The only person who read my thesis was my supervisor. isnt that a waste?

[virologystudent]

I feel I have worked so hard on my research and produced valuable results. But I will never get credit for the work and it wont advance knowledge in the field because no one will ever read the thesis I wrote.

 

Do others feel the same way?

[Quantum Buckyball]

Did you file a copyright application for your thesis? I had to do that through a third party agency when I submitted my thesis to school.

I was given a choice either to,

(1) allow free access to all to view and download my thesis electronically via. Google

(2) keep it private and only school where I graduated from can view it.

Edited May 11, 2013 by Quantum Buckyball

[virologystudent]

I looked that up. Apparently you can file for copyright but its not unnecessary. According to copyright law the author of the thesis is the copyright owner, unless you give your rights to someone else.

 

Which option did you go for?

Were you going to upload it as a book on Google?

 

Thanks for your response 

[Andean Pat]

I have graduate from undergrad with a 150-page-thesis (not the same as you, but still) and wondered the same. My supervisor advised me to "recycle" it. I have therefore used chapters/sources/part of chapters/further discussion as papers in journals and/or lectures at conferences. 

 

It is a nice way to "promote" your own work, right?

[Guest |||]

I can't speak for all fields, but that is likely far more common than you would actually think.

 

The paragraphs that you so meticulously crafted and carved, are likely only ever to be read by you, your supervisor, and possibly members of your graduation committee.

 

You might disagree with this, but, I suggest you consider the other side of the coin.  How many Masters or Ph.D dissertations have you personally read from start to finish? 

 

When you say, no one will ever give me credit for this work, well, have you ever given credit to anyone else for a thesis? 

 

 

The question isnt, I wrote a thesis why isn't the field realizing its significance, but rather, what can I do to now demonstrate or reveal the significance. 

 

 

 

 

I think your adviser is dead on when he says to recycle what you wrote, possibly to then use for journal publications which will have a higher chance of being read.

[TakeruK]

I don't think it is a waste. The thesis is not really a good way to share your work with others, the thesis is a way to prove to your school that you've completed the requirements for them to grant you a PhD. A thesis is not really a peer-reviewed document, in the way a journal article is, and thus they are not usually cited in other peer reviewed works. Instead, I see the thesis as a useful exercise for yourself, and perhaps your research group. It's a good way for the school and prof to read your thesis and determine how well you really know your stuff. Also, the details of your work can help guide future students in your group learn what you have done and what they can do next. Finally, the tone of your thesis is not necessarily something for experts in your field to read. 

 

In my field, what almost always happens is that the work done on the thesis is rewritten and reworked into journal article(s) after the fact and then published. Actually, for PhD theses, what usually happens is that you write 3 papers during your degree that are published in peer-reviewed articles. Then, when you're ready to graduate, your thesis is just copying and pasting the 3 papers together, with extra chapters before and after to frame your work in the grander scheme of things. 

 

I haven't written a PhD thesis yet, but I feel like the thesis is mostly a hoop we have to jump through for our school (like courses). It's an important part of our education but ultimately, it's something that betters ourselves, not a way to contribute to the field. 

[fuzzylogician]

PhD theses are often read and cited in my field. They are frequently assigned as reading in seminars and they are generally a good way to get up to speed on the background of certain problems in the field. At the same time, theses are often turned into journal papers (or sometimes books). The content of the actual thesis doesn't go to waste, though I'm sure it's true that there are parts that very few people will ever read, and that's fine too. You write a thesis to fulfill a degree requirement by your university, and you then publish the work to make it accessible to your peers. What goes into writing these two kinds of documents is somewhat different.

[virologystudent]

Allot of what Im reading makes allot of sense. Thanks for all the feedback. I believe there is still some value in the thesis as an entity in itself. Even if its just to help other people in the same field realize what is already been done; so that they dont waste gov resources.

 

For example my research showed that a certain type of protein could not be expressed by a certain virus. It was a very expensive project (aprox. $20 000). But because the result was negative I could not publish the work. I then found out that there are other virologists trying the same thing all over the world, and all failing. This could all be prevented if my thesis was read.

