Two for one - exceptions

Is the two-for-one approach to writing a thesis universally applicable? This question was asked of several senior research staff at UniSA, who suggested these exceptions and a word of caution. See also Two for one – publish as you go and What to publish?

Exceptions

• Studies with a long gestation period followed by the late appearance of results:
  • In rare molecular biology projects the genetic engineering can take a long time (maybe 2 years). The actual results, once the constructs are made, can be gathered quickly. In such projects, possibly only one paper can come from the PhD.
  • Longitudinal studies of several years duration – for example ethnographic studies in education or social anthropology – might not produce results until near the end of the project. Only one or two papers might emerge. Admittedly, work-in-progress papers might be possible en route.
• Some deeply integrated text-based studies – for example in Communication studies – where focus and direction emerge only gradually from the writing process

However, keep in mind the possibility of some variation of the two-for-one structure to prepare such a thesis for subsequent publication (see Publishing later).

Caution

In studies of the types listed above, there is a danger in attempting to chunk the thesis into subdivisions for publication. It could become disjointed, and lose its flow and unity. Therefore it is crucial:

• to clearly emphasise the structure in the Introduction
• to link each subdivision smoothly with surrounding subdivisions

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