My advice in situations like this is to draw up a to-do list of what you need to get on with. Break it down a lot. Don't make items on it big and unattainable.

Then look at your to-do list and pick the most appealing thing on it. Or, if you're like me, it might be the least unappealing! And start doing it. When you've done it cross it off your list and look for the next item to work on.

This way you make progress, built up your confidence, and get going again. I had to use this technique a lot during my part-time PhD writing-up phase to keep me going. And it worked.

I also find deadlines highly motivating myself, but you haven't reached that stage yet i.e. end of registration. If the imminent lack of funding isn't scaring you then you need to try a different tack, as suggested.

Good luck!

Ah just read that you will run out of time in your permitted time frame. That's more serious. I would recommend that you contact your supervisor for advice on this one.

Does missing graduation this year really matter that much? Once your corrections are signed off and you get the official letter from Senate or Registry or whoever you will be Dr Wally, and graduation the next year would just be a formality.

Of course this doesn't excuse your internal examiner being a pain the wotsit. But I don't think personally that graduation is that crucial a date to hit. What counts is when your corrections are finally signed off, and then - and most importantly - when the Senate/whatever formally approves you.

I too used an EndNote system, typing summaries of articles/chapters/books into the available fields, and using keywords to make searching easier.

My EndNote database really paid off near the end of my 6-year part-time PhD. I had forgotten most of my reading by then, but the EndNote database had a record of all my reading, so I was able to expand my bibliography right at the end accordingly.

I married aged 22, just a month or so before starting a full-time PhD. I had to leave that in the end, due to falling seriously ill with a progressive neurological disease. But being married has worked out very well. I'm still happily married, nearly 17 years later. My husband was a total rock. Though he also started (and completed) a full-time PhD too, in the same department. So he totally understood what was involved. He also supported me when I started a part-time PhD later in a totally different discipline, which I successfully completed.

Getting married is one of the best things I have ever done. I would not generalise about whether other people should or not, or at what age. But it worked for me.

Well done Bug. Good luck with the viva! :p

We have a transfer system at my university, but we also have thesis monitoring committees all the way through the PhDs: twice yearly for full-timers, once yearly for part-timers.

I found it a really nice experience to be honest. Each time there would be two academics from my department there (not supervisors), and they were genuinely interested in my research, and keen to ask questions. It's a really nice chance to have a relaxed conversation about what you are doing, and what you are going to do, with academics who are interested in it. Almost like a preparation for the viva as well. And it's good to get their different/outside perspective.

So enjoy it I'd say. Don't worry. It will be much more pleasant than you expect.

Yes.

The article writers own the copyright in the article once written. If accepted by a journal the usual arrangement that the writers agree to is that the journal owns copyright of the article once published.

You cannot be sure that your ideas won't be stolen. But there is very little chance of this. Academia tends not to work that way. Editors and reviewers tend to be honest. The best way to avoid this happening is not to send in articles for submission. But then you can miss out on a lot.

Disputing copyright over an article/idea if you thought it had been stolen would be a matter for the courts anyway, and would be very expensive to pursue in terms of legal fees.

But this should not happen. I send lots of articles off to journals without worrying about this sort of thing. As do other academics I know.

Good luck. If you revise and submit to a journal the paper should be better, and you have a chance of success. And, as you say, a journal publication would carry more merit.

I've finally (after 8 months!) heard back from a journal today, and one of my papers has been rejected. Not surprising, because it was a niche interest I was trying a wider journal for. But I'm already picking myself up and reworking it to target it at a more specific journal (already identified). Ever onwards!

I was going to suggest speaking out the ideas too. Even without dictation software you can record onto a computer with a microphone, or into a voice recorder. Speaking ideas aloud often makes it easier to figure out "your" take on it. And because you are speaking rather than writing it is easier to use your own idioms and expressions, and your own ideas.

I use this technique all the time. I record into my laptop, then play ideas back and type them up. Usually I find I have expressed myself much more clearly than I would when typing directly, and I have come up with ideas I wouldn't otherwise.

I never had a physical contract, either from EPSRC who funded the full-time PhD I had to leave due to falling seriously ill, or with AHRC who funded the part-time PhD I completed.

You should have a set of guidelines though, outlining the obligations of each half. If you don't have these already check EPSRC's website where you should be able to download the requisite stuff.

Oh and I completed my literature review, as a part-time student as well, within 3 months of starting my PhD. I didn't want to waste any more time on it than necessary, and wanted to get on with the proper part of my PhD. This was also a result of my learning from bitter experience, as a previous full-timer who had to leave a PhD due to falling seriously ill. My supervisor then encouraged his students to spend a year during their reading and literature review. But it meant that when I fell seriously ill, and really needed to have made good progress to be able to continue, I had made virtually none.

Ok here's a tough one. If you can't stick to deadlines now, how will you manage to complete the rest of your thesis in a timely fashion? The literature review is in many ways the easy bit. You have a huge body of literature to grapply with, admittedly, but it is there already, and all you have to do is make sense of it. Writing up your own research effectively can be much harder.

Honestly though you need to start sticking to deadlines. Otherwise you will drift very badly later on.

8-)