texts: Is it normal that a PhD supervisor requires a student to apply for a grant?

texts:
I'm a 1st year computer science PhD student in Poland, who started about 6 months ago. I'm working on a nice project towards a publication. My supervisor recently made an ultimatum: either I will apply for a research grant or we stop working together. This came as a surprise and sadness to me, because in the beginning I had no idea that this would be a requirement.

I'm not keen on signing for a grant, because it's binding for a couple of years (if you abort a grant you need to give the money back), you need to have a plan, write reports, it's a lot of work to even write the proposal down (and it can also be not accepted) and the money to my pocket is almost nothing. Most of grant could be spent on computing resources and conferences. But I could pay for conferences even from my own pocket (I work part time to cover my costs). For computing, there are some resources our group has access to that would be sufficient for my research.

I was thinking for a couple of days about this situation. Is it normal that a supervisor would force me to apply for grants? Can he do that? Should I talk to somebody? I'm feeling down and lost. I'm close to giving up the whole PhD. I mean, I give my time for no money. I was hoping that at least I could get an access to the computing resources. He doesn't have time to meet in person, although I have ask several times before. We talk via email. Before PhD studies I moved to live closer to the university, to have more interactions, but that turned out to be futile.


texts: How should I approach the issue of students not writing their name and student number on an exam?

texts:
I am a teaching assistant (TA) in a second-year undergraduate course and have just received the results of my students' multiple choice midterm exam, which were marked by an optical marking ("Scantron") machine. The students are required to print their name in pencil, and are also asked to fill in a clearly-marked set of bubbles with their student number so that the Scantron machine can create an overview printout with each individual student's mark for me (as well as statistics related to the test, i.e. class average, percentage of students who selected the correct answer, etc.). These forms are standardized across our university, and all of my students have used them before. There are 4 students who did not fill in their student numbers, even though they are explicitly directed to do so before the start of the exam.

We check photo ID at the door of the exam to ensure that students are on our class list, and the course instructor may still have the list of highlighted names of students that attended. This means that I very likely can identify which four students these no-name exams belong to. The bigger issue in my mind is that we require students to fill in their student number so the scanner will be able to identify them, but also as an extra measure to ensure that students are writing a test in their own name, and not impersonating another student. Even if I can go back and look at the students' individual bubble sheets, I still need them to understand the importance of filling in their testing sheet correctly. Other instructors or TA's are not necessarily so understanding.

How can I address this issue with these students? It feels very unfair to say, "Sorry, you didn't write your student number, so you get a zero," but I also need to ensure that we aren't allowing students to cheat because we are being lenient in verifying student identity. Is this something I should just say at the beginning of the next lecture, or do I need to approach these students individually and remind them of the requirement?


texts: Distinct Research questions in Phd research proposal?

texts:
I am writing my PhD research proposal. In "Research Aims / Questions" section, I have proposed two distinct research questions which are from the same sub-field but divert from each other a little bit.

Here is an example in my discipline, Computer Science, and subfield, Communications. The first research question involves analysis of router throughput with some specific algorithm.  The second question involves a compression mechanism a router, and the compression mechanism is not related to its throughput.

Question: Can I be successful having two not-closely-related research questions? or should I write two separate research proposals?

Any help would be appreciated.


texts: Considerations when negotiating a promotion from postdoc to researcher?

texts:
I am currently a postdoc at an American university, and have been offered a promotion to something between postdoc and faculty (there is not a specific title, yet, but something like "soft-money academic staff researcher").

Are there any job-related benefits (other than standard health and retirement) that I could request when negotiating this position? Are there any requests that I should not make?

For example, the following come to mind - are all of these appropriate requests, and what should I consider when making such requests?

authorship on project-related publications
research support

undergraduate assistants
misc research

private office
professional development

opportunities to teach courses
money to attend conferences
adjunct faculty status (so that I can advise students, apply for grants)
other opportunities to support later advancement?

some projected timeline of raises and advancement
my role (and degree of autonomy, or lack thereof) when managing students and postdocs. Although part of my position, these folks are are working for multiple PI's.


texts: Why do math journals' aim and scope provide so little information?

texts:
When one encounters a journal one does not know, one way to obtain some information about it is via the journal's "aim and scope" in the journal web site.
However, I noticed that for many journals, this section provides virtually no information about the journal.
Here are two examples that I think demonstrate my question.
Inventiones mathematicae - this is clearly one of the best mathematical journals, generally considered one as the top 3 (or 5) journals. Yet, nothing about its level is mentioned in its aim and scope. Instead, it says:

This journal is published at frequent intervals to bring out new
contributions to mathematics. It is a policy of the journal to publish
papers within four months of acceptance. Once a paper is accepted it
goes immediately into production and no changes can be made by the
author(s).

Mathematische Zeitschrift - while clearly not a top level journal, it is still considered a good general journal. Its short aim and scope contains a bit of history about the previous editors, and then says

"Mathematische Zeitschrift" is devoted to pure and applied
mathematics. Reviews, problems etc. will not be published.

In both cases, there is not even a hint about the level that the journal aims at.
My question is — why do journals make the choice of providing so little information about the type of papers they wish to publish?


texts: When is the best time to start reviewing material for final exams?

texts:
We know that "cramming" - starting one's study of material the day before the relevant exam - is not an effective study method. Ideally, such studying starts days in advance.

My question is, how many days in advance should one begin studying for a final exam to provide optimum retention of the material?


texts:
The external examiner that I want to choose is currently a faculty guest at a university according to his profile. He has lots of publications in my topic. My question: would this be a problem? Would my university reject him on this basis?
I know my supervisor will provide me with a definite answer, but I want to know before asking her what is the common practice. Is this acceptable in some universities?


texts: I missed an application deadline, but it wasn't entirely my fault. How can I still be considered?

texts:
About a week ago, I went to submit the application for the mathematics PhD program at one of my top choice schools.  The form told me I had missed the deadline, which was December 15th.  I had January 5th written down on my list of application information, but when I looked it was indeed Dec. 15 on the department website.

I distinctly remembered seeing Jan. 5th, however, so I looked it up again and found the website for general graduate admissions where I found the deadline to begin with.  It said/says January 5th, and is even program specific (under the "PhD in Mathematics").  So I emailed my application to the mathematics department graduate admissions email address explaining there was an incorrect deadline on another part of the website, provided a link, and requested that I still be considered.

I haven't heard back from them aside from an automated "we'll get to this eventually" email, and it has been about 7 days now.  I think I have a strong application for this school in particular and really don't want to lose my chance to apply.  What do I do?  Should I try to call the math department?  Submit it to a different email?  Or am I just boned?

EDIT: I should note that this is a big school which will probably get a lot of applications, so hopefully they haven't gotten far through review yet.  Also, everything except my personal statement was on the website before the Dec 15 deadline, but of course the submit button was not hit so I don't know if this helps.


texts: How to find double blind peer review journals in physics?

texts:
I have tried googling but couldn't get a definitive answer.
Could anyone suggest/list Journals that allow a double blind peer review for physics, preferably, particle physics.


texts: How do I properly punctuate bulleted list of mathematical equations?

texts:
Here is an example:
Theorem 1 (Important Theorem). Consider f(x). If something, then

 1. The function has property A:

                  f(x) = g(x).

 2. The function has property B:

                  f(x) = h(x).

My question is the following:

do I capitalize the first letter of the bullet points?
do I include punctuation after the equation?

I typically aim to ensure mathematical expression follow the rules of grammar, but I am stuck here. If I don't capitalize the first letters, then I am not sure how to punctuate the equations.


texts: Author-Date style with Mendeley citation manager

texts:
I have recently started using Mendeley Desktop with Microsoft Word. I am using the Author-Date style of citation and have encountered some difficulties. I'm hoping someone has a solution. Here are the problems I've encountered:

Sometimes the citation in the text includes the authors initials, while other times it does not, e.g. (L. C. Young 1987) vs (Young 1987). When I look at the citations inside Mendeley. I can't see any difference between the way they are stored. Could there be tabs or other not displayed characters?
If you want to use the authors name in the sentence containing the citation you might write:

"Smith, et al. were first to discover ...."

Inserting a citation after the name comes out:

"Smith, et al. (Smith, Jones, and Gonzales 1918) were first to discover
...."

Whereas, it should be:

"Smith, et al. (1918) were first to discover ...."

Is there a way to get the correct behavior without manually modifying every citation like this, which then can no longer be updated automatically?

Normally, when there is two authors both names are used in the citation, while "(first author, et al. date)" is used for more than two authors. I don't get et al. until there are four or more authors. Maybe this has been standardized, but that is the way I've always done it. Is there a way to correct this behavior without getting into complicated editing of the style?
When I download citations, sometimes the authors initials are not followed by periods. Is there some way to add the periods without editing each entry manually?

If anyone has a solution to these problems, I'd appreciate hearing from you. Perhaps I've chosen the wrong citation manager. I am trying to avoid manual edits, since I might want to convert the document to a different citation style.


texts: How to effectively explain why my research is important?

texts: I gave a presentation on my PhD research at university last week, and it was criticised for lacking practical significance. A different comment suggested the presentation was not placed in context. Could somebody provide some advice on how to place research in context and convey its practical significance? How can I effectively assess who/what/where/when will see the benefits of my research?


texts: What has the effect of publishing salaries been?

texts:
In the US, many (most?) states have laws which require the publication of full salary details for all employees of state universities.  For example, California has a full online database of all state workers  it seems which includes UC Berkeley amongst others.  Salary details to varying levels of approximation are also available for public university employees in some countries outside the US.  In which countries are academic salaries published? has more details .

