The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research (Open Up Study Skills)

"I feel grateful to have found this book only a year into my PhD. It has opened my eyes to the world of academia. There is more to a PhD than just research in the sense of working on a problem, getting some results and publishing your findings. This book has allowed me to open my eyes and see all the other things I should be doing to fully succeed at my endeavour of becoming a researcher myself."
Dominic Hosler, University of Sheffield

This bestselling book on the process of PhD research provides readers with engaging discussion and comprehensive guidance on aspects that other books don't usually mention.

Covering all the key topics of the previous edition, including what a PhD is really about, how to do one well, how to decipher what your supervisor actually means by terms like 'good referencing' and 'clean research question', and how to design, report and defend your research,the authors continue to offer an accessible, down-to-earth, and insightful account of the whole PhD process. Their advice addresses how to avoid some of the pitfalls en route to a successful submission.

Updated throughout, the new edition includes new material on:

• Critical thinking
• Research skills
• The route to research independence
• Different models of study

The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research is essential reading for anyone considering a PhD or embarking on one. It will tell you the things many students wish someone had told them before they started.

Dr Marian Petre is Professor of Computing at the Open University, UK, and a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award Holder. Her experience includes establishing a PhD programme, running doctoral consortia at international conferences, giving tutorials on research methods in the UK, US and Europe, and presenting research workshops for PhD students as well as supervising and examining doctoral students.

Dr Gordon Rugg is a former field archaeologist and English lecturer turned computer scientist, who is now head of the Knowledge Modelling Group at Keele University. He is the author of Using Statistics (Open University Press, 2007).

Gordon and Marian are also the authors of A Gentle Guide to Research Methods (Open University Press, 2006).