texts: Should I attend a likely lesser university, PSU in Pittsburg, Kansas, for a graduate degree in history, or should I attend the University of Minnesota for a second bachelors degree in psychology? All of this is aimed at eventual graduate work in philosophical counseling and the history of philosophy. I want to take the time to read and study ancient philosophy in depth so that I can teach it, but I'm also pretty sure that I have the ability to become a decent philosophical counselor and have spent a good deal of my time thinking and reading about it. The U is a stretch financially at the moment, but I might be able to make it work. Financial aid is sparse for a second bachelors degree. This is why there is even a question. I can definitely afford to live in Pittsburg, KS and I do like it there and I can go to PSU and sort of revive my rusty study habits (3.5 yrs since graduation) in a slightly less rigorous setting, most likely, that I should be able to receive adequate loans for. If I can manage to pay for 13 credits at the U, the rest are free. That is one semester, with tuition around 18k. Living in Minneapolis is very expensive too, all the amenities are higher and rent averages 600 just for a room. I have a lot of history there and friends, but haven't lived there in some time. I also have friends and history in Pittsburg whom I've seen more recently. I have no idea what to do at this point. Looking at both acceptance letters, reading them back to back, over and over, and feeling paralyzed. School starts in January.


texts: What does this Elsevier revision report mean?

texts:
This is a review report of an article on the EVISE revision status website:

Does this mean my article was rejected? Why there isn't any "Complete and send review" for the second reviewer? And why is the status of the article "Decision Pending"?


texts: Professor agreed for a Skype meeting and then didn't follow up. Also hasn't responded to a reminder I sent a week after. Should I move on?

texts: A week ago, I contacted a professor regarding a PhD position in his group. He replied by saying that he is in search for a PhD student and after examining my CV, he said that he would like to organize a meeting over Skype and also asked for my transcripts. Therefore, I suggested him a date and time for the meeting and also sent him the official academic transcripts but he hasn't responded since then. I had also sent him a gentle reminder a week after my last correspondence. Still no reply from his side. How should I interpret this? Should I move on?


texts: Submitting parts of my thesis to a journal, overlapping text fragments: self-plagiarism?

texts: I am currently working on my thesis and I am submitting a part of my thesis as a paper to a journal (same text no rephrasing in some parts). I believe the journal review takes about four to six months before it is published and my thesis will be published on my university website before that. When they check for plagiarism and they find a match between my paper and my thesis, will they reject it?


texts: How long it takes for a Mendeley Data repository review?

texts:
I've just "published" some Datasets as the Mendeley Data repositories. After pressing the "Publish" button I was surprised with message that my dataset(s) are "in the moderation" process that I wasn't well aware of in advance (my bad).

Now, I'm puzzled how long it takes usually for Mendeley Data staff to approve a dataset/repository for being published on-line? Does someone has any experience with the service?

I planned to submit an article (linking to these dataset) today, but it seems I'll have to wait for the dataset moderation first.


texts: What's the correct order of writing for a MSc. and a Dipl.-Ing. degree? (e.g. on a business card)

texts:
I finished my (german) Dipl.-Ing. (FH) degree after 4 1/2 years of studying. After that I started to work and studied parallel via a correspondence course. I'll now shortly (hopefully ;-) ) have the additional title of a MSc. That took me 2 1/2 years but only in part time, so the amount of time I invested was much less, than that for my Diploma.
So in order to reflect the increase in qualification I'd put the degrees like that:

Dipl.-Ing. (FH), MSc. Firstname Lastname

But as the Master is sometimes regarded as a higher form of qualification than the Diploma, it might be correct like this:

MSc., Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Firstname Lastname

What's the correct order?

edit:
Like it was pointed out the MSc. is written after the name. So the choice is between:

Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Firstname Lastname, MSc.
Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Firstname Lastname
Firstname Lastname, MSc.


texts: What are the possible causes of a faculty position not being filled?

texts:
I applied for a tenure-track faculty position at a particular institution in the U.S. I was selected for a skype interview, but was not invited for an on-campus visit. I snooped around on the department seminar web page, but did not find any evidence that this particular department actually ever invited anybody for an on-campus interview.

Today, I received an email from the department stating:

  Thank you for your interest in the faculty position within the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of [redacted]. Our search to fill this position produced many impressive applicants. However, for a number of reasons beyond the department’s control, the position was not filled.

I can think of a couple of reasons that a department may not fill a vacancy, such as:

the finalists all ended up taking a job somewhere else
none of the finalists could agree to the terms offered by the department

So, besides those possibilities listed above, what are the other possible causes of a faculty position going unfilled?


texts:
My name is Andrzej and I am going to graduate in July with MSc in physics from one of major Polish universities. Last holidays I thought a lot about my future and what transferrable skills I have that could get me a job after graduation. I identified that two main are:

ability to code (a few courses related to numerics / C++
programming)
analitical and critical thinking, good numeracy.

Therefore last academic year I was applying to a lot of jobs in two fields: IT and finance to try to squeeze something from my coding and analytical skills respectively. However, sadly, I got turned down from any of the positions I applied for. I managed to get invited to a couple of interviews but that was it.

In the meantime, I applied for PhD position at my university under the supervision of the same PI I am now finishing masters with. The topic is pretty interesting, however I do cannot imagine myself following an entirely academic career path. For example, I don't think I'll ever be able to lead my own research group.

I got this position without any major problems. The PhD position is fully funded. The stipend is 1800 PLN net (around 400 EUR) monthly. However as this is a stipend, they do not pay any kind of pension/insurance contributions. IT/finance jobs usually compensate better: around 3000 PLN (670 EUR) net and many times do provide pension and insurance.

Now the question comes: what to do? I think there are three possibilities:

Go for the PhD and fully concentrate on it, and not write any IT/finance applications during the PhD.
Go for the PhD and apply to IT/finance during the PhD; quit PhD once being hired for a decent position in commercial sector.
Reject the PhD offer, graduate unemployed, apply for government benefits and fully concentrate on the job hunt for IT/finance positions.

Which option would you recommend? If option 2 or 3, do you know any really good pieces of advice how to increase chances of getting industry job with a theoretical physics MSc?

Zero is a good first-order approximation of my job experience: I did two unpaid internships, one during BSc, second during MSc, both in local research institutes.


texts: How are instructors compensated for teaching a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)?

texts:
This question prompted me to wonder what compensation comes with teaching a MOOC. Most of these seem to be sponsored by universities, but my university doesn't offer them and neither did my PhD institution so I have no first-hand experience on the instructor-side.

Obviously, most participants do not pay for them (some do, I guess, but I have no idea how many and they're obviously paying much less than university tuition). So, it seems unlikely that teaching such courses pays for the instructors time.

Thus, I ask: does teaching these come with compensation of any kind? Salary/bonus? Teaching load reduction? Release from service? Teaching assistants for the courses? I'm interested in compensation either from one's university or from the MOOC provider (Coursera, Udacity, edX, etc.).


texts: Applying for jobs without significant publications: is it worth the pain and what to highlight?

texts:
I'm in a conundrum.
Due to a change in areas half way through my PhD, I find myself at the end of my training with no significant publications. I have one in press, and several in prep so in the next year I should have 3-4 if all goes well. I'm also at a top ten university in the US and have good recommendation letters etc...

My issue is: I need to get a job as soon as possible in Europe to be with my partner. I have applied to both post-docs and to some assistant professorships at smaller schools in his city thinking I should at least try but I'm feeling seriously under-competitive where the norm in my field is at least three papers by graduation.

I have an option to stay on as a grad student for a 6th year at my institution, but it would have to be remotely (as I will move to Europe anyway) and frankly, I don't want to have to do that (both because it's too hard to do research and I make little money). But it is a safe option, and might give me time to write up all the backlogged data I've recently acquired.

So my options are to take an extra year with very little pay and apply later, or apply extensively and effortfully to jobs that will probably reject me, though there is a small chance I'll get one.

In your experience, will people even consider PhD's with very few pubs, or impending pubs, and if so, are there things I can do to make my application look more competitive, e.g. should I explain myself (I don't want to make excuses though) or highlight grants and presentations?

Or should I just cut my losses and suffer through living abroad with no money and taking the extra time I would have spent applying to a million places to write up a bunch of papers and then try again next year with more confidence and competence, and maybe landing a better job?

Thanks!

UPDATE: I ended up getting short-listed for five institutions, two of which are top-tier, and ultimately was offered two assistant professorships and one post-doc. I am sure I would have been better off with more pubs but I'm glad I ended up applying for reach jobs as ultimately I think I ended up with some great choices, met a lot of people in the field, and most importantly, got a job!

Thanks for all your input.


texts: I would like to download ~100 scholarly articles from Google Scholar. I have institutional access, so Google Scholar presents the available PDF. Is there a way to automate the downloading of the PDF files?


texts: How to demonstrate programming knowledge in CV, while applying to academia and industry?

texts:
I'm currently looking for both postdoc position(preferred) and industrial position in areas where I'd need to do programming in the language(s) my lab/company will need me to. The academic areas I'm looking for are computer vision, computational neuroscience etc.

However, my Ph.D. was in pure mathematics and I didn't write a single piece of code. In my current postdoc, I'm programming but so far don't have a published result that clearly demonstrates my coding skills (in matlab). Given this situation, how can I best demonstrate my coding skills in my CV? I mean, evryone will write: "Programming languages known: a,b,c" etc. But I'm not sure (I might be wrong) that's enough? So how could I best demonstrate that I know decent matlab and I can build algorithm?

