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Retrospective PhD by Publication in the UK: A Rapid Review on Educational Research Commentaries

• First Online: 28 September 2022

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• Sin Wang Chong   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4519-0544 3  

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As a form of alternative PhD, Retrospective PhD by Publication has been gaining popularity in UK universities, especially among experienced higher education practitioners who have substantial teaching and research experiences. Researchers have argued that a Retrospective PhD by Publication prepares candidates to excel in academia in terms of research capacity although some underscore the lack of support for candidates pursuing this doctoral route. Adopting a case study approach focusing on the discipline of Education, this chapter presents a genre analysis of six Retrospective PhD by Publication theses, focusing on their commentary component. Employing a recently developed policy-based structural framework of written commentary for a Retrospective PhD by Publication (Chong, 2021), a total of 61 structural moves were identified from these commentaries. Findings suggest that there are great variations in terms of the number of structural moves employed in the six commentaries, exhibiting individual approaches to structuring Retrospective PhD by Publication commentaries even within a small sample in a single academic discipline. Implications related to institutional policies and professional development of supervisors are discussed, as well as future research directions.

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Acknowledgement

Table 4.4 is based on my publication in Innovations in Education and Teaching International published by Taylor & Francis:

Chong, S. W. ( 2021 ). Demystifying commentary guidelines of PhD by published work in the UK: Insights from genre analysis. Innovations in Education and Teaching International . Advanced online publication.

Since this chapter is a continuation of Chong ( 2021 ), the brief description of methodology in section “ Methodology ” would resemble that of (but not a direct copy of) Chong ( 2021 ).

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Chong, S.W. (2022). Retrospective PhD by Publication in the UK: A Rapid Review on Educational Research Commentaries. In: Chong, S.W., Johnson, N. (eds) Landscapes and Narratives of PhD by Publication. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04895-1_4

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Regulations for the Award of the Degree of PhD (by Published Works)

Approved for entry from September 2023

The PhD by Published Works is a doctoral qualification based on research that has already been undertaken and published. These materials will be accompanied by a critical analysis making the case that the scope, coherence, significance and contribution to knowledge of the published works is equivalent to a PhD based on a research project conducted at the university.

The criteria for the award of the Degree of PhD (by Published Works) shall be the same as those established for the Degree of PhD. 

‘Published Works’ may be defined as works which are in the public domain or which have at least been accepted for publication (provided that the candidate can provide adequate proof that this is the case). Works submitted for examination should not have been published more than ten years previous to the date of registration.

In line with research degree schemes which fall within the University's subject area of Creative and Performing Arts, the published works may take one or more of the following forms: artefacts, score, text, portfolio of original works, performance or exhibition. The submission shall be accompanied by any other items which may be required (e.g. a catalogue or audio or visual recording).

On completion of a Doctoral degree, graduates will have attained Level D, as defined by the QAA’s  Framework for Higher Education Qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Eligibility of Candidates

1. Except as provided in Regulations 3 and 4 below, any candidate for the Degree of PhD (by Published Works) shall be a member of academic staff at Aberystwyth University, of at least three years’ standing prior to registration for the degree. The purpose of these regulations is to enable academic staff with a record of publication to obtain a doctoral award.

2. A candidate for the degree must be enrolled as a part-time candidate at the University prior to examination for the Degree. The time limit for submission of the works and critical analysis for examination is 12 months from the date of registration.

3. A person shall not be eligible to proceed to the Degree of PhD (by Published Works) under these regulations if they have been previously approved for a PhD or other related Doctoral Degree of the University.

4. A candidate who has been examined for a Doctoral Degree but who has not been approved for such a degree may not become a candidate for the Degree of PhD under these Regulations.

Application

5. A prospective candidate for the Degree of PhD (by Published Works) shall identify the most appropriate Department of the University for registration and shall submit an application to the PG Admissions Office stating the subject with which their contribution to scholarship appears to be most nearly connected and specifying the published work or works on which their claim to the degree is based. In assessing the application, the Department shall draw upon staff with relevant subject expertise, including the candidate’s prospective advisor, to consider the works submitted in order to decide whether or not there is a prima facie case to support the referral of the works for examination, prior to admission.

6. A candidate, in submitting an application, shall be required to

(a) declare that the submission as a whole is not substantially the same as any that they have previously made or is currently making, whether in published or unpublished form, for a degree, diploma, or similar qualification at any university or similar institution,

(b) state what parts (if any) of the work or works submitted have previously been submitted for another qualification,

(c) declare that, until the outcome of the current application to the University is known, the work or works submitted will not be submitted for any such qualification at another university of similar institution,

(d) submit electronic copies, or else three hard copies of each of the published works in question, and a list of the works submitted.

