texts: How to write a cover letter for a PhD position while involved in another PhD?

texts:
Disclaimer: I am asking on behalf of my friend, so I can not give many specific information. Still, I hope the information provided will be enough to give advice.

Let's say that a person got a position as a PhD candidate in a ok lab in Europe a bit less than a year ago. After a few months, the person realized that the current PhD project is not a good match for her (language barriers, communication problems, different work approach and pace from majority of the lab...).

After considering the situation, the person decided to apply for a few a different PhD projects in North and South America where the topics are a better fit, and where it is less likely to have language problems (the person found some open applications and researched them on her own time, while still working normally for her current position).

While finishing writing the applications and cover letters, a dilemma emerged about at which point should the person mention (if at all) the current involvement in a position as a PhD candidate? Fully aware that lying is not an option, the basic dilemma is weather to mention it in the cover letter or the first interview (if it comes to that). (The CV format required for most applications is such that the current PhD position is not readily apparent).

Basically, the questions would be:

whether to mention the current position as a PhD candidate in the cover letter / application, or at some later point in the process?
when mentioning the current position as a PhD candidate, how much detail about the current position (and reasons for looking for a new one in order to leave the current one) is the right amount of detail?


texts: Would it be considered cheating to ask for homework help on the internet, if I openly acknowledge the help received?

texts:
Say you have a homework assignment and you're struggling with it. You ask a question about some portion of it on a site like physics.stackexchange or math.SE or stackoverflow.com, etc.

You then cite the help you received in your homework, as well as including a link to the post which helped you.

Given that you are removing the "dishonesty" part of the equation, is this still considered cheating? Or would a professor just not give you credit for the part which they feel you didn't do on your own?


texts: PhD Bioinformatics academic career outlook

texts: I have a MS in CS with strong interest in statistics. I am very much interested in doing a PhD in bioinformatics as it gives me best of both worlds. After my PhD my goal is to get an academic position but I am not sure if bioinformatics is the correct path to take or should I do a PhD in CS with focus on bioinformatics. Does it makes a difference what my PhD is in when applying for a job in bioinformatics/computational biology/statistical genomics field?


texts: What do I need to ensure my presentation will go smoothly?

texts:
From a technical stand point, what do I need to show up to a conference with (in general) to ensure that my presentation will go smoothly?

Two things I can think of:

Presentation remote
Equipment to connect my laptop to the projector

The remote is simple enough, it just needs to work with my computer and be reliable. Connecting my computer to the projector is not trivial since a lot of laptops don't come with DVI or VGA output any more (mine doesn't!). What kind of output do I usually need, DVI or VGA? Do I need something like this which supports all output methods (seems like over kill but might be a good investment)?

Is there anything else to make sure I am prepared to deal with the technical aspects of a presentation?


texts: how long does a company normally take to respond to the question asked for dissertation?

texts:
Because of the late decision to change my dissertation topic , I have a month to finish my dissertation.
For my research I have to contact some company(construction company, domestic and foreign )and wanted to know the time they normally take to reply so I can plan out the structure for my dissertation.


texts: Should I use the book that is recommended by the professor?

texts:
My physics professor's course is BASED on a book, so he recommends buying one particular book. The book is good, but there are many other, better books.

Would it be a good idea to buy books other than what the professor recommended?

Note: I can't buy both, because those books are expensive!


texts: I am medical student at Alexandria University, Egypt and I have a question important to my life. I have no passion in what I have learned. I love medicine but not by that way we have to study it. How can I deal with that? I love programming but I am not professional in it. I am thinking about career shift as I feel my life has been stolen from me, unfortunately I am 23 years old and I don't know what I can do!


texts: How to deal with plagarism from a colleague at another institution?

texts:
I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas for how I can approach an ongoing situation.
4 years ago, when I was in the second year of my PhD I attended a conference and, in the normal course of things, I talked about my future dissertation plans with the panel's chair over drinks after the conference was over. Fast forward to today, and that panel chair, who was writing a dissertation on another subject in another century when we met, has just published a dissertation on that exact same topic, despite the fact that they had never heard of it prior to our meeting (sorry to be so vague but I am, I think understandably, paranoid). My master's thesis, which is on the same topic, is cited in the dissertation, but there's otherwise no mention of the fact that they never would have come to the subject without our meeting.
I had caught wind of what was going on a couple of years ago before this person's disseration was published and approached my advisor about it, but while they were shocked, they recommended just keeping my head down and going about my business. After all, at that point I wasn't 100 percent sure they would be covering the exact same ground as I was, and seeing as I came to the topic first, the idea was that my work would be superior even if there was some overlap.
Having seen their dissertation (although I can hardly bear to read it, I'm so infuriated) I do think that my work is of far better quality, but this person has hit on several topics, authors, texts, works, etc. that were/are to be central to my own dissertation and I'm wondering  if it's too late for me to try and cry foul somehow.
In order to put my stamp on the topic I have worked to publish parts of my dissertation and recently had an article accepted into one of the top journals in my field. Unfortunately, it will be years before it actually comes out and in the meantime my nemesis is out there on the job market and publishing similar work in lesser, but more time-efficient journals.
I'm aware that this is all sour grapes kind of stuff, but my frustration has gotten to the point where I'm sickly fantasizing about inevitably not getting a job in academia just so that I might have the freedom to call this person out without having to worry about looking unprofessional. In the meantime, though I'm curious to know if there's a way I could let this situation be known before this person ends up getting that rare prize that is a job on the back of my idea.
Thank you.


texts: Axis naming for multiple parameters in one graph

texts:
I have four angles and I like to show them in a angle–time graph using Matlab’s plot function. The problem is the naming of vertical y-axis. Should it be:

plural, i.e., Position Angles since the graph is showing four different angles, or
singular, i.e., Position Angle as shown below since the important point is the meaningful explanation of axes regardless of parameter count given in the graph?


texts: Changing tactics when natural ability is reached?

texts:
Question
What habits and attitudes need to change when one hits the upper bounds of natural ability? This is the situation where you can no longer increase your rate of advancement. In effect your effort is "bounded from above". I am thinking primarily about research and learning from a student's perspective but I am sure this problem is common to everyone eventually. There must be some limit at which even the greatest stop accelerating. Given that this barrier has existed for a long time and affects every human that ever lived, there must be structual approaches to overcoming exhaustion of the lowhanging fruit. What are proven methods to continue improvement, or, failing that, hug the limit of natural ability as tightly as possible? Similarly to compound interest, if you underperform by 3% every year, then in 24 years you will be half the man you could have been.

The answer from Ben succiently explains this idea in the work equation:

work = (work rate)*(hours worked)

Assume that for whatever reason the goal is to maximize the work. If one can no longer increase the hours worked, what are strategies to increase the work rate?
 What are new ways of thinking that can keep one at maximum possible performance? Are there ways of structuring your time that you have found that just work. What really helped you in staring down your own limitations?

My Motivation:

   I have been fighting this ceiling for several months now, and I am getting   >! to a hard physcial limit. I am at a barely ranked school and still have the  dream of significant contributions to my field. Realistically this dream requires me to perform on the level of students at top universities. My first strategy was to just put in more time than the students who do better than me. It worked to beat the undergraduates here who spend 40% of their time on extra curriculars and social lives. However the graduate students are much more disciplined and working harder than their 80-100 hrs/wk is of much greater difficulty. To further compound the problem, we are nowhere near the quality of the top schools, so I fear beating the best grad student in my department would be equivalent to a freshman at T1 school.

 I only started to work systematically when I started university, and have now developed a strong work ethic. I am at the point where I have eliminated everything else in my life except classwork and research projects. There is no longer any significant reservoir of time I can tap to make progress. I likely can obtain about 10 more hours a week if I mange to crack down on the instances where I am actually unproductive. This is my budget for improvement. Others may have more time available which is why I am not asking about quick hacks (although quick hacks would help me more).

Note:I am just beginging my academic career, but I am really concerned about not being able accomplish my goals. If you understand what I am getting at please feel free to edit to make the key idea more clear. There has to be a way using logical frameworks to minimize the inherent limitations of whatever body you are stuck with. I am not looking for a "self-help", "positve thinking" style answer. I am looking for methods that you, SE.Academia, as men of science and reason, find that work.

edit
I have put the motivation in spoilers because it is not important for answering the question I want to ask (should I just remove it?). Some answers are addressing my specific situation which I think is not the purpose of this site. We are supposed to ask general questions that can apply to others, not just advice threads.


texts: Is there a way to improve the readability of equations in research papers?

texts:
I read a lot of computer science papers, and have to understand a lot of equations. Most of the time the concept is so easy, that someone could explain it to me in 5 minutes. I one the other hand need up to an hour to get it.

It is difficult for me to search for the variables in the text, and often I print the paper out and write the meanings of each variable down on the side.

My questions:

So why is it not common to make equations and algorithms more readable?

Is there some PDF reader plugin which highlights the variables in text?
Any tips on how to improve in reading such papers?

