texts: Are participations in competitions well recognized for a Ph.D. application?

texts:
During undergrad, students can face several opportunities, ranging from participation in (1) research groups, (2) study/training for competitions, (3) internships, (4) opening start-ups with colleagues (the latter is becoming very common these days), but I wonder, what is really important, for a Ph.D. application/admission...

By competition I mean ones like: INTEL GLOBAL CHALLENGE (VC), ACM ICPC, IMAGINE CUP (examples from the Comp. Sci. field, and Business, but indeed there may be a bunch of these in other fields, that I don't know)

Talking about (1) and (2) aforementioned...

If a student stays a long time during his/her undergrad in a (world-class) research group, he/she is likely to have the opportunity to publish a bunch of papers (some of these might be good, well-referenced, etc; some of these might be not as good), and meet some good researchers around the world, and so on; it really required dedication.

On the other hand, take part into a training class for competitions (that requires dedication, as well) may lead students to gains in terms of working in group, time-boxed activities, etc, as well as to face the opportunity of proposing solutions for real-world problems, and so on.

It is really tough to do both, in order to have great results, since in both cases time and dedication is mandatory. Indeed, there are some "outliers" students that can do both in a very good way, but I'm trying to generalize my assumption, by considering "average" students.

Hence, it's known that good papers have a great influence on the Ph.D. admission (despite of other well-known recommendations, e.g., a great GRE, good recom. letters, and so on), but I'd like to know if (and how) the universities consider students who dedicated their time to join this kind of competitions, obtaining some prizes, as a consequence, etc.


texts:
I'm from Europe, for context.

Very soon I will graduate with a Computer Science Master's degree. I have a paper as a first author at one not-so-famous conference, but I also have a paper at a NeurlIPS conference as the last author.

After my master's degree, I would like to go into the industry for 5-10 years and then later on pursue a PhD. Assume that I won't publish anything in the period of 5-10 years when I will be in the industry.

We thus get to my question: Can I do a PhD after being out of academia for 5-10 years?

I know that I most likely won't be accepted to a prestigious university like Berkley or Harvard, but, that doesn't seem to matter that much, if I will produce quality work.

What do you think?


texts: Can I change my master thesis topic and supervisor under following scenario?

texts: I am currently doing my master thesis which as per university regulations should get completed in 6 months. I need to change it.


texts:
I am applying for Master programs in Educational and Clinical Psychology. And I am in the process of choosing people for writing my recommendation letters. I have a BA in Psychology and I wasn't much involved in research - except when I did my year aboard, I participated in a research project launched by a teaching assistant who was then a PhD student at that college. We conducted the experiments together, collected and analyzed the results. In the end, he supervised my Research Project Thesis.

It was a valuable hands-on research experience for me. And I am thinking about asking him to write my recommendation letter. However, though he is still actively involved in several research, he hasn't yet obtained his PhD degree (he will in the coming year). So I am concerned that a recommendation letter written by him would look nice, but at the same time it would lack some sort of legitimacy and affect my chance of being shortlisted for further interviews.

So my question is - would a recommendation letter written by a non-PhD referee carry less weight and even not taken seriously? Should I ask this person to write the recommendation letter for me?

Thanks for viewing my question and I look forward to your answers. Thank you for your help!


texts: Invited to a meeting where I will receive a postdoc offer, what should I discuss/prepare the meeting?

texts:
I had a postdoc (field is computer science) interview 2 weeks ago. The HR team told me that the panel is willing to offer me the position and want to discuss the details in a 30mins Zoom meeting. This is a first one for me, I really don't know what can I expect during this meeting and what can I bring into the discussion. I am also a coming from outside the UK (need a visa).

Salary negotiation
Benefits
other elements?

Since I need a visa sponsorship

Visa procedure
Will the university cover immigration fees?

Basically, what are the key elements that form the typical start-up package for a postdoc job offer?
PS: I am having the meeting with one HR member and not the PIs.


texts: How is a part time research job (from a University) perceived in the academic job market?

texts:
In a similar vein as the question How is a part-time degree (from a reputed institute) perceived in the academic job market?, what about holding a part time research job (Research Fellow)?

Currently, I work part time as a Research Fellow, part time High School Teacher, part time Programmer and part time Drone engineer - so, as a result, the amount of research output would be considerably lower than I would if full-time - a position I am aiming for in the near future.  I already have a PhD.

In my CV, it will be very clear that this is a part time position, due to the overlap of my professions - this is different to the part-time degree scenario in the linked question, in that I am already in academia. How valuable is a part time research job with respect to joining full time academia (or industry)?


texts: Is it common for an undergraduate to run its thesis (evolutionary genomics) in a supercomputer? In my country, few supercomputers exist, but I'm not sure how it is for bachelors in the US or Europe. I am writing my application to graduate school abroad and I want to know if it is a remarkable point I can use as hook to begin my statement.


texts: Sharing an unpublished paper but retrieved from a third-party site?

texts:
Ten years ago my colleagues in a grad program (at a US university) produced a paper but it was never published (in a formal journal or website).  It was only distributed by email to the department and friends at other universities.  Last week a professor contacts a member of our group requesting for a copy of the paper, but it turns out none of us have the final version (but we're all in agreement to share it).  After some googling we find it's hosted on Scribd.  I sign up for a free account (with ccard info), use the free trial to download the paper, then delete my account before my ccard is charged.  I believe this professor wants the paper only as a survey reference and maybe to use for teaching, but I'm worried about a worst case scenario that my downloaded copy gets uploaded to another repo service.

Questions:

1) It was never published, so are there any copyright issues and our group can share as we please (as the original authors)?

2) Does Scribd have any domain over the particular copy since they provided  access as paid service?  (Would they embed some unique token that could track to me, or does #1 override this?)


texts: Structure of research statement for a tenure-track position

texts: I am going to prepare a research statement for a tenure-track position. How is the structure of a research statement for a tenure-track position? Must the sections be separated into "Past Experiences" and "Future Plans"? Or it is possible to describe future plans within the text of past experiences?


texts: Is it self-plagiarism to reuse my own unpublished material?

texts:
If I reuse unpublished work in new unpublished work, would this be considered self-plagiarism?

Examples would be:

Use the same paragraph of text in more than one cover letter for job applications
Use the same unpublished results in more than one funding application

I would usually say better safe than sorry but it just seems silly to state I previously used this text/material in [unpublished work X], in contexts such as the examples I gave above.


texts: Do academicians routinely face discrimination in industry job searches?

texts:
I spent sometime recently at a HR department of a government company (in the utilities) in the US.

I accidentally found a file that listed out interview outcomes for new applications for a technical position (spreadsheet jockey - nothing fancy)

Out of the 10 applications, 2 of which had a PhD, 1 with a masters degree and the others unknown.

One of the PhD (call him PhD A) had spent considerable time doing research at a university, the other (call him PhD B) just recently finished his PhD program.

The comments to the interview outcomes as follows:

PhD A:

spent considerable time in university, have academic (not real world) experience
might have difficulty adjusting to a new environment
may contribute to discussions
not likely to be followed up

PhD B:

fresh out of university, have less experience than PhD A
research is too narrow

What I found funny is that very few people who actually works at the organization have PhDs (or masters for the junior staff), you'd think they would get a staff rotation just to improve upon their overall knowledge level.

Do you also feel that people with higher degrees are not welcomed with open arm in the job market? Why do you think that is the case? Have you personally faced discrimination or prejudice when applying for a job that is not too academic in nature?


texts: Clearinghouse for Physics Postdoc positions?

texts:
How does one find postdoc positions after completing a physics Ph.D.?
Does there exist a central website listing opportunities?


texts: Alma mater and alumnus status when dropping out

texts:
Do dropouts have an alma mater and are alumni of the institution where they dropped out in the respective phase of their studies (undergraduate, master or doctorate)? Or are these terms only meant for successful graduates?

E.g., is a student dropping out from the master/PhD an alumni of the university where he/she tried the master/PhD or of the university where he/she graduated with the next lower degree (BSc/master)?


texts: How to best present a PhD application when moving from professional work without a masters or honours degree?

texts:
I have been invited by a potential supervisor to apply for a PhD scholarship based on some research I have done in a professional role. I have a history of presenting this kind of work at mixed academic/professional conferences in the past, and have written some of my research up for professional associations and as whitepapers.

In my opinion, the work that I have done may well revolutionise my particular field and there is a lot of interesting applications I have been able to articulate, but I feel having it as part of a doctoral thesis will help push these ideas into the mainstream.

However, I am concerned, as when I did my Bachelors degree I kind of messed around for my first few years and haven't got a strong background in actual academia. While I did clean up my act and finished with a high enough average grade to continue onto an honours year, I chose to work instead.

The application says:

  Minimum admission requirements to the PhD program at [University name redacted]: a relevant Bachelors degree with at least upper second-class honours, or a Masters degree with a significant research component, or equivalent.

Given my ordinary academic history, how can I best demonstrate my ability to perform research and give the best chance to be successful?


texts: Is it good to have slides that may be skipped during a presentation?

texts:
I am preparing a seminar talk. Currently the presentation contains some theorems and some proofs. Probably, I will not have time to explain all the proofs - I will have to skip some of them. My question is, which of the two options is better:

Keep the slides with the proofs visible, and during the presentation, if I see that the time is tight, rush through them saying that "I skip the proof", or -
Keep the slides with the proofs hidden,  and during the presentation, if I see that there is enough time, unhide and go through them?

