Hi Button,

I wouldn't do it word by word, a copy and paste job.

I'm pretty sure it's ok to write the same thing but you'd have to rephrase everything or it'd be self-plagiarism. Or at least, that's what my sups told me...

Thank you all for your replies and suggestions.

I have no idea if the thesis will go through any software and I agree that even if it does, it may not be picked up. Unfortunately, when the past 3 years of your 'life' are at stake, I think we're bound to get stressed out and formulate a plan of action for the 'what if' situation.

We have discussed owning up to it beforehand but my friend doesn't get much support from sups or uni so it'd be a gamble. Personally I quite like the idea of writing on a piece of paper in advance (thanks Sneaks!). I don't think we can use the inverted comas though as the sentences are consecutive :( great idea though.

I'll pass them on to my friend and let them decide what they want to do... if anyone else has any suggestions or comments, we're all ears (or eyes?)!!

Good morning!

How are things progressing Batfink?

I hope you're feeling better Benyaya... I don't have headaches often which is a good thing as I'm not very good at being sick.

Well done Button! You're brave, going from one article to the next! I hope you're right and things will fall into place for me.

I've broken the article down into smaller chunks (e.g. intro, method, etc) so I'm just going to give the discussion another last read, put the article together again, edit it and email it to sups for their feedback.

I haven't worked on my thesis for days now and I really need to get back to it soon or I might forget it all :-(

I need some help!! A friend of mine just realised they've plagiarised by accident. Their work is original but they found a few sentences that have been added to their lit review chapter word by word. Not sure if that makes a difference but it's referenced.

Realistically I believe it's highly unlikely anyone will know but they're worried as they still have their viva to come. Any ideas what I can advise them?

My gut feeling says deny any knowledge IF anyone brings it up at the viva...

Any other ideas/thoughts?

Thanks Batfink. In the end, I took the dog for a long walk to de-stress and I feel much better. Going to look at the paper again.

I'm sorry I can't help you with your problem there as I'm not familiar with what you're doing. I hope you've managed to get that sorted!

I could scream right now:-s I thought I finished the results and discussion but I've just re-read it and I think it's pants :-(

Now I'm wondering if I'm being too hard on myself so I'm going to spend an hour on this and no more. I'm sure sups will tell me if it's not good enough... after all, their names are on it too lol

I can't wait to be formatting my journal article!! I'm still not done:$ so the only goal for today is to get it done! I'm almost there!!

Good luck Potatoes! Let us know how it goes...

I'm still working on my journal article. I'm almost passed the point I've been stuck with for a little while so it's looking good!

You can also ask people to snowball your email to others.

Forums sometimes will let you post. You could contact the webmaster first but this is time consuming or you could just post and add a ps at the bottom with a note to mods saying that you hope this is ok with them as you're conducting a study, it's confidential and you thought forum users could help out. Also, if there are any forums that you regularly use, they may let you post there even if it's not really relevant to the topic of the forum itself if that makes sense.

Good morning!!

Thanks Batfink, I think you're right. Working simultaneously on several things means that everything is moving forward but I'm not seeing final products. I'm hoping that once I finish this journal article and dedicate more of my time to my thesis, things will improve. I'm glad your supervision yesterday went well btw!

I'm still working on the article so will I'll keep going with that until lunch and then I'll revise my goals.

Thanks Batfink, I think I'm just a bit fed up at the minute because nothing seems to be finished if that makes sense so I don't feel I'm making any progress. I've emailed my amended poster to my sups today so hopefully this will be the last of it. I'm glad your analysis is moving forward though.

Button, I'm glad your headache is gone! Unfortunately, the pressure of having a baby isn't quite working! I'd much rather be doing baby shopping than working on the thesis ;) Er, I haven't agreed mat leave yet but we'll get there eventually. I'll still be doing little bits until baby is born. As for my goals, I have a few but I'm not too bothered if these are not achieved now as I think I was too optimistic when I set them up and I hadn't considered other things like the poster, journal article, sups being on leave during the Summer, etc. I'll obviously try to get as much done as possible!

Off to tackle the dreaded journal article now...

No, October isn't that far off, hence my panic and added pressure to do as much as I can.

Not working that well to be honest. I'm still working on the poster which is really annoying but I need to do this asap really. Hopefully I'll be able to finish this off today and get on with my journal article.

Benyaya, like Batfink said, it's probably a good thing that you're sup is being like that. It'll help you with your viva as you'll need to justify everything! I hope you got your tent set up yesterday.

Button, I hope you feel better soon.

Good morning!

Button, baby is due mid-October :)

Benyaya - I suspect different unis may have different policies. I'm lucky that I've got very supportive sups so I doubt I'll have any problems. It's more a question of how much longer can I work for.

I can't believe it's lunchtime already! Where did the time go? Erm, I've not done much apart from admin so that's not great news for the thesis.

I got some feedback from sup on poster. So I'll need to edit that and look into my article. This has taken long enough so I'm determined to get it out of the way today!

Have a productive day everyone!

I found out 5 months after submission via email. You may be able to speak to your sup for unofficial updates...

Well done Button (on your first draft) and Batfink (swimming/being so productive!).

I ended up changing my goals once I opened my inbox as there were things there that required some immediate attention. But at least they're done now.

Today hasn't been the most productive day but I've been able to finalise my poster and sort out a few things. I need to think about when to start my mat leave though... any suggestions?