texts: Should I tell my postdoc advisor I'm intending to leave?

texts:
I've decided to quit academia and am actively looking for other employment. Colleagues of mine have kept their postdoc advisors close as they've looked for work, but they also had close relationships with their advisors (maybe their advisors even helped out).

My advisor is only really interested in whether I'm producing a paper, so I don't see any real reason to give more than the standard 2-week/month notice once I've found a position. That is, unless there's some academic standard practice.

What's "good practice" in terms of notification?


texts:
I have done part time MBA in SAP (SD & MM Module). I am very good in MS Excel (Certified MCAS from Microsoft) and Data Analysis. I have around 15 years of working experience in MIS & Dashboard. I have basic knowledge of programming but not an expert.
How can i become a Data Scientist with this qualification and experience?
Regards,
Hitesh Gaur


texts: If "learning styles" are bunk, then what is the most effective form of learning?

texts: I have read research claiming the idea of multiple styles of learning does not hold up. If so, what does the research say is the best form of learning/teaching?


texts: How can I timestamp my paper without violating double-blind review?

texts:
I submitted a paper to a top tier conference and it did not get accepted. The paper contains an original idea, and I am afraid that the paper could get plagiarized between the time I send it to another conference after incorporating reviewer's suggestions and making some modifications. Such things have happened in the past to a few students in my department.

I had considered posting the paper on arxiv as a means of timestamping before sending it to the aforementioned conference, but didn't, as this would have violated the double-blind review requirements of the conference. (The conference chair replied to my query as follows:)

  The submission of a paper in the arxhiv.org system is not strictly
  speaking a double-submission, but rather a violation of a double-blind
  submission required in this conference, as the reviewers will be able to
  find your name (and those of the coauthors) if they do a simple search
  in Google. Thus, I am quite certain it will be rejected, and I do not
  consider it an acceptable practice in this conference's submission to be
  fair with all the submissions in order to handle them equally during the
  review process by the reviewers.

Hence I had not posted it on arxiv. Now this paper has been rejected and I would like to timestamp this paper now, while still being able to send a modified version to some conferences in the future (including those that follow a double-blind review).

Is there a mechanism by which I can timestamp my paper that does not violate the blind review requirements?

Edit: The paper was in computer science, if that matters.
A related question "How can I time-stamp my data without publishing it?" asks about ways to timestamp while keeping the information in the paper private or hidden to avoid plagiarism. However my question is about ways to timestamp such that it is still possible to publish the information while not violating blind review.


texts: How do i advance my research career and publish papers without university affiliation?

texts:
I am a recent masters grad from a US institution as a foreign student. As of now I have no university affiliation. My work as a grad student was mainly research oriented. Hence now looking for a job seems redundant as many research jobs in US require US citizenship or field experience. So as a researcher my options are limited. Nevertheless I am working on a theoretical paper. The question is

What are my options at this point considering an academic career where I could become a teacher/lecturer/professor or academician carrying out scientific work.
If I have a paper ready how do i publish it in a good journal with a decent impact factor without a university affiliation.

I could not find published research in reputed journals by any independent scholars.


texts: Applied vs Pure Math for an Engineering Student

texts:
I'm an electrical engineering student specializing in communications. I decided 1 year into my undergraduate studies to pursue a degree in mathematics alongside my engineering degree. I plan on going to engineering research (PhD) and possibly working in the industry after a while. I know that applied math would make more sense but I'm asking whether it would make that much of a difference if I went with Pure instead.

One reason I'm asking this is that Pure Math has more "beautiful" courses that made me decide on math in the first place. Moreover, the two degrees aren't that different in terms of required courses. Finally, Applied would take me more time to complete because my math course choices in that my 2nd year were oriented towards Pure. I'm completely willing to spend that extra time pursuing applied. I'm just wondering wether it would make a difference.


texts: How to not fall in love with my co-author?

texts:
I am a post-doc (male) and I am working on a research project with another post-doc (female) from the same university. During our work, I got to know her and started developing emotions towards her. Recently, I find myself thinking about her and missing her between our weekly meetings, instead of concentrating in my research. I do my best to avoid this development, in particular:

No physical contact, even not friendly handshakes.
No social events, even not eating lunch together. We only meet once a week to talk about our research.
No romantic talks, I never tell her that I like her or miss her or anything else that can be interpreted romantically.

But this does not help very much.

I worked with other women in the past but this is the first time I feel this way.

I am NOT interested in any romantic relationship now. I only want my focus back. How do I get it?

EDIT: After reading the answers, I did some research and found some relevant articles.

"She Wanted to Do Her Research. He Wanted to Talk 'Feelings.'" claims that women might be disturbed by expressions of romantic feelings by men colleagues, to the point that some of them decide to leave academia altogether. Of course, there is difference between senior-junior relations and two postdocs of the same level (as is my case), but this is still quite disturbing. And it makes me feel happy I did not reveal my emotions.
"Sexist Scientist: I Was Being 'Honest'" is about a man professor who was bashed and fired for saying "let me tell you about my trouble with girls... Three things happen when they are in the lab: You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticize them, they cry". This further illustrates the problem with talking about love in academia.

And, I think this might show that the question is on-topic in academia.


texts: Master's degree after Bachelor in Liberal Arts and Humanities

texts:
I have a question regarding a futher education after obtaining Bachelor degree in Liberal Arts and humanities. Is it feasible/possible/widespread to obtain Master's in some other specialization? Particularly I am interested in Master's in archeology or antropology (preferably in Europe).
Thank you in advance for your help.


texts:
My question is about my master thesis. In the term of my master career (about 1 year ago), i prepared conference papers and presentations which were not published but presented. And added those papers to my thesis and published it.

But nowadays, i realized that we didn't share the detailed informations about the model that i covered. I mean we shared the model as a pictures and informations but we didn't share in detail and without them, actually results and sentences are useless. On the other hand actually i think this is the most critical part; i realized that we didn't share how we handled the first step. We directly started from the next step and we presented results in thesis. And talked about them.

Actually question is; How did you get this graph = Missing for three graphs

The second one is what was the detailed properties of the model = Missing in thesis

On the other hand, if someone asks my detailed model i can of course share them and i can explain them in detail. But i revised some codes* that are used in my thesis and they have been changed and actually i may not produce the same graphs.
*we didn't share codes in my thesis also

So, if someone take action about me for not to present some details in thesis and for not to explaining one step in thesis in terms of methodology, is it seen as an academic problem or serious sitation? Thanks in advance

EXTRA INFORMATION to clarify: My one chapter is based on that information. Without that missing information you can not reproduce figures and graphs. So, it effect the reproducibilty of my master thesis.


texts:
The question sounds bad but here is the context:

My area of focus is psychology where preregistering studies (e.g., methodology, hypotheses, analytical plans) is becoming more and more popular to avoid issues with p-hacking or HARKing (hypothesizing after results are known). Preregistration has garnered the endorsement of many prominent psychologists and it's now being encouraged by many top tier journals.

However, I've seen less than ethical behaviors among some behavioral scientists in which they attempt to still p-hack or HARK while getting the preregistration badge.

For instance, suppose that John decides to run an exploratory survey study on various topics with no real a-priori hypothesis. In this large dataset, John finds an interesting effect and thinks that this finding is publishable. He develops a post-hoc conceptual reason for why the effect may exist. John wants to publish in the journal Psychological Science. However, this journal encourages preregistering of studies. In order to get the preregistration badge, John preregisters a new study with a hypothesis on the effect that he found, making it seem like he had a theoretical and conceptual reason to develop that hypothesis (rather than it being from an exploratory analysis; basically the act of HARKing). Because he never published anything from the exploratory dataset, no one else knows about John's HARKing.

Sidenote: this is a relatively extreme example--many journals are okay with an exploratory, unregistered study if it's also followed up with preregistered, confirmatory studies.

In this scenario, one could easily bypass the preregistration honor code and HARK without much chance of ever being caught. In other words, while preregistering has good intentions, I'm under the impression that it also can result in people becoming more creative in their endeavor to p-hack and HARK.

I'm hoping to create workshops in my department regarding how preregistration is a good approach to minimizing issues in modern psychological research, but can also present a new flurry of issues. To do this, I'm trying to get a good sense of how researchers have found loopholes for preregistration. What kind of methods have you observed / engaged in / heard of / or can reasonable figure would bypass the preregistration process?

DISCLAIMER: I study ethics and decision-making so I mainly aim for behavioral economics and business journals where preregistration is not as strongly endorsed as in social psychology. If I misunderstood some part of the preregistration process or norm, do feel free to correct me.


texts: My University professor copied parts of my assignment for the sample solution. Should he have credited me?

texts:
So I just saw this and found it kind of funny, a bit weird, I guess flattering and wondered if he should have at least asked me or gave me some credit and is he allowed to do this as the professor? !
I got a 100/100 in this 2000 words assignment for his course and today I decided to see the essay-like solution he posted for everyone to see, and there are complete paragraphs exactly the same as mine, even the commas. I didn't rediscover anything with this assignment, the topic is not new, but the expressions, the writing and the ideas are all mine.
Anyway I am not gonna say anything to him but I did laugh at the thought that if I ever use my answer again in a similar topic imagine if then I am accused of plagiarism from myself and/or him :)
(btw English is not my first language sorry for any mistakes)


texts: Are there good reasons to avoid using color in research papers?

texts:
I do scientific research, and I noticed for a lot of plots, the different curves are represented with different styles, but they are all black.  For instance, one curve may be a solid line, one may be a dashed line, one may be a dotted line with triangular markers, etc.

