texts: Is it usual for graduate programs not to find suitable candidates even among a large pool of applicants?

texts:
About a month ago I applied for a PhD position in Germany under a research training group funded by the German Research Council. There are 12 open positions for this program. Before I applied I was told that promising candidates will be contacted in July. Then I heard that the department received nearly 200 applications for 12 open positions. I was a little disheartened but I thought I would wait July out before giving up hope.

But then I found out today that the department reposted the job ad to advertise the same position, with a new deadline! I haven't heard back from them about my application, so I don't even know if I'm allowed to reapply, or if I have been effectively rejected and probably should move on.

I guess my question is: is it usual not to find any suitable candidates from such a large pool, or is the admissions panel just being too picky?

EDIT 1 (23/7): The program is interdisciplinary, they're looking for a wide range of backgrounds within two main disciplines (one of them I have 3 degrees in and the other I have explicitly expressed my keen interest). Because of that the program will also have a series of lectures and seminars to introduce students from one discipline to the theories and methods of the other. They're even allowing them to join master level courses! So it doesn't seem like they're looking for the perfect fit necessarily.

EDIT 2 (23/7): They did have a terrible application portal when I first applied. So maybe the first round of applications was so disorganized they want everyone to apply again. But I didn't get an email encouraging me to reapply

UPDATE (23/7): I was told that my application is still under review, and I don't need to reapply. Yay!

UPDATE (17/11): Just wanted to edit this post to say that I did end up getting that PhD. Thank you everyone for keeping my anxiety at bay!


texts: My professor submitted the draft recommendation letter with university name as placeholder. Can i re-submit?

texts: My professor accidentally sent the draft version of the recommendation letter to UTD and it had a mistake of the university name as "[Enter university name]" which was supposed to be replaced with the intended university name. It was submitted into a portal. Is there any way to remedy this? I've already submitted the application and emailed them about the mishap. What are my chances to remedy this situation?


texts: How do I deal with graduate school rejection from an university that I considered easy to get into?

texts:
Things you should know:

It was not a dream school.
It was considered "safe/moderate" i.e. the kind of students who get in
have more or less similar profiles like mine.
From graduate school student discussion forums , seems like no one else got
rejected.
This really hurts. If this school rejects me, what hope do I have with others?


texts: Should I email my professor about a recommendation letter if he has offered me a job?

texts:
So I've just finished my Master's and my advisor has offered me a tentative position to work in his lab. I say tentative because it's dependent on if his project gets funding. He emailed me recently right before his leave that his project has been shortlisted and that they'll hopefully hear back by early Fall and that he'll keep me updated with regards to the position. This was last month and in the meantime i've been doing an internship to keep busy.

Recently however I've been thinking about applying to other jobs and PhD positions to keep my options open. However, I'm not sure if it's appropriate to ask my advisor if I can list him down as one of my reference and I don't want to blow my chances with him either. I drafted an email telling him that as his offer is not yet guaranteed I'm considering applying to various other positions and if he would be able to provide me a letter of recommendation. Yet I made it clear that I would still prefer to work with him. Is this fine? Or should I not ask him at all as he might then see me as a fickle candidate?


texts: Will applying for multiple master programs in the same department improve or worsen my chances of getting admitted to my preferred program?

texts:
I am finishing my computer science studies and I want to apply for a master degree. The CS department in my university opened 2 different master programs. One is more research oriented and the other is more professional oriented. The courses of each program are selected from the same table of courses, however there are some limitations in the professional program.
Probably, the same persons will evaluate both applications.
My question is: will applying for both programs affect my chances of entering the research oriented program which is my first choice, or will it maximize the chances of entering to at least one program?


texts: Does doing an Industrial Postdoc after PhD make an academic career more difficult?

texts:
I'm doing a PhD in Engineering and want to have a career in academia. I've been learning some people in engineering are able to do so-called industrial PostDocs where you do research in a company.
However it seems that most people who do this then go on to work in industry. Is it possible to do an industrial PostDoc then go back to a university and get an academic position? What are some factors to consider?
I'm guessing that doing an industrial PostDoc would hurt your chances to later get academic positions because you wouldn't have the same teaching experience. I actually can't think of any way in which is could help more than doing a normal PostDoc in a university lab.


texts: Using the author's reasoning of experimental observations in literature review

texts:
I am writing a review paper and I came across many research articles in which the author tries to explain the cause of the experimental observation, where the observation was the aim and main output of the paper.

Can I include those yet-to-be-verified hypothesis about their observations in my review paper? And is it necessary to cite those authors while including those hypotheses regarding the experimental observations in my review paper?


texts: Should I address my professors by first name in emails if my peers are doing so already?

texts:
I'm starting a grad school and I'm used to start my emails to all my professors with "Dear Professor Smith", even though they respond with their first name at the end of their emails ("Best, John").
I noticed that the guys I'm starting the studies with are using "Hi John" in their emails. I don't think they know professors better than I do.
I don't want to be too familiar, but neither be the only who keeps this distance. Should I switch to "Hi John"?


texts: I'm doing a skype presentation of a paper that would be published soon. The presentation is for an improvement of a procedure that was not so accurate before (Computer Science related). Should I only keep the cam towards me or should I share the screen as well with the ppts? I've got 7 minutes for the presentation and 3 minutes for Q & A. It's my first skype presentation and I have no idea on how this would be done.


texts: What kind of research failures are publishable?

texts:
Suppose that a physicist has discovered that the presence of X causes Y in a certain kind of systems. So they go a step ahead and try to work on a similar idea of X being the cause of Y in a little different kind of systems and it takes them months to arrive at the results.
But lo! That relation does not hold true here.
Is this result publishable? In general, what kind of failures in research are not failures from the point of view of writing papers about them? For example, if someone starts off hoping to prove the Riemann Hypothesis and discovers that it is not true, that is 100% publishable since a lot is riding on the RH.
Is a lot riding on it the only thing at work in such situations?


texts: Should I apply for a PhD position with required programming skills which I do not have?

texts:
I did my master's thesis last month and have seen one excellent PhD position in my field. The title and the project description was very close to my master's thesis. My master's thesis relates to one of those standards which is very new, and I can guess the number of peoples which work on it are few -- especially those persons which did or are doing a master thesis in that field.

On the other side I got my degrees with honours -- both bachelors and masters. So I have good situation for that PhD position.

One of the requirements is strong programming ability, which I do not have. I am not so good in programming. (By the way in just 6 months, I can improve that). Also the place is top five (or maybe one) rank with high salary. I do not know whether I should apply for that position or not? I afraid my bad programming skill have a bad effect on advisor's decision about me.

What I should do?

A part of requirements is

  ... very good programming skills and experience....

which I do not have.

Also the professor is number one person in that field and kind person. So that is one of the most important opportunities in my life. I do not have those skills which are required to apply to the programme. But by that time, I will improve my weak points.


texts: Is an emphasis on "novelty" necessary in academic papers?

texts:
I often come across papers which have a 'Novel' in their titles. In the content the authors go out of their way to explain how their work is the first to the best of their knowledge to come up with the results.

Isn't novelty a necessity in research papers? Is a separate emphasis really needed? What is the best way to convey novelty without sounding extravagant?


texts: Why people without publication can have a good placement?

texts: I am browsing CVs of some new AP who graduated this or last year and take on an AP as their first position in a prestigious EU university. I surprisingly find that none of them have successfully published a journal article when they were on the job market and till now the average publication record of them is one article in a Q2 journal. And I know some PhDs with one to two publications in a Q2/Q3 journal didn't find a tenure and so did a postdoc after graduation and even then they obtained a faculty position, the universities they join are not as good as the former group. Neither of them graduated from a university that is apparently superior to the one where they get professorship, nor a huge difference in the academic background of both groups can be found based on my observation of their CVs (I mean, ranking of the Univ in the field of economics, conference attendance, research field, language and programming skills, etc). To note, the field I talk here is Economics. I am indeed confused. Why? Does it mean in social science, publication is not that important?


texts: How to list co-first authors and co-second authors?

texts:
I am aware that, on a CV, when listing publications that have co-authors, they are usually denoted using "*" symbol, but what if there are two sets of co-authors? For instance, there 3 co-first authors and 3 co-second authors. In that case, which symbol do I apply to first co authors and which symbol for the 2nd co-authors?

I don't have space to write this out in worse, I can only list it, so I want a clean way to do this.


texts: What do mathematics graduate schools look for in undergraduate students?

texts:
I'm just curious. I have a strong GPA, but I heard that's not enough. I was told that among a GRE score, schools actually place stronger emphasis on performance in 4 classes: a proofs/logic course, analysis, discrete math, and a linear algebra course (this was apparently has less emphasis than the first 3). I was told that these classes are the bread and butter of most graduate math classes and are indicative of how well you can learn the more rigorous content. Is this true?

I have some research experience under the NSF in mathematical epidemiology with a few poster presentations and abstracts at conferences.

