I'm with you Wolfe. I've always been led to believe that publishing during the PhD process is a good thing. If you are the author of the work I don't see how there could be issues of originality or copyright. However, like Wolfe, I have no specific knowledge of the creative writing field. I realise that in writing papers it is considered very bad form to submit the same paper to two different publications, so perhaps you're thinking of something along those lines, BB. But if one of those 'publications' is the thesis then I don't think it counts.

I know other authors have published literary work that formed part of a thesis (can't remember any names though, sorry!) but whether that was before or after they submitted the thesis, I don't know.

Bald Monkey, there's always a new way to look at something. Even if something has been researched before, they may not have done it in exactly the same way, or looked at it from the same angle. Look on the bright side. It's reassuring in a way to find that other researchers have looked at the problem / issue / phenomenon before. At least it shows that the topic is worthwhile studying. :-)

But you are right to be thinking more realistically about an original contribution to research. Your contribution doesn't have to rock the discipline to its foundations (although we'd all love that!), it just has to contribute to the research base. Even replicating a previous study could result in an original contribution. So, don't be downhearted, but by all means discuss your concerns with your supervisor.

Thanks for the replies guys. It's good to know that there are others in a similar position, so it CAN be done. It's interesting to see that distance is not always responsible for isolation. Smilodon, it's weird to think that you are only seven miles away and still have little contact with your supervisor. Still, I guess they trust that you are getting on with it. I know I feel that my supervisors have an enormous amount of trust in me, as they just leave me to it with little in the way of accountability. I just think that talking about my research will get more important the closer I get to the viva. Any practice you can have in talking about and defending your work has to be a good thing. I don't really have any family here, beyond my husband (who doesn't really get it) and my kids, so I'll have to work a bit harder about getting some sort of group organised.

Thanks for your reply Liminalplace (interesting username!) and for your tips. I have tried cultivating relationships at my closest university, but without much success so far. It's a fairly new university with not a lot of research going on. I've had a couple of friendly meetings with the head of the education faculty (that's my field) and she keeps saying she'll keep me in the loop with any postgrad things happening, but then I never hear any more. There seems to be a fair amount of apathy - or maybe they're all just incredibly overworked and haven't got around to setting up any research student meetings. I'll make a fresh approach in a few weeks. The new semester doesn't start until mid February so I don't think they'll be much happening yet. All the academics are on holidays. It's the same at my uni. One of my supervisors is on holiday at the moment, but still replies to my emails which is good.

Getting to know other people in the faculty is good advice too. Last semester I did some marking, which was good. They just posted the assignments out to me and I posted them back when I was done. That really helped me to feel more of a connection with the uni. I had a protracted email exchange with the faculty secretary over some pay issues, and I got the feeling that she didn't exactly welcome them! Oh well.

As for getting out of the house, that's not a problem. I've got two children so there's always school things going on. I also do the odd day supply teaching (to supplement my scholarship!) and I have a few other things going on.

I've felt this isolation since the beginning, but now that I'm wrestling with my data analysis I feel it more than ever. Thank you for the tips though - I will definitely push my local uni a bit more.

What is your field, Liminalplace?

My level of scruffyness is not too bad. I do supply teaching too so I need to look half-decent for that. But my PhD is definitely making me fatter! :$
Has anybody else found that? I spend so much time sitting down at my desk, and as I work from home, the fridge is always within easy reach. Snacking is a good procrastination strategy too!

Hi there, I've been lurking on this forum for a while now but have only just started to post. I'm really interested to see if there is anybody out there in a similar boat to myself. From what I can tell most of you seem to be in the UK, and most of you seem to be full-time, internal PhD students. I'm full-time, but I'm doing my PhD by distance which compounds all those feelings of isolation. As you can tell from my username, I'm in Australia, and I'm not sure how much our system differs from the UK. I imagine they're fairly similar, but being a distance student I feel very cut-off from how the whole system works anyway.

I have two supervisors (who I haven't seen in person for almost a year). We email regularly and have telephone conferences when necessary, but sometimes I just long for someone to have a professional conversation with. I'm finding it very isolating, not having people around that I can talk things through with. Especially now that I am getting to the pointy end. Luckily I work pretty well on my own! I am on schedule with my research, but I would love to be able to talk to others going through the same things - that sense of inadequacy, of not really being smart enough - and to share tips on data analysis strategies and writing. The forum is obviously great, but it is no substitute for actual, human contact. My university is a seven hour drive away, so I can't exactly pop in.

Is anybody else in a similar boat? Any tips for getting through a PhD by distance?

Thanks for your reply Joyce. I'm not actually using the site for my research. I'm writing a paper and I've made a statement that I need to back up, and the forum is the most appropriate source to use. It is a publicly accessible forum so I guess I'll just reference it as a website. I have been very thorough with my ethics approvals for the actual research.

Sheena, thanks so much for posting those tips. I haven't had a chance to watch the video - a whole hour on Youtube, what would be the size of that download?! It was really helpful though to read through your posted highlights, although I'm afraid to say I've broken a few of those rules! My literature review chapter is 20,000 words, and I can't do without any of it, but at least it's broken up into manageable chunks so it's not hard to read. My supervisor has been pushing me to make a start on the introduction, but I've been avoiding it. I'd rather do it last when I know what I've written in the rest of it.

I'm doing social science research, specifically in education, so APA is the appropriate referencing standard. My question is, does anybody know how to reference an online forum?

Don't worry, It's not this forum that I want to reference, but another that I regularly monitor that is relevant to my area of research. It is not one specific post that I want to refer to, but rather a whole thread. Does anybody know how to do this?

Thanks.

I have an Olympus WS-100 digital voice recorder that I bought from eBay. It is very good. It is small and discreet, but does everything you need it to. It has a USB connection so all you have to do is plug it into your computer like a memory stick to download the audio files. It makes it very simple to use. Now, if only someone could invent some transcription software that actually worked, we'd be all set!:-)

I use Word 2007 which has an in-built referencing function, so I don't need to use Endnote at all. I find it really good to use, as it is simple to add or insert a new reference when you are writing without having to go to another program first. I am in the education field and APA is the standard here in Australia.