The doctorate degree is the highest academic degree that one can obtain. If it isn’t life changing then how do you justify its importance and relevance? It takes long term hard work and resilience to get a PhD degree and all the scholars know that it will undoubtedly enhance their academic and research based skills. It equips researchers to look into new emerging problems and solve them with a more logical perspective. But Derek feels that other than these skill enrichments, doing a doctoral degree transformed his life is many other dimensions. Some of them are:

1. His opinions and suggestions became more impactful: Derek feels that in his job as a research analyst, his PhD prepared him to transform his impact on the industry in a very unique way. His analysis and suggestions became more logical and based on substantive research grounds making him more confident of his analysis and the subsequent suggestions.

2. He qualified for a significant jump at work: His Company identified that he had harnessed effective decision making skills and that was the key specialisations needed at the top level positions. His PhD journey allowed him to explore his horizons and develop the ability to take decisions faster and more accurate, it opened the avenue for him to jump on a higher pedestal much faster.

3. He had a much wider professional network: Derek had a part time PhD course but the duration of the course and the rigorous involvement it calls for, required him to a have a strong professional network that became his support system. This network did not end with the end of the course but became a strong resource base that helped him at different junctures of his PhD journey.

4. His financial strength improved: The reason he took up PhD is, because he wanted to increase his earnings. The jump in the career and a better position in the organisation helped him to improve his income and in addition to that, he became a freelance consultant to increase his sources of income. It was an icing on the cake.

So, if you still have second thoughts about pursuing your PhD, this should be inspirational enough to make you realize how a PhD can change your life for good. Don’t wait now as decisions when delayed, become shaky and uncertain.

Ethics are referred to as that basic code of conduct which demarcates the tolerable and intolerable modes. Although it is a principle which is mainly learned during childhood either from parents or from teachers yet many people don’t take it seriously in their real life. It hardly matters how genius you are and how good you scored in your academics, but if you are ethically disturbed nothing will work out for you.

Ethics are necessary in every field whether it is your personal concern or professional matters. Ethics in research are an inevitable apprehension. Let’s have a look at what exactly research ethical means and how it helps in achieving the real sense of research? –

• Work Honestly – Working and presenting plagiarized matter is extremely easy, but at the end it means nothing. So, you should work honestly by presenting real data’s and content, your matter should not be falsified, fake or erroneous.

• Be trustworthy – Your university has given you a chance to pursue your doctorate among thousands so you should be trustworthy towards it. You should never use any unfair means for your first hand research paper and should not sell it out just for a few bugs.

• Be Objective – Avoid preconceived notion before writing your paper. Focus on the objective of your research and work on real data analysis, experimentation, interpretation and other forms of research. Curtail biases or disclosure of your own data’s.

• Be careful – Be aware and alert while writing your paper. Avoid blundering and carefully analyze your and others work too, as you can learn much by observing. Keep a back up of all your work may it be data collection or result interpretation.

• Be helpful – You should be open to guide others and help them in case they are stuck. You can mentor and guide your fellow scholars in their research.

Hence, these were some basic ethics in research that can help you in presenting and maintaining your research integrity.

There are many students, scholars and researchers who struggle with writing. They have many thoughts in their head and ideas that they want to implement, but they are unable to put all of them down on paper. They do not know the right words to choose and they do not know the right sentences to select.

Many writers, either intentionally or unintentionally, end up making derogatory statements about a racial or ethnic or religious group which causes them to get into trouble. This can particularly be a problem when one is doing research in the social sciences. Some researchers have a problem structuring their content in a logical flow, and there are others who have a problem presenting citations accurately.

In order to avoid such problems it would be a good idea if the researchers were to get coached in writing. There are specialists out there who are skilled in teaching others how to write and train them to present their thoughts and ideas in a logical manner.

Researchers would greatly benefit from being trained to write in a structured and professional manner. The researchers can do some self analysis and try to understand what their strong points and what their weak points are. This will give them an idea as to exactly what kind of help they need and then ask for it.

The scholars would also benefit from having access to the latest manuals on writing, formatting and citations. Armed with all this knowledge they can then go on to produce any type of content in any field of academics that they want to work in. Writing is one skill that will stay with the researchers, students and scholars for the rest of their lives and display its importance from time to time.

Preparing a proposal that will get approved without many objections is a challenge for most research candidates. Get complete information on the guidelines that your college follows regarding length and writing style for a proposal. While some candidates write the proposal before they actually start working on the project, it is wise to do some groundwork prior to penning down the proposal. This will help you face the committee’s questions satisfactorily.

