I'm on coffee 7 since this morning - I never even drank coffee before I started writing up - now I can't get enough - I think its just a bad habbit

Ah! if you're that far on then its probably a bit late to be changig it all now ;)

If you find yourself writing on bits of paper because the A4 pads are to big to carry around - you could also use the smaller lined note books - I don't know what size they are - A1?

It really pays to be organised from an early stage - you will be very surprised in a few years when you look back and find stuff you didn't even know you had done ;)

Rosy, it is fine to use ringbinder folder to keep bits of scrap paper organised, but I think in time, you will find it quite disorganised - once you build up many bits of paper - and you might be better using the notebooks - even if you have a separate one for each Chapter to keep them organised

Plus A4 books take up less space, are neater and stack/ store easier ring binders folders

And always, always put a date on everything you write - as incredible as it sounds (and I'm not being sarcastic) you will have absolutely no memory of what you do today in about 6 months and will struggle to identify which notes come first if they are not dated.

As for journals etc - they are in a filing boxes (stored at home) and subgrouped into their general area to make them easier to find - as well as all ref on Endnote and digital copies of all journals on the computer

Just my way of doing it - everyone is different

S ;)

Seems like for notes you should use proper note/ lab books - keeps them all in the one place - if you keep random scraps of paper everywhere you will loose them and they will notbe ordered

I use an A4 lined Lab book - which is dated for each entry (takes seconds to do will save you hours figuring it out in the years to come)- It is an absolute mess of notes - but everything appears chronologically and its easier to track things down - and also you never loose anything. I also keep some contact details on the inside cover name phone no etc - just incase it ever got misplaced and someone finds it

In my opinion you should just get into the habit of just writing everything in the one place rather than on scraps of paper and the odd notebook here and there.

For the stuff you already have on bits of paper you could compile them - then start a new book?

I don't know of any websites, but failing the above advice - conference abstracts are basically the same as journal abstracts - Summarise what you wanted to do, how you did it and the results you got - look at papers published in your field and copy the style.

I can only give my opinion based on a science PhD but what I've found is that initially you'll tend to want to keep the main point as a surprise at the end! - Don't!

State upfront what you're doing, why you're doing it and what you found - same as a normal abstract - it helps people when they are reading it because they already know what to look for (on a poster)

It means on the day someone will look at your abstract and say - thats the area I'm interested in, they're using methods i'm interested in and the results are interesting - lets go see how it looks

hope this helps

S

I think I would just file them incase I ever needed them in the future - no point throwing away work until you are sure you will never use it?

good stuff - didn't know that - good tip

Once you have all your journals/books ref'd then all you do is open your library, select ref, click insert and get on with your life - endnote does the rest.

There is your 60 second guide to using endnote

Point is its fairly simple and easy to use - some of the more complex stuff might take a while to master but there is a help section in the programe as well (if you really need them)

I think the one good thing about endnote is that its pretty simple if all you want to do is ref your papers etc.

You connect to the publication server you want (through endnote - tools tab --connect) a screen for narrowing your search comes up, type in the appropriate journal title/ author/ year - a list wil come up - you can narrow the field by author etc (all on the one screen) select the one you want and click add to library - it then puts in ALL the data for you.

When you want to put refs in your paper, open the library, select the one you want and click the insert icon - which appears in Word (you might have to configure word for this but there are plenty of simple online (google) guides to doing this and will take about 60 secs)

When you want to change format its as simple as clicking format (in the endnote tab in word) and selecting the journal format type you want

sounds like a plan - but make sure that you emphasise that you are REALLY interested in their area of research, you would just like to tweak it a little if possible to incorporate your own research interests - so you don't give off the wrong signals

I'm sure you wouldn't anyway - just thought I'd point it put

S

It depends on the supervisor -

But in scientific PhDs its very unlikely that you will finish doing the exact project you started and theoretically after 1st year its up to you what direction it should go - although it will be within the confines of your supervisors experimental area usually

So the point is, it is possible to change

However if it is an industry funded one - then they tend to be very directed and usually have to do what they were funded for

hope this helps

Good luck

S

yep!

It may be possible if you are with a university that they have the subscription (liscence) for multiple distribution of endnote, which as a PhD you should be entitled to.

It might be worth asking your supervisor or fellow Phds to see if they have it and if they got it through the dept?

it is well worth getting and using from day one

I'm on a 6 week submission deadline now and if I had to go through the entire thing manually formatting each reference it would take me at least a week - and god forbid if your supervisor told you it had to be formatted a different way!

Whereas with endnote it is as simple as a single click!