Read the transcript
OK.
Jessica Deal is, I think it's
how it's pronounced your
surname.
Perfect.
Welcome and thank you.
Thank you for joining in.
Yeah.
Thank you so much, Louise.
I'm so excited to be on the PhD
lounge and yeah, I'm excited for
our conversation.
So we were talking previously
about editing and rendering all
our videos and I noticed that
you also have a YouTube channel
and you post your the the
content of publish it.
So just tell me anything how
hard it is to edit your own
videos and then publish it?
Is there something like a a
dopamine release when you when
you edit and then you release it
and then I feel great?
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
I have to be a little bit
forthcoming that I don't do much
editing.
I record mostly in PowerPoint,
so I can do slide by slide and
then I just export it as a movie
video and I just want to be done
with it at that point.
So I'll do like closed captions,
add that.
But I really, I, I'm a, I'm a
perfectionist.
I think a lot of us in academia
are.
So for me, I was just like, I
don't have the capacity to, this
needs to just be a very simple
thing that I do.
So I record it and I put it up
and I don't look at it again
and.
I think it's just for small
content creators and who are who
are, who have their own
businesses and they share their
own content via YouTube, for
example.
Then it has to bring a lot of
editing skills, which sometimes
you have to be prioritize what
you have already.
So I think with the PowerPoint
is enough.
And I had my, my own share of it
because I tried.
I did one first time one about
that podcast talk I had about
being a PhD in the 21st century.
We'll talk about a bit that in a
bit.
And I used that power.
I used the PowerPoint as well.
And it was, it was interesting,
but but I saw at the same time
that maybe I could use this a
bit better for my next paper
conferences and which I have, I
have done already.
But I think for that side, from
that aspect, then I let's
prioritize this and then use all
the set of skills to record and
edit, edit podcast videos, so to
speak.
Yeah, absolutely.
And I think it's also
diminishing return.
So I taught design for many
years.
That's what I taught.
And you know, students have a
great idea and then they spend,
you know, 10 times the amount of
time perfecting it.
And so, you know, I'm sure you
know, diminishing returns, you
do like 90% of the work in the
1st 10% of time and then you
only get 10% more out of the
next 90%.
So yeah, knowing when to stop,
it's good for our mental health.
Yes, mental health and
especially us as PHD's attention
to detail matters, matters the
most.
Yeah.
So you said you were had a
background in design as you said
to me.
How then LED that to your PhD?
And well, first and foremost,
what was your PhD about and how
that background LED you to have
that crown knowledge and
establish publish it?
Yeah, So, you know, I was
thinking about this and there's,
there's so many angles that I
could take, but I'll try to be
as kind of straightforward as
possible.
I know life is complicated,
isn't it?
Yeah.
So I actually did my undergrad
in creative writing and I love
to write.
I'm a writer at heart.
But then I realized trying to be
a novelist is like trying to be
a rock'n'roll * And so, you
know, I looked around my city
and I was really interested in
public spaces and how green
spaces can really be democratic
spaces where, you know,
different people from different
backgrounds can come together.
I was also really interested in
community gardens and access to
healthy food.
And, you know, so I had a lot of
sort of diverse passions.
And so I realized that I should
go to school for landscape
architecture and learn how to
design these kinds of spaces.
And so when I graduated from.
OK, so I did a research thesis
as part of my master's.
You can do project based or
research based in design
programs.
And I wanted to do research, so
I had the beneficial, maybe not
so beneficial experience of my
advisor saying your project is
great, I want you to publish 2
papers out of this as a master's
student.
And so it was a huge honor to
have that pressure.
But then it took me a long time
to actually be able to publish
those papers because I, you
know, the training at master's
level is very different from PhD
level.
So, so I had sort of that piece
going.
I was motivated to publish my
research, but it's a
practitioner based discipline.
But when I was going to
graduate, it was during the 2008
sort of crash, 2009 crash, and
there weren't any jobs.
So I had some thinking of, first
of all, I'm not going to get a
job.
Secondly, I really like research
and 3rd designers don't
understand people.
So we know I was taught how to
design cities, but not the to
understand the people that are
living in those cities.
So I decided to go for a PhD in
health and behavioral science
and to understand human behavior
and how the environment impacts
that.
So when I got there, I was in a
good position 'cause I was on my
way to having my first
publications.
I actually did a pivot as part
of my PhD, so I'd wanted to
continue looking at green space
and health.
But I was accepted into a
National Science Foundation
EIGERT program, which is an
integrated fellowship where you
work across disciplines and you
have API that overseas the whole
project.
So I was part of 25 students
across 5 disciplines and RPI
really want us, us to look at
sustainable urban
infrastructure.
So not to nerd out too much.
I know we're a bunch of nerds
here, but so I was going to look
at food systems within that.
But as luck would have it, as
part of that projects, each of
us had money to conduct research
in a, a sister city.
And my Pi was from India, so we
had money to go to India.
So I thought, well, this is
great, you know, free money.
I'm going to go study food
systems and urban, urban
agriculture community gardens in
Delhi.
And I got to Delhi and they're
like, we don't have a lot of
community gardens, but we have
farmers and they're farming this
very contentious floodplain and
we want to develop it.
So yeah.
So I did a little bit of a shift
where I investigated social
networks of those farmers to
understand how they access
resources to sustain their
livelihoods and also how they
access, you know, government
agencies and actually have a
voice or don't have a voice and
become invisible in the planning
process.
Yeah.
So then, so as part of my, you
know, working on my dissertation
research, I've got my papers
coming out from my master's
thesis.
And so shifting gears.
And so those actually both of
those papers, after some back
and forth and revise and
resubmits were accepted to the
original journals, the first
journals that I had submitted
them to.
So in some sense I was, I didn't
realize it at the time, but I
was a little bit lucky.
I sort of just stumbled on the
right fit for those papers.
But as part of my PhD work, we
did a small pilot study and
collected a ton of qualitative
data.
One of my peers and I in Delhi,
and we spent six months coding
the research and then our
advisors were like, let's
publish this.
And so I decided to take on 1st
author role among the four of us
'cause I was like, yeah, been
here, done that.
So I start writing the paper and
we all get together and the
first thing the advisors say is,
yeah, this is great research,
but what's the point of this
paper?
Like, So what?
Like what's what?
Who cares?
And I was like, what do you
mean, who cares?
Isn't it obvious?
So I went back and I did some
revisions and I came back and
they were still scratching their
heads.
They're like, we don't get it.
So it started to dawn on me
that, like, I didn't have a
core, what I call now core
argument.
I mean, I don't call it, it's a
core argument.
But what I didn't understand at
the time is they didn't have
like, like a central thesis,
like one big idea that was
holding it together.
So eventually we did get that
paper published, and I still
didn't quite understand.
Eventually I answered their
questions.
I revised enough, but I didn't
really understand, I didn't
actually learn why I was able to
meet the requirements.
I just knew that I had done it
and we submitted it.
And I forget if it what the
review process was like for
that.
But it was the first time I was
like, what do you mean?
So what?
I've got all the pieces, I've
got the, the lit review, I've
got the methods, all the
findings.
We've got some discussion.
Isn't that what a journal paper
is?
