texts: How to properly format and write a department/office/lab/subsection of a university?

texts:
How would one properly format a department/office/lab/subsection of a university? If say I work in Lab X of University Y, should I format it like this?
Lab X, University Y
or
University Y, Lab X? Or something else?


texts: Does two lines of copied code constitute plagiarism?

texts:
I copied (and failed to cite) two lines of code from the OpenJDK source for an undergraduate Data Structures project. Yet, the code comparison shows an alarming amount (40%) of similarity. Here is the side-by-side comparison with my file.

Based on these grounds, my professor wants to give me a -100% on the assignment, which would bring down my overall grade by 15% total, probably causing me to not make the C-wall (depending on how well I do on the final exam). For this reason (and my conscious), I decided to appeal.

However, I believe that most of the similarity in the report comes from my copying of lines 142-152:

static int hash(int h) {
    h ^= (h >>> 20) ^ (h >>> 12);
    return h ^ (h >>> 7) ^ (h >>> 4);
}

I did not cite these two lines, but I did intend to delete them later.

In fact, this whole function can be removed without affecting the program at all, which results in this file comparison.

Then, only lines 114-126 are a problem:

MyEntry<K, V>[] newArr = new MyEntry[newSize];
// Copy
for (int i = 0; i < data.length; i++) {
    MyEntry<K, V> e = data[i];
    if (e != null) {
        data[i] = null;
        do {
            MyEntry<K, V> next = e.next;
            int j = e.hash % newSize;
            e.next = newArr[j];
            newArr[j] = e;
            e = next;
        } while (e != null);

However, this snippet is my own. I wrote these lines without referencing HashMap.java, and this is a common algorithm for chaining that I can explain thoroughly, and have known about for years.

Yes, I know the fact I copied the other two lines compromises my integrity and made the 20% into 40% to begin with, so how can I prove this?

I'm not sure how to defend this whole case before a Student Conduct Board who knows very little about programming. My board hearing is in a month. Does these two snippets of code constitute plagiarism of my entire project? Is -15% to my overall grade fair?

Sidenotes:

Our projects are pretty extensive since we aren't allowed to use java.util.* (like 1k+ lines for each project in 8 days), and I did not copy any other code. I'd say the actual data structure implementation is only meant to take about 1/5 our time spent per project.
Over 30% of the class has been reported for academic integrity violations on projects over the semester, and the newly graduated professor doesn't seem to think himself or his assignments are the problem. I should have caught onto the warning before this last project of the semester...


texts: Should I include written evaluations (from courses I took) in my transcript as part of the job application materials?

texts:
I did my undergraduate and graduate degrees at a university that includes course evaluations as part of the transcript. My evaluations from my professors and instructors generally are good to excellent.

I am applying for jobs right now, and some ask for graduate and undergraduate transcripts. I can order two kinds of transcripts, one with evaluations, and one without.

Would it be beneficial for me to include my evaluations with the transcripts in my job applications materials?

It would be attached in the same file as my transcript, not attached as a separate file.

For reference, my undergrad/grad transcripts with grades and records is composed of four pages. The evaluations are an extra 14 pages.


texts: How to know whether a journal accepts concurrent submission to the journal and arXiv?

texts:
I am considering submitting my paper to both a computer science journal and arXiv. No version of the paper has been published in any conference or anything at this point.

Is this going to be an issue with the journal?
Should I hold off submitting to arXiv?
If this is journal dependent, how do I find out about the journal policy?


texts: For NSF proposal and grant purposes, do graduate students meet the definition of "investigator"?

texts:
I recently received an email from a department administrator that NSF rules have been changed (link here), such that all investigators must fill out a conflict of interest (COI) form.  They then go on to list a cadre of examples which meet the definition of investigator and a statement that all investigators must fill out this form.  Our university has the definition of investigator here.

My question is, are graduate students typically considered investigators by the NSF?  If so, we certainly do not receive the recognition that PIs and other listed investigators get.


texts: How acceptable is it to publish an article without the author's knowledge?

texts:
A few years after finishing my PhD, I was notified by my former supervisor that they had submitted without my knowledge a section of my PhD dissertation to a journal, listing me as first author and adding other team members as co-authors. They had litterally copied the section verbatim, without adjusting it to reduce the verbosity and to follow the outline a journal article usually has, even keeping in references to other paragraphs in the dissertation that didn't make sense anymore out of context.
The paper was accepted shortly after.
Is it an acceptable practice to do so?
What could I have done to prevent the publication of this article at the time?
--
For context, I hadn't been in touch with my former lab in between the end of my PhD and this event, and the field is systems biology.


texts: How do bad grades affect my chances of getting a Master's degree in biomedical engineering?

texts: I want to get into a master's program in biomedical engineering. The university I attend does not offer a biomedical engineering undergraduate degree, so I decided to major in chemical engineering since it seemed like a really good option at the time. However, I've been making low grades the moment I started my chemical engineering classes. I have 5 C's now and I've already had to withdraw and retake a class. I'm told that such grades are common in this program at my university (which was something I should have realized at the time). I was able to take Pass for all these classes due to the pandemic. I'm now well into my junior year for this degree and my grades get worse and worse every single semester no matter how hard I try to get them back up. As much as I hate to admit it, I've lost passion in my work due to all the stress and am just trying to survive my classes. I feel pressured to stay with this major because its the only major on campus that has research opportunities close to biomedical engineering and switching my major would mean taking summer classes which would prevent me from doing research. I already have some research experience but no publication which I was hoping to get this semester before I ruined it with my grades. Should I just stick this out and do research over the summer and just move on to my masters? Should I change majors to salvage my GPA (because I feel like my classes are going to get much worse)? How do I fix the mess I've gotten myself into? Before my academic performance dropped, I was hoping to apply for biomedical engineering at Vanderbilt University. Is that even possible at this point?


texts: Should I write my name with an already gained bachelor title in another bachelor thesis?

texts: I am writing my second bachelor thesis for a completely different degree and don't know if I should put my name with my already gained title(B.Sc) onto the title page. I live in a country where even bachelor titles are added to the name most of the time, but am not sure if I should/could do that for my  other bachelor thesis. The thesis is written in english, if that's important.


texts: Locating old Russian literature in the US

texts:
There are quite a few old Russian papers and books I've been trying to track down for a few months without success. (I have some listed here.) Many old Russian journals and books are in US libraries, and I think I'm aware of all or nearly all of the resources my library has available to me. If the journal is not available in the local library or online, I'll look on WorldCat, and use my library's interlibrary loan service if I can find an entry on WorldCat. Basically, if it exists on WorldCat, the interlibrary loan service is likely to obtain the paper, and if not, I'm usually out of luck. Overall my success rate is probably only about 50%.

Herein lies the problem. Very few Russian libraries participate in WorldCat, and in my experience libraries outside of the US are less likely to provide scans. Basically everything I have been able to locate this way existed in the US, and there are many Russian journals which never seem to have made the trip to the US. Or if they did make the trip, they exist only in the Library of Congress, which requires you to visit in person. (Not such a huge issue for me, as I have family in the DC area, but this could be prohibitive for others.)

Are there any resources in particular for Russian papers that I should be aware of?

The previous question titled "What do you do when you find yourselves with an unreadable/inaccessible paper?" is related to this, but I'm aware of everything mentioned there and/or what is mentioned there is not applicable, and am looking for something more specific to locating Russian papers in the US.

(I'm looking for engineering and physics papers primarily for experimental data and models to use in my own research. In general, these papers are quite old such that the authors are inaccessible, though in most cases the journals are still active.)


texts: How can women improve their chances to get postdoc positions in computer science?

texts:
I am planning to apply for postdoc positions in computer science (CS) departments, preferably in the US or Europe. I have searched several computer science departments/research groups at different universities to see the current projects and Postdoc researchers. I saw that most current postdocs are men. So, the following questions came into my mind:

Is it because either women did not apply for the position, or were the women's applications unsatisfactory to get the position?
Is it true that women do not have much interest and hence success in CS than men? or lets say are men in general better in CS than women?
Although it is unethical, is it true to assume that the CS members have tendency to hire men more than women in reality?
If answer to Q3 is "yes," what would be the most effective motivations to encourage
the hiring of women postdocs in CS?
For women who have recently finished their PhD's, is it better to apply for academic research fellows or industry research positions?


texts: How closely is Electronics and communication engineering related to computer science?

texts: I'm applying for my masters in the field of computer science. I observed that most universities in Europe ask for a degree in computer science or a related course. I want to change my field from Electronics to Computer Science. so are they closely related and can i apply these CS courses?


texts: How good are entrepreneurial opportunities for faculty members?

texts:
How easy is it for faculty members working at a reputable university to become entrepreneurs?
If the faculty member sees an opportunity for a great product and wants to set up a small office with a few engineers working with one or two students, will the university sponsor such a venture?
How enthusiastic or forthcoming will the industry and VCs in general be towards this?
Lastly, how common are such professor-run companies for, say engineering faculty in top US schools?


texts: About to submit my PhD thesis in 4 months, feeling lost about my future and inadequate for any job. What should I do?

texts:
I am about to submit my PhD thesis in 4 months and have to move on from being a student. I am already 30 (so a sort of mid-life crisis catching up). I feel that I made a really big mistake in entering academia and should have not gone into masters 7 years ago. I feel incompetent with no area of expertise. I am a mathematically and technically weak PhD student in a field of research where being proficient in analytical and theoretical analysis is the only required skill for research. I think I am technically screwed up.