However, this makes it hard for me to differentiate between the curves.  Color is much more effective for helping people distinguish between data (and I’m taking a data visualization class that has research to prove it).

So... can I do this in my research article?  I imagine most people are keeping their plots black and white because of printing restrictions on color, but at the same time they include colors in all kinds of other figures in their document.  Also, how many people actually read printed articles anymore?  For scientific work, I look all of it up online.

Are there good reasons for me to stick with this backwards black-and-white scheme?


texts: I was recently asked to write a letter of recommendation for a young women that I coach for a sport. I am aware that she is a good student, however my only interaction with her is through coaching. She is an Olympian and I have coached her since she was a child. I have never written a letter of recommendation. Several of the colleges she is applying to have an online portal where the "letter" is to be written. How might I transform my knowledge of her as an athlete to be of interest to ( -U.S.) colleges ?


texts: Reputable Preprint Servers other than Arxiv

texts:
After one of my papers was put "on hold," every single one of my new papers is being put on "on hold," many of which are ultimately rejected from Arxiv. This makes no sense to me as the same papers that are rejected are often accepted to and published in reputable, peer-reviewed journals, such as Mathematics of Computation and even the PeerJ Journal of Computer Science.  So I'm stuck; preprinting my work and making it open access is very important to me.

Because of the struggle of uploading anything at all to Arxiv, I would like to ask if there are other reputable preprinting servers (i.e. not Vixra) that cover the same subject areas: Physics, Mathematics, and Computer Science.

EDIT: Would sites such as OSF Preprints be considered reputable? My initial checking shows their papers maintain DOIs and are cited on google scholar, and the site seems fairly popular also.


texts: Waiting to hear back from a professor—how long should I wait?

texts:
I have been contacting professors about openings in their lab for a PhD position. One professor who I really want to work with contacted me back immediately and told me he would turn over my info to senior lab members (CV, transcripts) and that they will then get in touch with me.

It has been 10 days since that correspondence, I have not heard from anyone else in that lab and I do not know the contact info for anyone specifically, i.e. the professor did not mention exactly who would be looking at my info (although on their lab webpage they do list post-docs and PhD students with contact info).

I would like some feedback about when and how one might contact the professor to check on the status. My thought is to reach out to the professor if I have not heard anything in 3 weeks. I would say something like "Hello Dr. Soandso, I really appreciate the opportunity to be considered for a spot in your lab. 3 weeks have past since our last correspondence, and I just want to check that I did not overlook any communication from the senior lab members you mentioned. Thank you very much for your time." I keen that 3 weeks is a good amount of time for a follow up email.

Thanks everyone!


texts: Harvard VS APA: the differences? How about mixing styles for a better clarity?

texts: For a while, I thought that I've been using an APA version of 'Harvard style' but it turned out that these 2 styles are totally different. What are the exact differences and, generally speaking, is mixing between styles a bad practice? (If the intention is for more clarity and the university doesn't ask for a specific style).


texts: Counting a translation as a separate publication

texts: I have read this question. My interest is not in the h-index, but in a colleague listing a paper in two different versions and expecting credit (and teaching release) for both. (They got both versions published in peer-reviewed journals, but one is a straight translation of the other --- I checked.) True, it takes time to do a translation, but the intellectual effort that goes into translating one's own paper is rather less than producing the original research. I think the colleague is behaving selfishly and in an intellectually dishonest way. Before I make a big deal out of it, however, I want to make sure I talk to the right person(s). Is this behavior as big a deal as I think it is?


texts: Switching fields within biomedical sciences between PhD and postdoc?

texts:
I'm almost finished at my PhD, and I am currently looking for postdoc opportunities. My current field is quite a small one (a rare disease), and consequently all the postdoc positions I've found so far are in other fields - but still within biological/biomedical sciences.

At this stage I am strongly considering a move, but I also want to maximise my career potential. I have interests - and have previously worked - in other fields, but don't feel tied to any one field.

My question is, what are the pros and cons of switching fields at this stage? How much weight should I put on my subject knowledge and publication record in the current field vs. transferrable skills? And how much weight would a potential employer put on these aspects?


texts: Study of code share practices in science

texts:
I am searching for a study that presents statistics of how often you can get code that claims to be available in scientific communities. I found the following interesting study, which is very similar to what I am looking for: http://reproducibility.cs.arizona.edu/

However, this one is specific to computer science, and I wonder if something similar has been done in biology, physics or other research areas. I appreciate your hints and clues.


texts: What do researchers mean by the "priority" of an idea?

texts:
I have heard the term "priority" used in regards to research ideas. For example, How does one determine priority, prominence, and impact with regard to books, rather than articles? asks about priority (and other things) in regards to books.

From the usage I have seen in this community, priority appears to be established when you submit a manuscript (e.g., to a publisher or arXiv). This seems very weird to me, so I am worried that I am missing something. The time at which an idea is submitted for publication can be years after the idea was had, so it seems priority is not giving credit to the first individual who had the idea. Since the review process is confidential and it can take years for an idea to get published, priority is not being given to the person who first disseminated the idea either.

What exactly is priority and why does it matter?


texts: Professor wants to use required class project for research

texts:
In one of my required undergraduate courses, my professor has given a mandatory assignment. He has indicated that he will use our code from the assignment for his research. He has not mentioned attributing it, nor asked our permission to use the code.

I'm not opposed to him using the code for his research, but I want to guarantee that if he does, I will be attributed. Is there a good way to go about this? Furthermore, is it acceptable for a professor to use student code from required class projects for research?

(there was a similar question here but did not apply, since it dealt with commercial uses, and another here but did not include the fact that the course was required for the major.)


texts: How to reduce the load of professors writing recommendation letters for graduate school application?

texts:
If a student can't decide which school to apply at one time, and different schools have different' deadlines, how could the student do to reduce the load of professors writing recommendation letters for graduate school application?

One possible solution. I heard of interfolio (http://www.interfolio.com/). Does anyone know if it might help? My concerns are that each school has its own only application system, and it might not be good for recommendation letter to not have specific school name in it. What do you think?


texts: Does PhD work experience (scholarship was tax free) count in Postdoc Salary contract (TVL-13) in Germany

texts:
I did my Ph.D. from Germany where I received a tax-free fellowship, and now I got a postdoc offer in Bremen with salary range TVL-13. The 'Stufe' depends on the previous experience of the employee, but since I was not paying tax and was on a student visa during my Ph.D., will my previous research experience count in this case?
Would be great if somebody could answer.
Thanks.


texts: How can I approach my professor when he is sending me indirect messages with another person?

texts:
After achieving my masters degree, i applied for a phd program at the same university i was graduated from. In Germany, a person has to find 2 advisors to be registered as a phd student and thats it for the begining.

I approached a professor whose area is related to my research.I told my intention and research idea to him and he said he would like to be my advisor but he officially cannot be the first advisor due to the number of students he already has. Instead, he suggested that he can be my second advisor and i should find another professor as my first advisor, in this way we can continue working anyway.

I decided to approach another professor (who is also a colleague of 2.advisor) and I asked him if he could be my first advisor and he accepted. We have exchanged more than 10 e-mails, talking about my proposal. When he came to my city, we met and everything looked fine. I continued to work on my proposal and sent him after a while. I needed to get a reference letter from him, as I am applying for potential scholarships. Some of these scholarships demand the reference letter to be sent directly by the professors. He has written the reference letter and wrote me an e-mail saying that he has sent the letter to the grant givers i asked him to send. I have asked him to send the letter also to me as a pdf, since i need to upload it personally as well. He has not send it to me and since weeks he is not replying my e-mails.

Instead, he has sent me an indirect message with a friend of mine (also a student of his), saying that I should work more on my proposal and it would be difficult to get a scholarship with such inaccurate proposal. He told her that I have been rushing to finish it and I should stop and reconsider my steps. He also added that, due to the inner conflicts he has with the faculty, he will be resigning in two years so maybe i should consider to find another first advisor as well.

I found this indirect communication unusual, disturbing and i must say, unprofessional. I decided to send him another e-mail, asking him if he can approve what I heard from my friend so that I can begin to search for another first advisor. Because if he officialy does not write it, i'm still registered as his student and it would be awkward to search for another one while I still have one. He is not replying to this e-mail as well. I have been applying for another scholarship meanwhile (only with one reference letter which is from my second advisor) and today i recieved a note from this scholarship, saying that my file has been taken under consideration but i should send the other reference letter as soon as possible.

