I think what Rewt is saying is that you need to think about what you want to do a PhD on - You can definitely do something on economics, but that is a huge field and you need to decide on a research idea on a very small part of it. Here's a website that lists 100 different topics so you can see what I mean:
https://www.ivoryresearch.com/library/dissertation-topics/economics-dissertation-topics/

Once you have a topic, the department rewt is referring to is where you can study it - You would have to find a department that does research in a related area or a supervisor with particular interests. It's a case of looking at what literature is already out there and who is writing it!

I was going to complete for you, but to be honest I have issues with your intro page. It's far too complicated for me to understand what your research question is - I don't know what dark triad traits and big five personality variables are which is kind of off putting for someone not working in the field.

More importantly however, I couldn't see anything about having ethical approval for the study. It doesn't have any assurances about my information being kept anonymous and doesn't tell me who is going to be able to have access to my data. What I'm trying to say is there's nothing here about informed consent.

I would suggest reviewing the information you are giving to people which might help your response rate.

I can't help with specifics I'm afraid, but having recently done a survey myself, I found Facebook to be by far the best way of recruiting. My university and sponsors both published the link on their pages and I managed to get a few other charity organisations in a related field to share the link as well and joined many related facebook groups (local and regional) and asked to share in there as well.

I also posted in several internet forums and managed to get it in a widely circulated magazine.

Something else I did was get some business cards printed with the survey url on. I had hoped I could get to some local shows or that there would be meetings/conferences I could attend and hand them out but sadly it ended up not working with my time frame.

One tip, which I only started doing later is to tailor the URL based on where you're sharing it, that way you can see which route your responses are coming through

Everyone feels like they're falling behind on their PhD in the first few months. My supervisor spent the first four months saying to me every time I saw her "It's ok to just do background reading".

For most of my first year I was in a very large office pretty much on my own. The others who were there hardly ever came in because of long commutes. I found this particularly difficult considering I had come from a very busy, huge open plan office. I had to jump at opportunities to socialise with other people in the department in order to get to know them and make friends. Recently I moved to a smaller office with two great office mates which is more in the middle of where everything goes on - That has really helped and I'm enjoying things more. The moral of this is think abut your surroundings and make sure they work for you.

Join clubs - You're really not old, and even if you're with undergrads, those in their final year are going to be 21/22 (23 if they took a gap year) anyway so it's hardly a huge age gap. Organise social events with your department. See what PhD social events are going on. There's plenty you can do to get more involved and make friends.

You've really not been there long and it's ok to feel out of sorts and take a while to settle in. Just cut yourself some slack and give yourself time.

A final point, long distance relationships are hard (I did one throughout my undergrad - we're still together), but you get into a routine and they get easier. Once you're more settled and find your feet you can probably find that you don't need to work from the office so much and can spend more time in London.

Thanks! I'll give it a go!

I've discovered I can get some if I go to the British library as well. Hopefully I can track most of them down!

just wondering if anyone has suggestions on how to access journal articles?

My PhD is social science based, however I'm at a specialist university which doesn't really do social science. As such I'm finding that I can't access half of the full texts I need for my literature review. I have access to the SRA so I'm looking to see if I can access any through them but so far no luck.

I know I may be able to request some through Researchgate but haven't found this very successful in the past and there's a lot to request.

Has anyone come up against this before and found a solution?

If it helps, you haven't imagined it. I know the one you mean. I'll see if I can find it.

Echoing rewt's response.

I'm just about 1 year in. I've got a Masters and work experience behind me and I feel like I know absolutely nothing and that I'm surrounded by people who are younger and so much smarter than me. So yes, it's very normal to feel like that and even if you'd joined later, I can assure you that you'll still feel like that!

I try not to think about what others are doing and how far they've got in their studies and just to focus on my own thing. Different supervisors will have different methods, I know some who were getting their students to write review papers in their first few months while mine was reassuring me that it was ok to just be background reading. My advice is to just do what works for you and if your supervisor can help then don't be afraid to ask (for me we're going to be setting more writing type deadlines moving forward so I have dates to work to).

Ok breathe.. To be honest I'm concerned by your subject line. You've already decided it's going to go badly! A negative attitude is never going to help so focus on the positives.

You know your study objectives, results, strengths and limitations so that's a great start. So you should have a very good idea from that why you chose those methods over others. These are all positives.

I would try to organise some 'mock vivas' or even just discussions. Perhaps with people from your old department who you can talk through your work with a focus on the areas you feel weakest. Even if you can't get anyone in a science field, just talking about it with friends and family will probably help (give them a list of the types of questions you expect to be asked) - I'm sure you'll find a) you know more than you think and b) you'll feel happier and more confident going into the viva.

I know certainly when I've done a mock interview before the main event I've felt like I've performed better on the real thing.

Best of luck!

If you don't already have something else to go to then it's probably going to take you at least several months to find a job. So personally I'd be knuckling down with a structured plan on how to finish my PhD in that 6 months and going for it.

There's nothing to stop you looking for jobs in the meantime and applying for any that seem like a good fit. If you get offered something, then you can look at how the progress is going and how long you have left, but to me it seems a shame to throw it all in now when you've already worked so hard