How to conduct research in Ms(Master of science) or a PhD Thesis-based program

If you are applying for admission into a MS (Thesis-based) or/and a PhD program, you should (at least) be curious about “how you want to” or “how you will” conduct research.

Let me teach you something about how you can come across as a “prepared” prospective student.

In the research community, we have to showcase our work by creating manuscripts which end up getting accepted and published by journals. In doing this, we cite other researchers’ publications when writing ours.

As a matter-of-fact, we have to find out what others have done before we identify a gap which we can now “explore”. This whole process is what we call “Literature Review”.

In searching for this papers, we employ a mix of techniques. There are search tools that allow us pour through publications using keywords.

E.g, Scopus, Web of Science, Mendeley Support, Google scholar  etc.

In “playing with” these tools, you can find Professors who are working on your area of research. You will see their email addresses. This is an “entry point”. Email and ask if they are accepting new students.

How To Email Professors To Improve Your Chances At Being Funded

Here are 10 popular websites for researchers

1. Google scholar 

2. Microsoft Academic Search

3. WorldWideScience

4. Google Books

5. ArtCyclopedia

6. CiteSeerX

7. ResearchGate

8. Wolfram Alpha

9. Academia

10. PubMed

Bonus: 100 Search Engines For Academic Research

Read also : List of fully funded scholarships that you can currently apply for.

Now, let me share another approach. Just like Facebook,Twitter and LinkedIn, reaearchers have communities where they congregate and upload new research. You may want to join, update your profile and follow them. This way you have access to their latest works and can reachout.

Examples are research gate, google scholar and academia are the popular ones. The catch is that you are following you research interest and identifying who you want to work with - in the process.

Just be intentional. Goodluck.

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