texts: Average length of graduate studies in the UK in the life sciences

texts:
What would be the usual time spent doing graduate studies (Masters + PhD; courses + research) in the UK for someone studying life sciences?

I am applying for a Junior Research Fellowship in hopes of doing a postdoc in the UK. However, one of the requirements is that I have fewer years of graduate studies behind me than I in fact have. I have other grounds to ask for an exception (pregnancy leave), but I am wondering whether my 2+4 years (Dutch) graduate program is longer than what the typical UK student does. I'm sure that programs vary, but if we were to pick a random UK life sciences postdoc, how many years would he have spent doing graduate studies?


texts: Does students asking questions in class improve the learning outcome of the entire class?

texts:
Is there any research/study/survey that looked at whether / to what extent students asking questions in class improve the learning outcome of the entire class?

I am most interested in computer science and math education, but curious about other fields as well.


texts: Is it unethical to use not your real name when asking for questionnaire survey?

texts: I'm going to conduct an email-based questionnaire survey, but I would like to avoid sharing my real name/affiliation. In part, I'm curious if sender's name is actually going to affect response rate and include this aspect as a part of my study. Can it be considered unethical not to use my real name?


texts: Why might a journal editor reject a submission, but suggest submission to a sister journal?

texts:
We (I with my co-authors) recently had done a high-quality work and submitted to a Journal A (with high impact factor and reputed). A belongs to Wiley Publishers. In its' own site, it displays a set of Associated Journals (which are possibly its sister or new journals).

We had submitted a work which achieved far better results than a recent work published by the journal A. We were hoping about a green signal on acceptance. However, to our surprise, the editor rejected the paper and suggested to submit the work to one of its sister journal, which are new and not having any impact.

It is bit strange, though. Is is just a strategy to promote their sister/new journals? Why would a journal possibly reject a high-quality work just like that?

Note: The present status of the paper in submission system displays recommended for other journals.


texts: Should I acknowledge funding from an unrelated project?

texts:
I hold a research position at a university where I'm working on a certain project in a certain field. I met another professor from another field and began working on a new project with him. I'm submitting our work for publication and I'm unsure whether I should acknowledge funding from my position in the question: “Is there funding to report for this submission?”

I haven't been paid for this particular project but my stipend is basically my livelihood so I'm in two minds about whether to acknowledge it or not.


texts: Is it feasible to pursue PhD with BE Degree/16+ years of experience, and is it worth it?

texts:
Is it possible to pursue PhD with only BE degree and 16+ years of Software Industry experience? I know that most of the institutes expect a Masters degree to pursue PhD.  Do they consider Industry experience to relax this criteria?

And, then the big question - Is it worth it to pursue a research/academic career after 16 years in Software Industry?  Has anyone done this? what are your experiences like?


texts: I reported plagiarism to a questionable journal. How long should I give them to amend?

texts:
I recently sent the following letter to a journal of questionable reputation:

To whom it may concern:
In the [Journal Redacted], in the paper titled [Paper Redacted] by [Authors Redacted], the following section is plagiarized from Wikipedia:
[Text Redacted]
That section is copied from this Wikipedia article: [Link Redacted]
Thanks,
[Signature Redacted]

They replied with the following:

Dear Mr. [Name Redacted],
As you mention that there is plagiarism. Yes, I read the research again but that part is from introduction. Introduction part is not part of the research.
Please read it again...

I replied with:

Sir or Madam,
You are correct that is from the introduction, but any usage of non-original material whether part of the research or not must be properly cited or it is plagiarism. Even if this were an opinion piece and not research, this would be plagiarism. I expect this will be addressed soon.
Thanks,
[Signature Redacted]

They replied with:

Dear sir,
I will inform to author for proper reference citation of the paper.

What do I do at this point? If they take corrective action, it will take some time. How much time is it appropriate to give them before I report them elsewhere?


texts: Rules for using an electronic text as the texbook for a class

texts:
I have just completed my PhD in Mathematics and accepted a job as a visiting assistant professor. The course I am assigned to teach allows me to pick the textbook I wish to use.

I am currently looking for lower-cost/free textbook options for my students, and I have found a textbook that I really like in the SpringerLink database. My school’s library has a subscription to this database which give students access to an electronic copy of this book free of charge. Are there any rules which prevent me from assigning this as the textbook for the class and giving them the option to download it for free through the library?


texts: Shall I quit academia or continue doing research without too much luck?

texts:
My first three year postdoc was almost over and no good publications came out. The thing is that my carefully crafted papers are getting rejected again and again by decent journals (not that good ones). Knowing how bad the academic job market is now, I have a feeling that I may not make it in academia. I could do another postdoc after my 3 year contract or probably choose to quit.

If I am bad at research, I would quit now for sure. It is just that somehow my mentor has been supportive of me staying in academia and she is very famous. She can't be too wrong, right? Also, I got many projects going well. I think I am pretty good at research. I hope one of those projects will end up in a good journal.  But, it has been three years after my phd.

I came to Europe to do a phd as a poor Chinese guy. At the time, I didn't know much about English and only learned my current major though a 3 year master program in China. I worked hard and learned fast to catch up. But, things just wouldn't click. I did my job but the journals just wont accept my papers. Bad luck? probably. Or, something wrong with my topic or approaches.

If I do another postdoc, I will be way over 30. My life already suffered from my research career. A lonely Chinese guy in a foreign country. No money. No nothing. Just my research. Another postdoc without much hope of making it in academia could cause damages to my life, from which I may never recover.

Shall I finish more projects and try my luck to do another postdoc ? Or just quit, even though people say i am good. Being good isn't very useful in academia I guess. Only papers count.


texts: Graduate coursework for graduate admissions

texts:
I’m a rising senior in a mathematics program, and I’m planning to apply to top US schools in maths in the fall. I’ve completed most of my undergrad coursework requirements, and I’m looking into what I should take for the fall.
I have a choice between Graduate Analysis I or Undergraduate Complex Analysis. Now, I find both of these to be very interesting, but what do graduate schools think when they look at my transcript? Will it be more advantageous to have the graduate course listed on there?
If I take the graduate course, it’ll also open up the sequel Graduate Analysis II in the winter.


texts: Which affiliation to put as a student in a different branch than the research paper?

texts:
I am an undergrad student in a certain field. However, I am also interested in another, very different one in which I would like to submit a research paper to a journal.
Which affiliation should I put? That of my university even if the education I receive there is not related to the article?
At the moment I have indicated "Student in [irrelevant field] at the university [my university]".


texts: Where can I find samples of position papers?

texts:
I have been invited to contribute a position paper to an upcoming conference on higher education. However, I am unfamiliar with them beyond a general description.

I'm concerned about what the norms are for these kinds of papers (since I have never written, nor read, one). Some questions I have include:

How much evidence for the position is normally provided?
What kinds of questions are reasonable to leave unanswered?
How long are they?
What level of counter-argument should be included?

I believe after reading a few I could answer these, which is why I'm asking this question.

As I look for samples, 90% of what I find relate to Model UN. Is there a good source to find samples of position papers for academic conferences?


texts: To what extent is being a quick problem solver (e.g. doing well in brain teasers) predictive of research success?

texts:
I hope to begin a PhD in the near future in a technical field. I feel that my strength is in being able to ask interesting questions / come up with a creative high level approach / make new connections between fields or ideas (several of my mentors have commented on this) and being extremely motivated and hardworking. I've done pretty well as an undergrad and one of my mentors told me that I shouldn't have trouble getting into my top choice PhD program.
However, my huge weakness is in quick thinking. I am embarrassingly slow to answer "brain teaser" type questions and feel that essentially all of the people I interact with in a research context are way faster than I am in their speed of problem solving and understanding technical papers.
So my question is: for those of you working in fields such as computer science, statistics, applied math - how important is raw speed of technical problem solving? Can I compensate for my slowness with hard work, or will I eventually reach some ceiling? I sometimes consider switching to an "easier" field, but I don't like the idea of giving up ...

It has taken me some time to see myself clearly (in large part because I had perfect scores on almost all standardized tests back in high school, and so thought I was "smart" ...), and after frankly looking at my strengths and weaknesses I suspect I might do better in a field where asking the right question is the most important part, and answering it is largely a matter of being motivated and conscientious. However, I can't think of any such field that truly excites me at the moment, and that also has reasonable exit options outside of academia.


texts: How I can efficiently use Google Scholar to find prior research on a topic?

texts:
For starting a new problem I generally need to look for work already published through Google Scholar. For example, recently I came across an equation, the Pochhammer-Chree equation. When I type this equation name in the Google Scholar tab, a large number of publications on this equations piles up. It is not possible to look for every single publication to check what type of work has already been done on this equation.

Let me elaborate a little more. Suppose I need to check if the Lie symmetry analysis on this equation has been carried out or not. Then I have certain options in advanced search, that to include the words symmetry or symmetry analysis in the title, abstract or in the whole article along with the word Pochhammer-Chree. Here of course the time range can also be given. Unfortunately, even by this type of search I can miss some of the article that have been already published on symmetry analysis of Pochhammer-Chree.

Is my way of search correct? If not, how should I search through the web by not missing a single article on the topic I am looking for?


texts: Parameter quantifying the number of publications expected from a good researcher

texts:
Is there any such notion of parameter that quantifies the number of journal articles someone has to publish to be a good researcher or to obtain his tenure?

