texts: Academics in China - promoted via connections

texts:
My friend has told me his own story. He's a researcher and he's trying to publish his paper. His supervisor is a Chinese researcher, but they're working in the states. My friend has written all the code and contributed to everything for the project (including writing the paper). However, his supervisor is insisting to add three professors to the authors' contribution. In the contribution, it's clear my friend is merely a software developer while the other authors contribute the ideas, paper and case studies.

My friend isn't very happy because merely implementing an algorithm would not be a good career path for him. More importantly, those three professors did absolutely nothing, but they did indirectly provide funding for the project.

My friend is a fresh PHD graduate. His supervisor is an average post-doc, he's building his own career path as well. The supervisor told my friend it's normal to add unrelated names, something he'd been doing quite lot in China. In fact, he said everything about research in China is about connection. The more high-ranked names you add, the more likely those professors will "pay back" and find someway to promote you or land you a job/project later. He claims that's exactly why nobody cared Tu Yoyyou, before she won the Nobel prize. She was always a brilliant researcher but she didn't know how to use connections to make a better career path for herself.

My friend was further told that he would have a brilliant research career if he allowed himself be a software developer for this project. The professors wouldn't be happy if their names weren't on it. He was told it wouldn't be wise for him to being "blacklisted": it's not what you can do to make you a good researcher, it's about whom you know that distinguish yourself from other researchers.

His supervisor has written the authors' contributors for the three professors and is about to send the paper to a journal.

Question:

Is this normal in the Western world and what should he do?


texts:
One of the answers here says that some researchers in humanities publish their thesis as a book. Could the same be done for example in physics, chemistry or math degree?  By book I mean the whole thesis, not just a handbook with selected material.

And if it is possible - could the thesis on which you would defend your degree be written in a book format, i.e. be ready to go to the print shop immediately? Or do supervisors and reviewers expect the paper to be just a "big article" and having complete book in front of them would confuse them?
I also suppose that the book should not be printed(at least in many copies) prior achieving a degree, correct me if I am wrong.


texts: Is seeking co-advising encouraged during Ph.D?

texts:
I'm an undergraduate student about to apply for a Ph.D program this year. I am interested in knowing whether seeking co-advising from a related, but different department (in my case I'm applying for econometrics but thinking about looking for co-advising from the statistics department) is seen as a thing to be encouraged in graduate schools in the U.S., or is it considered a violation of the division of departments?

Also, would it make sense if I mention in my personal statement that one of the consideration of my applying for this school's economics department is that it also has a very good statistics department, from which I can potentially seek co-advising? Would the graduate admission committee be happy to see this kind of statements?


texts: Some advices regarding the first research paper

texts:
I am an undergraduate student in Mathematics and I think that I have discovered something significant in Mathematics. My friends and some professors to whom I have sent my ideas also confirmed its significance. They suggested me to write a paper on it.

But the problem is that being an undergraduate student in Mathematics, I don't know how to write a paper. Besides, the professors to whom I have sent my ideas weren't experts in this field and they have asked me to send my works to some experts in the field. But unfortunately I don't know anyone such and I see no point in assuming that even if my work is significant, they would give time to read it without dismissing it beforehand as a work of some crank.

So what should I do? Can some suggestions be provided?


texts: Supervision without being a member of the research group

texts:
Recently, I was talking with a professor in my department about potential supervision of my Master's thesis.

The problem is, he holds regular meetings with his research group, but he intends to supervise me separately, so I will be isolated and not have access to group meetings or anything revolving there. Is this a common approach? I did not want to ask this to the professor since he might get offended. Did he politely reject me, but then why did not he give a direct "no" as an answer?

Should I give it a go?


texts:
One of my research articles was in review and the reviewer has given a comment which is as follows:

  "Thus this paper provides some useful information on the most appropriate approach to use when dealing with prediction, even if reported results are related to just one dataset, and the
  authors haven't provided any comment on the extension of the reported
  results to other similar cases."

A brief about my work is that I used a dataset from the industry that I am working and developed a model for a prediction problem. There is only a single dataset that the company has. In this work, multiple methods were tried including the conventional ones.
How do I respond to this comment? Can I tell that this is one of the possible future work that can be done?


texts: Is it worth finishing your PhD if your advisor thinks you are not cut out for research?

texts:
I am a fourth year PhD student.  My advisor told me I was a bad researcher, and as I understand, I would need his letter of reference if I wanted to do any research in the future.

He advised me to pursue a career in data science when I graduate.  However, I think if I wanted to, I could get a data science job right now, and wouldn't have to bother finishing.

Is there any advantage to finishing a PhD if I can get the same kinds of jobs either way?

Thanks.


texts:
I am in the third year of my PhD. My advisor is very nice and he has helped me out so far in terms of my research, and other things as well. He is very approachable and we really bond very well. He even understands me a lot.

The problem is that he does not have funding and never mentions much about it. Sometimes, I feel since he does not have money he tends to cut short the experiments or divert them. He mentioned about working on a molecule which I am not interested in but that is the only funding my co-PI has, and I have to work on it. He mentioned not to worry much about that as I will eventually get publications and graduate. I feel that my research is being hampered due to this and I am lacking behind in terms of data.

Should I leave the university and look somewhere else?

This is my third year and it feels late to get into all this. Am I making a big deal out of it and should I just be thinking about graduating?


texts: Ontario College Advanced Diploma (OCAD) what is equivalent in US?

texts: I have 3 year Advanced Diploma form Ontario want to ask what is equivalent in US ?


texts: What happens if a professor's interests shift dramatically?

texts:
Let's say Alice is a professor in underwater basket weaving. She likes the topic, has several PhD students & postdocs, a lab, and so on. But then one day, her husband Bob is knocked down by a car and loses both his legs. Suddenly underwater basket weaving doesn't seem so interesting anymore, and she wonders why she's working on it instead of on robotic limbs.

I imagine in situations like this must have happened before. What usually happens in these cases? I'm guessing the obvious thing to do is to finish supervising all the PhD students, wait till the postdoc contracts run out, and then switch. But a shift like this would probably mean a change in department as well. How would that work? Would the new department even be willing to accept Alice? Alternatively she could stay in her old department, but then she would be a professor of underwater basket weaving that's working on robotic limbs. That doesn't seem sensible (the old department would presumably not be happy, and even if she's tenured such that the old department can't just get rid of her, how is she going to assemble a new research group?).

Also, assuming that robotic limbs is a very different field from underwater basket weaving, Alice is likely to start as a novice. How would that work then? Does she enroll as a Bachelor's student? Does that even make sense?

What is the process of switching fields like?

Related, but considering relatively similar fields with probably different motivations for changing fields: How do academics change their area of research in the middle of their academic career?


texts: Visiting Assistant Professor before a postdoc position?

texts: I am considering a 1 year visiting assistant professor position so as to have employment upon my defense in the next few months. However, after that time I would seriously consider other options including postdoc positions, but I wonder how difficult this 1 year "gap" would make obtaining a postdoc position. I would still be able to collaborate with the research group I am currently in and would also look to develop some theoretical/computational aspects of my research abilities during this time. I also have a paper to be published likely after my defense. Looking for any insight or if anyone else has been through this same situation.


texts: What is a better word for 'code' when taking about programming code?

texts:
Im writing my project thesis in Computer Science and I want to make sure I am using correct and non colloquial terminology.

Is there better word for code when talking about your program code in programming. Is it acceptable to use code or program code? I remember my programming lecturer had a go at a few students for using the word code when to describe there program, but I just can not think of a better word.


texts:
I am unsure for books but I know for certain that selected journal articles are peer-reviewed.  (This just shows I am not in academia!)

Do books go through a peer-review process? If so, how does this happen?

If one is approached by a small publisher, does it matter if this publisher does not have a peer-review service (if there is one for books).


texts:
A publisher for an e-textbook is offering me an honorarium if I try it with a class. My  own ethical take on this is that I would not entertain this regardless of the size of the honorarium (which I don't know).  I certainly wouldn't do this without full disclosure to the students who I'm forcing to buy the book.  I also don't see this as a particularly good text for my course.

While my own position is sort of steadfast, it's something that I haven't seen before in academic publishing, so I'll ask "Are there situations where taking an honorarium for trying a textbook on a class is acceptable behavior?"


texts:
So I have just accepted (via some online function on the website) an offer of PhD admission into a prestigious US university. I have also been in telephonic and email contact with staff at this university. I still feel like it is rather informal. The department told me more information would arrive in April.

What I want to know is, is the offer I have accepted binding on the part of university? I have (and am about to decline) concrete offers from some UK groups and I am worried that I will be burning bridges. Can a US university rescind their offer? Does this ever happen? Am I just being paranoid?

For example, as I am still in master's program, my other offers usually said that I was admitted on the condition that I obtained a sufficiently good grade in my degree etc. My US offer does not make mention of anything like this - not that I plan on doing badly but it is good to know. Would the department think it odd if I asked along these lines?


texts: How do journal/conference reviewers make sure of the results' integrity for submitted research papers?

texts:
How do reviewers/referees make sure that the author has done the work as he described in his paper and the written results are achieved?

Do they ask for the code or the tools that you have used? Will they test the output to make sure that the results are not faked?

