"The oarfish, nicknamed the "doomsday fish," is so strange and massive in size that some believe it might explain ancient legends of sea monsters."

The vote to continue debating the Assisted Dying bill has just passed. It will go to a committee and report stage, and then to the House of Lords. It’s a brave new world we’re living in. We will sometimes have to assess mental capacity of terminal people to decide if they want an assisted death

My tuppence on Louise Haigh. Speaking as someone who has worked in the probation service and academic criminology, we should be encouraging people with criminal convictions to declare these and seek work. You may not know that 1:3 men in the UK has a past conviction 1/3

One of the reasons the university sector has come so spectacularly off the rails is the fact it's so unfriendly to family life, people with caring responsibilities and parents. The attitude is often: 'Not working 24/7? You're not fully committed!' www.science.org/content/arti...

I have genuinely considered bulk buying really cheap bluetooth headphones and handing them out on trains, in airports, in cafes, etc. Obviously this isn't a very environmentally sound proposal

This trip I have asked 3 people playing movies/news/talking on the phone without headphones to wear headphones. Each one seemed genuinely shocked that their noise was disturbing someone. Each one turned their volume off or put on headphones. Small victories in civility.

#StopOxevision There is insufficient evidence of benefit and there are conflicts of interest in terms of who is funding what research exists. Listen to users/survivors

So far this training in participatory action research (PAR) has largely made me think: where within academia is the time/space/funding to do this properly? Really one needs to embed oneself within the target community to allow that community to identify research priorities and questions. 1/2

Had a very productive morning thinking about my arts-based methods and how I might be able to still use them if I can’t be in the same room as interview participants. It involves posting stuff out, but that’s still not as expensive as me travelling to England so it’s doable #PhDSky

At 2pm I will join an online session for reviewing my #kanban board and using it to plan for the weeks and months ahead. This will be especially useful today as I came away from supervision with a new list of tasks! #phdSky

It’s a little tough round the edges technically, but I’ve just published my first ever podcast on the topic of borderline personality disorder! Catch it on Spotify open.spotify.com/episode/2IwU... #PhDSky

So I finally finished the suite of documents for my ethics application and sent them to my supervisors. I feel sorry for them because the email has 8 attachments to read! That’s the first draft of a big piece of work under my belt. I’m taking a break now with a big bowl of popcorn #reward #PhDSky

I had a productive day - I think I can get all my ethics application docs sent out to my supervisors by close of play Friday. So. Much. Paperwork. I would actually prefer a sort of mini viva where I got to present my research plans and be questioned about them #phdSky

I got a lot done on my systematic review write up today. I have literally no idea what I am doing, so I’m just trying to methodically address the research questions and draw conclusions. I’ll send a draft to my supervisor soon and brace for criticism #PhDSky

From subject to cause: can patients’ circumstances predict the use of coercion in psychiatric hospital admissions? www.nationalelfservice.net?p=188446 Brilliant lived experience blog by Nima Cas Hunt from First Do No Harm exploring what underpins #coercion in mental health.

My abstract for a poster presentation at this year’s main “personality disorder” conference has been accepted! This will be my first conference of my PhD outside of my own university. My department has conference poster printing facilities, I need to find out how to access them 🤔 #PhDSky

Supervision was really good. I now have a clearer idea of what to do to set up some focus groups and how to proceed with writing up my systematic literature review. I can’t really crack on with those until March as I’m on holiday for the next 2 weeks, hooray! #PhDSky

I had such a lovely morning working up a focus group schedule and mapping it to my research questions. I really enjoy this sort of thing #PhDSky

Boo I’ve got a bug, a nasty rattly cough, a sore throat and an achy body. Thankfully the only thing I absolutely have to do today is sit in online training on an interesting topic - positionality and reflexivity in research, a pet interest of mine #phdSky

Third and final part of training in cognitive errors in questionnaires and possible solutions starts at 12.30 so another early lunch. I am absolutely determined that my quantitative data collection method will be of high quality #PhDSky

One more full text paper to screen for inclusion in my literature review! Then it’s on to data extraction which is a mystery to me, so I’ll have to watch a webinar from the software company to find out what the software will do next #PhDSky

I made great progress on my review today, I read and made notes on three papers. 11 more to go! #PhDSky

Good morning! More training today, I’m learning so much about survey design and what to avoid. I’m sure we’ve all seen questionnaires that are illogical, so badly designed or just downright annoying that you give up. I don’t want that for my survey! #PhDSky

Making a start on full text reading of the articles I’ve identified for my systematic review. It’s taken me months to get to this point, when I started my PhD I thought I could probably be reading articles by November, ha. Just finalising my search terms took weeks! #PhDSky

I’ve just spent two days learning all about institutional ethnography, which is a fascinating feminist methodology based on the work of sociologist Dorothy Smith. I’m keen to use the method in practice! #PhDSky