Do these schools care about extracurricular such as volunteering experience? I know these aren't going to get you into Harvard per se, but do they slightly augment your profile? I know academia is primarily concerned with research so this may not be too relevan.


texts: What should I do after advisor got upset when I expressed "belief in evolution" and then said he couldn't add me to his research team?

texts:
A bit of background: I am a graduate student working towards my Masters in physics. During this summer I signed up for some classes that are somewhat outside my main focus of study. For instance, biophysics; evolutionary physics and so on. The topics were very interestingly handled and I learned a lot. They were, however, not so big on the credit hour scale - just 2 CH each.
Fast forward to last week; I was discussing about my progress in the course with my advisor and I mentioned these classes that I took. I pointed out my interest in the subject and asked him if it would be a good idea to switch to those topics for my PhD research in the future. The conversation took an odd turn as he started to exhibit some strange aversion towards my suggestion. He got upset and all of a sudden started to talk to me about evolution. He didn't let me talk at all. To summarize what he said "I don't believe in evolution (he said this with air quotes), and I believe that God made us all. You should've consulted me before you registered for those classes. I have to ask you Renae, do you believe in evolution (air quotes again)?" He paused for a while. "Yes sir, I am afraid I do." I replied. "Well, that's that," he said, and soon the meeting came to a halt.
Now, the reason behind this question is this: On Friday morning, I got an email from him stating that he won't be able to add me to his research team this semester because all the positions were already filled. The email was brief and did not give any further (useful) information.
D'oh! I immediately gave him a call and asked about this, and he gave me the same answer as he did in his email. I haven't registered for any other classes this semester, and now it's probably too late to do so. I don't know if I could report this. His reasoning might be valid. May be his team is filled up at the moment, nevertheless I am stuck for this semester. If I report him, my chances for getting a reasonable letter of recommendation will be zero. I can't contact anybody else about this either. All my other professors are close friends with him and will surely rat me out. However, it also makes me worried that my advisor holds a completely different scientific view than I do.

Is it reasonable to be concerned about my advisor holding a completely different scientific view?
Should I report this to the authorities?
Will this affect my future studies?
Is it ok to continue in his research team, if he gives me another chance?

UPDATE -- (8th of September, Tuesday)
Sorry about the late update. I was in a bit of panic mode after this incident, and I hope you would understand. Let me answer some of the new questions and concerns that were raised in the comments. I am originally from Australia, but I am in a US university (south). I did not have any sort of argument or dispute with my advisor regarding this issue on that day, I assure you. Neither am I keeping anything out of the light here, as someone has suggested (why would I?).
Anyway, I did not go to the other professor. Instead, I talked to a friend of mine in the department who has a friend working in his team. According to her, the team only has 3 students at the moment, and it is not the usual maximum. Most other professors have more than 5 students at a time including post-doc, masters, honors and a few undergrads. I am still not sure if there's a correlation between the incidents, but I am considering alternatives. Meanwhile, I haven't told this to anyone else, not even to my friend. The minimum credit hour requirement (9CH) is the main issue now. I have to be registered for at least 9 CH per semester. By the looks of things, it seems like I'll be buying tickets back to Australia quite soon.
UPDATE -- (13th of November, Friday)
I quit grad school, and I am back in Australia. I can't believe two months have passed already.


texts: Pursuing PhD in Programming Languages/ Compilers

texts:
I am currently working as a software developer. Of recent I have developed interest in programming languages ever since I started learning Lisp. I have started myself using Clojure(a dialect of Lisp on the JVM) at work nowadays. Consequently there are other things which have attracted me like garbage collection and various concurrency models (like CSP, actors, STM etc) which I want to study more about.

In general I haven't found much current research on languages like Scheme or Common Lisp. However another one of my favorite languages Haskell seems to be one of the favorites among academicians and prominent people like Philip Wadler and Simon Peyton Jones are doing lot of research on them. In general I have an inclination towards functional programming language compilers and concurrency models used in them. Also type theory, but I feel each of the above topics are extremely vast and I need some guidance in organizing my thoughts.

The problem is I have no research paper published or have any formal background in Computer Science. I haven't done any of the necessary courses on Theory of Computation or Compilers formally. Although I have read many books on compilers, Functional Programming and lambda calculus on my own and have also done some courses on Coursera there is no certification as such. How do I go about approaching my desired advisors?

Further info: I have a Masters in Mathematics.

EDIT

More than a European or US university, I am concerned with my advisor(irrespective of which university he is associated with). A lot of good researchers in this field come from ETH Zurich so I have a stronger inclination towards it. Also University of Edinburgh.


texts:
I am a PhD student in the field of education and I enjoy reading SE questions to stimulate my mind when I need a break. I find academia to be one of my most frequently visited sites.

When reading questions, answers, and comments to questions of teaching practices I often see content I consider problematic given what is “known” (a word I will use loosely here) from research in educational psychology.

How do professors and lecturers learn to teach?

I do not mean this flippantly as I often see high-quality contributions on SE as well.

I suspect teaching courses as doctoral students is a consistent practice across fields, but I am curious to know what accompanies this in fields outside of education.  What other resources are provided besides having professors and lecturers learn on the fly and make their own conceptions of what good teaching practices are?

I understand this may be largely field and institution dependent. I also am asking from a U.S. context, but I would be interested to know if the structure is noticeably different between countries.


texts: How to answer a reviewer asking for the methodology code of the paper?

texts:
Recently I have submitted my paper to IEEE Access Journal which has a binary peer review process, and I got rejected. Still, they allow me to answer the reviewers' concerns and resubmit again.
One of the reviewers asked: "For the consideration of reproducibility, the code of the proposed method is suggested to be provided.
I want to know how I should respond to that concern politely as the author? I plan to provide all datasets and some part of the program, which is related to an example that I described in my paper. This simple example shows how my algorithm works and will help reproducibility (It shows the final result of applying the proposed method by considering one of the algorithms that I have used in my paper on a smaller dataset).
I want to know how to answer the reviewer politely and convincingly while explaining that I am providing some part of my programs, not all of it.
Thanks.


texts: Do citations of the arXiv version of an article transfer to its journal version after publication?

texts: The arXiv version of my article has two citations. Now that my paper is published in a journal, I want to know if these citations will be transferred to the journal version? Should I withdraw my article from arXiv?


texts: Nice vs. ugly numbers in homework and tests

texts:
This question revolves around using integers (−1, 0, 1, 2, 3) or simple fractions (½, ⅓, ⅗) vs. real numbers (−1.254, 42.72) in teaching concepts, assigning homework, and preparing tests for math, science, or engineering. For the rest of this question, I will call integer or simple fractions nice and real numbers ugly.
For the sake of simplicity, let’s say that you are teaching a math class, and the first topic is basic addition. The first time that you teach it, I would assume that you would want to teach it using nice numbers. For example, using 2 + 2 = 4 would be preferred over 1.234 + 5.678 = 6.912. Sometimes you can get lost in the weeds of the calculations ("just plug these numbers in here and get the answer out") and completely miss the concepts. While concepts are important, it is important for the students to be able to apply the concepts for more complicated problems. While part of me thinks that learning concepts should be the same for nice numbers and ugly numbers, my personal experience says that there is a difference (perhaps just a small one) between these two.
In order to facilitate better learning and better application of course material to real-world problems, should you also include homework with ugly number inputs and answers? How about tests? During my engineering studies, it seemed like there were lots of problems that had nice inputs and/or answers. Most of the questions did not have really ugly answers. Is this typically done to make it better for the students learning, or is this done to make grading easier? Perhaps calculator use can also influence the type of number being used too. Overall, it would be nice to understand why professors and/or teachers often select nice numbers for assignments.
If it would help to know, the main drive of this question is that I would like to automate some of the homework or maybe even tests for classes. I would like to be able to generate multiple versions of homework or tests so that students can’t simply copy answers from each other. If I am generating homework, it might be tricky to find nice solutions vs ugly solutions. I think I have a method for automatic grading, so that is not a problem. The main thing that I want to maintain is a good learning experience for students.
Note on π and other irrational numbers: For my studies, π was of course in lots of the problems, and this technically makes problems have answers that are irrational. For most problems, it is acceptable to include the symbol π in the answer instead of including the numerical form in calculations. These problems could be still written nicely with implied multiplication like 2π or 3π/5.


texts: Could your adviser make you commit to work on your paper before signing your graduation form?

texts:
Here is a peculiar situation I face but I don't think it is uncommon in academia.
My adviser asked me in an email to commit to continuing the work to publish a paper from my PhD work before signing my PhD dissertation form
Let's assume the worst case scenario in which I will not be able to work on this paper in the future.
Does my adviser have the power to revoke my PhD if I will commit in an email, but I will not be able to continue the work to publish this paper?
What do you suggest me to do?


texts:
I have heard a lot about people doing research and writing papers about it, but I’m not sure in which cases the papers would be called a research paper.

Here are a few hypothetical example cases I could think of:

A found a technique to increase clock speed of microprocessors
B did research on life on a historical person by visiting people and places related to him. She/He found new information and She/he was first to successfully join the bits of information about that persons life.
C researched about a writer. She/He did not find anything new, She/he just collected various information from different sources and put it together.
D used sources like internet and books to show how technology X is very essential for doing Y. Although this may be obvious to some, no one has written about it before.

Assuming each of them writes about their work, who would write a research paper? When is something called a research paper?

