texts: How long should a CV for Masters application be?

texts:
I am applying for a masters programme in the Netherlands and am required to submit the CV. All the previous CVs I have written had been for internship applications so normally they were one page long. Keeping them short was not difficult since I just had to exclude irrelevant academic experiences.
However, apart from grade transcript and english language certificates, CV is the only document required - No SOP and recommendation letter. Hence, it my only opportunity to present myself properly, but I know what is considered proper in this situation. I was thinking to include:

Internship experience (it's relevant)
Academic experiences (research assistant position, additional coursework, summer schools)
extracurricular activities (student organizations, competitions)

Should I:

a) Include all the above mentioned information and describe activities in detail, which probably means a 2-page CV

b) Include all the above mentioned information but try to write it in one page

c) Choose only the most relevant information and write it in one page

Thanks.


texts: How to choose between industry and academia after mediocre past work in both?

texts:
I feel like I am at dead end of my career, need some guidance to restart it. Here is my status:

Masters in Physics (2009)
Industry position (2009-2013)

In the industry position, I learnt machine learning for applications in biology. After four years of work experience, my career reached a saturation level since I was always at back-end due to field mismatch, even though I was excelling in my work, so I decided to pursue PhD in my own field, Physics, to give a boost to my career (not a wise choice I know). I was doing fine in my PhD and
   then my supervisor left the university for a better opportunity and I
   had to take up another project delaying my PhD by at least 2 years.
   During PhD, I have taken one year maternity break as well, followed
   by juggling between PhD work and baby. Now, somehow I have submitted
   a mediocre level thesis last month.

PhD in Physics (2013-present)

I am 34 years now, with no
   clarity on what I want to do in career and financially broke since my
   funding got over more than six months back. Neither I am good at
   machine learning, nor at my PhD work. I don't have any teaching
   experience as well to go to academia so I am not sure how will I
   perform there. Going for postdoc with a two year toddler and at this
   age also looks daunting. So I have no clue from where should I
   restart my career. My confidence is at all time low level.


texts: Scientific poster by an industry researcher: What do I put as contact information?

texts:
I am working at a consulting firm as a Data Scientist. I applied and was accepted to talk at a scientific conference. I am going to talk about a topic I worked on mostly during office hours and which has also been presented to customers by me.

At the conference there is going to be a poster session. I plan to put my company in the acknowledgments. What contact information should I put into "contact information" regarding a) my email address, b) the telephone number, and c) the address? My private, my company's? I lean towards private email and phone number and company's address. What do you think and why?


texts: What can I do if I have a massive personal problem with a future student?

texts:
I am a teaching assistant for undergraduate engineering classes. I will be in charge of running lab sessions, helping students, and assigning grades. I have an extreme and insurmountable personal problem with one of the students in one of my lab sections scheduled for next semester and am concerned with my ability to grade them fairly. I will be talking to the Professor of the course about the issue and would like to approach them with different options that would be beneficial for both myself and the student in question. Ultimately the question is:

What can I do if I have a massive personal problem with a student in one of my lab sections?

edit: the nature of the problem is that the student violently assaulted my girlfriend, I retroactively see why the nature of the problem is important to the answers for the question. Charges were filed and I stand by the seriousness of the accusation.


texts: Worries because I'm slow in understanding course materials and my mind goes blank in exams

texts:
I am undergraduate in Computer Science and my problem is that i don't quite understand what's wrong with me

When I am taking a course I am able to understand it but at much slower rate then other students which results in me taking 2 or 3 courses instead of 5 or 6 that i should be taking, also I have to go in deep details for every subject to be able to understand it and this is very time consuming because it requires alot of research.
I have also noticed that my fellow students are able to read much quicker and to understand what the Author is telling them, while I often need much longer just to read the page plus I have to read it couple of times to actually understand the Author and i often get it wrong (I often get wrong what the Author actually means i.e I often interpret it the wrong way) and I am like slower at everything writing, walking, thinking, solving
And the most devastating part is that after the exams I forget everything literally everything as if I never learned it, this is very demotivating especially knowing that in order to get my degree i have to demonstrate my knowledge from the past too.

Am I mentally retarded or just stupid (like IQ bellow 80 or something) has anyone had similar experience ?

Even if I make it will I have any chance in the workforce?


texts: Do graduate programs concentrated on complex analysis exist?

texts:
I’ve been searching for a graduate university program which would concentrate on complex analysis in several variables, but wasn’t very successful. A mathematician friend of mine told me that complex analysis is currently not developed very actively, and is kind of not "fashionable".

Is this true, and is there not so much to develop anymore? I know there are some open problems in Complex Analysis, but I'm concerned that there appears to be lack of interest in this field in academia in general. Are there specific good reasons for this lack of interest?


texts: What is the page limit for an open access review paper in IEEE or Elsevier?

texts:
I am writing a review paper in the field of engineering.

At the moment the paper is 20 pages and I am afraid that this goes up to 80 pages when it is finished.

I was thinking about making it open access. However, I am afraid to break the paper into several parts and pay the open access fee multiple times which I definitely could not afford.

Could anyone please advise how much is the page limit for an open access review paper in IEEE and Elsevier. If my paper is not publishable there, where else could be a valid and feasible journal for me?


texts: Why would the editor in chief add a new reviewer after the first round of revision?

texts:
I have a manuscript submitted in a journal, and there is a newly-added reviewer after the first round of revision, which is surprising for me. The three other reviewers remain the same in the second round (this round) and agree with acceptance of the manuscript.

I don't know what reason is behind adding a new reviewer. Any thoughts?


texts: Do PIs ever get outside help when writing grant applications?

texts:
PIs can have students assist with grant applications, but do they ever hire outside help?

I have heard of freelance grantwriters who work for non-profits outside of academia, does this ever happen inside academia? Do any types of universities or departments do this more often than others?

My interest is in biology research, but answers that extend into other fields may be helpful for other people who come across this question.

(A similar question)


texts: from reading previous posts it seems customary to directly contact a potential supervisor. Nevertheless, the school I'm applying seems to have a central admission comittee. Still, the professor in question encourages PhD candidates to contact him. Do i have less of a chance if i do not write him prior to the application and does he potentially expect some content other than explained here. Also, isnt it rude to directly address a professor with their first name at first contact?


texts: what to do when the acceptance deadline has passed with no notification from the reviewers?

texts: I submitted a paper for an Elsevier journal in which the acceptance deadline appears as the 5 of may. The problem is that when I enter into the author´s menu it appears that my paper is with the status Required Reviews Completed and it has been like that for more that one month. Does it mean my paper has already got rejected? what should I do in this case?


texts: How do I write a formal resignation letter to my toxic PI advisor

texts: After years of a toxic work environment, I finally decided to move forward in a different lab. However, I have to present an official resignation letter to my advisor (current PI), even when currently paid by a  TA position. Any advice on how to do this? I have no idea to make it sound professional and avoid further conflict. I plan to take a leave of absence until I can find another lab.


texts: Contacting a reference for verification as an editor

texts:
I am an assistant editor of a local health journal and recently an author submitted a paper on the psychometric property of a translated instrument.

I have requested for a proof of acknowledgement of the original developer allowing the translation, in which the authors were not able to find, citing the time lapse. Would it be fine if I email the owner myself and ask if this was true?

Thank you all.


texts: The advantages of Latin when studying mathematics and logic?

texts: I'm starting university soon and I'm going to major in math, and minor, at least, in philosophy. I'm also going to start a new language (I'm Finnish and I'm fluent in English), and the languages I've been thinking are Latin and French. I know that if you study a lot of philosophy, it's good to know Latin so that you can read the classics in their original language, but if I'm going to mostly focus in logic (and philosophy of language, but mostly logic), how much good does learning Latin do? Of course learning a new language is never a bad thing, but does knowing Latin help at all when studying mathematics and logic? In mathematics and logic I'd imagine there isn't that much that can be lost in translation.


texts: Re-apply the PhD program that I previously got offer and turned down

texts:
My situation is as follows:

I applied to PhD program A and B, and got offers from both.
However, the offer of A came too late which was after the deadline of decision for B. So I took offer B, and got the offer A one day after accepting B.
At that time I struggled a bit, and decided not to turned down B because I thought there were an ethical issue.
Now I am about to start the second year PhD at B, but I don't feel like this is the appropriate university to continue my study. So I am thinking about re-applying A and drop B.

My question is that in my case, is it possible to simply do a transfer from B to A and continue my PhD, instead of dropping B and re-applying A, or is there another way which is simpler than re-applying?

Also, do graduate programs allow one to apply PhD programs while studying one? These questions all depends, I guess, but I wonder if there are general cases.


texts: Do journal titles need to be included in a brief literature review in the introduction?

texts:
One of our thesis advisers insists (not suggests) that we include the title of the journal we are citing in the introduction, one part of which is a paragraph containing some of the reviews we will be expounding more on the next chapter.

So far, almost all the studies I’ve seen only use in-line citation in their literature review. Our adviser made it seem that it is a wrong practice to do this without mentioning the title. I don’t think it is, based from what I’m usually reading and I think it’s good because it reduces the length of the paper (especially when the cited titles are loooong). Also, the title of the cited works are included in the bibliography section anyway.

Our other thesis adviser neither supports him nor discourage us from following him in this matter. (There are other times though that this happens.)

