texts: Grant proposal: How to answer question about Promotion of equality and non-discrimination

texts:
I am working on a grant proposal. The topic of the proposal is in a technical study and do not have any direct social interaction. And the grant only provide salary for the applicant and project costs; therefore, there won't be any other recruitment.

One of the question in the grant application is to describe how the project will promote  equality and non-discrimination? I understand this question is very common in most grant applications but I am not sure how can I promote equality and non-discrimination in a pure technical project.

should I include additional social engagement plan?


texts: Arxiv Journal Ref field updation guidelines and examples for published Conference papers

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ArXiv has a section called Journal Ref where a researcher can add a publication reference for their paper published in a journal or proceedings. For a journal the rules and example provided is clear, which states:

Indicate the volume number, year, and page number (or page range).

However for conferences, especially IEEE conferences, the proceedings are usually published in IEEE Xplore, and not in a proceedings book, thus they don't have a volume number, issue number etc.
Let's take my paper here, published in IEEE RAICS 2020, as an example, what'd be an appropriate Journal ref for this? Thanks to @scaahu's comment, I was thinking of going with <Title, year, page range> as below:

2020 IEEE Recent Advances in Intelligent Computational Systems (RAICS), 2020, pp. 201-206

Should I drop the year, as it's already in the title, or does it not matter.
Currently, I was unable to find any related Questions when I searched online. Also, if you can give some more illustrative examples for Springer and Elsevier conferences too, what are the variations in those cases, I believe the answer would be even more helpful to future researchers.


texts: A professor matches my previous research and the other matches my interest. Which one should I choose?

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I am a fresh PhD student and I need to choose an advisor to guide my research. Currently I find it difficult to choose.

One professor's current project pretty well matches my previous research experience. Although I would not say I am interested in it, at least I don't hate it. But I find most of his students will need 7 years to graduate the PhD program under his advisement. The speed of this professor's life is really slow. The most important thing is that he rarely gives his students constructive suggestions when they confront problems in the research. I know a PhD needs to have the ability to conduct experiments independently, but some kind of guidance is necessary.

As for the other professor, his project is really exciting and he published many papers with high impact factors. It is not that related to my previous experience but it may use some of the techniques I used before. I like it but some of my friends told me this professor is really picky and tough. With him as an advisor it may be difficult to get job after graduation.

Currently I am working with the first professor. I try my best to make myself get interested in the work, but I am still hesitant.

What advisor should I choose to achieve a satisfying research experience?


texts: What to do if most of my students have switched to a better lecturer's class?

texts:
I teach a certain course which is part of the obligatory undergraduate curriculum. I teach two groups out of four; the other two groups are taught by two other lecturers. In one group I have about 20-30 students. The other group also started with the same number, but students left the group gradually, and now there remain only 5 or even less; the others go to the other lecturer who gives the same lesson in parallel. One reason is probably that I am a new teacher and still not very good at teaching. Another reason is that the other lecturer is very good.

I feel that some of the 5 students remaining in my class do so only because they are being polite. I appreciate it very much since I put a lot of effort in preparing the lessons, but it is not very efficient for me or for them. So, I thought of suggesting to the remaining students that they move to the other lecturer's group. This way, they will have a better lecturer and I will have more time for research  (the other lecturer said it's OK with him). What might be the implications of such a step?

UPDATE: Thanks a lot for all the feedback. While there are many great answers, the one thing that convinced me to keep going was the fact that this is the only way I can become a better teacher. So today I came to class as usual. For some reason, the number of students rised to 10.


texts: How to respond to allegations of misconduct in authorship dispute?

texts:
I was working on a problem in the field engineering. I have used one approach and it turned out that it does not work well. After that I got into conflict with my supervisor, and realized that it will be hard to publish the original paper with him. So, I have redone everything with another approach, wrote a paper, submitted it and at as soon as my paper have been almost accepted, my supervisor wrote to the editor claiming that he also should be an author of the paper. He haven't even seen the new paper nor haven't analysed or interpreted the new results.

Now my supervisor has started a university investigation against me, with following allegation:

  "Dr.X submitted a manuscript on [some topic] to the journal Y. Theory and simulations of [some topic] are part of his responsibilities in [grant] for which Prof. #1 and Prof. #2 are co-PIs. The manuscript was submitted as a sole author without the prior knowledge of either coPI. Dr. X refused to provide a copy of the manuscript. The work described in the manuscript is unlikely to be Dr. X's independent work given his background prior to joining the university and given his current work under [grant]."

How should I respond to the allegations of Prof. #1?


texts: Why is the concept of self plagiarism in coursework not manifestly absurd?

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You did very similar work on your own before, and now you happen to have stumbled upon a similar assignment. Why exactly would reusing your previous work be unethical?

If the university has such overlapping courses and lets you take them, why should the student be punished for optimising his time/resources?


texts:
I used to work in a company that has close ties with the academia.  One of the professors ("Dr A") wasn't/isn't using his funding properly by hiring his long-time girlfriend as his research assistant.  He and his girlfriend showed up at company events as a couple so there's no doubt about their relationship.

After I left my previous company, one of the profs ("Dr B") in the same area of research who works in a different university pointed out to me that the government's funding agency prohibited the researchers from hiring relatives and partners using the money.  At Dr B's department, a prof had been fired by the university for violating this rule.

No one from my previous workplace and the circle of researchers bothered to report to the funding agency about Dr A's violation.  I was temped to be the whistleblower after leaving that workplace, but was taken back because it's obvious who was the reporter: There were not that many of us in the circle.  Even if the funding agency had a whistleblower policy in place, I doubted if it could protected me as someone who worked in the industry.

I'm not seeking any heroic stories about penalizing the profs.  Instead, I'm wondering if anyone has encountered a similar problem.  In addition, I'm also interested to know how the universities and the departments deal with this kind of issue as peacefully as possible.


texts: How to overcome a reverential fear when meeting the topmost minds in your field?

texts: Once upon a time on one fortuitous conference, I stumbled upon one of the most outstanding and revered academician in my field. I had a nice question nicely formulated in my head, but when I finally met this towering intellectual figure I was struck with nigh-religious trepidation and lost my marbles for a brief moment. So my question is: When meeting the Einsteins/mega-stars of your subject how do you secure your composure?


texts: How important is it for an undergraduate student majoring in Physics and Mathematics (or any other science) to have experience in research (e.g., have a peer reviewed paper to his name most probably in collaboration with a professor) at the undergraduate level, keeping in mind that he will be applying for a master's or other postgraduate degree?


texts: Career Options after PhD in Math (International)

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I'm an international student, originally from a country in South Asia. I have been admitted to a PhD program in Mathematics. The school is ranked in the top 70-80 range.

While I'm interested in getting an academic job in the future, I'm aware that it would be very difficult for me to get an academic job after having graduated with a PhD from the aforementioned school. Therefore, I'm seriously considering keeping my options open to enter the industry as well. I'm especially considering this option since I, ideally, don't wish to move back to my home country directly upon graduation.

My questions are as follows:

As of yet, I'm looking to complete my PhD in analysis/probability/PDE's. Would this allow me to keep a options in the industry open? If so, what options are generally available if one has a PhD in these field(s)? Is the job market robust? Or should one consider completing a PhD in a different field?
Is it especially hard for international students to find a job in the industry (or academia) after graduation? I'm open to looking for a job in multiple countries. I'm also considering the possibility of moving/transferring to a statistics program to keep more job options open.

In a nutshell, what can students like myself do now to achieve the best possible outcome which can be achieved by attending a middle tier graduate program in mathematics.

Edit: With regards to post-doc positions, I am assuming that it will be very hard for me to find a good position after having graduated from a top 70-80 school. Given this additional information, could someone please guide international students like myself who may want to keep as many options open in the industry?


texts: Why law and business faculty are paid the highest salaries?

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According this site
https://www.higheredjobs.com/salary/salaryDisplay.cfm?SurveyID=28

"Legal Professions and Studies" and "Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services" are paid higher than faculty in more research oriented fields such as engineering.

It is because of:

More demands for law and business faculty and graduates
Higher tuition in such fields
They bring more grants to universities
other points?


texts: Given three reference letters in a postdoc application, how to decide which to list as the second letter and which to list as the third?

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Usually institutes ask for three letters of reference for a postdoctoral position. Generically the first reference is the applicant's thesis adviser. Now my question is : does the ordering of second and third references matter? How should one choose the ordering?

For example, if an applicant is getting reference letters from a senior professor and a junior professor and he/she is quite sure that the junior prof. is going to give him/her a very strong letter. But he/she is not that sure about the strength of the other letter written by the senior prof. Who should he/she choose to be the 2nd reference?


texts: What are the pros and cons of including graphics/figures in teaching and research statements for academic job applications?

texts:
I was wondering what the prevailing opinion in the community is, with regards to the pros and cons of using images or graphics in teaching and research statements for academic job applications. I sometimes feel that schematics, or graphics can help explain information better - and hence am often tempted to use them. However, most statements have a page/word limit on them - hence creating possible formatting and content issues.

Looking forward to some perspectives here, and I believe the discussions help prospective job applicants (like me).

