Introduction
Read read read, know what you are dealing with or love to deal with. Then its time to find the loop holes. Why? is your friend. Why why why? then make a guess of why and you are on a your journey to prove your guess. Just like sherlock. A hypothesis and a proof. That is research.
Some researchers try to make their research sound complicated. but in our current work where public is power. Simplicity is your best friend. A professor once told me “if something is too complicated. Use the stupidiest way to solve it.” And once you do. use the simpliest way to explain it.
Finding a PhD
Funding a PhD
So What is a PhD?
A good version which I humbly accepted is its a training of learning to think independently and critically. “YES” man gets shot. In PhD, we say more of a “Lets see what happens”, … “OOooo. isn’t there a better way to do this?”,….”This is interesting… What else can I do with this.”… and finally.. “Noooo.. I think its rubbish”. Failure is common when researching.
What Next?
After a while you will be the pinnacle of your field. The grand plan of this is then you would have published alot in your field and here comes the “money shot”. Grand Idea, written into a proposal and funding from Research Societies. You get the first paycheck to fund a team to carry on your own dream. Dream that will change the field, society or even the world. “Is it all FAME and Glory?”
HURRAH
Researching
First, talk to an academic of a particular field. He/She can get you involved in certain research or area. You can also get some good conference recommendations. When pursuing research career, your career is mostly….. about RESEARCH. Therefore you will have to pursue an area of interest / speciality and work from there.
Publishing
Here are a few international directories that can help you seek conferences all over the world. Currently there are a few types: Journals / Conferences / Workshops. Graded in order of importance. All these are based on impact. Impact is how it influences the world. The lower the score i.e. 0.6 or 1.2 is good. 8.0 is not as good.
- http://www.doaj.org/
- http://www.wileyopenaccess.com/
- http://www.oxfordjournals.org/oxfordopen/
- http://www.plos.org/
Journals / Conferences
- http://www.digitalcultureandeducation.com/
- http://www.ejise.com/
- http://journal.ub.tu-berlin.de/
Next question about publishing is cost. Most journals or conferences will require a fee. This fee varies but at current standing it is about USD$ 1200 – 2500. You might criticise the lack of support for open knowledge, however this is life. Like how cars work on petrol, people still work on money. Solar is near, but not near enough.
If you are down on dosh, you may consider the following methods
- Research group funding
- Co-author funding (other co-authors might have access to funds)
- Department funding (your school or department might have funds for you)
- School or University funding
- Open Trusts such as Wellcome Trust (http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/about-us/policy/spotlight-issues/Open-access/Guides/wtx036803.htm)