Writing research proposals is an integral, although perhaps the least favorite, part of doing science. In an academic environment, the financial resources for carrying out the research come, to a large extent, from external sources. Similarly, in an industrial environment, research proposals are often the means by which a researcher must convey to management the value of supporting a project. Proposals thus are essential for securing research funding, but they are important for other reasons as well. Having research proposals funded shows that your research stands up to peer review, that it has the qualities judged worthy of receiving financial support, and that you are able to communicate research plans in a compelling way. It thus constitutes a sign of professional expertise in job applications and often is considered of critical importance in decisions regarding tenure and promotion. Research grants can sometimes be transferred along with the individual when switching to a new university. Bringing in already-existing research funds can positively influence the decision to make a job offer to the holder of those grants. Research grants thus not only provide the financial means to carry out research, they increase the market value of scientists applying for a job or seeking tenure or promotion.

Seldom is the path toward success in research either straight or fully charted in advance. Stumbling blocks abound in any research. In this chapter we cover some of the common ones and offer suggestions for steps in conducting research aimed at minimizing their harm and even turning them to advantage.

BEING CONFUSED BECAUSE OF LACK OF DIRECTION

Research can be a confusing activity. Your research plan might be poorly formulated; worse, you might have no plan at all. At times you cannot understand intermediate results of your studies; data that you've recorded might conflict with a theory you developed, or two different lines of reasoning that both seem to make sense give different answers.

The first source of confusion, in which the work basically lacks direction, is clearly a negative one and needs to be fixed early on. Any of a variety of factors can have caused this state of stagnation. Perhaps you have not yet settled on a research topic or you have decided on one but the choice is insufficiently specific to get started on the research. You can avoid this pitfall by being aggressive in choosing and refining a research topic quickly. General considerations when choosing the research topic were given in Chapter 3.

Many scientists (and non-scientists as well) live under the impression that they don't know much about research topics that lie outside those that occupy them on a daily basis. We often feel like a blank sheet of paper when it concerns such research topics. Perhaps we know more about various areas than we think. The path to ferreting out aspects that we do and don't know is lined with questions. For example, both of us authors are geophysicists, and (an understatement) we don't know much about biomedical research. Yet if we take a topic such as cell therapy, several statements (correct or incorrect, naïve or otherwise) about this area of research can readily bring a number of questions to our lay minds. A line of thinking might go as follows.

“I just don't have enough time to do all that I need to do.” This complaint has become almost the mantra of life in modern society. The fretting expressed here invariably leads to a state of physical and emotional stress that is often detrimental to the well-being of both our professional and personal lives. Key words in the mantra are [not] enough time, need, and just. The problem is not that there is not enough time – the time allotted to any individual in life is fixed (but unknown in advance). Therefore, most truly, we each have just the right amount of time for whatever it is that we choose to do in our lives. Rather than there not being enough time for all that we need to do, the problem is that we want to do too many things in a given amount of time. It's a matter of choice. The word just in the mantra suggests that we have no choice in the matter. The key message in this chapter, however, is that we do have that choice.

SETTING PRIORITIES

This brings us to the central point of time management. Given the finite amount of time available, we have essentially two ways to reduce the feeling of having insufficient time – by choosing our activities carefully and by working efficiently.

Whatever your current stage in graduate or even undergraduate study, like it or not, sooner or later you will have to work for a living – as if you haven't been working throughout your graduate school career. So, at some point the moment arrives to apply for a job. Much of what is covered in this chapter is the nuts and bolts of the job-application process aimed at a successful outcome of that process – securing a position that is right for you. But, more than just a tutoring of what to do and what not to do in applying for a job, the chapter aims to share our thoughts on subtle matters you might not otherwise think of but can expect to encounter along the way. Much of how to proceed and what to expect in applying for a job is common to careers in both academia and industry, but we shall also highlight differences.

As indicated in Chapter 14, the first job in an academic environment is likely to be a temporary position as a postdoc. Even then, soon enough the task of applying for a job will appear on the horizon, this time perhaps for a tenure-track faculty position. In industry, life-long employment with a single company used to be common, but this has changed considerably in the ever-more-dynamic world of today.

There are many books on the market with advice for graduate students and other researchers. Some are listed here in various categories.

General advice for graduate students:

• Bloom, D.F., Karp, J.D., & Cohen, N. (1998). The Ph.D. Process, A Student's Guide to Graduate School in the Sciences. New York: Oxford University Press.

This is the book for every graduate student in the physical sciences to read.

• Bolker, J. (1998). Writing your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day. New York: Henry Holt and Company LLC.

• Booth, W.C., Williams, J.M., & Coulomb, G.C. (2003). The Craft of Research, 2nd edn, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

• Davis, G.B. & Parker, C.A. (1997). Writing the Doctoral Dissertation. New York: Barron's Educational Series Inc.

• Feibelman, P.J. (1993). A Ph.D. is Not Enough! A Guide to Survival in Science. Cambridge MA: Perseus Publishing.

• Medawar, P.B. (1979). Advice to a Young Scientist. Basic Books.

• http://www.basicbooks.com.

• Peters, R.L. (1997). Getting What You Came For, The Smart Student's Guide to Earning a Master's or Ph.D., revised edn, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

The scientific method:

• Gauch, H.G., Jr. (2003). Scientific Method in Practice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

• Goldstein, I.F. & Goldstein, M. (1984). The Experience of Science. New York: Plenum Press.

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