texts: Should I 'admit' a weakness of a paper even if it's 'obvious'?

texts:
Example: I have a simulation to run that requires social media data sets. The data sets that actually matter are too big to be able to simulate anything useful on. Instead, I picked a data set that's much smaller that had similar properties and I (hoped) would therefore have similar behavior.

One thing I discovered was that different data sets, even when they're of a similar size, can behave radically different in ways that I'm not exactly able to predict from those properties.

Obviously this is a major weakness of the paper, because now I don't have a way to even guarantee that those 'similar properties' even matter anymore.


texts: Do Springer, IEEE, Elsevier charge a fee for non-open-access journals?

texts:
My PhD advisor and lab colleagues think that Springer, IEEE and Elsevier journals non-open-access charge authors for publishing a paper. (They usually only publish in local journals.) All the info I've found points to the contrary (except for "gold" open access journals, which do charge authors), but all I've found are people commenting on particular journals saying that they do not charge.

Nonetheless, I've found very few journals that explicitly say "submission and publication is free of charge". For example, JAIR mentions that there aren't any submission fees, but does not mention publication fees.  Frontiers of Computer Science does not mention charges at all in their instructions for authors.

I'm sorry if it's a stupid question, but I can't for the life of me find any definitive yes/no information online. (I don't have a concrete journal in mind since this all started because we are looking for one, but it'd have to be a machine learning/artificial intelligence journal.)
Do Springer, IEEE and Elsevier journals generally charge an author fee for their non-open-access journals? It may include submission fees or post-acceptance fees as well as page or figure charges.


texts: Impact of a W for grad school if I'm changing majors?

texts: I'm changing my major to philosophy from computer science in the middle of a semester, and I'm doing pretty poorly in one of my math classes. My advisor told me it would be a good idea to drop it since I'm changing my major. Would it have any impact in grad school admissions, especially if I want to go to a highly reputable school?


texts: What could be the title of a power point presentation for a PostDoc Interview?

texts:
Postdoctoral research jobs always ask to make a presentation of past and present research and future plan. So I am wondering what could be the title of such type of power point presentations. Is it Okay to keep the title of the PhD thesis? Or it should be blank or something else? Would you please share your experiences.

Field: Atmospheric Science


texts: My internship is going to sponsor my bachelor's thesis (which will require more hours in the office). Should I ask for more money?

texts:
I have worked for the past year as an intern in a company that is partly based in my university. I have been receiving a scholarship for my work.

We agreed on how much time I was going to spend at the company and how much money I would receive. My scholarship amount was determined by the time I agreed to work monthly, at least that was how it was explained to me.

During the interview for this position, we agreed that I would do my bachelor project here, which basically means I will do the research they need and then write my bachelor thesis about it. This is a win-win for everyone, because instead of working ON TOP of school, I would work for the company AND work on my degree at the same time. The company benefits from this because it allows me to spend more hours weekly working.

My work on the bachelor thesis is about to start, which means I will be able to spend about twice the amount of time in the office than before. My boss and coworkers expect me to be more often in the office.

I would like to get double the scholarship, but I heard from someone who was in the same position as me in the past that his scholarship did not increase and he was told that he would have to do the work for his bachelor project anyway, so even though he spent more time working, he received the same scholarship.

This is basically free work for the company. I don't like working for free. Is this normal? I will try negotiating, but what should I do if the boss doesn't change his view? One thing I was considering was that if they don't increase my scholarship, I would spend the same time in the office as before and do the rest of the work at home/elsewhere, which is more convenient for me.

Everything is already agreed, I can't change my bachelor project (do a different one, for a different company) without delaying my degree by at least half a year, so basically the company now holds my academic progress hostage, which from what I have heard is the situation of some PhD students.


texts: How do I create a useful learning objective?

texts:
I am preparing a lesson plan and I unable to write objective of this session in a correct way.

My question is how do we state objectives of sessions such as:

1- Avoiding common mistakes in Email
2- Avoiding common mistakes when meeting someone for the first time
3- Avoiding common mistakes in writing

They all have one objective and that is  how to avoid common mistakes(and save yourself from jeopardizing your career, for example in case of emails).

I want to understand how do we present this objective to the audience or students.

My attempt is something like this:

At the end of the session the participants would be able to understand how to avoid common mistakes in email communication that can lead to serious issues

But I am not very please with this statement. Really appreciate your help in drafting a good objective phrase.


texts: What do I put on my publication list if I have no publications?

texts:
I am applying for a lecturer position at a university, and one of the application materials is a publication list.

I am a graduate student in my last year of PhD, and I plan on focusing my job search on teaching positions. I currently have no publications, nor will I have any anytime soon.

It looks like on the application, I have to upload something in order to submit it. What do I upload if I have no publications?

I was considering just a page that says "no publications" but I thought I would check here before I make a move.

For context, I am a student in mathematics. I have been told that it is not unusual to have no publications as a math PhD student.


texts: Email a department head as student recommending a professor for a tenure position

texts:
I’m an undergrad student at a small liberal arts school, and while communicating with a professor whom I’ve had a course with, they mentioned they are applying for a tenure position in the department I am majoring in.

Is it appropriate for me to send a short email to the department head mentioning my support for hiring this professor? I feel rather strongly about this because I’d very much like to take more courses with this professor, and would be disappointed were they not hired. Also, I feel like I have a piece of information that is to this professors benefit that the hiring committee know, but may not come up from other sources.

I have not taken a course with the department head but I have met with them a handful of times and we know each other to some degree.

Thanks!


texts: Is it self-plagiarism to repurpose a government report into a journal article?

texts: I wrote a report to the state department of transportation for a research project they sponsored. Can I use the same texts/paragraphs from the report to write journal articles? In other words, does it consider plagiarism to do that? I am the author of both, the report and the research papers. Does the final report for a project consider a published work?


texts: Short term grant for travel/relocation costs when starting a PhD

texts: I've been accepted into a PhD program in Bielefeld, and I'm also waiting on a response from ETH Zurich. The thing is, moving to either place from the Netherlands is expensive, and then I need to find a place and pay for deposit and administration costs, and furnishing if so. Does anyone know short term grants for starting students that I can use to fund my first month of PhD while I get my first pay check?


texts: How do disabled computer scientists publish?

texts: Given that computer scientists publish in conferences, which typically require that presenters be present, how do computer scientists who are disabled, have broken legs due to a car accident, or have any similar travel restrictions, publish?


texts: I have an undergraduate degree and no research experience -- how to begin now?

texts:
I recently earned an undergraduate degree in computer science*. I had no interest in going to grad school, so I focused purely on coursework. I have no research experience.

I am now more open to the idea of further education, and I think life will be more fulfilling if I produce knowledge than if I just apply my knowledge in developing a product.

How can I get started on research in a way that will (1) let me know if it is something I want to spend my life doing, and (2) pave the way to a PhD in CS if I decide it is something I want to do? (I ask this question under the assumption that applying for a PhD is off the table for now because I do not yet know if I even like research, and even if I did know that, I have no research experience to show off and no one to write letters of recommendation that vouch for me as a researcher.)

Could I...

Get a master's degree? (Tuition and moving out of state are a steep price to pay just to see if I like something. Plus, I doubt my potential to get into a good program due to a lack of CS professors who know me well enough to write a letter of recommendation for me.)
Enroll in a post-baccalaureate program with a non-CS major (e.g. math) just to be an undergraduate again and have professors to do some research with, even if I do not intend to complete another undergraduate degree?
Get an entry level software development job and move from there into R&D?
Get a job as a research assistant for university faculty? (Or volunteer to do it for free?)

Whatever the answer, I need the opportunity to prove myself to someone who can write a letter of recommendation that is taken seriously for PhD admissions. (I originally titled this question "How to get LoRs with no undergraduate research experience" until I realized the scope of my question was much wider than how to get into a PhD program. Getting LoRs is still essential, though -- if I decide I want a PhD, then I need to have a shot at it.)

*Or rather, I will in six months -- this question is from a future perspective. I am also considering the options I have before graduating, but those are for another question. The point of this question is: if none of those options work out, then what other options will I have left?


texts: Should I take a tutor job or a research job in a company before going to grad school?

texts:
I have about one free year before I go to grad school and I would like to go to work. I live with my family (I'm Asian by the way) and so gaining experience is my priority, not salary. What job will help me maximize the skills that I would need during my grad school? I have two options below, but I'm open for any advise.
Tutoring
You know, in Sinosphere countries, there is a pressure to get to university, so high school students need to study at night in "academies" beside the daytime they study at schools. I will help the teachers there help them solving homeworks. This center is founded by a famous mathematician in my country and seems to operate pretty well (but I suspect no foreigner know since he has switched to teaching a long time ago). I confident in my ability of explaining. Here are the advantages to choose this job:

know how being a TA is like.
have to spend only 6 to 10 hours a week so that I can have time to search for professors.
I have an idea about running a science channel in YouTube, like Vsauce or Veritasium. This is because our country is lack of good material for study. Small part of this motive is for building my reputation. With teaching, I can prepare for some materials and have first audience to get their feedback. It may be unlikely to help me to get admission, but if I succeed, I can have some reputation in media. May I will need it in the future?

