texts: How to choose romanization for non-Latin script in an otherwise Latin script text?

texts:
While combing through English journal articles and semi-scientific articles, I noticed how problematic it is that in some cases those papers use a romanized, Latin script display of originally Non-Latin script words and expressions. The issue: In my case (Korean), there were several revisions of the romanization system and some of the texts I work with are either (a) older or (b) the authors simply don't comply to the correct romanization standards. Thus it is very hard (at least for me) to derive the original non-latin script (which is my goal) from an incorrect romanization.

Additionally, in many cases it is beneficial or even crucial to have access to not only the Hangeul, but also the Hanja, i.e. Chinese characters. At least that is my opinion.

Because I assert that only if I mention the Non-Latin script (in this case Hangeul/Hanja) "as is", can my academic work be precise, exact and unambiguous.

What do you think about that? Are there any standard rules for such a situation, that are widely used (i.e. expected from students and academics), e.g. in the USA?

Finally: Would there be cases in which you would not use the romanized, Latin Script text version at all? (Assuming that we only talk about a few (5-10) words per page.)

Note: The academic results I produce won't be published in any (international) journal anytime soon, but I still would like to follow the highest standard possible, without sacrificing common sense and preciseness.


texts: Is it possible to get a PhD by writing only review and survey papers?

texts:
Suppose that a PhD (in engineering) student has 3-4 review/survey papers in their domain, and has received more than 500 citations in total. In a situation like this, can they pass the oral defense and get the PhD degree without a research paper?
What I want to know if review/survey papers can compensate my lack of research output. Any examples and stories that I can refer to?


texts: What to do when visa application requires disclosure of the titles of articles I have reviewed?

texts:
I am applying for some kind of Visa. Part of the application is to prove my contributions to the research community and one of these contributions is the list of papers I reviewed. Not just the number of articles but the titles, emails from editors inviting me, screenshots from editorial management websites, etc. I feel uncomfortable doing so where these reviews were intended to be anonymous. Is it unethical to do so? Is it a bad thing to do? Should I refuse to do so and just include the number of articles I reviewed per journal/conference?

Update: I have consulted a lawyer and she said that "there should not be any privacy issues with that, at least to what I am aware of".


texts: Is it possible for a high school student with no academic qualifications to publish a research paper?

texts:
I am a bachelor student at the second year of studies (Physics), but I'm an independent programmer since many more years.

Now, I have some data about an algorithm I've done and I would like to present the results on a research paper - I have a high level of understanding of the theory behind, and some background of theoretical computer science. Is it "reasonable" to write a paper with no titles at all (high school) and without the name of my university maybe?
I don't know whether include it or not, since the topic is not related to what I study there.


texts:
I see most people use a black and white academic CV. Will it be any problem
if I use a color CV like this template, which is mostly monochrome but uses blue in some places.

(I am applying for Graduate admission)


texts: How to define the scope of exploratory research?

texts:
Before asking, it's probably better that I give some background first. I do research on thin films for solar energy applications. A part of that job is to search for new materials that may be suitable for these applications. Basically, I'm somewhat of a glorified (unglorified maybe?) treasure hunter at times.

So, let's say I found a novel material for this application. Let's even assume that I've found a method to synthesize it and turn it into a device. The question is, when do you know to stop and tell the research community about this work? In this particular example, one can set a target efficiency and keep going until they reach it. Suppose that's never achieved though. Does one decide to try a different method until they reach the target or explore the subset of variables deemed important with the current method? If the latter, which variables and how many of them? I don't expect answers to these questions specifically, but rather ask the general question of how one defines a scope when doing such exploratory work.


texts: Would I be considered a Masters degree holder right after my course completion?

texts:
I am currently a MS student looking forward to complete all of my courses by December 2016.

Will I be recognized as a Masters degree holder right after December 2016 so that my employers can file for H1B as soon as possible after April 1st of 2017?

Or do I have to wait till my Graduate Commencement Ceremony to be recognized as a degree holder, which is not till May of 2017?


texts: How to cite papers where the names are sorted?

texts:
I have a paper with autors A, B, C and D. Their names appear sorted by last name, so the order of the authors does not really say anything about their role in the paper.

When I cite this with the style that I currently use, I obtain “A et al, 2014”. This is logically, but B was the speaker and D is the professor of the workgroup.

Should I now cite this as “A et al”, or change the order of the names and make it “D et al” or “B et al”? The second version only works since I know the roles in the workgroup. With other papers, I would not know how to do this.

I could also just cite it as “[1]” and not worry about that at all …

What would be a good way to deal with this in general?


texts: How to ask a professor if s/he is interested in being a coauthor on a paper?

texts:
I'm an undergraduate at an American university. I have been working with a collaborator (at a different university) on a paper for the last few months. I recently set up a meeting to discuss the work with a professor at my institution who is an expert in one of the topics related to this work. In the meeting he clarified a lot of my ideas.

The discussion was only an hour or so, but as of now I do think at least one of his suggestions will make its way into the final paper. Thus, it seems clear that he should be an author. I'm wondering, what is the typical way that this subject is brought up? Should I just ask him at the next meeting, "Would you be interested in being a coauthor?" Is that the typical way this conversation goes? This is the first paper I've worked on where the authorship hasn't been determined at the very beginning, so I really have no idea how this works.


texts: Emailing a student corrections to their typed notes

texts:
I study undergraduate mathematics at university. In one of my units, the lecturer does not provide any notes (typeset or otherwise), but has said that if anyone else who attends the lectures wants to typeset some notes, he'd be more than happy to check them over and then share them with the class.

Remarkably, one of the students is actually doing that, and is actively typing up notes for the course as it goes on, and those notes are being shared via the online course page with the class.

Unfortunately, the notes have some errors. These are often, rather than just being typos, completely incorrect assertions. I don't blame the student who's writing them at all; I completely understand that having written the notes it's very difficult to then check them over properly.

I want to email the student with a large number of corrections to the notes he's typeset, but I don't want to come across as overly assuming. I feel that emailing the student who's taken the time to make these notes to such an effect might come across as condescending - or worse, "I'm better than you, do it like this". Should I email the lecturer instead? What's an appropriate way to approach this situation without upsetting anyone?


texts: Need help — Principal investigator with abusive behavior

texts:
I am doing a postdoc with a principal investigator (PI) at an American university. Research is going great, with three publications in one year.
But the PI has serious issues. I would say he is a psychopath. I would have probably laughed in the past if someone would have used this description, but now it seems the best description and apparently he has the reputation to be this kind of person and a long list of postdocs who have suddenly left.
He lies endlessly, changes agreements we had (even behind my back, telling other scientists involved I would have agreed to things I did not agree to). If he does not get what he wants, even if it is unreasonable, he starts yelling. He has also been throwing around things in the office.
He also does not work scientifically, I don't know what he does. I have my own money, and he does not want me to leave because of that, but also does not treat me in any way well.
He also threatens me: If I leave, he will ruin my career. I have already an offer from another PI but am super scared that my current PI intervenes and I would lose my visa over that. Apparently he has intervened in the past when postdocs had offers such that offers were cancelled. How should I proceed? I am scared and can't focus, hate myself for that but can't handle the situation mentally. Feel like trapped. I love science and don't want to leave academia.


texts: I was caught cheating on an exam, how can I minimize the damage?

texts:
I got caught cheating in a two-hour engineering exam consisting of 100 multiple choice questions which was done online through the moodle e-learning software. I feel like my life is almost over.

Having not studied well and having no time to study, I decided to cheat. I know there are no excuses for cheating. Before the exam I dug up research about moodle exams, and it turned out you can take the exam anywhere you want to as long as you have the quiz password. Taking advantage of this, I went up to my engineering library and asked a close friend who was taking the exam to send me the quiz password before he starts.

What I had prepared:

Calculator (was not allowed during the quiz).
Printed material (consisted of more than 200 pages).
Google search engine (on a laptop ready to help).
Whatsapp (to ask questions for a friend who took the quiz last year).

As I sat down, I did the first 50 questions, suddenly the quiz froze and moodle told me:

  you are not allowed to take the exam from this location.

While I was leaving, one instructor responsible for the course (there are 5) came and found me. She accused me of cheating, took my mobile and made come with her to a huge office where two instructors searched all my mobile (took the name of my friend who gave me the password), and started talking to me, asking for all details of this crime. They took and confiscated my phone and looked at everything: Whatsapp conversations, all my emails, and images. The instructor took the mobile from my hand without asking me and kept it with her. It seems that the instructors are going to report me as well as my friend who sent me the password for the exam.

The university's Student Code Conduct said that cheating will result in one of the following: a Dean's Warning, Suspension, or Expulsion. If any of that happens, my future is over. A dean's warning will cancel my financial aid. A suspension would be for at least two years, and coming back would require a lot of work. An expulsion will be definite.

I've learned the lesson about cheating, now how can I fix this? How can I prevent the five instructors from reporting me? It's obvious that I should speak to them, but what should I say? What can I do? My future is almost over, but many of you are teachers and instructors here, what can I do to fix this?

EDIT: Wow, it has been almost 3 years. I would like to update on how I dealt with the situation.