I know that reviewers with 20+ years experience in the specific field can figure out if the results are real or fake or if they are even accomplishable, but it is still easy for the writer to fake results without any monitors..

For example in CS machine learning, you can extract an extra feature from the texts and claim that you got better results in classification than others have done before, when in reality you did not. So how do reviewers make sure that your work is sincere?


texts: What are some tools to effectively synthesize information from research?

texts:
Does anyone know any good, effective tool that people use to synthesize large amount of information from research?

By "tool" I am referring to softwares or practices that effective researchers use to:

1. retain/recall large amount of research information,

2. progress quickly into a completely new field,

3. find parallels between different concepts and fields

At the moment, I am basically going through papers one page at a time at a time, jogging down the keywords, trying my best to understand their derivation and result before proceeding to the next.

There are several flaws with my current methodology.

I write everything on paper, and paper pile up plus it is exhausting to write things down by hand
I tend to lose track of prior results as I progress deeper into a subject, I would like some sort of review.
I keep coming back to the same concept but only defined in slightly different contexts
I keep all the papers I find in one spot but have no way to reference them using any other tools, this means in a
few month I will have to trace back to the authors who wrote this or
that

I would like something to help me become more effective at quickly gather new information but at the moment I am hesitant to compile everything under the sun in a Microsoft Word or type everything in Latex but if that is the state of the art in the research community then I will begin my research compilation today!

Don't hesitate to share your ideas :) I will place a bounty on this question


texts: Adviser-Poaching and the Politics of Graduate School

texts:
My boyfriend, Mark, is pursuing his PhD in Aerospace Engineering at a prestigious school. He has just finished up his 2nd year and passed his qualifying exam last semester. His adviser is Chinese, and the two other students are Chinese as well.

My boyfriend, being the only American citizen, feels like he is more or less the designated "proof-reader," always writing and editing their papers, presentation, and even their post-doc's papers. On top of that, his adviser is a "paper-pusher" and is more interested in publishing papers than the actual research. There have been instances of "academic fraud" where data plot graphs depicting test results are shown with a perfect straight line. Research papers and perfect results seem to be the most important thing in which his adviser is interested. Mark is very unhappy with the lab group dynamic (it's very difficult being the only American student), and the research.

When Mark first visited the university during his senior year of undergrad, many professors had turned him down (he had a 3.0 GPA, which barely makes the cut-off), except for this adviser. Mark feels indebted to this one advisor who showed faith in Mark. Although nice, the advisor did leave Mark to believe that the research and studies would be focused on Thermal-Fluids and aircraft design. This adviser has a track record with the university being misleading and vague. The research that Mark has been doing for the past 2 years have strayed away further and further from what he actually wants to do.

Now being in graduate school for 2 years, Mark has maintained a 3.9 GPA. He has spoken to another professor about his research. This professor is interested in Mark and has the funding to provide to Mark, but is very concerned about poaching students, even though Mark was the one who approached this professor.

Mark has tried to convey to his current professor that he is unhappy with the research and the lab-group dynamic. He also mentioning about this other professor. Instead of "quitting" oh his current professor, he tried to compromise saying how he can have "co-advisers" still working with his current adviser, but getting funding with the other. He tried to meet in the middle, but instead his current adviser dismissed this idea and avoided the situation.

Mark then talked to the administration: the department head and another person who handles these cases. They agree with him, and come to understand the situation. Like mentioned, this adviser has a track record of being misleading, so they are aware of his intentions. When the four of them met, the adviser was very angry, calling this meeting unprofessional and unnecessary, talking about Mark like he wasn't in the room, and accusing the other professor (who was absent) of poaching. It became apparent during this meeting this adviser is more invested in the research (in fear of losing lab researchers), than Mark's academic future and his studies.

Two days after this meeting, the adviser sends Mark a very long email. It entails a very "guilt trip" paragraph claiming that he wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him (how others turned him down for funding). He also seems to be playing the victim card saying he wished that Mark had talked to him about this. He also mentioned that he had talked to the other professor.

It appears that this is a very manipulating and toxic adviser. What Mark is concerned about is what his current adviser had talked to this new professor about. This new professor is VERY concerned about making it seem like he is poaching Mark away from his adviser. He is concerned that the new professor will back out of all of this, and he will be left going back to his old adviser since he's depending on funding.

What should he do in this specific situation? Any thoughts, suggestions, insight will be helpful.


texts: How to improve chances of graduate admission following major, long-term burnout?

texts:
So my first post didn't fare too well with this crowd.  Let me try again.

Because I did not get into any of the schools I actually wanted to attend, I lost my drive to continue getting good grades and subsequently very negatively impacted my GPA.  My current GPA does not reflect my ability.  When I was applying to schools for undergrad, I had the desire to go to graduate school since I liked solving new problems.  I now feel that since I did not get into one of the schools that would have been a better fit for me with respect to ability and the facts that I let my grades slip and that I've been out of school for effectively two years now for medical reasons, it will be much harder for me to get into a good graduate program.  I've got one year's worth of classes to finish off my undergraduate degree, but even acing those two semesters wouldn't increase my GPA to what I deem acceptable.

I've also come to realize that I don't like school per se (the exams, the coursework, etc.), but I do love learning and working on new problems.  Unfortunately, it's hard, if not impossible, to do things that require having learned things without going to school to get a degree that says you have learned said things.

My questions:

How do I recapture my drive to do the work so that I do not totally hose any future I may have?  I seriously doubt that attempting to transfer to one of the schools that have previously denied me would work.
How do I secure a position in a good graduate program with a pretty terrible GPA, having no real research experience, and coming from a less-than-stellar school?  REUs rejected me, I suspect, on the grounds of my GPA.
Is there any path that would allow me to get into a decent research position without the bother of degrees?

If you can think of any other options that would lead to a research position, I'd love to hear them.


texts: As an undergraduate, should I have done research on all of my research interests listed in my resume?

texts:
I am an undergraduate student, writing my resume for application to grad school.
During my undergrad I have done research on some topics through internships and research projects. However, there are also some interesting research topics that I have read about them and explored their goals in research groups' websites, but have not done research on them myself. These subjects are among my interests to pursue in grad school.

Can I list them in the Research Interests section of my resume? I mean, is it necessary for undergraduates to have done research in all of their research interests when applying for graduate school?


texts: Limits on one student using all of one's office hours?

texts:
I generally don't have a lot of business in my dedicated office hours, but then sometimes I get a needy student who wants to use all of them -- every minute, of every day, in which I hold them. It gets physically tiring for me, and emotionally draining that they apparently have no capacity or confidence to follow along in class, read the book, or make connections on their own.

Granted that we have, say, 3 hours of office time per week (required at my institution), is it acceptable to set per-student limits on usage of that time, such as: 20 minutes per student per day?

Additionally, is it advisable to be forthright and tell the student that their behavior is unusual/a bad sign/an abuse of the office hours; that is, that they should be mostly responsible for the material on their own? (Often this same type of student will praise themselves aloud for being so proactive/smart with the office hours when others aren't using them.)

This is in the U.S., and I'm at a large urban community college. Assume that most of the time no other students are showing up to the office hour.

(This was mentioned in this question and comments therein; I'd like to see a canonical answer on just this aspect of the situation.)


texts: The third letter of recommendation. Which one could strengthen my PhD application?

texts: I will apply for the PhD GRA in the USA. It is focused on politics of my native country. Since graduating the university, I've been working in journalism and dealing with the same isssues. Does it make sense to get recommendation from my employer to prove my deep understanding of local specialities, if the first two answers are from academic community? As a third one I could also provide a strong recommendation letter from the foreign professor, whom I had met at the graduate conference. Then I assisted him for a short-term evaluation project (not academic one) in my own country (arranged interviews, organized travels etc) and did an interview with him as a journalist. Could this letter be better evaluated by admission committee?


texts: How to format a paper accepted to a conference?

texts:
I was second author on a paper that was accepted to a large and somewhat prestigious conference--the first author was the one who presented it (as part of a panel, not a poster), but because I'm early in my career I'd still like to highlight it somewhere on my CV. I think I'll create a section like "Other Research" or "Other Papers" or something so it's not misleadingly put with peer-reviewed publications.

Does this sound like a good strategy? And how should I actually format the citation itself? Do I put "accepted at Conference X, presented by Name"?


texts: Why are (galley) proof requests given such a short deadline?

texts:
Often the publisher requests to get the proof within 24 hours when it's ready. What are the reasons for making this so short? Do they want the authors to not make too many changes?

EDIT:
The email I received said:

  Please ensure you check the entire article carefully, and answer all
  queries. Return corrected proofs and any related material by uploading
  to the site within 24 hours.

EDIT: @StrongBad pointed out a related question.


texts: Changing field for PhD - How much do I need to know before I start talking to advisers/applying?

texts:
I finished an integrated masters program in physics last summer, and I plan on doing a PhD on the coordination of autonomous agents, particularly in the field of automated vehicles.

I was excited after having a discussion with a  top professor in the field at a university I wanted to go to. I was told to read some more of his work to see if I could understand it, and get in contact in a few weeks. I did the reading, with some basic understanding afterwards, but the position I was pursuing was given away while I did this reading before I had the chance to prove my knowledge.

