Doctoral Guides
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How to Design Data Collection Instruments for Postgraduate Research: Survey, Interview and Observation Templates (UK, 2026)
Three fill-in templates — a questionnaire, an interview topic guide and an observation schedule — with the item-writing rules, the instrument matrix that ties every item to a…
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How to Choose and Justify a Sampling Strategy for a Master’s Dissertation: Worked Examples (UK, 2026)
A sampling strategy is a technique plus a written justification, and examiners assess the justification harder. Eight steps, a nine-technique comparison with the limitation each imports, and five…
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What Is a Conceptual Framework for a Postgraduate Thesis? Worked Examples by Discipline (UK, 2026)
A conceptual framework is the model you build; a theoretical framework is one you adopt. The four parts every framework must contain, five worked outlines by discipline, the…
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Research Gap and Problem Statement: Six Worked Examples for a Master’s Dissertation or PhD Thesis (UK, 2026)
Six gap statements and six problem statements written out in full, one per discipline, at the length they occupy in a real Master’s dissertation or PhD thesis —…
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How to Cite UK Legislation and Case Law in a Postgraduate Thesis: OSCOLA Fifth Edition, Harvard and APA (2026)
UK legal materials are cited by OSCOLA whatever style governs the rest of your thesis, and the fifth edition changed the rules: no ibid, KBD beside QBD, a…
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Which Research Council Funds Your PhD? UKRI Doctoral Training by Council and Discipline in Numbers (2026)
UKRI now funds doctoral training through two award types, landscape and focal, and the 2026 investment lists show how unevenly they fall across disciplines: 65 current EPSRC centres…
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Your Psychology PhD Data Are Analysed but the Results and Discussion Chapters Are Not Written: How to Write Them to APA and JARS Standards, Study by Study (2026)
Three studies run, the analyses done, the funded period ending, and the results and discussion chapters of a psychology PhD still in SPSS output and notes. How the…
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How to Structure a Computer Science PhD Thesis: Thesis Statement, Contribution Chapters and the 60,000-Word Limit, Step by Step (2026)
A computer science PhD thesis is built around one claim and the contributions that prove it, not around a fixed list of chapters. Eight steps from thesis statement…
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Which Financial Databases Should an Accounting or Finance PhD Actually Use? WRDS, Compustat, CRSP, Datastream, Bloomberg, FAME and Companies House Compared (2026)
Seven data sources an accounting or finance doctorate in the UK is built on, judged on what matters over four years: whether your business school already holds the…
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Your Management PhD Has a Topic but No Hypotheses: Research Problem, Questions, Hypotheses and Variables for a Management Doctorate, With Worked Examples (2026)
Eighteen months in, a management PhD or DBA can have a topic, a literature review and a supervisor, and still no research problem an examiner would accept, no…