texts: How many people read an individual journal article?

texts:
General background

Some time ago, I was reading a blog post, where there was some discussion about how many people read journal articles.
I think that such an estimate is important when trying to assess the impact of research on society.
However, whereas internet sites readily track usage. Such information seems a little more difficult to come by when it comes to readership for a particular journal article.

Initial Ideas

Articles vary: Obviously journal articles vary in many ways and just as with citation counts, readership is likely to be highly skewed, perhaps something like a power function. In addition to academic impact, presumably articles that are available for free on the internet are read more.
Time since publication: The number of reads increases over time, but the rate of readership presumably varies over time (perhaps a spike on initial release, and then gradual decline as relevance dissipates).
Definitions of reading vary: Read counts would also increase or decrease based on how reading is defined. At the low end is a glance at an abstract. At the high end is carefully reading the entire article. I'd be happy with a working definition that involved reading at least two pages.

Initial Data

PlosOne article statistics: As a very rough guide, it suggests that mean views per article is around 800 per year.
Journal of Vision: this article reports some download statistics: "In the most recent accounting in July, 2008, the top five articles were each downloaded between 1,993 and 3,478 times."
Some journals list subscription counts

Initial Guess

I find it useful to have a ball park estimate of these things.
My own initial guess, based on minimal data, is that readership is between 50 and 1000 times the citation count for the article. Linking the estimate to citation count makes it easier to estimate for a given article and should incorporate effects like time and journal prestige.

Question

What is a good estimate of how many people read a given journal article?
What data and sources of information justify this estimate?
Is there any established literature that can inform such an estimate?


texts: Is LaTex everyone's go to for writing a professional CV? Or are there other niche tools/packages that you use to format and write it? i.e. something like a WYSIWG graphical editor with preset formatting, but specifically for CVs. Ideally, something that enforces a strong separation between content and style, so that you can easily swap out styles for the same content


texts: Am I eligible for a fellowship doing interdisciplinary work?

texts:
I'm pondering a Masters (thesis) in Computer Engineering after I graduate undergrad. I also have a subject matter I want to research that will probably require a fellowship in order to conduct my Masters.

I want to explore a section of Computer Engineering that I can apply to Sociological and Ethnic studies ( the particulars of what that is isn't important here ). I have a sociological research institute  in mind that is perfect to help my research into what I want to do for my Masters. I want a fellowship in this institute because its the preeminent leader in its field and it intersects perfectly with what my research would be about.

The thing is, I don't know if they would even take me in the first place. Yes, I have a degree in Sociology but my Masters work is in engineering. Would it be in the norm for a research institute ( especially one in the Social Sciences ) to offer a fellowship to someone who isn't in their field? I'm going to be a Engineering Master's student who wants to conduct research in a Social Science field.


texts: I was given to review a journal paper that overlaps with a submitted paper of ours

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I was recently given to review a journal paper that significantly overlaps with a work that we recently submitted to a conference (about half of the contributions are the same).

Any advice on what to do in this case?

(even if I tell the editor now that I'm unable to review the paper, I've already read it).


texts: How can I avoid being "the negative one" when giving feedback on statistics?

texts:
Results get sent around a group of biological collaborators for feedback. Comments come back from the senior members of the group about the implications of the results, possible extensions, etc. I look at the results and I tend not to be as good at the "big picture" stuff (I'm a relatively junior member of the team), but I'm reasonably good with statistics (and that's my main role), so I look at the details.

Sometimes I think to myself "I don't think those conclusions are remotely justified by the data".  How can I give honest feedback in a way that doesn't come across as overly negative? I can suggest alternative, more valid approaches, but if those give the answer "it's just noise", I'm pouring cold water over the whole thing.


texts: I keep forgetting what I've learned. Should I even consider pursuing advanced degree in math?

texts:
This is my first time posting here, and I'm not very sure whether I should post this in Academia or Math stackexchange.

Currently I am a Mathematics/Economics major. I have been taking a lot of math courses and I really liked them. But usually after I was done with the final, I would forget most of the details. For example, I took two courses on mathematical analysis and I got A on both of them. But right now if someone asks me to do one of the homework problems, it's very likely that I would get stuck.

Right now I am taking differential geometry and there are lots of analysis and linear algebra things going on. Sometimes I try to prove a theorem, but then because I forgot some important theorems from linear algebra, I just couldn't prove that theorem of geometry.

My question is, if I'm about to pursue an advanced degree in mathematics, am I expected to know all the theorems and their detailed proofs? If so then probably I should really spend more time reviewing all the things that I've learnt. Or is it like I am expected to be good at one certain subject (like analysis)? Thank you very much.


texts: When can I send a status update query to editor for paper under major revision?

texts: I submitted a paper to elsevier and it got major revision. I proceeded as per the suggestions and submitted revision. After few days the status changed to "Under Review". Now the status is still under Review even after 45 days. Can I ask the editor for a status update or should I wait further?


texts: Will a 2-year post-doc in deep-learning harm me in the long-term?

texts:
I am 28 and will be finishing my PhD in the next 2 months. My PhD has been in the field of medical image analysis so it has covered quite a bit of image processing mixed in with machine learning.

My plan isn't to have an academic career. I see my short-term future as a research scientist/engineer and my ideal career route would be moving into the tech industry (hopefully focused on healthcare) and progressing there.

I have been offered a post-doc focused on deep-learning with a side-element of software engineering in Python/C++. Its in the same lab but with a different group, which is also very reputable both in academia and industry.

I have read that as soon as you know you want to go to industry, every month not working in industry is a waste; both in terms of experience and potential life-time earnings.

My question is: would a 2-year post-doc be detrimental for my future career?

The post-doc seems to tick many boxes that many companies list as job requirements for positions I'm really interested in but do not think I fit right now. The post-doc would involve:

Development of deep-learning algorithms with applications to image synthesis and segmentation
Software engineering in Python/C++ to deploy software at collaborators research centers
Part of the development team for a deep-learning open-source package
Mentoring 2 PhD students

Second question: does it make sense to take a post-doc that would build desirable skills/knowledge for jobs I am interested in? Rather than just applying for industry positions now and taking the best one I can get.

Thank you!


texts: How do I include a journal article draft in my dissertation?

texts:
I am writing up my dissertation, and one of the chapters is a final draft of an as-yet unsubmitted journal article.

I know with published works, I just get the copyright from the journal if needed, and can include the reprint as is in my dissertation, but how do I include a draft?
  The version of the draft as it stands now is essentially what is going to be submitted, verbatim. Which means if I defend first, the work is technically published in my dissertation.
  I defend in 3 weeks. I was going to submit right after. Is this doable? We're not even 100% certain which journal we are submitting to.

Thanks for the help!


texts: Electronic Assessment / Submission for questions where each student should have a different correct answer

texts:
I am looking for software that will automatically assess the output of student assignments, or at least the numerical parts of them. This is for a large class of >100 students and multiple assignments. As part of a scheme to avoid plagiarism each student obtains different correct numerical answers to their problems. Thus if student A should get 2.56342 for question 1, student B should get 3.42975 and no two students should obtain answers that are identical. The method of calculation is the same in each case, but students have different input parameters that change the solution. (I should add at this point that the numbers cannot be obtained with simple or complex formulae from the input parameters: a significant amount of work is required to generate each answer; I have written a piece of software that generates these answers.)

I am wondering if it would be possible to use an existing software package that could handle the submission of student answers/assignments and also mark/grade the results for at least the numerical parts of the assignments. So far I have looked at Moodle, Hot Potatoes and Question Mark, but none of them seem suitable because I cannot see a way of the same question having different answers for different students. It maybe that I need to try to develop a custom built system for this, but before putting that effort in I would be very grateful to hear of any suggestions of existing systems that might be able to handle this task.

I have tried to check if this question has been asked before and looked at this question on use of automated assessment of programming assignments, for example, but I could not find a previous question that covers the question I pose here.


texts: "Anomalous citation patterns" as exclusion criteria in Journal Citation Reports (aka Impact Factor)

texts: Can someone explain how these "anomalous citation patterns" are identified in JCR and what they mean exactly? They sound like the academic version of link farms that Google has to fight against.


texts: Why do journals prohibit authors from acknowledging reviewers?

texts:
Pretty much in the title: why do several journals prohibit authors from acknowledging reviewers?
I have seen this in many (neuroscience) journals across publishers (both clinically oriented and non-clinically oriented)
Possible reasons I could think of:

Journal policy makers think that it might bias the review process (seems ridiculous to me)
For journals publishing clinical research, they may be overly sensitive about any perceived conflict of interest (although I don't see how acknowledging anonymous reviewers could be perceived as conflict of interest).

For example: "Acknowledgements should be brief, and should not include thanks to anonymous referees and editors, inessential words, or effusive comments." (from Nature)
Merely searching for "should not include thanks to anonymous referees" shows up several journal results; either they all copied from the same place or else ...


texts: How do "lecturers" differ from "professors" in large universities?

texts:
I notice that some universities have academic positions known as lecturers. Are these positions different from professors? Are transitions from instructors to the professor track relatively easy. This position seems similar to the adjunct professor position.

