texts: How does one find an academic career coach?

texts: Inquiring for a client with a PhD (public policy/labor studies) who has been hunting for a tenure-track position for 4 years (I'm an editor). Like many emerging scholars, she works at several adjunct positions each year. She has been very active in research and publishing, has won several grants since getting her PhD, and has applied for 50 jobs, resulting in 3 (unsuccessful) interviews. At this point she would like to find a career coach who specializes in working with academics in the North American market (Canada would be good, but perhaps not strictly necessary). Our google search for a coach hasn't turned up anyone so far. We investigated the website and book of a well-known coach and found that the information was readily available elsewhere, leading us to conclude that the person's high fee would not be a good investment. Any tips for finding and working with an academic job coach?


texts: How can I fix a relationship with a professor that has recently cooled?

texts:
What would be a good way to overcome bad experiences with a professor in my department, who is not my main advisor, but from whom I would like to get advice regularly?

During the first year of my PhD, I worked with the Professor in a class on a project that I didn't perform well on (because I was not very interested in that particular project + I didn't feel very confident on the topic by that time). Our relationship has cooled down since, and he was even debating whether or not to put me as a co-author on the paper that came out of the project with multiple students. (the authoring-issue is not part of this question; I mention it to describe the status of our relationship)

Now in my second year of my PhD, I realize that it would be quite valuable to have his advice on other projects that I work on, potentially even as a co-advisor, but I fear I messed up the relationship too badly.

What would be a good approach to overcome the bad/non-existing relationship? Or would that be a waste of time and I'd rather look for someone else, which could potentially even mean I need to change the focus of my PhD?


texts: Impact of W's on grad school admissions in CS theory (TCS)

texts:
I'm an undergrad at the University of Maryland College Park who just finished a computer science bachelors a few days ago. Unfortunately, I didn't realize how much I liked theory (algorithms, combinatorics, graph theory) and math until this past semester. As a result, I plan to work for a few years while self-studying upper-division math and getting the necessary TCS research experience (I plan to reach out to professors at the local university once I'm ready).

My question is whether or not my undergrad academic performance is salvageable from the perspective of grad school admissions. Although I ended up with a 3.895 cumulative GPA with relatively good grades in TCS-related classes (e.g. A- in discrete math, A in algorithms, A in number theory, A in cryptography, B+ in advanced data structures), I have 4 W's (withdrawn designations) on my transcript across different semesters. Moreover, these W's are all in math classes (euclidean & non-euclidean geometry, numerical analysis, combinatorics & graph theory, machine learning). However, with the exception of the geometry class, I dropped all of them since I didn't meet the official prerequisites. I had originally requested prerequisite overrides to register for the courses, but left due to not being able to catch up.

Also, due to COVID-19 I opted for the pass/fail grading system this past semester. Therefore, even though I took theory of computation and combinatorics & graph theory and scored an A, A- respectively, these classes show up as P's on my transcript. Thus, I'm wondering (a) if a master's will help my case and (b) if one is necessary. If at all possible, I'd prefer to apply directly to PhD programs after getting some research experience.

Additionally, would having a publication by the time of application change any of those answers? I know theory programs in machine learning and computer vision basically require publications these days in order to be considered, but I'm not sure if the same holds for subfields like combinatorial optimization and graph algorithms.


texts: After revision: the paper is not anonymized - what does it mean?

texts:
I finally got the revision of my paper, but one of the reviewers complained that the paper is not anonymized. Since I'm not the native english speaker, it's quite strange to me.

Does it mean that I should remove authors names from the paper? If so - what for, and why should I do this?


texts: What kind of design freedom can you permit yourself in academic writing?

texts:
In scholarly journals, or publicising in certain magazines you are expected to hold true to a certain design pattern and citation style. However, when publishing your own work independently you are free from those constraints, or are you?

I am a designer by heart and every couple of years I create a new template that I use for future academic papers, following contemporary design patterns. In my opinion, my templates look nice. Not too strict, though flirting with kittenish. I am convinced that a nice design leads to a fruitful first impression. However, I am aware that this might be very subjective.

My question is, then, do academics generally look down on "design hippies" and should all retain a strict - possibly even chippy - style? Or does all of this matter not as long as everything is legible and well-formatted?

I use hand-written, cursive fonts in informal paperwork all the time. That's why I posted this question: even though certain fonts are well-suited for distinguished forms of design and publicity (such as magazines or webdesign), how does a formal academic world react to such patterns. On a (possibly less formal) website, for instance, Pacifico would be used without question. Of course, an academic audience is an 'ole other bunch all together. That's where my inner designer and outer academic struggle with one another. Should we stick to the trusted, formal (and, let's be fair, boring) style, or can we go a little (just a tad!) crazy? Note that I'm not strictly talking about fonts. It can be anything, going from structure (column layout), to colours and highlights, to bold face and font families. Heck, maybe even illustrations!

Update: people in the comments seem to focus a lot on the fact that I mentioned Pacifico, a cursive font. First of all I should clarify that I only brought it up as an example. Secondly, I only considered that font as a candidate for large headings with a font size of 24pt or larger - which increases readability. I did not imply to use this particular font as the main typography for my text, but merely as a means for catching titles. I'd also like the emphasise - again - that I am aware that certain fonts are not formally applicable and would annoy rather than refresh an academic reader's mindset. But as said, I am a big fan of design trends (focusing on, but not restricted to, fonts) and innovation, and I am simply curious to know how academics think about this: how far can one go. How different is an academic design style from for instance web, advertising, magazines and newspapers.


texts: Does name of university matter for internships?

texts:
I have been recently applying for summer internship positions in the engineering discipline. I am a senior undergraduate at UCLA university. My GPA is above 3.7 and I have both desired and minimum qualification for the internships, but I keep receiving rejection email from different companies. I was told by my friends that since students from Stanford, Berkeley, MIT and other more prestigious schools than UCLA are applying, therefore they get the internship first and if there is any opening hiring managers will consider people like me.

I would like to know: is this really true and does the name of such universities compared to UCLA make a huge difference?


texts: What does it mean to be offered waived-fee OA publishing?

texts:
I submitted a manuscript to a journal for non-open-access publication and the editor came back and said that they want to publish the article as open-access (same journal) and waive the fee for this.

As not to be too broad, what implications does this have for my paper? Is it generally viewed positively to have OA publications? Really, in the end, I am trying to look at the pros/cons of saying yes/no to this.


texts: Is attempting to get published in undergraduate history journals worth it?

texts: I'm very interested in trying to get published as a history major in order to ease my path towards becoming a history professor, so I've been thinking about trying to do research on my own. As a result, I want to get published before I graduate but I hear it's not easy to get published in regular journals so I was thinking I should get published in try an undergraduate journal instead. Would that be a better alternative or no? If not, what are some tips to getting published in a regular journal?


texts: Admission to Master's degree in Data Science without a STEM Background?

texts:
I became really interested in data during my 2nd year of college (I’m currently in my third year) and I recently began to think that undergoing a masters degree in data science can greatly help me study the field more professionally.

However I am not majoring in any STEM degree in my university right now (I’m an Economics major) And I’m very likely to graduate without any changes.

I’ve heard that people from very different backgrounds who have nothing to do with STEM are often successfully admitted to data science graduate programs, but how do people from a non-STEM background get admitted when all the requirements I’ve been reading in various university websites state that if you are from a non-STEM undergraduate background you need to prove in a different way somehow that you are ready (in terms of mathematics, statistics, etc) to undertake the program?

In other words, my question is this: How do people who have non-STEM bachelor’s degrees get accepted into these programs? Is there a really a certain way to prove your analysis capabilities besides your degree for non-STEM undergraduate students that can convince the admissions committees? If you know anything about this I would sincerely appreciate it if you could share your knowledge/experience and offer helpful advice.

I’m not thinking of phD (not planning to stay in academia for that long, I simply wish to study this field a bit deeper to the point where I can apply it professionally) so hope you can consider this as well when replying :)


texts: Does "Apply for scholarships, get accepted and then refuse" help in your CV?

texts:
I have a situation. I want to apply for Ph.D programs in the United States at the end of this year. And right now, there are many programs in Europe open for application. Hence, I wonder if I should try to apply to them, get accepted and then refuse the scholarships.

Is it ethical? I am worried that it could affect my reputation and my LoR would no longer be appreciated in the future, leading to mistrust in my lecturers who wrote my LoR. On the other hand, getting accepted may prove my competence and prowess.

If the answer is yes, should I put it in my CV for future application?

Thank you for your help


texts: Can I upload multimedia from subscription access journals to third party websites

texts:
I am the author of an accepted and published manuscript in a peer-reviewed subscription access article. Accompanying this manuscript are some videos I created. I would like to upload these videos to a third party website and want to know if this is allowed. I have read the author rights, but my use doesn't exactly fit into the wording so I'm not so sure what the answer is.

More specifically my article is in 2D Materials of IOP and I want to upload some videos that form part of the additional multimedia to YouTube so that I can create an interactive poster where people can view videos related to content on the poster.

