texts: What is the optimal number of times one should meet one's PhD. advisor?

texts:
I see sad students who meet may be once in a month and they complaint of not having enough progress. I have seen systems where the prof meets almost every few hours on weekdays and the prof is basically continuously working with the students. I see students who meet every 2-3 days or every week.

So what is the "right" frequency if at all?
What is the good frequency?

Once the weekly(instant) gratification of getting full scores on the course homework is removed it is quite a challenge to keep a gauge of whether one has made any progress during the week. How does one measure progress during the week during one's PhD?


texts: Taking math or stat course to prepare for my PhD?

texts:
So I am doing a master in Statistics at a medium-ranked US university. After my master I plan to apply for PhD in Statistics at another (hopefully higher rank) university. I am considering between 3 courses for the next semester because I can only choose one. I want to choose a course which has balances between great professor (for recommendation letter) and content

1/ Analysis II: extremely rigorous proof course in my school's math department. I took Real Analysis before and did well but this course will be more in-depth. The teacher is Full Professor with great reputation in math field but not sure in stat field. I am not sure when I applied for PhD professors at other universities will recognize him.

2/ Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis: not really my favorite subject. The professor is an Associate Professor and not really well-known in stat field. The good side is this course is in our stat department

3/ Introduction to Experimental Design: very basic course for undergraduate students. The only good side is the Professor has incredible reputation in the field.


texts: I am thinking in uploading my Master's thesis to arXiv, by the moment I would count with the endorsement of my supervisor, nevertheless I will not follow an academic career, so I will not keep my university mail. Therefore,  I am wondering if I could register in arXiv with a personal personal email. Is it allowed by arXiv?


texts: What types of questions should I be expecting for my final year project viva for my undergrad?

texts: Currently doing a final year project in artificial intelligence and was curious to know how this presentation(viva) works ? and how I should prepare for it ? are there common questions I should prepare for ? Do I have to explain my code?


texts: Obligation to quote source of grammatical knowledge

texts:
Do I need to name a source (a website for example), which lists grammar rules for a language? I would like to know if this is considered one of these goods, which cannot be owned and thus needs no quotation.

For example a website lists prepositions, which cause a specific casus in a language. If I take those prepositions and list them in a document for that casus, do I then have reference a source, or can I assume this to be something not owned by anyone?

What about example phrases? They're also part of daily language and should not be owned by anyone.

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with having to quote, but I'd probably prefer inventing my own example phrases and such. I don't lack the creativity.


texts: Is it appropriate for professors to ask students to type notes for their classes (with or without paying students) in United States?

texts:
I wonder if it is appropriate for professors to ask their students in class to type notes (in latex whatever) for the classes they are teaching and if there is any "elegant" way for students to turn down such request of professors they are taking classes with.
There are several specific scenarios that I am interested in asking about:

Professor asks students to take turns to type the notes for the classes and the notes may be used for publication under the professor's name (with students appearing in the acknowledgement in some way), and professor pays students for doing that.

Professor asks students to take turns to type the notes for the classes and the notes may be used for publication under the professor's name (with students appearing in the acknowledgement in some way), and professor does not pay students for doing that.

Professor asks students to take turns to type the notes for the classes and the notes is just a shared free document for academic purpose, and professor pays students for doing that (simply as an act of kindness).

Professor asks students to take turns to type the notes for the classes and the notes is just a shared free document for academic purpose, and professor does not pay students for doing that.

Which of the options above are appropriate/inappropriate (and why)?
Since if the students are enrolled in the class and it might be hard for them to turn down the professor's request since their grades are "controlled" by the professor (one more question: is it appropriate for professors to make notes-typing a course requirement?), or simply that students might meet professor everyday and there might be invisible pressure for students (especially for graduate students). I understand this must be some grey area in university teaching but it seems to me it is also very common in the graduate level (especially for special topics) courses (but I haven't seen any professors paying students for doing that).

By "publication" I mean publishing the notes as a textbook or monograph to publishers like Springer, APS, etc, profit or nonprofit. And as a consequence the public have to spend money to get access.


texts: I will be taking something similar to an entry exam for university. I also had another exam last week and then one person tried to cheat off me, but I didn't let him. Now I'm a little bit anxious that in the next exam he could sit somewhere close to me again. This exam will also have a listening part so I would like to take a place somewhere in the first rows so that I could hear and write down more effectively. Actually it's not likely that this guy will be anywhere near me - there will be many people at this exam, we may not even be in the same examination hall. But I still have worries so that's why I'm posting this question. I will surely do my best to sit as far from him as possible, but if by some really bad chance we are near each other again (for example few free places in the first rows etc.), I'm planning to stay in the first rows just for the listening and after it's over, to ask some of the invigilators to move elsewhere. Do you think there is a chance of me getting into trouble for doing this? Should I also explain them the reason and what would be the best thing to say (I prefer not to get into details at all)? What are your thoughts on this? I have enough stress with the exam, so having to think how to deal with some lazy a**hole is the last thing I need right now...


texts: How can I produce a good academic reflection paper?

texts: I'm doing M.A in International relation. this is the first time I'm being assigned to produce a reflection paper from a social science inquiry book. I Will be glad if I could get some help.


texts: What are some general good principles for creating a poster for a poster session?

texts: Should one create slides similar to those that one uses in a good powerpoint presentation? Or are there things that a poster should include that a powerpoint should not include? (and vice versa)


texts: Applying for MS in USA after completing 3 years degree in India

texts: I have completed my Bachelor of Computer Applications (BCA) from India. The minimum requirement for admission into the MS in Computer Science program requires a 4 year college degree. My BCA degree was a 3 year degree and I am planning on pursuing a 1 year Post Graduate Diploma in Computer Applications (PGDCA) from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and would like to find out if these total 4 years satisfy as minimum requirements for admission consideration.


texts: Using a letter of recommendation from freshman year professor?

texts:
I am an electrical engineering senior, and I am preparing to apply to Master's programs in three different fields: communications engineering, embedded systems, and computational engineering. I need two LORs for each program. The problem for me is that my best recommenders are professors from my freshman and sophomore years. My grades, classroom-interaction, etc. actually deteriorated after that point.

I have identified four potential recommenders, but I ruled out one of them (a comms prof) because he indicated to me that his letter will not be very good.

My remaining options are:

A Microwaves professor with whom I have taken several courses and gotten A-,B+, and B. I got the A- in a 300 level course I took as a sophomore.
A networking professor with whom I got a B+ recently, and had at least minimal interaction.
A math professor with whom I got an A in a 200 level course (multivariable calculus) as a freshman, and had plenty of interaction. Math was my passion at that time. The prof also encouraged me to become a math major.

My dilemma is: a LOR from number 3 is possibly so much more positive than 1 and 2, but it is for a 200 level course that is not engineering. I don't think it is very relevant to any of my target fields (communications, computational engineering, and Embedded systems). And, I took that course three years ago. I was a different person, socially, academically, motivationally, philosophically, etc. Should I rule out number 3?


texts: Why is the variability in faculty salaries between STEM fields so high?

texts:
Checking the data from some public universities, I noticed that the variability in faculty salaries between STEM fields can be extremely large, even within the same university and for the same position.

For example, at the University of Michigan assistant professors in mechanical engineering generally make around $95k a year, while for Math the same position pays around $55k.

Why is this range so large?


texts: What should I tell schools when my supervisor sent me a recommendation letter and said she has no time to upload it?

texts:
I'm applying for Ph.D. programs so I requested a recommendation letter from one of my supervisors in my master's program. She directly sent me a strong recommendation letter in the email but said she has no time to upload it online.

The thing is her daughter just had a premi baby and she needs to take care of them. I worked closely with her and she is well-known in my field. Her recommendation letter will be really helpful. What should I tell the schools I'm applying for? How should I explain my situation?


texts: Is it possible to pursue Physics PhD with poor mathematics background?

texts:
I am a 2 year (3rd semester) undergraduate student in physics and I have scored miserably in my two advanced mathematics courses. I got C- in both. It was mainly for not understanding many things. I would like to do advanced research in the future and that would require a PhD degree.

I don't know what field I would like to specialize in, but I would like to achieve my dream of pursuing research as a career. Is it possible to get a PhD after bad grades in mathematics undergrad courses?

I am from India and I would like to do my PhD in the US.


texts: Is it unethical to supply a marked solution to a student who has shown intent to cheat, with the intent of identifying them for punishment?

texts:
One of the adjuncts that I work with found that one of their students had posted their assignment on a freelancer website asking for the solution.  We joked that he should place a bid and fail them afterwards and had a lengthy discussion about sting operations and entrapment.  In the end we came to the conclusion we were not the police and to let the chair know, but ultimately take no action.

I was wondering about the ethics of anonymously giving this student a marked solution with the goal of identifying the student and removing them from the class.  In particular, I'm imagining we could write a correct solution with some additional embedded information that will be recognizable when the student turns in their answer (for example, extraneous steps that don't break the solution but don't add any value).

