Thanks for filling it in, and thanks for the feedback. I believe my contact details will still be visible through the link even after the survey has been completed, but I'll add them on to the final page again anyway.

Cheers!

Hi all. I'm a student with the University of Leicester carrying out research into piracy for my thesis. It would be so great if you could spare five minutes to fill in my survey, which is completely anonymous. No IP addresses will be collected, and you can verify the survey by contacting the Law School at Leicester Uni. It doesn't matter whether you've pirated anything or not - you can still fill it in!

Here's the link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=7l0aWc7aTuJl2H7lkPk5oA_3d_3d

Thanks!

I had a similar experience when I did a funded MPhil - the supervision was appalling, and was almost exactly how you're describing yours. I know one thing for certain - if you give up, then you'll regret it for the rest of your life.

It's so hard to stay motivated when your supervisor is useless, but consider that you're doing the work 24/7 while they're basically glancing it over every six months or so. This essentially puts them in a very poor position to judge your work. You know your work far better than they do, and you'll instinctively know when it isn't very good. Maintain that standard, and you won't need their unhelpful input. Also, try and find staff at the university who will be willing to look over smaller sections of your work so you can get their input. Another useful thing to try is submitting your work for publication, as this will involve a peer review where somebody theoretically in the know will read it through for you. If you get it accepted, then you'll know that your work is of a good standard, no matter what your hopeless supervisor has to say about it.

These situations are hard, but they do happen often. The key is DON'T GIVE UP. Honestly - that's by far the most common route of "failing" a PhD, and you'll regret it forever!

1) There's no harm in asking the editor, but be prepared for the piece to be resubmitted for peer review if you've made substantial amendments. I would allow piece to be published as it is, and then submit the updated version elsewhere later.

2) This depends on your University's rules on this kind of thing. If you can't contact him, I would suggest removing his name as an author, and simply adding an acknowledgment of his contribution (if any) at the beginning of the piece in a footnote.

3) You can mention to the editor that your supervisor can no longer be reached when you withdraw his authorship. If they wish to contact him, it's up to them to track him down.

Hope this helps.

At this stage, I think it comes down entirely to whether or not you want to prevent an injustice and upset your supervisor. From what you've described, you should most certainly be named as the principle author. Frankly, unless your supervisor has performed substantial rewrites in the process of editing, I question whether they should be listed as a co-author at all.

It's entirely possible that the editor of the journal will only take the article if your supervisor is listed as first author due to friendship rather than the quality of the piece - it shouldn't work like this, but sadly it does. You could always try contacting the editor directly and clarifying their policy on this.

If you're adamant that you don't want the credit for your article usurped, I would withdraw it and submit it elsewhere.