texts: How to practice alone for a presentation?

texts:
I am well aware that, when it comes to preparing to give a talk at a conference, "practice makes perfect". The problem is that, realistically, it tends not to be possible to find an audience for more than one or two run-throughs, so the only remaining possibility is to practice on my own.

Unfortunately, I have always found this to be basically impossible – it's very hard for me to get over how weird it feels to be "talking to myself", and if I do try to force myself to proceed, I always find myself getting horrendously tongue-tied in ways that I don't in front of a live audience. This almost seems like the opposite problem from what many people experience, but I find that the presence of an audience gives me energy and helps to get my brain in gear. I'm curious as to whether other people have the same problem and possible techniques for practicing more effectively.


texts: Are fixed-term research funded staff such as post-docs entitled to redundancy rights, such as severence pay at end of contract?

texts:
According to Fixed-term employment contracts at gov.uk:

  Anyone who’s worked continually for the same employer for 2 years or more has the same redundancy rights as a permanent employee.

When ending a fixed-term contract specifically:

  If a contract isn't renewed, this is considered to be a dismissal, and if the employee has 2 years’ service the employer needs to show that there’s a ‘fair’ reason for not renewing the contract.

Redundancy rights include redundancy pay and a notice period, among other things.

Do those redundancy rights apply for research funded staff on fixed term employment contracts at universities in England?  My question covers both postdocs (Grade 6) and other research funded staff (Grade 7).

(There are also other rights, such as Any employee on fixed-term contracts for 4 or more years will automatically become a permanent employee, but those come with caveats already on the gov.uk page; my question is specifically about redundancy rights)

Edit: It appears this may depend on whether postdocs are legally considered trainees on a work-experience placement or not.  Since my question covers both postdocs and other research funded staff, the trainee-or-not status of postdocs would need to be established in order to answer the overall question.


texts: Is it ok to ask a professor if he/she is taking a leave of absence

texts:
I am currently deciding between graduate schools for PhD programs and I am concerned that a potential advisor might be planning to take a leave of absence to start a new company. Is it socially acceptable to ask the professor if he/she intends to take a leave of absence?

Doing research with a professor that is on leave would be difficult particularly during the early years of graduate student life.


texts: Should I write IEEE membership in my CV?

texts: Does it worth to add IEEE membership to my CV? It seems every body can pay a fee and become an IEEE member.


texts: Should I apply for grad school at higher-ranked institutions besides the one I am working at now?

texts: I am trying to decide about my future and it does look like a dilemma to me for the following reason: I can probably get accepted to PhD program in a good university in europe (top 30 in the subject, top 20 in general) to work with a professional supervisor that I had an experience working with and we were happy to work together. However, friends here tell me that my resume is better than the overall student in the university and I have the chance to get an admission from top 10’s. As I am conservative, I do not want to take a risk. I want to be sure if I can get admitted to PhD programs in top 10 after starting a PhD program if I did not find the university satisfying to me. I am an undergrad student.


texts: Do I need recommendation letters from supervisors if I have a master's?

texts:
Applying for 2018-9 admissions (Missed 2017-8 admissions). Got master's applied math. Want PhD in pure math.
How applicable is the following (source)

a recommendation from someone who only taught a course can mean "this person is a slacker who never bothered to do real work, so they can't find any supervisors to recommend them".
If out of school, delay your application by 1-3 years, and look for work as a lab tech at a university, institute or private company. Make sure not to displease your boss.

if I have a master's?

How might self-study affect applicability? (source)

they can check out your blog, notes etc but probably will not unless they are interested anyway, or it gets hyped up by your letter writers

Contexts:
Application:

I'm allowed only 2 or 3 recommendation letters for some local applications, here in Country A.
Besides research ability/potential, some Country A local applications are looking for soft skills such as leadership, communication, interpersonal, etc

Me:

Bad grades in bachelor's
Bad grades in master's for non-pure maths
Good grades in master's for pure maths
Research: Had a lot of group research projects including a semester-long main research project with 3 supervisors. None of them can give me very strong letters of recommendations

Plan:

Ask 1 or 2 profs in pure maths classes for the research ability/potential. Despite little to no research opportunity apart from problem sets, I have done some of my own self-study and researched/asked about some skipped/not elaborated/unclear/wrong parts in classes (not on this stackexchange account).

Ask boss for the soft skills parts


texts: How to improve writing skills when writing a manuscript for the first time?

texts:
After a year of researching for my Masters project, I am writing a manuscript for publication. I have spent nearly 3 months writing it now. My advisor has read my drafts, but after nearly 4 drafts that I thought were successively better, he says that I am in still the pre-draft stage and that I don't know how to write a manuscript properly. Of course, he gives me adequate guidance and is very helpful, but I am demoralized by my own shortcomings.

I have a hard deadline of 3 weeks to submit my edits to my advisor, after which he has said he will finish editing for me.

I understand this sort of thing happens to all new writers, especially in technical writing, and I could hear tons of personal stories about how difficult his/her experience was - but in the end, pain is very personal.

Anyways, the purpose of this post is not just to get motivated or feel better - it is to ask for concrete advice on where and how to begin, especially given that I don't have that much time?


texts: Feedback for a student showing improvement

texts:
One of the students whose work I'm grading has just handed in a piece of work which is much better than what I've come to expect of them after several classes. I was just about to write some rather positive comment on their work, along the lines of "Good job! You're doing much better than you used to.", when it struck me that perhaps this is not such a great idea after all.

The problem is that, even after the jump in performance, the student is by far not the brightest in the group (not that they're not bright; the group is simply very strong overall). This leaves me with a couple of possible concerns. Maybe that would be somewhat unfair to the other students, who usually perform at a consistent level. More importantly, this might come across as a backhanded compliment. Something along the lines of "Well done, you are now about average, which is very high, judging by your abilities." (which of course is very far from what I mean to convey). Are these legitimate concerns?

On the other hand, it feels slightly wrong not to acknowledge improvement. And I usually try to leave some kind word next to a particularly good solutions of people at the top of the group.

So, is it a good idea to comment on the fact that student is doing better? If so, how do I make sure I will not be misunderstood?


texts: Is graduating a year early and doing research under the guidance of professor a good alternative to spending another semester at my college?

texts:
I'm an international student studying math and physics in an American university relatively highly ranked in terms of math. I'm currently a junior, and I'm going to focus on doing research on a certain theoretical physics topic from this summer. I've exhausted advanced grad courses offered in my university, and I don't think taking any more courses will enhance my chance in admission for math PhD programs in the U.S. Since my school doesn't have a professor working on the topic of my interest, I'm considering to work for the next year on research under the guidance of a professor, who is internationally renowned for his work in the topic, in my native country.

My concern is that there is a rumor that admission is more difficult for already graduated students. Does this thing, if true, apply to me? I'm sure master's students are demanded more, but how about me? Even though I will be in undergrad for three years only, I'm afraid they may consider me as someone who has a year of "advantage."  On the other hand, I'm sure graduating a semester early doesn't affect a lot, as stated by Paul Garrett in a similar post. Could I assume Paul Garrett's comment apply to me as well? If there is an adverse effect, I can just be a student in name only for another semester or two and meanwhile do a research in my country.


texts: Asking search commitee for a specific teaching topic

texts: I have an on campus visit for assistant professor position in CS department. The search committee sent me an email that they will soon send a topic for teaching demo. I am thinking of asking her to give a teaching demo about a specific topic. Is that proper to ask?


texts: Is it good idea to use arXiv for improving my paper?

texts:
I have some rejections to my paper due to wrong selection of journals and the small mistakes done by me. The mistakes are so small for me but crucial to paper and can be fixed very quickly (less than a minute) by me. I want to improve paper by myself by taking a long time because no rejection yet happened due to some serious flaw that I cannot manage.

Since I am a beginner, can I use arXiv to improve my paper through feedbacks or by taking time to improve paper instead of sending to journals and getting rejections for small mistakes? Are there any drawbacks to put my paper in arXiv?

Points favor to me :

1) No time limit.

2) Feedbacks and suggestions may come.

3) Fewer chances for rejection if I publish it to a sensible journal after using arXiv.


texts: Is it possible to create a mutual relationship between full-time work and a PhD program?

texts:
Having experienced academia through masters, and work via part-time and full-time jobs, I plan to pursue PhD and keep working full time. However, my plan is to create a mutual relationship between work and PhD program in which research feeds work and leads new assignments, and work assignments helps research through results and my employer as well.

I am not sure about the case in the other fields, but I think this should be valid for CS people. Do you think or know whether this is possible? If so, do you know any examples of such programs or people who work in this particular way?
The other questions is how might this relationship help or hurt PhD studies?

There is already a question about possibility of working full-time and pursuing PhD simultaneously. However, this question considers working in a completely unrelated area with respect to PhD program.

