Hello,

I'm in my third year & just starting to write up (daunted doesn't come close!). My supervisor recently proposed that I could write up it up using the papers format, instead of as a thesis/ monograph. My work is made of three quite distinct parts (linked in temporal focus/ theory but not really in subject material) and his suggestion seems to make sense. I already have one large paper in the process of publication, and another from a conference that could be expanded into a paper so it would save time I think....

I just really don't know much about theses as journal papers, however. Neither does my supervisor (I kind of get the feeling I may be his guinea pig, is this a bad idea?!).

I've found a few sites about using this format, but mostly from overseas universities, there's a real lack of information/ examples from UK universities it seems... I'm stuck on relatively simple questions like how self-contained the papers need to be? Can they be a bit longer than usual publishable papers (~12k words?)...

So,
Does anyone have any experience of writing up an Arts/ Humanities PhD (my work is historical) in the three papers format?
Is there anyone else on here doing a PhD in journal article format (for submission this year)
Does anyone know of any good sites/ guidelines on the issue? In particular I'd LOVE some PDFs of examples if anyone knows of any available?

Thanks very much in advance! This looks like a brilliant forum - wish I'd found it earlier :)

hiya mate,

i'm arts as well- journalism, specifically.

my thesis is structured to have a traditional front end: introduction, broad chapters surveying history and themes of my topic.
then i have three case studies- all about 9000 words each, one of which i have completed and will be giving as a paper at a couple of research seminars this term.

i think if you share your worries with your super, u'll feel better. i think this structure wroks. the open ended bits are dealt with in the opening chapters, then the case studies are self-contained studies. i hope this helps some. i'm happy to chat more