PhD by publication examples

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by RFValve, Nov 18, 2013.

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  1. Robert McGee

    Robert McGee New Member

    Actually, Fayetteville State University is not a BAD school, but it is not Harvard. I used to teach at Seton Hall University, which is a good school. I left because certain administrators were idiots. I left to accept a fantastic opportunity in Bosnia. I had the opportunity to reform the accounting curricula at all 8 universities in Bosnia. I also assisted the Finance Ministry adopt International Financial Reporting Standards for the whole country and I drafted their accounting law. When I returned to the USA I taught at Barry University, which is another pretty good school. I jumped ship and went to Florida International University because they waived a lot of money at me. FIU is widely regarded as a good school, although any school that has accounting classes with more than 200 students stuffed in an auditorium can't be too concerned with whether students are learning anything. Shortly after I posted my 12 doctorates on their website (I only had 12 in those days), one of the administrators told me I was an embarrassment to the school, and if I wanted to have my contract renewed, I should remove at least 10 of the 12 doctorates. Apparently, some of the senior faculty who had only one doctorate were suffering from low self-esteem problems. I refused to remove anything, and my contract was not renewed. I sent out resumes and Fayetteville State University made me the best offer. In addition to a good salary, I am saving about $1500 a month in rent. My condo in Miami was costing me $3000 a month.
    Another reason I am not teaching at a top research university is because I do not publish in the BEST journals. The top research schools only want people who publish in The Accounting Review, the Journal of Accounting Research and other top journals. I am not going to alter my research agenda so that I can be acceptable to the people who edit those journals. They can continue to live in their little dream world where they try to calculate how many accountants can dance on the head of a pin. I prefer to do research that people might actually enjoy reading.
     
  2. Robert McGee

    Robert McGee New Member

    I'm glad you like my work in ethics. Thank you. About 300 of my articles are posted at SSRN Author Page for McGee, Robert W.. As for my reason for getting more doctorates than I need to get a job, it is part of my self-improvement program. I like to set goals for myself. I have contacted the Guinness Book of World Records several times. There is no category for most earned doctorates and they have decided not to make it a category. Their reason is because each school has its own requirement for doctorates. It would be like comparing apples and oranges. A doctorate is not a uniform measure.
     
  3. Robert McGee

    Robert McGee New Member

    Actually, my first PhD was from the University of Warwick. As it turns out, I got the best one first. The Warwick PhD has opened a lot of doors for me. I got the other 12 doctorates as part of my self-improvement. Well, that's not totally correct. I got the JD from Cleveland State University because I wanted to be an attorney at one time. For a while I was a tax attorney in Manhattan and New Jersey.
     
  4. Robert McGee

    Robert McGee New Member

    Regarding your FIVE PAPER comment, that statement is not quite correct. It depends on the school and on the length and quality of the paper. Some schools require much more than 5 papers. Only a few of my 13 doctorates were earned via the PhD by Published Work route. Most of them were earned by writing traditional dissertations. My JD from Cleveland State University required 84 semester hours of coursework. The PhDs from the Union Institute & University were earned by a combination of publication, coursework and seminars.
    How much publication is enough for a PhD by Published Work? Most British universities have an 80,000 word maximum for a traditional thesis, so it is reasonable to expect that if you publish 80,000 words worth of articles, you would meet the quantity requirement. If they were published in refereed journals, you would have a strong argument that you have also met the quality requirement, since more traditional theses don't have more than one or two chapters that are publishable. The best way to find out how much is enough is to ask the supervising professor. Different universities have different requirements, and different departments within the same university have different requirements.
     
  5. jam937

    jam937 New Member

    Google Scholar shows 6,064 citations to his papers. It shows 205 papers have at least 10 citations. That's pretty impressive in my book. This site has a lot to do with alternatives to traditional on campus degrees and this guy is a good example.

    Robert W. McGee - Google Scholar Citations
     
  6. Koolcypher

    Koolcypher Member

    Welcome aboard Dr. McGee! :cool:
     
  7. Phdtobe

    Phdtobe Well-Known Member

    Wow! I enjoy reading your research on ethics.
     
  8. Robert McGee

    Robert McGee New Member

    Actually, only a few of my doctorates were earned on the basis of publication. For most of them I wrote a traditional thesis. I got one of them with coursework only [JD]. Thank you for your interest.
     
  9. Delta

    Delta Active Member

    I would like to personally welcome Dr. McGee, I mean Dr, Dr, Dr, Dr, Dr, Dr, Dr, Dr, Dr, Dr, Dr, Dr, Dr. McGee to Degreeinfo.com:beerchug:
     
  10. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    Thanks for registering in this forum. There is quite a lot of interest in this forum for research PhDs and publication only PhDs from the UK. You seem to have a lot of expertise in this area. I am sure that a lot of degreeinfo members would welcome your advice.

    We have discussed this type of doctorates for ages but we haven't actually met anyone yet that was able to get them and use them for a tenure track position. You are living proof that this type of doctorates are achievable and can be used for tenure track positions.

    I was looking at the University of the West of England higher doctorate (DSc), the schools charges 10K british pounds for the evaluation of your research. My question is if you think that a higher doctorate from a school like UWE can be used for a tenure track position. I already hold a DBA but was wondering if the DSc title could help to sell better my resume.
     