Data researcher
The second one is being a data researcher in a technology company. I'm not sure about the working time but I think it will like any other company. I have sent them an email explaining that my major is not data (I study physics) and I'm not a PhD either, but then they reply that I need to send them my CV first (I haven't because I'm in a middle of medical treatment, but it will be over soon). Does this indicate that I'm suitable for them? Here are the advantages to choose this job:

working in an English environment, in one of the world leading companies in its niche. Very good for my CV.
Have a chance to expertise a programming language (Python). I'm not sure if Python is the second language beside English in academia or not, but I have seen a lot of science programs written in Python. I need to code in grad school anyway.
Know what the outside world looks like.

I know that this question is lengthy, and I appreciate for your reading. Thank you in advance.


texts: issue with discontinued or missing journal

texts:
I published a couple of papers for the International Journal of Security and Its Applications which was run by a publisher called SERSC (Science and Engineering Research Support Society). The link in Scimago is the following:
https://www.scimagojr.com/journalsearch.php?q=21100199112&tip=sid

One of my papers was indexed in Scopus and the other one was indexed by ESCI. The reason for that is that in 2017, approximately, Scopus stopped indexing this journal.

The problem is that since November of this year the journal and the publisher links are not accessible; some authors also have claimed through Scimago that the emails of the editors are not actually working. The question that I have is what to do with the two articles that were published in that journal? Because it is no longer accessible, should I put it on my personal web page? Or just wait and see?

In general, what can an author do with their published works when the journal "disappears" eventually?


texts:
What exactly is the definition of self-citation? I have looked around but I cannot seem to find a definition. There is even a publication, but I cannot access it at the moment. Also I would like to have a definition here on Academia SE.

For example, say I publish paper with a co-author. Then my co-author cites this paper in another publication in which I am not involved. This is clearly a self-citation for him, but is it also a self-citation for me? Does my indirect involvement suffice to make this a self-citation for me?

Maybe there are other ambiguous cases, feel free to edit the question.


texts: As an Australian student who wants to end up in academia, should I do a PhD or postdoc somewhere other than Australia?

texts:
I'm a second year undergraduate psychology student in Australia. As a mature-age student, I have a very clear focus in that, I'd like to transition from my undergraduate degree to a PhD, post doc and into academia proper.

It is hard to pin professors down for "pathway" advice.

I am currently working in a lab as a research assistant where I am involved in the publication of a few articles and working with a PhD student and post doc on writing up a few experiments for submission. Whether the journal accepts it or not, the experience gained from submitting and receiving feedback will be invaluable (I hope!).

I am not sure whether to stay and complete my PhD in Australia or apply at another University overseas (UK or US). Alternatively, I could wait until the PhD is completed and then apply for post doc positions overseas (I have a dream of doing a PhD or post doc at Stanford (US) or Cambridge (UK)).

Is there a better place to do my PhD other than Australia? What about post doc?
In Australia being published or not isn't considered during application for PhD but is it necessary for the U.S. or UK?


texts: MOOC / video integration into classroom schedule

texts:
Please forgive the rambling intro...

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are all the rage when people write about teaching. So many articles have been written about MOOCs killing universities while others complain about the attention. Some have even discussed some community colleges using MOOCs with the classroom teacher filling more of a tutorial role using MOOCs for the bulk of their material.

As I reflect on my own classroom experience (as a lecturer) I find that a lot of my time is spent covering the basics while it would be much more interesting to focus on higher-level concepts. However, in the end, I have only a certain number of hours in the class with my students. If I have 60 hours and it takes 50 hours to cover the basics, there is little time remaining to cover much in the way of higher-level ideas.

So, I've been considering assigning MOOC videos as homework and using class time as discussion time, much the way one would using the case method. While my experience with the case method has not been fantastic, I'm not ready to give up on it yet.

My question is: What is the best way to integrate MOOC videos or other videos as part of the curriculum? Are there any major pitfalls that I should consider before completing my plan for the coming semester?


texts: Making sense of U.S. assist. prof. salaries: gross vs net, 9 vs. 12 months

texts:
Having recently received a PhD in Economics from a European university, I am entering the academic job market for economists this year. I am targeting research-intense, PhD-granting universities in the U.S. and Canada. I am thinking about Tier 4-5 institutions (certainly not Tier 1 or 2, I do not think I would have a chance there).

I am now trying to wrap my head around the quoted salaries for tenure-track assistant professorships. Having little clue of 9 vs. 12 month appointments, notions like "nominal academic year salary" and the like, I am trying to figure the gross annual salaries from the job adds. After that I am interested in deriving the corresponding net salaries; my lack of familiarity with the U.S. or the Canadian tax systems certainly does not help here.

For example, "Survey of the Labor Market for New Ph.D. Hires In Economics 2015-16" reports "expected and actual offers" on p. 8. Should I understand this is the actual annual gross salary, or should I divide or multiply it by 9/12, or add or deduct something?
Similarly, "American Economic Association Universal Academic Questionnaire Summary Statistics" (2016) list "nominal academic year salaries" in their tables. Are these the actual gross annual salaries, or..?

Once you help me figure out how to infer the gross annual salary, the next step would be to tell approximately what net salary that would correspond to. Should I expect to earn, say, 60,000 net given 100,000 gross? When I say "net", I am interested in hard cash going directly into my pocket. I would not consider any pension or insurance contributions that circumvent my pocket as part of the net salary. I am interested in how much money I would have at the end of the day to pay the bills and to put food on my family's table.

In short, what I am looking for is a brief introduction into the U.S./Canadian academic salary accounting accompanied with a couple of examples.

Edit: The first two answers focus more (although not entirely) on gross vs. net salaries (where taxes etc. feature prominently). However, I am still very much interested in how to read the job adds as well as tables with salary comparisons. That is, does the nominal figure typically equal the gross annual salary, or not exactly? What about my two examples mentioned above?


texts: Expectations for a research student at a Japanese university

texts:
I have recently decided to enter a grad school in one of the Japanese universities (namely, TiTech). It seems that the general recommendation is to start as a non-degree research student first and prepare for entrance exam while being a research student. After reading this question, I still don't understand what is expected from a research student. On one hand, it is a first step before doing a masters degree, on the other - I find the explanation very confusing. After all, the word "reasearch" in "research student" is there for a reason, right?

My question is - do I have to come up with a research proposal before contacting my potential academic supervisor? I have found a professor doing a research in field I am interested in (inductive and abductive logic programming in AI), but the problem is that this is not something you can get experience with in undergraduate studies. It doesn't come up in an undergraduate curriculum, so I have only a general understanding of the topic. Starting a novel research (if that's what research student should do) without some background will be very hard. Yet I cannot get this background unless I get at least an Ms in AI first.

This is especially worrying given my background. I graduated from my university 10 years ago and was employed all this time as a software engineer. I have a good GPA (4.99 out of 5), and I lived and worked in Japan for 6 years and got a JLPT N2 certificate. However my bachelor thesis was about image processing, not about AI, and in any case it is not particularly relevant after so many years in industry.


texts: Alternative citation index for papers with 600+ citations?

texts:
I have a memory of seeing an alternative citation index being defined, being the number of papers with more than 600 citations. In other words, something like the i10 index, but with i=600 instead.
The way I recall it, this was more or less tounge in cheek, but I think it was used by some people in the computer animation community (e.g. Ronald Fedkiw). Now, trying to look it up, I fail to find any references to this index.
Does anyone else recall seeing this, or am I mistaken?


texts: How can I gain access to a database to which my university does not have access

texts:
I'm a PhD-student in economics and I'm planning a scientific paper on a certain topic. For this purpose I need access to data from an economic database. There exist several companies, which provide the desired datasets in their databases.
But the problem is that my university has no access to any of these databases. It is also possible to buy certain datasets there individually, but my research budget is far from sufficient to buy this data.

So I would like to ask if there is a possibility to get such data on another way?

I had already considered whether it makes sense to write this article with a researcher from another university that has access to one of these databases.
The disadvantage in this case is that the name of the other researcher stands on my paper without having made any significant contribution.

Furthermore I thought about doing a short research stay at a foreign university, which has access to a database. However, this is hardly feasible under the current global circumstances.

Unfortunately, my PhD-supervisor also has no answer to my problem.

I would be very happy if someone in a similar situation has found a solution and can tell me about it. I would like to ask not only specifically in the field of economics but in general. It may be that the solution can be transferred from another area to mine.


texts: Submitting a manuscript that is not ready yet just to fulfil a contract

texts:
I am part (working part time) of a research project that is funded by the government in another European country (not the one I live in). As part of my contract with that project, I'm required to submit a manuscript reporting the research to a peer-reviewed journal by a deadline.

However, because of unforeseen circumstances (mainly related to methods that didn't work as expected), the manuscript was not ready for submission by the deadline. In fact, it received very critical responses when presented at a conference earlier this year, and it is clear that major changes have to be done before it is ready to submit. That conference is organised by the same association that publishes the two journals that I had in mind when writing the paper, so I think that I should heed their advice.

Yet, I'm being forced to submit it by the deadline or I will face a fine. My co-author, who is from that other country, has been very clear that I have to submit the article, period. That co-author has been very helpful in buying me time, but the changes needed are very time demanding (I need to basically re-do the whole study), and I'm not working full time on that project.

