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How to find a research problem in a haystack of papers
Your professor hands you a haystack of research papers, and asks you to go “find a research problem so you can work on it.”
How do you get started?
The best PhDs open doors for more PhDs
A very little key will open a very heavy door. ― Charles Dickens I was a third-year PhD student scrolling through the online publication of a systems conference, looking for papers to read. I was stopped in my tracks by the title of a paper that sounded exactly like my PhD thesis topic. Anxious but […]
A Ph.D. Pitch Deck
Because you’re always selling your Ph.D., whether you know it or not.
10 steps to start and maintain an evergreen literature survey
“How’s your literature survey coming along?” I was a first-year graduate student, when a fourth-year Ph.D. student asked me this question at a weekly meeting. I had no clue what a “literature survey” was. After asking around, I learned that “literature survey” was research speak for “Go find out everything others have done in your […]
A Great Paper Abstract in 5 Sentences
Your abstract is the trailer to the movie that is your paper. The abstract. The hurried after-thought to the paper you just finished writing. You dash off a few rambling words, just minutes before you hit “Submit” to ship your paper off for review to a conference or a journal. Here’s the rub. Your after-thought […]
What to do when your paper is rejected
Your ideas are not bad. They are just not ready YET. I regret to inform you that your paper was not accepted. Sitting at my research-lab desk as a 2nd Year Ph.D. student, I had my first taste of a paper-rejection email. I sat and stared at my computer screen, hoping the words would somehow […]