When I read papers in this field, which incorporate set theory and graph theory as well as other areas I have no background in, how much of the material do I need to 'get' before I can seriously apply? I find myself understanding the ideas and the processes, but I get tangled in the maths. How much training would somebody with a good academic record, but from a different field, get on a PhD program like this? Would I get time to get up to speed by reading seminal textbooks?

This sort of move into a new field is scary, and even with my good academic record, I am terrified of being completely useless.


texts:
Where am I supposed to report a broken DOI? To https://www.doi.org/, to the  DOI registration agency that issued the DOI, to whoever is responsible for the website to which the DOI points to, or to somebody else?

For example, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0364-0213(90)90002-E is 404:


texts: Should an undergraduate writing an article for a semi-academic magazine list a university affiliation?

texts:
I'm an undergraduate student at the University of Waterloo. I'm writing a paper potentially for IEEE Security and Privacy, which is a semi-academic magazine. Basically, papers follow the abstract, body, lots of references format, and read like research papers, but apparently generally exposit some random software gadget produced by the author's research etc, so not a super-academic journal.

My question is, how should I put my name on the paper? Should I just write "Yuhao Dong" or "Yuhao Dong, Faculty of Mathematics, University of Waterloo" or something else? I don't want to be misunderstood to be a faculty member.


texts: Is it unethical to apply to/attend a PhD program knowing you MIGHT end up leaving it under a particular circumstance?

texts:
Hypothetically, suppose one applies to and is admitted to both a funded PhD program in Field A and a master's program in Field B at the same university, in different departments. Suppose there was a structure in place at the university for both programs to be undertaken concurrently (an implication of this is that I would not have to pay tuition for the normally unfunded master's program).

Is it unethical to attend both programs, knowing that depending on how the Field B master's goes, I may end up leaving the Field A PhD (after receiving my Field A master's) for the Field B PhD at the same university? Note that this is not my intention going in, but simply the one unlikely but possible situation in which I know that I would leave. I don't expect this is likely to happen - and if for whatever reason I don't want to or can't make the switch to the Field B PhD program at that university, I would see the Field A PhD through no matter what.

Furthermore, if it is unethical to attend both programs, is it also unethical to apply to both programs? It goes without saying that I would not misrepresent myself in my statements of purpose to either program (or to my letter writers).


texts: How valuable is a conference paper in Avionics and Aerospace Engineering?

texts: I am a student doing my undergrad in Electronics and Communication engineering and wish to pursue a career in Avionics. My paper was selected for presentation at 54th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting, AIAA Science and Technology Forum and Exposition 2016 (SciTech 2016). I have another paper which was selected for presentation at IEEE Aerospace Conference 2016. According to my understanding, these are reputed conferences. I was wondering how valuable these papers are for my admission at a grad school and my professional career. I have to spend a lot of money to attend these conferences. Is it worth it?


texts:
An assistant professor I know at a leading US research university just received a visit from someone representing the "Fraud Detection and National Security" branch of USCIS, who was doing a random H-1B audit. The USCIS agent asked many detailed questions about the number of hours the professor spends in the classroom, the number of hours spent in office hours, salary, education, and so on, and took photos of the professor's office. The agent claimed that these random H-1B inspections happen regularly and are designed to find fraudulent applicants.

I have been in academia for over a decade and this is the first time anyone has told me of such a visit. The timing seems curious, to say the least. I am wondering if these random occasional visits have been happening for a long time, and it's just a coincidence that the one that I heard about occurs just as the new US government is beginning to implement radically different immigration policies, or if this is part of a new focus on H-1B visa holders. Any knowledge of the situation or further anecdotal evidence of recent visits might be useful.


texts: What's the average retirement age in the universities in British (UK/Ireland/Australia/NZ) system?

texts:
In UK/Ireland/Australia/NZ, they don't seem to have a set retirement age. However, when do faculty members actually retire, or 'have to' retire (due to peer pressure, for example)?

This question is related to: 1. How common is it for tenured professors to retire?,
but my question is specific to the British system, and
2. How common is redundancy in the British (UK/Australia/NZ/Ireland) system?

If there is no tenured position in these countries (except Ireland, perhaps), isn't it easier to pressure the older faculty members (who may not be doing much research but at least be doing all the mandatory teaching) to step down?
In a tenured system such as US/Canada, it would be difficult to fire a tenured and aged professor even if he/she is research inactive, I believe?

Edit: With the follow up comments, the refinement of my question is: can the management in a university in the British system use the redundancy as an excuse to remove an 'old' and research inactive (but ok at teaching etc.) faculty member?


texts: Is there a standard for capitalization in references of math papers?

texts:
How do you capitalize the titles of references in a math paper? Would you rather write:

  Global smooth solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations

or

  Global Smooth Solutions of the Navier-Stokes Equations

? The latter capitalization is the usual capitalization, where every non-grammatical word, and all names, are capitalized. But the former variant seems to be common in the references. The only exception seem to books, which are usually capitalized as on their titles.

I have been skimming over the list of references in mathematical papers by well-regarded researches, but I have not found a definitive pattern. In fact, in many publications, neither the author nor the editor seems to actually care.


texts: How to find out if a paper is diamond/gold/green access?

texts:
Recently I learned about open access and that there are many ways in which the publishers implement it. How do I find out if a paper is Diamond/Gold/Green access?
I guess if the paper is listed in a journal but a pre-print is available on the authors' webpage/repository then it is Green access. Is that correct?
Next how do I find out whether a paper appearing on the journal's website is gold access or diamond access? (Basically did the authors pay to make their paper open)
Thanks


texts: How should I discuss about a paper with my potential supervisor who is one of the authors of that paper?

texts:
Last week I met my mentor (and also my potential supervisor) for my PhD. He suggested me to read a paper which is also related to my master's thesis.

I read that paper and some questions popped into my mind and I want to share them with him. Also, I would like to impress him and show him I fully understand the paper. I wonder how I should talk about the paper with my potential supervisor.


texts: Is applying existing methods to known problems a novel contribution?

texts: I am a new PhD student. If I use existing methods to solve existing problems, but no one has applied these methods to solve these problems, is such a procedure a sufficiently new contribution for a paper?. For example if i use vgg16 (convolution neuron network) model to classify one problem that belong to Biology field.


texts:
I finished my master thesis in a high ranking university. The thesis idea is simple and not novel, however the results are higher that the state of art.
My supervisor is one of the top in the field. When I asked him to try to publish a paper of my work, he refused and he said the work should be "novel".
I am pretty sure that he is addressing TOP conferences and journals only. But, what I think is publish the paper in middle-tier conference or even workshop, so I can boost my profile.
Is it possible to submit it without adding his name?

Any ideas or advices?


texts: What is the proper way to judge the quality of education of a university?

texts:
Why do Russian and Israeli universities score low in various world rankings?

In this question, most of the answers more or less stated that, rankings of universities available on the net are kind of useless.

Then my question is, how can a student judge the quality of education of a university before getting as admission? What factors he/she can observe to take the decision? What information they should collect?


texts: Unofficially switched PhD supervisor to one at a different institution. Can I get this officially acknowledged?

texts:
My PhD (I have 1 year left in it) started out at institution A with supervisor A. For reasons not worth going into, I am now, in most practical senses, being supervised by supervisor B at institution B. It is the case, for example, that supervisor A asked if supervisor B could be the external examiner of my thesis, but supervisor B declined because they felt they were "much too close to the project".

I once asked to move my PhD entirely to institution B, but was told my funding was attached to institution A. This wasn't the end of the world; the arrangement we have is working pretty okish, and there's nothing acrimonious going on. So I am fine not changing anything practically

However: institution B is, frankly, much more prestigious than institution A. When I finish my PhD I'd like to be able to put institution B on my CV. I am thinking of doing some private tutoring after I get my PhD and the difference could genuinely be an extra 10% of my pay.

Can I get something official associating my PhD with institution B?


texts: Convert UK Bachelor Degree Grades to German Grade Scale

texts:
I have a Bachelor of Business Administration in Information Systems (3rd Class Honors) form a UK University. My Transcript states as follows.

Course Name    Marks    Cats
BUS            40       12

How do I convert these to the German Grading System?

German Grading

Understanding German Grades

I have gone through the above but can't figure out how to calculate the UK (40 Marks and 12 Cats) to the German Grades (scale of 1 to 5) and also how to figure out the ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System).


texts: What title do you hold after you've defended but before you graduate?

texts: Two friends successfully defended their dissertations yesterday, and many people have congratulated them, calling them Doctor so-and-so. I explained to my wife that they actually don't have that title until the graduation ceremony, that it's similar to a President-elect, who isn't called the President until they are sworn in. So, what title does a doctoral candidate take after they've defended but before they graduate?


texts:
I have read many PhDs have a feeling of failure during their studies. At the moment I am seeking a reflection, from someone who is/has been a PhD and maybe a similar situation.

I found myself in a group of around 10 PhDs under 1 supervisor. All of them are non-native speakers, struggling with English, and speak their native language (which I do not speak) amongst each other. Meetings with my supervisor deteriorated into short, few minutes long conversations, where he presents his ideas, that are unprecedented in literature, or his previous research.

I have decided to detach myself from his suggestions and try ideas that I can reference in previously published literature.

