texts: What is the probability of rejection for a long-time-review in the revised version of a manuscript?

texts:
At the January of the current year, I have submitted a paper to a high-rank math journal. After around 10 weeks review time and 4 weeks editorial time, a decision of reject-and-resubmit was made (1 minor revise, 2 major revise and one reject-and-resubmit were the decision of reviewers).

I answered the comments, which, in my opinion, significantly improved the paper in a than response letter with more than fifty pages. For example, I proved a set of new interesting theorems and lemmas in the revised version of the paper in answer to some of the comments.

From the submission of the revised paper, nearly 18 weeks have been passed, during which the paper is under the review. I wonder why such a long time is necessary for a journal which gives its reviewers just an 8-week reviewing time.

Does this mean that the probability of acceptance of my paper, is high or low? What is happening in the journal for my paper? I am very much dependent on this paper to finish my Ph.D., and for my job. I worked very very hard but unfortunately at a low-ranking university. Will they judge my paper by the rank of my university or my advisor (co-author)?

My supervisor urges me not to contact the journal editor for the decision about the paper since they may get angry and reject the paper.

My main goal is to sooner defend the thesis as I am under immense pressure. My university needs at least one JCR Q1 or Q2 paper to be able to defend the thesis and graduate.

As this may take more time, my main question is: what is your advice for me, assume rejection of this paper and work on a new paper? Or assume acceptance, or revise and work on writing my Ph.D. thesis? Since the draft of my thesis is dependent on this choice very much, this decision is very crucial for me.

What would you do if you were me? In other words, what is the probability of rejection for a long-time-review in the revised version of a manuscript?


texts: (How) should I describe the company within my bachelor's thesis?

texts:
I'm writing my computer science bachelor's thesis in a company. The thesis is about optimizing one of their software products. Obviously I will need to describe the software in the thesis, but what about the company itself?

Is it sufficient to name the company and give a short description of what they're about, or should I go into more detail like e.g. the history of the company?

(I'm new here, so if this question isn't a good fit, feel free to let me know :) )


texts: Collaborations during Mental Health Duress

texts:
Throwaway account for obvious reasons.

I'm in the middle of a research fellowship/postdoc working with a bunch of people on various projects (in mathematics). Over the last 8 months, I have had a tumultuous relationship with my mental health that has led to many days being unable to do work. I have about four to five research collaborations that I am working on at varying stages of completion. I haven't been able to work on them as efficiently and effectively as I wish, but each is making some amount of progress to the point where no one has actively stated their discontent on the progress of said projects due to my performance.

I'm debating telling everyone what has happened over the eight months and I am unsure to what extent I need to explain my lack of engagement with each project due to personal issues. On one hand, I don't want people to think I was slacking off, but on the other hand many people will write letters for faculty positions and I don't want them thinking I cannot hack it. I hope to not mess up my academic reputation.  There's no requirement to tell anyone as I am on my own funding, so there's no "boss" that I need to tell when I take days off for mental difficulties.

What is the best way to deal with mental health issues when one is in the middle of collaborations and can't work at their standard pace? Do I tell collaborators of my current struggle or do I keep discretion as personal life should not interact with work life?


texts: Ethical Disclosure of Professional Knowledge in PhD Dissertation

texts:
I have just completed my PhD. Although my examiners did not raise any concerns, I have been grappling with an ethical issue for the entire duration of my candidature.

The issue concerns professional knowledge of the field on which my research is based. This is an issue of concern because I am employed in the field and have access to information that is generally not publicly available (but is available to me as an employee) or only found in hard-to-get industry publications (e.g. newsletters). These publications are hard-to-get because of their specialised nature and limited circulation.

Disclosing this information creates a potential conflict of interest for me (because of reasons associated with commercial-in-confidence, breach of trust etc.). It gets even worse because I am often actively involved in generating this information as part of various negotiations I am required to have with third parties (in my capacity as an employee). As an example, I draft policy speeches for my CEO so this has the effect of quoting my own work in my dissertation (but attributed to my CEO in the citation and bibliography!)

To resolve this matter, I have declared (categorically) this conflict of interest (several times in my dissertation) (although I don't identify myself as the ghost writer). I have also put whatever information I thought could be ethically disclosed in the relevant context (e.g. cited the publicly available newsletter, where possible). This was to ensure future researchers could benefit from this 'inside' knowledge. I have stated this as one of the contributions to knowledge that my dissertation is making.

I must add that the professional knowledge does not contradict or undermine my research, so I am certainly not withholding the information for this reason. On the contrary, this information enhances the main arguments of my study (so omitting it presents a significant dilemma for me).

i would love to hear how else could this matter be resolved.


texts: If you are seeking an engineering job, do employers care about which university you attended? Do they look at your grades, or bias their decision based on the college's reputation? There are stories of Ivy League graduates struggling to find employment, while another person at a small, virtually unheard-of college grabbing that opportunity. So if you are attending a prestigious school, and your grades are lower than someone who is attending a small, high-school-like school, how will that affect your employment opportunities?


texts: Why is the two-column format so popular?

texts:
At least in the field of computer science, I have noticed this to be a common practice.

Why exactly is this done? I find it harder to read and follow.


texts:
What is the cost/benefit analysis for a Post-Doc taking a position as an interim professor?

Some costs I can think of: High teaching workload. Current projects suffer and a gap in publication record may result.

Some Benefits: Higher salary during interim position. The value of adding the position to your CV.


texts: Using harry potter in my Statement of Purpose

texts: Can I use an occurrence in Harry Potter as a simile in my Statement of Purpose? I'm applying to an Ivy League university.


texts: How to learn commenting on graphs and tables the right way?

texts:
I have attended many presentation where the presenter will show a graph/table in one of his/her slides, but they struggle to explain the semantics of the graph/table/results.

I think there is much more hidden in graphs/tables than young scientists can tell. Is there a way to improve this skill.

My adviser is also very strict on this, so I would like to know how to form sentences which really explain well what is being presented in the slide.

I believe a good point to start is explaining the axis and what they represent, and then comment on results. But how to improve this.


texts: What weight does a visiting assistant professorship in a different field carry in tenure track faculty applications?

texts:
I am finishing my PhD next month in Philosophy. I've been offered a Visiting Assistant Professorship (VAP) in Mathematics at a very good (nationally recognized) Small Liberal Arts College (SLAC).

I have alternative options, and I have a handle on the money situation.

I'm looking further down the road. Suppose I take the VAP. Suppose I'm applying next year for Tenure Track jobs in Philosophy.

The question: In your experience, what weight does a VAP from a different field carry when evaluating an application?


texts: Adjunct offered and accepted a Full-time 1-year contract, then told to "disregard" by HR staff

texts:
I am having some trouble getting a straight answer from my school. At the start of Fall I was offered a 1-year Full-time (FT) Temporary position by appointment letter approved by the school President. I previously have been an adjunct and a FT Temporary by appointment letter at my school. I accepted and noted a date-of-service error which was quickly corrected and a second President-approved letter was issued and I accepted. I was in the middle of interviewing at 2 other schools but like it here better so life is good! My payroll system updates to the higher pay and all my other online indications change to the new appointment.
Not so fast — when I mention the appointment to my Dean I quickly then get an  email from an HR staffer telling me to "disregard" the appointment letter. My payroll status reverts back to a job from a year ago  since my Summer adjunct contract had completed. I ask what happened and get the runaround. I have not received any formal cancellation or rescission of my appointment letter — when asked HR tells me they have no process to do so.
With Fall ready to start I ask if I am going to get an adjunct contract since I am slated to teach a Physics class in a few days — and I don't get one until the end of the first week — I told my Dean I was very uncomfortable teaching without contract but I did not want to cancel class and penalize the students.
I corresponded with the Director of HR with multiple questions and with my Union — the Union President met with the Director of HR and arranged a Zoom meeting with the Outlook meeting invitation (from Director HR!) stating

This meeting has been scheduled to discuss contract processes and answer requestors questions regarding issuance of contracts.

and asked for supporting documents which I provided. I also asked for an agenda and was told again

This meeting is for you and [name] to discuss your specific situation and the questions you submitted regarding contract processes.     You submitted questions, and they are meeting with you to answer them as well as address any concerns you may have beyond the questions you submitted..

And when I got there I was told that no questions would be answered, only later in a letter. When I stated this was not the stated intent, I was further told both: we have answered your questions,
AND [strangely] we won't be answering every single question. When I challenged that and said "I feel like I was fooled or tricked into the background for having this meeting" I was told that I offended them.  I took very detailed notes and transcribed them that night and had them reviewed by another attendee for accuracy.
I then received a 20-page letter 10 days later from Director, HR that stated "on behalf of the College" we have answered all your questions and closing the conversation with HR:

As you consider this information, please address any further questions about the appointment letters or adjunct contracts you received with your Dean, [name of Dean].

