texts: Can I tell the PI who has offered me a postdoc job that I have not decided yet waiting for other results

texts: I have got a postdoc job offer from a reputed University in Applied Mathematics. Now, I have given several postdoc interviews and some interviews are scheduled in the coming days. In such situation can I tell the PI (wherefrom I got the offer) that I have not decided yet as I have some other interviews scheduled in the future. I have heard that accepting multiple offers is not a good thing.


texts:
Today I just found this website viXra.org

the paper I looked at has author name but no other info about the author such as university or work.

in addition there was no references at all?

Can I still cite this paper in my PhD thesis?


texts: Are there rules dictating that a Ph.D. supervisor must have a Ph.D.?

texts: Is there any specific rule that requires someone supervising and awarding a Ph.D. to have a Ph.D. themselves?  I learned recently in some parts of Asia it is possible to have a Masters degree and award a Ph.D.  One point made was, in the example of Korea, there was no education system and as such it was required for this to be the case at some point.  This seems to have continued.  Does this exist in United States or Europe as well?


texts:
It seems that there is no requirement for professors to serve on even a single dissertation committee. (This is so at least at my US university and I believe is common practice worldwide - please correct me if I'm wrong.)

So why would any of them do it, other than out of the pure goodness of their heart? It seems like purely volunteer work.

(Of course, one can imagine professors being eager to serve on the committee of a John Nash or a Ludwig Wittgenstein, if only so that their names appear as a footnote somewhere in the history of science, but most of us are not Nash or Wittgenstein.)

[Personal anecdote: I am asking this question because I've been having some trouble filling my committee. Many professors simply respond that they have no time, are too busy, etc. I am left feeling like a pathetic beggar grovelling for favors, even though I may be paying hefty tuition fees, which presumably helps pay at least a little for their salaries.]

Addendum: I simply wanted to give a little context for my query, but it was perhaps a mistake for me to add the above personal anecdote.

I'd prefer answers to stick simply to the question itself, which to repeat, is quite simply this: "What incentives do professors have to serve on dissertation committees?"

Perhaps we can leave to avenues other than StackExchange the opinion-based debates about whether the current situation is ideal or whether I personally have a moral defect and should change my "client" mentality.


texts: Creating a collaborative project for a group of 10 graduate neuroscience students from various backgrounds

texts:
I am taking part in a seminar-course given to graduate neuroscience students.
The students come from various backgrounds; mainly - Computer science, physics and life science (biology).

In the current course format, each student chooses an interesting neurobiology subject and gives a short (1 hour) literature overview of it.

This format works well, but I feel the course does not fulfill its full potential.

I am trying to think of a new, better format for this course - suggestions would be warmly appreciated.

An example vision is of a medium sized project that could be divided into a few sub projects, each would be assigned to one or a small group of the students. Ideally :

The project would have some impact on \ helpful to the science community.
Each sub-project would allow its student to shine by using his unique background.
The sum of all the mini-projects would be greater of its parts.

An example of such a project would be to create a new or expand an existing (wiki-like) open knowledge-base of a specific subject.

Your ideas would be greatly appreciated.


texts: Referencing: Which one is more ideal? (cite as from cited or direct cite)?

texts:
Well, while carrying out a review of literature for drafting a proposal I found like these in some of previous works (reports).

  Some benefits of the “certain thing” on xyz are  abc( person1, date) , cde( person2, date), fgh( person3, date) , ijk( person4, date)

and

  Some of the more researches in the field include ( person1, date;   person2, date;  person3, date;   person4, date).

Now If I have to include and cite those in my report, which one is better idea? Also, please notice the nature of contents being cited(benefits and previous works).

Option 1: Cite as “as cited in report X” which I read and have only one reference of that report
(pros: less references)

Option 2: Go to each report, study and include each one(cited) as separate citation in my report
(pros: may be, will look more detail investigations. But is it required in cases like this one?)

Which one should be more ideal?
So, what should I do? Any suggestions?


texts: Does choosing not to submit GRE scores look bad (particularly for CS PhD programs)?

texts:
I am preparing to submit applications to high ranking CS PhD programs in the US. My GRE quant score is not quite what I wanted (162V/163Q). I have strong research experience, good letters from professors I worked with, and a decent GPA (~3.6) from a top 10 undergrad CS school. However, my quant score is only around 80th percentile, whereas many top CS programs have averages in the 90-95 range.
I'm not sure if submitting my GRE scores will hinder my chance, or if the opposite case is true. Is it the case that a student without GRE scores will look lazy, or look like their hiding poor scores?
All of the institutions that I am applying to have made the GRE optional.


texts: How to be sure services and researches offered by the University are not becoming cases of unfair competition?

texts:
I work in Italy on a research group working on the conservation of cultural heritage analyzing artworks. I had some discussion with my lab on what job or project the university shouldn't accept to avoid overlapping with the private market as unfair competition.

For instance, in my field, many papers are written as a case study where artworks are analyzed by the laboratory with conventional techniques and procedures and the results are published. In fact, there are small companies and freelancers that provided the same service and I think this is a case where the university might be guilty of unfair competition because it offers the same service for free. Of course some times there isn't the money to perform the service while the artwork could benefit from this research for their conservation so this practice sometimes could have a positive impact on the society.

I am aware that in this specific case we are not committing any crime but I wanted to reason about the role of the university.
Are there any guidelines, or law related to the role of the university and what is considered unfair competition? Where I can ask for clarification?

This is not restricted to my particular field because I've found the same problems also dealing with other disciplines.


texts: sharing preprint using the journal's template?

texts: Publishers such as Elsevier and SAGE provide LaTeX templates for manuscripts to be submitted to their journals. Can one post that version of the paper in our websites if the paper has been accepted to such journals? I am referring to a manuscript that only I have modified and has not been modified by the journal.


texts: Letter of Recommendation is very short and mostly nonspecific - What should I do?

texts:
I'm an undergraduate mathematics student at a US university applying to graduate school.
I took two classes with a professor and did extremely well - he loved me, and when I asked him to write me a letter of recommendation he promised to write a very strong one. He liked me so much that he actually sent me his letter so I could see what he thought of me.

The letter is highly flattering and I am extremely grateful, but it is only two or three paragraphs long, less than half a page. This made me nervous so I looked up features that a letter might have. This letter has only a bit of specific information and mostly speaks in vague, but highly positive, generalities - i.e. "the student did well in my very rigorous class" with no supporting evidence as to what made the class rigorous.

I am very worried that an admissions panel may see it as a vague, formulaic letter and discard it. I truly believe this professor has very high confidence in my abilities and that the letter is sincere, but I don't think that it is effective. I asked for the letter pretty early on in the semester and reminded him three weeks ago so I don't think time was the issue.

What should I do? Would it be rude to ask him to rewrite the letter with details and supporting examples? I am almost tempted to seek out a different professor to avoid asking him. Any advice would be useful.


texts: Does taking an academic job in Asia or Africa make it difficult to get a job in the US or Europe later?

texts:
Many in this community know of the struggle of finding a job in tertiary education after completing a PhD.
However, there are many options available for people who are willing to work overseas in exotic locations in Asia, Africa, and the other developing areas of the world.

I am wondering if working overseas would be detrimental to someone's career. Is it hard to get back into the States/Europe after spending a few years teaching and writing in the developing world? How do search committees view someone who has been away in order to find employment? Let's say the person asking has a PhD in education.


texts: Is a journal that is on Beall's list but is also in Scopus a predatory journal?

texts:
I have seen a journal, in the Computer Science field, that is predatory according to the Beall list (sorry if its not well written), but I see that this journal appears indexed in Scopus and Scimago; so I was wondering how to determine if a journal is predatory or not?

For example, I know that even some journals from Elsevier or Springer charge different prices for publishing an accepted article, and according to some colleagues if a journal charges for publication then it could be a predatory one, but the aforementioned editorials charge also so to whom believe?

I was also wondering if the B list is also accurate, I am starting to have my doubts about it.


texts: Is it possible to get admitted to a MS program with funding if I have a poor GPA but good GRE scores?

texts: Many university in North America or in Europe offer fundings for masters program .  But it only for those students who have a good CGPA in undergraduate examination .I  have completed my bachelor degree in computer science and engineering . I have a very poor cgpa  . Is there any possibility that I can get myself admitted in those institution for masters program with fundings . I have heard that a good GRE score will help a lot . Is it true ? Can I get funding if I have a good GRE score  once again I repeat I have a very poor cgpa .


texts: Kavli Frontiers of Science: is it a worthwhile use of one's time?

texts:
I recently received an invitation to a "U.S. Kavli Frontiers of Science symposium."  I have to be honest, when I first received it, I kind of thought it was conference spam, but investigating further, I came around to thinking it seemed legit (in part because it is organized by NAS and they offered to pay expenses).

But "is a legitimate scientific activity" is a pretty low bar for deciding whether it is worth expending one's limited time to attend a conference (at some minor personal inconvenience), which at least for me is not obviously connected to my research or even necessarily my discipline.  Does anyone here have experience with it?  Are the talks interesting for outsiders to the disciplines?  Is it actually a good networking opportunity?  Is it the sort of thing I should be bragging to my dean about (I'm about to go up for tenure, so bragging rights are somewhat relevant)?  Is it just sort of a glorified TED?


texts: Can I upload a modified version of a code from a journal paper to Github?

texts:
I am new to Github and I want to upload some scripts that I developed during my research. One of the scripts requires the use of a small external program (not mine) whose source code is included as supplemental material in a journal paper. Can I upload the program and/or the source code of that program?