Some additional clarifications:

Assume that the student clearly only wants the solutions for a grade and is not asking for assistance in understanding the material
This would be done as a private transfer of documents (like email), not a public posting (like a Stack Overflow answer), to avoid issues of other students stumbling upon the personalized solution.
We would provide the correct solution, but with some additional embedded data that identifies the source; for example, metadata, comments, and, in the case of code, extraneous steps that don't break the solution, but don't add any value.


texts: Undergraduate school affecting acceptance to a prestigious graduate school

texts:
Currently, I am just about to finish my sophomore year in an undergraduate school studying computer science. I am worried about my current school impacting whether or not I will get in to a prestigious graduate school.

Without giving away too many details, my school is fairly well known and has an undergraduate class size of around 30,000. Also, the school is ranked around the 80s of schools in the US.

My growing ambition and love for computer science has grown greatly during my time here and I would to continue my education at a prestigious graduate school.

As of now, I have a 4.0 GPA and I have been and will be involved  with internships during my summers. If I continue my current path, what are my chances at getting into a top 10 american graduate school?


texts: Will a graduate student publishing in different disciplines confuse potential employers?

texts: I'm a third-year computer engineering PhD student. My dissertation topic is re-configurable caches (computer architecture) and my supervisor is a very nice person. I have four publications with him in well-known conferences in my area. But currently I'm in a weird situation. In my 2nd year I fell in love with computational neuroscience and started working on it with another professor in my university simultaneously with my PhD research. Obviously my PhD supervisor encouraged me. Recently I got two high-impact journal publications as a first author on cognitive neuroscience. I am very happy with my dissertation topic but also want to include my neuroscience papers in my résumé. I would like to try for faculty positions after the PhD. Do you think my résumé can create confusion among potential recruiters or will it show multidisciplinary research interests?


texts: What can happen if a recommendation letter falsifies information?

texts:
For applications of virtually any kind, it is stipulated that an offer may be rescinded or even during a course, a student may be taken off, if any false information is discovered in their application.

However, suppose for a graduate program a student asks a professor to write a recommendation, and whether knowingly or unknowingly the professor includes false information in that letter of recommendation which has a bearing on the application, what are the consequences of that?

The onus of selecting the recommender is on the student/applicant, but I do not see how they can suffer consequences since recommendation letters are often not shown to the applicant.

To help answer the question, assume I am referring to universities in the U.S.


texts: What are the advantages and disadvantages of doing a postdoc in France and UK/USA?

texts:
I am concluding my Ph.D. in the UK, and currently I have two postdoc offers one from the US and one from France. I am not a British/EU citizen and would like to take on an academic path preferably in an English speaking institute. Both projects that I managed to get a postdoc offer for are very interesting, and the PI's are well-known academic in the field.

Given that becoming an academic in France requires fluency in French, I was wondering what would be a wise choice here? What are the general qualities that are important for a lectureship position? I am under the impression that for STEM fields, USA is a no brainer, but acquiring a visa might be difficult for me!

Any advice is really appreciated.


texts: Any mathematics department offering good winter session?

texts:
I want to make good use of winter time and learn any of the courses: advanced linear algebra, intro level real analysis, intro level abstract algebra, complex analysis.
Is there any mathematics department offering any of these course with good rigor (similar or more rigor of UC Berkeley) and reputation? The course should also allow me to register as "continuous education" student because I'm not in a college
I look around and only find University of Washington offers winter session.


texts: What does "Application review begins ..." practically mean in job ads in computer science in USA?

texts:
As opposed to Do they really mean "in all areas" and "will continue to be accepted until..." in Computer Science faculty opening ads in the US? , we sometimes even see a softer language without a final deadline in faculty opening announcements:

  Application review begins Date Y.

No final deadline ("until...") is given. How long after Date Y can one apply in the typical case?

(An aside: Assume that the applicant cannot get this information directly by asking, e.g., due to the absense of contact data, and that the applicants network, including that of the supporting advisors if there are any, does not cover the location.)

This question seeks answers from folks who have participated in search committees, have supervised them, or have received feedback as applicants. If it is the case for you, say so.


texts: Non-Disclosure Agreement & Data Publication

texts:
I am an Industrial Ph.D. and the company involved in my Ph.D. provides data for my research.
I signed an NDA with the company since the data comes from proprietary source I cannot disclose.
The main problem is that when I write articles I cannot disclose anything about this data (I am in the Machine Learning field), and this decreases the validity and reproducibility of my results.
It is really frustrating. Any Idea on how to tackle this problem?


texts: No PhD research group during my PhD. How do I handle it?

texts: I have been involved in my PhD now for about half a year but my setup is potentially more uncommon. It feels very independent because I havent got a research group I'm involved in at all. It's literally just me and two of my supervisors and I work in a completely separate building to both of them and I have absolutely no one to collaborate with or talk to about my research or ask for help. Is anyone else in this same or similar situation and if so/or do you have any advice on how I could improve my work situation because at the moment it feels very lonely and when I get stuck there is no one around to ask.


texts: Mentioning that my paper extends my project X: compatible with double-blind review?

texts: I am going to submit a paper to a conference that uses double-blind review. The paper extends my project X, which was published somewhere else last year. In order not to break the anonymity, in the paper shall I hide the fact that project X was mine? (If I don't they could simply look at the reference associated with project X to identify the authors.)


texts: No proper reply from professor after acceptance

texts:
I had applied for an academic internship after my undergraduate studies. The professor has accepted me for the internship. But since then he has not properly replied to my emails. I need his letter for VISA purposes. How should I write an email to him asking for the same? I had sent an email to him regarding this but he has not replied to the email. The problem is that I can't write a proper email and also he is the director of the institute and is probably very busy.

Could you please help me with writing such an email. Also I am taking a year gap for this internship, so this is extremely important to me. I also want to convey him that this internship is extremely important to me.


texts: Is there an API to obtain article information via DOI?

texts:
Is there any API that allow to get article information (in JSON or BIBREF format) using article DOI? I need: article title, authors, journal name, year of publication, volume (number), page numbers.

Is there a script written in PHP?


texts: What could be incentives for publishers to waive fees for reusing figures?

texts:
I'm in charge to obtain permissions to reuse figures from previous publications for our future work. Our publisher is a STM-signatory so for most journals there is little problem as their publisher are also STM-signatories and therefore allow to reuse up to three figures free of charge.

Other publishers request substantial fees which are sometimes waived when our head editor gets involved and states that the purpose of our publication is purely academic (though it is published for a profit by our publisher).

Sometimes even that fails and there seems to be no other way than paying the fee or not using the figure. We don't have a budget for this though.

My question is, are there any other non-monetary incentives for publishers to allow the reuse of a figure? I'm thinking of appealing to their "academic consciousness" to help to contribute to scientific advancement or possibly include a line in the figure caption: "With very kind permission from PublisherX" (is latter a common approach or desirable for a publisher)?


texts: Which is more important for PhD applicants — Quality or quantity of research papers?

texts:
While applying to a PhD program in computer science, which one is more important?

Publishing 4 or 5 medium/low-quality journal or conference papers or publishing only one paper in a top journal?

The review process of top-quality journals are usually 1-2 years. Which means, one has to begin his/her research during the bachelor's and submit the paper in the beginning of master's degree. But as far as I know, this is extraordinary (especially in my country).

An extra question would be: Regardless of the quality of the paper, is publishing papers in distinct areas or publishing papres in a specific area more important?

I'm willing to move to Northern Europe (UH, TUT, KTH, KU). So, answers from the professors/students of those universities will be highly appreciated.


texts:
I have now several times experienced recieving mails after publishing a preprint, from authors asking me to cite their work before I submit it to a journal. In some cases it is probably fair, but in other cases a bit of a stretch. It is of course often people I know, and who could possibly be future colleagues, so I don't want to be too snarky.

I have never done it myself. I have, however, approaced authors to refer them to my own work, after a related article had been published in a journal.

Do you have a standard reply for such solicitations?

Do you engage in this practice yourself? I imagine that it could do wonders to your citation count.


texts: Drawing Lines when Giving Ideas to Undergraduate Students

texts:
I teach quite a few 'unprepared' students and I find they struggle with finding source material on which to base their reports. Basically, they need to read a lot and apply theories to different companies.

Where should I draw the line when giving them advice? I certainly do not do any searching or reading/filtering for them but if they choose a company and need to report on it, is it acceptable to give them some ideas about famous events at that company which might have happened a decade ago (or more but would still be acceptable for the purposes of the report)? Or, should I require them to do search, even for old events, and if they can't, then they can't and fail?


texts: How to write a follow up paper describing a different solution to a similar problem

texts: I presented a paper last month in an IEEE conference and now I am writing another paper on the same topic but the method is different. While writing the Introduction and Related Works part of the paper, I have noticed that I am unintentionally repeating my words or sentences. I have no intention to copy the same lines from these sections from my previous paper, but by chance if it comes out to similar, is it considered as self plagiarism?


texts:
I'm in the field of engineering, electrical engineering specifically. I find myself with several technical reports and notes I've written over the years, and some colleagues have asked me for these. I think these may be beneficial to others, too and I'd like to make these publicly available somehow.

I've refrained from using the word "publishing", because I don't ever intend to submit it to a conference or a journal - the type of material just isn't right. See here http://www.mers.byu.edu/docs/reports/MERS9401.pdf for an example (I'm not the author of this particular note). arXiv doesn't cover electrical engineering topics; also, I doubt my reports would qualify "preprints", because preprints, as I understand, is something the author intends to publish eventually.