It further stated that my Academic Division was where the appointment letters (twice!) originated. When I communicated with my Dean I was told that the Dean has asked HR to amend the letter since the appointment letters did not originate in the Division.
So I think I am stuck between the two. The Union is thinking about it — what do you think I should do?
I went from a full-time gig to 1 class so my pay is down by about 2/3 — I was able to get another job at another school nearby for a quarter to tide me over. I feel bullied, discounted and ignored.


texts: I do not understand what good it does them. A professor said it gives opportunity to read papers he would not read on his own. I am sure there is more to it but I do not see what they gain by participating in peer review process. It takes time, it is not paid and not even publicly acknowledged. Why do they do it?


texts: Is it safe to use pirated software for Doctoral research?

texts:
I am using unlicensed simulation software (downloaded from torrents) for Doctoral Thesis (and Research papers) on my personal laptop without the knowledge of my institution as the university doesn't have the licensed software. 1) Is this safe?
2) Can I be questioned by the software vendor. 3) Can my paper be retracted from journals?

(I'm uninterested in answers relating to free student versions of software and freeware.)


texts: My advisor shared my unpublished/ongoing work with another student without notice

texts:
My work has been rejected from a conference. I am working on it to get accepted. As the conference is annually occurred, I think at least 6 or more months will be required to make another submission.
However, I just noticed that my advisor shared my work with another student without notice. The other PhD student asked me how to apply my method into his project, which I was pondering for one of my next action items.

I am upset about my advisor, because he barely provided feedback on how to improve the outcomes. He does not copy his discussion with another student.
I felt like he just tried to share my ideas to have more publication.

I understood that students should discuss and collaborate each other to improve research. According to another student's email, he does not seem to have any intention for collaboration. He just mentioned that he read my draft of paper and considered applicable to his research, so he just wants to know the implementation details.

I understand the value of collaboration. However, I am not sure if another student and I are supposed to work together, since my advisor did not inform anything about discussion with this student. The other student does not seem to have any intention of collaboration.

Should I just talk to my advisor not to share my undergoing work without any notice and inquire if I am supposed to collaborate or not?


texts:
There have been a number of questions asked here, such as this question, or this question. The first question asked about how to find the authors of peer reviews. The second discussed the benefits of anonymity of peer review. However, I have been unable to find a question address the antecedent issue: why is peer review anonymous?

What are the historical reasons behind this practice? Was peer review always anonymous? What are the benefits behind anonymous peer reviews? Has the academic community learned from previous experiences that anonymous peer review is the best sort of process?

It also seems like a few journals as analyzed in this article (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-08250-2) performed open peer review with a sizable proportion of authorship of peer reviews also providing their identities (8.1%). In this paper the authors suggested that anonymity protects individuals from retaliation. It would seem to me that if all of a sudden all peer review were public, attempts at retaliation would be easy to identify and address. However, with the current state of the review process, one could sometimes guess at the author of a negative review and secretly retaliate. How has the academic community overall arrived at general acceptance of anonymous peer review?


texts: Are there any undergraduate research programs available online?

texts: Is there something like an undergraduate research programme (given by a good institution) in mathematics/theoretical physics which provides a research opportunity in which I can collaborate online and leads to a publication?


texts: Can I negotiate for fellowships from a graduate department before accepting their offer?

texts:
I have currently been accepted to Ph.D. in CS programs at 2 schools in the USA (let's call them A and B). Both have offered 5 years of TA/RA funding. A is my preferred choice, but I haven't accepted the offer formally since I'm waiting to hear from a couple of other places.

However, school B is offering a fellowship in my first year in addition to TA/RA, which would be helpful as I am planning to attend a conference in Europe in September (not sure if new students get travel grants that early).

Is it acceptable to contact school A and ask if I could be considered for any incoming student fellowships (I know they have at least one) BEFORE actually accepting their offer? If so, should I mention that I have fellowship offers from other schools and/or my interest in attending the conference?

Note: I have an oral paper under review at this conference as the first author, and my advisor is confident it will be accepted, but I'll only know for sure in late April. Also, even if the paper is rejected and I do not have to attend, a fellowship will be useful in attending any other conference, not to mention boosting my academic profile.


texts: Proper citation of scooped or defective articles

texts:
I'm curious about the correct way to cite a paper which is flawed when I publish in academic journals.  In the past I've added annotations to the bibliography (or included text in the main article) stating what the problem was.  But now I wonder if instead if such annotations should sometimes start with "The authors have been notified that...."

The reason is that I have encountered a professor who shamelessly fails to issue errata for mathematical errors and (worse) also fails to issue errata when overlooked prior work (not mine) completely scoops her weaker results by 25+ years.  (The weaker result has eclipsed the older one, drawing on the order of 100 citations.)   More recently, I found that she has another article failing to cite a similar article proving a similar result, and she failed to issue errata for mathematical errors in 3 of her papers.

Her lack of citation case wasted a month of my time.  (I wrote an article improving upon her paper, only to find my manuscript was still weaker than the original she failed to cite.)


texts: What levels of graduate schools can various combinations of GPAs and GREs get you into

texts:
Assume that the candidate is a graduate of a good state school, e.g. North Carolina or Ohio State. Then I want to explore this candidate's probable viability in getting into "second tier" graduate schools, say 15-30th in a given field using the following academic combinations.
The best combination would be something like a 3.9 GPA and a graduate exam (GRE or LSAT) score of 175 or better (out of 180). Assuming research and activities were competitive (and are held constant between candidates), would these candidates be able to do better than second tier (say top 15)?
A second best combination might be something like a 3.5 GPA and a 175 exam score or a 3.9 GPA and a 165 exam score. How would this candidate "stack up" for a second tier grad school? Are the two sets equivalent or is one combination decidedly more competitive than the other?
Third best would be something like 3.5 GPA and a 165 exam score. Would "second tier" grad school be a reach for such a person?
If you changed "good state school" to "HYPSM" and kept exam scores and GPA constant, would that change matters?
Explanation: Unlike the other question, this one is not about getting students in from the "bottom." This question is about how the TOP three (or so) categories sort themselves out.


texts: Should I ask my research advisor for extra hourly work as a gap-year research assistant (not a student)?

texts:
I'm currently working as a post-bac researcher with my undergraduate advisor in the US, but lost my funding last summer. So, I have been doing the research as voluntary work and work odd jobs that are not contributing to my career just to pay the bills. I'm in a tight financial situation where earning some extra money would be good.

Since I am not a graduate student, would it be reasonable to ask my advisor if I can be paid for some side research and TA-related work (e.g. grading papers for a class)? Does this seem like atypical request to a professor?


texts: How to cultivate relationships/recommendors as an introvert

texts:
I'm getting close to finishing a PhD in applied mathematics (next May), and I'm starting to think about next fall's job application season.  I'm realizing that one of the things I'm missing is a strong recommendation from a senior academic that isn't on my committee or a professor I've taken courses from.  I realize that it takes time to cultivate these relationships, but I'm now also realizing that I've been a fairly introverted student in the sense that I haven't really pushed myself to build any collaborative relationships that would make asking for a recommendation more natural.  I've had lots of conversations with senior people at conferences or who have visited my department, but I never seem to follow up because I doubt their level of interest in me or my projects (this is flawed, introversion-driven reasoning, I realize).  I have a few loose collaborations going with other junior academics but again, I've been a little shy and flaky on pushing those projects forward for some reason or another. I also wouldn't consider these collaborators senior leaders in my field, which isn't an issue for collaborating, but the value of their recommendation is perhaps less so than someone higher up the proverbial ladder.

The question is the following: since I still have a little bit of time before the next application season (6 months or so), should I focus on nurturing the collaborations I already have going, or should I start trying to get a little more bold with more senior people?  I realize that I should probably do both, but I welcome any input.


texts: Will university marks/qualifications obtained during the pandemic largely through online assessment hold reduced value as we progress back to normal?

texts: Do you think when we reach a point where students/graduates can be separated into pre-covid, during covid, post-covid, that the world - for the purposes of postgraduate admissions, employment - will view marks/qualifications from during the pandemic with increased skepticism? Speaking personally, I have to admit that the online situation boosted my results above what they were before/likely would have been, but at the same time I do think my actual understanding of the material was also enhanced.


texts: Repositories of publications of universities or institutions across the world

texts:
Is there any extensive database with the repositories of universities (and similar institutions) from around the world?

By repositories, I mean web pages where publications (such as PhD thesis) are publicly available or at least their meta-data. I would like to know if any such database exists in any form.

OP Edit

More precisely, what I am looking for is a comprehensive list with the web addresses of the repositories of several universities. For example:

Harvard (USA): https://dash.harvard.edu/
MIT (USA): https://dspace.mit.edu/
UNMSM (Perú): https://cybertesis.unmsm.edu.pe/
and so forth...


texts: Are academic indicators (h-index, impact factor, etc) really adopted by institutions? Currently used? And how?

texts:
Academic indicators (h-index, impact factor, modified h-indexes, etc) have a long string of criticism by academics and not (see here, here or here).

Instead of debating (endlessly) on how "not representative" and flawed these numbers are (or howling generic rants...), I would be interested to know if Academia.SE community members have objective facts and reports on how academic workplaces are currently using these indicators. For instance in the upcoming REF2014 (UK), academics in my institution are urged to use, as their contributions, the papers accepted in highest impact factors journals.

In summary, can you trade your h-index for a better paying job?


texts: Would it be arrogant for me to offer my professor material on the module they teach?

texts: I am a first year CS undergraduate taking a module on differential equations. For part of this module I did a personal project on the motion of simple harmonic systems (damped and undamped) which I recently found out was in fact something we would briefly cover at the end of the module. From my project I have a very nice set of interactive graphs which I made to aide my learning and understanding of the subject. When I found out that the subject of my project was something that would be covered in the module it occurred to me that this might be worth offering to my professor to possibly share with other students or something to that end. However as soon as I thought this I realised that it might come across as arrogant and I'm now unsure of what to do. Would it be worth emailing my professor about this?


texts: How to evaluate conference applicants (presentations, panels, etc.) for a small conference?

texts:
I am assisting in arranging a small conference in a highly mixed topic. There will be hard scientists, soft scientists, makers/creators/artists, researchers from many different fields etc.