So then I ended up, so I had
done research in India and for
personal reasons I ended up in
Singapore and like at my time of
graduation and took a job at the
National University of Singapore
teaching landscape architecture
and got hired very quickly,
mainly because they had had
trouble tenuring their faculty.
So in design programs, usually
master's is the terminal degree.
But things were shifting at that
time where design programs were
starting to only hire pH DS
because they needed to get them
to tenure.
And to get to tenure, you need
published papers.
And to be able to do that
usually have to have gone
through a PhD program, as you
know.
Yeah.
So I was hired with the hope
that they would be able to
tenure me since I did have a
publication track record and I
was part of a sort of a new wave
of hires that had PhDs and
publications.
So at that point, I wanted to
publish from my PhD research,
and I wrote this very intense
paper on, you know, basically a
whole comprehensive paper on
this very complicated research
project.
And I sent it out to what I
thought was a fairly prestigious
journal because I thought, well,
why not?
And Nope, they're like, no
thanks, here's some comments,
but we're not interested.
And it's like, OK, so at least I
got some comments.
And I have to say, even if you
get rejected, comments are gold.
Listen to them because you will
hear them again if you don't
correct.
They made some revisions and
sent it out again and I got
rejected again, this time with
no comments.
So I was like, OK, huh, Let me
like line edit and massage and
like make my fingers look
better.
Like let's just tidy it up some
more.
And I sent it to 1/3 journal
that I was really hopeful about.
And the editor emailed me back
immediately.
I was like, I'm not sending this
out for review.
This is not ready.
You don't really know what
you're doing.
This is really great research,
but this is not a journal paper.
So let me help you.
I want you to read Wendy
Belcher's Writing Your Journal
Paper in 12 Weeks.
And this book is really
foundational, was really
foundational for me.
And I recommend it to everyone
because it made me realize that
journal paper requires a core
argument and structure.
So it's not about the contents.
I mean, obviously you need the
contents, but good research
doesn't mean a good journal
paper.
Good research is easily
transferable to a dissertation
or a thesis report or, you know,
a report to donors or, you know,
funders.
But a journal paper really
requires this sort of like
higher level of structure around
it.
You've got your your big idea,
the thing that you're
contributing to the discourse,
the scientific community, and
then you organize your paper
around that.
And that means probably not
publishing your entire research
project in one paper, but really
pulling out maybe some of the
important ideas and making them
their own papers.
I don't know if I answered your
question.
I feel like this is a long no.
It was it was.
You've basically told your your
whole journey of how you got
yourself into the PhD, using
your background in architecture
and design to teach at Singapore
and then mixing both of your
worlds to tailor all your
research papers into the in any
academic journal with their own
standards.
And I personally, for me, I
never published an academic, an
academic article yet yet.
But then this is something that
for those who are who want to
take that next step following
their PhDs or even during their
PhDs, then it's better to have
some prep, some preparation of
OK, how you will encounter this,
this, these, these not
obstacles, these challenges and
rejection after rejection
improving and hearing from
others who, who have been
through that as you, as you're
sharing it now.
And I do wonder as well how, how
intensive was, is it just the
rejections or was it also
anything, any other, any other
things that came up to you?
As I was trying, as I was going
through my own publishing
journal or starting to think
about, OK, yeah, let me think.
I think, you know, for me having
a writing background, it was and
this is something that I I'm
very sort of cognitive of that
many, many of my peers and
colleagues, mentors, mentees
don't have the same passion for
writing.
Of course, scientific writing is
very different from creative
writing, but I recognize that
every kind of writing has its
own structure, like it's a way
of how you package the
information.
And so when I was learning how
to write scientific papers, I
was always thinking, what is the
package that I'm trying to put
this information in?
And I think one of the biggest
disservices we do to our
graduate students, having been
on the other side and having had
my own PhD and even master's
students that I've actually had
a number of master's students
published from their their
research.
We'll talk about small studies
in a little bit.
Is that while we spend a lot of
time being trained and training
others in the scientific
methods, you know, whether it's
hard science, social science,
humanities, we don't teach the
process of writing journal
papers.
We, we, it's teaching by doing.
So we look at other journal
papers like, OK, so here's the
format, Imran, introduction,
methods, results, discussion,
maybe some conclusion.
So maybe it's a little different
in the humanities, though I'm
not sure, Lewis, if you would
like where you fall on the
social sciences, humanity.
So I recognize there is a little
difference, but there's, you
know, there's the there's the
obvious structure and that's
easy to mimic, but the spirit
and what makes a journal paper a
journal paper, which is that
core argument, that thread, that
structure, that sort of like
it's almost like meta structure
isn't taught.
And it isn't always easy to see,
even for those of us who are
good pattern recognizers.
So that's actually one of the
motivations for me in developing
publish it is that no one's ever
really taught how to write a
journal paper.
And so then not only are we not
taught how to do it, then we
suddenly become mentors for
graduate students who need to
know how to write journal
papers.
And we ourselves don't
necessarily.
So we, I think, you know, it
perpetuates the sort of like
mystique of, well, just write a
paper.
Like you can do it.
I did it because you can't
really sit down and say, all
right, here are the steps that
you need to go through.
Yes.
And I think it's, that is also
do that everyone has its own
style of writing and then the
person develops it through
throughout the years into, into
their research.
And that I, it's kind of, it's
quite to say that everyone has
its own methods and there's no,
there is no definitive
regulation or even methodology
on how you would write your own
research paper.
I think if for, for any academic
journal, they, they have their
own standards.
It's kind of like to say you
have to find, you have to find
out what are the thumbnails of
the, of their, of their academic
journals.
And then you have to navigate
through trial and error until,
until it is accepted, so to
speak.
I, I don't, I don't know.
As I said, I haven't I've I've
written research papers and
presented them at at academic
conferences, but I yet have to
submit my my some of those one
of those papers like as, as if
it is a proposal, so to speak.
Yeah, and I think you make a
good point, but I also want to
push back a little bit.
Absolutely different journals
have different standards.
And even within the same
discipline, some journals are
more theoretical, some are more
database, some are more less.
Sort of like not robust isn't
the right word smaller like
shorter papers.
But I will push back and say
that it doesn't have to be trial
and error.
There are fundamental things
that are the same from one paper
to the next.
And so it's sort of that like as
I kind of called it, that meta
structure.
So you can learn that.
And then you also already also
have learned the scientific
process.
So you have your contents.
So it's just that sort of like
middle piece and how you fit the
meta structure and the contents
together that then vary by.
By journal and there is
definitely you know, there's
always you never really finish
finding your writing voice.
I actually wrote a blog about
that, like starting with your
first sentence, how do you it
took me, I would say about half
a dozen papers before I started
writing in my own voice and
being comfortable enough to not
just hide behind the sort of
like curtain of or wall of like
everybody that had written
before me and to be able to
write sentences from my own with
my own voice.
But that's, you know, yeah, you,
you spend your whole life
learning how to write from your
own voice.
But the actual sitting down and
writing the journal paper can be
a more.
It doesn't have to be such a
Gray area.
Yeah.
And so that's what I teach is if
you focus on these, you don't
have to do it in the steps that
I recommend 'cause everybody has
their own process.
But if you, you know, have these
certain components and focus on
these rather than just sitting
down with a blank page, then you
actually will be more, I hate to
say efficient 'cause that's such
a like businessy term, but it
yeah, time is time is valuable.
