texts: Can I accept an offer from a MS program, but continue applying to other schools?

texts: I have accepted an offer to a MS program, but after further consideration, have decided I am unhappy with the program and the location of the school. Would there be consequences if I applied to more programs? Would I be burning bridges? If it makes any difference, I am unfunded and would enter as a coursework student. I would like to switch to the research-track after a semester, but I am not currently taking up a spot in a PI's group.


texts: Going to a lower-ranked school for better advisor fit

texts:
Computer Science PhD admit here.

Is it crazy of me to turn down a top school (MIT/Stanford) for a lower-ranked school (think Cornell/UW/Columbia/Michigan) if I think there is better advisor fit?

Obviously all of these are fantastic schools and I am very lucky to be choosing from them. However, I felt like I got along really well with my would-be advisor at the lower-ranked school than I did at MIT/Stanford. People have told me that it's crazy of me to turn down MIT/Stanford since they are, along with Berkeley/CMU, on a different "level" than the other schools.

(My field is somewhat narrow so there is only 1~2 faculty at each of the schools doing research in the area. So regardless of which school I go to, if the advisor doesn't work out, I would be in a dire position.)

EDIT: Both advisors are well known in the field (and both have produced outstanding graduates), but the MIT/Stanford professor is good deal more senior. Also, talking with their current students, the MIT/Stanford professor is known to be pushy and have a "strong" personality (which may work for some people, but not sure whether it will work for me, as I've never worked with such people before).


texts: What do you call a person with a bachelor's degree?

texts: I am a nutritionist in Mexico and I have a bachelor's degree.(I studied for four years at a university) In mexico my bussiness card says L.N. which means licenciada en Nutricion. I don't know how to translate that.


texts: Should I appeal my paper's rejection in PRL?

texts:
My manuscript in PRL was rejected after two rounds, although apparently quite narrowly.

First round the paper was sent to two referees. One was very supportive to accept, and the other provisionally rejected but was willing to see what we had to say in response.

Second round we actually got both of the original referees to accept the paper. But for whatever reason the editor sent it to a third referee, who recommended to reject the paper. Typically PRL ends the review process at two rounds: it always rejects if there is no complete consensus to accept the paper after two rounds.

We agreed among us that the argument is not a deal killer, definitely fightable if we have the stomach for it.

As far as I can see we have a few options, and am wondering which we should go for.

Ask for a further round of review. Although the review process is technically over, in our collective experience, the editors will typically oblige your request, and even more so when you've got two good acceptances. The downside is that you have no idea how many additional referees you will end up having to fight with - some of our friends have ended up with 5 or 6 referees, not the easiest considering how PRL referees are like.
Appeal straight to the divisional associate editor, the default course of action. What this person says is final, even if it's to overturn two acceptances.
One of the lower Physical Review journals has offered to publish as a 'rapid communication' without further review.

Any advice?


texts: Independence as a postdoc working with former PhD supervisor

texts:
Having recently finished my PhD, I have now secured funding to act as PI on a project.

I continue to work alongside my former PhD supervisor, with the old supervisor listed as a collaborator on the new project.

The former supervisor frequently refers to me as their 'postdoctoral fellow'. Question 1: Is this appropriate, given that I am the PI on the new project? The former supervisor is certainly in a higher position than I (Professor, whereas I am indeed a postdoc), but I feel that I should not be considered 'their' worker.

The current project requires me to use equipment owned by the former supervisor, and we closely collaborate on a lot of work. I value the impact my former supervisor has had on my career so far, and would hope to continue to work with them in the future. Question 2: How can I best make clear (respectfully) that they are now a colleague?

(UK based)


texts: Difference between proposing a research framework and research approach

texts:
I would like to get some concrete examples as to what is the difference between saying that I am presenting a research framework and a research approach.

Take the field of robotics or any other engineering field for example. People do all kinds of field experiments and simulations. Different papers may have a different ratio of mixing of the two. Some may also be theoretical.

So what kind of paper would fall in the category of the research framework and what kind of paper will fall in the category of research approach? Because I have confusion when writing a paper, should I say I am presenting a framework or an approach?


texts: How to approach a student with bad hygiene?

texts:
I teach engineering at a community college in the US. I currently have a student with very poor hygiene. He stinks pretty badly, has obviously greasy hair, doesn’t change his clothes frequently, and I usually seat him in the back of the room (during exams and labs, when I have power over seating arrangements) so I don’t have to smell his (relatively strong) body odor.

This student has also spoken with a colleague of mine about his low self-esteem. He’s worried that he isn’t making friends, and doesn’t know if the people he hangs out with are hanging out with him because they want something from him (help with classwork) or because they are truly friends.

In my opinion, this student follows me around like a puppy, and he tries too hard to impress people (students and faculty alike). I am a young-ish female faculty member and I try to create very large boundaries, especially with my male students. As an example, he frequently finds the need to explain to me (in way too much detail) why he gets questions wrong on exams (I don’t care, and I don’t need to know, which I’ve told him several times with no success).

So, I would like to mention to this student that his hygiene is off-putting and isn’t helping him out in the friends department. However, because he already follows me around like a puppy dog, I don’t want to encourage any more interaction from him. Additionally, it frankly embarrasses me to have to bring up hygiene issues with somebody in their late teens / early twenties. How can I bring this issue up while still maintaining my boundary as a female faculty member who doesn’t want her male students following her around and asking her for advice all the time?

I was hoping that I would be finished up with this student by now, but I am the only professor who teaches Electrical Engineering courses, so I can’t recommend that he take classes with someone else, or ask another colleague to discuss this with him. He will be taking another of my courses next semester and I don’t personally know any of his other intended professors for next semester to ask them to bring it up.


texts: My mentor is advising me to "not worry about the cost"?

texts:
In my school,  we have a program that allows students to do research as an undergrad with a mentor.  Not uncommon. Naturally,  as a participant,  this is my first dive into the world of research.
I am choosing to do research on high power lasers.

The school gives us a 3 figure budget,  but when my mentor heard of the laser being 5 figures, she told me "don't worry about it." And mentioned that she has something, but i didn't quite hear what she said. She kept putting emphasis on keeping on going "don't let the cost stop you", etc.

Is this common?  Should i apply for a grant? I'm not sure anything 5 figures is worth undergrad research. Is this generally the case?


texts: At loss about CS specialization/sub-field

texts:
Unfortunately, I did not know where to post this sort of question as it is very ambiguous. So I figured the Academia forum was the best place to ask, but feel free to point me to another direction. That said, this question is more about getting inspiration, rather than getting answers.

Here's my story: I'm currently studying computer science at college, and finally being top of my class in a particular course has given me the confidence to strive for greater things than I originally thought possible for myself. I want to pursue a job in research, because I would rather help mankind with technological/innovative progress than financial/social progress... So my dream is to acquire myself a well-earned Ph.D.

But here's the thing: I've studied computer security most of my life (leisure-study), and always imagined that this would be my main field of research because I'm very good at this specific area of expertise.

However, recently i've started to rethink this career path. My realization was that this field, albeit obviously not wasteful, was not going to prove beneficial for mankind in general/long-term. Unless we could use these defensive information technologies against a synthetic alien invasion, who's plan A was to destroy our Internet, hindering communications. But somehow I still think they would succeed.

So I have started to look into other areas of computer science. I kinda always had a dream of working with quantum computers (probably more a physics/engineering field at the moment), but i'm not really one of those extremely hardcore nerd types (God bless you guys.), so I suppose that's out of reach for me.

I'm leaning towards artificial intelligence, because I imagine that the two most prominent areas of research that will cause significiant improvements on our way of life will be either quantum computers, for their theoretical astonomical computational powers, and self-aware "strong AIs" that can help our race with all our physical, philosophical and economical problems (to name a few).

But I would still like to know if you guys think I should try to pursue something different. I'm not all that great at mathematics, but i'm extremely committed to my work once I begin, so I wouldn't mind becoming one of those "hardcore nerd types". I looked abit on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_science , and skimmed the theoretical computer science section, but nothing really sticks.

P.S. Please do not provide an answer such as "just learn what you love to learn", but it's not that simple in this case. I love just about everything that has to do with computers, both theory and applied, and computer science isn't a small genre to pick from.

Thank you most sincerely.


texts: Got a distinction, but only because of some exceptionally high marks - is this a disadvantage?

texts:
I got quite a few B's and also a C, but then also very high A's, which then brought my GPA up again so that I ended up graduating with a distinction.

I would now like to apply to PhD programs at top schools, and most of them require their candidates to have a distinction.

Might I be at a disadvantage if compared to candidates who had A's throughout (so instead of A+, B+, = A (my situation) they might have A, A= A, or is it the other way around: does it look good that I was able to score some exceptionally high marks?


texts: Can I leave my position on "short" notice?

texts:
Specifics:
-I have completed one year of a tenure-track position at a small school
-I am unhappy in my job. I receive little to no mentorship or institutional support as a junior faculty. My pay and benefits are well below comparable positions in my area. I experience a high degree of stress that is affecting me personally and physically.
-I have been thinking about non-academic jobs for some time and recently received an offer from a consulting recruiter.

