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The A-Z of the PhD Trajectory: A Practical Guide for a Successful Journey
This textbook is a guide to success during the PhD trajectory. The first part of this book takes the reader through all steps of the PhD trajectory, and the second part contains a unique glossary of terms and explanation relevant for PhD candidates. Written in the accessible language of the PhD Talk blogs, the book contains a great deal of practical advice for carrying out research, and presenting one’s work. It includes tips and advice from current and former PhD candidates, thus representing a broad range of opinions. The book includes exercises that help PhD candidates get their work kick-started. It covers all steps of a doctoral journey in getting started in a program, planning the work, the literature review, the research question, experimental work, writing, presenting, online tools, presenting at one’s first conference, writing the first journal paper, writing and defending the thesis, and the career after the PhD. Since a PhD trajectory is a deeply personal journey, this book suggests methods PhD candidates can try out, and teaches them how to figure out for themselves which proposed methods work for them, and how to find their own way of doing things.
393 pages, Paperback
Published May 26, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 25, 2020
A collection of useful insights for the PhD journey.
I wish I had read this when I first started, but better late than ever!
These are the 5 main takeaways that I got:
Lastly, don't forget it is an honor to be on this journey.
I wish I had read this when I first started, but better late than ever!
These are the 5 main takeaways that I got:
Lastly, don't forget it is an honor to be on this journey.
May 22, 2020
First, I really appreciate that exist books like this because the main premise of carrying a PhD is to achieve independent research; however, the word "independent" leads to many misunderstandings. Carrying on independent research does not mean to only seek help through the advisor occasionally. I think independence is based on the ability to seek knowledge, advise, support when I need because deliberately I know that I need, not to have all the answers. And it will be a big pigheadedness ignore that there is tons of experience and knowledge available to guide you through a successfully (I hope) PhD path. This book is one of these cumulative experiences that will lead you to a successful and enjoyable PhD.
July 6, 2020
I wish I'd read this while I was doing my master's! I'm naturally disorganised and a procrastinator, which lead to "writing sprints" and working every single day for the last two months in order to submit my thesis in time. I'm proud of what I achieved, but I ended up completely burnt out. I hope I'll be able to implement all this advice during my PhD.
This was more of a 4.5 star book for me, mainly because some parts become repetitive, but since we can't give half stars here I'll go for 5. I appreciate all the comments and insights about being a woman in STEM, which is usually missing in other, similar books.
This was more of a 4.5 star book for me, mainly because some parts become repetitive, but since we can't give half stars here I'll go for 5. I appreciate all the comments and insights about being a woman in STEM, which is usually missing in other, similar books.
August 16, 2026
The A-Z of the PhD Trajectory A Practical Guide for a Successful Journey (Eva O. L. Lantsoght) (Z-Library) (1)
gure out your data storage protocol”.
*****
Take photographs of your experiments whenever you can, from different angles and at different distances
*****
If you prefer typing, you can use the clean writing environment of 750words.com, where you can type out your daily rant about research:
*****
Keeping a research journal serves two purposes: to document your journey, and to develop the skill of writing as a ref l ective practice.
*****
ManicTime. This free software tracks automatically which program you are actively using, when you are using your computer, and when it is in sleeping mode.
*****
Explain why a certain paper is of particular interest to you, or outline the strategies you used to fi nd the limits of a theory that you studied. These small writ-ten documents make discussions with your promotor easier,
*****
Don’t wait until you have your own data to start making calculations and developing tools: set up your tools as early as you can, and use published data to validate them.
*****
which can be a Research Plan and/or Education Plan8 or any similar document.
*****
Consider your day with 24 hours. Subtract 8 for sleeping, 3 for eating and getting ready, and you are left with 13 hours. How do you want to spend these?
One example would be:
*****
When you make the outline for your day, make sure you take time to eat properly, and time to prepare your food.
*****
Plan when you are going to do your groceries, and which evenings you will need time to cook. You don’t need to cook every day – you can make large batches, freeze them, and take out something when needed
*****
The approach that we take here, is to fi rst measure the time we spend on tasks. Once we know how much time certain tasks take us, and how much time is spent on tasks of minor importance (e-mail, chatting with colleagues…) we can improve our planning.
