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Here are 10 traits of highly effective PhD students:

𝟏. 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬: A good PhD student is curious about the various aspects of his/her research. The student is eager to find answers to what, why, how, and when. Anything not known triggers him/her to dig deeper and find it out. The student asks high-quality questions.

2. 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬: An effective PhD student does not restrict oneself to his/her cabin. The student discusses the ideas with supervisors, lab mates, and other relevant people. The student is willing to provide feedback and happy to take feedback.

3. 𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐫: A good PhD student develops the ability of critical thinking early in PhD journey. He/she reflects on research pieces to determine what are its strengths and weaknesses, how we can improve the weaknesses, where are the gaps, and so on.

4. 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐦: An effective PhD student does not take criticism of his/her research personally. He/she reflects on the criticism to understand how the research can be improved. He/she is not afraid of putting his/her research in front of others just because of the fear of criticism.

How to identify the research gap for your PhD and MS/MPhil?

5. 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐟𝐮𝐥: A good PhD student is respectful to his/her supervisors, lab mates, other researchers, and their research. He/she is able to communicate their points in a respectful manner. He/she does not boost his/her own research nor does undermine other people’s research

6. 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫: A good PhD student is an excellent communicator. He/she can communicate research in different ways such as through research papers, presentations, posters, and so on. He/she can communicate complex concepts in simple words

7. 𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐮𝐫𝐞: PhD life can have failures in one form or another. A good PhD student knows how to handle failures and does not get motivated easily. He/she works hard consistently and does not expect a big return in little time.

8. 𝐄𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧: An effective PhD student does not shy away from learning something new. He/she is always willing to learn new things and apply them in their research in the best possible way. The student is not lazy to settle for the bare minimum.

𝟗. 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭: The purpose of PhD is to convert the student into an independent researcher. A good PhD student does not expect to be spoon-fed. At the same time, he/she discusses and seeks feedback from the supervisors. As the PhD progress, the student becomes more and more independent.

𝟏𝟎. 𝐑𝐢𝐬𝐤 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐫: A good PhD does not shy away from taking risks. He/she explores adventurous ideas. Moreover, the student takes initiative with well-defined aims as to what to take away from the initiative.

Writer: Faheem Ullah
Assistant Professor
Computer Science, Australia

Way to start #writing my #thesis literature review?

A #PhDstudent recently asked me: How do I start #writing my #thesis literature review?

First, recognize something: you are NOT yet an expert in the field, and that’s okay! The purpose of writing the literature review is to help you become an expert.

Second, a painful truth: This is not something you can rush, and you will have to iterate on it many times over months and years.

Here’s my advice.

Start slowly and methodically.

Ask your advisor to give you one paper that she/he thinks is “great” in your field.

PhD students — 10 things to do in the first year of your PhD.

Read the paper thoroughly. I mean really read it, taking notes on things like:
✏️ Introduction. How do the authors quickly narrow the scope to the “important” and “new” stuff in field? Or is the Intro too broad and meandering?
✏️ Objective. How do the authors identify a knowledge gap and how do they propose to solve it?
✏️ Methods. What do the authors do in the paper? How do they validate their findings?
✏️ Discussion. How do the authors link their data to prior #literature? How do they push beyond reporting #data to discuss its importance?
✏️ Conclusions. What do the authors say it all means by the end? Are you convinced by the evidence?
✏️ Writing. Is the writing clear? What is working/not in terms of the writing for you?
✏️ Structure. How is it organized? Beyond headings, what information is contained in each paragraph?
✏️ References. How do the authors use citations? How are they leveraging prior knowledge?
✏️ You. What don’t you understand from the paper? What do you need to discuss with someone more knowledgeable in the field?

After you read this first paper, discuss it with your advisor or more senior lab mates.

Are you about to start writing your PhD thesis?

Now, go find 2 papers that this first one cites, and 2 papers that cite this first one (all 5 from different authors).
Do the same exercise with these 4 papers (it will go faster the more you do!) AND then – critically – ask yourself:
✏️ How do these 5 papers, together, advance a common idea?
✏️ Why are these papers within the same “citation family” – why are they citing each other?
✏️ Is there something contradictory between the papers? Or are the findings aligned?

Have another conversation with your lab group to talk about the group of papers.

As you continue to read papers, keep the following in mind about literature reviews:
🔍 This is about synthesizing knowledge in the field (hence the second exercise).
🔍 We want to avoid writing things like “Lab 1 did this” and “Lab 2 found this” and “Lab 3 did this.” It lacks depth and evidence of critical thinking.
🔍 We want to tell a scientific story, showing how ideas in the field have evolved over time. Citations are used to support this… but it needs to be our analysis.

And… NEVER copy/paste stuff from a paper into a document. There’s a good chance you’ll forget you did this, and then accidentally end up plagiarizing someone else’s work!

