thesis by publication uk

PhD by publication

PhD awards for published researchers

Explore how you can turn your existing peer reviewed research publications into a PhD qualification

What is a PhD by publication?

A PhD by publication is a postgraduate research degree that's based on research you've already undertaken and had published (excluding self-publishing) before registering with us.

Depending on the subject area, peer reviewed  academic papers, complete books, chapters in anthologies, or equivalent materials accepted for publication, exhibited or performed  may be  eligibl e. You'll have to submit these materials for examination between 6–12 months after registering with us.

These materials will be accompanied by a commentary of 5,000–10,000 words, which outlines your work's coherence, significance and contribution to knowledge, and you'll be examined through an oral defence of your research, known as a viva voce. Applicants must have held a first or higher degree from a UK higher education institute – or a recognised equivalent non-UK degree of the same standard – for at least 5 years.

Once you've been awarded a PhD by publication, you'll be in a great position to move onto further research or to use your new postgraduate qualification to progress your career.

The cost of getting a PhD by publication in most of our subject areas is £4,500 for external candidates – check your research subject area page  for more details.

How to apply

To be considered for a PhD by publication, you'll need to have held an undergraduate or postgraduate degree – awarded either by a UK higher education institute or a recognised non-UK equivalent – for at least 5 years.

To apply you'll need:

• A CV and the names of two referees
• A title of the proposed PhD
• A listing of the published work on which the application is based
• A statement of not more than 1000 words setting out your view of the nature and significance of the work submitted

Apply from the relevant subject area page .

If your application is successful, you'll need to submit the already-published materials – those that you wish to be considered as part of your PhD by publication award – between 6–12 months after registering with us.

• Cambridge Libraries

Physical & Digital Collections

Theses & dissertations: home, access to theses and dissertations from other institutions and from the university of cambridge.

This guide provides information on searching for theses of Cambridge PhDs and for theses of UK universities and universities abroad. 

For information and guidance on depositing your thesis as a cambridge phd, visit the cambridge office of scholarly communication pages on theses here ., this guide gives essential information on how to obtain theses using the british library's ethos service. .

On the last weekend of October, the British Library became the victim of a major cyber-attack. Essential digital services including the BL catalogue, website and online learning resources went dark, with research services like the EThOS collection of more than 600,000 doctoral theses suddenly unavailable. The BL state that they anticipate restoring more services in the next few weeks, but disruption to certain services is now expected to persist for several months. For the latest news on the attack and information on the restoration of services, please follow the BL blog here:  Knowledge Matters blog  and access the LibGuide page here:  British Library Outage Update - Electronic Legal Deposit - LibGuides at University of Cambridge Subject Libraries

A full list of resources for searching theses online is provided by the Cambridge A-Z, available here .

University of Cambridge theses

Finding a cambridge phd thesis online via the institutional repository.

The University's institutional repository, Apollo , holds full-text digital versions of over 11,000 Cambridge PhD theses and is a rapidly growing collection deposited by Cambridge Ph.D. graduates. Theses in Apollo can be browsed via this link . More information on how to access theses by University of Cambridge students can be found on the access to Cambridge theses webpage.   The requirement for impending PhD graduates to deposit a digital version in order to graduate means the repository will be increasing at a rate of approximately 1,000 per year from this source.   About 200 theses are added annually through requests to make theses Open Access or via requests to digitize a thesis in printed format.

Locating and obtaining a copy of a Cambridge PhD thesis (not yet available via the repository)

Theses can be searched in iDiscover .  Guidance on searching for theses in iDiscover can be found here .   Requests for consultation of printed theses, not available online, should be made at the Manuscripts Reading Room (Email:  [email protected] Telephone: +44 (0)1223 333143).   Further information on the University Library's theses, dissertations and prize essays collections can be consulted at this link .

Researchers can order a copy of an unpublished thesis which was deposited in print form either through the Library’s  Digital Content Unit via the image request form , or, if the thesis has been digitised, it may be available in the Apollo repository. Copies of theses may be provided to researchers in accordance with the  law  and in a manner that is common across UK libraries.  The law allows us to provide whole copies of unpublished theses to individuals as long as they sign a declaration saying that it is for non-commercial research or private study.

How to make your thesis available online through Cambridge's institutional repository

Are you a Cambridge alumni and wish to make your Ph.D. thesis available online? You can do this by depositing it in Apollo the University's institutional repository. Click here for further information on how to proceed.    Current Ph.D students at the University of Cambridge can find further information about the requirements to deposit theses on the Office of Scholarly Communication theses webpages.

