Submission is looming for my PhD (5 weeks from now), and I'm reading through the various 'How to get a PhD' books just to ensure I'm doing everything right. Obviously I follow university guidelines first and foremost.

However, something caught my eye in one of them (Phillips and Pugh 1987):

'...your examination is not limited to your thesis report. In addition to your thesis you should submit to the examiners as supporting material any academic work to full professional standard that you have published'

Is this the norm? I have two publications (a journal article and book chapter) which have been accepted and are being printed this month. Should I submit those as hard copies with a short document explaining that I am submitting them as supporting evidence? Both are very closely related to my thesis.

I've never come across this before, and there is nothing in my university guidelines offering it as an option.

Has it the potential to make an excellent impression, or should I not bother?

I had a journal article published from my thesis prior to submission that I reincorporated into that chapter. What I did was in the acknowledgements I wrote:

Parts of Chapter Three were previously published as: (insert citation here).

I didn't include a separate copy of my paper with submission.

I would check with your thesis supervisors whether they should be included or not.

Thanks for the reply.

The article/chapter I have aren't included in the thesis, but are on a similar topic. Kind of a sideways step if you like.

Just wondering whether it's worth handing them in as supporting material...

It can't do any harm. They may completely disregard them, or they might think "this guy has been published twice on a similar topic to his thesis, it must be good!"

Wishful thinking?

I've heard of people adding published articles as appendices. I think if they are in good quality publications it certainly wouldn't do any harm.

If you are in the UK this is not the norm, I think.

Not if it doesn't directly relate to the thesis topic, in which case it should already be covered in a chapter.

Make sure you follow instructions. Ask your supervisor if you are not sure.

I put the references in a section as "academic outputs of the thesis" , and then included the actual papers in the appendices.
Hope it helps.