Submitted on September 30 2014. Passed my viva with minor revisions on November 14. Got my correction pass letter three days ago, on December 9 2014.
Four years part time, now I can finally put the Dr. on my name and move on on my academic path, finished!!

Hi Ph999

what kind of journal is this? nowadays it is always more important to add the doi number in the reference, you don't have to do that but it is well seen and suggested by editors.
But again, I'm not sure I understand why is the article no longer to be found online. Even if the text can't be downloaded or even the abstract can't be read, the title, volume and page numbers should still be visible in the table of content of the relevant journal issue.
Or was it a purely online journal? Is the journal still publishing??

xx
wanderingbit

Thank you RLD and Trinity :-)

Yes, it is a strange feeling, and it lasted for a few days...when I tought I could finally start relaxing, I got a further email from the school, saying my viva was arranged for Nov 14!!!

This is much quicker than I thought, only 6 weeks after submission (and 4 weeks from now, uhu!) I actually expected a date for Jan/Feb, but I think it's actually good that it has been arranged so soon, that I get a chance at it before end of 2014 - in fact, now I start feeling I can't wait any longer, I'd like to go there and get it over with right now!

Trinity, I hope you'll get a date as soon as possible! As for the preparation, my sup suggested to:
- start preparing a 2min statement that spells out the main contribution to knowledge - as well as a 'positive points agenda' with a few statements per chapter, to be used at the appropriate moment during discussion.
- re-check the important literature and refresh the literature mindmap
- two weeks before viva, start re-reading the thesis. He said it should be read twice, once all together, to refresh the overall narrative, and once analysing each chapter and taking notes and thinking about possible weak points or elements that could be made object of discussion...

That's all in theory so far, I still have to start organizing my viva-preparation-schedule. I'm back at uni today, and for now I'm overwhelmed with teaching and admin duties that were left behind during the last weeks of writing up..

Trin: I'd love to know how your preparation strategy will look like..

I wish you all a productive week!! Let us know how you all are doing!

xxx
wanderingbit

Hi everyone,

just a quick update, I finally submitted yesterday afternoon. It still feels very odd, the last three days were absolute hectic but I managed to send everything off in the end. Today it feels surreal, while I'm trying to decide what are the next urgent works and duties.

I'll take however a next week off from work, to go visit my family and - finally - meet my brother's baby who's now 1 month old.

Hope everyone is doing well,

xxx
wanderingbit

I'm in the zen zone too, with 7 days to go. I still have to put everything together (format, editing) give it 1-2 re-readings, write acknowledgements and cross-check references.
But I feel oddly calm and ready to go, also, there's a feeling of imminent change, like new stage of life starting, and something inside me preparing to change as well.. so odd, but not unpleasurable...

Odos, I don't think Hazy and Wowzers misunderstood you. What is done is done, but what counts now for you is that you have a PhD and several options open. I wouldn't be so quick in discarding their advice, which is constructive and to the point.
Maybe in the meantime you have taken a decision about your next steps and the path you want to pursue. In any case, as Hazy suggested, it may be good getting an objective opinion that helps you looking at the outcomes of your PhD process in a more positive and constructive way.

:) in any case, all best for your next professional steps!

Thanks for your efforts Reenie! Is there any news from the webteam? The situation is getting worse again, the forum is getting unusuable... :-(

There are discipline-specific standards for co-authorship to which you can refer (alias, keep in the back of your mind) when discussing with your sups.

For psychology, check the APA manual. As Thesisfun rightly said, the general rule is that anyone who is co-author has contributed significantly to the paper. This usually means contributing to the design of the study, data analysis, or data interpretation, plus contributing to the writing in some form and approving the final version - which also means taking responsibility for it.
Giving technical assistance, helping in the data collection/preparation, or giving a quick feedback on early versions of the paper, alone, is not enough for co-authorship (a note in the acknowledgements at the end of the paper may help in these cases).

