Obtaining a Ph.D.

Research and Publishing

These Research Resources offer strategies for researching and writing polished articles as well as some general sites useful for research.  Check in your disciplinary field for specific online research resources.  The Publishing Resources give guidelines for formatting articles and getting them published.  Some disciplinary style guides are not available in full online: those included here are either complete or offer fairly complete highlights.
See the Dissertations page for information about publishing a lengthier project.

Research Resources

Advice on Research and Writing (Carnegie Mellon University)
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/project/fox/mosaic/people/mleone/how-to.html  Although targeted at computer scientists, much of this applies to other fields as well.

Choosing a Research Topic (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
http://chronicle.com/jobs/99/11/99111902c.htm  Richard Reis explains what factors to consider when staking out an area of research in the sciences.

Getting Published as a Graduate Student in the Sciences (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
http://chronicle.com/jobs/2000/11/2000112402c.htm  Richard Reis offers advice about dealing with co-authorship, first authorship, and organizing a research paper.

H-Net Discussion Networks
http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/lists/  These discussion lists in the humanities and social sciences deal with topics ranging from "African Expressive Culture" to "World History."

How to Win Acceptances by Psychology Journals (Yale)
http://www.csustan.edu/psych/todd/sternbrg.html  R.J. Sternberg offers advice that applies equally to other fields in the sciences and social humanities.

How to Write Up Your Results for Publication (Australian National University)
http://www.anu.edu.au/BoZo/KeoghLab/DoughtyPublish.html   Paul Doughty focuses on the biological sciences, but his advice applies equally to other fields in the life sciences.

Ph.D. Information (University of Queensland)
http://www2.ems.uq.edu.au/phdweb/fr_phinf.html  Offers suggestions for conceptualizing research, publishing, and links to other sites.

Proquest
http://www.il.proquest.com/proquest/  Proquest provides access to online materials including periodicals, newspapers, and dissertations.

Qualitative Research
Allows users to visit various sites through the Qualitative Research Ring, visit the QualPage for links to other resources including Qualitative Data Analysis software, and browse webpages and journals through The Qualitative Report.

Quantitative Research
Allows users to visit the Theoretical and Methodological Issues in Quantitative Research discussion forum, find statistics programs and sources for real data at the Quantitative Advisor, and check Suppliers of Statistical Analysis Software posted on The Scientist.

Research Design Explained (Clarion University)
http://spsp.clarion.edu/mm/RDE3/start/  Offers methodologies and tools for psychological research.

Research-It!
http://www.itools.com/research-it/   Academic research engine that includes translation tools and search portals for people, quotations, maps, and more.

Sage Publications
http://www.sagepub.co.uk/  See Sage Publications' "Catelogue Listing" for books about qualitative and quantitative methodology.

Summary Notes of Writing for Social Scientists (Howard S. Becker)
http://www.brint.com/papers/writing.htm  An outline of Becker's suggestions for writing.  Taken from his book, Writing for Social Scientists: How to Start and Finish Your Thesis, Book, or Article (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986).

Publishing Resources 

American Anthropological Association
http://www.aaanet.org/pubs/style_guide.htm  The AAA's Style Guide is a pdf file on this site.

American Psychological Association
http://www.apastyle.org/index.html  Get information about the APA guide at the organization's site.  See http://www.english.uiuc.edu/cws/wworkshop/bibliography/apa/apamenu.htm for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's online version of the APA guide.

American Sociological Association
http://www.asanet.org/  The preparation checklist gives highlights from the ASA Style Guide at http://www.asanet.org/pubs/notice.pdf.  

Council of Biological Editors
http://www.lib.ohio-state.edu/guides/cbegd.html  Ohio State University offers sample online citations in CBE style.

Guidelines for Articles Reporting on Qualitative and Quantitative Research
http://llt.msu.edu/resguide.html  Editors of LLT (Language, Learning and Technology) recommend these guidelines for reporting qualitative and quantitative research in articles.

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
http://standards.ieee.org/guides/style/  The complete IEEE Style Guide online.

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society 
http://computer.org/author/style/cs-style.htm  The IEEECS Style Guide is currently only available online.

Modern Language Association
http://www.mla.org/  Get information about the MLA guide at the organization's site under "MLA style."  See also http://www.english.uiuc.edu/cws/wworkshop/bibliography/mla/mlamenu.htm, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's online version of the MLA guide.

Online! Citation Styles
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/citex.html  Gives information about MLA, APA, Chicago, CBE, and other styles; particularly useful for documenting online sources (websites, listserv or newsgroup postings, etc.).

Online Writing Lab (Purdue University)
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/  Offers links to research, formatting, and documentation resources, as well as information about professional and field-specific writing.

Publishers' Addresses (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
http://chronicle.com/books/publishers.php3  An alphabetical listing of publishers in the US.