PhD by Published Works/Publication
Hi folks,
I was speaking to my Mentor about career progression. I opened up about wanting to do a PhD in Occupational Therapy (Science).
I was reading Prospects.ac.uk website and there is an alternative route to Traditional PhD by Thesis which is PhD by Published Works/Publication.
I was wondering if anyone had any experience of this process and or completed one? I have a few questions about the process and generally.
Please feel free to PM me if you want or reply to this thread.
Cheers.
I was speaking to my Mentor about career progression. I opened up about wanting to do a PhD in Occupational Therapy (Science).
I was reading Prospects.ac.uk website and there is an alternative route to Traditional PhD by Thesis which is PhD by Published Works/Publication.
I was wondering if anyone had any experience of this process and or completed one? I have a few questions about the process and generally.
Please feel free to PM me if you want or reply to this thread.
Cheers.
Original post by Jhyzone
Hi folks,
I was speaking to my Mentor about career progression. I opened up about wanting to do a PhD in Occupational Therapy (Science).
I was reading Prospects.ac.uk website and there is an alternative route to Traditional PhD by Thesis which is PhD by Published Works/Publication.
I was wondering if anyone had any experience of this process and or completed one? I have a few questions about the process and generally.
Please feel free to PM me if you want or reply to this thread.
Cheers.
I was speaking to my Mentor about career progression. I opened up about wanting to do a PhD in Occupational Therapy (Science).
I was reading Prospects.ac.uk website and there is an alternative route to Traditional PhD by Thesis which is PhD by Published Works/Publication.
I was wondering if anyone had any experience of this process and or completed one? I have a few questions about the process and generally.
Please feel free to PM me if you want or reply to this thread.
Cheers.
I dont know anyone who has done this, i think its pretty rare. Their basically for researchers with lots of published papers who for one reason or another never completed a PhD but have produced substantial amount of well regarded papers and essentially have completed the body of work in both depth & quality of a PhD already through their research projects they've been completing in their career.
Reply 2
Original post by mnot
I dont know anyone who has done this, i think its pretty rare. Their basically for researchers with lots of published papers who for one reason or another never completed a PhD but have produced substantial amount of well regarded papers and essentially have completed the body of work in both depth & quality of a PhD already through their research projects they've been completing in their career.
This is correct. Normally this type of PhD submission will comprise the published works themselves in addition to a separate exegesis in which the candidate accounts for the originality and significance of their research, often by tracing an important strand of their contribution to knowledge.
Original post by mnot
I dont know anyone who has done this, i think its pretty rare. Their basically for researchers with lots of published papers who for one reason or another never completed a PhD but have produced substantial amount of well regarded papers and essentially have completed the body of work in both depth & quality of a PhD already through their research projects they've been completing in their career.
Original post by ClarissaBella
This is correct. Normally this type of PhD submission will comprise the published works themselves in addition to a separate exegesis in which the candidate accounts for the originality and significance of their research, often by tracing an important strand of their contribution to knowledge.
Thank you both for your reply. Though I read from "PhD by Published Work: A Practical Guide for Success" By Susan Smith (2015) spoke about a "Prospective", "planned" or "ab initio" work whereby a PhD by Published work can be done from scratch instead of retrospectively (See Introduction).
I am mostly interested in this and was wondering if there are people here who have done this?
Original post by Jhyzone
Thank you both for your reply. Though I read from "PhD by Published Work: A Practical Guide for Success" By Susan Smith (2015) spoke about a "Prospective", "planned" or "ab initio" work whereby a PhD by Published work can be done from scratch instead of retrospectively (See Introduction).
I am mostly interested in this and was wondering if there are people here who have done this?
I am mostly interested in this and was wondering if there are people here who have done this?
Never heard of this. Why not just do the PhD if your planning on committing to several years of research with the intent of producing several publications...
Have you seen this happen?
@Reality Check @gjd800 @Mr Wednesday
(edited 3 years ago)
A PhD by published work "from scratch" is just...a regular PhD, essentially. As above you should just directly apply to PhD programmes in that case.