FAQ

Some frequently asked questions about writing a literature review for a PhD:

• What exactly is a literature review, not only for a PhD but also for a research paper or any other type of study?
  Literature review is a critical summary of all the research and knowledge that has already been done on a certain topic. In a PhD thesis, it is an important part of the research process for the researcher to evaluate and synthesize what is already known about the topic in order to set the stage for their own study.
• Why this is important in a PhD thesis?
  This is important because it helps to show how important the research problem is, shows how well the researcher understands the field, and finds gaps in what is already known that the researcher’s study can fill.
• How do I select a topic for my literature review?
  This is a really good question. Your literature review should be about a topic that is closely related to your research question or problem. It should also be a well-known topic with enough research already done on it.
• How do I organize my literature review in the time of writing?
  There are different kinds of structure, just like there are different ways to format. Like, it can be done in a certain way, like using a chronological, thematic, or methodological structure. The writing should be clear, brief, and well-organized, and it should have a strong argument or main theme that runs through it.

Writer: Jillian Goldfarb
Associate Professor of Biological & Environmental Engineering,
Cornell University

8 Way to identify the research gap for your PhD and MS/MPhil: 

A research gap is an unanswered question or problem in your field. Answering this question or solving this problem will be the objective of your PhD/MS research.

Here is one way to identify the gap.

𝟏. 𝐈𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐚: Before identifying the gap, you need to identify the area. This is quite easy. The area can either come from your previous interests or your supervisors can give it to you. For example, detecting cyber-attacks is a research area.

𝟐. 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝟓-𝟏𝟎 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐚: Once the area is identified, search for 5-10 most relevant literature reviews/secondary studies in the area. These papers have already reported a summarized view of the existing primary studies. Read these papers carefully to understand what literature already exists in the area.

𝟑. 𝐅𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰𝐬: While reading these 5-10 literature reviews, focus on the future research areas, open challenges, and discussion section. Identify 3-5 research directions from these literature reviews. Detecting data exfiltration attacks is a research direction.

Are you about to start writing your PhD thesis?

𝟒. 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬: Just to make sure that you don’t end up doing something that already exists, search primary studies related to the research directions. Drop the ones where exactly similar works exist.

𝟓. 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐬: Make a few slides to present the remaining directions to your supervisors. From here, you should pick the direction where you and your supervisor see the most potential.

𝟔. 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Once the direction is picked, do a literature review on the specific direction. If no paper exists at all in this direction, this could mean two things – either the topic is not worth doing research or the topic is good but too new.

𝟕. 𝐈𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐲 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐬 𝐠𝐚𝐩𝐬 𝐯𝐢𝐚 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰: This literature review process should get you the crisp gap. However, it won’t come automatically. While reading each paper, note down the points that you think could be worth future research. This will become part of your discussion or future research section. For example, detecting data exfiltration attacks in real-time is a gap.

𝟖. 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐩: Once you have identified the research gap, check what kind of resources, data, infrastructure, etc, you need to conduct this research. Make sure that you can have access to these resources before you start working on the gap.

Writer: Faheem Ullah
Assistant Professor
Computer Science, Australia

How to start writing your PhD thesis?

10 things you should know about thesis writing.

𝟏. 𝐔𝐬𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐱, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐌𝐒 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝: Writing a 100+ page document in MS word can become a headache. Arranging headings, tables of content, references, etc can become a challenge. So, instead of MS word, use Latex. It will take care of all such things. Also, Latex has many add-ons available that can help with difficult stuff like making tables in Latex.

𝟐. 𝐈𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐲 𝐞𝐱𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐬: Before starting your thesis, identify 10-15 exemplar theses that is within your research area or the PhD is carried out in a similar fashion as yours. Skim through them especially the first chapter to understand how to structure your thesis.

𝟑. 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲: During your PhD, you work on different papers that might not be totally linked in a straightforward way. Put these different pieces in front of yourself and think about how to make them link with each other and make a smooth story.

𝟒. 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐨𝐫 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤: This chapter summarizes your whole thesis and leaves an impression on the reader/examiner. Invest the most amount of time in writing this chapter. Amongst others, clearly mention upfront the research papers you have published during your PhD.

PhD students — How to 10x your PhD productivity?

𝟓. 𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐩 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬: Mention within 3-4 lines the concrete problem you have solved during your PhD. Also, examiners look for 3-4 solid contributions made by the PhD student. Don’t make them search for them. Present these contributions upfront in the Introduction chapter.

𝟔. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐯𝐢𝐚 𝐚 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐞:  PhD thesis is a very long document. Navigating through it can be a challenge. Include a figure in the Introduction section that shows the organization of the thesis including the various chapters. A reviewer can just print this figure and keep it in front of himself/herself to navigate through the whole thesis.

𝟕. 𝐆𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞: Don’t leave thesis writing until the very end. Depending upon the situation, at least leave 4 months for thesis writing.

𝟖. 𝐒𝐞𝐞𝐤 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤: Manage your writing in a way that each part gets reviewed. If you are running short of time, you can send each chapter separately as it completes to your supervisors for feedback.

𝟗. 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐥𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝: One of the most common comments from thesis reviewers is to fix the typos. Proofread your entire thesis a couple of times before submission to avoid getting this comment.

Why should you do a PhD?

𝟏𝟎. 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫: Make sure that the chapters are linked together. For example, it shouldn’t appear that when the reviewer starts reading chapter 4, it is completely different from chapter 3. At the start of chapter 4 or end of chapter 3, mention how they are linked.

Writer: Faheem Ullah
Assistant Professor
Computer Science, Australia