texts: Should I contact the reviewers I suggested during the submission if the manuscript is still under review after one year?

texts:
In order to publish my paper at The Journal the cover letter should include four (4) experts in the field as potential reviewers for the manuscript. I ask some professors to have their permission to include their name as reviewers and find 4. I sent their details to the Journal. I didn’t hear anything back from the journal after 8 months, then I sent an email asking about the status of my manuscript and they indicated that they received one review for this time and they are waiting for the second. Now almost one year has passed for my manuscript, and the Journal is still waiting for the second review.

Should I send an email to the reviewers to ask them to read my manuscript?


texts: Listing courses to be completed along with past courses

texts:
A question on a research program application states the following: "Please list a few courses you took that will be relevant for the [RESEARCH PROGRAM]". (They also ask for grades) A transcript with 1st semester grades is being submitted, but the deadline for application is March 1st, meaning that although 2nd semester courses will not be finished, I will be well into them.

With this in mind, should I include 2nd semester courses too (obviously without grades), or just 1st semester? I do not know where else on the application I can indicate that I am currently taking those courses (unless my transcript as of March 1 has courses in progress).

I apologize if this question is silly, as it is essentially an interpretation of a question.


texts: How to find the number of papers per language written by a researcher?

texts:
Is there any fast way to find the number of papers per language written by a given researcher?

E.g., researcher John Doe published 30 papers written in English, 16 papers written in Spanish, and 3 papers written in German.

By fast, I mean faster than going on Google Scholar and counting the number of paper for each language  oneself.


texts: How much administrative experiences help for a faculty appointment?

texts:
Imagine a full professor who served as the head and dean in Russia. Definitely, he has good chance to be appointed as VP in Russian (but unlikely in UK as the education systems are different and his experiences cannot be applied directly).

Now, if he apply for a faculty position in a UK university along a colleague who had no administrative position (then, he published more papers and supervised more graduate students). Which one has a better chance to get the position?

My hypothesis: Administrative positions are valuable if someone want to get the next job in the same country or countries with similar education systems.

My question: If someone wishes to take a faclty job in a different country, is it useful to spend time for administrative jobs in his home country OR it is better to focus on academic/research matters, which are global and appreciated anywhere?


texts: Is it ethical for me to hire research assistant as a part-time PhD to help with secondary data collection?

texts:
I'm just wondering to what extent I can hire someone to collect data for me. This would be secondary data, collecting patient records from clinics. I have no clue how to organize data or use databases, so the research assistant would also be helping me do that. I would, of course, be reading the patient records and interpreting them into specific variables (such as did this patient have a heart problem: Y/N).

My full-time job is at the university working for a project under a PI who is not my PhD supervisor.
The project funding has run out that we cannot pay for our team's salary.
I applied for some funding as the PI on the project and got some extra funding.
I could use the funding coming in from the new project to cover our team's salary and also utilize the team's research assistant to collect the data for the new project and for my PhD thesis at the same time.

The project only needs data to caluculate the prevalence of heart problems whilst my intention for my thesis is to find out risk factors for these heart problems. I would only ask to further collect a years worth of history for each patient with a heart problem.
I think this arrangement I could kill two birds with one stone but I am worried about the implications such as how much of the work should be all mine for my PhD thesis. Also, I wouldn't have to pay out of pocket to hire someone to do this for me as I'm only getting paid 81k per year.


texts: How to deal with a colleague who always puts you down?

texts:
I am just starting out my PhD which will take 5 years to complete and I am dealing with a person in my own research group who cannot stop putting me down every chance she gets.

In our research department in neuroscience engineering I guess she would be considered a very ambitious person. She has good grades and has some papers published despite only being in the university for about three years. But she has a very bad personality and constantly attempts to put me down by comparing me to some of the other researchers in the department.

For example, she will come up and say I know so and so who is in the
same year as you are and he already has papers published, you don't.
Or I know this other person who did really well in a class and even got
the professors recommendation while you are only an average student.
She will non-stop ask me for my GPA as an undergrad, and how I am
doing in my courses. I thought she cared about me at the beginning but I am realizing that she is only exploiting my weaknesses.
She will also ask me about my research focus and tell me whatever I
am trying to do has no value or too small scale. She will openly laugh about my research plans in front of other people and say that it has no value.
Even when we first met she asked me about my background which I said
was in industrial engineering and she just kind of laughed because she
was in some sort of advanced research program which is in her
opinion more prestigious
Finally, she has no moral qualms doing all the above in front of other people. In fact she only does this to me when other people are around.

Worst of all is that she is making an assumption in almost everything. I have a few research papers published, just not at the current university so it is not listed. My GPA was dragged down during first years of undergrad but it picked up and at the end I had a 4.0. Plus she is not doing too well either, only with a few minor publications on very specific applications, and she is only known for certain speciaties and not much of a generalist and knows very little about the fields immediately outside of her research. But do you think I ever tell her this? Call her out about her lack of creativity? Or ask her about her GPA and the courses that she does bad in just so I can tell her that "Mr X is doing much better than you in that course"? Of course not because I am a decent person.

We are in the same research team. We should be working together and learning from each other, yet she behaves this way to me. I was so relieved during first few months when I started out my research because I have heard so much about these kind of people you encounter during graduate school yet I have not even encountered one and everyone is so helpful, but there she is. Since we cannot move forward in an amicable relationship, what is the best alternative for me? Am I being too sensitive?


texts: Better to do PhD program for Marine Science in Australia or US?

texts:
I have a dilemma about doing a marine science research degree in Queensland Australia vs in the USA (california or florida). I have been accepted to schools in both countries and offered scholarships to pay for my studies. I have personally spoken with advisors that I would work with from both countries and both have great projects that I am interested.

I am just wondering if anyone has insight into the quality of life and research at either location?

I am also concerned about the strength of a PhD from Australia if I wanted to go back to the US to do a postdoc?

Thanks for your input!


texts: Is it viable to pay for MS if your future goal is a Ph.D

texts:
I am currently working as a software developer. I have a degree in computer science. However, my country, Turkey, is not a technology favoring country, and research in the fields I am interested in is very rare, and only available at a few select schools. From job, location and opportunity perspective (too many applicants for too few places), getting an advanced degree at these schools is next to impossible for me.

I want pursue Ph.D. badly but I need a MS degree first because I don't have any research experience. So I have decided to apply for US schools and do some research there applying for a Ph.D.

Is paying for a master's degree a good idea and will I be able to do quality research there? Do master's students convert their degrees to Ph.D., if so is it easy or difficult? What to expect from a MS for getting good research experience?


texts: How to convince a research supervisor to proofread the paper?

texts:
I have written a paper, conceptualized, executed and written by me. I have sent it to my supervisor for proof reading and it has been more than a month, he has been sitting on it, without any comments or any progress. It is the first paper I have written and do not have much experience of sending it. I have been calling my supervisor but he ignores the call. He even sees the messages and does not reply.

He is very polite in nature, though it is very hard to get things done from him.

What are the methods you have been using to get things done, by your supervisor.


texts: What does a plus sign mean in journal abbreviations?

texts:
On this journal title abbreviation list, some abbreviations are followed by a plus sign (+).  For example, "Thermophysics and Aeromechanics" is abbreviated "THERMOPHYS AEROMECH+".

What is the significance of the plus sign, and is it to be included when creating a reference list?


texts: How long should letters of recommendation for students be?

texts:
I have recently (finally?) had some requests to write letters of recommendation for graduate students. However, it's not really clear to me how long a good letter of recommendation should be. I've seen statements that it should be one page, but many of the best letters I have seen have gone significantly longer than that (two or even two and a half pages).

Is there really a limit as far as admissions committees are concerned? Or is it "whatever is needed" to get the point across, within reason (nobody's going to read a ten-page letter, even if it's written by Albert Einstein or Thomas Edison!).


texts: How can I decline the request to help a fellow student cheat?

texts:
I have been helping a fellow student through a class I'm taking this semester - sending him homeworks, helping prepare him for tests, etc. The other day we had our final, which was online, and he asked me if he could pay me to send him the solutions after I turned in my test. (The program immediately gives you the answers when you finish.)

Somehow at the university I go to this is complete commonplace; people are consistently cheating on every test, every assignment, it's totally normal for me to be asked by a classmate I don't even know to help them cheat. Maybe it's something about me that broadcasts to people they aren't at risk of me snitching. I have recently decided I no longer wanted to participate in this, but I have had trouble telling people politely that I won't be helping them.

I have no desire to bring this up to any administration, because it's not a big enough deal to me, but it is a big enough deal that I don't want to be included. I also don't have any desire to moralize to these people, because first of all what do they care, and second of all what do I know. But I do need some help navigating this extreme culture of cheating. Thanks.

Edit: It is clear from the responses that I missed some important context. I have no problem with saying no to people I don't know and don't like, but I am coming from a position of formerly participating in this cheating. Thus it will be easy to misinterpret as self-righteous. "No, and leave me alone" is insufficient because it leaves my acquaintances wondering what changed. Not that I overly care whether they understand my decision, but I don't want them thinking I basically cheat when I need a grade and judge others for doing the same.


texts: Are there any journals that pay reviewers?

texts:
Being a young researcher myself I received a comment from my colleague that some of the journals are paying reviewers for the reviewing process.

