When I started my PhD i had a lot of people in the department, who were 2-3 years ahead, telling me "its such a journey" and "it will take you at least 4 years" - tbh I wish they'd not said this. I reckon if I didn't have the expectation of it being such a slog (they really laid it on thick), then I probably would be finished now.

I tend to wear dark jeans and wear a more glam top - like one with a bit of sparkle or something. I never wear a dress or anything, but then I don't usually anyway. ALthough I sometimes pack something a bit nicer, just in case I walk in and its black tie or something and then I can run back to the hotel room and change quickly

I'm actually getting quite annoyed with the journal now - I know I checked it pretty much at the end of yesterday, and its only just gone 9am, but surely they should have stayed up all night to get me my decision ??? :-s :$

I hope I get it today - its bound to be another 2 weeks or something though

:-s

Its usually fine to work up a paper by yourself. But before you submit it you will have to let your supervisor read it and agree to it being sent to a journal. At that point, they may help you scope it further, they may want to add their name as second author, or they may not want to be put on as second author - depending on the status of the journal you are sending it to and the quality of the paper etc. So yes you can, but you need to check with them before sending it.

no, I published my dissertation. I wrote it in 2006, refined it into a paper during 2007-2008 and then it finally got published in 2010.

ALthough I would factor in more than a week - its better to get it accepted into a good journal than any journal.

I suddenly don't actually want it back. I really hope its not a rejection :-( I suppose the reviewers comments will come just in time for me to adapt the relevant chapter in my thesis though (up)

omg - I just checked my online thingy with the article currently in. Bear in mind I check this online submission thing about 3 times a day - for the last 7 weeks. I even checked it this morning and now it says

"Reviews Received - Awaiting Decision"

EEEK! :$

I had one paper accepted - it was my MSc dissertation - I waited 4 months, and then emailed, and then they obviously hadn't been arsed to send it to anyone, because they then said it would be a few more months :-s eventually I got an R&R :-) and its now out there for the world (i.e. 2 people) to read!

no citations on google scholar yet though :-(

In my experience, when its rejected, its quick e.g. a day or so. I've sent articles off - just for feedback - which have been rejected VERY quickly (I had no expectation they would get in though!)

I've currently got a paper in with a 4* journal that's been with reviewers for 7 weeks - I'm taking that as a good sign because it means they didn't just read it once and think "oh god this is awful"

I couldn't find them - being 1974 it may be a bit early for online versions.

this came up on the same google scholar page though http://dwp.bigplanet.com/pdkconsulting/nss-folder/pdfdownloads1/New_DuffyTanis1993.pdf

didn't get as much done yesterday as I wanted to :-(

today I need to finish the section I was working on - I hope by lunchtime, but will aim for before then.

could this be about getting the 'story' right? I know for me writing publications is far easier - they are succinct, stand alone pieces. But putting it all together to make a big story is a fecking nightmare!

FOr example, I'm finding it really hard to pull out the 2-3 points I need to hammer home from my lit review - there's so much from different fields and my mind is going to explode! Whereas when I wrote my chapters as publications I just put the relative literature in, not all the other stuff.

Also - are you giving your sup completed drafts or half finished ones? I've learnt to hang on to my drafts until I think they're finished. Otherwise my sup doesn't really understand what I'm trying/thinking of saying and then rips it apart because she doesn't get it.

I'm sure everything will work out. You are a good researcher :-)

congratulations! I hope my advice was useful. You don't want to do mine do you? :$

I was told throughout the process that whatever I wrote in the 1st 2 years wouldn't be included in my final thesis - although it would help. I'm not sure if that was really useful advice and I wish I had written 'finished' chapters sooner. However, what I did do was write about 45000 words of literature - about 5-7k words on each major topic.

I am now in the process of slimming that down. The reviews I did are amazing though - I am literally cutting and pasting sections and then making them read properly, rather than trawl through journals :-)

I've just dropped a load of stuff from mine Ady - I think its how it reads is most important, rahter than proving you've ticked all the boxes.

The stuff I'm dropping (probably riskily) are the theories that aren't really related to what I'm doing, just more generally in the field. My external looks like he will be an expert in that field, so I originally want panicking thinking I should include them, now I can't be bothered :p and when I really thought about adding it in I thought it looked a bit 'shoe-horned' and therefore will detract from the overall read (well that's what I'm telling myself!)