Hasok Chang, Hans Rausing Professor of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Your course certainly constitutes an innovation in the teaching of Philosophy of Science.
Daniela Duca, Head of Product Innovation, SAGE Publishing, United Kingdom
We love your approach and how the Idea Puzzle software helps students and early career researchers go through the process of developing their research. It aligns well with some of the areas we have been exploring with our Research Planner.
E. Alana James, SAGE book author and founder of Doctoral Net, United States of America
The Idea Puzzle software is a series of questions that, when taken iteratively, cement your ideas for your proposal. You will come to fully understand the philosophy behind the research you are designing.
Mary Mazzilli, Acting Deputy Dean Postgraduate Research Training, University of Essex, United Kingdom
Thank you so much for doing this. I heard very good things about the webinar. Especially about the evaluation!
Ursula Hurley, Director of the Doctoral School, University of Salford, United Kingdom
Thank you for the recent webinar, which was well attended and has received excellent feedback. We see the Idea Puzzle software as a great support for PhD candidates during this period of enforced online learning and as such we would like to formalise it as part of our training offer for the coming academic year.
Josep Ribalta Vives, Former Director of the Doctoral School and Vice-Rector for Doctoral Education, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain
In times of a hurry to publish that may threaten the necessary reflection of a research project, a tool like the Idea Puzzle software, that brings order to research ideas, appears very appropriate.
Patrícia Anzini, Program Assistant at Católica Doctoral School, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Portugal
Your course was very enriching, and it brought me another perspective on my research.
Patrícia Rosado Pinto, Former Director of the Doctoral School, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal
The support that PhD candidates and supervisors can find in a tool such as the Idea Puzzle software lead NOVA Doctoral School to offer this resource that, in our opinion, has a solid theoretical framework and an undeniable usefulness, not only for the research design, but also as a roadmap for the thesis supervision and as a guide for the preparation of its defense.
Ana Gonçalves, Documentation and Information Management, Rectorship of the University of Porto, Portugal
Thank you so much for the excellent webinar and for your professionalism. This session was, without a doubt, added value for our academic community.
José Santos, Vice-Rector, Universidade da Maia, Portugal
The Idea Puzzle software is a must-have tool because it poses 21 pertinent questions that PhD candidates must answer at the beginning of their doctoral journey. It helps them structure their project and think about important details early on.
Cristina Parente & Lígia Ferro, Doctoral Supervisors and Research Methods/Skills Lecturers, Sociology, Universidade do Porto, Portugal
All-in-all, we believe the Idea Puzzle software is a very useful tool for research across a multitude of disciplines, not only for PhD students as they learn about all of the elements of research project design, but also for reviewers and research project teams as they work to move forward with their research and expand their existing skill sets.
Helena Moreira, Supervisor of the Idea Puzzle Prize Winner 2015, Psychology, Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal
With this project, Maria João Gouveia obtained a PhD Scholarship in the 2014 individual PhD grants contest of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, having been ranked 1st place on the national list of Psychology. Her project obtained the classification of 4,975 in 5. I also followed Maria João Gouveia during the process of using the Idea Puzzle software and could witness its relevance for the clarification of several issues related with the project's research design.
Irena White, PhD 2020, Education, Flinders University, Australia
I met Ricardo in 2018, when we were both presenters at the Quality in Postgraduate Research Conference in Adelaide. I am hugely impressed by his framework for guiding PhD research which includes an easy-to-use comprehensive online tool called Idea Puzzle. I feel that if I would have known the Idea Puzzle software early in my PhD, I could have saved myself a lot of wasted time and avoided several 'dead ends'. In 2021, I received the Flinders University Vice Chancellor’s Medal for PhD Thesis Excellence.
Jonathan Darsey, PhD candidate, International Affairs, Georgia Institute of Technology, United States of America
You are providing a very valuable service helping PhD candidates learn the art and science of good academic research, and for that I am very grateful. I am particularly grateful because the Idea Puzzle software has helped illuminate areas where I need to build my skills / knowledge vs. areas where I have transferable skills from my previous experience as a strategy consultant for global businesses.
Luis Mateus, PhD candidate, Architecture Drawing, Geometry and Computation, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
With the 21 questions of the Idea Puzzle software I could understand what was missing and redesign the process, including steps that I was not even considering. The improvement in terms of quality was enormous. After that, I felt confident that my thesis was robust and logically consistent. The grade I received from the jury was the best possible: very good with honours. One the compliments of the jury was precisely that my thesis was consistent and robust.
