This may vary per discipline but I'm wondering how many published papers is generally accepted as good during the PhD in terms of getting to the viva and also post-doc positions in academia?

There are 2 published papers on which I am a co-author and I'm about to submit another where I am the first author (for my undergraduate work). I'm wondering if I should look to submit more papers during my PhD (I have enough empirical work from my PhD work to date to publish another 2).

Thanks for reading.

GM

I'm think I may send my funder a personal email to ask something along the lines of whether he would still like to receive updates/attend meetings regarding the research progress or whether he can recommend someone else in the organisation who might benefit from this and to thank him for his support.

As we did meet on several occasions and he is still a consultant/advisor for the organisation, I think this sounds appropriate than emailing an assistant. Thanks though for helping me put this into perspective Timmy.

My funding from both partners and the university is safe until the end of my 3 years, I was assured this from the start, there is no rolling payments or anything like that. Thanks for asking as this might have been a problem otherwise.

I think I have maybe just let my apprehension cloud my judgement on this one. I just need to send a nicely worded email to the funder to say thanks, best of luck for the future and ask about the organisation's involvement in my research from this point on.

It seems much clearer now. Thanks both for the support and advice.

GM

I'm looking for advice on communicating with my external funders. My PhD is funded 50% through the university, 25% though local government and 25% through a local third sector organisation.

When I started out on my PhD almost 2 years ago, the whole team (myself, supervisors and 2 funders) agreed on the broad project aims and also that we would keep in touch at least every 6 - 12 months. This was going well until recently.

4 weeks ago I sent an update email to the whole team with a report attached. All was well except I've had no reply from my 3rd sector funder. I've also seen on this funders website that this person has since stepped down from their role as CEO and is now just a consultant for the organisation. I don't have any other main contacts within this organisation and I'm not sure what to do in regards to communicating my PhD research to them. I do not necessarily need much input from them at this late stage but it would help as data collection is ongoing and they maybe able to help with recruitment.

How do I contact this person without prying or stepping out of line? I have little experience in dealing with multiple agencies and organisations and I'd just like to know if this person still wants to be involved in the research or if perhaps the new CEO wants to be involved or even neither? There is probably a very straight forward solution but I'm been stressing about this so much I think I'm missing it.

Help, advice, sympathy, a firm virtual shaking of the shoulders etc... all very welcome!

Thanks for reading.

GM

Thanks a lot for all of the great advice. I think I will start to prioritise getting a few more papers out there now!

Hi there,

Are journal papers seen as more valuable/prestigious than conference papers?

I'm aware that this might be something that varies per discipline. I'm in the social sciences - qualitative psychology more specifically. I'm just over half way through a 3 year PhD studentship and so far have only been named on one published paper in a journal. There is another soon to be submitted and I have the data to submit another 2 but as of yet there is only one out there with my name on.

Regarding conference papers, I've presented posters at 3 big annual conferences in my field and papers at 3 smaller conferences. I'll also be presenting my first paper at a big annual conference later this year.

So in summary, I have few journal publications but lots of conference presentations under my belt (relative to my career status).

What are others thoughts on how these two things compare? Do post-doc employers value journal papers a lot more than conference presentations or not?

Thanks

GM

Hi,

I was wondering if this is an issue anyone else has experienced?

In the past I had a few people in my life who I could talk to about different research issues or my own research. Now during my PhD I'm really missing this and I've read that loneliness and isolation are quite common.

I'm wondering if anyone has any advice for dealing with this. I guess you could call it 'intellectual support'?

I only see my supervisor monthly, my fellow PhD students are all so busy with their own research and I don't want to bore my partner with the details of my work. I'd love the opportunity to engage more with others about my own work and also hear about theirs. I'm currently midway through a 3 year full time PhD and still doing lots of ongoing refining. Have I got selfish or unreasonable expectations?

Any advice welcome.

Thanks.

GM.

Wondering if anyone has any tips for setting realistic deadlines (for writing, data collection, analysis, other misc. tasks)?

This was something which my supervisor picked up on regarding my progress. Was told that my work is "of excellent quality though sometimes she underestimates how much time it will take to complete tasks".

Anyone else have this problem? I'm almost 16 months into my 3 year PhD and would like to get this sorted. Advice very welcome!

Thanks

GM

Thanks for your reply Hazy Jane, your advice is really helpful. When I think about it more carefully, my work is particularly well suited to the journal my supervisor suggested and the sample size isn't a high as I would have liked anyway I think I was just initially disheartened to find out about the low impact factor but there are other things to consider (particularly point 2 that you make). I'm feeling a lot more motivated about getting this article drafted now!

Thanks again

GM

I'm able to be very flexible with my working hours (I luckily don't have the 'breathing down your neck type' supervisor!).

