What do you think?
Study Skills Series
The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research
"I feel grateful to have found this book only a year into my PhD. It has opened my eyes to the world of academia. There is more to a PhD than just research in the sense of working on a problem, getting some results and publishing your findings. This book has allowed me to open my eyes and see all the other things I should be doing to fully succeed at my endeavour of becoming a researcher myself."
Dominic Hosler, University of Sheffield This bestselling book on the process of PhD research provides readers with engaging discussion and comprehensive guidance on aspects that other books don't usually mention. Covering all the key topics of the previous edition, including what a PhD is really about, how to do one well, how to decipher what your supervisor actually means by terms like 'good referencing' and 'clean research question', and how to design, report and defend your research,the authors continue to offer an accessible, down-to-earth, and insightful account of the whole PhD process. Their advice addresses how to avoid some of the pitfalls en route to a successful submission. Updated throughout, the new edition includes new material
Dominic Hosler, University of Sheffield This bestselling book on the process of PhD research provides readers with engaging discussion and comprehensive guidance on aspects that other books don't usually mention. Covering all the key topics of the previous edition, including what a PhD is really about, how to do one well, how to decipher what your supervisor actually means by terms like 'good referencing' and 'clean research question', and how to design, report and defend your research,the authors continue to offer an accessible, down-to-earth, and insightful account of the whole PhD process. Their advice addresses how to avoid some of the pitfalls en route to a successful submission. Updated throughout, the new edition includes new material
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
August 7, 2014
The main advice of the book: Don't panic and blurt out the truth. :)
October 13, 2025
Edit (September 2026)
I started reading this before embarking on a PhD. I’m not sure what I think. I’ll have to reread parts of it. I felt this book focused a lot on how to write and defend a dissertation. I can see how for someone who completed a PhD years ago, this would be the main thing they recall.
Now that I’m about to start my dissertation proposal I actually know that one of the unspoken rules of academia (in my field anyway) is that the dissertation doesn’t actually matter much! It’s just the final milestone.
There are soooo many things I wish I knew before I started. I wrote a list below. Keep in mind it may be specific to my situation, which is a PhD in cognitive science at a R1 institution, United States. In other countries and other fields things vary quite a bit. So take my advice only as it applies to you.
What you truly need to achieve in a PhD is: gain the most advanced and up to date skills you can, gain the most up to date knowledge of the field that you can, gain connections to the network in your field.
Here are unspoken rules i have learned so far:
- Before you start your PhD get a lay of the land. Find out which journals are the main ones, the good ones, the least good ones. Know who the major academics are, know what the main debates are. Often your advisor expects you to already know, or if not, they still will forget to give you this info. Get it yourself.
- You can use existing datasets as a fast track to getting data if your data collection is slow (for cognitive science research anyway. There are tons of datasets available online. Use that to your advantage. )
- You can also write a literature review as a way to get more publications of data collection is slow or not yielding results
- Academia is full of politics, appearance, status games and reputation games. Tread carefully. If people feel their expertise or authority is being challenged by a mere graduate students that’s not ideal. Remember your “place” in the hierarchy and remember that even asking a question can be understood as your challenging the person. This varies tremendously and is determined solely by the personality of the person you are talking to.
- People research you even though you’re a mere graduate student. Before classes begin faculty almost always look over the roster to know who everyone is.
- Similarly, make sure you know who people are before you meet them. This applies mostly to people you may collaborate with but even professors you take a class with or who are visiting for a talk - make sure you know their background before you speak for the first time. It is a general sign of respect.
- A lot of success is about being ok with failure, trial and error, null results, trying again.
- you can look for mentorship elsewhere besides your advisor. You can arrange meetings with other professors to ask for advice (this may be specific to the united states).
- academia gossip and isn’t just entertainment, it’s how people learn about each other. In every department there are reputations that you can only find out through word of mouth. This is because academia is very small. As a phd candidate you wouldn’t dare write a review of your advisor on glassdoor if you are maybe one of 2 or 3 phd candidates in the lab at that time! There are way too many risks of putting that info out publicly and having it traces back to you. Sometimes the most important info is ONLY available through word of mouth.
- that being said, most of the time people working with a toxic advisor want to tell people and warn others. Before you say yes to an offer and probably honestly before you even apply to a lab, ask privately what it’s like to work with the advisor. Do NOT skip this.
