Hey Wally! I assume you have both ethical approval and R&D approval? It sounds as though they thought you had REC approval but hadn't gone through with the R&D approval- you should have an approval letter for both REC (ethics) and R&D (research & development) approval! Best, KB

Hey! Actually it depends on your field whether the last author is important. In my field the last author is not viewed as important, but simply as the person who has contributed the least, so it's the worst place to be! I know that in other fields the last author is often the grantholder, so it's almost as good as being first author, but it's not the same across the board! If there are a lot of authors I'd say the nearer to the beginning you are, the better, but I'm just saying this on the basis of my knowledge of my field! Best, KB

Hey! Don't panic! It took me ages to do my lit review and I spent months just reading papers and making notes on them! As long as you can tell your sups what you have been reading about and basically show them that you have been working for the last couple of weeks you will be fine! I did two lit reviews and I think in the first I had about 60 references and about 90 in the second (obviously this can vary a lot, depending on how much has been done in your area!) so they are very time consuming both to prepare for and to write, you will not be expected to do it in a matter of weeks! So take your time and get a good handle on the stuff you are reading- it's really important to get a good grasp of the background literature and it will pay off later if you do it thoroughly now. And yes, it's fine to dismiss some stuff too- as long as you have a reason for dismissing it! Good luck with it, stay calm! Best, KB

No holidays planned yet :( But am hoping to head to New Orleans for a conference in November if my abstracts get accepted so fingers crossed! All the staff who go to cool conference locations seem to extend them into a holiday as well, so I'm damn sure I'm going to leave some time to explore too! Best, KB

Hey! I only thought my supervisor was queen of negative feedback! It sounds like you actually need to meet up with him and ask for more detailed feedback- I don't think 'not good but not ugly' is really sufficient at the stage you're at. What's he like face to face?
If I'm stuck on something I always discuss it in detail in supervision with my sup, and I make sure we keep going through it until it's clear in my head and I'm confident that I know what I need to do to improve it. Sometimes I ask a really dumb question and my sup looks at me like I'm a complete moron (she also looked at me like this when she found me reading heat magazine over my lunch once) but I just try not to worry about it and console myself that at least I know how to put it right! Sometimes she does leave little comments on my work like 're-word this' or 'I don't like this word' etc, when I really can't see anything wrong with it, but most of the time I just do it to keep her quiet, unless it's something I really disagree with. I would def ask to see him in person, and get him to go through it with you there and then so you can write down any comments and discuss how to rectify any problems while you're at it. You need more feedback than you're getting and you're not being unreasonable in the slightest! Best, KB

Hey Mlis, it's really good that you are feeling a bit better with the depression- I have been there many times and I know how utterly awful it is and also how difficult it is to pick yourself back up afterwards and get on with things, so congrats on getting back to your PhD! Lit reviews can be really daunting, and so can huge amounts of feedback from supervisors. I wonder if it would be helpful if you were to write a fairly detailed plan first of your lit review and have your supervisor check that before you actually go ahead and write it? At least that way you find out what they think is good/bad/irrelevant before you have spent loads of time on it. I always give my sup a paper plan before I write my papers in full, so that I know very early on if I'm heading in the wrong direction, and I find it quite helpful. Then I make a more detailed plan, and eventually write it out in full. But the task seems less scary when you have a detailed plan in front of you as well, so it might make it a little easier to get going. And the dreaded feedback....my sup gives LOADS of feedback and whilst I appreciate it I could also cry at times because there is so much of it! I think it's important to try to remember that they are just trying to help and aren't always completely sensitive about it. My sup usually makes some generic comment about the good points and then gets stuck into the bad points in far more detail, although I have recently purchased some 'good feedback' stickers from tesco that are designed (I assume) for primary school kids, with pictures of animals and words like 'terrific', 'nice job' etc that I am going to give her next time I see her to encourage her (jokingly) to provide some good feedback! It's worth a try anyway! Hope that helps a bit, you've done so well to get on top of things and I'm sure you will get on top of your lit review as well. Best, KB

Well said Bug, I completely agree! Best, KB

Well I am completely determined to stay in academia, but of course I have considered the fact that I might not make it. My back-up plan would be to apply for the practioner doctorate in clinical psychology, which would probably require me to spend a year or two working as an assistant psychologist first. The doctorate in clinical psychology is extremely competitive, and many applicants now have a PhD already, so it's a pretty tough option for a back-up plan, but I reckon given how tough it is to get post-doc funding for your own project right now, even the clin psych option is less competitive than that! But pouring all my energy into academic first! Best, KB

Hey Hubert! Yes, my PhD scholarship was purely based on academic achievements and was open to people from all subjects at all universities across the country, so there are some. I did have to submit a very short proposal with mine but the scholarship was awarded based only on academic merit alone. Mine seemed to be a bit of a one-off, there was only one scholarship available, and I had never heard of it before! I just came across it online, applied just on the off-chance, and couldn't believe my luck when I won it! So there are some around, but I don't think there are very many and I'm not sure exactly where you would look to find one. I think you'd have a much better chance deciding on a project and a uni and then applying for funding to be honest, but as I said, it is not impossible to find these scholarships now and again! Good luck with it! KB

Hey hun, that sounds great! Yeah- def sounds like you're in there! Is this with funding? If you're self funding then you definitely won't have anything to worry about- they'll snap you up! Really pleased for you chick! Best, KB

Hey Button, my PhD has both qualitative and quantitative elements (80 patients for the quant bit and 20 for the qual bit), but there is another girl on our team doing purely qual and she is interviewing 40 patients and their carers, so 80 interviews in total, and she is doing a grounded theory analysis. But you can do qual PhDs with far less data- my sup did her whole PhD based on interviews with 8 patients! So there is a lot of variety I think, and as the others said, it depends on how you are analysing the data and whether you are doing anything else with it! I would probably ask your sup for an rough idea to make sure you are along the right lines! Best, KB

Hey, well done you! Congrats! Now put your feet up and take it easy for a while! KB

I am halfway in and have put on over a stone :( I exercise every day at the gym or aerobics but struggle to keep the weight off because my bipolar meds are so weight-gain-inducing and I also have a thyroid disorder due to my bipolar medication which makes me put weight on too! Not a good combination! Having said that, I am not overweight, just a bit heavier than I would like to be. I just concentrate on keeping fit and try not to focus too much on my weight. Some of my friends are slimmer than me, but I know I could knock spots off them at the gym! I suppose I do spend most of my working day sitting down so it's not that surprising I've gained weight. Oh, and I loooovvve chocolate! Best, KB

Hey, well done Jinkim, always good to hear such great news! Congrats! KB