Overview of pm133 on PostgraduateForum.com

Overview of pm133

Signup date: 08 Jan 2016 at 12:02am

Last login: 30 Mar 2021 at 8:40pm

Post count: 1246

Recent Posts

Looking for a paper

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

Quote From shoulder:
Thanks pm133, I tried scihub.org but it returned 'No Results', I don't know what I am doing wrong.

Try sci-hub.cc

Quote From jambo:
I am worried as I submitted a thesis because I had to. However, it was not polished with regards to formatting. I also feel like something is missing. It is short and I did not give enough background on my case study, and one of my supervisors told me that the purpose of my research was not clear - shortly before submission.

I feel like I am such a terrible person, because I should have been able to submit something more decent. I want to show that I did enough work for 4 years. But this is not showing on my thesis. I don't want to be told to come back with an MPHIL. Major corrections would be ok because it would allow me to write something decent.

One of my supervisors said I should not feel bad about my thesis because they read it and think it's ok (not great, but not terrible).

How can I stop feeling terrible? I had no choice. I had to submit. I didn't have time to read it before submitting it, so I am expecting to see major typos, etc. I don't want to open it. I am too embarrassed to even go to the viva and face my examiners, and tell them 'here's what I have done in 4 years. I did not even have time to proof it, and check for consistency.'

I feel like I already know the outcome - realistically speaking, the best I can hope for is major corrections. I am worried of not getting that.

I would appreciate kind words to calm me down. Many thanks.

I hate to say it but it's way too late to be worrying about this now. The time for this level of introspection was probably last year.
Not comforting words perhaps but you have no choice now but to wait. None of us have read your thesis so we can't comment about the likelihood of success or failure.

The only thing I can say is that your viva is designed to check for two things. Did you do enough work to justify the award and can you prove you did it yourself by being able to talk about it? In theory they should not viva you if you fail the first test because there would be no point but there are a lot of bastards out there on a power trip. You will get your viva soon enough. It will probably be horrible but in about 3 to 4 hours it will be over and you will immediately have an idea about the scale of likely changes. You MUST make sure you read your thesis thoroughly. You can easily rescue a crap thesis by being great in the viva. Know your stuff inside out, go along with post-its all over your thesis showing that you have picked up your own corrections and cross your fingers. Good luck.

Not sure if the PhD is right for me

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

Quote From bignige:
I concur with pm133, I am 55 years of age and run my own business as a sole trader.

I have been wanting to undertake a PhD for many years. Not for career reasons - for personal reasons - to 'finish my education' - and I have a real+passion for the area I want to research - dating back some 20 years.

My business generates enough income for me to survive operating on a part-time business and I am hoping that will give me the time required to undertake a part-time PhD.

My last period in academia was 25 years ago when I got a Masters and I am struggling to put together a proposal and to understand exactly what the various Unis want to see in the proposal so I am concerned that I will not be accepted anywhere. I don't know anyone who has done or is doing a PhD so its all somewhat a shot in the dark!

Will have to see if anyone will take me on!

N

It's great to hear this. Unless what you want to do is very niche, you should have no problem getting something. It's worth remembering that most PhD positions attract very few candidates. My talks with supervisors over the last 9 years have taught me that they are more interested in attitude and desire for the position than anything else. Obviously, being out of academia for a while presents a challenge but older people are almost always better at stepping up to that challenge than younger people. It is worth quoting the head of admissions at my old department - "Mature students almost always outperform other undergraduates because they have focus - they know why they are here and what they want out of life. That is why we have a much lower grade requirements for those candidates." You can bet that postgraduate admissions will see it the same way.
I'll help as best as I can on the other thread you posted. Good luck with this.

Newbie

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

Quote From bignige:
Hi all

I am loking to start a PhD - at 55 years of age and having been away from academia since 1994 when I got my Masters.

I am struggling to put together a proposal and I am struggling to find a supervisor,

Any guidance out there please?

N

What field do you want to study and in which location?
Your age should not be an issue at all by the way - especially if you are in the UK.

Looking for a paper

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

Quote From shoulder:
Ah thanks for trying :)

Try sci hub.
Put the DOI in and it downloads any article for free.
I've just successfully accessed the one you are after.

Sci Hub - All academic papers freely available online. Thoughts?

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

As most on here know, I hold the scientific publishing industry in utter contempt.
In my opinion it is morally wrong to take public money, write up papers in a language deliberately designed to prevent the taxpayer from actually understanding what we've done and then hand those papers over to a commercial body who hides them behind a paywall to force any interested taxpayer to pay twice for the privilege of finding out what they have paid for. Science in essence is whoring itself, using taxpayers money, in the grubby and utterly seedy pursuit of impact factors. Profits for the likes of Elsevier and Taylor & Francis etc go WAY beyond a decent margin to cover costs. We are talking about billions of pounds of profit in this industry. They don't even properly pay reviewers. What on earth have scientists allowed to happen?

Fairly recently a Russian (I think) scientist has hacked every major publisher and has stolen virtually every published scientific work and made it freely available on Sci Hub website. Putting in the DOI number of the paper makes it instantly available for free viewing.

