texts: Will a self-designed major lower my chance of acceptance for graduate school?

texts:
I am in the process of designing a major. However, I am worried that using a self-designed major can make an application look bad. As it stands, this potential major is about 70% computer science classes, 30% psychology and neuroscience classes. As such, this leads me to the questions:

Are these self-designed majors seen as "weird" or simply unacceptable?
In general, are self-designed majors unattractive for graduate admissions?
For computer science specifically, do majors matter?


texts: How to address situtations where the effort to avoid plagiarism results in less effective communication?

texts:
I have been contemplating this topic because of something that happened a number of years ago. Do you have any suggestions on alternative ways to handle the following case:

A student in one of my community college classes (Introduction to Public Speaking) wrote a moving self-introduction for his “icebreaker” speech.  The student was a homeless person who had resolved to become a college graduate and his brief autobiographic speech offered the class a rather poignant insight into what it actually meant to be homeless.

The following year that same student was in another of my COMM classes and the students were required to deliver a persuasive speech based on one of the three classic rhetorical modes of persuasion: ethos, pathos, or logos. The aforementioned student’s speech topic attempted to persuade his classmates to help the homeless by appealing to their emotions. A great deal of his speech was clearly “lifted” verbatim from his icebreaker text. To his credit his speech introduction did include the following sentence: “Last year I wrote a speech describing what it means to be homeless and today I would like to revisit that topic.” and he also correctly cited his own speech in the written outline.

When a student just re-uses all or most of a speech without acknowledging the prior work I consider that self-plagiarism. When a student copies verbatim text but gives clear attribution I consider that a lazy effort. However, in this case the precise phrasing and constructions used by the student had such strong emotional appeal I would be hard-pressed to find any way to revise the speech without lessening its impact.

Imagine having Martin Luther King in your speech class and requiring him to rewrite his "I Have A Dream" speech without using any repetitive phrases.

In this case his grade was based on the 2nd speech alone without factoring in the 1st speech in any way. However I did follow up and educate the student on the subject of self-plagiarism (amazing how few students are aware of this concept) and cautioned him to be avoid or at the least to be extremely careful when re-using his work.

Considering this particular student's overall performance I am fine with his specific work and the grade he received for this project. However I wonder what I would do if a similar case happened again and felt it would make a good question here. It relates somewhat to the opposite scenario in which a student desperately trying to avoid plagiarism contorts the phrasing of a source into an awkward and ineffective communication.

In the one case the underlying question is:
Do you ignore or mitigate the duplication of the (correctly attributed) source to respect the effectiveness of the wording?

In the other case the question is:
Do you ignore or mitigate the horrible wording in order to respect the avoidance of duplication?


texts: Applying to Teaching Position in the Same Department as My Advisor... Should I Mention Her?

texts:
I'm applying for tenure-track teaching positions right now and have, more or less, a single cover letter that I modify for each one of my applications.

It so happens that the department my advisor teaches in has such a position and I am intending to apply.  To give some context to this, my graduate program was at an institution that is associated to but very distinct from the institution my advisor is a faculty member of.  Though my PhD advisor is one of my biggest professional connections, I hardly have any other connections within this department, though most other people there know that I was her PhD student and would certainly recognize my name from my application.

  My question is: Is it necessary/recommended that I modify my cover letter to reflect my relationship with my advisor in any way?  If so, what should be included?

I honestly think there is a slim chance I would be selected for an interview let alone hired, but I would like to get a sense of what's appropriate in this kind of situation.


texts: Is there a scientific field that focuses exclusively on scientific instrumentation research?

texts: I would like to know if there is any scientific field that focuses exclusively on scientific instrumentation research? I know that each field (and sub-field) has its own instrumentation and apparatus, but my question is about the existence of a community that explore the nature and the methodological sides of those instruments.


texts: Does failing in a different program affect graduate admission application?

texts:
Suppose, someone failed in a STEM grad program 'A', and hence it is incomplete.

Then he gets acceptance in a non-STEM grad program 'B', and completes it.

Now, if he applies for a position in a funded Ph.D. program related to 'B', would he face hard-times in getting an acceptance because of his previous failure?

Why or why not?

Kindly, explain.


texts: Sensible rules for forming acronyms for publications in references

texts:
Personally, I prefer numbering references and citing them in the text by something like

see A. Miller and P. Smith [13] for further details
or
see Miller–Smith [13] for further details

However, some publishers, and some coauthors, insist on using letters like

see [MS] for further details

which is short and maybe more intuitive than

see [13] for details

but quickly prone to becoming ambiguous.
The longer the article, the more likely it is that you need to cite different authors with the same initial, at which point the obvious rule of using just the first letter of the surname breaks down. At this point many authors just seem to add further letters from the surname quite randomly.
Is there a sensible set of rules for determining acronyms for publications?


texts: Is it normal for a department not to specify where a PhD candidate's funding will come from before the candidate accepts the position?

texts:
I've been accepted into a Philosophy PhD program, and they have told me that I will probably have a job as either a teaching assistant or research assistant for each of the next five years and that there's a decent chance I'll get some kind of summer fellowship for one year. However, they won't tell me which years I'll be a TA and which an RA, nor will they guarantee my funding for any time period.

I'm curious whether this is the norm, both in Philosophy and in PhD programs more generally.


texts: How to finish PhD and get through the academic job market as a new mother and primary caregiver?

texts:
I am a female graduate student in a competitive phd program.  I recently had a baby.  Although this is a planned pregnancy, and I thought I had thought through the complications having a baby would bring, I am still very overwhelmed by how much different my life is now.

I don't have any time besides taking care of a newborn, and I am very sleep-deprived.  Baby's dad works full-time to support the family.  Even though it brings me a lot of joy, I just can't help but wonder whether I would ever have time for my research again.  I initially planned to go back to school in September, when baby will be about 3 months old.  But I am not sure whether I would be able to do anything next semester.  Or even the semester after next.  I initially planned to graduate next fall, but now I feel that might be a stretch.  The application starts next semester, and I should be going around giving talks and preparing for my applications.  But that feels impossible now.

And there is the financial stress.  I want to put my child in daycare at some point (like around 7,8 months), so I can have some time to do work.  But it's very expensive, and I don't know if we can afford this with our current income.  Sometimes I thought about finding an industry job after graduate school, so things would be easier.  But I don't want to give up research.

What is an effective way to deal with the stresses of being a new mother while on the job market? Specifically, how can I complete my research and apply to jobs in a situation where I am sleep deprived and child care is expensive?

This is a different question than Having children while at graduate school because I believe a female student's experience is different than a male student's experience.  Especially at infant stage, mother's role cannot be placed by others due to constant feedings.  The author in the other post also has his girlfriend/wife staying at home with the baby, so there will be much less work for him.  In my case, I would be the one taking care of the baby since my husband works full-time.  Another thing is I am already at the stage that I am about to graduate as opposed to the other post is debating whether to start the program, so I am more concerned about the graduation timeline.


texts:
I am going to start college in a while and one of the programs I've applied for is a Bachelors in Technology followed by Masters in Science Program which is a consolidated program here and can be done in 5 years minimum and according to the statistics around 88% of the students manage to complete it in that time.
However I've always had Money as a major motivator over fame in the research field. I'd very well prefer having a Job at some Multi-National Company which is highly paying over being stuck with a PhD program afterwards. However with all of that said the program has a very high placement rate here with a Median salary comparable to other top non research courses.
I've applied for this course due to my childhood dream of finding something new or making a breakthrough but in Hindsight i don't feel I am well suited for research as I have never been able to stick to solving a problem for a while like I've read all these books and interviews by Top researchers who said they stuck with the problem for weeks and months and had this obsession since their childhood days but when I'm in a similar situation like when solving some questions and practicing my first instict after like some odd minutes of no progress is to look at the solution see how did they do it and then try doing it myself. I feel this will not be a good habit for research based studies.
I forgot to mention that the course is Computer Science based and the Masters programs offered are in Computational Natural Sciences, Computer Science and Engineering and Electronics and Communication Engineering.
I would like suggestions from people who've gone down similar paths or been at similar junctions of life.


texts: Citing a previously unpublished master’s thesis, can I simply use part of my thesis to apply to a conference?

texts:
I wrote my master’s thesis which looked at something through two different lenses using two different datasets.
I want to use one of those angles to submit a paper to a conference, and potentially the other in the future. So my questions are:

Is this okay to do?
Do I need to cite my master’s thesis, even if it is unpublished?
Can I just copy parts that would apply, or do I need to paraphrase and cite different parts of the paper? For example, the analysis section of the paper, I give the background of the interviews I conducted. Can I just use this same language for the paper I want to submit to the conference?


texts: Publish the paper without letting know one of authors?

texts:
I and one of my peers prepared a journal paper out of his master thesis. We submitted it first to one of the well-known conferences of the field and it got accepted and we let the other coauthors know (including his professor, who is a prominent researcher in his field). They seemed to be very satisfied.

Later we decided to extend the paper and I submitted it to a journal. I was not aware that he had not told the others about the submission. The paper was accepted by the journal. This time my peer refuses to make his professor aware.