I have emailed the IOP concerning this matter so I can provide an answer to at least my specific case, but I thought others might have something interesting to say on this matter, e.g. perhaps the intended use means it automatically is "fair use" and is acceptable for all journals.


texts:
I am a math grad student who has completed the qualifying exams within my first two years. Lately, I have been taking a few non-core courses, which allows me to put most of my time on my own research. In one of these non-core courses, I received a low grade: B-. I certainly have the a good Cumulative Grade Point Average: 3.9 -- well above what is required for "normal progress".

Question: How important/serious is getting a grade below 3.0 in this one course at this point in a PhD program? Any feedback is much appreciated.


texts: What is the proper method to give credits in lecture material

texts:
To prepare the lecture material. I use the book, my own slides, but I also take a few slides from MIT or other top universities open courses.
What is the best way to give credit?
I must provide source information on each slide?
Or Is it better to enlist all the resources/citations in the first/final slide?


texts: Eligibility for a PhD in Business Administration program

texts:
I am looking into PhD in Business program at various universities in North America, and I realized that many of those programs require their candidates to have "a Master's degree". If I have a non-thesis, course-based Master's degree, am I still meeting this minimum admission requirement? or by "Master's degree", did they mean a "thesis-based research Master's degree"?

Thank you


texts: What does happen to accepted posters if no author attend to present?

texts:
One of our posters has been accepted with "Strong merit" at ACM DEV 2016. We have finalized the draft and sent the camera ready version to the authority. But this year's venue is Nairobi and a 5 days trip to there will cost about a lot of money. And as a student if I cannot afford to attend the conference, what will they do with my poster? Will they include in their library? If not will it be considered unpublished?

PS: All the co-authors of the paper are undergraduate students and none can afford to attend.


texts: How do I determine if a paper has undergone anonymous peer review of its statistical analysis?

texts:
I heard on Twitter today about a paper stating that after the Snowden leaks, people looked up terrorism-related topics less on Wikipedia.

I'm not worried about deliberate fabrication of data, but I'm worried that poor quality statistical analysis may have happened. I'm not expert enough to look at the paper's statistical analyses myself and determine whether they're appropriate, so instead I want to know whether rigorous peer review has taken place.

The journal involved, the Berkeley Technology Law Journal, doesn't seem to mention peer review either on its about page or the page about the journal. The page about submissions says "Evaluation involves scoring by multiple different editors, and rarely lasts fewer than 3-4 weeks.", which suggests that it's evaluated only by editors, not by academic peers. Also, evaluation and scoring sounds different to what I'd expect to happen in peer review - it sounds like they're only evaluating whether it's a good fit for the journal and of enough interest.

How do I determine if a paper has undergone anonymous peer review of its statistical analysis, short of contacting the editor of the journal?

Related question: How do I recognise a peer-reviewed journal article? but the answers seem to focus on science related subjects, as opposed to the humanities.


texts: Could I reject an accepted PhD admit after April 15?

texts: I have already clicked on the acceptance of an admit(without funding). The deadline for response is Apr.15th, and I did not have any other options at that time. However, I just received a funding offer from a top University. I am wondering if I could reject the accepted admit. If yes, how to reject it very very politely? Will this affect credibility?


texts: phd admission- both professor from same university agreed to be mentor

texts: 2 professors from the same university same department have agreed to be my mentor. But none have funds, prof.1 may give me TA, while prof.2 can give me RA. Which one should I choose? Can I put 2 applications with 2 different SOPs and then decide later which prof. to go for?


texts: Correct identification of scientific journal?

texts:
I'm new to academic writing. From what I read on other posts, would the "133" be the volume number? And the 46-54 be the page in the journal?

J Surg Res. 2006 Jun 1;133(1):46-54. Epub 2006 Apr 21.

From: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16631200


texts: Can I take the biochemistry GRE test if I am a biology graduate?

texts: I currently hold a bachelor of science in botany but plan to do a master's in genetics. I was wondering if I can take the GRE subject test for biochemistry, molecular biology, and genetics, or am I eligible for biology graduate record test  only?


texts: How fast is the admission procedure for single-slot PhD applications in top universities in the UK?

texts:
I have applied to five different universities. Four of them are in the UK and the last one elsewhere in Europe. Based on initial discussions, two of the UK universities consider me a competitive applicant (they encouraged me to apply after informal inquiries). Given my impressive publication record, I think I am the best applicant for the position which is not located in the UK.

Most probably, I will get an offer from the non-UK university quite soon. However, I would not like to accept the offer before hearing anything from the UK universities. Suppose I am also the best candidate for the UK institutions. How fast will they decide? The places are single-slot, so would it be rude to ask one week after the application period closes?

I would only email the UK institutions if the non-UK institution says yes, and write something along the lines

  Sorry for contacting you so soon after application period has ended, but I have been offered a position in [some place] already at this time. I understand that you probably have received many good applications, and may not decide yet who to offer the position first. However, I thought you might be able to tell if others' applications were much stronger than mine. I would prefer to study with you, which is the reason I am sending this email.

I would then decline the non-UK offer only if the response was very positive sounding one.


texts: How can I increase my chances of being accepted to a top 20 MS CS program?

texts:
I just graduated from one of the older IITs (Indian Institute of Technology), majoring in EE and have a GPA of about 7.8 / 10. I want to pursue a masters degree in computer science from a top 20 university in the US. I have a paper published in an international conference on machine learning and have good test scores(GRE / TOEFL) but I'm worried that my grades could affect my chances. I have some experience in competitive programming, my team finished among the top 10 among 300+ teams in the ACM ICPC regionals and I have a decent Topcoder rating. Not sure if this matters though. I have also made contributions to open source projects and have open sourced some of my projects, some of which have been downloaded thousands of times.

I've seen people from  unknown colleges with higher GPAs getting in to places like Stanford, UIUC, Cornell, CMU etc. Realistically, do I have any chance of getting admitted in a top 10 or 20 program. If not, what can I do to improve my chances within a year?

UPDATE: Well, I guess grades do matter, I didn't get into any of the good schools I applied to. I'll have to give up my hopes of grad school now.


texts:
Are there any requirements for writing a textbook that is accepted by (reputable) colleges?

Today, I got the odd idea in my head that it would be fun to write a compilation of the techniques and theorems I had learned relating to discrete mathematics.  As I find it fun to let my imagination run wild with these sorts of ideas, this compilation transformed into a tutorial, and from there transformed into a textbook.  I quickly decided I wasn't anywhere near qualified to write a textbook.

Fun daydreams aside, that made me wonder: What are the qualifications typically found in textbook authors?  Is a Ph.D. in the field a "must," or do some people write textbooks who hold Masters degrees (yet not a Ph.D.)?


texts: Which elsarticle documentclass parameters in LaTeX should I use for different Elsevier journals?

texts:
So here is the thing, I recently submitted a paper to an Elsevier Journal (EJOR) and prepared it using LaTeX. I used the elsarticle documentclass that Elsevier provides.

When doing this I tried to figure out how the layout of the resulting PDF should be. Specifically, I could not find any information on the parameters of the LaTeX documentclass.

In the template from Elsevier there are these example snippets (commented out):

%% Use the options 1p,twocolumn; 3p; 3p,twocolumn; 5p; or 5p,twocolumn
%% for a journal layout:
%% \documentclass[final,1p,times]{elsarticle}
%% \documentclass[final,1p,times,twocolumn]{elsarticle}
%% \documentclass[final,3p,times]{elsarticle}
%% \documentclass[final,3p,times,twocolumn]{elsarticle}
%% \documentclass[final,5p,times]{elsarticle}

So depending on the journal, I have to choose different parameters. For EJOR I used this

\documentclass[authoryear,final,5p,times,twocolumn]{elsarticle}

although I am not entirely sure this is correct. I was not able to find any information on this: which journal requires which parameters? EJOR looked like 5p, but isn't there an official source for this? Next, I want to publish to Computers & Security and, again, I can't find a hint on this. Am I looking in the wrong place?Does anyone know more about this? A site where they publish this?

Thanks a lot!


texts: Can I accept offers from universities in other countries before I apply to a German university?

texts:
I am currently studying in Singapore and am going to take the A-levels this year. All the university applications for the UK and US take place this year and the results will be out early next year. And they usually have deadlines for you to consider their offer.

However, I am extremely fond of studying in Germany and the results of my applications to German universities will only come in July/August next year. By then all offer deadlines for other universities will have passed and if finally I got rejected by all German universities I will have no place to go...

In this case, is it advisory to take up an offer and then apply to a German university? Would the German universities know that you are already enrolled in other universities?

Many thanks!!!
Sarah


texts: How to cite a chapter from a report with different authors?

texts:
I have to cite a multi-chapter report. Every chapter has different authors. Should I cite with the name of the main author and then the specific chapter? Or should I use the first author of the chapter I am citing?

If the main author is Smith but Jeff is the author of a chapter where Smith is not in the authors’ list, should I cite with “(Smith et. al 2000, Ch 6)” or “(Jeff et. al 2000)” and then add a citation for each chapter in the cited literature section?


texts: Is getting back to normal life difficult after PhD?

texts:
As a PhD student, during the four years of research, you are your own boss. PhD students are not restricted to specific working hours (or place) – as long as they do the work it doesn’t matter when, how, or where they do it.
I spend most of my time working at home or in coffee shops instead of my desk in uni, and I take a day off after long meetings...
I find that this freedom is what enabled me to be creative, come up with new ideas, start collaborations with others in my group, and publish papers.

