Dissertation.com includes fake schools

Reflecting on swandog's question about finding people with bad or fake degrees, I was doing a few searches, and discovered that a site called "dissertation.com" includes detailed information on dissertations done at the fake Trinity College and University (South Dakota). Wonder if anyone knows about this site, and if the folks who run it know (or care) what they are doing.

See, for instance: http://www.dissertation.com/library/1120737a.htm

 

Is this the same TC&U which has an address in Spain? (Whose web site uses "english" english spelling and also includes several typographical errors.)

 

Interesting that Uwe Blecker already had an MD from Vrije Universiteit Brussel (an interesting institution in its own right, with its focus on Free Inquiry -- which "offers little breeding ground for conservatism or indifference, and all the more for progressiveness, controversy and social engagement").

 

After a very cursory review of the "free download" (i.e., the first 25 pages), considering the few degree mill dissertations/theses that I've seen (largely due to the efforts of posters on this forum), I would have to say this might be the most impressive so far. I suppose that the truly frightening aspect of this dissertation is that I could readily imagine certain academics believing it to be genuine.

Mark

 

From the cover of the dissertation it appears that the gentleman has a Doctor of Medicine degree, and I would assume is practicing medicine--somewhere. So this seems to be another case of one who has solid credentials, then obtains a Ph.D. from somewhere like TCU.

Russell

 

Google turns up lots of links

an undated article at http://www.parents-guide.com/Articles/health.htm
Stomach Pain, Uwe Blecker, M.D., Ph.D
"...According to Uwe Blecker, M.D., Ph.D., attending pediatric gastroenterologist at duPont at Jefferson at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, ..."

article from Southern Medical Journal Volume 93, Number 3; March 2000 at http://www.cardiol.br/esquina/temas/2000/mai/007.asp
Lipid Profiles of Obese Children and Adolescents Before and After Significant Weight Loss
Differences According to Sex
Melinda S. Sothern, PhD, Brian Despinasse, MD, Raynorda Brown, MD, Robert M. Suskind, MD, John N. Udall, Jr, MD, PhD, Department of Pediatrics, Louisiana State University Medical Center, New Orleans, LA; Uwe Blecker, MD, PhD, Alfred I. DuPont Hospital for Children, Wilmington, Del.

CME Article of the Month, Southern Medical Association, Date of Original Release:June 1997 at http://www.sma.org/smj/97june1.htm
Helicobacter pylori–Associated Gastroduodenal Disease in Childhood
UWE BLECKER, MD, New Orleans, La
(The first paragraph of this article's abstract is nearly word-for-word the first paragraph of the dissertation.)




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Kristin Evenson Hirst
DistanceLearn.About.com

 

I also read the first 25 pages and several things struck me:
(1) There is no hypothesis stated - required for most research projects (academic or commercial)
(2) Lots of "we" and "our" statements - was this an individual research project or was it a joint project repackaged into a "disertion" without too much editing?
(3) This reads more like a journal article rather than a disertion.

 

I've read that some schools will allow someone with a lot of publications and clout to take three or four unpublished articles, glue them together with a thin wrapper, and call it a dissertation.

 

Of course, in the case of Trinity C&U those three or four articles could be ones destined for Field & Stream.

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Bill Gossett

 

This comment is a bit of a hair splitter, but hypotheses are required mostly for quantitaive research. The many approaches to qualitative research (which are equally valid) do not require a hypothesis, and instead use a more sophisticated version of the question "What's going on here (in the research area)? But sometimes hypotheses emerge along the way, which are usually then checked out with the research "subjects" as part of the qualitative research. So sayeth many authors of qualitative research books (on naturalistic, qualitative, case studies, heuristics,ethnography, grounded theory, feminist research, etc., etc). Sometimes the result of qualitative research can be a hypothesis, which is then researched via quantitative methods, starting a whole new research project. In fact, I found a model proposed in 1991 from a major US university using this latter method, mostly applicable to family and related research.
Earon

 

There was a physician at a hospital in (I believe) Chicago that listed on his webpage a Ph.D. in Health Administration from Columbia State. It was removed in record time after the GMA segment.

The sad thing is that probably no one besides the author ever read that TC&U dissertation.

Bruce

 

The original authors did, Bruce. Thanks to the cut & paste feature on Word 2000, one can write a dissertation in record time--often in only a few hours. The only real writing required is the transition statement between each cut/paste article. Neat ain't it?

Russell

 

What I meant was that I'd bet anything that the TC&U "dissertation committee" never read it. Was it Columbia State the mill that used to weigh academic papers for grading?

Bruce

 

You write as if composing dissertations in the format of journal articles were a negative thing. Actually, it is standard procedure for science dissertations at many of the most prestigious schools in the USA; "clout" is not required. In science, results are much more commonly published in journal articles than in books. Therefore, dissertation committees generally encourage science students to write their dissertations as a series of journal articles, not as a long monograph. Often students have already submitted some or all of the articles (dissertation chapters) at the time of the defense.

The difference is in the format of the writing, not in the rigor of the dissertation.

Alex

 

I must agree with Alex. At my institution, many biomedical-related dissertations incorporate the manuscripts that the candidate has written. Normally, the manuscripts will be prefaced by a broad, extended literature review and followed by an extended discussion and appendices, as warranted. The ultimate goal is to encourage published results. Normally, at least two papers have already been published at the time of the dissertation defense.

Mark

 

No, I meant it as-a-matter-of-factly. It was from a book I'm reading about the Ph.D. process.

 

The author of the book that I referred to was talking about articles that were not as related as a series of journal articles written towards publication together as chapters in a dissertation. They were simply a set of articles. Since a scientist generally writes most articles in the same field, it is not necessarily difficult to write a wrapper that ties them together.

By the way, the book was "The PH.D. Process: A Student's Guide to Graduate School in the Sciences."

 

The key to this method would be using an extra heavy paper, right? Can you imagine all the proud Columbia State grads walking around saying something like "My dissertation weighed 5.9 pounds and I got a B-." To which another responds, "Mine weighed 7.2 pounds, and I got an A." Of course the latter had used a much heavier weight of paper.

Russell