texts: I may leave a postdoc for industry after 6 months for health/family reasons...is it ok?

texts:
I have started a postdoc far away from home overseas, away from my family and with quite a large time difference. The original idea was for my wife to move over after obtaining a work visa, although this is appearing to be very difficult since the country I am in has an extremely slow process in granting work permits and many places are refusing to grant her one due to "legal reasons". The other option was to join right away as a family member, however there are two problems with that: 1. The pay isn't a huge amount to support us both and 2. Becoming a resident is such a slow process, she may have to wait up to a year before she can start working. That aspect of it is looking very glim at this point.

A couple months in and my mental health is suffering greatly (I have a long history of mental health that I have struggled with, but managed to obtain a PhD and get quite a good number of publications). I can cope in the short term, but I am concerned for my health. I always wanted to do some more research in the field I am interested in (physics), however I am pretty certain I won't be following the academic route forever. In my heart of hearts, it does not seem worth it to be this far away from family and struggling like this - it has become much more important that I thought.

Has anybody experienced this situation before? If it does not appear to have changed in the next couple of months (my wife doesn't get a job, my health doesn't improve), I would plan to give 1 months notice (as per contract) and return home, hoping I do not burn any bridges along the way. My PI already knows the trouble I have in relocating my wife over here, and he has even tried to help. Ultimately, I will be honest and give these reasons upfront because it is the right thing to do. On returning back home, I would plan to make the move into industry.


texts: Is it a good idea to use Interfolio service for tenure track applications?

texts:
What do job search committees for tenure track jobs think of applicants using a service like interfolio?  Using such a service, you don't have to bug recommenders for each place you apply and, instead, enter a special email address generated by interfolio on application forms.

Is this a good idea?


texts:
What is the difference between the two Doctoral Degrees in South Africa: PhD and Doctor of Literature and Philosophy (D.Lit et. Phil)?

Where these degrees equal? What is the history  behind this differentiation?


texts: How to find collaborators for just writing and formatting manuscripts

texts:
In our research group we do many things, but have little time for writing papers. Sometimes things like formatting the manuscript for some specific journal or just writing the intro and methods sections can be very easy things if what you do is almost always the same, or you just need to rewrite some parts from one paper to other. This is always (from my opinion) straightforward but needs lots of time. Therefore I started to wonder how could I find people for just writing and formatting manuscript 100% of the time. How would you do this?

P.S. I remember some years ago there were some websites where programmers could interchange between them "services" for free, for instance one would write some C# code if the other one could do a website for the other. Do something like this exist for academics where the services are "writing papers", "formatting grants", "getting bibliography", etc.


texts: Citing someone directly with additional information in footnote

texts:
I would like to directly quote some sentences of another author who uses a word A which is a synonym for a word B I'm using in my text. Note: I would like to use my word B as the word A is very rare.

So I placed the text of the author into quotation marks and a footnote at the word A stating that in the following the word B will be used in my text. At the end of the quotation I put the source of the quote.

Is that correct or could it be misinterpreted as a footnote of the text I'm quoting? Should I add e.g. "Authors note:" before my footnote text?


texts: I have a perfect GPA from 2nd year on wards, but a horrible first year... How badly will this affect PhD admission?

texts:
I have BSc in Mathematics, and will finish my BSc (Hons) in Statistics soon.

In my first year of my degree I failed one course, got a C, two B- and one A+. This was when I was lazy and generally being an idiot. I really regret this.

In my second year I got all A+ including the course I failed the previous year. I got all A or A+ for the remainder of my undergrad. I've completed 5 of the required 8 courses for my honours with A+ and expect to get A+ in the remaining three.

I want to get into a decent university (top 50 qs hopefully) for a PhD program. I am worried that my extremely poor performance in my first year will ruin this for me. Will they be willing to look past this since I got my grades up, or will they just bin my application?

I also got deans list every year after second year, top of my year in statistics, and another honours scholarship if that makes any difference.


texts:
After doing well at science fair, I started working with an extremely nice professor at the local university who encouraged me to submit my work to the relevant conference. I was rejected at large, but accepted to one of the workshops. The workshop is the day before the conference. The professor reviewed my paper twice, probably taking him a half hour or hour total (it's a short paper). He also told the conference he would shepherd me, which kind of puts his name on all of this. However, looking at the calendar to plan my flight etc, I noticed the workshop is on the day of Yom Kippur! I am not that religious, and if this was some huge event for me I could possibly make an exception, but I'm not sure if presenting my mediocre work (the work is good for a high school student, but really lame for an actual conference) to the few people who will come to the presentation supersedes such a holiday. Also, after being rejected I didn't really want to go anyway, since I won't understand most of the presentations and I feel they only accepted me to the workshop to encourage me since I'm a student.

How do I talk with the professor and the conference/workshop about my problem? It is completely my fault!

Side note: who schedules an academic event on Yom Kippur? That's like scheduling it on Christmas or Easter!

Follow-up: I decided to go. I'm just not sure what it's like submitting to a workshop of a conference but not the conference at large.


texts: What does undergraduate tuition fund, and how does this differ between public universities and private universities in the U.S.?

texts: Does undergraduate tuition help fund professor salaries? Does it help fund graduate student salaries, especially if the grad students are TAs? What about lab facilities?


texts: When is it appropriate for a PhD student to discuss personal problems affecting his productivity with his advisor?

texts:
I had a very difficult personal problem. My head was not in the right place, and outside of getting through my administrative duties, my brain just couldn't function the right way to run wet lab experiments and come up with good research ideas. As a result, I did not work as much as I should have, and when I did I was all over the place. I concealed my emotional pain pretty well, and put up a good face while in the office/lab, so no one suspected personal problems, but my work definitely suffered. My parent's illness looks to be getting better now and after some counseling I feel like my life is back on track.

However, I feel like it is possible that my advisor's opinion of me has greatly declined due to my lack of productivity in the past. Would telling your advisor about personal problems, after they are over, with the intent of the advisor understanding a lack of productivity be appropriate? Would doing so just sound like excuses and make things worse?  I assume it would have probably been better if I had mentioned it back when I was going through the problems, but is it a good idea to mention it now, or just cut my losses, work hard and hope he forgets about those unproductive years.

So my question is. When is it appropriate to bring up personal problems with an advisor? In this case and in general?


texts: Is it unwise to contact the professor directly before getting admitted to a program in US?

texts:
In his answer of Details an applicant should include/exclude in an introductory letter to a prospective grad school adviser?, aeismail says

  If the program in question is in the US, for instance, you should probably never contact the professor directly until after you've been admitted into the program in question. Since admissions decisions are handled centrally, it's just a waste of time.

Now I'm surprised with this, and I think I'm not the only one. For many times, not only in this site, but also in real-life examples in my university, I have seen that my friends get accepted through contacting professors beforehand, and those professors are helpful and willing to get you through the adcom. Recall it back, they don't go to US, but I don't think US should be an exception.

Why is it an exception? Why do the "admissions decisions are handled centrally", unlike other universities in the world, where the weight of the professors is heavier? Isn't that sorting the applications by score not good as checking their ability directly through interview? And who is the most suitable interviewer, if not the one who will advise you in the future?


texts: What to call paragraph in relevant work chapter that explains relation to own thesis/research?

texts:
My second supervisor suggested that I add a final paragraph in my Relevant Work chapter which essentially explains why the discussed work is related to my own. I wrote the paragraph which explains this but also how my work differed from the discussed literature.

What should I call it? I stand at "Relation to my work" at the moment.

If more info is needed, please let me know.


texts: Should remote teaching sessions be shorter than classroom sessions?

texts:
In normal years, when I teach in a physical classroom, I teach in sessions of ~90 minutes, with ~30 minutes break.
This year, all teaching is done via Zoom (in real-time), and I wonder whether I should split each lesson into a larger number of shorter sessions, for example, split each 90+30 session into two 45+15 sessions.
On one hand, students are used to the standard 90+30 sessions; changing it might confuse them. Some students may e.g. forget coming back after the break, and this may cause a waste of time after breaks.
On the other hand, in remote learning, it is much harder for students to focus, so maybe they need more breaks.
Is there any research / experience regarding the optimal length of a remote real-time teaching session? Is it indeed shorter than classroom teaching session, and by how much?


texts: Research on technology enhanced learning?

texts:
The discourse about teaching seems to be dominated recently by the idea of technology enhanced learning. I have been talking a lot with colleagues about that and there seems to be some kind of consensus that the usage of technology is most of the times beneficial.

It also seems that many take this route in order to make their lectures interesting and load the with interesting "stuff" (animations, videos, etc).

I am very sceptical about this and I am kind of worried that making lectures "too interesting" can be a problem. I tend to think that students need to pace themselves and if you drag them along your lecture they end up remembering nothing.

Is there any serious research done on this? Do we understand the effects that fast-paced interesting lectures have on learning? Is there any research-based list of good and bad practices?


texts: Can you apply for a faculty position via a recruiting agency?

texts:
I came across some job advertisements for faculty positions that stated

  Strictly No Agencies

This implies that some agencies apply on behalf of the applicants. Is it common? Is it possible at all? I mean do open positions without the above statement accept applications sent by agencies rather than the applicant?