I want to do the in-line citation, but I know he’ll insist that again. If I reasoned out, he won’t listen to me (based from previous attempts).

In our university, our advisers are there just to guide us and not to grade our thesis. (But their direction in making our thesis will definitely affect our grade, of course.)

What should I do?


texts:
I've been a PhD student in a STEM field for less than year now. Before embarking on this journey, I was pondering between electrical engineering and computer science for my MSc studies, which I completed before starting a PhD (It was possible to branch from BSc to either field). However, even after completing a MSc degree and working on a PhD in electrical engineering, I still find myself intrigued by the field of computer science.

Would I be spreading myself too thin / hindering my PhD project severely if i started working on a master's degree (2 years) in computer science as a free-time hobby during my PhD studies? I have already completed some coursework related to the degree and there is some synergy between the fields.

I have a strong feeling that studies in computer science would be valuable in my future career. On the other hand, I do not know if I will have to increase my working hours on the PhD project at some point to the extent that I don't have sufficient "free-time".

I would like to hear if you have had similar experiences/plans and what did you do. thanks for reading!


texts: Were the duration of Bachelor's, Master's and PhD degrees different in the U.S. 100 years ago?

texts: Given that there were much less to learn 100 years ago, was the duration of degrees shorter then than it is now?


texts: Should a student be penalized for using a theorem outside of the curriculum?

texts:
I am taking an abstract algebra course and I am really interested about the topic.  So much so that I spend most of my time reading supplementary materials.  I consequently know a lot more theorems than the ones covered in class.

In a recent quiz, I used a theorem in one of my proofs that was not mentioned in the lecture since.  My professor gave me partial marks for my answer for the reason that we didn't cover this theorem in class even though the proof was completely valid!  I can't really see where he is coming from.  How would someone be able to use a theorem correctly if he doesn't know its proof?  I was quite baffled by his comment.

Do you agree with this?

EDIT: The professor just Emailed me and said that after thinking for a while, he decided to award me the full mark for the question. He also mentioned that he didn't want discourage me from studying the subject (since he saw most of my previous quiz grades were full marks) and I was passionate about it, but kindly requested that I include any proof for a theorem that I cite from now on in his exams. He also sent a broadcast message to the whole class indicating this.


texts: Mathematics Ph.D program foreign language requirement

texts: I will soon be attending a Ph.D program in mathematics. I do not know how common this practice is, but the department has a requirement that graduate students must learn a foreign language and be able to read and write mathematics in that language. The three choices are French, German, or Russian. I personally have no preference on which to learn, but I was wondering if there were other reasons that would make one language more advantageous over the others in terms of a general mathematical career. Thanks in advance in any response.


texts: Web of Science advanced search returns papers not matching the search criteria

texts:
I am running  an advanced search in WoS but the results don't correspond to my search query, I am getting way too many unrelated the results.

I'm searching in the "Topic" field which includes abstract, title, keywords, and keywords plus. My search is similar to this, the following is just an example but I have multiple AND blocks and then multiple OR within each block:

  (apple OR orange OR "banana split") AND ( calories OR protein* ) AND
  (adult OR baby)

But some of the results only contain keywords from one or two of the AND blocks, instead they should contain at least one keyboard for each block. I have tried both the advanced search and the regular search using the "add row" option.

I have also tried the same same on Scopus and it leads to 10x less results.

Am I missing something? Why the results are not what is expected?

EDIT: these are my search words

(Digestibility OR “energy content” OR “Nutritive value” OR “forage quality” OR “nutritional value“ OR “energy intake”)

AND

(flower* OR leaf OR leaves OR litter OR branch OR branches OR twigs OR stem OR stems OR seeds OR seed OR fruit OR fruits)

AND

(“herbivor*” OR “ungulate*” OR “mammals” OR “grazer*” OR “browser*” OR "mix-feeder*” OR “livestock” OR “domestic animals” OR “captive animals”)


texts: Whose responsibility to detect plagiarism during peer review: editor or referee?

texts:
Around a month ago, I was requested to review a paper submitted to a well-known APS journal. The main idea introduced in the paper was nice and the experimental implementation had fairly good results. I therefore sent my approval with some minor revisions.

Last week, I was shocked to find (through a poster presented at an international conference) that the idea in the work I refereed had been blatantly plagiarized from another work published earlier this year. In fact, a few sentences had even been simply copy-pasted.

In the course of reviewing, I had checked all the references in the paper and not surprisingly, the original work had not been cited.

I immediately sent a correspondence via the APS referee interface to revert my earlier decision and reject the paper outrightly. The editor later sent me a detailed reply saying that the paper has been rejected by the journal and the authors have been made aware of the original work.

But anyhow, the question I wish to raise here is: whose responsibility should it be to find out if a work submitted for publication is an act of plagiarism ?

While I feel both referees and editors must work on this aspect, I think the primary onus should be on the editors/publishing team. They have far more resources to investigate plagiarism. Furthermore, in contrast to editors, referees do not get paid and are doing this job mainly because of their belief in the edifice of peer-review, to add to their CV, etc.

Perhaps the experts and experienced researchers can give their opinion here?


texts:
Sorry, I believe that the title of this post is a little misleading, but can't understand what the best keywords are.

For my thesis, I have asked some help for a statistical analysis to a faculty member, getting more or less a 3-hours tutorial on the analysis. After my thesis, I have written an article on a broader topic that includes some preliminary data taken from that experiment. My article has been accepted, and I would like to mention the involvement of the faculty member that has advised me on the analysis. What are the possible methods?

I would like to ask you for different ways to do this, so to discuss this with the faculty member mentioned. As written in this article (http://www.labtimes.org/labtimes/issues/lt2013/lt02/lt_2013_02_40_40.pdf), the role of this advisor has been significant - otherwise I wouldn't have been able to complete my thesis -, but really too little in relation to the theme and scope of the article.

In any case, this is showing preliminary data (very basic), and I have written it completely by myself, with half the article covering a different topic. I am actively working with this advisor right now on a proper analysis to be published in a journal with this advisor as a coauthor.


texts:
I am in math, and it occurred to me that in average, I receive answers to submission of my papers after about 8 months. In the journals I submit to, there is almost always only one referee report.

In recent years I served as a reviewer for many of these journals. The editors of these journals almost always ask me for a report within 2-3 months.

Where do the extra 5-6 months of wait come from?


texts: "Awaiting Reviewer Invitation" after "Acceptance with Minor Revision"

texts: I have submitted an article (media and communication studies) to a ScholarOne journal. The paper was accepted with minor revision (two reviewers both recommended 'minor revision'). I revised the paper accordingly and addressed the feedbacks. After submitting the revised article for a week, a ADM was assigned and the status has changed to "awaiting reviewer invitation." Does it mean that my paper will go through another round of review with new reviewers? I was told that for paper with "minor revision," it is likely like it will not be sent back to the reviewers. Has anyone experienced similar situation?


texts: How can someone with a large and unique data set, but limited time to write articles, find experienced researchers to co-author papers with?

texts:
I have a very significant number of publishable projects and have a  very large data set that can be used to publish dozens of articles. I have published a number of top peer reviewed journal papers but do not have the time and resources to do this myself and am looking for research collaborators who are experienced in writing Computer Science or Social Science journal articles to co-author these research papers with me.

How can I find such researchers? Are there any online resources that might guide me in this process?


texts: New proposed theory is the same I asked in this network some years ago

texts:
Imagine that I make a post in which I propose a new theory or idea, but I don't write any paper about it.
Then, some years later, a researcher independently and completely unaware of my post, proposes the same theory/idea in a peer-reviewed paper.
In what circumstances could I claim co-authorship of that theory/idea and how could I handle that?
EDIT: As suggested, I rephrased this question. I kept the original question below, for future reference. The context of how this question arose was maybe idiotic, and that was making the answers to drift away from a general view of the problem. As I said in the comments, I was not realistically considering to claim any authorship for the idea or act on it in any way - it is a genuine curiosity of how things could be handled in a generic way. At least, I'm glad to see that this community can engage in a controversial question like this without being disrespectful (no sarcasm).
Some years ago I made this question which was closed soon after.
I was basically suggesting that sleeping could be an evolution advantage as they allow dreams to happen, which in turn allow you to simulate different situations in a safe environment, thus being more well prepared to react in new situations in real life.
Recently, a researcher proposed the same (similar?) idea.
Now, I honestly don't think he stole the idea from my post. It's perfectly reasonable that someone in this field could come to the same hypothesis.
However, I am creature with an ego bigger than one could consider healthy, and this feeling of "I also had that idea before, and I think I deserve some acknowledgment for that" is lurking on the back of my head. I'm sure that with it will go away, but what I would like to ask here is: do I have any reason/right to claim co-authorship of such theory?
I know that history of science has many cases of independent researchers doing the same discover, and I'm sure all around the world there are people who already experienced this "ah! but I had that idea before!".
So, even though this really doesn't matter and it's just food to the ego, I am curious to know how this type of situations can be handled.


texts: How are some academics able to publish so many papers per year (e.g., 50+ papers per year)?

texts:
Background: I understand that academics have different styles of working, but in the same field, I would have thought that the outputs of senior academics should be comparable (and according to their extra responsibilities).

For example, the Editor-in-Chief of Nano Energy (impact factor 12.343) is the director of a research center. Until now in 2017, he has published 69 papers in high-impact journals (all with impact factors higher than 10). Many distinguished professors in the same field publish about 20 papers per year (in a wider range of journals) without executive or editorial responsibilities.