What effect on state (or public) universities has this publication of academic salaries had? Specifically,

Have they had to pay more on average in salaries because private sector competitors (including private universities) now know exactly how much to offer someone to entice them?
Have they found it more difficult to recruit people from the private sector (including private universities) who might not want their financial details to be public?
Have there been any other negative or positive side effects?


texts: Someone gave a talk proposing the idea; Should they be an author?

texts:
I recently started working independently on a project that another student (who graduated) proposed about a year ago.

Should I offer to include them as an author?  Only if they plan to contribute something at this stage, or simply on the basis of proposing the idea?


texts: What is the best approach to write a literature review paper?

texts:
I'm completely new to writing a review paper, so how would I best write it? Do I need to read every single paper? Or just a few sections like the introduction and results and get the info from them?
How would you approach this?


texts: Why aren't faculty applications peer-reviewed?

texts:
Research articles are peer-reviewed. Funding is based on peer-review. Academic dissertations are somehow peer-reviewed (external examiner).

Everything is based on peer-review in academia. I wonder why the faculty applications are not peer-reviewed.

Disclaimer: I know peer-review process is rarely used in some systems, but my question is why it is not as common as letters of recommendation?


texts: Is it the denomination of the PhD course very important?

texts:
I received an unconditional offer for a PhD from two different universities. The first from a famous Department of English. The second from an average Department of Comparative Literature. (I have an MA in Comparative Literature and have studied Russian and English).

My research proposal - for which I received an offer in both departments – has, however, a multi-national and theoretical approach. I was wondering: if I accept the offer at the Department of English, will I still be able, after graduation, to apply for a post-doc position in Comparative Literature? Clearly, I wish to publish papers in Comparative Literature and write my PhD dissertation with a comparative approach.

P.S.: I don't know if this information is necessary, but I am an Italian student and got both my BA and MA in Italy.


texts: In which section of a research paper is it best to justify the choice of methods?

texts:
I'm currently writing the methodology section of my thesis and wondered if  I was including too much.

In the methodology section I have currently included:

Alternative approaches I considered
The pros/cons of those approaches/applicability to this project
Why I selected the approach I used

This information is needed somewhere but it is resulting in a very long methodology which is going a lot deeper into "Why I chose this approach" than "Here's how I did the research".

Does this "Why" discussion belong in the methodology section of a research paper or should it be placed somewhere else? If so, where?

edit

As an example: I can either survey people or perform an analysis of existing discussions on the topic. There are pros/cons to each approach (sample size, recruitment, etc) . The approach I choose will impact the research but I want to discuss the differences in the possible approaches and explain my reasoning for my choice.


texts: What is the value to a student of a professor offering to supervise their PhD?

texts:
I am currently getting my M.A.T. in secondary mathematics. As a part of my degree, I take graduate level math courses. I am currently in a PhD level math class, and the instructor of this course has told me that if I want to get a PhD in mathematics he would want to work with me because he believes I have a "future" in his subject area.

My question is, what is the value of his offer? Is his kind of offer easy or hard to come by?

The mathematics department at this school is not renowned, but I respect this professor's work. Is his offer something I should definitely take advantage of, or should I shop around for different universities/offers?

I hope my query isn't too specific. I am feeling quite conflicted and would appreciate any and all input.


texts:
Say if you were a graduate of ABC university, and
When you want to thank a teacher of this university because she used to help you a lot in some courses or because she has the same hobbies and interests as yours, and you want to be friends with her:

Should you just send a thank you letter to her or buy her a present?
If you choose to buy her a present, should it be a brand-named and very expensive one?


texts: Does grading based on a curve make cheating unfair?

texts:
I went through this and still can't fathom why cheating isn't black-and-white.  Nevertheless, https://www.csusm.edu/dos/studres/wwwc.html says,

  "A cheater receives through deception what honest students work hard for; and in classes graded on a curve, he lowers their grades to boot."

Ok, I get why people don't cheat(moral fortitude) and why people don't rat(social fortitude); and that's just me saying I'm on the "I'll force all you cheaters to pay for your injustices" side; but is it the grading system that makes it bad for honest students?  If honest students honestly receive high marks, but are "curved down" in rank because cheaters get near perfect marks, then grading based on a curve must be one of the only things that makes it unfair.

--- clarification:
Grading on a Curve: means to statistically conform grades of all those measured to a curve that measures performance based on a norm-referenced assessment.

Would cheating still be considered unfair if we drop the concept of grading according to a curve?  (which we should)


texts: Puzzled with "Paper not suitable for this journal" decision for applied mathematics paper

texts: Recently, I submitted a paper to a journal published by Elsevier. The "Elsevier Journal Finder" feature suggested this particular journal in #3 out of a total of 5 suggestions. A while ago, I had also published a work in the same journal, which was of the same topic (satellite retrievals) that I was trying to submit now. However, for the recent submission, the editor decided that the paper is not topical to the journal and suggested to submit in a mathematical journal. Although there are some mathematical applications in this paper, they are not new, has been known for over 20 years, and was only applied towards satellite retrievals. I am a bit puzzled. Any advice will be appreciated.


texts: Standard recommendations and steps for writing introductory books

texts:
Suppose I plan to write an introduction to, say, statistics that's intended both for self-learning and as a companion to a university course.
Is there any standard advice about the following?

Defining the scope of the book
The planning of the writing process
Organising the table of contents
Models for organising the content of each section
Maintaining coherence in the writing style across the book (especially when writing in co-authorship)
How to write exercises/problems
Models of interaction between content and exercises (and lessons)
Any other topic related to the writing of a book like this

The answer should to be useful for introductory books for which these questions apply. However, the answer could use statistics or any other field as an example.


texts:
After completing a paper my supervisor at the time wanted to use a paper review service to review my paper for grammar, English etc..

I am a native English speaker and the service is based in a non-English-speaking country, but I don't know the nationality of the person who reviewed the paper. After receiving back the corrected paper, it seems like they have reduced its size by more than 50% by taking out words phrases that they thought to be redundant and rewording sentences to be easier to understand by anyone.

I feel like these services aren't worth the money but that might just be due to the sour feeling of having someone change the majority of a paper you've spent a fair amount of time on by someone that might know little about the subject.

What kind of experiences have people had with these services?  Do you think think they are worth using?


texts: Postdoc position not specifying about required recommendation letters

texts:
As I'm approaching to the end of my PhD, I recently applied for a postdoc position. Before applying, I contacted the scientist offering the position, sending my resume and some publications which are of interest for the position. He encouraged me to apply as my experience would be important for his project and he also scheduled an interview at the end of this month, saying that he's making a decision in April.

However, he didn't ask me for recommendation letters, he just told me to apply online just to make my application official. The online form only requires a resume, any other document is optional.

Neither him nor the position advertisement specyfied any information about recommendation letters (e.g., the minimum number, or whether I should upload them online or just provide the emails of my references).

Is this common in research (the position is in the USA)? Should I ask him more info now or wait untill the interview?


texts: How do departments determine the optimal quantity of elective offerings?

texts:
In my department, we have a problem in trying to determine how many credits of electives we should offer.  At first, it seems that it should be a simple equation to take the number of students enrolled at the department multiplied by the elective credits they will take on average that semester, and then divide by the minimum student enrollment for a course to help estimate how many credits to offer.  The problem is that not only is the average elective credits to be taken not known in advance, but also that students often take electives outside the department, and students from other departments will sometimes take our department's courses.

As a result, the department makes no effort to estimate elective credits, and often offers more credits than could reasonably be filled.  This results in under-enrollment of the electives, which means that many do not meet their minimum enrollment numbers, and are cancelled before the semester even starts.

Does anyone have a tool their department uses that works well to mitigate this problem?


texts: Is it appropriate to use emoji or similar icons in a paper?

texts:
I'm not in academia anymore, but spend quite a bit of my time reading papers and using the findings as part of my job.

Today I picked up a paper that contained a couple of emoji-type icons in the figures. It was to show which of two conditions was preferred. There's a smiley face next to the desired condition and a sad face next to the undesired one. It's an electrical-engineering/computer-science paper.

It's the first time I remember seeing something like this in a paper and it made me question the quality of what I was reading. I googled a bit and it was presented at an FPGA conference in February this year and is associated with a well-known university in the USA, so it seems reputable.

Perhaps I'm just behind the times. Is this more common than I realise?


texts: For astrophysics grad school, is an undergraduate major in "astrophysics" better than "physics with astrophysics focus"?

texts: I’m currently a high school junior who wants to major in a math field or physics, and possibly astrophysics. At the moment, I’m looking at Notre Dame as an option for college, but they don’t have an astrophysics major: the have a physics major that lets a student focus on a specific topic like astrophysics. That allows you to take astrophysics classes while pursuing a physics major but not actually majoring in astrophysics. I would like to attend grad school afterwards for astrophysics as well if I decide to go down that path. Would this not-completely-astrophysics major hurt me as I apply to grad school?


texts: How to deal with an advisor who wants a "friendlier" relationship with me than I do?

texts:
I work as an assistant at a university in Australia. I joined the team consisting of my current advisor and his two PhD students. The other group members are men and they have a co-worker-like relationship with him. At first it was good, my advisor was very helpful (I have worked there about ten months and I published two papers with him, both in journals with a high impact factor). But when we started to get to know each other better, it unfortunately changed. I am a young woman and am afraid that he wants me to become romantically involved with him.