Now that I am almost done with my PhD, I am worried about life after PhD.
I am wondering if it would be difficult to get back to a normal job working a set amount of hours every day, in the same place.
Is that why most people stay in academia after getting a PhD?


texts: Effect of PhD advisor name/department on my future

texts:
I am in the first year of my PhD research (in Europe) in Biostatistics and I have a day-to-day supervisor, however he is not a full professor so he cannot be my promotor. Our department head is, but I would technically obtain the PhD at a department of Medicine/Epidemiology instead of (bio)statistics. Would this have a big effect on my future prospects if I wanted to continue in (bio)statistics, or are the topic and connections you build more important? We are considering looking for someone more statistical/mathematical as a promotor or copromotor, would this change much (on top of the influence they would have on the content of the thesis)?

So in short, if the content of the thesis/project is the same, does the name or work area of the promotor have a lot of influence on future prospects?


texts: Could getting fired from a second job significant affect the likelihood of admission to a master's program?

texts:
I am applying to graduate school to work on a Master's of Science in Nursing (Family Nurse Practitioner) in the fall. I've been working for the past few years, and it's time to go back. When I first started applying, I worked two jobs, and my second job is for a company that I'd largely stopped working for (I set my schedule with this company), but I had previously worked with as my primary employer for many years (too big to leave off a resume). Long story short, I was fired from that job about two weeks ago. My primary employment, where I work a regular schedule, is unaffected, and all of references for my application are from my current employer.

The question is: how much is that likely to affect a school's decision on my admission? I understand that there are different departments, different factors, etc., but is it likely that being fired from a second job around the time that applications are due will significantly hurt my chances of getting in?


texts: Is it better to choose recommenders by discipline or by familiarity?

texts:
I'm going to be applying for postdocs in the immediate future in either physics or pure mathematics (preferably the latter, though my focus won't change). Assume for the sake of argument the following two letters are strong: (1) my PhD advisor (a physicist by training) and (2) a lesser-known mathematician whom I've been collaborating with recently but haven't produced anything yet. Now, suppose I need a third letter.

My interests have often brought me into collaboration with people in a different disciplines. Do I choose the third letter based upon how well the third person knows me or based upon the discipline of the job I'm applying for?


texts: How to provide codes to reviewer without making it public

texts:
I wish to provide codes and data to reviewer along with manuscript at the time of submission. I can upload the codes on a public repository, but it will bring it in public domain, I want to provided the codes only when the paper is accepted.

What is the standard practice?

My search directs me towards repositories: Dryad, Figshare and Zenodo. Which one of them provides secure code upload OR limited access?


texts: I am planning to do my PhD in CS (Robotics to be specific). I will be completing my masters with a thesis and a publication in a field that is very closely related to CS. However, my BS is in Geology. So I am mostly concerned whether I will be considered for a PhD at a school since my undergraduate major is not CS. I feel this way because I contacted professors at some schools and they didn't respond back to me.


texts: What is the best philosophy and practice to use smartphones for academic life?

texts:
I am doing research in theoretical physics, and have learned that smartphones can bring in a lot of distractions to your life if you want to focus on your research and study. Like facebook, twitter messages, random news feeds and so on. If I disable all apps, on the other hand, I will loose the benefit of owning a smartphone. In the limited time of using smartphones in my life, I have collected the following list of apps and things to have on a smartphone. I also have some questions marks for better alternatives. Please let us know if you have any other suggestions and recommendations to make the smartphone great for academic life.

There is an arXiv mobile app so that I can read paper anywhere whenever I find a chance (like sitting on a bus for commuting). I am sure you can use smartphones for StackExchange Q&A as well. Any apps that can allow me to read recommended papers based on my interests from all sourced journals as well as arXiv if possible?
Use a PDF scanner--in my case, clearScanner--to transfer a paper/blackboard note to the e-version and synchronize on a cloud (like dropbox or OneDrive) by taking a photo to a black/white-board or paper note. I also use EndNote to put all my notes together in order to edit them on my Thinkpad Yoga or X200 tablet when I get a chance.
Use twitter to only tweet academic content and build a network with researchers in the field. Then connect twitter with facebook to synchronize my content. This way, maybe less spam for me. Any other social network sources I shouldn't block and should cultivate using a smartphone?
I do use open-source version-control ideas for academic writing and coding. But I haven't found a way to get benefit from a smartphone for this purpose as I have a tablet and laptops to handle most of the mobile jobs. For example, I use github to version my bibtex file for bibliography records, but I haven't found a proper app to mobile bibtex on the go. Maybe there are some apps useful on a smartphone.
Use voice record to record my own talks and discussions with people if things are hard to understand and solve in a short time or I want to put the talk online along side with my slides. I haven't found an efficient way to combine the voice and slides seamlessly, though.
Keep the calendar running in the background for scheduling things with notifications. Same to emails.
Smartphones can easily track my physical fitness, but is there any way to track my academic fitness?
I have heard people using smartphones to track experimental equipment remotely and use all kinds of smartphone sensors to demonstrate physical lab experiments, but I really didn't go that far. Let's also keep this thought of train open if you have any recommendations.
Install a bar/QR code scanner, and it could be useful to scan and download a poster on your phone in conferences/workshops nowadays.


texts: Which section to start with when writing a research paper

texts: Which section of a research paper should be written first? When I finally finish my analysis I begin to write the Methods section and the Results section. That is the first "block" of my writing. After that, I discuss it with co-authors (they are of course involved in the analysis, but at this stage they have the real results, graphs, and tables) and co-workers. Only after that do I begin to write the Discussion section and the Introduction. Is that right or is it better to write it in a different order?


texts: Recommending a paper for rejection, then publishing my own

texts:
My question is similar to this one

I am an editor for a lousy paper and I found a better algorithm than theirs. Must I share it with them?

although there are some small distinctions that (I think) make for a different question, which I write below:

I was a referee for a paper submitted to a high-caliber journal.  For two cycles, I had recommended "major revision" because I felt like the problem was a useful one, but the writing was a mess and the methodology was needlessly complicated.  After the third revision, I recommended "reject" because I worked through some analysis on my own, over the course of a couple of months, that the methodology was actually fatally flawed in a way that made the manuscript unpublishable for this particular journal.  I shared this finding with the authors and they were understandably upset (and quite contentious about it), but they did not identify any flaws in my reasoning.  The editor wrote me a note to thank me for an "extremely thorough and helpful" review.

In the time that has passed since then (just under a year), I have continued refining the analysis that I did, to the point where I now have a result of my own that is probably publishable in a lower-tier journal.  The authors of the original paper have not made their manuscript available online, with the exception that the contents of the original paper are one of the chapters of the student co-author's dissertation, which is publicly available on the university's website.

Is it ethical for me to submit my paper to a journal, citing the dissertation and giving it credit for introducing the problem?  On the one hand, the material that inspired me to study this problem has been made public, but on the other hand, I feel guilty for the amount of time that the authors spent on revisions that were ultimately fruitless, and this could lead to the original paper having a much more difficult path to eventual publication (somewhere).


texts: I want to be a researcher but I don't think I'd be any good at teaching. What do I do?

texts: I would like to study for a PhD and hopefully become a researcher. There is nothing I can think of that I would like to do with my life more. However, my social and communication abilities are bad. They are bad beyond the point where it could be dismissed as me being a 'quirky professor'. People assume that if you want to go into academia, you want to teach. However, I don't think I could do it. I have Asperger syndrome, so there's a limit to how much I can improve my social skills. No matter how much I try to be 'normal', it doesn't work and it's massively draining, to the extent that I find myself struggling to do basic tasks because I get burnt out. There are staff at my university who seem to like me, so it's not as though it's impossible for me to form positive relationships with people in academia, but that's very different to being able to teach classes. Is there any point in me trying to pursue an academic career? Can I focus on research and do minimal or no teaching? I know that there are autistic people in academia, and that I'm pretty 'high-functioning' for an autistic person (i.e. I have it easier than a lot of autistic people, even though I do struggle a lot), but I don't want to set myself up to fail.


texts: Are there any guidelines for labeling axes in plots/graphs?

texts:
What are best practices (if any exist) for labeling axes in plots/graphs for academic documents, such as theses, publications, or presentations?

Possible options are to use the variable, spell out the variable, or a combination of both. For example, to label a time axis, we could write: t (s) or Time (s) or Time, t (s).

Are there any objective reasons to prefer one style over another, assuming the publisher does not specify which to use? Or sources suggesting a particular format?

I have browsed many journal requirements, but haven't found any that specifically address this.


texts: Can a masters student apply for a second masters in the same field at another university?

texts:
Are students with masters degree allowed to enter a masters program in the same area at a good university?

Is second masters a good option for a better research experience and improving your CV before applying to a PhD in top programs? I am specifically interested in US universities and computer science.


texts: Where to publish (recreational) mathematics without a PhD?

texts:
I have been out of undergrad for some time now but was interested in publishing a few things I have been working on. Are there any good "beginner" journals where someone without a mathematics PhD might have a chance at publishing something?

It might be important to note that most of the material would likely just be more on the recreational side of things.

