Hi, I need your help please folks.

Three of my chapters have been published as papers, and I've just been told by the research office that that will be flagged up as self-plagiarism and therefore I need to re-write those chapters (TurnItIn produced a high score). My supervisor is on holiday and I am panicking! Please tell me they are wrong? :'-(

Hugh, this sounds like wrong advice to me, and it contradicts everything I have been told to do (ie I've been told to lift things word for word from my thesis and publish them). If I find anything concrete about this I will share it with you, but I'd put money on it that it's the wrong advice.

Just to add to my answer: I think it's common practice to note in the thesis something like, 'Parts of this chapter have previously been published in journal XYZ', but I'm sure what you're describing is not self-plagiarism. The fact that you can do a 'thesis by publication' says it's not!

Thanks so much for replying Chickpea, I'm panicking less now.

Chickpea, my problem is that I don't have access to TurnItIn, and had to ask the office to put it through, and that's where it was flagged up. I'm hoping my supervisor says it'll be fine when he gets back on holiday (I just hope he doesn't keep me waiting for long) :-(

I am with Chickpea on this Hugh- I am 100% certain that this is not something to be concerned about and that your supervisor will tell you it is ok. Those at the office will just have blanket advice 'Oh look, it has flagged this up- better re write it'. I mean, who knows best, PhD students represented on this thread who have all heard that this is not an issue across different institutions or those that work in the office who have not been through the PhD process themselves?

In past theses that I have read from my department, people simply state before the contents page 'The following work has been published from the thesis: *list of publications*' and these are those that have passed.

Even though it is not a thesis by publication, as Chickpea says, thesis by publication would not exist if this was an issue :)

Thank you Zutterfly (and chickpea)!

I'm hoping my panic is over now. This weekend I'm hoping to continue the final proof read for my 1st draft submission. I'm hoping to have it finished by Monday evening. Then I've got to prepare for interview and take some time off.

I can do this. I can do this. I can survive this. This is what I keep need to repeating to myself. I will make it to passing this PhD, and all of you will too! :-)

I am also 100% certain this is absolutely not something to worry about. At the beginning of the thesis do you have an "author's declaration' or something similar? We have to include one, and that's where we list which chapters have been published.

You can write something like "Chapter 3 was first published as XX" if it's exactly the same. Or, as I am doing, "the work in Chapter 3 has previously been published in part in XX"

You absolutely can do this. And so can I :-) NEARLY THERE!

I felt like i wasn't making a lot of progress today, so I decided to write my acknowledgements. I said I wouldn't write those til last, but I'm glad I've done it now. After 6 years of effort, there were a lot of people to thank!

Thank you IntoTheSpiral, this is all very reassuring!

I have declaration with papers, but not specifying which chapters they are in, though it is obvious. Since editing again, I have made minor changes to them, and added things too, so all of it is not exactly the same, although most parts are the same. I think part of my publications is also in introduction and recommendations, so its scattered around.

You are so close Hugh! And is the interview for a job? Good luck :) I have had no joy on the job front yet, so I have taken a step back for a few weeks to focus on the editing of my thesis.

Currently nearly finished editing chapter 3 of 10. I feel like I am maybe taking too long but I want it as polished as possible before it is handed to my supervisor. I am hoping the remaining 7 chapters will be much faster as I don't have a lot to edit on those (hopefully!)