My Internet research so far was not successful, as I did not understand the concept of a research paper and everyone said something different.


texts: What are the implications of submitting a paper to be graded and to arxiv preprint on the same day?

texts: I submitted my paper to be graded in a university class and to the arvix preprint on the same day. Are there any implications for the grading professor and myself if the arxiv preprint is announced before I am graded?


texts: Why some university asks for recomendation letter directly to be sent from the recommender?

texts:
When I was applying for PhD I was considering Germany, UK, Austria and Switzerland in my search for a position. So far, I found that each university/region has their own policies in application submission process.

For instance, I found that most of the Swiss universities ask for a direct recommendation letter from the recommender and it is not acceptable to submit it as a general one and it is only acceptable if it's sent directly from the recommender's institute email to the target university. In contrast, in Germany where applying now at a higher ranking university than the Swiss one, professors, and universities are more flexible and accepts them as a general one, so no need to be specifically produced for the particular university.

I tried hard to find a place in Swiss universities, but I ended up rejected with no response from my previous professor as it considered time consuming for him, and I don't blame him since general recommendation letter is enough in other universities.

Do universities that ask for such a thing consider them self better than the others and will lead them to better candidates?

The question is, why such universities make it hard for the student who apply for PhD? Is a general recommendation letter (I have 4 letters from different professors) from your previous professors where they indicate positivity about the candidate enough for such a PhD application?


texts: How to respond to an e-mail asking me to suggest a doctoral research topic?

texts:
With networks like ResearchGate and Academia.edu, it's easy to connect with and follow researchers from a variety of different nations and backgrounds.  I personally think this is great, and I hope such networks can help reduce redundancy in research.

Every now and then, though, I get a request from someone whose English is poor enough that it obscures meaning, and they are usually from a non-Western country with limited access to research materials.  Recently, I received an e-mail from a PhD student wanting me to suggest a thesis topic.

I'm all for helping people, especially if they are bright and eager and trying to work their way out of a crappy situation.  But I honestly have no idea how to respond to such an e-mail.  I intend to ask for more information about who the student's advisor is, what people in their group work on, etc.  But are there are other things I should keep in mind?  Is there anything I should be wary of?

P.S. I'm trying to choose my words carefully-- I don't want to play "Western savior," but I also acknowledge I have a real advantage as a Westerner and don't want to lightly dismiss a request for help when it could have a real impact on the student.


texts: Ordering Chemicals for a laboratory on a Student or J1 Visa

texts:
I just wanted to ask, if any time, any of you have had any issues ordering hazardous chemicals in a laboratory located in the US.

Specially if you had any of your students or postdocs do it, since I recently saw that they run a background check on you for certain chemicals, so I was just wondering if this may backfire sometime in the nearby future.

I ask this because my PI had me order a couple of chemicals, but my Postdoc is in computer science, so not at all related with this, I wanted to know if this may jump in some future in a Green Card application? Perhaps I'm just being paranoid.

Do you have any experience in your laboratories with this kind of issues?

Thank you


texts: My university is listed on Anabin as H+ but my degree is not listed. Should I worry about this?

texts: I'm planning to do my MSc in Germany and found that in order to apply a master program in Germany, I should check my undergraduate degree is whether acceptable(H+) or not(H-) via Anabin database. The problem is my university is listed on Anabin as H+ but my degree(Abschlussbezeichnung) isn't. The thing is most of the universities listed on Anabin seem to have the same problem. I searched for the BSc-Physics in the US universities but there was only one on the list. Should I worry about this?


texts: At any point during studying, is it okay to just give up?

texts: Is it okay to just say "I know what I know, and I'm not gonna try to learn anymore, because I'm already so exhausted as it is"? I'm asking this because this is basically how I feel right now, and several other times, I don't know if I'm even gonna make any more progress. Has anyone ever been in a similar situation? What do you end up doing? What would you recommend?


texts: Is it valuable to present a paper at an international conference?

texts: My abstract/paper has been selected at 2nd International MISG-2015 conference held at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I would like to know if it's valuable for an Undergraduate student to present paper at this conference and will it have a high impact when I apply for an university for Masters?


texts: Must all results be commented on in the discussion section of a research paper?

texts:
I did a survey on the demand for complementary medicine among hospital patients. We used a questionnaire comprising 38 items and consequentially I have a lot of information.

I am currently writing a research paper and I was wondering whether all results reported in the result section ought to be commented on in the discussion section? I reported various findings I deemed important, but in the discussion part, I only concentrated on the interpretation and analysis of the main ones since it would be too much otherwise. I did an exploratory survey without any specific hypothesis a priori. Is it okay to report many results and then focus only on the essential ones in the discussion section, or is this being frowned upon?


texts: Could a second masters hurt my PhD application because expectations will be higher?

texts:
I would like to do a second masters, because I would like to change focus to a certain subfield within my field (not changing fields) and have the best shot of getting into my favourite program. I also had some personal problems both during my BA and my first MA, and think I could do much better.

I am worried though that having 2 masters will set the bars slightly higher for me in the application process. Is this true? Phrased differently: are admissions people more likely to look at the my CV in a 'absolute' way, or do they judge it 'relative' to the amount of time spent in academia maybe?


texts: I got a way worse grade than my classmates for equal performance. What should I do?

texts:
The professor for this course was, according to every one of my classmates (only 7 of us total so I could get all the opinions) a nightmare. To illustrate, in the last week of class, after we present a final assignment (no instructions other than the title of the assignment in the syllabus), he asks us if we'd been getting any of his emails for the whole semester. We said no. That last class was a sizable part of the grade but obviously no one had instructions or any knowledge of the percentage of the assignment relative to our grade.

Each week people in our course were confused about material and procedure and we all thought we were fools that should have known better. But we all had realized, in this last class meeting, that there was a reason for the disconnect: the instructions were not going through to us via email.

There was a discrepancy in my grade vs the other classmates grades, even though there is no discernible performance gap. I got the lower grade. The classmates I spoke with were surprised, for the same reason I am - namely they did not perceive a noticeable performance gap. My skin is crawling at the thought of asking the professor what the reason for this low grade was, but should I do it? Or can I go elsewhere (i.e. a Dean or something) first? I know for a fact other students are willing to attest to this professors disorganization and other bad qualities (some already have). I also suspect this professor has had complaints lodged against him in the past for similar reasons.


texts: Where can I find the Impact Factor for a given journal?

texts: As from title. Not all journals provide the impact factor on their homepage. For those who don't where can I find their impact factor ?


texts: Two figures are redrawn and merged into one. Are reproduction permissions required in this case?

texts:
I have two questions regarding writing of survey papers

Firstly, if one of the technical papers reviewed has a number of figures. Take for example: Figure 4 is "Data model" and Figure 8 is "Mechanism structure". In the survey paper is it enough modification (for a waver of official permission) to merge these two into one figure and cite. Say, Figure X: Data model and Mechanism Structure adapted from [ref]?

Secondly, in the case when author A proposes "Data model" and "mechanism structure" in paper [30] and [35] i.e four entirely different diagrams. Is it sufficient as modification (for a waver for official permission) if in a survey, all four combined in one figure.

Thanks in advance


texts: Should I add my business experience in my application of master program in math?

texts:
I'm going to apply for the master program in math in France next year. I plan to do pure math (real and functional analysis, probability, computing, PDE, etc) in the 1st year to equip myself enough technical background, then do applied math (stochastic processes and probability) in the 2nd year. It's optional for candidates to add their experience in their applications.

My background is:

I got my bachelor degree in Statistics last year.
At the moment, I'm studying 3rd year in pure math.
I co-founded an IT startup and have run it for 2 years (at the moment I involve very little in the business as I have to spend most time on studying).

Should I add this experience in my application? Does adding this give me any signifincant advantage? Personally, I find this business experience very irrelevant to a very academic program like math.


texts: Post Doc recommendation letters sent but no response

texts:
I have three letters of recommendation sent to a potential post doc employer but when I asked if my recommendation is completed, I did not receive any response from him and it has been a week. Before that, the post doc lab head told me that once he received my letters, he will arrange an on site interview for me. He was also quick to response to my email and showed great enthusiasm before sending out the letters to him.

Does that suggest something wrong with the letters that raise concern? Does that mean I'm out of the game or should I follow up with him? I may be impatient but as indicated in my previous question, my relationship with my advisor was not good and he had submitted a letter drafted by myself.

Very worry. Thank you for advice.

Update: Nevermind, just got interviewed and offered at other top ones.


texts: Chicago Manual of Style chapter and section title capitalization

texts:
Ploughing through Chicago Manual of Style Online, I can't seem to find any concrete reference to whether chapter and section/subsection titles are capitalized in headline style or sentence style.