My question is just vague. What should I do, and are my future prospects as limited as I foresee them to be?

Thanks.


texts:
I recently received feedback for a university-intern seminar paper where the reviewer implicitly stated, that every academic paper needs graphics.
The paper was in the field of computer science.
I am aware, that graphics can contribute towards understanding an issue, however, for this specific topic I stood before the issue that

Graphics I would have liked to use are copyright-protected, thus no option
I am a bad drawer
There seemed no fitting option to add computer-aided drawings such like diagrams (in terms of content, I do know how to use Latex)

Therefore, I concluded that I would not include any graphics in my work.
I have encountered several papers on the internet, that also included no graphics. Plus, naturally, mathematical papers would often also not need graphics depending on the topic, with computer science being an applied case of mathematics.
Are graphics in academic papers a real requirement or should I consider the feedback as a subjective need?


texts:
I have a conference paper that will be published in Lecture Notes in Computer Science, by Springer. This question asked if Lecture Notes is a journal, and the general consensus was that it is not.

I received reviews on the paper, does that make it refereed? Or is a paper only said to be refereed if it is published in a journal?


texts: Requests by PhD assistant to Master's Student - Avoiding an unreasonable request

texts:
I am a master's degree student that is going to graduate in the next two weeks.

After having concluded a master's degree thesis with many econometric models in R I also decided to show the results in Latex. It is very good looking and easy to manage considering that was a 100+ pages work with many tables and plots. My thesis's professor was impressed and the dissertation looked very good at the very ending. All in all, it was an extremely hard work for me. Many analysis has been done (far more than requested), but I have learned so much during the journey that just because of this the investment paid back.

Now the problem. The PhD student who was in charge to "supervise me" wants to reproduce my work in "1 weekend". This is my one-year-long work and it is absolutely impossible to do it.

Moreover, since he is pretty statistical illiterate (he use statistical software as running black boxes), he is start asking improbable things, such as to export all input and output in .csv, or to merge data in .xlsx tables so that he can simply put them in Excel or Stata and "check" my work. And if it doesn't work to find a way to make it works.

Then he asked for all the codes, to "check" it. He want to press the button and replicate the analysis. But of course it doesn't work like that. Anyone who have ever used R, Python, etc. knows that is not that simple (just think how to solve directory repository problems...)

He also asked me to copy all the tables and put them in word format, in order to be "reproducible". To copy number by number if it is necessary because he need them.

I don't know the "bon-ton" in this situation. The professor was ok when I told him I was confident in R. This because he trusted me and my capabilities. But nobody told me that after my thesis was complete I would have needed to teach phd students R or how to replicate my analysis and solve their problems in doing it.

What should I do?


texts: Corrections after paper published online

texts: I recently found that in my recent paper published online before print (online first), I missed two important references and an acknowledgement of someone who helped me. What is the best way forward? Anyone had any experience dealing with SAGE? I appreciate any advice on this...


texts: How to maximise one's chances of getting a good postdoc position?

texts:
I am at the beginning of my PhD studies. Although that is a bit too early to plan one's carrier after thesis defence, one should still have some long-term goals in mind. Hence the question - what can one do during one's PhD (mainly as far as long-term activities are concerned) to maximise the chances of getting accepted for such a position?

Few things that come to mind:

High quality research published in high reputation journals (obviously).
Creating a contact network at conferences, research visits and through scientific collaborations. One might get to know one's potential postdoc supervisor or recommendation letters from established researchers.
Online visibility through blogging, social networking etc.
Good teaching experience. PhD students often have to teach but some might try to get on with the necessary minimum. Having a good record (e.g., from student evaluations) can be advantageous.
Experience with grant administration - helping one's supervisor with grant proposals, reports for grant committees etc.
Maybe some experience with paper reviews (towards the end of the PhD). Or is it still early for that?

Are there any other things I missed? I am looking specifically for the situation in theoretical physics and PhD without coursework but experiences of others might be relevant and interesting as well.


texts: Is it wise to select a PhD topic before choosing an advisor?

texts:
I am a student of  Pure Mathematics interested in Linear Algebra and Abstract Algebra. I was browsing the Internet for good research topics containing both a flavor of linear algebra and also having some real life applications when I came to learn about Spectral Graph Theory.

I have searched for professors who are actively involved in this field, but I have only found a few names whose topic of interest is Spectral Graph Theory. There are also a very few number of books available in this field.

Is this a good topic to work on? Is it very difficult to find an advisor in this field? Though I am able to  learn the topic on my own, I am finding it difficult to approach someone in case I am having a problem.

Also, is it wise to first decide a topic and then find an institute which has professors in this field or it should be the other way round i.e., I should select a good institute according to QS rankings first and then decide a topic accordingly?


texts: Can I get a postdoc in China more than 3 years after having received my PhD?

texts:
It's been 4 years since my PhD and now I'm applying for a postdoc in China. The Chinese website mentions that the age limit for applicants is 35 years and the applicants must have received their PhD within the last 3 years.

I heard that Chinese universities are strict with age when it comes to postdoc positions. However, they can be more lax on post-PhD experience.


texts: Is it recommended for a professor to not entertain advanced questions for a basic course?

texts:
Recently I worked as a teaching assistant for a digital logic course. The topic for the day was full-adder. Professor explained the full concept of the full adder, along with question and answer session and then it is now the turn of TAs to clarify doubts of the students. One student asked me the question: what is the architecture of full adder circuit using currently in the most advanced CPU of laptops. I really had no clue about it.

But a new doubt raised in my mind that how should a professor react to such questions?

The professor may not know every aspect and every trend in the subject (s)he is teaching. If (s)he says that I don't know, then, the respect for the professor may go down. Else if (s)he says that it is beyond the scope of the course then the research aspirancy of the students may go down. Other methods are providing references later by saying I will send it to you/class later etc., but still, it is like saying I don't know, but indirectly. Because if one the student asks a question, then many people want to know the answer immediately from the professor. I feel that the professor should at least answer the question in a very short form.

So, the final question can be divided into two parts:

1) How should a professor react to the most advanced questions from
their students of a basic course, if (s)he knows the answer?

2) How a professor has to react in the classroom for the advanced questions that (s)he doesn't know the answer?


texts: Students with physical disabilities - blindness, deafness, etc

texts:
Update: There isn't any disabilities office. Not US...

I'd like to expand on a comment I just made down there: I'm not trying to find a silver bullet. I just want a reasonable starting point.

It is a pretty straightforward question:

  As a teacher, what can I do to make sure the course is accessible to people with physical disabilities?

I have limited experience with these issues; a student lost some of his eyesight midway through the course. It wasn't that big of an issue; the only change we made was to print the exams using a bigger font.

I'm thinking specifically blindness and deafness, but then again, my lack of experience in this matter might lead me to forget important stuff :)

Therefore I'm aiming my question to anyone with some experience at this, from both sides of the table. What changes did you make to the material? Classes? Exams, etc., etc., etc.?

Official guidelines are helpful too. I'll try to find the guidelines at my university and add it here, if relevant.

Rather than edit it, I'll append a more detailed version:

  What are the best practices to prepare material when dealing with students with blindness or deafness?

I know the question is quite general. That is because I'm trying to be proactive. I'm aware that these issues should be dealt in a case-by-case manner, but I'm looking for general good practices/experience to reduce the work needed to perform these adaptations, on both sides.

A few examples following jakebeal's answer:

There are a few file formats that don't play nice with accessibility software (screen readers and protected PDF files).
What multimedia material would you prepare? A subtitled video can be useful to deaf students, for instance.


texts: Does any one know how i can check the acceptance rate of an IEEE conference.I am intending to submit a paper to the conference but would like to know the acceptance rate.


texts: How to cite a website/manual where the authors are (mostly) unknown?

texts:
For my thesis, I need to cite some pieces of software documentation. The website in question is the documentation of Kubernetes.

I'm fine with using @misc entries in my bibtex file, but obviously I need to fill in the author field.

Usually, when I can't find the author of a specific website, I look up the imprint at the bottom of the page. As the Kubernetes documentation doesn't provide any imprint, there is only © 2017 The Kubernetes Authors or Copyright © 2017 The Linux Foundation® at the bottom of the page.

To me, it looks a little bit odd to have "The Kubernetes Authors" in my bibliography. What should I do?


texts: Should I withdraw from a graduate math class to make more time for a promising research project?

texts:
I am a junior graduating May 2021 with a double major in physics in math, and I will be applying to commutative algebra (math) graduate programs this upcoming fall. I was recently offered an unexpected but very promising commutative algebra research project, but because the research is time sensitive and needs to be completed by May, I would need to withdraw from my graduate complex analysis course to complete it. I am wondering if it would be worth taking the 'W' on my transcript in order to gain a (very likely) publication. I've been mulling the decision over for over a week now and am desperately seeking some advice. Here is some background:

I am enrolled in 5 graduate courses (4 math, 1 CS) and a thesis writing class.
I have participated in math research and presented it at conferences, but am not currently published.
I have completed 4 graduate math classes in the past.