Why do authors not add an additional list to each equation with a list and explanation of each variable. Should I do that?


texts: Are the Master Program & Certificates I am about to embark on relevant to my career & academic plan?

texts:
I have a bachelor degree in Civil Engineering, I'm 27 and I currently work for a leading world organization. However my heart is somewhere else. I aspire to be a scientist, so a masters and a PhD are the plan. I can't seem to narrow down my future research interests, but it's likely to fall somewhere between Mathematical Modeling-Computational Math/Physics-Theoretical Physics-Pure Mathematics.

For that purpose, and until I do apply to a PhD program, I intend to take on a Masters in Computational Mathematics (received acceptance), a certificate in Data Science (3 months long - I was advised to do so by a scientist I know) and a certificate in Theoretical Physics (2 weeks long - equivalent to the last semester of an undergrad physics program).

Do these programs fall well with my interests and plan ? Your advice is appreciated.


texts: Selling of monuments: What does it mean?

texts:
I am watching the documentary "Free to Choose, Part 6: What's Wrong With Our Schools" at this link

At 20:08, Friedman says:

  Many of the buildings and facilities at Dartmouth have been donated by
  private individuals and foundations. Like other private universities,
  Dartmouth has combined the selling of monuments with the provision of
  education and the one activity reinforces the other.

The transcript seems to confirm that this is what he said.

Since I am in Europe and I don't have any experience with US education, what is the "selling of monuments"? Is Dartmouth College really selling monuments like bronze statues? How does it make a profit doing that?


texts:
For an application to a Master programme, I am asked to send:

a description of my study motivation on 2 pages
an informal application letter

What does "informal application letter" mean? Is it something commonly asked for an application? I really don't understand what they want.


texts: Referencing figures or tables in discussion section?

texts: I got a reviewer's comment on my manuscript that suggests that the most common convention is that tables and figures are not referenced from the Discussion section of a paper. This is something that sounds new to me and I wonder if it's true in some fields (such as biology)?


texts: Should I submit an article to a not-yet-indexed WOS journal, hoping that it will be indexed later?

texts:
I am planning to submit an article to an unindexed WOS journal. However, I think that since this journal in the WOS journal list, it will market itself one way or another and let's say in a few years it may be indexed and will have a great impact factor.

There are some key considerations:

the journal's publisher is well known UK publishing company
the publication cost is free
the volumes are published two times per year.
my field is computer and information security.

My question: Is it worth considering to publish with the long-term goals that the journal will rise (here the barrier to enter is not very difficult, but I think it's a bit lower than for already-known journals) or is it better to stick with the already established journals with good impact factors?


texts: When reviewing a manuscript for the second time, is it fair to comment on aspects I did not realise the first time?

texts:
I refereed a manuscript and recommended a major revision.  Now, almost three years (!) later, the manuscript has come back to my desk.  The editor told me to treat it as a revision and not as a new submission.  However, since I don't remember the details, I'm re-reading the entire manuscript.

I'm noticing things that I consider need to be improved.  That includes things that were identical three years ago, but that neither me nor the other referees commented on.  There could be several reasons why I didn't comment on it the first time:

I had less knowledge and experience than I have now, or
the field has moved on since it's been so long, or
I simply didn't notice something I noticed now.

Is it fair to comment on it now, or did I lose my chance to suggest this improvement when I didn't suggest it in the first round?

On the one hand: I genuinely believe this needs to be improved.

On the other hand: if I were submitting a revised manuscript, I would not expect referees to comment on things they should have commented on the first time.  If nobody comments on a particular paragraph, I would assume all approve.


texts: Will a professor get annoyed with frequent requests for recommendation letters?

texts:
Just last month I asked three professors to write me recommendation letters for my graduate school application. They all agreed. Then today I found an internship that also requires recommendation letters.

I am interested in applying to the internship, but I worry whether I would be asking for letters from my professors too frequently, especially since they might need to rewrite the letters to accommodate the nature of an internship.

A related post here, although in that case the two requests are one year apart and the letters are for the same purpose.


texts: Is an automatic copyright transfer clause in publisher's instructions to authors typically enforced/enforceable?

texts:
Some publishers have a clause like the following in their author instructions:

  Submission of a manuscript implies... that if and when the manuscript is accepted for publication, the authors agree to automatic transfer of the copyright to the publisher.

I found many instances of this among disreputable publishers. But I was surprised to also see this policy at more than one Springer journal and a handful of other, reasonably reputable, venues.

I was also surprised, because we occasionally get questions here about withdrawing a paper after acceptance. The first thing we ask them is generally, "Have you signed a copyright transfer yet?" with the implication that before signing anything, you still hold the copyright to the submitted work.

So, what exactly is the automatic transfer of copyright referred to above?

Has this been enforced, traditionally? Is it even enforceable, generally speaking?

Or is it just a clause that some sketchy publishers put in there to deceive authors into believing that they don't have the right to withdraw their paper from the journal after acceptance?


texts: If i am the first coauthor of the paper, is it possible to change the order of names on the paper in my resume?

texts: If i am the first coauthor of the paper, is it possible to change the order of names on the paper in my resume and show my name on the first place?


texts: How valuable are research assistant positions to an academic CV in the humanities?

texts:
A bit of background: I just completed my MA at a large Canadian university, and I will be starting my PhD in Sociology in the fall (at the same large Canadian university). Over the course of my 2-year MA, I worked as a teaching assistant (TA) both years, and also held 6 different research assistant positions with different faculty and projects.
For my PhD, about 30% of my total funding is tied to a guaranteed TAship for the next 4 years, so I will be working as a TA no matter what. As the summer progresses, I've started to receive offers for new research assistant positions in the fall from faculty in my department and other affiliated departments. Currently, I have 3 offers. They're all very part-time (a few hours a week each, tops), so I could theoretically accept all of them from a time-management perspective. I held 3 positions simultaneously in addition to my TAship in my MA and did not find it overwhelming, nor did it compromise my academic work in any way.
Before accepting, however, I've been trying to calculate the cost-benefit analysis. The extra money is definitely nice, but I have enough funding that I could survive without it, although my finances would be tight. Overall, how valuable this experience would be to my career is a bigger factor than the money.
With all that in mind, is accepting as many research assistant positions as I can manage (without compromising my other work) a reasonable career decision in terms of what future hiring committees (in the humanities) would likely be looking for? Again, I'm in the Canadian context, and my understanding is that most positions are seeking a solid mix of both teaching and research experience here.
Does the reputation/prestige of the faculty members I am working for matter in this case? (The way it would for an advisor?)
I recognize that one of the other major factors is whether or not taking all of these positions would compromise my ability to publish, but the flip side of that is that it's not entirely uncommon in my field for research assistants - especially at the PhD level - to end up co-authoring papers with the faculty they work for, so it may actually open up more doors for publication. I have two small/less-prestigious publications accepted so far (an interview with a senior scholar in a journal, and a chapter in an edited book), and I'm working on two others currently that will be submitted to peer-reviewed journals, so I'm in okay shape as far as publications go relative to where I am timing-wise in my career.
Sorry if that's too much context, just trying to be thorough!


texts: Contact info for a professor's letter of recommendation

texts: Is it okay if the applicant provides a professor's official email and the professor uploads the letter of recommendation (LOR) from the same official email, but mistakenly mentions their personal email instead of their official email on the letter of recommendation as their contact details?


texts: Why do citation styles for webpages include accessed date?

texts:
I do understand that citations should be as precise as possible (including e.g. edition of a book or a page number), so that ideally, the reader can find the information exactly as I found it when writing.

I also understand that the problem with citing webpages is that they can change. But how does including the date when I accessed the page help anything? The reader still won't be able to read the same version I did (unless the page includes history, which is very rare). And comparing the accessed date with the current date isn't very helpful either: some webpages change multiple times per day, some aren't modified for years.

Or is the accessed date useful for some other purpose?


texts: How can I keep up with all the important advances in fields related to mine?

texts:
Being updated with new ideas in many research fields is impossible, seen the diversity of research topics and the strong relations that exists between them. Most of the researchers in the world, are needing to interact with many fields and to be up to date with the trending ideas in each one of them.

Example: if one researcher is specialized in remote-sensing. Being up to date in this field is possible with some effort. But, this field is related to many other fields ( computer vision, image processing, machine learning, artificial intelligence..). Any new idea in any of these fields could directly impact remote sensing as well. The problem is that this researcher cannot cope with the high speed changes that occurs in these fields.

This example is applicable to many cases as well. And many of you are facing the same situation.

I am in the beginning of my PhD, my thesis interact with many research fields. I have to summarizes the trending ideas in many fields to conclude the state of the art of my thesis. Following the traditional method by accessing the literature of each field may out passes the goal of my thesis.

I want to know if there is a mean to know the trending research ideas in one research topic and the statistics related to them that are gaining some interest.

Is there any mean to track advancement in a research field?


texts: FOIA request for full NSF awards proposal and report

texts:
Related to this question on mathoverflow…

Indeed, I just found out that to see full proposal or later reports. One needs to file a FOIA request, as described here.

So I am curious if anyone has done so? And how is the process like?
In particular, can the requester remain confidential after the request (so other people will not know that I made the request)?

Additional follow up question: What kind of people can file FOIA request? Does it have to be US citizens? Or just anyone working in US? etc..


texts: How to overcome my resistance to lecturing?

texts:
I am in a situation where I have several adult students for an all-day career training program that runs for about a year. So, they and I sit in the classroom most of a normal work-week. I decide when to get up and lecture. Although I tell them to raise questions any time, they rarely do unless I ask.

