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I agree DocInsanity- I think it's much more common, and probably easier, to get multiple publications in some fields where you can send off several papers based on the same dataset. It's certainly the norm in psychology to get a few publications, but I gather it's much much harder in other fields such as the humanities etc. Best, KB

Wow, Larrydavid, you really do hold a grudge! If you read the rest of my post it describes how much support I had in order to get those publications and how I couldn't have done it without that support! Only trying to offer my advice, for what it's worth. KB

Hey there! I think it is definitely do-able during your PhD, but there are a few things that can make it easier or harder. I got 7 first author papers accepted in journals during my PhD (5 in my first choice journals, 2 in my second choice), but I had a lot of excellent guidance along the way and wouldn't have managed anything like that without good support from my primary supervisor. She commented on several drafts of all my papers before submission, and literally has 100s of publications, so she knew what she was doing. My methodology and sample size were pretty sound, which helps. And I also had advice on which journals might be suitable targets for each paper- a lot of it is about choosing the right journal for your paper. I tried to aim reasonably high and sent all of my empirical and review papers to good journals, but I had one theoretical paper that I kind of accepted wasn't amazing (and it was quite controversial too!) and I sent that off to a lower ranked journal. To be honest, I didn't really like the paper much and just wanted rid of it! But generally I would advise aiming high if time is on your side- there's nothing to lose. Most people in my field (clinical psychology) manage to get something published during their PhDs, but I believe it can be much tougher in other disciplines. Either way- if you plan on staying in academia you will need publications, so go for it. If you get some decent guidance along the way, it isn't that scary a process. And when you get to viva, it's always nice to know your work has already been peer-reviewed :) Good luck! KB

Hi Acrylic- it depends where you need ethical approval from. Are you in the UK? You will probably need school/university ethical approval and you may also need NHS ethical approval. Best to check with your sup. Sometimes the applications are combined so that you don't have to do two separate applications- the university may not ask you to complete their usual forms but may accept the NHS forms before or after you have gained NHS ethical approval. But this varies across universitites. A word of warning- NHS ethical approval forms in particular are very lengthy and will take quite a lot of time to fill out and then there may be a wait of up to a month or so until you get the final verdict. Also, by the time you are filling these forms in you will basically need to know everything about your study in every last detail. On the plus side, once you have gone through the approval system you will know exactly what you are doing! I would definitely ask to see a completed set of forms for a previous project for guidance...if it's your first time going through the ethics system (especially NHS ethics) it can be quite daunting. Good luck with it! KB

Go Pineapple! I can't think of anyone who deserves this more than you do- your perseverence has been incredible. Hang in there, not long to go and fingers crossed for a fab result! Best, KB

Hey Swetchha! I had all of this before I submitted. I think once your sups realise that you are close to submitting, they scrutinize your work even more closely because it might be the last time they see it before you hand it in. Or they're just in a different mood than the last time they looked at it! I often found that on a final draft of something, my sup would make loads of comments on things that had escaped her notice on the first two drafts. All you can do is your best- respond to those comments that seem most salient. When I was finishing my discussion chapter I simply didn't have time to respond to everything so just did what I could, and what seemed to make sense to me. Chances are your examiners will pick up on entirely different things and not even notice those things that you don't quite have time to re-do. Just remember- you have to draw a line somewhere! Good luck, it's a really tough time right before submission. Look after yourself! KB

Hey Button,

My PhD was scholarship funded, but I finished 3 months early and wasn't asked to pay anything back even though I had received funding for the final 3 months. Couldn't tell you about ESRC though, perhaps you'd be best checking with them.

Best, KB

Hi there ZenOfChaos! Welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear you've been having a hard time of it lately. I finished my PhD in Psychology (clinical stuff) about a year ago and am now doing a post-doc. I have bipolar disorder, which has given me no end of hospital admissions and difficulties over the years, and generalised anxiety disorder as well. However, my PhD experience was overwhelmingly positive overall. The great thing about a PhD is that it can be flexible to accommodate your circumstances- i.e. you work in the way that is best for you. Of course, you need to work certain hours to do your testing and so on, but the rest is down to you. Some people work steadily throughout the PhD, others fluctuate between periods of great productivity and times when they take it a bit easier etc, everyone is different. I was quite open about my bipolar with my supervisor and the rest of the team, and that was a good path to go down- I would recommend this way of approaching the situation if that's possible for you. There were other PhD students in my department with depression, anxiety, OCD etc, who were all coping well with the demands of the PhD. The main thing would be to set yourself up with a good support system. I saw a university counsellor all the way through my BSc, MSc and PhD, and the uni mental health advisor too (in addition to my consultant and GP), and that was a huge help to me. Are you receiving medical help already? I think your priority would be to get yourself feeling as well as possible to start with, and prepare yourself by sorting some support out. The beginning of the PhD can be a bit anxiety-provoking, but this settles down once you've got a better idea of where you're heading. I find it also helps me to keep really busy- the PhD was great for giving me something to focus on, although I guess that's different for everyone. If you feel able to- I'd give it a shot, there's nothing to lose by having a crack at it. I can honestly say that my mental health was much more stable through my PhD than the years before or the last year, so that's gotta mean something! Good luck, whatever you decide. Best, KB