I know that the recruitment for senior industry positions is outsourced and handled by agencies, but this should be a different case.


texts: Research on career path after tenure denial?

texts:
I am looking for a study on the career path of professors after they are denied tenure.

Specifically, what percentage of these

get a tenured or tenure-track position at another institution?
get a non-tenure-track position in academia?
get a job related to their field of study outside of academia?
leave the field altogether?
other?

I am asking out of curiosity, so I'd be happy with answers that refer to a study in any context (country, field, etc.).

This is a reference-request question:  I am looking for answers that briefly summarize the results of a study on this subject, with a reference to said study.

I am not looking for answers from anecdotal evidence not supported by a study or citation (we already have some of those here).

I am also not looking for answers explaining why such a study is unlikely to exist, or why it should not be trusted if it did.


texts: Tanked the GRE Writing section, should I retake before applying to CS Ph.D.?

texts:
I am looking into applying to a computer science ph.D program. I have 94% and up in the Quantitative and Verbal section but have tanked the writing section with a 17% (score of 3).

I am currently a master student (3.85 GPA) the program is ranked at around 55 in the US, should have great letters of recommendation, but I will not publish my research until after application deadlines. So I would have only one publication at a great conference but as a second author.

Should I retake the GRE?

Thank you very much


texts: Is being a good teacher a bad thing at a research intensive university?

texts:
In Do student reviews of teachers matter?, there are a couple of comments which suggest that being labeled a "good teacher" is a bad thing at a research intensive university. I have heard this in the past, but have always thought it was based on the fact that you wanted to be known for your research as opposed to your teaching. In other words that you want to be known as a "good researcher" as opposed to a good teacher. The way the comments are used in that question it sounds like you should in fact strive to be known as a "bad teacher".

Is it bad to be known as a good teacher? Is it good to be known as a bad teacher?


texts: Could I list the conference that I didn't attend in the PhD application system even I got my paper accepted?

texts:
I am applying for a Ph.D. position in a university. Their system required me to fill in the conferences I attended.
I published my paper on one conference although I didn't attend it personally for some reasons. My advisor went on my behalf. However, if I denied that I had attended that conference, the system doesn't even allow me to upload my paper. I think the paper is an important proof of my research ability.
What should I do? Should I just pretend I attended it. I don't even think they will really check about this thing.


texts: Changing MSc supervisor late in the game

texts:
I am considering asking another professor to be my thesis advisor. My situation differs from that of other question-askers in that:

I am in a position where I have done enough research to write my thesis and be done in a couple of months.
My relationship with my current advisor, while rough at times, in generally good.

So why do I want to switch?

I feel that my research topic is a dead end. This wouldn't really bother me too much except that my particular topic turns out to be interesting to very few people (the number one complaint by reviewers). The result is that despite achieving good results, we have been having trouble publishing at the general and more influential conferences.

When I began my project I thought it was interesting, but no longer think this, partially because of reviewer feed-back, but more because of my expanding knowledge of the field.

additional context: I also feel that the work is quite trivial in that what I did to achieve good results is what anyone in the hotter subfields would do. The reason that it wasn't done before is that the method wasn't known/understood by my advisor (or tried by others in the relatively small community).

On the other hand, I have worked on another project in one of my classes that is not only more interesting to me, but is part of a much 'hotter' subfield.

I guess I am concerned with attaching my name to a thesis that few people will care about when I can potentially work on something else with much more interest. Not only that, but the latter project is in the area where I would like to do a PhD.

I don't mind that switching would add upwards of a year to my program. Rather, I am hesitant to make this move for the following reasons:

I don't want to do something that will harm my current advisor. I also don't want to piss this person off as they are my main reference for the past two years of work. Is switching likely to have either of these effects?

The professor I would like to switch to is very new and I don't want to put him in a position that might cause him to come into conflict with my current advisor. How likely is this?

Any advice on the above questions would be great. I just don't have the experience to know if my concerns are valid.


texts: What to do if the corresponding author is presumably dead?

texts:
I need further information on a botany paper I found on jstor which is from the 1920s. So I am assuming the workers wouldn't still be alive. Sadly, there has no work been done in recent times on the subject.

What is to be done if I require further/supplementary information if the corresponding author doesn't exist?


texts: How to demonstrate mastery of courses not taken during undergraduation

texts:
In this answer, Anonymous Mathematician says, "You need to demonstrate that you have mastered the undergraduate material that is less relevant for computer science. For example, mathematical analysis along the lines of Rudin's Principles of Mathematical Analysis"

How can I demonstrate I have mastered materials from Rudin's Principles of Mathematical Analysis or Artin's Algebra for admission in grad school?


texts:
In Mathematics, where every university teacher is expected to do research I find it very difficult to do research without any motive. I keep thinking "this is a useless thing" If there are like minded people around to discuss problems which interests me, I do enjoy it, but alone I find no motive to do research The kind of mathematics I do do not have any practical applications, and those branches of mathematics which have applications do not interest me much.
Why are math faculty made to do research as mostly they are useless work? I like university level teaching and am good at it But a worse teacher who publishes papers have a greater chance of getting teaching jobs than a good teacher who does not do research


texts:
I'm not sure if this is entirely the correct stack exchange for my question, but the career stack exchange seemed to have a different focus from what I'm looking for.  My question is:  Can I work in engineering (Aerospace), specifically in modeling/simulation/analysis, without an engineering degree?

There is a fair bit of background for this question so be warned.  I am sophomore Aerospace engineering student currently working through my 4th semester.  I'm taking 16 credit hours.  My classes are fairly challenging for me, as would be expected, but I can and do get A's in them so far.  I work for an Aerospace engineering company for about 30 hours a week with school, I've been with this company for about a month.  I've been hired on as year-round intern to do (obviously basic) modeling and data analysis.  My problem is that I really like doing the modeling/data analysis, and in school I have a hard time caring about my non-math and non-numerical methods classes.  If I switched to a math major, I would have a halved class load, and I would be able to take only courses on modeling and data analysis.

The obvious solution here would be for me to switch to CS, but every time I import 'system' into Python I die a little bit.  Its not something I personally enjoy, so I would like to avoid that if possible.  Basically, I want to focus on becoming more skilled at what I enjoy doing without doing unnecessary work.  But I don't know if I can continue doing what I enjoy in my future career without a degree that says "Engineering" on it.  I don't have enough information to make this decision so I'm hoping for advice from those that do. .


texts: Which to cite: Review and Survey papers or Research papers?

texts: Review papers are long papers gathering the results of various researches and have many conclusions. When I want to address an issue or a conclusion about something should I repeatedly cite a Review paper and use points in that paper or I'd better find important papers on that topic and cite them?


texts: Advisor writing bulk/entire student thesis

texts:
I am forced to write this question as I believe it is unethical and needs to be addressed in my faculty. I suspect a faculty member in my university has the habit of writing his master's degree students' thesis (for free or for a fee). I believe he does that for a fee. A colleague has mentioned this before but that colleague isn't a board member so I can't really take his word officially. I noticed that for several thesis I examined for the examination board, his students have very solid thesis but would have you questioning their abilities during oral presentations. Some colleagues think it's stage fright but I believe it is more than that. This faculty member always requests that corrections for the thesis be mailed to him to "pass to his student". I think he's just doing the corrections and submitting final copy. This faculty member taught me in my undergraduate years in the same faculty and I heard some stories of his shady dealings with students then.
Question: How can something like this be investigated since there are no mechanism in place to limit what a supervisor contributes to his students' thesis? It is difficult to get the students to testify as this is what most of them would want by default.


texts: Applied Math or Computer Science for graduate school

texts:
I am a 4th-year student about to finish my math and computer science programs (double major). I have taken both pure math courses and computer science courses and I find myself more interested in math. However, many have told me that computer science may be a better option if I want to find a job in non-academic area.
1. Should I go to graduate for applied math or computer science?
2. Does it matter which path I choose if my ultimate goal is to find a job in the industry, considering I will have a computer science bachelor's degree?
3. Am I going to be ok in graduate school if all the math courses I have taken are pure math


texts: How is the salary of professors and researchers in medicine?

texts: For university-level researchers and professors, is the salary higher in the medical fields than in other fields? I suppose attracting physicians to teach may be harder, because they can usually get high payments working as physicians. Where can I find data about this in Europe, Australia, Canada and US?


texts: Are there any good strategies for conveying the true significance of the results that look obvious post factum?

texts:
In nearly any field there is a number of important results which look obvious to experts post factum but somehow are not that easy to come by in the first place (e.g. in mathematics some important definitions look exactly like this). Unfortunately, this apparent post factum simplicity makes conveying the importance of the idea to expert audience (and in particular to the journals' editors and referees) very difficult. To make things worse, sometimes the author is unable to illustrate the application of the idea by sufficiently striking examples.

  The question is whether it is possible (and if yes, how) to mitigate this apparent post factum simplicity in the talks and research articles, i.e., what can be done to adequately convey the significance of "post-factum-obvious" results to the audience and, in particular, to get these results to the journals they truly deserve?

I am particularly interested in the advice applicable to mathematics/mathematical physics but the suggestions suitable for other fields are very welcome too, as the situation in question does not seem to be all that field-specific.


texts: How does one keep herself updated with new research without forgetting older results?

texts:
The title is fairly generic in nature, so I'm trying to elaborate in the body. I'm interested in answers pertaining to Theoretical Computer Science (TCS), but I'm certain the question would be equally relevant in fields which have been around for more than a couple of decades, and hence I hope to get responses from researchers in other disciplines as well!