I enjoy speaking in front of the class, but because it is not on a particular schedule, I usually find that I have trouble motivating myself to get started. I don't have employee reviews or a mentor. My feeling in class is similar to how I have never gotten used to making phone calls: every time, it is like jumping into cold water, it never gets any easier. (I would rather talk in person. I am almost 50, by the way, and male.) How do I get beyond this basic motivation hurdle?


texts: German doctorate (Phd) in industry; Working in a company or University?

texts:
I have just read about "German Phd in industry" in the site, "Research-in-Germany". It says that even if I get a phd position in industry, I need a university professor to supervise my research and award the doctor degree.

*So, I wonder if a company accept me, I should work in the company or University (Physically, I often need to go to the company (or not), and no need to go to University).


texts: Project may be benefitting a professor's personal company

texts:
I'm currently taking an elective course on renewable energy that is open to undergraduate seniors and graduate students. Our class project is to design a solar power system for a community in a developing country (including simulations with HOMER and HelioScope) and write a final report targeted for government officials in the country.
A professor from another university has been advising us on this project over Zoom (at the invitation of the course professor), providing us with background information on the community we're designing the system. My group believes the advising professor has a vested interest in the success of this project after we found a recent contract awarded by the government in the developing country to a consulting company to build a solar power system similar to the one we're designing.
There is no direct link between the advising professor and the company since there is very little publicly available information about it, but:

The company is called _____ Technologies, where the blank is the nickname used by the advising professor.
The company has two offices listed on their website, one within ~15 miles from the university the professor teaches at and the other in the developing country we're designing the system for.
The system we're designing has the same capacity and is intended for the same location as the system specified by the contract awarded to the company.

Throughout the entire semester we have been reminded that our final reports for this project may be selected to be read by government officials in the developing country. There hasn't been any disclosure regarding a personal stake by the advising professor, and the course professor introduced him a subject matter expert who is helping out by providing advice regarding the project.
How should we approach this? The advising professor is a friend of our course professor, and we don't know if our course professor is aware of the contract.


texts: Can I research and publish in my Masters field when my PhD is in an unrelated field?

texts:
I have a PhD in Business with an emphasis in Political Marketing and a Masters in Linguistics.

Now due to some personal and life circumstances, I would like to start collaborating in research about Linguistics and second language acquisition.

My question is, can I initiate or collaborate on research and publish my work in a completely different field than my PhD?


texts: Finding papers that acknowledge a specific author

texts: Is there any way to find all papers that acknowledge a specific author? (i.e., the author is mentioned in the acknowledgement section)


texts: Should I notify students that I've interacted with after getting sick, by email?

texts:
I saw a bunch of students today during my office hours (~15-20 out of a class of 96). Then around noon I went downhill quick, and now I'm sporting a fever over 100 F.

I don't know necessarily what I have, but it seems reasonable to assume it was already there when I had close interaction with the students this morning.

Would you send an email to students notifying them? Would you wait until you went to the doctor (which won't happen until tomorrow, if I go)? If you would email them, how/what would you say. Note, I also don't know exactly who all I saw, so I was going to send a class email.


texts: applying after bachelor's degree which factor is the most important for top 10

texts:
I am a student willing to apply for top 10 universities(MIT, Stanford, etc).
I have recently graduated with a bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering field with GPA 4.5/5.

I have read about important factors for applying and I found out that these factors are the most important factors ( from most important to least important)

GPA
Recommendation Letters
GRE Scores
Research/Getting Papers Published
Industry Internships
Being a TA

(Main Question) I want to how much GPA is important for example a person with GPA 4.8 is far more likely to be accepted than me or not. for example, students with GPA above 4.5 are all the same.

and my second doubt is about the rank of papers. If you publish a paper in famous journals is it that much unimportant to them?

what about doing something extraordinary. I am developing an AI program that is really professional and I am writing a paper related to this program. I want to know how much these sorts of activities are important for them.


texts:
I'm writing a paper about Fernando Pessoa and his heteronyms and want to use a quote from Pessoa as written on the Wikipedia article:  "the theatre of being" or "drama in people."

Wikipedia does not cite the source of these quotes, and I assume from the context of the sentence they're in that it is a direct quote from Pessoa's work, but I can't read through everything he's written to try to find it. Is it possible to cite quote as "source unknown" or something similar? I'm fairly certain I've heard the quote before from a professor (she also did not know where to look for the quote's source) so I don't believe it's fake.


texts: How to properly describe future works in Master's Thesis?

texts:
I have developed an application for the Master's Thesis. It provides enough functionality for demonstration purposes and to explain the workings of it. However, many other areas (some major, some small) can be improved or are required to be improved in the application. I am mentioning them in future works along with the proposed way to achieve them.
My question is, What approach is the best to mention the missing parts in future works without sounding like that nothing was accomplished or my research was weak while being completely unbiased about my application?


texts: Unable to complete journal paper by deadline, is this a problem?

texts:
Main Question:

I submitted an abstract to a well known journal (in the field of Civil, Aerospace, Mechanical Engineering) a couple months ago and the abstract was accepted.  Due to major changes in unrelated circumstances, it will not be ready/adequate.  Is this a problem?

Background:

I am a graduate student at an American engineering university.  I submitted a journal paper a couple months ago and it was accepted.  However, my circumstances changed over the past months, and completing this paper is no longer a priority nor plausible.

My funded research (unrelated to the said journal paper) is requiring too much of my time, and I am likely planning to leaving the program.  Also, my wife would prefer me to leave the program and pursue an engineering job with a salary.  To further compound problems, my personal computer (which carries the work corresponding to the paper) has broken down permanently (that is, the computer is completely dead).

As a result, my priorities have dramatically shifted to job applications and interviews.  At this point, completing the paper by the due date (one week) is no longer a priority, nor feasible.  However, I would like to one day return to a career in academia and get a PhD.  Would neglecting to submit this paper negatively effect my reputation?  In your opinion, would this hurt my professional relationship with my advisor (who was working on the paper with me)?  Would this hurt my ability to publish in the future with this journal?


texts: I have recently completed a manuscript and I want it to submit to the arXiv. But there I find that there is an endorsement requirement. But since I am quite new in this field (and this is my first time wanting to submit to arXiv), I don't know how to find an endorser myself. I have mailed the admin also but in reply they also told me that searching for an endorser is a responsibility of the author himself. So, can anyone help me regarding the process as to how to find an endorser?


texts: Can it hurt to put my GRE score on my resume?

texts: If my score is good and if I'm applying for an MS program in Europe, can it give me any kind of edge? The university I'm applying to requires GRE scores for certain programs but not the one I'm applying for. And if it won't be advantageous, can it hurt my prospects in anyway?


texts: Is it bad to not test the capability of the explainability of the student at the graduate level?

texts:
Suppose I am the only instructor for a subject.

I need to conduct an exam. I am confused between the following two approaches for designing questions.

Approach I: Questions with single line answers such as boolean answers, multiple-choice questions, etc., note that the answers to these types of questions do not occupy more than one line.

Approach II: Questions that demands explanation, subjective/objective explanations, etc.,

The advantages of approach I is at least trifold

(I) Marking is objective

(II) less evaluation time

(III) No partial marking

But, recently, one of the elder professors of my campus, opined that approach I is a bad way to conduct exams and he told that approach II is needed because of the reason that studies of students should be research-oriented and hence explainability or presentability of the concept is very important for a student and hence approach II is preferred a lot over the approach I.

I am really concerned about the bolded part, I mean, is it really a bad way?

Assume that the subject I'm dealing with has the flexibility to support both types of questions.


texts: Professor behaving oddly, but I don't want to persecute him

texts:
I’m doing my masters (while working full-time) and one of my professors from last semester, who is teaching my class this semester as well, always asks me, “Did you get your husband to do your homework?” He also asks me if I'm married before giving me feedback. I wish he would just give me the feedback like he does for the guys in my class. I've told him it doesn't matter if I'm married or not but he laughed at me. I outright told him to stop multiple times and he didn't listen.

He also said, “You aren’t going to get your husband to come in here and beat me up, are you?” I think he was making a joke but I'm "on the spectrum" so I'm not sure. I just said "no" and kept staring at him. I'm very socially awkward.

I’m not married and I don’t wear any rings, I don't think he is thinking I'm married.

I was thinking of going to some university higher-up about it. I documented everything contemporaneously and they won’t be able to claim I’m bitter over a bad grade, because he actually gave me quite a good grade in my previous class. The current class has just started today so no grade yet.

I want to go to the program head or a higher up at the university. But I don't want to persecute my professor. I know there is a lot of persecution against conservative professors. I think he is just expressing the conservative view that women should be married by my age (I'm 30 - he doesn't know my exact age but can probably guess I'm 27-33). I understand the point of view, but sometimes it doesn't work out. My family believes the same and they tried to get me to married. My ex fiance and I were engaged for 10 months and ended it then, ended up for the better as we would definitely have divorced. Nevertheless, I am not against marriage. I am no liberal. I just want my professor to STOP asking me about my marital status but he won't listen. I want to go to higher ups but I don't want to persecute my professor either.

