Hi,

I'm 12,000 words into my lit review having submitted my proposal and everything was going good until pow.... I find a paper that has basically addressed my topic. It was hidden away in a very expensive book! Least to say my metal health is teatering on the edge just now and i'm just looking for ideas on how I can deal with this without losing all my work:(:(:(

The question the paper address is similar to mines - except I am measuring what the paper measures but under different circumstances. I am using a complete different population and a different method, my sutdyy differs as it is measuring differences between three populations - one which has access to resources. But the overall just of the question is the same.

The answer is probably in front of me but my head is all over the place with literature. Just looking for some friendly advice :(:(

I wouldn't worry too much about it. You have probably noticed in the literature there are a few researchers that they do very similar research, and you normally group them together. And if they found the same thing, then the evidence becomes stronger. You can use the findings of this work to compare it with your work in the discussion part, and if you have similar findings then it adds validity to your work. If you have different findings you will have to justify (maybe because of the different populations or the different method).

It's frustrating, but if you're using different methods in a different population, that should be sufficient difference to qualify as original research. It's difficult to know without more details about your field/topic as to how this overlap would impact upon the potential impact of your work, but it's unlikely to invalidate it as a PhD topic.

Have a chat with your supervisor about it. The truth is there are very few completely novel research topics as most things build in some way on existing work. If you only found this other work hidden away in a book then the chances are that it has had limited real world impact as few will have read it, so there is the opportunity for you to translate the concepts to a wider audience.

Keep going! :)

Was the research published in a peer reviewed journal? and when was it published? Indeed it is really great that you have identified this paper/research now, rather than after you have completed your research and submitted your thesis. If the research was peer reviewed, then you need to include it in your literature review, and explain how you will be building on this research in your piece of work, e.g. by validating it in a different population using different methods. I understand that you are frustrated, but it this happens quite often, often because of the time lag between completing research and getting the research published.

It's good to consider your research study as not a stand alone piece of work, but rather something that fits into a wider group of research studies, each of which build on each other. What did the research you mention find? was it similar to the effects you are expecting for your research? what did the paper suggest for further directions, what did they say about how to improve the research for future research? I would even go so far as to contact the authors of the paper, and explain your plans, and speak to them about to how to move research in this area forward.

Good luck! :)

Thanks guys. I spoke to my supervisor and as I thought My knickers were in a twist over nothing. I now see that finding this paper is a positive that I can build upon. Until the next freak out.....:) Thanks