Well I think your thesis should be your own work, but sometimes others contribute to it, and as long as it's not the main component of your thesis, I think it's ok. I've seen theses where people have said 'someone provided x and I did y', so I think it's ok as long as you state your contribution and it's substantial.

Everyone feels like this at some time. It's normal. I finished my thesis only 4 months ago, but I can look back at it already and see how it could be improved. Be grateful your supervisors correct your work, even if it feels horrible now, they are trying to make you better.

I would say, yes, you need to update it. If something has changed since the updated literature that would have affected the way you conducted the study then you should mention that, and say that the literature wasn't available until xxx date.

Congratulations Dr Aleruri!

I'm not sure how much the author position matters, other than being first or last, to be honest.

If you are not going to be first author then it's probably not worth the hassle and damage to your professional relationships by querying it. You were right to raise it with your prof first I think, but if nothing changes, it's probably just better to leave it.

Yay for the biotech giants! And good luck with your PhD :)

Hi, that would depend on the university and department.

In mine, you can just be randomly allocated by the technical staff, or your supervisor/another academic can request you specifically/you can request what you want to do. It would be usual that the 3rd years get more difficult practicals in some cases ie if the academics were allocating the practicals they might want more experienced students. If the technicians are allocating, they might not understand who is what year, or the differences in difficulty of the practical, so it may be more random.

Congrats Drpurple!

Thank you TheEngineer, I learnt something new today! :)

Whether each chapter has a separate lit review or just a short intro would depend on the content of the thesis. My thesis has three distinct results chapters with little overlap so each one has its own introduction where I discuss the relevant literature to that chapter. My general introduction chapter incorporates a lit review of the overarching theme of my thesis.

Can you look at other theses in your lab/department? Your supervisors may have their own ideas of what they want to see as well

Stop reading and start writing? That way you will be able to find some direction and build up a pool of ideas, even if they are based on the last few sentences of other research papers, as that's where you often find gaps in the literature, or though bear in mind the researchers themselves may be covering these gaps!

See if there is a hardship fund at the uni to tide you over? Or see if the bank will give a credit card or overdraft? Or speak to your supervisors, they might be able to lend you money/take it out the grant and you can repay it?

In science, many theses have a general intro and lit review (1), methods (2), then 3-5 separate 'results' chapters that also have intro, (methods), results and discussion and then a final discussion chapter.

Your results chapters may be standalone because they cover distinct aspects of your thesis, or they may be chronological, with each one building on the preceding chapter.

What's ATAS?

Check your spam folder?

Just for clarity, I certainly wouldn't recommend dropping out either. There are many people that struggle to get on PhDs at all, so by dropping out of one program, you would be making things extra difficult for yourself, as it would be seen as very risky to award funding to someone that dropped out of a previous PhD.

I take it you are only a few weeks into the program then? I would say that you should persevere for a while regardless because the feelings you describe are very normal when starting something new and usually subside after a few months.

Leaving after the MSc is possible and by then you might have got more into your project and changed your mind anyway!