- there is almost always a path to switching advisors. The department won’t publicize it but they are prepared for this happening. Having a bad advisor is the number one thing that will make or break you. Plenty of people have left academia or even left their PhD early because of bullying from their advisor. In academia, to get fired, especially after tenure is nearly impossible. You have to do something illegal to get fired.
- grants are a big deal for faculty - more than I ever knew before my PhD. It is the main metric that faculty get evaluated on if you are at a major research institution (R1). This may be less important at a small liberal arts college. Your advisor may or may not ask for your help writing grants. You have to be careful to not get sucked into becoming a grant writer instead of a researcher.
- how well you teach doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter at all. Your advisor doesn’t care how well you teach, your committee doesn’t care, when you’re searching for a job in academia at the end of your PhD it won’t matter one bit. It’s ironic since a university is an institution for education but as a PhD student it really doesn’t matter. If you’re going to half-ass or rush through anything, teaching is the thing you can rush through without it backfiring. For professors this is also the case - they can teach badly and mentor PhD students badly and as long as they get grants the department will want to keep them forever.
- a lot of things can be outsourced to volunteer (unpaid) undergraduate assistants - one of the best resources to be honest. But you have to screen them well, train them well and motivate them.
- a lot of time is not spent on research but on planning to do research (getting ethics approval, picking a design, budgeting costs, training research assistants, building and testing the experiment etc.).
- you need to learn to do a ton of admin work, paperwork, project management, coordinating people and planning meetings etc.
- building social relationships and a network and having a positive reputation is a big part of academia, more so than in most regular jobs at a company. It’s a small world. The main way people get a post doc is meeting and collaborating before they even apply for a post docs. However some people to get a post doc by applying to an open position. That being said, if you can, build connections, meet people, etc.
- your contract says you work 40 hours a week but you will always work more, and you will never get paid over time. Try to balance this as much as you can. At some point if you over work yourself your quality goes down. Be kind to yourself, take breaks when possible.
- your dissertation doesn’t matter as much as you think. It’s basically a contract you fulfill to get your degree. It’s a milestone. Arguably the things that actually matter are publications and passing your qualifying exam. The only time you are actually, truly at risk of getting “fired” is your qualifying exam. Take it seriously. Then the main thing that matters for getting a job after your PhD is your publications - having a balance of quality and quantity. The dissertation is basically a final milestone to practice and refine the skills you’ve gained on the journey.
I started reading this before embarking on a PhD. I’m not sure what I think. I’ll have to reread parts of it. I felt this book focused a lot on how to write and defend a dissertation. I can see how for someone who completed a PhD years ago, this would be the main thing they recall.
Now that I’m about to start my dissertation proposal I actually know that one of the unspoken rules of academia (in my field anyway) is that the dissertation doesn’t actually matter much! It’s just the final milestone.
There are soooo many things I wish I knew before I started. I wrote a list below. Keep in mind it may be specific to my situation, which is a PhD in cognitive science at a R1 institution, United States. In other countries and other fields things vary quite a bit. So take my advice only as it applies to you.
What you truly need to achieve in a PhD is: gain the most advanced and up to date skills you can, gain the most up to date knowledge of the field that you can, gain connections to the network in your field.
Here are unspoken rules i have learned so far:
- Before you start your PhD get a lay of the land. Find out which journals are the main ones, the good ones, the least good ones. Know who the major academics are, know what the main debates are. Often your advisor expects you to already know, or if not, they still will forget to give you this info. Get it yourself.
- You can use existing datasets as a fast track to getting data if your data collection is slow (for cognitive science research anyway. There are tons of datasets available online. Use that to your advantage. )
- You can also write a literature review as a way to get more publications of data collection is slow or not yielding results
- Academia is full of politics, appearance, status games and reputation games. Tread carefully. If people feel their expertise or authority is being challenged by a mere graduate students that’s not ideal. Remember your “place” in the hierarchy and remember that even asking a question can be understood as your challenging the person. This varies tremendously and is determined solely by the personality of the person you are talking to.
- People research you even though you’re a mere graduate student. Before classes begin faculty almost always look over the roster to know who everyone is.
- Similarly, make sure you know who people are before you meet them. This applies mostly to people you may collaborate with but even professors you take a class with or who are visiting for a talk - make sure you know their background before you speak for the first time. It is a general sign of respect.
