Is research knowledge scarce?

Take a university at random anywhere in the world and it is likely there will be a substantial portion of its staff conducting research. In fact, a substantial portion of that university’s budget will be spent on research, particularly when you take into account staff time. This annually would have to amount to tens of millions of dollars for the average university spent on research.

In the same university you would find people early in their research careers struggling to get papers published in journals, obtain research funding, and develop research profiles. As editor of a journal I receive many papers that are lacking in the fundamental attributes of a research paper. Clearly the academics submitting the paper do not lack effort or motivation but they lack the basic knowledge of what constitutes good research. And this is my point, universities are wasting tens of millions of dollars on research because they don’t have effective systems for training staff.

It gets worse. It is common to find people without research methodology books, conference budgets and so on. In other words, many don’t have the basic resources needed to conduct research. Yet, these universities continue to spend tens of millions of dollars on research. It seems foolish!

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Defining “Research Culture”

Academics often refer to the notion of “research culture”. It is one of the most often talked about research issues but is rarely defined. What do we mean when we talk about research culture?

Culture is defined most often by the unwritten norms and values of a group or nation. The institutional structures provide a framework for those norms and values. In relation to research culture, the norms and values should support the conduct of research. So people should expect to conduct research, to hold it in high esteem, to practice it on a regular basis and to talk about it on a daily basis. It has to be seen as core business within a research intensive university and it requires top management support.

Is this enough to become a top research institution? Probably not! It also needs an aspirational side to it, targets and goals, a striving for quality, a striving for improvement, a striving for breakthroughs… the list goes on.

It is not easy to transform a university but research is a powerful way of doing it. Given the challenges, it is little wonder that although most universities talk about developing their research culture, they make little progress.

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Failure to make progress and why people drop out?

Typically, supervisors do not spend much time discussing with their students the reasons why students fail to make progress on their doctorates or give up entirely – maybe they think it is too personal.

I think that it is useful to discuss the reasons why people let their project stagnate or even die. I don’t think the topic should be continually assessed but it should be discussed at some stage.

Why? Because the reasons why students fail to make progress need to be out in the open and can help in overcoming some of the difficulties that may arise. The reasons are not secrets and can be traced to a set of common factors.

Progress in doctoral studies is usually hampered by the following:

1) Failure to identify a topic for a doctorate within a reasonable time frame.

Possible causes are: lack of meetings with the supervisor, inability to commit to a suitable topic.

2) Starting a research project thinking that everything should be absolutely clear from day one! This is never the case! When a student discovers that after three months of research a clear picture of what he/she is doing does not emerge then disillusionment with the process may set in.

Tip: Expect to feel a sense of confusion – this is the nature of research. It is often confusing in the early stages and it takes time for clarity and ideas to emerge; it will only be in the later stages that your ideas will really crystallise.

3) The supervisor retires or moves to another university and they find it difficult to find a new supervisor.

Tip: This can be a difficult situation. Ask questions such as: Can your first supervisor still remain involved in the supervision? Can a team of academics supervise you and give you advice? You may just have to accept what has happened and make the best of the new situation. Realise it is your doctorate and it is up to you to take ownership of it.

4) Insufficient meetings or time spent with their supervisor making progress slow.

Tip: Organise more meetings with your supervisor and prepare for them (see later chapter that explains how to prepare for meetings with your supervisor). If your supervisor is unresponsive then it can be more difficult to address – I discuss this issue later also.

5) Events in the student’s personal life compete too much with the doctorate and something has to give!

Tip: Better management of personal life versus doctorate balance.

6) The initial reason for taking a doctorate was not strong enough.

Tip: Find a reason for doing the doctorate and determine if you really want to complete it.

7) The doctorate was always going to take second (or even third) place to other things.

Tip: Reorganise your priorities if you want to complete. Revisit your reasons for starting. Put it number one in your priorities or at least equal first.
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What I wish I had known about research

Researchers are continually learning and improving their craft. The thing is we all learn at different rates due to our effort, capabilities, motivation and environment. What interests me is the process of research improvement.

I think that I learnt the hard way. I put in effort and was motivated but my environment was one where there was little research knowledge and few research leaders to learn from and so my progress was relatively slow. I spent months writing research papers and after submitting them to journals I waited eagerly for the reviewers’ comments. The “long wait” followed and when they arrived I would analyse and dissect the comments, revise the paper and start over again submitting it to another journal. As the reviewing process often takes six months or more, years went by pretty quickly.

As I have gained more research experience I look back on this and think how much better (and faster) it could have been. A research mentor for example could have explained what the key characteristics of a good research paper are and explained where my research paper was deficient. A good research mentor could have also explained the importance of developing a network of academics as early as possible and the best ways to go about doing it. In short, a mentor could have saved me years just by spending a few minutes here and there to suggest what I should be working on. This list of benefits from having a good research mentor goes on and on.

A Phd supervisor is a research mentor and I am thankful I had an excellent supervisor. However, a PhD is like an apprenticeship and a mentor is still needed after completion as there is still much to learn about the research process.

Well, such a mentor didn’t exist in my environment and it may be the same for you. Maybe a blog such as this can help in a small way by being a surrogate mentor. I know it will never be the same as a personal mentor but collective thoughts are a way of knowledge sharing. So, what do you wish you had known about research when you first started out?

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Perseverance is the Key

Perhaps the most important attribute of a successful researcher is perseverance. It may come as a surprise but many people who complete a doctorate never undertake any further research. This is strange, you might think, when they have completed their research apprenticeship. These people will not develop a research profile and will usually struggle to develop their careers as academics. For it is as true today as it ever was, that academics need to publish to get on!

Perseverance is needed in finding a suitable topic to research, in refining your research questions, in searching for literature, in gathering data and in writing up the thesis. Each person undertaking a doctorate is faced with many challenges but one thing is sure – those that throw the towel in do not end up with a PhD.

Of course, perseverance without the relevant skills and knowledge will still not achieve success. So it is important to get the right information and develop an effective doctoral research project plan. The e-book “How to complete a PhD” (www.justintimebooks.com)will provide you with the necessary information and knowledge to knock months off your PhD studies. Think about it, if you can complete your thesis earlier then you will be earning a full time salary. Five or six months saved on a PhD can translate to a hefty sum in financial terms. Plus it will save you a lot of sleepless nights.

In my time as an academic I have noticed that there are PhD candidates who make sure they access the right information and knowledge and act upon it and those that make all sorts of excuses for not making progress but do not seek the right information and knowledge. Guess who makes the best progress?

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Your supervisor needs to know ........

A supervisor needs to know where a student is at! By this I mean, a supervisor needs to know how much work someone is putting into their doctorate, what their challenges are, what worries them, and what their strengths and weaknesses are.

Although the above may all seem obvious, students may try to obfuscate where they are at because they are worried about being found out in terms of not being up to doctoral standard. A supervisor can only help if they know where a student is at, what their skill level is and what challenges them. So an open and honest supervisor-student relationship is best for both parties and will lead to better progress.

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PhD Administration

In my role as professor I supervise a number of phd students. I have noticed that phd students are also spending more time on the administration related to their candidacy. Most of these are are necessary and are part of their research training of course. They include completing ethics declaration forms, proposal related forms, obtaining access to facilities and computers, reporting each semester on their progress, forms related to conference travel and forms related to expenditure of any kind.

I am not sure what all of the above amounts to but it is quite a bit of time. Any student planning how long it will take to complete their phd should now factor in these types of administrative tasks if their plan is to be realistic.

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