To give the full story, I have followed his advice and suggestions, but this lead me to a dead end, twice. After quite a hard time, realizing that I am fighting my supervisors advice and undoubtedly a fear of another failure, I have stood up and started again.

A new idea, new approach. I took all the relevant courses and read literature. After several tests, the idea seemed to work.

But as of yesterday, I found a flaw and a possible problem that discards my 4 months or work.

I am a PhD for more than 3 semesters already. Within the first two I followed every word of my supervisor, working 12 hours a day, to deliver on his suggestions. This failed, his ideas failed, I have failed. I think I can blame him for the ideas, but I am to blame for my naivness to blindly follow something, that he and I knew nothing about.

The last semester was all machine learning and AI and 12 hours a day in a lab to make my own testing setup. Now I am facing a failure, or at least a very intensive feeling of failure.

What to do? Please, notice the word "forward" in the title means I am opened to any point of view. Leaving PhD (temporarily/cancelling), starting new PhD in English speaking country or working. I really don't know.

P.S.
The lady at counselling is very nice, but far from offering real help/career advice. Other PhDs cooperate together, but since there is a language barrier, I am left out. My supervisor has little / no understanding of machine learning or data I am working with.

P.S. 2
I am temporarily in a bad mood. It is hard to admit, but in this and previous situations I had break downs. Crying in my room, in my office or anytime when I realized, what failures I had been through, and that there is probably no one that could help.


texts: How to cite online articles that don't have a publication date?

texts:
I am very new to the ordeal of incorporating citations into my work, but I'm working on a project for school, and in it, I'm using the APA 6th citation format.
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/core/
This is a source I used. I believe it falls under the category of "Website" (translated from Norwegian, I'm using a website that shows the different formats of citation for different text types). Now, the link provided is described by NatGeo as an encyclopedic entry, and no authors nor publication date is to be seen anywhere. I couldn't spot it at least. Now, the website I used said that the format of citation for "Websites" is like this:

Blah-blah-blah (National Geographic, 2009)

However, I can't find that date that I need to include at the end. Is there then an altenative format to use? Or am I just not looking properly for said date?


texts:
Hi I am a currently enrolled PhD student who is looking to exit before the end of the 1st year. I give the gist of the issues of my impending exit.

Advisor states that I am working hard and constantly coming up with ideas but due to our differences in the direction the work should take, we might be held back as the project duration is really short (3 yrs) and it is better to identify this now and for me to take a call. (Apparently in my university this is normally acceptable)
Since this is a funded project I cannot ask him to switch me to a new project with him (Could be unadvisable also due to not matching working styles)
Due to slow progress as a result of conflicting early expectations, I feel severly depressed and disheartened with the current PhD, which is also in a completely new area compared to my previously published work (As master student and as a research associate).

I am now looking to apply for a new PhD position as early as possible to start working afresh. I could look for new positions in the same university or apply elsewhere. Which would be recommended? I hope that my exit should not be looked at unfavorably in other places that I apply to, seen as my lack of commitment even though it is not the case here and I will not get an unfavourable recommendation from my current advisor.


texts: Can you be a good PhD student if you hate reading literature?

texts:
I am a PhD student in computer science.  My advisor keeps telling me I need to read papers, but I find most of them really long and boring, no matter what field they are in (but especially if there are a lot of math equations).  Usually my mind starts wandering after one or two pages.

My advisor thinks I should read one or two papers a day (apparently he does this himself), but if I followed his instructions (and yes, I've tried doing that), I would literally spend the whole day reading papers, or 20% reading papers and 80% procrastinating.

I am perfectly capable of reading papers if there's something specific I want to gain from the paper (like if the paper is really relevant to my project, or if I need to implement an algorithm from the paper).  But I have a hard time doing broad literature reviews and getting to know a field if I don't have a specific problem in mind.  A lot of times I just end up not doing them.

Does this automatically make me a bad researcher, and what are some ways I can compensate for my short attention span?


texts: Current Masters student, need advisor for PhD (no public announcements in the department)?

texts:
I am a masters student at a top-rated US university in electrical engineering. I have been working under a professor who joined the department last semester. He is quite happy with my progress, but can't offer me a PhD as he doesn't have enough money. He has agreed, though, to help me get a PhD by recommending me to other professors.

The task of finding a professor, however, is on me. The issue arises here, as in my department professors don't actively search for students. It works mostly like a referral system, where the professors take up recommended students. Thus most of the openings get filled up before they make a public announcement. One way to solve this is to write mails to several professors to ask for openings. What I am looking for is this: is there a better strategy?


texts: What can I do if my paper doesn't fit any arXiv category?

texts:
I have a paper (A) that has been submitted to a journal, but is as yet unreviewed, and another paper (B) that cites A.
(The citation is necessary because A includes details of the preparation of a dataset that is used in B. The preparation is not central to B, but it is relevant.)
I am about to submit B to another journal for review. I think it would be useful to have a preprint of A available (and cited in B) in case the reviewers of B want to see it. Posting a pre-print of A on ArXiv seems to be the ideal solution.
BUT, the paper does not fit any of the subject categories on ArXiv. It is in teh area of renewable energy engineering, while ArXiv is largely confined to Physics, Maths, Computer Science.

Should I submit the paper using a subject category that is only incidentally relevant (Physics and Society for instance, or Systems and Control), or is there an alternative pre-print archive with a borader range of categories?


texts: Is it bad form to use the word “novel” when describing your own work in a paper?

texts: Ideally any research paper should contain novel thoughts, ideas, procedures, observations, methods, etc. of some form or another. That being said, is it really necessary to remind the reader about it by using the words novel, revolutionary, or never been done before as opposed to just comparing it to existing studies and noting the differences between the two?


texts: Have I offended my professor by applying to summer research at other universities?

texts:
Yesterday I applied to a bunch of internships and sent my professor a request for a recommendation letter. He denied me the request, and sent my request email, along with his reply, to everyone in the lab. He wrote that he didn't understand why I would apply for a research internship in (our research area) when I am already a research intern at his lab, and that he assumes that I was only here for a reference letter and I have no intention of contributing to the lab.
This was shocking to me for several reasons. He had previously wrote, 2 months ago, that he was happy to write me a recommendation letter. In addition, I had already applied to a research internship in (our research area) at a national lab and he provided me a recommendation for that. On top of this, I have been working with a grad student with in-person lab work 4 days a week. I always show up on time to the group meetings but I usually don't have much to share since the grad student I work with share our results.
I also thought that it was obvious I would apply to research internships in our research area, and that it was common for undergrads to work on summer research elsewhere. I don't understand why I would apply to internships in other research areas that are not related to our lab. On top of all this, these REUs are funded and I applied because I can get paid over the summer. My position at the lab is a volunteer position.
Was this an offensive request? I'm not sure why he felt so strongly about this since he has always been very nice.
Edit: Thank you for all your suggestions. I emailed him explaining my decision and he sent the group an email saying that he values my contribution and supports my application.


texts: I have found a very good overview of a topic and I want to cite it in the introduction of my paper. The writers are very well known people in the field. Is it then okay to cite the paper that is not published and is only available in arXiv?


texts: How Best To Put The Fact Jigsaw Together In Research

texts:
The title to this question is the best way I can think offhand of phrasing it - but to anyone with a more widely accepted phrasing, please feel free to edit it.
Basically it's about a common experience in research where we have had all the requisite facts for some time (in some cases for years) but nonetheless miss viable conclusions that could yield opportunities to advance our work. As frustrating as the usual struggles of research are, the self-reproach felt after finally realizing something we could easily have obtained earlier is so much worse.
After one such occasion in my life, I had to ask myself hard questions about my research methodologies. I wondered if I had been unwise to ignore other research students' practice of keeping an index-card file. The index-card system was not simply a memory aid - it also allowed one to make multiple cross-associations between items of interest. Although perhaps 95% of the effort of maintaining an index-card system for one's research was in vain, the final 5% effort could save one's blushes.
More recently, reflecting on a research topic from earlier in my life, I came to a superficially counterintuitive but rationally interesting conclusion after putting 4 long-known facts together. Putting aside the suggestion of neglectful supervision of my research - I know few PhDs with genuinely adequate supervisors let alone ones who would constructively criticize the researcher - I have to wonder what would have been if newbee PhD candidates were first taught some means of collating their research facts and logically/sensibly constructing conclusions or exclusions from these.
May I ask PhD researchers here if today's academia provides any 'bootcamp' or practical methodologies for research reasoning prior to formally beginning their work ?
The methodologies I have in mind might be things like:

Writing out facts as premisses and trying to link them logically together
Sketching out concept associations or 'mind-maps' of facts or ideas
Speaking aloud some conclusions in the hope that, on hearing them, implications may be stimulated
Dialogues on blocking issues with a knowledgable colleague
Dialogues with common-sense people without expertise in one's research domain


texts: MS supervisor offered a low-paying PhD position; can I ask for a reference to work in a different lab instead?

texts:
The circumstance :

I finished a master program (in engineering) in Germany a while ago with quite good grades (score of 1.**).
Immediately after the defense, the professor asked me the plan afterwards, and offered a Phd scholarship (1100 euro per month), not employee-contract.
I reacted positively.
However, I found several interesting PhD positions that give more support financially.
So, I want to ask the professor if he can write reference letters for me to apply to other labs.
But I am worried about getting rejected from the other labs, and also losing my chance for a position with my current supervisor.

