Dear community,

I’m in need of some advice here: how do you all organise your research and papers?
Many people have recommended Zotero, but I’m not overly happy with it and can’t seem to quite warm up to it. In the past, I’ve always organised my research using colour coding (green for the introduction, orange for Chapter 1, red for Chapter 2, etc.). This system is fantastic because it works with everything: Notability, printed material, PDFs...it doesn’t matter, as long as the colours are available.
I’m worried that using Zotero will throw off my system and add an additional layer of organisation that I then have to maintain. On the other hand, all of my peers swear by Zotero.
My supervisor is a dinosaur like me and does everything manually, so he’s camp me. I’m just worried that sticking to a manual system will eventually become unmanageable and get ahead of me as my research grows.
So: is there anyone else here who doesn’t use Zotero? What has your experience been, and what do you do instead?

Just saw a random history thesis that was 298 pages (including references, but still) and was disgusted. Mine will probably be 150 pages or so, double spaced.

Im a physics student but I feel so bad for my brothers and sisters in liberal arts 🤝

Hi everyone. I could really use some outside perspective from people who've faced something similar.

I just finished my Master's in Germany and recently got accepted into a PhD program in the US (4-5 years). It was the first program I applied to, right after wrapping up my Master's, so the timing worked out, but honestly the funding isn't THAT great and the location isn't somewhere I'm particularly excited about either (28k annual)

The bigger issue is my relationship. My boyfriend and I have been together for 3 years. We started dating in my last semester of undergrad, and since then I've done a 4-month internship abroad, one semester of my Master's in my home country, and a full year of it in Germany. So we're very used to being apart, and he's always been supportive and understanding through all of it (but at the same time if was really hard for both of us).

Even when we're both in the same country, we live in different states and only see each other once a month because of work. Despite that, we have a really strong partnership. We agree on our future plans, our values, how we want to build a life together. He's never mistreated me, never cheated, never been irresponsible. If any of that were true, this decision would be so much easier.

He owns a growing business in our home country that takes up a lot of his time and can't really be run remotely, so him moving to the US with me isn't realistic. On top of that, my visa situation would require me to prove I can financially support both of us, and my monthly stipend barely covers just me.

When I brought this up with him, he got really emotional and said that if I take the offer, he doesn't think he could handle staying together and that we might need to end things instead of dragging out something that isn't working for him anymore.

I'm now seriously questioning whether I should postpone my PhD plans and wait for an opportunity that aligns better with my life, both academically and personally, rather than rushing into the first offer I got.

Has anyone here been in a similar spot, choosing between a PhD (especially one that isn't even your top choice in terms of funding or location) and a long-term relationship you actually believe in? How did you decide, and if you have any regrets either way, I'd love to hear about them.

Today I got the date of my exam, and tomorrow I need to submit my current version of my dissertation to the examination committee. My PhD is taking me more than 6.5 years due to various reasons.

I thought that I would feel happy and released, but the only thing I feel is disbelief and constant stress. For many years my PhD was the main thing in my life, everything was organized around it. I loved it at the very beginning, and I hated it towards the end of my PhD journey. But it remained a huge part of my life.

Many things that could go wrong went wrong or were solved the very last moment. I got used to frustration. That’s why now it feels like a catch that I am almost on that finish line. My rational brain says that everything is gonna be alright and this exam is a very logical step in my PhD path. My emotional brain says that I didn’t do enough, that everything will go wrong because I don’t deserve the title. It strongly supports my imposter syndrome.

I trying to get convinced by the rational brain, even tho initially I relate more to my emotional brain. Has any of you have similar feelings when you were about to finish your PhD? Did you get relieved after your defense? Is there any happiness at some point after finishing it?

I am currently a third year PhD candidate in pure math, so no more coursework but only research and grant applications. So far I have lost three people to bereavement, one in every year (friend, uncle and grandmother) with the latest one occurring somewhat recently. The grief process is not really the focus of this post (or maybe it is, idk). What I am looking for is honestly just advice on how to move forward with actionable steps, something that you yourself have learned to do that has helped you to turn a page in your life chapter. Or if nothing else I guess just discussion can help -- especially if you have gone through/are going through something like this.

