen to you - it’s part of their job description. This new audience will need to be actively reached. Even if your main goal is people in your field, to make a book broad enough to sell - which your editor is going to look for - you’ll need to write for a wider audience which may require you to let go of any anxiety about being “taken seriously in your field.”

A book will require broadening the appeal of your topic. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways such as:

Humanizing your subject - this may take additional research (such as interviewing the people who make up your statistics) or be as simple as adding personal elements about your topic (such as adding personal life information that was outside of the scope of your dissertation focused on a person’s political career).
Adding narrative elements - plot, characters, setting, your own voice, and a beginning, middle, and end that pushes the reader forward are all key to marketability.
Finding a new angle - an angle that directly impacts your reader such as financial or navigation of a life event is going to reach a larger audience.
Expanding the topic culturally and temporally - take a broad topic related to your subject and see the impacts and/or comparisons of contexts such as religions, race, communities, geographical region, politics, time period, etc. perhaps referencing other studies in your field.
Justifying your topic’s value - you may hope to create a guide showing your topic’s influence in hopes of affecting mindsets, policy, and funding of stakeholders and those in power.

While your presses’ and editors’ feedback trumps all, there are some general considerations all editors are looking for. As you walk the line between theory and narrative, you’ll want to consider items such as:

Transitions - does the book flow in a way that keeps the reader interested?
Chapter length - are the chapters similar in length? If not, what can be combined or split up?
Repetition - do you find places where facts, stories, or claims are being repeated? Where do those best fit?
Hyperquotation - do you have too many or too long of quotes? How can you reframe that information with a focus on your work?
Bibliography/End Notes - is this information necessary? Does your editor/press have limitations on these sections?
Hagiography - are you ever writing about a subject without criticism? How can you make sure your argument is balanced?
Tables and Graphs - Does the chart fit without having to turn the book sideways? Does it repeat what’s in the prose making it not worth the cost? Can charts be combined?

Now That You Have a Book

While some people may not have a completed book when they submit a proposal, many have at least a large chunk written and certainly a general outline and thesis. If you do have a whole book complete, you may consider the following advice in the “before you begin” part of the process.

With the reality of budget cuts, editors are accepting fewer and fewer book proposals, making it more imperative than ever that your proposal sticks out. If you are an emerging scholar in your field, you probably won’t have the benefit of being actively sought out by publishers. This means you’ll need to do your research to find the right press and editor for you. Editors tend to have niche areas of topics they like to publish. Check out who published resources you used or check out the list of latest book releases in your field to see who is publishing work in your subject area. These are the publishers that you should propose to.

First, make sure that you follow proposal formatting and content requirements. If you don’t, an editor may disregard your proposal due to the inability to fit within their genre guidelines. Furthermore, if you write more than they ask for, they may assume you cannot write in a concise and clear way and choose to put it in the “no” pile. Beyond this, to make your proposal attention-grabbing, you’ll want to draw them in with a title, table of contents, and abstract or first chapter that are clear, concise, and interesting to someone who may not share your natural enthusiasm for your topic. Typically, the more concisely you can get your points across, the more faith they’ll have in you as a writer.

This also ties in with something academics may feel uncomfortable facing - this book needs to make money. Editors often look to see if their writers are able to get their point across concisely because fewer pages means less printing cost. Similarly, having low numbers of pictures, graphs, and charts, which cost more to print, can make your book feel less risky to an editor. Being upfront about what costs you anticipate and which you can avoid will help your editor calculate if this book is worth taking the risk of taking on a new voice to the field.

Final Thoughts

The transformation from dissertation to book can be very exciting. Oftentimes, creating a broader appeal brings out engaging, compelling writing that will be more readily available to the masses. With this book, you have something to say instead of something to prove. Enjoy your new status as an expert as you get to share your unique findings with the world, moving your discipline forward. There will most likely be obstacles and frustrations along the way, but remember that you have already completed the monumental task of writing a dissertation and you are also capable of this. Best of luck on this journey!

LUEY, B. (Ed.). (2008). Revising Your Dissertation: Advice from Leading Editors (2nd ed.). University of California Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt13x1g8x

Book series

Springer Theses

Recognizing Outstanding Ph.D. Research

About this book series

Aims and Scope

The series “Springer Theses” brings together a selection of the very best Ph.D. theses from around the world and across the physical sciences. Nominated and endorsed by two recognized specialists, each published volume has been selected for its scientific excellence and the high impact of its contents for the pertinent field of research. For greater accessibility to non-specialists, the published versions include an extended introduction, as well as a foreword by the student’s supervisor explaining the special relevance of the work for the field. As a whole, the series will provide a valuable resource both for newcomers to the research fields described, and for other scientists seeking detailed background information on special questions. Finally, it provides an accredited documentation of the valuable contributions made by today’s younger generation of scientists.

Theses may be nominated for publication in this series by heads of department at internationally leading universities or institutes and should fulfill all of the following criteria

They must be written in good English.
The topic should fall within the confines of Chemistry, Physics, Earth Sciences, Engineering and related interdisciplinary fields such as Materials, Nanoscience, Chemical Engineering, Complex Systems and Biophysics.
The work reported in the thesis must represent a significant scientific advance.
If the thesis includes previously published material, permission to reproduce this must be gained from the respective copyright holder (a maximum 30% of the thesis should be a verbatim reproduction from the author's previous publications).
They must have been examined and passed during the 12 months prior to nomination.
Each thesis should include a foreword by the supervisor outlining the significance of its content.
The theses should have a clearly defined structure including an introduction accessible to new PhD students and scientists not expert in the relevant field.

Book titles in this series

Enhanced microbial and chemical catalysis in bio-electrochemical systems.

Xian-Wei Liu
Copyright: 2025

Available Renditions

Properties of the Color-Magnitude Diagrams of Type Ia Supernovae

Lauren Aldoroty
Copyright: 2024

Line Defects in Conformal Field Theory

From Weak to Strong Coupling

Julien Barrat

Fundamentals of Nano-Optics in Hyperbolic van der Waals Materials

Gonzalo Álvarez Pérez

Probing New Physics Beyond the Standard Model

Axions, Flavor, and Neutrinos

Gioacchino Piazza

Publish with us

Abstracted and indexed in.

Research Guides

Submit and publish your thesis.

The Graduate Thesis: What is it?
Thesis Defences
Deadlines and Fees
Formatting in MS Word
Formatting in LaTeX
Making Thesis Accessible
Thesis Embargo
Review and Release
Your Rights as an Author
Re-using Third Party Materials
Creative Commons Licenses for Theses
Turning Thesis into an Article
Turning Thesis into a Book
Other Venues of Publication

Turning Your Thesis into a Book

“A dissertation is a report, a book tells a story”

Turning a thesis into a book means more than simply printing and binding your thesis as is. Neither will it be a quick touch up or superficial revision. Your book manuscript will likely mean a substantial rewrite of your thesis. Consider the following aspects that will need to change:

Your audience

The audience for the thesis is mainly your committee whereas for a book it may be fellow researchers, professionals working in the field, policy makers, educators, or the general audience. The majority of your readers will be less familiar with your topic than was your supervisor and will be more interested in the bigger picture than in the methodological details.

