A year in the life of PhD Life

We’re getting to the end of 2017 so there’s only one thing to do: let’s look back at what PhD Life got up to this year…

 

And by that what I really mean is this: let’s take a look at the way you, wonderful readers, engaged with our blog:

1. Number of views: 142,035
2. Most popular month: October with 14,550 views
3. Our 5 most popular posts published in 2017 were:
   • How to Write an Academic Bio for Conferences
   • PhD Diary: “Working” from Home
   • Has anyone seen my motivation?
   • Staying Yourself: How Not to Lose Sight of Who You Are Beyond Your PhD
   • Getting Published – A quick FAQ
4. Our 5 most popular posts published before 2017 were:
   • Your Thesis Introduction
   • 5 tips on getting your 1st journal paper published
   • Writing a literature review
   • Getting your thesis published
   • Planning a literature review
5. Most of you found us via: Google searches
6. Our top 5 readers come from the following countries:

 

 

 

 

 

PhD Life would not have had the same year without the support of the teams at Warwick Uni Library, the Research Exchange and the Postgrad Hub. Thanks to every staff member who works energetically to ensure that students both in and out of Warwick are part of a strong online community made up of various PhD Lives.

I particularly want to thank the guest contributors who have written posts for PhD Life since I became Blog Editor as these people came out of the woods from all different walks of my own PhD Life. Their willingness to share their own experiences with you has served as a wonderful reaffirmation of the importance of support, collaboration and generosity in academic life.

Which leads me to one last point: I will be returning to Australia soon which means that a new Blog Editor will take up the baton from me shortly. Being the Editor of this blog has been an incredibly rewarding experience, and I want to thank you for reading, sharing, liking, commenting, retweeting and reposting. I also want to thank the staff and students at the University of Warwick who not only listened to my musings about this blog, but who also made me feel absolutely at home while at Warwick: Ana, Aysa, Barbara, Cat, Daisy, Fatima, Felipe, Gemma, James, Lauren, Leanne, Lynsey, Nuala, Rachel, Silvia, and Zoë.

I have said it before and I will say it again, the best part of a PhD Life is the people you meet along the way. I encourage you to make that your own New Year’s resolution: to look beyond your thesis so that you also invest time and energy in creating and nurturing the connections around you.

Happy Holidays! And until next time (even if it is as a guest contributor!),

Sofia (@mextexausuk)

Image: fireworks-rocket-new-year-s-day-574739 / geralt / CC0 1.0