Yeah, don't compare to others, it has no real bearing on your work. Some people publish shed loads early then have real difficulty later completing the thesis. Others build steadily through the 3 years and then have a splurge of publishing at the end or after.

Personally, I have a conference paper due at the end of the week (accepted for presentation) and I am writing a journal paper. I started in October 2010 so I'm a year and 5 months in. I'm also an RA doing the PhD in addition so I would expect to perhaps publish slightly more than the normal PhD.

There are many people I know at the same stage with no publications and some with 3 or 4, so really don't worry too much.

Another good one featured on here is www.mytomatoes.com

It's a website that is basically just a timer that goes for 25 minutes then gives you a 5 minute break. Rinse and repeat. It really helps me when I feel demotivated as it forces me to work. Once you start working the motivation actually comes back.

I agree.

The trouble is that the paper hasn't just been put forward, but accepted for the conference. It's been through the corrections etc all with her name at the top and without her knowledge. How do you go to the people in charge and say "oh yeah, we put the authors in the wrong order" without coming across ridiculously stupid? It's not like they are in alphabetical order and they can play it off as a genuine mistake unfortunately.

As it stands I'm not getting involved. Mainly due to the can of worms that would be opened. She is really stressed and has decided just to do nothing about it because she doesn't want the stress of challenging her sup. She'll leave it as it is, learn the material and hope no-one notices.

Well that's the thing, it's been submitted and accepted and she is the first author so she can't really say "oh actually I did none of this". Thing is, the first she heard of it was when she was told by her supervisor that he wanted her to present it, so he has submitted it in her name without telling her, gone through the correction process without telling her and then accepted the offer to present it without telling her.

If it was just being submitted I would advise her to drop down to say third author, but she can't really do that if it's been accepted I don't think.

Yeah, I kind of agree. The trouble is that I feel a little that I'm turning a blind eye to something that I know is wrong. Her supervisor is essentially asking her to "cheat" intellectually. I'm not at all comfortable with it, but as you say - she gets a benefit for doing little and she is my friend. I don't want to disadvantage her or get her in trouble.

www.findaphd.com is a good place to start. Perhaps talk to your undergrad careers department or some one in your department of your undergrad uni also. Other than that it's not my area I'm afraid so I'll just add - good luck!

Hi everyone,

A colleague at my university was told the other day that a paper had been written and she was to present it at a conference. Her name is listed as the first author. She had never seen the paper before and it contained precisely zero of any of her work. It was researched and written by the other two authors (one of which is her supervisor), neither of which want/can present the paper at the conference.

If this were me I think I'd tell them to b*gger off. She will have to learn the content of it, present it and answer questions on it knowing full well she had nothing to do with it. I'm sure there must be rules against doing this and if she were caught there could be repercussions. On the other hand, she gets a free publication so to speak for very little work.

I don't feel that I should really do anything (is it even any of my business really?) but I feel that she is being used and would like to advise her. What would you do A) in my position and B) in her position.

It's a bit vague isn't it? Without the details of the proposal though it is pretty much impossible to tell you what the problem is. Not that I'm saying you should post them on a public forum, just saying that I doubt you'll get a decent answer. Could you not ask your supervisor for something a bit more specific?

I am a year and a bit in to my PhD and I am off to a conference in April and will hopefully be publishing in a good journal before July. Get as many out as possible, it helps when looking for jobs in academia and probably doesn't hurt for jobs outside of academia.

Just to give you some inspiration and hope:

I went to red-brick, Russell group uni for my undergrad and of the 3 best lecturers there (in my opinion) only one had a PhD. It's really not required to be a good lecturer and if they can make it then I'm sure you can.

It should make no difference to supervision. Your sup may go on holiday I guess but it shouldn't change really.

I prefer it when the students go away. Just makes the place nicer without a load of children milling around (and the first year undergrads do seem like children a lot of the time)

My PhD is rather different to yours (I'm working as an RA whilst doing it and it is computer based) however, I found, like many others on the board, that the first few months often seem to involve doing very little indeed. I've never worked out why. I felt I was doing bugger all for the first 2 months certainly, and it only gradually progressed to the point I'm at now a year and a half in, whereby I feel I actually do a days work each day.

Perhaps try to force yourself to do some extra to get in the swing of a full days work, but I wouldn't worry too much to be honest.

Just one opinion, I don't know if there is someone more chemistry based that can offer some good advice?

Probably be doing the job I was doing before I started - Design Engineer. Dull isn't it? I suppose I may well have emigrated if I wan't doing this job/PhD.

Assuming I was young and single I would just leave the country and travel for a few years, working when needed as I go until I eventually settle down doing something somewhere, probably something random I can't think of now.