I try to keep this relationship work-only, as it’s the most healthy way, in my opinion, but sometimes my advisor seems to think differently. Here are some of the things that have made me think my advisor wants a romantic relationship with me:

He comes to my room very often with no research-related reason and wants to talk, talk, talk about everything but work.
Once, when I was busy working, he came to my room and asked if he could take a photo of me. I felt ashamed and did know what to say and then finally, he took the photo.
Sometimes I think he is mad at me that I want to keep this relationship work-only, and then does not answer my emails about our research.
He is very careful with all this, says those things only when we're together. A while ago I heard that his PhD student suggested to him that he spends too much time with me. He laughed and said it's not his business, and that we are working hard on some novel research method.

My advisor has powerful connections here at the university and I'm afraid no one is able to do anything about it. I’m only interested in having a professional relationship with him. However, I’m afraid that if I don’t agree to be his “very close friend,” he will try to kick me out of the university.

I can not move to a different city because of some family issues and can not change my advisor since he is the only person at the university who works on the research I’m interested in. What can I do?


texts: Is it appropriate for assistant professors to supervise PhD students?

texts:
As pointed out  in another question, the general tendency today as compared from classical times is to make junior professors (at assistant level) more and more independent. However, I wonder that assistant professors (common in the US university) supervise PhD students.

The philosophy of academic ranking is to prepare academics for academic/scientific tasks.

Although, academics normally have postdoc experience before their appointment as assistant professors, it is not mandatory. Moreover, postdoc experience is not experience conducive for the supervising of students.

In relation to the above is it wrong that an inexperienced assistant professor (who is not far from his PhD studentship days) can take control of one or several PhD students?

Does it reduce the quality of the education/research?


texts: What should one do when the professor uses condensed terse notes in a graduate class?

texts:
I am in a graduate course of functional analysis (in the abstract setting of topological vector spaces) in which the professor uses his own notes. The notes are very condensed and terse and there is no reference. Classes consist of student presentations in turn and the professor does not lecture.

I struggle with the materials in the notes and try to read related books (e.g., Functional Analysis by Rudin, Topological Vector Spaces by Schaefer, Topological Vector Spaces by Narici and  Beckenstein) as much as I can, so that I can somehow understand it. I find this ridiculously time-consuming and painful. The worst thing is that approaches in the notes are usually quite different from the standard references I can find and I am not even familiar with those references.

Is such situation common in the graduate schools in US (especially for math majors)? What shall I do to deal with such difficulties and (maybe) benefit from a class like this?


texts: Requesting suggestion regarding Deferring a PhD offer

texts:
I am an international student (from the Non-EU region) and I have a Ph.D. Offer in the area of Information Systems from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, USA.
The program was supposed to commence in Fall 2020.
But, having received no funding for the Ph.D. Program, I am compelled to defer the offer to next year.
And, I am allowed to defer the offer only for one year.

So, my question is, to which session - Spring 2021 or Fall 2021 - should I defer the Ph.D. offer, so that the Ph.D. funding competition  (in the form of TA (Teaching Assistantships)/RA (Research Assistantships)/GA (Graduate Assistantships)) is relatively less competitive?

Or, are the chances of receiving Ph.D. funding independent of the session in which the program is supposed to commence?


texts: Someone has stated that they have a 'Master's by research'.  Does this mean that their entire degree was awarded based on their thesis work?  Or does it mean that they took requisite courses, but also wrote a thesis?


texts: Did any of the social science experiments by the Nazis in WWII get published?

texts: I've read that the Nazi's did a lot of cruel experimentation on Jews during WWII. I was wondering if any of these studies were published, and if they still exist. Preferably available in English.


texts: Can I write the diversity statement around my ADHD?

texts:
I am applying for PhD in physics, and realized that a lot of schools have the option to provide "diversity statements" or "personal statements". As a foreigner, I can't seem to grasp what I should write about...
Can I write about my ADHD and how it influenced my study, along with how it made it hard for me to make friends because of a cultural thing called "nunchi" (reading the atmosphere of the room)? Or will mentioning something like ADHD at all put me in a negative light? I know that in Korea, if I mention this, it wouldn't go well... But I heard that diversity is kind of taken very seriously in America so was wondering if it would help me or not... or is ADHD even considered "diversity"?


texts: What do those evaluating fellowship candidates look for before accepting them to join their research group/department?

texts: I'm applying for a new fellowship, and I'm wondering what senior lecturers and/or professors of a research group/department look into, for evaluating the fellowship candidates, before accepting them to join their research group/department?


texts: TV-L 13 contract before the official masters degree

texts: I am currently finishing my masters in Germany and I will start my PhD soon. I will be having a TV-L contract, however, I haven't acquired my official diploma yet. In case that the bureaucratic stuff are not finished before my starting day, would I still be able to sign the contract by proving I have submitted my thesis (or getting something like 4,0 bescheinigung)? Or do I have to wait until I am officially graduated?


texts: Easy subjects with high grade vs tough subject with lower grade

texts:
I have about 80% weighted average (years count 1, 3, 5), I am on my third BSc year and I would like to apply for a MSc afterwards in top university.

There are 2 4th year subjects that I really, really would like to take, but they are known to be the most difficult subjects in my university. The alternative is to take the easiest courses and keep the grades up.

I did a calculation that I should have about 64% this year to pass with a first.

Should I risk it? Will anyone really acknowledge this risk I am taking? Is it really worth it?


texts: How do you organize your academic papers?

texts: I have nearly 1750 papers in PDF on one folder, all pertaining to medical research. What's the best way to organize them? I have thought about creating one folder for every subject/sub-category, but I want to know if there's anything more efficient that many academics use.


texts:
I am nearing the end of my undergraduate career at a not so great school (UHCL for those who are curious). I have an excellent GPA and an internship with a stellar company. The catch is I will probably have to go to grad school in order to work at that company, and this company likes to get full time talent from "top schools." My study performance looks stellar but honestly I feel a lot of that was just because my school is so lackluster concerning challenge (that's how I feel, at least).

I'm wondering if anyone has been down a similar path, moving from a low tier college to a high tier graduate school and if so, what their experience was like and what advice they may give. Wherever I go, I would really like to thrive.


texts: Dealing with uncertainty when reviewing a paper

texts:
I agreed to review a paper that falls within my area of expertise. However, I am not particularly familiar with one of the techniques used by the authors.  On detailed reading, their use of this technique feels wrong to me, but I am by no means certain. It is not a method that I have seen applied before in similar contexts. I can't put my finger on a definite flaw, but it just doesn't quite seem to "add up".

Given my uncertainty, how should I comment on this in my review? I have the option of simply stating “I cannot comment on the validity of [one particular aspect of the methodology] as it is outside my area of expertise.” Alternatively, I could raise my concerns, while making my uncertainty clear, but would this undermine confidence in my review overall? Is it unfair on the authors to raise an objection on the basis of my incomplete understanding?


texts: Can I add code in the supplementary material of my thesis which builds up on an existing library?

texts:
I've written a thesis in the context of global illumination. The explorations are purely theoretical, but I've implemented the basic building blocks of the described approach and would like to add this implementation to the supplementary material of my thesis.
Since my work focuses on a particular aspect of the complex rendering pipeline, my code builds up on and extends an existing library (http://www.pbr-book.org/).
The code fragments I want to put in the supplementary material don't include anything of the code from that library, but it clearly references classes, functions, etc. from it.
My question is: Is there something I need to be aware of? Do I need some kind of permission from the library authors or add a particular disclaimer (apart from providing a reference to the original library, of course) to my thesis?


texts: Is it ethical for authors to reference another paper, but not cite it formally, because they consider it unscientific?

texts:
I found in a medical paper from the 1990's a non-citation like this:

  The results and terminology by John Smith, Jane Poe, John Doe, Richard Roe, Larry Loe, Journal of Scientific Papers, 12345-698 (3), are unscientific [Brown, 1997; Lawrence 1985]

So, they want to unequivocally  reference the paper by Smith et al; but as they consider it bad, they don't want to give them a citation. I have never seen that before. Also, I am not familiar with the field, so I can't say how bad that paper is.

Citations are considered as a measurement of the impact of a paper, and as such, a proxy for its quality. On the other hand, people cite papers even to criticise them (you did it all wrong, people!).

Is this non-citation ethical? How bad would the paper have to be to justify it?


texts: Omitting subscripts in proofs/equations in math/computer science papers

texts:
I am writing a paper that is in two column format, and I am working on a proof that I am having trouble making readable in the two column format.
Specifically, I am working with subscripts such as t-1, t, and t+1, but the subscripts t-1 and t+1 make the equations too long. If I omit the subscripts, then the proof is not clear, if I include the subscripts, the equations span many lines...
I am not sure what I should do.
Note: I am not sure if this is a proper stack exchange site.
Edit: I am deriving a function that looks like this x_{i+k} = g(x_i,\theta_{i,i+k}) where $\theta_{i,i+k}$ is a complicated parameter that take x_i to x_{i+k}. I derived earlier in the paper a recurrence x(i+1) = g(x_i, a, b, ...). So, in the proof, I am showing how to compute \theta_{i,i+k}.


texts: Would it look bad if I don't have a letter of recommendation from my advisor (out of personal choice)?

texts:
I've done some reading about recommendation letters and graduate admissions, but I had a question of my own.