Lesson: It was obvious to never ever cheat under any circumstances, and it was not whether you'd get caught or not.

Consequences: I received a Dean's warning but the financial aid wasn't revoked. However, I couldn't stay in the department as engineering was not for me and I was even ashamed to stay in the university.

What happened next: I transferred to an ABET-accredited Computer Science institution and I graduated with distinction in 2.5 years. It was extremely stressful as I had taken 6 major courses (18 credits) in one semester, but I had to do it.

Future plans: I'm going for an MSc in Computer Science in St Andrews next year.


texts: Would it be rude to put my professor's name in for a reference when they haven't responded yet?

texts:
I asked this professor for a recommendation letter last admissions season, and got a yes immediately and was very good about sending in letters.

This year it's much much harder to get a hold of them, and haven't responded to my recommendation letter email that I sent yesterday (I only sent it late this time because I figured they'd say yes) and my first deadlines are tomorrow. Would it be rude to just put the name in anyway, assuming they don't reply tomorrow? They've done it before so I figure it wouldn't be a bother for them to just re-send letters, but I'm worried it would be rude. But my future is at stake here.

Update: It ended up working out; thanks for your help.


texts: Should I change my undergraduate thesis topic because of travel issues?

texts:
I'm in the 7th semester (of 10) in History and I've been doing some work on my thesis. I have most of what I need to begin. My planned topic is about how viticulture developed in California in the twentieth century and how it influenced viticulture in the rest of the world especially since the 60's.

I already have a lot of knowledge of wine as I'm a certified sommelier. My visa to the US was rejected (I'm from Mexico), and the universities that have partnerships with mine aren't in California. As I wanted to collect oral histories, this is a major issue.

My friend suggested that I change my topic to viticulture in New Zealand but I have to change completely the approach, and I have very little knowledge of NZ history. I don't have a supervisor yet. Some professors have told me that I should focus on Mexico, but almost everyone here does regional history and I'd like to change that, as well as taking an extra challenge of having a bilingual thesis.

So, what do you think? I have to take this decision this semester to avoid getting stuck with bureaucracy for a long time. I'm eager to read your opinions!


texts: Can I use the texts in my paper for bioconductor?

texts:
My group has published a paper to a journal (Natural Methods). Now, I'd like to dump the text in the paper for my R-package vignette and user-manual (bioconductor).

Can I do it without reference our group's own paper? Or do I have to reference the journal? Does the journal hold the copyright for the published materials?


texts: Determining the scope of a Master's Thesis

texts:
I am a student of comparative politics currently considering what specific topic I want for my Master's Thesis. On the basis of the choice, the university will allocate an appropriate professor - given that they understand the choice of course. However, the boundaries for topics are mainly limited by the field and the length; 80-100 pages. As such, I am unsure how wide or narrow I should aim to be with the thesis.

I have a general idea for the topic, and a fairly good understanding of the field, but the length is an abstract I find hard to deal with. Basically, how much should I limit myself in the scope and use of selected theory and empirical content?

Of course, this varies between universities and fields, but some general guidelines on determining how to go about determining what can reasonably be achieved with a year of writing for a Master's Thesis would be appreciated.


texts: University students and staff think my son is rich. Is there a possibility of altering this mentality?

texts:
My son is in his second year at a UK univ. It guarantees accommodation just for first...students rent privately themselves. It discretions other year.  For privacy, I won't say his degree. We live in Canada. Given vacations, he's in the UK for just 7 months.  We thought extended stay hotel is best. First, waste money to lease a flat 12 months! Second, stupid buy appliances and furniture, then sell them at loss when he finishes.

Anyways, his univ. requires address and he put extended-stay hotel. Someone leaked because many instructors ask him if he's staying in a hotel, but he never told them! Some students overheard and now many think he's Crazy Rich Asian! LMAO! He tried to explain we are not rich and extended stay hotel comes out cheaper. But no use!

Can he do anything to change this mentality of students and staff?
Is extended-stay hotel this un-ordinary for academics and students?
Don't visit academicians that visit just 6 months' stay there?


texts: Discussing one's working ideas and possible research projects in PHD application

texts:
I am a senior year undergraduate student in Computer Science, graduating in a year and looking forward to pursuing a PhD. I have a good experience with the research topic I want to work on, with a couple of papers published and a couple of more getting lined up for publication. As I will be applying for PhD programs to the research groups of my interests, will it be a safer bet to reveal my research ideas for the next couple of years with them, which I believe are capable of publishing in academic conferences or journals? It would obviously be a point of strength in my Statement of Purpose to demonstrate a clear research path and vision, but then how worthy are those possible research gaps I might possibly hint towards in my application. I would love to do them under the Principal Investigator who might be interested in it, and who might eventually accept me as his student, but I would be applying to a few of them and leaving off research ideas to someone who you won't be working with eventually sounds a bit scary to me. Obviously there would be some layer of abstraction with which I will be pitching my research vision in my Statement of Purpose, but should I be too much careful regarding it?

Any idea regarding how this works would be really helpful.


texts: Does it look bad as a candidate if I apply to two post-doctoral positions at the same national research laboratory?

texts: I am generally applying to lecturer/post-doc/assistant professor positions right now and the laboratory I am interested in has two positions opened and they are closely related in terms of research areas. I am curious whether to apply both at the same time with different cover letters stating why I am suitable for each position or would it look bad and desperate rather than interested if I do that?


texts: Dive into a paper using a reading course

texts:
I hope this question is appropriate for this site. Maybe community wiki might be a good option.
I was the TA in a course for undergraduates last term. I student approached me after the course ended and wanted to know how he could dive deeper into the subject of the course. I suggested him that we could launch a reading course, in which we would work through a research paper. I know the topic of the paper a bit, but want to use this reading course to learn about that specific subject myself.
Question: Do you have experience with such a format and can provide best practice?
What interests me in particular is: When I study a new topic on my own, that happens somehow in a non-linear manner. Together with another student, I guess it's necessary to give the whole thing quite a bit more structure and assign e.g. weekly reading assignments and specific tasks?


texts: Where to look for lectureships in mathematics in the UK?

texts:
I am currently halfway into a 3-year postdoc position in mathematics in the US, and I have a good publication record (two papers in top general mathematics journals, one alone, one with a senior coauthor; another preprint, at least as good as these publications, with a different senior coauthor; several other publications in good-but-not-top journals).
I would like to pursue an academic career in the UK. I am only looking for jobs roughly equivalent to the tenure-track level (e.g., departmental lectureships, but I'm open to other options if they exist). In other words, I would like to get on the lecturer-senior lecturer-reader-professor track (or equivalent). I would like to try both Cambridge/Oxford and other universities in the UK.
I have been looking for lectureship job ads, but have found very few of them. I feel like I'm missing something. I've been looking in jobs.ac.uk and in departmental websites.

When? Are mathematics lectureships in the UK generally advertised year-round or mostly in certain months?
Where? Where are they advertised?
How many jobs? Do departments usually take at least one new lecturer per year?
Cold emailing? In departments where no job is advertised, is it worthwhile to contact professors in my subfield and heads of departments to express my interest in a lectureship?
External fellowships? Is it common to get on the lecturer-senior lecturer-reader-professor ladder by starting with an external fellowship? What, if any, are the relevant fellowships?
Oxbridge different?: Are the answers to the questions above different between Oxford/Cambridge and the other UK universities?

I understand that the recent COVID-19 situation added uncertainty to the process. I am interested to know how things were before the pandemic, and if you have concrete information - how they are now.


texts: What should I do if I have just observed minor mathematical typos in my accepted paper?

texts:
My paper was accepted at a good conference after 3 reviewers cleared it. After proof reading for the publishing, I sent it to the editor with approval.
However, now I have realised that there are 2 mistakes in the paper: 1. One of the equations dependent on time is using t instead of t+1 2. One of the equations is using best instead of best_i.

The editor has told me that the paper has been sent already for printing, and nothing can be done anymore. Can someone suggest what might be the best course of action now?


texts: Publish few papers on good or many papers in worse conferences - reputation-wise?

texts:
A similar question was asked in Having a lot of papers published in unimportant conferences VS very few in good ones?, but my question is only about reputation, so the answers there do not fit my question.

Background

I am working in the field of Machine Learning and for my PhD I need to publish about 3 papers. Before I started my PhD I have been working in industry and am still working in industry half-time (just to earn money, it has nothing to do with my PhD). I do not plan to stay in academia after I finished, but plan to still have connections with academia/research and plan to continue to publish. For my PhD I am only allowed to publish on A1 or A2 conferences (according to Qualis). So for example "SIGKDD" or "NIPS" would be a A1 conference and "ECML-PKDD" or "SIAM DM" is an A2 conference - so they all need to be pretty good, I guess.

Main Question

I would like to know whether what is better regarding reputation: Publish fewer papers on better conferences or more paper on worse conferences. How about better/worse journals?

If you can, please answer for a) the academic world, and b) for the business world.

Clarification

I suspect that publishing on a conference that is worse than A2 is a waste of research time and one might be better of just putting a bit more extra work into the research to publish in at least on a A2 conference.

Additional Question 1: Is that assumption right?