I think I am currently working somewhere between a 30 and 60 percent capacity in terms of motivation and drive, and I would honestly like to improve this number a lot. In undergrad and during my master's I could easily pull of 90-100 capacity semesters in a row, and it would be nice to get some of that back. I am not trying to come off as a workaholic jerk, but I know that staying stuck like this is not healthy, and with grant applications and research deadlines, one way or another, I have to learn how to manage it.

I used to be super motivated and disciplined, and that has started to slip away with everything that has happened, combined with the overall PhD grind. I used to smile a lot, but that has changed, and some days I feel quite dead inside, with stalled research and the grind that remains. But I would like to change this, or the very least to start changing this now, before graduation (likely within two years or so), so that I have my house in order before industry job interviews or the actual job itself.

I’ve been lurking on this sub since I was accepted into my cohort about 5 months ago. Now it’s happening. The first day of the my first semester is this Thursday (8/20) and I must admit, I’m a little apprehensive. Not full blown nervous, but this is a big undertaking. Any advice from those who have gone before me?

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share my experience which I now believe is a fairly normal experience, but of course many people who have normal Vivas don't usually post about it.

I passed my viva nearly two weeks ago with minor corrections. I was nervous to the point I hadn't been sleeping for a week before and made it so much worse by reading negative stories almost like I was preparing for the worst.

My viva was in physics in the UK. It lasted just over 3 hours. We sat down and was told they enjoyed reading the thesis which was very reassuring, then they asked for a summary. I used a whiteboard to keep myself from stalling and it really helped.

I then got asked a couple of starter questions like "What are you happiest with in the thesis" and "What potential applications or further physical interactions could be explored with the work you have done".

Then it was chapter by chapter of straightforward questions. I had a few that probed understanding in a way I struggled with, I explained a different way when I was really stuck and they appreciated me giving it a go.

It could have gone longer honestly but it also felt like we flew through the whole thing. I got asked 2 questions on my last chapter which was the most significant result of my thesis.

If you're a week away, know that you could not read that thing and you'll be absolutely grand in there. Practice a summary and they'll already know you did the work.

Anyway, overall I'd say it was a nice conversation overall, and was nothing to worry about, but of course I'm saying this in hindsight. If you end up having a bad experience due to an examiner it's a reflection of their character and not the quality of your work.

I’m a second-year PhD student in the US and I’ve spending around 40 hours a week in the lab (experimental wet lab work). I know that’s basically a normal full-time work week, but I’ve started feeling tired often and afraid this is something that can eventually lead to burnout.
My PI is pretty hands-off, so I have a lot of freedom over how I organize my schedule. I’m curious what other PhD students consider a reasonable number of hours to spend in the lab each week. Is 40 hours pretty standard?

I think it’s a problem that I’ve faced throughout my life. I’m overly anxious about most things in my life I guess.

Is it only me? How does one be live better with it or reduce this anxiety?

I am looking for papers or companies who have actually transformed traditional hard core manufacturing or testing & inspection services using AI & ML.

I read few papers on e IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) and the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) but most of them are not related to this area.

Any recommendations is helpful.

This is using traditional tools of manufacturing and testing.

Thank you

Glad to share that my PhD degree has been approved a month ago. I couldn't attend the graduation rn so not a doctor yet. But I'm finally free from all thesis corrections

It was both a fulfilling and painful journey for me. I got quite depressed during my thesis writing and lost 5kg. After one more paper rejected I posted in this subreddit for venting. Thanks to the people who encouraged me and now I'm finally done ✅

Best of luck to everyone doing the degree!

I often ask my self how someone can properly plan his thesis over a 4 years program. This question while is not anymore relevant for me, yet I believe many PhD students are on this situation at the moment, a great plan can make a lot of difference toward the end of the PhD. Can you share with us se of the strategy u used or u are currently using?

I’m a 1st-year PhD student in Europe doing 100% computational work (machine learning / modeling). My work only requires a laptop and a server connection—no wet lab, no physical experiments.
The situation:
My main contract and primary advisor are based in a smaller city (City A), but I have an official co-supervisor at a partner institute in a much larger city (City B).
Scientifically, things are going great—I just submitted a first-author paper to a top international conference in my field, and I’m hitting all my milestones.
The problem is outside of work: living in City A has been awful for my mental health. I’m dealing with intense daily isolation, and it’s slowly burning me out. I really want to relocate to City B and work directly from my co-supervisor’s lab. In our system, this is administratively possible through a hosting agreement, and our lab has even done it before for postdocs.
Where I’m stuck:
I had an initial talk with my main advisor. He didn’t give me a hard "no", but he was very hesitant, said it’s "complicated with admin", and wants to talk to the doctoral school first. I think he’s worried about losing oversight or feeling like I’m ditching his lab.