Candidature

7. Candidates shall be required to provide a written critical analysis which shall:

• set the publications within the context of the literature and field in which they have worked.
• provide a critical analysis establishing the original contribution to learning in that field which in their opinion their work has made.
• establish that the material submitted form a coherent body of work equivalent in scope and level to a PhD in their field.
• describe and provide evidence of the impact of their work, which may include citations and may refer to the quality of peer reviewed journals or other outlets in which the publications have featured.
• establish the currency of the publications within the relevant literature.
• where the submitted materials are creative works, candidates will need to demonstrate that these works were undertaken with research questions in mind, or else that the creative process considered retrospectively served to explore research questions in the way that a creative practice-based PhD would have done, to provide the appropriate academic grounding.

Word Lengths

8. The critical analysis will normally be between 5,000 – 10,000 words. However, where the published works are creative works that were not explicitly written as part of an investigation of defined research questions within a particular academic literature, up to 25,000 words will be permitted and may be required to present the case that the research outputs are equivalent to a practice-based PhD.

9. While the volume of published materials will vary in length according to the discipline area, the total submission including critical analysis should not normally be longer than the PhD limit of 100,000 words excluding appendices and references. A justification should be provided for longer submissions.

10. Candidates may submit work(s) done in collaboration with others in support of the candidature, but such work shall be accompanied by a statement signed by each collaborator indicating the nature and amount of the work done by the candidate.

11. The University shall assign an advisor or advisors nominated by the candidate’s Department. The advisor should hold a PhD and have experience of supervising research students to successful completion. The advisor(s) shall provide general guidance on the presentation of the published works for examination and advice on the critical analysis.

Examination

12. An examination board shall be established in accordance with the regulations on the submission and examination of research degrees, with a Chair, and two external examiners. A candidate’s advisor may be invited by the Chair of the Examining Board to attend the oral examination in an advisory capacity, subject to the candidate’s approval.

13. Examining Boards may recommend one of the following options:

(a) That the candidate be approved for the degree of PhD, subject to such minor corrections to the critical analysis as may be required by the Examining Board.  Corrections should be completed within a period of four working weeks.

(b) That the candidate be not approved for the degree of PhD but that, where the critical analysis submitted for examination is satisfactory in substance but defective in presentation or in detail, the candidate be allowed to modify it and re-submit it on one further occasion, not later than one year from the date of the official communication to him/her of the result, for the degree of PhD on payment of a re-examination fee.  This option is not available when a re-submitted work is being examined. Upon resubmission, a second viva will be held but this requirement may be waived at the discretion of the Examining Board where it has reached the view that the thesis clearly meets the standard to pass without amendments, or with only very minor corrections or amendments. In other, exceptional circumstances, a viva for a resubmission may be waived with the approval of the Examining Board and the Head of the Graduate School. The Chair shall advise the candidate of the arrangements which have been made for the oral examination.

(c) That the candidate be not approved for the degree of PhD.

14. Once approved by the examiners, the critical analysis and any relevant associated works or links to them, shall be uploaded to the University’s research repository.

  Reviewed: July 2023

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• Publications
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I am Group Lead for the Exosome and Retinal Research Group. In my laboratory we develop new therapies to better treat traumatic and degenerative eye diseases, including glaucoma. Our research focuses on the use of stem cells and their secreted compounds to prevent cellular loss in the retina and preserve vision. Of particular interest to me are exosomes, small extracellular vesicles that are secreted from cells and appear to possess remarkable therapeutic potential. Our work also seeks to better model eye disease, either with more robust animal models or through the utilization of human retinal culture systems.

We collaborate closely with the National Eye Institute, NIH, USA. I am happy to communicate with individuals seeking to learn more about my work along with any potential collaborators or prospective students.

