How to (Maybe) Survive Combat

Know Where You Are At

• Pay attention to local, how many people are around (if feasible). A spike in player numbers in lowsec is probably a good indicator that someone's on the way. Keep the local tab seperated out, and an eye on the icons in overview for nasty colours. Check corp bios, especially for kill policies.
• Use combat probes to check before warping to a point, or use the directional scanner (max range, and 360 degrees). Assign someone in the fleet to spam directional scans.
• Know the shipnames in your group. Having a list of shipnames or a naming convention is a good way to know if that ship warping in is an ally or not.
• Prepare alternate routes. The border between highsec and lowsec (the highsec-lowsec interface) tends to have lots of pirates.
• http://evemaps.dotlan.net/ - for printing maps to make notes on
• Have cloaked scouts available. The Uni does allow out-of-corp alts for scouting.

Know Your Limits and Weaknesses

• Are you in a slow ship with bad maneuverability?
• Do you have a MWD or AB installed?
• MWD can be faster, but an AB will not be shorted out by a warp scrambler
• Check your ships max speed. Some larger ships may not have short-range weapons and you may have time to get away.
• Do you have reinforcements nearby?
• If you have expensive implants, are you willing to lose them? If not, you're going to want to fly more defensively.

Preparation

• Reduce your bugout time. Larger ships will want to stay aligned to an escape point and at (at least) 75% speed. (Being stopped but "pointing" in the right direction does not help at all.)
• Bring an escort. You can always organise mining and mission ops through the uni channels. Don't forget you may need to pay your escort a % of the proceeds.
• Plan ahead. Wandering blindly through space is easy to do early on in your career. Have a plan prepared for emergencies - know what you are going to do if attacked - are you splitting up, running together, fighting?

When You Are Jumped

• Dont panic.
• Check what has jumped on you: is it one ship or a fleet? Do you have the means to take it out, or will it be better to run? The attackers are usually confident they can take you out if they attack. You do not want to be fighting on someone elses terms.
• Did you prepare for this? Do you have ECCMs? ECM Bursts? Remember - if they cannot lock you, they cannot shoot you. (Well, they can still bomb or smart bomb you, or use auto-targeting (aka FoF) missiles. They might also be able to use passive targeters.)
• Hopefully you are in a fast-aligning ship and can get into warp. If you are not fast, hopefully you are pre-aligned.
• You go to warp at 75% of max speed. It is possible to get to warp early on slow-accelerating ships by having a fleetmate use a stasis webifier on you to reduce your max speed!
• MWD+Cloak: Technically these can not both be activated at the same time. However, by activating both at once neither will turn off until the end of the first cycle.
• If you are being targetted, vulnerable ships should warp away before they get locked (confirm this with your fleet commander!)
• Don't forget to follow the Uni Overview Guide. The Pod Saver tab is invaluable - switch to it when your ship has been tackled and you know you have no chance of escape. Pick a planet and start spamming the warp button to save your pod. Once you hit the planet, do not stop - keep moving as you are probably being chased. Do not forget to switch overviews to check, as Pod Saver does not show enemies.
• Do not warp to moons: they are more likely to have a POS.

When (um, if!) You Are Dead

• Comment the killmail on ZKillboard
• You may also want to post further details to After Action Reports on the uni forums.