texts: Do you agree that cheating on exams provides an unfair advantage? Do you think it is “okay” to tell on your peers?

texts:
This is inspired by another persons question regarding weather or not it is okay to tell on your peers for cheating during exams.

Since I am new to the site, I am having difficulty responding to the question, so I’m making a question instead.

Some people commented to this question and said that you are not giving a cheater an unfair advantage because students are “not competing against one another.”
My question is how do you think this is true?
Students are responsible for their own learning, and as a result of that, are not directly affected by another persons cheating.
I beg to differ.

Other students cheating does affect other students, or we wouldn’t have to ask questions like this.

It IS an unfair advantage, in many ways, here is an example of just one:

Student A studied hard for his/her midterm. She/he arrived prepared with only 4 hours of sleep.
Student B hardly studied, with plans on passing by cheating off his/her friend that was sat next to them.
Student B and his/her helpful friend, let’s call him/her student C, are seated directly behind student A.

This is the way this plays out:
During the exam, student B and student C begin to whisper every time the prof makes his rounds to the other side of the room. It is a big lecture hall, and the professor can not hear them on the other side of the room.
But, all the other students around B and C sure can.
Student A is becoming frustrated.
The whispering is quite distracting to him/her, and dispite his/her delicate “shhh” every time B and C begin their routine, the whispering continues.
At one point, A even turns to B and C and asks “can you please stop talking. This is an exam- you shouldn’t be talking.”
B ans C continue to talk.
Student A, although successful with her studies and a good student in general, has a common problem: test anxiety. Now, she has become distracted.
She has a moral discontent as she does not want to “rat out” her fellow students during the exam.
However, she is now struggling with her answers, as her anxiety has been activated, and she is having a hard time concentrating.
As a result of this, Student A gets a much lower mark than she would have had she not been distracted during the exam. Student B gets a much higher mark due to Student C helping him/her during the test.

So, my question is this. How is this NOT an unfair advantage?

In fact, regardless of how a student may cheat (distracting or not distracting) HOW is this not an unfair advantage?

Students who study for their tests, and do not cheat, show up to the exam fully prepared. Often they are tired from the preparation, as studying for exams is 100% exhausting.
Students who cheat don’t have to commit so much time or resources to exams (or anything). They can get more sleep, enjoy their out of school activities, and still pass the exam due to cheating.
In some cases, the cheater may even score higher than someone who actually studied.
How is that fair?
Also, considering GPA and the advantages of having a high one for scholarship application, and job competition down the road, I fail to see how cheaters do not affect other students.
Another point worth mentioning, is the moral dilemma that the cheating student places on their peers.
To tell or not to tell?

If anyone has any other points regarding this, please feel free to share... and if you are a cheater- you should seriously consider applying yourself in a way that reflects your true intelligence.
Why put yourself at risk?

In answer to the original posting, and just to be clear, I do not think there is anything wrong with reporting your peers for cheating. Especially when it affects your own grade that you studied hard for.


texts: How to cite the terminology that has different meanings in different contexts but with the same name?

texts:
For example, I am conducting research in "human attention".

Two papers both use the terminology "attention maps". However, actually one paper refer "attention maps" as "gaze maps" and the other refer "attention maps" as "importance maps". They are both right as "gaze maps" and "importance maps" are just the sub-classes of "attention maps". The terms "gaze maps" and "importance maps" are just made up by me to clarify the two concepts.

Normally, when I cite other people's work, I just use their terminology directly. But now I have to cite them both with the same name. How to deal with this situation？ Is there a conventional way?


texts: Malfunctioning social media buttons on a conference website

texts:
The website of a conference that will take place soon (next month), offers social media buttons that should redirect the website visitor to the corresponding social media page or account, but when I click the Facebook button I get redirected to "Sorry, this page isn't available" and when I click the twitter button I get redirected to "Sorry, that page doesn't exist!" messages.

Is this normal?


texts: APA7 citation - What to use for 'location' of an online conference poster/presentation

texts:
Since there's quite a few online or virtual (i.e. not in person) conferences happening these days (e.g. the 2020 AGU Fall Meeting), what do people use for the 'Location' field in a full citation? Section 10.5 of the APA7 style guide says:

Provide the name of the conference or meeting and its location in the source element of the reference.

I've seen people use 'online' or 'virtual' for the location, but is it ok to just leave out the conference location and put down the conference name itself in this case? Or is there a better way?
Example of a non-online conference citation to use:

Evans, A. C., Jr., Garbarino, J., Bocanegra, E., Kinscherff, R. T., & Márquez-Greene, N. (2019, August 8–11). Gun violence: An event on the power of community [Conference presentation]. APA 2019 Convention, Chicago, IL, United States. https://convention.apa.org/2019-video

where the Conference Name is 'APA 2019 Convention' and the location (City, State, Country) is 'Chicago, IL, United States'. If it's an online Conference, should we use something like 'APA 2019 Convention, virtual.' or an alternative format?
References:

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/conference-presentation-references
How do you cite from a presentation or poster at a conference?


texts:
Being an editor of a journal can be time-consuming, but has obvious benefits (especially if one enjoys reading and reviewing manuscripts). So I expect many academics have a desire to become an editor.

I have never seen an advertisement for a position on an editorial board, which leads me to believe that most positions are not filled this way.

How do most people become editors, and how might a person wishing to become an editor achieve this (without setting up a new journal)?


texts: Should I stop applying faculty positions after I take on a postdoc job

texts:
I may have a postdoc job offer. The professor for the postdoc still hesitates to make a final decision and asked me if I can confirm my commitment (working for at least one year). I have finished one-year postdoc (not at the professor's institution) and have been very actively looking for faculty positions.

If I make the commitment, does that mean I have to stop applying faculty positions, at least for the first year? I am not sure if this is common practice for postdoc-supervisors.


texts: Reapplying for a PhD with a Master's degree

texts:
I am a senior undergrad studying internationally and majoring in electronics. I applied to graduate physics programs in the US. I was able to get into some schools, but not the top ones. I have accepted the offer from University of Minnesota for the PhD along with a Master's.

However, I got a few great positions in the upcoming summer and a couple of papers which seem to be completely deal breaking. I also have a feeling that my undergrad major might have been a problem so getting a master's could be helpful.

I wanted to reapply for grad school with my Master's (along with good GPA). There is a lot of negativity in academia about transfer students. However, I want to make it absolutely clear that I am not talking about transfer student. I want to reapply as a first-year graduate student. And, I am also not bothered by getting recommendation letters from UMN. I can get sufficient letters from other professors.

I contacted a few schools asking about it. They said I can obviously reapply as a first-year graduate student (that's what I want). But many people (on the internet) say that it is something that is highly frowned upon, and this decreases the chances of admission (even with Masters). I want to get some perspective as to what extent is it common, and how much is it frowned upon?


texts:
I have recently been promoted to associate professor with tenure. But I want to relocate to another institution of similar rating. Is it possible to get an offer with tenure from another institution in the US? How common/uncommon is it in the US? Advices on the procedure with respect to the US academia will be highly appreciated.
The central part of my question is about the possibility for retaining the 'tenured' status at the mid-career move (e.g., how common it is and how to negotiate).


texts: How do I ask for an extension to revise a manuscript submitted to an Elsevier journal?

texts:
I have submitted an article to an Elsevier journal and received the manuscript with reviewer comments and a "revision response due date" within the Elsevier evise system.

I am unable to meet that deadline and I need to ask for an extension. I assume it would be the most usual way to ask the editor, and I have done so about a week ago and not received an answer yet.

Now I wonder if there is any way to do this within evise. But if I click on "Agree to Revise" from what I understand I'm asked to submit the actual revised version already (see screenshot). I don't really dare to click the "Confirm" button to advance but may that be the way to ask for an extension also?

What would be the usual way to ask for an extension?


texts: Statistically which fields have higher probability of Grad School acceptance? What about tenure track opportunities?

texts:
Are there any studies regarding the grad school acceptance rate of various disciplines? Moreover, are there any studies regarding grad school to tenure success rate?

I'm trying to understand which fields (or subfields) are more "lucky" (so to say) from undergraduate to tenure. Other interesting metrics I am interested in are grad school graduation rate, number of PostDoc opportunities etc... Are there such comprehensive studies?


texts: I got rejected from MSc program, should I tell my supervisor about the decision?

texts:
I was sure my application was going to get accepted but unfortunately, it wasnt.Should I email my research supervisor to explain to him that I will not be his future student? Is there a way that he could fight for me?

Added information in comment:

To be honest, my supervisor received an email from the committee asking him why they should accept me. I am 100% sure he forgot to send them the letter explaining why he wants me as a MSc student. Otherwise, they are unreasonable for rejecting because we already formulated the research proposal etc. How can I email my supervisor about this?


texts: How to share responsibility for part of my advisor's project, which I did not create and I am insecure about?

texts:
I am a first semester PhD student, working in the planning of an experiment that is on a funded project from my advisor. I am not paid by this project, the professor has not spent grant money on me. I did not participate in the writing of the project proposal, but I read it before applying. I wrote my research plan aligned, in general terms, with the project's topic, which interests me. The project, as planned, was supposed to be carried out by a team. The experiment was supposed to be ongoing when I arrived.

