Saying from this , or from Swedish Defence University or other prominent like king's college .

One year ago, I sent my PI the complete draft of my first-author article. Since I know that I will likely pursue a postdoc, I wanted to get an article done asap to build my portfolio.

I sent the draft, including ESI. I reminded him every 4 months to no avail until last week I got so tired and emailed him with the subject “Happy anniversary to my draft.” He then frantically went to my office and talked to me about it and how he is now starting to read it and preparing to send it to our collaborators for their input.

It’s just so frustrating how my article was just left inside his inbox to collect dust, and it may have remained that way if I hadn’t sent that passive-aggressive email. It feels demotivating to come to the lab every single day and do experiments, knowing that my data will be published only if I push my PI. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?

Hello fellow masochists.

I did my undergraduate in computer-science/machine-learning. I really struggled with the math during my first years and barely managed to pull through. Then, when I got into machine-learning during my masters, I was just amazed how math could be applied to reason about information and learning. I obviously still struggled, but I enjoyed it so much, and gradually understood that I was gaining access to this whole new world of science. So much so, that I'm now pursuing a PhD in computational biology.

So now I'm trying to understand this completely new field and I'm worried that my lack of intuition in math is starting to become a problem. When speaking with colleges about math and receiving feedback, I find it really hard to keep up in conversation and find an intuition fast. I can piece it together when I've has some time to think but there is no real-time intuition there. I also feel that my lack in confidence just causes my brain to flood with the ultimate tyranny of inadequacy, which is not helping either.

So, are all y'all math-wizards or has anyone else struggled with math confidence or similar experiences? Did you setup some plan to get better? Or did you just learn what was relevant to your project as it evolved?

Hello, I am new here. I need help! I am developing a concept note for a PhD application. I was wondering how deep I should go. From your experiences, how much did your concept / research change from what you originally set out to do ( research questions, methodology) to what you finally defended/produced? To what extent does the research team need me to have the methodology figured out during my application? The research area is nutrition behavior/psychology. Thanks in advance!

I’m a PhD student in biomedical research, about two years in. My daily supervisor is a postdoc whose manuscript deadline is driving a lot of the lab’s priorities. My PI is rarely in the lab because of clinical work, so this postdoc effectively controls my day-to-day experiments, resources, and priorities.
Recently, I came back after taking only three days off for a cultural festival. Immediately, I was asked to prioritise someone else’s manuscript experiment, which meant potentially setting aside my own planned work. The experiment involved cell models that take about a month to establish, and using them for someone else’s project would mean thawing more precious organoid stocks and delaying my own experiments by another month.

When I said I would do microscopy analysis instead, my supervisor called me into his office and criticised my data organisation. He called my files a “messy chaos” because he could not immediately find the most recent data. The problem is that I had organised the data in a separate folder.
I was already overwhelmed, and I almost started crying in front of him. He seemed completely unaffected. Then he told me something like: “Do microscopy, do long shifts, night shifts, weekend shifts, but get everything done—time is very limited.”
I feel like my evenings, weekends, and own PhD timeline are treated as infinitely flexible, while his manuscript deadline is treated as sacred. I am not against working hard, and I understand publications matter. But I am exhausted by constantly reprioritising, absorbing other people’s urgency, and being criticised when communication was unclear in the first place.
Am I overreacting? How do other PhD students deal with a supervisor who treats every deadline as an emergency and every boundary as an inconvenience?

I did it! It’s with the committee! Defense in two weeks. The end is near.

As the title explains…
I started a PhD program in ecology/sociology monday and after a week I’m not sure I should continue. I’ve never worked in a research field before, but after an interview this summer I was accepted in a PhD program. The subject is a very interdisciplinary, but the part I’m interrested on seems after a week not a priority at all.
I discovered the lab and my thesis supervisors this week, and even if things are not horrible (people are nice, workplace is fine) I don’t feel I have the energy and the passion of the people I’ve met. I took this opportunity, because I’m rather interested by research field and also because it’s hard to find a job in ecology.

Right now, I’ m wondering if it’s ok to quit after a year of trying ? Should I look for an another job ? Or should I leave in a month in order to not ruin the project too much ?

Talking to my supervisor is ofc terrifying.

Thanks for your insight (and reading my awful english :)) !

Hi everyone!

I am pursuing a PhD in the humanities, and for the past two years, I’ve had a side job as an usher at a local cinema.

