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I think a main tension here is between the idea that PhDs are awarded to a person versus to a dissertation.

On one extreme, if a student has published (say) dozens of top-tier papers and (say) demonstrated broad expertise in the field, haven't they earned a PhD?

On the other extreme, if a dissertation makes a huge advance in its field, doesn't that work deserve a PhD regardless of the author's other accomplishments?

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Not always.

For example, if the dozens of papers are all disjointed, or on completely different topics, you can simply bolt them all together and call it a PhD thesis.

Like all good stories, there has to be a solid start, middle and end. This generally also means that one fantastic paper is also not enough, content wise, to warrant the award of a PhD.

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