I think especially these days a PhD by published work (in the usual sense i.e. after the work is published) almost non-existent; I think it used to happen back in the mid-late 20th century where the academia pipeline was less rigid (see e.g. Jane Goodall). But now it's more or less impossible to get involved in those academic circles unless you are already in them by doing a PhD etc, anyway - and I'm not really sure you could get published in any reputable (i.e. not vanity) journal if you aren't in an academic environment anyway to get your name attached to a paper by an established researcher and then hence go on to publish more with your name in a more prominent role in the paper until you are being published as the full author of the paper/first listed name.
The only major exceptions I can think of are academic clinicians (medical doctors/surgeons that is) who have their degree(s) and do a lot of research as part of their work, but due to the demands of their work aren't in a position to go off and do a PhD as a standalone thing (although even this is more or less supplanted by the MD (Research) qualification in the UK which is essentially a PhD by published work with a slightly different name), or people working in R&D (mostly engineers I imagine) who likewise are already doing research and publishing as part of their job anyway.
They aren't then "planning" for the PhD by published work but just have done the work so why not send it off to get a degree to boot...
I think especially these days a PhD by published work (in the usual sense i.e. after the work is published) almost non-existent; I think it used to happen back in the mid-late 20th century where the academia pipeline was less rigid (see e.g. Jane Goodall). But now it's more or less impossible to get involved in those academic circles unless you are already in them by doing a PhD etc, anyway - and I'm not really sure you could get published in any reputable (i.e. not vanity) journal if you aren't in an academic environment anyway to get your name attached to a paper by an established researcher and then hence go on to publish more with your name in a more prominent role in the paper until you are being published as the full author of the paper/first listed name.
The only major exceptions I can think of are academic clinicians (medical doctors/surgeons that is) who have their degree(s) and do a lot of research as part of their work, but due to the demands of their work aren't in a position to go off and do a PhD as a standalone thing (although even this is more or less supplanted by the MD (Research) qualification in the UK which is essentially a PhD by published work with a slightly different name), or people working in R&D (mostly engineers I imagine) who likewise are already doing research and publishing as part of their job anyway.
They aren't then "planning" for the PhD by published work but just have done the work so why not send it off to get a degree to boot...
Original post by mnot
Never heard of this. Why not just do the PhD if your planning on committing to several years of research with the intent of producing several publications...
Have you seen this happen?
@Reality Check @gjd800 @Mr Wednesday
Have you seen this happen?
@Reality Check @gjd800 @Mr Wednesday
Never seen it. I know it is theoretically possible but my understanding is that it's relatively rare.
I think it's simpler just to do the doctorate and publish as you go, if that's what you're after
Reply 7
Original post by mnot
Never heard of this. Why not just do the PhD if your planning on committing to several years of research with the intent of producing several publications...
Have you seen this happen?
@Reality Check @gjd800 @Mr Wednesday
Have you seen this happen?
@Reality Check @gjd800 @Mr Wednesday
Not for a few decades, at least in the UK. Pretty much all of the “standard” PhDs I have come across do indeed generate multiple papers worth of data along the way, ideally with some of that published or at least submitted come viva time, but it’s not usual to just bind together papers with a short intro for the exam. The thesis is an opportunity to go into more depth than is typical in a single paper (e.g. the messy reality of a tricky experiment that gets summarized in print as “method X was used to determine observable Y”) along with all the stuff that’s interesting for your team and the next student along, but not publication worthy, e.g. things that looked good on paper but didn’t work well in the end. However in some places, Sweden for example, it was historically more common to just bind a stack of papers together for the thesis, but with longer PhDs and more chances to built up enough papers.
About the only reason I would expect someone to go for the “PhD by Published Work” route would be staff from industry or a national lab who had built up a substantial body of work that on balance was PhD worthy over multiple years. Historically that did happen when PhDs were much less common, e.g. if you joined the scientific civil service direct with a BSc and then generated lots of papers as part of your day job, but later decided you need a PhD to leverage a promotion. These days most people in those roles publishing regularly already have a PhD.
