Wow, what a dream result!! Congrats, that's amazing!! KB

Congrats Dr Wal!!! I didn't realise yours had crept up so soon! Hope you're having a fab time celebrating- you deserve it! Best, KB

Best of luck, hopefully you'll be celebrating this time tomorrow! KB

Hey Pineapple, I'm so sorry to hear about this, you must be so gutted having built yourself up to thinking that you viva is imminent just to have it cancelled. I don't really know what to say except that you should try not to assume the worst. It's easily done and I would be thinking of all the possible negative reasons it has been cancelled too, but it really might just be something as simple as your external realising that they were not going to have read and thought about your thesis on time for the viva. I really hope you get an alternative examiner sorted out soon and you are not feeling too awful about it all. Best wishes and a big hug, KB

Hey Ady! I think it depends on how you choose the new names and whether there are any characteristics or anything that would be likely to be attributed to that particular name. I wouldn't go for choosing your favourite TV characters' names because that might be something other people can identity with and could potentially lead to a bias in the person reading your work and how they interpret it. But if you just choose pretty common names at random I don't think there would be any issue. I mean, you could probably find the 50 most common male and female names for any particular year on the internet, so using names like that shouldn't be names that would automatically be associated with particular TV characters etc. Then again you could always choose a name that means something to the reader, ie. they have a relative with the same name so might interpret something differently, but you can't account for every single possibility so I wouldn't try to! I don't honestly think it will matter either way for your thesis- the worst that can happen is that if they don't like your decision, the examiners might ask you to switch it the other way round as a minor correction. I would just go with the most common method in your subject! Best, KB

Hi Ady! Well I'm only doing one small qualitative study as my PhD is mostly quantitative, but in the type of analysis I'm doing (IPA) it's normal and perfectly acceptable to just replace each person's name (first name only) with a pseudonym and just state that all names have been changed to protect anonymity. Some people still leave just a participant code number on or label it 'female participant' or whatever, but one of my colleagues recently submitted a paper for publication like this and was asked to substitute them for pseudonyms to make it less 'cold'. In my study I replaced all the names with names (first names only) with the names of my favourite old people I used to look after when I was doing care work years ago. In my mind, it was a nice way to sort of 'keep them alive', and given that nobody else knows/knew who they were and all their names were typical names for that age range (think Vera, Mary, Harry, Arthur etc!!) then there's no way that anonymity is compomised. Personally I think it's nicer to use names than codes etc, but there are probably different traditions in different fields. My IPA paper has been reviewed for publication and there were no problems with using pseudonyms, but I would see what's most typical in your subject area. Best, KB

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Hey Mikail! It will probably make your life difficult but it's not impossible to get onto a funded PhD with a 2.2- I have a couple of friends with a 2.2 and an MSc who are on fully funded PhDs. The way they got around it was to work as a research assistant or whatever within a team first to get their foot in the door, and once they had established themselves in the team they applied for the PhD with the support of their supervisors. I think this is the best way to go about it. You probably won't have much luck just applying for PhDs that you see advertised- I would go for a paid position first, wait until you have proven yourself that way, and then go for a PhD within the same team assuming that your supervisor/boss is pleased with your work and believes that you are capable of it. That way, they can apply for the funding with you and you won't necessarily have to compete with anyone else for the place. And of course, a merit or a distinction on your MSc would go down well, but both my pals with 2.2s just got pass grades on their MSc and still managed to get their PhD after they'd worked within their team for a year or two and established themselves. So don't give up- but it might just take a little bit longer and a slightly different route! Having said that, you are in a different field to me and to both of my pals so someone else on here in your field might have a better idea than me! Good luck with it! KB

Just a thought for those of you who are submitting papers for publication- I received an outright rejection on one of my papers a few months ago and was a bit hacked off because I thought it was a decent paper and that the comments were really unfair. One reviewer basically completely slagged the paper off because it was written from a different viewpoint from his/her own and he/she was not willing to consider any alternative views. When I showed my sup the comments she was really annoyed and emailed the editor of the journal, defending the paper and saying the the reviewer had been inappropriate and asked the editor to reconsider the rejection and ask for more reviews. Luckily he agreed, and after a revise and resubmit my paper has now been accepted as it stands.

Just sharing my story because it shows that it is possible to turn things around if you genuinely feel that a reviewer has been unfair. Of course reviewers might be critical and disagree with your viewpoint, that is only normal, but they should be judging your work on whether it is of scientific merit, not whether they happen to agree with it or not. So if you feel you've been hard done by and you really want to stick with the same journal rather than resubmit elsewhere then give it a go (or ask your supervisor with their 'big name' to give it a go!).

