Abstract
This paper examines how an alternative to the traditional monograph form of the doctoral thesis is emerging that reflects a new approach to the valuation and designation of scientific outputs. This new approach, based on co-citation as underpinning principle for the measurement of knowledge structures, values knowledge and knowledge producers in increasingly quantitative terms. Such a change aligns with wider institutional market-based approaches that have been transforming higher education sectors world-wide. Under these influences, which prioritize quantification and tangibility of output, with quality equated with citation, the thesis, a key institution of the university, is now subject to pressures to transform and be constituted by a series of publishable papers, referred to by a variety of terms, the most common being ‘Thesis by Published Papers’, although ‘Journal Format Thesis’, ‘Alternative Format Thesis’, and ‘Integrated Thesis’ are also used. While the scientific disciplines have traditionally been closer to this paper-based model, albeit with significant national variations, Social Sciences and Humanities subjects are now being affected. We present evidence from a small study of the UK higher education sector of organisational regulations in 54 departments concerning doctoral degree submission formats in two disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences (History and Sociology). We investigate the prevalence of this new practice, investigate some of its key aspects, and identify a number of questions for future research on this emerging and important topic.
Highlights
The award of a doctoral degree has been a strong signal that the holder of the qualification can join the academy’s latest generation of scholars
The paper moves to review developments in the status of the doctoral thesis which have seen universities changing their rules on allowable thesis format to permit a submission for the doctoral degree to comprise an assemblage of papers, often three or four in number, each intended to be of publishable quality, and taken together forming a coherent body of work
Such a framing helps to illuminate the tensions that exist as knowledge claims made within the context of one important academic institution, the doctoral thesis, are redefined in the terms of another, if not the central academic institution, the peer-reviewed paper
Summary
The award of a doctoral degree has been a strong signal that the holder of the qualification can join the academy’s latest generation of scholars. The resulting transformation in the thesis is critically approached with a conceptual framing using ideas from realist philosophy (Searle 1995) and new institutionalist theory (Scott 2014), the notions of constitutive rules, and institutional development and change. Such a framing helps to illuminate the tensions that exist as knowledge claims made within the context of one important academic institution, the doctoral thesis, are redefined in the terms of another, if not the central academic institution, the peer-reviewed paper. The paper provides a range of data and analysis and concludes with a discussion of issues raised by the research, proposing areas for further enquiry
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