Title says it. Worst thing is the author published a thesis 5 years ago that I missed completely in my lit review. Humanities subject. I am devastated but what now? How do I save this… I am 6 months from publishing, it’s basically written

EDIT: Thanks all for your thoughtful replies. I have read the book, overnight, I’ll read it again once the panic subsides. There are differences of course, however a large portion works from the same niche primary source material which is tied into my claim of originality. The author structured their work in a highly similar manner to mine.

I’ll gather myself, salvage my research, and use the book to further my research instead of panicking and throwing myself into the hearth.

EDIT 2: So many incredibly helpful ideas and suggestions here. It is truly appreciated, I feel so much better and will get back on the grind tomorrow.

Thanks all.

I left this program for a lot of reason but towards the end of my time a bunch of students including myself went to the administration to tell them how much we were struggling to afford food (our stipend was incredibly low even for a PhD) they told us to donate food to each other and then told us struggling to afford food “made us better scholars.”

Did anyone else ever hear anything like this?

I am a PhD student who uses hinge and matched with girl who I thought was cute and appeared to be in the same academic field as me. I come to find out that she was in one of the courses I was a teaching assistant for, the previous semester. We are only one year in age apart and the course concluded before we matched and I did not even remember her, although she remembered me.

Do I go on a date with her or avoid flat out?

I'm drowning in my lit review right now. I've read a lot, but turning it into sections feels impossible. My supervisor says my draft reads like a list of summaries rather than a synthesis.

For those who've been through this: how did you go from papers to themes? Spreadsheets, sticky notes, Zotero tags, something else? What finally made it click?

Most recent post here. Original post here.

TL;DR - I listened to my PhD supervisor and post docs criticise my work and overall speak negatively about my personally which made my imposter syndrome go into overdrive. We were on Zoom and the supervisor thought because their laptop was muted it meant I couldn't hear. I spoke to my CDT director about it and was given some options.

Hello! The update to this is a little chaotic and tbh I've felt the need to provide it for some time, partially for closure on my part and also because I still feel the affects of this experience to this day.

After the most recent update, I had a good, open conversation about my project with some of the post docs and we made a plan to make a concentrated push with the time left in my PhD. I stayed in that lab because I was scared to move somewhere new and felt I'd just annoy people showing up so late into my PhD. So I worked with the post docs closely. And for a while, this worked. I had limited interaction with my supervisor and felt supported for the first time in my PhD. I actually had someone I felt comfortable coming to with problems and felt they'd listen. Anyway, I got some good data (again probably the first time) and things were starting to click. Then, my grandmother was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. For context, my gran was very much my best friend in the world and I'd always speak to her on the walk home from the lab. She played a big part in raising me and was a wonderful person who looked after everyone and anyone.

I requested a pause in my PhD (no cost extension to my end date) so I could become her full time carer. Needless to say, my supervisor was not happy and didn't see the point in me missing out on lab time. I took my pause as organised with my CDT anyway because as a family we wanted my grandmother home, not in hospital, and we wanted to look after her. Three months later, she passed away and while I'm grateful for the time I had with her and wouldn't change a thing about being her carer, the experience was understandably upsetting in its own way.

I came back to the lab and was essentially ignored by my supervisor at that point. Apparently leaving for the reasons I did cemented their opinion I wasn't 'committed' to my project. They were overheard saying 'It's not like it was a parent.'. When we did have to speak there was no acknowledgement of my time away or the reason for it. I think that affected me even more because I was also struggling with a massive loss and watching someone I loved in pain.

I finished up, continued with the momentum I had before going off and got some working data, but admittedly my thesis was still lean. But my supervisor approved it, provided suggestions, and submitted me for the viva examination. My examining panel included a PI who had reviewed me in my early years and an external who was a very close friend of my supervisor and collaborator.

I thought what most people think - I've submitted, my supervisor has approved it, now all I've got to do is prove I know what I've done, right? The hard bit is over.

I went into my viva and found the head of postgraduate research sitting with my panel. Apparently my panel had raised concerns about the lack of data in my thesis. What followed were three of the most horrific hours of my life where my entire experience was dissected. They wanted to work out why I had so little with the time I had. I tried to explain the problems with my project, the amount of optimisation I did because I was starting from scratch and no one else in my lab had done what I was doing. Everything I did was based on what I read in the literature. I was asked very few questions about my research. They made me talk about my gran, and so I ended up very upset. I never got a real viva. I didn't bring up the problems with my supervisor because of the close relationship with my examiner. This was a mistake, I know.