Note that my question is not about this specific person as there are many examples of academics who are publishing far more than is typical for the field.

Questions

How is an academic able to publish so many papers in a given year (e.g., 50+)?
Does this imply the academic is a genius? Or are there other factors at play?


texts: Citing multiple parts of one website APA

texts:
I'm writing a small research paper (University of Applied Sciences, Bachelor level) where I cite and reference some information from a company's website.

I currently have the specific pages of the website from which I pull the different citations/references individually mentionned in my bibliography like so:

  Company Name (sd). page name. Consulted on September 05, 2019, from the website of Company Name: https://www.company_name.com/specific_page

  Company Name (sd). _ different page name_. Consulted on September 05, 2019, from the website of Company Name: https://www.company_name.com/anoter_specific_page

However, in the text of the paper, whenever I cite or reference the information of the website, if I follow the APA style I'll have something like:

  A direct quote of the company (Company Name)

Which, as far as I can tell is the correct way to reference the bibliography. However, within the text, all different pages I reference get the same in-line attribution, specifically:

  relevant quote (Company Name)

Is there a better/different way of handling this while adhering to the APA style guide?
For example, should I just add the website as a whole to the bibliography and specify the specific page in-line like so:

  Bibliography

  Company Name (sd). Consulted on September 05, 2019, from the website of Company Name: https://www.company_name.com/

and then in the text itself:

  A direct quote of the company (Company Name, website_page_name)


texts: I am (likely) being accused of cheating by my professor, what do I do?

texts:
I took my final last Wednesday (it’s Monday) and on Friday I received an email from my professor asking to meet to discuss my performance on the final. I got a little stressed but was more worried about if I failed the exam and have to retake the course. There was one other person I knew that got this email and he had the meeting today. The professor basically just said that there is proof of him cheating and said that he was on Moodle looking at the other tests while taking the final exam. This person said he did not and the professor just said he will have to fill out a form saying he did or did not and has to attend a hearing about it.
I have my meeting with the professor tomorrow and am EXTREMELY worried now. Being upfront, I did not cheat, I had Moodle open on my laptop in a minimized window but was not actively looking at it. I also have a full ride that would definitely disappear if I had something like this. What do I do?
PS: the professor already said to my friend that even if Moodle was open on a minimized window, the site wouldn’t give the report of accessing materials during the final exam.
Edit: grammar in PS section.


texts:
Usually there are some ACM/IEEE conferences which takes registration fee around 350 to 550 US dollar. For a student, it might not be possible to deposit such amount of money.

Under this circumstance, is it ok to ask conference organizer for 100% waiver in registration fee?


texts: Is it appropriate to contact professors after application submission?

texts:
I have applied to PhD programs in engineering in the US. I have been early in applying to most programs (deadlines range from mid-December to mid-January). I have not contacted any professors prior to applying, as I have been told by many that it would largely be a waste of time. Instead I reached out to several grad students and read/skimmed through many recent published papers by faculty. In my statement of purpose, I talked about at least two professors that I thought had interesting topics for research and why they interested me. I tailored this part of the statement for each program.

My question is, is it appropriate to contact faculty post application submission? I would like to say hello, let them know that I have applied and that I would be interested in working with them if I am fortunate enough to get in, and ask them to keep me in mind if they are looking for students.

I thought it might be a good idea to just put myself out there. Who knows? Maybe they'll recognize my name once they start going through applications and give it another good look. But I also do not want to annoy them. I recognize that these professors are busy and that they get many of these emails every day. I want to be considerate of their time too. I also do not want to come across as being arrogant or silly or needy..

What is your expert advice? Would you recommend that I sit tight? With my application already out of my hands, I understand that there is nothing I can do now to improve my chances. But I am always hoping. Thanks in advance for your advice!


texts: I am interested to know about rules in writing abstract in social sciences. Is it wrong if you just cited in the abstract around two key authors of frameworks where your study was based? Then citations were avoided for the rest of the abstract?


texts: Is there any advantage of putting source tex file on arXiv?

texts: I don't really like other people seeing my source file. Are there good reasons to upload the source file (.tex) on arXiv over uploading just the PDF?


texts: Is it possible to ask the professor to check assignment before submitting?

texts:
I have got assignments related to programming. They are tough and my friends could not get results. I wanted to ask my professor to run them to see whether I did them right or not. (the deadline is rapidly coming.)
I am a graduate student. It is my first term.


texts: How should I withdraw a paper from a predatory journal?

texts:
My Co-author made the mistake of sending a research article to a predatory publisher(OMICS), which got accepted after 2 months of review. On the same day of their acceptance email, we sent a withdrawal request mentioning that there were serious concerns with the results of the paper(We lied). No contracts were signed, no fee was paid and there was no transfer of rights etc. They requested a fee of 300 USD for the withdrawal process. I ignored their email thinking that they won't publish the paper as no contracts/money was involved. Fast forward, a few weeks ago they have published the paper on their website on our name with the complete DOI and all, whereas the paper is already in a review process for another journal.
What should be my next step now?

Unlike the previous question cases, my paper has been published on their website without any fee


texts: How can I pre-register my study of little importance?

texts:
I am writing an undergraduate dissertation on behavioural economics. I am looking to run an experiment. As nobody apart from my course convenor will read my paper, the stakes are not particularly high. Nonetheless, I want to i) follow best practices and ii) prove to the examiner that I have not done any p-hacking or HARKing, in the hope that I will get a higher mark.

I am therefore looking for some way to pre-register my study and hypotheses, or otherwise prove that I did not amend my hypotheses. This previous question on Academia.SE did not have a good answer. I have also thought of writing down my hypotheses in a public blockchain to have a proof of existence, but this seems far too esoteric and I doubt my examiner will be impressed.


texts: Is it acceptable to solicit answer from university?

texts:
I have applied to a master's degree.

If the first screening is successful, we are supposed to have an interview in March before the final decision.

The result from the first screening were supposed to come in during the month of February.. Is it acceptable from me to solicit an answer from the university?

I am scared by this test and I am studying a lot to pass it, so I would like to know as soon as possible when is the interview.. I expected the answer to come in mid-februrary so to allow us some time to prepare for the travel to the university and to review everything. (I am studying nonetheless, but it would be nice to at least have some date)

I don't want to come off bad with professors or whoever it is that is handling the email but I would really like to know for sure.

Is it too early? Can you suggest when it would be appropriate?

Please notice that the interview should be held in March and I am studying in the meantime (I just finished my regular mid-year exams at my current university and courses will soon start again, so this is particularly harsh for me).
I just don't want to study until the 20th of march to eventually be told that I have not survived the first screening!

Thank you everyone :)


texts: How important is outreach for applying to tenure track professor position?

texts:
I often see outreach listed in the CVs of professors, which makes me believe that doing outreach is beneficial to advancing a professors career. What I'm wondering though is if this is only import for going from assistant professor to associate professor or if outreach can also be beneficial to securing a tenure-track professor position. I find this is especially important to know since most universities limit the page numbers of a CV submitted during the application process, so I'm not sure if an outreach section is beneficial or detrimental (since it would mean removing another part of the CV).
What is the overall thought across different fields (I'm in Physics but curious if the same thoughts are held in Chemistry, Mathematics, Computer Science, etc.) on the importance of outreach when applying for tenure-track professor position?


texts: Applying to a top-program, but for a sub-field that program is not strong in

texts:
Please feel free to correct the title, I am not sure how to formulate this crisp & clear in a sentence.

I am very interested in a particular graduate program. It's a top notch program, but I happen to want to work with an academic who is quite young still and not yet a professor, and although the program is o.k. for the subfield I am interested in, it is not stellar.
(Let's not discuss here whether this would be a clever move please)

Question: Will it affect my chances getting into the program, that is, would a university rather see students interested in the field they are already strong in, or would they like to see someone being interested in something for which the uni is not particularly known for?

Will the prospective advisor maybe have less of a say regarding my admission, than if I were to target a senior professor who would like to work with me?


texts: Academic cv items: chronological order or most recent first?

texts:
I'm curious about the common practices. I'm compiling an (academic) cv. Should I order items chronologically or place the most recent first? What are the considerations?

Edit: And does the recommendation extend to publications and presentations too?

Thanks!


texts: Should non-talk slides be included in the handout?

texts:
I'm putting together a slideshow for an upcoming talk (I'm in a field where slideshows are slowly becoming common, and these colloquia are always good opportunities to get used to things like this). The talk itself only runs to slide 20 or so, but after that I'm going to have another 20-25 slides to help me deal with a number of questions that I anticipate might arise during Q&A. I'm going to make a printout of the slideshow and distribute it as a handout.

The question is, should I include the non-talk slides in the handout? The way I see it:

Pro:

helps audience members understand my answers to their questions.
provides a more detailed overview of certain areas where an efficient presentation requires simplification of the content.

Con

paper cost (ecologically, not financially): we are talking about 3-4 extra sheets of paper per handout.
people who are interested in the content of these slides will probably go and ask me for the paper instead; people who aren't interested in that level of detail will probably not even look at them.


texts: Are there higher education systems in which is not required to write a thesis?

texts:
Are there higher education systems in which is not required to write a thesis as a part of the evaluation within the degrees? If yes, could you point me out some of them, please?