My professor is literally blocking me from applying further. I have understood what he meant by taking more time to focus on my proposal but for now I need this reference letter from him. It just doesn't make sense that I cannot have the letter when it is already written for me. My question would be, shall I contact and ask my second advisor about his opinion on this situation or shall I take a step back and wait for my first advisor's conflicts to be cleared and hopefully he writes back to me?


texts: Does using one offer to "pressure" another school actually work?

texts: I am applying from Europe to the U.S. for tenure-track positions. One of the advice that I heard from my colleagues is that once one offer is received, one should contact the other universities that one has a preference for, and tell them about the offer. However, I do not understand how this act of telling another university about an offer could actually put any pressure. What does one say in such a communication? And what is one expecting from it? (For example, if all the interviews are already scheduled, one can hardly expect the university to "hurry along" and pick a candidate...) I am interested in hearing the answer for American institutions, but as long as the region is specified, I should like to hear the European versions as well.


texts: Bad relationship with PhD supervisors, should I have them as my recommenders in job applications?

texts:
I am about to submit my thesis. At the moment, I am looking for jobs, but my relationship with both of my Ph.D. supervisors is not good. Now I am facing another complication where I have to find a recommender for a job. I am too scared to get them to be my recommender, yet I will probably have a reason as to why not them.

My supervisors have shown many reactions which indicates that they dislike me, for example, scolding, ignoring emails, blaming, and talking behind my back. Nevertheless, I always act nice to them and say that I agree with them that it was all my fault.

I did not change the supervisors because of my stupidity in thinking that nobody will accept me as my research field is tiny. These results in me feeling as if they all tried to dish me off from this program, but I was too stubborn.

Edit: To give a note that I risked using one of them which turns out not as bad as I thought. Sometimes, the HR just wants someone to provide an honest feedback, and sometimes, the sup may just want an alumni


texts: Academic literature on the construction of dangerous things

texts:
I'm sitting at some boring ethics lecture and was surprised that few academics worked with formally classified or otherwise dangerous information.

I'm curious how this knowledge is published, stored, and disseminated in practice.

A few ideas come to mind:

Research on the blast radius of munitions
Imaging and communication systems for military hardware
Culture of pathogens such as Anthrax

What happens if your research was commissioned by the DoD?


texts: Should I quit Master's after 2 months into the program? Please help!

texts:
I completed my Bachelor's in Electrical engineering last year in a foreign country. I already had a job pending in that country when I finished but due to visa concerns, I would only be able to start working after 7 months. To keep myself busy and use my time productively, I decided to enrol into a 1-year Master's program in Statistics and Data Science in the same country.

Two months into the program, I realize that I have not been putting my heart and mind into studies. I am only going to lectures for the sake of it, and I will probably not use most of the knowledge gained in my courses in the career path I want to pursue.

I was just able to obtain my work visa from within the country, so I can start working after one month in the position I had secured last year. However, if I push it through for the next 5 months, I will be done with my coursework and I can start working while I complete my thesis on the side. On the other hand, if I decide to quit now, I will lose 50% of the fees I paid (on a loan).

So, basically, if I do not quit now and start work after 5 months, I will have a Master's degree by the end of next year, more career options and make some use of the fees I have already paid. But if I decide to quit now, I will have a month off to rejuvenate (the past few months have been very stressful for me), get an extra income of 5 months which I can use to start paying off my debt and save the other 50% of the fees. In addition, I may save myself the struggle of pushing through an intensive degree I am not too interested in or the risk of failing a few courses. The same knowledge can be gained online via a ton of resources available on the subject.

Could someone please guide me on what would be the right approach to my situation? I feel like I had made a hasty decision to enrol into the Master's program, but I do not want to make a hasty decision to drop out. Any advice and guidance would be greatly appreciated!


texts: Is it possible to do research in cell/molecular biology without doing experimental work myself?

texts:
I am currently a master’s student hoping to shift into a PhD. The thing is, I hate the lab work. I love all the literature review, designing experiments, troubleshooting problems and data interpretation.

Is there some sort of work around or is this just part of paying my dues?

The most likely answer that comes to mind is: “suck it up and pay your dues”, which I totally get, but is there an area somewhere that negates the benchwork, or is that just years of climbing until I get to be a PI (well, if I get to be a PI).


texts: "Fake" Things that are used in Experiments

texts: What do you call the "things" that you used in experiment, but not in real life? Things that are made for experiment/simulation purpose. For example, phantom for human body.


texts: Can we change our field of study for masters in canada?

texts: I have a bachelors degree in electronics and communication engineering and am going for higher studies. I want to change my field to computer science for my masters. Is it possible to do that for masters in Canada? I've been working as a software developer for an year now.


texts: Economics PhD, how to find the right university?

texts:
I am currently doing an MSc in Economics (finishing my first year - of two - in a couple of days) and thinking about applying for a PhD afterwards. I do not have a specific idea what I want to write about yet, but several topics I am interested in - Institutional, political and development economics, monetary theory, econometrics specifically quasi-experimental methods and climate economics. A lot of these topics clearly have some common ground, but all together I would say are still rather broad.
My question therefore is, how do I chose or rather find the right uni to apply for? Of course I know the universities I have studied at, but all the subjects I have studied so far are obviously taught at this unis, however, it is hard for me to judge if these unis are a good place for a PhD. I have looked at papers some of my teachers have written and found stuff that was very interesting, but am not sure if this is what I want to do.
Of course there are rankings, but not really about specific fields, furthermore, I think my chance of getting into any of the high ranked unis are rather minor (I was not a particularly great student at the beginning of my bachelors, in my masters I am doing quite well, but my GPA is not going to be perfect).
So basically my problem is that, while I am deeply interested in Economics and love doing research - aka writing and reading papers, thinking about research questions and so on - I don't yet have a specific part I want to focus on. Is there a way, I can narrow down the unis that might be a good place for me? Other than just reading through the websites of dozens of universities. Or should I know exactly what I want to do before applying for a PhD?
Edit:
I don't strictly rule out US universities, but am more inclined to stay in Europe.


texts: What is the typical Legal Structure of a modern College?

texts:
I'm very perplexed as to how the terms College and University are archaically used to denote associations of people, but are in modern times being used to denote buildings or realty.

What are standard organizational structures in a legal sense for different Colleges in a US-based Research University??

For example, if the corporation of the University Trustees makes the policies providing for faculty appointments in a College of Arts and also in a College of Education, will these different Colleges typically be like departments in the same corporation, or do they have separate Legal Personalities?

Are the Colleges associations or corporations, or merely administrative units defined by the internal policy of the Trustees to distinguish different collections of offices?

Do the Colleges have members, and if so who are the members? Are all the matriculated members, or just current students? Are the faculty members of the College?


texts: Is it acceptable to apply for two different postdoc positions in the same institution at the same time

texts: It is discussed here that it is generally okay to apply for multiple jobs in different ranks at the same university, but I want to know is it acceptable to apply two different postdoc positions in the same institution at the same time. I think I remembered seeing somewhere that you are not advised to do so because these two professors may talk to each other and find that you apply to both of them. Suppose I have sent an application to Prof. A but did not hear back, is it okay to send another application to Prof. B even if they are in the same institution or should I wait for a definite yes/no from Prof. A before moving on?


texts: Is it okay to ask a senior academic a question that my advisor is unable to answer?

texts:
For the past few weeks, I have been struggling to understand something and answer a very specific research question. I asked my advisor the same question and he couldn't give me a satisfactory answer.

Is it socially acceptable to bypass my advisor and ask a senior academic the same question?
Does it reflect negatively on my advisor if I bother other academics with my research?

I am an Asian international student studying in the United States and not sure what is the most prudent way to do this. In my country, bypassing ones advisor to ask a senior academic reflects poorly on the advisor and group in general and is implicitly frowned upon.


texts: Can university educators provide private tutoring to anyone seeking it?

texts:
Let me elaborate: I’m aware that school teachers often do private tutoring for children on the side (although I believe it’s only ethical/fair if they tutor children from other grades, classes or different schools).

Are university professors (at any level) able to engage in a similar job? Could they offer private tutoring as a paid service to students from different classes or institutions, or even to children and adults in general who need tutoring? Would this breach any university policies or regulations?


texts: What to do about collaborators & co-authors who fail to understand authorship & plagiarism?

texts:
I've been working on a research paper in the field of education with co-authors for the past year. I know both of these individuals professionally for several years. One is a more seasoned author than the other, and I am the most published author.

The manuscript is currently back from review and we are working on the revisions.  We also co-authored and presented at a national conference presentation last year. My status in both is second author. My co-authors/collaborators are newly tenured, and one is not tenured. I am a retired professor who is still active in research.

My plan was to attend this research conference and I am looking through the program and I found that  my 2 co-authors are on the program to talk about the topic of our paper! I also see that their abstract includes ideas and references from sections that I wrote in the paper.

When I asked why I was not included one responded, "so sorry, that was so unethical" while the other said she got the invitation to present and it was quick turnaround. They both offered to have me on the program but only after I found out. Both have apologized for both not inviting me, although if I hadn't found their presentation, I am not sure either would have told me.

They did not apologize for using my ideas and citations of other research in the abstract because "currently our paper is unpublished" and they did not see a need to cite our paper? Yet, my ideas were used without my consent or knowledge.

One author tried to make the claim of 'ownership,' and basically no one owns ideas. I responded it's an issue of authorship. I did 'pen' my ideas to that paper and since we formatted the paper in a dialogic format (narrative research), it's clear to see where my ideas begin and end. I see it as plagiarism.