I have only submitted to A2 conferences, so, I do not know how much more work it would be to be able to be accepted to an A1 conference. I guess in both cases you need to do a similar amount of base research work and then some more work which depends on whether it will be A1 or A2 worthy. I would suspect that one might be able to publish twice as many papers (as in "would need half as much research and writing time") if one would only submit to A2 if one would only submit to A1 conferences.

Additional Question 2: Does this rough estimate make sense?

Regarding conference vs journal: We publish mostly in conferences because of the shorter review process. However, after my PhD this might be not so important to me, but instead it will be more important how much work I have to put into it in total (not the length of time from start to completion). It takes me quite a lot of work to shorten all my texts so it fits the page limit. Also, a lot of the negative feedback I get from reviewers is that something was missing, that I had to leave out, because of the page limit. Rejections, of course, cost work (because you need to rewrite text for a different format - we are not counting time I need to additionally spend, because my research not good enough, of course). I think that it might actually less work to write for a journal because of these two points, but I am not sure.

Additional Question 3: Does this makes sense?


texts: How to respond to threats by disgruntled, powerful former collaborator

texts:
I am a mid-career mathematician. I have had a long-term collaboration with a well established, influential,  and recognized senior mathematician. We wrote many papers together for the last ten years and the first papers have been the fruits of a real collaboration and exchange of ideas. However, in the last papers, there was no collaboration anymore and I have been the only one to work on the problems and solve them, even though the papers were cosigned.

About 3 years ago I sent a note to this professor with our two names on it, proposing a project and proving a result in a given framework. She/He has been sitting on the file since then, without any kind of input.

One year ago, during a discussion with other collaborators, this project resurfaced and we, the new collaborators and I, obtained a series of very interesting and deep results in another framework. We developed methods which were completely different from  what I sent to the professor. With my new collaborators, I eventually posted a paper on Arxiv in the summer 2017.

A few days ago, the professor to which I sent the file 3 years ago came back to me with insulting emails and threatens to tell the mathematical community and my new collaborators that the project originates from her/him (which is not true) and that I have been deceitful.

I  made the ethical mistake of not informing this professor of my new collaborations and my new collaborators of the existence of this file that I sent to the professor. However, the intersection between the note sent to the professor and the final paper is very small and I have often felt bullied by this professor and wanted to distance myself from her/him. Since this professor is  influential, the situation is very distressful.

What would be the best way to handle the situation now ?


texts:
I recently turned in my bachelor thesis and just now realised that there is a missing citation in the text. it's kind of a grey area since i'm mentioning earlier formulas that are cited and based on that say that it will conclude in a specific mathematical expression. I'm unsure if this would be considered common knowledge. since it is a general mathematical expression. If not, would it be considered plagiarism?  The transition from the equation im talking about and the expression that im not citing is not 100% clear. What would you do?
Edit: I’m not explicitly deriving the expression. In this specific instance i have explained the nature of a specific model, which im citing. I then go on in a later part and say: ”because of the nature of the ”..”model, When we perform the transformation in equation ”a”and ”b”we can show that the expression will be ”x ”. In this case, ”x” is the amount of deegres of freedoms.


texts: Is it possible to send an extended version of a low-tier conference paper to a high quality journal?

texts: In Computer Science, it is common for extended version of conference papers to be submitted to journals. In this case, is it relevant which conference the paper was published in, for acceptance to a high quality journal? For example, is it possible for the extended version of a good paper from a low-quality conference to be accepted by a high-quality journal?


texts: Ethics of experimenting on students without telling them

texts:
This question is prompted by two very similar examples reported online: this one (also on Twitter) and this one. In both, teachers introduce aspects of the political system described in the 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four to a classroom in which they are (or will shortly be) studying the novel, as an aid to understanding the issues it raises. Essentially, the teachers ask students to secretly or publicly report on the behaviour of other students, introduce points systems and punishments, etc.

In both cases, as far as I can tell, the students are unaware that the experiment is going on, and it's more of an exercise than an experiment; its purpose is not to gather any data or test a hypothesis.

My question is: from a legal and an ethical review standpoint, what would a lecturer typically need to do before introducing these sorts of activities into their class, in the way described above, as part of a learning exercise?

I am not asking for personal advice here, I'm just interested in how this sort of thing would be assessed by a typical ethical review panel. I work at a research institute where we do have a very well-defined ethical review process but only for animal studies; we don't do research involving human subjects. Furthermore, several of the steps we would normally be expected to provide (sample size, etc) do not actually apply here since the purpose is not actually research, it is teaching "pretending" to be research: the experiment does not need to generate any meaningful data to fulfil its purpose (unless you redesigned it as a study of the effectiveness of this method in raising understanding of certain issues).

Several of the comments on Twitter noted that this would probably be considered unethical as described; the participants have not consented to be involved, for example. Does the fact that the 'experiment' is not (scientifically) actually an experiment make any difference? Lastly, these experiments sound like they are high-school environments; does the answer change depending on whether the students concerned are above or below 18?

Somewhat related: Ethics of conducting research on a class.


texts: What is minimum GPA for getting PhD in Germany?

texts:
I'm in the last year of my MSc in computer engineering and I want to apply for a PhD in Germany. I have a reasonable resume and have a published paper and my master GPA is 16.5/20, but my bachelor GPA in not so good, it is 13.5/20.

Can you tell me how much is this important? Do I have any chance?


texts: Is it standard for a math research paper to include less detail in proofs than a typical textbook would?

texts:
I am a fourth-year undergraduate student in Mathematics. Recently, I read a mathematics paper. It seems that the proof in the paper is not as convincing as what one might find in a textbook. For instance, the authors skip some calculations and arguments in the proof. I feel that the detail in the textbook is better. In addition, the instructor in my undergraduate year always checked the completeness and the detail of the proof in exam and homework.

Is this a standard practice in writing mathematics papers? What is the advantage (if any) of skipping some calculation and argument?

I plan to apply to a graduate school in the future. If “the skill of minimizing the proof in math papers” is important, then how do I learn this habit and unlearn the old habits of my undergraduate years?


texts: How can I prove my self-studied knowledge?

texts:
In applying to graduate program, what are some ways to prove knowledge gained from self-study?

I've been told of the following:

Independently conduct research / create projects that require the knowledge
Partake in research that requires the knowledge
Contribute to a project that requires the knowledge

But the former seems like an expensive hurdle in many experiment-heavy fields, and the latter two seem like a catch 22. You must collaborate with people to prove your knowledge, but you must prove your knowledge to be considered for collaboration.

Are there other ways to do so?


texts: Short-Term Research Programs for International Students

texts:
I will finish my MS soon and I will apply for fall 2016-PhD. I am wondering is there any short-term research assistance program ( 6-9 months) especially in Australia or European countries? If there are, how can I find them?(I don't mean summer schools which are mostly for undergrads)
I should mention that I am from Iran, and I have studied in the best university here but most of the international programs support students from limited countries, so finding a short-term program which admits people from all over the world has been really hard for me.


texts: In research proposals, why do investigators need to claim a certain fraction of their salaries, from the proposed budget?

texts: In research proposals, why do investigators, who usually are permanent faculty members, need to claim a certain fraction of their full-time salaries, from the proposed budget? Are they not paid in full by the university?


texts: Where to include a "description of scientific expertise" in an application?

texts:
I am in the process of applying for a junior research group leader position. The required documents include a "description of your scientific expertise" along with usual things like a publication list and a CV. Note that research and teaching statements are not listed.

To me, it is unclear how this description of scientific expertise should be included in the application. Should I simply include this in the cover letter, or should I somehow include this as a separate document like I would a list of publications?


texts: Can I submit the paper to arxiv and the conference at the same time?

texts:
I think the conference where the paper is submitted will have 10 days to start submitting the abstract. There are 23 days before the papers start to be handed in. But my thesis will be completed within a week. The review of the paper takes nearly two months. May I be worried that other people will publish papers with the same idea during the review period.
Can I upload the paper to arxiv now? Then submit it to the conference normally after 20 days?
There is a sentence in the conference request:

The only exceptions to the above rules are for the authors’ own papers
in (1) workshops without archived proceedings such as in the ACM/IEEE
digital library (or where the authors chose not to have their paper
appear in the archived proceed- ings), or (2) venues such as IEEE CAL
or arXiv where there is an explicit policy that such publication does
not preclude longer conference submissions. In all such cases, the
submit- ted manuscript may ignore the above work to preserve author
anonymity. This information must, however, be provided on the
submission form – the program chairs will make this information
available to reviewers if it becomes necessary to ensure a fair
review. As always, if you are in doubt, it is best to contact the
program chairs.


texts:
I am a 5th MSc semester mathematics student at a local German university. Since fall, I have been working on my thesis, which is the only remaining task for finishing my studies.

I had not had particular difficulties during my studies, apart from the usual struggling and doubts I suppose every student undergoes: before my masters studies, I had spent 7 semesters at another university on two BScs in physics and mathematics. I am paid by a public scholarship. I had decided to change the university for my master's half for personal reasons and half in order to have a greater choice in courses held. My average score is 1.5 at the moment, which also had been my final score for the two BScs.

