Dr.

Paul
Spencer
Researcher
Development
Manager

10 October 2016

The Beginners Guide to

The Research Degree

Overview
Becoming a Skilled Researcher
How do we get there?
What it means to be a doctoral student
Regulatory framework
Things to consider from the outset
Hints & tips
Support available

Products of a research degree

A written body of work

A researcher with a set of skills

A Skilled Researcher must

Have a command of what is happening in your subject
(and area of professional practice) so that you can
evaluate the worth of what others are doing
Have the astuteness to discover where you can make
a useful contribution
Have mastery of appropriate techniques that are
currently being used, and also be aware of their
limitations

A Skilled Researcher must

Make a useful contribution to the subject (and to
professional practice) through the ability to conceive,
design, manage research
Having something to say that your peers (in an
international context) want to listen to
Able to communicate your results effectively in the
professional arena but also to lay audiences

Why cant someone write

all of these skills down in some sort
of framework?

Vitae Researcher
Development
Framework
(RDF)
Describes the
knowledge, behaviours
and attributes of
successful researchers

Use it to assess your

strengths and identify
areas for further
development

Vitae, 2015 Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) Limited.

www.vitae.ac.uk/rdf

How do we get there?

To know the road

ahead, ask those
coming back.
Chinese proverb

Why get a PhD?

"Being a graduate student is like becoming all of
the Seven Dwarves. In the beginning you're Dopey
and Bashful. In the middle, you are usually sick
(Sneezy), tired (Sleepy), and irritable (Grumpy).
But at the end, they call you Doc, and then you're
Happy."

Piled Higher and Deeper by Jorge Cham

www.phdcomics.com

Why are you doing a PhD?

Suggestions?

Satisfying intellectual curiosity?

Experiencing an academic community?
Contributing to knowledge?
Fulfilling a lifelong ambition?

Its important to understand your raison

detre in order to reconnect with it when
motivation levels fall.

What does it mean to be a

doctoral student?
You will need to be:

responsible for the management of your own work

acquire or possess the necessary skills to carry out
your study
have determination and motivation
overcome problems and disappointments
aware and understand the criteria and requirements
for the award

Anticipate tasks & timings

1. Rules about theses and examinations
i. Think about how many words, what a doctorate looks like and,
more importantly, start to understand the criteria

2. The set of activities that you need to accomplish

i. What chunks need to be assembled? How do they fit
together? What tasks need to be done and when?

3. How, when and where you might start to put your

work out
i. Not a bad idea to start thinking of opportunities to
present work at conferences and how those might be
funded

What we call the beginning is

often the end. And to make an
end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from.
Little Gidding

Doctoral criteria

Patter advice
Professor Pat
Thomson writes
a great blog on
academic matters
mainly about
writing but has
a series of really
useful entries
about getting
started

From the beginning

1.Feasibility
2.Planning
3.Doing
4.Finishing

Is the project feasible?

Can it be done in the time available?
Is it within your competence/capability?
Can you stay within the financial budget?
Does it have built-in flexibility of
direction/approach or is it fixed?
Does it have fall-back positions?
Is it interesting [if successful will it tell us
something that we did not know before]?

Planning
Remember good planning can save
time
Identify a broad area of study for
research topic
Identify initial research questions and
research design
Draw up a plan but be prepared for it
to change . expect it to change!

If we knew what it was

we were doing, it would
not be called research,
would it?
Albert Einstein

Doing
Review literature to understand
current debates and methods of
research in your field
Propose and state your theories
Collect data to support/refute your
theories
Analyse and interpret findings
Present findings

Finishing off
Dont underestimate the time
needed here
Identify examiners - internal
and external
Notice of submission, then
thesis to examiners
Preparation for viva and
performance at viva
Following up viva
Printing of final thesis
GRADUATION

Piled Higher and Deeper by Jorge Cham

www.phdcomics.com

Hints and tips

Remember research is not a smooth
process
Do not attempt to start at the
beginning and just work through. You
will have both sequential and parallel
processes to consider
Plan using diagrams, see the whole
program as a series of inter-related
projects
Identify milestones and deadlines

Piled Higher and Deeper by Jorge Cham

www.phdcomics.com

Hints and tips

Work out a big picture schedule starting with
your intended submission date and work
backwards
Keep bibliographic references from day one
Keep back ups not just on your hard disk
Be aware of where the latest version is

Piled Higher and Deeper by Jorge Cham

www.phdcomics.com

Piled Higher and Deeper by Jorge Cham

www.phdcomics.com

Piled Higher and Deeper by Jorge Cham

www.phdcomics.com

Piled Higher and Deeper by Jorge Cham

www.phdcomics.com

Piled Higher and Deeper by Jorge Cham

www.phdcomics.com