UK Theses and Dissertations

Electronic copies of Ph.D. theses submitted at over 100 UK universities are obtainable from EThOS , a service set up to provide access to all theses from participating institutions. It achieves this by harvesting e-theses from Institutional Repositories and by digitising print theses as they are ordered by researchers using the system. Over 250,000 theses are already available in this way. Please note that it does not supply theses submitted at the universities of Cambridge or Oxford although they are listed on EThOS.

Registration with EThOS is not required to search for a thesis but is necessary to download or order one unless it is stored in the university repository rather than the British Library (in which case a link to the repository will be displayed). Many theses are available without charge on an Open Access basis but in all other cases, if you are requesting a thesis that has not yet been digitised you will be asked to meet the cost. Once a thesis has been digitised it is available for free download thereafter.

When you order a thesis it will either be immediately available for download or writing to hard copy or it will need to be digitised. If you order a thesis for digitisation, the system will manage the process and you will be informed when the thesis is available for download/preparation to hard copy.

See the Search results section of the  help page for full information on interpreting search results in EThOS.

EThOS is managed by the British Library and can be found at http://ethos.bl.uk . For more information see About EThOS .

World-wide (incl. UK) theses and dissertations

Electronic versions of non-UK theses may be available from the institution at which they were submitted, sometimes on an open access basis from the institutional repository. A good starting point for discovering freely available electronic theses and dissertations beyond the UK is the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) , which facilitates searching across institutions. Information can also usually be found on the library web pages of the relevant institution.

The DART Europe etheses portal lists several thousand full-text theses from a group of European universities.

The University Library subscribes to the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses  (PQDT) database which from August 31 2023 is accessed on the Web of Science platform.  To search this index select it from the Web of Science "Search in" drop-down list of databases (available on the Documents tab on WoS home page)

PQDT includes 2.4 million dissertation and theses citations, representing 700 leading academic institutions worldwide from 1861 to the present day. The database offers full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and strong retrospective full text coverage for older graduate works. Each dissertation published since July 1980 includes a 350-word abstract written by the author. Master's theses published since 1988 include 150-word abstracts.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The University Library only subscribes to the abstracting & indexing version of the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database and NOT the full text version.  A fee is payable for ordering a dissertation from this source.   To obtain the full text of a dissertation as a downloadable PDF you can submit your request via the University Library Inter-Library Loans department (see contact details below). NB this service is only available to full and current members of the University of Cambridge.

Alternatively you can pay yourself for the dissertation PDF on the PQDT platform. Link from Web of Science record display of any thesis to PQDT by clicking on "View Details on ProQuest".  On the "Preview" page you will see an option "Order a copy" top right.  This will allow you to order your own copy from ProQuest directly.

Dissertations and theses submitted at non-UK universities may also be requested on Inter-Library Loan through the Inter-Library Loans department (01223 333039 or 333080, [email protected] )

• Last Updated: Dec 20, 2023 9:47 AM
• URL: https://libguides.cam.ac.uk/theses

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PhD by Papers

Rather than writing a single book-like thesis examining a single topic, a PhD by Papers gives you the choice of writing a thesis comprising of several separate (though thematically unified) papers, in the style of philosophy journal articles.

Birmingham is one of the first philosophy departments in the UK to offer a PhD by Papers option and, although this style of PhD thesis is very popular at top US departments and offers many advantages for students, it is rare in the UK. The advantages include:

• Ideas don’t always come in book-shaped packages. Our PhD by Papers format recognises that, allowing you greater scope to follow your interests
• If you would like to become an academic philosopher, you will need to publish in philosophical journals, preferably before finishing your PhD. Our PhD by Papers means your work towards publishable papers is always work towards the PhD thesis, improving your academic job prospects along the way

The Department of Philosophy was ranked 1st in the UK in the Research Excellence Framework exercise 2021 based on Grade Point Average (Times Higher Education).

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How do I find a Cambridge thesis?

Ph.D., M.Litt., M.Sc., and Divinity M.Phil. theses approved after 1970 are catalogued in iDiscover, as are M.D. and M.Chir. theses approved after May 2006. Earlier theses are listed in a card catalogue in the Manuscripts Reading Room and are gradually being added to iDiscover.

Since 1 October 2017, all PhD theses are being deposited in electronic form to the University repository  Apollo . Many earlier theses are also in the repository, but if they are not yet in digital form it is possible to request access to these theses. There is more information on how to request a copy of a printed thesis further down this page.

Gaining access to electronic copies of a thesis

The author of a given thesis in Apollo can choose whether their thesis is available to be downloaded, available on request or unavailable. While many of the theses in Apollo are openly available for download, some theses in the repository are not open access because they have either been embargoed by the author or because they are unable to be made openly available for copyright or other reasons.

