PHD Process

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RESEARCH STUDENTS' HOME > PHD PROCESS
Program of study
Your main point of contact throughout your PhD studies will be your supervisor. You will work closely
with your supervisor but you are expected to take ownership of your research by developing your own
ideas, critical attitude and independence of thought. Each PhD is different and each student will require
different kinds of support throughout their PhD. It is important that you are able to communicate
regularly with your supervisor.
Within 6 months of starting your PhD you will also be allocated a second supervisor. The role of a
second supervisor varies; sometimes the supervisor and second supervisor act as joint-supervisors.
Usually the second supervisor takes a less formal role in the supervison. Second supervisors are useful
to get another view on your research, to act as a sounding board for new ideas or to read drafts of
papers or report. You should try to meet your second supervisor at least once a semester to keep in
contact. If your first supervisor is absent from the department, or out of contact, for more than 4
weeks your second supervisor is expected to take over the supervision duties.
Although each PhD is different, all PhD students are expected to complete their studies within 3 years.
This means that you need to plan your activities. A sample lifecycle for a PhD would be as follows:
Year 1
Months 0-2 Background reading and thinking about your PhD topic. It is also a good idea to attend the
Research Methodologies course run by the Department.
Months 2-4 Pick a main topic and do more focussed reading. This will form the basis of your literature
review chapter of your thesis, although the literature review will be continually developed throughout
the PhD.
Months 4-10 Mini-project (and more reading). A mini-project is some activity to get you doing research
early on; depending on the nature of your PhD topic it could be building a small prototype, running a
small experiment or doing a detailed literature review.
Month 10 Prepare for first year defense
Month 11/12 First year defense
Year 2
Months 12-22 Main bulk of your research. Developing solutions, establishing primary results, writing
implementations or applications. Also drafting chapters of your thesis based on this work. By the
middle of your second year you should know what your thesis will contain and be able to draw up a
plan for the remaining time that will demonstrate that you can complete everything, including writing
up, by the end of your third year.
Month 22 Prepare for second year defense
Month 23/24 Second year defense
Year 3
Months 24-30. Finishing your research. Remember you cannot do everything in one PhD, you need to
be able to recognise an end-point for the PhD and what will be counted as future work.
Months 30-36. Writing up. If you have been writing as you go then the process of finalising the write
up may take less time but, even if you have been been writing the final write-up will take longer than
you think. You also need to allocate time to allow other people, e.g. your supervisor to read your
thesis. How long your supervisor will take to read your thesis needs to be negiotiated in advance. You
may also be looking for jobs or post-doctoral positions during this time. This will also take longer than
you think. You can go over the 36 months but it is best to avoid this if possible; having to work at the
same time as writing up is not easy.
Common mistakes (how not to get a PhD):
Doing research on an area not doing research in an area. A major part of any PhD is reading
the relevant literature. Alan Bundy discusses the issue of relevant in his researcher's bible. However a
common mistake is to only read papers and to do nothing else effectively only researching on an area.
This is a bad idea for several reasons; (1) it can make you depressed as every idea seems to have
been thought of already, (2) unless you know why you are reading a particular paper then you will
forget what it says, (3) only reading and doing nothing else is an avoidance tactic - it stops you having
Program of study https://personal.cis.strath.ac.uk/ian.ruthven/research_students/study.html
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to think. Doing research in an area means developing a critical attitude, developing new ideas and
research hypotheses of your own, trying out new approaches. It is a very good idea to start doing
research as early as possible: doing research is the best way to get new research ideas and it makes it
easier to decide what you should be reading and why.
Avoidance tactics. There are lots of these and they usually occur when you are struggling with a
difficult part of your research. They include doing lots of clever coding that you don't really need to do,
volunteering for duties that don't benefit your research or suddenly finding a new research interest that
looks much easier. Research is difficult and there will be some parts of your PhD that are more difficult
than others (or it would not be interesting research). The best way to get over these times is talking to
other people. Everyone has experienced these times so you will realise you are not alone and you
might get some new ideas by discussing your problems. Remember to step away from the computer at
least occassionally.
Being unrealistic Each PhD activity takes time; writing research papers, preparing presentations,
running an experiment all will take longer than you might think, especially if you need feedback. Make
sure you regularly prioritise the main activities of your PhD and assess how much time you have given
to each activity.
Leaving it all until the last minute. Don't listen to the people who say you can write up in six
weeks.
There are various research groups in the department. Most of these groups have regular seminar series
which you can attend. It is is a good idea to participate regularly in at least one research group to hear
about how other people conduct and discuss research. Giving research presentations of your own is a
good way to practice conference presentations, it is also good practice for answering questions on your
research before the viva.
Program of study https://personal.cis.strath.ac.uk/ian.ruthven/research_students/study.html
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