Examination guidance and post-examination changes

Examination guidance for PGRs

You must ensure that you submit a coherent body of interrelated work; a series of papers with little or no linking text is likely to result in a fail. 

Each substantive research chapter must therefore be contextualised and integrated within the thesis as a whole, through a commentary included with each paper chapter, and/or the conclusion/integrative chapter. 

You and your supervisor(s) are reminded that the inclusion of peer-reviewed and published papers within a thesis is a measure of good progress but does not, in itself, guarantee a successful examination outcome. You should, therefore, expect to be questioned fully on the content of published papers (including co-authored papers).

Examination guidance for examiners

Examiners should be advised that:

• a journal-style thesis should meet all the expectations of a thesis as set out in ‘the Nature of  the Thesis’ section of the Policy on Research Degrees
• when examining a journal-style thesis they may wish to pay particular attention to:
  
  • determining whether the thesis forms a coherent body of interrelated work
  • when considering jointly-authored papers, the contribution made by the PGR under examination. 

Examiners should be aware that:

• the presentation of a journal-style thesis will be different from that of a monograph thesis (eg the formatting may vary within the thesis)
• there may be some duplication of material within the thesis as each ‘paper chapter’ will have some self-contained components that may overlap with other chapters in the thesis
• if published papers are incorporated these are likely to generate a close match alert if plagiarism-checking software is used.   

Post-examination changes to a journal-style thesis

Changes to papers pre-submission

Any corrections to a paper that has not yet been submitted to a journal should be made within the text of the paper. 

Changes to papers post-submission but pre-publication

Any corrections to a paper that has been submitted to a journal - but not yet published - should be made within the text of the paper (as included in the thesis). The examiners may recommend that the PGR advises the journal reviewers and/or journal editorial team of the changes so that they are reflected in the published version of the paper. 

Changes to published papers

Examiners cannot request changes to a published paper. Any corrections to a published paper should normally be dealt with by the inclusion of a commentary text in the thesis, at the start or end of the paper. Exceptionally, examiners may require that a PGR submits a formal correction to a journal. Suspected academic misconduct in a published paper should be considered under the University's Research Misconduct Policy.