this is indeed true - papers are typically blind reviewed,what counts is the quality of the research and how it is written up. A Ph.D will help with getting funding to actually do the research in the first place though! or a research fellow/associate job....

Thanks Reenie! - still need help with this, thanks!

Hi,
yes that is true, the US don't have minimum rules like in the UK and many other countries... I was interested (as I have studied in the US for a short time and visited there for work) and so I took a quick look online..I believe you would get 12 days annual leave which you can choose - the other 12 days relates to state holidays e.g. christmas day etc. You could perhaps negotiate a fractional contract e.g. a 0.8 which would give you the time, or indeed negotiate a further few weeks off unpaid. You should discuss and agree this if offered the role.
I am very lucky and get more than the standard 26 days in my role now, though I do have to take it all out of term time, which is sometimes tricky (though I usually manage it!!) :) good luck!

Hello all,
just a long shot, but does anyone have access to the scoring manual for the Bayley II?, I just need to convert a few raw scores to age equivalents (for the record, my collaborators on theis project do own this test/manuals so we have paid for it) but I can't currently access it as they are away. Any help on this would be really appreciated as need it asap!
thanks so much :)

Ooh exciting - not too long to wait now then.
I would get use to saying 'I' - it is your research thesis.
I would put the logos of your funders/associated bodies on the front slide of your presentation.
Bear in mind that the audience may not have seen your thesis - in my dept these presentations are open to all staff! so you will need to do a level of explanation -
good luck!

Aw sorry that wasn't the intention - it is a real shame when funding is cut or removed.
do you have a scholarship or departmental funding for your PhD? for mine, I had an allowance of £750 a year over the 3 years to use for things like conference attendance and registration + other research consumable e.g. printing test materials. Do you have such a budget for yours ? if not, then contact your university graduate school to advice on applying for funds you can use for conference attendance. Another option is to the email the conference organisers directly, explain your situation and see if you can get a discount or support towards your attendance. I had a situation where I had an abstract accepted in February but I just didn't have the research funds to go which was a real shame so I know how you feel! Perhaps next time, focus on applying for conferences that are close to you so you can start to present your work.

As others have confirmed, it is absolutely fine to use secondary data for a Masters dissertation (for the record, newspapers and government records are also secondary data and not primary). As it is now almost June, I think you should stick to secondary data analysis, and do a through job of that - in your discussion section you can address any methodology concerns, and discuss that the next step in this area of research would be to collect in some primary data to verify what you have found in the secondary data.... if you are desperate to collect in some primary data then keep it quantitative i.e on-line survey with fixed responses - you don't have time to set up, record, transcribe and analyse qualitative data. Good luck!

p.s. there are some conferences that are entirely online (though less common) - and so if you are experiencing difficulties with gaining funding or just finding the time to travel to a conference, this may be an option for you - but I would suspect it is not as fun as going to a real conference! I had a great time at one last week..and you know I learnt as much from the 'informal' conversations I had with delegates at breakfast or dinner than during the actual formal presentations.

tt_dan - it wouldn't count as a conference proceeding if no one actually went to present it.
If that was the case people would drop out all the time. If you are the lead author on the piece of work it is a good idea to try and go and present your work- you will learn a lot from the process and conferences are always (I think) really good fun and extremely valuable. If you can't go, then yes send one of the other authors - then you can all list the proceeding on your CV etc. You can still be the lead author on the proceeding (if it is mainly your work of course), but have another person on the research team present it - as long as they also do work on the project, and are able to competently deliver the same presentation and answer related questions.

In my view it is a type of research - I'm assuming it's exploratory because you are exploring a new research area without an existing clear evidence base or you are perhaps testing an existing theory or approach on a novel participant group ?.... it's not clear whether your research has a quantitative or qualitative focus ? But examples of qualitative exploratory work are ones such as grounded theory where the theory emerges and is 'grounded' in the data ..other ways of describing your work could use the terms pilot, feasibility study and so on...but that aside you still need to identify the methodology used and the approach used e.g. a pilot experiment and so on.... how have you analysed the data ? I think more detail is needed for us to help you further. Thanks, good luck !

As an aside, do check out this link for a light hearted take on this subject -

I know this was not your original question - but I would never phrase your actual findings as non-significant (or worse still 'nonsignificant' !). What you have found could actually be seen as a really important finding. Therefore, your description of the findings could be clearer.

Whilst your overall findings should never be talked about in this way - The results of an inferential statistical test can be 'not statistically significant' i.e. you have not found enough evidence to reject the null hypothesis that there is no difference or association in the population of interest (depending on what test you have conducted).

So, for example instead you could say ...

'Data analysis revealed that there was not sufficient evidence to accept the four experimental hypotheses as stated at the outset of this study (p values all > .05). This finding may suggest that research attention could now be directed towards the competing biochemical account; specifically that the coal fusion chambers contribute to the production of high octane countach fuel'.

Students I work with often get dismayed when they don't find statistically significant results... but it doesn't necessarily mean these findings are not important, and so care should be taken when reporting analysis that has produced a p value higher than .05

Checkout unistats.direct.gov.uk.. this should help you your question ...at a guess I would think ucl is pretty high up the list , good luck!

mine took about 6 weeks to hear back (and it was just 'all approved') no further feedback.
I'm sure its quite variable and can depend on a number of things, a lot of staff are taking time off around now as formal teaching has finished so that may slow things down a little.
good luck!

I would say this isn't a bad thing at all - indeed if other researchers are coming to the same conclusions as you, then it provides more evidence to support your claims. It is interesting though that they haven't published the full details... have you been in touch with them to find out more? good luck!