Author: admin

Are you thinking of taking up travel assignments during your doctoral research? It could be of the likes of visiting a research group abroad for a few days, weeks or maybe even months. I think it is a superb idea!! It would not only make your PhD worthy but also open newer avenues for your career in the future.

There are some very significant advantages of travelling during your doctoral research. They may not occur to you otherwise but do probe over them:

1. It is a source of great inspiration
2. It is the best means to learn many new things
3. A great way to expand your network and know people in your arena worldwide

If you so get convinced about the idea of travelling for research exposure, which I believe you should. There are three strategic decisions you need to make:

1. Defining the objective and duration of the visit: The foremost and obvious step is to first define your objective from the visit to another lab in another country. The objectives, you know, can be varying from only networking to perhaps even picking up another new method of analysis through practical exposure. Research scholars usually travel through collaborations and primarily the purpose of the visit decides duration of stay. Keeping in mind the different options that are available to you, make a pragmatic decision.

2. Deciding the destination of the visit: Here you research supervisor could come to great help. Most of the scholars consider options that are based on the networks build by their supervisors. This makes the task relatively easier and not only that, it also helps to identify a researcher in foreign land with experience and knowledge that would be relevant to your study and would help you to develop newer ideas that are in context to your doctoral study.

1. Arranging Funds: You wouldn’t be aware, but surely there would be more means to arrange funds for this purpose than you know of. Here again your supervisor who has far more experience with the system would come to your rescue. With the help of your peer, networks and supervisor, you must explore funding organisations, Universities and Societies that have “Travel Abroad” schemes for students and scholars. Sometimes universities in different countries have partnership programme or student exchange programmes that could be availed by you. With exceptionally good grades, you can even apply for National Grants.

So, what are you waiting for? Gear up and expand your horizons to have one of its kind PhD experience!!

Firstly, give a direct and composed response: It is not wise to respond to the reviewer feedback ASAP. Buy time and think over the best response after taking the advice and opinions of the experts so that what you write back is matching well with expectations of the reviewer now. Remember, you have to incorporate a detailed document at this stage that summarises the different changes suggested by the reviewer while you stick to the facts only.
Do not give up at the stage of “Revise and Resubmit”: There are surprising figures stating the number of people who give up at the stage when the reviewer says, “Revise and resubmit”. I Insist, that it is important to do so as it is often the last stage after having crossed all the hurdles. It is, trust me, quite absurd that the author goes through the rigorous process of writing the paper in the first place making it through the editors and finally giving up at the right stage. Always remember that failure is not losing, it is just stage when you decide to give up.
If you are confident, you may challenge the reviewers: In my opinion, it is perfect to challenge the suggestions given by the reviewer, provide you have a valid justification for the same. Editors do accept a rational justification in light of all the suggestions given by them being considered.
Have a timeline in your mind for your publication: Journals have different ranks and the time they take for the review process. Certain journals take more time than others. If you have a reason such as a job interview coming up or any other deadline for which you want your paper published sooner than do consider the time taken by journals for publication.
Keep reminding yourself that the finished article has been through a process: Publishing is challenging. The finished article is a proof that a lot has gone into it is making from the first stage onwards.
Do not look at the failures but keep trying and not give up. Publication in good journals is difficult but surely not impossible.

Often we have read and heard that completing a PhD can be one of the most difficult tasks of your life and keeping your motivating levels consistent throughout the programmes is often , nearly impossible. Here are some reasons I find apply for why there is lack of motivation in a PhD programme:

1. Research is not easy and it is very difficult to come out with something that is even slightly or barely novel. It demands a very high level of standard when it comes to the strength of the arguments in the empirical content of your research. These high demands require a lot of hard work and sometimes even without a needed and deserved break.

2. The standards we know are high and they are at the same time ambiguous and have a strong element of subjectivity in them. The review that you may get for your work from different experts may be all together contradictory. For the same work, some people may call it worthy and suggest immediate publication and others may call it vague and lacking novelty. It is not easy to live up to everyone‘s standards.

