He secured the funding for the project, therefore the project and the paper would not exist without him - he should definitely be an author.

I loved my PhD most at the end - I really liked writing-up and pulling all my stuff together and watching my thesis grow in to this great big body of work - I felt immensely proud of myself, cos I did not think I would ever reach that point. I guess having the end in sight is quite nice... but not because I didn't enjoy myself. I guess I found the beginning very tough - not knowing if I belonged because everyone else seemed so switched on and bright and motivated and clued up, and I really was not sure of my research question - but it grew and developed with time and I grew in confidence also...I remember thinking that this forum was full of problems etc - but I guess that is the point of this forum - it would be weird and annoying if someone just posted on here about how fantastic they are and how great everything is for them all the time!! (ahem....)

don#t worry!! I really don't think examiners read the acknowledgements, and even if they do - be calm, it is no biggy! I think your stress is making you blow this all out of proportion! :-)

I am 30 and 1.5 yrs into my first post doc. I live with my husband (who is also a post doc) in our 2 bed flat (we have a mortgage, but a small one for this place) and we have just bought another 3 bed house :p we hope to sell, or failing this, rent our flat out next year.. until then we will live in our flat whilst we do the new house up - not sure when I will actually get any post doc work done!! both places are approx 30min walk from uni. we currently have no children, but there will be some pretty soon...:-x

I started my PhD in 05 and finished in 08, got post doc and currently wondering where it all went wrong and why on earth I am down this route!! it is kind of fun sometimes, but a lot of the time I am fed up with how badly my new project is going ... but why do you want to go back to the PhD? have you hit a wall and need a PhD to progress? what ever the reasons -... good luck if you do go back!!

OMG Saatchi this is the funniest thing I have read in a long time!! This has made my day! (I am stuck in work early on a sat morning, so it takes a lot to make me laugh out loud just now!!)

x

this is so sad...

my boyfriend specifically waited until after I had finished before he proposed to me :-) - we talked about marriage near the beginning of our relationship (which was also near the beginning of my PhD) and apparently I had said I thought it would be hell to organise a wedding whilst doing a PhD!!! I really don't remember saying this- though I can imagine that it would be true! esp if you leave it till you are in 3rd/ 4th year! not least because of time, money and enthusiasm! I just put my PhD before everything (partly because I was determined to finish in 3yrs).. I also think that he wanted to make sure I would go back to being 'normal and happy' once I had finished... not sure that has actually happened!! but still... we get married later this year (up)

I am sooooo broody!! and so I just wanted to make a quick comment- I am getting married at the end of this year, have just turned 30 and am in my first year of my first post doc - desperately worrying much the same as you, Florence - when will I be 'able' to have children! and of course it is so true, that if you wait till it is 'right' you will be waiting for ever! I thought that when the PD was over that everything would fit into place, and it sort of has certainly improved (better wage etc) but the hours are still long, the stress is still there and in 2 yrs time I will be out of a job and desperately trying to get my own grants/next post doc - who would take on a pregnant person? not many people... so, it really is not all about 'i must finish my phd because it is stopping me living' - your PhD was your choice, it takes time and dedication, and you will def get more out of it if you enjoy, rather than resent, doing it. AND once it is over, it is still much the same!! Sorry!

SD shows the variation eg caused by biological variation (ie natural) in the data... whereas the SEM gives an indication of the precision of the estimate of the mean (similar to a confidence interval). I always show SEM - since most journals use this etc, SD bars are always way bigger! the bigger your sample size, the smaller the SEM and so the more sure you can be of your estimate of the mean.

A 2.1 is fine to do a PhD with.. why do the MSc? if you want to do a PhD, you could just go straight for it! a Msc is a lot of money, and I doubt that most supervisors pay much attention to whether you have an MSc or not.. but that is just my 2 cents worth! (I am more au fait with the sciences though)

you need to do a proper post hoc test to determine where significance is coming from - not just multiple t-tests!!!

sort of... but why not analyse the data together? because doing multiple independent tests is not good (increases likely hood of type1 error...) use an ANOVA? one or two way, depending on exp design... this is the only way to really be able to conclude anything across effects - make sense?

the T value = effect size NOT p value!! this just says how significant effect is, not how big...

only use GG corrected DF and F ration if sphericity is violated - use normal F ratio and degrees freedom if sphericity is ok...ok?!