texts: How to tell my professor there's a system issue and remind them of writing the LOR at the same time?

texts:
I'm running into problems of not knowing how to politely remind my professors of writing me the LORs and informing them of a potential technical problem at the same time.

I recently had a professor who was trying to submit an LOR to University A seven times, but Uni A's system had a technical issue and didn't let him upload the letter at all. He contacted tech support but they never got back to him and, eventually, he gave up and asked me to ask for other professors for letters. This is a very reasonable request since the system was truly frustrating.

My problem is that I don't know if that technical issue will happen to others as well when submitting the letters, but I don't want to wait until the last minute for them to submit the letters and tell me the system doesn't work. It would be very risky.

So I want to let them know that Univ A's system might have this issue and want to have them trying uploading letters ASAP, so that if there's a problem, I'll have time to fix it.
But, at the same time, these are the same professors who are writing me letters for other universities, not just for Univ A, and I don't know how to frame the letter to remind them? Will it seem like I rushing them to upload all the letters to all the schools?


texts: Dealing with consulting agreements where NDA conflicts with research interests

texts:
I am a computer science doctoral student working on machine learning (ML) research. Meanwhile, a startup approached me to consult/advise them in areas related  to algorithms in ML. Needless to say a lot of work that I do as part of my research encompasses ML deeply.  They want me to sign a mutual non disclosure  agreement (NDA)/ non compete clause before i engage as an independent  consultant with them, while pursuing my program full-time. In this context, they know well that I will be pursuing my program for at least the next 3 years.

I have a few problems here.

The confidentiality information covers:

  ...techniques, know-how, processes, algorithms... related to current and future proposed products and services... and includes, without limitation, their respective information concerning research, experimental work, development, design details and specifications, engineering..."

I am worried about this part mostly. Most ML research uses some form of classification or clustering in various domains. Every other startup is mining some patterns that they may use to their advantage. The methods used are generally known in the ML community and published in existing literature. Can a startup claim that an "algorithm" (which already exists in the literature) was used by me in some form at a later point of time for work unrelated to that domain? Additionally, I intend to use or publish research methods developed as part of my doctoral research during its course or in future. Does "without limitation ...respective information concerning research, experimental work, development" restrict me from doing this i.e can the organization restrict me from publishing work done in my doctoral program by claiming that I was also working with them during this period, so they have a right to what i publish during this time?
Regarding confidential information:

  "...if orally disclosed, designated as confidential at the time of disclosure and marked in writing as “confidential”."

Does this mean that anything said orally related to ML is considered confidential?
Non-Compete clause:

  "...with a direct competitor of Company while engaged with Company and for thirty-six months following the termination or completion of this engagement..."

As an ML researcher, I will be working on ML in the future years to come. Asking me to stop working in ML for 36 months is equivalent to asking "don't work for 3 years". Additionally, the startup does work which is similar to the kind of work a lot of analytics/data science related firms do. Most of ML research broadly falls into pattern mining in some form which almost all organizations engage in. In this context, does 36 months not seem a bit unreasonable?
What exactly can i get them to write in the NDA which informs that they are aware of my research position and do not expect IP for my academic research?


texts: What can a student who works hard,is motivated to learn do to improve his grades?

texts:
Background:
I am from Nepal (neighbouring country of India). So, our education system is different even though the syllabus is similar to the west. Majority of our grades come from final semester examination. The questions asked in exams are mostly repeated from the last 5 years(10 questions papers i.e every year 1 Regular and 1 Supplement exam). The exams are relatively far easier compared to what it would be in the west, BUT here is the catch. The teaching is below par, culture of reading reference book is rare among students, mainly because less time for students to be able to do so. So, what it does is that you put x hrs in class for the sake of attendance(75% attendance is a must to pass the class), you learn nth in those x hrs and you study for another y hours, first trying to  learn the basic that you should have got in the class and again trying to actually solve old questions.
Problems:
I am in engineering. It is worrying because-:
I like studying.
I don't memorize much, I study to learn.
I study very hard. I put lots of hours in study.
I even solve old questions during these 3 days exam gap.
How I study?
During semester, I properly do assignments, I do much of the assignments by myself.
During 3 days exam gap I buy a note that consists old questions solutions. Then I put my assignment notes and laptop in front  of me. Then I start to solve old questions by using notes solutions and internet videos. I solve last 5 years(only 5) of questions and other related questions that have not came in 5 year(only 5). For eg-: If there is a question "what is aquatic animal" I also study topics related to "what is terrestrial animal" and "what is aerobic animal".
History:
I have always got great marks in exam. Be it 90%+ in SLC and 87% average in +2. People think I am rattu tota (Hindi/Nepali for parroting from memory) who memorizes everything, but no I don't memorize anything.(But yes I use mnemonic techniques to remember).
What could my problems be?
(This is what I feel but I am unsure if they are really the problems)?
Whenever  I like some subject, I study almost everything related to that topic. Turns out, questions mostly come from last 5 years and not much from too much of the past. Since I dedicate more time to 1 topic, it makes less time for other topics. And if hard questions come from those topics I put less time, then you know I will do bad in that subject.
I have found that I do good in subjects that I find hard rather than subjects that I find easy(irrespective of if the subjects are meant to be hard or easy).
Also I always feel that if I studied 3-4 hrs more in the exam study gap, I could have scored better. i.e It would make up time for my revision and I could score better marks. (Even though I do active recall after solving every old questions).
At this moment, I am genuinely frustrated, extremely frustrated. I am dedicated, all teachers get surprised when they see my final marks, and I am actually learning something and not memorising.
Can you suggest anything for me?


texts: Can Journals settle all legal processes related to accepted papers before publication on behalf of authors?

texts:
For an accepted paper about to be produced (not open access), the author should agree to terms that all illustrations, tables etc. have recieved permissions from the copyright owner. If the author agrees, the paper takes the copyright of the Journal. The question is that, for an inexperienced author, could the journal take up the responsibility (e.g through an office) to take care of issues of permissions etc. before beginning the production process? Thus, they would look into: which figures, tables etc. require permission and they would go through the process. For instance using a Rightslink account etc.

Edit: If not, could they (at least some of them) offer advice on what and what may require permissions from an accepted manuscript?


texts: How should I state my MS degree in my CV when it was in practice a joint-program?

texts:
The title of my master degree certificate says that I obtained M.Sc. in "Control engineering", but half of the courses I took during my master belong to machine learning (computer science), and even my Master Thesis and my publication were related to machine learning.

But when I put in the top of my CV that I studied my MS in control engineering it brings a negative first impression!
I think the default assumption is that engineering disciplines are far away from computer science skills and programming.
So, I was wondering if I can use another title or a modification of that
title to properly send the message at the beginning?!


texts: How should I use 'the,' when referring to 'authors,' 'algorithms,' 'functions' etc.?

texts:
If I refer to authors of a publication, a specific algorithm, a specific function etc., do I have to write the definite article the?
I'm confused because on the one hand, I refer to concrete authors, a concrete algorithm, or a concrete function. On the other hand, they are, in particular algorithms and functions, proper names, and thus do not require an article. In scientific publications that I've read so far I can spot some inconsistencies in this matter.
Some examples:

In [10] X and Y propose a method... The authors suggest that... or Authors suggest that...
DBSCAN is an algorithm that... or The DBSCAN is an algorithm that...
Figure 1.1 shows the values of the distances computed by use of Euclidean distance... or the Euclidean distance...


texts: Tips for moderating a panel discussion: Optimum number of panelists?

texts:
I will be moderating a panel discussion (60 min event) later this Semester. Was wondering if there are any tips that people may have?
I have read some of the relevant questions on Academia SE. e.g. This and this  but would love more insights.
e.g. What's an optimum number of speakers? Typically in the past I've moderated panels with two or three panelists but this time it seems we might have four.
Is four too many? i.e. I worry each speaker gets too little time or the discussion becomes too disjoint.
Would love comments about what others feel. Even if you have not moderated a panel I am sure most of us have listened to one.
What are things that you love and hate?
e.g. Personally I feel panels almost always give too little time for audience questions and that's usually where the most interesting part lies.


texts: What is Wise to Study For a Successful Career Outside of Academia?

texts:
Next year I will be starting an MS program in the Computer Science department (I have come from a grad-prep program). I have "learned" C++, C, Java, assembly, CS math, and OS.

When I enter this program, I need to pick a track. My problem is I do not know what to choose yet.

I am sure this will remedy over time, but I wanted to get others' opinions.

I have heard databases and cyber-security make the most money. As far as job availability, I have heard that there are a lot of jobs in web development (using things such as Javascript, Node JS, etc).

What do you believe is a wise area to focus on during the next 1-3 years?


texts: Cover letter v/s statement of research interests

texts:
I saw a postdoctoral position advertisement in engineering field, which has asked applicants to submit a cover letter  and a statement of research interest. If these two are not explicitly asked, then I usually prepare single document mostly containing my research interest along with a CV.

I would like to know what should be the content of the two different documents, means what should go where?

Thanks


texts: Quickly pulling together thesis after unexpected failure of oral exam

texts:
I failed my oral exam unexpectedly. My advisor had the impression that it would be less formal than it was (or at least that is what he told me) and I wasn't prepared. I thought it would be more along the lines of a project proposal, but instead my committee wanted my thesis to be close to half done.

