Thoughts, reflections and tips for embarking on doctoral research

Summary

Undertaking doctoral research alongside a career and family life is challenging, but achievable with the right foundations. Here Julia shares five lessons from her PhD journey, covering the importance of a strong support network, knowing your personal motivation, choosing the right research route and institution, finding a topic you care about, and understanding research philosophy and methodology.

I am frequently asked to share my experience, reflections and thoughts about undertaking doctoral research, so I thought it might be helpful to write something that I can share with others.

The metaphor I used to describe my experience whilst I was doing the research was that it “was like climbing Everest” – not that I have done that! I use this analogy because deciding and committing to do the research, completing the proposal and getting accepted felt like I had reached ‘base camp’. Having got to this point you look up as to what is to come next and there are days and moments when the summit is beautifully clear and you can see the route upwards; and then there are plenty of days when the summit is shrouded in cloud and the route up is unclear and looks scary. There are times when you are climbing onwards and, like when you hit scree on a hill climb, you slip or fall downwards and have to re-group and find a new way forward. However, there is a summit – it just takes perseverance, resilience and a bucket load of support to get there. Despite my metaphor, it is 100% achievable.

Here are my top five tips I learnt along the way:

Tip 1
Ensure you get the buy-in and support from your immediate family.

I started my PhD as I was turning 40 – I was running my own business, my son was doing his GCSEs and was competing two event horses and my elderly parents, who live four hours away were increasingly needing more support from me. None of this is ideal and many people undertake a PhD as a full-time student, and whilst I was registered on a full-time course I continued with all of the above and completed in 4 years. I couldn’t have done it without firstly support from my family and friends, and secondly my supervisors. Ensuring support is especially important for those you live with as they will get bored with your research! It’s also important to be clear on who and what your support network is.

Tip 2
Get clear on the why?

Why do you want to do doctoral research? This is a key question to get clear on in your mind: you need to know the why so that when you are struggling, want to jack it all in you can tap into your why. There were many reasons why I wanted to do the research, including business and professional ones. But it was the deeply personal one that kept me going which was, for me, developing greater understanding of self and putting to bed beliefs from school and childhood about not being good enough and not academically capable.

Tip 3
Decide what route and what academic institution you will choose.‍ ‍

The next stage is to get clear on the route you choose. I did mine as a PhD via publication, which meant I wrote three academic papers as I did my research, submitted them for peer review as I went, and then bought them altogether in one document with an overall introduction and discussion chapter for submission. I liked this route it gave me milestones, however the rejections from academic journals and the peer reviews were brutal – I felt like my soul was being attacked at times, because it was my work to which I was emotionally attached. On the positive, each time I had feedback from peer reviewers my writing got better, and I became more comfortable at defending my thinking, which was an enormous help for my VIVA.

Going down the PhD route can be lonely and lack the support of others on the same journey. Whilst there were other PhD students in the University Department I chose, they were considerably younger, at a different life stage and not studying anything remotely connected to my research area. I originally had wanted to go down the Professional Doctorate route, where I would be on a learning journey with a community of researchers and practitioners researching in a similar area. I know this would have worked for me, but cost won the day – PhDs tend to be considerably cheaper than professional doctorates.

Tip 4
Choose a topic/area you are passionate about and believe is important.

I say this because however interested you are in an area you will get bored with it – so you need to choose something that keep you motivated. In year three, I started to feel my research was like a millstone around my neck and needed to tap back into a) my why and b) why the subject area was important to me.

Your supervisors are critical to your success and can make or break the experience. Ideally have at least one supervisor who uses or has used your chosen research methodology. It helps if one of them is working/researching in your subject area. Both my supervisors had published several academic papers so were helpful in supporting me navigate this territory.

Tip 5
Make sure you spend as much time reading about research philosophy and methodology as you do on the topic.

I wasn’t 100% clear on my research methodology at the start. I knew I was going to be following a qualitative approach but started out wanting to use IPA, as I had done that for my MSc. It would have helped if I had spent as much time in the first 9-12 months reading about research philosophy and methodology as I did around my topic.

If you’re embarking on your own doctoral research I hope you find these tips helpful.