The advantage of option 1 is that the audience sees that I have a proof and they can read it later if they want; also, if I have time it is easier to present the proof;
the disadvantage is that it might look confusing or unprofessional to rush through slides. Are there other considerations?


texts: I left off a detail in the results section of a manuscript that's been accepted. How do I remedy this?

texts: In a manuscript recently accepted to a journal, I just realized I neglected to mention that I centered a variable for an analysis. How crucial is this detail to correct, and what's the best way to go about doing it?


texts: Can an academic paper be published about vulnerabilities found in a bug bounty?

texts: Most papers I have read have some theoretical aspect to it, involving some sort of a pseudocode. I'm into vulnerability analysis and penetration testing and I actively indulge in bug bounty programs. Can I publish a paper about the vulnerabilities I found in a bug bounty?


texts: Why do some conferences not include the review scores in their notifications?

texts:
In my field, conference submissions are usually scored by all reviewers during the review process (for example using the following scores: 2 = accept, 1 = weak accept, -1 = weak reject, -2 = reject). Many conferences includes the review scores in their notification mails, which makes a lot of sense, as the scores add a relevant piece of information to reviews. They communicate the actual assessment of the paper, even if the review's tone sounds more positive or negative than the reviewer desired (which might have all kinds of reasons, be it culture- or personality-specific). They also make the decision on a paper more comprehensible to its authors.

However, some conferences do not include the review scores in the notification. What are reasons for not including them?


texts: Why are seemingly important topics not covered in textbooks?

texts:
I've asked some professors this questions and none of them have seemed to been able to give an answer that didn't lead to both them and me having more questions.

To put into context:

I have my B.S in Marketing and have been working in the marketing industry for just under 4 years. Of all the jobs I have had and been interviewed for having a strong knowledge of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) was required to even be considered. In order to market using anything digitally based you need to understand SEO and in some cases ASO.

Never in any of my textbooks was SEO talked about even though it's not a new topic and my textbooks were 2011-2013 publications. SEO was mentioned but never talked in a sense of someone would know what it is and how to use it.

For a concept so important in the marketing industry today why don't textbooks talk about it? I've looked through half a dozen of my marketing books and I've even asked to look through the new 2015 editions my professors were given.

Are their limitations to what goes into a textbook? This sounds silly even to me but anyone who works in marketing knows how important SEO is and when a textbook is written by people who have worked in the marketing field it only makes sense that they would want to include to most important industry topics to-date so that a new 2015 textbook doesn't seem outdated.


texts: NSF postdoctoral fellowship eligibility requirements

texts:
I am about to receive my PhD and would like to apply for an NSF postdoctoral fellowship.

I have two questions about the eligibility requirements that I haven't been able to find the answers to online:

I have already secured a postdoctoral position with a mentor. I was offered a postdoctoral position and will start shortly after the fellowship application deadline. The NSF application materials seem designed for people who will start in the Summer or Fall in the year after the application. Does this affect my eligibility for the award?
I will technically receive my PhD after I begin my postdoc. Due to scheduling problems I've had to postpone my official thesis defense until after I begin my postdoc. However, I will have defended by Spring 2015, well before the award would be distributed. Does this affect my eligibility?


texts:
I just started my PhD which is in Artificial Intelligence (AI).

My supervisor is specialized in Electrical Engineering with a hint of AI.

He knows that it is not his area of expertise and suggested if I can find a mentor who is more specialized.

I contacted many professors from other universities but no one accepted to become my mentor.

I'm not sure what to do now, especially because it is not easy to find another university.

Do you have any advice or suggestion for this situation?


texts: What are the criteria for degree revocation?

texts:
I was awarded a degree from a reputable college or university. For what reasons could my degree be revoked after the fact? Should I be worried?
Note to readers: This is a special community wiki 'canonical' question that aggregates advice on a frequently-asked question. See this meta discussion. Please feel free to edit this question to improve it.
Each answer here relates to a different criterion which may (or may not) lead to degree revocation. If you have a new possible criterion, please add an answer. If you have more information about an existing criterion, please edit the existing answer.


texts: Is it appropriate to send the abstract to the editor and ask him if my paper is a good fit with the journal?

texts: There is a very good journal in my area, but I have never submitted any paper there. Now I have a new study, which I think might be a fit with the journal but I'm not sure. So I want to send the abstract to the editor and ask him whether it's a good fit. If he thinks it's not, I wouldn't waste my time submitting it there. But is it appropriate to ask the editor to do this? What would an editor usually do if he/she receives such a request?


texts: What does it means if someone asks the qualification prior to highest degree ?


texts: Why does the Chicago referencing guide use colons for page numbers in some cases, and commas in others?

texts:
I love the Chicago Manual of Style notes-bibliography referencing style, although I treat it as the lesser of many evils. For instance, this has always bugged me: why is it that in footnotes, the page numbers of books are preceded by a comma:

  Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (New York: Penguin, 2006), 99–100.

But the page numbers of journal articles are preceded by a colon?

  Joshua I. Weinstein, “The Market in Plato’s Republic,” Classical Philology 104 (2009): 440.

I like the colon, since it clearly shows that the next section of the reference is from within the reference (i.e. it is a specific page number). But I'm going to get raised eyebrows if I use colons everywhere in my footnotes. So why the discrepancy in the first place?


texts: How to write a "Related Work" section in Computer Science?

texts:
I'm a new PhD student, wrapping up my first year of coursework. To date, I haven't published any papers, and my body of work is essentially null. For this semester's class project in one of my courses, my professor has tasked me with using the IEEE format for papers and using the following sections to describe my project:

Introduction
Related work
Proposed method
Experiment result
Conclusion
References

He seems very enthusiastic about the project that I coded, and the notion seems to be that he wants to send the paper off to a summer conference. I know this must be a growing pain as a young academic, resulting from lack of experience. How do I go about composing a Related Work section? Is it as simple as rummaging through conference papers published in my field on related topics? Do I need to look through the ACM and IEEE databases for articles that relate to my work? I certainly don't have anything that I've previously written/published to put in this section; any advice from someone with more experience would be immensely appreciated!


texts: Ph.D. candidate publishing preprint to link papers

texts: I have two papers that I'm looking to try and publish soon. I would like to cite my own paper as the work is fairly closely linked. Is it worth publishing one as a preprint on something like Arxiv so I can cite? I've read that it is more beneficial to publish preprints if you are already an established researcher whereas these would be my first two publications (if accpeted).


texts:
EDIT: Could the downvoter please let me know if I should improve my question in some way. For clarity, I am asking whether what I describe below is considered plagarism, and if so what the approporiate course of action to take is.
I am very concerned about an assignment I submitted recently for mathematics, and that I may be accused of plagarism. The assignment consisted of several questions. For a part of one of these, I had come across something similar in a slightly different context in a talk I had given a couple of weeks earlier. It was just an aside around the reading I was doing- it was actually a named theorem, but at the time I didn't register it, but I remembered gathered the sketch of the proof and moved on. With this proof, it is of the form that when you frame the problem in the right way, then the proof just flows and it isn't really possible to modify it in any way. It also seems fairly general- I didn't read it in a paper, it must have been on some general expository website on topics relating to my area of math or a blog post.
So I used this framework for my problem (I iterate was in a different context) and wrote up the proof. At the time, I had a small thought as to whether I should try to track down a source similar to whatever it was that I had come across in preparing the talk. For some reason I decided that it was unecessary because it was just a framing of the problem that I started arriving at myself (which is why I recognised the connection to this different context) and secondly because, as noted above, it seemed like something fairly standard that one might come across in a course on the topic.
But now I am panicking for two reasons. Firstly, I feel that I have not given proper credit to the person who came up with this framing of the problem and proof in a different context (even if it is standard now, it was not once in the past). Secondly, as mentioned above it is essentially impossible to modify the proof once you have the framing, so what I wrote looks very similar to other sources. Heck, now that I've been panic checking for this theorem online, I've found pages\lecture notes which actually use almost exactly the same notation as me because the choice of notation is very natural.
I feel sick to my stomach, and feel compelled to write to someone to say that the idea for the proof was from elsewhere, but I do not know if this will help the situation. I was very tired and writing up the assignment in a bit of a rush before the deadline, so I was less vigilant about referencing than I should have been. As an aspiring academic, I am absolutely disgusted with myself that I did not give proper credit to whoever came up with this proof first just because it felt 'standard' and 'assumable', like the kind of toolbox set of techniques one picks up in a course.
Whatever the official outcome will be, I have learnt my lesson simply because of the anxiety and worry I feel now. But I would appreciate some advice on this. I'm finding it hard to judge myself if what I did was wrong or not, because this is mathematics. What distinguished 'copying a proof' from 'having read the proof at some point in the past and acquired the gist as a useful technique that I am now applying'? I am quite confused.


texts: Should I present future research directions in a separate section while writing a scientific paper? Or to mention it in its related section?


texts: After the passing of my supervisor, the department forces me to start again from zero. How to respond?

texts:
I have had a very rocky PhD candidacy. My first supervisor left academia half way through my candidacy; the replacing supervisor passed away a year after that. So two and a half years through a three-years PhD candidacy, the head of the department gives me two choices: Either I have to change my topic of research and start over from zero again and somehow finish "in time" (how this will be done is unclear, and I am supposed to hash it out myself with one of the available supervisors), or I have to withdraw from the program.