One idea that's occurring to me is to make a paragraph named "programming experience" after "programming languages known", saying for example, "I numerically solved the differential equation (*) in this language: code available upon request".

I'd appreciate your opinion, thank you!


texts: I am a final year Ph.D. student and will graduate soon. My advisor is still asking me to run problems instead of publishing any paper on the work that I have already done over the last few years. I will be joining a postdoc after I graduate and he says I should keep working on these problems on the side after I graduate. Can someone please suggest me how to stay motivated.


texts: Should I go for a PhD in Oxford University?

texts:
I recently got accepted into a PhD program at the University of Oxford after passing many admission stages including a very rigorous interview.

I've always been a good academic, and I do have a promising startup making around 10,000$ a month. I've got funding for my PhD as well; money is not the problem.

However, after thinking a lot of about it, I hate academia, and I do never want to be a researcher. I do not want to be a tenured professor or be in an academic environment in any way, nor I want to make future publications.

If I go for a PhD, I do know what I am signing up for; I searched for months on what a PhD sounds like. The countless hours of work, the supervision, the isolation, thesis work, wanting to quit and everything else.

I am passionate about my PhD topic, and I think I can contribute to that field using projects and research.

If I go there, it would be something I am deeply passionate about.
Furthermore, the main reason why I want to go there is that it is 'Oxford' and I get a permanent legacy being an Oxbridge graduate, as well as holding a doctorate degree for the rest of my life.

My parents are supportive and aren't pushing me to do it. They told me to do what I want.

Academia took over my life since I was 18 and wasting another 4-years for that means I finish 27 where most of my 20s would be wasted for academia.

I've asked my academic advisor, and he told me rejecting an offer from Oxford might be a mistake I would regret for the rest of my life.

Should I go for PhD in Oxford or not? I have a non-ending dilemma.


texts: Is it possible to pursue masters degree in the US university without getting financial back-up from family?

texts:
I am a undergraduate student majoring in Human resource management and planning to get admitted in such a university where I have great opportunity to do research.
Is it possible to pursue masters degree from US university without taking financial help from family?
In what extent does US university provide financial aid for MS students?
What are the benefits of getting TA or RA facility in US university?


texts: How much do editors care about author affiliations and previous publications in the field?

texts:
we've wrote a manuscript applying a computational modelling technique to a field (behavioral ecology) which is not related to our primary research field (neurobiology). This was the result of some year and a half of work, as a parallel project that we took interest upon.

The thing is, the institute to which we're affiliated has nothing to do with the theme of the manuscript, nor we have any published experience in said field.

How much will that matter for acceptance? Do editors take affiliations into consideration? Does it matter which journal (say, Nature cares but PLoS Computational Biology doesn't)?

Thanks.


texts: Should I finish my undergrad in 3 years (this year) or 4 years? Which option is better for graduate school application?

texts:
Chemistry major, I can graduate this year with a high GPA (3.95+, with 2-3 graduate-level class) decent research (2 year+, started in freshmen year) and likely 2 publications (one first author, one second author, both on journals with IF around 6).
My biggest concern is the recommendation letter. Having one less year is really hard for getting recommendation letters. I stayed in my school for my freshmen summer research. Also this year because of covid. So I may end up with only one strong recommendation letter from my research advisor.
Does the fact that I can graduate in 3 years outshine the recommendation letters problem?
Or It's best for me to just take another year for getting more publication and get a summer research position so I'll get a recommendation letter from professors in other university?


texts: How to proceed after being threatened and treated poorly by university faculty after reporting physical assault?

texts:
I’m an Indian PhD student at a mathematics department in the US. A few months back, I was deliberately shoulder-bumped for a few seconds by another PhD student. This student had previously chased me across the department (literally), invaded my personal space, and stared me down. I asked to change offices, which is usually a routine affair, but a faculty member stepped in to prevent this. I had to remain in close proximity with this guy, who continued to act in passive-aggressive ways.
After the shoulder bumping, I threatened to go to campus police. The aforementioned faculty member responded (in writing) saying: “There is no proof of this ever happening; I can’t prevent you from going to the campus police, but be warned that both of you can get expelled."
Also prior to this, I had reported several racist incidents from another student. A few example quotes are:

"you fucking Indians" in a very threatening tone,
"don’t tell me you fucking Indians count so fast,"
"You Indians and Chinese are taking over,"
or in a mocking tone: "It’s funny there is racism in your country."

When I showed this faculty member documentation of these events, he wrote to me in an email: "I don’t agree with your assessment that there is anything racist in these incidents." He also said the racist PhD student was "special" (though there is no written evidence of him saying this).
Another teaching faculty member had been similarly racist. He said things like:

"I was scared to come here initially because I thought I would have to learn Hebrew",
"I'm so white I'll never be mistaken for an Italian who gets mistaken for a terrorist when doing Math on a plane"
Telling a room full of Chinese students and a couple of Indian students: "If you speak in Mandarin or Hindi in the corridors you will get into serious trouble, like some Chinese students and postdocs from the past who were speaking Chinese in the corridors and it created a lot of mistrust and there were very serious complaints" (no-one else has ever heard of these incidents).

Further, he physically intimidated me and barged into my office at one point. The faculty member said he had not done anything inappropriate (again no written evidence of this specifically). In fact he said, it is commendable and shows the teaching faculty member is very socially aware and aware of his white privilege.
I would not have necessarily made an issue out of this again, but I recently received a threatening letter from the dean and this faculty member. This letter warned that I could be "withdrawn" and stated that I wouldn't be allowed to defend a thesis right away. I replied saying "Are you sure you want to take such a tone after the murder of George Floyd?" Their reply was: "If you keep speaking like this, we will 'withdraw' you."
How should I proceed after these incidents? I'm particularly interested in legal recourse (though the incidents mentioned may be hard to prove in a court of law, although I have these written emails from our faculty member).


texts: How to draft a SOP when one wants to work on a sub-domain they have never worked on before? (CS PhD USA)

texts:
Background: CS Undergrad applying to CS PhD Programs (USA)
I have experience in a certain domain X. Within X, there are multiple application based sub-domains.
Example Domain: Deep Learning
Example Sub Domains: Deep Learning for Healthcare, Deep Learning for Computational Imaging
I have good experience in the main domain but no experience in the sub-domain. I am quite interested to work in the sub domain for my graduate studies.
Question: How should one frame the SOP in such a case?
I have asked a similar question before: Is it okay to talk about a topic you want to research in but haven't done anything beforehand in your sop?
But I want to understand how to frame the SOP in this case.


texts:
I'm not familiar with the UK higher education system (I'm from a EU country) and this is confusing me a lot.
A friend of mine holds a master's degree in a completely unrelated field. He is now studying in UK, doing a so-called "conversion program" in computer science. It's a 1-year program which results in a MSc degree.
This is where I'm really confused. As the program is meant for people not having any knowledge of computer science, the subjects he's getting starts from the real basics (programming: if/else, loops,... databases, SQL: SELECT, WHERE, JOIN,...). Where I'm from, we would call this a "postgraduate" program which results in some kind of postgraduate degree. The concept of what is considered a master's degree here is that it follows up on a bachelors degree (a 3-year study), which is situated on level 7 of the European Qualifications Framework.
Currently, I'm taking a 1.5 years course on a bachelor's level in computer science as well (situated level 6), which is way more advanced than the basics he's getting and I will only receive an addendum on the bachelor's degree I currently hold already if I graduate. From what it looks like he's getting the subjects of a first year's bachelor (or undergraduate for the Americans reading this) program, still he'll be receiving an MSc degree at the end of the year.
I wonder how this is possible or how the UK education system works in this regard. This is not out of jealousy for my friend (I just hope he will be able to find a job he likes afterwards), however, he did get a little pissed off when I didn't understand how this can result in a MSc degree. I guess the UK education system is more different from ours than I thought.
Could someone shine some light on this matter? When I look around online, it seems many of these conversion programs are actually MSc programs. What are the different options for master's programmes in the UK (especially the "conversion" master's), how are they scructured and what value do they have for potential employers?


texts: Is there a repository for academic slides?

texts:
Open access repositories like arXiv make it easy to archive one's papers at a stable place where everyone can download them.

However, in my field (computer science), many publications are conference publications, and they are presented by giving a talk (in addition to the paper). The slides of the talk can often be very helpful to understand the paper (or refresh one's memory, when one attended the talk). In addition, keynotes, tutorials, invited talks, course material, etc., are also many other reasons why academic prepare slides about their research.

Academics sometimes put their slides on their professional webpages (or on the websites of conferences, workshops, etc.), but these are not stable and often go offline after some years (e.g., when academics change institutions). That's a pity: one would imagine that there should be a website like arXiv but to deposit slides, keeping information about when the talk was given, which paper the talk refers to, etc.

Does such a website exist?


texts: How can I highlight particular authors of an "in preparation" manuscript on my CV?

texts:
What's the right format for in-prep publication on CV? I saw on another post that the format should be something like

[My name], & Author, ([year]). [Title of article].

But the problem is that the paper has a few dozen co-authors and my name will come somewhere closer to the end of the list. Also, there are two incredibly well-known scholars that are co-authors of the paper, so I prefer to somehow include their names! :-D  But is there any way I can turn the format below into something acceptable?

