Reading an article, 'owning, not doing, my transition from master's to PhD student', the author shared his experience from studying for a master's degree to a doctorate, especially the transformation of ideology. During her master's degree in China, she was basically arranged with the help of her tutor. Everything went step by step from topic selection to topic design, and finally published academic papers and graduated smoothly. When studying for a doctor abroad, the situation has changed. We can't rely on the tutor to arrange. The tutor never gives definite answers. Everything such as new topics, experimental design and next work needs to be thought and decided by ourselves. At first, she was very confused. Slowly, she realized the fun of doing research independently, and experienced and understood some essential things of scientific research. With self-confidence, I have deep thinking and understanding of my field, and gradually grow into an independent scientist.

Her mentor's words are very important: "you should have your own research, not just do it. When you graduate, your goal is to become the most knowledgeable person in this field in the world".

Having been a tutor for many years, I can naturally understand the importance of academic independence for a graduate student. To train graduate students, in essence, should be to train future scientists and become independent scientists. The process of becoming an independent scientist is that, with the assistance of their tutors, graduate students independently complete scientific research tasks, complete dissertation, experience all aspects of scientific research, cultivate scientific literacy, scientific thinking, scientific taste, master scientific research skills, cultivate the ability to work independently, independently raise and solve problems, and expand the courage of new fields, Ability to communicate and cooperate with peers, ability to manage laboratories and lead teams, etc. The problems encountered in the scientific research process should be experienced by yourself as much as possible and can be solved through your own efforts. With experience, ability and achievements, you will have self-confidence, and your later scientific research career will be much smoother. This process is very painful and difficult. When there is no progress in scientific research and there is nothing to do, when there is no idea and helpless, the psychological pressure is great. Therefore, it is an important step for graduate students to establish the consciousness of doing their own research in ideology. If we change our thinking, many problems will be solved.

The author also shared some insights:

1) Don't just focus on laboratory work, give yourself time to think. Why should we do this experiment? What results do you want? What did you learn from it? Is there any information missing? wait. In short, we can't just do experiments and collect data. We must pay attention to thinking, strengthen thinking, and think about our own topics every day.

2) Develop a detailed work plan. There are plans for daily work, weekly work, monthly work, semester work and annual work. If you have a plan, you must follow it. Making a plan is to urge yourself. At the same time, we should also pay attention to phased summary, through which we can sort out our work progress, achievements and shortcomings. Implementing your own plan is not only a habit of conscious work, but also a process of learning to effectively manage your time.

3) Use all available resources. Information is very important. There is information everywhere. We should learn to use it, such as those around us, around us, in our unit, at home, abroad and so on.

4) We should exchange our research results. Actively participate in academic conferences and conduct academic exchanges with peers. Through exchanges, you will hear the constructive opinions of peer experts and find and realize your shortcomings. At the same time, they will establish their self-confidence and establish possible cooperative relations.