I started my PhD about 1.5 years ago and the last few months I had increasing neck pain to the point where I once woke up in the middle of the night with pain and could not move at all (i.e. get up or turn around).

So one may almost say that a PhD is not only bad for your psyche but also for the body?

I completely agree with GolfPro on this one.

Even if it is not very logical, the certificate (PhD) does play a role. That's life, makes no sense but that's the way it is.

I'm only at the MPhil/PhD transfer stage but I know exactly how you are feeling. 99% of all PhD students feel like that, especially when it comes to the last few months before thesis submission (at least that's what they told me).

I see. Don't give up. Your supervisor has the experience. Try to make it sound more academic. After all, kids are kids and that's the reality your are studying. Reality does not always sound academic, if you know what I mean.

i'm sure you'll get aPHd!

Could you expand on these "faults"? Do you feel you don't have enough data or quality-wise inappropriate data?

Sounds like you being subject to exploitation. Careful, before you realise it, you gradually move away from the completion date of your PhD

Okay, if we go back to the original request, I think there is a slight contradiction. It doesn't matter if the "said party" worked hard during MSc, that's what most of us did as well, otherwise we wouldn't be PhD students. Nevertheless, a PhD itself is different from publications. That's an important point. Whereas ideally a PhD results in publishable material, the task of doing a PhD is fundamentally different.

That's why I explained that even acknowledged scholars with many publications sometimes struggle to get a PhD by publication or are enrolled for traditional PhDs but don't really make any progress. Doing a PhD is not a waste of lifetime. It's a task. Publications are a different task. Just to clarify things...you don't get a PhD as a bonus for your publications!

If that is the case, my recommendation is clearly:

http://www.belforduniversity.org

The just have the Winter Sales on..

Thanks

likewise

I think I'm going to bed now and just pretend it's a normal night and not weekend/friday night.

Life is tough..

Anybody still working?

That really sounds a lot. We only got to write a 5k report outlining our progress to date, yet with evidence attached in appendices.

Chocolate always helps..

Unfortunately me too: transfer report. but I won't start before 8pm, can't be bothered at the moment..

Well, there has been this one guy in my department with a number of 3 and 4 **** publications (1991;1994;2000), trying to get a subsequent PhD by publication. I don't know any details but I know for sure that he is trying to get one for the last 7 years. Apparently it is more difficult than he anticipated and the publications need to make a substantial impact and related. I don't know much about this though, but I just wouldn't recommend it as I don't think it's a real alternative to a traditional PhD. I think it's more for scholars who published 3 times in Nature or something.