I understand where you're coming from with this. I think the advice given by Sneaks and Bleebles is fairly spot on. It's unfortunate that someone being quiet can be perceived as arrogance by others, but it's true. Don't worry about feeling that you've made a bad first impression - that can easily be remedied and you'll find that the interaction dynamics between people will change as the course goes on and you do group work and sit and chat after lectures. I remember when I was doing a degree and people who I never expected to get on with I did in the end. First impressions often count for little in these circumstances; you'll see what I mean a couple of months from now.
Pity about your flat mates, but I suppose many of them will be first year undergrads, and doing an MSc you'll be a lot busier than them. A shame also about the fact that your students union is so rubbish. You could definitely go along to some of the international students' societies, as they'll be very much in the same boat as you, not knowing many people and hoping to make new friends and socialise. Remember, that course fees are likely to shoot up and that, even if you find it a fairly isolating experience, it's only going to be a year of your life and you'll be very busy throughout much of it. In a way, you are grabbing life by the horns by doing this MSc.

Good luck :-)

I've done peer review. I've got some papers that give a step-by-step guide to the expert review process. I'd be happy to send them to you, if you PM me an e-mail address. I quite enjoyed the process, even though it was far removed from my area of expertise - and it was for a journal that originally rejected my own paper.

I gave a point-by-point critique of the paper, saying good and 'bad' things about it. I also made any referral to the authors as 'the authors' to make it as impersonal as possible. I summarised the evaluation by saying what I thought would be helpful amendments for readers of the paper and congratulated them on a very interesting piece of work (didn't really think it was that interesting in truth - probably sour grapes on my part).

Yeah, if you lower your voice, don't go doing this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q38jS-auFv4

Sounds like a plan. I think our uni should be called...PGF Centre for Academic Excellence

Mission statement:

"Friendly avatars bringing worldwide expertise and education to the masses at low, low prices because every little helps [might get us sued from Asda and Tesco], respectively. For a degree or MSc, you need only GCSEs A to C, a computer and a pad of paper, so sign on the dotted line and log in later!"

I want to be the Director of the Centre for Improbable Research.
(up)

I never really anticipated having to go on Jobseeker's Allowance, but I've had to make an application for it. I'm still writing up and it's not going particularly well - long hours with little progress. I'm right into my overdraft, so I now have no alternative. I'm actually a bit down about it because I expected things to be a bit different. Last night, I actually felt that I'm not going to end up getting my PhD. I was wondering if anybody else has found themselves in a similar situation?

It seems that when the university funding cuts are announced next week, there's going to be an 80 % cut in the teaching budget (4.2 bn) and a £1bn cut in research funding. Call me a clairvoyant, but I don't think my future career is going to be in higher education. (sprout)

Hi Starlight, I've had a look. I can access most of the journals, but the problem is the articles are comparatively old and not in electronic format - just in print format. If you look on Sciencedirect, which hosts the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, it only goes as far back as 1993. The Journal of Nutrition Education, now the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behaviour, only goes as far back as 1996 on it's official website. The chances are, no-one will be able to get these articles for you in electronic format. Sorry I can't be more help.

I was pretty certain that there was nothing wrong with downloading a journal article and sending it to someone else to read (provided it's for non-commercial gain). So I called them all up to check at their UK offices, but e-mailed ScienceDirect. It was half and hour of not having to do any work. But now back to work - eurgh! :-)

I've decided to become an investigative journalist, just like that Dancing on Ice Star supremo - Donald McIntyre. I've contacted Wulters Kluwer, Science Direct, Emerald, Jstor, Gale and Infotrac and asked them one simple question:

"Is it okay to download a journal article from your site (at a uni that subscribes) and send it to an interested 3rd party for non-commercial gain?"

Guess what they all said - yes, that's fine. Provided it is a read only copy - no problems at all. A couple of them even laughed at my question, as if I was being stupidly anal about it.

So, I've procrastinated in a productive way and found out that there is nothing deviant or unlawful about sharing a read only pdf copy of an article with a thrid party colleague.

Case closed. :-)

Argh, Biddysbottom, my brain hurts trying to picture that! I can't imagine what it would look like. It's going straight to number 1 and you're getting star number 1. :-)

This is a good section in a nice book on sample sizes for qualitative research...

http://books.google.com/books?id=FtsDuNu8RuYC&pg=PT145&dq=small+sample+size+qualitative+research&hl=en&ei=p_-1TPrBOcX_4AaQyMCgDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=small%20sample%20size%20qualitative%20research&f=false

This is well out of my area of expertise, so you'll have to forgive my ignorance, but wasn't it largely as a result of the fact that we had lots of North Sea oil and gas to sell. And then, wasn't there a lot of privatisation and selling off of state assets? I don't think they'll be doing much of that this time, though I believe they're looking at selling off a lot of state owned buildings and and land to raise capital. Anyway, what do I know - politics isn't really my forte?
The only thing that really concerns me is what they're going to do with HE - essentially ruin it and dash peoples' aspirations, along with the health care system. Still, Browne says that it won't discourage people from going to university - what on earth does the millionaire Lord Browne know that I can't seem to understand?
Dave has said that a few years from now, we're all going to be better off and have lots more money in our pockets - and, hopefully, those of us who get married will get tax breaks worth 3 to 4 quid a week!! What a lovely sweetener to the bitter pill we're all going to have to swallow. Watch this space!

I honestly think if academic publishers perceived it to be a big problem, then they could do something with digital rights management software. Anyroad, Ekobastian, your thesis on the illegality of sharing a subscription based article with a third party is unfounded. That's what happens when you chose to selectively post bits and bats from the terms and condition. What Wiley-Interscience actually say, above the bit you posted is:

Authorized Users [someone at an institution that subscribes to the journal] may transmit to a third-party colleague in hard copy or electronically, a single article or item from Wiley InterScience for personal use or scholarly, educational, or scientific research or professional use but not for re-sale.

So, Jepsonclough was well within rights to help Satchi and will narrowly avoid prison on this occasion. I hope your thesis isn't in the field of law :$

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iISyPz5XRyI