Whilst technically the data belongs to the lab (she probably signed a intellectual property agreement), usually labs don't hold on to this when their students leave, because any publications should have the student and the supervisor as authors. This isn't a real policy though, and it's up to the supervisors what names are on the publications. Or up to your g/f if she decides to publish it regardless.

Also, unless she is changing her PhD topic, I don't see how she can get her PhD without the data, surely she won't be able to collect a extra year's worth of data without extending the duration of her PhD?

She should talk to the pastoral academics or the head of the graduate school for advice.

Mine was online less than a week after acceptance, and before the actual proofs were available. The proofs came about 2 weeks later I think.

I would email the editors if I were you.

Also depends on journal.

Personally I'd go with other postgrad students, but that's because I like a quieter social life. As a MSc student I didn't want to be out all hours or have people coming back and carrying on the party at 3pm - work was more important.

Also, I would appreciate being closer to the building I was working in. Also, international students can be interesting - lots of cultures to learn about!

only this
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/349/6244/206.short?rss=1&ssource=mfr

For the rest, looks like you are doing pretty well

My three data chapters don't overlap, so I polished as I went, and I didn't need to change anything later. I also didn't need to move information from main intro to chapter intros, but I think this is because I planned it effectively, so I knew what was going into each chapter.

I'm a bit confused. Are you saying you got an R&R, but you have the option of accepting it or not? What do you mean you can defend it? What does your supervisor say?

Hi ricki, I was in exactly the same position as you 4 years ago when I started my PhD. It was a massive learning curve coming back to science after a 5 year break, but don't worry, I'm proof it can be done as I submitted my thesis a couple of weeks ago!

My advice would be recognise that the first week is going to be very difficult and then you will have peaks and troughs as you go through. Don't let your supervisors know how inexperienced you are - give them a good first impression! Do ask for help from the other people in the lab though. My supervisors just handed me a protocol and told me to do it. There was no way I could - I had no idea what any of it meant. I just asked the people in the lab to help me, and then when I did it, I went to the supervisor with the result and told them so and so helped me. They were fine with that, what they wouldn't have liked was if I didn't show any initiative - if I had told them I couldn't do, or asked them for help, or just didn't do it.

You will fine that everyone knows more than you. You will make stupid mistakes. You will look back in a few months/years time and think 'what an idiot I was'. This is all totally normal.

On the plus side, you have research experience, so you won't need to ask how to pour an agar plate or how to calculate a 1 M solution, like I did. Good luck and I hope you enjoy it!

Congrats Alanine!

Are you starting in October? If so, you might not hear anything else until Sept. After my informal offer of a place, I had to log on to the uni system to accept it 2 weeks later, and then I didn't hear anything for another 2 to 3 months, which was in Sept, before I started in Oct.

We don't have a default at uni so I just used Calibri

40 mile away

I'd do it correctly as you do it. The last thing you want to do is think you have finished your thesis and then realise that formatting takes days and days...

Also, I liked to have it positioned on the page as it would be in the final version, so that's another reason why I formatted as I wrote.