Thanks in advance.


texts: I believe I have solved a famous open problem. How do I convince people in the field that I am not a crank?

texts:
I am interested in the situation where you have a very interesting result. For instance, you have solved a very important open problem. However, you are not known in the field and do not have any remarkable publications. Your supervisor thinks the work is good and you submit the work to a high profile journal, but you get rejected.

The thing is that the contribution is very strong. It breaks what most people believe or what they have already proven: e.g., you solve the P vs. NP problem or any other well known open problem.

The reviewers strongly reject your work with no justification and they do not state why the result is wrong. Examples of reviewer comments include:

"The proof must be wrong."
"You cannot achieve such a result."
"You do not understand well the notion of ..."

My question is what to do in this situation? Where to go? If your advisor accepts the work, but the reviewers from the top journal reject the work without even explaining the mistakes,  what should you do?


texts: Choosing between an older, prominent supervisor and a younger, junior supervisor for PhD

texts:
I'm searching for a PhD position in theoretical physics. My question is:

Should I do my PhD with a prominent professor who is 60 years old and does not care too much about their students or with a junior professor who is not famous and does not have published too much papers, but cares too much about his students and is very supporting and nice professor?


texts: If you really don't have much project experience, how to list your project descriptions when applying for a Ph.D. position?

texts:
I am applying for one Ph.D. program of computer science(CS). I was required to handle the list of my project description which is up to three pages. However, I am only a fresh graduate student who has moved to the field for only less than two years. I was in the field of electronic engineering(EE). I can only recall three relatively large projects and several small course projects relevant to CS.
Should list those course projects? I just made some toy examples in those projects.
Should I explain my large projects as detailed as possible so I can stretch out my description to three pages? I saw, on the resume, people usually only use one or two sentences to describe what they did in a project.
Should I list my projects of EE? They are basically non-relevant to my current field but can prove my coding ability.


texts:
I am finishing my Ph.D. and looking for a postdoc position.
Right now I have included my current supervisor in Ph.D. and my previous supervisor from my masters as references.
The postdoc position advertisement does not state the number of references required, only a reference list.
However, I have mostly read online and by checking other CV's that including three references is the norm when you are a fresh Ph.D. graduate.

I was considering asking a professor who I had for a class during my Ph.D. to be my third reference. We have had some discussions about my research, and we have good friendly relations.
I was also considering asking a postdoc researcher that I have worked with in the past but who is not a tenure track faculty yet.

Is it a good idea to include people that you have not worked with directly on your research as references? Or people that are still postdocs?
Who can be my potential reference aside from my supervisors?

Your help would be much appreciated.


texts: Given reviewer comments, shall I resubmit after the rejection?

texts:
I had submitted a manuscript to a SCI indexed journal and I received a rejection after 4 months
The reviewers comments stated:
The reviewer stated only 1 correction in the whole paper and wrote the following :
The proofs of main theorems of this paper are straight forward, and the proofs of many results are written in a too elaborate way, not compact enough. As a result this paper is not recommended for publication in XXX.
I am currently in a very difficult situation. I don't understand if I should just fix the error which the reviewer pointed out and then submit it to the same journal.
I am able to fix that error. So will it be wise to fix it to the same journal or it will be a complete waste of time.
If anyone can help me out, I will be very grateful.


texts: Listing presentations at a conference side-meeting on a CV?

texts: At a recent conference, members of a working group were invited to give quick summaries of their research in a side meeting. Obviously these don't qualify as peer reviewed conference activity, but would it still be appropriate to include such a talk in the "other talks" portion of the CV?


texts: How can I help to participate in data collection or research work as a field researcher?

texts:
To clarify my question, due to length limitations in question part.

For PHD, Researcher allowed to take part as research subject for data collection/analysis? How to include personal accounts of/experiences of a research phenomenon? Thoughts/decision making processes when playing a specific game on world class level?

This then mean a specific game where there are limited /very few really have mastered the game and subjects are not easily contactable. Also potential research participants are a handful 5 to 12.

To explain. If a researcher want to ask how tennis players think his accessibility to the top 20 of the world tennis players are really only 20 and not just anyone around the corner that wannabee play tennis.


texts: Students staying hours past end of office hours

texts:
Background: I am a fourth year math graduate student working as a TA for an introduction to proofs course with a focus on analysis.

I really enjoy the teaching component of my position as a graduate student, but this semester I feel as though students are taking advantage of my generosity.

As is typical for a TA in the math department at my university, I hold a couple (in my case, two) office hours per week, plus additional availability via appointment.  My office hours are nearly always occupied, which generally pleases me.  However, my students nearly always stay well past the point when my office hours are supposed to end, even a couple hours worth in most cases.

In addition, I tend to spend nearly all my waking hours at my office, so I have no problem meeting with students at a wide variety of times.  They are well aware of this, and several of them have requested frequent appointments that do not coincide with my office hours.  Again, the main issue here is that these appointments often last much, much longer than an hour.

I understand that the material of this course is challenging, and I am glad that my students desire to improve their abilities.  However, their behavior is seriously impinging upon my ability to progress in my research.

What are acceptable avenues for reaching a compromise between my need to progress in my work and my desire to assist my students?  So far I've considered the following:

I've attempted to subtly imply that I would appreciate less consumption of my time, but I don't want to discourage their eager approach to their work and they don't seem to be getting the hint.
Alternatively, I could lie about having meetings, other appointments, obligations, etc, but I would feel wrong doing so.
I could obviously just tell them that they can't stay late because I have other work that I need to perform, but again, I don't want to directly shut them down.

Ultimately, I would love to find some systematic way to decrease the strain that they place on my schedule.  One trick I have utilized is the deliberate scheduling of an office hour immediately before the taught class, since both me and any students have to leave at that time to go to class.  Are there other things like this I could do?

I'm not merely looking for a solution for this semester, because I'd like to prevent this problem in the future as well.


texts: Using first person in literature recommendations in a masters thesis?

texts:
I am currently writing my masters thesis in computer science. I've heard that one should avoid writing "I".

In cases where one describes what was done and it doesn't matter who did it, I understand why writing "I" should be avoided. I, however, wonder if it is ok in the following case:

In the following, it is assumed that the reader knows XYZ. In case
the reader needs a refresher on any of those topics, I recommend ...

It is a subjective statement which is not necessary, but might help students who might in future read it. I should probably point out that a CS master thesis is expected to have about 80 pages, hence length-wise it doesn't really matter. It should be clear that it is subjective; if I changed it to the passive (it is recommended...) then it sounds as if there is a consensus in the community.

Some people recommend writing "the author". It, however, sounds strange and it is absolutely clear that "I" is "the author". Hence I don't see an advantage in doing so except for beating automatic tools / grading sheets.


texts:
I'm currently working on the slides for my database lecture. During the lecture I want to talk about different tools and available programs for database management. Am I allowed to use logos on my slides? What copyright should I put? Here is an example:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MariaDB_Logo.png
Is "All company logos subject to copyrights. All rights reserved." sufficient?


texts: How to submit an article (for example, on arXiv) without being affiliated to any institution?

texts:
The core of the problem is already in the title but I feel as i should add some more details.

I was doing some mathematics and, if there are no logical flaws or mistakes of any other nature (it seems that there are none) I managed to prove some result that, again, if it is proved with no errors, would, I believe, enrich the field in which it belongs.

Of course, I immediately started to think about arXiv.org and I decided that I want to submit an article there, but, when I was reading help section, there stands this, written:

  Note: It is a violation of our policies to misrepresent your identity or institutional affiliation. Claimed affiliation should be current in the conventional sense: e.g., physical presence, funding, e-mail address, mention on institutional web pages, etc. Misrepresentation of identity or affiliation, for any reason, is possible grounds for immediate and permanent suspension.

But, as you are aware by now, I do not belong to any institution and as such, am not affiliated with any, I am just an amateur that among all fields thinks about mathematics the most. So, I have stumbled upon this cautious note quoted above and do not know what to do.

So, I decided to write to all of you here to see what can be done in this case of mine. I am not 100% sure that among all sites this is the one most suited for this problem of mine (for example, I could have written this on MO Meta or MSE Meta) but surely I will try to welcome opinions and help, even if they do not resolve this issue that I am faced with.

What should be done?

EDIT: This is not a complete duplicate of the question mentioned in such a way as this one is a duplicate of that one because the body of the question mentioned goes like this:

"Assume you have already completed your undergrad and have been working for a number of years. Does one need to be part of a university or a learning institution to publish papers?"

But, I did not complete my undergrad and I am working for a number of years (independently). so, there are some similiarites but the question is not exactly the same, although answers seem to fit well.


texts: How to teach "puzzling skills" (for coming up with examples) to PhD students?

texts:
Background: Some sub-areas of computer science are concerned with developing new methods to solve practically motivated problems of certain shapes (determined by the sub-area). While obviously using real practical problem instances would be best, few papers in these areas actually use them, because (1) it is hard to obtain these problem instances (from industry) without first giving them a method to solve them (chicken-egg problem) and (2) many of these problem instances have too many intricacies that need to be handled at the same time, so that to make progress in the area, most papers pick one particular challenge, show the challenge by means of a convincing but synthetic example and propose a novel method that gives some insight into how to solve the challenge.

