texts: AAUP standards for timing of recruiting/resigning a faculty position: Do they really mean anything?

texts:
According to the American Association of Union Professors (AAUP),

A faculty member should not resign, in order to accept other employment as
of the end of the academic year, later than May 15 or 30 days after
receiving notification of the terms of continued employment the following
year, whichever date occurs later.

...

An offer of appointment to a faculty member serving at another institution
should be made no later than May 1, consistent with the faculty member’s
obligation to resign, in order to accept other employment, no later than May
15. It is recognized that, in special cases, it might be appropriate to
make an offer after May 1, but in such cases there should be an agreement by
all concerned parties.

The few relevant comments in this thread

http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,163851.15.html

(e.g. comments 23, 26, 27) seem to indicate that this standard isn't important/widely observed.

However, it appears that some universities do observe it (or some variant), e.g. University of Pittsburg and University of Louisiana and Lafayette.

My questions are

Is this etiquette widely observed? That is, would this be a reasonable barometer of what is "ethical", or is the standard dated (if ever relevant), as indicated by the commenters in the linked thread above?
should I let the existence of this AAUP standard modify the way I handle accepting a pending offer that would require me to go beyond this May 15th deadline?

I'm soliciting anyone with knowledge of these matters but information from deans, department chairs, or anyone who has resigned at this late stage would be especially valuable. Thanks for any info.

Note: Previous posts of mine give a bit more (probably not relevant) background:

I want to leave my tenure track position before fall. I have great prospects but no new position "locked up": when should I break the news?

Proper "notice period" for resigning a tenure track position?

The second one is closely related but is distinct in that this question specifically is about observance of the AAUP standard that I learned about today while reading the chronicle.

Note 2: Mine is an AAUP school but does not have any explicit policy like the two mentioned above.


texts: Improving my application package regarding Maths undergraduate grades [for Master in Economics Program]

texts:
I am looking for some recommendations about how I could enhance my application package for a Master (MA/MSc) in Economics, considering that I have low grades in mathematics courses, despite that I took 4 courses in this realm.

I really like mathematics and I believe that I am good on it. For example, after I finished my undergraduate career in Economics, I applied some of the knowledge acquired from previous courses through econometric modelling.

For that reason, taking into consideration that I have plans for studying abroad, I would like to know if there are some courses, international/standarized exams or any other strategies (considering the other sides of the application) in order to improve my mathematics grades register and convince the committee for graduate admissions. For example, I am considering to take the GRE as soon as possible.

Thank you very much!
Greetings from Peru.


texts: Peer-reviewing for a prestigious journal as a Master's student

texts:
I am currently a final year Master's student and have been asked to review for a very pretigious journal in my field, possibly the most prestigious one apart from Nature/Science. I have a fairly good research portfolio and have published a handful of papers in good journals as first author, but I've never been a reviewer.

While I have already accepted the request, I would like to know if I should have declined the request given that I am still a Master's student or if I should contact the editor to let him know that I am a Master's student.

If the fact that I am a Master's student is not an issue, I will be applying to a Ph.D. program soon (USA/Europe). How can/should I mention that I have reviewed for this specific journal and will it be viewed positively if I do?

P.S.: I do think I can offer an informed review to the authors of the manuscript I've been asked to review.


texts: My previous PI used my data in an article that was published in a high profile journal. My name is nowhere to be found in authors list

texts:
Last year I worked in a research lab in the US. My PI was very abusive so I eventually left for another lab. This individual was always extremely vindictive but I didn't expect that he would use all my work (graphs, tables almost verbatim) without even mentioning my name in the authors list or acknowledgments. One month before I left the lab we had submitted this work in a conference, and I was listed as a SECOND author in the submitted article. I have multiple emails between me and the rest of the lab members where I regularly sent them my data for discussion, reviewing etc. Also I have an email from a former colleague in which she explicitly asks me for my data after I left the lab. I never sent the data to that person at that time because I didn't trust her and I was struggling with my health at that time. They could retrieve them however anyway from my abovementioned emails, common dropbox etc. A new researcher who came to the lab after me, just one month prior to the submission of the article to the journal, ( and had zero involvement in the project before) is listed in the authors list.
I am young and new to the whole word of research and academia. Also, I would like to mention that I worked for free in that lab. That professor had promised to help me with my career instead of paying me (I know, what a fool)and instead he used all my work without giving me credit.
I don't know how to go about it and if I actually have any chance of getting something out of it.
I would appreciate your advice.


texts: What to do when a recommender for an already-submitted PhD admissions application suddenly goes AWOL?

texts: What does an applicant for admissions in a PhD program do if a recommender put down on an already-submitted application suddenly goes AWOL and does not submit his letter of recommendation? Would a missing letter of recommendation completely disqualify the applicant, or does the admissions committee try to make contact with the AWOL recommender?


texts: Submission to arXiv of PAMS submitted paper

texts:
I've recently submitted a paper to Proceedings of American Mathematical Society (PAMS) and it is being handled by an editor. I also want to have it on arXiv.

PAMS allows this if you put it on arXiv with a licence no less restrictive than CC-BY-NC-ND (see for example item 4a here), but arXiv offers less restrictive licences (at least in my understanding). The options are:

arXiv.org perpetual, non-exclusive license to distribute this article
Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY 4.0)
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Creative Commons Public Domain Declaration (CC0 1.0)

Which of the licenses above is compatible with PAMS policy?

Thanks.


texts: Fairness of assigning different reviewers for final decision on paper

texts:
I recently submitted a paper to a journal. My paper came back with a reject and resubmission allowed decision. When I resubmitted the paper it went to other reviewers.

Under the journal's rules, this is the last time i will get reviews and after that paper will be either rejected or accepted. How is it fair to send the paper to different reviewers, who will than again give their comments on the paper? If the reviewers are changed shouldn't the author be given one more chance to address the comments?


texts: Accepted letter for Ph.D. in February, but now they say they don't have funding! Is that possible?

texts:
My husband received an acceptance letter in February to get his Ph.D. in History. We are in the US. When he e-mailed to the funding department asking what else he needed, the funding department said they had everything.

Now in April he e-mailed to the Department where he supposedly is going to do his Ph.D. to ask about registration, start day, etc., and the president of the department answered saying he is not hopeful about securing his fellowship line at the moment, and the funding they have now will cover the currently enrolled students and if he has something left, he will not know until august.  But classes start in August and we have to move 700 miles away!

Is there something we can do after my husband has been accepted but with no funding?


texts:
As I’m writing my final words within a research paper, I was curious regarding the term quantification of results.

Namely I’ve performed a correlation analysis in a quasi-experiment. The research is quantitative and purely related to software engineering.

My findings were that the two measured variables do correlate. Now, before I start getting into anything, what exactly specifies quantifying results of e.g. this correlation analysis?


texts: Revising dissertation for publication – anxiety about revision process

texts:
I finished my PhD last year and am now in the process of revising my dissertation into a book or articles.

As I revise my dissertation material, I am of course trying to improve and polish it and make it interesting to a broader audience. However, I have recently grown increasingly anxious about revising my material. As my dissertation is online in a repository, I am really afraid that once I publish material from my dissertation, some readers will compare the dissertation with the published material and notice improvements I have made, mistakes I corrected or things I clarified.

For example, in one of my chapters I give a rather general literature review and summarise a number of publications in one sentence. For a journal article I am now working on, I have now decided to draw two of the listed publications out of the sentence/citation and discuss them separately, mainly as these publications fit the journal I am aiming at more. But I am now worried that some people might feel that I should have done this in my dissertation already to do these articles full justice.

I know that the dissertation is just a draft of sorts (that is what I was often told) and I should probably put it behind me and get on with my publications, but this is still something I think about this and was wondering whether anyone else had similar thoughts and how people generally deal with the revision process.


texts: Submitting a paper to a new journal with responses for the rejection to the first journal

texts:
I submitted my paper in IEEE Transcations of XXX and got a rejection. But the comments were really helpful and has helped me a lot in improving the paper. But, unfortunately, I cannot resubmit that paper to this same journal again and now I am looking for another journal.

I am writing a proper response again every comment and thinking to submit the response letter as part of the submission to the new journal. The basic idea is to let the reviewers know that this paper has been reviewed (by reviewers of another journal) and improvements has been made. Will it somehow improve the chances of acceptance. (as I am in the final stages of my PhD now)

What does the community say?


texts: Withdraw submission due to lack of referees

texts:
I have submitted a mathematical-physics manuscript to Journal of Mathematical Physics, and I am in a situation similar to the one described here: It has been two months since I submitted, and the editor still cannot find reviewers. I have asked the editor what happens if he/she keeps trying and will still be unable find any reviewer, but he/she refuses to answer me.

The manuscript is in the field of celestial mechanics and is quite specific. However, two months seems a pretty long time to me, and I am incline to think that this is the journal's fault, i.e., the journal or editor is not known enough, he/she does not have a good network of referees, and I feel that I am wasting my time and should withdraw my submission and submit it to another journal.

Do you concur with this? According to your experience, what is the best decision to make sure that the manuscript is published in a reasonable time in this journal, or in another journal with similar impact?


texts:
When writing letter to an academic professor (not necessarily from student to professor), what is the appropriate way to address his/her title?

