Well done Sneaks. x:-)

Hi Skig,

I believe you don't have to nominate reviewers.

Your supervisor may know typical reviewers for the journal and some may be more suited to understanding your paper and so more likely to accept it than others.
I think you may be able to request NOT to have certain reviewers (e.g. names from that faculty you know is doing awfully similar work to you)

As you will know peer review is totally unbiased and no reviewer is more likely to choose a paper because of any of the authors. If that was the case you might suggest reviewers who look favourably on your department. But as I say no favouritism so that is not a reason to choose a reviewer and no one does it.;-)

I had my 3 month viva yesterday (I am in the sciences and this is unique to my DTC), and one of my advisors said to me to stop worrying that I had no results yet: "For most science PhDs you get all the important results in the last year."

I had to do a literature review for yesterday, however, it was a mini 5 paper option and my introduction chapter to my thesis (which I have not started) will cover the many papers I have skimmed over the last few months.

I question if you can write 3 chapters in the first few months of your PhD - well I question whether it is worth it. By the end of three years you could have completely changed the direction of your PhD and that early work is wasted. However, making summaries of the papers you have read IS a good idea, and after reading your post I have realised I should be doing this. When it is chapter writing time I will have a summary with my thoughts and ideas of papers I can reference without having to reread in depth every paper.

One thing I have started doing with my supervisor meetings is a handout of my latest work.
E.g. 'Did this, it didn't work, why I think it didn't work, my idea what to do next / did this, it worked, this shows that, my idea what to do next / have read this paper, it makes me think this, can we show'
Supervisor has a handout of where I am at, what I am doing.
I have record to look back on the progress through the project ( like a facebook timeline!) and it focuses my ideas on what I have done and what to do next.
These weekly handouts will be an ideas source when I start thesis writing as I will be able to follow research ideas through the 3 years and hopefully this will help write a logical argument why my PhD shows something at the end.

1st year: "What am I doing?"
2nd year: "I know what I want to do, how do I do it?"
3rd year: "Eek one year to prove my idea!"

There probably is no good time to tell your supervisor.
Can you start putting feelers out to your home country universities about your chances of getting a post?
My thought is that because you are enjoying research can you hold on until the PhD is finished before returning home?

When you do tell your supervisor: focus on your parents health and not that you miss home and that your family want you there. The supervisor, although unhappy about your choice, is more likely to give you a good reference if it sounds critical that you return home for serious illness rather than you being homesick.

Hope it all works out for you.

Last year I was due to do a PhD with a supervisor I had worked with over the spring and summer. At the last minute I got cold feet and completely changed my PhD plans and went to a different department.

It is hard turning your back on someone who you've been making 'yes please' noises to for months, however, you need to be totally happy with your career direction and you can't go through life only making choices that make others happy.

If you completely switch supervisors will you want to work with the other supervisor in the future? Will they want to work with you again?
Make sure you don't mess up future opportunities.

The idea of linking two groups together sounds great and, while it is difficult having more than one group to work as it can be a time management nightmare, you will gain so much from the experience. Good luck getting it all sorted.

Hi Polikarp,

I use Fiji for image J.

Select your region of interest and chose histogram from under the analyze menu.
The histogram has a list option.
Copy the data into a spreadsheet and get the mean fluorescence that way.

The histogram is a good way to see similarity between images as similar tissue can have similar histogram shape even if the intensity max/min is different.
Remember that amount of fluorescence is not an absolute value unless the images you are comparing have been taken at exactly the same time under the same conditions.
The same method two days in a row on two slides from the same sample can give different intensity levels as the dyes will degrade with time or can be influenced by very subtle experimental conditions such as room temperature.

(Sorry not sure how to post screen shots)

The abstract you submit for a conference can be used in the conference literature on the web, so I would run it past supervisor before submitting just in case there are errors you might have missed.

I was in a group meeting where one chap proudly started to show supervisor poster for conference - first supervisor knew about it. Supervisor asked to see abstract - it had a grammatical error in the title.
Running past supervisor just gives that extra check even if you are sure there can be no mistakes and it reads well.

I tend to run everything past supervisor - especially asking for permission to attend a conference before I even think of abstract submitting. In your first year you may not have much research to show and your supervisor may prefer you wait until you have more material before you start attending things.