- A lot of success is about being ok with failure, trial and error, null results, trying again.
- you can look for mentorship elsewhere besides your advisor. You can arrange meetings with other professors to ask for advice (this may be specific to the united states).
- academia gossip and isn’t just entertainment, it’s how people learn about each other. In every department there are reputations that you can only find out through word of mouth. This is because academia is very small. As a phd candidate you wouldn’t dare write a review of your advisor on glassdoor if you are maybe one of 2 or 3 phd candidates in the lab at that time! There are way too many risks of putting that info out publicly and having it traces back to you. Sometimes the most important info is ONLY available through word of mouth.
- that being said, most of the time people working with a toxic advisor want to tell people and warn others. Before you say yes to an offer and probably honestly before you even apply to a lab, ask privately what it’s like to work with the advisor. Do NOT skip this.
- there is almost always a path to switching advisors. The department won’t publicize it but they are prepared for this happening. Having a bad advisor is the number one thing that will make or break you. Plenty of people have left academia or even left their PhD early because of bullying from their advisor. In academia, to get fired, especially after tenure is nearly impossible. You have to do something illegal to get fired.
- grants are a big deal for faculty - more than I ever knew before my PhD. It is the main metric that faculty get evaluated on if you are at a major research institution (R1). This may be less important at a small liberal arts college. Your advisor may or may not ask for your help writing grants. You have to be careful to not get sucked into becoming a grant writer instead of a researcher.
- how well you teach doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter at all. Your advisor doesn’t care how well you teach, your committee doesn’t care, when you’re searching for a job in academia at the end of your PhD it won’t matter one bit. It’s ironic since a university is an institution for education but as a PhD student it really doesn’t matter. If you’re going to half-ass or rush through anything, teaching is the thing you can rush through without it backfiring. For professors this is also the case - they can teach badly and mentor PhD students badly and as long as they get grants the department will want to keep them forever.
- a lot of things can be outsourced to volunteer (unpaid) undergraduate assistants - one of the best resources to be honest. But you have to screen them well, train them well and motivate them.
- a lot of time is not spent on research but on planning to do research (getting ethics approval, picking a design, budgeting costs, training research assistants, building and testing the experiment etc.).
- you need to learn to do a ton of admin work, paperwork, project management, coordinating people and planning meetings etc.
- building social relationships and a network and having a positive reputation is a big part of academia, more so than in most regular jobs at a company. It’s a small world. The main way people get a post doc is meeting and collaborating before they even apply for a post docs. However some people to get a post doc by applying to an open position. That being said, if you can, build connections, meet people, etc.
- your contract says you work 40 hours a week but you will always work more, and you will never get paid over time. Try to balance this as much as you can. At some point if you over work yourself your quality goes down. Be kind to yourself, take breaks when possible.
- your dissertation doesn’t matter as much as you think. It’s basically a contract you fulfill to get your degree. It’s a milestone. Arguably the things that actually matter are publications and passing your qualifying exam. The only time you are actually, truly at risk of getting “fired” is your qualifying exam. Take it seriously. Then the main thing that matters for getting a job after your PhD is your publications - having a balance of quality and quantity. The dissertation is basically a final milestone to practice and refine the skills you’ve gained on the journey.
August 19, 2013
An excellent text on how to be an effective and efficient PhD student. The advice is general enough to be applicable to the majority of PhD programs, yet specific enough to not be vague, and to actually be helpful. My specific area of research is math / computer science, and the advice in this book is indeed quite useful. One of the habits I started from this book which I've found quite helpful is to maintain an updated annotated bibliography of all of the papers I've read. This has saved me quite a bit of time in my own writing and research. The book was written in the UK, so some of the differences in PhD procedure is a bit pronounced, but this is a minor gripe. I also thoroughly enjoyed the use of coffee throughout this book.
April 22, 2015
Amazing book! I tend to have a bit of different philosophy from the authors, because of which I almost stopped reading after the third chapter. However, the book has amazing advice and perspective on the PhD. I think the most valuable element is that this book really focuses on the "in-between-the-lines" advice that is hard to articulate. For example, did you know that a reviewer can tell a lot about your character from the way that you present your references in terms of grammar and organization?
Overall this book is well done, and is at a level that should be reviewed by all PhD students.
