What belongs to whom

 

Referencing

Detailed and meticulous referencing is a basic requirement of any PhD. When an examiner comes to examine your thesis, the very first thing they do is go straight to the back of it and look at your bibliography. If the bibliography feels thin, out of date, under-developed, stylistically or grammatically sloppy, you have immediately created the impression your entire thesis is like that too. It is not a good way to begin the examination process. The essence of research is building on what came before, and it should be properly referenced. Research should be detailed and extensive. It takes 3 years to do a PhD because it takes 3 years to read and learn everything you need, not because it takes 3 years to write it. Your bibliography should reflect that extensive research and it should be meticulously presented. I have seen a lot of well meaning advice on social media platforms encouraging people who are up against the submission deadline to just submit and get it over with. This is terrible advice. The reason we are planning our PhD is so that we have ample time to get the final presentation of the thesis right because it is so crucial.

The first thing to do is get acquainted with the discipline’s referencing convention. This will vary both by discipline and geographic location, and it will vary between footnotes, and endnotes, referencing in brackets in the text (Harvard or similar) or the entire reference in the footnote (like OSCOLA). Once you know the style you are referencing in, this is the only style you reference in, regardless of the style of the material you are referencing from. If there is no ascribed style for a particular item you wish to reference, like primary material - first check with your librarian - there probably is somewhere. But if not, choose one way and be consistent throughout your PhD. It is your job to find this out at the beginning of your PhD.

The next thing to do, from as early as possible (but it is never too late to start) is find a reference management system that caters to your referencing style. These systems will allow you to input the reference (by the click of the button) straight into the reference manager, and thence into your chapter. There are many systems out there - Endnote by now is practically archaic, but there are online free systems such as Zotero or Mendeley that come highly recommended. Have a search and see what suits your field and your requirements.

Although you can do many other things with reference managing software (like storing articles and so on) I would keep all that activity in your note taking system. Just use the reference manager to manage references, otherwise things are everywhere. I would say the same of qualitative data analysis programmes like Nvivo: you may be tempted to use this to store material rather than just perform analysis - these programmes crash, are not cloud based and will cause you endless aggravation. Only use them for their intended purpose (I speak from bitter experience here!).

TODAY I WILL

  • Find a reference management programme that works for me;

  • Review my system for reference management - am I using the best programme for my purpose?

  • Am I referencing everything correctly for my discipline. Ask the librarian;

  • Write for a least 2 hours in my scheduled slot.