Yes you can write most of your lit review from home. I think this situation depends a bit on your supervisors. I was 'encouraged' to come into the office most days for things like networking, getting used to the department, making friendships, getting to know admin staff, etc etc!

However I know of a couple of people who live a few hours from their Uni and go in once a week/once a fortnight for supervisory meetings only.

I'd recommend bringing it up with your supervisor when you have your 'welcome to the PhD' meeting, in whatever guise!

Hi everyone,
I've heard varying advice regarding the 'right' or 'optimum' number of publications during a PhD (if possible!)
I haven't managed to get any journal articles published yet... but due to upcoming conference presentations I will have a paper in an e-book (with the publishing press of the organising committee..) and an abstract in another journal listing all the conference proceedings.

Just wondering what other people's experiences are of publications resulting from conferences, and are they viewed as a very junior version of a journal article, or fairly good?

Hope that makes sense...

Thanks Bewildered, one conference does and one doesn't (I'm interdisciplinary psychology/health) so I think I'll get away with it...!

Hi guys
I submitted an abstract to a couple of different conferences a while ago, thinking that there was little chance that I would be accepted at either one. However as luck would have it I have been accepted for both.
I didn't think that this would be an issue, however after chatting to my supervisor about it she's said that it could be a problem - if the conference proceedings are to be published then I would be self-plagiarising/breaching copyright if I presented the same paper at both conferences?

Has anyone heard or had to deal with this before? I have to admit I hadn't heard of it, and certainly nothing was outlined on the websites when I submitted each abstract.

Also would this only be an issue if both conferences published proceedings, or could I get away with it if only one did?

Is this an actual issue that I should be looking at?

Please help!

Rachel

You could use the reading you've done to construct an outline for your literature review, and perhaps write a few pages on the specific topics you're pretty sure you'll be looking at in your PhD?

Starting to write early is a good thing :-)

Hi Wernie,
Welcome to the dark side of qualitative research ;-) LOL

From what you've described, I reckon phenomenology (a quick google found this: www.sld.demon.co.uk/resmethy.pdf which gives a good overview) and in particular, interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) would fit really, really nicely.

Phenomenology seeks to describe a given phenomenon from the sense/viewpoint of those perceiving it - their thoughts, and feelings. The buzzword being subjective experience. Phenomenology doesn't seek to provide a theory for how something works, it is more descriptive. IPA takes it that one step further by interpreting the themes present in your data. Bracketing is an important part - this is where the researcher 'brackets', or puts aside, any pre-conceptions or judgements about their data and what they are likely to find.

You can use a general thematic method with pure phenomenology however many researchers use IPA (I have used it myself) and found it very useful.

Hope that helps!

After 16 months I've managed to avoid it but have come close on a couple of occasions, I think my sup noticed (she's a former nurse and very empathetic) but didn't say anything!
Other PhD-ers in the office have mentioned that they've cried.

I'm guessing (from your username as well!) that you're feeling pretty burnt out - sorry that this is happening, is there anything we as a forum can help with? x

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This site http://www.conferencealerts.com/ is good if a little clunky, it will also email you when conferences you are interested in come up!
(I'm assuming congresses mean the same as conferences, I'm not well up on these kinda things :P )

Oh how frustrating! I haven't faced a similar problem I'm afraid but advice wise, I'd maybe suggest that you identify the key/most vital revisions (e.g. top 3) that the reviewer has suggested and see if you can integrate them?

Hi Slowmo,
Sorry to hear that things have been difficult for you :-(
My advice would be to take the research job. Even if it only lasts 3 months, it's something to put on your CV which will look good to prospective research employers. & you never know, it may last longer - especially if you can try and find funding yourself to continue your role. It's a foot in the door, so to speak.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Rachel

Thank you, thank you, thank you... both of you!

Funnily enough my supervisor is an 'expert' on GT but I don't want to ask her for fear of looking stupid (I don't want her to lose confidence in me, silly as it sounds), and sometimes books just make you feel like you're wading through academic syrup rather than explaining it clearly and fairly painlessly 8-) I will check out those texts Ady and I think I'll formulate a clear step by step plan of exactly what I'm going to do once I have my interview and observation transcripts. I may be asking for help again though lol, hope you don't mind ;-)

Hi guys,
I'll be starting my recruitment soon and will be using GT as my methodology. I'll be conducting semi-structured interviews and observations.

For all those who used GT: I have got it in my head from somewhere (!) that you must transcribe and analyse each interview BEFORE conducting the next one? i.e. make it a completely iterative process which allows the interview guide to evolve based on the findings from the previous interview?

Or am I completely wrong and it can all be done 'whenever'? I'm trying to work out my schedule of interviewing and am thinking that if I need to analyse each interview before I can conduct the next one, I'll probably only be able to conduct 1, possibly 2 interviews a week...


Oh also another question, how have you guys got around the premise that one should not read any literature before embarking on the research (yeah right!), I've heard of pragmatist grounded theory but ideally I'd like to stay as true to 'traditional' GT as is possible in modern day funded research ,-)

Ditto to all the below... fingers crossed (up)

I've emailed you ;-)

Hi guys, I would be grateful of any books at all mentioned below pleeeease :-)

& in return I have PDF copies of the following to send to anyone who wants them:

Mixed Methods: A Research Paradigm Whose Time Has Come
Towards a Definition of Mixed Methods Research
Authoring a PhD - How to Plan, Draft, Write
Getting a PhD
Getting Your PhD - A Practical Insider's Guide
How to Get a PhD 4th Ed
How to Write a Thesis

PM me (up)