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The essential PhD skills we wish we had known

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© How to PhD 2021. Everything here is designed and made by Arun. Our catchy show music is by Julia

Nope, we don't collect any personally identifiable information from this website. We use GDPR compliant anonymous tracking for our web statistics and we use the Apple Podcast embedded player, which collects limited anonymous information. You can find more information at Apple Podcasts web player & privacy

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How to PhD- sharing the essential PhD skills we wish we had known!

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© How to PhD 2021. Everything here is designed and made by Arun. Our catchy show music is by Julia Nope, we don't collect any personally identifiable information from this website. We use GDPR compliant anonymous tracking for our web statistics and we use the Apple Podcast embedded player, which collects limited anonymous information.

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It can be hard to know where to turn during a PhD, especially as universities can often feel like pressurised environments where it seems important to always been seen to be at your best.

Hosted by Dr Emma Brodzinski PhD (supervisor, examiner and once part-time PhD student), The PhD Life Raft focuses on sharing insights and experiences around some common issues like anxiety, procrastination, precarity, imposter syndrome, and work-life blend (spoiler alert - yes, it is OK to take time off at the weekend!) Emma talks to students, supervisors and experts in the field of wellbeing and mental health and share actionable tips and additional resources.

The PhD life raft sadly can't offer any quick fixes, but it does offer a space to discuss pressing issues; explore possible strategies; and provide sources of support for your journey.

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It can be hard to know where to turn during a PhD, especially as universities can often feel like pressurised environments where it seems important to always been seen to be at your best.

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Amazing general resource for academic writers

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The Academic Phrasebank is a general resource for academic writers. It aims to provide you with examples of some of the phraseological 'nuts and bolts' of writing organised according to the main sections of a research paper or dissertation (see the top menu ). Other phrases are listed under the more general communicative functions of academic writing (see the menu on the left). The resource should be particularly useful for writers who need to report their research work. The phrases, and the headings under which they are listed, can be used simply to assist you in thinking about the content and organisation of your own writing, or the phrases can be incorporated into your writing where this is appropriate. In most cases, a certain amount of creativity and adaptation will be necessary when a phrase is used. The items in the Academic Phrasebank are mostly content neutral and generic in nature; in using them, therefore, you are not stealing other people's ideas and this does not constitute plagiarism. For some of the entries, specific content words have been included for illustrative purposes, and these should be substituted when the phrases are used. The resource was designed primarily for academic and scientific writers who are non-native speakers of English. However, native speaker writers may still find much of the material helpful. In fact, recent data suggest that the majority of users are native speakers of English. More about Academic Phrasebank.

This site was created by John Morley.

Academic Phrasebank is the Intellectual Property of the University of Manchester.

Copyright © 2023 The University of Manchester

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The Academic Phrasebank is a general resource for academic writers. It aims to provide you with examples of some of the phraseological 'nuts and bolts' of writing organised according to the main sections of a research paper or dissertation (see the top menu ).

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A platform that empowers every step of your research

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The most powerful discovery app ever built for researchers!

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A unique, visual tool to help researchers and applied scientists find and explore papers relevant to their field of work

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Connected Papers | Find and explore academic papers

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Connected Papers is a visual tool to help researchers and applied scientists find academic papers relevant to their field of work.

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Cite This For Me™ was launched in October 2010, we began with the mission of helping students quickly create citations. Since then, the Cite This For Me™ citation generator has assisted millions of students across the world including in the United Kingdom, Canada, United States, Australia, and beyond.

Our tools are designed to help you quickly prepare an entire bibliography or reference list. Even if you know very little about references, our forms and automatic citation features can help guide you through the process and tell you what information is needed. This means less guessing for you and an easier citation process!

Nearly any style you can think of is supported by the Cite This For Me™ citation generator, including Harvard referencing, APA (American Psychological Association) style, MLA (Modern Language Association) style, Chicago style, Vancouver, and thousands of others.

Citing isn't something you usually think about, but it's important nonetheless. You already do it in your everyday life without realising it. Have you ever said, "I heard on XYZ News that . . . ", or "I read in XYZ that those two celebrities are dating", or even "Mom said that you can't do that". By saying where you got your information, you are casually citing a source.

We do this because it gives credibility to what we say, but also because it credits the originator of the information. It also allows others to follow up if they need more information. Formal citing done for papers and projects takes this a step further. In addition to the reasons mentioned above, citing sources in academia provides evidence of your research process and helps you avoid plagiarism.

