Is it common or appropriate to use the phrase 'A Ph.D. in Subject X' to describe someone who has been a PhD student without earning the degree?

Question

There's a book written by John Smith (*pseudonym), an American writer, and on the American copy that I have of this book (I'm in the UK) the jacket describes John Smith as 'A Ph.D. in Subject X.'

I take this to mean that the author has completed their Ph.D. (e.g. 'John Smith is a doctor of philosophy in Subject X'). That he is Dr John Smith.

The thing is, when researching John Smith, I discovered that they never completed their Ph.D. - they seem to have started it, achieved ABD (All But Dissertation status), and never completed their thesis.

Publication of this book would have occurred circa two decades after achieving ABD status, so this was by no means a current doctoral candidate still working on their project at the time of publication. On later publications, both of this book and later books, the Ph.D. claim has disappeared. I've found numerous news articles for which this person was interviewed which either imply John Smith completed his Ph.D. or outright state he did, but the institution themselves where John Smith claimed to have graduated have confirmed for me that he did not.

It's unknowable, but given how the publication process typically works it's unlikely anyone other than John Smith himself would have authored the original claim.

So, I'm just wondering, is it common in the US to use this phrasing (e.g. 'he's a Ph.D.' as opposed to 'he's a Ph.D. candidate' or 'he's studying for his Ph.D.') to describe a doctoral candidate who hasn't yet completed their thesis?

Answer 1

No, it is not common. The convention is that saying someone has (or is) "a Ph.D. in X" does, as you said, mean that they have completed a program of study in X and were awarded a diploma stating that they have received their doctoral degree, majoring in X. Graduate students persuing a Ph.D. are Ph.D. students or Ph.D. candidates (and some universities won't consider a Ph.D. student a Ph.D. candidate until they have passed some preliminary exam.)

The language you observed has disappeared likely because someone pointed out to John Smith that he does not have (and is not) a Ph.D in X, and claiming to have one (or be one), in certain circumstances, would potentially constitute fraud.

Answer 2

So, I'm just wondering, is it common in the US to use this phrasing (e.g. 'he's a Ph.D.' as opposed to 'he's a Ph.D. candidate' or 'he's studying for his Ph.D.') to describe a doctoral candidate who hasn't yet completed their thesis?

No.

I encounter this phrasing and similar on this website occasionally among writers whose first language is not English, such as "I got a PhD" to mean "I got accepted to a PhD program"; I don't know if this is due to a direct translation issue or just overall lower familiarity with English.

It's possible the description was intentionally misleading, it's also possible that a mistake was introduced by an overzealous editor at some point. Unless this concerns you directly I don't think I'd trouble over it too much.