Thanks for your kind words all! I still feel really down about it this morning which I know is silly! I think actually I am more annoyed than anything - a bit like your supervisor Keenbeen, my work is in a controversial and politically sensitive area and I feel upset that my work gets caught up in politics - hence the polarised reviews - and I feel that some of one reviewers comments were unfair and wrong and even biased themselves. So my concern is that if I get two reviewers similar to the negative one the first time round, it will be rejected, if it is two like the original third reviewer, it has a better chance. Why does it take so long??!

Must stop complaining and stressing, must stop complaining and stressing!!

Hi,
I was wondering if some more experienced people could give me some advice. Basically, I sent a paper to a good journal and received the reviewers comments three weeks a go. One was non committal, one rejected (aka hated it) and one said impressive and strongly recommended publication.

The editors state that they couldn't publish the paper in its current form but feel it has merits and invited me to respond to the comments made and resubmit to the journal at that time. The paper is then to be sent out for new reviews and a decision made then on the new plus original reviews. The last sentence states 'we hope these comments.....assist you in revising and resubmitting the manuscript'.

I interpreted this as a 'revise and resubmit' decision and cheered myself up by looking at positive tales on the internet!

However, I have just finished doing the changes and resubmitted with a detailed covering letter. When I did so, I notice that my previous submission was termed a 'reject and resubmit' - and now I'm really depressed again as I instantly googled and read 'reject and resubmit' is worse than a 'revise and resubmit', especially if it is going to be sent to new reviewers :(

What is anyone else's experiences or interpretations?

Thanks!

Thanks for your reply Beejay. Thinking about it, I've seen the same stuff so many times too - I suppose it is even more common at an early stage of your career. I'm definitely not doing a cut and paste job (!!). I think (seriously hope!) that if I do it right this could be a good paper and believe me I'm the world's least confident so I want to get it right and am typing myself in knots in the process!

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone has any advice? My PhD is the humanities and I have one publication which is essentially an overview of my PhD and I have quotes from my fieldwork integrated into it. I am in the process of writing another article and am trying to pull out two interlinked themes. One of these has been touched on directly in the existing paper, the other slightly less so. For both themes, the work I hope to present in the second article will be significantly theoried up but inevitably draws on parts of the same fieldwork and elementary ideas. Is it ok to do this? It's definitely not a case of two like for like papers. I don't want to look like I am just recycling info to get another publication - that's definitely not the case and paper two will ultimately be more weighty than the overview type style of paper one.

Many thanks :)

Hi all,

I know there are loads of threads on this and everyone is different etc but how much viva prep did everyone do?

I have my viva in two weeks and am confident in thesis and have 2 publications out of it. My supervisor is unconcerned.

But, I have no time to prepare!! And I am seriously stressing that I am going to muck it all up at this stage. What I am doing at the moment (when I can and will be done relatively comfortably before the viva) is to make notes each chapter, answer the 33 relatively generic questions I have put together, read thesis in entirety and do
a mock viva with supervisor.

How have others done it - I will have a week full time on it next week, but up to then it's a case of an evening here and an evening there.

Seriously stressing :(

Hi all,
I have a dilemma! I am finishing my PhD and have no teaching experience and so have been lining up tutorial work for the in coming semester to get experience etc. I have just been offered 6 weeks lecturing in a different uni. I know this sounds great but I have some reservations. The biggest one is that I have never taught before and the lectures are 2 hours on a topic I literally know nothing about! Secondly the preparation time - I have teaching on approx 3 other modules sorted so far and my viva to condend with. Thirdly, lectures start the day I am meant to be going away. I know this sounds really shallow but I really want to get a post PhD submission break - my own uni starts later than this one, hence the timing. I don't know what to do - am really torn and it would look good on my cv but I can help but wish I a, hadn't been offered it or b, it was in 3 or 6 months time.

I know a lot of job applications specify teaching experience - is this meant to include lecturing / I always interpreted this as experience gained from tutorial/seminar work?

Any thoughts?
As if submitting wasn't stressful enough!

Hi all,

I'm coming to the end of my PhD in the next month all being well and am looking to get some teaching work for next term. I have put some feelers out and generated a bit of interest. My question is, while being free to teach tutorials full time, (and preparing for viva and poss. trying to publish) how much work should I accept (if it comes to that lol!) I know what I need money wise, taking into consideration Christmas holidays etc but am unsure as to how much would be too much? I want to prepare well and get lots of experience, the ideal being a larger classes:subject ratio.

Any thoughts?
Many thanks

Hi!

Some great suggestions thanks! PhD bug - I'd rather wear jeans and a tee but 'feel' I ought to 'look' the part - I also look really young so don't want to be mistaken for someone who's ended up in the wrong place! I'd best get shopping! Now to deal with the nerves...!

PS - I'm quite shy - are people normally on their own at conferences? There is a PhD conference preceeding the main one, so I'm hoping I'll meet some people there.

Hi all,

I know there have been a few threads about this but I've a few questions. I've been accepted to a major conference over the summer and am having such a dilemma as to what to wear (it's my first one) - as if that was the least of my worries!! I'm short and slim - is it acceptable to wear a short - ie just above knee length skirt? I've seen a very pretty one - is softly pleated/ruffled but don't know if it would be too casual. I'll be there fore 4 days so need things to interchange/mix and match. I think I'm too short for pencil skirts and need to feel comfortable. Will most people - female - being wearing suit type combos? I'm envisaging a lot of black and grey! There is a formal conference dinner - do people tend to change for this? Would a dress be the norm? My supervisor is male so can't ask him!

Many thanks

Hi,
Thanks for all the replies. You confirmed a lot of my feelings. I've let sup1 know - no response tho and sup2 has mysteriously requested a meeting with me - feel like an idiot as if they've been discussing me! Dreading the meeting - I really thought things were going well :(

Hi all,

Just wondering if I could get some friendly advice - confused.com here! In brief, I finish my PhD in September and am well on track, all has been going great with chapters I have submitted to my first sup - a world leader in his field and he is really pleased. A little too great perhaps!

After I get each chapter back, I make the necessary amendments - usually a reference or two, some more theory in places and typos and then send to my 2nd sup. Problem - he really doesn't like it - describing what 1st sup has termed excellent as vague, incoherent, lacking an explicit argument and unidimensional! Major panic now! 1st sup has never mentioned any of this and I know from pervious work with him he certainly would if he saw fit. I have also had an article published in a major journal so am (was) relatively confident of my approach and style.

What do I do? I will raise the issues with sup1, but don't want to immediately rush to him and say sup2 said... I am worried that if an examiner said similar to sup2 I'd be looking at a major rewrite - I really thought all was going well :(

Hi all,
I have a rather random question! I submitted an article to a journal approx ten weeks ago. The review process should take around 8 weeks for this journal but with Christmas I guess things got a little delayed. From my submission to three days ago I hadn't heard anything. At the weekend I received an email saying that before they could proceed further I needed to confirm my paper was not being published elsewhere or was not part of another larger work in publication. I know this is all part of the normal rules and so forth, but my question is why ask now? Does it mean my paper might have a chance (ha ha!) or maybe they just forgot to do it at the time of submission? Or am I reading into it too much? I don't want to get my hopes up but obviously acceptance would be very good!
Thanks.