Thanks for your responses. Yes, it seems that at this particular stage it is an unwritten rule to include your supervisor within the authorship. I think what I will do is actually broach the subject with them and ask outright what the standard form of acknowledgement is for the weight of their contribution and take it from there. I will definitely acknowledge them in my work as they have been quite encouraging over the course of my study, but I'm hoping they might be quite sympathetic to the situation. Here's keeping everything crossed...

Thanks Smilodon. I would be needing them as a referee, but the difficulty I guess is knowing how to broach the issue.

I raised this discussion in the Prospective PHd student forum (general)if you'd like to come on board there? Cuts out the to and fro between forums- thanks

Thanks for your advice Rookie and Johnn. Yes, with some after thought I don't think challenging their authorship would be beneficial at this point. Its difficult because I do get along with my supervisor otherwise, but I couldn’t agree to them being first author, which for some reason is something masters students are made to agree to at my uni. I just feel its unfair as my tutor knew nothing of my topic area when I begun and didn’t contribute anything intellectually.

Do you really think helping to set it out into an acceptable format warrants authorship?

I'm in the process of submitting my dissertation for publishing for which I worked long and hard and eventually gained a distinction. However, now my supervisor who contributed nothing except recommending a few books (which I already had) is muscling their way in and referring to my work as theirs. I have a strong feeling that they will want to be authored on this. At best I will acknowledge them, mainly for fear my uni will turn its back on me and sour my research career before its even begun. I just want to know if I can submit my work without their assistance to prevent them using this as a reason to gain authorship in some way? Or would that be bad practice? thanks.

thanks- does this mean you'll answer my question if I post here?

No it was for my masters

I'm in the process of submitting my dissertation for publishing for which I worked long and hard and eventually gained a distinction. However, now my supervisor who contributed nothing except recommending a few books (which I already had) is muscling their way in saying things like 'when I submit my paper...' and I have a strong feeling that they will want to be authored on this. At best I will acknowledge them for fear my uni will turn its back on me and sour my research career before its even properly begun. I just want to know if I can submit my work without their assistance to prevent them using this as a reason to gain authorship in some way? Plus, we had to write a declaration that our supervisor can recreate our work after submitting our dissertation. I was in two minds about this but went along at the last high pressured minutes of submittal thinking that if I left it out or queried it I'd get marked down. I just feel duped and a bit out of control.

DClinPsy hasn’t always been my first choice, and its great that there's so much overlap between the areas, that all are appealing in some way or another. I don't want to deter prospective students from entering the field as it's a rich(in terms of personal gain), fulfilling, and worthwhile area of study, that benefits whole communities, nationally and world wide, which is why I love it so much . Students just need to know that professional qualification isn’t as straight forward as many vocational courses where you are more likely guaranteed work in some capacity within your chosen field. I will keep my options open.

I do think that educational and forensic are a lot straighter forward, in terms of access, however, they all do require money, for which I believe government funding for edPsy has been removed, and although you work while you study, the fees are extortionate. This is why a lot of people who think about entering these areas choose to work for a while to save up a little beforehand, but the jobs which will also give you relevant experience, even those at the start of the ladder, ask for some kind of experience (!?).

To be specific, I'm referring to the whole structure of the undergrad and post grad psy degrees. This might be a little controversial, but I think the whole thing should be taken apart from the beginning and made more vocational from the start, like social work- so you have the skills to go out into the community to practice at some level with people who are in need of care, and then the option to specialise further is there if you want it.

None taken. I see where you're coming from Badhaircut, and to be fair, I haven’t actually applied to any DClinPsy courses as yet. I figured since I've been facing only rejection for assistant places, based solely on my application form for the past four months, there was little point in skipping one rung on the ladder and applying directly for DClinPsy, knowing how competitive it is. You're not the first to suggest to me that I take other routes, which I have, and thanks, I'll keep on looking into them. I did have the view that it was unfair before I even started applying for assistant posts, based on others experiences and talks with lecturers. My use of 'unfair' was a little cloudy.

I have also looked into studying abroad. An old course mate went over just after graduating and is currently fully qualified and practising in child psychology! She's lucky though as she has a family base there, I think it would need a lot deeper tought and planning for me to up root right now, though I have seriously considered it. The only major thing is that I don't think the qualifications over there confers to BPS, so I would'nt be able to practice over here if I wanted to with APA qualifications. I going keep looking into though.

yes, I've re-done my personal statement so many times now, I'm begnning to see that the problem with finding work might lay else where. I do think the whole system of gaining entry into professional psychology is unfair though.

Anyone contemplating entering undergrad psy including further study in the area to become fully qualified should be given a health warning. Or, just fully briefed on what to expect through the next ten years or so. Living like a pauper, with the ever growing uncertainty of ever reaching your goal. But hey, there's always HR...

woops! sent those last two messages the wrong way around...

I already have research work experience too, and alittle bit of clinical work experience, but I suppose its early days and I am competing against thousands in a really competitive field. I did get an offer of a job today through an agency, it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, but at least it’s a starting point. I guess I was'nt prepared for having to start right at the bottom of the work ladder, after working my way up the academic ladder so far, I thought I ight at least have a chance of starting somewhere in the middle …thanks again and good luck to you both