texts: What makes a good recorded video poster presentation for an academic conference?

texts: A "video poster presentation" sounds like a logical impossibility, but now that conferences are online, they seem to be a thing.  What makes one effective?  How is this different from a recorded conference talk? What makes for good content?


texts: Should I still use "Dear Prof." to begin an email to a professor that I know?

texts:
Let Smith be the last name of a U.S.-grown-up professor you not only have taken part in whose class but also ended up becoming a friend of whom in a general sense; I wonder if it still sounds good if in an email to him one uses "Dear Prof. Smith" to address him. I am not really sure, given this condition, if using "Dear Prof." to begin an email to him would somehow become a tone that he does not like? But, on the other hand, I am afraid using, say "Hi Prof. Smith", would sound like one is exalting himself to the place at which Smith stands as a professional scholar.

The title of this question may not be precise (I am not an English native speaker); please feel free to edit it.


texts: How much material can be changed between an accepted manuscript and "camera ready?"

texts: After a paper has been accepted, other than the reviewers' suggestions, how much content can be changed before the camera-ready version is resubmitted?  Is there a general guideline? Thanks!


texts: Is a lecturer job early in my career a bad thing?

texts:
I know some of you may say "it depends", but in the US is a lecturer position inferior to Asst Professor? I am in the job market and get lots of calls for adjunct or lecturer. In the interviews, it is emphasized that "you will be teaching large classes and your job will be just teaching".
My question is that if I get into a lecturer position at the start of my career - will that be a bad thing? I do hope to keep applying for tenure track jobs, so will my lecturer experience be considered?


texts: What to do when the professor does not stand up to cheating?

texts:
I was the teaching assistant (TA) for a very introductory physics course at a large state university. In the course of grading for this class, I came to learn that my university used the same course material as many other universities had for the equivalent course for more than twenty years. The answers to questions, in particular, were readily available online, through various forums. The syllabus explicitly forbade providing disingenuous answers, as well as any plagiarized responses. To be clear, this instructor was a fully tenured professor; not someone in any risk of losing their position.

After noticing patterns in homework assignments, I began to look for them in midterm and final exams as well. What I initially thought was a couple of bad students turned out to be more than 50% of the class regularly citing online sources word-for-word. Once I realized what was happening, I informed the professor, and I started assigning zeros to the offending students, in accordance with University policy, and the professor did not object to my assignment of zeros. However, all of this was still subject to the lead professor's review.

The professor asked for documentation of the offenses, and was in fact the undergraduate director of the department. I spent the better part of a week accumulating evidence, scouring Yahoo answers and other common homework repositories for the sources of the dirty students' answers. I found a veritable source for every single one. I printed copies of the students' responses, alongside their internet sources, and deposited the six-inch-tall stack of documents at the professor's door.

As far as I know, nothing happened to a single student, and word was never made public of the massive cheating scandal that was blatantly obvious in this course. Multiple athletes were in this (1A) course.

Is this just academia?


texts: Will writing MSC instead of MSc in an application count against me?

texts:
I am really stressing out over masters applications and I have realized I have stupidly made a minor error. Instead of writing MSc I wrote MSC and I was not consistent.
Would the admissions tutor care?


texts: What does "abstract aspects" of a subject mean?

texts: For example, political theory deals with the abstract aspects of politics, and similarly, there is theoretical (abstract) physics. Why are they called abstract or theoretical? Is something that we study not supposed to be a reflection or a representation of the real or of what happens in practice?


texts: How can I view a collaboration graph between two arbitrary authors?

texts:
I'd like to view a collaboration graph between two arbitrary authors.

For instance, the Erdos Number famously describes the distance between an arbitrary author and Paul Erdos, measured by authorship of mathematical papers.

I'd like to find out the shortest path or the overall strength of ties between any two authors, in a graph of authors and academic publications where the nodes are authors and co-authorship is an edge.

http://pubnet.gersteinlab.org/ purports to generate a map like this, but unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be working for me.

Is there an active resource that can provide this information?


texts: Can a person from arts background with masters in Computational Linguistics do Masters in Applied Mathematics?

texts: I have a bachelor in Linguistics and masters in Computational Linguistics with cgpa 3. After using Machine Learning for my thesis work, I am realizing my interest in Applied Mathematics. I do not know, how to begin. But I plan to take Math sub-gre and also to do a small project in Applied Mathematics with a scientist I know. Given these details, will I be eligible to do a Masters in Applied Mathematics from US/Canada?


texts: Is it fair to organize conferences in beautiful tourist places?

texts:
Sometimes I receive some emails to attend scientific conferences organized in beautiful tourist places.

For example, recently I got a message for a conference in the wonderful Italian Cinque Terre, that was promoting both the conference scientific relevance and the beauty of the city locations.
Or, another time, I received a message that invited me to attend a conference in the marvelous mountains of Bardonecchia next winter. In this case, the mail said that organizers would provide a ski pass for skiing activities for any participant.

These kind of conferences leaves me quite doubtful.

The aim of the organizers is obvious: to sum up the beauty of the places to the scientific importance of the conference, to convince more people to attend.
But is it fair?

I'm wondering: is it right to organize conferences in wonderful places, to make people coming more for the beauty of the places than for the scientific relevance of the event?

Should not a conference be attended just and only for the scientific relevance?

Does it have to be necessarily a partial vacation for attendees?


texts: I had a "quarrel" with my bachelor thesis advisor, should I ask him to be my one of my referees for grad application?

texts:
Last year this happened to me :
I have asked a professor if he were available for being my graduate thesis advisor, now my bachelor thesis advisor is angry with me

After that, I decided to apologize with professor X: I sent him an e-mail in which I said that it wasn't my intention to offend him by contacting Y. I said I was sorry things went that way, and I thanked him for everything he taught me nonetheless.

After a month or so, he sent me an e-mail in which he said he pursued the research he meant to assign me on his own, and published a paper in which he mentioned my contribution. He said he was sorry that we couldn't make it together, but if I have to be honest it sounded to me as if he wanted to show me the occasion I lost: I could have authored another paper...

I switched to another field of study (same major, but different topic), and I have an excellent advisor. He knows what happened with my prievous one, and blames X, not me.

However, I need three recommendation letters for grad. applications, and I don't know whether to ask X or not for one. After all, I wrote a paper with him, and that's one of the strongest points of my application. It would be even stronger if the co-author could write on my behalf. In addition, its absence among the referee would be suspicious.

On the other hand, I don't trust X anymore. He already said "yes" to me smiling, whilst was thinking "no". He could act as if he wasn't angry with me anymore, and instead write a terrible recommendation letter...

So, any suggestion?


texts: GitLab Project or Group for version control of 2 subprojects in my thesis, which consists of code and the latex report?

texts: If I need to version control my thesis, which contains my latex report and code, should I create a Group with two separate projects (code and latex) or should I create one repository called thesis with two directories in the root (code and latex)?


texts: What am I doing to scare away prospective PhD students?

texts:
During PhD admissions, our department assigns each admitted PhD student both a faculty and grad student contact, and we make every effort to express our excitement and enthusiasm about the student joining our program; often the faculty contact is a prospective advisor.  Usually there are some nice conversations, which provide a nice prelude to the on-campus visit.

In one or two cases, I've had a student simply stop responding to email.  In this instance, a student I admitted who was initially glad to talk to me quickly cut off contact with both me and the grad student contact (even before the visit).  I am trying to understand if this is a bad sign, or if I'm just reading too much into it.  It's been a long time since I was a PhD student, and I suppose there are a lot of reasons for this behavior.  Still, during my own PhD visits I was sure to be very polite and timely with everyone who contacted me.

Question for current prospective PhD students: Why would you give a faculty member the cold shoulder, rather than just replying politely and briefly to their email?

I can come up with lots of hypotheses (busy with classes, overwhelmed with contacts from faculty, or simply not interested in the program), but all I can do is guess.  I want to hear from the latest generation of students: what makes these interactions with prospective advisors tough?


texts:
We've spent many months and have come to the end of our tether with a referee. He doesn't seem to care about the science in our paper at all, but just about the minutiae of the data analysis method, even though we've shown they work ok and are standard procedures. He seems to be on a single-person crusade to push his ideas on the community. In addition his reports are extremely long, poorly structured and written in a stream-of-consciousness style. We've made our best arguments, but he just won't accept them. Unfortunately the editor hasn't stepped in, so we're going to ask for a new referee.

He's named himself in his report. He's not exactly a big name. I've asked colleagues and have discovered that they had similar problems with him as a referee!

