Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction. I am following the three-paper thesis format, however, I have not been able to find examples at my university library. I will need to write an introduction, literature review and conclusion chapter to bring it all together.

I would like to skim through a few example beforehand but I am not sure where to look. Any help is greatly appreciated!

The cynic in me says if there are zero 3 paper theses in your university library, is that an acceptable structure. I would look at your rules to make sure you can do it as it is weird to see no one else do it.

Also, I don't know if this relevant but my main theses examples are the ones I cite. I found a couple of recent theses on topics very similar to mine and have used them for inspiration.

Thank you for your reply, rewt. Yes, they are an acceptable structure but are very rarely used in my department (had a discussion with my supervisors about this during my first year and they gave me the go ahead so I am in the clear!). My university library has some uploaded as online versions (none of which are the three-paper structure) and others stored in the library, however, because of covid I am unable to access the university library.

So I was hoping there was an online repository somewhere else on the web. I will continue to scower the net!

That's interesting actually because I have been told to avoid citing theses and focus on peer-reviewed journal articles, but I guess it depends on your discipline/supervisor etc.

What country are you in? Three paper thesis are very common in European countries outside of the UK so if you know of any related research groups you could try googling them. My supervisor has dozens in their office because they have been the external examiner on so many outside of the UK, and all follow the three-paper format. You could ask your supervisor if they know of other groups doing anything similar to yours.

https://ethos.bl.uk/ has a repository of theses but it might be hard to find what you want.

Thank you, Saskia. I am in the UK so they are not very common here. That link is very helpful I'll check it out to see if I can find any on there. I wanted to try and find some on my own before asking my supervisor but will eventually email them if I am still stuck!

I mostly reference their published papers but theses usually includes extra little bits that can be really useful. If you are lucky to find a few PhD students who did work on a similar subject to you, you can can get an extra bit of insight that published papers don't normally include.

That's a really good point! I'll keep that in mind when I'm going through them Rewt :D.