Research dissemination and PhD thesis format at a South African university: The impact of policy on practice

ABSTRACT The dissemination of doctoral research is a crucial ethical, financial and status issue for universities worldwide. The publication based thesis (PBT) may encourage dissemination, but is still in definitional flux at many institutions, particularly in South Africa, especially regarding how many articles are required and the publication status of these articles. We analysed and compared the formats and publication rates of 1128 of the 1141 doctoral theses published at a South African research intensive university over a 7 year period (2008–2014). We present a theoretical frame that considers publication as independent of format. Unpublished monographs account for 41.22% and published PBT for 26.86% of the sample. Monographs where material has been published and PBT with no publications, account for 20.39% and 11.52% of the sample respectively. The article argues that these unique findings are a result of institutional policy directives aimed at addressing the specific social environment of the country.

[1]  James R. Hasselback,et al.  Benchmarking the Research Productivity of Accounting Doctorates , 2012 .

[2]  M. Henkel.  Academic Identities and Policy Change in Higher Education , 2000 .

[3]  Svein Kyvik,et al.  Explaining the increase in publication productivity among academic staff: a generational perspective , 2015 .

[4]  Margaret Kiley,et al.  'It's a PhD, not a Nobel Prize': How experienced examiners assess research theses , 2002 .

[5]  Denise Jackson,et al.  Completing a PhD by publication: a review of Australian policy and implications for practice , 2013 .

[6]  Carolyn Grant,et al.  PhDs by publications: an ‘easy way out’? , 2012 .

[7]  Björn Gustavii,et al.  How to Prepare a Scientific Doctoral Dissertation Based on Research Articles: Compilation – the article-based thesis , 2012 .

[8]  G. Badley.  Publish and be doctor‐rated: the PhD by published work , 2009 .

[9]  Barbara E. Lovitts,et al.  Making the implicit explicit : creating performance expectations for the dissertation , 2007 .

[10]  G. Rolfe,et al.  PhD by publication: a prospective as well as retrospective award? Some subversive thoughts. , 2009, Nurse education today.

[11]  Svein Kyvik,et al.  PhD education in a knowledge society: An evaluation of PhD education in Norway , 2012 .

[12]  Tony Becher,et al.  Academic Tribes and Territories: Intellectual Enquiry and the Cultures of Disciplines , 2001 .

[13]  Catherine Scott,et al.  The Experience of Disseminating the Results of Doctoral Research , 2001 .

[14]  C. Bradshaw,et al.  Predicting Publication Success for Biologists , 2013 .

[15]  K. Wilson,et al.  Quality assurance issues for a PhD by published work: a case study , 2002 .

[16]  C. Golding,et al.  Assessing the doctoral thesis when it includes published work , 2015 .

[17]  N. Cloete,et al.  Doctoral Education in South Africa , 2015 .

[18]  C. C. Wolhuter.  The scholarly impact of doctoral research conducted in the field of education in South Africa , 2015 .