Now that I have started my thesis, nearly everything has changed: I am working with a professor whose courses I took several of, all with good grades, so she did not object to supervising my thesis. Although I have not had severe problems with my studies before, I am getting nowhere with my work now:

For understanding a single paper I am supposed to work on I sometimes need weeks, let alone the questions posed to me to think on, which I sometimes spend weeks without any serious results I could present. I have the impression that I am lacking creativity, intuition and a sufficient knowledge which I think I should have acquainted during my courses.

My problems have driven me into particular personal problems: I have lost contact with most of my former colleagues I used to spend every weekend with, partially because they seem to have lost interest in spending time with me, and partially because my mind is governed by thinking of my inferior scientific performance and the conviction no one wants to have to do with such a poor student. I cannot enjoy leisure time since I permanently have to think of the open problems that haven't worked out over a long time. I cannot claim to have chosen a university where I am competing with the best.

For 1½ months I have been taking antidepressives and having psychotherapy, which barely helps to soften the biggest peaks of auto-aggression and contemplating self-harm, but have not yet helped me to find another view on what I'm doing.

TL;DR

Although my university performance seemed sufficient for me not to worry much about it, starting working on my master's thesis has revealed a vast lack of mathematical knowledge and poor mathematical working capabilities. The longer I work on it, the more I lose any self-esteem.

Question: Where should I have foreseen my problems? Which signs did I ignore? Where did I miss to put things on the right track? And: how shall I find value in myself, now that I have found myself incapable of pursuing research, and have lost everything else?


texts: I got a C in a core class. Should I retake it?

texts:
I'm a 3rd year aerospace engineering undergrad with an inclination to pursue graduate studies in dynamics and control (ultimate goal of PhD). Until last semester, I had a lazy attitude towards my studies which earned me 3 Bs over the span of my undergrad studies. Last semester, this laziness, personal over-commitment, and poor prioritization culminated in a 'C' and 'B' in two core classes--both of which were in my strong suits of structures and dynamics respectively.

This semester, I have the opportunity to  retake the structures course. Should I retake it?

My primary reason for retaking it is that I'm confident I can get an 'A' (I aced every quiz when I studied) and show mastery of a fundamental concept (FEA). However, my reasons against it are:

It'll take up time that I can dedicate to research for my u-grad thesis
I'm planning to take a more advanced structures course next spring (though this won't show on my transcript since I'll apply to schools next fall)
Retaking the course barely improves my GPA (3.817 vs. 3.811)
My professor suggested that I review and streamline his course notes for future classes

I'm not worried about the B dynamics course. I'm meeting with my prof this week to discuss a way to move forward (I think I'll be grading or providing mini-recitation lectures). However, I don't know what to do with the structures course.


texts: How to find out someone really holds a Doctorate in Electrical Engineering from Hungary?

texts:
How to find out if someone holds a Doctorate in Electrical Engineering from Technical University of Budapest?
I know that the university changed its name to Budapest University of Technology and Economics.

He claims he got a Doctorate in Electrical Engineering from that university in 1972. What I know is that he has a professional "engineering degree" from that university registered in the Engineer Association in my country. But the translation of his degree does not say Doctor nor PhD, just electrical engineer. The certificate is in Hungarian with a translation to Spanish, but translation has no word of "Doctor" anywhere.

Another thing is that I find no record of any article nor paper nor publication from him on any journal. Well obviously I can not look for in Hungarian language.

When I finished my PhD (in math), I was registered in math genealogy project and I have one paper published on a reputable math journal.

Is there a web-page similar to Math Genealogy Project for electrical engineering?

I have also written to the university but have no reply until now. I do not know also if Hungarian Universities may release records of former students.

Is there anyway to verify that person really holds a doctorate? Or how can I prove he does not have it?


texts: I will soon get my first paper submitted. Because my name is very common I think it will be hard to look for my papers in databases in the long term. If I want to decide on a pseudonym (author name different than my real name) it must be now before my first paper. I wonder about choosing a pseudonym that is a small variation from my own name so that it is unique in databases. Like changing my first name spelling (John -> Jon) or adding middle name or changing my last name (Smith -> Smyth). Is it a good idea or am I overthinking it? Will it be a problem later?


texts: What are the benefits of having a rank based cut-off over a marks based cut-off in entrance exams (if any)?

texts:
There are usually two types of cut-offs in entrance exams that decide who will and who won't be able to attend the particular institution.
They are :

Rank based
Marks based

In a rank based cut-off system, students with a rank above a specified rank can attend the institution.
In a marks based cut-off system, students who obtain marks above a particular mark can attend the institution.
In my opinion, a marks based cut-off is a much better system since it focuses more on learning, rather than competition.
I also believe that in a rank based system, the focus slowly shifts from learning to being above others. Students start focusing less on actually trying to understand what they need to understand to master a certain topic and more on what constitutes an exam. There comes a point where they no longer make use of their own brain, no longer explore what they're taught and just do what's required to be done for them to clear an exam (say). This is basically what the education system is at most of the places in the world.
Marks based systems are converting to rank based systems at a dramatically high rate.
What would be the benefits of a rank based system over a marks based system (if any)?


texts: What to say when a first year PhD student can't handle basic courses?

texts:
One of my first-year PhD students wrote to me saying that she is desperate as she is not handling her course load well (she is in the middle of her first semester), and she is afraid she will fail the courses.

There is no possibility of dropping the courses anymore and her funding is strictly dependent on scoring well on these courses.

Do you have any suggestions of what are good responses to this?

Edit: Thank you for your feedback. I think it's probably the case that she is not used to this level of intensity of the courses. I gave her a word of incentive, saying that me and the hiring comittee believed in her potential, so she should also. We also scheduled a face to face meeting.


texts: Tenured position to be started very soon...what to do with the old affiliation

texts:
Nowadays I am a second year assistant professor (without tenure) in physics at a German university (rank W1, Juniorprofessor), advising 2 PhD students.

Today, it came to me the information about a permanent position abroad (in Europe) and I am strongly considering applying for it.

My problem is the following: the selection process had just started now, and I will not know the decision until middle july. The preference in the new institution is to start the new position is September 2015 (which means that between the decision and the start is less than 1,5 months).

My questions are the following:

At which point should I say something about this to my present institution: of course I do not know if I will be selected for the position, but I also understand that it is very bad for my present institution now to say them: "Well, I will leave the institution in one month."
At which point should I explain my Phd students about this change: this is definitely my most important headache. How should I present this point to them, and more important - when? Do you think it is good that I tell them that I want to apply for this position?


texts: Is there any academic advantage of being the submitting author of a paper?

texts:
It is well known that in most fields the order of the authors in a paper indicates the authorship, being the first one the best.

Independently of the order in a paper, does being the person that submitted the paper (not the corresponding author) gives any advantage, intellectual property, or academic reputation? If it does, is this field dependent, or academic culture dependent?


texts: Can I publish my Master's Thesis that I've claimed copyright on?

texts: I graduated this past May with my master's in a physical science. Since then, my thesis has been uploaded online by my university, with my copyright on the thesis. I was interested in publishing the results from my thesis in a scientific journal, but with this copyright, is that even possible now? What are the rules when it comes to this sort of thing?


texts: Cheating university in the name of university campus in Malaysia.

texts:
Can any higher educational institution use 'university campus' title for their unnamed building when they run franchise program from UK university?

Nottingham Ran Franchise

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/tribunal-says-nottingham-ran-franchise/310368.article

Nottingham University UK, Malaysia campus is a Malaysian university.

http://www.gen-e-resources.com/themalaysianuniversity.pdf


texts: How long after PhD Major Revisions sign off

texts:
I got the result of major revisions following my second viva, and completed these changes, to resubmit a third time. Is anyone able to indicate the typical length of time for sign off following submission? The thesis went back to the examiner.

I have contacted the relevant administrative bodies to be told to wait. It's almost been a month.

Cheers

Edit: I'm in the Southern hemisphere (winter)


texts: What to do when a former supervisor keeps contacting my current supervisor as a way to pressure me to publish my Master's thesis?

texts:
I'm all for publishing my own work of course. Since I have coursework and new projects during the semester I have temporarily put aside my manuscript and I have communicated with the former (Master's) supervisor about this. But now she kept contacting my current PhD supervisor and he in turn has written to me a few times regarding this matter.

I feel my former supervisor's behaviour is quite innappropriate and this is the third time she does this. There have been two very similar instances previously--her asking my PhD supervisor whether I could depart later than my planned date to start my PhD program; then about two weeks before the final thesis submission, she contacted my PhD supervisor while I hesitated to let her use my thesis for grant application--both times behind my back with me only learning what she did from my PhD supervisor. I called her the second time she did this asking her very politely not to do such a thing again and hoping to remain on good terms. She agreed. But now this happens again........

What can I do to stop her from doing this? While not having my relationship with the current supervisor damaged but also I guess not having to be coerced into doing what she wants?

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated!


texts: Are reviewers chosen from among the editorial board of a journal?

texts:
If, in a certain international journal where I have submitted, the journal webpage lists the editorial board, should I expect that the possible reviewers of my paper are selected from among the members of this board?

Or is it possible that the Editor in Chief may choose an "outsider" to review my submission?