*****
You have def i ned your mile-stones and their deadline
*****
Finished in Four
*****
Once you have outlined these fi ve tasks (or even less, if you are working on a very large project such as your dissertation), try to identify when during the semes-ter you will work on each project/task. Will you work on one project at a time,7 or will you allot a few hours a week on each project, to make sure all your projects move forward steadily?
*****
studying
*****
dissertation research • writing papers • reading papers / keeping up with the output in your fi eld • responsibilities in your research group (such
*****
time to reply e-mails • administration time
*****
50?
*****
teaching or taking classes: the number of hours you are actually in class, plus adding in commute time if you have to commute
*****
studying (if you have coursework): two to four hours per hour of class to study and prepare homework
*****
research: for me this is a few chunks of two hours throughout the week, but if you are a PhD candidate in a research-only program, this category can take up at least 20 hours a week
*****
writing documents and papers: at least an hour a day – always be writing
*****
reading papers / keeping up with the output in your fi eld: at least twice a week an hour
*****
faculty responsibilities or responsibilities within your research group: depending on the type of task and frequency of meetings
*****
time to reply e-mails: about an hour a day
*****
I also reserve some time for studying (mostly MOOCs that I follow), and try to reserve one night a week for relaxing (“vrije avond” = my free evening).
*****
Your weekly schedule is a tool to help you get your work done, not something you should always adhere to with religious fervour.
*****
What does my usual workf l ow process look like?”. Then, ask yourself: “How can I do this more eff i ciently and effectively?”. When you already track your time as we dis-cussed before, you have the raw data to analyse your workf l ow processes.
*****
To work more effectively during your PhD, it is important to ask yourself regu-larly: “Does this answer my research question?” (see Chap. 5). If not, fi le it in a “sometime” folder (or a “research ideas” tally in Evernote) and play with that idea later.
*****
before you estimate how much time the whole thing will take you, just take a sheet of paper and write down a quick outline of the steps that need to be done. For these steps, list down the tasks that you need to carry out, and estimate how much time they will take you.
*****
“What do I need?” Do you have the books you need, or do you know where to fi nd them in the library? Do
*****
analyze what work you did the past week/month, which work you did not do, and why you couldn’t do it.
*****
like keeping all the handwritten pages that led to my ultimate choice for a certain model or theory, so that I can later on revisit the logic I followe
*****
recommend that you track your time in detail for a week, and that you use more general apps (ManicTime, RescueTime…) for a larger period of time. Y
*****
We encourage you to start writing as early as possible. An example of something you can start writing after reading your fi rst paper, is a short summary, together with a discussion of the paper, and some questions to discuss with your supervisor.
*****
To know which paper is going to be the cornerstone on which you start building your work, you need to have
*****
i ned your research question clearly. But in order to fl esh out your research ques-tion, you need to have a good grasp of the literature in your fi eld.
*****
I encourage everybody to read a lot. Read recent issues of important journals in your fi eld cover to back. Read classic papers in your fi eld. Read books and technical documen
*****
If you start with a limited understanding of the scholarly output in a certain fi eld, and you start to do research on a topic, you risk building something on a poor foundation.
*****
When carrying out your literature review, you should read both broadly and deeply.
4.2 Browsing the Academic Literature You need to gain an understanding of your research topic in depth, so you should study the references that are important in your fi eld in a detailed way. Additionally, you need to gain an understanding of a number of tangentially related problems, so you need to read across a broad spectrum of disciplines. For these publications, you don’t need to read to the level of analyzing line per line, equation per equation, but you need to read to grasp a general understanding of these fi elds. If you are carrying out interdisciplinary research, there might be a number of topics for which you need to read deeply, and then a whole host of topics for which you need to read broadly.
*****
e concluder-stage is a good point to start writing about your observations and conclusions in your research journal.