Hi there! I don't know much about doing a PhD in English as I'm in Psychology, but I do have a couple of friends who got fully funded PhDs with a 2.2 and a pass at MSc level- one in health economics and another in dementia studies. But they didn't get straight onto the PhD- both of them worked as research assistants first in the teams that they went on to do their PhDs in, so I suppose they both had the chance to prove themselves and get people to see past the 2.2. To be honest, you'd probably struggle to get into Oxbridge, but then with PhDs you need to think a lot more about the department and the supervisors rather than the reputation of the university as a whole- these things are more important for a PhD. Unlike your undergrad degree, where you may be judged on which university it was from, for your PhD it will be the department, your supervisors, and your publications that you will be judged on (or at least in my discipline it's like that- as I said, I don't know much about English). And there are some excellent departments in some universities that would be judged as being pretty average overall- my PhD came from one of these 'average' universities but from a department that is in the top 10 in the country, and following my PhD I immediately got a job at a top 10 UK university. So maybe have a think about that! Best of luck with it, KB

Hi Tt_Dan! To be honest, the best way to know is to ask for an opinion from someone who is used to publishing work and knows whereabouts the standard needs to be, or just submit it to a journal and find out! If you think you have something original that's of interest to others in the field, it's worth a shot, and even if it gets rejected you should get some constructive feedback that would enable you to work further on it. There isn't really anything to lose by trying. Are you doing a PhD? What field are you in? I finished my PhD in Clinical Psychology last year and so far have 7 publications out of it- two systematic reviews, four results papers, and a conceptual paper. Where I studied for my PhD it was pretty normal to get stuff published, but it's more common in some fields than others. But if you want to carry on in academia afterwards then it's great to publish- it will go a long way to getting you a post-doc (again, depending on what field you're in!). Good luck! KB

Hi there! I'm doing a post-doc now that I had two interviews for last year. The first interview was with a panel of four, and they checked my understanding of the subject area, knowledge of research methods/statistics, clinical skills, etc (I'm a research psychologist). I did a 10 minute presentation and the interview was about half an hour on top of that. It wasn't especially difficult but then I had prepared quite thoroughly. The second interview was with the centre director, who had been in the first interview, and an NHS manager who was involved in the project. It was a lot less formal than the first interview- more like a chat about my experience and how it would relate to the position, what I thought would be the difficult parts of the project and how I would overcome such challenges etc. I got the impression that they just wanted to make sure that I was someone they could get on with and who would be able to communicate appropriately and confidently with a vaiety of other NHS professionals. They had a discussion straight after the second interview then called me back in and offered me the job. I don't know if this was a typical second interview or not- it's the only job I have ever had two interviews for! But good luck, let us know how you get on! Best, KB

Interesting! A good result I'd say. If this had been allowed there would be no end of other attempts to secure 'voluntary' staff to take on the usual repsonsibilities of research assistants etc. I also work in a research centre for mental health problems which has a very good record of employees gaining places in the clinical psychology doctorate and we always have people asking for experience/voluntary work here. We do have a couple of people doing voluntary work but it's strictly that- there are no responsibilities that would normally go to paid staff, and there aren't minimum hours etc. Psychology graduates are falling over themselves trying to gain enough experience to get on a clinical training course but this is no reason to take advantage to that extent. Best, KB

Hey! I actually saw this the other day when I was having a scan for jobs! I think they can get away with this because it's the kind of post that would be really valuable experience for people wanting to apply for the clinical psychology doctorate. Originally assistant psychologist posts were the way onto the doctorate, but now many courses value clinical research experience as well- a lot of my old PhD pals have got straight onto clinical training after their clinically oriented research PhD and I know a few people who have got on straight after clinical research assistant jobs. There are often adverts for honorary assistant psychologists and loads of people apply because they are desperate to get onto clinical training, which is fully funded at almost twice the amount that a fully funded PhD student will get. Many people see the clinical doctorate as a secure position for three years, which can be quite attractive when otherwise faced with 12 month research contracts. It's sad in a way, but I'm not remotely surprised. Am considering applying for clinical training myself at the end of the year. Best, KB

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Sorry to hear that Skig- academia unfortunately often seems to be all about other people's views, opinions and agendas and it's rubbish that you have been caught up in that, I really feel for you. My viva was a horrible grilling too (and not at all like I was told to expect) with one very rude/inappropriate examiner and one reasonable one, but luckily they agreed to disagree with me on some points and the overall result didn't suffer (just v minor corrections even though one examiner completely slated some of it). I have known a few people from my old uni who resubmitted, and they all got there in the end, so maybe give yourself a good break and then re-attack it as best you can. Best, KB