It is not. The problem I have been working on is fairly unique, and there wasn't a lot of existing work for me to base it on. I've needed to run a lot of numerical tests to ensure my conjectures are correct before trying to prove them. Consequently, progress has been slow. But there have been some results, and I know that it is a good idea.

My second oral exam will be at the end of spring, and if I do not pass then, I will be removed from the program. I'm sure I could finish this in time to graduate, but with a hard, career-endangering deadline in sight, I'm becoming very worried about the timeline. I didn't expect to be in this position.

I've contemplated switching problems to something with a more predictable timeline, but at this point, starting over seems like a poor option, even if the new problem would be faster. I've thought the same about my advisor. It seems like time has locked me into playing what I thought was a good hand, but am now realizing may not be.

Are there any suggestions or advice for how to pull research together quickly for a deadline? (Other than work like hell, which I am doing.)


texts: Postdoc positions: turning down alternative offers safely and timely

texts:
I have a situation that is probably quite standard, but I don't know the right way to act.

For several months I was looking for a postdoc job in computational neuroscience (probably exact field is not that important for the question but just in case) worldwide.

A couple of months ago a quite famous professor from a distant country (Japan) after a Skype interview told me that he is interested in me but he won't take the final decision until I give a job talk at his institution A. However he was busy for some time after our interview, so his institution bought me a airtickets (quite expensive ones) for a date after about two months. I have promised to inform him if I have other job offers.

Later I have actually received two other job offers from institutions B and C (both from USA), and I like one of them. So I said "yes" to the offer from B and they started to do the paperwork although they told me it should take a week or two for them to prepare an official appointment letter.

Here comes the problem: I was told by my colleagues that I should not turn down the job talk invitation from A and another offer from C, before I get the paperwork with B finished. However it is likely to be finished after I have to go the interview to that distant institution A. I have told the distant professor that I got an offer from B and that I put it on hold (at that time I did not finish making a decision yet). Later I realized that even if A professor makes an offer for me, I the offer from B is better, but I did not tell it to A yet. Professor from C also wants me to answer as soon as possible and wants me to discuss future projects.

So if I tell "no" to A and C now, there is a possibility that the paperwork process with B hangs for some reason (for example suddenly they may receive a better application from somebody else during these weeks) and I will be in an awkward situation. If I keep waiting for the paperwork in B to be finished, I would have to lie to A and C, and I would waste A's money on my ticket (though I would be happy to come to A and give the talk in any case, on my side), which is probably a not very scientifically moral thing to do.

Maybe I am wrong in being suspicious towards institution B, but I got an impression that postdoc position market in the US is very tough and everything might potentially happen and I do consider that it is a big luck for me to have an offer from B, as it is a quite famous place and I think there should be people with stronger CV's than mine, who might be interested in this position, announced publicly.

Could you please advise me, what would be the more academically correct way for me to act?


texts: Bad departmental funding, when do you leave the ship?

texts:
As a post-doctoral researcher, I am employed directly by a university. Due to the economic crisis, funds are not overabundant right now, and a lot of expenses have been scaled back or even cut out completely in the last few months (library access, public hall lighting, building opening hours, research consumables, etc.). Now, it's already a week late on my monthly pay check (or more precisely, wire transfer), and we received a collective email from the departmental head. Quoting part of it:

  Unfortunately it is not possible for us to pay as usual on today's date, the salaries because of liquidity in our bank account. I apologize for this inconvenience which we are trying to overcome as quickly as possible. Although we cannot precise the exact date when the issue is resolved we are hoping to make payments during the current month.

How do you analyse this email? My initial reaction is very, very negative: the first two duties of an employer, it seems to me, are to ensure workplace safety and pay salaries. So, when I read this email, my first instinct is to run away (I already hear JeffE saying “don't walk, run”).

However, it's a bad time to look for a new job, so: what are my options? Is this a breach of contract? Should I just wait, and how long? What do you read between the lines of this email, that perhaps I haven't?


texts: How to explain an unofficial research sabbatical on my CV?

texts:
Last year, I took 3 months off my usual paid work (in an partly related field) and just focused on research.  Although, I remained as an Adjunct for a university, this 'research sabbatical' was an unofficial and a personal decision. During that time, I was able to publish and submit several papers.

However, this leaves a noticeable gap in my usual work history of 'some related job + Adjunct'.  At this stage, the sabbatical is only 'covered' on the CV by the Adjunct position and does not seem enough of an explanation, as it does not seem to emphasise the research output I was able to achieve.  (please note - my concern is not the paid vs unpaid aspect of my work history).

I would like to indicate that I went on an unofficial sabbatical on the CV with particular emphasis on the research output, but are not sure how.

How can I explain an unofficial 'research sabbatical' on a CV?


texts: Contacting potential PhD advisors while not knowing research topic?

texts:
In December I will finish a Computational Sciences M.S. degree and plan to pursue a PhD in Applied and Computational mathematics afterwards. I have a B.Sc. in Applied and Computational Mathematics so have some exposure to the field but my Masters degree has largely been focused on Data Science and Machine Learning.

I would like to reach out to potential advisors over the summer whose research interests align with mine but I'm having trouble doing so in a meaningful way. Based on my coursework I would like to study math modeling/stochastic processes, numerical methods and efficient implementation of numerical methods, and/or PDEs, as these are the topics I found most interesting during my B.S. and M.S. degrees.

Most answers to this question indicate I should have a research question in mind before reaching out but beyond stating my interests as I've done in the previous paragraph I don't really have anything to go off. I've brought this up to a mathematics professor (who served as an advisor for my undergraduate math research) in the department of my current university and they agreed that mathematics papers are very difficult and time consuming to read unless you're up-to-date in that particular field and probably in that niche area of the field due to their density.

My question is how can I come even close to a research question prior to applying to PhD programs when it would take me an incredible amount of time to muscle through even a small fraction of the work by a single professor, let alone many professors from many universities? Do I need to fully understand the mathematics in their papers before I can completely determine the advisor is right for me? Is it OK to reach out with less information than an exact research question?

This is in the US, if that information is pertinent.


texts: How to politely take back a request to be on an exam committee?

texts:
I need to have three faculty members on my Qualifying Exam committee, with one non-adjunct faculty of my department to be chair. On our department guidelines webpage, the 'non-adjunct' bit was not specified.

I had therefore emailed three professors, two from another departent (CSE), and one adjunct from mine (EE). One of the CSE professors agreed, the EE professor agreed but told me he couldn't be chair because he was adjunct. I therefore got another EE professor to be chair. Now I will have to email the other CSE professor to tell him I don't need him to be on the committee anymore since I've got people already. This wouldn't have happened had I known about the rule for chair.

How do I email him in the politest way possible? He's currently out of country so meeting in person isn't possible.


texts: Meaning of question "do you give permission to release a copy of this recommendation to another academic institution" in a recommendation form

texts:
While filling in the online recommendation form for Yale regarding one of my students, I was asked to answer the following question

  If this student enrolls in the Yale Graduate School, do you give permission to release a copy of this recommendation to another academic institution upon request of the student and at the discretion of Yale Graduate School?

  Yes   No

Any idea what this question is about and the meaning/implications of choosing yes or choosing no?


texts:
Would students who drop out before they take any exam be blacklisted by the (prestigious) university?

Especially if those students have shown a resentment and a disagreement with the arrangement of the academic program they're enrolled in.

Or is it normal to be contacted by the university inciting the student to apply again?


texts: My advisor won't review my papers, and he does not let me publish them without his approval

texts:
I am a last year PhD international student in engineering. I have written so far 3 drafts that I need feedback + approval to submit them for publication. I delivered the first draft almost 2 years ago.
My advisor is a really nice person, but he/she is lazy and he/she won't review my papers. I am close to graduate and I don't have any publications because he/she won't let me publish until he/she gives me feedback, which it seems that it's not going to happen.
I don't know what to do about this situation. I have tried many different ways. Asking politely, having "interventions" here we tell him/her how bad this is for our careers(because my other lab mates are in the same situation), sending constant emails texts or calls, and he/she always responds "I know I have been bad, but we are going to get it done soon" and then nothing happens.
I am getting depressed here, I already lost all the motivation. I have no idea what am I going to do when I graduate because who is going to give me a job/postdoc without any papers ( I actually have one paper from undergrad, but it is very basic), and since I am international it is even worse.
I would like to know if anyone has any advice, if maybe someone went through something similar and were able to move on. I am starting to consider to just finish my PhD ASAP, move on and start a new career on something else.
Thanks for reading.


texts: Who all are considered authors of papers written on behalf of a research group?

texts:
In epidemiology it is not uncommon to see papers written by a bunch of authors on behalf of a research group (say "the X research group"). See, for example, this paper (randomly chosen from pubmed):

  Moreira L, Pellisé M, Carballal S, Bessa X, Ocaña T, Serradesanferm A, Grau J, Macià F, Andreu M, Castells A, Balaguer F; on behalf of the PROCOLON research group.
  High prevalence of serrated polyposis syndrome in FIT-based colorectal cancer screening programmes. Gut. 2012 Sep 14.

My question is: are the members of the research group X (whose names and affiliations are usually reported in the Appendix at the end of the paper) considered as authors of the paper?

