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The ultimate beginner guide to a PhD / graduate school

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This is a first draft and will be updated regularly.

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How to find a PhD or graduate program

Last week I saw Eva back. When we first met she was a young, brilliant chemistry student. Eva

told me that she had a hard time deciding if she wanted an academic career or not. She always

hoped that a supervisor would invite her for a PhD program. Since that did not happen, she had

to look for a position herself. This turned out to be more challenging than she thought. By using

the following tools she succeeded:

- Twitter: check the #phd or #phdposition. Use the search function

- Ask around. These positions are often spreaded by e-mail and some fellow students might know

positions. Even people that you do not know very well can help you out (the strenght of weak ties!)

- LinkedIn: See what professors work in the research group that interests you. Contact them.

- Use the website of your University.

- Search specialized sites like: http://phd.com/ and http://www.phdportal.eu/

- Attend academic conferences and network with the attendees

- Join professional mailinglists (for example the ECREA mailinglist)

- Blog about your expertise

Eva is now a successful researcher. We hope these tools can help you out.

How to find a good supervisor

Finding a good supervisor is essential for your career. How can you judge which one is good? We

asked some PhD students.

Jeroen said:

- I asked around to know if other PhD students were happy with his performance.

Based on that I decided.

Javier mentioned:

If you have different options, you should create an Excel file and rank them based on different

criteria (for example response time, publications, research topics, years of experience etc.).

Eva reported that:

- The first one I stoke to was creeping me out. I did not like his presence. My

current supervisors makes me feel comfortable.

Elon closed the discussion by saying:

- Since you will work closely together with your supervisor, you should think of it as

being married to this person for at least 4 years. If you don’t like your supervisor,

you’re are in trouble. Talk to this person before you start your PhD.

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Evolution of a PhD student

The evolution of a PhD student

First and second year: You have no idea what is going on. What is an impact factor again?

Third year: You know the tricks and get more confident.

Fourth year: Stress! You realize you will not be able to finish your PhD in 4 years. Your supervisor needs to find some additional funds.

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Fifth year: To make up for the 4 years of procrastination, you have to work insane hours to finish your PhD.

Well, at least this is my story. It has a happy ending but I hope your PhD will be finished in 4 years (and will be less stressful).

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Academic words

Here are some words that you will often hear when you start a PhD/grad student program

- Impact factor: a measure reflecting the average number of citations to recent articles published

in the journal. This indicates how important a journal is. This is summarized in broad categories

(A1 is best, A2 is lower etc.).

- Call for Papers (or CfP): a call to submit papers about a specific topic. This can be for a special

issue (journal) or a conference. The deadlines and requirements are outlined.

- Tenure track: Tenure is a senior academic's contractual right not to have his or her position

terminated without just cause.

- Postdoc: Someone that gets funds after his PhD to study his research topic in further detail.

- Research grants: funds to complete research. Often project based. There are different

institutions that provide grants but the conditions they offer are different.

How to be productive during your PhD

For a lot of PhD students it is a challenge to keep their productivity up.

Here are some quick tips

- Use the pomodoro technique: work for 25 minutes on a task and then stop.

- Set strict deadlines

- Talk with others about your goals

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- Set aside some fun work when your attention level is dropping. Determine what gives you

energy and do that more often.

- Take long walks and plan breaks

- Use tools like http://macfreedom.com/, and https://www.rescuetime.com/ to avoid distractions.

- Collaborate with other researchers.

- Take a day off. When things don’t work at all, just stop and go outside.

- Find the best place to work: is it at home or at the office?

- Experiment with different approaches (for example reading on pc, tablet or e-reader).

- Evaluate if you are focused. If not, do something else.

- Outsource the boring tasks. Data entry? Go to odesk.com or similar sites and outsource that

work.

- Automate as much as possible. Use https://ifttt.com and google alerts to do this. Read the four

hour workweek or blogs about getting things done.

- Know the Pareto law: 20% of your efforts will yield 80% of the results.

Step by step guide: how to start writing papers

There are several steps involved. Preparation is essential.

1) Start with your research questions and your results.

2) Draft the structure of your paper (check the CfP). Write down in general terms what you want

to mention in each section. Use (sub)titles.

3) Write the abstract and introduction at the end.