Note that I am talking about universities in the USA.


texts: Prospective PhD advisor wrote that he would get back to me, but did not. What should I do?

texts: Prospective PhD advisor wrote that he would get back to me in "two weeks or so", and it has been 3 weeks now. Should I email him? What should I write in the email?


texts: Does a professor respond to my request to work with me?

texts:
I would like to write an article and present it to a professor abroad. Does he accept my request to read my article and submit it in the name of both of us as a co-authors (if he agrees with my article)?
In fact, I'm looking for a way to both publish my paper and use a partnership with a professor at  the other university. Is such a collaboration common and does the professor respond to my request?


texts: International master programm in Physic at university of Rostock

texts:
I am a physic student from Jordan, few days ago i got an admission to do my master in physics at university of Rostock, Germany.

Am I able to get a PhD position from other university when I finish my master study, i.e., will other German universities recognize my Master degree from Rostock university?


texts: Is it worth it to write a book with my advisor instead of focusing on journal/conference publications?

texts:
Is it worth it to coauthor a book with my advisor in place of spending time publishing resrarch in journals or conferences?

Would the fact that the book is a much larger piece of work contribute more to my academic reputation? Or not as much because it won't contain as much novel research.


texts: How to self-advocate after rotation rejection?

texts:
I am a first year PhD student. I just finished my first rotation lab and absolutely loved it. I met with my PI every week, and I never felt like she had a problem with me. Though I never had a frank discussion with her regarding the fact that I wanted to commit to her lab (big mistake, I know), I heard from other students who spoke with her that she wanted to make sure she had enough space in the lab for me and the other rotation students had we chosen to join. She also promised us that she had enough funding so we wouldn't have to compete with one another. I really thought I had found my lab home until....

I received an email from her yesterday telling me that she couldn't keep me. The reasons she gave me seemed flimsy (i.e. I wasn't enthusiastic enough....when literally anyone else in the group can vouch for my enthusiasm!) and contradicted what she told me at the start of the rotation (ie. she said she wished I had gotten further in the project, when she explicitly said multiple times that she didn't care how far we got through our rotation projects).

I hate confrontation, but I want to be a self-advocate. My biggest regret in undergrad was not self-advocating enough. I feel like I lost a lot of wonderful opportunities because of my fear to approach professors. But this time I want to stand up for myself, try to get a chance to defend myself and ask for legitimate reasons why she suddenly rejected me. And of course, try everything I can to try to change her mind. This is my dream lab, and I want to be brave enough to fight. I know I'm stepping on some annoying lab politics by doing this, but how should I go about addressing my concerns with my PI while not offending her?


texts: Is it peculiar for a department not to have any of its own PhD graduates as professors?

texts:
I have been doing research into graduate programs and have noticed that some departments have a representation of their own PhD graduates as professors while others have an absence.

For example, a department I have looked at in a top university in Canada had a faculty completely composed of PhD graduates from top American schools, but none from its own.

I can see this as a signal of either two things -

That the department may not want to be seen favouring its own candidates.
That the department may not have as much faith in its own graduates as that from other schools.

I understand that this may differ from field to field.

But in general, what is the majority view-point on a department that has no representation of its own graduates on its faculty?


texts: I used feedback from the code review SE for an assignment. Do I have to mark it?

texts:
I wrote source code for an assignment. After I was done and the program was functional, i uploaded a piece (a class) on the Code Review SE and people gave me advice, which I then implemented. Should i credit them, and if so, how?

For pieces of code I took from Stackoverflow, for example, I would write it in a comment next to the code, and include a link.

Should this be done in the same way for improvement suggestions?
In my concrete example, implemented suggestions were mostly about programming language intricacies and object orientation. Another option would be to inform the professor in advance and/or ask about this being allowed.

EDIT: The assignment ist not about the programming languages or object-oriented design.


texts: How to disclose in a review of an edited book that one was offered a chapter?

texts:
Some time ago, I attended a conference. The organizers later compiled an edited book with the revised presentations of the conference. I was also offered to contribute a chapter. But after the sending the organizers a first draft, I had to turn down the offer as I did not have the time to make the revisions and additions they asked for.

Currently, I am writing an omnibus review about the same topic for a journal and I also would like to discuss the meanwhile published proceedings of the conference. Although I think the edited book has some very good points, I also would have to express severe criticism about some other points especially in the introduction by the organizers.

Therefore, I would like to know:
How do I disclose the best in the review that I have participated at the conference and was offered a chapter? Should I add a footnote or a paragraph? Wouldn't that even raise distrust?

To make things more complicated: There is already a well-meaning  review of the book by the 2nd supervisor of one of the contributors who has not disclosed his link in any way.


texts: I got admited to a PhD program without a master degree. Does it hurt when I apply for a postdoc?

texts:
I am a graduate student in Sweden, and will present my PhD thesis next semester, and have several articles accepted/published.

However, when I applied (and got admitted) I had only studied at the university for three years, and only written a bachelors thesis. Me being admitted was sort of an "error" from the department, (and I had no idea what really was the requirements, since my thesis advisor encouraged me to apply).

Might this look bad on my resumé when applying for a post-doc position?
(Or is young age an advantage, in my case, 25)?

Edit: To follow up, I am now 32 and not as young anymore. I had no big issues finding post-doc positions, and I am still in academia.


texts: Tables or Stadium seating for a conference?

texts:
I'm organizing a conference and we have the option to set up the seating either around multiple tables ie a wedding arrangement or in the classroom style. There are benefits to either strategy but the way I see it, the tabular format allows people to put their stuff down and relax. On the other hand, the classroom style creates a much better learning environment for people to actually pay attention to a talk and creates a more cozy impression for the speaker.

I'm curious, what do people typically expect out of a conference and what is the ideal scenario for a one day conference? Does it make a difference if it's a bunch of students or a bunch of of professors?


texts: How should I cite an open letter with a large number of signatories?

texts:
When citing an open letter, is it appropriate to cite all of the signatories as authors?
I would like to cite the following open letter: Dear Oprah Winfrey: 142 Writers Ask You to Reconsider American Dirt
The letter has 142 signatories.  The byline says it is by "141 Writers" with no particular author name.  So would I cite the author as "141 Writers" or would I cite it as though the signatories are the authors?
This particular paper is in APA but I would be interested in information about MLA as well in case it comes up, since I use MLA in the classes that I teach.


texts: What are the criteria for associate professor habilitation in Italy in mathematics?

texts: What are the official criteria that one needs to meet to achieve the national "associate professor" habilitation in Italy in mathematics?


texts: What to do if a journal article is too hard to review

texts:
I am reviewing a paper for a top-ranked journal in robotics. The main results of the paper are about control and not specifically robotics. I am aware that robotics is a multidisciplinary subject which has also a ton of control in it but the problem here is the following. The paper is, mathematically, really hard to follow. The mathematical details would require maybe more than 2 weeks for me to review and to go through the equations.

What would you do in this case? I was thinking to suggest to submit to another journal, more control-oriented.

What do you think?

Thanks for your opinions.


texts: Value of (multiple) master's on the path to the PhD?

texts: I'm a PhD student in computer science. At the end of the year I will finish my coursework and be awarded a master's degree. Due to the nature of my research (machine learning) I'm considering taking additional classes to get a master's in statistics. The obvious pro is that I will gain a deeper understanding of topics that I will otherwise be generally self studying. The obvious drawback is that coursework takes time away from research. How do I weigh these pros and cons appropriately? Thanks.


texts: Serving your country while in academia, or before going into academia

texts:
I am a 3rd year mathematics undergraduate(see my math se account), and I think I am well positioned to go into academia, and I am willing to do anything to make it happen.

I also have a desire to show my love for America, and I can't think of any unequivocal of doing this other than joining the military.

Many of my competitive advantages have come from completing certain milestones before a certain age(i.e. finishing the trigonometry books that Ramanujan used at the age he did them, BC calc in 8th grade, a competitive REU program Freshman year, going straight to the graduate courses in my undergrad).  Thus getting deployed to active duty might break this string.

Has anyone had any experience in this matter?

I am not, of course interested in industry, at all.  I would sooner do math on the streets than go into any other job where I cannot continue what I am doing 24/7.


texts: Applying for internship in the US as a European Student

texts:
My question is about applying for a US internship(4 scale GPA) as a European student(with 10 scale GPA).

I took a look at this thread. An answer mentions that 93% of grades are 'A's, thus leading to a 4.0 scale GPA. In my country, the average GPA in my school is 6.3/10, which depends on lots of factors (difficult exams, professor unwilling to help etc). Practically, students scoring A's (10/10 or 9/10) in courses are very limited and in some courses like Calculus non-existent.

I've seen many internship programs from large corporations where they require a GPA of 3.5 and above.

When only one student in the history of my school has scored 3.9/4.0 (converted to 4 scale from 10 scale system, 9.9/10 in 10 scale) only 1% every year graduate with 3.5/4.0 and above GPA, what are my chances of being accepted at a US program even with experience in my area of interest? Are European GPA's handled differently than US GPA's? I believe a direct comparison between the two is impossible since in reality they are two different grading systems.


texts: Importance of professional website to search committees

texts:
I am hitting the academic job market this fall and was advised to have a professional website, but I am completely lost in putting this advice into action.  I now am sitting here thinking about making a professional website in preparation of the job market. I am uncomfortable with this kind of self-promotion but, on the other hand, I do not want to ignore a low hanging piece of fruit because I don't like its shape.