[first author], ..., [my name], ..., [Prof. 1], ..., [Prof. 2] ..., ([year]). [Title of article].

The paper is in a sense "sequel" to a highly-cited previous paper published in Nature, so there is a chance this will be accepted by Nature too. Is there any way I could mention that? (It's not technically exactly "sequel" to that work, so using that word would be somewhat misleading and wrong.)


texts: How to cite a journal paper which do not have a page number?

texts:
I was very annoyed with the Elsevier's journals. Many of them do not provide the page number of the paper.
For example, see, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165168420302176
You can not find any page number, expcept a weird seris of numbers "Volume 176, November 2020, 107674".
Should I use that "107674" as the page number? (If I do this in bibtex , it would looke like pp. 107674)


texts: Can someone explain European graduate programs in STEM fields?

texts:
I'm a US undergraduate in math and physics and I'm looking to ultimately do a PhD in either physics or math. It seems that a lot of the research I connect with the most is happening in Europe. I also like the focus on research rather than coursework in European PhD programs. However, I've found most of the process confusing for an outsider like me.

I would like to know the ins and outs of how graduate programs work over there. There's different lingo there, for example: Taught vs Research MSc. Which is better ultimately for a PhD program? I also get the feeling that Master's and PhD in Europe mean something totally different than what we mean in the US. Are there funded Master's programs in Europe (in math/physics) as there are in the US? How does funding compare?

For reference, I've been looking at schools in UK, Germany, and Switzerland (although not so much Switzerland due to the high cost of living).

Thanks!

Edit: I'm now aware of how broad my question is. Nevertheless, I found much of your advice helpful in gaining a general knowledge of how to pursue postgraduate degrees abroad and some additional considerations, so thanks! If/when I have more specific questions about this process I will ask them in a different thread.


texts: How to "work on the essay" as a non-native speaker

texts:
We received a report on our paper (it's the 2nd version already). The referee writes:

  The proofs are correct. However, I'm not completely satisfied with the style in which the paper is written and the authors have to work more on the essay.

I'm not sure what we can do with that. We are not native speakers and we did our best to use as good English as we can. I'm not sure how we should respond to that, since currently it seems to be the only thing that prevents us from finishing the referee process. We implemented the minor corrections suggested by this referee and as well the remarks by the language editor.

Any ideas how to proceed in such a case, please?


texts: A Break after college , following your passion , going on the right path - the implications?

texts:
Okay, first off let me provide an overview of my educational past:

Just as any kid I went through school, and then high school with an integrated prep course for getting into a top notch college in my country. I should admit, I loved my subjects (physics, chemistry, math and biology). The faculty was great. I showed a lot of enthusiasm and my then teacher appreciated it.

However, naturally at that age I had many obstacles: Peer pressure, very few friends, was bullied, and I was pretty desperate to get into the social atmosphere (The cool group, the small talk, back stabs, etc.)
So, that bad habit stuck on to me (that is, always trying to pretend, so as to be accepted socially). And it has got in the way of my personal life, and behaviorally I feel like I'm really messed up in some way.

I got into the 7th best college in my country. I did not take a bridge year. I was pretty confident about getting into the Electronics and Communications branch, and I did.

I've learned a lot in college, met people with a varied persona, read a lot, and also learned that there can be a wide set of career paths one can choose nowadays.

I have varied interests that I'm good at: Art painting, murals, sketching, fashion design, stitching, singing, acting, impersonating famous scenes from movies, or people in real life (like some of my very comical faculties).

I'm now completing my 3rd year in college and I don't like it here, or at least in this branch. That said, I do like some subjects like DSP, Embedded system design, mechatronics, but I can't  imagine this as my long term career! Everybody around me is talking about and praising this industry: "Oh, the amazing technology", "This wonderful company", "the internship opportunities", etc. I'm so confused, I'm just slipping into something I don't like! And I have a burning desire to try my hand at something in the arts (acting, theatre, and fashion design).

I've hinted about my displeasure with the current state of things to my parents, but I have never told them anything about my "plan" for life.
My parents are overprotective of me. They feel the need to know everything about me. I am pretty open with them about most thing, but it gets annoying when I see my father's hidden dissatisfaction on my refusal to his suggestion about going to the US for MS or for MBA. In addition, when I spend my free time sketching, stitching, or graphic designing, an hour later, artfully, my parents would ask me something like: "Don't you have assignments to do", "don't you have exams in a week", or "how do your friends get 9 point grades?". Sometimes my college faculties say stuff like, "You're so good at this subject, why are your grades just mediocre?" When it comes to my career, it's up to me. I don't like anybody to push me into their version of "secure", "high-paying", but non-adventurous, and routine career.

All hell breaks loose in the house when there is a discussion about "what do you want to do in life?"

Honestly, my parents are not very happy at the thought of me going into the film industry or fashion, and I don't stand up for myself, afraid that I might fail if I go down that path, afraid in the end they were right and I would be the family example of a "ruined career" girl in the relative's gossips.

But this thing has been on my mind for too long, my grades are going up and down. I decided that I would write my GRE, go to the states, join some college. But in the meantime, experiment with my passion, and then when things are right, drop out. There would be no worry about satisfying the expectations of my parents there. I would be independent!

But then, what is the practicality of all this?

Would it be too late, keeping in mind the current state of cut-throat competition?

Would it affect my career, whatever it may be, if I take a gap year or a 6 month gap to travel alone and discover myself and my passions after college?

I've asked this question to a few people, even the college counselor, but everybody says that's a crazy idea!

What should I do ?


texts: Why might only some papers from a conference be included in Google Scholar?

texts:
Why some publications are not included in Google Scholar, while some are, for the same conference?

For example, there are a number of papers on Black Hat:

https://www.blackhat.com/docs/us-15/materials/us-15-Arnaboldi-Abusing-XSLT-For-Practical-Attacks-wp.pdf

https://www.blackhat.com/docs/us-15/materials/us-15-Evenchick-Breaking-Access-Controls-With-BLEKey-wp.pdf

But when you search for them, like "Abusing XSLT for Practical Attacks" on Google Scholar, there is no result.
They are papers in 2015, it has been one year since then.

Also, they meet the Google Scholar's inclusion requirement:
https://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/inclusion.html

However, for some other papers in the same conference (Black Hat USA 2015), they are included in Google Scholar.

So what are the real standards for publications to be included and searchable in Google Scholar?


texts: Why are tuition fees for PhD students so high in the USA, despite not taking any class?

texts: As a PhD student in a US university, my tuition fees are ~44,000 USD per year, despite the fact that I don't take any class: only 6 classes are required during the PhD program, and I've completed them during the first two years. Why are tuition fees so high? (tuition is paid by fellowship / RA / TA / ...)


texts: When a public university in the US receives an industry grant or gift funding, is that information publicly accessible?

texts: By "that information", I mean the fact that a firm gave some money to a public university, and perhaps also the amount. If it is publicly accessible, how to access it?


texts: Is my paper under review (or similar) for too long and if yes, how should I react?

texts:
I submitted a paper to a journal, and I suspect that it is handled too slowly.

How can I decide whether my suspicion is correct? What handling times should I expect?
Given some expected handling times, when should I act? How much leeway should I give?
How should I act? Whom should I contact and what should I (roughly) write?

Note that I am interested on how I should approach this situation in general, and do not seek specific numbers for my specific situation.
I am therefore looking for general answers that are independent of such factors as the field or individual journal (but mention them if they are relevant factors).

This is a canonical question on this topic as per this meta post. Due to its nature, it is rather broad and not exemplary for a regular question on this site. Please feel free to improve this question.


texts: Is it common to express interest in post-doc positions well before you are qualified to apply?

texts:
I'm very early in my PhD (just past 6 months) and out of interest I was looking at some post-doc positions that I could aim towards.

I found a recently advertised position that is in the exact field I am aiming for. Essentially it sounds like I'd be a perfect match... in three years time.

I was thinking of sending one of the Chief Investigators an email introducing myself and expressing interest in positions like this one for the future (obviously not applying though) so he would be aware of my name and perhaps keep me in mind so I could apply if a similar position came available at a more appropriate time.

Is this a common thing to do? Would it be positively or negatively received?

For reference, the field is mathematical biology.


texts: Can my PhD admission offer be rescinded due to COVID-19?

texts:
I had applied to some PhD programs to start the upcoming fall semester. I have got two offers. Tomorrow, April 15th, is the deadline for accepting or declining admission offers. I accepted one of the offers. Some people wrote on online forums that their offers of admissions have been rescinded due to the coronavirus situation. Now I am afraid that if I decline the other offer, the university whose offer I accepted might rescind it. My question is: how likely is this scenario?

Can a university rescind an offer of admission because of this?

Thank you


texts:
I have a question regarding how schools decide on who to give scholarship to.

Is it appropriate for me to ask my graduate school department on their guidelines in giving out scholarships?

I feel like I have been cheated from scholarship because I have found out people who have worse undergrad GPA/GRE got scholarship and I didn't. I am an architecture major and will study in USC this coming Fall. I submitted my application 2 weeks before the deadline, but they emailed me that I was missing my community college transcript so they couldn't forward to the architecture department they finally forwarded my application early March. I responded to their email the next day with the transcript, but they just took their time to file it. Could that be a factor? If scholarships are given out based on performance then I really think I deserve it after, again, knowing that people who performed worse than me in undergrad received it.


texts:
In my mathematics program, one of the qual prep courses is being taught by a professor who, put bluntly, is not putting in the effort.

