The Researchers' Bible provides advice for obtaining a PhD, including choosing an appropriate research topic and methodology. It recommends picking a topic that is interesting, significant, and doable within three years with a willing supervisor. For the research process, it advises thinking of scenarios to hypothesize solutions, finding examples to test programs, and describing work at a higher level than code. It also stresses the importance of writing papers regularly, getting feedback, and communicating your central message clearly. The overall thesis should guide and answer what has been done and why it merits a degree.

1. “The Researcher's Bible”
Debate and Conversation in English
September, 2011

2. ● The Researchers' Bible
Alan Bundy, Ben du Boulay, Jim Howe
and Gordon Plotkin. 1995
Gives advices about various aspects of
getting a Ph.D.

3. What is a thesis?
● The Ph.D. Candidate must demonstrate
that he is capable of pursuing original
research in his field of study.
● Must be original work making a significant
contribution to knowledge.
● Contain material worthy of publication.

4. Pitfalls for postgraduate
students
● Pick research goals which are too
ambitious.

5. Source of ideas
● Further work sections of papers
● Re-doing bad work

6. Having chosen a topic
● Read the literature
● Talk to people
● Tackle a simplified version of your
problem
● Write down your ideas
● Give a talk to a small group

7. Computer bum
● Your program must be explainable at a
higher level than code.
● Plan your program theoretically before
going to the terminal
● If people don't understand it is your fault
● If you really believe that existing
languages are inadequate then write a
paper on it

8. Micawberism
● Make sure what class of result you are
attempting to establish
● Talk to people
● Imagine the experiment finished
● Don't keep running experiments in the
hope that something will turn up

9. ● Keep in touch with the state of the art in
releated fields
● Talk to other people about their research
● Attend selected seminars and lectures

10. Misunderstood genius
● Try to rephrase your ideas using ordinary
english
● Your solution won't be trivial to other
people and should anyway be used as
basis for further work
● Motto: Do the easiest thing first, then
stand on shoulders and do the next
easiest thing etc.-a better infinite loop

11. ● Do it the simplest you can
● Tackle the abstract property in a concrete
situation
● Do something simple
● The readers and examiners are interested
in the general arguments in favor of the
idea

12. Mental attitude
● Belief in what you are doing
● You must be prepared to modify your
ideas if they are wrong
● Doubts about your own ability can lead to
research impotence
● You will have to learn to differentiate
between valid and invalid criticism

13. Cold start
● Make yourself a regular working schedule
● Make sure you leave some non-
threatening, attractive task to do first

14. ● Only try to prove a theorem if it is clearly
relevant to your overall purpose
● The sooner you subject your idea to the
acid test, the sooner you will discover its
limitations

15. Choosing a research project
1. You must be enthusiastic about it
2.Solving the problem must be worthy of a
Ph.D.
3.It must be 'do-able' in three years
4.There must be someone willing to
supervise it

16. ● Beware of choosing an area new to you
● Find someone whose interest lie in this
area and who is prepared to advise you

17. Research methodology
1.Think of a scenario
2.Hypothesise what processes ,ight achieve
such a scenario
3.Think of further scenarios
4.Choose the programming language that
fits your needs
5.Find some examples you have not
previously considered – Modify your
program until is robust

18. 6.Testing it on some examples – Keep
statistics on its success/faliure
7.Describe your program using language
independent of your particular
implementation

19. Writing papers
● You should make writing a regular part of
your life
● Keep records of everything you do

20. Guide to writing
● Your paper should have a message
● Cannot be misunderstood
● Stick to the main message and only
include what is essential to that
● What is the problem?, what did you used
to tackle?, what result followed?

21. ● Have a particular reader in mind
decide what your reader has to know in
order to understand the central idea
● Use worked examples to illustrate a
procedure
● Clearly state what is new or better about
what you have done

22. ● Do no define a new term unless you really
need it
● Ask several people to read the draft
versions

23. Relevant to thesis writing
● Should not be a 'core-dump' of all you
know about everything related to the topic
● You should write your ideas and results up
as a series of notes

24. ● Build your thesis message:
– Should serve as a guide to the title,
abstract, summary, conclusion and the
whole body of the thesis
– Should answer: what have I done? And
why does this work deserve a degree?

25. Guide to reading
● Staying in touch with related research is
the main subgoals of obtaining a Ph.D.
Middle circle:
Specialized textbooks,
seminars
YOU
Inner circle:
Deep understanding,
Get involved in it
Outer circle:
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