The Manuscript Dissertation: A Means of Increasing Competitive Edge for Tenure-track Faculty Positions

Freeman, Sydney

doi:10.28945/4093

Cited by 13 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Scholars making similarly positive cases for PbPP include Francis et al (2009), Freeman (2018), Huang (2020), and G. Lee et al (2012). Evans et al (2018) note that with PbM only about one-quarter of dissertations are published in peer-review journals, and those that do typically appear two to three years after completion of doctoral studies.…”

Section: Background: the Phd By Prospective Publicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

PhD by Prospective Publication in Australian Business Schools: Provocations from a Collaborative Autoethnography

Billsberry

Cortese

2023

IJDS

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Aim/Purpose: The goal of this essay is to critically reflect on the emerging trend for PhDs by Prospective Publication (PbPP) in Australian Business Schools and to explore its appropriateness for fledgling academics. Background: The PbPP is a relatively new and increasingly popular alternative to traditional PhD by monograph (PbM). It is the idea that a doctorate can be completed by writing a series of papers that are published, or close to being published, as journal articles or book chapters. For students, it offers the chance to get a head-start on their publishing careers and helps them find their first academic jobs. For supervisors working in an academic environment increasingly characterized by ‘publish or perish’ dynamics, it guarantees meaningful rewards from doctoral supervision. However, despite the attractiveness of publishing during candidature, it is a very different way to complete a doctorate with many challenges for students, supervisors, and institutions. Methodology: We adopted critical collaborative autoethnography. Through this method, we reflect on our experience supervising and administrating PbPP students and integrate our reflections with the literature on PbPPs to highlight policy concerns and our position on them. Contribution: We argue that the primary goal of the PbPP is to produce students who can conduct research collaboratively after graduation, as opposed to people who can conduct independent research, although the two outcomes are not mutually exclusive. We also argue that assessment of PbPP should be significantly enhanced to determine the nature of the student’s contribution to the thesis, their understanding of research design, and their broader understanding of their subject. Finally, we argue that despite the attractiveness of PbPP, it can only be successfully attempted by students with elite levels of intellect, dedication, critical analytical skills, language skills, resilience, and patience and supervisors with expertise in the field of study, experience of publishing different types of paper, familiarity with the working of the journal publication process, and workload capacity. Findings: PbPP theses should be examined by viva voce. Viva voce examinations of PbPP theses should determine (1) the nature of the doctoral candidates’ contribution to the thesis, (2) whether it is sufficient for the award of a doctorate, (3) the contributions of the papers to advancing the field of research, and (4) the students’ understanding of the theory in their field. Viva voce examinations of PbPP theses should seek to discover the student’s ability to contribute to collaborative efforts of research teams. PbPP students should also sit an examination of their understanding of research philosophy, design, methodologies, and related topics. It should be externally set, administered, and marked by an independent examination board. PbPP candidates need to demonstrate excellent ‘research English’ language skills before commencing. Recommendations for Practitioners: PbPP candidates need excellent intellectual skills – as a rough guide, probably in the top quartile of doctoral candidates. PbPP candidates need to be resilient and able to cope with failure, criticism, and rejection. PbPP candidates need high levels of patience. PbPP candidates should be encouraged to produce their first manuscript early in their candidature. PbPP supervision requires supervisors with advanced levels of subject knowledge, research skills, and publishing outputs. PbPP supervision requires expertise across various forms of research and types of output. Due to the wide range of skills and experience, PbPP supervision is likely to require a team approach. Recommendation for Researchers: As the PbPP grows in popularity, it challenges educational researchers to explore this emerging phenomenon. Does it take a particular type of person to thrive through this process? Does it need supervisors with particular characteristics? How does the experience of PbPP supervisors differ to the experience of PbM supervisors? Do PbPP graduates differ in their abilities to PbM graduates? Impact on Society: People graduating with PhDs typically enter influential and important jobs in society. It is vital that they have the knowledge, skills, and abilities that the qualification confers. In Australia, the PbPP challenges this credibility due to issues of co-authorship, selective study, and shallow assessment. These matters need to be understood and rectified to prevent a loss of credibility in Australia’s Higher Education institutions and its graduates. Future Research: Are there any differences in the knowledge, skills, and abilities of PbPP and PbM graduates? Studies are needed of the characteristics prospective PbPP students need to be successful taking this doctoral route. How does the nature of supervision differ between PbPP and PbM? What is the impact on the skills and abilities supervisors need and the implications for workload? What jobs do PbPP graduates go into and does this differ to PbM graduates? What resistance will the proposals made in this essay meet?

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Section: Background: the Phd By Prospective Publicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

PhD by Prospective Publication in Australian Business Schools: Provocations from a Collaborative Autoethnography

Billsberry

Cortese

2023

IJDS

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“…And this in turn, he believed, would significantly increase the probability of successfully achieving his goal. In the end, he was correct-in the three short years following his graduation, he secured an associate professorship, which he explains is unique in that it meant he skipped over serving first as an assistant professor (Freeman, 2018). He attributes this success in part to his decision to pursue the manuscript-style dissertation because it gave him an opportunity "to learn how to develop various types of articles in a rigorous, safe, and supportive environment" (Freeman, 2018, p. 284).…”

Section: (Int)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We send that to potential committee members. So, I've already made initial contact with these potential committee members, but I want the student to contact them and (Freeman, 2018), and asks the prospective committee members to bring questions or concerns up with him directly. After members have committed to serving on the committee, Dr. Freeman emails the committee as a group.…”

Section: No Clout No 'Diss'-notes From a Former Dissertator Turned Su...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Not All Who Want To, Can--Not All Who Can, Will: Extending Notions of Unconventional Doctoral Dissertations

Amell¹

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My research seeks to destabilize imaginings of dissertations-conventional and otherwise-by highlighting a range of doctoral dissertations that, seemingly against all odds, manage to diverge from well-worn epistemic and textual paths. Whether it's a dissertation from South Africa whose author brings auto-ethnography and illness narratives into a discipline known for its skepticism of anything qualitative (Richards, 2012), a dissertation from Canada whose author purposely eschews standard edited academic English in order to privilege traditional Indigenous knowledges (Stewart, 2015), or a dissertation from the United States whose author coded and designed a digital scholarly edition of Ulysses without writing a single chapter in the process (Visconti, 2015), my research questions what brings these dissertations together as well as considering what sets them apart.

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Same But Different? Identifying Writing Challenges Specific to the PhD by Publication

Solli

Nygaard

2022

Landscapes and Narratives of PhD by Publication

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The Manuscript Dissertation: A Means of Increasing Competitive Edge for Tenure-track Faculty Positions

Cited by 13 publications

References 34 publications

PhD by Prospective Publication in Australian Business Schools: Provocations from a Collaborative Autoethnography

PhD by Prospective Publication in Australian Business Schools: Provocations from a Collaborative Autoethnography

Not All Who Want To, Can--Not All Who Can, Will: Extending Notions of Unconventional Doctoral Dissertations

Same But Different? Identifying Writing Challenges Specific to the PhD by Publication

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