Sun, TongleTongleSunKwan, BeckyBeckyKwanDr. CHAN Hon-Tung, ThomasThomasDr. CHAN Hon-Tung2024-04-232024-04-232022Sun, T., Kwan, B., & Chan, H. T. (2022 Dec 8). Narratives of negotiating the article-compilation thesis in social sciences and humanities: A Hong Kong based case study. International Congress on English Language Education and Applied Linguistics (ICELEAL 2022).http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11861/9560In doctoral education, an article-compilation (AC) thesis (Dong, 1998) is an alternative format to the traditional monograph style for students to pursue (Swank et al., 2021). Also known as a manuscript-style thesis (Anderson & Okuda, 2019) or PhD-by-publication in some contexts, an AC thesis is different from a traditional thesis format in that it consists of interior chapters that are standalone published or publishable articles. Each article chapter has its Introduction- (Literature Review) -Methodology-Results-Discussion-(Conclusion) structure, following the conventions accepted by academic journals. While writing an AC thesis is a well-established practice in STEM disciplines (Dong, 1998; Jowsey et al., 2020), it is less practiced in Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) (Anderson et al., 2020) although it is being promoted in these disciplines. Many SSH students have little knowledge about the format, and those who opted to write an AC thesis reported difficulties in the completion process (e.g., Mason & Merga, 2018). To date, little research has explored how SSH students negotiate the AC thesis writing process (Anderson et al., 2021), particularly in Asian contexts. <br> To fill the research gap, a qualitative, multi-perspective study was conducted to investigate SSH doctoral students’ experiences in completing an AC thesis. To this end, in-depth semi-structured discourse-based interviews (Odell et al., 1983) were conducted with four SSH doctoral graduates from Hong Kong universities who successfully completed their AC theses (two from English Studies and two from Psychology). The interviews were recorded and transcribed for thematic coding and analysis. Findings revealed that the case participants encountered various challenges at different stages of completing their AC theses (e.g., conceptualizing, writing, publishing) and adopted varied coping strategies. The study also identified affordances that contributed to the participants’ successful thesis completion. The findings have implications for various stakeholders (e.g., SSH students, supervisors, and EAP practitioners) in Hong Kong and beyond.enConference Paper