So, there is an issue of excluding me as a co-author in a conference presentation,  not citing our paper in the abstract which I consider self-plagairism as well as not citing me-plagiarism.

What do you all think? What would provoke 2 co-authors to do this? Am I correct in my assessment of the issues of authorship and plagiarism? What strategies would you recommend for addressing co-authors and collaborators who don't understand what I consider to be basic professional etiquette, but also have a motive that appears to be more devious? One co author appears to be more sincere and apologetic but the other one, I think the one who submitted the proposal appears cold, and indifferent.


texts: Evidence of Reviewing Scams in Major AI/ML Conferences?

texts:
I have recently heard a few independent rumors about massive collusion amongst reviewers in major AI/ML conferences. The way this works is that a large group of program committee (PC) members start a chat group (on WhatsApp/Telegram etc.) and share their assigned papers; other members of the group flag papers that are theirs and get the "insiders" to score them higher.

To make things concrete, Alice and Bob start a chat where both share their assigned papers. Alice sees that Bob's batch contains one of her papers, and asks Bob to write a glowing review of that paper.

Are these rumors substantiated? Has anyone else heard of this going on? If it is as widespread as I was led to believe, what does this mean for the review process in these conferences and what countermeasures can we take?


texts: Are there any mathematics or physics postgraduate courses (not taught courses) in the UK where you can continue a piece of research work you did whilst an undergrad? So you effectively do a project that maybe lasts a year(ish) which is productive but you would not do it for 3 years+ and receive a PhD?


texts: How related should be the postdoc subject to my PhD topic?

texts:
I've started to look for postdoc possibilities as my PhD is getting closer to its end (in 6-7 months).

My PhD was in the area of Machine Learning and more specifically motion data analysis (and even a more detail subset of that!). So at the start i focused on the institutes which are doing that specif type of research at the moment. But my supervisor told me that generally it is not advisable to continue the exact line of research which i did in my PhD! He suggested other areas of Machine Learning or even interdisciplinary topics like Robotics!

By heart, i trust him about his advice, but i'm still puzzled! For example if i want to apply for a postdoc advertisement, don't i have to show i gathered relevant skills and experiences during my PhD? and of course during my PhD i gathered skills mostly related to my topic of research and have published also mainly in the same sub-field.

Well, definitely there are few areas different than my PhD's which i really like to work on, for example the link between Robotics and Machine learning and etc. But how can i show i have a strong profile when i want to apply for a category not close to my PhD topic?


texts: Why are there so many papers written in bad English?

texts:
I am pretty sure that anyone who has spent some time reading academic papers have come across quite a few "lemons" among them, with bad grammar, strange word choices and incoherent sentences. Such papers are always a chore to read, even if the topic is interesting and the research is good, and I have found myself throwing away papers just because they are so awful to read.

The strange thing is that these papers have been peer reviewed and are published in reputable journals. But still they are often near unreadable because of bad language. Why is this the case? Why isn't bad language picked up and corrected when peer review is done? I understand that a lot of these academics don't have English as their first language, but publishing a paper that reads like it was translated from Chinese to English with Google Translate and a thesaurus is not a good way to publish your research.


texts: Professor wants to change my thesis' interpretation in favor of his research. How to react?

texts:
I am about to finish my undergraduate thesis. The interpretation/conclusion i wrote is basically a statement which matches well with research of other groups and has a widely accepted scientific background.

After letting my supervisor (who has been mentoring me) and then my professor(who gave me the topic and is in charge of the decisions in the group) control my thesis, my professor wants me to edit my interpretation and write one which mainly goes along his research but is not widely accepted in science.

My supervisor said I should do what my professor asks me to.
Should I?

Edit: My professor asked me to change because I had no clear evidence for my assumptions. But I would not have any evidence for his suggestions neither.


texts: Giving a talk on a paper whose authorship is not finalized

texts:
I will shortly be giving a seminar presentation on a research project that I worked on with collaborators X, Y and Z.  We have not yet submitted our paper for publication, and one question we have yet to resolve is the authorship - it is not yet decided whether Z will be a coauthor on the paper.

(The reason is perhaps the reverse of what you might guess: Z doesn't think his contributions were sufficient to deserve authorship, but others of us think that they were.  We are still debating this with Z, and it will probably not be resolved before my talk.)

In my talk, I would of course like to give credit to my collaborators.  The usual way would be to begin the talk by stating that "this is joint work with [list names of coauthors]".  But I wonder whether to include Z in this list.

If I mention that this is joint work with X, Y and Z, then the members of my audience would normally expect to see Z as a coauthor on the paper when it is published. If we end up not including him as an author, they may think that something strange is going on - like maybe we improperly denied him authorship, or he withdrew from the project over doubts about its quality.

But if I don't mention Z, I will feel like I am denying him credit for his contributions.  And I think it would be inappropriate to explain to my audience that Z's authorship status is undecided - the debate is a private matter among us collaborators.

Is there a good way out of this dilemma (or maybe trilemma)?


texts:
My class decided to bunk today's lectures. Because there is so much chaos in my city due to heavy rain and blockage. Many student can not come and some of them are not coming due to their parents not allowing them to go. So we executed our plan.

Now, our class teacher want us to meet HOD and take permission from him and then only we are allowed to sit in next lectures.

So, my question is how should we handle this situation?
How should we put ourselves in front of him?


texts: PhD crossroad: dealing with constantly absent supervisor and diverse workload?

texts:
I am in the first year of my PhD studies. Was involved with the same group since a while as a student, and then I was offered a PhD there.

Project work

The topic of my PhD is completely different from what I had done before, so the first 3-4 months passed while I was trying to get into the new topic. In the meanwhile a project arrived. It was loosely related to my previous experience, but still completely unrelated to the PhD topic.

I was assigned to this project. Soon it started hogging all my time. Project meetings, proposal, presentations, reports and all that. Months were passing by without doing anything on the PhD topic. Also it was hard switching between the topics as the context switch was immense.

I tried different strategies. Switching topics within the day. Switching topics week in week out. And in the end what worked for me was switching between the topics as the deadlines for the project were met.

Lack of supervision

On top of all this the supervisor is busy constantly. All in all I might have had less than 3-4 hours of one-to-one discussion with my supervisor within these 12 months, whereas I hear other professors have monthly meetings with their students. Also, no one from the seniors in the group has expertise related to my PhD topic. Neither there is a fellow student working on the same topic with whom I could discuss.

Assuming that my work-flow and the tools I use were faulty, I constantly looked around for approaches to become more and more efficient. To make sure there is nothing extra to be done from my side I started working actively on the weekends and did not take any holidays.

Yet, looking at my PhD topic I still think there is so much to learn there regarding the basics let alone advanced concepts. Much more than one usual candidate who is researching within a topic which s/he might have encountered previously during studies.

What next?

As the time for the contract extension is approaching I am trying to figure out what is the best to do next. Below I will list pros and cons from my POV.

Pros:

I like the PhD topic
I like the group
I like teaching duties
(although it requires significant time investment)

Cons:

I hate the project work
Lack of input from the supervisor
There is no one in the group to discuss with

Bottom line: How should I deal with this situation? Is it a common situation for PhD students?

Options:

Request a helping hand for the project (an extra student that will help me). I am even contemplating of paying from my own sallary.
Start contacting other groups worldwide and switch for a PhD there.
Visit another research group (e.g., my co-supervisor etc.) for half-a-year (or longer), whose main research aligns with my PhD topic
other...?


texts: Can an academic PhD thesis have more than one hypothesis?

texts:
I am working on writing my PhD thesis after four long years of work. I'm writing the hypothesis sections, and I am finding it extremely hard to write one single hypothesis that is comprehensive and specific enough without using vague wording. Can I have three hypotheses for my thesis?

For background: my work is in medical informatics, and my thesis work can be divided into three steps:

I evaluated existing models in the literature against our hospital's dataset using a novel approach and demonstrated that their performance is not great;
I developed my own model, which is better;
I implemented it in the hospital, with decent results.

Can I have those three as hypotheses? [1) existing models perform worse than X; 2) a model that is X% better can be built using machine learning; and 3) implementing a model in the hospital can lead to XYZ]? Or do I have to find just one overarching hypothesis and make those three the goals?


texts: Should I include a publication where I'm only acknowledged (and not one of the authors) in my CV?

texts:
Suppose that I've helped other researchers with the statistical analyses for an epidemiological study and therefore I am acknowledged for that in the "Acknowledgments" section of the paper (something like "We thank andrea for his statistical support").

Obviously, this doesn't count as a publication for me, as I am not one of the authors. But if I include it in my CV, how much "weight" would a professor (or someone within the academia) give to that? I also have other publications where I am either the first author or one of the co-authors.

I am not thinking of a particular situation here (like applying for a grant or for a PhD position). I am just curious to know if it could be useful to put it into my CV or if it would just be irrelevant.


texts: Is there a bibliometric that weighs citations based on their number?

texts:
I wonder if the following bibliometric index exists.
If a paper cites n other papers, then give a weight of 1/n to each.
Then one can sum up these weights for each paper/person to get an index.