A book has a different purpose from a thesis. A thesis is meant to demonstrate your mastery of the subject and research process. A book is an opportunity to discuss the implications of your research to the larger community. The way you define an audience for your book will directly affect its goal and vice versa.

The structure of your thesis

A book’s structure will be different from that of a thesis. You will need to thoroughly re-order your work into chapters. In particular, the Literature Review and Methodology sections would be shortened drastically or incorporated into the introduction. Copious footnotes typical for a thesis could be transformed into stories.

The voice you use for a book is different from the academic voice in your thesis. You will want to edit out the academic jargon, complex sentences, lengthy paragraphs and passive voice. Be ready to show your own voice and clearly say what you think.

When looking to publish a book you would normally follow these steps:

Select a press

Start by selecting a press that would be a good fit for your topic and audience:

Look at your own bookshelf - where have authors published on similar topics?
Check presses’ lists in your subject area
Consider academic vs commercial publishers
Get in touch with acquisition editors at the presses you are looking at to check if your idea will be of interest

Prepare your book proposal

Think of your proposal as a pitch that communicates the book’s value in terms of content and your value as the subject matter expert
Problems or pain points that the book addresses
How the book addresses these pain points and what value it provides to the reader
A proposed title
Market research evidence that there is a need and niche for the book
Contents page
A proposal can be submitted to more than one press. Once you get a book deal, commit to that press and discontinue negotiations with other presses.

Negotiate and sign the contract

The Understanding and Negotiating Book Publication Contracts from the Authors Alliance is a great resource for all questions related to book contracts.

Other tips from book publishers

Having an article published from your thesis may be a good starting point to get a book deal. However having too many chapters published may be a turn off for a press that looks for original content.
Consider the timing of publication for your academic career. It takes a while for a book to be written, published, distributed and read. If you would like to proceed with an academic career upon graduation and have reviews of your published book ready for inclusion in your tenure portfolio, you will want to start looking into publishing as soon as possible.

Additional resources on converting your thesis into a book:

Harman, E. (2003). The thesis and the book: A guide for first-time academic authors. Toronto: University of Toronto Press ( Print | Electronic )
"Working on a book project? What I wish I knew…" - recording of the April 2021 webinar and presenters' book proposals
Writers’ How To Series by the Writers’ Union of Canada
See writing guides for creative non-fiction
<< Previous: Turning Thesis into an Article
Next: Other Venues of Publication >>
Last Updated: Sep 15, 2023 3:23 PM
URL: https://guides.library.utoronto.ca/thesis

University of Toronto Libraries 130 St. George St.,Toronto, ON, M5S 1A5 [email protected] 416-978-8450 Map About web accessibility . Tell us about a web accessibility problem . About online privacy and data collection .

Connect with us

Dalhousie Libraries - Research Guides Home

Dalhousie University Libraries

Scholarly Communications

Publishing Your Thesis as a Monograph
What is Scholarly Communications?
Different Versions of your Article
Publishing Before Graduation
Publishing After Graduation
Book Proposals
Predatory Book Publishing
Open Access Monographs
Preprints as Publications
Open Access
Deposit/Submit
Open Educational Resources (OER)
Citation Diversity
Research Impact
Research Data Management
Need more help?
Author Profiles and IDs

Things to Consider

Publishing your thesis as a book can be an alternative or an accompaniment to publishing an article in a journal. If you are considering publishing your thesis as a book or monograph, here are some things to consider:

You will first need to edit or restructure your thesis to make it suitable for publication. When adapting your thesis for publication, consider the expectations of publishers and your potential audience.
Your book should be published by a commercial or academic publisher, rather than a print-on-demand or vanity press. For help finding an appropriate publisher in your subject area, consider consulting your supervisor or a librarian. Self-publishing is not considered reputable for academic careers.
You will need to submit a book proposal to potential publishers. For more information on this, consult the Book Proposals tab.
Most publishers do not consider a thesis to be prior publication. Consult with the publisher for their policies on this.

Selected Video Resources

“From Dissertation to Book: Navigating the Publication Process” A panel talk of academic publishing experts hosted by UC Berkeley.
“How to Turn Your Dissertation Into a Book” A panel talk of publishing professionals hosted by Yale University.
“The Monograph Publishing Process” A short video from Cambridge University.
“From Thesis to Monograph” A short video from Cambridge University.

Selected Library Resources

<< Previous: Publishing a Book
Next: Book Proposals >>
Last Updated: May 16, 2024 11:31 AM
URL: https://dal.ca.libguides.com/ScholarlyCommunications

Publishing your thesis as a book

St. Jerome's University

Discover the world's research

25+ million members
160+ million publication pages
2.3+ billion citations
Recruit researchers
Join for free
Login Email Tip: Most researchers use their institutional email address as their ResearchGate login Password Forgot password? Keep me logged in Log in or Continue with Google Welcome back! Please log in. Email · Hint Tip: Most researchers use their institutional email address as their ResearchGate login Password Forgot password? Keep me logged in Log in or Continue with Google No account? Sign up

Stack Exchange Network

Stack Exchange network consists of 183 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow , the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers.

Q&A for work

Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search.

Publishing thesis as a book

One of the answers here says that some researchers in humanities publish their thesis as a book. Could the same be done for example in physics, chemistry or math degree? By book I mean the whole thesis, not just a handbook with selected material.

And if it is possible - could the thesis on which you would defend your degree be written in a book format, i.e. be ready to go to the print shop immediately? Or do supervisors and reviewers expect the paper to be just a "big article" and having complete book in front of them would confuse them? I also suppose that the book should not be printed(at least in many copies) prior achieving a degree, correct me if I am wrong.

publications

I think that publishing thesis as a book without one's guide's permission and the one obtained from one's department is a crime – user48845 Commented Feb 7, 2016 at 13:52

4 Answers 4

In mathematics this is also possible. I myself published my PhD thesis as a book in a Springer series , and I know of people who published their thesis in the Memoirs of the AMS series. Note that all these still require a refereeing process, so typically the published version will be (slightly) different from your final PhD thesis.

This publication is separate from the Dutch tradition of creating proper printing-press copies of your thesis for distributtion to the reading committee, colleagues, friends, family, which could already considered to be a book (one typically obtains an ISBN). In my case that meant that I had to make only few changes to the layout of my thesis to submit it to Springer; basically adapt to their style.

Definitely don't print it before achieving your degree, in case you have to make major corrections (in which case the book would be a wasted expense).