Is there an appropriate action to minimize his destructive behaviour on the community? I plan to always ask for him not to be a refeee when submitting a paper and never suggesting him as a referee.


texts: Graduate coursework not taken for a degree- still relevant for graduate admissions?

texts:
I have recently graduated with a Bachelor's degree in the United States and have taken a job as a research assistant at a large private research institution. Part of my employer's package involves free tuition for full time employees for up to 6 hours per semester, including graduate courses. I was considering taking advantage of this opportunity, and my PI and I have agreed that 3 hours per semester (1 class) would be a good compromise between wanting to work and gaining knowledge as an investment in my abilities as a research assistant. This is an exciting opportunity because my undergraduate alma mater was a relatively small institution with no niche coursework. My cumulative training up to this point has included being lucky to catch course offerings and being the beneficiary of summer REUs..so the opportunity to take niche coursework is highly lucrative for me. My question is as follows:

If I take 3 graduate courses (summer included), when I apply to graduate school down the line in about a year or two, should I report these courses and do they make any difference? Secondly, how do I put these courses under the education tab in my CV/resume?


texts: What is the proper "subject" for an email in which I want to ask a question about a paper from its author?

texts:
I want to ask a question regarding an issue in a paper I recently read. The author of the paper is an academic who may receive lots of emails daily.
I want to choose a proper subject for my email that is as short as possible. I have come with these ideas for the subject:

question
question?
a question about your paper
a question about paper xxx

Are there any better suggestions that are in common usage? I want my email to be formal and polite to persuade him to read and answer my question.


texts: Has there ever been a pure mathematics thesis longer than 909 pages?

texts: When I heard that a friend of mine finished his PhD thesis with 909 pages, I wondered if there has ever been a longer thesis in (pure) mathematics?


texts: Legal protection for the title "university" in California

texts:
Some non-academic organizations in United States use "university" as part of their name without official accreditation, and I've been struggling to figure out to what extent the university title is protected in the U.S. I'm particularly interested in California law.

In New York State, EDN § 224 prohibits non-accredited organizations from referring to themselves as a "university," but I haven't been able to find similar federal or California regulation.


texts: Would it be better for Ph.D. graduate school admissions to compress my undergraduate years for a Master's Degree?

texts:
I would like to go to a strong graduate school. Currently I have a somewhat high GPA at about 3.8. However, there is a program at my university where we can spend an extra year to obtain a Master's Degree.

I initially intended on spreading my workload and graduate on time by taking about 3 classes per semester. Would it better for me to take 4 classes per semester and graduate about half a semester late with a Master's degree? Currently, the workload is very hard, so I know my GPA will drop a lot, maybe 0.3 points or more if I take 4 classes.

I would like to attend a strong graduate school in Electrical engineering, so which choice would be more suitable?


texts: How to grab the attention of a new area's big names to read my work?

texts:
I am a beginner researcher in a relatively new area. I published two papers in a conference directly related to the general field of my research (the general field is Artificial Intelligence or AI). Still there is no major conference for the new area; only one workshop and several special editions in top journals. As I am progressing in my PhD thesis, I see I am becoming a self-citation researcher.

Although the new area is attracting more people within AI and other disciplines, I am worried about my research. My advisor is happy and enthusiastic about my work. The big names in my research are well recognized in the AI field in general. My question is how to get their attention to read and therefore cite my work?


texts: Request Colleges internationally to let students participate in a survey

texts:
For a student research project in the field of IT I would like to interview students who have little to no experience in participating in Open Source projects. My professor said that only interviewing students from my university in Germany is not representative and that I should consider different countries as the motivation to participate in open source might vary from culture to culture.
My survey will contain very few questions that I have not yet found in my primary studies. Is it appropriate that I ask different universities in other countries to let their IT students participate in my survey?


texts: Would my paper be published if I missed the conference due to visa-related problems?

texts: I have two accepted papers in one conference . The problem is that until I have not gotten an original invitation letter, a must to get a visa. I've sent over ten emails to the email addresses listed on the conference website to the organizers and chairperson asking for this letter; no response. I do not have anyone else who can present in my place. If I failed to attend the conference because of this, would my papers be published in the conference proceedings?


texts:
I am from Singapore and I am about the graduated from PhD.
My field is in software engineering, computer science.

I plan to further my study as postdoc in US, looking at my friends, it seems that although some of them have 1-2 top ranked publications in
conference, but they are hard to secure a desired postdoc position in US.

I wish to get a postdoc position in US, hopefully in some top research labs, is there anyone has some general recommendations on how to improve one's chance in getting those labs in US?


texts: IS impact factor around 2 good for bio-engineering field?

texts:
I need to Presenting an article as a lesson exercise with good impact factor, so i found this paper :

Sleep behavior assessment via smartwatch and stigmergic receptive fields

With this impact factor:

With this H index:

I googled the impact factor range for good journals, so i fond so things like this:

And somewhere i found some different acceptable impact factor different field like 3 for Civil Engineering and not acceptable by below 5 for medical sciences.

SO i asked here is around 2 IF Index is good in bioengineering and also there are any sites to index the Impact factor of publications based of filed of study?

Thanks.


texts: What does "interdisciplinary" mean in the context of Quantum Computing?

texts:
How is the word "interdisciplinary" defined and understood in the context of Quantum Computing research?

It seems many work groups are claiming ownership without even proper understanding the scope Quantum Computing embraces within its ecosystem.


texts: Is it appropriate to mention personal lessons learned in the defense presentation?

texts:
I have to defend my master's thesis in the field of computer science in about one week.

Of course I will put the main focus of the presentation on the thesis itself, i.e. the research question, the methodology and the results.

But besides the evident results, I also feel that writing the thesis thought me some really important personal lessons. For the first time in my student career I think I got a feeling about what research really is about to be - Spending long hours in front of a problem, constantly discarding and revising ideas while trying to stay positive when coping with setbacks and self-doubt. That I eventually finished the thesis despite all struggles was a very positive experience for me and somehow I'd like to mention that in the defense.

I know from other answers on this site that such things seem to depend a lot on the faculty. However, the guidelines of my faculty only specify the hard facts of the defense such as number of senate members, the schedule and the like.

So I wondered, if I sum up my personal lessons and experiences in 1 or 2 slides, would you as a senate member feel that this is appropriate or something that totally is out of place within the context of a defense?


texts: What to use instead of academic 'we' when describing an experiment?

texts:
My research is in software engineering, but in a sub-field which is very close to social science. My papers normally contain sentences like "We conducted a study with 56 participants." and "Our previous study showed that [some assumptions are true]" and "We chose to use Cramer's V as the association measure, because [explanation why we thought it is better than other association measures]".

Now that I am close to my Ph.D. thesis, I am writing more texts alone, and the thesis is legally required to be my own work. So "we" is factually wrong. But using "I" feels immodest, and it is certainly unusual. But I don't know how to change my texts to avoid it.

I can't imagine how to apply the advice from that other answer to my case. "One conducted a study with 56 participants"? "The conducted study had 56 participants"? "A study was conducted, with 56 participants"? Unlike describing a mathematical proof, these sentences sound terrible. And how to explain my decision to use Cramer's V, when it is based on personal opinion?

Any advice how to deal with the matter outside of the world of mathematical proofs?

Another example why "I" might be needed. It is not only vanity; in the not-so-exact sciences there is sometimes lots of leeway involved. Say that I code some data. This is a very subjective process, and can be error prone. It is important for the readers to know that a coding was done by a single person, as this is considered less reliable than having somebody else repeat it and discuss any differences, and also because the coder has to take responsibility for any unusual decisions or errors.

There is a more general question on the same topic. But the accepted and highly-upvoted answer is from the point of view of a mathematician, it says that the writing style is best constrained to declarative sentences such as "Since p, it follows that q.".


texts: I go to school at a University in the US.  We use a competitive grading system where teachers give grades based on how you do relative to other students.  This type of grading system doesn't encourage students to work together or help each other because we are all competing against one another.  I'm wondering if there is another non-competative grading system that major universities are using to eliminate this competition?


texts: Advisor says I shouldn't expect to finish thesis soon, but won't offer specific feedback on what is missing; how to react?

texts:
I have a rough draft of my PhD dissertation, on which I was working on and off for about a year, but mostly I was doing other coursework. I have about 90 pages so far.

My dissertation advisor tells me that what I should do is pretty much make sure it is well-written and apply the theory to a few examples. By my estimates, if I go berserk on this, I can finish all that in under one month.

However, the dissertation advisor says that usually, it takes about 3 years to complete a dissertation in my department, and I should not expect to complete it soon. Also, he says that the level of my draft was intermediate (some time ago) and not yet advanced (but he hasn't reviewed the current one yet).

When I ask or suggest about expanding the scope of the dissertation / adding additional chapters, the dissertation advisor says he does not think it is necessary.

So, it appears that the dissertation is almost complete, but I should not expect to complete it soon. How should I interpret this apparent contradiction?


texts: Re-applying to the PhD Program after Illness

texts:
I started in a combinded MS/PhD program and was on the PhD track, but for mental and physical health reasons I had to switch to the MS track. I had not yet made it to the research part of the program, so I don't have an adviser.

I really want to get my PhD, and the (then) graduate director in my department told me when I made the switch that I'd be able to apply to rejoin the PhD program after getting my Master's. I'm getting my Master's in the spring, so I'm working on the application now. I just don't quite know what to do with the essay.

The essay is supposed to be about my research interests, career goals, and reasons for choosing the program. I think my health issues will be sort of an elephant in the room if I don't say something about them, but I'm worried that saying too much will make me look like a weaker candidate than I am. I've had these health issues for most of my life and will continue to have them for the foreseeable future, but they're more under control now than they were a year and a half ago when I made the switch.

How much is too much to reveal about this whole situation? How much is too much of my essay to spend on it? Is there any way to spin this situation in a positive (or at least neutral) way?