So, if I ask for the reference letters to apply to other labs, is the opportunity (of 1100 euro/month) gone automatically? Would this be rude?


texts: Mentioning resolved illness to statement of purpose?

texts:
I had hyperthyroidism which is now resolved. It didn't affected my performance.

Do I have anything to gain if I mention on my SOP that this condition caused me mental symptoms that made it harder for me to study - and despite that I did well?


texts: Is it ok to mention a research interest with professors outside of your department in a letter of intent?

texts:
I am planning on pursuing a ph.d. in mathematics, however, really my research interests often lie in the intersection of mathematics, logic, and theoretical computer science. Thus, in many of the universities I would like to apply to, I do not have very many common research interests with the mathematics faculty, but instead with the computer science or philosophy faculty.

Is it fine to mention that my primary research interests are actually outside the mathematics department in my letters of intent, should I try to word it to sound more like I am simply interested in interdisciplinary collaboration with other departments, or would even that harm my chances of getting accepted?

I suppose another question I have implicitly is: "...Or would it be better for me to apply for a ph.d. in Computer Science instead if the person at the university who most matches my research interests is in the computer science department?", or at least, what other factors should I consider to determine which way I should go (Math, or Computer Science) for a given university?

For what it's worth, my undergraduate degree is in mathematics with a minor in computer science.


texts: Postdoc Letter of recommendation same school or different school

texts:
I am going on the postdoc market this year (mathematics). I am now looking into who I should ask for a letter of recommendation. I think my advisor will give me a good one, and there is another faculty who I think will give me a good letter.
I am trying to decide who I should ask for a third letter. I have been told that it is a good idea to get someone from a different university to write you a letter if you can. There is one person who I think would write me a letter, and I think it would be alright. There is someone else, however, at my university who I think would write me a very good letter based on comments he has made to me and other faculty about me. I do not know which would be better, and was looking for general advice about how much having a LoR from someone from a different institution was.


texts: What is the typical time period after which an incoming grad student is expected to start publishing?

texts:
An incoming graduate student is typically required to help out as a TA, take courses both related to their research and required by the program, as well as to start reading up on the research topics in his field. Unless he has worked in the same research area prior to joining grad school, it is unlikely he would get any publishable results very soon after joining grad school.

To avoid being depressed by this apparent lack of results in the first few semesters, it would be helpful to know what the adviser/admissions committee expects out of him in that time, and by when he would be expected to start having publishable results?

I'm interested in the answers related to Theoretical CS, but as always, I believe it would be applicable to any grad  student as well - so it should not be specific to this field.


texts: Dealing with dismissive reviews as an editor

texts: I am an editor of an academic journal. If I receive a review that makes valid points but is written in a very dismissive tone, what should I do?


texts: Studying a second undergraduate degree part-time while doing a PhD?

texts:
I was wondering if it would be okay for a full-time PhD student (in biology) to pursue a part-time degree in an unrelated subject.
I had an undergrad experience that was pretty "focused", which was great in that it gave me decent training for graduate school, but also meant I never really got to experience certain subjects as much as I would've liked.
I came across a mostly-online degree programme in liberal arts from an accredited university and it got me thinking. Classes are mostly-online and I would be able to work at my own pace; I could spread the whole thing out across, say, 5 years. Any synchronous online sessions would take place in the evening/night, or during the weekend.
Do I absolutely have to enroll in a programme like this to fill out the "gaps" in my education? Admittedly no. I could just read books. But I feel like I want to. I would prefer the structure, engagement and feedback/advising that comes with formalized instruction, especially since I understand self-study is not exactly the best approach to subjects like Philosophy.
I do think the exposure to liberal arts subjects would develop me personally (different ways of thinking, better articulation). It's something I regret not having touched while an undergrad.
I don't mean to sound ungrateful or uninterested in my graduate study. I genuinely am. I just also genuinely want to enrich myself in this particular way, on the side. I know what little free time I have would become even less, but my heart is telling me it would be worth it. And I do have an interest in Philosophy I would like to explore. If things go south, I will pause or drop it.
If it doesn't interfere with my progress in my PhD, do you guys think it would be a good idea? I would have to tell my advisor, right (would I?)? I don't wish to upset him or give him a wrong idea.
Sorry for the long post, thank you for any advice.


texts: What should I do to figure out what has happened to my paper?

texts: Some months ago I wrote a paper with the help of a professor who sent the paper to a journal as the "corresponding author". I have since cut contact with the professor since he lied repeatedly to me on some unrelated matter. I am afraid that he may have removed the paper from the journal since I can't see its status.


texts: Is it a good idea to postdocs that are less than a year?

texts: I've noticed that there are a lot of postdocs postings that offer fixed-term contracts for 12 months and sometimes less (I did find 8 months). I'm looking for a postdoc position as my first post-PhD job and I don't know if I should also consider those. For the short-term contract, what's the usual story? do they really expect you to publish in just 8 months?


texts: Where to upload conference posters and how to share them?

texts:
When presenting a scientific poster at a conference, I am often asked by colleagues if they can get a copy of the poster. Often, I have DIN A4 prints ready (quite hard to read...) and I am also happy to share them via email, if somebody is interested.

It would all be much easier if I could just upload the poster to some open repository where it is archived such that I just need to share a link.

Neither arXiv seems to be the right place for it, nor figshare. Is there some open repository for scientific posters which I missed so far?


texts: Transitioning: PhD to Postdoc and Productivity

texts:
I just finished a PhD in Math and I am starting my postdoc in September. I am currently just working on a few collaborations--working on projects that are follow-ups from my dissertation that are mainly strengthening my results or applying my results to interests of my collaborators. I hear a lot about the difficulty and stress in transitioning from PhD to postdoc and how the "clock starts."

I have a few questions about these statements:

What are some concrete changes that you experienced when you transitioned from PhD to postdoc? Bonus points for math-related experiences.
How real is this "clock starts" claim and what does it really mean? Math-related answers are more useful.
Are there any adjustments I can actively start to make now to make the transition better?


texts: Not listed as author despite doing statistical work

texts:
I work in a medical field and recently contributed statistical analysis for a paper and was not listed as a co-author despite being told I would be. I spent a few weeks fielding questions about this paper and feel as though my contribution was significant. There are many people listed who I am certain contributed nothing to this paper.
Should I say something to my PI or just let it go? I understand the authorship likely can't be added to at this point but I want to express that I am slightly hurt. However since I am not vying for academic jobs I don't want to come off as being needy or petty since it ultimately won't matter for my career.
Any advice would be appreciated.


texts: How do I find or request a copy of someone's thesis if this person did their work in mainland China?

texts:
I hope this question is appropriate for the forum here.  I was hoping to locate and read a thesis outside of the United States, specifically for someone who went to a reputable University in mainland China (Shanghai Jiao Tong University).  However, all of my internet searches have been largely fruitless, and the library site at the university dedicated to theses appears to be down.

Does anyone know how to proceed in these circumstances?  I unfortunately cannot speak Chinese, and the person in question has been non-responsive for months.  Are these theses typically in English at top Chinese universities?


texts: Should first introductory paragraph explicitly state the subject of the paper?

texts:
I am trying to write an introduction for a scientific paper. I am not sure, when I am announcing my subject, should I write that this is the subject, or just mention it without announcing it outright?

This is very confusing so here's an example.

a. Man was always interested by aliens. This paper discusses the possibility of alien life.

b.Man was always interested by aliens. Currently, scientific discoveries are shedding light on whether it exists.

Which phrasing is better? Is the first one too blunt?


texts: Should response to an email of accepted article with some comments

texts:
I received an email from one journal telling me that my paper will be accepted if I consider all the comments from the reviewer. They did not ask me to write a response to the reviewer as the comments are very minor as they said.
Should I respond to them saying that I am working on the comments?
Kind regards,


texts:
Brief Context:

I am a high school student having difficulty choosing between two undergraduate programs.  My goal is to eventually work with quantum computing (computer science+physics) at the postdoctoral level.  My question concerns whether undergraduate or graduate school is more influential for a given field of study.

The first university, Stanford, offers the possibility of getting a dual degree in both CS and physics, but has no serious quantum computing research.  The second, Harvard, has a cutting-edge quantum computing research lab and is right next to MIT where there are other opportunities for research/classes.  Harvard only offers joint degrees in two fields, not dual degrees.

I was considering attending Stanford for undergrad to get a solid foundation in both CS and physics, then applying to Harvard for grad school to do research.

Here’s my question:

How important is doing research in your specific field of interest as an undergraduate?  Is it better to just take the opportunity to go to Harvard’s lab for undergrad, then look elsewhere for graduate school?  Or, is it more advisable to get separate degrees in CS and physics and then apply for graduate research in Harvard's lab?

My main concern is that the lack of quantum computing research at Stanford will be a major hindrance.  Will doing other unrelated research in CS or physics as an undergrad suffice just as well in the long run?


texts: Do industry-sponsored papers contain more incorrect results than papers that aren't industry-sponsored?

texts:
Are there any research/study/survey that tried to analyze whether industry-sponsored papers contain more incorrect results than  papers that aren't industry-sponsored, and if so, to what extent?

