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Old 01-02-2010, 05:08 PM
Rune Allnor
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Default Re: how to start your reserch

On 2 Jan, 06:17, sami <[email protected]> wrote:
> if you want to start you phd reserch which way you prefer
>
> 1_ *understanding the subject first by reading books or directly start
> reading conference and papers to know which new idea you can find
> about your subject


Conference papers are way too crude for learning anything.
At best, they provide references to more useful literature.

As for the PhD stuff, if you find already existing material
on the subject you intend to study, chances are that your
subject does not qualify for the degree - your work might
not be 'novel' if others already have treated it.

So if you want to keep up with the hype surrounding the degree,
you will need to read up on a subject to investigate if there
are uncovered aspect of it that you might base the thesis on.

Which, of course, would mean that there is a risk you do all
the work only to find either that somebody else already have
done what you intended, or that there are no uncovered angles
of the subject.

In which cases your work will not qualify for the degree.

Of course, no one will ever deny you the degree if you already
did all that work, regardless of its novelty or relevance, so
all you need to do is to keep busy for whatever time your
scholarship runs, and write some mumbo jumbo in a thesis.

I don't know if PhD these were ever evaluated on relevance
or novelty of their contents. If so, it ended a very long
time ago.

Rune
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