Mozman, one of my colleagues is going the “three papers” route. I’d never heard of it, but more power to him.
My committee called me “Dr.” right after the defense, but there is that odd dead period between defending and handing it in with all the changes and correct formatting. And then the delay until it’s actually conferred. Not that anyone really called me “Dr.” all that much, but if it wasn’t someone I knew well I just blushed humbly and murmured about everything not being quite final until the deferral date passed.
Now I can fling the PhD label about as carelessly as I please.
Uh, I meant CONFERRAL date, not deferral.
Three publication dissertation route? May I ask what disciplines ya’ll work in? I haven’t heard of that. It sounds so. . . pleasant.
I am in Entomology. The 3 dissertation route varies among universities and between departments within a given university.
Cranky- Here, we don’t even have a defense. Once your committee signs, you are done.
MM
I like the practical way your University handles it, Mozman. Mine DEPARTMENT required three papers, but the SCHOOL still wanted a formal defense and bound dissertation. The latter was just a small pain in the ass, but the former was a costly pain in the ass for something that was–since I had published–just a formality, and everyone knew it.
The’ll change it someday, I’m sure. Just like how they removed the foreign language requirement immediately AFTER I fufilled my foreign language requirement.
capybyra, I’m in Higher Education. But I think this is a university-wide thing. If you can get three publish-worthy papers authored, you’ve done it. Of course, you have to set this up with your committee–you can’t just swing by the grad office, show them three journal articles, and wave goodbye. I only know one person in our porgram who is doing this (and I’ve been around for 10 years).
I don’t think it would necessarily be easier than the dissertation, but it’s appealing to not be wrapped up with a SINGLE project for the duration. And to have published/publishable works right out of the gate at graduation.
I’m in Geology. To answer capybyra–and to echo Cranky to an extent–each paper had to be approved by my advisor and by each member of my committee. So, I wrote a paper, submitted it to my committee, each of whom had comments and corrections they wanted to seen made before they would approve it. So, I’d make my committee’s changes, then have it–and the target journal–approved (it had to be a journal with an “excellent intenational reputation”) by the committee, after which I could submit it. After submission, it was between me, the journal editor, and the peer reviewers regarding further changes, but at least the committee couldn’t touch it anymore (hence, the “easy” defense). Eventually, it comes back from the journal editor with even more comments and changes–and hopefully not a flat-out rejection, in which case you’d be back to square one–so you make these, submit the revisions and hope you made them to the journal’s satisfaction. If so, accepted and done.
Repeat… two more times.
Also: you can’t just be published as a second author; for my program, you have to be at least first on all three. I was the first author on two, and a sole author on another.
It’s certainly not easier than a traditional dissertation, but–like Cranky said–you get out with some pubs under your belt. It may or may not take longer, I really couldn’t tell. I made it out in 5 1/2 years.
Not to hijack Mozman’s congratulations party, but this stuff is a lot more fun to talk about than to actually have to go through!
Hmm.
I ended up finishing in 4 1/2 years. I guess it is even easier here, although (not to brag) my department is the top department for my field in the country (well, within the top 3; each dept. in the top 3 considers itself “the best”). My articles didn’t even have to be accepted. One of them was, the other 2 are still floating about in the review process (a rant in of itself, but i’ll save that one for another day). There are not any requirements on the journals either, other than they must be legitimate peer-reviewed operations. Here, as long as your committee signs off, everything is a-ok.
Mine was actually two accepted, one submitted, but I beat them at that game by having three accepted.
If I hadn’t had to wait for the review process, I would’ve made it in 5, easy, and maybe 4 1/2. Most of the past two years of my dissertation work were spent sitting around and checking the mail instead of “real” work while I waited for sometimes-slow committee members, reviewers, and editors (especially one committee member… grrr…). In fact, if the editor of the final article had been slower by just two days, I wouldn’t have made the deadline to defend this past semester!
What a strange first sentence I wrote. Make that “My program actually required…” instead of “Mine was actually…”