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  • © 2018

The A-Z of the PhD Trajectory

A Practical Guide for a Successful Journey

  • Is suitable for a classroom setting as well as for self-study
  • Offers advice, anecdotes and exercises to teach junior PhD students in STEM how to succeed
  • Provides information and suggested methods for all steps of the PhD trajectory
  • Contains an extensive glossary of terms

Part of the book series: Springer Texts in Education (SPTE)

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Table of contents (15 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
  2. The Steps of the PhD Trajectory

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
    2. Introduction

      • Eva O. L. Lantsoght
      Pages 3-6
    3. Getting Started with a PhD

      • Eva O. L. Lantsoght
      Pages 7-25
    4. Planning Your Time

      • Eva O. L. Lantsoght
      Pages 27-53
    5. Developing Your Literature Review

      • Eva O. L. Lantsoght
      Pages 55-74
    6. Formulating Your Research Question

      • Eva O. L. Lantsoght
      Pages 75-87
    7. Preparing and Executing Experiments

      • Eva O. L. Lantsoght
      Pages 89-107
    8. Honing Your Academic Writing Skills

      • Eva O. L. Lantsoght
      Pages 109-136
    9. Presenting Your Work

      • Eva O. L. Lantsoght
      Pages 137-155
    10. Communicating Science in the Twenty-First Century

      • Eva O. L. Lantsoght
      Pages 157-174
    11. Preparing for Your First Conference

      • Eva O. L. Lantsoght
      Pages 175-196
    12. Writing Your First Journal Article

      • Eva O. L. Lantsoght
      Pages 197-228
    13. Compiling Your Work into a Dissertation

      • Eva O. L. Lantsoght
      Pages 229-255
    14. Navigating Career Options After Your PhD

      • Eva O. L. Lantsoght
      Pages 257-287
    15. Epilogue

      • Eva O. L. Lantsoght
      Pages 289-293
  3. Glossary

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 295-295
    2. Glossary

      • Eva O. L. Lantsoght
      Pages 297-393

About this book

This textbook is a guide to success during the PhD trajectory. The first part of this book takes the reader through all steps of the PhD trajectory, and the second part contains a unique glossary of terms and explanation relevant for PhD candidates. Written in the accessible language of the PhD Talk blogs, the book contains a great deal of practical advice for carrying out research, and presenting one’s work. It includes tips and advice from current and former PhD candidates, thus representing a broad range of opinions. The book includes exercises that help PhD candidates get their work kick-started. It covers all steps of a doctoral journey in STEM: getting started in a program, planning the work, the literature review, the research question, experimental work, writing, presenting, online tools, presenting at one’s first conference, writing the first journal paper, writing and defending the thesis, and the career after the PhD. Since a PhD trajectory is a deeply personal journey, this book suggests methods PhD candidates can try out, and teaches them how to figure out for themselves which proposed methods work for them, and how to find their own way of doing things.


Reviews

“This strategy makes readers feel as if they are reading letters from a friend who’s providing suggestions on how to become successful, instead of an academic book. The author touches on many dimensions of the doctoral training that are left assumed, such as taking responsibility for honing one’s academic writing skills and, if students have English as a second language, tips and suggestions for addressing this added level of complexity. I can’t wait to have the book and recommend it to my own doctoral students.” (Patricia Goodson, Department of Health and Kinesiology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA)

“The personal insight and practical tips and exercises make an original contribution here.” (Alex Hope, Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom)

“The review is incredibly comprehensive and relatively thorough. It’s also very easy to navigate. In this sense I can imagine it sitting on the shelf of any PhD student as a reference guide. This book has broad appeal. It is comprehensive and easy to navigate and I can see this being a reference manual for any PhD student.” (Ben Libberton, MAX IV Laboratory, Lund, Sweden)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Quito, Ecuador

    Eva O. L. Lantsoght

About the author

Dr. Lantsoght graduated with a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Brussels, Belgium) in 2008. She later earned a Master's degree in Structural Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, Georgia, USA) in 2009 and the title of Doctor in Structural Engineering from Technische Universiteit Delft (Delft, the Netherlands) in 2013. The work experience of Dr. Lantsoght includes design work in structural and bridge engineering in Belgium and working as an independent consultant in structural engineering in Ecuador (Adstren). In the academic field, Dr. Lantsoght is a full professor at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (Quito, Ecuador) and a researcher at Technische Universiteit Delft (Delft, Netherlands). Her field of research is the design and analysis of concrete structures and analysis of existing bridges. She blogs at PhD Talk about her research and topics related to higher education and academia. 

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The A-Z of the PhD Trajectory

  • Book Subtitle: A Practical Guide for a Successful Journey

  • Authors: Eva O. L. Lantsoght

  • Series Title: Springer Texts in Education

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77425-1

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Education, Education (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-77424-4Published: 05 June 2018

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-77425-1Published: 25 May 2018

  • Series ISSN: 2366-7672

  • Series E-ISSN: 2366-7680

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIII, 393

  • Number of Illustrations: 53 b/w illustrations, 6 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Research Skills, Thesis and Dissertation, Higher Education, Personal Development, Writing Skills

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access