Thanks a lot.


texts: Is the journal indexing by SCOPUS meaningless?

texts:
A journal that I want to submit my manuscript is SCOPUS and WoS indexed (Q3, impact factor: 1.89, SJR 0.264, Fee: around 1000$). But my Professor said SCOPUS indexed journals are MEANINGLESS!(two months ago he said SCOPUS indexed journals are also OKAY).

He prefers SCI-indexed journal which is Q3, impact factor:0.7, SJR:0.224, Fee: around 250-300$. I understand, maybe SCI index is a little bit higher than SCOPUS but if you scale SCOPUS(IF:1.89) and SCI(IF:0.7).

Which one is better to publish in?


texts: what shoud i say in a follow-up email to prospective PhD supervisors after I submitted my applications

texts: I am applying for Ph.D. programs. I reached out to several potential Ph.D. supervisors last year and had informal Skype interviews with some of them before I submit my applications. It's been a month now, and I submitted all my applications. I feel like I should send follow-up emails to those professors. I have no idea what to say, should I ask whether I will have an interview or just say I'm interested in their research groups again. I just want to send a friendly reminder for them to review my application. Please help me, I really have no idea and I don't want to send something stupid.


texts: Reference for scientific writing for an international journal in the micro-biology/micro-organism field

texts:
Could someone do me a favor for any guidance (link) for writing an article that is supposed to be submitted to an international journal in micro-biology/micro-organism field?

Could you please lead me to another source instead of this site?


texts: I am working on a project for school and would like to know if it would be in the public domain.


texts: Conflicted about whether to start preparing for grad school

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I'm new to this forum and am mainly asking for advice. -- From a conflicted rising junior in undergrad (at an Ivy).

I'm an engineer majoring in ECE with interests in CS (definitely planning on a minor, and if sanity is sacrificed a bit, a double). I've been doing research with a professor in my major and his lab since last summer, after freshman year. So far, I've coauthored one paper that has already been presented at a conference by the first author grad student but hasn't officially been published yet. I know a lot of the advice I've read is to experience industry at least once, which I'm planning on doing the summer before senior year.

However, I'm conflicted as to whether I'm actually fit for grad school. A lot of the questions I ask myself are, "Do I like research enough? Am I motivated enough?" I definitely enjoy doing research and the topics I can explore with it, as well as the flexibility of hours and such. Often during the semesters I find myself wanting to put more time into research and less on my equally important classes.

Part of me tells myself I should just find a job and settle, perhaps go for a masters. However, another ambitious part of me tells myself to go for a Ph.D. I'm quite conflicted about my path since my past semester was a wreck. My grades were unsatisfactory (1 C and 2 C+'s in major-related classes and a math class) due to my taking of 22 credits (includes 2 research credits -- an A) which tanked my GPA to a 3.1, which isn't horrible, but not ideal.

How do I decide whether I should start prepping for grad school? (Consider that there is an M.Eng program at my school that does not require a GRE, but does require a higher GPA ~3.5.)


texts: Is it useful for a student trying to get an undergraduate research position to have a personal website?

texts:
I'm studying a Bachelor in Engineering Physics undergraduate program and I know that most of the people that does research or that teaches have his/her personal website with their publications and their curriculum. I even know a friend of mine that has his own personal website. This made me think about creating one for myself. However, I don't really know if it really matters to have one now. I don't know if it is important to give my undergrad curriculum via personal website.

The things I'm including in the website will be:

CV

Portfolio

Contact Information

Research Interests

About me (section where I can talk about me in an extracurricular way)

So, will it matter if I do my website and include it in my signature whenever I send a mail to a professor looking to have a research stay or a research project with him?


texts: Filing discrimination claim against my department

texts:
I am a graduate student and I believe I was discriminated against by my department. I am pretty hurt by it, but I do not want to give further details to protect my identity. I spoke to a lawyer and he said I have a convincing case and I would likely get a settlement.

I am curious about the non-legal consequences of doing so. I believe my department was legally and morally wrong. However, the people involved may have believed they were doing the right thing. I want to take action to claim my financial damages and to ensure this doesn't happen again, but I don't want to be blacklisted or see any sort of retaliation.

Has anyone here filed a discrimination complaint against their university? Should I expect retaliation? How can I protect myself?


texts:
I wrote my undergrad thesis using Word. Overall I managed to get the job done, but as with all WYSIWYG editors, by the end I feel like I had created a bit of a mess. It didn't show, but I know it's there.
Soon I'm going to start writing my postgrad thesis, and I'd like to use a tool that gives me more control over the single elements. The obvious choice seems to be LaTeX, but as I'm going to be writing a thesis about humanistic matters, I wouldn't be using all its advanced features. Also, it's something I don't know, and it would take me a while to learn how to use it properly.

But here's what I was thinking. I know HTML. I know CSS. (I used to be a web developer, as a matter of fact.) Is it possible to use them for typesetting in an effective way? I think about XML and how it may be used with a specific schema to declare semantic tags, but of course that would need either a converter or a very complex XSLT.

I'm not asking about a specific software, but rather the approach. I'm not sure if my end is worth learning a new tool, or even creating a new one.


texts: Is it considered academic misconduct as a tutor to help your student with homework that is for marks?

texts:
I am a private tutor and some of my students are in university with homework assignments that count for marks. Is it academic misconduct to help them with homework that they will be submitting even if I am using Socratic questioning and making sure that what they produce is mostly of their own thought process?
I was also a teaching assistant for a 100 level physics course and we would hold homework help sessions and directly help students with graded problems, but somehow because it's not part of a course I'm just not sure if it's still kosher.


texts: Correctly formulate Figure caption: refer the reader to the web version of the paper?

texts:
I have included a pretty complex map with about 10 different colors in my scientific paper in forest ecology. I am looking for a standard formule which is applied in this case, something as : For interpretation of the references to color in this figure caption, the reader is referred to the web version of this paper.

However, in my caption I do not use the description i.e., red represent rats and green ~ herb, thus I do not want to start with For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure caption...

How can I correctly write: please, for color representation of the figure, refer to the web version of the paper?

I am not an English native speaker.

Could be the following formulation correct?

The reader is referred to the web version of this paper for the color representation of this figure.

If not, do you have some better suggestions?

thank you !


texts: Should I send a letter of recommendation directly to a student?

texts:
I teach at a U.S. community college, and commonly write letters of recommendation for students applying subsequently to either bachelor's programs or graduate school. I am accustomed to sending such letters directly to the school/program in question. Looking at other Academia SE questions, this seems to be the general practice.

However, once in a while I get a student who says something like, "No, this school requires that I include the recommendation with my application packet; give it directly to me." I may or may not be informed as to the school or program in question. Should I comply with such a request, or decline?


texts: Extent of "unscientific" or wrong papers in research mathematics

texts:
Kevin Buzzard's slides (PDF version) at a recent conference have really unsettled me.

In it, he mentions several examples in what one would imagine as very rigorous areas (e.g., algebraic geometry) were the top journals like Annals and Inventiones have published and never retracted papers which are now known to be wrong. He also mentions papers relying on unpublished results taken on trust that those who announced them indeed have a proof.

He writes about his own work:

  [...] maybe some of my work in the p-adic Langlands philosophy relies on stuff that is wrong. Or maybe, perhaps less drastically, on stuff which is actually correct, but for which humanity does not actually have a complete proof. If our research is not reproducible, is it science? If my work in pure mathematics is neither useful nor 100 percent guaranteed to be correct, it is surely a waste of time.

He says that as a result, he switched to formalizing proofs completely, with e.g. Lean, which guarantees correctness, and thus reusability forever.

Just how widespread is the issue? Are most areas safe, or contaminated? For example, is there some way to track the not-retracted-but-wrong papers?


texts:
My friend earned her PhD in Tehran Iran, I assume from the primary university. She received many awards and published several articles in Condensed-Matter/Cosmology. However when she applied to several post-doc positions in the United States, she was denied, not because of her experience, but because her PhD was earned in Iran. I do not understand why this would cause a problem in the United States. She was forced into a situation to either chose to be admitted as a graduate student and earn her PhD again, or simply stay in Iran. She is currently admitted as a graduate student in the US.

Why is getting your PhD in Iran invalid for obtaining a post-doc position in the US?
Is there away around this problem? Can she bounce off from her graduate position?


texts: Why did my advisor criticize my work for the first time at my Master's Thesis defense?

texts:
I had two advisors for my master thesis. One, as my first advisor would take the theoretical part to guide me. I have been meeting with my first advisor once every two week and he has been examining each part of the text. During these meetings, he continued to tell me how good I am doing and I should keep writing in this way. There were never real feedback, which could be pointing out my mistakes.

So I developed a full confident in myself and in the work. He offered me that I should consider starting a PhD with him.  In short, during the time I have been writing my masters thesis, he gave me all signs that he approves and likes my work.

My presentation took place a week ago, and was pretty much successful in my opinion and in the opinions of other people who came to listen. But at the end of the presentation, I received a totally different attitude from my first advisor. He started to criticize the work in a way he has never done in our meetings.

I was shocked about how my first advisor could not defend me and his own ideas in front of the committee and I am incredibly disappointed. Not only have I lost my belief in him and his judgments but also, I am now doubting my own skill of writing.

I am going to meet my first advisor next week and planning to talk about his twist of judgment and criticism. In this talk, I will question the PhD idea. I'm not sure though, how to put my anger, disappointment in right words, without making him feel that I am attacking to his personality. Also, when I asked him if we can meet earlier than next week, he refused. I have the feeling that he knows what i am going to say and now trying to construct a distance.

