Chairs:
Michiel S. de Vries, Institute for Management Research, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands
Iwona Sobis, School of Public Administration, Gothenburg University, Sweden

The aim of the PhD pre-conference seminar was to discuss the papers the participants had already written and to provide them with pragmatic suggestions on how to improve their work in such a way that they would comply with international standards and have them published. During the day, the Chairs opted for an interactive form of lecturing, focusing on a classical structure of successful research papers and stimulating the PhD-students to become involved in active participation in a common discussion by sharing their own experiences, problems when writing an abstract, introduction, methodological chapters or other parts of their paper. The Chairs also created opportunities to discuss the structure of the participants’ PhD theses, and how the outcomes of empirical research presented in their papers for the Pre-conference could be, and should be, reflected in the PhD theses.

The pre-conference was much appreciated by all participants because of the open discussions, the Chairs’ constructive criticism combined with pragmatic solutions, and their pointing out the weaknesses and strengths in their paper. The pre-conference’s participants thus received confirmation, motivation, hope, and the strength to overcome their limitations when writing scientific articles.