Hey! I think this is a bit of a political issue. My primary sup is on all of my papers as a co-author, since she has commented on many drafts before I've submitted my papers. However, I do have a second supervisor who is much less involved in what I do, and when I have asked my primary sup whether to put him down as last author she always points out that he's had nothing to do with the paper at all. In fairness, he doesn't look at my work unless it's for a PhD review or something, but there is a weird sort of rivalry between my two sups so I don't think she would ever let me put his name down on my papers. Her other reason is 'well, I bet my name won't go down on sup no. 2's students' papers'....so it seems a lot of it is about competition and rivalry. I did wonder if I should ask my second sup if he should go on my empirical papers since he contributed a lot towards recruitment, but if he says yes and my primay sup says no then I won't know what to do! So I don't think there's an obvious or standard answer to your question. At the same time I would tend to err on the side of caution- the last thing you want to do is majorly annoy your sup just for the sake of putting their name on the paper. You could just ask them?!!! KB

Hey there! I think it would be a shame to give up your PhD over something like this. It can be difficult to join groups when you're the only new one and you have to get to know everyone, and it is easy to feel inferior when you're just starting off and everyone else is way ahead of you. Sometimes it just takes time to get to know people, and sometimes it can really be an effort. Could you ask if people want to go for an after-work drink one evening (maybe as a Christmas thing)? Sometimes folk are very serious about their work but let their hair down when they're out of the office environment. Alternatively, can you get to know PhD students in other groups? Sometimes it's nice to be pals with people who are at the same stage as you, so maybe you could track down a few other new starters to hang out with? Not everyone in academia is so serious, I'm sure you will be able to find some like-minded people if you look hard enough! Best, KB

Hey! My relationship with my sup is pretty informal- we've been on first name terms from the beginning, and she also texts me now and again, and we have recently become friends on facebook, although I am not convinced that is a good move...we shall see! We send each other jokey emails and texts etc. I think starting an email with 'hope you are well' is fine...it would be hard to be offended by that! Best, KB

Hey! I think ultimately it depends on how close you are to the merit. Assuming merit is 60%, if you're on 59 point something, then you might have a chance. If you're much further below that I don't think you would get boosted up unless you have a good enough case with your extenuating circumstances. I would see your tutor and ask him to point out the extenuating circumstances to the examination board- if you are close to the merit boundary this may be enough to push you up. Of course, it depends on the formula too, and the weightings of each of the modules and your dissertation. In some courses you would have to get good enough grades in both the modules and the dissertation to be awarded a certain grade, but in other courses they just take an average. Hope it works out for you, KB

Hey jojo! Personally I would just treat it as every other article in the review- I would definitely cite it! In fact I always make a point of citing my papers in new papers I'm writing- it's good to get your work out there and have your name recognised, so I would take every opportunity to cite it! Bear in mind you are writing for other readers, not yourself, and even though you obviously know your own work, other readers may not and may need directing to it! Have fun writing! KB

Hey! I'm clinical psychology- working with people with Alzheimer's disease. So a little bit different from what you do! KB

That's the same for me- I write all of the papers by myself, but my sup provides comprehensive feedback and suggestions so she always goes down as the second author/co-author. Even though the work is really mine I'm quite happy as long as I am first listed author, because she does provide a lot of guidance and is always very quick with feedback and suggestions. To be honest, since she is such a big name in her field, I quite like having her name on my papers cos it boosts my profile too! KB

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Hey Lullaby, people are very different in the way that they work on their PhD, so you should find a way that works for you. I treat my PhD as a full time job, so am in my office or visiting participants for at least 8 hours per day in the week, and I work weekends if necessary, but not all the time. But this is because my PhD is quite practical- I spend a lot of time travelling to and from participants and collecting data and inputting it, and I know others who don't have this issue very successfully work far fewer hours than that. I also know many people who have done their PhD along side a research job, so you don't necessarily have to spend all day every day working on it. The other thing to take into account is whether you hope to be writing for publication, going to conferences, supervise MSc students etc- your 2nd and 3rd years can become very busy if you hope to factor in all of those things, but not everybody has the same aims. I would imagine that later on in your PhD you might need to be putting more hours in than 10 per week, but who knows- some people are just exceptionally quick at what they do! You'll get into a routine soon enough so I wouldn't worry about it- as long as you and your sup are happy with your progress then that's good. It does help to have targets between supervisions too- that way you don't just drift along aimlessly for weeks at a time! Good luck with it all, KB

Hey Anna! This shouldn't be a barrier to getting a poster accepted. Firstly, do you have to present results at all? Some people design posters based on a completed literature review or on research that is going to be conducted but hasn't been completed yet. If you want to present actual results and you know you will have some on time then it's okay to be pretty vague in the results section- many people at conferences have to submit their abstracts six months or more prior to the conference so a lot of people write very vague statements about the results because they have an idea of what the results might be but don't have the full data set yet. And even if you were to put some suggested/expected results in your abstract then it wouldn't really matter if they had changed by the time you presented your poster- I did an oral presentation at a conference just last week where my results had changed quite significantly since I submitted the abstract (in March, when I only had about 3 data sets to go off!!) and lots of other people were in the same boat. So don't worry about it- you can talk about expected results, or just talk about the data that you are going to present- it shouldn't be a big problem! Good luck, KB