What is the most sensible thing to do? Can I just submit it anyway? I thought about sending it to a journal where I expect it to be desk-rejected just to fulfill my contract, and then do the necessary changes to submit to the journal I originally intended to send it to. Would it be ethical? What other options do I have?


texts: Slides for 30 min~1 hr Skype tenure track application interview

texts:
Is it good to prepare slides to present during the video chat even if the search committee say you don't need to prepare slides?

What's the strategy of impressing them then?


texts: I uploaded my test questions to a website (so I could cheat), but then thought better of it and didn't use the answers. How to proceed?

texts: So, I was taking my exam, and there were two questions I really had no clue on, and I was running out of time on. So I quickly went to a website and posted pictures of my exam questions and asked for answers. I immediately regretted doing so, and went to delete them, when I realized, it wasn’t possible. I then started freaking out, shaking, crying, etc. I know it was wrong, and I really don’t know why I did it. I just didn’t want to fail. They haven't seen it yet, and I hope they don’t ever, I didn’t even use it on the test, and was too frazzled to even fully finish the exam. I don’t know what to do, and my heart has been racing for 12 hours now, and I haven’t been able to sleep. The schools policy is essentially that the teacher will decide what happens, unless I already have a record, where the school will decide to expel me. I know I haven’t even been caught or anything, but I just want to do the right thing here, because I know it was wrong. But I also don’t want to possibly get expelled.


texts: Citing contributors to open source project when publishing to Zenodo

texts:
appleseed, our open source (MIT) physically-based rendering software, is used in various circles, one of them being academia.

We have been asked to obtain a DOI so that our software could be cited. We're planning to publish our releases to Zenodo.

GitHub currently lists 69 contributors on our main repository. Should we consider all of them as authors of the software, or would it be more appropriate to somehow select a subset of the contributors?

If the latter, how should we define such a subset? We have all kinds of contributors: one-time contributors, occasional contributors, regular contributors, core contributors, project owners, Google Summer of Code students, mentors... Who should we include or exclude?

Edit 1: here is a paper that seems relevant:

Smith AM, Katz DS, Niemeyer KE, FORCE11 Software Citation Working Group. 2016. Software citation principles. PeerJ Computer Science 2:e86
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj-cs.86

Edit 2: here is a tentative publication of our latest official release to Zenodo:
https://zenodo.org/record/3384658


texts: Student requesting to cover/reduce Mandatory Overlength Page Charge for IEEE Transaction

texts: I along with my previous Professor had submitted a journal article to an IEEE Transaction. It got accepted now while I no longer work with him. Our accepted article has a page length 15 and the Mandatory Overlength Page Charge is 220$ after 8 pages. Due to funding issue, my previous Professor would only be able to pay for 3 extra pages at max. Would it be helpful if I write a mail to the concerned journal's Editor explaining my problem? Has any student got such waiver in the past?


texts: make sense of index terms in dl.acm.org website

texts:
I am a graduate student. I plan to submit my master project this year.
While browsing relevant papers in my research field, I wonder how making sense of index terms on the site dl.acm.org
For an example, consider this link: dl.acm.org.


texts: Can an F1-visa student pursuing masters in US teach in community college?

texts: Is it possible for an international student who is pursuing masters in USA, to teach in a community college after MS as a full time employee? I am interested in teaching and I work as a teaching assistant for undergraduates. I conduct classes to these students thrice a week and I really enjoy the experience. I would like to look for job opportunities in teaching field with a Masters degree. Are community colleges a good shot or are there any other similar opportunities?


texts:
Is age a hindrance of getting acceptance in a PhD program?

For instance, what if a student applies at the age of 45 for an admission?


texts:
I have a question regarding proper usages of a citation number after the "etc" word.
So the sentence goes like this:

This is a random sentence about words and etc. Here is another
sentence. Now If I would like to cite, should the number in brackets
be before the dot, or after?

Option 1:

This is a random sentence about words and etc [1]. Here is another sentence.

Option 2:

This is a random sentence about words and etc. [1] Here is another sentence.

I have no idea which one is correct. I would appreciate all help!


texts: Is it plagiarism to hire a freelance programmer for an assignment but change a lot of it before you submit it?

texts:
I took freelancer tutor help for a Python programming coursework  during my MS but did not submit the exact code he gave, I refracted it and changed a lot of it. Is it considered plagiarism?

I am asking this question to clear the self-guilt and to know more about code plagiarism.


texts: Interpreting academic applications' timeframe requirements

texts:
Based on my limited experience in academic job search, most advertisements for academic positions (it seems, more often the faculty ones) include phrase, similar to the following:

  To guarantee full consideration, applications must be received by
  DATE.

I am curious about the strictness of that requirement, in other words, what "full consideration" really implies. The requirement seems to be relative, but to what extent? Moreover, I'd love to hear your advice on best strategy, if any, in terms of applying to positions, where the specified date has already passed, but the position advertisement is still active. Just ignore the requirement and apply? Are there any differences in that regard between faculty positions and postdoctoral positions? Is there anything else that I need to know?


texts: How to efficiently progress on a complex problem in research?

texts:
I am writing my master thesis in game theory and realized one type of situation where I am often stuck for a long time and feel frustration creeping in. It is, to no surprise, when facing a complex situation: one with too many variables or different cases to look at.

Example setting: I build a model and look at some equilibrium points as results. The different equilibria are conditioned on many parameters such as the income of people, their social ties, their level of empathy etc. My task is to understand these conditions in order to be able to generalize some of the results.

Example being stuck: I a-priori think that the plan to crack this issue is to look at each equilibrium individually and understand the conditions for that case and then move on and in the end put everything together, I know it is going to be annoying but at some point it will just work. Unfortunately, I often fail to stick to the plan when the conditions for a certain equilibrium point are hard to understand, my mind starts to go back and forth, loosing focus and in the end failing to understand the situation at hand. I usually succeed by repeatedly going the same way again and again, but it is very costly.

I know this isn't something specific to me, this happens to many/most people when the problem contains too many cases, variables or causal links.

Do you have tips or resources on how to best handle problems like these?


texts: Making a change from Chemistry to Computer Science

texts:
I am set to graduate with a bachelors degree in Chemistry in the fall, however, I feel as if I am making a mistake.  I feel that my true passion lies in computer science.

I love research, everything from the frustration to the feeling of making progress, and I would love to do something involving academia in the future.

I learned python and data science from online courses and really became interested in it when I took some probability and statistics classes and my professors showed us what they were doing.  I feel like that would be something I would enjoy doing, data, machine learning, bioinformatics, etc.

My question is, I'm not sure how to proceed.  Should I graduate and return to school for a second bachelor in CS?  Should I change my major and stay an extra year or two?  Self-learn?

Thank you and I'm sorry if this is the wrong board to post.  I really don't know where else to turn!

Thank you


texts: My conference paper is not published in IEEE Xplore because we didn't fill the copyright form in time

texts:
We sent a paper to a conference and it was accepted.
We presented it and everything was fine.
Yesterday I accidentally see that the conference is indexed in IEEE Xplore, But our paper is not among the papers.
I emailed the conference and they said it is because we didn't reply to the IEEE email.
There wasn't any email from IEEE in my inbox, it was sent to my friend who was the first author. And he missed that email.
Now, what can we do? We filled the process today, Is there anything we could do to make our paper appear in IEEE Xplore?


texts: Getting in between another teacher and his student

texts:
One subject I teach is also taught by another teacher at my university. Usually we do not both teach this subject during the same semester but sometimes we do. Students do not get to choose their teacher, the are assigned into one class or the other.

This has introduced a strange dynamic in that some of the other teacher's students have come to me asking for information about the subject, since they know I also teach it. So far, I've been quite hesitant to answer any such questions because I am worried about getting in between the other teacher and his students. I can imagine that I might have an answer that is different than the other teacher (perhaps my answer is wrong, perhaps my answer is right, and perhaps both of us are right but we have different ways of looking at a problem). The issue is compounded by the fact that I am from the West but the other teacher is Asian so there are cultural issues at play here (and I'm in Asia so it's not my culture).

I imagine this would be less of an issue in subjects like math where there is a specific formula but in management subjects the perspective of the teacher can change things significantly, especially if one teacher might be less strong in the subject than the other.

So, what should a teacher in this situation do? Refer the student to their teacher? If they feel they cannot get an acceptable answer then refer them to a search engine? Should I jump in if they feel they are lost and their teacher is not helping them understand (this seems like it could cause serious problems, even if handled well)?


texts: Is it ethical to use a textbook required for a class that was easily found online?

texts:
I am taking an online class that requires a textbook to be purchased. I have found the book through my first simple search using the Google search engine. The website where I found the book seems to be foreign and not related to the original authors. Is it ethical for me to use the free version that I have easily found online and not purchase the book?
Edit: I think there is a valid distinction between resources found on controversial websites like SciHub and the Google search engine. Furthermore, my intentions were to purchase the book before I stumbled upon it in the first few search results.


texts: How can you tell if a faculty or group is on decline? Am I being used?

texts:
I am currently deciding graduate school between several different groups in my school's engineering department. A few faculty in electronics, signal processing and control system has expressed interest in working with me.

