The path of a doctoral student can feel challenging and isolating. This guide provides doctoral students with key ideas and support to kick-start a doctoral journey, inspire progress and complete their thesis or dissertation.

Contents: 1 What we wish we had known: lessons learned to keep your doctorate on track 1 Rebecca Loudoun, Emily A. Morrison, Mark N.K. Saunders and Keith Townsend PART I GETTING INTO IT 2 Choosing your topic: a supervisor perspective 14 Jimmy Donaghey 3 ‘Begin at the beginning’: identifying ideas for a PhD 22 Graeme Dobson 4 ‘I want to do it because I want to do it’: boarding flight PhD 31 Jemma J. Saunders 5 Asking “the” question 34 Emily McDonald 6 Whose doctorate is it anyway? How students and supervisors can work well together 36 Carol Atkinson and Keith Townsend 7 When an orchestra misses its harmony (or how I learnt to work with my supervisors) 43 Mai Khanh Tran 8 ‘How much time do I get?????’ 52 Peter J. Jordan 9 Views from the top and views of the valley: the paths of dissertation literature reviews 55 Maria Cseh 10 Critically reviewing the literature: the ghosts of literature present, past and future 65 Linzi McKerr 11 Reading academic papers: visiting and re-visiting old friends 74 Jennifer Robinson 12 Research philosophies and why they matter 76 Natasha S. Mauthner 13 Getting your research philosophy clear 87 Rosanna Cole 14 Changing philosophy (aka the only PhD is a finished PhD) 95 Brian Harney 15 Designing and conducting a quantitative study: lessons learned from work, home, and school 97 Kim Nimon 16 Strategies for analysing qualitative data: how to get started with making sense of all that material you’ve collected 107 Anette Hallin 17 Discovering statistics and developing a quantitative research design 117 Ursula Furnier 18 Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, how am I making sense of it all? 125 Merrel Knox 19 Too much of a good thing – tradeoffs between training and completion? 135 Keith Townsend PART II GETTING ON WITH IT 20 Critical feedback: transforming criticisms into indispensable insights 142 Emily A. Morrison 21 ‘They think I’m stupid’: dealing with supervisor feedback 159 Amanda Lee 22 No book or resource has all the answers 167 Rebecca Loudoun 23 “Ok Google … since when did you join my supervision team?” 169 Adam Robertson 24 Embracing research ethics: from cognitive walk-through to reflexive journey 171 Rebecca Whiting 25 Gaining ethical approval 182 Nora Pillard Reynolds 26 But I am just going home: research ethics and student safety 191 Safa Riaz 27 Organizational governance: the final hurdles for research approval 193 Amy N.B. Johnston 28 Wearing skirts and writing like a woman: a winding road to gaining access to research 200 Ana Alecsandru 29 Gaining access to apparently easy informants 210 Mireia Valverde 30 Letters from a doctoral researcher to a data collection advice column … and the responses 213 Sharon F. Lambert 31 Addressing power differentials and managing egos: how to collect reliable qualitative data when researching ‘elites’ 228 Chris F. Wright 32 Time is waiting in the wings 238 Mark N.K. Saunders 33 Navigating the supervisory relationship: the case of the disappearing supervisors 248 Vicki Webster 34 Managing time and maintaining focus 256 Colin Hughes 35 Tightrope walking: balancing the dynamic tensions of the doctoral process 264 Andrea Casey 36 Keeping your life on track: living one spoon at a time 272 Emma Partlow 37 Opportunities and challenges of studying abroad 281 Aurora Trif 38 Keeping life and career on track as a non-traditional doctorate student 283 Vicki Webster 39 Finders, keepers, losers, weepers! A doctoral candidate’s reality of changing thesis advisors 285 Polly Watson Black 40 To leave or not to leave your Alma Mater 293 Raymond Markey 41 My journey 303 Gerard Ryan PART III GETTING IT FINISHED AND MOVING ON 42 Eat, sleep, redraft, repeat 308 Ana Lobo 43 Challenges in writing up qualitative findings 316 Victor Oyaro Gekara 44 The power to write 323 Melika Shirmohammadi 45 Writing your thesis quickly and well 325 Tara Gray 46 Rewriting and overcoming writer’s block 336 Grace Henry 47 Overcoming writer’s block (and submission anxiety) 344 Fiona Archontoulis 48 The final mile: avoiding and overcoming viva trip-ups 345 Dawn C. Duke 49 My viva voce examination: a rollercoaster! 356 Zeineb Djebali 50 Let me defend myself (or at least my thesis) 365 Qian Yi Lee 51 Networking with academics to solve your PhD puzzle 367 Adam Robertson 52 Are conferences worth attending as a graduate student? Reflections and lessons from a former graduate student 377 Tomika W. Greer 53 A tale of three dissertations: experiences of transforming mentored research into an article 387 Jamie Callahan 54 How can you publish from your dissertation? 398 Katherine Rosenbusch 55 Publishing from your thesis 408 Dennis Nickson 56 Getting the first academic job 410 Oliver S. Crocco 57 Beyond the doctorate: getting your first job 420 Holly Prescott 58 Publications, what publications? 429 Mark N.K. Saunders 59 Balancing act 431 Polly Watson Black Index 433

‘. . . anyone pursuing graduate work should have plenty of support and at least one practical guide, like How to Keep Your Doctorate On Track. While the primary audience is obviously those considering or undertaking doctoral work, one key secondary audience is supervisors themselves. Each section pairs the perspectives of supervisors/professors with those of students. As the editors themselves point out, the student perspectives can be eye-opening. Perhaps if more supervisors paused to reflect on the varied experiences presented in this text, they could help mitigate some of the anxiety and depression felt by students under their tutelage.’