My questions are:

Do professional websites enhance the application for potentials?
How much does the professional website matter at this stage in my career?
Is it worth time writing up my own webpage or is sticking to prefabs  like weebly good enough?

Background: My field is in the social sciences, though my area of research is computational within it.  My publication record upon finishing my postdoc will be strong. I am exceptionally uncomfortable with the idea of self-promotion or even engaging in social media conversations.

Any advice would be appreciated. My hope is that my research productivity will stand on its own and I will not have to create a professional website, but I hope you can advise me on how important it is.


texts: Is it possible to use Reddit as a source?

texts:
For a writing assignment, I'm doing some research on my topic (CalgaryNEXT). Most sites I've seen report generally the same ideas and the same stats. Then I found this post of someone who attended a presentation by the project's lead, and he mentions a few other points not covered elsewhere.

Unfortunately though, its just "some dude on Reddit".

Is there any legitimate way of sourcing something like this, or must I rely on cut-and-paste articles from more reputable news sites?


texts: I have submitted a major revision to TVT (Transactions on Vehicular Technology). It has been 10 days with the Associate Editor. How much time does it usually take to receive a decision?


texts: Adding pictures to mathematical academic papers

texts:
I was wondering if there is this "universal" program that generates a picture of a graph (you make), then exports it to SVG form. The SVG is because I want to export my whole project to PDF, so I need everything to be scalable vectors.
I was really curious how do people add different style of graphs, from regular "circles connected with lines/arrows" to graphs of automata like so (Apologies, I cannot make this picture view from the front as I don't have enough reputation):
Picture of Automata for example
My question is basically if there are some good (free) softwares to create graphs (any time of graph), so that it would look nice in a PDF, and not pixel-y.
Or do they make these on photoshop alone?
I was really trying hard to find some, the closest thing I found is XMIND which costs money for SVG, and on top of that, I did not see how to make this automata style.
(The automata is just an example of a "bizarre" graph/image, but I really mean all styles)
Thank you very much!


texts: What to do when PhD advisor wants student to work on two disjoint projects?

texts: My PhD advisor wants me to work on two different problems during my PhD. One is the a problem of their suggestion and another is collaborative work with some company. Both the problems are disjoint. I have been given  the option, that if I want to work on one problem  then it should be the problem on for my advisor's collaborative research and I should leave the problem initially suggested. However, I don't want to give up my present problem as that sounds interesting to me and I have already worked for one year on it. When I told my advisor that I don't find the collaborative work interesting, it was suggested that I work on both the problems. However, I am finding it hard to work on two problems. Its like a dual PhD for me. I cannot say anything to my advisor as I'm told I have to work on the collaborative work as my stipend comes from it and else I should leave the PhD. My advisor also does not  advise me when I propose ideas about my previous research. Please suggest what should I do?


texts:
I teach a course in Computer Science in which research is evolving so rapidly. This is an undergrad course. It is difficult to have a comprehensive set of lecture notes prepared every time during the semester. I teach through blackboard only (and I feel students like that thing about me).

However, students do require some lecture notes. I have the following questions in mind.

Can I provide research article(s) as lecture notes?
If Yes to (1), then am I violating copyright? -- I don't think so, as it is only for an unsharable academic purpose only.


texts: How to transfer from a pure math PhD to an applied math PhD at another school?

texts:
I am currently a first year graduate student in a pure math PhD program in a top-100 university studying topology.  I declined offers from top 20 schools to attend this school because I liked the professors at this university and the location of the school was good.

After going to a couple of conferences and talking to some post-docs/grad students from other universities, I found out that the career prospects for someone like me look quite terrible (if I wanted to stay in academia).  Even grad students from Stanford/Berkeley (i.e. top schools) were having a bit of trouble finding a spot in academia.  Given that I'm really far down the "food chain" and I want to stay in academia, it looks very unrealistic for me.  Also, the math is really hard :)

I realize that I should go to a top-20ish school to have access to enough resources to make myself a competitive applicant in the future (I realize that I should focus on my work, but it's hard to grow a lot at my current university given the lack of learning seminars/seminars in general).

That said, I've been going to conferences and giving talks and "doing the right things."  However, I am finding that the current research I am doing is quite abstract and I don't have people I can regularly talk to about it.  I've recently discovered the subfields of topological data analysis and DNA topology and I'm finding those subjects really appealing in that I can actually see how my work might impact people and I can actually understand the material that is covered in seminars (the topics are very approachable).

From what the grad chair told me, I'm one of the strongest students that has entered this school's PhD program so I'm suspecting that, if I want to transfer, my letters of recommendation would be fairly strong.

However, the main issue for me is that I still do want to stay in academia.  I know that I don't need to go to a top 20 school to do "good" work but I don't see myself finishing my PhD at a school that isn't in the top 20.

So, that's the background.

I really want to transfer to a top (whatever that might mean) applied math program from my current institution.  I have only taken pure math classes.  I don't know how to nicely approach my professors and say "I don't want to stay here.  Please write me a letter of recommendation so I can get out."  My current plan is to say something like "I've developed some interest in applied math and we don't do that here.  I'm seeing myself doing research in applied math.  Will you write me a letter (etc)?"

How realistic is it for me to transfer to a (top) applied math program?  My GPA is currently a 4.0 and my undergrad was completed at a top 5 university (with a 3.8).
If it is realistic, how do I maximize my chance of being admitted into a (top) applied math program?
If it is realistic, what are some better ways to approach professors at my current university about this?

If it isn't realistic, I might just finish a PhD here.  I know that I can get more specialized attention at my university, but I thought I'd do a preliminary pass here to get a sanity check before I ask people in my department.  I am not familiar with people transferring from pure math to applied math programs.


texts: Why do some states have such opposite patterns of mobility for science and non-science PhDs?

texts:
The NSF conducts a survey of PhD recipients in the US. Among other things, they look at which states are attracting many new PhDs and which states PhDs are leaving. They break this data into science & engineering doctorates:

And everyone else:

The broad pattern isn't all that surprising, there are major differences between US states and it makes sense that some provide a good environment for PhD level workers while others don't.

However, looking closely at the two maps, there are some odd differences:

California attracts a lot of S&Es (on top of its own large output) but there's a net outflow of non-S&Es. Massachusetts and New Jersey have a similar pattern.
Wyoming attracts a lot of non-S&Es (it's actually about 75% if you mouse over on the map) while S&Es are leaving. Colorado, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Utah have a similar pattern.

I would have thought that with such a broad grouping as S&E vs not, the dominant effect would have to do with having a PhD at all as opposed the kind of PhD. Obviously there could be differences between these two categories, but I would have expected differences of degree rather such strong opposites as in states I list above.

What is special about these states? How do they manage to be so attractive to one group of PhD-level employee, while being so unattractive to the other? Is this a recent development, or an old historic trend? Is it to do with the economy of the state, or some kind of social reason? If social, is it to do with the universities in these areas, or the population of these states in general?


texts: How do you tell a professor you interviewed with you will be going to a different program?

texts: I had an email exchange and interview with this professor and I feel like I should tell her I've been accepted elsewhere to my first choice program, but writing the words down and getting the tone right are hard.


texts: Is it acceptable to write that you are getting a "Ph.D. in [area]" (rather than name of department) on social media?

texts: I am starting a PhD in computer science, and have noticed that a number of classmates will write on LinkedIn or their academic websites that they are getting a "PhD in Machine Learning" or "PhD in Artificial Intelligence" and so on. Is this common/acceptable to write "PhD in [Area of Interest/Expertise]" instead of your home department?


texts: Is it possible to earn a PhD in mathematics with emphasis in teaching?

texts:
I am currently a final year undergraduate, majoring in Pure Mathematics. My aim is to become a Maths lecturer in a university. With this in mind, I need to apply Phd in mathematics in the coming year. However, I'm not the person who likes to do research (not to the extend of hate, but I would not dwell myself for the whole day just to do research) while Phd is mainly research-based.

Question: Is there any university which offers Phd in mathematics with emphasis in teaching? Also, what are the alternatives to become a lecturer in university besides applying Phd in mathematics?

UPDATE: Anonymous Mathematicians mentions 'Doctor of Arts' (DA) in his answer below. Here is the list of graduates from DA program offered by Idaho State University. Don't the data give a sense of difficulties, in such a way that it is difficult to enroll in the DA program? Also, I see most graduates end up working at university.


texts: Where can I find industry postdoc hiring statistics for Canada?

texts: Could anyone help me with the data of hired postdocs in company and private sector in Canada? I want to find out the number and the rate of the industrial postdocs in Canada (including the postdocs in university, company, government, etc) in recent years, which is important to my research.


texts: If something is publicly visible in the Internet, does it mean I can use it for research?

texts:
I am talking about images in particular. If I collect a dataset for non-profit purposes (research) and an image is publicly available for anyone on the web (i.e. I can see it in google image search results, and the access to corresponding web page is not limited), does it mean that I can use it, if I mention source?

For example: 3d models themselves might be not available and cost money, but their previews are freely accessible by anyone on the web. Can I use these images as data for research and distribute an archive with these images freely? (including text file with authors of these images and URLs to pages!) Images themselves are available for free.

