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On a recent question (What kind of publications can I submit on my own without the need of supervisors approval?), xLeitx commented that

It's starting to feel like we need a CW question "How can I do thing X that I know my advisor is going to be upset about without consequences?".

I then searched a bit specifically for "publishing without supervisor", and found all these questions:

These have a slightly different focus of publishing without the supervisor after a thesis is finished:

These are more focused on the how and why:

I am pretty sure there are even more questions that are essentially the same, I did not look at all the results.

My question is, should we indeed establish a canonical question on how, when, why (and why not) to publish without a supervisor, or should we at least merge some of these questions into a single one, where the most relevant answers are put? As this kind of question gets asked somewhat frequently, it would surely be useful to have a fitting duplicate target.

What do you think?

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    If so, it would seem to be a question that had many answers, perhaps one per field.
    – Buffy
    Commented Jul 2 at 18:14
  • I support this idea. It's partial field specific and parity advisor specific. A lot these questions seem to have underlying interpersonal relationship problems too, especially a lack of communication.
    – Richard Erickson
    Commented Jul 2 at 21:35
  • I agree, either a new canonical question or just combining some of the existing duplicates. I suspect it will be hard to know what the best way to do this is, until someone takes a stab at it.
    – cag51 Mod
    Commented Jul 3 at 2:59
  • @cag51 A question, is there a way to create a draft post that others can look at (e.g. if they have the link), but is not yet published on the site? That way, we could start working on this, but only put it out to a greater audience once satisfied with the content.
    – Sursula
    Commented Jul 3 at 6:26
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    Yeah, I am with @RichardErickson. My comment was not really about "how do I publish without my supervisor", although I am sure this question has come up numerous times. It's really about questions of the form "I know my supervisor is going to be upset if I do X, how can I do X anyway without them being upset?".
    – xLeitix
    Commented Jul 3 at 9:12
  • (publishing without them in fields where this is not common is one example, but there are others - collaborate with people your supervisor does not approve of, follow a research strand your supervisor dislikes, etc.)
    – xLeitix
    Commented Jul 3 at 9:13
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    @Buffy Not sure if it needs one answer per field. I doubt that there is any field where you cannot publish alone, even if your supervisor supports the idea. That support may be easier or harder to get depending on discipline standards, but that's not really something we can help with. The problem with most of the linked questions seems to not per se be the "publishing alone" part, it's that the student failed to get buy-in from the advisor and now wants to do it behind their back.
    – xLeitix
    Commented Jul 3 at 9:21
  • @Sursula: what I normally do is create a post (maybe just with nonsense words) and then delete it. Then you can edit it and share the link (for >10K users) and undelete it when it's ready to go.
    – cag51 Mod
    Commented Jul 3 at 16:18

1 Answer 1

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To move some ideas from the comments into an answer:

Yes.

I think an answer to Canonical "Can I publish without supervisor" question? would be good for this site.

I think this answer should cover the nuances that:

  • This is field specific:

    • Some fields allow/encourage/expect graduate students to have independent publications.
    • Other fields do not allow/encourage/expect graduate students to have independent publications.
    • Sometimes this is advisor specific.

  • The usual underlying problem is interpersonal communication and many (most?) of the linked posts include some elements of interpersonal conflict person the poster and their advisors. Specifically, only the poster's advisor can answer this question.

  • Funding. Both direct and the indirect effects on expectations. Does the advisor fund the student through a grant or similar process or is the student funded directly through a third party such as a Teaching Assistantship, outside scholarship, or similar process? Also, what resources does the advisor contribute such as laboratory resources or advanced computational resources?

  • The use of "expectation", "allow", and "encourage". Some advisors will not allow independent publications. Other expect them from their students. This is field and advisor specific.