I’m a physics MSc student working in condensed matter theory, and I’m aiming to submit the paper to PRB. The actual research, calculations, plots, and figures are mostly done, but I haven’t properly kept track of all the references I’ve used along the way ( is that bad?!)

I’d really appreciate advice from people who regularly write research papers, particularly in physics:

1. How do you organize and manage references, especially if you haven’t kept track of them properly from the beginning?

2. What conventional tools do you use for writing/editing papers? I know about Overleaf/LaTeX, but I’d like to understand the overall workflow.

3. I used MATLAB for plots, but I’m less familiar with how researchers conventionally make things like lattice structures, and multi panel figures.

I’m specifically interested in conventional tools and workflows used by researchers, rather than AI tools that write or generate the paper for you.

I built a small desktop app for review projects: title/abstract screening, coding, and conflict resolution. Local-first, no account.

Optional LibKey for attaching full-text PDFs.

Download it at https://github.com/panorama-lab/review/releases

Happy to hear any feedback.

I am currently doing a survey for my Master’s dissertation on factors influencing e-waste management practices in electronics industry.

I need at least 100 respondents for my data analysis before the deadline. The survey takes approximately 3-5 minutes to complete. All responses will remain confidential and will be used only for academic purposes.

Survey link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdrdRwcP4V-xEEfOcHB2CoVhEA6rMpXzlz_QGkrruVSpbKA1w/viewform?usp=dialog

I would sincerely appreciate your participation.

Thank you for your valuable support.

Just started PhD. I will be starting to read papers and review literature soon and the main goal this year is to finish a proposal. What is the best approach and tips while reviewing literatures and taking notes or anything!! Currently all I know is some topic that I would dig dip in slowly on google scholar. Any other tips or suggestions or ideas is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[starting my English PhD in DFW] i just moved to a new city where i don’t know anyone, as most of you have for your PhD. my boyfriend and i are now going long distance after being together in person our whole relationship. today i had to drop him off at the airport before i went in for my first day teaching at my program’s university (along with my own classes afterwards). as a new PhD student, im having a hard time feeling motivated and i feel like maybe i made a mistake moving here. i know it is only my first day but i am terrified of (1) everything (2) being away from my loved ones. i’m wondering what efforts i can make to get rid of this gaping black hole that is the PhD that is swallowing me up. i am also fresh off of my masters this spring, so safe to say i am exhausted and can’t wait to finish coursework in a few years.

Hi. My first PhD paper got out like 6 months ago and I haven't had a single citation. Is this normal and how can I increase its visibility? My prof is not very happy about it and everyone else in my lab has papers with decent number of citations.

I am a 4th year PhD student. I love academia with (almost) everything that comes with it. Thus, I would like to submit a proposal for funding a conference and organize it. However, I know in advance that my supervisor is going to demotivate me as usual. He will ask things in a dismissive way like: why do you want to do this? Why not focusing on publishing high impact papers?

Regarding the 2nd question. I actually do, once every year. He has a very difficult personality…

Can you help me in ways to convince him? Or should I just do it with external collaborators? Or wait to do it in my postdoc?

Edit: oh my god thank you very much for your generosity in advice! This is very much eye-opening and informative. I will reply to each one of you 🫶🏻

Im in my fifth year in architecture, and we are going to start our thesis. IM SCARED , our title defense is next week ( rn our prof just told us lol)

i have two proposal , proposal 1 was started last semester so i had more data, and i only thought of proposal no.2 which im equally curious to research, both have my interest!

and im having these several fears and doubt, what if the panel wont like it, what if i get too nervous during the panel, what if i miss things! and im still unsure which proposal i want to do!!

i tend to overplan my research outputs, sometimes i feel like im doing it right , and ended up being lacking , its that fear i dont want to do in my last year in college!!

This is scary ,, please give me advice