hi all, I want to ask for your experience in terms of self-referencing in conference abstracts. They say that you should not disclose your identity, so I guess self-referencing counts? Do you do it? Were you ever rejected because of it? If you can't self-reference, how do you talk about your previous work which is very relevant? Thanks a lot!!

Hi Mlis, I'm sorry you have to go through such a horrible situation. I wonder if you can do some teaching instead of working in a call centre? My uni employ PhD students and those who are in the gap like you to teach undergraduate courses. It doesn't pay very well (no pay in summer term of holidays for example), but at least you get to stay in an academic environment and have access to research facilities?

I wonder how many science PhD students (maybe this applies to humanity students too?) mainly focus on writing and publishing journal papers, and just "put them together" to form a thesis towards the end? I am in my second year. I recently realised that what will get you a job is mainly your publication record, that's why I'm thinking of taking this approach.

Hello everyone, how many of you use R instead of SPSS and Matlab (and SAS etc)? I am ok with SPSS, not good at all with Matlab. Since I heard that R is very powerful and trendy, I want to learn to use R. Any advice on websites, blogs and books? My institution doesn't have any courses on R, so I'll need to learn it by myself. Thanks!

Thanks so much for the replies!

Hi all, I'm going to attend a "proper" conference for the first time, and I have one paper accepted for poster presentation. I have a very stupid question here: do I need to register or is registration only for people who don't have anything to present? I'm asking because the registration fee is not a small amount, and I really don't want to waste that much money or being an idiot.
Thanks in advance!!

Hi Puravida, I'm a part-timer, and started my PhD last October. So far it hasn't been great. I have a part-time office job which takes up 3 days a week. It is not demanding but I do spend a lot of time commuting. That makes me very tired in the evening. On my "study days" I have always been very lazy, and spent lots of time browsing the internet, or simply lying in bed. I don't always go to my department on those two study days, because I always thought I could get a lot of work done at home without the cost of train tickets. It has proven to be a very bad idea, yet I always say to myself "this time it will be fine". I also find it extremely hard to work during weekends (not that I have much else to do), unless there is an urgent deadline. All in all, I feel like I haven't spent much time studying at all, and often feel guilty about it.

Can I join please? My goal today is to read two papers, and make notes on them.