Where to begin?

To begin this book, we would like to take a moment to explain how and why it was written. Unlike some of the previous books in which members of the editing team have been involved, there was no initial grand plan or design for this collection. As PhD students in the social sciences and, in the case of one of the editors, a PhD supervisor, we are taught to consider each of our research projects carefully, to meticulously design and plan our methodology, our theoretical framework and, of course, our impact. This can, of course, be seen in the multitude of ‘how to’ books and guides written for new and aspiring PhD students as they embark on their journey, along with those more seasoned and battle-hardened researchers who may need a source of inspiration as they face, for example, a methodological barrier here or ethical quandary there. For instance, there are texts such as Duleavy's (2003) Authoring a PhD: How to plan, draft, write & finish a doctoral thesis or dissertation, Hockey and Gupta's (2019) book, PhD 101. The manual to academic, and Harrison's (2010) How to write a PhD in less than three years. While we acknowledge the practical significance and utility of such books, it was over a coffee and a catch-up on campus one morning that we stumbled upon a discussion about there being little to no texts that discuss placing the student's experiences at the centre, a book that is less a guide written by someone far removed from their own experiences of undertaking a PhD and one in which the realities, obstacles and reflections by those in the ‘now’ are at the heart.