Now I wonder about proceeding with the publication? Is it ethical? What are the consequences if I finalize the publication, for me?


texts: Are PhD supervisors responsible for informing students about legal issues pertaining to research?

texts:
After an extreme amount of effort, I am now in possession of a very large dataset of human experiments which is required for my research. However, after speaking with some of my colleagues about writing papers about it, I was told that I need to have had the IRB decide what level of consent is necessary and then had each participant sign the consent form specified by IRB... or else I can't distribute the data... to anyone (yes, I know this is country-specific, but most countries require at at least some legally-valid form of consent).

I hadn't thought about this because I was told by my supervisor to collect the data... and so I did. Now, after asking my supervisor about the ability to legally distribute the data, he agrees with my colleagues in that I need to have had them sign a consent form... but if he told me to collect the data, then methinks he could have been prudent enough to say "oh, and before you go persuade 50+ random people to participate in an experiment, don't forget to have them sign this form or else you can't share the data with anyone at all".

Are PhD supervisors responsible for telling their students about the legal requirements of their work? If not, is it expected that all "learning" done while a PhD student be from making horrible mistakes? Should I basically treat my supervisor not as a boss but as just some random person who might not actually know what I should do?


texts: How to write publishable-quality math and science papers?

texts:
I've learned it a bit, through a thesis paper (not PhD-level), and from reading good papers in good journals.  But I'm interested in best practices, specifically the things to implement in my style of writing to get my work up to publishable quality (assuming that the content is good enough)?

Answers which summarize tips from available, useful resources are welcome.


texts: How to parse the question "How many hours did you take at the institution?"

texts:
I am filling in a form for graduate research at a US university. They have this question in the previous college attended part of the application form: How many hours did you take at the institution?

What does this question mean? How many hours I have spent in college, or how many hours I have been in college classes to earn a bachelor's degree?


texts: Publish a thesis that summarizes papers on arxiv - copyright issues?

texts:
Suppose one has written a master's thesis that summarizes several articles, and works out their details, on a complicated topic. It would be of general interest to have this thesis (in polished form) available for the general public.

Under what circumstances would it be acceptable to publish that thesis on arxiv.org? All sources are cited appropiately, down to each lemma, but I wonder whether rephrasing could actually lead to getting sued for copyright infringement.


texts: Why do people publish on arXiv instead of other places?

texts:
I work in engineering and I was warned by a colleague years ago that I should not cite materials on arXiv because they are not peer reviewed. Although it was never clear to me what peer reviewed meant because the papers on there seemed to be well maintained and the ones I have came across has been theoretically sound. Academia stackexchange certainly didn't help in relieving some of those anxieties with people asking if they are "ruined" for posting on arXiv.

One can understand my point of view better by considering that in engineering there are well established conferences and list of papers published through those conferences (although not all high quality). Browsing through a list of citations published by engineers, there is a definitive lack of "arXiv" related papers. This is exacerbated by the fact that arXiv papers seem to be less applied and more theoretical, "mathy", so they are largely hidden from view for the typical engineer.

But from my recent experiences, it seems that a few fairly notable researchers in my field have extensive track record of publishing materials on arXiv. People such as Steven Strogatz who works in nonlinear dynamical systems and John Baez. I have hypothesized in the past that very well established researchers are submitting papers on arXiv instead of science journals because they would like a wider audience, and undergraduate researchers are submitting on arXiv because there is no other venue for them. But of course I am not sure if that is indeed the case.

Now I am currently reading some material published on arXiv by someone who I am not very familiar with. I am still not 100% confident on the "quality" of the paper i.e. scientific accuracy of theoretical and experimental results. But I believe that I would be more open to using materials on arXiv in the future if I can understand the motivation behind submitting to arXiv i.e. whether if they are just low quality papers without any other place that accepts them.

Can someone please offer a break down of some the reasons why one would publish to arXiv?


texts:
In research papers, should Introduction and Conclusion sections be numbered or non-numbered? What does the scientific paper etiquette suggest? Furthermore, in either case, should they appear in the Table of Contents?

If the answer depends on the research field, please elaborate. I'm in electrical engineering, but do occasionally write mathematical papers as well, so those two fields are personally of highest interest.

On a side note, in case someone confuses it with the Introduction section, I am quite sure that the Abstract section should be non-numbered either way.


texts:
In a book recently, I saw a reference to someone "reading law" at such and such a university in England.  But I thought "reading law" was a way to bypass law school and still enter the law profession (after passing the bar I presume).  Is that only in the United States?  Any other countries?

Does England have a similar way to become a lawyer without going to college?  Then what do they call it?

In the US, do persons who read law and then become lawyers get to put anything after their name?  Obviously they would not be permitted to put J.D.


texts: How should I put my funding history in CV/cover letter?

texts:
I am applying for a faculty position after years of postdoc positions and a brief faculty position I held. My projects were rather unusual as I never received a big research fund. Instead, I received several smaller ones from different funding agencies. In total, the research funds I secured should be similar to those f my rivals.

My question is: Should I list the details of my funding history (in CV or cover letter) including the project title, the amount, and the funding agencies? Or it is enough to mention that I have received this amount of research fund in total from these funding agencies?


texts: How to find a scientific review of a theme?

texts:
I'm trying to search for a scientific review article of determined theme. That is, I'm not searching a single scientific article containing an analysis of a determined theme, I'm trying to search a scientific article containing a review of many articles about the theme and its conclusion.

What are the terms which I should include in my search (using Google)? Example: "free trade revision", or "free trade paper review"... what are the recommended terms for this search?

Extra question: What are the best sites to search about this? (scientific reviews, scientific articles, papers, books, etc..)

Note: I think my English is legible, I'm brazilian.


texts: Making friends in academia and building connections

texts:
I started a new faculty position this past fall, which also entailed moving to a new city where I don't know anyone. When I first moved here, I was excited about getting to know my colleagues, as they were pretty friendly at my campus visit (pre-pandemic). But since my arrival, I haven't gotten to know anyone really. I have regular meetings with my department colleagues, but everything is so transactional. I know it's harder to have those organic, friendly chats on Zoom, and everyone was already exhausted from this pandemic when I first joined in the fall. But I'm really struggling with loneliness in this new work environment. I moved here alone, and am dealing with family health issues that have been emotionally draining (and some of my colleagues are aware of both of those facts). I've recently started seeing a therapist, so I'm trying to get the help I need, but more than anything I just really wish I had even one friend at work so every dept. meeting wouldn't have to feel like a meeting with strangers every single time.
I'm rather stuck, however, with what to do. I guess I expected that when I first joined, they would be the ones to welcome me and make an effort to get to know me a little (it's what I've done when I've had new colleagues). But now all this time has passed, and it's starting to feel like that window is closing. I don't know if I should just give up and accept that they're not social (or at least not with me), or make some attempts on my part. I've made some efforts here and there, but nothing has worked so far, and that has shaken my confidence, and makes me feel like maybe they don't care to know me.
I know that socializing and developing friendships at work might seem very secondary. This is an otherwise good job and I'm grateful to have been hired, but I just feel like such an outsider and very lonely because of it (I'm also the only one in my field at this university, so even the classes I teach don't even seem to fit in with my department's curriculum). I'm not about to quit my job over it or anything, but being in a perpetual state of outsider-ness is really getting to me and I don't know how to address it. It doesn't help that academia is often such an isolated work environment and many professors just aren't very social even in the best of times (hence why I'm posting here specifically).
EDIT: Just wanted to comment here that I'm very grateful for all of the responses. I feel a little less freak-ish, and a bit more motivated to stay patient and keep the efforts going in the meantime.
I'll also add that I think one of the reasons I feel so bothered by my department's current dynamic is that it makes me feel like I need to conform and be as transactional and subdued as the rest of them, which is very contrary to my own personality. Anyway, I think that trying to connect with people - but not at all on my own terms - is contributing to the stress of it all, so I'm glad to have had that realization too.
Thanks so much for the advice and words of encouragement!


texts: Why are authors not made anonymous during the review process?

texts:
During the review process of an article, the reviewers are (almost always) anonymous by default for obvious reasons.

Why are not authors also made anonymous?

It could help remove the weight that established authors carry in certain fields (which can tilt the scale in their favor), as well as the stigma associated to research coming from non-developed countries.

Are there any good reasons why this is not done? I can not think of any.


texts: Is it possible to do a state of the art paper with less accuracy than previous paper with 100 accuracy?|

texts: I working on a research paper in Machine Learning, the paper is regarding a classification problem of which I have achieved 98% accuracy. However some other paper working on the same dataset claims to have achieved 100% accuracy. Is it still possible to use my results as state of the art results and publish my paper or should I just search for another dataset? If yes then do I mention the previous results paper which got 100% accuracy as previous work, or should I just disregard it?


texts: Interviewing for tenure track jobs: When will the committee contact your references?

texts:
The title says it all.

Does the committee typically contact your references (or request that reference letters be sent) a) before you phone interview b) after the phone interview but before the on-campus interview or c) after the on-campus interview? Can anything be interpreted from the timing (e.g. after the on-campus interview) of the committee's initiation of contact with your references (or their request that letters be sent)?


texts: Should I tell one of my recommenders that his notes are at a level beyond me?

texts:
I am applying for a PhD in a highly theoretical field. One of my recommenders, a faculty in the field, understands that I have a unique situation when it comes to applying for grad school, so he has given me some advice on how to write my statement of purpose. He suggested that I read a certain series of lecture notes in this field in order to find a very specific topic in this field that interests me, then write my SOP about that topic.