This would balances things in the sense that in some fields papers cite 5 other papers, while in other fields 100 - so scientists of the two fields can be better compared. It would be especially useful when someone works in two different fields, like (you would never guess!) myself - among mathematicians, my citations overrate me, but among theoretical computer scientists I'm nowhere.


texts: Student requests to know their "grades so far"

texts:
I periodically get requests from students to know their "grade so far". From what I can tell, this is becoming more prevalent, and more encouraged by administrators. And there is a box for "Total Grade" in our LMS, turned on by default, which I have to manually disable.
I feel that telling them a number might mislead. For example, this fall, the final exam is split into sections corresponding to the midterms, and students can replace each of their midterm scores by doing better on the corresponding section of the final. Also, there will be an extra credit final homework. So, even if a student is failing "so far", that doesn't necessarily mean that they're likely to fail the course.
What is the best way to address such questions? Be evasive? ("It's complicated...") Give them a number, even if misleading, along with some caveats that they might not read? Or design simpler grading schemes in the future, even if the "complicated" features were intended to be helpful?
A few remarks following the comments:

I have provided them with their grades on every assignment so far, and I have also told them exactly how their final grades will be computed. The issue is—the students who ask, say they're a bit confused about how well they're doing (even though I did my best to explain it clearly), and seem to want an answer like "Your average is 73% so far".
The students should be perfectly capable of assessing their performance so far. But they are overwhelmed, they are struggling, and they are anxious—especially this fall, with the ongoing pandemic, and where I'm teaching online and not face-to-face. And they might be afraid of hidden gotchas—some rule buried in the fine print of the syllabus, which I'm going to call them out on later (I'm not). I can sympathize with my students' desire for a simple answer.


texts:
As a student, and as a tutor, I have found that tutorials for liberal arts subjects (in university) can be a bore. As a student, in large courses you mightn't know anyone in your class, you mightn't want to answer questions in order to avoid looking like a know-all, or you mightn't answer questions because you haven't done the reading; and all-in-all it's a painful process of the tutor attempting to inveigle responses from a very quiet audience.

This also doesn't make tutorials very useful, and seeing that time is being put aside to this end (by both students and staff) it often feels a real waste.

For anyone unfamiliar with such tutorials, they tend to be for 1 hour each fortnight; designed to discuss subjects that have been lectured on with a view to informing students in relation to a continual assessment deliverable (e.g. an essay).

I'm now in the position where I can dictate tutorial structure of a subject (though I'm not actually a tutor). While I don't want to make any massive revolutionary changes in relation to tutorials, I'm curious what changes to the subject as a whole could produce an environment more conducive to interesting and productive tutorials. What alterations could help tutors and students make the most of these sessions?


texts: Copyright – use of images to train algorithm

texts:
I am working on a university project about computer vision. Part of my work requires object recognition, for which I would use cascade classifiers. These cascade classifiers need to be “taught” what an objects looks like and therefore I need a big collection (hundreds) of images. The problem is, that I cannot create enough material on my own and need to use images from the Internet.

This would usually not be a big issue, because there are a lot of academic sources for computer vision and machine learning, as well as many places for public domain and Creative Commons images, but in this case it is a little difficult.

I need photos of bird feces, which are not available in a collected manner.

On aggregated licensed data, I would cite the source and apply additional conditions if a license requests to do so. The images do not get (re-)published, but they are used to generate classifiers that the object-detection algorithm uses. I do not want to infringe copyright.

Fair use does not apply as I am from Germany. How should I optimally proceed to be on the save side?


texts: Good examples for methods section in math or computer science

texts:
A methods section is very common in areas such as medicine. However, in math
or computer science papers I rarely find such a section if no experiments or
observational studies were conducted. Nevertheless, it is a requirement for
the computer science journal I submitted to. While nearly none of the papers
published by the journal provides one, I still have to fulfill this requirement.

While some general guidelines can be found, for example in this question,
it would be very helpful to have some good examples for such a section in existing math or computer science literature.

Edit: As clarification: I already submitted and got a revision request that did not mention a missing methods second. I then submitted a revision and after a few hours I got a second revision request asking for a methods section (and a few other formal requests). I know that I could discuss this with the editor if I really need one, but maybe it would actually improve the paper.


texts: Claiming authorship for substantial work on a single-author-only paper

texts:
I recently worked on a research project for a client of my organization who was chosen for a highly prestigious lecture in my field (delivered annually). As part of convention, the lecturer is also afforded the opportunity to publish, ahead of the lecture, a single-author-only invited paper in a high-profile journal. From what I understand, no other authors are "allowed" to appear, but having been the sole person responsible for producing literally all tables, models, and visualizations in the manuscript,  I still feel strange about this.
I wrote all code used to wrangle and analyze the data and am listed in the acknowledgments for "data and statistical support". Would it be acceptable (conventional, ethical, etc.) for me to list this publication alongside the others (for which I am listed as author) on my CV?
If so, what's the appropriate format? Can it be Only-Author, [Publication Title] or Only-Author et al., [Publication Title]?
This kind of scenario does happen somewhat frequently at my organization, so just thought I'd try to get some insight to avoid raising any eyebrows for grad program applications/future employers. Thanks in advance!


texts: Bibliometrics analyses with Pubmed metadata

texts:
I just started to have interest into bibliometric analyses, and so far I am struggling to understand the tons of copyright policies. However, these are (from my opinion) quite vague and with too much grey areas.

Let’s say that I constrain my analyses on the metadata from Pubmed (not PMC) considering basic classes in it (i.e., title, publication year, citation number, MeSH terms, author names…);
but I never touch or analyze the abstracts (text mining or anything alike whatsoever on abstracts).

Do you think that such analyses would pass without copyright infringements?


texts: Overview of the mathematical (and computer science) world by countries

texts:
I am looking for statistics of research done in mathematics and computer science by country. I found reports for Thainland, Kyrgyzstan and Finland in mathematics. Where can I find similar statistics for other countries, and also the "bigger" ones like USA, Russia, UK, France, Germany etc.

Things that should be mentioned are: Major universities/institutes, what was achieved in the last decades, research output, people, topics and conferences held and a general overview. So how to find such information?


texts:
Academic scholars have written many books guiding managers at different business/industry positions. I wondered that I was unable to find any noticeable book describing the roles of a department head, dean, vice presidents, etc.

Academic scholars always guide managers in different sectors to use academic (scientific) methods for managing an organization; then, why there is no academic advancement to classify the role of university managers/administrators?

The main resources, as I searched, are few scholarly journals devoted to higher education in general.

If you know any book/resource on this matter, feel free to share.

My question is: if someone is just appointed as a department chair or decided to implement changes to his management system, where he can find books/guides on this matter?


texts: Is university allowed to refuse to confirm my masters theme due to lack of appropriate research staff?

texts: I am paying for my studies and I have chosen my own theme for my MS thesis. It is in artificial general intelligence and symbolic methods, rather rare theme. I am promising to do all the work fully myself, with some guidance by external researchers. Noone in the department is willing to be the advisor for my theme. I consider this research direction to be of utmost importance, in any case it is far more superior than the machine translation themes to some minor language - themes that are proposed by the department. I am not asking the would-be advisor to be expert in the field, I am asking just formal signature on the papers to continue my own research. Can university refuse to give me advisor? Maybe I can ask my money back? Maybe I ask the university to improve its quality and topicality of its research directions?


texts: Should I provide references to a function which is used as part of a programming language?

texts:
I am writing a paper, which in the application used a function from a programming language (in this case, it is OpenCV function canny edge detection).  When is or is not appropriate to explain the algorithm in mathematics/words and when or how should a function be referenced.

In this case, OpenCV explains the algorithm http://docs.opencv.org/doc/tutorials/imgproc/imgtrans/canny_detector/canny_detector.html

Should I just provide a link to this, as I did not modify the algorithm but it is an important part of the implementation decision.

Is there a standard way of deciding to reference the language, function, or original algorithm?


texts: Checking Plagiarism among student's work (PDF documents)

texts: I want to check the plagiarism among the students work. I have student's assignments and looking forward if I can make some settings in Turnitin to test the plagiarism only among student's work. I have simple PDF documents. I am okay to check plagiarism both ways i.e. with the internet sources and among the student's work. But the latter is most important. Also, I do not want to submit the work to the repository. How is this possible? Any help is appreciated. Thanks


texts: What is the difference between the archives and annals of a conference?

texts: I would like to know, when publishing a paper in a conference, what are the differences between a publication in the annals of the conference and the archives?


texts: Avoiding conferences: Potential effects on an academic career and mitigation strategies

texts:
The following question is triggered by reading this recent question as well as by a recent case of an organizing committee member approaching me with invitation to present at a well-known (at least, within my discipline of information systems and a larger management sciences field) conference.

Unfortunately, I had to politely decline his kind invitation and an exciting opportunity for academic research career building and networking, especially considering that I am a beginning researcher. The reason for why I had to decline that promising invitation is twofold:

1) at this time, I'm a non-affiliated (independent) researcher with no financial support for research activities, including attending conferences - needless to say that I simply cannot afford to attend them on my own (but, even, if I would be, say, a postdoctoral researcher with some research budget, as far as I know, funds for attending conferences or similar events are quite limited);

2) my current life circumstances are not too favorable in terms of traveling (though, it is possible); moreover, I tend to agree with the "time lost" point, mentioned in this nice answer (though, I realize that it is a matter of assessing and balancing between time and effort spent on preparation for presenting at a conference and a potential academic and career value of a prospective event).