Requesting a copy of a printed thesis

Researchers can order a copy of an unpublished thesis which was deposited in print form through the Library’s  Digital Content Unit  via the  image request form . Copies of theses may be provided to researchers in accordance with the  law  and in a manner that is common across UK libraries.The law allows us to provide whole copies of unpublished theses to individuals as long as they sign a declaration saying that it is for non-commercial research or private study. The agreement used for access to theses at Cambridge has been drafted using the guidance by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP).

Theses are not available for borrowing or inter library loan. The copyright of theses remains with the author. The law does not allow us to provide a copy for inclusion in a general library collection or for wider distribution beyond the individual receiving the copy, without the explicit permission of the author or copyright holder. Where someone approaches us asking for a copy for their library or wider distribution, they must obtain the explicit permission of the author or copyright owner.

Please note any periods of access restriction requested by the author apply to both electronic and print copies.

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Oxford theses

The Bodleian Libraries’ thesis collection holds every DPhil thesis deposited at the University of Oxford since the degree began in its present form in 1917. Our oldest theses date from the early 1920s. We also have substantial holdings of MLitt theses, for which deposit became compulsory in 1953, and MPhil theses.

Since 2007 it has been a mandatory requirement for students to deposit an electronic copy of their DPhil thesis in the Oxford University Research Archive (ORA) , in addition to the deposit of a paper copy – the copy of record. Since the COVID pandemic, the requirement of a paper copy has been removed and the ORA copy has become the copy of record. Hardcopy theses are now only deposited under exceptional circumstances. 

ORA provides full-text PDF copies of most recent DPhil theses, and some earlier BLitt/MLitt theses. Find out more about Oxford Digital Theses, and depositing with ORA .

Finding Oxford theses

The following theses are catalogued on SOLO (the University libraries’ resource discovery tool) :

• DPhil and BLitt and MLitt theses
• BPhil and MPhil theses 
• Science theses

SOLO collates search results from several sources.

How to search for Oxford theses on SOLO

To search for theses in the Oxford collections on SOLO :

• navigate to the SOLO homepage
• click on the 'Advanced Search' button
• click the 'Material Type' menu and choose the 'Dissertations' option
• type in the title or author of the thesis you are looking for and click the 'Search' button.

Also try an “Any field” search for “Thesis Oxford” along with the author’s name under “creator” and any further “Any field” keywords such as department or subject. 

Searching by shelfmarks

If you are searching using the shelfmark, please make sure you include the dots in your search (e.g. D.Phil.). Records will not be returned if they are left out.

Oxford University Research Archive (ORA)

ORA was established in 2007 as a permanent and secure online archive of research produced by members of the University of Oxford. It is now mandatory for students completing a research degree at the University to deposit an electronic copy of their thesis in this archive. 

Authors can select immediate release on ORA, or apply a 1-year or 3-year embargo period. The embargo period would enable them to publish all or part of their research elsewhere if they wish. 

Theses held in ORA are searchable via  SOLO , as well as external services such as EThOS and Google Scholar. For more information, visit the Oxford digital theses guide , and see below for guidance on searching in ORA.

Search for Oxford theses on ORA

Type your keywords (title, name) into the main search box, and use quotes (“) to search for an exact phrase.

Refine your search results using the drop-downs on the left-hand side. These include:

• item type (thesis, journal article, book section, etc.)
• thesis type (DPhil, MSc, MLitt, etc.)
• subject area (History, Economics, Biochemistry, etc.)
• item date (as a range)
• file availability (whether a full text is available to download or not)

You can also increase the number of search results shown per page, and sort by relevance, date and file availability. You can select and export records to csv or email. 

Select hyperlinked text within the record details, such as “More by this author”, to run a secondary search on an author’s name. You can also select a hyperlinked keyword or subject. 

Other catalogues

Card catalogue  .

The Rare Books department of the Weston Library keeps an author card index of Oxford theses. This includes all non-scientific theses deposited between 1922 and 2016. Please ask Weston Library staff for assistance.

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

You can use ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global  to find bibliographic details of Oxford theses not listed on SOLO. Ask staff in the Weston Library’s Charles Wendall David Reading Room for help finding these theses. 

Search for Oxford theses on ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global

Basic search.

The default Basic search page allows for general keyword searches across all indexes using "and", "and not", "and or" to link the keywords as appropriate. Click on the More Search Options tab for specific title, author, subject and institution (school) searches, and to browse indexes of authors, institutions and subjects. These indexes allow you to add the word or phrase recognised by the database to your search (ie University of Oxford (United Kingdom), not Oxford University).

