Dear Oguzhan,
Now I understand. This is not the EU standard the
way your school interprets "dissemination." This
seems to me too narrow.
David Durling noted, "there are many means of
disseminating research, ranging across book
chapters, single authored books, curated
exhibitions, juried shows, performances, web
sites, interactive installations, CDs, DVDs,
television etc. All of these are legitimate means
of dissemination." There are also conferences and
journals. The crucial issue is dissemination with
the quality assurance that peer review provides.
David notes, we should "not confuse the media
with the peer review process."
Publication is one reasonable standard, but
requiring publication only in an ISI index
journal sets a standard far beyond reasonable
expectation. A specialist in bibliometrics once
told me that 25% of all people who complete a PhD
never publish anything after their thesis, while
another 50% publish only one article in a full
academic career. All remaining journal articles
are published by the remaining group. The
proportions may have changed slightly, but this
means that many respectable academics have never
published an ISI article.
As far as other universities go, I know many
highly respected universities that encourage
publishing by PhD students without insisting on
publication in an ISI index journal as a
requirement. I don't think that this indicates
high quality -- I think it indicates too much
pressure, the kind of pressure that cripples
people at the beginning of a research career.
While the design journals in the ISI indices are
leading journals, many excellent journals are not
included.
There is one likely reason that no one answered
your question -- "Which European schools require
the same rules?" I know of no European school
that requires this. They may exist, but I don't
know them. For the record, I'd be curious to know
which universities anywhere demand this.
Your second note both provided a bit of relief
and a paradox. It's good that these articles can
be co-authored with supervisors. In that sense,
this makes the requirement less demanding. On the
other hand, we all know that we must complete our
students as a consequence of the payment on
completion funding that is an increasingly common
feature of government funding schemes. If we
impose rules like this on the students while
allowing the articles to be co-authored, then the
need to ensure Ph.D. completions means that
supervisors often grant co-author status to
students to get them through. An inappropriate
rule simply adds this task to the supervisor's
job.
If a student genuinely co-authors, that's fine.
What puzzles me is this: Why should a co-authored
article in an ISI journal be more valid as proof
of the ability to publish than a single authored
piece in an excellent journal outside the ISI. A
sole-author article in a solid journal where the
student does _all_ the work is surely worth more
than a co-authored article where the professor
does most of the work.
Without saying any one journal is greater or
lesser, I'd simply have to argue that a sole
authored article in journals such as the
Information Design Journal (Benjamins); CoDesign
(Taylor and Francis); Artifact (Taylor and
Francis); or the International Journal of Design
(Chinese Institute of Design) are worth as much
as co-author status in an ISI journal.
As it is, I think both our positions are
reasonably clear. Even so, I would like to know
which schools use this rule. That's not
advertising. It is useful information.
I'd also like to know what others on the list
think about this kind of rule. We have several
journal editors on this list. I am one, and I've
said my piece on this.
How about some of you others? Nearly all the
journal editors here are also professors and
doctoral supervisors. How do you see this from
the perspective of your role as an educator? How
do you see this in your role as an editor?
Yours,
Ken
--
Oguzhan Ozcan wrote:
[1]
>Dear Ken
>
>I think I am struggling to explain the problem !
>
>EU describes outlines not criteria of course. We
>comment this outline in our condition and we
>describe the criteria according to the outline.
>Therefore Bologna Process says -dissemination-.
>We comment this as -publication-. For
>Publication, some schools like me looks quality.
>
>So Turkish Authority follows this statement and
>recommends All Schools to ask the candidate to
>provide a publication to complete PhD degree. As
>a quality level, Only My Program in Yildiz
> Technical University and Bilkent University in
>Ankara, requires min. 1 article published in
>Citation Journal to complete PhD in Design. A
> number of High Quality PhD in Design programs
>at USA University also requires this criteria.
>(I do not advertise them again here)
>
>My earliest question was Which European Schools require the same rules?
>
>Nobody answered it in a year time. Therefore I
>asked everybody how to improve PhD publication
>in ISI Indices Level. Creating networks for
>establishing citation indexed journals
>and accreditations etc.
>
>Again nobody answered this requirement or write
> something else or I can not explain the
>problem well in lack of English. I am getting
>hopeless in EU level anyway !
>
>Otherwise, I did not mean this tricky calculation you mentioned.
>
>With my best
>
>Oguzhan.
>
[2]
>Dear Ken
>
>All you mention here is about Academic
>Staff Evaluation Processes which also use here
>in Turkey. Indexed article is not enough for
>that as all we know.
>
>I am talking here about PhD degree only.
>
>I checked again. Almost all leading
>design research journals are in ISI index.
> Meanwhile, In all leading programs, PhD
> Students normally writes ISI indexed article
>together with his/her professor. Considering
> PhD duration ( 5-8 years), A professor can
>supervised at least 1. This is not issužes. The
>problem is there are no enough design research
>journals in ISI. That is what I mean
>
>Best
>
>Oguzhan
--
Ken Friedman
Professor
Institute for Communication, Culture, and Language
Norwegian School of Management
Oslo
Center for Design Research
Denmark's Design School
Copenhagen
+47 46.41.06.76 Tlf NSM
+47 33.40.10.95 Tlf Privat
email: [log in to unmask]
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