Edit: I am particularly interested to receive answers that apply specifically to epidemiology, but of course experiences from other fields are very welcome!


texts:
I am interested in pursuing post-graduate (PhD) studies in Mathematics, preferably applied/financial mathematics with scientific computing combined. I have undergrad and grad degree in quantitative fields (maths/stats), and I am much more interested in reading/writing papers/research than just go through another taught degree where quite often one has to regurgitate things but not really do what one wants.

I am, however, not able to do so as a full-time student - full time work / life, so I am only planning on doing this part-time. However, this would help with work as I already work in the field, so would ideally be able to curb things so that I take advantage of the studies and apply them to work.

There are universities (BTW: I'm in London, UK) which offer part-time PhD, provided you can really commit and have an impeccable time management.

Question is: has anyone (successfully) done this and what would be your recommendation?

PS. Not looking for answers like 'it's too difficult/intensive' or 'part-time PhD has no value'. I want to do this because I care and because I am interested in this; it's not about (greatly) improving career prospects.


texts: Found an error in my published conference paper

texts:
I submitted a paper to a conference, and got it accepted. While I was preparing for the camera-ready version of it, I made a mistake and an error slipped in.

After the firm deadline, I asked if a correction was possible, but they said it's too late since it had gone through all the procedures. So, it seems my conference paper will be uploaded online with an error, which is not too obvious, but obvious enough that a careful reader can spot it.

I'm writing a journal version of it, and making sure it doesn't contain any error. Would it be okay to have the journal version published error-free, while the conference version has an error?

Many say that no one actually carefully reads conference papers as they are mainly aimed to let others know new results, and say that it is journal papers that others read with more care if available.

This is my first published conference paper, and it is really embarrassing. I was obssessed with finding typos, and blind to technical errors.

Thanks.


texts: Conference registration fees by sketchy means?

texts:
Most conferences have registration fees that can be paid online.  However, some conferences (such as IBIMA) don't offer Web-based payment processing and instead require that fees be paid by (a) wire transfer or (b) by sending all credit card details (including card number, expiration date, CVV, cardholder name, signature) in a scanned attachment over standard e-mail.

Is this common practice, or should it be raising red flags?


texts: Is it a terrible idea to aim for a lower journal for a paper?

texts:
Okay, I'll try to explain what I mean quickly. My research on a topic kind of strayed from its original purpose, and for some reason (bad choice, lack of experience, lack of guidance, etc) I stayed with it way too long. That was my mistake. It's done now. The question is where to go from here.

I don't think what I produced is worthless, but it's certainly not something the scientific world is sitting on the edge of their chairs for. I think it should be put out there but I'm under no delusions that it should be in Science or something.

I submitted it to one mid-level journal and it got rejected, but it was also because it was in kind of bad shape from a writing (i.e., not science) standpoint.

So I have two options: I could submit it to another mid-level journal, but that would require a decent bit of work. They tend to be a little pickier and of course there's a much higher chance it would get rejected again, meaning more work to submit to yet another.

Or, I could submit it to a lower tier journal that has a much higher chance of getting accepted. As the tone of my question probably implies, I want to do this one. I made a mistake staying with the research this long and I want to be pursuing this new direction, and submitting to a mid-tier journal will mean sticking with it even longer. Aside from the fact that I want to pursue this new direction, I absolutely hate pouring more time into this old thing.

So my question is, how bad is it to have a paper in a lower tier journal? (I don't mean an open-access, pay to be published one, but the next level above that.) Is it possibly so bad that it'd be worth it to put in the extra work and aim for the mid-level journals, even if it'd take a few tries?


texts: Updating a review paper after several years by publishing a new review paper

texts:
Six years ago, I published a review (survey) paper about a topic in my field.

Since then the literature (and the topic) has evolved substantially, so I think it’d be worthwhile to update the review by writing an “update paper”. I can think of at least hundred papers published in the meantime that could be worth adding, and a few interesting points (new perspectives, etc.). However, I have never seen a paper revisiting a previously published review paper and updating it. My questions are:

Does such situation warrant a new publication?
Is it common to publish a review paper updating a previous review? Any examples?
How to title it?


texts: Message board for finding private grants

texts:
I am a PhD student studying in the US and I am interested in finding research-grants relevant to the research area to which I have recently switched to, viz. computational geometry problems in robotics.

As of now, I don't want to apply for a grant, but I want to get an
overview for what kinds of problems do public and private research grants get offered to researchers in my field.

While googling I stumbled upon grants.gov on which different government agencies post funding opportunities relevant to their interests, and that this
database is searchable by keyword.

The NSF website is also very useful.  However
their grant solicitations like this one  seem quite open-ended
and are not more specific on what kinds of problems need to be solved, (but please correct me if I am wrong, I am still exploring this website! :-D )

QUESTION:

Are there similar "messaging-boards" where private companies, interested in funding university research for a relevant problem post their funding opportunities? If not, how do you efficiently find such grants ?

I am interested in this because I feel private companies will be more specific on what kinds of problems they encounter and would like to be solved.


texts: I have seen people mentioning special group of journal, namely NCS journals, but what does it stand for? When people say that "faculty has to publish in NCS to get a shot at tenure", what does it mean? Googling doesn't return anything useful.


texts:
I came across several collections that are of great interest to me: they are books that summarize the knowledge of a specific field in about a hundred pages. There is, for example, the "Que sais-je?" collection in France or Oxford's "Very Short Introductions".

I was wondering if an equivalent project existed under an open source license to freely translate and distribute the texts.

There is no commercial intent.


texts:
Should the table of contents of a thesis include beyond heading level 3?

I would like to know if there is a rule specifying this issue either in MLA or APA?


texts: I have stack-exchanged through my undergrad math program. Am I likely to succeed in mathematics PhD programs?

texts:
I'm currently a third-year mathematics student at a top-20 private research university in the US (though mostly known for the humanities). We have a small undergraduate mathematics department, but we were offered the option to take many graduate courses. I’m always passionate about studying pure math, specifically algebra, and I’m very seriously considering pursuing a PhD degree in mathematics. Nonetheless, I’ve not been able to participate in mathematical research of any kind so far – getting undergraduate research experience is impossible due to personal status issues, and my department has no resource committed to undergraduate research.

Indeed, as of my course load, I’ve finished the three-semester algebra sequence by my second year (i.e., group/representation, ring, field/Galois, category theory, commutative algebra, and homological algebra). Though I started late, I'm also working my way through the analysis and topology/geometry sequence, taking differentiable manifold and complex analysis now. I maintained all As in the graduate courses I’ve taken.

Regarding this, I do have one important confession to make, and it is in fact the reason why I’m asking this question. Math SE is a very robust community with respect to algebra. This worked very conveniently for me as there are very few peers at my school to discuss math with. As a combined consequence I actively seek ideas on SE whenever I get stuck on homework. (Please note that I'm not in violation of any collaboration rules set by my department: I understand and then proceed to write every proof myself.) This happens in about 30% of the assignments. I have no problem with exams since they are usually much easier than assignments.

Only after having recently talked to graduate students and professors at a conference, did I realize this is a terrible approach. I vividly remember one said something like: “unless you went through a textbook and attempted to prove every theorem yourself first you won’t truly understand the subject”, which is, the exact contrary of what I’ve been doing. I’m seriously in doubt about my aptitude over these subjects, fearing that I will be subpar on the level of understanding as well as the ability to conduct research, to approach open questions when I reached graduate school. I fear I never try/explore “hard enough” to come up with proofs like others have suggested. I managed to do most just by familiarity of common methods/tricks and theorems, but those things can be forgotten over time.

So here comes some specifics of my question:

Is searching SE for homework problems common for math students?
How will doing so affect a student’s understanding of the material?
In what ways does doing so tie to one’s ability to do research?
What are some possible ways to remedy this, besides completely re-learning the material?
How much do I have to pay in the future for stack-exchanging through my courses?


texts: Does considering someone's work regarding a piece of literature constitute plagiarism if you knowingly derive/spark ideas from it and don't cite it?

texts:
Is reviewing with/considering someone's summary/analysis of the events of a piece of literature plagiarism if you write a piece that has ideas which may have sparked from considering that piece?

Put less abstractly, for example, if some scholar (call him: John) were to be writing a piece on Catcher in the Rye, and made a web-search for "sad moments" in the book Catcher in the Rye and came across what some author expressed as sad moments (call it: Sad CITR Moments) in the same book would it be(?) plagiarism if:

A. John reads Sad CITR Moments and it reminds them of something he too recalls being sad, and then goes on to write about it without citing the paper.
B. Same as A, but John forgot one detail which makes it more/less sad, hence he goes on to write more/less strongly about its emotionality.
C. John didn't consider something before, but the argument put forth in Sad CITR Moments on the matter convinces/de-convinces him and he then goes on to write about it in the affirmative/negative position.