(I wasn't sure how much detail to include in this question, but I'm happy to go into more detail if it would help.)


texts: Are there any universal rules for bibliographic references recognised all over the world?

texts: There seem to exist many bibliographic reference styles and many universities have their own guidelines too. I wonder, whether there exist any universal guidelines for formatting bibliographic references in publications?


texts: Can you do a phd in maths at Cambridge university without an honours degree?

texts:
I graduated from an australian university last year with a bachelor of mechanical engineering with first class honors and a bachelor of mathematics. If I want to get an honours degree in maths, I need to study for an additional year.

I wish to apply for phd admission in pure maths at Cambridge university. The admission webpage says that the minimum requirement is a first class honours in mathematics or a related area. Am I eligible or I have to study an extra year to get my honours in maths first and then apply to Cambridge? I am interested in analytic number theory if it makes any difference.

Note: I emailed my question to people at Cambridge university but I have not received any replies after a week.


texts: Accused of not citing a source in an english final paper

texts:
So I turned in my final paper for English and was soon met with this

Dear -----,
On April 28, 2018, you were involved in a possible violation of the Code of Student Conduct.
Specifically, it is alleged that you failed to cite an online source used when completing your ENG ---- final paper.

I am a first-time freshman at this university and have absolutely no idea what to do or expect. I've combed through my paper multiple times but there is nothing present that indicates a misses citation. I have citied everything I have used and have included works cited page at the end. Is there any way for me to fight this and prove myself not guilty?


texts: "Be a small fish in a sea, or a big one in a pond"

texts:
I graduated (BSc and MSc) from the top university in my country and I'm currently a PhD candidate on another strong university. I expect to defend my thesis in a few months. After that, I plan to stay in academia pursuing a tenure track, and at both mentioned universities I can get a decent position (I've managed to include a number of my undergrad professors in my grad studies or at least collaborate with them at some point, mostly because of my supervisor). However, my hometown is also an university town, and I could certainly apply for a position there, but the uni there lacks the prestige and esteem of the former two.
Through my qualifications, I'm confident that I would advance faster through the academic ranks, contribute to the society in my hometown and introduce some changes to the faculty there. Another obvious big advantage is that I would be residing at my hometown.
On the other hand, the staff and research are much better in the former ones.

My supervisor suggests that it would probably be better for me to be at home, since I think about it in the first place, given that, by keeping and broadening my connections I would experience no significant penalty, at the same time the local academic society would benefit through my ideas.

So should I apply for a position in my home town, where I would be a big fish in a pond, or should I apply at the other universities, where I might be more like a small fish in the sea?


texts: How do I set goals as a graduate student?

texts:
I'm a young graduate student in the physical sciences. As far as I can tell, the purpose of graduate school is to learn to become an independent researcher. This means becoming a good writer, solving novel problems, publishing good papers and becoming an expert in your field.

The trouble is that these goals are horribly vague. I have no clear idea how to get from my current skill level to that of an "independent researcher". There is some mix of learning from a textbook, reading papers, attending classes and coming up with new ideas. But I find it hard to break it down into subtasks and be deliberate with my time. Instead I find myself wandering from textbook to textbook, learning this and that, solving this small problem and that small problem, wondering if I am really spending my time on the right things.

In many other domains, it's easy to tell if you are getting better on a short-term basis. For example, in bowling you can practice and see if your score goes up. In chess, if your rating goes up. In music, if you're hitting the notes. But in research there is no such metric. This leads me to feel discouraged and unsure of my progress and myself.

What are general, realistic research goals that I can set on a daily, weekly and monthly basis?

Some of my ideas are setting a target for: number of papers read, number of practice problems solved from a textbook, number of hours spent writing about a technical topic, number of hours worked in a state of deep concentration.

The most relevant question I could find is here: Is it possible to measure/evaluate one's progress or development in quantitative terms?


texts: What happens when a PhD student finishes the thesis but is forced to defend way after the contract ends?

texts:
The following case came into my attention.

A PhD student, A, has a contract until month X. A finished the write up of the thesis in month X-5 (5 months before the contract ends). Till X, none of A's supervisors read the thesis. A asks what about A's funding. A receives reply: "we can extent the contract by 1 month but do your best to defend during this time" (although I fail to see how this is in A's hands).

A receives the approval from A's adviser during X+1.5 and they send it to the external committee members. They schedule the PhD defense to be at X+4. For the 3 extra months, the student is not supported by any grant/scholarship and goes to the unemployment office to support A's living. A's institution blames A for being late ad not doing what A could to defend earlier.

I know for a fact that A's institution can very well support A if they want: there are PhD students well into their 5th-6th year and A is exactly 48 months (at time X, and finished the write up at X-5).

Question: Is this treatment considered fair for A (given that other PhD students in the same office stay 5 or 6 years without anyone being bothered)? Is there anything A could do to avoid being in this situation? Or A should just accept that "that's how things are" and move forward? How can A then ask for a recommendation letter with such treatment?

And finally: What does this say to the external committee? Is it possible that this would create a very bad image for A to the reviewers?

Any feedback or advice would be greatly appreciated!


texts: Dates on degrees don’t make sense – will people care?

texts:
I got my bachelor’s and master’s from different universities in different countries:

I enrolled for my master’s overseas when I hadn’t officially graduated undergrad yet, despite having done the allotted four years. This was since the master’s was done under the initial plan of it being a combined bachelor and master degree, with a semester abroad included. I ended up doing the entire master’s on its own abroad and graduated in 2017.
Due to some administrative issues¹, the date on my bachelors is only 2019, despite having finished all the credits for it in 2015.

When I put on my résumé: “bachelor’s 2012–2019” that looks weird, especially with a master’s awarded in 2017. How do I best work with this weird situation to avoid confusion and having to explain the dates?

¹ My home uni exchanged my pending BE for a BSc temporarily to satisfy the programme rules abroad (i.e having a bachelor’s before being allowed to do the master’s – an issue that was only brought up partway through my studies there). Then when I finished MSc abroad, I had to mail back my BSc to have that degree exchanged for my original BE.


texts: Publishing a book based on long journal article

texts: Recently my article has been accepted for future issue in a prestigious journal published by Jhon Wiley and sons. After accceptance of article I received an email from an other publisher based in Germany that they are interested to publish my work in a form of a chapter of a book. They also offer to get roylity money once the book start selling.  The copy right statement of the journal, where my article is going to appear, states that  the author can publish a pre-print version on public libraries and can self archive on own website. Moreover, it has a 12 months of emborgo period.In given circumstances can I publish my work as a chapter of book as well?


texts: Is it acceptable to include a figure I did not produce on an academic poster?

texts: I am presenting a poster at a conference and need to include a figure as background information. Given that it is properly cited, is it okay to include a figure I did not make in an academic poster for a conference? Should posters contain only figures made by the presenter? Would it be seen as unprofessional?


texts: Is it frowned upon to have a figure in the introduction of a Masters thesis?

texts:
Is it common practise/frowned upon to have a figure in the introduction chapter of a thesis?

The figure is not a 'picture', but a relatively small tree diagram that in my opinion shows the structure I am talking about more effectively than describing it in words.

I ask this question because I do not think it is common practise but also can't think of a good reason not to do it.


texts: What to do in the summer if math REUs reject me? Should I still apply to grad school?

texts:
This past fall/winter I applied to 16 of the pure math summer REU programs listed by the AMS here, and haven't been accepted by any so far. Five have rejected me, and the fact that none of the other 11 have sent me information tells me I'm probably on their waitlists.

I'm in my junior year and was hoping to apply to a PhD program next fall. I have a very high GPA, but I haven't taken a really competitive course load since I have been struggling with anxiety/depression for several years. It wasn't until my junior year began that I started the year-long abstract algebra and real analysis sequences. I'm planning to take grad math classes in my senior year, and ask some professors if I can get involved in research (haven't done any thus far).

I'm starting to worry about what I'm going to do this summer if I get rejected from all of the REU's... any advice? And, does this mean that I should look elsewhere instead of pursuing graduate school in pure math? I guess I'm feeling a bit discouraged about the prospects of a career in pure mathematics.

Mid-summer update: I actually did end up getting into an REU this summer, and I'm loving it here! At the same time, I'm really glad I asked this question, since it was important (both emotionally and logistically) to be prepared for the possibility of not getting into an REU. Interestingly, the professor who I'm working with told me that he never went to an REU as an undergrad; he didn't start doing research until his 3rd year of grad school. Somehow I had convinced myself that only students who do undergraduate research will become successful mathematicians. Now I understand that while doing undergraduate research can help students to delve deeper into specific topics, beef up their resumes, and prepare for graduate school, it's definitely not the "be-all and end-all" of a mathematician's career. Thank you for the advice, and good luck to all of the other students out there!


texts: I got an offer from my dream graduate school days after starting grad school somewhere else. What should I do?

texts:
I have been offered a PhD in a European country which I have accepted and I started attending (my first month). However, just few days after starting here, I got another offer (from a different country) with a subject that interests me more (honestly, it's my dream research topic since UG school).
Internally, deep inside me, I want to leave and pursue my dreams and the things I am more passionate about. However, I feel very bad and selfish to do this. The supervisor at the first institution struggled to get me the funding and to get me rolled in without hustle and this kills me morally.
I accepted the first offer because the second one was still too far and I wasn't given enough time from the first institution to wait for an offer from the second one (the subject is also the closest among all others to my interests).
My engagement with the first institution is still on the trial period, in which case I can cancel and leave without any problem.
I don't really know what to do now. I have good relationships with my current supervisor, and he has faith in me. I also have great relationships with the research team. I just don't have enough courage to tell them such a shocking decision.
I want to get some advice, from a career point of view (should I pursue my dream research topic or not?), is it morally acceptable to do such a thing in my case? And what are the possible implications on my current supervisor and the first institution (impact on funding, impact on his reputation, etc.)? What are the possible problems I could face from a legal and administrative point of view?
In case I am advised to leave, what is the best and the least hurting way to tell the first institution and the supervisor? Should I do it face to face or only by email? How will I return back their material without showing my face?
And the last question, what could be the possible reaction of my supervisor?


texts: Wordiness of paper titles in life and medical science journals

texts:
I do research in the life and medical sciences. If I want to publish in one of the major journals (Cell, Nature *, etc.), would I have to confine a title to something short and snappy, or can I be more verbose so that my title conveys better the output of the research?