Considering all the above-mentioned points and circumstances, my questions are as follows:

Is it possible to build a good research academic career, avoiding publishing for (and, thus, presenting at) conferences and, instead, focusing at disseminating research artifacts via journal publications (in addition to working papers, industry articles, workshops, etc.)?

To what extent, if any, it would be damaging to a researcher, especially in early career, to use the strategy above and what are some potential mitigation strategic and tactical measures other than attending (and presenting at) conferences?

Note: My questions above imply conferences only, as workshops or similar smaller events seem to be more affordable and, sometimes, even, free to attend and/or to present at.


texts: How to notify Elsevier or Clarivate when then they are indexing predatory or very low quality journals?

texts: What is the best way to alert Elsevier or Clarivate Analytics -- for instance, if I see a potentially predatory (or just really low quality) journal indexed in Scopus or WoS or if I see recent changes that possibly indicate a lowering of standards by the journal (such as a dramatic increase in the number of articles published)?


texts: On the market for TT faculty positions, is having my credit frozen a problem with University's background check?

texts:
Like many Americans, after last year's Equifax fiasco, I froze my credit with the big three. I'm on the job market, and at least all the Universities in the US do (or will do) a background check on the tenure-track faculty candidates (not sure if schools from other countries do so for international applicants).

So far I was able to get invites for interviews + campus visits, but I'm not sure at what stage the schools will do a background check.

So my questions are:

does the fact that I have my credit frozen impact my chances as a candidate in faculty positions in the US?
what about in other countries, such as Canada, UK, and other EU countries?
If so, what should I do? just lift the freeze now? or will the school contact me if they can't get access and ask me to lift the freeze for them? or will they just reject me outright?

I've never had trouble with the law etc, or even my credits. The only thing is I have been a victim of at least one of these security data breaches in the past couple years, the worst probably being the Equifax fiasco, which prompted me to place the freezes.

Any advice or suggestion appreciated! Thanks!


texts:
I've been working in commercial software development for quite a while for now, and I'm getting more and more disappointed in the way things are being done here as time passes.

So I was thinking to get back to academia, but the problem is that even though I hold master's degree, I have just a couple of publications (rather weak, I suppose), and there are no letters of recommendation in my disposal. Moreover, all colleagues I can possibly reference are engineers, not a scientists.

Basically, I'm quite used to applying to jobs I do not fit entirely (I mean not 100% of requirements met) judging by their requirements list in commercial sphere, but how mandatory publications and references are? My estimation is that I'm still capable of at least supporting research project as a engineer, while regaining lucking researcher skills.


texts: Is it unprofessional to include a humorous quote in a PG thesis?

texts: I'm writing my final research report for a Postgraduate Diploma in Astronomy, investigating the structure of the Milky Way Galaxy. I'd love to include the quote "My God! It's full of stars! -- Cmdr Dave Bowman, 2001, A Space Odyssey" somewhere in my paper. Would that be considered inappropriate for paper at this level?


texts: How do I distinguish a Private college from a government one in India?

texts: Government universities in India endorse government and private degree colleges. How do I distinguish between them? By distinction I mean any particular information that will help me determine (from the website) if a college is a private one.


texts: Found two errors in submitted manuscript

texts: I very recently submitted a manuscript to a journal and found that I had mislabeled y axis on three panels of a many panel figure (put relative activity (%), instead of fold change in phosphorylation). Additionally I noticed that instead of PIP2, I put PIP3 in a signaling schematic. do you think the paper will be rejected for such errors if all other things are okay?


texts: Is it fair to offer students a last-minute extension to finish a test?

texts:
A friend of mine who is a CS grad student at a US university took a class in which the students were given an extra hour on a two-hour exam. The trouble is that this offer was made in the last five minutes when the professor realized the students were not able to finish answering all questions.

I am personally against this kind of offerings because it feels like they do more harm than good and reflects poorly on the professor's planning. Students plan their approach to solving a test based on the available time and often speed up in the last hour or 45 minutes to complete as much as possible. This certainly degrades the quality of the answers. Now when there is a sudden offer of extra time, many students will be confused on how to make use of this time. Ultimately, it will come down to the students who have better time management skills rather than those who really know better answers.

So, the question is: Is the practice fair and if not what a student can do about it?


texts: Does the Editor-in-Chief of a journal usually follow the advice and recommendations of the associate editor/senior editor?

texts: After one round of minor revision, my submission has now reached the "Awaiting EIC decision" stage. In the meantime I just wanted to get some insight on what this entails. Do editor-in-chiefs usually follow the recommendations of the associate editor below them who managed the review process?


texts:
I am applying for PhD programs in mathematics and statistics for the next fall semester, and I am really concerned about my GPA for this fall semester.

My GPA is solid before this semester, and I have done quite well in all upper-division undergrad classes and 1 graduate class (complex analysis).

As everything was going really well, I decided to take two graduate classes (algebra and real analysis) this fall semester, along with 4 other classes. It didn't go well for me. I got B's for both of the graduate classes (A for everything else).

There were not really any special circumstances. It was me getting overwhelmed by the sheer number of tasks from classes and grad-school application and a bit of complacency from doing well in the beginning of the semester.

At this point, I don't believe there is much I can do, but I still would like to know how much damage these two B's will do to my application(math programs and statistics programs separately). (Maybe rate it from a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being "no effect" and 10 being "this will ruin my application and deny my entrance to anywhere".)


texts: How to italicize technical which is explained in Introduction but defined in another section later according to APA?

texts:
I am currently writing a paper, which starts with an "Introduction" which is followed by a "Definition" section.
I plan to briefly explain a technical term in "Introduction" and define it more specifically in "Definition". According to APA, I need to italicize technical term if they appear for the first time. So am I correct that in this case, I only need to italicize the technical term in "Introduction" once?


texts: Submitting multiple distinct papers to the same journal

texts: I've recently submitted three papers to the same top journal over a period of two weeks. Can this fact alone impact on the chances of any of the papers being accepted? There is no overlap of content or dependencies among the papers, but I'm a bit worried that it may look odd from the editor's perspective and raise doubts on my work.


texts:
I am a Ph.D. student at a top 15 program in my current social science field, I'll call it field X. My research is interdisciplinary standing at the intersection of field X and another field Y.

I genuinely like graduate school and my work here, but as I've developed as a scholar, it has become apparent that my true passion (and resultant new research questions) lies clearly in field Y. How frowned upon would it be to master out of my program in field X and try to move to field Y? I've heard mastering out of a Ph.D. program is a huge red flag when reapplying, and I think I'd enjoy a future in field X more than any other job save for a future in field Y. I also feel very indebted to my current program and advisors as a result of the resources they've invested in me.

Would it be advisable to give up on a future in field Y and remain in field X? Or would moving not be so terrible since it's due to a genuine (slight) change in research interests rather than not liking graduate school, or clashing with advisors, or anything like that?


texts:
This question is somewhat related to: How portable are NSF grants between institutions and internationally?
I am currently employed as Lecturer by a state university in the USA. I am a recent PhD and am well-qualified for a tenure track position which I will apply for this Fall. Regardless of obtaining that position, I would like to submit a grant proposal to NSF to cover various equipment and personal time (i.e. Summer pay) needed to complete research over the next 2-3 years, and possibly a small team of undergraduates. It should be for a relatively small dollar amount, approx. 30k USD. By the end of this year I expect to have about 10 publications which are in some of the best journals in my field, so I have demonstrated that I am more than effective at doing research in my area.  Will NSF be able to accept a grant proposal from me, in my current position?  What if I join forces with a current tenured professor at my university... could we receive the grant even if I am the principal investigator (in the real sense that I would be driving most of the research)?


texts: Can I cite a paper published after the initial submission of my paper?

texts: I wonder if it is allowed to cite a recent paper, published after the initial submission of my paper. In the revision phase I am adding some missing references and I would also like to refer to some very recent papers. Could this be a problem?


texts: One year into PhD, feeling lost and inadequate, Help!

texts:
I'm 22, and I'm one year into my PhD in History. I immediately started my PhD after finishing my master's, working with the same supervisor. Throughout the years, I've started to become more and more anxious when it came to writing essays and doing research. I hated working on my master's thesis, but I nonetheless grabbed the opportunity to start a PhD, because I convinced myself that it was something that I would be good at, I wanted to overcome my anxiety and challenge myself mentally, and the stipend is very decent. Now I'm one year into my PhD, and I'm constantly anxious and depressed. I feel like I've accomplished nothing, I have huge problems concentrating. My head feels so scrambled right now, that I can barely figure out my research questions and key thesis. Whenever I read articles on my topic, I feel like I can barely manage the information. I feel stupid and totally inadequate. Communicating with my supervisor is horrible, since I go mute from anxiety mid-conversation.

I feel trapped in my PhD. I feel horrible, but I also feel like I can't quit, because I would disappoint so many people and regret it for the rest of my life.

Any advice on coping with these issues, and getting back on track? Any particular advice on how to start delineating a research project? Am I already in a hopeless situation, or can I still 'save' my PhD?