What I'm trying to understand is how researchers (who have been working for quite sometime) in any specialized field (like TCS) keep track of results that have already been published - not just seminal results, but also results which have a lesser (but not insignificant) impact on the field but were published years or decades before. At the same time, one has to keep track of results being published in (at least) the notable conferences in the current year as well, in order to absorb the new ideas presented there and incorporate/extend them in one's own work.

I find it kind of incredible to believe that all of the above is possible without any kind of disciplined approach to reading and subsequent assimilation of the ideas on a regular basis - which is why I'm asking members of academia about their experiences/practices on this. In particular:

How frequently (if at all) do you revisit "classic" results?
Do you keep written/electronic notes on a regular basis to keep track of continuing progress in a field (say, for instance, inapproximability results for geometric problems) - or do you prefer to keep it all in your mind?
To keep track of current state of art, do you only attend/read Tier-I conferences, or do you get useful ideas from results published in Tier-II/III conferences as well?
What kind of time/resources would you typically set aside for reading, as opposed to working on a problem?

In short, I'm trying to find what kind of things would you expect a top researcher to "know" off the top of his head, and at what level of depth - and how would you go trying to maintain that level of perception over the years?

(I understand that the question IS subjective, but I'm hoping that it satisfies the guidelines for a "good subjective" question!)


texts: How do I move forward after working with a toxic academic supervisor?

texts:
How do I move forward after working with a toxic academic supervisor who ruined my all job opportunities by giving negative referrals, when my next job is asking referee report from him?
If anyone has gone through a similar experience and survived, would love to hear how you survived.


texts: Sending a second follow-up email for a potential PhD position

texts:
Four weeks ago I contacted the department of the University to ask whether there are PhD positions open. They emailed me some questions I needed to fill in and said that they will review my application and let me know if they have something available for me as soon as possible. After two weeks, I sent a follow-up email asking if there was already some news about my application, but they didn't respond.
Now, two weeks after that follow-up email, I still haven't heard anything. Is it okay to send a second follow-up email? How should I formulate it? I don't want to seem annoying and intrusive. On the one hand, I'm willing to be patient as I really want to pursue a PhD at that faculty, but on the other hand, if they don't offer me a position, I need to start looking for other positions as soon as possible.


texts: Getting a job in industrial math with only a Masters?

texts:
Is it possible to get a job in industrial mathematics with a Masters in math but no work experience and no PhD. Or would one be limited to only nonresearch industrial math jobs?

How about the type of jobs listed here: http://www.siam.org/careers/thinking/solve.php
?


texts: Master in Germany after 3 years bachelor degree

texts: I've completed my 3 years bachelor degree in B.Sc.Hons in Computing from Nepal affiliated to London Metropolitan University and i am planning to do Ms in Germany. Am i eligible to enroll directly in master program in Germany?


texts: How to reuse a figure from a patent? Is it free to reuse?

texts: I recently came across a journal article that included and referenced a figure (photograph) from a US patent. I found the patent, and I would like to use the same figure, and I'm wondering who the copyright holder is. Might it be free to use since the patent itself is public, or do I need to ask around until I find the copyright holder?


texts: When suggesting referee names, where do you draw the line for conflict of interest?

texts:
Journal submission guidelines in my field typically require the submitting author to provide the editor with a list of potential referees. The journal guidelines ask to suggest people with whom we have no collaboration, no joint publications and no conflict of interest.

Given how competitive academic research is, I sometimes wonder how conservative one should be in choosing potential referees. After a long career, if I am to exclude all people whom I have collaborated with over time, there will be few experts left qualified to judge the work! On the other hand, someone with whom I am just starting a project with, and has nothing published with me so far, would not be seen as a violation by the editor, yet would not be rally fair (if we work together, he has a vested interest in my success).

So, I am asking here what guidelines or principles can be proposed in this gray area.


texts: find papers that are based on another paper

texts:
There is a paper on my field that I like very much(machine vision). I have implemented the solution it proposes and it works well (not flawless obviously).
However this paper was published in 1991.
Is there a way that I can search relevant and more recent papers that use this paper as its basis??  -I mean it is rather easy to the opposite, just check the references, but how about the other way?)

(Talking more specialized jargon, this papers deals with one (of many) ways to implement a machine vision operation. I like this method rather than others, and I would like to find papers that propose improvements to this method-rather than go to other direction)


texts: Is it reasonable for me to expect an official and timely response to my PhD application?

texts: I recently applied for a PhD position with a major university in Europe. However, I haven't heard back from them even though the dates for the interviews have passed. This somewhat provoces me since I've put a lot of work into my application (it feels disrespectful to not get back to me) and since it makes me unsure whether I have been rejected or merely forgotten. I've already got a response (possibly automately generated) that my application was received by them.


texts: What to do if asked to write a letter of recommendation for a weak candidate?

texts: How should a professor proceed when a student or colleague asks for a letter of recommendation and the professor does not have a high opinion of that person?


texts: Is it recommended to invest in stocks as a typical broke graduate students?

texts:
I openly admit that I am financial illiterate and for most of my life neither know about nor cared about investing. I am currently doing research in a field that is tangentially, but not exactly related to financial mathematics (say physics: a lot of Brownian motions and what not going on).

What has gotten me interested is over time is that I've met many people (who are much younger than me, like 19 years old right out of highschool) who are investing in stocks WHILE doing research. In fact, they appear to know a lot more than I do, which makes me feel a bit self-conscious and inadequate.

What has prevented me from doing the same:

Basically no family member or close connections who can guide me. Not born with a silver spoon.
Research is a lot of work and requires dedicated focus. Can't imagine rushing a deadline while managing my assets.
I literally have not taken a single course in finance, and assumed it would be easy given my extensive graduate school level math background. But I have no idea where to get started.
No money. This is one of the key reason. I am your typical 20s something scholarship-living graduate student in North America. If I am investing anything it is my TA stipend or my scholarship itself (which I will need to pay back at the end of the semester). I literally do not have any other income source and cannot even take a hit of a few hundred dollars.

1, 2, 3 I can fix, but I am worried about 4.

Is there any advice on stock investments during your grad school for people who have tried their hands, especially if you were living as a low-paid graduate student like me?

Is it possible to achieve a balance between research, life and managing your finances?


texts: Appropriate response to sexual misconduct 'joke' made against an academic

texts:
This happened quite recently to a friend and colleague of mine.

Another colleague made an off-hand 'joke' about a friend (an academic) potentially behaving inappropriately with his students.  This was said in front of my friend's students (over 20) and within hearing range of his students, as my friend heard them laughing soon after the 'joke' was said (his own students apparently had shocked looks on their faces).

The situation was that he was setting up an experiment demonstration that required the lights turned off and curtains drawn (physics - lasers).  Understandably, my friend was very angry, hurt and terribly embarrassed and could not bare to even look at his colleague who 'triumphantly went back to his own class' soon after.

Just a point I want to make here, the reason I am saying 'joke' in inverted commas, is because this kind of infantile rubbish can and does cause unwarranted mud to stick - and is potentially a lot more damaging for male teachers/lecturers.  Also, it is a lame, disgusting, low-brow attempt at humour. (I have been a butt of a joke like that myself a few years ago and it inadvertently caused quite a bit of trouble, despite being 100% innocent and proven so).

There is no question of his innocence of any wrong doing, and being the true professional, he redirected his students back to the demonstration and completed the lesson.

He is the kind of person that does not like to make waves and does not like to make a fuss.

In summary:

Lecturer X about to start his class requiring the lights to be off and curtains drawn for an experiment. Lecturer Y comes in unannounced and made the 'joke' about X potentially doing something inappropriate with the students in the darkness.  This was in front of both X's and Y's students.
Lecturer Y went back to his class.
Lecturer X was justifiably insulted, but continued his lesson.

What course of action should he (Lecturer X) do?  Particularly to protect himself from any potential future trouble regarding allegations etc from this 'joke'?  (Which as I said, can occur).


texts: Isn't the job prospect in theoretical/mathematical physics too bad to justify doing a PhD in it?

texts: Almost every theoretical physicist (string theorists) that I meet tells me that it makes no sense to try do a PhD. in these subjects since there are simply no jobs available and things are only going to get worse for those seeking faculty jobs 8-10 years from now.


texts: PhD Application, Mention of published Papers

texts:
I am considering applying to a university for a Ph.D. The university wants to know about papers I published - I heard that traditionally the first author (of e.g. 4) is often considered the main one.

I published 3 papers - I did have guidance by a Professor on how to choose a structure, but in the end I wrote it on my own. For some "internal" reasons, the university did not allow me to put my name first - and there were other names (next to my Prof's) added as well.

On each paper there are now 4-5 names and my name is either 2nd or 3rd place.

How do I convey that I am the main author?
How do I convey that I did the work?

I dont want to deny the effort of my Prof guiding me and helping me with questions, but I also dont want to make it sound like it was "a collaborative effort" by all authors.
Basically, I dont want to sound like a jackass.


texts: PI wants to add a new author who I think doesn't deserve to be added

texts:
I have worked with a professor on a project where I produced some results from running experiments and analysing the data, now the professor is asking a new student to redo my experiments with the promise of adding the student's name to the publication we already submitted to a conference and is currently under review.