I know that trust is a very important issue in between the advisor and the advisee. If we will continue work together, I have to ask him an explanation but as I said, I'm afraid of my own frustration and if I cannot express myself in a right way.

My question is, would it be wise to express my disappointment in him, especially now that we will start to focus on my PhD? On the other hand, I need him to justify his inconsistency, which is quite crucial for me to keep working with him.


texts: Does anyone actually publish "structured proofs"?

texts:
In 1995, Leslie Lamport published an essay in the American Mathematical Monthly titled "How to write a proof".  In the essay, Lamport introduced the concept of a structured proof, in which the traditional high-level proof is augmented by a sequence of lower levels.  Each level of proof expands each step of the higher level into substeps.  The amount of detail at the lowest level is rather extreme -- Lamport's proof of the irrationality of the square root of 2 runs to 1.5 pages.

The essay has over 250 citations according to Google Scholar, but I have never seen a proof published in this format.  In a PDF or on paper, the extreme detail could be overwhelming; but I think modern web publishing platforms could accommodate it very well (with hierarchical collapsible subsections for each part of the proof).

In any case, are there examples of proofs published in the format suggested by Lamport?


texts: Can I get a Master's in Economics with a Bachelor's in Mathematics?

texts:
I am going to receive a Bachelor's of Science in Applied Mathematics soon. I found out facilitating medical environments is what I found interesting after volunteering at a hospital for two years and getting to meet an administrator and a medical actuary.

I have ZERO background in Economics, minus basic Macro and Microeconomics AP credit that I still remember. I can program really well, and I'm a very, very strong mathematician. I have 4 total undergraduate publications in Numerical Solutions to PDEs (1), Set theory (1), and Mathematical Models in Ecology (2) using differential equations. Although none are economics per se, friends who I have talked to say that economics is highly mathematical and involves rigorous programming, so these tools will serve me well.

I have a 3.98 GPA in Mathematics, have relevant tutoring experience on a campus math help center, etc. Is a graduate degree in healthcare economics or even an MPH with a focus in healthcare economics viable with an undergradaute degree in mathematics?


texts:
I am a doctoral student in metallurgy (joined 2014- about to finish it by July 2017) having my background of B.Tech Electrical and MS in nanoscience.

I wish to pursue my another doctoral degree in nanomaterials, Is it advisable to go for it.

I have some offers from abroad in prestigious institutes too. Is it good to go for it?.


texts: FAFSA eligibility for international students

texts:
I am Indian citizen, applying for Fall season graduate studies in the USA.

Are international students like me eligible to apply for Federal aid (FAFSA)?


texts: I have a link to an article on JSTOR.  I can't see the DOI mentioned.  Is there a standard way to find the DOI?  Do all articles on JSTOR have an assigned DOI?


texts:
In my industry-sponsored dissertation, I want to thank my industry contact and some non-academic persons in the acknowledgement section of my dissertation. How should I refer to them:

John Smith
J.   Smith
Mr. John Smith

Considering the slightly informal nature of the acknowledgement section, yet keeping in mind that these are industry folks who wouldn't mind a bit of respect.


texts: Confidentiality of thesis data: PhD with industrial partner

texts:
In the field of Mechanical Engineering, when doing a PhD in a University but in partnership with a company, at some universities, an agreement is signed between the company and the university (or Laboratory) in which the company remains the owner of all files provided (e.g. geometries, meshes) as well as the results produced, but allows for publication of most of the results. The line drawn between what its supposed to be published and what remains strictly confidential is hard to draw and often depends on the company as well as the topic.

Usually, in order to preserve this confidentiality, researchers scale the figures to unknown values and do not provide geometries or mesh/material properties for example. I was wondering if this common practice in scientific publication can be applied when writing a PhD Thesis. Basically, are all results presented in a thesis supposed to be public and more importantly, is an independent/external researcher supposed to be able to reproduce all of the results ?


texts: As a co-author, should I add someone who provided access to high-performance computing facilities and engineering technical support as another author?

texts:
I have two questions, a general question and a particular case question, regarding the authors of a manuscript.

In general, I would like to inquire about who should be added as authors to a manuscript as well as about the order of the authors.
I prepared a research paper and I was wondering whether I should add the name of this person or not. In particular, this person presented me with an access to his computer facilities (high-performance computers) and he has been supporting me with his engineering technical support. However, he is neither a researcher nor a person holding a PhD degree. In fact, he is an engineer and he is doing this for free. Can I put his name as a co-author to our manuscript?


texts:
I recently got accepted into PhD programs at University A,B,C, and D.

I interviewed with Professor W at University A, Professor X at University B, Professor Y at University C, and Professor Z at University D.

I chose University B.

But now I am having doubts about B  and wish to go to University A to work with Professor W.  How do I tell Professor X that I want to change my mind and work with Professor W?

I also had additional conversations with Y and Z at C and D; they were pretty helpful and gave good guidance and tips about going to A and not going to B, so I feel even stronger about my decision to attend A over B.

University C and University D are on the east coast, while A and B are on the west coast.

How should I handle this?

Will I be burning bridges with X, Y and Z at B, C and D?

I wish to do my post-doc someday at University D or maybe C so it's important to not piss off X and Y, who both know B very well since the area of research is quite small.

W also knows X Y and Z


texts: Self plagiarism of a post adapted from a public forum into a journal article

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I recently wrote out some recent experiences I had onto a relevant public forum and am now wanting to adapt the post and publish it into a journal as a reflective piece.

Do I run the risk of self plagiarism if the original post on the forum is left up and available? Should I remove the post before submission?


texts: Conjugation: Do we cite authors or papers?

texts:
When referencing to another work in a scientific paper, do we cite the paper or its author(s)?

This question is intended to clarify the conjugation of the verb that follows the reference -- especially in these cases:

One author, two papers:

  Jane Doe (2015a, 2015b) list-s the very specific conditions under which...

-> lists (singular: referencing to Jane Doe) or list (plural: referencing to both papers)
Several authors, one paper:

  John Doe, et al. (2015) claim-s this and that.

-> claim (plural: referencing to the multiple authors of the paper) or claims (singular: referencing to the single paper).


texts: Removing an author from a future publication

texts:
I published a conference abstract with a undergraduate student of mine as a co-author. The work was presented as a poster and the conference doesn't publish proceedings/papers. I am now planning on publishing an extended version and want to drop her as a co-author. Can I do this?

Prior to the student starting the project we discussed authorship and agreed that it was unlikely that she would contribute enough to warrant authorship on anything that came out of the study since the experiment was conceived and implemented by me and I designed the statistical analysis. At the time of the conference, the student had collected approximately 1/4 of the data on the poster and did a fair amount of the statistical analysis, but her contribution was essentially just turning the crank. Given the effort she put in, I did not think it was out of place to have her as a co-author on the poster, but nor did I think it was required. I wrote the abstract and poster and asked her if she wanted to be an author and if so for any input on the abstract and poster.

Since then, I have collected a second independent data set and come up with a completely new analysis. I now feel her contribution (1/8 of the total data set and helping with a partial preliminary analysis) does not warrant authorship and I think it would be better to acknowledge her work in the acknowledgements then to add her as an author. I would discuss this with her, but she is out of the field and I cannot contact her easily. Can I drop her for the list of authors?


texts: The necessity of having an honours undergrad degree for Msc applications (Canada)

texts:
I am a soon to be graduated undergrad student doing research on potential universities for grad school. I specifically want to do a Msc in Stats, with a course-based or research project stream, no thesis.

I have noticed many (usually more prestigious) Canadian universities require an honours undergrad degree in addition to the GPA requirement. However, some (not all) have noted exceptions for research independent of an honours thesis (which I have) or other special considerations. I realize the best way to approach this may be to just contact potential schools directly, however I would appreciate if anyone can shed some light on the necessity/usefulness of an honours degree for grad school applications.


texts: Is it acceptable to contribute a poster to a conference without actually attending?

texts: I have a poster presentation that I cannot attend but I have prepared a poster to tell my friend to post for me. Is it common to do a poster presentation at a conference/meeting without being there in person? I have been to a quite a number of conference and this seems like a norm.


texts: Industrial Engineering is to be better with computer engineering and mathematics department or mechanical engineerring?

texts:
Assume in a university for some organizational considerations, industrial engineering must be either in a department with computer engineering and mathematics groups or in another department with mechanical engineering.