*****
Identify at which stage of reading you are. Write a short paragraph, prefer-ably in your research journal, and discuss the following:
(a) How you currently are reading, (b) Which preparation and/or training you already have related to reading scientif i c papers, and (c) How you currently are analyzing the material in your fi eld
*****
write a short summary of the paper you read. Include an introduction situating the paper into the general scope of your fi eld, a summary of the material you read, and then a discussion of the material. Write down what were the main
*****
You need to make sure you have something new to say, or something that warrants publication.
*****
Practice your creativity by practicing the art of formulating questions:
1. Read an article, jot down your summary, but also come up with three ques-tions you think need some further exploration.
2. When you attend a presentation, lecture, or meeting, try to form two ques-tions in your mind.
3. Solve a problem by breaking it down in a set of questions you need to answer.
*****
which experiments have been done in the past, and how were they exe-cuted?
*****
This question ties back to what we discussed in Chap. 5 about the research question. Your experiments should be directly related to your main subquestions.
*****
Make sure the experiments you envision are geared at directly answering one of your main sub-questions, and that you can gain all required information from the measurements you apply.
*****
What behavior can you expect based on the results from the literature? Can you use a few existing theories, and see what the outcome should be if these theories can be extended to
*****
your specimen? Make sure you understand very well what can happen to your spec-imen when you test it, so that you can prepare accordingly.
*****
Once you have formed your ideas about an experimental setup based on the lit-erature, the options of your research laboratory, and from talking to senior col-leagues and technicians, it is time to write a short document describing what you want to test, and how you want to test it. Include the references to the most impor-tant papers and research reports that you read. Provide sketches of the specimens you want to test, and how you plan to test them.
*****
Focus on what and how you want to test, why you want to do these tests (i.e. how the experimental work relates to your research ques-tion), and what your possible outcomes are.1
*****
which materials are necessary to build the test 1
*****
setup and run a fi rst benchmark test, possibly to compare results from the literature with the functioning of your setup? Which materials do you need to build your specimens? Do you need to take special care of the storage of these materials (dry, away from light, at a constant temperature)? If you have to order materials, how much time will it take until these materials arrive?
*****
work: it guarantees that you have thought through all steps, and that you order and receive your material before starting your experiments.
*****
List the material and equip-ment that you need for your experiments.
*****
Bring a report with you in which you have your predictions for the behavior of the specimen during the test. Don’t forget to take your lab book to take notes. Make a template for your lab book to fi ll in your observations at the different stages at which you take measurements.
*****
If your lab book is going to be analog (a notebook, or a binder with sheets of paper), make an outline of how and where in your lab book you will write what.
*****
The front of your lab book should contain the general information of your experi-ments, and a discussion of your test setup.
*****
The middle should contain the nitty- gritty of all your experiments. Fill out this part as you move through your series of experiments. The fi nal part should contain important references and reference draw-ings, so you can access them quickly whenever you need them.
*****
I made a brief overview with the main properties and predictions to take with me in the lab, to have an idea of what to expect, see Fig. 6.2. I also took an empty table to note down the load steps, mea-sured crack widths and their positions, and additional observations,
*****
Once you have decided on your software, set up the general outline of your digi-tal lab book. Have a folder containing your general information and what you used to prepare the experiments, a folder with your entries for each test separately, and a folder with reference material.
*****
Always make sure your devices are charged and will last for the entire duration of your experiment.
*****
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, don’t walk into the magic world of experiments without a map (i.e. your planning) in your pocket. Remember that you need to plan much more [6] than the time you need to carry out the experiment.
*****
you should double the time you think it will take you to carry out the experiments. You also want to have a bit of extra time to play around with something “interesting” that comes up along the way.
*****
Which parameters do you need to test? This question should be supported by your literature review.
• To test these parameters, how many different values of the parameter should you test?
• How many repeat tests do you need to get an idea of the statistical variability of this parameter?
• Do you need to schedule backup tests and specimens in case something goes wrong with a test, so you can have the number of repeat tests you need?
*****
When discussing the parameters that you need to test and the values you need to measure, rank them by priority. Which parameters are absolutely essential to vary, and which values do you absolutely need to measure?
