Muir's Manchester PhD Research Tips

Muir is three years into his PhD at Manchester's Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. Read his advice for preparing for your own study; including how to level up on your referencing software, and the importance of writing 100 words a day, or listen to each of the tips here.?

On... background reading?

“In the summer, just before I joined, I had a month where I learnt all of my supervisor’s papers on the topic, and tried to read up as much as I could before going in. They gave me a research proposal before going in, so I read through?that a hundred times, trying to figure out what fields of research they would want me to read, then I found those and read those. I still had my access from my previous university, so I was still able to access those papers and take some notes. I also found a book by my supervisor written on the topic, so I read that cover to cover, just to try and get a good grasp on it. I honestly just focussed on trying to understand the key, core concepts of my field and understanding – what are the definitions, what are the key elements, what makes my technology do what it does, how big are they, where are they – just having a surface level understanding before going in. A lot of my research focusses on the UK, so I was also able to read a lot of news articles about the technology, and all those sorts of easy to access, easily understandable references, that gave me the ins and outs. I would avoid going into the deep, deep sections, because you’ll get yourself on to a tangent that you’ll have to correct when you’re with the supervisor and they say, ‘this is nice, but it’s not the direction where we need you to go’.?

In the research proposal, I highlighted the key aspects that were going to be wanted during the PhD, then I looked into the literature and tried to collect tons of research papers on these themes, then I tried to form a sort of game plan before joining. That game plan lasted maybe three weeks before it shifted, and then it shifted again, but it’s good to have an initial plan. I think everybody, once they’ve joined, they have this huge imposter syndrome where they feel like they don’t know enough and they don’t belong, but having done that little bit of research, it kind of gave me a safety blanket to reassure myself that I know something, and I’m here for a reason. Also, the terminology that you can pick up from this preliminary reading, can help you talk about things in your supervisor meetings and show them that you’re engaged, you’re enthusiastic, and you can push this field forwards.”

On... developing a routine

“So, before COVID I didn’t really have too much of a routine. I would go to the office, work as much as I could, get exhausted on the way back home, pass out around 6pm, wake up at 9am and repeat! But then once COVID hit, I was in the same eighteen square metres the whole time, so I had to get myself into a rhythm where I was waking myself up at a good time, I wasn’t overstretching myself mentally, I could still get into a good routine of writing data analysis, lunch and repeat and not exhausting myself. So, I think weirdly COVID helped me get myself into a good routine for that.”

On... writing every day

“What I wish I’d done was...and I didn’t realise how powerful this would be... but you can go weeks without writing anything for your PhD, so at a minimum try and write (and this may not sound a lot), try and write at least one hundred words a day. Even if it’s a review of a paper or even what you did that day, just write it down on a word document, saying ‘this worked, this didn’t, this is the paper that I read, this is what they did, this is the values that they used’. Then when you come to the end of the PhD you can then look back at those hundred words, and it’ll be so much easier to then write your thesis at the end, because you’ve actually written a good chunk of it beforehand. I realised that maybe a third into my second year, but I wish I’d done it from my first year, because in your first year you are doing your literature review, so that is where you’re doing a huge amount of reading of the literature and figuring out who’s doing what, where, and what values they’re using. So, if I’d done that back then too, I would be in a better position, but I’m happy that I realised it when I did. Towards the end you kind of think, ‘how many words a day do I need to write, to be able to meet my deadlines, but if you have that backlog of words, then it becomes a lot easier for you.”

On... not wasting year one

“The advice that was given to me in my postgrad, was don’t waste your first year as you can get a lot of stuff done; you can really get a grasp of the literature, you can have a sort of game plan ready. My supervisor at the time said he’d wasted his first year, and he said that that one of his greatest regrets was not hitting the ground running, reading everything he could and getting a clear lay of the land in what’s going on in the field. I think that’s a priority. The time flies really, so any additional time you can find to add to it is monumentally helpful.”

On... working with a supervisor

“The dynamic between the supervisor and the student is a critical component, so choosing the right supervisor for you is a critical choice. You can get a judge of that from your interviews, but there is a teething process in the first couple of weeks, where you learn each other's best practices, and how to best communicate with each other, as well as how to structure your supervisor meetings to get the most out of it. So, there is a teething period there, but the majority of people get through that, and they find a good rhythm that works for both of them. I feel like I can email my supervisors as much as I like, I try not to bombard them as I know they are extremely busy, so I try to collect and save my big questions for a supervisor meeting, but if there’s a small question I may have, I’ll just drop them an email and they’ll respond pretty much within the hour.”