Questions:
-Am I being unethical/insulting by only giving ~1 months notice prior to the semester starting?
-I am technically on a multi-year contract; can I legally break this contract?
-I anticipate that my leaving will not go over well with the department and I honestly have no idea how to quit (i.e. who do I tell first?, how do I give notice?, etc.), does anyone have advice?

Thank you!


texts:
I feel like I have made a massive mistake of my career. I do tutorials for three subjects and although we are almost end of the first trimester but one of the module just started last week and I supposed to do the second week's tutorial today for that module.

This morning I felt sick and i had constant headache. Even though I went in University and I did one of my other tutorials but I completely forgot to deliver tutorials for the module which started last week. I realised that I missed them after two hours. I never felt that much disappointed in my entire life.

I have Phd submission soon and the fact I was not feeling well today seems to be the major cause and I also completely forgot to organise my calendar for this week.

Well it has happened now and I have informed the course coordinator. I didn't hear back from her yet.

But my question is how today's mistake can affect my job? What likely consequences I will face? How should I handle this mistake? And finally, will they judge my previous performance based on this mistake?

Cheers


texts:
When citing, does it have to be obvious from the sentence or placement of the citation what exactly is being cited or why the citation is there? Sometimes I feel like people cite things such that you can only figure out why there is a citation after reading the cited article. Is that ok or should the purpose of a citation be obvious from the text?

E.g. should

  In the field of bla {cite bunch of reviews} people do lots of cool stuff.

be instead replaced by something like

  In the field of bla people do lots of cool stuff. For recent reviews see {cite bunch of reviews}.


texts: Why do papers published by people in tech industry often have such a large number of authors?

texts:
It is no secret that industry labs are competing with academia at a pace never seen before. Most of the tech conferences now are dominated by industries with superior funding, human resources, and data.

What surprises me is that papers from industry are often written by a large number of authors. In fact, whenever I see a citation/reference with a whole string of authors, I can immediately predict that it comes from industry labs. Why is this the case?

For example, this very short and simple looking paper from Google is authored by 9 people.

Here is another very brief paper from Google, similar to the style of an undergraduate project. Now why is 12 people needed to put it together?

Take a look at another paper from Facebook. What looks to me to be a  survey paper with no simulation or any equation required 17 authors.

Or this, again, very short joint paper from Apple, Facebook, Google. Why 11 authors?

Why does this Google paper (that has three labeled equations in total) require 16 authors? Are these people gaming the publication/citation count system or what.

Why does this other Google paper require 31 authors? Am I to believe that they all contributed equally?

Can someone please chime in as to why these papers require so many authors? I say many because I've seen student projects or theses written by a single person that (more than) rivals the depth of those papers that require some 15 people to write.


texts: Should I include challenges I faced on account of my caste in my diversity statement?

texts:
Some of the graduate programs in US schools require you to submit a diversity statement as a part of the application. I have looked at some resources on writing it, like these ones.
I happen to be from a lower caste in India. Hence there are specific challenges I had to overcome to make it to college. I am not sure if I should talk about it in my diversity statement because
there are quite a few professors from upper caste community in the departments I'm applying to and I'm afraid if mentioning my struggle will rub them up the wrong way. Is it a good idea to talk about my background in a diversity statement or is it better to leave it out?


texts: Can I work alone on an extension of a paper that had multiple authors?

texts: Is it permissible for one of the authors of a paper to work alone for the extension of that paper?


texts: Differing perceptions of men's and woman's evaluations of their own work

texts:
I wonder about studies of bias in academia, specifically about studies of how people respond to men's versus women's own appraisals of their own work.

Many studies have argued that people at large are more critical of women's claims in academia (or in business, but that is not my concern now) than of men's. I am looking for studies specifically on responses to self-evaluations.


texts: Name of section dedicated for explaining subjects that are not 100% related to main subject of thesis

texts:
I am not sure this is the place to ask this question.

I am writing my master thesis and I have sections in preliminaries that don't have anything to do with the main topic of thesis but they further explain things mentioned in preliminaries. My advisor is saying that I should delete those sections but I am thinking maybe there is a better approach.

So, my thesis subject is comparing two cryptography protocols and in preliminaries I explained tools that enables us to understand how powerful these tools are (i.e. if this tool breaks this protocol then this protocol is bad!). But I also added some extra information like this tool also breaks this old protocol so it is a powerful tool.

The extra part that my advisor wants to remove is about 5 pages which includes algorithm as well. I am wondering is there a way to explain thing that are not directly related to main subject of thesis but knowing them would be great. Like a specific section in the end of thesis dedicated for this random stuff. Like an appendix or something. But I believe appendix are for long tables or large figures. I am not sure.

The reason I am asking is that maybe deleting a 5 pages single spaced is not a wise approach knowing that I have spent time writing them and learning them was good too.

Any help would be appreciated.


texts: Would an MDS (Master of Dental Surgery) from India be adequate for a research position in Australia?

texts:
I’ve earned an MDS (Master of Dental Surgery) in public-health dentistry in India. My thesis and other research projects focused on developing a module for dental students on tobacco cessation counselling.

Now I am in Australia, currently with an Australian spouse visa.

What qualifications are required to work as a research assistant in Australia?
Is it possible for me to work in research field as a research assistant or as a public-health professional without clearing the Australian Dental Council exam?


texts: Is this plagiarism or just a bad practice?

texts:
When I first began applying correct citations and referencing, I followed methods such as placing a citation at the end of the paragraph if I am paraphrasing for one person and not following a citation for each sentence. For example:

  One can use this website to write about various activities and interests such as music, art, science, etc... and one can also get in touch with the founder. However, to use the website, a person has to register and pay a fee. The website founder is known for his IT expertise. More people are joining nowadays than ever (Smith 2010, pp. 1-2) and those people can be great contributors to the website. Contribution is an important aspect of online communities (John 2014, p. 5).

Now I am reading about how each one complete sentence should be cited instead, and by using lead-ins to help the readers. In my above example, I want my readers to understand that the first 4 lines are Smith's ideas and the last 2 lines (from 'and those people') are John's ones. Now I realize that such a practice is a poor one as it may confuse the readers.

It should be something like (using lead-ins or ibid. for more readability, of course):

  One can use this website to write about various activities and interests such as music, art, science, etc... and one can also get in touch with the founder (Smith 2010, pp. 1-2). However, to use the website, a person has to register and pay a fee (Smith 2010, pp. 1-2). The website founder is known for his IT expertise (Smith 2010, pp. 1-2). More people are joining nowadays than ever (Smith 2010, pp. 1-2) and those people can be great contributors to the website (John 2014, p. 5). Contribution is an important aspect of online communities (John 2014, p. 5).

My question: Can what I did in the past be considered as plagiarism (as in not making it clear whose ideas are for whom (like readers may think that unreferenced sentences are mine) crediting wrong persons, etc...) or just a bad style of writing? (Field is business and using, obviously, author-date system)


texts: How important are classifications (ACM, AMS, PACS...)?

texts:
For paper submission, I have recently spent some time struggling to find appropriate classification. The main question is: who needs this information and why?

At first I thought that they could be used by the editor to find an appropriate editor or referees, but I have had two experiences contradicting this hypothesis. In the first one, I was only asked to provide classification AFTER the review process. In the second, I was requested to point myself to appropriate editors and referees.

In my experience, I do not look at those numbers, and that is true for other colleagues. The only exception is when I am trying to find appropriate classification and look at other related papers for inspiration. In such occasion, I sometimes found classifications which did not seem to match the content of the paper. Apparently people do not care much for this. Another aspect of the question is: how bad is it to have a bad classification?


texts: How long does it take from the application for a professorship to the invitation to a lecture?

texts:
On average, how long does it take from applying for a professorship to being invited to a lecture, provided that one is actually invited?

I am referring to an application for W2/W3 professorships in Germany (both Fachhochschulen and regular universities).

And what is the time before the lecture: "Hey, you're invited for next Monday"? or a little more time?


texts: Should I wait to quit with MSc or quit right away

texts:
My situation is as follows. I started a PhD 5 months ago in a reputable university. However, I am not happy with my lab and supervisor and do not want to spend 4 or more years here. I shared my thoughts with my supervisor and he told me it is better to stay one or more years and finish with a MSc than quitting now, and if I like it then I can just stay and complete my PhD.

I already have a MSc but from much smaller university unlike my current one, what is the best action to take now?

Is staying and having two MSc a good option, or quitting now would look better on my CV as I did not spend too much time in the program and start looking for other opportunities?

If it matters, the reasons I am not willing to stay are:

The current projects in the lab do not interest me and I do not want to be working alone, specially my supervisor told be it is better to work in the same line or else he would not have much time.
My supervisor has joined this field recently and does not provide useful feedback with no post-doc or other seniors to help. Much of what I will do would be completely on my own.
After working for one semester, the research we are doing in the lab in far from the state-of-the-art and mainly focuses on getting papers accepted in a coming conference, (Is this reasonable motivation to quit? I prefer to be working with people more involved in the field.)


texts: How much do budgets affect likelihood of grant funding?

texts:
I am preparing an NSF standard grant in mathematics, and I need to prepare a budget. As is typical I am requesting two months' summer salary, a travel budget, some money for student support, and a couple of other minor odds and ends -- but I'm not sure how much to request. I don't need anything, but I could make good use of essentially an unlimited amount of money.

