Can my thesis professor develop a new course completely based on my thesis including the exact name of my thesis without my permission? It seems wrong that they were going to retire but now will start this course next year based on my own entire thesis
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3Do they cite you?– Captain EmacsCommented Oct 17 at 2:39
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9Something about this seems a bit odd; a master's thesis seems like an incredibly narrow focus for a course. What makes you think this would happen? Or, is this thesis just a summary of existing work rather than novel research?– Bryan Krause ♦Commented Oct 17 at 2:44
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What field are you from? I know masters in mathematics tends to be a literature review, while in most other sciences it is a (often minor) contribution to human knowledge.– N A McMahonCommented Oct 18 at 14:31
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I have not been cited. It is from women and gender studies. The prof who oversaw the thesis 2 years ago called me and told me she created the course from my thesis. The name of my thesis is the name of the course.– Ayla R BikerMCOldLadyCommented Oct 19 at 19:27
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If a professor uses my doctoral thesis to develop a course, I'd be super happy and honored, as long as this professor mentioned this course is based on my thesis or did the proper citation. I seriously know nobody would be really interested in reading my thesis, even if the professors who served as my thesis committee members.– Part-time EngineerCommented Oct 20 at 7:38
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2 Answers
A thesis is a contribution to knowledge. Anyone can use the knowledge. This applies to a course or future research or another publication, eg, a book that includes this topic. Presumably your thesis will attract the attention and interest of other scholars in the field. They will offer commentary or evaluation, talk about it informally, extend the research, or decide to ignore it altogether.
No permission is needed to extend your research or discuss or teach about the topic of your research.
Others cannot use the copyrighted language of your thesis, except in limited ways that means citing you as the source.
It is proper to cite your thesis in the course materials. Failure to do so might be plagiarism and a violation of institutional policies.
A single thesis would not ordinarily be the only basis for a new course. Is that all there is to it?
Other than the fact that a typical course covers the material developed in hundreds of theses over decades, there's this point:
You published the thesis. It's now part of the world's knowledge, for all to use freely. That someone wants to use your work should make you proud, not jealous.
answered Oct 18 at 1:46
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Upvoted. I was wondering a bit about the first sentence though in your answer, though. I guess that by saying "completely based on my thesis" OP just means that the course focusses on the topic and results from the thesis. Presumably, the course will also teach many preliminaries that were developed long before the thesis, so I don't think there's a contradiction here. Commented Oct 18 at 5:02
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The thesis was handed into the university almost 2 years ago. The professor that oversaw the thesis called me last week and told me she created a new course completely based on my thesis. There were no preliminaries done prior. The course name is the name of my thesis exactly. Commented Oct 19 at 19:14
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I still don't get what upsets you about this. In fact, all I think the professor was trying to do is "hey, that was good work, so good that we're going to teach it now". Commented Oct 19 at 21:17
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I'm not "upset" but I also want to ensure that there's no issues in the future for copyrights. She's a very difficult person and She's already in trouble with the Dean for copyright infringement. I don't want surprises when it comes to that Commented Oct 20 at 2:47
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@AylaRBikerMCOldLady You have the copyright of the text of your thesis. You don't own the ideas any more. If owning the ideas was your goal, publishing them was the right direction. Commented Oct 20 at 3:03