texts:
For a few documents I have to write during my internship I have been told to use APA notation for citing my sources and building the bibliography.

Now, my problem is that some of the quotes or information comes from multiple sources, so I'd like to use IEEE notation in-line with the text, for example:

  A quote about principles concerning the hierarchy of an organisation. [1, 2]

instead of the APA style, which would look like this:

  A quote about principles concerning the hierarchy of an organisation. (somesource, 2001, p. 22) (anothersource, 2005, p. 5)

Is this acceptable for a research paper (Bachelor level at a university of applied sciences) or should I just stick to APA notation for the entirety of the paper?

Thanks in advance!


texts: Do semester, weekly, and daily planners work for undergrad or grad students?

texts: I always feel like I’m pressed for time but don’t get as much done as others around me. I’m busy all day, but then I need to pull an “all-nighter” to finish something I couldn’t complete during the day. The day (or sometimes the week!) slips by and I feel like I haven’t accomplished anything. I have read that maintaining planers (semester-wise, weekly, and daily) is often helpful. Some of the universities (Univ. of Melbourne, Michigan State etc.) seem to provide planer templates for students.  Making a planner is not very common where I studied. I would love to know some personal experiences. How well does this work?


texts: Consulting gigs for quantitative sociologist

texts: I am a university professor (quantitative sociology) and I am interested in finding consulting gigs, especially for the summer since I'm on 9-month, but possibly year round if just for a few hours/week. Any advice how to find gigs?


texts: Presenting half-baked results in a department seminar

texts:
After having submitted my Ph.D. recently, I am working on a first solo paper (without my advisors). I have some interesting results, but, I have difficulty in formalizing some of the mathematical arguments. I tried to send the manuscript to some mathematicians for comments, and they said they will read it when they have time, but so far, apparently, they did not have time.

So, I scheduled a presentation in a local math department seminar. My hope is that, when people come to a seminar, they have more time to listen, and probably some of them will be able to help me.
My concern is that, presenting such half-baked results might make me look unprofessional.

So, my question is: what is the best way to present such results in a way that will encourage interested listeners to collaborate with me, while not creating a negative impression?


texts: Is publishing in open access journal a good impression?

texts: Is publishing in open access journal a good impression ? I mean publishing in such journals (where one has to pay money), will it be valuable compared to other journals ?


texts: Can I contact the author of a paper for questions, even if I've never studied over high school?

texts:
I've never been in a University in my life, but I enjoy reading research papers to expand my knowledge and go deeper in the understanding of details which are not covered by books.

A recent paper shows that this substance X causes reaction Y. Many others have shown that reaction Y can cause a dangerous consequence Z. I'd like to ask the author of the paper if he thinks substance X can trigger consequence Z. No one seems to have answered this question and, if they did, they're out of my radar.

Many papers covers details and little aspects of how reaction Y causes consequence Z, however I've found that a Wikipedia article does a good job in summing up all of these papers:

Can I link the Wikipedia article to the Doctor?
Or should I link the 20+ papers?
Assuming consequence Z is well known in the field, should I give for granted that he knows of it (thus not linking anything)? Can putting the links to something that is well known make me sound like a pretentious prick?


texts:
Referencing, when you can assume that readers and you know "what you talk about"? Is it unnecessary?
I.e. if I can be sure that any reader of my paper that's of a sufficient professional level, should agree on what I'm saying, then is it necessary to reference in order to "prove a view"?
This applies to e.g. definitions or methodologies or such. For example, if I write a paper on image segmentation that's read by people who also study image segmentation or are experienced in it, then would it be unnecessary to cite "elementary texts" on something that may be considered "basic knowledge in image segmentation".


texts: Which is the most accepted measure for an individual's academic productivity?

texts:
Among the various indices for academic productivity/impact in the respective field, which is most accepted one?

You can see some productivity measures, used in academia, here and here

This question is inspired by the comment here and should not be confused with this

Clarification:
The word accepted meant to be taken as accepted in the respective field of activity, for various requirements, say appointments, career advancements, selection for awards, invitation as an examiner, editor, reviewer etc. These measures might not have much impact on the general public, and that is not being asked.


texts: How to deal with graduate school rejection and overall academic failure?

texts:
There has been a lot of buzz about how difficult it is to achieve tenure, however, even getting into graduate school seems harder every day. My case (and the case of a lot of people too): I graduated early from school in a developing country and decided to study Biology with more passion than reason (low salaries compared to a Doctor or an Engineering). I completed in four years a five years Bachelor's in a top institution of my country, with some national awards, grants and scholarships. My GPA was among the best %5. I did research since my second year and established good relations with my Professors (their letters of recommendation are fine without bluff).

I applied to some MSc in Europe and US and got rejected the first time. I got the only available (bad paying) job until the next admission period. I lowered the stakes for my second round of applications and got rejected again. With two consecutive rejections, I am starting to think that I am ineligible for any graduate position. Especially considering that I have been off academia for two consecutive years. Why? A MSc in my country, even at a top school, has no international worth. Furthermore, it doesn't have worth in my own country as few positions are available.

I know I have weaknesses:

My college is top in my country, but almost unrecognized internationally. The awards I got have no international value.
Although I was in that 5%, I had a harsh beginning. The first page of my transcripts has some bad scores (~2.8, lowest) along good ones (~4). That first page causes a bad impression.
The extra course load is irrelevant for the admission committees.
I specialized myself too much. While some students attest experience in three or more projects, I focused on one big project since the beginning.
Few publications and conferences. In my country, there have been almost no conferences in my field in years and I cannot travel abroad for a presentation.

My future is staring to seem bleak: no job in my country, no graduate school abroad. Overall, I feel a complete failure in what I loved. What should a person in my position do? Should I try again or set new professional goals?


texts: Value of published (non-english) books for applying in a PhD program

texts: I have published a scientific book (i.e. a text book) alongside with my supervisor (he is an associate professor, by the way). Since the book is not in English and consequently does not target international audiences, can it provide some remarkable value in my CV for a PhD program abroad?


texts: How to have a fulfilling social life as an academic

texts:
I will be a postdoc in the coming academic year. While I have not decided on where I will be in September, it seems likely that I will be a research postdoc at a decent research university.

An aspect of a life as a postdoc that I had never considered before is the following: what is your social life outside of academia like as a postdoc?

As a PhD student, I had a very tight group of friends; we were friends from day 1 in graduate school, and that friendship continued throughout. Our friendship strengthened by going through many difficult classes together, staying up all night finishing homework, and studying for quals together, not to mention talking about how much it blows to be a PhD student, and worrying about the job market.

I feel that I will not have this privilege as a postdoc. We are all there to do our jobs (i.e. research), and I do not see building the same kind of camaraderie amongst the newly-hired postdocs, for these reasons:

there are no excuses to spend a ton of time with one another (no homework, no quals to study for, etc.)
we will likely have different research areas, and possibly have nothing in common to talk about in terms of academics.
there are way fewer postdocs than there are graduate students. I would be lucky to have maybe three or four other postdocs hired with me by my department. Maybe we would get along, maybe we would not. I do not have the luxury of choosing the people that I like anymore.
at least some postdocs must have family. I have found that married people are less likely to yearn for a close friendship. This narrows down the possibilities for friends even more (not that I would discriminate against married people, but they often dissociate themselves from, say, a late-night out of fun).

I would love to hear from the people who hold (or held) research postdoc positions from PhD granting institutions. I feel that teaching postdocs would give different answers, as you would meet more often to discuss teaching.


texts: My PhD defense is next week. I feel that I have not done enough work to justify my time spent on the thesis. What can I do about this?

texts:
I spent 5 years on my mechanical engineering PhD. I think that my thesis work could have been done in 2 years by a serious student. I have wasted my time on futile work.

I don't know how to justify the time spent aon my PhD and my low research output to my committee.


texts: Math graduate, not enough physics coursework to apply straight to physics MS

texts:
I have a BS in math (2.9) and a MA in teaching (Pass/fail online program)
I am teaching math at a high school but now miss my college days and the upper level material. My end goal would be a PhD in Physics at a US university.

I don't have enough course work in Physics to try and apply straight to a Masters in Physics, as well as a low GPA to apply with.

What are my options? (I have ideas but am unsure as to what is realistic or worth doing)
Community college classes until I have prerequisites for physics?
Non-matriculated schooling?


texts: Should Ph.D. students interested with research remain as research assistant until they find a research position or just find any job?

texts: As faculty or postdoc positions at top schools are getting hard to land, should Ph.D. students interested with research continue to work as research assistants and publish more, or try to get a teaching position or work in industry and then try to move to a research position?


texts:
Over the course or the past year, I've become very familiar with a specific topic through a careful and systematic review of the background and state-of-the-art.

I think this could make for a nice publication, providing readers in similar fields with a handy resource and increasing my academic profile to boot.

However, I want to make sure that the lit review I performed is scientifically sound - so it must be transparent and replicable.