And also effect can also be more
effective 'cause you're, you're
very clear from the beginning
what your point of view is
'cause I think a lot of us, you
know, early on when I would sit
down and write a journal paper,
be like, OK, here's my findings
and here's the methods I used to
get those findings.
And then I'm going to see what
my point is after that.
Like what did I, what is going
to emerge and my paper is going
to happen.
But that's really it makes it a
really long road to finishing
your your draft when you do it
that way.
Yes.
And I think, I think it's just
practicing the the, the more
practicing, the better the
results will come.
And as you said it's a constant
learning process.
So I'd like you've already
explained in between what
publish it means, but could you
explain what what was the drive
and the main goal essentially to
say this is publish it and
what's who are your clients
mean?
Who are your clients?
Is it?
Sure.
Yeah.
So I don't know how much I got
to.
So at some point at NUSI
realized that I needed to apply
for 10 year and I was there for
seven years before my 10 year
packet was like last last day
deadline due because I was there
over COVID.
So a lot of us got 1-2 even 3
year extensions.
So I had a really long 10 year
process in.
Singapore.
Yeah, in Singapore.
In Singapore, Yeah.
So seven years on 10 year track.
And so I had to decide and a
lot, you know, a lot of life had
changed for me as it had for a
lot of us and you know, for
personal and whatever reasons.
And I, while I love teaching and
I really love research, I did
decide in the end not to go for
tenure because I just felt like
it was time for me to
repatriate.
I really wanted to go into
private practice.
You know, teaching was sort of a
stepping stone for me.
And when I came back to the US,
you know, it's not so easy to
apply for jobs these days.
And something that I'd always
been thinking about is, you
know, it'd be great to do
consulting.
But what am I good at?
I'm good at.
I mean, it isn't that I have the
most amazing journal papers
'cause I don't.
But I know how to get published
and I've, I've been able to get
masters levels research that are
very, very small studies that
were conducted in very short
periods of time published.
So I have proof that, you know,
even small studies in unusual
context with non traditional
researchers have a place in the
scientific record.
And I can help make that happen.
And a lot of people struggle
with that.
So why don't I fill the gap and
see what I can do to help
researchers?
And of course, you know, this is
sort of an I'm an entrepreneur,
this is a business.
So my thinking is, you know, I
can do courses and do workshops
and do coaching to support
myself, but I know that I'm
trying to reach a lot of people
in contacts that they're just, I
mean to just be totally blunt,
don't have money.
I mean, even graduate students
in high income countries don't
have money.
So I want to make sure that this
is accessible because the whole
point is that I, I want to
facilitate or enable researchers
that wouldn't have the resources
to get published to help them on
their track to getting published
and make it less difficult.
So I do a lot of, you know, I
try to, I actually, I'm not
prolific in creating content,
but once a month I publish A
blog and I publish a new free
tutorial and I do a newsletter.
And so I try to create resources
that are free or low cost in
addition to things that are, you
know, if you really are
interested in really making it
happen, then then we move you
into a more into one of the
workshops or the one-on-one
coaching.
So, yeah, so my motivation is
really twofold.
Yeah.
And I don't think especially,
you know, I, I'm part of a
woman's entrepreneur group and
we don't talk about this enough
is women that when we're in
business, it is a business, you
know, and there is a financial
aspect to it.
But at the same time, this is
not a business I'm running to
make money.
I obviously I choose this line
of work because I'm very
passionate about it.
And, you know, it sounds from
all the way back to when I moved
to Boston after, I don't know,
Yeah.
Did I say it was Boston after my
undergrad?
And I saw public spaces as being
democratic and wanting to create
spaces like that.
Like I've always wanted to be
in, have a career path that I
feel like I've, I don't know, I
have a moral obligation.
Even if I'm not a religious
person.
I I feel that way.
Kind of bit of both worlds, one,
the the academic venture and
then the industry hustle, so to
speak.
Yeah, it is.
It is a hustle.
So it's quite it.
It is interesting to mix both
worlds where nowadays there's
this, I don't want to say biased
views of oh, academic.
Academia is worse than industry.
Industry gets gets you more
employability opportunities than
academia.
Academia has 2%.
We get caught up with this
mixture of feelings each each
individual on social media
shouts out and says why you
shouldn't be here, why you
shouldn't go there and why not
mix both of both, both worlds as
you, as you are, as you're
currently doing with your own
business.
It just gets the better, the
better, so to speak.
And potentially your clients
have some good thoughts and
good, good reviews on it.
Yeah.
And it's interesting you say
that because I'm curious from
your perspective.
I've listened to a lot of your
podcasts, but I don't maybe I
missed somewhere you talked
about this.
So apologize if this is general
knowledge, but I'm curious if
you're yeah.
Or if you're planning on going
into academia or into practice
and how that 'cause even going
into academia, there's, you
know, where's your grant funding
coming from?
It's usually, you know, a lot of
it is private business or, and
there's also a big push among
universities to monetize is, you
know, innovation that comes out
of research.
So like there's, there's a lot
of, there's no more black and
white between practice and
research and practice.
It's just interesting that you,
that you point out and just give
my thoughts because initially
when I started my PHDI, even
before that, I've I wanted to go
to into academia and then fast
and then during the, my second
and third year, and then even
4th year, then I said no, I'd
like to go to industry first to
gain some professional
experience and maybe could give
a boost to get into academia
afterwards.
Although I'm, I'm browsing any,
anywhere, I'm just networking
anywhere strategically
networking.
Of course, Recently I was with,
I was with my examiner and
Magsena told me you have to
convert some of your, one of
your methodologies into a
sequential, a sequence of papers
because it's too complicated and
say, yes, I've been thinking
about that because the
methodology I'm using are too
theoretical and they need to
convert it into a into practical
terms or so using more case
studies to give to reinforce why
my my these methodologies I use.
Well, it's called hybrid in 3rd
space because they're from post
colonialism and I turned putting
that into ancient world is a
rather complicated process.
But I digress in that, in that
part.
And that that was a good
conversation for me to have a a
sense of bit of a different
thought about how can I approach
postdoc, so to speak, and trying
to get into maybe I've I never
applied for funding.
I've throughout my whole degree,
I've been self funding myself.
I do have a part time job have
been multiple income streams to
income streaming streaming jobs
to well to pay the bills.
So this right And I think
neither 1.
The academia nor the other
industry are inherently bad.
They have their ups and downs
just like any other environment
and they have their own
advantages as well.
So I just said that here in the
UK academia is like what 2% or
so three or two or three percent
of accept accepting rate and
industry have more higher
probabilities.
But we we can't, we can't, we
can't say that out in without
knowing the the facts or the
statistics because the
difficulties are come from both
sides.
Absolutely, yeah.
And so I would say, sorry
writing papers now.
Yes, that's that's what I'm
planning to do and as well
writing the papers I'm current
after submitting the corrections
of my PHDI have an article which
I have already written half of
it from my paper but needs to be
must be polished and so it's
halfway, half, halfway done.
The other halfway must be done.
Yeah, yeah.
And I think it's interesting you
said when you're talking about
your sort of your methodology is
very theoretically complex.
And so you kind of have to
disentangle and maybe write a
few, you probably get a few
journal papers out of it.