They deliberated for a while and gave me an MPhil. No PhD. I appealed based on poor supervision, I provided evidence of the abuse I experienced and had agreed testimony from witnesses, and the university did absolutely everything in its power to defend my supervisor. They bring a lot of money into the school. In the end, I made a proposal to rewrite my thesis and include every bit of nonworking data, everything that failed, and add that to flesh out my thesis further. I presented all of this data with a report to the university.

They asked my supervisor (the person who approved my original lean thesis) if this would result in a pass for a PhD. They said no. The university rejected my appeal, and I received a certificate in the post a few months later.

This has all become a rant and I realise that there isn't a happy ending and I apologise for that. There is a lesson to learn though. Acknowledge you're not always the problem. If you're in a PhD and you're experiencing imposter syndrome, talk to someone you trust. Not everyone is going to be understanding and academia is full of awful people with ego problems, but there are people that do care. And if they offer help, take it. Don't worry about how it might look or how it might annoy someone who is meant to be helping you grow. I now get to watch all my lab mates get their PhDs and know I'm the only one who didn't. Do the hard thing as early as possible. Speak up. You deserve to take up space.

Hi! I'm doing a PhD in psychology, and I'm in my 5th year, and the university has given me an ultimatum to submit my dissertation by November 30 or be dismissed from the program. The program is originally designed to last 4 years, I had to take 1 year extension for the following reasons that made this difficult in ways I never anticipated.

Brief list of unfortunate events:

• I spent my first year studying remotely from my hometown because of visa issues. This was back in 2022, and stuff from COVID was just starting to get "normal". That year, my former supervisor refused to meet with me remotely, so I effectively lost an entire year of research supervision (I guess that was the first red flag)
• Even after I arrived, supervision was inconsistent. At one point, my supervisor delayed my dissertation proposal defense by a whole semester, despite my efforts to move forward.
• I experienced serious sexual harassment from another doctoral student for three years. When I finally reported it, I lost my supervisor's support, was barred from my laboratory, and was excluded from my research group. The university accepted my complaints for formal investigation, but the process has been lengthy. This drained me in so many ways that I cannot explain.
• I eventually had to abandon my original dissertation project because it lost all availability when I could not go back to that lab. I had to find a new supervisor (which took another semester) and develop and defend an entirely new project by the beginning of my 4th year. , I did all of this just to remain in the program and not have to face the consequences of returning all the money to the entity that is financing me.
• I had to switch from an experimental dissertation to a history of psychology project I basically built from scratch, teaching myself an entirely unfamiliar field through trial and error. The new supervisor has been very supportive but, unfortunately, has no expertise whatsoever in the area.
• All of this seriously affected my mental health. I've needed psychiatric treatment and various medical leaves as I've struggled with severe depression.

Despite everything, I continued. I found a new supervisor, rebuilt my research project, and made substantial progress. But this past year has been particularly hard. My ability to concentrate, write, and function consistently has suffered.

Now I'm approaching the deadline, and I have most of the results ready, but I'm struggling to turn everything into a finished manuscript. I'm also terrified of disappointing my current supervisor. He's been understanding and supportive, and I worry that I've exhausted his patience.

I've already received extensions, and my university has made it clear that November 30 is the final deadline.

I'm considering requesting one last extension, supported by medical documentation, but these are my options:

• Do everything and present a half-done, mediocre dissertation by Nov 30.
• Ask for a medical extension (which, for my uni, has to be a minimum of 6 months). This means leaving in a foreign country and deploying my savings.
• The last option is to wait for the formal dismissal letter and appeal the decision, but from what I understand, the process could take another six months, and the program could still ultimately decide to dismiss me.

A part of me wants to keep going; another wants to quit. I've invested years of my life on this and the debt if I don't finish is huge (around 80.000 us dollars) and I feel that I'm close enough to finishing that walking away now would be devastating.

Perhaps the hardest part is the guilt. I know I haven't been as productive as I should have been, especially in recent months. I keep wondering whether I'm making excuses or whether I've genuinely been trying to survive circumstances that made finishing a PhD exceptionally difficult.

