Hello all,

This is my first thread here. I am a PhD student since Jan 2011, and I have made almost no progress, and have published no paper so far. My subject is a bit complicated, and my supervisor is not guiding me what to do, and how to handle the problems. I heard it is usual for a PhD student to have difficulties, but for me I am paralyzed, and I can do or think of anything except how can I finish my PhD degree. I rarely talk to anyone even my family, and I am very depressed.

Any advice?

Thanks

Hi David,

I'm so sorry to hear you are feeling low :( I think that many of the PhD students (including me) can empathise with you on the depressed feelings a PhD can bring out. Are there any support services, such as counselling, at your uni? It sounds like you really need to talk to someone face to face to help you through this dificult time.

Thank you so much for replying. There is a service, and I am going tomorrow to take an appointment. What exaggerates the problem is that I am not an outgoing and sociable person, so I can not go out and have some fun or have a proper long enough conversation. I am mentally and emotionally exhausted. I mean, these day, I do not feel good to talk to anyone, but even if I want to in some very short peak time, I simply can not.

Your post reminds my past PhD time. I was in a similar state. At the beginning and middle of the research, I barely talked someone, and I was under a huge pressure to produce something worth for publications. You should seek some external helps for being "not social-able". I just would like to add a bit regarding to "almost no progress". It is common to see a PhD candidate is lost in their research. They cannot define/state what their findings are. I do believe you produced some results, or made some progresses in your field. You need take a week to work out what you have achieved, and try to talk to your supervisors. Tell them you are in the middle, or towards the end of your PhD, you have sorted out an informal report of your current state, findings etc. They also need this doc to catch up, and give you a final mission which might be a big result later. This informal report also could becomes your thesis later. When you doing the actual writing, this note is very helpful for organizing the content.

You possibly need to documents the publishing works as well. My experiences is it is always good to have something already on your hands rather than a future potential.

You may go with the bullet points in your paper introduction, but they has to clarify what is the purpose and findings of your paper. Then, you may write other bullet points in other sections, e.g. method, results, discussion, and then gradually expand them to a full text section. Paper publication normally takes at least 3 to 4 month. I suggest it would be good to NOT wait some publications, but written the contents up first. Formatting those ideas and knowledge into a text based report. Remember the end of your PhD is your thesis - a text-based report. You could merge the paper draft to your thesis at anytime you want. Somehow, if you've done that, you partially have a chapter of your thesis draft, that is much better and securer than nothing. If you have done these three points, (1) informal report, (2) paper draft, (3) your previous literature review, I have a feeling that you already have a half of your thesis draft. If you are good at writing and very familiar with your research, in two weeks time, you could write up the introduction. Now, you have almost everything. one more year work will bring another fresh content and results which would finalize your thesis. The "worst" case then becomes that, you do not have any publications, but you would have finished the PhD.

Thanks for pointing out these points. I actually have done my proposal (of length about 60 pages) and it has been accepted last January, and I have in it the introduction, background, literature review, and some proposed ideas and solutions, with a draft letter paper which was rejected.

The problem is that, I do not believe these proposed ideas and solutions are innovative, and I told my supervisor about this, because they were basically applying previous techniques on a new system model, without bringing up new challenges, that contribute to the literature.

The problem is that I have no confidence of what I am doing, and my supervisor has neither positive or negative technical feedback. He only wants to see your progress and results, and helps you writing your paper and reviewing your reports.

For Graduation, it is not required to publish in my University, but my supervisor told me once he is expecting at least two journals, and 3-5 conferences to graduate. I think this favorable to me as well for future positions as a postdoc and faculty member. I want to be productive and I am willing to finish, but I am trying so hard without use.

Thanks

I think its natural to feel anxious as one is nearing the end of the journey, i am in the same boat, plan to submit sept 2013 and since the beginning of the year i started to get butterfly in my stomach, get anxious and nervous of, " what if" i fail the viva- this kind of thoughts make me stressed out and depressed and many times I have to motivate and discipline myself to think on positive thoughts and focused on positive thoughts that I can and will pass my viva. what i want to say is that, many of us feel the same when we are nearing the end of our journey and are fill with fear or other emotions