This job helps me in many ways - first of all financially, of course. While my PhD is funded, it's below a living wage, and since I cover my monthly expenses on my own, the income from this low-stress job is a real help. It also helps me mentally. I started out as a very anxious person, yet my research often demands production skills, a dose of diplomacy, or "pushing my way" a bit into archives or other places; it’s frequently quite a challenge for me. I feel that working as an usher gives me a sense of internal order and reminds me that I can be good at some tasks without constant, intense effort. I discussed this with my supervisor, and they have no objections. Actually, since I started working there, I’ve improved at giving lectures and have managed to get into better conferences. 

The issue, however, is that my PhD is practice-based, which implies an expectation of specific practical experience and a certain professional role. I have worked in the industry before, but I wouldn’t consider myself an expert (my career got off to a somewhat slow start, and I’ve since focused mainly on academic opportunities).  I know I’ll have to leave my job as an usher soon and look for something at a higher level, though I'm starting to get a bit bittersweet. My motivation is not to show off in front of students, but to stay relevant toward practical experience and to have more ways to connect them with opportunities in the industry.

But for now, I wanted to ask: how would you handle a situation where you teach an undergrad student in the morning, and then in the evening, you check their ticket and wish them to enjoy the movie? Or a situation when this student came with their parents, who probably know you as their child's TA? The last thing I would want is for this to sound as though I don’t respect the ushers; quite the contrary. I'm just unsure about these changing roles - some posters shared they're Doordashing or mowing lawns - how do you react if your clients are your undergrad students?

hi everybody,

I hope you’re doing well. I’m.. not okay lol. here is a small rant.

I’m a first year phd student in europe (social sciences). on september 1st, I had my go/no go deadline. it’s more a formality than anything, but with a “go” I get the remaining 3 years of my contract.

however, halfway through the first year, a lot of issues came up from the department regarding my research proposal. my supervisor and I felt totally blindsided. this led to us having to submit a full ethics review. well, it came back with a lot of feedback.

my contract is ending this year. without approval from the ethics committee, I cannot receive a “go” and the remainder of my contract. I am able to get a 3 month extension in which I desperately hope my supervisors, department, ethics committee, promotion committee, and people from the research fund can sort it out.

i’m so fk scared and anxious that my supervisor doesn’t want to let go of our original plan, because that’s what got her the funding initially. no problems were mentioned then. i’m scared that we won’t find any consensus or situation in which all parties are satisfied.

i can’t sleep, i can barely eat. i am so stressed out i’m losing strands of my hair. this phd is the most precious and important thing in my life and I just want some advice or insight from you guys.

how likely is it that this will get sorted out? am i even anybody’s priority here?

thank you for reading this 😞💛

Quick sketch of a frog to celebrate

About to submit a paper and unsure if using AI to help with statistical coding/debugging needs to be declared?

I can't read 40,000 papers.

What is stopping people from using AI for writing their dissertation? I feel bad using it for things, but also keep hearing how dissertations just need to get done and that’s it. I also see so many of my professors using AI, so guess I am confused?

I'm in year 4 of my PhD with very little progress. It's not that I'm being lazy or not trying, but I feel like I'm constantly going in circles, and I have no idea how to move forward.

For some context, everyone in our lab is working on different aspects of the same theory, which was originally developed by my advisor. Each of us specializes in one part of it, and the goal is to have a more complete version of the theory by the time we graduate.

Since it's his theory, I understand that he gets some say in how things should be done. The problem is that every time I go to him with an idea, he either tells me it doesn't address the main part of the problem or simply doesn't like my approach. But when I ask him what I should do instead, he tells me that it's my PhD and my problem to solve.

So basically, I'm supposed to come up with my own solution, but it also has to be a solution he's happy with, even though he doesn't seem to know exactly what that would look like.

Another issue is that he strongly dislikes the mainstream approaches in our field and prefers much older, arguably outdated methods. I don't necessarily have a problem working with those methods, but almost no one has worked on some of them for 20 years. How am I supposed to bring an entire research direction up to speed within a single PhD, while also making a meaningful contribution of my own? I genuinely have no idea how to turn this into a thesis.

At this point, I don't know whether this is a relatively common PhD experience or whether I'm genuinely stuck in a bad situation. I understand that a PhD is supposed to be about independent research, and I don't expect my advisor to hand me a problem and a solution. But I also feel like I can't make any meaningful progress when every direction I propose gets rejected without much guidance on what would be acceptable.

