Remember this is not an Essay, Pat Thomson reminds PhD Candidates

Nearly finished a PhD?  Pat Thomson, Education Professor blogging as 'Patter', provides a handy checklist for anyone about to submit their doctoral dissertation.  Read it HERE.

Network As Though Your Life Depended On It

We've mentioned the Guardian's Culture Professionals Network before - a great series which brings up to date information of interest to anyone working in the cultural sector.

Did we mention that there's also a Higher Education Network?  Again, this would be well-worth signing up to.  This week, for example, the Academics Anonymous blog (on the Higher Education Network homepage) is by someone who is studying for a PhD in their forties: 'Why are you doing a PhD at your age?'

Here are the links for you to follow up:-

• Guardian Culture Professionals Network - http://www.theguardian.com/culture-professionals-network
• Guardian Higher Education Network - http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network

Employability Skills: View Yourself As A Product (Youtube)

Those ever-helpful people at Jobs.ac.uk have shared a Youtube link about PhD graduates' employability skills.  Are you applying for work?  Take a look HERE.

Don't forget to bookmark Jobs.ac.uk while you're at it.  Not just for finding work in academia - also for tips on job-seeking in general - writing a CV, attending an interview, etc.

On the same subject, you might like to follow the blog, From PhD to Life.  Today, Jennifer Polk talks about her deepening understand of what job interviews are all about:-

• A Job Interview, by Jennifer Polk.  
• Homepage http://fromphdtolife.com/

What next? A Music PhD?

In between finishing off assignments and revising for exams, music finalists may wonder what they'll do after graduation.  

There's a database listing what music postgraduates are currently researching, which might inspire or guide you: the RMA Register of Research Students' Dissertation Topics(UK and Ireland):-

http://www.rma.ac.uk/register/register.asp 

There are various other places you can look, to find out what has been, or is being researched.   Many are freely available, for example you can find completed doctoral theses that are in university libraries by checking www.copac.ac.uk.

Try also:-

• JSTOR (if you're a student or staff at a UK Higher Education establishment, you'll be able to access this by their library subscription - this is the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland database page)
• RILM Abstracts of Music Literature
• ZETOC 
• Academia.edu
• ResearchGate

Posting for PhD Students: Tara's Ten Tips for Rapid PhD Completion

You can read Tara's paper on her Academia.com page. 

If you haven't yet visited Academia.com, then this also gives you the opportunity to explore a valuable networking site for scholars and researchers.

Doing a PhD? Here's a blogpost about finishing it!

Research-support website, The Thesis Whisperer, muses on why some people finish their PhD, and others don't.

Intrigued?  Read on...

Research, Careers, and Making an Impact

Sometimes how you did something, can be as interesting as what you did. I gave a presentation about my research journey to research students at the University of Glasgow, yesterday.  So I thought I'd share it here:-

Research, Careers, and Making an Impact

By Karen McAulay

How to Tame Your PhD

A new Kindle book by esteemed research-support lecturer Inger Mewson, one of the biggest up-and-coming names in researcher development.  She blogs as The Thesis Whisperer - a blog that should be on every PhD candidate's recommended reading list.

We don't stock Kindle books in the Whittaker Library, but this book is such a bargain that I'm more than happy to recommend you buy your own.

So - take a look:-

How to Tame Your PhD

You really will be glad you got it!

Madness and Theatre

We've just come across this Wordpress blog, which originated as an Edinburgh MSc thesis on mental health in Scottish theatre:-

The Madness and Theatre Blog

"How Theatre NEMO and Anthony Neilson use drama to challenge perceptions of mental ill health in Scotland 2003-2010.

MSc European Theatre

Graduate School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures

University of Edinburgh August 19th 2011"

The author, Chris Jones, is now studying for a PhD at the University of Kent.

New Year's Resolutions - how are you doing?

What can we learn from ancient Scottish traditions about doing a PhD? 

KarenMcA continues the #NYE theme with a posting for The Thesis Whisperer (a research support website).

PhD to Published

Here's a blog that will be relevant to anyone just finishing / recently having finished a PhD:-

PhD to Published

A film about PhD students!

An intriguing article in the THE (Times Higher Education magazine) this week finds out how a popular cartoon about the secret life of research students has been turned into a film by its author.  But is it true to life?!  Read on:-

15 September 2011


When Jorge Cham adapted his hugely popular PhD cartoon for film, he eschewed animation and hired real Caltech students and academics for his comically true-to-life doctoral tales. Paul Jump reports.


Absent-minded academics and scientists who are a few base pairs short of a double helix are as much a cinema staple as maverick cops and superheroes with a troubled past. For all the recent rise in 3D film, Jorge Cham believes that researchers are rarely portrayed in ways that transcend that stereotypical dimension.  Read the whole article online here.

Support and advice for research students

Have you come across PhDChat?  I blogged about this before - you can join in the Twitter conversation with Nasima Riazat on Wednesdays, follow Nasima's tweets, read the blog or get involved in the  wiki.

Then there's The Thesis Whisperer (aka Inger Mewburn, a research support lecturer in Australia).  This is a fantastic resource - do take a look! 


And here's the THE (Times Higher Education) article which has just come out, about The Thesis Whisperer.

How to fail a PhD

A lecturer in media studies at the University of Brighton has posted a lively podcast about 'How to fail a PhD'. You might not expect this to be an upbeat presentation, but it's actually stuffed full of good advice. Worth listening. There are also other useful postings on Tara Brabazon's website - spend a coffee-break there, and see what other nuggets you can glean!