I wasn't told of the reason why a new student was brought to the project but if I have to guess it would be to validate the results.

I feel that the new student shouldn't be added as an author as he is repeating what I have already done. Is my feeling correct/justified? Should I approach the professor with this concern? Or should I keep it to myself?


texts: Is it important to get a job at a top university?

texts:
My postdoc was very successful, and now I got a tenure-track offer in a mid-level university. My supervisor suggests if I stay with him for one more years or two, I might be able to get a tenure track position in top universities (say, MIT, Harvard, ...).

I can establish my research and group in any reasonable environment. Is it really that important to be in top universities? Is it worth of waiting?


texts: What is the exact meaning of a deadline for conference paper submission?

texts: If I see on an IEEE conference webpage that the deadline is set to the 30th of March (for example) what does that exactly mean? Does it mean the submission system will not accept any submission after 11:59pm on March 30th?


texts: How would you rate the UK Open University's math BSc programme relative to prestigious ones?

texts:
The Open University has a "BSc Honours" degree in mathematics, having its programme of study described here. The courses, divided into modules, are grouped there and listed by three stages roughly corresponding to years of study.
To me it looks like an applied mathematics curriculum, but I could be wrong about that.
What would be your take, if you are intimately familiar with other mathematics BSc programmes and perhaps even with this particular one? Are there key aspects you find neglected in this programme?


texts: Is it ethically unsound to accept a graduate admission offer then later withdraw?

texts:
Note: Similar questions exist on ASE but those pertain to funded programs.

I have been admitted to an outstanding MS program and waitlisted for admission to another outstanding MS program. Both are unfunded. The first's response deadline is 04/15, and the second said they may not be able to let me know the final decision before then. While the first program is outstanding, I find better fit in second program (mainly research interest, location, and tuition rate). My question is: would it be ethically unsound to accept the first offer prior to the 04/05 deadline, and if I find out thereafter that I am accepted to the second one, decline the first? Since there is no funding involved (as in a Ph.D. program) I would not feel as bad about it.


texts: What are the pros and cons of having multiple co-advisors during a PhD?

texts:
Can you have more than one co-advisor as well ? I yet have to check with my department but wanted to see the pros and cons of it.

I did read this but wanted to see if someone else has opinions as well ?


texts: Should I avoid using footnotes in a statement of purpose?

texts:
I intend to use some footnotes (in a restricted manner) in my statement of purpose for PhD applications, but I am not sure if doing so is suitable.

Though I cannot see any reason against doing so, for safety I still want to ask here for the advices from more experienced you.


texts: I haven't received the support promised in my funding letter. What should I do?

texts:
It has been 4 months that I have started my master's degree in North America. I got my funding letter from my supervisor when I was in my home country, in my letter it was written that I will be a fully funded student. Now I am here and he does not pay that amount money. even for my first semester, I paid all of my expenses and tuition fee from my pocket. I finished those amount of money that I brought from my home country. now my supervisor does not pay properly. Life became difficult for me, even the university restricted my access to add and drop due to the hold. I am a good student who cares about studying, I hate thinking about money and tuition fee. I am not the guy who can study and do research like this. My prof pays other classmates more than me. This situation really disappoints me and overwhelmingly hard for me. Several times my parents wanted to send money but I did not let them. (transferring money is difficult from my home country.)
I feel like crying these days and I could not stop it.
Do you have any recommendation or sample letter? how can I make him understand?

+edited: I tried to talk my classmates about this issue. But when I am explaining this issue to them they think that there is something wrong with me and my classmates do not offer any collaboration with me such as publishing something or studying together. This payment issue affected my self-confidence completely.


texts: Question on academic integrity and using summaries

texts:
I was taking a philosophy class, which met twice weekly. Assignments for each class consisted of reading select passages from different philosophical works. In addition to the selected passages, our teacher provided recommended secondary literature/commentaries to help navigate the texts and provide different perspectives.

In regards to the readings, due to various (mostly health-related) reasons, I often fell behind. This, for the most part, was not an issue, as the essay assignments for the class concerned very specific sections of the texts. In writing these, then, what I would do was consult both online summaries of the relevant sections and peruse the relevant sections from the texts myself.

Come the final exam (for which we were provided the questions ahead of time), while I was initially concerned that my having fallen behind would hurt me, it turned out that most of the questions I could answer based on what I already knew. As I was preparing for the final question, however, I realized that I needed to really understand one section of a book that I hadn't read; this was the night before the exam. This section was really dense, so while I tried for a time, and got partway through it, I decided it would be more prudent to consult one of the recommended commentaries in order to understand what the philosopher was saying. While I was doing this, I tried a few more times to make it through the actual text again, but I didn't get that much further. The secondary sources clarified the argument the philosopher was making, and I used what I'd learnt to finish my answer. Ultimately, the information I'd gleaned from the secondary source took up only a small part of my final answer.

At the time, I felt a pang that maybe I was doing something unscrupulous, and thus that I should just rely solely on the primary text. Would it be wrong, I asked myself, to rely predominately on the secondary text given my minimal understanding of the primary text? But I also knew that I had somewhat of a history of compulsive, irrational guilt which had affected my performance in the past, and thus I was more determined not to let this hurt my performance on the exam, so I did end up using the secondary source.

After the exam, I later informed the teacher that in preparing for the final, I had consulted online/secondary sources that provided some information/ideas which I hadn't taken from the text, and he replied that this was completely fine. I realized, however, that I hadn't said specifically that I hadn't made it through the relevant section completely and with trying to understand it fully, and that maybe I should've actually clarified this as well.

The crux of my dilemma, then, is to what extent I should have read/comprehended the original text before relying on secondary texts/summaries. Generally speaking, throughout the course, while I relied a lot on secondary sources/summaries, I made efforts to read the actual texts as well. For the final, however, I tried to read the actual texts, and did to an extent, but understood it only superficially, and ultimately the bulk of my understanding came from the secondary texts/summaries. Moreover, as I was reading the primary text, I felt a bit that I was only doing it so that I could subsequently turn to the secondary text without reservations—i.e., without relying on the secondary text entirely without having read the primary text at all. It's worth noting as well that the secondary source I consulted predominately in answering this question was recommended by the teacher, and to my knowledge it was never stated explicitly that we could only use secondary commentaries after having read the primary texts.

I'm wondering whether I should feel bad about this going forward. I've come to the conclusion that, while at worst this may have been a minor infraction, it isn't worth feeling bad about and I shouldn't let this hang over me at all going forward, nor should I attempt to further clarify this situation with my teacher, especially given that the class is over.


texts: My PhD defense is next week and I am having negative thoughts about my work and knowledge. Any advice on how to tackle this?

texts:
I am presenting my PhD thesis in front of my committee next week and I feel that I have just not done enough. My work is simple and I also feel that I have poor theoretical foundations and am going to be an embarrassment when quizzed by my committee.

I am not feeling confident about presenting my research and I am finding it extremely difficult pushing away negative thoughts like (I feel I have not done enough or I am not theoretically strong enough for doing my PhD on my research field).

I am revising theoretical stuff (related to my thesis work) that I studied in my first year of PhD, but I am not able to push out the feeling of guilt and the impending doom.

Any advice on how to tackle this?


texts: How to evaluate the skills that students build while getting to the answer?

texts:
We are running a hands-on laboratory that is part of a larger electric circuits course.  I've been doing a review of our lab manuals and am realizing that there is a large discrepancy between what we are asking students to submit about the lab and what we hope they will learn in the lab.

For example, one of the key skills we want the students to gain in lab 1 is to be able to look at a circuit diagram, identify the physical components on their bench that correspond to the symbols in the diagram, and appropriately wire up the circuit.  In the lab manual, we just ask them "what is the voltage across X?"  The problem there is that whether it takes them an hour or a minute, or whether a TA gave them excessive help or they did it on their own, is not captured at all in the evaluation.  However, asking them to describe their process or something like that often results in vague answers that aren't much help.

It seems to me that we need a way to evaluate the skills as much as the end result.  What are some strategies for doing such an evaluation?


texts:
When writing a Deliverable for the European Commission I'm commanded to include an Executive Summary at the top of the document. This Executive Summary includes the main outcomes of the research done for the Deliverable, including what I've read from others research.

Of course anything I've learnt is formally referenced, and by style decision I have to employ APA style. Should I put the cites and references in the Executive Summary as well?

PROS:

If by any reason the executive summary is separated from the real
document, it is stated clearly that I don't pretend to pass any
others insights as mine.

CONS:

The Executive Summary occupies nearly one and a half pages more
(APA!)
Extensive citing makes the reading slower, and more difficult if you're not used to read academic papers.

So I'm worried to make the Executive Summary unuseful by adding too much formalism.
Any experiences on that?


texts:
I have just completed a research degree. By the rules of my university, my dissertation was examined by two outside examiners, whose identities were kept secret from me during the examination process. Now that I have received my results, my supervisor has told me who the examiners were (this was permitted by university rules and the consent of the examiners).

Is it appropriate to send them each an email thanking them for their efforts?


texts: In a class with both graduate and undergraduate students, is it normal for a single grading curve to be applied for both groups?

texts:
I took a class with graduate students as an undergraduate student. The grading was on a curve and combined (as in graduate students were graded along with undergraduate students).