The journal is Computers & Geosciences.


texts: Why do tenured professors still publish in pay-walled venues?

texts: I wonder why tenured professors still publish in pay-walled venues. I can understand that non-tenured professors are publication pressured, but once one gets tenured, why should one still place knowledge behind walls?


texts: Are special issues of a journal more highly cited?

texts: In this question both answerers suggest that papers in special issues are likely to receive more attention and citations than those in "normal" issues. Wiley have also made the same claim. Can anyone provide a source that gives data supporting or refuting the claim?


texts: Is it appropriate to share the distribution of grades for a small class?

texts: It is common practice to share a histogram of grades with a class after a quiz or exam. However, my institute has very small classes. This year I have 6 students in my class, and in previous years I have had 3. It seems like showing the breakdown of grades (e.g. how many A's, B's, C's there were) in such a small class may be inappropriate, since students may easily be able to guess who got which grade. On the other hand, it seems only fair to tell students how they did relative to the rest of the class.


texts: Should I grant an extension on an extension?

texts:
A student asked for a homework extension due to unforeseen circumstances in their personal life. I am generally accommodating about this type of thing if they come to me in a timely manner, but this student did not follow up until a week after the homework was originally due. (It is online homework, so I have to re-open the homework in order for them to work on it again.) I asked him to email me which sections he missed and he did not.

He spoke with me in person again two weeks later and again I told him that it was fine, but that he needed to email me right away and come to me in a timely manner about these types of things in the future, or else I would not be so accommodating. This was the end of the class week, so I was planning on giving him the weekend to work on these assignments and have him turn them in at the beginning of the next week.

However, he did not email me until the night before our class, so I would have to give him time this week to complete the assignments instead. At this point, the assignments were due over a month ago, so I am wondering if it is reasonable for me to tell him that he is no longer able to complete the assignment since he waited 4 more days to email me.


texts: How to add a citation to a sentence that has parentheses at the end?

texts:
How can I add a author-date citation to a sentence that ends with parentheses? That can occur when using parenthetical remarks or when an abbreviation is introduced:

However, methane has a higher Global Warming Potential (GWP)(IPCC 2013).
Most environmental impacts were due to methane emissions (which has higher GWP factors)(IPCC 2013).

Having two parentheses next to one another sure looks awkward. Is there a "workaround" or should I work harder and restructure the sentences.
Update: I am writing my thesis and the university does not recommend any citation style.


texts: Changing an experiment due to preliminary data

texts:
I'm writing a paper comparing the performance of 2 algorithms (lets call them A and B). A performs better than B, however preliminary data suggested a way to significantly improve the performance of B. I made the changes to B and sure enough now B outperforms A. I've verified that it's not just a fluke of the specific inputs I was testing against, making the changes to B leads to consistently better performance.

What is the best way to write these findings up? It feels an awful lot like cherry picking to me (especially since I didn't know when I started that I could improve B and for all I know there are improvements to A that could make it better than the improved B)

But despite its questionable origins the modified algorithm does perform the task faster and I want to include that information in my paper.

What is the best approach to take?
Call the modified version Algorithm C and just add it to the paper?
Add this information to the appendix?
Something else?


texts: A faculty member turned me down because of lack of funding. If the university announces funding is available, should I apply anyway?

texts:
Ten days ago I contacted a professor who conducts research in a field I am deeply interested in, to ask about PhD positions. He replied very politely that he had no funding available to hire a new person in his research group.

Today, the university announced that there is funding available for PhD positions and they welcome applications. In the application I am supposed to choose from a list of supervisors and try to convince them via a motivation letter and without directly contacting them.

Should I put the name of that professor or is it not a good idea? Wouldn't he know that there is some funding coming up soon, to suggest to me to wait a bit or is it possible he didn't know about it? Was he trying to politely say that he is not interested in me? If so, would it be a better idea to choose another supervisor or be persistent?


texts: Writing letters of reference for a faculty position in China?

texts: Does anyone know how to write good letters of reference into a Chinese university? I have an awesome former PhD student who is looking at a position that exactly suits their experience.  Is China like the USA that you can write something that is all praise, or is it like some countries in the EU where you are expected to comment on both strengths and weaknesses?  How should the letter open?


texts:
I have been looking into several different PhD programs in mathematics, and I am trying to keep my options open. After finishing a doctorate, I am open to working either in academia or industry, although I would prefer a teaching job or similar at a liberal arts college. Additionally, I am currently in the US on a student visa in an undergraduate program.
I would say I have a pretty strong resume, and my GPA is quite good (at around 3.7 on the 4.0 scale). I have research experience in combinatorics and data science, as well as independent reading courses, workshop participation and experience at a summer program for prospective PhD students. I have also given several presentations at student conferences.
I have looked at plenty of different schools in the United States. I am from a small state school, and I believe that applying to Ivy Leagues etc, I would probably not stand a chance. Even some top 50 programs I am quite sure I won't get into, although no risk no reward, so I will definitely try.
After talking to my student advisor, she told me that I should definitely have a few safety schools on my list, and that I will do. I started looking into it, and I noticed there are a few R2 universities with mathematics PhD programs that seemed to have professors interested in similar research as I am.
There was just one main concern: if I want to get a postdoc or similar after finishing PhD studies, would going to a R2 university completely kill my chances of doing this? I have been heavily advised against it by some of my peers.
If it matters at all, I am currently mainly interested in research in discrete mathematics and algebraic topology.


texts: How to apologize for declining an offer from a potential PhD advisor?

texts: I sent many emails to prospective PhD advisors looking for a position in their research groups. Recently, I got two offers from professors in different universities and I choose one of them as his research interests fit  more with my experience. Now, I have to apologize to the second one that I won't to be able to work with him. How to do that without leaving a bad impression ?


texts: Is there an advantage in including quotes from teaching evaluations in a teaching statement?

texts:
For context, I am a mathematics PhD student, and I am writing up my teaching statement. In looking up examples of teaching statements, I saw that one of them included quotes from students from teaching evaluations. I thought it was a nice touch.

I am merely a graduate student and I don't have the perspective of someone on a hiring committee.

Would it be to my advantage to include quotes from my teaching evaluations?


texts: How can teaching staff improve a passive student group?

texts:
I have been assigned to a section of student where I am teaching probabilistic models. From the starting day itself, I feel something strange is happening in the class. For example:

I like to have two-way communication inside the class. i.e. I prefer to have some sort of active discussions. However, the students do not respond at all.
Given the above point, I initially thought that it was my fault that they are not finding my teaching interesting. But, I sat with them in other courses which they are taking. It is the same. It sounds strange, but, it is.
I can't say they are lazy (c.f. How to deal with lazy students?) because they are doing something else in class. Some are busy coding, some are reading research articles, some are doing something else. Out of 40 students, only ~5 students are interacting.
I can't throw them out of the class, as it is against the university rules.

Due to the above reasons, I (and a few other faculty members) do not feel interested in teaching these students.

How can we improve the class environment, given the passiveness of these students?


texts: Accepted a postdoc offer by just emailing, have not signed any contract, what to do if other offer comes

texts:
Hi I am a Phd student (Phd thesis submitted). Recently, I have received a postdoc offer from a reputed university and accordingly accepted the offer by emailing them. Now this is just a offer letter, no salary is written there (the PI has told me unofficially the salary amount). In order to join the job, I have to defend my Phd thesis, then they will send a formal joining letter (where salary will be written). In other words, I have not signed any contract till now. Now, my Phd thesis reviews have not come yet (in my country thesis is sent to two reviewers: one within and one outside the country). Till I defend my Phd thesis what should I do if I get postdoc offer from other places.

Any help/suggestions will be useful. Thanks in advance.


texts: Is it ethical to withdraw a paper after reviews?

texts:
I have a submitted a paper to a IEEE letter. Unfortunately, at a later stage I noticed that letter is still in process to have an impact factor.
I already received reviews from reviewers and the journal is willing to
accept the paper after minor revision.
Is it ethical to withdraw the paper at this stage?


texts: Mention a specific potential adviser in the PhD statement of purpose who strongly suggest to apply and use his name in the SOP

texts: I am writing my statement of purpose for my Ph.D. and I want to work in a specific field with a specific professor in the department that I am going to apply for. I sent an email for that professor asking if he/she is accepting Ph.D. students and he/she strongly suggested me to apply and use his name in the SOP. If he already took the students he want. will I risk my admission to that school?


texts: How to ask a professor to introduce other professors to me when he mentions that he has no funding?

texts:
When asking for an opportunity to do a PhD with a professor at a US university, he replied:

  Excellent background. Unfortunately, I do not have funding to support
  new students. Good luck!

Now I want to tell him:

  Thank you for your time and consideration. Please keep me in mind if a funded position opens up in the future.

and I want to add that if there is any other professors that he can introduce to me in order to ask them for a PhD position.
What should I say?


texts: What are some of the smart ways of finding related literature online

texts:
I am in my first year of PhD. I spend a lot of time reading literature related to my broad area of research. I find reading very enjoyable, but finding relevant content online takes up a lot of time. Are there any tricks that people often use to reduce the search time in search engines like "google scholar" (or any other search engines or recommender systems) ?