Their justification is that no one in the department understands the content of my works. Is this a proper/normal justification? I cannot believe that an academic department belonging to a top university can seriously use “we fail to understand the candidate’s work“ as a justification to force me to do something that I deem to be completely infeasible.

So, assuming I cannot dispute this decision, given the fact that I have to start over from zero again anyway, with a department that readily admits that its people do not have the competence to understand and therefore will throw away wantonly what I have produced after two and a half years of working nine hours every single day without a single day off, should I just leave and apply for another PhD program? Whatever that will be coming out from this attempt to salvage my PhD will probably lead me nowhere except a piece of paper anyway. If I withdraw for this reason, how will this be seen by other universities? How will this be seen by people in the industry?

My goal is a career in academia. I am someone who has severe social anxiety and so I find it impossible to survive in the industry. I have always thought I might have a chance to be accepted in the academic world instead, but I have now realized that someone like me probably belongs nowhere.


texts:
I'm near the end of a 3-year computer science BSc degree at a European university. I currently have the following options:

Drop a class I might not pass early enough, so it doesn't show up on the transcript. Take an extra class next semester, which is going to be stressful. Have a transcript which looks completely normal and fail-free.
Try to pass the class and fail at the final exam. Take an extra class next semester, which is going to be stressful. Have a failed class on my transcript, which wasn't necessary to get the degree but is in a relevant subject area.
Try to pass the class and succeed. Have a relaxed next semester with plenty of time to focus on my thesis. Have a transcript which looks completely normal and fail-free.

I don't know if anyone cares about an extra class on a transcript which was failed. It won't affect the average grade as calculated by the university, because this is just computed over the classes that were used to reach the necessary 180 (ECTS) credit points. I think it will show up on an extra page listing classes I took that weren't used/relevant for awarding the degree (this page also includes some classes that I passed).
Do MSc admissions committees care? If I get a MSc and then apply to a PhD program, do they care? Do employers care (don't know if the last one is on topic, if not just ignore)?


texts: Corona virus's effect on graduate admissions

texts:
A great many top US physics PhD programs have canceled their open houses with no plan to reschedule.

Some are intended on running "virtual open houses." Other's are just sending links to information that could be found on the internet regarding their program.

Is the April 15th requirement of a decision regarding accepting grad school offers of admission still ethical?

Is it reasonable to propose that April 15th be moved a month or two later?

A STEM PhD could take anywhere from 4-7 years in the US. That is a non-trivial amount of your life.


texts: How important are your module choices in 3rd year mathematics undergraduate?

texts:
I am finishing my 2nd year doing a Mathematics BSc (UK) and I am very worried about my options next year. I primarily enjoy analysis and am interested in pure maths generally. However, my university, for various reasons, has an incredibly limited module choice. There are very few options in analysis and none in number theory/geometry. Most modules are statistical/applied. How much will this limit my future options?
I am not concerned about getting into master's programmes because grades are grades. I'm more concerned about what I'll do when I get there. I've looked at course catalogues and everything I'm interested in has prerequisites not offered by my university. Of course, I'm happy to teach myself; but there are only so many hours in the day when also taking a full course load. If I am not able to take the modules I'd like at my master's, surely I'll then also struggle to get a PhD that interests me etc etc.
How much of an impact have your undergraduate module choices affected the direction that your academic career has taken?


texts: What protections exist in the European Union against discrimination in an educational institution?

texts:
For those who aren't familiar with it, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act ("504" for short) is the U.S. law that protects the civil rights of students with disabilities at institutions that receive federal funds for any part of their budget.

Section 504 is important in its own right, and it was also an important step towards passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Section 504 spelled the beginning of the end of "separate but equal" for people with disabilities.

Who is protected under 504? "Any person who (1) has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, (2) has a record of such an impairment or (3) is regarded as having such an impairment. Major life activities include walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, working, caring for oneself, and performing manual tasks."

For a fascinating and inspiring account of the history of 504, see the article Short History of the 504 Sit-In and the video Power of 504.

504 is made up of two parts -- a law ("No otherwise qualified handicapped individual in the United States shall, solely by reason of his handicap, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance") and a set of regulations.

Question: What is the equivalent of Section 504 in institutions of higher learning in the European Union?


texts: What are the consequences of not disclosing all Conflicts of Interests (COI)?

texts:
This is in follow-up with this question:

Clear explanation of Conflict of Interest with examples in journal articles

Apart from what it really is, it keeps me thinking why should authors disclose possible conflict of interests (for the publications that require them)?
To be clear, what could happen if they don't? Is it anything to do with unethical conduct or does stating them support the authors in any way?


texts: Where do all the research paper annotations go?

texts:
Today, an increasing number of research papers are publicly available. At the same time, a community of researchers and students are reading those materials. We are highlighting, commenting, finding connections between topics, contradicting... in general digesting that knowledge.
Where does all that information go? Is there a project/app/platform that allows me to access the comments and annotations of those who read the papers before me? Something like a line comment on github.
Being science a collective endeavour, why is something like that not the standard way of doing research?
Am I missing something?


texts: As a postdoc, how to make sure I get credit for helping undergrad and grad students?

texts:
I am a postdoc, and I understand that my work involves assisting undergrads and grad students with their projects. But sometimes things go beyond mere helping into more like supervising and explaining in detail some important aspects to undertake the work correctly. All I get at the end is a "thank you for your help" (which I really appreciate)! At some stage I even helped another postdoc by doing some calculations and some analysis of her work. I never have my name on any of their resulting publications.

I don't know how to approach this issue, it seems odd if I would say 'listen I won't help until you promise that I will be a co-author'.

Any advice?


texts:
Q:  Should I keep Eagle Scout (the highest rank attainable in the Boy Scouting program of the Boy Scouts of America) on my CV?

I do not think that this is an appropriate item to include on a CV.  However, CV is loosely translated as ''the course of my life'', and this is an achievement that takes a lot of perseverance, and something that is earned and not just given away.  It requires a significant amount of time and volunteer work to complete a project that gives back to your community and also shows leadership and management skills which, you don't normally acquire until a little further in your academic career, but shows the ability to do so.

Is this award detrimental to include? looked down upon by hiring committees? not even given a second glance?

I have not found a satisfactory answer for this.

If it is kept on the CV, where should it go, i.e. award or outreach (both I think would be appropriate items, and it may be that if deficient in one or the other, one could move it around).


texts: What should I say about a publication that I have not contributed to?

texts:
I am currently an undergraduate student and I am applying for research Masters/PhD in the US. I joined a research group before to help out on a part of a project. My coworker in this group, a PhD student has published a paper afterwards, which is irrelevant to the work that I have done, but since I have worked in his group, I was added to the co-author in his paper. I did not ask for it, but anyway, I have the publication, and I have to mention it in my application.

My fear is that, if, during the interview, I was asked about the publication, should I just say that I did not contribute to it? I do not want to lie anyway, but would that hurt my previous research group since they have added irrelevant people to the paper?

I do not think it is uncommon to have a coauthor that is not relevant to a project in my country. However, I am a bit afraid if they would take it seriously in the US.


texts: How should I organize my life towards a PhD in the next year?

texts:
After graduating and working for a few months I decided that I will quit my job to pursue a master's and then a PhD.

Before doing any applications I want to spend time reading the literature in computer graphics (what I want to study) and select a few topics and potential supervisors to then apply to their schools. And I also want to implement some papers in the field both to understand them better and to add them to my portfolio.

I want to spend at least 6 months just doing this process of reading papers and teaching myself as much math as possible.

My main concern is that on paper, what I would have done is stop working after 6 months and then not work for another 6. Ultimately I want to maximize the chances of getting approved for a master's at whichever university I finally go to. And although idealistically I know what I need to do to learn more and be more prepared to do research, I am very scared universities may see this as a sign of laziness.

I have been going to paper readings at the university of Toronto to try to be more exposed to current research. But once I quit my job I will have to move to a cheaper city and won't be able to do that.

Is there anything I can do, short of solving a millennium problem, to maximize my chances of being approved for a grad program?


texts: How do you keep up motivation during individual doctoral research projects in the short run

texts:
I always have been extremely motivated in my research area and project. My team and I have been writing our current paper over the last 6 months, and since we stumbled upon bugs, the process became quite long, also given my supervisor is involved with other major projects, I think I miss on the time and attention that our project should receive.
It seems now that we are in the last lap of writing our paper, and should be done in 2 more weeks. Even though I have followed every development diligently, I suddenly feel tired of this prolonged process. It seems monotonous and unrewarding. Any thoughts on how to take care of oneself and keep being motivated in this scenario?


texts: What formatting guidelines should I follow for my bachelor's thesis if some of them are not specified by the university?

texts:
I am writing my bachelor's thesis at a university of applied sciences in the Netherlands.

