texts:
I am an undergraduate student from Bangladesh. Two of my posters have been accepted at Sigmod undergraduate research poster competition.

Now, I am looking forward to attend Sigmod. I will be receiving some travel grant from Sigmod to attend the event. However, the fund seems insufficient as the airfare from my country to US is very high.

Is there any external source where I can apply for travel grants or support of similar kind?

I am determined about attending Sigmod and I will be paying the rest of the costs by myself. So it would be really helpful for me if I get some support.

N.B. : I have already seen the post Travel grant for undergraduate researcher for attending conference. However, I believe I need some more concrete answers. Thank you for understanding.

I have already asked the chairs for student volunteering and others. In this case, SIG and conference funding is basically the same. So I do not have the option to apply for SIGs.


texts: Data supporting educational entertainment media as an ineffective method to stimulate students to learn academic concepts outside of the classroom?

texts:
I define educational entertainment media as books, films, animation, video games, board games, toys, and such, designed with embedded practical examples of academic concepts. I am unfamiliar with a better word for this category of commonly entertaining things with embedded education components. Please let me know if there is a better word for educational entertainment media. I narrow the criteria of educational entertainment media to something that students would be willing to buy for their own pleasure.

I have noticed that many of my students spend a lot of time reading books, watching movies, episodes, animation, playing video games, board games, and such. I pondered the idea that if all of my students could perform these activities in such away that while they have fun on their down time, they would be indirectly applying, relearning, and studying core academic concepts, they could improve their performance in the class and final exams.

I have no idea how to engineer educational entertainment media to entertain students during their down time, yet engage them to learn academic concepts, but if such existed they may be providing subtle results on academic performance in classrooms.

Is there data that either supports or denies engineered educational entertainment media as an ineffective method to stimulate students to learn classroom concepts outside of the classroom?


texts: Why do researchers in areas requiring minimal resources apply for grants?

texts:
I heard that many researchers spend a lot of their time (maybe even a half) writing the grants. I understand the researchers that need to purchase some equipment or fund their PhD students, although does not the department fund PhD students anyway?

But what about pure mathematicians and researchers who need a pencil and paper, a personal computer. Do these apply for grants, what for?


texts: How to apply Sigconf proceedings template to MS Word paper

texts:
I am looking to apply Sigconf proceedings template to a research paper.
As the conference instructs templates are available from the ACM website.
I've downloaded the Interim layout.docx file but the file instructions are not clear to me and I can't figure out how to format the document accordingly. Any thoughts?


texts:
The question is pretty easy and fit in the title.

So: can I use instagram pictures for an academic work?

I think I have to ask people who posted them if they agree but I'm not sure. I don't want any trouble with plagiarism and copyright.


texts: How can I increase the chance of receiving review requests? Is it appropriate to contact editors to offer my services as reviewer?

texts: I have a couple of published works, and I have received, so far, three review requests from three different journals. I have decided that reviewing service will help my resume at this stage. How can I increase my chance of receiving review requests from good journals? Is it appropriate to contact an editor and offer my service? Is it appropriate to contact the editors of the same journals that have already asked me to do review, and offer them that I would be willing to do more in future?


texts: Determining a suitable research design for a pedagogical project

texts:
I am the academic lead for peer assisted learnng (PAL) at my university.  I have been given an allowance to evaluate our PAL scheme for law students.  This is only a pilot level study and nothing too spectacular. I intend to look into the 'barriers and benefits' of faciliating a PAL scheme for law students.  One of the main issues that I have encountered is timetabling problems - the university tends to place the PAL sessions away from the campus (10 minute walk) which leads to student complaints and a lack of participation, even though participation in PAL sessions is supposed to be compulsory for law students.

I am using questionnaires to assess the students' opinion.   I wondered if my observations of the barriers to faciliating PASS were valid in the study?  Obviously, they are biased and this must be qualified.  If so, how would I describe the research design?  I don't think that this is quite ethnographic research.  I am telling readers what I have learnt from being academic lead for PASS and making suggestions for improvements.

Apologies, I have limited experience of qualitative methods and usually research law cases.

Thanks in advance.


texts: Germany undergrad: is it possible to switch from medicine to biology?

texts: My niece in Germany is applying for undergrad colleges, at this point she likes medicine and biology both. But she is not sure if she wants to end up being a doctor or a molecular biology researcher. It seems that the German system bifurcates from undergrad itself between medicine and biology - so in her case what would be a good option if she wants to do an undergrad and at the end of that decide to continue with medicine or focus fully on biology? If not possible in Germany, are there other European universities where this is possible?


texts: Managerial oversight of Dutch academics: how much permission do I need to ask?

texts:
In two weeks time I am leaving the UK for the Netherlands. I am new to Dutch academia and while, for the most part, it seems to be much like UK academia, I am curious about, for lack of a better term, the level of managerial oversight over Dutch academics for day-to-day comings and goings and decisions about scholarly activities.

In the UK, it was expected that I work roughly 9ish to 5ish, 5 days a week, but more or less was up to me. Working from home did not need to be reported to anyone and if one was where one was meant to be when one was needed, it didn't really matter what happened at other times. I did not need to seek permission to attend conferences or workshops or to say yes to academic activities or opportunities.

What is managerial oversight like in the Netherlands? I don't want to either anger people by not asking when I should, or annoy people by asking often when I don't need to.

I know that to some extent this will be institution specific, but I believe that those here with Dutch experience would be able to speak to what the general expectation of reporting to and permission from line managers is compared to that, generally, in the UK.


texts: How to withdraw a paper (under review) from fake journal

texts: I have sent two research papers to an open-access journal. It seems a very good journal. One of my papers sent back to me for a minor revision (the condition for accepting my paper is the quality of the revision). The second paper is now under review. I just found that the publisher is fake. Hence, I would like to withdraw my papers. I could not find any way to withdraw my papers from the journal website. What should I do? I did not send the revised manuscript to the journal.


texts: What to do when advisor does not want to work together?

texts:
I have been a PhD student for 3 years (UK), and recently there has been severe trouble with the relationship with my primary advisor.

I had been struggling on a problem, for quite some time, with only very little advice or feedback aside from vague responses, and decided to try a related problem to see what could be done. There was quite a lot of success, and interesting developments, so I sent the early progress through and got encouraging feedback. So I continued down this track, and was clear to ask, "do you think this is publishable? what do I need to do in order to make this material publishable?" and so on. I got encouragement, so I continued and we built up a paper together and worked towards completing the thesis.

Now very shortly before my submission, he has told me that he recalls this was already done and so much time has been wasted as we cannot use this material. Now my shock was when I find out he was the first author of said research, with a prior PhD student doing this as part of his thesis.

I was absolutely furious (and bewildered) but I will be very clear, I made no negative comment. I went for a long walk and then took the day to think about what to do now.

I tried to ask what other work I could do, could I collaborate on other research he had going on, but got only a vague refusal. I asked for advice on how to proceed from here but got only vague suggestions. So I did what I felt was my only option and mentioned these issues to the panel because important things were going to be postponed. I made it very clear I had no personal issues with him and did not want to assign any form of blame, but that I needed some real help in a path to get some research progressing which I wasn't getting.

The next day he went on a furious rant which involved him calling me lazy in many different ways and telling me to go and work with someone else, that I cannot continue working with him.

At this point, I have only one member of the panel who is willing to work with me, but I have a primary supervisor who is very clear about not wanting any kind of working relationship with me, at least for the time being (which considering the time pressure I face as a student, means effectively that it is over).

What are my options here? I really feel that I did everything by the book, and I see this behaviour as a serious failure in supervision. I just don't know how a previous student's thesis gets re-researched. I certainly cannot rely on a reference from him to start a new PhD, and I don't know if I can continue when the relationship is this bad.


texts: Do you have to have a PhD to be a "research scientist"?

texts:
I'm graduating from my master's degree at MIT this summer and I have a chance to stay for another year as an employee in my current lab while I apply for PhD programs. I'd love to do that because I love the current grant I am working on, I love the topic, the people and the PI.

My only hesitation is that there seems to be very limited titles in academia for one who is not a graduate student and does not have a PhD. The truth is, I do not want to be a "lab tech." I want to start becoming autonomous in the field I did my master's and becoming a lab tech is the exact opposite of being an independent researcher (based on my understanding).

I feel like if I start my year-long employment with the agreement with my PI that I'll continue work on my current research but with the "lab tech" title, the post-doc who supervises my work will treat me like a lab tech!

Therefore, I'd like to be a "research scientist" for the next year, but do I have to have a PhD for that? Or, what other titles are there besides a lab tech for people who wants to do research without a PhD in academia?


texts: Should I send recommendation/reference letter to universities that don't require it?

texts: Sending recommendation letter to some universities is optional, but some others don't even mention it in their required documents. Is there any point in sending recommendation letter to such universities?


texts: What is expected from a "Contributions to Department Statement"?

texts:
Background: I am a final-year mathematics student in the US applying for jobs at small colleges.

One of my job applications at a small, teaching-focused school requires a "Contributions to Department Statement", but elaborates very little, saying only that it's "a statement on how the candidate can contribute to the academic programs and activities of the department."  That being said, what exactly are they looking for?