I'm assisting in a number of small ways - one is how to decide on who should be able to present, and under what conditions/criteria. This is more difficult than I had imagined.

We will have no issue getting enough applicants, but we do have issues sorting through them. In the past, they've relied on a very quant-oriented process, however they've felt overall that this hasn't translated into the best pairing of speakers on panels, strength of tracks, etc. This year the proposal is to rely on more intuition, and qual-style evaluation (does it align with our goals, does it incorporate diversity, etc.).

Because we are quite small, there isn't the budget or capacity to get a wide panel of experts who can decide on quant-based merits for every applicant. We do have about 15 people who are active in the various tracks of the conference.

I'm trying to make this general enough to be helpful to others in the future, so the question remains simple: how does a very small conference evaluate conference proposals? Are there any best practices?


texts:
I'm submitting an abstract for the World Molecular Imaging Conference and they advise:

  Please include a Persuasive Data file if you would like your abstract to be considered for an oral presentation. Persuasive data should include figure captions that explain the results of the figure without requiring the reviewer to re-read the main text.

The Persuasive data file should be .pdf or .doc

I have never come across this format before, does anyone know what a persuasive data file is? I'm guessing either extended abstract or actual experimental data?


texts:
Recently I had a paper accepted by a major journal in discrete mathematics. Now the paper is going through the final stages of publication. The publisher sent me a link in which I have to specify the access policy for the paper. I can choose to either pay a fee (which I won't), and make my paper publicly available from the publisher website, or I can choose to self-archive, and
then make my paper publicly available after a period of 24 months of embargo.
More precisely, the text for the self-archiving is the following:

  I wish to self-archive my accepted author manucript , which is my draft
      version of the article and which may include any author-incorporated
      changes from the peer review process. I can post this author manuscript
      on my institutional or subject-orientated repository immediately for
      internal use and make it publicly available after a journal specific
      embargo period has expired.

The problem is that I have already posted the revised version of my paper at arxiv much before receiving this access form from the publisher. So I have some questions concerning this paragraph.

The paragraph says that I can post the manuscript at a subject-oriented repository immediately for internal use. As mentioned before I already posted it to arxiv, which I think can be considered as a subject-oriented repository. Is that allowed? What do they mean by internal use?
What do they mean about making the manuscript publicly available after the embargo? I have a link at my homepage pointing to the arxiv page. Is this considered to be publicly available?
What is the difference between posting it to a repository and making it public?
Can I get in trouble if they find the link to the paper at my homepage?


texts: Do you keep your study notes publicly available?

texts:
I am considering to create a wiki/blog for most of my study notes that I have made or taken digitally.

Also, for the handwritten and rough ones I am thinking about storing them in my GitHub repository.

Is this a good idea? How do professionals in academia and PhD students organise their notes?

Also, should I keep my notes publicly available?

Edit: The main purpose of keeping my notes public is to have them readily available and searchable of myself and my immediate peers in college. If that benefits someone else, I will be more than glad to have helped.

Update regarding having a blog/wiki: I was thinking about having stuff regarding my take on a certain topic or similar rather than just straightaway putting mugged up lecture notes. (as I mentioned in a comment)

So basically, as I go along a certain topic whatever interesting I find, I post
it. Also I will put in links to papers, books and other interesting literature on the topic that might be helpful while studying the topic. This seems easier to deal with and also serves as a way to track my current interests and/or workflow.


texts: I'm at the stage in writing my dissertation where most of the substantive aspects are finished and the only tasks left are more or less administrative. However, one thing that I've been avoiding is writing the "Acknowledgements" section. Obviously I will thank my supervisor, committee members, other faculty and staff that have played a meaningful role in my education, other students who have been friends and co-workers, my close friends, and my family (in that order!), but I'm struggling with how to approach it. Does anyone have advice or hot tips about what to do or not do that they'd be willing to share? Is it possible to make it meaningful without sounding contrived or pedantic or disingenuous? Do I go with the standard disclaimer about how any errors that remain after getting all that wonderful help and support are mine alone...? Thanks!


texts: What if in hindsight a Nobel Prize is wrongly awarded (for example, after the concerning theory has been proven wrong)?

texts:
I read in this paper (maybe popular, but I think they didn't tell nonsense) observations have been collected by a group of researchers that maybe after all dark energy doesn't exist. Dark energy implies an accelerated expansion of the universe.
For these observations, a Nobel prize (if I remember correctly in 2011) was awarded.
More generally, does anything happen for the winner(s) of a Nobel price, financially-wise or price-wise, or whatever-wise if it turned out later in time that their awarded theor(y)(ies) turn out to be wrong?
To be clear, I'm talking about physics, chemistry, medicine,...Not about literature, economics, peace...


texts: Commercial company wants me to list all prior "inventions", give up everything not listed

texts:
I'm a post-doctoral researcher in computer science, but my next position will be in industry.  I've been negotiating a contract with this commercial company to do R&D work (not while I'm employed at a university). It's been a negative experience overall, because - like many companies - they did not write their draft contract themselves, nor gave it serious thought, but had some lawyer draw it up (without seriously reading it afterwards).

Not going into all the horrors of what the IP part looked like - here's a bit of it:

  "Invention" shall include but not be limited to improvements, designs, discoveries, developments and works of authorship or artistry (including without limitation software, integrated circuit, printed circuit board or computer design, and documentation).

  ... (etc. etc.)

  I have attached hereto, as Schedule 1, a complete list of all Inventions to which I claim ownership and desire to remove from the scope of this Agreement, and acknowledge that such list is complete ("Prior Inventions")

and basically they get to own everything else.

This may (?) be just fine for people who move from employment in one commercial company to another and never feel the need to publish anything or have rights to develop anything independently - each company makes you essentially say "you own everything" and then they can dish it out amongst themselves. But - it obviously won't fly if you're involved in continuing research - earlier, in an academic institute and now independently, outside the scope of your commercial employment, and/or if you're writing free software. I've had lots of ideas, notes, open ends of other work, talks with people, etc. which may be developed further - in addition to things you've actually published or registered in any way. I can't just recite all of them - nor do I want to tell the company all about them.

My question is about how to deal with this situation, or perhaps - how indignant I should be about it. Some options:

Just strike out that section of the contract and explain to them it's an unreasonable request.
Try to tweak the wording so that the list isn't wholly definitive ( <- A bad idea IMHO)
Write a list, but add items which are general and vague to represent half-baked (or unbaked) stuff, sort of catch-all "inventions" you could later claim cover actual things you pick up on.
Give in, write down some sort of a list and hope they don't go after you.

Suggestions with concrete examples are especially helpful.

Notes:

It isn't just this one company, I've seen similar contract drafts in several places already. It's not like this everywhere, but I don't want to have to rule out workplaces just because they are careless about their contracts (that is, assuming they don't actually want to suck you dry of your independent contributions).
I have no problems rewording this part of the contract whichever way I like, so I'm not asking for help with reading or writing "legalese" here.
I'm not in the US (and I don't want to make this question country-specific).


texts:
Some journals (specifically on biology or chemistry) accept only MS Word files as manuscripts, while many journals on mathematics or physics prefer LaTeX.
Even Science prefers MS Word.

Why do they insist on proprietary MS Word, instead of accepting PDF + plain text?
I don't think they typeset papers on MS Word.


texts: What is "target decision date" in sciencedirect-publishing journal?

texts:
According to the information retrieved from EVISE supporting agent, my revised submission was undergoing the second round of review. I have found out that both referees missed their target deadline (without any request for further extension).

The agent also tried to persuade that the submission will have final decision soon; (s)he called it as 'Target decision date'.

Here are the questions I would like to know:
1) Is it common that the reviewers returns their comments late?
2) Have anyone experienced 'Target decision date'?

Kindly regards,


texts: I grade exams together with a colleague but disagree with their grading. What should I do?

texts:
Recently, I have graded exams (50 pcs.) together with a colleague from another department. I felt like my colleague was awarding too many points for wrong/incomplete answers. For example, awarding points for just writing information of the question (value and units of parameters) on the answer sheet; or awarding points for copying one of the formulas on the formula sheet to the answer sheet while not specifically described in the grading template

During the grading of the exams I have discussed this with my colleague and decided to mostly follow his 'point awarding system' so that it does not create an unfair grading between sub-groups of the total population. Afterwards, I have discussed this again, but I feel like my colleague is not keen to change his grading style.

