My book has been printed

I thought I would just inform people that I have had copies of my book printed. The book is called "How to Complete a PhD" and is available for purchase online at

www.justintimebooks.com

The link is in the right column of the blog.

The ebook version is still available but I have been asked by so many people about a hard copy that I had some printed. The book explains what is required to complete a PhD, the essential attributes of a good PhD, what should be included in each chapter, tips from other supervisors and successful PhD students, and lots more. It is suitable for PhDs in any country.

There is a lot of interest in this research blog and much of it is coming from PhD candidates. I recommend the book because I have written it to explain all the factors that need to be addressed to complete a PhD.

The e-version of the book has had many positive comments and has sold around the world.

www.CompletePhD.com

Malaysian experiences

I have just returned from a research visit to the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur. I was advising at their doctoral proposal event. The commitment of the students and their interest and enthusiasm to discuss research had a profound effect on me. It has made me more enthusiastic to take my own research to another level.

It is good to read the comments to the posts. I won't answer each one personally, as some can be left to others to answer or pass comment on, that way we get a diversity of views. I have had a few suggestions for post topics which I will get round to in the future.

We are up to nearly 800 visitors in just a few weeks so there is a lot of interest in the blog. If you want to be reminded of any updates to the site I have added the RSS feeds.

I will write more about my Malaysian experiences later.

www.CompletePhD.com

Research as a social process

New researchers often see research as a solitary activity. If only they could lock themselves away in a room, even better an ivory tower, for a few years and come out with a list of high quality publications. LOL. These researchers are missing the point that research is a social process and that solitary activity as a long term aim is unlikely to lead to success.

The social activity related to research makes it sustainable. Being able to discuss our ideas with someone else, or research processes with another person can be intellectual fun and sustain research activity over the long term. In other words, it gets boring on your own after a while. It is also difficult to learn when you can't exchange ideas with others.

Collaboration should lead to better outcomes and increased activity, even though in the short term it might seem that time is being wasted.

Conferences can be fun for that reason. Research talk, tea and a bun, may not seem like the pinnacle of life when expressed in a few words of text but if you are that way inclined it is one of the most worthwhile ways to spend some time.

Many years ago, when I was an undergraduate at Lancaster University in the North of England, I and a couple of close friends were told by the landlord of a local pub that we would be thrown out if we didn't lower our voices - well after all people in the north of England have loud voices. In actual fact, I remember the topic we were passionately discussing was "Are multi-nationals good for society?" This was 30 years ago. I guess we should have been chasing young women (or any women for that matter) but we preferred a pint and a good rant, well at least on that occasion!

It is just the same in research, the social process creates enjoyment, a chance to receive feedback on our ideas and work.

So my point is, try to enjoy research, spend some time on your own and reflect and write but also seek out others and exchange ideas, collaborate and develop friendships. It will develop you as a researcher and may prove to be something that you never want to give up!

www.CompletePhD.com

Requests and comments

It is great that the number of comments and suggestions are increasing. Since, I can't can't post many articles per day - just a few a week, it is worthwhile mentioning my book "How to Complete a PhD". For those that need detailed answers and explanations and can afford the Australian $30 I have an e-book available. The link is in the right column of the blog.

In the book I cover all aspects of completing a doctorate and what to include in each chapter of a thesis. The web site provides the contents and details to purchase on-line.

I have also had some copies printed and have yet to add the details and cost for this to the Web site.

Please understand my reponses can only be brief because I have a job as a professor in a university. I still hope they are useful.

Best wishes
Craig

Research questions, research objectives, and theoretical review questions

Faiz writes

"Prof Standing,

My name is faiz rasool. I am a Blind student of Sociology In University of karachi, Karachi, Pakistan. I am writing a thesis presently, and in Pakistan it is not easy to find goood good suggestions. So thank you for setting this blog.

My question is that sometimes I find the notion of research question, research objectives, and theoretical review questions confusing. Can you write someting something to that can help in distinguishing between these three different yet related ideas?

i think my question is very basic. But I want to learn, and i have to learn somewehre somewhere."

I can see how this could be confusing as all three are interconnected.

Research objectives are higher level than research questions but they are linked. For example a research objective could be to investigate and examine the nature of the urban/rural divide and to make recommendations to alleviate this divide in some way. So research objectives are like research aims, they are high level and communicate a purpose and outcomes for research.

I think you mean by "theoretical research questions" the type of questions that summarise the theory on a topic. For example, a theoretical or literature analysis could be conducted to determine where the research gaps are, where most research is conducted and so on. For example, if we look at the literature on the urban/rural divide from a sociological perspective we could say there is a research gap on what the barriers are to explaining the divide and how they can be overcome?

These review questions can be developed into our research questions. Research questions are more specific and on the same topic could be as follows:

What are the differences in income between urban and rural populations in Pakistan?
How do the levels of access to health information differ between urban and rural areas in Pakistan?
Can the infant mortality rates in rural areas in developing countries be explained by levels of income, education and access to health information?

The latter is a bigger question than the other two.

So to summarise, research aims and objectives are high level and use words like investigate, examine, reduce, improve etc. Research questions are more specific and involve the how, what, where, why type questions.

I hope this helps?

www.CompletePhD.com

Literature Reviews

Sometimes we have problems writing a literature review. There are different styles of review which complicates matters.

Some reviews are a critical analysis of key papers in the area, another type of review known as a review paper actually gathers literature over a period (of say 5 or 10 years) and then classifies it and determines research trends and gaps. However, the most common, and the one you are likely to use in your thesis is to analyse the literature related to your particular research questions. Note that I mention research questions!

Building a literature review around your research questions gives your literature review immediate structure. You don't have to use the questions themselves as sub-heading but you can use the major themes of each question as a sub-heading. The point is, a literature review should be focused and not just a review of background articles related to your topic.

The major trap is to try to include everything that you have read. You need to read widely related to your topic at first so you have a good understanding of the domain and related domain for your area of study. Then you need to focus on the specific areas and articles of relevance to your research focus, which just happens to be expressed in your research questions.

The aim with a literature review is not to have 25,000 words of background material but to have a focused analysis of the work closely related to your topic. This will clearly indicate to the examiner that you understand the background material but are focusing on the important issues.

What do you do if you haven't got research questions yet? Well, you probably need to conduct a broad review of the area as mentioned above and pick out the trends and broad research gaps. Then you can do a more focused review once you have your questions.

You can structure your data findings according to your research questions and even your discussion chapter. That way it is consistent to the reader throughout the thesis

www.CompletePhD.com

Comment please

So far the blog is going pretty well. There has been some positive feedback and about 500 visitors. The comments are a bit thin on the ground as yet and I wonder why this is so. Maybe the blog posts aren't interesting or controversial enough? So far we have four comments but more would be even better. Let me know what you think about why people don't leave more comments and what we can do to build the dialogue up.

www.CompletePhD.com