A researcher is always under pressure to publish, where one good way to do this is to convert doctoral thesis into a journal article, during or after Ph.D. It is essential to know how a thesis differs from a journal article. Here are some of the elements that you will need to work on to successfully create a journal article from your thesis.
Difference Between a Thesis and an Article
| Thesis | Article | |
| Purpose | The purpose is education as it shows how much a person knows. | The purpose is advancement to enhance credibility and contribution in the field. |
| Audience | Educational committee and professors to decide whether a person is worthy of degree. | Here, person may look to become a scientist or conduct further research. |
| Abstract | Longer, up to 500 words. | Shorter, up to 150-250 words. |
| Introduction | More detailed | More concise, only absolutely required information. |
| Length | Longer, as the page count can be up to 50 pages and around 20000 words. | It is shorter between 3000 to 6000 words. It is better to avoid copying, rewriting or paraphrasing. |
| Material and method | Extensive presentation | Controlled presentation |
| Discussion | Detailed interpretation of results | Clear and concise presentation of results. |
| References | Exhaustive list | Selective list |
| Appendices | Inclusion mandatory | Inclusion optional |