I have seen myself in the position of becoming the main responsible for this experiment in the past few weeks. I have many operational tasks, like buying material to build it, making drawings and specs, actually doing some of the manual work of building things, etc. This is taking anywhere between a third and two-thirds of my time, for a given week. I have expressed to an experienced co-worker who is kind of a lieutenant to my advisor that I feel like I am not making progress as fast as I should.

I see some positive sides to this situation:

This can be a sign of trust in me.
Being new here, I want to help the group and establish good relations.
My advisor is an important researcher in his field, I trust his judgement on finding interesting research topics, and I feel the experiment may actually lead to something good.

However, I have some concerns:

The experiment was very vaguely specified in the proposal. I thought they would have advanced when I arrived, and I would only help and learn, but I'm having to compensate this.
This is costing more money than they had anticipated. I found out that equipment that was supposed to be available is not. As the cost goes up, this thing becomes "too big to fail" and the immobilized capital makes it harder to just stop it.
I feel like it may be using me as free labor just to get something the research group needs done.
I currently don't have enough time to actually improve my research plan or even study properly, with all this "operational" work.
I have a hunch that the experiment's goal could be achieved with a much cheaper, quicker "numerical experiment" or "model blind test", but this idea came a little late in the process and I don't have time to formulate it better.
I don't want to say it like the plan was a half-baked idea.
Most importantly, I don´t want to become a slave to this experiment, being the main or sole responsible for treating the results, dealing with the possible shortcomings of it´s conceptualization, etc.

What strategies and etiquette would you recommend to share responsibility and keep the option of "going rogue" or pursuing something else and becoming detached from this experiment later on?

I have thought of the following:

Asking for more time and make this experiment more "mine", by developing some sketches and ideas that I have for it.
Asking if we can involve a Master's student to help me.


texts:
Currently, I am applying for PhD positions at United States and Canadian Universities. I will be 35 when I start my PhD in Computer Science/Machine Learning, and probably I will finish it around the age of 40.

Will I be banished from academic positions considering a possible PostDoc time and what about industry positions ? Should I plan my study towards industry or academia from the research perspective ?


texts: What are the basic things to keep in mind in order to write a good looking paper?

texts:
Recently my advisor told me to write a paper up on a problem I have been working on, on my own. Since I have never written one before, I wanted to ask what are the essential ingredients one needs to keep in mind in order to write a good paper. Till now I understand that the following things are important:

Reducing typos and grammatical mistakes.
Proper references.
A good introduction which describes the work's justification and relevance, and its connection to existing ideas in literature.
Catchy but not cheesy title.
Nice writing style. I like to describe one idea per sentence/point, which sequentially connect to each other.
An adequate mixture of words and equations such that the content is easy to follow. Basically not too many words in the same place, and not too many equations either.
Asking some people to review the drafts.

Apart from this, are there some obvious things which I am missing which are very essential?


texts: Statistical analysis plan giving away some of my results, Reviewer 2

texts:
Context: At the end of the methodology section, I explain that I will apply an ANOVA to check if at least one condition is different, then I will investigate using multiple comparisons.
The reviewers argue that I am giving away some of my results. Since I mention that I will do multiple comparisons, I am indicating that indeed at least one of the conditions differs.
How can I reformulate my analysis plan (or change my write-up) to accommodate the reviewers? Alternately, what could I answer the proverbial reviewer #2 if I want to keep the same write-up?


texts: Should I tell about my inexperience in my cover letter?

texts: I am a 16 year old with hardly any experience in the academic field and have shown a certain degree of unprofessionalism in the initial draft of my first paper. Should I state this in the cover letter and probably apologize for that?


texts: My paper is in R&R but I have concerns about the data quality. What should I do?

texts:
I am co-authoring a paper and I am the 2nd author on this paper. We submitted the paper and it got generally positive reviews. The reviewer comments were not difficult to address. I have put a lot of time into this paper, and I am in an early and important stage in my career, so publishing is important to me.
The issue is that I don't believe the results of our study. My coauthor has sent me the data to address some of revisions, and some of the effect sizes are uncomfortably large. I worry that there has been a severe methodological issue that is now impossible to diagnose. I have spent a long time trying to figure out what could be wrong, with no success. My concerns are limited to one study only; the other studies replicate this effect but do not have impossible large effect sizes. I have asked my colleague about this and am awaiting a reply. Revisions are due in a few days.
Presuming they want to proceed with the submission, my options (as I see them) are to:

Do nothing. The paper will likely get published and I can ignore it. The paper is in my field, but I don't plan to follow up on this particular effect.

Retract my authorship and let my coauthor go it alone. Have nothing to show for my effort. Risk making a rash decision based on something potentially minor-- but without discovering any new information, I may never know.

What should I do?


texts: Post-doctoral research statement/project: current/future vs thematic

texts:
I am currently applying for several post-doctoral positions. For these applications I have to prepare a research document in which I present my current research and my future projects in a limited amount of pages (typically not more than 4 or 5). But there is two possible organisations of ideas:

1) A first approach would be to present first my past and current
research topics and then my future projects.
2) A second approach consists in a thematic organization in which I present for each topic
my past and current research and what I plan to do in this topic in
the future. Some topics can be only past/current and some other only
long-term project.

What is the best organization ?


texts: Should I share my extensive notes summarizing literature in my field?

texts:
Before and during my PhD (that I just recently finished) I have been taking notes summarizing basically everything I have read in my field (articles/monographs/dissertations). The notes are structured as nested lists with points ordered as they appear in the reference, with a page reference to each point. The notes are written in markdown with one file for every reference being summarized. There are around 220 of them so far. Some points in the lists are direct quotes, marked up as such. They sometimes include my own comments (which are typically critical, otherwise I don't have reason to comment) in square brackets.

Now, I had the idea of making these notes available as a GitHub repo and to mention it in my blog. I would have found it useful if other researchers did something similar, as I could then see what they found interesting about a particular work and I could make searches in their notes to find relevant references for stuff I am working on. What are the pros and cons of making these notes available? I have spent a huge amount of work reading literature and compiling these notes, and I am bothered by the thought of someone "stealing" my work, but at the same time I am thrilled by the thought of them being of use to others. The notes won't be very citable as such since they are only summaries of other works and anyone who finds them useful would have to go to the original source anyway, meaning I won't get much credit if people do find them useful.

I would keep adding to and editing the notes after they are made available.


texts: Can we modify some part of a standard benchmark? Will the results be accepted by the community?

texts: I am researching on spinlock synchronization method used in parallel applications. Unfortunately most of the standard benchmarks in the parallel computing area use another type of synchronization method called mutex locks. I am thinking to replace mutex locks in these benchmarks with spinlocks and get the results? Will the results be still considered by the scientific community if I inform the modifications done to the benchmarks? Will that be a valid claim? Any pointer in this matter is highly appreciated.


texts: Do any scientific publishers have a stated commitment to authors regarding copyright infringement?

texts:
Within the debate of whether science should move to an Open Access / CC-license scheme, or remain with a more traditional scheme where the authors transfer copyright to the publisher, one argument that gets made relatively often is that the latter provides a better defence against copyright breaches. I would like to know how much this argument actually works in favour of the author.
One good example of this argument is made in the position paper Publishers seek copyright transfers (or transfers or licenses of exclusive rights) to ensure proper administration & enforcement of author rights, by the STM Association, which states among other points that

In general, publishers in the field of science, technology and medicine (STM) prefer assignments over licences, mainly because:

authors are rarely in a position to defend themselves against infringers, plagiarists, pirates and free-riders, partly due to financial considerations; [...]

Thus, an assignment enables the publisher: [...]

to react more rapidly to copyright infringements, unauthorised derivatives and plagiarism;

This position is endorsed, for example, by the IOP, in their Introduction to Copyright leaflet.
However, this argument only works in as much as the interests of the publisher and the author are aligned, which is not necessarily the case.

For one, it may be in the publisher's interest to stop copyright violations agreed to, or initiated, by the author, as in the Elsevier takedown notices to academia.edu last december. (Note, though, that I am not claiming these are wrong or that it is right for authors to violate agreements they have signed.)

On the other hand, if a copyright violation occurs and the author objects to it, it may or may not be a good business case for the publisher to take legal action against it, and the sort of outcomes that will be acceptable to the publisher may not be in line with what the author needs.

Dealing with bad-faith copyright violations is definitely a problem and Open Access is not ideally equipped to deal with them. (That is: if someone brazenly republishes in violation of a CC license (i.e. lack of attribution, unendorsed+unlabelled modifications, commercial use of a CC-BY-NC article, or such), how can the author sue?) However, it's not clear to me that the alternative does work in the interest of the author.
So, my question is: do any scientific publishers have stated policies about their actions in the case of copyright violations, or stated commitments to authors regarding this? It would seem a fair counterpart of the publishing contract, where the author hands over the rights of the text in return for a commitment to disseminate and defend it, but this is not usually how the scientific publishing business works in my experience.
Failing that, I would be interested in evidence, either public, statistical or anecdotal, about publishers' behaviour in such cases, though I know these are not easy to come by.


texts: Presenting a new work in different seminars in the same department

texts:
I work in mathematics and sometimes my work is on the border of two different subjects: analysis (my main specialization) and geometry. In my department there are both analysis seminar and geometry seminar.