Or, I might collect a list of these URLs and publish a large txt file with these URLs so that everyone could download them if they need. That should not be a violation, is it? If I one downloads images to train an algorithm?

I feel like that is somewhat different from using images for educational or illustrative purposes.


texts: Is it acceptable to round up my GPA on my resume?

texts: I'm currently a college senior and I'm working on updating my resume.  My GPA is a 3.46.  Is it acceptable/ethical to put on my resume that my GPA is a 3.5?


texts: Is it possible to pursue PhD in different area than master's thesis?

texts: I am doing masters in physics. I recently did internship in high energy physics for 2 months. But my institute allows me to do 6 months project only in condensed matter physics. I want to pursue PhD in high energy physics only. So, is it possible to pursue PhD in different area than master's thesis?


texts: Ethics of contacting potential post-doc mentor in mathematics

texts: It is rather common in many different disciplines to contact faculty members(potential post-doc mentors) asking if they take post-doc students. I was wondering if it is ok to contact a potential mentor of a post-doc position in mathematics that is publicly advertised?


texts: How will C+ and many B+ during online school affect PhD admissions?

texts: I'm finishing my second year at a top research university in mathematics, and my major gpa is still a 3.99, however my grades in other subjects have suffered tremendously due to the pandemic stress and online learning (B+ in a physics class, C+ and B+ in CS classes etc.) I have been completely burned out by zoom classes. My overall GPA is currently at a 3.7 but it used to be a 3.9 and it is only decent because I still have high grades in math, including rigorous honors courses. Before covid, I didn't know I wanted to pursue a PhD in mathematics but I started doing mathematical research a few months ago and found out that it is what I want to do with my life. But I have become increasingly worried about my declining performance during covid. I know that many PhD applicants have 4.0s overall and many more stellar qualifications from undergrad, so I am worried that I am nowhere near good enough at the moment. I guess I would like to know how lenient or strict PhD admissions are with online school grades.


texts: Corrigendum for wrong reporting of results

texts:
My paper got published in a good journal but later I noticed that in the final results table I have mistakenly written the parameters used in the previous literatures and not what I have calculated for one of the ions. I know it's a terrible mistake to do. I can't figure out how to write the corrigendum.

Thanks in advance.


texts: How can one differentiate between Dr. (PhD) and Dr. (MD or DO)?

texts:
Reading the question posted here left me with a more general question:

Given the professional title and name: Dr. (First Name)(Last Name), is there some way to differentiate between the holder of a philosophical doctorate and a medical doctor? Wouldn't it be more appropriate for a PhD holder to have the title (First Name)(Last Name), PhD?


texts: Where can I publish failed research directions?

texts:
Suppose I work on a difficult open problem, try several directions that haven't been tried before, work for several weeks on these directions, but finally reach a dead end.

Is there a way I can publish my work, so that future researchers know that these directions are futile and won't have to waste several weeks just to get to the same conclusion?


texts: Spot a possible improvement when reviewing a paper

texts:
In reviewing a paper I notice that the result presented there can be improved. However, the improvement may not be significant enough to appear in a good journal. Therefore, to me the best situation would be to have the authors' permission and to join the paper under review.
I would like to be advised of what I may do. I think I may write to the editor, and I would especially like to know how to ask politely. Would anyone have similar experience?
Edit: First of all thanks a lot for all suggestions! I just forgot to mention that my report was already sent one month ago. Would there be something extra I should take care of?
Edit 2: Again, many thanks to you guys! Actually contacting the authors is never an option in my mind. My options are only: (i) tell the editor (not recommending myself as a coauthor); (ii) write my own note.
Here note means a short paper, since my new short proof may be of ten lines (the original proof is three pages), that's the reason I would like to consult you guys, and to see if there is a third option.
At the moment, I prefer to do the first option, and I am thinking of whether in the email to editor I should include my new proof, or just say "I may further provide the details". How do you guys think?


texts: How to address reading courses in cv for Phd application for pure math? I can only think of listing topics we covered in the course. But that seems to me very pointless since professors know the major topics of most math courses without reading that. However, I think independent readings are important experiences for math students, they definitely deserve a place in my CV.


texts:
I just wanted to know if transferring schools during your PhD is frowned upon?

I have spent a semester at school X which specializes in a very specific field in my major. After many classes, seminars, and interactions with profs, I've realized that I just don't see myself doing research in this area. Instead I have found school Y which is much more inline with my interests that have been fostered over the last few months.

Realistically, would it leave a sour taste in the mouth of the people here if I transferred?

And upon notifying my administration of my intentions to transfer (I have received an offer already), would I probably be booted from the program immediately, or would they let me finish the last few months of the semester?

I plan on telling the administration before they recruit for next year's PhD classes so that they have an accurate idea of how many students they can take on-board, given funding and budget constraints.


texts: How to say that research work was done as part of research project?

texts:
I'm carrying out a research work as part of a big research project. How to mention this in the abstract for an article?

The best I can is "This research work was conducted as part of the project #xxxx-xx", but I believe there's well-known phrase to replace "as part of".


texts: Can an algorithm tested only on artificial data be accepted in a high rank conference?

texts:
I devised a classification algorithm which is useful for specific complicated distribution of classes of data. The method works good on the artificial data which cannot be solved by typical algorithms in the literature. But yet i couldn't find any real data to evaluate the algorithm on real problems.
Also there is mathematical support for the basis of the approach and the way it works.
So i was wondering if an algorithm with good mathematical support but no evaluation on real data has any chance to get accepted in computer science conferences like SDM or CVPR?


texts: Selecting references for PhD applications: are industry references OK?

texts:
My background:

Final year computer science undergraduate in the UK.
Spent one year working in a scientific facility developing software for scientists. My colleagues had previous academic experience (PhDs in math or physics).
Researched for 3 months under professor N within my university.
My dissertation begins in February, so cannot use my supervisor from that.

I want to pursue a PhD, and am at the stage of applying for programmes. However, each programme requires "two academic references", and am unable to come up with a second one (professor N being the first) that would provide the best application.

Giving many of you read references, and recruit PhD students, which of the following references would you prefer receiving:

A senior software developer where I previously worked (he has a PhD in physics), but I feel this is not "academic".
My personal tutor (a professor who helps with any personal or professional problems), whom I have not seen in a few months, but have used for references before (to get the aforementioned job).
Professor B who has taught me over the past three months, but whom I am not close with (on a personal or professional level).

I know my question is a bit specific, so perhaps to generalise:

Q. Is it acceptable to have industrial references when applying for PhD positions, or should I instead use university professors as reference? Even if they may result in a generic reference letter.

Q. How can I speak with professor B to avoid him writing a generic reference letter about me?


texts: Can novel findings be submitted rather than a novel methodology?

texts:
Basically, my research was not into a particularly new methodology, but we have combined several existing methods to prove a result which has not been seen before under certain circumstances (rebalanced dataset, etc). Would this be an acceptable submission to a conference or journal, or should I go in a different direction and look for something unique?

For reference, this is in the field of machine learning / network security.


texts: Is it okay to ask your professor about the final exam that I took 3 years ago?

texts:
So in my first year of university, I failed one class. I was really good at that subject and had great grades but because of my final exam, I have failed it. I felt discourages and thought that maybe I deserved it because I did not prepare for it as much as I could. I thought that I did okay on the exam but there was a thought that maybe I am just thinking that I did well but actually I didn't? Not sure how to describe it.
Next year I am going to graduate and this thought still bothers me, like did I actually do that badly on the exam? I keep thinking about asking the prof for my final paper but I don't know if that's okay. I checked and he is still teaching at my university.
Do you think it is okay to ask about the exam even if it's been so long?


texts: Master's thesis - lack of evidence, possibly poor topic choice

texts:
I'm working on a social science master's thesis based on a discourse analysis of documents. I finished a proposal a few months ago, which my committee approved. But as I continue to scan my sources, I am getting worried that there isn't as much significant evidence available as I had thought when I started doing research. I've done everything I can to find new leads but there is very little academic work written about the topic. I am starting to believe that the topic is a dud, and that maybe there's little written about because it just isn't that interesting...

Aside from meeting with my supervisor, which I am doing soon, has anyone else had to deal with a similar situation, and how did you deal with it? I want to finish within eight months, nine max, so I do not think I would be able to change topics...


texts: Can one get a faculty position by posting CV on job websites?

texts:
As I see faculty positions in Europe and North America is always based on applications. Is it common that a department head suggest a faculty position to a possible candidate?

I do not mean based on personal connection. Job websites (consider those devoted to academic jobs) encourage job seekers to upload their CVs.

Is it common that a department head search CVs uploaded on academic job websites and suggest a faculty possible to a job seeker?

Is there any success story? Does this system work in practice?


texts: Can a professor from totally different research field be invited to thesis defense?

texts:
In a very reputed private university, there is a rule for sending thesis to internal(national) and external(international) examiner for evaluation. After a report from two reviewers, a viva is conducted. For the last few years, I am noticing that some departments are inviting local professors to thesis defense who have virtually no research relationships with the thesis. They are being invited just because of financial constraints or quid pro quo relationship between professors who just do this to please their friendly peers in academia. By inviting local professors, the university is saving up money from travel and lodging expenses.