Furthermore, as general rule, the supervisor(s) of a PhD student is/are usually listed as co-authors (right or not it's another issue), with the main supervisor as last author. I know this is foreign to humanities, and it may be really frustrating at first, but be assured that if you publish in a psychology journal readers will know how to interpret the list of authors.

You say your sups are choosing co-authors 'arbitrarily'. What do you mean? Usually sups have reasons for deciding who should be listed - even if the reason is that it may be good for you to have a certain name there, or that in the future you may want to profit from a certain person's advice (or that Dr. X should be there because he got the money for the project - already experienced).

Have you tried to speak clearly with your sups about the co-authorship issue? This is something that should be clarified at best before starting writing. As first author, you should have a say on who else is on the list. However since you're new to the discipline you may want to listen to your sups, since they know best what standards should be used in this situation...

Hi there,

here a new quick update on my side. I finished drafting all results chapters - which leaves me with just one more chapter to write, the general discussion. However, some feedback has arrived from the sups last week and so I have to revise a few things on the last couple of chapters I wrote before I can concentrate on the last one..

..well..zero concentration, zero motivation!! I can't look at those result chapters anymore, and I am spending the days procrastinating in front of the screen. I know what I have to do and what to write or re-write, but it takes ages due to my lack of interest right now...

gghhh... you probably know how it feels, hope the writing is going on more smoothly for you.

w

Great job!! Congratulations Thomas!!! :-)

Hi Emaa, welcome in the thread and good luck with your introduction and conclusion!

An update on my side as well: submission planned for Sept 30th, I still have a third or a result chapter to write, plus the final 'discussion and conclusions' chapter and the abstract. My sups are currently reading and commenting the other chapters.

I'll start teaching again in the first week of Sept, so I hope to have a draft of the complete thesis done by the end of this month, and then have ca. 2 weeks for the last revisions in Sept.

What title do you give to your final chapter?? So far "discussion and conclusions" is the best I could think of..

Have a productive day!
xxxW

Congratulations BlackTrinity!! :-)

Enjoy you time off and please let us know how ti goes on, and when you get a date for the viva!!

I'm an INFP...and I seem to be the only one here...[gulp]...

Hi Thedrosophilist,

as I understand it, you won't have to pay any school fees, and on top of it you'll get money to support your life costs (the tax-free stipend). That's very good!!

If there are other large costs involved, it will depend on the nature of your project and what you've planned for dissemination (software, devices, lab instruments, participants' payment? And then conference fees and travel costs related to the project - for conferences or to run exps, interviews, field trips, etc.).

Good luck with your interview!

xx W

Hi Lemonjuice, sorry to hear you down!

I'm in a similar situation, funding running out in October and still quite a bit to do. I've written up a few chapters, but there are still 2.5 + conclusions to go, and 1.5 analysis (data collected, but need to be analysed, qualitative analyses, alias, very time consuming).

What is that you still miss? Have you started the writing up already? How much data collection and/or analyses do you still have to do? We have a couple of threads here that are meant to help you motivate yourself through the final stage, why don't you join them?

I perfectly get your feeling, whenever I'm stuck or overwhelmed with the work (like today!) I kinda react by loosing 'interest' completely - which is just a way to escape from the problem indeed.

In such moments, it helps me a lot to use the tomato technique (mytomatos.com). I can manage to keep myself motivated just with the aim of doing something - no matter how useless this little something seems at the moment - for 25min. Then rest and again. Have you ever used it? If not, just try.

The other thing that helps me a great deal is having a nice, large, excel table hanging at the wall with a detailed weekly (or in very hard times daily) plan of what I need to do. The act of planning in itself helps clearing up ideas about what steps are necessary, and the joy and motivation you can get from the simple act of ticking a box is not to underestimate :-)

Finally, try not to beat yourself up, it's normal to have bad days. You just need to find a way to go back on track. You're not alone! We're here to cheer you up and in so doing motivate ourselves to go a step further. 5 months is a lot of time, don't give up!

xxx W