Published vs. Dissertation

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by duff, Jan 27, 2007.

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  1. duff

    duff New Member

    I remember reading on a school's website (on-line school) that a student could complete a dissertation or become published, or present at a national conference. I thought it was Capella...but now I can't find it on their site. Has anyone else run into this. It was a US school. I just want to figure out which school this was. If you know...please let me know. Thanks!!

    Duff
     
  2. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    That sounds too good to be true. Or at least to be legitimate.

    -=Steve=-
     
  3. edowave

    edowave Active Member

    At many schools, including UF, you can earn a PhD without a dissertation if you have 3 peer-reviewed journal articles published.
     
  4. ProfTim

    ProfTim Member

    Colorado Technical University's Doctor of Management has published articles in lieu of a dissertation.
     
  5. PsychPhD

    PsychPhD New Member

    It's not Capella

    I know from six years' experience of graduate study with Capella that the doctoral programs require a dissertation.

    The web site encourages and often highlights students who have been published or presented at conferences.
     
  6. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    Colorado Technical Institute offers a Doctor of Management (DM) degree that is online (with a few residencies) that is based on publishing articles, instead of a dissertation. However, it's pretty expensive. 60k? The link is here.
     
  7. RFValve

    RFValve Well-Known Member

    You have to check what are the journals acceptable for publication. 3 articles in high impact journals as a first author is not an easy task and would be the equivalent work of a dissertation if not more.

    3 articles published in conferences is another story as they tend to be more flexible to accept publications. However, if you have already good publications then this is a good option.
     
  8. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

    I know someone who is doing just that at UC Santa Cruz (plus about 5 years full time in residence plus some teaching)
     
  9. Andy Borchers

    Andy Borchers New Member

    NSU's busienss program addresses this with an "AND" not an "OR". You have to write a dissertation AND publish.

    Regards - Andy

     
  10. duff

    duff New Member

    Thanks everyone. For some reason, I really thought it was one of the big online schools like Walden or Capella and it was an education program. I must have been dreaming though. Thanks anyway!

    Duff
     
  11. laferney

    laferney Active Member

    Dr. Draper's paper

    Dr. Steven Draper's paper point's out some intersting thoughts on the debate here. He lists criteria for a Ph.D by publication. From that paper at:

    http://www.psy.gla.ac.uk/~steve/resources/phd.html

    "Quantity. An average conventional PhD may result in one journal paper (though many result in none). A researcher keen to push publications might get three out of a PhD. Some PhDs are turned into one book. So any PhD by publication that submits more than three papers has easily satisfied the quantity implicit criterion.

    Quality. If the publications were peer-refereed then an examiner would be in a very poor position to argue against them of being of adequate quality for a PhD. To do so would be to show the examiner as preferring their personal opinions to those of the candidate's peers.
    If the publications are in several different journals (or other refereed outlets) then that is a further good point, as it reduces the possibility of the work being accepted only by some small clique, or any possibility of cronyism.
    If the publication outlets are of dubious quality or respectability, or are not peer-reviewed (e.g. they are books), then the examiners must judge each more carefully. However they cannot ask, under current typical regulations, for a rewrite if they feel the work is good but its reporting flawed.

    Scale, scope, integration. If quantity and quality are satisfied, the only remaining issue is whether the candidate is capable of taking a view wider than that required in a single paper: of relating and integrating the body of work as a whole. In my view, that is the main purpose of the accompanying specially written essay. However if a book has been submitted as part of the published work, this is probably not an issue -- yet the regulations do not allow for this. Where a book is submitted, the essay is either unnecessary or else might often be much shorter. In one of the PhDs I examined, the candidate mentioned that someone had already asked him if his book (part of his submission) was in fact a book from a PhD. It seems clear to me that current regulations show no awareness of the kind of submissions that have already in fact been made in some places."
    He lists other criteria for Phd by publication includiing impact on field and feels a "supporting paper" is not always needed -if a person's publications "speak for themselves"
    He suggests the equirements for a PHd be more flexible and . to me . makes a valid case for the Dissertation not being the only route.
    He describe's one candidate's experience in getting a PHD by publication.

