During And After The Thesis

My experience about PhD and How we can manage ? Dr. Sanjeev K Maurya Lecturer Department of Biochemistry

Target audience  Aimed

at: those involved with thesis production   

Currently enrolled post graduate students Their Supervisors Any one else interested

Agenda 

     

What can go wrong and what you can do about it Writing up Submission What examiners look for; checklist Life after How not to get a research degree Top Tips

What can go wrong          

Poor choice of research area. An area which may not yield sufficient information Inappropriate / undoable / excessively complex research questions. Unrealistic management or research planning Limited access to research subjects, contacts or contexts Data: difficulties in acquiring, storing, analysing or managing it Supervision issues Lack of a genuine research culture within the department Student isolation Inadequate resources Inadequate technical support

It can get much worse  Life

outside research interfering with your work  Family relationship issues  Poor health "Generally speaking, people provide better maintenance for their cars than for their own bodies." Scott Adams, The Dilbert Future

How to better manage your candidature  Finding

/ building a supportive environment  Become part of the wider research community  Manage yourself  Keep on track  Respond appropriately to adversity

Finding / building a supportive environment 

Your supervisors and beyond   

     

Those who believe in you Those who can help motivate you Those who can help you solve problems along the way

Personal relationships Informal committee Consultants University research structure Peer group support Overseas residential students

Personal relationships       

Your supervisor Family, fellow students, old friends Fellow postgraduate students Student association for cultural support Secretaries and support staff A mentor? Consider a ``buddy system'': you and another postgraduate meet at regular intervals:  Review your progress  Mutually give feedback on rough drafts  Give each other psychological support  Review your writing.

Other academic support  Informal

committee: A small set of reliable interested academics who are willing to do some work for you i.e. read, comment, advise, critique, provide pointers, make introductions to useful people, possibly provide technical help in their own specialist area  Consultants: one off meetings for technical advice  Internal courses: like this series

Link up with any university provided research structure  Departmental

seminars and workshops  Peer review at ‘work in progress’ meetings  Writing assistance  Statistical expertise  Subject librarian

Peer group support  Recognise

that others are experiencing similar things  Form self managed groups and networks to reduce the isolation  Share your feelings with others. Talking is the first step to feeling better  Provide feedback on written work  Helps you keep to deadlines

Facilities for overseas residential students  International

office  Accommodation  University’s reputation in support area  Language assistance  Pastoral care

Exercise: Your personal support inventory            

Spouse / relationship / family Extended family Friends Pastoral caregiver Fellow students Study ‘buddy’ Mentor Supervisor Unofficial committee Secretarial and support staff Student association Outside groups

2.

3. 4. 5. 6.

Identify your supporters and grade their support 1-5 (excellent to poor) Identify those that are underperforming or missing Consider if this really matters to your candidature If so develop strategies to rectify this Develop strategies to maintain what you already have

Become part of the wider research community  Attend

conferences  Network  Publish papers

Manage yourself   

The key to self management is awareness. Forewarned is forearmed Manage   



Your own expectations Psychological aspects which recur in cycles Practical aspects

Consider your thesis just as a job to be finished   

Anxiety will be with you throughout. Determination and application rather than brilliance are what is required Tie up any loose ends and submit

Manage your own expectations 

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

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Self knowledge and awareness of the likely psychological and practical aspects of doing a thesis will empower you Recognise that you will get completely stuck sometimes. Like writer's block, there's a lot of causes of this and no one solution. Recognise that the degree is the beginning, not the culmination, of your career. Don't worry about making it your magnum opus. Get out sooner, rather than later.

Manage psychological aspects A common scenario  Early enthusiasm: overambitious estimates of what can be accomplished  Deadlines loom: stress sets in  Boredom with doing the same thing for so long: the getting nowhere syndrome,  Many end up hating everything to do with their dissertation and wanting out ASAP

Self doubt is par for the course 

Science Nobel Laureates (50) were surveyed on the the issue of self-doubt: 



Had it been clear to them all along that their work was earth-shattering?

The unanimous response:  

They constantly doubted the value, or correctness, of their work There were periods when they felt that what they were doing was irrelevant, obvious, or wrong.