Is this normal in US universities as well? Won't the undergraduate students have a disadvantage competing against graduate students (pursuing 2nd year of Masters/PhD) for a good grade.

What ended up was:

1 A Grade

12 B Grades (7 of which went to graduate Students and 5 to undergraduate students)

20 C Grades

10 D Grades

3 E Grades

For a class of 25 graduate students and 21 undergraduate students.


texts: Is it suitable for an MS student to ask teaching faculty for a recommendation letter for PhD applications?

texts:
During my masters degree, I was a teaching assistant for undergraduate course 'X' two times. The professors in charge of the course are titled 'Senior Lecturer' - they are not research faculty.

How would my PhD application look if I had a recommendation letter from one of them?

Bear in mind:

I have worked extensively with them: meetings, created lecture content, handled student issues, etc.
I have two other LoR's from research faculty.
The other options I have (for my third LoR) are: Undergraduate faculty (from a different country) or graduate faculty who's courses I took, but did not interact very significantly.

Thanks!


texts: Rephrasing and Reproducing some part of the Introduction of a Research publication without citing that publication. Is it plagiarism?

texts: I want to rephrase and reproduce some part of the Introduction of a Research publication without giving citation to that publication. Will it be considered an act of plagiarism ?? I am not using and citing any result or any table and figure of the publication.


texts: What to do when university has not yet reimbursed travel costs for a job interview?

texts:
A few months ago, I visited a university for a tenure-track interview in computer science. Before my visit, I received an interview policy sheet from HR stating all the usual things (economy flight fare, etc). After the interview, I was told by HR that I need to mail them my original receipts, which I did instantly upon my return home.

After a few weeks, I inquired regarding the reimbursement and was told that my receipts hadn't been received yet. However, the tracking service (I had used registered mail) did indicate that they had been delivered and, after a second inquiry, HR confirmed that they should have been received at their university but aren't to be found anywhere and reiterated that they need the original receipts to reimburse me.

This was 3 weeks ago and my subsequent enquiries have been met with silence. I did receive a job offer but, also having received another offer, accepted a position elsewhere and informed the university about my decision.

  Is there anything I can/should do about this?

To be frank, the university is overseas and taking the probably very expensive legal route is not an option for me. That said, the interview expenses are in the range of 1.2k USD and thus non-negligible for me.


texts: Will an advisor schedule a PhD defense just to get rid of an underperformed student?

texts:
Last week, my PhD advisor commented that I can postpone my thesis defense for couple of months if I was not ready to defend. However, I was adamant of completing my defense this year. As a result, my advisor has scheduled my defense for december and I have few weeks to prepare.

Now, on second thought, I was wondering that probably her suggesting the postponing of defense was a way to tell me that I am not going to pass the defense.

In that case, is it possible that the advisor thinks that I am unsuitable for PhD defense and she just wants to pass the onus of passing on the judgement about my qualifications/research output to the committee. Probably she doesn't want any confrontations with me but doesn't approve of my research work either.

Is it possible that she aggreed to defense scheduling to get rid of an underperforming student?

I am in Canada.


texts: What can be done to improve mental health in academia: more research into mental health of academics or better preventative measures?

texts:
I am speaking from my experiences with mental health in academia:

After being a grad student and a postdoc for several years, I developed severe mental health issues (after being completely healthy in my youth, as far as I can tell).
My friends (around eight people who I knew well) who were graduate students or postdocs at the same time have experienced terrible mental health problems/breakdowns (such as bipolar disorder, psychosis, suicidal tendencies, needing to take a year off work, being placed into a mental hospital for some time, forgetting to eat).
Three other grad students I knew developed severe illnesses (unknown physical illnesses for two of them and an instance of extreme anxiety for the third one) that are not compatible with working and they have been unemployed since then.
A professor and another postdoc I met can only function when they are taking heavy doses of antidepressants (the professor in fact tends to experience prolonged periods of time when he is not able to function at all). As far as I know, all these people developed their mental health problems after being in academia for some time. In addition to these, I have heard many more people in academia talking non-specifically about often going through periods of depression, which is frequently accompanied by inability to work.

I am wondering what can be done to improve this situation.

Should there be more research into mental health in academia, especially among grad students and postdocs?
Should there be more preventative measures that can ensure better coping of junior academics with mental health difficulties that are likely to befall them? (During my years in academia, I received virtually no specific information or training that could help me to prevent mental health problems).

Note: I see a lot of interest and comments/upvotes even though the question has been closed for being opinion-based. If you are interested in this question and have at least 3000 reputation on this website, please vote to re-open it (apparently I already have at least two votes to re-open, and I need five to re-open it)! Also, feel free to leave any comments (comments are still open, even though a question cannot accept answers while it's closed). In particular, please use comments to suggest ways to reformulate/change this question so that it can be posted as a new question on this website which is less likely to be closed for being opinion-based. I am also interested in any suggestions for other suitable Internet forums where this or similar questions can be asked successfully.


texts: Can I get into a US CSE PhD if I don't have a good CGPA?

texts:
I am currently pursuing Masters (M.Tech) in CSE from IIT Madras. But my Master's CGPA is not so good. It is around 6.1 in out of 10 scale. Scoring here in IITs is really really difficult. I have an interest in research though my final year thesis is not yet published and chances of it being published in a Top Tier conference is very less according to my advisor. So is there any chance that I can get into at least top 100 US schools for PhD in CSE and even in interdisciplinary fields if possible?
I have a very good Bachelor's CGPA of around 9.2 out of 10 scale.
Instead of USA what other options do I have? And what about the funding? Any help will be GREAT as I am eager to do a PhD, rather than joining a job.
And last of all, does IIT tag matter?


texts: What does a textbook look like while you are writing it?

texts:
I've entertained the idea of writing a textbook for several years now.  The idea has taken several forms - a set of course notes that I provide as pdf, a text that is printed at my institution, or possibly a text that I propose to a publisher and (hopefully) get accepted.

This question is a practical one - when writing a textbook, what format is it in?  Is it just a big MSWord file?  Separate files?  Is there a specific "textbook editor" that people use?  For example, in books with separate sections for examples, callouts, definitions etc, I can't imagine doing that sort of layout on my own.  My guess is that the publisher figures that out for you.  However, the author has to indicate "box X goes here" doesn't he?  How does that work?

Edit: for clarity, the text will be used in a professional communications course for technical disciplines such as engineering.


texts: Academia research vs. industry research (computer science)

texts:
After finishing my PhD in Computer Science (machine learning) and after several years as a university lecturer, I decided to transition from academia to industry. As a result of that, I have been working one year for a company, doing applied research.

In my latest performance review, my supervisor pointed out that my only negative point was that I still had an academic mindset towards research, and that I should be able to get better at what he called "risk analysis". He defined risk analysis as the skill of assessing in advance the potential benefits/drawbacks for the company of a given method/technique/algorithm. The aim of that is to be able to rapidly discard methods that are supposed to not solve the company's problems without having to waste too much time on implementing them.

I was wondering whether any learning resource exists (book, online course/resources) that may help me to acquire such a skill. More generally, any recommended reading about computer science research in industry would be much appreciated.


texts: We are publishing a Journal titled Chettinad Health City Medical Journal. It is a Quarterly double blind peer reviewed international journal. How do we get it indexed?


texts: What is the difference in research culture between a University of X and a X University of Technology?

texts:
In various parts of Europe (even in Israel) I see that there are two types of universities:

University of 'X'
'X' University of Technology

where X is the name of a city.

The main difference I discovered is: #2 offers more jobs in the industry, but #1 offers more research opportunity.

Do they follow different types of cultures in terms of teaching and research? Do they follow different quality standards?


texts: Can I use British English in an Australian conference paper?

texts:
I have written a peer-reviewed paper for an Australian academic conference. The reviews are favourable with a number of small and helpful suggestions. However, one reviewer has criticised the use of the word "amongst", saying it is archaic and should not therefore be used in a technical paper.

In British English, "amongst" is more commonly used in everyday and technical language, and to my (British) ear, it fits better than the alternative "among" in the context that I have used it. In fact, it was introduced to the language more recently. However, in US English, it is less often used and could be considered archaic. Australian English has many similarities with American English, so it may be considered archaic there too.
My question is whether the paper should be "corrected" to Australian English as it is an Australian conference, or if "correct" UK English should be allowed from a UK writer?

I am not trying to pick a fight, and the acceptance of the paper is not at stake - this is merely a suggestion from the reviewer - but I am interested in what would be considered the correct approach.


texts: How to deal with exam performances that do not reflect my abilities?

texts:
I'm an undergrad student in TAU for mathematics.
I failed two classes I took on the first semester so I had to repeat them. unfortunately, I failed again. I got 48 on one exam as you need to get 55 to pass, which is at the moment fairly enough for me.

How do I deal with repetitive failure like this, as I know these grades do not reflect my knowledge and my abilities?
I'm not interested in changing my major as I love what I'm studying and I know that I could be good at that, but I need to overcome this obstacles and I don't know what else I could be doing.


texts: Can I write in my SOP that I want to join labs which aren't belonged to the department I apply?

texts:
I want to work on a research which requires both field A and field B. On the school I want to pursue, both lab X and X' from department A work on A+B. If possible, I'd like to work in both lab because there is some niches in both lab X and X' will be needed on my proposed research.

