Recall nine questions asked by beginning researchers about working in the research community:

1. 26. Can I get funded?

2. 27. Funding!

3. 28. I am interested in funding and individual recognition.

4. 29. How do I choose a committee that will give me a broadly based opinion?

5. 30. How can I get my committee to stop suggesting things to do?

6. 31. What if my committee steers me incorrectly?

7. 32. How can I analyze, integrate, and present to the outside world?

8. 33. How can I choose a research topic of value? Or if you have chosen a research topic how can you persuade someone to fund it?

9. 34. How can I make research relevant to current topics of theoretical and practical interest?

Obtaining funding, achieving recognition, selecting and working with a committee, finding a topic of value and relevance, and seeing work through to publication involve social processes. Funding decisions are frequently made by panels of scientists and, while a research proposal should have scientific merit, the panel must be persuaded that what it offers is better than comparative proposals. Achieving recognition requires more than doing effective research – the research must be acclaimed by others. Working with a supervisory committee requires actively seeking criticism and support for a research proposal, and for the research itself. Writing a paper for publication requires that you present an argument that persuades referees of its correctness and value, and that it will be understood by the scientific community reading the particular journal.