And I think that's it's a really
smart approach.
I see all too often it's not
maybe one out of five papers
that I review.
I feel like the the authors are
trying to put an entire research
project into one paper and
there's too much happening.
So they have a new, they have a
new instrument, but then they
also collected data in a new
context.
And so those two pieces alone
could be standalone papers
because they can't.
When you're trying to put too
much in, there's no way to
prioritize one idea over the
other.
They're both important.
So I think that's a good litmus
test of like how to kind of
divide into different papers.
If you have two competing or
three competing ideas, those are
two or three papers.
The risk is, and I wrote a blog
about this salami, salami
publishing where you slice and
dice you want as many papers as
possible because you only had
this one funding, you know, or
like you know, you're just
working on your dissertation and
you want, you know, you'd love
to have 5 published papers and
you slice and dice so thin that
none of them are really robust
enough to stand alone.
But I do think that it's really
important for each journal paper
should just have one idea and it
makes it stronger and more
clear.
And in fact, is a is a better
contribution to the research.
And so if you have several
aspects that can be published,
you're going to appeal to, to
different, you know, different
researchers are going to lean
towards one versus another
paper.
So you'll actually be speaking
to different audiences, which is
great because your research has
more reach.
And when we're so specialized,
we don't have a lot of reach
anyway.
So the more reach we can get is
great so.
It's a sort of strategic nuances
around what we have and that is
that what you can see the small
research and framing it at the
same time.
No, not necessarily.
So small research I would kind
of define as like a pilot study
or a proof of concept or like we
have a really small N So I did a
study once where I had an N of
15.
And so it was a small, even
though I was using a framework
and an instrument that I had
already published in several
papers that small NI really had
to defend.
Yeah.
So no, you can have a very large
project and still kind of slice.
Slice it.
Yeah, yeah.
So, and since we're speaking
small and we can, why what
that's what prevents them, what
prevents scholars then for
publishing it small research
then?
You know, I don't know because
I'm perfectly happy to publish
small research projects.
Most of my research is small
research because I love
qualitative research, even
though I I, I love numbers too,
but I just think qualitative
research is so much more
interesting to me personally.
But that being said, I think a
lot of the hesitation is just, I
hate to say lack of confidence,
but it's just the sort of some
sort of maybe hesitation.
Maybe I'll call it hesitation
because so much of the research
we cite is either foundational
or really large studies.
They become, you know, the, they
rise to the surface of the
discourse, but it's the small
studies that then get built upon
that make space and give
constant confidence to grant
funders to actually fund those
big projects.
So it's the small studies that
are so important to be published
because they may only take one
small, tiny question and answer
it, but they're resolving
something that, you know, maybe
it isn't worthwhile to waste a
lot of resources on because it
may not be the right way to go.
So I love small studies because
they give a lot of flexibility,
and you often find something
unusual that emerges out of it.
I had a couple of things to say
about small studies.
Yeah, so especially.
I mean, I guess PhD research can
feel very can feel very big, but
there's often times aspects of
it that are either a pilot study
or proof of concept.
So for example, for my PhD
research, I wanted to do a lot
of field interviews, but I was
measuring something qualitative
social networks.
And so there weren't a lot of
methods, like there's a lot of
theory, but like what probably
what you were doing creating a
new way or a more innovative way
of measuring.
So we're always trying to get
closer to the actual thing we're
trying to measure right?
So we want to refine our
instruments.
And so when I was doing my
qualifying exams, one of my
advisors, and the kicker is I
had, since I was in this
interdisciplinary fellowship, I
had five advisors each from
different disciplines.
So I had a lot, I had a lot of
people dissatisfied to get
through.
And one of them, the planner in
the group said, how are you?
Like, how do you know that this
survey instrument is actually
going to measure what you say
it's going to measure?
And I was like, well, I'll find
out.
And you said, Nope, you're not
going to, I'm going to give you
a contingent pass based on
you're going to do your field.
You're like going to India in
two months and you're going to
pilot test this.
And you're going to send me back
like a report of whether it
actually worked and how you
refined it.
And so it was the best thing
that came out of my Q ES because
I got to the field and I
realized that I needed to make
some modifications.
And so I only wasted, wasn't
even wasted.
I say wasted, but it felt like
wasting at the time, like 10.
I did 10 interviews and over the
course of those 10 interviews, I
was able to refine the
instrument and get to the
instrument that I ended up
using.
But even that in AI didn't
actually, I didn't even publish
that, but that would have been a
really important sort of
stepping stone.
You know, at the time I was
like, oh, but this is just a,
you know, nobody needs to know
about this if.
It was.
If it was now, would you publish
it?
Absolutely.
Yeah, Yeah.
Would you publish all 10
interviews or one that one that
you found more interested, more
interesting?
Sorry.
Yeah, it's a good question
because that, so that assumes
that the paper would have been
about the interviews themselves.
And so this is the thing that I
would have, I would have leaned
into we something to the effect
of, you know, we have
instruments to measure social
networks quantitatively, but the
qualitative ones are not
comprehensive.
And so here is how I developed
through through 10 sort of
cases, how I developed this
instrument.
And here's based on, you know,
the final whatever one or two
with the final instrument,
here's what it produced.
And I would show like.
So it would be more of a
methodological paper that
focuses on the instrument itself
and looking at like construct
validity.
You know, I measured it this way
and I didn't get the answer I
wanted.
And here's why.
And then I changed it to this,
and I got this other answer in
that that was actually what I
was sort of aiming for.
Yeah.
And I think, I think in there's
a lot of innovation out there,
you know, we're smart, we're
always thinking and trying to
make things better and measure
things more precisely or, you
know, apply one theory in a new
context and just to make it
better.
We sometimes get distracted by
the data itself rather than
realizing the contribution is
really in the change in
instrument, cause the instrument
is what will be reused again,
not the data.
Yeah.
So.
Sounds like it would be an A not
a not easygoing task so to
speak.
Well, then it can be hard to
see, especially when you're
early in your research path.
You know, I'm probably midway.
I would say I've been doing this
for almost 2 decades, but it's
hard to see at the beginning.
You know, it isn't, It isn't
recently that I started thinking
about like how, you know, I
always say like in a research
paper, well, or any sort of
research project, you have to
have your literature review.
What do we know then?
What don't we know?
What's the research gap?
And then what are we going to do
that's going to fill that gap?
You know, so that's kind of the
standard way of thinking about
it.
But I've recently, I don't know
where this sort of came from.
I'm sure that I was hearing it
in some different places, but
started thinking about a journal
paper as a conversation.
And so it isn't that you need a
literature review of everything
we know about the topic.
It's like, imagine that you're
invited to like a cocktail party
and there are a bunch of
researchers in there that do
something very similar to what
you do, like you've learned from
them.
They're at the top of their
field.
Some of them are more like
younger and innovative.
Some of them have like very well
established and you walk in and
you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I, yeah, I know that's what
you've done and you've done and
oh, yeah, you tried this new
thing and that was interesting.
And you pointed out it's, you
know, it's limitations that
maybe there's an opportunity for
something new here.
And oh, and I had this idea that
like, none of you have addressed
this issue yet.
And so that's what I am coming
to this conversation to talk
about is this thing that you
haven't talked about yet.