One thing that I recently learnt was to use the cited by button against each paper in google scholar. I find a relevant paper. Even if it is an old paper, I can find newer works which are based on the original paper and read through them.

Please share some tricks/hacks or tips that help you reduce your time in searching papers online?

PS - Let me confess that in addition to learning some tricks to increase my productivity, I am also interested to integrate the possible suggestions that I receive here into metrics and integrate them into recommender systems for citation networks, something which I wish to pursue as a hobby project.


texts: do you know anyone who is over 30 years old, but got admission from top math grad school?

texts:
I am going to apply math grad schools this year.
But, the problem is now I'm 30 years old.

Do you know anyone who is 30 or over 30, but got admission from top math grad school?


texts: How to implement contradictory comments/suggestions from collaborators?

texts:
Every paper that I have worked on originated from the following timeline: a small team works on data and obtains results; one member is designated first author (always the one who did the biggest chunk of work); first author elaborates a draft version of the paper (may request other members to write one or more sections) and sends it to the rest of the team; all the other members send comments/suggestions; first author implements comments/suggestions and sends a new version; iteration of the process until everyone is happy with the paper.

Background: My field is Astrophysics. Even though the methodology behind writing papers varies from field to field, this question should be useful and easily applied across multiple fields. The viability of this methodology should not be the focus of this question.

I am currently writing a paper as the first author for the first time. Whenever I get comments/suggestions I always try to implement them and if I get more than one suggestion for the same thing, I try to find a mid term that allows me to accommodate every contribution. However, sometimes this is just not possible. As an example, I recently got contradictory comments regarding one paragraph in the introduction: one of the collaborators said "Delete it, we don't need this", the other said "add X, Y and Z". I cannot possibly implement both, as it is not possible to both delete a paragraph and add more information to it.

So, I can summarize my concerns in the following questions:

What factors should I take into account when prioritizing a comment/suggestion (e.g. personal preference as the first author, expertise or reputation of the collaborators who made the comments, ...)
How to professionally address comments/suggestions that were not implemented/had to be ignored? Will it offend a collaborator if I don't use one of his contributions? Should I contact that person stating that I did not implemented comment A because B?
Does the answer to this question change in case of trivial (such as rephrasing and paper structure) vs non-trivial (such as results or other relevant scientific contributions) comments/suggestions?

(I find this question to be significantly different from this one as I am looking for insight regarding collaborators that are contributing to your work and that you intend to collaborate again in the future. The mentioned questions are about (anonymous) peer-reviewers who are not working with you and are trying to make your work publishable.)


texts: How should personal/health be presented when explaining a bad grade at an interview?

texts:
For a PhD interview (European paid PhD which requires a MSc), what is the best way to present personal and health issues when motivating a bad grade? To put it in perspective, I have overall good grades from more than 30 courses, but I have two relevant courses taken 2-3 years ago (at the same time) where I just got a pass. These courses were only graded on the basis of one exam each, so the grade only reflects my score on the exam. The poor grade was due to a combination of mental health issues and a very stressful family situation, which made me completely lose focus while writing the exams.

How can I present this is a polite way, explaining that it doesn't reflect my actual capabilities? It was also more than 2 years ago, thus I've amassed more knowledge within these topics. It is quite common for course grades to be based on total effort, but for these I only had a few hours each to prove myself, and in a bad condition. I have also shown that I understand the topics through other courses and the theses I've written.

Are interviewers usually understanding in this regard? Especially, since it was a few hours of exam time, taken place 2 years ago while feeling very unwell, it is a very minor issue. Other than this I have a very good record, but I fear that this will come up as a question since it seems very out of place.


texts: Response to a reviewer for a duplicated paragraph

texts:
I had a mistake in my paper and I had a duplicated paragraph in my paper. Now, reviewer told me that it is duplicated and ask me for a description for the problem.

I have deleted the paragraph but I don't know what to say in the response letter about the comment?

May you please tell me that what is a good sense response to tell to the reviewer about the paragraph. I think that it is not good to say that it was just a mistake.

Thank you


texts: How to position myself to transition from doing wet lab research to doing computational work?

texts:
I am in the first quarter of the second year of my PhD. I learned to code as a hobby and have been quite passionate about analytical stuff. I got taken for a PhD basic research project which required a candidate with both wet lab and coding abilities, to be able to apply various programmatic tools to analyse various types of data. During the first year of my PhD I did an extensive analysis of single cell rna seq, bulk rna seq, microarray and Chipseq data for various endpoints. I mostly used already available programmatic tools. It was fun and my supervisor was higly impressed.

Now at the start of the second year of my PhD I discovered that my passion and motivation to perform wet lab activities are very weak. I seem to have lost many reflexes necessary for various wet lab activities. I am almost hating wet lab activities. I have to use some of my time to analyse data for my colleagues and I constantly find myself more passionate about the Bioinformatics stuff than with with wet lab activity. I am still familiar with Biological concepts.

I want  to ask my supervisor to modify my project such that I get completely exempted from wet lab activities and do only Bioinformatics. I wish is to focus on different types of analyses of genomics/transcriptomics/proteomic data within the context of the projects going on in our research group. I plan to apply available tools, modify methods in available tools or possibly develop my own methods to analyse various data. I last studied Mathematics in high school and I have never studied Computer Sciences. Online platforms including EDx and co offer basic courses in Mathematics and Computer Sciences. Could such online courses bring bring me up to date in Maths and Computer Sciences such that I can handle a purely Bioinformatics PhD project in this context? I have completed the Data Science Path from the Codecademy platform. So I have basic knowledge of statistics and basic concepts in machine learning. I am very familiar with self-learning especially online.

Thank you in advance for you highly cherished advice.


texts: how to deal with this prof when he gives you his lowest grade?

texts:
Now our marks came out and the average is 94 and he gave me 2 marks less than the average of the class. (This means that I have got the lowest grade in the class)

I am overthinking these days and getting a headache.
I really want to figure out what is his intention and why is he playing with my future?

I always study hard to get everything done in high quality; I always compare my work with other classmates to correct myself; I do not know why he gave me his lowest grades?

Should Ph.D. students get higher than master students? is there any range?
or
I am getting this just because I am a girl...


texts: Balancing short-term academic position and pregnancy

texts:
A close friend of mine was offered a three year postdoc position after she finished a previous 3 year postdoc fellowship. She is very excited about the new position but at the same time she is very worried since she and her partner are planning to have a first baby. She mentioned that she felt like she would be taking advantage of the professor who offered her a new position, if she would become pregnant soon and would be on maternity leave for several months, while she only just joined the new lab.

I didn't really know how to respond. Should this really be a concern for her? Or how to balance moving between (relatively) short-term positions and starting a family?


texts: Why is it acceptable to cite unpublished works?

texts:
If an article, theorem, etc. is unpublished, presumably the work is only available to people who track down the author and get a draft copy. Today we have arXiv and can find many preprints on the Internet, but people have been citing unpublished works longer than arXiv has been around. It seems like an unscrupulous author could claim anything he wants, cite an unpublished work that doesn't support his claim (or even one that doesn't exist), and get away with it unless the bad claim is caught in the review process.

I suppose the reviewers could ask for a copy of the cited work, but I recently saw a citation that was just "private communication 1981" for a paper published in 1985, and that could easily have been a phone call where no record could be provided to a reviewer.

I've never published anything myself, so maybe I'm unaware of a part of the review process that is meant to catch this, but what prevents authors from making bad citations of unpublished works?


texts: Is it reasonable to ask for access to an advisor/supervisor during summer time?

texts:
At the end of a recent lengthy meeting with my supervisor, in preparation for my end of year GRC (Graduate Research Committee) meeting, I asked about if I would be able to contact them during the summer holiday period in relation to my research.

Background is that I am a History Masters research student and as I'm completing it part-time I'll be doing as much work during the summer months (maybe even more as one of my major visits to archives is during this period) as during the academic year.

My supervisor was open to me emailing him during the summer and submitting any written work I may have completed. As it was we were finishing the meeting we did not elaborate on exact details. In my own case this will suffice as I am working on my project on my own with my supervisor.

