Release of the French Ph.D. database (version 1.0)
We are pleased to announce the release of the French PhD Thesis Database in Economics! This database offers extensive information on the majority of doctoral theses defended in France in the field of economics since 1900.
The database is available in .csv format and can be downloaded from its Zenodo Repository. Comprehensive documentation can be accessed here. You can also explore the theses metadata directly here.
The French database is implemented as a relational database, integrating multiple interconnected data frames. It is structured around four main components:
- Thesis Metadata: This table contains the core information for each dissertation. Each entry corresponds to a single thesis and includes details such as the title, defense date, abstract, and other relevant metadata.
- Edges Data: This table captures the connections between the other three tables, linking individuals, institutions, and theses. It associates each thesis with the individuals and institutions involved in its production, thereby enabling a synthetized view of these relationships. The edges data are provided in two formats: (1) a ready-to-use format with cleaned and standardized information; and (2) a more extensive format that allows for comparison between the original collected data and the results of the cleaning process.
- Institutions Data: This table includes information on universities, laboratories, doctoral schools, and other institutions associated with the dissertations. Each entry corresponds to a single institution.
- Individual Data: This table contains information on the individuals involved in the dissertations, including authors, supervisors, and jury members. Each entry corresponds to a single individual.
The data used in this project comes from three mains sources:
- Theses.fr: https://theses.fr/
- Sudoc: https://www.sudoc.fr/
- IdRef: https://www.idref.fr/
If you use our data or scripts, please cite the following reference: Delcey Thomas, and Aurélien Goutsmedt. (2024). Becoming an Economist: A Database of French Economics PhDs. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14541427