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A checklist to know your article is ready for submission

You keep working on a paper continuously and endlessly. You may be happy and contented with the research you have done and the kind of effort that you have put in but you may still with perplexed with the question that “ whether your article is ready for submission or no?” You have to consider … Continue reading “A checklist to know your article is ready for submission”

You have to consider various aspects to ensure that your paper is ready for submission. An incomplete argument that you submit way to early before completion may indicate ambiguity and confusion leading to rejection from the end of the editor. And at the same time, if you keep delaying submission because of personal dissatisfaction, you may never be able to submit because there always is room for exposure and improvement. You got to know the point where you have to stop by and just submit else it remains with you for all times to come. Whether it gets rejected, accepted or improvements are suggested, is something that needs to be seen with time, but your surity and confidence before submission depends on few factors.

Here, we have a small checklist that you must go through before you actually decide whether it is ready to be fowarded or no.

Take feedback from a third person:

Assessing your own work without getting biased about it is nearly an impossible task. You may not be able to look at it with a sense of objectivity. Remember that you have the scope to improve your work significantly with another intelligent feedback from a person who looks at it from a fresher perspective. Make sure the person you choose has the experience of publication himself has the eye to look at the work critically as well as independently. If you are not careful about choosing the person, the entire exercise may become a pointless one.

If it is difficult for you to find a person of calibre and interest in your field, to give feedback, you may alternatively choose to present your paper in a conference or seminar. The feedback that you get there,from the audience may help to add a lot of worth to your document.

Keep off work for a while: it may be a good idea to put the paper off your sight for a few days. You have been thinking about it all day and night for the past few weeks. If you continue to do that wich can sometimes block your critical perspective. Keeping it away from your sight and mind for a few days is a great idea so that you can come back to it and then decide whether it needs improvement or if it is good enough to submit like the way it is.

How much is good enough: Clear the Literature Review confusion

The key basis for any of the research study is the question that is there in itself. If your research question is vague or lacks clarity and specification then what follows in forms of objectives and hypotheses of the study will also not be clear. If you so intent to develop the right question for your study, what is required is a very strong and solid review of literature. A good understanding and exhibition of literature depicts the amount of expertise you have in your topic and you are able to justify and validate the question that you put up in your literature review.

All of this is easier said than done and sounds very good on paper. But from the glut of research that is available in the academia at the moment, it becomes a challenge to identify how much is enough. If you take the opinion of your supervisor, most likely he would tell you that you shouldn’t run after quantity but rather focus upon the quality of the content. It surely is valuable guidance, but still it may become a challenge to be able to decide how much of content sufficient content is.

There are some simple rules that apply here:

There is a strong connection between the breadth and depth of your literature review. The area of the study that you choose will have some amount of history attached to it in terms of previous work done. If the amount of work done previously is limited then you would have to go more in depth of that limited work available. However, if lot of work in your field is already existing then you would have to do wider study going back in to the history as much as possible. Keep the chronological arrangement structured and avoid gaps if any in the chronology.

The effectiveness with which you select your keywords will determine the quality of your work. If you choose too many keywords then you would be buried under the results for a long time and if you choose too few then you would bear the risk of slipping over a relevant theory and important paper that could a lot of weight to your paper.

Decide the length of your literature review on the basis of you’re a lot of reviews that you read. Feeling confident about the length of your content will reflect in the feeling that it is enough to add weight to your study.

A fun filled writing session

Do we see words such as fun and laughter get along with PhD scholars? Presumably, the life of a PhD scholar is so gruelling that all things that related to relaxation and fun fly out of the window and everything that links to stress and anxiety becomes your partner for that duration. However, we see the trend changing, people know and agree that productivity can be improved and enhanced in a fun filled social writing. Scholars around the world are trying and testing the means to meet in a social gathering. This helps to create that subtle peer pressure because of which the scholar cannot depend upon lame excuses for procrastination of PhD work.

The idea behind meeting in a social group from time to time with likeminded people who are also working on writing regularly and sometimes struggling with being regular in getting the desired productivity from their work. If you haven’t tried one yet, it is a good idea to do it. What you need to do is, make a group of people who are upbeat on joining and set aside regular time period at least once in a week to sit and write together at a location that is away from the usual location, in pleasing and sociable environment. A café is a good option. You would be excited to go there as it would be an opportunity to meet people, drink and eat and know the progress of other people. It can be constructive motivation. Make sure you set some rules for this session. It should be away from email, phone calls, social networking and other such distractions. It should be a social interaction opportunity that should progress further into enhanced productivity in terms of your writing goals. Even if you are able to do it for one hour once in a week, the inspiration and motivation that you draw from it should last you for the remaining days of the week. Keep your group big or small, as per your preference and where you find your productivity surfacing to the best possible level. And yes, remember that you need to maintain the positivity in group so regular and consistent feedback is important so that everyone is at the desired comfort level and is able to derive the kind of output desired from joining the group.