EDIT This is not sexual harrassment. He is only asking me if I am married before giving me feedback and to know that my husband has not completed my homework (which would be academic dishonesty). Not for sex purposes. He is not seeking any relationship with me so it's not sexual harrassment. It may be sex-based harrassment since he is not harrassing my male classmates however it is not sexual at all and thus cannot be sexual harrassment


texts: Can invention of UI/UX or a programming syntax become a publication?

texts:
In my opinion, UI/UX (user interface / user experience) or programming syntax are just like a piece of art. Some people will like your work, some won’t  – it depends on a number of factors varying among people. I am doing research in designing UI/UX or programming syntax, and I have a few questions:

Can invention of UI/UX or programming syntax become a publication?
Which way of doing research can make those works look more academic?

Why do I ask these questions?

Because I think that when we talk about good or bad in scientific research, it should be universal, independent of human opinion. That’s why in the second question, I ask for research methods to approach scientific work, instead of creating artwork.


texts: Switching field between Humanities PhD and Translation PostDoc/industry

texts:
I'm surely going to ask a question that has already been posted, but I saw that the majority of the related questions were more about scientific fields rather than humanities.
I'm going to start my PhD in Japanese Studies after a BA in East Asian Studies and an MA in Japanese Studies. I'm satisfied with the research I proposed because, while focused on performative arts, it has an interdisciplinary and cultural aspect that would make me study through different media, the history of Japan, and its relationship with the West. I know that I have to take one step at a time and I am probably asking this question because I am experiencing the little fear of those who are about to start their PhD, but it bugged me asking for experiences and advices in case I feel the need to switch field.
To be more precise, I was considering the idea to transition from Humanities to Translation after my PhD once improved my Japanese knowledge. It wouldn't be something really new for me since for my BA I wrote a dissertation about the trasposition of certain situations in manga from Japanese to English, and perhaps I can also rely on it if needed.
Thank you and I hope to receive useful advices.


texts: Is it rude to remind an editor about a manuscript submission still waiting for an invitee after 2 months?

texts:
An original work has been submitted about 2 months ago to a journal thru their online interface and its status is still locked into "editor invited".
Would it be rude to remind them about this?

Oddly I've talked to the editor sometimes before sending my manuscript and she was always quick to reply, so I guess this status has to do with looking for another editor specialized in that field or for reviewers?
I fear this may cut down chances for paper to get published.

Thank you

Edit: I've seen that similar topic about 3 months but I believe it's different since it refers to a larger timeframe and a different, more advanced status in the peer-review process.


texts: Are there forum-like collaborative Q&A/Annotation tools out there?

texts:
I’m teaching an introductory programming course using the Moodle platform and I find that the forums are not used as extensively as they could be. Especially, students ask duplicated questions, have a hard time formatting their code correctly, and don't organise their questions and answers in a very structured way (e.g., they ask a new, unrelated question using the “Reply” button while reading another question).

I would be greatly interested in a web-based tool that would allow me to do this: divide my window vertically into two large columns. In the left column, I could post code snippets, my slides as PDFs, my exercises as PDF or HTML online, etc. In the right column, student could ask contextualised questions related to a particular line in the exercices or in the slides. The advantages would be:

All previously asked questions related to this same point would already be shown on the left. This would considerably lower the the probability of duplicated questions.
While asking a question, no need to copy and paste a code snippet to inform the reader about the context — the context is shown right there in the left column.
A voting system similar to the StackExchange system would be great.

Are there any such tools out there?


texts: Is it possible to transfer schools in the middle of a Master's program?

texts:
I entered my university a year ago. I am enrolled in the master's thesis program. I wanted to do a thesis  , but none of the faculty in my department who do fluid dynamics have an opening for a new researcher in their group. It seems I wont be able to find a thesis advisor in my subfield.
What's my best option in this situation?
is it possible to transfer schools a year in?


texts: Part-time work and extra-curriculars on Master's application CV to explain an average GPA?

texts: When applying for a Master's, I know that extra-curriculars and part-time work barely count for anything in your application. However, say I have an average GPA but my CV shows that I was busy with several other non-academic activities during my degree, wouldn't that show that my GPA is not an indication of my full academic potential? I mean if I'm able to maintain an average GPA in a rigorous STEM course while working part-time, playing in a sports team and participating in many other things on and off campus, surely I will perform better if I just focus on my course?


texts: E-mail address of the conference organizer is not valid?

texts:
Currently, I am trying to find a suitable conference to submit my research work for them. I am trying to get in contact with the organizer of this event to answer some related question regarding appendixes and extra attachment in submission.

So, I just searched for the contact person email and sent him my inquiry. In fact, I got a feedback email from the mail system indicating that no user associated with this email address!

I even tried to get in contact with a professor who is involved in this event. Unfortunately, no reply since the last week. I've even mentioned why I am contacting him not the main organizer since the announced email is not working.

In fact, I have submitted my research paper to their platform and I managed to answer my questions by myself. But I wonder how such a thing is possible.
Normally, what is the proper way to contact them? I tried by email as I said before but no one answers. I tried to call them but they don't have an English speaking person.


texts: What is the proper way of referencing journals, as opposed to papers within journals?

texts:
I am wondering how to reference a journal (not a paper published in that journal, nor even an edition of that journal). Ought I to give a formal citation or is it enough to name that journal in the text?
The specific example which caused my confusion is the Archive of Formal Proofs (AFP) which is a repository of proofs in Isabelle along with papers describing them. It is not exactly a journal itself, I suppose, but I think it is similar enough that I have generalised this question to ask about 'journals' (it describes itself as 'organized in the way of a scientific journal').
Another option I suppose would be to cite a paper written by the developers of the AFP about the technology used in the AFP, or the organisation of the AFP.


texts: Why not asking about updates of search process

texts: I have a campus visit two weeks ago. The search committee chair told me that if I got a positive feedback, they will contact me, otherwise they will contact me after three weeks and half ( I assumed that I may be the second choice). I read many answers that suggest not contacting the search committee about their decision, but I still don’t know why most answers recommend not contacting the committee. Actually, I will defend my thesis sooner and I am worried and over thinking too much so I want to know a decision. So, I want to email the search committee chair about decision or any updates, just to stop thinking, is it ok to do so or it will hurt my application?


texts: Should I mention in my letter of recommendation that my student has bad handwritting?

texts:
A student I taught is really a good student but writes like he is writing with his wrong hand.

The college where I teach requires every one to administer a subjective final exam for 60% of the grade. Its a 3 hour exam and people usually fillout a 30 page booklet. I know many lecturers gave him bad grades because they were too impatient to read his answers they gave him B+ or a B when he deserves at-least a A. I know this cause I taught him Data structures using C and he performed very well while he got a mere B grade in a C language course.

Should I mention this in my LOR or will mentioning this have some bad consequence for him.

I can easily grade 3 students in the time I grade his one paper. So I can imagine how some universities could see him as a liability.


texts: A student keeps using a native language while asking questions in the class when the course is taught in English

texts:
I am assisting a statistics course in a university, and my main job in the course is conducting problem solving sessions. The course is taught in English, and students interact with me in English. However, there is one particular student who keeps using their native language. Whenever he does that, I reply in English, hoping that he would start using English. But he doesn't.

I am sure that everybody does understand what he says because all the students are from the same part of the country. But I find it quite awkward. On the other hand, I feel that if I request him to use English, he might take it offensively, or he might not be able to express what he wants to say clearly. Should I simply ignore this particular case and move on? Or should I tell him somehow? If yes, what is the best way to convey this?


texts:
I saw a strange sign on a door to a geophysics lab in a museum in Switzerland. I was really curious about what it means and wanted to know if anyone is familiar with this sign.

Here's the full image of the door so you can see the context/type of work going on in the lab.


texts: Can I lie about my GRE score to get a better letter of recommendation?

texts:
I have a situation. I have got GRE score of 324. My academics are pretty strong as well (5.1/6.0). I am applying for MS to US universities. In the process of gaining letters of recommendations, I do not have too many options. One of the professor at our department has pre-written letters, because he is busy most of the times. He makes rudimentary changes to it to make it suitable for each candidate, but the gist remains the same. From the experience of past students, he asks the GRE score and he somehow thinks that it is the only "good" metric of evaluation. So he has some 3-4 versions of these letters and based on a GRE score he selects a theme. I also came to know that if student is under 320, letter is excellent, that is, it is more balanced. And over 320, there is more of a high pitching.

I am not targeting many 1st class universities. I am more selective and I really do not want this bluffing. Obviously, I cannot reveal to him that I know his procedure of writing the letters and I need one for below 320. My question is, may I lie about my GRE score to him? When he gets emails from universities, can he see my GRE score? I definitely do not want him to know that I lied, at any point in time, even after admission. Are there any other options?


texts: Error discovered in an accepted conference paper but not yet presented

texts:
I'm a CS student, and I discovered two code bugs that change some numerical values on a table of a paper that got accepted and will be presented at a conference very soon. The changes is very small (think 0.1), and they don't affect the main conclusions of the paper at all.

