I'd really appreciate it if anyone could get this for me as my university doesn't subscribe to this journal.

Endenburg, N. 1999. Perceptions and attitudes towards horses in European societies. Equine Veterinary Journal 31 (28): 38-42

Thanks in advance :-)

Thanks for starting this thread - I keep meaning to start doing this because I need to keep a research diary when I start doing my fieldwork to ensure that I am being a reflexive researcher. I'm not sure how I'm going to do it though, either as something typed or something handwritten; I think it will end up being a combination of both, depending on where I am when I write it.

My research is based on something that I already do every day (human/horse interactions) so I really should be writing something about my own interactions daily, I'm just not sure where to start. I have started a blog for this as I am on my laptop every day so it will be easy to access. And possibly I may be able to make some money from it, although that is unrealistic.

Sorry to hijack your thread, but does anyone else have any ideas?

Hi Jean-Philippe, I can get the second one for you but not the first. PM me your email address and I'll send it.

Good (late) morning everyone, I've ridden my horse and done a bit of housework so far, getting down to some work now.

I am tutoring an MA student on theoretical psychoanalysis tomorrow (why?), so preparing for that first. Have two papers to read, hopefully will get them done before work at 3pm. Then at work I'll read a couple of research papers for my work and write summaries hopefully. Going out tonight so need to get this done!

Hope you all have a good day, especially Batfink - good luck! :-)

You may be frustrated with your department, but if you are going to get your PhD and have a successful academic career you need to show them a little more respect as they are the gatekeepers to your future. Despite what you think and say, they are far from stupid; instead they are at the top of a competitive field, where you as an early-career research student, are basically at the bottom. You need to accept this and move on, get over this immature disappointment sooner rather than later for your own benefit.

I think that you are behaving like the adolescent here, also the staff are only human after all, and it is human nature to gossip and argue sometimes.

Lots of useful replies - thank you!

I use Mendeley as well and think I will have to start reading things on there a bit more, I generally prefer to have paper copies of everything and make handwritten notes but if there are all accessible on my laptop/uni PC that may well end up being easier. I already organise my PDFs on Mendeley according to topic category, think I have about 12 categories at the moment.

I think I'll print out the most important ones still, and write one-page summaries for them as you suggest - will help with my writing style as well.

I also keep a chronological record of my reading in an A4 notebook which is helpful - I also make a note of papers that I have to get in this so I don't forget about anything interesting that I see in a bibliography.

Maybe I am a bit more organised than I previously thought...I just seem to have so many methods of doing things, and wanted to establish a bit more consistency.

Thanks again, and I hope this thread helps others as well. :-)

This probably sounds like a really basic question but I'd be really interested to hear other people's ways of doing this. I am coming up to the literature review stage and have a massively growing list of journal articles and books that I have read.

At the moment I make handwritten notes of book chapters, however if the books belong to me I do underline key sections as well. I annotate journal articles and generally end up writing quite a lot in the margins etc. Articles are kept in hanging files according to content. However I'm thinking I should be starting to write summaries of each article so that I have something a bit more permanent - does anyone else do this, or does anyone have an alternative way of keeping their reading up to date?

Thanks, Nx

Thank you all for the replies.

I think I will have to make a few changes if I use it so it won't be a direct copy, so I will have to say that I have adapted it. It's reassuring that others have used them to explain theories as well - sounds like the 'done thing' here.

Nx

This probably sounds really silly if you do it all the time in your work - but I have never reproduced a figure for anything and so am not aware of the protocols.

The one I am thinking of doing would be easy to reproduce in Word using straight lines and text boxes - it represents the balance of power in the research method I propose to use (biographical narrative interpretive method). This methodology is very specific and quite 'new' so I think using an image would be quite useful, if well-explained, to show the concept and process to the reviewers (this proposal is for my research plan approval meeting).

So do you think this is a good idea - and how should I reference is using the Harvard style?

Thanks, Natassia

:-)

Have you tried downloading the Mendeley software for your desktop - it's free and useful for referencing. I have about 15 categories in Mendeley for different types of article and that has also been valuable. It will take a few hours to put all of your papers onto Mendeley but will be worth it, especially when it comes to doing your Masters dissertation and possible PhD.