He is essentially reading from the book (which I don’t particularly like but it’s a standard text so fine), but his notes were clearly made years ago and he doesn’t seem reviewed them before class. There are often mistakes, inconsistent notation, repetition of material, a dearth of examples (read examples x.xx to x.yy in the book), etc. I know part of this is that he has many administrative duties, but still. He seems to be aware he isn’t doing great.

Is there a way I can bring this up with him politely but firmly?

I am aware the above seems harsh. I am perhaps letting my frustration get in the way of asking a good question.

I certainly don’t want to give a stern lecture, that’s why I’m posting here. I would say I have built up a rapport with this professor, I’d say we like each other and I know he is capable of teaching well. On the other hand, I feel there aren’t questions I could legitimately ask. When the last thirty minutes of one class are the first thirty minutes of the next, what is there even for me to say?

Perhaps related, I am rather confident of my grasp of the material, which I’ve seen before, but many of the students are first years, who are of course also adjusting to graduate school so. I understand that ultimately learning is in the students but this is the first grad course.


texts: As a postgrad student, is it appropriate not to add my supervisor's name on publication?

texts:
Let me summarize the complicated state of affairs, as follows:

This summer, I was cooperating with the other team in a spin off project, we decided to publish the results, so I prepared the paper.

In the authorship, I added my supervisor's name. I think it is usual because I am his student and whatever I've learned came from him.

But when the other team's supervisor saw this, he asked me to drop my supervisor's name from the list. I sense that this is not only because he is not involved in the project, but also because of some political issues.

Dropping my supervisor's name makes me feel bad, like betraying him.


texts: How do I handle a colleague's gender change when citing their paper?

texts:
We are currently working on a conference paper where we plan to cite and discuss a paper as a related work. It was written by a colleague at the same university who has kindly offered to help us understand its specifics.

After publishing said paper, the colleague has changed name and gender. For example, suppose that the paper is authored by George Smith and she now uses the name Mary Smith (not the real names). The problem is that she insists that her new name/gender is used everywhere, including our citation of her publication. She explicitly asked us to change the citation from G. Smith to M. Smith.

I’m not sure how to handle this. The publisher still lists George as name as do most citation data bases. Our scientific handbook demand that external sources should be cited as precisely as possible and should not be modified. (I asked about this specific case and got back a multi-page document that stresses the importance of respecting gender identity [no problem for me] but the document does not address this issue.) On the other hand, the paper has a distinct title, journal name, volume, number, pages and a DOI so everybody should be able to find it, even if one author is listed as M. Smith instead of G. Smith.

Do you have any advice on how to handle this situation? Would a change from G. Smith to M. Smith be acceptable/reasonable?


texts: What constitutes a proper scientific result in Computer Science?

texts: I work at a university at an Information Technology department. My colleagues claim we are 'computer scientists'. However, from what I observed, most of our work is pure implementation and often follows the Engineering Method, not the Scientific Method (see this page). What is the proper scientific output for research on a real life problem (how to transform a data model encoded in XML Schema into a useful web form for entering/editing data) that involves implementation of a new software (a new data model annotation language and a web form generator software)? Is the resulting software a scientific or an engineering result? What would constitute a proper scientific result?


texts: Can I ask to start my postdoc remotely during an interview? (Postdoc is in the UK and I live in another country)

texts:
So, I was invited for an interview in England, which is currently on a national lockdown at least until January. They send the invitation email when the lockdown was a regional thing, but they confirmed the details during the national lockdown.
Personally, it would be great for me if I start working remotely for a month or two, I need to sort a lot of things in my home country. Since the country is on a lockdown, there's a high chance that they might bring it up. But if they don't, can I mention it? (and how can I do it?) I'm scared that it might play against me.


texts: Should I recommend accepting a manuscript with major revisions because of a strong topic, but quite poor content?

texts:
I have been given my first manuscript to review for a journal. The topic is a very good one, it fills a research gap nicely and is an area that I specialise in. However, the execution of the paper is lacking. I am about halfway through making comments on it. The English is consistently poor in both spelling and grammar, and the structure is dire, which makes it hard to follow the main arguments. I am aware that bad English is no reason to reject a paper, but the English in this paper is very confused in many places, sometimes multiple times per paragraph, and it's a trial to follow.

I believe that the paper could only be salvageable after a rewrite, but by a third party. I don't believe the author's English is good enough to bring it up to standard. I do not care about being 'kind' to the author, but the topic is so good that I would love to see it go through, but I am torn between accepting it with majors or recommending rejection.  My PhD supervisor has advised me to recommend rejection, but I am still unsure which way to go. Should I recommend acceptance after major revisions in the hope that it will improve based on my [now extensive] advice or just recommend rejection?


texts: Is "because it's fun" an acceptable justification for choosing a certain research path (when communicating to peers/colleagues)?

texts:
When asking a peer or colleague why they are pursuing a certain research direction, I have often heard the answer "because it's fun". This bothers me: Shouldn't we all be capable of providing an honest narrative explaining why our chosen research direction is of value (other than personal pleasure)?

To clarify my question: I think it's fine if "fun" is an intrinsic motivation for choosing academia as a career, I also think this is necessary to success. I also don't think we should be forced into a certain definition of “useful research”. The concept of usefulness or value can differ per individuals. But shouldn't one have a strong explanation for the value of one's research other than one’s own enjoyment?

Note: I am working on fundamental research in quantum physics.


texts: Requesting an Editor of a Conference to inform about paper status before the stipulated date?

texts: Supposing a conference has a decision date of X (lets say) and a grad school application has a deadline that coincides with that date. Could I request the editor of that conference to inform me about the paper status a few days before the date X so that I may update my CV with paper accepted(if it indeed is) rather than just submitted.


texts:
Can I mention an adjunct professor as my proposed supervisor for graduate studies, or adjunct  professors are not allowed to be supervisor?

Are there anythings that I should be aware of before mentioning his/her name in my application?


texts: ieee membership discount on overlength manuscripts

texts:
Does IEEE journals of signal processing society (like IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security) consider a discount on overlength page charges for IEEE members?
If so, what is the rate of the discount? Should the corresponding author be an IEEE member or is it possible to receive discount by membership of co-authors?
I have heard that if the charges paid by the institution, it would be reduced from 220$ to 110$ per page. Does the membership discount considered for the overlength paid by institution?(I mean a membership discount on 110$, not 220$).
As far as I know, institutions can pay by the grant of the authors who are professors not students, is it possible to reduce the fee to 110$ by ieee rule explained above (if any!) rule by institutional paying (possibly by the grant of professors), then receive a membership discount from ieee by the student as a member?(I am not asking about institutional rules, I am asking that if there is a kind of double discount in ieee rules)
If more than one author be an ieee member, is it possible to receive the added rate of discount?


texts: I am not sure of the difference between "Methods" and "Methodology". In my dissertation, how should I name the chapter that describes the tools and methods I used to obtain my result?


texts: When interviewing a faculty candidate, how should I structure the interview?  What questions should I ask?  How should I make the best use of the limited time available?  Assume this is for a full-time faculty position at a R1 (research-focused) university.


texts: How do I respond to papers that present the authors' views and opinions as scientific fact?

texts:
Occasionally I encounter papers in which the authors expend significant effort to either:

prove an hypothesis that I know to be false;
promote a new theory that I know to be fundamentally flawed.

To do this, the authors use methods such as forging experimental results, misinterpreting results or misinterpreting cited references.

As I know that the views presented in the paper are false, I can deduce from the paper that the author must have favored promoting their views over correctness. However someone less educated in the topic might not be aware of this and base their work on this paper as they consider the presented views to be scientifically proven.

Is there a commonly accepted method to flag such a paper, so that future readers will be aware that the presented views are forged and false?


texts: Want to do mathematical physics - if first choice dept not a good fit, can I switch?

texts:
I am writing on behalf of someone else.  But the question will be easier to pose if I put myself in his shoes and speak in the first person.

I will soon graduate with a Bachelor's in economics and mathematics in a Third World country.  I have, however, also studied physics. I actually have more physics than mathematics courses on my transcript.  I want to study for a PhD in mathematical physics in the U.S. I would need support (e.g. TAship).

Where I live, subject GREs are only offered once a year, and one is not permitted to take two different ones on the same day.  It is too far and expensive for me to travel to another country to take a second subject GRE.

Suppose, for the purpose of this question:

I decide to take the Physics GRE, and apply to physics departments
I get admission to a physics department, and a TAship
I take a combination of both math and physics courses and do well
After several semesters I realize I'd rather that my home department were math, instead of physics

  How hard would it be to apply to switch over to a math department (either in the same university, or a different one), assuming I had taken sufficient math courses, and done very well in them?

Note: The similar question is somewhat helpful, but I would like to see a specific focus on the math/physics interface; also, please consider the specific option of pausing at completion of a masters, with a switch of department at that point.


texts: What does 'substantial similarity' really mean?

texts:
I got puzzled by the definition of 'substantial similarity'.

Here is the case. I dealt with two related problems, say P1 and P2, that could be treated in the same mathematical framework. I aimed to show optimal appoaches to both problems. Perhaps more details:

P1: the optimality criterion was already there (which alone was an open problem for quite a long time, like tens of years) and the tool was also ready. So I'd like to say, if one realized the criterion and the tool, the problem could be solved easily following some standard techniques. But no one recognized this before.  In the paper, we examined three different approaches, with different preprocessing before applying the basic idea.