Do you know of any guidelines, best practices, or great examples to guide me as I get working?


texts: Tips for publishing a summary of an article to be published

texts:
I want to write a short article about a paper that has been accepted for publication in an upcoming conference. This short article summarizes the accepted one and will end up in my workplace's digital library. The reason mainly is to make the article to be more accessible and understandable to undergraduate students.
In this summary, I should cite the upcoming article to be published. However, I doubt where I can put that citation of the upcoming article to avoid putting it everywhere in my short article. For example, in the methodology, experimentation and results I will present a summary of the original article. However, I do not think it will look nice if I should put something like this in every paragraph: "According to Layla[2020]...", "the Experiments made by Layla[2020]," and so on. What can I do with this sort of "self-citation".
I have been trying to find examples on the web about this situation, but I could not find anything. Any help would be useful.


texts: Publishing dissertation with ProQuest and include CC BY-SA 4.0 images

texts:
I was wondering if images with license of type CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en can be safely (legally) included when a dissertation is published with ProQuest by my university.
Also: The question is: If I do not publish open access, can I include CC-BY-SA images?


texts: Is it appropriate/safe to ask for help on major theorem proof of my paper online?

texts:
I have been stuck on the proof of a major theorem in my forthcoming paper for about two weeks. Since offline help is limited, I'm trying to see if there is more help online. But I have two concerns.

I am the author of the paper and am supposed to work out the heavy-lift proof. I want to see if someone has worked on similar proofs who may point me in the right direction. What if someone comes up with the complete proof, rather than just suggestions/comments? Should I offer co-authorship or just appreciate their help in the acknowledgement?
For others to offer concrete help, I may have to disclose the proposed algorithm as they suggested. So there is the risk, even remote, that someone just uses it for their publication purpose before my paper is submitted.

How should I proceed, keep grinding hard on the proof offline, or solicit help online with the still-to-be-published algorithm, or something in between?


texts: How to state incomplete Ph.D in CV (not defended yet)?

texts:
I have read few tags and i could not find appropriate answers. So, here i am writing again.
I have completed my Ph.D research work, and completed all the credits required and published a paper. but i have not yet defended. one of my project doesn't have sufficient results to published. other than this there are other complications with supervisor, personal issues. but i was recommend to Licentiate degree (need to rethink about Licentiate).
My question is how do i present in my CV that I have not defended or it may be a licentiate degree. Or should i state in cover letter reason for not completing in time? I am applying jobs that has masters degree as requirement. in academics, companies mainly as Research engineer, laboratory assistant etc.
could someone help with right words that has to be put in CV? Thank you


texts: Is it hard to get a scholarship for graduate school in Mathematics?

texts: I am currently majoring in Physics but I am thinking about changing my major to Mathematics because feel more attracted to it as a subject. However, I have been told that in Physics, one almost always gets a full scholarship to attend graduate school. Is it hard to obtain a scholarship to go to grad school in Mathematics here in the U.S.?


texts: Do researchers study topics outside their field for fun?

texts:
This question is partially inspired by this one. Do researchers, who actively publish, even have time for that? They seem to be a busy lot. I am not talking about publishing outside the filed, but about studying for the sake of learning just for fun and curiosity, as a form of amusement.

Is there any known case of a researcher who, by studying a topic outside his/her field for fun, had an insight for a novel approach or solution?

It seems that studying is only done (by researchers) when "it might be useful". Is that true?

That, maybe, would explain why most of the researchers I know, speak at most, three languages. They would have little time or incentives to learn the fourth or fifth.


texts: Graduating with a PhD in May, should I take a good offer in an undesired location?

texts:
I'm not sure if this is the correct StackExchange site to post this on, but I did not see one that was a closer fit.

I'm graduating with my Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from a mid-tier program in the US in May. I am targeting industry as my prefered career path and was advised to start applying to jobs a few months ago.

I've had phone screenings with a few companies that have told me to get back in contact in the new year. However, I got a good offer (pay/benefits/semi-interesting work) from one company that's far away from my hometown (which I would prefer to be near).

So after all this set-up I have two questions

Does anyone have resources about the pay for a newly minted ME PhD? I found a report from the ASME/ASCE from 2012 (Exhibit 11) that lists some statistics. But I was hoping for something more up to date.
Should I be worried that I'm not getting more interviews, or is this simply a product of May being relatively far out for companies to hire?

Thank you


texts: Should I take credit from the idea that I have initially suggested?

texts:
I had an idea for a project and discussed it with my professor.
The professor said that it was a new idea and we could try it. We agreed that we would first research more about the feasibility of the idea. The professor would be the project head/guide for it with me and my friends as part of the team.

Now, he has given this project to his senior students.
He says that we still don't have much needed technical knowledge, so the senior project members will be of help.
This is correct.

However, I feel we, sophomores, will just be sidekicks in the process and will lose out as major contributors to the project, although we will be part of the team that will be involved in modifications and development of the prototype .

The fact that we need help from seniors is very true and necessary

I have just discussed the basic mechanism but design of the individual components with the professor and the design of the whole model itself still has to be worked out.

Do I really lose out on giving away my idea?

Thanks for all the answers and clarity.


texts: How to convince labmate to graduate? Graduating, in a 2 person research group?

texts:
I work in a small research group, there are 2 graduate students.
My advisor is fairly new, and I'm not sure when his tenure date is actually set for. Not necessary info, but pertinent.)
The other graduate student got here a year before me and worked with our professor a lot to set up the lab and has contributed to all of my works. He started in the group with 2 M.S. degrees from different universities.
I'll have the necessary attributes in order to graduate 2 years from now, my 5th year, but I'm not sure how I can leave a group at the same time if my other labmate will be also leaving that year...
I can't imagine staying for a 6th year for no reason. Only because my boss doesn't have enough funding/ likes keeping the group small.
Yes a lot can change in 2 years, but if my labmate isn't apply for jobs for next Fall/Spring, then how am I supposed to apply for jobs next year...There's no way we could leave at the same time and leave my advisor with only 1 graduate student (if he were to hire a new one NY then).
How do I push my labmate to apply for jobs? He's already got some great publications. He's totally ready to go.
I'm part worried that he's not ready to push his way out. I'm not sure how to get out without this turning into a difficult situation.


texts: Conversation between freshman from senior high school and retired professor who suffers from Alzheimer's disease

texts:
I live at a university town where I am freshman at a
senior high school.
Some years ago a car steered by an inebriated driver
smashed me off my bicycle and run over me.
Nowadays I am a paraplegic sitting in a wheelchair.
I can keep my head upright and move my left arm and
hand. Any other limb of mine currently is still -eh-
out of order.

Due to my physical deficiencies I don't do much
sporting activities. I get along with little sleep
(about 4 hours/day).

I have permission to go to the library of the faculty
of mathematics and natural sciences of the university.
I am interested in number theory and therefore I use
to spend large parts of the evenings and nights at the
library.

Two weeks ago at the cafeteria of the library building
I got into conversation with an elderly gentleman who
started small talk. After about half an hour I realized
that the small talk had turned into a private lecture
that I was recieving about the topic which I learn about
in the library (quadratic diophantine equations with
2 unknowns). The gentleman didn't seem to perceive
the surroundings any more and he was engrossed in
monologues at dissertation level.
I was deeply impressed.
At some point of our conversation I learned that he
is 86 years of age and a professor emeritus.

The next evening I met him in the cafeteria again
where he seemed to have been awaiting whether I
would drop in too. He had brought along some books and
papers which he thought I might be interested in.
Again the conversation turned into a lecture after
a while and again he seemed to enjoy teaching maths and
being in his element.

We met every evening since in this constellation
and I enjoyed these meetings.

But today a woman who introduced herself as his daughter
cut our conversation short. She told me that her father
in fact is a retired professor of the faculty of
mathematics and that he suffers from Alzheimer's disease
and that she wished to apologize for any inconvenience
her father might have caused.

To me the point is: Subject of our conversation was
number theory. I did not realize myself that he suffers
from that disease. Thus to me it seems that the disease
did not affect our conversation in a negative way.
I enjoyed our meetings and to me it seems that he also
enjoyed talking to me about maths.

At the moment I have the feeling that currently he still
is capable of talking about number theory and
that currently he still enjoys talking about that subject.
I fear that discouraging him in doing so by now would mean
anticipating some aspects of the disease having reached
levels that probably aren't reached yet.

How would you deal with the situation?


texts: Writing letter of recommendation for someone I have never met

texts:
I'm a first year PhD student. A student applying for an undergraduate institution in the US has asked me to write him a letter of recommendation. I wonder if a first year graduate student can write recommendation letters to high school graduates applying to US colleges.
This is not my main question though. That student has a connection to my family. I discussed physics with him once and I wasn't able to form any idea about his physics ability. What's worse, he wants me to recommend his friend who is also applying to US colleges, although I have never met or spoken with his friend at all. He wrote himself a recommendation (which I have to send as if it's I who had written it) that he had worked with me in the physics laboratory and that he was my strongest student. I wish to know how to proceed. I have two options:

refuse to write that letter

write that I have never met him.

I wonder how common is this.


texts: Can departments sanction students who do not take sufficient precautions to protect their work?

texts:
One of my colleagues was teaching an introductory programming course this past spring. He discovered several students cheating by taking code from a public GitHub repository, which contained all the answers for this class. This repository already had an issue opened on it by a professor from another large school, who requested that it be taken down because his students were using it to cheat. No response.

Fortunately, the student left some identifying information in the comments, which we were able to use to determine that he attends our school, in our department. We attempted to contact him to request that he remove the offending code--unfortunately, emails to both his departmental email and his GitHub email went unanswered.

