Sore Spine Research

Student support

If you are a student, none of this costs you anything.

Twenty minutes a week, for up to five weeks, for undergraduates and postgraduates. The people who helped me when I was starting out were busy and helped anyway, and never asked for anything in return.

Now accepting students.

01

What is free

Ten places, open to undergraduates and postgraduates. A place is one twenty-minute session a week, for up to five weeks. Not one session and that is it. One a week, for as long as your block runs. To take one, email me from your university address with a photo of your student ID. I check it once and delete it the same day your place is confirmed.

Twenty minutes is shorter than it sounds, so most sessions end up focused on one problem and what to do about it. You do not need to prepare anything. Plenty of students arrive saying they are stuck and not sure why, and that is a perfectly reasonable place to start.

Email questions are free whether or not you hold a place, and there is no limit on them. If your block ends and something new goes wrong later in your degree, come back.

02

What to ask about

  • Whether honours is worth doing, and what it actually involves.
  • How to approach a potential supervisor, what to put in that email, and when in the year to send it.
  • What a research assistant does all day, and how people get those jobs.
  • Whether your idea is a study or just an interesting question.
  • Which statistical test your design supports, and why the one you were going to use does not fit.
  • What an ethics application involves before you commit to a project that needs one.
  • Whether the answer ChatGPT gave you is right. Often it is close and wrong in a way that matters, and that is hard to see from where you are standing.
03

Where the line sits

A thesis or an assignment is examined. That means there are things I will not do, and it is better you know now than halfway through.

 Thesis or assessmentJournal manuscript
Run the analysis and supply the codeYesYes
Explain the output so you can write it upYesYes
Advise on method and designYesYes
Write the results textNoYes
Edit text you have writtenFeedback onlyYes
Write the discussion or interpretationNoNo

If your institution's rules are stricter than this, theirs apply. Tell me what they say before we start, and declare the assistance you have received. I will not look at marked work or anything currently under assessment.

04

Hardship and equity

If you are a postgraduate on a hardship, equity or access scheme, say so in your first email and I will give you priority for the next place that opens.

I will not ask you to document the scheme. Saying so is enough. The student ID is only there to confirm you are enrolled, and it is deleted once your place is confirmed.

Email from your university address, with your student ID attached if you are claiming a place. I reply within one to two business days. I have my own deadlines, so there is sometimes a wait. I will tell you how long rather than leave you wondering.