Didn't read all the responses but how exactly are your publications out of date? Dated sure, but if they are peer reviewed they should still be racking up citations if they are half decent.

I am in my 2nd year in a top 10 uni (Russel group as well) not saying this to be a smart-ass or elitist, just for context. I sat in on a lectureship interview for 2 posts, 4 candidates. They were so impressed they CREATED a 3rd lectureship just to retain a third candidate.

My observations: One girl was a teaching fellow (part time one year contract) the other two just graduated...in fact one of them had not submitted as yet LOL....BUT she has 3 shiny publications under her belt, the other chick had a publication in CUP (Cambridge University Press).

One girl that did not get the job was actually the other co-author of the 3 publications. Her presentation was shit, she stared at her macbook the whole time, I could not tell you if she had 2 or 3 eyes. So while its not a sure shot, you sure as hell better publish by graduation time or get ready to be a teaching donkey (teaching fellow) who spends their summer vacations writing and trying to publish.

Most of this may be only applicable to social sciences, but if you have any clue what the REF is, you understand your articles are your new academic currency. I even changed my thesis format to thesis by publications (Introduction, 4 journal articles, Discussion).

Being an academic is a business decision and you better be ready, understand the REF, understand why 2020 is important, publish, become good at networking at cocktail parties and conferences, know how to write a decent grant proposal, be a good teacher, a good people's person, and the list goes on. In essence you kinda have to be a rock star these days.

/end rant.

Yeah thematic analysis in general is exactly what you described. Variants are really just slightly different flavors. Personally I am using 'Template analysis' which is basically thematic analysis, but the template for the themes is built using the first 5 or so interviews, and all of the following ones SHOULD fall into those themes. If not, the template is modified.

If it's any help Nigel King is pretty much the front man for Template Analysis:

I am a seminar tutor, I correct exams, and I am the department's computing officer. So there are a few ways you can hustle some spare cash while you are full time. Just make sure you know how to scale your tutoring because my colleagues who teach 7+ groups a term make money but their research suffers and most of them are on track (or already are) to be submitting in their extension year.

Like most said, follow your dream and give yourself the best chance at funding by doing some preliminary footwork and exploring options / opportunities. BUT money or being broke should not be a deal breaker. If being broke is part of the deal so be it. If it was easy, everybody would do it, and without struggle there is no growth. Thats applicable to anything worth doing in life my friend. So don't be afraid of a little pain. What's on the other side is what is important.

Also i'll tell you this (very anecdotally)...no disrespect to my funded colleagues, but for most of them its a free ride and 'something to do' for 3 years. Nearly all of them DON'T want to be in academia, the other 1% have no clue what do do with their lives afterwards. Also publishing before submission is a bad word in the PhD room lol. I work the hardest in my department (I know the cleaning staff by name, that's how early I get in) and I have the most unreasonable expectations for myself. I know exactly where I want to be career wise, so I just worked backwards and decided to put all the pieces that would get me from 'here' to 'there'.

Also, don't be fooled, a PhD is also a business decision. Be it for a career in academia or applied in industry. So don't do some self-indulgent PhD that is worth little more than the paper its submitted on. Have some kick ass research you will enjoy but that also has value to others as well. The University will not hesitate to take your money as a self funded candidate, and they will happily let you explore the societal significance of Peppa Pig. I see it every day.

...right...I think I have ranted enough. Carry on.

GrumpyMule you're definitely ahead right now. Good work. I'm about to start my second year in Social Sciences, and I just convinced my supervisors to let me switch my PhD format from traditional submission to PhD by publication (Intro, 4 discrete but related articles, Discussion) and while not mandatory for the viva, I intend to get all 4 published by submission if it kills me.

Keep up the good work.

Hi Asterix,
I am curious to know. How is your verbal communication? Are you able to crisply convey your ideas and research verbally?

I had the same problem, chopped mine down to 14k words. I'm going for 'easily digestible' with my PhD, with the idea that I actually want them (supervisors / examiners) to read all of it.

Wow Congratulations!

I did not mean to offend you LouLou15, and if I did, I apologize..I am generally not known for my soft touch around these parts :P I see however you were able to extract the meaning out of my post so I am fully confident you will be ok. Do not give up on that nursing dream. Trust me, that little voice only gets louder.

Good luck!

Hello. You said "loathe". You should have quit yesterday. My wife is a medical doctor, and yesterday she was telling me about a young man in his teens who came in; who had hung himself for whatever reason. Unfortunately he did not die, and suffered irreparable brain damage. Needless to say his family is utterly crushed.

All of that was to say is that at the end of the day, life has to have meaning for YOU. Not anyone else, not your parents, your friends, your neighbours or your pets. Sure we have all had at one time or the other had to work a shitty job in order to pay the bills, or take a course we hated, but when you find yourself in a position to transition, you make your move.