One guideline is the average award sizes, which are published by the NSF. It seems quite reasonable to request approximately the average, and this is what I will probably do. But sometimes I wonder if I am wasting the opportunity to request more, for example to allow more of our students to travel to conferences. This is especially true since I would still be happy to be funded even if my budget was cut.

When I get the opportunity, I will ask my question in person to someone who has served on a panel in my discipline. For now, perhaps it is useful to ask the interwebs: generally speaking, what is the relationship between the amount of the requested budget and the likelihood of funding?


texts: In terms of academic careers, does the department type matter between Computer Science, Engineering, or Information?

texts:
One of the oddities of working in an interdisciplinary field is that PhD programs - and ultimately departments where you would like to work in the future - are often offered under different departments. For my personal example, my field is Human Computer Interaction (HCI), and I have the option to join a PhD program in (that is, have received admission offers from) departments that are housed within colleges of Computer Science, Engineering, or Information. "Rankings", to the extent that anyone cares about them, exist separately for each classification, and so they are all "top 5" within their own classification and have a good reputation in the field.

My question is: in considering a plan to seek future academic jobs after earning a PhD (especially as a professor at an R1), is the name of the home department/college that hosts their program something that one should weigh in their decision making? How might the type of department that one gets their PhD from effect one's future career?

Bonus: If department type impacts availability of internships (especially those valuable to an eventual faculty application), or just having the alternative to go into another area of industry/consulting, that could be important for a person to know and consider. "Plan A" is primarily positions in academia, so an answer need not address this to be a good or accepted one.

Note: The  focus of research, topic, equipment, and even coursework will be largely comparable, faculty working in every program have degrees in widely differing topics (including some in Psychology, Art/Design, and Business/Management), and current faculty even often publish in the same conferences.

For example, if you've been involved with a hiring committee in Computer Science, have they evaluated applicants differently if their degree was not specifically in "Computer Science" and instead in Information or Engineering? Or similarly, do Engineering hiring committees have a preference for people with degrees from other Engineering departments? Issues at the administrative culture level? Have you found that informal cliches or hierarchies form between groups?

Ultimately I'd like to know if this a distinction I need to seriously consider in picking a program, or if I can instead focus on the dozen-other factors one should consider to compare options instead.


texts: I have been asked for a faculty position interview. Regarding the time, in their email they have only asked me about my availability for two days without a specific time. I want to know that in my confirmation reply, should I provide a specific time for interview or I just determine the day?


texts: When should service providers (core or external) expect authorship?

texts:
There are a number of areas of biology research where specialist knowledge requirements or expensive equipment mean that it's more efficient to outsource work to core or external facilities. This seems particularly common for next-generation sequencing (here and here), transcriptomics and proteomics, but Science Exchange is based around this concept and I'm aware of proposals for similar models in other areas, e.g. for work with pathogens that require high containment. The Diamond Light Source offers something similar, too.

On the whole this seems like a good thing; it has the potential to reduce duplication of investment in infrastructure, increase use of nationally-funded resources and facilitate multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research. However, I've recently heard a few people assume that a commercial service provider is ineligible for authorship, even in situations where I strongly suspect they would normally include someone as an author if they were doing the work for free. I'm also aware of situations where collaborations have faltered due to differences of opinion over this.

Personally, if someone has made a substantial and unique contribution to designing the experiment, running the experiment and analysing the results, I think I'd be uncomfortable not adding them as an author. Not to mention that such a paper could easily end up including experiments that none of the authors knew how to design or conduct. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of papers out there now reporting NGS which none of the authors could actually have generated without help.

How should commercial service providers be acknowledged in papers reporting work they assisted with, and does the fact that a service is paid for change the criteria for authorship? Is this affected by whether the PI pays for the access, or if the access is paid for from a central budget?

Good-subjective answers only, please. I'm particularly keen to hear personal experiences or evidence from the biological sciences (hence the biology tag), but would welcome answers that compare and contrast this to other fields.


texts: What are job prospects for a physics Ph.D. student focusing on quantum computing?

texts:
I am about to start my 3rd year in my physics Ph.D. program with no paper, no defined project. My research area is quantum computing. My supervisor and I are the only ones in our department who do that kind of research and we are new to the field. I tried to apply for some internship and summer school in the field but I even did not get a chance for an interview. For this situation, I think I am not going to graduate with a decent publication record.
What does it take to get a job in the quantum computing field? Will there be many jobs in the field in the coming years? Should only genius people consider the field? Will there be quantum computing jobs for an average person?


texts: As a TA, I had sex with someone who turned out to be one of my students, what do I do?

texts:
I'm a grad student and TA.

I was playing pool on campus and met some people who happened to be in a frat. We played together and they invited me to their frat party. Long story short, I got really drunk and ended up having sex with someone. I didn't realize that they were in my class until the morning (I have a lot of students).

What do I do? How do I make this right? I'm sure this is bad, but just how bad?


texts: Is it ethical to use previous data from work in academic research?

texts:
I worked in the Geospatial industry for 12 years+ with 4 companies and am currently in an academic field. One of the companies was forest plantations and no longer exists.

I have a lot of geospatial data (satellite imageries, radar, UAV aerial photos, field records etc.) which I think is a waste if not used for good. This especially when coupled with latest data—for example, to investigate temporal analysis of land use/cover, forest and plantation—would result in impressive outputs.

Please give your opinions. Thank you.


texts:
I've heard different takes on what the convention is when an Assistant or Associate Professor does not achieve tenure. Can you just remain at your existing position and continue to teach and conduct research? Can you reapply for tenure again later? Is it more conventional to leave the institution for another tenure-track position at another institution?

This is in regard to US universities, but perhaps an answer articulating what is common in different countries is best.


texts: Is there a university that has only graduate programs?

texts:
Is there any university in the United States (or Europe) fully committed to graduate programs (master and PhD)?

Why this is not a common scheme? Why research universities are not interested in this model? Without huge number of undergraduate students, a university can save money on campus expenses, and heavily uses its resources for research.


texts: Collaborative development of teaching materials and assessments

texts:
I have been teaching for 10 years. During this time I have also been developing and contributing to open source software. The collaborative nature of open source projects and scientific research has contrasted strongly with my experience of teaching. People publish their research results in journals for peer review and they post their source on GitHub and other online repositories for review and collaboration, but there seems to be a dearth of collaboration on the development of good teaching materials and assessment. Am I overlooking a community somewhere where there is good peer review of teaching materials with a focus on current pedagogy?

I would like to be able to upload the pictures, notes and so on that I have developed to explain a particular concept and have other people critique it and make it better. Further, I would like to be able to contribute a question which assesses a particular skill and have it reviewed by peers and improved. This way we could build a repository of high quality materials and spread the load of development of new questions.

My specific field is chemical engineering process dynamics and control, but I would be interested in knowing if there is such a community somewhere in any tertiary education field.


texts: "Full" versions versus "Preliminary" version of result/paper. Are they considered different?

texts:
This is a common pattern in publications, not exclusive to my field (TCS):

  An author submits a paper to a conference (as preliminary version). Then, after acceptance to a conference, virtually the same paper (modulo some modifications, etc mostly in length but rarely in any conceptual level) is submitted to a journal, possibly with a different title (but not always). The latter is called full version. In many cases, the two versions are indistinguishable and in most cases epsilon away (for a small epsilon).

At the end, the author has two publications (conference+journal) from practically the same technical result.

  Is this considered as one or two publications? (technically of course are two different publications, but how people perceive that?)

From what I have seen, this is generally considered as 2 publications. So, an author with 5 results that follows the above pattern will have 5 conferences + 5 journals = 10 publications. Another author with again 5 results that are submitted only directly to journals (for one reason or the other, for example lack of travel funding from the institution) will have only 5 publications and, subsequently, will be ranked lower than the first author/candidate.

  My question is:  How do academic people perceive the same publication that has been published in a conference as a short version and, subsequently, in a journal as a long version where both versions contain virtually the same text/results. How can someone evaluate this when sometimes these two publications appear with a different title?


texts: How common is it to get one very positive and one very negative review?

texts:
In the past year I have, on three separate projects submitted to three different venues (both conferences and journals), received incredibly mixed reviews. In each case there have been two reviewers, one with a very positive review and one with a very negative review, and the editor has decided to reject the paper without soliciting a third reviewer. They all follow this general pattern:

One reviewer: This is useful, interesting work.

"well-written, informative, to the point...quite helpful"

The other reviewer: I don't see the point of this work.

"To be quite honest, I am not sure what the purpose of such an article is."

I have two questions.

How common is this? It this just me or does this happen a lot? If the former, what can I do to help avoid it? All of these papers have included a discussion of the impacts/applications of my results and tied them to the existing literature. If this is pretty common, though, and it's just the luck of the draw then I'll keep plugging away and submitting.
How should I incorporate this feedback? While any rejection is frustrating, usually it comes with the silver lining of suggestions to improve the project. But what on earth do I do when the feedback is simultaneously "this is a good/interesting project that I find helpful" and "this project is useless"? I don't want to just throw out these projects, especially since I think at least some other scholars find them helpful/interesting.