A few things I thought of:

Undergraduate research mentorship
Supervision of math club/honorary
Proposals for new courses
Incorporation of technology (Mathematica, for example)
Recruitment/retainment of populations underrepresented in mathematics

Any thoughts whatsoever are appreciated.


texts: How to address a professor that makes offensive comments (that they don't realize are offensive)?

texts:
I am currently in a financial accounting class with a professor that has used offensive (in my opinion) commentary in her lectures since my first exposure.

Examples of comments she makes:

Financial accounting is a class everyone should take, because it's actually useful, not like forced electives such as sociology. (Whether or not you believe income statements and balance sheets are more important than understanding how and why the society around you functions, the tone of this comment was what bothered me at the time.)
Boys are bad at wearing work clothes for work instead of nice clothes.
Girls treat their clothes better because they find them more precious.
Woman have a shopping gene.
It's implied that women (or moms) do all the shopping and cooking.

I admit that I don't attend class often enough to know whether this is a pervasive or sporadic issue. I just know I've been put off enough to not attend classes more often and find out. I make up not going to her lectures by putting in extra effort other ways.

I can tell that she's not trying to be offensive. Her comments are meant to come off as motherly and humorous. I'm also not trying to be offended, as I gain nothing from that.

What is the most diplomatic way of addressing issues with a professor when you're in a large lecture hall setting? (As opposed to small classroom settings, which lend themselves to more personal connections with the instructors)
Or
How would a professor prefer I address them if I were dissatisfied with the nature of their off topic commentary? (As opposed to opinionated comments that relate to the course or field, such as economic policy preferences in a economics course)

Should I send a polite email to the professor explaining that I wasn't comfortable? It's quick and semi-anonymous. She won't be able to associate the name with my face. Presenting myself in an impersonal matter may result in an impersonal response.
Should I wait until the end-of-semester course evaluations and express my concerns? These are completely anonymous, but seems passive aggressive and rather too far after the fact.
Should I approach her directly if it happens again? It's more personal, but that can also seem to be more confrontational (especially if I go out of my way to meet her during office hours). I don't feel it's confrontational, or that I would present myself that way, but people receiving critique can feel that way.
Is there a better solution?

Switching sections isn't any more preferable than skipping the current lectures. The other available times didn't work well for me or my family on a regular basis. I'm also not sold that it's the best option for most students in a similar situation. I would see changing sections as a recourse only if other methods failed, or the lecturer was wildly offensive.

While the first class bothered me, I didn't drop attendance immediately. This was done after getting a feel for the course, when I knew I could balance not being in the lectures. It wasn't a knee-jerk "How dare she!" reaction.

Spotty attendance is admittedly doing nothing to address the issue. Thus, my inquiry.


texts: Can I report my math GPA instead of major (CS and math) GPA when applying to graduate school?

texts:
So I'm a combined Math/CS major wanting to do grad school for pure math. My GPA my first 3 semesters was terrible, and I got my shit together after that.

While I have all A's in math courses, my major GPA would include CS courses as well, and those are my worst grades. I estimate I can't raise it above 3.5 by next December.

I would like to know if I have any flexibility in how I report my GPA, i.e. if I can report a math GPA instead of a major GPA.


texts: If someone provided you with data does he become a co-author?

texts: Say I'm doing some work which is closely related to someone's else's work. I want to study the same data that he studied. I know him well, and producing the data is no big deal but is time consuming, so I ask him to provide me with the data he had produced. If he agreed. Should I include him as a co-author?


texts: What can I do to recover from a short term burnout?

texts:
Over the past few days, my advisor and I had been going really hard. We got a really good idea and the preliminary results looked good, so I started spending long days in the lab, going home only to sleep. My advisor saw this and he started spending a lot more time with me and we had long meetings whenever I requested. This has been going on for about 4 weeks and although I loved it while I was in it, I feel burnt out now. There are still really exciting things I need to try but I don't know why I can't get myself to do any of them.

What is a good strategy to escape this burnout phase?

I have already tried:

Playing an instrument I was good at
Just taking some time off
Limiting my work hours

But none of these and others seem to work.


texts: Changing a mathematical field once one has a tenure

texts:
I have heard that, in mathematics, there might be several difficulties in changing one's field once one has a tenured position. I am wondering what those difficulties are. Is it possible at all?
Let me mention two difficulties I heard about.

Obviously, one has to learn a new area of math on a professional level, which is not easy.

These days, there is a strong pressure to get grants and, hence, to publish regularly. If one does not yet have a reputation of a serious expert in the new field it will be difficult to get a grant. This pressure is weaker if one has a tenure, but it still exists.


texts: Is citing only high-impact articles in my publication ethical?

texts:
This question is related to the articles that are often cited in introduction or motivation section of any article. Often while writing an introduction, I mostly cite the famous works that are relevant to my work. Some other time I also cite the recent works from high-impact journals that are relevant to my work. This is primarily because these works are more show-cased and are widely available.

However, even though these works are relevant, is it ethical to just cite popular relevant works? What if an author published a more relevant work and it never got popular because he published in a low-impact journal? (This is refutable by saying: “Interesting work always gets cited and gets popular, irrelevant of the journal’s impact factor.”)


texts: How good do I actually have to be to get into a top graduate program from an average undergraduate program?

texts:
So, this is a question that I do not know much about. I might get called on not having done a ton of research on graduate school, but I am really curious about this. I am an undergraduate student of mathematics and I am certainly planning on pursuing a graduate degree. I have looked at the top schools of math and they are certainly what one would expect: MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, etc.

My issue is this: Academically, I was a late bloomer. I did not take high school seriously because it was annoying and elementary. Where I grew up, my school did not offer much in terms of AP classes or other opportunities. So, the only thing I excelled at naturally was math classes. Of course, they were extremely easy and required almost no effort on my part, which is what made me leery in terms of taking college level classes. I figured that I was good at high school classes because they are simple, but college level will be a different story.

I was wrong. In university, the gap was wider. Once I became adjusted, I actually enjoyed mathematics because it was so much more abstract and complex. This caused me to do rather large amounts of independent research in graduate level topics (topology, analytic number theory, analysis, etc). My only issue is that I am not in a competitive environment, really. The students are not top-notch, and don't share the same drive that I have. This is why I feel like being at the top of the class is not really an accomplishment, since I am not doing anything that any undergraduate at MIT, Harvard, Yale, etc, couldn't do.

My question that I pose here is this:

How good do I really need to be?

I have a passion for mathematics and for the most part, I seem to be talented at it. In terms of GPA, I have maintained a 4.0 with little effort just because I typically have already covered the material in the class on my own. However, there is a voice in the back of my head that keeps telling me that I only stand out because I am at a school that is not top tier, ivy league.

What does a graduate student at a top tier school look like? In my mind, I see someone that has been publishing papers since their teens, and was at the level I'm at now coming out of high school (I am a rising senior at the moment). Is this true? Am I being realistic? I am concerned because I would love to apply to some of these schools (and to get in is my dream!) but I honestly don't even know what level I am at in comparison to the rest of their applicants. I would hate to get shot down almost instantly because I am a joke in their eyes.

Sorry if this was a bit of a ramble. The question boils down to the title really, the rest is just elaboration for those that are interested. Thanks!


texts: Should I email or text the professor as a apology if it seems that he is ignoring my email

texts:
There is a professor that I work with in remote. We are in touch primarily via email about research collaboration. Recently, I'm trying to brainstorm a research idea for my master thesis. I'm new to research and I need a little bit hand-holding on finding a good idea. Over the summer, I mostly work on my own to fill in the background knowledge and try to keep the professor informed about my progress.

The professor usually replies email quite quick during the academic time. But, in the summer, the speed of response can be 10 - 12 days. I totally understand because it is a summer time. Last time when I ask for some inputs on what references I should take a look. He replied with a pointer to some research group. I'm pretty excited to get the response. One of the reasons is that I have read some papers from the research group pointed out inside the email. I replied immediately later that night of the same day. This is the last contact we had so far. Around a week later, I sent out another email looking for doing some research work in some other project as a stepping stone. No reply for this as well.

Now, I notice he has updated his website in the past two days. I'm figuring he is back to work. But, I still haven't got any reply. Now, I'm in this hanging position and not know what to do next. Maybe because of my emails I send out earlier? What I should do in this case.

Thanks much!


texts: Is it acceptable if an advisor does not include me as a co-author on presentation?

texts:
I apologize if this question is redundant in some way but I was unable to find a question similar to this.

I am a MS student (with thesis) and have an advisor who received a grant with myself as a collaborator to do a particular project. He has a hands off approach (or is just extremely busy) so I have planned, executed, analyzed the entire project. I am currently writing a manuscript that he will be a coauthor on (as the PI).

Recently he went to a meeting put on by the group that funds the project, with a presentation about my project. However, he left my name off the title slide and had me last on the acknowledgements (with my name spelled incorrectly) and a small picture of me next to people who only made smaller (albeit important) contributions. I feel like this is wrong, but he said it's normal to only have his name and another PI (not an author) on the title slide when I brought this up. To boot, he asked me to prepare the presentation, which I did, and he took my name off deliberately.

Am I crazy/egomaniacal? This seems wrong...