My question is:

Which choice is better to have a more productive university in terms of research and teaching?


texts: Applying to MSc vs PhD in CS with science background in US

texts:
I hold a BSc and MSc in physics and want to do graduate studies in CS. I did computational and theoretical research and thesis on quantum memories which are useful in quantum communications (not sure if that sounds any interesting to CS admission committees). But I have not officially taken CS foundations courses (well, except some through Coursera and edX). I am willing to pay for a decent Masters program through loans and part-time work though. Here are my questions from you:

Can I improve my odds of getting into a decent department by applying to Masters programs instead of PhD programs?
Besides full score on GRE quantitative, I got a decent score in GRE physics. Can any of these make up for my lack of formal education in CS?


texts: Is it a problem if I publish my thesis bearing the same title of a journal article I published previously?

texts: I have published a research paper based on my masters thesis. The name of the research paper is same as that of my thesis. The copyright to the paper is held by the journal in question. Now I want to publish my thesis in ProQuest. Will I run into trouble for the same name?


texts: Changing fields in postdoc. Whether or not to pursue another postdoc at 35

texts:
This is my story. I did my PhD in neuroscience (took me 5 years), with no publications during my PhD, but got my PhD thesis published 2 years after graduation as a first-author Nature Medicine paper and a Nature Communications coauthorship. I also have a few other coauthorships in smaller journals. I had a very bad experience during my PhD, mainly due to my supervisor and neuroscience research dynamics in that particular field, so I quit science and took 10 months of holidays after my PhD (I was very depressed and had enough savings). Nevertheless I always loved science. For many years I have been interested in evolutionary genetics, and even during my PhD I was reading more on evolutionary genetics than on my own PhD field. By the end of my long holidays I got the opportunity to do a postdoc in evolutionary genomics in a small research group (this was 2 years ago). I was not convinced because I thought I would have a similar experience as during my PhD. Finally I took it. I learned programming, data analysis and bioinformatics from scratch, following tutorials on internet. Now I am extremely happy and I feel that I found what I was looking for all these years. We are about to publish a PNAS paper (where I am first author) and I am thinking in applying for another postdoc in this field in a big lab to start in 1 more year. I would really like to get a faculty position in this field some day, and I don't care if it is not in a top university (I also cannot, most likely). But I am 35 years old, so by the end of my second postdoc I could be 38-39. So my questions are:

Am I too old to start a second postdoc, considering my story?
How much can changing fields affect my chances of getting a faculty position in the middle term?

I am sure there are many people around the world with so different stories, so I would really appreciate to read some opinions.


texts: What version is published online under "ahead of print" for an accepted paper?

texts: Some journals publish the article online much before the publication, under the "ahead of print" section. My question is, will they send the proofs (to the author) before putting it in "ahead of print" itself, or only right before publication in print. What version will be published online under "ahead of print"?


texts: Physics masters with undergraduate in computer science

texts:
I am currently entering my third year of undergraduate. When I entered college I was torn between physics and computer science and ultimately chose computer science. I like cs, but I'd like to apply it towards physics applications. I've spent the past two summers working at software companies as an intern, so I have no research experience as of now. I need to start applying for research positions soon if I am to get into graduate school I've heard.

I am wondering if it is possible to get into a masters program for physics with my undergraduate in cs?  My school offers a minor program for physics which covers mechanics, E & M, light/waves/heat, and quantum which I am currently working towards as well. For the research, is it even worth applying to physics labs if my major is computer science or should I stick to applying to cs labs? In a physics lab maybe I could aid in preparing apparatus that involve programming or electronics?


texts: How to reference and cite the osgeo package from Python

texts:
i am a bit confused about osgeo, osgeo.gdal, osgeo.ogr and osgeo.osr. I want to cite and reference all my used Python libraries which i used for my masterthesis. I am not sure if it is enough to cite the osgeo package or if i have to mention gdal etc. as well. Also i can't find any information about the author or a reference for the osgeo Python library.

Thanks a lot for any help.


texts: What should you do when your supervisor suffers from Dunning Kruger effect?

texts:
My supervisor wants to borrow some ideas from another sub-discipline into his own sub-discipline. The problem is he is suffering from Dunning Kruger effect. He just has some very basic knowledge about that sub-discipline. He thinks he has a very deep understanding of that sub-discipline and he doesn't need to invest time as they are too low level details to spend his time. As a result, he comes up with some wild hypotheses (anyone who has good understanding of that domain will simply know it doesn't make sense) or something that's obviously true. And he keeps arguing that his hypotheses are true and noble. As he doesn't have good understanding of that domain and he thinks it's too low level detail to spend his time. So after some time, the whole argument turns into opinion based arguments, no longer fact based or reasoning based arguments. Then he becomes very rude and keeps demeaning us (me and another PhD student).

He doesn't allow us to work on or discuss our own hypotheses, he simply discards them without giving any constructive feedback or any reason why we shouldn't work on or discuss them.

At the end of meeting, after long arguments and rectifying my supervisor's hypotheses, he claims he is the one who came up with these amazing hypotheses and we didn't contribute anything in the research, we just did the experiments.

Now meeting with my supervisor has become emotionally exhausting and unproductive for me. We are wasting time because he thinks he has deep understanding of this new domain.

Just to make it clear, I am not saying he is not smart. He is a smart person. But he doesn't understand this new domain and thinks he has deep understanding.


texts: What's the etiquette for following up on academic contacts?

texts:
It's happened a few times to me that I met a professor or researcher at an informal event, we had a good conversation, and they offered "help," as in "if you need any help, just shoot me an e-mail" or "let's keep in touch, in case you need help in the future." I have no idea what "help" is, or how I am meant to follow up on such an offer. Is it a sort of platitude that I am not meant to take literally?

These are usually not researchers or professors at my university, but they are usually in my field. I'm an undergraduate, currently in my final year and applying to grad school, but obviously this hasn't been the case for the past few years (and this is a recurrent situation).


texts:
This may be a sensitive subject given the subject matter.

But I have currently experiencing significant writers’ block when it comes to writing my statement of purpose and personal statement for graduate school applications. As part of my research (procrastination) on how to resolve this issue, I came across some material that suggested that a minor intake of alcohol would allow the process to flow more freely.

Not enough to inhibit writing, but enough such that the usual inhibitions are removed.

I wanted to confer the advice and wisdom from the academia community on this subject matter, the pros and cons, the potential ramifications of such an action.

What are the effects/results of drinking and writing?


texts: Can personal projects that required reading other's research make up for lack of my own?

texts:
I graduated from my undergrad program last December.  My grades and GRE scores are good but my school is relatively unknown.  I don't really have research in the sense that I haven't published anything, and I don't believe anything I've done to be particularly novel.  The school I went to was a teaching college, there wasn't a strong emphasis on research.

That said, I have been known (as my recommendation-writing professors will surely vouch) to do projects wherein I pick a topic, read a bunch about it, and then implement what I've read about.  At present, I'm writing a ray-tracing renderer, and I plan to implement a lot of advanced features by the time I actually apply to grad school, such as photon mapping and an BVH data structure.  I also plan to implement a few more shiny bells and whistles based on techniques I've read from different SIGGRAPH papers, but I don't believe I will be doing anything that no one else has done before, especially in the 4 months left until my application is submitted.

For what it's worth, however, this project is 100% my own.  I never took a graphics class while in college.  I work 40 or more hours a week a software developer, and I do most of my work by waking up at 5:30AM and working until I start work at 9.  I do most of my research (into papers and topics) when I get home, and during the work day when I have a few minutes.

My question is, how valuable is the information I just listed?  Does the attitude demonstrated above make up for the fact that I don't really have terribly original research?  What about the fact that my professors probably aren't that well known?

This applies mostly to the top tier of schools.  I will be applying to several non-elite schools as well, but it is with the top schools that I am most worried about my lack of research.  Do I have even a small chance to get into a top school, or am I simply noncompetitive as a candidate?

-- As for work experience, I have 8 months of experience as an intern at a fairly high profile research institute, but the truth is the work they had me do while there really wasn't research.  My current job is developing mobile applications and websites.  I find it very underwhelming, and I imagine graduate schools will as well.


texts: How important are pure math grades for applied math graduate schools?

texts:
I'm an applied math/econ major in the U.S. and am looking into pursuing a masters degree in applied math.  This term curiosity got the best of me and I decided to take abstract algebra and I am not doing well at all in the class.  Somehow my professor convinced me to stay and now I am heading closer to C territory after two atrocious midterms.  I am wondering:

How will applied math grad schools look at a C in this class?  I mean I've gotten 1 other B but the rest of my grades are all A's.  In fact I am doing better in Real Analysis than in this class! (shocking, i know.)  A few professors I talked to have said that since this is a pure class and it takes some people some time to understand these concepts so admissions might just shrug it off if everything else looks great.
If I do get a C how can I compensate for this grade?  I'm taking a grad class in quantum computing concurrently and doing really well.  if I take another grad course that uses abstract algebra (i.e. model theory) will it be enough to demonstrate to admissions that I am still worth considering as an applicant?
I have quite a bit of research experience, studied math abroad and did well and will continue to do more math next term.  But if I don't get into a grad school of my choice how can I repair this grade if it tanks in the future?

Please offer some suggestions as I am literally putting in every ounce of energy to resuscitate this grade...


texts:
How does ibid work in footnotes?

Context

So I'm writing an essay, using footnotes for the first time. I was told that if I use the same source twice on the same page, then I should write "ibid", but this was not very clear. I was left with multiple questions (apologies if this ends up a duplicate, it seems like the type of question which might've already been asked but I can't find it):

Question

Where does the ibid go? In the superscript in text or on the footnote? In what combination?

How is it clear what the ibid is referring to? Say I have 4 footnotes, the fourth being an ibid, how is it clear whether the ibid refers to the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd footnote?

I've seen something about putting the page number of a journal - what about for websites, and videos? How does that work?


texts: Reply to a professor who said no open position BUT admired the work

texts:
I have asked a professor in Germany for a PhD position in his lab and I sent a mail with previous work experience, future research plan, and why I want to join his group within 8-10 lines, also attached a simple CV. He replied me starting with 'You are a strong candidate' and he admired my work and plan also, but he said presently there are no open positions.

