Hello!

I am approaching the end of my third year as a doctoral student. So far, it has been an enriching journey that has pushed my personal and professional development. As in previous years, I would like to reflect on some topics and realisations from the last months. From a project status standpoint, I completed my exploratory work this year and I am at a stage where I can start to converge towards a complete functional pipeline by refining all the tools and analysing the datasets collected to date. Crucially, this shift also influenced my perspective on organising my schedule and planning my remaining timeline, which will appear as a common thread among the following topics.

1. Developing leadership and project management skills

2. Research projects are unique

3. Maturing scientific thinking

Developing leadership and project management skills

At ETH Zurich, Bachelor and Master students are expected to complete at least one research project at the end of their studies. These are typically hosted by existing labs in the university and advised by doctoral students, who propose projects that align with their research projects. Students acquire practical skills and can complete the thesis work necessary to obtain their degrees, while doctoral students receive extra research support. However, there are some subtleties worth noting in this process. First, except for Master Thesis projects, the remaining research stays only last a few weeks during the semester, usually matching seven weeks of full-time work, where the student needs to be introduced to a project and learn the necessary skills, carry out their research to produce results and finally write a report and present their findings. Therefore, the total time dedicated to research can often be relatively short, which limits the milestones that can be completed in that window.

In my experience, this phenomenon has been quite challenging, with every student project helping me calibrate the work that should be achievable. At the same time, for the cases where not all goals can be accomplished, we must have a buffer in our timeline to lead the remaining steps to an end. This buffer is particularly relevant when unexpected challenges appear during the execution, potentially revealing issues in the study design that should be improved before continuing the experiments. In other words, our timeline should be feasible for a single person, with any additional help from student projects being an improvement. Ultimately, such projects are an excellent opportunity to develop leadership and project management skills, building the ability to confidently plan and compartmentalise complex projects into smaller units that can be completed over time.

Research projects are unique

On a different topic, it has become clear that a doctoral research plan is remarkably unique. Although we work in a group of over 20 people under the same broad research topic, each student has a project with advantages and challenges. This factor becomes particularly relevant when establishing collaborations as it should be clear what each party will contribute and how it aligns with their project. At the same time, this insight should appear as a reminder that it is counter-productive to compare projects side-by-side as they often run on entirely different timelines. Indeed, wet lab-based research typically requires considerably more extended periods to perform all necessary experiments, compared to computational work, where it is relatively faster to generate results.

Furthermore, as doctoral students progress on their work and identify the next career steps, their priorities change and vary between people. While for wet-lab students, longer publications in high-impact journals may be more beneficial, engineering-oriented projects may opt for multiple, smaller contributions in several journals; conversely, if the goal is to leave academia at the end of the doctoral studies, it could be that an extensive list of publications may not even be required. Therefore, it is vital to be aware of our personal goals and tailor our path accordingly, even if it seemingly diverges from the approach taken by other colleagues.

Maturing scientific thinking

At last, I have noticed the importance of developing our critical scientific thinking from a science communication standpoint and a practical research-oriented perspective. While the direction of most experiments is relatively set by now, I am still flexible to incorporate additional analysis to support relevant study design decisions. Furthermore, as previous posts have highlighted how most research culminates in a journal article, I also put great effort into understanding how to structure a manuscript effectively. On this note, recent experiences where I could prepare my first original research article truly helped me realise how much effort it takes to reach a submittable form of the work and the additional time required after receiving comments from reviewers to improve the study and text further. It is particularly beneficial to complete this process with a relatively small paper, as the purpose is to experience all stages of publishing an article. Comparably, after having the chance to review a paper, I also had a clearer picture of how a reviewer receives a new manuscript and identified several aspects that can strengthen the perception of our work.

As publishing articles is an important goal of doctoral studies, these experiences also helped me to reframe how I conduct my work by identifying the key findings I would like to communicate with my studies and working backwards to plan tasks accordingly. By starting with a rough draft of the figures and sections of our future manuscript, it feels much more manageable to identify actionable items to complete each part and progressively build a complete picture of the study. Eventually, combining all results and writing the accompanying text becomes an effortless formality.

Conclusion

These learning experiences have been particularly impactful for me over the last year, and I am excited to continue and grow with this experience. It is undoubtedly a challenging process but certainly rewarding, especially when we accomplish the goals we set for ourselves.

Please feel free to share your thoughts on your doctoral/scientific journey!

Have a great day!