Hi All

Goood to hear from you again Fm, an Aussie summer sounds good (up).

The Isle of Skye sounds lovely, have never been or indeed know much about it but maybe one day...

Dunni, first week in July is a nice date - not too far but not too close! Steady evening prep sounds a like a good plan. Keep going, you're nearly there :-)

Good luck everybody else, Slowmo, Globetrotter and all else who are looking to submit this year.

Sounds like you have a lot on your plate Emma. First year is especially tough as on top of progressing with your thesis most people are trying to get grips with what they are actually doing as well. With your workload you're gaining a whole lot of transferrable skills which are really valuable over and above how they contribute to your own research. Plus the obligation to teach means that you are gaining teaching experience and don't forget the experience of prep as well, although it's a total pain ;-).

I wouldn't worry too much about conference organisation. It's not a bad idea to try to go to a few and present as that's important if you want to stay in academia but leave the organisation to somebody else. Also, who knows, maybe over the course of the rest of your PhD you might get the chance to co-organise something but it's definitely not the be all and end all of things. I kept to myself in the main as although my pressures are different to yours, they were pressures nonetheless. I have four children and a hubby on shift work so often I couldn't go to things as I had to be at home. Having said that it beefed up my project management skills no end!

To me you sound as if you're doing well. Try not to compare yourself to others as often even those who seem on the outside to have it 'sussed' may not. Do as much as you can but academia wise the most important thing is to get the PhD. All the other things are just bonuses.

======= Date Modified 07 Jun 2011 17:40:55 =======
I'm having 'the talk' with my supervisor tomorrow when he tells me what he thinks of my draft and if I can submit this summer. Am starting to feel physically sick about it so can only imagine how those preparing for their vivas must feel :$. He emailed me today to confirm our meeting saying he was 'looking forward to our meeting'. Gulp:-(

Good few vivas approaching so will be following everyone's progress. Best of luck Pineapple, you can do it (up)

Hey Sneaks, really good to have you back onboard :-)

I agree bring it up at the conference as it's the natural opportunity to do so. Actually not to bring it up might be perceived as lack of interest on your part so I think you need to bring it up at conference.

Good luck - hate these awkward scenarios myself and waste a lot of time second guessing myself as to what to do about things. Possibly more a female trait than male??

======= Date Modified 07 Jun 2011 10:09:02 =======
I put the title into Google scholar and got a link, albeit still a link to the abstract, at the American Physical Society. I am able to access this database and still could only find the abstract, not a full article so to me it looks like the full paper was not published. I did an author search as well but got nothing.

If I were you I would contact the APS and ask them if it was ever published or if they can point you to the author. You could try looking for the author himself but it looks like he's not at the Uni of Texas anymore. The full abstract ref is:

American Physical Society, 1998 Texas Section Spring Meeting, 19-21 March 1998 San Antonio, Texas, abstract #B.01.

Website of the Americal Physical Society is http://www.aps.org/.

Good luck (up)

Congrats on the job offer, they got back to you very quickley - great news for you :-)

Hi Rhea

No prob, I can get the three for you. Pm me your email address

A

======= Date Modified 05 Jun 2011 14:00:59 =======

Hi Dafydd

Your post triggered a distant memory in my mind so I dived into my methodology pile of articles - haven't done that in a while! Not sure if you are qual or quant or mixed methods or indeed the age or type of your targetted participants but an article by Tom Clark in Qualitative Research (2010) might help, its title says it all - "On 'being researched': why do people engage with qualitative research?". If you can't access Qual Res I can email you the pdf. In it he goes through the various reasons people agree to participate. Part of his paper is also concerned about the lack of research into why people do or don't participate.

Also, there is a small sub section in 'Informed consent in social research: A literature review by Wiles et al (2005). Sub section 4.4 is titled 'The use of incentives'. The pdf is on open access at:
http://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/85/1/MethodsReviewPaperNCRM-001.pdf

For myself [tbh], I don't agree with incentives particularly when you would be offering an incentive becuase you got such a poor response to your initial call. The motivations and subsequent answers to your questions could be called into question. It could make for a sticky viva situ! Interesting to hear other opinions though. I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about the whole area of informed consent etc etc!

Orrrrr you could try the approach of Pink_Briefcase ;-);-)

Others may have different advice but as far as I know it is acceptable for you to make direct contact with a potential supervisor. If you have identified a possible person I would go onto their department's website and read the individual staff bios of anyone you are interested in. Some professors specificaly mention who and how many students they supervise. This can be a good indication if they are interested in supervising PhD students.

Re: potential profs not having advance knowledge of you - again that's fine but in this case you will need to briefly and succintly summarise your current Master's, briefly and succintly outline your PhD topic idea and ask that person if they would be interested in discussing this with you in more detail. Keep it brief and include your CV as an attachment if you think it might strengthen your case. However I wouldn't make the initial contact email long. If your current Master's supervisor is respected in the field you could 'name drop' their name and mention that that person has indicated that you are suitable for further study at doctoral level.

I would email rather than phone initially. However, if you don't get a reply you could then follow this up with a phone call. Many academics are in and out of their offices during the summer months so it can often take a while to get a reply. Many of them (and I know I'm generalising) are not great at putting 'out of office' messages on their emails - or at least the ones I know!! Therefore, it might take a few efforts to connect with the person you are looking for.

Good luck with it (up)

======= Date Modified 02 Jun 2011 21:53:13 =======
Hi Tom

I can get both - pm me your email address and I'll send you the pdfs

Edit 21.50 - on their way :-)