library(dplyr)
##
## Attaching package: 'dplyr'
##
## The following objects are masked from 'package:stats':
##
## filter, lag
##
## The following objects are masked from 'package:base':
##
## intersect, setdiff, setequal, union
library(ggplot2)
library(reshape2)
library(knitr)
source("load.r")
opts_chunk$set(fig.width = 16, height = 14)
theme_set(theme_gray(base_size = 12))
# Some standard scales for chart labels
short_scale <- scale_x_continuous(breaks = seq(1950, 2010, 10), labels = seq(1950,
2010, 10), limits = c(1945, 2012))
long_scale <- scale_x_continuous(breaks = seq(1880, 2010, 10), labels = seq(1880,
2010, 10), limits = c(1878, 2012))
page_scale <- function(min_pages, max_pages, increment) {
scale <- scale_y_continuous(breaks = seq(min_pages, max_pages, increment),
labels = seq(min_pages, max_pages, increment), limits = c(min_pages,
max_pages))
return(scale)
}
The first question anyone writing a dissertation probably asks is, How long should this thing be? When Michael Beck looked at data from the University of Minnesota, he found that history dissertations were the longest. Ben Schmidt found that the average length of history dissertations at Princeton varied quite a bit, from a peak of about 425 pages on average around 1995 to a low of slightly more than 250 pages on average around 2006 or 2007. Ben also concluded that “300 pages is the normal length.”
Using the ProQuest data, we can see how history dissertations varied in length over time:
ggplot(h_diss, aes(x = year, y = pages)) + geom_jitter(alpha = 0.05) + geom_smooth(color = "red") +
long_scale + ggtitle("Page Count of History Dissertations, 1878-2012") +
xlab(NULL) + ylab("Pages") + page_scale(0, 1500, 100)
## geom_smooth: method="auto" and size of largest group is >=1000, so using gam with formula: y ~ s(x, bs = "cs"). Use 'method = x' to change the smoothing method.
## Warning: Removed 2070 rows containing missing values (stat_smooth).
## Warning: Removed 3064 rows containing missing values (geom_point).
The more useful view is to look at just dissertations since 1945:
ggplot(h_diss, aes(x = year, y = pages)) + geom_jitter(alpha = 0.05) + geom_smooth(color = "red") +
short_scale + ggtitle("Page Count of History Dissertations, 1945-2012") +
xlab(NULL) + ylab("Pages") + page_scale(0, 600, 50)
## geom_smooth: method="auto" and size of largest group is >=1000, so using gam with formula: y ~ s(x, bs = "cs"). Use 'method = x' to change the smoothing method.
## Warning: Removed 7033 rows containing missing values (stat_smooth).
## Warning: Removed 8018 rows containing missing values (geom_point).
We can make a few observations. First, the average length of dissertations is remarkably stable. From 1880 to 1930, history dissertations get quite a bit longer. But since from the 1950s to the present, the average length of dissertations has fluctuated within a relatively narrow band. That band is relatively narrow, that is, in relation to the huge overall variation in the length of history dissertations, which have a normal range between 150 and 600 pages. The acceptable range can even go a little lower than 150 pages, and it can go much, much higher than 600 pages.
We can be more precise about typical length of a history dissertation by plotting the mean and median. (If you prefer, you can see that data in tabular form at the end of the post.)
average_pages <- summarise(group_by(h_diss, year), mean = round(mean(pages,
na.rm = TRUE)), median = median(pages, na.rm = TRUE))
average_pages <- arrange(average_pages, year)
average_pages_melted <- melt(average_pages, id = "year")
ggplot(average_pages_melted) + geom_line(data = average_pages_melted, aes(x = year,
y = value, color = variable)) + short_scale + page_scale(275, 400, 25) +
labs(color = NULL) + ylab("Pages") + xlab(NULL) + ggtitle("Mean and Median Length of History Dissertations, 1945-2012")
## Warning: Removed 72 rows containing missing values (geom_path).
The mean length is longer by 27 pages on average than the median length, as you would expect since the permissible maximum length for a dissertation is much more flexible than the permissible minimum length. But the two measures fluctuate more or less in tandem. From a peak in 1958 to a trough in 1972, dissertations got shorter by about 45 pages. Then from 1972 dissertations gradually got longer till they reached a peak in 1988 about 55 pages longer. Since 1988 dissertations are getting shorter, with 2012 being a low with a mean of 331 and a median of 306.