I tried cutting other commitments to avoid withdrawing from a class, but discovered that I just don't have enough time for my classes and research. Basically, I'm trying to gauge whether one more graduate math class or one more research project (albeit with a 'W' on my transcript) will make me appear more competitive to graduate admissions boards. Complex analysis is currently my largest time commitment – I am not confident that I can withdraw from anything else and still make enough time for research.


texts: Will not collaborating hurt the career of a math postdoc?

texts:
I am a math postdoc, and about to start applying for tenure-track (research oriented) jobs soon. Besides writing 2 papers with my Phd advisor while I was in graduate school, all the papers I wrote since then (about 10 papers) were single authored papers. As I start to think about applications for tenure-track position, I started wondering if this solo career I had so far will hurt my chances.

What do people with experience in search committees think about such a situation? should I make a serious effort in the near future to collaborate with others?


texts: Can I take online courses to make up for poor past community college performance when applying to a four year college?

texts:
I am wondering if there is a place where I can take online mathematics courses that do not require a transcript for admission. I did ok in high school and not so great at community college, but I found a great math tutor, and I'm willing to put in a lot more effort to get a degree. Before meeting this tutor, I was conditionally accepted to a four-year institution for mechanical engineering and was kicked out after the first semester. My plan is to meet with this tutor for about 20 hours a week until I feel comfortable with material up to calculus, then take a graded online course in calculus, so I have evidence of my understanding of calculus and my ability to excel in classes at a four-year university. I would repeat this process for multivariable calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, applied statistics, numerical analysis, abstract algebra, and real analysis.

I looked at Coursera, and they have calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, numerical analysis, and complex analysis. Do you think that taking these courses is the best chance that I have to re-enter my four-year institution for mathematics instead of engineering? I am concerned because the grade is based on just four quizzes, which means that it might not be recognized by undergraduate schools. If not, what would my best next step towards this goal?

Things are tough I need good grades to enroll at a university to show that I am qualified despite my previous bad performance, but I need to enroll in a university to take advanced classes to get those good grades.


texts: Who reviews the postdoc file applications? (UK)

texts: I was informally invited to apply for a postdoc position at a university in the UK. The professor will be the PI of that project and said I can use the resume and the covering letter I had once for a postdoc. The problem is that the advertised position asks for certain skills that I didn't  highlight in the cover letter. So, I'm not sure if I should use trust the PI and use the original documents or I need to customize the files a bit more. Is the PI is the only person who reads the application documents? Or the files get analyzed first by the HR team and then they're sent to the PI?


texts: Is there a preferred citation style for computer science papers?

texts:
Is there a preferred/standard/popular citation style within the computer science field? By citation style, I'm referring to these three general methods:

Using #'s, like [1] or [6,7]
Using short strings like [SM15] or [Bob14]
Using author-date style, like (Smith, 2015).

Browsing through the recent CS submissions on arXiv.org shows a roughly 50/50 split between options (1) and (3) above, with the occasional (2).

So I really have two questions:

Which citation method best communicates "this is a computer science paper"?
Which citation method best communicates what's actually being referenced?

(The answer to both may be the same, but I can imagine, e.g., something like "Everyone uses '[1]', even though 'Smith (2015)' is clearly easier to read.")


texts: No word on papers in IEEEXplore from IEEE conference in Sep, 2015?

texts:
We submitted and presented a set of papers in a IEEE conference last September in 2015.
However, we still can't find ours or any other papers present in this conference accessible via IEEEXplore (papers for 2014 and prior are available).
Since the next 2016 conference deadline is coming up in two months, I don't know if I should submit our next submission, or not due to this incident from 2015.

What do I do? Do I just need to wait longer for papers to appear in IEEEXplore? Or can I contract someone from the conference organizers? I need to decide if I should submit something for 2016 conference or find another venue.


texts:
I would like to build up my publication profile, including the writing of book reviews. I am not well-known by any means having just completed my PhD, though I am now working full time (contract) as a level A academic in research and teaching in my field.

I wanted to know whether it would be beneficial to approach the book reviews editor of a journal to see if they have any books in my field/subject expertise that require reviewing, and the best way to go about this.

This question/response here advises not to approach editors; however, in a publications workshop I took in 2013, I was advised that I should approach editors who often have a stack of books that need reviewing.


texts: Is a paper that takes existing techniques to solve a practical and more specific problem valuable enough to get published?

texts:
Let's consider a paper that uses many different techniques to solve a practical problem. The techniques that the paper uses have all already been published by others. This paper only modifies or customizes these techniques a bit to fit the particular question that the paper is solving.

The techniques used are from different disciplines. So the paper is more or less similar to an integration of these techniques. These different techniques were proposed or published for a general purpose with no specified applications before. Now this paper integrates them together and solves a rather specific and practical problem.

I understand that this kind of very-specific-problem-solver application paper will get cited less often than those algorithm papers that may be applicable to many applications. However, let us leave the impact factor issue aside first.

Is this integration and application valued by the peers? Is this paper valuable enough to get published? (not considering its impact first)


texts: Are there accepted criteria to define an author's institutional affiliation?

texts: I ask this question because there are institutions that pay authors an honorarium to add the institution as an additional affiliation when the authors publish, even when those authors do not have any kind of contract or appointment with the institution, nor do research or teach there. This is clearly a way to game the system and increase the number of publications accounted to that institution. This is evidently not ethical, but I do not know if there are any stated policies or regulations on this practice. The end result is that a university that does do not provide funding or resources for research will have the same number of publications as the university that does conduct and foster research.


texts: Paper based on Master Thesis - Disclaimer necessary?

texts:
Making my Master Thesis into a paper.

I've recently come across a paper that put a disclaimer into the introduction:

This study is a continuation of work presented in the PhD Thesis ....

I wanted to know if such a disclaimer is necessary if my paper is based on my Master Thesis.

Thanks.


texts: When peer reviewers are public/open, are they less likely to be critical of a manuscript?

texts:
I have been peer reviewing scholarly manuscripts for more than 10 years, and I am always concerned that the quality of my reviews might be impacted by the fact that my name is made public to authors or other people, instead of the typical scenario in which authors are blinded to the reviewers' identity. This is becoming more and more commonplace in the open access era.

For instance, some journals let authors but not readers know the name of the reviewers. One example is the British Medical Journal (BMJ). Specifically, the BMJ website clearly states:

"For research papers, The BMJ has fully open peer review. This means that every accepted research paper submitted from September 2014 onwards will have its prepublication history posted alongside it on thebmj.com. This prepublication history comprises all previous versions of the manuscript, the study protocol, the report from the manuscript committee meeting, the reviewers’ signed comments, and the authors’ responses to all the comments from reviewers and editors."

A similar approach, in which the peer reviewer's identity can be disclosed to authors on a voluntary basis, is followed by journals such as PLOS ONE ("Will authors know who is reviewing their manuscript? Reviewers’ identities are anonymous unless a reviewer indicates otherwise"). Other journals, instead let everybody, even readers, know their identity (e.g. World Journal of Meta-Analysis).

There is some, albeit limited, research on this (e.g. van Rooyen et al, BMJ 1999 and DeCoursey, Nature 2006).

I favor the approach followed by the Baishideng Publishing Group (fully open model), but I am wondering what is the opinion and insight of the ACADEMIA community.


texts: Severe regrets because I lied in my PhD application

texts:
I am an international Physics PhD student who is currently finishing his second year successfully, with one publication and others in preparation. However, I have a problem that has not let me sleep properly since day 1 and I need to vent it out with you.
When I applied, for some stupid reason I mentioned on my CV that I was a teaching assistant for two terms (in an area I am pretty good at) when in reality I was not. I won't go too much into details but I attribute this behavior to extreme low self-esteem and mental health issues that I have had since I was a teenager due to a very traumatic period in my life and more than lying with ill intentions to the admission committee in order to get an advantage I was lying to myself. I did not even realize what a horrendous mistake I had made at the time, and it also did not help that nobody from my former lab checked my CV before I sent it. As a result I have been in therapy since 1 year ago to understand the causes and threat my compulsive lying and me and my therapist believe that I have made important progress.

I don't think the lie was important for my acceptance (the PhD is 100% research based without coursework and teaching duties) and scholarship and every other part of my application was 100% truthful (1 publication at the time, top 5% of my cohort, outstanding letters of recommendation, internships, academic awards, etc) but I still can't get over what I did as I feel extremely bad as a person and also fear every day that I will somehow be caught and get expelled or get my degree revoked in the future. My supervisors are the most competent, intelligent but also the most kind and loving persons I have ever met, so while I have wanted to come clean for a long time I don't want to disappoint them. Besides, I have improved immensely as a person while living abroad in this beautiful country and have never been as happy in my life; I honestly think that getting expelled would have horrible consequences for my mental health, future dreams and finances and God knows how long it would take me to recover completely if ever.
What do you recommend me to do in this case?


texts: If a paper is accepted as a poster, must you attend the conference?

texts:
I know that submitting a paper to a conference implies a promise to present the paper if it's accepted. However, I have seen conferences where a paper that you submit could be accepted as a poster instead. I have a limited travel budget (who doesn't?), and I would rather not travel just for a poster presentation, so I haven't submitted anything to that type of conference.

