Anastasiya-Mariya Asanov, Igor Asanov, Guido Buenstorf, Valon Kadriu, and Pia Schoch address the question how the knowledge documented in dissertations is disseminated. They use a random sample of dissertations at German universities in economics, political science and sociology.

The authors find that "cumulative" dissertations - that is, dissertations consisting of a series of individual articles - are turned into three times more publications which receive three times more citations than monographic dissertations. Also, dissertations written in English and empirical dissertations have a higher publication success. The article concludes that a policy that allows doctoral students to write their dissertations in a cumulative format provides them with the opportunity to share the results of their research through publication in peer-reviewed journals.

Asanov, AM., Asanov, I., Buenstorf, G. et al. Patterns of dissertation dissemination: publication-based outcomes of doctoral theses in the social sciences. Scientometrics (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-024-04952-1