There is another question that explores the possibility of working on extra activities such as start-up project while pursuing PhD.


texts: What is the job market like in terms of research positions in the industry for continuous optimizers?

texts: I know that PhDs in continuous optimization do find research positions at Amazon, Facebook, and Google. But that's just a few places, and I'm hoping to get a more comprehensive view of the research opportunities in industry. Are they more/less in number than academia jobs (such as postdocs, tenure-track positions)? How difficult/easy is it to get those jobs compared to postdocs and tenure-track positions?


texts: When to use the abbreviations f and ff in scientific literature?

texts:
As discussed in this question, the abbreviations f and ff can be used to refer to following page numbers. For instance, pages 45-46 can be written as 45f. This is quite common in German law, but I wonder if it is commonly accepted for scientific publications? I work in the engineering field, but I would be interested in a more general answer.

Further questions that come to mind:

Apart from page numbers, can these abbreviations also be used for line numbers and paragraphs (e.g. lines 10ff, paragraphs 3f? This would be useful as I am currently preparing a review of a paper and need to refer to specific parts of the manuscript.
Are there cases in which I should prefer specific notations, such as lines 10-23 instead of 10ff?


texts: Is it legal to provide a copy of published IEEE paper on my personal website?

texts:
As the second author of a paper published by IEEE am I allowed to provide a download link to a copy of that paper on my own website? The official paper can only be found at the IEEE CS Digital Library behind a paywall. I'd like to provide free access to it.

Does it make a difference if free download links of the paper can already be found with Google Scholar? Should I prefer to link to the download on the university's publication directory instead of providing my own?


texts: What skills can I get during a PhD to be competitive on the job market against non-PhD holders?

texts:
Earning a PhD help you learn tools and techniques in your field, and lets you become an expert in a very specific field of science. However, once you get your degree and try to enter the labor market, you're competing against people who are younger than you (i.e. recently graduated non-phd engineers) and may have actual work experience (i.e. non-phd engineers with a few years in the market).

There are, of course, some positions in which they cannot compete, including research and teaching position. Those are the minority, though... in most other fields it seems that holding a PhD is not as important as (for example) work experience.

So, I would like to know:

Is work experience more important than having a PhD in the many work environments?
What skills can I acquire/demonstrate during my PhD to become more "valuable" than a non-PhD candidate for the same job?


texts: Will a mismatch between my name the papers I authored and the name in my official documents cause trouble in getting hired?

texts:
When I submitted my first article to arXiv, in the article I mentioned my full name, which is just 'Afham' (I do not know whether it is not allowed to mention such personal information in a question, sorry if it is not). Because of this, my name is not listed as a co-author in the google scholar entry of the paper and neither is the paper listed under my google scholar page.
Do people use unofficial names while submitting papers and can this lead to career related consequences in the future?


texts: Should I post the data my project was tested on in the paper?

texts: I created an algorithm for predictive analysis based on text. I'm making a paper out of it. I have the textual data my algorithm was tested on and compared with other algorithms tested with the same textual data. Should I post a link of this data in my paper or should I just state that I have tested it and here are the results?


texts: Is highlighting important references a good idea?

texts: My thesis has around 100 references. What do you think if I highlight most important references (for example with bold text)? does it add more value to the work?


texts: How can I learn to establish good research questions?

texts:
My problem is that I struggle with finding/posing questions that are worth researching.

I think the reason is my lack of experience, but I am eager to learn and don't want to only rely on my supervisor.


texts: How can I tell if a website is safe for conference registration?

texts:
I am registering for a conference in Canada but the payment link has a weird name like yizhifubj and the website is Chinese.
Is that normal? Are there any guidelines for determining if a registration website is “safe”?


texts: Can I use map, fold, filter in publications?

texts:
I have to write down algorithms in my thesis, and these are getting way shorter if I use "map," "fold," and "filter" heavily.

This generally results in a "map, fold, filter"-chain with a depth of 3.

Structure:

fold( map( ..., filter(...))...)

Is it okay to assume that these functions are known, and what is the parameter convention?


texts: Is it normal for professors to hold their graduate students "hostage?"

texts:
I'm currently scheduled to start graduate school next semester. I've been going to the lab that I'll be working in for the past few months now. I had a question regarding graduation after talking with some of my seniors from the lab.

Just for some background info, I'm currently attending school in South Korea. I'll be pursuing an MS/PhD integrated degree in computer science. The lab that I'm working in is a lab that does research on machine learning and deep learning methods.

My initial plan was to go to the US after finishing my undergrad, but I figured that with my specs I'm not going to get funded and probably won't be able to get into a top program. Also fortunately enough the aforementioned lab's research coincided with mine and I would be getting funding so it seemed like the wiser choice.

I wanted to complete the requirements for a master's and then apply for PhD programs abroad. My supervisor advised that it'd probably be better to just get my PhD here and apply for post-doc positions in the US (or anywhere else) but he said he's also open to the idea of me quitting halfway.

The reason why I'm posting this question is because in Korea (I can't speak for other Asian countries but I heard Japan is also very similar) the professor who runs the lab is basically a "king" in that lab. Pretty much everything is according to his/her will and they also get to determine if they want to "let their students graduate." It's one reason why many people are reluctant to pursue graduate studies here if they had the choice.

Fortunately, my professor seems to be nice and at least considers his graduate students to some extent alongside his own personal interests.

I'm curious though, is this kind of thing also normal (or at least prevalent) in other countries in the Western world? The impression that I get for those countries is that graduate students are pretty much independent researchers/students and their supervisors are just that - supervisors. Does one's graduation also depend on their signature?


texts: Should I send a copy of a closed-access paper requested on academia.edu?

texts:
What is an appropriate response to a request for a copy of a closed-access paper on academia.edu?

For the paper in question, I only provide a link (doi) to the publisher's site on my academia.edu profile, since uploading an actual paper would be illegal. Academia.edu allows other users to request such papers, which sends an auto-generated email to me informing me that someone would like a copy of my paper - if I reply, the copy would be sent to this person only.

Here are my options, the way I see them:

Do nothing (ignore/reject the request) - as much as I don't like publicly-funded research being hidden behind a paywall, people requesting the paper are all associated with universities that should be able to provide them with access to the journal that hosts it. On the other hand, many labs make copies of their published papers available on their sites, even if they are not open access, so this seems to indicate some other aspects of academic paper-sharing culture. Besides, all parties use a full name, and I don't want to come off as inaccessible or unresponsive.
Send the person a copy. I don't know if this would be the right thing to do, but then again I have no experience with such situations.

I'm strongly leaning towards the first option - ideally, I would provide the recipient with an explanation on how to access the paper legally and explain why I cannot provide him with a copy, but I don't know if the message would even make it across given the auto-generated nature of the inquiry.

As a side note, while looking for an answer to this question, I learned that academia.edu has brutal terms of service and am in the process of closing the account anyway, but in the meantime I'd still like to handle this situation.


texts: Does staying in a Master's program for too long look bad on PhD applications?

texts:
I am currently a (USA) Master's student studying biochemistry. I intend to get a PhD after my Master's but I am doing a Master's first because my husband is going to finish his PhD and want to move to another city before I would be able to finish a PhD at my current university (this was planned from the beginning, I applied to the Master's program, not the PhD program).

Normally, people in my program graduate in 1.5-2 years. I could graduate in that time frame and find a tech job in the area or I could continue my research in my program until my husband finishes (~3.5 years from the time I started). Given where we live, I think the job I could find would be a job that will help me develop additional lab skills, but probably not result in publications.

My advisor is happy for me to stick around and it would be convenient for me to do so, but I'm concerned that it will look on a resume/PhD application like I was either lazy so it took so long or just bailed from a PhD and dropped to a Master's.
I understand that if I had a fantastic publication record it might make up for the long Master's program, but I expect my publication record to be average.

In summary, does it look bad on PhD applications to extend the length of my Master's program instead of getting a job as a technician for 2 years?


texts: Should I call my adviser by her first name?

texts:
I have worked with my adviser for a few months as a graduate student. Everyone, including her other graduate students, seems to call her by her first name. She never expressed a preference to me, so I've been calling her "Dr. Smith". She signs her emails with her first name.

I am worried that I am being awkward. I don't mind calling her "Dr. Smith", but during meetings where other students are present, it would be jarring to call her "Dr. Smith" while other students use her first name in the same conversation. So far, I have managed to avoid this issue by choosing my words very strategically to avoid directly addressing my adviser at all.

I don't wish my adviser to think that I am making some sort of statement by being unnecessarily formal. On the other hand, I don't wish to appear too informal either. Apart from that, once you've addressed someone by their title for several months, unceremoniously switching to their first name out of the blue seems like it would be very strange.

Is there any tactful way of resolving this predicament, besides waiting and hoping for the adviser to express a preference? I am in the US.


texts: What to do if referees take a long time to upload their recommendation letters?

texts: I have(am) applied(ying) for a junior faculty position (i.e. tenure track assistant professor level) at a research-intensive US university from this fall. I am planning to apply to at least 30 universities for getting a position. However, most of the opening announcements I came across are asking  to put the email addresses of my referees for letters of recommendation in addition to submitting standard documents, e.g. CV, cover letter, research and teaching statements. My concern is if I apply for all of these openings within a week or so,  my referees' email inbox will be full of reference requests. In order to avoid such problem, I am applying for one particular opening and then waiting until I see that all the referees have uploaded their letters. Then I am applying to the next. However, it turns out not to be the best way of handling this circumstance since most of the referees are taking at least a week or so to upload their letters (sometimes after my second reminder). If it goes on this way, I will be approaching the submission deadlines of some of the openings. In this case, should I upload the standard documents from my side at least? Will the department I am applying to not consider my application if they see that the reference letters are not uploaded on time?


texts: Don't last-year PhD students need supervision?

texts:
I am a PhD student currently in the middle of my PhD. After talking to some senior PhD students, I came to know that during the last or second to the last year of PhD, advisors don't advise their students (advice to very small extent ). There are many things last year students have to do on their own. I don't know if this is true or not in general.

