Sneaks I'll join you today. In 9 hours time I must have read and made notes on the 7 papers on my desk and figure out how/if they relate to my experiments plus complete experiment design. EEK - must start!

I know what you mean - I've got a greyhound and she just loves squirrels!! There's just no her convinvcing that they're uncatchable - at least until she learns to climb trees that is :-)

Joyce I've ended up looking like some kind of alien fairy- which I hope doesn't accurately represent me in real life he he he :$

woohoo!! Thanks Sneaks and Sascha - I cast my first vote!

Thanks Sneaks but


nothing there for me - even though logged in and looking at the thread that a logged in user has created??

I can't find the helpful user button???

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how exactly do I vote for someone? I wanted to vote for Bilbobaggins, Eska, Lara and you too Sneaks, I think but couldn't figure out how to. Doh!!

Hi Pennyfarthing,

I started my PhD in a scientific field about three months ago and will be involved in a lit review for the majority of my 1st year . Like you, I had no idea how many hours/days I should be spending on work. I think it depends a bit on how you work. If you can put in 4 hours of focused work a day then leave guilt-free then that's your prerogative. However, if like me, half of the time at your desk is spent day dreaming/ procrastinating then obviously a longer working day is required to produce the same amount of work.

A word of advice, work/leisure-time boundaries are a must! This is something that I still struggle with. I find myself regularly working late nights and weekends because I feel guilty that I amn't making progress quickly. I've learned that this is counter-productive and am currently into my 4th week without a day off work and am pretty wrecked and pissed off with life. I wouldn't mind so much if I had something to show for the hours I put in but I'm too anxious to focus.

Sorry for the ramble, basically I'm just trying to say that I agree with KeenBean - treat your PhD like a job and work full time Mon-Fri. Keep your weekends and evenings free. I will endeavour to do the same! Think of it this way; you project is going to get more hectic/stressful as time progresses - you need to be strong to deal with that. :-)

hi eskobastion, I just sent you a pm with the website there (I hope - haven't used that function before!)

Thanks Eskobastion. There was nothing in the source code and no author listed on the website (it's an EU project site) so I guess I'm going with the n.d option. Is that an acceptable solution do you reckon? I need to get this papers ti supervisors tomorrow!

There are no obvious dates on the website to indicate when it may have been created so how do I reference this? Ready to shoot myself after a day of creating a new reference system in Endnote as it maintains that Authors names must be in block capitals using the harvard system after 2003!

Hi Matt
I'm in the very early stages of my phd too and I find Endnote really useful.
What I have done is made various groups based on the different topics I read. But I also have a more groups named " ???-read papers" so basically as I read papers, I drag them into these groups. Each paper can belong to many groups so there's no hassle there. So all of the papers that I have downloaded whether read or unread are in my Endnote library anf using the groups function I can organise them. Hope this makes some sense!!
ps. I search for papers through Google Scholar/SciencDirect and import the citations from there.

Thanks Poppy, that's what I was thinking too - it's not a new edition

Quick question - if a book has a copyright date of 2000 by the author and a reissued date of 2006 by the publisher which date do I use when referencing it?



Thanks guys, I know I should know all this stuff by now :$ But am in a bit of a flap trying to get a report written up

Hey guys, I just wanted to post an update and to thank all the people who took the time to try calm me down and help me. Those really un-productive days have passed at last. My supervisors have given me 2 really short deadlines for 2 really big things (well they will have a huge bearing on the success of my lab work depending on the decisions I make) and I'm stressed, of course, but it seems to have kicked me into action! I'm writing a document at the moment which is really pushing me to nail down exactly what I propose to do for the project so it's diffucult but I actually feel like I'm making some progress - YAY!! After months of aimless reading, it seems like a clearer plan is emerging. So thanks to everyone who helped me along and for anyone who is experiencing a similar problem - I didn't believe it at the time but it will pass. Now, I'm absolutely certain that I will have similar frustrating times in the future but I know now that it's only a temporary issue:-)