*****
You can see a basic example of a Gantt chart in Fig. 6.4. Why do you need such a chart besides your planning tools? The reason is simple: having an overview, of perhaps no more than an A3 page, helps you to keep the bigger picture in mind.
*****
How are you going to organize your stor-age or your hard drive: will you make a folder per experiment,
*****
Develop overview tables of your experiments, and add the information of each test right after fi nishing.
*****
If program-ming is not an option, develop a checklist of actions of programs to run, fi les to copy, and entries to type out after every experiment. Programmed routines and checklist help you develop standard procedures, so you don’t forget to take a certain action after your experiment.
*****
Start developing your experimental report while you are still working in the lab.
*****
Set up a standard entry in your experimental report, highlighting the most important parameters of the test and discussing the main observations.
*****
Try to group as much information into overview tables in the conclusions and summary sections.
*****
Drafting your report is part of processing your data: it is an action that happens dur-ing testing, not after testing. Prior to your experiments, you can build the structure of your report. A typical test report contains the following parts:
*****
Recap/overview of all experiments, for example in the form of tables that sum-marize the most important fi ndings and parameters of all tests.
*****
You can write the fi rst topics of your report before your experiments. I’d recom-mend you to write as much as possible before hitting the lab (and the exhaustion that comes with it),
*****
If you need to add the analysis of your results, you will need to show all your parameter studies, develop recommenda-tions, and draw conclusions.
*****
All this work should fi t in the framework of the exist-ing body of knowledge that you outlined in your literature review. Link back to your research subquestions here, and use your analysis report to answer these questions.
*****
most important goal of publishing becomes sharing ideas and data, and enticing other researcher to look at your results from their perspective.
*****
What am I doing that does not contribute to my writing, and how can I eliminate it?”
*****
Document your work: Add a “version management” tab to your spreadsheets, in which you write down why and when you made changes. Add comments to your programmed code. It can happen that you write about your calculations years after you made these calculations, and you won’t remember what you did.
Use your research journal to document how you formed your ideas on certain topics. Compile dry and boring laboratory reports in which you describe step-by- step the procedures you followed in the lab. Make sure you have all your infor-mation accessible, so that when you write about your work, you don’t have to go back and scratch you head, wondering what you did.
*****
I strongly recommend all PhD candidates to develop a daily writing practice, which is a good habit to carry on into your future academic career, and which helps you to slowly but surely develop the building bricks for your dissertation.
*****
Before you start analyzing your data, consider again your research question and subquestions: what are the questions that you need to answer with these data?
Knowing what you are looking for in your data helps you to decide how to ana-lyze your data, instead of trying every possible mutation of your results.
*****
Make sure your results are visual, and not in the same format as the spreadsheets in which you may have been carrying out the analysis.
*****
Once you start to analyze your data, start to document how you analyze your data and how you came to your results.
*****
organized written document that is centered around answering the subquestions of your research question that you addressed with your experiments
*****
conclusions and give recommendations.
*****
Your results are very different from the results of others. If you look at results from the literature, and yours are completely different, you either have found a rare exception, or you may be doing something wrong. Revisit all the techniques that you are using. Recalibrate all your sensors. Review all the protocols you are using. Do a few classic benchmark tests to check if your setup is running prop-erly. Talk to senior colleagues in your lab to see what you are missing, or get in touch with researchers from other labs to see why your results are different.
*****
If your gut feelings tells you that something is wrong, try to fi gure out what is going on. If you don’t feel excited about going to the lab anymore, if you are procrastinating more than ever, you may need a break, or you may need to make big changes in your research. Stop feeling miserable, admit for yourself that something is not working, and assess what you can do to mitigate this situation.
*****
An excellent way of doing so is by referring to sizes and weights of everyday objects, just like National Geographic does in their documentaries: sizes are compared to “this many soccer fi elds”, and weights are compared to “this many elephants”. For more about presentations, check out Chap. 8.