So let's have a conversation
about it.
And maybe that's a weird way of
approaching it, but I love this
idea of a conversation.
I think, I think that's that's
how we started for pH DS to talk
sharing their own ideas and
thoughts.
And as as you said, Jessica,
it's it's own conversations in
formal, formal anywhere and any
time.
So I don't see that that big of
an issue.
So it's just, it's a, it's plain
and simple.
And then we transfer them onto
paper.
Yeah, yeah, and so do you.
So I'm curious like how do you
because I think for me, I felt
like and I I feel like I've seen
this in other.
You know, as we start out,
there's this because when you
have to defend your, you know,
you go for your qualifying exams
and you really have to defend
yourself.
You have to prove that you know
everything about everything.
But in a journal paper, you
don't.
You just have to prove that you
know about this specific thing.
And sometimes we get caught up
in making the conversation more
than it needs to be rather than
focusing on on, you know, there
could be a whole a whole room
full of people in your research
space, but you just want to sit
at the table of the people that
are doing exactly what you're
doing.
Yes.
I think from the, I think, well,
I can speak from when I had my,
my, my vivo, it was, it was a
two hour and a half talk
discussion between my external
and internal examiners.
Then obviously there was the
chair to moderate, but the, the
chair didn't intervene
whatsoever.
Just the beginning and end of
the fever.
But at the same time, I felt it
was, it was more than an exam
than an exam, so to speak.
I think it was also a bit of get
to know, get to know the
examiners, the examiners get to
know myself simply talking about
the thesis.
What, what can you bring and how
will you contribute to the, to
the academic community in the
future?
And why did you want to choose
this research rather than saying
just, oh, I choose because I
liked it.
No, it's simply I wanted to, I
want to do something different.
And for example, my my topic was
about Asian cities in the Middle
East, specifically Syria and
Iraq from during the periods of
the Greeks and Romans over that.
And so I used 2 post colonial
concepts that I've mentioned
previously.
And that's what they wanted to
know.
Why?
Why using those two contexts
that come from the 20th century
and bringing them into a
completely different context and
time frame that most of them
have even rejected it, rejected
them several times and you still
wanted to bring that.
And I said, well, because they
are two interesting topics and
two interesting concepts to
explore a topic that is so vast
and interesting at the same
time, to know what happened to
the other side of the world from
A to into a world, the Western
world that we know it already.
And so I think the conversation,
the examining conversation and
developed throughout that and
with some, with a few detailed
questions, of course.
But at the same time, we, we, we
had a nice conversation.
We sometimes we had a laugh as
well.
I could even go for a break.
They allowed me to go on a break
as so that's what's about it.
And there was there was a great
feedback from the examiners and
the intention was to having more
than the more than the exam,
having a conversation and
explore networking
opportunities, so to speak, and
socializing them more.
So in the end, it was a a really
positive experience.
So I don't know how it was 10
years ago, 20 years ago I heard
stories that it was a bit more
rigid between examiner and
candidate.
It had some difference.
It has some differences in each
country.
Maybe in Europe is a is a whole
panel discussion.
In the UK is more more private.
Yeah, that's really interesting.
And I'm glad to hear that
because so mine wasn't rigid,
but I certainly wasn't asked why
this topic.
And I think it's a really, it's
a really undervalued
conversation to have because
this is your like this is the
stamp that you're making.
You can change research
directions after this, of
course, but this is sort of
your, this is the thing that you
are spending the most time
probably in your career just
focused on.
So it's really important and
it's really important to be self
reflexive of, you know, is this
interesting, especially since
you are going to spend a lot of
time with it.
And I think that's also another
reason that sometimes it can be
hard to write journal papers is
that your researchers aren't,
they don't necessarily self
reflect and think is this
interesting to me?
Is this interesting?
Do I actually feel like I want
to commit my 'cause we're not
just, it's not just a job,
right?
I mean, you're putting energy
and passion into it.
I mean, even though it's
research, but it's, you know, we
are passionate about what we do.
And if you don't have that,
you're not going to be motivated
to publish.
It's going to be feel like a lot
of work.
I would, I would add up as well
that again, it's the pleasure of
the conversation and it is
A1A1A1 time opportunity that you
will have this the Viva vocase
just only once unless you want
to do a second PhD in five years
time.
But for those who are not, who
just want to do a PhD and not
for just for the sake, but
having an opportunity to launch
themselves into the marketplace,
I think this is a great
opportunity to reflect on the
Viva itself as a, as a, a
positive experience.
Absolutely.
I absolutely agree.
We and so we were talking about
the me exploring the eastern
side and trying to obviously
we're talking about publishing
small research and to for any
types of scholars, do you deal
mostly with non western scholars
or or bit of both?
Mainly I would say no non
western because I was in Asia
for 12 years total so almost all
of my colleagues and students
and mentors were Asian and
English non-native English
speakers.
Although Singapore English is
the first language but I worked
with a lot of overseas faculty
that came from overseas, other
Asian countries and students
mainly from overseas as well.
Wait, so what's the question?
So it's OK.
No.
Problem so how how non western
scholars really release their
own work How what what what is
their struggle?
I do and I can grasp the example
that I was hearing some watching
some videos on your channel this
morning.
And to just to give context that
the Chinese scholars translated
their their own papers into
English.
And the, the we know here that
the English academic standards
is 3 lines, 33 to 4 lines
maximum.
And you gave the and you and you
said that they translated their
own Chinese text into English,
where the sentence would be even
more, even broader, more than
three lines.
Yeah.
So that's based on a published
paper on specifically on the
challenges that Chinese scholars
have in translating to English
language journals.
And I would say haven't, you
know, so the majority of the
papers that I review are
typically from non-native
English speakers, which I think
is interesting is probably
because I do a lot of
interdisciplinary work and I was
based in Asia.
But I also get even, you know,
European research out of Europe
because of course, Europe is
very multilingual.
And, you know, English syntaxes,
there's a lot of variation.
And even as a native speaker, I
still struggle with, you know,
sometimes I have very awkward
syntax and I have to revise and
revise.
And this is me, you know, coming
from having a degree in writing
English writing.
So it's very easy to see when I
when I get a peer review paper,
I know immediately, you know,
the double-blind papers, even
the double-blind papers if it's
a native English speaker or non,
non-native.
And a couple of things actually,
I have a couple of thoughts on
this.
Let me try and organize.
So I talk a little bit about
bias in publishing.
I've 2 draw posts that or two
blog posts that I put out last
month on bias in publishing and
then what we can kind of do
about it.
And one of the things that I
want to kind of service from
that is non-native English
speakers have an extra hurdle to
overcome, not just in writing in
English and dealing with the
grammar, but with reviewers
themselves.
Because, you know, as reviewers,
we try very hard to be unbiased,
but we're human.
And so there's the potential
insecurity of the author's just
finishing a draft and being
confident enough to submit it,
knowing that it might not be up
to par, maybe not having money
to pay an an editor, you know, a
copy editor, which some do and
are able to do that, but many
don't have that within their.
And so then the reviewer, if
they can tell that it's, it's,
you know, it's pretty easy,
generally pretty.
I mean, there are some terrible
English, Sorry, I shouldn't say
that there.
It's, it's English can be
difficult, the syntax can be
difficult.
