Non-dissertation writing in 3-Year PhD

[annae]

Is anyone on here doing a three-year PhD? I know one of the pitfalls of European programs is the lack of time to publish, present, etc. outside of the dissertation. I'm getting a lot of conflicting messages from professors and students about expected productivity in projects outside of their dissertation. Most of the students in my program I've spoken to don't seem too worried about anything besides their dissertation.  My adviser wants me to present 2x a year and to simply "read everything"  - not worrying about writing until later. If I'm writing a full paper for a conference, I'd like to publish if I can. On the other hand, I have to finish a big chunk of the dissertation in the first year if I'm to upgrade. I'd like to be competitive for jobs when I graduate and I'm sure my classmates do to, but as far as I know I'm the only one that's thinking this way. What are your thoughts? How would you balance writing on the side in such a time frame? What is reasonable?

[penguincube]

Hi annae,

I am not familiar with the 3-year Ph.D. specifically.  It does seem like trying to finish coursework and dissertation for a program in such a short time would limit the amount of extra time for non-dissertation publication, however, if you are seeking a faculty position, it would not seem that it is any less important to do.  As far as the expectation on you as a student, my advice is that this should be clearly stated by your advisor, and it seems that he/she did quantify their expectations.  For example, my advisor expects us to publish once a year, others at my school do not expect anything, but regardless, there is no reason you should be left guessing.  Many conferences publish a proceedings which contain the fulltext of all papers presented at the conference, and if that is the case where you present, your paper can be listed on your CV as a publication.  I am personally taking about 4-5 years for my Ed.D. and am doing quite a bit of publishing projects on the side and it is a lot to handle, but someone who finished the same program in about 3.5 years also has the record for most publications while in the program so anything is possible.