Hi,
I'm a freelance science journalist writing a feature about last-minute PhD thesis submission dramas/issues/nightmares and how to avoid them. I'm looking for people who have, for example, might have lost material due to not backing it up, had printing formatting issues, full storage device issues, forgotten Bank Holidays, made final errors due to lack of sleep.

The main point of the piece is to give people advice about how they can avoid some of these situations. However I'm also after some cautionary tales. Do you have a story to share? If so, and you might be happy to do a brief interview about it, let me know.

Kind regards,
Nic Fleming

Hi Nic,

I had something like this happen when I was writing my upgrade report. I worked frantically one day and typed up the bulk of it, and then before I was about to go to bed, I hit the following in rapid succession: Control + A (which highlights all the text in the document), Delete, and Control + S (which saves the Word document). So I was left with a saved, blank Word document. I spent much of the next day with software trying to retrieve the deleted work, which proved impossible. Thankfully I did have an earlier version saved on a pen drive, but couldn't get that extremely productive day's work back. I'll never forget my disbelief at what I had done.

As for the actual thesis - I was kinda rushed trying to get it electronically submitted and ready to print on the same day. Somehow I managed to put the Contents Page in the wrong place, which strangely, none of the examiners noticed (although the admin lady did when I handed it in - she alerted me to it immediately).

I don't know if any of this helps or you'd want to interview and ask more questions. Happy to anyway.

Best
Tudor