But I want to work under his supervision. I have at most 6 months to complete my masters. How can I give a reply mentioning I have time and in that I mean time if he found any open positions I can join his lab.


texts: What is the proper CV listing for an accepted paper that was not presented?

texts: This question is similar to ones about accepted papers not being presented; however, one thing that other answers fail to mention is how to list the paper in your CV. Quite simply what is the appropriate way to list an unpresented paper where you are are a) solo author, or b) a co-author?


texts: Professor not responding to my mails after earlier discussions

texts:
I have applied to a professor from another university - and from another country, in case that is relevant - about doing my undergraduate thesis under him.

He said he liked my profile and asked me for some documents (transcripts, recommendation letters, etc). After I sent him these documents, he stopped responding.

Before this I used to keep him updated about the process (when I will get my transcripts, when my recommenders will send him the letters, etc) and during this time he would always acknowledge the receipt of my mails. After my recommenders sent him their letters, he stopped responding. I know how this might look, but I have no reason to suspect that my recommenders might have anything bad to say about me. I have used their recommendations to get a scholarship previously.

This hiatus in communication took place in December last year, so this might very well be because he was on leave during this period. I verified that his university began its semester last week and mailed him, again to no response.

How do I interpret his silence? There is of course no certain answer to this. So the more important question is, should I keep politely following up - say, dropping him a mail every week or so asking if he's made a decision yet?

Note: This question on Academia.SE has a comment which says that "treat a non-response as the (reasonably expected) negative response" about emailing a professor at a foreign university. However, I don't think that applies in my case as the professor had initially expressed his interest in hiring me, so I thought he would let me know if he had later changed his mind.


texts: "Awaiting EO Processing" for 2 weeks after submission. Should I contact?

texts:
I recently submitted an article to a relatively well-known academic journal in information system.

The journal uses ScholarOne.

After the initial submission, the status of my article has been shown as "Awaiting EO Processing" for more than 2 weeks.

Should I contact the journal at this moment?


texts: About eligibility for the Cambridge International Scholarship Scheme

texts:
On the website of the University of Cambridge, they state the eligibility criteria for the Cambridge international scholarship scheme (CISS). One of them is:

"Have a high upper-second-class undergraduate honours degree from a UK Higher Education Institution, or an equivalent from an Overseas Institution".

I don't understand it. Can someone explain to me what is precisely meant by that?


texts: Is it legal for a US professor to require remuneration from the foreigner for consulting services?

texts:
A person with allegedly academic affiliation from some foreign country approaches me with the request to help them in research being within my expertise.

The request anticipates about 10 hours of extra work without utilizing university equipment. The service can be referred to as consulting service.

Is it legal to require a personal monetary remuneration in this case from a foreign student/postdoc being consulted?

Alternatively, I can request being a coauthor in the future publication but I lack good reasons to believe that that person would not "forget" about this after they got a help.


texts: What incentives do supervisors get for supervising undergraduate projects?

texts:
What is the prime motivation/incentive for people to supervise undergraduate projects? Students want the degree obviously, but what do the supervisors get? Is there some incentive? Are undergraduate supervisors paid per project as well?
I am an undergraduate computer science student. We mostly make applications and computer programs as final year projects.


texts: Do advisors typically fund travel for PhD students in non-conference settings (e.g., university seminars, industry meetings, etc.)?

texts:
Do advisors typically fund PhD students for travel to events other than academic conferences? Examples include:

Seminars at other universities so the student can promote their
research
A Technical Program Committee (TPC) meeting
An industry conference where the student hasn't published anything but is there to promote their work in a talk or demo

These events are not directly related to the bottom line of publishing papers, but are helpful for the overall career of the students.


texts: Is it possible for a published paper with PMID to not have a PMCID?

texts: I’m trying to find the PMCID (Pubmed Central ID) for a paper, but it does not have one. It has a PMID (Pubmed ID). Under what circumstances does a paper have a PMID   but not PMCID?


texts: How is life as a PhD research scientist/staff scientist in academia?

texts:
I am a PhD student in genetic epidemiology. When I started my PhD, I was certain I wanted to be a professor - three years into my degree, I am seriously rethinking that choice.

There are parts of my work now as a grad student that I love -- reading articles, putting what I’ve learned together to design studies, doing the analysis, writing code... I am aware of job titles like "research scientist" and "staff scientist" that sound like they might get to spend more time on these things than professors do, but I have some questions about how this works.

(These questions refer to positions in academia or similar settings like NIH intramural - I know industry is very different so I won't try to cram that into the same question!)

When/why do people hire research scientists/staff scientists instead of postdocs, and how do the positions differ from being a postdoc?
How is job stability? By this I don’t mean job security, so much as “How often do people end up having to find a new job?” “How easy/hard is it to find a new job when that happens?” and “Can you usually find a new job at the same university/in the same city?”
How is geographic flexibility? Would I still have to be willing to move anywhere in the country like I would if I were looking for a tenure-track job, or would I be able to choose where I wanted to live and then look for jobs there?
Do people in these positions first-author papers?
You do get paid more than a postdoc... right?


texts: What is the best course of action when approached by predatory publishers?

texts:
When I receive fishy emails for conferences/journals which seem "predatory" I just mark them as spam and forget about them.
(This may confuse my spam filter which would mark as spam legitimate CFP but that's another story).
Is there anything that could be done to maybe flag the conference to authorities or just to other researchers? Is there any institution that can investigate?


texts:
In computer Science, let us assume that we have three different methods, A, B and C, to solve the problem X.

All three methods have been proposed by more or less the same group of authors
A improves B that improves C, and all the methods are optimal in their results (for example method A converges faster than B, so it needs a smaller sample to perform the same task and produces more stable results).
All three methods have been presented in a top conference of the field.

Assume now that an author (myself in this case) has a fourth method D, which solves the problem X in a more general setting (a setting that was of no interest for the authors of method A, B and C) but is not optimal (while methods A, B and C are optimal) and has performances between method A and B (on real data).

In this setting, what are the possibilities of being published for method D, and should the author go on investing time on method D?

How much space is there in scientific literature for methods solving the same problem?


texts: Should I include a reference for an image that is released into the public domain?

texts:
I am writing my thesis and came across an image on Wikipedia that I would like to use. The licensing on this image is:

  I, the copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide.
  In some countries this may not be legally possible; if so:
  I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

Should I still include a reference to indicate this image is not my own work, if so, who should be given credit (the author is not known in this case)?


texts: How can I ease in to the research arena?

texts:
I'm a first year graduate student and my age is 24. I got a degree in statistics, but it was not that interesting. I barely got into a below average grad school program in mathematics. I want to eventually publish some research in mathematical-physics in a few years but I doubt it'll be any good, because everything up to this point has shown me otherwise. I didn't "shock" on the SAT's. I've never been at the top of my class.

I want to look into special and general relativity, quantum information, gravity, and entropy and quantum mechanics. Relativity and quantum mechanics describe our world in very different terms. In quantum mechanics, events unfold against a fixed backdrop of spacetime — while in general relativity, spacetime itself is flexible. What would a quantum theory of curved space-time look like? These are the questions that interest me.

So here I am, in a mathematics grad program. Thinking about leaving and quitting math and science for good. But I think I want to give it one more go. Maybe research as a hobby. I do want to publish a paper in the next 3-4 years.

So, what's the best way for someone in my position to "ease in" to the research arena while maintaining a healthy work life balance?


texts:
I have a question about citation format.

I would like to cite the comments by the editor at the beginning of a "Letters to the editor" section from Mathematics Magazine's October 1995 issue.

(Not any of the letters themselves. The comments by the editor that precede the letters.)

What's the format? Most importantly, what are the author and title?


texts: Detect cheating in Microsoft Excel submissions

texts:
I have a homework assignment where I require students to create a set of pivot charts in Microsoft Excel. I know that I can reduce cheating by changing datasets or chart specifications around, but because of the complexity of the assignments and my practical constraints in not being able to mark more than five or so different versions, this does not prevent students from finding those who have the same specifications as themselves and copying among themselves. (I am coordinating a course with over 700 students, so I can only do so much as far as alternate versions go. The students are well connected to each other by Facebook, so communicating among each is quite feasible for those who want to cheat.)

On one hand, in my situation, creating alternate versions is difficult because of the complexity of the assignment, and its effectiveness is limited because hard-working cheaters can cheat anyways. On the other hand, I believe that if I can effectively detect cheating after the fact, then giving a strong warning to students about this could serve as an effective deterrent that should greatly reduce the incidence of cheating.

Are there features in Microsoft Excel that make it easy to detect cheating by copying between students? I don't expect to easily detect if a student copies elements like pivot tables from one file to another, but perhaps at least I might be able to detect if a student copied someone else's file altogether. I'm not necessarily looking for anything foolproof--I expect that the cheaters in this assignment would be those who don't even know basic things like how to manually change author information in an Excel file.

Speaking of which, unfortunately, as far as I can tell, Excel overwrites author information with the last person to save the file, so I couldn't even use that to tell if someone has copied a file created by someone else.

I would appreciate any suggestions.