I'm sure one could think up more cases (and do share if you do) but I'd hope the basic idea to be clear at this point.


texts: Applied clinical research clinical trials and regulatory affairs

texts: Is this journal a legitimate one with impact factor or is it a fraud?


texts: Publication issue of a journal article in Elsevier

texts:
Recently, an article of mine got accepted in an Elsevier Journal. Since it was my first publication, I was not very much aware of the whole publication procedure. After acceptance of the paper, I got a link sent for gallery proof. At this stage, I found many grammatical mistakes in the paper, which I should have corrected during the revision stage. I have to agree that I was late regarding this matter. Yet, I incorporated all the extensive corrections and sent back the proof. The journal manager was helpful. He sent me a pdf file with all the corrections incorporated and asked me to approve the revised proof, which I did. Recently, I contacted Elsevier's customer support, whereby I got to know that the paper is in type-setting. It made me a bit confused because the pdf file I got from the journal manager was already corrected and type-setted.

So my question is how could be the paper in the typesetting stage if I have got a prepared pdf file of the revised proof for approval from the journal manager!! If anyone of you is familiar with this scenario, I would appreciate your feedback.


texts: What is the reason of the disparity between single article price and yearly subscription in scientific journals?

texts:
I'd like to understand scientific journals' pricing model.

For example, in the case of Nature, one single article bought as a unit costs $32.00. But a personal subscription is only $199.00 for 1 Year (51 issues, Print and Online). That is 6x digital articles cost slightly less than all articles in one year and 51 paper magazines.

What is the reason of the disparity between the article price and the yearly subscription? Wouldn't they obtain a better return rate if they priced the articles at a reasonable amount? (maybe $4-$5)


texts: Is it possible to "convert" my EdD into a PhD, now that the university I went to offers a PhD in education?

texts:
About 5 years ago, I completed the 5 year process of completing my EdD at a reputable, large public university. At the time, they did not offer the course of study as a PhD. My faculty were reassuring that the rigor of the degree was on par, just with the Education titling.

Well... with next year's course catalog, they are now offering both a EdD and PhD path. My frustration is that the courses I took and dissertation requirements mostly match the new PhD curriculum.

For the most part, I wouldn't worry too much. Except I work in an industry role, and am constantly explaining the nature of my degree.

Is there any precedent for a university grandfathering in old graduates with a new program definition, or other recourse I might have? Could/Should they allow me to complete any gap requirements and reissue as a PhD? My biggest fear is that people would pull up my schools program, and assume I completed their new EdD curriculum which is lighter than their new PhD curriculum (again, which more closely resembles what I completed).

What are your thoughts? How would you approach this situation?


texts: Postdoc-led Lab Mutiny: Is this normal? What to do?

texts:
A new postdoc has written an email on behalf of all grad students (CCing us) accusing our professor of being irresponsible, saying we would all stop our experiments.

The postdoc has been helping PhD students with administrative tasks. My advisor does occasionally helps us with these things, but says that they are our responsibility. Recently, a student had an administrative problem, and this postdoc helped, but was unable to fix it. After, the postdoc complained to the lab that the professor is not doing their job and was hurting students in the process.Then the email.

A meeting is now scheduled. Before this the postdoc and my professor seemed friendly. My plan is join the meeting, and to stay neutral and silent.

I hope to start my own lab someday. Of course, this has me thinking about my own future. My questions: 1) How should the professor handle this? 2) Is this kind of situation common?


texts:
I have a short paper that I wish to upload to arXiv.
It is about two pages, on mathematical application of previous construction (a math paper).

Actually, I intend to add to it another segment in the future.

Is there is a real possibility that it will be rejected because of its length?

Thanks.


texts: Grant fraud, should I bust my PhD advisor?

texts:
tl;dr: Should I report this large grant fraud, and what consequences could it have for me?

For obvious reasons, I will try to maintain some anonymity here.

So I defended my thesis. Which was funded through a government grant.

In order to obtain this type of grant, a professor needs to cooperate with several other research organizations and privately-owned industries. Then it is required for some people to exchange between these places for extended periods of time. Relocate to a different place, live and work there.

So my industrious professor submitted all the required paperwork and received enough money to support multiple PhD students, post-docs and senior professors. However, almost none of them actually did any exchange. Instead, everyone just stayed at their home institutions.

Of course, I had no idea that the grant money was being mishandled until a monitoring meeting with the grant authorities that took place a long time after I started. All the other PhD students had no idea what was going on as well. We ended up making ridiculous statements about our accommodation, work hours, health insurance as the senior professors convinced us to lie about fictitious exchanges taking place.

The whole scheme is based on deliberate misinformation about people working at places they have never seen in their lives. I suspect a ton of papers and documents had been forged and submitted as evidence. The government thinks it's a research project with cooperation among multiple institutions. The only time we see each other is at set-up (pretended) conferences.

Naturally, all the documentation is kept secret, but a quick Google search would reveal that one can't simultaneously work at place x, and give lectures at place y, while x and y are hours of travel away. But again the people who control the grant money only check the paperwork they are provided. Is there a bogus employment contract in my name? I don't know but I have reasons to believe so.

Should I report this as a fraud?

There is an anti-fraud unit which should deal with it. This could, however, backfire in so many unimaginable ways. Forgery is rather a serious offense: a few PhD students and post-docs could end up being deported. More money is being awarded each year which could go to other researchers that are at least honest about what they spend it on. A funded PhD position is still available at my university, so more unsuspecting students will be involved.

I don't even know how I should approach this problem myself. It is an ethical dilemma as to whether I should support my supervisors. The procedure is definitely illegal, but the consequences could vary from not receiving future funding from the same source, to grant recovery (many millions of an unspecified currency) or even criminal charges. I can only speculate on what documents have been forged in the process, employment contracts, visa documents etc. A large number of involved researchers don't even live on the same continent, and that is where most of the money might go to. It is also very personal. Apart from being fooled with many false promises into writing a PhD, I did not sign up for, nor intended to, lie about living in a place I have never been to.


texts: My R01 application was re-assigned to a study section that doesn't seem like a good fit (NIH)

texts:
I submitted my first ever R01 application a few weeks ago and indicated that it be assigned to a specific study section (let's call it study section A). Yesterday, I received an email from the chief of an integrated review group (IRG, let's call it IRG 2) but not the one in which study section A belongs to (I'll call this one IRG 1). This IRG 2 chief tells me that the IRG1 chief felt my application was not a good fit and redirected my application to IRG 2 chief who assigned my application to study section B.
I have a problem with this reassignment because
- my application does not contain any of the keywords that are in the description of study section B
- when I searched for the best study section for my application using the ART tool on the NIH website, study section A was of strong relevance (though study section B was too, surprisingly)
- when I look at the funded grants that are similar to my application using the "LikeThis" search engine, I see that most of these funded grants were reviewed by study section A.
- most of the people in my field have their grants reviewed by study section A.

I've asked around what's the best thing to do in this situation and I am getting mixed advices. One of my mentor recommended that I let it go and not piss anybody off at the NIH. I should wait for the reviews to come back, and if I notice that they didn't "get" my proposed research, then that would give me a reason to ask for a reassignment.  This person also said in passing that it's so hard to get a grant on first submission nowadays that it won't make a difference if my application is reviewed by study section A or B (or any study section for that matter). I have a problem with this advice because the way I see it, if I get reviews back and ask for a reassignment, then it means I'm basically starting from square 1 with new reviewers and I've lost 6 months, in a way. Plus, I think it may annoy the SRO and/or the IRG chief.

Other colleagues advised me to reply to the email received from chief of IRG2 and ask for reconsideration. There is another study section (C) in this IRG2 that would be a good fit for my application (I had considered it before but ended up favoring study section A).

Has anyone ever been in this situation?
Would anyone have any recommendation?

Thanks academic friends!


texts: Arxiving accepted manuscript after publication in Elsevier/IEEE/etc

texts:
The Elsevier policies state:

  Authors can share their accepted manuscript: by updating a preprint in arXiv or RePEc with the accepted manuscript

I haven’t arxived a preprint; the paper is published already; yet I’d still like to arxive the accepted version – does above sentence imply that I’m only allowed to update an existing Arxiv entry but not create a new one now?

IEEE policies have a similar phrasing:

  Electronic Preprints. Before submitting an article to an IEEE publication, authors frequently post their manuscripts to their own
  web site, their employers site, or to another server that invites
  constructive comment from colleagues.Upon submission of an article to
  IEEE, an author is required to transfer copyright in the article to
  IEEE, and the author must update any previously posted version of the
  article with a prominently displayed IEEE copyright notice. Upon
  publication of an article by the IEEE, the author must replace any
  previously posted electronic versions of the article with either (1)
  the full citation to the IEEE work with a Digital Object Identifier
  (DOI) or link to the article abstract in IEEE Xplore, or (2) the
  accepted version only (not the IEEE-published version), including the
  IEEE copyright notice and full citation, with a link to the final,
  published article in IEEE Xplore.


texts:
I would like to reference The Bayeux Tapestry for a paper. Guidelines state to use "standard footnotes" and doesn't dictate any particular system.

The Tapestry is located in Bayeux, France and the exact date and the creator are not known but thought to be approximately 1070 and commissioned by Bishop Odo of Bayeux.

What would be the most appropriate way to reference such an item?


texts: How to respond after co-authors revise rejected paper without informing first author?

texts:
As we all know, it is common to re-work a rejected paper to improve the shortfalls of the paper.