*****
processing protocol can include the following: fi nishing the entry in your lab book, taking the measurement data and saving these in the cloud, adding the most impor-tant results to a general overview table of your work, post-processing the raw mea-surement data, and writing an entry about the experiment in your measurement report
--
gure out your data storage protocol”.
*****
Take photographs of your experiments whenever you can, from different angles and at different distances
*****
If you prefer typing, you can use the clean writing environment of 750words.com, where you can type out your daily rant about research:
*****
Keeping a research journal serves two purposes: to document your journey, and to develop the skill of writing as a ref l ective practice.
*****
ManicTime. This free software tracks automatically which program you are actively using, when you are using your computer, and when it is in sleeping mode.
*****
Explain why a certain paper is of particular interest to you, or outline the strategies you used to fi nd the limits of a theory that you studied. These small writ-ten documents make discussions with your promotor easier,
*****
Don’t wait until you have your own data to start making calculations and developing tools: set up your tools as early as you can, and use published data to validate them.
*****
which can be a Research Plan and/or Education Plan8 or any similar document.
*****
Consider your day with 24 hours. Subtract 8 for sleeping, 3 for eating and getting ready, and you are left with 13 hours. How do you want to spend these?
One example would be:
*****
When you make the outline for your day, make sure you take time to eat properly, and time to prepare your food.
*****
Plan when you are going to do your groceries, and which evenings you will need time to cook. You don’t need to cook every day – you can make large batches, freeze them, and take out something when needed
*****
The approach that we take here, is to fi rst measure the time we spend on tasks. Once we know how much time certain tasks take us, and how much time is spent on tasks of minor importance (e-mail, chatting with colleagues…) we can improve our planning.
*****
You have def i ned your mile-stones and their deadline
*****
Finished in Four
*****
Once you have outlined these fi ve tasks (or even less, if you are working on a very large project such as your dissertation), try to identify when during the semes-ter you will work on each project/task. Will you work on one project at a time,7 or will you allot a few hours a week on each project, to make sure all your projects move forward steadily?
*****
studying
*****
dissertation research • writing papers • reading papers / keeping up with the output in your fi eld • responsibilities in your research group (such
*****
time to reply e-mails • administration time
*****
50?
*****
teaching or taking classes: the number of hours you are actually in class, plus adding in commute time if you have to commute
*****
studying (if you have coursework): two to four hours per hour of class to study and prepare homework
*****
research: for me this is a few chunks of two hours throughout the week, but if you are a PhD candidate in a research-only program, this category can take up at least 20 hours a week
*****
writing documents and papers: at least an hour a day – always be writing
*****
reading papers / keeping up with the output in your fi eld: at least twice a week an hour
*****
faculty responsibilities or responsibilities within your research group: depending on the type of task and frequency of meetings
*****
time to reply e-mails: about an hour a day
*****
I also reserve some time for studying (mostly MOOCs that I follow), and try to reserve one night a week for relaxing (“vrije avond” = my free evening).
*****
Your weekly schedule is a tool to help you get your work done, not something you should always adhere to with religious fervour.
*****
What does my usual workf l ow process look like?”. Then, ask yourself: “How can I do this more eff i ciently and effectively?”. When you already track your time as we dis-cussed before, you have the raw data to analyse your workf l ow processes.
*****
To work more effectively during your PhD, it is important to ask yourself regu-larly: “Does this answer my research question?” (see Chap. 5). If not, fi le it in a “sometime” folder (or a “research ideas” tally in Evernote) and play with that idea later.
*****
before you estimate how much time the whole thing will take you, just take a sheet of paper and write down a quick outline of the steps that need to be done. For these steps, list down the tasks that you need to carry out, and estimate how much time they will take you.
*****
“What do I need?” Do you have the books you need, or do you know where to fi nd them in the library? Do
*****
analyze what work you did the past week/month, which work you did not do, and why you couldn’t do it.
*****
like keeping all the handwritten pages that led to my ultimate choice for a certain model or theory, so that I can later on revisit the logic I followe
*****
recommend that you track your time in detail for a week, and that you use more general apps (ManicTime, RescueTime…) for a larger period of time. Y
*****
We encourage you to start writing as early as possible. An example of something you can start writing after reading your fi rst paper, is a short summary, together with a discussion of the paper, and some questions to discuss with your supervisor.
