How much do you read wider around your subject/discipline? And a question for those who have finished PhDs - do you still do so?

There is a reason why I ask (it's not just another one of my random thoughts!). When I was doing my PhD I used to read not only journal papers specifically related to my research, but also every week (or whenever they came out) I would read wider around my area. So my area was in statistics with an application to biology. I used to read Nature, Science, BMJ, Lancet, Bioinformatics and then various Stats journals (RSS journals, Biometrika etc). So whilst these weren't necessarily directly related to my research, it provided a way to keep abreast of what was going on more generally in science/statistics/biology.

The more intriguing part is that, without fail, I still read these journals on a weekly(or however often) basis despite graduating last summer and working in an area completely unrelated - I do a lot of statistical work but it's not research based so don't really used up to date techniques (as much as I would love to!).

So do you just concentrate on your own area or are you eager to know what's going on in the wider world?

Hey Dan! In an ideal world I would read more widely than I do! I work in the field of dementia and obviously read any new stuff that's related to my subject, but I also come across loads of interesting stuff that's dementia-related but not really connected to what I do. Usually when I come across an interesting paper like that I print it out and put it in my 'to read' box file! Some that are really intriguing do get read quite promptly, but of course I have a big backlog of papers that will probably never be read. I think it's important to try to though, just to keep on top of the field- you never know what your next project might be or whether you might take your research in a different direction. Best, KB

I didn't have time to read in the way you did/do Dan: remember I was managing my part-time PhD on just a handful of good hours a week, when well enough neurologically to manage it. I would like to have read as you described, but it was impossible. Instead I focused on what I needed to do for my PhD, and that's how I managed to finish in good time, for such limited hours.

Now access to journals is an issue for me, being based away from campus. I've been awarded an honorary fellowship, so can read online journals for the next year or so - without the fellowship I had no access to those at all any more. But I'm not physically in a library where I can read paper ones. So, again, I read what I need to, and no more. I'm in the process of turning my thesis into more journal papers, and I need to keep up with current relevant research.

As my thesis has changed a bit now I'm finding that I have to read much more widely than I thought I would need to do in order to find suitable references , and as a result have quotes from all sorts of sources, from 14th century historians to - and I really hate to say this- Jilly Cooper' s book on class (:$ ) I too have loads of articles that I think would be really useful, but have yet to delve into their contents, although I have put them in the appropriate chapter pile. My supervisor  keeps telling me to read this book or that book, or add something by x, y, or z, but if I put in all they want, in the detail they want there won't be room for the rest of it. What I would say though is for many of these books/articles its more of an overview than a detailed read...there are only so many hours available, and I was given several books at Christmas, which I want to read, but have no bearing on my thesis whatsoever... so I'm sneaking in a bit of time for those too...now I wonder if i could use any of those.......:-)

I used to quite like you DanB ( you have a gift for one liners in response to the spam trolls)  but now you just sound like a swot ;-)

I read "around" in the sense of say once a month i would go to specific journals online and look at the article titles and hope to God that "mine" wasn't there... if something else grabbed me then i'd read it.. so it was less organised than your method but I'd guess you'd say that I was keeping up to date in a very random fashion. Haven't done so since I submitted though... mmmm..  must do.

Regards, Chuff