I also recommend going on the QSR International site - also anything on youtube you can get your hands on. It's pretty simple once you get your head around the concept of nodes etc. H :)

The international student office is by far the worst run organisation in the whole of NZ!

My uni is split into 3 different campuses - Wellington, Auckland and Palmerston North, but the central admin is all done at Palmerston North. So even if I have to make a purchase order for basically ANYTHING it all goes down to Palmerston North and then approval gets sent back to Auckland. Nightmare and so frustratingly unnecessary.

As for the international office, I've never met such a rude, unobliging bunch of individuals. It's insane really, as by definition you're an international student so don't automatically know the systems in the country as it is, let alone a university system that's 12000 miles away from your previous one! Anyway that's my rant. Departmental staff are top notch though :)

Hi have you tried using a program called Gpower? It's available free online. You can do sample and effect sizes as either pre or post test.

Thanks - I'm really annoyed and slightly hurt that someone would just take my presentation slides without asking and use them as their own. I guess on the flip side I should be flattered, but in honesty I feel that it's downright disrespectful and damned lazy on his part.

I'll have a word with the other one and see what he says. Stuff like this really demotivates me around academia.... :(

Hi

Not sure if this is relevant here but I have a query regarding plagiarism/intellectual property. Basically one of my supervisors has to present at a conference and wants to use my research findings for part of this. Problem is, he's lifted a whole presentation I gave a while ago and put my latest research findings in there in HIS presentation - the slides are the exact ones I presented a while ago. The second problem is I don't know where he's got these from because he didn't ask my permission to use them and I never sent them to him. The third problem is I'm not at the conference to answer any queries people may have, and he's not in the same field as me (he's food tech I'm psychology). I'm writing a paper with the research results at the moment and I have a bit of an issue with him presenting my work at an international conference without the research having yet been peer reviewed and published. Anyone come across this or any idea how I should approach this?

I don't mind proofing it - [email protected]

Hi there

First off great you've hit the ground running - that's always a reassuring feeling!

Regarding your question, I take it you're submitting via thesis as opposed to publication. If so, it's generally standard practice to write the thesis and then extract articles for publications from your thesis work after completion of the PhD. I'm doing my PhD by publication, whereby I'm writing as I go, and then my published articles will be held together by linking chapters (if that makes sense).

I guess it depends how easy you find the whole publication process - I'm submitting by publication as it makes sense in terms of how I write, and my supervisors are happy and confident that I'm able to do this without it impeding time-wise. The drawback is that obviously submitting and resubmitting after peer review can be quite lengthy in terms of process. The bonus is if you're work has been independently peer reviewed, this makes the viva, and potential questions around your work easier to deal with as essentially you've been dealing with them the whole way through.

If you're submitting by thesis it's great you'll have a publication under your belt - just concentrate on doing the best job you can with the thesis and the articles should naturally spin out from that when you've finished.

Heather :)

Haha nope, mine seem to be of the ilk whereby commenting on something would mean they have to sit down and read it. This doesn't seem to happen unfortunately (or fortunately depending which way you look at it).

Will check out those links, I'm always in the mood for a healthy dose of procrastination!

Heather :)

Hi all

Just thought I'd put a link on here to my PhD blog. I'm a social science PhD-er just going into my second year and decided to write about my trials and tribulations of being a PhD student...

Grab the link here:
www.indoctorinated.blogspot.co.nz

Heather :)

Done - I'm intrigued... what's your research about?

Have you checked out local funding bodies and/or any scholarships that may be available at your university or department?

Can you not ask him why he's not more involved with your project and why he's not reading your work?

What. A. Nightmare.

I really feel for you, as supervision is so important in a PhD - as much for the motivation and encouragement to carry on as much as for the intrinsic intellectual value of supervision. Your supervisor seems oblivious and flippant towards your feelings - and I certainly wouldn't be happy if my supervisor didn't feel happy to put his name on my work. That screams out incompetence on his/her part, certainly not yours. On the plus side at least you know that the academic content is 100% your own, rather than being a rehash of his/her work.

To remedy or at least address this situation I think I'd be inclined to send an email and mark it as important. I recently had to arrange a meeting with my supervisors (both separately) to tackle some supervisory issues head on. My problem was that like you, one of my supervisors has an infinite number of PhD students and is always globetrotting to various conferences and workshops - that's great that he's out in the field and promoting the research, but also rather frustrating from a personal selfish perspective, as I could use his input more than the other supervisor who is ALWAYS around/hovering in the building. Can you not put together an email outlining how you feel about supervision and some concerns that you have. Maybe the supervisor is just completely unaware?!

I moved 12000 miles and started my PhD and although this is an English speaking country, starting from scratch is tough. Socially, hard as it is I'd hang out in local places - see what the uni does in terms of social activities and step away from the lab for a while. If you de-stress outside of research, you might find the day to day stuff a little easier to handle. Also do you know any of your supervisors other students? Is there a research group/student colloquium you can attend - even if it's just for a coffee and bitch and moan about said supervisor? I find that a great release at the end of a tough week!

H :)

http://www.statisticshell.com/html/apf.html

I always found this an invaluable resource!