Is it common to present the same new work in both seminars if I believe that the work might represent some interest to both groups?

If it matters, I am working in an American university and I am relatively new in this country.


texts: Is there a particular structure that a research lab should have?

texts:
I want to know if a research lab at a university should normally include specific roles in order to be considered a lab ?
I explain, for a newly joining Ph.D. student, i expect the lab to include a post-doc and at least other Ph.Ds, is it reasonable expectations ?
Thanks for clarifying this.


texts: How to search for an open access journal with no publication fee?

texts:
I'm having some trouble trying to find a place to publish. Therefore this question is about how to find these places.

For this I provide the following example, my particular case.

I'm searching for:

A journal, not a conference, workshop, etc.
Where publishing is free (no cost for processing the paper)
That is open access (no cost for readers)
Where the reviews are transparent/public. I.e. anyone can follow the review process
Where my drafts are also public (for people to follow the review process) The point is that I would like not to need arxiv.org or similar services to dissuade reviewers from shifty actions
In the field of computer science theory (like lambda calculus and such)
LaTeX should be accepted, this is very important
I don't need trees dying, online publishing is fine
I don't care about impact factors, as long as the journal is trustworthy

This is my particular case, but I'd like to make clear that I'm not asking for this specific fish for me, but for a good method about how to fish that can be useful for everybody in academia, specially those that are new and do not have this kind of knowledge.

PD: maybe a workaround would be using two services where one should be. Now I am thinking about uploading the paper to arxiv.org (or similar) and asking for reviews and comments on cstheory (or similar). I think that would meet all requirements and implicit requirements (implicit for journals) as allowing citations on my paper, proving authorship, etc. I'm not sure about being overlooking something or which considerations should be done to find the right place(s) to publish in this new context.


texts: Length of a master's thesis and its literature review?

texts:
I am pretty confident that I will be getting answers pointing out that this is something too specific and should/will be decided by my university and that a general answer does not exist. But anyway, I just want to have an idea.

I was aiming at 120 pages of my upcoming marketing master's thesis but I thought that I could reduce it to 100 (pure text speaking of course as I am pretty sure that with references and appendices, it will be +120 though). So what is the average length of a master's thesis? Business and marketing field. As for what I've found online, the general consensus seems to be between 60 and 120 pages.

As for its literature review length, again, the general consensus seems to be between 20% and 40% of the overall thesis length, any personal experience with that? I was aiming at 50% but after doing some research, I am decreasing it to somewhere between 20% and 30%. However my instructor demanded it to be between 30% and 40%.

Thoughts?


texts: How important are GRE Quant scores for a PhD applicant for B-schools?

texts:
I will be applying for a PhD in Management and Business in non-Math / economics related topics. I have been out of touch with calculus for a few decades and while I am studying hard, I am not sure that I will reach the top percentile in GRE in quantitative papers.

My question is: How important are GRE quant scores to the Academic committee of Businesses school PhDs? Esp. the top 20 schools in USA / Canada?

What if I have reasonably good work experience (25 years) across the world (Asia - Far East and London - does this make any difference?)?


texts: Failed for the first time in the last unit of my graduation. What options do I have?

texts:
I have failed the very last unit, which is my first fail for my combined degree course. I haven't failed any of the in-semester assessments, nor have I failed any other units in my course. I was curious as to what options I would have? The circumstance, I would say, are exceptional as it is the only  element that is holding me from graduation. I also haven't missed any of my classes.

Any advice would be highly appreciate it - if I can provide any information, please let me know.


texts: Do US universities publish an official definition of what constitutes a particular race/ethnicity in the context of scholarships or admissions?

texts:
As an example, let's say someone with 1/16 of African American heritage applies for a minority scholarship and claims themselves as African American. Would they be rejected, all other factors being equal? If so, do universities generally publish a guideline of what constitutes a particular race in the context of scholarship applications or college admissions?

Note that this question is of practical value as there are presumably millions of people of mixed heritage living in the US at the moment.


texts: The concept of solid when it is used about the contribution of a paper

texts:
My Question:

What does it mean when the reviewer wrote the following sentence

The contribution is quite solid

Thanks in advance


texts: What to do after I was named as co-author on a paper, without my consent?

texts:
A few years ago, I found a conference paper, of which I was a co-author, being re-published as an article in a (not highly ranked) journal. It was a textbook example of plagiarism, copy-pasting whole sections and using figures from our paper, which the author did not even cite. The author came from a foreign country and was an associate professor.

My co-author wrote an email to the author who committed plagiarism and asked him for an explanation. After a while, he admitted his misconduct (a soft version of it); his explanation was that he forgot to cite our paper. As a settlement, he suggested a new article to be written together with us. Without consent, he wrote a new article (in his language) and published it in another lowly ranked journal, putting himself as first author. I was listed as a co-author without being able to comment on the idea of writing this paper and without approving its content before publication. For me, it looked pretty much like a (self-)plagiarism---a translation of the original English paper. But, at that time, we did not want to further complicate this weird situation.

My question is how to deal now with this article I co-authored and could even be treated as a kind of self-plagiarism. May/should/must I exclude it from my CV?

PS. The publication of the journal we are talking about stopped five years ago. So, it is not possible to contact the editor any more.


texts: Is it true, that there are/can be associate professors, full professors and University provosts without doctorate in the Western Continental Europe?

texts:
There is legislative proposal in our small country (Republic of Latvia, Baltic Country, European Union) that proposes to allow elected associate professors, full professors and provosts of the research universities to be without doctorate (e.g. PhD or MD or other doctorate). The authors of proposal are saying that anglo-saxon and Western European countries have tradition (even Stanford University) to have such positions filled with persons not having doctorate.
I can not believe this. Doctorate degree is so common in academia, I can understand that only junior lecturers and assistant professors can be without doctorate (with mandatory master degree). But starting from associate professors - degree should be a must in science and medical studies.
Is there clarification available under which circumstances the Continental Western European research universities allow associate, full professors and provosts to be without doctorate (e.g. PhD or MD) (I mean specifically doctorate in medicine, and no just the professional qualification).
My question applies specifically to the Continental Western Europe starting from Germany and Austria and going to the West. My question applies to the research and technical universities, not the Tertiary Art education (in which it is fair to have professional degrees). The previous version of this question applied to Anglo-Saxon countries as well but I was reminded about similar US specific question, as well as there were comments about distinct UK traditions. So - there are a lot of information on Academia site about US and UK, so, I narrowed this question to the laws and practices of Continental Western Europe.
I edited question once more - I replaced wording "PhD/MD" with "doctorate". Of course, my question is about doctorate generally, not about particular type of doctorate as PhD or MD.
If this question gathers enough proof that such legislative proposal is contrary to the traditions of the Western Universities, then I can bring this proof to the authors of the proposed legislation to question their true intentions.


texts: Is it a negative that my PhD research has been in several unrelated areas?

texts:
I'm a PhD student in Computer Science. Long story short: I do not have a good relationship with my advisor. I don't trust his guidance or his ethical integrity. Therefore, I am seeking external advice for my situation.

During my PhD I got one paper accepted in a first tier conference, two papers accepted in a second tier conferences, and other papers published in workshops and minor conferences. I have one journal paper accepted.

However, not all the work is on the same topic but it is scattered among three, mostly unrelated, subjects. Now my PhD is ending.

Is it negative that my work has been on three unrelated subjects?

(I cannot find a topic that allows me to merge all my results in my PhD thesis, I have to leave out at least half of my work.)


texts:
In my small research paper (Bachelor level, university of applied sciences) that I'm writing for my internship, I want to make use of certain frames from videos that have been published by the company I'm interning at to showcase their product.

Now I'm wondering how I should go about including the source for the still (and while I'm at it, different materials).

Currently APA is used for all citations, now I'm left wondering how I should incorporate sources such as:

A frame from a video (the timestamp might not be accurate enough, considering the video's are 30 frames per second?)
Internal documentation/communication/imagery which will never be released to the public
screencaptures of 3D models

the question is quite straightforward for source number 1, however, for sources 2 and three it might not be so simple.

Source types 2 & 3 have either a group of authors, no authors mentionned, or a single author.
They also are highly confidential, and it is quite a lot of material.

So, my questions are:

How do I go about citing a specific frame of a video?
How do I deal with citing confidential information

Another consideration is the sheer amount of information, we're talking hundreds of documents, images and videos. Do I actually have to cite each one individually?

Considering most imagery used in my research will be put in the appendix, with it's own caption, do I need to incorporate the citation part ((company name, author, year)) within the caption? Or how should I handle this?


texts: Being in "Reviewer invited" state for 3 months, What could it say?

texts:
For a math journal, after 4 weeks of submission, the status went from "with editor" to "reviewer invited", and its been in that particular state for the past 3 months. If you have any editorial experience, I'd like to know when would this kind of state happens, and does it say anything about the manuscript content, especially why the editor is finding hard to get the reviewers accept invitation, or is it that the reviewers for the subject matter of the paper, are rare to find?

Edit : more informtion

I have enquired. The Editorial Manager assured me that the Editor is carefully following and taking good care of the review process. What I have seen in earlier communication with Editor, I have no reason to doubt his interest in the manuscript. He seemed very much interested.