I have seen in letters using

Dear Prof. X even when the addressee is not a full professor

Dear Dr. X though, knowing that the addressee is a full professor

Dear Mr/Mrs X though, knowing that s/he has an academic title


texts: Is Robotics and Automation Letters Open Access or Traditional Journal?

texts:
I recently completed a paper and I am considering applying for the Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L). Before submission, the paper plaza had a few guidelines which said

  IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L) is a hybrid access journal, allowing either traditional or Open Access ("golden", or author-pays OA) manuscript submission. According to the IEEE policy, you will only be able to select the Open Access option after acceptance, at the time of final submission. By selecting that option, you commit to pay the $1,950 OA fee in order to enable unrestricted public access.

I am confused with what this means? Does it mean that I will only be able to select the Open Access Option? Does it mean that I can choose the traditional option, but in case I prefer Open Access it will only be after acceptance.


texts: Can American students do research in Europe with only a bachelor's degree?

texts:
It's not clear to me, looking over all the various regulations and requirements, how (or even if) it is possible for students holding a four-year or five-year bachelor's degree from the US can work at a university as a part-time or full-time researcher. Is this possible? If so, are there specific programs to help set this up? Does it matter which EU country the institution is located? Is there a specific type of visa involved?

(Effectively, I guess this question could be boiled down to: what is the equivalent EU mechanism for a J-1 visa, when the student will be engaged in research rather than coursework?)


texts: I want to write a survey on one emerging research topic in wireless communications (It can be applied to any field!). There are almost 500 papers on this topic as published or in early access. And the publishing rate in this topic is increasing day by day. So, I want to write a survey on this topic keeping in mind that it will get high citation and it will help new scholar who are in struggle with this topic. I found only one survey written by some reputed authors, however it lacks in many ways, like detailed information related to particular direction, it just assembles the papers in a good manner. I want to pick some directions and discuss  important approaches with good connection between them. However, I find it very difficult to proceed with large number of papers. Is there any good way to handle the survey process in a good efficient and quick way? PS. According to me, many people have already started to write this.


texts: it is a good idea to use colors for citations in hard bound thesis(printed copy)

texts:
Do you think it is a good idea to use colors for citations in the hard bound thesis(printed copy)?

I think it is a good idea to use colors to make citations more visible in the PDF files on the computer screen but not in the book.


texts: Is it normal in a preclinical medical science PhD to be applying for funding for salary as you go?

texts:
I am a second year PhD student in Australia in the field of preclinical medicine.

It has always been the norm for my PhD that I myself apply for grants/stipends for my salary so that I can afford to live whilst doing the PhD. Last year I had two scholarships which just about covered the cost of living for me and my family. This year it looks like I've lost half of that, possibly coronavirus-related, which means I am likely to be losing about $20K AUD a year on my outgoing cost of living, but I will still have the other grant money coming in. I could also work part time but that would be detrimental to the PhD.

My supervisor has always been very supportive in me applying for grants and he is extremely forthcoming with money for any consumables, expenses or project costs at all, but never directly for salary. For salary I am expected to just apply for grants as I go and as and when they come up. Sometimes I get them, sometimes I don't. I have one from a funding body which is potentially for the whole of my PhD but not 100% secure after year 2 and not enough on its own.

I was also instrumental in writing and winning a $100K AUD grant for my supervisor which was a project (not salary) grant, as stipulated by the funding body. My supervisor is great in many ways but I do feel that he is getting a lot out of me being his PhD student.

Is it normal to be applying for the money you need to live off 'on the fly' like this as you go through your PhD?
If I end up with a deficit because I could not get funding for a certain period of my PhD, is it legitimate to ask my supervisor to pay me some salary funding out of his funds for the project, which seem to be fairly extensive. He does not have to pay his own salary because he is on a permanent contract with the university who pay it directly.


texts: Are there major obstacles to completing a thesis Masters program if I'm not funded/working in a lab?

texts:
I will be entering an MS program in engineering this fall. I was not offered any assistantships or fellowships/funding. I was accepted to other graduate programs with some funding but chose to go to my top choice of school.

I spoke to my academic advisor and they told me something very similar to 'most MS students here take out loans, complete a non-thesis program, and then go out into the real world and make a ton of money and pay them off.'

Given that I would also like to apply for PhD programs and external funding upon completion of the MS program: what obstacles, if any, will be associated with me choosing to complete the thesis program if I will not be working in a lab? Could this cause issues when I go to apply for fellowships/PhD programs?


texts: Cite Repository in manuscript: GitHub link "https://github.com/User/Code" VS zenodo link

texts:
I come with a simple question.

I need to cite my GitHub repository on my manuscript, and so far I have been inserting both my GitHub link such as https://github.com/User/Code, and the doi with Zenodo.

Now someone brought up the question on why I should use them both, and to be honest I didn't have the answer, so I ask you. Why I should use one versus the other. I don't think I really need them both, or yes?

Thanks a lot for whoever will be able to shed some light on this with some background on the choice.

Best,

Pier


texts: How important is age in CS PhD admissions?

texts: I just entered a MS in Computer Science in a mid tier state school.  I'm interested in taking things to the next level, but I just turned 30.  By the time I do the math and everything, I'll probably be 34 before applying.  Is that too old?  Does that essentially eliminate me from top programs?


texts:
I am interested in doing a PhD from a third tier school in Electrical Engineering Ranked about in the 60's in North America.

I have degrees (Bachelors, Masters) from a Top 20 North American School.

Is this advisable or even worth it ?

The supervisor is not very well known in the industry in this field but is somewhat known in academia in this field.

In my field, companies will only hire from Top 20 schools.

I would like to stay in academia after graduating after being in industry for a few years.

So is this going backwards then ?

Thank you.


texts: What are the pros and cons of teaching multiple sessions of the same course?

texts:
Teaching at least two courses is necessary in my institution.
Because of a very busy schedule and lack of time for doing my other academic duties for the next semester, I am thinking about teaching multiple sessions of the same course (in the same day) for the next semester. The course is the freshman calculus if that matters. The good thing is that the course has many TA's and they grade the exams. In each session (in a big amphi) about 300 students are enrolled.
I taught this course at least 6 or 7 times in the past (only one session) without problem.

I write this to ask what are the pros and cons of teaching multiple sessions of the same course?
I ask this question because I have never taught a same course in multiple sessions.
I found this link
http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/teaching-multiple-sections-of-the-same-course/38472

But I would like to ask your opinion about this. Especially your personal experience would be helpful to me.

Sometimes when I teach two courses with some similarities (e.g. some intersection between their topics), at times I get confused, I think I have covered some topics in one of them, but in fact I have not covered it. Fortunately I ask the students about that. But for an identical course I don't know what arrives.

This is only one aspect of my question. Feel free to give your opinion about other pros and cons.


texts: Is it acceptable to use mainly websites in a literature review?

texts: I'm writing a literature review for a project and due to the nature of the project (website and database) I haven't used any books etc. I have used a number of websites to get information on subjects such as hosting a website and a database using Azure, is it acceptable to use websites in a literature review?


texts: What is my responsibility to my lab after I graduate?

texts:
I just finished a research-based Masters program, where nearly my entire degree was funded through sponsored research from a particular lab. In the normal schedule of events I should have had time between my final thesis submission and the end of my final's month funding to clean up my files/database work on a shared server. But the week of my thesis being due the criteria for completion was suddenly moved, such that I was no longer able to graduate on time. I ended up having to work unpaid past my graduation in order to complete my thesis. Several months after successfully submitting my thesis I am being nagged to clean up my section on the shared server. I have no intention of attempting a PhD with the lab after. What should I do?

I should add that this has been a recurring problem in our lab, that Masters students are under a lot of pressure to do more in their thesis, but not given time to organize their work so that it can be useful to future students. Once they graduate they get jobs and don't clean up after themselves.


texts: Example of educational theory not taken in account in e-learning software?

texts:
In some papers I read some pedagogical experts claiming that e-learning software such as Moodle, blackboard, elluminate, etc. are not good because they don't take enough of educational theory into consideration. But there is a lack of examples in those papers.

Can someone give me some example of educational theory not taken in account in e-learning software? Thanks.


texts: Could it be a problem years later if I forgot to include some things in my thesis?

texts:
I graduated 3 years ago with a MS degree and a thesis. I recently discovered that I forgot to include some data - tables and list of datasets. All my final analysis has been included. Can there be some problem about this in the future?
I have a couple of sentences such as : "For the list of datasets used in this experiment, see table xx". I do not have that table. I guess I was in a mad rush at the end and forgot to include those.


texts: Do graduate school admissions appreciate individual "free time" study?

texts:
I am a year away from completing an undergrad degree in Computer Science and I find myself increasingly interested in more advanced subjects from pure mathematics that sometimes lie outside the scope of my major, and I think I would enjoy doing graduate work in pure math. But I feel like the amount of formal education I've had the opportunity to have in my undergrad isn't quite sufficient for graduate work in math.

If I were to go and buy a book or two on some subject I'd like to learn more about that I can't take a course on (say, Abstract Algebra or Number Theory), and spend this summer getting comfortable with it, is it likely that a graduate admission committee take my efforts into account?