However, I would like to apply to department B because I don't want to limit myself inside a field. I want to broaden my knowledge as much as I can, before concentrating on my thesis. I don't think that this approach is bad.

Being said that, is there anything that I should be aware of when writing the SOP to department B? Would mention about the labs which aren't belonged to the department harm me in some ways? Or should I just apply to department A? Is there any harm if in my SOP there is a paragraph saying that I want to learn more about B (than A)?


texts:
I can get a small raise if I earn 7 more graduate units from an accredited school. I have no intention of earning another degree, and I could be happy with either online or in-person work. How to go about it?

I could apply to some Master's program, get accepted, enroll, and then not finish the degree, but this seems dishonest, plus I might have to take their introductory courses instead of my own choices. Would some other approach do better? Do accredited universities ever offer graduate courses à la carte?


texts: Physics dissertation: Do I give a reference every time I mention a certain piece of work?

texts:
I'm currently writing my BSc Physics dissertation and I'm using LaTeX with BibTeX so the format of the references is all correct, but there are a number of other papers that I talk about at several points throughout the paper. When referencing one of these papers do I need to include a reference each time I mention it?

Example:

  Throughout this paper I will adopt values for cosmological parameters
  obtained by the Planck Collaboration [1].

and later on in the paper...

  ... there have been numerous projects attempting to measure features
  of the CMB including the COBE satellite [2], the WMAP [3] and, more
  recently, the Planck Collaboration ([1]?).


texts: My supervisor is making me work on something that is not my PhD project. What should I do?

texts: My PhD project is a very little part of a big study that my supervisor is currently running. I am already four months into my PhD and I just have a 3 years position to finish my thesis. So far I haven’t worked in my PhD topic because I’m helping her with other aspects of this big study. She says doing that is working on my project, however she asks me to write and do research in things that are not really going to be on my thesis. And during all our meetings so far, we haven’t really discussed my topic, the chapters of my thesis, my research questions, the literature I should be looking at, or the instruments I need for answering my research questions What should I do??


texts: Are there any practical reasons at keeping record of my past university work?

texts: After graduating from university is there a practical reason I would want to keep record of my previous assignments? I have a hard-drive full of them. Are there more practical reasons I don't see other than the sentimental value?


texts: What are "Numerically Weighted Transcripts"?

texts:
I was reading about a postgraduate scholarship. As part of application for the scholarship, a "numerically weighted" transcript is required.

This is what my B.S. trancript looks like:
(A part of my transcript HERE)

It shows, on a single page, all the courses taken in all the semesters, Letter Grades (LG) and Grade Points (GP) secured in the courses, Credit Hours (CHr) of the courses, all my re-attempts, as well as GPA secured in the semesters, and final CGPA --- i.e. absolutely no information is hidden.
Now my question is:

Is this what a "numerically weighted academic transcript" is; as required for the scholarship?


texts: Whom should I send the email to? The Principal Investigator or the postdoc who have done the work?

texts:
A postdoc has published some works that I am interested in. I have some questions about the work, and I would like to share some idea about the topic.

Is it considered polite to send the email to the postdoc and CC his PI? If I email the PI only, I might have to wait for a long time. However, the postdoc could not even be in the city. So I am not sure what is the best and politest practice.


texts:
I want to get into MS in Computer science in the US, specifically in data science. I have a Masters in Physics but my GPA is low. I have scored 51% in my undergrad and 62% in my postgrad. I have cleared my postgrad with 10+ back logs. But I have an international conference paper published in radio astronomy. I have also worked as an intern in web team of leading daily as a science writer. I also have 2+ experience in teaching Physics. I have also volunteered in outreach activities by TIFR, Mumbai. In my undergrad, I have also won prizes in working models related to science. I have an 8.0 score in IELTS and gearing up for my GRE.
what are my chances to get into a decent college?

To make my application better, I have enrolled myself into John Hopkins Data Science program by Coursera and I am also learning Python. Will it help?

The reason I had for backlogs is financial troubles in my family. I was doing odd part-time jobs which caused so many backlogs.


texts: Is translation of certificates for professorship positions required?

texts:
The job websites of some US universities ask to upload a doctoral certificate for assistant professor positions in Computer Science.  My doctoral certificate is not in English. IMHO, a quick look on it suffices to read my name and "doktor rerum naturalium" to convince oneself that I indeed have a PhD. Still, no website mentions that a certificate should be in English.  As a rule of thumb, without asking, should I

continue uploading my current foreign-language certificate, or
get my certificate translated by a sworn translator, or
self-translate my certificate?


texts: How can a paper accepted for a poster session be credible?

texts: If a paper is accepted in poster session of a conference or workshop such that only one page of the article will be published in proceedings, how this paper can be credible? (in particular in computer science and in a workshop like this: http://deic.uab.cat/conferences/cbt/cbt2018/)


texts: How to point out a novel conceptualization in a foundations chapter?

texts:
I am writing the foundations chapter of my thesis. I think I came up with an original conceptualization of the matter that I haven't read anywhere before.
Since a foundations chapter is usually more a survey, I'd like to highlight that fact. How can I phrase this?

A came up with two options:

  The following conceptualization represents the author's individual perspective on the topic.

Isn't that somehow the case for every part of a thesis? Also sounds like a disclaimer.

  In this section, a novel conceptualization of the topic is introduced.

Maybe  better. Or should I simply put it somewhere else, where the fact that I consider it to be a contribution becomes more apparent from the context (location in the thesis)?


texts: Can I transfer during the last year of a 5 year Master's program?

texts:
I'm planning on attending a university that offers a 5 year program that would allow me to receive my Master's degree in history education, however, my mom (who has the first 4 years covered) is completely unwilling to pay for the final one because she wants me to be back home and working. I don't like this for multiple reasons:

The first few years of teaching are extremely time consuming and I would have practically no time to finish my degree.
An employer might be suspicious about transferring colleges during the last year.
This could go over poorly with the university I transfer to, especially because not all credits would transfer, making my time much more difficult. The college doesn't even have a 5 year school, meaning I'd have to apply for grad school, making the process much more difficult.
The college she wants me to attend doesn't offer the same degree I would be working towards, only a similar one.
In the area I live in, it's harder to get a good job with a Bachelor's because you'll typically just be thrown in wherever someone is needed, rather than with a Master's where a choice is given.

Is it plausible for me to transfer during this last year, or should I convince her that I have to stay at the first school? Yearly tuition is about $20,000 so I'd have to figure out how to attain the money if I decided to stay.

(The college she wants me to go to is George Mason University -- if that information is needed.)


texts: Can presented papers at conferences be listed in the reference section of Research Statements?

texts: I have some presentation in conferences, which have not published as a proceeding or in a journal. I would like to know whether it is customary to put presented papers in the reference section and cite them in research statement?


texts: Is there any option to defer the admission if accepted at a grad school?

texts:
I'm a sophomore in masters in chemical engineering and I wanted to apply to grad schools in USA and Canada for PhD. The thing is, my program here for masters is not time bound. It may take me between 1 to 2 years more to complete and this can't be predicted as it all depends on various factors like how fast the research project goes and how good is the funding this year etc.

I wanted to know if universities provide you right to defer the admission (if they accept the application in the first place) for a semester or two.


texts: Which of the items below are worth mentioning in my admission documents?

texts:
I really worried about what should I write in my admission documents, such as resume/CV, statement of purpose, informal email communications with professors. From the list below, please tell me what items have enough academic value to be mentioned in such documents?

Note that its a application in PhD program in computer science for US universities

Stack Overflow (generally Stack Exchange) reputation and badges
Coursera accomplished courses
Small-scaled programming projects (absolutely with no academic value)
Github programming repositories


texts: Subsequent citations of a Note in a translated Book. (Chicago Style)

texts:
I am using the Chicago-style Citation in a Paper that I am working on. I have written this in a paragraph:

  Es lässt sich vermuten, dass Platon etwas Bestimmtes in seinen Gedanken hatte, als er seine Ideen über Leiberziehung einbrachte. Man könnte sagen, dass die spartanische körperliche Erziehung für ihn ein Ausgangspunkt gewesen war, aus dem er seine Ideen zog.1

And here is the footnote:

  1   Vgl. Plato, The Republic, übers. Desmond Lee (London: Penguin Books Ltd., 2007), 67.

Vgl in German is equivalent to cf., compare, in English.

The text referenced is not by Plato himself, as you can see, but by the Translator, Desmond Lee. So the question I want to ask, ist that How do I write subsequent quotes, which are just Notes written by the translator Desmond Lee and not Plato himself?

I do apologize, in case the way I have written the footnote is wrong according to the Chicago-Style guidelines.


texts: Elsevier open-access fee waived for subscribers?

texts:
I have recently been comparing publishers regarding their policies on double dipping (charging an open-access fee for publishing in a hybrid journal and then charging again a subscription fee). Many publishers (Springer, Wiley, Taylor and Francis) state they lower the subscription fees based on the amount of open-access articles to not charge their authors / readers / customers twice for the same article.