EDIT:

Some answers have suggested asking students to submit a written explanation of their reasoning. Although I mentioned that there are over 700 students, let me be more explicit: I do not consider solutions that require reading and marking additional textual submissions to be feasible for my context. On one hand, there are multiple instructors, so any instructor would only have to mark a few dozen assignments. On the other hand, if there is cheating across sections, then reading text submissions is not a feasible verification technique. Thus, I was looking for a solution that could easily indicate that a student's submission contained undeniable traces of some other student's work.


texts: When should I cite, if using code from Stack Overflow?

texts:
I already found a question handling the case if you got some information from Stack Exchange for my thesis. Unfortunately I did not find anything about the case that I get a solution (not necessarily from stackexchange) for a specific problem.

For example, if I have a problem with a specific part in my code, or if I have to design a circuit, and I run into a problem: What is the threshold of information, i.e. when should I cite the answer in my thesis? Should I always cite Stack Overflow (or the other web page), even if its just for two lines? Where is the threshold?

And how should I do this in my code? Should I rather make a comment block around the specific part of the code, redirecting to SO, or should I simply cite it in my thesis?


texts: My research was plagiarised and won best paper of a conference. How to proceed?

texts:
I am a PhD student in electrical engineering, and I recently found out a published paper from another research group which I am collaborating through a joint project using exactly my idea and the data that I collected.

I don't have any public evidence that I was working on it, but since it is a joint project, the other research group was aware of my research and my ideas.

On their paper, they don't mention my work, they don't acknowledge and they didn't ask permission to use the data that I collected. They had access to my data because I needed to use their equipment to collect the data.

The paper that they published won the best overall paper of the conference and they got a prize of €2000.

I contacted the head of the research group to make them withdraw their paper, but they don't agree, they claim they are doing something different, but they suggested to add myself as one of the authors (even after the paper was published), which I don't agree at all since I didn't work on this paper.

I have evidences through emails, meetings and presentations that they were aware of my research. I would like advice on how to proceed.


texts: Can I still pursue a research career after a possibly lengthy break?

texts:
I've been offered a PhD position, but I'm forced to decline it due to family reasons. However, once the situation becomes more stable, I will re-apply again. What concerns me most is whether it's still possible for me to pursue a research career after a long (2-4 year) break?

I hope that perhaps once the crisis is overcome, I could look for part-time assistant/technician jobs in labs, which would allow me to still stay close in research before I would submit my applications for a PhD.


texts: While applying for PhD in Deep learning, how useful are papers in some other topics like photonics?

texts:
I am a EEE student. My plan is to go for higher studies on Deep learning and neural networks. Suppose, I have an opportunity to do research on a photonics/nano material/device physics project. How much would papers in any of these three topics help me during PHD admissions in USA for deep learning?
Secondly suppose, instead of doing journal papers in these, I may be able to do mediocre/good conference papers in deep learning. In such scenario which would be best?
Thanks in advance!


texts: How to add ResearchGate preprints manually to google scholar?

texts:
Is there any way of adding my ResearchGate preprints manually on Google Scholar? If no, will Google Scholar automatically add it to my scholar profile? Can other authors cite my ResearchGate preprints?
For the manual addition of my paper, I have performed the following steps.
For the manual addition of my paper at first I tried with Add articles option but I did not find it on scholar. Then I tried with Add articles manually but I did not find any preprint option there.
,


texts:
I am a PhD student. I was working on some problem from last 5-6 months and some days I was able to solve it. I discuss with my research team including my research supervisor. I told them my idea and approach and then they discuss for 40-50 minute and asked me few questions and I gave them answers. They ask me to combine it with my previous smaller result and told me that it is a complete research paper. but here is a problem, I have seen some of the research papers written by some senior colleagues in my research field and with respect those people my research problem and its solution seems less significant. I am not comparing myself with them but with respect to these top researchers my work seems small. Some time I feel that I have done something non-trivial and some time I feel like my research work in trivial.

  Question : How to come to know that you have done some thing non-trivial in the research? One way is to read the research papers of others. What are other ways?


texts: What is meant by the term "research interest", when asked to provide a brief description of research interests on an application?

texts:
My potential supervisor has mailed me the following:

  If you would like to be considered for admission, please email the
  following (please send only pdf documents)

  copies of all previous transcripts, including undergraduate
  English language test scores
  a list of publications and the abstract of M.Sc. thesis (for Ph.D. applicants)
  a concise description (not exceeding one page) of your research interests as a graduate student (what is expected is not a statement
  of purpose).

I am confused about the term research interest here.

What should be in this document?


texts: How to deal with if you found someone is using your research proposal?

texts:
I had submitted a research proposal to a group during Post Doc application in an university. But I did not join the same university for post doc. Now I got to know that they are conducting the same research I had proposed.

How to deal with this? Though I am not working in the same area now, but it is my future plan.

Is it really good to use other person's proposal?


texts: How much time is usually left for authors to return page proofs? What happens if I am late?

texts:
Recently I was handling submission of a paper to a journal. I was somewhat surprised that I was asked to return the corrections to galley proofs in 48 hours.

  To ensure fast publication of your paper please return your corrections within 48 hours. ...  Note that  may proceed with the publication of your article if no response is received.

How usual is it, that only a short period is left for the authors to return page proofs? Do many journals allow similar time span? Or is a longer period customary?

I can imagine situations in which I would not be able to respond in 48 hours.

What would happen if I reacted only later, not within the time period required by publisher (48 hours in this case)? Is it probable that they would still incorporate the corrections if I emailed a bit later? (Or if I emailed them that I am unable to complete this in 48 hours and explained the reasons.)


texts: Apply for PhD with low undergrad GPA and good grad GPA

texts:
i have poor ungrad GPA (2 of 4), and good grad GPA (3.88 of 4)

What are my chances if I apply for PhD study at Germany?

B.Sc pure mathematics
M.Sc financial mathematics (i love it)


texts: Are there any standard regulations for oral exams for universities in Bologna process?

texts:
As described in Wikipedia article,

  The Bologna Process is a series of ministerial meetings and agreements
  between European countries to ensure comparability in the standards
  and quality of higher-education qualifications.

Universities usually go through a series of supervisions to obtain the certificate that demonstrates the above mentioned quality of education.

These supervisions are, but not limited to, number of classrooms, regulations for exams, lab facilities, etc.

I am particularly interested in oral exam regulations. For instance, my former university had a strict rule:

  There must be at least three lecturers/professors during the oral
  exam, and full voice recording is mandatory.

I wonder if such rule applies for all universities in the Bologna process, or my former university was being over cautious.


texts: Citing an accepted but not yet published paper

texts: Do math journals consider a paper in which most of the content referred to another accepted but not yet published paper? In a case in which this is allowed, do one need to give a copy of the accepted paper to the editor of the target journal?


texts: Is having a master's thesis important for US PhD applications in linguistics?

texts:
I'm a recent BA graduate. In my field (linguistics), it seems like most successful applicants to PhD programs at top schools have Master's theses, and writing samples in the field are probably the most important part of the application. My writing sample will probably be only 20 pages long at best, even though I think it's really interesting and good.

Am I at a disadvantage? Would it be better for me to get a Master's before trying again? Or do they only just care about the kind of research that you do?


texts: How do I cite an image from wikicommons in my thesis?

texts:
I want to use some images from the wikicommons in my thesis, some images state that 'Attribution is not legally required', but I understand that if I don't cite an image it's as if I'm claiming it as my own.

Let's say I want to use the google logo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Google_2015_logo.svg

This is the attribution mentioned:
By Google Inc. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Do I just put that attribution under the image in the thesis?

Thank you!


texts:
My dissertation is cumulative, meaning that it basically consists of the following three sections: Introduction, Chapters, and Conclusions. The introduction gives an extended literature overview and describes the overall research question. The chapters are copies of my published research articles. The conclusion section typically has the following sub-sections: critical appraisal, relevance of work, and outlook.

Naturally my supervisor gave me some ideas what the critical appraisal should look like and I can also look for inspiration in previous theses.
Nevertheless, I wonder what a critical appraisal normally is. It seems to be a term mostly used in medical research. I wonder:

Is this something typically used in academia?
Is there a definition or a generally accepted form?
What elements does a critical appraisal include?
Is there literature or guidelines on how to write a critical appraisal?

Could you provide some insights on what a good critical appraisal (for a thesis) should look like?


texts: How to approach a potential supervisor for "research students" in Japanese universities?

texts:
I'm planning to take MEXT scholarship exam. I've got a bachelor's degree and have done extensive research in cognitive science field.
From what I gather, it's better to find a supervisor early. I've contacted several professors in major universities but they've all told me that they don't accept research students. Is it normal? What else should I do?


texts: Is there a single academic database for Management Information System /Decision Support System area?

texts:
Until now, I have been gathering literature rather primitively (I think) by regularly searching with related keywords in Google, Google Scholar, and also some of the university resources like -

Emerald Insight
Ebsco
Jstor
IEEE
ScienceDirect

And I'm not sure whether I find all the relevant literature and what else I need to be looking at.

Recently, I came to know that for certain fields there are dedicated databases that provide a unified source of research - which can be quite useful to perform a literature survey. Like SciFinder for Chemistry, NCBI for Biotech etc.