My situation is worded specific to a CS --> Pure Math trajectory, but it's part of a more general question. Do graduate school admissions take into account personal study, or do they only care about formal university education?


texts: Can co-authors check the status of a submitted manuscript with various publishers?

texts:
Inspired by the question How can co-authors check the status of a submitted manuscript in Elsevier Editorial System?, I would like to broaden the scope of the question and apply it to various publishers. In general, I feel that by default, coauthors cannot track the progress of a submitted manuscript during the review process.

Are there exceptions to this rule of thumb?


texts: Should I name a system or software I described in a paper?

texts:
I have implemented software (system, method) to solve a problem and I am writing a paper about it. In the related works I see some similar works which have a name (e.g Lixto, TSIMMIS, Florid, etc.)

Should I also use a name for my system? Are there any conventions or guidelines for it or for the names?

What are the advantage or disadvantage of it?


texts:
I am writing my thesis right now and I vaguely remember that I was once told that in an English paper/manuscript nearly all words of a section title start with an uppercase letter.
For instance:
The Influence of the 19th Century on some Important Stuff
(just something I came up with)
Is this right? Currently I am doing it a little bit inconsequently which is in my opinion even worse. Is there a certain style recommended?


texts: Changing due date for a student suddenly

texts: Today I had two students never working on their assignment but looking at their phones the whole class. I did not warn them that I will collect their work but I told them to put their phones away. After that I told the students to turn their work in even though it wasn't the due date. I am planning to put their grade into the gradebook. Am I allowed to do this?


texts: I have some papers published in journals that are approved by Scopus. But these papers are not included in Scopus. How can I get get them included?


texts: Do I need to include citations when writing my own lecture notes, if I make them public?

texts:
I am a graduate student in mathematics, writing my own notes in my spare time on a topic I'm interested in. I find it helps me understand things if I write things out in the style of lecture notes (although to be clear I haven't taken a course in this topic). These notes consist of information from a huge variety of sources, including books, math.stackexchange, wikipedia etc. and since it is for my personal understanding I haven't been citing anything.

There is a chance, however, that I would like to upload these notes on my webpage for anyone who may find them useful. Is it acceptable to only include a paragraph at the beginning saying that none of the following is my own work, written purely for personal benefit and taken from a variety of sources, without citing anything specifically? Obviously there is a huge difference here to plagiarising work that would be considered for publication somewhere 'official', but would it still be considered unacceptable practice?

Thanks in advance.


texts: Is it normal for referees on a paper see to the names of other referees?

texts:
I recently refereed a paper for a journal. There were four referees, which for the field in question(number theory), is  a lot, especially for a short paper in a minor journal. I recommended a rejection based on a variety of issues. Today I got back a note that the paper had been resubmitted with extensive edits and asked to look at it again. The request to look at it again included the other three referee reports. Here's the strange bit: The referees's reports were not just included but the names as well. This question is not about seeing other referee reports but about seeing their names attached to those reports.

This partial loss of anonymity makes me  uncomfortable for two reasons. First,  one of the other referees is extremely senior in the field; in fact his review agreed closely with mine, but that certainly wasn't guaranteed. Second, it makes it more likely that a single referee who leaks who they are or knows one of a  paper's authors could let the authors know who the other referees are. I wouldn't be so concerned about the second except that I've already had an experience (where I was an author) where a referee unmasked himself after the fact.

My question is then threefold: One how normal is the practice of including their names to the other referees in math? More generally how common is this in other fields? Third,  is there a reasonable way to express my concern to the editors?


texts: How is a PhD by publication valued in the US?

texts: A PhD by publication is more common in Europe. I am expecting a few first authored publication this year in decent journals, but I am not sure of the value of this. Thanks!


texts:
The last two semesters I've had classes where I've met all prerequisites. Yet upon the second week or so (when its too late to drop) I realize the entire class is based off another class which was not a prereq. I think I'm a good student but I'm struggling so much with things the other students do with ease because they've already learned the material. I can't keep doing this every semester, its very discouraging and draining. How do I avoid this or what should I do? I could take the said "hidden prereq.", but this wouldn't help me this semester or the next. In fact, it would only help me in my last semester of undergrad; assuming it'd be helpful at all at that point. Is this common in grad school?

EDIT:
I am following my schools recommended academic plan to a T. We have a laid out course plan to take course A in semester 5, course B in semester 7, etc. I'm 2nd semester Junior, 6/8 overall. You can deviate but I have NOT done that (at least for the courses I'm complaining about). I have not changed majors, institutions, nothing weird. I'm honestly surprised this is not a common thing. To be specific, I'm taking Computational Astrophysics which requires an intro astro course and vector calc + differential equations. I've taken a recommended course in the past labeled as Math for scientists and engineers (also labeled as a continuation of vector calc + diff eq) yet it relied almost exclusively on linear algebra and we never once did a real world problem. I have not taken linear algebra, the only matrix related math I ever took was a brief intro in highschool. NOTE that this computational astro class is specifically for astrophysics majors (me) and the astrophysics curriculum excludes linear algebra and any classes which require it. In general, this course requires way more programming skills than I have learned from my courses, the teacher even said so, although I might manage as I have gained some experience with coding through research I've been doing. Classmates of mine who have taken the same classes are either cheating or dropping out of the class because of how ridiculous it is (they havent gained coding experience in research). I refuse to cheat though because I want to learn and it will help me in my research (also ethical reasons obviously). I state the last bit to show the severity and how I am actually one of the lucky ones (hopefully I dont eat my words and fail).

Thank you for the suggestions to narrow the question, I know its broad.


texts: Guidelines for communication of machine learning methods in empirical research papers

texts:
It seems to me that machine learning methods are being adopted more and more often in empirical academic research and modelling. Whereas scientists are often quite familiar with traditional statistical methods to report on their findings, they may by comparison often be somewhat less knowledgeable about the machine learning algorithms they employ.

I wonder whether there are any articles on the (in)correct communication of machine learning algorithms in empirical research. I'm interested in how scientists ought to present the results found by means of such methods, to what extent they should describe the algorithms they've used, and other related matters they should take into consideration.


texts: Confusion in field after CS undergraduate degree

texts:
Thank you for hearing me out.

I'm currently enrolled in a CS Undergrad course and will be coming out of it next year. ( 2018 ). One thing straight is I love mathematics. Anyways let's proceed with the actual confusion. I'll be coming out next year. Then what?

These are my options and I'm oscillating between them from a week. ( ..no sleep )

Go forward and get a Master degree on Computer Science specializing on computational neuroscience and vision. ( perceiving systems ). Then a PhD in Computer Vision or Computational Neuroscience, squeezing academic and industry internships. Later on join academia, research.
Go forward and get a Masters in Mathematics, PhD follows. ( in differential topology ). Post Doc work for some years and then join a top University as a faculty, teach, research.
Go forward and with Masters in Mathematics and Physics and then a PhD in String theory, ( as string theory requires a lot of math in particular group theory, category theory, differential and algebraic topology and gauge theory which I'm into and had brief exposure with particle physics as in internship( mostly was writing code and analysis in ROOT (with CERN, remotely) ( C++ ) ). Then join CERN or an University, teach, research.

Alright. Now my skills and knowledge.

Mathematics. I am proficient in engineering math ( linear algebra, calculus I, II, III, ODE, PDE, discrete math, basic statistics and probability ). Also I I have a solid grasp on introductory group theory, algebraic and differential topology, real analysis. Software side, I know Matlab well.
Physics. I know high school physics well. I also had gained knowledge of particle physics during the internship but on an introductory level. That's it.
Computer Science. : I have taken these fundamental courses during my undergrad. ( OS, compiler design, Database, C++/Java/C, Algorithms, Data Structures, basics of automata theory, optimization, computer graphics, electronics ). I am proficient in C/C++, I can manage Java.
Biology/Neuroscience: I know high school biology well. I have taken the Harvardx, MOOC ( Fundamentals of Neuroscience )
Projects and other stuff: Computer Vision: I have worked on AR UI interfaces ( and currently writing a paper on this with my classmates) and currently working on eye tracking. Computer Graphics: I have worked on fluid simulations, multigrid solvers and image synthesis techniques ( PBR ), raytracing. Apart from this I used to code competitively and had gone to zonal ACM-ICPC level but now I have sort of lost the touch of it.

I want to go into academia. ( maybe research R&D departments of companies for a short time just a have a dip into the industry. ) Thank you.


texts:
I'm applying to PhD programs in two fields and I am interested in the space between two fields, where one is applied to the other.

In my particular case I'm interested in researching Software Engineering as applied to Robotics. I will use a similar but slightly different case as an illustrative example between the fields of Software Engineering and Machine Learning, which I am also interested in. Software Engineering applied to Machine Learning could incorporate better ways, such as new language syntax, to design and implement Machine Learning Algorithms. The opposite would be using machine learning to solve Software Engineering problems, such as automatically discovering database regularities in a data mining application.

Essentially, I see understanding, researching, and being able to apply software engineering to robotics as an area that will expand enormously in the next 10-15 years, much like how software engineering research has expanded as applied to mobile devices and data centers.

I am very interested in both fields, but ideally I would be studying how to apply software engineering to robotics.

How do I explain my interests to both Robotics and Software Engineering professors, respectively?
How do I communicate why this matters at all, and more importantly why it matters to them?
Should I focus primarily on Software Engineering programs, Robotics programs, or both to reach my goal?

