Hey Ingenieur! I know what you mean- I'm right at the end of writing up (a week until submission) but I've been working from home a lot over the last 2 months rather than the office. Sometimes I get through a whole day without speaking to anyone (apart from maybe a 'thankyou' to whoever swipes my gym card) and when I realise I've literally not said more than one word to anyone all day I feel quite sad! I think it's important to get out and about and see people- volunteering is a great way to do that but you do need to be really strict about how much time you offer. To be honest, even something as simple as half an hour on the phone to a mate cheers me up, or you could meet with a friend for lunch? I've not had much time for evening socialising for a while now (since it usually stretches into several hours!) but you have to have lunch anyway, however quickly, so it might be a good time to pop out? Best, KB

Aww, glad to hear she's okay Esk, that sounds awful. Hope it all keeps getting better from here on in :) Best, KB

Hey Socpol- I'm in clinical psychology and recruited my participants through the NHS. It's kind of complicated and depends a bit on which NHS Trust you will be working with. So you know that you need REC (research ethics committee) and R&D (research and development) approval, and that's a pretty big job in itself, but there should be people in the uni who can help you with that- certainly people in psychology will have loads of experience with completing these sorts of applications. When I started the process I actually went to see the REC manager at the local hospital and she gave me some very useful guidance, so that might be something you could do. With respect to access to staff/patients (I'm not sure if it's both you want to participate?), it varies massively from trust to trust. You will need an NHS research passport and probably also an NHS honorary research contract. These aren't too hard to sort out, just a lot of signatures required, but your REC/R&D contact will be able to advise you on how to go about this. For some trusts, once you have gone through all this you may be able to access databases with potential participants' details on and invite them to take part in your study. In the trust I work with we could only do that if the potential participants had agreed in advance that researchers could contact them, but some trusts will let you use that information regardless. If you can't access this sort of information then you will need to approach relevant clinicians and make contacts that way. Beware- these folk are seriously busy and building up contacts this way can be a very slow business. There might be someone at your uni who already has contacts with these people, and that would be a massive help. You will need to have your recruitment plan sorted out before you complete your NHS and R&D applications, as there are sections that ask very specifically about how you plan to recruit and obtain informed consent. I haven't been doing ethnographic research so I can't advise on the specifics, but contacts are the key! There will probably be people at your uni who will be able to advise on this, possibly in other departments, so definitely check this out- it could save you a lot of time!

It does all sound a bit overwhelming at the beginning, but you will get through all the paperwork. Just make sure you allow a good 6 months of your PhD time to get all the relevant approvals, and if you're not sure, ask for advice- there are people inn the NHS who know the systeminside out and deal with these forms and queries every day! Good luck! KB

Wooohooo Pink_Numbers, that's fab news!

I've got everything together now, just got to finish the formatting (which is quite a big job!!). Hope to be ready for binding on Monday!!!

Best, KB

Ooooh, I am exhausted! Got to get my PhD to the bindery by Monday, so 5 days to go. Just done quite a big re-write of my discussion section after I got some not-great comments back from my sup...but she won't be able to see the final copy, it's too late now so I'm just gonna have to shove it in :/ Tomorrow I'm back to sorting out the references and formatting. Sounds like there's a whole bunch of us all at the same stage! Good luck everyone :) Best, KB

Hey all!

I have been asked back to the department where I had a job interview last week, to speak to them about another job that they have going there. Basically they would be able to offer it to me without advertising it, but first I have to meet someone else and convince her that someone with a PhD (as opposed to a practioner doctorate in clinical psychology) can do the job. I really really want to join this team and think I could have a future there, but now I'm more nervous than I was the first time round!

And the meeting is the day before I am due to submit my PhD...no pressure!
Eeeeeek. KB

Hmmm, I also have this problem and my solution is to pretend that if I don't look at those pages then the problem will go away. On a practical note, I will try out your hints and tips when I get a chance! Best, KB

Heu Natassia!