4) Add your references as you write.

5) Get feedback as soon as possible

6) Add images to make your point clear

7) Write and rewrite.

Everyone has his/hers own approach so don’t take these tips for granted.

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10 tips to get your paper accepted

Since my papers got rejected (a lot!), I can give you some tips:

- Check the Call for Papers or journal topic. Ask your colleagues in which journals they often

publish.

- Find the impact factor. It is easier to get accepted in journals that have a lower impact

factor. A1 journals are the highest ranked, followed by A2 etc.

- Follow the guide for authors (structure, formatting, anonymous submission etc.)

- Read other articles in the journal. Contact an author that got accepted if necessary.

- Devote a lot of attention to the abstract. This is the first thing the reviewers read.

- Pay attention to the structure and (sub)titles. This makes it easier to read your paper.

- Proofread your article.

- Go to a conference to get feedback on your work.

- Explain the limitations of your research

- Ask for a third opinion. If the reviewers do not agree, it is sometimes possible to get a third

reviewer involved.

If things do go wrong, you can always (re)submit to another journal…

How to attend a conference

Going to a conference can be interesting since you can get quite some feedback on your

(preliminary) research. How to get started?

1) Find Call for papers:

check http://www.wikicfp.com/cfp/ and http://www.conferencealerts.com/ You can either choose

to get alerts or check them from time to time. Try to find a conference with a track dedicated to

your topic. Check also if the conference already has a long tradition and if it is a big conference or

not. There is a big difference between small conferences (very focused) and big ones (very

diverse topics). Networking is easier if you go to small conferences but you can meet more

people on larger ones.

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More tips here: (pdf)

2) Deadline! Once you found your Call for Papers, it is time to submit your paper or abstract. The

rejection rate for conferences is often lower than for journals.

3) Got accepted? Congrats! It is time to prepare your presentation. Download the program and

select the most interesting presentations. Check who will be present and do a back-ground check.

Talk to the chair and ask for feedback.

4) Try to connect with interesting people and solicit honest feedback. The social events are great

for networking so be sure to be there and try to be open.

5) Follow up! If you met an interesting fellow researcher, connect on academia.edu, LinkedIn or

send him/her a mail.

Good luck, you will do a great job!

How to increase your online presence

There are several great tools to increase your online presence.

- Academic social networks:

Academia.edu

Researchgate.net

Facebook groups (like PhD Discussion forum)

- Twitter: great to connect with others (check #phdchat).

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https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1piQXkxH5DDSbQMzetIp0DW51YxcH4pWCMmhJHfG9

H9E/edit#slide=id.p

- Blogging: great to improve your writing skills

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1O-sgfrpAMfuGb9jk-

IUt6qkcpPZQht_B48Zuzzh2rpA/edit#slide=id.p

- MS Academic:

http://academic.research.microsoft.com/

- Website of your University. Very often these provide an overview of your publications.

- Google Hangouts: several researchers discuss new research findings online during hangouts.

Start your own.

- Google Scholar: Go to your profile on the website. Verify your e-mail address. This will make

your name searchable. Other researchers can find you in that way.

- Several doctoral schools provide training.

What tools do you use?

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Being the girlfriend of a PhD student (guest post)

Do not forget the other people in your life. Here is the story of Mary.

I often get the question ‘How does it feels to live together with a PhD student?’

My reply is:

Well, our relation has its ups and downs. I do not need a self help group but it can be hard from

time to time.

Indeed, it can be challenging to live together with someone that is very focused on his job. If he

doesn’t have time for me because he needs to meet a deadline, when he is depressed because

his paper is not working out, when he keeps on rambling about his topic etc.

I knew my boyfriend before he started the graduate program and it is clear that the hard work is

affecting him. We had to make clear agreements on what is OK and what not (the bedroom is not

a work place, unplugging every other weekend). Indeed, talking about what is going on helps a lot.

And over time I have learned some lessons. He doesn’t like it when I ask questions after a long

day of work, there are calmer periods as well and so on.

On the other hand there are also a lot of advantages. I can talk with a very intelligent person and

we can go abroad from time to time (when he has to attend a conference, he can take some days

off).

In sum it is important to talk a lot about what is going on. Like every job it has its advantages and

disadvantages. I still love him like the first day we met.