Furthermore, are these education systems in which is not required to write down a thesis a minority in the world? (nowadays, I guess yes)


texts: I have heard of 'green' (self-archiving in a repository) and 'gold' open access (immediate open access in a journal), but what is 'diamond' open access? How does this differ from green or gold open access?


texts: Does performing a statistical analysis for a biologist warrant authorship?

texts:
I have a question, regarding authorship in a publication.

A colleague of mine who is a biologist (from a different group) received the second revision of her/his paper and in the revision it's been asked to do Anova in order to illustrate the significant change between 4 groups.

I'm saying a colleague not a friend! and also they may come more and more in the future.

I don't want to sound like a cheeky person, but have no idea whether if I do it I should be included in the paper or I should just do it as if I'm doing it for a so called friend!
Should I be at least included in the acknowledgement, or?

I have no access to my boss to consult this with him. I would appreciate your help to make this point clear to me.

Thanks!


texts: Does a Statement of Purpose really matter for Graduate Admissions in 2021?

texts:
I'm International Student applying for technical courses to universities in the UK and the USA, this might seem like a frequently asked question but I'm genuinely curious in knowing whether a Statement of Purpose (SOP) does carry any weightage when you meet the minimum requirements for Graduate Admissions (Msc).
I've seen peers with great GPA's but poorly crafted SOPs make it to top schools. Would it be possible for someone to walk their way in with just words using a flashy SOP?
Top universities get a myriad of applications, especially high demand courses. Does the admissions committee get ample time to review each applicant's SOP? or Do they have an Application Screening Process after which they review only the most salient applications?


texts: What are the profit margins of academic publishers?

texts: With an eye to finding the reasons behind high journal subscription costs: do journals / publishers make outrageous margins, or are prices truly justified by the costs to run journals? In other words, how does their budget look like?


texts: When to submit as a "Brief communication", when as an article?

texts:
Many journals, especially in the life sciences, offer the possibility to submit results as as a brief communication.

I'm wondering when to choose this way of publishing. If I don't have enough results for a large paper because it used to be a "hobby project" that should be put to an end, but the results are interesting and I want to publish them, should I opt for a brief communication?

How do I choose between this form of publication and an article?

This includes the question of how small a "real" article can be.


texts: How do I know what I burn for? About to get a PhD, but lost my drive

texts:
I am a few months away from completing my PhD (nanotech/chemistry), I'm "just" writing my thesis. But I somehow feel like I have lost my motivation and I am confused about my future. I began the PhD with great enthusiasm, as I was going to do organic synthesis again after a short break.
As the project (together with a company) progressed, I felt the pressure from the company to just deliver something. So, I felt like being pushed to cut some corners in the academic work, just to present something for my boss and the company, eager to get some products launched.
Later the project changed focus in a direction a little far from my skill set and I got a new supervisor in the company. But my frustrations increased during the last year, not only because I had little progress, but also because I never felt my boss appreciated my work. Actually, they didn't really bother listening to what I have learned and continued doing things their way (why was I hired in the first place?). My supervisor at the university is a really nice person and really skilled in organic chemistry, but he has little experience in my project and is always way too busy to give proper advice.
Sometimes, I just feel like a useful idiot, working many hours (sacrificing time with my kids) without much appreciation in the other end.

Alright, that was the background. Basically, I love developing new stuff and doing research, but I don't feel at home in the industry. At the university I am at right now, they can't really use a guy like me with my broad but vague skill set. Another university (actually my alma mater) would really like me to work there, but they lack the funding. Adding to this, I cannot readily identify what I am passionate about - other than working in the lab.

So, I guess I am stuck in a dilemma. I feel like I'm not skilled enough (despite I made my first publication just after getting the BSc) to be interesting for the universities. But going to the industry, the little hope left for an academic position will vanish after short time. Maybe things will work out just fine if I just work with the things I love doing - whatever they are.

Any suggestions? I had a passion for organic chemistry once, particularly medicinal chemistry, but I'm not sure if I've been working for too long away from hardcore organic chemistry to be considered at i.e. drug companies.


texts: Would 3 years of master's in Computer Science look bad in PhD applications?

texts:
Basically I'm in an MS program in Computer Science where I do either 8 courses or 6 courses (2 courses per semester) + thesis (spread across 2 semesters).

My original plan was to complete the thesis and graduate in 2.5 years. (The 6 months extra is because of a 6 month co-op/internship).

Now due to COVID-19, I couldn't effectively found a thesis advisor on time so I have extended my internship to 6 more months.

Would it hurt my PhD applications if I have taken 3 years to finish a master's degree (2 years 8 months actually) as opposed to the standard 2 year duration ? Given I would be graduating with 1 year of internship experience. Would it be better to skip thesis and just do coursework master's and graduate in 2.5 years ?

Thanks !


texts: Describing Middle School in european grant application

texts:
I completed my PhD in the US, and I am currently writing a grant application for a EU grant.  While I was a graduate student, I worked on a grant that had me in a middle school classroom (8th grade, so 12-13 year old students).

What is the best, short way to describe this in my grant proposal? I don't want to waste a lot of space describing the specific age range of the students, if it can be avoided.  At the same time, I don't know if it will be clear what I mean if I write "8th grade classroom" or "middle school classroom".  Any ideas?


texts: Racial discrimination at Duke University's Biostatistics department

texts:
The director of graduate studies at Duke's Biostatistics department has stepped down after her racially discriminatory emails, targeted at their international Chinese master's students, went viral on the Internet.

How can an affected Chinese student in the program proceed with their semester safely, without facing retaliation?

They have been threatened with no research opportunities and other possible impediments to their job search, for speaking Chinese loudly in the student lounge and in other areas outside of class time; namely, while I can appreciate the support for the director and distinguishing between her good intentions and unintended discrimination in her email messages to the students, the threats of retaliation by a couple of professors are problematic, e.g. these professors asked the director for photos of the Chinese students and were subsequently targeting them with no research projects.


texts: How to describe computer skills in an application form? (Master's degree)

texts:
In a part of the application form I was asked to describe my computer skills. How should I do this? Is mentioning them as a list (bullet points) enough, or should I be more detailed?

I'm talking about professional skills (e.g. programming languages)So should I, for example, list all the programming languages I know, or should I give detailed information (for instance, the duration I have been working with each language)?


texts: What should an editor do if the authors have guessed who the reviewers are?

texts:
For whatever reason, authors are occasionally able to guess who the reviewers of their papers are. Sometimes these guesses have even gotten published:

"We appreciate the very candid critical insights of 2 anonymous reviewers, M. Gompper, and K. Beard." In Conservation Biology.
"We do not gratefully thank T. Appourchaux for his useless and very mean comments." In ESA.

What is the best way for an editor to handle these not-necessarily-correct guesses, if they are noticed:

during peer review (e.g. in the cover letter or author response to reviewers)
after acceptance?


texts: Is there any benefit of being treated as "professor" by students and admin?

texts:
I just joined a faculty as assistant professor, at a university in South America. The admin team and students treat me as "professor". Moreover, because the official language is Spanish, people refer to me as "usted" instead of "tu" (see difference here).

Just coming out of the PhD, and feeling still "young", I find this treatment very odd. I would like to be treated, particularly by students, by my first name.

Now, without trying to foster authority styles, or exercise power, or being pedantic, I wonder whether there is an actual "benefit" in keeping this formal relationship? For instance, perhaps it gives me more capacity to extract effort from students? Diluting the boundaries might give them confidence to go against my instructions or so. And yet, conversely, someone might argue that a more friendly approach can actually help me gain confidence with students, understanding more their interests and motivations.

In the end my question is what are the pros and cons of each approach, based on your experience. Any help is more than welcome.


texts: How to correctly mention 'Ranked 1st in undergraduate class based on GPA' on CV?

texts:
I recently graduated with the highest GPA in my undergraduate class of 350 students. My current CV reads -

GPA: 3.x/4 (Ranked 1st out of Undergraduate Class of 350 students)

However, this feels slightly forced and awkward. Is there any better way to write this?

Thanks!


texts: How to prevent work from exacerbating situational depression?

texts:
I am experiencing situational depression. This isn't 'discouragement' due to research. Me feeling inadequate in my research is NOT the problem. The problem is that the steps involved in research seem to be at best, not helping, or worse - exacerbating the negative emotions that are associated with depression.

Let me rephrase that - I have not felt 'impostor syndrome', and I do not feel it now (sorry if it sounds a tad bigheaded but I want to avoid confusion).

I have some idea of the things I need to do to combat depression, but it seems to me that they all involve staying away from work at the lab. Has anyone faced this? Can I do anything to prevent loss of productivity?

Usually, I hear the following ways to fight depression:

Get in a routine.
Set goals.
Do something new (don't get stuck in a rut)

Now, these can be applied when I am free. But the majority of my waking hours are in the lab (or supposed to be). While doing bio research:

The routine/ schedule is thrown off whack by unforeseen developments/ etc.
Goals, even minor ones, may or may not be reached. This is research.
Can't help getting stuck in a rut if we're trying to get data out of a particular experiment.

I took a week off, and it helped, but doesn't seem to have helped enough. Any suggestions?


texts:
I'm writing a document in which I must cite several laws and other regulations, but I have a doubt about citations. I endend in the following situation several times:

There is law A, the main valid regulation about my subject
Law A has later been emended from law B, which either changed already existing informations (some numbers, a specification...) or introduced or removed other ones (provisions, definitions, competence to authorities...)