So, I'm wondering whether there is any such database in the field of  -Management Information System / Decision Support Systems.


texts: Do the jobs after a PhD in Statistics require a minimum of 3-4 years previous work experiences in the industries?

texts:
I am a full-time student (29) in M.Sc Statistics which is about to finish. I have a less-than-one year job experience. I intend to go for Ph.D in Statistics and I have seen many industries want a minimum 3 or 4 years work experience for Ph.D Statistics level jobs. I need to know that if this work experience is mandatory. Also, kindly let me know if one can 'begin' a full-time work experience after getting a Ph.D in Statistics.

Thank you in advance and your kind reply is highly appreciated.


texts:
I am currently doing a post-doc in pure Math [teaching and research] in the US. The academic year 2014-2015 will be my last postdoc year and I am currently considering my next employment possibilities.

For several reasons, I am considering a job outside academia in Europe [I am an E.U. citizen], for my next employment. As I know about nothing else except for my research in Pure Math and teaching of Math, I could use as much advice as possible regarding this potential transition from academia to a non-academia job. I have read through the many related questions and answers. But I still could not find answers to the following questions.

(1) How early in advance do you have to apply for a job outside academia? Let me provide a bit more details: I really need employment as soon as my current one ends, b/c I need the money to support my living expenses. So I cannot really afford to spend more than one or two months without employment. I am asking this, b/c for academia jobs one typically applies one year ahead of time, things are standard and clear. But not so clear to me are applications outside academia.

(2) Given that I know nothing about programming right now, what would my chances of getting a programming job be? In other words, would I get some sort of PAID training in programming?

(3) Any sort of comments/advice regarding working for a publishing house? [such as: salary?]

Thank you.


texts: How many days before the notification of acceptance/rejection does the program committee meet?

texts:
In typical conferences in theoretical computer science, how many days before the date of notification of acceptance/rejection,

does the program committee meet? (By meeting, I'm not necessarily talking about physical meetings. Discussions via email, easychair can be regarded as meeting here.)
does the program committee determine which papers have been accepted / rejected?

In essence my question is: How long before the notification date, it is determined which papers are accepted and which are rejected?


texts: Do peer reviewers generally care about alphabetical order of variables in a paper?

texts: I am wondering if some peer reviewers may nitpick about the choice of variables in a math-heavy paper, namely whether they follow alphabetical order throughout the succession of the presentation of concepts. For example, variable N may be defined, variable K may be subsequently defined in a way that depends on N, and finally variable A may represent a final result based on an operation. Could a very particular peer reviewer suggest a revision or rejection simply based on the naming of variables in this way? has anyone ever experienced this or similar?


texts: Limitations of paper size when presenting comprehensive visualisations of results

texts:
When writing a PhD thesis or an academic paper, you tend to be limited in how you can present results by the physical paper size, e.g. A4 for a thesis and often much tighter when targeting journals or conference proceedings.
This seems needlessly restrictive in this day and age, but perhaps that's a different discussion about the whole academic publishing machinery and its implications for good research.
My question is: how do you approach presenting data in a way that doesn't lose detail and impact, but fits in 15 x 25 cm (if you're lucky)?
I'll use an example to illustrate - after one set of experiments I have a plot that looks like this:

This plot could be really useful in drawing out lots of conclusions and further questions.  As it is, it only covers a sample of the actual results, but shows important trends and differences.
I've had a few ideas about how I might present this.  I could:

Make an interactive visualisation available online and refer to it in the printed paper - printing just a small sample there but referring to the full results in the commentary.
Summarise the findings using tabulated numbers and perhaps just present one example (corresponding to one column of the image above).
Just squeeze it in somehow to give a "big picture" and then explain and point to full results elsewhere.

I wondered if this is a common problem and what good practice exists out there.


texts: Does marrying your PhD supervisor put doubts on your PhD?

texts:
I have a professor in my university. He has married his PhD supervisor, and students are now making fun out of it as he didn't work on his PhD.  Instead they were in relationship and this and that.

I was wondering how this decision affects his academic life.  Do people doubt his degree as being softly defended or can people trust the expert knowledge of such a person?

Especially if a student wants him as a supervisor and when the student knows about this, what can be the effects of such a relationship on the student's decision?


texts: How to find out to which journal(s) I could hand in my paper?

texts:
During my study or even phd I had no chances to draw up a paper as a main author. Reasons do not matter here.
Now I'm already in the industry for a while and I wonder why not preparing some papers based on my phd. I have no external pressure or goal or whatever so I would only do this to simplify other's life. They can probably also figure out on their own but when somebody already did..  in principle it is already published through my phd but.. yeah, published through my university's library, so no one will ever know.
However, the work touches mainly the application of some optimization problems to make use of in a kind of an engineering field. I myself come from the (experimental) particle physics.
So, which journals do make sense?
Computer science/Mathematics not really because I barely improved the optimization problem itself. At least not on a theoretical level. Depends on the pov.

Particle physics not because it is not about particle physics. The devices are just used there. Well, they are used there very often but originally it from solid physics/electrical engineering (photodiodes) and I didn't improve the devices themselves anyway.
Electrical engineering not because I didn't take into account any circuits or similar.
My supervisors were two experimental physics professors, a maths professor as well as a computer scientist professor (who is also a mathematician). Just in case it matters.
So what's left? And/or which journals make sense?
Despite from that: Can I just contact some certain journals and ask whether it makes sense to set up a paper before I take up all the effort for it?


texts: How to recruit a PhD student without a strong connection to teaching?

texts:
As a postdoc, I'm considering to apply to research-only positions (for instance in a research institute, and not a university), and I know that one of the responsibilities of being a researcher is to recruit PhD students.

I personally only know people (including me) who have been "recruited" for a PhD by one of their teacher (usually at Master level), and so I wouldn't be sure of how to proceed in order to recruit a PhD student as a young researcher:

Are there some specialized websites where to post ads?
Is it better to contact some teachers to see if they have good students to recommend?

Moreover, in this case, which criteria can one use? If I were to teach, I would have a whole semester to know a student, and to decide whether it would make a good fit for a PhD, but how to do that during a one-hour interview?


texts: How much is expected to know before starting a PhD

texts:
I recently graduated with a BSc in applied mathematics and considering on applying for a PhD. In fact, I contacted a supervisor and he seems some what interested in my undergraduate academic performance. He also sent some articles to read so that I get an idea of what sort of problem is there to be analysed in the PhD, and of possible methods to follow. I read them, however I do not understand everything in those papers as I am not familiar with some of the methods used. However, as I have a basic background knowledge from undergraduate coursework, I believe, I can study those methods in depth and gain knowledge. But it would obviously take couple of months for me to learn the material. Although my PhD wouldn't start (if I get selected) for another 6 months, I have to tell the potential supervisor about what I read in the articles he sent and how much I understand.

So, if I say like I didn't understand all the details, but I intend to learn them before the start of the PhD, does it look negative? Does supervisors expect us to know everything before the commencement of the research?


texts: Can I use a part of figure in my published paper to supplementary information of new paper?

texts: I'm researched some material and I want to write two paper to other journals. Can I use a part of figure of first paper to supplementary information of second paper? For example, electrical properties of three samples in a figure of first paper, can I use figure of one sample to supplementary information of second paper? Is it OK to reuse figure with different scale range to supplementary information or main article?


texts: When can I know the updated status from reviewer or editor after i submit a revised manuscript to that publisher?

texts: I have submitted a revised manuscript to an international journal of quantum chemistry at 8 August. My articles status still remain under review, I also don't know my article get accepted or rejected, I feel anxiety and cannot sleep well in this 3 weeks since this is my first articles. Should I write a polite inquiry email to the editor from that publisher to ask the status for my revised manuscript status? Thank you for advice.


texts: Is my authorship undeserved, and if so how do I address this in a professional setting?

texts:
I am a current undergraduate who has been involved in a research lab for the past 3 years. Not too long after joining, I was asked to be a co-author on a paper that was already written. My PI wanted me to be recognized on a publication so I could add it to my CV, but I did not contribute or even read the paper until after it was published. I accepted this co-authorship at the time because I was excited to have a paper under my belt. Now, after gaining more experience working in academia, I realize that I clearly should not have been named a co-author.
My academic reputation is important to me as I hope to have a career in this field of research, so I want to make sure I am honest about my work. I will be applying to graduate schools soon and am concerned about how this co-authorship will affect my applications and my interviews. I have considered removing the publication from my CV, and I have also thought about keeping it on there while being honest about the situation if asked about it in interviews.
Do you have any advice on how to approach this situation? Thanks in advance!


texts: Including a segment of constructive criticism of another paper in my manuscript

texts:
I'm currently investigating a subject that has theoretical and algorithmic aspects. I have my theoretical background that I think is novel enough.
As for the algorithmic aspect, I found paper X (not written by me or anyone I know personally) to be genuinely very good, but I think that using my theoretical advances I can improve it further, especially for my own application which slightly differs from the one the authors of X had in mind.

Now, after I analyzed and scrutinized X's algorithm in practice (i.e. obtained the source code and performed numerous experiments), I found that some of their assumptions and declarations are inaccurate. [E.g., if their algorithm consists of stages A->B->C->end, and they claim A makes a big difference and is their novelty, I find that it is in fact a good implementation of C that makes that difference.]