Plagiarism is a word you never want to hear describing your work. You've probably seen headlines in the news and heard stories in school about the negative consequences of plagiarism. It's not good but it is preventable. By creating references and citations with Cite This For Me™ tools you're taking steps to help avoid this.

Click the button "Create citations" to begin. You'll be prompted to choose a source type and guided through the rest of the citing process. For source types like websites, journal articles, and books, the Cite This For Me™ citation generator automatically tries to find your source's information based on details you provide. That could be anything from the author's name to the source's URL to the article's DOI number. This makes citing more efficient and helps you easily create references and citations for your paper in a timely manner.

Beyond simply creating references or citations, most citation styles have additional guidelines about paper formatting, in-text citations, and other details. Cite This For Me™ citation guides cover a lot of this additional information, so your paper is more properly prepped and less likely to get points taken off for these details. The guides cover several citation styles, but the most popular are Harvard referencing, APA format, MLA format, and Chicago style.

A good paper references several sources. Multiply that with the several papers most schools assign in a year, and you get dozens of sources that will need to be cited within your academic career. That's a lot of references to create, sort through, and keep track of.

That's where Cite This For Me™ Premium comes in. With a premium account you can cite as many sources as you want, organize the sources into bibliographies, and save ALL of those bibliographies so you can easily refer back to your references. It's a great way to manage your bibliographies and cite with confidence.

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Cite This For Me: Harvard, APA, MLA Reference Generator

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Automatic works cited and bibliography formatting for MLA, APA and Chicago/Turabian citation styles. Now supports 7th edition of MLA.

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Mendeley - Reference Management Software

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Mendeley - Reference Management Software

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Search for and add articles to your library

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Helping scientists develop their writing competence 

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Helping scientists develop their writing competence 

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Skip to content

Interview with Marly about the slip-box method she’s using for taking notes as a researcher. She explains how the method works, what software to use and why it is her favorite method for note taking. Watch the video and learn how your own research could benefit from the slip-box method.

The slip-box method, also called the Zettelkasten method, is an effective way to organize your notes. It encourages you to create connections between the individual notes, which supports your (creative) thinking and ultimately helps you move your (research) ideas forward. In short, you will learn and think better — and develop your ideas faster.

Image credit at 07:10-09:22: David B. Clear; CC BY-SA 4.0.

Content

00:00 Intro
01:00 The slip-box method introduced
11:00 Software for the slip-box method
13:00 Marly’s implementation of the slip-box method
28:47 Benefits of the slip-box method and advice for beginners

Learn more about the slip-box method

For an introduction to the slip-box method, check out this article.

Recommended book: How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers by Söhnke Ahrens (Amazon)

Software for the slip-box method

Obsidian

Roam

Zettlr

Marly has chosen the software Obsidian for her implementation of the slip-box method. She recommends the following Youtube tutorials to learn how Obsidian works:

tutorial 1: basics

tutorial 2 includes how to write in MarkDown

tutorial 3 includes how to change Settings to enable useful functions

tutorial 4 includes how to use basic HotKeys

tutorial 5 includes different types of linking

What is your favorite method of note taking? Please, share your tips and experiences with uns in the comments!

Do you need to revise & polish your manuscript or thesis but don’t know where to begin?
Is your text a mess and you don't know how to improve it?

Get your Revision Checklist

Click here for an efficient step-by-step revision of your scientific texts.
You will be guided through each step with concrete tips for execution.

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How to take notes for research: the slip-box method

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Interview with Marly about the slip-box method she’s using for taking notes as a researcher. She explains how the method works, what software to use and why it is her favorite method for note taking.

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CiteSpace is a freely available Java application for visualizing and analyzing trends and patterns in scientific literature. It is designed as a tool for progressive knowledge domain visualization ( Chen, 2004). It focuses on finding critical points in the development of a field or a domain, especially intellectual turning points and pivotal points. Detailed case studies are given in ( Chen, 2006) and other publications. CiteSpace provides various functions to facilitate the understanding and interpretation of network patterns and historical patterns, including identifying the fast-growth topical areas, finding citation hotspots in the land of publications, decomposing a network into clusters, automatic labeling clusters with terms from citing articles, geospatial patterns of collaboration, and unique areas of international collaboration.