The university has provided me with a document outlining some of the guidelines I should follow (like what format of citations is expected and what the document should look like overall), but it does not specify anything about, for example, fonts, font sizes and color schemes.

What is the correct approach to formatting in this case? Do things like fonts and font sizes matter very much or can I make that choice as long as it is reasonable?


texts: Is it acceptable to use Mathematica to derive results in your research?

texts:
While doing research in statistics, sometimes I came across complex integration that I can't or don't want to solve analytically.

Is it okay to use Mathematica to solve the integration and use the result in my research? Do I need to report this in the academic article? My qualm is that perhaps I am supposed to be able to solve these things by hand.

(Some context: I'm from the social sciences and thus unfamiliar with what's permitted regarding these tools.)


texts: Applying for Graduate School after dropping out of my first degree

texts:
A decade ago, I enrolled in a STEM undergraduate degree because the part of the world I am from, engineers and doctors are considered as the only respectable professions and social sciences are a big no no. I did well in my first year but it was the second year when I started despising every single minute of my time in school. It got to the point where it impacted my mental health and I withdrew from the university completely.
A few years later, I restarted my academic journey, but this time in the social sciences, as I always wanted to do. I have received multiple awards and scholarships for academic achievement and am one of the top performing students of my batch.
I am now applying for graduate school in the same field in which I'm currently studying. My only concern is that my previous 'drop-out' will have a negative impact on my application.


texts: producing quality research in non ideal laboratories

texts:
I will soon finish my masters course and have the opportunity to continue on in the same laboratory to do my doctors. This will be on a scholarship which would allow me to concentrate on research and not have to work unless I wanted to, all things that are appealing for obvious reasons.

The main issue is that during my time there as a masters student I have been able to see that the laboratory isn't a good environment for producing good research. Although everyone in the laboratory is nice enough on a social level, there is little collaboration being done on research, no common direction or theme between students research and generally little direction and guidance being given on individual students research. Students also choose research topics which arent in the speciality of the lab and therefore are not scrutinised to a level which doctoral work should be.

This has put me in the position of questioning whether to continue on to the PHD course or not. If I go through with it I am confident I will be able to graduate but I think the quality of my research and generally the amount that I learn will be much less than if I were able to do the same research in a more dedicated setting, this greatly diminishes the meaning of doing the course for me and also produces questions about future employment. On the other hand if I choose to not take the opportunity there's a good chance I will not do it at a later stage due to time and money reasons.

Is there anyone else that has had to do a PHD with little guidance, direction and/or collaboration ? Was graduating worth it in the end ? Did you feel you were far behind other researchers coming from other laboratories ? would you have rather gone to a different laboratory or even started working instead ?

I have thought about proactively finding solutions for this problem, one of them was to find a co-supervisor outside of my University that is more knowledgeable in the area I am researching. I have not seen this before, so is this something that is done ? If so, how do you go about finding a co-supervisor? It seems like I would have less to offer the co-supervisor making it not worth them taking me on.


texts: Why don't I see publications criticising other publications?

texts:
This is about technology research specifically.

Often when reading a publication I'll be thinking to myself: "Yeah, you've got that thing, but what about this and that limitation you brush off and this and that assumption which seems pretty poorly justified?" After starting my PhD I got pretty shocked just how common that seems to be.

The only critiques of other publications I ever see are either in literature review sections of papers suggesting alternative methods, or mentioned in surveys. In either case those tend to be not very in-depth.

Why is this the case? It seems to me like something that would be pretty damaging to research in general, as then you see a lot of papers with built-in assumptions and limitations propagated by their predecessors.


texts: Downloadable list of all accredited U.S. colleges?

texts: I am looking for a downloadable list of all accredited U.S. colleges. I have found many options to search databases, but I am looking for a downloadable list, preferably in spreadsheet format such as xls or csv.


texts: Referee wants me to do more experiments, but I already submitted these results to another journal

texts:
I submitted two articles to two journals as corresponding author in short succession. Now, I got back the referees' comments to the first one and I am facing a problem: A referee requested us to do more experiments and claimed that the article lacked experimental evidence in a certain aspect.

Actually, these experiments were already carried out, but were described in the other article that is more focussed on the experimental part of our studies (while the first one is more of a general proof of concept).

Obviously, I am facing a dilemma now: I don't think I can use the experimental results the referee requested in my first article, because I would be committing self-plagiarism. On the other hand, if I do not use those results, I fear the referee might reject the article.

A colleague suggested to tell the referee exactly that and show him/her the pre-print of the second article. But that does not really change the fact that my article seems to lack experimental evidence?

I could argue that these requested experiments/results are not essential to the submission. But I already kind of evaded the other big remark of the referee, thus almost changing nothing in my article. I feel this might be insulting to the referee, especially because I think he/she did a good job and really took time to review the article.

What do you guys think is the right course of action here? How do I argue my case best so that the referee is pleased? Could I cite the pre-print of my second article in the first article? Or can I reference in the article that there are experiments to be released in another submission that will handle the topic the referee spoke about?


texts: Why do people sign their names with only their initials?

texts: In my field at least, a lot of people sign their papers with just their initials. For example, the author list would be "J. Doe and S. Omeone". Why do people do this? It seems that it's just a recipe for creating homonyms-related problems. I can't see a reason to not include the full first name in the publication.


texts: How to ask for PhD position 1 year after previous application

texts: I applied to a good university in the UK last year for a PhD. I was invited for an interview but withdrew my application because I got another position in a different country where my wife was also accepted. Unfortunately, we could not stay there. I did not start in the program. I got a temporary research assistant position two months after graduating, and I should now plan for the future. I would like to ask if the university in the UK would be still interested in taking me as a student. Would it be possible to use my previous recommendation letters they already have? Is this is a horrible idea? What should i write them?


texts: Second author being lead presenter on paper at a conference?

texts:
I am second author of three on a recently published conceptual paper (i.e., no data). The first author is a a student I co-supervise, although the paper did not stem from his thesis but is a contribution we were invited to submit for a special issue. Authorship order accurately reflects paper contributions.

We had discussed submitting an abstract to present this paper jointly at an international conference. The submission form allows multiple presenters but one must be named as the lead. My thinking was that this should be the student, since he is first author on the paper, but that I would contribute at least 50% of the preparation. However have found out that the conference funding from my department is only available to lead presenters. The student has funding for travel to the conference regardless, as he will also be separately presenting his thesis work. He has also stated it is no issue for him if I submit the abstract as lead presenter (I would of course credit him and provide the accurate citation for the paper with him as first author, or even present jointly as per the original idea if he wants to do this).

BUT - as a relatively new academic I would really appreciate opinions as to:

Whether this is not the right thing to do even if he says he is ok with it - perhaps I should just sit this one out and leave that material to the student to present at a later conference if he chooses; and
Whether it would actually just be weird for the second author to be taking the lead on the conference presentation i.e. being the named lead presenter, particularly if the first author is also present at the conference and/or involved in the presentation?

As a little bit more context, I am interested in attending this conference for the networking and learning opportunities, and don't have anything else to submit as an alternative being so new in the job. I have previously presented all my previous work.


texts: What are the requisites for Scopus to index the proceedings of a conference?

texts:
I have seen that some conferences in the CS field are indexed by Scopus, I mean their conference proceedings. I have found some information about the requisites a journal should have to be indexed in Scopus, but I did not find any information about conference proceedings. Are those requirements the same?

Thanks


texts: How do I modify the title of a paper I submitted to ArXiv?

texts:
I submitted a paper to the ArXiv, but after it has already been announced, I realized that there is a typo in the title (nothing catastrophic, but still..)

Do you have any idea how to slightly modify the title?


texts: Can we upload an unfinished paper of theoretical nature to arXiv where the theory has been established, but illustrations are still to be added?

texts:
I'm writing a short (say around 7-10 page long) article on theoretical machine learning and I've established the main theoretical result with a complete mathematical proof. I've also written the other parts - the abstract, introduction, acknowledgements and bibliography. However, some computer simulations still need to be added.
I'm thinking of uploading the paper onto arXiv  for my ongoing academic application purposes, so that potential employers can study the paper. I know an obvious question for it, being a machine learning paper, will be "Where are some illustrations?" So for the moment, if I remark in my paper along the line of "Illustrations are still to be added" and then finally add it to arXiv, will it be academically/professionally harmful for me?
The reason I want to add this instead of finishing it all the way is that currently I'm working on a different project and I feel it'd take me a while to go back to the abovementioned one, yet I'd like for the new employer to notice the result therein.
Q2: same question where only part of the theory has been established (albeit for a different paper).
Thank you!


texts: changing the contents of an article in the technical revision level

texts: Is it possible to change the contents of an article in the technical revision level? The technical review team of a conference has asked me to apply some minor technical changes to my paper. I wanted to know whether it is also possible to change the content of my paper (for example removing some parts, etc.)


texts: Correcting Preregistered Methods After the Fact

texts: I'm often asked to help conduct statistical analyses after a paper is rejected for statistical errors. In some cases, the study, including the methods and analyses, is preregistered in some way (e.g. the study that I'm currently dealing with was preregistered on clinicaltrials.gov). The problem that I face is that the preregistered statistical analyses are often incorrect and I would consider it a sort of malpractice on my part to perform the wrong analyses - even if that means deviating from the preregistered methods. Are there any guidelines regarding the academic/publishing ethics of deviating from a preregistered protocol?


texts: Should I tell the instructor that I will miss the next class?

texts:
I have an interview scheduled at the same time as a class, and I'm wondering if I should tell the professor in advance that I won't be attending class that day. The class is important to me, but the interview is more important.