For example, is this sort of structure:

XXX and YYY are AAA and BBB in PPP and QQQ, respectively

too wordy?

PD. I'm not sure if this was the right forum on the stackexchange network, so please feel free to suggest some other site to post.


texts: What should I do if I have accepted an offer informally but am denied the job?

texts:
This is a follow up to my other question.

In November last year I accepted an informal offer of a position at a university outside my country of residence. Since then, I have in good faith withdrawn all my other applications and stopped applying elsewhere as I understood that my acceptance of the offer was binding.

I have now applied for the job formally as they told me to. Recently I enquired about the status and according to them the evaluation of applications will be concluded next week and I was also told that I am in a very good position.

I know now that I should avoid this kind of practice, but I am in it already, and what I fear finally comes. Does 'a very good position' mean that there is a possibility that I will not get the job? What should I do if it turns out that I do not get the job in the end? Can I even start applying for other jobs now or should I wait till next week? The problem is that my current contract ends this month and I have to leave the country next month. I have a family to feed and to provide a home for.

The following is added after the first two answers below are posted:

Although the position was not yet advertised before I accepted the offer, I had always thought that this was a real offer, since they already said things like they were looking forward to welcoming me in the group and that they would get in touch with me to finalise my contract (all this was said in writing).

I guess my question is, is there nothing I can do with all the email correspondences in which the promise and my acceptance of the job were all recorded? From the answers already given below, it seems that there is nothing I could do with it except to learn not to make the same mistake again. But then, can the university just walk away like that?

Of course all this is still hypothetical, and hopefully I still get the job as promised, but I would appreciate if someone who has been in the same situation could share his/her experience and how they dealt with it, just in case.

Update: The university in question has lived up to their promise and I have now been formally offered the position.


texts: Why is getting a PhD considered "financially irresponsible" by some people?

texts:
I've been reading this question, whose premise is that going directly into industry after (presumably) just a bachelor's will make you more money than doing a PhD and then going into industry. To my surprise, most people seemed to agree with the OP.

My thinking has always been that, yes, going into industry with just a bachelor's will make you some money in the short term, but it will also:

A) Land you in a relatively low level position to start.

B) You will eventually hit a ceiling past which you cannot rise.

My thinking has always been that with a PhD you will start in a relatively higher position, and you will not hit a ceiling, so in the long run you will make more money. Why is my reasoning wrong?


texts: Why do most people think it's a bad idea to read from slides?

texts:
As many of you probably know, almost all advice regarding doing better academic talks includes universal advice to not put too many words in any one slide, and to not read straight from slides (this is always thought to be a sign of a bad talk).

I used to agree with all of this because it sounds reasonable, and anyway that's how I've written my own talks so far. But I went to a conference late last year where a speaker did exactly the opposite of this advice (my field is mathematics). He was literally reading his slides verbatim, and each of his slides was packed full with long sentences. And yet, it was one of my favorite talks of the conference, and for me (a Ph.D student) it was clean, clear, and easy to follow despite the fact that the material was completely new to me. I do think a large part of the reason I found it so clean and clear was precisely because of the talk's structure, and not despite of it.

That experience made me rethink my prejudice against speakers who read out of the slides. For some people, it may be a superior talk strategy to alternatives, especially in academic fields where the details really matter.

So, I am not convinced anymore that it is general (or even, usual) good advice to not read from the slides. Why do people think it's such a bad idea? And please don't say "it's lazy" or "could just read the slides instead of listening to the talk" because in practice, neither of these perspectives demonstrate why an alternative is better at communicating the information, which is what really matters.


texts: My professor thinks I deceived her, but it was miscommunication on my part. Should I send an apology email?

texts:
I will try to keep the situation short, but I am currently not on the best of terms with a graduate school professor.

The term is over now and I have been on good terms with her until today. As part of this course, students must attend an extra set of lectures outside of class and write a very brief report (mainly as proof we had actually attended and analyzed the topic). There was one lecture I was unable to attend due to a conflict with a class and thus informed my professor (in person) on two occasions. She had told me that she would upload the transcript for the presentation online. Yesterday, I had read the transcript and submitted my brief report.

However, she soon contacted me via email and requested I call her. During the phone conversation, she had accused my of deceiving her by pretending I had attended the lecture. I had explained to her that I had read what she posted online as I was unable to attend it. She said that, since I had not explained this in my email, she does not believe me. I do not think our phone conversation ended very well.

This is a very "subjective" course in that her opinion determines our grades. I am wondering if it would be wise to send her an apology email clarifying that it was simply miscommunication on my part?


texts: Do grad school admissions care about course load?

texts:
Do grad school admissions (particularly for Arts) care about how many classes you've taken per semester during your senior years?
For example, I'm (potentially) finishing my undergraduate studies with a 3-class semester. However, during this time I'll also be volunteering in classrooms for experience (I want to do a BEd before a Master's, the latter is far down the line) and potentially working part-time. I've taken 4 to 5 courses for all my other semesters save for one other, when I was also working and doing job searching for my school's Co-op program.
I'm worried, potentially, that a 3-class load will reflect poorly - even though I did a lot of other things during this time. However, my GPA is very high, above what is considered the competitive average to be accepted.
In your experiences how do grad schools weigh overall GPA vs overall class loads?


texts: Doing research in academia and not liking competition

texts:
In short: is it possible to do research in academia (starting from a PhD position up to being a professor) while not liking competition?

I was an athlete in high school and I left because I was not really able to perform well under pressure. I thought that academia (or the research world in general) would have been a better fit. But I now realize how wrong I was. In fact, some fields are even worse. I like doing research and I really want to continue my journey in academia with a PhD. But that's it, research. I'm not interested in competing with other researchers. Actually, I'd love to learn how to collaborate rather than being faster to get it published before them.

I thought I could handle it but it's getting worse and whenever I start working on something that I would otherwise enjoy doing, I start panicking thinking that my peers are doing it better and faster.

Again,  is it possible to do (good) research in academia while not liking competition? Is it really fundamental?


texts: Co-authors not willing to publish after rejection. May I drop them?

texts:
We wrote a case report (1 + 2 co authors). The case report was not accepted. I tried to convince the other co-authors to re-write and submit.
I waited for 3 years and 6 months. The co-authors showed no interest after repeated calls. I wrote the case report completely fresh with review of literature.

Can I send for publication without the co-authors as they did not take part in preparing this revised manuscript?


texts: Salary determinants for faculty at public schools in the US

texts:
A follow-up question to this as I feel it is very broad. For example, consider this link displaying the salaries at a particular department in a public school in US.

I see very wide variations within assistant professors. Some assoc. profs earn lesser than asst. profs; people of the same age earn differently and so on. So, my question is, which of the following factors influence salaries at public schools and how?

Age
Experience as a faculty member
PhD at a top school
Number of years after undergrad/PhD
Experience at another school (Does a Stanford faculty with 5 years exp. moving to a public school earn more than a faculty member at the same school for 5 years?)
Number/Impact of publications
Any other factor

Given all data is in public, I assume there can be no pay negotiations, so is it possible to determine one's salary in advance before the interview process itself?


texts: Pros and cons of paragraph-based writing

texts:
The ancient masters, such as Euler, wrote in a paragraph-based
  style, where each paragraph was numbered and tried to explain one
  concept in about paragraph-length.

Nowadays, papers seem more structured, with more headings, etc.

Is there any study as to the readability of both styles?1

(I started writing a thesis which so far has emerged in
  paragraph-based style. This has worked pretty well for writing, yet
  readability might be an issue. Is writing like this a no-go?)

1 If not, how is your personal experience if you have written both ways?


texts: Is It Possible to Reliably Find Editorial Board for the Conference Proceedings?

texts:
I am in the process of submitting thesis corrections and attempting to add sufficient reference information for our school's Thesis Office. They are requesting that I add in the editors for Conference Proceedings.
Occasionally, I can find the explicit listing of editors for a conference (I am looking at Control Systems conferences, such as HSCC, ACC, ICRA, etc). With institutional access, I can find the Proceedings on sites such as IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect, etc., and some of the sites list the editorial boards directly on the site. Others, however, may not list this information, and I try to look at the electronic material available for the proceedings, but cannot find a reliable method to find the editors to add to my reference.
May I ask if anyone has suggestions for reliably finding the Editorial Board? Should I just contact the Program Committees?


texts: What factors contribute to the credibility of a book used as source?

texts:
Possibly a very amateur question, yet I think is the best to know the answer as simply and as soon as possible.

