Impact factor is not the be all and end all. Though unfortunately there is a lot of weight given to the concept in some circles.

Some questions to ask:
1. Is it a new(ish) journal? That can lead to a low impact factor. It may increase over time.
2. Is it a highly specialist journal? Is it the right match for your work?
3. Is your supervisor involved in some way with this journal (e.g. on the editorial board)? That might influence his/her recommendation.
4. Ignoring impact factors, can you think of other journals that might be a better 'fit' for your work, or is this actually the most suitable?

I would be very cautious about pursuing this approach, particularly without checking your university's guidelines first. There may be issues about having non-authorised people 'contributing' to your work. If there are any problems further down the line it could be difficult to work out who is accountable. And if your actual supervisors find out it could get very awkward with them. Besides, you should probably see what other help your uni has to offer (e.g. do you have a tutor/advisor apart from your supervisors?)

I agree - we need some more information about the field/discipline to be able to give specific advice.

In some fields, lack of other papers on the topic is not unusual - in others it would ring alarm bells. It's highly unlikely that there is *no* relevant literature which can be cited e.g. there may be something on a relevant method which has been applied to a different question.

I would also give your friend some cautious advice on the topic of carrying on this research for too long unsupervised. He may well end up doing a lot of work which turns out to not be up to scratch for masters or PhD level. Enthusiasm is good, but it doesn't guarantee good research.

Hard to say. I don't see it would be any more disadvantageous than a lot of other jobs. If they offer it to you I'd take it.

It's an odd one. The pages are quite ugly, hard to customise, some of the sections are rendered in very small font and it has few added features. And yet, it scores very highly in Google search rankings. That's the only reason I bother maintaining my page there.

I, and many of my peers, do have profiles but I'm not aware that any of us are particularly active users.

Wow, an 11 year old thread. I had no idea the forum was this old. I wonder whether the OP ever did a PhD in the end!

Sounds like conjunctivitis. If you can't get hold of a doctor, try a pharmacist as sometimes they can give over-the-counter treatments.

Get well soon.

I can't remember what field you're in but NatureJobs.com is pretty good for US based science jobs.

Which country are you in? And what is the funding source (a studentship? funded through a programme grant?) That might have a bearing on the answer.

In the UK, a body called Research Councils UK set a minimum recommended amount for studentships funded through their subsidiaries. But I don't know if this is enforceable in law.

I started my PhD in 2011 and my offer letter clear stated that the stipend would increase by 1-2% per year. Then the public sector pay freeze kicked in and it never did. I did raise this once, but never got anywhere with it and felt too awkward to ask again.

I'd strongly recommend getting the hang of at least one bibliographic software package (e.g. Reference Manager, Endnote, Mendeley, Zotero). Not only will it make it massively easier to insert citations/footnotes into your work, most have additional functions like pdf annotation or the ability to tag/file your papers into collections.

I use Mendeley and find it pretty good, but I've also used Endnote and Reference Manager in the past for inserting citations. They all have their flaws, but it's worth using one anyway.

It might also solve your cross-computer issues - Mendeley desktop can be synced across devices.