That is exactly what I'm talking about. I am a quants person (so as to speak), but I took a masters module in qualitative research methods and came to respect it A LOT. There is a transparency and willingness to disclose possible biases, preconceptions, and the evolution of your thought processes and reasoning. This seems to be entirely missing in a lot of quantitative research. It is often presented as if it is almost divine, with no human intervention at all! Hello!!!

Thanks people. I think I am just struggling with the notion that it should be a deductive approach with clearly set hypotheses that you test. For example: changing research questions based on what you observed in the data... I see this happening all the time in my research group and I am sure people do it all the time even when they don't state/explain it - they just present their evolved RQs as if they were the original ones. But this does not seem very "hypothetico-deductive". I don't think the scientific method as widely practiced is what people claim it to be. Or am I missing something here?!

Hello all

Couldn't quite think what to call this thread, and not quite sure how to word what I'm asking. Here goes...

When you design an experiment you review the literature and come up with research questions/hypotheses and ways to obtain and analyse data that will answer your research questions/test your hypotheses. What if, as I am sure is often the case, the data aren't as you predicted but you notice other interesting stuff in it. So you write up your results for the original questions and discuss your findings then explore further into what you found...

When does this become data "fishing"?

Thursday isn't actually so bad - he may have been away for the weekend.

Good luck.

Hello

Sorry if it is an obvious question, but are you chasing it up when you don't hear back?

From what I've heard it is best not to make enemies/fall out with folk, as academia is a very small world and you'll see each other at conferences etc, not to mention the reference part!

Does anyone else have any experience of this?

It is an interesting topic. Back to my muse on the matter... I honestly can't think of another career that is like it in terms of the things we've been talking about. But there must be something comparable! Movie star?! : D

"It's an interesting career path isn't it... I can't really think of anything else like it. Pilot maybe? But even they get to live in one place!"

Since when is that complaining?

I love moving around and with very few commitments am able to do so easily.

However, it is a disadvantage for (dare I say most?) people, who in fact want to settle in one place. What is the problem with people raising their concerns, or even COMPLAINING as you put it? (Oh, what dreadful sin is THIS).

Maybe talking about things is how progress can start to happen.

It's an interesting career path isn't it... I can't really think of anything else like it. Pilot maybe? But even they get to live in one place!

Wow, that is interesting! It does sound likely. Unless there is one that is specifically for that purpose (pre published work)? I might look into it a bit more as I had planned on doing it! Hope your grant application goes well.

I was at a talk for people applying for fellowships the other day, and one of the speakers said you can actually upload your prepublished article somewhere (can't remember the place - may differ by subject area - research gate?) and put the link for that so that they can read it. Apparently that is even better than saying submitted as they have something tangible.

I wouldn't write it off and I would probably chase again to see where the ad is. Meantime, I would be seriously looking at other opportunities - and I think I might tell her I was doing this so she knows that you need something concrete very soon or will go elsewhere.

I don't know if this healthy but personally I don't trust anyone in academia anymore!

I wasn't implying that. I was only asking, as it would affect my choice. I would definitely plow on vs pay back.

Congrats on your PhD offer and fantastic Masters result!

If your first year is anything like mine, it will be quite quiet compared to the Masters (you may even start to look younger again).

Based on what you've said it sounds like you want to change your way of working a little... So I guess I would start by listing a few practical things to try... e.g., print off articles instead of screen reading (for the eyes), go into shared PhD office (if you have one) 9-5 at least X times a week (for the routine), get a decent office chair and make sure I walk around the room now and then for a few minutes (for the back)...

It is hard to answer about a realistic schedule. It'll depend on the workload, and that will change over time too. I find that going into the office Monday to Friday from 9 ish to 5 ish gives me the routine I need. When things get busy I can work longer hours if needed.

For the procrastination and stress and working in the middle of the night... I am wondering if that is perhaps how you function... your procrastination leads to some stress, which motivates you to write (incidentally in the middle of the night)... ? A lot of people find that the stress gets too much during the PhD. So maybe you could think about other things that motivate you to work, and have a look at some strategies for dealing with procrastination and stress.

I agree with all the previous comments. I would go with A because the list of pros is longer, and the pros of option B do not seem to outweigh them.

I would go with option B if I really wanted a change and/or there were some quite serious problems at my current institution.

As far as I've heard, things like where you publish are more important than who is your funder. But as Chickpea says, it is important to have enough money to support your costs during the PhD - so that might sway me if option A was poor for that (as in didn't offer a stipend or any bits of extra money for conferences etc).

I can imagine. Thanks for answering and I hope you get some good support / ideas on here from others going through this.