Supervising to Inspire Doctoral Researchers

Working across a range of disciplines (Psychology, Health & Social Care and Pharmacy), Pam Denicolo, a Professor Emerita from the University of Reading,  a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, and an Honorary Member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, has wide-ranging experience both of using a range of research approaches and methods and of teaching how to use them well to a broad range of students and professionals world-wide. She has served on executive boards and committees of national and international learned societies and organisations devoted to research and teaching. She continues to publish widely student support materials, books, and journal articles on research because she remains passionately committed to mentoring and coaching newer researchers and academics.Dr Dawn Duke is Head of Programmes for the Africa Research Excellence Fund, a charity supporting the professional development of early career researchers in Africa. She has a PhD in neuroscience and years of experience teaching undergraduates and postgraduates research design, methodology and statistics.Dr Julie Reeves is a Researcher Developer/Senior Teaching Fellow at the University of Southampton, and a Co-Investigator with a GCRF funded project, BRECcIA, leading the Capacity development work package. She has been involved in researcher development since 2002, working with the Civic Education Project in Belarus and Ukraine, and then as the Skills Training Manager, Faculty of Humanities, University of Manchester.  She was a key researcher and contributor to the Vitae ‘Researcher Development Statement and Framework’ and is a Vitae Researcher Developer Senior Fellow.  She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development, a co-convenor of the Postgraduate Issues Network within the Society for Research into Higher Education, and currently facilitates the South East Researcher Developers network.  She is a co-editor of the SAGE Success in Research series with Pam Denicolo, Dawn Duke and Alison Yeung.

• Chapter 1. How can you make a good start?Chapter 2. What are the regulatory requirements and responsibilities of supervisors and doctoral researchers?Chapter 3. How can you develop reliable expectations?Chapter 4. What resources and support can you draw on?Chapter 5. How can you supervise with purpose in a dynamic context?Chapter 6. What will be the most effective supervisory style?Chapter 7. What is your role in developing doctoral researchers’ skills?Chapter 8. How can you make your supervision inclusive?Chapter 9. What forms of feedback work best?Chapter 10. How can you inspire progress and reflective practice?Chapter 11. What is your role in final assessment and beyond?Chapter 12. How can you develop your role as a supervisor?

How I wish I had a copy of this book when I commenced my supervising career twenty years ago! It contains a wealth of information for both novice and experienced supervisors, taking the reader on a journey from how to make a good start, to the supervisor’s role in the final assessment. The authors drew not only on their own vast experience of doctoral supervision, but also on other ‘voices of experience’, and interspersed the text with useful activities, information boxes, reflection points and ‘top tips’. The volume has made me see my supervisory role in a totally new light, and has rekindled a sense of excitement and delight with being a doctoral supervisor.  I shall return to it again and again for further guidance and reflection.