At this point I'm confused and disheartened and would really welcome feedback, especially from other scholars with the same experience.

Thanks!


texts: 4th year PhD student(24 years old). I am lost

texts:
Lately I have some issues with my academic life and my life. I am not doing anything. literally anything. This week, I was home all day, doing nothing. Just sleeping. I am seeing a therapist, but it is not that helpful. I am going to give you some background. I hope somebody could help me out here.

I am a 4th year PhD student. My major is electrical engineering and I am 24 years old. I started my PhD when I was 21 and everybody was telling me that "you're smart ", "you have a lot of time ahead of you", " Just chill", etc. I came to the states, leaving all my family behind to achieve my goals. And look at me now, I literally achieved nothing.  (I finished bachelor when I was 21).

All my life, I used to do the minimum to get the work done. So instead of going to MIT or Stanford, I ended up in a university with ranking of around 40, which is good for me. With that being said, I gradually started to decrease the amount of effort I put in my work. Getting to my 4th year of PhD, I only have two conference publications.

My therapist is telling me that I value the work I do. But I am not organized at all. I don't have a schedule. When I wake up in the morning I don't know what I want to do. When I go to the lab, I stare at the monitor and I don't know where to start. I procrastinate. So I open youtube, Instagram, Twitter, ... . Anything that help me ignore the reality. I am using my phone at least 10 hours per day. I want to change, but something big inside me is preventing me to do that. It hurts me when I see myself, achieving nothing. Sometimes I try to start. I go to a new place. I do some scheduling for what to do the next day. But it remains on the paper. I feel like I don't have the power to continue. But there is a flame inside me, which I know is still alive and I can do it. I am lost.

My advisor is kind. He's telling me I need to publish. He told me that I need to graduate next spring (2020). But he doesn't push me or anything. He tells me to go to him if I had any questions, so he could lead me through my work.

I really don't appreciate the things I have now. When I look at my situation, I pity myself.

I don't know what to do now. I really appreciate your help and answers.


texts: Is it appropriate to use acronyms when citing a source in MLA?

texts: I'm writing an MLA research paper for a school assignment. When citing a source in-text, is it appropriate to use an acronym? For example, I'm citing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Would it be acceptable to cite the source as (CDC)? If I'm citing the source at multiple points in the paper, could I cite it with the full name the first time and with the acronym for any subsequent citations?


texts: Method/tactic to extracting information from articles

texts:
I am generally curious to hear what sort of technique/method people have to extract information from scientific articles, in order to write e.g. introductions.

I for instance, normally read an article in PDF, then read again and highlight "important/relevant" information. I end up going a bit back and forth to actually combine the information with other sources in my own introduction.

I know most people know not to start reading method first, and rather start with abstract and intro/discussion and things like this; however, does anyone have any good tips on more efficient ways of organizing the information I find, to make it easier for my self to use later?


texts: Is it okay to reference something well agreed by only one source, [e.g. 1 source]?

texts:
I am wondering if it is okay write something like:

"Many scholars hold the view that this is like that" and then give one example reference (e.g. Gans et.al. 1965) ?

The reason I am wondering because it is generally accepted and no one seems to disagree on that. Is it better (1) not to reference at all, (2) reference the most original paper and skip e.g., or (3) mention few?


texts: Are there any studies on how lecturer review sites such as Rate Your Lecturer affect student choices?

texts:
A version of the lecturer review website Rate Your Lecturer recently became active in the UK.

Do you know of any studies which consider to what extent students use this or any other review websites to guide their choice of university?


texts: Phd difficulties: waiting to finish, supervisor not reviewing thesis

texts: I am at the end of the fifth year of research. My thesis was written last year but my supervisor refused to take in any submissions stating that he is very busy. I followed up from time to time for feedback but that irritated him and he told me to wait till he called me on his own. I have now applied for an extension at the university for another year. In a recent face to face conversation on what is expected of me and how to move things forward, my supervisor says that it will take time for him to begin the review and that Phd depends on mostly my behaviour and not the research work that I have done.  I have sought the university's help informally but they say they cannot do anything to help. They say I need to sort it out myself. What should I do?


texts: Project management techniques applied to research

texts:
Are there books/writing on project management as applied to scientific research (for PhD students and higher)?

I am looking for something synonymous to Scott Berkun's "Making Things Happen", which was written for software developers.
Other interesting and useful practices I am familiar with include Agile and Extreme Programming. Maybe I am looking for sources on comparing research process to product development.

Just to be clear, this is not question about software, but about practices.


texts: Is it alright to contact lab members of a lab you interviewed at for an update on your PhD application?

texts:
I am international applicant for a PhD program in Molecular Biology. I have interviewed with a professor and have had a chat with all of the members of the lab I am extremely interested in working in. It has been over 4 months since I first got in touch with the lab as of now. I am trying to be patient, but is it okay to get in touch with a current PhD student in the lab to get an update on what impression I had left on them and if the professor is going to be considering me.
This is for a graduate program in Molecular Biology in Canada.
Thank you.


texts: Another student has been assigned the same MSc thesis as mine (and already defended)

texts:
I am in a dilemma as to how to approach this issue. Basically, myself and another student were assigned the same thesis topic. Only difference is, I have been doing it part time and she completed her in 2017. We both were liaised by the same co-superviser who has now left the university.

The whole thesis is the same. I do not just want to re-word her thesis, because I actually want to learn something. However at the same time, I have had a lot of busy months at work and because of that I have been lagging behind in my thesis.

She did some simulations and produced some results and discussed it. My simulations are the same as well. So, it is Okay that I replicate the results using my own simulations (even though its the same)? Or do I have to do something completely new? The literature review part is going to be similar as the topic is similar. I personally think, there isn't much I can do differently besides explaining the same results in my own way.


texts: How do I regain my momentum in research after a long period of slacking off?

texts:
I'm two and a half years into my PhD program. Recently, I finally worked up the courage to admit it — I've been slacking off for over a year and it's my fault. Now I'm determined to be productive in research again but realized that I forgot how to.

It was sweet in the beginning. I got a paper accepted at a top conference after my first semester, which was quite something for a first-year. I was enthusiastic about research back then, devouring papers in and outside my field and conceiving of new research projects even in my dreams.

Sadly, things changed quickly. At the beginning of my second semester, I took over a project left by a visiting scholar in my lab. That project was complicated and beyond my expertise. I poured hours and hours into it but barely got any useable data. Meanwhile, my own projects began to go nowhere. My advisor didn't offer any concrete help (e.g., giving advice on how to improve my experiment equipment or design, pointing me to people who might be able to help, etc.) but just asked me to keep going. After a streak of failed experiments, I felt disillusioned and started to spend less and less time on research. I spent what must have been 40 hours a week on my hobbies and social activities. I feel ashamed to admit it but even when I was in my office, I wasn't thinking about research — most of the time, I was just randomly browsing the Internet and waiting to go home. I only worked hard before major deadlines and managed to get some papers/posters accepted at major conferences. These achievements, however, paled by comparison in front of those of my cohort. My advisor noticed and mentioned several times that my research is going slowly.

This semester, I came to the realization that I've squandered half of my PhD career and decided not to continue on the path of self-destruction. I want to make the most of what I have left but feel disoriented about where to begin and what to prioritize. For instance, should I first catch up on basic research skills that I lack or come up with new ideas? Speaking of the latter, what are some good practices I can follow in order to regularly come up with research ideas? — I used to be good at this but have now lost touch with what good (or at least feasible) ideas look like. How mature should an idea be before it's a good time to talk to others about it? Should I ever share my concerns with people in my program? — They may look down upon me and I'm not sure what good it does, but it feels so painful to keep pretending that I'm right on track.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!!


texts: Lengths of review process of mathematical journals

texts:
Do you have any file containing the information of peer-review process lengths of mathematical journals?If yes, It will be very helpful for me.
Thanks for your helps.


texts:
I am currently an undergraduate student in mathematics coming to the end of a 4-year Bachelor degree. I have strong credentials (good marks, plus research and teaching experience) and have been doing research with one of the leading Professors in my area since the second year of my undergraduate degree. I have a couple of publications with this Professor as well and most would say I have a very strong foundation to do good research in this particular area of study during my Masters, PhD and beyond.
I have been keen on learning/studying another area of mathematics for a while now that has connections with my current area of study, though, would require me to change to a different area of research. I'm considering changing to this other topic of research for my Master's degree, both because I'm interested in doing research in this particular area, and also it would be good to broaden my knowledge at this stage of my career. Though, my current supervisor and mentors seem to have high expectations for me to continue here, and they have relatively large research group set up at my current institution that provides me a lot of undivided support.
Would it be silly for me to change universities and research areas when I already have a good setup now, or is this stage of my career a good time to move, learn and try different things before a PhD? I feel it would be better to stay in my current area as I have a good foundation here and am quite knowledgable of current research, though, I don't know many people who specialised in their research area from 2 years into their Bachelors degree. Is it a risk making this change seeing as I would have to get up to speed in the other area of research, or am I overthinking things?
N.B. Master's degree are mostly research based in my home country, minimal coursework is completed.


texts:
This year I was accepted into two PhD programs (USC and WashU). I had a very specific research interest, and the USC program used to be my first choice, because there were so many professors in the program who worked on this topic. But later I found that the PhD training in WashU was slightly better. So I ended up to WashU.
Now my question is, if the program at WashU is not as good as I expected, is it possible for me to transfer to USC after/during my first year of rotation?
(At the time of my decision, I had conversations with the deputy director of both programs, and they knew I had a tough choice between the two)


texts: Which is considered more valuable for faculty job applications, teaching experience or participation in conferences?

texts:
As a PhD student from top university, I have the opportunity of having a minor called "teaching minor". For me, I am personally mostly interested in mathematical application into material science while I am very interested in getting tenured faculty positions.

