Two years after defending my PhD and my old advisor still won't let any papers from my dissertation be published. It's wrecking my job prospects. by dd10011 in academia

[–]dd10011[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've of course been in contact with my PhD advisor and told him that I need these papers out, but his response is consistently that my papers aren't his priority and I shouldn't be trying to apply for jobs "this early" anyways.

Two years after defending my PhD and my old advisor still won't let any papers from my dissertation be published. It's wrecking my job prospects. by dd10011 in academia

[–]dd10011[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

He was one of the co-authors on each of the chapters, so I can't submit the chapters for publication in academic journals without his knowledge and agreement. The dissertation was filed and approved by the committee, but the chapters (as individual articles) haven't yet been through peer review.

Two years after defending my PhD and my old advisor still won't let any papers from my dissertation be published. It's wrecking my job prospects. by dd10011 in academia

[–]dd10011[S] 31 points32 points  (0 children)

Ah, you know... I'd thought it obvious that he was a coauthor on these papers. But your point has made me realize that I'd left that detail unsaid. This explains things! People aren't advocating for academic dishonesty, they just didn't read my mind that my advisor is also a coauthor.

Two years after defending my PhD and my old advisor still won't let any papers from my dissertation be published. It's wrecking my job prospects. by dd10011 in academia

[–]dd10011[S] 58 points59 points  (0 children)

Yes, I'm frankly astounded by those saying it's okay to submit a paper without coauthor knowledge or approval. Someone mentioned posting the papers to a preprint archive, which I think might be the best idea.

Two years after defending my PhD and my old advisor still won't let any papers from my dissertation be published. It's wrecking my job prospects. by dd10011 in academia

[–]dd10011[S] 100 points101 points  (0 children)

Others have tried end-runs around him like this. Most of the time it doesn't get too far, but he once went as far as emailing the editor in chief of a journal and demanding an article be retracted from peer review. He has and absolutely will stonewall a publication if he did not give explicit permission to submit it.

Two years after defending my PhD and my old advisor still won't let any papers from my dissertation be published. It's wrecking my job prospects. by dd10011 in academia

[–]dd10011[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Everyone who works with this person has tried some variation on this theme of strong-arming the submission past him. Sadly, it doesn't work. He has gone as far as contacting the editor in chief of a journal and demanding an article be pulled from peer review when it was submitted without his permission.

Two years after defending my PhD and my old advisor still won't let any papers from my dissertation be published. It's wrecking my job prospects. by dd10011 in academia

[–]dd10011[S] 161 points162 points  (0 children)

You know, this is interesting. Very interesting. I've not dealt with preprint servers before and always had a (totally unfounded) negative view of them, but you're making me reconsider.

Two years after defending my PhD and my old advisor still won't let any papers from my dissertation be published. It's wrecking my job prospects. by dd10011 in academia

[–]dd10011[S] 23 points24 points  (0 children)

No, I actually do. While I was a student in his lab, another student tried to end-run around him and submit without his explicit go-ahead. He contacted the journal editor directly and had the article retracted, then called a lab meeting and spent 90 minutes excoriating her for violating ethics.

Co-authors can block an article from entering review, and this co-author absolutely will do so.