TPM – Research Practices

This course is aimed at helping first and second year PhD students develop research practices necessary to succeeding in their PhD research. The course meets weekly and each of the seven meetings focuses on a specific topic, including strategies for publishing, writing effective abstracts, data management planning, Go/No Go meeting preparation, etc. The Research Practices course gives PhD students advice for dealing with these aspects of their PhD trajectory as well as time to work on these and receive lecturer and peer feedback on their work.

In most sessions, a different TPM researcher joins as a guest speaker to discuss their research at TPM as well as focus on one topic of the Research Practices course. This approach brings to the course a variety of experiences and fields and better acquaints students with the faculty of TPM and the breadth of research taking place here.

Students are assessed via written assignments during the course, most of which are directly pertinent to their individual PhD research and procedures (e.g., a data management plan, an annotated list of relevant journals in their field, draft sections of their Go/No Go document), and in smaller part based on their participation in the weekly sessions. Attendance is required. There is no exam.

It is strongly suggested that PhDs wait until they are at least 6 months into their PhD trajectory before taking the course.