Doing research in this area requires to identify the shortcomings of current techniques and to derive convincing examples that actually demonstrate the shortcomings of previous approaches. Coming up with such examples requires to marry (1) the understanding of previous techniques, (2) the basic idea of what the practical problems are about, and (3) conciseness of the example, so that it can be used as running examples for thinking session at the whiteboard and as running examples in papers.

Question: Coming up with such examples requires creativity and can be seen as a puzzling problem, as the requirements are somewhat contradictory. Now there are some PhD students who will excel at such tasks and solve them without any guidance, and others will not know how to start, despite having a working knowledge of all the involved concepts. So what are suitable strategies to teach such puzzling skills to PhD students? I find it highly difficult to give help in such situations, as vague hints such as "think about what happens in this situation in that application" are often insufficient for a PhD student who is not good at puzzling, but hints such as "start by doing this and that" yield no learning effect since "this and that" will typically contain all ideas for one particular solution. The strategies should help students who are already familiar with all formal definitions and basic concepts, but never looked at them in combination yet.

Example: To clarify the question, let me give a (made up) example that is at least understandable to computer scientists. Assume that there is some reason to believe that when translating a deterministic automaton over finite words (DFA) to a digital circuit, we can make the circuit smaller whenever there are two states s1 and s2 in the automaton such that the language accepted when starting the automaton from s1 is the complement of the language accepted from s2. We also have a reason to believe that this is relevant for some application that involves all possible kinds of computations with binary-encoded strings. The tasks is to find a DFA that has two such states s1 and s2, whose implemented language can be easily explained in a sentence or two, for which the DFA is non-trivial (i.e., no state accepts no words or all words), and that makes at least a little bit of sense from the application point of view (here: arbitrary operations over binary strings)

Example solution to the example: One solution is to take a binary alphabet and to encode the language containing all strings that have an even number of 1s. The minimal automaton will have two states that naturally have this property. Many other solutions are possible, though.

Notes: I'm posting this here as the problem may not be exclusive to computer science. The example description above can very likely be improved. But let's assume that the task is already crystal clear to the PhD student, including the motivation.


texts: What do I do if my supervisor insists that the classical CLT is false and wants me to write that in my paper?

texts:
We are in a physics department. My supervisor, upon reading a Physical Review Letters (PRL) paper, concludes (and claims that the paper also concludes) that the classical central limit theorem (CLT) is false under the (usual) assumptions stated. He insists on this result and wants me to say/imply that in my manuscript because he finds fault with me making use of the classical CLT in a few statistical tests that I have utilized in the paper.

Question:
(1) Would you say that my supervisor is scientifically incompetent?
(2) How should I handle such a situation?

The paper is single-authored by me but he says that the university requires him to vet journal submissions (for quality) even though he is not a co-author which I accept.

(EDIT) More info regarding the context:

Just to clarify further, copied from my comment below: In my paper, I was simply stating the assumptions of classical CLT so that I could make use of the resulting normal distributions for some statistical tests. It was not a particular usage/application of classical CLT but simply a statement of the assumptions that would need to be held to recover normal distributions for the application of statistical tests I was using.


texts: At what point do you decide to jump into research?

texts:
Before diving into "real research", there are some students who prefer to learn bare minimum prerequisite courses/material and then start off reading survey papers and develop their skills.

There are others who prefer to go through courses from Introduction to Advanced to Independent Study before finally diving in.

The former would probably face problems of fundamentals while the latter spends too much time learning things which might not be completely useful.

At what point should one (Assume, if necessary, that I am talking about STEM) decide to dive into research while making sure that one is neither being too hasty nor slow?

Take for e.g. that a person wishes to code a software in Python which does engineering calculations. He would either read something like Intro to Python and then directly start coding or he could also read documentations of other Math libraries, similar libraries in C/Fortran, study coding efficiency and thumb rules and then start.

How do you prevent yourself from taking up too little or too much time to begin?


texts: Is it acceptable to e-mail a professor at another university to ask for a meeting to discuss common research interests?

texts:
I'm a PhD student, from Europe, nearing the end of my thesis.
I'm going to the USA for a conference in a few months. A couple of professors (assistant professor level, both fairly young, recruited in the past 2 or 3 years) whose work I'm very interested in teach in the vicinity of the conference venue.

Would it be acceptable for me to e-mail them out of the blue and ask them if they'd like to meet/have coffee to discuss common research interests?

They both do literature like me and care about similar methodological issues. However we work on (and in) very different geographical areas, so the chance of us ever meeting at a regular conference are low.

Is this ever acceptable? Does rank/school factor into it?


texts: One of the tips I learn when writing academic papers is to avoid generalizing, and by that, it means we, as writers, need to understand the difference between fact and opinion and try to express things with different levels of certainty. However, I still find the way to differentiate between fact and opinion quite confusing. It would be great if someone can explain the difference between these two things.


texts: How to cite ACM Computing Classification System?

texts:
In the research I'm doing for my master thesis I use the ACM Computing Classification System (2012 edition).

I mean I literally use the data they provide as an RDF graph. How should I cite this classification system? Ideally I'm looking for a bibtex snippet.


texts: Do journals have legal copyrights to the online supplemental information?

texts:
I have a paper in an biology journal (Wiley is the publisher) for which I would like to put a much more mathematical version on ArXiv, mainly the theorems and proofs located in the online supplement (that biologists will not read but that perhaps a mathematician who does not read this journal might be interested in), with no figures or sentences copied from the biology paper. I could perhaps call it a pre-submission version of the paper (which would be somewhat untrue, but Wiley does allow pre-peer-review preprint publishing on ArXiV; none of the peer-review process affected the supplement; so in spirit this would be sort of true).

Does Wiley’s copyright agreement prevent me from doing this? Wiley’s information on supplemental information doesn’t seem to address the issue.


texts: Are student records accessible by university officials?

texts:
Application forms for graduate school usually contain some vague statements regarding the extents of usage of one's social security number.
Some people believe that educational records at other institutes are private information and the universities should have access to the educational records that the applicant would disclose to them ONLY. (Regardless of potential consequences and/or ethical justification for actions of either party.)

My question is, having the applicant's social security number, can schools see which schools/programs the applicant has attended, for how long, and the courses that were taken in the past? If so, is this a common practice? That is, do graduate offices commonly check with social security information to make sure that the records from each previously attended institute is included in the application?


texts: Citation of an article is not reflected in Google Scholar database

texts: Some of my published articles have been cited by an article published in March 2017. But surprisingly citation to my articles is are not being shown in Google Scholar. What could be the reason? Where should I place my query for citation update?


texts: My paper is accepted for a presentation in a conference; but I can not attend. Now what?

texts:
I can not attend the conference and present my work. Besides they (organizers) have asked us to declare them "right away" in the case we can not attend for any reasons. Now I have two questions:

1- Will my paper lose the chance to be published in the selected papers of the conference (which is almost 20 among 100 presented ones)?  Or it still has the chance even without my presentation (e.g., for sake of its content)

2- They have announced to publish the conference details (including lecturers' names and papers) on their website in a week. Now, should I wait to see my name on their page (in order to reference specific people; e.g. an admission committee of somewhere) and then tell them I can not attend the conference? Or is it immoral and/or just telling the story (and not referring to a webpage) would suffice?

Thanks


texts: How do I clear my name when wrongfully accused of cheating?

texts:
I'm pursing an online engineering degree at ASU. In a introduction circuit class, I have a flimsy idea of what I'm doing and little time (each class is only 7 weeks long) to try to figure it out, so for some assignments I take my best guess and my mentality is if I miss some points, so be it, as long as I understand the gist that's being asked.

This class had a relatively huge project where we submitted photos and the program files for 2 related circuit designs and it was broken down into 3 parts, 1 part for all of the lab information, 1 part for the first program file for the first design and 1 part for the second program file. When it came to the lab part, I had a good idea of what was asked and by the end I thought I knew what I was doing.

For the 2 program files of the circuit designs I tried making similar circuits to those that were in examples in lecture videos for my class, but they didn't work correctly. So instead, I researched using a YouTube video by the TA in my class, a tutorial about the type of circuits being made and a powerpoint from a different university. I did NOT copy a single design presented in the video, tutorial or powerpoint. I re-checked and I can guarantee that my design does not look exactly like any of the ones viewed in the learning materials I used. Instead, I took components from each of the designs until I had something that produced the logic I theoretically proved it could be in the lab report.

I received an email from the TA asking why I submitted an entirely different project than what was being asked, and my only simple answer is that I had no idea what I was doing. Obviously, that isn't a good enough answer when someone is implying you cheated. So in a long response email I explained that I didn't feel confident in what I was doing and I tried to make something that worked and I explained how I did each part of the project and linked him the learning materials I used.

He hasn't responded, but I would like to know if anyone knows, is there anything I can in a situation like this where it's implied that I cheated and even though I most definitely have not, I can't prove that I didn't given the learning environment? What can I do?


texts: Continuing with a postdoc with my PhD advisor, but have not got any official offer letter. Should I be worried?

texts:
I am an international student who's currently in a bureaucratic mess regarding my work permit application. I will get my permit possibly in February end. I completed my PhD thesis submission in December. Now, my PhD supervisor offered me a postdoc position soon after my defense, but I cannot officially sign a contract till I get my work permit. So, I don't have any official offer letter with me at the moment.

