Just ask, I have approached a number of researchers over the past year from around the world - all experienced in my subject area and all have been very helpful, no harm in asking, all they can do is say no!

On the same subject..... is it defence or defense?

Hi I'm 54 now and started my PhD earlier this year, it's part time and I work full time in Ireland while the Uni is in Bristol, so most of my contact is via email, skype etc. I dont think it matters what age you are provided you can show a knowledge, interest and ability to carryout whatever research etc you need to do to achieve your aim.

You're all only children yet!
I,m 54, been working all my life, kids are grown up, just me and my wife here, mortgage near enough paid off, we can come and go as we please, I went back studying a few years back and got a 1st class science degree, working on my PhD now. So what I,m saying is alot of the time age is just in your mind, I,m doing things now I could never have done when I was younger, mostly because I didn't have the time or the opportunities wern't available then. Your outlook on life is definately different too, experience does account for a lot.
Mind you I haven't started making jam yet!

I copied this from the library website at UWE -


The Harvard System: Referencing a web page
Within a bibliography or list of references, the reader needs to know:

Author. (Year) Title or main heading of web page (in italics or underlined) [online]. Available from: URL. [Accessed date)

EG -
University of the West of England. (2010) Library services electronic resources [online]. Available from: http://www.uwe.ac.uk/library/resources/general/databases/. [Accessed 20 September 2010].

I presented at a conference last April in France, the abstracts had to be in the previous Sept and then we heard back about 6 weeks after that.

yep have to pay for everything :-(

Well its much the same as any research PhD, you need a viable research proposal that will hopefully produce some new data or conclusions about the subject you are working on. I'm doing mine in plant pathology at UWE in Bristol, but I can gather most of my required data away from there because my full time job allows me to collect and work on plant samples on site. A lot of communication between myself and supervisors is done via email and skype but I still have to go there every few months for various bits and pieces.

Hi,I'm doing my PhD mostly away from the Uni, I work fulltime and most of the research can be carried out where I work, some is also done at home. I still have to go to the uni at certain times to attend seminars, and also I will have to carryout some lab work there.

I'm doing similar to what you said, reecording all the methodology and reasoning behind it, but instead of writing I use Onenote to record everything, I just find it easier to store and find and also better than trying to read my own handwriting!!

I suppose the important area is being able to file and access the methodology used and all the gathered data so you dont have to go searching when you need it.

hi, I,m in a similar situation, just started om my PhD earlier this year and also working full time so any suggestions that come up here will be of interest to me too.
I have my research divided into a number of related segments so I can work each at different times and hopefully pull them all together at a later stage. with regard to using various software to help I started using Endnote referencing software lately and it's a great help, not only in writing up various pieces but in finding relevent data and papers have stored on my laptop.I also use MS Onenote as a diary/journal I just put anything I;m working on in it I find it's better than jotting down notes on bits of paper etc.

This time last year I was sending mine in, the word count was restrictive 1000-1500 words, just looking at it here it was basically a review of the background literature and justification for my research, there was no detail at all in the methodology just the general aims of the research, these were about 6 paragraphs stating what I needed to do eg -

"The first objective is to determine the infection process of Microdochium nivale, its mode of ingression into the plant, and the biochemical processes which occur once the pathogen has infected. The responses of the infected plant will be determined, with the primary interest being what defence mechanisms are used by the turfgrass -ROS, No2 and H2O2 synthesis, of particular interest is the syntheses of phytoalexins and possible development of systemic acquired resistance."

This got me my interview and position, I then needed to produce a detailed proposal with the full methodology, even so this as you say can change as you progress into the research.

I exported a few from pubmed over the weekend, I couldn't export direct from pubmed so I clicked on the linkout button and opened it up in Springerlink and then exported from there.
It worked fine for me, you could try that.8-)

Hi, try http://ethos.bl.uk/Home.do its the British library website I have downloaded couple from there.