Is this process legal?


texts: Should I put job talks on my vita for positions I didn't get?

texts: I have been on the social science academic market for a couple years, and I have been invited to interview and put together presentations ("job talks). I thought in both cases, the presentations were interesting and thought provoking and I wonder if i should include them in my vita.I have an "invited lecture" section already, so my thought is just to add them, but is that unorthodox? I would love to hear your thoughts on this.


texts: What should a student look for in an undergraduate thesis supervisor?

texts:
I am an undergraduate student (not in maths) looking for a topic and supervisor for my thesis.
What criteria should I use to judge whether a project/supervisor combination will make for a good thesis and productive experience? I don't plan on going into academia (although this may change) and thus would like to get something tangible if possible (ie. a paper) out of the experience (although preferably not at significant cost to learning)
Conversely, what are red flags/pitfalls I should look out for and how do I avoid them?
This question is extremely similar to this one, although is more general than just math. I'm hoping for some general advice, but if really needed, I'm double majoring in Computer Science and Economics


texts: How do I describe my "academic profile" for graduate school application?

texts:
I am filling McGill's Area of Research and Applicant Profile Form for admission to the Electrical Engineering M.Eng. program. I'm not sure how I should answer this:

"Academic Profile: Describe your academic profile, highlighting particular achievements and relevant scholarships or awards."

My scholarships and awards take up about 0.15 of the space provided, and I can't think of a particular achievement. Can I use this space to describe the projects I completed, the software I learned and particular skills I learned through coursework and special topics that were covered? I don't get to upload a CV for this application, and I was hoping I could mention these in this space. However I'm not sure if it would be appropriate.


texts: Is there a list of reputable open-access-only publishers?

texts:
Many new publishers have recently appeared because of the open access model (they do not need to struggle with sale & marketing). Some of them are shady business efforts, but some have strong scientific standards and their journals are reliable.

Beall’s List of Predatory Open-Access Publishers lists unreliable publishers. Is there any resource listing reliable Open-Access journals? Such list can introduce us reputable publishers we have not come across yet.

The answer to the question "how to identify" can be found here.


texts: Early career drought and correlation with future performance

texts:
I've heard from not a few people that the first postdoc can be quite tough.  You've been kicked out of the nest and have to figure out for yourself what's worth working on, what's likely to turn into a real project, etc.  Many new postdocs struggle to publish or even submit anything in their first year.  Considering the high stakes of academic careers, it makes me wonder if that in and of itself is a sign to pause and figure out a different career path.  To put it as a question,

  Is your paper output the first year of your first postdoc a good metric for future performance?

I imagine it is actually possible to answer this question rigorously with data, but I would be content with anecdotal responses from senior academics.


texts: How to think about journal-hosted preprints, or "Just-IN" manuscripts?

texts:
The NRC Research Press (or Canadian Science Publishing) offers a, at least to me, peculiar option they call "Just-IN" manuscripts. This seems to be an extreme version of an online-first article. Note: I understand an online-first article to be a basically finished version that's just waiting for some cosmetic stuff, like volume and page numbers, but gets hosted on the journal website early, and assigned a DOI. (As noted in the answer to a related question, in some journals the online-first article isn't quite the final version, but it still sounds as if it should be substantially similar to the final one.)

The "Just-IN" approach, however, means that the author's version is made available on the journal website. This happens right after it's undergone peer review and been accepted, but before it's been copy edited or been corrected by the authors. NRC notes

  Readers should note, however, that changes (sometimes substantial) are made during the publication process, so the content of the official version of record could be different from that of the Just-IN manuscript.

In other words, this seems to be something that is between a preprint and an official journal version that's just waiting for publication. Indeed, I have had my eye on a specific paper that's been sitting in this status for over half a year, and where, based on a cursory check, the contents appears to be the same as in the arXiv version (which was posted before the journal received the manuscript).

I wonder:

How different can the final published "copy of record" version be from the "just-IN" version?
To cite the "just-IN" version I would use the DOI. Given that this DOI will later point to the final version, am I potentially misleading readers if the two versions turn out to be significantly different from each other? (If I instead were to cite the arXiv version, should it exist, at least the previous versions would be available to future readers.)


texts: What are some good questions to ask current graduate students when visiting schools?

texts:
For the record, I'm visiting the University of Chicago as an accepted PhD student (in the geophysical sciences) next week.

In particular, I'd especially appreciate creative questions that few other visiting students ask.


texts: PhD in Quantum information science/ quantum physics without intensive formal education

texts:
My undergraduate degree is in B.E electronics and electrical engineering. My undergraduate gpa is kind of pathetic because I was never interested in engineering but rather B.S physics. Unfortunately I was forced into engineering. Later I went on to pursue M.S in nanoscience with really good gpa. Except that it was not focused on quantum dynamics or quantum physics intensively. I had a course of nanophysics but it covered only fundamentals ( the textbook used was ' introduction to quantum mechanics ' by Griffiths ). That's about the maximum quantum physics I could get from my MS since there was no applied physics department in my institute, only nanobiophysics. I have 2 papers published as conference proceedings and a poster presentation but not related to quantum theory.  Nevertheless I did not give up hope. I am really trying hard to get a PhD position in Quantum physics/ condensed matter physics/ quantum information science. I am pretty much an autodidact I.e I self educated myself in advanced quantum physics by going through books like ' quantum computing and quantum information science ' by Nielson and Chuang. Also learning through open source lectures from professors like Dr. Sergey Frolov in Quantum Transport and Dr. Leonard susskind in Quantum theory/ quantum mechanics/ quantum entanglement.

I somehow don't want to apply within the US because I am more attracted to the European research philosophy or the research carried out in Asian countries like Singapore or even Australia. The problem I face is that professors think I don't have the sufficient formal education in the field which is true. Professors reject my requests just because of this. I consider myself to be extremely motivated and determined to pursue a PhD in Quantum physics with a goal to get into academia. My motivation is not monetory but more of intellectual pursuits and curiosity to learn. I have also offered professors that I will work during my PhD without a stipend. It is a dream I'm fighting for and am willing to go to any lengths to achieve my goals. Lately, I have been feeling scared and taking blows to my self esteem due to the rejections. Self doubt is creeping in where I have begun questioning my intellectual prowess. But I'm still trying hard to learn on my own and carrying out research as an independent scholar staying up for days and nights straight.

I feel lost and am not sure what do I do next. Hoping to get responses from veterans and achievers In the field.


texts: Why is the city of publication important in most bibliography format?

texts:
Most bibliography formats require the city of publication for books. Why? In this digital era, ISBN would be way more important. But even before the digitalization of everything, why was the city of publication important?

I can imagine some purposes:

to distinguish potential same names of different publishers, and
to help book-seekers find the publisher and the book by actually visiting the city or contacting libraries in the city.

I want to know better stories about the 'city of publication'.


texts: What does it mean to get this message on EDAS?

texts:
I submitted two papers to a conference on EDAS. I checked EDAS and I saw a change. They added this sentence at the end of both papers page submission:
"You have authored an accepted paper."

The results of the acceptance will be announced in 10 days, but I was wondering if I can take this as a sign of an accepted paper?
My advisor thinks otherwise, and he says we need to wait.

Thanks


texts: How much flexibility does one have in selecting their PhD coursework in the first year?

texts:
For instance, if someone is working as a Phd in computer-science, but on a neuroscience related topic, she might need to take some neuroscience related courses. And some CS courses might not be any help at all for the area she is interested in. Do universities put a lower/upper limit on the number of courses one can take?
Also, does this differ from university to university?


texts: Is there such a thing as "open" double-blind peer review?

texts:
Is there such a thing as "open" double-blind reviewing, where the author's comments, the reviews, and any interchange between author and reviewer are viewable, not just by the editor but also by the other reviewers, but completely anonymous?

If so, what are some journals that have this practice?


texts: Bad undergraduate grades, decent research experience, what are the chances of PhD admits?

texts:
I'm an undergraduate student in Electronics and Electrical Engineering but am more interested in research in computer science and have decent research experience. I have done a summer internship at a very reputed place in France and our work during the summer was published and we also won Distinguished artefact award at the conference. I'm now writing my thesis at a prominent computer science research institute in Germany with a senior researcher and now am thinking about pursuing PhD. But I don't exactly have good grades and people have suggested to go for a masters to improve my academics but I feel like its the same issue there as well, isn't it the same case for masters? I need good grades to get accepted for a decent masters program so I don't see how it helps me.

I would really appreciate the community's help and advice on how best to proceed for this.


texts: Do journal editors check self-citations? If I cite two of my papers, would it be a problem?


texts:
Are there any sources where I can find the information regarding the research funds for PhD students and the purposes list on which it can be used?
There is 10% of annual stipend amount available as research fund for PhD students in my University, however I cannot find the regulations for it in English, only in Italian.
I know that these money might be used to cover the travelling expenses for the conferences, but what I wonder is if I can transfer these money to my stipend if I don't use it totally?


texts: Writing a draft of your own recommendation letter: how to compare yourself to other students?

texts:
I'm currently applying to Research Masters and PhD programs. One of my letter of recommendation writers asked me to write up the first draft of the letter, so I've been trying to do so (pretty sure the "first draft" will also be the thing he directly submits). After doing a bunch of research, most resources advised doing two things:

Use concrete anecdotes and examples to show the student's proficiency instead of just meaningless praise. I.e. Describe how he showed he was intelligent through a specific task he completed.
Directly compare the student to other students. I.e. "The student distinguished himself from his peers", "One of the brightest students I've taught", "Stood out from the rest of the research assistants etc", "Top X% in his class", etc.

