How many articles do I need to defend my PhD?
A prerequisite for successfully defending a Ph.D. thesis is the writing of scientific articles. The articles present the results of the research conducted, may demonstrate experimental or analytical conclusions on the topic of the dissertation. In a scientific article must present its own conclusions and interim or final results, which the researcher presents on its scientific research. Such an article should contain its own developments, recommendations and conclusions.
Number of articles for a successful PhD defense
Although there are more lenient requirements for those seeking a Ph.D. degree, publications must be submitted in at least three scholarly journals:
- One article must be published in a periodical of another state that is a full member of the EU or be a representative of the Economic Cooperation Organization;
- The rest of the texts of scientific articles can be submitted in scientific publications, which are included in the list of professional publications of category B of Ukraine;
- Alternatively, a monograph or a section of a monograph may be counted instead of a single publication. This is possible if the future PhD candidate was a co-author of the text of the research paper.
It is worth noting that there are many opinions on the subject of "is the publication of this number of articles enough or should it be increased? One thing that is clear is that all papers must be of high quality, regardless of their number.
It should also be said that some studies contain information of state secrets. In spite of this, such articles are published, but taking into account the special norms of the law. In other words, every future PhD candidate must publish three articles, but if they contain state secrets, they are published in publications that are specially designed for this purpose.
Where to publish scientific articles for thesis defense
As presented earlier, a future Ph.D. candidate must publish at least one scientific article in a foreign scientific publication. In addition, instead of publishing an article in a foreign publication, it is possible to place it in a scientific journal that is included in the international scientometric databases (WoS or Scopus).
If a young scholar chooses to publish abroad, however, he or she needs to decide on a publication, which means the question of where best to publish it arises. And since graduate students are still yesterday's students, who often have no experience in publishing in foreign publications, they are at a loss. In addition, they may not know a foreign language at such a high level, where you need to use some scientific terms accurately, build unspoken sentences correctly, etc. This is why at first they most often turn to professional translators or specialists who prepare scientific articles for printing in foreign scientific journals.
So, a future scientist can publish his work in Poland, Russia, Belarus, the Czech Republic, i.e. in the countries of the near abroad. This is especially easy to do if the university cooperates with scientific institutions from the countries represented. For example, there are internships between the domestic university where a graduate student studies and the university of the near abroad, they exchange students to exchange experience, hold regular conferences, etc. So, often supervisors help their young scientists and offer them to participate in the conference, in this case you can be guaranteed to publish your work. Another advantage of this way to publish your paper in a foreign publication is to participate in the conference remotely. In this way, the work will be done and you won't have to travel anywhere.
A more complicated path is the publication of an academic article in Ukrainian diaspora publications. Thus, natives of Ukraine living in Canada have organized many sociocultural and research organizations. So a future scholar who works in the humanities can try this option to publish his scientific work.
Publish the text of a scientific article in a publication that is included in the WoS or Scopus databases. This option is difficult, but it is the most prestigious, especially if the PhD candidate plans to advance in his or her career. Before choosing a particular publication, it is necessary to check whether the chosen journal is indexed in the WoS or Scopus database.
It may, of course, happen that the first journal will reject the publication of a scientific article. Usually, in response, the future candidate receives remarks, on which edits can be made and the paper can be sent to another journal. It is important to remember that the same article cannot be sent to multiple journals at the same time.
Tips for writing a PhD thesis
- First of all, it is necessary to determine the topic of the future article. It should be related to the topic of your dissertation. It is desirable that the title of the scientific article should be short, but at the same time informative. Key words should be present here to the maximum. At the initial stages, it is necessary to contact the supervisor of the project to agree on the topic, to review the text of the written article, to make comments, etc.
- Next, it is necessary to select all possible scientific literature, which the author will rely on when writing a paper.
- After completing the first two stages, it is necessary to decide with the supervisor where the research paper will be published. Depending on the scientific journal chosen, it will be necessary to adhere to the requirements that they have for printing scientific papers.
- While writing the text of the paper, be sure to make references to the work that was used. It is important that these texts be as recent as possible. Upon completion of the scientific paper, it is necessary to obtain permission to publish it from all co-authors, and it is obligatory to indicate their co-authorship.
- Thus, it can be noted that writing and publishing a research paper is quite a complicated and time-consuming job. But, the end result will be worth it, because it will help the future candidate to improve his level.