For example, if a drug company publishes a paper about the efficiency of one of their drugs, some readers might suspect results are more likely to be positively biased  than if the paper was published by an academic lab with no funding from the drug company. I wonder if these kinds of suspicion are actually grounded.


texts: Are open-book exams generally a superior way to test understanding on practical courses?

texts:
I understand why it would be a bad idea to allow math students access to paper materials as it  is necessary for students to know the basic math formulas by heart.

But what about advanced practical courses where it is important to "understand" rather than "know"? For example, knowing statistical formulas won't help if you haven't understood how to apply them. Knowing STL commands by heart is also useless for programming, unless you're actually good at programming. Intel's x86 developer manual won't help a complete newbie in Assembly programming.

Therefore the question is whether it is reasonable to believe that good courses should be focused on "understanding" the subject rather than "memorizing" it, meaning that the instructor should have no problems with his students using paper materials on the exam?


texts:
I am a PhD student third year and I almost finished working on a research with my supervisor. I have few research problems in my mind, I told him about one or two but he did not paid that much attention. I want to try one or two research problem on my own. I am little hesitant to ask him about this. Am I suppose to work with him on each research problem during my PhD?
I don't know what will be his reaction. What you people will suggest me to do? I strongly believe that I can do it. There is no funding problem. Second part of the question is  how to increase the chances of that the research I will on my own will be accepted in some conference ( definitely I can take some help from my supervisor )


texts: Can F1 students work simultaneously on-campus and off-campus with a total of 22 hours during academic year?

texts:
I am an international Ph.D. student with F1 status. I'm wondering is it possible to simultaneously work as Research Assistant (20 hours/week, on-campus) and also work on part-time CPT (2 hours/week, off-campus), i.e., in total, 22 hours per week, during the academic year (Fall, Winter, and Spring terms)? I will take courses for the part-time CPT work.
I have asked this question from the international office of our university and they answered there is no problem with this. I have also found this website which indicates it is possible.


texts: Teaching experience as a subcontractor for a university program

texts:
I work as an instructional staff at a local university. The program is marketed and hosted by the university and the certificates are granted by the university signed by the department dean as well. That being said, I was hired by and on the payroll of a subcontracting company, which also provides the curriculum.

I am also granted access to the university resources e.g. given a .edu email and listed under the university directory as an instructor-affiliate.

Does that mean I can list my experience as having worked for the university, the subcontracting company or both?


texts: In APA style, what is the appropriate way to differentiate between two organization divisions that both have the word "and" in their names?

texts:
I am writing a paper in APA style.  I am attempting to list two organization divisions of a library:

Information Technology and Technical Services
Academic Outreach and Services

How do I write and/or style these in a sentence to clearly define the separation of terms without looking like a poorly written sentence?  I'm not entirely convinced using quotes or italics is correct, but I'm leaning towards italics vs. anything else.

  The two major divisions, “Information Technology and Technical Services” and “Academic Outreach and Services,” ...

vs

  The two major divisions, Information Technology and Technical Services and Academic Outreach and Services, ...

Normally I wouldn't quote the two, but I'm not sure how else to write it.  Italics would work as well, but I don't know if that's appropriate or not, as the APA style guide doesn't appear to have suggestions for anything corporate/organization-related (4.08, 4.21).  4.21 suggests using italics for clarifying words, so that seems somewhat more appropriate than quotes, but the given example doesn't give me much confidence (the example given is "the small group [meaning a designation, not group size]").


texts: Is it bad to apply to multiple master/PhD programs in different universities?

texts:
I have heard that it is impolite and improper to apply to a masters/PhD program and ask more than one professor at that university to be your supervisor. In other words, when you apply to a single program, you should have determine who you want your supervisor to be and apply upon the prospect that if that professor doesn't want you/need you, you will need to apply again at a later date with a different supervisor.

What about applying to different institutions at the same time however?

Would it be harmful in any way to apply to programs in different universities, either on the same country or internationally?


texts:
I am in a process of making a paper camera-ready for publication. In the reference section, I have listed some works, which are not referenced in the text.

For example, can I write in the main text:

  This result1 is cited from [1].
  This result2 is cited from [4].

… and in the reference section:

  [1]  cited from here
  [2]  cited from here
  [3]  cited from here
  [4]  cited from here

I have not referenced [2] and [3] anywhere in the paper.

Is this paper is valid for publication? Or does it not affect the paper?


texts: Are 1-year MSc programmes in the UK recognised the same as typical European 2-year programmes

texts:
I come from a BSc in Computer Science background, and am looking into enrolling into a Masters programme.

I am considering some programmes in the UK (e.g. University of Edinburgh) and comparing them to the MSc programmes in Europe (e.g. at EPFL Switzerland). I have noticed a number of UK MSc programmes are only 1 year long, while in contrast, the European ones typically take two years (and in case of EPFL, may take some time more, due to the programme difficulty).

My question is: are 1-year UK programmes and 2-year European ones  recognized as being (approximately) equal value and at the same level of education (Europe-wide or world-wide), when looking for entry-level industry positions? Of course there are other factors like the institution reputation and quality involved, but this is assuming institutions of similar quality.

I created this post to get reviews from students who had to take a similar decision and studied in one or both of those universities.

Looking further this question seems to be looking for similar information, but has not been answered.


texts: Is copy-editing/typesetting the only step in the publishing process where someone other than the author makes changes to the manuscript?

texts:
I have not published a scientific paper before. I am trying to understand the publishing process.

As far as I understand, no changes are made to the manuscript by anyone other than the author(s) until the paper is accepted, and only after the paper is accepted, copy-editors do formatting/grammar-checks/typesetting. Is this correct?

In particular, if I am correct, it means that the editor does not actually make any changes to the manuscript, but only makes decisions about whether it is accepted or not, and the reviewers also make no changes, but only give feedback.


texts: How to get the most out of an internship (in industry)?

texts:
As a PhD student pursuing an academic career (but optionally a career in industry), what should I do do to get the most of a 10-week internship at a research lab?

Things I've thought of: talking with people (networking); attending talk/seminar (new ideas); giving a talk (get people to know you).

What other things can/should be done?


texts: Funding of research by commercial companies, what is the sentiment in the USA?

texts:
I attended graduate school in Switzerland, where for engineering, it is not uncommon to have research projects that are funded, in part, by commercial companies. I'm not talking about consulting, but scientific research projects, more on the translational side, for which there is full academic freedom and that have scientific publications as primary output. I also received a conference travel grant from a company during my PhD (although my paper was critical of the performance of one of that company's products).

I am now a post-doc fellow in a reputable american* university and realized my mentioning of funding from companies stirs unease and awkwardness among my colleagues (I should mention that my field is somewhat related to medicine).

How would private funding look like on my CV when applying to an american academic position? Is it considered more prestigious to have received government/foundation funding? I'm looking for answers that are general or specific to health-related research.

*I use this term to describe the USA.


texts:
I am reading some papers from Arxiv which were advised by a professor. Also the papers are published by a professors. My question is as follows: How to prove the professor that I have read the paper (advised by him)? Actually, I don't want to say just "sir, I have read the paper advised by you". If I truly read the papers then I might get a chance to be research student under him.
Please advise me.


texts: Is someone who solely contributes negative feedback to a paper considered an author?

texts:
Say person A and person B are collaborating on a mathematics paper. It goes like this: person A repeatedly suggests proofs, and person B repeatedly finds flaws in them. Over time, this process culminates in a correct proof.

Does person B deserve to be an author on this paper? One might argue that the final paper would not have existed without B, so they deserve authorship. On the other hand, they did not actually contribute anything in the final work - each successive proof was generated by A alone.

Wikipedia says that the development of RSA went something like this: "Rivest and Shamir, as computer scientists, proposed many potential functions while Adleman, as a mathematician, was responsible for finding their weaknesses," until Rivest hit on the final answer. But that might be overly reductive, and I don't know of any other examples.

(As a final note, I'm not A or B in this scenario - I'm just curious.)


texts: Is my irrelevant field of work experience a negative when applying for higher studies?

texts: I am currently working in TCS as an Oracle analyst. I did my bachelor's of engineering in Mechanical Engineering in 2017. Now I want to pursue my Master's in the same field. I am planning to apply to universities in Germany. Will my two years of working experience in IT sector affect my admission?


texts: I have submitted a proposal to NSF about 9 months ago, and the status of the proposal in Fastlane is "pending" with the last update being the day after it was submitted. Does it mean that it has not been reviewed yet? I have heard that when a proposal is reviewed by a panel, the status date gets updated even though the status might remain the same.


texts: Copyright issue of recorded video game when publishing research paper about it?

texts:
Background: I'm preparing research about a music-based arcade game, playable in the arcade game center. Requiring video dataset (including music in it), I recorded videos from the game playing by myself.
Question: Is it legal to use the videos for publishing an academic paper, even though they are just a kind of replay-videos?
Like many published research about games (e.g., Super Mario, League of Legend, ...), it seems to be possible to use in-game contents for research. I know there is a copyright issue especially using audio data for commercial use, but I'm wondering if it is still an issue in terms of academic research.
Actually, I don't know where to start searching keywords about this.


texts: How do you hide your past online identity when you enter Academia?

texts:
I worked before as a freelancer writer where I would review some tech products (phones, websites, online services... etc) and post them on YouTube (channels which I do not control), and both my voice and picture were appearing in these videos.
Now that I graduated from my Masters program, I want to pursue my PhD and teach in the university. I would like to start publishing some papers as well in my field.
However, my past online identity is haunting me; Anyone can search my name and instead of finding my Google Scholar page as the first result, they would see me talking about the features of iPhone 7 in a YouTube video, and it is embarrassing for me. Some political articles that I published online are also embarrassing for me as I enter the academic world.
Do most people in academia suffer from the same thing? How can one get rid of this past online identity before entering the professional academic life? And how can I be sure no one uses parts of this old identity against me in the future?


texts: How can I begin to gain credibility within the scientific community without a degree?

texts:
I'm working on a fairly extensive multidisciplinary research project - something a bit outside the purview of what would even be difficult for a respected field researcher to publish.