    An interesting paper.
     
  12. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Same with the University of Pretoria, at least for a PhD in Education.

    -=Steve=-
     
  13. Brad Sweet

    Brad Sweet New Member

    Less than a thesis...less than a degree

    I can't believe this would even happen since the weight given to articles could never equate to a thesis of original research in a given field in which the candidate would be a specialist. What would be the point? And who in the academic world would take the "Dr" seriously?

    Most PhD programmes require a thesis AND articles.

    Brad
     
  14. triggersoft

    triggersoft New Member


    This does already happen, in the German-speaking countries.

    It began with the so-called "habilitation", i.e. a post-doctoral (2nd!) thesis that has to be written in Germany, Austria, Switzerland (but also Poland and some other new EU member countries) in order to become a full professor.

    --> see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habilitation

    This habilitation used to be a 2nd, even larger and more sophisticated Ph.D. thesis, but this is already changing in my universities which now allow a "cumulative" habilitation, i.e. you can hand in something like 5 or so double-blind reviewed ENGLISH LANGUAGE (which is totally new to us!) journal articles, and this is being counted as equivalent to the old, 2nd thesis...

    This process is also already swapping over to the "normal" Ph.D. theses. I personally know many cases where the "book" (as we call the Ph.D. thesis) still has to be written (and published!), but the "design" of the book is like this: try to make 1 or 2 journal publications + something around 3 or 4 conference presentations (/proceedings), which all in a way build up upon each other, write some "theoretical foundation" chapters for the book before or in between, and hand the whole thing in as a "cumulative" Ph.D. thesis.

    In total: that is a lot more work than "just" writing a regular 200-pages-thesis IN GERMAN, and it is a lot more competitive, and the whole academic world (and not only the German-speaking countries) take you VERY seriously, since you have published these 4 to 6 articles + a book (that is mandatory in German law!) when you leave your Ph.D. studies...

    So, why should there be a problem with that very same process in the English-speaking countries?

    (just my 2 cents).

    Cheers (from Germany),
    trigger
     
  15. Brad Sweet

    Brad Sweet New Member

    Perhaps I am limited in my own experience, but at the universities I have attended, there was an expection on the staff that AFTER their PhD they were EXPECTED to publish a book and 3 or so articles. Perhaps Germany and other continental countries have taken the exception and made it the rule?
     
  16. Jeff Walker

    Jeff Walker New Member

    In many science fields, a dissertation really is the equivalent of about 3 articles worth of research. Usually there is some related theme to the work, but not always.

    I have never heard of instances in the US where a PhD was given directly for published materials (researched and written while at the PhD-granting institution), but I do know of dissertations that essentially consisted of "stapling" already published materials together. Throw in an intro, staple the papers together, reformat the whole thing to meet dissertation guidelines, hand it in, receive a PhD. So there is a dissertation involved, but the PhD is effectively for the papers.
     
  17. Jeff Walker

    Jeff Walker New Member

    That's heavily dependent on the field of study. In the humanities, you publish your book after you graduate. In many science fields, you publish as soon as you have results, whether you have your PhD or not, particularly if other people are doing similar work.
     
  18. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

    My post above somehow got cut-off. The candidate mentioned is assembling their papers together with a cover sheet, and other front pages for the record.
    Here is part of UCSCs requirements:
    If your own published material is approved by the dissertation/thesis committee for submission as a part or whole of the dissertation or thesis, a memorandum stating this and approving the student’s acknowledgment statement must be submitted by the committee chair to the Dean of Graduate Studies.
    (http://graddiv.ucsc.edu/student_affairs/PDF/Diss_Guidelines.pdf)
     

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