The first is fairly easy to do since I obviously have a ton of anecdotes about myself. However, I'm not really sure how to do the second. I obviously don't know how my LOR writer sees me relative to my peers, and it seems extremely presumptuous to hand him a draft saying that I was one of the best students he's had. How am I supposed to compare myself to his other students for him?

Does anyone have any advice on this? Unfortunately, I can't get another LOR writer, this specific writer is extremely important to my application. It also seems extremely important to do the comparison, almost every resource and example I found repeatedly stressed the importance of doing this...


texts: A professor accidentally sent me a copy of my letter of recommendation for grad school. What should I do?

texts:
I am applying for Masters programs in the USA. Most programs require the applicant to waive their right to see their letters of recommendation, and the applicant is not supposed to ever see their LOR.

One of the profs who is writing letters for me accidentally sent me a copy of my LOR today. He was supposed to send me a copy of a letter granting me permission to use certain hardware in a lab, but accidentally sent me the wrong letter. I suspect that he had both saved in the same directory on his computer, and simply chose the wrong one.

The issue is that he has already sent this letter to some colleges. What is the correct thing to do in this situation?


texts: Do referees and search committee generally value a fully self-written proof over a short proof citing many other theorems?

texts:
Suppose that a researcher is trying to solve an important hypothesis within an economic model. He has two options to put his efforts:

He can start with the assumptions that he is most comfortable with, trying to prove the hypothesis all by himself, and finally come-up with a twenty pages proof after three months.

He can start surveying literature in Math and mathematically social science, in which he will be able to find similar mathematically structures (but different economic meanings). After two months, he will find some theorems that can be applied into the original hypothesis, and therefore write down a one-page proof for the hypothesis, with some tweaks of the assumptions.

In general, is a lengthy yet self-written mathematical proof an important contribution in economic theory research and valued by the referees and the search committee?


texts:
Someday, as strange as it feels to me right now, I might be asked to review an article for publication. A while ago my advisor and I were talking about this, and it hit me that I don't really know how to be a good reviewer, beyond the basics:

Respond timely to things,
Make your report clear and detailed,
Have actually read the paper,
Etc.

Beyond this, though, I'm completely in the dark. So I'd like to ask:

  What's some good advice for a first-time reviewer?

My field is math, but I'm really interested in general advice (although advice specific to math, or another field, would also be interesting and useful).

I'd like to make this question "community wiki" or analogous, but I can't seem to figure out how - if someone can do so, please do, and then I will delete this paragraph.


texts: Can a personal meeting with a scientist be referenced?

texts: Suppose I meet a scholar at my university or some other institute, who is a famous person known for his or her work. and I ask questions related to the subject I am working on, and I get some answers or other useful information. Ethically, can I  cite this meeting in my paper or not? (Provided I do tell the person that I am working on something related, etc.)


texts:
A professor has offered me a summer research project at his lab. The last we had talked was on a Zoom call during which I was offered the position. He had then asked me to send my academic records after which he would give the other documents like Offer Letter, Visa Forms, etc. I have mailed him my records and have asked to discuss the project dates. He is not responding to my emails. It's been almost 20 days. I have also sent follow-ups, the last one being sent this Monday. He still hasn't responded.
Has he cancelled my project? If so, why hasn't he informed? What should I do next? Should I send another follow up this Monday?


texts: Do master students stop getting funding after 2 years?

texts:
I have started my master in September 2018, I am still working on my thesis to finish the writing of it so far I have one paper published and one other under review. I am completing an research internship related to my thesis. My research started from May 2019.
Since July 2020 I have not recieved any funding from my prof, do they cut funding after 2 years? What is the reason for this?


texts: Additional data for anonymous submission

texts:
I've recently submitted a paper to a conference requiring anonymous submission, meaning that the name of the authors should not be included, and no obvious self-reference should be made. The problem is that I add additional information relevant to the submission, such as some proofs and some code working on an example, calculating some numerical data (that could be found on the paper, but requiring some effort).

For a non anonymous submission, I would have published a technical report with all the proofs, cited the report in the submission, hosted the code on my website, and put a link to it. However, since the technical report would not have been anonymous and since my website is obviously linking to me, it was not possible.

Concerning the proofs, I managed to put them in the appendix, explaining that they were only intended for the reviewing process, but I could not find any solution for the code. The conference submission site (easychair) did not provide any way to input additional data. What's the best way to deal with this kind of situations?


texts: How can someone be a co-author in a paper by just presenting undocumented evidence?

texts:
This recent paper is about birds of prey spreading fires. Some of the co-authors are firefighters which basically tell their personal experience as eyewitnesses to the behavior of these birds but do not present any hard evidence.

How can this be considered enough for co-authorship? Is this an accepted practice in social sciences?


texts: Is there national/ethnic discrimination against Asians in U.S. graduate school admissions and in university faculty hiring

texts:
tl;dr: please skip to the last paragraph.

I am currently an international undergrad at an US university, studying math. I am currently thinking of going to graduate school and becoming a university professor after that.

My dad thinks that there must be some unforeseen and implicit racial/ethnic/national discrimination against Asians in U.S. higher learning and that I must therefore invariably be more studious in learning.

However, today's America is more diverse than ever, every university have non-discrimination policy, and collge faculty hirers are in general (I think, at least) educated people. Also, based on my interactions, no one in my college seems to be biased against racial minorities/different nationalities. So I am thinking that there wouldn't be much national/racial discrimination on graduate school admissions and in university faculty hiring, especially as my major is math, which is one of the objective academic discipline. I also plan to do a career with pure math and not on industrial/applied math.

I am perfectly fluent in English and can communicate perfectly like a native except for a almost non-existent accent. I am also very aquainted with American culture.

Of course, I know that there still must be some implicit national/racial diacrimination in job hiring process in non-academic sectors (e.g. companies/restaurants) despite there being laws against it. But since universities are places were nondiscrimination is highly encouraged and there are lots of international scholars, I think my dad's claim is highly exaggerated.

I believe that my current status as a citizen of South Korea, which is a close ally with U.S., shouldn't negatively affect my image in graduate school admission/university faculty job hiring.

I found some articles like this one but I think this is an exception to a general rule.

Long story short:

Is there national/racial discrimination against Asians in graduate school admissions and in university faculty hiring/promotion in math (and/or Physical Sciences in general)? I am asking for anything in the United States (i.e., no answer needed for other countries). "Discrimination" for scholarship doesn't count,  -- nor does undergraduate admissions!!! I am looking specifically for an answer about math department or physical sciences. A general perception is a preferred answer rather than specific instances, though that too is good. Answers are wlecome from those working in the admission/hiring process. Also, lack of communication skills frequently attributed to international scholars doesn't count as racial/national discrimination in my question.

EDIT: In reply to the replies below, I am well aware that any sort of unjust racial/national discrimination is prohibited whatsoever in the U.S., and I am well aware that the mainstream media and the general consensus of the people is that any sort of unjust discrimination is absolutely bad. I've attended an American high school and watched tons of American news and TV. However, I am merely asking a professional view (that is not speculative, i.e. someone who's been working in the area for many years) to what extent some people's implicit biases against Asians seems to negatively impact grad admission/prof hiring. Of course, having been in U.S. I know that no one would say "we're gonna hire this white guy over this equally qualified Asian guy just because of race." Also, being in U.S. for many years do not always count as state residency, as I am not a permanent resident.


texts: Lack of research opportunities in Israel

texts:
I am currently researching where I would like to do my PhD. I have always been drawn to Israel (this has nothing to do with religion or politics or anything similar but rather with warm weather and hummus) so I also included it in a list of potential destinations. However, I am very surprised that I virtually never come across

advertisements for PhD positions in Israel
Israeli institutes being involved in research projects or international programs
someone who has studied/worked at an Israeli university
...

Also, a few years ago, I contacted multiple Israeli universities about the possibility of conducting my thesis there and got very limited response.
When I compare this to countries with somewhat similar "level of development", such as Canada, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, etc., it feels completely different. From all these countries I get a feeling that they expect and encourage foreign students/researchers to come and that they work to attract them (both at a national level and at a level of individual universities)
Question: Are there any reasons for Israel seemingly not being (a) involved much in international research collaborations and (b) interested in foreign students/researchers?
My field is geoinformatics and remote sensing.


texts: Should I wait for the next Ph.D. openings?

texts:
I'm finishing my master's degree in theoretical physics (probably with distinction) and have published a paper.

I'm searching for a Ph.D. position in theoretical physic in Europe, but I can't find any position which I'm passionate about. I think, there will be more opening in 6 month. On the other hand, I will be then 30!

Would you suggest me to wait for a position which I really love? Or should I apply to for a position which is interesting but not that much? The problem is that I'm not sure about future!


texts: Should I mention about my governmental-funded PhD scholarship which I don't want to use

texts:
This might sound odd, yet here is my story. I was lucky to get governmental scholarship (GSch) for 4-5 years of PhD to study abroad. But It requires student to work as Assistant Professor in a relatively smaller university in my homeland for 8-10 years afterwards. Which I would not like myself bound to after my PhD.