  Question : Don't last year PhD students need supervision?


texts:
How do you address a Dr. des. (Doctor designatus), for example in e-mails?

Dr. John Doe
Dr. des. John Doe
John Doe
…?


texts: Interrogated for cheating based on discrimination a potential lawsuit?

texts: I have been taking a couple online classes. I also had a baby a week before the classes started. It has been an incredibly stressful 10 weeks. Anyway, I had a project I had to complete for a business class. It was a business plan. I have extensive experience in the restaurant industry and decided to go to college later on so I did a restaurant plan for my business project. The project was so good and detailed, that I got called to a meeting for interrogation on cheating, to see if I had anyone do the project for me, etc. With the way the meeting went, it really seemed as if the professor and the directer were discriminating against me for having a baby and thus not having the ability to complete such a detailed project. What kind of steps can I take to express my feelings of being stereotyped or discriminated against?


texts: Generalization of results obtained from a paper that may be "false"

texts:
I am a PhD student in mathematics, currently working on an article (article A) from two leading researchers in my field published in an 0.72 Impact journal.

I have an idea to generalize their results and publish my first article (paper B) but I have two problems:

In one of the proofs in paper A, the authors made a passage "crucial" which is not quite correct, according to several discussions with my supervisor .

What should I do with this situation? should I try to find another proof for the theorem and write it in a paper?

In paper B, I will use theorems similar to those of Article A, but weakening the assumptions assumed in A.

Do you think there is any chance that this can be considered plagiarism?

Any other advice about what to do in this situation is welcome, and I would especially appreciate answers from mathematicians, as I have the impression that standard practices differ significantly from field to field.


texts: As a computational chemist, which online resources are available for Ph.D. level jobs?

texts: Which online resources are available for job search at the Ph.D. level in the computational chemistry field?


texts: How do I tell my teacher I want him to be co-advisor but not advisor?

texts:
I am currently a master student at university A after having done my bachelor at university B. The class sizes are small in this field, so I am quite close to teachers at both universities. I want my old teacher at university B to be my advisor in my future PhD, because the research I intend to do fits slightly better with his own work, and he will be much better at advising me with other directions of research (based on my experiences so far). However, my current teacher has a lot of knowledge in some subfield which will be relevant for at least part of the research project, so my intended advisor and I would like him to be participating as co-advisor.

How do I tell my current teacher I want him to be co-advisor? I think he expects to be my main advisor and obviously want to remain on good terms.

Note: I have seen How do I tell my current research advisor I want to work in a related field with another professor?, but I feel this is a more complicated situation since I still want my current teacher to participate in the project.


texts: Sent emails asking for letters of recommendation, but no responses/agreement to write letter

texts:
At my undergraduate school I was hired by my advisor to work in his lab. Now I want to apply to graduate school at the same institution and have begun asking for letters of recommendation, but the only responses I've received have been no, I'm unable to write letters at this time or I'm at a meeting (conference) and will reply when I get back (not automated and I'm pretty sure the prof is already back because we work in the same building).

The other people still haven't responded and it makes me think they're either really busy and can't do it and so are delaying informing me they can't do it or they didn't see it or saw it and forgot about it. The deadline is approaching quickly.

Is it obnoxious if I email them again to ask if they received it or when I can expect a response?


texts: Is it possible to get a PhD in molecular/cell biology/genetics without work with mice? How to find such a lab?

texts:
I don't want to kill any more mice, but my advisor insists that I must in order to get my PhD

I read the above post and I realized that I will be sailing in the same boat.

I am planning to get a PhD admission in molecular/cell biology/genetics.
I cannot stand the sight of mice. I get scared even looking at pictures of mice.

My questions are:

Is it possible to complete the course without having to work on mice?
Will it be very difficult to do?
How should I go about finding labs that don't work with mice?


texts: What are the differences between a research paper and a patent?

texts:
I would like to know particularly how is regarded in a scientific community since it is not peer reviewed.

  It should be noted patents do not go through similar peer review as journal publications. Of course, this is slightly depending on whatever requirements patent laws in a specific country put on the claims put forward bu the patentee. But no country really requires another researcher to scrutinize the claims made by a patent at the point of filing it, like a publication does.
  There are patents of cars that run on water, fusion-powered space craft etc.etc, ie. things that do not work. So as a reference a patent is definitely a weaker source, especially if it is not something someone is using/selling yet.

Is it allowed to publish patent and then paper?


texts: Having children while at graduate school

texts:
I am finishing my first year of Masters and have always thought of going for a PhD in North America. I and my girlfriend are going to have a baby which is totally unexpected. The due day will be somewhere this december which I am still half year away from finishing my Masters degree.

I don't know under this circumstance should I still, or am I able to, apply for PhD positions overseas. This would mean I will have to leave them or bringing them together for my study. I am not super rich to afford a family personally and would need to rely on studentships, but I don't think graduate studentships are sufficient to afford the living expense and future education fees of my coming baby.

Taking on a PhD and a research career are definitely my dream and situation seems very difficult for these to come true. Anyone knowing someone carrying kids along grad school, or any suggestion to me? I just don't have a clue how to take care of everything.


texts: Reproducible research and corporate identity

texts:
My university is on a drive to unify its corporate identity (it makes me sick just typing that). This drive includes branding our lecture slides, research talks, and research posters. The branding templates are not released under an open license and utilize a copyrighted logo and proprietary fonts. I think this prevents me from releasing my talks and posters under a free and open license (e.g., CC BY) which is one of the tenets of Reproducible Research.

Apart from creating two versions of everything, is there any way to reconcile this apparent incompatibility?

Is my understanding of licenses like CC BY wrong? Can I release something (e.g., a research talk or poster) with a copyrighted logo that I don't hold the copyright on under a free and open license?


texts: Listing in reference section, but not quoting

texts: Can we list papers/Journals in reference section, but do not quote them in thesis. It may happen that I read some papers which are close to my area of work, but I may not use any idea from that paper. So in such case, I may not quote anything from that paper. But since I have read that paper, can I list that paper in reference section?


texts: I am a PhD Student doing outreach with High school Juniors and Seniors in STEM. There is a book on mathematical proofs, "How To Prove It" by Daniel Velleman, that I think most of the mathematically inclined students I am working with would love reading and doing problems from. These students though do not have the funds to purchase this book because they are from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. What is the most ethical way for me to obtain large numbers of copies of this book, or textbooks in general, for these students?


texts: Thesis project outside of advisor's expertise

texts:
I'm working on a project outside of my advisor's experise. He doesn't have background in this area (he's not familiar with both the big picture nor the basic detail). For example, it's a machine learning project, and while the first critical thing is training data, he told me to focus on finding features. Also he's not consistent with the design of solution: sometimes he want it to be unsupervised, and when I mention training data he switched to supervised system.

I managed to do the work on my own, but without the advisor's guidance I couldn't go further. I can only go to the point of reimplemeting state of the art papers and add small modification to them. Whenever I present a new idea/working solution, he couldn't criticize it since he's not familiar with the field.

How should I resolve this situation ( ask for a coadvisor etc)? I absolutely love this project and am capable of working out the solution, just need better guidance from professor.

P/S: This project is one of the main project of my advisor since he gets funding from that.


texts: Going elsewhere for an M.S. in Computer Science?

texts: I'll be completing a BS in Computer Science at the end of next year and am unsure about graduate school. I study at a fairly lowly ranked school for this field with somewhat mediocre performance and as such I am planning to pursue a Masters degree before applying to PhD programs. I'm in my university's 5 year BS/MS program, but I was curious if I might be better off applying to an MS somewhere more well regarded. The main advantage of the combined degree seems to be convenience as well as a smooth transition to research (I'm aware of the faculty at my school and generally what they work on), but I'm curious about the degree to which my choice of MS might affect PhD admissions.


texts: US graduate school: expected proficiency and competency in the area of specialization at the beginning of the program

texts:
I am interested in applying to graduate schools in the US in a certain sub-area of computer sciences. However, most of my educational background is in engineering (BS+MS in systems engineering from a good university in Europe). While I have some research experience in the specific research sub-area that I am interested in pursuing, I feel that I may lack some of the more general knowledge that would normally be expected from a computer science graduate.
AFAIK, in the US, any Ph.D. student is expected to read courses for the first 1-2 years. This structure seems ideal for me, as it will allow me to convert my slightly inconsistent self-gained knowledge into something coherent. However, I have two questions:

Is it socially acceptable to be spending a significant amount of time during the first 1-2 years of the Ph.D. doing courses and, generally, exploring the subject widely (e.g. in Europe the perception is usually very negative: not dedicating all of one's time to research is often seen as a waste of resources and can result in negative consequences for one's career)?. If I am to also act as a TA + doing graduate courses, I doubt that I will be able to dedicate a significant amount of time to research.
Should I make it reasonably apparent in my applications (in the personal statement) that "I am interested in studying such and such subjects in-depth and I am pleased that the department XYZ provides a unique opportunity to do so". The reasoning behind it is that I do not wish to be perceived more competent than I am in the broad area of computer science. Thus, if I get accepted, I should not be expected to become a publication-production-device from day 1 of the program (not to say that I do not intend to publish, and I have published before).