My performance in this subject is really bad, and I'm afraid that asking for an excuse will give the professor a worse impression of me.

Also, the class contains only 11 students.


texts:
this is my first post here, I'll copy and paste a recent answer I asked in the physics and resulted a little bit inappropriate. I do physics so I'm mainly looking for answers for people in the field that maybe had some similare experience, but I think any opinion could be useful, so if I'm not out of context, thank you for any answer and here's my question:

I'm just starting what's basically the master in theoretical physics (I'm sorry, I'm not sure about the correspondence between italian and USA/UK studies. To be clearer: it's basically two years courses after the bachelor degree).

I'm having a little problem with the lectures and professors and I'd like to study and prepare exams on my own, but I'm not quite sure about this choice. The problem is that theoretical physics is very mathematical, and I don't ask you not to use it, but I require that you, as a physicist, don't put aside the physics to do just math. That's the point, we're doing all the math, all the calculations but we lack of things like physical interpretation of what we do, or physical reasoning, which, added to the abstractness already present on its own in theoretical physics, makes those lectures look like mathematical lectures. It's like those lectures could be done without any problem by a mathematician(with all respect to mathematicians). I'd like them to teach me how to do physics and give me tips and insights to get it, which is in my opinion the hardest thing. I can work out the mathematical passages on my own or look for them, but for the physics, at least in my case, it's way harder to figure it out and really get the physical meaning of something.

So basically I'm looking for opinion and help, to get me towards one, or the opposite direction: I'm so insecure cause I always followed lessons and this would be the first time i quit lectures and study just on my own, but I just can't stand me "paying" for physics and them "selling" me math.

So can someone help, give opinions and advices? Thanks again.


texts: How to move forward to PhD with failures in masters?

texts:
I had BSc + MSc in IT without thesis from my native country "A".
I had an ambition to do PhD in CS.

So,

First, I got enrolled in MSc in CS program in a university "X" in a country "B". I left the program as it was math-intensive.

Second, I got enrolled in MEng in CSE program in a university "Y" in the same country "B". I left the program because I failed in consecutive semesters.

As it stands, I am weak in math, stats, and some other core CS subjects.

I am now planning to get enrolled in BSc in CS.

Would that be a wise decision?

What other options do I have?


texts: Should I give my affiliation as "independent" to protest my institution's funding policies?

texts:
In the following situation: I made research about some topic X in the field of Computer Engineering, submitted a paper and it got accepted. Actually it was an independent research that I have done while working as an information technology lecturer. Now the institution in which I am working does not want to give any financial support for the publishing of this research, what it would be the most ethical thing to do?

Put into my academic affiliation the place that I am working as a lecturer? that will count as a publication for their Faculty, but I believe that is not fair that they do not even try to pay for any expenses.
Put in my academic affiliation that I am an independent researcher, would that be advisable? maybe some academics would believe that I am not serious enough.

I believe that once I read some cases of people submitting papers as independent researchers, there were not so many, but those cases were real. For me I believe there is not so much difference, because what it matters is what is inside the article.

Any advice?

Thanks


texts:
I am currently at a Top-20 engineering school in the US. I am making great progress on my PhD and have an excellent relationship with my advisor.

My advisor is transferring to a Top-3 engineering school and wants to bring me.

I am concerned because I'm afraid that the Top-3 school will reject me (average undergrad GPA, crappy GRE, etc.). The good things I have are a fellowship with 3 more years of tenure, a high quality paper and a few talks.

Anyways, when advisors move does the new university just automatically accept students? I'm afraid that my bad undergrad GPA and GRE score will keep me from following my advisor and doing the research that I love.


texts: How often do authors send their paper by email upon request?

texts:
Emailing the authors of a paper is a common way to obtain access to the paper when it is behind paywalls.

Is there any research/study/survey that tried to quantify how often authors send their paper by email upon request? I am especially interested in requests that come from non .edu email addresses. I am also interested in how long the authors take to reply.


texts: Is it okay to start a collaboration with a research group of which you're reviewing a paper?

texts:
A scientific journal assigned me a paper to review.
During the review process, I realized I have some interesting ideas about the paper project, so I am thinking about to contact the authors and propose them to start a collaboration together.

What should I do?

Should I contact them and explain my proposals directly? But will this invalidate my journal review?


texts:
I enjoy creating presentations a lot and I think I have an eye for nice design, however, I tend to always have the same layout/colour scheme/etc. and I'd like to try something new for my defence.

So I've been googling great presentations for hours, and there are heaps of innovative designs but usually these are from outside academia. I still want to convey information in a serious manner. But when looking at websites that intend to give advice for scientific presentations I find the examples horrible and very much 1990s (bullet points...)

So, in short, can you think of any scientific presentations with unpretentious but great design, which can be found somewhere online?

Edit Thank you for your comments, which definitely include heaps of helpful advice, however, I was less looking for "basic" presentation guidelines but more for design elements, which do not distract the audience but which make the presentation a bit more interesting. For instance, a colleague of mine recently gave a presentation and before each section she'd have a slide with just the title of the section and a photo (e.g. "Methods" and a picture of her lab equipment). I liked that because it structures the presentation and is a nice break from charts, diagrams and (in the worst case) bullet points. So, yes, I am really more looking for inspiration on fonts, colours, using white space, ...


texts: I have done some independent research that I wish to mention in my SOP. The full account of what I have done till has been published as an e-print on arxiv.org. Can I give a hyperlink to this e-print in my SOP?


texts: Can we earn money through a research publication?

texts: Is there a way we can get money for our research paper? Do research journals pay us for a research paper? Or can we sell the research paper?


texts:
I have had a different set of professors every semester and as batch sizes are pretty big ~80, and with every professor dealing with 3-4 separate batches of equivalent size, for barely 3-4 months at a time, it has been hard to develop one to one relationships with professors. In such a scenario,

How do I decide whom to approach for a recommendation?
How should I go about this to get a good recommendation, in this specific scenario?


texts: Choosing an email address/provider for academic work as you change positons

texts:
I'm an on-again-off-again academic, I guess you could say: I've switched positions in and out of academia several times over the past decade. When I write academic papers (or even Free Software in the context of academic work), I often face a dilemma regarding which email address to put down in my contact information. The dilemma is not always the same; I want to focus my question on two scenarios:

Research work you pursue "on your own time" which is not a (direct) part of what you work on at your current employer; and when you know your employment is likely to end soon.
Research work you pursue between periods of employment, or which your current employer is not interested in being associating with.

So, here are some options of what to use as your email in these scenarios, by no particular order:

An email account on the university you got your PhD from, which is guaranteed not to expire (as much as these things can be guaranteed), and does not indicate whether you are a student, or currently a faculty member etc. Example: your_name@alma_mater_uni.ac.xy
Your general-purpose personal email address at some large, free mail account provider. Example: your_name@gmx.com
A professional-affairs-only custom email address at one of the large, free email account providers. Example: your_name_academic@gmx.com, or your_name_phd@gmx.com or something better-sounding.
A personal email address at a smaller, academia-oriented mail account provider. (I don't know any of these but perhaps they exist - with free or paid accounts.) Example: your_name@academia-mail.com or your_name@academia-mail.edu
A professional-affairs-only email address at a smaller, for-pay mail account provider. Example: your_name@fastmail.com

Which do you believe is the best choice, and why?

A related question: Which email address should a student use in a publication?


texts: Should professors with Chinese names be addressed with surname only or both names?

texts:
How would I address a professor with a Chinese name?
I am unsure whether I should use only the surname, or both forename and surname, because the order of mentioning forename and surname is reversed.
When my professor's name is forename: Yi, surname: Zhang, should I then address him with

  Dear Professor Zhang,

or with

  Dear Professor Zhang Yi,


texts: Unfunded UK PhD offers - both deadlines imminent

texts:
I have two offers for a physics PhD in the UK. Both are great choices and I don't really have a preference. However, neither is funded so far and on both sides, the PIs are actively looking for funding and I think the chances are very good that I will eventually get it.

Both universities have a deadline for acceptance by the end of the February and the funding situation certainly will not be resolved by then. What do I do? I'm essentially ready to commit to whoever has funding. Should I accept both offers now and withdraw from one later (assuming this is allowed) or should I ask for an extension from both?


texts: Should I include test scores and recommender information given elsewhere in my application in my CV for graduate admissions?

texts:
All of the universities I am applying to require a CV as part of the application process.

As I am requesting the recommender from the on-line application and also giving the test scores there, is it necessary to add these in the CV?


texts: How give a recommendation letter to my professor when I need it back?

texts:
Basically, i have asked a professor if he would write a recommendation letter for me and he graciously agreed.

But for some reason, this recommendation letter needs to come back to me because it has to be in my complete application I need to send in the end. (The complete application is a hard copy that needs to be mailed)

Do I mail the professor a hard copy of the recommendation letter with a stamp so he can send it back after he fills it out? If I do this, do i ask him for his address? (its summer now)

Or do I send him an email with the soft copy of the form attached and ask him to print it out and mail it to me?