For instance, how many publications per year is considered to be a good performance

for a PhD student
for a non-tenured university teacher

in computer science?


texts: What is the consenus of IntechOpen, open access books, are they predatory?

texts:
I have received an unsolicited request to write a chapter for a book relevant to my research. I have searched the current editors and they are actual people but not very well known in the field. On their website they show various logos, including web of science.

They do not seem to ask any money, but I see that sometimes go Intechopen was listed in the predatory editors. Is it still the case? Or is it because it is an open access editor that big publishers are trying to work against it?


texts: Do contemporary publications cite more sources? Why?

texts:
When I read very old, classic papers in biology, I am struck by how few sources they cite. Watson and Crick, 1953 cites 6 sources. Luria and Delbrück, 1943 cites 9. Sanger, 1977 cites 14.

This is in contrast to contemporary papers, which often have a whole page, in very small type, listing the sources.

What is going on? Am I correct in concluding that over the past century, the number of sources referenced by each paper has increased? What does this mean? Is biology (and perhaps other sciences) simply maturing and becoming more collaborative? Has the availability of computers and the internet made it easier to find more sources? Are standards higher nowadays about grounding your work in literature? Is it just that stuffing your bibliography with copy/pasted sources has become fashionable?


texts: How can we justify basic research funding?

texts:
Definitions: Basic science is research conducted without immediate applications in mind. It is driven by the "curiosity [...] to expand [humanity's] knowledge, not to create or invent something." Applied science, on the other hand, is conducted to "solve practical problems of the world, rather than acquire knowledge for knowledge's sake," or to "improve the human condition."

Edit (as per JeffE's suggestion): Let us define 'we' as academics, and 'to whom' as questioners ranging from grad students experienced with research, to sponsors familiar with research, and to the general public (friends, family, etc.) in fields outside of research.

Question: How can we justify funding for basic research? In other words, how can we justify maintaining the status quo for (or even increasing) the funding of research without immediate applications?

Why address this question?

Over the past 10 years internationally, funding in both the public and private sectors for basic research has been decreasing. In 2014, Canada cut funding for basic science in 2014* to "place a new emphasis on applied research."

Likewise, Austrian researchers reported in 2011 of a popular opinion in their country "to [avoid investing] in costly basic research when the results of other countries’ basic research are [...] available without charge."

Finally, a 2014 article in Nature reported of basic funding cuts in favour of "a focus on applied research [...] in Argentina, Canada, Denmark, [France], Italy, Portugal, Russia, Senegal, Serbia, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States."

Outside of shaping policy, addressing this question can inspire graduate students who may be doubting the usefulness of their research, create an informative resource for undergrads considering a career in basic research**, and provide meaningful answers when asked by the general public (friends, family, journalists, etc.).

Explanatory footnotes:

*More precisely, the CIHR (Canadian Institute of Health and Research) reduced funding as Canada's "federal funding body for biomedical research." Another source by the CAUT (Canadian Association of University Teachers) reported that "federal support for basic research has slowed significantly over the past six years [2007-2013]."

**Interestingly, researchers of a study in The American Biology Teacher "designed an activity in which students take part in a mock grant panel [for disbursing funds for grant applications]. The results indicated a strong tendency toward student funding of applied medical research at the expense of basic research. Exposure to a few examples of important basic research moderates this tendency."


texts: Plagiarism detection software – comparing two long documents

texts:
I would like to find out whether one of two long documents plagiarises the other. I’m looking for software or a website that does this but does not store the documents on the server (i.e., the documents should be kept private if possible).  Does such a software exist?

Note that I’m not looking to compare to millions of possible documents, so I don’t need a service like TurnItIn.


texts: How long the curse of bad education remains in academic career?

texts:
It is understandable if considering the educational record (where s/he has studied and how is his/her transcript) of an applicant applied for junior academic positions such as postdoctoral fellow or assistant professor. BUT, for senior academics, the factors for judging a potential full professor is his/her research, teaching, publications, and other academic achievements.

I read in a few job ads for full professors in Europe (mainly Scandinavia), one of the application materials is unofficial transcripts. It seems that the initial review is substantially based on the applicant education achievements two decades ago.

I wonder how much the education of an applicant affects his/her chance to be appointed as a full professor? Does a bad education (having low GPA at PhD level) always affects someone's academic career, even at highest levels?


texts: I am going to apply for some postdoc positions in Canada. I have some feedback from professor. They are saying about availability of individual research grants in their department. I do not know how this type of grants means?


texts: How to respond to the teacher who puts the feet up while talking to student?

texts: A friend of mine who is from Japan told me that his professor in USA puts the feet up while talking to him. He was saying that he felt very bad with that. Is this acceptable culture in USA academia?


texts: Any chance for an overseas student to pursue online courses and get a degree?

texts:
I am planning to take courses in Mathematics, Computer Science from a US University. I am not in the USA.

How should I generally go about it? Is it an online degree that I am looking for?

And I would like to get a degree for that.


texts: “Reject & resubmit” when all reviewers accepted manuscript

texts:
Recently I sent a manuscript to a high-level IEEE journal (Transaction on Cybernetic, IF=3.45). After my first submission, I received “reject & resubmit” as a response. I resubmitted my manuscript. This time, all reviewer’s answer were “accepted with minor revision”, but the editor decided “reject & resubmit” again.

I want to ask:

Is this situation normal?
How much is my chance for being accepted in a new resubmission?
With a new submission, is it possible that the editor does not send the manuscript to the reviewers but decides by him/herself?


texts: Advantages and Disadvantages of doing PhD from a new university?

texts: I have an offer to do a PhD in Computer Science from a fairly new university. The research topic is good but I can't really decide what are positives and negatives of it.


texts: Best countries for PhD with good funding

texts: I am interested in applying for Ph.D. in the Molecular biology field. However, I'm not sure which countries offer the best Ph.D. programs. I'm looking for good funding and a reasonable cost of living (in that particular country).  Can anyone guide me, please? Thank you.


texts: Should I stop worrying and work on my current postdoc till I get something else?

texts:
Last 11 months have been a roller coaster. Towards the end of my PhD last year, I applied to few places, did not get any offers. My PhD advisor offered me a interim postdoc to support myself while I searched for other positions.
To begin my postdoc, I had to get my work permit. So, I decided not to go to my home country and stay 2 months till I get my work permit and then take a month break before joining my PhD supervisor as a postdoc.
Then covid happened. My work permit processing got delayed. My source of income got indefinitely postponed. I lost all motivation to work and search for jobs.
Finally, I got my permit in June. And since June I am working on the postdoc position diligently. Since January,I had wasted 5 months doing nothing. But since June, I have worked on different projects. Submitted two papers. Have plans for more.
Now, I won't be able to move out of my current country of residence due to covid restrictions. And my PhD advisor offered me an extension on the initial contract till the end of next year.
I am worrying about how it would look to future employers. I already have a 10 months gap between my master's and starting my PhD.
I am very worried. Though I know I can publish 6-7 journal papers till the mid of next year, I am worried about my CV.
My mind says to concentrate on the current job. Keep applying but to accept the possibility that I won't get anything. One year is enough to make a huge change in CV. I should work hard on this postdoc position and consider myself lucky to have this job in the current situation.
What do you think? Thank you for reading the entire thing.


texts: How can I include figures with non-English text (and a translation) in the appendix of a research paper?

texts:
I'm writing a research paper in English, but my data is in another language.
I want to include some pictures in an appendix, but they contain some writings in the foreign language.

How can you include translation in an appendix?

Is it a common practice to write the translation over the picture since it has the necessary space. I don't want to put the translation below the picture to avoid taking too much space.


texts: "Brain doping": Can drugs compensate a lack of concentration while learning?

texts:
I am almost at the end of my bachelor degree but I am afraid that I never will be able to finish this mere rest. Not only because the rest of my degree (around 20 credit points) is downright uninteresting but I feel that I am not mentally capable anymore of saving knowledge related to any exam.

I have read about students compensating such issues with drugs like Methylphenidate (you may know it under its trade label "Ritalin"). I really regard this as an option for one semester just to finish the rest of my degree once and for all. I am currently trying to learn for an rather easy exam but I am not able to save the knowledge, like an emotional self-defense I am mentally distracted all the time.

Can drugs like Ritalin be the solution? I am only remotely aware of the side effects however I feel also despaired enough to pay a high price.


texts: Are faculty positions more competitive than government research lab positions?

texts:
Whenever I've been in the audience of a faculty interview presentation, I left impressed but demoralised. It appears the bar of making it as far as the interview is very high indeed, and I don't know if I'll ever be able to reach a similar level.  On the other hand, I know quite some people employed as researchers at national/supernational scientific research laboratories, or at research divisions of operational government institutes. I don't get the same impression there.  It seems to me that people who obtain faculty positions are more outstanding than those who obtain scientist positions for governments.

Is my impression correct? Is it less competitive to get employed at research laboratories or government institute research divisions, than it is to get employed as faculty at a university?  If yes, why is this so?  At a university, faculty spend their time writing grants, teaching, doing administration, and hopefully still a little bit of science.  At research labs, the exact division of work probably varies, but involves doing research, developing products, writing reports and papers, perhaps doing consultancy or other work.  Unless one loves teaching (I suppose nobody loves grant writing), I'm not sure why a position at a university would be more desirable/competitive than one at a laboratory.  Is my impression wrong, or am I missing something?