That being said, I am quite aware of my own biases, and I am double and triple checking my objectivity on a regular basis.

However - without a degree, I've found it extremely difficult to get anybody to simply review the work. The immediate response is to totally shut down.

What are some good steps to take? Even if it takes some time, I'm fine with that.

I just need to gain enough credibility to simply get a few reviews.


texts: What is the type of research study by which one analyses secondary sources to make reasonable predictions?

texts:
So first of all apologies if this is not the right site to be asking these questions. I'm as new as new can be in the world of research, so I'm probably not even using the correct terminology at times.
With that out of the way, my research is centered around evolving technologies and the ways in which those technologies will intertwine. For e.g, Moores Law is breaking down, but with the Quantum Supremecy being broken (which basically means faster computers) this will enable the continued growth of other technologies like AI, more immerse VR, etc. I won't go into too much detail here but safe to say my research won't be based on primary sources, since of course I can't exactly gather first-hand data on say, quantum computers. At least for now anyway.
So all my research will include secondary sources, and with this body of research, I then want to make predictions on how technology will grow and how, though starting out in isolation, how these technologies will have an impact on eachother and by extension how this will have an impact on us.
I've looked online for an appropriate methodology, but a lot of times there's talk of an experiment, which I am not doing. Also mentioned a lot is the use of participants, which I am also not relying upon. It's just the pure analysis of secondary sources.
To help clarify things further I'll mention some of the features of the type of research I'm doing: Again all my research will be based on secondary sources. The type of data that I'll be collecting will likely be qualitative, though I imagine that there will be a small amount of quantitative data there too. With the type of research I want to conduct, I imagine a lot of my predictions will support eachother, and if so, I plan to rely upon the chain argument. This is where for e.g if we know that A > B, and B > C, we can deduce that A > C. (However, I know that research must predict the type of reasoning, not vice versa, it's just that I suspect, given the nature of what I'm researching that this type of argument will be more appropriate than not).
I feel comfortable with the research itself by the way, but I'm having a hard time tieing it to a methodology in order to give the research itself a sense of structure.
Any help would be very much appreciated ^_^


texts: Is it OK to publish research that was in someone else's future work?

texts:
Very recently, a paper has been published that says:
I plan to incorporate X into my research in the future.

The aforementioned paper was published recently, so the follow up containing X is not published (nor do I know if the author is working on it right now). Would it be OK for me to then to do the research suggested in the paper? The idea to incorporate X into the research was an idea I developed independently, but it also happened to be in the "future work" of another paper, if that makes any difference.


texts: Percentage of PhD's in mathematics with no publications

texts:
I have recently read the following statistics in the book "The Survival of a Mathematician: From Tenure to Emeritus" by Steven G. Krantz, which seems a little odd:

  It is a hard fact that more than 90% of American Ph.D. mathematicians
  never write a paper. Of those who do, most write just one paper based
  on the Ph.D. thesis and that’s it. Nothing more.

I have seen several new PhD's (graduated in Canada, US, or Europe) with no publications, but my estimate for the rate of such fellows was way more optimistic than the above quote. So, I would like to know:

How accurate is this statistic? Is it documented anywhere?

Are there similar statistics about Mathematics PhD's in other countries?


texts: What are the common mistakes PhD candidates make in their final defense session?

texts: For a PhD candidate that has done a fine job in their PhD, what are the common mistakes to avoid in a defense session?


texts: Potential conflict-of-interest: Submitting a paper to a conference with advisor (and co-author) as keynote speaker and on the advisory committee?

texts: We are planning to submit a manuscript to a conference. However, my advisor (and co-author on this paper) is a keynote speaker in the conference, as well being a part of the advisory committee (not the program committee or organizing committee). Will there be a conflict of interest if I submit the paper to this conference? I don't think either of these roles (as an advisory committee member or a keynote speaker) has anything to do with the reviewing of the papers submitted, but I wanted to confirm this. I have asked my advisor, but haven't received a response from him yet.


texts:
After an incident where a complaint has been submitted against my private social media profile by students (with whom I had no interaction, nor were my posts directed towards) I felt attacked in a way I didn't feel before. Since my research is the most valuable thing to me in my life, I decided that my reaction will be to shut down all of my social media interactions and kept quiet for the past half a year. I am considering the cons of reopening my social media accounts and would love some input.

When closing my accounts, what scared me the most was the idea that a part of my life that has nothing to do with research, would interrupt my academic reputation, which is hard enough to build on its own as you all know. Weighing out the different possible outcomes, I felt like I prefer focusing on my research than being the Rosa Parks of crazy posting online.

Things became most awkward when at some point, I felt like I was forced to explain myself to faculty who come from a different generation, with different perception of the nuances of social behavior now days, which is already a stereotypical issue in the field I come from to begin with. This made me very frustrated. I found it very uncomfortable when I tried to explain the situation to some professor whom these students approached in order to file an official complaint against me, and this Professor didn't even want to hear me out. Although our relationship has normalized since, I figured out that the more provocative social media interaction I take part in, the more I would find myself in the position of needing to explain myself to people without some necessary background or motivation to understand where I am coming from. This has led me to stop all of my social media interactions immediately after "the incident".

My advisor, which I absolutely adore, both as a researcher and as a human being, has advised me strongly against engaging in social media in any form since. He told me that time and time again he has seen people suffering from negative effects on their careers, and that it is not worth it. However, I do not feel like he necessarily knows all of the aspects in which I gain value out of participating in social media interaction, and besides, I should have the right to live my own private life outside the academia. My advisor says that as a T.A. in a university I am "half a public figure" and this forces me to some unspoken social code of behavior. However, I am not sure I am very fond of that unspoken social code. I understand why it is absolutely important to be sensitive and politically correct within the confines of the classroom, and when interacting with peers, students and superiors, but where is it said that choosing a research career implies that I must be PG13 within the confines of my own social life? Would you feel like you would personally want to opt out of having research interactions with someone that has a provocative YouTube channel or Twitter accounts? Do you feel that it is necessary for me to suppress my desire to express myself creatively online in favor of an academic career?

It should be mentioned that the faculty has revoked the complaint against me and has told me that their official response is that it is not anybody else's business what I do online. However, I do feel like there is room for extra care in such a gray area topic. I am curious to hear your thoughts on this quite personal contemplation.


texts: Is it possible to have a 3.0+ (required gpa) master scholarship based on my postgraduate diploma GPA skipping my average (<3.0) Bachelor's GPA?

texts: I have some some difficulties finding a fully funded scholarship because my Bachelor's GPA is 2.69, which is less than 3.0. If I make a post graduate diploma with 3.0+ or 3.5+ even, can that be accounted as an academic record to help me get the scholarship? In other words, does it depend on Bachelor's GPA specifically or the last university degree GPA (which may be post graduate diploma as a bridge)?


texts: Must I decline to review a former colleague's work?

texts: I have been asked to review a paper that I know to have been authored by a friend and former colleague.  Is it my responsibility to inform the editor and decline to review the paper?


texts: Should I aim at publishing a single-author paper on my PhD?

texts:
This is the situation. I'm a 2nd-year PhD student in Computer Science. The research group I belong to is very large, and during my first two years I have worked with many different people from the group, and also gathered a lot of contacts from other universities. In fact, I haven't really met my supervisor, let's name her Alice, for anything besides administrative stuff.

Now, I have been working on something with professor Bob, who works in a different university. Most of the work has been done by me, and since Bob is now out of time he said it was better for me if I continue this work with Alice. The thing is that I've been doing this pretty much on my own from the beginning, and I know I could finish it on my own as well. Also, as I said initially, my group is very relaxed in terms of student-supervisor relation, so I'm thinking of just continuing the project on my own and submit a single-author paper to X conference.

My specific questions, given the above, are the following:

Should I pursue this on my own and just do it without notifying my supervisor? (it's important to say that in my group this happens often, but not for single-authored papers; i.e. a lot of students work with many other professors somewhere else without notifying their supervisors, and that's all fine).
If you think I should talk with my supervisor instead, then how should I approach her? "Do you want to get involved in this" or "Can I work on this on my own"? (maybe it's relevant to say that my supervisor has co-authored some papers with me in which she hasn't really done much, not even the first-core idea, so maybe the same principle should apply here?)