Best, KB

Hey Sarahlouise! I understand how you feel- my supervisor can be quite insensitive in her feedback, although I'm sure she is trying to be constructive. It's really hard to take when you've slaved away on something. Personally, when I have feedback I read through it, then if it's particularly negative I leave it for a week or so before coming back to it. It's easy to be overwhelmed by it when you're all emotional and I find that it helps to just take a step back, wait until you're calmer, and look at it then. Often when you're feeling a bit more objective it's easier to look at things with a realisation that you can make the changes required and improve your work. Don't stress- most people find writing at this level hard work and you'll get there eventually if you keep working at it! Good luck with it, KB

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Hi Sunflower! I went to an IPA conference in Belfast near the beginning of my PhD- it was half workshop and half conference presentations from people who had used IPA in their work (including one of the people who really founded IPA). I was only in the beginners' workshop as I hadn't done any IPA at that point. To be honest, I didn't find the workshop that helpful...we had a quick practise at underlining relevant sections of a transcript and making border notes etc and there was a question and answer session, but I didn't really learn an awful lot about how to do it. Having said that, from the presentations I got a good idea of how IPA can be used and the results presented, and that was quite inspiring. After the conference I bought the Smith, Flowers & Larkin (2009) book on IPA and read that and another chapter written my my colleagues on how to do IPA (I can PM you the reference if you want) and pretty much went off that. I did have the advantage that my supervisor is very experienced in IPA, but I honestly learnt most of it from the book and the chapter. If it wasn't going to cost a lot I would say go, but if it's going to be really expensive, I wouldn't bother. I didn't find it that hard to pick up and I have written the results up now- I just read a lot of good quality IPA papers to think about how to present my results and although I have to make a few changes to my paper, the reviewers' comments on it were very positive, so I must have picked it up from the books reasonably well. I can't honestly say the workshop contributed anything to my final piece of work and I think it's perfectly possible to learn the technique from a good book. Hope that helps a bit! Best, KB

Hey! Sounds like you're really struggling with your situation and that comment was the last straw. I really don't know anything about your subject at all, but did you not have to produce a document of some sort for your first year review saying what your research questions were and how you were going to approach them? If not, then it sounds like you need to have a proper meeting with your supervisor (and do you have a second supervisor and chairperson?), express your confusion about what you're doing and pin down exactly what you are aiming for. It sounds like you have the passion to do it, but without good supervision and a focus most of us would be really struggling. The comment was pretty harsh- was it said/meant in a funny way or was it a deliberate insult? Sometimes people make light of things that they don't realise has a lot more meaning for you, and genuinely don't mean to upset you. Then there are the idiots who just get a kick out of it. I remember years ago I was doing care work and we had a new girl join the team, and the supervisor pointed at me and said 'for god's sake don't copy her, she hasn't got a clue what she's doing!' I wasn't too pleased about it, although I have to admit, there was some truth in it at the time! Hope you get somewhere with this- it would be a shame to quit when you could have a good outcome with a bit of decent supervision. Best, KB

Hey TattieSoup! I am (un)lucky enough to have some experience in this area- I have bipolar disorder, and although I have been fairly well for 5 or so years, before that I had to drop out of uni 3 times due to hospital admissions etc. Anyway, I was actually forced to tell my sup because my diagnosis appears on my CRB check, which was required before the project started because I work with vulnerable adults. Needless to say, I was petrified of telling this high up prof that I have bipolar and that it might affect my work, but she was brilliant about it. The main thing she said to me was to tell her if I'm experiencing any problems, so she knows to expect my work rate to drop and that I might need time off. As I said, I have mostly been okay but I have had a few ups and downs and kept her in the picture and she has always appreciated that. I think if you have a good relationship with your supervisor then have a chat to him about it- most likely he will be supportive and you will feel better that he's on side. If you feel it will help to have goals or mini-deadlines then set them up with him (a friend of mine has recently done this because she is struggling with similar issues to you). And of course the other thing to do is get yourself to your doctor and your student counselling service! I can't praise our student counselling service enough- I have been going there for 7 years and they are fantastic. Even if you think it isn't your cup of tea then go along for a chat and see what they can offer. When you start to feel better you will start to make progress- you're only 6 months in and you can definitely turn this into a successful PhD if you get the right help and keep on trying. Best wishes, KB

Hey Elaine- do you actually want to stay in psychology at all or are you thinking about something completely different? KB

Haha, I think that's what my sup thinks whenever any of us hand anything in! KB

Hey all! I am just plodding along...had a couple of days off to go to far-away hospital appointments so feel like I'm running a bit behind this week! Have been distracted as well- I am going to a conference in Boston at the end of the year (well, providing my abstracts are accepted) and my sup was supposed to be helping me organise a symposium based around my topic. Then she disappeared off to America or somewhere and emailed me and said I needed to organise it as she didn't have time! So have had to email loads of professors to see if they will present with me, which is pretty tough when you haven't even got 'dr' in front of your name :( But I've got there in the end, although I had to do a lot of name-dropping! Now just trying to finish off my second results paper...but got some strange results so it's proving hard to make sense of!

Don't worry Pink- I think my sup would have a fit if I came off my meds so won't be doing it any time soon lol!

Have a good rest of the week everyone! KB