In the UK, at least, it's usual for the final copy of a PhD thesis to be bound as a book - so in some respects, what you say about "ready to go to the print shop immediately" is already surpassed. However, that is not to say that the internal format of the work is that which would be expected for a normal book, and I imagine that this --- as well as perhaps writing to be accessible to a slightly wider audience --- is what is normally involved with somebody publishing their humanities thesis in book form.

The question that you perhaps need to ask yourself (or better explain to us) is: Why do you want to do this?

The reason why to do this for me is to make thesis more accessible. Making it available online achieves way more in that respect, but having a book also contributes a little. Also, it makes some sense to me since if you already have your thesis written - converting it to book format seems logical step towards making it bigger thing in terms contributing to knowledge. After all when students want to get some information they usually looking/googling for a book(!), not an article. Of course it depends on the topic, but I can think of plenty topics that in some way "asking to be a complete book". – ScienceSamovar Commented Nov 4, 2015 at 11:39
1 Nobody reads thesis anymore, nobody reads a whole book. In CS, at least, your contribution should be spread in some specific papers published in conferences, journals, etc. People read those. It doesn't really count for CV (looks fake) and converting to book format is time consuming, in most cases. It doesn't make financial sense either, books doesn't sell that much... – Fábio Dias Commented Nov 4, 2015 at 13:57

I know of several people who have done this in physics. In each case, the book was an exact copy of their thesis (right down to acknowledgements and appendices). If I remember correctly, there are some publishers which will publish any thesis, you just have to pay for the first n copies (where n is an integer I don't remember).

At least in some German universities, it is required for the thesis (after all the amendments) to be published as a book. This applies to all disciplines, not just humanities. So it is certainly possible but definitely wait until the final version is accepted.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for browse other questions tagged publications thesis books ..

Featured on Meta
Join Stack Overflow’s CEO and me for the first Stack IRL Community Event in...
User activation: Learnings and opportunities

Hot Network Questions

Calm and Insight is the Normative Meditative Practice in Buddhism
Project poles to ground from a sampled curve
My math professor is Chinese. Is it okay for me to speak Chinese to her in office hours?
Rules on Feats When Creating Custom Backgrounds with Player's Handbook (2024)
How can I assign a heredoc to a variable in a way that's portable across Unix and Mac?
How to translate the letter Q to Japanese?
(How) is it possible to let portable communication devices detonate via software?
Genetic engineering of adult subjects with transform viruses
“…[it] became a ______ for me.” Why is "gift" the right answer?
Is it possible to monitor the current drawn by a computer from an outlet on the computer?
Apple IIgs to VGA adapter
how do I fix \operatorname adding a space on the left
I didn't make it into a graduate program last year. How can I make a compelling case with an unchanged profile?
Need help in tikzpicture
Would Dicyanoacetylene Make a Good Flamethrower Fuel?
Could a Gamma Ray Burst knock a Space Mirror out of orbit?
Fear of getting injured in Judo
Futuristic/Dystopian teen book trilogy with people that can breathe underwater
Grid-based pathfinding for a lot of agents: how to implement "Tight-Following"?
Bach's figured bass notation?
Can this phrase "the Conservatives opposite" be regarded as apposition structure?
How am I supposed to solder this tiny component with pads UNDER it?
A function to convert numbers from scientific notation to plain decimal
How to react to a rejection based on a single one-line negative review?

New releases
Politics and Society
Design & Lifestyle
Memoirs & Biographies
Submissions

Turning Your Thesis Into A Book

Tips and tricks to rewrite for a different type of reader, from Teresa Pitt, a legendary former Senior Commissioning Editor and Publisher with MUP.

MUP occasionally publishes books that have begun their lives as theses and academic research projects.

Some recent examples include Susan Carland's Fighting Hislam, Glenn Morrison's Songlines and Faultlines and Rebe Taylor's Into the Heart of Tasmania .

But rewriting a thesis is not simply a matter of making revisions to existing text. Here are some tips and tricks to help turn your thesis into a book (or perhaps a manuscript you can submit to publishers – including us ).

An original thesis should be regarded as the basis for an entirely new work, written with a new audience in mind. This new work will address intelligent general readers who seek to be provoked, engaged, intrigued and/or seduced into reading your book. General readers do not expect you to prove to them how thorough your research has been, or how many other texts you have consulted. They simply want to know what you have found out and what you think about it.

The most important tasks in rewriting a thesis are to:

Remove all academic scaffolding

In a thesis, the examiners expect you to explain what you are setting out to do, and how you are going to go about doing it, before you actually do it. Then, after you have done it, you are required to restate or summarise your methods, findings and conclusions.

In a book, these preliminaries and wrap-ups are superfluous. They get in the reader's way, become repetitive and obscure the impact of the real subject matter. They also take up valuable space. The Abstract and Introduction that are both essential in a thesis are not needed in a book. Neither are the usual chapter Introductions and Conclusions.

Ordinary readers want you to get straight to the point. Thus, anything that sounds like "In this chapter I will argue . . ." or "In this chapter I have shown . . ." should be deleted immediately.

Reorganise the material

When writing for the general reader, you should introduce the most arresting, intriguing, or unusual aspects of the work the heart of the matter immediately.

The background information and theoretical discussions should come later. As a rule of thumb, start from the particular, and work to the general, rather than the other way around. In journalism, the rule for any story is always to "grab the reader's attention" in the first paragraph – indeed, in the first sentence. It may seem strange to compare a serious academic work with a newspaper story or article, but in fact the best serious non-fiction writers follow a similar principle.

The most interesting, arresting or unusual parts of the story or argument should come first to attract the interest of the general reader, you can go back later to provide the necessary background and interpretation.

Refocus clearly on the heart of the story

You need to "pick the eyes" out of your thesis. That is, you must decide what the most interesting or important issues or themes are, and concentrate on these, ruthlessly discarding the more peripheral material. Background material for example, surveys of previous literature, historical background, discussions of earlier and current theories, arguments, methodology, etc. if retained at all, should be moved from the beginning to the ends of the book, or incorporated in a much-condensed form into the relevant sections of the main text.

Remember you are writing now for non-specialist readers. You must be aware both of what you want to tell them and of what is going to catch and retain their attention.

Reduce the scholarly apparatus

Most theses have a enormous number of footnotes and an exhaustive bibliography, all designed to impress your examiners with the breadth and depth of your research. Having successfully impressed them, you now need to cut or condense your notes ruthlessly, and to reduce your bibliography to a reasonable size. Keep only what will be genuinely useful to an ordinary reader.

Any discursive or explanatory notes should either be incorporated back into the text or deleted altogether. Notes should be restricted to sources only, and should be turned into endnotes rather than footnotes.

Rewriting and new writing will be necessary. Having sketched out a new structure and focus, you now have to start writing all over again to create a completely new work.