I didn't indicate any preferred reviewers in submission.


texts: How to choose the most worthwhile research papers to define my thesis?

texts:
I'm a first year PhD student. I'm just reading background papers trying to find a topic for my thesis: my subject is turning around tree different elements (XML (as a tool), complex data, and the cloud computing (as an environment)). So I find that is a large subject with many materials that treat this subject, whether each element individually, or two elements at most at a time, but not all three together.

My question is

  How should I choose the most worthy materials so that I could find a good topic which uses these three elements together?

Any information, insights, or propositions are welcome. Thank you.


texts: Should I write a comment paper regarding the following issue?

texts: I have read a recent paper (actually not published yet but is accepted for publication). In this paper the authors consider two scenarios and discuss performance of the considered scenarios. I am 100% sure that one of the parameters of the performance remains same for both the scenarios but the author provided two lemmas that contain two different mathematical expressions for that parameter. They have stated in the paper that those expressions are one of their main contributions. I can prove that for both the scenarios the performance parameter remains same and my expression is less difficult to compute and more nice looking. So, my question is that should I consider writing a comment paper?


texts: Would it be a poor decision to take additional courses (one each in the 5th and 6th semesters) in physics? Should I try to limit myself to taking only courses that are strictly necessary, or is there value in enrolling if it is related to my research?


texts:
After a paper is rejected several times by several journals it begins to become clear that the research was off the mark no matter how much editing, fixing, and revisions are done. Therefore,

What do scholars do with unpublishable papers?

Do they stick them in a file drawer and pretend it never happened? Perhaps they burn them? Or do they try to pull something from the ashes for another paper. It's somewhat depressing to spend months on a project to watch it murdered during the review process. Surely there is some sort of afterlife for a rejected article?


texts: strategies for sharing teaching information with universities I don't personally have contacts with

texts:
A large part of my job is the creation of new teaching materials and methods.  I enjoy it, but I'm noticing a few things:

Some international students struggle with my material, not because of the content tested, but because of the context.  As an example, if I write a large computer programming problem that requires students to understand, say, the workings of a large North American supermarket first, and then understand how to write a program for one, some international students take considerable extra time to understand what is being asked.  Once they get it they can write the code very easily.

I like to provide authentic examples as often as I can, and I feel that having information from non-North American sources would go a long way to provide a greater breadth of examples.

I'd like to foster relationships with educators around the world teaching similar things (math, programming, electric circuits, mainly).  My hope is to better understand:

How are instructional materials designed elsewhere in the world?

What kinds of examples and methods can help my international students?

How can I expose my North-American students to a more global way of solving problems
I've reached out to a few universities but so far my strategy is to just send an email explaining my goals and wait.  No one gets back to me.

What are some strategies I can use to start building these relationships?  Are there any organizations/whatevers around that help with this sort of thing?
EDIT: I'm noticing some upvotes but not many solid answers (thanks to the one answerer though!).  I feel that there might be some interest on this site for a discussion about exchanging information.  If so, let me know in the comments.  If there is enough interest I have no issue sharing my email address to get the conversation started offline.


texts: Does the name of the signing officer on the official transcript must match with the one on the envelope seal?

texts: I am helping in screening the admission materials. Some of the official transcripts were signed by the same guy who sealed the envelope, while others are not. Nobody seems to care about this issue, and I wonder if it is a common practice.


texts: How do you include a poster in an academic resume?

texts:
I'm a chemistry major and I've done a few poster presentations and an oral presentation. I have to put together an academic resume for a class. I was told to include mt presentations.

First off, are these things worthwhile to include or is it like putting in that participation ribbon you earned in gym class in 5th grade?

If it's worthwhile to list these things, how do I do so? Do I separate the oral presentation from the posters? Do I include the name of the conference it was presented at?


texts: Miswritten reference in (in press) paper

texts:
A paper A has been published recently with a big publisher. The article is available as early access, but it is still in press, i.e. not yet assigned to a volume. In that paper, our paper B was cited, however, the reference in text and in the reference list is written completely wrong - to the point that other researchers would have a hard time finding B, or understanding who wrote B.

I contacted the authors of A, without getting a response. Is it appropriate to contact the editor of the journal that published A, and ask him/her to correct the mistake? What other action should be taken, if any?


texts: The challenges of learning when there are no tasks

texts:
I like exactly this format:
Knowledge -> Task -> Knowledge -> Task

And the knowledge is required to do the following task. Not more. Not less. Therefore you know that the task is solvable and you do have enough knowledge. In other words:
Knowledge1 -> Task(requires only Knowledge1) -> Knowledge1+Knowledge2 -> Task(requires only Knowledge1+Knowledge2)

How do you call this method of teaching?
Books and courses that I see are all the same:
Knowledge -> Knowledge -> Knowledge -> Knowledge -> Knowledge -> Knowledge -> Knowledge -> End.

I think I have to read till the end, even summarize in mindmaps, just to realize later that I have no idea where to start.
Therefore I need to create my own tasks in between.
But I don't know whether how I solve my tasks is accurate.
How could I handle this?


texts:
I have a quick question about choosing a PhD advisor. I know they are some threads on this but my question is a little more specific.
How important is it that your PhD advisor is an experienced, well-known faculty member?
There is a new professor that is coming to my school this fall. She will officially have her PhD in May. However, she studies almost exactly what I have wanted to focus on ever since I was in high school. Now, I won't start doing research until after I pass my qualifying exams- so I have about a year.
My goal has always been to teach at college. I am really, really good at teaching and have received lots of money and numerous awards for doing so. So many college professors are disconnected from students and simply do not know how to teach and this is something I have been extremely passionate about.
I am not trying to become some world famous mathematician. So, given this, is choosing an advisor this young a bad idea? Is it looked down upon in academia, and does anyone have any experience with this?
I am looking forward to your answers.


texts: Research Funding distribution across discliplines

texts: Just curious: how does research funding distributions across different disciplines in EU and US? I would like to see a more detailed chart where different physical sciences and biological sciences are listed. Thanks!


texts: My partner posted our code on Github and I am now being investigated for cheating. What to do?

texts:
Last year I took a class where we had to work with a partner on programming assignments.  Apparently someone's solution from this year has a 50% match with our solution from last year.  I did not share my code with anyone but I would not be surprised if my partner did.  What should I do?

Edit: I just talked to my partner and apparently he posted the code on Github so he could show a professor his previous work.  But then he deleted it later.

Update: We talked to the professor and he says my partner and I will not get in trouble.


texts: When is the best time to ask for letters of reference?

texts: When should one ask for letters recommendations of the people of one's choice? E.g. when applying for a PhD program, should you ask for two or three letters all at once or should one collect a letter immediately after one has finished something significant like an undergraduate thesis, an (under)graduate research paper or Master's thesis, so that one has all the letters together covering maybe 2 or 3 years when applying for a PhD position?


texts: How to convert german undergrad grade to US GPA

texts:
How am I supposed to provide US Universities during my application process a GPA if there is no official way to convert a 1.6 (German grade) to US GPA ?

I have tried to find a ressource but every website sais something else and there is no official conversion table.

Do the admission offices calculate it anyways on their own (based on transcripts) or how does it work?


texts: What is a good way to tackle difficult technical questions during graduate interview

texts:
I went into an engineering graduate school interview totally unprepared today and may have totally wrecked it.

The interview began like any other interview. The professor introduced his area of research, then I discussed my area of interest and academic background. I asked him a few questions regarding funding, number of graduate, thesis topic.

Then he said we should discuss some technical questions, which was not unreasonable, although I have never been asked to discuss technical questions with any other interviewers.

To begin he made me cite a number of theorems from linear algebra, I had some difficulty remembering the terminology but was in the ball park. Then he made me recite some theorems using formal proof "there exists...such that..." which really caught me off guard. He gave some other questions, but I had to ask him to clarify some of the terminologies he used in these questions which I don't think he was very eager to give out. Lastly, he made to write the closed form expression of some matrix operation which is a pain because I had to perform a bunch of mental calculations.

To be honest, I think I took too long to answer most of those questions and had trouble distinguish between the questions that should be addressed using intuition or mathematical derivation. The interviewer did not give obvious signals after I had answered a question correctly, this made me beat around the bush several times until he said my original answer was correct. Also, these questions were out of my current focus, despite having studied them at some point.

Can someone give me some tips on how to tackle questions in a graduate interval setting for which you think you will have difficult answering? What does the interviewer want to know in this case? How I can think step by step, how fast I can do this or if I was intuitive or made good use of analogy?

This may also be applicable to thesis deference, software interviews...


texts: Is it reasonable to report another student for cheating when it has no impact on me?

texts:
I currently am studying on an Undergraduate Maths course, in my third year. At my university there are various modules from which students can pick to make up the required number of credits for the year.

5/6 of my circle of friends take a particular (popular) module which I do not. Recently, they had a piece of coursework due for submission. They had about two weeks to do it, and the submission deadline has now passed.

One of the students, with whom I am friends, has informed me that she took pictures of her answers and gave them to another student (with whom I am not friends) three hours before the deadline, because that student had done little/no work and was going to fail. This was not a group piece of coursework, and she essentially gave the other student her answers.