When I talk to some of the current graduate students, I get a wide variety of opinions. What bothers me is that some graduate students tells me that a certain group is on "decline". They rarely clarify what this means, but to me it can mean several things.

the output from the group is inconsistent
funding is lacking
output is not applicable to come up with a product
(follows from 3) work too theoretical and deviates from engineering goal

If a group is on decline, then regardless of the reason, under normal circumstances I will not even consider joining. What surprises me is that this group which has been rumored to be on the decline is very keen on recruiting new graduates. In particular, I have experienced more of a "pull" from that particular group than any other group which has expressed interest. There are early admissions, talk about funding, offer of teaching assistance-ship. I am starting to wonder if they need me so to acquire more funding for their own research or if there are some other ulterior motives.

Can someone who works within academia clarify on what it could mean for a group to be on decline, so much that it is apparent to people who are outside of that group.

Also what interest me personally is what ulterior motive could a graduate unit have in recruiting new graduates aside from the expressed interest in publishing more beautiful papers.

Thanks


texts: Is participating in professional forums good or bad for my career?

texts:
I enjoy being a part of several different academic and social groups online that are of interest to my field.  As a Ph.D. student, I am now wondering if I should distance myself from online forums such as these.

My field is Psychology, which can be very controversial and heated with lots of options about what is the right way to approach situations and solutions.  I have been involved in some lengthy, spirited discussions on these sites in the past.

Questions:

Could participating in online professional forums related to my field become a hindrance in the future for both my Ph.D. and future work?
Should I "scrub" my presence in these groups (especially the one that are more social than academic and accredited)?


texts: Is there Visiting Administrator in academia?

texts:
I am event manager in our university. I see that academics are very mobile through visiting scholar plans. I wonder if you have every seen mobility of university administrators?

I am very interested to go and voluntarily work in the event office of another university to earn new experiences.

Before contacting some universities to see if they have such possibility, I wanted to hear from people here, if it is a feasible and common idea or ridiculous one.


texts: I am writing a paper, need some review. I want to send it to IEEE, without the name of my co-authors. I might get acceptance. I need to know, in that case, will I be allowed to add my co-authors or not?


texts: When does the "run, don't walk to the nearest exit" advice not apply to graduate students?

texts:
From reading the many, many questions here on Academia.SE, I sometimes wonder when is the "run, don't walk to the nearest exit" type of advice unreasonable and not applicable?

For instance, when I have just gotten out of a tough, intensive hours long meeting with my advisor, I often feel "abused", embarrassed, or worn out mentally; and I start to come on this site and read about other students' experiences, and the details they provide start to sound very familiar to my own experiences.

But I wonder if advisors are just pushing their graduate students to become better, and perhaps that students just don't have the right sense of what is expected of them and need to be forced to learn it properly.

What distinguishes tough, intense advising, with good intentions, from "real" abuse / malicious activity on the part of the advisor?  I find that it's sort of hard to tell who's being whiny or who's being legitimately used and abused and need to escape their situation immediately.


texts:
What are some useful sources for investigating common salary ranges for academics? This would be especially useful if it can be broken down by region, school type, position, and/ or institution.

This information is invaluable for going into an interview or negotiation process being (at least somewhat) informed.

I know some websites across the internet that attempt to generally provide this information, but many do not cover academic jobs effectively (or typically at all).

See here for a discussion of this topic for UK schools.

And here or here are two of many SE questions discussing How to handle salary negotiations.


texts: To what extent do doctoral advisors "pick" their grad students?

texts:
I am just starting a graduate program in physics. I have read a few posts describing what a PhD student should think about when looking for an advisor, but I have a question regarding the advisor's perspective: what do graduate advisors look for, generally speaking, in their prospective advisees? I.e. what is the relative importance of research background, grades, and other factors?

I have been told by some older students that (assuming there was sufficient funding) if there is a personality mesh and the student's work ethic is solid then an advisor will tend to accept a grad student, or is the process more nuanced/competitive?


texts: Is it reasonable for a guest lecturer/class speaker to ask for a stipend?

texts:
I'm not in academia currently, but a former professor from grad school has asked me a few times if I would give a talk to his classes based on my professional experience.

I have said yes the past two times because I like this professor and was honored that he would ask me; I also enjoy teaching, and felt that speaking to his class would be an interesting opportunity. But, I also looked upon it as a favor because as a non-academic, these things aren't going on my CV.

He's now asked me a third time, and I am wondering at what point it might be appropriate to ask for a small stipend. The presentations last about 30-45 minutes with questions, and I do put a considerable amount of effort into preparing for them, plus the time spent travelling to campus. I'm not sure if I would describe myself as more of a visiting speaker or a guest lecturer in this situation because the talks are less about me and more about the field I work in. The classes are at well-known law schools; by contrast, I have received stipends in the past for speaking at events at much smaller colleges.

Is it customary to receive a stipend in this situation, or should I consider this more of a favor to a colleague?


texts: Do international students need to take the SAT and TOEFL to study in the US?

texts:
I am from Colombia and would like to do grad school in the United States.

It seems in order to study I need to take the SAT and TOEFL exams? Is this correct or does it depend on the university?


texts: Discipline clarification or field of study

texts:
The boundaries between academic fields have blurred to such an extend that many studies today are interdisciplinary in nature.

My PhD is in the social sciences. It was located in the Faculty of Arts at the university. It is a blend of sociology, organisational economics, public policy and a bit of psychology.

I am wondering if a term like "social economics" is appropriate to describe my study. (It is neither "social" nor "economic" in the 'pure' sense.)

My university will just award me with a PhD but I want my CV to be more descriptive.

How does the academic community view these types of descriptions?


texts: Should I send private email to department's dean after sending faculty job application?

texts:
There is one exciting job opportunity that I am willing to apply.
The dean, I think, may know me because I have met him in a couple of conferences and I have been on a discussion panel once (as a Ph.D. student) in a conference which his department organized.

But he is a big shot, and he may know a thousand young aspirants like me. Will it be wise to send him an email or will it give a bad impression that I am trying to cajole him?


texts: The first teaching job: prior knowledge or do people get trained?

texts:
I am soon going to finish my PhD (neuroscience; India) and am interested in working as a post-doctoral fellow, eventually going down the teaching and research line. My question is specifically about teaching. So far, I have had zero formal teaching experience (unfortunately such opportunities do not exist at my institute).

How does one go about learning how to develop and design a course and to get a grasp of teaching to undergraduate/graduate students? I have seen some questions here and also some job postings (from various countries). A lot of them require you to come and even give a demonstration of your teaching style, or be aware of latest teaching methods, or to give examples of how you would design a course and so forth. Do young faculties/post-doctoral researchers get trained in these areas or are you expected to have figured it out by the time it comes to applying for a faculty position?


texts: Clear colormap for figures when printed?

texts:
I often produce figures with a surface with quantitative data attached, plotted in a heatmap type style (see figure).

Previously, I've used the default matlab colormap for this but I recently noticed how terrible this is when printed black & white, the high and low colors appear the same.

Is there a better/recommended colormap I should use to improve clarity when printed.

Related: Are there good reasons to avoid using color in research papers?


texts: When is it acceptable to issue an update to a manuscript that is still under review?

texts:
16 months ago, I finished a paper A and submitted it to a journal X. It is currently still under review. (For the journal's defence, it must be said that the paper is quite long - 89 pages).

This paper contains a proposition (let's call it A.1) whose proof relies on a lemma (let's call it A.2). However neither this proof, nor even the statement of Lemma A.2, have been given explicitly in paper A. Instead, I just wrote: "the proof of Proposition A.1 is analogous to the proof of Proposition a.1 from my earlier paper a".

(That earlier paper contains a detailed proof of Proposition a.1, which is done by using a lemma a.2. The results a.1 and a.2 are basically special cases of A.1 and A.2; the statements, and proofs, of the results A.x are very closely parallel to the statements and proofs of the results a.x - you can obtain the former from the latter by a simple search-and-replace.)

In the meanwhile, I wrote another paper B, that heavily relies on the results of paper A. In particular, at some point, I actually needed lemma A.2. So I made explicit the statement of A.2, and refered to paper A for the proof.

I submitted paper B to a journal Y, where it was rejected. The editor said that the result was not good enough for the journal (fine; I'll aim lower next time), but also said that the reviewers complained about the reference to paper A for the proof of A.2 (which did not explicitly appear there). They were understandably confused by this; reading my paper failed to convince them that my argument has no gaps.

Is it acceptable to email the editor of journal X and send them an updated version of paper A, where I make explicit the proof of Proposition A.1 (by stating and proving Lemma A.2)?

Now to rebut some of the obvious answers:

Redoing the proof of lemma A.2 in paper B is of course technically possible, but would require reintroducing a lot of formalism from paper A (Proposition A.1 appears on page 83 of paper A... and the whole paper B is only 26 pages long!) Besides, I feel that Lemma A.2 really belongs in paper A (it is after all an essential step to prove Proposition A.1, so it is already implicitly present there). I would really like to avoid this option at all costs.
Waiting for the answer from the journal X would mean holding up the publication of paper B, which is very costly for me: in the current climate, I feel that publishing as much as possible as early as possible is critical to secure a permanent job.


texts: Is there an English Proficiency Test with lifetime validity?

texts:
IELTS and TOEFL are valid for a period of 2 years only.

