Do & Don'ts in PhD: Some of My Experiences Selection of Topic This is the most difficult and important stage as the whole PhD depends on it. This can be made easy by attending various conference/seminars,meeting experts from your specialization or area of interest. Then it can be narrowed down by making literature from various journals, books, magazines, newspapers. Library is the best place to to help you out Literature Review: First of all read introduction and conclusion to know whether it is an important relevant paper of your area. But do not just read introduction and conclusion if its an important paper of your area. Read each and every part specifically the methodology part , sample and data the way they have done. Make excel sheet where you write the name of article, journal name, author's name, year of publication, important finding, sample size, tools and technique used. This would later help to categorise the whole literature you have survey as per y