While I just asked if I could keep in contact with my supervisor and that's probably the best thing to do in most cases, I am interested is it reasonable to request that you can have access to an advisor/supervisor during summer time (either by email or face to face)?


texts: Why is doctoral thesis plagiarism sometimes forgiven by academia?

texts:
I was recently looking at the rates of PhD revocations of people who were found to have plagiarized large portions of their PhD theses by Vroniplag, and it isn't that high.
Most people that were found by sites like Vroniplag whose PhDs weren't revoked are either established professors or are working outside of academia so it's kind of understandable that their PhDs weren't taken.
But there seem to be instances where someone plagiarized portions of their thesis and  they are still promoted by their Universities and given funding.
Why is PhD thesis plagiarism forgiven in some instances by academia?


texts: Where can I pay professional researchers online to verify my results and answer my questions?

texts:
I am looking for professional help to verify some results I am working on and maintaining in a write-up. However, I can't get anyone for free since I was forced to leave my old university, Case Western Reserve, (due to disagreements) and I don't know if I can find an online program that assists undergraduates in their research (I should have graduated my senior year with a bachelor's degree but am technically a freshman. I have studied rigorously up to differential equations; It's complicated). Moreover, professors are busy and would most likely ignore my requests no matter how much money I offer.
Therefore, is there a way to pay for professional research help? How can I receive feedback on what I am working on?
Details: My field is mathematics. I think the work may be complicated enough that graduate students won't be able to rigorously answer everything. I need someone with a Ph.D. on the level of professors.
(Technically, I am working on developing a finitely additive measure and sum that takes the average of functions defined on countably additive measure zero sets. I am looking to verify if my measure and average on a function gives in fact what I am looking for. For reference, the link to my pdf is here).


texts: Trouble coming up with a title for PhD dissertation - strategies?

texts:
This may be a question that is too open-ended for Academia SE, but I thought I would ask here. I have already consulted some online resources, but the solutions were not that helpful.
How does one come up with a 'good' title for a dissertation? My first attempt at a dissertation title was along the lines of:

Developing a [methodological] understanding of [this important phenomenon]

Understandably, this title was a bit broad and generic. My supervisor suggested I make the title a less generic to help specify the contribution of the dissertation. I'm feeling a bit stymied - titles have never been my specialty.
Would any advisors on this SE be able to share share strategies on how a student can arrive at a successful dissertation titles?
For clarity: this is the 'final' dissertation title.


texts: What goes in a student success statement for a faculty application?

texts: One of my faculty position applications requires me to write a student success statement. I'm unsure what such a document should contain. Is this similar to a teaching statement?


texts: Does the term “science” encompass humanities and the social sciences?

texts:
I’m not a native English speaker and want to get a better grip on the nuances of the term science.

In my native tongue, the word I’d use for science also refers to humanities and the social sciences. However, I’ve lately been getting the feeling that some people use the term only to refer to the natural sciences (case in point: the S in STEM). With scientist referring to academics working in the natural sciences, and scholar more to academics in the humanities and social sciences.

Is my intuition correct? If so, is there an umbrella term describe everything from social science over STEM to law and what not?


texts: Is it plagiarism if peer reviewers use sentences from submitted manuscripts?

texts:
I have a question about plagiarism.

If a peer reviewer writes a negative review of a paper and rejects it, so that he or she can use the idea of the paper in their own work is that considered plagiarism?

Similarly, if a peer reviewer lifts sentences from a submitted, but rejected manuscript into their own paper is that considered plagiarism?

And if you have a strong suspicion either of those two have happened (e.g. you see a publication appear after a while with exactly the same phrasing as your submitted manuscript), is there anything you can do about it?


texts: How can I write a thesis if my master's program does not offer it?

texts: I am thinking of one day doing a PhD in the area of counselling psychology in Canada, however my masters program does not have a thesis option and having done a thesis is a requirement it seems for almost all PhD programs. I would be willing to write one independently or do other research if it would be accepted?


texts: Can I have two PhD supervisors from two different UK universities?

texts:
I have two unconditional offers from two UK universities in law. University A assigned me one supervisor only, but he is the greatest in part of my thesis. University B also assigned me one supervisor, who also has a very unique insight in the second part of my thesis.
Is there any possibility to ask for a joint PhD? Or any way to be collaboratively supervised by these two great supervisors? If any one has a successful similar situation, I will be grateful if you could share it.


texts: Citing books: international edition or the original edition?

texts:
I am based in India and typically only have access to "International" editions of various books (i.e., edition which is for sale in the Indian subcontinent/select countries only). I now need to cite a few chapters in a paper.
Typically, I would assume one should cite the version/edition that they have access to. However, in this case, if I cite this "local" edition, it is possible that readers may have difficulty in locating the exact content (as I will be citing page numbers).
Is there a standard rule about these? The journal does not have any stated policy on this matter.
Related questions:

Should I cite the latest edition of a book?

Difference between International edition of a book and a non international one


texts: Use of "we have a large backlog" euphemism by journal editors when rejecting articles without sending them out for review

texts:
Several times now I've had desk rejections from journals in pure mathematics that are variations on the theme of 'we have a large backlog of very good articles, so unfortunately we won't even be sending your paper to a referee even though we might ordinarily do so'. I suspect this is just euphemism for 'we aren't interested in your paper/your paper is not good enough/go away', as claiming a large backlog seems to me to be more objectively defendable than making an editorial decision (ie 'not significant enough') and standing by it on its own terms. Alternatively, it may be phrased this way to soften the blow in claiming to not make an explicit judgement call on paper quality.

Is this common practice among editors and/or journals? I haven't in my admittedly limited experience heard similar wording in rejections from, say, experimental sciences journals. More controversially, am I correct in my reading, that it is just euphemism? (If so, I do not appreciate it, in the interest of academic honesty over lawyer-approved weasel words.)

Ideally answers would come from people who are editors and/or those with extensive experience in publishing. A bonus would be answers that can detail whether this sort of thing is on the rise, coming from people who have decades of experience.


texts:
Both ChemRxiv (https://chemrxiv.org/) as well as arXiv (https://arxiv.org/) are services for publishing preprints.

arXiv focusses on physics, mathematics, computer science (CS) and some more topics. From the questions and answers in this discussion forum, I got the impression that publishing a preprint on arXiv at least in some disciplines is rather common as an accepted way to have your work published.

In contrast, in a chemistry context, it seems that publishing preprints is far less common, and I as a chemist only know of ChemRxiv because I wondered myself if a preprint service exists for chemistry related research. At the institutions I have worked so far, this was never considered at all. Only peer reviewed publications count.

Provided that my impressions are correct: Why is there such a relatively low acceptance for preprints in chemistry as compared to other disciplines? Or the other way around: Why do some disciplines value preprints higher than others? Especially in CS related questions, it seemed to me that arXiv is suggested rather frequently. Are preprints in other disciplines really helpful for the publication record?


texts: Is an internship in theoretical physics valuable for me?

texts:
I am planning to do an internship in a theoretical physics area for a year before applying for PhD. My current masters' thesis advisor (who is a hardcore experimentalist) warned me that I might not actually learn anything new in a theoretical intern, and that I will only end up solving some textbook problems. I was wondering how plausible this is, and if it is a strong possibility, how I can make sure that there is a significant addition to my skillset during my intern in theory. Anyone?

EDIT : This internship will NOT be a part of my M.Sc. I will be doing it to bolster my otherwise ordinary profile. I basically want to publish something or at least get a good recommendation letter before I apply for PhD.


texts: I got into grad school, now I need to retract my commitment

texts:
I got into a fully funded PhD program and accepted it. Somewhere along the line, my decision to attend grad school changed. My problem is that orientation week is in two weeks and I have not retracted my commitment.

I am afraid of what the outcome may be. My potential advisor was so nice to me and I assured her that I would be joining her lab. What should I do? I can’t just not show up... but I don’t know how to tell them that grad school is not something I want right now. I don’t want to offend anyone or ruin my academic reputation.


texts: Indicate leadership/groupwork in research experience for graduate applications?

texts:
For academic CVs, should/how do/how might I indicate leadership/group work when describing certain research projects?

Option A: Use words

  Project A, Subject X11, Date

  Group

  Description

  Project B, Subject X12, Date

  Individual

  Description

  Project C, Subject X12, Date

  Group, Leader

  Description

Option B: Use letters

  Key:

  G for Group but not leader

  I for Individual

  L for Group Leader

  Project A, Subject X11, Date, G

  Description

  Project B, Subject X12, Date, I

  Description

  Project C, Subject X12, Date, L

  Description

Option C: Do not indicate on academic CV, but describe in application how many research projects are included, how many were by group and how many were led
Option D: Other

Couldn't find any samples/templates with clear indications or articles discussing such or maybe I missed in the templates or articles I've already read.

If the answer may vary, please indicate source of variance eg depends on whether or it's not for PhD applications. Then pretty please provide conditional answers. =)

Contexts:

see revision history


texts: The ranking of the Romanian Journal of Ophthalmology

texts:
I searched the rank of the Romanian Journal of Ophthalmology but I did not find it on Scimago list of ophthalmology journals. The list ends with the 110-th journal: "Revue Francophone d'Orthoptie", having SJR 0.1 and H-index 2.
However, I found something on Scopus, after clicking on letters "Ro": The Romanian Journal of Ophthalmology is the last Romanian Journal in that list, with an index of 0.05, and H index of 9. It is situated immediately under "Romani studies".
In order to understand what is the effectiveness of printing there, I would like to ask you to approximate the ranking of the Romanian Journal of Ophthalmology in the continuation of Scimago list containing ophthalmology journals, extending it to 1000 journals.
The second purpose of my email is to ask why a journal with h-index 2 appears in Scimago List, and a journal with h-index 9 does not appear?
Dr CDB


texts: How do I respond to my professors email about recommendation letter? He is out of the country for sometime and his FIL is ill

texts:
I have contacted my professor about recommendation letter for my applications to PhD programmes. He has provided letters for few of my application.

Right now I am applying to few more universities and have contacted him again to provide few more letters in support of my application. He responded by saying that he is in a different country and his father-in-law is ill. He said he would provide the letters once again when he is back in the country. How should I respond to his email? I feel bad about constantly bothering him about letters of recommendation.


texts:
The following question has been induced by a comment to the question What to do if chosen topic has been done in a foreign language.