Publication

• Chow, L. L. and Mead, B. 2023. Extracellular vesicles as a potential therapeutic for age-related macular degeneration . Neural Regeneration Research 18(9), pp. 1876-1880. ( 10.4103/1673-5374.367835 )
• Mead, B. and Tomarev, S. 2022. The role of miRNA in retinal ganglion cell health and disease . Neural Regeneration Research 17(3), pp. 516-522. ( 10.4103/1673-5374.320974 )
• Mead, B., Kerr, A., Nakaya, N. and Tomarev, S. I. 2021. miRNA Changes in retinal ganglion cells after optic nerve crush and glaucomatous damage . Cells 10(7), article number: 1564. ( 10.3390/cells10071564 )
• Mead, B. and Tomarev, S. 2020. Extracellular vesicle therapy for retinal diseases . Progress in Retinal and Eye Research 79, article number: 100849 Volume 79, November 2020, 100849. ( 10.1016/j.preteyeres.2020.100849 )
• Mead, B., Cullather, E., Nakaya, N., Niu, Y., Kole, C., Ahmed, Z. and Tomarev, S. 2020. Viral delivery of multiple miRNA promotes retinal ganglion cell survival and functional preservation after optic nerve crush injury . Experimental Eye Research 197, article number: 108071. ( 10.1016/j.exer.2020.108071 )
• Mead, B., Chamling, X., Zack, D. J., Ahmed, Z. and Tomarev, S. 2020. TNFα-mediated priming of mesenchymal stem cells enhances their neuroprotective effect on retinal ganglion cells . Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science 61, article number: 6. ( 10.1167/iovs.61.2.6 )
• Mead, B., Ahmed, Z. and Tomarev, S. 2018. Mesenchymal stem cell-derived small extracellular vesicles promote neuroprotection in a genetic DBA/2J mouse model of glaucoma . Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science 59(13), pp. 5473-5480. ( 10.1167/iovs.18-25310 )
• Hill, L. J. et al. 2018. TGF-beta-induced IOP elevations are mediated by RhoA in the early but not the late fibrotic phase of open angle glaucoma . Molecular Vision 24, pp. 712-726.
• Mead, B. and Tomarev, S. 2018. Retinal ganglion cell neuroprotection by growth factors and exosomes: Lessons from mesenchymal stem cells . Neural Regeneration Research 13(2), pp. 228-229. ( 10.4103/1673-5374.226392 )
• Mead, B., Amaral, J. and Tomarev, S. 2018. Mesenchymal stem cell-derived small extracellular vesicles promote neuroprotection in rodent models of glaucoma . Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science 59(2), pp. 702-714. ( 10.1167/iovs.17-22855 )
• Mead, B. and Tomarev, S. 2017. Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells-derived exosomes promote survival of retinal ganglion cells through miRNA-dependent mechanisms . Stem Cells Translational Medicine 6(4), pp. 1273-1285. ( 10.1002/sctm.16-0428 )
• Mead, B., Logan, A., Berry, M., Leadbeater, W. and Scheven, B. A. 2017. Concise review: dental pulp stem cells: a novel cell therapy for retinal and central nervous system repair . Stem Cells 35(1), pp. 61-67. ( 10.1002/stem.2398 )
• Mead, B. and Tomarev, S. 2016. Evaluating retinal ganglion cell loss and dysfunction . Experimental Eye Research 151, pp. 96-106. ( 10.1016/j.exer.2016.08.006 )
• Mead, B. et al. 2016. Mesenchymal stromal cell-mediated neuroprotection and functional preservation of retinal ganglion cells in a rodent model of glaucoma . Cytotherapy 18(4), pp. 487-496. ( 10.1016/j.jcyt.2015.12.002 )
• Hill, L. J. et al. 2015. Decorin reduces itraocular pressure and retinal ganglion cell loss in rodents through fibrolysis of the scarred trabecular meshwork . Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science 56(6), pp. 3743-3757. ( 10.1167/iovs.14-15622 )
• Mead, B., Berry, M., Logan, A., Scott, R. A. H., Leadbeater, W. and Scheven, B. A. 2015. Stem cell treatment of degenerative eye disease . Stem Cell Research 14(3), pp. 243-257. ( 10.1016/j.scr.2015.02.003 )
• Mead, B. and Scheven, B. A. 2015. Mesenchymal stem cell therapy for retinal ganglion cell neuroprotection and axon regeneration . Neural Regeneration Research 10(3), pp. 371-373. ( 10.4103/1673-5374.153681 )
• Mead, B., Thompson, A., Scheven, B. A., Logan, A., Berry, M. and Leadbeater, W. 2014. Comparative evaluation of methods for estimating retinal ganglion cell loss in retinal sections and wholemounts . PLoS ONE 9(10), article number: e110612. ( 10.1371/journal.pone.0110612 )
• Mead, B., Logan, A., Berry, M., Leadbeater, W. and Scheven, B. A. 2014. Paracrine-mediated neuroprotection and neuritogenesis of axotomised retinal ganglion cells by human dental pulp stem cells: comparison with human bone marrow and adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells . PLoS ONE 9(10), article number: e109305. ( 10.1371/journal.pone.0109305 )
• Mead, B., Logan, A., Berry, M., Leadbeater, W. and Scheven, B. A. 2014. Dental pulp stem cells, a paracrine-mediated therapy for the retina . Neural Regeneration Research 9(6), pp. 577-578. ( 10.4103/1673-5374.130089 )
• Mead, B., Logan, A., Berry, M., Leadbeater, W. and Scheven, B. A. 2013. Intravitreally transplanted dental pulp stem cells promote neuroprotection and axon regeneration of retinal ganglion cells after optic nerve injury . Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science 54(12), pp. 7544-7556. ( 10.1167/iovs.13-13045 )