(I have this impression for at least Sweden, United Kingdom, United States, and Canada.)


texts: Will ResearchGate eventually find and create links to my publications?

texts:
I have many publications in my profile that I had to add manually, but ResearchGate seems not to recognize any of them sufficiently to create links to the online full text (and other info) that is readily available for all of them (Google Scholar, for example has links to every one of them).

Will ResearchGate eventually find and connect these publications? (Is adding this information manually myself the only option?)


texts: Evaluation of professors: publications vs. teaching quality

texts:
From my experience (in Europe), I have often seen that professors give their research highest priority and see teaching only as a necessity that gets a low priority. I feel that this is due to the fact that having many strong publications has a direct benefit for the professor:

increased chance of getting called to a better university
better access to research grants and corporate funding
increased public visibility

Teaching, on the other hand, does not seem to have such direct benefit for the professor.

I am wondering if this is just a subjective feeling or if there exists any research that can support this?

Question: Are there any scientific publications that support my analysis? Does the current academic system favor research over teaching quality?

Update: Based on the comments and answers I see that my statement might not necessary hold in the general case. My experience is largely based on European universities where a professor is usually employed for life. Maybe there exists research specifically for European universities?


texts: How do you deal with being stuck in mathematics research?

texts:
With a few other professors, I have been working on proving a certain mathematics conjecture. Our solution seems to be working perfectly in computer simulations but we can't find a proof. (..its a very big result if it works!...)

I have been trying pretty much everything I can think of. Nothing is working.

What do you do in such a situation?


texts: Where to draw the line when giving feedback?

texts:
When teaching undergraduates, I find myself trying to balance making them stretch to produce good work and giving them guidance. I must admit in my own undergraduate and graduate studies I rarely if ever asked for feedback (plenty of missed opportunities for me). That might color my judgment on this question.

This question is somewhat related to this other one Drawing Lines when Giving Ideas to Undergraduate Students; however, this question is more focused on when to give feedback and when not to.

I generally do quite a few in-class activities (and am considering automated online no-penalty testing) and I consider those ample chances for students to gain feedback which does not affect their final grade (formative feedback). Most modules in my department are assessed by one written report. While I do have the ability to change how my modules are assessed the question still remains:

Does reviewing drafts and giving advice on how to improve their graded submission (prior to actual submission) maximize student learning?

I am interested in any research in this field as well as expert opinions.

Arguments for giving feedback before submission

Students may genuinely not understand what is expected of them (although I do feel I cover it quite well in dedicated review sessions)
Students may work harder when things are made crystal clear

Arguments against giving feedback before submission

Students may end up looking to the teacher for too much assistance and will, therefore, become more dependent where we want to foster independence
Students may be lazy and simply wait for the teacher to tell them exactly what to write seek excessive hand-holding when deciding what to write.

In student surveys asking for what students would most like to see more of, students primarily choose to have more feedback of their drafts prior to submission. This is unsurprising since (almost) everyone wants a better grade. However, I'm thinking that reviewing of drafts is actually hindering student learning.


texts: How to verify a proof prior to peer review in mathematics

texts:
I think I have found that squared magic squares cannot be constructed which is an unsolved problem.
I have searched for months for any mistakes and I could not find any. I have sent this to Mr.Boyer who hosts the page yet I ended up not being able to regain contact with him after he stated he found an error in my paper. However, as I think I have been aware of the error (if clarification is needed, I will do so) and have resolved the error later in the paper, I doubt that it was, in fact, an error. However, I have no method of confirming this except by myself.

Hence, I think that the only method I have left is submitting to a peer-reviewed journal. Yet is there a method of verifying the proof prior to this? I have heard that the procedure of peer review may take years.

I am only a high-school student thus I do not have any connections to mathematicians.


texts:
A couple of colleagues and I were thinking about publishing a book. I have heard repeatedly that people who go with a traditional publisher don't get any royalties, they transfer the copyrights, and on top of that, the book ends up being sold for a lot of money (which is something we're against as people from developing countries don't have access to them). Thus, after a short discussion we all agreed that going through the traditional means is no longer necessary. We're all skilled in LaTeX so we don't need the services that publishers usually provide for formatting the book. As a matter of fact, we're not planning on making any profit either, so we're very excited about the opportunity to provide the book as an open document. There are a few issues though:

We want the book to have a digital object identifier. Is it easy to get one? Does it cost something?
We want it to be indexed by major online databases like Google. Is it hard to do this?
We want to make sure is cited by Scopus, Google scholar, and the web of science. Do we need an ISBN for this or the doi is enough?
And we're thinking in having a "living" document, that will be frequently updated. Will it become really messy to do this?
Do we need an ISBN and a bar code for anything if this will be in electronic format alone?

So I'm looking forward to getting as much information as possible in this new exciting journey of self-publishing.


texts: how to indicate citations from the same, long document at different pages

texts:
I am proofreading a grant from another researcher. This is going to be submitted to the NIH which follows AMA guidelines. A particular, long report is providing her several of the researcher's citations. I asked for page references to some of her stats since I couldn't read the whole thing, and I needed to verify her correctness in interpreting them. This document is hundreds of pages long and she cites 3 different sections in the article.

1) Is it necessary for her to indicate the actual pages in the citations

if so,

2) How to cite the same document at several locations?


texts: is it normal to work as an university professor in engineering but have no real professional experience (in the industry)?

texts:
I work as a university assistant professor, I teach engineering-related subjects.
However, I have no real professional experience in engineering (in the industry), I've never worked as an engineer or something, and in my country, you can't work in 2 positions obviously (you can't have 2 salaries) even if you are teaching at university, the only option is to start your own firm! and I don't think it's a good idea to start my own firm (my own business) without professional experience in the field.
BUT, sometimes students ask questions about the real world, about real problems and I find it sometimes "awkward" not to answer their questions because I don't have professional experience (in the industry).

so is it normal to work at university without experience in the industry? does not this make me look less compared to the rest of my colleagues?
if so, what are my best options to get some professional experience in the field?
finally, how should I answer students' questions if I stayed without experience in the industry?


texts: Contacting via email or Linkedin (or similar sites) to help land a faculty appointment

texts:
I've applied for faculty jobs (in physics) in a number of places, and am just waiting for someone somewhere to contact me.

In the meantime is there any way to raise my level of visibility? For instance by trying to contact professors in the department by cold emailing them or trying to connect on LinkedIn?

I fear this might come off as desperate or look unprofessional in some way. Am I right to feel this way, or am I missing out by not utilizing such tools?


texts: Is increasing the DPI of a low resolution image a good idea?

texts:
Today after a paper of mine got accepted I received this from the publisher (Elsevier):

  We have received the above article for publication, unfortunately
  figures x1, x2 and x3 are of low resolution and of insufficient quality
  to reproduce well.

  The minimum resolution requirements are 1200 dpi for black and white
  figures and 300 dpi for colour figures. If you are converting your
  figures to TIFF files, please ensure that the resolution is correct
  before scanning them.

The figures are digital 512×512 gray-scale images in the PNG format. The source of the images is not me. I had converted them to EPS files using Inkscape. The source of some of the images is: https://github.com/cszn/DnCNN/tree/master/testsets/Set12.

How do I resolve the issue? Should I just save the same images using 1200 DPI in EPS format and send it to the publisher?


texts: Is relevant self-citation an effective way to promote your work?

texts:
This question was inspired by the confusing headline (now edited) for
How should I respond to a reviewer's complaint about self-citation?

Does self-citation actually promote your previous publications?

We have questions about inappropriate self-citation, but what about self-citation that is relevant?  Does it bring attention to research?


texts: Include Acknowledgements while submitting PhD thesis for review

texts:
I will submit my PhD thesis for review next month. Do I already include Acknowledgements within this version?

This seems a bit wrong to me since it indicates that I expect that I will definitely receive a PhD even though I have not had my defense yet (anything might theoretically happen...).

There is a similar question (Should supervisors read acknowledgments before the printed version of the thesis?) but I need a more PhD related answer. I mean, all members of my dissertation committee will read the Acknowledgements before I actually published my revised thesis.


texts: Can leaked nude pictures damage one's academic career?

texts:
I have an ex who has posted nude photos of me online in the past, linked to my online social media, and posted my full name and where I live. I am concerned he may do so again once he finds out I'm now in a PhD program (he's very jealous of any success I have), and may link to my school bio page, or worse.

Revenge porn is illegal in my state, and the case against him is currently pending. I have also gotten the photos taken down with a DMCA letter (I hold the copyright over the photos in question). At this point, I am concerned with how a future attempt could affect my career.  I can handle the embarrassment now that I've been through it once, so if that's the biggest concern, I can deal. I just don't want to lose a career over it, given how small academia really is and how a reputation might follow one around.

My question is, if I don't change my name (I've considered this, assuming I can keep him from finding out) and my photos are circulated and discovered by faculty or students, how likely am I to be thrown out of my PhD program or later lose a job as an untenured prof? Is a name change worth it?