*****
To know which paper is going to be the cornerstone on which you start building your work, you need to have
*****
i ned your research question clearly. But in order to fl esh out your research ques-tion, you need to have a good grasp of the literature in your fi eld.
*****
I encourage everybody to read a lot. Read recent issues of important journals in your fi eld cover to back. Read classic papers in your fi eld. Read books and technical documen
*****
If you start with a limited understanding of the scholarly output in a certain fi eld, and you start to do research on a topic, you risk building something on a poor foundation.
*****
When carrying out your literature review, you should read both broadly and deeply.
4.2 Browsing the Academic Literature You need to gain an understanding of your research topic in depth, so you should study the references that are important in your fi eld in a detailed way. Additionally, you need to gain an understanding of a number of tangentially related problems, so you need to read across a broad spectrum of disciplines. For these publications, you don’t need to read to the level of analyzing line per line, equation per equation, but you need to read to grasp a general understanding of these fi elds. If you are carrying out interdisciplinary research, there might be a number of topics for which you need to read deeply, and then a whole host of topics for which you need to read broadly.
*****
e concluder-stage is a good point to start writing about your observations and conclusions in your research journal.
*****
Identify at which stage of reading you are. Write a short paragraph, prefer-ably in your research journal, and discuss the following:
(a) How you currently are reading, (b) Which preparation and/or training you already have related to reading scientif i c papers, and (c) How you currently are analyzing the material in your fi eld
*****
write a short summary of the paper you read. Include an introduction situating the paper into the general scope of your fi eld, a summary of the material you read, and then a discussion of the material. Write down what were the main
*****
You need to make sure you have something new to say, or something that warrants publication.
*****
Practice your creativity by practicing the art of formulating questions:
1. Read an article, jot down your summary, but also come up with three ques-tions you think need some further exploration.
2. When you attend a presentation, lecture, or meeting, try to form two ques-tions in your mind.
3. Solve a problem by breaking it down in a set of questions you need to answer.
*****
which experiments have been done in the past, and how were they exe-cuted?
*****
This question ties back to what we discussed in Chap. 5 about the research question. Your experiments should be directly related to your main subquestions.
*****
Make sure the experiments you envision are geared at directly answering one of your main sub-questions, and that you can gain all required information from the measurements you apply.
*****
What behavior can you expect based on the results from the literature? Can you use a few existing theories, and see what the outcome should be if these theories can be extended to
*****
your specimen? Make sure you understand very well what can happen to your spec-imen when you test it, so that you can prepare accordingly.
*****
Once you have formed your ideas about an experimental setup based on the lit-erature, the options of your research laboratory, and from talking to senior col-leagues and technicians, it is time to write a short document describing what you want to test, and how you want to test it. Include the references to the most impor-tant papers and research reports that you read. Provide sketches of the specimens you want to test, and how you plan to test them.
*****
Focus on what and how you want to test, why you want to do these tests (i.e. how the experimental work relates to your research ques-tion), and what your possible outcomes are.1
*****
which materials are necessary to build the test 1
*****
setup and run a fi rst benchmark test, possibly to compare results from the literature with the functioning of your setup? Which materials do you need to build your specimens? Do you need to take special care of the storage of these materials (dry, away from light, at a constant temperature)? If you have to order materials, how much time will it take until these materials arrive?
*****
work: it guarantees that you have thought through all steps, and that you order and receive your material before starting your experiments.
*****
List the material and equip-ment that you need for your experiments.
*****
Bring a report with you in which you have your predictions for the behavior of the specimen during the test. Don’t forget to take your lab book to take notes. Make a template for your lab book to fi ll in your observations at the different stages at which you take measurements.
*****
If your lab book is going to be analog (a notebook, or a binder with sheets of paper), make an outline of how and where in your lab book you will write what.
*****
The front of your lab book should contain the general information of your experi-ments, and a discussion of your test setup.