As you rewrite you must move firmly away from the usual impersonal, abstract academic style. This means hunting down and expunging instances of:· academic jargon (find a way of expressing the concept in plain English, especially the first time you introduce it):

long, complex, convoluted sentences (no sentence should contain more than two ideas, which should be expressed as directly as possible)
inordinately lengthy paragraphs (break your paragraphs up as much as possible and vary them between, say, three and twenty lines)
abstract nouns (use concrete nouns wherever you can) the passive voice (don't say "Similar observations were made by Johnson and Smith"; say "Johnson and Smith made similar observations")
the third person used for yourself (don't say "In the present writer's opinion"; say "I think").

You must learn to address your writing as directly as possible to an imagined non-specialist reader, using a natural, personal, and unpretentious voice and using plain English. Audience awareness the sense of a real, actual person to whom you are talking/writing is one of the most useful communication skills you can develop.

Try to imagine, as you write, that you are talking about your work to an intelligent, educated friend over the kitchen table or in the pub. Your friend is in another field altogether and knows little or nothing about your particular speciality, but is curious to know more about what you do. You would talk to this friend in quite a different way than you would write for your examiners. It is this friendly, straightforward, conversational style that you need to develop.

A number of academics who have become successful writers for a general audience have gained great benefit from joining a writing class in order to develop their writing skills, to enhance their audience awareness, and to unlearn the unfortunate writing habits instilled during their academic training. Courses in creative writing and non-fiction writing are widely available, and we recommend you give this option serious consideration.

Kevin Brophy's Explorations in Creative Writing would be an excellent place to start.

Our new sales & distribution partnership with Simon & Schuster Australia

Melbourne University Publishing has embarked on a partnership with Simon & Schuster Australia for its sales and distribution in Australia and New Zealand after 12 years with United Book Distributors (UBD).

"We need a well-informed public conversation about how monetary and fiscal policy should operate. And based on that, we need a clear program for reform."

In the late 1990s Barbara and Albert Tucker made the magnanimous and bold decision to donate a significant proportion of their personal collection to the nation. While this generous gesture included a select number of gifts to state institutions and the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, they determined to transfer the major part of the collection to Heide Museum of Modern Art in their hometown of Melbourne.

Interviews, News and Stories. Bringing you closer to the conversation.

Get all of our news—with offers, event invites and more—delivered straight to your inbox.

@MUPublishing

Upcoming events.

Wed 25 September at 6:00pm ∙ Acton, ACT

Tue 8 October at 6:00pm ∙ Parkville, VIC

Mailing list

Subscribe to receive event invitations, special offers and the latest press releases in our email newsletter:

Melbourne University Publishing seeks to reflect its place in Victoria, Australia, and South-East Asia through the books we publish.

We acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands on which Melbourne University Publishing stands and we pay our respect.

Miegunyah Press
Custom Books
Request a Book
Rights and Permissions
Booksellers
Your account
Order history
Past purchases
Refunds and Returns policy
Shopping online
Privacy policy

my research
contributions and comments

turning your thesis into a book

Lots of people want to turn their thesis into a book. This is not always possible – not all theses make good books. But it may also not be desirable. Some disciplines revere the scholarly monograph so writing one may be very good for the career. But others hold the peer reviewed journal article as the gold standard; in such cases, it may be better to get stuck into turning the thesis into a set of papers, rather than sweating over a manuscript. However, if you do want to do the book business, then you have to think about what the common advice – this book is not your thesis – actually means.

The first and most important difference relates to purpose.

The thesis is a text which is written to be examined and evaluated. As such, it follows a particular form, and the writing has to do particular kinds of work. You must show that you know the literatures. You must show that you understand research, and can justify why you have used the methods you have. You have to explain and justify how you analysed your material/data. You have to argue that the research contributes to knowledge. The examiners want to see all of these aspects dealt with, in detail.

The reader of a book, on the other hand, is not concerned about the same set of things. They buy the book primarily because they are interested in the topic. They haven’t bought the book to go through a trawl of what other people have done or how your research methodology sits within a tradition. They don’t want pages of audit trail. They want to know what you think and what you’ve done. So while your book will include other people’s research and possibly some discussion of method/ology, this will usually be succinctly presented in relation to the argument that you are making.

For this reason, I often suggest to newly completed DRs that they consider starting their thinking about a book at the end of the thesis, with the findings and conclusion.

After all of your research, you’ve come up with something. You started with a question but now you know the answer. While the thesis was structured around the question, and how you got to the answer, the book must BEGIN with the answer, explain why the topic is important and then go on to do something interesting – trace a history or show how policy is playing out or develop a new framework for thinking about the topic of tell a hitherto hidden story about it and so on.

Another key difference between an examiner and a book is to do with readership.

The thesis is written for examiners. The examiner is obliged to read the whole text. No matter how plodding, difficult, or messy it is – or how elegant and stimulating – they must get through the lot, as that is their job. They won’t like reading it if is tough going, but they’ll do it. An ordinary reader on the other hand has no such obligations. They’ve paid good money, or picked up your book in the library or borrowed it from their supervisor and they expect you to maintain their interest. If you don’t, they’ll simply stop reading.

So in writing a book there is no option but to think carefully about your authoring options. What is the best, most seductive, enlightening, persuasive way to present what you have to say? The thesis chapters are probably not it. Three chapters presenting the data followed by a discussion? Maybe the reader would prefer the discussion unfolding in concert with the data, organised around big meaningful chunks…or…. The book is an opportunity to think more creatively about how to put the argument together. It’s another challenge, but a good one.

So it’s a sensible idea, I reckon, to think about the book of the thesis as a rewriting, not a revision. It’s not just a bit of a fiddle with the introduction and conclusion and then plonking the rest in, but rather a restructured text written for a different reader and for a different purpose. While you may well be able to modify some existing thesis chapters in the rewritten text, what you end up with is likely to be different from the thesis that you wrote first.

For that reason, it’s often a good idea to leave a bit of time between completing the thesis and writing the book proposal. Write an article or two and then come back to the thesis. Look at it afresh, and think about how you could rework the material into the most interesting text possible.

About pat thomson

27 responses to turning your thesis into a book.