I know some folks who post these on their websites, but the danger is that self-maintained websites may eventually disappear, and with the websites, the reports themselves. Is there a good solution we have about this today? Perhaps a public repository?


texts: When to use a table vs. a plot to present numeric information?

texts: I find that in many cases, either a table or a plot will do an equally good job of presenting numeric information. Does anyone have any advice or even rules about when to prefer using a table over a plot and vice versa? I'm referring to tables and plots in the context of academic journal articles.


texts: Is it possible to get perfect score in TOEFL's Speaking Question Type 1 (Personal preference) without using examples?

texts:
The ideal way to approach Question Type 1 (Personal preference) type questions is to state your preference/opinion along with 2 reasons and examples to support each of them. Personally, I find it a bit too tedious to come up with 2 examples to support 2 reasons. I can only manage to think of the reasons. I'm planning to skip the examples and elaborate on the 2 reasons instead. Will doing this refrain me from getting a perfect score in Question Type1?

Alternatively, I can manage to come up with only 1 reason with a strong example to support it. Is this better than my previous approach i.e using 2 reasons with no examples?


texts:
I understand that a 'Chair' is a traditional title of a professor in the UK.
Nowadays, what is the difference, if any, between a Chair and a Professor in the UK?


texts: What is expected from a mathematics student bachelor's thesis?

texts:
Well, I like maths, I like studying it and applying it. But I always feared the moment when I'd actually have to do a thesis. I'm in my third year of bachelor's studies. What I was wondering about is what kind of topic should I be looking for, for my thesis? It just is hard to me to see how I could actually research and contribute something to the field as a bachelor's student, as in something not trivial and that no one with much more education has come up with before.

From merely passing courses to coming up with something of mine is a huge leap for me, and I can't see how I can do something meaningful with the limited education I have. I'm feeling a bit like in maths, before say a phd there would be nothing new for me to come up with.
I am interested in cryptography, so I was given by one of my teachers a paper on elliptic cryptography that seemed interesting and a nice starting point. But now I realise I don't know where to head.


texts: How to effectively write a paper of N>2 co-authors?

texts:
We are writing a manuscript with 7 people. I am not sure what is a good tool to write a paper collaboratively. Other than overleaf or sharelatex which cost money.

What do you do if you have technology inclined collaborators?


texts: Should a Statement of Purpose cover Purpose or Capability or Both?

texts:
I am applying for OMSA degree from Georgia Tech and the application requires me to submit a 4000-character long Statement of Purpose.
My question is this:
Should a SOP cover my capability and show me as someone who can clear the course, or should a SOP cover why I am interested in the degree and how it will help me in my career?
This is what the website says:

Personal statements

Goals and career plans, and reason for applying to this program. Up
to 4,000 characters allowed for response.
Other graduate programs to which you are applying
Statement of purpose


texts:
I think many here have had the experience of seeing a paper that uses grammar dramatically different than its student author has shown in the past, and naturally questioning the authorship follows. But what about when the student uses a single word or short phrase that is out of character? Is that sufficient to justify doubting the authorship? Is it appropriate to suspect plagiarism based on correct usage of a single word by a student who never (in your direct experience) used this word/phrase before? Should we make allowances for age (do older people know more words?) or native language (does this improve or diminish vocabulary?) in deciding the likelihood of the word being a red flag for (mis)appropriated work?

The above question is inspired by the incident described in this blog post by an undergraduate student at Suffolk University. In this blog post the student describes an incident where a professor negatively challenged her vocabulary skills and proceeded to publicly humiliated her in front of her classmates:

  This morning, my professor handed me back a paper (a literature review) in front of my entire class and exclaimed “this is not your language.” On the top of the page they wrote in blue ink: “Please go back and indicate where you cut and paste.” The period was included. They assumed that the work I turned in was not my own. My professor did not ask me if it was my language, instead they immediately blamed me in front of peers. On the second page the professor circled the word “hence” and wrote in between the typed lines “This is not your word.” The word “not” was underlined. Twice. My professor assumed someone like me would never use language like that.

Ordinarily some might assume this is just the griping of an unhappy undergrad, but the article starts with the student describing her bona fides which are rather impressive (URL link added by me):

  As a McNair Fellow and student scholar, I’ve presented at national conferences in San Francisco, San Diego, and Miami. I have crafted a critical reflection piece that was published in a peer-reviewed journal managed by the Pell Institute for the Study of Higher Education and Council for Opportunity in Education. I have consistently juggled at least two jobs and maintained the status of a full-time student and Dean’s list recipient since my first year at Suffolk University. I have used this past summer to supervise a teen girls empower program and craft a thirty page intensive research project funded by the federal government. As a first generation college student, first generation U.S. citizen, and aspiring professor I have confronted a number of obstacles in order to earn every accomplishment and award I have accumulated. In the face of struggle, I have persevered and continuously produced content that is of high caliber.

Let me be clear that in my asking this Question and others providing an Answer it is important for everyone here to do two things:

Ignore the shameful behavior of the instructor, and
Ignore the student's opinion about her instructor's bias.

I am not saying that these two issues are unimportant, they definitely are, but neither of these issues is the focus of this question. The key question I want to ask is expressed in the title: "What to do when you think a student is incapable of using certain vocabulary?" I use this blog post as an example of the situation that may arise and need to be dealt with.

If I see such a one-word red flag should I speak with the author and express my concern that it makes the work suspect? If so then how do I balance that against the fact that (a) it is a given that students doing academic research are exposed to academic language and are likely to acquire some of this vocabulary by sheer osmosis, and (b) isn't there a danger of discouraging students from expanding their vocabulary if use of new words creates negative reactions?


texts: How can I organise my own proctor in South America for a foreign university exam?

texts:
I am taking an online accredited course at Illinois and I need to have someone in South America proctor a test (preferably Bolivia, Argentina, or Chile).

Anyone have any suggestions for how to accomplish this? I've looked on many websites  (including universities and libraries) and struggling to find a resource. Maybe it's more informal? This test will need to be a physical test.

My course specifically puts these requirements for a proctor. There may be wiggle room with some communication.

Principal or Superintendent of Educational Service Region, School, or District
Dean, Academic Department Head, Extension or Correspondence Administrator, Registrar, or Official Testing Service of an Accredited University or College
Education Officer (Armed Services Personnel Only)
Full-Time High School or College Instructor
Librarian at your local community library

Specific details on proctor information is here.


texts: Advisor to spend some funds to buy things that make group members feel better working at home. Is it selfish to request a tablet and stuff?

texts: Due to the recent COVID-19 event, all of the members in our group have been working at home. My advisor proposed to get us some items to make us more productive or happy when working at home. I feel like a tablet would be very helpful in reading paper and books. Additionally, I'm working home using my small laptop and the screen is really small. It also helps if I could get a large screen to connect to my laptop. I have a bit of a quandary because those things are kind of not really necessary because, after all, I can use my laptop to read paper and work. On the other hand, they are not cheap. Would it be selfish for me to ask my advisor to fund me to get a monitor and tablet, those things?


texts: I got my Ph.D. from the Faculty of Computers and Information Technology, Cairo University in 2007. I want to know if it is possible to compensate or to accredit my Ph.D. from USA. If it is possible, I want to know the steps for that. Advise and tell me if there is any program in USA for a Ph.D. holder to improve and add on to his career.


texts:
I am a fairly new lecturer (within the last year) in the UK.

When I started my position, I did some negotiations and the uni was already happy to give me teaching relief for the probation period of 3 years (not completely, but pretty solid relief).  I was told by colleagues in this negotiation phase that this was the only time I'd be able to negotiate until I won a grant.

Flash forward 9 months. I now have won a fairly large grant (about £200k). I'm excited about it. What kind of negotiation typically happens when such grants are won? I want to make sure I'm doing everything right in this court.


texts: Intellectual theft by a colleague, how to respond?

texts:
A recent exciting but unpublished discovery of mine was scooped by a colleague. I am a PhD student and I shared the discovery with the colleague a year ago. The colleague is a professor who came from the research group I work in. I found out about the scoop through my adviser who attended the colleague's talk about the discovery; the colleague's group did similar research that led them to the same discovery after we talked.

Obviously my adviser and I were surprised, upset, and angry. Initially after my adviser confronted the colleague about this the colleague was argumentative but eventually saw the light and became apologetic. The colleague offered to retract the paper that was accepted for publication but not published until we've published our findings (it's taken so long to publish for good reasons). However, the colleague is still pushy about trying to get at least something from their research out, but it is our judgement that any of their results would scoop my discovery.

Although I haven't talked with the colleague since this happened (my adviser has been mediating), I get the impression that the colleague did this intentionally with the hopes that it would go unnoticed by us.

So my question is this: what should I do to ensure this colleague receives their comeuppance i.e., does this deserve some sort of punitive action on my part? I haven't asked my adviser yet and any suggestions I receive here will certainly be discussed with my adviser.


texts: I am a last year Ph.D student and intend to apply for a postdoc call starting in September. As I have not submitted my thesis yet, is it possible to apply  earlier? And how can I ask my adviser to send recommendation letter while still I have not defended my thesis? ( I mean how can I explain my adviser this demand?)


texts: How to apply for a new PhD while being enrolled in one? What to provide as motivation letter, CV and references?

texts:
The background story

I  am a PhD student where I have been all by myself without much chance of being able to sit face to face with my advisor and get some help as my advisor does not have time for me. I should also note that my advisor is pretty upset with my performance as I was not able to have publication so far.
I understand that every advisor has her/his way of supervision. However, from my understanding, a PhD should be a way of learning how to become a researcher and hence at least 2-3 times a month meetings should be standard.