Actually, I am more interested in going to a lot of conference and trying to advertise or publicize the result of my research and I am worried that committed teaching during the teaching minor program would render me less experience in conference or slows down my research progress....

Any suggestion on my situation? Shall I pursue the teaching minor, or minor in mathematics as it is my research and personal interest? Or shall I do exhaust myself trying to do both?


texts: Is it ethical for the postdoc to be listed as a co-author and the corresponding author on all group publications?

texts:
Is it the usual practice in your discipline for the postdoc in the group to be placed as co-author as well as a corresponding author on all publications that are written by the PhD students in the group?

For some publications, the postdoc provides input and advice, and for others none whatsoever. The reasoning behind this practice is that the postdoc needs publications for his academic career. However, the PhD students that do 95% of the work in some cases, are the only ones able to answer scientific questions. As a consequence, emails are prepared for the postdoc by the PhD students, and sent out under the name of the postdoc.

Is this a standard practice in your field of research?


texts: The Importance Of Final Year Results In US PhD admissions

texts:
How important are final year ( more especially final semester ) results in PhD admissions?

I am on MEng course in the UK where final year results are usually released mid to late July, and I intend on applying to US universities, now when reading on the application procedures at many universities I noticed that the application deadline for a lot of US engineering PhD programs seems to be from late November to late January, with admission decisions usually being made around April.So I am curious to know how important final year/semester results are in a PhD application.


texts: Long distance collaboration with a professor – wrote manuscript, getting ignored. What to do next?

texts:
This summer I was involved in a long distance collaboration with a researcher at an institution for clinical research. I was essentially CC'd to this person via an old colleague who currently works with this professor as a faculty member when the professor I collaborated with apparently expressed to my colleague that they needed more manpower to finish writing a manuscript given their busy schedule.

Anyways, this researcher had me conduct a literature review for a series of rare, clinically related human disorders to serve as the base of a case report for a series of patients who presented at this institution for a clinical trial, as well as some basic statistical analyses. I essentially typed what would be the base of this paper. This institution is a top 20 NIH funded institution and my old colleague is very trustworthy, so I was very ecstatic to work on this project during the summer.  This researcher even speculated on specific journals we should target for publication. The researcher and I had good interactions via e-mail and after I was finished with "baking the cake" so to speak with the review, the researcher praised my work and said all that they had to do was pull up the patient demographics and specific presentations of the patients to input. I do not have access to that sensitive information as I am not affiliated with that institution, so I was dependent upon them for that.

The researcher did not reply for what was around a month, so I sent an update e-mail kindly inquiring on the status of the project, thanking the researcher for allowing me to work with them, saying I learned a lot conducting the literature review, etc.

Ignored for another month. At this point I am frustrated because at the time I did all this work in about 3 days with very, very little sleep knowing I had personal familial commitments to attend to and I would be away from a computer for an extended period of time (around a week or two) and I thought this researcher was adamant about needing the "manpower" as per my old colleague.

What do I do now? I'm assuming there's nothing much I can do. I live pretty far from this institution so it's not like I can drive up there for a meeting. Moreover, to walk in unannounced sounds very vulgar. I can't tattletale to my old colleague because why would I drag him into something he isn't a part of? I wanted to get this project to completion because I am looking to apply to this same exact institution for a fellowship later on in my career and am looking at this specific department. Moreover, I was genuinely passionate about the project and felt like authorship in that field would boost my morale. I also thought developing rapport with faculty would help my prospective academic career. I tried looking at my e-mails and even had friends look through my e-mails to see if I had inadvertently wrote something that could be interpreted aggressive, rude, or accidentally offensive (like calling them Mr./Ms. instead of Dr.) but I found nothing.


texts: What does a reviewer do - is a reviewer the referee?

texts: This question is regarding math journals but I assume should apply to journals in other disciplines as well. Some journals ask you to choose a reviewer from their list (or sometimes they ask you to suggest your reviewer of choice) as you are about to submit your manuscript. My question is what exactly this reviewer does to the manuscript? Does (s)he looks at it and decides whether to send it to a referee? or (s)he is indeed the referee?


texts: Is it possible to change email on published paper?

texts: My paper was published two weeks ago. I have just noticed that I have provided the wrong email. Is it possible to change the email after the paper was published?


texts: Academic Progression via Promotion vs via Recruitment

texts:
I'm currently a postdoc at School A at a certain university in Australia. On another campus of the same university, there's a vacant assistant professor position at Shcool B. I was intending to apply for this position, but the HR is telling me that I cannot and that my application should go through the academic promotion procedures.

Is this fair under the equal opportunity principles? I checked the policies available online in this regard but didn't find any explicit interpretation of cases like mine. Why should be disadvantaged just because I'm already employed by the university?

Edit: The academic promotion round takes place once a year in March. So I'll be missing out on this opportunity if I wait till next year.


texts: Is there a way I can find out why I didn't get a certain academic position?

texts: I'm applying for postdoctoral positions and when I get rejection letters there is no reason given. Is there any way I can tell if there are "red flags" in my application that are getting it shot down? My adviser has reassured me that there is nothing wrong with my application but after so many rejections I am not so sure...If there really is a simple reason, I would like to know so that I can remedy my application.


texts: Should I mention my undocumented status in faculty applications?

texts:
I am looking to apply to several junior faculty positions this Fall and Winter. Many positions allow you to submit an optional diversity statement where I had intended to discuss my undocumented legal immigrant status. I have DACA so I am eligible to work in the USA without visa sponsorship but this is contingent on continued DACA renewals, which used to be 2-year fixed terms but has since been reduced to annual renewals.
Undocumented immigrants in the academic field are extremely sparse, far below the national averages for bachelor's, master's, and PhD attainment, and as you might expect, almost non-existent among professors. This seems like a good point in terms of advancing diversity but at the same time, my concerns are whether universities would even bother to look at someone like me whose employment status is not guaranteed in the long run, especially under the current US administration.
From a faculty search committee standpoint, would someone who is undocumented/DACA-mented be a red flag?


texts: How to Get Over Feelings of Being a Failure in Engineering/Academia

texts:
It's my first time posting here, and I have a relatively personal issue that I would like to discuss. I studied electrical engineering in college and was accepted to the integrated BS/MS program at my alma mater later in my senior year. However, due to immense stress over my OCD symptoms(obsessive thoughts) and long-term burn-out, I dropped out of that program after a year without a master's degree.
I spent another year trying to reset and reboot myself (doing part-time jobs, volunteering, reading, spending time with family), and am now a second year master's student in biostatistics under public health (was attracted to public health due to my mental health struggles). I can say that I am in a much better place now than the dark times and I am also working as an engineering intern at a medical device company which gives me a sense of purpose.
However, even after two years, I still haven't fully dropped my baggage of being a "failure" and not good enough. My best friend in college is working on her PhD in engineering and I used to expect myself to do a PhD in engineering as well. Even though now I have a clearer sense of what I truly want, somehow unconsciously I still think there could have been a better version of me -- someone who's stronger and more determined to get through whatever grinds/difficulties and go all the way up to a PhD. Intellectually I know that I might already have or will gain those qualities through my career, but emotionally I still think I somehow have failed and incurred enormous sunk cost and am much less of the best version of me.
Thank you for reading this far and hopefully someone can give me some much-needed advice. Hugs to you if you have been in similar situations.


texts: Doing upper division pre-requisites for a second master's degree - need advice

texts:
I have a BA and an MA in biological anthropology/bioarchaeology (as well as all my PhD coursework done, go me). I left that field and academia in general several years ago and ended up landing a job as a web dev/computer programmer, which is a skill set I learned in high school and never once studied formally in college or grad school.

I'm really in love with my current field however, and would like to get a degree in comp sci. After looking around, it seems a lot of local departments don't admit students at the undergraduate level who already have bachelor's degrees, so my option is to go in at the graduate level.

Biggest problem is my first two degrees don't do much for me in terms of satisfying prereqs for admission into an engineering MS program. I had to take lots of stats, for example, but no calc or discrete math. Additionally, I need to knock out a whole bunch of comp sci courses, many of which are either upper division or not available at community colleges.

Has anyone out there done this before? If so, how did you get the upper div or otherwise difficult-to-find-outside-of-a-major-university prereqs?

