Thank you TreeofLife, that's very helpful! I think mine would come up high because of my journal papers, some parts of which are almost exactly the same. I think I'll probably put the chapters in seperately then.

Zutterfly, that sounds like a good move, to use for papers but not for chapters.

You are making excellent progress btw, well done! When is your first full draft due/you plan to submit? I'm aiming for end of September. I've still got 3/4 more chapters to write, but they are not huge.

And I have another question about plagiarism software. Are any of you planning to put your thesis through a plagiarism software before you submit? I feel like it may be a good idea in case I have made a stupid mistake (probably in my literature review) and then I could then sort it out? I've never used the software before so I'm not really sure how exactly it works.

Funding ending is really scary (at least for me anyways). I have some savings especially for this, so I'm hoping I'll be OK.

I had a question about track changes. Do you folks use track changes when you make changes to chapters? I've never used it before, and I'm wondering whether I should? I do keep a note of all the major changes I've made through each version, but I haven't been using track changes, and now I'm thinking maybe I should??

TreeofLife, I think I will probably be in a similar position to you when I finish my PhD. I am also bound to a certain area due to family, but I'm also looking for something part-time and flexible, which makes it even harder, maybe even impossible! I haven't really had a look at jobs yet, but I'm really hoping it wont be too difficult to get something. My plan is to either get an admin job or get a research assistant post (so there's less/no pressure of publication and applying for funding).

Good luck with your search! Please keep us updated on how it goes.

Sarah, very interesting!

Does anyone else dread submitting work to their supervisor? I usually spend about 20-30 minutes hesitating whether to click the send button :-( (and I've checked the work 4 times prior to this)

I believe the most important thing is to narrow down your research focus and have research questions as early as possible. The sooner you can start conducting your studies, the better!

Also look into ethics. Getting ethical approval can take months, and forces one to narrow down research interests.

No, not in appendix but keep it on your computer, in case examiners ask for it.

Learn how to use Mendeley

Are you familiar with the research methods you will be using? If not, enroll on courses or sort out funding for them.

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