Gordon Rugg is a former timberyard worker and field archaeologist who is now a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at Keele University, where he is head of the Knowledge Modelling Group. He is also a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Open University.

This bestselling book on the process of PhD research provides readers with engaging discussion and comprehensive guidance on aspects that other books don't usually mention.

Preface to the first editionPreface to the second edition About this bookAcknowledgements

"I feel grateful to have found this book only a year into my PhD. It has opened my eyes to the world of academia. There is more to a PhD than just research in the sense of working on a problem, getting some results and publishing your findings. This book has allowed me to open my eyes and see all the other things I should be doing to fully succeed at my endeavour of becoming a researcher myself."
Dominic Hosler, University of Sheffield
This bestselling book on the process of PhD research provides readers with engaging discussion and comprehensive guidance on aspects that other books don't usually mention.
Covering all the key topics of the previous edition, including what a PhD is really about, how to do one well, how to decipher what your supervisor actually means by terms like 'good referencing' and 'clean research question', and how to design, report and defend your research,the authors continue to offer an accessible, down-to-earth, and insightful account of the whole PhD process. Their advice addresses how to avoid some of the pitfalls en route to a successful submission.
Updated throughout, the new edition includes new material on:

Critical thinking
Research skills
The route to research independence
Different models of study The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research is essential reading for anyone considering a PhD or embarking on one. It will tell you the things many students wish someone had told them before they started.