(If it makes any difference, they are essentially just topless portraits; I'm not engaged in any sexual activity or anything weird, and were taken 10 years ago when I was very young and foolish.)


texts: Are PhD studies in molecular science possible following revoked RN license due to drug use (fired, but no criminal charges)

texts:
I have a former nursing student who "gave up" his RN license due to drug use (not being sober).  He has been sober for 20 months, but can't get his license for another 2 years of proven sobriety.
This young man is an actual genius, was accepted to medical school and invited to apply by several medical schools due to his 98 percentile MCAT...when he told them about his RN license, medical school admission was retracted.
He could get his PhD in Molecular Science (human metabolic studies), but he believes he would not be accepted anywhere due to his past big mistake due to background checks and he is honest (transparent about his mistake).


texts: Can I move to another department for a PhD within the same university?

texts: I'm starting a PhD in Development Studies at a well known university in the UK. I'm considering requesting to be moved to the department for political science. My topic is much better suited to political science than it is for development studies and I believe the former is better suited for the research I intend to do. Both departments are in the same school and my supervisor is a professor in both departments. Do universities consider such requests at all?


texts: My advisor wants to co-author a paper on my thesis work, but drags out the submission, claiming it isn't ready. Should I submit without him?

texts:
I have just finished my PhD thesis defense in applied mathematics. My supervisor suggested me the initial problem. He was not an expert in the small area that I was working, and thus the assistance from he was minimal. As we had so many disagreements in the research direction, our relationship was rather uncomfortable. The good thing was that I finally got the problem solved, with assistance from some external experts.

After I finishing my PhD, I extracted a paper from my thesis. My supervisor insisted that he should be authored as we had discussion on most of the result, and if I submitted without his name, he would appeal to the journal editor. But on the other hand, he deliberately holds on to my paper. He keeps on saying the paper is not clear and is thus not ready for submission, but there is no revision comments from him for several months.

Should I submit the paper alone with only name? It seems each side is highly risky for me.


texts: Finding it extremely difficult to get through with my Masters thesis. Stuck with a mediocre thesis

texts:
I am very close to finishing my masters and am finding it extremely difficult to get through with my thesis. Although my topic is relevant and interesting, nobody, including my supervisor is able to guide me well. All my thesis reviews until now have gone really bad because they think I am not doing anything fancy.
I have discussed this with my guide and am not receiving any help. I feel my guide is not much experienced in this area of research. I am currently in the middle of my thesis where I cannot change my topic. I feel stuck and demotivated. I feel all the effort that I am putting in is going down the drain.
I feel sad and miserable all the time. All those students who didn't perform well earlier are putting up their best work now and are appreciated while I am stuck here with my unappealing work. I really want to take some time off this work but cant due to the  tight schedule of my reviews. I already had serious anxiety issues and this is making it worse.
I really want to know if any of you faced similar issues and how you overcame it. Any suggestions on how to recover are welcome.


texts: How insulated is guaranteed funding from an economic slowdown?

texts:
I received an offer for five years of guaranteed PhD funding. However, various sources have been prognosticating another recession for sometime soon.

Between a science-hostile administration and a recession; I would be worried about funding to NSF and NIH.

Does a (university) department guaranteeing funds to their students mean that those dollars already exist in their bank account? Even five years of a stipend is not much compared to the greater cost of research in my field. Is there any chance a few years of slow awards could affect graduate student funding?


texts: How to make a concise dissertation defence in Math department

texts:
I am a math student in the US preparing for an hour long defense of my thesis. I am assuming that the dissertation committee has already read my dissertation by the time of my defense.

Any advice for preparing and giving the dissertation defense talk?
What balance between presenting subtle parts of the proofs and a clear big picture of the results obtained should I aim for?
Would it be more interesting for the committee to hear me explaining more technical parts of the proofs rather then the statements of the main theorems obtained?


texts: Is it ill-advised to make a cover for your thesis in STEM?

texts:
I handed in my undergraduate thesis in mathematics and since I had extra time due to COVID-19 lockdown, I had made a cover drawing for it that I included. I've never seen a thesis with a cover in the STEM field before.

Was it a bad decision on my part? Will it look like kowtowing/bootlicking my supervising professor for a better grade? I believe my work was pretty good on its own and I'm afraid I have ruined it with what was intended as a personal touch that I really wanted to add.


texts: How to broadly assess the state of research for a topic?

texts:
This is coming from a non-PhD, please help me out:
If I have a broad interest in a topic, and I want to assess what are the current (in the last 5 years I guess) high-impact research done in said topic, where are the places I should look, and some general tips on how to search?
Eg: say I'm interested in application of AI/ML in education, or what are the key factors impacting engagement in MOOCs, for instance. What search engines should I try, and any tips on how to search? I'm specifically asking about scientific research searching and overview, not general articles. If this can't be answered in general I can also try to provide some specific fields of interest.
Many thanks.


texts: Principal investigator requests transfer of GitHub repository with my code to his account

texts:
I am a senior postdoc and have recently published a bioinformatics algorithm in an academic journal. For that publication, I was listed as the first author of the manuscript, and my principal investigator (PI)/supervisor as the senior author. Both of us were listed as corresponding authors.

As a follow-up we decided to submit an application note pertaining to that algorithm. Once again, the same authorship (and corresponding authors) was maintained. Additionally, the algorithm had been developed into a webserver that was placed on the PI's lab website.

The PI asked me to put the algorithm on Github. Accordingly, I created a repository on my personal account and later added the PI as a collaborator. I am a Github novice user but my understanding is that this would be sufficient to push/pull the repository and generally make modifications to it.

However I was very surprised that my PI specifically requested a Transfer of Ownership of the repository from my account to his account. The other solution is to fork the repository onto his account, but the PI doesn't like this solution on the basis that it makes it harder for him/her to maintain a copy in their lab.

So the questions:

Is the request to transfer ownership a fair request? My rationale is that since I created the code, the repository should be on my personal account! And since the algorithm is broadcasted on the lab website and the PI is the senior author, then he/she has been properly acknowledged and their ownership of the algorithm is also properly represented!
How will transfer of ownership affect my future career prospects and search for Assistant Professor jobs, especially as my field (bioinformatics) is heavily dependent on coding and algorithm development?
What other GitHub alternatives are there (besides forking and transfer
of ownership), which would still allow me to keep ownership of the
repository and have any changes directly synchronised to a copy on the lab account?


texts: Is there any difference between Postdoctoral fellow and research associate?


texts: How can I appropriately call my professor?

texts: I'm an undergraduate student in a research group. I'm a little bit confused about how can I call my professor appropriately. The graduate students in the group just call him by his name, but I think it would be a little bit rude for me to do that. I want to be more polite, but I also feel like it's a bit weird if I add 'Dr./'Prof.' every time I'm trying to call him. Any suggestions about what I could do?


texts: I am looking towards getting into a good PhD program in Germany. How can I convince any professor to take me as a student?

texts:
I'm a non-EU resident and I want to pursue a PhD in pure math in Germany. I am currently in the process of writing to as many professors in my field of interest (functional analysis) as I can requesting that they take me as a doctoral student under their supervision.

I don't want to do research in the same area that I specialized in during my masters education (in fact, I want to switch from algebraic geometry to functional analysis). My question is how can I convince someone to take me on as their student if I'm making such a big leap and hardly have a clue as to what research in functional analysis entails? Professors naturally look for students that are already very familiar with their research area and don't need much training before they start working.

Usually when I email a professor requesting them to take me as a student, I attach a short CV (not that impressive either) and transcripts of my masters education. I don't have a research proposal for them and I feel that's hindering my likelyhood of getting an acceptance letter. I'm sure I'm not the first student with this problem and people in my situation do get admitted into a PhD program doing work unlike that which they did during their masters so I was wondering how do I become one of those people?

Thank you for your help.

@PaulGarrett: Since I can't comment below, I'll clarify here: I have some research experience in the area of fixed point theory (which is close enough) working as a research assistant for a professor in our department. I can get a reference letter if there is a need. I don't have a paper published, however, but I did learn a lot and so this is how I believe that that's what I want to work on. I of course realize that saying I've read a few articles and enjoy the work is one thing but convincing someone to pay me for 3/4 years to do some work in this area is something else, but that's all I can say and I can sense it doesn't really sound very convincing. I hope my situation isn't so hopeless that I either have to force myself to learn to enjoy algebraic geometry or start again with first getting another masters degree.


texts: Are review articles the result of original observations?

texts:
I am about to submit a PhD thesis by published work. The university guidelines states that "the content of the papers should be the result of original observations". I would like to include a review article I wrote last year.

This review article does not report novel experimental data, but as a regular review article, it reports "observations" of the current state of research.

Is this view correct? Can I include it in my thesis?


texts: How to communicate realistic expectations for science faculty research to administration

texts:
I teach at a small US liberal arts college with no graduate students. There is no support for research, and the teaching load is 4-6 courses per year.

A colleague was recently denied promotion to full professor because he was not "a leader in his field". This requirement is new (and does not appear anywhere in our handbook). I understand that it might be possible for a professor in the arts or humanities to be a leader in their field, and maybe even a social scientist (if the field is sufficiently small).

Are there any references we can point to showing that, in order for a scientist to be a leader in their field, they need graduate students, post-docs, institutional support, lower teaching loads, etc.?

