You ultimately hold copyright of the thesis itself, so if there is no commercial information in it then surely it's you who ultimately decides whether or not there is an embargo. The only context I can see is you're using data appearing in publication with her name on it, but that is a tenuous reason without a commercial or confidentiality reason to back it up.

If you are awarded your PhD, then I see no issues as such with the embargo and no hinderance to you in your future career. This is just petty to be honest and I wouldn't worry about it. It's up to you whether or not you challenge the embargo, but I'd wait until after you have had your viva and are awarded your PhD (concentrate on getting through).

If someone wants to see your work in relation to a potential job, I don't see a problem with you taking your thesis along to an interview for them to glance at should they not be able to see the electronic resource.


Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

The examiner might need to check copyright law. I believe you're allowed to quote up to a certain 'reasonable' number of words (odd phrase here and there) and use the odd figure as long as you cite the original author. I'm surprised for a PhD thesis / dissertation this issue has been raised. You're lucky if more than a few people (though electronic databases may change this) even look at your thesis and no-one seems to give a sh*t about copyright for something that will normally have very little circulation.

I used a very small number of figures from other sources ensuring all were cited. If it had been an issue, then my external examiner would have made issue as I'd used a diagrammatic description of a model from one of her main works with suggested modifications. We discussed my modifications briefly and moved on without copyright being raised.

If you look at (clearer description - assuming you are UK - US law is looser):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_the_United_Kingdom

...there are a couple of clauses covering "fair dealing":

i.e.

s29.—(1) Fair dealing with a literary, dramatic, musical, etc, work, for the purpose of research for a non-commercial purpose, does not infringe any copyright in the work, provided it is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement of the source.

s30.—(1) Fair dealing with a work for the purpose of criticism or review, of that or another work, or of a performance of a work, does not infringe copyright in the work, provided it is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement, and provided the work has actually been made available to the public.

It's only if large passages of work are repeated that permission needs to be sought I believe.

(If someone is quoting large amounts of work, then - unless there are special circumstances - I'd be concerned about the originality of the thesis and therefore the award of a PhD based on that thesis and be looking at the issue very closely.)

Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

PART 2: This adjustment period is about you physically, mentally and emotionally recovering and you you do get there eventually. You have to remeber exactly what you've put yourself through.

I'll add that whilst you do come down to some sort of normality eventually, a PhD does rewire your brain slightly in that you now question more, you look for reasons into things more, your outlook changes.

As for others remarks and questions, you've fallen victim to society's perception that you grow up, and do your duty by getting married and having kids. Deciding to go onto post-grad studies means you might place this on hold and you find people see you as not fitting to the norm by not having kids by your mid-to-late 20s. However, you have made life choices others haven't and to be honest if other people think you odd for delaying things for a few years whilst you do what you want or need, then perhaps they need to look at their own lives and ask if they would want aspects of their lives queried in the same way. As their choices might or might not have been right for them, your decision to stay at University for a few years was at the time the right choice for you (as it was for me).

You've made your choices, they've made theirs and we all have reasons for making them. People should respect that not everyone is going to follow the same path through life.

Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

PART 1: You have my sympathies and yes, I had a period of adjustment after the PhD to return to normal. On the day of my viva, I was expecting six months corrections if I'm truely honest, however, I walked out with three minor typographical errors. I remember feeling stunned rather then elated or happy (well perhaps for a few hours - I've told the full tale elsewhere) and the hyper mode I was in to firstly get the thesis submitted, revise for viva and get through viva didn't end. My thought process was to get the typos done and accepted by the internal examiner and get everything finished. I guess my obsessive get it done mode meant I was overreacting to what was only three minor typos!!! :-)

So psychologically for me, the process went on for another week whist I printed out the corrected documents, showed them to the internal examiner, had them bound (I even paid extra to have them bound the same day just to get them out the way) and submitted them to the University Graduate School. Only when I signed off the hardbound copies of the thesis an I received the receipt, did the feeling "I've done it." really set in.

I had this elated feeling for about another week, then during a lunchtime walk it sunk in "What do I do now?" I suddenly had all this free time, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do next, suddenly, the tension and overreaction to minor situations began to ease. I needed a decent holiday (actually series of holidays) and that I ended up having. Other people will come down in different ways and you may hear comment of needing "a quiet couple of years" whilst you sort yourself out and I tried to have this via a second post-doc (that didn't work out). Women tend to recover quicker than men though, say a year.

I put through three drafts for Abstract, Introduction, Intro to Current Work, Methodlogy. Literature Reviw got to two drafts. Results was four drafts as I went through a couple of drafts myself. Discussion made four drafts and was the really hard bit to do (two big rewrites followed by two sweeps of minor amendments), basically as I learnt how to write a PhD quality Discussion. Conclusion was three drafts as was Further work (first effort scrapped, second allowed through with just a few sentences reworded).