I know four languages (+-1) sufficiently well to be able to read and comprehend literature specific to my field (math/phys). When doing a literature survey before starting the research phase for my thesis (masters now, phd later) should I look for literature in all the languages I comprehend or would only two (i.e., EN/DE or EN/RU) suffice?

Specifically for masters a check in all the languages seems like an overkill to me, given the limited amount of time available.


texts: Is it safe to address university administrators as "professors"?

texts:
Last time I had an appointment with one of the university advisors, she kept mentioning that she is going to "teach" later after the meeting. Long after the appointment I realized that I should have called her as "Professor XXXX" rather than "Ms. XXXX". However she does not have any scholars' websites, nor we could find out on internet that she indeed teaches some classes.

It is common in US to address college teachers as "Prof." I wonder if it is safe to address all university administrators as "professors", because if they are senior enough, most of them could have taught one or more college-level classes, orientation sections, or training sessions. Some of the administrators have ruling powers over the students in many scenarios, and it is not wise to insult them.


texts: No jobs near me, no means to move. What can I do?

texts:
I studied chemistry at the University of Belgrade and finished with a masters degree. Unfortunately there aren't many job openings near me and my family and me lack the funds for me to move out from them.
I tried applying for teaching positions to start saving money, but I was unable to find someone who would employ me, since I lack the expertise, they say.
With no job in sight and no money to move I find myself trapped in Belgrade, not able to follow my passion and profession.
I tried applying at different universities for a PhD position, but again, no luck.
What I want to ask is, what options do I have left? Ideas or experiences are much appreciated.
Update
I tried applying for all sorts of public teaching positions, but was turned down every time.
With family I mean my parents, with whom I still live.
Unfortunately, there isn't a career services office in Belgrade (as far as I know).
I guess I will continue to try and apply for PhD positions and try my hand at landing a private teaching job, although those are hard to find as well.
Is there any advice on where my question might be better placed, if not here?


texts: In what language do scientists communicate with each other in European research institutions?

texts:
I was just wondering out of curiosity. Nothing relating to my own circumstances.
In what language do scientists in facilities like the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (whose campuses are there in Barcelona, Rome, Heidelberg etc...) communicate?
Do scientists communicate in German in the Heidelberg laboratory, or in Spanish in the Barcelona lab? I am assuming so because obviously the majority of the scientists in Heidelberg laboratory will be German and the majority in Barcelona will be Spanish and the majority in Rome will be Italians.
Is this true?


texts: Submitted Assignment Late - Wrong to ask for in-depth analysis?

texts:
So I've just submitted my first late assignment, and another one on the books. I feel absolutely terrible about it, but my time-management has been less than poor lately.

I really enjoy learning though, and if there is one thing that drives me, it's to aim for the highest result possible. As such, when I submit my assignments, I usually prod for further analysis as to where I was lacking, what I can improve, etc.

However, typing an email to my lecturer currently feels 'wrong'. I feel, because the assignment was late, that I put in a half-assed effort, and feel like asking for a more in-depth analysis is like asking for 'more' than I deserve. Should I surmise this 'idea' in my head to my lecturer when asking for the analysis of my assignment? Or should I just go about it the way I did before, just asking for ways to improve, etc.?


texts: I need some code that was made available by a student 15 years ago, but is no longer online. How can I contact someone in the group to get the code?

texts:
I need Matlab code of a method to compare it with the results of my proposed method.

The method which I want to use happened to be available online by a research group in a university in US in 1997  [see here]. Unfortunately, when I click the corresponding link of the method, it gives a server Error message. I've tried to email the person who seems to be responsible for this page, but I didn't get a reply.   This page also returns a server error.

As I urgently need this code, what should I do to contact to this research group?

Also, how can I convince them to give me the code?


texts: Is it advisable to cite papers in PhD Statement of Purpose?

texts:
I found out some similar questions, such as https://www.quora.com/Should-I-cite-papers-in-my-Statement-of-Purpose, Is it advisable to use formal citations in a statement of purpose?. However, I think my question is more specific.

I am preparing statement of purpose for PhD in Material Science (in US). I have some professors in mind to work with. To demonstrate on what problems I would to work, should I formally cite the professor's paper in Statement of Purpose? The idea is not to write a technical paper but to illustrate on what problems I would like to work.

If someone does not write citations, how would you convey what problems you would like to work on? I think that it would be too generic just to describe research interests. I see some pros in citations:

Being specific in what you want to do
Indicating you studied professor's work and showing interest in the professor's research.

Is citing papers statement of purpose a normal practice?


texts:
I am aware that PhD theses can be self archived in university site, personal webpage or sites like researchgate (ePrint Archive for PhD Dissertation in the Social Sciences).

I am not really fond of researchgate. I wish to know if arXiv (or biorXiv; as my field is biology that involves both mathematical modelling and experimental techniques) allows archiving of PhD thesis. This is not explicitly mentioned in these sites but this university site provides instructions on submitting PhD thesis to arXiv. I think this would be better than self archiving because arXiv submissions receive a DOI (I guess).

Does anyone have an experience with this? Are there other public repositories like arXiv that allow submission of PhD/masters theses (especially those that are biology related or accept all disciplines of science)?


texts: Is it ethical to quit your phD aft 6 months for a better phD offer?

texts:
I recently graduated from a university in Germany, and I would like to apply for a phD in UK. However, my university provides initial funding for me if I choose to do my phD in the university.

I will apply for my dream schools in UK. However, there will be a one year gap and I have no idea how to use it to enhance my chance of getting admitted in this year. I would like to take the initial funding to work as a phD student in my home university, and quit it if I get admitted. If I wasn't admitted, I can stay in the same lab.

Is it ethical to do this if I don't tell the supervisor of my home university before he accept me ? If I should tell him, how can I prevent hurting his feeling, and let him accept my proposal ?

Thanks !


texts: When is it wrong to look at previous exams?

texts:
It is clear that if I study for an exam in 2014, then it should be okay to look at previous exams from the previous semester of 2014, exams from 2013, 2012, etc.

First question: Is it wrong, however, to look at previous exams within the same semester?

Example:

Let's say there are two classes (9:30-10:30 MWF and 12-1:30 TTh) for a subject (S101). Say I am in the TTh class and I have a friend in the MWF class. My friend takes the S101 exam on Monday. I am to take the S101 exam on Tuesday.

Is it wrong for my friend and I to discuss the S101 exam after e takes the S101 exam and before I take the S101 exam?

Here is what I am thinking:

It should NOT be wrong because the S101 exam on Tuesday should be different from the S101 exam on Monday since professors should expect that students will discuss it among themselves. If the professor makes identical exams, then this is unfair to the MWF class who do not have as much information as the TTh class who easily obtain information from the ones in the MWF class who tell them.

See possibly related question.

Second question:

Some of my friends say it is cheating while others do not. Our "Code of Academic Integrity" handbook makes no mention of such behavior or perhaps I misread it.

If the CoAI in fact fails to mention it while doing such is wrong, can students be faulted for doing such?


texts: Is it acceptable to email an author to ask for a copy of his book that is currently out of print?

texts:
(Apologies if this isn't the place to ask, as I'm not a college student or independent researcher).
I am a secondary school student in Ireland currently working on a large project for a history class and the topic I have chosen is relatively obscure. The most thorough of the few books written on the matter seems to be currently out of print. I found a used copy for sale a while ago at an exorbitant cost, but I'm unable to find even that now.
Would it be okay for me to email the author to ask if he could direct me towards somewhere where I could find a copy of the book, or send me a pdf? I would be willing to pay, although I doubt I could afford the full price of the book originally which was upwards of $100.


texts: How to deal with results that are given as exercises

texts:
I'm currently writing my thesis in mathematics and in the introductory part I want to give a brief overview over a field I'm not very familiar with. There are some results in the book I'm reading which are stated as exercises for the reader, which I'd like to include as theorems in my thesis. I don't want to prove them, since this part is only meant to give the reader an overview of some basic concepts and to show him the importance of some constructions which I will generalize later (which is the actual bread and butter of the thesis). So how do I deal with this:

Don't give any citation at all and assume these concepts are well known to anyone working in the field? - I wouldn't give the definition of a vector space in my thesis, so this might be justifiable. However, I wouldn't consider those theorems as basic as the definition of vector spaces...
Do a heavy amount of googling to find sone sources which prove those theorems? - This might take a considerable amount of time, so I'd like to avoid it. It might also turn out to be impossible, since the phrasing might be different enough in the original sources so that I just won't find them
Cite the Problem from the book I'm working with? - I don't think I can do this, since the results aren't proved in the reference I would give

Note that none of my results rely on any of these theorems.


texts:
Related to this question: How to buy plane tickets for job interviews?

What does it mean to accept a job offer? Or maybe more accurately when have you accepted a job offer?