Reply 8
Original post by mnot
Never heard of this. Why not just do the PhD if your planning on committing to several years of research with the intent of producing several publications...
Have you seen this happen?
@Reality Check @gjd800 @Mr Wednesday
Have you seen this happen?
@Reality Check @gjd800 @Mr Wednesday
Agree with you all, and I can't add much more. I've not even heard of that term for a very long time. I thought the 'by publication' thing was more for higher doctorates now, like Doctor of Science, Doctor of Divinity, Doctor of Civil Law etc.
Reply 9
I've only met one person doing a PhD by Published Works out of all the PGRs I've met, but he was an exceptional case in that he had had an extensive research career before embarking on getting the PhD under his belt.
As @artful_lounger said, a PhD by Publication from scratch is the format of a typical PhD. What you might be thinking of is a 'three papers' thesis - this is where the PGR writes papers ready for publication (as you would do anyway) which contribute to or make up the content of their thesis. So instead of one large project, there is a clear division into three separate studies within related areas of interest/addressing different aspects of the overall aims. This format of thesis is becoming more common, as it used to exclusively found in STEM subjects.
As @artful_lounger said, a PhD by Publication from scratch is the format of a typical PhD. What you might be thinking of is a 'three papers' thesis - this is where the PGR writes papers ready for publication (as you would do anyway) which contribute to or make up the content of their thesis. So instead of one large project, there is a clear division into three separate studies within related areas of interest/addressing different aspects of the overall aims. This format of thesis is becoming more common, as it used to exclusively found in STEM subjects.
(edited 3 years ago)
Original post by Jhyzone
Hi folks,
I was speaking to my Mentor about career progression. I opened up about wanting to do a PhD in Occupational Therapy (Science).
I was reading Prospects.ac.uk website and there is an alternative route to Traditional PhD by Thesis which is PhD by Published Works/Publication.
I was wondering if anyone had any experience of this process and or completed one? I have a few questions about the process and generally.
Please feel free to PM me if you want or reply to this thread.
Cheers.
I was speaking to my Mentor about career progression. I opened up about wanting to do a PhD in Occupational Therapy (Science).
I was reading Prospects.ac.uk website and there is an alternative route to Traditional PhD by Thesis which is PhD by Published Works/Publication.
I was wondering if anyone had any experience of this process and or completed one? I have a few questions about the process and generally.
Please feel free to PM me if you want or reply to this thread.
Cheers.
I've seen probably 1 person who did this out of several dozen I know in biological science-related PhD's, so I wouldn't say its common by any means.
A lot of people I've seen publish their work shortly before submitting their PhD so they get to mention in their PhD chapters that the stuff they wrote is very similar to the publication, or that a specific chapter has been used in a specific publication etc. Or they attach the publications as an "appendix" so they can demonstrate how the work was published. But its rarely, if ever, that I've seen this even in sciences where I think it would be more common.
Original post by Jhyzone
Hi folks,
I was speaking to my Mentor about career progression. I opened up about wanting to do a PhD in Occupational Therapy (Science).
I was reading Prospects.ac.uk website and there is an alternative route to Traditional PhD by Thesis which is PhD by Published Works/Publication.
I was wondering if anyone had any experience of this process and or completed one? I have a few questions about the process and generally.
Please feel free to PM me if you want or reply to this thread.
Cheers.
I was speaking to my Mentor about career progression. I opened up about wanting to do a PhD in Occupational Therapy (Science).
I was reading Prospects.ac.uk website and there is an alternative route to Traditional PhD by Thesis which is PhD by Published Works/Publication.
I was wondering if anyone had any experience of this process and or completed one? I have a few questions about the process and generally.
Please feel free to PM me if you want or reply to this thread.
Cheers.
Hi just wondering if you went ahead with the PHD in OT and if so how are you finding it please?
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