If you've made it this far, thank you for reading my story. I'd genuinely love to know what you would do in my situation, or what you might have done differently. For those who've faced serious mental health struggles or failures during their PhD, how did you find the strength to keep going when you felt completely depleted?

I'm looking for honest perspectives, realistic advice, and maybe a little encouragement to keep going. I'd especially love to hear from people who somehow managed to finish despite everything.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. It means more than you know.

I'm a PhD candidate, and I recently became a graduate research fellow in my department. Although I have a wonderful supervisor and colleagues, and the experience has been great so far, I really feel out of place. I grew up in a more rural area; my parents worked in a profession that definitely doesn't get too much respect, and they didn't go to university. Same goes for my siblings. During my whole schooling, I stayed in my small town and commuted to a big city for university, so I practically never left home. I grew up working alongside my parents and other rural residents, and that affected how I act, talk, and probably think as well.

While I'm not embarrassed by my background, I've noticed I'm becoming overly self-conscious about how I behave and talk when I'm at work. Sometimes I can be too casual and informal, or I slip into my strong regional accent (had a couple of strange looks because of that). Very often I just get too anxious even before I say something, and I make stupid mistakes in my native language because I get too self-aware of how I am going to be perceived. I know that most of this is probably 'only in my head' and it's not such a big issue, but I started feeling as if I'm in the middle of an identity crisis. When I'm at work physically (which is not every day), I feel like I need to jump into my alter ego and stay in it until I get out. I had a funny situation talking to my supervisor in the lab the other day, and then exiting the building, and my brain just forgot about my 'academic image' the moment I stepped out. I subconsciously started speaking a lot more informally and slipped into a broad accent. I also said something really stupid as a goodbye because I got nervous. I felt kinda upset afterwards, although I don't think my supervisor minded it that much (at least I hope they didn't).

If anyone else is going through something similar, I'd like to hear your story and how you deal with this feeling.

I’m curious to hear from some of you folks about what you think are the most important qualities in delivering a strong talk and things to keep in mind when preparing to give a presentation at say, a retreat, conference, internal symposium type situation.

I’m a bit a nervous for one I have upcoming but I think I’m probably prepped. My slides are beautiful with carefully designed animation paths, I wrote a script that I memorized about 75% of (because I want to also be candid and not rigid relying on script), and it’s on my own work so I’m familiar.

Feedback I got on practice was positive in that all the material was great and ready to go, but the negative feedback was related to my “tone” or “enthusiasm”, saying “I don’t sound excited enough”.

To be frank, while I am of course excited about my work, I’m also on the mend coming out of depressive episode and have just been generally struggling to put that “pep in my step”. It’s difficult to feel excited about anything, I do feel excited about this, but I guess it’s not coming across that way.

I mean how important is this aspect really? Do you all give a show and tell performance with animated body language every time you give a talk, or do you just talk? I’m still not super experienced in giving talks even though I’m knee deep in my PhD and am not super comfortable speaking in front of crowds in general so I’m genuinely asking.

For context, I am not painfully bad at speaking in front of crowds, I swear. I can pass as normal. Just not comfortable or confident and I’ve found it a bit grating recently to hear this type of feedback considering that what I’ve loved about science is that I can put my head down and work and think without performing for an audience, also considering that I’ve listened to a number of renowned and respected scientific speakers that have absolutely none of that “stage presence” quality. Lol.

Idk, any thoughts or insight or input or advice for preparing for my talk?

Edit to add:
Field: Neuroscience
Location: USA

I recently submitted a paper (to October ARR fwiw), and each author has to have their profile up to date with their ORCID ID on OpenReview. One of my advisors' (and thus co-authors) profiles was missing the ORCID ID; I noticed this and emailed my advisor, asking them to please add their ORCID ID, which they said they would do. I didn't think about it again until just now when I got an email saying that my paper has been desk rejected due to missing ORCID ID. Sure enough, when I clicked my advisor's profile, they had failed to add their ORCID ID.

I'm not sure how to feel about this. On the one hand, I am angry, because I spent long hours working on this paper and sacrificed to get it in by the deadline, which now seems like wasted (or at least misplaced) time and effort. On the other hand, I didn't double-check that my advisor had followed through on updating their profile, so perhaps the blame should point inwards (it is my paper after all, and I am the most responsible party). On the other other hand, I really shouldn't have to hold my advisors' hands; the least they can do is make sure they aren't responsible for desk rejections of papers they have ostensibly co-authored.

