Monographs vs. article dissertations revisited. This seems to be an ongoing discussion at doctoral seminars, and seemingly the trend is towards more article-based dissertations. But what actually are the pros and cons of an article dissertation? (Some of the points below can be seen as both a pro and con.)
- Writing an article thesis gets you started in publishing. And the only way to learn how to publish is by publishing. Which is important in the academic “publish or perish” game.
- Articles count as publications. Now here’s the trick. They might not. Yes, they count as publications for your university, but not necessarily when you apply for a job where they may be seen as “part of your dissertation” only. Oddly enough, articles you publish from your dissertation AFTER the defence always do count.
- Each article is reviewed before the thesis is submitted. This is a plus for quality control. The separate review processes, however, can push each article to a different direction; finding an over-arching theme might be difficult. (In extreme cases people have written their articles but still have opted to submit the thesis as a monograph.)
- Each article has a contribution. This should make it easier to argue for the contribution of the thesis. And if you’re lucky, your articles don’t contradict each other.
- Articles may have co-authors. Which makes it difficult to judge the contribution of the author or the thesis, even with a statement of contributions. Also, writing with your supervisor may be tricky if that supervisor ought to be on your dissertation committee and/or is involved in setting your grade.
- It takes longer to write an article dissertation. Yes, it does. Mind you, some journals have awfully long review processes, and doctoral students do not always have the luxury to wait 2-odd years for an article to get published. Sadly enough, opting for lower-quality journals may earn you some criticism from your committee/opponent(s).
- Articles are shorter. And honestly, some of us are better in writing a long monograph, others better in getting to the point in 5000 words.
Does this push you into any direction? Ultimately, and here’s the provocative bit, what you end up doing is sthg your supervisor is most comfortable with. And that again may be dictated by the funding scheme of doctoral dissertations at different universities. As a comparison just see how “licenciate theses” virtually disappeared in Finland since the Ministry of Education withdrew their financial bonus to universities producing these (as comparative statistics from KOTA: 1997 there were 857 Lic and 934 PhD theses published in Finland, 10 years later, in 2006, the numbers are 489 Lic and 1409 PhDs). David Vellenga had a point in looking at journal rankings in the light of merit pay.
Gyöngyi
Beware! This blog entry comes from a person who did indeed write an article thesis. I admit to being fully biased.