Motivation

I like what I do, and I want to learn new things. Therefore I have been thinking about being able to apply for a new PhD. Maybe this time I will be able to find an advisor who is more willing to show me the path and make suggestions on my work so I can improve it.

The question

Being able to apply for a new PhD requires documents such as CV, motivation letter and references. How should I prepare these administration files to have a higher chance of being accepted?

Should I provide the information about me being a PhD student?

Is it better not to provide information about my PhD studies? If so, how would I write a cover letter? Because hiding what I have done so far will make my cover letter quite weak.


texts: How to request an extension for submission to a conference?

texts:
I am writing a few research papers for an upcoming conference and things have been going decently. But I could really use more time to analyze my papers.

I am new to writing and this entire conference process, however - How should I e-mail the organizer requesting a deadline extension?

Hi Dr. Bobster,

I would like you to extend the deadline for the
international conference on procrastination.

Sincerely,
Procrastinator

Also if it helps: I should make this extra polite because this is also someone of high influence.

Updates

It looks like for the past versions of this conference, they gave at least a week extension. This is a fairly well known event, though it doesn't usually end up presenting any ground breaking research.

It looks like the past few events had extensions, its a well-known event but not too crazy. There's no way I can finish this with the other things I have..

If anyone wants an update, I cut the paper short, finished it on time and submitted it.

I asked for an extension. I didn't get a reply - so I thought that they thought I was being stupid. BUT.... they extended the deadline! Phew!! Maybe I didn't have to cut it short..


texts: Does authorship matter when applying for academic jobs?

texts:
In some fields, authors have equal weight on a paper, but in my field (mechanical engineering) people care where their name appears. However, I am not sure how much the authorship is important when applying for an academic job. When reviewing the list of publications, do people check the authorship too?

Does it matter that I am first author or corresponding author? Or just they consider that I have publications in high impact journals?

Does sole authorship have a higher credit? In co-authorship, I have contributed a part of the research (maybe trivial). As a sole author, I have proven that I can handle any part of that work. Or hiring people prefer teamwork?


texts: Do i really need a masters degree for data science / machine learning ? Applied Maths background

texts:
I am a senior student in a 5-year integrated Masters degree in Applied Mathematics and i have selected a specialization in Mathematics for Computer Science(Data structures,Algorithms and Complexity,Graph Theory etc.). I have a good understanding of Statistics, Probabilites etc. and decent knowledge of Python,R,Java,SQL,PHP. Last year i had a class of "Data Analysis using R" and i loved it so i was thinking of following a career in data science and machine learning and therefore doing an Msc in this field.

Unfortunately i don't have good grades and therefore it is pretty hard to make it for a Master's degree in a good university,also i don't think i could make it for this year applications so that means i will have to wait another year until i can apply again.

So i was wondering if i realy need a masters degree for a junior level job in this field, since i think i am half way there with my background, or if i could make it by studying on my own for some months(or a mooc) about ML,Big Data etc ?


texts: Time between on campus interview and tenure track job offer

texts: I would like to know how much time it can take for a department to make an offer after an on-campus interview for a tenure track assistant professor position? In my field the on-campus interview is the second interview that follows the phone interview. This is about universities in the U.S.


texts: Which section of a research paper is best to state that results also depend on equipment used?

texts: I have written a paper with some interesting results. However, I would like to add one or two sentences that draw the attention of the reader to the fact that the results also depend on the instruments used for the experiment. I would like to point out, that if the equipment were more advanced, the results may be different. Do I add this information at the end of the results section, the discussion or do I add it to the conclusion? Which section is best suited for this kind of information?


texts: How to find decent translator for technical jargon for application?

texts:
I am in a somewhat difficult situation, and I am not sure if this is the right site to ask this; feel free to close this question if not.

There is a refugee from Syria who has been studying computer science in Syria before he fled. He was 2 months away from graduating. I am currently helping him to get back to his studies (in Germany). To avoid that he has to start all over again, I need a translation of his official University course descriptions from Arabic to German or English.

I have tried two normal translators, who where quite expensive. The results they produced were of very poor quality, since a lot of technical terms are used in these descriptions. I study computer science myself and am thus able to judge the quality of the translation. I am often not able to tell what they mean. I am pretty sure that this is due to the lack of knowledge of technical terms of the translator, not because of the document itself. They try to translate the terms, but it is not clear what they mean. For example "programming paradigms" was translated to "kinds of different types of programming languages", and that is one of the few I was able to guess what was actually meant. With this quality it is very unlikely that he won't have to start from the beginning again.

So how or where can I get a decent translation of computer science technical terms from Arabic for an application to university, so other people at least somewhat knowledgeable in the field understand without too much thought?


texts: How to politely tell the PI I'm working with to use the vector format for images

texts: I have been working on a paper that is now ready for submission. I put a lot of time into polishing my figures in Illustrator, which are very detailed bioinformatics visualizations. I sent the figures to the main responsible PI. The PI has now sent me a draft of the manuscript, with the suggested arrangement of the figures. All in JPEG format. A scrutiny of the person's publication record implies that this is also likely to end up being the case for the final product. I realize that the paper has the potential to go fairly high in terms of impact, if appropriate work was put into the presentation. To be frank, none of the more respectable journals today will accept figures presented in this fashion, and if they do it would demand a lot more in terms of the underlying science than some PDF-using competitors might get away with. So, with a reasonable fear of triggering certain latent ego issues (which appear to be quite common among PI:s in academia), how would I go about convincing this fairly established and high profile PI (as an unsignificant Phd student) to fully switch to vector based figure layout?


texts:
I will introduce a well-known speaker who will give a lecture in his work in neurobiology in front of a large student audience. What is a good introduction and followup?

I have noticed people often give what I consider trivialities like the year he received his PhD degree and spend a long time listing their awards. I am planning to talk about his recent papers briefly, his areas of research, and just briefly mention his position now and who he worked with as a postdoc.

I would appreciate any input, particularly from profs on how they like to be introduced.


texts: efficient management of PDF/files with zotero

texts:
I'm trying to introduce zotero in my research-flow. However, I don't find a way to efficiently manage the PDF files attached to entries of zotero. I use zotero with zotfile extension. The problems that I find:

if the location of PDF is based on collections, if a move a reference to one collection or subcollection at another one, the PDF is not moved and remains in the old location.
if I remove a reference, the PDF and the rest of attachments are not deleted.

So, at the end you have a mesh of folders with PDFs that you do not know if you can delete or not.

How do you work with attachments in zotero? Do you think that for example mendeley provides of better management of files/attachments?


texts: Is it dishonest to guess on multiple choice exams?

texts:
I have never seen a thing, until recently, like someone not marking a cross on a multiple choice test just because he didn't know the answer.

I wonder whether this is a East Asian right-thing-to-do mentality, or just a quirk of some student.

Should maybe we ask all students to do this? Indeed, on a multiple choice with 5 choices per question, the expectancy of a student employing pure guessing would be  a 20% score. But is it cheating to mark something when you don't know the answer? At least, you are getting sometimes some point for nothing.


texts: Potential academic career in very different fields

texts:
There's this question about doing research in two very different fields, but my question is somewhat different. I have serious academic interests in two very different fields: one in computer science/mathematics, but the other would be considered comparative literature/cultural studies. I could hardly think of any way to combine those two academic interests (well, I know of digital humanities, but that is not what I exactly want to do).

Nevertheless, I wish to continue research in both areas as an academic, although not necessarily at the same time. Clearly, a possible route is to go one way and then do another PhD and switch mid-career, but I am not sure if this is a good idea. But on the other hand, I am not sure if this is even possible without a mid-career career change.


texts: Is the end of April too late to find placement in Ph.D programs in the U.S.?

texts:
I am wondering if it would be worth emailing departments that I haven't applied to this year, asking if they'd be willing to take a look at my application material. Any advice, or should I just wait till next year?

I applied to too few places this year, because I couldn't afford all the application fees. I'm saving up now but I feel bad that I don't have anything planned for next year, and I really want to begin my higher education since I feel strongly about it.


texts:
Why do some conferences ask authors whether a paper they are submitting to the conference was published in arXiv?