The problem: I have read the notes and they are all far beyond my level. On one hand, I want to tell my recommender this and ask whether he has any advice regarding an alternative approach for writing my SOP. On the other hand, since he is my recommender, I worry that asking him this would reveal that I am not as smart as he thinks I am, which would make his recommendation less strong. What should I do?


texts: Is it possible to get a PhD in physics in 3 years? If not, why?

texts:
Almost every two weeks I get to know another PhD Student who needs much more time to obtain his/her PhD than he/she actually thought he/she would need. I would like to know if this is a specific Problem of my university/ my country or if this is completely normal. Besides that, I would like to know why you think that the PhD students actually need so much time to get their PhD. When talking about needing more time than planned, I mean that instead of needing 3 years they often need between 4-6 years.

Some observations that I have made on my own are:

-Often the PhD students are loaded with work that does not relate to their PhD-project. This means for example, that they have to do a lot of work for their professor, do some teaching, supervise undergradute students,... But I think the "worst" part here is that often they are loaded with work by their professors.
-The Project gets longer and longer. Even if they accomplish their project withing two years, the students will be told to do something new. This may even happen several times.
- As a consequence from the last point that I mentioned a lot of the PhD students do not work as much as they would if they knew that they only have to finish their project and then they are finished. Since they know that even if they "finish" their work, they will get an additional task and won't be finished. Therfore, the motivation to finish the work as quickly as possible is rather low.

I also have the impression that in theoretical physics it is rather possible to obtain a PhD degree within 3 years, but not in experimental physics. I have recently heard that the average PhD student in physics needs 4.5 years.

What are your experiences? Do you share my expressions or am I wrong? Is there a way to "make sure" at the beginning of your thesis that you won't need 5 years for it?

If there is the same problem in other areas of research, of course I would like to hear about this, too.


texts: Should I ask potential recommenders whether they know someone?

texts:
Let's say someone is applying for a PhD or postdoc position (or a number of such positions), and needs to decide who should write a recommendation letter. Assume that two letters are needed, but the person has four professors to choose from. All four professors say that they are comfortable with writing a strong letter.

The applicant feels that all else equal, potential hirers give more weight to letters from people they know. Is it ok for the applicant to ask their professors whether they know a potential hirer, so that recommendation letters can be channelled accordingly?


texts:
My supervisor wrote me a reference letter in .txt file with the following format:

Reference for My Name
--------------------------------
Bla bla bla

Also no "Yours sincerely" with his name or anything.
Should I change it to a more conventional format or should I leave it as is?
Edit: I am sending open applications to research groups of interest and want to include a reference letter (not a recommendation letter)


texts: Status from decision in process to with editor meaning in Elsevier review system

texts:
In the Elsevier review system, my paper status was initially "with editor" then "under review" then "under editor evaluation" then "decision in process" and now again "with editor."

What does this mean?


texts: BME Jobs in Industry: Do you need a PhD or Masters?

texts:
As an incoming Senior, I am currently having the debate that many before me have had: Masters, or PhD?

I'm a biomedical engineering student who wants to get an advanced degree to better position myself for high-end R&D and engineering jobs in industry. From what I've gathered, it seems like a Masters can do the trick, though getting a PhD may put me in an even better position. BME seems to be different than other fields when it comes to advanced degrees. It seems to me that the PhD's have more opportunities than Master's upon graduation in the BME field.

So if I ignore all factors, and want to maximize my chances of doing high-end R&D engineering at a good medical imaging company, it seems that PhD is what I should get.

However, here are some considerations that I have.

1) The time and effort required for a PhD is significant. A PhD in BME takes a longer time than average, and is quite difficult. I don't quite enjoy the idea of entering the workforce at the age of 27.

2) However, PhD's are funded fully, so there appears to be no financial burden/debt (apart from the fact that I won't be earning like my Bachelors/Masters counterparts during my PhD years).

3) PhD programs are harder than Masters programs to get in to. I believe I could get into a top tier university for a Masters program, but not a PhD program.

4) Masters requires less time and effort, and seems to get me qualified for more jobs than a bachelor's.

5) A Masters, however, may not qualify me for the high-end R&D that a PhD might.

6) I may be wrong, but funding for Masters programs is limited. I could obtain significant debt.

Number 6 is a big problem for me. Do Masters students incur debt, or do they generally get enough funding to get by? I read in a lot of top universities that no guaranteed funding is available like there is for PhDs, but TA and RA positions may be available. How common is it for Masters students to get such positions?

If Masters students do get funding, then my plan is to enter into a Masters program (hopefully at a top 15 BME program), and apply for jobs at the end of my degree. If I get good opportunities, I'll take them, otherwise, I might apply for a PhD program. (I am worried about one thing; does this extend the amount of time it'll take for me to begin work? Or can I apply the work I've done in my Masters towards my PhD?).

However, if Masters students do not get enough funding, and I could incur debt, my idea was to apply to PhD program and potentially opt out with a Masters if I can get good job opportunities, or if my PhD is too challenging. How frowned upon is doing this (I would imagine that my advisor couldn't be too pleased)?

Any advice would be appreciated! I want to know if my assumptions are reasonable, and if my plans are reasonable as well!


texts: Why should a paper be reviewed by more than ten reviewers?

texts:
One of our recent submission has been suggested to be revised by a journal (CS). However, we could not at first believe that we have to address the comments or points raised by 11 reviewers plus the editor's comments. The comments are very diverse and conflicting.

Is it quite difficult to address all the comments and satisfy all the reviewers. Everyone is a human being, even us.

How and why should a paper be reviewed by so many reviewers? Now we are not in a situation to withdraw the paper and probably it is quite difficult to address all the comments because of computational issues.

For the how question, I have this possible answer: Yes, the editor might have sent reviewer invitation to more than required number of reviewers; and to the surprise, all accepted it.


texts:
I have read lots of posts here about abusive advisors, and I have heard about and even experienced some similar experiences in my own academic life.
Is there any data available for how prevalent this problem is? I am interested in quantitative, objective data to the extent that it is possible to quantify these kinds of things.
To clarify slightly, the kinds of things I would consider abusive could be:

Verbal abuse where the advisor puts their students down in unnecessary and unproductive ways, like name-calling.

Not giving the student due credit for their work or somehow preventing them from making progress.

Discrimination based on race or sexuality. Similarly, discussing or trying to get involved in the student's personal life in an unhealthy way.

Any behavior that normally qualifies as abuse in other relationships and generally shows that the advisor is not interested in advising their students and helping them become a successful academic.

I am not really talking about absentee advisors or advisors who are just kind of blunt that don't display these qualities.


texts: PhD adviser moving to another school - Should I follow?

texts:
I'm a doctoral candidate in Biomedical Engineering. I've finished my coursework and I'm in my first year of PhD research currently - I had 3 more yrs. to graduate. My PhD adviser has decided to move to another university (50 places lower-ranked). I will not need to be a TA after the move, and can fully concentrate on my research, a perk offered by my adviser.

Setting up the equipment all over at the new place will cost me 6 months. But since I can concentrate only on my research, I am expecting I will make up for it.

In my current university, there is no other adviser working in the same field as my current adviser. If I choose to find a new adviser at my current university, I may spend an yr. extra, learning about the new subject area. I will also have TA duties all throughout, which will ultimately push back my expected graduation date by at least 1.5 yrs.

I am unable to decide between

a more valuable peer group at the current university (better overall experience and exchange of ideas) and
earlier graduation possible at the new university.

Please share your advise and help me decide (I see the benefit of extra 1.5 yrs. towards post-doctoral experience, but I may be missing something).


texts: Is a PhD in a small university in a small country restrictive for an academic career abroad?

texts:
I am located in a small European country and studying computer science in one of its Universities, admittedly not the most prestigious one. I am set to finish my undergraduate degree at most a year from now. Recently, an opportunity has come up as I have been offered a PhD position right after I am done with my bachelor's. Along with that, I have been offered a position in a EU funded project that is right on my field of interest.
I am struggling to make the choice as I would have to give an answer before I am done with my degree so that if I decline they will have the time to look for someone else to take the spot.
My purpose and hope is to have an academic career in a university that does significant research in the field I am passionate about. However, those universities even in Europe seem to be the most prestigious ones (Oxford, Edinburgh, ETH Zurich etc). I can currently boast a few conference publications, some upcoming journal publications, and hopefully two more will come out of my undergraduate thesis currently underway. All in all I hope to have at least 8 papers to my name by the time I get my bachelor's. I should specify all my works but one are research focused, not surveys.
My dilemma is as follows:
Do I choose to do my PhD in my university and hope to break in the academic world abroad with my post doc?
Do I do a master's elsewhere and then hope to get funding for my PhD abroad?
Or can I hope that I will get accepted for a PhD position abroad if I apply after my undergraduate is done? This would be the optimal scenario but I have not come to contact with any cases that did their PhD right after their undergrad, much less in a different institution. I guess I am wondering what my chances of pulling this through would be, and if they are low to zero, which of the aforementioned two scenarios would help me more to pursue an academic career in the Computer Science field?
Thanks for any insight and advice.


texts: How to highlight original work in a talk where it is not expected?

texts:
I am a student who is giving a talk on a topic in a few weeks. The talk will be a brief introduction to the topic concerned followed by a rapid survey of recent research and developments.