Thanks very much for this post. I am not sure I want to write a book – I will probably write a few papers instead, but I do see gaps in my field where my research could fit usefully in a longer format, like a book, and your post offers very useful advice and links. I can kind of see where my research could go next, now that I am writing my conclusions, so perhaps extending my project and turning that into a book could be an exciting thing to pursue in the next couple of years. We shall see… 🙂

Alas, Pat ~ I have an opposite problem. (I guess your invaluable advice applies as much to A&H as it does to social science.) The way I write up research appears to be turning a book into a thesis. … The ‘inner creative’ wants out. I like to call her a ‘muse,’ but sometimes she’s just a nuisance. I printed off 6 months work (41,570 words) over the weekend, inc. assorted preliminary material, and drafts of the Intro. + Chapters 1 – 4. Phew! Half a book’s worth, albeit chapters do have possibilities of being re-wrought into papers. However, have proved to myself that attacking it as if it IS a book ~ deadlines, so many words a day, etc etc., is the only way to get it done. Besides, it’s the only way I know how ~ but I foresee a lot of rewriting! The print-out’s hard copy insurance; half a year’s work from grinding grindstone is not to be vaporised in one of those terminal Computer Events which can, and do, occur. OTOH, I did commence with The Question, so at least got THAT right 😉

In terms of process rather than genre, getting the thesis done can be harder than a book in my experience… But yes words per day, deadlines all v important. All the best with it.

Great post, and timely for me! I am rewriting my thesis at the moment (two years after completion) by ‘flipping’ everything, e.g. starting with the answer rather than thesis question and situating relevant theories within my research and approach rather than vice versa (everything you suggest, basically). I am fortunate that I only need to do this for the intro and conclusion as my thesis advisors supported my decision to write the thesis as a book and present it in an accessible, creative manner. Rewriting is a painful process and I’m not sure I would bother if faced with revisiting the entire thesis – journal articles would be easier.

Can I ask, do you think having your thesis freely available online, on the University website, will affect your ability to get a book contract? From what I’m reading here it seems they are such different things that the thesis being online should hopefully not put off publishers from wanting to publish as a book. Chris

I think it depends on the publisher. It’s not generally an issue but I’ve heard of a couple of instances where it was

We’ve recently published a monograph based on a thesis, with only moderate changes. However, this was on the condition that it was embargoed on the University’s website for 2 years. There’s no way we’d have published it had the material been freely available online. There are a few more theses in production, too, and they’re either embargoed, or are substantially different from the original.

Thanks Catherine – that’s good to know, and sounds like a good approach.

Reblogged this on anthropod and commented: This is a great post on how to turn your thesis into a book, and very timely for me as it is what I am doing right now. I haven’t taken all of Pat’s advice (I’m working on a full manuscript without a contract, for example) but her tips on rewriting are very useful. Ger post has reminded me that I’m writing for a specific genre – ethnography, quite different from a thesis – which has particular conventions that I need to follow, and inspired me to completely rewrite my introduction and conclusion with a new audience in mind. Now, if only I could churn out 2,000 words a day …

Do talk to some publishers Lorena ASAP unless you intend to self publish… Good luck with it.

Thanks Pat! I have found an interested publisher and the rep has asked for the entire manuscript so fingers crossed they like it.

Writing a book ? I think printing and publication through a renowned publisher, requires extra investment, which I am not willing to make at all. Is there a cheaper way of publishing your work as a book? paper bags version ? any ideas/suggestions ??

You can always publish your own book using a platform like kindle. Thesis Whisperer has a post about how to do this.

thank you for your timely feedback. Most appreciated!

ok thanks ..

I don’t know if I should publish my work, but still this is a good read! I get that the examiners’ job is to read every detail of the dissertation but I’ve heard instances where examiners don’t actually read the content and just skim through, then make their comments based on what they saw. How true is that?

id hope not at all. i usually hear the reverse – about how long it takes!

Pingback: Turning your thesis into a book | Life as an ac...

Kindly inform me of other projects that are aimed at turning thesis into a book for inputs and suggestions. Regards Don

Pingback: eteaching: pedagogy and practice for a digital age | sue watling

Reblogged this on Phambichha's Blog and commented: Great advice to turn my thesis to book, focusing on differences between thesis and book on purpose and readership

Pingback: How To Convert A Dissertation Into A Book | Ho Good

Pingback: thesis to journal article -where’s the paper? | patter

Pingback: 1min read: Publishing ‘SOE in Burma’ – The Special Operations Executive in Burma, 1941-1945

Pingback: Author Services From PhD to book: the basics

I am considering self-publishing my thesis paper on Art Education. I did interviews for the bulk of my research. I was wondering to publish do I need permission to publish the names and interviews I already did???

You need to stick to the ethical permissions you negotiated before interview. It is usual to anonymise people so they aren’t recognised. If you didn’t have any permissions beforehand yes you should get them now.

Follow Blog via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Email Address:

patter on facebook

SEE MY CURATED POSTS ON WAKELET

Thesis Publication

Thesis publication is often considered essential if you wish to expand your career in academia or a related profession. Publishing your thesis/dissertation as a book monograph can be used as a building block to an academic career, to influence your discipline and expand your knowledge of the field. As a thesis, your work had a very small readership, but when you get published online it should attract a much larger readership.

We publish academic thesis/dissertation as a thesis monograph with ISBN and DOI through our AIJR Thesis series which will get deposited in the CrossRef thesis database. All submitted manuscripts will be internally reviewed and the author should expect a number of modifications as per the editor’s instruction.

How to Submit?

Who can submit.

All students whose thesis has already been approved from their institution and a degree has already been awarded based on that thesis can submit their thesis to publish in book form as a thesis monograph. The supervisor can also submit their student’s thesis on behalf of the student by providing the required document and student’s contact information.

Can the supervisor act as a co-author?

No, we publish the academic thesis as a standard ‘Thesis Monograph’, where only a single student can be the author. Supervisors can be included and acknowledged in the inner pages as per thesis standard but can not be a co-author of the thesis monograph.

Thesis Publication Fee

If approved by the editor, the author will require to pay a non-refundable publishing fee of $100 (or Rs. 5000/+GST for Indian students).

Publish with AIJR
Journal Word Template
Paper Publishing Process
Editorial Screening Process
Ethics for Authors
Guest Posting Blog
Submit Proceedings Proposal
Submit Abstract Book Proposal
Submit Conference Issue Proposal
Proceedings vs Book of Abstracts
Proceedings vs Special Issue

Privacy Overview

Graduate Research Hub

Preparing my thesis

Incorporating your published work in your thesis

A streamlined procedure has been approved for obtaining co-author authorisation. You now only need to provide a Declaration for publication incorporated in a thesis form for the inclusion of in progress or published material in the thesis, that is completed by your Principal Supervisor and the Coordinating Author.

Accepted statuses for publications

Unpublished material not submitted for publication
Submitted for publication to [publication name] on [date]
In revision following peer review by [publication name]
Accepted for publication by [publication name] on [date]
Published by [publication name] on [date]

You may include in progress or published material written during your enrolment upon approval from your advisory committee, as part of your thesis, by having either:

“included publications", in which your publications are included as components that are distinct from the rest of the thesis, in the format described below; or
“included material” that is drawn from your publications and combined with text that is otherwise written specifically for the thesis.

In this page we refer to both these kinds of inclusion of published work as “incorporated publications”; the first format, where the publications are included as distinct components, is also known as “thesis with publications”.