If it is relevant, I am not aiming very high from the perspective of the rankings, while having a very good GPA in BS/MS, a very good quant GRE, some research experience, some semi-relevant work experience and at least one reasonably relevant first-author publication (possibly and hopefully two). Nonetheless, I was not very successful professionally, as I could never leave the "obscure start-up environment" with periods of unemployment.

I know that there is quite a number of similar questions on the website, but I could not find any questions identical to the ones that I am asking. Please do note that the question is not about the admission chances and hardly about the admission process. I am interested in what are the general expectations from the Ph.D. students with regard to the ratio of the time spent doing coursework/teaching/research during the first 1-2 years of a Ph.D. program in the US.


texts: Publishing again acknowledging the original publication of oneself

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I have come across the International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications(IJACSA).  The copyright section says that "Authors retain the right to publish their material elsewhere, providing the original publication is acknowledged."

Can the same paper be sent to somewhere else as well. Given that I have seen that mostly conferences/journals require unpublished material, what does this clause exactly mean ? Is it normal clause in Open Access Journals ?


texts: Should I be worried about the fact that I will be too old for applying for tenure track positions by the time I complete postdoc?

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I am 30 years old. I have spent 4 yrs in undergrad, 2 in masters and 5 in PhD with half a year of work experience in between. I have just finished my PhD and will start with a postdoc position early next year. Considering I spend 2-3 years in a postdoc. By the time I apply for TT positions, I will be 33yo. I have heard that hiring committees prefer younger candidates (<30) than older ones. Considering I have a good application, should I be worried about the fact that I will be too old for applying for tenure track positions by the time I complete postdoc?

I would be applying for TT positions in India, Canada and US.


texts: My Professor thinks class ends 30 minutes earlier than it does

texts: The title pretty much says it all - it's a 2.5 hr class and he thinks it's 2 hrs. The first 3 classes have been rushed and I want to tell him - but when I mention it to my classmates they tell me it's not our problem and adamately say not to mention it - I don't think anybody wants the class to be any longer than it is. What should i do?


texts: I am conflicted between getting a second master's and moving on to a PhD?

texts: I have always loved psychology, and so I went and got a first degree in that field. However, I also loved technology (especially computers) while growing up. Unfortunately, I wasn't well-informed about university programs, and so I didn't know I could do both psychology and computer science in my undergraduate, until I was admitted and wasn't allowed by my institution to pick on new programs. So after undergraduate I decided to go on to pursue a health technology (ehealth & telemedicine) master's program, but my lack of knowledge in computer science makes me not proficient in the tech aspect of my field and limits my PhD options in that field. My ideal career move involves combining technology in my psychology professional practice. But now, I am confused as to whether I should just go on and pursue a PhD Health technology or go in for a second master's in psychology to allow me further into PhD psychology afterwards? I can't apply for PhD in psychology without a master's in that field either, but I also feel I am not growing younger anymore and so time matters, if I want to enjoy a long career before retirement then I should get a PhD soon enough. But that will mean sticking to health technology and forgoing my psychology dreams. I am really confused now. Also, is there anyway I can get into psychology and still take a course in computer science? What are my options, what should I do?


texts: Can published papers outweigh average marks when applying to top institutions for MS?

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I haven't been paying much attention to my marks during my undergrad (4 year undergrad), they haven't been terrible, but they are decidedly average. However, it looks like I could publish an economics paper this year and my supervisor wants to publish another one with me next year (I am currently in my third year).

So could these publications help with getting into top institution, assuming my marks improve from here on out?


texts: Asking for recommendation letters for postdoc positions in mathematics

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I'm starting my fifth year in math PhD. For two years I've been thinking on a well known problem (well known enough to have a Wikipedia page) in my field with no success  and all of a sudden I think I did solve it with a very short solution. I haven't written it down yet but I can do so in 1 week. The bottom line is that I'm in a situation that there is nothing positive about my CV except solving the conjecture. I do not have any other publications and I'm very unknown,no professional mathematician in my field is aware of my existence. I'm planning to apply for postdoc positions this coming fall but what I'm struggling with is the letters of recommendation. Let's say I'll write my arxiv version of the paper in 1 week and about 1 week it will take it for me to explain it to my adviser and proofread it. My adviser hopefully will help me to give some talks at some places (I haven't given any talks outside of my university during my PhD). I think the standard procedure is that after giving the talk I should start asking for the LOR from the people who attended my talk until I can get 2 LORs. Problem is that this procedure will potentially take a lot of time and as people require at least a month to write LORs by that time the deadlines will be passed. I wanted to ask for some ideas on how to get LORs in my situation?

I was thinking maybe I can send emails directly to the people in my field with my preprint and directly ask for the LOR but someone told me this is very unusual and might not be a good idea. What are your opinions on this?


texts: When is it enough? Final year PhD student with an abusive advisor

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How do I know if I've had enough?

I am scared to take this further, since my supervisor is quite powerful (millions in funding) and goes back and forth with abusive behavior. Plus, I only have a couple months left to write up.

What would be considered an unrefutable evidence of abuse?
I am experiencing all sorts of difficulties at the moment, but I'm unsure of their significance in this generally challenging academic environment.

Thanks,
EE


texts: Why are most people so intellectually uncurious

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I'm not sure this is the right place to ask this question.

I've noticed that almost everyone I have met is intellectually uncurious. In a world where our daily lives depend on technology that would have been called magic a century ago (cell phones, computers, etc...), it's hard for me to understand why people aren't even interested in how it all works. Perhaps they've hust gotten used to it - I once I asked a friend if he knew how his computer worked, and his reponse was no, and I don't care I just use it".

This lack of intellectual curiosity sadly permeates into academic settings, in my experience. Even my peers who study mathematics and engineering  don't understand my fascination at lightning storms, or an airplane passing overhead,etc. The physics students seem to be pretty curious in general, but I don't understand. My engineering friends always tell me the same thing "we don't need to understand it at a deep level in order to build new things with it".

I thought kids were naturally curious creatures? I would guess it's a result of bad schooling, but i've never heard of teachers actively discouring asking good questions.

So what's going on here? What factors contribute to the apparent lack of intellectual curiosity amongst the general public, but more importantly amongst STEM students.


texts: Publishing into journals as an independent undergraduate researcher

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I'm an undergraduate student looking to publish 2 papers in materials physics on novel research. I've lead the project on my own as an independent research, but have worked with the departments and faculty to gain access to several of my universities labs to conduct the research. I have no clear supervisor or adviser for the project though, and have a few questions regarding the submission of papers to journals as an undergraduate.

Would I be discriminated against due to the lack of qualifications
Is it appropriate for an undergraduate student to submit a manuscript to a journal.
What journals have low to no cost for manuscripts, the project is self funded and I doubt I'll be able to financially support the extraordinary fees I've seen from some journals.

I understand the paper can be posted on ArXiv or ResearchGate, but that nullifies the legitimacy of it being called a publication. The professors I've spoken to have suggested the paper could be submitted to well ranked journals, and wish to have it published in a well respected journal.  Frankly I'm just unsure how I should approach submitting my manuscripts as an undergraduate.


texts: Coordination of a class taught by different professors: how to be fair to the students?

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A typical freshman course on calculus has about 100 students every semester. If the course is divided into 4 sections, each has 25 students and a different instructor.

Because the instructors are different, a student's grade may strongly depend on who teaches his section. Lazy students could ask other students before registering who is the easiest grader or who makes easy or straightforward exams, etc. This is unfair to the rest of the students.

Has anybody else faced the same problem? And how did you overcome it?

What criteria one should impose to guarantee that a student's grade will only weakly depend on who is teaching him?.

We are thinking about giving all sections the same midterms and finals. But, obviously this is not enough


texts: How can a PhD student find a collaborator who might assist with programming in exchange for co-authorship?

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I am a PhD student and since I am busy with my current projects, I have no time to implement a C# project for my paper.Also, I was looking for an intermediate C# programmer as a student job in my university ( Potsdam ). But, I could not find any one! So, I was wondering if you can tell me how could I find somebody to implement a C# program for me and be interested in participating and publishing a paper? is there any forum website or any solution in this situation?

Best,


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I am computer science graduate from India. My mathematical background in under-graduate was two semesters of multi-variable calculus. I worked as a researcher in a Data Mining firm where I worked on Algorithmic trading. During my Job, I, on the side, learned Linear Algebra, Probability, Statistics, Abstract Algebra and Topology and little of Advanced Number Theory.
I am planning to apply for Phd in Economics. While applying for universities, in the application instructions the universities ask for mathematical proficiency in Linear Algebra, Probability, Statistics, Real Analysis, Abstract Algebra, etc., using the courses I have taken in my under-graduation.
As my under-graduate degree never had such courses, I am stuck. Is there any way to show mathematical proficiency like online courses in Coursera/edX?
I have not applied for masters as all universities take under-graduates directly into PhD programs provided they show mathematical proficiency and have decent GRE score, among other things.
Please provide me a way to show the universities that I am mathematical proficient as I have aced every other criteria required by the universities.
Are there any recognized standard tests that I can take to show my proficiency?