Earlier communication with Editor in Chief


texts: How to tell a Prof you are no longer applying to a PhD program at his university?

texts:
I am about to apply to Computer Science PhD programs to start Fall 2018. In the process of researching programs I have met with many Profs in fields I was interested in to (a) learn more about their research/fields (b) see if they were likely to be taking PhD students in the Fall. Having done this I now have a better idea of what I am interested in. As such, I've decided not to apply to one of the universities of one of the Professors I met, as I don't think it's the research area I'm most interested in (even though he is very distinguished in his field and at a prestigious university).

Even still, the area the Professor works in has some overlap with the area I plan to do my PhD in. So even though I don't want to apply to work under him, I will likely run into him again. And if an appropriate topic came up, it would be interesting to collaborate with him at some point on the future.

So I'm wondering what is a sensible, professionally-appropriate way of sending him an email to say that I'm not applying to the program at that university because I've decided it's not the research area I'm most interested in, but I would like to stay in contact? Partly, I feel like it would be kind of awkward to run into him one day and have him think, "Oh yes... you're the guy who said he was interested in applying to work with us and then we never heard from again."


texts: I solved their problem. Should I involve them?

texts:
I have dedicated time and effort to solve a theoretical problem posed by two other people.
Now I think I have resolved it, and I have material for a publication.

Should I involve them as co-authors?

Here are more details:

those other two people (hereafter, "they") are academics (as I am), but not colleagues: I have met one of them once, the rest of contact was by e-mail.
while I resolved their problem, I have no idea of the relevance or applicability of it (they are in a less theoretical field than I am). I assume they do;
their only contribution has been to make me aware of the open problem I resolved;
my work has developed completely independently, with methods, techniques and formalism utterly different from theirs; indeed, I think they'd never have been able to reach the result with their approach;
at one point, they informally made me their collaborator, by just saying "welcome to the project" by e-mail, and sending me a draft of their attempts to resolve the problem; we had very little contact on the project, besides that;
one of them is "strategically relevant" for me: despite the mere feeble connection established by the fact that we were working on the same problem, he provided recommendation letters and proactively promoted me when I was in need;
I already have a paper illustrating my solution; however, since I don't have the competence to understand how this result is useful in the application domain, my paper at the moment is missing proper introduction, conclusions, and, generally, context;

One strategy could be to publish two disjoint papers, one with their problem with due context, and the other with my solution.

However, I would like to hear any piece of advice or consideration on how to move: I would like to do what is globally most convenient for me (e.g., balancing the good of having a publication with that of keeping my allies in the academia), while not infringing any ethics.


texts: What do you recommend me doing if my math instructor isn't very good and I know I can learn the same content better elsewhere?

texts:
Currently, my math professor isn't very good and I have had plenty of experience using Khan Academy and my Googling skills. However, I'm afraid that if I diverge from the class, I might accidentally study something he's not testing us. Or he might go out of order and teach us chapter 6 when we're suppose to be on chapter 2. Up to this point he hasn't done anything like that and has actually been very good at keeping on schedule. I have a syllabus with the concepts listed for each day and a textbook to corelate with it. The textbook is incomprehensible but nothing a little Googling and Khan Academy can't solve. I don't mean to be rude but listening to him feels like a waste of time.I would really like to diverge from the teacher

I know other students have been in a similar situation. What do you recommend doing?


texts: Advice needed--reaching out to a potential advisor

texts:
I have applied to a Canadian university for a math PhD starting this fall. I was very keen on working with Prof. A and he in fact, had encouraged me to apply. Few days earlier, I reached out to him for an update on my application status and he replied saying sorry that his funds for this fall are already committed. However, he finished by saying that I may find another advisor to begin my graduate studies.

Now I know this does not mean that I am admitted. But can I reach out to other potential advisors now? As a matter of fact, I have been independently reading some new topics and been finding them much intriguing. Now there is a Prof. B who has similar interests and I like his profile too. Will it be worthwhile to write to him now? If yes, how should I broach this subject? Should I mention Prof. A? I don't want to look pushy, but at this time now, I really want an opportunity to start my graduate studies and Prof. B's interests are very similar to what I've been reading recently.

I am looking forward to your suggestions. Thanks in advance!


texts: What does "principled approach" mean in papers?

texts:
I encounter this term "principled approach" in some papers of computer science. Since I' m not a native speaker, I don' t quite understand what this means. And I didn' t find any results online.

I' m not sure if this site is appropriate for such questions. Please let me know if I posted at the wrong place.


texts: What could/do applicants usually ask professors, and how does this reflect in a statement of purpose?

texts:
When applying for PhD programs (or MPhil or MS) that require only a statement of purpose and not a research proposal, I was advised to first check if some faculty members (or is one good enough?) in the university have the same research interests as I do. I remember reading or hearing something like, it may be helpful to read up on the research that those faculty members have done and possibly contact some of those faculty members, and then incorporate the reading and contacting in the statement of purpose.

So what could I ask those faculty members? What I think:

  Hello Prof/Dr ___ .I'm interested in applying in your univ and am interested in X. Can I ask more about what you research? This is my background (I'm from blah blah blah. I have a master's, but it's in applied not pure math. I've done some self-study blah blah blah). Do you think I am a good fit for the university? Would you consider taking me on as a PhD student? Do you think I am better suited for MS/MPhil than a PhD?

And then how do I incorporate the e-mails in my statement of purpose?


texts: Academic postdoc: Interview process time insights

texts:
I had an informal meeting via Skype for a postdoc position that I am highly interested in, speaking of which, I was invited for a formal interview soon after. I was asked to give a talk to the lab (online) about my PhD work. The talk went well and there were questions that I answered in the best possible way I could. I was then asked to talk to the lab members in the absence of the PI. After that, I asked about the next step in the process and was told that they would reach via email.

How long should I wait before I feel, my chances to get the position, have gone? Should I wait for two to three weeks? What is the normal time for the process to complete? Any insight would quiet my fears.

Thank you for your time.


texts:
I submitted a research paper to a journal in March 2015. One a half month later I got back a major review from one reviewer and a minor from the other. Overall, it was classified as major revision.

It took me two months to inculcate all the suggested points and I re-submitted the improved version on the 3rd of July. The status immediately changed to under review. Since the original reviewer who suggested major revision could not review it this time, the services of a third reviewer were acquired. After four and half months (on 13th of November), I got back yet another major revision.

Is it normal to have a paper reviewed by another reviewer? And what can be the probable outcome? My colleagues were telling me that major review for the second time is very concerning.


texts: Creativity of master students in developing new methods

texts:
I am doing my PhD in data mining / artificial intelligence and am at the beginning of my second year. I have had three master students so far, whose performance varies quite a bit. The worst (he already finished) got a very clear, cut and dry task for his thesis and still did not mange to do it as expected. The best so far (close to the end of his thesis) had a very vague task, and still got pretty nice results. The third is in the middle of his thesis.

In each each case, the really creative ideas, the innovation if you will, always came from me. Currently I have this third student in the middle of his thesis who has quite a few ideas how to use existing techniques, but I get the impression he is not really able to invent his own. Possibly I am not creating a good environment?

My students seem to lack quite a bit in technical know-how (pragmatic aspects of programming), mathematical understanding and knowledge of existing machine-learning methods. This is understandable – the end of your master is by far not the end of learning and I am happy to help them by explaining those things to them. Still, I struggle a little with that, since this is a road blocker. This is just learning, and not yet creating.

Now I have new task that I would like to have solved and which would make a fine master-thesis topic. However, no solution exists for the problem yet and it is pretty challenging, requiring quite a bit of creativity. A more or less completely new algorithm is required.

My questions are:

Is there a point giving this task to a student or should I forget it and solve it myself?
More general: What creativity can I expect from master students to create new methods? Am I expecting too much?
How can I foster creativity in my students?


texts: Straight To PHD or work with an MA as part time professor?

texts:
So I've recently applied for my PHD in Economics and have found a a couple job offers to be a part time professor at a college (not a university) which only require an Masters degree. The contract is for 10 months.

I'm debating whether or not it is beneficial to my  academic career to delay my PHD for the next year for the sake of this teaching position as i am currently under then belief that it will improve my CV.

Which one is a better option?


texts: Is it necessary to publish a research paper while pursuing MS?

texts: Is it necessary to publish a research paper while pursuing MS Degree in the field of Computer Science. Will not publishing one affect your job prospects?


texts: Retake the math GRE... as a grad student, preparing to transfer?

texts:
I'm currently a first year PhD student at a respectable but not top-ranked math program. I'm also confident that I am among the top three first year students in my program. As an undergrad I went to a somewhat prestigious liberal arts school and was valedictorian of my graduating class. I did a little bit of research and took a fair number of upper level classes (although no grad courses) along the way.

In hindsight I can see where the problems lay with my application. As the title of this post suggests, I got a mediocre score on the math GRE. In addition to this, I was kind of a late bloomer as a mathematics student. I didn't start taking many upper level courses until my junior year. The people who wrote my recommendations were not necessarily all that famous either.

So I got into all the programs that I thought I had a good chance of getting into but none of the programs that I thought would be more of a stretch. The one I'm currently attending gave me a good fellowship and I've been doing very well here so far (passing qualifying exams, taking lots of classes and doing well in them). But I honestly feel like I'm not being challenged quite enough.