Thanks!


texts: Good style for frequent references to some paper

texts:
I have an document extending paper [A & B, 2000]

On my work, I make many references to [A & B, 2000], some times several times on the same paragraphs as there is some need to compare both approaches.

How do I make reference to [A & B, 2000] without being redundant?

Example:

 Our work compares with [A & B, 2000] on the following:
  - The approach presented in [A & B, 2000] makes (x) assumption on (...)
  - The (something) differ from those of [A & B, 2000] on (...)
  - Performance of X was not reported by [A & B, 2000]

(there is quite more content in between the references on the actual document, but still look overwhelming)


texts:
What is the recommended way to ephasize proper nouns and jargon in academic writing?

I usually use italics to emphasize specific proper nouns (e.g., the name of a software: Gitolite). Until now, I did not emphasize technical jargon at all. However, my editor suggested to highlight jargon with double quotes (e.g., "the gauge hierarchy problem" or "spaghetti code").

Is this a good practice? If so, should I use the double quotes only for the first appearence of a jargon term?


texts: Why are some sources cited twice in a bibliography, once with DOI and once with arXiv?

texts:
Just to clarify what I mean, I have seen some review articles that have bibliography items like this:

  Bloggs, J., "The Paper that has Been Written", The Journal Title,
  Series Number, page number(s), (year). [DOI] [arXiv link]

where both [DOI] and [arXiv link] are hyperlinks to the paper, the former to its webpage on the journal website (with which it was published), the latter to its arXiv webpage.

Does the author cite twice just in case someone is reading it who might not have access to journals? Or is there another reason?


texts: How should I present data written in another language?

texts:
I'm writing a research paper in English but the topic is about a different country and the data is written in a different language, Arabic.

Should I translate the data into English?
If yes, should I include a version of the excerpt in the original language?
If yes, how?

Apart from using excerpts of data, I sometimes have to mention certain words of the original language such names of participants and research fields, but I do not know whether I should use transliteration, translation or both.

Thank you


texts: How to write the introduction of a stapler PhD thesis?

texts:
It looks like I am going to have three articles (if all goes well) that are dealing with quite different fields (psycho-accoustics, time-series analysis and machine learning). I do not have a single clue on how to start writting the introduction for a thesis that should tie these together ...
Do you have tips for writting introduction when dealing with "sandwitch"/"stapler" thesis ?


texts: In universities, what are the advantages of having a second department affiliation?

texts:
Browsing the internet, I found many professors, researchers and scientists that, in addition to their main affiliation to their main department, have also a second affiliation to another department of their university (for example, Russ Altman at Stanford).

Why so many scientists decide to have a second department affiliation?

What are the main advantages and benefits?


texts: How does "Living review" style of publishing work

texts: There are journals like "Living reviews in Special Relativity' etc.... They claim that they keep the information up to date, but how does this kind of publishing process work?


texts: Graduating a year early and applying to a philosophy PHD: looking for advice!

texts:
I am currently a second year student at an American mid-ranked liberal arts college, majoring in philosophy with hopes to attend a PHD program in philosophy (in the US) and become a philosophy professor.
I have read all the advice I can find on graduating a year early, and there is some conflicting suggestions. I also find my reason for graduating early to perhaps be more compelling than some that I have seen be dissuaded on this site. To spit it out; I am a closeted transgender person, who, if I were to come out, would likely be disowned by my family whom I am currently reliant on for my tuition. I fundamentally cannot tolerate delaying being who I am any longer than I must to graduate undergrad. I need to graduate in 3 years as opposed to 4.
Some facts about my application:

I have a 3.9x gpa, 4.0 in philosophy (which I hope to keep).
I will have taken 16-17 philosophy classes, including nearly every advanced course offered.
I conducted research last summer, am writing a paper this semester that will likely be published, will conduct research this upcoming summer, and will, both semesters next year, be conducting independent research. I will graduate with a sizable amount of research experience in just 3 years.
I have been deeply involved on my campus, and have achieved a lot extracuriccularly. (Don't want to dox myself with specifics, and know that extracurriculars aren't that important, but hope that this would diminish worries about youth/maturity and being someone just interested in my discipline).

My big conflict at the moment is trying to figure out whether or not I should apply to PHD programs next year, or spend a year after graduation in a fellowship or job before going for my PHD. I suppose I may apply to both fellowships/jobs and some PHD programs next year, and then if I don't get accepted to the PHD programs I would do the fellowship and reapply to more in the next cycle, but I am really just looking for advice here.
Thank you all for reading this mess!


texts: Are there grants available to pay for travel to my PhD program?

texts:
I have looked at this thread travel grant but it talks about when the OP already was pursuing his PhD.

I am from India and have a different scenario as I have just received my PhD offer in Computer Science. Does anyone know if there are institutions that can fund my going there (even just the flight)? (As a background I do have good academic records as well as papers published).

I have searched on the internet and have found one from tata. But, I was hoping if others here are aware of any others that do provide support?

Thanks a lot!


texts: Applying to do a PhD after a(n unsuccessful) period of job hopping

texts:
Disclaimer: Since this question is explicitly about applying to do a PhD, I figured that the Academia SE was a better fit than Workplace, but do correct me if I'm wrong.

How can I explicitly, concisely and effectively explain a period of frequent job-hopping in my employment record in my application package (e.g. in the cover letter, statement of interests, research proposal and/or in my CV itself) which was due to a period of "soul-searching", after which I realized that I definitely do want to do research? I assume that my problem is two-fold:

Being away from academia and the core material of the PhD for several years, meaning that my CV has very little in common with what I want to do despite having studied it years before (cf. "Getting into gradschool from a 'real job'")
Having proven myself to be a job hopper


texts: Effective way to deal with misuse of mobile devices in class

texts:
I'm at a North American, state-run university (not an elite institution), which is relatively modern in terms of supporting mobile devices. The school is proud of its WiFi coverage in every classroom, and recently rooms were updated to have electrical outlets at every student's seat (even in auditoriums), so they can charge their devices. All courses are three-hour periods, once a week.

This mobile-friendly environment is great when integrating mobile technologies in class. I make use of Mentimeter (real-time quizzes), the students can follow the PDF lecture notes and/or electronic copies of texts, take notes on their laptops, look things up on the web when I ask questions or when they do exercises, etc.

However, it makes for a challenge during courses when students use these devices in distracting ways. Definitions of "misuse" are situational, but for this question, I'll call it any use that detracts from a healthy learning environment. Concrete examples include watching a video or playing a game on a laptop (distracting neighboring students), texting, using Facebook rather than working an exercise in group, etc.

Laptops and smart phones in class are not new; in the past I was able to deal with their "misuse" relatively easily. A student would be easily embarrassed and close his laptop if you called him out when you saw that 5 students around him were all looking at his screen and smiling. I ask a lot of questions during my classes, so I could "pick on" students who caused disruptions with their mobile device (or otherwise). Drawing attention to one student in large groups is an effective way to change behavior, usually.

However, last semester was more difficult than ever, with 40+ students in an newly-electrified auditorium. During one class interruptions occurred 3 times, and I had to talk to offending students during the break about it. During the mid-term, I had one student argue with me at the start because he wanted to keep charging his iPhone at his desk in front of him. He insisted he wasn't going to use it during the exam to cheat, but I cited the policy barring mobile devices during exams and mentioned he'd have to explain that to a discipline committee - he complied. Needless to say, those "correctional" situations don't win points for the professor in the course evaluation. On the other hand, I learned that if I don't intervene (early in my career I would ignore these behaviors), students who feel distracted will complain during evaluations (most are too shy to say something during the semester).

The solution it seems is to add yet another item in my already lengthy syllabus and explain the desired behavior during the first lecture. My school has no official policy as far as I know regarding mobile device use, apart from an IT security policy that doesn't address the distraction issues. I did some searching on the web and found that some schools have policies, e.g. McGill. What is not clear is how effective the policies are in large classrooms, how easy they are to enforce without becoming the "text police", how well they work in non-elite universities, etc.

I contrast all this with the fact that my students almost never misuse the "phone" part of their devices (they don't ring during lectures and they don't talk on them except at the breaks). None of that is in my course plan and I never have to explain it at the start of the semester or take action.

So, how to reduce misuse of mobile devices in large classes while maintaining a friendly atmosphere?

EDIT see this article for the students' perspective of the problem, and why it's not like other classic forms of distraction. In the conclusion, they state it could be useful for institutions to define policies about proper behavior in the classroom regarding mobile devices.


texts: Are there any known Universities that refuse to pay for paywall access to academic journals?

texts: Are there any known Universities that refuse to pay for paywall access (for moral, intellectual, inability to pay, or other reasons) to academic journal articles?


texts: Evidence that 'spoon-feeding' is bad or otherwise for learning

texts:
What research has investigated the influence of 'spoon-feeding' on learning?

By 'spoon-feeding' I mean providing extensive information about topics that will be assessed.  This related question discusses one example, which is the provision of model solutions to maths problems, after grading.

