A doctorate for scientific publications is possible in compliance with the exclusion clause of doctorate by thesis, as far as this procedure is provided in the particular plans and programmes of study and the conditions thereof are regulated by these plans and programmes.

This is not a short cut to a PhD, however offered to recognised busy researchers and full time professionals who have been publishing academic work or the equivalent. The PhD by Publication, Prior Output or Achievement is quite common among British Universities, having introduced this doctorate to academia.

The PhD by Prior Output aims to demonstrate that the work submitted is of high distinction, does constitute an original and significant contribution to the advancement of knowledge or to the application of knowledge or to both, and does establish that the applicant is a leading authority in the field or fields of study concerned, and that the work put forward is already ‘published’.

The objective is not to review all of an applicant’s published output, but a selection that presents a substantial coherence and linked original contribution. The PhD by Prior Output should be as original and coherent as a conventional PhD degree.

The work presented should be already ‘published’ work, open to critical academic peer scrutiny, including written publications in peer reviewed refereed journals and/or published under an academic or University Press, academic publisher, monographs from an academic press, official reports for organisations, portfolios of creative works, or alike.

The submitted work presents an original contribution to knowledge and will include work that has been published recently. The submission should be conceived of as adding to a current debate. The publications should emphasise a common academic research area, with a reasonable core argument, and must be original, research-based, of doctoral thesis quality and embedded in an academic discourse.

Applicants can submit published work for examination only after a minimum period of six months from enrolment.

The doctoral degree of PhD by Prior Output is awarded by UCN after the successful presentation of prior output and a covering document of 10,000 to 15,000 words, and an examination. The covering document should contextualise the prior output, demonstrate that it constitutes a coherent entity, and underline the independent and original contribution to knowledge achieved.