The department has a student code of conduct which states that students must take "all reasonable precautions" to prevent others from using their work. While this student is clearly in violation of that, we can't exactly fail him out of a course he passed over a year ago, and failing him out of course he's currently taking seems petty.

We've considered escalating this to the department, but we're not sure if the department can actually do anything about this. Can a department in the US punish a student for helping other students cheat even if the student is not taking the class where the cheating is occurring? If so, what should be done? If not, might there be anyone at the school that can do anything? This is a large, public state school.


texts: Specifically, why do some universities have a defined "graduate school" and associated "graduate faculty," with separate appointment process, and some do not, even when they offer many graduate programs?  What is the organizational and administrative thinking behind this?


texts: My first authorship is being turned into co-first authorship, what can I do?

texts:
I am currently submitting a paper for Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. I worked on this project for the last four years and was the only one working on this project. I had everything going very well. In order to get the crystallization, I gave the plasmid construct to another laboratory which has expertise in crystallization. Fortunately, they got the crystals.
After the crystallization got successful, one researcher (say, A) from their lab came to my lab and my professor told me to teach him all the methods. I happily agreed to do so. After A went back to his lab, I got the draft of the paper from my professor, where, my name appeared as first co-author! I almost fainted. There were 20 figures in the paper. 13 were contributed by me, 4 by A and rest by 2 other people. The paper was mostly about my work. But in the contribution section, my prof and the prof of A  mentioned that I and A had equal contribution. In fact it is mentioned that A was solely contributor of crystals and he equally contributed in all other results.
I discussed this issue with my prof, but he tells that he is getting pressure from A's prof to make A the first author. And my prof does not want to estrange relationship with A's prof. I am heart-broken and I don't know what to do.
Please suggest me what to do.
Edit 2021: It has been quite some time since I posted this question. I accepted the authorship as recommended by my advisor. Now I feel mature and realize that maintaining a cordial relationship with one's advisor and colleagues is more important than anything else. If one is capable enough, s/he will get more opportunities to prove their worth.


texts: Does presenting your work at conferences cause your related publications to be cited more?

texts:
Does presenting at conferences increase the number of citations to the work presented at the conference?
I am limiting the scope of this question to disciplines where conference presentations are not publications and are not usually cited.
Statistics or evidence of some kind would be appreciated.


texts: How does a suspended student deal with an unprofessional university counselor?

texts:
I am a suspended student and I have been getting counseling for three months. During those three months, I have noticed extremely unprofessional behavior from my counselor.

When I started counseling, he was late each time. The first time he was late 10 minutes, the next 20 minutes and the third time 30 minutes.

Last week I had a counseling appointment and I drove 35 minutes to get on campus only to find out that the counselor was absent. He didn't email me or tell me not to come, nothing.

After my suspension period ends, the counselor has to decide whether I am fit to come back to the university or not, and many times I get literally threatened with not coming back - if for example I do this or that behavior. I literally get told "then, you're not coming back to the university".

Often, I see the counselor is eating while with me and he has no respect for the appointments for other students as well. Phone calls aren't answered. Emails aren't often answered except some few after three or four days.

There was couple of times when our counseling session was about literally 5 minutes. I came in, he asked me what I did in the week, then he said "Okay, I'll see you next time". And, he went on to work on the computer.

Additional Information: My counseling session was in the morning around 9:00AM every Tuesday. Suddenly, once day, without even taking my opinion, he says that someone else took the appointment at 9:00AM. He switched my appointment till 5:00PM. I objected. He said he had an emergency and it was more important than me. He said he had no other time than this time, at 5:00PM. I found out later that the person who took my appoitment was a customer for him, who is not a student.

What should I do? On one side, I can't ditch the counselor since that would jeopardize my coming to the university. On another side, I do not want a counselor to help me deal with another counselor.

For those who are asking, my suspension is behavioral suspension and not academic suspension, and the counselor stated that I suffer from depression based on tests that I took.


texts: Whom is a diversity statement written for?

texts:
This is related to the "what to say in a diversity statement" question, but I'm asking something slightly different:

  Who reads a Diversity Statement in a faculty application (exact sciences/CS/math) at an R1 institute?

Anticipating answers like "anyone on the department can read it", let me be more specific: Who usually reads diversity statements and takes relevant decisions on their basis? Is it faculty members? Is it administrators? Are they generally used as a first screen, as an appendix to the teaching statement, or as a tiebreaker?


texts: What all should be included in a motivation letter for PhD in Geology?

texts:
What all should be added in a motivation letter for a PhD in Geology?

Should I write about:

My M.Sc project?
My schooling?
My hobbies?
How I got interested in that particular topic?

What can I do if I don't have enough experience in that particular project?


texts: Is it ethical for a graduate student to provide juniors with paid graduate school application guidance?

texts:
I have several friends, all graduate students at decent universities, who are providing paid graduate school application guidance services, where they help the future graduate applicants stand better chances to get admitted.

Originally, I regarded this as a 100% OK behavior, until I realize that they are very sneaky about their services, as if the services are something underhand. Some of them even provide the services anonymously.

My guess is that they may leak some information obtained from the admission committee to their clients. However, I feel that they can neither obtain any critical admission information nor make admission decisions, since after all, they are just graduate students. But why are they hiding?

Are such services unethical? If so, how will the school deal with such cases?


texts: What would you do if the author of a published CS article does not respond to code requests?

texts: Since reproducibility is a major principle or basic norm of scientific experiments, simulations, and computations, what would you do or what to do if the author of a published CS article does not respond to code requests?


texts: Pros and Cons of including less interesting results

texts:
For the problem I am trying to solve,
I considered 2 base algorithms and devised about 30 variations on each.
I then threw about 2 CPU-years and ran a number of simulations to see how they went.
When that completed I drew alot of graphs and came to some conclusions like:

Variations of the form X do almost exactly as well as the control
Variations of the Y family can be predicted to have unpredictable (and thus useless) results
The d[1,0*] variation is great under these conditions
The d[0*] variation is great under these other conditions

I took the last 2 and made a new algorithm and then tested that and found further useful results.
Now I am going to write my findings up into a paper.
I have 3 kind of results above:

Points 3,4 (and the subsequent improvements) are interesting and will be the main focus of the paper.
Points 1, 2, are kind of nonresults. They are failures, they did not produce anything useful.

For most it isn't even surprising that they didn't.
For others they are a approach by taken on a similar problem in a paper that inspired me to try and solve this related problem.

So should I comment at all about algorithm variations that were tested and found to not be good?
Why/why not?
Pros I can see:
This would help prevent others, not spend time trying them. I have read that it is a problem that in many disciplines (including this one) "negative results are not published".
Cons I can see:
Takes up space, may confuse reader as to which algorithm is the focus of the paper.
It feels abit weird that of the 2 CPU-years I spent testing these, and the considerable time I spent making the tests, I will only tell the rest of the world about 5% of my results.


texts:
I'm using an image from https://fermi.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/eteu/agn/ on the Unified Model of AGNs, and I've captioned it

The AGN unified model, showing the BLR and NLR, as well as different types
based on the observational angle. Credit: Fermi and NASA:
https://fermi.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/eteu/agn/

As far as I can see, the image is not from an original paper. Is this an appropriate way to cite the website? What's the best way to include a citation for an image from a website?


texts: U.S.C. sex and drugs scandal: would attending such a graduate school hurt one's chances at an academic career?

texts:
The University of Southern California (U.S.C.) medical school is currently rocked by a sex and drugs scandal involving the dean of the school -- and possibly other faculty and administrative leaders that worked to cover up the scandal.

Would attending a graduate program rocked by scandals hurt one's chances of landing academic jobs afterwards?

Sources:

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/25/us/usc-scandal-carmen-puliafito.html

[2] http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-usc-dean-pasadena-overdose-20170725-htmlstory.html


texts: What to do if your editor does not reply and there is no one else to contact?

texts:
The situation is like this. I made a new submission to a journal via their website; I am under the impression that an author would automatically receive a copy of the generated PDF file for review and the acknowledgement of receipt, just like many journals more or less do. However, after one business day, there was still nothing about this matter that came into my inbox (used in a generic sense, including spam). I thus wrote to the editor in chief regarding this matter. The editor has not yet replied for a day (which is unusual according to the editor's known pattern in dealing with submissions). There is no email for the editorial assistant that I can find on their website, even if the position exists.

Now the question is how then a safe next move would be like. I cannot just wait indefinitely; potential possibilities are fading. But it also seems that it is difficult to make the intention to ``set a deadline for response" sound innocuous. I am asking if there is a relatively common practice our there or an all-considering well-rounded strategy regarding this matter that could serve as a signal for the editor to know my intention without tearing anyone's face.


texts:
I have submitted my paper on 12-Jan-2019. The journal uses ScholarOne Manuscripts for online submission. The status has been changed to Awaiting Reviewer Scores in the same week I created the submission.

I've recently contacted the editor about the status of the manuscript on 8-Apr-2019 and he replied that he is waiting for an overdue review, the the reviewer wa chased on 5-Apr-2019.