When I gave it a thought, it started to make more sense.
In case of high quality, respected journal, an institution may consider itself privileged to have a reviewer of such journal and allow the reviewer to dedicate small proportion of his/her daily activities just on the reviewing process.

The reviewer being paid, has more obligations to provide thorough in depth review.

Does that hold true for some journals or is it just a myth?


texts: Can I submit an article just for the sake of useful feedback?

texts:
I have made some research about a topic in Computer Science. The issue was that I am a little bit dubious if the procedure that I followed was correct. The problem gets worse because the work is not in the field of expertise of my supervisor or of my colleagues.

For that reason, I am thinking to submit it to a conference for getting valuable feedback. Would that be reasonable to do that? Maybe somebody would argue that I will only waste valuable time from the reviewers, but I don't know what else to do in this situation.


texts: I've been wondering how COVID-19 will affect enrollment in US universities.  Typically, in economic recessions, which will seem to accompany COVID-19, university and college enrollment tends to go up.  Fewer people working generally means more time for going to school.  Will this pattern apply to the current situation, at least within the US?


texts: How to negotiate a tenure-track assistant professor job offer in a very short time window?

texts:
I was just offered a tenure-track (60% teaching, 40% research) assistant professor job offer at a R1 University in the Southern U.S., but asked to make a decision in only three days. And he also mentioned there is no much room for negotiation.

This is a very special situation. The search process for this position has been dragged for quite a long time due to the COVID-19. They interviewed two other candidates 5 months ago, but did not pursue their candidacy. My interview with the university is for another position in the same department. I am not picked for what I was interviewed for, but instead selected for the earlier position that has not been filled yet. Very interesting and very lucky!

I want to seek any advice on the negotiation (e.g., start-up package, salary, starting date) if possible, given such a short time. I am not sure if I should do this or not since I was told no much room for negotiation.


texts: What is a diplomatic way to tell a professor that progress hasn't been made because of their lack of communication?

texts:
Here is the scenario: in a collaborative effort, our group was to work with another group/professor to write a paper on some work we had previously done. I, a grad student, am to be the main author/architect of the paper. But, and this was said explicitly by him and my own professor, I was to write it with lots of help from the collaborating professor, and under his guidance and direction.

In other words, I would talk to him, get direction like "you should focus on this topic for the paper" or "don't pursue this, it won't be interesting to reviewers", and I would do the actual work/research/writing.

However, since making this agreement, months ago, he has gone basically incommunicado. I'll send him an email and not get a reply for literally a month. I've asked to set up a short (<1hr) meeting, at basically any time of his choosing, and just no response. Several times, too.

Let me be clear about this too: I'm not really that upset about the lack of communication itself (though, I'll say this single thing about that: when he is actually in person with me, he is constantly checking/answering his email on his phone, so I know he does do it, just apparently not with me). I'm not dying to write the paper, it's not a cutting edge thing that will get scooped, and I have several other projects. It's a little annoying in general that he has been flaky, but I'm plenty busy with other stuff, so again that's not too bad.

Here's what my question is about. I both suspect, and from my short interactions with him I've had in the past few months, that he is going to ask to see what work I've done on it since he became uncommunicative, to which the answer is "minimal". The reason is that I am busy with other projects, and because he wasn't doing his part of this, I didn't know which direction to take. I could certainly speculate and choose one, but that is very risky (timewise) for me: if I spend several weeks pursuing something and it turns out he doesn't think it's a good fit for the paper, welp, I just wasted several weeks. And that has happened to some extent.

Because it seems like I wasn't clear about this initially, I'll say it explicitly here: my goal is not to attack him, or bring this up. If he seems fine with the (lack of) progress made, then I'm very happy to leave it be and just continue on. But I strongly suspect (and he seemed to say) that he expects me to have done more. For this question, assume that the professor will ask why more hasn't been done on the paper, so the subject will come up.

So, how do you say this tactfully? You can't really respond with "because you were uncommunicative, I didn't get very much done, because it very possibly could have been for naught", because that's pretty accusatory and will ultimately not help solve the problem.

Is there a good way to say this?


texts: Writing sample requirement for PhD application - submit something you assisted in writing?

texts:
I'm applying to PhD programs and some require writing samples with a reminder of prioritizing works that are related to the phd program or to my research proposal. The only related writing I have is the paper I'm working on now as a research assistant.
The research topic is my professor's of course, and I'm sure I will not be listed as a co-author. I did write the paper from scratch, but the professor has constantly reviewed its structure and content, and provided comments on things that need to be changed. I did the literature review (research, reading, synthesis, writing), the data collection, statistical analysis, and discussion of results.
I would say that for the current version of the paper, content is 80% mine. Of course, the seed idea was the professor's, but the concept of the paper has changed based on my input after I did the literature review. Would it be okay to submit a portion of this as a writing sample for my phd applications? Or is this not allowed since I'm just a research assistant and not a co-author? Also, the paper is meant to be submitted to a journal for publication so will it be illegal for me to submit a portion of it as a writing sample? I will definitely not send the results sections.
Thanks!


texts: Which blacklists of poor quality scientific journals are run formally by a government agency?

texts:
I read on Nature News China introduces sweeping reforms to crack down on academic misconduct
 (mirror) 2018-06-08:

  The policy also states that MOST [the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology] will establish a blacklist of ‘poor quality’ scientific journals, including domestic and international titles. Scientists who publish in these journals will receive a warning, and those papers will not be considered in assessments for promotions, jobs and grants. A couple of such blacklists already exist, but rarely are they run formally by a government agency.

Which blacklists of poor quality scientific journals are run formally by a government agency (aside from the blacklist created for the policy presented in this news article)?


texts: Avoiding plagiarism without citing every sentence

texts: To truly avoid any allegation of plagiarism, one would separately cite every sentence whose idea has been taken from elsewhere. In my field though, many journal editors will not accept this amount of citing. The arguably acceptable alternative is to provide just one citation for several consecutive sentences that are derived from the same source. Usually this is placed at the end of the last of the related sentences. A reader cannot be sure though as to how many of those sentences come from that source, leaving the author open to charges of plagiarism. I am referring to paraphrased material, not direct quotations. Any comments or advice? Thank you.


texts: How to enter a completely new research area as a 3rd-year Ph.D. candidate?

texts:
Based on your personal experience, how may someone enter a completely new research area as a 3rd-year Ph.D. candidate? Is it better to start with reading journal papers? Or maybe taking some courses? Or watching YouTube videos? Or what?! I am basically looking for the most efficient/fastest way of doing this!

And if you want to know my story, I am a Ph.D. candidate in structural engineering with a focus on deterministic earthquake modeling, but for some reasons now my advisor wants me to start working on probabilistic modeling of hurricanes and floods using machine learning methods, and I am a little paranoid because I have no idea about any of these! So what are your suggestions?!


texts: Is it appropriate to compare myself with other students in my statement of purpose for U.S. graduate school application?

texts:
In my statement of purpose(for U.S. math graduate school), I said something like: "compared with my classmates, I believe I am more capable of ..."

One of my professors pointed out it should be my referee's job to compare you with others and I should stay modest. So I am a little confused in here. Is it appropriate for applicants to compare themselves with their peer in the statement of purpose?


texts: I am an open-minded Indian student and I will be going to Germany to join the University of Bonn for my masters in Computer Science. I have planned a monthly budget of € 830 including studentenwerk fees, which the university noted me will be no more than € 350. Old students say that it averages to € 250 or something leaving me with € 580. Will that be sufficient for me to eat for a month at a Mensa (I plan to cook in the evenings though) or say maybe watch one movie a month or maybe take a weekend trip to Köln?


texts: Collaboration on a suggested project - problem with a colleague

texts:
I would like to ask you for an opinion on how to act in the following scenario.

A year ago, some colleague PhD of me has suggested an open problem to me. This problem was already published in his paper, which is on arXiv.

He suggested that problem to me and invited me to collaborate on it.
However, he is not very hard-working and I personally suspect that he is just waiting for me to prove it.
He is working in that way quite often.

I, somewhat blindly, agreed to work on it. However, I do not like the way he
“collaborates” and I would like to work on that problem on my own since he is not helping at all and only waits till the problem is solved so he can write it as a result to his grant.

We are very far from being published. Actually, not much work was done yet. I want to work and solve this problem on my own.

How should I proceed?

Simply ignore him (he didn’t speak about problem for months) and publish the results?
Tell him about my opinion, quit, and publish the results?
Proceed and publish the results with him as a co-author.
Do something else.


texts: Created a figure for a colleague's thesis, want to use that myself as well

texts:
A colleague of mine who also writes a master thesis in lattice QCD (theoretical/computational physics) asked me to make him a few simple figures with TikZ. They show a fundamental concept and are not particularly hard. The plaquette (see page 3) is just a square with arrows on the lines and then some labels on the edges. The clover term (see page 4) is just four plaquettes. The concepts are fundamental, I could create a plaquette drawing in my sleep, for the clover I need a quick glance at a sketch to get everything right.

It took me like 20 minutes to make the sketches. He has send me images taken from other papers and books to give me the idea. Those figures are used everywhere in books and introductory papers. There they do not seem to refer to anything else but just give the figures. He will submit his thesis with the images next week.

