Half a century and more of PhD theses by published papers
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Half a century and more of PhD theses by published papers Comment on: “Bringing the doctoral thesis by published papers to the Social Sciences and the Humanities: A quantitative easing? A small study of doctoral thesis submission rules and practice in two disciplines in the UK” by John Rigby and Barbara Jones in Scientometrics published online 15-May-2020 Lars H. Breimer1 · Dimitri P. Mikhailidis2,3 Received: 1 June 2020 © Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary 2020
Abstract The recent article by Rigby and Jones in Scientometrics (15-May-2020) again draws attention to basing PhD-theses on published works, in their case introducing the system into the Social Sciences and Humanities. In this short communication we endeavour to provide additional information that is essential for this debate. The 23 page article by Rigby and Jones (2020) is an attempt to argue the case for and against the introduction of doctoral theses by published papers into Social Sciences and Humanities. A few comments may be of interest. The Swedish system of PhDs by published papers has long celebrated its 50th birthday. The same system is used in Finland and a similar system has long been in use in The Netherlands. Japan also has a published works PhD system (Breimer and Mikhailidis 1991). This information is missing from the Rigby and Jones article. In 1991 Mikhailidis and Breimer proposed in Nature that, as part of the new common structure of the EU, the member nations should take the opportunity to create a common format for PhDs by allowing them to be based on published papers (Breimer and Mikhailidis 1991). To support this departure from the usual tome-based system in the UK (and most EU member-states), we showed that the PhD at our Medical School (the Royal Free * Lars H. Breimer [email protected] Dimitri P. Mikhailidis [email protected] 1
Division of Clinical Chemistry, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Örebro University Hospital (USÖ), 701 85 Örebro, Sweden
2
Department of Clinical Biochemistry, University College London Medical School, University College London (UCL), Royal Free Hospital Campus, Pond Street, London NW3 2QG, UK
3
Mohammed Bin Rashid University (MBRU) of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
13
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Hospital School of Medicine, part of the University of London) not only contained published works but that the number of papers per thesis had increased over the years. We also proposed that, to make doctoral theses generally available, a “Thesis Journal” should be established to publish the theses. This was before the Internet, hence a journal. Scientists around the world would be encouraged to send questions to the Chairman of the Examination to be read out. The examination should be in a public act (open “Defence” of the thesis) as in the case for Nordic countries and The Netherlands. A couple of years later we had the opportunity to publish in Biomed & Pharmacotherpy, a rather obscure journal by comparison to Nature, a detailed analysis of the pap
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