Answers based on analogous situations from other fields are welcome.


texts: Motivating myself to continue being a very good student?

texts:
I have just obtained my Bachelor's in Computer Science (CS) at one of the better universities in Germany. Let me call it AM (Alma Mater). My results during these years were great, i.e. I impressed some professors and I graduated with the highest possible GPA. I decided to do my Master's in CS at the same institution. This was a somewhat forced decision: I did not want to go to the US, and the better universities in Europe (for CS) seem to be located either in the UK or in Switzerland, which are both too expensive for me. I was too focused on my study (and too lazy) to try to fight for a scholarship in either of these countries, so the natural choice was to remain at AM, where I already have a scholarship.
However, I am now realizing that I am not very happy with my situation. The truth is that my impression of AM is not very good. Whenever I discuss CS concepts with my friends/colleagues from AM, I can not help but notice that they are superficial and do not really understand the material. I often get this feeling even when I interact with the tutors (who are mostly Master's/PhD students, but also assistants). Sometimes, I even feel that some professors have embarrassing holes in their knowledge, although I must admit that most professors did not disappoint me. Don't get me wrong: I also met students that impressed me and that helped me stay modest, but it is frustrating to see how many of the AM (future) graduates are very shallow in their knowledge.
I think that most of my frustration is caused by the German system. It is almost trivial to be admitted to AM's CS program, and even though some filtering is done in the first study year, the pressure to produce many graduates clearly affects the quality of the teaching and of the... graduates. There are too many students. And, to be honest, it saddens me to see that many severely unqualified people get the same degree as I do. The only thing that officially separates me from them is the GPA, but I am not convinced that the GPA plays any serious long-term role.
Moreover, the fact that I only rarely came in contact with students that are "better" than me affects my motivation. All these years I only worked alone, and I am struggling hard to push myself to work constantly. My passion for the subject decreased. I became very good at perfecting the necessary work for the exam, and at perfecting the exam, but I feel that my creativity plummeted and that I am no longer as curious as I should be. I go through the concepts very thoroughly, but am not really interested to do more than that. I am working mostly because it's the thing that I am very used to do, but there is no longer any conscious will to do it. I am worried that it is only inertia that keeps me afloat. And now that my Master's at AM is about to begin, I am generally quite sad, which is ironic, because objectively my situation is not bad at all.
The truth is, I (maybe erroneously) fell under the impression that I deserve to be at a slightly better place than AM, and am now struggling to motivate myself to continue performing at AM. For me, Academia makes sense as a career option if I could do it at one of the top "teams", where truly influential research is carried out and where imposture is as low as possible. I know that such great "teams" can be found everywhere in the world, and am sure that AM also has strong departments, but I am still young enough to dream about going somewhere even better. And I struggle to see a clear path to get there.
I would be very grateful if any of you had the time to just comment what I wrote here. I do not really have a specific question, except "How should I assess my position?". I just want to hear the thoughts of someone that has a mature view on Academia.


texts: After Brexit, one proposal is for UK University tuition fees for EU students to remain the same as for Domestic students, while charging Non-European students the full cost. But under a 'No-deal' Brexit the UK will no longer be party to any EU-wide University arrangements, and so under WTO rules it cannot show any type of 'preference' for EU members (this is an extension of the clause on goods to also cover Services, in this case Educational). Is there any way round this, or is the UK legally obliged to treat EU students in the same manner as non-European students?


texts: What excellent university DSP programs exist and what makes them excellent?

texts:
In the same vein as this question, but making sure to abide by Good Subjective/Bad Subjective, what DSP programs are out there that are excellent and why?

Please give concrete examples or at least a cursory explanation for what makes them good/thorough, and stand out from other programs at different universities.


texts:
Earlier this year, I interviewed and received offers for two postdoc positions from competing universities, with one- and three-year contracts, respectively. The first is more related to my PhD, while the second is a bit distant but still in the general area of my discipline. I eventually accepted the second one for different reasons:

It's in a multidisciplinary research centre, and the description was that I will be part of a large team working on a massive project, which I found really exciting and non-traditional.
Huge amount of money is being poured into this centre by the government, so there's a good potential to grow.
The project itself is interesting and I will gain different skills by pursuing it. The intended work was of industry-like nature
The PI was extremely keen to have me onboard, which made me feel valued.

On the flip side, the university is large, but I will be working at a small campus. Most of the team are from one discipline and only a couple of members are actually from my discipline (say, for example, most of them are mechanical engineers, but I'm an electronic engineer). The PI is not from my discipline.

The disadvantages did not mean much to me when I received their offer as I considered myself joining an industry R&D department, which I also confirmed during the interview, and from the position description.

Once I accepted the offer and joined the research centre, I was shocked that I was assigned a very boring project that I will work on alone and doesn't fit my background. It's academic in nature, but with almost zero supervision. The potential to publish in reputable venues is small. I also found out that they hired another postdoc to fill the advertised position. This was a dead-end for me. I felt like I was put under a glass ceiling not to join the other university (a competitor). I deeply regretted accepting this offer, but at the same time, I cannot resign as I have just moved to a new city with a spouse and kids.

The good news is that I did a really great PhD on a hot topic, and was approached by 3 universities abroad to co-supervise PhD students distantly.

I communicated with my supervisor in this regards and expressed my feeling of being alienated and my preference to be integrated with the large team and be given a role as discussed during the interview. He agreed and gave me a task to do, but never replied to any email I sent later. He ignored me big time. Under the fear of being kicked out and putting myself and family in a financial hardship, 6 weeks later, I agreed to work on the project he assigned me earlier while working distantly with the other universities to keep my passion and academic career going. Ever since, our communication improved but still I feel isolated and doing worthless work.

What's your advice for me? Finding another job is a top priority for me but that is going to be hard due to job market trends and the limitation of moving with my family to  a new city/country for another time (kids, school, etc). I have been in this position for 4 months - long enough to hate it.


texts: Is it ethical to send my research proposal to a potential supervisor, when another professor has accepted to be my supervisor?

texts:
I have contacted a professor and he accepted to be my PhD supervisor, but he want me to finish the application procedure by September. The institution that I am applying for is not in my home country, therefore I still have papers and tests to prepare (GRE, TOEFL) ... the process may take at least two months.

Is it ethical to send my research proposal to another professor (from the same university)? Knowing that I contacted him before and he only replied now asking me to send it to him.


texts: Research Fellow on Paper They Did Not Contribute- Solicited my Mentor

texts:
I am in a situation where I do not know how to tell my mentor I am not comfortable with a research fellow on our paper as an author. I came across a "call to submission" for a paper, in essence, there is a special edition of a journal over a specific topic. I wrote the complete manuscript thinking it was presumptively thesis material but it felt short of novel methods warranted by my academic committee. However, my department eagerly anticipates it is good-quality publication material due to its findings. Anywho, I wrote this paper independently and included a colleague who edited parts of the data analyses as an author. He, unbeknownst to me, sent it off to a research fellow at our institution for his comments as a co-author. The comments are toxic, gaudy, and do not display an adequate understanding of the topic. Worse, however, is that the research fellow is cordial with my mentor, and e-mailed him his comments, selling the manuscript off as his. He has a moderate amount of paper at the institution, and I want to interview there for further training opportunities and do not want to compromise my bottom line. His comments include:

Asking me why hadn't I spelled out multiple abbreviations that are literally spelled out and defined in the sentence or paragraph before.
Putting an asterisk by his name and mine saying we share first co-authorship.
Requesting multiple self-citations over introductory statements known to all, the self-citations are very low-quality non-indexed review articles in openly predatory journals.
Crossed out my name as corresponding author and put his contact information, as he was "invited" by the journal (our whole department got the same call to submissions paper).
When I quote other previous experiments in a similar domain, he has written: "stop changing your hypothesis".
Says my graphics quality "if submitted to a conference, would automatically result in denial of the manuscript regardless of the content"
Is literally editing multiple metrics out and is replacing them with metrics that I have not used and are in fact, the wrong analysis for this experimental design.

Am I overreacting? I feel as if I am in a bad spot. What is the best course of action to remove this individual from the paper without trying to get my mentor involved? I need to ask my mentor for a letter of recommendation in a few months, too. I am a lower ranking than the fellow as well...


texts: Should citations be included in funding applications

texts: I am writing a funding application for the development of a scientific technology, should I include references to back up the most important aspects of my proposal? Is there a standard procedure for this?


texts:
I have been an adjunct at different community colleges.  I just got offered and accepted full time teaching position job (verbally) not in paper yet.   The unfortunate situation is that I already signed contracts to adjunct a couple of sections at another school.  It is possible for me to teach at both schools, but my fear is getting burned out, and want teach my full time position well.

However, I feel that if I back out of my written contracts it can jeopardize my full time teaching position (and future prospects), since that is just a verbal agreement and I haven't signed a contract for that.

Should I back out of my adjunct classes so I can concentrate on my full time position.  Or should I just stick to teaching both for that semester to avoid possible backlash?


texts: I am about 1 year away from finishing my PhD (hopefully), and have recently seen a few advertised postdoc positions that I think would be perfect for me. Most positions indicate that the start date is around 3 months away. My question is: how early is too early to apply? Is it worth applying for these positions and indicating in my cover letter that I wouldn't be able to start for another year? Is it OK to email professors directly and inquire informally about open positions in their labs at this stage?


texts: Is it a good idea to convert from a percentile GPA to a 4.0 scale GPA?

texts:
My school gives me my GPA as a percentage out of 100. If I have 91.55% overall, websites like this and this claim that this is equivalent to a 3.7 GPA. Is it then valid to write on my resume that I have a 3.7 GPA, or would this in some way be misleading or disadvantageous?