Edit: The universities I have contacted have categorically stated that GRE Math Subject test is not preferred.


texts: How do the advantages of a flipped classroom overcome timing issues?

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This may be an issue of me not understanding the university/college teaching approaches in other countries. It was prompted by this question about student complaints - How to adopt flipped classroom strategies without student complaints?

In Australia and UK, every mathematics, physics, statistics etc course I have ever seen or taken has two types of classroom activities - generally referred to as lectures and tutorials. Typically there are 2 hours of lectures per week with an academic presenting the theory and doing some examples. The weekly 1 hour of tutorial has a tutor (usually a graduate student) going through the homework questions and is done after the students have attempted the questions. In addition, students can ask questions during the lectures and the tutorials.

I don't understand the advantage of a flipped classroom.

Having the students watch a lecture offline would mean they have to ask questions about that lecture without context and they would not have the answer to the question before watching the rest of the lecture. I would expect this to lead to lower understanding.

Similarly, having the students work through the homework problems in the presence of the lecturer/tutor would substantially reduce the number and/or length and/or difficulty of the homework questions simply due to available time. A typical homework question set would take several hours to work through and usually have a couple of relatively simple questions that lead up to questions requiring deeper understanding. I would be concerned that running a flipped classroom would mean those deeper understanding questions would never be attempted and/or discussed.

Could someone please explain the advantage of flipped classrooms, particularly how the problems I have described are avoided. And whether the advantages are only in comparison to some specific teaching method that differs from my experience.


texts:
I am looking to leave my career in computing and go back to university to study a History MA.

The trouble is I only have a 3rd class degree in Computing from around 1990.

What would you recommend I do to get myself back in the saddle, and to make myself more attractive to MA courses?


texts: What level of math does one usually require before being able to publish a paper of their own

texts: At what level does someone become skilled enough in math to publish their work? I am an undergrad student currently in calculus 2. My dream is to publish work of my own, but I know that will come to fruition quite a while down the road due to my current level of math. I would appreciate any advice you have to give. Thank you in advance. Just to clarify I am asking about math papers.


texts: Can I pursue a Master's in the USA in software engineering after a Bachelor's in IT in Nepal?

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Can I do a Master's in software engineering in the USA, because I've done a Bachelor's in information technology in Nepal?
Software engineering and information technology are different majors, so will it cause any problem to do a Master's in software engineering? So, please help me out here.


texts: Deep reading or just skimming and scanning?

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In order to write a lit review from papers which I already have, should I read all those papers deeply and summarize them, or can I just skim and scan and just pick the information that I need to connect it with other information available in another paper?

The main point that I want to understand, do I have to understand the paper fully that I took some things to write from? For example, If I found a paragraph in a paper and it is good to include in one of the themes, then do I have to understand that paper fully?


texts: Will the origin of anecdote in paper violate double-blind policy?

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A paper I am writing utilizes a short story from Japan to make a point. In the paper, I have written the punch-line in Japanese, with a translation added.

I am not from Japan, but would such an inclusion be considered a violation of double-blind policy ? I am okay with removing the Japanese text, but the story itself needs to stay.


texts: Review time for IEEE transactions on image processing

texts: Apologies if this is not in keeping with ASE, but I wondered if anyone knows? I have a paper I submitted nearly 5 months ago that is still in peer review. I'm not sure if this is an appropriate time to email the editor. Many thanks!


texts: Classmate shops my unpublished ideas around and contacts my advisors,

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I'm about a year into some exciting research, with some early results that many professors are interested in following the progress of.  I have two advisors.
I recently learned that my graduate classmate, from a different lab, has been shopping my ideas around, interviewing with other labs at other universities, apparently to try to do something similar, gain a collaborator, etc.  He told he did this, which made me uncomfortable.
He's also contacted one of my advisors, he says.  I believe there is no stopping him at this point.  He will likely contact my second, more renowned advisor too, with the goal of working with them, and knowing about all of my recent progress in research, since him and I are very close friends.
I feel he's behaving like a leech and acting like a desperate leap-frogger.  And I regret talking so much about my progress, which he now uses and shops around, perhaps misrepresenting the ideas and techniques as his own.
How should I deal with these feelings?
On the one hand, I feel he has complete freedom to contact whomever he wants, and shop whatever unpublished ideas he wants, to build his own career.  On the other hand, I feel like I am just supplying and enabling a plagiarist.
Should I cut contact with him, or be proud that he is excited about my work and wants to emulate me?
I don't contact his advisors or shop his ideas around, for example.


texts: Working with applied math advisers as a pure math PhD student

texts: I'm currently applying to pure math PhD programs in the US to study theoretical PDE, especially things like fluids and waves. The issue I'm running into as I write applications is that at some institutions, the professors who work on this are split between the pure and applied programs. My question is whether I would be eligible to be advised by an applied professor and if I should mention applied professors in my statement. Also if this depends on the institution, how would I go about finding out in particular cases?


texts: Is it OK to submit a poster version of an already accepted full paper to the same conference?

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My advisor has suggested that I should send a poster version of an already accepted full paper to the same conference.  He suggests that I should do this because he thinks this will trigger more discussions about this work and make it known by more people. The intention is good, but I have a concern since it is a poster version of the same paper in the same conference. I feel weird.

Can anybody give me more suggestions? Should I do this?


texts: Is a student with weak written examination skills also a weak candidate for PhD?

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A friend of mine is enrolled as a master's student in Computer Science and considering to convert to a PhD at the same university. My guide acknowledges that he has excellent interpretation, understanding and deduction skills. He is also very good in implementing ideas as code.

He has been able to score just around average grades in all the subjects primarily owing to class projects. The problem he attributes to is that he is not at all good at reproducing things during the examination. In fact, while studying, he tends to ignore all the information like names of techniques, methods etc and just focus on what and how things work. In fact, he doesn't like to write the exam at all and usually just focus on the most tempting or the most thought provoking questions in the paper. (and just writes something to other questions for the sake of writing).

Now, he is just falling short(by 0.2) of the CGPA criteria set at our university to convert to a PhD. So, not being able to properly write examinations and not being able to score good grades, makes him a weak potential candidate for a PhD or does it affects his chances of successfully completing a PhD ?


texts: Is it possible for MSc (India) student to pursue MS in US?

texts: Is it possible for an Indian student with M.Sc degree to do M.S course in USA? I heard BS degree in USA is of 4 years, but in India MSc is done after BSc.


texts: Ill Recommender Gave Me Letter To Submit

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I'll be on the job market this year for teaching positions at very small schools or lecturer positions at large schools. I took a class about two years ago now that was focused on teaching pedagogy. It was great, and I had good rapport with my teacher. After the semester, I asked her if she would mind writing a recommendation letter for me in advance, despite almost two years until I would be on the job market. The intent was that I could contact her when I was actually on the market, and she would already have something prepared from when I was in more regular contact with her.

My professor did write me the letter. However, she also let me know that she had recently received a diagnosis for a debilitating illness that would be demanding her time and attention, and sent me the letter she completed. She's still alive, although on leave indefinitely from the school to concentrate on her health and spending time with family.

I'm wondering what the protocol is for whether I should use her letter or not, particularly given that many schools prefer to contact the letter writers directly. I come from a big research school, and while other professors would be a great testament to my character and research, none have any real awareness about my teaching. A few schools I'm considering applying to actually specifically ask for one letter that focuses on teaching.

Given how teaching-centric my job search is, I think her letter would be a great asset. But I'm not sure whether I should use it, and if so, the best way to get the letter to schools.

Note: This is for the US academic system.


texts: Handling "contraband" tattoos in closed-book exams

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I'm wondering how a proctor of a closed-book exam should approach the case where a student has a tattoo that would double as a cheat sheet. Maybe they think the math looks cool, or they got a nice calligraphy of a textbook passage, or they are just that desperate to cheat.

Now, on one hand, that tattoo is pretty much a permanent fixture. On the other hand, that is a cheat sheet written on your forearm. In fact, it might be a particularly brazen attempt at cheating. And on the gripping hand, the fact that a resource is available for easy reference whenever needed doesn't carry much weight in the context of a closed-book exam.

At least in my university, the general rule for exams is "No written material unless expressly permitted", and most of the exams that permit bringing a "cheat sheet" have had a restriction on the sheet size (e.g. one-sided hand-written A4 paper). Therefore, a situation may well arise that a student shows up for an exam with the maximum-sized cheat sheet, and some related math (purportedly) tattooed on their forearm. If I find myself proctoring an exam and this happens, how should I approach the situation?