The latest and most conservative might be when you sign a contract. This seems a little late in the game as often contracts, especially in the States are slow to be generated. The earliest might be when you go for an interview. In the UK it is pretty standard for universities to not reimburse candidates to whom offers are made and subsequently turned down. Middle ground might be when you enter contract negotiations or verbally agree to the terms of your contract.


texts: How to justify some independent research experience for graduate admission?

texts: If somebody has some research experience but no publication could come out of it, then how to justify that experience except the recommendation by the supervisor in front of the graduate admission committee? Thanks in advance!


texts:
An update to yesterday's post.
A mixture of events has caused me to lose interest in my PhD project. I started on the back of losing a close family member which really didn't give me a good start.
Over the last few months I've grown less interested in the project and I'm growing increasingly frustrated by the lack of support offered by the faculty and supervision team.
I want to communicate this with my supervisor before I resort to handing in my resignation to it's at least noted that I'm unhappy
How do I break the news to them that I'm unhappy?


texts: What is the proper way to cite a mathematical theorem in a paper?

texts:
I have questions on how to properly cite a mathematical theorem in order to use it in a paper.
For example, assume that I need to apply an existing theorem from a published book 1.
Theorem 1 [book 1]. statements...
Proof: Refer to [book 1]
My supervisor suggested that if I put the citation remark after Theorem 1, then all my writing and wordings have to be identical to the original one in [book 1]. However, if I state this theorem by my own words, with possible changes of notations or similar things, then I cannot put the citation remark after Theorem 1. In that case,  I should refer it at the beginning of the proof of this theorem as I have shown above.
So what is the proper way to cite a theorem in a situation like this? I personally prefer to state an exiting theorem in my own words. This is because formulations of theorems are not always optimal, and also the notations generally have to be changed in accordance with my writings.
Note that I need to apply the equations in Theorem 1 in my subsequent writings, so simply quoting this theorem and applying its conclusions may not be a good choice.
Thanks a lot!


texts: I'm presently in a master's program. The program is much more relevant to the area I wish to do a PhD in (I switched majors from Bachelor's->Master's). I took two recommendation letters from my undergraduate institution to apply for master's, but the strong one was about a relatively unrelated subfield and I have not kept touch with the professor in question due to the switch. I'll be applying 3 years post undergrad. In this situation, can I forego the folklore rule of 1 letter of recommendation from an undergrad university ?


texts: Question asked in phd application form - How you intend to fund your studies

texts:
I am a masters student in mathematics in an Asian country and I am applying for Phd position in Europe.
While looking at website of one university in UK I came across this question which need to be answered by phd candidate

An outline of How you intend to fund your studies

If university doesn't gives me funding then I am ready to do some part time jobs during weekends( eg  working in some restaurant or anything like that)
Also, my parents say that they could arrange for possibility of education loan and as my parents are government employee , there would not be much problem in that.

Considering that I am really enthusiastic to do research in the field I like, I have no problem in doing some jobs  during weekends or going for the option of loan if my parents agree.
But the problem is what exactly should I write as an answer to this question in the application form ? and what should I  not write.


texts: How often do professors regret accepting particular graduate students (i.e., "bad hires")?

texts:
Completely out of curiosity, I was wondering how often PIs have to deal with "bad hires" in their lab/group? I sometimes hear the PI/trainee relationship be compared to marriages, where half ends in a divorce. Is there actual truth to this? There are also posts like these that reinforce this:

Tales of postdocs past: what did I learn?

As profs, have you ever accepted grad students only to regret it later? Does this happen often and how do you deal with it? Are problems typically that they cannot do the work, or that their personality is just not a good fit? I think for the most part PIs I've met handle these professionally, but I do wonder how they actually feel about the situation.


texts: My student's family won't let her study what she wants

texts:
Yesterday I had a tearful encounter in office hours with the most avid participant in the math class I teach, in which she related the following situation.

She is an international student whose parents are well off by local standards but have made significant financial sacrifices for her to study abroad at the university where I work. Part of the plan was that she should have a scholarship, but it has recently been denied on the grounds her grades are not strong enough, and as a result she will have to switch to a nearby university in the fall. Part of why her grades aren't strong is because she is a very specifically focused student: professional mathematics is all she really wants to do with her life. She already knows. When she is able to do what she wants, she just studies math. She works extremely hard, but at end of the day she couldn't care less about her other courses and views the struggle to get good grades as a distraction from what's important to her.

Her parents disagree that there is any future in math for her. They tell her it's not worth it and that she's bad at it. They're medical doctors in a country where teachers are treated poorly, viewed as people lacking the talent to do anything better, and are worried that a career in math would be both unremunerative and undignified—which might be the case in her home country, but my student also doesn't hope to return home. Nevertheless, for because her parents are footing the bill and because she's not willing to openly defy them, my student will finish a pure CS major when she enrolls in her new university, and won't be allowed to enroll in any future math courses during undergrad.

I watched her just crumble as she told me this, weeping and apologizing for it, unable to make eye contact. She's about to embark, without any choice in the matter, on a course that's going to make her miserable for years, if not longer, and moreover, from what I know of her, she is just the kind of person who should be in math.

I've told her there's nothing anyone can do to stop her from learning on her own, and that absolutely no instructor would refuse to let her sit in on whatever math course she wants, so that at most this will be a hiccup resulting in her getting a sort of bachelor's degree she doesn't really want at the expense of what she'd rather do, and that at the time she's financially independent, she can really study what she wants, but one could tell she's not completely buying this. She's devastated, and I can hardly blame her.

What can I (or anyone) do to help in this situation?


texts: How to avoid self-plagiarism when adapting dissertation into a paper?

texts:
I have recently completed a dissertation and have been encouraged to publish the work.

My dilemma is that I find it quite difficult (and painfully tedious) to rewrite the same thing couched in new language. Whereas I don't plan to copy and paste the whole thing verbatim, it would be nice to take chunks of the original text here and there, and proceed to break-apart, edit, and reassemble the bits and pieces to create a newly condensed version of the dissertation.

How does one go about this whilst avoiding self-plagiarising?

It would seem sensible to make generous reference to the fact that the paper is derived from the dissertation. However, does one really have to effectively rewrite everything and reference every last page and figure from the original text?

Thanks.


texts: How likely is that a high school student has a paper published in a peer reviewed journal without any help from a professor?

texts: Most often high school students do research in a university under a professor. Has there been any instances where a student published a paper in a peer-reviewed journal without any help from a professor?


texts:
I am currently an undergraduate at a university whose PhD Physics program is ranked 25. I plan to go into PhD for physics in condensed matter physics; I have applied to PhD programs this year but have been rejected by all of them, including my home university. I thus applied to masters programs for condensed matter physics. I have heard back from one university with acceptance. The school is not a well known university for physics (it only has a masters, no PhD program) and is ranked in the 200s. I plan to get more research experience during my masters. If I accept the offer and complete my masters there and apply to my home university (and similarly ranked schools) for my PhD will these programs frown upon the fact that I went from 25 to 200s? I have done well in my undergrad but will future universities just look at my masters program? It's already difficult to get into good schools and I am not sure if going to masters in this new place will make it more diffucult.
***PS: I have nothing against universities with lower rank. It's been a rough semester in terms of grad school applications (I never thought I would be rejected from my home university and it's making me worried)


texts: Why ask both for CV and publication list?

texts: Some academic job posts and grant applications require submitting both a CV and a publication list. I would have thought that it is a standard to put the publication list in the CV, hence it is not necessary to have the publication list again. What is the purpose of requiring both of them?


texts: How to persuade someone to not pursue a PhD just because they failed to find a job?

texts:
I have a friend who is unable to find a job in the industry. He's a fresh university graduate. He's now applying for a PhD position because he's found a supervisor. I have every reason to suspect that he wouldn't enjoy the degree because:

He's very good at memorizing text-books and past-exams, but never able to come up with a solution independently.
He doesn't enjoy reading unless it's required for exams.
He plays and socializes a lot.
He came up with this idea after failing some job interviews.

I think he just wants to go back to university because job interviews are tough.


texts: Is it good practice to teach using real life experiences of the student?

texts:
I am not a professional teacher but I have students that seek me for clarification and knowledge. At times I use their personal real life experiences like how they relate to others to simplify the answer. Is it right professionally?
In the case of programming, when teaching of classes, using their families to signify inheritance. For example your father was tall so will you be... your mother is intelligent so will you be... with no interest of motivate them but educate them.


texts: Any suggestions to create and maintain a good research atmosphere

texts:
I am starting my PhD in Computer Science next semester in a relatively small department (around 20 faculty members). I have been to the university a few times and I noted the collaboration among students is minimal. My prospective supervisor, most likely, is willing to help me in any research activity I propose that will increase the number of projects and publications with collaboration among students.

Thus, I am asking for different suggestions/tips of activities one can do or propose to increase the collaboration and the knowledge exchange among students/faculty members.

My question is on two levels:
1. What activities/set ups can a PhD student do/propose at the group level? (i.e. between you and other students with the same supervisor). FYI, the group is around 10 students. My supervisor is going to set up a group presentation every two weeks.

