Hello, I was wondering what the rules are about plagerising yourself?

I have written a paper (I am first author) and this will be one of my results chapters.

Do I have to rewrite the things I wrote in my paper for my thesis? because I can't plagerise myself??? because of copyright laws?

Also can I not use my figures and tables that I made from the paper for my thesis?

I so wish I listened to my graduate tutor when he said not to write papers but write my thesis first, but my supervisor told me to write the paper first and then my thesis.

Also, where can i find out information regarding referencing style and margins specifications etc, if you're submitting to the University of london senate house? (I am using endnote).

Thanks! :-)

"because I can't plagerise myself??? because of copyright laws?"


****************Speechless Silence*******************************


are you joking?

lol no i am not, i was told by a fellow phd student, who's passed her phd, that i can't copy what i have written in my paper, because of copyright laws??? because it's published.

Of course you can use your own figures, texts and whatever. You are the author, this is your stuff, just copy and paste into your thesis. Nobody on this planet will question you about copyright!

you just could not recycle it for another, additional future publication.

oh thanks !!!

that's made me feel better! now i don't feel so stressed that i have to re-write my first paper when i write my first results chapter.
oh and that's such a relief i can use my tables and figures!

thank you

ohhh i see! thanks!!

No-one will make a deal about it but in theory you should change it because you don't own the copyright - the journal does. So technically, your friend has a point. I'm in the same boat though and I certainly will be recycling as much as possible!

I think the reason you're perhaps not supposed to copy text word for word from a paper is because you're presumably not the only author, so it would in theory be impossible to tell whether you were plagiarising yourself or another member of your lab. In reality it might be advisable to re-word things, especially since the word limits are so strict in most journals that you will probably WANT to say more in your thesis than you has space to say in the paper. I think it's fine to lift figures/diagrams exactly if you did the experiments and drew them yourself.

There are slightly different rules for electronic theses. There seems to be a UK move to get doctoral theses published in online repositories and there are copyright issues for this medium. Consult your library services if this affects you.

Publishers are worried about mass reproduction so if you are only submitting a paper thesis they won't care. It is the electronic editions that they are more concerned about.

Jouri, I think for the most part you're wrong here - you cannot just use your own text from another article and transplant it into a thesis. The copyright is usually owned by the journal, not the author. The normal practice is to reference one's own work, just like any other materials.

Lara, if you want to word-for-word use your paper in your thesis, you will probably need permission of the journal and also a statement that the material is 'reprinted' - this is because, assuming you're at the UoL, they can supply copies of your thesis to 3rd parties for a fee. The UoL is then breaching copyright by reproducing the journal's paper, if permission is not given. Obviously, if you retain copyright - it's okay.

You can circumvent this problem by re-writing the paper in the thesis and adding citations to your paper, but blatant reproduction of the paper may land you in trouble.

Thanks everyone for their advice and input!

So basically, it's better to just rewrite my paper when i turn it into a thesis chapter.

But I don't need to actually cite myself in my thesis, unless i use a direct quote.
yeh i think its just safer i re-write it.
otherwise the chapter will be riddled with my surname in brackets which will look silly lol
Thanks makes sense !

Makes sense, MissSpacey, but is basically wrong. If I research a subject area for years, mainly with the endgoal of a PhD submission but simultaneously publish a paper based on and incorporating the work I've done until a certain point, then it is perfectly acceptable to include this material into the PhD. Without the silly "myownname" (2007) citing thing. I know that this is perfectly acceptable, simply because that's what my supervisors told me. In this particular case, official copyright rules don't apply because everybody does it this way. Otherwise it would be nearly impossible to publish and complete the PhD at the same time.

Jouri - we'll have to agree to disgree (legally I believe I'm right).