Edit : My university doesn't offer counseling for PhD students, but I have been seeing a shrink for the past year. I don't know if I'm improving or not.


texts: Would I be able to do a PHD without having a bachelor or master degree

texts:
I have finished my high school and did 1 year program of FOUNDATION IN BUSINESS. I left my degree (BBA/Accounts and Finance) after completing 2nd semester. Now I have done an online 3 months course and certified in digital marketing, and also certified in another online course of Fundamental of Digital Marketing from Google. Now, I am going to have another online course of Digital Marketing for 7 weeks from London Int'l Studies and Research Center. Now I have a plan to start my PHD in Digital Marketing.

Would I be able to start my PHD on the basis of these certificates? I will be glad to hear advice from you.


texts: How do I ask / inform my supervisor that I need to take a day off?

texts: I just recently got a job as a research assistant over the holiday (which will later turn into an unpaid independent study project). Before hiring me for the job, my supervisor asked me if I would be taking a week off for vacation during the holidays. I told him no. However, for Christmas, I recieved (as a gift) tickets for an afternoon weekday show of an expensive stage production. The show is about an hour and a half from where I live so I would need to take most of the day off. I will be informing my supervisor via email about this. How do I inform him/phrase the email?


texts: Can I copy text from a scientific paper onto my website without directly referencing?

texts:
I am writing a text for a website where I'm going to sell nootropics.

I was wondering if it is illegal/fraudulent to copy the text directly from the scientific papers onto my website without directly referencing the papers? (I will reference the papers at the end of the text).


texts: Multiple introduction in an academic report

texts: My university requires me to hand in 3 candidature assessment reports over the course of my PhD (the third being essentially the thesis, I'm on my first one). The report has the structure of a thesis (this isn't a requirement, but is how I'm structuring it). My thesis topic is actually fairly broad, so the actual journal papers will be on subtopics within the field. I have a main Introduction which introduces the broad topic, then separate sections that basically reproduce a draft paper and placeholder for a second paper which I will be starting on. Each section will have its own "mini-introduction" to introduce the reader to that subtopic. So my question is, is it normal to have multiple introductions in a report?


texts: Will the graduate school that I've been accepted to reconsider my admissions offer?

texts: I was accepted into a graduate school and intend on going, but I got a B- in a chemistry course and now I'm worried about this. I don't think that the rest of my grades will be this low. My GPA > 3.5 currently. The last time I made a B- was over two years ago. The requirements for matriculation are getting a BS/BA and finishing with good standing.


texts: Coursera and related readings to fill gaps when transitioning careers/studies/backgrounds

texts:
I've always had an interest in applying tech skills to improve the educational landscape. To do this, I've been building a video game to teach foreign languages as a side project. I've had positive feedback, but feel that I need a deeper understanding of the way students think and learn to successfully lead the project. I'm applying to a Master's program in Cognitive Science in Education at Columbia's Teachers College to fill these gaps.
My undergrad studies, however, were in business, computer science, and Chinese, and my career has been in business and software engineering. I don't have any formal training in Cognitive Science, Psychology, or academic research, beyond the second language acquisition and game-based learning theories I've read from academic journals such as the Educational Psychologist. While I do have experience as a volunteer teacher, and while my game is education focused and relies on data-driven learning outcomes, I'm worried that my background just isn't relevant enough for the program.
To strengthen the relevance of my application, I've begun reading related texts from Pinker and Kahneman, and have been taking Coursera coursework in Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience. Q: are these good steps to take towards strengthening my otherwise unrelated / interdisciplinary background? Is Coursera viewed kindly as a way to build elementary knowledge in the field? Any recommendations or advice?


texts: Many short papers or one big paper for a math postdoc?

texts:
As the title says, I am a math postdoc. I am working on a project, which I expect will result in a long paper (60-100+ pages, I am not really sure yet). As I work along the way, I am getting results, which are probably interesting on their own.

I wonder if it would look bad on my resume if I will have many short papers (say, of less then 10-15 pages)? or having many papers at this stage of the career is good for me?

Should I balance between these two approaches? What are you thoughts on this, assuming I am interested in getting a tenure track position at a research university?


texts: When to retract a submission due to excessive length of peer-review process

texts:
Recently it happened to me twice that I had a paper which was under review for more than one year (first round) and that all inquiries about the status of the paper went unanswered by the handling editors. Both cases were reputable mathematics journals but not among the very top journals (not the Annals or similar).

Is it reasonable to withdraw the submitted paper in this situation and to submit it to another journal? What is a reasonable waiting time in such a situation, i.e. very long time under review (more than a year) together with an editor who does not respond at all to inquiries on the status?


texts: Are there people who have done so much work before PhD that they get a PhD automatically?

texts:
This question addresses why it's a bad idea to try to do a lot of independent work before PhD in the hope of finishing PhD quickly.

Nevertheless, are there famous examples of people who have done so much work before PhD that they get a PhD pretty much automatically (say, 1-2 years or less)?


texts: In the upper echelon of universities, is it the case that international students generally perform better than local ones?

texts:
This question is aimed at undergraduate level, since postgraduate students are more mobile. By "upper echelon" I mean those that are, say, in the top 200 universities in the world (presumably there are lower-ranked universities that struggle to attract international students).

The idea is that most admission spots are reserved for local students for political reasons - it would be a political disaster if the country's best universities, especially if they are publicly-funded, teach more international students than local ones. So international students already have a higher bar to clear to be admitted. Therefore the international students perform better because they are better (e.g. they are the top 10% of their country's students, while local students are only the top 30%). Accordingly it should not be surprising, in fact it should be expected, that most of the best students of each cohort are international.

Is this the case in practice?


texts: Good at coursework and learning background material, but attempts at original research go downhill. How to overcome psychological block?

texts:
Okay, so I am a math student currently on leave from a graduate program in math and computer science.

I have always been good at coursework. I ace examinations and manage good grades. I can understand and explain concepts well. All my professors have liked me because of all this.

But somehow it feels like I have tricked my way up. Everything goes wrong as soon as I take up a project or open problem or any kind of research. I start out beautifully- read and understand all necessary background instantly, get up to date on current results, impress my guides with my clear understanding. But things go down fast after that. I lose motivation, I get lost in digressions and extensive learning. Or I just slack and avoid the project altogether and somehow try to make a dignified exit.

This has happened too many times now. Each time I thought it'll all come together the next time. But nothing has changed. I have tomes and tomes of notes and expository material on all topics remotely related to my research areas. But I don't have a single original piece of research. It got so distressing that I was diagnosed with depression, OCD, etc. and subjected to medication and therapy. But somehow the problem seems beyond all that.

I really want to do research and solve problems. Even an insignificant, but original, result might greatly elevate my confidence.
Are there others who have been through this? Is this just a difficult phase some people go through?
Or am I just an idiot who's reaching beyond his level?


texts: How to deal with an adviser that wants to force you to get his desired results?

texts:
I'm doing research for my PhD thesis based on a sensitive subject related to biomedical applications. In fact, our workflow is:

Build a computational model
Verify the developed computational model based on tests and data available in the literature
Apply this developed and verified model to some other data to measure an important parameter for clinicians that people's life will depend on that.
Investigate the result of this application on that data as well as its outcome and relevance for clinicians.

My problem is the fourth stage in this workflow. First of all, nobody ever did the fourth stage in this workflow for that particular application before. There are some similar models in the literature that tried to investigate the outcome of applying a similar model for that application but their conclusions are so general and vague where a definite conclusion cannot be drawn. When we apply that developed and verified model to that data, it produces some results which may look counter-intuitive at the first place, but there are a few papers in the literature that actually confirm similar observations. These results are not bad but kinda look like a negative result. We are confident in our results because this model is validated and verified based on several independent cases.

Unfortunately, in my PhD adviser's eyes, these results are worthless cause they are not desirable and he thinks nobody will buy this results if our conclusion is something counter-intuitive (well counter-intuitive based on his thoughts at least...). Every week in our group meetings, he reminds me that these results are worthless and I should change the developed model in a certain way. He doesn't give me direction regarding what way I should change the model, but it is important that we get intuitive results right now.

I'm feeling like he is forcing me to search for his desired results. It is possible for me to do that but I believe that's cheating or could be called hiding the truth. My question: Should I change my model to get his desirable results? if no, what's the proper way to convince him that this counter-intuitive results maybe is the truth and we should live with them?


texts: Citation of the table or illustration made by myself

texts: I wanted to state the source of the illustration I made by myself. The illustration shows the structure of the company, which is based on my research and a number of other sources. What is the best way to state the source? Can I just write Author or is there a better alternative?


texts: How to export references from Endnote web to Endnote X5?

texts:
I understand that Endnote X7 has the Sync feature to sync with the Endnote Web. But for some reason, the Sync is not working and my program is just getting stuck. So I have decided to use Endnote X5. But I do not know how to download the references from Endnote Web to Endnote X5. Can someone please help?

Thanks!


texts: What's going on: I got nothing when many applicants got rejection from the same grad program

texts:
I am an applicant of a biology graduate program. After exploring some on a website, the gradcafe.com, I found that I got nothing when many applicants got rejection on a specific day from the same graduate program. Several waves of invitation were alread gone now, but I got neither invitation nor rejection.