Should I be worried that I currently have no letter indicating the appointment and how can I handle the situation better?


texts: Why do some research centres and university department publish a multi-year future strategic plan?

texts:
I noticed that a few research centres and university departments provide a multi-year strategic plan document on their websites.
For example, IIT (Italian Institute of Technology) and Stanford Computer Science Department.

The plan usually describes the main goals and purpose of the institution, both in science and in research management.

Why do they actually do it?

Is it just a way professors and researchers try to predict their future?
Or is it a solid way to show their future scientific directions to the world?

What happens if the strategic plan is not respected by scientists and events during the following years?

And why so many institutes actually don't do it?


texts: I've written a paper that describes a system (for encryption), showing step by step how the system was formed. It's not a system I invented. I analyze that system and compare it with similar systems. Novel aspects include new understandings of those systems and how they relate to one-another. Can I publish this paper in a journal?


texts: Citing multiple Github repositories with a single citation

texts:
I have reached the maximum paper length and already shortened everything as possible. I use 4 different github repositories, which I mention in my paper. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no room left to add a citation for each repository.

What options are there to solve this problem?

Would it be a good idea to create a new own repository that references the 4 different repositories and only cite my own repository?


texts: I’m an undergraduate currently working on a project with my supervisor. As far as I know, my supervisor is generally reluctant to publish (that includes the university database). I suspect this will also be the case for the project I’m working on. Is it legal if I upload the final version on say ResearchGate? I want to communicate with others about what I have done and since it is likely that my Bachelor’s thesis will be done under said supervisor, I would like to know what options I have. I can only think of describing the project/thesis in detail as an alternative if I want to list said project/thesis.


texts: Do conference attendees care about conference bags?

texts: Is there any research/study/survey that looked at whether conference attendees care about conference bags? I.e., would they be ok not receiving anything aside from their badges when they check in?


texts: How much does one have to contribute to be considered a co-author (and therefore listed as such)?

texts: I am currently doing undergraduate computer science (machine learning) research, and I'm wondering how much one has to contribute to be considered a co-author (and therefore listed as such)? I've found that, during my research, questions often arise – questions for which I don't know where to look, or what I'm even looking at, but suspect that specific professors would (such as mathematics professors). If I occasionally email various professors and ask them questions (for instance, if what I've come across looks like it might be an optimization problem, then I'll email a professor who is doing research on optimization), then would this be considered sufficient contribution to be listed as a co-author?


texts: How can a graduate school applicant improve his application for next year's season?

texts:
It seems I'm about to have a bad application season, as all schools I'm waiting to hear from have given out offers of admissions to other applicants. I'm trying to come up with a viable plan to turn my application into a successful one for next year's season.

Here are some important things to note:

I come from an unknown school, but my reference writers earned their Ph.Ds from well-known schools in the U.S. (top 25 via NRC ranking). They all encouraged me to apply to top 30 programs in the US.
I am an international applicant.
I am interested in pure mathematics.

Some fall-back plans I have is to actually get involved in research during the summer and fall, and I'm hoping I can get a serious publication out of doing this.

So for the people who have served on admissions committees in the past, what else can I do? Should I not bother to apply to the same programs I applied to this year?


texts: What to do with teachers who think their subject is "extra special" and gives students too heavy a load?

texts:
I've had my fair share of teachers who give so much more load than the previous teachers of the same subject. A whole extra project, much more papers, or exercises, etc.

The bigger problem is that there comes a time where in a single semester, several of the teachers think this way, and MOST of them give an extra project/exercise EACH, on top of the current curriculum projects.

This strains the students too much.

How should a student approach these types of situations?


texts: Why there is no enforcing body in validating contributions?

texts:
In undergraduate or graduate courses, marks and remaining measures are awarded or attributed solely based on the work done by a student.
Even in team works, marks can be varied by checking the contribution of individual students.
But, coming to research, there are no rules or an enforcing body, which checks the individual contributions of all the authors mentioned in the paper. Why is it coming under ethics, but not enforcing?
Is it because of the reason that it is difficult to implement or infeasible to implement?


texts: Can I use a figure under CC BY-SA 3.0 in an academic paper

texts:
CC BY-SA requires that you distribute anything derivative of the work with the same license.

I found a very nice but complex diagram (let's say a CAD model) under this license and I  would like to modify it to add the relevant information on top of it for an introduction to a paper. Can I use this image on a scientific paper in any case, or I must make sure that the paper itself is under CC BY-SA?


texts: Unfortunately, I am in a very difficult situation with one of my Professors. In the previous semester, I argued for the grade he gave me in my assignment. I tried to explain him that the way that he had marked me was unfair. He told me that there was no possibility to remark my assignment without giving me more feedback. I felt disappointed and I decided to address the problem to my programme leader. The programme leader told me that an external examiner will be involved. 4 months have passed and I am still waiting. I feel that they tried to cover up this issue. Apart from that, in this semester, the same professor failed me. I feel terrible. I want to drop the programme. Could you, plesase, advise me?


texts: After an unsuccessful application for a permanent academic position in the UK, should I call and ask details about the selection procedure?

texts:
I applied for an permanent lecturer position in the UK and received an answer of the type "we regret to inform you...". My question is, should I call the university and ask more details about the selection procedure such as how many candidates were shortlisted, what was my overall ranking among the candidates, etc., or is there a typical number of candidates (e.g. 2-3? 9-10?) that are called for an interview?

I am asking because I guess this would give an idea about my relative qualifications and whether it is worth applying in a "similar" opportunity, or to stop applying for this level and aim lower for the time being, at least until I improve my cv.


texts: To make literature search simpler and more efficient, I'm looking for a good tool that would come up with a list of publications based on a given set of publications/research areas. So far, I've found Mendeley Suggest but it does not seem to work all that well. I was wondering if someone in this community might know about a better tool or an altogether better approach for pursuing efficient literature search.


texts: How to submit errata when a coauthor disagrees

texts:
Some years ago, I was the primary author on a paper in which some of the work was performed by a grad student. At the time I did not notice an error in his work, and so the derivation provided in the paper is incorrect. I contacted my coauthors, included the (former) grad student. The other authors readily agreed to have their names on the errata paper, but the former grad student disagreed and feels that his work was without error. And so he said that he did not want his name on the errata. Contacting the journal that published the original paper, the editor is not willing to publish an errata paper in which the author list does not include the entire list of authors from the original paper.

So I'm stuck. I'm quite certain about the error, and frustrated with the former student's insistence on being correct. But now there is no way to get the errata into the literature. The journal editor suggested perhaps publishing the changes as a "comment paper", but comment papers are only allowed if written by someone other than one of the original authors. So that's no help either. I can publish the errata on ArXiV, but many readers of the original paper will never find it.

Does anyone have suggestions on how to get this correction into the literature?


texts:
In my field (chemistry), the authors are known to the peer reviewers. A critical point is vague about a manuscript I am reviewing; it can be rejected or accepted based on this point.

Can I directly contact the authors to ask for clarification or I must conduct all correspondence via the editor? I know that the normal procedure is to contact the editor, but I thought it is faster to directly contact the authors, as it may need multiple communications.


texts: Automatically checking retracted papers in bibliography

texts: Is there a program or online service to automatically check if there is a retracted paper in the bibliography of a pdf file?


texts: I have been rejected by a particular university for MS two times now. I really want to get into it to work with a professor. I am thinking of emailing him to ask him what I can do to improve myself to become acceptable. I am trying to improve myself on various fronts that I can think of, so I would like ask him if I am on right path. I am a first generation student and I have no guide to ask, so he is that only one I can think of, to ask these questions. What would be the proper subject line for this? Right now I have "Help needed to improve myself" as subject. In the body, I will explain my situation and ask him if he could give me some of his time. What would be the proper way to proceed in asking for his help?


texts: Found one major literature review paper, how to differentiate now?

texts: I started to write my own literature review today for my master's thesis and I found a very good paper which sums up/overviews the history and concept of the specific topic I am writing about. Usually I track down each cited source to read the original and paraphrase it in my own words. However and with that paper as a guide, I feel like I am 'copying' it or copying its chronological order. Is this a bad thing? I am also reading other papers and I will also try to address the gaps in such papers.


texts: Should I warn my professor about some errors that I've found in his paper?

texts:
A professor of mine gave me a paper, because he wanted to show me the kind of work that we might do together in future. It is the advance access version of the paper, but I've found some errors, like typos, and wrong references of some figures in the text. Should I warn him about those things? If so, what would be the best way to do that?

Update

I'm from Italy, but I would love to know about other different cultures as well, especially USA;
My professor is very open minded, nice and easy-going;
Let's put it this way: if I was a computer I wouldn't understood the meaning of the figures because the references in the text don't match with the right plot, but since I'm human being I've understood that he meant the other figures.

I believe that pride is less important than the truth, especially when it comes to scientific publications. I mean, everyone can be wrong, there is nothing bad about it in my opinion. But I know that not anyone think the same, so I've asked this question because I wanted to know if it's worth to risk what @littleScala pointed out, to spread higher quality articles around the world and to show meticulousness in reading the paper.