I would like to know:

When referring to an emended or a later introduced element, should I cite law A or law B?
Is there any difference about the "size" of the emendation? For example, should I behave the same if law B increased a fine from 2000 $ to 2200 $ or introduced a completely new supervisory authority?

I'm particularly intrested on EU/European conventions. References to authoritative sources would be much appreciated.


texts: Number of Papers for Doctor of Science (DSc)

texts:
I am a young scientist working in India after finishing Masters in Physics. In last three years of employment, I have co-authored around 12 papers so far. I am interested in going for D.Sc. I have seen some universities award DSc after Masters also, But I am not sure how many minimum number of  papers will be required to get D.Sc. Do you all have any idea ?. I may also apply from a abroad university.

Any help would be appreciated.


texts: Seeking Your Advice on Preparing for Mathematics Graduate Programs

texts:
S.E advisers,

I am a rising college junior (five-years tract) in US with a major in mathematics and an aspiring mathematician in the fields of theoretical computing and cryptography.  I apologize for this sudden interruption but I wrote this post to seek your advice on preparing for the mathematics graduate programs; I am currently attracted to the applied mathematics.  Through introduction to the computational biology, I found my true passion and love toward the mathematics, which led me to switch my major from the microbiology to mathematics on the last (Spring) semester.  Since then, I have been taking basic calculus courses and also self-studied the preparatory materials (such as proof-writing) for the abstract mathematics.  I am currently self-studying the abstract algebra (Artin, Dummit/Foote), abstract linear algebra (Hoffman/Kunze), and vector calculus (Lang).  I will be taking the following courses on the Fall:  Vector Calculus-computational, Linear Algebra with introduction to proofs, and either Abstract Algebra I or Mathematical Statistics I.  At the start of August, I will be starting to conduct the supervised undergraduate research on the theoretical computing (abstract and math-heavy) and computer security (more on the programming than mathematics), which I am very excited.

I am curious what are the essential factors for admission into mathematics graduate programs.  Do undergraduate research (such as mine) will be an important factor too?  I know the biology programs strongly require the research experience but I frequently heard that the mathematics programs focus less on the undergraduate research since most undergraduate-level research in mathematics are viewed as less matured than the graduate-level research.  Does Putnam score also play an important factor?  I am interested in preparing for the Putnam Competition as it has many interesting problems on algebra and number theory (topics of my interest) and I have been preparing vigorously with the problem-solving-strategy books as I never participated in any mathematical competition before.  About my current course schedule, should I take the Abstract Algebra I with other courses?  At my university, the AAI hs the pre-requisite of linear algebra, but I was granted a special permission for enrollment since my research advisers strongly recommend me to take the abstract algebra for the theoretical computing and computer security.  I am currently studying the abstract algebra and linear algebra to prepare for the courses and upcoming undergraduate research.

Thank you very much for your time, and I apologize for this long post.  I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

PK


texts: How to prepare lessons as a visiting professor?

texts:
Preliminaries

I got an invitation by a university to be a visiting professor in the summer term this year. I will do this non-profit, since it will be overseas, not in a western country, and the university would not be able to pay me. I am taking unpaid leave from my industry job to do this. Also, I do not have a PhD, but I am kind of an expert in my field (mostly because my field is very young and there aren't that many in my field). It's a block semester so I will give 2 hours lectures each day for 4 weeks. It will be in Computer Science.

My question(s)

Since I work full time in industry before I leave to teach, I am rather limited in preparing my lectures. So I have to be very efficient during preparation.

What recommendations to you have to quickly prepare good lecture material (slides) for the lecture?
What can be pitfalls I should avoid in preparation?
I was told (though I am not sure whether this is going to be true) that the students will have computers at their disposal. Would you prepare exercises? Is it more efficient to prepare exercises in terms of the ratio me preparing / they being occupied and engaged or does it take a lot of time to prepare exercises?

I do have experience in giving presentations in front of all kinds of audiences and I have been teaching - but never in this particular setting and for so many consecutive hours.

To clarify: Of course I want to do a good job teaching. Obviously I will spend my free time prior in the evening for preparation. But it still will be little time I have, and it is better I have not-so-ideal material, then no material at all.


texts: How to credit a photo taken by someone else in my publication?

texts:
How do authors normally address a photo courtesy?
I have a photo taken by Dr. X, I would like to use it in my paper which is planned to be submitted to an engineering journal. How should I respect the photo credit?
is it okay to write  this in the figure caption, like:

\caption{blah blah  .... (photo courtesy of Dr. X).}

should I even mention the title Dr?


texts: My work was submitted by collaborators without my name, and the university supports them. What are my options?

texts:
I have collaborated and written several research papers where my co-authors withheld the final draft and submitted the paper without my name as co-author. Two papers have single authors (not me) and a third paper has three authors (one of whom was not even on the research team when I conceptualised the research and analysed the data). The explanation for excluding me as author is that I did not meet the third criterion of the Vancouver protocol (final approval of the version to be published).  The university supported this cheating because it follows the letter of the law.  I have analysed data for a fourth paper which my collaborator has not yet published as her own.  However, she is one of the single authors mentioned above, so my guess is that she will publish this as her work too.  I no longer work at that department. What should I do?

I was never given a chance to review the final drafts of the manuscripts.  They were submitted behind my back.


texts: As the title suggests, I would like to know if it is correct to use 'herein' to refer back. For instance, I have used the phrase 'in this paper' several times in a document and I wish to use another term to avoid repetition. Instead of saying 'In this paper we presented' I would like to say 'Herein we presented' is this correct?


texts: How should I list my advisor's name on a talk I am giving about our joint work?

texts:
I am very new to this...

I need to give a short talk at a conference soon, on which I am going to talk about something my advisor and I work on together.  Alphabetically, he should go before me, but would it be confusing since I am the one giving the talk?

Should I just list my name and put "Joint Work with xxx" on the title page?


texts: What is the academic value of a white paper?

texts:
I am wondering what constitutes a white paper and what is the academic value of it.

I found some information here but I am more after turning an aspect of a research into a white paper.

Currently, the research is just for internal use. I am hoping the white paper will make it more visible and reach a wider audience.

The other reason is that I can then add it to my CV as a tangible output (if that is possible).

What is a "white paper"?


texts: How can I politely remind my professors about a recommendation letter they promised?

texts:
I am currently applying to a masters program, application is due on April 15, recommendation letters can be given until the 23.

I asked 3 professors to give me recommendation letters approximately on march 14.
One of them already submitted it, but 2 haven't.

I don't want to be excessively insistent, because A) they did tell me they were busy when I asked, and B) I made a grave personal mistake towards one of the professors a long time ago, and the simple fact that he agreed to give me a recommendation letter is, I think, enough for me to never ask him for any favors in my life time.

However the due lines are coming, and I am getting a bit anxious.


texts: Course development: can I pay someone to make slides for the course?

texts:
I am asked to start from scratch and develop a new under-graduate course this fall. I still have about 2.5 months left but since there are tons of research commitments ahead, I am basically a bit unpositive on whether I can get all the course development task done before that.. The central hurdle is to make slides for about 12 weeks' teaching load.

I am writing to inquire some conventions on course development. In particular, can I pay someone to make slides in my situation? If so, then:

do I need to acknowledge certain authorship for such cases?
where should I find such services?


texts: Can a teacher to refuse to follow their late work policy?

texts:
My teacher handed out a syllabus at the beginning of the year,  claiming to have a late work policy where he only reduces the max percent you can get on an assignment for every day it's late. The exact writing of his late work policy can be found here.

Two weeks into the school year, I handed in an assignment 1 day late, and received half credit. I assumed I received half credit because we went over it in class, so I didn't think anything of it. Three weeks later, I handed in another assignment 1 day late, which I received half credit for too.

When I confronted my teacher, his explanation was that he added the exact writing "The teacher reserves the right to change or amend this syllabus at any time without notice." inside of the syllabus.

Regardless of it not being morally right, is a teacher allowed to do this? I see no reason to give students a late work policy and then completely disregard it. Because I was unaware of him ignoring the policy, my grade dropped by nearly 20%(and my school is already half way through the first term).

Are teachers/professors allowed to change to completely ignore a late-work policy without notice?


texts:
Is it a bad idea to do a Master's at a low ranked university before doing a PhD, if my undergraduate record is not strong enough for me to be admitted into a good PhD program out of undergrad?
The university I am considering is low ranked in my subject field of interest (70-80). However, the university itself has a strong overall reputation and would be considered a household name (top 30 undergrad USNWR).
I know that I would have some decent research opportunities in the master's, as well as the chance to write a two-semester thesis. However, I am not sure about the prestige of the faculty, and the program is somewhat small.


texts:
I'm currently getting towards the end of a PhD in applied maths. My funding runs out in September, and for personal circumstances (kids, security etc) I can't go into a post-doc yet as I don't think I'll be able to submit until January/February.

I'd like to go into industry and perhaps return to academia later. I have a BSc in maths (more applied) and my research topic has been looking at the topic of optimal transport (numerical method to solving PDE/ computational mathematics) in collaboration with an industrial partner in an application of pattern analysis. I have quite a broad knowledge of for instance: machine learning; image processing; know a few programming languages. But I don't have the formal training of a computer scientist.