Is there any English language proficiency test with a lifetime (or
more than 2 years) validity?
Which is the scope of the test, in terms of recognition for academic and visa purposes?


texts: Adding additional member to a funded project

texts:
This is not what happens to me, just something I think about and wonder if it ever happens in academia.

Suppose that there is a funded project which is planned to have 3 people working in it for a certain amount of time. At one point of time, a new member, who can be a PhD student or a post-doc, is added into a project. I can think of few reasons to add a new member to a project: to help her gain some experience, or just because there is some additional work to be done but is not initially planned.

However, as it is initially planned that there are only 3 people working in it, which means the funding only covers salary paid to 3, does it mean a new member has to work without being paid?


texts: Responding to emails from strangers outside academia asking you advices

texts:
I work as assistant professor in a STEM field. I have been receiving a large number of emails from professionals, usually from government organisations and companies, asking for various advices and information.
One example is about asking me which software product is currently best at accomplishing the task X in the Y setting. These are usually short emails which take no more than 10 minutes to process (reading, searching, and replying).

I think I have responded to over 100-200 such emails so far, and now I am at a point of asking myself whether it is worth to continue. Academics do a lot of uncredited and unapreciated work, but I feel that this is especially pointless and even harmful. Initially it felt good to be an internationally recognized expert in academia and industry, which is very encouraging and important for an early career researcher, but now I am evaluating whether I should start ignoring them.

I am here to ask opinions and experiences of fellow academics on this matter. When I think about disadvantages and advantages of replying to enquiries, these are…

Disadvantages:

They take time. Each may take less than 10 minutes, but accumulating a large number of emails means lots of time that could be spent on something else.
They entail responsibility: I don’t think that I get anything by giving a correct answer, but once I give a wrong answer leading to a bad decision my reputation can be put at risk.
They don’t seem appreciated in industry. I never got any follow-up or feedback on what happened later. Replying never led to anything for me. Also, I don’t think I learned much (only in 10% cases I learn things like “Oh these people are working on that, cool”, but that’s usually it)
These things don’t go on your CV (let’s be frank).

Advantages:

They can help building one’s reputation as an expert outside academia
They can extend one’s network
They can lead to a relationship bringing new projects (never happened to me personally)

Alternatively I was thinking about starting a part-time consulting service, but it doesn’t look viable.

So the question is it worth responding to emails from non-academic strangers asking you advices?


texts: Looking for specific examples of University spin-offs where the researchers can earn part of the benefits

texts: I have demonstrated that some of the technologies derived from our research are marketable; I have offered services based on them to industry customers and have been paid for that. So as academic research group, I have received income, but which can only be used to buy lab equipment mostly and not for personal use (salary complement, a new mobile phone, etc). Therefore I am thinking to create a spin-off, but the policies of our university in that case do not allow income to go directly to the researchers, so that I feel a bit frustrated about that. From the other side, I can not create a company and manage it in my free time since my contract does not allow to do that, and all technology derived from my research belong to the company. This is a private university and very young (15 years) and there are not many cases like mine. So my plan is to go and talk directly with the main head and tell them I want to create this spin-off, since this will be good for the university, its reputation, and so on, but that I want to receive some part of the benefits in terms of personal (for me) income. For doing this I would like to give them concrete examples that this works in other universities, since I have heard this situation is typical in other academic contexts, etc. Therefore I wonder if you know of concrete and specific examples of spin-offs from universities, where the university allows the researchers to earn some money derived from the incomes.


texts: Mistake In an Email to Professor that is already sent out

texts:
I wrote an cold email to a professor to inquire about research opportunity. But I made an unforgivable mistake that I wrote his institution name wrong in the text. I should have wrote 'your research group in [institution A]',  but I somehow subconsciously wrote [institution B]. This is going to make him feel that I am cold emailing a couple of professors which is indeed what I am doing(but I am not writing generic emails), and this error escaped my three time re-examination.
How should I compose my follow-up email to correct this or is there anything else I can do?? Thanks guys. Cold emailing professor is already making me feel weird.


texts: Do any schools offer teaching or research assistantships via distance education?

texts: I would like to complete an MRes or PhD, but do not live in an area with any schools. I would rather not relocate. I see that many schools offer paid MRes or PhD programs entirely via distance. Do schools sometimes also offer teaching or research assistantships via distance as well?


texts: Is the masters a requirement for applying to a Philosophy PhD program in the USA?

texts: I have a BE in Electronics and Communication and my work experience in the last decade has been in the field of Electronics. I have always nurtured a strong interest in Philosophy and have written a lot in the field (blog posts, plays, a book). Do I have a fair chance at being selected for a PhD program or would I need to do a masters first? The profiles of existing students in most of the good universities seem to outmatch mine by miles and so this is more a question on my chances rather than one on technical requirements for the application process.


texts: Dealing with the psychological stress of faculty applications

texts:
I am applying for faculty jobs. As you all know, it is a stressful and frustrating experience. Many institutions explicitly state that they will not contact candidates who were not selected for an interview. It is like feeling my way around in the dark: I do not know if I was already rejected, I can only suspect it. If I was rejected, I can never be certain about why this happened, and whether it is because of a reason that I have any control over. Is my application simply weak, and if yes, can it be improved at all? Did they have a particular profile in mind even if they did not state it? Did they already have a preferred candidate? Am I too old, in real or academic years (it matters, regardless of what they say)? Am I being disadvantaged by not having networked enough (which does not come to me naturally)?
I have not yet managed to secure any interviews. I am losing hope that I will ever succeed. I have no doubt that this is what I want to do, and I think that I am capable of doing it, but I find it more and more difficult to believe that it will work out for me. This causes a psychological block that makes it difficult to keep going, to keep rewriting applications, to keep working over weekends to get papers out in time to include in applications, etc. Don't get me wrong, I am not consciously giving up, but again and again I find myself having spent a day in front of the computer trying to work but not making much progress. This should not happen, it's been a while since I was a student. Yet writer's block and unintentional procrastination are worse than ever. By the end of the day I loathe my documents and find it hard to trust that they are any good, and just can't make yet another revision. What makes the application experience stressful is that I do not have a very solid basis to judge how realistic my chances are. My supervisor is generally encouraging, but that is not sufficient at this point.
To make this question concrete: I am certain that my problem is far from unique. How have you dealt with this, and how did you manage to keep positive and keep pushing forward? How do you decide in a non-emotional way when it's time to stop and give up?
I sometimes wonder if the fact that I am affected so badly by the situation, up to some psychosomatic symptoms, is a sign that I am simply not suited for a career in academia. One must have better resilience to stress and a better fighting spirit. A professor is responsible not only for themselves, but also for their students, and must support their students and postdocs through similar crises. If I cannot manage myself, how could I support others? This thought does not help at all.


texts: How to overcome discouragement on finding major error in work just before paper submission?

texts:
Recently, we were working on a new idea in physics and engineering. At the end (after writing almost 6 drafts and even ready to submit draft) only I realized that I had made a stupid error in calculation and some errors crept up from numerical simulations. So it changed one main result which was the crux of the paper. Now the new result is not appealing as well. I explained the situation to my advisor over email and I am yet to meet him.

I am feeling so hopeless and diffident in the work. Has anyone else faced similar situation? How did you overcome?

We spent about an average of 4 months on this. Do you think I wasted a lot of time of my advisor on this and how can I try not to make errors in the future?


texts: Is it okay to give students advice on managing academic work?

texts:
My journey through academia has been a hard-fought battle against myself and all my worst traits. I'm now finishing my PhD and concurrently teaching courses in which I inevitably come across students who do things that remind me of my own mistakes. I find myself empathizing and trying to find bits of 'life wisdom' to impart, with the goal of being helpful.
I don't remember ever being on the receiving end of such an email. I'm also certain that my colleagues don't it, which, given that they're quite good at their jobs and I'm relatively new at this, makes me want to evaluate this tendency critically.
Here's an example:

Student missed a deadline for a makeup assignment. Class policy
(decided elsewhere) is that this forfeits their right to an exam
retake. So I send all the boilerplate emails, and they apologize,
saying that they didn't have the time or energy to get it done before
the deadline.
I totally get it, so I write back that I'm sorry, I understand it's
rough to play catch-up in these situations. Then I said that teachers
often have greater leeway to offer students who ask for extensions
before it's due, and that sending a quick email to a teacher explaining the situation upfront can be really helpful. I say that I
was totally oblivious to this fact when I was a student, so I try to
tell students this now.
Then, I explained that it was still really important to complete the
replacement assignment anyway, because it's easy to glance at it,
think you understand it, then realize during the test that there were
nuances in its application that you didn't actually understand.
Then I offered to look at the student's assignment if they could send
it within a few days, just to make sure there weren't any obvious
knowledge gaps.

It seemed reasonable as I was writing it, but afterwards I wonder if it's preachy and patronizing. Given that it's exactly the sort of advice I give my teenager on the regular, it makes me wonder if it's the sort of communication best left to their parents and not their teachers.


texts: How to progress as PhD student with nonchalant supervisor

texts:
I'm a PhD student who has been enrolled in my program since the beginning of 2017. I took a half year break in mid 2018 for personal reasons. My supervisor is an Assoc. Prof in our department and has at least 10 other students who he is either primary or co-supervisor for (a few are part timers).
As with any tenured academic he's constantly bombarded with a million things to do at once: course co-ordination, academic advice, industry connections, his other students, and (maybe) some research work! I don't envy him at all.