I was hoping for some opinions outside our lab group. Any thoughts would be appreciated!


texts: Do I need to get a reference letter from a postdoc host?

texts:
I am currently a postdoc and will soon be applying for a faculty position in computer science. I am inclined to not ask my postdoc host for a reference letter when applying.

The reason I don't want to ask my postdoc host for a letter is because I have been a postdoc for less than a year and have mostly worked independently or with remote collaborators. So far I have only coauthored one paper with my host. (It's a good but not great paper.) Also, I am supported by a general fellowship -- i.e. I am not formally "tied" to my host, which means I don't think he feels strong "ownership" of me as a postdoc. It is not a true mentorship relationship.

I think my postdoc host would write a positive letter for me, but it would be weak for the aforementioned reasons -- he simply doesn't know me that well. I have other potential letter writers who would be able to write stronger letters.

What is worse? A weak letter from my postdoc host or no letter? Is this something I should try to explain on my application?

Any advice is greatly appreciated!


texts: Obligation to quote an unpublished source if I am the source?

texts:
Let’s say that, during my undergraduate studies, I have written an essay on some subject. It was a seminar paper, which never got published anywhere.

Now, while writing my master’s thesis, I find that one line of thought I’d like to express is pretty much exactly what I had written in that seminar paper.

Would I have to formally quote and cite that (unpublished) seminar paper (which I had written myself), or can I just repeat what I have written there without marking it as quote?

It feels awkward quoting myself, but I don’t want to run afoul of any misconduct here.


texts: As a professor, can I copy exercises / problems from a textbook without referencing the source?

texts: In creating a final exam for my course, I would like to use problems from a textbook that I did not assign to the course. Do I need to reference the source on the final exam paper or is it not necessary?


texts: PhD examiner disappeared, what I can do?

texts:
I past my PhD viva with minor corrections in June. Both examiners were happy and promised to send lists of corrections the following week.

Unfortunately, only one did that (and confirmed I corrected all of his comments). The other examiner hasn't replied any emails from me and my advisor for two months until now.

This examiner is a really nice person, so I'm afraid something wrong might have happened to him. If this is the case, I will also be in a great trouble, because if I can't finish my PhD, I have to enrol again in September, i.e. next month.

I'm doing a postdoc in the US, doing enrolment again means I have to go back to my school in the UK to show my original passport and Visa etc.

My advisor told me I should not worry. But the September deadline is close, given 2 months without any responses.

My questions are:

What should I do now?
I also know prof A, who is the head of the group of this examiner. I talked to him twice in workshops, and connect with him on Facebook. It means he only knows that I'm a random student in that neighbour university. Should I ask him about my examiner?


texts: Can a professor alter the syllabus when calculating a final course grade?

texts: A professor for my one course didn't calculate an attendance and participation grade into my final grade but it was worth 20 percent in the syllabus.


texts: What do postdoc advisors/hiring committee typically look for in a potential theoretical high energy physics postdoc candidate?

texts:
I want to get a rough idea of how much post-doc advisors/hiring committee give weightage to the following factors in a potential postdoc hire. If I have missed out some factor(s), please mention them also.

Recommendations: Typically how many recommendations, does "the more the better" hold true here? Also does it matter if referees give okayish recommendations but are well recognised versus strong recommendations but not-so-well recognised?
Papers: Is there a threshold to the number of papers published, and typically how many? Also are preprints on ArXiv taken into consideration, if not published in a journal? Are few but mostly single-authored papers (1-3) given more preference than multiple-authored but many (>5), assuming the quality is same?
Statement of purpose: How important is demonstrating here that the candidate has a well defined career plan ahead? Any other relevant factors?

Apart from this, did I miss any other factors?

This is my first post here, please give feedback in case you think the question can be improved.


texts: Would summarizing peer-reviewed articles on a blog be frowned upon?

texts: Lately I've been reading a lot of the influential papers in my field (computer science, but specifically, machine learning). What's about to happen if I decide to publish my detailed notes (along with my commentary/views about the author's arguments) on my personal tech blog? More concretely,  would this practice be looked down on by the authors and other academics? At what point could I get into legal trouble for directly quoting too much from a given article? My intent is to summarize others' research, and not call it my own.


texts: Is it better to submit a paper to a journal "normal" issue, or wait 4 months and send it to a more focused "special section" of the same journal?

texts:
I am a recently PhD graduate student in computer science.

In the last months, I wrote a paper about an aspect of my thesis, with the collaboration of my former supervisor.
We found a call for papers for a "special section" of an important journal, that is a section focused on the data set we are exploiting.
The submission deadline was set to the end of November 2014, but surprisingly we just discovered that it has been post-poned to the end of March 2015. So a 4 months delay.

Our paper is ready and I don't know what to do with the submission.

I would prefer to submit it now to the "normal" track of the journal, to move on to new projects and close this. But my former supervisor thinks that it's better to wait and submit it to the March 2015 "special section", because he says we will have more likelihood to get it accepted, even if this will make our paper more outdated.

What should I do?

Submit it to the "normal" track now with less chances to get it published, or wait 4 months and submit it (more outdated) to the easier "special section"?


texts: Copyright regulations for and sharing implementations of previously published computer code

texts:
For my research I programmed several optimization algorithms as close as possible to their original implementation/explanation when they were published. The original codes were some times described listing the required mathematical opperations or some times with examples in different programming languages (Fortran, C, pascal, or even pseudo code). I was thinking about sharing the MATLAB implementations of those programs, because they are not available yet, and I think it could be useful for a lot of people.

Of course I would refer in each program to the original papers, or code implementation. But could I have any legal problems for sharing such code because it somehow violates copyright regulations?

If the original code already specified some sort of licensing terms, I can read there what the rules are. But the source of most of these codes were printed in books or papers, where no licensing terms were mentioned except for copyright.

An example:

A Simple Genetic Algorithm - SGA - vl.O
(c) David Edward Goldberg 1986
All Rights Reserved

What does that mean?

Do I need to ask permission of the author? The journal or book publisher?
Or can I share my port/implementation how I like?


texts: Would the professor be annoyed if I failed two grad school applications in previous year?

texts:
I applied to two places last year; both failed. I am not sure if I ask the professor to write a letter for me again, would he be annoyed? How should I tell him?

If I tell him that I failed, would that cast a negative impression of me on him?


texts: Can I request a Ph.D. in a different department having done research in another?

texts:
I am a Ph.D. student in mechanical engineering and almost done with my thesis. My bachelors was in Physics. Although the initial research plan fit into mechanical engineering - vibrations, thanks to the freedom my supervisor gave me, I gradually moved into dynamical systems theory, complex systems and networks, computing, neural networks, optimization, etc.
Looking at my thesis, it is a stretch to call myself a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering.
It would make more sense to obtain a Ph.D. in Physics or Applied Mathematics rather than mechanical engineering

Has anyone faced such a situation? Can I request the university for this? If yes, how would I go about this?


texts:
I rewrote my thesis work with improved analytical explanation of major problem statement and included few subsections which were not the part of thesis. Also I rewrote the algorithms with more clarity for better understanding.

One of my colleagues at current working place has helped me in organization of paper and correction of English. I submitted the paper by mentioning my supervisor as second and my colleague as a 3rd author of paper. I also mentioned in acknowledgment that work is extended version of my thesis work under supervision of Mr. X.

After acceptance of paper my supervisor is causing trouble and saying I cannot mention anyone else except him in acknowledgement, and he must be the corresponding author. But as per editor's response, it’s too late to make changes. Now he wants me to withdraw my accepted SCI paper and resubmit according to his wishes (1-He must be corresponding author 2-Acknowledgment must be written according to his wishes 3-Exclude 3rd Author)

My question is whether his reaction is proper? If I don't listen and proceed for publication whether it can cause some problem?


texts: What to do for my graduate school application if I think my GPA doesn't reflect my coursework mastery

texts:
I am one of those people with low GPA but want to apply for graduate school in US. I am really having trouble with standardized tests in my institution. It's not uncommon for me to receive low grade in final exams(finals normally account for 60% to 70% percent of grading of corresponding courses) and this has led to a number of courses with poor grades that is already enough to ruin my GPA. It is not that I didn't spend time in studying, in fact I learned those courses quite well (perhaps, in other words, I am not a good test taker). I was initially thinking I should get the right GPA I deserve and was very angry with myself especially when I saw many of my peers could confidently gain much higher GPA than I do even with only a little understanding of course materials plus simply memorizing lecture notes by force(yes, our exams makes this kind of preparation really an effective way to get grades like 3.7/4.0 for most core courses). It seems to me like my classmates can have 3.7/4.0 with ease, but I was more likely to get only 2.7/3.0/3.3 even if I was well versed in coursework and fully prepared for exams. I talked to my classmates for help but they told me they were too surprised by my situation and don't know what I should do at all. I tried various methods to make a difference like making sure my homework/class attendance parts of scoring rubric are going well, even the above mentioned exam preparation strategy, but still received little improvement.  I never successfully found a solution throughout my undergrad, and I really want to defend this shortcoming in my statement of purpose, but I have worries about this.
MY QUESTION IS:
If I go ahead to explain this in my SOP, would it sound like merely an attempt to find an excuse? If your advice is "do it", is there anything I should not talk about regarding the reason I mentioned above(i.e. don'ts)?
*. Some additional information, I am applying physics graduate program. I have first author publication in physics which I think could help me address that my knowledge mastery of related  maths and physics is not what my grade shows. But even so, my paper, of course, cannot address other poorly scored courses.


texts: Professor withholding course grade until submission of conference paper

texts:
I have recently been told by the professor of a particular course of mine, that our final grades will be withheld (given as an "Incomplete" which is later replaced by the final grade) until we individually submit our semester papers in the course to a conference.