This is an entirely hypothetical question so far, so I'm unable to provide details of a real-life example.


texts: Advisor has stopped giving me research projects

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I’m a fourth-year PhD student. For a while my advisor has been complaining that I don’t take enough ownership of my projects and I just do what he tells me to do, and that I don’t have any critical thinking skills.  He told me that if he left me in a room for six months by myself, I would not be able to produce a paper.

After our last project finished, he just never gave me a new project, and I haven’t had a research project for several months now.

I asked him why he did not give me a new project, and he said that he shouldn’t have to give me projects, because I am the graduate student and I should be coming up with my own projects.  This is very different from all of our previous projects where he came up with the whole idea and I mostly just followed instructions.

Is this a polite way of firing me?


texts: What solutions exist to store data in text files and future-proof against tampering?

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A recent question in Information and Security Stack Exchange,

  How to know whether a textfile has been edited or tampered with

raises a very good point: if one wants to archive experimental data in an open, text-based format, in the long term, it is desirable to have tools to prevent the tampering of the files, or at least detect the tampering if and when it happens.

The answers at infosec are good, but they feel somewhat abstract and hard to implement for a busy PI whose hands are already full trying to run a research lab. It may be, on the other hand, that solutions already exist that fulfil at least some of the requirements, or that they will appear not too long in the future; it's certainly reasonable to suspect that some form of tamper-resistant data or lab-book signature scheme is already in use at least in commercial research organizations.

This question is relatively hard to pose correctly, as there is an inherent vagueness in the requirements, and it is probably better to keep it general. The main problem is, given a set of text-based data files, how to signatures, or similar devices, that can be used in the future to provide guarantees that the data has not been tampered with. Are there any specific solutions that will do this in an accessible way?


texts: Studying medicine after PhD in nuclear engineering

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I am a PhD in nuclear engineering and I am mostly expert of mathematical modelling:
1)neutron and particle transport;
2)fluid dynamics;
My methods are finite elements, finite volumes, lattice Boltzmann, machine learning.
My other dream is also becoming a MD (I love psychiatry, but nuclear medicine is certainly closer to my background). I am talking more about medical research than clinical practice.
Do you think there’s a way to reach a ‘synthesis’ between the two paths (in which each can benefit the other) without wasting away 10 years of studies?
IMPORTANT: I am talking about becoming a MD, and not doing something more medical-related without becoming one.


texts: Is it normal to feel lost while following a mathematical / physical reasoning?

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I re-uploaded this question here, since a user from Physics Stack Exchange told me it might fit better.

TL;DR: I feel like I could not come up with most reasonings myself, so I end up feeling like I'm a phony, a bad student, or not good enough, and I can't focus on the actual problem.

I have been meaning to post this question for a long time. I am aware that this might be a little too personal for this forum, but at the same time I think I might not be alone here. And whether this is a common phase to go through during one's mathematical education or just something people have to learn to deal with, I think it could be of use to others. So here it is.

I'm a third year physics student in university. I am not American, but Spanish, and university/college here does not work like most Americans are used to, which is why I want to clarify this first. (You can skip this if you know how college works in most countries outside the USA). People can't choose what they want to study with as much freedom as people do in the USA: you just choose a degree, like Physics, or Mathematics, and then follow the curriculum with very little deviation. You can choose a bunch of optional classes to start leaning to a certain branch of your discipline, but that's it. No history, language, arts, cinema or biology classes if you're a Physics student. Therefore, a physics student is expected to have passed all of their mathematical training in their second year of university: linear algebra, real and complex calculus, differential equations, etc., and all of the major branches of Physics after their fourth year: Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Electromagnetism, Quantum Mechanics, and the rest of them. There is very little actual research, so students are expected to spend four years studying to get "the basics" down before they can help or research for themselves.

I wanted to tell you this to give you some kind of idea of the type of content that I might struggle with. Now, my problem is the following:

Every time I have to follow some kind of mathematical reasoning (even if it is applied to a certain physical problem), I get nervous and lost if I can't grip it the first time I read it. Sometimes because I don't remember the mathematics too well, sometimes because I just don't understand why they chose to complete a step in the way they did, kind of like when a professor suggests a change of variable that works for solving an integral and you think you could have never come up with that. Even after seeing the complete reasoning, I just don't know why they knew they had to do what they did to get there. And the most common one for me: sometimes I can follow the reasoning, but I have the feeling that I could have never thought about that myself, and therefore I'm just being a phony. When I feel like that, I just feel like giving up and checking the final result: "I am going to forget this anyway, since I could not come up with that line of reasoning".

Is it normal to feel like this at this point of one's education? This might be impostor's syndrome, or just the fact that maybe I am not very well prepared, or that I might need to find some kind of mental peace in the fact that this is common before I can actually sit down and do things.

Thank you all. You are a great community. I could talk to my therapist about this, but first I wanted to talk to people who might actually have encountered this problem in their lives.


texts: I found a huge error in my master's thesis which I defended a year ago

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I defended my Master's thesis last year and continued on to pursue PhD in the same university under a different adviser. My Master's thesis adviser and I were getting ready to present a paper pertaining to the MS thesis at a conference in two weeks. The paper is already accepted.

Earlier this week, in preparation of showing reports at the conference, I started re-running my Master's thesis code to obtain fresh reports. The results gave me the nastiest shock of my life. The new results I was getting were a magnitude off from the results I had before. I could not believe the new results. Thinking that I had done something wrong in the current run, I re-ran my previous projects which I had used to obtain the results for the thesis document and defense. Even these runs gave me the same results as the new results I was getting. When I dug into it further I realized that I had misinterpreted the value of a single variable which changed all my result values by a magnitude. This reverses half of the conclusions I made and slightly alters the rest. I immediately emailed my adviser for a meeting to discuss this issue. I am meeting with her next week.

In the meantime I am panicking that my adviser or the school board might think that I deliberately presented the wrong values since I was getting better results. I am scared that they might not see my mistake as a mistake or even if they do see it as a mistake, they might take some strict action like revoking my MS degree or suspending me from school or even expulsion. I am panicking. Please advise. Thank you.


texts: What options do I have when a journal refuses my paper based on 1/3 review by a non-relevant referee?

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We submitted a paper to a fairly average journal and received a major revision decision. We made the suggested changes and resubmitted. The revision was reviewed by three referees and two of them mentioned that they were satisfied with the changes and the paper warrants a publication. The third reviewer made some strong comments and the editor's decision was 'reject'.

The third reviewer again raised some of the same concerns as the first two reviewers' original ones along with some completely irrelevant ones. For instance, one comment was that our technique did not improve performance; we were trying to improve the expressiveness of the model and claimed that this expressiveness did not come with a performance penalty.

I have already sent a request for reconsideration to the journal's editors but based on their past communication, I do not expect a positive response.

My question is: Is there a way to report such an incidence to the publisher? At a higher level of abstraction: is there a check in place for editors of journals or do they get a free hand after they have been appointed?

(I do not care much about the paper as I can probably find another venue; the paper is an extension of a highly cited work. I just want to make sure I play my part in keeping the academic process in line because I have seen it slip a little too often.)

If this information is needed: The journal is an "impact factor" journal published by Springer.

Edit: Just to clarify, "options" refer to ways to play my part in improving the system. The publication of this particular paper is not an issue as mentioned in the parentheses above.


texts: Associate editor's dilemma with inconsistent first/second round review

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Say I work as an AE for an international journal. I managed to find only two reviewers for a manuscript submitted to the journal lately. Personally, I don't find enough contribution of the manuscript, but it is not fair to not base my final decision on the reviewers' comments.

For the first round review, both reviewers recommended a minor revision of the manuscript. Reviewer A appears to be more impartial than Reviewer B (who is positively biased). The same decision is delivered to the authors. However, during the second round, Reviewer A suddenly changed his mind to a major revision, which according to himself/herself is due to the failure of the authors to address his/her comments.

For this particular journal, there is usually only two rounds of review, and I don't think a third round will help improve the manuscript anymore. I am inclined to agree with Reviewer A and thereby reject the manuscript. However, it seems unfair to the authors and is hard to justify Reviewer A's change of mind in the second round.

Now I am inclined to reject the manuscript, but it has to be based on solid grounds. Solid grounds can be found (if I write the review myself, I can certainly make one), but the reviewers did not give me one: if the recommendation is minor revision for the first time, how can it be major revision for the second time? Therefore, it seems to me both the authors and the reviewers did a poor job.

So, how should I make the decision here? If I choose to reject, how do I appear fair to the authors?


texts: Meaning of "Degree of approval" in a recommendation letter

texts:
Anybody knows what degree of approval means in a letter of reference?

Emphatic
Conditional
Without concerns

My friend has a letter of reference from her former lecturer, but those options were left blank. Is that bad?

It's for a German scholarship, to do a PhD in Chemistry\Forensics.


texts: Do American Christian Universities and Colleges offer as high quality education as other countries?

texts:
I'm asking specifically about Science courses.

The Kurt Wise case does not reflect on Harvard though it's a Christian University, I understand that. He rejected it because he was convinced geology was biblical, not actual.

It's just that since high school (a few years after 9th grade, translated), the factor in common in discourse has been that proponents making claims incompatible with what I've learned all have Christian Universities as their Alma Mater.

I'm from Sweden and can study in the United States, anywhere in EU, and Switzerland but not Norway.