If you disagree with my premise and think we should be able to become leaders in scientific fields given the above constraints, please answer instead how to do that.

UPDATES: Science faculty are expected to provide undergraduate research opportunities, even though those generally take more time than they save. This limits the ability to collaborate with groups at research universities.

The problem is especially severe for faculty in the life sciences.


texts: How to encourage students to seek alternate citations for an assignment?

texts:
I am teaching at a relatively large, public institution in the United States. I have assigned my students a research paper related to the thermodynamics of human biology. I have asked the students for a project summary including several anticipated citations, and one student has included a paper from the journal "Creation Research Society Quarterly" as an anticipated citation.

As far as I can tell, this is a reputable journal in the sense that it is not predatory. However, I'm concerned that the perspective of the journal, including "Fresh perspectives on science and society as impacted by origins" will not be compatible with accepted scientific theories (and here I use theory in the rigorous, scientific sense that means established according to all scientific evidence, rather than in the colloquial sense that means hypotheses). Moreover, the "Statement of Belief" published by the Creation Research Society explicitly states the religious motivations of the organization, whose viewpoints are generally considered incompatible with accepted scientific theory.

I have not read the article that the student intends to cite, so I do not know the information contained within that article and its perspective on the subject required for the assignment. Nevertheless, my general questions are:

Should I encourage this student to seek out alternate sources for this assignment? Before doing this in my specific case, I should obviously read the paper the student will cite, but consider the case that I have read the paper and I am concerned about the scientific validity of the article.
If so, how can I do that without encroaching on his freedom of religious expression?
Finally, how can I fairly grade the scientific content of an assignment that presents a viewpoint opposed to established theories, such as the Theory of Evolution?

(It is not my intention here to begin a discussion on the merits of various hypotheses/theories related to religion and science, and I would note that this question could very easily be posed from the other direction. This is obviously a very complicated and fraught area, and I hope I have not caused offense in my presentation.)


texts:
I started an MS in Computer Science program this Fall at a super top-tier university and I'm worried that I'm a bit in over my head. The program is extremely tough, and I'm nervous that as the semester goes on, the difficult courses I'm in are only going to get harder.

My questions are:

Is it normal for new graduate students to feel very overwhelmed and discouraged when they first start their program?
What happens when a graduate program realizes they've made a mistake in admission? What would qualify as a "mistake"?
If I'm feeling discouraged and/or overwhelmed by my courses, would it reflect poorly on my reputation in the program to speak to my advisor about it?


texts: Is it appropriate (as an undergraduate) to email an academic with a question on their publication?

texts:
I am currently studying a published article as part of an undergraduate research project I am doing. I am having difficulty understanding specific parts as the article is quite dense and makes some leaps in logic that I am having trouble following. The article is of a mathematical/computer science nature and suppresses many details.

I would like to email the article's author to ask a question or two, and I am wondering, is this appropriate? If I were a post-doc or something I would not hesitate. My concern is that as an undergraduate, perhaps my questions will be silly and/or a waste of time for the author. Or worse yet, I am concerned that it is inappropriate for an undergraduate to email at all. Can anyone offer some comments on this?
Some relevant info:
- I have studied the problem and am unable to answer the questions thus far.
- My supervisor does not know the answer either and would have to study the paper (my job) to determine the answer.  As noted, this is nearly identical to a question asked by a Masters student, but I feel it justifies its own responses. My concern here is that I may be asking questions that would be obvious to a Master's student.


texts: Any reason not to apply for funding as a grad student?

texts:
The question is hypothetical, but it came up in a conversation and I'd like to see if we can come up with a logical analysis and conclusion. For various reasons, graduate students might not be inclined to apply for funding.

By funding I mean grants or scholarships intended to support graduate students directly in the form of money given directly to the student. That is, I am not talking about applying for research scholarships intended to fund an experiment, buy equipment, etc. Here are a few (made up) examples.

Case 1 (Differential). I get 20000 of internal departmental funding but be encouraged by the department to apply for external funding. If I then get 5000 scholarship, then the departmental policy might be to drop the internal funding to 15000, so I don't apply for it.

Case 2 (Rich Student). I am very wealthy and I have no need for funding. I am a brilliant student and could probably get many different scholarships but I chose not to because I feel other students with less money need the money more.

The "Rich Student" scenario is slightly different than the "Differential" scenario. If I am rich then for sure some other poorer student could have gotten the money, whereas in the "Differential" scenario, I am now only getting 15000 so another student will get the 5000 anyway.

The problem with not applying for scholarships is that I don't get scholarships, and in many fields winning scholarships is good for your academic career. Perhaps in some fields this is more important than others.

Overwhelmingly I've heard that one should always apply for scholarships regardless of circumstances because of this. Of course theoretically, I could bypass my "rich student morality" by using it to do something useful for the community.

Personally, although I am not in these situations, I feel that it is most beneficial to always apply for scholarships, I would just like to have some kind of evidence that support this.

So to put this in a definitive question: for graduate students, is there ever a reason not to apply for at least a few available scholarships?


texts: How to know when you should change what is taught during a lab classes

texts: I teach a lab class that is only constrained by some broad learning objectives. I have been using the same project now for 5 years. It now runs very smoothly and I know what difficulties the students are likely to have. I think that is an advantage, but teaching the class is beginning to feel stale and I am worried that hurts the students. Given I could easily chose a brand new project and still deliver the learning objectives, how do I know when it is the right time to change topics.


texts: Ethics for trip reimbursement from multiple parties

texts:
When doing e.g. a seminar talk, it is customary for the hosting institution to pay for the speaker's trip. If it is just an isolated trip to a point A, life is simple; so far, so good.

However, I usually try to lump different talks together. The simplest case is where I go from home to A (where I do a talk) to B (where I do a talk) to home. In this case, I have to choose between having the A -> B segment reimbursed either by institution A or by institution B. (Assume that every segment is on an undivisible, nonstop ticket. I think it is usually not possible to split 50/50 in such a situation.) Based on what criteria should I make this choice?

For example, what if B is much closer to home than A, basically a small detour on the way back. Is it more fair to charge the intermediate leg to A (on the grounds that if I did not have to go there, I would not have made such a long trip) or to B (out of a desire to split the costs evenly)?

Or if A and B are roughly equidistant from home, are there any factors I didn't think of that could tip the scales in favor of one or the other?

(There are countless other configurations one can think of, possibly involving much more than two institutions!)

(I am aware that I am probably overthinking it, and that I probably not such an important decision after all. However I would be curious to know what are the possible arguments to consider, if only out of purely academic (ha ha) interest.)


texts: How common is it for submitted papers to have minor errors?

texts:
I am going to submit a paper in these days. I dedicated to it a lot of time, and a lot of effort to check that all the theoretical results in it are correct. Anyway, I am still afraid of having written something wrong without even realizing it, as the deadline is very sharp.

So my question is: how common is in the academia to find submitted papers with minor errors? If there is a minor error that is not invalidating the results, will the paper be rejected, even if the content is considered interesting?


texts: Found an amazing source for a presentation. How do I avoid plagiarising it?

texts:
Next week I am to hold a presentation in a master level course about kittens (a subject I knew very little about beforehand). I found an amazing book on cute mammals, in which the chapter on kittens contains all the information I need on the subject, while also containing numerous further sources.

Now, I am worried that if I simply rewrite the content of the chapter in the book into a presentation, I would be committing plagiarism. However, it seems senseless to dive into all these further research papers on the subject, when the book summarising it has already given me all the information I need.

How can I proceed to avoid simply plagiarising the book?


texts: Do all Elsevier journals require ONE column format for manuscripts to be reviewed?

texts:
I want to submit my paper to Elsevier Optics Communications, but I'm confused about the template of the journal. According to the guide for author, the manuscript can be in either Word or LaTex format.

It seems that there is no sample template for Word format, but they DO say that the Word template should be in ONE column.

This journal doesn't provide its own LaTex template but they provide the general template for all types journal in Elsevier. There is also a sample LaTex template which is in ONE column format. There are several options including "preprint", "review", "1p", "3p", and "5p". The default option in the sample template is "review" which has ONE column format.

What makes me confused is that the final format of Optics Communication (as can be seen in published paper) is TWO column. Does this journal (and maybe all Elsevier journals) require ONE column format for the manuscript to be reviewed?
 After the manuscript is accepted, the officer of the journal will turn the manuscript into TWO column.


texts: Is it plausible to change my major from pure math to applied sciences when applying for graduate school?

texts:
I am currently a third year undergraduate student in university. A year ago I decided to study pure math because I liked its rigorousness. As time moves on, frustration accumulates because I don't know what I can do with all the things I've learnt. Maybe it's partly because I haven't learnt enough, but you know what I mean. Since I am already in the third year and it's impossible for me to change my major in my undergraduate study, I am hoping to change to another major when applying for the graduate school. Not that I don't like math anymore, but I want to be able to do something with it.

