How to Complete a PhD in the Medical and Clinical Sciences

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