Congratulations Dr Red! While it might seem bittersweet, wishing you all the best in your future endeavours and well done on your achievements. Also very sorry to hear of the very sad loss of your sister during this time.

Congratulations Dr Mathcomp... terrific post :)

Mohammed, where I am it would be usual to publish a paper from your own research (PhD or Masters studies and projects) or shared research and have your supervisor/s name appear on the papers published from this, even though you did pretty much all of the work.

When it occurs with projects that are not the PhD, it might be okay to do a little bit of this, (it gets your name out there and your work published), but once on the PhD, you would need to really make sure you focus on your own experiments, data and the PhD, so would probably have to be able to say 'no' sometimes and feel that you are comfortable talking this through with the supervisor and are not going to be bullied or overworked on side projects. If you don't feel able to do this with this person, then find another supervisor as Hazy Jane has suggested.

And what your friend told you about the main reason for the scholarship may be partly true. Yes, supervisors do get the opportunity to have an apprentice researcher or acolyte to supervise. Thus more papers are published with their name on it (they are pressured to publish continually as well), but many supervisors would genuinely want you to succeed with your study and become an emerging new researcher in your own right.

Because I am part-time, I have an official date and an 'earliest submission date' based on the date I started. My university will allow part-timers to submit at the 5 year mark, but not before. Their general time frame is 6-8 years all up (no extensions beyond 8 years for part-timers) My thesis is in an area that I work within and have some prior knowledge and more than a decade of personal experience in, so I will be able to submit at the earliest possible time-if it weren't related to my work I think I would have needed at least 6 years and possibly more.

Yes, also to answer your question more specifically Chickpea, at my last annual review in December, my main supervisor and the research coordinator for the faculty discussed my intention to submit (which I outlined to them during the meeting) and my supervisor gave the nod that she believed this was a reasonable aim so after some discussion the Coordinator signed off on it. I will also have to complete another form, noting intention to submit 3 months before the date as well-and have to get their permission again for this-but unless something is really wrong, this 3 month meeting will be a formality.

Hi Hugh, thanks for creating this thread. I have read other versions of these over my years on this forum, for my Masters and now the PhD, with delight that it is happening for others and also envy (not malicious envy-just wishing I was there myself...).

This is my final year (or should be all going relatively well). I have just completed a full draft of eight chapters, including intro and conclusion.

I will need to add bits to my lit review, draw out all of the links and probably rewrite sections and parts of chapters-make sure tables are formatted correctly, citation and bibliography are perfect... and just do a host of things to make this up to submission stage. I'm part-time and have just recommenced work for the year, so would probably be able to post an update weekly or fortnightly during term time. If I was full time, I think I would be estimating around 4-6 months for this process but I will do only small amounts during busy school terms and then larger chunks in the school holidays.

Like you, I would love to read about the progress of others and have some form of accountability thread in the final parts. I might seem not far way in that I do have a full draft, but it is the way I write-quickly. I know the thesis still needs a lot of work, because I am a messy writer who is a sort of backward planner. Others work in different ways so Hugh, you may well find that in this last year you overtake me well and truly before submission. My date is January 17 2017 and after this I plan on rewarding myself with a holiday of some sort.

Hi Sarah, I am really sorry that you are feeling this way. I know that many of us recommend counselling on this forum for a range of wellbeing and PhD related concerns, so I am guessing that you might have tried to access this already?

If not, it can be really helpful for many different sorts of problems in life and study. Seeing a doctor (general practitioner) can also be very useful-if only to give you strategies on how to manage excessive stress and the cycle of negative thinking that many people spiral into when they are stressed for a long time.

At the risk of sounding a bit uncaring ( I hope you don't think that I mean this in an uncaring way), I wonder whether your first supervisor is just a naturally 'critical' person. Many academics are-it is one of their gifts to look at things in a rational and very intellectual way, being highly critical of something-sort of deconstructing it so as to get a better outcome or product. Some people like this are quite 'cool' when they engage in this process but it doesn't always mean they think you and your work are 'shit' or even that they don't like you-it is just what they do.

So while I know it must be hard when your first supervisor is so critical, it might not mean they don't like you or even that they think your work is bad. However, when we are stressed, often that is the only interpretation we might give it-due to the way our thinking works when stressed or feeling depressed and upset.

Are you able to work out who you can go to for support other than your supervisors? This might be either the student counsellors, postgraduate association or representatives or student advisors? There will be some people there whose job it is to provide you with support when you feel like this, but sometimes it takes a couple of visits before you start to notice the improvement. Take care and don't give up Sarah. The way you are thinking at the moment does not mean your study is all bad, even if it seems that way.