He believes in "free range" PhD students, which I think is partly because he thinks giving his students freedom is a good thing (I agree), and partly because he is lazy and doesn't like committing more time than absolutely necessary to things. I still think the second point is true even though he is so busy, he seems to have a very difficult time saying flat out yes or no to things and seems to have his fingers in too many pies, so to speak.

I entered the program having very little idea what I was going to do - I made up a research proposal and it got accepted, but it had no substance. In hindsight I don't think I should have even been admitted into the program. Fast forward to the start of last year and I discovered a topic that really clicked with me and that I am very interested in. I spent most of last year learning about that topic and trying to reproduce results from the literature. I was able to do this and have gained a lot of knowledge about the topic.

A little over 2.5 years (not including my break) into the program I submitted my first paper to a conference. So finally I have some direction and some form of payoff is in sight. I did 95% of the work on it, and the input from my supervisor was very minimal, but of course his name is still on it. I think this is partly because the topic is outside of his immediate area of knowledge/interest, but also because he put in almost no effort to try and understand what I was doing. From my perspective he basically just agrees with everything I say and doesn't give any clear direction. I got better feedback on my work from my fellow PhD students. I've heard the phrases "We should talk more about this later" and "It would be good if we had more time to do this" come out of his mouth an uncountable number of times, but nothing is ever aggressively followed up on - I have to make everything happen.

So my supervisor doesn't really understand what I'm doing and is not willing to put in any time or effort to improve that. I, however, am (maybe paradoxically) very motivated to keep on doing my research because of my great interest in the topic. So, how do I progress from this point? I still like my supervisor as a person but he is not sufficient to see me through. I have been attempting to contact other academics from my topic area but things are moving slowly. Either they don't reply to my emails or give a response like "Yes I can help but I'm also busy and can't promise anything". It's frustrating - I just want to have a verbal conversation with them about the topic area.

I guess I'm just a bit confused, upset, but also motivated. How do I make my PhD work? What are your insights about my situation? What would you do if you were me?


texts: To what extent can you change a conference article after review, when implementing reviewer suggestions makes the paper too long?

texts:
I recently submitted an article. After review process, I added all suggested changes to the article and now it is longer than formatting restrictions allow.

It is a conference article and any extra pages are charged. That extra page contains only some references. My question concerns the extent to which I can modify my article after receiving review. I am not talking about results or conclusion or any other major topic related changes, only e.g. grammar, style, figure location, text and section rearrangement,  layout, etc.).

Can I remove some of the suggestions of reviewers? To what extent are any other (non-required) changes acceptable and/or permitted?


texts: Why do lecturers not just assume all students have read the book?

texts:
One thing I don't understand about lectures is why the lecturer covers the material that is already presented in the book and assigned as reading material to the students.

Is the assumption that some students are actually incapable of reading? If not, what then is the point of covering the same stuff in the lecture? Imagine that reading the book is a lecture itself: what then is the point of giving two identical lectures?

I understand that some students may not understand the book, and a spoken lecture makes it possible to answer questions and provide clarifications on unclear statements from the book, or just to add more detail/intuition to a certain topic.

But, truth be told, those parts of a lecture make up a small, small minority. Most of the lecture is indeed spent on just repeating what the book said - except of course with much less detail, since you can't cram 30 pages of written words in a 1 hour lecture.

So would it not be much more efficient to do it differently? Here's one example for a 1 hour lecture, but you can think of your own:

Spend the first 15 minutes on recitation of the book material. It gets everyone on board, sets the tone, refreshes everyone's mind. During these 15 minutes, certain added remarks can be made if the lecturer feels them necessary.
Spend the next 10 minutes answering questions by confused students.
You now have 35 minutes left to cover extra material not presented in the book. This could be in-depth examples or intuition of the topic just covered, advanced extensions, or just some extra topic that you wouldn't have time to otherwise cover in your course.

This way you are both more efficient since you are not wasting time repeating stuff, and you also take care of students' questions and get some time to add clarifying remarks. You get the best of both worlds.


texts:
Some background on me:
I graduated in 2020 with my BS in Accounting with a minor in Mathematical Sciences from a non-special public university. I decided I wanted to make an educational career change with only 1.5 years of undergrad schooling left. Mathematics courses I took in that time were calc 2, calc 3 (taught myself calc 1), differential equations, linear algebra, and real analysis. I got A's in all of them. I was lucky enough to be admitted into an MS in applied math program in my state at a relatively well known private school in the tristate area knowing I didn't have a serious shot at being admitted to a PhD program. This first semester I am taking topology, numerical linear algebra for big data, and probability theory. I am concentrating in data science but still taking more pure mathematics courses as electives.
I plan on sending out PhD applications for the Fall 2022 cycle during the fall semester of 2021. At that time I would be enrolled in foundations of algebra 1 (which is just abstract algebra), functional analysis 1, and numerical analysis. I am hoping to do a research project with a professor this upcoming summer. With that said, I know some of the very important things for the application are the letter writers (of which 1 professor at my school is pretty well known). Other than that, I plan on retaking the standard GRE which i did not do well on the first time, and potentially taking the subject GRE. What would this community say my chances are at being admitted to a top 50 university with funding? I know it's kind of a hard question to answer but if theres any other info I can provide please tell me. I would also accept any advice you could give me. I will most likely just be looking to apply to pure math phd programs while planning to do my research in a more applied area.
Thanks.


texts: Small system improvement with many limitations; where to submit if at all?

texts:
I work in computer science (system-related). We created a compiler using a novel auto parallelization technique, which can automatically speed up some recursive algorithms. However, our system has a few outstanding limitations. For example, it currently does not scale on multi-core and does not work well with many other kinds of algorithms, plus some other small issues.
My question is, what is my best chance of getting this work published? Is my chance greater in a conference or a workshop (considering they are of relatively the same prestige).
And what should my strategy be? Should I focus on highlighting and boasting the strength of our system, or should I list every single finding, including major shortcomings, without reservation?
Thank you!


texts: Publishing master's research while in a different PhD program

texts:
I would like to ask about a situation when a research done as a part of a master's thesis at one institution is submitted for publication and published while attending a subsequent PhD program at another institution (US university). The content of the paper is mostly unrelated to the subject of study in the PhD program, and it is not supposed to be used towards earning a PhD degree e.g. by including it as part of the PhD thesis.

Is there something unethical about this? (I personally do not see any problems, but it seems better to ask anyway.)
Is this common, uncommon, rare? (It seems to me that such situations ought to arise whenever there is a master's thesis work that is to be published, because I imagine that rewriting the thesis into a journal paper form would be usually done only after the thesis defense, hence usually during another PhD program. Yet I do not know of any such cases personally.)
In that case, should one list as the affiliation the present institution (i.e. the university of the PhD program), or the institution where most of the work has been done?


texts: I'm unhappy with my Master's. Should I drop out?

texts:
I know there are lots of other similar "Should I drop out?" threads, but I think my case is a bit different from what I've seen.

I'm currently a Master's degree student in Computer Science, about to start the second and final year (I've finished all required courses, now there's only research left to be done). My problem is that I'm unhappy with the program itself and my dissertation subject. I don't have any motivation to actually do research, I don't like scientific writing (My adviser says I write like a novelist, and I enjoy writing like that as I like literature, and I find scientific writing way too boring and soulless...).

The thing is that I started doing Masters because I've finished BSc with top marks on my final research project, and I had previously worked in industry and didn't have much of a pleasant experience, so I believed I would fit right in to academic life. Plus, I thought it would be an easier way to find a job or study opportunity abroad, and finally leave my hometown (I've no love for this city, there's nothing for me to do and I've got almost no friends here). As it turns out, however, I got frustrated from all the classes I had (even if I had good grades in all of them), and from what I've seen of my colleagues', adviser's and other professors' academic lives, it just isn't the kind of life for me. Even if it helps me get out of here, it's no use if I end up just as unhappy. I think to really enjoy academic life, your motivations should be academic, and I now realize that my motivations certainly aren't.

I've also been told that every grad student thinks about quitting at least once, and I know many others like that, but that doesn't make the situation better. Actually, it makes it worse for me, because it seems that nobody has any confidence in their work, and nobody is expected to have that confidence whatsoever. I find that extremely unhealthy and demotivating.

Summarizing, the problem with going on with masters is that it makes me unhappy, and it is destroying my self confidence (really, I hate myself when I'm doing it). I don't enjoy the things I do, and I can never appreciate the results I get. I don't see why I should finish a degree that I don't see myself using in the future, so to me it just seems like a waste of precious time. (I'm 24, by the way)
The problem with dropping out, however, is that I'm in a scholarship, so I'll have to return the money that I've received so far to cover for the program's fees. While I do have that money, it would be quite a setback considering that I intend to make a big trip soon. I thought about starting freelancing in software development so I could work from just about anywhere in the world, but I'm not sure how feasible that actually is. Even so, I'm not sure that's what I would like to do for the rest of my life. The upside in dropping out now is that I would gain a whole year to actually focus on my life, instead of focusing on some research I'm not willing to do just for the sake of not paying the scholarship back.