At this point, I know I should wait. But it's interesting to know if I can send another reminder and when should I do that. Especially when the editor actually reported what is going on and didn't simply mention that the paper is "Under Review" and I should leave it like that until a decision is made.


texts: Should I be suspicious of a conference that invites me, a recently admitted graduate student, to be an invited speaker?

texts:
I'm a recently-admitted student to graduate program, albeit possessing a considerable roster of research papers in known conferences and journals.

I'd just, recently, received an email from the chairman of this conference to deliver a technical presentation, as an invited speaker in the target field.

Typically, invited speakers are the well-known heroes in their field. I am, noticeably, ambitious enough to taste such experience, but this offer's made me suspicious about the credibility of the conference, to the bone.

Should I accept the offer?!


texts: Can an independent institution run experiments without IRB approval?

texts:
Lets say a rich person has the funds to create a US-based research institution that does not receive any form of public or private funding with the exception of said persons bank account. Will this institution be able to run experiments on human subjects without IRB approval? Nothing extreme like giving people new medicine or trying out novel surgery techniques but rather something mundane like collecting surveys or conducting psychology experiments.
At which point does it become illegal to run an experiment with no oversight within US jurisdiction?


texts: I have been using Mendeley to mange and annotate articles for quite a few years, I have built up a big library which I use everyday. Unfortunately Elsevier has stopped support for the iOS app and it is not possible to read and annotate articles on a tablet anymore. Since this is my preference when reading, does anyone know of any mobile based alternatives for Mendeley or will I have to transfer my whole library to Zotero or Endnote to still be able to read on a mobile device? Thanks


texts: How much an elective course FZ grade impact for PhD application?

texts:
My career only goal is to get involved in research (PhD). My previous education, working experience (teaching) and publications help me to get admission in a Master program at a Canadian high ranked university. However unfortunately I got a FZ grade in one of an elective course (I was extremely mentally upset on the final exam day due to family issue) though I took another elective course to meet the programme requirement. While coming to PhD application, my supervisor informed me that my chances of not being accepted in the PhD program at the university is high since I have a FZ grade in my transcript. He also told me that he will write recommendation for me if I try to another university.
My question: can anyone please explain me how much does this FZ grade (though I have replaced the credit with another elective course) will impact in my PhD application in future?


texts: Bringing an unprepared student into the lab

texts:
I'm thinking of bringing a new student in the lab. His theory background is seriously lacking. He didn't take enough math and physics classes, and has insignificant programming experience. He has a permanent position as a technician at my institution and he wants to get a PhD.

I'm in serious need of manpower (or woman power), as what I'm doing requires a lot of computer simulations. The question is what should I do to involve this student early enough in research and keep him motivated until he understands enough to become curious? I have the feeling he wants the PhD more as a way to improve his position within the institution.

Edit: To clarify: I want the student to do all the PhD work that is required, i.e. learn the techniques, write papers, conduct independent research. I don't know how to get him over the steep learning curve at the beginning without losing him.


texts: Writing homework essay anonymously to avoid controversy

texts:
I am attending a course at a neighboring institute purely out of interest. Neither credits, nor grading of any kind are involved.

As part of the course, we are required to work in pairs (assigned, not chosen) and write an essay on a controversial/contentious topic. My partner and I find ourselves on opposite sides of the debate.

On account of the controversial nature of the topic, its connection with my academic work and my own contributions to the field, I am not comfortable diluting my stand. However, compromise is inevitable in pairs/groups, and I realise the point of this exercise might be to reinforce exactly that.

Nevertheless, I don't wish to sign off on something that I don't believe in 100%.
I also don't wish to opt out of the assignment as my partner is being graded on it and it seems unethical to leave him hanging.

So I propose submitting the essay titled:
(Title),(Partner name and affiliation), (Anonymous, independent).

Is there any precedent to do this, or is there a strong reason not to? Do I use a pseudonym instead?

Any advice on alternatives or other points of view would be appreciated.


texts: Balancing (Re)building Foundations and Research

texts:
I'm a third year postdoc in mathematics.

I have been reasonably productive; however, I'm starting to feel some of my foundations in my subject slipping (especially since I specialized in my field fairly early into my PhD). The techniques I use in my research relate to a certain type of object, so the general knowledge in my field has slowly becoming lost. My work mixes a lot of fields, so I also have the enjoyment of knowing many fields shallowly instead of one specialization extremely deeply. I am now realizing that it would be useful to go back and learn some of the foundations in my field much more deeply as well as the foundations in related fields.

This realization is daunting, considering how much time I spent before in graduate school to get some understanding. I want to keep my research at about the same pace and then also do this.

Have others had this experience?

If so, what kind of plan led them to have a firmer understanding of their field?


texts: Attending a conference with self funding and no publication

texts:
I am a PhD student and got a workshop poster (only poster based on abstract, no paper, at one of the workshops co-located with the major CS conference) accepted at the top-most conference in my field (NIPS, Computer Science).

Since I am not a full-time student, I am supposed to fund my own travel, accommodation and other expenses. The conference venue is in Canada while I am located in Asia, so the expenses are quite large. The deadline for student travel grants for the main conference has already passed and the funding for workshop student travel grant has not been yet announced.

I have the following questions with regard to this:

Is it worth it to attend such tier-1 conferences only to present a poster which won’t be published/indexed/not included in proceedings?
I would need to attempt to publish in such conferences at least once during PhD and since I am self sponsored, expense for that too would be upon me.
My advisor says: “Go and have some exposure, meet and network with new people.” But he is aware that I am self-sponsored so he is not too pushy but has asked me to go. Does such networking really happens when I would be only an attendee for first five days of the conference and having a poster demo during the last day of the conference.

If my questions seems too vague, please let me know. I would try to be more clear and concise.


texts: Is there a point of applying to a University if potential adviser rejected me

texts:
I have recently contacted a professor in a reputable university in the hopes of discussing our common research interests and to apply for PhD under his supervision, and he just replied that he is not going to take anybody for the next year. What should I do now? Is there a reason why I should still apply to this university assuming there are no other professors who share my research interests?

I adopted the suggestions in (How much detail to include in first email to potential PhD supervisor?) when I reached out to the potential adviser.

More info about the department:
When I contacted the department's graduate office showing my interest part of their reply was:

  If there is a particular professor you wish to work with, you may wish
  to contact him/her prior to applying and discuss your application
  further with them.


texts: Maximum/reasonable number of authors for a (conference) paper

texts:
What is a reasonable number of authors a small conference paper should have?

In my case, this is an interdisciplinary research paper and several people are linked to this work in one way or another. Currently, there are 8 authors and I feel this may seem too high.

Is there any common-sense consensus regarding this limit?

In case there is a field-specific dependence, the main field is Computer Science.

UPDATE: my justification for this question is the increasing buzz around the very issue: author inflation.


texts: Is it good to work in a funded PhD project to complete it within time?

texts:
I have enrolled my PhD in a German institute. The project is proposed by the institute and funding is by another agency. Based on my master work, I got selected for PhD. The proposed PhD work is not related to my M.Tech work. The application is different but the fundamentals are same. The project is funded for a limited period. The supervisor there has given me a research paper to follow.

May I know what is the probability to complete it within that time. Moreover, what sort of guidance I should expect expect from him.

Any necessary and advice in this regard would be highly appreciated and acknowledged.

Kind regards,
Manish


texts:
I have submitted my paper to Proceedings of the AMS one month ago and we haven't gotten a response yet. Can I upload my paper to arxiv despite of this? Would there be any conflict? About accepted ones, they have written that there is no conflict and so: Can I deduce from this that there wouldn't be any conflict for submitted ones as well?

Thanks


texts: Should I omit a citation if the authors ask me to?

texts:
"Program MARK: A gentle introduction" by Evan Cooch and Gary White

is a guide to using a particular piece of statistical software. It is available in print form as well as in a free, online version.

The foreword to the book contains the following paragraph:

  We’re occasionally asked how to properly cite this book. Easy answer –
  please don’t. This book is not a ‘technical reference’, but a
  ‘software manual’. The various ‘technical’ bits in the book (i.e.,
  suggestions on how to approach some sorts of analysis, guides to
  interpreting results...) are drawn from the primary literature, which
  should be cited in all cases.

Now, I don't have any problem with the last sentence - the authors are quite right to recommend citing the primary literature. But I don't understand why they recommend NOT citing their own work. If I have found it useful (I have) then the usual arguments for citation seem to apply:

Citing the guide may be helpful in pointing others towards this useful resource
The guide has performed an important function in my work, even if that function is "just" pointing me towards the primary literature, and that function should be acknowledged. It is in a small way dishonest if I imply that I researched the primary literature without any help.
While any mistakes in my use of the software are of course my own, knowing the source of advice that I've used might help others to spot or trace those mistakes.

Against this is the fact that the authors have politely asked me NOT to cite the work. I have no wish to be disrespectful to the authors who have created a valuable resource. But is it reasonable for them to ask me to break from academic good practice?

Should I respect the authors' wishes and omit a citation?


texts: How much modification in a manuscript is recommended after a major revision?

texts:
I've got three months to revise my manuscript I submitted to a journal a few months ago. I received two highly detailed reviews, from which it seems that the manuscript does not show the desired big picture of my work. Both reviewers pointed out similar deficiencies, and I must say, both of them are right.