My question is what is the best way to advertise yourself as someone who is trained as a mathematician rather than computer scientist? Looking at the job market, they don't advertise for people 'who like solving problems' :-) The focus is very much on machine learning, data science. I feel at a disadvantage to someone with a CS background.


texts: Should I mention not completing a Phd in a cover letter?

texts:
I am possibly quitting my PhD. I am 2 years into my PhD and now I am writing a cover letter for an opening at a company. My question is, do I mention in the cover letter why I am quitting ? In my CV I just mention what I've done for the past two years and write that the PhD is not complete.

I feel like I need to mention it, because it feels like an elephant in the room. Also to avoid confusion I think I need to mention it. (e.g. They can think I tend to continue working on the PhD while I want to work there).


texts: How are junior professors evaluated for promotion?

texts:
This is a naive question, coming from someone who has never had an academic job. I'm asking what is involved when a junior professor is promoted. My question is wide, since I don't understand academic life. Some answers are obvious, but I'd still like clarification:

Funding. Professors I know seem to be obsessed over funding. They're constantly writing grant applications and are constantly unhappy at how much of a lottery it is. However, since the professors are presumably paid a salary by the university, so what if they fail? It's not like the university will stop paying them, will it? Especially if the professor is tenured.

Does the source of the funding matter? Suppose Alice is a beginning professor. One day Bill Gates calls Alice and says "I'd like to be your PhD student, and I'll give you $1 billion of funding". Will her head of department be delighted? Will Alice immediately be promoted to full professor? Is the idea behind the $1 billion that Alice will now be able to hire an army of postdocs and PhD students (can she actually do this especially if the university doesn't have office space for them?), which will boost the department's research output and therefore improve the university's ranking? If so, does that mean academia is essentially "whoever has more money wins"?

Suppose that Alice had won $1 billion at the sweepstakes instead, and decided to put that money into her work (can she do this?). Does the same scenario as the above play out?
Research output. I imagine this is related to funding - if one has more funding, one can hire more postdocs and PhD students. But at that point, it's the postdocs and PhD students that are doing the research. The professor might have his or her name on plenty of papers, but never as a first author. Presumably, the papers will look good on the postdocs' and PhD students' CV, not so much on the professor's. Is that the case?
Teaching output. Presumably this must count for something or there'd be no reason for departments to have "best teaching" awards. I also imagine that departments will try to spread (mandatory) teaching loads around so everyone teaches roughly the same number of courses. This doesn't include Honours, PhD etc students however, and as far as I can tell different professors have different numbers of PhD students. Is it an advantage to have lots of such students? The obvious answer is "yes", but if so, I don't understand why professors don't just take on students until they hit capacity. They probably have a lot more prospective students than actual ones, especially at big universities, which is why the admission rate can be so low. If this is related to not having funding to pay the students (aren't students expected to pay for their education? This certainly applied at undergraduate level), does this mean that a self-funded student will have no trouble getting admitted even to prestigious universities?
Other ventures. I imagine this must count for something, or I don't see why a professor would agree to serve on a journal's editorial board. It's usually not a paid position, and it's time-consuming. I also see professors do things like start companies and try to sell commercial products. Question: why would the university tolerate this? It means the professor is putting time into something unrelated to the university. My contracts with (non-academic) employers typically have a line "you are expected to devote your full attention to affairs of the company". Does getting involved in these non-university activities help with getting promoted?


texts: Best way to correct my name in the paper

texts:
I found mistake of my name in my submitted paper. My paper status now is "our proof corrections have been returned to Elsevier". How can I change the last letter of my name.

My best regards


texts: Have I waited too long to ask for letters of recommendation and when should I send a follow up email?

texts: I asked my 2 undergraduate research supervisors on Friday, December 22nd. This is five and a half weeks before the deadlines (they would each be filling out 2 separate recommendation forms). The deadline is January 31st. I heard back from one supervisor about 10 minutes after I sent the email. However, I still haven’t heard back from the other supervisor. I am worried I sent it at an inappropriate time (too close to Christmas). Tomorrow will be exactly one more before the deadline. Did I wait too long to ask for the LORs? When should I follow up with the second potential writer?


texts: How important is it for an eventual academic career in philosophy to pursue a masters degree at a different school from your undergrad?

texts:
I understand that there are many pros and cons to pursuing a masters at the same school you took your undergraduate degree at. In my particular situation, I am a Canadian fourth-year undergraduate student in Philosophy, and I've recently been approached by two professors  who personally asked me to enroll in the Masters program at my current school - and one of which has offered to work with me and supervise my thesis if I do choose to study there. This professor is someone I've worked well with in the past, and whose particular area of interest intersects with mine. Given the strength of their recommendations, I'm sure their references will be very beneficial, and it would be exciting to work with a professor whom I already have a well-established relationship with on a project that interests me.

At the same time, I am aware that going to another school offers the benefit of a whole new roster of professors, classes, and research which I could be exposed to. While I am sure I could find professors with whom I will get along with at other schools, many of my friends who have gone to different places for their Master's degree did not have such luck (or did not find the professors at other, more prestigious schools to be any more outstanding than the ones at their own).

Although this question may beg the answer, "It's entirely up to you", I'm still wondering if anyone has insight into how important it is in this field (i.e. for someone who wishes to pursue a PhD/eventual professorship in Philosophy) to go to a different school for their Masters?


texts: Difference between postdoc and researcher in Sweden?

texts:
At Uppsala universitet there are currently open positions as mathematics postdoc and as researchers. The announcement texts are identical, aside from this part (and clarification on it) that is missing from the researcher position:

  To be eligible for a position as postdoctoral researcher the applicant's PhD degree must have been obtained no more than three years prior to the application date; however, for example periods of sick leave or parental leave are deducted from the three-year period.

What is the difference between researcher and postdoc in the Swedish system in general, or Uppsala university in specific?


texts: Electronic supplementary materials for scientific journals

texts:
Journals require certain heights & widths for figures, however, since it's my first time preparing an article with Latex I'm facing some problems.

For example I have a total of 20 maps & I'm thinking of making a grid called (fig7) using Latex for each 8 pair of maps. When I supply
high resolution figures with the final script do I need to combine each map that I use to make (fig7) in one figure called (fig7.eps) or do I just supply each map with its respective subscript (ex: fig7a.eps, fig7b.eps, etc)?


texts: How troublesome is it for a professor to replace a document posted on D2L?

texts:
On many occasions I've had professors that will post assignment instruction documents on "Desire 2 Learn" or D2L, realize they made a mistake on those instructions, and tell us students either in class or via school email that they had made a mistake and what to do about it.

I have never once seen them simply replace the document itself.

I am not here to complain. I have heard that D2L is difficult to handle, and I've seen many professors get confused by it. I am just curious if D2L makes it difficult to replace files that have been posted, or if there might be some other reason why they don't bother updating their documents.


texts: How to create reference list with maths in title on Mendeley for Latex

texts:
I have been using Mendeley for a while to create my bibtex files and use them in Latex. However, recently I came accross some papers such as this one, which have math symbols in their titles and when I try to create an entry in Mendeley and use it in my Latex document the title gets messed up. How can I create a Bibtex file containing papers with math symbols in their titles via Mendeley?

I've tried to type the code on the title section on Mendeley but it doesn't seem to work. Thanks!


texts: What must one do if the time at which a conference talk was to be presented is assigned to someone else?

texts:
I recently submitted an abstract to a talk as a contributed paper. I was informed, through email, that the paper was scheduled to be presented in person on XXX date. The email also said that I could look for my name on a link mentioned in the email; going to the link, I found that my name was not on the list at all. I checked it multiple times, but my name was simply not there.

I found that the time at which I was assigned to give my presentation was on the list, but with someone else's name and paper title. I assumed that this was a timing and/or update problem, and left it at that for some time. However, this was not resolved even after two days. Thus I sent an email regarding this situation to the email address that was in the email, saying that if I had any questions I could email that address. I still have not received any email, and the conference/talk is coming up in about a month. This is the very first presentation that I will be giving, and I am not sure what to do in this situation. My questions are as follows:

  Did I deal with this situation correctly, sending an email to the "query'' email address?
  What must I do if I do not receive an email in a few days?

P.S. As it was inquired in the question, the conference that I submitted this to is the AMS Fall Sectional Meeting in San Francisco.

Edit: It looks like the situation has been fixed and my name is now on the list. Thank you to all who offered me advice!


texts: Travel reimbursement for interview after accepting another position

texts:
I know a PhD student (X) who is soon to defend, reaching the end of his funding, and has thus been applying to PostDoc positions. He was applying to two positions in two different groups.

The first group (Y) invites him to present in person and suggests that he buy his own tickets, where expenses will be reimbursed upon arrival; he is very interested in the position and complies, buying the flight at considerable cost (15+ hours flying on two legs).

After buying the ticket, the second group (Z) requests an online talk and interview; he again is very interested in the position and complies, presenting the talk and doing the interview online. Shortly after, the second group offers him the position. Being very interested in the position and not wanting to appear unsure or ungrateful, he accepts a few hours after the offer is made, and a week before being due to travel to the first group.

Not wanting to be feel deceptive towards the first group, he tells them about accepting another position and offers to travel anyways in order to give the talk he has been preparing for their group. The first group tells him not to come and that they will not reimburse any costs.