My own master thesis will be due next fall, and I can certainly also use those figures in my thesis. I doubt that somebody will pull up his thesis and my thesis, find the exact same looking images (except the font of the text), look at the dates of publication, and call me out for plagiarizing. However, I'd to handle this situation properly because this situation might arise again with a less trivial figure.

What would I into the caption in my thesis?

“insprired by Author [1]”
“taken from Author [1], typeset in TikZ”
Nothing at all, the other authors did not do that and the figure is not that hard to do anyway

Should I somehow refer to the colleague's thesis although it only has prompted me to create those figures now instead of in six months? I am not sure whether he will say anything about me making those figures, should I ask him to do that such that I can safely use those figures myself?


texts: What if funding info not uploaded while submission but acknowledged?

texts:
To the best of my knowledge, when some authors are funded by some industries, they should (or sometimes have to) acknowledge the industry by writing the funding ID.

What happens if someone acknowledges the funding info, in detail, in the manuscript, but does not upload them to the submission system of journal, while submitting the paper?

It seems that the published info of that research will be public only in the published paper and not the journal private database, and therefore that public information will be the official reference in the case of conflict of interest.

Can anyone confirm whether or not this is accurate?

It might be helpful to note that:

The context is artificial intelligence - computer science.
The funding institutes are European.
Based on European regulations algorithms cannot be patented because patenting them is equal to publishing the algorithm (unlike US regulations).
Thus, I do not understand if conflict of interest is, even, possible in this field.


texts: Is there such a thing as listing too many areas of future work in a thesis conclusion?

texts:
I am finishing up my thesis and am currently focusing upon the conclusion. There I have a section on future work.

I have quite a few areas that I think require follow up or investigation. However, is there such a thing as listing too many areas of future work in that it will look like one hasn't done enough to tackle them? Or that the research is sub-par?


texts: Should I follow-up with the editor about formatting issues on a published article?

texts:
I just received an email from the editor of a monograph series letting me know the issue where my article is included is now live. I went through normal things recently to get it published, like a copyright statement, but I never saw proofs. Upon looking at the pdf as it is online, I noticed formatting concerns that I would have liked corrected. They are:

Some of the headings are inconsistently formatted (i.e., some bold, some indented, some nothing - all for what should be the same heading level)
I have some full page tables, which produce lots of empty space on the page just beforehand. Rather than continue the body of the document, it is paused until after the table (in one case mid-sentence).

Is it possible to have changes made, and in what conditions is it worth it? There are not format methods to submit corrigendum to my knowledge. I'm also part of a relatively small academic community and a young scholar. I don't want to be seen as being too picky, but I also want my work to be represented well.

A similar questions is here although I didn't get proofs and I'm specifically asking with regard to the size of the community I'm in.


texts: Why do undergraduate admissions in the U.S take into account nonacademic criteria?

texts: College admissions in the U.S. takes into account many factors that are rarely considered in other countries and seem unrelated to academics.  For example, legacy status (children of alumni may be given preference), athletics, extracurricular activities, etc.  Why do these nonacademic criteria play a larger role in the U.S. than they do elsewhere?


texts: How often do people have to drop graduate level courses

texts:
Most of this may be venting a little. The main question is in the last paragraph.

I'm currently in my second semester of graduate school and I've been struggling in my current course. A lot.

I've been below both the median and the average grade on every single homework assignment. At best, my score has been 94% of the average of the class. At worst, it's been less than 60% of the average score. (note, not total score)

This is currently my only class. I'm working full time while working on my masters so I don't have time to dedicate more to another class. Due to current family/financial issues, I am incapable of quitting my job and becoming a full time grad student. Even if that is what I would like to do.

I feel like my job currently gives me a large disadvantage, but I'm not sure if that's true or just narcissistic. Other students are enrolled in multiple courses and also have positions at the university. I'm not sure how that compares to a 40 hour work week. I do know that it does give me one clear disadvantage (or that may just be in my mind too). The professor allows for "collaboration" on the homework. I feel like my job may hinder me from that more than others, particularly because I live a half hour away from campus. I have not been able to fully "collaborate" on homework with anyone. This makes me unsure as to whether or not that would make a difference at all. If I sound bitter about this point it's because I am a little, but that's because if I can not rationalize this that means that I may just not be up to snuff, I guess. So blaming something is my primary way of dealing with my difficulty right now.

I have been told by the advisor that this is one of the hardest courses the program offers, and I believe it is the hardest course that I am required to take. I had a similar problem with my first class my first semester. I was barely able to pass the class I was taking with a B, however I have been told that it was also a fairly difficult course compared with others.

I have also been told by other students, and the TA, that a popular strategy with this course is to take it until the exam, then drop out and take it again the next semester. I'm not entirely sure how true this is, and it seems almost a little twisted for a graduate course to push students to do that.

I've sought help from the professor, who only told me that it was still possible for me to get a B, but didn't comment on how likely that was. When I talked with the TA, I got the feeling that he was holding back on calling me an idiot, but that may just be in my mind. I know he is trying his hardest, but it's hard to hear criticism from someone your "equal"(but not really) to so I didn't ask him too many questions when I should have.

How often is it that a student has to drop a grad course, so that they may take it again at a future time?


texts: Does vixra hold copyright over any submission to it?

texts:
I have read the following links

vixra.org/practices
vixra.org/submit

The only relevant line seems to be

By submitting your documents to viXra.org, you declare that all authors and other copyright owners of the work have given permission for distribution on the website and that you will inform us of any change of conditions.

Does this mean that they do not hold any copyright over my work?
Sorry if I am being too naive. I want to make sure of everything before landing in a mess.
This question was asked in response to this answer


texts: Another PhD student is going to present my research

texts:
I'm doing a PhD with a professor with serious funding problems. He invited me to prepare a presentation for a conference, making it clear that he wouldn't pay for my travel expenses. I, in turn, replied that I didn't have the money to travel to that conference. He offered that another student go present my research because that student, unlike me, is ready to pay for the travel expenses.

My professor claims it to be common practice, but I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that a student who didn't contribute the slightest bit to my research will be presenting my results. Is it really common practice? What do you think about that offer?


texts: How to reward students for learning from mistakes without penalizing those who didn't make mistakes in the first place?

texts:
We're thinking of implementing a policy where if a student asks a question/makes a mistake in a lab, they are required to write down what that question/mistake was and how it was resolved.  These "lab notebooks" (for want of a better word) will be evaluated based on the quality of the responses to the problems, not the problems themselves.  For instance, if the problem was relatively trivial ("We didn't turn the device on") but the response is great ("we came up with a checklist that we will follow to ensure that the basic setup is done every time") then the submission would be evaluated with a high mark.

For the majority of our students, there will be more than enough stuff in each lab to write about.   However, this isn't universally true and some groups will do the lab just fine without asking any questions.  Whether they make mistakes or not is an open question, but there really are some groups who just get what's going on, take their data and do very well without needing to interact with us at all.  And there's the problem - these students would have an empty notebook because they didn't need to go back and check things out.  Would they get a 0 on that part?  That doesn't sound fair at all.

How can I reward the students who learned from their mistakes without penalizing those who don't make any?


texts: Is it okay if I provide my personal email address on my paper instead of my institutional one?

texts:
I'm going to submit a paper with my name as the "corresponding author". I am going to be using my personal email address instead of my university one.
This is because I am an undergrad and my institutional address will become invalid after I graduate.
Questions:

Is this okay?
Will it cause any administrative issues?
Is this practice seen anywhere else?

If it makes any difference, this will be a journal paper.


texts: Do I need permission from motorsports organisations to write a research paper about motor racing?

texts: I have written a research paper analysing the aerodynamics of racing cars in a particular motor sport as a hobby project (using my own 3D model and resources). However, now I’m beginning to question if it is required of me to seek permission from that particular motorsports organisation (ie. F1 or NASCAR) before writing and publishing this research paper? Thank you in advance!


texts: What is the best way of keeping track of academic readings and persons?

texts:
I have started a brand new research from start of the year. I would like to know what are the easiest way of keeping track of the academic papers, journals and authors.

I use sites like Google Scholar, informatik.uni-trier.de for discovery of articles and following interesting conferences and people. I have used sites and tools like Mendeley and ResearchGate. I quite like the sites, but I am too reluctant to use them as for each of them I need to find everything by myself, create my own library to suit my interests.

I already got a warning by the stackexchange system saying The question you're asking appears subjective and is likely to be closed. but it would be great help if someone could explain some tools/software which do this?

Summarizing my questions:

How do you keep track of academic papers, authors effectively?
Are there any tools that can search/scrap the internet by some
keywords/name and keep track of them? [I know of
Google alerts, what
I seek is some kind of tool with a management interface]


texts: Do you need to define standard abbreviations like "EEG" and "fMRI" in the abstract?

texts:
I am preparing to send my first paper to a springer journal (journal of computational neuroscience), in the instruction author there is an instruction say Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter. I think that the abbreviations in the abstract are known for the neuroscience community. Do I have to define them first?

abstract

Based on clinical data collected using different brain imaging and recording techniques (fMRI, CT, PET, EEG, MEG, NRIS,...),


texts: Using an author's citations in a peer reviewed articles

texts:
I'm reading this peer-review article which I'm certainly going to use as a source for my paper. The article is written by Robert E. Denton.