Advanced search

The Advanced search tab (at the top of the page) enables keyword searching in specific indexes, including author, title, institution, department, adviser and language. If you are unsure of the exact details of thesis, you can use the search boxes on this page to find it by combining the key information you do have.

Search tools

In both the Basic and Advanced search pages you can also limit the search by date by using the boxes at the bottom. Use the Search Tools advice in both the Basic and Advanced pages to undertake more complex and specific searches. Within the list of results, once you have found the record that you are interested in, you can click on the link to obtain a full citation and abstract. You can use the back button on your browser to return to your list of citations.

The Browse search tab allows you to search by subject or by location (ie institution). These are given in an alphabetical list. You can click on a top-level subject to show subdivisions of the subject. You can click on a country location to show lists of institutions in that country. At each level, you can click on View Documents to show lists of individual theses for that subject division or from that location.

In Browse search, locations and subject divisions are automatically added to a basic search at the bottom of the page. You can search within a subject or location by title, author, institution, subject, date etc, by clicking on Refine Search at the top of the page or More Search Options at the bottom of the page.

Where are physical Oxford theses held?

The Bodleian Libraries hold all doctoral theses and most postgraduate (non-doctoral) theses for which a deposit requirement is stipulated by the University:

• DPhil (doctoral) theses (1922 – 2021)
• Bachelor of Divinity (BD) theses
• BLitt/MLitt theses (Michaelmas Term 1953 – 2021)
• BPhil and MPhil theses (Michaelmas Term 1977 – 2021)

Most Oxford theses are held in Bodleian Offsite Storage. Some theses are available in the libraries; these are listed below.

Law Library

Theses submitted to the Faculty of Law are held at the Bodleian Law Library .

Vere Harmsworth Library

Theses on the United States are held at the Vere Harmsworth Library .

Social Science Library

The Social Science Library holds dissertations and theses selected by the departments it supports. 

The list of departments and further information are available in the Dissertations and Theses section of the SSL webpages. 

Locations for Anthropology and Archaeology theses

The Balfour Library holds theses for the MPhil in Material and Visual Anthropology and some older theses in Prehistoric Archaeology.

The Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library holds theses for MPhil in Classical Archaeology and MPhil in European Archaeology.

Ordering Oxford theses

Theses held in Bodleian Offsite Storage are consulted in the Weston Library. The preferred location is the Charles Wendell David Reading Room ; they can also be ordered to the Sir Charles Mackerras Reading Room .

Find out more about requesting a digitised copy, copyright restrictions and copying from Oxford theses .

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• The University of Manchester Library
• Search theses

Postgraduate research theses contain ‘a wealth of data… which can shed light on very interesting areas’ (The British Library, 2014).

You can find theses submitted by University of Manchester postgraduate research students from the late 19th Century to the present day using the Library Search box above. Or try the Advanced Search for more options (select 'Theses' from the drop-down list for ‘Material type’).

Follow the links below for more information about accessing theses submitted by Manchester researchers, as well as theses from authors all over the world.

Access to British Library EThOS - March 2024

Access to British Library EThOS  is currently unavailable due to a major technical outage affecting several of their online services.

View news and updates on the British Library website

Manchester eTheses

Doctoral theses submitted from 2010 onwards which are currently Open Access are available to view via the University’s Research Explorer.

eTheses submission

Supporting Postgraduate Research Students, Supervisors and Administrators with the submission of electronic theses.

Search ProQuest for digitised pre-2010 Manchester theses, as well as over four million theses and dissertations from institutions around the world.

Theses Library Guide

Consult our Theses Library Guide for guidance on how to locate and access theses from UK and International institutions.

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Theses and Dissertations: UK PhD Theses

• UK PhD Theses
• Overseas PhD Theses
• BU Theses & Dissertations This link opens in a new window

For Library Enquiries: tel. +44 (0) 1202 965959 Available 9am - 5pm Mon to Fri

For IT Support: tel. +44 (0) 1202 965515 Available 24/7

Using UK PhD Theses in EThOS

Obtaining Theses

• Thesis and Dissertation databases can be accessed via this BU Library webpage .
• If a thesis is not available full text online then it may be possible to obtain via the Inter-Library Loan service . The clarity of your request is enhanced if you attach a printout of the source details e.g. a record from one of the databases .
• Electronic Theses Online Service (EThOS) is the British Library service which provides full text open access to digital copies of UK PhD theses. The EThOS database contains records of over 250,000 UK theses, with the added functionality of being able to request access to digital copies of selected theses that have not already been digitised.
• Personal registration on EThOS is required to be able to download theses. Bournemouth University is an Open Access Sponsor of EThOS, so all BU theses are indexed.
• Theses which are already available to download have a pdf attached to the record. For those theses that do not have a pdf attached, you should select the record to check Availability of Full Text – there are 3 possible scenarios:
• The home institution will pay the digitisation cost and access will be free.
• The home institution will digitise the thesis, but you will be charged.  In these cases you should consult your supervisor as to how important the thesis is to your research and consider requesting payment via the Inter-Library Request Service.
• The thesis is not available via EThOS service. Please contact the current institution's library directly if you wish to view the thesis.