Question: is it ethical/unethical for the first group to refuse to reimburse costs?

I'm also interested in anecdotes, similar experiences, etc., to get an idea of how common or uncommon the first group's behaviour in this situation is.

On the one hand, the original reason why the first group offered to reimburse costs is now off the table.

On the other hand, the student has acted perfectly honestly throughout (almost to a fault) but ends up out of pocket having bought tickets at the first group's request.

(Of course someone has to take a loss, but in my mind, it should be the group who takes the hit, not a PhD student soon to run out of funding, and who again was simply complying with the group's instructions to remain in their hiring process ... and is now getting screwed in the process.)

(There's a couple of related questions like this one, but I don't find a question that addresses the issue of the interviewee being out of pocket.)


texts: Is it good to mention in a recommendation letter that a student always attends office hours? What kind of impression does this make?

texts: I'm writing a letter of recommendation for a student in my class who always came to my office hours.  Is it good to say he attended a lot of office hours?  Will this make the admissions committee think he is a diligent student, or too dependent on the instructors?  He is applying for a master's program in computer science.


texts: Cryptocurrency 3rd year dissertation using other source code?

texts:
I am doing my third year dissertation / thesis based on cryptocurrencies & blockchain. This is an amazing topic I am truly passionate about as it's a fast moving industry.

At the core of ALL cryptocurrencies there is Bitcoin. Believe it or not but Bitcoin created the foundation on which other cryptocurrencies were built such as Dash and Litecoin.

I plan to have a faster cryptocurrency for the purpose of my dissertation but obviously as a core code I planned to use Bitcoin's one, Litecoin's one and few others. Based on my observations I will build a better one or find any alternatives to achieve my intended outcome. Is this considered plagiarism!?


texts: Do notifications of conference papers' acceptance/rejection sent to all the papers' authors at the same time?

texts:
I have two inquiries, please.

Suppose that authors X, Y, and Z submit 3 different papers to the same conference. Will they all get notifications of acceptance/rejection at the same time (or a short period of time) or not necessarily?
Is it possible to get a notification of paper acceptance/rejection before the notification deadline?


texts: Is it possible to remotely engage in a side project with a postdoc in order to gain experience?

texts:
I'm a PhD student in theoretical Physics. Recently I was watching a lecture and the professor told a story that as a PhD student he used to engage in side projects with postdocs in order to get more experience, learn something and try to publish as well, all of which worked very nicely for him. This would work for both sides because he would help and at the same time learn and gain experience.
Now, there is one particular topic I'm very interested for a long time. This topic is being activelly investigated by some of the most renowed researchers around the world and they say that there is a lot to be done, what makes me consider it very worthwhile to be able to work in this field. To be honest, that is the topic I want to work with after I finish my PhD! I have studied some of the main papers on the subject but still didn't have any idea of something to do that could end up in a publication. My guess is that this happens because I lack experience.
In that case the story my professor told inspired me in doing the same. The issue is that in my department (and as far as I know in my country, unfortunatelly) I can't find people working on the subject. In particular there is no postdoc working on it in my department.
That said, I know about one postdoc from another country which actively works on the field and already published very relevant papers on the subject. I've watched some of his recorded seminars on YouTube and he seems quite engaged in really getting people to understand the subject.
In that case would it be possible to do what my professor did remotely? Could I send a message to this guy and ask if I could participate and help with something in his work in order for me to get started in the field? Or would this be frowned upon and considered unacceptable? If the answer is yes, how should I approach this?


texts: Should I Wait for a Journal's Decision Before Revising Authorship?

texts:
I have submitted a paper to one of Elseveir Journal, My senior asked me to put him as a corresponding author but I put myself as a corresponding author assuming it is possible to change corresponding author. However, she asked me to request to journal editor immediately. I have sent a request as my senior suggested, I got response from editor like this...

"There is a 90% chance your paper will be rejected, i which case it doesn't matter, and a 10% chance you will be invited to submit a revision".

The journal impact factor 4.034 and their acceptance rate is 7%.

This is my first experience on submitting paper to any journal so I am afraid and wondering whether it is worth withdrawing paper and proceed for another journal.


texts: Are programmers usually included as co-authors in psychology?

texts:
I work as a programmer supporting a psychology lab.

Most of my work is translating some paper-based or physical assessment into a computer-based equivalent or I create programs for novel assessments along with associated databases and support programs for data retrieval and basic cleaning.

Recently, a colleague included me as a co-author on a paper.

Are they are being overly nice or should I be a co-author on other papers?


texts: Someone I know is apparently claiming to have obtained PhD when I know for a fact that he did not.  He is working in a biomedical company and having himself presented as Dr.  Is there a way to have this checked out?


texts: Possible pitfalls of taking a year off to travel following a PhD instead of immediately starting with a post-doc position?

texts: If a student, soon to complete a PhD, is not ready to enter academia is a year of travel a good option?  Assuming that academic route is still interesting after the year will post-doc positions (leading to tenure-track) still be a viable option?


texts: How can I ask a lecturer not to disclose (my) grades publicly?

texts:
In my university, some, but not all, professors upload online the grades of every student and their names next to them a few days before making them final at the end of the semester. This is done to give a chance to the students to point out any mistakes the professor may have made.

No one other than the students can see the final grades. When the professor uploads the non-final grades, they are visible by everyone.

Since few people get good grades, others are jealous of them. Long story short, I really have an issue with this.

Is it unreasonable to ask my professors to email my grades instead of uploading them online, like they do with everyone else? What other alternatives do I have?

I live in a European country.


texts: Objectively speaking, is the opportunity cost of doing a PhD in STEM higher than it was compared to decades ago?

texts:
Here's somethings that are well established:

being a PhD student is a (albeit, temporary) career-path with the poorest education-level/income ratio. It has been estimated that Post-Doc salary is comparable to junior librarian, and PhD salary is comparable to a waiter.

Note: average Waiter salary Entry level positions start at $21,158 per year while most experienced workers make up to $39,585 per year. A junior library makes less than $50,000/yr.

the opportunity cost is also stark compared to people who are similarly educated in STEM but left for industry early, with a popular estimate of around 1 million USD by the end of the PhD (5-6 years) (which might not include time-value of money, investments, and retirement savings).

Despite academia as a whole being a multi-billion/trillion dollar industry, the administration refuses to raise the stipend for PhD student, leading it to stagnate on average 25,000-30,000 USD/yr for the last three decades if not more.

It is pretty clear to me that most (but not all) PhD programs are path to an enlightened poverty, with STEM PhD faring better than Humanities PhD, and industry-demanded STEM PhD faring better than say biology or pure math.
However, I wonder if this opportunity cost has gotten even even worse over the past few decades due to some factors such as,

rising competitive (on the global scale),
job/housing insecurity,
a sizable aging but not retiring faculty,
skill-based labor market heavily favored over degree-based,
rising cost of living in almost every part of the globe.

Take a current example, due to Covid19 many industry stocks (say airline) are at their lowest point, however, most PhD students do not have the money to invest hence will not likely to reap the benefit. Another example is in software engineering: it is pretty well established salary was good about a decade ago but now the supply is high enough for the wage to fall, most PhD students also miss this "golden" period. Almost all major tech companies (such as Stackexchange, minus IBM, Microsoft, Apple) are founded/launched by people around 2000s, we can firmly say that period is over. Yet another is encroachment of industrial research on academic topics. Google, Twitter, Facebook and various other large tech conglomerates dominates all major AI references in 2020, which makes research on a PhD stipend look pointless
I sometimes take a look at these so-called industry-academia collaboration and wonder out-loud if this isn't just some scheme that seeks to exploit underpaid and highly motivated graduate students.
Objectively speaking, has the opportunity cost gotten higher over the years? If (or not) so why?


texts: When is it appropriate to decline a review request?

texts:
There are some clear reasons to decline a review request, such as conflict-of-interests or not enough free time (e.g., going on a vacation..).
But what if you are just not interested in the paper you got (i.e., it is loosely related to what you do, but not entirely irrelevant)?

On which occasions is it appropriate to decline a review request?
Does it matter if the review is for conference vs journal?


texts: How should I list an unfinished bachelor thesis in my application for a Master's programme?

texts:
I am currently a final year undergraduate but I haven't finished working on my thesis yet. (I'm currently working on it nonetheless)

However a professor of mine told me to put it in the CV since it is also very related to the Master's programme.

How could I mention that it is not finished in the CV?

Writing "thesis: < title >" in the CV
 without further information looks like I have at least submitted it.


texts: Can we withdraw a manuscript after acceptance but before publication?

texts: I wonder whether we can withdraw a manuscript after its acceptance but before it has been published online.


texts: Best margins for master thesis written in LaTeX

texts:
I'm writing my Master's Thesis with LaTeX and I'd like to know what are the best margins I should use.

My university doesn't force any template. LaTeX default margins seems to me too large. Do you have any recommendation?

In addition, I would like to know if I should keep two different margins for even and odd pages. I'm using the book class.

Thanks!


texts: Is a 2.5 year shorter tenure clock a benefit?

texts:
I have a TT offer which includes removing 2.5 years from my tenure clock, the amount of time I have spent in my first postdoc. The papers and grants from the postdoc would be considered by my tenure committee at the new institution.

My teaching and service commitments will go up after tenure, and I have observed and read here about why faculty often are unhappy after gaining tenure.