What are the next steps that I could take? Is it necessary that the whole university should have the same grading style?

ps: The course is given by their department and I have helped since this year because it overlaps with my expertise. It has a pass rate of ~50%.

ps2: It's not that his point awarding system is so loose that students with a 3/10 will suddenly be awarded a 6/10 but it will certainly change the outcome of passing the course for some students.


texts: In what sort of department can I pursue a PhD in fan behaviour?

texts:
I'm planning to do PhD on the Fan culture to be specific - A comparative study on the effects of Digital media on Football Fan behaviour on supporters of European football clubs in Indonesia and India. The core basis for comparison is the origins of fan culture in India and Indonesia, where for India it was non-existent and for Indonesia it was already robust before TV arrived.
I want it to be a statistical analysis on a large sample data collected over questionnaires (internet) identifying variables which drive incentives psychologically and economically and also want to include focus group interviews. The point of origin of research is the influence of the introduction of Cable TV and the Internet.
However, I'm really confused as to which subject department I should apply to, am most likely to get funding in and would be the best fit for such a topic. Fan behaviour has crossovers from psychology, economics, sociology, anthropology and Media.
I have a masters in Economics and have 6 years of experience working in Analytics mostly in statistical modelling for FCMG Brands. Following which I spent the next 4 years trying to document football in Asian.


texts: Applying to a psychology PhD with only neuroscience research experience

texts: I am currently unsure whether I want to do my PhD in psychology or neuroscience so I'm applying to both programs. The issue is that all of my previous research experience is exclusively in neuroscience. Within my psychology applications, do I need to explain why I only have neuroscience experience in my statement of purpose? If so, how should I go about doing this? I was a psychology major and I became interested in neuroscience during my second year, so that's why how I chose my first experience. I chose my second experience because they hired me due to my initial experience so I didn't have a lot of leeway with this one. I am still unsure which subject I prefer however.


texts: What does "Publish or perish" really mean?

texts:
In this site, I quite often see answers containing this "Publish or perish" sentence.

What does it really mean?  Is it limited to a particular academic system (i.e. U.S.) or it is the general case all over the world?

Lastly, is it possible to be a researcher without concerning about "Publish or perish"?


texts: How can I build a competitive application for a PhD?

texts:
Thank you all in advance!

I have the intention to apply for a PhD within the next year to start in Fall 2019.

I have an undergraduate degree in Finance and was selected best finance student of the university upon graduation. On top of that, I was a student-athlete on a soccer scholarship and made it to the all conference academic team each and every year, finishing my degree with a 3.74 GPA.

After that, I completed a MBA from a AACSB accredited school as graduate assistant for the department of Finance. Apart from working in the finance department, I also worked in a research center for Sport security, mainly doing analysis more than research.

Now, I have been working for 1 year as an operations specialist for a financial insititution. My first question is, does this make me a competeitive individual for a PhD? I was thinking of doing it in Politics, Political economy, or economics. Is there anything else I can do during this next year to make my candidacy Stronger? What kind of jobs can I look for to get that extra experience? Where could I publish my own article or my own work to add it to my candidacy?

On another note, one of the requirements to apply is to submit writing sample, is it possible to send some article of publication of my own, or should I send something I wrote in school?

Currently, I am working on my GRE examen to make sure I am in at least the 90th percentile.

Sorry for the length of the question, but I wanted to give a clear overview of my Situation.

Thank you very much.


texts: No startup funds for new tenure-track hire?

texts:
I am an internal candidate for a tenure-track position at a major university in northern Europe. I think I have an excellent chance, however I am slightly worried about negotiating a startup packages. Here's why:

My department chief has insisted that I ask for my own salary
    in funding applications. This seems crazy to me - why would a
    funding agency justify paying the salary of a PI in a tenure-track
    position?!
As far as I can tell, no other recent tenure-track
    hires in the department received any startup funding, or equivalent
    funding for PhDs or postdocs. Whether this was because they did not ask I do not know.

I have a strong impression from colleagues that I am the favoured candidate, and I am sure that, to some extent, asking for startup funding would make me look ungrateful for the opportunity. On the other hand, I cannot conceive how the department might a) expect to be internationally competitive if it does not provide incentives to new hires, and b) expect these new hires to achieve anything useful without any resources whatsoever.

Is this standard practice? Should I try to squeeze blood from the stone?

Many thanks!


texts: How much can/should quotes from student evaluations be edited when preparing a teaching statement?

texts: I'm writing a teaching statement and want to include quotes from student evaluations. How much can/should I edit these (for grammar)?


texts: How long should a book proposal review be?

texts: What are the expectations, primarily in terms of length but also along other relevant dimensions, for a review of a book proposal? The book itself will be as long as 5-10 papers but the proposal itself usually only includes a sample chapter and some overview material. What will editors at academic presses expect back from proposal reviewers?


texts: Should I cite the author of software tool or script that I use?

texts:
I'm writing a paper for my Ethical Hacking class. In 'hacking', you use a lot of tools written by other people, some of them are mainstream and/or made by big teams, others are less known and made by individuals or small teams.

If I'm using a relatively uncommon software tool for a particular task, a tool that my readers may not know of, would it be courteous/helpful to cite the individual or lead developer of said tool? Would it be acceptable that the reference is just the website, or should I find another article that talks about the tool?

(NB: We use Harvard referencing)


texts: What is the difference between repeatability, replicability and reproducibility?

texts:
I have seen many instances where authors used the term "reproducibility" and "replicability" interchangeably in the social and behavioural sciences. Sometimes, they distinguish between the "repeatability" of experiments (same measurand/same measurement conditions) and "replicability" (same measurand/different conditions). If the three concepts are differentiated than, in most cases, there seems to be an inherent hierarchy between the three concepts:
repeatability < reproducibility < replicability
Where a successful replication means that the same finding has been achieved with different data (or sometimes methods) and reproducibility means that it is possible to get the same results given the data and analytical means from the original study.

However, it occurs to me that at least in computer science this seems to be different.[1]
I am not aware of the situation in other fields. Therefore, I am curious which definitions of repeatability, reproducibility and replicability are used in other disciplines.

What are the definitions most commonly associated to repeatability, reproducibility and replicability in your field?
Are the definitions the same but the concepts have substantially different meanings between fields e.g. because pseudo-random numbers generated by computer experiments are different from true randomness in biological experiments?


texts: Differences in quality between a PhD with graduate course work, and one purely on research?

texts:
The UK PhD programs are based upon just research for three years, whereas in the US there tends to be substantial graduate course work included.

How does this difference affect the quality of the PhD thesis, and the quality of work produced in the long term?


texts: The reviewers are not answering to any of my emails. Why are they ghosting me?

texts:
I sent both of the reviewers, pdf of my thesis more than a month ago. Only one of them acknowledges the receipt, the other one is french.
I sent them physical copies last Friday. They should have received them by now. I sent them an email just in case to warn them I sent it to their University address. Why don't they just acknowledge they received it? I need to contact them again because I misprinted one graph.


texts: Can a rejected paper with no resubmission allowed be resubmitted to the same journal after changing content and heading of the paper?

texts:
I got rejection from IEEE WCL with no resubmission allowed. Thereafter, I improved the paper significantly with addition of more analysis spending 8+ months on the paper. Can/Should I submit my paper to IEEE WCL with different headings? Do such journals have repositories to recognize that a rejected paper has been resubmitted?
This question is a bit different from Should I resubmit a rejected paper to the same journal? because IEEE WCL specifically uses the terms "Reject (resubmission allowed/not-allowed).


texts: Can one's professional degree (e.g. Masters, PhD, MD) be revoked on the basis of an academic offence committed during their undergraduate studies?

texts: Title says all! I can't seem to find any answers pertaining to my question on google, and so I'm wondering if anyone here could share their thoughts/knowledge. Your help is much appreciated :)


texts: How to establish inter-rater reliability as a sole PhD researcher

texts:
I'm doing a PhD in the social sciences and want to use an observational method to analyse audio recordings of social work conversations. I will be using an established behavioural coding manual (the Motivational Interviewing Skills Code 2.5) to assign behavioural codes to the interaction. The problem I have is that I need a way of demonstrating that my coding is reliable. Typically, on studies I have worked on in the past, there would be a small sample of recordings that would be re-coded by at least one other person to establish inter-rater reliability. As a sole researcher, I cannot do this.

Is there a way around this issue?


texts: Is publishing paper containing information acquired from sites such as Sci-Hub illegal?

texts:
There are already some discussions on whether it's illegal to use Sci-Hub for research purposes, such as in this Academia SE thread.
But one answer and comments there open up another question: Is it illegal to publish a paper containing information or data acquired from such sites such as Sci-Hub and library genesis (if downloading papers from where is deemed illegal)? One argument for this is one should not use information acquired via illegal means. Then in strict sense we cannot even cite a paper downloaded there. I cannot come up with a counterargument to that now though.


texts: Best practices in sharing qualitative data such as interview transcripts alongside a paper publication?

texts:
In the past I have shared quantitative datasets by uploading them to data repositories (like Zenodo) as CSV-files or similar formats.
But I lack experience with regards to qualitative data such as interview transcripts.
The interviewees will be asked to agree with the sharing of the (pseudonymized or anonymized) transcripts.
But other than that, are there best practices associated with such a qualitative data-sharing? Would it be sufficient to use merely upload, say, a simple Word-document of the interview transcriptions on Zenodo? Or perhaps also a HTML-file which would contain my way of having coded the transcripts*? Is there anything else that I should take into account?

* I plan to use a specific program for coding the interview transcripts, namely RQDA, an R-package; RQDA seems to allow users to export marked-up transcripts in a HTML-file format.


texts: Getting career advice from different people

texts:
If looking for career advice and short recommendations for paths to end up in a specific institute, is it ok to ask for some answers from different people in the same institute, like one who is likely involved in the admission process and another who has an interesting career path him/herself?