Long story short, I screwed up on the GRE when I first took it and I want to try to transfer into a top-ranked program now. I've heard plenty of times that top programs will throw out applications with low math GRE scores. But does the same standard hold for grad students applying to transfer? Will programs throw out applications from current grad students if their GRE scores are too low? To be honest I do feel a bit silly thinking about retaking it. Of course, any advice on transferring between programs in general will be greatly appreciated.


texts: Is it okay to cite a Wikipedia page address as a definition of a concept used in my thesis?

texts: I'm using a concept in part of my thesis that is not very well-known, so it's good to give an explanation before going through the rest of the thesis. I'm wondering if I can simply give a Wikipedia page reference for it, so that readers who are not familiar with it can have a look at the given page. For example, let's say I'm using some stuff about Quaternions, can I just add a footnote to the page \footnote{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaternion} instead of repeating the same material in my thesis?


texts: How to answer questions in a conference talk that I should know the answer to, but don't?

texts:
In a few days, I will be giving my first conference talk. I have only spent less than a year in the field, and the talk will be attended by several well-known researches, who are familiar with all of my advisor's work and all of the other literature in the area as well. Of the people in the room, it is probably them who will be listening most intently -- but it is also them who I feel the least well-equipped to answer questions from.

The questions I am most worried about will be about related work. Take it as a given that:

I clearly should know the answer to the question, because the related work is very relevant at a surface-level. Indeed, my advisor is familiar with the work and has told me to try to be prepared for any questions about it.
But I don't know the answer, because I failed to sufficiently prepare. Or, to make some excuses, maybe I am relatively new to the field and have not had a chance to read every paper in full detail. Of course I have tried some to read through this work, and I have gotten from my advisor some idea of how it compares, but I am not nearly so familiar as I should be.

It seems likely that a poor response to such a question will make me come across as incompetent, unfamiliar with related work in the field, and even unfamiliar with the context of our own work. Similarly, this may damage the reputation of our research itself. How can I best respond to such a question, so as to minimize the damage?


texts: Could a Masters degree actually make someone a less employable candidate?

texts:
Let me preface by saying I'm studying Computer Science, so I don't know how well this applies to every field but this is what I have heard from. many Computer Science and Engineering majors.

I have heard that, when applying for jobs, a masters degree can be a sign of poor performance. That is, those with a masters in Computer Science are thought to be significantly poorer programmers than those with an undergraduate.

I am interested in getting a masters degree because I hope to one day transition into more analytical and research based positions, but if I get an MSc. could it hold me back? Would it be better to get some work experience, and then get my masters mid-career? I know that some employers may even pay for your graduate studies, but is this significantly better than the alternative in any sense?


texts: Is it possible to do part of my PhD remotely?

texts: I have following situation. No good quality phd is available in my country (field: computer Science). On the other hand leaving my country for too long is also a little bit difficult for me mainly for family situation. My question is: is it not possible that I negotiate somehow with possible supervisors etc. that I do some part of my Phd remotely? Or say I visit the University for 6 month, then next 6 month I will spend in my country, etc. Or similar arrangements. I know sometimes they call such programs also Sandwich phd programs. Field is computer science so I don't need to be there in some "lab" all the time. Do you know if this is possible? And where/how can I find such programs? Who do I have to "negotiate" it with and how?


texts: How does one modify a statement of purpose to remain effective as the applicant age increases?

texts:
I am getting ready to apply to some biomedical engineering programs this coming fall and I am a bit concerned about explaining why I am applying so late in life. A lot has happened in the ~15 years since I graduated with my first undergraduate degree.

I am concerned about how it will read. If I am honest, I will describe the windy path of a person finding himself and a career (with a number of pivots) and whom going forward wants to be in industry or closely aligned with industry activities. I feel this would be a deal killer as this is not what strong programs want in an applicant.

I will have to address why I am applying I am just wondering if I should selective in what I say to give me the best chances with the admission committee.

Any advice would be much appreciated.


texts: What are the benefits of an MBA to someone with a Computer Science degree?

texts:
I know this is relative to a person's unique situation or career objectives, but generally speaking, what can a Master's in Business administration do for a computer scientist?
The reason I ask is because I have a bachelor's in CS and I jumped right into a semester of my MBA, having it a third of the way finished. But now I am retracted because I'm not exactly sure what will come of this degree.
Will it propel me in my career (opportunity and/or salary) or will it just be a complete waste?
I guess my initial thinking was that an MBA would allow me to be able to manage some software/IT projects being well versed in development as well as the business side of things that stimulate ideas. But now I am wondering if this would even be the best way to achieve that. I'm stuck at a crossroad and would appreciate some feedback, preferably from someone who has experience in these career fields.


texts:
I have been greeting all my professors as "Professor (last name)" in emails I send to them. I think this is normal, but at my university all the professors/lecturers use their first name when ending emails they send.

For example, if the teacher's name was "Joe Smith", they might end an email they send as follows:

Regards,
Joe

This behavior is the case with all of the professors I've had, so it seems to be something that's global to the university. Should I be addressing my professors by their first name in emails? I would have done so already, but I don't want to sound disrespectful. I've looked it up but haven't found any guidelines my university gives on addressing faculty.

Also, I think this question is different from others because as far as I know, my university is an exception with all professors using their first name.


texts: Difference between special issues and regular ones

texts: What the difference between special issues and regular ones from scientific journal publication point of view?


texts: How to judge the reputability of a journal that seems to be of poor quality, but has a distinguished editorial board?

texts:
I happened to visit the website of the IJDEA (International Journal of Differential Equations and Applications) and was wondering – how good is this journal? There was a question here on Academia. SE regarding IJPAM (International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, by the same publisher: Academic Publications Ltd.) and it seems this journal is not up to the mark.

However, IJDEA's Editorial Board has some prominent members from reputed institutions that I just couldn't overlook. For instance:

E.W. Cheney and R.E. Showalter from UT Austin, USA
S.N Chow from the National University of Singapore, Singapore
E DiBenedeto from Northwestern University, USA
A. Fokas from the University of Cambridge, UK
J. Marsden from CalTech, USA
(Late) P.A. Samuelson from MIT, USA
C.W. Shu from Brown University, USA

My question is: Given the presence of such top-class scientists on its editorial board, why are IJPAM/IJDEA and Academic Publications Ltd. considered predatory by Beall's list?

P.S.: I'm assuming that the Editorial Board and quality of articles should be good enough to check the quality of the journal. Please correct me in case I'm wrong.


texts: How to change the title of a paper without harming the citation counts

texts:
Sometimes, after I publish a working paper in arXiv or a refereed paper in a conference, I change the title of the paper. This can be due to several reasons:

A reviewer in a journal I submitted to suggested a better title;
I found out a different paper with a similar title and decided to change my own paper's title to prevent confusion;
I submitted to a double-blind venue and wanted to reduce the chances that the reviewers find my working paper.

My concern is that this title-change might confuse search engines such as Google Scholar. Nowadays, automatic citation counts are counted towards promotion so this consideration should be taken into account.

My question is: how can I change the title of a paper, in a way that will not harm its automatic citation counts?


texts: Status of submitted article changes the date but status remain from 'With Editor' to 'With Editor'

texts: I Submitted a paper 2 months ago, the current status is "With Editor" and the status date of the manuscript (from With Editor to With Editor!) has been changed twice. What does it mean ?


texts:
I am currently writing a report and I have been compiling a list of references (from IEEE mostly) and I also have a number of websites.

  My question is, what is the best way to note a website URL? Would it be to reference and cite a URL, would it be adding a footnote? An example would be a reference to google.com. Would it be the correct to just create a footnote?

I've started to just add a footnote each time a website is mentioned (using LaTeX) so for example if a javascript plugin is mentioned then a footnote would be added to the website URL. How would be best to do this as it would not suffice as a reference as it is just noting a website for further reading. I do not have time to waste be writing the whole report to then have to go back through and edit the document hence my question.


texts: How can I join a university class conducted online as a non-matriculating student during COVID-19?

texts:
I'd like to join a class at a university, as a non-matriculated student, that I can participate in online, due to COVID-19.  I already have a PhD (in a technical field), and am looking to take a class outside of a technical field, with the goal purely being personal intellectual enrichment.  Many universities are moving classes online due to COVID-19, which makes this practical.
I'm not sure how to go about doing this.  It's easy for me to find classes in the field of interest (Middle Eastern history) in various university catalogs, and it's easy for me to see if the university is holding it online or in person.  But I haven't been able to find out which universities will allow me to participate without being a degree seeking student.  I'm not tied down to any one university or any one particular class, but rather any class in my general area of interest that I can fully participate in.  I know that the application deadline for the upcoming semester is very soon (for cases where it hasn't passed).  Can you give me guidance on:

What types of schools will allow such participation?
What is the application process like?
How do I find these?
How do I go about doing this?

Note that I know there are a lot of open classes, MOOCs, Coursera, etc., but that's not what I'm looking for.  I'm looking for the full structure and engagement of a full university class, with papers that will be graded, and the like.

