Someone I know claims to be a D(???) but I think that he either made it up, or bought it on the internet. I have no idea which university his so called doctorate would come from.
How can I check his claim?
If I decide to call myself Dr Bob, can anyone prove I am lying?
Well, for starters, I suppose you can ask him to name the university where he earned his doctorate. That might then be able to verify with the university. If he refuses to name the university, I’d be suspicious.
Zev Steinhardt
This site allows you to search for Ph.D dissertations from North American Universities under the author’s name. I tried it and it immediately found my dissertation and those of several colleagues I tried.
It might not work for very common names, and it doesn’t include degrees from foreign universities.
What type of doctor are we talking about? The term isn’t regulated in the most general sense as far as I am I aware (see Dr. Dre for example). As long as someone isn’t trying to commit fraud by using the title in a specific way, anyone can call themselves that or waste money on a diploma mill that “proves” that they are one.
The only way to know is to ask the specifics of why the person is calling themself a “doctor”.
I found some from UK and Ireland universities, at least. Looks like Australia, too.
What is meant by doctor in the OP then? PhD? If your objection is that this person doesn’t seem capable of getting one, then rest assured that it is not an IQ test.
Perhaps not, but it is usually really fucking hard to get a legitimate one. (I speak from experience here.)
Incidentally, I found my dissertation easily on the site Colibri linked.
Also, you can often check for degrees earned under candidates’ names at the university’s website where the degree was supposedly earned. There’s something called a “verification page” or something similar.
That’s so cool. I found mine and my sister’s.
Hey, that’s neat. Found mine easily in a list of only 5. I have a somewhat uncommon last name.
Authors get a discount on the price when ordering copies of their dissertation. Apparently, you can even get it in hardcover.
Mine includes an audio CD. I wonder whether they duplicate that, if anyone asks for a copy of mine.
Found mine, and two from my daughter, one of which might be her MS thesis. Mine is from 1980, so it goes way back.
It seems that too much information confuses it. It found mine with just my name, adding the title gave no results.
I tried four people I know – two showed up, two didn’t. I wonder if it includes deegrees like JD, DST, DEd, and so on?
Did they do a dissertation? Not all professional doctorates require one. I don’t believe most JD programs do, for example.
I took it back to a 1951 PhD for an advisor of mine.
I found my sister’s from 2010 and more interestingly, my grandfather’s from 1929.
For some reason I could freely download my sister’s, but none of the others, which only gave the option to order.
Couldn’t find my sister’s (earned in 2015).
Not every doctorate is a PhD. I checked someone I know for a fact has a Doctor of Ministry (DMin) degree from an accredited theological school. It’s not the equivalent of a PhD in Theology or a ThD, but it’s as legitimate as these things get. They don’t do formal dissertations, but do complete a “doctoral project” that is bound and kept in the institution’s library. I saw his there so I know it exists, but it isn’t on that website.
A friend has a PsyD. I don’t know if they do anything like a dissertation, but it isn’t there, either.
MD’s were explicitly excluded, but they also aren’t there. I wouldn’t expect related professions (PharmD, DDS, DVM, etc) to show up, either.
My father has a PhD from Sussex, and isn’t there, so not all dissertations from the UK are there. [ETA: Oh, wait, there it is. I foolishly misspelled his name. It’s not the one he uses in daily life.]
I found mine and am tempted to order a bound copy. And I spent a while looking up grad school classmates, and found out that some of them took many years to write their dissertations. It was good to see that one classmate who had dozens of brilliant ideas but couldn’t seem to settle on any of them did eventually get his dissertation done.
This is Dr. Ruth’s dissertation:
AN INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PARAPROFESSIONALS IN INCREASING THE USE OF POSTPARTUM AND FAMILY PLANNING SERVICES BY WOMEN FROM LOWER SOCIO-ECONOMIC BACKGROUNDS IN AN URBAN SETTING
by WESTHEIMER, RUTH KAROLA, Columbia University, 1970
Dr. Joyce Brothers:
AN INVESTIGATION OF AVOIDANCE ANXIETY AND ESCAPE BEHAVIOR IN HUMAN SUBJECTS AS MEASURED BY ACTION POTENTIALS IN MUSCLE
by BROTHERS, JOYCE D., Columbia University, 1953
Dr. Laura Schlessinger:
EFFECTS OF INSULIN ON 3-O-METHYLGLUCOSE TRANSPORT IN ISOLATED RAT ADIPOCYTES.
by SCHLESSINGER, LAURA C., Columbia University, 1974
I don’t think that his putting Dr in front of his name would qualify as a fraud, but is certainly misleading his clients - he works in electrical/electronic engineering. He would started using it to make himself look more qualified than he is. I don’t know for sure but I think he claims to have a PHd.
Anyway, thank you for the links above.
I wonder how many employers actually check such claims?
I’m wondering if doing so would violate a professional code of ethics.
Why do you say “as legitimate as these things get”? It’s an accredited institution and the degree is issued pursuant to the candidate completing the requirements, right? So, why isn’t it the equivalent of a PhD? It’s a real doctorate.