I'm not entirely sure why I'm so upset about this, considering I don't take that module and it has nothing to do with me. I have my personal opinions about the student, but I feel like that shouldn't be relevant to the situation.

I do want to report this as cheating, but I'm also well aware that it's effectively hearsay. None of the others of my friends (who do take the module and who are also aware of this incident happening) has reported it.

I'm wondering whether it may even be out of line for me to report this incident, given that I have absolutely no evidence in my possession of what happened, and I do not take the module, and I wasn't involved in any way.

Is it appropriate in these circumstances to report what I've heard to the lecturer of the module?


texts: Getting PhD opportunities abroad in my thirties

texts:
I'm a math student in a Latin American country and I'm 31 years old. Next year I'll be starting my PhD, here, in my country. I have to say that the complete program, equivalent to a Bachelor plus Master, took me 7/8 years to complete. This was partly because I've taught a lot, working as a TA(paid positions won by contest).

My final dissertation included no original work, maybe the exposition of the topics, but no new results nor published work. Nevertheless , I'd call myself a pretty decent student. I usually recieve encouraging feedback from professors and I also have a very high GPA.

Recently, I've been considering the possibility of doing my PhD abroad, in a good school if possible, not necessarily top ranked. I wonder what my chances are of being able to do that. Are my expectations real or am I too weak for such things? Also, I think that it might be possible to get some short research/collaboration stays, say a semester or so, within the context of my PhD here. How possible is this for someone with my background?

One last possibility is switching schools in the middle of the PhD. Like, starting here, doing some progress and then moving elsewhere. I know two students who did that but they had great backgrounds. Is this possible for someone like me? I mean keeping it real, assuming decent PhD work but not assuming an extraordinary output.


texts: Undergrad studies in Physics: Europe vs America?

texts:
I'm currently in my first year of undergrad in Physics in Leipzig, and was just wondering, does a 3 year undergrad program make it necessary for one to pursue MSc instead of going straight to Grad school for a PhD like most American Physics undergrads do?

P.S. My interest is inclined towards theoretical particle physics.


texts: Does a minor obtained in a graduate school matter?

texts: Some universities require that each graduate student have a minor. I wonder whether it is helpful in the long run? For example, if one has PhD in mathematics with a minor in philosophy, would it be helpful to obtain a position in logic in a department of philosophy? [Probably related to this question.]


texts:
I am a Maths Ph.D. student. When I read any result like theorem or the concept used in it, in any math textbook or article, I understand it at that time, but as the days pass, I start forgetting them and then sometimes it gets very hard to recall the book or chapter or article name from where I had read that particular thing.
Should I take notes every time when I am reading a textbook?
Are there other Ph.D. students who take notes while reading a paper or textbook, or only I am feeling the need of it?

Kindly reply. Thanks in advance.


texts: How do I cite two quotes from the same author in one sentence in Harvard?

texts:
I'm citing different quotes/paraphrases with different pages by the same author in most of my sentences and paragraphs and need a way to properly cite them. For example:

X argues that "blah blah blah" which shows he has a Y approach, but then further argues that "blah blah blah", showing a different approach.

So far I'm going with this: X argues that "blah blah blah" (X, 1999: 31) which shows he has a Y approach, but then further argues that "blah blah blah" (X, 1999: 98), showing a different approach.

I'm using up my word count, so what would be the most efficient way of doing this using Harvard method of referencing?

Thanks for the help :)


texts: A professor commented that my research is too simple as compared to my colleagues. What does that mean about my future prospects?

texts:
I gave a departmental seminar yesterday. It was a short 20 minutes presentation of my PhD thesis. I had presented two of my published works during the seminar. My research topic was to model an experimental manufacturing techniques. I have published two papers (in decent journals) and will be submitting few more.

One of my departmental senior professors privately told me that I am doing too simple research as compared to my labmates.

I know that I am an underperformer in my group, but I never thought my research to be simple. Now, I am worried how my research will be perceived by prospective future advisors and faculties. My advisor says not to heed to the professors comments and that I have done a good job. However, deep down, I feel that the professor might have a fair point. I don't know what can I do now. I have already submitted my thesis and will be defending in couple of weeks, though that professor won't be in my committee.


texts: Can a Master student's thesis be kept indefinitely until the advisors have extracted everything the student has to give?

texts:
Is it legal for advisors in the US to prevent a student from graduating by "suddenly, about a week before deadline, realizing that what the student was doing for the past few semesters is not what the advisors asked for and the student has to redo the project design all over..." . I understand that the advisors might not be satisfied but shouldn't they notice this months ago?

Also, even after graduation, how much long are they, legally, allowed to ask for changes and feedback? Is it normal for professors to threaten the student pre but also post-graduation that they will take actions if the student doesn't do as asked?

I can elaborate if any questions arise but the main issue is that since they are occupied with their own issues (both professional, personal AND a mix of "personal aspirations" agenda interfering with the professional time they are paid to have with their students) and pay no attention to what I'm doing (while I constantly chase them to show them updates but they refuse even to look at my work, they literally closed my laptop's lid one day).


texts: How include contributions to a manuscript of a paper in CV

texts: I'm an undergraduate submitting my Resume for a variety of internships and need advice about how (if?) I should include my contributions to a manuscript that my group intends to publish. This would be my first publication so I leave it off I feel that I would really be cutting myself short. I mention my position and the work I did, but I feel it won't carry nearly as much weight if I don't mention that it was in support of a paper.


texts: How long should I register a domain name that will be referenced in scientific publications?

texts:
I have a website (with data and modeling interface) that will be referenced in a series of scientific publications that are beginning to be published.

Currently the website is along the lines of myserver.institution.edu/mysite but I would like to change this to something like mysite.org.

Costs for the site range from $37/year for 2 years to $9.99 for 100 years. Even 100 years would be a tiny fraction of the overall research budget, but my first inclination is to go for five years at $33/year. But I don't even know if the web will still be around by then, much less a server hosting this work.

(this is related, but not a duplicate of related, but not a duplicate of How to archive an academic blog or website?)

Is five years long enough? Is 100 years justifiable?


texts: How to start writing a literature review?

texts:
I have 2 months where I should write the literature review for my PhD thesis. However, I don't know how to write one.

In general terms, what would be a good way to start the literature review? For instance, how can I organize the reading and divide it in topics?

I would appreciate any helpful ideas, books, or articles.


texts: How to cite a method that has a huge history of contributors?

texts:
I’m finishing my first paper, and am struggling with the citations a bit.

I have used a particular implementation of an algorithm.
The citation of those who thought of this particular variation and implementation of the algorithm is clear, but should I also include the creators of the original idea, and not just the implementation that I use?

In the case of genetic algorithms, seems like a tower where quite a lot of people have worked on (see Wikipedia for a short history), and it isn’t really clear who put the first or most important stone. Most people cite the work of J. Holland who popularized it, but that also doesn’t really feel right, since I wouldn’t give credit to all the others. On the other hand I don’t want to spend half a page repeating the history of the idea, citing 15 papers or so.

Some options that crossed my mind:

Is it enough to refer to the name of the idea (of which the detailed history is quite accessible such in the example)?
A huge list of citations [5,6,7,8,...,20].
Referring to a source that has a nice overview of the history.

What would you advise?


texts: What is the academic weighting of being a project associate on a cutting edge research project?

texts: I am taking a little bit of a break from academics and I'm looking to do a job before I move on to doing my Masters. While I have a job lined up, it's going to start in 3 months. I was also offered a project associate job in the meanwhile. I am a BEng (bachelors) graduate, and I was wondering if this would actually help my chances at doing a good masters at a good university. Talk about your experiences at your university if you cannot generalize.


texts: Statement of Purpose for going back to school years after graduating

texts:
Background

It's a rather uneventful story, but I think nobody can come up with a relevant answer without knowing where I'm coming from. Thanks in advance for reading through this!

I finished my Bachelor studies in 2012 with a degree in Systems Engineering. My studies were supposed to be about robotics and industrial automation, but due to little to no financing (think Eastern Europe) it was 99% theoretical with 10 different courses in math.

Even before graduating I realised I had to start making money (getting me through university was definitely tough for the family) and started working as a freelance developer. Later on I got a full-time job offer several months before getting my diploma. The pay was way over what my parents were making, so it was a no-brainer to say "goodbye!" to my studies and settle for the Bachelor's degree. Fast forward seven years, I'm an engineering manager in tech company, with significant development experience. I've been thinking a lot about what I want to do in life, and realised that my job doesn't make me happy and I was always fascinated by other things. Neither management, nor architectural carreer tracks don't excite me.

I've asked myself: "Where can I find a match between my skills - building software - and what I'm interested in - healthcare, ageing, extending human lifespan?". That's how I came to a decision to study Bioinformatics and get a MS degree.

Now to my questions for writing a Statement of Purpose:

Since my degree isn't in CS, but rather in Engineering, should I explain why I went into software development, rather than automation/robotics?
How do I convey my fitness to finish an MS program? It's been a while since I was in an academic environment, but I've been taking MOOCs recently. Is it something which can help?
How do I connect my work experience (software development) with the Bioinformatics?


texts: how to congratulate for professors's grant achievements?

texts:
I recently got the news that my prof and his colleagues were got many grants/funding.
Is it common to write him a congratulation?