I don't have a good explanation for these fluctuations. Could dissertations have gotten shorter from 1958 to 1972 because of a shift from narrative or political history to social history? Then could they have gotten longer from 1972 to 1988 because of the rise of cultural history? I suppose, though the dates feel vaguely off. What explains why dissertations got shorter through the 1990s and 2000s? I think matching this data up to time-to-degree data and job market data might prove fruitful.
It's not enough to look at the mean or median dissertation length, given that there is such an enormous variation in the permissible length of dissertations. Another helpful way to look at the data is to see the distribution of the quartiles. (This chart cuts off many outliers above 800 pages long.)
ggplot(data = filter(h_diss, year >= 1945, year <= 2012), aes(x = cut(year,
pretty(year, 10)), y = pages)) + geom_boxplot(outlier.colour = "#777777",
outlier.size = 1.5) + page_scale(0, 800, 100) + theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 25,
hjust = 1)) + xlab(NULL) + ylab("Pages") + ggtitle("Distribution of Page Lengths for History Dissertations, 1945-2012")
## Warning: Removed 2524 rows containing non-finite values (stat_boxplot).
The boxes in this chart show the middle 50 percent of dissertations for each half decade. We might interpret this as the typical range for most dissertations. Even typical dissertations fluctuate in length, so that the low end of typical can be 70 pages shorter than median, and the high end of typical can be 50 or 60 pages more than median. But many dissertations come in shorter, and there is a very high upper bound to the maximum length of dissertations.
Next up, I'll compare the typical length of dissertations for the academy as a whole to the length of dissertations at specific departments.
In summary, what does this data about page lengths say about history dissertations? It says that your adviser was right when she said that the dissertation will be done when you've written what you need to write.
# Some calculations
short_diss <- filter(h_diss, pages < 100)
short_diss <- arrange(short_diss, pages)
long_diss <- filter(h_diss, pages > 1500)
long_diss <- arrange(long_diss, desc(pages))
Some caveats: There are definitely errors in the data, for example, a six page dissertation from Princeton advised by Robert Darnton. (Sweet deal, if you can get it.) But there are only 215 dissertations with fewer than 100 pages, and only 53 dissertations with greater than 1500 pages, so I don't think these errors skew the data that much. Though it is scarcely believable, the dissertations above 1500 are probably not all errors, either. Another problem is that we're deal g with number of pages rather than word counts, and the number of words per page presumably changes with different writing technologies. (The definition of a word, on the other hand, is stable and timeless, even eternal.) Fortunately the timebound and hideous formatting requirements for dissertations that universitites impose probably keep this variation in check.
kable(filter(average_pages, year >= 1945), format = "pandoc")
## year mean median
## ------ ------ --------
## 1945 324 319
## 1946 301 296
## 1947 400 329
## 1948 366 314
## 1949 358 311
## 1950 306 282
## 1951 375 348
## 1952 370 364
## 1953 372 335
## 1954 361 338
## 1955 362 338
## 1956 362 340
## 1957 371 348
## 1958 384 369
## 1959 369 338
## 1960 372 343
## 1961 360 332
## 1962 350 326
## 1963 350 330
## 1964 357 331
## 1965 347 319
## 1966 351 324
## 1967 349 328
## 1968 348 327
## 1969 344 322
## 1970 353 326
## 1971 351 323
## 1972 344 318
## 1973 352 326
## 1974 360 331
## 1975 361 334
## 1976 364 338
## 1977 367 341
## 1978 362 328
## 1979 369 342
## 1980 373 344
## 1981 383 350
## 1982 388 356
## 1983 383 353
## 1984 385 358
## 1985 393 354
## 1986 386 348
## 1987 386 356
## 1988 389 353
## 1989 386 353
## 1990 384 350
## 1991 380 347
## 1992 377 347
## 1993 381 346
## 1994 372 339
## 1995 354 327
## 1996 350 322
## 1997 353 326
## 1998 354 327
## 1999 351 325
## 2000 354 327
## 2001 350 324
## 2002 350 325
## 2003 343 318
## 2004 340 317
## 2005 343 316
## 2006 339 311
## 2007 346 316
## 2008 337 313
## 2009 332 308
## 2010 334 311
## 2011 330 310
## 2012 331 306
## 2013 333 311