I'm currently a master's student who's looking to apply for PhD programs soon, and have been wondering who would be the best person(s) to write letters for me. The "obvious" choice would usually be one's advisor, but I actually don't feel comfortable asking him.

The lab that I'm currently at is very large (around 30-40 people) and my professor doesn't do research, but is rather a business person. He rarely has time for meeting with his students because he's always attending meetings or giving an "invited talk" somewhere. So students including myself usually rely on seniors or PhD's at the lab for guidance. I've been blessed to meet many talented people who have helped me until now.

That being said, I don't feel comfortable asking my advisor for a letter because I feel he doesn't know me well enough as a researcher. Whenever I submit papers he doesn't even read them and just gives me the grant number to add in before submission.

Would it look bad on my part if none of the letters I submit are from my advisor? There are a few other professors who I could ask who I've actually done research with. I can ask my advisor and he'd happily ask me to write the letter so he can modify it and sign it off but I was wondering if it's better I just ask others.

P.S. I've thought about changing advisors but I stayed at this lab because I can't afford to pay tuition on my own and there aren't other professors at school whose labs are doing research similar to mine and offer funding. I'm in Korea in case anyone's wondering.


texts: Is it possible for someone with a PhD from a top-200 university to find a faculty position at a top-20 university?

texts:
I have talked with a friend that was the best in class PhD student at a top-200 university in USA, but she couldn't find any position as assistant professor position or fellowship in a top-20 university.

Is it even possible to do this transition?
What is taken under consideration when one makes such application?


texts:
I am in a very confused situation as to how to decide my career pathway. First of all, a brief intro of myself.

My Background
I have completed my BEng in Software Engineering with an ordinary degree. Apart from my Bachelors degree, I do not have any other educational qualifications. Though I have a degree in software engineering, I do not find it interesting to work as a software developer, neither Back-end nor Front-end. I was working for a Software development company but resigned within 1 month.

Now I have decided to change my track completely drifting away from Software Engineering. I have thought of starting a Psychology degree and proceed with it. Meanwhile, am following an on line course in edX, Animal Behavior, since it is from one of my passion. I like to be with environment, nature and studying the behaviors of every animal. I also have a deep interest in documenting and researching about lifestyle of people from various culture and religious backgrounds.

Since my family doesn't know any of these, they think that I am just working as a software engineer and should continue it. I haven't told them about my resignation as well.

I love reading books, doing researches (I tried searching for research projects which I could be a part of it), reading and watching documentaries on various subjects, observing animals and going hiking and trekking to involve with the nature and sometimes cooking. I want to be an entrepreneur, which I have started my business very recently to generate my income for these fun activities.

I need some advices and recommendations from people around me, or people who share my common interests and those think alike. It would be a great help, thanks in advance.


texts: Applying for a PhD - how and when to broach the fact that I have previously left a PhD program

texts:
I am applying for a funded PhD project for which I am quite well suited in terms of academic record and experience. A few years ago I began a PhD program which in hindsight was not a good fit and I decided to leave that program at quite an advanced stage. I am personally secure with this decision and think that in some ways the experience even strengthens my application, and I want to be open about it. However, I am not sure when or how is the best way to bring it up in the positive light in which I see it.

On the one hand I could place my enrolment on my CV under PhD Student or similar and discuss some of the advantages in my cover letter, but neither of these seems an appropriate place to discuss my reasons for leaving and I don't want to raise a red flag without having the opportunity explain.

The other option is to not mention it until the interview stage. This I could easily do as I was also employed throughout the time that I was enrolled and so would have no employment gap, but this feels dishonest and also denies my the opportunity to capitalise on some of my skills in my cover letter.

My preferred solution is to put it on my CV and discuss it in terms of skills and experience in my cover letter but not to broach the question of why I left until it comes to interview. My hope is that in the right light it will not in itself prevent me from getting to the interview stage. I am looking for a bit of feedback on that plan, or some alternatives if it sounds career-suicidal. I am particularly keen to hear from academics or admissions tutors as to how you would look upon such an  application.


texts: Translating Portuguese text to English that presents a quotation in English

texts: I'm translating a Portuguese text into English and in the end there is a quotation in English, from a speech. I would like to know how to continue? Is it conventional to put the quotation in italics?


texts: Can I ask for recommendation from a person that I am working with?

texts:
2 years ago, for 7 months, I was an intern in public health department at a famous US university. In addition to work with my mentor, I was introduced to a faculty member from the other department, called X. My mentor and I helped his team to analyze their data in that time and the project is still going on and sometimes, if his team needs, I work on their project which is not paid.
Currently, I am going to apply for a PhD position or research assistant position. I need three references or even three recommendation letters. I was wondering is it rational/polite if I ask X to send a recommendation letter for me or if I can introduce him as a reference in my CV?

Also, if I want to mention the name of someone as a reference in my CV, should I talk with him prior to send my CV?

Thanks.


texts: I conceptually understand a result, but not its mathematical implementation – how can I defend using it?

texts:
There is a particular result from another author that I wanted to use in my research which is a central component to my research question (it’s an animal’s growth rate). However, deriving the results computationally requires an understanding of some areas of mathematics that neither I nor my supervisor have had training in. The nature of my work draws heavily on objects from mathematical biology, and I’ve recognized that this is a weakness in my education portfolio I intend to fill when I do my PhD.

I was making some progress in learning the math on my own, but I occasionally needed to reach out to the authors for clarification because I had nobody else I could speak with. In the end, the authors volunteered to give me their code so that I could produce their results and allow me to proceed with my research.

I find myself in the conundrum that I don’t know how to reconcile or could defend when pressed by a committee: conceptually I understand what the authors are doing, but I lack the training and time to do the computations entirely on my own. Yet I have the tool I need to continue on with my research.

I feel like this scenario is not entirely uncommon, particularly for graduate students, but I’m wondering if a reasonable defence can be formed for using another’s work (given the context above) if pressed by a committee.
I only have an analogy that I would offer as a defence if pressed today.
How can I approach this issue?


texts: Biology and Physics are to ‘the sciences’ as Fine Art and Theatre Studies are to what?

texts:
I am editing something and am trying to find an alternative to the phrase ‘the sciences and the creative subjects’, as the use of the latter implies that the former are not creative.
For context, we are discussing those university courses that will be hardest-hit by post-coronavirus social distancing/remote teaching measures due to their reliance on equipment and lab/workshop space.
Is there a generally-accepted term that we could use in place of ‘creative subjects’, meaning subjects like Fine Art and Theatre Studies?

‘Humanities’ is too broad;
‘Liberal arts’ includes most sciences;
‘Performing arts’ doesn't, to my mind, include Fine Art;
‘Artistic subjects’ maybe?; or
‘the arts’?; or
‘Facilities-intensive subjects’ is another possibility, but loses the artistic connection.

Per my sixth suggestion and Cell's comment, we ended up going for ‘the arts’.


texts: Do high-ranking US grad schools typically interview PhD applicants?

texts:
I am planning to apply for Engineering PhD programs in the US this Fall; however, I am a bit confused as to whether US Engineering grad schools typically conduct interviews for PhD applicants.

I had assumed that most of the institutions that I am interested in would be conducting interviews of PhD candidates, to help gauge the personality/cultural fit. This view was reinforced by a friend of mine who did a PhD at one of those schools a few years ago, who told me they were interviewed.

However, I have spoken to another source that I consider to be reliable (basically, someone closely connected to the faculty of that school), who has given me the impression they don't do interviews for their grad school - they base everything off of the paper application.

I was a little surprised to hear this and so I am wondering if it is typical for fairly high-ranking US grad schools not to conduct interviews? Is there a general trend, or does it vary quite a lot from school to school?

Note: I have edited the question and title to take a step back from the apparent misconception(s) I seem to have had, and ask the question I probably should have started with in the first place. Hopefully it won't affect the validity of any of the answers.


texts: Publishing PhD Student's Provisional Report

texts:
Our PhD students have to complete an interim provisional report during their first year. This report usually comprises a good literature review, a statement of the problem the student will address in their remaining time, and any results to date.

Would it be acceptable to publish -- with the student's permission -- the provisional report? It is unlikely to be find a high-impact journal for such a work, so the report is likely to be published on, say, the Department's website.


texts: How can anyone assess their own Phd application prior to actually applying to determine its weaknesses and figure out what to do next?

texts:
How can an undergraduate student self-assess his/her PhD application prior to actually applying for PhD programs?