Hey Natassia! I don't think you have anything to worry about- we all worry about making mistakes in front of our supervisors or making an arse of ourselves, it comes with the territory! Once you've started your PhD you will probably stress about the first piece of written work you hand in etc, but you will get less stressed and nervous about it as time goes by. My supervisor is the queen of 'constructive criticism' and after several years it doesn't sting quite so much any more, and I have also realised that she does it to every other person on the team (some of whom are already dr.s) and plenty of others besides us! I actually bought my supervisor some 'positive feedback' stickers for her to put on my work so I at least get one piece of positive feedback per paper! It works out at about 2 pence per piece of positive feedback- bargain! Best, KB

Hey Florence- I don't think I know anyone who has finished within 3 years, and there are a lot of PhD students where I am! I think if you have done the bulk of the research within the three years then you're doing a great job! I know some people who were still out testing participants well into their 4th year! Good luck writing up! KB

Hey JenJen, you sounds just like me, about 18 months ago. I am also a very nervous public speaker and was horrified when my compulsary teaching block meant running sessions with 80 undergraduates with just me doing the teaching! To be honest, the first session I ran cost me a week's sleep, and I was even crying with nerves just minutes before the session. I decided I had to get over my nerves as I want a career in academia and need to be able to teach and present at conferences, and for the last 18 months have been involved in teaching, and have made myself present at four conferences. I cannot tell you how terrified I was at the first and second ones, but the third one was slightly better. And just last week I presented twice at a huge conference in America and got through it without stuttering, stammering, or crying! It was probably the highlight of my PhD, and 18 months ago I wouldn't have dreamed that I would be able to do that (even my sup said she was proud of me, and she isn't normally full of compliments!). So my advice is to get practising- it's not nice, but if you just start off presenting to your fellow students, then try a couple of small UK conferences (if that's where you're based!) then your confidence will begin to creep up. I really had to force myself to do it- it wasn't easy- but I am so glad that I pushed myself. Perhaps you could start the conference thing off with a poster presentation? That way you still get to speak to lots of people, but just a few at a time. And I think the teaching will be good experience- it will give you confidence and will look good on your CV. It might be worth speaking to someone from the counselling service or something if your anxiety is really bad- they often have tips for how to manage that sort of thing. It's not everyone's cup of tea but it helps some people! Good luck with it, hopefully in a year or two's time you will look back and see how far you have come! Best, KB

Hey Zipidee! Absolutely not- I have had a 'revise & resubmit' job on two of my papers and both of them were subsequently accepted. It is definitely worth a shot. One thing I learnt as well through this process is to argue your point. I felt that some of the comments on both of my papers were unfair or inappropriate and I although I responded to most suggestions by the reviewers, there were several that I did not respond to because I though the suggestions were inappropriate. In my letter to the editor I outlined the things I had changed and explained why some of the suggestions seemed inappropriate and this was well-received both times, so don't feel as though you have to roll over and change your opinion or point of view just because the reviewer doesn't agree with it. If you have a strong argument then stick to it! Of course, your comments might not be like mine- my topic is quite controversial so it always raises a few comments from the reviewers! Of the two papers, one was accepted by the editor on resubmission, despite him saying that it would need to be re-reviewed, and the other went back to the reviewers and was then accepted. So don't give up- it's great just to not receive a rejection on your first paper, and although I was slightly disappointed (with my confidence a bit knocked!) with the 'revise and resubmit' verdict, it's definitely worth a go. Reviewers are instructed to only give the 'revise and resubmit' verdict if the paper has true promise, so go back and have a look at how you can respond to the suggestions, and remember to look at the positive comments as well- it's easy to ignore them! Good luck with it! KB

Hey EEE! I would check out the university guidelines to find out whether you need publications to graduate, and if so, where these publications should be. Some PhDs don't actually require any publications, some require several (PhD by publication), but I have never heard of them having to be in specific journals. So I would find out where you stand! On the other hand, it doesn't do any harm to aim high and submit your work to good journals- worst case scenario is you get useful feedback and have to submit it somewhere else if it gets rejected! I aimed very high with my first paper (on my supervisor's advice!) and we were both quite surprised when it got accepted. My other papers have been in journals that are respectable but nowhere near as good as the first journal, but they are still recognised as good solid publications- it would seem silly to be required to get every single paper in a really top journal for your PhD! Anyway, check out the rule book to be sure! Good luck! KB

Hey! I don't think you have anything to worry about- they probably won't even notice. The worst case scenario is that they see it and ask what you mean by 'editing', then you can explain that perhaps you meant 'proof-reading' and point out that no-one actually edited your work except for yourself. I really don't think you need to worry about it! Good luck with the viva! KB