The following fields are of my consideration:

applied math
computer science
electronic engineering
artificial intelligence, machine learning, image processing
physics

These are the difficulties I believe am facing:

My GPA is okay, but not great. If converted to US standards, I have a GPA of 3.5+, ranking approximately 20%~30%. My university is world top 50 (maybe even top 20, but different ranking systems do differ a lot).
Lack of research experience. Honestly, there's just not much research to do for an undergraduate pure math students. We spend most of our time studying existing theories, and there's not much experiment to do for pure math.
Most courses I have taken are centered at pure math. I may lack sufficient knowledge of the fields mentioned above. For example, a CS major student studies data structure in his/her undergraduate years, but I don't. This certainly weakens my competitiveness if our applications appear together on the desk of the admission office.

On the other hand, based on what I've heard and my understanding of my own capabilities, I do think there are some advantages.

A professor who taught a CS course actually said to us that other departments (engineering, CS, etc.) are actually very fond of math students and that we are very welcome to join them.
Ever since I've gotten used to pure math and have built a solid foundation, I find it considerably easier to read literatures from other fields. Sometimes my friends would ask me (nontrivial) questions in their own majors (physics, chemistry, economics, etc.) and after a little research, I would be able to provide answers.
I have taken some graduate courses. And I am studying a graduate-level (maybe even research-level) topic under the guidance of a professor.

That's basically my situation. And I would like to know:

How possible is it for me to change my major when applying for graduate school? What kind of school can I hope to get into (preferably in North America or Europe)?
Is it true that other departments welcome pure math students, as is said by the professor mentioned above? Would an admission officer focus more on my advantages or disadvantages?
What other fields can you suggest?

p.s. It would be helpful if in your answer, you can tell me whether you have experience being on an admission committee.


texts: Having to elaborate or modify an NIH grant aim

texts:
Background: I am a graduate student in neuroscience at a US institution.  I have a specific aim that I wrote into an NIH grant back when I was less knowledgable, and as I have grown better versed in my field, I realized that there were related experiments that were technically not described in the aim, but are logically necessitated to happen before even executing the proposed grant aim.  Key members of my thesis committee agree that I need to do preliminary experiments before getting to the proposed research.

Further, depending on these preliminary results, there is a small chance that the original grant aim would be inadvisable to execute as it is written.  In so many words, the aim might have been written using too many assumptions in the underlying hypothesis due to my naïveté.

A couple questions:

Is it bad to do these necessary experiments even though they are outside the aim?
Assuming the preliminary experiments do not scientifically justify the grant aim, can I provide a report to the NIH describing what I did and possibly modify the aim and hypothesis appropriately; e.g. pursue a different but related direction?


texts: Would tenured professors who are charged with a crime generally be fired?

texts:
What's the usual (North American) universities' practice on dealing with tenured professors who have been criminally charged?  I've encountered two scenarios indirectly that could make some professors in some legal trouble.

Here the first scenario.  When I was an undergraduate student, a colleague told me that his ex-girlfriend called because she discovered a stalker near her home.  When he visited her to assess the situation, they bumped into the alleged stalker at the stairs of the apartment building.  She asked him to call the police.  He recognized that the alleged stalker was one of the professors in his department.  He did not report the alleged stalker to the police because he's afraid of repercussion.

Fast forward a few years.  Here the second scenario.  One of my friends dated a tenured professor.  The relation was abusive.  He (the professor) hit her badly that she called the police.  His mom begged my friend not to press charges because she's concerned about her son's future.

TL;DR: In theory or practice, would universities fire the professor who have been criminally charged?  I've asked several tenured professors casually with at least one of the scenarios.  They all agreed that nothing bad would happened to those professors even if their wrongdoings were reported to the police.


texts: I'm 23, completing a Business BSc, should I start a Computer Science BSc?

texts:
I‘m just curious and looking for some other opinions. I am currently pursuing my last year of my Bsc in Business. Because of that, I’m strongly thinking about my future and playing with the thought to work in the computer science industry. Because I live in Switzerland I would have the possibility to start after my Bsc a Bsc at ETHZ. Now I don’t know if I really should consider this career path since it would set me back for a lot of year to enter the job market (or do you think a Bsc at ETH would be enough?). However I really do believe that the skills I would learn and the institution itself are outstanding.
My friends and family probably wouldn’t understand me and sadly I have no friends which are pursuing this degree.
I don’t know what answer I should expect but maybe opinions related this issue with myself  Thanks!!


texts:
I wrote a paper which got accepted in a reputed journal, I wrote another paper with completely different work, however when  I submitted the second paper I mistakenly (actually I was in a hurry) with the old title (of accepted paper). What should I do now, should I withdraw my paper, or let the editor know about this, the paper is still in phase of "waiting for editor assignment"
thankyou


texts: Why do so many publishing venues limit the length of paper submissions?

texts: I wonder why so many publishing venues limit the length of paper submissions. I understand that such page limits were first created when papers were published offline, but nowadays, what are the reasons? One important downside of page limits it that authors often crop useful details out, which hinders reproducibility and/or understanding.


texts: Is it true that students from European countries have had many more advanced courses in mathematics when they arrive to Grad school in the US?

texts:
This question is inspired by what Steven Krantz wrote in his book "A mathematicians survival guide."

  If you are an American student, educated in the USA, then you may
  find that the international students in your graduate program appear to be
  way ahead of you. First of all, students in Italy, France, and other European
  countries often specialize much earlier than we do in the United States. They
  have had many more advanced math courses than you will have had. [I was
  once told that a typical Italian math student graduating from college will
  have taken 22 year-long math courses. I have not had 22 year-long math
  courses in my entire life.]

If this is not true, then in your experience, from which countries/universities do you get the most advanced graduate student?


texts: Can a faculty in a different college in the same university be influential on my tenure review?

texts:
I am a new tenure track faculty.  Last semester, I met a professor in a different college in the same university in a committee meeting.  She was very nice; she said that she wanted to be my older sister.  However, I felt like she was not reasonable and so I stopped talking with her about 1.5 months.  For example, she made me pay for her meal; she made me cook for her 6 times in row for two months; she asked me to search papers for her study about 3 times in a semester; so on.
I was wondering if it is ok to keep the distance from her as a new faculty?  Can she be influential on my tenure review in the future?  The reason I am asking this is that I'm kicked out of a dissertation committee today.  The dissertation committee chair is the person she always indicated as "her best friend".  So I begin to worry....
I'd truly appreciate it if you'd help!


texts: Are there any for-profit schools that have achieved a good reputation in academia?

texts: Is the for-profit model feasible to higher education institutions? In other words,  are there any for-profit schools that have achieved a good reputation in academia (teaching and/or research)?


texts: Community College/College Teaching Certificates

texts:
I have both an MA and an MS in Mathematics and would like to teach community college or college level mathematics. The problem is that I have no teaching experience, and so far I have not even been able to get adjunct positions. I would go for a PhD for the purpose of increasing my chances, but am not really interested in research.
I recently discovered some certificate programs for community college/post-secondary teaching which include a one course teaching practicum.
I am interested in knowing about experiences candidates may have had with such programs and if such a certificate would be taken seriously when it comes to being hired.
Also, would high school teaching experience have any weight in obtaining community college/college teaching positions?


texts: What should I do if my professor changes the question mid-exam?

texts: I was writing a 3-question examination today (undergrad) with 1200 other students when our professor comes in after ~2/3 of the exam and changes a question to make it solvable. This was a 1.5 hour exam where each question was designed to take 30 minutes so unless you did the other two questions knowing that question was impossible to solve and waited for an announcement on instructions of how to solve, you would not be able to finish. When I walked out of the exam, you could tell that everyone was mad that this changed question could have impacted their overall mark by 15-20%. What should I do to help out myself and my fellow classmates who were screwed over by this change? Has anyone ever had a similar situation?


texts: Why patents are not cited in papers as that of journal papers?

texts: I couldn't find papers that cite patents. Is it OK to cite patents? If yes, what are the reasons for scarce patent citations?


texts: Are all math majors expected to get a perfect score on quantitative reasoning?

texts: I just took the revised GRE general test. As a math major preparing to apply to math PhD programs, it was kind of surprising to see that my quantitative reasoning score was just 167, whereas my verbal reasoning score was 169. I attribute this to the fact that my anxiety about the exam prevented me from finishing all of the quantitative questions, which required a moderate amount of concentration; I finished the verbal portion quickly since it was just a matter of being able to read carefully and know fancy words. Should I retake the test and try to get a 169 or 170 in the quantitative portion? Or is my score good enough that it doesn't really matter?


texts: How to organize digital documents for administrative work?

texts:
As professor I have to organize a lot of digital documents. I have working systems to do this for research and teaching and I am quite happy with these. Moreover, questions on such topics have already been asked, e.g.,  here or here.
However, for administrative work I regularly find myself thinking about where to store and how to name different documents like official minutes, my own notes, agendas, invitations, accompanying presentation pdfs, study regulations, law gazettes,... I have not set up a working system that I am happy with and one reason may be that, when I start to be in some committee, I do not really know in advance what kind of documents will come in. Should I arrange them by type? Should I only keep links to the place where the newest version is? Should I organize everything that is related to a certain meeting? I may add that I have a system to organize documents for hiring committees as I already know what kinds of documents are involved but that is basically it.
So my question is:

How do you organize your digital documents related to a certain administrative job?