However, now I'm wondering: If you submit a paper, and it's accepted as a poster, would it be perceived poorly if you decide not to present the poster? (Of course, if you do that, your abstract wouldn't appear in any proceedings.)

EDIT: By "decide not to present the poster", I mean withdrawing it. I certainly wouldn't plan on being a no-show!


texts: Is it acceptable to present the same project at two conferences and list them separately on my CV?

texts:
Is it acceptable to present the same project at two conferences and list them separately on your CV?

The two conferences are for different audiences (one is for educators and faculty members and the other is for a more interdisciplinary population). This being the case, the project itself will not change. However, the analysis of the data and the emphasis on the implications of it are drastically different for the two conferences.

I have seen elsewhere online that the recommended course of action would be to simply cite the more well-known conference and only that one. However, since the analyses of data are different for the two conferences, would it be deemed acceptable to list them as separate entries on my CV?


texts: What are polite appellations for teachers in British universities?

texts:
Teachers in primary and secondary school usually are called as Mr.[surname] or Miss/Mrs.[surname]. However, cases in universities are more complex. It seems we need to call a teacher who is a professor professor or prof.[surname], and a teacher who is not a professor but a doctor Dr.[surname]. But not all teachers are professors, so what about

1)one whose name we know but neither a professor or a doctor?

2)one whose name we know but we do not know whether he/she is a professor or a doctor?

3)one whose name we do not know?


texts: Can I use someone else's research commercially?

texts:
I found a published research paper from the research arm of a company. I would like to use what is presented in the research paper commercially. The materials presented in the research paper do not seem to be patented.

Is this legal? Does the originating company own the intellectual property, or is it now "public domain" due to the research paper being published without a patent? Does this happen quite often? What is the proper etiquette in this situation, should I just leave an attribution to the researcher?


texts: My research paper has been stolen on pretext of a book publication deal? What can I do?

texts:
I submitted my paper to a supposed editor for publication in a book.
He never responded to the emails post my submission of the paper and upon contacting others from the mailing list I found out that they haven't received any response from him either.

A senior scholar suggested that I should partially publish the paper I sent so that I can save it from him stealing it. I did that and thought to forget it, but I just found out the supposed editor has a paper with my research idea in his list of publications.
This person is now doing his postdoctoral research at a European university.

As a young scholar, I am feeling quite helpless.  What can I do in this regard? Please help me.

EDIT: So upon reading the paper I can see that he lifted my idea and sources and tweaked it, my research paper was a literary analysis and he has copied my methodology and core text along with my sources.


texts: Is there any difference between an article and a paper?

texts:
Are papers and articles really different in academic context or they are same words for the published manuscripts in conferences or journals?

The only thing comes to my mind is that may be an article is un-academic synonym of a paper, and it is not often used in academic context. Articles may be the texts which are published in a magazine; a paper is more academic, it is published in academic journals.

Could you please tell me what is the difference and whether there is any special usage of each word in papers published in a branch of science or in a country?


texts: When and why a scientific technical report is written?

texts:
While making some paper search in my scientific field, sometimes I find articles that are not published in journals or conference proceedings, but as technical reports.

In my experience, I've never written a technical report, and I've never even been asked to do it.

So I was wondering: what's the difference between a technical report and a scientific paper?
Why some researchers publish a work as technical report instead of sending it to a conference or a journal?

When do you suggest to write one instead of addressing it to a conference or a journal?

PS: It seems to me that writing technical reports is more diffused in English-speaking world than in Continental Europe. Is it true? Why?


texts:
Last november I submitted a paper to a journal. I have been tracking the status of the review rather regularly (quite obsessively actually) and I have noticed that 3 weeks ago it went from awaiting AE decision back to reviewer assignment. After a couple of days, it went to reviewer selection. Now, it has gone back to reviewer assignment yet again.

I find this quite curious and if anyone has any idea what could be going on, please share it here! I suspect there's a conflict of opinion initially and then the third reviewer rejected reviewing so now they are back to finding a third reviewer? Any help is appreciated.


texts: Is it undesirable to publish a 2019 paper in a 2020 issue?

texts:
This question is inspired by How to make sense of a 2019 paper published in 2016 journal issue? From the comments to that question, it's apparent that publishing a 2019 paper in a 2016 issue is inconvenient for the author. This question asks the reverse: what if the journal is so "frontlogged" that it publishes its 2019 papers in 2020 issues?

I have handled such a journal at one point. The journal was receiving and accepting lots of submissions, so many in fact that it was publishing issues ahead of time. Previous editors were reluctant to increase the issue count because they feared this stream of papers would dry up, and if the journal ever struggled to fill its issues it would lead to problems like in the linked question, where 2019 papers are published in 2016 issues. The upshot was, by the time I took over the journal it was more than a year ahead of schedule.

Is the journal being ahead of schedule a problem for authors? What about librarians?


texts: What is the chance of making a successful appeal to dismissal decision from a PhD program after failing the qualifying exam in the 2nd attempt?

texts:
I’m about to get dismissed from a PhD program because I failed in the 2nd attempt of the qualifying exam.

Currently, I'm thinking of the option to appeal the dismissal decision due to a long history of mental health problems (anxiety & depression) and have the diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) just before my 2nd attempt in the exam by 10 days as determined by the school psychological counselor & confirmed by my physician assessment. I’m not sure of this could be used as a ground for my appeal because I can present evidences for this ground and not able to use other grounds such as potential bias from my adviser as he was not willing to have communication & advisement after failing the 1st exam attempt. He actually told me “just do it and best of luck!!”.

Additionally, during the exam, there was one committee member who did not attend in person (joined us via a conference video call). I was notified several times during the exam that this professor was not able to hear me especially while presenting or answering some questions (when standing next to the projector or the white board to demonstrate some answers). The academic evaluation by this professor could be biased based on the fact that could not catch up all of my answers. However, I can not use this as a ground for my appeal because simply I do not have the evidence nor the presence of non-committee member auditing person at the exam. The director of the PhD program attended all of my previous qualifying exams (the 1st part that I passed & the 2nd part that I initially failed), but not the last attempt for the 2nd part.

I’m not making an excuse of mental health issues or ADHD diagnosis, but really made great efforts to study and prepare for this exam, and I believe that I answered most of the questions with logic and scientific rationales. I did also seek a confirmation of addressing each question asked by each committee members whether they had sufficient answers or they need more elaboration from my side.

My question is: How I can a valid arguments supported by evidences from my counselor & physician on the ground of mental health issues and ADHD?
The other question: What is my chance of admission if I apply in the future for another PhD program?


texts: I slept, how should I respond to the professor?

texts:
It was late at night I sent an email to my professor. due to time differences, it was early over there. After sending an email I slept and my professor responds me and askeS me to skype in 2 hours. I slept and I didn't even open the email. How can I ask a meeting?
I didn't know he would ask me to have a skype, (in 2 hours after sending the mail):-O

could you please tell me how to respond my professor?


texts: Scholarships in general and Ontario Trillium Scholarship in particular

texts:
I am a new PhD student in Canada. Recently my university nominated me for the Ontario Trillium Scholarship (to my surprise), which I eventually won. I originally come from a country which do not use the system of scholarships and awards, so I do not know much about the benefits of scholarships. As I see there are three potential benefits:

More money for living ($40.000 each year for four years in this case, for living and tuition)
The Scholarhip pays for tuition and other fees, so your supervisor/institute do not need to pay anything
Looks good on a CV

I have not much advantage of the point 1, since my institute usually gives higher PhD salaries than standards in Canada and therefore I only receive slightly higher salary relative to that (people from other institutes will of course benefit from the extra cash). Number 2 seems to be a really good benefit of scholarships, since they make you more free and able to pursue your own interests even more (since your supervisor is not paying).

My question is primarily about point 3. How big a role does Scholarships play when applying for a post doc position? I generally see many people in North America, especially the US, which have a lot of scholarships and awards they have won. This is my first ever, since we do not have awards in my original country. Is there any real advantage to be able to mention previously won scholarships? And my final question is, how good is the Ontario Trillium Scholarship in this regard? Is this a standard type of scholarship?

(Sorry for asking this anonymously rather than using my stack exchange profile. My profile contain my real name and I would rather stay anonymous for various reasons).


texts: Why do people sometimes put authors with equal contribution in non-alphabetical order?

texts:
I've seen papers (e.g., in Science) where the first two authors are listed in non-alphabetical order, and yet there are asterisks behind their names to say that they contributed equally.

It seems strange to me, because if the two authors are in alphabetical order, then it could be that the first author contributed more or the two contributed equally, and this can be made clear with asterisks in the paper if it's the latter case. When they're in non-alphabetical order, however, if someone only sees the author list without seeing the paper, he/she will likely assume that the first author contributed most.

So my question is: Are there particular reasons why people do that? (This question is related, but I don't think the answers there get to my question.)


texts: How should I list the conferences and courses I attend as an undergrad student to my CV?

texts:
This is not really a duplicate of this question: Should I list conferences I attended on my CV?