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  • Which fields disallow graduate students from having independent publications even in principle, and on what grounds are such policies introduced?
    – Anyon
    Commented Jul 3 at 13:04
  • @Anyon in my experience, life sciences including natural resource fields. Especially "applied" fields where the advisor brings in the funding for the student. In my case, my advisor told me that anything I was an author on in grad school would likely have his name too. Especially my graduate work because he was the mentor (in hindsight, I see how much work mentoring takes).
    – Richard Erickson
    Commented Jul 3 at 13:55
  • @Anyon I don't know of any formal policies, but looking at credit.niso.org, my mentor helped for every paper with conceptualization, supervisor, funding, writing and editing (and other criteria as well for most papers),
    – Richard Erickson
    Commented Jul 3 at 13:57
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    The type of research and funding certainly affects the likelihood of having or pursuing independent publications also in the natural sciences. Funding sources, lab access, advisor attitudes, and other factors can play a big role. But that is, at least in my mind, qualitatively different from a field not allowing a student having independent publications.
    – Anyon
    Commented Jul 3 at 15:11
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    @Anyon You are probably right that "allow" is too strong of a word. I think that this canonical question should have at least two answers, one for math/CS(?) where an independent publication is an expectation of PhD training, and one for the fields where it isn't.
    – Azor Ahai -him-
    Commented Jul 3 at 16:05
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    @AzorAhai-him- I think the "expectation" versus standard is a good word choice. I like it and how frames the situation without judgement. Also, closely related is funding sources. When students and their research are primarily funded by RAs through grants, the situation is usually different compared to when students are primarily funded by TAs and do not the same level of financial support for their research.
    – Richard Erickson
    Commented Jul 3 at 16:54
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    You make valid points, and I think you should add that to the answer.
    – Azor Ahai -him-
    Commented Jul 3 at 16:56
  • @Anyon Good points. Qualitatively different, but functionally not. Also, it ties into overall atmosphere and the specific student-advisor relationship. I honestly think that's the most important part. I feel bad for most of the OPs because their main problem seems to be interpersonal relationships rather than academic norms.
    – Richard Erickson
    Commented Jul 3 at 16:57
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    @RichardErickson Agreed that many of these questions are mainly about the relationship with the advisor/supervisor. By the way, I think it'd be worth generalizing the funding discussion somewhat. Focusing on RAs and TAs paint a US-centric picture.
    – Anyon
    Commented Jul 5 at 13:57
  • @Anyon I'm not familiar with other funding models (other than pay-as-you go self-funding or rare national fellowships like the US NSF). Can you elaborate on them?
    – Richard Erickson
    Commented Jul 5 at 13:59
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    @RichardErickson I think the crucial distinction is whether or not one is funded by the advisor's/supervisor's money or not (be it grants, startup money, etc.). I think that translates pretty well across borders. It also generalizes the answer questions about other career stages. One might also highlight that the funding is relevant to more than just the salary - in the US a student might be on a TA position or unpaid (e.g. undergraduate students) but conduct research requiring resources provided through some type of grant.
    – Anyon
    Commented Jul 5 at 14:19
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    @Anyon In particle physics, all publications go through a Collaboration internal editorial board. You cannot publish without their approval. Every once in a while someone tries, usually in an attempt to gain personal glory, this never goes down well and quickly descends into lawyer territory.
    – Marianne013
    Commented Jul 9 at 13:26
  • @Marianne013 I learn something new every day! Are the blaze of glory people ever grad students?
    – Richard Erickson
    Commented Jul 9 at 13:55
  • @Marianne013 Good point. Such internal rules and review procedures (whether internal to a formal collaboration or an institution) should be followed, of course. But I don't think that rules out independent publications for the entire field (especially not if defined broadly enough to include hep-th). Even LHCb's procedure (the version I found is from 2011, so possibly out of date) seems to allow for independent publication of LHCb-related papers only using "previously published data, and involve no use of software that has involved significant investment from the rest of the collaboration".
    – Anyon
    Commented Jul 9 at 14:11
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    @Anyon Things are a little complex in the UK. THe most common form of PhD student funding in the UK is a government funded Doctoral Training Program. And the most common way that these work is that the programme awards a scholarship directly to a student, but only for a project designed by the supervisor and approved by the DTP leadership prior to the student recruitment round. These scholarships usually cover tuition-fees, living expenses and some (but generally not enough) research funds.
    – Ian Sudbery
    Commented Jul 10 at 7:57

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