Basically I thought:

Maybe a professor could be nicely impressed by such a level of attention;
What if he find its own errors? He might think that I didn't read the paper with caution.


texts: How can I best prepare myself to keep the option for academia open, after leaving for industry?

texts:
I will be finishing my PhD soon, and I have a just managed to a get job lined up in industry. I previously received an offer for a postdoc position but for various reasons had to turn it down.
Longer term I would love to be able to return to academia, maybe even build a career straddling the two in some way. But I'm concerned that the door will close on academia if I'm out of it for too long.
While I am working in industry in the next few coming years, what can I do to put myself in the best position to make a return to academia? Obviously things like keeping up to speed with my field is a given, but publishing papers is something that would have to happen outside of a full time job, and that could be a struggle.
The job I'm taking has some indirect relevance to my field and obviously some transferable skills. There is also a small (10%) research component.
I'd love to hear from people who have successfully switched between the two


texts: Asking faculty up for tenure about the tenure decision

texts:
If I know a faculty member is up for tenure this year, is it appropriate to ask them for news about the tenure decision? If yes, are there norms around how to ask?

I'm a grad student and still figuring out professional norms. That being said, I hope this question can be a place to discuss the issue more generally than just grad student-faculty relations.


texts: strategies to secure more independence in a postdoctoral position?

texts:
I am soon to finish a long PhD, and am thinking about postdoctoral applications.

As a PhD student I did a lot of quality work and have some publications in respected journals/conferences. However, I did not develop my own research ideas or objectives as a PhD student. This was just the state of affairs and there wasn't much I could do about it. Also, while my work so far is primarily applied and methodological, I am interested in theoretical work. I do not want to continue doing the kind of work I have done so far.

I have a couple questions under the theme of the title:

Do I need to sell my PhD work as my own idea in a postdoc application, or is it reasonable to be honest?
Will it arouse suspicion in an application to propose research in an area which is not closely related to my PhD research?
If I want to be able to develop my own ideas as a postdoctoral researcher, should I seek to clarify that goal, seek positions which advertise that option explicitly, or conceal that goal and instead simply do so once I have a position?

More general question:

From my observation and reading, there's an art to developing a research objective/question. Ideally, I would like to have some kind of guidance in doing so. In my experience that is unrealistic. How can I seek meaningful mentorship, but somehow frame it in a manner that allows me to move forward and to maintain financial and intellectual freedom from the mentor?

In my experience for students from mathematics and physics the answer to (2) is often "no". However, coming from an applied area wishing to do more theoretical work, the standards are unclear to me.


texts: How much time does a university typically give a professor to draft a syllabus and how long before they are approved?

texts:
I was wondering about the process of accepting a syllabus, and if it was different for the Humanities and in the Sciences.  Suppose, just so the question is less abstract, there is a new software program that helps research, and a professor wants to add it to a syllabus.  Would he/she need to get approval from the department chair?  How long do changes/updates to a syllabus usually take in a US University?

Let's take for example an Introduction to Literature class, and typically there are six texts in the course.  A professor wants to exchange one of the texts for another one.  What would be the process of getting that done?  Would there be endless meetings or could the professor simply add the text.  Who would need to approve this sort of change in the syllabus?

Or let's take a Science class.  There are always advances in science.  How long does it take for a syllabus to change to include updated texts?


texts: Can a letter of recommendation be rescinded after submission/acceptance?

texts:
I have been working in a research position in a DOE lab in the United States for the past year or so, and my mentor wrote me letters of recommendation for my graduate school application. I have been, to put it bluntly, worse at my job recently than I had been when he wrote the letter, and I would quite like to leave soon as:

It has always been a poor fit for my interests, and I am rapidly losing the motivation to continue;
I have not been challenged/learned anything new for months, and I do not have the discretion to change this;
I am not vital to any of the ongoing projects in my group;
I have saved enough to support myself through matriculation.

I am very worried that, given my recent job performance, if I leave soon, my mentor might try to contact graduate programs to which I submitted applications 1+ months ago to give an update on his impression of my character/abilities/etc. Is this a real possibility? If so, how would graduate schools react, receiving this so long after submission, or if they've already accepted me?


texts: How to explain a bad grade to a delusional student?

texts:
I guess this comes up quite often in educational context. There is a student who attended a seminar where they were supposed to study an assigned research paper and deliver a presentation to the class. The presentation delivered by the student was very low quality as was also reflected by the low grade given by a group/committee of seminar tutors (from post-doc to associate professor level). The evaluation turned out to be a big blow to the student's ego and even after several weeks, the person can't digest the failure, despite very careful explanation on the spot, as well as several interactions and (failed) attempts to "better the grade by performing some extra work". The student is all the time coming back with requests for additional explanation of particularities of the failure.

What is/are the right pedagogical technique(s) to handle such a situation?

clearly, the student has a high self-esteem and opinion about him/herself
probably did not face a situation of a miserable failure before in the past
the student does not seem to see/accept the relative difference in his/her performance and the rest of the peer group
the committee of tutors was very careful in assigning the grade and went through a thorough discussion. This is not a question of the grade fairness, but a question of student's self-perceived feeling of receiving an unfair treatment


texts: Citing a result due to a single author that appears in a paper with multiple authors

texts:
Let's say that Jones and Smith publish a mathematical paper containing a result (Theorem 3.1, say,) which is said in that paper to be due to Smith alone but appears for the first time in her joint paper with Jones.  How should I cite this result?

Here are a few examples of ways I might cite the result if Jones were not a co-author of the paper (for definiteness let's say the paper is number 7 in my bibliography):

"By a theorem of Smith [7, Theorem 3.1]..."
"Our argument is based on that of Smith [7, Theorem 3.1]..."
"...implies the hypothesis of Smith's theorem [7, Theorem 3.1]..."

How might I adapt these phrasings to the situation described above?


texts: What would be the best way to find foreign professors for a PhD defense panel?

texts:
I need some researchers to review my PhD thesis. I am from India and my university is also in India; the research data was collected in India. My university rules say my thesis should be reviewed by experts from the same field and another country before submitting it.

Question: What would be the best way to find specialists in a specific field to participate in a PhD evaluation panel or as reviewers? Should I just leave it to my supervisor?


texts: Is Ohio State University considered a good pure mathematics school for undergrad?

texts: Just like the title states. I am also considering graduate school so does it have a good reputation for pushing kids to good graduate schools?


texts: Tips for making online presentation over Skype

texts:
I am about to complete my PhD. My area is functional analytic/ operator theoretic aspects of quantum information. I am applying for post-doctoral  positions in various places. Recently, one group called me for presentation/ interview over Skype. It should consist of a presentation (20 minutes) and 20 minutes interview. My questions are the following:

What are the common things one should focus while presenting online, and what I should avoid (say, in my slide, or oral comments etc).
The people who called me for interview are physicists (my work is connected to quantum information). As a mathematics student, what is the best way to make myself presentable in these cases.

Some background: I have two publications, some old preprints (arxiv, on discrete mathematics, but not published and not connected with my present research) and a few in draft form (not submitted in arxiv yet). Published papers are not mathematically very exiting, but came up in some reasonably good and well reputed physics journals. Also what I am afraid is, they are not reviewed in math review (many papers from the same journal are frequently reviewed though).

I am a bit afraid, as this is my first time of appearing in such interview (and the reasons mentioned above). Advanced thanks for your helps and suggestions.


texts: What are the benefits of being a convener/chair of a session in a conference?

texts:
I wish to submit a proposal to a conference to chair a session. To do this, I will have to spend a lot of time to think about many things such as the objectives & scopes of my session. But I am wondering about the benefits/ achievements after all these.

What could be the benefits/ achievements useful for a researcher involving in such activities?


texts: How should I interpret a book editor not responding to me after accepting my chapter proposal?

texts:
I had a detailed chapter proposal accepted about five weeks ago for a collection of critical essays in my field, edited by a retired professor who has been prolific in publishing while retired. In the acceptance email, the editor stated that "in the coming days," we'd all receive further information about our specific chapters. I replied to the acceptance email shortly thereafter, saying I appreciated it and was looking forward to receiving the information.
About ten days ago, having heard nothing, I sent a polite, concise follow-up email in which I requested clarification on the timeline/details of the chapter and reaffirmed my interest. No response.
A few days ago, I left him a polite, brief message on his office phone, identifying myself and providing a number of ways to reach me--hoping one might be easier than email. No response to that so far.
So all I have in hand is this initial chapter acceptance. I'm confused, a bit frustrated, and a bit worried. The CFP stated that initial chapter drafts were due in August.
My questions:

What should I do at this point? I need to plan my workload for the summer, and if I'm still a part of this project, I'd need to set aside significant time to complete it. I really want to complete it; I'm passionate about the proposal, and the book looks like it's going to be great.
Is it reasonable for me to assume that I've been booted from the project? Does it ever happen this way, where, after an initial acceptance, someone changes their mind and simply stops returning all communications?
I realize there's a possibility the editor is in fact slow, suffering a health/personal setback, or facing some other obstacle. But in this case, given my previous attempts to contact them, how should I proceed?