I have obtained an interesting result in the field by myself which complements a result that I will be talking about, so I am planning to include my result in my talk. However my result has not yet been submitted to any journal and has not been put up online independently.

How should I present this result in my talk? The talk is going to be a competition and being able to present such an independent result (even if it is minor) is considered commendable.
I want to make sure the audience notices that I have found this result. I will definitely be saying it out loud and clear, but I also want to display this somehow in my presentation.

What should be the proper way of such a display? That is, how should I put my name before this result? Shall I write, “Carter, 2017”? But note the work is unpublished. I don’t know if this is reserved only for works that have been published.


texts: Citing Blogposts from official governing authorities

texts:
I am revising a conference paper and I in fact have a blogpost from the European Commission. The Post mentions about about Business-to-Business Platforms and Europe's involvement.

A reviewer mentioned this explicitly that

  there is a blogpost cited which is seen as a shortcoming for the literature review.

But the post has some relevant information for the paper since one aspect of the theme ponders upon the B2B platform development opportunities in Europe and current progress.

I have cited it as following:

  Lemke, M.: European Commission. Available Online: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/blogposts/business-business-platforms-race-europe-cannot-afford-lose, last accessed 2019-03-02

But I wish to obtain some insight as to how such relevant blogposts can be used within Academia. There are many examples where the European Commission provides statistics and data regarding different strata of research.

How do I inculcate the information within the paper?


texts: Can college professors alter their grading scale to pass students? How often does this happen?

texts:
I have recently completed a Multivariable Calculus class. I struggle a lot with math, and failed the first and second midterms and I feel that I failed the final exam as well. The first midterm was worth 25% of my grade, the second was worth 30% and and the final was 35%. I am absolutely convinced that I failed the final, yet I passed the course with a C, although homework was worth 10% and I maintained a 96% on it.

My question is, how often do professors alter their grading scale such that they don't fail someone? My professor did mention that if we do very poorly on the final exam, he would just give us a 'C'. How often does this happen?


texts: Is it possible for a research article to be informative and ground breaking without referencing any other work?

texts:
This is a hypothetical question, but I am assuming that if there is a research field out there that has not been discovered, it will, in theory, be possible for an article to be written without containing any references.

The reason I ask this question is because I see that a good number of published articles seem to cite other works just to cite them and less often is it the case that the cited works add anything to the paper.


texts: Sending mail to the Professor for PhD, after seeing his tweet

texts:
A professor tweeted that he has a PhD position in his lab. I am trying to write a mail regarding that. How should I express that where did I find the advertisement?

Is it right to start mail like this:

Dear Prof. ZZZ,

I am writing to apply for the PhD position which was posted on your twitter.

Or should I write something else?


texts: Are INRIA working reports publicly available?

texts:
Any suggestions on how to find these two papers?  They were cited in 1993:

  [11] Morazavian, H. and M. Boutiller, On a theorem of Kuratoski, Working Report, INRIA, Rocquencourt, France (1981).

  [12] Mortazavian H., Patterns arising from a theorem of Kuratowski in topology with appications, Working Report, INRIA, Rocquencourt, France (1981).

I emailed them two years ago. Their reply was:

  "We don't have this references. Absolutely no traces....sorry."


texts: The students listed on faculty sites, did a thesis or possibly independent study?

texts: Many faculty sites would list some students and many of those students are working or completed a thesis. Do faculty sites list also students who did an independent study?


texts: If someone doesn't have stellar grades in high-school, and in the bachelor's, does earning a PhD help much?

texts:
If someone doesn't have stellar grades in high-school, and in the bachelors:

Is there really any possibility for him to work in the field of academia?
Does earning a Ph.D. help much, or is it just a waste of time in this case?


texts:
In my ID card, my complete name has the following form : FirstName MiddleName1 MiddleName2 LastName. I will give an example (created name): Ahmed El Mustafa Ali. As you can see there is a space between El and Mustafa. Also, El is not in reality a middle name since it does not make sense if we take it alone (but Mustafa or ElMustafa are meaningful). In this example, I would like to shorten it A.E. Ali instead of A.E.M. Ali
Could I use only the initial letters of my FirstName, MiddleName1 and LastName in my short author name and skip that of MiddleName2 whereas in my complete name I do it correctly as the ID card?


texts: How to treat an under-performing coauthor?

texts:
I am a postdoctoral researcher in a lab, having person (e.g.) X as a colleague, also a postdoctoral researcher like me, having obtained a PhD two years after me.

Here is the problem: In the last two years, I have taken initiatives that have led to a number of publications. My collaboration with X was not so close, since I ended up doing 80% of the work, in addition to having the original ideas, and he/she was only helping by e.g. writing a Section, having general discussions, or giving general comments.

I have tried "pushing" (with frequent emails, meetings etc.) but it did not have a good result, as I understand that he/she does not feel motivated by me: the result has included some "ugly" emails, not an oral though.

I have been doing this, waiting that in exchange, X would include me as a coauthor in one of the papers that would occur from his/her research (none so far and nothing in-progress from their part, as far as I know).

How to treat this person, given that he/she will not leave, as the professor seems to have some special interest in them.

In my domain, the order of the authors in publications matters, so in our "joint" publications I am the first author, but is this enough? I am thinking that if we both continue independently we would both lose, but do not know how to motivate him/her. I suppose the pressure has to come from the professor, who let's say that cares but has other more important priorities. I have mentioned the problem to the professor, he/she just told to X that they should produce more, and that's it.

How to handle this situation?


texts: Regarding "discussion sections" for undergraduate science courses

texts:
I will be undertaking my first teaching position as a graduate student in the fall - I will be leading two of the discussion sections for an undergraduate biology course.

What sorts of things should I expect to teach in a discussion section for a science course and how should I teach them?

When I was an undergraduate and took the same course (same material, different university), the graduate students had to re-teach the lectures in our equivalent of discussion sections, as if it was brand new material because the professor was not a very good lecturer.  I know the professors for whom I will be teaching these sections are rather good lecturers, so I do not expect to have to re-teach everything to the same extent.  I have several concerns, though:

These sections are about twice the size of those at my undergraduate university, and I would like to encourage regular class participation of some sort, to make sure students stay engaged.
The material is undoubtedly challenging so I am wary of bringing in too much new material, such as discussion of scientific papers, which is the first kind of discussion that springs to mind.  (Also, someone will inevitably ask "is that going to be on the exam?")

Because the material is challenging, I could probably do with some review. But how to I keep a large number of students engaged (and participating) through repetition of lecture material? Ostensibly, the reason for having discussion sections is so that there is actual discussion.


texts: What is the point of a PhD thesis whose content already exists in published papers?

texts:
In my area (computer science) it is standard to publish several papers during the course of your PhD and then only "write" your thesis in the last few months of graduate school --- often you only start compiling the thesis once you have secured a job for after graduation.

I realize that in other areas this is different --- your thesis is the primary output of your time in graduate school. However, in my area the primary output is the papers you have published and the thesis seems redundant.

Given that all the content of my PhD thesis already exists in published papers, what is the point of writing the thesis (other than to fulfill the university's requirements)? Why would someone (other than my committee) read my thesis?

I want to know what it is that I am trying to achieve when writing my thesis (as I am currently starting this process). Thus, an alternative question would be: How do I write a good/useful thesis, given that I have published all the results it will contain?

All of my papers have full versions on arxiv, which contain discussion of motivation, background, and related work, as well as all the details and some side results. (Unlike, say, mathematics papers, which tend to be very terse.) So in terms of exposition, I am not sure what would be added in my thesis.


texts: Page numbering of introduction in a thesis

texts:
In English literature, it is common to use roman page numbering for the preface and then the Arabic for the actual content of a given book. Then, should the introduction belong to the preface or not? My impression is that, in case of books, the introduction is usually paginated roman, while in theses, it has usually already the Arabic numbers. I am aware this may not be so important. Although, I suppose this rule has some reason; therefore I am wondering, what exactly is this reason?

(I am finishing my thesis now. That's why I ask. Our university does not have any rules regarding this.)


texts: Is there a way to participate in research, when I am no longer a student?

texts:
I've finished my undergraduate studies 4 years ago. I was considering applying for masters, but due to passage of time it would be difficult to get any letters of recommendation. Since I'm a programmer, I thought there might be some research projects which need programming help. There I could help with in exchange for a letter of recommendation (as per this question, it does not seem to be unethical).

This question is quite similar the the one here, the main difference being: I'm also interested in any other suggestions, on how one can work with any academic staff capable of giving recommendation letters, for example some kind of 6 months-1 year online courses (is it possible to get recommendation by completing coursea programs or similar? Maybe some universities offer peparatory programs for masters, where one can try to get recommendation?)


texts: If I drop out of a PhD program, do I have to pay back the university?

texts:
I recently accepted a PhD program offer of roughly $21,000 for a year (2 semesters) of TA work.  I will be attending a university in the USA, and I am studying computer science, if that affects the answer.  If I drop out before going through the whole program, do I have to pay anything back?  My girlfriend was concerned about this.