It seems, given some examples that claim to follow CMoS that at least Chapter and first level Section headings are headline style, however, I'd love to find an authoritative statement from the Manual itself, but I can't find it (I'm referring to the actual manuscript, not to citations of book chapters, which should definitely be headline style).


texts: Is it acceptable to leave an adjunct teaching position 10 days before classes begin?

texts:
I have just very recently accepted a full-time teaching position at a reputable college (hooray!).  I've been employed as an adjunct the last several years with courses assigned to me generally well in advance of the academic term.  This full-time offer however has come in only a couple weeks before the start of the next term.  I've essentially given my other institutions only 2 weeks notice (only 10 days notice in the case of one of the schools) to find someone else to cover my originally-assigned course load (one campus had me assigned to 1 section, the other campus had me assigned to 3 sections).
It's now only occurring to me whether or not I should've given these institutions a heads up that I had an interview and was potentially leaving.  I'm not sure as to the etiquette in leaving a teaching position so close to the beginning of an academic term.  I honestly thought I would've received the results of my interview sooner than I did.  I'm curious though if telling these institutions that I had an interview would've made them rescind their offers of employment (generally a soft offer is made in advance of the term, and a contract is signed only once the term begins).  To summarize my question:

Is it acceptable in this situation to simply provide notice once an offer was put in front of me, or should I have given advanced notice to my other campuses that I had an interview and merely the potential that I would leave?  Would it be proper etiquette to give a warning to these institutions of a potential departure, or could that have resulted in rescinded offers of employment?

I suppose this is a problem that other industries don't run into; in normal businesses people can leave at any time with the work uninterrupted.  In academia however, institutions need to secure a reliable person well in-advance of an academic term and it's generally unacceptable for a professor to give up their teaching appointment in the middle of a term.  The institutions I'm leaving have rather large adjunct pools, so maybe it's not as bad as I'm worrying it may be.


texts: How do I respond to a professor’s email refusing my recommendation request?

texts:
My professor has refused to provide a recommendation that I requested from him and directed me to approach the head of the department.

How do I close this communication with him?

Would a thank you email be necessary?


texts: Is it OK to invite PhD scientists (Bio and Pharma) to peer review manuscripts?

texts:
I recently joined the editorial board of a decent OA journal. I got requests to handle quite some manuscripts very soon.

I accepted to handle the first 2 and soon I saw another two and then another 2. So I got invitation for 6 manuscripts within a week and they are still coming.

I am a 5th year AP and don't have much time to handle all of them. So I need to make some decisions.

Finally I decided to handle at most 5 on my hands at the same time.

This is my first time being on editor board and I need lots of input. What's your suggestions?

The other question is that I was thinking about inviting some PhD scientists (Bio and Pharma) as the reviewers because I met them in related meetings and I think they could do some fair reviews. Would that be OK in general?

Thanks for the suggestions.


texts:
Following on from my question here where I develop industry resources under the auspices of my company, I am wondering what would be a suggested citation format that I can include in the publication itself (on the copyright and disclaimer page). This would be a further claim on my authorship of these resources.

An example of a resource is "Ten Key Considerations when Terminating Employees". The resource is available in hardcopy and electronically. My company name and logo appear on the first page. My company can be considered the publisher of this resource.


texts: What if you can't publish in very high impact journal or top conference during your PhD?

texts:
I am a year 2 PhD student doing my research in the area of time series analysis. Since year 1, I'm always aiming to publish in high impact factor journal (Impact factor >= 7) or top conferences, maybe due to the fact that my university is not a top 10 university in the world and I do not want anyone to belittle what I have done for my PhD.

Not sure if its stress, I got to the point where I'm kinda paranoid thinking if I can't publish in such top venues then my PhD is practically a fail. I want to ask if this kind of thinking is correct? How will my PhD be valued if I cannot publish in top conferences or high impact factor journal?

Sorry for any grammar mistakes, and I really appreciate any advice given.


texts: Is it reasonable for a professor to ask students to stay 30-45 minutes past scheduled class time every week?

texts:
I'm currently in a class in my major that meets for 50 minutes 3 times a week. Meanwhile, I'm a member of a campus club, unrelated to my major, which meets right after this class one day.

My professor has decided that he should have the students stay an extra 30-45 minutes after class on the day of the meetings so that he can continue to teach.

I'm the only one in the class who has voted against this, which makes me uncomfortable, because I'm what's forcing the class to have a faster pace.

Am I right in being outraged? Is it not the professor's job to teach the necessary course material in the time allotted, as opposed to having students stay late for no credit? Should I cave in and just not go to the club meetings? They're not important for my major, and I'm not an officer, but I immensely enjoy them.

Edit: I've been asked in the comments why my professor is doing this.  It has to do with the pacing of the course--if we had to stick to 50 minutes 3 times a week, then the pace would have to be much faster.


texts: Mentor added his name as the author and changed the series of authors into alphabetical order, effectively putting my name at the last

texts:
I was recruited by a university to work on a research project as a research fellow and have dedicated over 8 months to it. I have maintained a schedule of fortnightly presentations with another senior research fellow and professor to update them with the progress of the research. After I shared the first draft of the paper with them, the senior fellow rewrote the introduction and added his and professor's name to the author list. He alphabetized the list by our last names stating that's the convention they are beginning t follow, which effectively puts my name at the very last. I have done all the research and I feel shortchanged. I did not like the fact that this was not even discussed with me before changing and the senior fellow will be presenting my paper, I was informed. Again, I am upset about this.
Yet, I have been in the system for 8 months, 4 more months to go before my contract is over with the institute. It matters a lot to me that my name appear first in the list of authors as I am planning to do my PhD soon and having a list of publications with my lead authorship will help me get work with the university of my choice.
What should I do? Should I let this go and not be bothered or should I discuss my concerns with the professor? The senior fellow and professor are very good friends and have been working together for over 6 years and I do not want them to gang up against me as I am new to the field. Please advise.,


texts: If I refereed a paper at one journal (and it was rejected) should I referee it again when it's sent to another journal?

texts:
A couple months ago I refereed a paper for one journal. Due to a number of factors, I recommended that it not be published in that particular journal, and gave the author a bunch of comments on how they could easily improve the manuscript. The editor of that journal followed my recommendation (and perhaps the recommendation of other referees I am unaware of) and did not accept the publication.

This morning I received another review request, this time from a different journal but for the same manuscript. I've never had this particular situation occur before, and am wondering what the expected thing for me to do is. Should I review the manuscript again as if I hadn't before, should I let the editor know first and see what they say, or what?


texts: How is publishing in JoVE (a "video journal") perceived?

texts:
There are many questions 'should I publish in journal x', but this is not that.  The journal JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments) claims to be the world’s first video journal.  It seems to have a specific mission, and if the mission becomes well accepted, can be a big change in how knowledge is disseminated through the academic community.

It’s not on Beall's list.  It does not have an impact factor, although the journal says it expects to be included soon.

I cannot find many discussions on this journal, as opposed to, PLOS, on which many people seem to have opinions.

Does anyone know of negative feedback to the journal or publishing in the journal? Such as administration or peers believing it is not inline with academic publishing.

Some examples of 'reputable' schools (in my perspective), UPenn Yale Johns Hopkins Harvard


texts:
I recently came to know that one of the patent we filed in my previous organization has been abandoned. I am currently preparing my resume for PhD applications. I am confused whether to specify the abandoned patent in resume/CV considering the effort involved in coming up with the patent.

I thought of specifying like this in resume

"Patent Name", "Inventors:....", "Application No....","Status-Abandoned"


texts: How can you find the DOI of an article that doesn't seem to have one?

texts:
I cannot find the DOI number of this article. It has ISBN, but it does not help me find its DOI number.

How can you find the DOI number of articles where it's not listed, but other identifiers, such as an ISBN, are available?


texts: How to determine similarity score of new manuscript against own yet-to-publish manuscripts?

texts: Considering the ethical and professional implications of self plagiarism, it is very useful to check new manuscript against old ones (which are under review and not yet published) to decrease self plagiarism. In a white paper by ithenticate (download from http://www.ithenticate.com/self-plagiarism-free-white-paper), one way to avoid self plagiarism is to significantly paraphrase those text which are need to be used in new article. However, I have difficulties in identifying the similarity percentage of my current work against yet-unpublished works. Online tools (that I know) check the manuscript against published works. I have 3 journal papers, 1 is published, 1 is under review, and 1 is under preparation. Now, I need to check the third one to see the similarity score. Any suggestion?


texts: How should we sort the names of the authors of a paper (with two authors) when they have the same contribution?

texts:
Me and one of my friends have recently written a paper and we have almost the same contribution. Is there any conventional way to express this and show this ?
How do we sort the name of the authors in such a case?


texts: What to write about in a master thesis that's mostly software applying common knowledge?

texts:
I have got a topic for a thesis that I'm interested in.

It's not a very difficult task and is well covered by the basic theory in the field. I'm not doing anything new and I'm not supposed to either. I'm convinced that a person knowledgeable in the field would consider it trivial.

Working on the task is mostly only software development, although there's also some hardware involved. Of course there's a huge open source software library that covers pretty much everything in the field.

In essence, I'm calling 2 to 3 functions of the library that are specifically made to solve the task that I have. What I spent most of my time on was writing software that makes some hardware talk to each other, deliver data to and from the library, doing some format conversions, etc. None of this is particularly interesting for the actual topic, it's only providing the logistics of using the library. The academically interesting part is already handled by the library.

I didn't do much except applying the provided functionality to solve the problem in the obvious way as I've been told. I don't really know what I should write about in my thesis.

It looks like my supervisor is very interested in seeing the functionality (of the library) "in action" for this particular application.
I feel like an unpaid software developer disguised as a thesis student.

How do I come up with content?

from the comments

  I'm convinced that a person knowledgeable in the field would consider it trivial. — So then, why would you choose it as your thesis topic?

