Finally falling and fitting into place: My PhD journey, so far
After spending the first year of my PhD figuring out the direction of my research, I feel more certain than ever that I am in the right place at the right time. This might not seem like a big realization or feat. Still, for a PhD student in the UK coming from Africa and has “grown up” in research hearing about scooping, helicopter science, and brain drain, and wanting to do something that contributes to the reduction of the gap between the Global North and South, it becomes something big to find conviction. Doing my master’s research during the COVID era was a blessing in disguise, yet a confusing time. Being introduced to open science concepts, and seeing open data practices in action sparked my interest. This era seemed to remove aspects of embargos, scooping, and all the things I had heard for a long time. There was a free flow of knowledge and data. I completed my master's thesis and explored the health informatics space to get a clear view of how data flowed within rese...