3. It is strange surprising and difficult to comprehend that despite the high standards that the school may set for a doctoral scholar, very few of the final researches have that kind of worthiness. In fact most the researches don’t even get read by people beyond your field. An understanding of all these things does put the researcher in a state of self-doubt about the quality of the work being created in the department so your motivation level is difficult to keep up.

4. Lastly, I want to say, though it may sound bitter, extrinsic motivation does play an important role and we are paid practically peanuts for the work we do and with all the work that you put into your PhD, eventually you would not be paid a million bucks for it and if you would be lucky, you would be earning like another average employee anywhere else.

With all these above mentioned concerns, who can help u you to stay motivated in your PhD? It is no one else but your own self. Train your mind to develop a deep emotional understanding of these factors along with the development of your own intellectual capital.

We have grown up with this phrase, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”.
Have you heard of the advantages of a handful of tomatoes?

PhD students often discover new heights of procrastination during the course. More than what they could every think they were capable of. A lot of us have this really weird and sudden compulsive urge to finish up any assigned task at the earliest. However, very rarely do we feel the same kind of urge to meet deadlines that are assigned for PhD work. There is some weird reason for it and I have found it difficult to comprehend all these years. I have tried some of the new time management techniques and I am going to discuss them with you here.

One of the most straight forward and blunt technique that I have come across is the POMODORO TECHNIQUE. It was developed by Francesco Cirillo and has named it behind a timer that is tomato shaped. Each one of the Pomodoro in the technique is nothing but a representation of the unit of time and then upon each one of the accomplishments in the stipulated time, you get a break. The technique worked very well for me in many my tasks that were related to editing chapters for books and papers. It also worked when I had to start writing from a scratch. I have my doubts though, about this activity working in the case of reading assignments or listening and writing notes. It supplements the task by alarm and in high concentration activities, alarms are nothing but distractions and end up doing more harm than good.

I want to discuss with you some specific benefits of this technique:

Adding up small little accomplishments, it increases your confidence level and keeps the motivation higher for the next day

When you are focused on only one activity at a specific point of time, it would make you more systematic and attentive to details

A continuous application of this time management technique actually would acquaint you of your pattern of concentration. It would help you to get a grab of your settling time and performance pattern so that you could cash it better the next time.

Since you have to perform in a regulated time, it helps you to understand what you can do realistically and what exactly wishful thinking. it would bring down you disappointments and start each day by having more objective and achievable goals.

I would definitely recommend you to try this and see how you can benefit from this technique. HAPPY POMODORO

The idea to take up doctoral research comes in the minds of the some people suddenly and for others it lingers on for a while before actually getting executed. It needs a lot of brave decision making to shift from “thinking about doing” to “actually doing”. In the case of taking up a PhD programme, you need to first start thinking like an academic person. It won’t be without any challenges and here are a few that you may want to know about:

Knowing your reason: The most important thing is to know why you want to do any research. It should begin with a spark that requires you find out something that you really really want to explore. It is quite basic and at the same time mandatory to be able to aptly articulate what you desire to do in a very specific and concise manner. Know and remember that a PhD is awarded for a novel contribution in existing research. Even if the newness is what we call “modest”, one should know exactly what to research.

Identifying the University/Programme: The study patterns, fee structure, reputation and various others factors could contribute in narrowing your search for the right university and. You need to be comfortable with each of the parameter. Before you actually finalise one programme or university, evaluate at least 2 or 3 shortlisted providers on your preferences. Another critical consideration is the specialisation one is seeking. Institutions have their own specialised areas and focus on different genres. The experts they have on board also vary accordingly. Chose the institution that has specialisation in your area of interest. You would be exposing yourself to better opportunities, avenues and perhaps even a bright academic career.

Winning over your potential supervisor: You need to have a supervisor who is authority in your chosen area of research. The potential research guides look at the scholars as major distraction in their research work. You need to be able to win them over so that they agree to supervise you. The winning over, has to be in intellectual capacity and you need to show that you have the brain power to carry forward the research you intend to do. You need to show that you are an independent scholar and can work with intellect and discipline and the supervisors risk is minimized with a bright candidate.