This has a few issues to go with it:

I defended my MSc and passed, however without this credit I will not receive my degree this semester.
I do not want a low-quality publication on my record, especially since it appears past students in the course published in pay-to-publish conferences.
I am far, far from an expert in this field. I took the course to learn about the subject and have only been spending the last few weeks on this research paper. To give more context, I don't even have a publication in my PhD work yet and I am 2 years in.

The situation prompts two questions from me:

Is it ethical for the professor to require a student to submit a paper to a conference for a course? (This requirement is not mentioned in the syllabus.)
Is it allowed for a professor to require this? Are there any rules or regulations in the US (state school) to prevent it?


texts: What benefits are there to peer reviewing papers?

texts: I am a first year PhD student, and have been asked to peer-review a paper.  The paper is not really in my field, so I will not learn anything valuable by reading the paper.  The publishing venue is not open-access, so it is difficult to justify on altruistic grounds.  Also, the reviews are double-blind, so there is no potential for networking.  As I have never been a reviewer, I am wondering: is there any other possible personal benefits that I might realize from performing this task?


texts:
Can hypothesis for doctoral dissertation be formulated as "to demonstrate that approach X can be used effeciently/successfully to model Y"?

I'm trying to use novel approach X that has been rarely used in my field to model Y in my country where X has not been used at all.

The problem is I don't have anything to compare it with Y to validate my results. I can only compare Y with Z which has been modeled using different approach and aggregates several other factors that are not the subject of my research. They are not directly comparable but both Y and Z should have similar trend. Nevertheless, I will compare these two to check external validity of my results.

In addition, there are some previous predictions about Y which I will also use for testing/proving validity of my results.


texts: Linking stackexchange account with answers that have cited papers without access while applying for research opportunities

texts:
I am a sophomore currently and was active pre-university on one of the daughter sites. While answering questions, I would reach upon specific research papers, paywalled. I broke through them
using means that are not so legal.
My answers reflect the primary reasons and interests as to why I want to research in that specific field are on that account.
Is it advisable to refer to my StackExchange account in my cover letter?
I have cited all articles properly; however, screenshots have been posted in many answers.


texts: Can an undergraduate be advised by a professor who is very far away?

texts:
Lately I have been developing a good relationship with Prof. Wright.

She has clearly* gone out of her way a few times to help me, having a very pleasant, generous, and kind personality. Prof. Wright is searching for students (in her university of course, undergraduate, Master, or PhD). I really like her research and would love to work in her area. However, there's no researcher working in the field anywhere near** the university I study at.

This brings the reason for this question: I have been thinking about
asking her if she could advise me.

Is this unreasonable?
If not, how unlikely is it for her to accept? (To make this practical: what would you do if you were in her shoes?)
Is there a chance of this ruining our relationship? If yes, what can I do to make sure it won't ruin it?
Finally, if I'm going to ask her to be my advisor, it won't (of course and unfortunately) be in person, which means email. What can I do to enhance my chances here?

A few remarks which are (probably) important:

Of course such a setting should benefit both people! I would like to contribute to her research, in a way that is useful to her too;
My field is in Mathematics, being purely theoretical and not requiring lab/field work;
I am moderately independent when it comes to research. More details (in view of comments/answers on this point):

3a. In terms of learning: I've been learning graduate topics by myself for the past two years (I also learned the prerequisites for them in the same way). In particular, I'm used to approaching new topics and learning them by myself.

3b. In terms of producing: I believe*** I would be capable of producing a review article on recent (<10 years) research on certain topics in my field by myself. On the other hand, I can't produce original research. This means I'm used to academic writing, somewhat used to reading original research papers and slightly used to asking original research questions (i.e. can this work be extended for such and such case, what are the main problems this would entail, etc.), but have zero experience with actually producing new research.
I can't move to (anywhere near) her university for now.
(In view of anon's answer) I really don't mind if this won't count for my degree, or that I will be working unpaid.
On the other hand, I will have to do coursework next year, and
would like to know if (assuming Prof. Wright accepts me as her student) carrying another project while working with her would be a     problem either to her, or to my local, next year, advisor, provided that I can handle these two projects concurrently. (In this case, I would choose a not project with my local advisor sufficiently undemanding (yet not "pointless") for this to work.)

This question is heavily lacking some specific details. I can't provide those, for Prof. Wright is in the SE network too (and these might identify myself).

*To prevent against any kind of bias I may have in making this judgment, I have explained my situation to a few people, who agreed this is indeed a(n unusually) good relationship.

**Near here means less than 2000 km (probably even more).

***I have been doing something similar recently.


texts: How to tell my PhD supervisors I want to publish without them?

texts:
I have had poor supervision from both my supervisors, but one in particular. Overall, neither provided me much intellectual support while I was doing my thesis in psychology. Early on, they were a little helpful when I was recruiting for participants - they attended my ethics panel meeting and made edits to my ethics application. I hardly ever saw them or met with them to discuss ideas (like once a year). The analysis of my thesis was a sole endeavour. I received minor feedback with respect to paragraph structuring, spelling errors and grammar in the write up of my thesis. No substantial feedback that helped me with my analysis, theoretical arguments or conclusions.

Additionally, I have felt unsupported from a morale point of point. My main supervisor's communication towards me has been disrespectful and belittling. For example, she has embarrassed me in front of colleagues by implying that I overestimate my capacities on more than one occasion.
Now that I have finished my thesis and have passed examination, both my supervisors are keen for me to publish and have asked to catch up to discuss manuscripts.

I'm at two minds now. I don't want to give them intellectual credit for the work I did on my own. Yet, I also don't want to break down the decent relationship I have with my secondary supervisor. I have relied on this secondary supervisor to provide me with a good reference that ultimately won me  prestigious position at a university. So I feel a sense of obligation towards her. The two supervisors work closely together so I couldn't possibly imagine having one included as a co-author and not the other - it would be extremely awkward and not really accepted.

The other thing that's playing on my mind is my inexperience with publishing. I haven't published a paper in years and feel trepidation about venturing out on my own. The reports I received from examiners were very positive and both said that my thesis was well written and publishable. But I still feel unsure about how to proceed and would benefit from practical guidance.

Any advice on how I should proceed would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: To clarify, the supervisors have requested we work together on translating thesis chapters into publications. Not new research.


texts: What is the best way to motivate teaching assistants?

texts:
I am head TA in a 300-student class, with 12 other TAs.  Currently I do the following things to motivate my TAs:

We have an internal Slack channel called #shoutouts where I mention TAs every time I notice them going above and beyond.
I post Piazza statistics to the Slack channel every week so that we can see who is posting the most, and then rank TAs in order of how much they posted (currently, a lot of students say that Piazza is very helpful)
I post grading statistics to the Slack channel so that people can see who grades the most (and least) submissions, and what is the average grade they give.
I have a feedback form for students to give feedback to the course staff, and I send a message to the #shoutouts channel every time a student says a TA has been especially helpful.
I tell TAs they are getting evaluated by the instructor (which I think a lot of the TAs didn't know).

However, I have been told (by someone not involved with the class) that I am "overquantifying" things.  Also, even with all of this, there are four people who I would describe as "bad TAs" (and five people who I would describe as excellent TAs, and three people who I would describe as good TAs).

What are your best ways of motivating TAs?


texts: How were scientific plots made in the 1960s?

texts:
I've been going over a few papers from the '60s, broadly in physics sub-disciplines.  The image below shows a very typical style of plot I come across frequently (1963).
I'm guessing this was made by hand with some sort of template, as the letter spacing and alignment is not perfect.  And I guess the curved lines were made with spline rulers?
I really like the minimalist aesthetic these plots have, and was hoping to replicate the formatting for my own work.  I'd be interested if anyone has any further insight on what tools were actually used to make these plots back then, so I can look them up and get more info of formatting details (fonts, spacings, etc.).


texts: Removing paper conflicts after double-blind review process

texts:
I'm chairing a workshop where the review process is double-blind, using EasyChair to manage the reviews. I haven't been on the chairing end of  double-blind review before.

Is it reasonable to remove paper conflicts (in EasyChair or whatever system you are using) once the final decisions have been made? I assume this is harmless, but I wasn't sure whether it was common practice. As a PC member I would like to see the final rankings for all papers, including any I was conflicted with.

By "paper conflict", I mean when a PC member is identified as having a conflict of interest with a particular paper, e.g. because they are one of the authors, or one of the authors is a collaborator or student. In systems like EasyChair and HotCRP this hides most of the review information from the PC member and ensures they are not able to review it or add comments. Removing the conflict enables access.

