Ok, so you have a manuscript prepared for submitting (but you haven't yet) to a possible journal. Nobody in your supervisory team has seen it (I'm guessing they don't know you've written another manuscript, is that right?), but you've had some friends who weren't directly involved in the work look at it. But they have since moved on.

From what I've been told, referencing an unsubmitted manuscript might not mean anything. Unless you fully intend to submit it in the next given opportunity in which case you could say it's under preparation, with the intention to submit it to blah journal by blah date

I thought the institution is only added when submitting a correspondence address/ when you sign up to the journal's author manuscript submission section. You could just give a different correspondence address. I think manuscripts can be submitted privately, but there may be a charge if you're not affiliated with an academic institute.. I'm not one for adding coauthors who have had nothing to do directly with the work ( I had to stand up against similar pressures), but that can leave you with some unhappy people. If you can handle it, then leave them off. But burning bridges is not recommended in academia.

I know someone who published without their supervisor knowing at all. They were the only author on their paper. So if you can keep it hidden, I guess it's possible. But again this isn't standard practice.

Up to how well you could handle it all really. Hope I helped.

Lol, I know how that feels glowworm!
I avoid the cold by doing my running on the house stairs, half an hour running....this is me typing as I'm eating a gummy worm! Woot Haribo!! :p

I swear by Jillian Michaels aswell, who is the goddess of hard abs, I've copied in the link below :)

I use it as an excuse to indulge a little bit. Us PhDs need the extra comfort :)

Also BevCha, that warm wooden plate sounds amaze! My socks aren't doing me justice atm!

Brownie in a mug recipe!!!

1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup flour, 2 tbsp cocoa, a pinch of salt, 2 tbsp oil (it says olive oil, but I find it's too stong a flavour, so I use vegetable oil), 3 tbsp water.

Mix all the ingredients together until smooth, microwave on high for 1min40sec.
And it's ready!
I love it..and it's just a really quick warm and easy choco fix, expecially when it's freezing outside.

Give it a go if you like the sound :)...I like this thread already.

I almost thought you might be at the same department where I did my PhD when I started reading your post, but your field is totally different.

I had the same issue. But decided to stay. I hated the people I had to work around, and got very depressed - mood rollercoasters (swing would be took soft a word), stopped eating etc but did finish in 3 years, which is faster than most people in the dept that are still there. But I am now unemployed. I have been for 11 months and only found out at the 9 month mark that my ex-supervisor was giving me crappy references to go with my job applications. So that's basically a whole year down the toilet.

Also I think you're being smart by thinking ahead with the uncertainty with jobs available after a phd. I am looking at retraining now. I'm not cut out for academia. It's alot to do with who you know, and my ex-supervisor hates me lol...so I'm re-evaluating my options. Being around a negative environment has a huge impact on you too.

Sometimes you just know when something isn't right for you, and it sounds like you already know. If you can find another similar university/department but with nicer people, you'll be much happier.

Yeah the criticism is the hardest part isn't it? You put what feels like a part of your soul into the writing, and then someone comes along and rips it to shreds.

After my first year tranfer report, my advisor at that time asked me "how did you manage to write it in such a short space of time?", and his tone sounded like he was amazed out how well I'd written it (he was also smiling), so I described my daily routine...and then his face changed and he said "no, I meant how did you write it, it's poorly formatted, it could do with a bit more work".

I literally said "Eh?!" I lost my whole train of thought, and got this weird feeling in my chest (panic? embarrassment?, a horrible mixture of the two?)...Can't second guess these people if you tried.

Chin up, though! :)

Hey awsoci

Horrible is probably too kind a word. A good range of expletives would cover it better. I woke up to ANOTHER rejection email today with the generic "other candidates more closely match the requirement to the vacancy" reason. I've applied to so many posts now, that I can't even remember what this particular job was! I don't have it in me right now to look up what the job was (I keep a copy of all applications I send off on my laptop)....

Isn't it really patronising when they say, "oh but you should be proud of yourself that you got short listed to this stage or that stage", it's like I'd be prouder if you'd freaking employ me instead!

All these rejections had better be building character. Because at the moment all it is building is anger, disappointment, resentment, and frustration.

Usually feel quite good after my interviews. Interviewers tell me I interview well, they like my personality and passion, appreciate my honesty in answering questions etc. Then the dreaded "but" ruins it all.

So interviews go quite well. It's the aftermath that lets me know my place when I think I'm in with a slight chance of landing the job. 11 months and counting...I'm almost hitting my unemployment anniversary. Bloody hell...

