PhDs
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The first few drafts of my PhD I was told could have been published as text books...went into step by step stages on how to replicate the work I did....killed me when I was told I needed to cut it down by two thirds at least.
Agree that self publishing is easy, but research that is game changing is best published as papers to be peer reviewed and taken seriously / respected.
Can you tell us what it is that interests you enough to write a book? It’s a big commitment. Many people find themselves rewriting anything up to ten times.
I put a book together to organise my own thinking. I had it printed but not published so there was no one else to satisfy but I still wrote ten versions in the end.
My wife e-published a novel and she wrote it over and over again. The publisher was American which didn’t help
A PhD won’t contribute much to your credibility. Do you intend to write for the academic world or for a more general readership?
I put a book together to organise my own thinking. I had it printed but not published so there was no one else to satisfy but I still wrote ten versions in the end.
My wife e-published a novel and she wrote it over and over again. The publisher was American which didn’t help
A PhD won’t contribute much to your credibility. Do you intend to write for the academic world or for a more general readership?
I've been told that if the research is funded by someone else such as a large medical corporation (for example) then the PhD thesis and its associated research will then owned by whoever sponsored it.
Apparently sometimes interesting or important discoveries can made during a PhD project but if the corporation that owns the study wants this information to be suppressed then the PhD thesis and its associated research can be withheld from the public and there is nothing the person who wrote the thesis can do about it because they don't own it themself.
I only know one person with a PhD, very proud of it and insists on everybody calling her Dr. now, including socially. However, she doesn't use it in her job on the railways. It is a high techie job, but completely unrelated to her PhD. ( Chemistry or something).
I have a PhD. Analytical chemistry, and I work on the railways too! I don't think I know Falstaff (other than on here) and I don't use the title socially. I do use the title in work..... started doing so many years ago due to sexism.... I have an non British name so I had great sport with those who incorrectly assumed that Dr. Xxx was male..... watching their faces when it was "yeah that's me" was priceless, because their attitude was that women were fit only to be tea ladies not to participate in technical discussion. The dissonance between their preconceived impression from the name vs the reality was such fun. Anyhow, that was rather a few years ago, that's the identity under which I became known and the title atuck with me as I am still in the same sector. Except that these days I am old enough to be the mam of the most challenging characters, that carries far more influence.
I did a PhD because it seemed like a good idea at the time. I had an offer of a project with full funding plus industrial sponsorship and it sounded interesting, was also in a specialist research unit that was full of very practical people. I did a year with my industrial sponsor, was taken back to relearn properly my lab skills (!) and did some interesting stuff. We helped teach undergrads, I learned to write properly and I realised that I did not want to spend the rest of my life working in a lab. So after I graduated, I took a low level Highways dept job, worked my way up and ended up in railway safety by way of defence. The transferable skills such as formulating the right questions, evaluating evidence, being able to read stuff, analyse and write- all been useful in the safety systems development and auditing that i do for a living. But I don't use much if any of the core subject of the research project, and of necessity done several sector qualifications (in my own time) since then.
However..... I graduated with my PhD nearly 30 years ago, took 4 years to do full time. They were very different times, our "research seminars" were in the local pub and it was a less constrained time. I wouldn't do it now for the same reason I gave up an OU course I was doing recently. We had to do a compulsory module on career development and it was made plain that if I said I was doing the course for the interest in the subject not for a career, I would fail. So I told them where to stick it.
Irony is, when I was in school we did a placement at the local ag college. What I really wanted to do was go to the ag college to do forestry and horticulture.... but parental pressure ensued and I ended up in south Wales to study a degree in Analytical chemistry....... then carried on to the PhD.
In my work I am about as antiheirarchical as you can get. Doing a PhD was an interesting experience but no more than other stuff in life, and was much less influential on where I am now career wise than one of the jobs I did for a while.....
GC
I did a PhD because it seemed like a good idea at the time. I had an offer of a project with full funding plus industrial sponsorship and it sounded interesting, was also in a specialist research unit that was full of very practical people. I did a year with my industrial sponsor, was taken back to relearn properly my lab skills (!) and did some interesting stuff. We helped teach undergrads, I learned to write properly and I realised that I did not want to spend the rest of my life working in a lab. So after I graduated, I took a low level Highways dept job, worked my way up and ended up in railway safety by way of defence. The transferable skills such as formulating the right questions, evaluating evidence, being able to read stuff, analyse and write- all been useful in the safety systems development and auditing that i do for a living. But I don't use much if any of the core subject of the research project, and of necessity done several sector qualifications (in my own time) since then.
However..... I graduated with my PhD nearly 30 years ago, took 4 years to do full time. They were very different times, our "research seminars" were in the local pub and it was a less constrained time. I wouldn't do it now for the same reason I gave up an OU course I was doing recently. We had to do a compulsory module on career development and it was made plain that if I said I was doing the course for the interest in the subject not for a career, I would fail. So I told them where to stick it.
Irony is, when I was in school we did a placement at the local ag college. What I really wanted to do was go to the ag college to do forestry and horticulture.... but parental pressure ensued and I ended up in south Wales to study a degree in Analytical chemistry....... then carried on to the PhD.
In my work I am about as antiheirarchical as you can get. Doing a PhD was an interesting experience but no more than other stuff in life, and was much less influential on where I am now career wise than one of the jobs I did for a while.....
GC
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Thank you.
My concern is over access to supervisors; my tutor is very good but also very busy to the point his courses suffer; hes too busy in a Zoom meeting with a Head of Heritage of some country or someone equally important to work with us. The Unis high enough status to attract a Big Name, but he does his own thing.
My concern is over access to supervisors; my tutor is very good but also very busy to the point his courses suffer; hes too busy in a Zoom meeting with a Head of Heritage of some country or someone equally important to work with us. The Unis high enough status to attract a Big Name, but he does his own thing.
Might be just what you want. Thoroughly in the game, able to effect introductions to people in the field. Will stay out of your hair. A very self-directed thing, a PhD is.
Thats a valid way of seeing it. I wish I was confident enough to agree.
But I suspect theres plenty of papers/publications PhDs for Dummies
But I suspect theres plenty of papers/publications PhDs for Dummies
Probably an AI that would write it for you too, but it might get a bit inventive with the facts!