I choose this topic because it

is interesting to me. I like it. I have a positive mindset about it.
is a topic that I estimated to be able to handle and it turned out I can.
helps me gain more knowledge in its field that I was previously not very knowledgeable about.


texts: Can the graduate school administration change graduation dates?

texts:
(Breakdown of a larger issue - full story here)

Following the deliberate delay my thesis paperwork by my professor, and after my department ignored my thesis revision requests for over 6 months, I finally got my graduation paperwork completed (with a $200 late fee) just after the start of the 3rd semester after my thesis defense. My official graduation was therefore graduated a full year after my defense. Due to the concurrent program I was in, this meant my undergraduate degree also did not post until that date - 2.5 years after I finished my undergraduate classes. As my profession requires 4 years of post-degree training for licensing, this has significantly delayed my professional career. If not for delays beyond my control by school personnel, I would have had time to complete the graduation paperwork and finish my degree a full year earlier.

I went the the director of my program and was kicked out before I could do more than state my problem - "I don't believe the department could have held you up; students just don't know how to be responsible." I finally got issues escalated to the dean of the college, and he agreed that the department had grossly mishandled things. He contacted the dean of the graduate school, who refused to even hear the case - all that he or I ever got back from the graduate school was blanket statements about 'policy', which I presume meant their own and not some oversight body. Even when I (repeatedly) went to the graduate office in person, the (brand new) graduate dean refused meet with me. I suspect that the program director (a very aggressive personality) had preemptively contacted him to ask him to ignore me; the dean of my college was retiring that semester and presumably carried very little weight in department politics. However that is purely conjecture.

Why would the graduate dean refuse to talk to me? Liability concerns? Or just pure pomp and disregard for the woes of a lowly student?
Is there a valid reason the graduate school would be unable to back-date my degree to the semester I had completed all my coursework and successfully defended my thesis?


texts: 9 Years of PhD, bad supervision, no data. What should I do?

texts:
I am a PhD student since 9 years. I am working on medical technology where I need intra-operative surgical data. When I joined, I was told that they will have collaboration with hospitals and other universities around the world so, I can have my experiments there.

After 4 years I got a chance to have my first experiment to acquire my first data with an artificial plastic bone and I presented my results on that data in a conference. After that my supervisor gave me some wrong data (someone else acquired that data for some other research) from a human patient to work on. Within a few months I told my supervisor that this data doesn't fit to my research topic. He forced me to work on it and modify the data so that it fits to my topic. It didn't work. He promised to have an animal experiment or cadaver experiment. But even after 3 years ( total 8 years from start) he didn't arrange any experiment for my research.

Then I forced and fought with him and finally I got chance for an animal experiment. That was also for limited data acquisition, for only one day. As this data was acquired by myself for my research topic, I got good results from it. I have written an article but now my supervisor is forcing me to include the old wrong data. I think he wants to get rid of the obvious accusation against him for wasting my time with the wrong data. He forces me to include the best result I got from that wrong data which I think is unethical and biased.

Even after 9 years he has not allowed my thesis proposal. Now he pressurises me to include that old part in my article and says if not, he won't allow to publish it and without publishing it he won't allow my thesis proposal which actually should have been passed in the first year of my PhD. So I have been waiting for 9 years to submit my thesis proposal too.

Besides, he never allowed me to visit other labs for internships. I had an international full fellowship from the European Union, which allowed me up to 12 months of internships in any EU country. But my supervisor never allowed me to visit any other country or other lab.

After 9 years I am still stuck in the same place, frustrated and psychologically stressed. I lost lots of money living abroad. For the last 3 years I have been living without any scholarship, only with my own money. I can't live with my family and can't bring my family to me as I don't have any money and I am in debt. Moreover, I have no thesis proposal submitted. It's a total ignorance to a PhD student, the poorest supervision. The university ruined my career and life by accepting me as PhD student but not providing the necessary resources for the research.

What can I do in this situation? Any suggestion?


texts: How can I put myself in the best position to get a postdoc in a different field?

texts:
Im a graduate student in my 3rd year studying theoretical plasma physics. I'd like to stay in academia but I think I would be better in an area of experimental physics where data analysis plays a more important role (such as High Energy Experiment). I wanted to know wether or not it was possible to get a postdoc in another field than the one I write my thesis in. I'd like to hear from anyone who has done this.

If this is a possibility (a realistic one), what can I do to prepare myself in the remaining 3 years of graduate school? Thanks!


texts: How is the corresponding author on a (math) paper typically chosen?

texts: I am preparing a joint paper with my mentor. I am a math postdoc. How is the corresponding author generally chosen? What are the benefits of being the corresponding author? Is it better for a post-doc's career if they are the corresponding author?


texts: What will you do when a prospective PhD supervisor does not follow up after an initial positive response?

texts:
I am applying for a PhD in the UK, and started sending email to contact potential supervisors in January. I have been communicating with a particular professor for about two months. Her response seems positive. For example, she said my research proposal is fantastic. However, she did not give me a firm reply as to whether she or her colleagues is willing to supervise my proposed PhD research topic. Additionally, she did not get back to me, although she said that she will do so last week. How will you handle this situation if you are in my place? Will you still go ahead and submit the application? I have attached the summarized communication between both of us below.
Timeline of our communication:
8 Jan: I sent the first email to the potential supervisor.
19 Jan: potential supervisor replied positively, asking for research proposal and CV and writing samples.
23 Jan: I replied with the documents.
12 Feb: Seeing that the potential supervisor did not get back to me, I sent a reminder email.
12 Feb: Potential supervisor replied 2 hours later, saying she will ask her colleagues about my proposal. Also mention that she will get back to me by next week (19 Feb).
12 Feb: I thanked her for her reply and said I look forward to hearing from her.
18 Feb: Potential supervisor said she will delay getting back to me, and will email me by next week (26 Feb) instead of tomorrow.
18 Feb: Again, I thanked her for her reply and said I look forward to hearing from her.


texts: Balancing empathy and deferring to the syllabus in teaching responsibilities

texts:
Questions of similar topics have been asked here for the situation of instructing a course and here and here for the situation of 'no late work' policies. Additional questions about balancing teaching responsibilities here.

Background

I am a new graduate student, and part of my funding comes from TA responsibilities. For the current particular course, I am responsible for teaching lab sessions, grading homework, responding to student emails/questions, and other common duties. So far, I have not had too much trouble balancing the responsibilities of being a teaching assistant with other commitments.

Situation

Homework assignments are always released two weeks ahead of time and are due 9am on Monday mornings. For whatever reason - length of the homework, difficulty of a specific problem, etc. - this homework has caused several last-minute (example: midnight last night, 2am, and 6am) requests for extensions.

Question/problem

The situation of late homework requests is confounding to my daily practice of empathy. I feel like I am at a split in the road or forced to choose which devil to listen to. For example, one of the requests is legitimate from a student who has been experiencing medical issues the entire semester. Another is from a student who has explicitly articulated they need a good grade to get a luxury car from their parents. I have a personal rule to actively practice empathy in my day-to-day life, but my rule completely falls apart in this situation.

In @Paul Hiemstra's answer on another post, the use suggested:

If people have a legitimate reason for wanting an extension of the deadline, I would simply give them the extension. If they cannot provide a good reason, i.e. they simply procrastinated too much, they have to take responsibility for their behavior, and they do not get the extension.

But what is 'legitimate'? Additionally, I am concerned that individually evaluating the reasoning of each student - explicitly stated or not - may lead to personal inconsistencies in who I give an extension to and eventually consume large amounts of time.

I've spoken with the course instructor, but he has left it up to me. How can a TA balance empathy and deferring to the syllabus in teaching responsibilities?


texts: What, if any, are the quantifiable differences between a rhectoric/communication PhD from an English vs a Communcation department?

texts: I'm currently pursuing a master's in Communication and plan to seek admission to a PhD program afterword, most likely in the field of technical communication. Many schools offer such a program fully or partially online, but regardless of how the program is offered, many (nearly all, in fact) of them are offered through the institution's English department. I've been told by several professors that communication programs in English departments are inherently inferior to those in Communication departments. Is this in any way correct, and, if so, why/how?


texts: How to Deal with Boisterous Officemates?

texts:
I'm currently a grad student in a moderately large department. I share an office with a few other grad students, and I get along with all of them fairly well. However, one of my officemates is rather loud and unfiltered with what he says in and around the department. The office walls are very thin, they are movable partitions, and the professor next to us clearly dislikes the noise and behavior. I'm very concerned with how this may be affecting my reputation around the department. I like my officemate, but the immature behavior is very noticeable.

