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Thesis / Dissertation Formatting Manual (2024)


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Incorporating YOUR OWN Previously Published Work

With the approval of your thesis/dissertation committee and your academic department, your previously published work may be used to fulfill all or part of your degree requirement.

Such publications must represent research or scholarship comparable in scope and contribution to that portion of your thesis/dissertation which it is intended to replace.

In addition, to a large extent such material must be the product of your graduate study at UCI. You must provide an introduction showing the historical development, methods used, and results of your work, if such information is not part of the published material itself. This is particularly important in those instances where the material submitted is composed of several discrete publications.

How to Acknowledge Your Own Previously Published Work

Permission Letter if someone else is the Copyright Holder

Often a publisher of a journal or book will hold the copyright when a work is published. If this is the case, you must upload to Proquest a permission letter (or website statement) from the copyright holder of any published material used in your manuscript (excluding material covered by "fair use"). The letter must state that the copyright owner is aware that "UMI may supply single copies on demand." If filing in paper, this letter must be filed with your manuscript.

If you (the author) are the copyright holder, then a permission letter is not required. 
 

Copyright Page

If you are not the copyright holder of previously published material, you must list additional copyrights on the Copyright Page. See https://guides.lib.uci.edu/gradmanual/copyright
 

Acknowledgments Page

Include a statement in your Acknowledgements Page informing the reader that you are using previously published material, and that permission to use copyrighted material in your manuscript has been granted and identifying the publication in which the material originally appeared. Example:

"The text of this thesis/dissertation is a reprint of the material as it appears in (name of publication), used with permission from ____."
 

Acknowledging Co-Authors

If the published material has a co-author, and if this co-author is listed by reason of having directed and supervised research which serves as the basis of the thesis/dissertation, the acknowledgments page should state something like this:

"The text of this thesis/dissertation is a reprint of the material as it appears in (name of publication), used with permission from ____. The co-author listed in this publication directed and supervised research which forms the basis for the thesis/dissertation."

If published material is approved for submission where there are one or more co-authors other than your research director, be sure to include these names in your acknowledgements page citation.

"The text of this thesis/dissertation is a reprint of the material as it appears in (name of publication), used with permission from ____. The co-authors listed in this publication are ___ [you can include their roles, or at least include their names if using a citation style that abbreviates names]"

Including Material Already Committed to Future Publication

If you intend to include any material that has been formally committed to future publication (whether the material is authored by you or someone else), you must submit with your manuscript a letter from that publisher giving you permission to include the material. The letter must indicate the year of publication and the name of the author or publisher who will hold the copyright.

Include a statement acknowledging permission received on your Acknowledgments Page.