I am involved in a field called bioinformatics. The goal is to increase our knowledge of biology (DNA, proteins, RNA, genes, etc) using tools of IT, maths and statistics. So computers and software algoriths are tools, but biology is the goal. I got a PhD position a couple of years and am now writing up my thesis and will soon start applying for postdoc positions.

My research comes in two stages. In the first stage, I was supposed to write a computer program to process data and obtain certain information for biological. This information is intermediate and not particularly useful on its own. This is the mainly computer science and required before doing the second stage. I managed to write the computer program well, but the data it generated was bad. Not because I did any mistake but because the raw data available was not good enough (it is a technical limitation over which I have no influence).

Now, I cannot do the second stage which is to increase our knowledge of biology and I have not published any papers to do with the second stage. My supervisor says that I will not be able to obtain a PhD degree due to this, but I might get a masters title instead.

I fear that this will make it impossible for me to get a postdoc position because many postdoc ads stress that you need to have published papers in high-ranking journals.

There are a couple of good things though. 1. I coauthored paper that has been cited a couple of times (it shows that I am a good programmer). 2. There is 1-2 papers that I might be able to publish and is to do with algorithms, but not something that increases knowledge of biology. 3. Bioinformatics programmers are in demand.

I wonder if I can still apply to postdoc positions. Any advice is helpful.

So is your sup saying it will probably get an Mphil instead of PhD? I'm not sure how that translates to postdoc opportunities but double and triple check your thesis for any new contribution to knowledge. It doesn't have to change the world! Apparently Einstein's Ph.D. dissertation was a principled calculation meant to estimate Avogadro's number. He got it wrong. By a factor of 3. He still got a Ph.D (don't quite me ont hat though it's from a web article! ;-p.

See this article also

"I once supervised a student investigating a very small area of “queer” theory. It is a specialist field, well worked over by outstanding researchers. I remained concerned throughout the candidature that there was too much restatement of other academics’ work. The scholarship is of high quality and does not leave much space for new interpretations.

Finally, we located a clear section in one chapter that was original. He signalled it in the abstract. He highlighted it in the introduction. He stressed the importance of this insight in the chapter itself and restated it in the conclusion. Needless to say, every examiner noted the original contribution to knowledge that had been highlighted for them, based on a careful and methodical understanding of the field. He passed without corrections."

What I'm saying is it's not over until it's over. You may still have something worth a PhD. :-)

Hi BrownPolarBear

In what country are you doing your PhD? From what you've described, it's not clear why your supervisor would say that you can't complete enough work for a PhD, which might be achievable by changing the direction of your project. Are published papers a mandatory condition of passing a PhD where you are?

Overall, it may be possible to get a research fellow/research associate job in bioinformatics without a PhD, particularly if it's a technical role. But you might find that your career progression is ultimately limited by not having one.

@wowzers, bioinformatics is a technical field, so any progress is easy to measure. I believe that I have learnt a lot to work in my field and that I am good for a postdoc position. My fear is that transition from PhD level to postdoc will be difficult when it comes to some positions. Someone else gave me a tip to tell about the difficulties in job applications. That might help.

@HazyJane, you are spot on. I am looking for a technical role in the future. I am in Western Europe, but I do not want to reveal the country (too small - everyone knows everyone else here).

I have been trying to change direction, but it was too late to change when I realized that the second stage could not be done. I tried several diffirent ways to solve the first stage, but I could not overcome some technical barriers.