(Perhaps this question isn't specific to double-blind review.)


texts: Article that shows the complete publication history of acceptances and rejections of a successful academic

texts:
I remember reading a journal article  where a researcher in psychology analysed their entire manuscript submission and publication history. The way I remember it, the researcher had around 40 publications, many in top-tier journals. A large number of the publications were rejected 2,3,4 or more times before they found a home. As an early career researcher, I found it to be a really interesting read for highlighting just how much rejection is a normal part of the publication process.

Does anyone know the reference to this article?
Equally, are there other equivalent documents written by other academics?

Update: I found the article. See answer below.


texts: I have a MSc degree, want to apply for PhD degree. Should I submit my BSc transcript during admission?

texts:
I have a BSc and an MSc degree on Computer Science. My BSc CGPA was too low. I somehow got accepted to an MSc degree(two years) and got 4.00 CGPA. I think I am good at my field.

Now I want to apply for a PhD degree, but all universities I checked requires transcripts received from all higher education attended so far.

I don't want to submit my BSc transcript. Is there a way for me to get accepted to a PhD programme without submitting BSc degree? Is there any chance that my MSc transcript override my previous(BSc) degree?


texts: Is it a bad thing to send an application for a master thesis late at night?

texts:
I am looking at an advertised Masters thesis/internship that could lead to a PhD. The first contact should be made by email.

Is there any chance it could be looked down upon if I send that first email late at night?

I live (and currently study) in the same timezone as that of the research group, and that will be made evident by the contents of my first email.


texts: Is it ok to send an email informing about your new paper?

texts:
Several times in the past, after publishing a paper, I have sent email to several people which I thought might be interested in the results obtained in the paper. Usually I have emailed some of the people whose result I was citing in my paper and to people who were working on related problems.

I such a practice ok, or do people consider emails like this too intrusive?

When I did this in the past, some of the people answered to me with a brief email (along the lines of "thanks for letting me know"). In a one or two cases the answer indicated that this person is interested in similar emails in the future, if I have some updates on that particular topic. And in one case I was even asked about possibility of collaboration on some problems.

So from these answers it seems that it was ok. But if there were some people who did not like receiving such emails, they probably did not bother to answer.


texts: How to deal with an unprepared professor?

texts:
For one of my classes (upper-level), the professor seems to be quite unprepared for the class. More specifically,

As they openly disclose, they haven't looked at the course material in many years (prior to the preparation of the course), and are formally teaching that specific class for the first time ever. Although the professor offers nice explanations and new insight in some course topics, it's clear that they lack the necessary knowledge to fully teach the course. Many of the students, including myself, ask questions on covered & related material to gain a deeper understanding, but we're far too often met with "Oh I can't help you with that. Sorry." Then we read the standard literature (textbooks) on the subject, and see that the answers to our questions are standard knowledge (i.e. should be known by an instructor).
The professor has been packed with other obligations/commitments that are intruding in on his obligation to teach the course (or, more generally, be prepared for the course). These include graduate student advising, personal issues (family most probably - their health seems fine), and research-related stuff. As a result, the professor has literally ended class early and even cancelled class altogether on multiple occasions because, as they have openly disclosed, they "didn't have anything else prepared". On top of that, they have severely cut down on the number of exams and homework.

For students who really only care about getting the course over with, having no intention of using and exploring the material covered in the class, this is heaven. But for those who care deeply about the quality of the class, most of which are paying, this is hell.

What could I do to make this situation better? I haven't talked to the professor about this, because (1) I believe the problems are external to the professor, and (2) the professor is a bit hot-tempered. I don't know if I should talk to his authorities, because then I'd feel bad/mean. Obviously I try hard to supplement by studying the material on my own, but that shouldn't be the case for a payed class.


texts: MS student in CS meeting advisor for the first time in person (USA). What should I wear? (male)

texts:
I am meeting him in his office on campus.  I am a master's student in computer science.  I figured that suit and tie would be too formal as it isn't really an interview since I already have the position.  If I were just regularly attending grad classes, I may wear T-shirt, shorts and flipflops (during the summer/fall) and jeans, polo, light jacket, sneakers during the cooler months.  Should I wear khakis, dress shoes, and a nice button down shirt?  Ties?  Yes or no?   I want to make a good first impression but not have it look like I'm trying too hard.

In addition, he invited a few other grad students to his house for a cookout next weekend.  What should I wear to that?  I'm guessing more on the casual side but should I go in shorts/t-shirt or jeans/polo?


texts: Difference between good and not so good university?

texts:
Here is my analysis for a theoretical subject like Math:
(Also assume I am super-smart which I am not):

I assume the stipend would be the same. So will the facility.
There is a change that a good university has a more accomplished professor. But since this is research, I can always go and meet him. Also, many schools allow having a guide from outside the university.
From my experience, the elite university always has a difficult curriculum along with some really book-smart students. So I would be really tensed to pass the exam and hence my research would suffer (Note here I am making a distinction between book-smart students and research smart students which in my opinion are not always same).
University brand is a definite thing. I don't know how crucial this would be after PhD. I for sure know that for undergrad, getting a high paying job was directly proportional to the brand of the university he/she graduated from.
Less pressure as people would assume I am not smart (because of mid-level university) and hence I could excel without any performance pressure except for the one which is required to keep the stipend going.

I would like to have some feedback from the current grad student regarding the validity of my reasoning. Feel free to add your own explanation as well.

NOTE: Not so good doesn't mean a bad university, it just means a mid-table university and good university means universities like MIT, Caltech etc.


texts:
I'm an engineering graduate student whose high school English teachers drilled to use active voice. Now that I'm reading and writing technical papers, I can't stand the often ambiguous and verbose passive voice that most peers use to seem "objective".

To use a simple example, writing:

  The X experiment was conducted to test for Y.

Instead of

  We conducted X experiment to test for Y.

does not change the fact that you conducted said experiment and you are sharing your results and your thoughts on this experiment. Moreover, the simple passive sample uses 11% more space than its active equivalent (45 char vs 40 char), and the difference in length can increases in more complex sentences.

Some publications, like Nature, recognize active's advantages* and encourage active voice. However, the leading publication in my field (and my adviser) only accepts passive voice in its style guide. How would somebody (or some people) amend this requirement to at least accept active voice?

To be clear, I fully realize changing this is beyond the scope of action for a single grad student (I also don't want to "die for this hill"). However, I do want to learn how a publication may come to change its writing requirements.

Professors: think of the active voice's spatial advantages in terms of page limits...


texts: Is it okay to do a PhD in the domain you barely know?

texts: I consider myself a Software Engineer. However, I recently accepted a PhD position in Data Science domain (i.e. which I barely know). I am slightly motivated because I believe that data can have a tremendous impact for the society. Despite of that, I still have some doubt. How do I cope with the doubt? Is it normal for every PhD student?


texts: Should I provide my transcripts for all years or only the last year?

texts: I am applying for a a PhD in the UK, and they ask for my bachelor transcript. Should I only include the third year transcripts or full three years ? Since I am translating it from another language it is better for me to only include the last year


texts: Elsevier Computers and Security "With Editor" status just after 12 hours - what does it mean?

texts:
I am new to journal submissions. I have been working as a research assistant at the University in Sweden for 3 months. Yesterday, at 5:00pm I submitted a paper to Elsevier's Computers & Security. My paper was received and had the status "Submitted to Journal"

The next day at 6:00am I got an email that my paper had its status changed status to "With Editor". All of this is very new to me, and I do not understand that what this new status means. Does it mean that someone is working on my paper just now?

Can I infer the journal's view/reception of my paper from the speed of the status change?


texts:
I'm on the task of transforming sections of my PhD thesis (field: Economics) as journal articles. I would like to know which are the key differences between these two formats, so I can optimise the task. I can think of three essential aspects to have in mind:

explain less. A thesis is supposed to be for a much wider audience, whereas journal articles are normally read only by those in that particular subfield.
assume more. Kind of the same thing, but important, for example, when citing papers. You can assume people is aware of them.
repeat less. Theses are long(ish), whereas articles are short(ish). In theses one reminds the reader of things in previous sections. For example, repeat an important equation listed twenty equations ago.

To me these are vital, but I could be wrong, and maybe you have more experience on this. Even if from other fields, I would very much appreciate your wisdom on this.

PS: I found this partly related question but to me answers seem highly unsatisfactory, as they focus more on processes than in actual content.


texts:
I'm currently beginning a master's program in physics. I intend to pursue a PhD after this. I am interested in theory and at this point I think I want to explore high energy or stat mech and/or its applications. I understand that it can be quite difficult to get a good faculty position even after a few years of post-doc work. I am also interested in fields like economics and finance, and I understand that a number of physics (and math) PhD grads end up working in fields like quant finance, corporate finance or consulting. I've taken some basic courses in economics and finance (all online), but  I would like to know how to actually prepare for such careers. I'd definitely love to work in academia but I'm also a little scared (and realistic, maybe) because of the sheer competition there is, and how uncertain it seems to be.
Preparation could be in terms of taking on extra courses, or taking up licenses/certification exams. If there are internships I need to do, how would those work out? I'm quite clueless at this point, but I hope I'm not too late.
Thanks!


texts: I emailed the professor a research idea, he responded: "Just go ahead". Is this an ok?

texts:
I'm an undergraduate in CSE doing research this summer under the guidance of a professor. After an initial repeating of a previous experiment, I've been reading relevant research papers for three weeks. The program ends on August 3rd, so I have less than a month left. The professor hasn't said anything to me these past three weeks, and I don't really know what to do since this is my first time. He is rather busy.

