Hi there,

Newbie here! I'm in a social-sciences-field and somehow am expecting "ideological" differences with my supervisor to increase. My favoured (theoretical) approach to my project seems to differ quite much from his general theoretical line. Was generally curious if people are familar with this situation and if you believe it can be negotiated in the long run. My hunch is that he'll let me have my way if I manage to get stuff published (and thereby add to the department's publication record), but I'm not sure about that (and besides I think trying to publish something will seriously delay the whole Phd). At the moment I don't have any clear restrictions (I'm in my first year and still working on the reworking of my proposal), but I wonder how long this will last.

Any thoughts on this issue are very appreciated..

I am trying to get a paper published but it is joint with my supervisor, so I have to do it her way. At the moment I don't feel confident that I have the skills to submit a paper on my own.


I hope that your supervisor respects your differences, in an ideal world I think they should be able to see the value in something that is good but has a different approach to theirs, but it is a very personal thing.

I was advised that publishing during your PhD is a GOOD thing. My associate supervisor says that the examiners can "sometimes get confused between something that is bad and something they don't like", and that one or two publications in quality journals helps to clear it up.

Best of luck

I published a paper without my supervisor for this reason. There was non acrimony at all, I just realised and pointed out that we had stalled due to a conflict over some of the inferences, he agreed, and I published on my own. He was just happy to get another paper and not at all bothered.

I'm about to have the same problem again - but this time is much more serious because some of my data is 'owned' by another researcher and I actually cannot publish without their approval. This is why I haven't done it yet - I'm still figuring out the best way to support our differing views in the one publication. I think it can be done - we'll see.

I think it depends on which differences you are talking about. Some differences are easy to weather - but some cannot be born. If the conflict is such that the two views are totally mutually exclusive in a topic which is central to your supervisor's work, that could be too difficult and begs the question why you are working together at all.