Or might it be weird if the two found out they received an inquiry for career advice from the same person? After all, I don't want to spam.


texts:
My professor recently had a problem, and he asked me for my help to solve it, and of course I ask for yours.

He was made the School of Engineering Dean, an while it sounds important it takes most of is time through an administrative black hole, also, because of this his office is now in another building so he cannot come to the lab as often as he would like to.

He started noticing less and less people come to the lab, and some only come for a space of a couple of hours and then leave, while he perfectly understands that research can be done everywhere, he is very big on cooperation and discussion among lab members, which can't be done if there is only one guy in the lab.

Do you impose any kind of restrictions on students going to the lab for a specific time? If you are not able to monitor it, how can you ensure they will come. I was looking into some companies that have IP based checking in systems, but seems like an overkill for a 10 person laboratory.


texts: Why are new encyclopedias being published when there is Wikipedia?

texts: Recently, I have noticed that I have been visiting Wikipedia more and more frequently for finding information on technical materials that I need for my work and research. Over time, I have noticed that many entries on Wikipedia are well-referenced and reliable and also, I have found it rather comprehensive, at least in my field of work and study. Consequently, I wonder if it is necessary to publish and/or purchase new technical encyclopedias? Is it merely because Wikipedia is not still very comprehensive or reliable that new encyclopedias are published or updated? If the answer is no, then what are the reasons that authors and publishers still invest on encyclopedias?


texts: Should I anglicise foreign names of people/places/organizations in my research?

texts: What does academic community think of anglicising foreign names in their research? For example, saying Istanbul rather than İstanbul (with capital "İ"), or, author's name, Tasan, instead of Taşan.


texts: Do people feel free to review a Festschrift as any other book?

texts:
In different fields, renowned academics are sometimes honoured with a Festschrift on the occasion of their birthday or in memory of their life. (The Festschrift contains articles by scholars close to them who typically engage with a topic the honoured academic is interested in.)

I could imagine that if someone were to write a review of such a book as a whole, she wouldn't want to be overly critical because it's not nice for the editors and the honoured academic (if still alive). Of course a bad review is never "nice", but since a Festschrift is a present one may want to be more careful.

Then, can we trust book reviews of Festschriften? Is the difference with a normal book review negligible?


texts: What is the difference between research assistantship and teaching assistantship?

texts: These two names - RA and TA are more popular for the students who apply for a postgraduate program. My question is: what is the difference between TA and RA? Are these TA and RA facilities only available in US universities or others? Finally, what should a student seek for as either a TA or RA in their postgraduate studies or PhD?


texts: Answer to "Will you be able to provide proof of your identity and employment eligibility if you are hired"?

texts:
I am an European citizen applying for some academic jobs in US.

I have some doubts on one question I have to answer during the application process

1) Are you presently legally authorized to work in the United States?

My answer to this question is NO

2) Will you be able to provide proof of your identity and employment eligibility if you are hired?

What should I reply here? Is it referred to my future or current eligibility?


texts: Do professors need to use up their grant money in a fixed period of time?

texts:
Just curious, do professors need to use up their grant money in a fixed period of time?

Or can they reuse the left over amount for other projects?

What are the incentives for them to use grant money as opposed to "saving" them?

Thanks.


texts: How to deal with sensitive individual data in open science?

texts:
I work with governmental register data, which includes sensitive information about individuals, and therefore cannot make datasets available to the public lest I risk violating the privacy of my subjects. Even though the data are anonymised, it contains information such as addresses and dates of medical prescriptions that should not be made public. I myself need to work inside a secure computer lab and don't have free access to these data. What are the possibilities for open science in this case?

Edit: My terms of use prohibit any sharing of the dataset with others not authorised to use the data. I am not allowed, in addition, to transfer the data from the computer where they are supposed to be analysed.


texts: I applied for one program, but I still want to apply for other schools

texts:
I applied to one Masters program in Biology which is a course-based program. Now the application is under review and will get the results at the end of next month.
However, meanwhile , I am also looking for other schools/principal investigators to contact about my interest in their graduate programs.The reason is that I am not guaranteed an entrance to the initial school and I don't want to miss another year just because I only put all my eggs in one basket.

Is it bad to apply for multiple schools ( by multiple I mean 3 schools total)? and how do students normally get around with requesting the reference letters from their referees for more than one application? Not all referees like writing reference letters.


texts: How to cite regularly published editorials that have no specific titles?

texts:
Many magazines and journals have standard editorial pieces such as a letter from the editor to introduce that month's publication; or closing comments written by different people.

For example, the New Hampshire Review has its "Last Word" column, such as this one: http://www.nhbr.com/June-24-2005/Last-Word/

Notice the entire article is titled "Last Word." There is no subtitle to further identify the article. (This is the case for this particular piece; other "Last Word" columns do have subtitles; so maybe this one is an anomaly.)

Some database aggregators write summaries. In this case, for the above article, the EBSCO title field has "Making history with the 80-20 rule" (see http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/17494538/making-history-80-20-rule)

How do you cite something like this in APA style?


texts:
Some people do not list references/referees at the end of their CV, and simply quote references are available on request. This is more convenient to me for two reasons:

Normally, no reference is contacted without permission, so, it is not necessary to be included in the CV.
Depending on the purpose (application, proposal), you may want to introduce other references (more relevant to that application). This is the reason that some job applications need separate list of references.

On the other hand, including famous persons as references shows your connections and background. In addition, the audience might be suspicious why hiding possible references!

Which one is preferred and more reasonable?


texts: Whether to publish a paper as both a university working paper and on ArXiV?

texts:
I've recently written a paper about my bachelors thesis. This paper was rejected by a journal. It seems to be the usual case that my supervisors are listed as co-authors. I would like to publish it on http://arxiv.org/, but one of my co-authors (who doesn't know arxiv) wants me to publish it at "KIT Scientific Working Papers" (KIT is my university).

When I submit my paper to KIT Scientific Working Papers, it gets licensed with a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. It also gets an ISSN.

However, I still think it might be harder to access. Does it make sense to publish it on both, KIT Scientific Working Papers and Arxive? Are there any drawbacks?


texts: Should I submit different research statement in different advertised postdoc positions

texts: I am a Phd student in applied mathematics. Recently I submitted PhD thesis and started applying for postdoc positions. There I have to submit research statement. My question is that should I submit same research statement everywhere or modify my research statement according to the requirement in the advertised position.


texts: Are problems in PhD science labs not present in math phd research?

texts:
I must say that I am shocked at the number of questions on this site that reads like the following,

"my advisor has stopped funding me"

"my advisor has been completely ignoring my emails"

"my advisor is stealing my ideas!"

"my advisor wants to be 1st author, when I did the majority of the work!"

"my advisor wants to add another student to the paper and this is unfair!"

I was wondering whether these pervasive problems go away, when one is doing mathematics research?  I imagine that in math research, one has more control / ownership of their work, there's no lab to be a part of and contribute to, one's funding is typically in the form of teaching stipends, and the meetings are typically one-on-one, with no group meetings to attend.

Is a math PhD a better experience than a science PhD, in the sense that there is significantly less risk of working for a problematic, unethical, malicious scientist / professor who only cares about himself / herself?


texts: Do Conferences provide the facility of pre-submission inquiries?

texts:
This is my first post here, so kindly pardon any Beginner errors.

I noticed that it is common practice among authors to write pre-submission inquiries to different journals when it comes to journal publications.

I wanted to know if Conferences provide the same provision as well ?

My reason for this question is that i am working on a paper that i intend to submit to a conference whose deadline is due in just over a month's time.

I am apprehensive about submitting my paper straight away and instead would like some semblance of assurance from the conference reviewers/judges

Any help & guidance in this regard would be highly appreciated !


texts: What to do about a Master's thesis where most of the introduction is a literal translation of my own work?

texts:
I have just discovered the introduction of an Engineering Master's thesis defended some months ago in my ancient university has been made mostly by "cut & paste" (and literally translate from English to Spanish) part of a book chapter I wrote some time ago. About 80-90% of 10 pages have been copied verbatim from my work.

It is true the author of this thesis cites my work when he copies text without any reference in the original. But since he fails to include such sentences (or any other copied and translated text) as quotes, it seems as if he originally wrote those sentences. The order of the sentences has been somewhat modified, but there is no paraphrasing.

I understand this constitutes plagiarism and I would like to do something about it. I do not intend to undertake legal action or to report this to the university (I do not think it has any normative on the subject, anyway). So, what could I do? Writing the author and explaining him the seriousness of what he did and why? Warning the advisors (whom I know well) about it? Your suggestions will be much appreciated.


texts:
I am presently working on my undergraduate thesis in mathematics. My work consists mainly of analyzing a handful of sources, internalizing proofs and methods and then fleshing out the rough outline given to me by my advisor. To a large extent I am simply trying to grasp what was done in other sources, and then doing the same thing myself, adding my own twist.

How do I cite or refer to the sources I am using? In which places is it appropriate?

For instance, if I include a theorem from some source, internalize the proof strategy and then formulate a proof without peeking at the source, should I mention the source of the theorem?

I am now halfway done and have only 3 citations.


texts: The etiquette of leaving a faculty position

texts:
If a tenure track professor wants to leave their university for another job, how much in advance should they inform their department chair? The standard two weeks notice probably doesn't apply.