On Friday (3 days ago), I emailed him some general ideas of a research direction (very informal, I don't think it was really a research topic proposal), and he responded: "Your ideas make lots of sense. Just go ahead". Is this an "ok"? I feel like he's upset (because of the word "just"), but I might be overthinking. Sorry kind of a stupid question, but this means I am free to continue (and that) he's not upset?

Thank you


texts: How to decide whether a mistake is sufficiently relevant to publish about it?

texts:
How do I know my results are significant enough to be published?

I am a physicist and I have found a very common mistake that appears in every paper in my area of interest. I thought it would be nice to let the people know it should be corrected. However, it is a very simple mistake, very basic math. I thought at first I could publish that as a short letter, but then I realized that I am unsure what actions the significance of the error(s) warrant.

How do I know whether an error is important enough to write a letter to the publication's journal?


texts: How do new faculty members in the UK start their career without startup grants?

texts:
I'm starting a lecturer position in Computer Science in the UK, which is roughly equivalent to a tenure-track assistant professor position. However, the department head told me that, while they do provide some support for conference travel, they do not offer any kind of startup package and we are expected to acquire our own grant funding to hire postdocs etc.

Is it the norm that new faculty members do not receive any kind of startup support in the UK?
If yes, how do new faculty members start building up their career? (I would love to continue devoting all of my time to research, but I will have some teaching obligations which will certainly lower my individual research output.)

I'm still a PostDoc in Canada for a few months and my supervisor is as puzzled as I am about this information.

Background: The UK university is part of the Russell Group, which is a self-selected collection of UK universities that are (supposedly) the most research-active.

Edit (Regarding Teaching Load): I have a 1+1 teaching load (reduced to 1+0 in the first year) but I was told that, in the UK workload model, one also has other obligations such as tutorial classes, taking on several project students, and master thesis supervisions. These students are being assigned to me and their projects are not necessarily related to my research.


texts: Is it unprofessional for a journal editor to be anonymous?

texts:
An editor of a journal asked me to review a paper but did not provide his/her name or institution, signing the e-mail as, essentially, "Editor of ...". The e-mail seems to be based upon a template. The sender's e-mail address is of the form AbbreviatedJournalName@PublisherName.com

The journal is reputable but not a top one. I cannot determine the editor's name from public online sources or private contacts.  My best guess is that the name of the author of the e-mail is very likely to belong to the list of the editors advertised on the web page of the journal.  I know nobody from this list personally through I've read and cited some of their papers.

How should the editor's decision to stay anonymous be qualified? For example, was it

(un)ethical,
(un)professional,
(contrary to the) commonly accepted practice?

What does this tell us about the editor or the journal?
I would like to know whom I am speaking to before taking any decision. What would be the most appropriate reaction from my side, if any?

In another circumstance, the editor of a different, top-notch journal to which I submitted is unknown to me. I corresponded only with the chief editor, and I know that the manuscript is under review, but that's it.

Is it

(un)profesional
(contrary to the) commonly accepted practice

for the chief editor not to reveal to an author which editor was assigned to the author's submission?
I would be happy to know who is the actual editor of my submission.  Is it possible (and how) to ask for that such that the question is likely to be answered?


texts: Relevance of Advanced Placement courses to graduate admissions

texts: So a lot of websites recommend taking AP courses and earning college credits in advance. What exactly are advanced placement courses and where can one take them ? Why are they stressed upon; are they really all that important a factor while considering students for admission to a Master's program?


texts: Is above average number of years spent on PhD considered a red flag in future academia or industry positions?

texts:
I am currently working on my PhD in a Canadian university. I already had a master's degree before joining the PhD program. In my department (chemical engineering), the normal timeline for getting a PhD is 3.5-4.5 years (if joined with a prior master's degree). We take only 2 courseworks in the first semester. More are taken if the advisor or the committee instructs one to do so. Rest of the time is dedicated to research, TAship, etc...

However, due to my own mistakes (taking too much time initially to explore the research area and scope) and wrong decisions (investing too much time of a day in developing my hobby), I will be defending later this year with the total PhD duration equalling 5 years 4 months.

I will have 4 publications (in decent journals) by the time I graduate. I also have couple of other works that will eventually get published. I am not concerned about my publications record at the moment as that's something in my control and which is directly proportional to the hard work I put in the future.

My question is: Will my above average number of years spent on a PhD be considered a red flag in future academia or industry positions?


texts: it it possible to use the same alogorithm in two different publication?

texts:
Currently, I am conducting a social media analysis research and have implemented a training algorithm where it combines various features of set to show that specific classifier works better than others.

The question is, can I use this algorithm in further work? Is it possible to use the proposed algorithm in other research ideas (I am using it now at twitter dataset)-if I apply it to FB dataset will it be considered new contribution?


texts: What does competitiveness of a journal mean?

texts:
I was looking at metrics on Letpub for few journals. For competitiveness, few journals had "very difficult", few had "86%" while some other had "2%". What does the percentages represent? Is it similar to acceptance rate?

Example:
https://www.letpub.com/index.php?journalid=765&page=journalapp&view=detail


texts:
How do editors assess urgency of submissions? Speaking about the same journal.

Urgency's context is 'your paper is not of sufficient urgency for our journal'.

Do they have specific (confidential) guidelines which they distribute among themselves?


texts: Unable to decide whether to submit the work to conference or journal. Possible mood switches before deadline and how to deal with it?

texts:
One of my manuscripts was prepared for submission to a CORE-A conference in Computer Science. There are only 2 days due for submission of the paper. As usual, I usually get my paper reviewed by one of my colleagues. However, I was surprised by his remark that the manuscript looks like a complete paper and should be submitted to a journal instead.

This is creating a mood switch in me as I am highly confused whether should I submit to the conference or a journal suggested by him. I already have one paper submitted to the conference along with my students which should not influence this submission (as per answer here). Moreover, I am not interested in working on the extension of the presently prepared work (so this question does not come into the situation). So, I just want to get my work published somewhere in a good venue.

Is it common in research dissemination? How should I decide on the possible venue given such a short deadline of 2 days?


texts: At which part of the paper is it better to cite R packages?

texts:
I'm sure we need to pay credit to every R package developer. Just in line with this post.

My question is, how better to integrate the citations of R packages into my paper. Should it be part of the methodological part? I saw papers that just throw the citations into the reference list. But it just doest not seem right.

There is a similar question on Academia. My focus is on the way one should incorporate the actual citations into the paper.


texts: Will trying to start a PhD late and after a gap of 4 years after my Masters, deteriorate my chances of getting admitted in a PhD program?

texts:
I am 30 years old now and I graduated with a Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering when I was 26. I have worked in the industry after I graduated, in 2 companies for one year each and then in 1 company for the remaining 2 years. In the last company I worked mainly in Machine Learning. Now, I am motivated to pursue research in this field.
Will my age and the fact that I have a gap in research after my Masters affect my chances of getting into a PhD program ?


texts: Are very small departments necessarily sub-par?

texts: This college, which I will not name here, specializes in computer-related programs, which makes its other courses, like political science, unpopular among student applicants.  In one instance, the social science department only had three students who graduated with a degree in politics. Because of the very small student population, the school only had two political science professors who handled all the major subjects. Would you say that this is sub par college?


texts:
How often do publications get translated into other languages?

Is there any process by which this happens?


texts: How do I inspire my students to work through problems on their own?

texts:
I recently took up a job at my Alma Mater as an adjunct professor teaching an undergraduate embedded systems course. Due to the nature of the school, and this being my first teaching assignment, I work in conjunction with a more experienced professor; he handles the lecture and one of the lab sections, I handle the other lab section.

I find that my students seem to grasp the concepts discussed in the lecture, but fail to connect what they have learned to actually, practically writing code to solve the problems presented to them. It is as if they can describe what needs to be done, but they can't actually do it on their own. Now, I did some tutoring as well when I was an undergrad, and I saw a similar effect. I know the students are capable, because I have seen them do very similar things before, however as soon as they get stuck on something, they freeze up and even the most basic, prerequisite concepts (programming, in this case) seem to leave their heads.

It is very frustrating, and I have to resist the urge to just hand them the answer, but I feel that as the semester progresses and we encounter more difficult topics, we are going to have issues completing the labs. How can I inspire my students to realize that they do possess the knowledge to solve the problem and that they do not need me to take them to the answer one step at a time? It seems callous to just say "You know this, I'm not helping you" (obviously with less harsh words), but I really don't know how else to get that point across.

Other Thoughts:
Based on some of the answers (which are great, by the way), it seems like I may be mistaken in my assumption that my students know how to program, and that may be related to the fact that this course spends a lot of time trying to teach the important parts of embedded systems, without stressing the programming piece as much, because hey, the students already took a programming class. They already know how to to it.

This is actually something I plan to discuss with my dept. chair. Unfortunately, since I basically handle the lab section for now, and the semester is under way already, I can't exactly modify the course curriculum.