  11. Woho

    Woho New Member

    Just logged in to welcome Robert to this forum.

    I would love to see a book or some thoughts on your PhD and publishing strategy / lessons learned. You could obviously be THE guy to run a PhD coaching service for all those who are trying to figure out how to get best through the British PhD system.
     
  12. novadar

    novadar Member

    Hear, hear
     
  13. Simurgh

    Simurgh New Member

    Welcome Dr. McGee! Your academic achievements are certainly impressive - I'd love to be able to travel and study around the world as well.

    Which universities did you enjoy studying at the most? I second Woho, are there any ideal strategies to getting published? Thank you in advance.
     
  14. Phdtobe

    Phdtobe Well-Known Member

  15. Robert McGee

    Robert McGee New Member

    The DSc, LLD, DLitt and a few others are HIGHER doctorates. What that means is that they are supposedly better, more difficult and more prestigious than a PhD. In a rational world they would be more marketable than a PhD. However, the world is not always rational (Have you noticed?) Most deans in American universities either have never heard of them or don't know what they are all about. To them, the PhD is the highest earned doctorate. In many cases, holders of a higher doctorate will have an uphill battle trying to convince a dean or a hiring committee that their degree is better than a PhD. However, since most people who earn a higher doctorate already have a PhD, they are marketable because of their PhD. My advice would be to go for a higher doctorate, should you be so included, because it will be a fun journey. Don't worry what other people think. But also be realistic. It may not be as marketable as a PhD simply because so many people in positions of authority don't know what they are. Anything that is unfamiliar is discounted in the marketplace.
     
  16. Robert McGee

    Robert McGee New Member

    Thank you for the kind words. It is difficult to give advice on this topic that would be of general applicability. Each school is different and each department is different. My advice is to shop around. Find a school that offers the PhD by published work. Then determine if you are eligible to apply (some schools only accept employees or graduates of their university). Then search for a professor who has published something in your topic of interest. Contact him/her, let him/her know what you want to do and see what happens.
     
  17. Robert McGee

    Robert McGee New Member

    Thank you for the kind words. It's difficult to say which university was the most fun for me. It depended more on the rapport I had with the professors I was working with than on the university or the geographic location. Your query about a publication strategy is a difficult one to answer. Each discipline is different. There is a tradeoff between publishing in the BEST journals and publishing quickly. Some of the top business journals take 2 years or more between submission and appearing in print, and their acceptance rates are so low that it might not be worthwhile to even try them. If you want to publish with the goal of getting a PhD by published work, I suggest submitting to tier two journals. The acceptance rate is better and the time to publication is shorter. Refereed journals are generally better than books or book chapters, although it depends on who is evaluating you. The best way to get a usable answer to this question would be to ask the people who would be evaluating your submission materials.
     
  18. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    Thanks for your advice. The issue with higher doctorates is that are normally available only to people that graduate from the school granting the higher doctorate or staff.

    I am eligible to apply for a higher doctorate at the school where I got my MSc but the school is asking for 2,000 pounds just to send an application with a total cost of 10,000 pounds.

    I did a bit of research on this and it seems that most people with higher doctorates are accomplished researchers with 10+ years of research experience. It is indeed a difficult doctorate to get but it might not be understood as such by the American or Canadian market that only has the PhD. It appears also that many of the academics that pursue this type of doctorate are MSc or BSc holders, the regulations state that any MSc holder could apply for a higher doctorate so it seems to me like a non traditional route to a doctorate for MSc graduates that have long established research careers.


    The PhDs by publication might also be a tough sell in the Canadian and American market as they don't have major nor course work. All you receive is a PhD with a dissertation title in your transcript. They seem to require still a considerable amount of work as you need to put together articles that relate to each other in a manner that can defend a major dissertation.

    The PhD by publication, higher doctorate, etc seem to be targeted towards the experienced academic that just lacks the title for job advancement but not for someone that is looking to start an academic career.

    My issue is that I hold a DBA title that seems to hinder me in an academic market that seems to believe that DBAs, DM, etc are lower tier doctorates. It doesn't help that most of the fast track doctorates, DL and part time are DBAs (DMs, DAnything) and not PhDs. Academia seems to be creating new doctorates that can serve as a cash cows but leave the PhD title only to full time residential programs so they can still differentiate between an academic prestigious doctorate and a super MBA practice oriented doctorate (DBA).

    I have decided not to pursue neither a publication Phd nor a higher doctorate, it seems that academia will always find a way to differentiate between a traditional PhD and non traditional routes (DL, by publication, higher doc, etc) and put the second category as non ideal for entry level academic positions.
     
  19. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    The only verbal insult that can hurt you is the one you believe to be true.

    A real researcher is not going to be psychologically or academically impeded by having a DBA or a PhD. If quality research is conducted, then the cream will rise to the top. The proof is in the pudding. It's not the degree title that commands local or global respect, but it's quality research that gets attention. Only consistent and meaningful research will get respect and attention.

    Don't get hung-up on doctoral degree titles. Instead, sink yourself into meaningful research -- and see where it takes you.
     
  20. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    Good advice. As I explained, I am not pursuing any more degrees, it is what it is and work on it with what I have.
     

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