You may answer with general guidelines but I am also interested in solutions for specific cases.
I'll upvote anything that I find reasonable and check the answer as correct that helps me best.


texts: Editor didn't invite for a second review

texts: I recently reviewed a paper and recommended Major Revision. I provided a referee report with some detailed comments on what the revision should address. I can see from the system that the Editor gave a decision of Major Revision, the authors of the paper have been notified and they already submitted a revision four months ago. However, the Editor did not invite me as a referee in the second round. I have been refereeing for over seven years and this is the first time that I experienced such a situation. I have been obsessing that the Editor found my report incompetent or not useful. But, the overall recommendation was the same (Major Revision) and the same journal asked me to review other manuscripts in the same time frame. What do you think the reason could be?


texts: Will self funding a PhD hurt employment chances?

texts:
I am thinking of self funding a PhD in Applied Mathematics at either the University of Oxford or Cambridge. Would employers, both for academic (postdoc etc) and industry (research) jobs think less of a PhD holder if he or she is self funded?

E.g. Would they feel that because I failed to secure funding for their PhD, I am inferior to students who did? Although I am planning to self fund to UK schools, it would be nice to hear about views from across the pond (USA) as well.


texts: Can I justify my PhD if I have mostly adapted existing code instead of writing it myself?

texts:
My PhD in computational mechanics (field is materials science) involves writing Fortran subroutines for implementing new constitutive equations. More specifically, my research involves continuum mechanics, finite-element analysis and other numerical methods. Though theoretically I have a decent understanding of the subjects, I find it impossible to implement them in code.
I have published a paper on implementing a modified model through a subroutine. But the truth is that I have not written the code from scratch. More than 80% of the code was written by someone else. Here's the original code. I just modified the hardening law to suit my purpose. I did not change the integration method or the structure of the code. I have cited their paper of course.
Truth is, I would not have been able to write the code from scratch even if I had been given five years to do that. I just can think of how to implement theory to code.
Now, I am about to defend my PhD, which is based on this code.
I feel like a charlatan and that I can’t justify my PhD. My advisor doesn’t know this. I am not suited for a career in computational mechanics or materials science. How can I reconcile this?


texts:
I found a list of "potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access publishers" here.

I am just wondering if there is a similar list of reputable open-access journals in the social sciences.


texts: The best wording to politely nudge the editor?

texts:
Any tips on polite yet resolute phrasing for an e-mail to the managing editor of a journal when your article is under review for far too long and it would be nice to give the process a nudge?

Thanks in advance; specific advice for math journals appreciated.


texts: Is it okay to resend an email to a journal asking for the status of a submitted manuscript?

texts:
This question is related to the question asked here: Is it okay to inquire about the status of a paper when the online submission system shows no update three months after submission?.

Around 4 months ago, I submitted a paper to a Math journal for peer-review through an online submission system. The same day I received in my e-mail an acknowledgement message saying that the paper had been received.

The status of the paper on the online submission system is still "Manuscript submitted", and the paper has not been assigned to an editor yet.

One month ago, I sent a polite email asking for the status of the paper, but I got no response.

Should I send a second email in the regular way (that is to say, not using the journal's online system)?

Is it possible that things go slower during this time of the year (due to holidays or something)?


texts: Can someone in his mid 40s start an academic career?

texts: Suppose that one gets his PhD (electrical engineering) in his mid 40's; is it too late to get an academic job at a university?


texts: Dealing with adversarial grant committee members in interviews

texts:
I'm applying for a grant to research topic foo using bar as my working hypothesis (and it's not really something controversial: a lot of things are easier to deal with if you assume that bar is true). Now, one of the people sitting in the grant committee has published a couple of articles arguing that bar is horribly, irredeemably wrong, and we all should assume quz instead. This person is likely to raise this issue at the interview stage.

This doesn't worry me from a purely academic perspective: there are many ways of showing that this person's arguments don't hold water, and I can literally spend the rest of the day talking about them. However, it does worry me from a "I want that grant money" perspective: if I get that question, I'm going to have just a couple of minutes to state my case and get the rest of the committee (experts in my general field, but not in this particular narrow topic) to side with me. What would be an appropriate way of framing my reply?

Update --- The interview happened, the committee member in question raised this issue (just as I anticipated), and I replied along the lines that Sydney E. Everhart suggests below. The rest of the committee looked satisfied with this answer (as did some colleagues I had rehearsed the interview with a few days in advance), so in that sense, thank you, Sydney. Unfortunately, the committee member in question wasn't so impressed and gave a very negative evaluation of my proposal. I guess you can't convince someone that doesn't want to be convinced.


texts:
How can a search be made at google-scholars, Scopus etc for only patents?

I want to search patents on a given topic or a set of keywords, but the results mostly include papers. Where I have to scan through all the results manually to reach a patent.


texts: Can I apply for PhD without recommendation from my masters advisor?

texts:
I am currently applying for a PhD in a very competitive top tier university, which requires three references. I have two referees (my tutor and my undergraduate research project supervisor) who I am quite sure would write very good references for me.

I am stuck with the choice of my third referee:

I am currently doing a masters, but my masters supervisor is overly precise and temperamental. Although he is the "ideal" choice as my referee as he can comment on my research capabilities and working in a laboratory environment, I am certain that his reference will be lukewarm or may even be negative as I am currently having difficulty getting along with him. (ADDITION: I had only worked with this supervisor for 2-3 months. I also had an undergraduate research project supervisor who can also comment on my research abilities).

Alternatively, I have asked one of my lecturers (who I get along with very well) in my undergraduate, and he is very happy and eager to write a reference for me. I am quite sure that he will write a positive reference in support of my application. But he is unable to comment on my research abilities (just my academic capability and personality). Additionally, wouldn't the admissions tutors suspect that something is going on if all my referees are undergraduate even when I am taking a master's course??

What should I do?

PS. The problem is that he initially offered me a PhD position despite the fact that I wanted to pursue and applied for a masters programme. I turned it down as I was not interested in the PhD project and when I told him about my applications to other, top tier universities, his attitude towards me has changed and became very impatient, frustrated and uninterested. This is the reason why I am quite certain he will not be writing a positive reference for me.


texts: PhD student target of crazy department head

texts:
I got behind in my program because of illness. My university says it's ok for me to have extra time, but the department head of my program doesn't like this because he thinks all students must get a certain time. He wants to cut my funding, which would force me out of the program. He doesn't even care that right now I am doing good work. He just wants me gone. He spreads false rumors about me to other professors. The graduate director does nothing and says it is not his place.

My adviser likes me, but I don't think he is willing to always stand up to the department head. It is late in my program and I can not start over at another university. Thank you for your advice.

Edit: Getting behind was not my fault and my adviser knew of my illness. How can I persuade the department head that he should forget about my illness and let me work now so I can finish?


texts: How do I reference/cite a figure created specially for me by someone else?

texts:
A friend of mine helped to created figures shown in my thesis. I know that you do not need te reference figures created yourself. (How) am I supposed to give credits to my friend?
Is there a special Latex record or field?


texts:
My question is very similar to this one, but I'm curious about algorithms. The accepted answer states that:

  Mathematical equations are not normally considered subject to plagiarism ...

I am wondering if the same would apply to algorithms. I think they are very similar to equations, except for the use of sentences (in the case of pseudo code). If it is made clear where the algorithm came from, would it be ok to copy?


texts: Is it a good idea to include working papers on Curriculum Vitae?

texts: I am a senior undergraduate student and looking to apply to PhD programs. I am doubtful whether I should put my working papers on my CV alongside the already published works. I don't want to exclude them because I think my work in progress are more important than the published works. Will listing a separate section for working papers, with a side note on where do I intend to submit them be good?


texts: (Why) Is post publication peer review (not) taking off?

texts:
I know, this is a bit of a broad question. But looking at the developments and having experienced a reasonable amount of pain with established publishers and their either complex, slow, or restrictive processes/production stages, I'm tempted to ask it here and look what others think or know about that.
Post-publication peer review has been discussed quite a while ago here and here, it's been promoted and practised on platforms such as Publons and PubPeer.
But is this idea, launched many years ago to complement "classical" peer review, really successful? Are established processes/practises being replaced/improved?
Note for clarification:
I envisage something like a combination of classical pre- and an optional post-publication peer review strongly based on open self-archival platforms such as arXiv. Nothing on the academic side would change, editors and reviewers would move over to such platforms to continue their work just like before, largely unpaid. Even cult-like reputation-building, gate-keeping, etc. is still possible even if not desirable. But in domains such as CS, physics, or math, where production is largely done by authors anyway, costly, error-prone, after-acceptance production stages would be replaced by just self-archival and EiC-driven quality labelling systems as they have been used for years at top-tier conferences to certify such things as reproducibility. I think, it's time for a change. (I wonder whether this question is more something for meta.)
Further note: After the many useful comments and answers, I'm extending or rephrasing my question to: Why isn't full-fledged self-archival with classical peer review and curation, post-publication commenting, and avoidance of old-school production procedures finally taking off?


texts: Can I demand re-submission of a manuscript that has an odd document layout?

texts:
I am assigned to review a paper that has an extremely strange page layout (the pages are squares, single column with about 150 characters per line), making it very impractical to print or read. It is for a journal and was submitted via Manuscript Central.
I could of course read it on my screen (which I don’t like at all), or print it with either rotating or stretching the pages (which I tried but it’s very awkward to read and therefore extremely distracting).

