PhD Survival: 1st Year (Part 3)

Please note that different universities may have different policies for PhD programme. Our research genre may be different. This is just a guide which may or may not be applicable to you. 

When I first registered, I was overwhelmed. On day one itself, I was looking forward to the last day. What I had in mind was to jump into doing a research as soon as possible and wanted to know everything to make it happen (warning - this is dangerous because you will severely exhaust yourself). How could I not be, my other 4 colleagues registered one month earlier and the orientation week was over. 

On the third day, I was introduced to my second supervisor Dr MM. As I registered one month later than the rest, I was given four sessions of personal orientation on overview of the research centre, the education programme and the unwritten rules in making life less complicated. What I learned from Dr MM have helped me a lot and I must not keep this to myself. The first thing I learned from Dr MM was expecting and dealing with the 'unexpected' which was discussed in length in the previous two entries. From this point onwards, I will summerise what I learned from the orientation week and the mistakes that should be avoided throughout year one.

(2) Eagle eye view

'..use the spot light..not the torch light..'

The journey of PhD course is unique depending on the nature of  our research. Nevertheless, the pathway is similar. Even though we start at different starting point, we should end up at the same end point. This is the generic flow/eagle eye view of year one:

1. First conduct literature review to work out a research proposal (generally 6 months; the faster the better)

2. Secondly, have the proposal ready (be ready to retype and do corrections, to be frank.. mine was approved after 8 drafts)

3. Thirdly, submit application for ethics approval (in the UK, the approval should be obtained within 8 weeks from the day of submission - this includes research committee interview and final result).

3. Then, start pilot/observation/trial data collection (this is optional, having this gives us great advantage during research defend/viva; might not be applicable to lab-based research) 

4. Prepare first year report and have it submitted on time (allocate 3 weeks for the examiner to review)

5. Sit for first year viva (research defend) to upgrade from MPhil to PhD. This means your proposed research has strong justification for  research to fill in the gap of current knowledge. Aim to sit for the viva no later than month 18, ideally by month 12 of the PhD course. The earlier the better.

6. Finally, submit at least one article for publication (do not put your work wasted, a good literature review is a potential article for publication!)

The order is flexible; each points will have many branches of to-do-list; we should be able to work on more than one task simultaneously. This is recommended whenever possible. It does not matter where your starting point is, just be aware of the big picture. For instance, 3 of my colleagues started with six months of data collection because the proposed research had obtained  ethical approval and funding prior to their registration. One of my colleagues had to work on submission for an amendment to a research proposal that was approved by the research ethics earlier on. I had to start with literature review to justify the importance of my proposed research area before coming up with a proposal.

We have the tendency to be immersed and absorbed into one particular task (or simply lazy) that we forgot (or delay) to look into (or plan for) other tasks -  individuals in this group are the ones using the torch light; they are very focused to only one or certain particular things and missed out the whole picture. A friend of mine got so tight with data collection and had only one month prior to his first year report submission to do literature review. Do not underestimate the amount of time you have to spare in conducting a literature review. He/she managed to get the report done on time but had a difficult viva because he/she  could not grasp the background knowledge of the research area and hence could not justify the importance of the research - the result was to redo literature review and retake the viva (minor cases - retake in 3 weeks time, major cases in 3 months).  

Literature review and research method are two important chapters of our first year report. If you do it well, the literature review is already a big chunk of Chapter 1 in the final thesis. In fact, our literature review is a potential publication. Work on it and try to submit for publication within year one. I managed to submit mine in month 10 and have it published 6 months later. It is hard work, but its worth doing :) Just imagine yourself (or other researchers) citing your own article in your next report, isn't it exciting and motivating.

The question is  - how to capture the eagle view? The answer is  - tabulate your 3-year gantt chart. In most cases, international students will take 1 or 2 weeks off after registration to settle down i.e accommodation, opening a bank account (very important to do this as soon as possible to ensure smooth scholarship transfer) and children's school. Day 1 in our gantt chart is the day we register, and not the day we have settle down/ ready to embark in academic/research work. As previously mentioned, PhD timeline starts ticking as the assimilation process takes place. 

3-year Gantt Chart

Before and after tabulating gantt chart...

Before: '3 years is like taking like forever..'

After: 'OMG, 3 years is too short' You'll then start worrying of not having sufficient time...then the game of chasing and being chased by dateline begins. This is normal, just don't freak out. So, start to plan your work for the 3-year programme and work your plan. 

The easiest way to tabulate a gantt chart is of course in Microsoft Excel (I will upload a snap shot as an example in the next entry).

First, begin with creating columns from Month 1 (in year 1) to Month 36 (in year 3). 

Secondly, divide multiple rows into 3 sections. 

List down the 3 years academic requirement in the first section, for example:

- Compulsory training courses to attend in the whole 3 years

- First year report submission

- Research day presentation

- In house proposal presentation

- First year viva 

- Publication 1

- Publication 2

As the exact date is yet to be confirmed, at this stage simply tick in the box for the estimated month within your PhD course. 

The second section contains tasks for your study/ies (PhD research may have more than 1 study), for example:

- Literature search

- Lit. review final report submission

- Proposal submission

- Research ethical application

- Data collection

- Ethics amendment (if required)

- Interim data analysis

- Data analysis

If there is a second or third study, do the same in different sections. 

The third section contains your thesis write up schedule; thesis submission and thesis viva due dates. 

Now, once you have all tabulated...36 months; make sure your supervisor(s) is happy with it. The gantt chart should be reviewed   in a scheduled manner, more frequent in the beginning of the programme. Make it an agenda in your meeting with the supervisors to review the gantt chart; this does not only keeps you on track but also as a gentle reminder for your supervisor to follow up on tasks that needed their feedback. 

Whenever you get drifted away or demotivated, look at your gantt chart and see where or at what stage should you be at that  moment. Even when you are hit by the unexpected, try your best  to stay on track. If there is a need to drag the timeline, do it cautiously. It is advised to talk about it with your supervisor. In major circumstances  that significantly affect your timeline (i.e poor health condition or having to be away for quite some time due to valid reasons), you may be ask to apply for an extension to the thesis submission date (this means your programme will take more than 36 months).