Dr Anuja Pradhan, assistant professor in consumption, culture, and commerce at the University of Southern Denmark, and Dr Scott Jones, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Birmingham both of whom completed their PhDs in an alternative format have started a new four-part podcast, called ‘Alternative Format’, in order to help students do the same.

Traditionally, a PhD is obtained by completing a monograph or thesis. Recently, many students from political science to marketing have chosen the alternative format which consists of preparing a series of 3 or 4 articles suitable for publication in an academic journal.

Elucidating the format, Pradhan said, “As academics and teachers we want to empower students and PhD supervisors when it comes to the alternative format. These kinds of PhDs are becoming more commonplace, but sometimes it can be hard to know how you should be assisting a student or formatting your papers. We hope that both future and current PhD students and supervisors will find Alternative Format a helpful resource created by two people who have gone through the experience themselves.”

A release shared by the University of Birmingham states that each episode of the podcast tackles different issues related to doing a PhD by alternative formats, such as why people choose to complete their PhDs this way; the writing process of the alternative format thesis, and the advantages and challenges of writing journal-style articles; practical advice for preparing for and undertaking a viva, and how this might be different by alternative format.

In one of the episodes dedicated to PhD supervisors, Scott and Anuja are joined by Professor Maria Piacentini, Professor Emerita Margaret Hogg of Lancaster University, and Professor Finola Kerrigan of Birmingham University, who share their experiences as supervisors and examiners of the alternative format, the release said.

The Alternative Format podcast produced by Karsten Prinds at the University of Southern Denmark is available on all major podcast platforms such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The podcast has been supported by and is in collaboration with the Academy of Marketing and the Marketing Trust.