Let me use a (not yet IRL, but only hypothetical) example: I want to write either my thesis, possibly even my PhD in the field of video games: construction, psychological relations and so on. I know a man, who's actively working on a successful indie game, and was working on Bioshock games as well - he has a great book in the matter, that is not only easy to read but I found it insightful, too.

What determines, if I'm allowed to use it as a credible resource of game design?

In general, what a resource should qualify to not cause controversies using it in any kind of publication? Or, if the question is too broad, let's focus on a BSc thesis.


texts: Can you self-plagiarize within the same document?

texts: The title is the question: can you plagiarize yourself within the same document? For example within a book of thousand pages, do you have to reference ideas from page 50 when you use them on page 950?


texts: Do tenured professors work less or more than non-trenured professors?

texts:
Is there any research/study/survey/... that looked at how much time tenured professors work in comparison with non-trenured professors?

I am especially interested in the field of computer science (machine learning) in the US.

So far I have only found a small-scale study (survey of 30 professors from the same university):

I'm looking for some more exhaustive surveys.


texts: Is it a good idea for a prospective MS student to mention in his SOP that he has good expertise on software like Microsoft office?

texts: I heard that information technology is a great tool to do research.I have good expertise on Microsoft office (Office,Excel,Access,Power point,Output) and graphical software like Adobe Photoshop.Could I mention these learning skills in my SOP?


texts: What type of letter is Pierre Deligne talking about and why did he write a letter to other mathematicians?

texts:
Today I watched a YouTube video interview of Pierre Deligne. I have some confusion about a statement given by Pierre (video timing: 56:33 to 58:20). Here is the outline of the statement in the video:

Interviewer: Would you like to write letters to other mathematicians?
Pierre Deligne: Writing a paper takes a lot of time. Writing it is
very useful, to have everything put together in a correct way, and one
learns a lot doing so, but it’s also somewhat painful. So in the
beginning of forming ideas, I find it very convenient to write a
letter. I send it, but often it is really a letter to myself. Because
I don’t have to dwell on things the recipient knows about, some
shortcuts will be all right. Sometimes the letter, or a copy of it,
will stay in a drawer for some years, but it preserves ideas and when
I eventually write a paper, it serves as a blueprint.

What type of letter is he talking about and why does he write a letter to other mathematicians?
I mean, there are many different types of letters out there. I mean, some love letters, friends letters, etc.


texts: Can a PhD student accused of plagiarism revise/resubmit the thesis?

texts:
I don't know how to ask this so please forgive my ignorance and lack of vocabulary. Consider a case as below. I just would like to know.. :

Can a PhD student who just defended their thesis, but is accused of plagiarism the day after that by his own advisor, be denied the right to correct/revise/resubmit/etc. the PhD thesis?

I think it's unfair that the student is denied the opportunity to correct/revise/resubmit/etc. with the reason being "there's no time". Long story short, the part covered by the accusation is only related to the explanation of some previous research (with difficulty in English) and the result of the defense was Successful. At least the advisor (and we generally as people in academic world) should help - at least give him/her a chance/right of resubmission/etc., not denying the student's hard work, worth and right. Many other people got the chance to at least resubmit/redefend/etc.

Any advice on what can be done also is very much appreciated.

[ADDITIONAL QUESTION]:

On this page, it's said that the Materials and Methods part is often given a high similarity score in plagiarism checker software. What I understand from the link is, a situation like this is acceptable; not considered as plagiarism. I wonder if this is also true for other/most universities/institutions?


texts:
We recently submitted a paper to a conference. However, I just noticed that one of the collaborators have copied three paragraphs from another paper of mine, though that part is not our main contribution.

He claimed that he has written that part, and he showed his work, but he has forgotten to apply the changes to the final version. I was wondering if I should withdraw the paper to avoid getting flagged as plagiarism or I should wait until the review results are out and then make changes to the paper?


texts: I'm a graduate student in mathematics but I've done a lot of open source software projects, some of which have even won hackathons. My question is should I put them on my CV? I've seen academic CVs only contain publications, conferences etc. But, I feel that these projects are very valuable to mention.


texts: How do you address holders of non-Ph.D. doctorates such as an Ed.D. or Sc.D. etc.?

texts:
It is customary to call Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) holders by the prefix "Dr.", but I wonder whether the same holds for other doctorates, such as Doctor of Science (Sc.D.) or Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)? Does it make sense to say "Dr. Name" to such people?

Logically I think the answer should be yes, but I do not know if it is appropriate and/or common to do so.

(If it is country-dependent, let's take the United States as an example.)


texts: Graduate application: Institutions that I have attended

texts:
I am applying for a Master's degree program, and in the application I'm asked to list the institutions that I have attended and to attach the transcript for each. I have attended school A for a Bachelor degree in a related discipline to the program I am applying for. But later, I attended another undergraduate School B which is completely irrelevant to my major. It would take me a while to get a transcript from school B.

My question is: Must I mention School B in my graduate application? Or should I just mention A since it is the one relevant to my major and the program I'm applying for ?


texts: How can undergraduate TA's better lead tutorial sessions?

texts:
I'm senior year undergraduate, and I have to say I love to teach. I have assumed the role of a TA for multiple courses uptil now, including courses in economics, physics and mathematics. I have had the fortune of leading tutorial sessions for almost all the courses I have TA-ed thus far.

I have the following concern:

  I feel as if that students are reluctant to express their concerns to me. I try and keep things as formal as possible. This is not to say that I peg the students down to their chairs (after all, they're my peers!); rather, I try and conduct everything as formally as possible. Prior to every session, I send timely, formally phrased emails reminding the class of the schedule of the sessions; I'll typeset the tutorials on LaTeX and distribute copies in the session. I feel as if the students are at times intimidated of the lengths I'll go to make the experience of attending the sessions both worhwhile and learning intensive. Hence, I feel as if they're at times reluctant to express their concerns (about the pace of the sessions, about my ability to explain a particular concept etc.), even though I repeatedly ask them to let me know if the pace is too fast for them etc.

What can I do to encourage/facilitate more communication between an undergraduate TA and a class of undergraduate students? I'd like the students to be ideally express their concerns to me as if I'm a mentor or a helper, rather than a TA who'll probably downgrade them on the next assignment in case they bad mouth me to my face, for instance (I don't know if this is a valid concern among students in general, but let's consider this hypothetical for one).


texts: Ought mainstays (people recurring in a piece of academic writing) be abbreviated?

texts:
Presume that these mainstays (even if their names are short) can all be named publicly.

I fancy referring to them only with my abbreviations that I introduce on the first page, to save space and avoid typos, like for long surnames (e.g. some Indian, Polish, and Russian mathematicians).

E.g., I'd state my abbreviations of Iannis Xenakis as IXS, Jean Barraqué as JB, and Per Nørgård as PN (I chose the latter because  of its 2 accents). Then  I'd write:

  IXS won the Polar Music Prize in 1999, but fewer prizes than PN. JB won none.


texts: How can I prove that my article has not been submitted to another journal?

texts: I just submitted a paper to some journal. Since they didn't specify a template, I used the IEEE template. Unfortunately, they immediately rejected my paper because they think I already submitted the same paper to one of the "IEEE Transactions" journals. I know for sure that's not the case. But how I can prove to them that my paper is not submitted to another journal. Is there a database for a list of submitted papers?


texts: Critiquing or commenting on someone's talk

texts:
Assume I attended someone's seminar talk which I liked a lot. Also I heard that yet another expert X also said that the talk is interesting.
Is it ok to say to the lecturer that the expert X and I liked the talk, or should I not mention another's opinion?
Now assume the opposite situation: the expert X and I did NOT like the talk.
Is it ok to say to the lecturer that X and I did not like the talk, or again should I not refer to other people?
[update] Now assume that the lecturer explicitly asked me if I heard what X said about his/her talk. Can I tell the lecturer X's opinion (assuming X did not ask me in advance not to do that)?


texts: What does "Peer review in process" mean in ScholarOne submission?

texts: I have submitted my manuscript to a journal that uses ScholarOne system. After 20 days, the status is still "Peer review in process". I don't know this means the Reviewers are reviewing my manuscript, or it is still on "Editor's desk"?


texts: Academia vs. Industry for Machine Learning

texts:
For PhD students in machine learning, academia vs. industry is an increasingly strange choice. Getting a faculty job at a good university is still quite hard, but the pay is hugely lower than in industry (~ 120k for an assistant professor job at a top 10 school, vs. ~ 500k for a research scientist position at Google/FB/Amazon for a similar candidate).
What is the allure of academia? It comes with grant pressure, teaching huge classes, and huge opportunity cost in salary.


texts: Help picking an appropriate citing style

texts:
I wrote a paper about governance mechanisms at StackExchange in which I got a lot of informations out of questions (especially on meta). I have kept all my references.

My teacher is letting us pick which style we want to use for the paper as long as we apply it thoroughly. In my other courses, we use APA but if I start writing (StackExchange, 2014) everytime I use an info out of a question, my paper is going to be illegible. From what I've read, you're only supposed to cite things that you've paraphrased, ideas, not necessarily information that you've found or researched but I do want to give credit where it belongs and I would also like if my teacher would be able to retrace where I've found things but APA doesn't seem to include such a thing as a bibliography.