According to the questions, remarks and advices, I rethought the entire paper and started to rewrite it (being attentive to the reviews), however, I am not sure if it is acceptable to completely modify the whole manuscript. Obviously, the background, the results, the theories and everything concerning the main content would remain the same with slight modifications, but I think the restructuring of the content and even a completely rewritten introduction would be necessary.

So my question is:

How much modification is acceptable after a moderate/major revision and after the decision of rejected with the chance of resubmission?


texts: Is it common to ask for reference letters from members of the MSc thesis committee when applying for PhD/Scholarships?

texts:
In case it varies between countries, by thesis committee I mean 2-4 professors who examine you on your MSc research after you submit your thesis, so except for your advisor, they are usually not familiar with your work prior to submission. Some of them might belong to other universities/departments and not be familiar with the student at all.

I am wondering whether such letters would be valuable. On the one hand, I feel they should be the next best thing after letters from people you've done research with, but on the other hand such letters can only refer to the quality of the outcome of your research and not your character.

What about letters from professors who have read your papers/thesis but haven't met you in person and thus haven't held a conversation regarding your research with you?


texts:
I have already submitted my Ph.D. thesis to my committee and plan to defend my thesis. I want to prepare an updated CV.

In my situation, what should I write in the CV:

  Ph.D. candidate

or just

  Ph.D


texts: How disrupting is the use of blockchain for university resources?

texts:
I came across an interesting concept. The use of blockchain technology to validate academic (and other) achievements. I could find that allegedly the office of the registrar's at Stanford is invested in this.
However, to gauge the potential, one would need to find out how many human resources are invested in performing the services that blockchain is supposed to automatize. It was suggested by some authors that cost could be cut here; but how large ist this effect really?

For large and prestigeous universities, how many employees are busy all day long confirming to companies or other universities whether a student's transcript is actually legit?

I cannot imagine this to be any more than a handful of people?


texts:
I've been thinking how I proctor and design exams, and I suspect (from things I hear) that there is much more cheating than I find evidence of.  What are the most common ways university students cheat, say in a large lecture math or science class?  For instance, some possible ways are:

looking at other students exams
sneaking in a cheat sheet
using a phone/prohibited device in class
getting help on a bathroom break
having someone else take the exam for you
getting a copy of the exam in advance
modifying an exam after grading and asking for points back

But I don't know if any of these happen often enough that I should do more than I currently do.

Ideally, I'd like an answer with data from some studies on cheating, but I'd welcome extensive ancedotal evidence as well.


texts: I am a first year graduate student in Physics at a US university. I am on a TAship as usual. For the summer 2016, I have just working for a professor. But I have not liked the project at all and the group environment as well. So I have decided NOT to continue working for the professor. Should I inform it to the professor as soon as possible or, should I wait until the summer ends? And also I would like to know how I should say that and whether there are any 'side-effects' of that or not.


texts: Publishing referee reports I have written - Yes or No and How?

texts:
I remember reading somewhere about someone who started publishing referee reports they had written online, along with sending them to the journal (or after). Unfortunately I do not remember where I saw this and can't seem to find it now.

I see strong arguments for this practice.

A lot of time and effort is spent on report writing, so why not list them.
Transparency for its own sake.
Transparency for the sake of increasing quality.

Obviously there are issues:

Copy right or other legal issues with journals prohibiting the publication of reports [has to be taken up with the editor]
If the paper itself is not published, publishing the report might be harmful to the authors [one could wait until the final version of the paper is published]

My question: Is this already common practice somewhere and do repositories exist where one can upload reports? Are there other strong counterarguments I am missing?


texts: How long should I wait before accepting a PhD admission offer in the US?

texts:
I have been offered admission in a top-25 university, and a RA position in a lab that works on my area of interest. I am pretty happy with this offer and I would feel comfortable accepting it. However, I still have not heard back from some top-10 institutions.

I am concerned that the professor might feel upset if I take too long to answer the offer. What should I do?

I should mention that I am an international student applying to Engineering PhD's.


texts: Is it considered unusual in the United States for a professor to run a class outside on the grass?

texts:
An American professor lectured in our university about American higher education. He mentioned that the university environment is not limited to formal education (what is the case in Europe more or less). A university courtyard is like a park and students are always hanging around.

He also mentioned that it is not unusual for a professor to gather students and sit on the grass outside and run a class. This is something that I have never seen in Europe (at least Hungary where I study).

Most universities I have seen (including new campuses built by EU funding) are just buildings, because people believe yards are waste of money. Things happens in buildings. In these universities, students go to the class, and after that, they quickly leave the university.


texts: I am applying for graduate school and one of the professors that I am considering to write my letter is an alumni from the school that I am to. Would this letter carry more weight?


texts: Corresponding author published article without sending final proof to all authors, corrigendum

texts:
My professor was the corresponding author of an article written by me as first author and one second co-author. Having the correspondence with the editor, the professor didn't give much information about the actual status of the article, allthough I asked several times for it.

Some months later, I got the notice that the article is now published. I never got a final proof of the article from the professor/ corresponding author and when I read through the published version, I was in huge shock as I noticed some formatting issues. However, the worst and most severe thing is, that one sentence was "corrected", stating the contrary of what it was supposed to mean. Obviously there is now a mistake in the article. This mistake doesn't affect the measurements results, but it is contradictful within the overall statement of the article.

I asked my professor about writing an erratum concerning this issue. The answer was, that he assumes this sentence not to be noticed and therefore, an erratum would be too much effort. I am feeling really bad being the first author of this paper, where I know about the mistake. Do you think I can ask the journal for an erratum without the consens of my professor?

Furthermore, I want to publish one more article of the work I have done, but the professor still claims the corresponding authorship. As my professor answers my emails only within months and as I don't have much trust in his actions anymore, I really don't know what to do. Does anybody have experience with such a situation?

--

EDIT: thank you for your answers, they are very helpful to me. The paper is a non-open access paper and already published in a printed issue of the journal. Furthermore, it is about a subject what I am not researching anymore, so there are no follow-up papers planned in the same journal.

I think my corresponding author will not be amused when I am writing the publisher as he already refused a corrigendum. You see this is a really tricky situation. What about writing a comment to the paper? I already saw remarks from third researchers concerning existing papers...maybe that could be a solution?


texts: What can I do when a TA asks me to marry her so that she can obtain a green card?

texts:
This pertains to an American university graduate program.

A TA recently surprised me with a proposition to marry her (we've neither dated nor hooked up), so that she could obtain a green card to stay in the United States -- she wants to leave the STEM fields and go into the creative / artsy stuff (eg, dreams of having a creative career in Los Angeles), which means she likely won't earn a work visa to stay in the US.

She essentially offered a blank check from her family, so long as the amount is less than the investment green card amount of 500k dollars (something that I did not know even existed).

My question is: putting aside legal, personal and ethical questions, what are the academic implications of this situation? At what point could I get into trouble with the university; from having such discussions with her or later, if I actually did something?  Could I be dismissed from the university or have my degree revoked later on?  What about implications regarding any funding that I might have from the university or from the government (eg, grants, loans)?

Edit:  Thanks to those offering marriage strategies and interpretations of the law, but I had hoped to stay on-topic and focus on the academic implications.  Currently, I am reduced to voting for an on-topic answer that I have some qualms about, since, as mentioned in Dan Romik's comments, the answerer focuses on reporting harassment, when I have not been harassed at all.  Perhaps the community can vote to reopen the question to allow for more, on-topic answers.


texts: Research-methodology book in the form of a dialogue between professor and student

texts: I am looking for a research-methodology book, which is in the form of a dialogue between a professor and a student. Once I had this book and it is very helpful. Unfortunately, I lost it and do not remember its title, either. Does somebody know the name of this book?


texts: What is the difference between doing a PhD in a small university versus a big reputed university in Germany?

texts:
Take for example Brandenberg University of Technology versus Technical University of Darmstadt.

Does the size of a university play any role in someone's PhD research experience in Germany?

What would be the impact on someone's post-PhD career if he chooses the smaller one versus the bigger one?


texts: Is it commonplace for students to feel anxious about graduation?

texts:
So, I am but a semester away from graduating from college as a Computer Programmer in Canada. All is well in the grades department - I've completed all assigned work and maintained a ~4.0 GPA throughout the course of my studies. However, I still feel anxious and have a sense that I'm entering the workforce without the base skill-set requisite for success.

Is it commonplace for students to feel lost and/or potentially inadequate prior to graduation? Are these types of thoughts and feelings common among new graduates?


texts: Applying for masters again, will the application be evaluated on the basis of undergraduate/Bachelors or the most recent postgraduate grades

texts: Applying for masters but have a previous uncompleted masters on my profile. Will that grades from that masters be factored in when the admission committee evaluates my application. What if i have very good GPA is Bachelors, but got bad grades in Masters due to some circumstances.


texts: Should I get a CS PhD if I'm only interested in industry research?

texts:
I'm currently working on a masters in CS and working at a university as research faculty (my title is 'research engineer'). I'm in the branch that does mostly contract work with the government or private industry, so not academic research.

My employer offers an attractive proposition for getting a PhD. I would keep my current position and salary in exchange for doing a project relevant to the division. They also provide a year of PTO to work full-time on the dissertation and time during the day to go to class. My work is mainly robotics software so I think it would be feasible to find a sufficiently related topic of research. As a university employee I get an indefinite tuition waiver so I would not need to do any teaching or research outside of my normal work.