Hi,

I have supervisors in different cities, however, they already met up several times a year before they took me on.
It is becoming more common for this arrangement to happen, but usually is within a university.
I am not sure if my supervisor B's university are even is aware he is my second supervisor!

Is supervisor B going to be prepared to come to supervisor A or vice versa?
Is supervisor B easy for you to visit in a day?
It is not easy organising research in two locations and the travelling takes a chunk of your free time.

Another option is to have supervisor B as an advisor.
(I have an advisor who was initially suggested as supervisor C but knows the work well and is useful to have there to support me.)

Talk to supervisor A about this as this is your preferred university. Even if no one else has done it there is no reason you can't be the first.

Hello again,
Had another thought.
Does your university have file space on its servers so that you can access your documents anywhere in the world?

Every month save a folder of any work you think might be important or will be used later on. Then if your pc dies (or in a friends case the laptop with all 3 years of data and the backup hard drive got stolen) you have at least a way to access stuff.

I use 'timemachine' to backup everything, but important stuff I have written goes on the uni server.... just in case....

Hi Cakequeen,

I too am thinking that I should start writing to save work later.

Things I will be writing this year:
I am in the sciences so names of equipment, model numbers, program parameters. I am also reading papers of others in my field to see how they write the methods section so that I am getting practice writing the method section and have it ready to go.

Literature review. I have to do a literature review and this will go towards my first chapter. Make sure you have a record of all the papers/books you have read on your subject. If possible have pdfs so you can read on your pc. My job this term is to learn to use endnote so I can incorporate references easily.

Diary. I have a diary and every day I write in brief what I have done. If savings documents on the computer include year and month in file name. Then when, in the future, you go back to look at earlier work theses things should be easier to find.
Diary is also handy to prove to supervisor you are doing something when you have little on paper to show for the week/month.

Remember that it is not unusual for the work done in the first year not to be that important in the end and may not get included much in the final thesis. This doesn't mean don't write about it (the practice is worth it and helps you learn how to describe your subject), but don't go too mad. Several pages of bad grammar and unstructured paragraphs can be tarted up later on, a page of perfectly written prose you have poured over for hours isn't much use if in the end you don't use it.

Chrissie

Hi Tigger,
Yep get the feeling of not having done much. Three months in and my lab work is the grand example of things that didn't work!

I still don't know where my PhD will take me (got to get the reaction working first) and I am not too worried that I just have vague ideas of what I'd like to be doing in a years time.Writing up my lit review (for my 3 month review) over Christmas and I am expecting it to be a few thousand words tops.

I know I have worked loads, read lots, learnt a huge amount, and my supervisor seems happy. While I have very little to show for this term (one powerpoint presentation and lots of graphs showing my molecules falling apart) I have lots of ideas for what to do next.

After a term you have worked out your direction and done lots of ground work, I think that is good and should set you up well.

Certainly don't compare yourself too much with others, even in the same field the way people approach their work can vary greatly, some will write pages and pages because that is suited to their learning style.

I agree with Sneaks.
There is no right or wrong answer to number of references and it will vary with the subject matter.
More references does not necessarily mean more work done over the PhD. When I write up I will have pages of references because as a science discipline I will follow others techniques to save repeating their discoveries. The key papers that will have influenced my work will be much smaller, and those will be cited and discussed more in the thesis.

ff can mean "following lines or pages", so I would assume they have commented about something relevant to line 230 onwards. Hope you get chance to enjoy Christmas despite the deadline!(tree)

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Hi there,

Both Sussex and SOAS are well respected: Your future job prospects are more likely to depend on your hard work and who you are as a person.

What might be worth thinking about is which university would be more suited to you.
Sussex is large but being in the countryside can make it quiet and tranquil to study there (although the seagulls make a noise), and Brighton is a quick train journey with lots to do in the evenings.
SOAS is quite a small university which some people find nice. SOAS is bang in the middle of London so while there will always be plenty to do, if you don't like busy cities, you may find it a noisy place to live.

*link removed by admin*

I am having 12 days off and I can't wait!
As I HAVE to be doing something, I have raided the library and the local bookshop for lots of lovely books to read.
I suspect the house will get cleaned and tidied from top to bottom as well, I only do relaxation when I am sick!