I would like to:

have a bibliography at the end containing the documents I've consulted for my research
be able to have my citations as footnotes

Which style should I go for in this case?


texts:
My advisor has not replied to my email for 4 days. I'm in a hurry, this is a piece of paper that he should sign for me before December 18 what to do? any exemple of emails ? please help!!!

Finally, I sent him an email with the subject "urgent" and it worked, he replied almost instantly.


texts:
I'm about one year from receiving my master's degree. I have published a few papers, so I'm confident that I want to do research. I have been offered two different PhD positions at my current university, but I might not want to stay here. The reason for not taking the first position is that I don't like the advisor too much, and for the second position that they lack funding/other resources.

I recognize the early(?) offers are due to my hard work. If I would like to apply to somewhere else, when should I start contacting potential supervisors?

Also I need some strategy to get out nicely... it will be difficult to stay under the radar


texts: Feasibility of enrollments in a Masters program at one university and a PhD program in another university

texts:
Is it possible to be enrolled at a Masters program at one university and a PhD program in another university?

Is one allowed to  do this? Or is this not possible in general?


texts: Responsibility for the performance of students

texts:
As an educator, how much responsibility do you place upon yourself for the performance of your students? Whether that be in the role of lecturer, TA, thesis supervisor, etc. Of course there are many factors that go into the performance of a student- though surely the role of teacher is at the heart of it. There will always be some students who will do well regardless of whom is teaching them, but in many cases, the influence of a teacher can be the difference between whether a student passes or fails, decides to major in the subject, pursue an academic career in the same field, etc.

Thanks


texts: Is it bad if I don't feel like an impostor?

texts:
I started graduate school recently. A professor was talking about impostor syndrome and said that everyone goes through it. They made a joke saying that if you don't feel like an impostor, something is wrong.

Well, I certainly don't feel like an impostor. I'm doing well in my studies and a professor even said that I'm doing "outstanding".

So, is there something wrong with me that I feel confident in my abilities?


texts:
Quick question for the collective.

Is it appropriate to list completion of online courses (eg. Coursera) on your academic CV? I'm in medicine, but want to articulate that I am expanding my skill set by completing work in data science and analytics.
If so, where would you put it in context of your other CV sub-headings?


texts: Two papers with identical introduction and related work

texts: I wrote a paper (for an economics journal) that contained two main theorems. It was too long - over 60 pages. So I split it to two papers - one for each main theorem (and the related lemmas). Now, the introduction and related-work section in these two papers are almost identical, since the topic is the same. Will this be considered self-plagiarism (e.g. by automatic plagiarism detection tools)? What is a good way to write these papers preventing duplication?


texts: Non academic career options for PhD in Math

texts:
I am thinking of getting my M.S. in Computer Science. I chose C.S. because I enjoy programming and because its a solid choice, career wise.  Low unemployment, good pay, all that jazz.

But my real passions has always been math and lately I have been thinking about swapping and going for my graduate degree in Math. If I went the math route I would probably go full PhD (since I don't think there is much you can do with just a Masters in math).

But as much as I love math, I can't see myself being a math teacher. I would want to work in research or industry, applying math to solve real world problems.

What kind of non-academic jobs are there for someone with a PhD in math (or what is the best resource to see what jobs are out there)?


texts: How will a 'fail' in a course affect chances at graduate school admission?

texts: I'm a second year computer science student in Australia. I hope to apply to one of the top 10 US universities for MS or PhD program. I have received high distinction (highest grade possible here) for all my courses since my first year of university, have done an internship at a major company, and have published one paper. However, I received a 'fail' for a course I took at my current university while I was a senior in high school, which shows on my university transcript. Will this greatly affect my chances at graduate school?


texts: I am graduated in computational physics and from south asian country. i got  F and D- grades for elective physics courses in my first and second year. but i didn't retake those classes. another D+ grade for non major course. Will that grades keep me from going to a  grad school in USA ?


texts: Should I ask the Editor for a third Referee when the answer of first two Referees do not agree?

texts:
I submitted a theoretical paper to Physical Review Letters, and the editor answered that it can be published in Physical Review but it seems not suitable for a Letter given the Referee responses.
Basically, one of the Referee recommends a Letter, while the other recommends a normal Physical Review.

I would like to answer the editor/referee, in order to try to get published as a Letter. What is the best things to do in this situation? Of course, in any case, we should answer all the comments and try to convince the Referee. But is it useful to ask the editor for a third Referee in this case? Is it really hopeless to try to convince the Referee? Will be the third Referee a kind of a lottery?

More details about the specific situation:

One of the Referee praises our work for the interesting results, and for the clarity and readability of the manuscript. Also they say that it would stimulate new experiments, and recommend the publication as a Letter, after some minor points are addressed.

The other Referee however has a different opinion. They say that it is difficult to understand, cumbersome, and even raises a fundamental problem about our main result, which in their opinion is in contrast with the existing literature. Also, they say that the measure proposed will not stimulate the experimental community, since that, in their opinion, the measure seems not easy and there is no qualitative advantage in this proposal, compared with other methods.

Now, I and the other coauthors have fixed the manuscript, and we are able to show that our results do not contradict existing literature, and that the measure is possible (a very similar measure has been already done). I should remark that the topic of our manuscript is a phenomenon which has been confirmed very recently in 2 papers using the same experimental technique. Our proposal refers to a different signature of the same phenomenon.

EDIT: I don't want to appeal, since I think that the Refereeing process has been fair, at least so far. Appealing should be reserved only in the case that one has the impression that the Refereeing was kind of unfair, biased, or fundamentally wrong.


texts: PhD Student, written my first paper. What are my next steps?

texts:
I have written a first paper for my Finance PhD. It is around 70 pages in length (double-spaced), possibly far to long.

What are my next steps?

How can I start the publication process?

Is there anything else I should do, or move onto the next paper immediately?


texts: Two potential advisors are interested in me as a master’s student – should I meet with both?

texts:
Last Wednesday, I first contacted one potential advisor (PA) with a well-thought out email and my CV. He contacted me a day later and was very interested in me. I sent him my transcript and we had a phone conversation over the weekend. He seems very interested and we are currently talking about projects, how to apply for grants, etc.

Before he emailed me back, last Thursday, I emailed another potential advisor, expressing interest. She just replied back and is interested in me. She requested my transcript and offered to talk over the phone.

To be honest, I did not expect any PA to reply back to me, let alone two. I have heard that most of the time, PAs don’t even reply to these kinds of emails. I’ve contacted six PAs: Three got back to me and said they are not expecting graduate students in the next year, and two of them got back to me expressing interest.

So, should I still meet with the second PA? I hate the awkward situation of saying, “oh nevermind” to one of them, especially if I like the second PA better since I have already been talking so much about research to the first PA.


texts: Is it acceptable or normal for professors to ask first semester grad students to teach a class?

texts:
I'm currently pursuing a Master's/PhD integrated program at a university in Korea. It's my first semester, and I along with two other first-semester students are TA'ing for our advisor's undergraduate class.

Our professor is very busy for various reasons. Conferences, events, seminars, etc., and due to this schedule he won't be able to teach three classes in November. He called us into his office and said that "How would you guys like to each teach one of those classes? It's an undergraduate course and so it shouldn't be too hard, plus it'll be great experience."

My response was (almost word for word) "Professor, I'm really flattered that you think so highly of us, but I'm not sure if it would be appropriate for us to teach a class. We're graduate students, but we're still in our first semester. Wouldn't it be better and safer for your reputation if you asked one of the PhD students or research professors, or if you scheduled a separate make-up class instead? I'm mentioning your reputation because many students probably believe that it's inappropriate for relatively inexperienced and less knowledgeable students like us to teach them when they're paying tuition to be taught by experts in the field."

In the end he said he appreciates my feedback but that he'd probably find it difficult to schedule a make-up class, and that "the PhD students and research professors are too busy," also adding that "I want to do you guys a favor by giving this opportunity and experience to you."

Preparing and teaching a class isn't the problem, but I'm just wondering is this normal? I've heard of PhD-level students teaching classes in these situations, but freshmen like us? I'm honestly very concerned.


texts: Extended scientific abstract: should it include full results?

texts:
I'm writing an extended abstract for a conference prize. There are few instructions and it's the first time ever that I write one so I'm a little woried about it. The only restriction regards the length, but other than that no instructions are given.

My question is: am I expected to give my full results? I'd rather not give my analytical results of my analysis since I still have to publish them.


texts: In the Dutch salary system, how do the "steps" ("trede") work?

texts:
The salary system in Dutch academia is based on a number of "scales" (schaal), which are related to the different academic ranks. The salary in the same scale can vary considerably, depending on the "step" (trede) on which the employee is positioned  (see the current salary table). In job offerings, the scale is usually specified in the job advertisement, whereas the step depends on the candidate and can be subject to negotiation.

How does one rise in "steps"? Is it bound to certain achievements, or does it happen automatically after a certain time (what are the time intervals in this case)?
How is the starting step for a new employee usually determined?


texts: graduate admissions - Can I apply again in March for the same intake after being rejected in December?

texts:
This is a hypothetical question pertaining to the entry of Fall'19. Suppose I apply in December and get rejected. By next semester, I predict my grades would have improved a lot, crossing me over past the 7pt grade line out of 10, which a substantial thing. Additionally, by January I will be involved in a research project which will definitely give me brownie points. Given that I think my application's strength will improve, would it be allowed to apply again? Will my application be considered afresh in March?