How should I deal with this situation? I can't really ask for a new office, but I don't want to be associated with the poor behavior. I've talked to him about it, but I don't want to constantly remind him to be quiet or conscientious of other people. I am at a loss with this situation. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.


texts: Can my supervisor steal my theoretical achievements, and publish a paper without me

texts: We have solved an important mathematic problem that has not been solved over 10 years. I want to publish a paper about this topic soon, but my supervisor impede me, and he is reasoning that the quality of paper is not good enough. I am concerned that he may publish a paper about the mathematic solution,  without mentioning me as an author, to claim that he is the first person to solve the mathematic problem. Is this action legal?


texts: Does the authors opinions or solutions to the reviewed problem have to be inculded in a review paper?

texts:
I have submitted a review article and one reviewer stated "Authors should propose their solution(s) in this topic based on the analysis of different literatures."
So my question is: it is really required (or expected) to include suggestions on how to solve the research question tackled by a review article? I have read numerous reviews (in journals of good reputation) that were just a collection of findings from the reviewed references, with very little opinions from the authors added. To provide solutions would in my oponion require research that authors of review papers might not have done (yet).
So is this reviewer right to ask for this addition to the paper, or would it be ok to decline the request (and if so, with which justification)?


texts: Advertising European PhD opportunities for students in China

texts:
We have got interesting funding opportunities for Chinese students interested in doing a PhD in France.

A good match would be familiar with proof/type theory and functional programming.

However, we are not sure what would the best venue be to advertise this kind of opportunities.

Are there some appropiate mailing lists or forums? Are there chinese haskell/ocaml user groups?


texts: How to mention that we are applying as a couple?

texts:
My wife and I are applying to US universities for master's and PhD programmes. We both have a electrical engg. degree and are applying to the same department. However we would like to get into the same university.
Is it possible to mention this in the application? Do universities take this into consideration when making admission decisions?


texts: Progress tracking tool for managing PhD students

texts:
I am looking for good options for tools to manage my PhD students, in terms of seeing that they are on track in working out their PhD theses (I am in the UK, three year system) and are hitting their necessary milestones. Each year, as the number of students I supervise grow, it becomes more unwieldy to keep track of each student's progress.

In some ways this sounds like I am looking for a project management tool like MS Project or OmniPlan. But these seem too unwieldy and, perhaps, I would like to also have something that can help manage the chapters I have read and the comments I have given then.

So some basic features would be:

Collaborative software (preference of hosted on a server)
Task lists with deadlines
Timeline progression

I am curious what recommendations people have.


texts: How do I answer a question on the ethical implications of my work at PhD viva?

texts:
I am defending my PhD thesis soon and have been told to practice some questions that I should expect, one of which is:

What are the ethical implications of your work?

How should I go about answering this?

My field is ocean physics, and my thesis has focused on investigating the causes of high temporal resolution variability in ocean temperature. How could I tackle this question in the defense?


texts: Is it possible for people to go into math or physics fields from a degree in biology?

texts:
On this website (and on the Internet in general), it looks to be in vogue for physicists and mathematicians to move into biological fields to apply their mathematical knowledge and also the general methodology to biological problems. However, there's very little discussion on biologists moving into mathematical or physics fields. I am roughly two years away from taking an undergraduate degree and am torn very much between my love for biology and mathematics and consider it likely that I might end up in academia.

Is it feasible for someone who studied biology to move into a math field? Is it possible, but rare? Would the possibility of doing a joint degree, or a biology degree with a higher amount of math content, sway this at all? Or are such people better off doing a pure math degree and then moving into a biological field later on?


texts: Pen name similar with real name: Zu Yangzu instead of Zu Yang for papers

texts:
East Asian countries have some very common last name. This is so common that there are 10s of millions people with the same last name. In the western tradition of citing papers by authors' last name, this makes East Asians very indistinguishable with each other.

I somehow feel this makes it hard for Asians to be remembered and known in western academia.

If someone's name is "Zu Yang" on the passport, what if he just puts his name as
"Zu Yangzu"  in his papers?

Will it cause some academic trouble?

Well, if some people are using pen names on their papers and they experience no trouble, then that's an enough evidence that I also can do this.. but I don't know any case. Does anyone know?


texts: How to reference observational evidence?

texts: Talking about work practices at a business, and hearing first hand from the manager how the employees conduct their work - how can I reference this anecdotal evidence in an academic paper? Alternatively, I could discount the anecdotal evidence and instead conduct an analysis of the work environment myself (i.e. looking at how the work environment operates) - but then I am left in the position of referencing myself! Please advise.


texts: Under review since 9 months. Shall I send another email

texts:
First, I would like to mention that I saw that there are similar questions about this topic on this site but this one is very specific whose answer I could not find anywhere. The query is as follows.

I had sent a manuscript to a springer electrical Journal, 10 months back. For 3 months, the status showed "With Editor". Then finally it changed to "Under Review". For the past seven months, it is "Under Review". One month back, I had sent a polite enquiry to a person in editorial office about my paper. He replied that he was sorry and he has contacted senior editor to speed up the process. Today, exactly one month has passed since his reply and the status still remains under review. The average time taken for the first decision as mentioned on the official journal website is 3.5 months. My fear is that the article has already taken nearly a year since I had send it and if there is any more delay, I would not be in a position to send it to any other journal because the proposed approach will become old by then. Shall I send another email to the editorial staff, given that I had already sent another email just a month before? What kind of email can be sent in such a situation ?


texts:
This is a bit technical question, but might be frequent enough in this community.

My PI and I disagree on which color space to use for figures and manuscripts.

I like CMYK, because I care about how it prints out. Even for online-only publications, a lot of people still print them out to read them. (I also care about black & white printing and color blind friendly colors, but that's another story). My main tool for editing figures is Adobe Illustrator with CMYK default (of course I can change it).

My PI likes vibrant red and blue colors which are in RGB space and not in CMYK. I agree that it has better visibility on screen or presentations. It would also be more flexible for switching for different requirements since RGB space is in general larger.

What is the best practice for preparing manuscripts with color figures (and possibly color text)? Do you make the figures in RGB which has a larger color space, and only adjust to CMYK when sending the accepted version to the publisher? Or let the publisher figure it out? (What about self-archived preprint versions?)

(I don't want to worry about color space consistencies and do more research!)


texts: Can I apply for a second PhD position in Germany?

texts:
I had a scientific-assistant position from April 2012 till December 2016. I had two children in between and took the necessary time off, the extension of contract due to this break is also included in the time mentioned in the beginning. Now I am trying to finish the thesis, but I am not very happy with the quality of results and am finding it hard to defend.

Rather than finish, can I apply for another PhD position or not?


texts: When teaching a course based a text book, is using the proofs of theorems and examples from a text book considered reproducing the material from the textbook, while providing the study lecture notes?


texts: How early should one request a letter of recommendation for graduate school?

texts: I will be applying to start graduate school in the U.S. next year during the Fall. Currently I am an undergraduate senior student and most programs require three letters of recommendation with the application. I know professors are busy people and many programs have different requirements for the format of the recommendation. Hence, it might take some time for a professor to do the different recommendations. How early should I send the initial email requesting for a letter?


texts: Acceptability of 'not possible' for master thesis research

texts:
I am currently working on my (Computer Science) master thesis, and have been doing so now for about 5-6 months. The default time for thesis work at my university is about 9 months. Aspects such as literature review and 'planning' were all approved and went very smoothly.

Slowly I am realizing that the method I have planned to develop is simply not going to work. To be a bit more clear: I have thought of a model to solve a problem that isn't currently solved, and have found that my model doesn't improve on any of the exisiting 'attempted' models nor does it contribute anything 'useful' to the industry other than 'this model doesn't work.'

My question being: is it acceptable for the conclusion of a master thesis aiming to implement a new model for a problem to be 'doesn't work?'

I am worried sick that my supervisor or anyone evaluating the work would dismiss it, since of all three research questions I have not been able to make a single one work and have concluded bit-by-bit that it's not possible to implement this model effectively.

Is it acceptable to conclude a master thesis with 'my method doesn't work?' Will it be a problem if I just present my work and conclude with 'no success?'


texts:
I was wondering if it is appropriate to submit a work to a conference call, which only presents an idea without further development.
So far, in my field, computer science, I usually submit works following more or less this structure:

introduction

background

methods

proof of concept

evaluation

conclusion

Recently, I have seen a call quite interesting for presenting an idea related to my previous research. For this reason, I have to admit that I know the topic. However, the idea is not implemented, neither I evaluated it. Let's say, the work is only the method.
This scenario makes me doubt about the appropriateness of presenting my idea in the shape of a paper.
Finally, if doing this is not appropriate for a conference. Can it be for a workshop? Or even more, a lighting talk, or a poster?
EDIT ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Apart from the interesting given answers, it is important to note that there are conferences (or tracks) for position papers:
A position paper presents an arguable opinion about an issue. The goal of a position paper is to convince the audience that your opinion is valid and worth listening to, without the need to present completed research work and/or validated results.


texts:
I recently deposited a research article to the HAL open archive, and I am waiting for a PDF version of this article to be reviewed and made available online through this archive.

It seems as if papers which were deposited after my paper was deposited are now being uploaded, so I’m concerned that I might have somehow uploaded my article incorrectly.