Example:

  Submitted elsewhere or arxiv? Is the paper being submitted, or has it been submitted to another conference/workshop? If so, put the name of the other conference/workshop in the box below. If your paper is on arxiv.org or similar place please mention this here.


texts:
At my institution, we are supposed to complete pre-requisite courses required for minor in a particular area and then apply for a minor degree in it. At this point I haven't applied for one, just because I couldn't take up the pre-req courses until now, but I definitely intend to in future. Is it appropriate for me state the minor degree under my current major in my CV if I have not officially started pursuing it?
Follow up question, should I even mention my minor degree at this point if it's not relevant to the research position I'm applying for? I believe that a minor degree rather than the area itself demonstrates students in a positive light of the pursuing what they like.


texts: Tradeoff between Consistency and Uniqueness in choosing publication Last Name

texts:
I am at the beginning of my career, but I already participated in several conferences and published 1 paper (and a reply) as the main author, and co-authored a revision with many other authors.
In total, I currently have 11 citations.
In my first publication, I used the last name (A) that is very common and which I don't identify with.
In the review, I started using another last name (B) which is less common but still not very unique.
I came now to the realization that I can use my mother's surname (C), which is very unique, pronounceable, and have other nice interesting features as beginning with the letter 'a'.
Currently, I am about to finish and defend my MSc dissertation and there are probably more publications coming along the way. Is it too late for me?
For reference, A yields > 4million results in google Scholar, B yields ~ 1million, and C have less than 100 entries.


texts: Splitting conference expenses between authors

texts:
Suppose I submit a paper with a co-author to an expensive computer science conference, and we agree to split the expenses between us. How can it be done, from a bureaucratic perspective?

Suppose it is agreed that author A will fly to present the paper in the conference, while author B will remain at home.
One way to split the fees is that author A pays his lodging and flight fees, while author B pays the registration fees. The problem is, most research funds do not let a person pay for another person - author B will not be able to get reimbursement for the registration of author A.

Another option is that author B will register to the conference and get reimbursement, and then ask the conference staff to rename the registration ticket to the name of author A. However, the conference staff might refuse, and additionally, the research fund might view this as cheating (IMHO it is not cheating - it is just a fair way to split the fees - but the fund might think otherwise).

Are there other options?


texts: Should I turn down a PhD offer or defer for another year?

texts:
Two years ago I applied to a PhD program that I was really excited about and thought was a good fit for me. I made it clear in both my application and the interview that I needed funding. Everything went fine during the whole process, however, in the end I got an offer without funding. So I deferred for a year and applied for funding again and just found out I have been unsuccessful again.

Would it be possible to defer for another year? Should I defer for another year and apply for funding again or should I just turn it down and look elsewhere? It doesn’t seem like they are as excited as I am about having my research at their university. I don’t know if this is my ego talking or if it’s a reasonable thought.


texts: How much does it cost to make a MOOC universally accessible, as defined by the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990?

texts:
Is there any research/study/survey that tried to quantify the cost of making  a MOOC universally accessible, as defined by the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 (mirror)?

I am aware that the cost depends on several factors, such as the type of content the MOOC contains ( video / text / etc.).

The question is motivated by the lawsuits some educational firms received / feared to receive to due to lack of accessibility of the course materials:

Berkeley will begin removing more than 20,000 video and audio lectures from public view as a result of a Justice Department accessibility order  (mirror)  (published on  2017-03-06)
Videos for Stanford's CS224d No Longer Available  (mirror) (published in  2016)
Settlement Agreement (“Agreement”) are the United States of America (“United States”) and edX Inc. (“edX”).   (mirror) (published on April 2, 2015)
Agreements with Colleges and Universities Regarding Accessibility (mirror)


texts: Mistake in uploaded file type after revision

texts:
I have revised my manuscript in Elsevier's journal and uploaded it along with the point-by-point reviewer comments responding. I found I have made a mistake in uploading the file.

There is the list of file types need to submit in the author page as follows:
1. Manuscript (revised manuscript)
2. Respond to reviewer
3. Revised manuscript with Changes marker

For the file type number 3, I uploaded the wrong file, which lists the changed in manuscript in detail instead of the full manuscript with changes marked.

I wonder Do I need to write an email to the editor to explain about that? Anyone has experience in this problem please give me the advice.

One more question: how long should we wait for the status change from "with journal" to "with editor" or "under review" for the revised manuscript?


texts: Waiting until MS thesis is Published before applying to PhD?

texts:
I was wondering if it would be a good Idea for me to wait until after my MS program is completed and my thesis is published before applying to a PhD program. There is no chance of me publishing my thesis before the December/January deadline of the fall 2013-14 admissions cycle as I am only 2 semesters into my program and the project I am doing doesn't necessarily move as fast as other projects.

Its important to note that I have NO publications at this point, but I do have two presentations at international conferences. Also, my ugrad Gpa was slightly higher than a 3.0... and my Masters GPA is a 3.7. I'm also in the Geosciences, if that matters

So with all that in mind, would it be a good Idea to wait until that publication comes in before applying to PhD ?


texts: How do you find interdisciplinary collaborators for your research?

texts: I would like to know if someone knows whether there are IT solutions (websites etc) that help with meeting interdisciplinary researchers from local academic institutions (socal).


texts: I did my PhD on topic X, and my PhD advisor is an expert on X and on Y. For a problem I have come across in my postdoc, I think that Y would be a good approach. There is no one I am currently working with that I could ask about Y, so I would like to send my PhD advisor an email asking for literature recommendations on topic Y. Is this customary? What would be the most polite way to ask? What is the best way to go about this?


texts: Is it rude not to attend courses which have no attendance requirements?

texts:
I wonder how it is perceived if a student does not attend the course in which attendance is not taken.

I am a PhD student and I skipped most of class in two courses. Now, both of the instructors are mad at me. In one course the professor gave me an F on an oral exam because I could not explain one point in a chapter, after explaining the rest correctly. And the other one ignores me when I try to greet him, as opposed to 3-4 weeks ago. I feel that I have been very strictly judged, and not fairly graded by the first Professor. An F means zero points, and I am afraid the second Professor will grade his oral exam with some biases, based on the previous Professor's behavior

Is it natural for them to behave this way? What can I do to convince people that my intentions were not to offend? I feel that most of them believe me to have a "big head" who just moved in from another country. And think that I'm a know it all. This is completely wrong; I know it is a very, very bad habit to not attend lectures. But I feel I don't need to when I've studied and understood the concepts.

To clear out some points in the comments, let me explain my train of thought. But please note that the examples given below are just some stupid examples. They do not reflect real situations and my thoughts:

1) I think it is very impolite to deliberately refuse a greeting from a colleague, especially when that colleague is on the same floor. I understand that it's a teacher-student relationship, but wouldn't you agree that it is common courtesy to greet back after being greeted? I feel that this teacher has a vendetta of sorts.

2) I'd like to give an example. Suppose that the professor is speaking English, and it's clear that they have a bad accent. When students arrive, they'd like to be able to understand the professor. Sometimes, they get mad at the professor because they can't understand them. But ultimately it's the faculty committee that they should be getting mad at. The faculty committee is the one that hires the professor. I feel that being angry at the professor is pointless. Similarly, if the university doesn't require professors to take attendance, but they want students to attend they shouldn't be angry at the students. Instead they should take it up with University Policy

3) Finally, is attending class considered a matter of respect? I don't think so. At the end of the day, the professors are there for teaching the specific subject. Students, according to university rules and policy, are not obligated to attend these classes. I feel that the professors are not doing students a favor. On one hand it's their duty, and on the other hand people have free will. I feel it's worse to attend class and not even listen.

--

After viewing your detailed answers and comments, I am fully convinced that attending classes is a matter of respect to the professor. I understand now that it is easy to be misunderstood and misjudged by not showing up to class, without any excuses. I see now that it can be easily interpreted as an act of carelessness or self-importance.

Adapting to a new culture is harder than I thought.


texts: How to present ongoing dissertation research and get feedback on a one-on-one basis?

texts:
I am in the social sciences (political science) doing research largely based on fieldwork. Accordingly, my dissertation project has changed quite a bit in the four months since getting my prospectus approved and beginning fieldwork. My department is fairly open, with helpful faculty, and I want to reach out to many different professors to get feedback. I check in with my advisors every few weeks with a just brief email, which is sufficient for them because they understand the broader project.

How can I present ongoing evolving research to new people, especially faculty members? For instance, I could write a brief two-page memo summarizing my dissertation project and revise it on a monthly basis. The only drawback here is that this might require writing a new two-pager every month. From writing fellowship proposals, I know this actually takes a lot of work.

What techniques did you find effective for getting for advice from people outside your dissertation committee during your dissertation work?


texts: Should arXiv paper be linked when submitting to a IEEE journal

texts:
IEEE allows submitting papers which have already been published in preprint servers like arXiv. But when submitting, should I link the arXiv paper to the submission?