Or, should I just wait till March and apply? I hear that intake chances are higher in December, since there are more seats to be filled.


texts: Why are some journals prestigious and others aren't?

texts:
What makes the journal "prestigious" in the first place? I can't myself find any sensible answer.

One candidate reason is that some journals have better reviewers. But reviewers are usually not paid, so if it were true that the good reviewers flock to these select few journals, they must be doing so because those journals were prestigious or attractive in some sense in the first place, and so we are back at our original question.

Another possible reason is that some journals only publish papers of a high quality. This seems wrong as well. For example, if I decided to create a journal which only published extreme-super-duper-mega-high quality papers, nobody would care about it. Rather it seems to be the other way around: these journals publish the best papers because they are prestigious and therefore receive the attention of the best academics and their best papers. So again, we are back at the original question.

A third reason could be readership, but, again, the readership is a consequence of the prestige the journal already possesses. We still don't know where it came from.


texts: Should I write a rigorous draft before asking for comments?

texts:
I have a 10-page manuscript of my independent research and would like to ask a professor for comments.  In short, I claim that I've seen a bridge between Shannon's information and semantic information.

The field has been stuck for a long time and I think it might give a breakthrough on it. However, I do see that it isn't really rigorous, and even have contradiction. I know ideally I should spend more time to research but since I need secure funding and getting some comments might be more efficient now, should I ask them anyway? I have also thought about go crowdsourcing, but if I get accepted maybe I won't need to do that?

I've asked some person who knows me, but they are all busy or out of the field.

PS: it is rigorous and not contradict anymore now. Here is the manuscript, I hope that you can have a comment on it. Many thanks. Clearness and Fadedness as a link between semantic information and physical oscillator

Related:
• How can I get a PhD position to work on solving a particular mathematics problem that I have formulated independently?
• Handling unsolicited proofs of famous mathematical problems
• I believe I have solved a famous open problem. How do I convince people in the field that I am not a crank?


texts: What is a reasonable expectation for privacy of exam and homework grades?

texts:
I went to a large public state school for undergrad.  In most of my classes, great measures were taken to keep assignment and exam grades private.  When I became a TA, I had to complete a privacy/FERPA training that detailed exactly how assignments could be stored, returned, etc.

There was the occasional instructor that had free-for-alls with students digging through piles of assignments with grades written on the front.  However, this wasn't the norm, with most assignments being returned by request at office hours, or having the grade written on the second page.

I recently started attending a well-known private school for my master's degree.  With one exception, all of the classes with paper homework assignments have been returned either in the free-for-all method, or in large drawers in an open part of a campus building that can be accessed by anyone at the school.  Personally, I'm past the point of caring if other people happen to see a homework grade of mine, but it was just a bit surprising for me based on my previous experience.

Is allowing other students to see assignment/exam grades a violation of FERPA or did my previous school simply have more strict institutional privacy guidelines?  What is a reasonable expectation of privacy regarding homework and exams?

Edit: Both institutions are US-based


texts: Omitted from paper for which I gathered data

texts:
I collected a large amount of data for a research project at my university for a professor who is not my advisor. I was originally told that I would get the opportunity to collaborate on a manuscript. I would write one paper while the PI would write the other.

Now that I have collected huge amounts of data, it appears that the PI is no longer interested in talking with me about the data. However, I see that the PI is writing a manuscript that very likely contains some of the data I collected. The PI now seems very secretive about the manuscript and does not show it to me. Any ideas about what I should do?


texts: Have there ever been any "Lebron James" of academia?

texts:
For those who aren't familiar, Lebron was so talented and sought-after in high school that he was able to skip playing NCAA basketball and went right on to the NBA at the age of 19. Have there ever been any academic researchers who showed so much promise at one stage (in undergrad or grad school maybe) that they were offered funding to set up their own research institution, or a high-ranking position they'd typically be unqualified for?

This is just a curiosity of mine and not a reflection on my career plans.


texts: Professor Ignoring Emails RE disagreement over grading

texts:
I recently had a concussion. I got everything on paper signed by a doctor, and emailed my teachers immediately. During my medical absence, I missed a quiz. I emailed my teacher regarding making the quiz up, and he said “that’s what the quiz drop is for." However, I had already my quiz drop due to the flu.

I told him I don’t think it’s fair that I have to get a zero for one of the quizzes when both instances were out my control, but he just stopped responding to me. I have followed up twice. What should I do?


texts: Should a student shake hands with the professor?

texts:
Strangely I could hardly find any information about it on the internet. The question is simple: should a student expect to shake hands with a professor who is

academic advisor
the supervising professor who you're going to do your final year project with
A teacher who taught a class this semester and you're saying thanks to him/her on the last class

I'm an undergraduate student so the above refer to undergrad situations. Though I guess the question is equally valid for a graduate student.


texts: Reproducible, open, transparent, ethical Research when confronted to (patient) data anonymization : is it at all possible in practice?

texts:
A lot of Hype goes in reproducible, open and transparency for data analysis theses days in some fields mores that other. The code is to be share as well as the dataset.
How to achieve this in a context of patient data protection that all ethics' committees will require ? What are the best practice to overcome theses antagonistics goals ?
My team seems to think patient's data protection means the data (already anonymized) shouldn't leak and thus we have to work on the database's server without ever getting the anon db on our stations. This feels a tad too much / an overkill ?


texts: How to address an email to an academic office where many people reply from the same email address?

texts:
I have been sending emails (in English) to the "visitor's program" of an institute in Germany. Initially, only one person used to reply to these emails, and I addressed this person.
Recently, two more people started replying from the same account (and they seem to reply in some random order). I started addressing the person who last replied, but since then, it has happened twice that I addressed an email to "Mr. A", but "Ms. B" or "Mr. C" replied to that email.
Also, some of them write Dr. in their signature, while some do not write. And they are not professors (So Dear Prof. A, Prof. B, Prof. C won't work). Since some of them don't write Dr., I feel it may not be a good idea to write "Dear Mr. A, Ms. B, and Dr. C".
Can I write "To whom it may concern"? Is that somehow considered rude?
Although this institute is in Germany, feel free to add information about other countries.
I don't think this is a duplicate of this because I am concerned about addressing more than one people simultaneously, while that question seems to be more concerned about gender of the recipient.


texts: Monolithic Reference Collection, vs Per Paper Reference Collection, or Both?

texts:
When managing References,
seem to me to be two-ish, options:

Either for each Project, I maintain a database of the relevant resources (In say a bibtex file),
and for each new piece of work I start a new one.

Or I maintain a single "Monolithic" collection of resources (still in a bibtex file),  for everything I do, and I carry that around with me for years.

There are some in-betweens, such as having a Monolithic Collection, which I copy references from at the start of a project into a Project Collection, which I then use (and update) during the project, then copy either all or some of it back into the main collection.

What are the Pros and Cons of each approach?
Am I thinking about this in the wrong way?


texts: Is it appropriate to ask a former professor to order a book for me through an inter-library loan?

texts:
I am not a member of an academic institution right now, but am working on a paper for publication, partly to improve my prospects for admission to PhD programs after a long gap in my education. Two absolutely necessary books for my research are only available in academic libraries (one is also for sale on AbeBooks for about $450).

So my question is, would it be appropriate to email a former professor and ask him to get these books through an inter-library loan (ILL) for me so that I could skim them for several hours, take necessary notes, and return them on the same day?

This professor has taught me in the same field, and was personally supportive. Aside from former professors, I don't know anyone else in an academic institution, and am not in a position to fly across the country to visit libraries where these items are held.


texts: Should I tell my situation or request a possibly negative recommendation letter?

texts:
I'm preparing to apply to PhD programs. My current master thesis PI used tactics to postpone the graduation of the students in order to keep them longer. I quarreled with him one time in order to get the degree. I sincerely apologized in front of lab members and him.

He was the only faculty member who is familiar with my research. There is no supervisory committee. So I am concerned about the LOR from him.

Which solution might be better? Or is there other better solutions?

Do not request current PI for LOR. Rather, describe the fact he likes postponing his students’ graduation in the PS and the interview. This seems a bad solution.
Do not request current PI for LOR. Say nothing in the PS or in the interview. However, if I am asked during the interview, should I say that he wants me to stay longer ?
Request current PI for LOR, which may be a possibly negative letter. However, no one knows the result. It is impolite to ask if he would write a strong recommendation letter for me. He has not denied my request of LOR directly, but he said he is too busy. I am not sure if he would finally write it for me.


texts: Putting verbal offer of PHD position on resume

texts:
While I was studying abroad, I was offered a PHD position for having a very impressive project. I was actually only in 3rd year engineering at the time and I din't want to go into the professor's specific area of research, so I declined the offer. The only written confirmation I have of this is an e-mail exchange.

That course is important in the field that I'm going into, so I really want to mention that I did really well on it, but I'm afraid that a verbal conversation and an e-mail exchange isn't official enough. After all, if someone asks the professor, it's highly probable that he will have forgotten and he might claim I mis-understood the e-mail exchange. Should I:

Include the fact that I got an offer on the resume anyways.
E-mail the prof to get a written confirmation and only include his distinction in my resume if he replies. What type of written confirmation would this even involve?
Tone down the claim to say that I had the best project and leave out the offer.


texts: Which universities focus more on ‘black-letter law’ rather than on the theoretical and philosophical foundations of law?

texts:
Kindly see the embolded sentences below. I'm asking this for Commonwealth common law faculties...Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK, US. Can someone start a list of black letter law faculties, and another list for more legally philosophic law faculties?