Does anyone have any advice or similar stories to share? I know the decision is mine to make, but I would like to know other people's opinions on my situation.


texts: How to find ISSN number of IEEE Sponsored (or IEEE related) Events?

texts: My University of Technology requires me to limit my research paper publications to certain venues, which have an associated ISSN number.  How do I find out the ISSN numbers for IEEE Sponsored events, such as in Croatia (Europe), when I can't find an ISSN number on their Web pages?  Here is the IEEE related conference URL: http://iwcmc.org/2015/?  Thanks so much!!!


texts:
I am a first-year PhD student applying for STEM fellowships this fall (NSF GRFP, NDSEG, Hertz), which I applied for last fall as a senior undergraduate. Although I was not awarded any of them, the reviews from the NSF GRFP included a brief statement that my "letters are good". Hence, I am planning to ask one of my previous writers (a supervisor from a research-oriented internship) if he would be willing to provide a reference again.
Since he has communicated in the past that time can be tight for him (as I also observed when working with him), I was planning to tell him that he could reuse his previous letters (or make minimal modifications), since I believe that the letters were strong (he also wrote one for graduate admissions which resulted very favorably), and then hopefully it would not be too much of a burden to submit them.
I have considered the idea that his message about time could be his way of implying that he would not like to write another letter, as one of my requests for a letter around that time received no response, but given that we've communicated very positively since then and that the working relationship during the internship was very positive, I am hoping that is not the case. I figure that if he is not interested in providing a reference this time he will let me know or simply not reply, but in the case that it really is just an issue of time, then knowing it would be less effort than before could be a deciding factor in his willingness. I also considered asking other writers instead, but I do believe that his reference would be one of the strongest if he is willing to submit it, so I figured I should at least ask.
In light of this, my question is: Is there any reason to believe that reusing a reference letter for doctoral STEM fellowships (NSF GRFP, NDSEG, Hertz) would weaken the strength of the application?


texts: Is it worth applying for PhD in the UK without the requested undergraduate average?

texts:
I hold an Italian bachelor in Computer Science with an average of 80% which resulted in a graduation grade of 91/110, equivalent to a 2:2 in the UK system. I am currently attending a MSc in the UK which will terminate in January and until now I am holding an average of 70% even though I am confident I will manage to get a 1st class or a 2:1 at worse from my studies.

I would like to apply for PhDs, but almost every position requires a first class or an upper second, which I do not have for my bachelor. Is it worth applying anyway?

My master is still a branch of Computer Science but is not the field I would like to do research in, therefore I do not think an high grade would help me in anyway way. In addition, I will not receive the final mark before April and the project, which is worth 1/3 of my master, will not be publishable before then.


texts:
When submitting papers to scientific journals, it makes sense to aim slightly above the paper's level - after all, if you submit too high, you get rejected and can resubmit, while if you submit too low you end up just publishing there. Or so it seems to me.

An extreme strategy (which is equally impractical and evil) would be to make a list of all journals ranked from best to worst, and keep submitting to the highest ranking one that you haven't tried yet, until one of them accepts. With a strategy like that, the chance that the paper gets accepted in any particular submission is close to zero. At the other end of the spectrum, if almost all of your submissions are accepted then it's very likely that you're selling yourself short.

Now, it's impossible to know with any level of precision what's the probability of acceptance of a given paper at any particular journal. But it is possible to observe a general trend, and try to adjust your confidence up or down. Hence, the question:

If one is reasonable in their choice of journals, how frequently should their papers be rejected?

In other words, at what point should I start making a conscious effort to submit to better journals? At which point should I start submitting to worse journals?

For instance, my current strategy is to try and figure out how good a paper is, and first submit to a journal that's about the best that could possibly accept it, and then go down from that by a small but noticable margin. In a small sample size, about half the time the paper was submitted on the first attempt, and about half the time on the second, and so far I haven't had to submit anything three times. Hence, my papers get rejected around 33% of the time. Is this a reasonable frequency, or should I be more modest (or possibly more aggressive) in my choice of journals?

My field is pure mathematics, but I'm also interested in perspectives from other fields.


texts: What to do when expecting a negative recommendation letter?

texts:
I'm a postdoc having a difficult relationship with my adviser. Rather unexpectedly, he started literally bombarding me with all sorts of mostly unjustified accusations, including that I'm not productive enough and all sorts of personality-related complaints. I'm in the process of applying to a new postdoc. Will have the first interview in 1.5 days. Given the present situation, I don't expect a good recommendation letter from my adviser. However, I have already listed him among my recommendations.

What should I do?

A. Not say anything about the relationship with my present adviser during the interview.
B. Be upfront and mention that I have a poor relationship with my adviser and can provide more details if needed.

I'm quite confident I'm treated unfairly and can explain the situation to my advantage.

I talked to two professors whom I trust, and both of them suggested I should not say anything about this in the first interview. One of them thinks that I might get a good LOR after all; this is his justification. I would prefer not to rely on this. Thus, I don't know what is the best option. I will get another, strong recommendation letter from a very reputable professor who helped me in the past.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is a follow-up to my previous question.


texts: Why do many PhD programs expect a higher average physics GRE score for international students than US students?

texts:
Browsing various PhD admissions programs, I consistently find that there is a higher expectation of international students on the physics GRE for admission. For example, at UT Austin, the average score on the physics GRE for students accepted for Fall 2011 was 907 for international students and 777 for US students.

Why is there such a difference in expectations?


texts: List of approved Competency-Based Education schools

texts:
Does the US department of education publish a list of universities that they've approved for Competency-Based Education?  I've only discovered articles where they've approved a couple schools at a time.  I'd love to find a complete list so that i can do a thorough comparison prior to choosing a program.

Competency-Based Education can be generically described with these bullet points:

Classes do not have a set end date.  They end as soon as you're able to pass the necessary assessment test(s) for that subject.  This could be in as little as 2 days if you're already knowledgeable on the topic.
You don't pay per class.  Rather, you pay a flat fee for a block of time (typically 3 or 6 months).
You're able to take as many classes as you want within the 'subscription' timeframe.  The only requirement is that you pass the assessment of class1 before starting class2.
Competency-based programs are typically in an online-only setting and do not require any time to be spent on a campus.

One benefit of this style of program is that efficient students can acquire a degree in a much shorter timespan than if they enrolled in a typical structured program.  The end cost also has a high probability of being significantly cheaper than a structured program.  Competency programs are commonly between $6000-$9000 per year.


texts: Writing Systematic Literature Review on the same topic

texts:
I was planning to write and also started writing a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) on a specific topic. Unfortunately, while writing, I found out that an SLR on the exact same topic has been published most recently, probably when I was in the process of writing. Am I allowed to write it or stop writing my SLR?
If yes, then please do also tell me how do I cite that new paper, I mean what justification can I give to that paper being already published.

Thanks


texts: I included some results in my thesis that some other PhD students included in theirs. Is this plagiarism?

texts:
I would like to ask you a question about my PhD thesis, which has already been defended.

Part of my results were obtained in a university in another country. During my work, two of the PhD students there helped me and they have included these results in their theses. The problem is that I have also included these results in my PhD thesis, which was defended after theirs.

These results (included in my thesis, part of them in the thesis of one of the students and the other part in the thesis of the other student) are included in two publications. I am the first author of both of them, but I am given as equally contributed with one of the other PhD students in one of the paper and with the other PhD student in the other paper.

Do you think that I can be accused in plagiarism or be in authorship conflict?


texts: What PHD program to choose if my bachelor degree is in Business and Master degree in Computer Science

texts:
I have my Bachelor's degree in Business and Marketing and my Master's degree in Computer and information Science.

This year I have applied to 3 different universities in Germany for taking another Master degree in Computer Science and have been told that my bachelor's degree does not correspond to the one I am applying and have been rejected for those 3 universities with the same reason

Next year I am planning to apply for PHD program and would like to have advise from experts, some people say there are specific PHD programs which require both Business and Computer Science degrees. I was wondering if anyone could give some resources where I could find best matching universities for my case.

Thanks in advance :)


texts: Is it necessary to send a "thank you" email to reseach commitee after on-campus interview?

texts: I have made a campus interview. I want to send a "thank you" email to research committee. Is it make sense to do ?


texts: Is it worth creating a profile with Publons?

texts:
I had a look at the publons webpage, a website for tracking academics such as peer review, editorial contributions etc. They claim that it could be used for promotions and funding.

Being a Ph.D. student, is it worth getting an account with publons?


texts: How can I stay active in academia from an industry position?

texts: Places like the old Bell Labs and Genentech gRED have an environment where the scientists publish quite a lot. Suppose I wanted to build my research R&D departments to have strong academic ties. What would I need to have in place to keep in touch with academia?


texts: Masters Degree in CS with Bachelors in Informatics

texts:
This kind of question gets thrown around quite a bit around here, but I think my current situation has yet to be addressed. I'm currently studying Informatics ("Information") at a school in the midwest (whose national rank is in the high 20's).

A bit of background - my concentrations are User Experience Design and Data Analytics. My GPA is a 3.6 and I have work experience as a web developer at the university's school of engineering, in a professor's research group, and an internship at a large internet corporation this past summer. I also do freelance and contract web dev work. In sum, much of my work involves front end web dev although I am also proficient in backend/database languages and have written some web scraping programs and done some natural language processing.