I just finish my bachelor and trying to apply to a grad school. Of course, my CV is weak and strong LORs are what I should count on. However, I do want to strengthen my CV, so I want to list some conferences and courses that I have attended. So far, I have attended:

A specialty workshop held in my university. Actively helping behind the scene (put letters into envelops, be a reception, etc). Unfortunately I don't remember exactly the detail, but I can seek for help.
An international flagship conference held by a reputable institute in my country. I just sit back and listened, and unfortunately didn't register to attend.
An annual conference held by my university. This one was opened for any specialty, and I had a poster presentation in there.
An course taught by an invited professor from Germany, with h-index was 36. This course was organized at the same time with the workshop.

Should I list them down to my CV? How should do it properly?


texts: Is it OK if a letter of recommendation misstates the name of my degree?

texts:
I am applying for a graduate degree program.

In a letter of recommendation, my professor misstated my MS in Telecommunication Networks as an MS in Telecommunication.

Can this be an issue?


texts: Is it appropriate to request letters of recommendation from professors a second time?

texts:
I received three letters of recommendation for applications to this spring semester, but I chose to decline admission for personal/financial reasons. I am now applying for fall admission, and I would like to ask the same professors for letters of recommendation again.

Is it appropriate to request additional letters of recommendations from professors to new universities for the second time? With no other prospects, I need their recommendations in order to be accepted. Should that desperation be included or excluded in the request?


texts: co-authorship of the unresponsive and careless advisor?

texts:
My paper, that is part of my thesis, has been accepted to a conference as a part of the poster session. In the paper, I have mentioned my gratitutes to my supervisors. In fact, an unofficial supervisor of mine who works at the same place with me, acted and helped me more than my actual supervisor deserves all the credits in this thesis. (My main supervisor lives in another city so that we met only 2-3 times, but the unofficial supervisor I mentioned helped me enormously as my official one advised me to work with her, no need to mention, she's not a faculty member but holds an associate professorship..) So it's a basically an unresponsive thesis advisor issue.

In the submission of my final version of the thesis for the conference, I want to make her my co-author if she accepts.
But as there is literally no input from my actual supervisor, I do not want to put his name. (He also said to me once that you made all the work by yourself without me or if she (the 2nd person I work on my thesis, who is not officially assigned for my advisorship) accepts what you did then I'm fine, so he does not care at all what's going on such that I doubt if he reads the final draft of the work I sent.

So would it be okay to not to include his name?
What do you suggest?
thanks in advance!


texts: asking for CS coauthor as an undergraduate

texts:
I've been working on a project with a graduate student in my lab for the past month and a half. I spend about 20 hours a week on the project.

I implemented a part of our algorithm, wrote part of the paper, revised the paper, tested/debugged the scripts we use for data collection, and produced some figures used in the paper.

Would it be appropriate for me to ask the graduate student for coauthorship? Do my contributions seem deserving of a coauthorship?


texts: Is a paper a statement of personal belief (disagree with PI's writeup)?

texts:
EDIT: My field is cognitive science <- vagueness reflects broadness of subject area from social science through to basic neuroscience

Let's say some collaborators disagree on the interpretation and writeup for publication of their joint work. The rose-tinted solution usually offered is "talk it out and reach consensus".

Let's say one of the pair both is much more powerful than the other, and has no inclination to compromise. What then is the junior collaborator to do?

The fact there are not David and Goliath spats erupting constantly between PIs and PhDs/postdocs everywhere must be because

a) the situation has simply never occurred, juniors miraculously always agree with seniors, or
b) the situation has always resolved with consensus, PIs are always selfless, open and flexible, or
c) juniors capitulate silently, recognising both the necessity of conforming for their own immediate career and the apparent expectation of standing 100% behind something you had <<100% control over producing

It's the latter (italics) that I'm especially interested in and it marks the distinction between this junior scientists' dilemma and the ubiquitous "following stupid instructions angst" that all workers have.

In the non-academic working world the very practical and adequate solution usually offered is to state your concerns in writing and then meet the superior's demands to the best of your ability anyway. The goal is to distance oneself from the bad outcomes of the work by documenting one's own prior expression of misgivings, while respecting the chain of command. A further buffer against culpability for things imposed lies in the product of your work usually being "owned" by the company, not you / your reputation personally.

So somebody senior can make you produce a stupid product for the company to sell, and it is common (if not expected) that you might not have control over the final design, but you can critique and offer improvements, and if they're in writing you can point to them when nobody buys the crappy product. "I followed orders and I said this would happen".

The dilemma exists just the same for junior researchers - they get told to produce things and operate under a huge power differential. But they cannot disown what is produced in the same way. I have never seen a junior in a presentation come out and state "the experiment, collection and analysis was mine and is great, but this theoretical interpretation has nothing to do with me, take it up with my PI", for example. I suspect it would shock the audience because the culture is that every author backs every word of their collaborative output in a form of collective responsibility.

My question then is how can that collective responsibility be legitimate given the widely differing power between collaborators (especially the PI - PhD/postdoc relationship)? Is there some normative "out" that I've missed for the junior? Because if I'm right that (c) above is what happens, that means a big part of most juniors' induction into science is this coercion into complementing the emperor's new clothes.


texts:
I work in software engineering, where I specialize in computer graphics.  I recently had to do a bit of research for my job, and I'd like to publish it at some point.  It's currently going through my company's patent application process, but eventually, I think they'll let me publish it.

I don't have a graduate degree, nor do I have any interest in playing the academic game.  On the other hand, my research is novel enough that I expect I'll be getting invitations to conferences when I do publish, and I'd like to know what to expect.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


texts: On the possible obsolescence of research paper titles starting with "On the ..."

texts:
I have observed that most papers with titles starting with "On the ..." are theoretical ones, like pure mathematics, physics, computer science, etc. Most of these papers are relatively old, though I can find a few recent examples as well.

Are such titles becoming obsolete?
If not, when is it appropriate to use it?


texts: How to quote bulleted lists using IEEE style?

texts:
I found two very useful bulleted lists in my sources and I want to quote them directly in my thesis. For example:

  Sentence 1
  Sentence 2
  Sentence 3
  Sentence 4

Nevertheless I only could find how to do it using APA and MLA. How can I do this using IEEE style?

EDIT: I was following the approach proposed by the accepted answer, but I found two awkward consequences while doing this. I would appreciate if someone can confirm if this approach is okay. I explain the problem with an example.

Consider this list in the original source:

sold, leased, or licensed to the general public
offered by a vendor trying to profit from it
supported and evolved by the vendor, who retains the intellectual property rights
available in multiple, identical copies
used without modification of the internals

Lists are automatically indented. Quoting this list directly using the IEEE guidelines will increase the indentation of the list:

  sold, leased, or licensed to the general public
  offered by a vendor trying to profit from it
  supported and evolved by the vendor, who retains the intellectual property rights
  available in multiple, identical copies
  used without modification of the internals [1, Sec. 1.1]

Furthermore we have to add the in-text citation at the end of the long quotation, but because it is added at the last item in the list it might confuse the reader regarding what is actually quoted: the complete list or the last item. Is this okay?


texts: Should editors and reviewers be listed alongside authors, to give them credit?

texts:
Reviewing an article in your field is an interesting and rewarding experience. Any scientist has, of course, a moral obligation for reviewing other people's work just like he has his/her own work reviewed.

That being said, it's a very time consuming process and it would be nice if you could get some credit for it. Back in ye olde days of print journals, the editorial board and associate editors would be listed in the front pages so that was a form of credit. Nowadays however, with articles being accessed individually online, the editorial board gets much less, if any exposure.

Should the editorial board/associate editors be listed alongside the authors in an article or is that not necessary? If the editors/reviewers are listed alongside the authors then this would create the problem of revealing the reviewers to the authors, in an otherwise blind review.


texts: Status of submitted paper changed - why?

texts:
Two months ago, I submitted a (mathematical) paper to a journal. On the journal's website, there is a status concerning the paper, e.g. "Rejected", "Awaiting reviewer selection" and so on.

About two weeks ago, the submitted paper's status was "Awaiting reviewer assignment", and then it changed to "Awaiting reviewer selection". This seems more like a backtrack in terms of statuses rather than a step forward to get the paper reviewed (correct me if I'm wrong).

Now my question is:

What could be the reason for that step back in terms of statuses?

(I always thought that if somebody declines to review the paper for some reason, then it will be rejected?)


texts: Applying for more than one faculty position in a department

texts:
I am coming to the job market this coming fall and a university that I am very interested in has a number of faculty positions that were posted simultaneously. Consequently, they are all positions that would be appropriate for me to apply to given my research.

Now, my question is-

is it a faux pas to apply to more than one position in a department?
Is this especially so with a competitive/elite university (e.g. Duke, MIT, University of Chicago, Standford, Carnegie Mellon, etc).
Do elite universities care more about exact fit or research productivity?

To give an example of where I am coming from, imagine a junior scholar's research area focused on "Diversity in Academia" (to use as an example). Within the past year, they have published in index journals on

economic causes of diversity
rates/trends in diversity
a meta-analysis on diversity
a large-scale experimental study on diversity

The university has positions on-

policies of diversity
economics of diversity
diversity in education

In other words, all of my research is applicable to those three positions so I am uncertain how I should approach them.


texts: Time short on thesis defense preperation

texts:
I was supposed to defend my thesis in another week. But, due to the time schedule of one of the committee members I have to give the defense it tomorrow.