Now, in this Denton article, Denton quotes an excerpt from another author, Murray Edelman. This excerpt is intriguing, and I would like to add it to my paper as an additional source. Denton provides text information of Edelman's work on his references page.

My questions are these: do scholars ever do this? and by "this" I mean do research, and in there research(in the peer reviewed article he or she is reading) find an excerpt or quote of another work and include that excerpt or quote in their work without reading the entire article or book which that excerpt from?

Is there a specific term for this type of citation? I have a feeling that there isn't.

Is it an unspoken practice?

Now, I would be using a similar interpretation to Edelman's excerpt that Denton's uses because there are only so many interpretations of four lines of text, but i would be relating it to very a different social phenomenon(these are socio-political works), so I can't exactly say that this is plagiarism.

Would it be okay to quote Denton's assertion, and then quote the Edelman excerpt which he uses to support his assertion, and thereore use both quotes successively to support my own argument?


texts: I was rejected twice from two MSc programs, should I quit trying?

texts:
I received my rejection letter today and I was devastated. I was shocked because I have finally found a supervisor who saw my passion in the field and didn't care about my low GPA and lab members who were welcoming and offered to help me through my project. The committee believes that my GPA and academic record is below their standards (its one of the top 10 universities in Canada). The department does not even have that many faculty members and is fairly dead ( a friend of mine with a similar GPA got accepted, so I am even more surprised why I was rejected).
Although I aced my undergraduate thesis research project (A+), I am still considered that candidate with the lowest GPA. This GPA will never change and it will haunt me forever until I get a higher one in MSc degree, so should I just give up? to be honest, I am only pursuing graduate school because it will increase my employment chances in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry.  I have been unemployed for a year after graduating from BSc and unless I have an MSc or PhD, employers will see me underqualified.
I am in a bad place, I volunteered in labs and hospitals, but that will never offset my GPA. Should I just throw in the towel?

P.S. I could continue applying to other schools, but I'm sure my referees will not be willing to write me reference letters for the third time.


texts: Is it a good practice to choose my undergraduate research topic on my own? Can I get enough help?

texts:
(This question is one of three correlated questions: How should I do it? (second part), What are the downsides? (third part).This is the first part)

I am an undergraduate student (in Computer Engineering) and I will be starting undergraduate research for my thesis. I have talked with many professors about possible projects and all the projects they proposed to me seemed interesting enough.

During summer, though, I read a paper and I was very interested and excited about it, but this paper was not for the projects that were proposed to me, but in a different area. I would like to do research in this area but I have some questions, because none of my professor is doing research in this particular field.

So, my questions are:

Should I try to do a project in that area, even though my professors
aren’t doing research in that particular topic (some do research in a close field) or choose one of the projects that were proposed to me?
Will any professor be able to help/guide me through the project,
even if he is not doing research in this topic exactly? (I will ask
them if they are capable of helping me, but I want to know, how much
can someone help me if he is in the same field but I am doing
something different than his projects)

P.S. I want to understand whether it will be beneficial to do a project that I want to do because of some paper(s) that I read or it will be better to do a project that was proposed to me. Also, I would like to go for a Ph.D. after I graduate.


texts: Creative solutions to convince research dean that I deserve PhD candidature

texts:
I need your help please to suggest solutions to a problem I am facing during my PhD. My story is detailed below with the important events that are related to the story:

I just finished my first year PhD at the university. It has been a difficult year for me because I had a supervisor who left and another supervisor who left again. My wife had home sickness and financially I had my scholarship fund cut by 30%.

Now, I came across another obstacle in my PhD. During our first year, we have to attend a generic research course and complete tasks to confirm our candidature. Although I attended all lectures and completed all tasks, the course lecturer who turned out to be also the associate dean of research at the university decided that I have not done them. Her proof is that there is an electronic feedback that I have never completed after each lecture which she used to confirm our attendance. She mentioned this rule at the start of her first lecture. Because I didn’t know about this rule and because also sometimes my phone was without battery, I was not able to complete many of these feedback. I may have completed two or three out of eight.

Later, I went to the make-up class and tried to talk to her to convince her that I have done them all but because of all the stress I had from my other PhD issues, I may have become angry in defending myself which I regret now. At the end, she decided that it is OK to leave and I can send her an email stating my story which I did. Later, she sent me an email telling that not only that I still have to retake all classes but also I have to re- do all tasks. I thought it was not fair because I have proof at least that I have done the tasks. So, I did not fulfil her request because at that time 1) I was partly not thinking straight , 2) I was also still hoping to convince her that I have completed the tasks , 3) I was thinking of switching universities and thought I do not need to do them

Later and after I got admissions from a couple of other universities, I found that my wife is pregnant and the doctor told us it is difficult for her to move to another city. So we took the decision to stay at my current university. So, I went back to the lecturer and sent her an email to inform me about any remaining requirements but she still insists that I have not completed them. In fact, she talked to my supervisor after my email and suggested to terminate my PhD. She told him that one day I came to class, ticked my name and left straight away. This happened when I tried to convince her once at the beginning of a class but I was not able to so I left the class in anger.

Now, I have to stay at the university and she said I will not accept you just retaking the class. She told my supervisor that  I have to come up with creative solutions to convince her that I deserve the PhD candidature. So, I need your help please to suggest some solutions to her so she can be convinced. She is meeting me in two days to listen to my proposal.

P.S. , I really enjoyed her classes and learned a lot from them. I thought they are really helpful. In fact, she taught us how to file a patent and because of her I got inspired and filed one. She also taught us how to write a proper paper and now I am writing my 5th journal paper. I also learned how to do a better presentation at her class which got me to present at conferences where I won two awards. However. she is still not acknowledging my attendance at the lectures.

I talked to other colleagues who attended the lecture with me and they all were happy to testify that I attended the lectures. Also, one time she brought three lecturers from the university in class to ask them about any problems we have with our PhD. So I told them my supervisor’s change story. I am thinking to talk to them to see if they would remember my question. I also have an email to one presenter after he finished his lecture to commend on him on his presentation which I can show her to prove my attendance.

I am sorry for my long post. Appreciate all the advice I can get.


texts: How to reconnect a relationship with a professor

texts:
Today

I'm currently in my final MSc year, and I have finished working for my thesis. I am under supervision of professor X, which I find myself at ease and actually enjoy what I do. My field is Chemical Engineering.

Background

Before starting my thesis, during the "thesis choice" period, I was contacted by professor Y, which I was in very good relations (we did some external projects before the thesis, with good results). One of the major aspects of working with Y was the possibility to go abroad, as he sent out his students quite often for thesis work. The drawback was the lack of direct supervision. Professor X on the other hand contacted me, but he was not in favour of the abroad experience, since he only works as a direct supervisor with thesis students.

Issue (first mistake)

I had two initial proposals from both professors. At first Y's proposal was way more interesting than X. I got a week to confirm Y, but after the third day, Y's initial proposal was changed (in a uninteresting project).

I thus contacted X, and after a week arranged for a thesis meeting. X's offer was also changed, but now very being intriguing, and Y remaining proposals were not as interesting as X. I said yes to prof. X and went personally to Y's office to tell my decision.

When I entered Y's office (without notice, as MSc students - per Y rule - are free to pass by his office freely), he welcomed me with a project that "was sure I would love", and there were also external profs and industry reps (for which I had not been notified) and quickly explained to me the thesis, all taking like I was in from the start. This "meeting" with me was not programmed, as I expected only Y being in his office.

Right after this meeting I made a big mistake. From all that was said in the meeting, and the confusion that was created, I said (verbally) yes to Y.

Issue's Aftermath (second mistake)

I continued working with X, and received NO news or advices or any message from Y. My suspect is that Y's project came to nothing, but seeing that no messages came from Y, I made the second mistake as I continued working with X not alerting Y. I know that a single e-mail could have resolved the issue, but since that period was also characterized by a grave family issue, that e-mail was never sent.

Question

As the months passed and considering my today situation, and (fortunately) all the personal issues have subsided, what could be the best course of action of regaining contact with Y? After all, he did nothing wrong to me and I know I made some terrible mistakes, I want to apologize such to not truncate our 4 year relationship.


texts: Professor asking me about my financial condition

texts:
For masters degree, I have contacted one of the professor of university of Tokyo. He told me in his 1st email reply that he would not like to have students only for 2 years. He wanted a student for 5 years(MS+Phd). Then I emailed him saying that I am ready to study for longer time. He replied for the 2nd time writing that, he is very happy to hear it, that I want to pursue both MS+Phd. But next he asked me if I have a concrete plan for my financial support as there is no salary paid by the PI or University.
In my first email, I didn't mention about any scholarship.
What should I write to him now? How should I ask him for University recommend MEXT scholarship?


texts: How to prepare for questions about the part of the paper that you didn't write?

texts:
I'm going to present a paper, in which we propose several algorithms to solve a problem. One of the algorithms is actually developed by co-authors at a different university, who will not attend the conference.