If I don't do that, would IEEE flag this as plagiarism?
If I have to do that, where to do that? I couldn't find any place to link it when submitting a paper.


texts: Is it true that corporations influence the conclusions of research studies or papers?

texts:
I observe media uses health studies or research and come up with conclusions to influence the consumers today with headlines suitable for few corporations

New study says caffeine can help strengthen memory function

Research shows beer can be good for you

Is it true that some research today are manipulated to suit corporate agenda particularly private funded?
Is there a way to identify commercial research?


texts: Including a non-relevant work experience in Statement of Purpose for higher studies abroad

texts: After completing my undergraduate studies in Biotechnology, I switched to a career in Banking services where I have worked for a year. But now I would like to pursue higher studies abroad in biological sciences and I don't know how exactly I am supposed to include my work experience in my SOP. Since, my work experience is not related to my program of interest, how should I approach this issue?


texts: Fine-tuning parameters for existing methods

texts:
I'm comparing my method against existing methods by doing some experiments on one dataset.
The existing methods do not provide results on the considered dataset.
My question is: Can I use default parameters from the existing methods? The fact is that there are plenty of existing methods and it will take a lot of time to fine-tune for each existing method.
Thank you.


texts: What Is A Typical Computer Science Ph.D. Interview Like?

texts:
I had my very first-ever interview for a Ph.D. position (program analysis) in computer science in Germany today. Well, after sending my application, I was asked to prepare a two-page research statement which I was given positive feedback on and, consequently, was invited to take an interview so that "[...] You will be asked some non-technical and some technical questions, including some programming questions". In the interview, and after saying hi, how are you, and tell me a little about yourself, the professor started firing algorithmic questions towards me. He even asked me to implement an algorithm for a string manipulation question in firepad.
Well, I wasn't prepared to be asked directly about coding and finding working algorithms for specific problems and, unfortunately, my mind went completely blank. I thought an interview would include conceptual technical questions like tell us about your ideas in our field of research or tell us about your master's thesis or at least I'd expected to be asked some programming questions like what is the difference between this and that in Java or tell us about collections in Java. My question is now:
Does a typical Ph.D. interview in computer science really include such detailed questions? or I was a very unlucky person that my first ever interview went this way?


texts: Responding to different requests to contribute a book chapter

texts:
I received a request to contribute a book chapter about a month ago, which I turned down. This was from a university in another country, and from someone I have personally met.

Today, my own supervisor asked me to contribute a similar chapter to a book which she has been asked to be an editor of.

Given that the two requests happened in a relatively short time, and the reason I gave for declining the former request might still stand, would there be a problem if I accept the latter request, when I have declined the former?


texts: Should I accept suggestion to move my name to the front in a field where authorship is usually alphabetical?

texts:
I work in an area where most of the time authorship is ordered alphabetically, but sometimes when some authors contribute more than others, ordering by contribution is possible. I'm writing a paper with a former professor and another student. My name is often last when ordered alphabetically, but the professor suggests that I move my name to the front because I contributed more.

Should I accept this suggestion? Of course, moving my name to the front would emphasize my contribution for this paper. But when people see my CV as a whole, might they think that for other papers where my name is last (because the names are ordered alphabetically), it is last because I contributed least?


texts: As a undergraduate math student, what are some of the benefits of joining the American Mathematical Society?

texts: I am a undergraduate student at a large university, and I was wondering what kinds of benefits are available as a member of the American Mathematical Society. I've heard that it is a great resource for networking, but other than that I have heard next to nothing about it.


texts:
I finished my PhD in October 2017. I have tried to write a publication from my thesis, however I am finding it quite a struggle. I am not receiving any help from my PhD supervisor. So my question is, what should I take into account in order to write a paper (I have not written any papers before)?

Can I write a paper from my thesis after the university has published it?


texts: What should I do if I have previously seen a problem on a homework assignment?

texts:
Suppose I am taking a mathematics course on something I have studied partially by myself. Say the professor assigns a problem whose proof I have already seen before, whether through owning a textbook that contains it, a lecture or assignment in a different course, or elsewhere during the natural course of pursuing a curiosity.

What is the best course of action in this case? Does it matter how I originally learned it, eg. if I have previously solved the problem myself versus having previously seen a solution?


texts: Due to the recently passed tax bill by the United States Senate, graduate students will incur more taxes on their income which is already small. This will certainly affect my academic performance and research productivity. One of the professors in the department promised his students to compensate them by supplementary scholarships or awards. Can I ask my adviser to do the same thing to me?


texts: Where to include the Summer School or Winter School participation in the curriculum vitae (CV)?

texts:
I would like to include a Winter School I attended last year in my CV. I am not sure which heading of the CV this should be added to. Should I make a new heading called Participation and add this single Winter School there? (Along with 2 other conferences I participated in? or it is not so important to mention the conferences I attended?)
This is how I have included it so far: My CV. Do you think it makes sense? Or better if I format it in another way?
Please let me know of your kind opinion.
Thank you.


texts: My Professor isn't submitting my reference letter

texts:
On September 1st, I asked my professors to write LORs for a grad program I'm applying to and told them the deadline is October 12th. It's actually a rolling admission, but I said October 12th to get it in ASAP. My application isn't considered complete until they get all components of the application. Both agreed. I sent follow up emails: One on October 5th and one on October 12th as reminders. One professor submitted it and emailed me to let me know. The other still hasn't submitted it, so I sent him another letter today and he hasn't replied. He usually replies ASAP.
My friend once got a LOR from him and she told me he submitted her letter like a month late.
I'm really stressed out. I'm not on campus this semester so I can't talk to him in person. What else can I do?


texts:
I wrote the GRE recently and got very divergent scores. I scored exceptionally high in Verbal reasoning (168/170, which is 98th percentile) but exceptionally low in quantitative reasoning (147/170, which is 25th percentile). I will be applying to political science programs which have quantiative components, but to a subfield (with a research topic) completely unrelated to quantitative methods. Wondering if anyone has any advice on whether I should send in my scores to schools who have made it optional, since the high verbal score might help my application quite a bit, or if it is not worth the risk of being doomed via my low quant score.
Thanks


texts: How/when should I ask my supervisors' for a reference letter?

texts:
I'm currently a fourth year undergraduate student graduating this year. I'm taking the upcoming school year off to travel, so instead of applying to grad school during my fourth year like most students, I will be applying this upcoming September (when I will have graduated).

I worked with two professors this school year doing research, one of which I got a publication out of. I plan on asking both for reference letters for my graduate school applications.

Both profs seem to like me and are happy with my work. However, I won't be actually applying to grad school until late this year (probably September-December), so I'm worried if I ask for a reference later in the year, they will have forgotten a significant chunk of their experience supervising me and my contributions.

I want to get a letter out of them now when I'm still fresh in their minds and can get a great recommendation out of them. I'm sure they'll give me a positive one either way, but I feel like if I get one now it'll be a lot stronger, where as if I do it several months in the future, considering how busy they are, I probably won't be nearly as well remembered and my letter will be a lot more generic.

I wasn't sure if this is appropriate to do, and how I should go about doing this, so I was hoping I could get some advice on this. Both profs work in ECE (electrical and computer engineering) and the programs I will be applying to will be a combination of ECE programs and computer science programs.


texts: Does a post doc at a prestigious university make up for doing a PhD at a lesser ranked university for Mathematics?

texts:
I think I understand that someone should do a Ph.D. under a strong advisor and have a solid publication record, and I know going to a more prestigious university helps. Now, this is where I get confused. Let's say person A goes to Princeton and person B goes to Iowa State, for example. Let's say person A gets a post-doc at Michigan and person B also gets a post-doc at Michigan. Do people A and B both have an equal chance of getting a tenure track position at for example the University of Oklahoma? I guess what I'm asking is that if someone gets a post-doc at a prestigious university, does it make up for the prestige of where they got their Ph.D.?

The university I'm going to do my Ph.D. in has a nontrivial amount of people that get postdocs at prestigious universities but none of them end up as tenure track professors at universities with a graduate program.
A very small number of people ended up at R1 universities past 1990, perhaps several people at my university.

Some famous counterexamples to this are Igor Rodnianski, Aaron Brown, and Ernest S. Croot.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not interested in going on to be a tenure track professor, just curious.


texts: How should administration punish sexual abuse/trade for grade?

texts:
It happens that some students offer sex for grade.
Just considering the fact that popularity of this strategy can strongly weaken the quality of education, administrators should take some actions to avoid this.

What should a department head do to control this problem in his department?

How to punish?
Who to be punished? Student or professor? Or both ?

I am not asking about legal actions or university policies or discipline matters. I just wish to know What should a head/dean do in this regard to preserve the education quality.


texts: Do STEM professors retire from research at age 65, while continuing to teach classes?

texts:
I see many STEM professors work well into their 70s, 80s, and sometimes even into their early 90s - mostly in teaching, but their research careers were outstanding.  One of them that I spoke with told me that he hasn't done research in many years - though he teaches a class every semester.

Do STEM professors "retire" from research at age 65, while continuing to teach and enjoy their tenure?  Or are many professors still active in research past retirement age?

I'm asking primarily about US universities.


texts: 'Big shot' scientist offered me collaboration in a meeting. How long before I write to him?

texts: I met an important scientist in my field in a scientific meeting last week. We agreed that I should write a project draft and send it to him, so we could set up a collaboration. Because I want to take as much advantage as possible from this opportunity (I am a PhD student), I want to be very careful with the project draft that I sent him. But this week I have been very busy with other work, and I have not been able to write the draft. My fear is that the interaction will 'cool off' as the days past. It's not been a week yet, and I am planning to write this in at most 2 more days. But in general experience, how long is it ok to wait before sending an email like this?


texts: Why are honorary degrees awarded to celebrities?

texts: Chiranjeevi was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Andhra University. He is an actor, so how did he earn an honorary degree if he has not contributed anything to education?


texts: My mother language is not English and I am not sure how I should pronounce in fron of my students the word "SCImago" for journal & country rank by Scopus at https://www.scimagojr.com.


texts: What would be the grad program for studying Paralegal in the US?


texts: Ordering of co-primary authors on website

texts: If a published paper had an author ordering [A,B] where A and B are primary authors and the ordering is alphabetical is it acceptable for B to list on his website the ordering [B,A] so his first-authorship would look more obvious to people skimming his website?


texts: Diplomurkunde and Diplom (Diplomlehrer) in English?

texts:
This might be off-topic but I thought I would try here since I know we have people who will know the answer.