Staying in your PhD is not only hurting you, but it is taking up space at your institution and using up their resources which could be spent on someone REALLY motivated to do the work. Don't make a joke of the Academy and don't unnecessarily burden your supervisor(s) when you don't want to be there.

I am sure you parents rather you be happy that be "Ms. Happy" than "miserable Dr. so-and-so" If not, too bad. Its simple. Break the bad news to them, do the same with the supervisors and save yourself next semester's fees. Then you look at nursing training, when the next intake is, what exams or requirements are needed, you may have missed enrolment which gives you time to get all of your competencies in order for next time and also try to visit with some nurses to ask them if the Profession is all you imagined it to be. Fear is worrying about something which has not happened, and probably never will. Regret however is very real. You know what to do.

...the clock is ticking...

Ok I see where you would like to go with this. It sounds like it has some promise, certainly worth looking into more.

As someone who is from a small country heavily dependent on tourism, you may want to look into literature on elderly tourism (since you are proposing to attract that kind on client). Medical tourism as well may have some interesting theoretical contributions to make to your topic. You will also have to look into Thai tourism, how the government views it? what is the most popular types? what are the most profitable type? what kinds of tourism would the Government want to attract more of? the problems, and the promises, etc. (you may be even able to make a proposal to the Thai board of tourism for some kind of funding in exchange for research who knows)

Feel free to private message me, we can continue this conversation via email, I don't want to bore the rest of the forum :P My new semester is about to start off here, but I will try help you out as much as I can.

Stop saying you cant. If you just keep giving me your limitations, that's all you will have! Yes you can talk to yourself. I talk to myself everyday! its healthy LOL trust me. Listen you have more than you think you have, your key words are

1. Retirement in Australia - that's a whole lot of data like what about it? age? quality? percentage of retirees? demographics etc....explore the sector

2. Retirement in Thailand - same as above, from there you can compare the sectors and highlight similarities and differences....another huge sector to explore

3. Retirement villages in Australia - what about them? why do they work? are they working? are they desirable? are they profitable? why? what do people think about them? mountains of data!!!

4. The question/need - Lack retirement villages in Thailand - why do you think it would work in Thailand? is there a need? what is the current state of retirement in Thailand? is there a difference in quality in retirement between rich and poor retirees? what are the current or emerging or new trends in retirement businesses in Thailand? you can get most of this data from #2

Cummon now, I cant hold your hand through this, you've got to turn on your brain and get to thinking. This is not even my field and i've got plenty questions....which means you SHOULD have more / better questions than me! If you cannot come up with more questions than me (a social science researcher)....forget the business PhD. Its not for you. So get thinking, or find something else to do.

P.S. I also gave you a great book to read to get you un-lost. You have to want it for yourself more than I want it for you.

Continued ...Also I know most people recommend a book, but the method I described above, and most of the others I intend to follow come from a book called "Destination Dissertation" by Foss and Waters. I cannot recommend this book enough. With it I have already caught up to candidates who started an entire semester before me, and we will be beginning our field study at the same time. It really is that good.

I'll propose an alternative method, which is the one I used, as it suits me better. I had a "conceptual conversation" with myself and my conceptual partner (my mom lol)..should be your supervisor, but can be anyone with any kind of academic inclination and I asked myself key questions like:

What are my major interests in this field?

What personal experiences had an impact on me related to this field?

What was my most exciting coursework?
Which theories and concepts do I find most interesting?

What ideas am I curious about and would like to expand on?

What bodies of literature have I read that really lit a spark?

Are there theories I wish to avoid?
What is my favorite kind of data I enjoy using?

Is there any specific data, texts, or artifacts I would like to study?

Do I have access to resources I could draw on (volunteer activities, current job, upcoming event in community etc.)

What are my favorite kinds of research?

What are my career goals? applied research or academia?

As you pose and answer these questions, your conceptual partner should be helping you refine your answers by listening intently and asking questions like "what do you mean by.." or "can you elaborate" or "what connections do you think there are, if any, between these theories?"

From there the beginnings of a research question will begin to appear.

Personally, I prefer this method because when you sit down in a coffee shop and begin sifting through academic articles looking for gaps, chances are you will find some "further research" you could embark on in most of them. You will risk being overloaded with possibilities and begin to feel kinda lost. Sure you can check out what some of the biggest gaps are in your field, but even having formulated my own research question first, I have come across many gaps along the way in my literature review, which I intend to address to a larger or smaller extent. Continued...

What Tree said. However I am more than happy to have my cheeky little thread complaining about spam removed if it actually results in no spam. :D