To all online students taking their oral exams, and to all bachelor students presenting their bachelor projects:

I wish you the very best of luck.

For the online students, the oral exam is your opportunity to show what you have learned, explain your reasoning, and demonstrate your understanding of the course.

For the bachelor students, the bachelor project presentation is an important final step in your degree. It is your chance to present the work you have done, the choices you have made, and the learning behind your project.

Please remember to double-check the official exam plan for the correct date, time, and location:

https://www.kristiania.no/for-studenter/eksamen/eksamensplan/eksamensplan/

Good luck to all of you — I hope the exams and presentations go well.

Being an international student means constantly moving between perspectives.

I studied in Spain, lived and worked in Norway, grew up in Germany, spent years in Hamburg, and also experienced academic life in places such as Finland and the Czech Republic. At times, those different cultural and geographical contexts can feel complicated. But they can also become a strength.

What international experience can add

International connections can make research more collaborative and more reflective. They expose you to different assumptions and give you more ways to think about the same problem.

For students, going abroad is not only about collecting credits or adding a line to a CV. It is about independence, adaptability, and intercultural communication.

Leaving your comfort zone is rarely comfortable. But it can be one of the best ways to learn.

Volunteering is a practical way to give something back to a community. It allows you to use your time and skills for something that matters beyond your own daily routine.

One organisation I have thought about in this context is the Red Cross. In Norway, the Red Cross supports people affected by difficult situations, including refugees and people who are new to the country.

Why volunteering matters

As someone who moved to Norway myself, I can relate to how important it is to feel welcomed and supported. Volunteering can be a way to pass on some of that support to others.

It is not only about helping. It is also about learning how to belong.

A research query is a structured request for information. In databases such as Web of Science, a good query helps reduce noise and makes a literature search more focused.

The first step is to identify relevant keywords and phrases. For example, a topic such as knowledge management and robotic process automation might include terms such as “Robotic Process Automation,” “RPA,” “Artificial Intelligence,” “machine learning,” “process automation,” and “digital transformation.”

Useful query elements

Example query:

(RPA OR "process automation") AND ("human intervention" OR "Artificial Intelligence")

A good query is rarely perfect on the first attempt. It should be tested, adjusted, and documented. That documentation later becomes part of the transparency of the research method.

A search string is not just a technical detail. It is part of the method.

Are you interested in science, astrophysics, history, and politics? Then Kurzgesagt might be worth your time.

Kurzgesagt — “In a nutshell” — produces animated videos on scientific, social, and technological topics. The videos are visually strong, accessible, and often a good entry point into complex questions.

Sometimes a good explanation starts with good animation.

There are different ways to conduct a literature review. The method matters, but so does the quality and visibility of the journals in which relevant articles are published.

In Information Systems research, the AIS Senior Scholars' Basket of Journals, often called the Basket of Eight, is frequently used as an important reference point. These journals are not the only valid outlets, but they are central to the field and often appear in systematic literature reviews.

Important: rankings and journal lists are tools. They help structure a search, but they do not replace careful reading.

Basket of Eight search overview

Finding articles across these journals can still be difficult. Search engines and databases do not always provide the same coverage, and access can depend on institutional subscriptions.

For that reason, documenting where and how you searched is important. A literature review should not only list the papers that were found, but also make the search process transparent enough that another researcher can understand it.

One of the hardest early tasks in a PhD is defining the thesis title and the research gap the work should address. It can feel overwhelming at the beginning, but a few simple steps help.

A simple process

A research gap is not just “something interesting.” It is a specific area where existing knowledge is incomplete, unclear, or insufficient. Finding that gap gives the thesis focus.

A good thesis title should be clear, concise, and honest about what the work actually studies. It should not promise more than the project can deliver.

The title will probably change. That is normal. What matters is that the process forces you to clarify what your research is really about.

Moving back to Oslo after living in Hamburg for a few years was a challenging decision, but also one of the best decisions I have made so far.

Oslo is expensive, and I do not have family here. But the city gave me something I had missed: a sense of arrival.

Why Oslo worked for me

In Hamburg, I often felt that I was passing through. In Oslo, it became easier to feel at home.

There are things I miss about Hamburg, of course. But Oslo has given me community, access to nature, and a rhythm that fits me better. The high cost of living is real, but for me the trade-off has been worth it.

Sometimes a difficult move is still the right move.

My research plan got accepted.

After a long period of writing, revising, worrying, and reworking the document, this was fantastic news. It made the PhD feel more concrete and less like a distant idea.

Small milestone, big feeling: acceptance did not end the work. It made the next phase real.

From now on, the next challenge is simple to describe and much harder to do: follow the plan.

Writing as a researcher is a process with many ups and downs. Tools can help, but only if they support the actual work: thinking clearly, structuring ideas, and getting words onto the page.

Rule of thumb: tools should reduce friction, not become another project to maintain.

My basic setup

Markdown is useful because it stays readable and lightweight. LaTeX is useful when the structure and formatting of a larger academic document should not distract from the content.

For literature and references, every tool has strengths and weaknesses. The important point is not which tool is objectively best, but whether it fits the way you search, read, annotate, and write.

The main lesson is simple: organising yourself as a researcher is not about collecting tools. It is about reducing friction so you can keep thinking.

At first, there was an idea: doing a PhD after my master's studies. It felt big, ambitious, and frankly almost unreachable.

Main idea: the PhD did not begin as a perfectly planned project. It began as a conversation, a possibility, and a question that kept returning.

Research had always been the part of studying I enjoyed most. Crawling through papers, understanding ideas, comparing approaches, and learning something new felt much more rewarding to me than simply preparing for exams.

Near the end of my master's degree, I had the opportunity to speak with Ana María Lara Palma at the University of Burgos, supported by Prof. Dr. Heide Faeskorn-Woyke. We talked about possible research areas, but I still had to finish my master's thesis and wanted to gain professional experience first.

So I moved to Hamburg and started working as a junior IT consultant in IT risk management and cyber security. A few years later, the PhD idea returned.

Timeline

This blog began as a way to document that journey: the research ideas, progress, doubts, and practical lessons along the way.

We will see where it goes.