To Do or Not to Do a Phd?: Insight and Guidance from a Public Health PhD Graduate

ISBN-13: 9783030646707 / Angielski / Miękka / 2021 / 66 str.

Sarah Cuschieri

Spis treści

Chapter one: What Is a PhD? Am I Ready for this Commitment?

·        This chapter sets the scene for the book. It provides information on what is a PhD and a short history of this academic endeavor. It also touches upon why one would want to do a PhD degree and whether this degree really suits the person’s ambition, work-life balance, job satisfaction during the graduate program, and the different job opportunities one would have once the PhD is over. Would there be research opportunities or faculty positions following completion of the PhD? It also discusses the anticipated life scenarios that a PhD student would face including living costs (such as housing costs, transportation, health insurance, etc.), possibility of a student loan, potential of achieving a fellowship or funding support that are all associated with a PhD, as well as whether a part-time, full-time (on the ground), online, or hybrid program is the most suitable program to pursue. Finally, the author discusses the difference between enrolling in a PhD vs. DrPH program.

Chapter two: The initial steps of a PhD

·        The chapter starts by addressing the application process and how to choose the best doctoral school that meets one’s requirement, taking into consideration both European and US programs. It also touches upon the identification of an accredited doctoral school through the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) for the US and the Bologna Process for Europe, as well as discuss the general application requirements needed to apply to a doctoral program in the US and Europe. This chapter then follows a two-fold approach. First, it discusses the steps required to follow an original PhD, where the student needs to come up with the research question and identify the supervisor. It also touches upon the different research designs available and the importance of identifying the most appropriate research design to answer the set research question. The second part discusses briefly the other type of PhD, where the title is already present and the student would have an aim and scope already set up for him/her.

Chapter three: Proposal, Permissions, and Funding

·    This chapter discusses how to construct a winning research proposal, how to budget, and how to create a Gannt chart. It also discusses how to achieve your own funding if no grant / funding has been allocated by the university to conduct this study. A section is dedicated to identifying and achieving the institutional permissions, data protection, and ethics permissions required for the PhD fieldwork.

Chapter four: The fieldwork

·        This chapter focuses on how to set up a validated questionnaire (examples are provided that include links to validated questionnaires) and a health examination survey. It provides an explanation of other modes of fieldwork depending on the research design that was chosen. However, the main focus is on how to conduct a cross-sectional survey, which is the most easily conducted fieldwork for a public health PhD.

Chapter five: The art of data analysis

·     This chapter gives brief explanations of how to identify whether the data obtained from the fieldwork is of normal distribution and if one needs a parametric or non-parametric approach to statistics respectively. It discusses the need of eyeballing the data as well as provides a brief explanation of descriptive and analytic statistics one may need to use.

Chapter six: Putting pen to paper to publication

·        This chapter discusses how to translate the results into a scientific paper and prepare it for publication in a journal. It also touches upon how to choose an appropriate journal.

Chapter seven: Writing the thesis

·       This chapter discusses the format of a typical PhD thesis and what is expected in each and every section, including the different referencing styles. Resources are provided where appropriate.

Chapter eight: The hurdles along the way – a personal experience

·       In this chapter the author shares (many) experiences that she encountered during the course of her PhD. Unfortunately, the author was faced with a number of different issues and given a hard time, mostly because she was a woman, which she hopes no one has to go through. Alas, the author still managed to make it through, along with publishing ten peer-reviewed articles prior to finishing the PhD. The author hopes that sharing such experiences will encourage other students not to give up and also learn from her experiences and potential mistakes she might have made at the time. Therefore, this chapter discusses gender discrimination, intersectionality (especially race), pregnancy, parental leave, and childcare during the graduate program.

Chapter nine: Getting ready for the oral defense

·    This final chapter covers tips and guidance on how to prepare for the oral examination. It also provides a personal experience of how to survive this important event.

Chapter ten: What comes after the completion of a PhD?

This brief chapter discusses the different career paths (academia, government, private sector) that can be pursued once the PhD is completed, unless the doctoral study was already associated with a position. It also addresses the financial aspect at this stage; i.e., starting salaries of a recent graduate, as well as touches upon tenure track placement and income disparity. The author also shares her personal experience of how her life changed and the opportunities that came with obtaining her PhD. 

N.B. All chapters include personal experience and examples; any appropriate references and links are provided.

O autorze

Sarah Cuschieri, MD, PhD, MSc, qualified as a medical doctor in 2011. She studied for a Master of Science degree and Postgraduate Diploma in Diabetes Mellitus Type 2 at Cardiff University in Wales, obtaining a Distinction in both between 2012 and 2015. In addition to her Master’s degree, she was awarded the silver award of excellence by Cardiff University. After completing her medical training, Dr. Cuschieri took up a full-time academic and research career at the University of Malta in 2013. In 2019, she completed her PhD studies focusing on the “Burden of Diabetes Mellitus Type 2, dysglycaemia and their co-determinants in the adult population of Malta”. During the same year, she also obtained a certificate in Public Health Epidemiology at the University of Utrecht in The Netherlands. Dr. Cuschieri has published a number of papers focusing on diabetes mellitus type 2, obesity, and medical scientific writing in international peer-reviewed journals. She has been invited as a guest author and speaker for book chapters and conferences. Her primary research interests are diabetes mellitus type 2, obesity, and their impact on population health. Dr. Cuschieri is actively involved in a number of collaborative research projects, particularly in the area of the burden of disease.

Blurb

This book prepares and guides individuals who are about to embark (or already have embarked) on a health/medical PhD journey, with a specific focus on Public Health. Based on the author's experience as a recently graduated Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) student, readers benefit from the knowledge imparted and lessons learned, including an analysis of the different aspects of a Public Health doctoral degree, and practical tips and guidance on how to go about this journey from the initial phase of choosing a research niche up until the oral examination (also called defence). All throughout the book, the author shares examples from her own journey to show that in spite of sacrifices and hurdles along the way, hard work, perseverance, and supportive resources can help see you through, eventually, to a hopefully positive outcome at the end.

Using an informal style, the author provides a step-wise guide, from chapter to chapter, on the various essential aspects that need to be considered, including:

• The initial steps towards a PhD
• Proposal, permissions and funding
• The fieldwork
• The art of data analysis
• The hurdles along the way – a personal experience
• What comes after the completion of a PhD?

Intended to be a compact go-to guide for students throughout their PhD journey, both from an academic and personal perspective, To Do or Not to Do a PhD? engages readers who are about to enroll in or who already have started a PhD, especially in public health, epidemiology, and health/medical fields of study. The brief also would appeal to postgraduate and undergraduate students who are interested in learning about how to write a research proposal, draft a scientific paper for publication in a journal, or prepare a thesis.