The Graduate Research Training Policy (section 4.65) outlines what can be included in the thesis. Your thesis must include a literature review that clearly details the research questions and a general discussion that integrates the work and places the publications into the context of the research question.

You may have to supplement the incorporated publications with additional methods sections as they are often abbreviated in published articles. You are also encouraged to include any data and discussion that was omitted from the article as an addendum in the thesis. Where a publication is included as a distinct component, you are also encouraged to include a critical reflection on the work, which could, for example, acknowledge or address limitations or impacts of the work that have appeared since publication.

When submitting your thesis, you will be required to confirm that:

(a) the work in the incorporated publications is your own, and (b) that any co-authors give permission for the article to be included in the thesis.

To do this, you must complete the Declaration for publication incorporated in a thesis form. You will need to submit a completed form for each in progress or published work included in your thesis.

Your principal supervisor must sign the Declaration form for each publication. Where there is more than one author of a publication, at least one co-author by agreement amongst the authors, should be nominated as the coordinating author (also known as corresponding author), as defined in the University’s Authorship Policy . The coordinating author is responsible for communication between the publishers and managing communication between the co-authors. The coordinating author must maintain records of any authorship agreement. The coordinating author must also sign the Declaration form.

You must upload all completed Declaration forms as a single combined file to the Thesis Examination System when submitting your thesis for examination. The signed forms should not be included in the thesis itself. Plan well ahead to obtain the required signatures to avoid delays to your examination.

Don’t forget to include your ORCID when submitting your work to publishers, conference organisers, etc. This will help you to distinguish your research activities and outputs, and make sure you get credit for your work throughout your career.

The Preface

As detailed in the Preparation of Graduate Research Theses rules , your preface should outline:

the publication status of any incorporated publications
your contribution to any incorporated publications
any work carried out in collaboration with others
editorial assistance received
parts of the work completed outside of your candidature.

There is no prescribed format for a preface; you may wish to include a written description or a table outlining the tasks performed by others and the proportion of the contribution as a percentage.

Usually this means you will have written the initial draft and you performed any subsequent editing in response to co-authors' and editors' reviews.

As specified in the Graduate Research Training Policy , your principal supervisor and coordinating author must declare that:

(a) you are the primary author of the included material, and

(b) you contributed more than 50% of the work towards the publication.

No. You need to have contributed more than 50 per cent for it to be included. You could, however, include this paper as an appendix.

Yes. It is understood that portions of the thesis that have been published or accepted for publication will have been through an editorial process. Such editorial changes should be explicitly acknowledged.

Refer to the Authorship page for information about the requirements and responsible practice.

Format of the thesis

When including complete publications, you should use the author accepted manuscripts of articles that have been accepted or published. This is the final draft as accepted by the publishers, including any changes based on referees’ suggestions before it has undergone copy-editing, typesetting and proofing. If you are certain you will not breach your agreement with your publisher, you may include the published version in your thesis.

If you are using your author accepted manuscript, while some journals request that the version you send them includes any figures or tables at the end of the submitted document, when you reproduce the article in your thesis you should place them where they logically flow within the text. It is also recommended that you use similar formatting (e.g. line spacing, font type and size) as the rest of the thesis.

You can view suggested formats for arranging the chapters of a thesis that includes publications as distinct components here . See also example theses in the University of Melbourne repository.

In most cases it is preferred that you include a separate literature survey. Even with the literature reviews included in your publications you may find you still need to add further supplementary material if the publications do not directly address all the research questions you are trying to answer in your thesis. Your supervisors and advisory committee are best able to advise you whether the literature reviews included in your incorporated publications will meet disciplinary expectations and satisfy your examiners that you: - Have clearly detailed your research question/s and how they integrate with the current literature - Have demonstrated sufficient familiarity with, and understanding and critical appraisal of the relevant literature.

No. The policy allows the thesis to be submitted with publications, it is not a thesis by publication. You must include a literature review that clearly details the research question, and a concluding general discussion that integrates the work and places it into the context of the research questions. You should also introduce each publication that is included as a distinct component, explaining its role in the work, and, where appropriate, provide a critical reflection on its contribution.

Yes, but you must cite it correctly and indicate in the preface the source of the information (eg. that the text on page(s) xx is from [name of publication], or that chapter yy is adapted from [name of publication]. In each case you should give its publication status and your contribution to the publication). It will assist your examiners if, at the start of each chapter that includes work drawn from a publication, there is a footnote explaining where the work came from and how it has been used in the chapter. You may wish to include the entire publication as an appendix so that your examiners can see where the material came from.

Theses which include publications in a “thesis with publications” style can typically be slightly shorter; for example the typical PhD length is 80,000 words, but a PhD including publications as distinct components has a typical length of 50,000-80,000 words).
While the writing style may be more concise, there is no difference in the expected volume and requirements of work presented in theses with publications. The examination criteria remain the same whether or not publications are incorporated. Your examiners are asked to consider your thesis on its merits as an independent piece of research. Refer to the information available for examiners .
Maximum limits apply to all theses.

If you are including the list of references as part of the publication they do not need to be repeated in the overall reference list/bibliography for the thesis.

Incorporated publications can be referenced via a footnote, but if references to them are included in the bibliography an examiner may be unsure as to whether the work was completed as part of the research.

No, but you may do so if you think that it will assist readers of your thesis.

It is up to you whether you update the publication style or not. Whatever you chose, you should acknowledge your choice in the Preface, stating the differences between the publication and thesis, due to the requirements of different publishers.

Yes. Revised and resubmitted theses are examined in their entirety and the inclusion of a new incorporated publication may strengthen your response to examiners.

In most cases you should include the latest version, up to the author accepted version and update the publication status in the preface. If your examiners request changes which conflict with the editorial or peer review advice you have since received from your publisher, you may choose to address this elsewhere in your thesis, or in your written response to the examiners’ reports.

Publication suitability

A work is suitable for inclusion if the research was conducted and the publication was in progress or published during your enrolment in your current degree. This includes:

You may need to supplement this with analysis of literature published between writing the article and submitting your thesis.

All methods need to be covered to a high degree of detail in your thesis.

literature reviews where you are the primary author .
systematic reviews of a research question as a results chapter.
a protocol paper involving novel method development.
material exploring key methodological issues .

No. Only work completed during your candidature can be included in the thesis. You can cite your earlier work just like you would any work that is relevant to your research. The work should be listed in the preface of your thesis.

Yes. You will need to clearly acknowledge in the preface that its status is ‘in progress’ or, that the paper has been published but not peer reviewed.

Completing the forms

Yes. You may wish to include the entire publication as an appendix so that your examiner can see where the information came from.

Yes. All sections of the form must be completed for any multi-authored material. The coordinating author is required to reassure that all co-authors have had an opportunity to agree to the inclusion of the material in the thesis and to the contribution declared on the form. The authorship agreement template is available here.

