Why Your Thesis Reference List Needs Reformatting Before Journal Submission
After completing a Malaysian thesis, many postgraduate students want to convert chapters into journal articles and submit to Scopus or WoS-indexed publications. This is a smart career move, but one thing many students underestimate is how much work is involved in reformatting the reference list for journal submission. The format requirements for a university thesis — typically APA 7th for most Malaysian public universities — are not the same as the style requirements of the target journal. Getting the reference list right is not optional: journals reject manuscripts for formatting errors before they even reach peer review.
Understanding how to reformat a reference list for journal submission will save you significant time during the revision process and make your manuscript look professionally prepared from the start.
The Key Difference Between Thesis and Journal Reference Formats
Thesis reference lists in Malaysian universities generally follow a single style throughout — usually APA 7th edition. Journals, however, each have their own specific style guide. Some use APA, some use Vancouver numbering, some use Harvard, and specialised journals in engineering, computer science, or medicine often use IEEE. Even within APA, different journals have slightly different requirements around whether to include DOIs, how to handle page ranges, or how many authors to list before using “et al.”
The very first step in reformatting a reference list for journal submission is to download the target journal’s author guidelines and read the referencing section carefully. Do not assume that because the journal is in your field it will use the same style as your thesis. Many Malaysian researchers make this mistake and receive desk-rejection feedback about formatting rather than peer-review feedback about content.
Handling the DOI or URL Requirement
One area where thesis and journal requirements often diverge is the treatment of DOIs and URLs. In APA 7th for a Malaysian thesis, DOIs are generally encouraged where available but may not always be consistently applied. Many journals now require DOIs for every cited source that has one, presented in hyperlink format. Some journals also require the date of access for online sources, while others consider this unnecessary for stable academic databases.
When reformatting a reference list for journal submission, go through every entry and check whether a DOI exists. You can retrieve missing DOIs through CrossRef’s search tool at doi.crossref.org by entering the article title. Adding missing DOIs not only satisfies journal requirements but also makes it easier for readers to access your cited sources.
Author Name Formatting Across Different Styles
The way author names are formatted changes significantly between styles. In APA, author surnames come first, followed by initials only — “Rashid, M. A.” In some Vancouver-style journals, full first names are used. In IEEE, author names may be abbreviated differently. In Harvard variants used by some UK-style journals, the convention for multiple authors can differ from what Malaysian students learned from their thesis supervisors.
This becomes particularly important for Malaysian authors whose names do not follow Western first name and surname conventions. Names like “Ahmad bin Zulkifli” or “Nurul Huda binti Aziz” require careful treatment in different citation styles. Check the journal’s published articles to see how Malaysian author names are formatted in their reference lists, as this is the most reliable guide.
Managing the Number of Authors Per Citation
In APA 7th, the rule for reference lists is to include up to twenty authors before using an ellipsis and the final author’s name. Some journals have different rules — some cap at six authors, others at ten, before using “et al.” in the reference list itself. This is different from in-text citations where et al. rules also vary.
When reformatting a reference list for journal submission, check the author number policy in the journal guidelines. If you have references with many co-authors (common in medical, scientific, and engineering fields), you may need to adjust how each one is displayed. Reference management software like Mendeley or Zotero can automate some of this with the right output style selected, but always verify manually because the software’s style databases are not always perfectly up to date.
Updating Sources That Were “Forthcoming” During Your Thesis
During your thesis, you may have cited sources that were “in press” or “forthcoming” at the time of writing. Before submitting to a journal, check whether those sources have now been published. An “in press” citation from 2023 is likely to have a full publication year, volume, issue, and page numbers by now. Updating these references is part of thorough preparation for journal submission, and leaving them as “in press” after they have been published looks careless to editors and reviewers.
This is also a good moment to check whether any cited sources have been retracted since your thesis was submitted. Database tools like Retraction Watch or the Crossmark feature in some PDFs can flag retracted articles. Citing retracted work, even unintentionally, can raise serious concerns about your manuscript’s credibility.
Final Checks Before Submitting Your Reference List
Before you submit, do a final alignment check between your in-text citations and your reference list. Every source cited in the text must appear in the list, and every source in the list must be cited somewhere in the text. Mismatches are among the most common reasons for requests for revisions during the editorial review stage, before peer review even begins.
Reformatting a reference list for journal submission is genuinely time-consuming, but treating it as a serious step rather than a minor afterthought significantly improves your manuscript’s professional appearance and your chances of clearing the editorial screening process.