I haven't talked to my coauthors yet but I don't know how to go about this. On the one hand I'm scared if I contact the organizers they might retract it for not being super accurate or something like that (conclusions don't get affected at all), but on the other hand I don't want to publish buggy code on GitHub and get caught there. What is the best way to go about this? Will the retract the paper if I contact the organizers?


texts: Should sources of sample sentences be shown in (computational) linguistics research?

texts:
What would be best practice in indicating the source of text samples used to illustrate some concept or analysis result in linguistics or computational linguistics?

For example, I might want to use the sentence

  If you had told someone in 2012 that in just two years hence, the eurozone would remain bonded together but the United Kingdom might not, they would have thought you insane.

from a recent The New York Times article (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/10/upshot/why-does-scotland-want-independence-its-culture-vs-economics.html?abt=0002&abg=0), augmented with some annotation, in order to illustrate how different anaphora resolution methods would work or fail for this real life example. Copyright fair use policies allow to use such limited extracts without any permission, and using them is common practice, but the attribution and quoting seems unclear.

How, and if, should I quote the source of that sentence within a paper?

Would publication style (say, short paper vs. a dissertation) affect it?

Would density of examples (2 examples in whole paper vs 20 different examples in a single page) matter?

Would indirect sources change it? E.g. if the sentences are taken from, say, British National Corpus - but, naturally, they originally come from some different publication.

Language utterance sources are different from other references

At least in computational linguistics, general practice clearly is to not include the source of language utterance or sentence examples together with normal references. There are various approaches seen in practice among respectable publications: no referencing at all, a footnote reference for the sentence, a mention in article text, a single reference to a whole corpus (by referencing not the source but some authoritative paper about the corpus), etc.  I'm wondering about those options, which would be preferable and which should be avoided.

Avoiding the whole problem by using sentences made up by myself is not a good solution - artificial examples are biased towards using constructions that behave in the same way as you and your tools expect, so real life examples of natural language from domain-representative sources are strictly preferred.


texts: How should I prepare my first PhD interview when I do not know about the research topic?

texts: I'm going to have my first Skype interview with the PhD committee, and I have not yet been told about the research topic. How long should the presentation be? Given that I have not been told about the research topic, how should I incline my presentation? Should I include my CV?


texts:
I am in Computer Science. I read a survey today. The author gave such a good result by the end of the article that I think the research question can be called "closed": the result performance is ideal and I think the problem is not worth researching any more; future developers can simply use the algorithms proposed and things should be fine. However, the author of the survey did not say so -- they did not say that the problem is solved, nor did they said anything about future work.

I believe (in this specific case), that the problem is solved:

The research goal is to reduce network latency. By the time the survey was written (year 2008), the result latency was 100ms. With such latency, human users won't notice a network delay, because that only happens when the latency exceeds 150ms.
The authors of the survey did not publish any paper on optimizing the algorithms after that survey.

Does these mean that the problem is safely closed? If so, why didn't the survey authors say that? If not, why didn't they continue working on it? How would I know whether a research question is solved or not?


texts: Do I stand a chance in US universities? How can I ask for so many recommendation letters?

texts:
I'm a fresh graduate with a bachelor degree in electrical and electronic engineering, currently aiming to study in the US for my masters degree. I am an international graduate from an accredited university. I graduated with a GPA of 2.61 which is low and I know it, my transcript is a combination of extremely bad grades and real good ones too, I have them all, As, Bs, Cs and Ds. I even have an F.

My question is, do I stand a chance at US universities?

I graduated from a university that is ranked among the top three in my country, I know I may have a bad record of grades, but I have been involved in scientific research group and I have also been part of the student community and club managements.

keep in mind I'm not aiming for the top ranked US universities, but I am more concentrated on the universities that have a good program regarding my area of interest.

Any advise is highly welcome here.

Also, seeing that I did bad in plenty of my courses, would it be okay to ask for a recommendation letter from a professor whom I did bad in his course?

keep in mind that I might apply to about 15 or 20 universities, that's a total of 60 letters ! How can I pull this off?

What is your best recommendations for me to conduct a strong enough application?


texts: Should I contact the university? I will be in the area?

texts: I am wondering if It is appropriate to contact the university and let them know that I will be in the area if by chance I am under consideration.  We are moving back to our home state and my husband will be taking a tuck load there.  I can join him or not.  They stated that they would begin looking at applications on June 16th.  Thanks.


texts: Submitting similar work to two conferences

texts:
I have a pilot study that I conducted, the results of which I'd like to present at the upcoming Conference X. I am also expanding on this study so that I not only have additional data, but will also have a broader focus, since my original one ended up being rather narrow.
I'd like to present my updated results (not yet available) at Conference Y several months after Conference X, but I certainly don't want to do so if it's unethical. Essentially, if I were to do both, I would be repeating some of what I present at Conference X (similar research objectives and methods, some of the same data), but I anticipate having further analyses to offer. Thoughts?


texts: Faculty criticizing students in front of other students

texts:
As a graduate student, I often discuss the performance and abilities of undergraduates in very frank terms with fellow graduate students. However, I would never do so in front of other undergraduates. To do so seems clearly unprofessional. My question is, should faculty members have the same code of conduct towards graduate students? Is it inappropriate for a professor to discuss negative intellectual or personal qualities of their graduate students in front of other graduate students? I ask because a faculty member at my institution routinely criticizes the abilities and progress of one of their students in front of other students. I wonder if someone should have a discussion with the faculty member to stop this behavior.

Note: I can imagine scenarios in which it is appropriate for a professor to speak frankly, in confidence, with one student about another student's abilities, for example if students are having issues working with each other or there are concerns about the quality of work. But this is not what I'm talking about. To give a specific example, imagine a faculty member at a dinner with several other faculty and students, and loudly saying things like "Johnny can't even come up with testable hypothesis", "I'm probably just going to have to hand him a project", and "he'll get his PhD but he won't be successful in academia."


texts: Would it be inappropriate to cite wikipedia for something trivial in an academic article?

texts:
Edit: I believe this is not a duplicate of Are there instances where citing Wikipedia is allowed?, because that question asks about citing Wikipedia for knowledge that is very basic but is nonetheless highly relevant to the core subject of the paper. My question is about citing  Wikipedia for something that is, by contrast, unrelated to the core subject matter of the paper, and thus is trivial in the sense of being unimportant rather than trivial in the sense of being common or basic knowledge.

Many previous questions on this site touch on citing Wikipedia, but none of them seem to me to address this specific issue.

I am writing a statistics paper. The focus and original work of the paper is abstract and theoretical. To introduce some of those ideas, I have a silly little thought experiment involving golf, and choosing which properties one wants one's club to have.

To be clear, nothing about the paper's actual focus is relevant to golf. The golf example is just a helpful, concrete way to introduce the perspective I am taking in the paper on certain statistical techniques.

To flesh out this example, I need to be able to describe the various options one has when choosing a golf club (head material, shaft length, etc.). I have learned from Wikipedia everything I need to know about these options in order to describe my silly little thought experiment. Would it be inappropriate to cite Wikipedia in a case like this? Would reviewers/readers raise an eyebrow at my doing so? Do I really need to spend time reading primary sources on various golf head materials just to be able to include this silly thought experiment in my paper?


texts: Chances of getting into a CS PhD program from a math/engineering background?

texts:
I have an undergraduate degree (B.E.) in Biomedical Engineering. Right now, I am working on a M.S. in Applied Mathematics and Statistics and will be done pretty soon. I have very minimal research experience, and no papers published. I will be working in industry for the next year (since I didn't apply for any PhD programs this application season). However, I would like to get into a PhD program as soon as I can.

My interests are in the field of AI and Machine Learning. From the research I have done, most AI/ML research is done by Computer Science departments; so that is where I must head. What are my chances of getting into a good AI/ML program coming from a different background and no relevant research experience (although I have no direct research experience, I follow the literature and learn as much as I can on AI/ML in my free time)? What can I do to best increase my shots of getting into a top CS department known for AI (Stanford, Cornell, etc)?

Instead of working for a year, maybe I should seek a research assistantship at an AI lab (less pay, but if it can get me into a top program then so be it)?

Any advice is appreciated!


texts: Is it advisable to attend a conference in Germany with talks by German presenters in English if you don't speak German?

texts:
There is an upcoming conference in Germany, all the talks will be in English, however all the listed participants are also German. Only speaking English I'm wondering if it would be inadvisable to go, as everyone will speak German during non-talk times?

Is this true or am I being too paranoid?


texts: Requesting a copy of the PhD thesis from an author?

texts:
I think that many unpublished theses are available in libraries etc and reading relevant theses is a normal part of research and does not involve asking the author's permission. But suppose a humanities PhD student has seen a thesis title (2008, so presumably in electronic format), that is relevant to their PhD subject and they want to read the thesis but unlike most theses it is not available in the student's libraries or online etc, probably due to the author's geographical location. The author is now a lecturer with a page on the university website. Should the student just email the author and say "Hello I am a PhD student in your field, can I please see your thesis?" Is this a big deal? Are there any do's or don'ts in making this request?