Hey Charlie...

I can too relate to your experience. The people I worked with in my PhD were also a miserable lot. So bad that friends visiting me at my department would say they'd seen more life at a graveyard! haha...(not funny in reality). They had some sort of internal hierarchy BS going on where if you weren't working with stem cells/carbon nanotubes then you weren't worth speaking to...considering I was working with human cell lines only, boo to me! I personally could not give a flying, but people at my department were this petty!

It might not have anything to do with you having said no for a potential collaboration, they might just be that miserable, but then again the people who are like what you described might just be that petty. I too was shut off from group lunches/drinks after work etc (I'd sometimes go weeks having not spoken to anyone in the office/lab), yet when I brought in some cake after a milestone birthday they all plus the most miserable one of the lot felt very happy to take a piece!! I didn't have it in me to say no (come to think of it, why did I even take in cake?!!), but straight after she scoffed the cake down there was the trademark scowl and cold shoulder. Whatever.

For the sake of your own sanity, don't care. You will eventually get away from these misery guts and you'll be fine :)

Thank you Dr Jeckyll and Pjlu. Both of your posts were helpful, and you're both right.
I was in a particularly foul mood when I posted that. Hence the imaginative bit I guess haha (I have more ups and downs than a lift since my PhD).

Dr Jeckyll: I would like a way to stop my ex supervisor from doing it to another person, I'm too a doer than a watcher, but having so many blocked paths (people higher up seem to be very happy with how things are going - I've complained, no joy) and being forced into being a watcher is really frustrating. I have started running, yoga, pilates, controlled eating, and just pushing myself until I literally can't do it anymore, as it feels its like the only thing I've got any control over right now. And it does help. I'm going to try and stop talking about it..but, and this is REALLY stupid..if someone mentions something in passing related to academia/supervisors/crappy colleagues, even if it's on telly I lose my composure.

Pjlu: That post does give me some insight into why I'm being such an obsessive person over people who are not important!! I'm trying to fix something that I can't unless others are willing to help..and the powers that be at my university really are very happy with it... I need to just stop.

Thank you guys..it's nice to know people understand what's going on in my head x

Fingers crossed I get a job soon, so I can just forget my PhD ever happened.

Sorry for bumping this thread (4 years too late! But I'm going to lose my mind if I don't). I've been unemployed since I submitted 9months ago. I HATE my ex supervisor, and hated my colleagues. I can't seem to stop googling my old research group to see what they're all doing, and I'm up at 3am sometimes reading up on how well they're all doing. And I feel awful! My ex supervisor never helped me, yet she feels the need to be up some phd failures arse who is EMPLOYED with her still, yet here I am tutoring high school kids just so that I can eat! To make matters worse, she is actively partaking in RUINING my freaking life, she's a toxic little witch, and I wish all that was left of her at the university was a plaque in her memory so pigeons could congregate and crap on it on a regular basis. I had the worst experience of academia ever, I was perved on by a colleague who would constantly try to touch me Ffs, I was almost forced out by my colleagues who ganged up against me. My supervisor disappeared come submission time, didn't read my work, encouraged my examiners to delay my graduation, by some miracle I got out. So why can't I stop googling them?! It's like a really crappy divorce. I'm being incredibly stupid! I'm angry all the time....I wish I could get some closure. ...........and breathe....end of moan.

I wouldn't call it poor advice, I'd say it's being realistic and allowing them to evaluate their options fully.

Some supervisors can cause damage to your budding career, because of their reputation amongst other academics. If they happen to write you a poor reference, then that's damaging to you, with no skin off their nose. And that is exactly what my ex supervisor did to me. Can I do anything about that other than not have my ex supervisor as a referee? No I can't.

So again I would suggest to keep your options open, and use a referee who a) knows you, b) actually helped you, and c) you can trust.

Well published never ever means they are professional, or indeed that they are experts in their field. What it means is that they've got phd students doing all the donkey work for them, who are publishing all this work, and because of this terrible coincidence the supervisor gets to put their name on the end. It's good you're asking your institution directly.

My ex supervisor was the same, except someone somewhere must've had enough of her because she walked in with a black eye and bloody nose one time. Don't let yourself get to that stage.

Pretty sure that manners are universal, don't give them an excuse for their behaviour. I put my ex supervisor's racism down to her age, she grew up in a time where it was acceptable to call someone coloured etc, which is disgusting, and eventually a complaint was made against her.