Keeping in mind the following tips will enable you to get the proposal approved without hassles:

Follow the Format

Every college has a definite format for the proposal, which is similar to that prescribed for PhD dissertation. The most usual format is:

 Title page
 Abstract
 Introduction/ Problem statement
 Literature review
 Research methodology and design
 Conclusion

The chapters have to be in the specific sequence and within the required word limit. The presentation aspects like font size and style, headers and pagination also need to be perfect.

Select Relevant Resources

Be very careful while choosing the resources that you will use for research. The literature review chapter is crucial in a proposal as it builds the base of research. The committee must be sure that your references are reliable, relevant, recent and free from plagiarism. You may need to get a minimum number of references, as required by the college. Apart from online resources and library, you can access unpublished as well as published articles of prior researchers.

Provide Citations

Apart from choosing references, citing them as per the proper style is also important. Most colleges use APA style; however, you may be asked to follow any other style like MLA, AMA, AP, ACS, Harvard, etc. Make sure that you follow the same for literature review as well as bibliography.

Prepare Strong Research Design

The research design and methodology that you present in the proposal will reveal to the committee the strength of the study that you are about to undertake. It must be detailed and rationale for choosing a methodology over others must be stated.

The data collection and analysis methods, as well as dependent and independent variables, must also be identified here. The assumptions used for study must be free from validity issues.

Write with precision, using scholarly language and highlight the reasons for your study in the abstract. Lastly, edit and revise the proposal before presenting it.

While carrying out a research based study and inscribing a dissertation report based on the same, majorly two types of format are generally used across several academic and research institutions across the world. For just a moment, leaving apart the aspects of the formatting part, if quality articles cannot be produced from a research based dissertation, then in that case the relevance of the dissertation is reduced to a great extent. Therefore, it is always the responsibility of a researcher to bring out quality journal articles from a dissertation. Effectiveness and efficiency of bringing out quality articles from a dissertation depends on how a researcher has formatted the entire dissertation work. For that reason, the formatting part of a dissertation plays a very crucial role in the future publication process.

There are mainly two types of dissertation formats being followed in academic institutions across the world. First one is the chapter-wise format, and the second one is the three essay format. Now breaking, joining, and reformatting the chapters into the form a journal article may turn out to be a tedious task, and in times, it may not be prove out to be a useful one. Compared to this, three-essay format is a pretty straightforward method. Under preview of this format, researchers have to inscribe three extensive research papers, based on three particular research questions. Now, when the question comes to publication, researchers do not need to write papers separately for journals, as they have readymade dissertation chapters, in the form of papers. In this way, the researchers can focus on their research questions in a more distinctive manner, as one chapter will consist of one paper, and that paper will focus on one research question only. Therefore, chances of overlapping or replicating the results turn out to be lower that the former format.

For more information about various aspects of the three essay format, kindly browse through the pages of www.phdwritingcoach.com.

When you are pursuing a course which entails research study as a compulsory component for completion of the course, then you will have to brace yourself for it. This preparation will have to be mental, economical, physical and academic. Let us see how:

• You will need to take many crucial decisions, which will impact your study
• Many studies require team work for which you will have to collaborate with peers and work in tandem
• Taking approval from the concerned organizations is another hassle that you need to face
• Long hours of study are essential. Spending time in the field for survey or observation, in libraries for finding references, and in laboratories for experiments will need ample energy.
• There might be some cost involved in the research work for gathering sources and conducting tests. Your institute may or may not bear these costs.
• Though your research will be based on the subject in which you are specializing, there will be many facets with which you are not familiar. You need to understand them as well.
• Technical aspects like citation guides, analysis tools and presentation styles will demand academic preparation
• Documentation in itself is a major challenge. Writing a bulky document (a few hundred pages) will not be easy and needs perseverance, skill and concentration.

If you make prior preparations, then getting your research work started will be comparatively easy. While handling the economic and physiological aspects is in your control, to get the academic and mental factors on track, you will need the help of research guides who have experience in the field. So another important preparation that you must do is to find a mentor who will offer you reliable and timely advice, help you at all stages of research and lead you to success.

Your university’s research committee will assign a supervisor or guide, who will be responsible for answering your queries and ensuring that the study progresses smoothly. To avail maximum guidance, you will have to make your work schedule and share it with the guide. You must also be aware of the schedule which she follows and plan your meetings in advance. Regular communication with the guide is necessary. This can be done through email or face to face meetings.

However, many a times the assigned mentor is not available for help. In such circumstances, finding external help will also be a part of your preparations for research. Search for reliable mentors who will guide you with dedication and you will save a lot of hassles.