Doing a thesis at BU

This guide is to help with searching for theses from other institutions.

If you are doing a thesis at BU and want guidance to help with writing and completing your research see our PGR Guide

Subject Guide

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• Last Updated: Oct 18, 2023 11:46 AM
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Quick links:

Online Reading Lists Recommend a Book Inter-Library Loan Explore Other Libraries

• Newcastle University Theses
• UK and Irish Theses

Print Theses

The Library holds copies of all Newcastle University PhD theses and copies of theses written for other research degrees such as DSc, MD, LLD, DEng, DBA, EdD, MPhil.

All theses held by the Library are listed in  LibrarySearch . Links are provided to the full text where this is available.

Electronic Theses

Our  repository of electronic theses  contains the full text of over 3,800 Newcastle University doctoral theses.

• EThOS Search the details of over 500,000 UK theses dating back to 1800. The full text of over half of these is available for immediate download to registered users, and in other cases, you may be able to request a copy in digital or other format (for which there may be a charge).

There isn't one single source for finding non-UK theses, and access options will vary according to the institution, but the links below give the best starting points.

• Australian Theses Search almost a million Australian theses.
• DART Europe Access to over 600,000 open access research theses from 28 European countries.
• Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations This database provides access to the full text of thousands of international theses and dissertations.
• Open Access Theses and Dissertations OATD.org aims to be the best possible resource for finding open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world. OATD currently indexes over two million theses and dissertations from over 1,000 institutions worldwide.
• PQTD Open Search and read open access dissertations and theses from the USA.
• Proquest Dissertation Express (international) This link opens in a new window Over two million graduate works from graduate schools around the world including American and Canada. Theses and dissertations may be available to purchase direct from ProQuest using the order forms provided. Please consult the help section to see how you can order and pay for these dissertations yourself.
• Proquest Dissertations & Theses Citation Index A curated collection of multi-disciplinary dissertations and theses, offering over 5.5 million records representing dissertations and theses from thousands of universities around the world. Useful for all subjects.

The Student Progress Office provides information on Research Degree Examination Procedures and Forms, including the University's Guidelines for the Submission and Format of Theses  and Library Deposit Licence.  You may also wish to speak to your supervisor for advice on thesis presentation.

• Guidelines for the Submission and Format of Theses
• Last Updated: Jun 5, 2024 12:53 PM
• URL: https://libguides.ncl.ac.uk/theses

Welcome to White Rose eTheses Online

White rose etheses online.

Welcome to White Rose eTheses Online, a shared repository of electronic theses from the University of Leeds, the University of Sheffield and the University of York.

Student from the University of Leeds, Sheffield or York? Need to upload your thesis? Start by creating an account , or login to your account

If you are unsure if this is the right place for you, check the FAQs .

Recent additions for Leeds , Sheffield , York or all recent additions .

What is White Rose eTheses Online?

This repository gives access to theses awarded by the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York. The available repository content can be accessed for free, without the need to log on or create an account, as per the instructions of the depositing author. We also make the content available through aggregator sites via harvesting mechanisms.

Theses and dissertations

We provide access to University of York PhD/MPhil theses and Masters dissertations for members of the University and visitors to the Library. We can also help you to find theses/dissertations from other institutions.

For all York theses and dissertations, copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise stated. You may copy a modest amount of material from a thesis with full attribution as defined in law. In all other circumstances you should contact the rights-holder for permission.

• Read our practical guide to Copyright law

Search for a York thesis or dissertation

All available University of York theses can be found on YorSearch , including electronic versions held in the Digital Library and White Rose eTheses. You can search YorSearch for the title, author or department and academic year.

What we hold

We hold the University's PhD and MPhil theses, including physical copies up to 2012.

White Rose eTheses   holds electronic copies from 2013 onwards, as well as a selection of pre-2013 theses.