And what times of the year are okay to leave? Only in the summer or between the fall and spring semesters?

The faculty member doesn't feel mistreated and doesn't want to ruin ties at their current university.


texts: Negotiating salary before in-person interview for an administrative position

texts:
I had an interview for an administrative (IT) position at a very prestigious US university. I had a second phone interview with an HR representative who asked for my salary expectation. I gave my range, and the HR person gave me their range, whose maximum is 20% lower than my minimum. She asked me if I was interested in continuing the hiring process within their range, and I asked to give me a day to think over it.

This is an extremely interesting position for me, but the modest salary increase would make the move to another state hard.

I counted all, salary, benefits, relocation package, but still it seems a tight fit. The HR person said that they are kind of locked into that range, which I have a hard time believing.

I come from the nonprofit world but I am not used to negotiation tactics in academia. Is this just a negotiation trick? How should I respond to avoid down-selling me without stalling the process?

Thanks.

Update:

I found some salary grades from this institution from a couple of years ago, and indeed the range I was given was the midpoint of the published salary grade, which includes mostly positions lower than the one I am apply for.

Without sharing details with my HR interlocutor, I replied that from my research, given the responsibilities, I expected a different range, and she replied that the range is non-negotiable because it's a nonprofit. Which I know is not true, because I myself work at a nonprofit.

So I could just walk out of the deal and see if they come back, but it would be a bummer to let it fall through without even a chance to get to a real offer. Or I could suck it up and go with their rate, and work toward a raise within the following year or two, but it would be a tough start.


texts: If I leave mid-year, am I still eligible for summer pay?

texts: I'm on a what appears to be a 12 month contract (Sept.- Aug.)  While we only work 9 months out of the year, the standard academic job year, we are paid over 12 months.  Well, I am now leaving my post mid-year and thus think I am entitled to half my salary because I worked half the academic year.  The administration says that I'm only entitled to one-third (because I only worked one-third of the calendar year).  As a result, I'm losing close to $7000.  Has anyone ever run into this?  Do you happen to know any sources I can cite?


texts: How to advertise a paper to increase citations?

texts:
Of course, the best way to improve citations is to write good papers which presents sound, interesting, and important results.

However, assuming that one has a nice paper published in an important journal (e.g., PRL, or PRB), what one can do to improve citations, and in general to make people read, or at least aware of, the paper? A partial answer is to upload it on the arXiv, and presents the work to relevant conferences on the topic. Is there something else one can do to advertise a paper, especially online?

PS: I am concerned with hard-sciences, in particular, physics.


texts: How to most effectively get good at a new topic?

texts:
I have recently had a change of interest and would like to focus on a different area within my field. That being said, I want to stress that the area happens to differ quite a bit from my current area. I am not too far in my studies, so it's not like I am changing my PhD thesis midway or anything like that.

However, I would like to know how I can most effectively get to grips with my new topic. I am obviously not completely new to it, but I have so much more knowledge in my old topic and am now worried that it will be a disadvantage, because I might be competing with people for PhD spots that have had their focus for many years and thus much better writing samples etc.

Any advice on how to become good relatively fast?


texts: Should I decide research field base on my performance on qualifying exam?

texts:
I'm about one year into a math Ph.D. program. With some scientific computing background in undergraduate and master study, my research interests are in numerical analysis/PDE or probability. All of them are analysis orientated.

Recently I took (written) qualifying exam in several subjects, and passed all of them. However, I noticed my real analysis score was bare minimum passing score (i.e. I would have failed had I lost one more point.) and my algebra score was more than 30 points (out of 100) above the require passing score.

That result makes me a little bit confuse. Should I stick to my original interest, where the exam result indicates my knowledge is mediocre at best, or should I switch to a more algebra orientated field, where I did well on the test but had almost no related research experience or elective courses in the past?

People who are not in mathematics are also welcome to answer the question in the title in the context of your department and research field.


texts: What citation / reference styles explicitly tell the reference's type?

texts:
Is there a - or more properly are there (considering the excessive amount of syles existing) - reference/citation styles which have the following feature?

In the reference the type of the reference is explicitly mentioned, i.e. it is stated explicitly as a word in the reference.

To make this clear find some examples below:

a book

Authorlast, Authorfirst. (2015) The meaning and importance of citations in science. Publisher: Publishlocation. [BOOK]

or journal

Authorlast, Authorfirst; Coauthorlast, Coauthorfirst. (2015) Suggestions for more traceable reference lists. In Journal of Ergonomic Academia, 34(2), 23-34. [JOURNAL ARTICLE]

or book chapter

Authorlast, Authorfirst. (2015) Title of book chapter. In Editorlast, Editorfirst. Title of the book Publisher: Publishlocation. [BOOK CHAPTER]

or webpage

Stack Exchange (2015) Academia Stack Exchange:. Retrieved February 19, 2015, FROM https://academia.stackexchange.com [WEBPAGE]

It would be great to not reinvent the wheel here and invent yet another citation style, which motivates my question. I am sure that it is only in this current phase of multi-media (types) in which new varieties of digital sources of knowledge can found (video, blog entry, manuals, government documents etc.)

Since my hope is that the idea of having citations an reference is the ability to reuse and make traceable knowledge and concepts developed elsewhere the type of the reference would be amply helpful in finding the sources.


texts: I'm trying to cite Intel Developer Manual. I'm a bit confused how should I cite it? Should I cite the Whole website with the link and access date? Or Should I cite a particular chapter that I used? What is the correct approach with BibTeX?


texts: How to write and publish a literature review

texts:
In Computer Science, you find yourself overwhelmed by the huge number of literature available over a certain subject.

I searched online on how to proceed and write a literature review (in a way that i could publish it).

A lot of the information online will go over the same generic things, so am seeking help in this community.

I would appreciate some advice/strategy from your previous experiences

Reference:

Kotz, Daniel, and Jochen WL Cals. "Effective writing and publishing scientific papers-part I: how to get started." Journal of clinical epidemiology 66 (2013): 397.


texts: Is it ethical to force graduate applicants to decide before they hear back from all schools?

texts:
I have applied to and been offered admissions to a masters program in a U.S. university, but I'm still waiting to hear back from some other places. The deadline to accept is before the 4/15 national deadline for funded graduate programs (as the program I've been accepted to is not funded).

I've expressed my situation and my concerns, and my intent to enroll in the program unless I am offered admission to a funded program. However, the admissions staff claims that what I'm suggesting (withdrawing my acceptance at a later date) is unethical, and that I must commit to or decline the offer from their program by their deadline. There were also unwilling to give an extension.

While I understand that it's not good to cancel on anyone in any case, I feel that I am not acting unethically this way, and that actually they're acting unethically on their part! If I understand correctly, they likely do have a waitlist of some kind and still can offer my place to another students even if I withdraw. However, if I decline their offer, there is no way for me to change my mind!

So, is it ethical to make students make a decision before they've even heard back from all places they have applied to? If the admissions staff are not willing to change their mind, what can I do besides withdrawing from their acceptance at a later date anyway?


texts: Is it common to delay the start date of a postdoc?

texts:
I wanted to apply for a particular postdoc in the UK that has a start date in September. It is a great opportunity but I would need to delay the start date as I am currently in the US and it would not be possible for me to move before then.

How common is it to delay the start of postdocs? Is it worth applying even with the knowledge that I wouldn't be able to start by the advertised date?


texts: What if the typesetting process puts a paper overlength?

texts:
What usually happens if the typesetting process for a paper puts it overlength? I imagine if the conference has an extra page charge, this will be applied; but if the conference has a hard maximum limit for pages and the paper is squeezed to fit it, and the typesetter makes some formatting changes that puts it over the limit, what happens?

Will the conference allow the author to make some adjustments to fit the paper into the limit? Assuming the formatting issues were an honest overlook and not purposely trying to circumvent the limit!


texts: In-text reference (APA style) for website

texts: How do I make an in-text citation for an information acquired from a website (If the writer and publication date is known)? Is it necessary to write out the full URL? I found APAstyle.org's explanation ambiguous.


texts: Is citing a blog post allowed in a research project?

texts: I'm currently writing an essay on the possible benefits of video games in education for my Extended Project Qualification, and for part of it I want to cite a blog post from Gamasutra written by a developer who makes educational games. My supervisor has previously said to me that I should try to stick to citing research papers or books, as these are generally reputable, and I agree with this. However I cannot find anything in a journal that fits the point I want to make, as I wanted to write about a developer perspective on these kinds of games. Would citing such a post have an impact on the reputability of what I am writing, and therefore impact my grade?


texts: When applying for a phd, does a hiring committee cares about winning in various programming/data-mining contests?

texts:
When applying to a computer science PhD position in US, does it make sense to mention various significant achievements (finishing in top 5% percent) in programming/data-mining contests (topcoder, kaggle, hackerrank).

These competitions have their weight for tech giants, but does a PhD hiring committee takes them into consideration? If so, it would be nice to know how much weight do they have and what is the best way to present them?


texts: Is joining a lab that publishes infrequently, but in high impact factor venues, bad for academic career?

texts:
I am accepted into the PhD program at my local university. My interests match the interests of many labs there. The lab that I am interested in has hard working people but do not publish often because they are focused on high impact articles only.

