texts:
I've been working in corporate IT for the last two years and would like to apply to graduate school for a MA in East Asian Studies.

I was told I should keep my work resume to one page, so I have done that. It wasn't that hard to do because jobs aren't as concerned with your volunteer experience as a masters program would be.

The MA program is asking that I attach my resume. I'd like to add back in my volunteer + other experiences a graduate school would be interested in... but that would put it over one page.

Is that okay? Is there any difference (apart from content) in the structure/general guidelines of submitting a resume in the work world vs the grad school world?


texts: How to rate my level of proficiency in statement for graduate application

texts:
I am completing a computer science-related graduate application for a highly competitive school in the US that has an optional section for a "skills statement." In paraphased form, here it is:

  The degree requires that you enter with knowledge of fundamental
  concepts including: (concept A), (concept B), (concept C), and (concept D). If you do not have prior coursework in these areas,
  please describe your relevant work experience or self-study in these
  concepts. Please describe how you acquired the knowledge and your
  level of proficiency.

I have a short, 1-page long statement summarizing how I acquired the knowledge through previous my academic coursework and my professional work experience with each concept.

My question is: How should I describe my level of proficiency? What would an admissions officer look for here? Would it be beneficial to pose this question directly to the school?

I have provided some quantitative data such as number of relevant undergrad and grad courses taken and years of relevant work experience, with brief summaries of each.

Should I try to rate myself on some arbitrary scale of 1-10? That seems rather pointless and subjective.

Should I try to give myself some kind of qualitative label such as "novice", "expert", etc.?

Any advice would be appreciated.


texts: Undergraduate Research as an Irregular Student

texts:
I am currently a Japanese college student. I am going to do research in artificial intelligence from this April.
After completing the first year of research, I am planning to go to the United States for 1 year.

During the last 5-6 months of the plan, I would like to do undergraduate research at some university in the US.
I am not sure if it is possible for an international student to do undergraduate research as an irregular student.
Of course I am not seeking any units or degrees.

How does the system of irregular acceptation of universities work in the US?


texts:
Recently several different, unrelated publishers suggested on their websites to join Publons, which is meant to acknowledge referees for peer-reviewing submitted manuscripts.

Publons even suggests to forward them emails to add all your past review work:

  We've set up a process to make populating your review record as easy as possible:
  Search your inbox for "thank you review manuscript"
  Forward those emails to reviews@publons.com
  We'll verify and add your reviews to your profile (without showing their content or the title of the manuscripts)

This all sounds very iffy and hence my questions:

Given their suggestion to forward [confidential] emailexchanges between journal and reviewer, is Publons a scientifically ethically sound initiative?
Not a hoax?
If it's ethically OK and not a hoax, what will it yield scientists in the long run, other than a  verified referee record? Isn't reviewing expected from every researcher?

Related question on academia SE: Is it worth creating a profile with Publons?


texts: Will uploading a copy of my paper to Academia.edu harm the journal it’s published in?

texts:
A paper that I have just had published in a journal is already starting to generate interest. I am allowed to upload a copy to Academia.edu as long as it is not the copy-edited version (peer review came up with very few changes). On the one hand I want people to read it – and this will also promote my own interests as an academic –, but I also don’t want to take potential sales away from the journal, which I like, and whose staff have been very good to me.

Will uploading it harm the journal or could it generate more interest? I have linked to the journal in the paper page on Academia.edu.


texts: Where to get statistics about papers mentioning specific keywords?

texts:
I am currently gathering info about the state of the art of some topic.
What I want to do is to get statistics about how often the topic was mentioned in papers in combination with other keywords in the last couple of years.

Something like this:

Year   "topic keyword1"   "topic keyword2"   "topic keyword3"
2017    81                420                121
2016    76                391                101
2015    64                358                92
...     ...               ...                ...

Is there a place where i can get this kind of information in an "easy to process" format?
(I used ScienceDirect and other databases and copied the information by hand so far but that is not a good solution imho.)

Thanks in advance!


texts:
Are there any research projects in mathematics,data science etc undergraduate students can participate online? Have seen something like that?
Well, I googled it and found something,but I need more information.


texts: Should a professor discuss his/her reviews (given by students) in class?

texts: The question is inspired by this image posted on reddit. Would this be considered a constructive step towards improving the interaction with students and the teaching in general? To clarify, I am talking about the reviews that the department or college solicits from students towards the end of the course, aka student feedback.


texts: How should I decline a referee request for the paper which I refereed before?

texts:
I have received a referee request for a paper that I refereed and rejected a few months ago. I would like to decline the request because although the recent journal's rank is lower than the previous one, I will reject the paper again for the same reasons I gave last time. Hence it would be better to decline the request to referee. What should I write to the editor in this situation?

