PhD2Published

setting writing goals and targets , like all of its predecessors, works on the assumption that giving priority to writing during this one month of November sets up, or re-sets, a regular writing habit. also sug…

Zygmunt Layton-Henry obituary Other lives: Professor of politics and an international scholar on race in British politics

#whisperfest 2020 The Research Whisperer blog has the tagline ‘Just like the Thesis Whisperer, but with more money’. A lot of people ask me if The Research Whisperer is one of my aliases or a group of pe…

getting into writing – again I usually don’t have a lot of trouble writing. I’m lucky I know, but my capacity to just get on with writing is also because I’ve got a lifetime writing habit. However, even the most hardy of…

twelve top tips for co-editing a book series This post is co-written and simultaneously published with Helen Kara to coincide with the launch of the Insider Guides to Success in Academia book series. Helen: It’s interesting to reflect …

of publications past, present and future  Look, just blame this bit of silliness on working at home since March. And a bit of clickbait from the Times Higher ( paywalled, but you can see the headline)  (cough) I know y…

beginning the #phd – start writing at the start Writing, and its alter ego, reading, are the backbone of academic work. The practices that make scholarship what it is.  In the PhD there are multiple places and purposes for writing.  We…

style, tone and grammar – native speaker bias in peer reviews This is a guest post from Dr Randi Stebbins. Randi is Director of the University of Iceland Centre for Writing. Peer review is a central part of academic publication. The process of back and forth …

Imposter syndrome is not real, but I call mine ‘Beryl’. I hate to fail. My failure avoidance leads to a tendency for overwork. I drive myself harder than any manager will, mostly out of fear of failure rather than love for the work. My feelings of insec…

#startingthePhD? managing expectations If you are starting out on a PhD you are probably expecting it to be hard work. That’s not wrong. A doctorate isn’t easy – it’s an extended piece of work over a long period of time. It takes energy…

#litreview. Defining – It’s your ‘take’ Most of us work in occupied research territories. Other researchers have been around at least some of the things that we are concerned with. Their work offers particular interpretations and perhaps…

#litreview – getting to argument, part 2. Writing about literatures doesn’t mean writing a summary of what you have read. You dont want a paragraph by paragraph laundry list of the texts you’ve been reading organised into a rough kind of o…

Starting a part-time doctorate? Three top tips This is a guest post by Dr . Jon works on the margins between academic and professional services. He is currently a freelance researcher and part-time lecturer, working with academics t…

#LitReview – Getting to structure, part one If you are about to start reading for your doctorate, or are already in the reading phase, then you know that you are reading in order to: refine your research question, locate your work in the fie…

Do you need clown shoes? Finding a research job during Covid lockdowns The other day I had an actual 3D, face to face lunch with a colleague, let’s call him Simon. After months of 2D Zoom catch ups, it was lovely to be in an actual cafe on campus, eating steamin…

dealing with rejection This is a guest post from Dan Cleather. Dan is a strength coach, educator, scientist and anarchist. His latest book, “Subvert! A philosophical guide for the 21st century scientist”, was…

'Don't be afraid to ask for help': taking care of your mental health at uni If you’re finding it difficult to connect at university, get together with others online – and set aside time for energising exercise

Zoom socials and specialist tech: starting uni online as a disabled student The move to studying and carrying out social activities online will allow for more inclusivity at university, providing the correct support is in place

revision – writing without protection Academic writers need to let their readers know that they know what they are talking about. But feeling and talking like an expert is not easy – in fact, it’s often the exact opposite of how you th…

running a tweetchat During this difficult pandemic period, Anuja Cabraal and I have been hosting a weekly tweetchat on the hashtag. Now, a “twitter chat” is not a new thing and we are not the onl…

the ‘later on’ PhD It not unusual to think about the PhD as a seamless pathway from undergraduate to Grad School with maybe a Masters in between. But not all PhDers do go straight through. Many work, often for quite …

Rich academic, poor academic? Making an academic living in Covid times I put this post on ice in February this year when the great Covid crisis hit. The post is about how to supplement your sessional teaching income with academic flavoured ‘side hustles’. …

how to start your literature review Thinking of starting a doctorate? Already deep into PhDing and worried about the literature work? Well, when it comes to working with literatures, the old saying that there’s more than one way to s…

this, they, it, those, these – a revision strategy One of my pet peeves is reading sentences which contain an ambiguous pronoun. The pronoun stands alone, isolated. The lonely goatherd on the hilltop. Sentences that start with, or contain, an unat…

“discussion” – it’s about moving forward Discussion. It’s a word that immediately comes to mind when we think about communicating research. First we report the results, and then we discuss them. Discussion might be a separate thesis chapt…

so you want to blog – a blog of my own Visit the post for more.

How NOT to be an academic as***le during Covid. Close to half of PhD students are contemplating leaving their studies in the next six months. We need to

so you want to blog – writing a blog post Visit the post for more.

so you want to blog – should I write a guest post? This mini-series is in response to numerous requests to say more about blogging. Your requests are my blogging agenda.

groundhog day in bookland The lockdown has disrupted our lives in ways we couldn’t have anticipated. Some changes are big. Some little. One of the little things that has affected me is to do with book publication. You …