A quick search reveals a few articles, blogs and forum posts, which offer opinions along such lines as spoon-feeding being less effective because of not engaging students' interest, or because of not encouraging critical thinking, problem-solving, research, and so on.

My question is whether any serious research has investigated the outcomes of spoon-feeding.  For example, some research might have found an optimum amount of information that ought to be provided to students to maximise their performance in assessments as well as their ability to solve problems for themselves.


texts: Greeting in cover letter to journal with 6 editors

texts:
I am in the process of submitting a paper to a journal and they require a cover letter to be attached to the submission. There are multiple guides for this online from several publishers, including Springer. The Springer guide suggests that:

  If known, address the editor who will be assessing your manuscript by their name. Include the date of submission and the journal you are submitting to.

The journal of my choice has six editors with no one being more senior as far as I can tell from the website information. Looking at the publication lists there are two primary candidates, editors A and B, for handling the paper (or that is my guess).

What do I use for a greeting in my cover letter?

(NB: I'm not asking about the content of such a letter and searching for is:question cover letter [publications] gave me nothing of interest, so I don't think it's a duplicate like other recent cover letter questions have been.)


texts:
I've been in a conversation with a professor about hiring me as a potential postdoc. Recently he sent me an e-mail saying he would like to accept me to his team, but he can do this only if he can get a new grant.

As I understand the situation, his current grant is ending soon, and he hasn't been able to get new grants yet, but is still trying.

In general, when do US-based foundations announce their grant awards?  (I'd like to know so that I can ask him again on time whether he got a grant, so I don't lose the position that I kind of have right now.)


texts: Citing paragraphs with multiple references

texts: I am using MLA. I have two paragraphs which are paraphrases of 5 different papers over tillage. Each fact and statement in the two paragraphs are somehow (pretty directly) stated in each of those papers. All my references are used in those two paragraphs as everything else is a proposed solution that hasn't been test and all other information is cogni scienti. Do I just stick the citations at the end of the two paragraphs? I want to use all these references to show consensus in the agricultural science community.


texts: Is it okay to paraphrase other authors' literature reviews?

texts:
I am currently writing a literature review for my bachelor thesis and I am not sure if what I am currently doing is acceptable.

My approach right now is to look at about 10 different literature reviews(from different papers) regarding the same topic and take one or two sentences or sometimes a paragraph from each of the literature reviews and put it in my thesis. Afterward, I synthesize the sentences I've collected from other authors' literature reviews and form a new paragraph. Lastly, I paraphrase the new paragraph and cites the original contributors behind the sentences.

Is this considered plagiarism?


texts: What should be the path to go from an R3 to R2 or R1 school?

texts:
I am currently a TT faculty at a R3 (4 year teaching) school and I would like to go to a more research focussed place. After talking to seniors in my field, I understood that I need strong research program to be able to make the transition from R3 to R2 or R1. However, I feel it's very difficult to continue research while I'm in a R3 school because 1)teaching load is high 2) my school doesn't value research that much so there won't be many opportunities like course buy outs etc 3)I need excellent teaching evaluations because I will be applying for jobs. Is there a better way to plan and execute this transition or is it even possible to go from R3 to R1? Am I chasing something that's not achievable? It would be great to hear success stories and some tips as well.
ps: I have other questions about whether or not to disclose to your current department that you are applying for jobs. But I will ask that in a separate post.


texts: How to manage new ideas coming at late stages of PhD

texts:
I have started writing my thesis, to be finished in the next coming months. Basically, I am revisiting my early papers and reviewing the problems that I solved three years ago to put in my paper. However, I come across some of new ideas, which I did not have before, because my knowledge was very limited. For instance, I recently solved a problem that I had struggled with for a few weeks, back in my first year. Is it wise to make an attempt to publish these ideas, while I am writing my thesis or I should just stop everything and focus on the thesis first?

The reason that I am thinking too much about it, is a particular alumni of our school, who was working on lots of different ideas while writing the thesis and ended up with rescheduling his thesis submission several times.

To be pragmatic, it is very unlikely that I get these results to appear in my thesis, as the whole process of experimenting, writing and peer-review process might take a while.


texts:
After posting a preprint on arXiv, or after an accepted paper appears online, how to bring other's attention to it?

(Unless one is already a big name in one's field, or one proves a long-standing and well-known open problem, I doubt that just waiting for things to happen is going to suffice.)

For sure one can give talks or present posters on relevant conferences. But are there any other methods of bringing it to the attention of others who might be interested and for whom it may be beneficial?

The question is both about "classical" methods and any relevant Internet tools.


texts: How does the salary system for faculty in Canadian universities work?

texts:
How does the salary system for faculty members in Canadian universities work? Is it usually 8- or 9-monthly based same as in the USA Or 12-monthly?

Also, what do they mean by Taxable Benefits in their salary database (e.g., Ontario, Ministry of Finance; Public Sector Salary Disclosure for 2013: Universities)?


texts: Do PhD students (who work as research/teaching assistant and get paid according to the TV-L E13 bracket) in Germany get an official student enrollment from the university 'Immatrikulation'?


texts: What are the benefits for universities/professors to record online courses?

texts:
What are the benefits for the universities and particular professors  in recording online courses (MOOC)? Do they get paid by Coursera and similar sites? Do they pursue publicity?

I know that they are providing a useful service by spreading education to everybody in the world, but what do they get in exchange? Do they hope to get more students enrolled, or more public exposure for the university? Or do they do it out of the kindness of their hearts, or for some other reasons?


texts: What is more valuable: PhD degree or journal publication?

texts:
Suppose, Mr 'X' has a MSc plus 3y PhD degree and only 2 journal publications.
On the other hand, Mr 'Y' has only an MSc degree and 6  journal publications, 3 text books written, and 3 professional books written.
A university/college calls for applications for a position of lecturer or assistant professor, and these two guys apply.
If all other factors are same, who is more likely to get a position?


texts: How to get into a Master's program without funding?

texts:
Before you read the post, I would like to say that it is causing me a great deal of anxiety because there are so many obstacles that are put by the department and no one from the department is willing to hear me out. So I really need to speak to people who are already in the graduate school environment and perhaps dealt with similar issue.

I decided to apply to McGill university last month. I know the drill, I must email researchers about my interest in their lab etc , so I formulated a concise straight to the point email. Only one PI responded with a rejection. So when I contacted the graduate advisor about my issue ( No one is responding), she reached out to one of the researchers and the first thing he said " does the student have funding". She then told me that the department doesn't even consider an application the doesn't have funding. So I went to look for funding opportunities, and imagine my surprise when I found out that THE MAJORITY OF FUNDING opportunities are only open to registered students already in the program. So this is the Catch-22 paradox all over again.

I want to explain to the potential PI that it will be MUCH easier to secure funding once I'm a student because at this moment, no funding opportunities are available for me because I am not a student. The Graduate School Department at the school isnt helping, they keep referring me back to the department and the department is not responsive so I am here stuck unable to submit my application which is doomed to rejection without a chosen PI.


texts:
I am in the first half of my PhD (Pure Mathematics) in the U.S. In this period of time I've read all of my advisors papers (apart from the very early ones), discussed all of them with him, and improved on many of them. My advisor is great: he has been extremely helpful, he'd always read all my stuff, and I definitely learnt a lot from him. I think he also got something from me, since I was able to answer a conjecture and a couple of questions that he had formulated/thought about for quite some time.

However, I feel like I know all the stuff he does at this point: he has very little left to teach me, as I noticed in the last six months.

My current situation is not too bad, I am capable of finding my own projects and most of my publications are based on my own ideas (I have 10 preprints/publications), so I could just go on like this for 2-3 more years. However, I think it would be better for me to go somewhere else, to learn from some other mentor, maybe in some different but related field.

Indirect sentences make me believe that my advisor does not want me to leave, although I never asked him directly. Before I do so, I would like to hear your opinion (I understand that the information I gave is not exhaustive, but nevertheless...).


texts: Is it a good idea to email to potential grad advisor with personal website email domain?

texts:
I was reading about email etiquette. Dos and don'ts when you are sending mailing your professor. One of them was about email domain. I was wondering if it is a good idea to use personal website domain? (eg. email@sadafnoor.com)

(Does the professor really look at those things? Seriously?)


texts:
What is the IEEE preferred style for writing a number array with a specific step size? There seem to be several options:

1: (start, step, stop)

2: (start:step:stop)

3: start ... (step) ... stop

There are a few other (seemingly) equally valid representations, even ignoring the differentiation between inclusive and exclusive brackets. I say start/stop instead of min/max because at least one of my arrays has a negative step size, that is, the numbers are getting smaller.

Is there a prefered style or is it just whatever floats my boat? I can't find any suggestions in the IEEE Style Manual.


texts: Why do people in academia tend to write their email address with "(dot)", "(at)", instead of ".", "@"?

texts: This may be a silly question, but why do people in academia tend to write their emails as jhon(dot)doe(at)gmail(dot)com?


texts: How to avoid "presentism" or "historical transposition" in writing papers?

texts:
I am seeking any published writing style guidance or good/best practices to help with writing a paper so as to avoid introducing the taint of what is called "presentism" also known as "historical transposition".

I found this webpage at RationalWiki which gives a good solid definition of the topic, and points out that there are two very different uses of the word, one for historical matters and one for philosophical matters.