I only understand this algorithm at a very high level, and I have no idea how it is implemented, which parameters was chosen etc. It uses some techniques that I have very little background. It would take me months to understand all the techniques and the implementation. And to be honest, I'm not really interested in this algorithm since we have other alternatives that perform equally well if not much better.

However, if I am asked about this algorithm at the conference, how I should reply. I couldn't say somebody else did it, and I don't know.


texts: Export Google Scholar search for fine-grained analysis

texts:
Problem
I recently started to survey an algorithm described in a paper. I would like to include some variants of this algorithm in my survey.
One natural choice is to use "cited by" feature in Google Scholar. It could return a new search of the papers that cite the previous one (see below).

Since there are 1342 papers, it is not feasible to read all of them (even just abstracts) within short period of time. I made a heuristic for selecting "interesting" papers

Only read the papers that have more than some number of citations (say K).

which means I will only have to read papers that in turn have more than K "cited by" number.
Even though this heuristic is unfair for newly published papers, I believe it could indeed help me narrow down my scope.
However, the issue is Google Scholar does not have features to support my heuristic (something like advanced search supported by other databases might). So my problem is

How do I download the search results from my Google Scholar query with all the meta data, including "cited by" information.
If the previous point is not possible, is there another tool that could help me?

Could someone help me. Thank you in advance!


texts: Can I use a stamped arxiv paper as a proof of priority if it has been rejected?

texts:
Sometimes arxiv moderators may not agree with content of a submitted manuscript. Although it's rare, the submitted manuscript may be rejected even if it contains novel or original results.

During submission the manuscript is stamped by the arxiv submission system with the classification and date of submission.

Can I use a stamped arxiv manuscript as a proof (priority of a physics or math formula, new method or some other idea) if it has been rejected? If yes, how this could be done? Can I publish the stamped paper online and claim it as an official arxiv document?


texts: How are scholars supposed to use LinkedIn?

texts:
I've recently realized that a professor, who is an extremely renowned researcher in mathematics, added Mathematics, Mathematical research, and similar "skills" to his LinkedIn profile. My question is:

  Is that how LinkedIn is supposed to be used by scholars?

Put differently, I realize that the business-friendly format of LinkedIn leads to some oddity in the profiles of academics, but is there a way to use sensibly the "skills list" without stating the obvious (in this case, that a math professor is "skilled at maths")?


texts: Answering "Why do you want to become a research mathematician?"-type questions in a statement of purpose

texts:
How should one address the classic "Why do you want to become a research mathematician?"-type question that is normally asked in the statement of purpose when applying to Masters (and also) programs?

I've read (and I bet so has any admission board) lots of statements beginning with

  (*) "I've always loved numbers and solving problems, which is the
  most rewarding thing of my life"

(or variations thereof), which seems like a rather lame way to start off.

I do have an enthusiastic love for mathematics and the challenges of research work, and have some "philosophical" reasons to dedicate myself to it (I've been mostly inspired by Prof. Thurston's answer to this question which was asked on MathOverflow), and a somewhat defined (although broad) area that deeply arise my interest (which I surely should mention). However, I'd really like to avoid seeming unprofessional (or outright creepy) as in passage (*), and trying to convince anyone that I've always been in love with my field "ever since I could take my first trembling steps". So my question is:

  What points should you keep in mind to address the question "Why do you want to become a research mathematician?" in a statement of purpose without seeming unprofessional but communicating your genuine and deep passion? And what is actually expected?

A related question is Choosing research ideas to include in a statement of purpose.


texts:
Our institute has office spaces for the PhD students with a number of cubicles in the same room. I happen to be an introvert and dislike people talking to me when I am in the office space, or otherwise. But people just love to gossip. They will talk about how bad their supervisor is or how bad my supervisor is, and even though a lot of what they say might be true, it takes a lot of unnecessary toll on me. It makes me very unsettled about my future.

I simply do not understand why people love to talk so much. Are they trying to be helpful? Are the seniors among them trying to guide me? How do I make it happen that I keep going to the office space and not have to make small talk or gossip with other folks there?


texts: Is it worth to switch from Bibsonomy to Mendeley?

texts:
What are the advantages of Mendeley over Bibsonomy?

Is it easy to migrate from Bibsonomy to Mendeley?

Does Mendeley offer equally powerful bibliography exportation?

In detail, the following disadvantages of Bibsonomy  are crucial for me:

you can not modify all your bibliographies at once, e.g. exchange in every URL field each # with \#
many references are not present, so I have to import the bibtex myself
search functionality could be better.

Does Mendeley solve these disadvantages?


texts: How common is it to have a demo at a doctoral thesis defence session?

texts:
It is customary (at least from where I'm from) to have undergraduate and masters thesis viva voce with project demos. So far, I have never been to a PhD thesis defence viva voce which had a demo in it.

How (un)common is it to have a demo at a doctoral thesis defence concerning the fields of engineering, technology and especially computer science?

Edit:

A project demo under this context refers to the demonstration of an important contribution put forward by the thesis defender. It may include one or more of the following

Practical application of concepts
Simulation of proposed algorithms
Live usecase demonstration


texts: What can a biostatistician do to earn money on the side?

texts:
I love my full-time job and do not wish to leave it (statistician in a small-ish research institute within a large university) because I believe the research we do will someday benefit humanity and because I get the freedom to pursue my own research and several open-source statistical software projects I'm developing.

However, I am not making enough to provide for my family, and we are starting to feel it. I'm looking for something low-risk that I can do from home and on my own schedule, so finding an adjunct position someplace is not on the table. I'm looking into ways to commercialize my software and teaching myself about investing, but neither of those will be reliable income streams anytime soon.

So, I would like to solicit people's stories/advice on how they got into freelance statistical consulting or any other "low-hanging fruit" jobs.

Also, are there specific types of businesses that are known to hire free-lancers to do survival analysis, repeated measures regression, and all-around R programming?

I'm not trying to be the next James Goodnight, just to find a way to make some extra cash doing stuff I find easy and other people find difficult. I'll do web development if I have to, but I figure there should be a more profitable niche where I put my less common skills to use.


texts: Strategies for facing an "impossible" required course for PhD

texts:
I'm enrolled in the last doctoral-level course required for my PhD, and the course material is very difficult, requires a tremendous amount of time, and yet has no relevance to my research. I'm a hard worker who regularly puts in 90+ hour weeks balancing a full time job, research and course work. I'm no slacker, and I love a challenge; I'm no genius, but have a near-perfect GPA.

The course is infamous among students, and I discovered that, due to its difficulty, most students simply resort to cheating on the problem sets, copying answers from prior years. Meanwhile, I've regularly sought assistance from the instructor and TA, and reached out to fellow students in the course (no other student seems interested in working/studying together). You know, the typical things any intelligent adult would do. The problem sets alone occupy about 40 hours a week of my time - yes, really, and I am typically an efficient person.

Sure, I get the fact that the course is helping to identify a weakness in my knowledge of this domain, but it also has little bearing on my research. What are some strategies in dealing with this situation? The course is my "last requirement barrier" to being free to focus solely on research.

Informing the instructor about the cheating would be unwise, because I know that this has happened in the past, and that the instructor simply makes the remaining work impossibly difficult and rescinds assistance. It would just make the situation worse.

"Talk to your advisor" is an obvious thing to do, but my machismo and refusal to fail makes we want to seek other options besides begging to be able to not have to take the course. Any ideas?

I'm really touched and appreciative of the responses. I've chosen to "stick it out" and significantly de-prioritize other obligations besides my job and this one course. I'll update this drama at the end of the semester so others can see what happened.

With one month left in the semester, I've dropped the course. "Toughing it out" has been a rather futile waste of effort. Details below.

The midterm exam had problems that were barely related to any of the lecture topics or problem sets; no assimilation or synthesis, no re-application, and no exam problem was even in the ballpark of our coursework. Despite my preparations, it was not an exam one could prepare for. I welcome and believe in tough exams, but this was absurd; it was as if the exam was from an entirely different course.

Details of a term project have been released with only one month left in the semester, leaving little time to accomplish a very significant project. It's too bad, because I welcome the challenge and it seems fun. But the scope of the project, in addition to upcoming problem sets that alone take 40 hours a week, is a bit unreasonable at this point.

I do encourage others to stick out a tough course by removing other commitments and focusing on succeeding in the course (e.g. doing nothing but the coursework). It's just not possible in my case.


texts: Can I copy text from an article to complete my review article?

texts:
I'm currently writing an article and wonder if I could copy text from various articles. Is this appropriate?

I checked similar review articles and found they copied the abstracts for similar works, but can I copy the an introduction from another article to complete my introduction?


texts: Can't decide which research project to work on as an undergraduate to prepare for graduate school?

texts:
I'm an undergraduate engineering student at a top state university. I want to do high-quality research to build up my experience in preparation for graduate school (MS/Ph.D.). My research is out of pure interest, not volunteering or doing it for credit hours.

My goal is to go to a top 5 graduate school in my field. I have some experience in research since I worked on a research project last summer. I published a paper as a second author on that to a conference and it was accepted.

I found two research projects currently and they're equally as good but I'm having trouble deciding which one would help me the most due to my lack of experience. It would be super helpful if those of you who have been through this process can provide some advice.

Project 1

Professor went to a top 5 graduate engineering school.

