When I first started my PhD, the main question was

“How am I going to disseminate my work to the wider community?”

The one thing I feared the most was spending years of my life

researching a particular topic for it to be locked

up in a library,with zero contribution to the world.

I wanted my research to be heard, shared, respected, and most importantly

used as a tool to implement change in society. Change for the better!

Otherwise,what's the point in spending four years of hard work for it to achieve nothing?

In this blog post, I am going to run through

four ways in which you can disseminate your research

into the public domain and put your hard work to real use.

1. Join Ph.D. hardtalk (shameless plug)
Ph.D. hardtalk is a seasonal academic YouTube channel, featuring amazing research scholars from all around the world, from different disciplines. It’s a chance to talk about your research and educate the wider community. We have covered so many interesting topics; from science, law, history, mental health and much more! We hope to inspire and advise newly aspiring doctoral students. I want our amazing community and voices to be heard outside of academia, in our efforts to implement change.

Are you interested in participating? Send over your abstract or summary of research, and a bit about yourself via email (enquiries@phd-hardtalk.online)... and we can take it from there!

2. Publications

Publishing papers during your PhD is an amazing opportunity to improve your writing skills, increase your status, collaborate with other scholars, and of course, get your work out there. However, without a doubt, time, is one of our biggest enemies as PhD students. We have so many deadlines and commitments, but it is usually possible to publish at least one paper/ article during your PhD program.

Our amazing season 2 guest, Veronica Drakard, discusses the importance of publications and shares her advice from a scientist's POV. Watch here (from 16:12 or treat yourself and watch the whole thing!):

3. Networking

Networking is without a doubt one of the most powerful tools in the academic world. Love it or hate it, you have to admit it's an important skill to have! Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and make connections with like-minded people, an amazing opportunity may grow from it. LinkedIn is a great platform for doing this virtually!

However, please remember it's important to not be too 'thirsty'! Get to know someone first, spend time talking to them before you jump the gun. It could do you more harm than good. "When you’re networking… be like a farmer, plant your seeds, water your crops… see if anything comes of it” - Dakota Zinani. Dakota is a mastermind when it comes to networking. After working in the industry for years, to then transitioning into academia to do his pharmacological PhD, he realised the importance of networking. But also the common mistakes people make that you should avoid at all costs, watch here (from 30:12):

4. Conferences

Whether you are just attending an academic conference or presenting your research, they have so many benefits in terms of networking and getting your work out there. They're a great opportunity to meet new people, gain new perspectives and ideas from others that you can apply to your own research. Self-reflection is also an important factor, you can reflect on your weak points and get advice from others in the crowd. It's an opportunity to recognise your weaknesses, work on them, improve for next time, and of course, apply that to the BIG final thesis defence!

Chemical engineer, Kanku Lubale, is the king of conferences and has spoken at many throughout this academic journey. In this episode, he shares his advice and best tips for presenting at conferences.

Watch here (from 22.18):

P.S. I know the thought of presenting at conferences in front of hundreds (potentially thousands) of people can sound scary. Well, it is scary! But building your presentation skills and confidence is so important.

So I put together this short one minute video, where I share my four best tips for presenting, based on my experiences over the years. This can be applied to conferences, public speaking events, Uni presentations and so much more. So hopefully, these tips will help you guys out that may be stressed or anxious!

Watch here:

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this blog post. I hope it helped you out in some way. If you would like to learn more, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on our socials, using the link below: