Most students understand the basic requirements of writing a dissertation but are still unaware of whether they can publish it or not. While thinking about such academic publications, you often get the idea of “peer-reviewed dissertations”. So, the question is: Are dissertations peer-reviewed in 2024-25?
The simple answer is NO, but a detailed explanation will illustrate that you can convert your dissertation work to a publication. As per the University of Portsmouth, you can create a 3,000-to-4,000-word paper for peer review and publication from your 10,000 to 15,000-word dissertation project. However, in most cases, dissertations are only reviewed by a committee of faculty members instead of peer-reviewed.
Here, the experts at The Academic Papers UK will help you to know whether dissertations will be peer-reviewed and the reasons behind them. Let’s first understand what this peer review means.
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What is Peer Review?
“Peer” refers to people in the same field, and “review” means going through something to examine it. The term peer review is used to describe a process in which academic experts carefully evaluate your research paper, article, or study before it gets published.
The sole purpose of this review is to make sure that the submitted work is credible, professional, original, and of high quality. They usually read your article and check whether it is capable enough for publication.
What Does it Mean if Something is Peer-Reviewed?
Any kind of work, like a research article or a dissertation evaluated by the same field experts before it gets published, is known as peer-reviewed. The main purpose of this is to review the standard, accuracy, and uniqueness of your academic work.
The steps in this process are as follows:
- Submission: The writer of the research article submits his work to the journal.
- Review: Then, the editor of the journal or publication sends this work to some peers in the same field for initial review.
- Evaluation: After that, experts will review this work to check its originality and share their thoughts and suggestions.
- Decision: The decision of the rejection or acceptance completely depends upon the expert’s feedback.
- Publication: If your peers accept your research article, it is ready to be published.
Are Dissertations Peer Reviewed in 2024-25?
No, dissertations are not peer-reviewed at all. Think of them like a book – there’s no need for a formal peer-review process. Dissertations belong to your institute’s research work required to earn you a degree. Instead of going through peer review, students submit their dissertations to their supervisor, department chair, and dissertation committee.
This committee then reviews the work to check its originality and quality and ensure it meets the university standards. In this way, peer-reviewed dissertations are not common, even in 2024-25.
Top 7 Reasons Why Dissertations Aren’t Peer Reviewed
Nowadays, dissertations are still regarded as student work necessary for their institution and are not subjected to peer review. The reasons why dissertations peer reviewed are not a practical approach are the following:
1. Original Work
When you start your dissertation, you have to search for a new work topic which has not been used by any other person before. In short, a dissertation is your new project that includes new ideas, findings, or purposes that have not yet been evaluated or used by any experts. As it is completely your own original work that is submitted to the university and reviewed by them, it doesn’t get a chance for external peer review.
2. Internal Evaluation
After completing research, the faculty of your institution will judge your dissertation just like peer-reviewed dissertations. However, there is no need to find externals to take their review and approval of your work. The main focus of this whole process is an internal review of the supervisor and dissertation committee rather than the standard external peer review.
3. Limited Scope of Review
The faculty or experts of your dissertation committee focus on evaluating your work related to your research in that program rather than reviewing the work that is more valuable for publication. In the dissertation peer-reviewed process, the dissertation committee typically focuses on the quality of the research and looks for its broader impact on research related to the field.
4. Lack of Blind Review
When experts or faculty members at the university review your dissertation, they might be biased because they know you well. This can affect how they judge your work and often give you approval as a result.
On the other hand, peer review by experts from outside of your institute is a blind process because they don’t know you personally. Thus, this peer review is indeed a more reliable way to get feedback that doesn’t happen for dissertations.
5. Variability Among Institutions
It is challenging to establish a single, consistent peer-review procedure because various universities have different methods for evaluating dissertations. While some institutions may be more accommodating, others may have stricter policies for peer-reviewed dissertations. This variety among the universities’ requirements and standards makes it challenging to adopt a uniform standard across all. So, a peer-reviewed dissertation at one institute may not be considered a review at another.
6. Different Institutional Standards
The criteria used for evaluating your research work varies from institute to institute and does not depend on the experts of faculty members. Because the standards of these experts and peer-reviewed experts are quite different when reviewing research work, dissertations cannot be called peer-reviewed dissertations.
7. Length and Scope
Oxford University defines a dissertation as an extensive piece of academic work, typically ranging from 8,000 to 15,000 words at the undergraduate level. This 15,000-word dissertation is usually structured into various chapters and sections to explore the topic in depth. However, as students advance to master’s and PhD levels, the required word count generally increases.
Such detailed writing is not usually sent for external peer review but rather is checked only by the internal faculty staff. So, unlike many other research works, dissertations are not peer-reviewed.
How Do You Know if a Dissertation is Peer-Reviewed?
Dissertations that are peer-reviewed are not done because they are reviewed only in universities by the experts of faculty members and are not peer-reviewed like journal papers. But if you want your research work to go through the process of peer review, first of all, you have to create and publish your research articles from it.
So, here are some signs to make your dissertations peer-reviewed by transforming them into articles:
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- Published in a Scholarly Journal: It needs to be published in a scholarly journal, as opposed to a simple dissertation, which is only submitted to the university.
- Academic Tone: The writing style must meet the highest standards of the institute, with formal writing styles.
- Structured Format: To fulfil the formal structure requirements, it must include an abstract, introduction, literature review, discussion, and conclusion.
- Citations and References: You have to write complete references with a list of all the sources used.
- Peer-review Process: You have to evaluate your research work from some other experts in the field before publication.
- Technical Content: Add some tables, graphs, and data with their stats to your dissertation.
Does A Dissertation Count as A Publication?
A dissertation is the last stage of your high-class degree, where you present your research work. It is the requirement of your master’s or PhD but does not count as a publication. However, when you accomplish writing a dissertation, it serves as a base for your future work and publications. It is the time when you can transform your thesis or dissertation into a research article for publication instead of going for peer-reviewed dissertations.
Dissertation is similar to different journals and books that provide scholarly material but are still not considered formal publications. Students write their dissertations on the research topic they choose and submit them to the supervisor and the department to get the seal of approval; so, rather than being published, students provide copies of the finished product to the supervisor and the university library.
However, according to LibGuides, if your dissertation is available in a library database, we can call it a publication only if it has an online presence. In this way, dissertations peer reviewed are possible.
Conclusion
Even in 2024-25, only research papers, articles, and some journals undergo peer review for publication, but dissertations do not. Instead of external checking, they are usually assessed by your committee experts and supervisor. Both these reviewing processes are very different, as dissertation reviews are done only for approval to get a degree. Upon completing a graduate or PhD program, many students aim to publish their research in peer-reviewed journals and articles. In this regard, trusted dissertation writing platforms in the UK offer valuable assistance by helping students prepare their papers for successful publication.
Here, we have compiled all the information necessary about whether peer-reviewed dissertations are possible or not. By knowing the major differences between dissertation review and peer review process, students can better perform to achieve academic success on point.