Research Interests

• Extracellular vesicle/exosome therapies as a treatment for traumatic and degeneration eye disease
• Mesenchymal stem cell treatment for glaucoma
• Molecular mechanisms of glaucoma and the development of more robust animal models
• Central nervous system axon regeneration and the optic nerve as a model for CNS injury
• Human embryonic stem cell-derived retina as an animal-free model for eye disease

Major Funding Sources

• Fight for Sight
• Glaucoma UK
• Wellcome Trust

Major Collaborations

• Dr Zubair Ahmed, University of Birmingham, UK – Regeneration of the optic nerve
• Dr Stanislav Tomarev, National Institutes of Health, USA – Stem cell therapy in glaucoma
• Dr Anand Swaroop, National Institutes of Health, USA – RNAseq of purified RGC
• Dr Yuzhe Niu, National Institutes of Health, USA – Neural crest cell culture
• Dr Richard Libby, University of Rochester, NY, USA – DBA/2J glaucoma mouse model
• Prof Donald Zack, John Hopkins University, USA –Human iPSC/RGC culture
• Prof Paul Kaufman, New York University, USA – Primate models of glaucoma
• Prof Steven Bernstein, University of Maryland, USA – Optic nerve head

I am module leader for:

OP1207 Physiology of Vision

OP0201 Human Development

I did my undergraduate degree in Biomedical Neuroscience at the University of Birmingham (2008-2011) followed by a Masters in Biomedical Research (2011-2012) and a PhD in Traumatic and Degenerative Eye Disease (2012-2015), which was via the Alternative Format (PhD-by-publication).

Following my PhD I moved overseas and took up a Visiting Fellowship as well as later, a Marie Curie EU Fellowship in the US at the National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health (2015-2019). I then returned to the University of Birmingham for a short duration before taking up a lectureship at Cardiff University, School of Optometry.

Professional memberships

Fellow of the HEA

Academic positions

Lecturer (September 1st 2020 – PRESENT) - Full time lecturer/assistant professor at School of Optometry and Vision Sciences, Cardiff University.

Marie Curie Fellow (June 1st 2017 – May 31st 2020) - Full time lab work in the Laboratory of Retinal Cell and Molecular Biology, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, USA.

Professor/Lead Instructor – BIOL325 Human Neuroscience (2018 – 2019) - Led the Human Neuroscience course at the National Institutes of Health, USA.

Post-doc/Visiting Fellow 2016 – 2017 - Full time lab work in the Laboratory of Retinal Cell and Molecular Biology, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, USA.

PhD thesis 2012 - 2015 - Three-year full-time lab work at the University of Birmingham, UK

MRes thesis 2011 - 2012 - One-year full time lab work at the University of Birmingham, UK

Lab Technician 2011/2012 - Over 200 hours of contracted work for Neuregenix Ltd. Neuregenix is a CRO that tests novel neuroactive compounds for industry.

Summer project 2011/2012 - Over 20 weeks of full-time work in a lab over the summer of 2011 and 2012, funded by the Nuffield Foundation and the Society of Endocrinology.

Supervisions

Current supervision.