Thank you...


texts: How do I get the motivation to study for a test for university? I was a high achiever in high school but I just don't feel motivated to study.


texts: How many recommendation letters should you ask a professor to write?

texts:
Say a student who wants to further her study in a specific field, so she applies for multiple programs at several universities. Each of these prospective universities requires her to submit at least two recommendation letters. The question is that how many recommendation letters should she ask a Professor to write?
If she has applied for 5 programs at 5 universities, then she needs to submit 10 recommendation letters. She knows 10 professors of her former school, in this case, should she ask each professor to write one recommendation letter for her, or ask the two professors she knows best to write 10 recommendation letters for her?


texts: Do professors submit grant proposals just before the deadline just as students submit assignments just before the deadline?

texts:
It's well-known that if one sets an assignment with a given due date two weeks in the future, most students will submit the assignment in the 2-hour period leading up to the deadline anyway.

I'm curious if professors do the same. Given a deadline (say, a deadline for grant proposals, letters of recommendation, or conference submissions), do most professors also submit just before the deadline?

I don't know about the first two but I notice that conference abstract deadlines are often extended. If we take the very pessimistic interpretation, that would imply the answer is yes: professors not only procrastinate, they regularly procrastinate until it's past the deadline, forcing the conference organizers to scramble to accommodate them.


texts: Is it OK to let somebody know I refereed their paper?

texts:
It is not uncommon, especially for narrow fields, that you review papers authored by people that you might, at some point, come to interact with more or less closely. This can range from meeting them at a conference to even start a collaboration together.

Some times, when discussing with these people a point directly related to one of their papers it could be relevant to make a comment based on a discussion that came up as part of the reviewing process.

I have recently felt tempted to tell someone "hey, I refereed you paper, by the way, so I am particularly familiar with this and that..." but refrained myself because peer review is supposed to be anonymous.

Is it appropriate to bring up that I refereed somebody's paper when having a discussion with this person, in particular if it adds constructively to the discussion? Would it become "more appropriate" as time goes by and the review becomes "a thing of the past"?


texts: Citing line numbers of a one-page text in MLA format

texts: Is it considered a valid MLA format for an in-text citation, where a work only has one page, to use the line numbers? Say, (LastName, AuthoredWork 2-3) for instance to cite the quoted lines 2-3 from AuthoredWork by the author? If not, what is the appropriate in-text way to do this for a work with only one page?


texts: What are some reasons to get your work rejected?

texts: I have submitted one of my work in a good journal (impact factor 6) and I got rejection after a few weeks. Though I was pretty sure that I covered all the experiments or stuff they can ask for. The reply mail did not show any cause. They just regretted that they cant publish my work. What can be some reasons behind this?


texts:
How do you number the sections in a two-part paper i.e. a paper that is published in two parts?
I wrote an expository paper for high school students and it got accepted into a magazine, only that it will be published in two parts (because the magazine has a limit on the maximum number of pages an article may have). Now, after I have split my paper into two parts, I wonder how should the sections be numbered. The original paper consisted of three sections, which I've split as follows: in part 1 I have sections 1 and 2 and in part 2 I have section 3. Should section 3 still be labeled as section 3, given that it will appear in a different issue? I believe that it should, because I clearly state that part 2 is a continuation of part 1, but I would like to know what the practice is in such uncommon cases.


texts: Why does a US/Canadian STEM PhD 'almost' always comes with monetary assistance while a British PhD doesn't?

texts:
A US/Canadian STEM PhD 'almost' always comes with monetary assistance from the supervisor. In some universities/programs, supervisors are able to individually recruit students along with monthly allowances. In most cases, students don't even need to submit a separate application for money.

Even PhDs in Hong Kong and Singapore come with full funding. Students don't even need to submit a separate application for money.

Why doesn't that happen in  UK?


texts: Choosing between two good reference letters providers

texts:
I am in the process of applying to tenure-track assistant-professorships positions in my home country.

Some institutions request no more then 3 reference letters.

Two letters I will have from my former PhD supervisor and my current post-doc supervisor in my current institute (I am doing my post-doc at a different institute, way more prestigious then my PhD inst. and in a different country).

I have all the reasons to believe these will be very good letters.

In the past I had a third letter from a professor who knows me well from the time I did my PhD (same dept. in my home country, close topics, some collaborations over several years and very good personal relationship).

However, It was 3 years ago. He wrote me very good letters before (so I've been told and believe, I also eventually got few fellowships and had one tenure-track job interview when providing his letters).

I also have the option to ask a current collaborator from my current dept. who knows me for about a year. He is very senior and respected scientist, published hundreds of papers and was the dept. chair for many years.
My work for his groups is very valuable (no one in his groups knows anything about the methods and analytical tools I use for this project of him), and we have a good personal connection.

My question is: From which one of these 2 prof. should I ask a reference letter ?
In more general terms: is it better to ask someone who knows you longer and from your home country (where I also apply), or a more current collaborator from my post-doc institute who is also a "bigger name" and knows what you are working on these days?

I will be mostly happy to read answers from ones who had been in selection committees or the like, but also much value answers from others as well.

Thanks

Edit: I can't simply ask from both and use alternatively, the recommendation letter should be submitted directly from them to the committee, so only one of them can be asked to submit.


texts: Is it ethical to submit the final version of a paper after acceptance when coauthor refuses to agree to submission?

texts:
Here is my case:

I wrote a paper and invited a post-doc to help me edit it. As the post-doc is much better than me, the post-doc changed a lot of content (nearly all, but without changing any idea). According to this contribution, the post-doc stands as second author. The post-doc agreed on the paper, then we submitted and the paper was accepted. After that, the post-doc claimed to be the main contributor, threatened to withdraw the paper (personal-conflict) and really did so. But the editor of the journal refused the withdraw request and asked me for final version. Even so, the second author kept on claiming that I don't have the right to submit the final version. In this case, is it ethical to continue the publication process?


texts: Do online courses and certificates actually count toward University credits?

texts: I am interested in pursuing a couple of online courses and certifications but I am not sure if they will count towards my university credits or in getting a job. I found some courses from this article but i need to make sure that they will actually be beneficial for me. They also have mentioned a couple of online degrees from University of People. Does it count as an accredited degree worldwide?


texts: How do you find the contact info of a professor in a foreign country?

texts:
I'd like to read the paper "New Fragments of the Ishvarapratyabhijna-vivriti"  by Yohei Kawajiri.  I can't seem to find it online, so I thought I'd contact the author and ask him for a copy.  But I can't seem to find his contact information; he's affiliated with Chikushi Jogakuen University, but most of their website is in Japanese, and can't be usefully navigated even with Google Translate.

So my question is, how does one find the contact information of a professor in a foreign country whose websites are in a foreign language?  I assume that it is possible, since academics collaborate across countries all the time.  But I'm not sure how.


texts: Potential PhD supervisor expressed interest, but had a short response. What do I reply?

texts:
I emailed a potential supervisor at a US university recently. He replied promptly, cc'ing the graduate school dean in the email and saying I had a very good idea but then suggesting another research question that needs to be answered first.

I saw that no one has done it yet (nothing published, as far as I know), and I then asked if his lab is currently tackling the problem, and he simply responded:

  We are not working on it yet

I have asked the graduate school dean several questions after that, but I have not responded to the potential supervisor yet. How should I continue our correspondence? I'm really interested in the new research problem, but I don't know how to respond to him.


texts:
I know other PhD students (at a different university) who have minimal duties like preparing exercise sheets.

I am going to enter a PhD programme which does not involve any teaching components,
but throughout the years before, I have frequently worked as a tutor, leading exercise classes.

I wonder whether the lack of teaching in my PhD will negatively affect my future employment chances in academia (or whether my teaching experience until now will positively affect my chances). What do you know?


texts: Can you sign more than 1 Master Promissory Note Concurrently?

texts:
I am in the process of choosing a Master's program.  I have been approved for one program, but I'm still waiting to hear back from two other schools.  The school that approved me said that they need me to fill out my Master Promissory Note as soon as possible so my financial aid can be ready for my summer courses next month.  My only concern is that I may choose a different school if I get accepted into it.  If I'm not accepted into the other programs, however, I would like to have my financial aid taken care of so I can attend summer courses without any problems.

Can I sign the Promissory Note for my currently accepted program and then sign another Promissory Note for a different school if I am accepted?

Thank you and have a good day.


texts: Should I supply code along with my paper submission?

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I am submitting a paper to a machine learning/computer vision conference. Is it worthwhile to include some source code of my implementation so that the reviewers can test it themselves or gain a greater understanding of my idea? It will take time to clean up my code and make sure it is anonymised.

Is this a common practice? If so do reviewers pay attention to the code?

Is it worth the time to prepare anonymised and clean code?