2. What activities/proposals/set ups can one suggest at the departmental level?  (I was thinking of a weekly talk over coffee for graduate students in the department.)


texts: What could be the outcome of writing negative things about previous university in an application to another university?

texts:
I am applying for a PhD program abroad. In my application form there is a section saying "we understand that individual, family or community circumstances may have affected your previous academic record or educational experience, and that the materials you submit with your application may not be a full reflection of your potential for success in graduate school. If your education has been affected by such circumstances and you wish to provide a more detailed explanation about them, please respond below and use the space to share more about your experiences".
My previous department environment was not conducive to learning or research. As undergrads, we were encouraged to memorize rather than understanding, developing intuitions or solving problems. Whatever I have learnt, I learnt from the resources available on the internet e.g. OCW, YouTube etc. Only a couple of professors are involved in research. They are not at all helpful or encouraging. They always need to boost their ego, never ready to discuss anything, never ready to accept their mistakes if they made one. The teacher-student relationship is more like, dare I say, a master and slave type of relationship. These events have affected my academics and more importantly, affected me physically and psychologically. I had been suffering from chronic depression, started to fall sick very frequently and even had suicidal thoughts.
If I express my thoughts regarding these things would it affect my application? I can understand that if I bad mouth my department then the LORs that I got from the department become less valuable. I would really appreciate some advice.


texts:
I just got the grade for a problem sheet that we had to hand in. The grading of the TA seems really ... odd, to put it nicely (for example, 1 exercise consisted of 3 basic computations - I got the correct values on 2 of them, but on the third even though I plugged the good numbers in I just typed a wrong number for the final result for some reason and this "mistake" got me only half the marks for that entire exercise).

However, the following thing really baffled me, I have never encountered anything like this in my education so far: one of the problems had a maximum grade of 0 points (which I got). Furthermore, for making a mistake you would have ended up with negative marks. To me, this seems very unfair (basically taking points away from other questions which were solved correctly) and highly not pedagogical as I don't believe that students should be punished for making mistakes.

I was planning on bringing this up to the professor tomorrow, but I thought it would be good to get some opinions on this matter. Is this kind of behavior common? The field is Astronomy/Physics and the country is Netherlands.


texts: What are the ethical considerations when publishing a cheating technique?

texts:
Suppose I have devised a way to cheat at cards, exams or any other situation in which secret communication with other people or machines provides unfair advantage. The method is novel and uses original technology and algorithms such that I think they might be worthy of a scientific publication.

The method is not a mathematical trick to solve a game while sticking to the rules, in which case I would see no ethical issue with publishing it. Think more of a method to remotely stream answers of a test directly into the retina without anyone else noticing.

I wonder if it would be unethical to publish this method in an academic journal. I personally feel strongly against cheating at exams, a little less strongly about cheating at cards but still, I wouldn't like to be making cheaters' life easier.

In their book "Beat the Market" Thorp and Kassouf write about why they published their method to edge their stock market investments. While the situation is different since using maths to make money is neither illegal nor unethical, some of their arguments might hold in my case.

In short, they say that they chose to publish their trick because other people will figure it out eventually, so:

They might as well get credit for it.
If everyone knows the technique, it becomes easier to replicate, detect and prevent.
As Syndrome from The Incredibles would say: "When everyone's super, no one will be."

Any other things I should be considering?

Let's ignore the legal aspects of that process since they are boring and off topic.


texts:
As my bachelor's thesis, I'm developing some software (a mocking framework for MATLAB). As such, I often need to reference software documentation - both from MATLAB and the software which serves as my inspiration. It would also be nice to be able to reference the documentation of the specific feature I'm referring to (the analogue of referencing a specific page in a book). However, I mostly access this documentation online and by its nature it tends to exist just in electronic form, which is not really recommended in publishing. So far, the best I've come up with is this:

@misc{mockitoFeatures,
 author = {{\em mockito} developers},
 title = {Features and Motivations},
 note = {\url{https://code.google.com/p/mockito/wiki/FeaturesAndMotivations}},
 urldate = {2013-04-24},
}

(ok strictly speaking, this isn't part of the official docs but it serves the same purpose: it's a specific page and it's only available online)

Specific questions:

Who should be the author? In the case of MATLAB I guess it's Mathworks or somesuch; I guess listing open-source projects as "xx developers" is the best I can do.
How should I mention the version? Urldate helps in general, but if I'm referring to a particular software version, where should I put this info? In the title?
Are there any "official" MATLAB citation recommendations? MATLAB is used in research a lot, perhaps there's a suggested way of doing it and I'm just missing it. The rest of the question still applies for other software, though.


texts: Customary to offer a fellow academic a chance to rebut criticism in a paper?

texts:
If I write I paper in which I criticise a view or argument expressed by another author, is it considered polite or customary to offer the author an advanced/draft copy of my paper?

My criticisms are of course at an academic rather than personal level.


texts: Is it OK to ask your supervisor for a recommendation for attending an academic event if the PhD just started?

texts:
I just began my PhD this week.
There is a very important event that will take place next month and there are some stipends for attending PhD students, but the deadline to apply for such stipends is in one week.
As usual, it is required that the supervisor writes a short "support letter" to the program chair.

The thing is that I just started my PhD something like five days ago, and this is my first time working with my supervisor. I have experience with the topics that will be covered in the event and I consider it is important for me to attend.

  With this in mind, should I ask my supervisor for a letter?

I was thinking in asking him for his opinion rather than the letter, would this be better?

Thanks in advance!


texts: How should I address a PI at the holiday party tonight?

texts:
Our lab is having its holiday party tonight at a somewhat fancy hotel restaurant.  How do I address a PI (Principal Investigator) of our lab?  I’ve never met her this semester – she spends time at another research institute and communicates with us via group emails.

Given that a party will be a casual meeting, how should I address her?  By her first name, say, "hi Karen", or is it better to address her more formally, such as "hi, Dr. Samsonite"?  Our lab consists of about twenty members.

Update

So I met her just a short while ago in her hotel room where she is staying through the weekend, and I decided to adress her as I normally would, thanks Aeismail for the useful tip.  She seemed just fine with it, so a big thanks to all for the answers and comments.  Party time!


texts:
I rarely see academic prizes mentioned on academic CVs. I suppose many students who are completeting a PhD also have a few of such prizes. I am thinking, amongst others, about

best MSc dissertation,
top of year,
top mark in a certain module,

but also about

scholarships,
reduction of tuition fees, etc.

Often, these prizes (or medals/certificates) have some fancy names and are awarded in combination with some money. Yet CVs of academics rarely mention such prizes.

Is simply no one interested, do just too many people in academia have such prizes? Are they regarded as meaningless (compared to papers/reference letters/attended summer schools/teaching experience)?


texts: Should I do anything about a recent article in a respected math journal that is not up to its usual standards?

texts:
A respectable journal with high standards recently published a (mathematical) article. I care about the topic deeply, so I had a look at the paper. In several parts, it is poorly written (the authors are not native speakers, but I'm unsure whether they are students). In my opinion, the results are definitely not substantial enough for the given journal (the same journal has both rejected and accepted my work). However, after fixing language errors, it would have been an OK publication for a lower-tier journal (in my opinion).

The following two facts raise my suspicions even more. First, the authors of the paper are from country X, and the paper was communicated by a person from country X as well. Further, the whole process (from "received" to "received in revised form") is only 3 months, and I wonder if enough time has been given to review the paper.

I know "bad papers" appear in "bad journals", and with these I don't bother. This time I'm wondering though: should I let anyone know, or just move on?


texts: Should I recommend a student with a bad ideology?

texts:
My problem is the following: I teach  an honors course in an engineering discipline at a small university. (It is not exactly that, but "teaching an honors course" is a good approximation to what I do). Large US companies sometimes ask me to recommend the best students for an interview, and they are often hired. The policy of the University in general is that it doesn't discriminate on political opinions or religious beliefs or anything of that sort.

Now, I have a student who is a very nice person and has a great academic record but he supports an ideology that many would find abhorrent. (Again, this doesn't mean he is a bad person. For example, the famous mathematician and Fields Medalist Stephen Smale supported Stalinist communism in his youth, in reaction to unjust practices in the US:
http://www.ams.org/notices/200011/rev-kirby.pdf   ).

Now, if I recommend him, I think there's a reasonable chance he gets hired because he's pretty good in technical matters. But then I think he might really get into problems there because he supports his "bad" ideology in a rather ostentatious manner, and I'm afraid that this will reflect badly on me and on my ability to recommend other students. I'm pretty sure the overwhelming majority of employees would be hostile to his ideology.

Mind you, I wouldn't have hesitated for a second to give him a recommendation for graduate study, people are usually much more understanding of that sort of stuff in academia, and the only person he really would have to please in that case is his advisor, and if the student's research is good, the advisor would probably forget about all the rest. But working in the industry necessitates interaction with a lot of people, and I think his ideological views may cause problems.

What do you think I should do ? Recommend him or not ? If I don't, I feel it would be a kind of betrayal; especially since he wouldn't even know why he's not getting the interview some people less qualified than him are getting. I also have the impression I'm not the only one to have this issue with him, as he has been already "overlooked" for several positions where less qualified people succeeded.


texts: Publishing a new dataset, based on existing

texts:
Is it ethical and academically (or otherwise) acceptable to publish a new dataset, derived from an existing, well cited dataset?
The only novelty in this case are:

Newly computed features (based on published work), not currently part of the dataset
Data re-organisation, not existing previously, that aims to standardize partitioning of the dataset

The dataset in question pertains to Machine Learning.
(Related question at: Law Stackexchange)
Update:
The only reason I wish to publish my version is to provide an option of common grounds for paper-methodology comparison. Currently, every author prepares his/her own desired subset and publishes the ML task results. This makes it extremely difficult to compare the papers or sometimes even simple reproducibility.
My proposed subset will be a standardized subset that every one can use directly and will help in comparison across papers.


texts:
The Internet is littered with information about university rankings and comparisons that it is very easy for an applicant to lose track of what exactly he wants to know. Apparently rankings which compare all departments of a university and have a single rank are not very useful from an applicant's perspective. Yet these are the most common rankings one can find. I know of the FT rankings which order MBA schools. It does rank B-schools in terms of research too, but clumps different branches (Accounting, Finance, Operations, etc) into one.

