Maybe no replies means nobody has ever heard of it happening? I know I haven't, but that doesn't mean it can't happen.

To get a PhD you need to show that you are making an original contribution to knowledge, that your work is substantial enough to be called PhD level, and that your work is of a publishable standard. Having a publication obviously helps with that last point, and suggests you're on the right track. But it doesn't say anything about the original contribution, or the substantial nature of the work, or even things like how coherent the thesis is overall. So - I'd say a publication helps, and suggests you're doing something right, but overall it doesn't guarantee anything!

Sounds like you're busy today, Button!

I've been swimming and checked through my email this morning (which included a message from the editor of the journal I sent my paper to, saying it's of interest to the journal and is now being sent to reviewers - yay)

I've got loads of things I need to achieve this week - mainly making good progress (i.e. approaching finishing) my data analysis, preparing for next week's job interview, writing the draft thesis ready to send as complete a thesis as possible to my supervisors in 2 weeks, and preparing my presentation for the conference in two weeks. Yikes!

I need to break these tasks down to make them at all manageable. Today, I'm going to:
1.) Pull together everything I've got so far on the thesis to see where I am and what easy wins I can do first
2.) Make some more progress with testing my data analysis model
3.) Prepare for discussion about literature with supervisor tomorrow/for job interview questions on same topic

Should keep me busy! Good luck everyone else as well!

Morning everyone.

I didn't do any work yesterday - I was feeling tired and a bit earachey so I did some jobs around the house, went shopping to buy a jacket for my job interview, and lay on the sofa watching TV instead. Felt good! Time to get some work done now though.

I'm not in the mood for my data analysis today - will come back to that tomorrow. Today I'm going to do some more reading for meeting with supervisor on Tuesday, and also start planning my presentation for a conference in just over two weeks (eek!)

Yay, I got my model to work. Very happy, and relieved. It doesn't give the results I was hoping for, but never mind, I was kind of expecting that and at least it works!

I've run out of brain energy to do any more work today, so I'm going to look at a couple of job adverts someone suggested I think about applying for and then go to the pub to meet my friends for a couple of drinks. Back to work tomorrow.

Hope you all had good days, and if you're not back here tomorrow have good weekends!

Morning everyone.

A late start for me today, I went swimming first thing and have just been faffing around not getting started on work since then. Must focus!

Yesterday I tested my model and couldn't get it to work, but while I was swimming a solution came to me (that's one reason I like swimming in the morning, it clears my mind and quite often I get insights into my work). So, the first task of the day is to check my data to see if the solution is possible, and then if it is I can adjust and re-test the model. If not I'll be puzzling over how to get it to work. Fingers crossed!

Well done Button on finishing the journal paper!
And Benyaya, the thing about switching from breaststroke to crawl is interesting, wonder if that's why the few times I've tried crawl recently it's felt so unnatural.

======= Date Modified 30 Aug 2012 15:27:36 =======
Oh, I want to learn freestyle, I usually swim breaststroke but really should vary my stroke for maximum benefit. How are you learning, Benyaya, have you taken lessons or done it another way? The Swimfit website helped me improve my breaststroke but I've not tried to follow it to learn a new stroke completely (well, I learnt it badly when I was a child but have forgotten everything about it since then).

And swimming after the gym sounds like a really nice thing to do (but tiring - any lengths at all after gym sounds impressive!). I was going to join a gym when I moved house but I can't afford to go swimming and also go to the gym so am concentrating on swimming instead.

Anyway, I've read the paper about the method I'm using, and have designed my model. Next stage is to test it, but I'm feeling very tired and headachey, I may take an hour or so as a break and see if I'm feeling up to it after that. Too long staring at the laptop screen!

Morning everyone!

I'm going to try not to be distracted by the Paralympic Games today. No looking until later! My goals for the day:
1.) Read journal paper to look at how current method is presented
2.) Progress to next stage of data testing
3.) Read second paper that supervisor wants to discuss next week

Made some more good progress with the data analysis today, but the next step needs some careful thinking about and I'm feeling a bit tired from the stuff I've done so far. So, I'm going to switch to reading some papers my supervisor wants to discuss next week. That should fill up the rest of the day!

======= Date Modified 29 Aug 2012 10:03:06 =======
Hello there

I'm afraid I can't comment about your specific subject, or the specific universities you mention, because I don't know them at all. However, I would say that you don't need to base your MSc/MA choice of university on where you'd like to do your PhD, certainly in most subjects anyway. While it is very common for people to stay in the same university where they did their MSc/MA to do their PhD, it's also very common for people to move between universities at this stage as well, so it's unlikely to disadvantage you either way (unless there's something about those specific universities/subjects that I don't know).

There are advantages to both - staying at the same place can mean you have a better idea of which academics would be a good fit for your interests and your personality to act as PhD supervisors, while moving to somewhere new can open you up to new ways of thinking and new perspectives on your topic which could really strengthen your work.

If I were you, I think I'd look at which MA/MSc courses seem to suit you best and put more weight on that rather than trying to second-guess which would be better for a PhD further down the line.

Hope that helps!

On edit: the point below about funding for overseas students may be an important one to think of, not something I have experience with though.

Morning!

We have heavy rain here too this morning, but luckily it didn't start until I got back from swimming. And I beat my personal best time in the pool (80 lengths, 2 km, in 61 minutes, pathetically slow in reality I know but it's fast for me!) so I'm feeling all buoyed up and happy now.

Yesterday I made good progress on the data analysis, and feel confident that I'm getting there with it, even if it's taking far longer than I really wanted. So, more of the same today.

Button, good luck with the paper discussion section, I found my discussion and conclusions really hard to write on the paper I just submitted but it was worth persevering with.
And Benyaya, realistic goals are a good thing, I find I don't always stick to mine but just thinking about them helps me frame what I need to get done that day.

Morning everyone! Hope you all had a good weekend.

My eyes are much better than they were, still a bit sore but not too bad. And a few days away from work and the laptop has done me the world of good. I did get back to work yesterday but didn't come online.

Made some good progress with my data analysis, and I think I know what I'm going to do about the problems with the method I'm using. Today, I'm going to press ahead with that. Goals:
1.) Build new model for final behaviour from first sample
2.) Prepare data files to be able to compare models from other samples
3.) Start comparison of models
4.) When I've had enough of data analysis, start reading papers supervisor wants to discuss next week

That sounds like exactly the sort of thing I intend to do with some of my results, Button - can't see any problems with that.

I was going to get lots of work done today but woke up with really sore eyes and one so swollen I couldn't open it. So I spent part of this morning in the NHS walk-in centre, and apparently I have infected eyelids (!!!). I didn't even know eyelids could get infected. So I have to wash them three times a day in baby shampoo until they're better. They're so sore that spending any time reading is difficult, so I'm not going to bother doing any work today. I've been doing housework and stuff instead. Annoying, but one of those things. Hopefully it'll have cleared up when I come back to work on Monday.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Oh, thanks anyway - I think I'm just going to have to re-do a bit of analysis and then focus on my criticisms of the method rather than my non-working model! But I'll think about it tomorrow.

I suppose I could. Thanks, that's a solution if it comes to it.

And yes, data fishing describes it! I'm trying to be rigorous - and it's the path analysis with latent variables that I'm really interested in.

Thanks, I have got the Byrne book but it seems light on actual instructions to follow to get the software to do what I want. I'm coming to the conclusion that the whole of SEM is a bit rubbish, to be honest - the whole idea of post-hoc adjustments to a confirmatory model seems well dodgy to me! But maybe that's just because it's not working with my data :$