No. You can use the figure in your thesis without completing the form but you should acknowledge the origin of the figure in the preface and appropriately cite the publication in your thesis.

No. You should provide this evidence to your advisory committee when you are discussing the proposed format for your thesis. Your principal supervisor must sign the Declaration for publication incorporated in a thesis form which confirms their agreement to the inclusion of any publication/s. The coordinating author will need to sign the form for any multi-authored material.

You can use Adobe Acrobat's 'Combine Files' tool which will allow you to combine files of different file types into a PDF. Alternatively, you can open a PDF copy of a file and then use the 'Organise Pages' tool which will allow you to drag additional pages where you can then save it as a single file.

iThenticate report

You should run your whole thesis through iThenticate, including the chapters comprised wholly or partly of your published work. You can then exclude the specific matching publication source/s that correspond to the publications you have included in your thesis in a “thesis with publications” style. This means that the thesis chapter or publication is reviewed against the other literature in the repository, but not matched to itself. You should only exclude matching sources that are articles which you have appropriately included. You should outline and explain any filters and exclusions you applied in iThenticate in an accompanying declaration which you can also upload to TES.

You should not exclude publications from which you have included material (but not the complete publication), as the iThenticate report will then show where the material is present in the thesis, allowing your supervisors and Chair of Examiners to verify that it has been included appropriately.

Further information on the use of iThenticate can be found here: https://gateway.research.unimelb.edu.au/funding-contracts-and-ethics/ethics-and-integrity/research-integrity/ithenticate-text-matching-tool

The examination

The criteria for examination remain the same whether or not publications are incorporated. See the Graduate Research Training Policy for more information. You can also view the information for examiners here: https://gradresearch.unimelb.edu.au/staff#examiner-information .

If the publication status of your article changes between submission for examination and submission of your final thesis, it is appropriate to include the most recent version (up to the author-accepted version). You should also update the preface to reflect the new status. If you are submitting a list of corrections for approval and/or resubmitting for re-examination you should also note this in your index of changes.

Examples of theses with publications

The following are theses available openly or with University of Melbourne log-in through the University of Melbourne repository that include publications as distinct components in a “thesis with publications” style.

Al Zein, Eza (2019). Taskscape: Caring for Migrant Materials . http://hdl.handle.net/11343/235841

Arundel, Jonathan Paul (2015) The spatio-temporal distribution of honey bees and floral resources in Australia . http://hdl.handle.net/11343/59612

Bamford, Nicholas James (2016) Relationships between diet, obesity and insulin dysregulation in horses and ponies. http://hdl.handle.net/11343/148423

Bibb, Jennifer Louise (2016) Musical recovery: the role of group singing in regaining healthy relationships with music to promote mental health recovery. http://hdl.handle.net/11343/124271

Burfurd, Ingrid Ellen (2018) Beliefs and learning in the laboratory: essays in experimental economics . http://hdl.handle.net/11343/219180

Fan, Yi (2019) Quantification of mandibular morphological changes in 3D . http://hdl.handle.net/11343/225588

Kriesner, Peter (2017) Wolbachia fitness benefits and symbiont interactions in Drosophila . http://hdl.handle.net/11343/207959

Mody, Fallon (2019) Doctors down under: European medical migrants in Victoria (Australia), 1930-60 . http://hdl.handle.net/11343/221550

Nencini, Sara (2018) Tackling bone pain at the source: identifying and exploring new therapeutic targets . http://hdl.handle.net/11343/216858

Pan, Xuan (2018) Graphene quantum dot based electronic devices . http://hdl.handle.net/11343/222013

Seibt, Susanne (2018) In-situ investigations of molecular self-assembly using microfluidics. http://hdl.handle.net/11343/214671

Smith, Merryn (2018) Non-structural carbohydrate storage and use in eucalypt trees of south-east Australia. http://hdl.handle.net/11343/221163

Uddin, Shihab (2019) Functional aspects of root and leaf development in dryland crop water use under elevated CO2 . http://hdl.handle.net/11343/219849

Vahedi, Andisheh (2018) The work-family interface and child mental health: longitudinal associations via family functioning across childhood. http://hdl.handle.net/11343/217236

Al Zein, Eza (2019) Taskscape: Caring for Migrant Materials . http://hdl.handle.net/11343/235841

Schlichthorst, Marisa (2020) Engaging men in conversations about masculinity and suicide – An evaluation of the Man Up social media campaign . http://hdl.handle.net/11343/265962

Resources for candidates
Orientation and induction
Mapping my degree
Principles for infrastructure support
Peer activities
Change my commencement date
Meeting expectations
Working with my supervisors
Responsible Research & Research Integrity
Outside institutions list
Guidelines for external supervisors
Pre-confirmation
Confirmation
At risk of unsatisfactory progress
Unsatisfactory progress
Add or drop coursework subjects
Apply for leave
Return from leave
Apply for Study Away
Return from Study Away
Change my study rate
Check my candidature status
Change my current supervisors
Request an evidence of enrolment or evidence of qualification statement
Change my project details
Change department
Transfer to another graduate research degree
Late submission
Withdraw from my research degree
Check the status of a request
Re-enrolment
Advice on requesting changes
Extension of candidature
Lapse candidature
How to cancel a form in my.unimelb
Resolving issues
Taking leave
About Study Away
Finishing on time
Accepting an offer for a joint PhD online
Tenured Study Spaces (TSS) Usage Guidelines
Tenured Study Spaces Procedures
Research skills
Academic writing and communication skills
Building professional and academic networks
Research internships
Commercialising my research
Supplementary PhD Programs
Writing my thesis
Examples of thesis and chapter formats when including publications
Thesis with creative works
Research Integrity in my Thesis
Graduate researchers and digital assistance tools
TES Statuses
Submitting my thesis
Depositing multiple components for your final thesis record
The Chancellor's Prize
TES Graduate Researcher FAQs
Career planning
Publishing my research
Getting support
Key graduate research contacts
Melbourne Research Experience Survey
Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT)
Current Students

IMAGES

Thesis Publication » Publish Your Thesis as a Book with ISBN & DOI
Publish Your Thesis as a Book with ISBN
9 Effective Tips for Publishing Thesis As a Book
(PDF) Publishing your thesis as a book
Thesis to Book Publishing
How to Publish Thesis as a Book with ISBN in India

VIDEO

How to Present your Thesis book neatly?
MFA Visual Narrative Thesis Book Talks, April 12, 2024
Laxmi Book Publication
PhD research assistance services. #phd #journal #paperwriting #implementation #articles #jobsearch
How to Bind Thesis Book
#researchpapers #writingtips #phd #journalpage #journalist #manuscripts #researchethics #articles