P2: the optimality criterion was not recognized. We proved it, which turned out to be of the same sense of P1 but still different. The tool for solving this problem was also not ready, and we proved it almost from scratch (like 5 pages long), which we thought as the most significant contribution. Some discussions and applications were also involved in the paper.

We did not find a unifying theme to put the two into a page-limited conference submission, while stating related aspects in a clear manner. We also believed each had enough contributions. So we submitted two papers to the same conference. Following the conference guidelines, we tried to rephrase some common preliminary in the two papers, and cited P1 in P2 for some common issues  and also for clearly stating the contribution of P2 over P1.

However, the two papers were deemed to be 'substantially similar' to each other. I searched for what it really means and what is a criterion, but failed. So can anyone share any experience on this? Maybe I just should not submit two related works to the same conference?

Thanks.


texts: Which is a better choice in case of a graduate admission?

texts:
Which is a better choice in case of a PhD application and why:

Submitting a transcript which indicates an incomplete study (50/120 credits completed) and 5 dropped (not failed) courses.

vs.

Concealing an incomplete study.

??

If #1 is a Hobson's choice, how can I explain that to satisfy the admission committe?


texts: How long before asking for a formal offer letter?

texts:
I have recently been offered a position by a university I had applied to.
After I accepted the offer (through email), they said they would send me a formal offer letter along with other paperwork "ASAP".
It has been over a week and I haven't received anything.

I'm not sure how long these things should take (nor if they normally send the letter via mail or email). Would it sound rude or desperate to send them an email to inquire about why I still haven't received anything from them at this point?

(sounding desperate my hurt my position in subsequent negotiations, but I would very much like to have some closure on my job search as soon as possible)


texts: Being a co-supervisior of a branch proposed for Master thesis from my PhD thesis

texts:
I'm a PhD student, writing my project proposal and also a junior teacher in the same university. An ex-student asked me if i would like to co-supervise him in his master thesis and perhaps suggest him a topic of research. It comes in my mind to include him in a task of my PhD project, which might be further explored by him, being also helpful for me. The other supervisor would be my own supervisor.
Would this be ethical?


texts: Are there any online platforms where I can discuss my research idea with experts?

texts:
I have several research ideas (oncology and virology) that I want to discuss with professors/experts, so I am looking for an online platform where the ideas can be shared and discussed. However, other than Researchgate (which I cannot use, because I don't have an institutional email), I can't seem to find any other suitable places on the web. Biology Stack Exchange didn't work well for me, because the mods there say that my question is mainly based on "opinion."

So......in short,any good forums or platforms where I can discuss my ideas with the experts?


texts: Second time chance for applying in one university

texts: My application for admission to a degree program or research position at  universities in Europe, USA, Australia, and so on has been rejected. If I then write several new papers for journals and conferences and again apply to the same university, is there any chance for me to obtain admission, or will I be automatically rejected?


texts: What grading policy applies to undergraduates taking graduate courses?

texts:
I have heard that the range of grades in graduate school shrinks and grades mostly range from A to B-. What if an undergraduate student takes a graduate course, what is the grading policy for him/her?

The reason why I am asking is because he/she is in a graduate course so his/her grading can't be different from others, but getting B- for an undergraduate student does not mean he/she is failing, so his/her situation is different from graduate students.


texts:
If this is not the correct forum for this question, or too specific, feel free to close it. I'm more or less from MSE, and this seemed like the place to ask.

There's this well-known math text called "Characteristic Classes" by Milnor and Stasheff which is regarded as a staple among topology students in the field. It's a classic, and is highly regarded by everyone. The problem is that it's old, comparatively speaking. I don't seem to be able to hunt down a 'new' copy in the sense that it's updated printing, font, etc, and it's kind of an eyesore to read. For me personally, this writing actually causes headaches, to the point where I can't read for much longer once it starts. The copyright date inside the text is from 1974.

I don't know anything about copyright law at all - I'm just a graduate student. Since I have time this summer, I was thinking about trying to transcribe some sections of the book into LaTeX, with modern diagrams and fonts that might be a little easier on the eyes. It would probably involve some headaches along the way, but I can't be the only one who experiences this, and it might help someone else down the line. Plus this would let me insert in footnotes or endnote comments about things that jumped out at me while reading. It's a rich text so there are lots of places where this happens.

Obviously if I do this for myself and don't share it with anyone, there's no problem. But if I were to do this, it would really be for the benefit of other grad students or mathematicians. If I were to post it on a blog or something, it might violate some kind of copyright law, and obviously I want to avoid that kind of problem. Is this sort of thing legal, and more generally, how do I go about finding out what is or is not legal in the United States?


texts: How are international graduate applicants perceived by universities in the US?

texts:
I've always wondered how professors and admission committees in the US think about international applicants for doctoral programs in the US.

Skills:
Why are international applicants selected over (I believe sufficient) domestic applicants at all? Are there some skill differences?

Funding:
Isn't it more expensive and risky to provide >5 years funding to an international student than a domestic one? When do they think an international applicant trustworthy and appropriate for funding their studies?

I am wondering specifically about PhD programs (not Master etc) because some programs offer funding before even knowing the student in person which seems risky because if I were an advisor it would be difficult to evaluate a student's value for my lab before having actually worked with her.


texts: I think my PhD thesis has been plagiarised. What are the professional steps to take?

texts:
Background: I completed my PhD last Christmas and received it later on in the year.

My supervisor was very absent (there in person, but not at all a mentor)/not very supportive during my PhD. Early on during my PhD I wrote a paper with one of my fields world leading professors, who was a friend of my supervisor.

My supervisor regularly discussed my work with this individual and suggested that I send my unpublished manuscripts and thesis to them to get feed back. The professor also visited the group, where they read my draft thesis. They did give goodfeed back and I considered this professor a friend and a mentor.

During last year it came to my attention that one of this professors PhD students has produced a near identical thesis to my own. They do reference my first paper however, and then go on to tackle the same problem using the same method (devised in my paper). At that time, I spoke to my supervisor, who had a conversation with this professor. They claimed that there was no plagiarism and that it was simply a coincidence. My supervisor was happy with that explanation and said it should be dropped. I'm convinced that it is more than that (even the chapter topics are the same), and I have email proof of sending works to this professor. But have not proof that it made it to their PhD student.

My PhD department was terrible with lots of shady stuff going on (I complained, but it all fell on deaf ears). After landing a job I just decided to put it down as a bad experience and thanked my luckly stars that I was done.

However I've been recently thinking about this, what is to stop this person of turning this situation around and trying to accuse me of plagiarising them? How do I protect myself?
Should I bring this up with somebody else at the university? If so, who? Would emails (forwarded on to an auxiliary gmail account) be sufficient
evidence? At no point did this professor state that their student was working on something similar. (nor did I know of this students existence)
Would they wonder why I hadn't brought this up sooner? (its been several months) It annoyed the hell out of me, but I was just glad be done and focus on my future career. I had complained about other stuff going on in the department, but no one was interested and so I figured that this too would be ignored.

I'm so glad to be away from this toxic group, but am now worried that this could be completely turned around and add insult to injury.

Allow me to clarify: I took the method that I devised in my first paper (with which the professor was a co-author) and applied it to a very specific problem. I then wrote this up and sent it to the professor and asked him to review it (as it is/was quite an important contribution to the field and as stated above, over the years they we happy to review my work. I had also hoped that they would be a co-author again, as it extended our first paper in a significant way). I then completed my thesis (said professor read my draft) and the aim was to apply this method to other specific problems, however it turned out not to be possible (as I proved/discussed with said professor) and so this manuscript (and first paper) became the cornerstone of my PhD. I planned on publishing the second manuscript after my PhD submission was out the way. It turns out that this work is also the basis of his PhD students thesis, which was submitted only a few months after my own. They do however reference my first paper (as, obviously, do I) but then go on to do the work in my second manuscript. When you compare the thesis, it is the same chapter lay out as my own: first paper broken into several topics each forming a chapter. Manuscript broken into several topics each forming a chapter. Each of there chapters covers the same topic (in the same order and very similar chapter structure) as my own. This is what I mean by "near identical".


texts: What's an efficient way to learn simple formulas by heart without understanding?

texts:
Is there an unorthodox way to memorize formulas for daily use, similar to the assimilation of multiplication tables in primary school? I included 'without understanding' because I do understand the formulas: given pen and paper and time to think (about the physics involved and/or dimensions) I can figure out the formula. I need to be able to use them instantly, without thinking.
Context
I am a Physics PhD student who has spent about 7 years in the field. I thought that I would by now automatically have assimilated formulas that I use daily, but this hasn't happened. If anything, the situation progressively worsens because I vaguely remember so many formulas that I mix up similar ones. I can never come up with a formula when asked on the spot, which is embarrassing. On my desk I have stacks of formula sheets that I have to use continuously, including highschool-level formulas, which is very time-consuming.
Examples include

λ = c / f;

k = Ω2 m;

trigonometric identities; hamiltonians; derivatives; etc..
A long time ago when I studied Latin I managed to learn meaningless sequences by heart by repeating them hundreds of times (orally an in writing), rhyming, making songs etc.
This is also the only approach I have found thus far for physics formulas, but the problem is that I need them every time in another form (k = Ω2 m,  Ω = (k/m)1/2,  Ω2 = k/m, m = k/Ω, and so on). This means that I would have to separately learn by heart all different permutations of a formula, which is too much.


texts: How should paragraphs be formatted in a thesis?

texts:
I'm currently writing my thesis/dissertation and was wondering if there is a preferred convention for the way paragraphs are formatted and spaced in a thesis.
Would they all have indents; would they be spaced or not spaced apart from each other.
I'm doing my best to separate topics but sections / subsections but when a subsection has multiple paragraphs worth of information, I want it to look neat.
Any recommendations, advice or ideas are appreciated and welcome.
Cheers


texts: Are doctoral programs in the USA like a Masters leading into a PhD?

texts:
Before I begin, feel I should make it clear that I have no doubt that undertaking a PhD. anywhere, let alone at Harvard, will be a difficult and strenuous task!