And anyway, so as a reviewer
there, there could be a bias if
the language is particularly
difficult to read through, which
I have had many cases where that
is the case.
It can be hard to see the actual
research underneath the surface
of the language.
So I have trained myself to be
very, to look at those two
pieces separately to give
commentary on the language and
the clarity separate from is
this research robust?
Like is the design you know, is
this like, is this worthy of
publication?
And not every reviewer can see
below the surface of that
language sort of like they there
can be an assumption that the
research isn't good because the
way that it's described is it's
poorly described.
So that is a that's a huge
barrier for non-native English
speakers to sort of overcome.
So it's it kind of reinforces
the fear of publishing in a
language that you're not super
comfortable with, even if you're
an amazing researcher and there
are, you know, so many really,
really excellent researchers
that should be, you know,
there's maybe this is
controversial, but I'll just
say, you know, English language
journals are kind of the gold
standard.
That's kind of like the
baseline, right?
So to be, to get tenure
promotion, go to grad school,
like a lot of, you know,
students in Asia will wanna come
to Western University.
So getting published in an
English language journal is
important.
Graduates wanna come and work at
universities or, you know,
anyway, it's it can be really
sort of important to publish in
an English language journal.
So that that becomes really
challenging.
The other piece about.
Oh, yeah.
So then you have the other side
of it.
And I reviewed a paper just on
Friday.
It was, it was single blind.
So I was a blind reviewer, but I
had the list of authors, which
I'm never super comfortable with
that because it again,
introduces another level of
bias.
But it also, you know, there's
argument for transparency as
well.
Sorry, as soon as I started
reading it the the grammar was
perfect, the word choice was
very advanced, and I'd gotten
through a paragraph and a half
before I realized that this was
written by AI and.
You've read my mind because I
was about to say to tell you
that.
Yeah.
And so it's the first time that
I've, I mean, I've seen papers
that have been edited by AI,
like I've read a paper said, you
know, you need to improve the
English language syntax and then
gotten the revised version.
And it's basically the same
paper, but it reads much better
because it was put through an
AI.
But this, this is the first time
I was reading this.
And so I really, you know, I
really, first of all, it was so
dense and unnecessary.
The language is so unnecessarily
complex.
There's also a thinking that
like if it's a scientific paper,
it has to be really dense and
use these big words and very
complicated like sentence
structure, which is not true
because we are in a world where
we are publishing for a broad
intelligent audience.
And if you can use a simple
word, you should, if you can
make one sentence to then make
it to just our cognitive load.
Nobody reads journal papers
anymore.
We skim.
So this more simple, we can get
our ideas across, the better.
And you're going to get cited.
If it can be understood, you
will get cited.
If it can't, then nobody's even
going to bother.
So I really struggled.
You know, I gave them the
benefit of the doubt, but I
looked at the journals
requirements because more
journals are adopting AI
policies and basically it said
you're allowed to use AI, but
depending on what level of
integration, AI becomes a
co-author or an acknowledgement.
And in this case I felt like it
should have been a co-author,
but it wasn't even in the
acknowledgements.
So I had some real sort of like
ethical hesitations.
So in any case, you know, it's
not my place as a reviewer to
decide the fate of the the
authors.
That's the editor's job.
But I did make it.
I did voice my concerns both to
the authors, but then privately
to the editor.
You know, they need to be very
clear what their policy is.
So, so there's like this to this
double edged sword, right?
Do you submit?
Based on the extent of your
capabilities and translation or
do you use AI, which I mean, I
use, I use, I fully say I use
Claude AI almost every day.
Claude is my research, not my
research, my office assistant.
So I'm definitely the boss, but
I think that there's a trend
more towards letting AI be the
boss and becoming the assistant
and that's that's the risk.
And I do think that that it is
also a bit controversy to say
this so, so to speak.
And I had several conversations
with my advisors about this and
say listen.
And I I guess listen.
I've used AI to just for tiny
bits of some aspects I was not
understanding and I need to
convert into it and I had to
copy and paste.
But then I had to shape it into
my own language and how I
perceive and read academic
English because I'm Portuguese
native Portuguese speaker and
English is my second language.
And they said to me, you can't
use AI as long as you don't show
it, that it's too linear because
we, we have AI as well to mark
exams.
So, and I know that because I
was ATA as well, senior teaching
assistant.
And there is no wrong in using
AI.
But I think at the same time,
you must have the critical
thinking and common sense to
know that you use AI.
You will be, you'll be dependent
on AI, you'll become penalized
if you just only use AI for a
tiny specific, a specific aspect
that you find it so hard to
understand and AI can even say,
so to speak.
Polish it.
Then it becomes easier for us to
use our use our own our own
thought and processing skills to
say what we want to say based on
that specific thing that AI has
written for us.
Yeah, and I am, you know, I hope
that we are able to start
developing even more clear
policies.
I left academia.
Literally they were just
starting to offer workshops for
faculty on integrating and
recognizing AI in the classroom.
So I I did.
I left before I could.
I didn't get to attend any of
those workshops, but I've
certainly immersed myself in it
to understand it better.
But yeah, and I, so I wrote,
also wrote a blog using AI for a
literature review.
And I literally asked both
Claude AI and Chat GPTI gave it
sort of some text and to
describe what I was like, how
should I use you?
In which cases, how do I use you
for a literature review?
To what extent, what capacities,
when should I like, you know,
where is the sort of line to be
drawn?
And they both gave me very
different answers.
And so I blogged and I blogged
about that.
It was really interesting.
But the short of it is we are
creating new knowledge.
So an AI can't create that for
us.
And so if we rely heavily on AI,
as you said, we start to lose
our own brain power.
So how do we know the new
knowledge that we are even able
to create?
So it's a, it's a really
delicate situation right now, I
think because the other side of
it is there is a lot of, I don't
know, you know, there some parts
of research are like just kind
of like admin.
So how can we use AI to fill
that piece so that we can take
back some of our time, you know,
and some of the things that were
suggested by the AIS that I
asked where, you know, it's,
it's good at, it could be good
at finding research gaps or
coming up with like broad, you
know, to create a broad like
topical outline for your
literature review.
But you have to give it a lot of
guide rails so it doesn't miss
important research that's been
published.
And also that it doesn't make up
stuff 'cause we all know that
AIS can hallucinate.
And I've even, I've Even so I've
been creating case studies out
of my published works into more
like translate, like to
translate to practice, to do
some consulting in like urban
planning and community design
separately from like as another
thing that I'm doing.
And so I will feed one paper.
What I've been doing is I feed
one paper into Claude.
And I say specifically, I want a
case study.
I want it this long.
These are the, you know, the
subheadings.
This is what I, you know, I
basically give it all the
instructions and it still makes
stuff up or it misses like the
point of I'm like, and I wrote
this paper, so I know that this
is wrong.
And then I think, well, what
about researchers that are doing
literature summaries on papers
they haven't read and they don't
know that it's wrong?
So that's, yeah, that's the real
risk.
And back to what I was saying is
just having having the the
decency and knowing that, OK,
you developed your own critical
thinking skills and you have
your own common sense to write a
piece of evidence that will be
read by an academic audience, so
to speak.
And we were talking about you're
talking about biases.