He is currently in my engineering school but not in the same
department as I am.

Open-ended project. The project hasn't been worked on much in recent
years so I have full choice over the direction of the project.

Collaborate with one graduate researcher on this project.

Prof. said I have a chance to publish papers since it's open-ended
and I end up discovering something novel.

The project is directly related to my field and future research I
want to pursue.

Professor: h-index: 23, Citations: 2123

Project 2

The project is an application of my field, but the work is still
related to future research I want to pursue.

The professor is in the College of Science which is a difference
since I'm in engineering and he does not have specific knowledge
about my field.

I'm assuming this means not many connections in my field.

The project is interesting, a novel application of the research in my
field.

Work with 7 other undergraduate researchers from different majors,
and two graduate researchers.

It recently received a huge check from NSF.

Professor: h-index: 21, Citations: 1299


texts: Is there any paper submission deadline timezone convention?

texts: Conference papers and special issues of Journals usually have deadlines for submission. However, it is sometimes not clearly stated what timezone the deadline is in. Is there any convention for this? Is it the location localtime, UTC or others?


texts:
I am a computer-science PhD student. I like to work on things and I enjoy doing computer science. But here is a problem: I am not that much into debates. When I meet with my supervisor, he asks me some questions and I try to answer those. I don’t go into debates on the research questions. I like to do research independently, also in a collaboration, but only to a small extent. Many of my friends ask me to enter into debates, but I don’t like it much. I like mostly objective sorts of questions. I like subjective questions also, but to a small extent.

Question: Is it possible for non-debating person to survive in research?


texts: Are papers published as a result of winning a competition considered worth more / less than regularly published papers? (same journal)

texts:
I wonder the following. Say a reputable journal has an essay competition going on. The winner gets some money and is also published by that journal.

Would a publication like this weigh more than if the winner had just submitted that essay to the journal regularly? Or the other way around?

I think that winning a competition might be impressive. At the same time, suppose the essay competition question is very specific, which would result in not that many submissions. Would this change things? What else am I leaving out here?

I am in the Humanities, if that should make a difference (I know that many people on here are in the sciences). I would be very interested what you think. Thanks a lot in advance.


texts: Is it common practice to insert images at the top of a page?

texts:
This is not a question about how to insert images at the top, but rather asking whether or not this is common practice.

The template I've received from my university automatically inserts figures at the top of a page if no other flags are given using \begin{figure}[t] as default.

Personally, I find it a bit awkward to be introduced to a certain image before reading about the respective explanation within the text. But I got a feeling that top-positioned images are the way one usually writes LaTeX documents.

At the end of the day, it's a question about preference, but I really want to know which of the two following is "the way to go": Left or right?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  Scope for the role of peer reviewer

For the first time, I have been asked to do a peer review. I have accepted, because the paper is well within my expertise, and I don't have less time than others.

Are there any established guidelines, checklists, etc. on how to actually do a good peer review? One might consider it common sense (just read the article critically and raise any issues), but I think it might still be helpful to have some checklist on things to look for. For example, is it my responsibility to check that the references are correct? Should I mention cosmetics ("figure X hard to read"), or focus only on the content? And if I do focus on the content, are there specific strategies in doing so?

The manuscript (draft) is a full length journal article.


texts: NSF IIS status date changed, status still pending

texts: It has been close to three months since my NSF IIS proposal submission. The status date changed today on NSF Fastlane but the status is still pending. Does it mean it is going to be declined?


texts: How to investigate why students do not do their homework?

texts:
I teach freshmen courses. The lessons are in the classroom, but I also use an LMS to receive homework, to communicate grades and comments, and to post additional readings and resources.

It is normal to encounter a few students not doing work, but this term, I found about 80% of one section doing no homework, even easy work. To investigate why so many students are not doing the work, I tried these strategies:

I sent private messages to each student informing them that they missed several assignments and that it is their responsibility to inform me of any problems. The students did not reply.
I posted a private survey to the LMS to all students, asking for students to describe any problem they were having with the LMS or homework. None of these students completed the survey.
Seeing no replies after 5 days, I set aside some of class time for a whole-class discussion on this topic, but this made students nervous. In retrospect, realize this was a poor choice.

I did learn through the discussion that some students did not know how to use the LMS and now that we've spend 20 minutes covering that (again).

After my discussion, more homework is coming in, but still about 50% of the class has a 0%.

I do not see this problem in my other sections, nor have I had this failure rate in past years.
A student signed me into their account, so I could confirm that there were no anomalies in the LMS for this section.

I want to identify why this section has so few students submitting work, so that I can make appropriate adjustments to the course, as necessary. How can I investigate this problem further, without making students nervous to explain?


texts: What are the minimal screen parameters for tablet bought for reading papers

texts:
Kind of related to my last question: Is typical ebook reader with pdf support enough to read scientific papers (but I guess that this is distict enough).

What are minimal sreeen parameters for tablet so I can read papers with ease:

is 7'' screen size enough, or do I need 10''? I figured out that 5'' is not enough (to much scrolling).
Is getting additional 3'' (from 7'' to 10'') worth about 70% price increase?
is iPad's retina display (2048 x 1536) really usefull or I can stick to cheaper tablets?


texts: In what order to list potential future advisors?

texts:
In the department form I have to turn in each academic quarter (before I find a thesis advisor), there is a question:

  Which faculty members do you consider to be your thesis advisor (in the future)?

Suppose my answer includes four different professors, what’s the right order to list them? Should I list them alphabetically by last name, list them by academic rank, or something else?


texts: Professor cc to other professors when I ask about the PhD student vacancy. Should I answer as a group or to individuals?

texts:
I wrote an email to Prof. X to ask about a PhD student vacancy and talk about a topic in one of his papers. He refused to accept me because of his retirement and replied with a warming email. In that, he cc-ed two others that he thought might be interested in me, Prof. Y and Prof. Z. Prof. Y refused because his area is somewhat distinct to mine; Prof. Z hasn't answered yet. I haven't responded to anyone yet. I also want to ask Prof. X's opinion about Prof. T's work, who is actually the one that I want to follow.

How should I respond to this? My feeling is that if Prof. X cc-ed others, this means that he wants to create a group discussion. As a group, everyone should have the right to hear each other voices. Should I reply to the group with a generic "thank you" email?

But if I do that, then I have to send another private emails to Prof. X and Prof. Z. I just worry that this will make me looks sneaky because I don't have the courage to discuss this in public.

What should I do?


texts: How to talk to previous lab members when applying to a postdoc?

texts:
I hear that it's common to talk with previous lab members before accepting a postdoc position.
I was wandering what is the best way to approach these conversations.
Should I let the professor know that I am going to email their previous lab members? I don't think they would oppose, and if they do that would be very suspicious. But I'm not sure if it's common courtesy to let them know, or if it's unnecessary.
Also, when I email previous lab members, is there anything I should keep in mind?
Thank you.


texts: My admission is revoked after accepting the admission offer

texts:
I applied to PhD program and gladly received official admission offer on the 29th of March. They guaranteed me four-year funding. I accepted the admission offer and was preparing for obtaining student visa.
I accepted the offer on the 13th of April, declining two admission offers from other institutions.
However, my application page suddenly changed that my admission is rejected. A staff of the department said that they decided to rescind my admission offer on April the 22nd.  What can I do now?
I received this message this morning:

My sincere apology for this unfortunate admission circumstance. There was a misunderstanding after the initial admission process, and the initial determination of "Deny" for your application made by our faculty was indeed the decision that should have been maintained. Later, due to a misunderstanding, we reversed the admission decision from "Deny" to "Offer". After this change was made, the faculty who had considered your application - and who denied your admission - confirmed their denial of admission due to lack of funding available to support you. For this reason, we needed to change your offer of admission back to the original "Deny" status. Yours was a very competitive application, and I am sorry to have to rescind our offer of admission. We therefore ask that you disregard our offer of admission and funding, which were made in error.
My sincere apology for this misunderstanding, and best wishes to you as you pursue other graduate program offers,


texts: Do PhD courses in engineering fields in European non-English speaking countries require knowledge of the native language?

texts:
Can a Ph.D. student who only knows how to speak English study in a European non-English speaking country (e.g., Austria, Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, etc.)  without any problems?
Does applying to these universities require knowledge of that country's language?


texts: Editor gave me five days to revise paper – chance of acceptance?

texts:
I recently received a review of my paper from a journal. Two referees suggested some changes and one referee just rejected the paper claiming that this study was not necessary. The editor decided a major revision. I revised my paper and two referees appreciated the rebuttal and paper while one referee still rejects.

Now, the editor gave me five days time to submit a revision. I sent. Is there a chance of acceptance?


texts: Are there any online community investigations of PhD thesis plagiarism outside Germany?

texts:
In Germany there is a wiki-like webpage that investigates PhD theses for plagiarism: http://de.vroniplag.wikia.com/

On this webpage PhD theses that are suspected of plagiarism are investigated by an online community. Anybody can contribute in an anonymous way. For the thesis manuscripts that are investigated there is an indication of plagiarized text for each page.