I would like to finish my studies in the United States. Am I being overly cautious? Are there differences as to what I will be taught, depending on which University?

My application would be for geology with archaeology as minor.


texts:
Assume that I have a math problem, I want to find results, theorems (as much as I could find, in maximum number) relevant  to the problem, how can I do that efficiently?
For example, one way could be to look for the latest survey paper related problem, but I have seen that survey paper does not exist in every case.
Second example, is searching using key words, but it does not help in mathematics much, as search engines are  not compatible with mathematical notation... is there any technique to optimize search related to the specific topic or problem?
Is would be nice to have a optimized flow-chart for searching, collecting and compiling related to the problem or topic.


texts: Assistant Professor vs Assistant Teaching Professor

texts: Is there any difference between an "Assistant Professor" position and "Assistant Teaching Professor"?


texts: I am currently doing my M.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering in India and I want to do a Ph.D. in the US. Are any scholarships available for Ph.D. in the US that take care of all the expenses there (similar to DAAD scholarships offered for pursuing secondary education in Germany)? If there are other similar scholarships for other countries please inform me.


texts: Conference sponsored by a top conference?

texts: How related two conferences are if B is sponsored by A? If A is a top conference, does this make B a worth-trusting conference also? For example, SIGCOMM is a top conference in computer networks & communications, and CoNEXT is sponsored by it. Does that automatically make CoNEXT a quality conference?


texts: Made some great course slides, now what?

texts:
I just spent a year preparing a set of course slides for an introductory course in engineering, and they now look really good.  In addition to posting them on my web page, what more can I do to get use out of them?

For example, it would be nice to see if there's a MOOC that would be interested in them, but it doesn't seem like any of the major ones ever solicit such things.

I'm not aware of any examples of "publishing" slides either, so I'd be curious what more experienced users here have done.


texts: I received a master's in math a long time ago and now I am thinking I would like to get a Ph.D. Since I have not been in school, would it be ok to approach a professor I would like to work with by proving a small thing from one of his papers he says is "work to be done" and emailing to him? I already have a proof. Would this add value for him or would he be annoyed? Many people here say you need letters from professors but I have no way for that. This is in America.


texts: How to engage in discussion after a presentation on an unfamiliar topic?

texts:
Sometimes I am in a conference presentation or seminar which there are only a handful of audiences, and after the presentation the atmosphere simply urges the audiences to ask questions or the presenter will be embarrassed. I do want to contribute to a meaningful discussion, but the problem is that I am unfamiliar with the topic, and after listening to the presentation, I can only understand the background briefly. I cannot formulate a good question after the presentation.

You may wonder why I attend a presentation which the topic I am unfamiliar with, and sometimes it is driven by curiosity, and sometimes it is compulsory (like invited speakers from my supervisor etc). I know it may be possible to formulate a good question by reading the publication of the speaker beforehand, I have tried it actually but the efforts to understand an unfamiliar topic seems too much, and it may not worth it especially I cannot come up with a good question afterwards.

I don't want to be looking stupid after a presentation, but also don't want to start a discussion which is not quite meaningful just because nobody raises a question. Is there any way to help one to start a good discussion for a topic which I am unfamiliar with after a presentation?


texts: Stipend vs employment contract in Saxony (Germany)

texts:
I have found some information online regarding the differences between going for a PhD with an employment contract or a stipend, in Germany. The differences are mostly related to the time you can research stuff not exactly in line with your thesis, social safety and mandatory working hours. The salaries do not seem to change much.

In my case, I was offered the option to choose between stipend and employment contract for a post-doc position, not a PhD, in the German state of Saxony. I couldn't find much about this topic online. My field is physics, I'm 29, unmarried and no children. This is my first post-doc.

What are the fundamental differences? I'm particularly scared of the mandatory working hours associated to the employment contract option. I do work a lot, often from home, but I really value the freedom I currently have of simply skipping a day at work and working on a weekend, etc.


texts: Can I still ask my prospective advisor (guide) for a confirmation letter in the middle of Covid-19

texts:
I am a masters of mathematics student in Asia and I wrote to some professors for PH D position in number theory. One of the professors in France said yes to me but he said that I should look for other sources of funding as his university didn't had PhD funding at that time. There is one scholarship Foundation in my country where I was thinking of applying as a potential candidate. But the Conditions are that I should have a written appropval from my prospective guide.

In between I began preparing for my mid term exams and then appearing for them and masters dissertation viva . As I got spare time, the covid-19  outbreak spread. It's not to worry about here but I came to know through news that it's very serious in France and whole Europe. Also, last date for applying to scholarship portal is 31 March and it will not be extended.

  So , should I ask to my prospective guide to write a confirmation letter in the middle of Covid-19 in his country. Doesn't this show that I am an emotionless person with no etiquette at all who doesn't even care about in what situation my prospective guide, his family and his colleagues are?


texts: PhD approved by advisor, rejected by examiners

texts:
This has recently happened to an acquaintance of mine.  A bit of background, in Australia, we do not 'defend' the thesis, we submit it to be examined by, usually, 3 academics (in the country or overseas).

The situation is, the thesis was approved by the advisor, after several drafts and some feedback.  However, when it has come back from the examiners, it has come back as 'failed'.  Some of the errors detected are ones that the advisor should have picked up on (as they are within their field of research).

Asides from the appeals procedure (dependent on the policies of the University), what are some practical options?  Should they start again? Take her research elsewhere?

Edit for clarification:

This has not happened to me, it has happened to an acquaintance (as said above).
My acquaintance submitted her thesis well within time and underwent several drafts (as said above).
The advisor is young/new to the academic scene.


texts: Does APA style have a simplified short-paper format?

texts:
I teach a course in college writing. My students must learn to write papers for college following APA format.

I recall that, as a student, my instructors were never very consistent in their requirements for the format. For example, some instructors required a cover page if the paper exceeded 5 pages or so, but otherwise preferred a heading like this, even if they said they requested APA format:

<name>
<date>
<course>
<assignment>

I encountered other instructors who required a complete cover page, abstract, introduction, and conclusion, in 500 word essays.

Does APA have any special specification for shorter essays? If so, at what point is the paper short enough to do away with these extra parts?


texts: How to communicate college's financial problems to faculty candidates?

texts:
I'm a faculty member at a small liberal arts college with significant financial problems, which make the long-term viability of the college questionable. In addition to faculty pushed out, junior and senior faculty have been leaving for other institutions.

My department gained approval to do a tenure-track search. I am wondering how and when to communicate the situation to candidates. The normal sequence for a search is:

Solicit applications.
Interview the stronger applicants at the big annual meeting in our field.
Invite the best matching 3-4 candidates for an on-campus interview.

Our reasons for wanting to let candidates know about the problems are:

It's the right thing to do.
We don't want them to reject us after we've used up a campus visit on them.
We don't want one to leave a year or two after accepting the job because they did not understand the extent of the college's problems.

When should we let candidates know about the problems and how explicit should we be? For example, we could point them to news articles, put them in touch with junior faculty not involved in the search, etc.


texts: My teammate submitted plagiarized code in a group project

texts: In our class, we have a team project for 3 people. One of my teammates submitted plagiarized code and got caught, which result in my team receiving no credit for the whole project. Then the student who submitted the plagiarized code dropped that class. That group project makes up 15% of the final grade. Our project report states clearly that the plagiarized part is written by that student, and our professor knew it. What should I do? Is it possible that the professor will let us resubmit another version of code and get credit for it?


texts:
What does the term "Designation" mean, in the fulfillment of the personal Data in a work application or a CV? it said the following!!
""Presenter(s) identifying information as follows:
Full name:
Age:,
Designation:,
Current Status/ Position:,
Department & University:,
Address:,
Mobile:,""


texts: Top app to run the University course classes remotely during a medical epidemic emergency

texts:
As our University closed most of one week which estimated more than one month, we need to be in contact with each other like the classrooms, so I have spoken by one of our master who was recently in USA in last two months and said there we used the:

 1. Google class

 2. classroom  app.

So I ask here which one is more professional for running the classes and better for this condition, and if you know more proper method or app to run the courses class in this kind with ability like :

 - User friendly and simple usage

 -  Have options like using low bandwidth internet and with low-speed internet

 - Have ability to ask questions during the live streaming


texts: Is it unethical to hire a paper writer AFTER the assignment is done?

texts:
This is an intriguing scenario that came to my mind. I have not done this and am not planning on doing it, but I am curious about it. Of course, it’s well known that if you hire a paper writer to write your assignment for you, that’s cheating. But what about this situation?:

You have a difficult writing assignment. You follow all the rules, do it yourself, turn it in, and then you get your grade, and it’s a poor grade. But you want to learn what a really good paper for that assignment would look like, for the purposes of gaining knowledge, not grades. So you hire one of those paper writers people usually use to cheat, who is known for getting (dishonest, of course) As on all the papers they write, to nix it for you, so you’ll have an example of what an excellent paper would look like for your study pleasure.

