I've spent about 75% of my work time in April on paper revisions. They really aren't all that bad, but I've had to do some literature searches, read papers, and dig out some old data to beef up the results and that all takes time. I also got log-jammed on one difficult section, but I'm think I'm over it now. I'm striving to have most of it done before Friday, when I go to Florida for a long weekend with BFF and another friend.
I've been feeling a little frustrated by working on these revisions. Of course I see this as a priority; I want to get the paper turned around as fast as possible so it gets published as soon as possible. Since I have no publications yet, I'm desperate to get this one out. But. The annoying part is that this manuscript is already dissertation quality. The changes I'm making will certainly make it much better, but it is already good enough for my diss. So instead of spending my time on the other chapters that are not yet written, I'm spending more time on this chapter to get it ready to resubmit.
I'm obviously not going to set aside the revisions in order to work on another chapter, but it is frustrating to sink yet more time into this one that could be considered done.
5 comments:
Such interesting trade-offs.... You'll be happy not to worry about it later though! I'm currently splitting time between turning old diss chapters into papers and new postdoc writing...
Well, I don't have to worry about this one since I'll actually need 4 papers published to get my PhD... Maybe see it as a good starting step for later, whether a PostDoc or something else? Either way, good luck with the revisions!
yeah, but I say again: NOBODY READS YOUR DISSERTATION. So having chapters is really almost irrelevant. As long as you have the required papers to graduate, you WILL graduate. And nobody cares- how can I emphasize this more? NOBODY CARES what's in your dissertation. The only thing ANYBODY cares about is your publications.
Just keep your priorities straight and try not to go crazy. You're over the grad school hump now (first publication is a huge deal), and it will get worse (more crazy-making) before it gets better. But you're closer to end, as I just told a grad student friend today, than you are to the beginning.
Hang in there
Yeah, I know that nobody cares about my dissertation, but it's not like I can turn in three chapter's worth of blank pages - it has to get done eventually. My program has no publication requirement for graduation, but it does have a dissertation requirement. Each of my four chapters will become a separate paper, so excessive work on one just slows progress on the others.
Of course, I obviously want to have as much as possible published before I finish grad school. It would be good to avoid stringing out the grad school stuff any longer than necessary. WA, you have some if yours published already, right? Or are you pubs more from side projects and stuff?
Good luck with sorting things out!
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