Overall this book is well done, and is at a level that should be reviewed by all PhD students.
March 5, 2018
Doktora sürecini başından sonuna eğlenceli bir şekilde anlatmaya çalışan bir kitap. Kitap adı üstünde yazısız kurallardan bahsettiği ve bu kuralların yazılı hale getirilmemesinin bir nedeni de çok bilindik olmaları olduğu için yeni bir şey öğreniyormuş gibi hissetmiyorsunuz. Doktora öğrencisinden beklenen yetkinliklerin anlatıldığı ilk bölümler başarılı.
Ancak yazarların tez danışmanını ve tez jürisini tanrılaştırma, öğrenciyi ise kooskoca akademide yerini bilmesi gereken bir faniye indirgeme eğilimleri var. Burjuva akademisinin yapılanışına ilişkin eleştirelliğin olmamasını geçtim, bu kalıbın tek alternatif olduğunu da öğreniyoruz: Akademisyen ya statü, ya iktidar peşindedir ya da araştırmayı seviyordur, hobisini işi yapmıştır, diyorlar açık açık. Hakikat arayışı, ezilenin yanında saf tutma, dünyayı dönüştürme mi? Hiç duymamışlar.
Ancak yazarların tez danışmanını ve tez jürisini tanrılaştırma, öğrenciyi ise kooskoca akademide yerini bilmesi gereken bir faniye indirgeme eğilimleri var. Burjuva akademisinin yapılanışına ilişkin eleştirelliğin olmamasını geçtim, bu kalıbın tek alternatif olduğunu da öğreniyoruz: Akademisyen ya statü, ya iktidar peşindedir ya da araştırmayı seviyordur, hobisini işi yapmıştır, diyorlar açık açık. Hakikat arayışı, ezilenin yanında saf tutma, dünyayı dönüştürme mi? Hiç duymamışlar.
Want to Read
August 9, 2011Useful, but occasionally rather blunt and cynical.
May 22, 2017
Good guide to PhD life. I wish I read it in my first year :)
January 2, 2021
Great book! Everything that academia expects you to know, but you had nowhere to learn.
December 19, 2023
my reading progress/pace on this hilariously reflects the PhD... (started a few months before the PhD, finished with a manic skim on a plane a few months before the end of the PhD) - I think this worked out because at the beginning I was going in with good things to know in advance, and by the end, I was reading about defenses and job talks and all the relevant things for the end of the degree program.
it's highly specific to PhDs in the UK, but to be expected as it was recommended to me by a friend who did his PhD in the UK.
it's also a bit outdated by now (presentation tips: have OverHead Projector slides as a backup?) and has a very particularly British-academic sense of humor, which sometimes felt a bit tiresome.
would probably give this 3.5 stars! just somewhat hard to pin down when is a really good time to read it, and needs some adequate context to understand what is relevant and not to one's culture and field. judging from my early annotations, I think I found a lot of the early content useful in the sense of figuring out what mindsets were healthy to adopt. I guess this is true of later sections too - I found it surprisingly validating to see a whole subsection dedicated to suggesting one takes time to tidy one's space of clutter, very relevant to some recent struggles.
I guess something that perpetuates a dropoff in momentum of reading it is, in the midst of the actual PhD, it feels better to take a rest from it than to read more about how to do it well.
I think it's an especially good resource for students who are not getting a lot of explicit support from their supervisors or don't have a mentorship community, or even a quick skim for those who are simply considering the PhD.
it's highly specific to PhDs in the UK, but to be expected as it was recommended to me by a friend who did his PhD in the UK.
it's also a bit outdated by now (presentation tips: have OverHead Projector slides as a backup?) and has a very particularly British-academic sense of humor, which sometimes felt a bit tiresome.
would probably give this 3.5 stars! just somewhat hard to pin down when is a really good time to read it, and needs some adequate context to understand what is relevant and not to one's culture and field. judging from my early annotations, I think I found a lot of the early content useful in the sense of figuring out what mindsets were healthy to adopt. I guess this is true of later sections too - I found it surprisingly validating to see a whole subsection dedicated to suggesting one takes time to tidy one's space of clutter, very relevant to some recent struggles.
I guess something that perpetuates a dropoff in momentum of reading it is, in the midst of the actual PhD, it feels better to take a rest from it than to read more about how to do it well.