      Although most academic and vocational programmes will require
you to be aware of legal theory as it is reflected in judicial opinions
and legislative papers, the different programmes can vary greatly in
the amount of emphasis put on legal theory as reflected in academic
books and articles. Some universities are known for focusing on the
‘black-letter law’ rather than on the theoretical and philosophical foundations
of law. At other universities, the reverse is true. Although you
will need to be aware of how your particular programme approaches
the issue, don’t be fooled into thinking that ‘practical’, or black-letter,
law is either superior or inferior to a more theoretical approach. Once
you move into professional practice, you will need to be familiar with
both methods of analysis. Therefore, it is to your benefit to learn how
to utilise both types of materials and incorporate them into your ‘discuss’
essays, although the extent to which you do so will depend on
your programme’s approach to the issue.

Stacie Strong BA English literature (UC Davis 1986), MPW (USC 1990), JD (Duke 1994), PhD Law (Cambridge 2002), DPhil (Oxford 2003). How to Write Law Essays & Exams 5th Edition (2018). p 116.


texts: Can a referee request a paper referenced in the reviewed paper?

texts:
If you review a paper which relies on results some other paper and you do not have access to that paper, is it acceptable to contact the editor and ask whether the author can provide a copy of the referenced paper? Are requests like this reasonably common?

Or should the referee simply take the word of authors that their conclusions based on the referenced paper are correct, even without seeing that paper?


texts: Will I be regarded as academic dishonest if I submit one paper to a conference as well as a journal?

texts:
I finished and submitted one paper (journal version) several months ago. My mentor suggested to me to submit a shortened version of the original paper to a conference. The conference version is almost the same as the journal version, except that some detailed mathematical proofs are omitted. But we cross-cited these two papers and told the reviewers of the conference paper that the journal version was under review.

Now both the journal and the conference have accepted my paper. I wonder whether there will be any problem if I choose to publish these two papers in a journal and a conference at the same time.

Furthermore, now I am applying for a PhD degree. If I list these two papers on my resume, will I be regarded as academic dishonest and be rejected?


texts: How to interpret the French terms cahier and tome in citation

texts:
I want to reference a 19th century French journal paper, which appears in vingt-quatrieme cahier, tome XV, of the Journal de l’École polytechnique. The journal front page lists them in that order: cahier first, then tome.
I am using Word and tried to enter the citation data in the bibliography fields Word provides. In those fields there is Volume and Issue. Now, cahier translates to notebook and tome to volume, as far as I can understand. Furthermore, Word suggests a format of Latin numerals for Volume and a decimal number for Issue. So I put the tome data into Volume and the cahier data into Issue. The resulting citation was like "....., XV(24), .....", i.e. the tome first and inside brackets was the cahier number.
So then I started thinking whether this is correct, given that the journal lists them in the reverse order.
The question, then, is: does cahier correspond to Volume and tome to Issue, or is it the other way round? (Or is there another interpretation?)
(Just a thought: maybe their mindset was to treat this as a postal address, where the most inclusive part of the address (e.g. the country) goes last. So with them the tome goes last.)


texts: Demand code and/or data as a condition of peer review?

texts:
It is still relatively uncommon for social scientists to share data or code as a part of the peer review process. I feel that this practice runs contrary to notions of replicability and reproducibility and have a desire to voice opposition to instances in which manuscripts are submitted without data and code.

Where, however, is such opposition appropriately expressed?

I am specifically curious about whether or not it is appropriate to refuse to review an article in the absence of code or data.

UPDATE

I'm going to watch this for a couple of days to see what surfaces. FYI I cross-posted this to Andrew Gelman (http://andrewgelman.com/2015/09/14/its-not-so-easy-to-share-data-and-code-and-there-are-lots-of-bureaucrats-who-spend-their-time-making-it-even-more-difficult/) for those who are interested in seeing his response and the response of his followers...


texts: What is the etiquette for resubmitting math papers?

texts:
I have two math papers I have submitted for publication. Unfortunately neither paper was publishable in their original form. Both times I received a write up of the subject by the reviewer. I was particularly impressed by the write up on my second paper.

I have a couple of difficulties. I have now received quality feedback from another mathematician, but I can’t find references to the subject matter. I worry this information is from a class and not published material. Also I now have an unknown person who has provided feedback from an unknown source. How do I credit an unknown referee?

My last paper had what the editor considered a fatal error near the end of the paper. If I am resubmitting a paper to a different publication what is proper to mention about the earlier submission?


texts: Just missed grad school application deadline..what can I do?

texts:
update: My application has already been accepted! Thanks to everyone who has provided me valuable suggestions. I really appreciate your help! This is an important lesson to me: "Don't leave your work until the last minute"

I just missed the my grad school application deadline....... This is the biggest and most serious mistake I ever made in my life...

This university locates in the Central timezone so I assumed its application deadline was 11:59pm CST. Before I submitted my application, I rechecked everything out of a habit. Then I clicked to submit my application at 11:10pm CST but found that it couldn't be submitted because I was unable to choose the term of enrolment. I first thought it was an internet or technical problem so I restarted my search engine a few times but it still didn't work. At that time, I realized that the deadline might be in EST! (confirmed, as I could still choose term of enrollment for my application to another department in the same university whose deadline is at a later time).

I already sent the department with screenshot of my application with time displayed on the side, along with my application materials. I will also be calling the department first thing in the morning tomorrow to make an appeal. Taking the advice provided by the folks who responded to my question, I am also going to contact my prospective advisor for help.

Is there anything else I can do?


texts: What does the status "under editor evaluation" entail after a 4-month review phase?

texts: I just found out that the review status changed to "under editor evaluation" after a four-month review. This seems to be a new status information in the Elsevier Review System. What's the difference between "decision-in-progress" and "under editor evaluation"?


texts: How to reply to reviewer's positive comment more naturally?

texts:
I want to reply to the reviewer's comment (see below) on my paper,

  My concerns have been addressed satisfactorily and the paper is acceptable.

My own reply would be like:

  Your recognition of our work is much appreciated.

or

  Your encouraging comment is greatly appreciated.

However, it seems unnatural to read, How to give an more appropriate reply?


texts: Selecting Journals or Conferences to publish research work

texts:
I am working on a multidisciplinary subject which involves mechanical engineering, chemical engineering and chemistry. I have a decent amount of research completed and now I need to select a journal to publish my work. How do I select a good journal to publish my papers?
Also for the same topic I need to select conference to present. How do I select that too?


texts: Realizing no one at my school does quite what I want to do

texts:
In short: I'm three years into my Ph.D. program, have learned some things about what I seem to be good at and what not so much, and have realized I don't have as much in common with my advisor's research goals as I thought. We talked about me switching advisors, but discovered that anyone else at the university is an even worse match. I'm now facing the question of whether to:

Do what I'm good at, but with not much guidance from my advisor;
Do what my advisor works on, although this has not been very productive so far;
Switch universities, despite having 3 years getting to know my current institution.

Probably relevant is that my field often has very small groups; I'm currently my advisor's only student and had basically been working with just him. So I am not abandoning a large group project.
In slightly more detail: halfway through my first year I began working with my advisor, on a sort of toy project to 'test me out', I think. He does computational work and wanted to apply a new algorithm to a particular set of problems. My background is also heavily computational, so I could understand the algorithm very well, but I do not know much at all about the problems we were trying to apply it to. This became a continual sticking point. We worked on this for about a year and a half, and it turned out to be quite a bit trickier and slower than we thought. We never got any results, although often feeling like we were "just a few issues away". On my own, I was continuing to learn things about algorithmic problems in our field and wrote them up as notes.
Last summer I showed a couple of these notes to my advisor, and he said they might be interesting, but he didn't know much about those topics at all and couldn't give much feedback. He said -- quite reasonably -- that I should focus on our main project, as I should have real work to present by the end of my third year (roughly, this coming May, so maybe 9 months after he said this). I tried sending the notes to a couple of other contacts I had who would know about it, but they were both too busy to read them. I put them on the shelf.
Over winter break I chatted about my notes with a friend-of-a-friend who has a hobbyist's interest in the field, and he suggested just emailing the notes to a 'big name' in the field. Reluctantly I tried this with the first note and was quite surprised when the 'big name' got back with positive feedback encouraging me to publish. I uploaded the first note to arxiv and got good feedback via email. Upon this further encouragement, I spoke to my advisor and said I would like to pursue this type of work further. He agreed that we've been doing so well has not worked out well and that perhaps we should change projects, or maybe I look for a new advisor at my institution.
We've basically dropped the 1.5-year project, and are switching to a much simpler shorter problem to prove the algorithm. It will be a much less interesting thing in the end, but we want something to write given the work we've done. We looked around the university and found no one who actually knows anything about what I've written about. This is disappointing because it's a topic I want to pursue. There are other universities I could go to with people much more interested in my work. My second paper is almost done now, it resolves a well-studied open problem in the same subfield (so is generally something people are excited about), and is again something no one at my institution knows anything about. I'm quite lost on what to do moving forward.