Module 5 explains in detail about conflicts of interest and intellectual property.

Tune in to our bitesize webinar to learn more.

Module 14 will provide you with tips for increasing your chances of publication. It takes you through why papers are typically rejected and how to increase your chances of publication - in the Pre-writing, Writing and Post-submission stage.

Tune in to our bitesize webinar to learn more.

A thesis is a big undertaking, usually 60,000 to 80,000 words.  It’s likely to be the longest thing you’ve ever written, and when it’s complete, you’ll be examined on it.  It’s very common to be worried about whether you can write a successful thesis.  If you’re writing in English, and it isn’t your first language, that can be an even bigger worry.

The good news is that, if you get accepted for a PhD, it’s because your department believes in you.  However, they don’t expect you to already have all the experience you need.  You don’t have to already be familiar with the type of language expected in your thesis, or know how to structure it.

When you submit your paper to a journal for consideration, you want to be sure that the journal follows the appropriate ethical guidelines. You want to know that the editors will act in an ethical way, that the peer review process follows appropriate standards, and that the journal has integrity.

This article discusses several ways – macro and micro – in which you can develop successful researcher writing habits.

The demands of a PhD can often feel overwhelming, and it is not uncommon to hear of doctoral students being stressed and overworked.

Researcher engagement with their academic community is an essential component in their wellbeing and mental health. This article discusses ways in which researchers can interact with their community.

You have decided to write an academic paper and submit it for review. You feel excited to have completed your research study and are ready to share the results. You have selected a journal; read all the submission requirements and you are ready to write. But you hit a wall and you are not sure how to move forward – you have writer’s block.

IOP Publishing recently partnered with The Charlesworth Group to integrate their article tracking feature into WeChat via the Charlesworth Gateway.

Our case study outlines how the integration was achieved within four weeks to provide an improved user experience for authors in China. 

A PhD programme can be anything from three to seven years (possibly longer), depending on where you do it and whether you undertake your study on a full or part-time basis. As this will comprise a substantial period of your career and life, it is worth investing some time in the early stages of looking and applying for a PhD, to find exactly the right programme for you.

A PhD thesis is only as good as the person doing the research, and since this is a long-term endeavour, you want to be sure that you are choosing an environment, and a community support system, that will help you be at your very best. 

Find a place where you believe you will be happy and at peace – these positive conditions will make a very big difference to the research you will produce and the PhD experience you will have. 

If you’re just starting a PhD, or beginning to write substantial parts of the thesis, you may be wondering what exactly you need to be doing and writing. What goes into a thesis? What must all doctoral research include?

A preprint is an article that has been published prior to peer review, typically on a preprint server. As you may guess, the authors are likely to want to publish the same work in a more traditional format in a peer-reviewed journal. This raises the question of what happens to the preprint once a definitive version of the manuscript is accepted by a traditional journal.

ResearchGate is a professional networking site for research scientists that enables researchers to connect with one another professionally, and allows them to share and promote their work. ResearchGate also allows users to upload preprints, or author’s versions, much like a standard preprint server. This article discusses whether it's fine to post preprints on ResearchGate.

A preprint is a non-peer-reviewed version of a paper that is posted to a publicly accessibly preprint server, before or instead of submitting to a traditional peer-reviewed journal. Preprint publishing is standard in some research fields, while in other fields it is still misunderstood or looked on with suspicion. This article discusses the various advantages and disadvantages of posting your work as a preprint, and whether preprints are the best way to go in research.

The Charlesworth Gateway is a dedicated platform that creates an enhanced experience for authors, by integrating STM publishing tools into WeChat. Charlesworth’s unique platform has now successfully integrated Researcher app, delivering personalised notifications to Researcher’s China-based users. 

Researcher has over two million users around the world, who engage with over 18,000 peer-reviewed journals, preprints, conference proceedings and industry content on the app. With over 25% of their users based in China, the ability to receive regular notifications through WeChat will help these researchers to monitor the latest research articles they need to read. Through this intuitive functionality, Charlesworth aims to increase Researcher’s China-based users’ use of, and engagement with, the Researcher app. 

Two of the most well-known and widely used journal quality metrics are the impact factor and the h-index. How do you decide which of these metrics to rely on when choosing a journal? The first step is understanding what each of these metrics is and what it tells you about the journal.

According to Clarivate, 28 different criteria are used to evaluate journals and decide whether they will be included in the ESCI or the SCIE. Overall, 24 of these criteria relate to quality, while the remaining four relate to impact. Journals that meet the quality criteria are included in the ESCI, whereas journals that meet both the quality criteria and the impact criteria are listed in the SCIE.

If you are thinking or starting a PhD, you probably have the intellectual acumen and academic skills needed for advanced study – but intelligence isn’t everything. In this article, we’ll discuss the additional soft skills and qualities needed for PhD success.