Publishing thesis as a book

Ph.D. graduates decide to publish their thesis as a book. We, as an institute helping students with publishing their works, get lots of those books. A short look at them shows that the writer is not aware of the differences between a book and a dissertation or thesis. S/he just sends the thesis as it is and asks us to publish it as a book. While in order to turn a thesis into a book you need to make some changes in your thesis.

Differences between a book and a thesis

Before everything else, you need to know the differences between a book and a thesis.

The title:

The title of a thesis should be specific and limited, while books need a broader title to be interesting to a wide range of readers. It should not be too specialized. Let’s say you are a potential reader, would you buy a book with that title? So choose the title of your book in a way that it is interesting enough to attract potential readers.

The scope:

Theses have a broader scope than books. A researcher studies several variables in a thesis or dissertation. A book needs to be narrower. It should cover a limit and a specific scope.

You can choose one of the variables and write on that in your book.

The chapters:

Every thesis is of five chapters which we discussed in “chapters of a Ph.D. and master’s thesis” post. While chapters of books are organized according to their subject.

To arrange your book, consult a table of content, acknowledgment, dedication, preface, and then chapter 1 and so on. A book as a thesis ends with references and appendixes.

The format of a book can be like this:

  • Section/part one:
    • Chapter one
    • Chapter two
  • Section/part two:
    • Chapter one
    • Chapter two

You can also ignore section/parts.

You need to organize each chapter, too. Each of them begins with a warm-up. After the introduction, go on with subsections and ends with a conclusion.

Chapters of a book should be assigned with numbers just like theses.

The content:

Theses and dissertations are full of repeat and their chapters are long. Eliminate the repeated sentences and make each section as short as it is readable.

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