CiteSpace supports structural and temporal analyses of a variety of networks derived from scientific publications, including collaboration networks, author co-citation networks, and document co-citation networks. It also supports networks of hybrid node types such as terms, institutions, and countries, and hybrid link types such as co-citation, co-occurrence, and directed citing links.

The primary source of input data for CiteSpace is the Web of Science. Search for a topic of interest and download the search results (including full records and references). CiteSpace will handle the data from there. CiteSpace also provides some simple interfaces for obtaining data from PubMed, arXiv, ADS, and NSF Award Abstracts. CiteSpace can be used to generate geographic map overlays viewable in Google Earth based on the locations of authors.

Notes:

You need to have Java Runtime installed on your computer.
Can I access an expired version?
Yes. After July 31, 2011, version 2.2.R11 will expire. If you still need to use it beyond the expiration date, temporarily reset the clock on your computer to a prior date, for example, July 1, 2011, and then launch it via the Manual link. Don't forget to reset your computer clock properly afterwards. The same trick will work for other older versions of CiteSpace.
How should I get the new version?
New versions of CiteSpace will be available as a downloadable dist.zip file. Go to the Download page for further instructions.

Follow the CiteSpace Manual and Tutorial links for information on how to get started.

Disclaimer

CiteSpace is made available as it is. Use it at your own risk.

Created: Sept 13, 2004

Updated: January 17, 2021
(c) 2003-2021 Chaomei Chen. All rights reserved.
See also: www.pages.drexel.edu/~cc345

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CiteSpace: visualizing patterns and trends in scientific literature

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CiteSpace is a freely available Java application for visualizing and analyzing trends and patterns in scientific literature. It is designed as a tool for progressive knowledge domain visualization ( Chen, 2004). It focuses on finding critical points in the development of a field or a domain, especially intellectual turning points and pivotal points.

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A time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s

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A simple Pomodoro Timer app that works on a desktop & mobile browser. Pomofucus will help you manage your time and let you focus on any tasks such as study, writing, or coding.

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Overleaf: a complete, ready to go LaTeX environment

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Overleaf: a complete, ready to go LaTeX environment

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An online LaTeX editor that's easy to use. No installation, real-time collaboration, version control, hundreds of LaTeX templates, and more.

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the first website in the world to provide mass & public access to research papers

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Elicit helps you classify datasets, brainstorm research questions, and search through publications.

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a digital workspace for visual collaboration

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Our platform and professional services enable innovative teams to think and collaborate visually to solve important problems. Simply put what's on your mind on sticky notes. Then organize in lists, flowcharts, diagrams, frameworks, methods and drawings to activate and align your team.

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Capture, organize, and tackle your to-dos from anywhere | Trello

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Make the impossible, possible with Trello. The ultimate tool to boost your productivity. Escape the clutter and chaos—stay efficient with Inbox, Boards, and Planner from anywhere, even on mobile.

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Researchgate - SocialMedia platform for Researchers

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Researchgate - SocialMedia platform for Researchers

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Access 160+ million publications and connect with 25+ million researchers. Join for free and gain visibility by uploading your research.

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Search over 600,000 doctoral theses. Download instantly for your research, or order a scanned copy quickly and easily.

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document delivery; online; on-line; search; order; thesis; theses; abstract; abstracts;
		research; uk

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higher and education; download; desktop; phd theses; open access

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The About page of the British Library EThOS service. Search across 500,000+ theses for free and order full text quickly and easily.

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Thesaurus and word tools for your creative needs. Find the word you’re looking for!

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Writing Your First or Next Paper (eBOOK)

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Writing Your First or Next Paper (eBOOK)

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BitesizeBio.com eBook

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Writing and Researching Tips

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The dictionary definitions of contribution are:

1. A gift or payment

2. The part played by a person or thing in bringing about a result or helping something to advance and

3. A piece of writing submitted for publication in a journal or book

When scholars talk about contribution it might be 3. A contribution might be a piece we have submitted to an edited collection, a text book, an anthology of cases or an encyclopaedia.

But the most usual scholarly formulation of contribution is as a "contribution to knowledge".

Contribution to knowledge is an apparently simple idea, but in reality it's pretty slippery. So here's few thoughts about how to make sense of it, just to start with.

