I dont write much about research methods on this blog. That’s not because I’m not interested in research methods – I’ve published three methods texts, after all – but more because I’m pretty sure people who come here mainly want to read about writing. But the two things are not really that easily separated. The […] … learn more→

It can be a real challenge for PhD students to decide on a lab to do their research. I began reflecting on this a few months ago after advising a mentee. I had offered the standard advice that you can find all over the internet: “Talk to the people from the lab.” Yet I soon […] … learn more→

Multiple times a year I provide impact statement workshops. Not everyone can make those, so rather than having that knowledge only live in the workshop space, I thought I’d highlight some of the main take-aways shared during that workshop here. While I’m based in Australia and tailor a lot of my advice to Australian frameworks, […] … learn more→

To generalise ridiculously, there are three types of people: People who start a research project intending to finish it on time. People who start a project not really caring when they finish it. People who don’t care about finishing a project on time until they fly past the deadline. If you are doing a PhD […] … learn more→

Conclusions can be hard. There are a few big traps that conclusion writers can fall into. In order to avoid them, try the following three things. Deep breath. It’s good to be bold. The conclusion generally requires bigging up what you’ve done. In a thesis you have to name and claim your original contributions. At the […] … learn more→

The University of California’s recent negotiations with Elsevier achieved a better deal for researchers than was initially given to them when they walked away in 2018. After a two-year standoff, during which academics at the multi-campus system had no direct access to paywalled Elsevier content, the publisher largely bowed to California’s demand to cut overall costs while allowing California […] … learn more→

Sometimes when I ask myself why I’ve made a certain choice, I realise I don’t actually know. To what extent we are ruled by things we aren’t conscious of? – Paul, 43, London Why did you buy your car? Why did you fall in love with your partner? When we start to examine the basis […] … learn more→

Imagine you’re researching something. Whether you’re a fourth grader who needs to find out how volcanoes erupt or you’re an adult looking for more information regarding a news article, you might want to quickly look something up on the internet. What could go wrong? Google’s search engine may seem to have all the answers to […] … learn more→

Who are you writing for? One of the most basic pieces of advice for writers is ‘know your audience’. Unfortunately, I often find that people write their grant applications for a completely amorphous audience like ‘the government’ or ‘the Department of [Whoever is Funding the Grant]’. That’s just not true. Your grant application will be […] … learn more→

At the end of every research excellence framework (REF) cycle, the question is asked whether a more metrics-driven system could simplify and improve what is undeniably a complex, time-intensive exercise. This time around is no exception; since submissions closed at the end of March, there has been a flurry of articles addressing this question, and […] … learn more→