My goal for the PhD would be to work in industry research, along the lines of Waymo, OpenAI, along with lower-tier companies. My impression is that there are many more of these jobs than academic positions, so I have I more reasonable chance of success.

Given the appealing financial circumstances, is getting a PhD an obvious choice? Should I just finish with the MS and try to get industry research jobs right away? Is my impression of the state of industry research correct?


texts: Should I worry that my advisor will get sick of being a professor and move to industry?

texts: My advisor is a first year professor (in CS) and he seems really busy and stressed all the time.  Before becoming a professor, he was in industry, where he probably had to do a lot less work and could spend more time with his family.  Should I worry that he'll move back to industry in a year or two because he's decided being a professor is not for him?


texts: Hours worked in research vs teaching professorships

texts:
Are there any studies that have compared the number of hours worked by faculty members who are teaching-focused vs. those at research intensive institutions?

I have the impression that faculty that balance teaching and research tend to work longer hours and on weekends more than faculty who do not have any research obligations. I don't know where I picked this idea up and I'm suspicious that it is biased and based more on opinion than fact.

Any studies/surveys out there to support / refute this idea?

I'm interested mainly in science departments in the USA.


texts:
There is this position advertised and among its requirements is an exposé of the research the applicant wants to undertake during the fellowship. But it doesn't say anything about the size of the exposé. Is there a usual size for an exposé? And should I think of expose as exactly the same as research proposal?

This is in the humanities.


texts:
I am in the UK and I completed an undergraduate dissertation.
In my dissertation I went much higher than my level. All the content in my dissertation was at a masters level and everything was self-taught.
However I sort of came undone in my viva, where I was told I kept jumping into stuff.

I was wondering, when writing an undergraduate of a masters dissertation, is it better to go above and beyond your level and be ambitious or make sure the document is written very well and stay at the level you are currently at?


texts: Developing a subset of hypotheses based on anecdotal observations

texts:
I am wondering what the opinion is on how to go about this.
I have an area I want to investigate through a number of testable hypothesis. In the course of an introduction, I introduce the background for each question, laying the foundation for why I am testing this particular thing, but also this serves to explain why I think it may be observed and why I have directed my hypothesis in the way I have.
For example, in the paragraph section of my introduction (ignore the phrasing, just trying to get my point across):

The positive relationship between X on Y has been shown in some
previous work (Smith et al 2050, Jones and Jones 2060). We intend to
test this response at a landscape-scale to test if such an effect is
predictable and observable when scaled-up.
In summary, I intend to test the following hypotheses:

X will positively respond to Y
X will produce more Z when Y is lower

How do I introduce Z if there is no background literature on this. For instance, if someone with a lot of hands-on experience in this field but no scientific background has observed this in the field and I wish to test it in a controlled experiment. Is it best to not even list it as a hypothesis and instead raise it as a novel result later in the study?


texts:
I recently took an exam, and our professor told us that we should submit our question sheets since 2 other students in our class are going to take a make-up exam. We were also told that we were not allowed to talk about our exam while the other 2 are around. I presume this means that their exams are going to be identical to ours (For the sake of argument, let us assume that this is the case, and it is not in fact a strategy or something of our professor).

Our class is on weekdays (MWF for 1 section and TTh for another), but we had our exam on Saturday afternoon. Since we all have class on Saturday morning, it is okay to have an exam on Saturday afternoon since we would already be on campus. Apparently those doing the make-up exam have conflicts with their plans for Saturday afternoon which the professor accepts.

Essentially, we can't tell them the contents of the exam. Our professor claims that this is so as to not compromise the integrity of the exam.

So here's my first question:

Is it fair to the students taking the exam earlier that the make-up exams are identical to the original?

We are grad students of mathematical finance.

Expansion:

It seems to me that the fact that it is too easy for the two others to find out the exam questions should be reason enough for our professor to give a different and possibly even harder exam and that doing otherwise is in itself compromising the integrity of the exam.

If it's not compromising the integrity of the exam, why not just have the same exam every year and collect the question sheet from students (which, cmiiw, actually doesn't really do anything since we can just copy the questions on a bond paper and bring the bond paper home)?

See possibly related question.

Second question:

I seem to recall that department policy is that make-up exams are "generally" (exact word in undergrad syllabuses but not in our grad syllabuses which makes no mention of such) more difficult. If the answer to the first question above is yes, then does it follow that the "generally" should be removed?

P.S. I truly cannot imagine how difficult it must be to a mathematician: research, teaching, consultation, conferences, etc. Thus, I am aware that it is no easy task for a teacher to just come up with a make-up exam, but nevertheless for the sake of maintaining the integrity (maintain is not compromise?) of exams, I believe this should be done.


texts: How to deal with students who lose their digital work?

texts:
In my courses, students work on large, on-going projects, but submit some parts each week, showing their progress. All of the work is done on a computer or table.

Mid-semester, I always get reports from students of technical failures, e.g.:

Deleted entire project folder.
Reformatted hard drive or upgraded system without backup.
Sent computer to be repaired, cannot work on project until it returns.
USB not unmounted, files broken.
Device containing project folder lost or stolen.

I want to create a policy which is not so harsh as to turn all of these students away. At the same time, I worry if I am a little lenient, students will start claiming problems every time they forget to do their homework. What is a good policy that is not too harsh, recognizing that technical problems do happen, yet which cannot be too easily abused?


texts: Whether to quit PhD in psychology: overbearing post-doc, lack of passion for topic, not wanting to enter academia, lack of statistical support

texts:
I'm over half way into my PhD in psychology and neuroscience in the UK. I think that leaving the programme is the best decision but I'm unsure whether my reasons are good enough. I have gained some valuable experience: computer programming, applying basic mathematics, addressing software and hardware issues etc.

I approached my supervisor and the director of research 4 months ago about quitting and I was encouraged to continue, but these 4 big issues with the project have persisted, which are sufficient to make me think quitting the programme is the right decision:

1) Before starting, I was not aware how involved the post-doc would be in my project, who is overbearing and has been very difficult to work with from the very beginning. The post-doc is more concerned about being right and getting his own way than being helpful. This hinders my progress because I have to wrestle with what their idea of what my PhD should be. If I had known this, I would not have applied for this PhD. However, I think it's too late to point out this problem and my supervisor would probably think I'm using it as a scapegoat for my own problems.  For now, I'm treating it as a 'training exercise' because you can never choose your colleagues in the real world - but this is a bad reason for staying on with a PhD.

2) My passion for the subject is gone and I have no intention of carrying on in academia afterwards. I don't think my PhD has a use in the real world, so I will definitely be applying for jobs in in the real world. However, if I quit prospective employers will think I'm 'a quitter' and will be put off employing me, but carrying on comes at the expense of experience in the real world, which I think is more valuable.

3) I have found the PhD experience very alienating and I find what I do for a living embarrassing. I'm reluctant to talk to new people because what you do for a living inevitably comes up and I like to avoid talking about it.

4) There is a some mathematics that I have to teach myself (I'm ok with this in principle), with no support from the department, leading to uncertainty as to whether I'm doing it right or whether I'm qualified enough for my position. This combined with reason 1 is slowing down my progress and I'm afraid I won't get enough done and fail the programme.

Do these reasons seem sufficient or should I bite the bullet and carry on?

Thanks.


texts: What are the restrictions placed by copyright laws on reuse of figures in dissertation defense?

texts:
In some sense this question follows the question: Is it necessary to obtain permissions for copying figures from published articles in your proposal/dissertation?

Following F'x's advice and my own university's very stringent requirements, I have applied for permissions for reuse of figures in my dissertation. I plan to drop the figures, the permission for reuse of which has not been provided freely by the respective holder.

I hadn't given this much thought before, but what permissions are necessary for reuse of figures in a dissertation defense? I mean the powerpoint presentation slides. Of course, clear and prominent attribution is the minimum requirement, but is there a clear law on this? It's become reasonably convenient to obtain permissions from US publishers (copyright.com), but what if the publisher in question is based in Europe?


texts: Advisor walked in while I was complaining about her; How can I minimize the damage to our relationship?

texts:
I work in a lab. This evening, thinking that my advisor had already left for the day, I started telling my peers in the lab that she has a bad attitude about a few things, and she was showing off a lot about her work last summer. Out of nowhere, she walked into the lab and was visibly upset, and I feared that she had heard what I said.

I just finished my masters and had asked my advisor about pursuing a Ph.D. She kind of gave an OK and I am supposed to meet with her tomorrow morning to discuss about it.  Although our relationship has been on and off at times, I feel bad because she helped me a lot in past and now she will feel I am an ungrateful jerk.

What will be the best way to approach this issue so that I can minimize the damage to our relationship?


texts: How to express an ongoing PhD degree in suffix

texts: Is it correct to express PhD in brackets "(PhD)" as suffix to express the ongoing degree?


texts:
I'm a master student at a university in Korea and going to graduate next June. By now, I think about doing PhD and have to make a decision on "stay" or "leave".
Stay:

My professor is very nice and quite well known in my university. The
working conditions are good, PC, seats, no time restriction... (but everyone working like crazy).

