I have the possibility to publish an essay in an edited book. This is part of the research for my PhD, and there are excerpts from some unpublished manuscripts in it. The problem is that I am only at the end of my 1st year and I wonder whether you are allowed to publish something that may be part of your thesis, prior to the viva.
Is there anyone who had this opportunity before and can help?

The more you publish prior to your viva, the easier the viva will be. In this case, you will have a poker card and the examiners can't really fail you as your research has been peer-reviewed and disseminated. I would definititely go for it, if I were you.

Thank you Otto. It is very much appreciated. I would have asked my supervisor, but she tends to stop any initiative I have, so I prefer to keep it quiet until I am sure that the project is going ahead.

Isn't it suprising how some supervisors discourage their students instead of encouraging their initiatives and forward thinking.

Best wishes Corinne.

Thanks Cryogenics. I think that some supervisors perceive their students as possible competitors -which thing is a bit out of proportion considering that we are in process of building up our experience and knowledge. However, there are other people in my dept. who are open and encourage me to go ahead and this is what I am trying to do. I have been lucky, because I had the chance to meet other scholars in my field outside my uni and this opened up opportunities to present at conferences for example. Something that would have never been suggested or encouraged by my supervisor. So your wishes are very much appreciated.

Otto & Cryogenics, you brought me good luck! A proposal for another pubblication has just landed on my computer screen. I should write here more often!
Thanks again for your encouragement.

we were told at my university, that publishing is always good career-wise, but that you have to be careful with publishing with co-authors. the problem is, in your PhD thesis, the work has to be yours. if you have published parts of your thesis earlier, together with co-authors, it will be hard to demonstrate that is essentially your work - because if it is, why the co-author and not just your name on the publication?
so perhaps you should check this up before publishing with co-authors.

Hi Shani / Corinne

just reacting on you remark Shani; Surely if your name is on the paper esp if you are the first author one should see it as your researh.

I would tend to agree with previous remarks that the more and the sooner you publish the better, afterall the idea of a PhD is that you have proven that you can produce work which worth its mark in the research community

Probably I didn't explain the situation properly.
The project I am refering to is an edited book which comprises selected papers. These papers have been presented at a conference and of course each paper has only one author. The book should be edited by the organizer of the conference and each author should appear in the index next to her/his own chapter. I think that there shouldn't be any doubt about who is the author of what, but of course I will be careful before I accept anything. Thanks to you both for your advise.

Hi corrine
Is it not surprinsing that you are presenting your work without your supervisor as a co-author. Secondly you are going to publish your work in a conference report instead of a peer-reviewed journal. I think you will not have the right to publish this work in some journal latter on (I am taling in the context of conference/journals in scinece). So if it is a book chapter, go ahead but you need to be careful, if you going to publish your own data.

Hi Explorer,
I should have mentioned that I am in Humanities, not in Science.
I am not sure what the differences are when it's down to publishing papers. Thank you for your advise. I will certainly try to find out more.

Hi
I meant publishing in a peer-reviewed journal is better than conference book. If you publish your abstract in the conference you can publish this data in some journal as well but if you publish a full lengh article in some conference book/proceeding etc. you dont have the right to publish this data once again. Lets see what other people say.
This may not be the case in huminities.

Thank you very much Explorer. I wasn't aware of this. Of course this could be a potential problem, although I am not sure that I would re-use the same material for an article, or even in which form - if at all - this material will be included in my thesis eventually. Of course I should consider this option better.
P.S. I really like your nick. It reminds me of Jules Verne's '20,000 leagues under the sea'!