A friend suggested I write to the editor.


texts: What should conference organizers understand about childcare?

texts:
The NSF now allows their funding to be used to pay for childcare expenses for scientists attending conferences in the United States. I take it that this means that organizers of NSF-sponsored conferences can offer to reimburse the childcare costs of attendees.

I periodically help to run conferences which are funded by the NSF, and I would like to offer funding for childcare to help parents attend the conferences I run. What should I know about childcare?

From what I have read on the internet, it seems that parents would like conference organizers to make all the arrangements in advance. However, as a nonparent I question my ability to do this effectively. I know nothing about daycare. Moreover, I would somewhat prefer to make sure that childcare will actually be required before I take the time to arrange it.

Is it enough to advertise "Funding for childcare will be available; if you require childcare, please contact us by [date] so we can make arrangements", to encourage parents to use the internet/telephone to find a provider they like, and to reimburse for the bills? Or is it important to go beyond this in some way?


texts: Should referencing critical comments on papers that have been referenced be obligatory?

texts:
Say a paper submitted for publication in a journal by Prof. Bertie Wooster references a paper by Dr Augustus Fink-Nottle, but that paper was the subject of a critical peer-reviewed comment by Prof. Roderick Spode.  Should I insist as a reviewer that Prof. Spode's paper should also be referenced and the criticism at least mentioned, even if I personally do not agree with Prof. Spode's point of view?

My intuition is that the reader of a paper should reasonably expect to be made aware of any element on which Prof. Woosters work is based that has been seriously called into question, so that he is able to form an opinion on the matter.  Am I being unreasonable in this expectation?


texts: Struggling to present results from long papers in short time slots

texts:
Most of my work thus far comprises two rather long and detailed papers that rely on a common underlying framework. (I know this is not great for a young academic, but it is what it is right now.)  This framework is new and often misunderstood, so I find it is important to devote ample time to explaining it when I present my work.  Unfortunately, with time slots at conferences being rather short (~20 minutes), I often don't have time to present what I think are the really cool results from this framework.  I have been trying out various approaches and formats for presenting this work under time constraints and don't yet feel confident about it.

One thing I haven't tried is the following: glossing over the details of the framework and focusing on the cool results instead.  My concern with this approach is that I may not be taken seriously; there seems to be an unspoken norm in my field that young academics ought to present painful details in order to prove how smart they are.  However, I struggle myself to follow details, and if the main purpose of presenting my work is to entice people to read it on their own time, then I think that highlighting the cool stuff would be more effective in achieving this goal.

My question: is this approach (minimize time for details of framework; maximize time for cool results) worth trying out at my next conference, or would I risk hurting my budding reputation?

P.S. It may be helpful to know that my work, and the framework in particular, has a large mathematical component.


texts: Publishing similar/same paper twice? (regarding Economics Letters journal)

texts:
I've always been under the impression that you're only allowed to publish 1 result in 1 journal. However, Economics Letters states:

  For instance, a theorist could submit to Economics Letters a
  thought-provoking example before the analysis is extended to a general theorem in a fully fledged paper that will go elsewhere. Similarly, an experimentalist or an empirical researcher could submit to Economics Letters some important preliminary results, where perhaps the threshold for robustness, thoroughness or completeness of the analysis is not as high as it would be for a complete paper.

Is this stating that you're allowed to submit early results of paper X to Economics Letters, then improve paper X until paper X is longer and more like a full paper, followed by a submission of paper X to an alternative journal? If it is what they mean, why don't more academics do this to boost their publication count? Economics Letters is actually ranked quite highly.


texts:
Most of the question is the title: Why do some Universities give honorary degrees?

E.g. the President of Indonesia, Sukarno, got 26 honorary doctorates, and Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe has been awarded around a dozen honorary degrees.

What is the benefit for the Universities? Donations? Political leverage? Genuine attempt to give to somebody the recognition he deserves? If last option, why calling it a degree instead of using a more general term like award/medal/etc, like some other Universities do?


texts: Wireless microphone system for giving lectures

texts:
I'm asking this here as opposed to a more technical stack exchange as I'm looking for a ... well... less technical type of answer.

I'm fed up with being passed from pillar to post by my institution's A/V department when the microphone equipment in a lab breaks, and a fix that takes weeks to complete will affect my lectures (as it has done in the past). I'm consequently looking for a more permanent solution for this type of situation, one where I can take charge of my own lecturing environment and and provide some sort of recourse that doesn't involve shouting at the top of my lungs for a number of weeks.

Most of the traditional microphone systems are a complicated array of boxes and receivers. This strikes me as something straight out of the 80s and really antiquated (when we go around with small computers in our pockets, and bluetooth is a thing). It's also deeply impractical to set up, on the fly, multiple boxes that need careful calibration and separate power sources.

When I look up "bluetooth microhones" I get a whole heap of karaoke type devices. I don't know if these would work (it would be odd to receive a lecture on astrophysics that turned out to be autotuned), but even the karaoke mics that aren't covered in glitter don't look great for an academic environment.