I think we as an institution need to alter the course to have more general, thought provoking programming assignments in addition to the "easy-code hard-implementation" of embedded programming. For example, have the students write a prime number generator in C (for a homework assignment), even if this week's lab is as simple as blinking an LED. Or maybe not even a direct programming assignment, something more like "Explain what could happen if a function that declares a variable calls itself from within itself (recursively) 1 million times?" Its open ended, but with a little research and critical thinking it should be apparent that you'd eventually have a stack overflow/stomp on memory somewhere else. Its hard to make programming assignments that are compact and can't be found on Google.

Thank you all for your answers.


texts: Just how important is university prestige when completing PhD?

texts:
I'm highly considering attending smaller, lesser known private university to pursue a PhD in cognitive psychology. The university gives full funding, I really mesh the with the professor I'd be working with, and the area is beautiful. The advisor I'd be working with came highly recommended to me by a professor I work with at my current university.

Compared to a lot of the other universities I've visited, the program is much smaller - with about 20 graduate students in total in the whole psychology department. This greatly appeals to me, as I just came from a tier 1 research university with over 60,000 students, and I've been really wanting a more close knit atmosphere.

Ultimately, I think I want to pursue academia, although I'm open to the possibility of industry. My concern is that while the university itself is touted as a "hidden ivy", it's not well renown for its psychology department. The university is not a tier 1 research facility, and the department isn't highly ranked. I'm worried I'm shooting myself in the foot in terms of job prospects later on. How important is the prestige of the program in the grand scheme of things?


texts: Improve software code when reviewing paper

texts:
When reviewing a manuscript describing a new software tool, reviewers are often asked to assess its utility, quality, novelty, ...

I was wondering if, in addition to the classic comments on the manuscript, it was appropriate to make suggestion to improve the software functionality in itself (if the code is provided with the manuscript)?

This would be in the case of a software that is not good enough for publication (basically it does not do enough), and for which small additions will make it better. The comment on the code would therefore not be related to the coding "grammar" but ratter to improve the software tool usability for the final user.


texts: When scheduling talks in a conference session, what is the etiquette, if any, regarding placement of multiple talks from the same research group?

texts:
I am the lead co-organizer of a symposium at a technical conference later this year.  The abstract submissions are now closed, and I'm working on slotting the talks into sessions.  With the number of abstracts we have in hand, I'm planning to spread them across three sequential sessions in a single chronological track. In the event it matters, the symposium scope is intentionally very broad, so the speakers in any given session may (justifiably) have little interest in attending the other sessions before/after the one in which they're scheduled.

There are a handful of research groups that have each submitted two abstracts to the symposium, with different presenting authors. All of the abstracts are in-scope and distinct from one another, so I plan to accept them all.

What is the etiquette regarding scheduling of such talks, submitted by the same research group but with different presenting authors?

Should I specifically aim to schedule them close to one another in the agenda? Should I intentionally interpose talks from other groups? Or, does it not really matter?

From the perspective of the presenting research group, it would seem most convenient logistically for the talks to be grouped together in sequence. That way, the whole group would have the option of attending just the relevant small chunk of the session, with the rest of the morning/afternoon more free to attend other talks.

From the perspective of a symposium organizer, though, it would make more sense to separate the pairs of talks, in an effort to make it more convenient for the speakers to just stay in our session track, rather than bouncing back and forth between our session and others.

It's also entirely possible I'm just overthinking the matter.


texts: How do I cite programming manuals and software user guides in IEEE

texts: I have seen posts on citing documents, but none of them have specified IEEE format in particular. So here is my question. How do I cite technical reference manuals and software user guides in the IEEE format for references?


texts: Is it good to summarize your study cases in a thesis?

texts:
I am writing my thesis and it is a survey. I am making a classification of some algorithms in groups.

Will it be good to add a summarized version (max one page) of each article that contains one of the algorithms?

My prof wants me to make the thesis longer but I haven't encountered this approach before.


texts: PhD opportunities when lacking publications

texts:
This question in some sense, complements  this question. Suppose a good student completes his master's degree in a less-than-top-ranked university. He has excellent academic grades both in his bachelor's and master's, but unfortunately has not experienced the best research 'atmosphere' in his post-grad and so does not have any publications thus far in his career.

It is a hugely relevant practical issue: low-ranked universities woo good students by providing them full funding plus scholarships for their master's, so there are many cases where students prefer them to top colleges where funding is not assured. After completion of graduation, these students desire to go for a PhD in top universities. So the question is this:

How does a bright student with excellent grades but lacking in publications secure an admit in a top school?

One obvious answer is to formulate an excellent research problem and to convince professors of his research ideas pertaining to the problem. Any other useful suggestions?


texts: Is combinatorial novelty without insight useful? Who cares if we're the first to use tool T on problem P?

texts:
I'm a bioinformatician and former student of applied math. I want help to see if I should change my view).

Many academics, including all of my PI's on my major projects, justify their work by saying "We're the first ones to apply fashionable technique T on problem P". This is in situations where P is often well-studied and T was developed and established by other groups. I call it "combinatorial novelty" in the title because the novelty is not in new tools, nor new insights, but rather in new combinations. The justification is essentially "We're early adopters."

This would be fine if the studies produced valuable new insight about P. P is important and I'd be proud to make progress on it whether or not I'm using fancy new techniques like T. But usually, our progress on P is weak despite using T, so we need to turn to T's fanciness to justify our work. I see people using this "combinatorial novelty" to make their work seem like a big deal.

This seems flimsy, but if every PI I've worked under is doing it, then either it impresses grant reviewers, or it actually is valuable to science and I just don't understand why. Or both. Is this valuable to science? If so, why?


texts: What is the criterion to include an institution as “affiliation” in an author list?

texts:
While looking at this Science paper, I noticed that a few of the authors have a lot of affiliations: the first author has five affiliations, including four different departments or programs at Harvard University, and the last author has seven, all of them at Harvard University:

I consider it immoderate, as I cannot imagine that each author has such strong links to so many workplaces (imagine what their typical week looks like, changing desk every two hours!). However, it was published in a highly-respected (and highly-watched) journal, meaning it probably is an accepted practice.

So, what is the criterion for affiliations? How can one end up with 7 different departments at the same university?


texts: Should I offer to pay (some of) the travel cost from the UK to the US for an interview?

texts:
I'm applying for tenure track jobs this year, and unfortunately the silence from universities I've applied to has been almost deafening so far. While I'm sure there are several factors contributing to this, one concern that has been nagging me comes from the fact that I am currently finishing up a postdoc in England, and I've been applying to North American institutions exclusively. My questions are:

Would the potentially high cost of flying me to an interview lead to some institutions passing me over?
If so, would it help if I offer in the cover letter to (at least partially) pay my way?

I am concerned because I feel that by far my best chances are for positions at smaller liberal arts schools or state colleges. My guess is that these types of institutions may have smaller search budgets than so-called R1 universities, and really for the cost of interviewing me they could interview two or three equally qualified people who live nearby.
At the risk of making this question too localized, I should mention that I am working under a very generous grant with a substantial research expense budget, and so the cost wouldn't necessarily be out of my own pocket, assuming I can give a research talk at the interview.


texts: How do I politely decline a project with my (to-be) supervisor

texts: I'm an undergraduate student, and one of my teachers asked me & my friend to work with him in the summer break (1 month remaining) and he would award us internship certificate from his lab (paid internship), to which we agreed. Additionally, he is also expecting us to be doing our final year project with him. While working with him, we have realized that our interests do not align with the work we are doing and it is going to be a hassle to be doing our final-year in this field. Besides, I don't like the attitude of the teacher and I don't think I can go along with his attitude. How can we politely decline doing a project with him in the future, or more preferably, now?


texts: How thoroughly do referees review papers submitted to theoretical computer science conferences?

texts: Theoretical computer science conferences usually have a review period of about two months. Programming committee members have potentially dozens of papers to review, alongside their regular day jobs. How thoroughly are papers usually reviewed? What kind of heuristics are often employed to review papers faster? Does correctness of every proof get verified in detail, or do reviewers put some trust into the authors getting it right?


texts: Easier tracking of continuing professional development (CPD)

texts:
I am required to report my CPD efforts every semester. This lead me this ask this question. However, I find myself spending more time than I would like just keeping track of what I have read.

I guess there is a natural trade off between "doing what you do" and "tracking what you do" but, at present, my time is quite constrained. In order to get more done, and to maintain my focus while doing it, I would like some way to automate the tracking of what I read.

I have been using Mendeley and like it quite a bit. It seems a natural for that software to be able to report what you have read in the past n-months but I do not see that. While I can see everything I have read, I cannot see everything I have read in the past 6 or even 12 months (I can, however, see what I have "added" but I might add an article today but only read it 8 months from now).

Is there anyway to make tracking what you read easier


texts: Untrue negative comments on RateMyProfessor website

texts:
I pay close attention to how my rating scores/comments are like on the RateMyProfessor website. Very rarely I reported inappropriate comments (which violated site guidelines) for removals, and the average score has been decent (4.8).

Since last week, after I reported a comment (with improper language which violates the site guidelines), very suspiciously the same student (who is angry about their bad grade) has been trying to (even until now) leave 10+ intentionally untrue, deceiving comments with low scores.