Is it okay to write to the ADM and ask them to demand a re-submission in a proper document layout, i.e., A4 or US Letter? Or am I being fussy?


texts: Letting students grade their own homework

texts:
I am going to teach a course in algorithms to 2nd-year undergraduates. The grade in this course is composed of 90% exam and 10% homework. The problem is, this year we do not have enough personnel to grade the homework.

Theoretically, it may be possible to change the grade struture and make it 100% based on final exam, but, this will reduce the incentive of students to study and practice during the semester, which I think will harm their learning experience.

So, I thought of the following scheme: the students will have to submit each assignment before the next TA session. The TA will explain the solutions during the session, and then each student will grade his/her own homework.

Sure, some students might be tempted to give themselves 100 on all assignments, but I believe this will not be very harmful since:

All assignments together compose only 10% of the grade, so every single assignment is less than 1%. Even if many students get 10% for free, the final exam is still sufficient to differentiate the good from the bad students.
The group consists of excellent students (the top 20%, based on their 1st year mean grade). I believe most of them want to succeed in the exam, so they will take this as an opportunity to track their own progress during the course, rather than an opportunity to just get some points for free.

What do you think about this scheme?


texts: Being a Dishonest Cheat. How do I live with this?

texts: First things first. I am not a good person - I have never pretended to be. But I tried to make my parents (more importantly my dad) proud. Today I screwed up. I sat for an exam that I don't understand the work for, despite trying my best. I got desperate (this module is a prerequisite for everything next year), and I cheated. I had all the tutorials on my phone (I study using my phone, not my laptop, I didn't plan to cheat) and I tried to scrape together some answers. I was caught. Whatever happens I will not make credits this year (if I'm not expelled - which I deserve). I am so disgusted with myself. I have already taken full responsibility for my actions. No point in lying. I have struggled with engineering ever since I started (I've already taken 3 years to do 2 years worth of work). My question is, how do I handle myself going forward? What is the point of trying anymore?


texts: What are typical formats of “scholarly work”?

texts:
Regarding the meaning of scholarly works in a job application I found What are typical examples of scholarly works?
But I have been confused about the format of this document. Is it just listing my peer-reviewed paper and presentation? I have been asked to provide up to ten scholarly works and an overview of them and also "a complete list of publications." I do not know what I shall write exactly.


texts: Is it advisable to take trivial classes to better focus on independent study?

texts: I am considering taking what should be considered a remedial math class, though is actually credit bearing at my university, so I can spend more time solving monthly problems/ studying graduate level theory on my own. Would subverting the curriculum, and reducing the problem of acquiring credit hours to a problem solved in or before middle school, be looked down upon by graduate schools? I have always heard that graduate schools only care about your math grades, only care about how much math you have studied.


texts: Uncertainty about following academic career

texts:
I recently got my Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering (2015), and now I am doing a postdoc in Computer Science at a top tier university. I have a decent number of publications (>12) in respectable journals in my field, and an h-index of 5, some awards, travel grants, and so on. While I know numbers don't do justice to a person, unfortunately that's how you rate academics (which I think is part of the problem).

Despite the above, I feel increasingly lost, and not sure whether I want to pursue an academic career. I have been moving around in the world a lot, and combined with the delayed gratification of research, fixed-term contracts, intense competition, etc., I feel like I am burning out.

On the other hand, transitioning to industry scares me, since I have been dwelling in university laboratories for the past 10 years of my life. What if I don't like it there and want to come back? With the "publish or perish" attitude, after a few years of not publishing the doors of academia would be shut for me. Or at least that's my impression.

The result of all the above is a feeling of angst and despair, and wondering whether I have been wasting my time all these years, even though the numbers say the opposite (goddamn numbers!). Taking a break from everything and pursuing some of my hobbies for a while, on the other hand, seems like a decision that could be fruitful.


texts: How to participate in a remote IEEE Conference, due to politics problems in my country?

texts:
Today I study in Chile, and I have an accepted paper at an international conference of the IEEE of good level. I need that participation since it will help me in my Postgraduate program, but I'm afraid I will not be able to attend. It is unsafe to travel at the moment.

How could I ask the Chairs of the conference and convince them to pay registration and let me present by video-conference? Or if anyone has any idea how to justify my paper appearing in the proceedings of the conference?


texts: How to improve as undergraduate student doing research?

texts: I am currently working for a Computer Science researcher as an undergraduate. I worked for them last semester and have continued into the semester. However, I am having a bit of trouble lately because I feel like I haven't been as helpful as I could be and at times feel like a burden when I ask too many questions or am unsure how to do something. Do advisors get annoyed by undergraduates when they ask too many questions? Is there a way that I can improve? Or any general practices that are good to follow?


texts: Correct way to cite paper that is published as part of a book

texts:
I'm working on the last parts of my diploma in computer engineering. Right now i'm working over my bibliography. And i'm not quite sure what's the best way to include a citation.

Both refer to the same paper, the first one is a lot more detailed but it's not possible to view the whole paper online, since a few pages are being left out.
The second one only refers to the paper, not including any publisher etc.

@inproceedings{booth2009,
author = {Booth, Danielle and Jansen, Bernard J},
booktitle = {Handbook of Research on Web Log Analysis},
title = {A Review of Methodologies for Analyzing Websites},
year = {2009},
pages = {143-164},
publisher = {IGI Global},
doi = {10.4018/978-1-59904-974-8}
}

or

@article{booth2009,
title={A Review of Methodologies for Analyzing Websites},
author={Booth, Danielle and Jansen, Bernard J},
year={2009}
}

Which one should I use?


texts: Interviewing in July - would start date necessarily be September?

texts:
I applied for a position with the application deadline of April 30 and was contacted for an interview last week. My interview is in mid-July. Can they reasonably expect a candidate to start in September if they make a decision quickly? If so, would it be appropriate to ask for teaching release for the fall semester? Not sure if asking for a january 2016 start-date would be a deal-breaker from their perspective when they are moving so quickly. Thanks in advance.

Edit: this is in Canada.


texts: Completing a PhD sooner: what does it take?

texts:
More specifically in finance/economics. As I understand it, spending at least 5 years in the program is highly beneficial if one intends to work in academia. However, if aiming for industry positions instead some would argue that it might not add as much value as the forgone salary would justify.

This leads me to my question. Let's consider a person who has completed M.Sc prior to entering a PhD program in US in Finance/Econ or another similar field and is on par with the average candidate in, say T20 school. With hard work and long nights, how quickly could such  feasibly expect to complete their PhD?

Furthermore, are there major differences between programs in e.g how fast the coursework can be finished, and between requirements one needs to fill before being allowed to graduate? How about supervisors, i.e. are some less willing to let you graduate ahead of time at the risk of suffering some personal reputational damage if it turns out that the candidate falls short of the standards typically expected from a fresh PhD graduate? Any other factors I fail to consider?


texts: Richard Hamming in his talk about research says that scientists have to put up with stress, and he talks about his ulcers (and he was amongst other things a mathematician). I thought mathematical research should be mostly thinking/ living a life of the mind and thus while involved shouldn't be anxiety-producing... Is mathematical research typically stressful? Are there good researchers that don't have stress?


texts: Reusing someone else's code in my own publication

texts:
I am about to submit a paper in which one of the algorithms I used is heavily based on the code available on one of the TensowFlow tutorials. In fact, I mostly copied the code from the page and made the necessary modifications for my specific case. I did cite, in the paper, both TensorFlow and the page, and disclosed that the neural net architecture I was using was based on the one on the page. The licensing terms of the code (Apache 2.0) mention that the user is free to build upon the code and redistribute it.

I am not in CS, and am applying the model to a specific problem in my field. However, in copying the code (which I believe will not be disclosed) I am afraid I might be doing academic misconduct. However, on the other hand, if that was the case, using open-source libraries would also be frowned upon, given that the user is essentially copying code.

Will I be committing academic misconduct or anything that is ethically frowned upon in academia by submitting results parts of which were based on copied code?

PS: In response to a comment, I cited TensorFlow and the webpage in the paper, which will be published if accepted, but the code itself (which was heavily based on the code available in the webpage) won't be posted anywhere (as far as I know).


texts: How to answer the question "tell me about yourself" in a Masters degree interview?

texts:
A good friend of mine had an interview for a psychology Masters degree. The interviewer asked my friend: "Tell me about yourself".

How should one approach such a question?
What do the admission committee expect to hear?


texts: Slightly revised version of submitted paper two days afterwards: will the editor be annoyed?

texts:
so, I submitted a paper to a reasonably good journal, last week. The journal requires that the paper is formatted in a specific way (.tex class style provided by them). I did this, and saved the file in a different folder, to differentiate it from the version that I uploaded to my website.

However, when I sent the file to the editor (there is no submission system, just e-mail the editor), I sent the wrong version. That is, I sent the unformatted version. That wouldn't be too bad though. The thing is that the formatted version contains some slight improvements to exposition (and a slight title change..). So I decided to e-mail the editor with the new version, right after he acknowledged receipt of my previous manuscript.

I then realized that sending this to him would probably annoy the hell out of him, who is a recognized busy guy. Is this really a problem? I am really freaked out that this will create a problem with my submission.. I don't know whether acknowledging receipt means that he actually sent it to a referee already.