To briefly explain, I have graduated with a good Bachelors of Arts from the UK, and am set to do my Research Masters in Holland. However, I have been in contact and have contacted the literature faculties in Harvard, who have been very encouraging but, to be honest, the system itself seems very different.

To clarify, I'll copy in some of what my (possible) supervisor has emailed me:

Our students enter the program, take two or three years of courses, and only then settle on a dissertation topic and choose a committee of three faculty -- one primary advisor and two other readers.

This sounds at once much more fluid and liberal a way of doing things, but, considering the ridiculous costs of studying in the USA, I'm not sure how leisurely that would be in reality! Should I assume that Doctoral programs in the USA are like a Masters leading into a PhD? Is there a scholarship available for both of these?
Has anyone reading this had any experience on the matter, and can relate more clearly how this process works, and whether exceptions are every possible?


texts: Spousal hire for girlfriend in US university

texts:
I got a tenure-track academic offer in the US.

I am wondering how common/likely is to get the University to do a non-academic spousal hire for my girlfriend.
All the documents provided by my institution use the word "partner" which seems to suggest that it is not needed to be married.

Do you think that being married is typically an (unwritten) necessary condition?

Do you think that asking for help for finding a job for my girlfriend is only possible during negotiation, or I could potentially ask for this later?

Do you think it is possible, instead of getting a position for my girlfriend, getting a graduate school position for her?

If in the future we will break up, could this potentially affect my reputation with the department?

I guess most of these questions have an "official" answer and a "in reality" answer, but I would like to hear other people's opinion.


texts: Consequences of taking classes for someone else

texts:
I am a low-income undergraduate student at a US university. Last semester, another student approached me and offered to pay me a lot of money if I take one class for him. Because of my family’s financial situation, I accepted this deal. Long story short, I have completely taken one class for him in Fall and one this Spring. I have also helped him with his exams and homework in his other classes.
It makes me incredibly angry that you can just buy your degree like this when you are rich. I would like to know what would happen to me if I report it to the university after I graduate or if there is anything else I can do about this situation without ruining my future.


texts: Overlearn in undergraduate College - good or bad idea?

texts:
I have no choice but to take courses I've already learnt in college.
So is it a good idea to overlearn?
Would overlearning help me to get into graduate school?

There are many ways for me to spend time:
research, gpa, heavy courseload, or studying stuff beyond my current syllabus

According to my course plan, I'm supposed to start learning Multivariable Calculus in about 5 months and Linear algebra in about 11 months from now. In between now and then is just some humanities courses and a bunch of Physics/Math courses I've already learnt.

How important is a high GPA and to get into a good graduate school?
And why is it important to get into a good graduate school?
note: I'm a Physics major...


texts: Applying to jobs in multiple disciplines. How much does name of degree matter?

texts:
I'm currently a second year masters student applying to PhD programs but are at a bit of a crossroads and wanted to crowd source some opinions.

My research interests are in a subject studied significantly by people in two different disciplines (I'll call them disciplines A & B). A is strictly in the physical sciences, while B is very diverse and encompasses research ranging from the physical to social sciences. There can be some differences in how each discipline approaches the subject, but frequently there isn't, and people from both generally publish in the same journals, present at the same conferences, etc.

My bachelors is in A and I am in a B department for my masters. I really enjoy my current department, which is small but generally well regarded, and advisor, who is prominent in his field and extremely supportive. Additionally while in a different school, my current University has a world class A department with great people working in my field of interest. There is a some cross department collaboration, and I've taken classes with/have good relationships with the relevant professors in A. As a result it's very tempting to stay with my advisor in geography for the PhD, while also collaborating with people in A on research, publications, etc.

However, when I think of future job prospects in academia I start to get worried. In my country (the US) the job market for A is alot better than B (there simply aren't as many B departments, and A departments are frequently better funded ). And ideally I would like to be able to apply to jobs in both types of departments.

My logical mind wants to say that if your research record is good, you publish in the same journals, present at the same conferences, have people in both disciplines on my committee, etc. that it shouldn't matter the actual name of the PhD.

But I know hiring is not always logical. And I worry I will always have an uphill battle with hiring committees, compared to people with PhDs in A. And going through faculty pages for many departments I see relatively few people with PhDs in B in A departments. And most of those are people from Europe where research on the subject is far more concentrated in B departments. Conversely I see more people with PhDs in A hired by B departments.

So I'm left wondering if I would be better served leaving for a PhD program in an A department (again since my undergraduate is in A, and I have grad coursework/research experience in A , I am qualified). But that of course would mean leaving a great situation with a wonderful mentor, excellent resources, and numerous collaborators.

I know there are potentially other routes to help when applying across disciplines (try to do a postdoc in A).

But wanted to see what other peoples experiences applying to jobs across disciplines were, and if people with more exposure to the hiring end of things had any insight.

Thank you!


texts: Is it beneficial to publish papers from previous labs during grad school?

texts: I am a second year PhD student currently working on three papers mostly unrelated to my field from previous research appointments (2 from rotations and one from undergrad). I'm finding myself very unmotivated to complete these simply because I'm not sure how beneficial it will be for me to publish them. I don't currently have any publications, but I'm currently working on a project in my lab that will hopefully get me a pub within the next year. Should I drop responsibility/authorship from these publications entirely, decrease my responsibility on the paper (currently first or co-author on all of them), or stick it out and publish them? I'm most worried about if it will hurt my reputation later to have a bunch of pubs during my grad school years that are completely unrelated to my thesis.


texts: Should we tell students they need to improve their English?

texts:
As an instructor or teaching assistant for a graduate class at a top institution, is it okay to tell students (e.g. in homework feedback) that they need to improve their English? What's the best way to do so without offending or discouraging them?

I'm specifically asking for math/science-based classes where, for instance, students are required to write proofs which involve a lot of "informal"  (i.e. using English rather than mathematical notation) proofs and reasoning.

This happens mostly with international students.


texts: How to find the right balance between details and the main ideas?

texts:
I am a young PhD-student who just started doing real research in mathematics. Of course, this starts with learning stuff which has already been investigated. If I try to understand for instance a paper someone wrote, I find it difficult to focus on the main aspects and ideas of the paper. Most of the time, I get stuck on some elementary details, which I had not thought about until I read them in that paper. Convincing myself that this detail is true is a matter of a few minutes, but the time adds up, so I end up losing quite a lot of time trying to understand details not directly related to the problem, but occurring in the solution of the problem. But if I skip this detail, I have the feeling that I did not really understand what the author is doing in the paper. On the other side, if I think about every detail, I lose my focus on the main aspects of the topic, which is not great either.

Conversely, if I work on my own problems, I tend to get stuck on minor details as well. Unfortunately, my advisor is not a good help in this regard.

My question is therefore the following, which can be also asked in other areas of research, not only in mathematics:

How does one find the right balance between focussing on the main aspects of a topic and the details, both in actual research and in trying to understand works of other people?


texts:
Do professors recommend their students on LinkedIn? If they do recommend, isn't it considered a violation of FERPA?

Professors are typically required to recommend without fear or inhibition towards the student who he is recommending. A professor will be much more candid with his recommendation when his student waives his rights to see his recommendation. In that case recommendations on LinkedIn are probably a waste for academia right?

What would your opinion be on taking a letter of recommendation from a professor who has already recommended you on LinkedIn then?

  Third, the letter of recommendation, when completed, becomes an
  education record.  Both the paper copy and e-file are education
  records… and it makes no difference where they are filed.  Since FERPA
  grants the student the right to inspect any education record, there is
  also an unwritten obligation to notify the writer of this right.

  In this latter instance, the placement office, or student, should
  initially provide each writer with the knowledge that the student has
  either waived, or not waived, his right to subsequently review the
  letter.  This knowledge may influence what the writer includes in the
  letter.  It may persuade the person to whom a reference request was
  made to politely decline to write the letter.  Unfortunately, letter
  writers do not have the same rights that students have in the
  letter-writing process.

Therefore , students generally waive their rights to view their letters of recommendation. Now, when you post a recommendation on LinkedIn, it will be displayed(provided the student accepts the recommendation). This might actually influence the writer of the letter to write a more positive recommendation than intended for the the student.

Now, an influenced letter is probably a waste for academia right? Or for any kind of work at all?

And if a professor is candid in his LinkedIn recommendation and mentions the student's performance objectively(say perhaps about the student's grades) then it does become a violation of FERPA right?

This is what I'd like to ask Professors in Academia now: If a student asks for a LinkedIn Recommendation , will it hold any value?


texts: What do they mean when say “the French equivalent of a Ph.D.”?

texts:
I read the biography of a French-born scientist-turned-entrepreneur Philippe Kahn. It says that Philippe Kahn received the “French equivalent of a Ph.D. certified by the French Academy of Sciences”.