Thanks!


texts: Etiquette for sending another email after the first one went unreplied

texts: I applied for study abroad program and so far, now it has been a week after the expected decision date. Whether I get admitted or not also affects my class schedule for Fall semester which will start in the coming week, so I need to get the decision by this Friday. I sent an email to study abroad office, which is the only contact information available, on Monday to ask for an update but did not get any reply. So, my question is: If I choose to send another email, how to make it sound not rude (since my first email was sent just two days ago)?


texts: Student asking too many questions without trying themself

texts:
I work at a bootcamp where I teach programming. I have a student in my class who would ask 1 question every minute. This student would ask about every single thing like where to add this code and how I should do X and Y without even trying.

How do you deal with a student who asks 100's of questions a day?


texts: Teaching for the first time: is reaching out to each student acceptable?

texts:
I work as a programmer as a full time job. Since I'm an experienced programmer and have some teaching aptitude, I've been asked to give a 40-hour course in C# programming to a computer science group of 70 students.

I've given two lessons so far (4 hours total), mixing lecture and practice sessions. I think I'm doing just fine but I'd like to reduce the number of students I'll lose along the way.
I thought I would make each student more engaged if I established a conversation with them, even if that might prove to be time consuming. I already have an ongoing conversation with (roughly) a fourth of them, since they reached out to me to ask questions and be advised on practical matters. Plus, they did the excercises I assigned to them.

How should I act with the rest of the students? Today I thought I would be sending a message to each of them (we're in a Slack team) just to check if they've understood the lessons and be helpful in giving advice in case they were stumped by simple matters they might be too shy/afraid to report.
On the other hand, I understand they are adults and that I should not babysit them. What would you do?

Thank you in advance.


texts: How to write a statement of research interest for postdoc positions that already have a defineed research direction

texts:
I'm currently applying for a postdoc position in a particular lab. The lab has several postdoc positions available at this time, those postdocs will work on different aspects of a larger research project.The application need to include statement of research interest, CV, references and recommendation letters in one document, and also clearly state which position (which aspect of the research) I apply for.

I feel I'm a good fit for two of the positions. However, I don't know how to write a statement of research interest that is suitable for both positions, although those two aspects of the research are connected. From all the examples I saw for research statement, future research is a big part of it. With the research direction and aspects are clearly defined for the positions, what should I write in the section of future research?


texts: Is it justifiable to closely mimic the structure/organisation of another thesis for your own thesis

texts:
I am currently in the process of writing my masters thesis. During my research I found this another thesis and I really like the way it is organised and structured.

By structure, I mean the heading titles, the organisation of results and their order etc, for one chapter only. Although the topic of both thesis are similar but I will be presenting my own original data and results in the thesis.

Would it be ok for me to closely copy the structure of another thesis or could that be seen as plagiarism?


texts: Does a ResearchGate profile count as a "personal website" for green OA purposes?

texts:
According to SHERPA/RoMEO, many journals permit post-review preprints to be uploaded immediately to an author's "personal website", but apply an embargo period to "open access repositories" (example).

ResearchGate claim that individuals' profile pages on their site count as "personal websites" for these purposes, and thus that it is OK to upload to ResearchGate immediately. Is this true?

Caveats:

The fully correct answer to this is probably "we don't know until/unless a publisher sues and there is case law". But I'm interested in any pronouncements or arguments that have been made on the topic.
There are a lot of questions about ResearchGate and about sharing preprints on this site. I don't think that this is a duplicate of any of them... To clarify, following the close votes - I am asking specifically for the journal policies explained above, whether I can take the specific action described - not vaguely "is it OK to put published articles on RG".


texts: Is it possible to find out which author got the most citations in a specific scientific discipline?

texts:
I'm currently trying to find out which authors get the most citations in specific fields, like

Astrophysics

Condensed Matter

High Energy Physics - Experiment

...

(These are all arXiv categories)

Especially great would be to do such a search for specific year. Is any paper search engine capable of this?


texts:
One of my published papers has a typo in the title. I have found errors of various kinds in my other papers (who hasn't) and never cared to make corrections, but I often refer people to this particular paper and the fact that there is a typo in the title feels somewhat akward to me. Should I ask the publisher to change it? I think they might update their database and the paper webpage on their site, but I doubt they would change the pdf and they will obviously not change the printed version. Hence there would be some discrepancy.

Update: my request was denied.


texts: Effect of multiple unsatisfactory grades in graduate school

texts:
I am faced with an Unsatisfactory (U) grade for research in my PhD program and my understanding from fellow students is that it is a rule or convention that two unsatisfactory grades means that I will be expelled and I cannot apply to any other graduate school for five years.
When researching this online I could not corroborate that this is a rule or convention. I am struggling to find out what the exact effect is. Does anyone know exactly what the impact of two unsatisfactory grades is in PhD?
How will a single "U" affect my academic standing in my PhD program and academic career in general if I apply to another program?
How will a second "U" affect my academic standing in my PhD program and academic career in general if I apply to another program?
Does anyone have experience in applying to another PhD program with an unsatisfactory grade, two unsatisfactory grades, dismissals, or anything of the sort?
Also, is there anything different if I am an international student at a U.S. university?


texts: My MA thesis has flaws. How do I present it during PhD application?

texts:
I completed my MA in 2014 (humanities, third world country) but due to very bad (almost non-existent) supervision and other reasons my thesis is subpar in some areas (e.g., research design, data analysis). However, during the past 7 years I have not only been working in my field, but I have also managed to make up for this by publishing a couple of world class peer-reviewed articles, have a couple of articles under review in flagship journals, and a book chapter with a quality publisher to be released soon. Now, I am applying for a PhD and they want my MA thesis among other documents. It does not reflect my "current" research abilities at all so I think it is not a fair way to assess me now after all this time, effort, and achievement.
In any case, how can I confront this situation? I was thinking about adding a cover letter to my thesis which indicates upfront that this thesis is not my best work and may have flaws and then proceeding to more precisely refer to these flaws and how they can be rectified.
Is this a good strategy? Do you have any other suggestions?


texts: How to choose a recommender during graduate school applications?

texts:
I am applying for a Ph.D. in Mathematics in U.S. universities from India. The application process requires me to register people who can comment on my capability for research and recommend me for the graduate school. I have heard that since most applicants for (pure) mathematics Ph.D.s generally do not have publications to show, the recommendations are crucial in the selection process. Hence, I have three questions about selecting my recommenders wisely.

1) Do you feel that recommendations coming from a Professor carries more weightage than the ones coming from an Assistant Professor? My question is that, does the seniority of my recommender add any extra weight or credibility to the recommendation?

2) If a senior Professor gives me 'above average'(or 'good') recommendation while another Assistant Professor ( just two years on the job, not very famous but a very active and well cited researcher) gives me 'excellent' recommendation - which one do you think will support my application better?

3) Which recommendation should I prefer - from a person with whom I worked on a project for around a month, or , from someone who has taught me two courses over two semesters?


texts: How to cite a book that has appeared in multiple versions/editions over the years?

texts:
I would like to cite a book that has first appeared in 1976 and has since seen three editions.

Book on Google Scholar

I need to cite the book in a paper I am writing that will (hopefully) be published by Springer. What version do I cite or do I cite the first but indicate I used the third edition?

It seems there are multiple choices but I can't find a concrete answer in Springer's guidelines nor can I answer this to my satisfaction with my prior experience.


texts: Applying and interviewing for a faculty position without intent of accepting position

texts:
Is it ever a good idea to apply (and interview) to a faculty position at an institute if you know for certain (or with very high probability) that you are not going to accept a position there.

Possible advantages are:

Networking and letting people hear about your work.
Practice for later interviews.
Leverage: If a top institute offers you a position, that could be used to improve negotiating position with other institutes that you are interested in.

Is this something which is frowned upon? On one hand, I am guessing that departments wouldn't want to waste their time and money on a candidate that will not accept a position. But on the other hand it might be acceptable if the faculty are interested in hearing/talking with the candidate anyway.

If this is acceptable (or if it is not but someone still recommends it from the candidate's perspective), should the candidate give the impression that they are enthusiastic about the institution? (of course I realize the interests of the candidate might be different than those of the institution)


texts: My work was published and my name was nowhere to be found: how should I handle this?

texts:
I worked as a contract researcher with a university-affiliated institute.  I ended up doing qualitative analysis and extensive writing for an academic paper. My former supervisor has basically edited and published my work under his name.  The papers are different but only in the way that an interim and final draft are different - the structure is the same and some sentences were either paraphrased or identical.

The analysis and final recommendations are also identical, he did not supplement my analysis with his own. Although, the analysis process was a collaborative process, I was the one who did the VAST majority of the writing with him chiming in occasionally about what he did/did not like. The basic distribution of labour was: he conceived of the project, did the interviews, made comments on drafts, performed the final edit and responded to peer review questions. I performed the analysis, performed the literature review and wrote the bulk of the paper.

To boot, I feel like this was a punitive action because at various points after the end of my contract he tried to get me to do various forms of free labour for him which I did not do because it was a substantial amount of work and I was busy working another job. Also, I feel that I should be reimbursed for my time because, quite frankly, I need to pay my rent.    I feel that by not including my name on this paper, I am being punished for not being at his beck and call.