I have received two documents from a prospective teacher. They seem to be German diplomas but I do not understand clearly what they really mean. The names of the diplomas are:

Diplomurkunde, and
Diplom (Diplomlehrer)

(1) translates (via Google) as Diploma Certificate. This is a bit confusing because I normally think of certificates as something and a diploma as something else (which requires more studying).

(2) translates as Graduate Teacher. This seems to be quite different from what I'm used to as a graduate teacher is something you are (or something you do) rather than something you've achieved.

Is there a more detailed explanation which would tie back to the UK or US educational system?


texts: Getting into grad school for one field by doing research in another?

texts:
I want to go to grad school for computer engineering. I am in a non-STEM major. My GPA could be better. However, a lot of my prior undergrad research has been in interdisciplinary work ( mixing Computer Science with ethnography or sociology ). All together, I have about 4 research experiences in my undergrad career in either pure Computer Science or Computer Science mixed with ethno/soc.  How will this affect my chances of being admitted into grad school for directly into a PhD?
Also if I just decide to do a Masters, how much does prior undergrad research correlate to funding for a Master's?


texts: Can participation in online academic competitions destroy patent rights?

texts:
I have developed an algorithm/software that does a specific task. I want to let the algorithm compete in an academic competition, where the code is run on a password protected server on a secret test set by another researcher. I will describe my research vaguely in the few lines that each researcher must submit about their work to be able to compete.

Will any of this destroy my chances of acquiring a patent for the algorithm afterwards?


texts: Is there a research exchange program for postdocs between UK and worldwide universities?

texts: I completed a PhD a couple of years ago and am looking at postdocs abroad, but not in my original field, so my advisors aren't able to suggest good places to apply to. Are there any programmes (official or unofficial) where a UK PhD is highly regarded that facilitate exchanges of academics between UK and worldwide universities? I'm thinking US and China to start with.


texts:
I'm in the 2nd year of a 2-year MS program. The thesis is usually done through the duration of the 2nd year. I have been working on my thesis project, but my PI wants to produce the paper for it ASAP for fear of our competition producing the same paper before we do. So she essentially wants me to finish it by November of this Fall Semester (I finish in Spring). Because of this, she has actually had others in my lab work on it. Now it seems that if one of them solves it, my thesis will essentially be stolen from me.

Is this appropriate that my PI did this? I'm not sure how to react to the situation/ what I should do.


texts: Is it bad form to cold-email professors to do post-baccalaureate research?

texts:
Suppose I am interested in doing more research in a particular area in order to strengthen PhD applications, but I have just finished my undergrad degree.
Is it considered bad form to cold-email professors who say on their websites that they are accepting undergrad researchers in their lab asking to do research this summer/next year, though I’m no longer an undergrad?


texts: Invited to apply for different position at same school- write different letter?

texts:
I applied for a tenure track job, and was recently told that I would be better qualified for a different TT job in the same department and should apply for that position. The person who contacted me said they are on both committees. Do I need to write a completely different cover letter? The template of my letter makes sense, so I'd essentially just be rephrasing the letter with generally the same content. I don't know if that looks any better though since I could add some new information but I'd still want to hit the same points as in my previous letter. Or is it possible that they wouldn't even remember my original materials anyway?

PS, on top of that the job descriptions aren't all that different so I'm not even sure how I would make a new letter more specific. Literally like the only thing different is the title of the position and that the candidate should "have a background in X." Just based on principle, I don't know if a new letter is necessary.


texts: How to determine the number of citations an author had on a given date using Google Scholar?

texts: Is there a way to learn the number of citations by author on a particular date in the past? For example, how many citations did Author X have on 1/10/18?


texts:
I am a high school student, and I recently did some research into image translation using cycle consistent generative networks (a branch of machine learning). Sadly, it seems I've made an error, and the network is learning to map images to themselves.
It's still a very interesting question, and my algorithm doesn't work for a very interesting reason. But I'm worried I won't be able to do anything with this, in terms of getting it published in a small journal. Should I try something different, or should I publish my results?


texts: What can a person who hasn't enough time do about the unpredictable nature of the publication process?

texts:
I'm talking about a narrow sub-field of Computer Science - algorithm execution high-level simulations. However, I guess, this applies to many fields to some extent.

When you are submitting an article to a journal (peer-reviewed, indexed, with a track, not from a ranking bottom), you can't send the same article to other publishers. After submitting, editors often do not update anything in Elsevier's or Springer's systems about the status of your submission. The first move from the editorial board usually takes 2-8 weeks. 2-8 at best, if you sending them emails to track this, at worst they can just lose your paper and/or ignore emails. Usually, the next stop is a desk rejection (the shortest and the way causing least headache, just isn't leading to the goal) or sending it to the reviewers. The reviewing process in this narrow research area takes 3-12 months. A reviewer may say something not really relevant and short (or something you can use to improve your text, but this doesn't matter in this case) after a year and the article gets rejected. This can take longer if you aren't keeping an eye on it.

Then you have to repeat the process. This is not a short story process either, reformatting the article, pictures, editing (for the next journal's unique rules while you still remember that they can just ignore it or responding once a month to emails) etc. You can't speed this up, you can't even predict the time it will take. Seems like a kind of strangely convoluted hell just for presenting your results in some peer-reviewed (not high tier) journal if you're outside academia.

Disclaimer: the author is outside academia currently, but he has publications, teaching and research experience. 3-month tool development and output analysis results sometimes need 1-2 years to be published (just accepted, to be more specific). Maybe, the situation isn't as rough inside academia, but for one has no proper business relations, and paying all fees as an author and without an ability to focus on this process because it isn't one's main activity - it is.

Any advice?


texts: Include content in my PhD thesis from my paper whose content previously appeared in the PhD thesis of one of the coauthors of the aforementioned paper

texts:
I would want to include content in my PhD thesis from one of my research papers. I am a coauthor of the research paper. The order of the names of the authors in the research paper is not based on the importance of the individual contributions, but it is alphabetical. The point is that the content of the research paper is in turn based on the content of the PhD thesis of another coauthor of the research paper.
Given this situation, I want to know to which extent I would be guilty of plagiarism if I include the content in my PhD thesis with references to both the research paper and the PhD thesis of the other coauthor.


texts: Due to my depression, the department wants to kick me out of the graduate program. How to stay in this environment?

texts:
This is the third installment of the series: What can I do if my advisor wants me to keep working, even while I'm on medical leave for severe depression?

So, many months were gone and I'm still clinically depressed. Medication helps just a little bit, but I don't know how could I live without it. I had a very bad day at the lab a couple of weeks ago, and I posted on my personal profile in a social media that "life sucks, I can't take this anymore, my life is a failure, I wish I were dead".... that stuff. I was on my personal profile, and I wrote something like this before when I got really stressed. Nothing out of this world.

However, some of my lab mates and grad colleagues saw my post and went to the Head of the Program (faculty and staff too) "worried about a suicidal student".

It didn't end well. The HoP called my adviser and asked her about "a troubling student" that she may be dealing with. My advisor tried to save my back saying positive things about me. But the HoP said if I continue causing trouble, my adviser should send me to her and "she will take care of this mess".

This is not a good thing. I heard rumours that the department thinks about getting reasons to kick me out of the program, because if I leave - and never come back - the program itself would be penalized with less government funding. That wouldn't happen if I get expelled. Apparently, they don't want to take that risk.

But I want to stay. So, how to deal with this kind of environment? My professor got my back (after all problems that we had, so I happy for that), but the "Witch Hunters" are lighting up their torches. How to deal with a department that wants your head??

Even if I stay, how to deal with the stigma about depression and suicidal thoughts in academia? Everyone here thinks I'm about to star the second season of the Netflix's series 13 Reasons Why. I am now the "crazy psycho guy."


texts: Can UK university require you email from @ac.uk, not OutLOOK?

texts:
I have children who attend UK universities. Because GDPR, the university forbids email forwarding or accessing @ac.uk on Outlook. However, the university's @ac.uk system is more user unfriendly than Outlook, and they prefer to use Outlook!

Some instructors and department admin agree, and are willing to email both her Outlook and and her @ac.uk account. However, others order her to email them from just her @ac.uk, and refuse email to her Outlook account.

Should she be required to send email from just @ac.uk account?
Because of freedom of speech, we can't force people to email her Outlook. With that said, how can we sway instructors to include her Outlook account as well?


texts: Should I write a paper describing my comparisons and user guides for free tools?

texts:
I have already done a project for an organization about android non-functional testing and now they've forced me to write a paper about that.

I have read many scientific papers but I've not written any yet. So I really don't know if I can publish my work as a paper.

This project was about non-functional testing tools in Android and my task was to find existing free tools (best tool for each test) and write a user manual for each of them. (I have done this for almost 8 non-functional tests)

Does this sort of comparison seem like it would be publishable in an academic journal? This work seems like it would be helpful for others, but doesn't seem like "real research."


texts: Who writes the recommendation letters for returning student PhD applicants after a big hiatus?

texts:
The answers to previous questions indicate it's possible to apply for and complete a PhD even at age 65+ (example, another example).

