Graduate School

Prior Publication

Some students may have published a portion of the text of their ETDR as a journal article, book chapter, or other publication. In order to include this work as part of your ETDR, there are several points to consider:

  • You (the student) are the sole author of the work or you are a co-author who has permission to publish from the work by your supervisory committee.
  • At the time your article or other publication was published, it is likely you signed a contract transferring copyright to the publisher. Check your records to determine which of the following categories applies to your case:
    • If you transferred copyright to the publisher, you must obtain permission from the publisher in order to use the material as part of your ETDR. A copy of the permission letter from the publisher must be included in the Appendix of your ETDR.
    • If you did not transfer copyright to the publisher, then you still retain copyright and do not need to obtain permission from the publisher to use the material in your ETDR.
    • If you are not clear on this point, contact the publisher to determine if you or the publisher retains copyright.
  • You may also consider the following options as alternatives to including a prior publication in your ETDR:
    • Cite the work in your references.
    • If the publication is available online, include a link to it in your ETDR. Many publishers, however, limit access to paying subscribers, so some readers may not be able to view the full-text of your publication.

Please discuss all these options with your major professor before deciding which action to take.

Pagination

Any previously published material included in your ETDR must be paginated consistently with the rest of the document. Only one page number may appear on each page and that is the page number within the final document. Any tables or figures from the previously published material must be numbered in accordance with the rest of the ETDR.

Acknowledgement in the Text

Credit must be given on the first page of the chapter or section containing the material. This statement is placed at the bottom of the page as a footnote and single spaced. Use the Word menu References > Insert Footnote to add your footnotes to the text.

In granting permission, the publisher may have identified exact wording to use in this statement. If not, use the formats shown below:

Journal Article

Reprinted with permission from "Title of article" by Author's name, Year. Journal name, Volume, Page range. Copyright year by Name of copyright holder.

Book or Book Chapter

Reprinted with permission from Title of book , by Author's name, Year, Publisher's name, Location of publisher. Copyright year by Name of copyright holder.

If only part of the chapter is from a copyrighted source, the note may be worded to reflect the fact. For example: "Part of the data reported in this chapter is reprinted with permission..." or "Part of this chapter is reprinted with permission...."

Sample Permission Request Letter

Your Address
Phone Number
E-mail

Date
Publisher Name
Publisher Address

To Whom It May Concern:

I am a (master's or doctoral) student at Kansas State University and am writing for permission to include in my (thesis, dissertation, or report) (part or all) of the material from (journal name, article title, volume, number, date, page range or book chapter, book title, date, page range). My (thesis, dissertation, or report) will be made available online through the K-State Research Exchange (http://krex.ksu.edu). (For dissertations only) In addition, my dissertation will be microfilmed by ProQuest Information and Learning), and copies of the dissertation will be available for purchase.

Please supply a signed letter granting me permission to use the work. You can mail or fax the permission to (address/number)

Thank you for your assistance.

Sincerely,