*****
The middle should contain the nitty- gritty of all your experiments. Fill out this part as you move through your series of experiments. The fi nal part should contain important references and reference draw-ings, so you can access them quickly whenever you need them.
*****
I made a brief overview with the main properties and predictions to take with me in the lab, to have an idea of what to expect, see Fig. 6.2. I also took an empty table to note down the load steps, mea-sured crack widths and their positions, and additional observations,
*****
Once you have decided on your software, set up the general outline of your digi-tal lab book. Have a folder containing your general information and what you used to prepare the experiments, a folder with your entries for each test separately, and a folder with reference material.
*****
Always make sure your devices are charged and will last for the entire duration of your experiment.
*****
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, don’t walk into the magic world of experiments without a map (i.e. your planning) in your pocket. Remember that you need to plan much more [6] than the time you need to carry out the experiment.
*****
you should double the time you think it will take you to carry out the experiments. You also want to have a bit of extra time to play around with something “interesting” that comes up along the way.
*****
Which parameters do you need to test? This question should be supported by your literature review.
• To test these parameters, how many different values of the parameter should you test?
• How many repeat tests do you need to get an idea of the statistical variability of this parameter?
• Do you need to schedule backup tests and specimens in case something goes wrong with a test, so you can have the number of repeat tests you need?
*****
When discussing the parameters that you need to test and the values you need to measure, rank them by priority. Which parameters are absolutely essential to vary, and which values do you absolutely need to measure?
*****
You can see a basic example of a Gantt chart in Fig. 6.4. Why do you need such a chart besides your planning tools? The reason is simple: having an overview, of perhaps no more than an A3 page, helps you to keep the bigger picture in mind.
*****
How are you going to organize your stor-age or your hard drive: will you make a folder per experiment,
*****
Develop overview tables of your experiments, and add the information of each test right after fi nishing.
*****
If program-ming is not an option, develop a checklist of actions of programs to run, fi les to copy, and entries to type out after every experiment. Programmed routines and checklist help you develop standard procedures, so you don’t forget to take a certain action after your experiment.
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Start developing your experimental report while you are still working in the lab.
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Set up a standard entry in your experimental report, highlighting the most important parameters of the test and discussing the main observations.
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Try to group as much information into overview tables in the conclusions and summary sections.
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Drafting your report is part of processing your data: it is an action that happens dur-ing testing, not after testing. Prior to your experiments, you can build the structure of your report. A typical test report contains the following parts:
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Recap/overview of all experiments, for example in the form of tables that sum-marize the most important fi ndings and parameters of all tests.
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You can write the fi rst topics of your report before your experiments. I’d recom-mend you to write as much as possible before hitting the lab (and the exhaustion that comes with it),
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If you need to add the analysis of your results, you will need to show all your parameter studies, develop recommenda-tions, and draw conclusions.
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All this work should fi t in the framework of the exist-ing body of knowledge that you outlined in your literature review. Link back to your research subquestions here, and use your analysis report to answer these questions.
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most important goal of publishing becomes sharing ideas and data, and enticing other researcher to look at your results from their perspective.
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What am I doing that does not contribute to my writing, and how can I eliminate it?”
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Document your work: Add a “version management” tab to your spreadsheets, in which you write down why and when you made changes. Add comments to your programmed code. It can happen that you write about your calculations years after you made these calculations, and you won’t remember what you did.
Use your research journal to document how you formed your ideas on certain topics. Compile dry and boring laboratory reports in which you describe step-by- step the procedures you followed in the lab. Make sure you have all your infor-mation accessible, so that when you write about your work, you don’t have to go back and scratch you head, wondering what you did.
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I strongly recommend all PhD candidates to develop a daily writing practice, which is a good habit to carry on into your future academic career, and which helps you to slowly but surely develop the building bricks for your dissertation.
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Before you start analyzing your data, consider again your research question and subquestions: what are the questions that you need to answer with these data?
Knowing what you are looking for in your data helps you to decide how to ana-lyze your data, instead of trying every possible mutation of your results.
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Make sure your results are visual, and not in the same format as the spreadsheets in which you may have been carrying out the analysis.