A contribution to knowledge is more like dictionary definition 2. Your research and/or writing helps to advance understandings about a topic. People know a little or a lot more about a topic because they've engaged with your work, read what you've written. And you've been able to explain to readers that the work adds up to a contribution - it takes the field somewhere - through

a defensible and well-designed inquiry, investigation, exploration, interrogation, deconstruction, experimentation, testing out, bringing things together that were previously apart and so on

a thorough analysis which is explained and available for scrutiny

the development of a credible and clearly ordered argument that explains the results, which leads to

a conclusion about the specific place of the results within the existing research on the topic - and how it complements, contradicts, adds something new, challenges, questions, confirms, reframes etc what is already known.

pointers for further development in policy or practice or further research.

In English language/Western traditions of research your readers/examiners/reviewers expect you to spell the contribution out to them in detail. ( This is not always the case in other cultural traditions.)

Readers/examiners/reviewers always expect to see the particulars of where the research fits and sits in relation to published literatures. In some disciplines, there is also a strong expectation that you'll make connections to policy and professional practice.

And, justifying and explaining your contribution in relation to the field and extant literatures may well be an integral part of your viva or defense.

That's not all to contribution of course. Most university guidelines still refer to contribution as 'original'. Original doesn't mean that it hasn't been done before; in some disciplines re-doing what has been done before is very important. And original in the context of contribution doesn't mean that the researcher has made a ground-breaking discovery - although that is very occasionally the case. Nor does original mean that the research is all your own work, although that is always a requirement and, perhaps in the light of AI, this meaning of original will come to matter much more .

No, what is meant by original is very clearly definition 2. Your research has taken you somewhere new. At the end of your research you know much more about your topic than you did at the start. Even if some if it is what not to do or think.

But the research also takes the field somewhere, it sets a line of thinking or does more to an established line of thinking, it offers well argued and evidenced results which others can build on.

And this is of course how contribution relates to significance. The field won't move forward and/or no one will bother with the research if it isn't of some value. A contribution generally isn't just something that wasn't there before (ie it fills a gap) but something that, like a contribution to a conversation, supports thinking and talking in the field to go somewhere.

In this sense, an original contribution is also definition 1. A gift. A gift to the scholarly community which colleagues can use to help build their own contribution. A (re)payment for the work of others that you used to build your own. A down payment on the work of others you will use in the future.

Making a contribution to knowledge is the essence of what scholarship is about. Taking a field and its thinking forward, even if only a little.

Photo by Kira auf der Heide on Unsplash

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research education, academic writing, public engagement, funding, other eccentricities.

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I only recommend things and people I genuinely think are awesome.

New books and products will appear as I discover them. If you have a book or product you think I should explore, you can contact me via my About page.

Disclaimer: if you buy books via the links I provide, Amazon gives me gift vouchers, which I use to buy books to review on the blog. It's the academic gift that keeps on giving! Thesis Whisperer runs on a "not for loss" basis. I raise money to pay for operating costs, side projects and upgrades. There are a number of ways you can directly support my work, which I have outlined here.

Software
Scrivener (not a paid endorsement)
Oh Scrivener. What would I do without you? Designed by a PhD student, this software is purpose built for the busy writer. Unlike MS Word, or other conventional word processing software, Scrivener treats your writing as a series of 'chunks' which can be moved around at will. Scrivener gave me a writing speed boost that made me at least four times faster. You can read my glowing review here.
Omnifocus2 (not a paid endorsement)
The mother, father and parent of no specific gender of all project management software. I have a saying: "If it's in Omni, it happens". If it's not captured in Omni, it doesn't - it's that simple. Omnifocus is only available on Mac. I still believe there is nothing comparable on PC - sorry. Buy a Mac? You can read my review of Omnifocus here.
Timing (not a paid endorsement)
Another product only available on the Mac. Timing learns how you work, watches you and shows a real time dashboard your various activities. Why? So you can better estimate your time on projects going forward and meet your deadlines with ease. If you want a fitbit for your work-life, this is it people!
Riverside (I get a free subscription for this endorsement)
Ever thought of podcasting as a way to share your research and passions? I love the format and record a regular podcast with my friend Jason Downs called 'On The Reg'. We've been going a few years now. You can listen and Subscribe at our On The Reg home page.