I already looked for a duplicate answer on Academia Stack Exchange but didn't find any.


texts: Submitting a trivial correction to a CS assignment/coursework (i.e. source code)

texts:
I am a University student.

I had some course work which I had to submit. This work is a computer program, a very large codebase. Due to technical reasons, which are entirely my fault, I submitted the work but there were some very minor mistakes: I forgot to upload a small and very trivial code piece which the program cannot compile without. Because the program cannot compile, I suppose that it can be considered a more serious mistake or a grey area. The professor can definitely arrive to making this minor corrections from his end, but I do not think that it is fair for me to expect that out of him.

I was thinking to contact the professor via email about this. Or to wait some days to contact him in person (and later email him) to inform him of my mistake and also to submit the missing file.

I was wondering how acceptible this approach is, or if there are some general University regulations or procedures which I have to look into before even approaching my professor?


texts: Has anyone ever written a paper and put your name on it?

texts:
I am a professor and researcher in mathematics and my research is kind of on the theoretical side.  Online, I discovered a mathematician who had written some papers with ideas similar to mine, and we corresponded and discussed possible collaboration.  Then he wrote an entire paper, listing both of us as authors on the front page, and sent it to me.  I didn't think it ethical to take any credit for a paper I had no part in writing, so I discontinued all contact with this person.  Has anyone here had a similar experience?  How common is this?

I am becoming very disillusioned with the pure research game.  People spend huge amounts of time on self-promotion because there just isn't that much demand for their work.


texts:
I am writing a journal paper. In order to illustrate my work, I need to include an image of the whole system that I have built. The problem is that I am not very talented to make good images, so I would like to hire a freelancer to create a professional image. My questions are:

Is it allowed to add an image that was not done by me?
Is it ethical?
If yes, what kind of contract I need to sign with the freelancer so that all the rights belong to me after the payment?

Many thanks.


texts: Do reviewers get a deadline for reviewing a Paper, if yes, how much?

texts:
Do reviewers/editors receive a deadline for reviewing a paper?
I wanted to know that whether reviewers/editors receive any kind of deadline for reviewing a manuscript for a journal or they are allowed to submit their reviews any time they wish since they are not paid for this service.
If they do receive a deadline what is the average time the reviewers get for evaluating the following in journals owned by Elsevier, Springer, World Scientic, Taylor & Francis etc.

Round 1 revision or first review of a paper
Major Revision
Minor Revision

I find that if a major revision is required then the authors receive a time  of 2 months for fixing it.
For a minor revision the authors get a time of 1 month.
What is the time given by the journal authorities to the Editors/Reviewers for checking a major revision and a minor revision?
Can someone please let me know as one of my manuscript is in major and other in minor revision?
Any help will be greatly appreciated.


texts: In a short letter, should I mention what I am going to be explaining in the next section, at the end of each section?

texts:
I am writing a 3-page letter. Space is limited, so I am trying to find out whether I can eliminate additional words.

I noticed in most academic paper, the introduction ends with explaining whats going to come in the methods, results and discussion.

Then sometimes at the beginning of the methods section, some authors (not all) state whats going to come in the methods section and then goes into more details.

At the end of the methods section or beginning of the results section, some papers go into what’s going to come in the results section and then goes into details.

Similarly, for the discussion section.

I understand from reading online, that’s it’s a good idea to give an idea of whats going come in the methods, results and discussion sections at the end of the introduction
(http://abacus.bates.edu/~ganderso/biology/resources/writing/HTWsections.html#introduction).

However, is it customary to summarize each section (something like a mini-abstract) at the beginning of each section/end of the previous section?


texts: I am seriously considering going back to graduate school for the PhD and I have two schools in mind. The problems I am facing are: age and I have no letters of recommendation. I do have a MS in Math and have been adjuncting since graduating in 1998. My question, what would be a good strategy for re-inserting myself into graduate school and be able to get funded. TIA.


texts: How to mention paper that we withdrew and another paper under preparation in CV?

texts:
One of my papers have been accepted to a conference for presentation. But we figured that the quality of the conference was quite bad and we wanted to submit it to a good/okay conference in the coming days. But my Master's application deadline is fast approaching and I need to submit my CV.

Moreover, another work of mine is currently at the final stage (draft has been made) for submission in a journal.

How do I meantion this in my CV? Or should I not mention at all? So far I only have one conference paper that I have presented and has been included in the proceedings. Thank you.


texts: Is it standard for graduate students to get gifts for their advisors?

texts: Is it standard for graduate students to give their advisors gifts around Christmas, like chocolates or bottles of wine?  What about other important people, such as their thesis committee members, or department secretaries?


texts: What it feels like as a PhD student in math or computer science in the US

texts: I am currently an undergraduate in Canada, but I am interested in math/comp sci PhD in the US. I heard that an academically supporting environment(the environment of the school? of the department?) in PhD study is very important. Also, I heard in some schools, PhD students don't like helping each other, because they think they are competing, which is a sign of bad experience. In some other cases, the adviser might be unhelpful or even selfish. So how can we choose a university/department/adviser to ensure a good study experience? If you are a PhD student, do you like your department? I like any personal experience or examples.


texts: What academic functions does a Professor Emeritus usually serve?

texts:
I for one have never understood the distinction between a regular prof with a prof Emeritus/Emerita aside from the obvious fact that a Prof. Emeritus is someone who is usually fairly elderly and has spent quite a bit of time in the University.

I am currently spending a working with a Prof. Emeritus who is the a supervisor/advisor to my project and conducts biweekly meetings (which are really brief chats about life) and am in need to make a serious request. I feel uncomfortable because he may have a lot of other work on the side. I do not know whether has classes on the side nor am I aware of any research activities.

How does a professor become Prof. Emeritus (is age-status a must?) and do Prof. Emeritus usually still actively conduct research, teach classes? What is the distinction between a retired professor and a Prof. Emeritus?


texts: Paper on mathematical analysis using tools from other (almost unrelated) field: how to introduce them?

texts:
I'm a PhD student working in Stochastic calculus/Malliavin calculus, and I am currently writing a paper (my second one), in which I use tools from probability theory to solve an Analysis problem.
My idea was to write it in such a way that not only a probabilist could read it, but also an analyst (since the problem I "solve" has more relevance when considered from the Analysis perspective).
In order to achieve this I had to write an first section with preliminary results where I tried to "translate" some of the concepts/tools into a more "analyst-friendly" language since I am not sure if the general public working in mathematical analysis has some familiarity with Malliavin/Hida-calculus.
The problem is that even though I need only a few lemmas from Malliavin/Hida-calculus,  in order to prove those I've ended up with a 15-pages-long "introductory" section, while the statement & proof of my result can be written in at most 3 pages.
This seems somehow "unbalanced",  what do you think?  Is it always necessary to provide a proof for the "intermediate lemmas", or maybe I could write something like "the interested reader in refer to ...".
If this was a paper for people working in the field I would certainly ommit some.
I know this is something I could discuss with my supervisor, but he is a probabilist and I would like to listen the opinion of some analyst.
Thanks in advance!


texts: Stuck with an advisor who is unprofessional

texts: I'm a Masters student in computer science. My current advisor is completely un-professional. He doesn't only write bad letters of recommendations for his students in order to keep them working for him, he even wrote bad letters of recommendations for students who did not ask him for these letters. I think this is egregious. I don't really know why. It might be psychiatric issues. Now, he is the only one in my school doing research. I don't know how to deal with it. Any suggestions would be really appreciated.


texts: Tenured professor wanting to go back to school for a PhD in a different field

texts:
I am a tenured professor in the field of education (learning sciences). I have been employed at my current university for six years now. Most of my research has been done in classrooms, researching the effects of instructional strategies on student achievement.

As I have been out in many different schools in different cultures and countries, I started to develop a new interest in the effect of physical environment on the behavior of students. Later I found out that the field is called environmental psychology and I am just so intrigued by the idea that school architecture and interior design can have impact on behaviors of students.

It has been about a year since I first started to feel passionate about the field. Now I am searching for graduate programs in the field. But giving up my current status and starting a new life as a graduate student requires a lot of courage. I have not heard of any professor who went for a second PhD degree in a different field. I don’t even know if they will let me in the program. I do feel like I can give up my current career for my passion in the new field.

Lots of people change their career during their lifetime. I have seen classroom teachers as old as fifty go back to university for a PhD. Why can’t a professor go back to school to change his/her field? But I guess I am afraid people will think I am crazy or that I might regret this later in my life. I am 40 years old, and I feel like perhaps this is my last chance for a field change. I would appreciate honest advice from other professionals in academia.


texts: Is it possible to be admitted to a Master's program after not completing Bachelor's degree due to academic dishonesty?

texts:
Is it possible to get admission to a master's program in economics without finishing up your undergrad?

I have completed 105 credits so far for my BA Honours in economics and math degree, and still need 15 credits to graduate (120 required for graduation). However, a case of academic dishonesty could lead to my suspension from my current university. I know that I made a mistake at such a crucial time in my undergrad, but I can only learn from it.