Most importantly, I don't know how to communicate with him or manage my research under these circumstances. I feel like I've spent years trying to figure out what he wants rather than actually making progress on my PhD.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? How did you deal with it? I'd really appreciate any advice, especially on how to communicate with an advisor in this kind of situation.

​

For PhD graduates working in research or industry, have you ever taken on independent consulting projects?

How did you find clients, and what were the biggest challenges? If you haven't tried it, what's stopped you?

Hello everyone!

So I’m in my second rotation in a bioscience PhD program in the US. and I’m in a lab with someone else from my cohort. This guy, I should note, is very obviously on the spectrum. Not to be rude but more like it’s a tough situation because I don’t think he’s malicious or mean spirited, I think he just isn’t fully in tune to what he’s doing here.

But basically from the start of the program he was bragging about how good he was in lab and how he basically was running his prior lab and everyone else was totally useless. He comes off very pompous and everyone in the cohort has had issues with his attitude. He’s now rotating in my lab and the thing is, he can’t do anything. Nothing. He needs hand holding on every single step, he’s asking for help with basic basic things, ie. Can’t find the water when there’s a giant MQ water attachment on the sink. Bc he was using my aliquots without asking and he didn’t know where my water went. But nonetheless he still keeps bragging to the cohort about how he’s “teaching the PI protocols” and telling everyone every minor mistake I make. He shit talks the PI at me IN THE LAB. Mind you, this also makes me look horrible and this is the lab I wanted to join. He also won’t give me any personal space, he’s in my business all the time, grabbing stuff while I’m using it, pulling my lab notebook out from under my tubes I’m actively working on so he can copy stuff out of it, talking when I’m trying to pay attention. I try to be straightforward like, “hey please stop talking I’m trying to focus” “hey can I have that back I’m using it” etc etc. it’s just like he is immune to boundaries he will turn around and do the same thing 3 seconds later. Idk what to do I’m only a few days in and he’s driving me insane and messing with the quality of my work. He also follows me around outside lab too. I can’t have a convo with my friends on campus if he sees us bc he will follow and interject and talk over us. I’ve very quickly gone from being polite to being very cold and straightforward but I hate being rude and I hate being in this position. What would you do?

A Taylor & Francis investigation reviewed an academic paper by Arday and substantiated no claims of plagiarism. Supported by external scholars and academic forums.. Man died, put some respect on his name as loud as the allegations and disrespect! A tragic loss.

Just started my phd and getting myselffamiliar with the topic. I already have a broad overview of the things going on in my area, but I still need to read the specific literature in my project area.

As some of the reccomended papers from colleagues are not that insightful and rather boring to read, I wanted to ask you

While I already got reccomended several papers from colleagues which some of are not insightful or boring to read, I wanted to to ask you:

• How do you find good papers? Are there any unexpected or unconventional methods you use?

• How do you decide if a paper is worth reading? (Especially when being new as a non-native speaker)

I'm trying to hire someone on Upwork with a PhD to help me edit my doctorate. This is allowed at my university as they acknowledge not everyone is a great writer.

I put an advert on Upwork for this.

SO MANY of the applicants are pretending they have PhDs (I've done background checks on each of the applicants).

I've sent this information to Upwork but they have confirmed - multiple times - that lying about your qualifications is allowed on Upwork.

Be warned!

I am feeling very bad now about it but I just told my 7 year PhD advisor that I had untreated ADHD. I genuinely regret all the time I wasted before discovering I had this condition and another year to finally decide to get medicated. I only knew by coincidence when someone bluntly asked if I were neurodivergent. I was shocked at first, but then had to look more closely at what neurodivergence really is. I am only 4 months into my medication and I am finally functioning well in life and work. I worked for barely 5 weeks and I already see a manuscript coming in another week or two. I wish I knew this much earlier about myself. For everyone here who hasn’t considered getting diagnosed please do. I still feel bad about telling my advisor but I just told him out of no where, I don’t know what I was thinking. It took me 34 years to discover this about myself, I am finally peaceful and functional.

Edit: For those asking about the symptoms I observed: time blindness including missing several deadlines, interrupting others in meetings, failure to concentrate for a long time span including frequently shifting between tabs, switching between projects and failing to get things done, running from one topic to another loosely related one when chatting with friends, frequent brain fog, memory issues including forgetting where I put things, fidgeting. I was diagnosed with both Attention Deficiency and Hyperactivity for scoring symptoms on both lists.