As prospective PhD students, we can generally compare ourselves to other students at our own school using our grades. We may also apply to internships or awards and, by acceptance rates of such programs, we may begin to understand how "good" we are as a possible Phd student candidate. In addition, we might try discussing our potential application with a professor, but even though we might be really good, the professor might be too busy or otherwise not give great feedback. In such a case, how can one self-assess himself/herself on how good is his s/he perceived as a prospective Phd student, determine his/her weaknesses, and figure out what to do next ?


texts: How to ask for a reference when you’re not sure that you're applying yet

texts:
I am applying to an MSc program where I need to find an advisor prior to applying. I spoke to a potential advisor earlier this week for 45 minutes. She told me to take the holidays to think about it and to contact her in the new year and, if I’m interested, we could look at filling out the scholarship application (it requires a research proposal so she would help with that).

The scholarship application is due at the end of January. The application for the actual program is also due at the end of January. There is a specific form to fill out for the applications. I would like to ask 2 professors for references, however, nothing is “set in stone” for the applications. Maybe, for whatever reason, the potential advisor suddenly decides not to take me on, or I end up sending in the application after my referees give their reference.

Basically, I’m worried my referees would send in their part without my application. How should I ask for the references in an email?


texts: eInk eBook reader for reading scientific PDF papers (as of 2018)

texts:
While reading lot's of papers for my Thesis, I was looking for another solution than printing important papers. So I started browsing the internets, watched tons of reviews on YouTube, etc.

I learned that, as of 2018, most of the current eInk eBook readers support PDF reading. However, none of the reviews covered, if the readers can be used for highlighting and adding annotations to the PDF-files as necessary for a sufficient literature review.

Therefore, I wanted to ask if any of you can share their experiences with certain devices and include some advantages and drawbacks. Some rather outdated discussions on this topic does not cover current devices.

I thought that probably devices that support working with a stylus (such as Onyx Boox Max, reMarkable, etc.) are more suited for excessive reading (and marking). What do you think.

I'm not asking whether or not to read on an eReader, but trying to shed some light on which device in this giant ecosystem is suitable for the needs within academic work.


texts: Should I inform my professor of a very recent paper vaguely related to his research?

texts:
I'm currently an undergrad student and have found a recent paper, published in Nature a few days ago, that represents a huge breakthrough in its field (I'm active in that area, so I'm aware of it), but has barely been reported elsewhere.

One of my professors is doing research in a related, but not the same area. I was thinking of sending him a short email along the lines of "It seemed like this might be of interest to you, so just for your information: There has been a breakthrough in [area] recently, published at [link to Nature online], in which ..." and one or two sentences about the content.

It is nothing that requires a lot of thought to understand, and the fact that it happened at all is more important than the details. One can easily understand most of it from the abstract.

Would such an email generally be considered more of an annoyance, or acceptable?

Update:
Thank you all for your helpful answers and also the many interesting comments. I have sent him an email and received a short reply.


texts: Letter of Recommendation Expiration Date

texts: I have 9 and 10 months old recommendation letters. Can I use these when applying to graduate programs (United States)? Is that okay with the admissions committee?


texts: Supervisor not approving submission because of coauthor he didn't approve of

texts:
Okay I'm pretty desperate here.

I'm a PhD student. I had a cosupervisor (Prof Y) that my supervisor (and head of center, Prof X) removed (without consulting me) from my project and assigned (again without consulting me) another cosupervisor (Prof Z). The assigning of cosupervisors to a PhD project at my university happens with a form that both the new cosupervisor and the student need to sign, which I did not, and thus my supervisor (Prof X) thinks he's (Prof Z) my cosupervisor, but formally he isn't.

I have a publication ready that he (Prof X) needs to approve before I submit. His major issue with the paper is the fact that as a coauthor I have added my ex-cosupervisor (Prof Y), who indeed has scientific contribution. I received an email telling me that he has not been informed that I was working with my ex-cosupervisor (Prof Y), that this is not normal practice and that he (Prof X) won't approve the submission because of this.

Does he have the right to do this? Where is the academic freedom in policing who I collaborate with to such an extreme extent?

Please let me know your thoughts. I feel like I'm losing it.

UPDATE: I've contacted the vice-dean. He's going to look into the situation as I forwarded everything to him and tell me his opinions. He was shocked that my supervisor/HoC needs to also approve submissions.

UPDATE 2: Vice-dean has encouraged change of supervisors. He will support me throughout the process and will handle all economic issues himself. I'm arming myself with all the legal matters now. I'm making a meeting with prof X to politely explain that this is happening.

UPDATE 3: I changed supervisors. I lived. I'm so much happier. Thanks for the encouragement.


texts: Is going to institute the same as going to grad school?

texts:
A (top) professor in her field advised me to look at the Santa Fe Institute. I look at it, and wow, it is perfectly match my interests. I love to research, but I don't want to focus only in the niche of the niche of my field. I also want to explore things outside my discipline, and I want to collaborate with people from other fields.

The point is, should I go to there instead of going to grad school? As far as I know, because it isn't a grad school, so I can't receive a PhD from it. I want to research; if a PhD is a ticket for me to be a full time researcher, then I want a PhD. However, looks like that without a PhD, I can't be considered to be serious in my career path. From its About page:

  Researchers come to the Santa Fe Institute from universities, government agencies, research institutes, and private industry to collaborate across disciplines, merging ideas and principles of many fields

And Wikipedia:

  The Institute consists of a small number of resident faculty and postdoctoral researchers, a large group of external faculty whose primary appointments are at other institutions, and a number of visiting scholars.

Looks like I'm not a person who it has interest with.

But how about its researchers? Say I send an email to Researcher X, from University Y, who works for the institute (part time? full time?) to join their lab. If I get admitted, which organization am I in? X's lab as a worker, or Y school as a X's student, or something else? Is there any difference from applying to school Y and join X's lab as usual? And what does my career, in long-term, look like after that?


texts: I have just completed my Master's Thesis and am hoping to publish an abridged version. My adviser has been very supportive of this and upon approving my thesis asked what I would think about her being a coauthor. I don't really know what to think about this. She was very helpful, but she certainly didn't contribute to the research questions or methodology. On the other hand, I also don't know why it would be bad to have her name on it with me. Any information would be appreciated.


texts: How do you tactfully inquire why a person wants your reprint?

texts:
My boss is first author on several papers, and doesn't want to give a reprint to anyone unless he knows and approves the reason they want it. I know, I know. These reprint requests fall to me. How do I inquire why they want it, with an appearance of collegiality?

EDIT: By "reprint", I mean the PDF of a paper, requested from the author by someone who doesn't want to have to buy it at the journal website.


texts: I am inexperienced in publishing papers in scientific journals. I was going over recently published paper of mine and found that I accidentally reported mean with standard deviation when I meant to report mean with standard error. The correct standard error is shown in a figure in the paper but I am wondering if I should contact the editor to make the correction.


texts: "Dividing Points" among cheating students

texts:
My AP Computer Science teacher has somewhat of a creative way to deal with students submitting apparently identical code. Instead of handing out lots of zeros, he divides the points by the number of cheaters, phrasing his system as "if you have the same answer, you deserve to split the credit." For example, a 5-person cheating ring on a 10-point project would yield 2 points per person (it rounds down to the best precision on odd splits).

Do you think this is ethical? Is this a wise way to deal with cheating?

On one hand, it is a lot softer than most policies. On the other, it is somewhat logical, and seems maybe fairer than the standard penalty system.


texts: Why do students go for a PhD even when chances of getting academic jobs on its completion are slim?

texts:
This is in reference to my question: How to do a PhD to equip myself for a job as assistant professor.

I was told in the answer of the above linked question that chances of landing a job as an assistant professor in Mathematics are quite slim. Very few people will actually get a permanent position in academia.

An article of 2014 shows only 0.5-3% of PhD graduates will actually get a job as an Assistant Professor.

But I have two questions:

  Why do so many people still apply for a PhD in some reputed institutes in India even knowing the harsh reality? I found there are 1500 applications for four PhD scholarship positions.

  One answer says that people move to industry, but I still don’t understand how after doing a PhD in suppose differential geometry or algebraic geometry one can do a job in industry if he/she gets no position as an assistant professor.
  Will one be satisfied to do some managerial work in some Consultancy firm after doing a PhD in Mathematics?

  Are people jobless after a PhD?
  Completion of a PhD requires so much effort. So why is there no value after doing it?

NOTE:

In the most up-voted answer below it has been said that many who enroll for  a PhD don't even wish to pursue an academic career.

I have been asking my seniors who are currently pursuing a PhD or are in the verge of completing their degree or who have completed it.
They said that they all want to be Professors in some Universities and want to be involved in research because that is the dream job for them.

I am obviously talking about PhD in Mathematics


texts: Term for the opposite of salami publishing

texts:
Question

Salami publishing refers to the practice of splitting scientific work into overly small pieces (least publishable units) and publishing a separate paper about each.

I am looking for a term for the opposite practice, i.e., lumping together a lot of or too much scientific work into one paper.

I prefer terms that can be understood (by a suitable audience) without further explanation. Essentially, I want something less cumbersome than opposite of salami publishing.
I have no strong preference regarding the tone of the term. E.g., it can be derogatory (but doesn’t need to be).
I am open to neologisms, but please consider the first point.

Background

This term would be useful for me to talk about the publishing culture in biology (or certain subfields thereof), where new relevant methods often do not get papers on their own, but are only published as the appendix to some paper that is primarily about findings achieved with that method.


texts: Can undergraduate students really post something on arXiv.org?

texts:
Are there any cases of undergraduate students posting something on arXiv.org? Can undergraduate student (or any arbitrary person) REALLY post to arxiv and if not, then how does the protection work?