I discovered an article about Kahn which says that he earned the equivalent of a doctorate, but not the degree. In yet another article, I read that he holds an agregation de mathematiques, and this is the French equivalent of a doctorate. I am rather baffled at all this, since Wikipedia clearly indicates that agregation has nothing to do with the equivalent of a doctorate. Can you explain what Kahn's biographers mean by “the French equivalent of a Ph.D.”? And if this is the degree then why should it be certified by the academy? So far I have come to conclusion that by the equivalent they mean the D.E.A. degree


texts: Is it cheating to use solutions to identical problems from other universities to do my homework?

texts:
Is it unethical to refer to solutions to assignment questions that have been asked at other universities before? The questions are the same word for word.

EDIT:

A lot many answers are very helpful. Most of them revolve around introspection and the classical definition of plagiarism. I agree with that. I know I am digressing from the original topic and may seem to justify copying but at the end of the day I have to pass the course. I spend hours trying to learn all the background concepts and then try to apply them to the assignment questions. Thats what I have done till now. Not all the times I get them correct. Many of my classmates get the solutions online, rephrase the wordings and then submit it. Its a no brainer, they end up getting more marks than me. Sometimes(many a times) it feels really bad. Am I just being stupid in that case? should i follow their approach when I am not able to get some questions or to verify just to be sure?


texts: Can I take on an academic pseudonym while publishing research papers or take initials of my name? Is it possible?

texts: I am an graduate student. I want to take on an academic name for publishing papers in journals and would likewise be known by that name in the academic circuit. My surname is bit embarrassing and I fear that it can divert people's attention from my work. Therefore, is it possible that I keep my first name and use initials of my last name while publishing papers. I can mention my full name in websites, Google scholar and university profile. I had considered a legal name change but it is bit too much of a hassle from where I come from. Moreover, I am aware that a name change after getting married to husband's surname will not lead to uniformity in papers and can be hassle for people searching my work or for citation purposes. What can be done in this case? Can I take initials of my surname?


texts: How to deal when you're an actual imposter in academia?

texts:
I'm a second-year PhD student at a well-ranked university, and am seriously beginning to feel that I'm an imposter in this place. My lab group is filled with people who ranked in the top 0.01 percent of examinations in their home country, have won olympiads and international competitions, and published an insane amount while maintaining a 4.0 GPA during grad school, while here I am with a scrub 3.5 GPA in undergrad and no publications.

I honestly think that admissions screwed up somewhere with my application and that I really don't belong here. I really want to get a PhD and I love academic research, but feel that I just can't compete against such people.

Has anyone ever gone through these feelings? I feel that I can't speak to anyone else about it because everyone seems so accomplished, and it'd only reinforce my feelings of inadequacy.


texts: Hiding M1 grades or first year of master grades

texts:
I had obtained my bachelor degree with first class of honor then I pursued my master studies in France. During the first year of my master (M1), I had pretty bad performance. I failed a course but I passed the semester since my average grade is higher than 10/20. Also, there was a project which I barely passed. I applied to another school for M2, I passed it with good grades (in french standards).

If I apply for a PhD, is deliberately hiding my M1 grades a violation? Given that M2 GPA is independent of M1, I could've been admitted directly into M2, and M2 courses are more geared towards research topics while M1 consists, mostly, of general courses.


texts:
I have applied to study at a UK university for a taught masters starting in 2017 September. I also obtained an unconditional offer from one university. They have mentioned to reply to the offer within two weeks. But, I would like to wait till I hear from other universities. Can I request from this university to give me more time to make the decision as I have applied for 2017 course and there's a lot of time till 2017 September?.

I also intend to apply for the Commonwealth scholarship for Master's and PhD study for developing commonwealth country citizens. In the scholarship guidelines it is mentioned that

  You must take the necessary steps to secure admission to your
  preferred universities in advance of your scholarship application.

Does this mean I have to accept the offer at a university to apply to the commonwealth scholarship or I should only have been offered a place at a university before I apply. Because in the commonwealth application I can state up to 3 universities. But I can only accept 1 offer right? So, I think I only have to have an offer from university. Is this correct?

Also, is there a way I can delay accepting the offer until I get a decision from the commonwealth scheme.  I believe the decisions in commonwealth sholarships are made in around 2017 April. So can I delay that long (From 2016 August to 2017 April) to make my decision on the offer? Do I have to pay tuition fees to accept the offer?

I would be extremely grateful if someone with experience regarding these can give me some advice on these issues.


texts: Filling in gaps in lecturer's instruction

texts:
I am studying a Honours level Reading Unit.
A Reading Unit is quiet unlike the traditional be lectured to type units.
It is based on the principle that everyone in the unit has mastered how to do research, and that teaching is the best way to learn.
Over the unit there are a number of areas to be examined.
For the first half of the unit the class is broken up into groups one group for each area, and ask to research and present on the topic.
(The second half is a project, and ensuring you know all the areas covered for the exam)

The unit has 5 hours of content lectures, in which it described the basics of all the topics, so that everyone has some context to start there research in.

In one particular topic area, the free lecturer admitted that he was less informed about it, than the other areas covered by the unit. Which is fair enough -- he was asked to teach this class with short notice after the normal lecturer went away.

I am well informed on this particular topic -- at least to the extent it will be covered in this unit. It forms basic knowledge that underlies my honours thesis, and I have studied a unit though a online university purely about it. I have made the lecturer is aware of this.

During the lecture on the basics of this area, I felt that there were some improvements that could be made to what/how it was covered:

A few times the lecturer hedged his statements. Saying things like "I think that...", "It is my understanding that", "I don't believe anyone does ...". Indicating his own uncertainty. I could confirm that he was right, or clarify this.
A few times he used a term that no one with in the field would use to describe the technique; because that term is used in-field to describe a different technique. It was a very apt way to describe it, but if anyone tries to research the term, they will get this other technique. As well, if anyone every tried to discuss it with a researcher in the field, that researcher would probably say: "no it isn't X, it is Y". (Infact Y uses lowercase x)
A statement in one of the slides was slightly misleading.

I resisted the urge to clarify him during the lecture, because I felt that would be disrespectful and would interrupt the flow of the class -- which was already on a tight scheduled.

Now I am considering what I should do. Options I see are:

Do nothing, hope that the students covering this section in more detail will make it clear for everyone.
Pass this information on the students covering the area, possibly also with some other useful recommended reading.
Post my clarifications on the the units online discussion forum.
Email the lecturer saying: "I feel I can clarify a few things", shall I post to the discussion forum? But not include full details in my email to him.
Email the lecturer saying: "Here are some clarifications of the area for your edification."

What is the correct way to go about making something more clear,
 that was not wrong, but might be missing or misleading from lecture content?


texts: How should I respond to a worrying email from an ex student?

texts:
I run a lab at an R1 university in the USA. Almost ten years ago I removed an undergraduate volunteer student from my laboratory group for harassing another student.

Today I received a multi-page, rambling, angry email from the student volunteer I removed. The email is disturbing, including references to drugs, illness, abuse, and depression. It ends in a way that could be construed as a threat, but is not a direct threat. It also does not contain any indication of intent to self-harm.

Were this person a student, there exists university services to help and check their situation, but they are no longer a student. They do live in the same city I do.

Am I correct that my university is in no way involved at this point?
Do I have any duty to attempt to help?  If so, is there a way to do so that does not engage the individual directly (which I hesitate to do)?
Beyond a police restraining order, is there any action I might take to insulate myself and my significant other from any negative actions this individual might take?


texts: Are faculty job applications evaluated on a computer or on a paper?

texts:
How are faculty job positions in a US university evaluated? Do the committee members get to view (and discuss) electronic copies of a candidate's application before the hiring meeting (and possibly filter out some applications before the formal meeting), or is everything done in the meeting? I am asking because I think one needs to prepare the application differently in the two circumstances. If electronic copy of the application is emailed to the faculty members, then one can insert hyperlinks in the research statement E.g.:

  "blah blah blah [1]"

where clicking on "[1]" would take you to a website.
But if a printout is given to the committee members, one needs to make sure all the info you want to convey is in the printout e.g. web addresses will need to be spelled out instead of being embedded.


texts: Conversion of GPA from scale of 10 to 4 (India)

texts:
I am an undergraduate student from India, interested in applying for Ph.D. programs in Astronomy in US institutes. My institute evaluates the CGPA from a scale of 10.
Since the cutoff for Astronomy is 3.0 on a scale of 4 for most US Institutes, my question is what would be the minimum on a scale of 10 in India, assuming I dont go by the conversion (3/4)*10=7.5


texts: We have submitted a manuscript in a Finance journal. Within 1.5 months, they gave us the comments of two reviewers. The Reviewers gave positive remarks but wanted some correction. We carefully scrutinized both reviewers suggestions and found that they have contradictory demand. Hence we follow the second reviewer's comments and made changes according to his suggestion. We also explained why we could not follow the first reviewer's suggestion. After resubmitting, within one-week editor again send us feedback ( or review) that since we did not follow the first reviewer's suggestion the first reviewer gave a suggestion to reject our paper. So the editor wants us to change our paper again. Again, we thoroughly explained why we fail to comply with the first reviewer's suggestion and resubmitted the manuscript (third time). After that, it has been 3 months there are no changes in status. Status shows "with review" Do you think taking three months after the third submission is natural? Should I mail the editor to speed up the process?


texts: From an undergrad school of Math to a grad school of Computing just to learn Computable Analysis — What are the consequences?

texts:
I am Park Shinhwan (박신환) from Korea University. I am a senior undergraduate student.