So it is natural to ask: What is the average waiting time for a paper deposited to an open archive such as HAL? Also, when should I start to make inquiries to HAL concerning when my paper will be available online?


texts: Words to avoid when talking to a blind student

texts: I am currently supervising a visually impaired student. I noticed that quite often I use phrases such as "from X, we can see that Y" or ask the student to "read paper X" or "you need to look at your maximization problem", etc.. Once the sentence hangs in the room I immediately feel awkward. The student is of course capable to perform what I mean. The student can understand that "from X follows Y", can "listen to paper X", can "revise the maximization problem", etc.. Nonetheless, I wonder what the guidelines in such situations are. Should I refrain from using these words? How would a student who is visually impaired want to be treated?


texts: Career prospects for Math Finance researcher

texts:
I'm currently starting the first year of Mathematics Ph.D. program with intention to specialize in Mathematical Finance. I have noticed during the application process that this area is rarely represented on Mathematics departments in general -- although few universities have faculty working in it (e.g., Columbia, Michigan, Pitt, CMU), most do not or at least move this area to another departments, i.g. Statistics or Operations Research.
Possible explanation of this may be that there are many Math Finance Master's programs that are tailored for industry, so this field may be seen as very applied in general. However, I'm mostly interested in academic career.

Will specialization in math finance provide less career opportunities in mathematical academia, then some contemporary mainstream areas like algebraic geometry or representation theory? If yes, will I be at significant disadvantage with Ph.D. in Mathematics while applying to other departments (Applied Mathematics, Statistics, Operations Research, Finance)? In general, do researchers working on narrow cross-disciplinary topics have less opportunities in their main field than their pure counterparts?

If it matters, I mostly interested in North America region (U.S. and Canada).


texts:
My  Professor a day before the test sent an email to the class stating that the test would be open notebook test. I have learning disability and based on it have testing accommodations at my university. The accommodations gives me extra time for my test and therefore I get tested in the testing center. This norm has been followed by all my Professors. However my  professor did not want to follow this norm and wanted me tested with class which wasn't an option for me as I have a class following his class and to take with the class would amount to not availing my extra time accommodations. After lots of effort and getting the counselor to intervene, the professor agrees to let me start the test early and take it in the faculty room.

I start the test with the professor invigilating me and I take out my printed notebook copies and refer them as the test was open notebook. The professor does not make a sound, lets me proceed and after about 15 min leaves the faculty room, returns towards the end of the test ( more than 2 hrs later) and sees me put back my referral notebook back in my book bag. Starts shouting that I cheated and that I would have repercussions.

I am shocked and ask ,what cheating and he says, that you used your notebook. I remind him of his email that said that the test was open notebook. He says that he has changed that ( at the time of me taking my test separately in faculty Rm, the rest of my class is taking the test in the class room  and are told of his changed stance and thus not allowed to use the notebook). I point out to the professor about his email and my use of my notebook stemming from that and the obvious fact that he invigilated and stayed for the first 15  minutes and saw me using notes and neither told me of his changed stance or stopped me, so how was I to know of his changed rules of the test.

The professor admits that he should have told me, but regardless says since I used notebook, I get a zero. I request options to retake the test, do an assignment in place or even take an aggregate score of my rest of the test as an average for this one, but he refuses and says the only option is a zero. I try explaining that even if I do my best in the remaining  three tests with this zero the best I will land is C, but he stands his ground and insists, I deserve a 0.

Consult my counselor and she send me the deans #. Please advise. Did I do something wrong? Am I overlooking a good reason for the professor to make this policy? Is calling the dean the best next step? How do I handle a call to the dean?


texts: I can't trust my supervisor anymore, but have to have his letter of recommendation. What should I do?

texts:
Background
I did my masters research project with Prof X. While doing this I joined his lab, where he used to ask me to do random tasks i.e. taking part in different projects, conducting lectures to undergrad students, help him preparing presentations, doing literature reviews not related to my project. I did all those things because of my curiosity and passion for learning as many things as I could. Unfortunately, this delayed my progress in my masters research project.
The Prof. X seemed not at all concerned not only about me but also his other students, except when he wanted us to publish. Although the research field was new to me and I had to do everything on my own and I learned a lot. In the end, he was quite happy and satisfied with my work. He offered me  PhD position at his lab but having bad experience with him, I politely refused that right now I don't have any plan to pursue my PhD.
After that, I could notice he is very cold towards me. During my writing stage, he continuously burdened me more with different tasks related to lab. Moreover, after submission he totally ignored to pass the examiner's names to faculty and it delayed my masters results further two months, even though I requested him multiple times. Once I came to know about this delay through faculty, I told him very politely that how can he do that? He just said (laughingly): sorry I forgot about it.
This is not the first time I found him selfish and not consistent while having no concern about any of his student.
Question
Now, I am applying for PhD position and I need references. I have other other faculty members with whom I have worked with or taken courses and they are willing to witness my motivation and good performance. The problem is that they require one of the referee must be the main research supervisor, in my case Prof X. I don't trust Prof. X in this matter. What should I do now?


texts: In which type of schools can I have better research experience in Biology, liberal arts college or large research university?

texts:
I'm struggling with deciding to which type of school to go in order to gain a better research experience. Basically, the research experience is the most important factor for me to decide my college, since I want to be a strong applicant in PhD admission. Most reputable, research universities are far larger than LACs (liberal arts colleges), and they (except for top schools like HYPSM) are not so friendly places for those who want to conduct their own research and engage in research from Sophomore or even Freshman. To get rich research experience, I want to be involved with research as early as possible and not only during the summer but also throughout a year. Just for example, Reed College has mandatory Senior thesis like Princeton, and profs are eager to help even Sophomores to do their research. However, in research universities, I can take graduate-level courses and touch with cutting-edge research as a research assistant. So, I can gain more advanced knowledge than those in LACs.

Could you tell me your recommendation both for me and those who have the same aspiration?

*If my question is too vague, please just compare UC Berkeley/University of Michigan vs. Reed College/Carleton College. I'm sure this will be a good comparison, since the quality of the students are almost equal.


texts: Is someone with a masters in CS eligible to apply to a CS masters program in another country?

texts:
I've completed my Masters in Computer Science in India. Here we've had no specialization as such and the subjects assigned have been as per University rules. Now I feel the need to specialize in my area of interest and have found Universities in the US that will allow me to choose subjects that align with my interests. Am I eligible for applying to said universities?

Note - These subjects are still in the Computer Science department in these Universities :(

Will the fact that they're in a different country be the exception wherein pursuing a second Masters isn't a problem?


texts: Will a spent criminal conviction affect my chances of getting a funded PhD position?

texts:
I am in my third year of a Mathematics degree (UK). Where a masters is concerned, It seems like I only have to declare unspent convictions. But it is not clear where research positions are concerned.

It is spent now, has been for 12 months. I had 50 hours community service for the crime (Not a custodial sentence).

The research I would be interested in doing would be in either Applied Mathematics(Physical fields) or Computer Science. I feel ill whenever I talk about it.

The offence was an assault. I pressed charges, so did he.
Also I am interested in UK/Euro universities, not America.

Could anyone shed some light on this? maybe someone who may have applied for research positions in these fields?

If this is the wrong place to ask this question then please say so I can remove it.


texts: How undergraduate research area affects Ph.D. admission chances?

texts:
I would like to do a Ph.D. in CS and I will start doing research as an undergraduate student soon, and I will be applying next year (December 2014) at good (say top 15) US universities. My problem is that I have interest in many areas and I don't know which one to choose. At first, I thought that would like to do research in Machine Learning, but then I realized that there are many undergraduate students doing research in that area so it will be more difficult for me to get in a good school by having research experience at that area, as I am not coming from a highly ranked program.

In addition I am an international student, currently studying Computer Engineering and not Computer Science and this may affect my application as well. So I am thinking about doing research in another area that may be a little less competitive and choose my field of interest (it may be the same) after I got into graduate school.

So my question is:

Will it be better to choose something that is less competitive (that still interests me) as a research area for my undergraduate thesis?


texts: How should I sign myself on poster if I am a student?

texts:
I am preparing a scientific poster for a conference. Most researchers' posters have on the top of page header:
TITLE
FIRST+LAST
INSTITUTION

I am currently a bachelor student and this work is being created independently from my university. Should I write
TITLE
FIRST+LAST
UNIVERSITY NAME

or just
TITLE
FIRST+LAST


texts: How many people apply for a math postdoc in the US?

texts: What would be a ballpark figure (or range even) for the number of postdoctoral applications received for a typical US math departmental-wide postdoctoral position?


texts:
I have recieved a comment from a reviewer as
'You had less than 100 cases per division in Table 3, so you should only report with less than three significant " .
I could not understand what she/he wanted me to correct in Table


texts: How do you judge the quality of a journal?

texts:
A colleague and I recently submitted a paper to a journal with an impressive-sounding name, the "International Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Computational Research". According to their website,

  IJAICR is a referred [sic] journal in the field of computer science, artificial intelligence and soft computing methods.

It was accepted two days after we submitted it. That's too fast. We were suspicious. Although the journal said that all papers are peer-reviewed, we could not see how that was done in two days. Plus, we received no comments from the reviewers. Also, the submission guidelines didn't ask for a "blind" copy (without our names or any references to who we were).

But wait, there's more.

The acceptance letter asked us to send them US$300 to publish it. We did not. We've withdrawn our submission and will submit a new version of the paper to a more reputable journal in the coming months.

How might we make a better choice of respectable journals before we submit next time?


texts: Negotiating for higher compensation TT position

texts:
Let's say you have a TT position at a good university A. Year 2 in the position, you receive an offer with higher salary from another university B with considerably higher salary.

