Do I need to tell supervisor or am I blowing this out of proportion?
Completed proposal and submitting ethics for approval before I can carry out my research study. In thinking about my literature review/background, I realised I should have talked about a key paper that had conflicting findings to the rest of them. It was a mistake to have not talked about this paper, as it should have been discussed as it is definitely very relevant. Thankfully, it does not change the proposed research questions or hypotheses - this all remains the same - it does change the line of argument very slightly though. I will definitely need to include this paper in the dissertation background / literature review. My question is - do I need to inform my supervisor about this mistake or shall I just ignore it and change my literature review for the dissertation to incorporate that paper and its findings?
On one hand I think I may be blowing this out of proportion (I was awake all night last night). But on the other hand, I don't want supervisor to be surprised that this wasn't included originally when it clearly is relevant (and it will be noticeable as it is an under-studied area).
Many thanks for advices!
Yes I think you are worrying too much! Having said that, I know the feeling and have had the same worry! I've found it's fine and I can just add missed references in later drafts when writing for thesis or papers, but I'm in molecular biology so my work doesn't get evaluated by ethics committees! I would tell your supervisor and I expect it won't make any difference at this stage.
Have you still got an interview of assessmnet to attend based on what you've submitted? In which case that's your opportunity to show you are aware of the paper and its alternative view. Anyhow don't beat yourself up- there is (literally!) no need to lose sleep over it.
Take a deep breath and let it out.
Your thesis will change and alter as you go, what it looks like now will not necessarily be the final product. It's fine that a key study was not included, you can include it now and it's not going to make a huge difference :)
I had a fairly similar experience too (submitted my proposal and then became aware of a paper that addressed a lot of the questions I was asking and should definitely have been mentioned!). I just spent some time thinking through the implications of the paper for my own research, the things I was doing that meant mine was different etc, and I talked to my supervisor about it the next time I met him. I had spent time worrying about it too, but my supervisor said it wasn't a big deal at all.