I am considering pursuing a master's degree in CS. Though I'm somewhat of a "jack of all trades" currently, further breadth in a more specific topic (AI or NLP for instance) via a master's degree is something that interests me greatly. Considering I  want to apply to very good (top 20) schools, I'm  worried my application may be considered subpar when compared to undergrads who have studied strictly CS, rather than a more HCI-tinged degree like the one I'm currently in.

Is this a rational thought, and how should I proceed? Should I take a year off before applying and go into the workforce to acquire more desirable CS skills? Should I study certain materials on my own? Or would I already be considered an acceptable applicant with my current academic standing and skills?

Thanks.


texts: Should I mention my university name when publishing a paper if I'm tenured teacher but not researcher?

texts:
I'm teacher in a French university (I don't know if the right english term is 'tenured', I mean I'm hired permanently in this university, not temporarily), but I don't have any research role and I'm not connected to any research lab.

Still, I continue to do research during my free time (mostly continuing what I did during my PhD, not connected to the local labs research fields), and I would like to submit a paper to a journal.

Question: as I'm not hired by my university to do research, but only teaching, can I submit a paper like this:

  On the cohomology of finite infinite categories
  John Doe

  University of Cityname
  283, rue de Paris - 12345 CITY
  john.doe@univ-city.fr

or should I submit it this way, without any university name:

  On the cohomology of finite infinite categories
  John Doe
  john.doe@gmail.com

What could be the potential problems if I use my university name / edu-email address, whereas I'm not hired as researcher?


texts: Sponsoring a non-academic collaborator to attend a conference

texts:
I am a non-academic who has collaborated (privately, no employer support) with some academic researchers and been invited to present our work at a conference.  The conference admission price and travel costs are steep.

Is there any provision for my collaborator's university to pay for my travel costs as well? (I know they're paying for theirs.)  I'll add that our work has brought some follow up grants to the university, so they financially benefit from it - but that funding doesn't include my involvement.

I'll also add that I don't want to sabotage any relationships here, and if it would be considered inappropriate or heavy handed or be resented, I'd rather just cough up the dough myself.  But, if there's a means to do it nicely, it would make things easier.

UPDATES

It's a real conference, prestigious in the field; we submitted to present and were accepted (it seems from the responses that that is not called invited; point noted)
I don't want to burn any capital, as you say.  I'm happy asking and them saying no, but if it will cause them grief, I'd rather not even ask.  So perhaps my question could be rephrased as: Is there any chance that asking gently will get the funding? And, if so, will it cause any grief?

That is, I'll ask if and only if there's a chance they'll do it, and it won't cause any pain.


texts: In recent academic history, why has research funding increasingly focused upon large interdisciplinary teams?

texts:
As noted in Derek Bok's "Higher Education in America," there is a trend in increased funding for large interdisciplinary research programs since the 1970's (Think NSF MRSEC, for example).

What is the root cause or viewpoint for a shift towards this style of funding, as compared to single-PI research grant? Additionally, if this trend continues, administrators will increasingly pressure their departments into focusing on this type of funding source. Will academia eventually approach a similar climate to a national lab (ie, large teams working on interdisciplinary projects)?


texts: Indicating a name change after publication

texts: My wife has publications under both her maiden name and her married name. How should she indicate that this is the case on her CV, if she wants to mention publications from both time periods?


texts: Is it well-received to thank the assignment author at the end of a course?

texts:
Institutional Background
I'm currently taking a programming course as part of my computer science studies at a rather small German university.
The course is done by the professor, who's holding the lecture, and three assistants who do the lab with us, prepare / correct the assignments and update and maintain the sample code base / documentation.
Actual question background
Now I've liked the assignments a lot and even posted them on CodeGolf.SE (after the assignments expired) after having obtained permission from my professor. They have done quite well over there (usually a lot of answers, upvotes and views). To be clear: The assignments were not "good" in the sense that they were trivial or easy, they just required an appropriate understanding of the materials and were quite enjoyable to do.
Because I and apparently others have enjoyed these assignments, or the ideas behind them, so much, I'd link to thank the author of the assignments in a nice email with links to the relevant CodeGolf posts.
As an inexperienced student I don't know whether it would be awkward for him to get such a "thanks" for "just getting his job done".
Is it generally considered appropriate / acceptable to thank members of the team besides the primary instructor for a good and enjoyable course experience, like good assignments)?
As for the relation between the assignment author and me: We had near to no interaction except him pushing the new assignments into everybody's SVN folders and then correcting all solutions, usually without many comments, after the students have pushed them back into the repository.
To distinguish this question from "Is it appropriate to send an email to a professor at the end of the semester thanking them for their teaching?": To my knowledge, the assignment author has no authority whatsoever about my grade and I already have my qualification for the exam and I've never met / seen him in person.


texts:
This question is motivated by the movie Whiplash which justifies the abusive behavior of a teacher by the future success of the student. The idea is that if a student fails to become fanatically driven to the degree that (s)he ignores/survives/enjoys teacher's abuse, then (s)he is no potential genius and his/her departure from the field is no loss to the field and Humanity.

Science is, of course, very different from music (which is the subject of the movie), e.g., they have very different Lorenz curves. I.e., a Ph.D. in Physics at the 50th percentile in his class can still have a decent professional life. In Music, he will probably drop out of the field (like the drummer who switched to medicine in the movie).

Still, I wonder what influence abusive professors (e.g., Landau) could have on science. We will never know, of course, of any potential Einsteins who left the field because they were mistreated by their thesis advisors, but we might be able to find circumstantial evidence.

Statistical evidence: are there any studies correlating students' success with teachers' personality at the high end of the spectrum? (I.e., very talented graduate students, very famous professors, success is measured in Nobel Prizes or something similar).

Anecdotal evidence: are there any examples of students leaving their advisors because of abuse and still achieving great success in science?

PS. Please note that the important point here is the high end of the spectrum (i.e., not elementary school, and not even college). The critical aspect of the question is that the teacher can claim that he is the senior colleague of the student, and that their common interest is advancing the field rather than educating the student.


texts: Should I include books I used for independent study in personal statement?

texts:
I am trying to write me Personal Statement for applied mathematics graduate admission in the US. I did an independent study course when I was a senior. The topics were about mathematical foundations of image processing and reading papers. This is definitely something that I would like to mention in my personal statement.

But I am not sure how detailed it should be. For example, should I just say: "we read two papers", or should I go deeper and say: "the first papers use variational calculus to develop an active contour model for detecting edge"?
Should I mention some of the specific books my professor assigned to me, or do I just say: "I read about functional analysis"?


texts: I embarrassed myself at a conference by asking an irrelevant question. Does this happen regularly?

texts:
I am a newcomer to conferences and have tried going to a few to get ready for graduate school. I attended an industry conference (the industry is known for its proportion of graduate-educated workers, and collaboration with academia) sponsored by a company I've been doing contract work for. As they paid for my registration, my badge had their name.

Long story short, there was a panel session about priorities in manufacturing in this industry. Since I heard about a material that has attracted interest in R&D of this specific community, I asked the panel what their thoughts were about this material. At the time, I felt it was a relevant question since the panelists were industry executives who I thought came across mention of the material. However, only the moderator answered my question, and the panelists just gave me a highly judgmental, silent glare. I felt really bad about it since. Doesn't help I said my affiliation, and the room contained nearly all of the conference attendees.

I looked online and saw people disapprove of questions that make it seem like the person asking is smart. I wasn't trying to do that; I was just wondering if the panelists had any thoughts about that research topic. I realize that discussion of that material was probably a highly academic, trivial topic.

Does this happen in conferences? Or did I just make me and the company sponsoring my attendance really bad?

Sorry if this doesn't belong here, I can move it if need be.


texts: Google Scholar arXiv citation issue due to BibTex

texts:
I was seeing that the citations made to our arXiv preprint were not being registered by Google Scholar, and today I think I understood why.
The title of my preprint is: DLBFoam: An open-source dynamic load balancing model for fast reacting flow simulations in OpenFOAM. When I cite this in Elsevier publications, I cite it using their template as:

B. Tekgül, P. Peltonen, H. Kahila, O. Kaario, V. Vuorinen, DLBFoam: An
open-source dynamic load balancing model for fast reacting flow
simulations in OpenFOAM, arXiv e-prints (Nov. 2020). arXiv:2011.07978.

Please notice the comma between the title and the "arXiv e-prints". So basically Google Scholar registers this citation to a paper titled DLBFoam: An open-source dynamic load balancing model for fast reacting flow simulations in OpenFOAM, arxiv e-prints (2020), and does not increase the number of citations of the preprint it pulled automatically from arXiv.
My questions are:

Is there any way to reach to Google Scholar to fix this?
How should arXiv preprints be exactly cited to avoid this? This citation works for any T&F or Elsevier publication, but not for arXiv.

Thanks!
Bulut


texts: Infusing Graduate Studies with High Quality video content

texts:
Recently there has been a revolution in graphics technologies, which can aid in explaining (math and other) concepts visually to people (for example, the high quality content produced by 3Blue1Brown on YouTube).

Is it possible to infuse the current academic system with such kind of technology? It would, in my opinion, be of enormous help, especially at average universities who can only hire average professors.

The question of course is one of scalability and cohesion with the current system.