I annotate articles a lot as well so have a large and ever-increasing amout of paper copies - to organise those I have a filing cabinet with hanging files and I just assign a file (sometimes more than one depending on number of articles) to a category and organise them that way. I just write the category on the file but you can colour code them as well.

hope that's helped.

Thanks for the replies - all really helpful and reassuring. :-)

Just to clarify - this is not my upgrade, I'm nowhere near ready for that as I'm only four months into my PhD and haven't done any real research yet; at the moment I am just planning what I am going to do and doing a lot of reading around the research area. This is what my department call a 'research plan approval meeting' and basically is a chance for academics other than my supervisors to read through what I'm going to do and question it to mainly ensure that it is doable within the time frame etc. and ethically sound, amongst other things. To avoid having another meeting in a few weeks' time, this is going to be combined with my annual progress review that all the PhD students have to have by the end of June.

From what I have heard and what my supervisors have said it is like a few of you have said, an overally pleasant experience and more of a 'chat' than a viva-style grilling. This makes me look forward to it a bit more and hopefully I'll feel relatively confident on the day. I had a meeting earlier today with a professor in another department who is doing research in a similar area and he was really interested in what I was doing and said that there was a need for it; this was really inspiring, especially at this stage.

To be honest I just want to get through it and start the actual research planning and literature review now, I've been working on this and worrying about it for long enough!

Good luck with your upgrade Pixie - let me know how you get on - I always think it's a good sign when you get asked loads of questions after a presentation :-).

Natassia xx

Well done - and in record time as well!! :-)

Keep us updated in how you get on with your viva and new job - good luck with everything!

Natassia xxx

Hi Matt - to be honest I don't think they'll go into your room anyway so you probably don't have anything to worry about! I suppose it depends what his friends are like though, but if you get on well I'm sure your housemate will respect your privacy.

I don't think you need a lock or anything drastic like that, and I think a sign on the door telling people to stay out will probably have the opposite effect. I'd just tell your housemate not to let anyone go into your room, simple as that.

Hi everyone, I know all universities review students differently and my university seems to be especially hot on it, but I have my research plan approval sometime in the next two weeks and have to submit my 8000-word form on Friday - I am not too worried about this because I have been preparing it for about two months now and my supervisors have seen numerous drafts and are happy with it, only a few things to do now. This review is basically a discussion of my proposed research and the way I am going to conduct it, so the main questions will probably be on methodology and ethics. All full-time PhD students have to go through this four months after they have started.

I am just getting a bit nervous about it now! The other students say I will be fine and that the panel are not there to catch me out - they will all be familiar people to me as well. Generally people get through them quite easily, they may have to tweak a few things but as my supervisors are happy they should be happy as well. It will last up to an hour.

I was just wanting to hear some of your first-review experiences - good and bad, so that I know what to expect a little more. What is the best way to get through it unscathed?! I am most nervous about sharing my research and being questioned by academics other than my supervisors, but I think this will be a valuable learning experience as well. To prepare I was just going to go through relevant literature that I will include in my literature review but haven't had the space to include in the proposal, that should help me to answer the questions that they might ask and feel confident in my knowledge.

Thanks in advance, Nx

Hi KB - firstly I don't think you're being ridiculous at all. I haven't been in this situation myself but I would want to start my life with someone in a place where we both felt comfortable, and not in his mum's house. I would constantly feel like a guest, and I think it's right to want your own space when you're engaged and thinking about your future together. You want to start living independantly of your families, and staying at his mum's, even if it is the nicest house in the world, would probably hinder that.

If it were me, I would also feel guilty about her having to stay at her relatives' place all the time. It sounds as if she has quite a lot to cope with during the week when she's there and she would probably miss having her own house to come back to for some respite at the weekends; she probably isn't thinking about this at the moment though because she wants to help you both out.

I think you need to bring this up with your boyfriend, it is annoying (and a man-thing I think!) that he only wants to take the stress-free option and I can see where he is coming from in that it would be really helpful and enable you to save more, but he has to take your happiness into consideration. Most couples start out with very little money to live on, but that is just the beginning and I think it would be best to have somewhere to make your own, and somewhere within easier commuting distance from where you both work.

Hope that makes sense and has helped in some way! Nx