Furthermore, if I am able to raise this percentage to 93%, would it be valid to then report that I have a 4.0 GPA?


texts: Can we add a finding to a paper which is known by other communities but not ours?

texts:
I’ve been working on a research project, and we have some findings that we are now writing a paper. However, I am unsure about one section of the paper.

We have done some experiments (related to images and videos), and after quite a lot of reverse engineering, we discovered something related to how cameras take pictures and videos. Later, we read a lot about camera internals and found out our finding is already there. So, there is nothing novel about it.

However, previous research/other researchers in my field don’t know it and due to that the performances of similar experiments were around 70–80 % whereas ours is 96–97 %. I wonder if our discovery is a valid to include to a paper. Or what is a good way to add it to the paper and make it look fancier than it is?


texts: what does "Reject (revise and resubmit)" mean?

texts:
I submitted a paper to an IEEE journal. The editor provided the following review:

  Based on the enclosed set of reviews this manuscript is not acceptable for publication in its current form, but may be acceptable after being thoroughly reworked. If you choose to resubmit, please send the reworked manuscript no later than 07-Mar-2019, but preferably as soon as possible.  The sooner we receive the resubmission, the better the likelihood that we can utilize the same editor and reviewers.  If an extension is needed for any reason, please contact ... with an expected date for the resubmission.
  Your resubmitted manuscript will require an additional full round of review, but as stated above, we will make every effort to utilize the previous reviewers if possible.  Please be sure to mention the original paper number and include a point-by-point response to the reviewer comments in your cover letter and/or File Upload section.

Does that mean "Reject" or "Major Revision"? What is the difference between this decision and reject?
If I decide to submit the paper to another journal, should I withdraw the paper from the first journal?


texts: Advice on applying for Economics graduate programs with a low GRE

texts:
I took the GRE in August and scored a 301 and took it recently again and scored a 308. My field of work is primarily in Behavioural Economics so I plan on applying to specialized and general Economics grad school programs. I have a strong profile with internships in various organizations within my field and outside it as well as several publications and a good CGPA.

My questions are:

What are my chances of getting into good/top grad school programs in the U.S/UK?
Should I consider applying to places outside of the US that don't require the score at all?

Thanks in advance!


texts: How to properly point out the M.Sc. thesis in a Ph.D. application

texts:
Having personally contacted a professor about the possibility of a Ph.D., he asked me to send him a cv and a copy of my M.Sc. in order to evaluate.
Instead, in the online application form of "other" Ph.D. programmes, I have found that I need to include a cv, among the other things, but there is no possibility to attach a copy of the thesis. So, preparing the cv, I thought to imbed an hyperlink to the thesis.

  I would ask you: if it is acceptable, or is counter-productive?


texts: Citing (and correcting) an example with incorrect glossing and translation

texts:
I want to cite an example from a published paper. However, there is a mistake in the glossing as well as in the translation of the example. Imagine something like this (mistakes in bold):

Ich sehe ihn.
I see.2SG he.ACC
'We see him.' (SomeAuthor 2018: 1)

So, I know that [sic] or [sic] is used to indicate mistakes found in the original source. In this case, however, I'd rather just use a corrected version of the example - without citing the mistakes, as they are not relevant and could cause confusion.

Is there a common way to do this?

I was considering something like this:

Ich sehe ihn.
I see.1SG he.ACC
'I see him.' (SomeAuthor 2018: 1, corrected)


texts: Is there an incentive to submitting a math PhD application before the deadline?

texts: I was aware that there are a few REU programs that began offering positions before their stated deadline. Is there an advantage to submitting my application early, besides the reassurance that my supporting materials like letters of recommendation will be received on time? For example, if the admissions committee starts reading applications early, they may look at my application more favorably when they aren't inundated with applications.


texts: Are university professors allowed to use any computer they want for work?

texts:
Do universities restrict the brand or manufacturer of computers their professors are allowed to use for work?
May a PhD advisor ban certain computer brands?
Are there any restrictions on using your own funding to buy certain brands of computers?
Corporate restricts company computers allowed for security reasons but the university doesn’t technically own any of the professors work or consider it their proprietary knowledge so are they allowed the control the electronic storage system of it?


texts: Do postdoc/professor search committees read the files from all candidates?

texts: Or do they do a sort of selective search? If I apply, is there something I have to do in advance to ensure that will my file be opened, at all?


texts: Have any major universities around the world announced a transition to a remote-first model?

texts:
Numerous companies around the world have announced they're getting rid of office space and allowing their employees to work from anywhere in the world, if their roles allows it. Have any major universities around the world announced a similar transition? It would be impossible for, say, cancer research to move "into the cloud" but there's no reason why theoretical math research would need any in-person interactions.
Obviously there's still the question of how to teach students but this was also executed successfully (in terms of technical feasibility, how good the outcomes have been is unclear to me) during the pandemic so in theory an institution might choose to shutdown large swaths of their campus altogether or switch to a hybrid model.


texts: How to measure engagement in uncommunicative class

texts:
I'm teaching a lot of students who are fairly unresponsive in a large class that is set early in the morning. While I'm working on ways to encourage them to respond to questions, I find that normal indicators of how one is doing are absent: they don't laugh at jokes, groan, interrupt, or give much indication at all of how they are finding the content. If I ask if people understand or have questions, I will get no responses. While I find this somewhat discouraging, a more pressing issue is that I find it hard to work out if they are actually understanding what I'm saying (or perhaps they understand, but disagree). Possibly they are bored, or tired (as it is early). Presumably I'll get feedback at the end of the course, but I'd rather fix any issues now rather than later.

When trying to evaluate myself I think I might rush sentences, and use too many crutch words, but I don't know if this is an issue for students. If it is, they are highly unlikely to say as much, to my face at least! It is even hard to gauge their prior knowledge and what sort of level of terminology I can assume will be understood. For throwaway comments I can give synonyms or quick explanations, but doing this constantly will slow things down a lot and will be tiresome for those who already understand these terms. I don't want to send out a question which essentially amounts to "do I suck?"


texts: Can I volunteer to work with my Masters thesis advisor, when I am funded by different advisor for PhD

texts:
I completed my master's dissertation with an adviser and was interested in the PhD program. Unfortunately I was told that my master's adviser didn't have funding and the other professor in department was doing an interesting research about an emerging field and he agreed to fund my PhD for next 4 years. He is aware that my previous lab let me go because of funding issues. Research in my previous lab and present lab are completely different, they are in no way related.

Now I still have strong interest in my adviser's work partly because some of the projects were my ideas and I don't want others to end up implementing them and also research is significant enough to have a journal published on it (an important addition to my resume). They have time till August to finish them off and I estimate they require at least 2-3 hours of work a day. I was considering volunteering for my Master's adviser and finishing off those projects. Will it be OK if I volunteer in my personal time to try and finish them? Do students ever do this?


texts: Is it acceptable that a teacher assistant encourage students to read his authored materials too?

texts:
During my leisure time, I used to prepare some pamphlets in the topic of courses I always wanted to teach. Each, full of examples and solved problems which I designed and solved myself, not photocopying from books and papers; that are so helpful to the engineering students.

If one day, I have the chance to teach in a TA class, is it ethical to ask the students to read my prepared materials too? Or the teaching assistant should only solve the problems of the reference book which is told by the professor of the course?


texts:
I'm finishing my PhD and looking for postdoc jobs. I've published a decent number of papers (and also have a fair number of citations), and want to emphasize this on my CV.

Should I actually state my h-index on my CV? If so, is Google Scholar the easiest/best way to compute this?

2014.03.12 EDIT:
Thanks for the advice. I had originally planned to put my h-index at the head
of my list of publications (as a clickable link to my Google Scholar profile).

Based on the advice from many of you I will just omit this altogether for now.
My scholar profile is easy to find (for potential PIs who care about such
metrics), and not explicitly stating my h-index myself avoids any negative
connotations among those who object to the h-index or calculating it via Google
Scholar (e.g. Google includes self-citations, arXiv/non peer-reviewed papers
etc).


texts: How to bring up to a future postdoc employer, the point of not asking for recommendation for a specific postdoc employer?

texts:
I'm applying for a postdoc position at a French university, and the employer, who's a professor, requested me, in an informal email exchange, to state the name and email of a specific former employer from whom she could ask for a recommendation. Now when I was working in that former postdoc position, it was not productive for both, things didn't go well, and I'm ready to take part (but not all) of responsibility for it. I've a bitter feeling about that postdoc advisor for reasons that're not relevant to this question.
My question to you is: how do I tell my potential postdoctoral employer that I don't want her to seek a recommendation from that position? Here's what I drafted so far:
"If it can be avoided, I'd rather not have my mentor at position *** write a recommendation for me, as I often felt our professional relationship could be improved as we disagreed on many approaches in the project and there were also personality mismatch - while I do take part of the responsibility for it, I'm unable to take all of it. "
after which I finished the draft of this informal email with:
"If you're okay with the above response, I'll go ahead and send you a formal application." And my CV does mention another postdoctoral employer who could write recommendations for me, which I stated earlier in the same draft email.
What do you think of the above response? And practically speaking , is it okay to tell her that I don't want her to request recommendation from this and that post? For me: I tend to feel it's okay as long as there're some other capable people who can write recommendations - everybody has an unfavorable period in life, and that could happen in a postdoc, but that alone doesn't define me as a researcher.


texts: Are both GRE and TOEFL a must for a PhD program in the US? Or only TOEFL will suffice?

texts: I have completed my masters in English Literature from India and now want to do my PhD from the US. Should I take both the tests, i.e. TOEFL and GRE? Or only TOEFL will be enough? And if I need to take the GRE, then is it a must to take the subject test as well?


texts: What are the challenges to publishing a paper when you have a huge number of collaborators?

texts:
Following on from this question, I'm really curious to know about the logistics of large scale collaborations when it comes to publishing a paper that everyone has some contribution to.