Reactive depression is not uncommon After all you are dealing with one or more of:  Debt and poverty  Poor diet  Lack of exercise  Poor accommodation  Isolation  Uncertain employment prospects  Thesis problems  Supervision problems

Isolation  The

thesis is awarded for original work  Contact with supervisor may be less than you desire  Lack of intellectual stimulation and opportunities to exchange ideas “I work alone in a lab full of people all research students all working alone” (Phillips and Pugh 1994)

Keep to the point  As

work progresses you throw up new ideas that you can not pursue if you are to stick to your timelines. Refuse to get sidetracked from the problem at hand.  Do not let these frustrations allow you to deviate. When you have your doctorate you will be in a better position to experiment with the new ideas you are coming up with now.

Things will eventually change 

Increasing interest in work  Gradually gain independence from supervisors  You become more and more absorbed in what you are doing



Transfer of dependence from supervisor to work  Motivation is gained from the work itself  Your thesis becomes one of the most important things in your life.  Become your own de facto supervisor



Outcomes  

Increased self confidence A sense of achievement

Manage the practical aspects  Pressure  

Timetabling Divide and conquer strategy

 Scope 



creep

Acknowledge the tension between the boundaries of the project and the available time to complete it. Review this with your supervisor

 Keeping 

for timely completion

to deadlines

Set daily, weekly and monthly deadlines

Self help resources  

  

Read a research students’ self help book: e.g. (Rugg and Petre 2004) The Unwritten rules of PhD research Read Alan Lakien's book How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life, which is recommended even by people who hate selfhelp books. It has invaluable techniques for getting yourself into productive action. Download How to Be a Good Graduate Student. Marie desJardins http://www.cs.indiana.edu/how.2b/how.2b.html Download How To Do Research In the MIT AI Lab http://www.cs.indiana.edu/mit.research.how.to/section3.13.html Download How To Write A Dissertation or Bedtime Reading For People Who Do Not Have Time To Sleep. Douglas Comer. http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/dec/essay.dissertation.html

Keep on track     

Thesis avoidance The balancing act Time and stress management Keep a research diary Deal promptly with University administrative matters e.g. progress reports A man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly to it. Samuel Johnson

The balancing act  Juggle

study, full or part time job, domestic and family responsibilities, and your mental and physical health.  Best solution is to educate everyone as to the demands you face then negotiate.  Simply requesting special privileges may not work.  Your relationships will need special attention.

Exercise: Spheres of activity Identify overlapping spheres of activity where one action could serve two or more purposes Work

Research

Home

Gina Wisker

Respond appropriately to adversity  Motivation

–avoiding getting demoralised when things go wrong  Research information turns out to be flawed and the hypothesis on which it is founded are clearly incorrect – recast  Other priorities in your life take over - defer  Redefine long term goals  Learn to listen to valid, constructive criticism and to ignore destructive, pointless criticism

Time and stress management     

 

Practice long, medium and short term time and Stress management Set daily, weekly, and monthly goals Critical Path Analysis To do lists Keep time allocation stats Make time for non PhD activities. Social and family life are important too Reward yourself

The Research Diary  

  

 

Keeping a journal of your research activities and ideas Speculations, interesting problems, possible solutions, random ideas, references to look up, URLs Interesting quotes Contacts Different systems work for different people; experiment. You might keep it online or in a spiral notebook or on legal pads. You might want one for the lab and one for home. Read back through it periodically.

Writing up   

  

The most concentrated effort of the whole thesis. You probably have not written anything as long before. Allow up to a year or one third of your available time. You may by now feel ambivalent about the study however this is not just a chore and the real work is not yet finished. Consider what you want to say and have it mediated by your supervisor into what examiners look for. Put your best face on the material you have available and adjust your arguments if things do not turn out exactly as planned Attend the academic writing workshop in this series

This is where you demonstrate that you are worthy of a research degree

Possible dissertation organising principles   





Identification of gaps  gap filling Unfolding of evidence (one study leading to another) Theoretical motivation  hypothesis driven investigation  theory refinement Refinement or iterative development of a model or application Problem  empirical research  emergent theory (Rugg and Petre 2004)

Elements of a good thesis  Coherent

and appropriately presented  Good grasp of the literature  Intellectual grasp of the issues  Sound methodology  Original contribution to the fundamental and important arguments within the area.  Publishable

Avoid these problems      

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Including material superfluous to the argument Not including all the necessary material Too long Too short Conclusions not foreshadowed in the introduction No clear separation of methodology, data, results and discussion Failure to link the outcomes back to the study objectives

Intent to submit   

Do not forget this one Usually three months in advance Starts off the process to appoint examiners.  

