Depends on what you mean by "outsourcing". For eg, I am working on a database of 1400 patients and controls on whose tissue samples, I have to run several tests including genotyping, etc.

I did some part of the genotyping myself, but then set up the protocol and "outsourced" the rest of the snps of interest to a proper Genomic Research Facility. My role is to learn how to do the work, set up a protocol, do a nice literature review to make sure I know what I am looking for, interpret the results and correlate the findings.

In the age of high throughput science, I think we will have to move with the times and keep up to date with technology.

If you meant paying some poor sod to do the work and also get the thesis written, then that is a clear "no-no"!. Some universities offer PhD by publication, where you put your publications (related) in the thesis, but write the introduction and discussion - UniMelb does this, which is a legitimate way of assessing and awarding PhDs.

Hi Karuvaje,

As is the case with most moral issues, it is a question of whether one is being true to the spirit of the exercise. A Ph.D. is an award (or license) to indicate that one is capable of conducting independent research, taking into consideration all of that which would make the conclusions valid and reliable and to report those findings appropriately (shown by writing the thesis).

If the 'outsourcing' does not compromise that aspect of the assessment, then I see no problem with that. On the other hand, if, in order to conduct any kind of valid research, one would need to rely on others (as you did for your Ph.D.) for intellectual input, that would make one dependent on others for conducting the research and, as such, would be evidence that one is not capable of conducting 'independent' research. In that case, one would be acquiring a license to practice something that one is not competent in.

Most likely, it is impossible for a phd student to defense from a dissertation while it does not belong to him/her. Thus it occurs very rare for a person to get a Ph.D degree without doing and understanding the whole process.

i would say collaboration instead of outsourcing for small work say English correction, statistical modelling etc.. but beyond it is unethical but happening in the world.

Categorically No! The following tasks as part of your research degree may be outsourced:

• Using librarians to help you to access literature, 
• Doing typing, Typesetting, Photographing specimens, 
• Preparing scientific drawings from photographs, 
• Getting staff to order or build equipment according to your specification,
• Using technicians to "shake test-tubes", 
• Writing some programs to data crunch, 
• Spell checking, preparing an index of contents,
• Light editing of your chapters.

The following are not "outsourceable" for any degree:

• Preparing a research question,
• Deciding on a time-line,
• Preparing a preliminary literature review,
• Preparing a project proposal,
• Getting funding,
• Working with your supervisor,
• Managing staff,
• Gathering the data and processing it,
• Writing the chapters of the thesis,
• Defending your thesis.

Basically, others can do mechanical things for you

(That is why they are there: to support you).

Anything that requires curiosity, creativity, care and checking i.e., "brainwork" must be done by you. That is, a millionaire cannot buy a research degree.

Absolutely no.

I can see why this question is being asked because recently I learned that some programs allow for their PhD students to work with a statistician to do the modelling and analysis. 

My response was of course ...huh?  So what do you do? 

I was told well, if you get a research grant, do you do everything yourself?

My response was no but at least I know my research and what the grant entails in order for it to be effective.  If I use a statistician its for verification and maybe some light analysis.

Thoughts on this method being used in some programs?

@Camille: Sounds like loss of control to me. Would it result in a more rigourous analysis?? When would the PhD be weaned from his/her dependence on paying statisticians?

I acknowledged my statistician by name for his help during my doctoral period, but I never would have dreamed of giving him any statistical work to do. I learned myself what I needed.

@Ian  I totally agree.  It seems to be a new belief system evolving at some new offerings of Doctoral programs.  I feel that the researcher will soon become ineffective and inefficient using this method, BUT, I also need to be aware of the new view of research...where every contributor is on more of an equal footing as opposed to having a hierarchy of positions reporting into the PIs. 

"Where do we go from here? “The next revolution (which is already coming) is the leap from NLP to a subset of it called NLU (Natural Language Understanding),” Cuofano says. “In fact, while NLP is more about giving structure to data, defining it and making it readable by machines; NLU instead is about taking unclear, unstructured and undefined inputs and transforming them to an output that is close to human understanding.” https://thenextweb.com/contributors/2017/05/19/artificial-intelligence-will-impact-professional-writing/

Some activities are essentials of the doctoral student as theoretical research, contacts with counselor, research funding (contact with counselor), definition of methodology, interpretation of data, writing and defense of thesis, etc. I believe that it is not possible to cover all the meticulous stages of the doctorate without the help of professionals for spell checking (especially when the language is not mastered), collection and processing of data, statistics, bibliographic sources, laboratory technicians, bookbinders, etc. . At every moment new techniques are elaborated and it is not possible to dominate all, hence the need for help.

Hi,

How could one outsource an entire PhD work? How would that scholar face the dissertation defence? You earn a PhD, It's no joke. However, I have seen some of my then seniors outsource an entire cloning work and project it like they have done it. But, they do it after several self attemps where they are aware of the technicalities involved. But complete outsourcing is a big question.