You want to stay in A for several reasons but you also want to ask for a salary increase. How would you approach this, given that you are pre-tenure?


texts: Should I still try to publish this paper I wrote after it getting rejected?

texts:
I had submitted this paper of mine to a reputed springer journal some time back. There are reasons for me to believe it is a good journal although it has an impact factor of only 0.941 since most of the original work on the problem ( I will describe that in detail below) I'm working on was published in that journal. A few days back I received a decision from them which said that they wouldn't be considering it for publication and this was the reviewer's comment - "I am afraid i do not see a contribution by this paper valuable enough for publication in the Journal. Neither regarding the problem setting nor regarding the solution method any new insights are provided".

Now, I do admit that my work isn't something path breaking or completely novel (I shall give a detailed description in the end). What I have essentially done is that I have used existing algorithms and techniques and have applied the same on the specific problem I was working on and have got significant results (please see the complete detail of the problem in the end).

So post rejection I have actually been in a complete dilemma on whether I should actually try publishing my work again with some other journals and I have also begun to wonder if journals actually accept such work. The problem is that I have no prior experience of publishing papers and I'm an undergraduate student. So it would be really nice if someone could help me with this.

More on the Problem:

The problem I have been working on is the Traveling Tournament Problem. So what I have done here is that I have taken existing techniques and algorithms for this problem and I have applied it to a very popular sports league in order to schedule it. And doing so has actually given me some "significant"(?) results like reduction in the travel distance in this league.
I am also pretty sure no one has actually worked on this particular league before, so this would be the first instance of the same.


texts: Who can be my third reference for doctoral applications?

texts:
I am a postgraduate student in mathematics (if it matters) who is now also applying for doctoral positions, some of which require three references.

It was a logical enough decision to select my academic advisor and my thesis supervisor to be my first two references, and they gladly accepted. However, attaining a third reference is proving much trickier.

There was no immediate choice, so I decided to contact a lecturer of mine whose course I am currently following with whom I have quite a good relationship (as the class size is also small). Much to my disappointment, he wrote back to me only to decline and say that he does not know me nor my academic achievements well enough to provide a serious reference for me.

Now I am at a loss, because the only people who really know of my academic achievements are the two people who already agreed to be references for me; so where do I go from here?


texts: How is the Dutch degree/diploma title structure for VMBO-HAVO-VWO?

texts: I am reading about the Dutch education structure, and noticed the name of the diploma for Secondary Education is divided into 3 main areas, VMBO (vocational), HAVO (high-school) and VWO (pre-academic) But how do you write the degree-diploma title? Do you separate the diploma from the main subject of study (the major in the States) or write the diploma plus the subject of study/major all together as one? Specially for VMBO that is separated into NLFQ (Dutch qualification framework, 1-4).


texts: Are there any aspects of PhD work that do not translate well to distance learning?

texts: In another question about distance PhDs (Do any schools offer teaching or research assistantships via distance education?), I received several comments noting that PhDs on-line are of inferior quality to on-campus PhDs. If what is seen of PhD work from PHD Comics is accurate, PhD students seem to spend much time working independently. So, what aspect of a PhD cannot translate to the on-line format? What aspect of the process cannot be effectively conducted via E-mail or any of the other various forms of on-line communication?


texts: What are the advantages of publishing work in progress as a working paper?

texts:
Some fields like Economics and Maths have their work in progress published as "working papers" with notes like "work in progress, do not cite or quote without the author's permission."Sometimes they upload these to their own websites or to their universities websites. I don't see much of this going on in my own field (sociology). I have heard from people that are afraid of having their work scooped or that fear that work published in this way will not be considered as "unpublished" by journals and conferences.

What are the advantages of making work in progress available in this way?


texts: Academic Job Mobility in the European Context

texts:
In the United States it is not uncommon to apply to academic jobs all over the country. Personally, I do not know a single person who limited his or her search to just one state (i.e. Massachusetts). That being said, the language of instruction and the key aspects of academic culture remain the same coast to coast.

In comparison, what is the situation like in Europe, particularly Scandinavia and Switzerland?

For example, given that the population of Denmark is comparable in size to that of Massachusetts, how does this affect the academic job market? Is it standard practice for PhDs & lecturers/postdocs located in Denmark to search for their first career placement across Europe [and beyond]? Or do they search for employment primarily on the national academic job market? How do the national differences in language/academic culture fit into this equation?

Background: I’m considering PhD/Academic Career in Europe. Ideally, I would like to learn the local language and assimilate as much as possible during the PhD. Given this long-term effort, I would prefer to continue on in the same country following graduation.

I’m especially interested in hearing from those with experience in the social sciences and humanities (working or studying in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, or Switzerland/Austria). However, please consider contributing even if you do not fit this particular set of criteria. My own experience is in Cult/Soc Anthropology (USA).


texts: Do I need footnotes in a Foreword if I cite something?

texts:
Dear Colleagues and Stack Exchange Readers,

Hello. I am writing a Foreword for a colleague's scholarly monograph. I would like to quote from one of my own books, as well as from the recent memoir of a public statesman, and from a high-level meeting.

Forewords must be short, generally between 750 to 1,250 words. I want mine to be about 900 words.

I have not seen any footnotes in other published Forewords. What do you think? Do I need to put in formal footnotes for this memoir and for my own book and the meeting, or is it appropriate to just put the title of the memoir or book in italics within the body of the Foreword, with the year of publication in parentheses after the title?

I would like to cite a brief phrase from the minutes of a high-level White House meeting. These records were published. Do I put in a full footnote with the source, or some kind of truncated, inline reference?

If you can share your thoughts on this, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you very much for your help.


texts: I have PhD degree in Mathematics. Can I get a research supervisor for another PhD?

texts: I'm from Ethiopia, and I completed my PhD degree in mathematics three months ago. Now I'm working in one of Ethiopian universities as a mathematics teacher. Unfortunately, I'm not satisfied with my current position and did not enjoy the work that I did in my PhD study. So I'm looking for another PhD (in Mathematics) in Europe or Canada. Is it possible to apply for a second PhD? How can I convince a professor to get his consent?


texts: How often do funding agencies require funded authors to publish their work in open access venues?

texts:
Some funding agencies such as the Gates Foundation require funded authors to publish their work in open access venues.

Is there any research/study/survey that tried to quantify the percentage of funding agencies that require funded authors to publish their work in open access venues.

I am interested in any data that could share some light on that question, e.g. historical trends or weighting by funding agency size.

For example,
The RoMEO Journals database contains thousands of journals, labeled with their archiving policy (preprint/postprint/publisher's version):

One could imagine a similar database for funding agencies with paper  access policies.


texts: Referring to non-enumerated (sub)sections of a paper

texts: What is the most appropriate way to refer to the preceding/succeeding (sub)sections within a paper? In my case, the paper style does not allow enumeration of the (sub)sections.


texts: How to tell supervisor too many lengthy meetings are hurting your productivity?

texts:
My supervisor wants us to meet 3-5 times in a week with another PhD student of his. Every meeting is on average more than couple of hours. I don't know about the other student. But I feel like we are wasting too much time in meeting; it's hurting my productivity. How can I tell my supervisor to keep the amount of meetings and duration limited? To make matter worse, he also wants us (me and other PhD student) to meet separately besides these meetings. I am spending on avg. 12-15 hours per week doing these meetings.

I can answer questions why I think these meetings aren't productive, but that may turn into rant and I may put them into another question. So I want to keep it short and precise; let's just assume these meetings aren't productive for me.


texts: Designing the "user experience" for labs without giving too much away

texts:
I have a rather unusual UX to design.  I'm writing a laboratory manual for engineering students learning how to build electric circuits.  The manual will be an interactive webpage.  One of our biggest complaints that we get from students is that the labs are too "cookie cutter", meaning that we often just list the exact steps they need to take in order to complete the lab.  Students would prefer to explore more on their own.

My idea is to design the lab manual in such a way that tasks that are not relevant to the learning objectives, but which must be done in order to achieve those learning objectives, are presented in the cookie cutter way.  Tasks that are relevant to the learning objectives are described differently.

An example of the first type of task would be: "Plug the red cable into the red jack on the DMM", accompanied by a picture.

An example of the second type of task might be: "Taking as many measurements as you think you need, generate a data set you can use to determine a model of the sensor".

Here is my problem: I want to create this lab manual and test it on real students.  However, I don't know which actions students will take while working towards the goals of the lab.  I know what I would do, but that's only one possible way to achieve the goals.  If I observe students who are working on the lab to determine the steps that they take, I can determine which tasks are frustrating them.  I then want to take those frustrating tasks and determine which ones are not really relevant to the learning objectives, so I'll just make them cookie cutter.  However, how do I generate that list of tasks?  I can think of two ways, neither of which are good:

Make the first version totally cookie cutter and observe student frustration
Make the first version completely not cookie cutter and observe student frustration

My issue with 1. is this imposes my method on the students, which is exactly what I'm trying to avoid.  It won't give me any information regarding which tasks need to be more open-ended.  My issue with 2. is that there are some tasks that are not intuitive and just need to be explained quickly. It won't give me any information regarding which tasks are really frustrating for the right reasons, since students will be frustrated by irrelevant tasks as well.

Any thoughts?