I feel that this is extremely unethical, verging on just plain wrong. I am wondering what I can do as this is a research institute setting (not a formal university setting but affiliated) and I was on contract.

What options do I have?


texts: Can I payoff student-loan debts working as a professor after getting a Ph.D. in mathematics?

texts: I have been recently accepted into graduate school for my PhD in Mathematics. I feel very prepared and excited. However, my route is somewhat untraditional as I am "going back." That is, I am walking away from a well paying job. (I should mention that I am unmarried with no children.) I still have a lot of debt from undergrad. And, I am about to accumulate more (although an assistantship will help defray some costs). Obtaining my PhD and teaching at a college is my dream. As such, I am taking the plunge-no matter the cost.   Working with the assumption that I will be about $100,000 in debt when I graduate, is it feasible to "live" even if I secure a tenure-track position? For instance, can one "request" to teach intersession and summer sessions for extra income (as a professor)?


texts: I am in fourth year and didn't get to know any of my professors really well. Is it too late to ask for letters of recommendation for graduate school?

texts:
I am a fourth-year student who graduates in May and I only realised mid last year that I was interested in graduate school. Unfortunately due to my shyness, I didn't get to know most of my professors very well. This is exacerbated by the fact that all my classes are online which makes it even more difficult to connect with professors.  I also cannot find any research opportunities related to the field I am interested in on the university career website.
Is it too late for me to get recommendation letters from professors?


texts:
Is it legal to audio or video tape professors while they are lecturing?

Why or why not?


texts: Do journals need to save all publication-relevant communications

texts:
The journals I am talking about are those accepted by Scopus etc, Elsevier journals for example.

From my personal morals, I consider it my right as an author after a submission to a journal to have full access to:

all my submitted documents during the review process
all reviewers' comments made, expect the confidential ones between editor and reviewer
all additional editors comments
obviously during review but also afterwards, no matter whether the final result is an "accepted" or "rejected" paper

Now do such mandatory guidelines exist from the Scopus or CrossRef side? If not, are there publishers guaranteeing this? Email communications can be lost for various reasons like switching the university. This is somehow the case with me and I really would like to get access to comments from two years ago.


texts: Is it possible to use part of my thesis proposal to help me write another essay on a different assignment ? Or does this amount to "self-plagiarism"? Essentially in the other assignment I want to use parts of my proposal to answer the question, it is in a similar context but takes the material in a different direction. The proposal is not in anyway published and as far as I am aware of I would be the owner of the copyright in both instances. I understand that there might be an issue of claiming credit twice but I can't see why I can't use some previous material I have written before to support a different argument.


texts: How should I state a 'PhD dropout' in my CV?

texts:
I was a final year PhD student (into the last quarter of year 4) in cancer research (passed my qualifying 2 yrs back) but was let go thereafter due to 'unsatisfactory progress' as my data is not sufficient for a PhD thesis. I have to admit here that I've gradually lost my enthusiasm in the project and kinda burnt up after year 3. I've completed all required modules with a decent GPA (4/5). My supervisor was lenient enough to recommend me to graduate with a MSc instead but am facing some 'cross-deparmental red tape' at the moment to say the least (no news of my MSc transfer after 2.5mths of appeal). I'm in the midst of preparing my CV for future job hunt but decided I should just state my current qualification as a 'BSc'. How should I address this 'failure/ 4-yr gap' in my CV?
I have no intention of applying for any academic research jobs but felt it's best that I stay in a relevant field (bio/pharma?). Any advise given would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!


texts: How will several Cs and one F affect my chances of gettting into a PhD program?

texts: I'm a junior chemical engineering major who is interested in getting a PhD in chemical engineering. However, my grades in nearly all of my chemical engineering courses have been about a C and I've also made a D in one of my chemical  engineering courses. I've made Cs in one of intro chemical engineering courses focusing on mass and energy balances as well as statics,quantitative methods, and physical chemistry. I've made a D and have to retake my Properties of Materials class. Ive made As and Bs in Im planning on retaking some of these classes to improve my grades but I'm  still worried about how these grades will be precieved by a graduate admissions committee in the long run. How badly do these grades affect my chances to get into a PhD program? Do I have a chance at this point? What should someone in my situation do going forward to become a more competitive applicant for graduate school?


texts:
How strange is it to want to spend three years on a Master's degree to take an extra six courses? A lot of programs have different curriculum for introductory PhD students vs introductory Master's. I want to be able to take some of those PhD classes, and I want to have spare room for exciting electives both within my Master's and outside it in associated fields.

When is this not possible, and does spending an extra year in a Master's program sound bad? I'd simply end up spending all my time  self-studying the extra material after a two year degree anyway.

Edit: I don't know how I'd feel applying for a PhD then dropping to a Master's in a couple years to have a separate core sequence. I don't want to waste anyone's time.

Edit: I'm not enrolled yet. Funding would hopefully be a combination of resident tuition and a TAship/RAship.


texts:
It has been 4.5 years since I joined as a PhD student.

My supervisor asks me to draft almost all of his important emails. He will begin by briefing me the issue, and ask me to draft the email in a document and sent to him. He would ask me to do this even when I am busy doing experiments. Many times I have to leave the experiment in the middle to draft his emails.
He has asked me to correct PhD thesis of three of my seniors. I was asked to correct the thesis for language and technical content. These assignments put me months behind my planned schedule. I guess correcting a thesis for one of the senior would have given me a learning opportunity on how to write a good thesis, editing, formatting, etc. Three theses are, in my opinion, too much. I don't know why he never assigns such works to other students in the research group.
One day he shared some experimental results of another PhD student (who is a junior to me) and asked me to perform statistical analysis on the results and draft a research manuscript. It took me days to complete the analysis and write the manuscript from the scratch. When it was finally ready for submission, I requested him to keep the author sequence as: my junior (first author), me (second author), supervisor (third author). On hearing this he became extremely furious (he keeps himself as the second author in all the research papers), and indirectly warned me that he won't be taking interest in supervising my research. Fearing that my work progress could go haywire, I apologized profusely and I had to literally 'beg' him to forgive me. I made the request for the author sequence because I have seen that professors usually keep the names of students earlier in the author sequence before their own.
I have been devoting 1.5 hours every weekday (Mon to Fri) to tutor his daughter in high-school Mathematics. That takes a precious amount of my time which I'd have instead spent on my research. I politely expressed that this work takes a lot of my time, but he still asked me to continue. I had no choice but to continue.

What I would like to ask here is am I being exploited/abused, or is this what  a PhD student is 'normally' expected to do? How is the PhD student and supervisor relationship ideally supposed to be? Since the PhD degree is extremely important for my career, I have been doing everything he has asked. But I don't really want to be a supervisor like him in the future when I will be supervising students working with me. Please share some advice.

Update: The region is South-East Asia.


texts: Multiple submission of same work for different audiences

texts:
I have research work that has been conducted and is at the stage where it is worth disseminating to the research community. It is somewhat cross-discipline in nature, and involves some technical contributions and is also of interest to a set of end users who are completely non-technical.

The problem is that, having attempted previous submissions, it has become painfully clear that neither community seems to appreciate quite the same issues as the other. Thus, a single paper aimed at addressing all the issues from both perspectives ends up being perhaps lacklustre, and apparently unappealing from both sides. This is partly due to constraints on paper length, which prevent adequate detail for all aspects of the paper, and also the fact that fundamentally large portions of the paper end up being targeted towards an audience that is not present for the given journal.

Therefore, I was wondering if I could adopt the approach whereby a high-level paper is written targeting the end users of the development and submitted to an appropriate journal, and a second paper which covers the technical aspects in detail without trying to cover the aspects necessary for the end-user audience. Considering that both papers will present the same results, is this an acceptable approach to publication?


texts: Is it acceptable for a referee to reject a paper for superficial reasons?

texts:
I recently got a short referee’s report on a paper I submitted.
They made superficial remarks concerning notation and writing style, and then admitted that they did not even read the main result.
Is this acceptable for a referee?

The editor took their recommendation and rejected the paper.


texts: I signed a contract for an academic faculty position in the US in February. Now with the pandemic affecting universities, do you think it is possible that they rescind the offer? Is it appropriate to reach out to the dean or someone else and ask how the situation is developing in light of hiring freezes at some universities in the US?


texts: Is doing a PhD just for the university requirement is a good idea?

texts:
I have an MSc degree and I work at university as a lecturer. However, the university has a  policy where you should do your PhD within a given time frame. The problem is that I'm not interested in any area yet, nor am I interested in doing the work associated with a PhD.

Should I just go with it because the university forces me to do it, or should I just quit from the university and look for another job?

What do you think? Can I succeed if I start doing my PhD while i feel that I'm forced to do it?


texts: How can I identify research opportunities I am qualified for, and position myself as a competitive candidate, in a different field from my degree?

texts:
I currently have a BSc. in Environmental Science and would like to go back for a biology focused PhD in the next few years. I keep seeing the recommendation that having a good research fit will be important to potentially being admitted.

My question is, how do I go about getting research experience in biology when my degree is in something unrelated?

