Can I get my independent research recognised as a PhD?

I am an ecologist in my thirties, educated to MSc level and with six years of professional experience. For the last two years I have been working with a research group overseas, and have collected a lot of interesting data. I am now back in Ireland and plan to write up the research with between 3 and 6 journal articles. A manager in the NGO is supervising me through the process and provides good advice. The results are interesting, and if I do a good job with the write up then I am confident that I will get published in high-impact journals.

Assuming I can get these published in good journals, then I feel I will have developed my skills in research, and I'm wondering if I could get this recognised. I have not followed the standard path for a PhD (3-4 years of supervision within a university), but by doing it independently and in my spare-time, then I feel I am displaying equivalent skills, even thought they are outside of the university environment. I have developed the research, collaborated with other scientists, reviewed the literature, analysed the data, and now I will write journal articles. The research is novel and a contribution to science, all articles are in pursuit of a common research topic, and when submitted for publication they will go through the peer-review process to ensure that they meet a sufficient standard.

So I was wondering if anyone could give me any advice on this? I would like to continue in academia, but my lack of a PhD currently prevents that. I'm going to write up this research independently, and is possible I'd just like someone to review it all, determine whether it meets the standard of a typical PhD, and if so, to award the qualification. Has anyone heard of a system like this in Ireland, the UK or the rest of Europe?

Thanks in advance!

Reply 1

Norton1

Original post by wascallywabbit

I'm no expert but I think what you would be after is a PhD by previous publication.

Here's a few sources from a quick google:

http://www.sunderland.ac.uk/research/research_degrees/phdbyexistingpublishedworks/

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/416988.article

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

Reply 2

Cora Lindsay

Original post by wascallywabbit

There are various schemes around- work-based PhD, split site PhD and so on, so it is quite possible to get the work you do in your 'day job' accepted for a PhD. Many institutions also now allow a collection of papers to be submitted for a PhD, rather than the more traditional single thesis.

Your difficulty, I suspect, is that there is usually a minimum period of registration for a PhD (3 years full time research, 6 years part-time in my institution). You would normally register for whatever scheme you were undertaking, then do the research, then submit the thesis. You have done the research without being registered for a higher degree. It may be possible to get some sort of retrospective registration but you'd need to do some careful digging to find out. You need to talk to someone who knows the regulations throughly and, since regulations differ between institutions, you really need to do so for each institution where you are thinking of registering.

The other thing you need to check up on is what other requirements there are for award of a PhD. These could include attending lectures, giving seminars and so on. You need to make sure you can tick all the boxes.

Hope this helps

Reply 3

wascallywabbit

Hi there, thanks for the replies.

Yes I have spoken to a number of academics in different universities, and many said that they preferred their students to prepare a series of publications (with a linking introduction / conclusion) rather than a bound thesis. Personally I think this makes a lot of sense, as journal articles are much more likely to be read and referenced by other academics than PhD theses - at least in the field of biology.

I'm interested in the option of a PhD by previously published works, which seems ideal for me - basically I'm just needing someone to assess the publications and decide whether they meets the standard of a PhD. I appreciate that there are other advantages to doing a PhD in an academic environment, and if so I would be happy to register for one year and do all of that, but I obviously don't need to register for 3-4 years.

I suppose my only concern is the reputation of the universities that offer open registration for PhD by previously published works. For example, Sunderland is 110th on the league table of UK universities. If applying for an academic job with a PhD by previously published works from a low-ranking university, do you think that it would be poorly regarded?

Thanks

Reply 4

Voyager_2002

Original post by wascallywabbit

Hi there, thanks for the replies.

I suppose my only concern is the reputation of the universities that offer open registration for PhD by previously published works. For example, Sunderland is 110th on the league table of UK universities. If applying for an academic job with a PhD by previously published works from a low-ranking university, do you think that it would be poorly regarded?

Thanks

I know that at one time the Open University offered a PhD by publication: see if that is still available.

I think that the value of your PhD would depend upon the quality of your publications and the reputation of your external examiner rather than the university: those ratings and league tables are more relevant to taught courses.

Can I get my independent research recognised as a PhD?

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