My question is: are there any such initiatives in other countries?
And would that make sense?


texts: I'm frustrated with college because I feel like I'm never given the opportunity to explore the material

texts:
I'm a freshman at a private polytechnic institute, and I'm very disillusioned with the whole idea of college. I feel incredibly pressured with the work here and often find myself depressed. Oftentimes I have to find supplementary material online to cover the gaps in the material, since I can't always understand the teaching styles of the professors or the textbooks. I always feel like I'm required to know the information, but never have time to understand it. I want to study theoretical physics, and couldn't care less about going into industry. During high school, I was able to breeze through the required courses, and spent my extra time going above and beyond. Instead of filling my spare time playing games and hanging out with friends, I spent it reading, learning about modern physics theories and the upper limits of human knowledge pertaining to the universe. Here, I have no time to explore, no time to understand, and no time to think. I only have the time to study what I need to know and regurgitate it on tests. I can't remember most of physics 1 because I felt so rushed by work.

I feel that I might be able to do better studying independently over the next three years, learning physics from its foundations to current theories, beyond what they teach at college. I don't care about the "college experience", I came to understand physics. I don't feel like that's happening, even with the material already covered. I'm considering dropping out or transferring to an easy state school back home, so I can breeze through the work and focus on understanding and learning again. What should I do?


texts: How to get the letter of commitment of the host institution for ERC Calls?

texts:
For applying for European Commission grants, specifically ERC ADVANCED GRANT, I need to get an official letter from the host instuttion that they support my proposal.

How is the procedure to get this letter?

Do I need to contact the institution research office OR I need to find a collaborator in that institution to recommend me to get that letter?

Do they need to review my detailed proposal to decide if they want to support me OR they review my CV only?

How long does this process take?


texts: Writing a thesis: how to organize the content?

texts:
I have to start writing a thesis for my master's degree. The thesis itself is about machine learning. In particular, I developed an environment that simulate a real world robotic system and applied some of the most famous reinforcement learning algorithms to it. I would like to receive some tips on how to organize it in an effective way.

Right now, my idea is to organize it in the following sections:

Abstract - Briefly introduce the topic of the thesis explaining what will be covered next.
State of the art - Introduction to the topic of machine learning, in particular reinforcement learning (how much in detail should I go since there is a section dedicated to the agents?)
Tools - A list of all the tools used. Basically the simulator and some machine learning libraries.
Simulation - Explain in details how the simulation works. That is, how the robotic system physically works.
Environment - Explain  the environment is structured. That is, how the robotic system is controlled. (should this be merged with "Simulation"?)
Agents - Explain how the different RL algorithms work in detail.
Results - A lot of plots and tables and some explanations regarding the results of the training of the different algorithms.
Conclusion - What I've done, what I've not, what could be done better in the future.

This question could be opinion based but exist some common rules when writing a thesis of which I'm not fully aware. I'm more interested in the latter but of course, if you want to share your opinion it will be welcomed.


texts: To submit or not to submit GRE Scores for PhD programs in the United States

texts:
With the GREs being phased out of so many PhD applications in the sciences, I think this question is reasonably fresh.

I have taken the GRE and scored in the 70 percentiles for verbal and math. I scored a 6/6 on the essay. This score is fine, but not "great" for top biomedical science Ph.D. programs that I am applying to (e.g. Duke, that wants 90+ percentiles).

Do you think it would be worth it to send my GRE report to show that I have taken the GRE and did attain a "reasonable" score? I have a strong application when looking at other factors (e.g. research experience since freshman year, 2 summer research internships at a hospital and in Amgen Scholar program, strong GPA, 3 letters of rec. from my 3 research PIs). Thus, I feel that my GRE score is the one component that does not equally compare to the rest of my application.

This may be irrational of me, but I am somewhat worried that the programs will wonder why I am not submitting a score given that it's clear I have not experienced major financial problems throughout my undergraduate career (nor do I come from an underrepresented/underprivileged background, which is a large reason to why the GRE has become an "optional" test now).

Thank you for your opinions.


texts: In the absence of strong references, on which things should I focus so that I can gain access to a PhD program?

texts:
The idea of working toward a PhD came to me very late in my Master's program. As such, my primary professors and adviser didn't necessarily coach me into PhD preparation and may have even seen me as somewhat of a black sheep in the academic community. I don't doubt that they would believe in my ability to research, but rather that it'd be somewhat of a surprise that this was an area of interest for me.

Having said all of that, while I believe that they could give me a good reference, I don't believe it would be the "great" reference that would be characteristic of this internationally-recognized expert in their field. With this in mind, are there things that I can do to make myself a more appealing candidate to a PhD program?


texts: What should I put in the Introduction as opposed to the Literature Review?

texts:
My question is rather short one, how much information should I include when writing the introduction, and how much should be left out for the literature review

Note: the reason for this question, is because my advisor told me that my introduction is to light and he raised several question that eventually will be covered in literature review. When I pointed that out, he said that the introduction should inform the reader about the theme being addressed by the thesis/paper so that the reader will have an overview of the paper from reading the introduction.

  note: my introduction contains the following:

1.1 Background
1.2 Problem Formulation
1.3 Purposes of study and hypotheses being tested
1.4 Data Sampling
1.5 Structure of the paper


texts: How to promote reduction of carbon footprint for conference participation?

texts:
Researchers need to get together with each other in conferences to give talks, listen to talks, discuss with others, network, etc.  But travel to conferences is expensive and adds substantially to one's carbon footprint.

How can this kind of academic interaction be accomplished remotely, i.e. without traveling?  How can remote participation in conferences be set up so as to approach the effectiveness of in-person attendance?

Edit:

I would like to see someone discuss the choice of location.  I got this idea from the answer that mentioned Energy Star.  I once visited the Canary Islands and saw political graffiti saying "no more concrete."  I wonder if holding a conference in an area with poor urban planning, with explosive building patterns, would have a disproportional effect on local climate, species diversity, populations abandoning traditional farming and migrating to the city and underemployment... these are thoughts that are just starting to form.  I hope someone with a better understanding of these things can weigh in.  For example, is there a way to relate these factors to the technical component "carbon footprint"?

What about how much food needs to be flown in?  For example, a conference held on an island that doesn't lend itself to producing fresh fruit, vs. a venue that can source more locally grown food?

Then there's fuel for heating and air conditioning, and gasoline for getting from the airport to the hotel.  I wonder whether conference organizers ever think about any of these considerations....

But I would still like to understand how remote participation can be shaped to yield similar benefits to in-person attendance.  Maybe it would help to form some small interest-based subgroups?


texts: How to approach a problem if I am new in the field?

texts:
I recently came across a problem related to image recognition in Deep Learning. One fine morning, I was struck with the idea that possibly I could do something about it if I merged GANs with CNNs. As of now, I only know what these networks are capable of.

Now how should I go about this? Should I first pick a standard book (say Ian Goodfellow's Deep Learning) and read it from cover to cover? Or should I straightaway read some research articles, identify areas I am weak in, and then dig deep into those very areas from standard texts.

In other words, is it better to complete everything I can get my hands on before starting to work on this idea? Or should I start on it and fill the gaps as they come by.

P.S. My background in courses in statistical learning, probability, and calculus ensures I can completely understand the math behind the above stated topics.


texts: Can I write a thesis without any help from others? If I can, how?

texts:
I cannot get any help from my supervisor if I want to write a new thesis. Not only that, I didn't have anyone in my lab. Therefore it's obvious that I don't have any people who can help me here. I'm trying to write it again by myself.

Is it that impossible? If that is the case, what can I do for it? Or should I just give it up?

Thanks.


texts: Layout for a thesis chapter describing an undergraduate course

texts:
I am writing a chapter in my degree thesis which describes a new undergraduate course I designed. I want to be as specific as possible with this course, like outlining what topic should be covered in each class. It is the main chapter of my thesis. Things that I am sure I must include are the learning objectives, the syllabus and a mention to the  instructional strategy (which in this case will be Flipped classroom).

How would you go about structuring this chapter? What things about the course should I include and in what order?

Can someone link me to a paper describing a new course in detail? It would be useful to have a reference.


texts:
My school provides undergrad students with the opportunity to tutor the classes where they received an A as an extra-curricular program. I have received an A+ in some classes and think that if I have a chance to be a tutor of that class, it will help enhance  my understanding and teaching skills.  However, tutoring is so time-consuming that if I do it, I might give up one of the lectures next semester.

So, my question is: Is it worthwhile to be a tutor if I want to go to grad school?


texts: Possibility of doing Masters in astronomy with only bachelors in CS

texts:
I have a bachelors degree in Computer Science & Engineering and currently employed in s/w industry in Pakistan, but have no degree in physics. For long, I've been interested in doing research in physics, especially in astronomy, astrophysics or in particle physics.

Are there good institutes or universities in Europe ( Germany,
Sweden etc) which accept students without any degree in physics to
Masters program in astronomy or astrophysics or joint with computer
science? If so, do they also offer financial assistance or some form
of scholarship to such students to meet at least one's tuition fee
expenses?
Where I can find some research article that some teachers are working on so I can contribute them? I want to help through my coding skills. How to found those teachers who are working on research based on astronomy and contact them?


texts: Using other college/universities notes for practice?

texts: I like to get as much practice as I can before an exam so is it permissable to use other colleges or universities' practice exams or handouts for practice. I am not distributing them to anyone, selling them or profiting. Just want to get as much practice as possible. I was wondering if this is ok?


texts: Politicians and other students caught in plagiarism?

texts:
This is something I don't understand: how come many degrees have been revoked due to plagiarism after approval if Turnitin and many other software against plagiarism exist?