In principle, the mechanism of endorsement seems to allow such content to pass through.


texts: How much does it hurt one's application to try the GRE again?

texts: I'm applying for mathematics PhD programs and I got 162 on the quantitative GRE exam (I didn't prepare for it at all). As I thought this would probably be a good grade and I don't like spending 200 bucks for nothing, I reported the scores to some universities I would really like to go to (e.g. UIUC, Berkeley). However, it ends up being in the 82 percentile, which I'm not sure is great. I think I have a reasonably strong profile (strong letters of recommendation, lots of graduate classes, high GPA, scholarship to study for a couple months at a high-regarded european university etc.), but I'm worried that this not-so-great quant score would keep me away from top mathematics programs. If I retake the test and get a better grade, will my previous score hurt me somehow?


texts:
I organized a couple of workshops, as in I was the correspondent person, and I designed the workshop, invited others to co-organize with me, was the lead editor to proceedings etc. But I feel awkward when I say "I organized", as eventually there was a board of organizers.
Should I say "I organized" or "co-organized"? Is there a right way to do this? Is it vain to say I organized? On the other hand, if I am invited to take part in the organizing board, I say "I co-organized" and mostly I also indicate in which board, which responsibilities/tasks/roles I have taken on in an attempt to make it clear that I wasn't the lead organizer.


texts: Should I do pure or applied postdoctoral research?

texts:
I finished my PhD in Algebraic Geometry/Number Theory in 2013, and made the decision not to apply for postdocs: very few of my fellow students had found academic positions I had the feeling the unless you're a superstar/potential-Fields-medalist (which I'm not) it's very hard to build a career as a pure mathematician. Also I don't think it's fair on my wife and her career to ask her to move cities every few years while I'm doing postdocs ... and it looks like this is a common requirement for early career researchers these days.

So I've been working as a Data Scientist for the past 3 years, and I'm really hating the feeling of working in the business/corporate world ... it all feels so short-term and meaningless, and I also miss the intellectual challenge of pure research.

This leads to my question. I'm thinking about applying for some postdocs with the aim of going back into academia. My dilemma is do I try and find something in a "pure" field that I feel excited about, like algebraic geometry, representation theory, string theory or quantum computing? Or should I apply for something I don't feel so passionate about but that's currently more well-funded, and that builds on my skills from my work in industry, like genomics, computer vision or speech recognition ... will my passion grow as I go deeper into the field?

I want to be realistic and responsible about my career/life choices, but I also don't want to get stuck doing something I don't care about.

I know it's a bit of a vague question, but I would love to hear if anyone's had a similar experience.


texts: I never finished my master's degree; how can I reflect the courses I took on my resume/CV?

texts: I completed some of the coursework for a master's degree in Hospital Administration, but I did not complete the entire program or graduate. Can I still include this coursework in my resume/CV? And if so, what should I write?


texts:
When submitting a writing sample for a graduate school application, what exactly are review boards looking at?

I ask, because when looking at my own writing I find it is difficult to judge beyond the grade I was given and when I can judge, there are different strengths and weaknesses.

For example, writing wise (clarity, concision, etc.), my strongest writing sample is on a topic that was written for a course in my field (Art History) but is still relatively tangential to the field itself (about visuality rather than Art History per se). That being said, topic wise, I have a paper that was written on the same topic as my fourth years honours thesis (still a work in progress) that speaks to the areas that I want to continue studying. It is still a good piece of work that received an A grade, but I personally feel that the writing and organization is weaker.

Which is better to send as a writing sample? The more on topic, but weaker piece, or the stronger tangentially-related piece.


texts: Is it possible to apply to a PhD program, then transfer a year later to a higher-ranked program?

texts: Is possible to apply to a PhD psychology program, and if accepted, then transfer a year later to another program that is higher in ranking?


texts: Admission to graduate school for physics

texts:
I am a dual major (Math+Physics) student from one of the reputed Indian University. I want to peruse PhD in physics (mainly theoretical/High Energy Physics). I have CGPA 9.6/10 in Physics but overall (Math+Physics) CGPA is 8/10.
How do I improve my CV to get into good grad school in US/Germany etc?
Any helpful comments/answer are welcome and thanks for that.


texts: By what title should I greet assistant and associate professors in emails and letters? I study in the UK and for post-doctorands up to senior lectures one uses "Dear Dr. X", but for professors one uses "Dear Professor. X".


texts: What kinds of student mentorship and supervision merit inclusion on CV?

texts:
An academic can mentor or supervise a student in many different ways, but I'm unclear about what actually merits inclusion on a CV. Some examples that are clear cut to me include:
-dissertation director or committee member
-thesis advisor for masters student
-thesis advisor for senior or honors students at the undergrad level
Then there are other roles that I've occasionally or never seen on a CV and wondering about their acceptability, such as:
-mentor in a professional organization
-supervisor to a student research assistant
-director of an independent study (university   course for which the student receives credit)
-faculty mentor/advisor for a student research project (meaning, the faculty member is not an author, but instead is guiding the student author, or is maybe listed as the advisor on their IRB application)
I work in the U.S. and am in languages and linguistics.


texts: Can research paper information be used in thesis writing?

texts: I am writing my master thesis.  Can I put my research paper data in this thesis?  The research paper had been accepted in IEEE conference.  Is it ethical to put research paper data as it is. As this is my work, so can I use it ?


texts: How to motivate an undergrad class to do research when its not a course requirement?

texts:
How can I motivate my undergrad students to do research?

Since these students are at an undergrad level, I don't expect any extraordinary results.  However, I would like if they get something published (even in low impact publications).

Undergrads almost never do research in our country. It's not even a requirement of the course.  But, I want to motivate them for research. If they get something published, it would encourage them in the future.

In our country, research at the undergraduate level is almost non-existent. I want to introduce this concept at the undergrad level, but I don't want to force anything upon them.  I just want to show them the benefits of research.


texts: What are the advantages and disadvantages of doing a PhD project V.S. own dissertation?

texts:
In Europe, normally PhD students are going into two tracks -- taking a contracted PhD position with a given research project OR joining a well-structured PhD program to write up his/her own dissertation.
The later is analogous to the PhDs in the US but not 100% equivalent since many students in the European PhD programs are funded by 3rd parties (e.g. government scholarship) and so they probably never act as TA/RA but fully dedicated to his/her own research.
Besides money, such as paid PhDs earn more, how would you think of the pros and cons of these two tracks?
For me, I got accepted to both a PhD project and a PhD program. The former is an H2020 project led by a young PI at a decent Univ (nationally reputable but fairly new, so not yet very research-intensive), while the later is in a relatively more prestigious b- school (nationally top 1 but internationally not top-tier 1). The supervisor is pending - students can make an agreement in the first year.
I decided to accept the offer of the project since I think it can enable me to have a deeper involvement in the research team during the PhD stage. Of course, I enroll in a PhD program as well but is not that structured. I am unsure if I make the right decision, maybe I am too naive, but I won't change it. There is no much difference in the level of two institutions, so my opportunity costs won't be very great. Yet I am always wondering how you guys think over it when you're faced of such options?
I am new to here. Before posting this question, I searched the keywords but not found a same one.


texts: Is it appropriate to contact a journal editor when they have already decided to accept a paper you refereed?

texts:
I had an unusual circumstance happen to me this week.  I had earlier refereed a paper for a top journal.  For the first draft, I recommended a fair number of changes, but I felt that if they were all made, publication would be appropriate.  There was also another referee, who opined that the subject matter of the article was not important enough for the journal.

The authors revised the manuscript and resubmitted it.  The associate editor sent it back to the same two referees.  The other referee basically did not budge, still saying that it was not worth publishing.  I, on the other hand, recommended moving forward with publication, provided the authors made one more change.  It was something that I had mentioned in my first report as well, and it represents a genuine error that really needs to be fixed.

At this point, faced with conflicting reviews (and possibly after a request from the authors), the associated editor sent the paper out to a third reviewer.  Just the other day, I got a communication from the editor that he had decided to accept the paper.  Included were the current manuscript version, the authors' responses to my second report, and the positive report from the third referee.

What struck me was that the authors had not fixed the mistake that I had pointed out in my first two reports.  The response in their resubmission letter to it seemed to have completely missed the point.  I was puzzled about what to do at this point.  Eventually, I decided to shoot off a letter to the associate editor, reminding him that the authors had not actually addressed my one remaining objection.

I'm still not sure whether this was an appropriate thing to do.  I apologized in advance and said it might be none of my business in the letter.  I do have a pretty good relationship with this associate editor; he sends me a lot of papers and had nominated me for a refereeing award.  I guess that, apart from what opinions I hear here, I will find out what he think of my writing to him.


texts: Is using Mendeley to organize my files a good idea?

texts:
My Library is already partially organized (manually) with regular filesystem folders. But it is pretty messy right now and getting unwieldy.
Also several files should be renamed to something meaningful (right now paper titles-author-year is best for me).
I am wary of pulling the trigger, Mendeley may make things worse, not better.