Elsevier has a different approach. They state:

  Elsevier's policy is not to charge subscribers for open access articles and when calculating subscription prices only to take into account subscription articles – we do not double dip.
  [source]

But how is this implemented? The Elsevier support team was of no help when I asked there. I only got links to the help pages, which I have read forwards and backwards three times already. I even created an account and started a test submission to two of their hybrid journals but there wasn’t even a box to tick for selecting Open Access.

Has anyone made use of this policy and asked for a waiver based on a journal subscription?


texts: How is it possible to get a masters in electrical engineering in one year?

texts:
I was asked this question, and did not think it was possible. Is it possible without an integrated degree (i.e., after a bachelor's)? I do not really know. If so, how?

I mean for the US, but don't take that as limiting your answer (if from the UK or elsewhere).


texts: Is it appropriate to have assignments due during spring break for an online course?

texts:
I am the author and teacher of an online introductory course at my community college.  Each chapter in my class is designed to take one week to complete, where the assignments are due at the end of the week. The students have the option to get ahead of the rest of the class by a couple of weeks, so if they have a trip planned, they can do the work in advance.

This week I had a student argue that I should not have assignments due for the week of spring break, as that time should be reserved for the students to relax. I never considered honoring breaks or holidays for an online class. Should I consider not having assignments due during the week of spring break or fall break?


texts: In APA, how should stylized business names be capitalized?

texts:
Numerous companies stylize their names or the names of products: adidas, eBay, iPhone...how should these be written (in APA style)?

The pair of adidas shoes lasted longer than the pair from Nike.

vs.

The pair of Adidas shoes lasted longer than the pair from Nike.

The Wikipedia Manual of Style is pretty explicit on the topic, but the APA is less clear.  4.16 says to capitalize proper nouns and trade names, but doesn't explicitly refer to stylized trademarks.  My instinct says to capitalize them as unstylized proper nouns, but other manuals of style actually address the topic, even if it's a bit confusing on first read.  For example, the Chicago Manual of Style (search for "business entities" in the page for the specific rules) says to follow camel case capitalization, but for all-caps or no-caps, to title case them (adidas becomes Adidas, LEXIS-NEXIS becomes Lexis-Nexis, DirecTV stays as such).


texts: How can an undergraduate challenge a professor on a misleading homework question?

texts:
Thinking back to when I was an undergraduate, one of the homework assignments in a probability class was:

  In a lottery, is it possible for the winning combination to be 1,2,3,4,5,6?

To paraphrase the lecturer's answer:

  No, because the combination is very unlikely.

The official answer clearly is an error, but how does an undergraduate approach a lecturer when the given answer is wrong?


texts: Plagiarism of Research Proposal Idea by Potential Supervisors

texts:
I really would like to know how to prevent a plagiarism of your idea or Research Proposal, when it is sent to several Universities and potential supervisors?  What can I do if one of the potential supervisors did not respond to me, nor did consider my research important, but later I notice that they are using my idea with other possible investigators?

What can I do in that case?

I am really frustrated and disappointed with that lack of ethics. I feel that this person stole my idea and my possible place in the University, and the possible fruits of my work and idea as well.

I really would appreciate your advice.
Thanks a lot for your wonderful website.


texts: Studying for mathematics comprehensive exams

texts:
Should mathematics PhD students work through all of the past exams, if, say, the department makes the last 20 years of exam questions available to students?

Or should students mainly focus on the most recent years' exams instead? - and that perhaps one cannot do all of the exams, because it is almost not humanly possible.

Just seeking general advice.

Thanks.


texts: Etiquette for dealing with supervisor comments on written work

texts:
I have a lot of respect for my supervisor; I get very good feedback from them, they are very knowledgeable in their field and I feel that they want me to do well in my reseach. When I submit written work, my supervisor adds comments and then returns, which I think is fairly standard procedure.

Short Version: Is it appropriate after receiving comments on written work to respond with: "I've addressed 90 of these comments but would like to discuss the remaining 10, which I was unable to resolve."

Long Version: I find that comments on written work usually fall into the following four categories:

The comment is justified and I can resolve and close it. (~90%)
The comment asks for clarification of the text. (~4%)
The comment is not justified due to them misunderstanding my text, due to my text not having been written in a clear and/or unambiguous enough manner.(~3%)
The comment is not justified and the text is clear. (~3%)

For the first two types, I can usually just update my work and move on. It's the last two that I'm not too sure how to deal with. Do I ignore or flag for discussion (as well as clarifying where relevant)? I have been flagging these but feel that I annoy my supervisor by doing so (likely since they are very busy with other work). The alternative is to ignore but then I worry that my supervisor will notice later that I haven't applied the change. Another option for the second (and third) bullet is that I clarify my text and move on and I do do this sometimes but on other occasions I feel it requires further discussion in order to convey the correct meaning.


texts: PhD student leaving current program for reasons of safety. Recommendations for what to do next in terms of schools and catching up?

texts:
I am a PhD student who lost a year in school due to factors beyond my control.

First, several non-school related issues made it difficult for me to focus on school. Then, a little later, I was harassed and threatened by someone in my program. The harassment continued for a couple of months before I ceased leaving my house altogether. Eventually I talked to the graduate supervisor about the situation. They agreed that it might be best for me to leave for a while. But, I am left with two problems:

Most deadlines for schools have past. The ones that haven't, don't seem like a good bet by way of funding. Should I try to find a program to apply to anyway? If not, what can I do to get my year back? I was kind of on a roll before, but now my thought processes feel stagnant and slow — Any recommendations for getting back up to speed?
My grades from this year are poor. I do not think they accurately reflect my academic potential or my understanding of the material. Should I be explaining any of the extenuating circumstances to prospective schools when I do apply?


texts: How can I best determine if a masters program is of high quality?

texts:
I'm about to start my master in mathematics next year. I'm having a lot of trouble determining how some of the options available to me compare. They are all not very wel known programs, and I don't think it's a good idea to name them here explicitly so I won't.

This whole choice is really stressing me out a bit. I want to choose the best one, but I have no idea how best to compare them. Things that I'm currently taking into consideration:

The number of enrolled students. This varies from only 10 to around 35 per year. 10 seems very low to me. And remember we're not talking about very prestigious programs here.
The structure of the program. Some programs make you choose a track in which you specialize, while others don't. You can of course still build that specialisation into your program on your own, but I feel that this explicit specialisation is probably better. I also think that better profs are attracted to programs where they can teach just their specialisation.

I would appreciate some input on the relevance of those two factors, as well as other things I should consider and ways of approaching this.

I will be studying pure mathematics and hope to be able to stay in acedemia if that is relevant for this situation.


texts: Should I take admissions to this phd programme?

texts:
I get selected in Phd course. My area of interest is cloud security. There are two lectures whose area of interest is cloud security. I requested one of the supervisor,  who has good record and has good publications,  to take me as her phd student. She said that she doesn't have the vacant seat now but after 6 month she can have 1 vacant seat. She talked with another lecturer to be my supervisor and  said that in these, 6 month, she will evaluate my performance and based on that she will make decisions. So, after 6 months, if she likes my performance,  I can have two supervisor in which one is my original supervisor (which is mam to whom I requested) and another mam is my co-supervisor. If she doesn't like my performance,  I can have only  another lecturer as  my supervisor.

The problem is that she is not 100% percent sure and she will evaluate me during this 6 months.  I want that mam (to whom I requested) to be my supervisor as she has good knowledge and publications in good journals. Should I continue with this phd or quit?
Any guidance will surely help.


texts: Etiquette in applying for undergrad research

texts:
I am currently looking into applying for funding as an undergraduate summer research assistant.  At the moment, two professors have agreed to allow me to work with them.  Since I can't be sure that the funding application would be accepted, I am considering accepting the offer from both professors and going forward with applying for funding with both professors - is this a good idea?  If so, should I let both professors know this?  If not, could I try asking the prof's permission to do this, or would it be in my best interest to just decide on my top choice now and just pursue that?

Thanks in advance!


texts: What can you get from submitting an abstract?

texts:
I work for a technical company at the interface between engineering practice and research. Since we have to deal with academia on a daily basis, I have seen many calls for "Abstract submission". Generally these calls are associated with some sort of academic conference that is focused on a particular topic. It is also subject to deadlines and regulations. Several universities, research institutions and even private/public entities might be participating at these conferences.

My question is this: What can you actually get from submitting an abstract? Why do these conferences even request abstract submission? What do they get from it? Why are abstract submissions important and why do people do them?


texts: Are you required to trace back information on a subject to first publication for a citation on it?

texts:
If there is a tree of papers on or involving X, all of which give a brief introduction to X and I need a citation for my use of X, do I need to give the root of the tree as a citation of X or can I cite any of the nodes in the tree that explain X for my use of it?

Concretely I need to cite why using point wise mutual information can be used to improve co-occurence matrix based word embeddings. I do not really know where PPMI was first used for this purpose, but I have stepped down towards the root for a few papers now. Do I need to find the paper that first used PPMI for this or can I cite any of the ones I already found?


texts: Seeing as symbolic math tools are very common nowadays, how acceptable is it to skip calculations in manuscripts?

texts:
Many studies are mainly revolved around solving optimization problems; formulating a cost function and getting the gradient w.r.t some elements. This part can be somewhat challenging mathematically and is required to solve the problem in practice. Or at least, it used to be. I note that I'm not talking about the research of optimization but rather using optimization as a tool.

