The PhD by retrospective published work remains an under-researched area within doctoral education. Introduced into the United Kingdom (UK) in 1966, this variant of PhD is one of several models of doctoral qualification that exist across the globe that include published research in the final submission. Although the retrospective model is an established way of obtaining a PhD through the inclusion of published research it has, together with the prospective 'three-paper' PhD, remained largely peripheral within the British HE sector. This paper places the discussion of this variant of the PhD by published work into its intellectual and instrumental contexts through an examination of epistemological and environmental drivers. This paper is informed by data generated through a series of online surveys of the regulations across the HE sector, the British Library's EThOS database, and responses from 20 universities.