Failed the preliminary PhD exam because the committee members rejected my already accepted publication My paper got accepted in a very high-ranking peer-reviewed conference and will be published in the proceedings. However, my university PhD committee members are saying it is ‘weak’ and they did not accept that as one of the required publications for PhD, so I failed the preliminary exam. How should I deal with this situation?
EDIT: I am taking the doctoral course at a Japanese university. My academic advisor, unfortunately, will not be of help in this regard, as we are not on good terms (I guess he gave up on me once I mentioned I might not proceed the academic career, so it was partially my mistake).
One paper about an experiment I conducted has been chosen for publication in conference proceedings of an internationally high-ranking university, but the committee and my advisor chose to evaluate it as insufficient nonetheless.
I have two more papers with a high probability of getting published (final stages of the reviwing process), but due to the pandemic situation the review process is taking longer.
The official rules mention only that the thesis should be partially be published in national or international peer-reviewed journals, but do not say how many articles are required, and if they should be already accepted at the preliminary exam, or when I hand in the thesis.
Usually there should be a way to retake the preliminary exam, but my academic advisor did not make any such offers, instead recommended to leave this university and try my luck at another one.
Could anybody tell me if there is a possibility to retake the exam and apply for my Ph.D. at the same university, or what the necessary steps would be to apply for the degree at a different university (Japanese or otherwise)?
Any help would be much appreciated.
The advice to find a different university is probably the best you will get. The standards of the committee are apparently very high, as one would expect.
You could appeal to your advisor or to the committee, but it seems doubtful that any other action would work. Even an appeal to higher authority at the university might result in bad feelings that won't help you get your degree.
See if you can salvage good recommendations from this mess and find a way to move on. It isn't the end of the world. Many students change universities mid-stream.
I actually left one program in a somewhat similar situation: a dispute over a single answer on a prelim exam. I wound up at a better university with a much better advisor.