Yeah, tend to agree. The files should still be on the hard drive even if the recycle bin has been cleaned. Linking the time of deletion to the CCTV tapes should produce the compelling evidence needed. Might be worth taking the said computer away in case her ladyship comes back to finish the job. Watch your back BHD until all this is over!

Over a month since this the last post. This thread shall not die!

To be honest, I prefer to work from home. I'm surrounded by my books and my papers. I have food, tea etc. I can have 40 winks as the need arises and it gets me away from all the noise and distractions of the department (in which I know my productivity is low). So I'm happy to work from home. I do usually put in an appearance for seminars, meetings, printing and backing up my work once or twice a week. Otherwise, home is my best working environment!

Welcome to the board. Cambridge can't make you do a PhD if you accepted and then changed your mind later. So with that in mind, accept Cambridge and still attend the other interviews. Once you know what offers are available then decide.

This happens to me alot. However, if you dig around on Google (the abstract page itself might even have it), you can usually find the email address of the author. In which case email them saying a little about what you're doing, how interesting the abstract sounds and whether they'd be so good as to email you a PDF of the paper. I've done this many times, and everyone I've asked has always emailed them to me (and sometimes their more recent papers as well). Also a chance to network. Give it a go!

Welcome to the board. I'm not sure anyone ever said that having a PhD automatically made you a scientist, did they? As per usual, depends what your area is. In terms of mine, as I'm doing science I would hope to be called a scientist. But then if I was doing a PhD in drama I probably wouldn't be calling myself a scientist. However, to keep peace and love on the forum, we can all be called academics (before anyone starts the arts vs science stuff again, which has be done too many times).

Oral presentations - depending on the size of the conference there may be one or more sessions running concurrently so decide which you want to go and arrive in good time as some sessions end up packed. Make notes if you wish, I always have my notepad in front if something interesting comes out. If you're brave, you could even ask a question at the end of the presentation.

Poster sessions (as already mentioned) are separate from the orals. Posters are up in a room and the author stands by their poster and answers questions from delegates perusing the room.

Conferences are a great chance to network and get your face known, so speak to people. Get some business cards done and see how many you can swap (note on the back why they're interesting so you remember who was who). I did a poster in my first year, this year (my 2nd year) I'm doing an oral at a big conference which I was initially thrilled about and then realised what I've let myself in for! Can't wait though!

All depends on your Masters result now. You really need a Distinction to be a serious contender. Some do succeed with a Merit, but these are in a minority, so pull out all stops to get that Distinction.

Adem, if you read my post again at no stage did I say I was in a PhD for the money - quite the opposite in fact. To re-iterate, I gave up a well paid (but soul-destroying) job in the real world so I could make a less well paid but (hopefully) more satisfying career in academia. Pay grades as they are in academia, it will take me 10 years plus in academia to get back to the salary I left behind. I went into this in full knowledge of what would happen. But life's too short for me being miserable and making other people rich, hence the career change. I've never regretted starting my PhD although I do worry whether this gamble will ultimately succeed.

Likewise, the other posts simply reiterate what I said earlier - unless that PhD has specific application in the commercial world (academia-aside), it is considered little better than a graduate degree.

2) With a PhD you are no longer a "fresh" graduate, so you end up pigeon-holed into a specific sector. Fine if that pigeon hole is required by an employer, but you are limited. And sure they teach you some transferable skills, but a prospective employer could have sent their fresh grads on whichever training courses they required over the same period.

Of course there are exceptions (I know of one or two, no more), but the stats speak for themselves and as one who used to interview grads when I worked in management consultancy, I know what this view was shared by my directors.

Geez, I thought this was common knowledge!

Geez Adem, please don't tell me you went into your PhD thinking it was a passport to riches. It's essentially a qualification for a career in Academia, this is why I'm doing it - certainly not for the money otherwise I would have stayed where I was. There was an article on this in the Guardian a couple of years ago:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2005/jun/18/graduates.postgraduate1

Your earning potential is better with a graduate degree than PhD for 2 reasons:

1) For the 1 in 15 that would pay extra for a Masters or PhD, it's only worth a premium of £2,000. Had you gone into work straight from undergard you'd have easily surpassed the £2,000 over the 3-4 years spent doing the PhD.

Tend to agree. A PhD is actually a good way to close doors (unless Academia or some very specific scientific positions are your direction) because employers prefer "malleable", naive graduates who they can shape and train to their organisation's needs. Suffice to say, pay prospects are generally much better WITHOUT a PhD than WITH.

I've said this before on here, but doing an undergrad degree improves your earning power, a Masters slightly improves that still, a PhD rapidly decreases your earning potential. So unless you're doing it for the love of it or for a career in Academia, I wouldn't bother.

Yep, settling for a big night. Target is 4am if I last that long!

Cool. One piece of advice though, keep a backup copy of your library as EndNote has the occasional bug!

.....To display the Record Number on the display screen, go to the Edit menu Preferences. Select "Display Fields" from the left box. I have EndNote X which allows you to display up to 8 columns so decide which you want. I have Column 1 as the "Record Number", in which case click the drop down menu for "Field" next to Column 1 and choose "Record Number". You could rename the Heading if you wish. I just call it "#". Then have, say, column 2 as Author, C3 as Year, C4 as Title, C5 as Journal/Secondary Title, C6 as Reference Type, C7 as URL (to link to your electronic copies) and C8 as Keywords. Or whatever order you prefer!