This is an advantage for sure to get admission in a top university. But by myself (without using GSch), I might also get funded by TA/RA. In that case, I wouldn't use GSch.

Should I mention GSch in the first contact with PIs or in PhD applications (i.e. in SOP)? I am asking this because once I inform them about GSch, it is unlikely to get TA/RA funds even though I deserve. I also don't want to lose the chance of PhD in a top university, I use GSch if needed. So there is a trade-off.

I can think of three possibility:

1 - Mentioning the GSch in the first contact, hoping that they will promise funding anyway if they this I deserve.

2 - Mentioning it in the first contact as it is a possibility.

3 - Sending another email and mention it if they reject me because of lack of funding (Would they say it is lack of funding?).

P.S. : I am planning to apply mostly to positions in U.S.

P.S.2 : Sorry for bad English level, edits are welcome.

Edit : If I decide not to get back to my country, I have to pay scholarship in 5 years with ~50% interest.


texts: Can a casual comparison of phenomena and assumptions based on it be presented in a journal/conference paper?

texts:
In comparison to the size of the universe, humans on earth are like bacteria on a speck of dirt. Much like in the animated movie "Horton hears a who".

When writing a journal/conference paper, if one would like to present a fact:

  Universe being huge and Earth being negligible in comparison.

and compare it to similar phenomena and also present assumptions:

  There might be a civilization of creatures living on specks of dust
  that we see everyday.

... is it considered acceptable to present such assumptions? Normally, scientific papers expect experiments and tabulated results, but can one present something purely philosophical as long as it seems logically sound (but there's no evidence to support it)? If yes, then what is the appropriate format to present the text? Can it be written as shown below?:

  Observable Phenomenon: The universe is 92 billion light years in diameter. In comparison, the Earth is a mere 12742km in diameter, and
  the average human height is 1.7m and viruses can be just 20 nanometer
  in diameter.
  Our hypothesis: If the Earth could be assumed as a universe, it may very well be possible that there may be an entire civilization of
  creatures living on atoms or electrons.

Would mentioning something like this make the reviewers reject the paper immediately or make them criticise it for being too casual or lacking in evidence? Or is a researcher allowed to philosophize such thoughts and present unproven theories/assumptions? If yes, then how should it be presented?

ps: This is not for the field of humanities or pure philosophy. This is for a journal in the field of computer science. The question is not exactly about the universe and civilizations on specks of dust. The question is about how to present the author's assumptions that don't have proof.


texts: How to handle an interview out of my league

texts:
Not sure how this happened but I will have a postdoc interview with someone prominent in many fields, prominent even at their already prominent university, and who publishes in top journals with astonishing frequency.

How should I handle this interview knowing (and I do know) that I do not have the best CV they've ever seen? I don't want to talk excessively about all my skills or be vague about the shortcomings of my work in the (frankly unlikely) case that they do hire me and are disappointed that I'm not a superstar. But I also don't think these people are particularly swayed by the argument that I am a quick learner, etc, etc. I also do have some reasonable circumstances why my CV isn't what it could be, but I don't think they want to hear about that either.

What sort of balance should I strike? Or am I overthinking it?


texts: What is the difference between credit hours carried and hours earned?

texts:
What is the difference between hours carried and hours earned on a college degree audit. For example, I have this:

LSU Totals: 68 carr, 60 earn
Cum Totals: 77 carr, 69 earn

Can anyone explain to me how to interpret these 4 pieces of information individually? I can't find a direct answer on the internet and it's important for me to understand the difference for accuracy on applications. Thanks in advance.


texts: Can one professor hold more than one endowed chair?

texts: Are there examples of one person holding more than one endowed chair at the same university?


texts: Do reputable journals ever conduct peer review entirely by email?

texts:
In the comments to one of the answers to this question, the asker points out that he is asked to submit his review of a manuscript for publication via email and that there is no formal online system with checkboxes or text boxes. This struck me as strange, as having reviewed papers for several biology and math journals I have never been asked to submit my review via email to the editor. Even for very small journals published independently, I have always been asked to use an online system, where all contact is viewable by the editor-in-chief and other parties at the journal.

Do reputable journals ever ask reviewers to submit their reviews via email, or is such a request a red flag that you are being asked to review for a scam journal? Do all reputable journals have online reviewer systems?


texts:
I am in my 4rth year and finished my candidacy recently. I am very interested in my research and it is going forward at a decent pace. However, my advisor is giving me some trouble.

He is usually absent at the weekly research meetings which along with me includes a post-doc, a graduate student in his 6th year, and an associate professor from a different university. Even in the meetings he attends he hardly gives any suggestions or talks about any new ideas. He even fails to respond to some emails that I send asking him questions or general help.

I previously thought all this might be because he is the head of the experiment that we are working on, so he has little time to spare. But, now that I finished my candidacy I expect him to get more involved in my research. It's been a month since my candidacy and that has not been the case.

I think it is not too late for me to change gears and join a different group in the same field. Is this a fair thing to do? What other things should I consider before I confirm to switch.


texts: Difference between introduction and related work?

texts:
when i want to write a conference  paper i get confused how to organize introduction and related work chapters! Because both are related to the literature review.

My impression is that the introduction should be broader than the related works, and the latter should be more focused on the comparable approaches. But do we still need to mentioned the related works in the introduction as well? Then it'll become double mentioning of literature.

Could you please distinguish the difference of these two chapters for me a bit more clearly than my understanding?

By the way, i'm working in computer science field as the above might be different in other fields.


texts: When siblings contribute to a research paper, do they need to declare their relationship in the competing interest form?

texts:
Siblings contributed to a research paper. The publisher asks to fill no competing interest form. Citing the journal in question, it contains the following check box:

☐ The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to
influence the work reported in this paper.
☐ The authors declare the following financial interests/personal
relationships which may be considered as potential competing
interests:

What the siblings are obliged to declare? Does "personal relationships" requires them to declare their personal relationship? But what if their relationship certainly does not influence the work? Any suggestions on whether to declare their relationship or not?


texts: Is there a readily compiled, contiunously updated list of email addresse and/or domain names used in spam messages from predatory journals or conferences, or phrases or keywords that could be used to safely filter out such spam messages in email clients (without removing non-spam emails)?


texts: Evaluate the effectiveness of a set of CS lab exercises for education

texts:
I am a PhD student studying wireless networks/telecommunications, and I have developed a set of lab exercises related to the field. We have used them with > 100 students so far in B.S. and M.S. classes on computer networks, wireless networks, and wireless communications.

With the first few cohorts, I asked them to rate each exercise with respect to:

overall rating
difficulty of lab exercise
how interesting the material was
experiment design

and to rate self on knowledge of topic before and after the lab. I also ask for general open-ended feedback ("How can we improve this exercise?" "Any other comments?") and recently introduced automated systems to measure exactly what students are doing in the lab. This gave me a general sense of which exercises were interesting to students, and which they thought were useful. Now I am looking for a way to evaluate how effective the labs are at educating students - not just their popularity.

I've been doing some reading in CS education research (although education research is not my field, so I can't devote too much time to getting up to speed on all the methodology), but I haven't come across a study design that I think would be a good fit for my scenario. I am under some constraints:

I'm not the instructor for the class.
I just run the lab exercises via a website. I don't meet the students in person.
I don't have the ability to set up a "control group" by offering one section of the course with the lab and one section without.
I can't ask my students to do a lot of work that is only for purposes of methodology assessment (e.g. I can have them fill out a short pre-class survey, but not much more then that). I can ask them to do some things that are also learning assessments (like quizzes on the lab topic).

  Given these constraints, how can I effectively evaluate the educational tools I've developed? (specifically, learn whether they actually improve students' understanding of the course material)

Update:

I don't have access to a comparable cohort from one year to the next, or between two sections. In the end, I came up with a set of questions that I think will help evaluate the exercises, even across only one group of students, all of whom are participating in the lab; I describe this in my own answer.


texts:
How important is it for a professor to direct a thesis?

I mean, what can the professor get from it? I know it will help for his/her curriculum, but is it too much?

Is the merit equivalent to the publication of an article?

or is it not so important?

or is it more important than the publication of any article?

I am just curious about it.

Thank you.


texts: Given only one possible appointment for masters application interview with no possibility to renegotiate date: Is this a red flag or normal?

texts:
Background:
I applied for several masters programs this season (taking into account the advice given on this site) and have received a request for a telephone/Skype interview with one of the German universities I applied for. The response came much more quickly than I expected and I still have no replies from other universities.

The mail contained suggested date and time (ten or so days from the date the mail was sent) and asked me to confirm it. Unfortunately, at the specified time, I'll be on a highway, in a different country, traveling between two cities. In my response, I explained that I'll be on a trip and that I'm coming back two days after the suggested date and that I'll be available pretty much at any time after I return from my trip. The reply I got is that the time suggested is the only available time for the interview.