To summarise, the recently published paper on the detection of gravitational waves had an author list with over 1000 names and 133 institutions. The sheer number of people involved would make publishing a single paper somewhat less straightforward than, say, a small research group based at a single institution.

So, to my questions:

What were the logistical challenges of having over 1000
authors/collaborators when it came to publishing a single paper?
How were these challenges overcome?

I want to make this question as specific and answerable as possible, so please edit this question as appropriate.


texts: I received a doctorate from an online school Walden University. I have not had any luck finding a full time college teaching position. Should I pursue another Ph D from another reputable college? Can I use any of the coursework I already have to defray the expense?


texts: Addressing medical issues in grad school applications

texts:
For most of university, I usually got around a ~3.5, with my GPA in my fourth year being around a 3.8.

However, during the first semester of my first year, I had some medical issues that made it really challenging to focus on school. Because of that, my GPA that semester was around a 1.7.

This one semester 4 years ago is completely destroying my GPA. Because of it my cumulative GPA is around a 3.35 instead of the 3.6 it should be.

I'm applying to PhD programs right now, and I'm afraid that most grad schools will take a quick look at the 3.35 and immediately dismiss my application because it's so low... I've done as much as I can to mitigate the effect of it, including doing quite well my fourth year, publishing a research paper and doing several research internships throughout university.

I was hoping for some advice on the best way to deal with this. I'll definitely mention this in my SOP, but I don't know if that will be sufficient. I'm also not sure how many details I'm expected to share about the medical issue. It's obviously very personal and I'd prefer to not share too much, but if I absolutely need to I guess that's okay...


texts: Cite only "good papers" or "all expected papers"?

texts:
I work in a small interdisciplinary field in which one group writes a lot of papers that aren't good but are often read.  When I publish on a topic that they have published on before, should I cite them even if their work is irrelevant to mine?

More context:

The prolific group publishes a lot of mathematical modeling papers in which the model is hidden behind a cascade of self-citation, is written in somewhat non-standard terminology, and no code or calibration data is published.  My field is dominated by non-modelers who are often not equipped to judge the modeling, but who read the papers for the figures and discussion (and open peer review has shown that they often review the papers without reviewing the model).

The ethics of citation as I understand them agree with this answer in that we must cite (1) intellectual precedents of our work, (2) supporting evidence, and (3) papers that provide appropriate context.  Because their methods are opaque to other modelers like myself, (1) and (2) aren't possible. The papers are also not (3) appropriate context because the science between the intro and discussion isn't done well and I view these papers as opinion pieces.

But, I can expect my non-modeler readers to look askance at my minimal citations of the group's work. As a less-established member of the community, it can look like I'm playing games with priority when I'm actually concerned about advancing the poor state of modeling in my field.  I'm debating whether to stick to my principles or give in to what I perceive are poor citation practices to lower friction and look more collegial.


texts: Multiple interviews and reimbursement from the same institution

texts:
I have two related questions. Here's the situation: I have 3 postdoc interviews at the same university and I scheduled them within the same week for obvious travel reasons.

Question 1: should I mention to all parties that I will be doing other interviews at the university? I only ask because two are in the same department, so it would be awkward if I crossed paths with one while being given a tour by the other. And should I take one of the positions, I would no doubt encounter the others later.

Question 2: I am offered reimbursement for travel by one of the interviewers. I did not ask for reimbursement for the two others nor did they offer (yet). I am not traveling exclusively for the lab offering reimbursement, so is it appropriate to accept?

Question 2A: If I do accept, and another group offers reimbursement, can I recommend that the costs be split somehow? There's no reason for one group in particular to pay for everything.


texts:
I'm a Ph.D. candidate in a theoretical field, so there is only math and programming involved (as opposed to a wet lab). The environment is very casual, everyone just wears jeans and a t-shirt everyday. Sometimes I dress semi-formally (e.g. a dress shirt tucked into nice slacks) just because I like to. I notice people tend to give me quite odd stares when I do this. In the blue hair thread, a highly voted comment remarked:

  I only remember one situation in my field where somebody’s looks were commented on and that was somebody wearing a tie and a suit as a PhD student.

and further in the conference appearance thread (which is a dressier occasion than daily lab work):

  if you are young (<30) , wearing a suit and a tie would probably seem a little weird.

I'm likely over-thinking this, but is it inappropriate for me to wear dressy clothes in the lab? Obviously it's not offensive or anything, but I wouldn't want to make anyone else feel uncomfortable or have them dislike me for what I wear. Any thoughts?


texts: My PhD Supervisor is founding a startup based on my thesis work and wants me to be first hire. Unsure if want to join

texts:
I'm a current PhD student and PhD supervisor is in the process of making a startup company largely based on the devices that I've developed during my PhD thesis. My supervisor is trying hard to convince me, but not pressuring me, to join the company as its first hire. If I accept I will almost immediately begin writing my thesis to graduate early as I begin to work at the company.
I will make a modest salary to begin with (A 10K-15K increase in my PhD salary, but probably 30K-40K less than I could expect to make if I was hired at a larger company) and get roughly 2% equity. He is looking for me to commit for a year to 2 years to begin with, at which point he thinks we can bring the company to a roughly 20M valuation if successful.
I enjoy the work I do and have a relatively okay relationship with my advisor, but am beginning to get some fatigue and am interested in getting the opportunity to work on something new. At the startup I would essentially be doing the same work I'm doing now and continue working in the same labs and using the same equipment. This makes it difficult for me to get 100% excited about the opportunity because there is not really an immediately tangible change or benefit that feels like career progression other than the small increase in pay, and potential future payout if the company is successful.
I don't want to accept the offer and within my first few weeks feel like I'm already burnt out on the project. But I also don't want to pass on the offer, find my new job not as exciting (or not be able to find a job at all) and wish I would have accepted the offer. Does anybody have any advice? Thanks.


texts: How to gracefully leave a lab due to poor infrastructure and aiming to move into a new field of research?

texts:
I am an early career postdoc in a prestigious high-ranking university in US. I did my PhD in from a good state university in US and published a decent number of papers. My current PI has no expertise in my field but wanted to delve into a completely different area and hired me to start a brand-new project. I have obtained some preliminary data that can be used in grant application but nothing publication worthy. I believe I could have obtained better results if I were working in a more suited environment.
I joined this lab just before the pandemic and had to go for a long hiatus. Due to covid related restrictions, I was only able to start working regularly from November. During this 5 months, I have realized that the infrastructure of this lab is very poor which is surprising because the lab is well funded and have good number of postdocs and students. We do not have basic supplies like ethanol, bleach, chemicals like glucose, Tris etc. We do not have enough pipettes for everyone, tube holders, even no boxes in -20 or -80 to store samples. All of us keep our samples (eppendorfs) in 50ml tubes. The grad students share pipettes. We do not even have centrifuges.
We share the lab space with two other labs, and it is a normal custom that we always ask chemicals or using their instruments on a regular basis (bacterial shakers, centrifuges just to name a few). These instruments are not shared, it is their lab property. They are generous enough to share things with us, but you can sense that they are not happy. I feel that my PI is just using them to survive. I understand that I can always order chemicals, but I cannot ask him to improve the infrastructures suddenly. In addition, the lab environment is weird, there is no communication between lab members. The lab is super quiet, and nobody talks with each other except when they need something.
In my PhD, I never had to worry about infrastructure, and had all the necessary instruments required in a regular lab. After my PhD, I was super excited to start my postdoc and working on this challenging project, but I am appalled to see the lack of infrastructure in my current lab and want to leave this lab asap. Moreover, during this pandemic, my research interest has changed. I want to diversify my experimental biology background and move into virology. I am frustrated and worried about my career progression and feel I cannot achieve anything from this lab. I love this project, but I can not work in this environment and start working on my area of interest.
My plan is to find a better lab to do another postdoc in virology, but I am worried that if I cannot publish from this postdoctoral stint, people are not going to hire me. I feel I have already wasted one year in this lab and without a publication, finding a decent postdoc will be tough. My contract ends in next February, and if I want to leave early that might result in a strained professional relationship. I also need reference letter from him for my next postdoc application. Is it possible to leave the lab without burning bridges? How can I tell him that I want to move to a different direction of research and leave as soon as possible?


texts: Former advisor committed financial misconduct. How to apply to PhD programs

texts:
After three years in the workforce, I am planning on returning to school to get my PhD. I currently have a master's degree. Recently, however, there has arisen a complication: my thesis advisor for my master's degree was just discovered to have been embezzling from grant money (double dipping using a fake employee) that was shared between him and two other professors (one at his own institution, one at another institution). His fraud occurred after I was gone from the university.