My average has now been brought down to below 4.0. I've been frustrated because this severely compromised all true comments left by previous students. I reported this to the site and am still waiting for a response. Any suggestions?


texts: Advice for a math PhD student who is also interested in a part of EE/CS

texts:
I'm a pure math (geometry/topology-oriented) PhD student at a top-level American university. I recently got interested in machine learning and read the recent papers. Unfortunately, machine learning will never need the mathematics I'm currently studying. There are some branches of machine learning which require some sophisticated mathematics, but I'm interested only in the mainstream of ML (as well as the pure math topics I'm currently studying), which requires only the basic knowledge of mathematics. I'm interested in neither something like application of algebraic topology to ML, nor industry after graduation.

It seems that most pure math PhD students and professors aren't interested in such unrelated subjects. If I will do research on ML with EECS students or professors, I suppose I will be considered as unproductive.

I was wondering if you would give me an advice me, so that I can continue studying the both subjects without having to be worried?


texts: Journal editor made bad edits to my (accepted) paper - how do I respond?

texts:
Earlier this year I had a paper accepted to a well-recognized journal in a particular (humanities) subfield. I finally received proofs of the article, and was (more than a bit) upset at the edits. A lot of the changes were at the sentence level: phrasing, punctuation, word choice.

These edits often 1) obscured my intended meaning (e.g. turned ONE grammatically correct sentence into TWO sentences that, because of the addition of a weird transition phrase, no longer says what I intended), and/or 2) over-simplified or diminished the prose (e.g. adding "to be" constructions, adding awkward and unnecessary "ultimately"s, "for example," etc.).

So, how should I respond? Ultimately, I'd like to have 95% of the changes reversed. I would be mortified to publish the piece in its current state.

I've published several times and never had this issue - usually edits are small (more proofreading than anything). Because I was sent PDFs, the process of sending back my "corrections" will be arduous (on some pages every sentence now needs fixing). I don't want to alienate the journal or the staff member who made the edits.


texts: How do I know the impact factor of a certain journal is true?

texts:
I am new in publishing, I have never published a paper, and nowaday there are too many online journals. That made me suspicious about their reputation, and it is not easy for me as a beginner in publishing to decide whether they are faithful about their impact factor or not.

Let me be precise, I wonder if anybody know about this journal? it says it has impact factor 2.31, can anyone please confirm that?

If you believe this is not a correct place to ask this question can you please tell me where should I ask?


texts: Who usually submits workshop proposals to conferences, and who usually pays for the workshop?

texts:
I just found that a prestigious conference has announced workshop proposal (here).

I would like to know who can send a proposal for workshops and from whom usually is the proposal accepted?
Does the conference pay for holding the workshop?


texts: What should I consider when making a complaint centrally to the university regarding the quality of a subject?

texts:
Background

I recently was enrolled in a science course where I believed that the lecturer had a really poor understanding of the material at hand. I have had some bad lecturers before but this lecturer is one of the most difficult academics I have ever dealt with.

I was warned by all the postgraduates/PHD students to not take this person's course as it was poorly taught and it was incredibly frustrating raising fundamental errors made in lectures. Eg

Me:The projector says s < t

Lecturer: No it doesn't (doesn't look at projector)

It clearly did... I wasn't the only one that noticed it

The reason why I decided to take this course is because it happened to be related to my thesis area and I had studied it and taken similar subjects before. Ultimately I just wanted an easier semester.

Anyway there came a point in the semester where I questioned a mistake made in the lecture and I said another result should have been used. The lecturer got out the result they quoted and the result I quoted in response on the projector. It was quite obvious that what they said wasn't correct but just said in response that I wasn't correct even when I quoted a reference. This prompted me to try and drop the course and use another course for credit.

Initial Complaint

Unfortunately when I tried to drop the course I was too far into the semester so  my other option was to make a complaint to the department. I really needed to graduate at the end of semester so I decided to take the course in the mean time but put in minimal effort to pass as I was so frustrated with everything in the course. I made this very clear to the department.

I approached the head of the department and made a complaint about the course.

I waited well over a month to hear back from the department and the department decided to not do anything because there was insufficient evidence. I certainly understand that it is difficult for them to make a conclusion.

However they also said that my grade was probably a reflection of the educational background that I had (what they meant was because I was already familiar with the area that due to differences in ways in how it may be taught it contributed to my poor grade).

This really frustrated me. Ultimately I really regret letting my pride get in the way by not putting in any effort in the final. But at the same time I don't understand how the examples that I gave (which were the ones given above plus more) leads to that conclusion. I feel that they pretty much came up with their own conclusion as to what happened. I made a request that they should talk to the students (past and present) and see their experiences but it seems that they didn't bother at all.

What I want to achieve

I just want to remove that subject from my transcript and replace it with the other subject I have. It seems that the option that I have is to escalate this to the university and have it resolved centrally. This seems like quite a lot of effort and stress. A part of me feels like I am obligated to do this because so many of the postgraduates have had similar experiences to me. They choose not to complain to avoid awkward situations.

Another reason why I am quite reluctant is because if I was to make a complaint of this nature centrally to the university this would probably put the lecturer in quite a predicament.

I have seen similar questions posted here but ultimately what I am asking is what are some potential consequences for the lecturer assuming that my complaint is successful?


texts:
I want to explain the particular situation in my university, and advice for how should I act (or at least how my mental status should be).

Traditionally, the management positions in my university (dean of the science school, head of studies, director of PhD program, etc) has been taken by either Full Professors (with a longstanding research record) or Associate Professors with some kind of recognition (an strong research record, mostly).

From a time on, there is an phenomenon that is happening: Full Professors are not willing to take these positions (most of them they have acted already taking such positions) and younger Associate Professors are more interested on research that on management (which is on the other side, something normal, as I think the same :-P).

My point here is that now all these positions are taken by people (mostly Associate Professors) without research perspective (people with 20 years at university but with 2-3 research papers), and without global perspective. The consequence is that the institutions are decreasing the excellence and the level, and this is something I consider very bad.

I am very active on research and I would like to continue in this way, but I am very worried about this, because I love the institution and I believe that if everybody contributes (just a little!) the things would go better.

Here is my dilemma: as an Associate Professor who loves the institution I am and who wants the best for it I am considering starting doing some management, because I do not like the situation I am seeing. Of course I would prefer to continue focussing on research, which is why I am at the university. My point is that my colleagues (associate professors) that do not care about this issue and continue focussing on research will have an easier path in the forthcoming years to be promoted to full professors (and being clear, a better salary is also something to take care in a decision).

So: which is the mental state I should take: as I want the best for my institution I should sacrifice a little (or a lot) my research time in order to do some management, or should I be more egoist, focus as I am doing, in research with a more chance later to be promoted to Full Professor and take this more apathic point of view?


texts: What are the publisher's obligations when a research paper's term of copyright ends?

texts: When a research paper's term of copyright ends, say, N years after publication, does the publication house have to make it freely (i.e. no cost) available for use by general public?  Assume that currently it's charging some money to download papers.


texts: How to respond when insulted by a grad student in a different department?

texts:
I'm a lecturer at a small university. In a class I taught last year, one grad student disagreed with his grade and complained as high up in the university as possible. The result was the grade stayed the same.

I see this student on campus from time to time, and he usually ignores me, which is totally fine. However, this week I saw him on campus and as he walked by he said something insulting. Nothing awful but certainly disrespectful (along the lines of "you suck"). The student was also disrespectful during class. I'm thinking about discussing this with the chair of his department. Is this an over reaction? What would an appropriate response be (if any)?


texts: Question concerning proofs of theorems in defense PHD thesis

texts:
I would like to ask this question:
-Do we have to present the demonstrations of the results (theorems in mathematics) found and published in a scientific journal the day of the PHD defense  or it is enough to present the results only? Thank You.


texts: Should I take the TOEFL exam if I have graduated from a high school in the U.S.?

texts:
I am currently a B.Tech. student in India, and am applying for Master's courses in the U.S. I took the GRE exam a week ago.

Does having graduated from high school in the U.S., where English is the native language, count as certification that my English is good enough? Should I still take the TOEFL exam?


texts: How do i find top journals in my area of interest?

texts:
How can you find the top journals in a scientific field? I am an HCI graduate student, but I sometimes write to industrial engineering articles if it involves ergonomics. Right now, I'm trying to understand what standing the journal "IIE Transactions" has compared to other journals in the field of industrial engineering.

I was told that the impact factor is not a good indicator to find top journals. What other indicators are useful for identifing top journals within specific fields, like industrial engineering?


texts: I would like to build a web scraper for a list of scientific papers libraries, what are the legal limits?

texts:
I am a researcher, and I would like to scrape a list of scientific libraries sites such as Springerlink.com, ScienceDirect.com, IEEExplore digital library and so on, to analyse them for some purpose. In this task I'm interested in abstracts, and full text of publicly accessible papers, I would like to know the legal framework of this, since that I read before (but I don't remember where and how to find it again) that this is illegal, and if I do that any new request from my IP address to those sites will be rejected. It means that this task will be considered as a Denial of service attack.

To what extent this is true?