If you're thinking of starting your own podcast there's a couple of Thesiswhisperer posts on how to start one of your own. These are old posts, back when it was more complicated. Now there are some great platforms. If you're thinking of starting a podcast, may I suggest riverside.fm? Jason and I live in different cities and use Riverside to record and mix our pod - it's the best platform to avoid sound problems. Riverside are offering Thesiswhisperer readers a discount: enter code: ONTHEREG for a 15% off your subscription.

Downloadable worksheets and materials

The Thesis Whisperer blackline masters series are materials I use in my workshops with research students. These blackline masters are free to use under creative commons share a-like attribution license. Each blackline master listed below has text, which you can lift for your own purposes, and an attached PDF formatted for easy photocopying. You can see more of my teaching materials on the right side of the site under 'learn with the Whisperer'. If you want me to visit your university and teach, go to my workshops and training page

Support Networks

There is some evidence that PhD students can struggle with mental health more than other student groups. Unfortunately it is relatively common to have low periods during your PhD, but it's important to be able to distinguish between 'the PhD blues' and a developing mental health condition that is potentially serious and needs treatment. Here are some resources to help:

If you are worried about how you feel, here's a useful self assessment checklist for anxiety and depression. Please see someone if you think you need help.

Need to talk someone immediately? Unsuicide offers a global directory of helplines you can call or text.

More mental health resources and a hotline are available from Beyond Blue.

The academic mental health collective enables PhD students to share stories of their experience of mental health issues.

If you are feeling low, but not actually depressed, physical activity can help a lot. All the more reason to get up from your desk or away from the bench! Here is some research and suggestions:

At our thesis bootcamps we have found that mindfulness exercises can help people refocus back on writing with less anxiety. Here's a mindfulness tip sheet to get you started.

Chronically academic is a network of scholars affected by disabilities and chronic illnesses.

Ethical Service Providers

There are a number of dodgy companies out there offering to write your thesis in, publish your work or do proof reading - don't get sucked in. Below are some reputable providers:

Employment specialists

Did you know over 50% of PhD graduates go on to careers outside academia? I have a special interest in employability and helping people find jobs where they can use their research skills. Here is a small list of consultants and specialists you might find useful. I am working on a new app called PostAc to help you find jobs you might be interested in - stay tuned!

APR Interns is a program for Australian PhD students to get paid experience in industry
BlueFin Resources are an Australian based company that specialise in placing PhD graduates in science
Mexec Careers have a special interest in, and experience with PhD graduates in Australia
Amy Bohren - individual career coaching, Australian based (email redcareers@outlook.com)
The resilient researcher offer individual coaching and workshops to Australian based graduates and PhD students
Dr Richard Huysmans provides Australian based workshops

Other Useful (or fun) places on the Internet

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I only recommend things and people I genuinely think are awesome. Books Here is the BIG LIST OF recommended BOOKS FOR RESEARCHERS as a google document that I add to continuously. New books and products will appear as I discover them. If you have a book or product you think I should explore, you can contact...

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Dr. Amy Boyd - professional motivational speaker and trainer

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Coaching to help women finish writing their doctoral dissertation.

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Dissertation coaching services for women writing their doctoral dissertations. We help women silence the inner critic, finish their dissertations, and move on with that next opportunity waiting for them.

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What I see a lot happening, is that we limit ourselves so much! We ourselves, but also our supervisors and the academic culture limit us.

It seems to be 'normal' to have a stressful PhD, and it seems to be 'part of the deal'.

And that is absolutely not necessary in my opinion.

Supervisors make you feel insecure, the competition is fierce, and your inner fear of failure pops up every chance it gets.
The scientific world is thriving on your insecurities and your fears.
Because what is your response? > You work even harder, you work more hours, you try to do everything even more perfectly, and so on...

And this is 'just the way is goes'.

I am here to tell you that it doesn't have to be like this.

When I started changing the way I was handling these harsh environmental elements, it turned out that you actually can practice science in a much more relaxed and mentally healthy way!

First, you have to see what you are in, so getting insight into all the dynamics between you and your supervisors, and within the academic world in general. And also into what makes you personally stressed (that is slightly different for everybody).

Then you also know where to take the right action to change your way of coping and managing it 💪

And that is also what others have experienced:

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What I see a lot happening, is that we limit ourselves so much! We ourselves, but also our supervisors and the academic culture limit us. It seems to be 'normal' to have a stressful PhD, and it seems to be 'part of the deal'. And that is absolutely not necessary in my opinion.