University of York Masters dissertations for some subjects are available:

• electronically via  YorSearch
• in print via Borthwick Institute for Archives ( Note : booking is necessary)

We also hold a selection of digitised undergraduate dissertations for certain subjects:

• History   (selection from 1967 onwards)
• History of Art   (selection from 1997 onwards)
• Social Policy and Social Work   (selection from 2019 onwards)

Consulting a thesis/dissertation in the Library

Our physical theses and dissertations are kept in a secure store. To consult them you will need to request access via Borthwick Institute for Archives by emailing [email protected] with the details of the thesis and a preferred appointment date.

Note : theses and dissertations can only be consulted in the reading room at the Borthwick Institute and cannot be removed.

If you are an independent researcher and want to consult a York thesis, contact us at [email protected] .

Finding theses from other universities

You can try one of the following services to find theses by students from other institutions.

• Read more about using PhD theses on EThOS (youtube.com)
• White Rose eTheses Online holds electronic, doctoral level theses from the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York
• Index to theses is an index to British and Irish higher degree theses with abstracts (summaries) or brief details of each thesis
• Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations allows you to search for electronic theses from around the world

If you can't access the full text of a thesis you're interested in, please complete our Request Form and we will try to source it for you. Please note the success of this may depend on the holding library's policies, or obtaining the author's permission, but we will let you know if we're unable to source it.

PhD by published work

The PhD by published work route is intended primarily for mid-career research-active academics who, for one reason or another, haven’t had the opportunity to undertake a research programme leading to a PhD.

Submissions for this award will consist of a coherent body of work which is of the same quality, rigour and volume as required of a standard PhD in your field and which constitutes an original contribution to knowledge.

We welcome applications from Westminster staff and from outside the University. Applications are considered on their merits within the relevant colleges and applicants are advised to approach the relevant members of academic staff for an informal discussion before applying.

If your application is successful, you will be assigned one or more supervisors who will advise on which of your publications should form your final submission to be examined and how your commentary should be written. The commentary (15,000 words) describes the aims of the research you’ve undertaken to produce your publications, incorporates an analytical discussion of the main results and puts the total work submitted in context.

What kind of publications are considered to be appropriate for a submission via this route?

• books and book chapters
• refereed journal papers
• Other media/other public output (eg architectural or engineering designs)
• The submission of a single book, work or artefact is also possible
• The body of work may not include any material produced more than ten years before the date of submission

How do I apply?

You should first make contact with the relevant academic or  relevant College  for an informal discussion of your publications and how they might be considered for a PhD by Published Work. If you decide to apply, you will make an application in the normal way.

What should my application consist of?

In addition to the standard application process, your application should also include a portfolio of publications, accompanied by a proposal not exceeding 2,000 words in length, which contextualises the selected publications, demonstrates their coherence and outlines the intended contribution to knowledge.

View the guidance on  how to write your PhD by published work research proposal .

What happens after I’ve applied?

Your application will be considered by a College panel, which will assess the quality and the coherence of your publications and your proposal, and if the panel wishes to take your application further, it will invite you to interview, following which you will receive a decision.

How long will it take from initial enrolment to final submission of the work for examination?

This is a part-time programme which takes a minimum of 12 months and a maximum of 24 months.

What should I do next?

• Check that you meet the entry requirements and review your options for funding your programme
• Find out if we cover your proposed area of research and if there is a supervisory team available

If you decide to proceed, you can find links to apply and all the information you need on our Research area pages .

Related pages

Fees and funding.

How much will it cost to study a research degree?

Entry requirements

Find out if you can apply for a Research Degree at the University of Westminster.

Research degree by distance learning

Find out about Research Degree distance learning options at the University of Westminster.

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UCL Doctoral School

• Self-Plagiarism

Guidance on incorporating published work in your thesis

How you can include published work in your thesis and avoid self-plagiarism

Doctoral candidates who are worried about what they can include in their thesis can follow this guidance. It covers the inclusion of previously published papers and how to integrate them properly.

Publishing first, then submitting thesis for examination

If you've published before submitting your thesis:

• an appropriate citation of the original source in the relevant Chapter; and
• completing the UCL Research Paper Declaration form – this should be embedded after the Acknowledgments page in the thesis.
• Before using figures, table sheets, or parts of the text, find out from the editor of the journal if you transferred the copyrights when you submitted the paper.
• When in doubt, when you do not own copyright, get formal approval from copyright owners to re-use the material (this is frequently done for previously published data and figures to be included in a doctoral thesis; please see more information on the UCL Copyright advice website ).
• ensure the style matches that of the rest of the thesis, both in formatting and content,
• add additional information/context where beneficial, such as additional background/relevant literature, more detailed methods,
• offer additional data not included in the publication, such as preliminary data, null findings, anything included in supplementary materials.
• If you worked together with co-authors, your (and their) contributions to the publication should be specified in the UCL Research Paper Declaration form.

