Paper or doctorate thesis?

Question

I have completed some work that I believe could well be worth a Ph.D. I have been working completely in private, with no affiliation with any academic institution.

I would like to use this work to start a career in academia. What should I do with it next? (In case it's relevant in any way, I am a mature professional in business and IT and 53 years old).

In particular I'm wondering about the following options:

1. Attempt to publish it as a paper (a fairly long one, around 50 pages).
2. Use it as my thesis for acquiring a doctorate degree.

My questions are:

• Can I do both? If not why not?
• If not, which of the two is preferable and what are the pros and cons?
• Are there alternatives from the above two that I could pursue to achieve my goal?

Answer 1

A thesis is only one part of a doctoral program. Generally, there are also classes, qualifying examinations (to make sure you have sufficient breadth and depth), and general apprenticeship as a researcher. The goal of all of this is to prepare you for a scientific career (whether in traditional academia or elsewhere), which requires more than just the ability to produce a single project once. In my experience and observation, life as a practicing researcher typically involves producing another Ph.D. worth of work every year or two---a Ph.D. thesis is just the capstone demonstration that you have been educated enough to be capable of doing it at least once.

As such, I think that it is unlikely that any good institution will allow you to skip straight ahead to using a completed project as a thesis, no matter how good the material. If you want to use the work as an entry-point into academia, I would instead recommend publishing it as a paper paper and simultaneously using the work as a springboard for admission into a good Ph.D. program. If your field supports use of preprint archives, this is a good way to put your paper formally out there even while it is going through peer review.

If this is truly the direction you want to go, don't worry about rushing to the end-point. As other questions on this site indicate, age need not be a bar to an academic career. Instead, I would recommend that you take the time of graduate school as an opportunity---if your independent experiences give you a head start, so much the better for being able to do even more awesome work during graduate school, and also better positioning yourself for what comes after.

Answer 2

Partly as a comment/correction to jakebeal's answer, this largely depends in what country you're considering getting a doctoral degree. In some countries, like the US, the thesis is normally just one part of the requirements for the doctoral degree. This is why the first page of the submitted thesis typically contains a phrase along these lines (taken from my Ph.D. thesis):

A dissertation presented by [Name] to The Department of [X] in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of [X].

But in other countries and/or at other institutions, you can indeed get a doctoral degree by just showing up with a thesis ready in hand. In Norway this type of doctoral degree is called "dr.philos. (doctor philosophiae)". There are only three requirements for this degree:

1. A dissertation.
2. Two trial lectures.
3. A public defense.

I won't go into more detail about this, since you're unlikely to be in Norway (more detail can be found in the University of Oslo's overview article and regulations) for this type of degree.

In short, you need to check if such degrees exist in your country and/or at your preferred institutions. Otherwise see jakebeal's answer.