Would be interesting to know what people think of this.
Personally I think it is potentially fantastic and may force Elsevier and the likes to disappear.

Husband and wife joining a PhD program with a plan for baby?

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

Quote From pnv:
Hi,

Is this plan super stupid? My husband and I are currently working in very busy jobs ( including night shifts and travel) Both of us want to do a PhD. We are looking at UK schools and EPFL & ETH. Would you think it will be very difficult for us to manage, if we have a kid too.

Thanks,

I'm not sure I understand the relevance of your current jobs.
If you are both considering a PhD none of that will matter.
Only you can judge if you can personally manage. Some people can and some people cannot.
You will, as a couple, absolutely have to make sacrifices if you want to do PhDs and have a baby as well. That can't be avoided.

Question: Inquiry about Computational Chemistry, Biophysics, etc. masters degrees?

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

Quote From KarimAfifi:
I have just had my BSc in Computer Science and I am looking to inquire about which field I should pursue in completing my masters degree. My graduation project was related to protein docking. I analyzed different approaches to improve the performance of scoring functions by using different techniques such as machine learning. I also implemented some scoring functions like X-Score and RF-Score. I have experience in using programs like Vina, AutoDock and Open Babel. I also implemented a simple molecular viewer. I have a good amount of knowledge in the field of structure-based drug design. So I am looking for some advice on which field would accept me as a masters students though I graduated from computer science. Any recommendation would help. Examples of approaches I am looking to get into are Computational Chemistry, Biophysics… What would be the most suitable for me to complete a masters degree and which is better as a career option? Any advice will be appreciated.

Are you looking to write code or to simply use existing tools?
Want do you want to do career-wise afterwards?
I think PIs are more interested in enthusiasm rather than needing something specific.

Stubborn supervisor

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

Quote From Esca:
Thank you very much for your detailed response. I am not saying " I am right" - I just feel I need to search the literature to back up his ideas but the literature doesn't... I told him in a nice way but he is stubborn and laughs it off. He is very nice but it makes me feel I have to find what he wants me to find..

I certainly understand how you feel. Part of the process is gradually becoming more independent. Don't be in a rush unless this is a red line issue for you: you could completely screw your PhD if you are too impatient to get your own way.

I found myself in a situation similar to this when trying to submit a collaborative paper. The lead PI from the other group caused some problems by taking an approach I didn't agree with. Only when the paper was ruthlessly rejected and he had run out of ideas did he come to me for help. My help consisted in exactly the same suggestions he had rejected several months before - verbatim! The paper was accepted within a week of resubmission with my changes in it. I have honestly never seen a desperate man so grateful. I never had a problem with him after that.
Sometimes you need to let arrogant people fall on their faces once or twice. Just make sure that when it happens, you are there to help out without grinding their face in the mud.
A very useful life lesson for me proving you are never too old to learn.

I should add though that just as I was beginning to think the sun shone from my backside, I had another paper of my own rejected with comments so offensive that I had to wait 6 weeks before I calmed down enough to fix them. That still hasn't been accepted for publication yet. Can't wait to see how that turns out. Hubris affects us all. Be careful what you wish for :-D

Stress and anxiety while waiting for PhD viva

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

Quote From alexandercarey1989:

Hey,

Thanks for the advice. Yes I might have been so stressed out throughout the PhD journey, hence explains why I am so stressful right now.

I would agree with the advice from newlease. I think that is very solid advice.
I think you are focussing too much on things you cannot control.
Even when your viva date is announced it will be some time away.
When you sit your viva it is highly likely that you will have corrections to make followed by a further period of waiting.

Unfortunately there is not an easy way out of this but what you CAN control is your own expectations. You need to re-evaluate them.
For example, I have no idea why you are fretting about your age. You are 27 not 87 so calm down my friend. Many of us have done or are still doing this in our 40's and 50's. Life is a marathon not a sprint.

Control what you can control and accept what is outwith your control. Anything else will drive you up the wall and that would be a real shame at just 27 years of age :-D

ICYMI: The Case for Colonialism

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

Quote From Trilla:
Hi Nad75 thank you for sharing this.

I am a historian and a Taylor and Francis journal editor and I am really shocked by this abstract and article, not because of the ideas per se (that's standard pro-colonial theory that has been around for the past 250 years.), but because these are expressed without any supporting evidence. Has this article been edited at all? Peer reviewed?

If the author is rebuking something as solidly constructed as postcolonial theory, I would expect some equally solid argument in return. This is not about silencing academics, it's standing up for academic rigour and intellectual standards.

Stylistically it is full of colloquialisms and journalistic language.

A sentence such as: "Western colonialism was, as a general rule, both objectively beneficial and subjectively legitimate in most of the places where it was found, using realistic measures of those concepts" is just a personal opinion as it does not tell us what these realistic measures are and how these 'objective benefits' are - and what is 'subjectively legitimate'? There are no references to objective parameters in spite of the (empty) reference to them.