Mariia Grudina

Research student

Esmahan Durmaz

Matyas Kutnyanszky

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• Themes and subject areas of monograph submissions should be relevant to the research interests of at least one Cardiff University academic or group of academics. We do not accept monographs aimed primarily at undergraduate students or members of the public; the main focus of all our monographs is on academic research.
• We do not allow simultaneous submissions. Any monographs submitted to us for publication must not be under consideration for publication by another publisher at the same time.
• All our monograph publications are peer reviewed by academic staff with appropriate disciplinary specialisms, who have been chosen by our Monograph Commissioning Panel . If previous peer reviews exist for a submitted monograph, we would be interested to see them, but our decision on whether or not to publish the monograph will be made on the basis of our own peer reviewers’ recommendations, not those of previous reviewers.
• There must be no charges for readers to access and download the work. As stated above, a submitted monograph will only be considered for publication by Cardiff University Press if at least one of its authors or editors is a member of Cardiff University. It is usually possible for the basic (mandatory) publishing costs of these monographs to be covered by Cardiff University Press, so that the authors or editors will only be invoiced for any additional publishing options they choose to order. However, this arrangement for basic publishing costs is conditional upon levels of Cardiff University Press funding; when there is insufficient funding available, some authors and editors will be invoiced for the full Book Processing Charges if they decide to proceed with publication. We will confirm the funding situation with them at an early stage of the publication process.
• If you are a prospective editor who wants to publish a single volume, you are welcome to submit an expression of interest and/or a proposal form to us before completion of the manuscript. Alternatively, if you have the full manuscript ready now, please submit it with the form straight away.
• If you are a prospective editor who wants to publish a monograph series, you will need to complete both a series proposal form and a single volume proposal form, then submit them together with the full manuscript of the first volume in the series. 
• Please note that we do not accept hard copy manuscripts.
• On receipt of the forms and manuscript for most monograph formats, our Monograph Commissioning Panel will consider them, and will send them out for peer review if they meet the Panel’s criteria.   The Panel will recommend acceptance or rejection to the Editorial Board, based on the peer reviews received and the editor's or author's responses to them. If the work is accepted for publication, we will agree a publishing contract with the editor or author.
• For monograph series, each volume in the series must be submitted and peer reviewed separately.
• We apply Creative Commons licences to all work published by Cardiff University Press, offering a choice of two for monographs: CC BY-NC (Attribution-NonCommercial) or CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives) . Editors must select the most appropriate default licence for each volume, so that they can ensure UK funder compliance. For edited volumes, we allow individual authors to choose either licence for their own work, irrespective of the default licence chosen by the editor, so that authors can ensure UK funder compliance. Editors are required to inform their authors that they have this choice.

For authors

Submission guidelines for serials (journal articles, working paper series and report series).

• To submit papers to their chosen journal or series, authors must follow the submission guidelines provided by the editorial team of that journal or series at https://cardiffuniversitypress.org/site/journals or https://cardiffuniversitypress.org/site/series as appropriate.
• Each publication’s guidelines will indicate whether the editor wishes to receive submissions via email or via the hosting platform submission system. For platform submissions, authors will need to register on this website.
• Suitable submissions are sent for peer review and must complete the peer review process before the editorial team makes a final decision about acceptance or rejection of the work.
• As a Diamond Open Access publisher of journals and series, we will not charge authors any fees to publish articles with us. The full text of their work will be available free of charge for anyone to read online.
• We allow authors to retain copyright over their work.
• Authors may self-archive their work at any stage, but we ask that they acknowledge the Cardiff University Press publication as the definitive source of their work, the version of record.

Submission guidelines for single volumes (books, single working papers and single reports)

Download our proposal forms for: Single scholarly books, edited volumes or other monographs

• Themes and subject areas of monographs should be relevant to the research interests of at least one Cardiff University academic or group of academics. We do not accept monographs aimed primarily at undergraduate students or members of the public; the main focus of all our monographs is on academic research.
• Unrevised doctoral theses are not suitable for publication by Cardiff University Press. We will consider monographs based on doctoral research, but we expect that a PhD thesis will need substantial revisions, and often additional research, to make it suitable for publication as a monograph. For further guidance on the differences between a thesis and a monograph derived from a thesis, please go to our Thesis Guidelines page or contact us .
• If you are a prospective author seeking publication of a single volume, you are welcome to submit an expression of interest and/or a proposal form to us before completion of your manuscript. Alternatively, if you have the full manuscript ready now, please submit it with the form straight away.
• On receipt of the manuscript and form, our Monograph Commissioning Panel will consider them, and will send them out for peer review if they meet the Panel’s criteria.   The Panel will recommend acceptance or rejection to the Editorial Board, based on the peer reviews received and the author's responses to them.  
• All our monograph publications are peer reviewed by academic staff with appropriate disciplinary specialisms, who have been chosen by our Monograph Commissioning Panel. If previous peer reviews exist for a submitted monograph, we would be interested to see them, but our decision on whether or not to publish the monograph will be made on the basis of our own peer reviewers’ recommendations, not those of previous reviewers.
• If the volume is accepted for publication, we will agree a publishing contract with the author or editor.
• As stated above, a submitted monograph will only be considered for publication by Cardiff University Press if at least one of its authors or editors is a member of Cardiff University. It is usually possible for the basic (mandatory) publishing costs of these monographs to be covered by Cardiff University Press, so that the authors will only be invoiced for any additional publishing options they choose to order. However, this arrangement for basic publishing costs is conditional upon levels of Cardiff University Press funding; when there is insufficient funding available, some authors will be invoiced for the full Book Processing Charges if they decide to proceed with publication. We will confirm the funding situation with them at an early stage of the publication process.
• The full text of the published volume will be available free of charge for anyone to read online. We allow authors to retain copyright over their work.   They may choose the CC BY-NC (Attribution-NonCommercial) or the CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives) licence, thereby ensuring UK funder licensing compliance. We require that our series editors inform the authors of monographs within the series that they have this choice.   Editors of edited volumes are required to do the same.