Because he was caught embezzling grant money, the entire grant was revoked and the other two professors lost their portions of the money. This represents at least two more years of planned funding that they have now lost through no fault of their own. The professor at the other university (call it University X) was one of my strongest choices for potential advisors if I was accepted to the program at U of X. She likely would recognize my name if I applied to the program at U of X. Because I do not know how she would react to an application from a former student of the professor that just caused her to lose a large grant, I am now hesitant to apply to U of X.

Even if I decide not to apply to U of X, I worry that admissions committees will see my former advisor's name and will black list me. My advisor was at least somewhat well known in the field (22 years of work in the field) and the number of people that are aware of him may be somewhat large.

I would just avoid mentioning my advisor's name if it was not for the fact that I published two papers with him. If I want to entirely cleanse my application of my advisor, I will also have to avoid any mention of these two publications. Not being able to include these publications in my application would obviously weaken my application. My advisor has a rather unique name (not just John Jones or something) and anyone who knows of the situation would immediately be able to connect him to what happened.

Will I still be able to get into PhD programs? Should I attempt to address my advisor's actions in my application? If so, how should I go about doing so?


texts: How do I cite a screenshot I've taken of a software program?

texts:
How to write a proper reference for an image I'm going to use for my thesis?

This image is a screenshot of a software installed on my own PC and I am the one who took it myself. It's not from another website.


texts: What do I do if I cannot give a good reference to my PhD student?

texts:
I've seen several questions from students about bad supervisor references but this is on the other side.
I have a PhD student whose priority during their PhD was family (had two children in 3 years) and social life. They are smart but simply did the minimum for the PhD. We had a talk some time ago and they were clear that their target was the minimum requirements set by the school and nothing more. Which is fine by me, since that what they want.
They've now asked me to write a reference letter for a very prestigious ECR fellowship. I personally know many members of the committee. The reference guidelines ask me to address the candidate's ability to work well under pressure, attract funding, take initiative, work independently, etc.
I am conflicted. My options as I see are:

I write a statement of facts. Worked in the group from X to Y, published N papers, etc. However, this will basically signal that I cannot support their candidacy since I don't address the specific guidelines.
I tell the student I cannot give a support letter. However, given they haven't worked with any other professor or group, it will leave them in bad place.

Any other options?
Update: Some more information based on questions/comments below.

The student was clear after the first year of their PhD (pre-COVID) that they want to do the minimum. For example, the requirement set by the university is to have "publishable" work and not to have published. So, the student did not want to go through the publication process except for "easy" conferences (2). All of my other PhDs until now have had 1 journal accepted and at least 1 submitted by the submission date.
The fact that they focus on family is the positive aspect for me. E.g., if they did the minimum because they were lazy, I wouldn't have problem to say I don't provide a reference letter. I don't know how many hours they actually put since I don't keep monitor (also, last 9 months have been remotely due to COVID).
I don't believe I can truthfully say that they comply with what I'm asked to comment on. E.g., good organizational skills: they have missed multiple deadlines, missed meetings, missed report submissions for their own funding which has a fixed yearly date (!). The excuse is always family or technical problems, but for the 3 years of joint work, I cannot truthfully say they have good organizational skills. I'll not extend to other aspects, but similar picture.


texts:
It seems that most of the ethics and plagiarism questions follow the same basic archetype:

Q: I think there's some plagiarism going on, and I don't really want to report it, but I think I should. Should I?
A: It'll be tricky, but yes, of course you should report it. Consult your institution for more details.

My question: is there any case of academic dishonesty (including plagiarism) that a student/TA should almost certainly not report?


texts: In scholar we can list our fields of interest. Whenever you click them, scholar shows the most cited researchers in that field like this. Is there a way to sort google scholar profiles by country, in a given field?


texts: I did not earn my Master's degree. Do I mention it in my Ph.D. program and onwards and on my CV?

texts:
I started my terminal Master’s degree program in Fall 2017. My plan was to graduate Spring 2019, and if successful, enter a Ph.D. program  Fall 2019. My Master’s program is a more general program and not one that is necessary to obtain in order to proceed to my specific Ph.D. program, however, some like myself, use it as a stepping stone especially if we come from other fields (I hold a B.S. in biology which is not my current field).

In short, I did not obtain my Master’s. Due to the fact that I was immersed in a highly toxic, dysfunctional (no one has integrity and conducts unethical research) and borderline abusive department, and that both my thesis chairs left in the process, my graduation date was delayed. There were also 3 others in my cohort who didn’t graduate, and many others dropped out along the way—all for similar reasons as I. I was accepted to my top choice Ph.D. program in a different state, and thus decided to not stay behind and try to complete my Master’s (which was my back up plan). My new school does not expect me to complete my Master’s; in fact, I’d almost say that they don’t care, as they did not ask 1 single question about my program nor seemed remotely interested about it during my interview. Not needing my Master’s was confirmed by both the Admissions Department and the Records Office at my new school, and after this, I formally withdrew from my former school. My experience was so negative that I have zero plans to return to complete the Master’s at a different time. Also, at my new school, you earn a Master’s (which is in my specific field and credit based) along the way, which is nice.

My question is, is it necessary to mention my Master’s program on my CV? I’m assuming the answer is ‘yes,’ but I am unsure of how I would go about mentioning it on my CV. I was 3 credits away from getting my Master’s, and while I’m not ashamed of it, I am unsure of how I should handle it when it comes up in convos, esp. when applying to internships, etc. Do I say “degree not conferred” or is there a better way to convey this?

I’d appreciate any tips and advice. Thank you!


texts: Where to advertise PhD positions without paying a fee?

texts: We have several opening in our group working in the field of computer science and electrical engineering (more specifically digital system design). We put an advertisement in our webpage and also another in the university portal. But we don't have applicants yet. I was looking for some websites to advertise the positions. I found that most of these websites (e.g. researchgate) ask for money. Do you know any website for advertising phd positions for free?


texts: Are tuition subsidies taxables for research staff?

texts:
I have two Bachelor degrees and an MMath, not looking for any more degrees at this time, but I might be interested in taking some Japanese and Chinese language courses.

I'm working as a research programmer for a university in the US (IU), and they offer the option of

  a subsidy toward the tuition costs, under Section 117 of the Internal Revenue Code.

What does this mean for me?

Would such subsidy be included in my income, and would I have to cover for the taxes as if I have received all such subsidies as real money in income?
What happens to the in-state / out-of-state tuition differential?  I've moved from a different state for this job mid-summer, and might start taking courses right away in autumn.


texts: find the right journal to publish my manuscript

texts:
I'm about to publish my work in a journal,

I'm searching for those having an impact factor, indexed and non-paying.

I used Elsevier finder,  Springer suggester, DBLP,...tp pick up a list of journals in my research area then, I send it to my supervisor, who shocked me with another criterion which is 'open access', he said that a journal having an open access option is a paying journal and I'm not allowed to publish in it.

Could you please tell me what is this open access option?

how to find the right journal with the criteria that my supervisor and I want?


texts: How to quote a non-English quotation in dissertation?

texts:
I am writing my math PhD in Berlin (Germany) in the English language.

I would like to cite a German quotation from a famous mathematician as a start of my first chapter.

Should I quote it in the original language and make a footnote of what it means in English, or should I freely translate it into English without a footnote? Or is there simply no standard for this kind of fancy quotations?


texts: Citing low quality papers (solutions) in surveys?

texts:
I sometimes find papers that aim to solve the same problem that I am working on, but these papers are of terrible quality. Some of these papers:

introduce wrong solutions,
re-introduce a solution that is already published, or
are just very hard to understand because of the low quality of writing.

Should I cite these papers in my "related work" section when writing a paper?

Would it be offensive to tackle these papers and prove that they are wrong (especially as the most of these papers are published in not very good conferences)?

Or is it perhaps a waste of time to pay any attention to these papers?


texts: With what style should I write to a Board Of Examiners?

texts:
I have to make an appeal to a Board of Examiners regarding a progress issue, and I'm stuck with which style to write in.

I wrote my appeal with a slightly personal tone, since it is a personal letter - I want to show my personal interest and commitment in the issue and solving it. Some reviewers gave me this feedback:

A Guidance counsellor thought it was alright in quick email feedback.
Other reviewer, who had been in a similar position, said they were very neutral, objective and as a result it was much too personal, and that I should have left out the majority of the adjectives.

So, I'm at a dilemma. As much as they do not want literary masterpieces (which understand and I am not trying to do), the latter suggestion leaves it cold and without a hint of interest, which is exactly what I would like to convey. I've tried to substantiate my claims and statements with facts as much as I can, but I still feel I can't leave out adjectives.