The problem also I'm having is that some universities will not even consider my application as result of academic dishonesty. Apart from this my application is quite strong in terms of doing well in economics courses, strong letter of recommendations, and GRE score..

I have already published an economics paper in an undergraduate journal and feel as if there isn't anything to learn about economics from my university.

I can study economics independently and work to get "food on the table" and have some real-world experience under my belt before embarking on a journey as an intellectual.


texts: Is it ethical for a journal to reject an accepted article because they decided not to publish the issue

texts: I am stuck in an unfortunate situation caused by a journal and its editorial team. I have an accepted article through a special issue of a journal and the article is now in early access. My paper has gone into multiple rounds of peer review which took over 12 months. I received an email from the EiC that they received an allegation of misconduct in the special issue and that he needs to verify the review process of papers in the special issue. After about 4 months, he emailed that they decided to cancel the entire special issue and therefore rejected all papers. He also mentioned that the early access papers may be removed. I am furious and not sure why authors should pay for the technical incompetency of the journal editors in handling the papers. I am not sure what paper removal means. Does it leave the paper metadata online? Can I resubmit my paper elsewhere? What are my rights and available options here?


texts: I have fewer relevant publications than I can highlight in my application

texts:
I am applying for a tenure-track position. I am allowed to add up to five particularly relevant publications. I have four first author papers and a bunch of more or less important co-authorships, nothing that directly relates to the topic of the position or were I am only one of many co-authors.
Should I just add something to the list, or stick with four papers?

A separate publication list is included.


texts: I had a PhD interview nearly 3 weeks ago and it went well. I spoke to the supervisor after the interview a few days after and he said I was the candidate they want but that was 2 weeks ago. My question is, should I send a follow up email politely asking what the status of my application is. If it helps, I'm in the UK


texts:
I've recently completed my dissertation and would like to know the correct way to add a few words of tribute to a late family member.
I'm aware of adding an acknowledgements section, but I am not too sure that it would be right. From a little research I have found that the acknowledgment section thanks everyone who has helped you whilst you have been researching and writing your dissertation.

I would like to know if anybody has any information or examples on this.


texts: How much mathematics are electrical graduate students expected to know?

texts:
In most Australian universities, the engineering degrees contain three explicit MATH courses which they cover one and two variable calculus, linear algebra, complex numbers, statistics (probability, random variables, etc), Fourier series, differential equations and Laplace transform. For electrical engineering students, they will obviously learn more mathematics but it is usually a part of the electrical engineering subjects and not explicit mathematics subjects. I believe an Australian electrical engineering student does not study topology, group theory, real and functional analysis and other advanced mathematics simply because those topics are not a part of an electrical engineering degree in Australia.

I think (but unsure) that the undergraduate electrical engineering programs in US require students to take much more math subjects.

Let's suppose that someone completes his electrical engineering degree in Australia and he applies for a mathematical research area of electrical engineering (signal processing, control theory) in graduate school in USA. Suppose that he is a good candidate overall; will graduate admission committee be concerned about Australian students mathematical ability? How do electrical engineering graduate school make sure that the Australian applicants have the required mathematical skills to complete the graduate program successfully?


texts: May authors opt-out of the proceedings of a conference?

texts:
Many conferences in my field (theoretical CS) are organised as follows. They are run by academics, as an endowement, scientific association, or some other not-for-profit organization. Each year, submission and reviewing are done on some platform like Easychair, producing a list of accepted papers. The authors of these papers are then requested to submit a final version of their work (or camera-ready) for inclusion in the proceedings of the conference. The proceedings are managed by a for-profit scientific publisher (e.g., Springer, Sheridan Communications, etc.), and the authors are asked to sign a copyright transfer agreement, so that the publisher can sell the final version on their website. The publisher may edit the final version, but in most cases it doesn't: the publisher's only role in the conference is apparently to compile these proceedings.

To make papers more broadly available, it seems to me that authors could prefer to simply host the final version of their work on an open repository like arXiv, as they often do anyway, instead of publishing their work in the conference proceedings. (Alternatively, they could simply submit the title and abstract to the publisher, along with a pointer to the arXiv version.) This would save authors the effort of dealing with the publisher's formatting requirement, and would also avoid any potential legal issues with the copyright transfer (which do not always allow authors to host their work elsewhere). Further, it seems to me that it would make no difference to all the rest of the conference organization.

Hence my question: Are some conferences OK with authors hosting their work somewhere else than in the publisher-run proceedings? More generally, do conferences care whether the authors of an accepted paper actually submit a camera-ready version to the publisher? If yes, why, and what happens when authors fail to obey? If no, why do authors bother?

(I imagine that authors may want to include the accepted paper to their résumé, but instead of listing their paper as being "published in the Proceedings of XYZ", they could point to the arXiv version with a note "Accepted/presented at the XYZ conference": presumably, this should make no difference?)

(Related: this question suggest that some conferences allow what I propose (for different reasons, apparently), but I have never heard about such conferences in my subfield. Why aren't there more of them?)


texts: arXiv Papers vs. Peer Reviewed Papers; How Does Admission Committee Evaluate?

texts:
I'm going to apply for PhD at a top university in US. I have two peer reviewed papers already published and 2 unpublished papers.

The last two are ready, but I do not have time to submit them to be reviewed as I want to mention them in my CV in my application and can't wait for notification of acceptance/rejection, so I'm planning to put them on arXiv.

Is there any difference between arXiv papers and refereed ones in admission committee evaluation? Does it make a huge difference if I submit them to a conference/journal instead of arXiv?
(My field is Computer Science-Data Mining)


texts:
I'm teaching a new course at a top 50 university where they have an add/drop class policy during the first weeks. This course was previously taught by a different professor whom I don't know, but he generally received favorable reviews.

To my surprise, out of the initial batch (<50), 25% never showed up and another 12.5% ended up dropping the class. I pour my heart and soul into making the class as well as I can (even if it's the first time I teach it), but am very worried about this number.

Does such a dropout rate generally mean that I am indeed failing the students in some way or is this something that happens quite frequently? How do you deal with this?


texts: I want to cite the words “cascade of disparities” which actually comes from the title of an article.  Under the APA style, do I need to include a page number since the words are in the actual title (and used throughout the article)?


texts: I am relatively new to the writing process. I wrote my first manuscript in APA style and found it time consuming while changing it to the Chicago manual style. I am aware that most journals have their own specific journal styles that we have to follow despite the reference style being the same. However, as per your experiences, in which style of referencing/writing, did you find writing your draft manuscript easier to modify later on? (Modify as in changing styles). Simply put, should I write my draft manuscript in APA or Chicago? P.S. Political Science Pre-PhD student.


texts: Chance of funding while applying for multiple PhD programs at the same school

texts:
I found the same question in here, however, my story is a little bit different:

I contacted a faculty member in one of the US institution and he promised an admission. But, for the chance of funding, he suggested me to apply to two programs, and I did so. Recently, I've noticed he is a faculty member at another program (third program) too. I asked him whether he recommends applying for the third program. His response was "I'm involved in this program as well. The chances of funding are pretty good. I would suggest you modify your statement...".

My question is does applying for three separate PhD programs can significantly increase the chance of funding? or conversely, as some stated before, does it have a negative impact on my application?

This professor is a faculty member in all three programs, and they are placed in different colleges.


texts: Do universities typically cover publication fees associated with open access publications?

texts:
I am an undergraduate student in a private Indian university. Last semester I worked on a research project with another undergrad student and under the mentorship of a PhD scholar.

We have submitted a paper to an Elsevier journal which charges a mandatory open-access fee of $500 on acceptance of the paper. In such cases, does the university typically cover these costs or are they borne by the authors of the paper?

Which department of the university should I contact to ask for funding for the same?


texts: How to write the data section when data is reused from a previous work?

texts:
I am writing a paper where I am using the same dataset that was used in the previous work which I co-authored. I have written the data and the methodology part of that paper. In the new paper I am using the same dataset but a different approach and different methodology.

When reusing the data, do I have to write a normal “data section” as in the previous paper, or I should rather give very general information and refer that first work if readers want to know more about the dataset?
Both papers will be part of my PhD thesis.


texts: The name of academic journals that ask for money to review or publish papers?

texts:
In academic life you need to publish papers. Some journals publish papers merely based on peer review; they don't ask for money. For some other journals, you have to pay certain amount of money for your paper to be reviewed and published.

What are this second kind of journals called? I have heard "money journals". Is that the name used for these journals?


texts: An equivalent of arXiv, but for tabular and other experimental data?

texts:
Suppose I'm doing some experimental work in an academic context. The essence of the results will likely be captured by documents such as conference/journal articles, technical reports, a M.Sc. or Ph.D. thesis, a monograph etc. For these kinds of artifacts, we have all sorts of avenues for long-term archiving and Internet availability: Journals have their own archives, universities make internal publications available (well, sometimes), and you can put copies on arXiv and/or sites like ResearchGate or Academia.edu (although the latter have their problems).

If you've produced software code - you can again use university-specific facilities, or platforms like BitbBucket, GitHub or SourceForge which recently revamped itself into relevance.