For example, there was a case in my country where a politician got his degree revoked when it was found that he copied from other student's thesis, the thesis of that student was in her college repository, how come anti plagiarism software didn't detect the fraud before approval?


texts: Hard data on students using W's to enhance their GPAs?

texts:
I teach at a community college in California, where students can drop a course with a grade of "W" up until the 12th week of the semester. Within the last year or so, I seem to be seeing an increase in the number of students who find themselves passing the course at the 12th week, but who decide to drop because they want a better grade and are willing to take the course again later. However, I'm not sure that this increase is real, since my sample size is small. And if it is real, I don't know how widespread the phenomenon is or how to probe for possible causes for the change, since a number of different variables have changed in this time frame (including changes in state law and school policy).

Is there any source of hard data or method for getting data on this? I think there's a pretty big literature on student success and persistence, but the impression I get is that a lot of the literature takes it as a matter of definition that if the student doesn't pass the course with a C, it's because the student didn't "succeed," i.e., the student's academic performance wasn't passing. It seems like it would be difficult to gather statistically robust data to measure the phenomenon of drops due to grade dissatisfaction, since instructors aren't systematically asked to submit or retain the grade records of students who are no longer enrolled at the end of the term.


texts: 4th year phd in BiomedEngineering - How do I maximize my chances of getting an assistant professorship in my hometown?

texts:
Preface: I know

how how difficult is to get any professorship
that i should write really good research papers etc...
that its not smart to plan on this and only this

My hometown is middle of the country, only 2 universities in my field.
Help me out, how do I maximize my chances of being near my family and getting my ideal job?


texts: Is it normal to keep changing research objectives in PhD?

texts:
During my first year, my supervisor advised me to have four objectives that lead to four contributions to the research.

Throughout the journey, until I'm now on my final year (in computer science), I realize myself to keep changing my objectives as the needs of the research keep evolving. And, as the research has evolved, some objectives do not make any sense due to some reasons such as it's not so significant, too simple, and redundant.

My supervisor is always asking how many of objectives (out of four) that I have achieved so far? I can't really answer as it has changed from my first to second, to third a year.

So my question is, is it normal if I keep changing my objectives without sticking the those I outlined during my first year? And, it is still okay to change objectives when I'm now in my final year?


texts: I am working on a research grant proposal and the funding agency requires us to turn in a white paper before the actual proposal. I have no clue how a research grant white paper should look like. I tried googling and searching in the university library, but could not find anything similar. Will somebody be able to give me a link to a research grant white paper, something which I can look at and learn the format? (my field is computer science)


texts: Does mentoring a summer student during a postdoc help get tenure-track position?

texts: I am interested in a tenure-track position at a university with 9 months hard money and 3 months soft money during the summer (by this I mean something between a liberal arts college and an R1 research institution). However, I'm concerned about my lack of teaching experience. I was a TA for some lab courses in grad school but that's about it. Now as a postdoc, would mentoring a summer undergraduate student help my application in the "teaching" qualifications that hiring committees look for?


texts: Why are some courses described as "seminars"?

texts:
I noticed that occasionally,
the title of a course will be something like "Special Seminar in Topic X".
A student can take this special seminar course for 3 course credits,
just like a regular course.
What is the difference between a seminar course and a regular course,
and why is the seminar course referred to as a "seminar"?

(I do have some knowledge about what a seminar course is,
but I am asking this question
because I feel that the answer may be useful for others.)


texts:
Given that a student wants to thank you her teacher for her assistance to her project thesis, is it polite if she writes any of this at the end of her thesis:

Thanks to your assistance, my project was done under your supervision.
You have been my project's tutor. Now it is done successfully, thank you.


texts: What does " securing reviewers" means when you submit a paper? Does that mean that the AE thinks that the paper is within the scope of the journal but he or she has not been able to find reviewers to take a look at the paper?


texts: What does GE stand for in community colleges and education?

texts:
I found this comment on a youtube video:

My own community college graduation is tonight actually. I’m getting
two associate’s degrees and will be transferring to University of
California, Irvine. I paid about $1800/year out of pocket but saved
roughly $65,000 by not going to university right after high school.
Community college is a great option and allows you to get your GEs out
of the way.

What is a GE?


texts: Should I list the journals/conferences that I have reviewed for in my personal website?

texts:
I have been thinking about this question for a while now. I could see some advice in a.SE1 and a.SE2 that answers for the inclusion of such activities in a CV.

However, is it a good idea to list such details on my personal website?

My present webpage does not contain my CV -- It just lists list of publications, projects, and some stuff like academics backgrounds. And, I don't want to put my CV later either.


texts: Am I allowed to duplicate results from my own arXiv paper in a journal publication?

texts:
I had put up a paper on arxiv about 4 months back, which we had planned on submitting to a journal. However, before I submitted, we got some good reviews and ideas from a colleague at my university. All of the original results were correct and accurate, but now I would like to add some additional simulation results, a more detailed analysis, and also give an authorship to the colleague. However, in this time span, my arxiv paper has been cited a couple of times.

My questions are:

I would like to change the title of the paper and do it from fresh, and submit the newer version to the journal. In this case, should I just cite my arxiv article for all the background work, and just present the new contributions (which would be only 1-2 pages); or can I copy over all the content from my original arxiv article?
If the latter is possible, how do I indicate to others that they should cite the newer article and not the original one?

Field of research: At the interface of applied mathematics, engineering and computer sciences. Paper likely to be submitted to a SIAM journal.


texts: Do tenure-track search committees using mathjobs.org receive revisions to job applications after the initial submission date?

texts:
this is a somewhat specific question aimed especially at people who have experienced in serving in tenure-track search committees that use Mathjobs.Org.

Many of the job descriptions say something in the lines of "Review of applications will start on 1 November" (or any other date) or "For full consideration please apply before November 1", etc.

The question is: I am waiting for a couple of papers to be accepted (already have reviews, but no official acceptance since the editorial process sometimes takes longer). I know that applications can be updated in Mathjobs. Do the committees print all the Mathjobs application on November 1, or they look at them online? I'm asking because if I update it, say, on November 15 (suppose a paper is accepted by then), then maybe the won't even look at the updated version and only at the old one. On the other hand, if I don't apply now and wait until Nov 15, maybe it will also be ignored since it will be too late.

Do you have any particular recommendations?


texts: Submitting a paper without having a review from the supervisor

texts:
I am doing a PhD with the aim of publishing about 3 papers. One is already submitted, with my supervisor being listed as a co-author. My second paper will be submitted soon. However, the subject I am treating now is beyond its scope, so he cannot help, except on improving the writing to make the paper more understandable. Recently, I spent an hour to present and explain him the entire concept of my research plus some details on calculations. He hasn't really said anything, nor provided advises.

Now, I'm worried. I would like to submit the paper without his name on it. However, I have perhaps 2 problems:

the last time me and my supervisor talked about publications, he told me something like "... I don't do research anymore, I rely on my PhDs for that...and publishing...", plus adding that he really wanted his name on my manuscripts. However, this is in conflict with a course I got about ethical principles in research at my university, which stipulated that one should not publish with someone that has not provided any input (reviewing being set apart).
my research aims at making assessment of natural resources (at the Earth scale), that will potentially be reviewed by worldwide experts in my discipline. I have faith in what I'm doing, and am pretty confident, but would a journal accept this type of work from a "simple" PhD candidate?


texts:
I completed my PhD about 2 years ago. During the PhD period I left lots of bad things that affected my life. I divorced, moved to another city, lost motivation because of some big political situations which were directly related with us in my country etc. After all those bad things I finished my dissertation and graduated. Now I'm working as an assistant professor in a university. Everything looks better than before, absolutely. But I want to move to another country. Some problems are still going on and this seems to be the only way to get rid of them.

I don't have too many publications. In fact, I have just my thesis and a paper which I wrote from my thesis to show my expertise. The other ones are generally related with different subjects, stemmed from the many courses I took during the PhD period.

I'm trying to find the best way for me to go abroad. I have 2 options. First one is postdoc. I'll find a project or fund and try to find a permanent job. The other one is long period graduate certificate programmes. I will take a year-long advanced certificate about my area, and after completing the university based course, I'll apply for academic or non-academic jobs. However, I'm unsure if taking an advanced certificate course as a PhD person is possible in the US, Canada, and Australia?

I'm not sure which one is the best option for me. I hope I can consult someone who has similar experience, as I really need to find the best option for me.

Thank you in advance.

With best.


texts: Permission for using publicly available questionnaires in Dissertations

texts:
I have used and/or adapted several questionnaires for my dissertation study. I have already asked the authors for permission to use their scales. However, I have not received a reply from an author about using his scale.

I wonder if we have to have the permission of the authors when we use their surveys (when the questionnaire items are published and publicly available), or is it a courtesy to ask for the permission. Is it still okay to use a public scale when no confirmation is received from the author who developed the scale?

Thanks for any suggestions!