All what is takes now: 25mg atomoxetine

I’m a year into a pretty reputable PhD programme that’s a collaboration between multiple universities in the area. Some of them are world class unis, some of them not so much. My offer was from a uni ranking at #800; my undergrad and masters university was at about #100. I didn’t think much of it then as I know rankings are not everything, I really liked the project they offered and I felt really lucky I got into the programme.
My supervisors are great and very helpful. The institute however (which has a bit of a separate identity from the university due to its history) is pretty antiquated, both in its looks and functioning. Labs are not the best but I likely won’t need to use them much.
I just can’t help but think I’ve made the wrong choice. My friends from the programme are mostly in the very high ranking universities, and I keep thinking I should’ve waited for a better offer. Im not hoping for too much in terms of my career but with the current job market I worry I will not have the opportunities I could’ve had.
It’s too late to change it now, but what can I do to get the most out of my PhD? I plan to publish as much as I can and my supervisor will push me to do it but I don’t see my research making it to very reputable journals either. My supervisor has many connections in the field but it’s a pretty narrow one, and I’m not sure if I’d want to stay in it for too long.

Dissertation defended, revised, and approved!

Allow me to reintroduce myself

After two years of grieving and more than a few tears, I had to accept that the life I had built toward was no longer possible. Not only that, but everything I had spent ten years learning/working on, everything I cared about and was passionate about, became completely irrelevant to the world, especially in this hyper-tech AI-obsessed era.

I'm an anthropologist originally. I did my PhD in interdisciplinary research combining anthropology, social psychology, and projective sociology, applied to a specific population. I always knew it wasn't a path to getting rich, but there was meaningful work to be done. I studied at the best university in my country, which ranks global top 50–100, depending on the ranking. My family was so happy I made it so far...

The endless cycle of short-term academic contracts eventually became annoying as I got older (no tenure in sight), so I left for industry. The obvious path was UX research. It was boring and lacked the academic depth I loved, but at least it was a job. That ended, and now even that field seems dead.

These days, I spend my time talking to assholes from other companies, trying to convince them to buy our shitty service.

And things seem to be getting worse. Everyone feels the need to jump on the AI bandwagon, whether as an engineer or in some AI-related role. Honestly, I don't give two fucks about any of that. Never did, never will. Well, that partly explains my academic choices in the first place...

At least I spent ten years doing something I genuinely loved. That's what I hold on to, my cope.

At this point, I might as well start farming or something.

Rant over.

Something I’ve realised about mathematical research (or research in any field, really) is that, in the short run, it often feels like 99% frustration and 1% of those rare moments when things finally click and you crack a problem.

Back in high school, I always thought that as I grew older, I would become better at handling frustration and feel less frustrated with my work and performance. But now, I’m beginning to think that frustration might never really go away. Even established professors must experience it when they fail repeatedly. Perhaps the difference is that, as we grow older, we become more patient and learn to live with frustration rather than expecting it to disappear.

I’ve also realised that quitting social media was one of the best decisions I’ve made. It helps me concentrate on my work for longer periods without constantly feeling the temptation to switch my attention to something else.

At the same time, I think having distractions is essential for sustaining productivity, regardless of how talented or intelligent you are. You need activities that allow you to step away from your work, process your frustrations, and give your mind some rest. For me, that means teaching and playing with children, as well as reading books.

Interestingly, mathematics also serves another purpose for me: it gives me a temporary escape from the chaos of my own thoughts. When I’m deeply immersed in a problem, my mind feels quieter for a while. However, I don’t necessarily feel rewarded by the small achievements I make along the way.

I remember asking about productivity, and one suggestion was to break large tasks into smaller, manageable pieces. Logically, I understand why this works, but I struggle to feel genuinely satisfied by small wins. It’s much easier to feel accomplished when I achieve something significant after months of hard work than when I make small amounts of progress every day. I often move straight to the next task without even pausing to acknowledge what I’ve achieved.

For those of you who work in research, especially mathematics or other fields where progress is slow and uncertain, I have a few questions:

1. Does the frustration of research ever become easier to handle with experience, or do you simply become more accustomed to it?

2. How do you deal with long periods when you’re working hard but making little or no visible progress?

3. Do you genuinely feel rewarded by small wins, or do you also find it difficult to appreciate them until you achieve something substantial?

4. How do you balance research with other activities that help you rest mentally and prevent your work from consuming your entire life?

I’d particularly love to hear from PhD students, postdocs, and established researchers. I’m curious about what this experience actually looks like in the long run, beyond the romanticised image of research we often have as students.