Any opinions? Experiences? Thanks.


texts: I have a question about how to write my ranking in a class in my CV. I mean, after graduation from the university for my BSc degree, my ranking due to overall GPA among the class of 30 students was 2. The class and the students in which we started our BSc degree education and graduated after 8 or 9 semesters. I want to high light this ranking in my CV in the section of honors and awards. How should I mention this?


texts: Which one matters more - grades or qualifications - for admission to post-graduate study in Germany?

texts:
I'm looking into applying to study abroad in Germany after my Bachelors (majoring in Statistics). My question is:
which of these hypothetical candidates would have a higher chance at receiving a scholarship and being accepted in a Masters program?
1- Someone studying in a top university with good qualifications required for the course, including German skills, English skills, knowledge about their field of study etc. but with a less than appealing GPA
or
2- Someone studying in a mediocre university with mediocre qualifications but a high GPA


texts: Working as an Academic researcher difficulties

texts:
What do you do if you have to perform research in a field that you didn't like, as I'm currently passionate about computer vision stuff, but my research is about Android security. More than that the supervisor seems to lack enough knowledge related to the field and he pushes me to find something before the finishing date (we have just 2 months left since it is a funded project).
Thanks.


texts: Let's party !: ways to interact with the students similar to "Science Meets Speed Dating"

texts:
My institution would like to organize an event where the students of our university would meet the researchers of our lab(s) and where we could expose what our daily work look like, what are our subjects of interest, what is like being a Researcher, etc....

We're looking for ideas about how to interact with the students. One of our ideas is to do something similar to "Science Meets Speed Dating" http://www.wsj.com/articles/science-meets-speed-dating-1434569915

  Last week, the American Museum of Natural History and the blogging and
  social networking platform Tumblr decided to adapt the speed-dating
  concept to science.

  Instead of getting five minutes with a prospective mate, the allotted
  time would be spent with one of the museum’s scientists. There were 24
  of them, traveling among 12 tables. And instead of sharing your taste
  in food and music and attitudes toward organized religion (or whatever
  people discuss on speed dates), you’d get to pepper paleontologists
  about whether Tyrannosaurus rex had feathers or chat with
  astrophysicists about the possibility of a multiverse and whether
  black holes might serve as portals, sort of like the
  Bleecker-Lafayette subway station, facilitating travel between one
  universe and another.

do you know any similar (funny/original) way(s) to interact with the public ?


texts: What can I do with my paper that is out of a work which contains no improvement of the methodology?

texts:
I've started a research, and after replicating methods of other researchers (running experiments on my data), I've realised that I cannot add anything new to the field. The work contains no improvement of the methodology, I just used the established methods to analyse my data and I ended up in having some results. Consequently, I cannot publish a paper out of it (which I am almost done writing).

Nevertheless, the obtained results are new (applied to a specific problem), so they could be of interest. Furthermore, I don't want that my time and the possibly valuable results end up in the trash bin.

What can I do with it? Is arXiv suited for this?


texts: Is the professor's reputation taken into consideration by the admissions committee when they read her/his recommendation letter

texts:
I worked as an RA and a TA with a professor, therefore I am  hoping for a solid recommendation letter. However, I am concerned if the admissions committee would run a background check on the professor who wrote the recommendation letter, mainly:

1) Would they be looking at the students opinion of that professor? Examples of student's opinions can be found at websites like ratemyprofessor.

Or

2) Will the admissions committee just check his research history and research related accomplishments?

And if they found something like bad student ratings, or a gap in the professor's research history, how would that affect the recommendation letter he wrote on my behalf?


texts: Ask professor for recommendation after long period without contacting them

texts:
So I'm currently in my final year of an undergraduate, intergrated Master's program at a British university and I'll be applying for PhD programs in the Fall. Over the summer of June 2017 - August 2017, I worked as an undergraduate researcher in one of the research groups in my department (Computer Science).

All my life I've generally had a quiet, introverted, reserved, withdrawn sort of personality and since the end of my research placement in August 2017, I have not spoken to the professor and postdoc who supervised my research. Let's call them Professor X and Postdoc X.

I'm planning on asking Professor X for a recommendation letter in the Fall (when I'm submitting my PhD applications), but I feel like simply dropping them an email out of the blue will be perceived as insincere, given that I haven't spoken to them in 1.5 years.

Even though Professor X, Postdoc X and I parted on good terms, the outcome of the research placement was not stellar (i.e. did not result in any publications). Because of this, when I eventually ask Professor X for a recommendation letter, I'm planning on giving them references to some of my other research-based accomplishments (i.e. paper publications) over the past 2 years, so that they have a better overall picture of my current research ability.

I am no longer interested in conducting research with Professor X as my research area is now different and I am already heavily involved with another research group, and so I do not know how to re-engage with Professor X and Postdoc X. I would invite them out to lunch to ask about how things are going in their research group, but I feel like that would just be wasting their time.

Can anyone give me some advice on how to re-cultivate my relationship with Professor X and Postdoc X?

And also, do you think giving Professor X references to some of my publications will cause them to write a better recommendation letter me, so long as the referenced publications are of outstanding quality?


texts: My previous advisor published a paper with my work and did not include me as a coauthor or give an acknowledgement. How to continue?

texts:
During my undergraduate degree I was involved in a research project under a new, young professor. I was much more involved than a typical undergrad researcher (at least from what I have seen during the past year in a PhD program); I was a major contributor in developing the theory and solution codes, and I was a first author on one paper and a coauthor on another during that time. A long story short, the professor had a really bad attitude and had no problem making enemies. Within two years he was gone (rumors that he was forced out) from his first professorship, which is a top 10 engineering school to a much less prestigious one. I graduated at the same time and started my PhD at another school.

An extremely long story short, we had a falling out not long after because I had had to shift my priorities to my PhD as any reasonable person would; however, I had agreed to keep working with him during my spare time as we were nearing in on one last paper. In short, he sent me some pretty disrespectful emails, and any time I tried to defend myself in any way, he took it as inappropriate. I tried my best to remain professional and respectful, and in my opinion I succeeded with that. I just decided I had my whole future ahead of me under a much more prestigious advisor and one relatively low impact paper was not going to mean much. So I told him that I could no longer contribute to the project.

A few days ago, I see that he published the paper we were working on. Unsurprisingly, I was not included as a coauthor or acknowledged in any way, though he did cite our previous papers. What was really bizarre was that he included as a coauthor another undergrad researcher who was less involved in the project. This guy happens to be my good friend, so I know he hasn't worked on it at all in the last year. To make things even fishier, my friend didn't even know he was going to release a paper nor was he ever notified that he was going to be a coauthor. I was the one that told him about it, and he was completely shocked.

The paper contained nothing new from what I had done, and the results were most definitely produced with the subroutine I wrote. Also, the wording was very very similar (not quite word for word) to what I had written in the past. The figures (containing conceptual designs) had been reproduced directly from my own unpublished ideas.

I am wondering just how unethical this is, if at all. I know typically undergrads might not contribute much, but I genuinely feel that I was the major contributor of this work. I even secured two external fellowships to fund the project. I have developed a lot of close contacts that are in high positions that I am confident would support me in a dispute, not to mention his reputation in the community isn't the greatest. I am just trying to decide if its even worth it and what route to take. Should I just let it go or am I in a position to act? I haven't contacted him yet since he will surely try to sabotage me in some way, which I am not that worried about; I really just don't know if I want to deal with it.

I am just looking for some thoughts, so I can approach this as unbiasedly as possible. Thanks a lot for your time.


texts: Can I have external people proof-read texts from teammates in a group project?

texts:
I'm attending a seminar, where we've been tasked to read some papers, extract information for them, and write an essay about our findings. The lecturer has teamed me up with two other students for this assignment.

One of my teammates posted a draft of the introduction section for the essay. Upon reading it, it appeared to me more like a Vice article than a scientific paper, making it look like the student got the lecturer's statement wrong that "you are allowed to express opinions in an essay".

However, the thought occurred to me that my reaction may be caused by the opinion that the text voices. In other words, it may have been that the text appeared biased to me just because its opinion was not mine. I therefore gave the text to two friends of mine, and they arrived at the same conclusion as I did: The text was overly opinionated and did not provide enough proof for its claims.

Upon reporting my critic to my teammates, I have in turn been criticised for giving the text to external people without the knowledge and consent of its author. I do not concur with this statement, since I removed authorship information from the text before giving it to my reviewers, and since my reviewers cannot know who else is attending the seminar, so they will very likely not be able to deduce the identity of the author.

I call upon your moral judgment: Have I acted wrongly?


texts: Does the 'Internet of Things' fall under Computer Networking?

texts:
I'm currently a MSc Computer Networking student and I recently became acquainted with the internet of things. I've fallen completely in love with this new area and I would love to base my dissertation on this area.

The problem is, I'm unsure if "The internet of things" falls academically within the scope of computer networking at the MSc level. My school is currently "closed" for the summer break, so getting to a lecturer before September is rather difficult. I'll like to know if this is an "okay" topic for me to base my dissertation on for my course, so as to use my summer to do some deeper reading on the subject.


texts: Where to publish Ph.D. related articles in the IT field

texts:
I am currently working on my Ph.D. with topic “Research of the current methods and technologies for web sites and web application development“. I have some articles that I would like to share(and also I must have several publication before I complete the course) so I was wondering can someone advice me to and university/science organisations that publish students articles.