The professor really nice to me (actually us - foreign student), I was found a good scholarship  for the master course ($1300/month) while
the    average is $700-600.

I don't have to make much effort on searching for a PhD position (don't need to take English test like IELTS, toefl) and the salary is good in comparison with other universities in Korea.

It's not really face to face talking but I agree with my professor to continue PhD there before I go to the graduate university. (Which I
am most afraid of).

My background is not good since we focus on publishing only very narrow field. I'm not very good at programming C/C++ as well, I use Matlab all the time.

Leaves:

I'm not quite sure about another place but in my University, they focus on
research not the graduate course. My background is quite weak.

My professor is very very busy and not really good in my current topic.
Almost every member in my team have to find their own way (follow the topic of their project).

I feel like this environment is not very good for the PhD. The communication between Professor and student is like a one way communication. We obey what ever we are told. Not really two way communication or discussions.

I'm 25, single, and want to do something.

Should I continue my PhD on the current Lab or looking for PhD position in some where else?
Ps: I'm looking for PhD position which related to signal processing and Compressive sensing. My current's topic is image/video compressive sensing.
Updates.
Mar. 2014: Thank for your advice, I decided to stay for my PhD but more for my personal issue. For my current PhD it is little disappointed.

my support is lower than what I discussed with the professor before starting PhD. We agreed on $1000 but later paid me $800/month due to lab situation (the other PhD salary is still the same $1000 or higher). After asking  many times, I now have to do an internship 1 day/week as an solution with $250 salary more.
The professor is very busy, even for checking my conference paper before sending.

Jul. 2015 Now I'm a little doubtful what to do.

The professor has no time for us and even for my journal paper
One PhD student left without a word

Advice for someone considering study in Korea: Master is enough, go somewhere else for PhD!


texts:
I am half way through the first year of my PhD (physics) and I find myself faced with the following problem related to research discipline and learning new techniques while doing a PhD. The problem is probably specific to my personality, but I am hoping that some people can relate and provide their experiences/advice.

Essentially I find it hard to actually learn anything new, especially when it comes to techniques. Let me clarify by describing how I read a paper

When reading a paper I usually read just enough to 'understand' it on a functional level. I.e. afterwards I know: a) What has been done b) How it fits with some other things I know c) If it is useful for the research my group is doing and the projects I am working on. When c) applies I read 'in more detail'. That usually just involves following the derivations on a functional level. I.e. afterwards I would know a), b), c) for every part of the derivation.

The problem is that I don't actually learn any techniques this way. I could not sit down and do what has been done in the paper, even though I could tell you exactly what has been done in the paper and (for the ones I read in detail) how it has been done.

That isn't too bad if you want to come up with new research ideas, I even found that you can solve some problems this way, but you can't actually write the solution down. The latter unfortunately is very necessary if you want to write a paper.

I have a similar problem with textbooks that I was going to describe here, but for the sake of brevity1 I will spare you the details.

To me the situation is a bit worrisome, especially because that did not happen to me during my undergraduate. When doing supervision work and exercises I always felt like at the end I understood things on a level where I could do them again. When people asked me questions about it I could not only tell them how to do the question in principle, but also point out technically details that you encounter along the way. I am worried that I will never reach such a level of understanding in any new areas the way I am approaching it at the moment.

I suspect that one of my problems is that I have become really impatient somewhere in between feeling the pressure of trying to produce valuable research and trying to learn things as quickly as possible. This creates the feeling that I am unable to 'sit down' and 'actually do something' 2 .

So, reading my question above again I don't feel like I have pinned the point down very well at all, but this is my 3rd try, so I'll go with it and see if people have some advice. The title question is going to be: How to deal with impatience when starting off in research?

 1 Really not an appropriate description of this question anymore...

 2 Don't get me wrong, I am not procrastinating. I am doing a lot of work and I also enjoy the work very much. It is just not very effective and when I think after each day what I have achieved, there is a lingering fear that I just wasted a lot of time.


texts: Are college students forbidden from sharing their grades with other students?

texts:
I am currently in an anatomy class and had an issue. I and three other students worked on an 18 page packet together. We had the same answers since we worked on it as a group.

However, two of us received a 35/50, one of us had a 50/50 and the other had a 30/50. When we asked the teacher why we got different grades, we were scolded for sharing grades with each other and told we were not allowed to.

I can't seem to find this anywhere in our welcome packet or any paperwork and I was wondering, are we really not allowed to tell other students our own grades?


texts:
While writing up my introduction for my transfer report (first year exam of the PhD in the UK) I want to give importance to the topic saying something like:

  It lead to huge research, being N amount of papers published between
  2005-2015 in high-end publications.

I will look at this in Nature database. Should I add a bibliography to this? In the affirmative case, what format should the bibliography item have? In the negative case, I shouldn't add a bibliography, but is it OK to put an statement like this one in a report/thesis?

I am using bibtex but just the output format will do.


texts: Do newly hired professors have to take a drug test before they start?

texts: In U.S., Canadian and European universities do new professors have to pass a drug test before starting their career?  Or is it only required when they are promoted to full-time tenure professors?


texts: Do the authors have to cite or make comparisons against works on domains such as arXiv?

texts:
I'm reviewing a conference manuscript (computer science) and i found 2 other recent methods related to the same problem which were published on arXiv.
So, i think it is highly recommended to compare their method to those ones. The arXiv papers also claimed to beat the state-of-the-art, but on different datasets, so one cannot compare them based on the reported numerical results.

So, should/could i say that it is a weak point that the authors have not included/used those recent relevant works in their introduction or evaluation basis?
Or they do not have such an obligation as those papers have not been yet published in any proceedings?


texts: Should I contact the EIC for additional information regarding his decision on my paper?

texts:
I just received the feedback from the Editor-In-Chief that my paper has been rejected for publication in this high-ranking journal.

  There are several concerns raised by one of the reviewers. Therefore, it would not be possible to accept this paper for publication.

Based on the reviewers' comments, two of them seem to be in favor, as they raise no "substantial" concerns (they raise 5 and 4 points, respectively), i.e. their findings are mostly of a cosmetic nature (rephrase that, elaborate this, color the figures differently, correct a spelling mistake), and their recapitulation of the work is more precise than that of the third reviewer.

Now the third reviewer raises 6 points of concern. 4 of them are very valid remarks, however, they are not fundamental problems, at least, I don't perceive them as such, because they are easily amended (by at most 2 sentences each) and present no conceptual fallacies, i.e. as I see it, the particular parts are not clear to the reader and need additional explanations and more appropriate emphasis. The fifth concern addresses the structure of the paper, the reviewer proposes another ordering of the sections. The final point states the need for a discussion, which I indeed drafted, but chose not to include in the paper. It is not irrelevant, but it is not crucial for the problem, solution or background and could possibly distract the reader from the focus of the paper. In addition to space constrictions, this discussion was left out before submission.

Between submission and the decision, there was a change of the Editor-In-Chief at the journal. This might be the reason the review took longer than usual (10 instead of 6 weeks). Perhaps that could even influence the accepting policies...

After the first review, I'm used to getting rather harsh comments, either rejecting the paper or proposing another review cycle, it doesn't matter. The important part is usually that I get meaningful feedback about my paper and improve it. In this case, however, the reviewers' comments resemble something I would expect after the second or third review cycle, i.e. something that I can alleviate in a morning.

The problem is that I don't understand the reason for rejection. Even when I address all the reviewers' suggestions, I would still feel that nothing crucial has changed. Furthermore, when rejected, I can't submit the same paper to the same journal. I obviously intend to submit the paper to another journal. However, before doing so, I consider emailing the Editor-In-Chief and asking for more information regarding his decision. As things are now, the reviewers' comments state neither fundamental fallacies which imply that the paper is of low scientific value nor point how I could realistically improve on it. Is this a good idea?


texts: Why is it recommended to do a post-doc outside of the group you did your PhD in?

texts:
If it's possible to do a post-doc in the group you did your PhD in, which I assume should not be too hard if you have a good relationship with your advisor, why do researchers often choose to do postdocs at other departments?

If one does a post-doc at another lab, one has to face the cost of adjusting to a new environments and labmates and take the risk of working with an advisor he/she doesn't have good chemistry with. These costs are further augmented in light of how short a post-doc normally is.


texts:
I am writing an article for a peer reviewed journal in the field of literature, and I am wondering about the use of colloquial expressions like: "Let's take a step back", or "Let's look at the data", "Let's look at the coxtext" etc.
Would you suggest avoid these forms? Could you maybe suggest me a subsitute formula to express the same idea?


texts: I'm confused and frustrated by my postdoc mentor's stubbornness and not caring for my future at all. What should I do?

texts:
Background: I did PhD in pure math, then postdoc in medical imaging for 2 years. Because of funding running out, I started a postdoc in France in mesh processing since last 6 months. I'm somewhat proficient in Matlab, which is the only language I'm comfortable in so far. I want to work in R&D of the image processing/computer vision industry.

Facts:
1) It takes a solid 75 minutes each way from my house to my university, and initially we agreed on my showing up 3 times a week. However, sometimes I feel and am way more productive working from home. I tried to discuss this multiple times with my mentor, but he wouldn't listen: he says I've to come 3 times, since other team members might need me, which is NEVER the case, me being in my first year of mesh processing, even the PhD students probably know part of the subject better and I've never been asked a question.

