hey..

would be interesting to know what those who have submitted are doing as they wait for their viva.

personally, i spent an hour today looking up journals where i could start sending out my work. i intend to open my thesis and read through it tomorrow which is a nerve wrecking experience because there is nothing i can do about an error i discover now. however the thesis needs to be opened and read and chunks sent out for publication.

i find that this is a very lonely road. whilst before my motivation was to complete a thesis - which i did - and to get a phd - which i can do nothing about at this point! - and maybe a supervisor to answer to now and then, from here its me on my own. publishing ever in life or continuing with research is totally up to me. no one will ever follow me up. the phd was a lonely experience. this is LONELY...

anyhow, it would be nice to find others who are at this stage to talk with and motivate each other regarding, publishing, jobhunting, holidays - what to do? where have you gone that's interesting? have you got any interesting interviews? what do you plan to do post phd? is it all working out?

J.

Hi Jojo,

first of all still congratulations for having submitted and for coming this far. As such you are a winner already, as many who try a PhD, for whatever reason, do now reach this step. Now it is a matter of perseverance, getting from submission through to the viva.

I am in a similar position as you, have submitted some time ago and expect the viva to be in November, yet do not know the exact date. Reading the thesis again and again, is just boring and I am not sure whether that will bring a lot. By the way, it is inevitable that you will come across mistakes / typos, everyone does. Perhaps it is useful to produce a list of typos, which you can take with you at he viva, indicating that you have spotted them yourself.

Like you I am trying to prepare via the production of a paper. As this is "just" viva preparation I have aimed for a relatively "easy journal", yet the good news is that this has been accepted, and will be published next year. Also I have summarised the thesis according to the book of Jackson and Tinkler.

Overall I think the trick is to stay occupied with the subject, but to avoid "learning by heart".:-)

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am impressed with what you've done Rick! congratulations!

am also just going for an easy journal first. i've just clocked in for the day. if i can do an hour or so I'll be happy. :-)

thanks for your encouragement. i have indeed achieved something. I will definitely find that book and make a summary - when am told when d-day is. before, publishing will do..

J.

Congrats Jojo, and Rick, on submitting :D Hope to be there with you soon.

My plan is to write up a paper that I've putting off till submission, set up some experiments and really start planning a pretty intensive research programme so that if I get the chance to please myself I'll have plenty ready to go. Also probably going to do a big tour of my family to let them know that I do indeed still exist!

I rather wish I had! But my supervisor had very ambitious ideas for me, and it seemed like a good idea post-viva :$ I've two papers out for review at the moment, one with one of the most eminent journals in my subject, one with the most eminent in my particular country. Sheesh! I'm expecting to be knocked-back, but I did get a big confidence boost after passing the viva, so I reckon I will be ok whatever happens.

But going for an easier journal has an awful lot to be said for it! :p

I recuperated between submission and viva, and carefully prepared for my viva, per Tinkler and Jackson, in a very laid-back way. I also came down with shingles due to the permanent chemo drugs I am on, so I was very poorly and in a lot of nerve pain, and not able to do much for many weeks. Was just rather relieved to make it there on the day!

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@bilbo - sorry to hear what you went thro pre-submission and how the journals are delaying feedback. i pray all goes well for you. you deserve it!

re the easy journal - its not that easy to get into. its easy in the sense that they publish monthly. as opposed to say twice a year. so there is higher chance of getting in SOON and improving CV and job prospects. the journal is ranked 4th in my subject area. After that i'll target the one ranked 3rd. My other publications are in one ranked 9th. So all in all its an improvement. Some of my work is good enough for the top journal but am not willing to wait til end of next year to have it published. i should be thinking of a book then. that's the plan anyway. :-)

J.

we're cheering you on Peljam!(up) sounds like you have concrete plans. the experiments should help to keep motivation up. am in humanities.. so its all reading. :-)

I'm trying to find a job :-( so... lots of internet searching and trying to make myself look awesome ;-) It's not really working though.

Apart from that, there's watching tv. I've looked at my thesis for about ten minutes since submitting. AND I have a mock viva next week :$

Ah monthly publication. Wow. Well the higher impact journal I'm going for makes a decision within 3 months and publishes within 12, which is really fast for history journals. Neither journal is delaying things BTW. They're just going through the normal peer-review process at the mo.

I'm not going for a book publication. I took the chance to take my examiners' advice in the viva, and the external thought I'd need to do quite a lot of rewriting to turn my thesis into a book, and also I knew that would be rather impractical for me due to the neurological illness.

So I'm taking the easier option of journal papers, which I've done before anyway. It's fun, though I'm taking it baby steps. Well apart from aiming at ambitious journals :p

I had my viva a couple of weeks ago. It was 8 weeks beween my submission and my viva and I did absolutely nothing to do with philosophy in this time except read my thesis each Sunday afternoon. If I did try to do any work - and this only lasted a few days in the first week after submission - or even read any texts that were remotely theoretical I just got really angsty and began to obsess over my thesis; how much I hated it, how it made me cringe, how it was horribly amateur etc. Anyway I passed the viva and only had to fix a few typos. In fact, I really enjoyed the 2nd half of the viva once it became obvious that I had passed and that these examiners were in fact trying to give me advice on possible publication houses, new directions for research etc. My point being do whatever you can to get through this horrible period of time - I hated this viva-anticipation period more than any other part of the whole experience - so that on the day you stand in front of the examiners you feel the best about yourself and your argument that you possibly can.

Thanks for posting this message Jojo. I'm also wondering what to do with myself now that I've submitted. Congratulations on submitting JoJo. Judging from your posts, I'm sure you will be fine for the viva.

I feel terrible about the PhD I submitted 2 weeks ago- I literally feel sick with anxiety. Over the weekend, I'm wondering if I should solidly work on preparing for my viva rather than looking for work. I'm terrified I'll receive an MPhil from it so I'll probably need the time to revisit my PhD and be in a better position when it comes to defending it.

My vivas not until January now so I have sometime to prepare for my viva.

In the meantime, I'm going to complete an application for a doctorate in clinical psychology for sept 2011 entry and think about completing work as part of this little course I started in september. Maybe even look for some kind of employment (I was rejected by a few agencies for being over qualified!)