So , is this really a benefit?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  When should I stop including talks on my cv?

I am considering splitting my academic CV into a short version (ideally less than two pages) and a longer one with a full list of publications and talks.

Q1: do you think it is a good idea to split it into two?

Q2: which ones of those would you put in the shorter version?

list of most important papers (5?)
list of most important talks
research grants and awards
other scientific service (refereeing, conference organization)
schools attended


texts: Should I include my converted GPA/final semester GPA on my CV?

texts:
I'm applying to graduate school and I'm contacting potential supervisors, as advised by the universities I'm applying to.

My GPA is 16.33/20. When I convert it to the 4.0 scale,according to WES, my overall GPA, GPA in the final 2 years, the final year and the final semester are 3.41, 3.34, 3.4 and 4.0 respectively.

Does 3.41 look better than 16.33? As I want to make a good first impression, should I include my final semester GPA or does it simply highlight my poor performance in the previous semester?


texts: Does it matter from whom we receive a letter of recommendation?

texts: I am wondering is it important who is writing our letter of recommendation? I mean, does it matter whether the faculty is assistant professor or distinguished professor?


texts: Is it appropiate to put a funny funny slide in a Bachelor thesis presentation?

texts:
I always like to stray in a context related funny slide either at the beginning or at the end of a presentation because I do not like the overall stern atmosphere at presentations.

I also planned a funny slide that is related to the topic of thesis at the end of my Bachelor thesis presentation but I am not sure If I bring myself in jeopardy through this because I assume they have to be strictly just presenting the mere content of my work and nothing else. I am even afraid that my open question to the audience (which includes Professors and Students too) at the beginning of my presentation is regarded as a violation of this strict code.


texts: What is the name of the style where research papers are written in a story-telling fashion?

texts:
The following research paper is written in a story-telling manner:

One Mentor-teacher's Personal Narrative of Collaborative Research on the Teaching Practicum

What is the name of this style of research paper writing?


texts: What are the chances of an abstract being accepted if it is a day late for a conference

texts: Will an abstract sent a day late or few hours late be considered for a competitive conference?


texts: What are the salary bands specifically for lecturer/senior lecturer/reader/professor in the UK?

texts:
This question is related to this question Academic position salaries in the UK (and to some extent to this question too: Academic rank equivalence between the UK and the US systems), but my question is more specific.
What salary bands in http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=2210, for example, corresponds to that for a lecturer, senior lecturer, reader and professor positions? In the salary scales in this website, the grading just runs from 1 to 51, but doesn't specify what positions they correspond to.


texts: Active or Passive Voice in International research journal, within the field of microorganism?

texts:
I have been composing the International journal for microbiology research.  I learn that research journal should consist of active voice not passive, but I find that the previous researchers for related subject mainly used passive voice.
How should I consider?

Examples:

This genus is characterized by two types of conidia called α–conidia (fusiform) and β–conidia (filiform).  [I think it is valid.  Please correct me if I could change it to active voice]
Diaporthe sp was reported causing dieback of rooibos (Aspalathus linearis) (Van Rensburg et al. 2006)
[Van R et al 2006 reported Diaporthe caused dieback of rooibos (Aspalathus l.)?]
A novel Phomopsis sp  was reported as a weed (Carthamus lanatus) pathogen and may be used as a biocontrol agent (Ash et al. 2010).
[Ash et al. 2010 clarified that a novel Phomopsis sp as a weed (Carthamus lanatus) pathogen may be used as a biocontrol agent?]

*** Note - 9/4/2013:
Thank you so much, I appreciate the clarity from everyone.

I also did online research and learn this (may it help those who have the similar problem):

  "Many writers are torn between whether they should write the paper
  in the active or passive voice. In the former, the subject performs
  the action; in the latter, the subject receives the action. Too
  much use of the active voice has the tendency to make the text
  monotonous because of too many first-person references. On the other
  hand, overuse of the passive voice can cause the tone of the paper to
  be dry, boring and even pompous. To ensure that the text is more
  lively and readable, it is best to try and strike a balance. Consider
  the following example:

  We used eosin-methylene blue agar plates for the preliminary isolation
  of P. aeruginosa. The bacteria were Gram-negative bacilli, and motile.
  The results for oxidase and catalase activities were negative.
  Additional experiments showed that the bacteria did not ferment
  glucose, galactose, maltose or lactose (Table 2). Based on these
  results, we concluded that the organism had an oxidative metabolism.

  Try translating this in to an entirely passive or active tone.
  You’ll notice that the creative mix of both voices makes this narrative not only lively and engaging but also states the results in
  a clear, confident and unambiguous manner."


texts: What value does self-learning a course (or several) have in graduate admissions?

texts:
I am an undergraduate student who hopes to switch my major from engineering to Physics. Although this switch is possible, I lack several crucial foundation courses in Physics such as electrodynamics and quantum mechanics in my transcript and I hope to offset this by self-studying, either by:

Going through a textbook, make notes for each chapter and attempt some of the exercises at the end of each chapter.

Or, go through the MIT OCW courses and attempt the problem sets, projects, exams etc.

(I am personally leaning towards the latter as it feels more organized and less overwhelming).
But whichever path I take, I hope to type up all my notes and solutions on LaTeX and post it publicly (mostly a GitHub repo). I realise that doing this is not even remotely as rigorous as actually taking the course at university and being graded for it, but I would like to try.
My question is, how do graduate admissions committees and potential supervisors view self-studying of this sort? Does it carry any importance?
Note: I hope to apply to graduate schools in USA/Canada/Germany. My research experiences are all in Physics. This question is pretty similar to mine, but this question is for a specific CS course, and I would like a more generalized answer.


texts: When are authors on publications in Google Scholar clickable

texts:
Whenever one searches for publications on Google Scholar, some of the authors of some publications are clickable (underlined / hyperlinked), but others aren't.

What determines this behavior? Is there a way to manage this as an author?

I have a few publications that are in my profile, but I am not clickable as an author in some of them when searching for the publication.


texts: Inline Citations and Abbreviation/Acronym locations

texts:
The question I have is two-fold, but it's basically the same question for citations and abbreviations.
Let's say that I'm writing a thesis and I want to briefly mention a term which I hope to define later and which after defining, I'd like to refer to using an abbreviation/acronym. (Whether this is a good idea is a separate concern...I understand it usually is not)
Should I place the abbreviation in parenthesis after I first mention the term, or after I define it (Also the last time I plan on using the term un-abbreviated)?
I'm also wondering about the same exact question, but for inline citations.


texts: Following up on an email to a potential adviser for feedback on research proposal?

texts:
The graduate program to which I am applying has a centralized admission procedure, so individual professors cannot accept students. However, they recommend taking a look at the faculty, so that our research proposals are aligned with the work being done there. (Un)fortunately, the field I'd like to work in is quite unexplored, which might help me — but also makes it hard to find professors with a similar interest.

While browsing the faculty Web site, I found the professor whose research aligns most with my intended research proposal and whose page explicitly encouraged potential students to get in touch, so I emailed her to ask if (1) she thought our interests would be compatible and/or (2) she thought that someone else in the department could be interested in following me. It was a thoughtful email, a brief introduction and references to her previous work. It's been a week and she hasn't replied yet — and with professors I've learned that if they don't reply within a day, they probably missed your email, or they saw it but forgot it immediately after.

I really would like to follow up on my email, because the holiday break is approaching. I'd really like some feedback on my proposal before I submit it in early January. I also think that showing that I got in touch with the faculty would help my application. However, I also don't want to seem too insistent, because it might hurt my chances. Should I email her again? How long should I wait before I do so? Or maybe she did not reply in the first place because my email was inappropriate?

Also, there are a few other professors who might be compatible with my research proposal. Would it be good etiquette to email them too?


texts: Should I put the papers that I contributed only a little to on my CV

texts:
When I was a undergraduate student, I worked in a professor's lab doing research about "A". I helped the senior members to do some work they didn't want to do, like designing a website for their demos, or doing some basic calculations. You don't have to have the background knowledge of A to do that work. Then they added me on two papers, though I was always the last one. Afterwards, during my master study, I conducted real research individually in another field "B". Now I am trying to apply for study in an interdisciplinary field that merges fields A and B.

The problem is I know little about A. I am a afraid that the professors in the admission committee would ask me something about A and I definitely can't answer. And they would think I lied, which I didn't. Should I put the papers on my CV?


texts: What are good practices for sharing protocols online

texts:
We're beginning a fairly large effort to share the vast number of protocols accumulated in our lab and pushing them all to the cloud. Naturally, you don't want the knowledge of older graduate students lost when they graduate.

We have had experience with putting all of this information into OpenWetWare but there is a small but non-trivial learning curve with the wiki-format. Another possibility would be to create living documents with google docs and organize the links in a wiki format. Finally, there is always the dropbox method of having a bunch of files in folders. I was curious about good methods to create a repository of protocols.


texts: Is it legal to accept a later offer (e.g., came after 15 April), despite having previously accepted an offer from a university before 15 April?

texts: I have received a really good graduate admission offer from a reputable university in the US but without any funding offer. As I have to accept their admission offer by 15 April and since I haven't yet received offers from some of the universities that I've applied to, so I wanted to know whether it is okay and legal to accept a later offer (e.g., which came after 15 April) with funding, despite having previously accepted an offer (without funding) from a university before 15 April. Thanks.