Publishing dissertation work before defending?

In our October "how can we help you?" thread, a reader writes:

1. Is it advisable to publish dissertation chapters before the final defence?
2. Can one incorporate published articles in one's thesis (say, if you published an article early on in your PhD but it is directly relevant to your thesis)?

The answer to question (1) seems to me to be 'obviously yes', though it may make sense to check with your committee first. After all, suppose they're not entirely happy with the work yet, and think it should be improved prior to publishing it anywhere. In that case, I suppose that publishing something they're not terribly happy with could rub them the wrong way. I'm a bit less sure about (2), but I guess here too my suggestion is: ask your committee! What do readers think?

Comments

[John]

My dissertation is/will be exclusively published articles. So it definitely can be done.

[Shay Logan]

I did and I did.

[Mercado]

I published a chapter of my dissertation as an article and I incorporated it into my dissertation. My committee members were actually quite pleased that some of my dissertation got through peer review.

And in terms of the rigors of the job market, I think writing one's dissertation in a way so that it can be, or is, published as a few stand-alone articles is a good way to work towards finishing the dissertation and improving one's competitiveness in the job market.

[Phil]

On 2: My dissertation was built around an article that I published early in my PhD. Especially in departments where time to completion is important (eg funding constraints), this seems to me to be one good strategy.

[Recent PhD]

Yes and yes for me. The way I did it was to say in my dissertation that a version of this or that chapter has been accepted for publication (or has appeared) here or there with a full citation to the work.

For the first yes, this was from the advice from my supervisor. We need publications to not perish, and working to get dissertation chapters published (and not just publishable) is good when we are on the market. (Not to say that there still is a good enough market to be on, or that it was ever good enough to be on...)

And having chapters published is good. My institution doesn't have an oral defence, but an external review process. One of my examiners was extremely unhappy with three of the six chapters of my dissertation. But, well, those three chapters were all published in good enough venues, so that really helped me to get my degree without much trouble. I would imagine that having chapters published would also be good in an oral defence. People would probably (though I have no experience in this) think that, well, since a highly competitive journal has accepted the chapter, it is good enough for a dissertation. (At least my supervisor told me that the standards for decent enough publication are much higher than an acceptable dissertation chapter.)