Hello!
I am really concerned about my supervisor's behaviour. I was clear from the beginning of our cooperation that my intention was to publish my thesis and she agreed. However, she is quite indifferent about the publication process. For example, I noticed that when I prepared the initial manuscript and sent it to her, she didn't bother to open the file and she simply answered me that everything was fine (within hours!). Since it was my first time I was submitting a manuscript for publication I decided to trust her. This had as a result to receive the reviewers' comments that stressed some points that I am sure that would have been avoided if she had devoted some time to check my manuscript! I was so angry!
I decided to address all reviewers' comments one by one (thankfully they did not reject my manuscript and I have to re-send it with some corrections) and I sent the file with the answers and the manuscript (updated) to my supervisor to check it (here we laugh) although I knew that this was futile...And I was true. Within an hour she answered me that everything was fine (!?!?). I knew that she didn't even open the files as I had included some questions to her and of course she did not answer them.
The worst thing is that she accepted to be my referee for PhD applications and now I am sure that she will not spend more than 10 minutes on my reference. I am desperate since I do not have other referees from my master....
I am so angry...I really cannot understand why would a lecturer behaves like this...When we had a discussion and I told her that I would like to follow an academic career and she seemed to be really supportive. I really want to publish my thesis since this could constitute a positive factor towards been accepted to a funded PhD.
Has anyone experienced something similar? What should I do? Thank you in advance!

Next time, pick her up on those points - don't rely on email. Ask her face to face what she thought of it and whether she can answer those questions. Don't say you suspect she hasn't looked at things, but say you would like some specific feedback.

Hi, my respond may sound a little harsh, but my first reaction to your post was ‘What’s the problem?’ She told you that your draft was fine - it was accepted by the journal with corrections. And that sounds more than fine to me... That is basically the standard review procedure. Even if you had some of the things corrected before submitting, you would still have to correct other stuff...
Also, how do you know that your supervisor hadn't checked your drafts? It might appear to you that a couple of hours is not enough to thoroughly read through a script, and it's probably true. But skimming through it for crude mistakes is possible in that time and might be enough when the draft IS actually fine. Maybe you're underestimating your skills here? Also, why should your supervisor let you correct some minor stuff and let you do more of the same work again after the reviews? You could call your supervisor’s approach work efficient…
Regarding the reference letter: Again, it is your assumption that she will spend on it not more than 10 minutes. Might be not true. But even if, in the end her name on the reference letter and its general tone will count more than elaborated formulations.
Just my view on the things…

Getting a major revisions (revise and resubmit) on a journal paper is excellent news, don't be disheartened, your paper will get accepted.

With regards to your supervisor, just don't do a PhD with her. And don't worry about references, references are only taken after a formal offer anyways, its just a tick the box thing.

Thank you all for your answers!

#TreeofLife : Unfortunately, I am currently away from UK so I cannot meet her face-to-face. However, I sent her an email again asking her to give me feedback for some specific parts of the manuscript. We will see....

# beamsource: My draft was not rejected but to be honest I don't know if this means that it is accepted (I mean if they still want to see my updated manuscript so as to make a decision).

''Also, how do you know that your supervisor hadn't checked your drafts? It might appear to you that a couple of hours is not enough to thoroughly read through a script, and it's probably true. But skimming through it for crude mistakes is possible in that time and might be enough when the draft IS actually fine.''

I know that because when I was working on my thesis she had the same behaviour (I forgot to mention this). On the other hand though, this made me search and read more. Having completed two MScs I think I know when the supervisor indeed check the drafts (my supervisor of my second master thesis was gave me detailed feedback in my draft). Additionally, I really doubt that a manuscript submitted for publication is fine when simply there are not crude mistakes. I mean it must be a really good work. When you are inexperienced in this process coupled with the fact that you are no native english speaker you need some more help from a more experienced person (such as your supervisor).

''Maybe you're underestimating your skills here?''

Possibly you are right here. I've noticed that I do this all the time...

#Hugh: Thank you a lot for your suggestions!