  Please note: I am NOT interested in the philosophical context of this word (i.e. the contrast to eternalism).

In essence the following excerpt seems most relevant to the topic I am asking about...

  presentism is a style of writing or argument that can be fallacious, depending on the circumstances. [...] Another common form of presentism is allowing present-day moral judgments to creep into characterizations of the historical figures. [...] In good scholarly historical work, like in law, it's imperative to separate the consequences of the action from the intent.

Hopefully such guidelines can help writers in two ways:

Show the researcher/writer how to identify subtle forms of presentism and related pitfalls that may creep into the text.
Show how to write a paper in a manner that helps the reader to avoid their own tendencies towards a presentist view.

Presentism is the concept that we as humans have a tendency to interpret history using modern world views by either condemning the past based on modern day societal norms (ex: ridiculing American 19th century indecency laws such as bathing suit requirements) or else discounting the significance of past societal norms that once were but are no longer acceptable (ex: asserting that sending people to debtor's prison can not happen in modern America). There are other more subtle forms however, such as the perception of implicit superiority of the present over the past in general.


texts: How to protect your authorship when trapped in "collaboration"?

texts:
Some time ago, my advisor has put me working together with some group colleagues on a very loosely defined theoretical physics project. From the beginning, I didn't like this too much because I felt that what was planned to be done, I could do by myself, and I felt the other students were added to the project just to help my advisor have less work and distribute responsibility to the other group members. I also felt from the beginning these students were not very friendly and collaborative because they displayed either lack of interest by my project, jealousy, or an attitude of dispute.

During this time, I have had novel and significant ideas by myself, which are already enough to write a paper with; these people have contributed almost no meaningful insights. Essentially, they worked on the same things I worked on after I had shown them (hence just providing a redundancy check), and are now helping in writing the paper and interpreting what I found out (but I could also do that)...

Furthermore, as this is my project, they are not pushing to advance it that much, and it gets worse because I feel that sometimes, out of jealousy maybe, they even push me down and try to diminish my ideas in front of my advisor without actually providing reasonable arguments for why they don't like some of my approaches... etc...

This is the context, now comes my question.

I managed to really advance this project as I gradually became more and more passionate about it. The paper we are preparing already introduces important and novel results (again, that I alone obtained). But just now I had a eureka moment and improved what we were doing (and writing) once more; with this new result, it becomes much more significant... I'm feeling I can make an important contribution to my field: a new method, with theoretical guarantees, proofs... I did this during the last week and haven't shown them yet. My dilemma is: should I disclose the new results already and publish those in the paper we are preparing or should I keep this and prepare a new one?

Again, I've been doing all of this by myself but "officially" we are in this together, which is what is pushing me back to consider these questions. It would make much more sense to add this new result to the present paper and not spread ideas in multiple publications, but even though I am the first author, it feels to me that others are getting credit for work they didn't do/contributed to. These were entirely my ideas. If someday people refer to this result/theorem as the ABCD result, with initials or something, it seems very unfair to me, as I discovered this entirely by myself. I am planning to ask my advisor these questions but I'd like to hear other takes on the problem. If this turns out to be really important, how can I manage to keep the credit for my method if I disclose it in a paper with other collaborators? Will I be able to also put these results in my Ph.D. thesis and safely be recognized as its single author?


texts: I don't have the theoretical background in my PhD topic. I can't justify getting the degree

texts:
I did my PhD in computational materials science. I used molecular dynamics simulations and finite element method to carry out my research investigations. I have published several publications and about to defend my thesis next month.

But, I did not take any classes on finite element analysis or molecular dynamics during my undergraduate or graduate school. Whatever theory I know about them is through self study and through work experience. I understand the concepts of the methods, but I never got a chance to have a formal course with exams and assignments on the subjects. So, my self study hasn't been very meticulous.

Now, I feel like a charlatan, and don't feel like I deserve a PhD degree. I am also feeling lost and like a loser. Saddest thing is that, I passed all my qualifiers, proposals and no one questioned my abilities.

I don't know what can I do to feel confident again. I am 31 years old. I always thought that by the end of PhD I will be a confident researcher.


texts: Reviewers had differing opinion on my manuscript

texts:
I sent a manuscript for publication last month and I just got it back with major revision. There were two reviewers who peer-reviewed the manuscript and both seem to have different opinions regarding the content. One reviewer asked me to omit a graph as he/she deemed it to be useless and didn't add to study narrative while another one commented on improving the graph. They also have different views on sample size of my experiment. One of them though our sample size was small while another one agreed on sample size with only improvement on statistical analysis conducted. They also had divided views on study design. One of them thought our study design was flawed and we should go back to the lab to perform additional tests while another reviewer thought our study design was okay with only missing statistical analysis.

How should I approach this?


texts:
Does everyone who is doing a PhD has to dabble in philosophy to a certain extent?

The question is irrespective of the field of research.


texts:
I am currently a year-three postgraduate student and aimming for a PhD (in my country 4 year for a PhD, and it's allowed to quit and gain master degree).

Although with fine results in the first three semesters (with publications), I got sick and had to live in hospital for almost one year. My health condiction is still not very good and needs more time for treatment. At least for now I find it's dim for my coming PhD thesis defense (not enough time & publications).

Because too much time was wasted in my early PhD studying, I plan to quit PhD (replaced by a master degree) and reapply for another PhD (like in US with similar research direction).

Is this moral? Will this quit bring some bad effect for my new application? And will this hurt my relationship with my current supervisor (I have'nt talk with him of my thoughts)?


texts: Is it acceptable to modify the format when republishing an article?

texts:
My faculty has asked for permission to republish one of my articles. This is planned to appear in an upcoming magazine within the school I am currently working in. I have already asked the permission for republishing. It is an IEEE article, but I have some issues about the new printing.

The person in charge of the magazine has told me that they need the change the format of the article, so that it is according the magazine standard. Anyway they plan to change the following things:

- size of the font
- convert from two columns to one column
- referencing of the tables and graphs in APA style (I think IEEE uses another format)

But the content would be left unchanged. I have seen that in the Certification of Clearance sent to me by IEEE states the following:

  All uses not specifically authorized in this license and specified in
  the options for reusing IEEE Licensed Material available through the
  RightsLink service are prohibited, including (i) altering or modifying
  the Licensed Material in any manner

and in other part it says:

  If the Licensed Material is altered or modified in any manner, it must
  be within the scope of the license granted and it must not alter the
  meaning of the Licensed Material or in any way reflect negatively on
  the IEEE or any writer of the Licensed Material

So according to this, can they change the format?
Thanks


texts: Leaving a Computer Science Ph.D. program for Google after getting a M.S

texts:
This age old question has probably been asked, but there are always new considerations and specifics. Also I want to hear from people who have quit the program themselves, namely the biggest question of all: Do you regret it? and, did you ever feel that it hurt you later in your industry life? (assuming you have a Masters)

I have a fellowship and I'm in a prestigious program, but I am truly suffering in it. My advisor puts us (the students) against each other to compete and there are tons of politics. Of course industry is not without politics, but I have had experiences there and it was not this bad.

My current options are to switch advisors and start the research portion from scratch or accept a nice offer from Google for a very interesting team that is similar to my line of research. In the short term, I know I will enjoy being in a company. I'm a bit older (32) and I've worked in companies before. I also have friends there and I miss working in a collaborative team. I'm afraid however, in the long term certain positions or opportunities will be closed off for me. And of course a general feel of feel failure.


texts: Math reviews, how to interpret "the summary as review" cases?

texts:
I am wondering on how to interpret these types of "reviews". As per the guidelines of Math reviews

Two other treatments of items are possible, but should be used sparingly. You may recommend that the item be listed without a published review, or you may recommend that the author's summary be used as the review. In the second case the quoted summary would be given above your signature, to indicate that the summary is being used on the recommendation of the reviewer. If you decide to recommend one of these options, simply put your request in the Review text box (e.g., "Publish without a review", or "Use the summary as my review"). However, in most cases, the mathematics community would prefer an insightful review to either of these two treatments.

From another post here, I understand the first option to mean "do not bother to read this article". I wonder about the second one; a first interpretation could be "everything is correct with this paper and the abstract is good enough to guide the reader". Alternative, it could mean "I didn't bothered to review it".


texts: how to deal with incorrect speaker introduction at conference

texts:
At some conferences I attend(ed), plenary speakers are introduced with more than just name an title of the talk, but also a short CV by the session convenor.

While I don't know how these intros are compiled (do organisers run background checks on the speakers? do speakers provide the summary themselves?) it may happen that the presented information (roles the speaker holds / held) are incorrect. (Misunderstandings between the convenor and their sources, not full awareness of subtle seeming terminology differences, …)

I expect mostly nobody cares about the details in such a speaker introduction, but there may be cases where the speaker gets a role attributed which they didn't hold and the award of the role was disputed or a politically delicate topic.

I'm wondering, what is the correct way to deal with such an incorrect introduction (assuming the speaker didn't deliberately provide false information)? Should one embarrass the convenor by correcting them before starting the presentation or let it slide and off-stage apologize to those in the audience who will feel offended because the convenor attributed their reputation to the speaker?