When I started teaching there were always two of us in each seminar- a newbie PhD student and a final year one, just to make sure that the newbie had some support with the teaching side of things. In my first year we only had about 15 students in each seminar, which wasn't too bad, and most of them were of the non-responsive type anyway! Then in second year I was on a different module and had 80 final-year students all to myself! I was terrified! But after I'd done it a few times I was a lot more confident. You've got so much experience anyway with your tutoring that you're bound to be very good at explaining things, so I'm sure you'll be fine.

For me, the greatest problem was the students that needed so much spoon-feeding and would email you to ask 2000 questions about a single piece of coursework. I just knew that the reply I sent was going to be stored and used in evidence against me if I gave a pice of advice that didn't result in a good grade! But overall teaching was a good experience...not my favourite part of the PhD, but a good thing to do and have on your CV as well.

You'll have to let us know how it goes! Best, KB

Hey Ady!

We don't have a minimum, just a maximum of 100k words. Have just realised my reference list is over 9k words so I guess I'll be nearer 90k lol! I can't wait to get it handed in but I could have done with an extra couple of weeks to be honest, to make sure that the references and formatting are spot on. I've got a feeling that a few mistakes might creep in given that I'm on last minute...although since my examiners only have 5-6 days to look at it I don't suppose they'll be checking my reference list in any detail lol!

Good luck with the rest of yours, not long to go! Had a mock viva with my supervisor the other day- it was awful :( Really random questions I had never even thought of, let alone thought of answers to! Can't wait until a few weeks time when we can look back and know that the hard work is done!

Best, KB

Glad you got it sorted- you're not holding me back lol, I enjoy the distraction!!
Best, KB

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Hey Ady! Yeah- I wouldn't mind but I don't really understand her suggestions... most comments are along the lines of 'this needs more depth' or 'relate this to the relevant literature' etc etc, and I feel like I've done all of that already in the individual chapters. So I'm trying to expand on this in the discussion but I think it just seems very repetitive. I'd rather be concise than just waffle on for the sake of it...a pal on the same team had the same comments before she handed in a few weeks ago and she couldn't really understand what she was being asked to do either.

My thesis will be about 290 sides of 1.5 spacing (about 80k words excluding appendices). I did 1.5 spacing instead of 2 because I thought I'd be able to get it bound in one volume instead of needing two. But apparently the binding machine can only go up to 260 sides, otherwise they have to do it by hand or something, and that takes two days :( Can't understand why they have a binding machine that only goes up to 260 sides lol!

Good luck with your submission too- how long have you got left?
Best, KB

Edit: I have included a list of my publications in the intro, so won't need to put them in the appendices as well.

Cool, hope that works! Should have said- that's on the rather old version of Word that is on my laptop, hopefully it will apply to newer versions as well! And thanks for the luck, I feel as though I need lots of it at the moment lol! Best, KB

Hey SBCC! Reviews definitely count- it's also a good idea because you can be writing and submitting review papers early on in your PhD before you have enough results to publish. I'm not sure what field you're in, but in my field (Clinical Psychology) there are journals with very good reputations (and impact factors!) that are devoted to review papers. Review papers in relevant topics are often very highly cited as well. Before I had enough results to submit for publication I wrote 3 review papers and got them all published- my very first publication (in a review-only journal) is definitely the one that is commented on most by people looking at my CV, because of the journal it's in. The other two were in slightly less prestigious journals, but they all count! And of course it gets you used to the peer-review process as well. Although I haven't quite finished my PhD (two weeks until viva!) and have only just started applying for jobs, both interviews I have attended I was offered because of my publication record- the interviewers were very clear about that. So go for it! Seeing how hard the job market is, the best piece of advice I would give to new PhD students is to publish as much as possible. Best, KB

Hey Delta- you just go to 'Page Setup', then click the 'Paper size' tab. You can then select landscape or portrait and it gives you the option of applying that to the whole document or just 'from this point forwards'. If it's just one page then after you change it you need to go onto the next page, then go back and switch it back to 'portrait' 'from this point forwards'. Is that what you were asking? Best, KB