Will my career ambitions be better served by declining this offer to try to matriculate at a more prestigious program with more productive labs? Even if that risks me not matriculating into any program?


texts: Can a Ph.D. student visit another lab for a week to learn a specific skill/topic? (inside EU)

texts:
I am wondering if (and how) a Ph.D. student could learn a skill that is the area of expertise of another lab inside the European Union, but in a different country than the university on which the Ph.D programme is currently done.

So lets say my lab does not have any experience in X procedure. I know that university in another country inside the EU has expertise in X.

Learning the basics in X takes about a week of hands-on lab experience.

How could I initiate the conversation between universities to get me to the other lab? is this even necessary as I would not be paid for that week while visiting the other lab?

Or do I only need to get the permission of the lab supervisors and do not bother about the paperwork.

I am willing  to commit to travel and accommodation expenses from my own budget.


texts:
Watching various COVID-related briefings, I notice there is always a sign language interpreter. This is clearly necessary, yet thinking about all the conferences I've attended in the past, literally none of them have had a sign language interpreter.
How do conferences work for deaf scientists? Do deaf scientists simply not attend conferences? If so, how does one even work in fields such as computer science where conferences are an integral part of the academic experience?


texts: Are vacations counted for student research assistants in Germany?

texts:
I'm working as a student research assistant (HiWi) at a research group in a German university. My job is based on hours and it's mainly programming. In my contract I have to work 20 hours a month. Since I can work anywhere, then I usually work at home. Also things are so flexible, so some days I work 5 hours a day and other times 2 hours a day. My supervisor trusts me, so basically I just tell him how many hours I worked a month or so. Because sometimes I work less hours in one month but then I have to compensate for it in the next month.

However, when I'm counting my working hours I usually don't count the days where we have vacations. If you divide 20 hours by the days of the month then I would usually need to work 1 hour everyday. So if I was working in a normal job, then I would have that day off. But because of the flexible way of the job, then I'm not sure if I should subtract that time-per-day vacation time from my official working hours.

Does anyone know if HiWis in Germany are subject to vacations? Or should we work the full working hours mentioned in our contracts regardless of how many vacations are there in the contract?!

Edit: yeah I know that I can ask my supervisor, but I don't want to open such a dialogue now with him. I know that HiWi contracts are standard in Germany so I guess any professor or postdoc in a German Uni here can answer this :)


texts: Asked to be a reveiwer after submitting to a conference

texts:
I recently submitted a paper to a conference. Within days all of my co-authors and I received an email asking us all to select (bid for) papers in the same submission stream from the conference to review. The conference has purposely invited some authors to be reviewers. Our paper has not been reviewed yet.

Is this normal behavior?  Will it look strange to have an accepted paper and be a reviewer for the same conference?


texts: Erroneous paper published and reviewed on MathSciNet

texts:
An article claiming to solve a great long-standing mathematical open problem was published in a conference proceedings, and was refereed on MathSciNet positively, i.e. the reviewer makes an impression that the proof is valid. However, some details hint that this may not be the case:

the result of this caliber should go to a top-tier journal and get a significant resonance in the mathematical community;
the preprint has been available on arXiv for 15 years before its final publication and underwent eight redactions (with the last redaction about eight years before the publication);
I talked to an expert in this area around 10 years ago and their opinion about one of the earlier drafts of the preprint was that it is erroneous and the author doesn't want to admit his mistakes.

Now some other articles (published in first-tier journals) use this questionable result. And many other people are still working on solving this long-standing problem, and may have doubts about the status of the problem, in view of this publication.

So my question is: how much of the responsibility lies on the MathSciNet reviewer who "validated" the proof? My understanding is that it is their duty to reveal the mistakes in the published article, so that the other authors do not base their work on it. Is there a way to "nudge" the reviewer to make amends to the review?


texts: Is it any unwritten rule, that for how long after getting PhD is it appropriate to publish with your advisor?

texts:
After reading this question on What is wrong with continuing to publish with your PhD adviser I wonder whether there is something like an "unwritten rule" for how long after getting your PhD is it suitable to publish with your supervisor.

Is there some sort of, let's say "secret statistic" related to the ratio of your own papers vs. your papers with your supervisor, upon you are rated among fellow scientist long after your graduation?


texts: Should you discuss childhood economic hardships in SOP?

texts:
I am currently filling out a few PhD applications for computer science, and I have noticed a strong pattern in Statement of Purpose (SOP) guidelines that try to incentivise you to discuss your economic background, and how that shaped your life. To be clear, I am not against this, I understand how overcoming poverty can be a huge part of someone's identity.
I grew up in a third world country, where my family was below the poverty line for a few years during the recession. My family's financial situation has since improved tremendously after my father immigrated to another country for work.
However, I can't help but be overwhelmed with extreme sadness when I think of that period of my life. I go to a therapist every week and I haven'd even had the ability to talk about that period  without having an emotional breakdown. There was simply too many stressful and pitiful memories during that period.
So I am left in a dilemma, should I discuss this in my SOP? I've really only discussed this with my long term girlfriend, and no one else knows about it. I feel it can provide a better "context" about my achievements, but to be frank, I believe my application is already competitive given my research and publication background without that context.


texts: How to perform quality checks on a conference?

texts:
I want to present my paper to a conference which is related to graph and combinatorics.
The problem is I don't understand the quality/reputation of the conference.
The conference has a section "Call for Papers".
The conference will be done online.
It claims that the selected papers will be published in conference proceedings with a ISBN number.
The journal charges a very nominal fee and the invited speakers are from prestigious institions.
I am confused whether I should send my paper to the conference or not. I am worried if the conference is genuine or not.
In case of journals there are many checks which can be done on the quality of a journal such as whether it is SCIE or indexed in Scopus and many others.
Are there any checks that can be carried out in case of conferences?
I am worried because since I am submitting my unpublished work, so if the conference is not reputable, my work will go in vain.
Can someone please suggest some ways on how to check reputation of a conference?
Another question is
If I submit my work to a conference, can I extend the results of that work and submit it to another journal later ? Or is it considered plagiarism?
NOTE:
My question is not a duplicate of How to identify predatory publishers/journals since in my question I have asked about conferences and not journals.
Finding fake journals is easy as there are many ways to check it but I am asking for some possible ways to check conferences.


texts: What qualifications are required to teach undergrads at college level in the United States?

texts:
I have a Masters Degree in Computer Science from India.
I have been working in IT sector from last 10 years
From last 5 years I am working in US
I am very much interested in Teaching Undergrads(Bachelors Degree) at College.
I am not aware of Education /Degree/Credentials needed to teach at College Level in US. Can someone kindly let me know how to go about this.


texts: How to find the best journals or articles to read

texts:
When someone is just starting out, they can be overwhelmed  with the number of journal articles published each month. Reading everything published seems impossible due to time constraints.

After someone has enough experience, they naturally watch for articles which are impressive, see where these are published and where the articles it cites are published but when someone is just starting out, it's not clear where to begin.

How does one go about identifying the best journals to keep up on when they have no experience reading any particular journal?


texts: Is it ok to mention my upcoming post during my conference presentation?

texts:
I was recently appointed to a new post (at a much better university) and my affiliation will change in a couple of months. I have to attend a conference next week and present work carried out with my current affiliation.

I would like somehow to let the audience know what my next position will be, and the project I will be working on, as it is very relevant in the community.

My questions are:

Is this common, or should I just stick to the research findings?
If it is indeed common, how to let the audience know? I was thinking about including a slide in the end of my presentation, about my upcoming post and project. But then, is there a chance that my new employer would have a problem with that? Should I let them know? Or maybe just forget the whole thing and just present my current work?

I am asking because the presentation will be permanently online, so I would like to make the most out of it.


texts: After 20+ years of lecturing, 3 masters (2 M.Sc.), at age of 54 years, is it feasible to start and finish a Ph.D., be hired as a Professor?

texts: After 20+ years of (part-time) lecturing, 3 masters (out of which 2 M.Sc.), at age of 54 years, is it feasible to start and finish a Ph.D. and be hired as a Professor?


texts: How and from where to get feedback for my preprint?

texts:
I have worked upon a project that estimates the wind power generation potential in India using simulation techniques and polynomial regression. I have written the first draft. However, everyone in my college told me that they can't review these domains as they have no knowledge about them.

From where can I get feedback on this preprint? Can anyone reading this suggest me how to improve this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Link to the article


texts: How to not repeat the "Related work" section when splitting a paper into multiple papers?

texts:
I wrote a 10 page paper on various facts and anomalies that need to be considered for building an artificial intelligence. The paper is a meta-analysis of various other research from biological sciences, psychology, cognition and artificial intelligence history. The editor of an artificial intelligence journal rejected it, offered some praise and suggested that I split the paper into multiple papers, where each paper presents hypotheses and delivers a specific message. He mentioned:

"This is what we call in academia 'a track record'. If you can deliver
one message well in each paper, the collectives of the messages
delivered through a track record of papers will add to the more
complex message that you intend to deliver."