2) My postdoc advisor knows from me that I'm looking for the above type of jobs in industry. Now, for industry purposes, I want to (and indeed started to) learn NumPy and Scikit-learn to perform machine learning. However, he's not familiar with these libraries, and wants me to look at a certain Matlab package he sent me to perform ML, and got offended because I didn't yet. Now, from talking to industry people in imaging/vision, I know Matlab is rarely used compared to Python. I tried to discuss this so that I could use Python to solve his problems, and being better it at the same time. He said "Learn Python on your own time. Since you're not very strong in coding, I can't give you couple of weeks to learn a new language".

3) My postdoc mentor has a specialty in mesh processing in computer graphics, and most of his papers are about mesh geometry. I get the feeling that he doesn't know machine learning(ML) very well. Now, for my future, and also for our project that involves ML, I want to learn certain algorithms from the scratch, so that it serves me the dual purpose of solving his problems and also strengthens my ML knowledge. He, on the other hand, wants to get fast results, and just wants me to use the above matlab package he sent me, because that's what HE is more comfortable in.

4) My postdoc is initially for a year only. So basically, I've to either find a job by the end, or get results so that I can renew my postdoc. I did give him some partial results in the first 6 months that didn't involve ML. Now, learning more ML (I know some ML) is taking time, and he's angry about it, accusing me of not progressing fast enough.  So in essence I want to learn the ML algorithms I use from the scratch, but it's not HIS interest, so he'd not just support that. He also said he'd not renew my funding if I don't give him significantly more result.

My mentor has a permanent position, where I don't. I thought postdoc mentors should somehow look after their mentees, but I feel he really doesn't care. Also his stubbornness of making me doing things his way really makes me helpless, and frustrated about my own future. He imposes his stubbornness, since he's not very good in Python, and that he doesn't know ML from scratch.

I've tried to discuss these issues in person, but he literally blew me off. I'm confused what to do. I invite your opinion.


texts: Is choosing to study algebra during a math PhD riskier than studying analysis?

texts:
I've noticed that some algebra / number theory / geometry students seem to come to a dead-end in mathematics and tell me, "yea, no more math for me, no way, can't wait to be done with it", while the ones who specialized in analysis and PDEs, who don't have a future in analysis or PDE theory, seem to fall back nicely on theoretical CS, data science, machine learning, optimization, and other numerics-type of mathematics.

Is focusing on algebra during one's math PhD significantly riskier and generally not advisable?

Thanks,


texts: Not getting along with Spanish professor. Professor is condescending, and picks favorites. I feel I have enough evidence to do something

texts:
I am in a Spanish Translation class at a good public university.

Background: I am a white male and a Spanish/Chemistry double major. I plan to pursue a PhD in Chemistry or teach at the high school level, and Spanish is pure enjoyment. I am engaged in this class. I do every single reading, and try really hard to participate. I do not give her any "sass" (and if I did, that still doesn't justify taking points off in direct contradiction of her assigned readings). I have asked her already how to be more polite, and she tells me I am fine.

Early in the class, there were some strange vibes. Since then, there have been numerous instances, so for brevity I will only mention the ones that stick out most.

1: She marks me off two points for using the word "Filipina" in a journalism translation, claiming it's not an english word. I find it in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as well as in hundreds of New York Times (reliable english journalism source). She awards me only one of two points back for this, and when I question it she says it is "non-negotiable."

2: One day, she asks our opinion about a "translation tidbit". I said I liked it and thought it was poetic, and she proceeds to laugh out loud assuming I'm joking. She then says in an incredibly exaggerated and melodramatic way "I admire your courage for speaking up in class but that is incorrect." Some awkward silence passes and she says, again loudly to the whole class, "Are you embarrassed?" in an incredibly condescending manner.

3: On a quiz, I translated the phrase "Diagnosticar un niño es separar la familia" or something similar as "To diagnose a child is to separate the family." She marks me off two points, claiming she "wanted the gerund" and cited certain textbook pages. On these same pages, the book clearly reads "the infinitive in Spanish can be translated as the gerund or as the infinitive in english." I present her with this direct evidence and again she says "I wanted the gerund. Non-negotiable."

4: During our most recent quiz, our task is to translate an idiom. She writes an idiom on the board, relating to January 6th which is apparently a holiday in the Spanish-speaking world. I very politely ask her for the meaning of this holiday, and she says condescendingly to the class "I would expect an advanced to student to know what this cultural day is. I can't just give you the answer." Several other students raise their hands and admit to not knowing the cultural reference. She then tells us what it is, and angrily says "You're welcome for the answer. Have a good spring break."

5: While reassuring one of her favorites about a missed assignment, she talks about the "class participation" part of our grade (10%). She openly says "this is where I can give my favorite students a little bit of a boost." She makes direct eye contact with me during this. That's what spurred me to write this.

Beyond these instances, other students have commented to me that they also notice her favoritism and hostility toward me. She has a general air of condescension toward everyone, but it's worse with me. I don't know what to do. I am giving my all, and objectively earning A's according to her rubrics. I have an A in the class right now, but I can just sense that she's going to screw me with this "Participation grade", which is not valid because I participate more than almost everyone else in class.

Is there anything I can do? I feel like I have decent evidence and can bring in a fellow classmate to vouch for me if need be. I have no doubts they would take my side.

Update: She gave me no feedback on my final paper draft and then proceed to make 80 edits to my revision, and then gave me a lower grade on the revision. I decided this lack of feedback was sufficient enough to go over her head.


texts: How to cite a work in a manuscript that is under review?

texts:
I have two manuscripts that I am ready to submit in two different journals.

In the first manuscript, I have developed two models to be used for my research. Both of them are new and are an upgrade to the currently used models.

In the second manuscript, I have used one of the models developed in the first manuscript and have carried out an elaborate study. However, I am unsure on how to cite the first manuscript in the second.

Can I cite a submitted manuscript as "under review" in another manuscript? What's the correct procedure for citing under review works?


texts: How often do authors actually perform and publish the work they indicate as the future work they plan to undertake in a publication?

texts:
Quite often authors indicate that they will carry out some more work to complete /extend the project in the future work / discussion section.

E.g.:

  We need to automatically create new entities; this is work in
  progress.

or:

  In the future, we plan to deploy more sophisticated copy detection
  mechanisms, such as those in [10].

I have a high respect for the paper I used as an example, but I have first-hand witnessed other authors who write strong commitments like "We will do X in a future work" without any intent to do so.

Hence my question: Is there any research/study/survey that looked at how often authors actually perform and publish the work they indicate as the future work they plan to undertake in a publication?

I am fully aware that some formulations seem to indicate a strong commitment, while some are more suggestive ("some ideas thrown in the air").


texts: Appropriate way to thank a professor towards the end of the semester

texts:
Let me first say that the I am a first semester student studying in North America coming from a very different cultural background, so I get confused as to what would be okay in not just college but also this part of the world. I am reaching towards to the of my first semester one of my professors has really inspired me and I would like to appreciate them. However I am confused if I should just write an email or give little handwritten card/note. Some questions that come to my mind are:

Should I give the note to the professor at the end of the last class (would my class mates judge me?) or give it during office hours?
I am performing really well in the professors class do I need to wait till the grades are in or is it okay to give it before that?
Is it okay to say “I hope I can take another class of yours in the future semesters”

My question might sound silly to ask this but I just don’t want to make the teacher uncomfortable especially since this is the first time for me in college and in such an environment.


texts: Are there any implications about review paper acceptance if the proposal has been accepted?

texts:
So I recently submitted a proposal to a prestigious review journal. To my excitement, the proposal was accepted, and the journal has invited us to write a full review. Now the official policy of the journal is that acceptance of the proposal doesn't guarantee acceptance of the manuscript.

My question, I suppose, is mostly regarding how happy I should be about my proposal being accepted. How often do review papers get rejected if the proposal to write them was accepted? Is there still a good chance that our review paper could be rejected? Or does that typically only happen when authors of accepted proposals deviate a lot from the paper that they proposed to write?

Thanks in advance


texts:
I'm in the awkward position where I have been giving a data set from a company strongly indicating that consumer fraud occurs in a certain business sector (insurance). The data permits me to identify the corporations conducting the fraud.

I come from a completely different scientific background than consumer law. Therefore, my questions regarding this matter:

Is an academic peer-reviewed journal even a suitable channel for this kind uncovering?
If published in an academic journal, will I be able to name the companies conducting the fraud?
What journals might be suitable for this?
Do any similar cases come to mind which I could study?

Thanks


texts: Are informal inquiries about postdoctoral positions liable to be perceived negatively?

texts:
I will graduate in 6-8 months with a PhD in physics and am looking to contact potential postdoc advisers. I will be applying to positions without an advertisement or prior contact with the potential advisers. I have been told by my current PhD adviser that if I wait until I just a few months before graduation, he will make the initial contact for me. I am conflicted because I understand many postdoc positions are planned and filled up to a year in advance.

I don't want to lose out on these positions, so I first want to make informal contact on my own. However, I don't want to jeopardize my chances of getting a position by sending out a poorly received informal email. I'm wondering specifically how informal emails are typically perceived in these situations. Are they liable to be perceived negatively by those professors expecting a more formal process?