Question:
My unfortunate situation aside, I wanted to ask is it normal for universities to be this inflexible when scheduling admissions interviews? Did I go out if line by attempting to negotiate the interview date? This is the first time I'm having any sort of interview, so I really have no idea what are the cultural norms in such case.


texts: Are there instances where citing Wikipedia is allowed?

texts:
For example, suppose you're writing an article about triangles, and you want to include a short proof of Pythagoras' theorem, but you can't quite remember how to derive it, so you pop over to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_theorem#Algebraic_proofs and check the proof there. It works mathematically, makes sense and is as far as you can tell, correct, so you include it. Now the proof on Wikipedia doesn't have a citation because probably someone has been taught it and copied it over to Wikipedia, but it's still correct. The only thing you could cite for the proof would be Wikipedia, would a citation be ok or should it just be copied down without a citation?

Edit: Ok, there have been many responses. Most with a firm "no", but some giving the reason: "Just get the proof from a book" since it's so common, but suppose then it wasn't a common proof of something. Maybe it's not very well known or something but suppose there is a small Wikipedia page with the correct mathematical proof. How much effort are people going to go to to find a proof in a book when there's a (correct (which we know, becuase it's maths and we can check it)) proof on Wikipedia? Why is it so bad to say: "I found this proof on Wikipedia, and the maths checks out so it doesn't matter who wrote it, it is correct, but that's where I found it." Or if you do find it somewhere else why not say: "Proof taken from Wikipedia and verified by the proof shown in "Triangles and their properties, Nature, 2014, p113 etc..."


texts: Cover letter for journal submission (math)

texts:
I'm preparing to submit a math paper to a good general-interest journal.  The page asks for a cover letter.  What should this include, beyond "here's a paper for consideration"?  Should there be, for example, a brief summary? Claims about why I think it's interesting?  Suggested reviewers? The first two of these of course appear in the article. The journal submission page gives no guidance.

This is a near-dupe of Are cover letters sent to referees and should you highlight the contribution of your paper in the cover letter?.  However, Googling around suggests that the answer is rather field-dependent, and this is not reflected in the answers there.  I am looking for information relevant to pure math, for which a search hasn't turned up anything.

In my previous submissions I've basically blown this off, per my adviser's advice.  It doesn't seem to have caused any problems, but I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to make the editor's life easier.


texts: What are the pros and cons of pursuing a professorship without a post-doc?

texts: If I have a decent number of journal publications as per my area of research, is pursuing a post-doc after PhD worth it before searching for a professorship? Do faculty search committees give more preference to candidates with a post-doc over those who just finished their PhD, even though the number and quality of journal publications are comparable? Does the opportunity to work with a well know professor significantly boost the chances of getting a faculty position?


texts: How recent should the English language certificate be to apply for Master thesis?

texts:
When applying for Master in an European country, English certificates such as CAE, CPE, TOEFL, IELTS are required. Is there a limit about the "age" of the certificate?

I got CPE 5 or 6 years ago. Is it acceptable or a more recent is needed? The programs which I have seen, do not clear that out.


texts: How to pursue an MD/PhD in France after BS from the US?

texts:
I am currently pursuing a bachelor's degree in biochemistry in the US. I would love to pursue an MD/PhD, but I want to move to France as soon as possible. I have never lived there, but have the nationality, speak the language natively, and have passed the bac.

What is the best way to do this? Should  finish my bachelor's degree? I have not been able to find any useful information. (I would also be open to exploring other options in Europe.)


texts: How to cope with the change from easy undergrad. to difficult masters?

texts:
I'm doing a masters course at a different university than I did my undergrad (both in maths). I did well in my undergrad but now I'm finding it very difficult. The shock of the change is hard to cope with.

I'm not just finding it very difficult, but I get zero feedback: we don't have any tests and I was not able to make friends so I don't know how others are finding it. I'm starting to think that I might be an idiot.

How can I build some confidence in my abilities at the same time as I rush and struggle to keep up with the massive rate of new material I need to learn?
How might I get myself some reassurance that I can actually pass, or stop worrying about this so much? (I feel terribly guilty using so much money from my family to be here) It's possible that I don't really have a chance at all but knowing that would be fine.


texts: Referring to author order on paper when arXiv and published copy are different

texts:
A paper that I need to refer to reasonably often has in its arXiv version the authors listed alphabetically by surname (as is the custom in mathematics). The published version lists the authors in a different order, having moved the last author to second place. The last author in the published version is  recently told me he doesn't understand why people keep insisting on using the published author order (or to put it bluntly: why they keep listing him last).

What would be the correct way to refer to the joint work, given that the arXiv version is no less prominent than the published version? (Other than in the bibliography, where I would stick to the published order) I'm not sure whether it is more accurate to talk about the work/results of ABCD or of ADBC.


texts: Choosing my name for my first publication

texts:
I'm publishing my first ever paper in my career. Given my name is Aaron John Sabu, how should it be broken into the first name and last name?

Also, what should I write when asked for the [Initial][Surname] format?

NB: Aaron is my name, Sabu is the name of my father and John his father.
Also, I do not have a proper surname since it is not part of our custom.


texts: How do I referee a paper when the authors may be behaving dishonestly?

texts:
This is a follow-up to this question:  Should I recommend rejection for a paper I referee if the authors don't make changes that they could have made?

To recap:  I was sent a paper to referee by a top journal.  My first report pointed out that the authors had only considered one of two possible behavior patterns that their system might have.  When the authors resubmitted, they basically ignored what I had said (although see below).  So I sent it back, asking that the changes I had asked for before actually be made.

When I read the second draft very carefully, I saw they had actually added a very short paragraph that seemed to be arguing against the second type of behavior I was worried about being possible.  It was so minor I didn't even notice it before I asked my earlier StackExchange question.  However, the manuscript authors made an error in their attempt to demonstrate this point quantitatively; as I pointed out in my second report, their argument actually showed that I was correct.

Now, they have submitted the paper a third time.  This time, they very enthusiastically acknowledge that I am right--both types of system behavior are expected to occur.  However, they now claim that their numerical calculations actually include both possibilities, and that they actually did all along!  The letter says that they just explained things really badly.

They have made more changes to the manuscript.  It now states that both behaviors can occur and that both are fully included.  I am not in a position to check whether their results are consistent with this.  The paper does a lot of heavy numerical calculation, which would take a long time to replicate.  Since the bottom line result is not going to depend much on the intermediate details, it is plausible that their graphs could have been showing the fully correct answers all along.

However, the format of the paper suggests otherwise.  Add to that the fact that the second draft of the paper actually argued obliquely against the type of behavior that they now admit is natural.  I feel like there are two likely possibilities.  The first is that the authors are being dishonest.  They missed the second possibility, and now that I have pointed out that it definitely occurs, they have reasoned that they can fib about the matter and it will be difficult to refute their claim.  I am rather unhappy about this possibility; I hope it's not the case.  The second possibility is that the communication between the two authors of the paper was extremely poor.  The person who did the actual writing would have to have been quite ignorant of what his coauthor was actually calculating.  This is a less troubling but still far from ideal situation.

So, once again, I find myself unsure what to do.  Should I share my misgivings with the editor?  Or should I take the current draft's claims as is--chalk the whole thing up to incompetence rather than dishonesty?  I have, after all, no concrete evidence of fraud.


texts: If the lecture room is usually full, is it appropriate for a TA to compete with the seat of students?

texts: There is one topic in the course that I am TAing that I felt interested to re-learn (since I forgot most things about it). I also had some questions I want to ask about the topic (that could be beneficial to students). As in the question, knowing that the room is frequently overflowing, is it not appropriate to "steal" the seat of students to sit in the lecture?


texts:
I am not really sure how research works in industry. I am an early grad student and research is my passion. However, I do want to go into industry once I am done with my thesis.

But, I do want to continue to publish papers or patents with my job. As, I would be going to industry after a Phd, I would be working in a close field. Most of my advisor's students get positions in R&D wings of reputed companies. But, it seems like many of them stop publishing once they leave. I wanted to ask, if it is possible to collaborate with universities and professors and keep publishing during my work.

My area of work is in semiconductor physics and nanoscience.


texts: Locating the journal in which a paper was published

texts:
I found a singular paper on an extremely specific CS topic on arXiv. How would I find which journal this paper has been published in?

I ask because I would like more detail on this paper, however according to various questions on this site, the authors of the papers would be inclined not to respond if the paper is not already published. Being a first year undergrad, I have no intention of "stealing" their research or doing anything close to what their paper suggests, however I would appreciate a look at the code as the paper is slightly unclear about a few methods used.


texts: Should I wait to upskill myself or contact professor about the PhD opening asap?

texts:
I'm completing my Masters in Artificial intelligence. My thesis is about the social robotics and cognitive sciences. However, During my Masters, I've self-studied a little about big data and machine learning and I want to do my PhD in that area. Currently, I'll be done with my thesis writing in a week and after that I'll be working on machine learning and big data.

Meanwhile, during my search of phd position, I have found one opening whose deadline is November'15.

I have two options now:

I finish my thesis writing and get some machine learning concepts for around 1-2 months and then talk to the relevant supervisor.
I contact the professor now, showing my interest and keep in touch with him or ask him for guidance before joining the PhD with him?

I need your guidance in choosing the best option among two. In two months i think i'll have some basic concepts about the big data and data mining but i have to wait for two months and the position may not be available by that time.

On the other hand, I have no prior work experience in the proposed Phd field, will the professor appreciate my interest and will help me to cover basics after finding me interested?

Thanks.