However, this turned into a slog as I generated a document of 366 pages, about twice the size of either of my predecessors. However, with most of this being padded out with lots of figures and data (it was Science-based), the word count was around 94,000. The limit was 100,000 words so I was okay.

People's experiences seem to be different on this point and my supervisor was very clear (despte appauling hand writing) what he expected. This prevented further drafts.

Although sumbission took 4 years, two months (which would be frowned on now - the amount of data to process that I generated caused the slight overspill), it does seem after all I got away with fewer drafts when I now sit down and think about it thanks to my supervisor. The write-up stage still felt a nightmare though I thought I'd had to produce more drafts than I had.

Things don't seem so bad when I think back now,

Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

I was 2(ii) and Masters (with 5 years works experience) and got onto a PhD some years ago now. I went on to make a success of the PhD itself.

A 2(i), or a 2(ii) plus Masters is the lower end of the bar so to speak for a funded PhD. 2 years relevant works experience will nudge you up a notch and 5 years another.

I've a little on this in my blog about entry standards - see following link.

If you've made the standard, it all depends on how you're able to sell yourself and how you perform in any interview with a potential supervisor.

Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

I know of people who decided to travel for a year before doing a PhD and they've managed to get a funded place no problems whatsoever.

However, I found that when I made my application, my supervisor-to-be called me in a number of times before deciding he wanted me for his funded place. I was in competition with another candidate and my availability to pop in when he wanted may have been partially what gave me an advantage over the other candidate.

If you take the view that you treat a PhD like a normal job, then a potential supervisor may obtan the funding and then interview for the position to begin at a given time (give or take a few weeks). Deferring a PhD as you would for an undergrad degree may mean loss of that funding and because of this the potential supervisor may chose a candidate that can or is willing to start when they want. If there is an industrial client as with a CASE award, this will be more the case.

If I was in your position and had a project in mind with funding already allocated, I'm afraid I'd be looking to start the PhD when the potential supervisor and funding body wanted. My own feelings in such a case would be to delay travel plans until after the PhD. However, if you don't have anything lined up and if you're willing to see what's on offer after you come back, then fair enough and that worked for the person I knew above.

Other's will have a different take here, I admit.


Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

You might want to read my blog on PhDs, however, "TreeofLife" sums things up quite nicely.

The only things I'll add are you should be looking for funded positions with stipends unless you are ridiculously rich and the PhD thesis in the end should provide an original contribution to knowledge in your field via any new data or findings you generate.

Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

Corresponding author pays then reclaims from the University if funded.

I would double-check with your finance department.

Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

Hmm, the above is food for thought. I think an update of my blog (at least for UK PhD'ers) is required!!!

So if you have a four year time limit as is becoming standard in the UK, the longest you could go on for is five and a half years?

The worst timewise that could happen is four years for the PhD, submit, viva, major corrections (one year), new viva, minor corrections (one to three months) and factor in delays whilst examiners look at the thesis after initial submission, after major corrections and again after minor corrections.

Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

Okay, that's a little clearer and I understand your reasons slightly better Ginga. If there are fundamental problems with your first PhD, then I understand your reasons for looking at this second PhD especially if it's in an area you're interested in.

I was in a not too dissimilar situation many moons ago at Masters, where I thought I'd failed a first Masters (ill health in my case - it was a computing conversion course) and thus decided to go straight into a second Masters closer in subject to my undergrad degree. About a month into my second Masters, I learnt that I'd managed to pass my first Masters after all though I believe to this day I shouldn't have.

However, I'd already decided not to pursue a career in my first Masters and as the second Masters had a very significant opportunity at building up real works experience via industrial placement, it was strongly in my interest to continue with it.

If you do manage to obtain the PhD you have submitted for, then look at post-doc opportunities instead and perhaps approach the potential supervisors as handling the project as a post-doc instead of a new PhD subject. Only if you do not gain your first PhD should you look at taking on this new project as a PhD. Funding may still be an issue, however, but if you take on the new project part-time whilst still working as a radiographer then such an approach may allow you to self-fund (though that's still alot of money to find).

That said, you may find yourself pleasently surprised and you gain your PhD from the first project after all. Fingers crossed for you. But even one PhD can put off potential employers, never mind two.

CHANGING SUBJECT SLIGHTLY, Tehepikduc, were your PhDs back-to-back or done separately some time apart (same question as Pjlu)? If the former, I'd find that unusual from a funding point of view.

Ian (Mackem_Beefy)