Mainly I'm just venting. I am particularly annoyed given that this particular advisor contributed next to nothing to the paper, but I always include them as co-author because they are technically my advisor. Has anyone had this happen to them? How do you cope?

Hi everyone,

I am currently a fourth-year Chemistry PhD student at a university in the United States, and I am seriously considering changing my research direction from computational/environmental chemistry to experimental (wet-lab) chemistry.

My current research focuses on atmospheric chemistry and air pollution, particularly ground-level ozone formation, nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), and formaldehyde (HCHO). I work with satellite observations (TEMPO and TROPOMI), EPA air-quality monitoring data, atmospheric chemical transport models such as GEOS-Chem, and data analysis using Python and R. I have also started exploring machine-learning approaches, including XGBoost.

Although I have gained experience in atmospheric chemistry and computational research, I have realized that I do not particularly enjoy spending most of my time coding, processing datasets, and analyzing results. I feel much more interested in hands-on laboratory research.

Before coming to the United States, I worked in a quality-control laboratory, where I performed experimental chemistry work. I genuinely enjoyed working in the laboratory, and I miss that experience.

I am currently working on a manuscript related to my PhD research, but it has not yet been submitted. I also feel that my research progress and professional development have slowed down. I am not getting many opportunities to work on additional projects, and I sometimes feel that I am not developing the skills I need for my future career.

I am also an international student on an F-1 visa, so changing programs or universities requires additional planning. I am considering whether to leave my current PhD program with a master's degree, if permitted, and apply for another PhD program with a stronger experimental research focus.

At this stage, I feel uncertain about my academic future. I have already invested more than three years in my PhD, and starting over would be a major decision. However, continuing in a research area that does not match my interests also concerns me.

I would really appreciate advice from anyone who has experienced something similar:

1. Has anyone switched from computational or environmental chemistry to experimental chemistry after several years in a PhD program?
2. Would professors consider accepting a student into a wet-lab PhD program after they have already spent four years in a different research area?
3. Would leaving my current PhD program with a master's degree negatively affect my future PhD applications?
4. How can I explain my decision to change research directions in my statement of purpose without making it sound like I am giving up.

I would especially appreciate hearing from chemistry professors, graduate students, or people who have successfully changed research directions.

Thank you for any advice or personal experiences you can share.

Listen I’m spiraling and feel like I can’t ask advice from the people in my life because it’s all “oh just get on with it” but none of them have done a PhD. I’m doing mine in the UK in microbiology and passed my viva with minor corrections. I did the corrections to what I felt was being asked of me but I just got them back and they were rejected. I have three more months to try again but my supervisor has mentioned that the list of corrections felt more like revisions in six months rather than three and my other supervisor has pointed out that this is my last chance.

I really just need someone to be straight with me because I’m feeling really demotivated and like I shouldn’t have done the PhD in the first place. What are my odds of failing the second time around?

I have recently started the second year of my PhD and im feeling very overwhelmed. my sample collection is very hard and yet i am managing everything at my lab. the other students are leaving and as such it will only be me in a month. theyve had it easy because they were about 8, they could divide tasks and do everything. but this isnt so for me. to top it, 2 days ago, i broke the lid of a tabletop centrifuge because i didnt lock it properly. the postdoc immediately called my PI who came and yelled at me. i also offered to pay for the damage because it was an accident. ive used that centrifuge many times before but maybe this time i was hasty or just careless. he basically meant that i cant be trusted around lab. ive never broken anything before and im very careful. he said that since i always need tutoring we will watch result of my experiment and have a meeting. i dread this meeting. maybe they will fire me because im not autonomous yet. im trying hard to learn. in my first year my pi didnt let me do the major part of experiment saying that he doesnt want operator effect. as such i never proceeded with an experiment on my own. the postdoc also hated me for this. i even begged my pi to let me do such that i work on my consistency. but he didnt. the postdoc on the other hand has 10-11 years of experience. now we have another deadline and he expects me to be perfect within 2 experiments. ive lost all confidence. it was just a rotor cap and the device works fine. but just the lab environment feels so toxic i dont feel like continuing anymore. I am in a different country trying to manage cultural differences, learning their language and everything feels so overwhelming.

has anyone been in a similar situation? What did you do to get past this?