Suppose one is first author on a paper, and it is rejected. Following this,

the other co-authors make some modifications/updates to the paper, and don't inform the first author
one co-author claims first authorship on the revised work, as he/she has done more work after the rejection

How should the first author respond after finding out about this?


texts: In PhD admissions, if a correspondence is opened with a prospective student, is it common for a professor to just stop replying?

texts:
If a prospective student contacts a professor about his/her work or group and the professor engages (asking for more info, acknowledging the student's existence ;-), etc), is it common for the replies to just stop? I would think courtesy at least calls for the standard easy let down, e.g "Perhaps we should talk after the admissions process," but on the other hand I understand how busy professors are and how spammy prospective students can be.

So I ask those of you "in the know," if you've engaged a student, do you feel inclined to at least let them know you will not be responding anymore? Or do you ultimately just find it easier to not respond (for example if the info you asked for isn't up to snuff)?

(I'm specifically asking about CS/ENG people, but any discipline is free to respond)


texts: Is it appropriate to include dollar amounts for awards granted when applying to a math PHD?

texts:
This question includes REU (research experience for undegraduates) grant, travel grants, or prizes awarded. I've seen a friend's CV and he seemed to do this. I was wondering if this is to be expected or if one should refrain from posting the amount awarded.

Perhaps it is worth mentioning that participation in an REU (and the support received) does not really belong in a "grants, honors, and awards" section, or at least that is my impression.

There is a similar question on this website, but I'm asking specifically about  applying for graduate school and what is culturally accepted among the mathematics community in the United States


texts: Does an internal report count as a publication?

texts:
I worked in an academic laboratory for several months for an undergraduate research experience. The results of my project were not novel enough to be published in a journal. However, I wrote a 50-page report that detailed my project (technical details of the experimental apparatus, design considerations, important calculations, etc).

The report is meant to be a reference for future members of the lab.

Does this count as a "publication" that I could put on my graduate school applications? It is not peer-reviewed except for having been read over by the lab PI and other lab members.
Is this type of document commonly considered a 'technical report', 'internal report', 'scientific report', or by some other name?
I authored the report by myself but other members of the lab helped extensively with the project. If I list it under "publications", should I put only my name or the names of all those who contributed to the project?

I am planning to upload the report to my public web page, but it is not otherwise hosted online.


texts: Release software before the accompanying publication gets reviewed or accepted?

texts:
Is common practice to release an academic software before the publication of the accompanying paper in a scientific journal?

What are the pros and cons of a prior release?

Edit: I am not concerned about patents, software will have an open source license.


texts:
As a graduate student I switch between many tasks during each week. My activities consist of attending classes, doing homework, grading, working on my research and studying for exams. However I notice that from time to time I tend to procrastinate and this happens mostly when I have to switch from one task to another or when I feel that a task is difficult and I am not yet sure of how to handle it. It also may occur when I work at home in Sundays or when unexpected lab meetings interrupt me from my schedule.

My situation is not that I do not feel productive, but some hours per week can be lost due to this issue (which is an important thing).

In general the main idea of my problem is: I tend to procrastinate when switching tasks.

To protect me from distractions I have installed browser plug-ins that do not allow me viewing distracting websites more than 5 minutes per day.
I also try to keep track of how much time I spend on each task and have established a relatively stable weekly program.

However I believe I could benefit from better time management advices to handle procrastination...

What are your suggestions ?

p.s. Sometimes what also takes time, is communicating with family and friends. I am an international student and I dont want to lose touch with my people. Although I have a relatively steady pattern of communication with them (usually within weekends) nostalgia beats me wanting more discussion.

----EDIT----
Most answers seem to suggest micromanagement time approaches.
However I believe that micromanagement tends to take a lot of time too.
How can you reduce effectively the time it takes to make a schedule for a specific day ?


texts: Existing publication in Google Scholar profile vanished

texts:
During January 2017 I noticed that one of my publications from 2000 that had a significant number of citations had disappeared from my Google Scholar publication list. I re-entered the missing publication manually, however, the citations have not reappeared. Rather another author’s paper appeared in my publication list with several hundred citations. I noticed the same problem in a colleague’s Google Scholar publication list.

Any suggestions to resolve the issue would be appreciated.


texts:
I've submitted a new paper to Knowledge Based Systems journal for Elsevier.

But currently, after about 3 months, its status is still "Under Review"

I have to mention that about 6 weeks after the submission, its "status date" has been changed but its status not!

May you please tell me how long I have to wait for the decision about my paper?

I've checked the paper status in journalinsight.elsevier.com. For the journal, the first decision speed time is about 7.2 weeks. But my paper is still under review after about 3 months.

Thank you


texts: Make the readers [supervisor] understand the effort I put on data construction in an academically sound way

texts: In my Master thesis I use an alternative database, namely histdata.com which provides free tick by tick data (kinda rough data that need a lot of coding to be transformed but free). To the best of my knowledge this is the first time somebody has ever employed data from this database on a official paper. Usually tick data are purchased from independent providers for thousands of dollars/euros. Should I explicitly mention the fact that I used a free database data and my efforts to transform the data in a working form? Essentially I saved my self from a potentially heavy cost through some free data and heavy coding.


texts: I recently published a paper with four other colleagues. The authorship is listed as A*, B*, C*, D, E, where * represents "these authors have contributed equally to this work." I am B*. Do I list "Co-authored a paper published..." or "First co-authored a paper published..."?


texts: Can I publish an improved variation of a prior method or/and the results I found using it?

texts:
I am doing economic analyses of natural resources based on processes seen in the real world (geology) for my PhD thesis. The model I have built is mostly inspired from an already well-established model in the literature, but my approach on getting economic values is quite different.

In details, the original model consists of 7 study cases for which data were taken from literature. The research estimates a type of resource to be explored/exploited worldwide. The concept is not really innovative and contains many approximations. Also, the assessment methods used to calculate economic values are basic mathematics. However, it is built on strong scientific bases and requires lots of understanding of natural processes.

My own model (inspired by the prior work) focuses on 4 of the same study cases, but I have made estimates for half of the worldwide potential occurrences for the same type of resource (plus another one). My study has better accuracy and uses different assumptions to get the economic values. My calculations for 3 of the study cases are different, except for 1 (I use different data and get different results though).

Question: Is it conceivable to publish my economic results, even if the modelling concept is similar to or inspired from someone's work?

I have cited the original research for comparing my results. The research is from a worldwide specialist who is well-considered in the scientific community. I would not want to have any conflict with him in the future.


texts: Why doesn't the university give past final exams' answers?

texts:
My professors usually give solutions for part term tests. But it seems that, they never gave any solutions for the past final exams in any courses I've taken.

Does anyone has the same experience? Or does anyone know why it's like this? I personally believe that students could use past exam's answers to prepare for their own exams.

Edited: Wow, it's amazing that so many people shared their opinion here. I'd just like to clarify my question here cuz I see my question mislead few people, my apologize. Say, I am taking some course this year, and the professor would usually post some pasts term tests with answers and the past exams from previous years(with no answers, or sometimes they just post a link to the library website, where answer-free version of past exams can be found) on the course web-page.


texts: Following up with a potential supervisor

texts: I have been applying to join up for an MSc in Universities in Canada. One particular faculty member conditionally expressed his interest in being my supervisor. The dept is considering applications and I have mailed them regarding the timeline of when a decision would be made with no response. Meanwhile, I mailed the potential supervisor with a change in circumstance and he said thank you for keeping in touch. It has been 15 days since then and I am wondering if I should mail him just to show that I am still interested in joining his lab. I am, however, unsure as to if I should mail him and if so, what do I say. Nothing new has happened to report and I don't know any projects that he is currently working on. Please advise.


texts: Will taking 4 courses in a semester affect my chances of getting into grad school?

texts:
I am currently a Computer Science/Mathematics student going into my 3rd year of a 4 year program. I spent a year in a different program at a different university and was able to transfer those credits, but I was not able to take courses in a way that I could graduate quicker. However, these credits do allow me to take 4 courses for some semesters instead of the usual course load of 5. Would taking advantage of this reduced course load to work on personal projects affect my chances of pursuing graduate studies in Computer Science?

Aside: I have good/strong grades so far.


texts: Is it my responsibility to point out that a paper has been plagiarized from another researcher's blog?

texts:
While reading a series of blog posts on a sub-field in TCS (theoretical CS), I came across a paper recently published by a group of students/faculty that has literally copy-pasted large sections of a blog post, and made it into a journal paper thats available online. My question(s) are about what I should do about it:

Do I point it out to the author of the blog, and leave it to him
about how to handle the issue?
Contact the journal in question - but since its not my work, I'm hesitant that whether I have a case
Leave it alone, finish reading the blog posts, and add the journal to my private list of journals to completely ignore?

The third option is most hassle-free for me, but I wondered if it'd be ethical to know about plagiarism and not point it out!


texts: Securing an Impact Factor rating for a journal

texts:
What's the process to secure an Impact Factor rating for a journal?

I am taking over a journal which has been published for 10 years (2 editions a year) and has a wide readership, albeit in a specialist area. I am hoping that by getting a rating we can improve the quality of submissions. The journal is English language, business related and peer reviewed with a strong international editorial board of established academics.


texts: Is it ethical to ask colleagues to write a review of my book?

texts:
I have published a monograph and now would like to see it reviewed by a/some journal(s) in the field. Given that there are many other books they could publish a review on, they might not find a reviewer who is interested (I have already contacted them).