I know this is very much dependent on how things work at my place, but I would love to hear the advice from other researchers as well.


texts: Can I consider this email from potential PI as a rejection?

texts:
I'm a PhD student in the US and am looking for a postdoc position for the next year.
I'm reaching out to a few PIs I've been interested in working with.
There's one PI I'm really interested. This PI is in the field A, while I'm in the field B.
But I saw the potential of common interests and thought that this person would help me gain a new perspective and skills during my postdoc training. I also asked if she would be willing to support grant writing or fellowship application which is due in a month. (I know this is a short deadline, but this is the only fellowship I’d be eligible for and I was desperate..)
The PI replied to my email saying that we share a lot of common research interests, and she has always been interested in my field B and think that my PhD training in field B could contribute to her lab.
However, she wrote that she's not available for co-writing a grant or my application for a postdoctoral fellowship this year (listing other tasks that will keep her busy).
And she mentioned that "with earlier preparation, we could apply for the fellowship next year".
In addition, she suggested an alternative option. She recommended co-writing a grant with an assistant professor in the field B who has been recently hired in their department. Her suggestion is that once the new professor and I secure a grant, she can collaborate with me.
However, the thing is that I'm not super interested in working with the new assistant professor whose research interests don't align with me very well.
My question: Do you think that the PI I contacted is not interested in working with me? Based on my impression from the email, I feel that she's not enthusiastic about having me in her lab even though she said some nice things to be polite. Overall, I think that she doesn't want to invest much (either her time or resources) on getting me involved in her lab. Can I consider her response as a polite rejection?


texts: What criteria need to be matched to be able to distribute a research article openly?

texts:
Distributing articles that are not freely available can get you into trouble. However, it is important to share and distribute knowledge.

If you are not sure about whether or not you are allowed to distribute scientific work (be it yours or from others), what are the main criteria that need to be met so to be sure that you have the right to share an article?


texts: What day rate should I set for consulting work?

texts: I am a final year social sciences PhD student in the UK. A professor reached out to me and asked if I am interested in a three-day consultant work for their project and if so, what my day rate is. I am definitely interested in the opportunity but I am not sure how much the day rate is as I haven't worked like this before (freelance consultant). Would it be polite to ask them to provide the day rate? Thanks.


texts: Avoid plagiarizing other surveying authors when describing the work of a third

texts:
I'm currently writing the State of The Art chapter of my thesis.
To my advantage, there are many good surveys in my field. My views are not equal to other surveying authors, so the structure is not the same, nor the way the existing work is addressed. So far so good.

The problem is that eventually, one comes to the part of describing existing work and obviously some papers are so important that they must be present in any Survey of a given field.

I'm specifically worried about situations in which a surveying author AAAA describes the work of a third author like: "Algorithm AWESOME improves performance by statistical methods" and I'm saying something like: "Smith presented AWESOME, which uses statistics to reduce execution times". So, I'm somehow forced to paraphrase author AAAA, because AWESOME does that one thing and that's it.

So the question is: Is this somehow forced paraphrasing of a surveying author plagiarism?


texts:
Currently I am writing my master's graduate thesis. I am confused that which ordering style is more formal in a thesis reference list. For instance, consider the following three reference lists that I took as it is in order:

  [1] M. Fedrizzi, S. Giove Incomplete pairwise comparison and
  consistency optimization European Journal of Operational Research, 183
  (1) (2007), pp. 303–313

  [2] Z.S. Xu Goal programming models for obtaining the priority vector
  of incomplete fuzzy preference relation International Journal of
  Approximate Reasoning, 36 (3) (2004), pp. 261–270

  [3] P.T. Harker Alternative modes of questioning in the analytic
  hierarchy process Mathematical Modelling, 9 (3) (1987), pp. 353–360

Here the reference lists were not written in alphabetical order. Is there a general rule (convenience) for better formatting?


texts: How do I cite ebooks without page numbers?

texts:
I am directly quoting a sentence from an ebook. Thus, I want to add the page numbering to its citation. However, different to the print version, which I do not have, this ebook (Amazon Kindle version) does not have page numberings but rather "positions".

Do I just pretend it's a page numbering and note in the bibliography that it is a Kindle version? Or is there another way?

In case this is of interest, I am using Latex with Bibtex.


texts: Tips on finding experts on a specific topic

texts:
Ladies and gentlemen, hello.
Attracted by one research topic, I am facing a challenge of finding the most relevant sources, more precisely, of identifying the reputed and most qualified authors.
My question is not about a general sources search. Not about asking myself a question, thinking up proper key words and looking them up in academic data bases. Once I set myself a goal, including the one of searching for literature, I may go as far as it is physically possible. But apart from spending much time, my main concern is that in the end I will most certainly miss out on all or many experts in my subject.
Thus, I am looking to understand is there a way for to know which are the most important researchers who already wrote on a certain quite narrow subject? Maybe someone can recommend sites specialised in such kind of search?
Obviously, I already looked this question up on internet search engines but they do not return any meaningful results. Furthermore, I also saw this post which is too narrow and does not provide a general solution. Finally, asking senior researchers is not an option either because I am not affiliated to any institution.


texts: How was plagiarism checked before the Internet?

texts:
In the days where many prominent researchers we know today started their journey in Academia, what was the likelihood that some of their publications were alternated versions of what was already published by other researchers from other countries beforehand? Since most research is already published on the internet, and the existence of advanced plagiarism checking tools, has there been a recheck of authenticity of difference in papers that were published pre-1980s?
This is likely a dumb question since I am still learning the ways of Academia so don't get offended.


texts: Can one excel in graduate school with a demanding family life?

texts:
The essential gist of my question relates to what the real, unvarnished realities are of graduate, post-graduate, research, fellowship, and professorship attainment - when you aren't a single person with no pressing demands other than feeding yourself.

[EDIT: I am humbled by the incredibly helpful and thoughtful responses so far, all of which are +1 from me. I'll leave the question open a few more days before clicking 'accept' on any one, but you all have my gratitude and I hope others will benefit anywhere near as much as I have. ]

What I don't know is what succeeding in this path truly requires in time committment and family support.

Right now I can handle a 12-14 credit course schedule with 3.7-4.0 GPA (in the top 5-10% for college and program, dean's list, etc), work part-time, and still have time to be home and not have a burn-out/breakdown - and the academics are the easy part by far! I could do more, but I need to work more too.

What I really need to know is how sharply different is the time/dedication curve of graduate work and above. I realize each step is a filter that removes most of the entrants (most people don't get a degree, most who do don't attend/finish graduate school, most who do don't seek a PhD,  most who do don't seek/gain professorship...and on and on). But I don't know how severe the stepping is - I'm not talking "tenured professor at MIT or bust" - I realize that bar is many orders of magnitude higher.

Background Details: As an "adult, returning" undergraduate student with a (disabled) wife and kids, I'm halfway through a bachelor degree now. I've located a field of study (in a focus of Industrial Engineering) that has made me very interested in altering my life path to include seeking a Masters and maybe even a PhD/professorship (my father was a professor, so its not a purely novel concept to me). I've met and spoken with my advisor and 2 other professors with experience in related fields, and all is encouraging; I have a graduate school in mind, I've received lots of great advice on preparing for school (on this forum and in person), I test well (no GRE fears remain), good grades/class rank, good prospects for future strong referal letters, etc - a comparitively charmed existence for which I am very grateful! I just have to investigate whether I can make it through with an intact, cared for family!

Any guidance you could provide me, and other aspiring "non-traditional" students alike, would be appreciated immensely - thank you!


texts: Is it legal (USA) and ethical to use international edition textbooks? When I pay for a textbook, where does the money go?

texts:
Background:
I am a student.  I didn't have anything in life for four years, and I worked myself silly at times for it. So now I ask - when I pay hundreds of dollars over the production cost (new textbooks are over a week's pay each) what and whom am I giving my money to?

It's probably not those working in  the publishing factory,  I don't think it's the professor who wrote the book;  I imagine a rich entrepreneur , who, by positioning himself well in life, makes an immense amount of money while directly producing nothing of value, aka, the brass of a publishing company (correct me if I'm wrong).  In fact, when our college tried to use an "open source" textbook, publishing companies promised to stop selling us books - all over that one class!

Now, I can buy an international version for some 20 or so hours of my life (aka, payrate) for each and every class. However, there are plenty of people in this process who deserve to be paid (yes, even the brass.)  That said, books are so (over)priced I think it is more unethical not to pirate the book or buy a used or international edition - by feeding the predators, I become part of the problem.

However, there are many people on this site who are vastly more informed and experienced in academia than me and so I ask the following questions.

Questions:

Is it ethical for me to buy international textbooks?
Incidentally, is it legal in the United States to buy international textbooks?


texts: Using masters lab colleagues as references for PhD application?

texts:
I'm thinking about applying to a PhD program in computer science this coming December and I'm wondering a couple things about getting letters of recommendation.

For some background, I have a BS and a thesis MS in computer science, and I've been working in industry for a while now, but not that long.

I did a lot of work with my fellow graduate students while getting my masters and I think that, other than my advisor, they are in the best position to write a letter of recommendation for me. They have all graduated with PhDs and are now working as professors themselves. However I'm not sure if having my former fellow students write letters of recommendation would seem appropriate to a graduate committee. What do you all think?