Here is a link to a paper on which I am a coauthor which was published yesterday on prescribing and deprescribing of drugs which can cause dependence or withdrawal (e.g. ADs, benzos): link.springer.com/content/pdf/... The research incorporates patient and doctor views of good practice #PhDSky

Just filled in my ethics screening again after it disappeared into the ether last time. It looks more promising as it actually gave me a link to send to my supervisor. This week me is thanking last week me for saving the contents of the text boxes in a word doc! #PhDSky

After this week I have some exciting #PhD-related training coming up every week for the next 5 weeks, starting with two afternoons on questionnaire design 😍 I love training where I am actively encouraged to sit around and talk about research issues for hours! #phdsky

I completed the screening phase of my ethics application and after I hit “submit” I was taken to a completely different web page with nothing to indicate that it has gone through. I feel like I dreamed the whole thing! Hoping I get some an email acknowledgment #phdsky

Morning. I’m really struggling to get up lately, no matter how much sleep I get I feel a desperate need for more. But I’m here and ready to start the work day. Excited to write about the history of zines today! #PhDSky

So I was supposed to be on two days’ NVivo training today and tomorrow but apparently they booked too many people so I have been bumped. I’m trying not to take it personally. This means I have two extra days to work on other things… feels like an unexpected time luxury! #phdSky

It’s Monday Morning Medium time! Today: should you disclose your mental health condition to your employer? Thanks to everyone who shared their thoughts, I really appreciate it medium.com/@charlottewa...

Blue hive mind, can you help? I need to pay my research participants but I have no budget for this. Does anyone know of any funding sources for projects that involve mental health service user/survivor empowerment via the arts? Please share #PhDSky #MadSky #AcademicSky

I have now collected all the titles I can find for journal articles and book chapters on my research topic 😃Some aren’t available in my library, so I’ve put in some inter-library loan requests. The next step is to see whether they should be included in my review. Have a great weekend! #PhDSky

Back to PhD work today, feels like a Monday as I’ve been on holiday. I think I need input on my systematic review from a second reviewer before I can proceed, however. In the meantime, here’s a pic from Tenerife #PhDSky

My new blog for @thementalelf.bsky.social is up! It evaluates a paper which sought to summarise qualitative research on the lived experience of depression. There was a lot to like about this article, do have a read www.nationalelfservice.net/mental-healt...

Had a fantastic day on a course, thoroughly recommend the Social Research Association’s training courses if you are involved in research. So much good stuff for newer researchers and PhD students #PhDSky the-sra.org.uk/SRA/Training/T…

2 weeks left to apply for this PhD student position in my team @univie.ac.at, funded for 4 years. We are looking forward to receiving applications from recent Master's graduates interested in the intersection of psychology and public health. #PsychSciSky #BehSky #PhDSky #phdchat

Aw, I just imported my EndNote references into Covidence and it showed me a gif of an otter clapping me! #AcademicSky #PhDSky

I’m very excited because I just submitted my systematic review protocol on PROSPERO, which is the national database. It’s all official now! Which is a bit scary… #AcademicSky #PhDSky

Yayyyy I made some progress on my bibliographic search terms! I think I’ve finally cracked it. What a productive morning #AcademicSky #PhDSky

'Leading Psychiatrists Say Benefits Overhaul Risks Disabled People’s Mental Health' tinyurl.com/3hz4c7hf "The RCPsych has called on the government to ditch controversial plans to tighten disability benefit assessments and scrap protections relating to disabled people’s mental health." #MadSky #WCA

I wrote about why patients, professionals and charities were so disappointed that the Mental Health Bill was omitted from the King's Speech last week. Why does it matter, and what can we do now? Please consider sharing! medium.com/p/f89122502988

My training this morning was interesting - all about developing a story arc and identifying heroes and villains (which could be concepts/ways of doing things rather than people) to communicate your research. The idea was to pitch to government but the techniques would work for any statutory agency

Good morning! More training this morning, the topic is ‘Storytelling for Impact: Communicating Your Research to Policymakers’ which sounds interesting. A sunny day in West Wales, have a great Wednesday wherever you are #AcademicSky #PhDSky

Pah quantitative data is just 3,000 qualitative data in a trenchcoat.

Good morning! Today I have an all day training session on principles of quantitative data analysis. This is much needed as I have been strictly a qual researcher but will be running a mixed methods project next year #PhDSky #AcademicSky

Next in the research methods e-festival: Can we fix it? Care-infused collaborative research practices. #PhDSky #AcademicSky

Tip #6: Something not quite right? Try the refinery method! The refinery method is drafting multiple distinct versions, each altered from the previous version. Getting the words out in an order that comes naturally can help when the structure/narrative isn't working. #AcWriMo #AcademicSky #PhDSky

For anyone taking part in #AcWriMo who’s maybe finding it difficult or lonely - we’ve got two virtual coworking sessions happening today (10am & 3pm GMT). Bring your writing goal and meet your targets alongside others doing the same 🤓 #AcademicSky #PhDSky #AcademicWriting discord.gg/hXrXDXwCUk