And because of those biases, non
Western scholars tend to pay
more because of that, you know,
to get published.
Yeah.
So that's an interesting.
So I don't know the actual data
on that, but it's so Open Access
started being kind of
percolating when I was moving
from PhD to teaching.
And of course, you know, at that
point I didn't have any money to
publish an Open Access.
But when I got my first research
grant, I wrote in a line item to
pay for Open Access because the
thinking is well.
So I assume do you want me to
just do a quick run through of
the difference between or is
your audience I'll just like?
I don't mind.
Yeah, so I'm sure everybody
knows.
Yeah, I'm sure everybody knows.
But basically journals need to
make money to like stay in
business.
So they either pay a subscriber
fee and the the papers are
submitted free of cost, or the
OR the Open Access journals make
money when they accept a paper,
the authors pay a fee and then
the journal provides the
published work free of cost.
So there's no paywall.
And so being being inside a
paywall makes journal papers
inaccessible to anyone at a
university that doesn't have the
funds for a library that can
subscribe to all of because it's
very expensive to, yeah, I mean,
like thousands of dollars for a
subscription to one journal.
And think about how many
journals universities have to
subscribe to, to give their
their faculty and students
access.
So, but it's free to submit.
So if you don't have the money
to submit to Open Access, you
want to, to submit to a
subscription journal.
So if you're, if you have
limited funds, you're more
likely to do that.
The other side of it is if you
do have the funds, you're
potentially more interested in
publishing in Open Access
because first of all, nobody has
to pay to read your paper.
So that means more reach, and
with more reach becomes
potentially more citations,
right?
So there's this weird bias that
can happen because of one side
or the other.
So you have more underfunded
publishing in subscription only,
but then their research isn't
accessible to their peers.
And in fact, I have journal
papers that I can't access
because they're behind a paywall
and I no longer work for a
university.
So luckily I downloaded them
when I could.
The but the thinking, the
thinking about this.
And I, yeah, so I wrote a blog
about this Open Access versus
subscription based journals.
Again, the thinking is there's
you'll get more citations if you
publish an Open Access, but
actually the data isn't there
because in this world of
skimming, most people don't read
journal papers anyway.
And so I want to make an
important point here, that
you're abstract is probably the
most important, two or three,
maybe one, 1-2 or three
paragraphs that you will write
in your entire journal paper
because most people will only
read your abstract and they will
cite you because of your
abstract.
So it's important for it to be
clear, transparent, have all
your findings, your argument,
everything needs it does a lot
of heavy lifting.
And I will admit that even when
I can download papers, I've been
in a time crunch to, you know, I
have a revise and resubmit and I
need to add a new more papers.
I just need like 1 paper that
has evidence of this one thing.
And this one just needs to
support my theoretical
framework.
So I'm just looking for the
topic.
I'll do a quick search, find a
well cited paper, skim the
abstract, and then I'll cite
that whole paper.
And that's not uncommon, and I
don't feel conflicted in doing
that.
If the abstract is well written,
it represents the paper and it
doesn't matter if you're behind
a paywall or not, you will get
silent.
Yeah, I think having a great,
having a great abstract it
definitely what it counts.
And for your clients, what is
the how can I put this?
What is the the academic journal
platforms you recommend to your
clients who want to publish
their first article?
Ah, first article.
Of, say, one or two articles.
Just whatever.
Or their own, yeah.
Research paper.
Yeah, that's a good question.
So in my case, I really wanted
to publish in a disciplinary
like a strict disciplinary
journal.
So when I was publishing going
to submit my paper from
landscape architecture, I wanted
to publish and there's really
only two peer review landscape.
I mean, at the time maybe there
are more now there's so many
journals coming online now there
are only two to choose from.
So that was where I published.
So it may make sense to, I would
say just off the cuff, publish
in the place that's gonna
establish your expertise, which
would be a disciplinary journal.
That being said, it can be
difficult because there's a lot
of research and they're
generally pretty broad.
So there's like there are, there
are two approaches.
I think I might have a video on
selecting a journal paper.
If not, it's coming up soon or
selecting a journal.
There's there's a method where
you sort of like, there's kind
of like, so not just sort of
looking beyond impact factor in,
not just targeting Tier 1
journals because they can be
really difficult to get into.
Which isn't to say you shouldn't
shoot for that if it makes
sense, but there are a lot of,
there are a lot of journals out
there.
So part of it is where you are
in your career path 'cause it if
you want a broader audience, you
may be targeting something
that's interdisciplinary.
If you want to translate, like
for me, translating design to
practice.
So looking more at like policy
or practice, more practice
oriented.
So, you know, there's different
themes of journals, also
regional journals versus
international journals, but
there are what I would recommend
that's probably easier.
You know, if we're talking about
AI, the major journal publishers
have abstract like journal
pickers based on your abstract.
So you can literally put your
abstract in and, and it will
tell you what will be the best
fit.
And it doesn't mean that you
picked the first journal and
each like Elsevier and like
MDPI, like all of the major
publishers, like 5-6, seven of
them have this kind of thing.
You can go through and see what
they recommend.
And then especially if you're
early in your career path and
you have a mentor, ask your
mentor, like select the ones
like these are the five or six
that's recommended.
This is sort of like what they
publish and their impact factor.
How would I, you know, ask how
would you prioritize?
And I think that that then helps
to narrow it down in addition to
looking at your own citations,
because that's also a really
good indication of where your
research fits.
You know who where who is
publishing the papers that
you're citing the most.
Because generally speaking, if
you submit a paper to a journal,
you want to have at least cited
one or two of their papers.
Because if you haven't, that
probably means they're not
publishing your topic.
And I think it's all about the
strategy.
It's all about the strategy.
And I think that is something
that from this conversation I
will absorb and take a shot for
me.
Take a shot.
And then just trying to see
around the, the, the academic
platforms where I could publish
my, my first scientific article,
so to speak, of all the research
papers of I've presented that.
I think that's great, yeah.
But and to moving to A to that
question of of this whole world
that is so full of academic
biases, lots of subscription
paywalls to for non western
scholars, maybe even western
scholars to get noticed by their
own peers.
In summary for you, what does it
mean to be a PhD candidate?
And then and then I cannot I
also a post PhD individual in
this century.
That's tough to answer.
Maybe we can let's have a
conversation.
What do you think?
And then maybe I can sort of
like put my thoughts together.
Well, I think just for being for
being, for being a APHD in this
in this century, you, you have
to be a Jack of all trades.
That's how I would sum up.
I'm doing this podcast since
2021 when I started my PhD back
in July of that year.
And I'm finishing officially
finishing in in two weeks and or
even less than two weeks, so to
speak.
And thank you and been being
active online or well, not 100%
active online, but having at
least a personal branding,
networking around, well
strategically networking around
participating in conferences and
go to meet ups with peers.
That's what I would say that
being a PhD in this century and,
and, and I think probably over
the, over the last in the last
century, it also takes to that,
that it's being proactive across
all, all areas.
Yeah, I mean you.
Everything that you just listed
is true and also made me really
exhausted.
It's mentally exhausting.
So when do you have time for the
deep thinking?
I mean, and I think that that's
really the real question.
And you know, it's been a while
since I've, I mean, yeah.
So when I started my PhD, when I
did my field work for the first
time in Delhi, it was the first
time I had a smartphone.
