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Research management

Breeze workshops

Learning Connection workshops and resources for research degree students

The business of research

A career in research usually starts with a PhD. The first step is to discover your general field and area of interest and then define your individual project. There will of course be other opportunities in your lifetime to modify your field of study but a well chosen PhD topic can be a springboard for a great research career. Take time in your first six months to optimise your position and make sure that your project is matched to your aptitude, personality and personal values.

Research these days is as much a business as any other more commercial-sounding endeavour. It requires huge personal commitment and significant or even major financial resources and will be judged on its social, economic and environmental and/or cultural significance to the wider community in Australia and/or internationally. To be a truly successful researcher you need not only to be focussed and diligent but to take every opportunity to build momentum for your life's endeavours. Your work will provide you with Intellectual Property that will underpin your thesis and future career.

Each of the sections below will take you to a 'Breeze Workshop'. These are 'power-point' presentations with recorded voice that you can progress through at your own pace. Each 'breeze' workshop is based on a live workshop that has been held on campus at City East and Mawson Lakes. The workshops are intended as a resource for those who can't attend the live sessions and as a revision for those who have already attended workshops. The live sessions are held for students in the Sciences and Engineering so you will find some specific references to these fields. The content however is suitable for most researchers and everyone is invited to attend the on-line workshops.

Managing your research

During your candidature you will have considerable help including financial assistance and supervision. However you are ultimately responsible for conceiving, performing and finishing your project and for managing your time. Conducting and completing your PhD will test your intellectual and organisational skills as well as your tenacity and consistency of application. This workshop will help you to understand how your PhD research fits into your life's career. It particularly helps you to understand your own strengths and weaknesses and to find ways that you can maximise your efficiency and minimise your chances of experiencing problems. The workshop also includes some simple management tips, an introduction to managing your time and an explanation of the advantages and disadvantages of different models of supervision.

Do you know your Myers Briggs type? If you are not sure you can obtain an introductory assessment of your Myers Briggs personality type. This is not as good as a full analysis but will be adequate to understand and enjoy the workshop. Once you have your MB type, click through to the Workshop on Research Management. The workshop takes a minimum of 18 minutes to complete on-line but you are advised to stop and reflect on the various issues as if you were joining in the live group discussion.

Minimising stress

Doing a PhD can be stressful in fact stress is so common that it has been called 'The PhD blues'. The tough times are likely to arise towards the middle or later years of your candidature but understanding about the causes of the stresses and stressors will help you minimise their effects. This workshop provides you with the opportunity to identify internal and external factors that are likely to stress you. It offers you some coping strategies and a number of helpful preventative strategies. Relax now for at least 15 minutes as you click through and learn techniques to Minimise stress and optimise your performance.

Building networks

The years of your PhD candidature provide you with many opportunities to prepare for and support your later career. Ideally you will take every possible opportunity to present your work at conferences, meet other researchers locally, nationally and internationally and generally begin to create a network of current and future colleagues and collaborators. Your network will underpin your career and the degree to which you build relevant social networks will largely affect your future success.

Building networks lists six different types of networks that you might require in your work and suggests ways that you might go about forming these. Learn in just under 10 minutes how a 'lowly' PhD student can meet the key researchers in his or her field. How and where might you meet these critical contacts? In every field of endeavour your success will be strongly influenced by who you know and not only by what you know.

Intellectual Property

The workshop Understanding and managing intellectual property contains an overview of the different types of IP and how they might affect your work. Intellectual property is the way we claim ownership of the ideas in or content of our work. You will have heard about plagiarism and the importance of not unfairly copying anyone else's work but this workshop is focussed on understanding your own IP and the different ways it can be protected.

In some cases, a PhD student's work will contain Intellectual Property that has an immediate commercial value. More commonly the thesis and published papers will contain IP in the form of expressed ideas. All aspects of IP are extremely valuable. Copyright is automatic and doesn't require any formal application to obtain protection. Other forms of IP have specific requirements that can be accessed through ITEK, a Company owned by UniSa, or through your CRC or other commercial partner. ITEK is responsible for the assessment, protection and commercialisation of the IP created within the University in conjunction with the creators of the IP. For further information read http://www.unisa.edu.au/res/policies/section3.asp.

The Australian Government Intellectual Property website has a special section called IP Professor that has been especially developed for the tertiary sector. From this link http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/ipprofessor/ you will find several valuable lectures and support materials that greatly expand the information given in the Breeze presentation.


Searching for Patents

If you think that there may already be an existing patent in your area of research or you want to check whether your work might potentially breach an existing patent, you need to perform a patent search. This is achieved most effectively through the European patent search engine at http://ep.espacenet.com/, which allows you to search worldwide with ease.

 

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