Review: How to do Your PhD in a Nutshell

Starting your PhD – or indeed even just applying for one – can often be an experience cloaked in mystery, confusion and turmoil. ‘How to do your PhD: in a nutshell’ is the work of two university professors, Loizos Heracleous and Najat El Mekkaoui. Together they’ve assembled a detailed investigation of the best way to tackle a research proposal, select your research methods, optimise your contribution and create a publishable product. The book is fairly short (just over 100 pages) and, as the authors explain at the start, it’s intended to shed some light on certain aspects of the PhD journey which are often underappreciated by applicants.

While a good portion of the book remains applicable to all prospective or newly-fledged PhD students, it’s important to mention that ‘How to do your PhD’ is probably more relevant to some subject areas than others. The authors have relied on their expertise in social sciences to provide an excellent guideline for students interested in that field, but this also means that, if, like me, your focus is science, you may find parts of the book slightly puzzling.

One example is Chapter 1, which describes how to compile a rigorous research proposal. As a mathematician, I still remember duelling with my own proposal, a battle I most convincingly lost, only being able to determine a very obscure ‘gap in the literature’ and an even more esoteric plan for filling it. It was only later, with the help of my supervisor, that I compiled a more rigorous plan of action. For researchers in other areas, the research question and pathway are much more evident from the beginning and undoubtedly the directions given in this book would be of significant help for writing an impressive application.

That aside, How to do Your PhD stands out from other such works in several regards. It does not spend a great deal of time discussing the ‘soft skills’ needed to pursue a career in academia (e.g. presentation skills, networking or communication), but rather focuses on the building blocks of creating a bullet-proof thesis. The book combines guidance, humorous imagery and personal stories (both from students and academics). Each chapter explores a different topic in detail, from definitions to aims, along with a precise ‘plan of action’, a few summary tables, and, importantly. . . a strategically positioned cartoon or two to keep the reader entertained.

Much of the ‘book highlights the importance of keeping the final outcome in mind, from the moment of launching your application to eventually compiling a journal article. This goal-oriented approach is well-established from the first chapter, offering what is probably the most ‘on point’ guide to writing a research proposal that I have come across so far, from structural description to specific advice. In Chapter 2 the reader is presented with the classic, bird’s-eye view of the PhD journey, broken down into a rough timeline for the upcoming years. These topics pair well with the final two chapters of the book, which deal with how to identify gaps in the literature to make a valuable contribution (Chapter 5) and an overview of how to prepare your work for publishing (Chapter 6).

The middle two chapters, in my opinion, constitute the most unique aspects of the book. Chapters 3 and 4 aim to navigate the reader through the different types of methodologies used in research, with their rationale, applicability and strengths. Aside from being a good starting point for your actual research, I can see this part of ‘How to do your PhD’ being especially valuable prior to writing a candidacy (or application) as it clarifies many of the unknowns associated with choosing the best methods to mention in your proposal.

Surprisingly, one of my favourite parts of the book was the one I usually skip over – in other words, the Appendix. Throughout the book I’d appreciated the ‘companion’ stories provided in most chapters. Placed in handy boxes that broke up the text, they varied nicely, from the thoughts of supervisors describing their expectations and requirements (e.g. ‘What I look for in a prospective PhD student’ on pp. 16-18) to relatable tips given by former or current PhD’s (e.g. pp. 25-28 ‘Things I wish I knew before I started my PhD’). The Appendix offered a few more of these stories and pieces of advice which hadn’t made it into the body of the text, but still gave the book a more personal feel overall.

While How to do Your PhD in a Nutshell provides very useful and detailed guideline on conducting research, some of it is primarily applicable to students in social science (perhaps something worth making a bit more explicit on the book blurb). I would therefore recommend the reader keep their respective field in mind when considering this book (and others).

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