======= Date Modified 08 Apr 2011 14:21:59 =======
Hello there,

I am a new Ph.D student.My supervisors have just approved my research question and working title.

Then they advised me to shift to the Ph.D of "thesis by publication" which means I should have 2-6 publications during the same period of "traditional Ph.d).

I am not sure about that,I think it is risky and challenging because the rejection or revision would mess my procedure.

Any suggestion would be appreciated.(robin)

Check the university's regulations. The PhD I am doing was sold to me by my supervisor as 'thesis by publication'. The university, however, call it 'alternative format thesis'. This means my thesis will comprise an introduction, and discussion, and then instead of methods and results chapters, any papers I publish in the course of my PhD. BUT if they don't get published, or the work is not quite suitable for publication, then chapters can be unpublished work *written up as though it were a paper*.

This seems to me (medical research) so much more sensible than churning out a traditional thesis which needs to then be substantially restructured into papers.

So check with your uni whether your thesis actually needs published papers, or whether you write the work as though it were papers you might submit.

Hey Chrisoz! I am publishing my papers as I go along- but it's not officially a 'PhD by publication'. Basically all of my lit review chapters and results papers are already/will be published (7 papers in all, although I will write some more after I've finished my PhD), but they are still 'chapters' in my thesis, with a few changes such as more details which were ommitted in the publication due to word count limitations etc, and with the publication citation at the end of the chapter. So there isn't always a completely clear distinction between the two. One thing I would advise though, is to publish as you go along. You will be in a much stronger position at the end of your PhD if you have a few first author papers, and will probably find it very hard to get a post-doc without any. Of course trying to publish is unpredictable, but I have been able to manage this (including four revise and resubmit papers which are now all finally accepted!) alongside the rest of my PhD, so even with the inevitable extra work as you try to publish, it should be manageable! If the traditional PhD means that they won't be pushing you to publish, then I would definitely go for PhD by publication, but if it is just the case that you don't absolutely have to publish but you can if you want to, then I wouldn't worry too much- there won't be much difference in the outcome. Good luck with it all! KB

WOW 7 papers keenbean? Congratulations. I am writing my first paper and having 3 papers from my thesis was the most I was looking at. Re the thesis by publication? How common is this, and where is it most common? I am interested in perhaps doing a similar thesis format (I think it would suit my project more to have various short standalone papers which are brought together, as otherwise it would be a huge piece of work)

HI Chrisoz,
I am doing my PhD by publication. I have 5 papers that form my results chapters. In between the chapters I have linking chapters' to give a bit more methodology and contextual framework, I have an introduction and lit review and then a discussion and conclusion at the end.
It has been great for me, having all of these papers published. My work is definitely better after the review process, and I have become a better writer, and a better stakeholder manager (my papers have 2-5 other authors on them)
But, the down side is that thesis by publication will take more than 3 years. Getting papers published takes a long time. It can be under review for 3 months or more, come back with revisions that take 2 months and then have another 3 months under review - then be published 12 months after that!

It seems not a big problem for those who have been working in academic circle and had their publication or at least ongoing ones.

Ph.D by publication probably encourage more polished sections of the thesis by reviewing with the criteria of high ranking journal article. For instance, a published literature review may generally be better than those involved in a traditional dissertation, in this case the author should also specify something they may not do in the counterpart of a conventional thesis.

However,is it possible that my early paper still can not be accepted after the sections of suevey and disscusion have already been pubished?