Examples of including previously published work in your thesis

After gaining approval from the copyright holder, you would be allowed to copy and paste sections from the published paper into your thesis.

You might make minor edits to the text to ensure that it fits the overall style of your thesis (e.g. changing “We” to “I”, where appropriate) and that it is written in your voice (see bullet point on ‘Initial drafts of papers’ below).

You might also incorporate additional text/figures/Tables that did not appear in the original publication.

Unacceptable

You cannot embed the unedited pdf of the published paper into your thesis.

You also cannot copy and paste the entire paper without making any attempt to match the style to the rest of the thesis.

Submitting thesis first (and the degree is successfully awarded) and published after

If your thesis is published first, then this must be declared to a journal publisher so that you can check with the editor about the acceptability of including part of your thesis.

You must make sure that you have cited the original source correctly (your thesis for example) and acknowledged yourself as author. Where possible, you could also provide a link.

This applies not just to reproducing your own material but also to ideas which you have previously published elsewhere.

Tips for reusing material in final thesis

We strongly recommend you write your upgrade document (and/or any progression documents) in the same style and format as you would your final thesis. This will help you plan the format of your final thesis early and you can then reuse as much of your upgrade material in your final thesis as makes sense.

Initial drafts of papers

We strongly recommend you keep your initial drafts of papers for use in your final thesis; this way it is written in your voice (not that of your supervisors, co-authors, or journal editor) and will be less likely to affect any copyright issues with the publisher. This does not mean you cannot incorporate supervisor corrections; however, all text should be written by you and not subject to vast rewriting/editing by others as is often the case with journal publications. You should still cite your published work where relevant.

Plan your thesis structure and project timings carefully from the start

This means considering thesis structure, time of upgrade/progression reviews, and, if appropriate, which chapters might be turned into publications and when.

Prioritise the thesis over any other priorities

Furthermore, as you approach the final months before your submission deadline (which you should check carefully with your supervisory team and funder as expectations may vary), we strongly encourage you to prioritise the thesis over any other conflicting priorities, e.g. internships, publications, etc…

Remember to follow these guidelines to ensure the appropriate use of published work in your doctoral thesis while avoiding self-plagiarism.

What is Self-Plagiarism

The UCL Academic Manual describes self-plagiarism as:

“The reproduction or resubmission of a student’s own work which has been submitted for assessment at UCL or any other institution. This does not include earlier formative drafts of the particular assessment, or instances where the department has explicitly permitted the re-use of formative assessments but does include all other formative work except where permitted.”

Read about this in more detail in Chapter 6, Section 9.2d of the UCL Academic Manual page .

How self-plagiarism applies to Doctoral Students

Re-use of material already used for a previous degree.

A research student commits self-plagiarism if they incorporate material (text, data, ideas) from a previous academic degree (e.g., Master's of Undergraduate) submission, whether at UCL or another institution, into their final these without explicit declaration.

Note on Upgrades

The upgrade report is not published nor is it used to confer a degree, and is therefore excluded from the above definition of “material”.

In effect, the upgrade report (and any other progression reviews) is a form of “thesis draft” owned by the student and we encourage the reuse of material in the upgrade report in the final thesis where relevant.

As a result, material written by yourself can be used both in publications and your final thesis, and the self-plagiarism rule does not apply here. However, since your final thesis will be ‘published’ online, there are several rules you must follow.

For additonal detail, visit the UCL Discovery web page .

Links to forms

UCL Research Paper Declaration Form for including published material in your thesis (to be embedded after the Acknowledgements page).

• Form in MS Word format (DOCX)
• Form in LaTeX format (TEX) , thanks to David Sheard, Dept of Mathematics
• Form in PDF preview (PDF)

Helpful resources

• Step-by-step guide and FAQs on publishing doctoral work
• Information about your own copyright
• Information on online copy of your thesis

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• Preparing your thesis

Publishing material from your thesis

Your rights to publish.

You retain the copyright in your thesis unless:

• your research is sponsored or funded by a funder with a claim on the intellectual property
• your research builds upon existing intellectual property generated by, or jointly invented with, Imperial employees or associates
• you are concurrently an employee of Imperial College London during your period of study

For details see Intellectual property

In principle, you may reproduce, or give others permission to reproduce, parts or the whole of your thesis but you must consider:

• third party works and the permission you have been given to use them - if  your permission does not extend to the intended use, send a second permission request to the owner of the third party copyright work
• any plans to apply for a patent application, meaning that you must postpone communication of your research through an embargo

Discuss any of the above issues with your supervisor.