The code will be included as a ZIP archive through the paper submission website. After the paper has been accepted I intend to release it with an open source license.


texts: How to cite Arabic translation of a German book in an English paper?

texts:
I have a question and I searched a lot but couldn't find its answer. I write in English and there are a few books which are originally written in German and French, and unfortunately there is no English translation of them. I don't know these two languages but can read the Arabic translation of these books. How can I include them in the bibliography, according to APA or ASA citation styles?
I think I should transliterate the titles and then I don't know if I should put their original titles or the English translation of the titles or maybe both of them.
could anyone please help me?


texts: Submitting a paper to a journal: is it OK to indicate the Editor of that journal as a reviewer?

texts: I have quite good experience in submitting papers, but I have never met in journals' guidelines any statements about the possibility of indicating editors themselves as reviewers. I think the implicit rule nevertheless is that one should avoid doing so, since editors should make their objective decisions on the basis of opinions of "third parties" (reviewers unrelated to the editorial board). On the other hand, editors often choose reviewers themselves, so anyway if I choose to indicate the Editor-in-Chief, most probably he will find another reviewer. This question is particularly relevant in the case of narrowly-specialized journals, where there are simply not so many experts in the concrete topic I deal with, and the editor happens to be one of them.


texts: Should I push for my paper to be published as an undergraduate?

texts:
I've been doing a research attachment as an undergraduate in a malaria culture lab and my project involves the screening and hit prioritisation of anti-cancer drugs for repurposing use against malaria. Since the attachment is an official programme under my school, one of the deliverables is a paper at the end of the attachment and I was keen on writing a paper to be published in a journal(if it's accepted!)

I mentioned this to my mentor and he said it might not be worth publishing the paper or something of the sort but didn't elaborate on it much. Should I look into it and ask if it can be published in an undergraduate journal or should I let it go?


texts: Software/App for electronic research notebooks

texts:
I want to keep a research notebook for my computational "experiments". Basically, I should at least be able to write text and attach images like plots. Other nice features to have would be

linking to past experiments/pages
latex equations
uploading papers, or other urls
being able to transfer data
dating and version control
open-source tool

I am already familiar with trello and tiddlywiki. Trello is good for attaching stuff and organising tasks, but I need a notebook where I attach a plot, write stuff around it, attach another below it. It doesn't have a paper or canvas. Tiddlywiki is a little painful for attaching pics and equations, the file bloats, it seems I am keeping a blog.

What is a good, free electronic notebook tool for research/lab work?


texts: PhD in Management Science and a faculty position in CS

texts:
I would like to know how willing would staff in CS department of reputed universities would be to hire doctorates from relevant non-CS departments, for example, say, management science or operations research students. I see a dilemma for the recruiters here: research-wise the new member may be probably better-equipped to span a newer vista of problems that are currently not tackled in the department, but academically, the faculty may not be trained to teach usual CS courses at undergrad level.

A few specific cases, in either case you can assume the applicant is interested in CS research, but does not have publications in top CS journals:

The applicant is a CS-graduate and a PhD in MS but has no CS teaching experience.
The applicant is NOT a CS-graduate but a PhD in MS who has worked on CS-related problems for his doctorate. Will he be excused for not teaching undergrad? Or will he have the liberty to formulate interdisciplinary courses himself and teach them?


texts: How to make lessons more concrete for undergraduate students when my institution lacks lab facilities?

texts:
I have question related to teaching.

I don't have facilities for doing real time applications for my undergraduate students related to automatic control design (like inverted pendulum), and the devices that we have are black box.

I am using MATLAB/SIMULINK, but this doesn't make sense for them.

Any recommendation to make automatic control more tangible and concrete?


texts: How to find a "virtual" mathematics conference?

texts:
How can I find conferences in mathematics which accept guest articles/notes without the guest physically visiting the conference?

I have two problems which prevent me to physically visit conferences: 1. no money to pay for air tickets; 2. bad spoken English.

Can I nevertheless contribute to proceedings of a conference?

I found one such conference, but my article was judged not on-topic and rejected. It was the only conference I ever seen without the requirement to physically travel there to participate as an author.

Again: My question is how to find a conferences. Maybe you can suggest a specific Internet site(s) listing such conferences?


texts: Do you know about status date changes in Elsevier editorial

texts:
I submitted an article to an Elsevier Journal in (Jan, 2018)
The status and the status date changed after one week in "under review".
Now status remains "Under review" but the status date is new (Sep 2018)
Could you please tell me what it means?
Thanks


texts: How many places one should apply for postdoctoral position

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I need a suggestion in applying for postdoc position in mathjobs. In general how many places one should apply ? I mean, can my recommendation letter writers get disturbed if I apply for too many places and ask them to send email to too many places ?

Any help/suggestions will be useful.

Thanks in advance.


texts: What are valid publications to put on a grad school application resume?

texts:
I am in the process of applying for MS in CS and saw that an academic CV is pretty long and detailed (not like the business ones max. 1-2 pages). Apparently it is common to list all publications. However, I am wondering what counts as a valid publication?

I have a section Publications (peer-reviewed) and one Publications (non-peer reviewed). Is it valid to state publications which exist, but are not publicly downloadable (e.g. confidentiality)? For example I wrote research paper and teaching material at my company or uni research project papers etc. Are these eligible?

I am asking because I don't want to put something in my resume that might make me look like a fraud (because of unknowing).


texts:
An annoying aspect of working with a "strict" grading system (e.g., 90%+ = A, 85% = A-, 80% = B+, etc.) is what I call the "grade grubbing" phenomenon: the people who feel compelled to raise complaints about the grading because they didn't get the final score they want—but have no real argument in support of a higher grade. This is not about legitimate requests to reconsider because of a mistake but instead students searching for any reason why they deserve the X points they need to get a better grade. It’s exemplified by the kind of argument that begins “I know it’s wrong but . . . .”

I do not have the power to change the grading structure—that is imposed from higher up.

Are there any satisfactory methods of discouraging such behavior? I don't want to stop people with legitimate issues from asking for regrades (mistakes happen!), but I would like to avoid having to deal with the student who tries every which way to get the few points they need to move up a level.


texts: Are Asian-Americans considered an "underrepresented minority" in academia in the US?

texts:
As an Asian-American I sometimes feel as though I am "stuck." There are certainly many Asian academics, but only a few Asian-Americans. This is complicated by the statistics. In absolute numbers, I think the numbers of Asian-American academics are small. Asian-Americans only make up a small percentage of the overall population of the U.S. (about 5%), and so from that perspective, a statistic that says something like, "9% of academics are Asian-American" (I made this up) can be regarded as saying that Asian-Americans are overrepresented.
At the same time, to my knowledge, I was the only Asian-American in my entire PhD program while I was there (not just my year - the entire PhD program), there were to my knowledge no Asian-American faculty in the department, and I can count on my fingers the number of Asian-Americans I see represented in my field.
(Edit: I also want to add that I understand that even the term "Asian-American" is messy because it lumps together several different ethnic groups)


texts: Claiming sole credit for an academic outreach program - not a written paper. Is there a moral right?

texts: I conceived and co-developed (including the program itself and training protocols for participants)/piloted the program locally/managed three national pilots, and assessed the effectiveness of the program including formulating the written proposal to public and private funding agencies that laid out the essential elements of the program and writing reports. Years later, one of my co-developers claims sole responsibility on line (at a University web site) and at a non-profit spinoff's web site for this and another program I conceived and co-developed and has wiped me from the record. He does not credit our co-developers, upon whose ground breaking research much of this work rests. If one (say a member of a selection committee) were to take a tour of the Internet using the usual search engines, it would appear that my CV and resume are one big lie after another. I inquired of Legal at the University where I did the work, and they said they have no control over what a department head puts on line and that it is if anything a compliance issue. What does this mean? And also, do I have a moral right and what kind of recourse might there be? Basically 15 years of my life is now invisible.


texts:
I have done a research project for a vocational masters. During then, there was a major disruption in the teaching department which affected the supervision process. However, I was already having another Masters degree and was in my last stage of a PhD degree program as well. So I planned, conducted, analysed and wrote my research thesis without any supervision. The only supervision I can think of is reading the completed thesis by my supervisor (which was assigned to me in later stage of the project, who  managed to give very minor comments which I feel was not significant at all as I did not have to change things except some paraphrasing and proofreading as I'm not a native English speaker.

Now I'm in the process of publishing a paper from that research and wondering if I can publish it as a single author paper? I normally do not mind to involve my supervisor or any team member who worked with me in a study as long as I believe there was some how a considerable contribution, but in this time, my work is asking me to publish a single author paper as part of the requirement for promotion so there is another reason to push me more critical for whom should be involved. So do you think it is okey based on the above situation to proceed in publishing the work by my own as a single author paper?

Thank you in advance


texts:
I was reading this.

  Now here's some advice that isn't silly:  don't go to graduate school
  unless you get into a strong program.

What's the meaning of "program" in this case? What would be a strong program?


texts:
I am currently writing a cumulative dissertation which is based on several published papers. I am supposed to shortly (one page) summarize each of the papers. These summaries come before the actual papers in the thesis.
Now for me the question about the correct tense in these summaries comes up. For example I have the following sentences

The results reveals that in all weeks the methods led to reduced costs of 10 %.
On average, method B needed 14:06 minutes.

Would you rather use the past tense or the present tense in these examples. Here it is said that I should only use the past to refer to something that has been mentioned before. Basically the results and simulations have not been mentioned before. But at the same time the linked page says that I should use the past tense for summaries and to refer to specific simulation runs (which is obviously the case in my examples).
I tend to use present because I have used the present tense for the whole thesis.
What would you advise me to do?


texts: How to react when a professor give back the corrected version of a test just before the finals?

texts:
I'm asking this question for a friend as he is not very familiar with SE sites.