14 top tips to help you prepare for the PhD viva

doctoral-academy-blog

• doctoral academy
• postgraduate

The viva examination can be an exciting but nerve-wracking experience – the culmination of years of hard work and research. Prior planning for the event will help ease the nerves and boost your confidence.

The following ideas are taken from publications, my own experience and discussions with other PhD students and should help you prepare for a more enjoyable viva. You don’t need to do all of these. Remember, if you’re at the stage where you’re preparing for your viva, you’ve already done 99% of the work!

1) Annotate your thesis I used highlighters and different pens as well as post-its indicating emphasis, important literature, the contribution of the study, typos, useful extracts, and sections.

2) Find out about the viva process Who will be there? What are their roles? Would you like your supervisors to attend? Take part in the Cardiff University Doctoral Academy viva course to understand what to expect.

3) Do some (more) research Look at the examination procedures, university guidance, and criteria. To what extent does your thesis meet the criteria?

4) Get reading I read the book How to Survive Your Viva: Defending a Thesis in an Oral Examination by Rowena Murray; it is filled with helpful information about viva preparation.

5) Think ahead Plan certain topics in advance that you can refer to during the viva, such as:

• the key authors/main studies in the field
• the gap in research and your original contribution
• a short summary of the thesis
• a more extended summary of the thesis
• summaries of each chapter
• questions for the examiner
• the highlights of your thesis

6) Practise and rehearse What are the most commonly asked questions in your field? Plan and practise your answers in advance. Elaborate; plan how you can extend the answers. Think about how to say what you did and why you did it. I found listening back to recordings of myself answering some trickier questions really effective.

7) Buy yourself time Plan what you will say if you do not know the answer to a question. The examiners may ask you things that you have not thought about. You are allowed to ask for clarification, or you can come back to the question later.

8) Present at a conference This will help you to practise articulating your work to others, get used to answering questions about your research and gain confidence. You know your research better than anyone; be ready to defend it.

9) Mock it up Arrange a mock viva with your supervisors or ask a colleague to ask you questions. Practise giving concise and confident answers in an examination situation.

10) Look at the examiners’ work You are probably already familiar with what they have done; they may ask about things they are interested in and have published about.

11) Listen to podcasts The PhD Life Raft podcast has excellent episodes, such as  Preparing for Your Viva , and What Does a PhD Examiner Look for in a Thesis? . Some Viva Survivor podcast episodes could also be beneficial.

12) Visualise and mentally prepare Imagine yourself in the viva situation, successfully discussing your research. Think about all the achievements, the efforts you have put in, successes, and positive feedback throughout your PhD. Everyone gets nervous. Can you rest, exercise, or do something enjoyable in the days leading up to the viva?

13) Prep your ‘on the day’ details What will you wear? Pack paper and pens for note taking and the annotated thesis. What else are you going to take with you? The viva can last up to a few hours; will you need water, food, or your laptop?

14) Finally, try to enjoy the big day! The viva is a unique opportunity to discuss your work with experts in the field. They have spent time reading your thesis; now is your opportunity to demonstrate your contribution, your knowledge of the field, the work you have put in, your learning, and your research skills.

Get in touch with Kaisa on Twitter/X and LinkedIn.

You can also hear more about her PhD journey on the PhD Life Raft Podcast .

Want more tips?

The Doctoral Academy is running the following online sessions on the Viva:

• Examination and the Viva (Humanities and Social Sciences) – 29 November
• The Viva – 11 December

Book your place now via the Learner Portal .

Have you signed up to Dr App yet?

On this resource you’ll find lots of great videos including one on preparing for the viva. To sign up, complete our  Dr.App registration form .

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