My status:

Developed a rough defense presentation (probably need revision)
Have less than a day to prepare

Can anyone advise me a plan as to defend this successfully?

EDIT :

RESULT : FOLLOWED ALL ADVISES POSTED HERE AND DEFENDED SUCCESSFULLY ! THANK YOU ALL !


texts:
I recently passed the M.Sc.

While I was reviewing a paper I found it interesting and potentially useful. I am planning to adopt the analyses that are utilized at that paper in my area of interest. The applications are quite different.

Is it feasible, usual and professional to propose that paper's first author (he is a post-doc student) to participate in my future work?

How about the contribution, to be more exact, the order of names?

How I can politely ask him for his contribution?


texts: Why are journals telling me that my article is plagiarized even though I wrote it by myself?

texts:
Recently, I wrote an article, and I'm trying to submit it somewhere, but two journals told me that my article is plagiarized even up to 70%!

I'm 100% sure that it's not plagiarized because I wrote it by myself.
The only thing that I suspect caused this problem is that I posted the pre-print online in ECSarxiv, and I think they found my pre-print and think my paper is plagiarized! My name on the pre-print is exactly the same as in the submitted paper.
I checked the pre-print policy of these journals, and they clearly stated that they don't have a problem with pre-prints.
I checked it with Turnitin, and it says there is no plagiarism in my article. I also searched the Internet for random sentences from my article and it just shows my pre-print.
I complained after I received the rejection, pointed out to my pre-print, and asked them to name the paper I allegedly plagiarized from. However, they did not respond back to me. I now sent an email to editor-in-chief and I'm waiting for response.
I am confident that the journals are reputable (Elsevier and Springer).

Any ideas or suggestions?


texts: how can i know the journal still covered by Scopus ( include 2018 year )

texts: how can I know the journal still covered by Scopus, for example when I check it on Scopus site " Scopus coverage years: from 2008 to 2018 " what its mean?


texts: Are there "uninteresting" publications in high profile journals?

texts:
I always want to read a high profile publication papers. It is true that they are in general hard to understand but they have very important results (in general).

It happens to me sometimes. Sometimes when I read a high profile paper, I found that the contribution is not very interesting, not worth to publish the work in this kind of high profile journal. Maybe I am the one who do not understand the paper but it is only me?

Do high profile publication contain "uninteresting" (i.e., not very important or novel) publications? If it is the case, why they accept it?


texts: lecturing one subject with other lecturer's material

texts:
I have been appointed to teach one course in Artificial Intelligence in one university. The reason was that the main lecturer is involved in other duties and for that reason he could not teach one group (there are two groups actually). The thing is that this lecturer has given me all the material: slides, exercises, exams, practices, final project and so on; and he told me explicitly to follow that material.

I have been always a big fan of the freedom of teaching. I mean I believe that if two different lecturers teach course X; then it would be better if they can get two different approaches for the same topics. The Faculty academic coordinator has told me that I must follow the material exactly, because the examinations would be the same for both groups.

I wonder what to do in this situation? I am keen to take published material as a reference for a course, but not to follow all the material exactly from the other lecturer like if I were some sort of "academic monkey" (that only mimics what the other has made). I really feel frustrated about this situation and I do not know what to do.

Usually when I have gotten into this situation, in which I had to drop one group and that group has been assigned to another lecturer. I have given him/her full freedom, and only we gather around for making the practices and exams together. I really believe that is the correct way to do this things.

Any advice?

PD Some clarification points:

The other lecturer and myself be both have the same rank, I mean we both are lecturers, only difference is that the other lecturer has taught the course before and that is why he was appointed coordinator of only that course.
In academic ranks, I got more academic background in CS (two master's already done); in the other hand he is a die hard programmer programmer that has participated in programming contests, but that's it. He has only a bachelor in Information Systems.
The material handed to me is simple, but it gets to my nerves that I must stick completely to it. I mean if a student is well prepared and every teacher follows the syllabic contents; then at the end it does not matter who made the final examinations. The student should be prepare for everything (except that the course is about, for example a Java certification, and I do not teach Java, but C). The point is that is a CS related course, and for that it should relies more in the algorithmic part that on some tricky-twisty programming stuff that tough programmers know.


texts: In general, do professors work at liberal arts colleges because they do not want to have to face the pressure of writing a lot of research papers? Instead they want their evaluations to be skewed towards their teaching quality?


texts: Show examples of public dataset in master thesis

texts:
So I'm currently in the final phase of my master thesis and started writing a few days ago. My thesis bases its work on a public dataset (the authors published it on GitHub an state in their paper that it is "available to the public", couldn't find anything about a license or whatever).

Now I don't think that it is a problem that I based my work on that dataset, but I would also like to show some examples in my thesis (the dataset consist of annotated pictures basically). Is this a problem? I will of course cite the authors.


texts: Paper was accepted for publication 6 months ago without any updates since then, how should I proceed?

texts:
About a year ago a paper, that me and my coauthors prepared and presented at a conference, has been selected to be published in a revised and extended form in a special issue of a reputable journal. For submissions they use EasyChair, which only gives automatic confirmation e-mails, when you upload. So there is no way to get info on current status of the submission, other then asking an executive editor via e-mail. But they didn't bother with any confirmations or status updates, unless specifically asked.
The only stated deadline was for initial submission. The upload of a revised version didn't have a deadline. And I couldn't find any timelines at the journal site. The first round of reviews, from our initial submission to submitting a revised version, took only 5 months. Then, after a month of not receiving any updates regarding the last upload, I have sent a request about the status of our submission, after which we have received an acceptance letter, which simply states that the paper is accepted and will be published in a future issue. The e-mail didn't contain any further instructions. It was 6 months ago and there were no further updates from the journal.
I would expect the next steps to be communications about the camera-ready version and copyright forms, both initiated by the editors. So it seems that now there is no point in asking them further about the status of our submission. But as time goes by I get doubtful about the prospects of our paper being actually published. I should probably note that their EasyChair still shows an option to submit to that special issue.
I've probably made a mistake by not answering to the acceptance e-mail then, but because of previous communications with the executive editor I've got a feeling that a person is quite busy and doesn't welcome unnecessary communications. So the question is whether it is acceptable to bother the executive editor with further questions about the paper's status at this point and if so, how should I word it?


texts: How important is your undergraduate degree when it comes to graduate admissions at top universities?

texts:
Let's say I have an undergraduate degree from a top university in my country which is, however, not renowned around the world. Does this have a negative impact on my chances of getting into a good graduate school?

Next year I will be a high school senior and I am thinking about where to go for undergraduate studies. The two options I have are:

Attending a top programme in my country, Romania, which doesn't make any of the university rankings, but is nevertheless really well regarded in my country.
Trying to get into some top 100-200 programmes in European universities which theoretically give me better chances to get into a top-tier graduate programme. This would be harder for me due to the financial costs (attending any university in my country would be a lot more cheaper).

I want to know your view on whether option 1 or 2 would boost or damage my chances of getting into a top graduate programme in North America or Europe.


texts: What is generally expected on language exams for humanities students?

texts:
Graduate students (at least in the US) often have to take foreign language competency exams, particularly if they are in the humanities. In things like classics or Biblical studies, I might expect a higher standard. But what is the standard generally required of students outside of such areas (but still within the humanities) in the US?

Since these are PhD programmes, I would normally expect a high standard (e.g. at least beyond the second year level in a good undergraduate programme). But purely anecdotally, I've reason to doubt this:

I know one person who was a native Japanese speaker and who used Japanese and German (or possibly English, via some exemption for foreign ESL speakers) to meet her language requirements, but who claims that her German isn't very good.
I know of a first-year student in art history who is using Italian and Chinese to meet such requirements. His comments about his Italian revision and experience suggested that he was at a fairly low level,1 and his attempts to write or converse in Chinese were, speaking as a native Chinese speaker, not particularly competent. Apparently he had to take his Italian exam shortly upon entering grad school.

While perhaps I'm just being too presumptuous of other people, this seems to suggest that the idea I have of language competency exams requiring people to comfortably read something like untranslated Foucault easily is wrong.

1. From his comments, it seemed that I know at least as much French as he does Italian, yet I have trouble reading French scholarly texts with confidence.


texts: What is the minimum number of research articles that must be cited to write a review article?

texts: I have extensively researched about a new area as part of my Doctoral research and want to write and publish a review article in some Science Citation Indexed (SCI) journal. But the problem is that there are only about 20 articles published till date  on this new area. I have seen many review papers on other areas published in SCI journals and found that normally the number of cited and referenced articles are quite high (sometimes even above 300 papers). And then there are non-SCI  journals where review papers are having very less number of cited and referenced articles (20-50 or more).


texts: Do journals allow authors to bring their own reviewers

texts: Some papers are published under category "communicated by ...". Do this mean the author contact this person to review the paper instead of editorial board? My question is: do journals generally allow authors to bring their own reviewers for evaluating the papers? It seems that some journals allow that.


texts: Is it fair that a PhD student should be allowed to review a research paper?

texts:
I really can't understand why an inexperienced PhD student should be allowed to review a research article written by researchers of considerably more experience and expertise.