I would desk-reject this article - without sending it to peer review. I can deal very well with people thinking differently from me (I am a 19th century historian, basically, all the subjects of my study were either colonialists or supporters of colonialism) but I will not condone rants passing for journal articles.

The petition on change.org which calls for its retraction states its case eloquently: “The offending article has brought widespread condemnation from scholars around the globe. The article lacks empirical evidence, contains historical inaccuracies, and includes spiteful fallacies. There is also an utter lack of rigor or engaging with existing scholarship on the issue…We do not call for the curtailing of the writer’s freedom of speech. We instead hold ourselves and our colleagues in academia to higher standards than this. We expect academic journals to do the same."

I urge you to sign the petition on change.org.

This is a great example of how to challenge a published article in a professional manner.
Good luck with the petition.

Will some universities only reply to your application if they have accept it ?

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

Quote From Daminu
Thank you for your reply. I called them anyways and were told that they are still looking at my application and then two hours later I got a date for an interview haha

I would not be at all surprised if they had completely forgotten about both your application and the deadline date :
-D
Nice bit of proactive work on your part has probably nudged them.
Well done.
Good luck with the interview.

ICYMI: The Case for Colonialism

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

Quote From Nad75:
Well, my intention was to share an issue with postgraduates that professors and established, international academics are rightfully concerned about. Critiquing is not silencing. Choosing not to apply for a journal that allows for bad research is not silencing, it is our power as academics. When the only purpose of an academic journal is to offer well-developed scholarship that contributes to the production of knowledge, then, yet, a discussion of the actual article and possible lack of oversight is absolutely necessary. I have discussed this article with other postgrads and professors, so yes, I did expect a similiar reaction forum that considered a serious issue in academia.

However, this topic may best be suited for a person in a similar disciple to both myself and the journal, which is why I stated, "I'm putting this out here in case any humanities/social science students missed this article that caused a flurry on Twitter." Many of the posts on this forum are discipline specific (with a heavy emphasis on science, which is fine). If anyone is curious about the article, just PM me for a share.

When you insinuate that a bribe was taken to publish this article, you are doing an awful lot more than just sharing an issue.

You may not realise that you are attempting to close down an academic debate but I certainly do. You are attempting to win your argument by blatantly smearing the journal.

Now you are trying to close me out of this discussion with that patronising comment about "this topic may best be suited for a person in a similar disciple to both myself and the journal".

This attitude of yours needs to be challenged wherever it is found. You should get used to it. I am pretty sure that others online (although perhaps not on this forum) will take exception to being treated as a schoolchild.

The irony of the word 'student'

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

Quote From Tudor_Queen:
That's interesting pm133. I wasn't aware that view existed. In my department, some PhD students have gone straight on to a permanent lectureship. But the postdocs are very highly respected because of their research. Guess it is different everywhere.

In my experience only a few postdocs I can think of stood out head and shoulders above the best PhD students. I only recall two of them who I thought were genuinely exceptional. Most of them are simply, paraphrasing the words of a German academic who posted this on a blog, "haunting universities the length and breadth of the world with no hope of ever securing a permanent position". His advice is that you should do a few years as postdoc and then leave if you don't have a permanent place. Mind you he also thinks too many people do PhDs in the first place. I can't agree with anyone who thinks increasing your knowledge and skills base is a negative thing. Personally I think people should be left alone to work out what is best for them. I know many people who did exactly this and were in their early 40s before getting their first permanent job. That sends a shiver down my spine but for some people this lifestyle works.

You know what it's like though - too many people with waaaaaaay too much to say about too many people, without being asked for their opinion :-D

does a 3rd class degree matter in the creative industries?

pm133 1246 posts
7 years ago

Quote From AllPixieDust:
ok, so I have been just awarded a 3rd class degree classification with honours in Graphic Design and Illustration and I really wanted to pursue a MA or get a good job.

However, I do posses another 3 certifications from fine art and design courses from the Open University, one on modern art from MoMA New York and another from University of Melbourne.
Additionally, I am the winner of a 2 weeks work placement at BBC Worldwide London (that I just finished and received a letter of recommandation from the BBC's Creative Director) and I was just informed that I also won a 3 month internship at a creative studio in London that works with huge brands.
I also have another year of experience from my first graphic design job at a small agency and I am also a Mentor on the educational platform Coursera on a fine art course and worked briefly as an Adobe CC Rep while at university.

My question is: are my experience and my certifications enough for a future employer to ignore my 3rd class degree?
And going even further, is it enough for me to possible get into a MA course?

And how important is the degree classification in the creative industries?

Your work experience will be invaluable if it matches what an employer wants.
There is no doubt that a 3rd is a major blow though.
It shouldn't be a barrier to getting a Masters placement. I personally know of at least two people who have done that exact same thing.
If your experience is good enough you might not need it though. Once you start working and gaining experience nobody will care too much about your degree (as long as you have one). The problem is that the poor degree might limit your access to the type of experience you actually want to do for your main job.

I'd check out whether your experience is good enough before spending time and money on something you might not need.