I prepared this simple sentences, how should I wish him more success in the future for his evergrowing research group?

congratulations on your recent achievements.


texts: What are some career options for Math PhDs who want to work in non-Western countries (e.g. Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Africa)?

texts:
I am about to enter a PhD program, and I am very interested in learning about opportunities that allow me to go abroad after I finish. During my undergraduate career, I studied in China for a year, and I really enjoyed the environment of learning new languages and living in a different culture.

Specifically, I want to know about some of the challenges that one might have in looking for university or research positions in non-Western countries, and subsequently, how one might transition back to the United States after having spent a considerable amount of time abroad (5+ years). I have felt that math is a universal topic, and many universities abroad (especially in Asian and central Asian countries) would have faculty positions for English speaking PhDs to move there. However, I don't have any information to justify these beliefs.

I'm not as concerned about salary or ending up at a prestigious research university. I really enjoy teaching and working with students, and I enjoy math enough that any position that would allow me to continue working in mathematics and with students would be acceptable. Am I entirely off base in hoping to find positions abroad? What are some challenges that I might not have considered?

EDIT: I should have clarified. I am an American student beginning a program in the United States. In that context, then, what are things that an American PhD should be aware of when looking for opportunities in non-Western countries, such as those in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Africa, etc.?


texts: Quitting PhD 2 years into a 3-year program

texts:
I'm currently in a 3-year (European) PhD program in Computer Science/Machine Learning, but I feel like I'm very far behind schedule. I started on a very open-ended project proposal and grant, which I spent my first year reading up on, including taking other courses, TA'ing etc. After the first year, I realized it was a very difficult topic to get anywhere on, and my advisor is also by no means an expert.

For this reason I pivoted to a related subfield of ML that is more mainstream and that I am more comfortable with, and basically started over. Over the past year I've been reading papers, discussing them with people, and trying to get concrete ideas for research. However ideas have been sparse and the ones where I spent time on coding and experiments, they didn't pan out. Now, 2 years into my PhD, I have nothing to show for it. I have no research, no publications, and only some vague ideas on what to work on next. Do I quit? Is it even possible to finish by this point? I'm going to bring this up with my advisor soon, but I would like advice before I do so.


texts: Exploring something completely new, even silly.

texts:
As it were, I finally dreamed up a direction to explore and write something about, but just like every other time, I noticed someone senior has written has already explored the line of thought. In Physics, it seems as if there is practically nothing novel that I can explore. I know in part that may be it is just that I am not able to think fast enough.

If I am thinking about exploring something, and realize someone has already explored it, then decide to completely independently explore it without reading their work, and arrive at something similar or different, is this something that I can still put out there with my name? The thing is I have not written anything yet and have no reputation, and so I am hoping that I can put something may be simple but hopefully different and a bit new, even if it is silly. The problem is that as far as I can tell and after trying for a bit, it is looking like the chances of me doing something not completely explored might be even lower than I thought.

I am a serious scholar though not in any program at the moment, and have quite a bit of time. Any suggestions as to what the right approach is would be great.


texts: Can we study University level subjects without getting admitted into a university?

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I am currently a senior high school, and next year I will enroll for my undergraduate studies but I am afraid that my grades would not be good enough  to be admitted in good universities like MIT, Princeton etc.
So can I study advanced topics like general relativity, quantum mechanics etc., like at university but without getting into it?


texts: Listing Latin Honor GPA while you are still undergraduate in your CV

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I am wondering if my GPA is in the category of one of Latin honors like Cum Laude or Summa Cum Laude but I am still undergrad can I include Latin honors in CV while applying to graduate school?
This post is talking about this case however whoever asked the question did not specify whether he is still undergrad or graduate student.
Honor Listed in undergrad. Should it go on the CV for grad applications ?


texts: Professor blatantly taking course material from internet (other schools)

texts:
I am TAing for a CS course. The professor I am TAing for, I took the same course with him one year ago. In that semester and this current semester I am TAing, he has been taking lecture slides and simply relabeling the headers with our school name and date. Furthermore, this may be somewhat of a lesser problem, but he is also using material that can be found online from other schools for the exams and homework.

Question is: Is this practice allowed and should I say/do anything about this?

Update: Professor blatantly just told me that it's perfectly fine to do this. I did not want to make a confrontation so I didn't oppose what he said.


texts: Is there a site where I can look for potential collaborators on an academic project that I'm pursuing all by myself?

texts:
I'm working on an academic project, and after getting a few results by myself, I'm a bit stuck. Currently, I'm not affiliated to any university or company, and also since I switched from my PhD topic to postdoc topic to topics in which I worked in companies, I don't have a known network whom I can connect with for a discussion.
So I'm looking for a website(s), where I can post a question/request like: "I'm working on project XYZ, and if someone with an expertise is interested, I'd be glad to share my draft and initiate a collaboration." I'll of course either take them as collaborators or acknowledge their contribution. Any ideas?


texts: How to differentiate long paraphrasing and original ideas with APA in-text citations?

texts:
Let's say I have the following paragraph:

  Smith (2011) contends that blah blah blah.  Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.  blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.  This allows for one to decide that monkeys are actually fish.

Everything in blahs is paraphrased from Smith (2011), but the conclusion that monkeys are actually fish is my own idea.  How do I mark where Smith's ideas end and my ideas start?


texts: A university does not allow its employees to use its affiliation on papers done in spare time; how normal is that?

texts:
Together with a colleague from a different university, I wrote a paper that has passed peer review in a respectable journal and is currently in press. The topic of the paper is very far removed from our usual research areas; let's say that my colleague is a chemist but the paper is about history (all details changed). We collaborated and wrote the paper in our spare time.

Now my colleague spoke to some university administrators and was told not to use university's affiliation on any papers that are written in the spare time / are outside of his or her direct responsibilities. As a result, my colleague wants to remove their affiliation from the paper.

I should add that my colleague is a senior researcher employed by the university, and that it is quite a well-known university in Western Europe.

My question is: How weird is that? Is such a policy common?

I was under impression that universities are only happy when their affiliation is used, and unhappy if it is not used.


texts: Advisor publishing students' work as sole author - ethics and motivation

texts:
This is a question about my advisor (supervisor, professor) in a lab, where I am a graduate research assistant, and had done research together with a PhD student, as a part of his dissertation. The student happened to be one of my close friends. The professor wanted to write a journal paper based on the results of his dissertation with that candidate. This was kind of near the end of his PhD program (three weeks before final defense). At that time he said that he was already stressed out about defense and will write the paper after the event as it won't take him more than a week.

After he graduated, he had asked the professor about the journal paper but the professor kind of brushed it under the carpet saying he is looking for CFPs (call for papers) where they can write and never got back to him, despite his constant inquiries.

For his research on human-computer interaction, I had developed applications which formed the core of his project. So my advisor asked me if I was interested in writing the paper and she convinced me that since I developed the applications (that formed basis of the research) it was fair enough that I write it. But after a week, she ignored me and wrote the paper herself and submitted it to the journal.

I came to know last week that my advisor wrote the paper herself and got it published. This professor is an assistant professor trying to get tenure. I am trying to understand the motivation behind this behavior.

My questions:

The journal paper was published by my professor as sole author. Won't the paper count towards her tenure if she wrote it with a graduate student or will it count towards higher credit if she is the sole author?
Is it ethical to publish the paper based on my friend's dissertation? (I mean it is legal, because she will be referencing his PhD dissertation, but is it ethical or common in academia to sidestep the original author?)
Should I be listed as co-author for all papers coming out of this research because I developed the applications that formed basis for this research? I mean the concept for them was not mine, but I did program them.


texts: During peer-review, should I comment on the authors' messy code?

texts:
I'm reviewing a paper in pure mathematics. A lot of results in the paper depend heavily on computer computations, and the authors have provided in the article a link to the Magma code they used for most of these computations. However, this code is almost impossible to understand due to the messy way it is written. For example, it does not use any indentation, and all variables are given names like 'aaa' or 'X' that do not give any information about their purpose in the program.

On the one hand, the mathematics underlying these computations is explained sufficiently well that it is possible to reproduce the results without using the authors' code (this is what I ended up doing). Also, the paper contains only a link to the code and not the actual code itself, so I'm not sure if the code is really in scope for the review. Moreover, hard-to-read code seems to not be uncommon in academia, and most people don't seem to mind. On the other hand, I think a small amount of work from the authors (who presumably do understand the code) would make this code a lot more usable for others, just by replacing some of the variable names with names that actually convey some meaning.