I assume I'd have to split it into three or more papers as My paper title - Part 1, My paper title - Part 2, My paper title - Part 3.
But if I do that, would it suffice if I mention "Related work" (references to other papers that have attempted similar research) only in the Part 1 paper? And in Part 2 I could just start with a small introduction and then directly delve into the meat of the paper without mentioning any "related work"? Are there any rules or standard practices that allow considering the three papers as one entity, so that the "related work" would be mentioned only in the first paper? I guess the "Conclusion" section would be unique to each paper, so that's not an issue.


texts: Block-quoting a list: where to put the citation?

texts:
Suppose I write something like this

  Jones categorises things as follows:

  little things
  big things
  medium-size things

... where the entire list is a verbatim quotation from Jones. The list is block-quoted (i.e., it is indented, but there are no quotation marks). How can I make it clear that the entire list comes from Jones's paper? If I put the citation on the last item of the list, it might look like the citation is only for the last item.

The best solution I can think of is to clarify the situation in the surrounding text, something like the example below. Is this reasonable?

  Jones categorises things as shown below. (Entire list is from Jones, 2015.)

  little things
  big things
  medium-size things


texts: Is it acceptable to copy verbatim the description of a software package?

texts:
I just read an article where the description of a software package was lifted verbatim from the package's site itself.

It's a whole paragraph where not a single comma was changed. There are no quotations, nothing to indicate that this is a verbatim transcription of text. The site of the package is properly cited though, nothing is being hidden.

I understand that the description of a package created by the author is the best source to understand what that package does, but copy/pasting about 12 lines of text (single column) seems a bit excessive.

To what extent is this acceptable?


texts: How to find past editors and editorial board members of scientific journals?

texts:
Journal websites usually list their present editors and editorial board members.

Is there any systematic way to find out the journals' past editors and editorial board members (if possible, in a large-scale and machine-readable manner)?


texts: Should I include a letter of recommendation in my dossier for teaching positions?

texts:
I'm a full professor in a US STEM field about to go on the job market for teaching professorships because of a terminal financial emergency at my current institution (a liberal arts college). I am fortunate to have worked with someone very well-known and respected in my field, especially for his contributions to education. When I went up for promotion to full professor, he wrote a strong letter of support, which he was kind enough to share with me.
Would it be better for me to include the letter in my applications or to just list him as a reference? He is fine with me doing either.
(Technically, I'm not applying for a specific position right now. Faculty at my institution have been invited to submit a CV, teaching statement, and research statement to a neighboring R1 institution in better financial shape. I am also planning to create an online dossier, which I will reference in my statements and will share with people I know at other nearby institutions.)


texts: How to come up with an effective undergraduate research topic - for scholarship?

texts:
Winter semesters ends on April 13th. Summer research/classes - May 15th

I am a second-year civil engineering student. Juggling between options, I planned on cold emailing many people for job internships/taking summer classes/requesting a professor for a research option.

SUCCESS - I got a research offer! This happened all so quickly before I could think properly.

I emailed the professor two days back and she responded the same day! However, I was not sure about any topic yet and she was not free until next week to meet and talk about my interest.

Now, she forwarded me an email the next day (April 8th) for a research scholarship fund application (ICAN-WISE) for female researchers and advised me to apply. The deadline is -THE SAME DAY (April 8th!!)

The application asks for the applicants research topic. And how it applies to the student's future studies and the welfare of the community. The better/better chances of getting the fund.

The problem - I am not sure what to say.

The professor I contacted works in Water Resource department. I registered with ReaearchGate and read through some of her collaborated works. Some of them really interested me and I put these in my email when I contacted her. But I am really unsure of how to come up with a topic. This is new to me. Is there any specific way I could approach this?

Should I email the professor for her idea/feedback on what will suit me?


texts: Under the Education section of my resume, I have relevant courses listed for a position I'm applying for. Some of the courses have titles that are vague and do not convey their relevance well. Is it acceptable to paraphrase the course title in a way that does?


texts: Have there been any studies to answer whether teachers having favourite students (publicly) reduces overall learning?

texts:
I'm working on a presentation for class debunking myths about learning. The way I'm going about this is proof-checking some advice given by teaches in general such as finding a learning style. Now I'm seeing if teachers should not have a favourite student. Have there been any studies on this to debunk/prove this statement?

Also, the about section is kind of vague so am I in the right stack exchange?


texts: What does it mean if a committee chair asks if I applied to many similar jobs and if I plan to fly back and forth?

texts:
I am currently working at Europe and applying for tenure track positions in US. I will attend an interview that is held by a school.
The committee chair told me to research on the air tickets.

Also, in her message she asked if I applied many schools in US and if I plan to fly back and forth.

I do not know how to answer this question because I am not sure what she meant. Does she want other schools to share the international fare? If so should I contact other schools about it (that was the first school offering me interview)?


texts:
I am a college senior with 3.2 math gpa, who aspire to go to math grad school. I cannot stay in college any longer due to financial difficulties. My junior year I lost focus and got bunch of C's. Tried so hard my remaining two years and did well on analysis I/II, math stats, and complex, and some other applied math classes. But got C in abstract algebra I again (this time was really due to my father passing suddenly, I was quite depressed for months). My application right now is:

gpa:3.2
three summers of research one in physics, one in applied, one in pure math
I got two good, one excellent LOR to expect
still have chances to take GRE twice
some teaching and tutoring experience for the math dept.

What are my chances of getting to good grad school?
Or do I have to do Masters program and detour a bit?
Should I even apply next fall?

Thank you for all insights.


texts: Do Publishers Search Academia.edu for Potential Articles etc.?

texts: Has anyone heard of someone getting their work published by a journal, or some other form of publication, because their unpublished draft was discovered on Academia.edu?


texts: Opening of applications for PhD in computer science at UCL,King's College London

texts:
I am a Master's student studying computer science in India. I will be applying for a PhD in computer science in the UK beginning in October 2020. UCL and King's college have not updated any details for the academic year 2020/21 yet, they still have the details of last year. Can someone provide some information as to when they open? Some sources say that PhD applications are processed on a rolling basis, i.e. as and when they come, they are passed on to the respective supervisor, and there are no deadlines per se.

Any information on scholarship deadlines would be immensely helpful. I'm referring to the UCL's GRS and ORS, and King's international PGR scholarships (the webpage seems to be down). It is recommended that one applies as soon as possible for the scholarships, but is it possible to apply some time later and still avail them? If say they start applications in December 2019, can i submit an application in February 2020 and still have a reasonable chance to avail those scholarships? I'm an overseas student, and as such a very few fully funded scholarships are available. If there is a lot of competition for those slots, then I think it would be better to apply as soon as they open, otherwise I'll wait for some time, so that I can improve my profile and have a better shot by applying a couple of months later.


texts: Should we compete for tenure positions at top universities or be happy at second tier universities?

texts:
I am PostDoc at one of leading Universities. It was not that hard to get there for a PostDoc, yet it seems  really hard to stay for permanent position, I see the competition is big.

I also see that the working conditions are not competitive (both in terms of salaries, costs of living and rent in a small university town, and motivation bonuses on top of your salary).

On the other hand, having renowned Uni in my CV, working as a PostDoc for ERC grant (I am not PI), I have mailbox full of tenure offers at ... say, second tier universities (ca. 100-300 positions at Uni rankings).
They offer me freedom, fixed position, competitive salary, lower costs of living.

On top of that, top Universities do not really care if you win regular grant, or top competitive (e.g. ERC), your salary is the same. While bringing back ERC or comparable grant to second tier University - you are the man. They praise you, you are respected and you have high chances to getting bonus that may even double your base salary (forget about it in top tier Universities).

So in my case, where my field just needs bunch of laptops and computation cloud and not costly lab. Is there really a point in competing for tenure at top tier University? Anyhow I already have a name to be accepted for renowned conferences and  Q1 journals from the field.

Honestly, I do not see the point, I already collected Hoodies with some nice Uni logos on this, I do not really care about brands anymore.

So what are actual and maybe overlooked by me pros and cons of choosing on one hand: a permanent position at lower ranked university, and on other keep on pursuing highly competitive and uncertain positions at high ranked university.


texts: Under what title should I list my graduate program on my CV?

texts:
I'm a PhD student, but wish to leave my current institution and am applying for PhD positions elsewhere. I'm not a PhD candidate yet, since I haven't still finished the courses and qualification exams that are required for candidacy. I was wondering if I should list my current program on my CV as

University of Stackexchange
Stack Exchanching, PhD

or just something like "graduate program" or nothing at all instead of "PhD".

I thought maybe I should list it as "MSc", because our department awards an MSc degree to PhD student if they complete the Master's courses, and I'll complete those courses before I move to my prospective PhD program.

Also, should I write an "expected" date? If yes, should that be the date I'd finish my PhD if I was staying here, or should that be the date I'll finish my 'integrated' MSc, or what?


texts: Why is it forbidden by the IEEE to post 'author-submitted' papers on ArXiv?

texts:
I am reading IEEE's policy on uploading a conference paper to other venues such as arxiv. Here is the current policy: https://conferences.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/get-published/post-your-paper/.
What is confusing me is that IEEE differentiates between preprint and author-submitted paper, where it is okay to put a pre-print on ArXiv, but not okay to put the author-submitted version.

Is the following understanding of the rules correct? One is allowed to upload any version of the paper to ArXiv except for (1) the version submitted for peer-review, prior to any changes being made to the paper, i.e., before addressing the reviewers comments, and (2) the final version of the paper, which is different from the accepted version, as it undergoes final styling and copy-editing.

Also, on a meta level, what is the logic between allowing preprints, but not author-submitted papers, and how much difference does there have to be between the two versions to not count as the same?