Context:

My friend, let's call him A, has a physics teacher, which we will call B.

A, as the rest of the class, had a mid-semester exam 1 month and a half ago. He thought he failed, as some of other classmates.

A month passed, with Christmas holidays, and A had completely forgotten the whole exam.

However, yesterday, B gave back the corrected exam. My friend, and 1/3 of the class got a <25/100. However, not a lot of students are between 25/100 and 65/100.

A has his final physics exam from B tomorrow. So, he had two days to review and correct his mistakes before the new exam.

As it's the finals, tomorrow will be a big day, accounting for 20% of his entire semester. He feels that the entire situation is “completely unfair”.

Questions:

Was it ethical/fair that B gave the grades two days before the exams?
How could A, if it has to happen again, handle the situation?
Could A talk to B about his feelings?
Should A report to B superior about the situation?
Should, as a student of another class, handle the role of a “mediator” between A and B?

Comments:

A is in a small french university, where the teachers and students, and the administration know each other really well (think about 90 students in the whole building).
A is in his first year in the university, and will probably have this teacher again next semester and next years.


texts: Rejecting a PhD offer after giving promise to the supervisor to work with him

texts:
When I went for my very first PhD interview by a potential supervisor, I hadn't applied for other universities. I promised that supervisor that I would definitely work under his supervisor if I was given an opportunity. He told me that he had a bad experience of a student replacing him with another supervisor after 1 yr of phd course.  So he repeatedly ensured that I would work with him. But now
I have been offered a place there. Before getting the offer, I applied for two better universities and I have been waiting for the results of these two uni and I need to decide whether to accept or reject the offer by the first uni before I have known the results of the other two.

Please advise me what I should do. Is it unethical if I turn down the offer after giving such a promise? I know it is risky to wait for the other results if I will be rejected in other two.


texts: Finishing a PhD or quitting and taking a job in industry

texts:
I am in the second year of a research degree, and with one more year I could finish my PhD. However, I got a very good job offer at a leading company in the field, which would mean I'd have to finish my degree now (which would then be an MPhil) and start working.

I am hard pressed to make a decision, but I find it very hard to judge: what are the benefits of finishing a PhD over taking a job at a good company? Often people do a PhD to get into such a company, but what if that is not the case? Also, I feel that at this point, a job would be more challenging than a third year of a PhD, which would just be a continuation of the same thing I've been doing for two years now.

On the other hand, people tell me it would be silly to quit now that I am so close, because "a PhD is worth so much more." I would very much like some extra input on this: is a PhD 'worth more' in the end? And what are other things that I'd have to take into account to make an informed decision?

I'm only 23 years old, so I could even do a PhD later, but I'd have to start from the beginning again. Would it be an advantage or a disadvantage to have worked for a couple of years, when applying for a PhD again later?


texts: Prof at small university or postdoc at big university

texts:
Recently I've been faced with the dilemma of being an assistant professor in a small rural University near my home city or being a postdoc at the top University in my field in the world.....

What are the advantages or disadvantages of either choice?


texts: Is it appropriate to underline key words in an exam answer?

texts:
Some exams I have to take involve redacting long answers about a given subject. I know the corrector has to correct hundreds of exams, so clarity in both expression and calligraphy is key to set the corrector in the right mood in order to get a higher grade. I usually tend to be too circumlocutory, but in certain contexts explaining a term requires long descriptions that could make the key word "vanish" among a lot of explanatory sentences. A solution to that is to repeat the key word every couple of sentences, but that would only result in a waste of time (which is of paramount importance, since time is usually the limiting factor for me), and a verbose prose that is precisely what I'm trying to avoid.

In order to highlight such words, I usually italize them when writing a paper, but that looks plain wrong in hand-written texts, where italic letters are not so evident. So I underline them instead. I feel that should make the corrector task easier and faster, since that way they only have to scan the text looking for the key words to make sure the student has commented everything they were supposed to. I even had a teacher who highlighted such words herself prior to give a final grade.

However, I'm not sure how "standard" it is to underline key words, or whether it is regarded as a sign of poor writing style rather than an appreciated aid for correctors. I recently read from a well-known Spanish author that italic words were disrespectful to the reader since they were somehow telling them which words they should focus on, as if they were unable to work that out on their own. People in this post seem to agree it is not a good idea, but their alternative is to write a short abstract to sum up all the ideas they would italize otherwise. However, as you can tell, that's not an option when writing an exam answer.

So, should I underline key words when writing long exam answers?

Is there even a consensus about it, or does it simply depend on the corrector preferences?

Note: The scope of higlighting key words is not to make the correctors notice I've mentioned them, but just to make the correcting task easier.

Note: I'm not a native English speaker and I don't take exams in English, so please don't take this question as a sample of my writing skills. I can do better.


texts: How to deliver thank you letter and gift to the professor who wrote letter of recommendation for me

texts:
I am writing a handwritten thank you letter to my professors who wrote the letter of recommendation for me, and I am also buying them a small gift because they really helped a lot throughout the application process.
I'd love to deliver the letter and gift to them in person, but that's just not the option for me now.
I am wondering will the professors receive my letter and gift if I mail them to their department in the university? or should I drop them off at the department reception?


texts: How to decide authorship order in this situation?

texts:
My master's supervisor and I are working on a research project. He offers me the research equipment and the basic ideas. He also writes the paper. I am in charge of coding and conducting all the experiments and analyzing the results. Sometimes I will discuss with him about my ideas but he is the one who decides to use them or not.

Should I be listed as the first author or not?


texts: Do postdocs have reasonable chances to acquire non-federal funding in the US?

texts:
This article argues that the portion of federal funding is decreasing more and more in the US while funding by corporate and philantropical sources is increasing within the last decade.

I'm wondering if this shift/drift, which looks quite significant in the chart to me, means a much worse likelihood of success for postdocs trying to acquire funding, due to the fact that most postdocs have no reputation/infrastructure (offices, labs, staff,...) and are unlikely to be chosen/visible by/to corporate/philantropical sources.

Is the situation as I imagine it myself or did maybe postdocs never had high likelihood of federal funding in the US (which would be very different to europe) and the competition is not increasing drastically with less federal funding. I would like to see some numbers/statistics, no common sense/experience arguing. I hope there are maybe also statistics how much funding assistant, associate, full professors acquire and how this has changed over time.

EDIT: Independently from the discussion in the comments about postdoc/assistant professor definition, to me the answer/insight is if the drift from federal to corporate/philantropical funding is siginificantly reducing the chances of PhD's, assistant professors to acquire funding and most of the non-federal funding goes to universities/full professors? Any statistics/experience would be interesting here to me.


texts:
I have a question about the use and attribution of internal software tools.

We have a model in our group that is very popular and has formed the basis of many student projects and publications.  It was written about five years ago and has been published as a book chapter, but not a journal paper.  The model exists primarily as source code; there is no compiled version per se although there is a user interface tool that generates new source based on the template of the original model.  As a result, new work tends to involve a mix of the original code and further modifications as appropriate for the study in question.

At the moment, we don't want to release the underlying model as open-source.  Is there an appropriate license that people would recommend to clarify these usage principles?  The original model author now has a looser affiliation with our university and so it may become difficult to ask his opinion on a case-by-case basis.


texts: Concerned about supervisor's poor level of knowledge on his students' research topics, and his reluctance to correct his knowledge - is this normal?

texts:
Hi I wish to ask for advice regarding the role of an academic supervisor nowadays. Current I am pursuing my Master in a physical science school in one of the university in the South East Asia.

While my academic supervisor is an energetic man and enthusiastic about his research, his research interest is very wide and that each of his students (including me) is working on a title that is only remotely connected to each other. Even he himself is working on a completely different topic than the rest of us. One would expect that we as students would at least get some useful advices from him, but it occurs to us that he is also not clear on background of the research he assigned to us in the first place. While we understand we, as the person who conduct the in depth research, will be more knowledgeable about the field in the end, we notice that he does not understand the basic terminology and theory of the particular field, which I feels is on the level of undergraduates. He would expect us to explain all the basic theory and terminology in our field to him, without bother to study for himself for a thing that is easily reachable even in Wikipedia.

Another thing I observe is his reluctance to search for verification of his current knowledge. He would like to speculate on a thing (which is an established and obvious stuff) based on his own limited knowledge on the said area, completing disregarding our counter arguments based on established facts. Only by exposing the current literature and references (which is simply a google search) did he reluctantly accept his flaws. As a result, this have made us to be skeptical every time he presents an argument.

I would expect my case is uncommon and standalone, until my friends said almost the same things happen to him. Apparently this situation is applicable for other academic supervisors as well. Practically we have to complete our research by ourselves, with the purpose of academic supervisors reduced to providing a working space (I do appreciate that) and stamping their approvals for our paperworks.

An even worse news to hear to that my friend told me that, after his discussion with some experienced international industrial personnels, this seems to be the current trend in area of research in physical science even in overseas, that we are supposed to carry out our research without expecting "useful" suggestions for our work.

Sorry for the long post, as I am confused about the state of the research community right now. Is this to be a norm to be accepted, and that I am expecting too much?