 

Typically three academics from other universities chosen to ensure quality standards remain uniform internationally. A tough examiner may add prestige to your success, a less exacting examiner may be chosen in the hope they will pass a lesser student Choice of examiner is recommended to the appropriate university higher degrees board by your supervisor. You may be given the opportunity to discuss this with your supervisor. Be prepared with a list of suggested names. There should be no conflict of interest

Submission 

   

You should have drafted and redrafted several times by this stage and your supervisor should have read and commented on all your work If at all possible find out who your examiners are and make sure you have cited their major work appropriately. Make sure you cover all the submission rules e.g. layout, maximum length, presentation, binding, number of copies etc. Prepare an appropriate abstract Submit papers you have already published as an appendix and note your exact contribution if you are a co-author.

How examiners view the degree  May

see the degree as research training  May see the degree as book writing preparation  May see the degree as an entry to academic life

How examiners view your dissertation 







Just one of many competing responsibilities in their busy professional life They hope it is not going to be a waste of their precious time They want to see a thesis which is a clear unequivocal pass They do not want to be involved with a thesis that will eventually scrape through with a multitude of revisions and tie them up for weeks.

What examiners look for 1/2 Examiners assess what you say (thesis as argument) and how you say it (thesis as dissertation). What is written and how it is written. 



First impressions  A nice warm feeling: “This does not look like a fail”  A sense of Inspiration as well as perspiration (Wisker 2001) How it is written  Well written enough and appropriately presented for a doctorate.  Clear, easy to read, with few errors of expression and flawless literacy  Stylish and economically written  Coherent organisation, structure and argument  Citations, scholarly notes and bibliography follow academic conventions

What examiners look for 2/2  

Engagement with the literature Full mastery of the subject area:  



Depth and breadth of scholarship  





Synthesising previous work Adding original insights / models / concepts

An original contribution to knowledge 



A theoretical and ethical base treated critically. A critical self appraisal of existing practices / beliefs

topic area, method, experimental design, theoretical synthesis or engagement with conceptual issues

Reflective and self critical elements An indication of future work

Dissertation checklist      

Organisation and presentation The research problem Filling the gap Methodology Outcomes General credibility

Be familiar with the instructions your university sends out to examiners and check you have covered all bases

Dissertation checklist: Organisation and presentation  The

dissertation is organised in a logical and appropriate manner  The dissertation as presented is in readable English using an appropriate style and formatted in an appropriate manner

Dissertation checklist: The research problem 

 

 

The substantive aims and objectives for the study have been explicitly set out including its scope, assumptions and limitations There is a clear statement of the research problem An explanation of its intellectual and practical importance and significance has been given The central research question is well established The research question is broken down into appropriate and manageable sub-questions.

Dissertation checklist: Filling the gap   

Demonstrate that you are familiar with the major debates in the area. Demonstrate that you are able to identify the gaps in the debates or are able to create such gaps. Demonstrate how your thesis is contributing to the debates and filling the gap in terms of new ideas, new methods, and or new data. How the thesis fills the gap should be clearly signalled

Dissertation checklist: Methodology  Appropriate

use of methods and justifications of the choices made  Data collection and analysis has been appropriately handled

Dissertation checklist: Outcomes  Conclusions

i.e. answers to research questions clearly stated  An appropriate element of an original contribution is present: how the thesis builds on or adds to existing knowledge has been established  Further studies or research are suggested: where the thesis has taken the field of knowledge and what still needs doing has been established

Dissertation checklist: General credibility 

Relationship of the thesis to previous work in the area has been established.   



Demonstrates a deep and thorough understanding of relevant techniques in the field of research 







The methodology employed is sound and appropriate to the aims of the study

Exhibits competence in the chosen field through judicious selection and application of methods to yield a significant body of work. Demonstrates the capacity to critically evaluate and effectively present this body of work 



Mastery is reflected in the manner in which the primary and secondary sources are used and cited No major authors or debates have been overlooked Current material is included

Arguments and supporting evidence are coherent and set out in a logical fashion

Demonstrates independence of thought and approach Provides an original contribution to knowledge

Thesis outcomes These differ between institutions. Check with your university’s regulations      

Passed without further amendment Passed subject to minor corrections Passed subject to substantial amendment Deferred and the candidate be permitted to resubmit the thesis in a revised form. Written work adequate but Viva not. May be asked to present yourself for another viva Failed. No resubmission allowed.