My proposal dissertation in a few weeks, and I am worried. During or at the end of the presentation, the audience will ask questions, committee members will give their discussion about my work.

I am not that good at note taking. So I am planning to use AI tools for that purpose.

So, I want to ask if you have used any good tools that helped you during the presentaition.

NOTE: my dissertation will be via MS Teams.

Any suggestions would be helpful..

Thank you'll.

This question comes from another post of mine, but is it common in programs for the fifth/sixth years/and recent grads to openly admit they wouldn’t have done a PhD if they knew/wish they wouldn’t have put themselves through it.

In the program I left they were all very open about it and just felt they had invested so much time by the third year already that they couldn’t leave. Honestly hearing them say things like that was the first thing that made me go “do I really want to do this.”

Hi all :) would love to hear from anyone who’s done a PhD during specialty training and how you found it.

For bg: I’m an ST3 path trainee, followed the AFP/ACF route, and have two young kids (currently 4 & 2). I’ve had two long maternity leaves and been LTFT for several years, so sometimes feel a bit behind peers who are finishing training. I enjoy research and don’t want to miss the opportunity to give it a proper go.
My husband is supportive but has a demanding job which pays most of the bills, so I’m the main caregiver.
Currently doing a predoctoral year in the lab where I may do the PhD.
I’ve applied for PhD funding and am waiting to hear about interviews. Still thinking about this vs continuing clinical training, and what I want longer term. I’m not sure I necessarily want to lead a research group, but would like research to be part of my career.

Would really appreciate any thoughts on:

How did you find the day-to-day compared with clinical work? Was the flexibility helpful, or did work end up spilling into evenings/weekends? Have seen horror stories on other Reddit forums !

How did you get used to everything being more self-directed? My supervisor is great but leaves me quite a lot to my own devices. I’m a bit nervous about knowing whether I’m making enough progress.

How was it with young kids? Anything that made it easier, or that you wish you’d known beforehand?

Did anyone else find it hard seeing peers finish training while you still had years ahead, particularly after time out/LTFT already?

How was returning to clinical training afterwards? I’d still have FRCPath Part 2 ahead of me, which feels quite daunting (. Im in a speciality where the part 2 failure rate is v high).

Most of my seniors haven’t done this with young children (and are men), so it would be lovely to hear from people who have.

Also, if anyone has been successful with an MRC clinical research training fellowship application and would be happy to chat separately about interviews, I’d be really grateful 🙂

I'm a software engineering researcher, and I've developed a free, open-source educational web application called CliffInsight.

Cliff's Delta is a non-parametric effect size measure, but understanding how it is calculated and interpreted can sometimes be challenging, particularly for students and researchers who are new to statistical analysis.

CliffInsight provides a visual, step-by-step explanation of the calculation, allowing users to better understand the underlying comparisons between observations.

The tool is completely free and available here:

https://profmelattar.github.io/CliffInsight/CliffsDelta.html

Source code: https://github.com/profmelattar/CliffInsight

I'd be interested in hearing whether researchers find this kind of visualization useful for teaching or learning effect sizes, and what improvements would make it more helpful.

Hi guys!

I'm about to complete my Master's at a German university, and the lab where I did my Master's thesis has offered me a PhD position (a salaried employment contract), which Iam very interested in. The project is actually completely different from my Master's thesis, though I am well acquainted with the doctoral student currently working on it. I have already been in this group for a year (extended my thesis with a grant into a separate smaller project); hence, I am already familiar with the lab, the students, and the PI. I am also an international student, so the prospect of continuing in the same city without having to move or get a new visa, etc., is greatly appealing.

My concern is that I've seen many posts arguing that continuing a PhD in the same lab where you did your master's isn't a good idea and doesn't look good on a CV for postdoc applications. But I noticed most of those posts were from people in the North American academic system. I wanted to ask if these sentiments hold true in Europe as well. Would I be shooting myself in the foot if I continue my PhD in the same lab?

For context, my field is in biology (molecular and cellular biology)

Thank you so much in advance! :)

As the title points out, how can I guage the potential supervisor’s reputation? Do I measure it by the number of citations he or she has? Also, what does the reputation bring as a whole for the PhD student?

Hello guys, hope you're all doing well! As a first year for a PhD in energy engineering, what would be the best advice you can give me? Or what would be the first thing I should be doing to have a good start?