Where would you put raw data, though? Especially tabular data? You don't publish the (potentially large amounts) of it alongside your papers. You could put it as a file on your website, but this is limited-availability archiving/publications - it's like putting a link to a software source archive on your website. It's there, but people are much less likely to find it than if it were a repository on one of the platforms mentioned above.

So, my question is: Are there platforms for storing public data, in particular data obtained during academic/scientific work?

Notes:

It doesn't quite matter if the data is accessible directly as though on an SQL database; or if you can browse it in a tabular fashion through some web interface. Those are nice options, but even something "primitive" as a CSV file in a standard-format URL is already passable.
Same goes for versioning or revision-control support: Nice to have, not a deal-breaker for a potential answer here.
Publications don't need to have a perma-link to the data, nor will it necessarily be archived before such publications. But again - it's a nice feature such a platform could have.
This question is highly related - almost a dupe - if you look at the title, but the body asks different questions than I do. I don't want/need the data to count as a "paper" or a CV-worthy publication; I don't need/want peer-reviewing of the data as a condition for it being available to the public etc.


texts: Applying from a different country: can the application be dismissed because of interview expenses?

texts:
I am applying for jobs currently, mostly tenure-track jobs, in mathematics. I am currently living in Europe, but I will apply to many jobs in the US and Canada. If I recall correctly, when a candidate is shortlisted for an interview, the expenses are paid by the university.

My question is: would a hiring committee dismiss an application because it comes from "far away"? The budget needed for flying in someone from another state in the US is not the same as the budget needed for flying in someone from Europe. So I'm thinking they might say "Ok, this candidate seems interesting, but we also have an equally interesting candidate which lives closer to us, so let's call the latter". But people in search committees will know better than me!

Note: I would not completely dismiss the idea of paying expenses for myself (in the case of a very interesting interview), but I don't think that's the usual process, and it would sound weird to say so in the application. So this is not really a question about money.

Also, please keep in mind that this is with regards to a somewhat normal application of a regular candidate. I'm not a Fields medallist, in which case those considerations would hardly apply.


texts: Is it bad etiquette to come to office hours that aren't for your particular class?

texts:
I study mathematics at a large state university. My professors sometimes teach two courses in a given semester, usually two undergraduate or one undergraduate, one graduate course. Typically they hold separate office hours for each course.

I come up with questions about what I'm learning at various times throughout the week, and often it's more convenient to ask this question in the office hours for the other course the professor is teaching, i.e. the course I'm not in. Perhaps it's the fastest way to get my answer, perhaps the office hours for my course have passed for the week, whatever reason.

Would you consider using office hours for a different course (but same professor) bad etiquette? (I do try to give priority to students of the other course, and try to avoid taking up too much time if there are students waiting.)

(Note: most of my professors have a open-door type policy, so I don't think they really mind. This question is more on a general level, i.e. including professors that don't have such policies in place.)


texts: Is it plagiarism to copy the form and structure of an article?

texts:
As an undergraduate student, I wrote a science paper. Because I was learning to write, I used the form and structure of a paper on a completely different topic; in fact, it was a slightly different discipline all together. So my paper has a similar layout, transitions, and structure as said paper, though the information, content, subject matter, and topic are different.

Is this plagiarism? I later contacted the original author, upon discovering the similarities, and he said that it was okay, that he learned the form from others, and that I should go on with life.


texts: How to register for GRE if you have multiple surnames?

texts:
I've just completed the registration of my GRE account, and was going to schedule my test, when I read the guidelines on how to fill in the "First name" and "Last Name" fields and realized that I may have filled them incorrectly.

From what I've understood, if you have multiple surnames then you should fill in the "Last name" field with all of them, without spaces in-between. So, if my name is Alberto Oliveira Castro Alves Saracaia, the "Last name" should be "OliveiraCastroAlvesSaracaia". Is this correct? Or should the "Last name" be filled as "Saracaia" only (which is what I did).

I've tried contacting ETS by e-mail, but got no response so far. Any help would be appreciated, thank's in advance.


texts: China Postdoctoral system application processing time

texts: how much time does it take for China postdoctoral system once we submit the application in system online?


texts: Is it possible to obtain a second PhD degree in Europe?

texts: As I have heard it is not possible to get a second PhD in Europe if you have obtained first PhD in Europe. Is it true? My 1st PhD is in Theoretical Physics which I won't find a fair job related to that. so I am trying to apply for second PhD in Mechanical engineering or applied Physics.


texts: Can I use only one of my two last names for publishing?

texts:
I have 2 last names due to my hispanic background. Soon, I will have to think about my very first publication (field: Medicine/Psychology). Could I use only the first last name for my publishing or will I get into legal trouble with that?
My goal is to avoid hassles after marriage, since we are planning to fuse our last names. So, assumed that my maiden name is A. Smith Miller, after marriage I'd be called A. Smith-Johnson, and my publishing name would be A. Smith.
Is that possible, or is it mandatory to use the entire last name for publishing?


texts: I have somehow completed my PhD without having the required theoretical understanding of my field. Can I have an academic career?

texts:
I have an undergrad in mechanical engineering. My Masters, PhD was in Mechanical too. However, I have never been academically strong (grades were majorly C and B+). I had to retake advanced mathematics, continuum mechanics and Finite element analysis course during my undergrad as I had flunked the courses.

However, I always enjoyed the field of computational mechanics, how materials behave is something I enjoy thinking about. I pursued the field in my Masters and PhD, inspite of not taking any grad level course during the programmes. My committee never instructed me to take the courses, I thought self study would suffice.

I have a PhD in application of computational mechanics, I have 3 first authored papers in materials science journals, not mathematics intensive journals. I am worried about my future in the field.
I am continuing with a postdoc under my PhD advisor for a year and am searching for other positions.

I shouldn't have pursued higher studies, atleast not in a field I have theoretical deficiency. I still love my field, but I am still afraid of the theoretical papers in my field. My work (application focused) is not mathematically intensive and is pretty straightforward. I can argue that given a direction, one doesn't need a masters or PhD to do what I do.

I know, there won't be anyone who had experiences similar to mine. It is always expected that people go for highers studies in subjects they are good in. I did the other way round. What should be my course of action now to have a potential academic career? I think I am up for a dissappointing career outcome, but still I want to give it a try.


texts: How big of an advantage are publications for Applied Mathematics grad school applications?

texts:
How much of an advantage does an Applied Mathematics PhD applicant have if he/she has a publication under his/her belt?

Of course, this depends on the "prestige" of the journal that he/she published in. I suppose publishing in a top tier journal like Nature or Science would be a major advantage, but would the applicant be one of the first picks because of it?

More pertinently (I suppose seekers of such advice would not have a top tier journal publication), what about those with publication/publications in lesser journals?


texts: Is a tree/graph visualization of methods literature a useful addition to lit review?

texts:
My PhD proposal includes a short lit review (3-4 pages).
Some of the finest Proposal lit review examples I have been given have made good use of tables and plots to summarize the development of methods in the area over time.
I can not produce a plot showing how various methods clearly improve on the last, as each new method in my subfield used as different evaluation method or is for a slightly different task (Though If I really wanted, most do evaluate old methods on their new task).
I already have a large table, describing the methods, which paper they are from and what their evaluation method was.
I was thinking I could construct a Tree for which methods spawned which other methods. Technically a graph, since some methods
Something along the lines of:

This could be enhanced with numbered references to the papers in my reference list wich define the models, and which line up with the table giving more detail. It could also perhaps have years added if I wanted to show how the field developed overtime. (and could be made more complete)
I'm not certain how useful showing this relationship between methods is though.
Just looking at that chart which I put together in 5 minutes to ask this question does fill me with some satisfaction. That chart (were it correct, and enhanced with paper links) basically shows the development of my field up to its roots.
Is something like this worth having in a lit review?
It would take <1/2 page.  and fixing it up in TIKZ would prob take a few hours.
My research is about proposing new methods,
thus when complete it would fit somewhere in the tree. (Near the bottom since it would be building on a lot of work).
So I think it would be valuable.
However I have never seen a chart like this anywhere before.


texts: Postdoc position: should I stay for one year or two years?

texts:
I am currently a PhD student who will graduate in July.
I am currently applying for academic postdocs,
with the goal of taking a tenure-track job at the end of my postdoc position.
In my field (operations research),
most of the postdoc positions are for one year
with a possibility of extension to two and sometimes three years.

If I am given the choice, should I spend one year as a postdoc, or two?
Would I be able to make a significant contribution to a research project if I were to only work as a postdoc for a year?

Currently, I am leaning towards a two year postdoc.
If I were to only spend one year as a postdoc,
I feel that it is a rather short period of time
in which to start and finish a research project.
If I spend two years as a postdoc,
then I would be applying for tenure-track jobs one year later,
and I am also hopeful that at that point,
I would have done some research which I could submit in my job application
in addition to my existing PhD work.

What advice would you have for me?

Edited in response to question in comments

As David Z mentioned, in my field, a postdoc appointment is for a fixed term  (typically one or two years, or one year with a possibility of extention).


texts:
I'm not a currently enrolled grad student, but I am being adopted on as a "grad student" and am currently working on a project in pharmacology involving a lot of things that I'm not too familiar with. I have been spending the last week reading up on the project background as well as some coding documentation since it will be application of MATLAB to pharmacology. I have two PhD advisors that I am working under who are very accommodating to answering questions but have made it clear that they are not here to hold my hand throughout the project.