Do you think it's a good sign? I don't know much about how graduate admission process is going on. Could you a bit explain this situation?

PS. I asked about it by an email to the office of the grad program, but they didn't answer yet even after 5 days. No phone number available...


texts: Can I use an accented Chinese name when publishing a paper in academia?

texts:
My name is in Chinese. When it is transliterated into the Latin alphabet, a lot of other names come out the same. Despite some journals accepting Chinese character names, most journals don't. In this case, instead of a plain Latin alphabet transliteration, I'm considering adding a diacritic (the tone of the character in Chinese). Is this acceptable? Would it cause any issues? I know about ORCID, but a unique name is still valuable.

e.g., instead of Hong I want to use Hóng.


texts: Is Australian Business Deans Council Journal Quality List 2013 a good metric to ascertain journal quality?

texts:
I found some discussion on how one should avoid journals on Beall's list.

Related: How do you judge the quality of a journal?

I wish to know about other such lists to ascertain good journals.

Specifically, is ABDC 2013 a good list to assess journal quality ?

Thanks.


texts: homework testing method for schools - how to encourage good practices and design and reduce reliance on proofreading?

texts:
I've looked a lot for this kind of question and couldn't find anything,
I think the answers here could be helpful to schools.

My collage has problems with it's homework testing system and I'd like to offer them that i'll upgrade or rebuild their testing framework.

My collage testing method is totally black-box.
Students write whatever they want as long as they pass the automated tests done on school server.

The teaching assistant then proofreads all students code commenting on faulty logic and bad practices. The problem is that it's not humanly possible to proofread all this code.

My question is this:

What do you think is the best homework testing method that'll encourage
(or better, force) students to write good code,
and secondly, as a result, will reduce the teaching assistant proofreading task to a minimum.

--We program in C++ on linux.

Thank you for you comments.


texts: Is there an equivalent to journal impact factor for scholarly book publishers?

texts:
I am considering writing a monograph or editing a multi-authored book. Before proceeding further, I would like to pick a suitable publisher to show them the book proposal.

To choose, I would like to see a quantitative estimate of scholarly success. I am thus wondering whether there is an equivalent to journal impact factor for scholarly book publishers?


texts: Is it normal to suddenly become clueless about your PhD topic and how to rediscover one?

texts:
I am working towards a PhD. My supervisor and I decided upon a topic which interested both of us. I did an exhaustive literature survey, and found that there have been heavy work in this area in the past 2-3 years. The problem statement we started with seems to have been primarily solved, and now extensions to those are appearing in top journals and conferences.

Now, he feels that the work remaining in the area is not worth a PhD so we should look for something else, but he still asked me to explore the area. Now, I am clueless what exactly I am supposed to do and where to look for new problems (given that I have already invested my first year into this along with the course work).
Is it normal during the PhD that the problem that you expected to have not been mostly worked upon, already has so much work done ?

Now, in this case, how should one proceed to look for new problems or extensions of the problem that are worth a PhD ?

My area is Computer Science.


texts: Unpleasant situation with a collaborator made worse by supervisor. Am I overreacting?

texts:
I've been involved in a collaboration project for the past year or so (the collaborator was the one who approached me and they were leading the project), the problem is that the progress from the collaborator side was slow and sometimes clumsy (they would often call for meetings without all things figured out, they would be late in meetings, talk on the phone during meetings and would act as if I had to do part of the project for them [this specific part is already published, so I offered to train the collaborator instead of repeating my whole project, but they refused to learn and said that I should be the one running the experiments since it was my expertise]).

Since I'm at the end of my studies and am managing 2 completely different projects at the same time, my supervisor thought it was best to call off this collaboration. I wasn't too keen on doing so because I knew it would look bad on me, but my supervisor thought it was for the best and also said that they would sort things out with the collaborator.

Turns out that my supervisor corresponded to the collaborator saying that I did not want to continue on the project because I was too busy at the moment (which is true, but not a great way of parting ways). Needless to say, I was embarrassed beyond words, and am feeling like this is going to taint my reputation with the other group that I was working with.

How bad is this situation gonna look for me, professionally? Is it normal in academia to pull out contributions from projects that one feels that is most likely going nowhere? Was my judgement in regards to the attitudes of the collaborator unfair?


texts: If I rederived a result (oblivious that it already existed), should I cite the original paper?

texts:
I derived a minor result on my own, as part of a paper that I'm working on. I recently discovered that this result already exists in the literature.

If I cite the original work it will seem like I simply took it from there, but if I don't it might seem that I omitted a due citation. Is it more appropriate to

cite the original work
not cite it
either of the above with a comment (if so how can I phrase an appropriate comment?)


texts: Why do most tenure at an institution less prestigious than the one where they began teaching, and than where they received their Ph.D?

texts:
Can you please elaborate on these two tendencies separately? The quotation assumes that your PhD alma mater differs from the university where you first taught. First, why less prestigious than PhD alma mater? Second, why less prestigious than the university of the first teaching position?

In 2005, thanks largely to his field experiments, List was offered a tenured professor position at the
University of Chicago, perhaps the most storied economics program in the world. This wasn’t supposed to
happen. It is a nearly inexorable law of academia that when a professor lands a tenured job, he does so at
an institution less prestigious than the one where he began teaching, and also less prestigious than where
he received his Ph.D. John List, meanwhile, was like a salmon who swam downstream to spawn, into the
open water. Back in Wisconsin, his family was unimpressed. “They wonder why I’ve failed so miserably,” he
says, “why I’m not still in Orlando, where the weather is really great, instead of Chicago, where the crime is
really high.”

Dubner, Levitt. SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance (2009). P 118.


texts: How to create an editorial board for a new journal

texts: I want to start a new scientific journal. After doing all he initial work about setting up a journal now I want to know how will I be able to create an editorial board?


texts: Does giving an easily-understood talk make the audience think you did something simple?

texts:
Alice and Bob both go to a conference. Alice gives a great talk, and most people understood it. Bob gives a much more technical talk filled with jargon which almost everyone failed to understand. Do people walk out of the talk thinking Alice must've done something simple while Bob did something profound?

I get the feeling that this happens - after all given two concepts, one which I understand and the other which I don't, it's intuitive that the one I understand is the simpler one. It also feels like the easier-understood the talk is, the more questions Alice receives that aren't directly related to her work. For example I once attended a talk where the speaker talked about aggregating samples of the sky, and someone asked "why do you use square samples? Why not circles or triangles?". This kind of non-specialist question is obviously hard to see coming, and the you-either-know-it-or-you-don't result is uncomfortable.

On the other hand, if it's indeed true that giving easily-understood talks makes people think you did something simple, it would imply that giving comprehensible talks is a bad thing. That not only sounds silly, it's also counterproductive.


texts: Is it okay to refuse a laptop from a new university if you already have your own personal laptop?

texts:
I got a postdoc position and I am moving to a new university. I was  contacted by my new professor about choosing a laptop that the department would buy for me.
The option they have is roughly the same model I have currently as my private machine, and the one that I have used to finish my grad school. Thus I find another laptop unnecessary, but also a hassle (having two computers means installing the same stuff twice, etc.).

My question: is it a bad idea to refuse their offer?

Additional information:

I don't have problems using my private computer for work, nor mixing personal and work stuff on the same machine. I did that during my graduate school.
But also I understand the pros of getting a work computer (e.g. if the laptop is broken or stolen it will get taken care of) and that my response of refusing their offer may be strange.


texts: What does the paper submission status "to advisor" mean?

texts:
I have recently transferred a paper in the AAAS (Science journals) submission system after a quick initial desk rejection at the first journal after only 3 days. It now says "to advisor" for already 11 days at the second journal. I don't really know the meaning of this status, does it mean the paper is with the editor for initial decision making, or is it on its way to the editor? If the latter was true, I would be concerned that it somehow got lost (especially as the first initial decision making only took 3 days).
Has someone had similar experiences with AAAS and Science subjournals?


texts: Advice for preparing a virtual presentation

texts:
I have a paper that has been accepted for a conference abroad, but because I have been put on administrative duties on my university I will not be able to make the presentation. So, I have spoken with the PC of the conference and has given me the option to make a presentation and send it to him to present it in the conference allotted time. For me is the first time that I will be doing this, so I would like to know some advice on how to do this presentation:

For example, should I make a simple Powerpoint and just recording my voice? or should I make a presentation like those that are on the MOOCs courses? As silly as it sounds I have no clue on how to prepare a presentation in this format.

Any advice?


texts: If I get an encouraging but noncommittal response from potential advisor, should I continue to pursue other potential advisors at this school?

texts:
Hoping someone can shed some light, or at least quell my worrying. Probably the latter. Anyways I emailed a professor with just an introductory email, I had read some of his work and would like to speak about my opportunities at the university if he had the time. He replied the next morning simply asking me to send my undergraduate transcript. I send it off and a week later I get this:

  I think your background and qualifications are interesting, and I would strongly encourage you to consider applying to our graduate program. If you have the opportunity, I would also suggest that you physically visit us at XXXX before applying to see whether we have what you are hoping for.

  Do let me know if you have questions.

I guess it sounds encouraging, but my fear is it may just be him being kind. My question is if I should continue to pursue other potential advisors at this school? Thanks for any light you can shed on the subject.