How do journals/editors select referees for submissions?


texts: How to politely remind a Professor to re-review my application?

texts:
I recently applied to a Graduate School and also wrote to a Professor, I really want to work with. She scheduled an interview and it went immensely well and she also said that I would be a fit for her lab. But just before ending the interview, she told me to e-mail her my unique application ID, so she can have a look at my complete application. She said she'll get back to me.

This is was before the Christmas/New Year holidays. I was anticipating a reply but thought of waiting further until the holidays got over. I never received a response. Now that the holidays are over, I want to draft a mail re-reminding her about my application. What would be a polite way of doing this?

So far, I've got this

Respected Professor,

Thank you for interviewing me for a position at your lab on MM-DD-YYYY.
According to your instructions, I've mentioned you in my application as a potential supervisor. My application ID is XXXXXXXX. This is a gentle reminder for my application.

Thank you for your time and consideration!

Kind Regards,
XXX YYY


texts: Is this statistic about how many Latinos/Hispanics have a PhD in the USA correct?

texts:
According to Ileana Freytes-Ortiz,

  < 2% of people in the US have a #phd
  Of those, 6.5% are Hispanic
  By defending my PhD yesterday, I just became part of the 0.13% in the US that is #LatinoPhD

I find this statistic hard to believe, or if it is true maybe it is intentionally represented to look like a racial problem (although in my opinion Latino is not a race).
Regarding my field, almost 40% of references are from Spanish surnames, 40% Chinese, and 20% European. Based on this analogy (maybe false) I think her statement is wrong.
Is there any way or any source that can prove her claims?


texts: Does modifying the grades multiple times make me look unprepared/unprofessional?

texts:
As a TA, I have to grade students' assignments.
The main instructor usually has requirements regarding the minimum average grade for the class.
At the same time, it is tricky to predict the class' performance until I have graded about one third of the students' papers (for larger classes, and one half for smaller classes).

Even then, unexpected things can come up. To ensure fairness as well as fulfill the minimum average grade required by the instructor, I often have to re-grade their papers multiple times. For example, when first grading Josh's work, I gave him 4/5 pts for question 1. After finding out some others did better than him (but still not entirely correct), I gave the other students 4/5 and take one more point from Josh, and this process keeps going on and on. As a result, when I return the assignments to the class, their papers are full of my corrections for their previously assigned points.

I did mention curving to the instructor, but he didn't seem to be OK with that. In fact, he manually re-graded the first HW instead of curving it, which made me feel bad (and insulted).
It doesn't seem like the students have an issue with the way I grade, but I still wonder whether modifying the grades multiple times make me look unprepared/unprofessional?*


texts: Consequences of quiting a masters program (because of a job) and later applying for PhD program

texts: Suppose a student complete 1 year of a masters degree (2 year program). She then decides to accept a job. Later on, she wants to apply to a PhD program. Would it look bad if she didn't finish the masters program?


texts: Electronic journals with 'print on demand'

texts: We're thinking of starting a journal for undergraduate research.  I'm vaguely aware that some electronic journals have a 'print on demand' capability, so that someone who wants a printed bound copy can get one.  Can anyone point me to a journal that does this?


texts: How to stay motivated in a group with low motivation?

texts:
After joining a research group, I discovered my colleagues are always lowly motivated. They play card games and online games, and they listen to songs with the loudspeakers on all the time. They never discuss research-related things, and the only time they open a spreadsheet is to calculate some kinds of points in online games. This all happens in office hours in the laboratory.

I expected my colleagues would be happy to discuss with me about research problems, but it turns out nobody is willing to do this except my supervisor and some of the post-docs. They just focus on their entertainment. I do not know why they want to do a PhD; maybe they just want to delay their entry into the job market. However I really want to be trained as a good researcher and I am serious about my PhD. I cannot stay motivated all the time because their attitudes seem to gradually be affecting me, and the atmosphere is simply full of laziness. I can notice myself sometimes lowering my standard in research work now.

My supervisor seems ok with it and does not get angry at their slow and boring progress. My research interest matches quite well with my supervisor's, and I do not want to change my supervisor just because of those lowly motivated students. How can I still be motivated in a lowly motivated environment?


texts: Is it reasonable to submit a paper to a journal that I have uploaded to the Arxiv 4 years ago?

texts:
I have a paper submitted to the Arxiv 4 years ago (with another co-author). At that time, the only reason that we put the article  online was that someone asked us to do that in order to cite it.
 Since then it has been cited some times, including authors that claim that have found (independently) the same proof as ours.
The paper is the solution of a combinatorics problem.

I have been thinking lately that it would help my career to get this paper published in a Journal, but I'm not quite sure if this is a good idea, since it is certainly not a new result (and it is not super-interesting, just a nice solution for a problem).

What should I do? Has anyone been in the same situation?

Any advice is very welcome!

PS: In case that is a good idea to get it published it would be nice to have some kind of advise of which journal might consider articles of the types I described, as I guess that lots of Journals won't even consider it.


texts:
We have a paper that is a second round R&R at a Journal that is a cognate field which is less technical than ours. The editor has been extremely conscientious and supportive through the process, but has made several suggestion that reveal he doesn’t really understand some of the deeper methodological details of our approach. In particular they are concerned that X could be playing a role but this is definitely not the case.

I don’t want to respond saying X can’t explain our results because textbooks prove otherwise.  We could probably handle this but this is the second round in which they have suggested X is an issue/explanation, despite us gently explaining in our first round response and adding a footnote explaining why X was not an issue. So we need to find a better way of persuading him that this isn’t an issue.

In particular, I am interested in solutions that avoid the need to explicitly contradict him.


texts:
I'm trying to find some documentation on how are the rights of academic workers defined and protected by law in my country. Unsurprisingly, all I found is strictly administrative stuff related to degrees and diplomas, but nothing specific on actual academic worker rights.

I want to know if US and western EU have defined within their laws what an academic worker is and what are their additional rights and obligations compared to other types of workers, if academic freedom is in any way protected by law, or not.


texts: Is it possible to keep publishing under my professional (maiden) name, different from my married legal name?

texts:
I have a question about my choice of name for publication.
I recently got married and legally changed my name to my husband's surname (for example's sake: from Hunter to Jones).
So, despite legally being Ms Jones now, I would quite like to use the hyphenated name Hunter-Jones in the professional context and in publications.
This is so that people realise that it is still me and so that I can somewhat keep my maiden name.
Is this possible or do I have to use my legal name professionally and when publishing?
Thank you for any help


texts: What to do when you find out someone else presented your research without crediting you?

texts:
One of my collaborators recently sent me a link to a video of someone presenting at a professional conference.  In the presentation, they use some of my published research that I did as an intern, including figures from my paper, but they never credit me in the presentation.

I have several questions about this:

Is this normal or is this something that I should be credited for?
Is it typical for someone to contact you before using your research in a presentation?
Is it worth contacting the company about this?

On the one hand, I'm happy that more people are seeing my research.  On the other, it feels a little upsetting to see my research getting presented without getting the credit for it.


texts: Keywords in a paper: to include or not to include?

texts:
Are there some reasons to include them besides a historical tradion? Let's assume that it's not a requirement by the publisher.

There are some answers (such as this) which claim that keywords basically do not matter. However, I wonder if there are some empirical results or conflicting opinions on this. Perhaps they help with search engines?

My field is computer science, publishing mostly in IEEE conferences. Feel free to share experiences from other fields.


texts: Can I trust a paper that hides implementation details?

texts:
In Computer Science, sometimes we're assigned to reproduce the results presented by a paper that already have been published. In many cases (most of them) the code is not available, making the task more difficult.

But this questions is related to the cases where the code is available, however, many things author do in his code are not described in the published paper.

Is this ethical?
How to proceed when many things presented in the code are not explained in the original manuscript?
What if the code disappear from author's page? Will the results exist in the universe once again?

Disclaimer

This is not about minor details in the code, but huge holes of dark matter.
Let's assume that we're talking about Journal papers with more than 10 pages.


texts: Applying to PhD programs whose research topics mismatch my experience

texts:
I am applying to PhD program that matches the theme of my research and industrial experience. As most of field of studies, there are several topics under the general theme and my experiences are just one of them.

If PhD application is all about the relevance between targeted research group and applicant's experience, how to stand out if I am trying to apply to research groups whose ongoing projects (or done ones) are not closely related to my experience (though they might belong to a common general theme)?

To be more specific, let's say my research experience was building a pioneering application built upon several basic tasks as building blocks. On the other hand, the funded projects and main topics of the targeted research groups are focused on improving the basic tasks (efficacy, for example).


texts: Is it a lack of passion or competency if I don't want to leave my current position for 6 months?

texts:
I am about to defend my thesis. It has been a tough journey full of self doubt, self motivation and sheer perseverance. I am hoping that I can justify the time spent on my PhD to my defense committee. I am a changed person since I joined the programme. The last 5 years were not easy and I am simply exhausted.

I want to delay my postdoc job searching by 6 months and want to continue living in the current city of residence (where I was doing my PhD).

I just want to take time off for few months from moving on to the next phase, would like to stay in my comfort zone (aka my PhD lab), would like to get my research published, search and apply for all the available options and make the next move after careful consideration.

Will it be seen as a lack of passion or competency in my future job applications?

P.S. I will get a title of research assistant (not post doc) in my lab if I decide to stay for few months in the lab.


texts: Determining the co-presenters of a conference presentation when the work is already published

texts:
I am the lead author of an article publication, and there are 3 co-authors for this publication.

