I ticked "Because I want to be a researcher/academic" but it was only about 70% that - 30% was passion for the topic. (I would have said 60/40 but the extra 10% is just loving doing research, so I suppose that's part of the researcher/academic thing...)

One advantage (I think) is that my quant questionnaire results are primarily for the purposes of selecting interview participants (mixed methods - Participant Selection Model), so it is less of an issue as far as the analysis is concerned.

But it's still an issue, and Hazyjane is right - I can take a bit of time to try to get a more balanced gender demographic.

Thanks for your opinions!

(Two posts in five minutes - blimey!)

Question has just arisen on the #phdchat hashtag on Twitter - do in-text refs/quotes count in your word count? I've been told that they do here, but someone else in the group says she's been told that they don't, so... Poll!

My online questionnaire has been live for three weeks and I'm still getting responses dribbling in - but only 15% of the responses are from men. I'd really like to have a better gender balance, but I'm not sure what I should do.

It's partly my own fault since some of the places I publicised the survey are very female-heavy in terms of population (fandom blogs, weight loss sites etc) - but others aren't (Facebook, Twitter etc).

I'm not sure whether I should aim for more responses from men (by posting on a more male-focused site, maybe) or whether I should just shrug my shoulders and focus on women in my interviews.

(I'd ask my supervisor, but she's not around (as usual), and I'm not 100% convinced she'd give me a useful answer anyway - but that's a whole other post...)

I'm in Information Studies, but my topic crosses over into Psychology/Sociology. I'm looking at online friendship.

This is really useful, thanks. I did try EndNote a year or two ago (think we had a session on it as part of my Master's research training) and it did terrible things to my references (I ended up having to make changes to all of them because of formatting errors) so I think I just gave up on it then. But I can see that it might be useful for keeping notes. (I quite like doing the citations myself, anyway. I know that's weird...)

I haven't used EndNote yet; the uni has it, but they're thinking about changing over to RefWorks soon... But that's definitely worth considering, if our IS people can sell it to me for not-very-much. Am I right in thinking you can save your Endnote notes to the web/access them from anywhere?

This may be more for the humanities/social science folk, not sure...

I'm looking through all my reading notes from the last few months, and was wondering how everyone else organises their notes? For my Master's I had a form that I filled in for each source, with spaces for details of methodology, results etc and any useful citations, quotations etc.

I might use that again, but I haven't really got a formal way of recording my PhD lit review notes so far, so I thought it would be interesting to see how other people do it!

Sarah

If you can't get to the original, then you should cite them as "cited in Browne", like you say. You've obviously tried to get the Black & White, but can't, so it's not lazy. And as far as submitting it again to supervisors is concerned, I'd probably email one of them first to see if they need to see it again. You're not changing the substance of the abstract, so I doubt it.

Don't panic, I think you're fine!

Hi Cupcake,

I agree with the previous comments - I am/was in exactly the same situation as you. My supervisor is around a lot, we get on well, we chat in passing, but we didn't actually sit down and talk about what I needed until I'd been officially doing the PhD for five months. I explained to her that I need the structure that regular meetings will give me, and I need her to ask me to do things (draft chapters, notes on methodology etc). It seems to be going okay so far.

Your supervisor is probably waiting to find out what sort of student you are - whether you need guidance or are happy to pootle along on your own. Just be honest about what you feel you need (and have a list!).

Hope it all goes well,

Sarah

Hi Orainn,

I'm in a very similar position to you - my potential supervisor is very keen on my area of research but it's not actually something the department currently had research experience in (so to speak). However, they're encouraging me because a) there aren't many institutions to do my research (only about 8 departments in the subject in the UK I think) and b) they want to expand their research areas to include my topic area. Also, my research has completely developed out of my undergrad dissertation, and I'm working on a slightly different angle but the same area for my master's.

I can't give you any "real" advice, because as I said I'm in the same boat, but judging from the advice I've had, it's not a problem expanding previous research into your PhD - in fact someone told me just the other day, "It might be your inspiration and the basis of your topic, but really? no one cares about your undergraduate work." (I didn't take it personally!)

You've probably already spoken to potential supervisors, and this has all been resolved in your mind, but I thought I'd reply anyway. Good luck with it all!

Sarah

I am a mature student, currently halfway through my research training MSc. I did my UG degree (graduated last year) at the same uni I'm doing my MSc at, and I'm also currently applying to do a PhD here.

I have several reasons for wanting to stay here: my husband has a job here (he has been trying to get another job elsewhere so that we can move, but no luck), the department is small, very supportive, and enthusiastic about my future, and I want to be part of the development of the department, which my research will help to encourage (or so I and my adviser/mentor hope).

I've just applied for institutional funding, AHRC block funding etc, and am waiting to hear. If nothing comes of the funding I will be applying elsewhere, even if it means having a long-distance marriage, which isn't ideal. Staying here is definitely my first choice.

My question (finally!) is: Will it be a bad thing for my future as an academic if all my degrees have come from one institution? Does it really matter that much? My "ideal" plan would be to do the PhD here, maybe stay on and teach, if the opportunity arises, for another couple of years, and then seek employment elsewhere. Would having my BSc, MSc and PhD from the same uni make me less employable as a lecturer/researcher?

Sorry for the long message. Hope this isn't a completely daft question...