It is permissible for your examiners to have read and even com-
mented on conference papers or journal articles that you have
written, because these are materials in the public domain. But
if they have had prior sight of anything from your thesis in
chapter form they might become disqualified, certainly in
British- and Commonwealth-style university systems, which
place a strong premium on independent examining.
You need to discuss possible permutations of examiners with
your supervisor quite early on, to make sure that you have some
chance of finding out about people on your ‘possibles’ list. In a
four-year PhD, midway in your third year may be a good time
to have this preliminary discussion, so that you can begin to
plan ahead. But of course the actual choice of people to ask
hinges completely on when you finish, because many possible
examiners may be ruled out at the relevant time by sabbaticals,
research trips overseas or other commitments. Bear in mind
also that you will usually need a combination of examiners
with different skills. Almost all doctoral theses span across sub-
disciplinary boundaries in some way. Thus any one examiner
will normally cover only part of your thesis topic. For example,
she may have the right kind of theoretical expertise but know
little about the country or other context in which you are
applying a given approach. So getting the whole thesis exam-
ined may mean that you have to balance an internal examiner
who knows about aspect A with an external examiner who
knows about aspect B. If your first preference as external exam-
iner proves unavailable, you may have to switch around who
does what, picking a second-choice external who knows about
A, and looking for a different internal who knows about aspect
B to balance them. In many theses you may need two examin-
ers with different subject backgrounds, only one from your
‘home’ discipline and the other from a neighbouring area. Be
especially careful in this case because the standards of what
counts as a doctorate vary a lot between different disciplines. It
must be crystal clear in your thesis which discipline’s standards
you are seeking to be judged by. Try and make sure that the
people involved will be reasonably balanced personalities.
Having a tough-minded examiner from another discipline who
then personally dominates the examiner(s) from your home
discipline often leads to trouble.
216 ◆AUTHORING A PHD