A point I would like to add is that my productivity varies, as do my other commitments (dentist, doctors, birthdays, social events). Occasionally I've done as few as 15 hours of 'pure work' (discounting emails, talking to colleagues, admin, reports) at other times I've done as many as 60 hours of the same intense work but mostly I do around 30 hours 'pure work' plus another 10-15 of teaching, emailing, report writing and other admin as well as chatting to others in the department, networking etc...

I work at the university from 10amish till 6pmish, go to the gym for an hour then have the evening to myself mostly, sometimes doing a couple of hours PhD reading. I tend to work for around 3-4 hours on a Saturday or Sunday too.

Writing this out like this just now has made me realise that perhaps I need to look at cutting that 10-15 hours admin etc down a little bit! :-/

Hope that helps to give you an idea though

GM

Sorry to hear that you are struggling. Could it be that you might benefit from some outside input but not necessarily something as extreme sounding as 'private supervision'. There's a fellow research student in my department who was struggling due to her supervisors having different opinions on her research direction so she asked if she could talk it through with me over a coffee one afternoon as our theses have a theoretical overlap. Is there another student working with IPA who may be able to spend an hour with you, in return for coffee and cake or a similar small favour? :)

GM

Hi,

So I'm 14 months into a full time/3 year PhD and my undergraduate supervisor has approached me a couple of times over the past 12 months about publishing my undergraduate dissertation (I didn't complete a masters degree). I'm really excited about the idea of publishing this research as I worked hard at it and the project received several undergraduate awards. As I get deeper into my PhD I really want to focus the little extra time I have on getting this paper submitted.

My supervisor has suggested a journal and even given me some pointers on how to re-draft the 10,000 word dissertation into a 5000-7000 word article suitable for this particular journal.

My concern is that after doing a bit of research into impact factors, the suggested journal has an impact factor of just 0.07!? Apologies if I sound naive, this is all new to me but from what I've read so far that sounds very low?

Should I question my supervisors choice of journal or just be grateful that my undergraduate work is considered publishable!? :)

FYI: my subject area is qualitative psychology.

Thanks for reading.

GM

Thanks very much to you both, your comments are incredibly helpful!

I should also apologise for my poor spelling, grammar and punctuation in that first post, I was a bit rushed!

I always go to supervision meetings with an agenda, though this is very brief and just covers things I'd like to update my supervisor on or topics for discussion i.e. 'readings', 'course x', 'seminar x'. My intention with this was to use this a guide to elaborate from but I'm noticing that this isn't working for me. The idea to go prepared with a list of progress, topics I've read and my thoughts on them and aims and objectives in the context of previously meetings are all things I think would really help me. As you say 'charmlessman' these not only help to prepare but impress!

I'm not seeing my supervisor for another 2 weeks and I'm presenting at an event next week. I'm looking to our next meeting now (more than I was before anyway) where I'm going to present him with a list of what I've been doing and what I've read, presented so that if I do get flustered or things go off topic I have what I want to cover in writing.

Thanks so much for this, I can't believe this is not something I've been doing already and really glad I asked for help on this! Will let you know how I get on.

GM x

I'm I'm 10 months into a full time PhD now. I did my undergrad at the same university and my supervisor is the head of school.

I think I have a bit of a problem with putting him on a pedestal. I look up to him and admire him so much it actually affects our relationship. When we have supervision meetings he reminds me that we should be having a two way conversation about theoretical and methodological ideas and I feel a lot of pressure on me to take the lead though I don't feel qualified to. I'm relatively confident (well as with most people I expect my confidence fluctuates) with others in the school I can talk confidently about my research and my ideas but when it comes to my supervisor I always feel I come across as passive and lacking in my own ideas. I don't want this to go on as to be honest it's a little embarrassing I just can't help feeling that there is a huge gap between where I am and where he is as an extremely prominent academic in my field!

I'm just looking for some advice or comments from people who might have been in a similar scenario or from those who have great relationships with their supervisors and any tips they might have.

Thanks for reading x

Just found my way back on here and thought I'd take the chance to post an update (as I said I would). My situation above seems like forever ago now. I was able to claim extenuating circumstances for the exam I missed and the details of my circumstances were confidential between me and the admin only - she was fantastic and said that this kind of thing happened "much more than I would imagine". I told my supervisors and the other postgrads who noticed my absence that I had a minor op and there was a hint of awkwardness for me in telling them at the time though all is in the past now.

Thanks again to you both Wowzers and Pjlu for your advice and support, I was a great comfort in a time of panic and stress! :)

Pjlu and wowzers, thanks both of you ever so much. Your comments are really helpful and really comforting. It's been easy for me to be a little blinded by panic and not consider the option of telling my supervisors that I've been ill without actually giving them the details. I actually have to return to the clinic for a follow up appointment tomorrow and will call ahead to ask about a medical certificate. Failing that I will ask my GP and inform my supervisors that I had a medical procedure that has put me out of work for a week (without going into the details).

Will post an update here.

Thanks again for your support and advice! :)

GM