 

@fuzzylogician: you say PhD theses are often read and cited in your field of linguistics; do you think that thesis content is more useful in fields where the main body of work is mainly encapsulated and disseminated in written work. Fields such as psychology, law, economics (as opposed to fields such as sciences where the aim is often centered around patents and products).

[fuzzylogician]

@fuzzylogician: you say PhD theses are often read and cited in your field of linguistics; do you think that thesis content is more useful in fields where the main body of work is mainly encapsulated and disseminated in written work. Fields such as psychology, law, economics (as opposed to fields such as sciences where the aim is often centered around patents and products).

 

I imagine it's easier to get the word out if you have a written document as opposed to a patent or product. Linguistics is also a small enough field that it's not too overwhelming to keep up with the latest innovations in our field. It's also established practice to read and cite dissertations, and I don't know if that's necessarily the case in other fields that produce written work (probably not in all, is my guess).

 

Also, this: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html

[nehs]

Interesting topic. I just submitted a major master's thesis to my committee members and got back major revisions. Almost everything discussed in this thread is relevant to me.

I agree with NicholasCage -- my advisor says the same: recycle the thesis for journals. Once we have a few journal acceptances, we can then think of developing the thesis further for a PhD or exploring a little different area.

 

TakeruK -- completely agree with you.

 

I would also just look at a thesis as a requirement to gradaute. It is a great gateway for those who want to go on for a PhD or to recycle the material into a journal article/conference etc. I, for example, read two master's thesis in my department from cover to cover taking a lot of notes on the structure and content. This helped me immensely to structure mine. I also cited the theses in my writing ( as suggested by my advisor). I think same way, my thesis ,hopefully, will be useful to future students or the Dept(if they want to re-use in classes).

As TakeruK puts it, it is definitely something that helps us better ourselves and delve a little deeper into our field. I don't look as my thesis as a huge contribution to my field but perhaps, it can be reworked upon to make it a significant contribution.

[St Andrews Lynx]

I've actually gone and read a number of theses of former PhD students of the PI I'm most interested in working for. Firstly it gives me an idea of what he expects in terms of the quantity of research, secondly I am probably going to pick up researching where a previous student left off, so it makes sense to read their work as a starting point.

 

In Chemistry a lot of journal articles are converted into thesis chapters as you plough through the grad work. I hope that happens in my case, because it's harder for advisors & thesis committees to request major changes to my nearly-finished MS when the bulk of it has already passed through peer review...

[Seeking]

In Humanities, it's usual practice to publish research papers from revised sections of a PhD dissertation. The actual dissertation is read only by the Dissertation committee, the advisor and later students working on related topics. But it's always possible to publish papers from the dissertation. I have also known candidates who revised their dissertations and published them as books from well-known publishers.

 

I come from a University where well-researched Humanities PhD dissertations are usually published - not because it's a rule or a requirement, but because unpublished dissertations are regarded as "not serious research" in this University.

 

Of course, I'm talking about the well-researched dissertations. There are also many who just submit a dissertation to get a PhD and don't go back to it.

 

Perhaps in the STEM disciplines it's much more difficult to revise and publish a dissertation - it means that one has to take up another project. But you can always publish research papers out of it.  

Edited May 19, 2013 by Seeking

[TakeruK]

In Humanities, it's usual practice to publish research papers from revised sections of a PhD dissertation. The actual dissertation is read only by the Dissertation committee, the advisor and later students working on related topics. But it's always possible to publish papers from the dissertation. I have also known candidates who revised their dissertations and published them as books from well-known publishers.

 

I come from a University where well-researched Humanities PhD dissertations are usually published - not because it's a rule or a requirement, but because unpublished dissertations are regarded as "not serious research" in this University.

 

Of course, I'm talking about the well-researched dissertations. There are also many who just submit a dissertation to get a PhD and don't go back to it.

 

Perhaps in the STEM disciplines it's much more difficult to revise and publish a dissertation - it means that one has to take up another project. But you can always publish research papers out of it.  