COMMENTS

Convert your thesis into a book
A full conversion - from thesis to book. This is a good option should your thesis be on a topic that would have wide appeal to an academic audience. A key consideration here is that the structure of a thesis is massively different to a book. Rather than starting with a hypothesis, a book should showcase a considered argument and its narrative ...
Turning your PhD into a successful book
Using parts of a PhD thesis in a book requires that ongoing and/or collaborative research is being conducted. A book (perhaps co-authored) should be greater than the sum of its constituent parts. Using an aspect of a PhD thesis in an edited book on a broader topic ensures that the research fits with related research on a similar theme.
9 Effective Tips for Publishing Thesis As a Book
9 Steps to Successfully Publish Your Thesis as a Book! 1. Establish Your Target Audience. Based on the topic of your thesis, determine the areas that may potentially rise interest in your book's audience. Once you establish your target audience, figure out the nature of book they would like to read. 2.
How to Turn Your Dissertation Into a Book: A Step-By ...
Whether you are just starting graduate school, writing your dissertation, or the proud recipient of a recent Ph.D., you may be thinking about turning your dissertation into a published book. There are many reasons why this might be a good idea. In some fields, a published scholarly book is a preferred method for presenting a comprehensive view of pivotal research. A book gives you the space to ...
From Thesis to Book: A Guide to Publishing Your ...
The cost of publishing a PhD thesis as a book can vary widely depending on several factors, such as the publisher, the length of the book, the number of copies printed, the type of printing, and the marketing budget. If you decide to self-publish your book, you will need to cover all the costs associated with publishing, such as editing ...
How to turn your PhD thesis into a book
By Sam Bailey. June 6th 2024. As an OUP editor who has also completed a PhD, one of the most common questions I am asked is how to turn a thesis into a book. My only-slightly-flippant answer is don't. Rather than a revision of their PhD, I would encourage first-book authors to treat their fledgling monograph as a brand-new project.
How to Turn your Dissertation into a Book
1. Find Your Match. The process of revising a dissertation goes hand-in-hand with the search for the right publishing house. The question what kind of book you want or need will influence your choice. Vice versa, the publisher shapes what kind of book you will be rewarded with.
Making your thesis into a book
Quite frequently early career researchers are approached to consider publishing a thesis as a book. If you intend to publish your thesis in this way considerable editing and reformatting will be required first. Often examiners' reports suggest publishing options. Books published by print-on-demand and vanity publishers may often not be ...
Turning Your Dissertation into a Book
Dissertations are highly specialized, while books are geared to general readers. Dissertation audiences are usually fewer than 100 readers — books are about 500 or more, in general. In a dissertation, the author's authority must be proven; in books, it is assumed. Dissertations contain extensive documentation (to prove authority), while ...
From Dissertation to Book
From Dissertation to Book. After many years of hard work, a dissertation is a monumental accomplishment. With so much time and effort coupled with the desire to add to scholarly discourse, many people hope to transform their dissertations into a book. Graduate writing has equipped scholars with extensive information about their discipline ...
Springer Theses
About this book series. Aims and Scope. The series "Springer Theses" brings together a selection of the very best Ph.D. theses from around the world and across the physical sciences. Nominated and endorsed by two recognized specialists, each published volume has been selected for its scientific excellence and the high impact of its contents ...
Turning Your PhD Thesis Into a Book: A Publisher's Top Tips
1. A Statement of Aims. Briefly and concisely state the main themes and objectives of the proposed book: 1-2. Provide a concise (150-200 words) and compelling abstract for the book. 2. A Detailed Synopsis, Including Chapter Summaries. Proposed table of contents with chapter titles and subheads. List chapter headings and provide at least one ...
Turning Your Thesis into a Book
Turning a thesis into a book means more than simply printing and binding your thesis as is. Neither will it be a quick touch up or superficial revision. ... The Understanding and Negotiating Book Publication Contracts from the Authors Alliance is a great resource for all questions related to book contracts. Other tips from book publishers.
publications
As a partial answer, Springer used to publish (theoretically) outstanding PhD thesis in Mathematics in its 'Lecture notes in Mathematics' as research monograph. However I do not know how many of the published volumes are Phd thesis. Definitely a (math) thesis requires a lot of polishing and rewriting before publishing.
Publishing Your Thesis as a Monograph
Selected Library Resources. The Thesis and the Book by Eleanor Harman (Editor); Siobhan McMenemy (Editor); Ian Montagnes (Editor) ISBN: 9781442689350. Publication Date: 2003-01-01. The Productive Graduate Student Writer by Jan E. Allen. ISBN: 9781620368909. Publication Date: 2019-06-24. Revising Your Dissertation, Updated Edition by Beth Luey ...
Options for Publishing Your Thesis as a Book for Free: Guide
By publishing your work as a book, you can make it more accessible to a wider range of readers, including those outside of academia. 4. Preserving your work: A thesis is often the culmination of years of research and hard work. By publishing it as a book, you can ensure that your work is preserved and accessible for future generations. 5.
(PDF) Publishing your thesis as a book
Publishing Your Thesis as a Book. Michelle Atkin, PhD. Published on April 20, 2020 as a LinkedIN Article. As a PhD graduate, I understand the work that goes into a dissertation. While there are ...
publications
This publication is separate from the Dutch tradition of creating proper printing-press copies of your thesis for distributtion to the reading committee, colleagues, friends, family, which could already considered to be a book (one typically obtains an ISBN).
Publishing Your Master's Thesis: Everything You Need to Know
Here are some of the best ways to publish your master's thesis: Publish it in an academic journal. Many academic journals accept articles that are based on a master's thesis. This is a great way to get your work published in a reputable academic publication and increase your visibility in your field. Look for journals that are relevant to ...
Turning Your Thesis Into A Book
Paperback. $29.99. But rewriting a thesis is not simply a matter of making revisions to existing text. Here are some tips and tricks to help turn your thesis into a book (or perhaps a manuscript you can submit to publishers - including us). An original thesis should be regarded as the basis for an entirely new work, written with a new ...
turning your thesis into a book
Posted on September 23, 2013 by pat thomson. Lots of people want to turn their thesis into a book. This is not always possible - not all theses make good books. But it may also not be desirable. Some disciplines revere the scholarly monograph so writing one may be very good for the career. But others hold the peer reviewed journal article as ...
Thesis Publication » Publish Your Thesis as a Book with ISBN & DOI
Thesis publication is often considered essential if you wish to expand your career in academia or a related profession. Publishing your thesis/dissertation as a book monograph can be used as a building block to an academic career, to influence your discipline and expand your knowledge of the field.
Incorporating your published work in your thesis
When submitting your thesis, you will be required to confirm that: (a) the work in the incorporated publications is your own, and. (b) that any co-authors give permission for the article to be included in the thesis. To do this, you must complete the Declaration for publication incorporated in a thesis form.