Dissertation as a collection of articles

Dissertations are to be submitted as a monograph or as a collection of articles comprising several papers sharing a common theme and whose sole or primary author is the student.

Submission of the dissertation as a collection of articles requires approval of the School of Graduate Studies prior to submission. The request is to be issued using the ‘Request for submission of dissertation as a collection of articles form.

1. The dissertation as a collection of articles is to include at least three articles with a common theme. If, however, one of the articles has been published in a journal of the highest caliber (as recognized by the department and the discipline) and another one in a scientific journal of good standing, the School of Graduate Studies may approve the dissertation as a collection of two articles only.
    
2. In certain departments, submission of the dissertation as a collection of articles is not contingent upon submission of articles for publication or their acceptance (for further details on prerequisites contact the chair of the Departmental Committee).
    
3. A department is entitled to decide that the criteria for submission of the dissertation as a collection of articles is that all or some of them have been accepted or submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal of level Q2 or higher or the equivalent accepted in the particular discipline. Furthermore, advisors are authorized to make submission of the dissertation conditional upon all or some of the articles being accepted for publication, or submitted for publication, provided prior notification of this has been given to the student and approval has been obtained by the Departmental Committee chair.
    
4. A dissertation as a collection of articles shall include articles in which the student appears as the primary author, as accepted in the discipline.
    
5. An article may only appear in the dissertation of a single student. In experimental sciences, if two or more students share the ‘first author’ position and have contributed equally to the article, the article may be included in the dissertation of all first authors, provided that not more than one article in which there is more than one first author is included.
    
6. Members of the research advisory committee may be included among the author list, provided that the dissertation undergoes review by an expert who is not a member of the research advisory committee.
    
7. Published articles that are an outcome of PhD research work must indicate explicitly that their publication is a part of research work conducted at Bar-Ilan University in fulfillment of requirements toward the PhD degree as specified in the policy document.
    

Requirements for submission of the dissertation as a collection of articles

A dissertation as a collection of articles shall be written as a single unit including:

1. A Hebrew abstract and an English abstract.
    
2. A general introduction including a comprehensive, up-to-date survey of the research areas included in the work and the shared theme common to all the articles.
    
3. A description of research methodology, detailing methods developed in the course of the research, if these exist.
    
4. The articles. Each article is to contain a cover page indicating the title of the article and author details. If the article has been published, the name and date of publication are to be indicated.
    
5. Discussion of findings and their significance and specification of innovation and contribution to the said field of research.
    
6. Bibliography.

• Page numbering, including articles, shall be specified in sequence from the first to last page of the entire work.
   
• When submitting a dissertation as a collection of articles, the Form for submission of the dissertation as a collection of articles is to be attached. 
   
• Furthermore, instructions for writing the dissertation shall apply, and all documents and required authorizations as indicated in doctoral work submission instructions shall be submitted.
  Forms may be downloaded from the miscellaneous request forms at Guidelines and forms for dissertation submission.
   

Dissertation review

The review process for the dissertation as a collection of articles and the graduation policy are in accordance with the doctoral dissertation review policy. An exception to this rule is in the case of a dissertation that includes at least three papers that were published in peer-reviewed journals of a very good caliber (Q2 or higher or the equivalent accepted in the particular discipline) whose review is to be conducted by an external reviewer. For articles not yet accepted for publication, reviewers shall be asked to address the question of whether the article is worthy – as is or after revisions – for publication in a research journal of good standing.