Some pertinent points:

The editor of the volume and the press are both well-known and (as far as I know) well-regarded, or at least ubiquitous in the field. They're not cranks or unknowns.
The acceptance email was a mass email, and me and the other accepted authors were all BCCed, so I can't contact one of them to ask if they've heard from the editor.
If I don't hear from the editor within some timeframe over the coming months, would it be reasonable to contact the volume's publisher or the editor's colleagues, asking if they know (a) whether this person is OK (not injured or worse) or (b) a way to get in touch with them?

Thanks for providing advice to a junior scholar here.


texts: Letter of Recommendation: Reputation vs personal relation

texts:
I want to apply for a graduate program in Computer Science and need a Letter of Recommendation to complete my application.

While thinking about who I could ask to write the letter I came up with two people: One is a full professor and has a lot of reputation but knows me only from some oral exams (where we had some good talks even beside the exam topics) and crowded lectures where he couldn't really take notice of me.

The other one holds a Ph.D. in CS but is no longer involved in research. However, he holds advanced lectures in the field I'm interested (and am applying for). Usually we are about ten persons in his lectures and he knows me very well from asking questions during the lecture and so on. When he's asking a question to the audience and I raise my hand, he usually says that he knows I know it and wants others to answer it.

I'm unsure if I should aks the full professor with a lot of reputation or the lecturer who knows me much better but has much less reputation, to write a letter for me.


texts: What is the equivalent degree of a Diploma in Information Technology from India?

texts:
After my 10th grade I joined a polytechnic college for a specialization in Infomation Technology (Diploma in Information Technology). Now, I am in my final year of under-graduate studies (Bachelor of Technology in Information Technology), and I want to pursue my graduate studies from the United States of America.

One of the universities that I am applying to did not offer the option of “Diploma in Information Technology” in their online application form. After doing some research I found out that:

  In India, a diploma is a specific academic award usually earned in professional/vocational courses, e.g., Engineering, Pharmacy, Design, etc. In such cases, a diploma is specific in rank than a Bachelor's degree of that discipline but equivalent to general degree in that discipline, e.g., Diploma in Engineering of Electronics Engineering is rated differently than Bachelor of Technology in Electronics Engineering but is equivalent to Bachelor of Science in Electronics.

If so, then what is the equivalent degree of a Diploma in Information Technology in India? Is it Bachelor of Science in Information Technology?


texts: How do you deal with the ridiculous catch 22 to get into grad school

texts:
I have applied for a second round of 100% rejections and needless to say I am not feeling great about it. What I am especially angry/frustrated about is that neat little sentence every rejection letter has:

  We recommend getting more research experience and trying again next year

HOW?!

I have applied for R&D jobs in my field for a year and a half while working. I can't get an interview, when I contact the companies the reply is "you don't have a masters". Well that's convenient isn't it? Universities won't accredit me because of lack of experience and I can't get the experience because I don't have the credentials.

I'd abandon the goal all together but I am too stupid and stuborn to accept giving up an unreachable dream.


texts: Slides for a brief presentation at a PhD Interview

texts:
I am soon attending a PhD Interview (Condensed matter Theory). The interview is divided in two steps: a first interview with a selection comitee, where I have to prepeare a presentation 6 minutes long, and a second, 1.30 hours long interview with possible PIs.

The short (6' - 5 slides) presentation is supposed to deal with:

Academic Background
Previous Research Experience
Presentation of Master Project/Thesis
Motivations for this application
Career goals in your future

Slides are explicitly required.

My questions are:

I do not feel confident prepearing a slide on "Motivations for pursuing a PhD" or even future goals. I have very strong reasons, but writing those down seem... childish/stupid to me. Should I just not make slides about those things, but nevertheless talk about them? (The field use a very flexible framework that can be applied to many other problems. This means that even if I focus on one problem I can always talk about much more... I was a RA for the last 6 months and lived with other PhD students, so I know a bit already what it is like...)
I want to do 1 slide on my B.Sc. Thesis and one on my M.Sc. thesis. Of course I will be briefly presenting the kind of work I did, and tools I used, but what should I put along a short list in the slide? The fancy graphic from my thesis that I'll have no time to explain? The hamiltonian that I was studying? Or a nice drawing giving a divulgative, simplistic picture of the process I was studying? Or make them smaller and all of those 3? (they would fit)

About 2.: Since I will have almost no time to explain much about the details of my previous work, intuition tells me I would be better dropping drawings/graphs out. Yet, since I am trying to "sell myself" to the comitee, those things might be fancy and nice to add.

Any suggestion would be very welcome.


texts:
I applied to a PhD program, and after all the interviews I got a firm offer for a fellowship let's call it PhD A, that I have to give an answer to before a deadline (next week), since they have
Now the lab in which I did my master's thesis, and in which I have been working since 6 months applied for a grant to finance a PhD student (me) but won't have an answer before a May. Let's call this PhD B.

Now my problem is that I would prefer staying in the lab I am at for PhD B, but, even though it might be small, there is always a chance that it wont get the grant, so if I say no to PhD A I would be left with nothing.
And on the other hand, if I accept the fellowship offer for PhD A and my lab gets the grant, I would prefer doing PhD B.

The real problem is this deadline, because the PhD A wouldn't start before October, and so if I also get an offer for PhD B after having accepted offer A, I would prefer not to burn any bridges by just leaving after having accepted.

So my question is what do you think can be done in a situation like this?


texts: Out of school for ten years and letters of recommendation for PhD programs

texts:
I graduated with a BS in physics in 2009, so it's coming up on ten years since I've been in academia. I have a great relationship with one professor, with whom I'm still in contact, and my old advisor would most likely also help me.

The problem is that most places I see want three letters, and I don't know of any other professors that'd likely remember me. I do, however, have about half a dozen former class mates. I have a friend doing a postdoc at Yale and another at Lawrence Livermore. I also have another friend who just finished her dissertation at Berkley.

I have a wide range of research experience, am published (I helped an experimentalist and got tacked on to the groups paper in phys rev), and have fair grades from a very challenging curriculum (e.g. general relativity, qft of a scalar field, theoretical techniques, intro to string theory), and am not worried about the subject GRE hell (I've done it before and scored in the 80%s once and 90%s the second time).

My problem is that usually one needs 3 letters. I currently work in tech, and could get a great letter from my department's boss, but the only time I do math there is when I make corrections to complex integrals an EE's whiteboard. Or when I'm bored and start calculating connecction coefficients for a metric or dervice generators for SU(n) n>2.

Any advice would be most appreciated!


texts: Fellow student seems to be chasing rainbows. Should I step in?

texts:
I am currently writing my bachelor's thesis, and share advisors with a fellow student, who is also working in the same office as I am. We exchange daily about our progress.

I am under the impression that his work is going nowhere. He is working on a topic that has no previous work available, and according to him, direct verification on whether his research is useful is not possible. An indirect approach using yet another students' algorithm showed worse results in combination with the work of the student in question. To acquire this information, both students spent a large amount of time that could have been spent towards writing their theses.

He is somewhat backed up by his (our) supervisor, but I feel this is largely because the supervisor wants this research to end up in a peer-reviewed publication, even though there are no results that suggest the research is valid or useful in any way yet.

I have the impression that continuing this path will worsen the thesis outcome for my fellow student, as he is facing a deadline to turn in his thesis, but spends a lot of time trying things out and interpreting essentially bad results to show something positive.

Since I sympathize with him, I would like to intervene and talk bluntly about the issues written out above. I do understand, however, that it is not my place to correct him, as we are at the same stage of our careers, and I am about as inexperienced as he is. In addition, since our supervisor has a different opinion and more experience, it could very well be that I'll be wrong in the end.

What interaction, if any, is ethical and reasonable for me to engage in?

I imagine this sort of thing happens more often, even with more experienced academics, as confirmation bias seems to be a somewhat common issue.

How are similar problems usually handled in academia? Are people like my fellow student in question left alone to their own judgment, or do co-academics talk them out of seemingly bad ideas? Do people criticize each others' research a lot?


texts:
I work in a field of data-driven modeling of physical systems (think simulating weather patterns, particle interations, solid structures, etc.). As the name implies, producing a good model depends on access to high-quality, or "high-fidelity" data that it taken to be the truth, or a fairly accurate representation of nature or an experiment. However, the system I am trying to model is one which nobody can consistently produce simulations that exactly match experiments. This is not a huge problem for me, as I simply use the best simulations that reproduce experiments in a general, qualitative sense. I am working to develop good data-driven models which can be generalized to any variety of physical systems, not just my particularly difficult system. Hopefully there will be a point in the future where I have access to good data, but that time is not now.

However, many researchers who have been attempting to create better high-fidelity models look down on this, claiming that there is no point trying to simulate a system if the inputs don't match nature exactly. "Garbage in, garbage out" is the standard derogatory epithet. This strikes me as odd, since they are the ones tasked with producing the accurate high-fidelity models, and they cannot do it. It also strikes me as anti-intellectual, spurning an avenue of research which will have measurable benefit once they make their models better.

Am I wrong in this sentiment? Is it stupid to pursue an area of research that is essentially dependent on future discoveries and improvements in modern methods? Are there any examples out there of research that was performed under the assumption that future methods would make it useful?