What sort of route should I be going down? I'm in no way a technophobe, but I feel all at sea with talk about 3-Pin TQG connectors, bandwidths, stereo lines, SPL , etc.


texts: Fair use amount in short journal articles?

texts: When it comes to how much one is allowed to copy from a book or a journal article, I often read about it as being 10% of the total pages number or a whole complete chapter (whichever is higher). However, how can one apply this rule if, for example, the journal article is only 10 pages? Copying just 1 page is often pointless as, unless one is quoting a definition or something, it's often not enough to convey a point or to highlight some ideas. Any insight?


texts: I sent an unupdated version of my MSc. thesis to a supervisor of a PhD project I am applying for

texts:
I am being considered for a doctoral position and after what I think it was a very good interview, the project supervisor asked me for a copy of my MSc. thesis. Even though the results of the thesis have not been published yet, he assured me full confidentiality, so I sent the thesis for his appreciation.

Two days after sending the document, I have realized I have sent the wrong version of it. These version was very close to the final one, but with a few minor mistakes, such as grammar and a few misplaced commas, one legend that was partially wrong, and differences in text colour also in one legend.

I really want the position, and I am very afraid these minor mistakes will make me come across as sloppy.

Do you think I should send an email explaining the situation and, likewise, send the "good version" of my thesis? I am also very afraid that this will make me come across as sloppy. After all, I did not make 100% sure I was sending the proper updated version.

What would you do in my situation?

I really appreciate all the help!!!

Thanks!!


texts: Second undergraduate versus masters with qualifying year

texts:
I was a bit unsure whether this question belonged here, but after finding many questions requesting advice with respect to mathematics studies I decided to go ahead.

Over the last year I have developed a strong interest in mathematics and would like to pursue it at the university level. The long-term goal is graduate studies.

My original intent was to first pursue a B.Sc in mathematics. I had met with the undergraduate coordinator at a university I would like to enrol in and he recommended that based upon my background that I may be better off pursuing a masters degree with a qualifying year comprised of advanced undergraduate courses.

My background is:

Degrees: B.Comm (Economics), M.A. (Economics)
Mathematical Courses: Business Calculus, Mathematics for Economists (includes calculus, linear algebra, set theory, optimization, topology), Introductory Statistics, Econometrics
Research Experience: Four RAships, two upcoming publications (not in mathematics)
Self-study: Calculus (Stewart), Linear Algebra (Strang), Currently working on: A Course of Pure Mathematics (Hardy)

I would like to ask that given an individual with a background in a quantitative field, what are the pros and cons with pursuing either of these options.


texts: How does academic hiring work in the humanities in Denmark?

texts:
I have applied for an academic job at a good university in Denmark, but as a non-Dane I've been trying to learn about how the hiring process works. Can someone explain to me the various steps in the process, and tell me about the timeline for the steps? More specific questions in bold below.

Here's my basic understanding so far:

Collecting applications.

They sent an email to the applicants saying that there were 70-ish applications for a very attractive junior position. That seemed like a very small pool of applicants to me, but the tone of the email suggested that the department took it to be an unusually large pool. How many applicants would an Assistant Professor position in the humanities usually get in Denmark?

Candidates vetted by an external panel.

When I applied, I was told the names of the three evaluators who would read the applications. The evaluators declared me "qualified" for the position. I'm having trouble now figuring out exactly what that means. Does the external panel rank applicants with two grades (qualified/unqualified) or three (best qualified/qualified/unqualified)? Further, on average, what proportion of applicants are judged "qualified"?

??

I'm not clear what comes next. The email from the university said someone from the Human Resources department would contact me. I'm curious whether there will be additional steps in the process, like a trial lecture or an interview with the faculty of the department I would be joining. Will the human resources department simply choose to hire someone on the basis of the external panel's report, or will the department make the choice? Either way, what criteria will be used to make the choice, since the external panel doesn't appear to rank the candidates in order.


texts: Would it be beneficial for one to mention schools that already accepted him/her when applying for MSc programs?

texts: I am planning to apply for the same MSc program at different schools. As of now I have only completed a single application, and that school has accepted my application. Would it be good for me to mention in my subsequent applications that I have been accepted to another school for the same program?


texts: Discussion section: Rough calculation to explain unexpected results

texts: Unexpected results were attained in a simulation that point to a possible problem with the dataset. While writing about this in the discussion section, I'd like to elaborate on my explanation for this by presenting a simple calculation that reinforces my interpretation. Is it allowed to do this in a discussion section or should I lay the foundation for this in the method section and then include it in the results?


texts: I have submitted a paper for a conference organized by the IRES. (details here: https://www.allconferencealert.com/event_detail.php?ev_id=80364) they accepted my paper within one day and instructed me to register. How will I know it is scam or not? Thanks in advance!


texts: Organization tips for a newcomer to academic learning

texts:
I missed my chance to attend university when everyone else did and I'm out of school for seven years.