Mary

How to valorize your work

Some academics have the ambition to start their own company based on their research. There

are often a lot of hurdles along the way so it is important to get advice from people that can help

you out. Most universities have departments that help you with the legal work. Universities often

want a stake in your company since they paid for the research. An alternative is that they want to

own the patent. If a company paid for the research, it might be harder to acquire the IP.

The main take away is that you should discuss this ambition as soon as possible. In that way you

avoid being dissapointed at the end of your PhD. Furthermore it is possible to follow advanced

trainings during your PhD. Contacting other spin-offs is also very interesting.

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Prediatory publising and how to avoid it.

A lot of scientists receive proposals to publish their paper in a journal. Some of these are frauds

since they request money before they publish your paper, are not peer reviewed, etc.

How to spot them?

1) a @yahoo, @hotmail or @gmail addresses are used. Alarm bells going off!

2) Check the journal title and company

For example:

The journals of US-China Education Review A & US-China Education Review B, two award-

winning peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary periodicals published by David Publishing

Company, Monte, CA 91731, USA, welcome the submission of original manuscripts reporting

innovations or investigations in the education area.

The journal is unknown and a quick Google Maps search reveals a small office building without

nametags.

3) The journal is unrelated to your topics

Manuscripts reporting innovations or collaborations leading to enhancements in education are of

particular interest to US-China Education Review A & US-China Education Review B.

4) The Call for Papers is very general:

Anyone who is interested in our journals can send us CV. We are looking forward to your

contribution!

5) The author of the mail is an unknown person.

Sunny, H.

Editoral Assistant

6) The phone number also appears in other suspicious e-mails. There are several blogs (for

example http://recursed.blogspot.be/2013/07/more-bizarre-journal-spam.html) that report these

mails.

7) Their website is ‘under construction’. No serious publisher would ever do this.

So based on these tips you will be able to spot fake publishers. Always check to be sure that they

are legitimate before you submit your work.

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How to Cope with Politics at your Faculty

New graduate students often underestimate the importance of office politics. Resources and

funds are scarce so professors and faculty members have to compete for them. Here are some

tips to avoid akward situations

- Know the relations between the professors. Do they have a history? How are they connected?

- Try to find the motives behind the behavior. Why do people act in a certain way?

- Know the sensitive issues and try to avoid them. Talk with fellow graduate students about these

topics.

- The first time you go to a faculty meeting, try to listen and do not interrupt the others.

- Funding. Some researchers have more resources available than others due to the type of

funding. This can lead to frustrations.

- Are other researchers working on a similar topic? Know that this could lead to problems since

some researchers are very protective.

- Another sensitive topic is the order of the authors. Who is going to be first author, who second

etc

Have fun but be aware of these aspects of academia. How do you avoid these aspects of

academia?

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Other resources:

- Decisions before you start your PhD:

http://irevolution.net/2012/05/09/advice-to-future-

phds/?utm_content=buffer2b05b&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buff

er

- How to start a literature review:

http://www.lc.unsw.edu.au/onlib/litrev.html?utm_source=buffer&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_cont

ent=buffer53f99&utm_medium=facebook

http://patthomson.wordpress.com/2012/11/11/literature-review-step-one-scoping-acwrimo-work-

in-progress/

- General tips:

http://theprofessorisin.com/category/graduate-student-concerns/

http://onlinephd.org/

- Tips on how your thesis is evaluated:

http://www.studentservices.uwa.edu.au/__data/page/65297/Its_a_PhD_not_a_Nobel_Prize.pdf

- Tips on housing:

http://gizmodo.com/5922421/how-to-find-an-awesome-apartment-on-craigslist

http://www.vergemagazine.com/articles/study-abroad/find-study-abroad-housing.html

- Tips on healthy food with limited time:

http://behealthyincollege.blogspot.be/

- Tips on local habits (if you’re studying abroad): check the website of your ministry of foreign

affairs or contact expats.

- Cool infograph about PhD students: http://infogr.am/PhD-students-the-numbers-are-out

- PhD depression: http://bohrresearch.tumblr.com/post/56336988152/phd-depression-chasing-

the-dragon-guest-post

Do you know good resources? Mail them to awesome@bohr.ac or tweet @Bohr_research

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