Publishing in a journal

Journals generally accept papers based on work already written up in a thesis. Individual journal polices on what a journal considers to be prior publication can be found within the ‘information for authors’ section of the journal website. The United Kingdom Council of Research Repositories (UKCoRR) have produced this  Thesis prior publications spreadsheet on some of the publisher policies that you can use as guidance. If a publisher is concerned that your thesis has already been published online, you may apply for an embargo .

Your paper should be a reworking of the material in your thesis and written to conform to the journal's style guide. The course (publication section), offered by the Graduate School, offers helps and tips.

When quoting from your thesis or reusing figures, avoid self-plagiarism by citing and referencing any extracts copied or adapted from your thesis appropriately.

Publishing your whole thesis

If you intend to publish your thesis or are approached by a publisher, request a copy of the publishing agreement before signing it - make sure that publication is in your best interests and will not restrict your future use of the content.

The Library

Thesis publication.

Does WRAP deposit affect publisher interest in my thesis? - this depends on the publisher and what they plan on publishing from your thesis.

Some publishers ask authors to sign agreements stating that they have not previously published their work elsewhere, and some publishers do consider availability in a repository like WRAP, or any availability online, to be a form of publication. A publisher can't claim ownership of the copyright in your thesis, but they could consider that, since the work is already available, there would be little demand for their version. To this end, you should also consider embargoing access to the print version of your thesis and discuss this with your supervisor.

Some publishers are not concerned about theses in repositories: your work would be formatted differently and marketed if published by them. You could put your thesis in the repository and then demonstrate that people are looking at it already (contact us publications at warwick dot ac dot uk for stats), and use that as evidence of interest. We have had more than one case where a student was approached by a publisher because they had seen their thesis in WRAP.

Publishers survey

The WRAP team initiated a small scale survey of 33 publishers. They were given a number of options to assess their attitude to thesis publication. We received 15 responses. Below are the results of the survey as well as the names of the publishers if they gave us permission to make their responses public.

In most cases the publishers who chose the final option (other) were not willing to state a single response but rather wanted to consider theses on a case by case basis, however they did give the impression they would prefer that the thesis had not been made available.

As you can see there is little consensus in approach between the publishers.

If you would like more information or to discuss your options please contact us publications at warwick dot ac dot uk .

What to do next

You could phone round the publishers you are considering approaching, to ask for their policy on this matter and should consult with your supervisor. It would be best to consider the policies of specific publishers you are approaching because as we have seen there is no consistency of approach, and there isn't a tool collating publisher policies all in one place.

If you are looking to publish your thesis we would advise you to select the option that asks for an embargo period of at least two years to find a publisher. It is worth discussing the most appropriate period with your supervisor as they may be aware of the attitudes of the specific publishers most important to your discipline. If it comes to the end of the embargo period and you are still in discussions with publishers contact us publications at warwick dot ac dot uk to discuss the possibility of extending the embargo period – but this would only be possible with the agreement of the Board of Graduate Studies.

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• Education, training and skills
• School curriculum
• Primary curriculum, key stage 1
• English (key stage 1)

Optional key stage 1 tests: 2024 English reading test materials

Optional English reading test materials used in May 2024.

2024 key stage 1 English reading Paper 1: reading prompt and answer booklet

Ref: ISBN 978-1-83507-015-4, STA/24/8800/e

PDF , 38.8 MB , 20 pages

2024 key stage 1 English reading Paper 2: reading booklet

Ref: ISBN 978-1-83507-017-8, STA/24/8802/e

PDF , 7.17 MB , 12 pages

2024 key stage 1 English reading Paper 2: reading answer booklet

Ref: ISBN 978-1-83507-016-1, STA/24/8801/e

PDF , 366 KB , 12 pages

2024 key stage 1 English reading - administering Paper 1: reading prompt and answer booklet

Ref: ISBN 978-1-83507-136-6, STA/24/8821/e

PDF , 243 KB , 8 pages

2024 key stage 1 English reading - administering Paper 2: reading booklet and reading answer booklet

Ref: ISBN 978-1-83507-137-3, STA/24/8822/e

PDF , 208 KB , 4 pages

2024 key stage 1 English reading mark schemes

Ref: ISBN 978-1-83507-018-5, STA/24/8803/e

PDF , 351 KB , 26 pages

2024 copyright ownership: key stage 1 national curriculum tests

It is recommended that schools administer the optional English reading tests at the end of key stage 1 in May 2024. Test administration instructions and mark schemes are also provided.

Please refer to the copyright ownership report for details of how schools, educational establishments and third parties can use these materials.

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