If these applicants did undergraduate studies at a conventional age of 20+, by age 65+, their undergraduate supervisors are probably retired or deceased. Who writes the recommendation letters then (especially if the applicant's job did not involve research)?

If the answer to this question is also applicable to all students whose supervisors are retired or deceased (e.g. a campus shooting kills all of a student's supervisors), I'll edit the question to include the broader scope.


texts: Repetitively emailing old lab group about a paper constantly on the backburner

texts:
Context

About a year ago, I left a research team that I was involved with as a student for approximately 2 years. During this time, I did a variety of unpaid internships and paid scholarships as well as doing a year long research project for my degree with them. Throughout the 2 years, I was working with them towards writing and submitting a paper about the work I was doing.

After I had finished my degree, I asked to stay on as a member of staff. Whilst they were interested, they unfortunately could not offer me a job so I had to look elsewhere as I couldn't simply work for free forever. I soon after received a job at another institute and made plans to leave. Before I left, the paper we were looking to submit was in its final stages of completion. I had written a fully referenced draft, completed all of the figures and done all of the stats on the data. We were planning to submit within weeks of me leaving.

Note: I had left on excellent terms with them and they were very happy for me that I had managed to find work.

Issue

However, it's now been close to a year and things still have not moved. I've emailed them 4 times in past year (at least 3 months inbetween each email), telling them how things are going in my new lab and to ask if we can have an update about the paper and also asked if there's anything I can do for it such as re-analysing data or re-working any figures. They reply with either "currently a bit bogged down with grants/other papers/etc" or "we're aware of it and we'll get something to you soon".

I've tried not to pester them about it and I'm concerned about crossing a line by contacting them incessantly. I'd like to remain on good terms with them.

How should I approach this situation? Should I let it go and be pleasantly surprised if they contact me? Do I risk annoyance by contacting them further about it? I'm aware that yes I did leave and no it may not be in their highest priority, but it's still a publication for their lab. There is a mutual benefit for us.

I have also considered the fact that perhaps it is not as complete as I had thought and that they need more data. But insofar they haven't communicated anything of the sort to me.

I'd really like to have my work published. Not just for ego reasons, but I will be most likely applying for some pretty competitive PhD scholarships this year so would also like to have at least a first author publication under my belt.


texts: How to cross-references sections in a thesis?

texts:
When using cross-references in a thesis for cross-referencing to specific sections, do we have to use section numbers or section names would be fine too?

example:

  As discussed in the Discussion section, ...

vs

  As discussed in section 3.4, ...

If possible, please answer with a citable reference.

I remember reading that both are correct, but know I cannot find it! I think it was in the book "How to write a better thesis?" by Evans, Gruba and Zobel.

Thanks!


texts:
I submitted a 60-page paper to a reasonable math journal (Journal of Algebra) about 6 months ago. A few days ago I received an email stating that my paper was accepted. I did not get a referee report. I did not get any comments on my paper.
 Just an acceptance notice.

Is this usual? it seems very strange to me that the referee has absolutely no comment on a 60-page paper!

Should I ask the editor what happened?


texts: Misrepresentation of credentials on LinkedIn

texts:
I am a graduate student enrolled in an MSc program. Recently, I was googling one of my peers and came across their LinkedIn. Let's call this person Bob. Bob is purporting on their LinkedIn page that they are a PhD candidate when I know that Bob is not in fact a PhD candidate but a first-year MSc student much like myself. I double-checked with the departmental webpage and Bob is listed as an MSc candidate. Am I under any obligation to report this to my department? I feel as if this falls under misrepresentation, but I'm not sure since Bob is not gaining an edge as far as I can tell by doing this.

Note: I wasn't too sure what to tag this as I am not too familiar with the tags on academia.SE. Please feel free to correct my use of tags. Thanks!


texts: Has a journal ever switched between being a predatory journal and a reputable one?

texts:
There are a lot of questions here on what predatory journals are, and how to tell if a journal is one or not.

Are there known cases where a journal has "switched" camps, or where substantial evidence has been presented that they have? That is, has it ever occurred where:

A journal developed a strong reputation for being predatory, recognized this, and engaged in a good-faith process of reform, eventually gaining at least a non-trivial amount of scientific credibility or impact?
A journal with no history of predatory behavior suddenly started showing signs of becoming a predatory journal? For example, a publisher may have fallen on hard times, or been scooped by wealthier journals, and decided to lower their standards to such a level as to become predatory in order to survive.

For example, if someone has claimed, "The Podunk University Journal of Advanced Best Practices in Intermediate Spline Reticulation used to be a low-impact but serious journal, but after Podunk U was rocked by a cheating scandal in 2003 and there was a gradual movement away from Spline Reticulation toward Spline Retransmogrification from about 2005 to 2010 with a corresponding drop in the number of serious papers on Spline Reticulation being submitted, they started becoming a 'pay for play' publication and nowadays mostly publish incomprehensible screed written by rich patrons who want to increase their publication count.", that would count.

As the definition of a "predatory" journal is somewhat vague and based on professional judgments rather than 100% objective criteria, I would consider any of the following to "count" as a determination that a journal is or is not "predatory":

The journal's practices or policies are so blatantly predatory or non-predatory that a conclusion is self-evident.
A large-scale consensus exists on a journal's nature, even though there may be a minority that has raised a legitimate case for the opposite conclusion.
A substantial, notable professional opinion has been released concluding that a journal is/was or is/was not predatory at a specific time. Inclusion on Beall's list would count as a professional opinion that the journal was predatory at the time it was added.


texts: Reasonablity of evaluation methods in developed countries for Maths and Sci students

texts:
Globally considering, in many (or maybe all) developing countries professors/lecturers in universities only take mid-term and final few-hour-exams to evaluate students' learning. In some (or maybe all) developed countries they evaluate students by some combination of three types of factors:

written assignments, i.e. student have to do their research on the subject and gather the information,
verbal assignments, i.e. like written assignment but presenting them as a seminar or the like to the class,
(small percentage of mark for) few-hour-exams.

My questions are:

Each of the evaluation methods has its own pros and cons: Not all students can show that they have learned enough just in a few hours exam especially due to anxiety; and not all students do their assignment by themselves. Why do developed countries consider written assignments as a big percentage of marks that a student can get?
Are there universities follow the method of only written and verbal assignments and don't take exams at all, and those universities are high ranked and their degree despite their poor method of evaluation have a high validity? Which universities?

Note that this question are just purely about Science and Mathematics degrees on BSc and (especially) MSc levels.

Thank you.


texts: Starting over six years again after Ph.D.

texts:
I graduated with Ph.D. in 2012 from SUNY-Albany College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, with B.S. in Physics. Then I could not find a related job to this day.

In 6 years, I managed only to get two different full time jobs in entirely different fields, and they did not last.  I believe one of the major obstacle in my goal is that I am Deaf, and the employers do discriminate.

So, now I am enrolling into community college to try to get in an internship program in Computer Science/Engineering in Spring 2019.  One of my major defects was that I did lot of modeling and simulations on a platform, but without a computer program language (C++, for instance). Another major defects: the program was not ABET certified, did not have any undergraduate engineering courses (AutoCAD, statics, etc), exhausted references.

As I was working on this course of action, I realized that most college and universities tend not to admit people who has advanced degrees (both undergraduate and graduate programs).  Granted, the community college will provide me with additional training and coursework to cover some of the defects such as basic engineering courses, programming and possibly one more math course.  But how do I get back into advanced research and coursework, or at least do advanced research (postdocs generally requires recent graduate within 3 years)?


texts: Does an MD make a difference to a PhD application in bioengineering?

texts: Does having an MD affect in any way, help or hurt, a PhD application to a top tier program (right after medical school and in the same field as the undergrad major--bioengineering, in my case)? Does doing or not doing a clinical residency matter to this either way?


texts: Why are some PhD holders unable to become professors?

texts:
Why do some people get STEM PhDs, want a professorship, and end up not getting it?

Is it only about opportunity and competition, or are there PhD candidates that are just not qualified to be professors (why?)?


texts:
I am currently an undergrad student looking to research with one particular professor. On talking with his colleagues, it was suggested that I first get some research experience under my belt; the professor in question is a high level professor who is currently not looking for students and it would significantly help my cause when he opens up if I have research experience already.

There are other professors that I'm not particularly interested (interesting, but not amazingly interesting to me) in working with, but are open and would be willing to take me in currently. Is it ok to use these professors as experience builders on the premise that I would switch as soon as the professor I would like to work with opens up? If so, should I tell the stopgap professor that I intend on switching as soon as the other group opens up?

Just to be clear, I would put in the time required for the stopgap work - I would not just blow it off. I am just concerned about using someone as a stopgap and potentially leaving them high and dry if they expect me to be there for the next 3 years of undergrad.


texts:
I am preparing an application for a full-time lecturer position. They asked me for a teaching statement (done), a research statement (done) and a plan for generating funding for the next three years (trying now). I am a bit confused about this and I am not sure what they actually want with this funding plan. I could, of course, name all the different grant applications that I could potentially submit, but I am convinced that they are expecting more than that.

Any help?

Thanks!