I will starting my science PhD degree this April.
I have been looking around on the net on how to succeed in phd,
e.g. starting with reading the reviews, then read the key reference papers, and jot down the key ideas of each paper.
Could anyone please suggest some more idea on succeeding a phd degree.
Is there a recommended reference to read around?

Hi NikeKoh,

First of all congrats!!!! Usually the first stage is to do the lit review so that you can familiarise yourself with the research area. Saying that, I felt that I needed to know how to 'manage' such a bog task and spend ages looking around some reading. Generally speaking, there were some books that I found more helpful than others. I have attached a general link to 'how to..' books below. If its the writing part that worries you, again there are some excellent books for that too.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search/ref=sr_nr_i_0?rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3Aphd&keywords=phd&ie=UTF8&qid=1263252109

Hope that is helpful to you?

Is there any good method of doing a literature review?

Best,

Hi NikeKoh,

I am not sure if you mean as to start the lit search or to write one up. Usually I guess supervisors just send you off to research one a specific field to find out what research is out there. A really great tip passed to me was to sign up to the RSS feeds of relevent journals. That way you can keep up to date with published research.

I would prob start by just outlining the research problem, why it's important, what contributions different models or explanations make and the problems with these. Its really easy to get side tracked. I do all the time, so try and stay focused on the research question. Don't worry too much about it as the orginal lit search will change drastically as your project develops. But if you want help with the writing there are some excellent books about writing a thesis. Try amazon. For general style etc Joseph William's Style: 10 lessons in clarity and grace....is really good.

Hope it helps?