So that maybe that ages me a
little bit.
It was the first time that I
actually had a map in my hand
and I could follow my tuk tuk
driver if I.
May ask.
So that was in 20, 2011, 2012 I
was.
Still, I was still in high
school so never thought about
going to university, but yeah.
Yeah, yeah, no.
And I think, you know, the world
is is and there's, it's
exhausting.
Like there's so many places that
you have to be and you have to
network and, you know, social
media makes it even more
challenging.
So even for myself, you know,
like you got to be on LinkedIn,
you're going to be on Instagram,
you're going to be on like you
do a blog, do a, you know,
YouTube video, do a podcast, do
like be translating your
research, but you can't be
translating and putting stuff
out there if you're not actually
doing the work itself.
And so really being protective
of that deep workspace, I think
is really important.
And to keep in mind that like, I
remember one of my mentors told
me many, many years ago, before
I even went for a PhD, actually,
it might have even been an
undergrad.
She told me that I might be a
good candidate to go for a PhD
someday.
And she said it will be the best
and worst time of your life, but
the best because you will never
have the space mental or, you
know, time, time space again to
work on one project that you're
really passionate about.
And in this day and age where we
have to be so networked because
getting a job is even more
difficult.
You have to know someone.
You can't just submit a resume
somewhere and then be picked,
'cause there's, you know, you're
competing with.
Yeah, it's just, it's in, it's
crazy.
It's hard to wrap our minds
around it.
I think that I, I feel, I feel
the heaviness of sort of your
batch coming up now.
In this space where you you have
to, yeah, you have to do
everything and know everything.
But you also, yeah, you have to
be really protective of that,
that brain space, because your
brain is everything, right?
I I remind myself of like, I
spend so much money on this
brain, I think.
It's just a lot.
It's it's too much and we're and
it's paying loads of tuition
fees and we covered in debt.
Thankfully here there's a
different policy in what comes
to student loans rather than
than the the situation in the
United States.
But we want to talk about that.
Let's talk about that.
In the UK it's rather different,
thank thank God.
But as you said, I think it's
being proactive and having a
strong network with someone who
who really wants to invest on
you.
If you do, if you if, if you
would do the, the, the the it's
saying I'll invest in you, but
you have to give me something
back.
Yeah, yeah.
Because PhD, you know, and I
think about that with my own
students and how much time and
effort even outside, I mean, so
much time being an academic
bleeds outside of office hours.
You know, they, there's this
sense that like, you know,
academics live this very sort of
like whatever life, but it's not
like that.
And I think about my own
students and the ones that I put
the most investment in
motivating were the ones that I
knew would be able to, I hate to
say produce because that's not,
I don't mean it to be
transactional, but the ones that
I had had the most potential to,
you know, publish a paper or go
to a conference or and that
would be for their CV.
But you know, also it's from for
mine as well, because if I have
a successful student, it
reflects well on me.
One thing that I'm thinking more
about, more about lately that I
want to develop more is the idea
of how we're motivated in terms
of whether, you know, being
processed or task oriented.
And, you know, I think about it
in terms of writer's block
because there's a lot of
procrastination around writing
journal papers.
But, you know, as a behavioral
scientist, I see that in all
aspects of life.
You know, I've studied a lot of
behavioral models and I came
across one that looks at
motivation in terms of internal
and external factors.
So some of us have a lot of
internal motivation and can sort
of push out external, whereas
some of them, some of us need
accountability, don't have a lot
of internal, but can meet
external.
Then there's the unique subset,
which I think actually draws a
lot of people into academia or
the overachievers that meet
internal and external
motivations.
And then there's the other end
of it where, you know, some
people have struggled to have
internal or external motivation
and struggle to move forward in
whatever way, shape or form in
life they desire to where is
expected, you know, and how that
impacts, you know, how you plan
your day, your week, your month,
your year, whether you're
someone that you know, can focus
on a task to get done, you need
it an hour every day.
Or, you know, for example, I
promote the idea of like, just
write 15 minutes a day.
Every day, you write for 15
minutes.
But to be totally transparent,
that doesn't work for me.
I can't do 15 minutes a day and
I don't What I do is if I really
need to get something done, I
block a whole day.
So once a week, I block a whole
day and that's protected.
But that doesn't work for other
people.
So, yeah.
So knowing like how how your
brain works and being really
clear about your yeah, your
priorities.
So.
All in all, that would be your
advice to those who want to
start a APHD then.
I would say my no.
My advice is do you really want
to go down this path?
Because it's different.
It's a different lifestyle.
Like you're not going to get
paid more if you have a PhD.
In fact, statistics are you'll
get paid less.
So that's important.
And with masters, masters is if
you don't want to go into
academia, you think carefully
about what APHD means.
But if you're if you love
knowledge, go for it.
In my case, I just ended up in a
PhD because I couldn't get a job
and I was offered a fellowship.
So sometimes and I have no
regrets.
I don't know, I probably can't
give you good advice.
But and, but it's still it's
still valid.
And I think with this amazing
conversation we're having, I
mean, we can do it again some
someday.
I've been trying to insist on my
guests in doing this.
Oh, let's have it again.
Let's have it again.
But OK, I still need to think
about it.
But but it was Jessica.
It was a really amazing
conversation.
And I think it's up to a point
to ask you where can they follow
your work?
I know you have a website of
your company publish it.
Where else can they follow you?
And also, if they have anything
to ask you, what would you say
to them to use your own
services?
Yeah, thank you.
First of all, thank you so much.
This was above and beyond, not
that I had low expectations
certainly, but this was really
fun chatting with you and I
would love to come back.
I would love to do like a panel
with other PhD students and like
AQ and A we could like as a.
Seminar around it when?
Yeah, or something more casual
than that.
Something more casual.
Yes, that.
Would be great, but yeah, you
can find me at my website for
Publish It, which is it's a
place for academic writers.
I want it to be more community
space.
You can find the website is my
name.
So it's jessica-deal.com,
jessica-diehl.com.
And if you check it out, there's
lots of free stuff, lots of free
advice.
Happy to have a conversation
through my community discussion
board or offline through, you
know, e-mail me.
My contact information is there
if you sign up for my
newsletter, which I only send
once a month and I do send some
occasional emails.
You can unsubscribe anytime.
If you sign up for my
newsletter, you will be launched
into a mini sort of like welcome
e-mail sequence.
And each of those emails has a
free download or a very special
offer for a really nice discount
on some of my pay for options.
So do check me out there and I'm
going to do a little plug.
I know I'm not sure exactly when
this is airing, but I do have a
live free workshop coming up the
18th and 19th of March.
So two weeks from now free.
It's it's a core argument
clarity workshop.
So in one hour we're going to
move from your research question
to your claim, which will become
the foundation for writing your
entire journal paper.
So a one hour sort of like
little bit of lecture but mostly
workshopping get it done
workshop.
So sign up for free on my
website.
And I think this this is a wrap,
a wrap up.
So, Jessie.
Thank you.
Thank.
You thank you so much and for
those who are listening, make
sure to reach out to Jessica and
she'll happily provide you with
all the resources possible for
you for your thesis, thesis
research or research papers to
get published.
So, students and graduates,
thank you all for tuning in and
it has been a pleasure.