 

I think most of what you said would also apply to STEM fields. A PhD dissertation is meant to be publishable quality work -- after all, the work towards a PhD is original research! However, many STEM students do not always revise and publish a dissertation because it usually happens in the opposite order. Sometimes, this is because a PhD dissertation usually covers far too much information to fit into a single paper. So, usually, students will write at least 3 papers during their time as a PhD student and get them published in peer reviewed journals. Once they have 3 good papers, and both the student and advisor feel they are ready to graduate, the three (or more) papers get revised and turned into the thesis. The papers are reformatted into the school's thesis format, of course, and then the student would usually add a chapter or two at the beginning (to provide a more descriptive background than what is usually seen in papers) and some summarizing remarks at the end. This way, it's not too difficult to churn out a thesis when you're ready to graduate -- it would probably take about 1-2 months since you have been writing parts of your thesis (in form of the papers) throughout the years! In this format, the thesis is really just a way to show to your committee that you have done good work and are ready to graduate.

 

I think the "manuscript" thesis described above is the ideal way to write theses in STEM fields. Sometimes though, a student is ready to graduate but doesn't have all 3 papers ready (or the last one is still under review etc.) Or, they aren't interested in getting papers out of their work for some reason, and they just want to finish. In that case, students would write a "traditional" thesis, modifying some published papers into thesis format if necessary. This process takes a lot longer! 

 

For Masters theses, I think it's more common to write the thesis first, then rework it as a paper though. 2 years is usually not enough time to finish your coursework, research work, and go through the whole peer review process!

[nehs]

I'm a little curious now  -- Does this mean that in STEM fields too it is common to publish 3 papers and then combine into a PhD dissertation? I thought this was more like a norm for Humanities and Social Sciences.

 

As TakeruK puts it -- my thesis advisor says the same, master's theses are published later if the student and/or advisor decide to.

[St Andrews Lynx]

I'm a little curious now  -- Does this mean that in STEM fields too it is common to publish 3 papers and then combine into a PhD dissertation? I thought this was more like a norm for Humanities and Social Sciences.

 

It is quite common in STEM fields, but it does depend on the sub-discipline.

For a "total synthesis" chemistry project you will spend 3-4 years trying to make a single target: you are more likely to publish a single article at the end of your work summarising the complete synthesis.

For a "reaction methodology" project you might spend ~1 year designing a new reaction, then move on to a different reaction/target. In those instances you will be churning out papers as you go (assuming the chemistry works!).

 

I wouldn't go so far as to say it was "the norm", though. For instance, some professors only publish infrequently (aiming for a single high-impact paper instead of lots of lower-impact communications)...

[TakeruK]

I'm a little curious now  -- Does this mean that in STEM fields too it is common to publish 3 papers and then combine into a PhD dissertation? I thought this was more like a norm for Humanities and Social Sciences.

 

As TakeruK puts it -- my thesis advisor says the same, master's theses are published later if the student and/or advisor decide to.

 

Every school I've been to (visited and attended) has allowed their PhD students to combine 3 published, peer-reviewed journal articles into a PhD Thesis. Some schools have extra requirements, such as first authorship on all three papers. Some schools only require first authorship on 2 papers and a statement from the advisor certifying the student contributed the majority of the work on the 3rd paper. Almost all schools require the student to write a little bit to fill in the gaps, but some schools have specific requirements while others let the thesis committee decide.

 

That said, just because all these schools allow students to write their dissertation in this way, this does not mean that all PhD students do it. I get the sense that many students strive for this goal (because it means less time spent writing a dissertation, and more time being directly productive on research and writing peer reviewed articles) but not everyone is able to do it. I know for some students, getting that third paper might mean an extra year in grad school, so they might just opt to spend a few more months writing up the dissertation the old fashioned way. Or, maybe they aren't interested in academia after graduation, so publications are not a big deal -- they just want to write up the darn thing and get out! However, in Astronomy/Physics/Planetary science, I think 3 papers during grad school is a reasonable goal.

[nehs]

Interesting, atleast this may make the dissertation feel less daunting. Although, I am sure, it is a stressful task anyway.

 

I just re-submitted my master's thesis after revisions, and that thesis itself was a nerve wracking process.