I think it's an especially good resource for students who are not getting a lot of explicit support from their supervisors or don't have a mentorship community, or even a quick skim for those who are simply considering the PhD.
July 10, 2019
Sound advice for PhD students across disciplines. The title captures the content perfectly, the best guide I’ve seen so far to reading between the lines in academic contexts.
October 28, 2016
I would give this book 10 stars if I could. For me, it's one of the coolest, most down-to-earth and enlightening books I've read so far.
This book has given me "new eyes" for the PhD study - as an apprenticeship.
But more than that, the way this book decomposes and demystifies the PhD process, the techniques/suggestions it shares to deal with various problems, and the perspectives it keeps to see PhD study as a piece in a big picture (life), are all invaluable and transferable to dealing with other problems in life.
To end it with a quote from this book, "Learn to accept the pain as a friend and your life will be transformed."
This book has given me "new eyes" for the PhD study - as an apprenticeship.
But more than that, the way this book decomposes and demystifies the PhD process, the techniques/suggestions it shares to deal with various problems, and the perspectives it keeps to see PhD study as a piece in a big picture (life), are all invaluable and transferable to dealing with other problems in life.
To end it with a quote from this book, "Learn to accept the pain as a friend and your life will be transformed."
December 11, 2012
A friendly, easy to read description of some of the most important parts of doing a PhD. It gives you a general overview of what you should be aware of, in particular things which are "unofficial" but are expected of you. I would recommend this not only to current PhD students, but also to anyone considering going for one.
March 28, 2020
Deep Dive Into The Tacit Rules of a Ph.D.
A good read for future or current Ph.D. (or other graduate) students to learn about useful general tips for a Ph.D. that are generally not shared or discussed when one starts their doctoral studies. The one drawback of this book is that it’s really written for those who are in the Humanities. Otherwise a good read.
A good read for future or current Ph.D. (or other graduate) students to learn about useful general tips for a Ph.D. that are generally not shared or discussed when one starts their doctoral studies. The one drawback of this book is that it’s really written for those who are in the Humanities. Otherwise a good read.
December 31, 2020
Great book with lots of undisclosed tips on how to excel with the PhD. Quite comprehensive as it covers everything from literature review, to finding a research question to interviews and CV. Useful tool as reference for tips. For more detail on topics it may be better to refer to other more in depth books
February 13, 2013
I enjoyed reading this thoughtful book that goes beyond different perspectives about doing the PhD and what follows next. It does not only cover the obvious rules of PhD, but also cover how other supervisors think of you as a researcher.
June 17, 2016
Slightly patronizing - authors kind of assume that phd students are lazy and dumb, but then again maybe bad behavior does happen a lot. Otherwise very helpful tips, especially if you have no clue how to handle your phd life. Mainly informative for me as I've already read a lot on the subject.
October 11, 2018
Might want to re-visit a year or two after this. It has all chapter that you need for your PhD. Really helpful, and funny. Written in a way, as the author said, like conversation over a cup of coffee. Recommended.
April 21, 2019
if you are thinking to get a PhD, read this book
if you are just started PhD, read this book
if you just finished Viva , read this book
in summary, you should read this book regardless in which stage your PhD is..
if you are just started PhD, read this book
if you just finished Viva , read this book
in summary, you should read this book regardless in which stage your PhD is..
May 18, 2011
A must read by any PhD student.
August 1, 2011
A superb book. Motivating and informative
February 20, 2013
Good read if you are either pursuing or planning to pursue a PhD.
June 8, 2013
Highly recommended. I read it cover to cover.
September 21, 2013
Very useful guide for joining the world of academia and preparing, writing and completing an academic research.
January 5, 2016
Genuinely entertaining explanation of things one should expect to encounter during a PhD program.
October 10, 2016
This book doesn't need a fancy review, it needs a fancy re-reading. Lots of useful stuff.
May 30, 2017
Straightforward, with a decent bit of humor. Certainly not bloated, unlike a lot of these sorts of books, which I always appreciate.
December 13, 2017
I should have read this two years ago--having validated a lot of its lessons by experience rather than through received wisdom.
August 17, 2019
Very helpful indeed, I must read it again and again as I go through my PhD.
September 21, 2019
A very practical (and very funny) book that provides lots of sound advice on how to really get the best out of your doctoral experience.
December 10, 2019
Saved my life.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews