Hi all, Recently there were some posts showing the importance of research papers for final viva. I was just wondering if it is only the research paper that is important OR review article, book chapter, letter to editor etc are helpful as well?

Anything peer-reviewed can only be a good thing. It shows that your work has been subject to external scrutiny and found to be up to scratch. However, a person could go into a viva with a string of publications and still fail, it's certainly no guarantee.

Likewise, a person could go into a viva with no publications from their thesis and pass with no problems. PhD research should be publishable (in whole or in part), there is no stipulation (in UK anyway) for the thesis to have been published prior to viva.

At the end of the day, examiners are examining you on your thesis, not your papers etc. No need to worry about publications.

if you can publish anyway then do it. if it is peer reviewed the examiners won't be so picky about it come your viva (unless he is being really difficult).