Symbolic toolboxes (such as Theano, TensorFlow, etc., mainly used when designing neural networks) are abundant and widely used. Using these, we can skip the manual calculation of gradients - we write only the cost function, and the derivation is done for us. Usually even the optimization is performed automatically.

While in the computer vision field it is very common to find studies that skip the math almost entirely, in other fields it is still very common to write the cost function, and at least provide the final equations needed for reproducing the results (more elaborate calculations are usually found in the appendix or supplementary material).

I'm wondering - if I choose to use these symbolic toolboxes in another field, in which it's common to write the entire derivation (or at least the gist of it), will it be frowned upon, even if I specify which software I use and even provide code? I somehow feel as if some fields consider themselves to be more 'mathematical' in substance and will therefore want to see I can calculate myself rather than let a computer do that for me...

Thanks.


texts: List invited, co-authored conference presentation on CV as student

texts:
As a student (M.Sc.), my list of publications is as short as my career would suggest. For an invited talk at a conference that my professor gave, parts of my work were presented and I was consequently officially listed as a co-author.

Refining my CV for the application to a PhD position now, do I list this on my CV in the "Publications" section? I've read that this can be interpreted as "blowing up" your CV in some cases, which is really not my intention. But given that people in my career stage normally haven't had a whole lot of opportunities to show their work in public, this might still be of interest.

Thus my question: should I include it or not?


texts: I reviewed a paper but was not informed of the decision -- is this common?

texts:
I occasionally review articles for a prestigious but high-throughput journal. The most recent time, I went to check on the decision of the article, and saw that a decision of minor revision had been rendered but I was not informed. Is this a quiet way the editors have chosen to take me off of further reviewing a paper because they didn't like my review? I didn't even disagree with that decision particularly, but I had marked "another journal" for my recommendation.
In a previous encounter with this journal I was informed the journal had returned a decision of major revision, then the revision was never returned to the original reviewers, but rather was directly accepted by the editor and published 10 days later. Is this common too?
These may all be common practices at journals with more throughput than the specialized journals I am used to but they are new to me.


texts: How does research contribute to teaching, and vice versa?

texts: If research is related to teaching then research could have a direct contributions to  teaching.  However, if research is not directly related to teaching, then how can each of them contribute to the other?


texts: How do I deal with my family which doesn't respect science and math while I am doing a double science and math major?

texts:
How do I deal with two parents who don't see the utility of science and mathematics while pursuing an education in science and math (while depending on their income to fund my tuition?). They come from a blue-collar background and don't think learning arcane symbols has anything to do with innovation or make big bucks in today's world.

My parents wish for me to go off to the industry ASAP or do some freelance or make an app that get them rich quick. I want to pursuit further education beyond that of a bachelor degree.

In the summertime I am preparing for some course work for next semester, but they keep on telling me that I should sign up for some fitness class or make money. I appreciate their viewpoint, but I can't bring myself to balance between studying and concentrating on course work while doing things that are a waste of time.

What should I do?


texts: I was exploring IEEE and Springer to find their special issues but there is no specific link or option to track special issue articles. How can I find them for my specific domain?


texts: Is there a way to save my students money on a textbook?

texts:
I'm considering requiring a textbook that sells for $140 on Amazon.  Used copies cost $95 and up.  I expect about 60 students to take the course.  Our students are not wealthy, and some will skip buying the book (and their academic performance will suffer) if they feel they cannot afford it.  I'd like to find ways of saving my students money.

One idea I have is to see if it's possible to get a bulk discount and pass the savings on to students.  Another idea is to set up an Amazon affiliate link and refund the kickbacks to students, although I'd probably be liable for income tax.  (Of course, I'd request approval from the Provost's office before trying something that could appear to be profiting off of students.)

I live in the United States, the publisher is Pearson, and there does not seem to be an international edition.  There is only one edition of the textbook.  (For other classes, I've saved the students money by letting them use an earlier edition.)  I have been unable to find a textbook of comparable quality that is significantly cheaper.

Has anyone tried any of the above ideas or others?

RESPONSES TO COMMENTS:

Why require a book?  I do not always require a book, but I think it is necessary for this course in order for students to learn the material.

Why not write my own book or lecture notes?  I have co-authored a book on a topic on which I am an expert and made the book available for free online.  I could not do as good a job as the expensive textbook's authors in this subject matter, especially because I expect to only teach this course once.

Why not use a free online textbook? I was unable to find a free book that did a good job covering the required material.

Why not encourage the students to find an illegal copy online?  I consider copyright legitimate and would not encourage my students to do something illegal or unethical.

UPDATE:

After I assigned the Pearson textbook, a student discovered that it was available for free online through the local public library. I immediately informed the other students of this option and let them know how to get a public library card. I will always know to check this option in the future. It had not occurred to me that a publisher would allow a popular textbook to be made available for free in this way (with no limit on the number of simultaneous viewers).

SECOND UPDATE:

I learned that ACM Student membership, which is $19/year (with possibly lower rates in the developing world) includes access to Safari Books Online, which has a book I am requiring this semester (in the Head First series) and has many other great computer science books (typically used by developers, not as textbooks).


texts: Is there a web service that receives a reference and returns the impact factor?

texts:
Is there a web service that I can send a bibtex entry and receive an impact factor?

e.g.

http://magicalsite.com/query.php?json={MY_BIBTEX}

returns:

{
'IF':37.65
}

So I figured it out...

I use http://www.impactfactorsearch.com which is proposed in this answer.

Here's a quick and easy PHP script to get the impact factor of any journal:

<?php
$name        = "Applied Ocean Research"; //change to suit your needs
$journalName = urlencode($name);

$cmd      = "curl -s 'http://www.impactfactorsearch.com/test.php?json=true&input=$journalName'";
$result   = `$cmd`;
$ifObject = json_decode($result);

$levDistances = array();
if (isset($ifObject->results)) {
    if (is_array($ifObject->results) && (sizeof($ifObject->results) > 0)) {
        foreach ($ifObject->results as $journal) {
            $levDistances[$journal->value] = array(
                'score' => similar_text($journal->value, $journalName),
                'if' => $journal->id
            );
        }
        arsort($levDistances);
        $keys         = array_keys($levDistances);
        $impactFactor = doubleval($levDistances[$keys[0]]['if']);
        echo "journal: " . $name . "\n";
        echo "if: " . $impactFactor . "\n";
    }
}
?>


texts: Can a hypothetical question be chosen as a research question?

texts: Suppose, can I choose "what would happen if the USA doesn't exist" as a research question? Would this be still acceptable by a wider researcher community?


texts:
I am new here. I was wondering since many of you are learned professionals what your opinion on this is.

I have recently returned to further education (as an undergraduate) and have been there for a few years. In my original application to the university, I filled in the previous academic background section as much as I could. Since there have been a large number of years since I left a course I did not finish, I was wondering if - ethically and perhaps code of conduct wise - forgetting to include that I did not finish said course at a 'partner college' to the university I am currently enrolled at would come back with implications down the line.

Would it be best to bring this to attention? It is worth mentioning that the results for which my current undergraduate course was deemed 'conditional' from, are not related this course I accidentally omitted. Any opinions?


texts: The editor asks me to wait couple of days

texts:
I have submitted my manuscript to one of the top-tier journal in my field. The reviewers' feedback was positive in the first round of revision; one reviewer favoured the paper and asked for revisions while the second reviewer did not read it because I did not adhere to the target word count of the journal. The editor then asked me to make an R&R. I submitted my revision and 5 days after the resubmission the dashboard was converted into "awaiting EIC decision". The editor discussed the decision with one of his associates and then asked me to wait for a couple of days to render a final decision. He did not tell me that it would be sent out for a third review.

My question is that why the need for days to render a decision after discussing the reviewers' reports with the associate editor?  Can anyone from the journal's editors explain this case?

Edit: The problem is that the status "awaiting for EIC decision" took around 15 days till I received an email from the editor that he was out of the disk and once he received on X day he would render a decision. At that day or the following day, he told me to have patience and waited for couple of days as he was discussing the reviewers' reports with his associate. My question is whether there was disagreement between the reviewers then he may assign another reviewer or what?


texts: Is writing short proofs inline bad form?

texts:
I'm TeXing up a paper right now and I would like to ask for a sanity test about proper form.

In the paper, there are some statements which seem too simple to be called a Proposition or Lemma, let alone a Theorem. I use the word Remark for those. However, roughly speaking, there are three kinds of Remarks:

Ones whose proofs are fairly easy or standard, but not completely trivial, so I put a short argument after, using the standard proof environment.
Ones which I think are completely obvious in context, for example they just summarise some exposition directly above, so I simply put a qed sign at the end (I sometimes do the same with Corollaries).
Ones which have very simple proof, which may not be entirely obvious at a glance, but I believe a minimal (say, one short sentence) explanation is enough. In this case, putting the short explanation in the proof environment seems to be a waste of space and makes the whole thing look too important. Instead, I just put the short explanation in a parenthetical comment, which I append to the body of the remark, and follow that with the qed sign.

This system seems to be logical to me, but I would like some confirmation that this is OK, particularly the last kind.

I would also be interested in alternatives, with their pros and cons (I am unlikely to change the style in this paper unless I'm convinced that there is a big problem, but I may try to do something better in the next one).