On... practicing image editing

“I would say, get handy with image processing software like Photoshop or Illustrator, as these can be quite impactful for writing up your first- and second-year transfer reports. Having good, attractive figures can really help your exam processing, but also the good figures that you make there can also go towards publishing papers, as it’s really quite handy to have visually appealing imagery for your papers. So having a good understanding of how to create images and how to process them and annotate them can be really handy for you. I think it’s twenty-four pounds a month to have a whole list of Adobe Software, including Illustrator, Photoshop and Premiere Pro, those sorts of editing software, and for me it’s become really handy. Just practice trying to draw a diagram and then redraw it later, see if you can improve it. On LinkedIn Learning, they did a colour theory course which was really handy – what colours to pick to say what you want to say in your diagrams – I think one of the tips was to try and use red sparingly, because if you put red in a diagram, that’s all they’re going to look at! You have to pick what colours really work together.”

On... referencing software

“In the period of time before the PhD, get really used to using referencing software. A lot of people I’ve spoken to have never used referencing software in their masters or undergrad, and are then plunged into this PhD where they’re spending weeks trying to learn how to use referencing software like Endnote, or Mendeley, but if you can learn how to do that before joining, then that’ll save you weeks of work. I used a lot of YouTube videos to learn, but it’s quite point and click with Mendeley, you can easily learn just by using the software. It took me a couple of weeks to learn how to do it, so I couldn’t imagine doing that right when you’re starting the PhD – it’s a critical time of you settling in, trying to get used to what the literature is saying about your research, and if you’re spending half the time trying to learn how to use the software, you’re not hitting the ground running as you join.”

On... publishing early

“Try and have the confidence to go and publish papers as early as you can. A lot of people in my department have taken a different strategy now, and they’re all trying to get a paper out in their first year. They’re all doing literature review papers – these are really quite nice papers to get out there, that can really open doors for you. You just have to have the confidence to go and write a paper, to send it to your supervisor for critiques and feedback, to improve it, and then publish it. It can really help you, if you can try and do that as early as possible.?

I think everybody is a victim to their previous reference points. The first paper that I did was treacherous, I had no idea what I was doing – I swapped journals three times and had maybe four or five drafts with my supervisors, trying to get a good technique – but they were really supportive and I was able to talk to other PhD students who were the year above me and say, ‘how did you do this, what methods did you use, how did you structure everything and get your conclusions in a good way’. But once you get your first paper out the way, all the rest become a bit easier, because you’ve learnt all the tips and tricks and you’re going to fly through the others.?

If you want a job in academia, having papers to your name is a really good way to get good bids. I watched a lot of PhD Youtubers who have documented their lives throughout their entire process, and listened to what they said. In their final vlogs they said that they wished they’d done more papers, and how much that would have helped them. So, listening to their advice I decided to go and do that. Though I like to be slightly strategic with what I do, for example I published my first paper on my methodology to try and reinforce that for my exam, so in my exam I could say, ‘look I published this paper, that reinforces my methodology. Then I published my second paper which reinforced all of the assumptions I used in my analysis, and it’s all peer reviewed so it backs me up a little bit. So, you can get double benefit from doing this if you plan out sections. I think the motivation can come from the fact that it’s going to improve things for you, so you might as well keep at it!”

On... choosing Manchester?

“I’m really happy with my choice of coming to Manchester, as my supervisors are the best in their field, so it’s really,?really?handy to have them on close call – I can just send them an email with any problems I have, and any insights or connections they have can help. One of my supervisors has really good connections with stakeholders of other research in the field, whereas the other has a lot of connections in industry, so I’m able to talk to people on the ground using the technology, as well as connections into other government officials like those at BEIS. Manchester has really good connections like that, so I would highly recommend applying and doing a PhD here. We’ve also got MACE, where we’re all going to be moving into, which is a state-of-the-art, fantastic building. So yes, I’d highly recommend it, I jumped at the opportunity and I’m extremely happy that I did.”???