Laura (she/her) is a Lecturer in Criminology and PhD researcher at Birmingham City University. Her research focuses upon desistance from serious offending and the importance of the community in this process. Her teaching interests include: Policing, vulnerabilities, ethics and qualitative research methods. Laura’s PhD is entitled ‘Informal support arrangements for those released from custody, who have been convicted of sexual offences against children’ and explores the contribution made by informal supporters (friends, family members and partners) to the desistance for those with convictions for sexually offending against children. Twitter: @LauraCrimRiley

Stops And Starts: The Growing Pains Of The PhD

Get insights from a PhD candidate’s reflective diary on the process of starting, struggling with, and ultimately completing a doctoral research project. Discover the trials and tribulations of getting ethical approval, recruiting participants, and navigating the pandemic while working towards a degree.

Read More »

SciSpace Agent Review: The Most Powerful Research Tool?

In this blog post, I’ll show you four things you can do with the new SciSpace Agent: identifying research gaps, supporting your literature reviews, auto-generating posters, and finding the right journal for your paper. Instead of jumping between separate tools, the agent integrates 150+ research tools and databases (PubMed, Google Scholar, arXiv, grants.gov, and more) alongside SciSpace’s own features, including a database of 280M+ papers.

Read More »

Pursuing A Research PhD Is Like Launching Your Own Start-Up Business

Learn about the similarities between pursuing a PhD in a research field and launching a startup business. From selecting a viable research topic to marketing your work, PhD students and entrepreneurs have overlapping skills and mindsets that can lead to success. Read more to find out how PhD students can learn from entrepreneurial techniques to achieve success in academia.

Read More »
Your contribution to our PhD Stories helps us disseminate valuable support to researchers worldwide.
Update cookies preferences