I certainly don't mean to undermine or criticize them because it is a good paper. However, I do find some discrepancies. So, in my paper, should I also include some subsection in which I specify these issues (with suitable justifications), or will it just look as nitpicking or otherwise negative behaviour on my part?

Thanks.

EDIT (clarification): even though it seems to be a specialized case, it's really about etiquette regarding criticism of other authors' papers.


texts: How does one determine priority, prominence, and impact with regard to books, rather than articles?

texts:
My background is in physics where almost 100% of the scholarly work is reported in peer-reviewed publications. Within that framework, I understand how to determine who has priority regarding ideas, how influential a paper is, how prolific an author is, etc. at a glance by looking at publication dates, citations, impact factors, etc. Usually, the only books which are written are textbooks or those aimed at a popular audience.

My experience, though, is that not all fields are this heavily skewed toward peer-reviewed articles.

Question:

In fields that rely significantly on scholarly books, how can someone quickly determine the impact, reliability, etc. of scholarly books and scholars whose work appears primarily in books?


texts: Seeking TT position with criminal record (DUI)

texts: I am a few years away from being done my PhD in philosophy, and plan to seek work in the field. I have a DUI on my record from when I was 18 years old. Will anyone care?


texts:
Writing this from a temporary account. I am enrolled in a PhD program in math, and more and more often I am doubting my abilities in doing the program.

I work, so it happens, de facto under two scientific advisors. I continue my work which was quite successful at undergrad level, but feel stuck into a dead end. Furthermore, all I obtain after hard work seems to be easily generalised by other people who spend much less time thinking on my problems, rendering my effort obsolete. This PhD is very important for me, allowing me to get satisfaction from teaching younger students, talking to scientists, earn money and receive grants, but I find myself undeserving of all that and actually suspect myself to be an impostor masterfully imitating mathematical research. It is exacerbated by the fact that these unsurety problems seem to disappear when I move, as an amateur, to a completely unrelated discipline; I’ve already published articles and suspect that, were I able to supplement vigour with formal training, I could have been a monograph-level of researcher right now. However, as I mentioned, changing PhD to such an unrelated field is not even an option.

It is vital for me to complete my PhD. So I’m looking for some advice from this remarkable community how to drag myself out of this learned helplessness; some possible options would include:

Change topic and do some unconnected math research? I feel that would put itself as a silent rebellion against my scientific advisor, as well as contravening my PhD, to say nothing of the fact I’m unsure in the very ability to produce a fast result from any branch already;
Slightly alter the direction? Similar;
Force myself and push until I produce something meaningful for my topic? As one can see, I’m hesitant about it.

In fact, I’m currently abandoning my “world level, Fields medalist” hopes and would be satisfied with getting any king of PhD to be allowed to teach undergrads in peace. No other career but academic is imaginable; and yet I find myself with inability to progress in mine.

Another option everyone will introduce at once is “why don’t I talk with advisor frankly”. I’ve tried that but found myself too timid to be completely frank, and I am wary about latter due to PhD importance. It is necessary to maintain some cordiality with advisor. Hopefully there is some way out of this self-made problem. Especially invited are opinions of those people who had rocky PhDs back then and persevered.


texts: Is the phrase "thanks, but no thanks" appropriate in an email sent to a supervisor?

texts:
I recently have had a discussion about my friend's tone in his email.

His supervisor asked him whether he wants to attend a summer school in May. He wanted to thank him for his invitation and also wanted to keep the mail short. As a result, that is what he came up with:

  Hello Professor,

  I have plans during that period. Thanks, but no thanks.

  Regards,
  John

He is getting along well with his supervisor, but I believe that the phrasing is a bit disrespectful nevertheless. It might be the case that I am not a native speaker.

Am I exaggerating the situation and this is something can be overlooked?


texts: Do authors always have final approval over what gets published?

texts:
After reading this answer, and the subsequent comments, I found myself wondering if it is a rule for publishers to get author approval after edits before publishing a paper? I would assume so because of copyright issues but I would like to know if there are legal or ethical guidelines in the publishing industry about this.

In my experience, editors will make edits but they have always asked me for my approval before actually publishing the edited piece.


texts: I have deep desire to study Physics after I graduate from Computer Engineering; want to know if I have what it takes to be successful in this field

texts:
I am now studying Computer Application, a bachelor degree in India. I can get a job in the IT sector if I try only a little harder. But I have this deep desire to study Physics starting from undergraduate.

My high school science scores were average. I consider myself as a smart working science student. I want to apply in UK colleges as there I can start from bachelor degree even if I already have one. I study Physics whenever I get time apart from my present course preparation.   But, I have this depressing and demeaning feeling within me that I shall not be able to cope up with Physics, I shall fail and that I don't belong to that field.

I want to know how can I be finally sure whether I have what it takes to study Physics. So that either I can finally remove this desire of Physics from my head and concentrate on Computer/IT jobs or prepare myself for another field of education that I think will best fit me. How can I assess myself?

It's private to me, so I don't want to ask anyone close to me. Not even my almost-a-physicist brother. I struggle a bit at solving deep thinking problems. I am slow at math but I don't give up. Often it makes me cry, but the next day I'm again after it. And I don't think I shall be happy in the IT sector.


texts:
Let's say a famous researcher contributed only a bit to a research project by a student, and the student could reasonably choose either to include or not include them as a coauthor.
Is it beneficial to the student to include them? It seems that having a big name would increase viewership and perceived legitimacy of the paper, while having more coauthors also seems to diffuse the ownership of the work.


texts: When to use inline versus displayed equations in a publication?

texts:
On a publication (thesis, paper, other), when should I write an equation inline and when should it be separated and numbered from the text?

I've seen publications containing both styles, but I don't know if there is a rule to choose among them. My field is applied computer science.


texts: Will doing Masters degree help me get into another masters degree?

texts:
My first degree was in Economics and Finance.  Frankly, I didn't do very well, although I did do enough to scrape a 2:1.  There were a number of legitimate reasons for this underperformance, but it's still a fact.

Anyway,that was ten years ago.  I am wondering whether studying a masters in one subject will bolster my chances of being accepted to a prestigious masters programme.  E.g. if I study, say, an Msc in statistics at a lower-Russell Group uni now, would that bolster my chances of subsequently being accepted to a top sociology or poli sci programne at a top school? Or would it not make any difference?


texts: To include only academic titles in business cards of researchers with many positions?

texts:
Assume you have many academic titles, but you have also many positions.
I am thinking to exclude all positions, and just having your academic titles because I do not want to carry a pile of different business cards and in many languages – just one general for all.
So I would leave out all positions, which can be seen on my online profile if necessary, e.g., ORCid, ....

Format

Name
Titles
...

Example:

  Leo
  MD, PhD (Med.), PhD (Tech.)


texts: What are some good tips for people who wants to start a workshop from scratch?

texts:
I, and a group of my colleagues want to start a workshop which covers a topic which generally draws interest but usually categorized as "other topics" in well-known workshops.
We want to start a workshop for such a topic. We are well aware that initial impression of an organization is very important. Thus, we want to avoid some blatant blunders.
What are the best practices for a group of 4-5 people who intend to start a workshop? What kind of advice "save lives" in this context?


texts: Wrote a paper, supervisor couldn't respond

texts:
I wrote a paper based on research done with my supervisor, and sent it to them.
They haven't yet confirmed they saw it. It's been some time, and I sent a followup.
What happens if they never reply? I am an undergrad; this would be my first paper.
I am aware I cannot submit it on my own, and I don't know where to submit anyway. But may I post it on arxiv?


texts: When should I tell a collaborator about a mistake in their work?

texts:
In a few days' time, a collaborator is going to be giving a talk to our research group. He has sent me the slides in advance (just to check that it all runs OK on our system). Having looked over the slides, I have noticed a mistake in his methods (a major assumption that is not just unsupported, but definitely incorrect) that unfortunately invalidates his entire analysis. This mistake is potentially fixable, but only by going back to square one, and the new analysis could (and I suspect probably will) yield different results.

Obviously, I need to raise this with him, but when is the most tactful time to do this? My concern is that if I raise the problem immediately, it leaves him with too little time to redo the analysis before his presentation, and leaves him stewing over it knowing that his prepared work is invalid. Also, I wasn't specifically asked to give feedback at this stage. On the other hand, if I leave it until the talk, it means that I have to bring it up in front of the rest of the research group, and he has no time to prepare a response.

I feel like both situations leave me looking cruel. Which option is preferable, or is there an alternative approach that I've not thought of?

[And to anticipate the comments, I am 99% sure that there is an important mistake and that it's not just my misinterpretation]


texts: How do hiring/promotion/grant committees assess individual applicants who've authored papers with huge teams

texts:
While reading this slightly-too-snarky question, I was reminded of a slightly more serious question I’ve wondered about from time to time: how does being one of the 1000+ authors on a paper like the LIGO discovery or one of the CERN collaborations influence your career?  I’m used being in a field (mathematics) where most papers have between one and three authors (I’ve written with three separate four-person teams, and people have often considered this a bit exotic), so when reading a CV, one can reasonably ascribe most of the “credit” for a paper to any of the authors.

If you’re in a situation where you have to judge the research output of a scientist (like a hiring or tenure committee), how does seeing a paper from an enormous collaboration change your thinking?  What do you if you have make a decision between candidates whose publication lists are identical (due them being in the same collaboration)?