How to Complete a PhD in the Medical and Clinical Sciences

Description

How to Complete a PhD in the Medical and Clinical Sciences provides fresh insight into the PhD process and a concise framework to aid current and prospective students undertaking research in the medical and clinical sciences.

Filled with useful hints, tips, and practical guidance, the book covers key topics relevant to a PhD researcher such as publishing and presenting, core principles and techniques in medical science, dealing with common pitfalls, and how to write up and move on.

Featuring contributions from authors with experience across the PhD research career spectrum, How to Complete a PhD in the Medical and Clinical Sciences is an invaluable resource for those undertaking their doctoral studies.

Table of Contents

1. List of contributors, xi
2. About the editors, xv
3. Foreword, xvii
4. Preface, xix
5. Acknowledgements, xxi
6. Chapter 1: Introduction, 1
   1. Ashton Barnett-Vanes and Rachel Allen
   2. A PhD, 1
   3. Perspective, 2
   4. Why a book? How to use it, 5
   5. References, 6
7. Chapter 2: Deciding on and finding a PhD, 7
   1. Jonathan C.H. Lau and Ming He
   2. Background, 7
   3. Routes of entry, 8
   4. How to find one, 11
   5. Choosing a project, 13
   6. Making an application, 16
   7. Interviews, 17
   8. How to fund one, 18
   9. Reference, 22
   10. Further reading, 22
8. Chapter 3: Anatomy of a PhD: Where you fit in the academic world, 23
   1. Laura Lambert and John Tregoning
   2. Background: Welcome to the new you, 23
   3. You are here: PhD research versus undergraduate studies, 24
   4. Lab types: A field guide, 25
   5. It’s tricky: The student]supervisor interaction, 27
   6. Check out my massive organogram, 28
   7. Other dull, but important stuff, 29
   8. Conclusion, 31
   9. Reference, 32
9. Chapter 4: Core techniques, principles and statistics, 33Andrew John Walley, Kyrillos N Adesina Georgiadis, Adel Benlahrech and Fiona Reid
   1. Genomics, 33
   2. Metabolomics, 38
   3. Flow cytometry, 40
   4. Statistics, 45
   5. References, 49
   6. Further reading, 49
10. Chapter 5: Take off: Year 1, 51Ashton Barnett Vanes and Rachel Allen
    1. Background, 51
    2. Understanding your team and project, 52
    3. The literature, 53
    4. The research proposal, 55
    5. Starting experiments, 56
    6. Data management and record keeping, 57
    7. The ‘transfer’, 58
    8. Conclusion, 59
    9. Common pitfalls, 59
11. Chapter 6: Dealing with problems, 63Rachel Allen and David Salman
    1. Background, 63
    2. General problems, 64
    3. Academic problems, 66
    4. Common PhD problems, 69
    5. Conclusions, 72
    6. References, 73
    7. Further reading, 73
12. Chapter 7: Breaking ground: Year 2, 75Ashton Barnett-Vanes and Rebecca Ingram
    1. Background, 75
    2. Taking ownership of your project, 75
    3. Shaping the research direction, 76
    4. From preliminary to publishable data, 77
    5. Supervising junior students, 79
    6. The end of Year 2 review/assessment, 80
    7. Conclusion, 82
    8. Common pitfalls, 82
13. Chapter 8: Presenting and publishing as a PhD student, 85
    1. Ashton Barnett-Vanes and Henry D.I. De ’Ath
    2. Background, 85
    3. Presentations, 85
    4. How to present, 87
    5. Publications, 89
    6. Writing an original research article, 90
    7. Writing a review article, 93
    8. Narrative reviews, 95
    9. Final steps, 95
    10. Managing the process, 96
    11. Other considerations, 98
    12. Conclusion, 98
    13. References, 98
    14. Further reading, 98
14. Chapter 9: Landing and writing up: Year 3, 99
    1. Manu Chhabra and E. Allison Green
    2. Background, 99
    3. An exit strategy, 99
    4. The X Factor results, 100
    5. Before you start writing, 101
    6. Writing your thesis: Part 1, 102
    7. Writing your thesis: Part 2, 105
    8. Conclusion, 111
    9. Common pitfalls, 111
    10. Further reading, 112
15. Chapter 10: The viva and moving on, 113
    1. Rachel Allen and Kate Gowers
    2. Background, 113
    3. An examiner’s perspective (Rachel), 113
    4. The viva, 115
    5. Corrections, 117
    6. Career routes, 119
    7. Conclusion, 123
    8. Further reading, 123
16. Chapter 11: PhDs in veterinary science and medicine, 125
    1. Fiona Cunningham, Jonathan Elliott, Fiona Tomley and Kristien Verheyen
    2. Background, 125
    3. Is it for me?, 126
    4. Your project, 128
    5. Presenting and publishing your findings, 130
    6. Post]PhD, what’s next for me?, 131
    7. Conclusion, 133
    8. Possible concerns, 133
    9. Acknowledgements, 134
    10. Reference, 134
17. Chapter 12: International perspectives on medical and clinical science PhDs, 135
    1. Celia A. Soares and Paul Langford
    2. Background, 135
    3. Choosing a country, 135
    4. Finding a department, 136
    5. ‘Full’ PhDs versus ‘dual]PhDs’, 137
    6. Interviewing in a lab abroad, 139
    7. Funding, 140
    8. Administrative issues, 140
    9. Conclusion, 143
    10. Common pitfalls, 143
    11. Further reading, 144
18. Chapter 13: What I’m really thinking: The postdoc, 145
    1. Adel Benlahrech
    2. Background, 145
    3. It is great to be a post]doc!, 145
    4. Is it really that great?, 146
    5. A post]doc’s advice, 146
    6. Conclusion, 149
    7. Further reading, 149
19. Chapter 14: What I’m really thinking: The Professor, 151
    1. Michael Dustin
    2. Index, 153

Review

‘Intended as a step-by-step guide, the book is a good summary of the major steps, pitfalls along the way, and advice on how to be successful as a student … There are not many books that attempt to do what this one does, and there is not much written about this topic in general, so students should find this a useful resource. Doing a PhD is often fraught with uncertainty, and a written guide to the steps would be helpful for most students, especially as they begin the program.’ Doody’s, November 2017

‘How to Complete a PhD in the Medical and Clinical Sciences aims (and succeeds) in remaining concise, it examines every aspect of the PhD journey in a comprehensive and precise manner. I would strongly recommend the book to anyone doing or planning to do a PhD in Medical, Clinical, Biomedical or Life Sciences. As well as, frankly, any other subject.’ Kristine Bagdassarian, FindAPhD

Author Biography

Dr Ashton Barnett-Vanes, MB-PhD Candidate, St George’s, University of London and Imperial College London, UK. Dr Rachel Allen, Reader in Immunology of Infection and Head of Graduate School, St George’s, University of London, UK.