I will submit a proposal to a major conference to present the findings of this published work, and I will be the only one who will do the presentation.

So, I wonder if I should indicate only my name for the submission, or should I also include the co-author's name also as the co-presenter although they will literally no present anything.

I know it is not nice to exclude them since they contributed to the study, and I will probably include their names. However, I want to know what is common practice for this.


texts: I may not be admited to the school that have the professor I have interest in. What should I do?

texts:
I have been following a professor whose research I really like. To simply illustrate the impact of his research, let me quote a quote from Quanta Magazine:

  [He] says he usually gets two responses: “You’ve opened up a whole new theory, and you’re an idiot.”

We have exchanged many emails, and I have nailed my proposed research to the point where I believe that it suits his research very well. I am really satisfied with this.

However, I lack 5 points in TOEFL to reach the minimum requirement of this school. So I have to apply to other professors in other schools. Because he has opened up a new theory, other professors research doesn't have that much in common with my proposed one. I have no complain about that, and I think I would still be happy to work on a research that deviates from my proposed one. The next professor who has research similar to my proposal, has refused me because he doesn't have intention to admit more student this year (but he says he will be glad if I apply next year).

Q: If I really want to work on this research, can other professors advise me well? In my knowledge, I also need to work for them, to enrich their research, so chances are that I have to work on a different research. And if I do have to change my proposed one, which one is more advantageous, accepting it or waiting another year to apply? It's kind of a shame to spend a whole year preparing for grad school, then suddenly have to wait for another year; but I can deal with that.


texts: Identifying new references when appending to existing reference list

texts:
I am building a database from several online sources like Engineering Village. Everyday I am searching different/close/related keywords that pertains to my research topic. Then, I am (everyday) exporting and printing out the documents to do manual filtering depending on the relevance of the article/report. I also importing/appending daily search results into my cumulative list. This may lead to duplication which Reference Managers identifies and filters out in most cases. How do I have a daily reference list such that there is no duplicates? In order words, is there a way to know each time I append my references which are the new ones that I generated (through query) only today.

Please let me know if you need any clarifications. Thank you for your help.


texts: Should those more interested in research choose a postdoc or teaching position?

texts: For PhD graduates who are more interested in research and little teaching, which is better, a postdoc with a focus on research, or a (non-tenure-track) teaching position (lecturer, instructor, etc.)? I assume that both positions would be helpful when moving to a research position. The point with a postdoc is that even at top schools, the pay is low and they don't guarantee a good job afterward, while a teaching position, with 3-4 courses would be distraction from doing research.


texts: Authorship with Past and Nearly Absent Supervisor

texts:
Inspired by the following question: Co-authorship for not very involved supervisor

I have got to ask a slightly different question:  I have a past supervisor while I did my masters and she wasn't really involved or as active as I would have liked. Also, I received no funding from this professor. I did however receive a scholarship from the university to fund my masters; not sure if these facts change anything.  Naturally, this person would also like to believe she was involved, so had I finished the research while I did my masters there I would have listed this individual as a second author and even the author of correspondence.  But now I am pursuing a PhD and in fact in a  slightly different field at a different university.

While preparing for my qualifiers I came across some fresh new ideas and had a light bulb moment.  Consequently, I have made significant progress in my old project as of late.  I believe by the end of the summer I will have results ready for publication.  On the one hand, I feel I should notify my old professor of these results once they come in... I think it would be wrong or even unethical to let them find out through the grape-vine or just through reading to keep up with the field.  On the other hand, I fear this person will want authorship or even write the editor and demand it; this person is a Reader at a prestigious university while I'm just a little PhD student.  I feel it will be a case of he-said she-said with the Editor which will ultimately result in me losing (even though I completely believe I'm justified and the recent progress was 100% mine).

Maybe I'm over-reacting but I'm not sure what to do.  And I certainly don't want this person to "read over" my paper or attempt to "edit" it, because I think then they would have more grounds to put their name on the paper.  Any ideas?


texts: Is it legal to download textbooks from academia.edu?

texts:
There is a website called academia.edu. It seems like they have papers on various topics - but my question is about their textbooks. It is possible to download certain college textbooks for free through their site. This is a link to a calculus textbook you can download through the site.

My question is: Is it legal to download textbooks from academia.edu (in the United States)?


texts: Is it necessary to write proof if one can refer to the database?

texts:
I'm a final year undergraduate Math major. So now I am writing a paper about an application of Elliptic curve. You can see my research topic from this question in Math StackExchange.
When studying the elliptic curve above, I'm following the theoretical result and approximation in Rational Points on Elliptic Curves by Silverman and Tate. It details all calculations required to find the rank, torsion point, generator of infinite order of an elliptic curve. When I have almost done calculate all properties of the particular elliptic curve from my research project, I discover the LMFDB database, which has all information I wanted.
I would like to ask, is it necessary to put all calculations of mine in my paper, which is a duplicate effort from the book of Silverman and Tate? Or is it better just include the LMFDB database in my paper and discard these calculations? I think math papers are all about rigorous derivation, every gap should be properly filled, but I'm not sure is 'using database' an academic approach. Besides, I'm not worry about the length of my papers because I have some other original results.


texts: How to shorten the list of authors in case of joint first authorship?

texts:
Articles often put a shortened list of authors at the top of the page (e.g., J Smith et al.).

What is best in case of joint first authorship (for example: John Smith, Jane Doe, ... 5 more authors)?

Should it be "J Smith, J Doe et al." or simply "J Smith et al"?


texts: Should I tell an editor that I believe an article I'm reviewing is not good enough for the journal?

texts:
Here's the scenario: I was asked to review an article for a given journal. I did, the authors addressed my comments/corrections, and now the manuscript is back with me for a second time to review the reviewed version.

I don't think that there's anything particularly wrong with the article at this point, but I don't think it has enough merit to be published in a Scimago Q1 ranked journal.

Since the editors sent it to me twice now, I have to assume that they do.

Will it look out of line if I suggest the editors that they should suggest the authors to publish the article in a more "modest" journal?

Again: there is nothing wrong with the article in itself, I just don't think it is notable enough for the submitted journal (considered by Scimago to be a top ten journal in my field).


texts: Applying for MS in CS - what are the programming languages I must know before starting graduate school?

texts:
I am an electrical engineer with basic programming skills in C, C++, Python and Java. I wish to pursue my masters in computer science to pursue research (PhD) after working for a couple of years in the IT industry (preferably product development).

So what are the programming languages one must master before starting graduate school - MS in CS?


texts: Which committee decides the speakers in a conference: SOC or LOC?

texts: Conferences ask for abstracts for those authors wishing to contribute talks or posters. I wonder which conference committee decides on who gets a talk or poster based on the submitted abstracts; is it the Scientific Organising Committee or the Local Organising Committee?


texts: Is it inappropriate to share journal article reviews?

texts: I want to put the LaTeX source files for a paper that I just published up on GitHub (technically they are already there, but private). Is it inappropriate to include the (anonymous) reviews and my responses to these?


texts: Is there a more gender-neutral and specific term for "Underclassman"?

texts:
Yale has changed their language, but I don't see a clear alternative here.
At this point, I think referring to students by their specific class years ( "First-Years and Sophomores" vs. "Juniors and Seniors") is the best alternative for now, particularly because of the ambiguity around what class years the terms "underclassman" and "upperclassman" really refer to.


texts: How to finish my PhD dissertation before funding runs out?

texts:
I am in the 4th year of my PhD and still has no paper published. I am working on my first ... but it has taken a long time because I had not been very satisfied with that piece of work and had been making modifications here and there. I have a second piece of work expecting to be published, but that one needs considerable improvement, too. My advisor is very grumpy about this, and he is now anxious to get me enough publications to send me off. Things are a tangled mess and I have no idea how to get out of this.

One, during the past three years, I had been working on something totally different from the main interest of my advisor. He is now sending me bits of pieces to work on in his main field. But I have little background knowledge, while still having to spend time writing that poor old paper and RA-ing on another project that supplies funding. I would never graduate in time were I to work on the new topic. I have not even identified a reasonable topic yet! On the other hand, if I were to incorporate some of the previous work into my dissertation work, it is different from my advisor's interest, and I fear another two unproductive years.

A second difficulty adding to the first one is, I find myself unable to discuss work with my advisor. The meetings are just like: I told him what I had, he made some comments, and then told me what to do next. Things never lasted more than 20 minutes. I feel lacking the big picture or a research objective. Sometimes I wish he could help me look at this piece of source code or that, but then in the meeting just failed to show it. Also, I am not a methodical or precise thinker, but my advisor is and he is very quick and sharp. I can make things clear on paper, but am terrible at taking facts from memory. This probably does not help him form any good impression. He also keeps mentioning I need more publications which are terrible blows to my psychology.

Finally, I have to graduate in two years, because funding is definitely running out by that time. In fact he is not even paying me at this time.

Seriously I want to quit, except to quit almost means the end of academic career. If I do not quit, what can I do to remedy the situation?


texts: getting funding as a master of engineering student

texts: I'm applying for master of engineering, but unless I can receive some financial aid through funding, I can not attend. So is there any way to receive funding except TA?