How many of the theses which produced by the institution for postgraduate education, should be published as an article, a conference paper or etc.? How many thesis stay in "grey literature"? Is it important to make a publication from thesis? At what level? And at this point, what is the mission of the consultants? I'm looking for answers to these questions in a survey. I'm curious about your opinions. I'd appreciate it if you look at the institutional level. Thank you.
Not all theses are of popular interest and may have to be rewritten to appeal to the broader market. For example, if a subsequent publication is to be a textbook, exercises will have to be generated.
A thesis is never grey literature -- a better term is hidden literature, although today many universities are putting copies on the Web. Sadly, most times, for financial reasons, the researcher moves on to other professional pastures, and a consequence, the publication never sees the light.
If time is available, it is useful to make a better or a more readable book out of the thesis. For example, the comments of its examiners can taken into account and added perhaps as footnotes to the thesis. Also the book could be updated and an alphabetic index included. It is pitched at the level of the scholarly / academic / scientific market. It helps if the ultimate production of a book for this wider market is kept in mind during the design of the thesis. For example, the appendices might be planned to be omitted to reduce printing costs. Alternatively, today self-publishing on-line is low-risk and quick. It is useful to consult the supervisor only to identify possible outlets for the book. For the supervisor now expects the student to be an independent worker.
One important question asked of the thesis examiner is "Is this material publishable?". To me the quickest way of proving this is to have already published papers and use them as the preliminary chapters of the thesis. Obviously the papers must work towards the big thesis-theme. "All" that is left to do for the thesis is to throw away the one paper that was off-topic, reconcile the different vocabularies used in the papers, update the chapters and write the conclusion, introduction, abstract and title for the thesis. The supervisor's work is reduced. From the institutional viewpoint, the risk of the candidate not passing is very low if the candidate has already had papers accepted and used or cited. The paper-chapter route is tricky, but by modularising the research, and getting early, international critique, success will be achieved.
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