PhD support group?

magyar

ffeindadifyr wrote:

Hello all... a mate of mine is finding it hard knuckling down to write the last bit of his thesis... does anyone here know of somwhere that a student writing up a thesis could go for say 3-8 weeks to finish up writing a thesis?

I don't know about funding, but I'd advise against starting a 'proper' job whilst he writes up. I made the mistake of doing so, and of course you very quickly get caught up in the daily grind.

I'd advise getting a "McJob" - just enough to pay the bills, and one where you won't mind knocking off on time or whatever, and writing up like that. Else I can guarantee he'll still be writing six months later!

Best of luck to him by the way.

ftbworried

I'm a first year PhD and :eek: I got some 'interesting' results recently. My supervisor(s) were very happy and said if I can justify the theory behind it and make sure that no one else has done this then we could get a publication out of it.

How on earth can I be sure no one else has done it? I've spent 3 hours going through pubmed searching all the relative keywords i can think of and have found nothing. But when can I be SURE there'e NOTHING the same out there? What do the rest of you do it?

DrFluffy

Also try a 'people' search. Who are your big collaborators/competitors? Search by lab head name and go through the results to double check they haven't published anything similar.

You can never be 100%. A friend of mine got a paper back from peer review and one of the reviewers said it was not 'novel' giving the reference of a paper in a REALLY obscure journal...

All you can do is your best.

I'd start working on the theory, as this might all be incidental!

magyar

Agree with DrFluffy above. Have you done your lit. review yet? This should throw up anything. Three hours searching an online database doesn't sound exhaustive. Talk to your library; they're usually very good at helping you do a search.

Also talk to your supervisor, colleagues etc.

ftbworried

magyar wrote:

Have you done your lit. review yet? This should throw up anything. Three hours searching an online database doesn't sound exhaustive.

Yes thanks, I've done my literature review but it was focussed on a slightly different area- this experiment was an aside to what I'm meant to be doing. I know 3 hours searching an online database isn't exhaustive (but it was horrendously boring!) it just made me think that I could send 3 hours, 30 hours or 3000 hours searching and I might be missing that ONE publication.

Thanks to both of you for your advice. When I asked my supervisor this question he laughed and said "just search xxxx (our 'rivals' surname!)' but I thought he was just being sarcastic! Maybe that will be my first port of call then.

hostie

Hope you have managed to do a thorough check by now ftbworried. It sounds like you have something exciting on your hands so good luck!

I just wanted to ask how many hours a day people devote to their studies. I am a full time PhD student. A friend said at the weekend that he got his PhD in arts subject by going to the library every day for about 5 or 6 hours. Is this enough? I spend a lot of time at home reading and doing practical admin things and don´t know if I am working enough.

celyn90

hostie wrote: »

Hope you have managed to do a thorough check by now ftbworried. It sounds like you have something exciting on your hands so good luck!

I just wanted to ask how many hours a day people devote to their studies. I am a full time PhD student. A friend said at the weekend that he got his PhD in arts subject by going to the library every day for about 5 or 6 hours. Is this enough? I spend a lot of time at home reading and doing practical admin things and don´t know if I am working enough.

I start in the lab at 7 am and rarely leave before 8 pm (including some weekends). It isn't normal to be pushed that hard, but in my group you just have to put up with it. I'm really organised too, so it isn't like I'm slacking off for half the day. I'm not allowed to work from home and all my literature searches and paperwork gets done in the evenings, in what's left of my own time. This isn't normal or they way it should be. It makes the group unhappy and kills productivity in the long run and it hasn't made my thesis any better.

My advice is to do as much as you feel happy doing and not to get weighed down by it all. Treat it as you would a job and set your boundaries early. Keep in touch with yur supervisor and ask for feedback so you don't get lost along the way. If they are a good supervisor, they will guide you and let you know if you need to put more time in. If you feel you are being productive and progressing well then that is the main thing. best of luck! cel x

DrFluffy

celyn90 wrote: »

I start in the lab at 7 am and rarely leave before 8 pm (including some weekends). It isn't normal to be pushed that hard, but in my group you just have to put up with it. I'm really organised too, so it isn't like I'm slacking off for half the day. I'm not allowed to work from home and all my literature searches and paperwork gets done in the evenings, in what's left of my own time. This isn't normal or they way it should be. It makes the group unhappy and kills productivity in the long run and it hasn't made my thesis any better.

That sounds so very familiar!

magyar

celyn90 wrote: »

I start in the lab at 7 am and rarely leave before 8 pm (including some weekends). It isn't normal to be pushed that hard, but in my group you just have to put up with it. I'm really organised too, so it isn't like I'm slacking off for half the day. I'm not allowed to work from home and all my literature searches and paperwork gets done in the evenings, in what's left of my own time. This isn't normal or they way it should be. It makes the group unhappy and kills productivity in the long run and it hasn't made my thesis any better.

My advice is to do as much as you feel happy doing and not to get weighed down by it all. Treat it as you would a job and set your boundaries early. Keep in touch with yur supervisor and ask for feedback so you don't get lost along the way. If they are a good supervisor, they will guide you and let you know if you need to put more time in. If you feel you are being productive and progressing well then that is the main thing. best of luck! cel x

I think you're absolutely right here. There's no 'right' or 'wrong'; what's important is to make sure that the work/life balance is right.

One way of viewing it is to say that whoever's funding you is paying you to get a PhD. The other is to say that they're paying you to work on a subject and it so happens that at then you're writing a thesis.

If someone's only working 5-6 hours a day (on average - it's obviously OK to have the odd short day...) then to be honest they're not really fulfilling their part of the bargain.

celyn90

DrFluffy wrote: »

That sounds so very familiar!

I don't know why scientists are made to work so hard! I'm not even sure what I'm going to do with the DPhil when it's done! :rotfl: :rotfl: