Coming November 2026 · Published by Springer Nature
Still Yours
A Doctoral Researcher's Guide to AI
AI shouldn't do your doctorate for you — but it can help you do it better.
Doctoral research is one of the most demanding intellectual undertakings there is. AI is promising to make everything faster, smoother, and more productive. Some of that is true. The challenge is knowing which parts.
Still Yours will change how you think about AI in your research. It offers practical frameworks, ready-to-use prompts, and clear guidance for every stage of your doctorate — so you can make decisions about AI that you'll still stand behind when you're sitting in your viva.
Why this book
Questions that change your perspective
Most conversations about AI in academia ask: what am I allowed to use? That's an important question. But there's a harder one underneath it: what should I use, and when — and what am I giving up if I get this wrong?
Here is the paradox at the heart of doctoral research in the age of AI: the skills you need to evaluate AI outputs critically — deep reading, methodological reasoning, clear argumentation — are exactly the skills that uncritical AI use tends to erode. The intellectual struggle of a doctorate is not incidental to the process. It is the process.
Still Yours takes that seriously. It moves the conversation from policy to practice, from rules to reasoning, and gives doctoral researchers a principled framework for working with AI in a way that protects — and strengthens — their own development.
What you'll find inside
A framework for thinking, a toolkit for doing, and a guide to staying in charge.
01
The foundation
A clear-eyed account of what AI can and cannot currently do in research, a deeper exploration of the paradox at the heart of doctoral AI use, and an approach to integrity that goes beyond policy checklists.
02
The practice
The practical core — structured around the different relationships you have with AI. Separate chapters on AI as a thinking partner, research assistant, writing collaborator, mediator of relationships, and project manager. Each includes practical prompts.
03
The bigger picture
The skills you cannot afford to let AI replace, what it means to demonstrate your own intellectual contribution, and how to build an identity as a researcher in a landscape that will keep changing long after your doctorate is finished.
What you'll take away
Who it's for
Written primarily for doctoral researchers across the health sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Also directly relevant to supervisors, postgraduate coordinators, and research development professionals navigating these questions alongside their students.
Free for every subscriber
Not sure when to use AI — and when not to? Start here.
We've created a free decision guide for doctoral researchers: Should I use AI for this? A practical, one-page framework that helps you think through that question clearly, for any task, at any stage of your doctorate. No vague tips. No generic advice. Just a clear tool to return to whenever you want to make a confident, considered decision.
Send me the free guideFree decision guide
Should I use AI for this?
A practical framework for doctoral researchers to make confident, considered decisions about AI at every stage of their research.
Benita Olivier & Michael Rowe
About the authors
Benita Olivier
Professor of Rehabilitation · Oxford Brookes University
Founder, Research Masterminds
Benita is a professor and Allied Health Professions Research Lead at Oxford Brookes University and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, and the founder of Research Masterminds, a global platform supporting postgraduate researchers. With many years of postgraduate supervision experience, she brings deep practical knowledge of what doctoral researchers need to flourish. She completed her own doctorate while raising two young children — an experience that shaped her conviction that ambitious research and a sustainable life are not in conflict.
Michael Rowe
Associate Professor · University of Lincoln
Director of Teaching and Learning
Michael is Director of Teaching and Learning in the School of Health and Care Sciences at the University of Lincoln. His work sits at the intersection of AI, digital innovation, and health professions education, drawing on critical pedagogy and complexity science. Michael has contributed to national AI policy discussions, developed frameworks for ethical AI integration in health professions education, and built an extensive body of open scholarship. He has been thinking carefully and publicly about what AI is doing to scholarly practice for several years.
What early readers are saying
“
[Add your first endorsement here — ideally from a senior academic, supervisor, or research lead whose name your audience will recognise.]
Name · Role · Institution
“
[A second quote here — even a brief, specific sentence from a doctoral researcher who has read early chapters carries real weight with your audience.]
Name · Role · Institution
“
[A third endorsement from a supervisor, postgraduate coordinator, or peer adds breadth and credibility.]
Name · Role · Institution
Published by Springer Nature · Coming November 2026
Be first to know when the book launches
The Weekly Research Recharge is where all updates live: early excerpts, launch news, pre-order information, and the practical tools we share with researchers every week. Join now and your free decision guide will be with you immediately.
We only add value. Nothing else. Unsubscribe any time.
Research Masterminds
© 2026 Research Masterminds LLC · Terms and Conditions