Happy fun filled writing in a social group!!!

What are the key differences between primary and secondary sources?

Research is compilation of both primary as well as secondary sources. If researchers lack the knowledge of these two sources and their distinction, they would surely get stuck in knowing how to use them properly. There are some basic and some intricate differences between the two which should be clear in the mind of the … Continue reading “What are the key differences between primary and secondary sources?”

Primary Sources:

As the name itself indicates, primary research is that research which is conducted at the time when the concerned study is being undertaken and the person who does the primary research is witness to the situation directly. Some of the key sources for primary research can be:

Personal documents of the researcher, such as diaries, novels, email etc.
Various types of documents that come from research studies such as thesis, experiments, data, reports and so on
Original manuscripts or any kind of original documents, maps photographs or newspapers
Movies, work of art or music pieces etc.

They are mostly in use when the researcher is studying a subject related to the past such as history. They bring up the opinion of the people who have a direct link from the past. Though, they come from first hand sources and hence can be called as genuine sources, they have one major concern of biased review as they aren’t anything more than the personal opinion of the author. Researchers who target to use primary sources, must ensure that they first analyse the information thoroughly, to identify and remove any biases if there in the study.

Secondary Sources:

It is the other end of the primary source and has information that can be generalised because it is an evaluation and synthesis of information already existing. Usually the sources for secondary research that we see as getting used are:

Books, textbooks, magazines, encyclopaedias etc.
Documents /pictorials and videos based on history
Bok reviews or peer reviews

Secondary sources have the privilege of making the document easier to understand for the reader as it is usually the generalisation of the content based on the analysis of some primary sources. But, similar how there is a major drawback that is associated with primary sources, in secondary sources as well, the flip side is that the creator of these secondary sources is not an expert in the field of study and consequently because of narrow exposure to the topic may not be able to create a generalisation that can be trusted completely.

Whenever scholars use secondary sources, they must try to validate the information from other reliable sources before actually taking it as a generalisation

What has life to offer you after PhD research?

As you are in your research journey, the stage determines your anxiety about what happens next. There of course is life after research but this question does become a crucial question for the life of all researchers. Usually, after a gruelling research journey, at a stage when you have submitted your thesis or waiting for … Continue reading “What has life to offer you after PhD research?”

As you are in your research journey, the stage determines your anxiety about what happens next. There of course is life after research but this question does become a crucial question for the life of all researchers. Usually, after a gruelling research journey, at a stage when you have submitted your thesis or waiting for your VIVA to happen you have may have varied feelings. One cannot really standardize the feelings that a researcher may go through at this stage but perhaps you may feel one of these:

Absolutely elated about your great accomplishment, all geared up and excited to go back to your normal routine or may be wanting to pursue all that you have been delaying or procrastinating for the sake of your demanding PhD or maybe even bereaved.

You have lived your thesis in and out for a long time and the way it becomes an integral part of your life, some people may find it very difficult to leave it, hand it over or give it up.

If you are somewhere in the middle of your research degree you must remember that it is a means to an end and a training ground for all future researchers. Prepare yourself to develop a foothold in the research battlefield and have a bright future based on your research degree.

Whatever future you choose for yourself, remember that before jumping into another battlefield you must reward yourself with a celebration. Take a holiday and move away from the world of analytics for a while so that you can establish your connect back with the world outside. During this interim period do remember to do the following:

Choose parts and content from your thesis that you could use for creating fresh and topical publications
Develop conference presentations from within your thesis
Upgrade your cv with your latest qualifications and keep yourself alert for openings of jobs around so that you can seize openings without any miss

Your break must not be so long that it makes your research obsolete or outdated. More so if you are looking for some funding on the basis of your thesis for further research, you must not delay at all. Your PhD would have in the undercurrent developed various other skills such as problem solving, time management , communication, writing , presenting, analysing that you will get a plethora of avenues opened for you to choose from right after you degree and there won’t be any looking back.