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Once you start to analyze your data, start to document how you analyze your data and how you came to your results.
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organized written document that is centered around answering the subquestions of your research question that you addressed with your experiments
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conclusions and give recommendations.
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Your results are very different from the results of others. If you look at results from the literature, and yours are completely different, you either have found a rare exception, or you may be doing something wrong. Revisit all the techniques that you are using. Recalibrate all your sensors. Review all the protocols you are using. Do a few classic benchmark tests to check if your setup is running prop-erly. Talk to senior colleagues in your lab to see what you are missing, or get in touch with researchers from other labs to see why your results are different.
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If your gut feelings tells you that something is wrong, try to fi gure out what is going on. If you don’t feel excited about going to the lab anymore, if you are procrastinating more than ever, you may need a break, or you may need to make big changes in your research. Stop feeling miserable, admit for yourself that something is not working, and assess what you can do to mitigate this situation.
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An excellent way of doing so is by referring to sizes and weights of everyday objects, just like National Geographic does in their documentaries: sizes are compared to “this many soccer fi elds”, and weights are compared to “this many elephants”. For more about presentations, check out Chap. 8.
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processing protocol can include the following: fi nishing the entry in your lab book, taking the measurement data and saving these in the cloud, adding the most impor-tant results to a general overview table of your work, post-processing the raw mea-surement data, and writing an entry about the experiment in your measurement report
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January 27, 2021
The A-Z of the PhD Trajectory- Eva OL Lantsoght
Review: The book is recommended to those starting PhD as the book talks about several aspects like settling down in new place, managing your time, planning out research experiments, maintaining good health to even socialising tips. Eva has explained in form of her experiences mostly.
The book is gem for students struggling with their PhD routine and other responsibilities.
The Literature review section is well-put and can be a book in itself. After this comes the research question which many students struggle to formulate and convince the advisors that it is worth doing research. The flowchart is explained properly that how research questions converts to thesis chapters.
After reading the book, I felt some parts can be condensed as PhD students don’t have much time to read a 400 page book. They would prefer compact less than 200 page book. But I thank Author for her sincere efforts and many times when we start Ph.D we are not knowing the academic world and this book is peek into it.
All The Best: Dr Mayank Mishra
Author of Diary of a Phd Student: To be or not to be
Review: The book is recommended to those starting PhD as the book talks about several aspects like settling down in new place, managing your time, planning out research experiments, maintaining good health to even socialising tips. Eva has explained in form of her experiences mostly.
The book is gem for students struggling with their PhD routine and other responsibilities.
The Literature review section is well-put and can be a book in itself. After this comes the research question which many students struggle to formulate and convince the advisors that it is worth doing research. The flowchart is explained properly that how research questions converts to thesis chapters.
After reading the book, I felt some parts can be condensed as PhD students don’t have much time to read a 400 page book. They would prefer compact less than 200 page book. But I thank Author for her sincere efforts and many times when we start Ph.D we are not knowing the academic world and this book is peek into it.
All The Best: Dr Mayank Mishra
Author of Diary of a Phd Student: To be or not to be
July 16, 2020
Zilch knowledge about PhD till grasping meticulously detail what to expect in accomplishing a doctoral title. The author is the same age as me and already a professor! A female too. Really inspired. From feeling panic due to all PhD requirements till suddenly i felt like as if I already finish my PhD when i read the chapter about proposal defense and what questions may be asked during viva. I can see myself graduating doctorate. Ameen ameen YRA. Thanks Dr Eva. Nicely put, and i will go through this book again in the near future on certain chapters. Tq for this amazing book. My supervisor recommended. I highly recommend this book to everyone who wants to pursue in PhD
March 15, 2023
The book offers very clear guidance and practical tips as well as tools you can use for a PhD. It has also helped me to manage issues with my MD. It ranges from how to deal with a new country, how to plan your semester, month and week accordingly, supervisor tips, lit review, conferences, keeping mental health, future job opportunities. It is just so well thought for academics. To be fair, I regard this book as one of my personal mentors.
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