
As many of you will know, I am doing my PhD (Doctor of Philosophy degree) at Keele University alongside my clinical and teaching roles. The aim of a PhD is to undertake a large research project that contributes new knowledge to your chosen field. My project is to develop a measure of adherence to exercises that are prescribed for musculoskeletal pain. The first stage of my project was to establish what is currently understood about adherence in the existing research literature. To do this I conducted a systematic review, which is where all the relevant research that has already been published is examined to try and draw conclusions about the current state of knowledge. Although it is not expected of PhD students to try and publish their research, it was suggested that I should publish my systematic review due to its importance. I submitted it to the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM) and after being sent to four experts in the field for review and six months of revisions and re-submissions, it was finally published a few weeks ago. While I have published work before, I am particularly proud of this piece due to the quality of the journal it has been published in.