For other departments are there reputable and reliable portals where one can get to know rankings based on various criteria like published research, number of graduates, time taken for graduation, etc?
Are there no well-established ranking systems for academic departments? For example, these ranking systems could be similar to those in cricket or football. Such as periodic updates are made with every publication and every citation, and possibly journal reputation could also be brought into picture. In a way, would that not enhance the competitiveness in academia among similar departments?


texts: Ideas for and approaches to adding value to literature reviews

texts:
One of the tasks in my short-to-mid-term plan is to convert my dissertation into several research papers. In this context, I was thinking about extracting my dissertation's literature review (which is IMHO quite detailed) and re-working it by adding academic value, so that it can be published as conceptual paper or literature survey paper in a good peer-reviewed outlet, such as conference proceedings or, preferably, journal. With that in mind, I am interested in learning other people's ideas for and approaches to adding value to traditional review of literature and/or making it more rigorous. At the present time, my thoughts and ideas on approaching the subject are as follows:

Integrate research streams into and propose a comprehensive conceptual framework;
Identify gaps in research coverage and suggest corresponding future research directions;
Identify commonalities and differences in research approaches and methods, used to study different topics and areas within and across research streams, belonging to the paper's scope.


texts: How to overcome difficulties of social interaction at my first academic conference

texts:
In a few days I'll be attending my first academic conference in Spain. I'll be going alone and this never became apparent to me that it might be a problem until I spoke to a few people about their experiences at their first academic conferences.

The most common word that arose was 'miserable' - most said that it was difficult to get to know people and to keep up with the pace. While I think I'll be okay with the pace - I'm drawing up a rough idea of which talks I want to attend and where I want to be - I'm not so sure about the communication part. As I won't know anyone at the conference, my plan was literally to just smile and talk to random people so that I can network and make friends but I'm starting to have doubts about whether this will work - will it work?

I have a (slight) anxiety problem and my history of socialising has been terrible so what I fear most is making a fool out of myself in front of people aren't really looking to socialise and make friends. I don't have very comprehensive knowledge in the field since I have only completed my undergraduate degree last year although I never really saw this as a problem.

EDIT: Thank you to everyone! The advice given was really useful. I really just went with the 'talk to random people' strategy. It was awkward with some people as you can immediately pick up that they don't want to talk to you, but I think it's very important that you don't take it personally and just try again. And I made really good friends and connections by doing this. Preparing questions and such also helped a lot - asking my first question was difficult but it was much easier to participate afterwards. At the end of the day, I really think that what you put in is what you get out. Also, imagining people naked sometimes helps!


texts: How much teaching is expected on a CV for a graduating PhD student (mathematics)?

texts:
In previous comments/discussion (which I cannot find at this moment) a few people from this site noted that PhD students (in math/CS) should make sure they acquire a good amount of teaching experience before they graduate, and that this is something people look for in postdoc applications. In your experience, how much teaching experience is necessary, and what's a good amount?

I ask because after obtaining fellowships I have not been able to obtain TA positions because there are a limited number and they are given first to students in need of support (perfectly reasonable). Thus I have TA'd a total of 3 quarters: three upper division courses where I had to put together quizzes, grade homeworks, and lecture twice a week. It is likely that I may graduate before receiving another teaching positions. Is this okay, or should I really be looking more teaching assignments?

Note I am trying to supplement this lack of teaching by teaching workshops on things like programming in Julia, big data analysis, and machine learning which are run as part of an on-campus interdisciplinary center.


texts: Can I use my blog posts for an academic publication?

texts:
It is not very clear in the publication guidelines of journals or conferences whether one can post some preliminary data or results online (blog, twitter, facebook, etc.), gather feedback, and then edit and publish such results in a journal or conference publication (but in other fields it has happened with some embarassement).

Can a researcher post a blog-entry, or use twitter, sharing data and results with a journal or conference paper? Would it be considered self-plagiarism?


texts: Is an American University Professor allowed to share grades with the class?

texts:
I am in a bad situation with a professor. He shared my grades and my classmates grades with the class. He had our names and everything put up on a projector!!!!  He even scrolled through it slowly so we could find our name and see what we are getting in the class... It was like everything...I was horrified. Basically he took all of his classes and put them into one file and then put that on a overhead projector to show us our grades. I think he did this for each of his classes... All of our names, etc... are in there too... so we can see who got what for all of his classes.

there have been lots of problems... he is very forgetful and makes a lot of mistakes in grading. Students catch him all the time... and he fixes the stuff but we have to catch him. I don't want to go on about this, but mostly sharing our grades with the class...

I'm sorry if this is confusing. I'm very flustered!!! English is also not my best language.

I don't know what I am supposed to do. Is this okay? I felt very uncomfortable and upset when this happened. I thought my grades were private?

Thnx for help!!

edit

The proposed duplicate is a different situation with a favorable outcome. Additionally it was something he could stop. This has already happened and IDK what to do.


texts: Whom should I ask for letters of recommendation?

texts:
I am an undergraduate in an engineering field in the United States planning to apply to graduate schools, but am struggling to figure out who I should ask for letters of recommendation.
Currently I have the following options who I think would be good.

Professor who I have done related research with for a while and published a research paper with.
Industry research internship advisor (has a PhD) in a tangentially related field who I worked with for one summer

However, generally graduate schools require 3 letters of recommendation, and I'm thinking this would have to be from a professor I took a class with. This is where I have a problem— despite having good grades, due to being generally a quiet person, I'm not sure I got to know any of my professors well enough for them to write an outstanding letter of recommendation. I also can't really think of anyone else to ask a letter from.
Would having one "generic" letter from one of my classes kill my application?
Also, would a letter of recommendation from industry be seen in a good light if it was relating to my lab research skills?


texts: How to Quote an ICD 10 Chapter in Vancouver style?

texts:
I want to quote a chapter from ICD10 in vancouver format. I have searched whole web for some references on this. But I could not find anything. I am a newbie here. Can some one please help.

This is the chapter title "Chapter XVI Certain conditions originating in the perinatal period (P00-P96)"


texts:
I have had the suspicion that it may be for a while and apparently not all is a product of my mind. Let me quote from an answer:

  In my experience, in UK and other European countries, the research
  funding comes from successful proposals to the relevant funding
  bodies. There are research centres that were established and keep
  going only because the staff there constantly submits project
  proposals (somebody told me that the success rate is 1 out of 5 or
  maybe even lower).

There are two questions here.

Can a company feasibly focus on obtaining funds in publicly funded research (as a business model) successfully enough to "survive"?
Can such a company be started (nearly) from scratch?

In short, the company would be exactly like a research institute (or institution) except that it would be private.

Reasons why question 1 may not be feasible:

I don't see any company doing this kind of thing, i.e. there may be some, but there are not many, which means that it may be hard. It's a bad sign.
Public funds seem to be assigned to public entities, while companies can benefit from the collaboration and synergy, but they are expected to get their funding from their work as companies (searching for customers, etc.) In this case the customers would be the partners in the projects and the society itself, but again, this seems to be an "innovative" (maybe naïve, or even plain stupid) idea.
Research is a means for something, not an end on itself, that's why the business model should be on something else (point two) and that's why such a company would raise eyebrows on the mere idea of its existence. It may even be against some kind of tacit rule or even written laws.

Reasons why question 2 may not be feasible:

No previous history of success of the company, or products or anything means zero (or negative) trustworthiness and no projects assigned to the company.
No partners would like to associate with the company in a project for the reasons in point 1.
The most similar case I can think of are spin-off companies that are created from successful research labs, not from scratch.
OMG so much communism! Go to kickstarter you hippie!

As an example, a possible scenario that could be close to this: Someone writes a paper about a software system that does something not very novel in the state of the art but in a way that is very different from an architectural point of view, leading to good results in practical terms. In short: in theory nothing is new, in practice what was just a dream is now a reality. What is done remains the same in theory, but how it is done is completely different in practice (and now it works). Unfortunately only a proof of concept (PoC) can reasonably be implemented.

Would it be feasible to request funds to continue the development of this PoC (still very far from a commercial product) as a start-up or that simply doesn't make sense?


texts: What is the purpose of an article repository

texts:
I was asked by a publisher to choose a repository where the article to be published will be uploaded to. What's the point of this if the article is already available on the journal website?

Can someone please explain what is the purpose of a journal repository such as PubMed, Europe PMC, PMC?

What are the pros and cons of uploading an article on a repository? Is it desirable to use more than one?


texts: Breaking figure order by referencing a figure in a later section

texts:
I am submitting an SPIE journal article. In between references to figure 5 and figure 6, I reference figure 14 (which appears in a much further section) as an example of something specific. One of my reviewers has complained that it breaks the ordering of the figures. I could, of course, insert figure 14 after this first reference, and then back-reference it in the corresponding section, but I think that would be even more confusing for the reader.

Is there some standard preference for this kind of references? Or maybe should I avoid the early reference altogether?