So I was thinking of asking a colleague to review the book (I have collaborated with him in the past, but we're not at the same institution). Is this ethical? Presumably he would be somewhat less likely to voice criticism than someone who doesn't know me personally. (Although this criterion would exclude a whole lot of people)


texts:
I'll be reviewing a scientific article soon and I've not done this before. It'll be reviewing a popular article on an astrophysical topic. Undergraduate level but I'm open to any level of guidance.

Is there a guide/textbook out there that describes how to write such a review in science?


texts: How to reference "letters of gratitude" on the CV?

texts:
On my CV, I would like to reference some "letters of gratitude" I have received from different institutions about training courses I have given to them.

I imagine these letters could go under "Honors and Awards" section on my CV, is that right?

How should I mention these letters? Something like:

Letter of gratitute from [institution] on the [course details]

or is there any better, formal way of saying it?


texts: Publishing figures without embedding them?

texts:
I am preparing my first article to be published in a journal. According to the journals guidlines:

  Figures should be high quality (600 dpi for black& white art and 300 dpi for color). Figures should be saved as TIFF, PostScript or EPS files.  Figures embedded in your text may not be able to be used in final production.

(emphasis mine)

My question is how can I send the figures I have if I cannot embed them in text? I'm using Word.


texts: How does earning a Masters in Iceland differ from the US?

texts:
I'm a US citizen with an BA from a US university but I have been looking at the University of Iceland for a Master's in Environment and Natural Resources while scoping US schools as well.

I know generally what topics I'd want to research such as sustainable agriculture, resource management, water management, or policy, but I have no clue what to do when it comes to projects yet. Would these be issues for applying to a program in Iceland? Is it also normal to email professors in Iceland asking to work with them? That doesn't seem to be as much of a thing in Europe as it is in the US for a Master's.


texts: Waitlist Game Theory - am I just overthinking?

texts:
So, I'm on the dreaded waitlist (PoI says I am "near the very top" of the list) for my top choice PhD program and naturally I've spent the past couple days driving myself nuts trying to game the process out.
As I understand it there are two general approaches a grad adcom might take: 1) making more offers than the program has spots available, expecting a certain yield which will produce the desired cohort size or 2) making as many offers as there are spots, and moving to the waitlist to achieve desired cohort size if necessary.
My intuition tells me that #1 is more common, but in that case I don't quite understand the purpose of a waitlist--it seems that there would have to be an anomalously low yield in a given year for the program to ever have to move to the waitlist. So, do you find that #1 or #2 is more common?
I have two offers in hand, but my heart is really set on this program. Adding to the stress is of course the cascading nature of the PhD waitlist (i.e. someone is probably holding off on declining their offer at my top choice program because they're waitlisted at some other school; the same goes for someone waitlisted at one of the programs I have an offer from, and so on and so on). Basically it seems like we're all waiting for someone to get into their top choice program, and set in motion the chain reaction of declined offers.
Intuition would also tell me that this all basically happens on April 14 or 15 because nobody wants to accept an offer from a program that isn't their top choice until it is absolutely necessary--so the cascade doesn't start until then unless there are a sufficient number of people who have top choice offers who then actually decline other offers in a timely manner.
Am I just overthinking this whole thing? Or is this entire process completely bizarre and up in the air until the last minute? Has anyone gotten off a PhD waitlist well before April 15?


texts: How to cite a phd thesis that was published as a book?

texts:
What information is important to provide when citing from a PhD thesis that has appeared as book?

The publisher (even if it is a 'dubious' one that might vanish in the near future)
or the institution and that it is a phd thesis.

As for bibtex, I wonder whether I should use the @book or the @phdthesis entry type.


texts: Abstract appeared in the abstract book of a conference but the paper is not published, can I publish it elsewhere?

texts:
I intended to participate in a conference, I sent my abstract and it was accepted. For some reasons, I didn't go to that conference and I didn't send my final conference paper.

However, my abstract (title, authors, abstract, keywords) is shown in the published abstract book of the conference and can be easily found online.

My question, since I didn't publish that work, I want to publish that same work in a different conference now, can I use the same abstract? Or I have to change it.


texts: Misguided use of offensive figures in student presentations

texts:
I recently had an experience while overseeing student presentations in a course I am teaching. While the concrete situation could be handled without much ado due to some special circumstances, I thought the general problem interesting enough to ask for opinions here.
The case is the following: In a course for first year students, all participants are tasked with presentations of a course relevant topic. As part of the preparations, students are encouraged to make the presentations as lively as possible. One student had included a couple of biographical slides (encouraged), but one of the cartoon figures of a key person was drawn in the unmistakable style of "Der Ewige Jude" from national socialistic propaganda. From context, it was clearly unintended. The student had just googled for images, and this came up. The presentation as such had absolutely nothing to with history, and this was just a biographical introduction slide.
Obviously there is a learning opportunity here, but how should I handle such a problem? In particular since the course as such has nothing to do with European history. Some potential issues I already considered:

Having such a figure on a slide could be quite offensive to other students, and as such, the mistake should be addressed.
But by addressing the issue, I risk derailing the discussion about the course topic in question completely.
By addressing the issue in plenary, I risk discouraging the student from making lively presentations in the future.
By addressing the issue in private, I risk giving the impression that I don't care about such issues.

Let me stress that I am talking only about unintended use. Had the student started regurgitating anti-Semitic propaganda, I would have engaged immediately.
How can I turn such a situation into a positive learning opportunity, without discouraging the student, and without drawing too much attention from the main topic?


texts: Is it proper to propose a thesis collaboration to a professor you don't know?

texts:
I am a master student at one of the best universities in Europe. As I am studying finance, I would like to have an experience in the US or London.

I will have to start working on my master thesis next year, and I would like to use this opportunity to go abroad to an important institution; my idea would be to write to a professor and ask him if he would be interested in co-supervising my master thesis; I would not be paid of course but would enjoy the experience.

Is this considered proper or is it rude / weird?

Of course I will look at professor that works in an area that interests me, but I probably wouldn't be able to specify a particular topic right now (I will do an internship next semester where I plan to find a particular problem to work on, but I don't know yet).

The start of this thesis would be next year, but I think I should start contacting people now for this kind of proposal.

So in conclusion is this something that happens? Should I really do more research before contacting a professor? How can such an interaction be phrased?


texts: Does a bad grade in one course (with otherwise OK record) affect graduate admissions?

texts:
I'm currently an M. Phil student in Math and I failed a course last semester because I was not able to hand in a home work assignment (which was worth 40% of my grade) on time (I was 30 minutes late).

Apart from that I'd say I'm a fairly decent student, I got an upper second class honours bachelors degree, I have a B+ and A's for all my other courses in my current programme and I'm almost finished with my first paper to be published.

I've however been deeply worried about this failure as it would reflect poorly on my transcript if I were to apply to a Ph.D or another Master's programme.

Will my failing grade affect my chances of getting into a competitive programme or greatly lower my chances of getting a scholarship?


texts: Should I list all my research on a CV? Or should I only put the most significant medical research trials?

texts: I am updating my CV and applying to jobs in medical research. I am wondering if I should put all the trials that I have worked on with various other doctors or just the most significant ones?  I have like 40 research trials I have worked on and it seems immodest and overdone.


texts: What is the name of the office in an institution where graduates and alumni are helped with employment?

texts:
When I went to college, I remember there was an office that would help students, graduates and alumni get their first job.  What is that office called?

P.S. If you feel the English Stack Exchange more appropriate for this question, please move it there instead of down voting it.


texts: How different should my Statement of Purpose be from school to school?

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I'm preparing for my (second round of) grad school applications, and as such I am (re) writing my Personal Statements and Statements of Purpose. I am already tailoring them to the specific school I intend to send them to - in the sense that I make sure to reference the correct school, their location, professors therein, etc. What I am wondering is, how much of my statement should be specifically written with this school in mind?

Currently, a large part of my statements are quite similar - these are my academic qualifications, this is the research I have done, this is what I learned, this is how it's applicable to my graduate interests, etc. In a 10 paragraph statement, only the first paragraph and last two paragraphs directly reference the university I am intending the statement for. Is this sufficient? Or should I be creating each statement from scratch and linking every element in it to the university I am applying to? Something in between?


texts: Department policy possibly affecting inclusion and diversity

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I am a last year PhD math student in an university in USA-Canada.

The university I work in offers graduate students the option to teach first year calculus courses as a special kind of TA. The demand for this is high and not everyone gets a position for a given term. However, the department's policy is that everyone who passes a one-term course on teaching and wishes to teach can do it at least once before graduating.

So far so good.

The problem arises when it comes to wanting to teach a second time. It seems like whatever metric is being used to decide who gets the job heavily favours a specific ethnic group. This is, the vast majority of students who get to teach a second time are from a specific ethnic group, while  people from other less represented groups seldom seem to get a second chance.

Clearly the department's argument for this is that these people get better teaching evaluations, but in part this is an echo chamber resulting in the exclusion of members of other less represented ethnic groups in the student body.

The two immediate problems that come to mind are:

Reducing the diversity of teachers for a very diverse base of students.
When it comes to job applications teaching experience can be a valuable asset. Access to it shouldn't depend on our ethnic background.