To clarify:

non-matriculated means here "not seeking a degree", only (full) participation in a class
I am happy to pay tuition for this class
I'm located in the US


texts: Please I need a help about co-authors roles?

texts:
I am a PhD student. I thought about 4 main top interesting objectives in my area. I also have done 3 of them totally alone. I have two main supervisors. They only give me a very general comment and feedback such as the English language (they ask me to edit my writing). They also asked me to increase the number of observation of my data. Sometimes they asked me to do something which is not accepted in my topic. I mean it is wrong. I then discuss that with them. I have done the first paper. I did all the computation, Literature review, main idea of my paper, result and everything in the paper.

Now one of my supervisors asked me to join him as a co-author. He said that due to his feedback and comment.!! I sware his comments are very very general.

Is that acceptable? Must I include him as a co-author? Did he have a right to be a co-author in my paper?

Please help me?


texts: Postdoc with full-time appointment while doing business part-time

texts:
I understand that postdocs can be too busy to even sleep, but if we put this aside - would US school allow a postdoc (full time appointment) having his/her own business in spare time? If so, what kind of regulation is applied here? Also, would the mentor be annoyed/alerted by this kind of planning?

I guess the field of the business also matters. For example, if the business is related with research the postdoc is doing, it is probably highly restricted; while being a landlord is something completely different.

Any thought? Thank you in advance.


texts:
I've encountered lots of chalkboards through my career, and they vary widely in quality.  Some write smoothly and erase cleanly; for others, the chalk squeaks and the eraser just smears.

I assume there are differences in the materials they use, the construction techniques, how the surface is prepared or treated, and so on.  But I'm clueless as to what these differences might be, and how they affect the quality.  If I'm looking for a "good" one, what questions should I ask?

(Academics are one of the few groups these days that use chalkboards on a regular basis, so I hope this question is suitable for this site.  Please note that I'm not asking for specific product recommendations, just general information.)


texts: As a DACA student, am I eligible for PhD funding?

texts:
I am a deferred action student, meaning that I apply for in-state resident tuition but I am not a US citizen (non-permanent resident).
I have a work card that allows me to work like any other citizen and pay taxes accordingly.
However, due to me being a non-citizen, I'm concerned that I may not be able to receive funding for PhD. My family does not have a lot of money and we spent a lot of money for my undergrad education (I don't qualify for FAFSA either) so without financial aid, I'm not able to attend graduate school. Even with my part-time job, most of my earnings went into paying for GRE and application fees.

Do university departments offer financial aid to non-citizens (but not international) as well? Most of the departments I saw state that they offer guaranteed funding through the 5th year of a student's PhD but do not explicitly say if it's available to students such as myself.


texts: I have already completed my PhD in Earthquake Engineering with soil dynamics specialization and recently joined as an assistant professor in a state university. In my PhD, although I got couple of publication but I am not satisfied with my work, I could have done way better than what I did in my PhD. So, I want to pursue another PhD in a related field like Geotechnical Engineering. How far it will be effective? And is it possible to apply for another PhD in a related area?Sometimes I feel attracted to change my research direction, I am really fascinated about space and time, would it be a good idea to change my research area to theoretical physics this time, and what are the possibilities to change my research direction into theoretical physics? Please advice.


texts: How to find original conference of the paper on arXiv?

texts:
I found some paper on arXiv that I cannot find the conference. Google show arXiv version first. The paper can't even find on Google Scholar.

For the specific case, this paper:

https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.02774

Search Google for keyword "Crowd Transformer Network" lead to arXiv site above.
Search Google Scholar for keyword "Crowd Transformer Network" does not result in that paper, not to the arXiv copy above either.

If I can't find a conference/journal where the paper come from, does it mean the work is not credible ?

How should I handle this case ?


texts:
Student here. I've worked as a tutor for a while now at a tutoring center. There's one student that I started private tutoring. During the course of their classes they discovered they had a learning disability. I'm infinitely patient so I didn't really notice. Also i'm unfamiliar with this sort of thing so I wanted to break it off just in case there was something I didn't know how to handle. But apparently the student wanted to have a tutor present at all times, and the other tutors were charging up to a hundred dollars an hour to work with this poor soul. I was charging way less than that so I felt some responsibility to be the one to not screw this student over with high prices because everything was going okay and they were learning (or so it seemed). I probably should have just gotten out of there at that point. Time goes on and near the end of the semester they tell me they paid some PhD to take their exam for them. That's a shocker. They also started paying someone to do their homework. They said it was because they would not have an income from a certain organization if they dropped out of school. So basically they would go jobless in a pandemic unless they passed the class. My stupid self still wanted to help them the way I had been doing, explaining things step by step and having them do the problems- and encourage them to stop paying people to do stuff for them. It was awkward to try to tell them that they shouldn't be paying people to do their homework, since they are at least a decade older than myself.
It kept getting worse instead of better. I stuck to my guns and made them work, never answering for them (to their extreme frustration) but now I realize it may have been better to do exactly what I was so committed to not doing: leave them be so they could learn their lesson. I don't tutor them anymore but I still don't know what to do. I didn't want to give up on this student. But I think I was wrong to even take on this work. Should I tell about their cheating? I stopped tutoring them when the end of the semester came, that was a no-brainer. But I don't want them to keep working with whoever it is that's completely taking advantage of the situation, and I also worry that their professors will think it's me who helped them on their exam. I know, I must be a clueless idiot, but that's why i'm asking for help.
And feel free to give me a talking to if that's what I need. I just don't trust my judgement anymore. I'm quitting private tutoring.


texts: How to leave a collaborator after being offered to join a new group?

texts:
How does one leave one collaborative group for another, prior to the start of the research? This relates to switching project teams for graduate course work, switching research labs, or basically dropping any collaboration. How does one do so politely?

My specific situation:

I have been asked today by one of the best teams to join their group for our major University project. However, I have promised my friend 2 months ago that I will join his team.

How can I join the better team without jeopardizing my relationship with my friend?


texts: How do I cite a webpage with no author but a possible corporate author?

texts:
In Harvard style, for links such as: http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/wwe-corporate-world-wrestling-federation-entertainment-drops-the-f, since there's no clear author, I am usually citing it as (title of the webpage year) and then in the reference list as (title of the webpage year, available from URL, viewed...).

However, in this particular case, there is a corporate author which is, simply, the WWE. How do I cite the above link and, in general, almost all websites have corporate authors, how do I distinguish between a corporate author and between a simple page which I can cite as above?


texts: How Credible Is An LOR Without A Letterhead for MS in CS?

texts: I am currently applying for masters in CS. My undergraduate main project, which was later made into an IEEE publication, was done under the guidance of an assistant professor, who is currently pursuing her PhD abroad. Being a student at present, she would be unable to obtain a letterhead from her university. With what degree of credibility would such a recommendation without a letterhead be viewed by admissions committees? Also, will the current credentials of my recommender (PhD student) cause the LOR to be reduced in value? My target universities are in the US, Canada and Europe.


texts: How to physically handle hundreds and hundreds of papers

texts:
I have a bit of a meta-question about academics.

I am a graduate student and teaching assistant.  I often find myself flipping, organizing, and searching through stacks of hundreds and hundreds of sheets of paper, whether I'm grading, reading, or doing research.

I seem to have an issue where my hands get dry quickly, and I find myself licking the tips of my fingers to get better friction.  Sometimes I have to do this quite often, and I am wondering if there is a better way.  I tried using hand moisturizer, but that wears off.

Are there special gloves, lotions, or anything that can help with flipping through huge stacks of paper?


texts: I have to enter term type of universities I attended, but my country doesn't follow credit hour system

texts:
I'm applying to Ph.D. programs, and the online application asks me to enter the college's term system. They write that "Term system refers to the type of hours your credits are worth, not the length of the term or how many terms a year your college offered", but the problem is that I did not have this credit-hour system in the universities I have attended, and I do not know what to fill as it is a required field. Even if I take it to mean the number of terms per year, the problem is that one college had only one term per year--which doesn't match any of the listed options (trimester, semester, quarter).

I have emailed the concerned university, but I did not receive a reply. Can someone please help me as to what I should do as I am not very aware of the American education system.


texts: How to deal with a postdoc supervisor who blocks all attempts to do reasonable research?

texts:
I have a number of problems with my postdoc supervisor.

First of all, I do not have any funds for my research. According to local university rules, I can't submit any grant proposals myself; this is the supervisor's responsibility. When I request this, he always answers that he doesn't care and I must do research using existing resources. However, I am the first person here who started doing research in my area, and there are no facilities, equipment or even consumables available.
At the same time he requires me to publish research papers, and his suggestion is just to write low-quality papers using research methods from the early sixties.
When I manage to find a collaborator in another university, he replies that he is not going to work with anyone because other researchers will steal his (but actually my) results.
After seven months of my study I accidentally figured out that I could request funds from one of his projects, but when I suggested to do this, he simply rejected my idea.
When I ask about other possibilities to do research in this university, he replies that I must "search in Google" or "walk around and find them yourself", and he is not going to provide any information.
Despite this I have managed to finish one piece of research, and he included three persons as authors whom I have never even seen and their background is not relevant at all, explaining that they are a part of his team. Additionally, it is a common thing for him to come and start explaining to me that I am not able to do anything. These are just words, and I am confident in my qualifications, but still it is annoying.

Before I started working here, I had five years of experience as a principal investigator, and I am able to do research without any supervision. However, his behavior totally blocks any possibility.