Narcis Gardella, PhD candidate, Geography, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain
I have used the Idea Puzzle software upon finishing my dissertation, so for me it has been more of an evaluative tool rather than a prospective tool. Nonetheless, I found the Idea Puzzle software very useful as a checklist once having completed my research work and as a preparation for my viva. On the other hand, the Idea Puzzle software has had me summing up 80.000 words into 21 bullet points! It was a bit of an effort, but well worth it: I am finally able to tell anyone in three minutes what my dissertation is about and what are its most important points and contributions.
Mu Ling, PhD candidate, Linguistics, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
The 21 questions guided me to reflect and organise in a holistic way the most disorganised and confusing ideas after having read many books in the initial stage.
Sofia Gasparini, PhD candidate, Education, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
In just a few hours you were able to answer questions that I had for several years.
Jhon Tobón, PhD candidate, Hospitality and Tourism Management, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
Thank you very much for the course. Your help has been invaluable. I now see the weaknesses of my research project. I will correct them according to your suggestions. You have an extraordinary software.
Javier Salcedo, PhD candidate, Electric, Electronic, and Automation Engineering, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain
I am very grateful for the course. I found it very enlightening, and it has given me a lot of insight into my project. Thank you very much.
Lara Visuña, Idea Puzzle Prize Winner 2023, Artificial Intelligence, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain
The Idea Puzzle software facilitates the substantiation, organisation, and justification of any research project, helping to optimize your time and endeavors.
Pedro Palma, Idea Puzzle Prize Winner 2022, Environment and Sustainability, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal
The Idea Puzzle software takes you on a deep dive into your PhD thesis, where you will be challenged to think about the nature and boundaries of your research, its values and purpose. You will be challenged to think about logic, but also emotion, ultimately leading you to a broader and more profound perspective of your own scientific path.
Riina Kerner, Idea Puzzle Prize Winner 2021, Management, Estonian Business School, Estonia
The Idea Puzzle software is an excellent tool that assisted me in considering all my ideas under the Philosophy of Science umbrella. It also helped me advance to the next steps of my PhD studies. After winning the Idea Puzzle Prize, I was nominated for the best PhD candidate at Estonian Business School.
Pablo Delgado, Idea Puzzle Prize Winner 2020, Engineering, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain
The Idea Puzzle software is a powerful tool that helps you clarify your research ideas. It was very useful to organise the whole research design of my doctoral thesis and find its weakest and strongest points.
Gabriela Rangel Rodríguez, Idea Puzzle Prize Winner 2019, Psychology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
The Idea Puzzle software facilitates a rigorous and harmonious process of research design and decision-making.
Jaume Gardela, Idea Puzzle Prize Co-Winner 2018, Veterinary, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
The Idea Puzzle software gave me the opportunity to focus my research design and to make it more logical and coherent through the 21 questions.
Rui Alvites, Idea Puzzle Prize Co-Winner 2018, Veterinary, Universidade do Porto, Portugal
The Idea Puzzle software helped me visualise the various components and phases of my research project in a different and more philosophical way.
Leonardo La Rosa, Idea Puzzle Prize Co-Winner 2017, Communication, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain
The Idea Puzzle software helped me shorten the parts of my research project which were overdeveloped (such as the literature review) and focus my efforts on those which were underdeveloped (such as the methodology and sample). After winning the Idea Puzzle Prize, I won an Outstanding Thesis Award at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.
Sara Soares, Idea Puzzle Prize Co-Winner 2017, Medicine, Universidade do Porto, Portugal
The Idea Puzzle software provided me with a holistic visualisation of my research project, namely in terms of strengths and weaknesses.
Maria Cabral, Idea Puzzle Prize Winner 2016, Medicine, Universidade do Porto & Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal
The Idea Puzzle software allowed me to reflect and clarify ideas about my research design which may reveal crucial in its future implementation.
Maria Gouveia, Idea Puzzle Prize Winner 2015, Psychology, Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal
With Idea Puzzle software it was possible to learn, clarify, and relate several questions about my research project in a very concrete and operational way.
Cláudia Melo, Idea Puzzle Prize Winner 2014, Psychology, Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal
The Idea Puzzle software allowed me to reflect about several philosophical and conceptual questions that I had not thought through.
Ana Cardoso, Idea Puzzle Prize Winner 2013, Information Systems, Universidade do Minho, Portugal
Halfway through my PhD, I changed my initial decisions and used the Idea Puzzle software to validate them in an articulated way.
Catarina Lélis, Idea Puzzle Prize Winner 2012, Design, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal
The Idea Puzzle software allowed me to consolidate the various aspects of my research project and to understand the relationships between them, namely in terms of methodology.