Why don’t some PhD students publish their thesis works in a journal? I want to know why some PhD students don't publish their works in a journal.
For example, I have seen many good, high level German theses which were written around 1970-90, but were not published in any journal.
The obligatory journal publication of scientific work done for a degree, no matter what (think: &quot;publish or perish&quot;) is a fashion that spilled over from the US to Europe and especially Germany around the late '80s-'90s. Before that, people bothered only publishing work that they felt was outstanding, and sometimes not even that.
I am aware of work that exceeded in thoroughness and quality by far other publications on the same question that were published more than a decade and half later, where the original authors did not feel that it was up-to-scratch for publication and refused to do what they felt was a &quot;half-baked&quot; work.
One may say it might be desirable if some this self-critical attitude would still be maintained (not in its totality, so much good work went effectively lost this way), it would save one a lot of sub-par reading and reviewing duties today. However, this ship has sailed long ago.