I guess my main concern is I'm not sure at what stage of understanding of the topic is it ideal to ask questions and not sure how to ask the most effective questions. I never asked a lot of questions in undergraduate research (which was largely just doing low level tasks) or in undergraduate classes, so this sort of independent learning research environment and individual time planning is throwing me for a huge loop. I'm hoping to get some insight from others that have struggled through the same worries and anxieties I constantly have. Is there any advice/tips on being a better communicator and learner that other people have for being successful in grad school/academia/a similar environment that I'm in right now?


texts: Why might researchers distinguish their interests between applied math and computational math?

texts:
I often see PhD students and faculty members describe their research interests on their web pages as something like:

  I am broadly interested in applied and computational mathematics.

What is the difference between applied math and computational math?

Do applied mathematicians not necessarily work on computations and computational mathematicians not necessarily work on applied math?


texts: Conference claims they have indexed proceedings and publisher denies it

texts:
There is a conference which says that the proceedings will by published in Springer. Normally, Springer conferences mention the series of the volume that the proceedings will be published (LNCS, CCIS or LNBIP). This one doesn't mention any thing, all  they're writing is "Approved by Springer". When I emailed the organizer of the conference, he said the the series are LNCS. So I thought I should I check the official conference list by Springer, but I didn't find the conference. I wrote an email to Springer and they said that the conference has not been accepted for the LNCS series.

One of the main things why I considered this conference is that they're have a best paper session where 2 papers will get an invitation to send an extended version to another journal (Also in Springer). But I am not sure if that's also true now that I know the organizer wasn't honest about the series of the conference. I also think that my supervisor will ask me to submit anyways. I don't know what to do.

PS: It's really sad, that anyone can use a publisher name just like that. Does the publisher can't really do anything about that ?


texts: Writing a paper on user interface without empirical evaluation

texts:
I am writing a paper proposing an improvement in the design of a specific user interface. However, this improvement is only based on axiomatic and theoretical assumptions and I haven't made an empirical evaluation yet. The problem, however, is that I write the paper alone and not for any university or company. And I cannot implement any empirical evaluation due to lack of funding.

My question is now: does it make make sense to write such a paper without evaluation? Is something like this even published by journals? In my paper it would of course become clear that all is only a theoretical and that it would have to be examined empirically in future work.


texts: Best sites and practices to disseminate research papers

texts:
I am thinking of posting a preprint of a paper of mine before I get a response to my submission. This is allowed by several publishers.

I considered three possibilities: arXiv.org, academia.edu and researchgate.net.

I have a problem with arXiv because it requires posting the source LaTex files which will be made publicly available. I resent this because I am foolish enough to fear that someone may want to plagiarise my work and this would make it easier. In the Why submitting TeX help page they explain why LaTex files are better for archiving but not why it is useful to make them publicly available.

A first question is: is it safe to make the LaTex code public?

Second, do professional mathematicians usually post preprints on these sites?

This leads to another concern. I see that often the results of googling a paper point to the preprints while the published paper is "hidden" in the scholarly article links. Would this be counterproductive in the long run as most people would just download the free version (with possible mistakes) instead of the peer reviewed one?


texts: As an Australian student with a UK citizenship, can I study in the UK?

texts:
Disclaimer: I wasn't sure where to post this but I thought this was as good a place as any so sorry if this is the wrong place.

I am a high school student in Queensland, Australia studying for a Queensland Certificate of Education. I've lived in Australia a large part of my life. However, I was born in the UK and have dual citizenship (AUS and UK).

Am I able to apply to study at a university in the UK and (if I can) am I an international student?


texts: Towards the end of PhD with just one publication. What are my options?

texts: I am a PhD student in Computational Materials Science in the US with just one publication in a Q1(according to Scimago Journal Rank) or Q2(according to Journal Citation reports) journal. Another as co-author in a Q1 (according to both) journal. I have manuscripts ready for two works with finalizing one more work and will be submitting them by July end. My advisor isn't available at the moment to work on my manuscripts. So, hopefully will get them done in July. But, I will also be submitting my thesis this August and hopefully defend in October. I will be looking for postdoc positions soon. But considering my poor publishing record, how should I approach prospective postdoc P.I's?


texts: Potential advisor ask for a paper review as a part of interview process, any difference between journal and conference paper?

texts:
I am applying for graduate studies in CS, and one of my potential advisors asked me to review one of his papers (listed on his homepage) and send him back a single page report. (discussing strengths and weaknesses)

As long as he did not specify journal or conference paper, is it appropriate to pick one of his conference papers? As it is shorter and regarding the deadline he set for me (1 week), I might be able to analyse it better.

Does it create any negative image of my work and research?


texts: What rules exist to get accommodation regarding coursework due to a depression?

texts:
I am writing this after much consideration, in a hope that I will be able to get practical thoughts to deal with the situation. I have recently been diagnosed with major depression. Although I have never talked about it in public, most of my life so far I was dealing with it without even knowing there is a help out there. Most of the time I will just ignore or pretend that I am feeling nothing. My emotional ups and downs have been a major barrier in my progress. I found myself most of the time pushing myself with extra motivation, but then again it wears off.

Most of my academic life I have been told that I am not consistent. In my high school, I would do very good in one term and then I would do very bad in the next. I was in no category. My teachers thought I am good student but I just simply don't study sometime that's why I am not consistent. But I know the hard truth. Listening to sad songs, feeling sad for simple reasons, getting angry and feeling lonely, I thought all these are internal characteristic of me that I can never overcome. After my high school, with lots of motivation, I was able to get into one of the top-50 colleges in the US. Note that I am an international student. I made that with financial grant and scholarship from that college.

After I came here, I already felt the cultural difference but I was quick enough to blend in. However, my depression was not. I worked hard to sound and speak like native speakers and learned English fluently, although I was still struggling with my emotion. I was even embarrassed to talk to anybody because there are so many talented students in our school from all over the world and I was feeling like an imposter. Then I saw this view on growth mindset by Prof. Carol Dweck and I decided no matter what happens, I will make it to graduation.

I am rising senior now. With all that rickety events in my academic progress, I was still hanging in there and then decided to get expert helps.It was then when I learned about my depression. I just started to take medication. This semester at one point I was so depressed that I did not go to take an exam. I was diagnosed with major depression after that period. Most of my professors were kind and gave me second chances in terms of homework and lab work. However, this particular professor seems not to have any empathy whatsoever. I tried my best to make him understand but he insists that I drop out of the course. And if I drop out then I have to take the course in summer, which will jeopardize my internship offer. Another class next semester follows this class and I must take this class now in order to graduate on time.

I would like to know if there is any rule in academia for students with a mental disability that will help me at this point and also do you have any suggestion for me for making my academic experience much better in general, considering my situation.


texts: Would it be a poor choice to focus on disability in both my personal history statement and diversity fellowship response?

texts:
I am working on my application to UC Davis. It requires a Personal History Statement separate from the Statement of Purpose. I've been through this process with UC Berkeley, and the prompts are almost exactly the same. Davis, however, also has a diversity fellowship that I'd like to apply to that requires a short statement, and if I leave my Personal History Statement essentially the same as what I submitted for Berkeley, I'm afraid I may repeat a lot. I'm trying to figure out if and/or how to make them distinct.

This is the Personal History Statement prompt:

  The purpose of this essay is to get know you as an individual and potential graduate student. Please describe how your personal background informs your decision to pursue a graduate degree. You may include any educational, familial, cultural, economic, or social experiences, challenges, community service, outreach activities, residency and citizenship, first-generation college status, or opportunities relevant to your academic journey; how your life experiences contribute to the social, intellectual, or cultural diversity within a campus community and your chosen field; or how you might serve educationally underrepresented and underserved segments of society with your graduate education.

In my personal history statement, I talk about the interaction between my having a significant physical disability and the progression of interest and confidence in my ability to succeed in higher ed, discussing in one para. some of the challenges I faced. I also talk about helping interpret for my sister, who had speech production limitations after getting a tracheostomy -- how it really made me cognizant of language and grew a desire to affect some kind of difference for those who have language challenges.

The diversity fellowship prompt says to briefly explain how you fulfill their criteria. The ones that could apply to me are these:

  To be eligible for a fellowship that promotes diversity, applicants must have an interest in an academic career in teaching and research, be a United States Citizen or Permanent Resident, and meet one or more of the following criteria:

  Demonstrate potential to bring to their academic research the perspective that comes from their understanding of the experiences of groups historically underrepresented in higher education or underserved by academic research generally.
  Provide evidence of academic achievement while overcoming barriers such as economic, social, or educational disadvantage.
  Demonstrate potential to contribute to higher education through the understanding of the barriers facing women, domestic minorities, students with disabilities, and members of other groups underrepresented in higher education careers, as evidenced by life experiences and educational background. Examples include, but are not limited to:

  b.    ability to articulate the barriers facing women, racial minorities and other groups in fields where they are underrepresented;

I have fairly substantial experience volunteer tutoring ESL to refugees, too. I'm trying to figure out where and how exactly I could talk about that. So, my question for you all is, would it be a poor choice to focus on  my disability in both statements?