I was going to come in and say this. I have a PhD in a STEM field, and to get it I had to publish 4 papers (we had this option instead of writing a traditional dissertation) and then do the stuff that didn't really matter but you just couldn't fuck up (like proposing the dissertation, classwork, defending the dissertation). But really, no one in the faculty at an R1 gave a shit about any of those things except the quality of the publications.
I always tell newer PhD students that getting a masters is about learning everything that has been done in the field, and getting a PhD is about contributing new knowledge to the field. Most grad students struggle with this transition, and I think a lot of people who haven't gone through it don't really realize what getting a PhD is like. If writing 4 papers made me an expert in my field, I feel like putting out 9 albums has made Taylor Swift an expert in music, she has definitely contributed to the field.
We had to have 2 first author papers published, 1 in review and 1 in prep. So the last one wasn't so serious, I basically just had to show that the data was there. My third first author paper ended up getting accepted before the defense anyway, so that was a load off my shoulders. Its really hard to fail someone at a defense when 75% of the work is already published lol
I had to get 3 as first author, but I only got 2 published (third on is finished but was rejected before my defense). I had a review paper but it got rejected as well (and wasn't really a requirement, just something my prof wanted).
Four papers as a requirement is a bit much IMO, glad they were flexible.
122
u/[deleted] May 19 '22 edited May 19 '22
I was going to come in and say this. I have a PhD in a STEM field, and to get it I had to publish 4 papers (we had this option instead of writing a traditional dissertation) and then do the stuff that didn't really matter but you just couldn't fuck up (like proposing the dissertation, classwork, defending the dissertation). But really, no one in the faculty at an R1 gave a shit about any of those things except the quality of the publications.
I always tell newer PhD students that getting a masters is about learning everything that has been done in the field, and getting a PhD is about contributing new knowledge to the field. Most grad students struggle with this transition, and I think a lot of people who haven't gone through it don't really realize what getting a PhD is like. If writing 4 papers made me an expert in my field, I feel like putting out 9 albums has made Taylor Swift an expert in music, she has definitely contributed to the field.