What changes between a thesis and an article
They're different documents for different readers, not a long and a short version of the same thing.
Side by side
Keeping these differences in view makes the cutting decisions much easier.
| Aspect | Thesis | Journal article |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Show you can do independent research | Report a contribution to the field |
| Reader | Examiners, who must read all of it | Researchers, who may read only the abstract |
| Scope | Everything you did | One question, one main finding |
| Literature | Comprehensive review | Only what justifies the study |
| Methods | Full detail and rationale | Enough to repeat; the rest in supplements |
| Length | Tens of thousands of words | Often 3,000 to 8,000 |
How many papers are in your thesis?
Usually more than one. Each empirical chapter or study may be a paper; the literature review may become a review article if it's systematic enough.
Don't slice too thin. Splitting one study into several papers with overlapping data, sometimes called salami slicing, is poor practice, and journals treat it as such.
Text reuse and prior publication
Many journals don't treat a thesis held in a university repository as prior publication, but policies differ, so check your target journal and say in the cover letter that the article is based on your thesis.
Cite the thesis where appropriate. Rewrite instead of copying long passages: the article needs different prose anyway, and it avoids questions when the journal runs a similarity check.
Authorship
Agree authorship with your supervisor and any collaborators before you start. Supervisors who contributed to the design, analysis or writing are normally co-authors, and conventions on author order differ between fields.
All authors need to approve the final version before submission.