Hi Emaa, if the publisher is famous, then I would think that you might be able to find details of the person who contacted you if you have her name on the email. The publishers would have formal contact addresses and numbers to ring and a website wouldn't they-not just this one person who contacted you? Perhaps you could ring the publishers, as monkey suggested earlier, and ask if you could speak to the person who sent you the email, or see whether anyone else can assist you to make personal contact with this person.

Hi there, is it possible to take what you have and just put in a fresh application-and at more than one university. If your old university lets you 'restart' then that would be great. However, if their regulations are quite strict around this sort of thing then a fresh application, based on your previous project, might allow you to get advance standing for your prior work through accreditation for some of the research methods courses that often form part of the PhD these days if nothing else.

It may also allow you to use some of your previous data, even if you did need to create a new set of data to supplement-contrast-triangulate prior materials/data/findings. You could also consider tweaking the topic somewhat, so that it is a 'fresh' look and thus becomes a new project-even if you are using some of your previous material, knowledge and expertise :) .

Congratulations Dr scientistish :) ! Well done for all your work and thanks for the post.

Congratulations! What a wonderful achievement Dr G :)

Are you able to record your presentations on a tablet or iPad app and then either play them on an Apple TV, or data projector or send them to the group online (prior to the tutorial)? I think the other advice is great but if it is hard to avoid the course, or you don't want to and the presenter wants to prepare people to 'present' regularly, then would this be an option?

It might seem like a big production to go to do this, but this is something we teach our students (secondary school) and it is an effective strategy for students who are anxious about presenting. Many of the apps allow you to prepare (very quickly) a presentation that not only allows you to quickly record your thoughts or content, but to incorporate this with visual and conceptual organisers. The presentations can be brief, or longer (as you need) and are often really engaging. Perhaps you could negotiate with the course facilitator to this this on a weekly basis with one or two "in person" presentations that you plan for well in advance-if they really want this. It might help lessen the anxiety perhaps? Best wishes with it all, anxiety can be a really tough thing to experience, P.

PS- Perhaps on reflection, doing this might seem to be something that 'highlights' your anxiety, so hopefully you can find a way out of the course. The best option would be for the course instructor to make the course more accessible by allowing other ways of presenting info to all students, but this might be a bit of an 'ideal world' scenario.

Hi there, and congratulations on your graduation and MSc.

It really can depend on your university department as to how 'lonely' it is. I agree with glow worm's comment that the part time aspect doesn't need to mean you are isolated. However, 'time' can have a large influence on how much socialising and community you can manage, while fitting in all other parts of your life. One practical bit of advice I could pass on from my own experience is to try to get a permanent 'desk' or spot in once of the research candidates offices (if your institution or department has them), even if you share it with another part-timer, as this can really assist with becoming part of the place, rather than feeling like a regular visitor.

Final comment from me is that there are aspects of the PhD that require a lonely exploration into your topic, no matter where you are. By this I mean that if the PhD is the researcher's equivalence of achieving adulthood in scholarly ways, then there is an aspect of the journey, sort of like a long dark night of the soul, where you just have to persevere until you are through that bit. Sometimes, perhaps, when you read comments on this forum, the isolation and loneliness you can pick up in people's writing are aspects of that process-and this seems to happen to full timers and part timers alike. It is a tough part of the process but not all of it and you do get through it. Best of luck with your celebrations and decisions.

Congratulations Dr B...Wishing you all the best for the future.

Hi Huhu, yes absolutely understand what you are saying about this. So sorry to hear about it.

Hi Glaza, I'm in a completely different industry and place so my comments are more of an outsider's perspective. However, just to make two points-if the money is pretty similar and you would gain from doing the PhD, plus are really interested in your topic then it doesn't seem like a big risk. Okay, so you give up a job and the security this provides for the moment. However, none of us really have a window into the future and can predict that whatever job we have now is a job for life. Those times have pretty much gone by the wayside. Plus you say your job is a dead end job-in terms of growth or upward movement and this PhD would provide you with this. These two points are very strong selling points in my opinion (which is an opinion only mind).

The thing to consider with the PhD is that it can be really tough and many of us feel like giving it up at points, so you might need to be prepared for how you might persevere if this happens to you, and also what sorts of job opportunities you would have at the end and a pathway, perhaps, towards achieving these post PhD.