First, I have to mention that the topic of the undergrad school I'm in is not exactly Mathematics. It was Mathematics (수학과) until 2017, but just after I entered the school, its name changed to Data Computational Science (데이터계산과학전공). Though I don't think there had been much of a difference. It was just some lectures that heavily relies on programming languages such as C, Python, SAS, MATLAB, and Java were added.

Second, I have to mention that I am on a double major curriculums. The secondary major is Electronic & Informational Engineering (전자및정보공학과).

As the title suggests, I have been interested in Computable Analysis since some months ago. Though I had wanted to enter a grad school of Mathematics, I concerned that most grad schools of Mathematics wouldn't teach about Computable Analysis.

But there was a gleam. Apparantly KAIST's grad school of Computing has a lab about Complexity and Computation of real numbers, and their professor researches about Computable Analysis! That means I definitely should enter this grad school.

Still, I have a concern. It looks like the topic of the lab has a gap from the mainstream topics of the grad school itself, and a grad student of the lab agreed so.

So what would be the consequences after I enter the grad school? I definitely will be dedicated to the lab, but should I take the lectures about mainstream topics anyway?

You can see the lectures of the undergrad school I'm in here, the lectures of the secondary major here, and the lectures of the grad school here.


texts: How to decline a potential PhD supervisor?

texts:
I have seen something similar has been asked but I seriously don't know what to do.
I applied to 3 PhD programs all from quite good Universities. For all of them I contacted a potential supervisor, and they agreed to supervise me after a skype interview. Recently I finally got an answer from the best of the 3 Unis and after three interviews and a small project, the professor agreed on supervising me.

Due to some life events I had to wait one month to complete one of the applications, which I think it already pissed off one of the professors.

Obviously, I would like to go for the best University, not only for its ranking but also because of the city itself, the people I know in that city, and the research field which is closer to mine and more interesting for me.

All the professors agreed to supervise me after meeting me for an interview and after deciding a research topic. I have already applied to all 3 of them and I am waiting to know anything about the funding.

I did not want to take the risk of getting no scolarship for the position and missing the deadlines for others possibilities (which would then force me to wait up to one full year, which is really not a good option).

Now I may win more than one scolarship, so:

How can I decline the other two offers? I wasted their time and possibly affected their chance to accept other PhD students. I don't want to sound rude, but the PhD it's a very important choice in my life. I know they invested some time in me and my application.

From the way the talked to me, it looked like they did not consider the idea of me applying to other Universities (some of them even introduced me to the research group). I feel incredibly embarassed to be honest.


texts: Wondering Wether to tell the Truth to another PhD program that I have resigned from the first one

texts:
As you may know, I have resigned from a PhD program after spending year although working hard and I have discussed that before here in the platform. Now, all the positions I had applied for was rejected once they know I Have resigned from another group which is fairly known in our field. Now, I am now in short contract in isolated country in Europe and having contract month by month and today I get a very low salary, they take exploited my situation I had which they already know, and they try to make benefit of me to do all the work they want.

Now, I have another opportunity and I am afraid, to tell the truth, that I was a PhD student, I can tell them that I was a research graduate student, is that ethical. Really I do think that telling the truth no one will believe me and I think it leaves a bad impression or a suspicion although I am trying to be positive and mentioning we didn't have the same research interest, this doesn't work in all interviews although they are interested, but afraid from my previous experience. My question: How I should answer about my experience at ex-group and how I can call it in a way that didn't leave a bad impression?.


texts: When does one / who usually anonymizes data?

texts:
I'm coding some transcripts at the moment and the data I am working with is not anonymized yet. I'm a research assistant, I did not collect the data and I am obviously not the PI. What strikes me is that I know some of the people interviewed so it's a bit sensitive for me to be coding that non-anonymized data.

Which has me wondering, especially in cases where the data is analyzed by a big team, when does the data typically get anonymized and who does it? Would it be common to ask the transcriber to do it?


texts: How should I proceed if the author of a paper doesn't reply to my query?

texts:
During my literature survey for a project, I came across papers that have very interesting results and have decent number of citations. Unfortunately, the sub-area I am exploring doesn’t have any standard datasets on which I can test my implementation of the algorithm presented in their paper. The authors have generated the dataset by applying certain actions on a subset of publicly available information, which are Flickr images in my case.

So I have contacted the authors, asking whether they can provide me with their code or the dataset that they used for their implementation so that I may use it to perform my experiments and possibly try to extend their approach. But almost a week has passed by, and I haven’t received any response from them. Does that mean that,

My method of asking was not correct? (In that case, what would be appropriate?)
They don’t have the code or dataset available? (The papers were published in 2004.)
They are not interested?

Would it be polite to remind them again?


texts: Lecturer asks for argument for re-submission

texts:
Our group submitted part 1 of an assignment a few hours before the deadline, only to realise one of our links to the a piece of work was incorrect.

As soon as we found out, we emailed him explaining the situation and asking if there were consequences and if so what would they be.

He replied asking what we think should be done; arguments for and against re-submitting in our case from the perspective a university assignment and as a deliverable to a client.

How could I reply?


texts:
I am currently applying for a PhD position and have emailed many professors. My emails often include a general introduction and my CV plus a research statement is attached.
I try to be brief in the email text, as I know professors get tons of emails like mine and don't have time to read a long one. That's why I just mention my interests in the body with the reference to my research statement for the detailed explanation.
Up until now, the replies were only about positions, funding, etc. But today I got an email expressing this about the email itself:

I recommend that you briefly describe the focus of your research interests in an e-mail (main body, not as an attachment) when contacting a suitable member of staff in order for the staff member to assess their suitability as a potential supervisor in that area.
[...] As a principle, we do not encourage sending e-mail attachments in initial correspondence, as a public institution we receive a lot spam and potentially harmful e-mails with attachments.

I was wondering, is this the prevalent routine that I should consider for my emailing other institutes/professors as well? Or is it just their principle and others' may differ?


texts: Is it advisable to mention rejected publications in resume?

texts: I have two publications submitted but rejected in top conferences. Is it advisable to mention and list them in my CV/resume to show that the work was submitted for publication?


texts:
I am a PhD student in my second year. I have not published anything yet and I feel my results I got so far are not publishable. I have two years left. I am stressed and I am afraid that I might not be smart enough to be a PhD student.
I think I lack the skill to ask a good question and answer that question as a part of my research. I cannot come up with a good idea or question so that by following those I can publish.
Anyone with the same experience, what did you do to get yourself out of this situation?

Edit

Just to clarify more. I am in Europe. Here there isn't any coursework. I studied everything so far on my own. Everyday I go to my room in the lab. I have plenty of time, at least 8 hours per day and if necessary I can spend more time too. I don't have teaching obligations.
Sometimes, I might have an idea, which ultimately turns to be useless, but even then I tell my self if it was possible to turn into a publications, others would have done that, so it must be a hard problem or idea.
My main issue is that there is no other person with my background in the lab. People with different backgrounds are a PhD student here and everyone works on his/her PhD almost alone. I wish I could pair to another student and brainstorm and discuss different ideas. However, it is not possible here. I told my supervisor, he replied first you should prepare some initial results so that we can approach others group for collaboration. But even then I won't discuss with another person on a daily basis because of the distance between those groups which are in other countries.


texts: Protocol for Submitting Fellowship Application where I need to see my advisor's Recommendation Letter

texts: I'm applying to a graduate fellowship program that has extremely strict rules about submission, and I must submit my application as one PDF, including my letter of recommendation from my advisor. He's written me several letters before that I haven't seen, but how am I supposed to ask for this letter?


texts: How to accurately digitize plot data from figures available as vector graphics?

texts:
Measurement data in publications is often provided only within figures, while the original data is not available. There are some very useful tools around to digitize such data, such as the web application WebPlotDigitizer, the app Engauge Digitizer or within the software Origin, but to my knowledge they only support raster images.
Since publications are usually available in digital form and figures therein are often embedded as vector graphics, a more accurate digitization would be desirable. Are there tools around which allow to directly digitize vector paths from figures (similar to the aforementioned methods)?
This question goes beyond precision (see further remarks below) and also addresses an efficient and semi-automated workflow.

Remarks

The achievable accuracy of course depends on the quality of the figure, or more specifically on (i) how the figure was originally produced, and (ii) how it was processed during the publication process. Since often high-quality plotting tools are used (e.g. guaranteeing proper resampling) and journals don't always mess up, figures in appropriate quality should now and then be available.

The problem goes beyond precision in terms of reading out values (which could be resolved by rastering figures in high resolution and using the aforementioned tools). In complex figures graphs could (i) cover each other up, (ii) overlap themself due to scatter and line thickness, and (iii) have varying sampling rate. Hence, rastering involves misinterpretation of data. Using a vector graphics editor for preparation before rastering (e.g. hiding individual graphs) would help, but is time-consuming and does only solve some of the problems.

At first, it should of course be checked if the original numeric data are available, as required by some journals (unfortunately not in many fields). Also, the corresponding author could be contacted, which often won't lead to success for many reasons such as unavailability (of data or author, after some time) or unwillingness.

Thanks to Martin and Massimo Ortolano, whose contributions inspired some of the remarks.