Guidelines for Collaborative Thesis Work

INCLUDING CO-AUTHORED OR COLLABORATIVE WORK IN YOUR THESIS

The UO Clark Honors College allows students to include co-authored or collaborative work in a thesis provided that the thesis committee can assess the student’s individual contributions according to the CHC thesis evaluation criteria. You should discuss co-authored or collaborative components of your thesis early on with your primary thesis advisor (PTA). Your CHC instructors in the thesis classes (HC277 and HC477) can also help provide input and guidance specific to your project ideas.

All theses should include a sole-authored general introduction (usually the first chapter or section) and a sole-authored concluding summary (the last chapter or section). The length, content focus, and amount of detail should be determined together with the PTA.

  •  
  • A general introduction provides the context and motivation for your work in a way that is accessible to the lay audience. If there are multiple sections, it includes an overview of how the section(s) fit together into an original, integrated, and coherent body of work. For theses that include co-authored or collaborative work, the general introduction should also include a detailed description of the collaborative process, in a way that is appropriate to your discipline(s).
  • A concluding summary (last chapter) synthesizes all the material and provides discussion, reflection, and conclusion.

If you wish to include co-authored or collaborative material in your thesis, you should consult with your PTA well in advance of finalizing and defending your CHC thesis. You should also communicate with your collaborators as a courtesy before including work attributed to them as part of your CHC thesis submission.

Detailed guidelines for including co-authored or collaborative work in your final thesis submission can be found here:

HOW TO INCLUDE CO-AUTHORED OR COLLABORATIVE WORK IN YOUR FINAL THESIS

You must thoroughly acknowledge the contributions of your co-authors and collaborators according to the standards of attribution prevalent in your field. Co-authors must be acknowledged in the oral defense and in the abstract and introduction in your written thesis:

  • The Oral Defense: in your defense presentation you should acknowledge your collaborators verbally and on a slide (if slides are used) and briefly describe the collaborative process.
  • The Abstract. Your abstract must have this concluding one-sentence paragraph beginning with an indented line: “This thesis includes co-authored material and/or collaboratively produced work.” (whichever apply)
  • The Introduction. This chapter is an introduction and overview of the thesis with you as the sole author. In this chapter, you should include a detailed discussion of the collaborative process and how this collaboration shaped the final project. You must thoroughly acknowledge the contributions of your co-authors and collaborators according to the practices or conventions of your discipline.

INCLUDING PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED OR PRE-EXISTING WORK IN A THESIS

In some cases, you may opt to include previously published or pre-existing work in your thesis, whether you produced it alone or with multiple authors. Inclusion of co-authored work should follow the relevant guidance (links). You should still reformat any written section(s) of your thesis to adhere to CHC formatting guidelines, even if it has already been published or accepted for publication.

You should discuss the use of published or pre-existing components in your thesis early on with your primary thesis advisor (PTA). In some disciplines or situations, it may not be appropriate to allow the inclusion of previously produced material or co-authored material in a thesis. Your PTA will help guide these decisions.

If your thesis includes previously published material, this must be acknowledged in two places in the written document. If your publication is co-authored, this is in addition to following the guidance for the inclusion of co-authored work in the thesis.

    • The Abstract. Your abstract must have this concluding one-sentence paragraph beginning with an indented line: “This thesis includes previously published material.”
    • At the Beginning of the Section Containing the Published Material. You must include the reference to the publication.
      • This work was published in volume <Number> of the journal <Journal Title> in <Month Year> or just the citation: From Smith, A., Jones, B, and Alexis, R. 2008. The best way to spin an atom. Molecular Biology 21:46215–46216.