Thanks in advance


texts: Supervisor takes my results to type a manuscript. Is this normal?

texts:
I am a PHD student, finishing my candidature in a year's time. The environment of my lab is slightly different. My prof (owner of the lab) does not supervise me at all and I received supervision mostly from a post-doc in the lab. Her role in the lab is more of a PI's role, giving instructions to the other lab members, but not really doing any experiments and data collection.  When I first joined the lab, I took over the one project everyone in my lab is working on (a very small lab), planning, doing and getting data from all of the experiments for the project (except for those that were done before I joined the lab, which is only like about 5% of the entire data obtained). While she initially guided me for the project's direction in my first year, for the past 2 years, I did not receive much guidance from her.

Now, she is writing a paper with the results I generated over the past few years, not giving me a chance at typing my own manuscript. Is this normal in the academic setting? She listed herself as the first author and me as co-first, and  I feel like I have been reduced to the likes of a research assistant, who generates data for her to use. I am worried this will affect my employment chances in the future when I graduate. This will probably be my only paper at the end of my PHD. Does the number of papers/ or amount of contribution listed in the papers matter to PIs who are employing potential post docs?


texts: Any experience in working with aged emeritus supervisors?

texts:
Recently, a graduate position, supervised by an emeritus faculty member has been offered to me. The aforementioned professor is one of the most famous contributors of his field on the planet for over 3 decades, but his age is over 75...

Some people just advise that the old faculty members would not capable of the active research and support of the graduate students and one better tries to inhibit cooperation with them.

The others asserts that the worthy and coherent experience and cumulative knowledge of such people shall be grabbed by graduate students by working with them!!!

I just struggled to contact with his current and former students to know his code of ethics, specifically, but they refrain from answering me.

Does someone have any experience to pass graduate studies under supervision of such aged emeritus faculty members?


texts: First day as an independent study student

texts:
My IDS class has just started today and I am the only student. I have not received any email from the professor and no assignments or due dates. I cannot determine if he is waiting for me to show that I am independent, or if he is just very busy.

We had a 1 week break between semesters, and during that time I have solved some problems from the textbook. Now I am trying to determining whether I should type them up and email the to my professor today.

On one hand, I want to show my professor that I am motivated and can work by myself. On the other hand, it is not my intention to put pressure on him to grade my work right away; maybe he was expecting to deal with me only 1-2 weeks into the semester. What should I do?


texts: What are the Pros and Cons of Pursuing a PhD after 5+ years in the Industry?

texts:
I am sure this is a quite subjective topic, but I haven't been able to find clear advice or info about this particular situation. Also, I'm going to give some context; therefore, you could understand my dilemma.
I've been in the IT industry for a considerable amount of time, but I have always wanted to get a Ph.D. since this is a life goal.
For the last 4+ years (in Europe), I've been working in a technology company between a software engineer and a kind of IT consultant where I have developed software, introduced new technologies, good practices, and techniques that allowed me to promote a couple of times, but that feeling of getting a Ph.D. in a new country (kind of requirement, preferably Western Europe) is still there alive, I still would like to go beyond.
When I started to work I was more open to any Ph.D. since I was finishing my master, but 3+ years have passed and I have seen so many changes in IT from web development, desktop development to Robotic Process Automation and Machine Learning and many more (DARQ) that are coming that create thousands of doubts of this decision since I have no friends or relatives with a similar story who I can talk about it.
Also, most of the advice is connected to early studies, not after working for a considerable amount of time.
Pros & Cons of a Ph.D. in Computer Science
Furthermore, I need to add an important point, I want to come back to the industry since I really enjoy it, but I'd like to read your opinions about this situation. What Pros and Cons do you see? Have you ever experienced something like this? Or maybe you know someone?
As Scott suggested about my personal goals (excellent reminder since we need goals in our lives):

To relocate to a new destination.
To establish my own business.
To develop new technologies.
To build a successful network of contacts.
To improve the lives of my fellows in Latin America.

I could have more goals that I'm working on them (I'm not waiting for them to happen, I take regular actions). Also, I would like highlight one point, I'm aware that for my goals, I don't need a Ph.D., I could go higher in my company without a Ph.D. since it's not a requirement in almost any organization, the only place that I have seen where they ask you for a Ph.D. is in the Academia that as I said I don't see myself as a lecturer, perhaps, per hour.
Thanks for any advice that you have.


texts: Can I patent part of my work presented that in my own research paper?

texts:
I recently published a paper in which I proposed a new transmission design relevant to wireless communication (skipping the details here).

Now I am thinking to file a patent but I am not sure if the work already published can be patented? Can the community kindly suggest me if I can patent this work either fully or part of it?


texts: How to evaluate a paper with concurrent results

texts:
As a reviewer suppose you receive a paper (Paper 1) where one of main results is claimed to be concurrent work with another recently published paper (Paper 2). There is sufficient evidence to establish that this claim is true: (1) The proofs of the main result in Paper 1 and Paper 2 are completely different, (2) Paper 2 became available on arXiv only a few days before Paper 1 was submitted to the conference, and (3) Paper 2's authors are all fine with the claimed concurrency.

As a reviewer, should you judge Paper 1 based on its entire contributions, or should you judge it based on the novelty compared to Paper 2? If the former, it would be a clear accept. If the latter, it would be borderline reject.


texts: Withdrawal of accepted manuscript from predatory journal

texts: I have sent a paper to the journal that was predatory and I had no idea what that was. Today, they sent me an email that I need to pay 1819 euros to publish my manuscript. On their internet pages stands that publication fee is 1819 USD and 1705 euros. This means that they have changed their "price". They also said that in case of withdrawal I will need to pay 919 euros and that it is a half of price (919 euros is not 50% of above mentioned fees). If i do not pay, what could be legal consequences for me? Please help.


texts: How to refer to a theorem in a book of which I don't know the source?

texts: I am writing a paper in math.  In that paper, I need to quote several theorems/propositions from a classic textbook on the subject.  All of them are quite standard results, but I am not sure what are the original sources for those.  The book didn't say that either (unless it's a quite famous theorem, then it would have a name attached to it).  How do I properly refer to that?  I heard that if I don't put a name next to it, people will think I am claiming it, which I am not.


texts: Non-confidential student suppport letter for a teaching award

texts:
My home faculty announced a call of nominations for a teaching award. I am confident that my teaching contributions has been substantial and wish to be recognized. So I contacted the selection committee and ask them if I, as a nominee, can contact my (staff and faculty) colleagues and students to solicit their letters of support.

And the answer is that I can do this to prepare the nomination package myself for submission, as long as nominators are given the option to send their letters to the committee directly if they wish to keep them confidential.

So far, many of my students who responded took the option of sending their letters directly to me. I wonder if their letters, compared with those sent confidentially, will be in any way treated with less weight/value (given that I did get a green light by the selection committee)?


texts: Where Can I Get Certified Copies of Documents for Master's Applications in the United States

texts:
So in a few weeks I will be submitting applications for Master's Programs in Germany. I am a resident of the United States living in Ohio and am required to submit certified copies of my Bachelor's Diploma and Transcript. The German website that handles several online applications list these as available sources:

issuing institutions, e.g. schools, universities and language schools
the Ministry of Education in your home country (I guess the Department of Education in the US)
German embassies and consulates (nearest one is several states away)
the department of cultural affairs of the embassy of the country in which the certificate was issued
public authorities and notaries which are authorized to supply official certifications in your country of origin.

The last point leads me to believe that it could be any notary, but then one application in particular says: "authorities and notaries authorized to provide official notarization in the respective country
In no case will we accept notarizations from private individuals, lawyers, a priest's office, banks, health insurance companies or the AStA (student union executive committee)!"
To sum up, basically I am wondering where I could get certified copies of my documents and which notaries count as "official notaries". For instance there is an Ohio Notary Public office nearby, which is a state department, would that count?
If anyone has gone through this process before and could shed light that would be greatly appreciated.
Edit: After some additional research it would seem notary publics in most US states can not certify copies of documents, including in Ohio. Accepted top answer as option 1 is really the only viable option in my and most US states.


texts: Should references part of CV only include names of the people who wrote recommendation letter to where the CV is going to be sent?

texts: Can one list all the people who have written letters of recommendations for him in his reference part of his CV regardless to where those recommendations are written? Or he should specially prepare his CV for the company/university including only the reference people who have written letters of recommendation for him to that company not all of the people from whom he has recommendations?


texts:
Does using a bibliography software actually save you time aside from when converting citation style?

I have used refworks and endnote for years and from 3 years ago I decided to ditch them both  and do the whole referencing business by hand because of frustrating problems they caused many times (references showing up incorrectly, having to manually add papers, references suddenly missing etc.). I only dump pdf files in them to keep a record of the references. I have been doing fine and I think it has been pretty efficient in three years I have had two change citation style manually twice which was painful but that was it.

I decided using endnote today again because i am writing a major review article. And already its painful! After inputting 15 references manually as the pdf files that can not be identified correctly (beats me why! clear pdf with OCR) and spending 30 minutes inputting the references, and then searching them to add them back in the paper I am doubting my decision!

Can anyone give me some motivation on why to use these tools really? I mean yes style change and finding duplicates can be good. But is that it? I feel like going back to basic but think there must be something wrong with me as it seems everyone else is using them without going insane!