Life after 

Initial euphoria: allow yourself to enjoy this major achievement: no doubt one of the highlights of your life    

 

Celebration Graduation Commemoration Vacation

Mental and physical exhaustion Bereavement  

You have lived with your thesis for a long time Fill the gap with something else. Get a life and rejoin the human race

Recognise that this is not the end but the end of the beginning of your research career

Analyse the experience  What

I did right  Where I went wrong   

What would I not do again What would I do differently What should I have included that I did not

 What

have I learned from this experience  Have I achieved my goals?

Disseminate your findings  Seminars  Journal

paper  Monograph  Book

What next? Workwise    

Update your CV Apply for a PhD (if you did a Master’s) or a Post doc fellowship somewhere prestigious Appear at conferences Become   

  

The empire builder The wandering scholar The hermit scholar

Teach Do some more research Get a real job!

What next? On other fronts  Plan

what to wear to your graduation  Put some work into your relationships  Be nice to your family  Go on a diet  Get a life

How not to get a research degree  Not    

wanting it enough

A lack of determination Not prepared to make the sacrifices required. Not prepared to work using the methods required Not prepared to listen to supervisors and accept feedback

How not to get a research degree 

Not understanding the nature of the requirements  Research training  Leave paradigm shifts to later  





Einstein’s PhD was a sensible contribution to Brownian motion theory not relativity Marx’s PhD was on two lesser Greek philosophers not Das Kapital

Overestimating what is required  An enormous breakthrough is not required just a contribution to knowledge.  Alternatively make your enormous contribution and get an honorary doctorate Underestimating what is required  more than finding out something you do not know  more than a description of a problem - must also be a contribution to its analysis and explanation

How not to get a research degree 

Having the wrong supervisor  



Just doing it badly      



Not having a central thesis: No central position argued Spread too widely and too thinly Let Complexity be Your Guide (Confuse Thine Enemies Don't be Distracted by Comments of Others (Avoid Feedback) Never be Proven Wrong The majority who give up leave out of frustration with their theses

Taking on a new job before completion 



One who is unaware of what a PhD requires One with whom you loose contact

Often during the write up phase when funding has run out

A personal crisis    

Medical Mental health Relationships Finances

Top 10 tips 1. 2. 3. 4.

5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Printout your research question and place it above your working area, on the fridge, in the toilet etc. Read, read, read. Read at least one completed dissertation cover to cover Write early and write often. Don’t get it right get it written. The longer you leave it unwritten, the harder the task becomes. Tiny bits of writing add up to a lot of writing. Recognise that writing up and rewriting takes more time than you might imagine Keep an annotated bibliography with page numbers Form an informal support committee Expose your work to constructive criticism and feedback Never hide from your supervisor Keep it simple

And Always make several backups and keep one off site

This workshop has covered  Writing

up  Submission and examination  Life after  General

tips

References          

Adams, R. (2005). Demystifying the Thesis, Victoria University. Blaxter, L., C. Hughes, et al. (1996). How to Research. Buckingham, Open University Press. Delmont, S., P. Atkinson, et al. (1997). Supervising the PhD: A guide to success. Buckingham, UK, Open University Press. Denscombe, M. (2003). The Good Research Guide. Maidenhead, UK, Open University Press. Dictionary. (2000). "The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language." 4th edition. Retrieved 23rd September, 2005. Leedy, P. D. (1993). Practical Research Planning and Design. Engelwood Cliffs, N.J., USA, McMillan Publishing. Neuman, W. (1997). Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches, Allyn and Bacon, Boston USA. Phillips, E. M. and D. S. Pugh (1994). How to get a PhD: A handbook for students and their supervisors. Buckingham UK, Open University Press. Rugg, G. and M. Petre (2004). The Unwritten rules of PhD research. Maidenhead, Berkshire, UK, Open University Press. Wisker, G. (2001). The Postgraduate Research Handbook: Succeed with your MA, MPhil, EdD and PhD. Basingstoke, UK, Palgrave.