I recently did a post on a series of dissertation chapters posted on SSRN. This prompted the following email from Jody Madeira:
I just wanted to thank you for an idea that should perhaps have been rather obvious to me before…A bit ago I saw that you had commented on dissertation chapters that another author had posted on SSRN. Not only had I not thought about listing the chapters of my recently completed dissertation, but to my surprise when I shared the idea with other newly minted Ph.D.s that tactic had not occurred to them either. We all felt a bit like cavemen wandering into the light from the mouth of a cave, since we had been wondering how best to share our work while revising for book publication. I thought you might get a laugh out of this–we certainly did!
And of course, Jody is right. SSRN provides an electronic alternative to the former practice of making dissertatitions "available" via a service that will provide bound photocopies. I can’t really see any downside to this method of distributing research. Of course, many dissertations will become books, and others a series of articles, but that process frequently takes years to complete.
Jody’s dissertation Chapter One is posted immediately below. Scroll down.