26/01/2026
✨ Inspiring thoughts from TRIGG PhD researcher Petar ✨
I began my PhD by writing a review paper related to our research topic—an “initiation ritual” in our research group. Looking back, I now see this as something every early-career researcher should experience. It’s almost like an initiation into how science really works.
Here’s what that experience taught me:
🔍 Formulating research questions
A review paper offers a low-stakes environment to think deeply about your project and the state of the art. It helps you understand how others approached the problem, what they found, and where the gaps are—crucial for deciding your own research direction.
📚 Crafting effective search queries
Designing a search strategy is almost an art: specific enough to capture what you need, but not so broad that you end up with thousands of irrelevant papers.
⚡ Fast screening skills
After screening 1,000+ publications, you quickly learn to recognize which papers truly fit your research question.
🧭 Efficient paper navigation
Finding and extracting the most important information—quickly—is a skill that will serve you throughout your scientific career.
🧠 Learning a lot in a short time
Screening and data extraction lead to rapid and deep learning, especially valuable when you’re new to a field, as most PhD starters are.
🧩 Synthesizing large amounts of information
Making sense of insights from 100+ papers is challenging at first, but incredibly rewarding once the pieces come together.
✍️ Putting it all together
Writing the final review feels like solving a puzzle made entirely of pieces you created yourself. It’s hard—but it’s one of the best ways to sharpen your scientific writing skills.
Challenging, intense, and incredibly valuable—an initiation I’m grateful for.
