Hello,

If I turn a study from my PhD into a journal article is it ok to use paragraphs that are the same? Will this matter in PhD viva?

Thanks

Sam

I think you are still supposed to try to paraphrase.

You need to check your own university's policy.

At my uni, if you write a traditional format thesis, reusing paragraphs from your own papers is considered self-plagiarism. However, if you write an 'alternative format' journal article style thesis it is acceptable. It's acknowledged that this is a bit of an odd policy, but it is what it is at present.

I am copy-pasting like a boss right now!

I can't be bothered. Almost EVERY chapter in my thesis is a publication... I attach them in the Appendix. If they hunt me down to chop off my hand for self-plagiarism I ll let you know (I ll come back in the forum crying).

This whole traditional PhD (they won't let me submit by publication) is ridiculous. Pages and pages of excruciating detail and endless formatting (that no one will ever read).

I quite like having to write the thesis, rather that just submit a series of publications.

There's only so much information one can obtain from published articles. In my field (molecular biology) it's really useful to be able to refer to the methods in someone else's thesis because they are so explicit it's easy to replicate their work when required.

I also like the fact that I can write a series of observations that I've made, which would never make it in a journal these days, but are more akin to old school articles from before the 1980s. Makes me feel like a real scientist :)