Question: Is there any legal procedure to request external check of my working conditions or his qualification as a supervisor? I will appreciate any other recommendations as well.


texts: Is it okay to repeat core findings of a cited work in detail?

texts:
Excuse me for keeping things abstract, I do not want to include more details than necessary.

I'm working on an internship. The internship goal is applying known (published) information and evaluating it in practice. I will conclude the internship by writing a report.

I want to include as much information as necessary in my report for it to be as comprehensive as possible for the reader. This allows the reader to decide if they can skip ahead (instead of me). I do not want to leave details out that may be critical for the readers understanding, even though they seem almost trivial to me, as that makes the report harder to read.

That said, my question:

Is it good form to repeat the core content of the original work in my report, or should I keep it as brief as possible? Is there an accepted middle-ground, or is it not that important as I think?

Of course I will not literally copy-paste content. I will cite the original work and explain exactly what my contribution is(n't), and refer to the original publication.

My fear is that it seems indecent to "copy" findings that someone spend a lot of effort on.


texts: Former PI lists a non-contributor as first author on a manuscript for which I did all the work. Next steps?

texts:
I finished my master's degree several years ago, where I was responsible for developing/programming algorithms for a biochemistry lab. I have since successfully transitioned into industry and have been working ever since. I also have a very good relationship with my former PI.
Some time ago, my former PI contacted me and I did some work for him, pro-bono, and he was interested in publishing the results. I personally had no interest in the actual publication, but I did this work more so because it allowed me to explore an area of mathematics in which I had limited experience.
Lo and behold, I receive the manuscript for edits, and a student completely unrelated to this work was listed as the first author!
Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't care. Academia was only a stepping stone in my life and a publication doesn't benefit me in any way. However, something feels "wrong" about just listing someone who has not contributed to this work in any way as the first author. I would like to be listed as the first author. At the same time, I want to keep a good relationship with my former PI. What are my next steps? How do I go about this?
Edit: Based on the feedback so far, I think the next best step would be to follow up with the PI and determine what the student's contribution was. Perhaps the student did indeed use the results I obtained to actually write the manuscript, in which case I would have no problem letting the student take first authorship. Again, as of right now, I only see work that my former PI has done, so I want to clarify.
Edit 2: I think there is some confusion about how many authors there are in this paper. There is me, who wrote the algorithm and there is my PI, who wrote the paper based on my results. Would I deserve first authorship if this a multi-author publication? Absolutely not. But by default, since myself and my PI are the only persons who have worked on this, either one of us can take first author role.
I received an update from the PI. The student was placed on the paper because the student was "supposed to contribute" but they did not want to learn how to use git (which is how I initially decided to version any manuscripts I worked on). The PI has made a promise to make sure the student takes the lead in terms of writing the paper and learning how to use git.


texts: When citing web sources, should I give the URL within the text itself?

texts: When I am citing web sources, should I give the URL within the text itself?


texts: Can I include just a folder from Zotero into Overleaf instead of my entire library?

texts:
I am setting up an Overleaf account to work with my Zotero account and ran into an annoying issue.  I have one folder within my Zotero library which contains all the references I want to use in a paper, but Overleaf didn't give me any options when linking to Zotero and has created a references.bib file which contains references to every single source inside my Zotero library.  This is annoying because my library is quite a bit larger than the folder I want to use as my set of references.

  Is there any way to use only a single Zotero folder as a source of references for an Overleaf project?

Thanks for any help or suggestions you may be able to offer!


texts: PhD.-Application; How to deal with reference-letter requests when being out of academia for 2 years?

texts:
Two years ago I did a M.Sc. in cognitive Neuroscience and then started working as a DL / ML-Engineer up until now. Back then I got two positive reference letters for a specific graduate program from my supervisors.

I want to do a PhD now, but I wondering how I should deal with reference letter requests. In my current company there is no one with technical expertise in Data-Science or Machine-Learning whatsoever.

I see two options now:

a) Should I ask my old supervisors to update my reference letters?
b) Should I just send the old ones, maybe adding some short note why the reference letters are old and obviously for some other program?

Any recommendations on what to do?


texts: Extended paper - should I keep someone who virtually had no contribution?

texts:
I had a paper accepted at a conference and want to extend it with some new material based on the comments and submit it to a journal.

One of the co-authors was added to the conference paper because he was the head of the group where I was working. His contribution were textual suggestions to the manuscript. We have since split ways and he has no influence whatsoever in the extension. Again, he had little influence in the conference version and I added him mostly to avoid conflict, since these days people expect co-authorship based on their position.

Since he did not contribute neither to the conference version nor to the journal extension (and he has no position of authority over me anymore), I do not want to add him to the list of authors in the extended journal version. How acceptable/unacceptable is this?


texts:
Our lab has recently developed a new webpage; we are thinking of ways to announce it's creation via social media and email:

Is there an etiquette for making such announcements?
Perhaps there are example announcements you could share?


texts: Supervisor not giving helpful academic direction

texts:
I'm a second-year (almost third-year) PhD student having serious trouble due to lack of scientific direction. I initially worked well with my supervisor, but when COVID hit she essentially ghosted the research group for some months and has been irregularly present ever since. Lately, I've noticed that she seems checked out when I talk to her and so I started explicitly asking for clarification as to what exactly I should be working on whenever I see her. Unfortunately, this strategy has been foiled by my supervisor changing tacks about every 2-4 weeks. For example:
-Conversation 1: "You should focus on x, then do y. Do not include z until those first two are set."
-Conversation 2: "Actually doing q is a good idea, let's work on q together (for a month)!"
-Conversation 3: "What you should present at the conference (in 2 weeks)? Show the data on z, that is the most interesting aspect of the project."
-Conversation 4: "No, you should not work on q anymore, that needs to happen in parallel to z."
-Conversation 5 (after someone at a conference explicitly called attention to my lack of including y): "I understand you are asking to work on y but I think you should try to extend x. But I suppose you can include y."
-Conversation 6, only one(!) day after Conversation 5: "What do you mean about doing y, you should do your whole project without y. Also you should work on a paper with (random collaborator) on k! And actually you should also do/have done x completely differently!"
This is pretty frustrating since all the "x,y,z,q..."s I mentioned tend to be at least partially exclusive and take at least 2 months to complete, so I have sunk a lot of work into projects that are half-done. If I work on something that has lost my supervisor's interest, I don't get feedback, which makes it difficult to wrap up anything. My project is also related to two different collaborations, at least one of which seems a bit pissed off and is now proceeding to publish without our input. (The other one has shifted to emailing only me directly now, which is helpful, but I know my supervisor left the first set hanging at least once/tends to view answering emails as highly optional so I kinda get where they're coming from).
In terms of other people to talk to, our group only has one postdoc, who tends to take about a week to answer emails and is not very forthcoming in terms of mentoring PhD students. The other two PhD students in my group are close to graduation, and struggle with the same issue in the short-term (e.g. getting told to write an answer to referees disagreeing with the corrections on an article, then getting criticised for not having applied the corrections) but have already set the main academic direction of their project.
I'm not really sure how to handle this: should I confront my supervisor about the inconsistencies? Trying to set another meeting to talk long-term goals? Just do whatever I think is best and hope I don't mess up too badly without feedback? My supervisor doesn't always take criticism well, and I'm afraid that I'll just get blamed for being a bad student because I haven't produced anything publishable in a year.


texts: Should I decline unrelated work assigned by PhD advisor?

texts:
During the past years of my PhD program in biology, my advisor has developed a habit of lending my service to other labs/groups for potential collaborating opportunities. In addition to helping fellow students in the lab with their projects, I've helped a handful of other labs/groups with various data analysis and statistical testing tasks that were totally unrelated to my PhD project; I rarely got anything in return other than practicing my relevant skills.

There is a lab in our department that I helped with data analysis in June. I've submitted my PhD thesis in August. This lab now came back to my advisor asking for a further work involving testing the correlation between the expressions of 200ish genes and different phenotype in 20ish RNA-seq datasets. My advisor has handed the job to me again.

It is not a small task to me, and since the submission of my PhD thesis my scholarship has stopped so I have to work to pay the bills. Also, I feel unappreciated because the other lab doesn't even know I am the person doing the job, and they will probably list my advisor as a co-author should there be a paper.

I'd like to know if I should turn down the request, even if it will potentially result in my advisor rejecting a recommendation letter? My advisor once jokingly mentioned that they are holding their recommendation letters hostage so I have to continue working for them (for free). I've done tons of unrelated and unpaid works for them and this project feels like the last straw.


texts: Is it legal and is it appropriate to display religious items in faculty offices in the United States?

texts:
This question is specifically in the context of an American public institution and a generic faculty member, specifically not someone working in religious studies or a similar department. I have noticed over the years that many faculty members have religious items on display in their office or on their office doors, and I was wondering on the one hand whether they are legally allowed, and on the other hand how wise it is to display them while being sensitive to a diverse student population. Here are a few examples from my own experience (all in mathematics).

