Hi,

Does anyone worry about having made mistakes that they have published or presented? I m in my third year and found a small mistake which didn't out of chance impact my results I had presented. it's set me back as I no longer trust myself and become v anxious. I feel like I make lots more mistakes than others. My supervisor is overloaded with work and so doesn't get chance to check what I'll doing and probably wouldn't be very sympathetic. I can't sleep and an forgetting to eat sometimes! they joys of PhD. Please let me know your experiences.

Thanks

I doubt any PhD student hasn't done this at one point. I presented at an international conference with something like 'this time period shows the same characters as the next' and showed two figures - turns out I accidentally used the same data twice so made the same exact same figure twice! Didn't matter as the correct data didn't change it very much and no one is ever going to notice hah! Don't get hung up on mistakes, it's all part of the learning process and is expected!

Years ago, while I was doing my masters, I published a paper online in a very famous academic journal in my field. This paper was actually the exact copy of one of my Masters' essays, and thus read and marked by my masters supervisor, who gave me the top grade in the class.

So I felt that it was worth publishing...

Wait for it...

After the journal was published, many academics on the largest forum in my field started commenting on a serious mistake I supportingly had made in the paper! I was reading their negative comments going online on the forum, and all these people criticized me! I hadn't even finished my masters yet, and I am not sure I understood why they were right and I was wrong.

Eventually I posted a reply on the forum thanking everyone for their comments, and telling them that I loved receiving feedback because I was still doing my masters, thus I have had just started research in the field.

But the whole thing made me scared of publishing.
It took me several years to re-publish again after this event.

But whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Mistakes happen!

Mara Sp.

Wow Mara - that must've been so tough, but I think you're completely right about what doesn't kill us...

I genuinely think that most academics will have done this at some point. I've been reading through some fellow PhD students' now finished theses this week (trying to get inspiration for my writing up!) and I've already noticed some (minor) mistakes in their work. My supervisor readily admits all the mistakes he made as he was going along - part of what I think makes him a great supervisor.

I've had 2 of situations where I've said something in meetings with other academics that with hindsight I now cringe at the thought of, but I try to not let it get to me too much. I think the most important thing is that we learn from it.

The thing that I have to keep reminding myself is something my other supervisor said to me: a PhD is often seen as an end point, when actually it's the start of our careers as researchers. This is time for us to learn, and learn by our mistakes. Everyone does it.

BTW I haven't published anything yet (something which really worries me but that's a different conversation) and I'll be petrified of making mistakes, but I will try to reassure myself that many great scholars who've gone before me have made mistakes too.

I hope you feel better about this in the future :)

Everyone makes mistakes! That's why there is peer review, not just at the pre-publishing stage but after. I have found mistakes in my area in monographs and edited volumes, and I have made mistakes that I or others have picked up on. Just learn from it. 100% agree with glowworm's comment about a PhD being the beginning.

This is all really great advice! Thanks everyone! I have made my share of mistakes (some big, some small) and reassuring to know I'm not the only one. I think it is useful for us to all remind ourselves that we are trainees and that mistakes are part of the learning process!