How to choose a research supervisor for a graduate student?

A supervisor plays a big role in the development of a graduate student as a researcher, acting as a mentor. Therefore, the choice of a supervisor is not an easy task, and it should be taken with all seriousness and responsibility, since not only writing a high-quality dissertation, but also its successful defense depends on its solution. Practice shows that the vast majority of problems with the preparation of a dissertation is associated with scientific guidance.

So, if you already know well what you want to do and what the dissertation will be about, then before designating the topic of future work, study publications on this problem in recent years. Perhaps this will help you find “your” supervisor or understand what views on this problem take place in the modern academic environment. The final choice of the topic will be determined after consultation with the supervisor, since you will approve it and work on it together. It is very important that this topic corresponds not only to your scientific interests, but also to the interests of the leader. Only in this case you can count on help and support in your research.

What criteria should be followed when choosing a supervisor?

As we noted earlier, one of the important criteria is the coincidence of the views of the graduate student and supervisor on solving the problem. The easiest way to find out if the views coincide or not is to study the publications of the future leader. For those who do not have a clear opinion about the topic of the study, this point is not so important. But for those who clearly know what he will write about, and from what side he will approach the “search for truth”, finding a leader “of his own opinion” is almost half the battle. Divergence of views is fraught not only with lengthy discussions and delays in defending a dissertation, but also casts doubt on its successful defense.

Another question to start the selection process with is what is the percentage of protection. Find out how many graduate students there were, how many of them successfully defended, how many did not, and for what reasons. If the number of graduate students is large, and the percentage of defenses is low, it is worth considering. If a candidate for scientific supervisors recruits few graduate students, and most of them successfully defended themselves, this indicates competent leadership.

Ask if there were conflicts between the teacher and the graduate students. If yes, how often and for what reasons. If the graduate student is lazy, this is one thing, but if the supervisor uses the graduate student as a workforce or forces himself to be included in the research co-authors, it is another.

Try to find out if the leader as a person is difficult to communicate with, because you will have to closely contact him for at least three years. Such character traits of a supervisor as responsiveness and mutual understanding can make your joint work in graduate school pleasant and fruitful. When choosing a supervisor, do not limit yourself to correspondence acquaintances in the form of electronic correspondence. If the future leader is very limited in time, try to arrange a meeting with him: even a short personal conversation will help to better understand the character of a person, his manner of communication, to determine the presence or absence of mutual antipathies.

Chat with former graduate students and ask how dissertation assistance is provided. A good leader will not write the work for you, and is not obliged to. Remember that a dissertation is an independent scientific work. The leader can tell you his opinion about the progress of the work, the results obtained, ways to solve problems, but you yourself will be engaged in research and describing its results. Also try to find out how often the supervisor asked the graduate student to fulfill some personal request: to hold a seminar or lecture, to type the text of an article or book, to go to the other end of the city on a personal assignment. The use of graduate students as a workforce does not speak in favor of a candidate for leadership.

Ask if your supervisor helps you publish your work. This includes the choice of journals for posting articles, and assistance in determining the subject and design of papers.

Often, in return, as a token of gratitude or to give weight to the publication, graduate students themselves include scientific supervisors as co-authors of articles. This is not a simple moment, it is very delicate, which can speak both in favor of a candidate for scientific supervisors and against him.

Understanding whether a supervisor forces himself to be included as a co-author of postgraduate publications is quite simple:

• Try to find out from former graduate students;
• If you were unable to talk to any of the former graduate students, try to independently evaluate not only the number of publications co-authored with the graduate student, but also the timing of their publication. So, if 1-2 first articles are written in co-authorship, this is normal, since the graduate student is still inexperienced, has not fully delved into the topic and has not yet made independent conclusions without a supervisor. But in those publications of the Higher Attestation Commission, which express the main ideas and conclusions of dissertation research, and which are often called pre-defense in everyday life, co-authors will not be entirely out of place, since in this case we are talking about a dissertation as an independently completed work.

Find out if the supervisor provides assistance at the final stage of preparing a dissertation for defense, whether it helps to proofread the dissertation and abstract, whether it looks for opponents and a leading organization, whether it provides assistance in organizing a defense, and so on.

The position of the supervisor at the department and in the scientific world is of no small importance for the postgraduate student. It is not worth conducting a special investigation, but you should know that if the supervisor does not enjoy authority and conflicts with the staff of the department or, even worse, with the members of the dissertation council, then the risk of failure in the defense will be quite high. Unfortunately, the clarification of personal relationships may affect your protection.

An ideal supervisor. What is he like?

Earlier, we found out what should be guided by when choosing a supervisor, and what problems you may encounter when building relationships with your supervisor during your PhD studies. Now let’s try to imagine the ideal supervisor.

• So, supervisor:
• establishes equal partnership with a graduate student;
• advises the graduate student in choosing the most appropriate topic;
• does not consider himself a co-author of your dissertation, limiting himself to consultations and recommendations;
• timely changes tasks at different stages of the dissertation work:
  • a) at the initial stage, after clarifying the topic, together with the graduate student draws up a work plan, develops recommendations on the use of literature.
  • b) as the plan of work on the dissertation is being fulfilled, it controls the deadlines, the results of scientific research, identifies existing errors and shortcomings, helps to summarize practical results and theoretical conclusions, helps in the design of the style and composition of the dissertation, gives recommendations on eliminating shortcomings and preparing materials for protection.
• does not load with “personal errands”;
• provides all possible assistance in the publication of research results (search for publications, preparation of the text of a scientific article);
• defends the postgraduate position at all stages of preparation and defense of the dissertation.

When addressing the issue of scientific leadership, be aware of the problems that can arise when choosing the “wrong” candidate. We hope that the information we have collected will help you make the right decision when choosing a supervisor, with the help of which postgraduate study will become an important fruitful stage for you on your way to big science.

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Self-publishing an article by the Higher Attestation Commission