Several years ago I had a colleague post the ten commandments outside his office  door.
I have another colleague who has Bible study books prominently
displayed on his bookshelf.
I myself have a poster of the Buddha and a Buddha statue in my
office, both given to me by a student.
Somewhat less on topic: a now-retired faculty member used to put ads
for a Bible study that he held in his home in graduate student mailboxes. (I know many foreign graduate students found this off-putting.)


texts: Should I get my chair a card/small going away gift although she has never been there for me?

texts:
I'm a first year Master's student that works under the supervision of my thesis chair. At first, I was really excited to work with my chair because she is known as one of the nicest people & best profs in the department. However as time went on, those rose colored glasses have come off and I have seen her for who she truly is.

While I by no means dislike the woman, I have felt extremely dissatisfied working with her as she has canceled countless meetings, made empty promises, and never follows through. She told me she'd help me with my speech for my very first poster presentation but never did. She told me she'd help me set up my poster and be there for me, but never showed up until right before I was about to start presenting. She promises me thesis edits will be made within a certain time frame but always falls through with no email to explain.

My thesis is a branch off a multi site grant study and I've had to be in personal contact with the head of the grant because she has not been present although the head of the grant is also relying on her. I've done all the preparations for the data collection although she could have definitely helped if she wanted to.

Because there's been a lull in my recruitment; instead of focusing on that, she's trying to get me to do her dirty work for a former project that has nothing to do with me. Although her former thesis student has already graduated and been accepted to a PhD program, she'll still prioritize that student over me by helping that student publish her thesis.

She's not transparent at all and never gives me her opinion (even on things that do matter), so I often feel alone in making decisions. She also doesn't know how to talk to people. Just last week, out of the blue, she told me she is moving to another state for another job offer in about 2 months but has made no real attempt to help me decide how to deal with my thesis... it's all non novel ideas (like start over) lip service disguised as help. I guess my point is--despite my dissatisfaction, she has NO clue I feel this way and would be quite surprised if she ever found out.

I'm wondering if I should fake it long enough and even get her a card/buy her going away lunch to ask her for a recommendation letter before she leaves?

I know it sounds conniving and that's normally not like me, but I am very frustrated with her and feel like that's the least she could do for me, considering she's screwed me over multiple times already in the 4 short months we've been working together. I could really use one from her since I've worked for her the longest so far, and people are telling me that's what I should do.


texts: How can I make myself eligible for Mechatronic Engg. faculty with PhD in Electrical engg,?

texts:
My major in PhD is Telecommunication and there is one position for Mechatronic Engineer. How can I make myself eligible for the post. Since I am electronic engineering graduate with masters in Aerospace engineering, I have sufficient skills to take Mechatronic engineering as a faculty.

However, my last degree (PhD) is in Telecommunication. Any suggestions about what should I put in my application which can weigh in as something special?


texts: Should I send a follow-up email or call again (to potential PhD supervisor)?

texts:
Sunday: I sent an email to a potential PhD supervisor.
Sunday 4pm: he responded asking me to call him tomorrow .
Monday 11am: I responded yes and asked if there's a preferred time.
Tuesday 1am: he emailed me back asking for my number and said he will try calling me on Tuesday.
Tuesday 8am: I responded with my cell and said there are two hours when I wouldn't be available but otherwise i would be happy to chat anytime.
Tuesday 5pm: still no call. So I sent an email to say I'm available rest of today and tomorrow.
I realized now that when he asked me to call him tomorrow on Sunday, I responded in email on Monday to ask for a time instead of calling on Monday... he was kind to have responded on Tuesday and said he will try calling me. But I still have not heard from him.
Should I email or call him today?


texts: Any altmetrics statistics for physics papers?

texts:
I am interested in how many papers (especially in physics literature) have this certain altmetric score (see more on www.altmetric.com). I have looked in several journals e.g. Physical Review and have seen that many papers in physics have altmetrics score of 1 or 0. If it is 1 it relies upon a few tweeters only.

Is it really so that altmetrics score for physics Research papers is low? If yes, why it is mostly so low?
How many physics papers (estimated) have an altmetrics score of

Zero
1 to 9
10 to 30
more than 30?

Any answers would be greatly appreciated


texts: How do you prepare to attend a conference where you may have trouble following the talks?

texts:
I am fairly new to academic conferences. I am registered to attend (not present at) a mathematics conference (graph theory, to be specific) in about a week and a half; I recently received the agenda and, based on the topic, some of the talks seem a little "advanced" for me. I have a decent general understanding of the topic (I have an undergraduate math degree and a master's degree in computer science), but am still unfamiliar with some of the advanced topics.
What do I do in cases like this? How can one do self-study to prepare for conferences like this to make sure that you'll understand the topics?
Also, how much of the talks "should" one expect to be able to comprehend? How much is "normal" for individuals at various "levels" in the field (e.g. undergraduate students, graduate students, working mathematicians)?
I do realize that, given the short time frame, there'll probably be a limit to how much I can do to prepare for this particular conference. However, I would like to be better prepared for future conferences in this area.


texts: What does a systematic review entail? In what way is it "tedious"?

texts: I spoke with a research professor who informed me that I may be able to work with him on a systematic review. However, he warned that it can be very tedious and frustrating so I should think about it. I understand that a systematic review involves looking through many papers, however, I would appreciate if someone could tell me, from their experience, how it is tedious. I would also have other classes in addition to this research so would be able to work on it for about 10 hours a week.


texts: What is the appropriate mechanism for finding administrative support for a conference?

texts: We're organizing a conference and I currently don't have administrative support to process our income and receipts. I don't have a personal admin and I curious about the best and polite way to find support without pressuring someone into the role.


texts: How much of a master's program would a Ph.D. admissions committee consider?

texts: I will be starting a master's degree in applied mathematics in the U.S. this fall and am considering entering a Ph.D. program after this. The master's program lasts two years; I'd want to begin the Ph.D. program immediately after, in the fall of 2019. In order to do that, I'd need to apply to programs before the end of 2018. Would Ph.D. program admissions committees take into account courses that I'd be planning to take in the spring 2019 semester? Those courses would probably be the second halves of two-course sequences I'd begin taking in the fall 2018 semester. Would they even take into account courses from that semester? I'm planning on writing a thesis; would it be advisable to finish it well before the application deadline at the end of 2018, even though I'd probably be able to write a better thesis after taking more courses?


texts: Quitting a PhD program from one university to different university due to change in research interest with the current advisor

texts:
I started working with the current advisor 2 years ago in my master's program and after a year he asked if I would like to convert to the PhD programme. I am a chemical engineer while my advisor is a mechanical engineer (he is an adjunct faculty in my department) so I believed he would provide me with enough guidance to pursue interdisciplinary research. I said yes and started working with him on a research project. The current research project was a challenging one to develop a novel detection technology and I decided to take up to project to expand my expertise. But one year into the program I realized that the technique I am working to improve is absolutely not reproducible. Moreover, the researcher whose fundamental work the idea is based on has encountered 4 paper retractions. In addition to all this, I never get any acknowledgement or guidance for any new idea I am trying to work on. I also have realised that this has lowered my motivation and my relations with him are heading south. For eg: during our individual meetings I have noticed when I bringing an idea or results pertaining to that idea he mostly sleeps or dozes off. I really do not think that the project I am working has any scope and all the ideas or talks I have with my advisor are extremely superficial and derivative from different papers. Like, let us see who our industrial competition are instead of working on the basic science level or suggesting ideas such as I recently read a paper on something why don't you make that as a part of your research. All these issues aside, my professor also sometimes insults me and regards me as lethargic despite spending nights in the lab. I am extremely interested in the nanobiotechnology area of research and I wish to apply to a different university for a PhD program.

My question is: Should I quit or continue under those circumstances? In case, I decided to quit, shall I be accepted by another program and in that case, how I can reformulate my decision to quit to the prospective program. Is this kind of behavior is what should be expected in academia? Should I also consider quitting PhD altogether if this is the way advisor push or motivate students?


texts: Presenting the publications of a research group online

texts:
I'm looking for advice on presenting the research publications of my group on our webpage. Most groups seem to go with a simple publication list, sorted by year and maybe publication type. But there are also more elaborate implementations up to browseable publication directories (e.g., http://www.math.rutgers.edu/~sontag/papers.html ). What would be your recommendation for creating an online presence for research publications that is

informative and useful for readers,
visually pleasant, and
easy to maintain for us?

I'd also be interested in links to websites that you see as role models for this issue.


texts: What is the meaning of "person specification" in a job advert?

texts:
I am going to submit my application to a postdoc in math. In support of my application, I have been asked about what I can do, and they have mentioned that

You should pay particular attention to the person specification as you will only be shortlisted if you can demonstrate that you meet all of the essential criteria.

But I do not know exactly what they mean by the above mentioned statement? Can I provide a brief description of my scientific background and its relation to the advertised project?
There exists a brief description of the project, including the area of research.


texts: Passive voice vs. using "I" in a sole-author paper

texts:
I am a fan of using "we" in co-authored papers in order to avoid using passive voice. However, I tend to see passive voice, rather than active voice with "I," in single-author papers. Furthermore, I have read numerous suggestions to avoid using the first-person "I" in a research paper.

Isn't it appropriate to use "I" and active voice?


texts: What is "research-based intervention program"?

texts:
I received the following comment from a journal reviewer:

  There is a need to conduct a research-based intervention program which
  compare between other solutions and your solution. Such research can
  provide evidence and support to the importance of this solution over
  others.

What does he mean by "research-based intervention program"?