My (perhaps naive/biased/egotistical) conclusion is that the department's criteria is flawed and it should be modified in some way to reflect this in the future. My questions are:

Who should I talk about this first? I think the best idea is to talk with the person in charge of assigning the positions, who inherited the criteria from the previous person in the position.
How should I approach this person? I think this can be treated as a potential opportunity to improve the department, but I feel like I need to be careful on my approach so that no one feels threatened or accused of anything.
What should I expect? Let me be clear: I don't expect to get a teaching position since I'll be graduating soon, but I'd like this issue to stop and I'm willing to make some noise and bother some people if necessary.


texts: How can I make use of iterative "work in progress" versions of papers

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I often find myself writing the N+1st version of the same paper: we might have a short periodic internal report, a longer report for the funding agency, and  we're now writing a conference paper.
As N gets larger, this gets more and more confusing.

While the early iterations were good, they had different purposes, lengths, and level of details.
For example, the internal "work in progress" version of a paper might have many preliminary results, but almost no introduction.
The conference version needs to have a more detailed introduction, but fewer (more focused) results.

Currently, I find that writing paper version N+1 requires starting with a rough copy/paste from version N, printing all version until N, and then looking in all previous versions for any missing information.

What are some strategies for better handing these multiple iterative versions of these papers?

Note that in contrast with this question, we don't start with a complete result (something that could be considered the "superset" paper).
Early iterations are mostly rough drafts, and sometimes middle versions do diverge because of different audience/requirements.


texts: Withdraw CS conference paper (after acceptance) due to authorship disputes?

texts: Is it ethical to withdraw a CS conference paper after being accepted, but before the final version is due (because of authorship disputes). What other consequences would there be (like re-submitting to other conferences if withdrawal is is successful)?


texts: How do I start publishing when my job is not research related?

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I finished my masters thesis (computer science) a year ago and had only a slight chance to become a graduate student (I declined the offer because it was too risky for me).

Now I am working as a software engineer for almost a year. I still want to do a PhD and I am convinced I can do it one day. I even told my company that I want to do a PhD and if there exists a chance to do it in cooperation with the company, I will do it.

Nevertheless, I find myself reading books about the life of a PhD student, how to write a dissertation and so on...but I feel like I am getting nowhere closer to my goal. I would like to publish something that I can show to research institutes of interest (something to add to my CV that is research related).

Right now I am interested in Software Architecture, I also read other publications even if they are not related to my current job as a software engineer. I feel like I could squeeze some of my knowledge into some kind of publication, I just don't know how to do it.

Could you give me any hints or even books that focus on publication for the field of computer science?

All the books I read so far are either medicine research related or very global...


texts: PhD and postdoc with no first author publications- realistically what are my career prospects?

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I am a UK based researcher in life sciences. My research is in neuroscience, mainly involving in vivo electrophysiology. My PhD project was a disaster for a number of reasons (technical difficulties, difficult supervisor etc) and so I finished with very few results. Through a side project I got a middle authorship on a paper in a respectable but not outstanding journal (impact factor ~5-6). Despite all the difficulties I endured during my PhD I still wanted to be an academic researcher and decided to take a 3 year postdoc position at another UK university.

The postdoc project seemed promising and the lab had a track record of publishing decent papers. Unfortunately disaster has struck again, and none of my experiments have worked or produced anything publishable. I only have 6 months left on my contract and the odds of me getting a paper in that time are pretty much zero.

I know I need to think about what my next step is career-wise but I feel so stressed and demotivated that I worry I'm not thinking clearly. Plus my confidence is rock bottom from feeling like everything I touch in the lab falls apart. Part of me thinks it's time to cut my losses and try a different career path, however the thought of giving up on my long held dream of being a researcher is heartbreaking, and I then start to wonder if I'm quitting too easily. When I tell my science friends how I feel they all tell me that I'm not a bad scientist, that I've just been unlucky and that they're sure the next project (whatever it is) will go better. Are they right? Do I still have a chance? If I took another postdoc and got a paper from it, would that ever be enough to make up for the long gap in my publication record? Or would it be a  case of too little too late?

Any advice would be much appreciated!


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I'm currently a theoretical/mathematical physics PhD student in Brazil. I still have little more than a year until my PhD finishes, and as far as tradition goes, it's soon time to look for a post-doc position somewhere.

Brazil has recently suffered a coup d'état, with its legitimate president being replaced by a puppet. One of his most significant measures was to reduce science funding to almost zero, guaranteeing the best Brazilian researches would leave the country. In the end, staying here is unfeasible for a scientist, which means I'll be applying to Europe. I am also an European citizen, which means I can stay there for as long as I want.

Now, I'm also a very active climber. Climbing pretty much shapes my life in almost every sense. I love travelling and I'm used to spending almost nothing so that I can climb as much as possible. I was talking to a friend today about a plan of going for as many post-doc positions in Europe as I can, preferably near places I can climb, and keep my routine of climbing & doing physics - that is, I want to avoid dealing with the mess a fixed position comes with: classes, bureaucracy, etc. In the end he said that this plan would not work after the third or fourth post-doc: I would become too expensive to hire due to accumulated degrees, and people would only find hiring me advantageous if I were extremely good. The point is that he himself went for 5 post-docs, and I know people who went even further. They quit because were offered a fixed position and took it... But can I live like that "forever"?


texts: Do I need to cite a source when defining terms?

texts: In my research paper, I have set aside space to define terms (each having a bullet point). My confusion is how I go about defining these terms. Do I quote a dictionary, another research paper in the field, or do I paraphrase either one? I found one paper giving definitions, but the author doesn't cite any source. Does this mean the words fall under 'common knowledge'?


texts: What are some tips for passing qualifying written exam (i.e., writing a lot in a week)?

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My school's comprehensive qualifying procedure has thee parts.

A paper that is a synthesis and analysis of the literature on my topic,
A written exam that lasts 5 days, and
An oral exam on my topic.

This question refers to the second portion.

After reading your paper, each committee member writes a question for you to answer (total of 4). You have from 9 am Monday to 5 pm Friday to write a 2,500- to 3,000-word response to each question (not including bib). This isn't necessarily something you can study for.

I am historically not the fastest writer. I also have a tendency to not always be clear in my writing (it is clear in my head, but not always on paper).

My question is: How can I prepare to successfully pass? I need to write a large amount of high-quality work in a short amount of time with no time to prep for questions ahead of time.

Thanks in advance.


texts: Should I put my papers which are not written in English on my social-media profile?

texts: Is it OK to put my non English internal conference or journal paper on my social media profiles such as Google Scholar, Academia, Research Gate, etc? and also, should I translate their title and other information into English?


texts: Does building a Python library fall in the category of research?

texts: If a Python library is built can it be turned into a research paper? Will it be accepted?


texts: Is just 'being interested in the topic' a bad reason to do a PhD?

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I've got an offer to do a PhD at a great uni in the UK, in a scientific topic I find really interesting because of some courses I've taken at Master's level.

My dissertation advisor seems to think that being interested in a topic isn't strong enough as a motivation, and that I should be passionate about the topic and have a clear idea of why I want to study it and what it will lead me into.

I wouldn't say I'm passionate about this topic, but I wouldn't say I've studied anything in enough detail to be passionate about anything in particular yet. All I know is that I found this topic interesting and stimulating. People usually get passionate about things when they start doing them at a really high level, which I haven't had a chance to do yet.

Regarding what it would lead me into - I don't know exactly what I want to do in life yet, but research really appeals to me, and so does academia.

Is this reason enough to accept the offer, or should I reject it and wait until I become passionate about a particular area and know exactly what I want to do in life?


texts: Peer-review in ‘fully peer-review journals’

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If, after 28 months of waiting and the third request, I within a few hours receive “Reviewer # 1: Sorry that this review took so long. However, this paper does not contain any results of value”, I know that the referee read only the author's name and, possibly, the title of the article.

If I get the message "How about you try to establish a reputation for yourself on several less serious questions before claiming to solve * both * the Goldbach and Twin Prime problems?", Then I begin to think that the solution of these problems is reserved for the author of this message And he was promised to show “the Book". Is it ethical to give such advice?

If they write to me “Yes, I will not accept this work. ... From very general considerations, I believe that you have a mistake in your work. Formally, of course, I have to specify it, but I do not want to do it because of saving my own time”, I understand that they read the work, they did not find any mistakes and  refuse, just in case.

Of course, the referee can save two hours of his time, and as a result, the author loses months, years, and sometimes, and all his life.
Obviously, in order to recognize the results of my work, courage is needed.
But, if “Reviewers' comments: ... I suggest rejecting it on grounds that it does not meet the standards of mathematical correctedness practiced by our journal”, I do not understand what is more important, form or content. I’ve always believed that the result is more important.

Sometimes they refer to feelings (“the referees felt given the methods you are using, it is hard to imagine that the results you claim are valid”), or belief (“I'm sure that your "elementary evidence" of Goldbach and the twins have mistakes, many years of experience does not allow me to believe in them, but I also can not spend time searching for them”).

But I'm not interested in the feelings of referees who did not even get acquainted with the proposed method and, I did not ask anyone to take my word for it. I offer the proof.

This is only part of the disclaimer, but there is not a single review or indication of an error.
Is it ethical for judges to make a conclusion about a job without reading it, but only on the basis of their feelings and assumptions about what is written in the article?