"This was a very frustrating delay" as opposed to "This was a frustrating delay"
"Despite my best attempts" as opposed to "Despite my attempts"
"This process took very long" as compared to "This process took long"
"I really attempted to avoid" as opposed to "I attempted to avoid"

Field is aerospace engineering.


texts:
I began a PhD program last year and found the program to have been  misrepresented, whether intentionally or not. I am a behavioral student, and my department has two tracks they admit students to: behavioral and non-behavioral (I'm trying to keep details vague), where the non-behavioral track draws from completely different fields and research questions than the behavioral track and are therefore different fields "umbrella-ed" under a single department. Before joining this program, I reviewed the curriculum for my track that is posted on the website, asked a lot of questions about expectations, courses, etc., and felt it was a good fit. However, during my first year the program changed a bit (I was not told this would happen) and there are no more behavioral courses being offered because of politics in the department and the departure of two behavioral faculty members.

I have thus been receiving training in the non-behavioral track. Needless to say, I feel like I've been duped; I am not getting the coursework/foundational training or research experience necessary to succeed and publish in my desired field. The department head is aware of the issues and unwilling to discuss. Her attitude is, "that's just how it is, deal with it."

How would you handle a situation such as this? I cannot simply leave and go to another program. I don't have the funds to relocate again unless I work for a few more years to save up more money. I'm not so young, so I don't want to push off a PhD much longer. I'm also not sure I should stay either, because I've essentially been forced to get my PhD in a different field and I'm not sure if I will be able to cross back over after getting my degree. Am I missing other potential options for handling this situation, aside from leaving and just not getting my PhD?


texts: How do you thematically include accidental findings ("serendipity") in a dissertation or paper?

texts:
I'm asking for approaches to include interesting, but not perfectly fitting results in a dissertation or a paper.

During my PhD project I have made an accidental discovery, which is what I believe you call serendipity. The finding is related to the overall topic of my dissertation and certainly interesting, but it interrupts the "leitmotif" of my argumentation, as this discovery is really just the result of a stupid mistake. So my question here is: How do you eloquently include stupid mistakes (aka accidental findings) in a dissertation or a paper without sounding stupid or breaking the flow of arguments apart? Is there even a generalizing answer to this question?


texts: Reputation of university versus quality of work for research assistantship

texts:
I have a couple of offers for my bachelors thesis in computer science (machine learning, to be precise). The options are such that one is interesting work at a not-so-well-known institute (in my home country), while the other is at a better institute (foreign university) with less interesting work. What is more important given that I want to pursue research in future in terms of masters / PhD?

Please note that I have only provided the information below to give context, so that if someone is interested in having more information before answering he/she can do so by reading below. This is NOT meant to be a "shopping" question where one asks others to make the choice. The information exists only to provide context for those interested.

Some context in this regard (optional details):

In my final year, my university allows me to pursue my undergrad thesis at any university / research institute where I can find a professor willing to advise me.

I have a couple of offers for my thesis in this regard. One is at a not-so-well-respected institute in my home country (India) with a great professor. I call him "great" based on his publications – most of them are in top notch conferences, and his projects also seem very interesting to me.

The second is in Germany, at a slightly better known institute (again, not very well known). The professor and my potential supervisor seem to do good research, but their publication record is not as good as the first professor mentioned above. And while their project is interesting, I don't find it as interesting as the project above.

So I seem to be faced with the question of choosing between quality of work and the reputation of the university. On the one hand, option India provides me with interesting work and the recommendation from a professor who has a strong publication record. On the other hand, option Germany provides me with foreign experience on my resume and a potentially bigger name to throw around, along with a recommendation from the same.

What should the relative importance of reputation versus quality of work be?


texts: Marie Curie fellowship - family allowance

texts: Am I entitled for a family allowance if my family (a husband and children) don't live in the same country where my host institution is?


texts:
I applied to a pretty broadly-themed conference in my research areas, and submited two very different contributed talk abstracts. I suspected one would be downgraded to a poster, or simply rejected. Instead, the organisers told me I could present both talks. Looking in the abstract book, I see that no one else will be giving two talks. Is giving two talks in poor taste?

Specific background: I am an early postdoc, and the conference is in Europe. Both research projects are new and have not been presented elsewhere, and are with completely separate sets of coauthors.


texts: What is difference between funding an MS and a PHD student

texts:
I am trying to understand this regarding aspects of funding only and not quality of research.What is difference between funding an PHD and an MS student.

I thought both took courses, get some stipend and advisor funds them.Maybe for PHD they fund students for 5 years instead of 2 years of MS ?

Is there any other major difference?

I understand PHD student's research output expectations are completely different.I am asking this question with specific regards to state universities in US.


texts: On some cases where exam results are manipulated

texts:
This problem has been bothering me as a lecturer and future PhD student for a while now.

A student just finishes filling his exam sheet. He then gives the sheet to the lecturer. The lecturer is then grading the result. He then returns the result to the student.

(Bad student) After seeing his score, the student does not accept it, but he knows this result is fair. He then reports to the person above the lecturer that his exam sheet has been changed by the lecturer (which is possible, isn't it?). He claims that this is not his exam sheet. He then argues and keeps arguing by bringing made-up facts and made-up evidences.
(Bad lecturer) This case is similar to case 1, but this time the lecturer has indeed change the exam sheet. The student is then surprised and he can't prove it wrong somehow.

How can we prevent these two possible cases? I have seen case 1 but that was a long time ago and I forget how it was solved. However,  I think it is fine to prevent bad things before they happen rather than handling them after they happen which usually turns out to be too late.

One solution I can think of is going online. Do test online, share exam sheets online, etc. Is there another countermeasure?


texts: Addressing the recepient on the cover letter for a PhD application

texts:
I am applying for a PhD position, and I am required to attach a cover letter with the application.
In the advertisement for the position, the main contact person is the "Head of the PhD program", so it feels natural to address the letter to him.

My question: As this person is also an Associate Professor of Mathematics, which title should I use when stating his address information?

My first intuition was to write:

  Name Surname, Head of PhD program

  (other address information)

but this might be a bit unfortunate as he is also an associate professor, which could be considered to be a title of greater value.

Alternatively I could just write:

  Name Surname, Associate Professor of Mathematics

  (other address information)

but then it sort of misses the point of why I am addressing the letter to him (though this might be obvious to someone working at their department).

I could also add both:

  Name Surname

  Associate Professor of Mathematics and Head of PhD program

  (other address information)

Is there a standard way?

The university has their own online system for applying, so this might not be all too important. Nevertheless, I want to make sure everything is right.


texts: Research paper feedback: "interesting idea but does not add scientific value"

texts:
Where is the border line between a novel, creative work and work that is of scientific value? I have received reviewer comments like:

  the ideas are creative and interesting  but work adds little scientific value.

What do reviewers look for when making such comments/judgements? They often do not clearly state what was missing in the paper. My field is computer science.


texts: Could Brexit negatively affect PhD students in the UK who are EU nationals?

texts:
This question relates to the potential withdrawal of the UK from the European Union, a.k.a. Brexit.

I am an Italian citizen, and I will start a (funded) PhD in the UK in September.

Right now I don't need any particular documents to stay there, but I am worried that if the UK decides to leave the EU my position could be in trouble (especially with regards to funding).

What would happen in such a situation?

I am aware this question might be labeled as opinion-based, but I am looking for people who already got answers from their universities. I imagine financial plans have been established for the next two-three years already.


texts: Losing one's teaching assistantship due to weird circumstances

texts:
So my best friend is sort of in a strange situation. We are in the same graduate program. Here's the story.
Last semester I was stuck in a class with a professor with an extremely weird way of running the class. We were not allowed to discuss the homework with anyone, study together for exams or collaborate in any way. We got a huge amount of homework per week, and he was a very harsh grader. Exams were incredibly difficult and we only were given 3 minutes to upload the file to be graded. Combined with the entire Covid-19 situation, this was getting too much on my mental health, but I was at the point where I could not drop the class due to my full time requirement.
I noticed other people in the class were getting very stressed out as well, one student (has straight A's in all other graduate courses) even told me that the class was making her suicidal. We consulted a few staff members in the department and some older graduate students and thought the best thing to do was to talk to the department chair.
Some of the older graduate students told us though that this particular professor is known for retaliating against students who criticize him or his teaching methods. Therefore we got my friend who was not in the class to talk about this to the department chair. He wanted to just voice a concern to him, and ask for any help or advice.
My friend did not say anything bad about the professor, period. He just said he is concerned for us and our mental health, and described the amount of work the professor was giving us and how he has previously encouraged his students to compromise their free time and even sleeping to do the work.
Instead of being helpful, the department chair yelled at my friend, and told him that he does not understand how prestigious the particular professor is and how he is a great asset to the department. He also told my friend how he did a very "childish and ridiculous" thing by approaching the department chair instead of directly talking to the professor about these concerns. We did not do this because he knew that the does not take criticism that well at all (he has advised my undergraduate research and told me how I should not pursue graduate school and how he did not see potential in me).
Well, nothing changed. Some people pulled through the course with a pass, most people ended up with a C or below though. Well, life goes on, but the department chair did not renew my friend's teaching assistantship for the spring semester, even though he got a straight 4.0 GPA and great teaching reviews. No reason was given to him when he emailed to the department. Everyone else who lost their assistantship were sent an email about this. He never was. Could these two instances be related? Is there anything we could do at this point?


texts: What did Peano meant by "R. Universitate"?

texts:
In a book written by Giuseppe Peano, it is written "Prof in R. Universitate de Torino" i.e. "Prof in R. University of Turin".

I guess "R" stands for "royal" but I have no proof of that.