My question is, is it reasonable for me to tell the authors that their code is needlessly difficult to understand and should be improved?


texts: how not to burn bridges between two academic jobs?

texts:
Last year I have been submitting my CV to different faculties for a lecturing position. Of all the ones that I applied only one was more serious and wanted to keep in touch (institution A), the other one (institution B) was completely silence and only they reply with a general "we are interested, but we will tell you when there are open positions". Actually the following has happened:

Institution A has offered me a full time position with good salary, and the freedom to make research or even to work in other places part time.
Institution B contact me a few days before the offer of institution A, telling me that they would like me to work part time with them; when I told them that I would like to have a full time position they started to tell me "that procedure is going to take time". A couple of days passed and I got the offer from the job that I mentioned in the first point.
Now last week Institution B called me and they told me that they want not only to offer me a full time position, but also a position as a student coordinator of the career. The drawbacks are: the salary is 14% less than A, the hours are not; fixed that means that one should stay for overtime unpaid if the goals have not been reached, the research is keep to the minimum and I will not have the chance to work in another place part time. The only benefit is that I will be have a higher rank than in A. This same institution has already booked me for some partial hour lecturers in a couple of courses. I have been sincere with them when they called me and I told them that I have been offered another position (from institution A), so I need to wait to their answer. Even with that institution B has continue insisting me for getting the job with them.

So by factors of time, research and money; institution A seems a pretty good choice, but how I can reject politely the offer from B without being "marked" for not working there or not to burn bridges with them. Maybe somebody could say "why I do not want to burn bridges with them?, well it is just to have like a backup plan. Also institution B has the story that they are used to cut off their lecturers at any time they want, so what to do?

Thanks


texts: Are search committees often interested in someone who will add to their department's expertise?

texts:
One rejection letter I received had the following words:

  Careful consideration was given ... to the relationship of each applicant’s qualifications to the existing capabilities and needs in our program.

I take this to mean that the department was looking for someone whose areas of expertise were not already covered by other faculty members in the department.

Is it often the case that search committees are most interested in someone who can add to their department's research and teaching strong areas? Do I have a better chance of getting a position in a department whose strengths overlap only a little with mine?


texts:
Frankly, to get to the point, I am schizophrenic.

University sucked for me, not because it was hard and difficult work; not because I didn't get along with people; not because I couldn't communicate points; and surprisingly not because I had anxiety. But because I carried a ball and chain of "voices in my head."

After five years of undergrad I dropped out.

I am a mathematician at heart. I study math to the point of extinction of all other thought. And I'm good at it. Now I'm no Gauss, Euler, Newton, or Galois. But I'm pretty damn good. I got in well with my professors, and managed to write a few papers which stated correct final results but were not without their subtle mathematical typos (slight errors in rigor, which in math can cost you everything).

I do not ever expect to achieve professor status. Quite frankly I wouldn't be able to be a professor anyway. I am in a secure place financially though, luckily I'm schizophrenic in a supportive, fairly well-off family, and live in a country with a supportive government (I live in Canada); so there's no worry of needing to sustain myself off mathematics. I just love math, and I know I have things to add, but I have no avenue of adding them.

To express some of my hinderances: conferences are pretty much off the table. Regular meetings with faculty are off the table. Extended interaction with a bunch of colleagues are off the table... you can start to see the chips are stacked against me.

I'm asking this on academia.stackexchange, because I can imagine there are schizophrenic academics out there, and I imagine they may have found loop holes, or loop holes may have been created for them.

So as the title preludes:

  As a schizophrenic with academic ambitions, what are my best options?


texts: Is it advisable to apply to more than one PhD program?

texts: Is it good to apply for more than one PhD program and accept ( the best case, obviously ) the most interesting/best paid/best outlooks one?


texts: A potential supervisor is greeting me with "Hi" followed by my first name. How should I greet him in return? If I say "Hi" followed by "Dr." and his last name, this will look awkward. If I say "Hello" followed by "Dr." and his last name, this will look more formal than his original greeting, and might look like a sign of my trying to distance myself. So how can I keep being formal yet not look awkward or "cold"?


texts: Is the "okay" hand gesture now unacceptable to use in class?

texts:
While teaching a class last week, I made the widely-recognized hand gesture (an open circle with the thumb and index finger, with the other 3 fingers loosely or sharphy extended... I'm not sure exactly how mine looks, as it's like muscle memory and I don't consciously think about the exact shape I'm making) while simultaneously saying "okay...". I can't remember the full sentence but it was something related to the math course I'm teaching.

Now I suddenly learn that it means "white power" to some people (some Americans). To make matters even worse, I'm white, and I make a very similar-looking symbol while indicating 3 things (some use the middle 3 fingers for this; but I've always done it the other way) or counting to a number between 3 and 5 with my fingers.  Good heavens!

Would I possibly get into administrative trouble for doing this, if a student were to report it?


texts: Do graduate admissions simply see the 'letter grades' for a course, or can they see the numeric grade and/or exam scores, too?

texts:
Not a long question, but I'm curious if grad school admissions (I'm more concerned with master's programs instead of PhD programs, right now) take into account only the letter scores of courses taken ("A", "B", etc), or if they also see if you were very close to another score, i.e., an 89 in a class would be a B, but it's 1 point from an A. Or to them, "a B is a B, no matter how close you were to an A or a C"?

Also, do they see specific exam scores from courses, too? For example, in a class, on each test I got a better score, and ended up with a great score on the final (100%). Will this be taken into account, or will it never be seen?

I realize this could be dependent upon specific admissions boards, but I would guess there's a "status quo" for how things are done.


texts: Should I optimize the content of a first page of a research statement (risking typography)?

texts:
The usual entirely-true cliche is that most people on the
  postdoc-hiring committee will not themselves read beyond the first
  page or so of the whole thing, so you should be sure to make your big
  points, of course necessarily in rough terms, just on that first page From Mathoverflow

My ideal first page for a RS, I thought, should not be a dense text (maybe that is secondary, but it is not appealing), and so is to use for the document a 10 pt font size. I might be wrong. Should I really optimize it so that more statements fit there?

What if my most impressive result would be a graph?


texts: English and other translation within single paper

texts:
I want to to translate my math preprint to Russian. Actually, the preprint is already translated, but I'm in doubt should I include the Russian version together with the English, earlier version of the preprint (available at kolosovpetro.github.io/series_representation_of_power_function). If it's acceptable to combine two language versions of math articles, can you provide some examples?

Is it acceptable to write a paper in English and add a a Russian translation at the end of the English version?


texts: Doing part of my PhD remotely in Europe while working full time?

texts: my US company offered me the prospect of doing my PhD (in public health, public policy, international development or something similar) at a European university while retaining my employment. They would also pay for the PhD. My thesis would be based on a research project I was already going to pursue in my work. I already have a Masters in Economics. Would a university be okay if I only worked out of the university for the first and the 2nd and 3rd year was finishing my research in the USA? Thanks!


texts: On my CV, what will be the best way to present the 5 months gap since defending my PhD and the official start of the postdoc appointment?

texts:
I defended my Ph.D. in December last year. I was supposed to start my Postdoc position (with my Ph.D. supervisor) from March but the immigration documents got delayed by over 3 months because of the lockdowns. Earlier my appointment was decided for a year from March 2020 to February 2021. But after receiving the immigration documents last month, my appointment officially starts on June 1st, 2020.
I have been working on my Ph.D. Manuscripts since February and also worked on some new collaborative projects since.
Should I put postdoctoral researcher as my designation in CV since February 2020 or is it illegal to put the designation before the official appointment begins? If not the former one, what can I put in my CV to show the time from February to May? Casual researcher? Research scholar?
I was not paid during the period (January to May). My now Postdoc advisor (earlier PhD advisor) has told me that she can write in my recommendation letters that I was a postdoc since February, if needed.


texts: Common basic information and research for journal club presentation

texts:
I'm currently in the process of preparing a journal club presentation (I'm a Psychogeriatrics physician). I've done a couple before, but always seem to re-invent the wheel when it comes to what basic information should be covered.

For example: checking author biographies and previous work so that I have a sense for the context, potential conflicts of interest, etc.

Other areas I usually cover: papers that cite this article, funding sources and journal impact factor.

Is there anything I'm missing?


texts: What to do when you discover computational errors and mistakes in your accepted paper at the proof stage?

texts:
My paper is accepted with minor revisions and now is in proof stage. Unfortunately, I have found computational errors in my calculations which have led to some wrong results.

What should I do?


texts:
I heard somewhere that publishing in open access (OA) journals is not a good strategy and such papers may be less valuable (specially for who want to apply for a PhD program in EU and North America)! However, I think this is not a strong remark but publishing in low level and paid journals form unknown publishers is thought to be less constructive for the resume. Specifically, I mean journals and magazines by highly esteemed publishers such as Elsevier, Springer and Hindawi.

What's the fact about OA journals?


texts: Does the graduate admission committee automatically consider you for a Master's program if they don't accept you for their Ph.D program?

texts:
I am applying for Math Ph.D programs, some of the schools say in their websites that they'll consider one for their MS program if one is not accepted to their PhD program.

I was wondering if all schools are like that, or it depends?

Thanks


texts: What are the possible pitfalls of a university employee and a student being roommates? Is it best to avoid this situation?

texts:
I have two closely-related questions:

First:

  What are the possible pitfalls of a university employee (faculty or staff) and a student at the same university being roommates?

And, in the event that I need to take on a roommate as a faculty or staff member at a university:

  Is it best to avoid living with a student and ask, for example, another university employee to share my living space?


texts: How to fill "department" for the author actually without department?

texts: I found many journals require the department information for all authors during submitting manuscript. However, some authors indeed don't have department information. How can I fill this form in this condition?