Is every referee a priori smarter than any author to such an extent that in several phrases pulled out of context, can determine where the author's thought can turn?
Should not the referee read the article at least until the first error and point to it? And if the error is not found, recognize the work as correct. Otherwise, he should declare himself incompetent and ask the editor to transfer the article to another referee
Really all mathematicians not only do not see, but also do not want to see beyond their nose?

How can the author get an honest, unbiased assessment of his work in this situation?


texts: Gofer work in exchange for Letter of Recommendation

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I want to apply for master’s programs, but I need two letters of recommendation. I was never very close with any of my professors, though I did receive good grades in all of my classes.
The professor who probably knows me the best is one of the core faculty at the college. I asked her for advice on how to start with undergraduate research, which wasn’t a requirement, just an interest of mine. I also received an A in her class, and suggested an outing for the class which she then took up.
It’s also been about a year since I graduated.
Would it be appropriate to ask her if she could write a letter of recommendation, perhaps in exchange for some gofer work (filing, watching class while students take tests, running errands)?


texts: Is it commonplace for a recruiter to ask to see an unpublished PhD thesis?

texts: I would have thought the document and overall findings are to be a closely guarded secret until defense or publication, so you can imagine my horror that a hiring professor would ask if he can have a pdf of my dissertation. This is in the context of a job application, whilst he decides whether or not to invite me for an interview.  I have already sent them the other standard documentation that was requested in the advert.  Is his request as unorthodox as it seems to me?


texts: Rewriting the paper text: when does it make sense?

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I have been working as a postdoc on a theoretical (computational neuroscience) paper as a first author. The funding was over at some point and I have moved to a new position in a different place. By that moment all the (computational) experiments were done and a draft of the draft of the paper was ready.

The PI of my former research group said that he wants to make some edits to the paper. After the scarce comments I got during following 1.5 months it becomes clearer that he tries to rewrite it significantly. Despite the fact the we discussed the structure of the text many times personally and during lab meetings, and I have rewritten it already, following his suggestions, before.

It worries me a bit, since the PI apparently does not have much incentive to work on it (because the funding ended and he told us that he does not plan to apply for a grant in this area soon) and it delays the submission of the article. As I don't have that much first author publications, it is important for me to have one more in nearby future.

I am pretty confident that the text I have written is not bad enough to make its rewriting change the article's value from zero to something large.

Finally, the question: suppose a theoretical paper is shaped according to the target journal standards and has clearly stated results (our model and simulations show that and that). When a rewriting of the text (e.g. changing a point of view or reshuffling the logic) can increase significantly the value/impact of the article?


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This is a canonical question on this topic as per this Meta post. Due to its nature, it is rather broad and not exemplary for a regular question on this site. Please feel free to improve this question.

By its very nature, a PhD is stressful. If you're coping with other issues at the same time, the stress can become unbearable. Suppose a student is experiencing some of the following while pursuing a PhD, and wondering if they should quit. What tools could help them make the best decision?

worried they're not smart enough
stressed and unhappy
homesick
haven't made any friends, feeling lonely
suffering from a mental health issue such as depression, panic attacks, or bipolar
worried about a family situation (e.g., a sick relative)
worried about money
disagreements with advisor


texts: What are the responsibilities of the Publication Chair of a conference?

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I received an "offer" to become the publication chair of a high profile IEEE conference. Before accepting the "offer" I would like to know what are my responsibilities, and I would like to plan ahead as what portion of the available time such a commitment would eat up.

I saw this description, but it is rather vague. It says:

  Publications Chair: Responsible for the coordination of production of conference content (e.g., papers from special tutorial sessions or colloquia, summaries of conference papers, programs, etc.) and serves as the point of contact for all Xplore submission-related inquiries before and after the conference.

It tells nothing about the pitfalls, so I want some feedback from people who have really done this.

EDIT: additional questions

Does it have positive or negative impact on the student. In terms of workload vs. benefit?


texts: Is it normal to feel dread before starting a faculty position?

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I need some advice. After several months of interviews and work, I secured a faculty position at a good business school, which was a relief since jobs are so hard to get around here. Everyone tells me I'm lucky to get such a good job since I'm coming right out of grad school.

It's been about two months since I took the job, and I've started to receive teaching allocations etc for the coming semester. I should be really excited and happy about all of this, but instead, every time I think about starting this new job, instead of excitement I just feel awful: afraid, nervous, like I'm making a huge mistake and I want to cry. I can't figure out why. I feel like I'm supposed to want this and I just don't feel positive about it. I worked so so hard to earn it but now it doesn't feel like a prize. I just have this overwhelming sense that I'm going to be absolutely miserable. I don't know if it's just about the B-school thing, or academia in general, or just because I'm nervous about being a real adult for the first time, or because I know people who have had a hard time with teaching etc, but I'm confused that I can't tell these apart.

Am I naive for thinking that I should be excited and overjoyed about this job? Does it mean I'm a normal academic that I feel dread, or a terrible academic that I don't see it as an opportunity (besides the great salary)? Does it just make me a privileged a-hole that I'm expecting to feel joy but I don't? I would appreciate any words of advice, your experience with before job jitters/dread and whether it gets better or whether I may be making a huge mistake? So confused!


texts: Reviewer makes an obvious and serious mistake and paper is rejected

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Long story short: Submitted a paper to a very respectable (but not TOP) journal in the TCS community. Received 2 reviews. The one was alright, not extremely enthusiastic but a decent review.

The problem is with the 2nd one: The reviewer failed in the most obvious way to even understand the statement of the problem, and said that "I cannot convince myself that the paper is correct". The misunderstanding is on the definition of the problem.

for the TCS people: its a standard resource allocation problem where we want to optimize some objective function. The reviewer's objection is that if we assign the same item multiple times to different users we could achieve a very different objective value thus the analysis on its bounds we give could not possibly be correct!

This does not any make sense since on the definition it is said explicitly that each item must be assigned once. In any case, it's the most standard definition of a very well known resource allocation problem!

Anyway, after the rejection of the paper based on the above reason, I contacted the Editor in Chief of the journal, asking for a 3rd reviewer to resolve the issue (I was not offensive to the 2nd R). The EiC responded immediately saying that a 3rd R could indeed resolve the issue but there is nothing the EiC could do because the handling editor communicated to the EiC that the Com. Editor trusts the expertise of the reviewers, and thus the rejection decision is irrevocable.

I want to ask:

How normal is this situation? We are talking about an old and very well respected TCS journal, not some hocus pocus unknown journal.
Is there any safety net for such kind of obvious mis-managed cases?
Any particular advice for the incident? I am not very interested in the obvious "deal with it, it happens" answer. But observe that I am in a point of my career that an extra journal publication could mean a lot, since I am trying to find a permanent position and I cannot wait another year for this paper to go through such a process.

Note: I see few people misunderstood my comment. My comment is not targeted to the reviewer who might have made an honest mistake. It happens and I do not blame her/him. My point is mainly on the way the journal handled the situation,  even when the very serious and very easy mistake was brought up to their attention. I was mainly interested if such a reason is valid for straight rejection (usually there is some revision needed which we have the chance to explain to the reviewer and the editor where they have been mistaken), and what to do when this happens. As mentioned again, I do not have 30 journal papers so that I could say this won't make any impact in my CV. I am applying for permanent positions and a +1 (very good) journal might make some difference. Thus my main question: is there any safety net that prevent non-professional editors make such unjustified and arbitrary decisions with such huge impact on us? And how this affect only us as authors? Is there any way to make journals (in general) act more professionally (without making a war against them): sadly, from the comments below, I guess not, besides boycotting the journal, but they couldn't care less.


texts: Final round of reviewing for a Program Committee

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I've been recently involved in a Program Committee, and I was wondering what exactly was expected of the PC members from the PC Chair. Once all the reviews have been collected, are the reviewers expected to engage in a discussion about the paper? Or do they need to wait for specific questions from the PC Chair? Are the reviewers expected to comment on the other reviews?

In case it matters, we are using the EasyChair system, so everything is done online, and I don't know the identity of the other reviewers.


texts:
When including a list of own publications in thesis, which order would you follow?

Descending chronological order
Ascending author position
Relevance to thesis chapters
(Any other ways)


texts: Same presentation topic for different conferences

texts: Is it possible to give the same presentation, e.g., invited talk, tutorials, and like (same topic, slight change in abstract and other parts) in different conferences? Is there any plagiarism issue like with papers?


texts: Question regarding copying and pasting on exams

texts: On Wiley Plus, will students be able to copy and paste homework questions if not on a lock down browser? If so, can I detect that through any many means? I have been reprimanded before for not being critical on cheating, so I want to figure out any means I can use to minimize cheating among students. As a physics professor, I find it difficult for students to not look up their answers or have them not use a source like Chegg.


texts: Advisor wants me to come up with a research project. I came up with a project, but it's not with him

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I'm in the second half of my PhD, and my advisor wants me to come up with an original research project.  I also have a mentor (who is not a professor at my university) who has also been telling me to come up with an original research project.

I came up with a project, but it was for my mentor, and not my advisor.  I'm not sure if my advisor would want to work on the project with us, and if he did it would be weird because he wouldn't be the supervisor.

What should I do?  I feel like it would be awkward to talk to him about  this.