Answers to the question on How to gain research experience after master program? suggest various possible research opportunities. I've looked at jobs and volunteer opportunities like those, but I'm not sure I'm qualified for them. Even when I find a job that says ‘no experience necessary’, they are still asking for a biology degree. Presumably anyone with one would have had some experience in a biology lab, whereas most of my lab experience is in geology labs.

I don't understand why they would take someone without a relevant degree or experience (even if it's in-class experience) over interns, under/grad students, various types of volunteers with relevant degrees. Without understanding that, I'm not sure how to approach people about these potential opportunities.

How can I identify research opportunities I am qualified for, and position myself as a competitive candidate for these positions, when I don't have a relevant degree or experience in the field?


texts: How should I email my graduate advisor if I did not hear anything?

texts:
I am a graduate student at a University and I am working on academic project under my advisor's guidance. I had emailed two weeks back about my project update (which helps him grade my project hours for the semester as Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory) and the reply was  "Lets talk next week. If you don't hear from me, please call/email me".
I  messaged again after a week to see whether its a convenient time to give  a call, but I did not get any reply.

I waited for quite a time and its been two weeks now. I was also working on couple of other projects and was quite hesitant to message again.  I also thought it is vacation as the semester ended. Now, I am unsure how to write an email.

However, I was given a Satisfactory without any discussion or checking my project, which is still good, as I really made some progress on the project.

Can anyone help me by giving a suggestion on how to handle this situation?

Edit: I have also taken one of my advisor's courses and he is pretty cool. I have never seen him getting angry for anything. Its just that I am confused and blaming my hesitant nature now.


texts: Should I cite or credit images I found online for a conference presentation?

texts:
I am going to do a conference presentation on so-called Smart Cities

As you can imagine, the concept of a Smart City is best conveyed using pictures (it is worth a thousand words).

I found a picture which I think can capture this concept

There are others like it,

Since I didn't create them, therefore technically I think I should credit these images, but it is a lot of extraneously and unnecessary information for the audience.

I also see that many people do not credit images when they are presenting, and I would wager a guess that most of those images are not generated by themselves.

Should I attempt to credit or cite this image?


texts: Should I stay an extra semester to complete a second minor?

texts:
I am currently an undergraduate physics student in the fall semester of my junior year. Until recently, I thought I would have to stay an extra semester to complete my undergraduate physics degree, but after looking over my scheduling possibilities for the next three semesters, I've realized I will be able to graduate on time (spring semester of my senior year).

My dilemma arises from the fact that I am also trying to meet the requirements for two minors (one in computer science and one in math). The two possibilities I see are as follows:

If I choose to graduate on time, my curriculum for the next three semesters will consist of 9 physics courses, 2 computer science courses, and 1 general education. I would finish with my bachelor's in physics and a minor in computer science.
If I choose to stay an extra semester, I will be able to complete the requirements for both a computer science minor and a math minor, and I will be able to spread out my physics classes a little more. Additionally, I may be able to take one or two extra elective classes in either math or physics.

My plan is to go to graduate school after my bachelor's , so given my circumstance, is it worth it to stay that extra semester just for the minor in math? Will the additional time to graduate or the extra credential make any difference when it comes to physics graduate school admissions?


texts: What is the equivalent of French Travaux Diriges (TD) in Anglo-Saxon Universities ? and who leads them?

texts:
I made my predoctoral and doctoral studies in France. Even after a few postdoctoral years in Anglo-Saxon like Universities, I am still lost for some mapping between the French system and the non-French system, hence my question. (As a matter of fact, the French system may look from outside even more complicated if not obscure because the higher education splits between the Grandes Ecoles system and the University system. Whatever.)

In particular, I am wondering if a Lecturer in Math and/or Physics can lead TD like sessions in an Anglo-Saxon University ? I am looking for a position outside, not to say far away from, France.


texts: What is the time and topic etiquette for a first meeting with a professor to discuss research?

texts:
I am meeting with a biology professor to discuss opportunities for an undergraduate research assistantship. I initiated the contact by introducing myself via email and sending him my CV and general areas of interest. He agreed to meet with me to discuss research opportunities, but I am wondering what is the expected length of a meeting like this? Also, are there any materials (e.g. printed copy of my CV) that I should bring? Should I come prepared with questions about his research (which would require hours and hours of critical reading, because while his work seems interesting to me, it's also very difficult to fully understand) or simply honestly tell him that I'm not as knowledgeable about his work as I would like to be but it sounds very interesting to me and I want to be involved? Lastly, is casual clothing appropriate?

Any answers are appreciated. Thank you.


texts: How to merge mendeley contiguous citations in body text?

texts: I am writing a paper by using Mendeley and I want to cite many paper at the end of a sentence such as [1-5]. But when I have inserted the citations contiguosly, it seems like [1],[2],[3],[4],[5]. How do I change the appearance of citations from plural to single square bracket?


texts: Alternatives to IMRaD for journal papers

texts:
IMRaD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) seems to be the standard structure of scholarly journal papers.
Are there also alternative standardized paper formats that are known to obtain widespread acceptance among scholarly journals?
(Not counting minor IMRaD-modifications, such as the addition of a "concluding" section after the usual IMRAD-structure.)
The background to my question is the following: I teach academic writing to students from a variety of disciplines, mostly from chemistry, computer science, physics, engineering, but also social scientists and even a few from the humanities. It is quite a mix.  I use IMRaD, and while most students quickly embrace that structure, some students express their concern that IMRaD is not apt to their purposes; usually, by the end of the semester, they do acknowledge, however, that IMRaD eventually helped them. I am nevertheless wondering whether I can accomodate to such students in the future by allowing them to use a paper structure other than IMRaD, but the format should still be one that finds conventional use in the system of science.


texts: How to properly include research papers that are still not published in a curriculum vitae?

texts:
I'm currently working on two research papers that I will send in a month to a peer-review journal, but I need to write my CV right now to apply for a job.
In my CV there are currently three sections:

Refereed Journal Articles
Refereed Conference Papers
Other scientific publication [where I've included some non-refereed publications]

In your opinion, what is the best title for a section about the two papers I'm currently working on, which are going to be submitted to peer-review journals soon, but are currently in progress?


texts: Methodology Question: How to deal with others having written about similar topic?

texts:
Basically, I am wondering how one is to deal with other scholars that have written about a similar topic or have covered similar/the same phenomenon (my field are the social sciences/humanities). What I will obviously do at the beginning of a chapter is to discuss the literature that has previously covered the events I wish to write about and explain how I will discuss/interpret these events differently in the article/chapter. But I am wondering whether in the unfolding of my argument that follows, I have to cite these works again for every minor point that others might have made about this topic?

I guess it is difficult to give an example of such minor points, but if I discuss the same phenomenon or historical events that others have covered before, I am bound to make certain minor obvious points that others have made before, even though my overall argument/interpretation is different. The same goes for such minor obvious points that are made in the literature that is only distantly related (thus not necessarily appearing in my literature review).

The Turabian says the following:

  "7.9.3 Usually Cite a Source for Ideas Not Your Own. This rule is more
  complicated than it seems, because most of our own ideas are based on
  or derived from identifiable sources somewhere in history. Readers
  don't expect you to findevery distant source for every familiar idea,
  but they do expect you to cite the source for an idea when (1) the
  idea is associated with a specific person and (2) it's new enough not
  to be part of a field's common knowledge."

However, there is of course a large grey area to this. I would not say that the minor points I mean are in any way tied to a specific person, but whether that would mean I do not have to provide a footnote every time there is even a slight parallel point that I make. I understand that I could still simply always provide a footnote in such cases, but in practice that looks rather silly and it does not seem to be the case that other scholars in my field provide such citations for such minor points.

Thanks for your help.


texts: Should I focus on my grades or on finishing my degree on time?

texts:
I am doing an 5-year Integrated Master's degree (3-year Bachelor + 2-year Master) on Physics in Europe. Aiming for a thesis in Quantum Computation/Information. I am currently on the 4th year and have a "good" overall grade (84%).

However, due to health issues, I failed to perform well on my 6th semester (the last of the Bachelor), almost failing half of the courses. I got 50%-60% on 4 of them.

  So I am faced with a dilemma:

  Should I focus on finishing my degree on time, potentially having to either manage doing a thesis and improving some grades at the same time, or settle for those low grades and just move on?

  OR

  Should I focus on improving my grades and achieving the ones I know I am capable of, potentially getting to ~88%, with the
  disadvantage of having to delay/prolong my thesis to a 11th semester?

This might be a very close call and depend on a lot of factors, but I am interested in knowing, in general, which option gives me the highest chance of success in continuing my academic career with a PhD.

Not sure if a Postdoc would follow after, but I eventually want to go for a top-tier job in industry, either related or not to research (like IBM's or Google's Quantum Lab, or some other not focusing on research).


texts:
While looking for good independent recommenders I found myself in need of a tool that can automatically compose a list of names that have cited my papers. Yes there are many ways to find out which "papers" cite a given paper, but if you have multiple papers and citations, extracting author names from citation list becomes challenging and time consuming very quickly. Is there a tool to do that? If not this sounds very useful and it may make sense to build such a tool, if you find it useful too.
(I guess you don't often need to find independent recommenders from strangers, but there are a couple of use cases at least, such as green card applications, job applications, etc.)