So my question is: is this unethical, and if so, why, and what might be the consequences were it found out? The reason it seems interesting is because it’s being done after the assignment is turned in, so you’re not doing anything to deceive/defraud the teacher or get grades you did not merit – all transactions with the teacher were done by the book. But on the other hand you are going through the motions you’d go through to cheat, not to mention paying money to someone people pay to cheat. So where does this situation stand, ethically, and why?


texts:
I am using Mendeley for my reference management. As I am doing a Systematic Literature review, I have to filter out my search result entries based on inclusion and exclusion criteria after reading the abstract. I have exported Springer search results into Mendeley but Springer only allows CSV export of search results and does not include abstracts in it.

I want to ask: is there any way I can download abstracts of articles after importing them into Mendeley?


texts: Value of "nonresearch articles" section in PNAS

texts:
I noticed that PNAS website contains the section for the so-called "nonresearch articles" (original orthography is retained), otherwise referred to as "collected articles": http://www.pnas.org/site/misc/collectedpapers.xhtml. Upon a brief look at the section and its categories, it seems that articles published there range from "core concepts" articles (somewhat similar to a brief Wikipedia article) to a topic or field review articles and beyond (papers, based on symposiums and other events).

My question is twofold:

what is the level of acceptance, if known, for articles, targeting the above-mentioned section;
what is the scientific, academic and career value of publishing in that PNAS' section (in other words, is it worth considering targeting this outlet [particularly, for a beginning researcher])?


texts: Do I have "the right" as a grad student to take a class just for fun?

texts: I'm currently doing a PhD in computational biology, but I have other interests like music and ceramics, and I'm lucky enough to be at a university with excellent programs in both. I've wanted to take a course in either of these fields for the 3 semesters so far I've been here, but my advisor won't approve and sign off on them. I have a free slot this spring and I really want to take a course just for fun, and to learn from the world-renowned instructors. I've tried negotiating about just taking an evening class, or having my work for him improve since I'll be happier overall, but he's just stuck on "this isn't your field". Who's being unreasonable here?


texts: My paper was withdrawn from predatory journal after publication, what should I do?

texts:
I am currently in a very embarrassing situation.

I have a paper (forgot to say, this paper takes no more than two pages) submitted to a journal. The journal accepted my paper for publication and I saw it online. But today I found that my paper disappeared without notifying me! I emailed them, and a staff member replied that a reviewer asked them to withdraw my paper. The reason given for this was:

  Your paper does not meet the requirements for publication.

And I then tracked the publisher and the editorial policy, I found the journal is nearly a predatory one. First, it is a new journal, published only for one year. They require no publication fees only this year, from next year on, they do require! Second, the publisher is in the famous list of predatory publishers. Also, it took only two and a half weeks from submission to acceptance.

On top of this, I may face problems because I have used this paper to apply some scholarship.

What can I do?


texts: If I don't ask for a recommendation letter from a postdoc I did research with, will it look bad?

texts:
I am applying for math graduate school. I have two people that I did research with: A professor and a postdoc. I have a strong connection with the professor, but the postdoc I do not. He was very passive aggressive with me and our relationship does not seem to be a good one. I do not want to ask him for a letter. However, I am wondering if this will look suspicious or hurt me in any sort of way. If I say in my application that I did do research with a postdoc but I did not receive a letter from that postdoc, will that affect me or the admission committee's decision? Will the admissions committee likely email this postdoc to hear about me from him?

Thank you very much.


texts: Should I include PhD experience in MSc application?

texts:
I have a BSc in computer science and now I'm applying to a Masters program in Human Computer Interaction. A year or so ago I left an unrelated PhD program because I didn't think it would be beneficial to my end career goals.

Should I include this on my MSc application or leave it out?


texts: Should I apply for a second masters degree (PSI master's program) after already having done a dual degree in physics?

texts:
I am a master's student in India, supposed to apply for PhD applications this year. However, I am still unsure of what I want to pursue in my PhD program. Meanwhile, I came across PSI's one-year master's program which seems like something I would like to explore. Should I apply for it or another master in the same subject will be a drawback for admission committees when I apply for a PhD in the US? I am also a bit reluctant to apply this year for PhD because of the pandemic.
Also, while presently I am mostly interested in computational work related to general relativity, I want to explore more in the theoretical side, hence inclined towards the PSI program.


texts:
I am wondering if computeroxy can be considered a "safe" website. I have received two emails from them in the past in my institutional email address without subscribing (one of them was a very long list of calls for papers if I recall correctly). Their website has no contact or ownership information other than a simple contact form and an email address, and the whois for their domain name (a .com; not linking to them directly in case they are a scam website) is hidden.

Looking for the name on Google shows some results that seem to support it is a scam but at the same time I do not consider them conclusive.

But today someone I know forwarded a new email from them to the mailing list of a student network. The forwarded message has an enormous list of links to their website with open positions in academia (graduate, postgraduate, senior...) and the non-representative non-random subset I picked had actual real offers (from existing institutions and with links to the offers at the institutions' websites). Since I am part of a team that prepares a newsletter for that student network but reaches a wider audience and includes a section of scholarships and job offers, I was wondering: is it safe to include a link to computeroxy or is it better to just forget about it?

(not quite sure about the tags I have used...)


texts:
I have been made an offer to study for a masters at a top university in London.
The offer I have been made is quite specific with requirements in individual components of the course. I have accepted the offer.

There is a strong possibility that I may miss the conditions of the offer but only by an extremely small margin and this is obviously causing me much anxiety.

I am thinking of emailing the university and asking them hypothetically what would happen if someone missed the offer by an extremely small margin just so I can start to make preparations.
I was thinking more of emailing the program head to understand what they would usually do in this situation.

My question is, is it a good idea or not?
Could it effect me in a negative way?


texts:
I use SSRN extensively in my work. From time to time, I even use SSRN to find my own papers. (Sometimes (often), it's just much easier for me to go on my own research page and click on the SSRN link than search through my directory)

I think as a result of this and my regular downloads of other people's papers, SSRN has flagged me as a user with an "unusual download pattern":

  What Happened?

  We have observed an unusual download pattern.

  The reason why this might happen:

Accessing through a proxy server
Having problems downloading a paper
Accidentally downloading a paper too frequently

  Please consider signing in or creating a free account. You can
  continue downloading this paper and you will no longer see this page.
  It also helps us track reader interest and provide accurate download
  counts to our authors and readers.

As explained above, I am not "accidentally downloading a paper too frequently", I am rather purposefully doing so.

I would like to keep using SSRN without having to sign in.

Has anyone encountered the same problem and found a solution to keep using SSRN "anonymously"?

I've tried using other browsers, including "brand new" browsers that I just downloaded and installed, to no avail.
If that did not work, would something like clearing my cookies help at all (are cookies browser specific?)?


texts: Applying for tenure track position in mechanical engineering with lack of relevant coursework experience?

texts:
My undergrad and masters degree was in materials engineering. All my coursework and lab experience is in materials engineering. During my PhD, I had taken just two courses which did not directly help with my PhD research. My undergrad and masters courses were also not aligned with my PhD research.
My PhD thesis was on using finite element analysis and smoothed particle hydrodynamics to study mechanical damage under extreme conditions. As for credentials: I have 5 publications in applied journals (IF~4).
Now, I was applying for tenure track positions in mechanical engineering department where they want my academic transcripts to be submitted.
My question is in two parts:

How do I justify my ability to teach and contribute to the mechanical engineering department if my degree and coursework experience was not in that field? My research is however in that field.
Since my colleagues in the department would be from mechanical engineering background with dedicated coursework experience, would my application be considered seriously for a position in the department? I have been asked to submit my transcripts with my application package. They would know that I lack the coursework.

I understand that noone have been in my peculiar position before. Usually people take necessary courses during their PhD. I got away with not taking them as I could self learn the required basics and was able to apply them successfully to my research work. However that doesn't make me technically thorough and strong in the topics.
Hoping for some insights on how to go about with my faculty position applications in my case.


texts: How is undergraduate Indian percentage converted to US 4.0 GPA by graduate schools?

texts:
I am applying for Fall, 2015 in PhD programs (Computer science).

The admissions page of many universities I saw, demand an undergrad GPA of at least 3.0 and graduate GPA of at least 3.5

Now, I excelled in the two masters degrees I have (MBA, MS).

But I was an average student in undergrad. Average in India means that I scored around 68% in my undergrad years (I.T.)

If you ask me, I think this conversion thing is crazy. Many colleges in India grade/score very stringently, since the minimum percentage required to graduate is 50%. So, if I were an average student at an elite college in India, my CGPA/ Percentage would be 7.0 or 70%. Using this conversion table, my GPA on a 4 point scale would be 2.3.

In the US, however, you need a min. GPA of 2.75 to graduate. A GPA below 3 is considered to be a shocker, while a GPA between 3 and 3.5 would be considered below average. It'll never work; it's like comparing Apples with Oranges.

Am I missing something here? Any thoughts on how universities make this conversion?

Also, should I be using WES to ensure a "fair" reflection of my performance.


texts: Is it allowable to use an organization's name to publish a paper in a conference, even after I graduate from it?

texts: I just graduated from my university, and I have a paper to submit to a conference. I was filling out the information to submit my work to them, but I am not sure what to put as my organization. Since I have now graduated from the university, can I still use their name to publish my work? If the answer is no, is there any solution to get my work published?