Would it be unethical to use a chapter (or large portions of work) from a thesis/dissertation written for an earlier degree and incorporate it into a doctorate program? In case you haven't noticed, I'm new to this doctorate level thing and I welcome any suggestions. Thanks. Roscoe
Entire chapters? Probably not. Each chapter of a dissertation is developed to support and explore the research question(s) germane to the study. Assuming your second dissertation is on a different topic than the first, you'll need to develop the new chapters separately. All that said, there may be aspects of the old literature review relevant to the new topic, depending on what you wrote and what you're exploring now. Some of that might be reusable. Generally speaking, universities expect your dissertation to be developed fully under their supervision.
No, this is not always the case... It is quite acceptable to use previously written work, whether it be publication and/or another thesis/dissertation and/or a jopint authored paper PROVIDING the candidate makes it abundantly clear why this work is being used again and where (at doctoral level and I guess any level really) it moves the idea/writing on by way of theory and/or practice or whatever. Where someone has written a collaborate work it is essential to show what each person has previously contributed. AT ALL TIMES you must demonstrate why and where the previsouly written work is being used. In my own PhD I used (virtuslly word for word) two published journal articles as (virtually) two chapters of my thesis and indicated so and why at the start of the relevant chapters and at the very beginning of the thesis itself. This way of working is just as acceptable in the USA as in the UK in virtually every discipline. 'telfax'
