will I make it by April? - (Jan/26/2007 )

I am beginning to worry and thought of taking your advice, dear friends. So my scholarship will be over in march and my professor said that I should be able to finish all the experiements by that time. In other words I should be able to submit a paper, get it reviewed, make some additional experiments to get it accepted, submit my doctor thesis by march. So my professor's plan is like that:

beginning of february: submit the paper
by the end of february: get the comments of reviewers
march: do some additional experiments
end of march: get this paper accepted and write my thesis in two weeks period (thesis doesnt have to be final but i have to write something)

not only that i see this plan little unreal (do you think that the paper can be accepted so soon? ) but also till now i am trying this transfection and it is not working, and my professor is waiting for me to finish it up to submit the paper. i dont know how long this will take!!! so february is there and i am not seeing anything getting submitted before mid february if I am super-lucky.

so what should I do? according to your experience does this all sounds "no way I can finish up by april!" should i be more firm and tell my professor to submit the paper NOW,without waiting for the transfection to work! or else I will not finish.....please tell me what do you think. my whole family depends on when i finish, it is really important to me to finish everything (experiments) by april thanx a lot!

well, ive no experience, but you have to work so hard if you want to end by April
but can't you extend it one or two months more ..(out of your scholarship)? !!

May be U have to give some extra time for this. It may be difficult but not impossible. Just a few months, do ur best. What we do depends a lot more on luck than we think it does, so we all wish U all the best. Good luck!!

Gannbatte Kudasai!

I have not experienced this yet. It sounds like you have to work extremely hard in order to meet the tight schedule set by your professor.
Although we are doing science, sometimes it seems like our works are actually depend on lots of good luck.
Anyway, good luck to you, kathy san. Ganbateh!!!

Kathy,

Its easier to submit a paper than to get a reply from reviewers. I have got a quick reply only when they are rejected.

The fastest response I have received is still 4-5 weeks (depends on the journal) and in more than one case I have had to wait for nearly 2 months before the first comments from the reviewers come. And after resubmitting it, takes kind of a similar time for a response to accept. So I am not sure how realistic its to get a paper accepted in 2 months (unless you have an influential professor). One never knows what sort of additional data the reviewers will ask and this could take time.


Good Luck !!!

thank you everyone for your support. the worst thing is that now 5 students are graduating from our lab so of course my professor has no time to check my paper and at least get it ready for submission. i think he is waiting after they all graduate (by february 10) and then start to work on the submission seriuosly. i am a little scared since that is not what we were planning for when we talked last month i think the time is not on our side at all, but i dont know if i sould talk to him again....

whew, i can sense that its been giving u a lot of stress for the past days Dont worry Kathy, just look the bright side of it. Anyway, i would still suggest that u talk to him again.

kathy
may be i will face the same condition like u. i think its very tough to get answers from reviewers so quickly. may be i will gradutate in this coming september and my prof told me to submit atleast 2 papers within april, otherwise i cant graduate within due time..............i also dont know what will happen.........

gambatte ne