Kumulative Veröffentlichungen (english version)

Teil 5 der Reihe "Die Unabhängigkeit der Wissensgesellschaft" über kumulative Dissertationen. Eine Einordnung

In monographic dissertations, doctoral students usually submit a single work as a book, which is then reviewed. Opposed to that are cumulative dissertations where doctoral students submit journals in which parts of their work have been published. Thus, the doctoral thesis does not consist of a single work but several articles that have been published in journals (so-called scientific journals).

As a result, the work is not evaluated by the doctorate supervisor, but is subjected to the peer review process of journals. In this type of review, several scientists evaluate the same submitted article. Some scholars consider this to
be a more independent form of evaluation and hope that publication in a journal will have more influence and meaning than would be the case with a monograph.

Disadvantages of cumulative publications

However, the disadvantages of the cumulative model outweigh the advantages because it takes a very long time before texts are published in journals and the dissertation can thus be evaluated. The cumulative dissertation is neither faster nor better than the monograph, because, for example, papers that have been submitted hastily can lead to lengthy review procedures (Wiegleb 2013, n.pag.).

Specifically, the cumulative dissertation means that doctoral students have to publish two to three articles in scientific journals. However, not every article that is submitted to a journal editor gets to be published. Usually a call for improvements or fundamental revisions will follow the assessment. If you are out of luck, your work will be rejected and you have to try another journal. If one’s doctoral position is only temporary, this lack of predictability can lead to major conflicts, in the worst case, to loss of the position. Most of all, the wasted time and lack of income while waiting creates urgent problems in career and life planning.

The duration and the associated opportunity costs of this process in the journal sector are unsustainable for doctoral students who do not want to stay at the university and want to enter the economy. For example, as a lawyer you have to wait four years before the prescribed number of articles in journals has been published.

Another factor is the considerable cost of publishing in a journal. From a business perspective, it becomes clear that Elsevier, Springer Nature and Wiley alreadyreceive around 60 percent of the acquisition budgets of academic libraries,
which is missing elsewhere from acquiring new, scientifically relevant works
for research and teaching (Hippler 2017, P. 500)

The lookout

After all, the popularity of the published journal article often depends on how many impact factors the respective journal has, which in turn is not ensured by the quality of the journal, but by the accord of the publishing oligopoly. It should also be noted that there cannot be enough scientists to review if three experts or more are required per article. Therefore, scientific staff is currently being employed who work without remuneration or for a low wage in order to keep this system running.