Now I'd like to get a degree (BA History & English) through the Open University.

I've never been good at organization, though and I do not have even the slightest idea how academic studies work. I'm looking for tips, experiences and opinions on how to organize my studies and engage in a workflow that works.

Also, if anyone here happened to attend the OU, I would much appreciate a rundown on what to expect and how learning there works, especially regarding the fact that modules do have dates to begin and end, but studies are said to be flexible for time-management. (I am aware that the OU offers contact options as well, and I will reach out to them, too)


texts: How do you keep focused on a long-term academic goal while working?

texts:
I'm a college graduate and now working as an EMT in the hopes of going to physician assistant school next year. While working, it's easy to get sidetracked by many different points of view. I don't want someone to end up persuading me to become a paramedic.

How do you stay focused on your long-term academic goals outside of academia?


texts: Should Professors and by extension their TA's, hold student athletes to the same standard?

texts:
As a former student athlete at the high school level who played football, the academic requirements asked of me were no different than that of my fellow classmates. I never asked for any special treatment and I rarely if ever discussed my athletic activities with my teachers. I would also suspect that if I had asked, no special consideration would have been given. I had to make decisions that affected my academics as well as limited my ability to pursue other extracurricular activities.

In college, I focused on research, work experience, and academics.

Now that I am in the process of applying to graduate schools where I presume I will be a TA.

How should I approach the situation?
Would I hold student athletes to the same standards in terms of deadlines and grading, or should I take into consideration the added-value and extraordinary circumstances that student athletes face at a university setting?
If I am asked to give special considerations, would I have the right to refuse such requests or would it be strictly the decision of the instructor?
If I am asked to overlook the actions of a student, whether suspected or flagrant, is 'rocking the boat' an action considered worth pursuing given the cost in terms of time and attention?
As an undergraduate, my professors had a 'catch-all' offering a case-by-case review of such requests but without explicit determinations, would this be the best course of action as a TA?

I approach the question namely to conceptualize different scenarios in case I find myself in similar waters, balancing the time and effort cost of pursuing such a case as a TA with the responsibilities as a graduate student completing my degree.


texts: Is application to graduate school asking for period of study, or period from beginning study to graduation date?

texts:
I'm applying for a graduate school. In the application there is a question about academic history. So I have to key in the schools that I have attended previously. It's in form of:

School:...
...
From:
To:
Grad:

Clearly it asks me to indicate my period of study and graduation date. It's not problem.

However, I realized that my other applications for other purposes (employment, etc.) didn't indicate clearly like this, normally it was just From-To. Therefore, I always listed as:

From:(Start of study) To:(Graduation date) [A]

I'm worried that what I have done previously is not accurate. I think I should do as:

From:(Start of study) To:(End of study) [B]

Please share some advice in this case. Moving forwards, should I use form [A] or [B] if I'm asked only From-To?

And please consider the case that if I change the approach now, would it cause confusion to the places that I have sent my other application to previously?


texts: Prospect of pro-bono/voluntary work with current advisor after graduating with PHD

texts:
As an international student in the united states, I am legally allowed to work for 12 months, extendable to 29months for STEM fields, after graduating with my PhD (or masters degree for that matter) without having to change my visa/student status.

Now, I am looking for post doc opportunities in the US at several univerities but unfortunately none of the PI's respond to any queries OR application material that I send them for opportunities advertised on their websites.

I am seriously considering working voluntarily, without pay for my current advisor after I graduate in Dec 2012 with my PhD in Mechanical Engineering.

I am legally allowed voluntarily as part of the optional practical training period available to me after graduation.
I intend on doing my post doc / work pro-bono in the US because, lets face it, my home country doesn't really do much research and the pay grades are about $140 a month for fresh PhD graduates whilst I earn several times more as a grad student here in the US.
Visa regulations make it horrendously difficult to move to an other country for post doc opportunities and it is easier for me to continue in the US as I am alreadly legally here.
I am planning on writing a couple of proposals with my advisor so that I may grow my own post doc
It is an absolute pleasure working for my advisor and I wouldn't mind doing it for free for the mental stimulation that it provides (although I wouldn't want to work for free forever teeheehee :P)

How should I approach this situation? I am planning on requesting him to retain me on a pro-bono thingy as I genuinely like the direction my research has taken since I signed up with him 3 years ago!

Has anyone else encountered such a quandary?


texts: Applying to PhD programs while pursuing a PhD

texts:
Imagine the following situation. Somebody is doing their PhD in field A in the US.
 Suppose they became interested in a different field, field B, and consider doing PhD in field B instead. Suppose further that the university they are doing PhD at is not suitable for doing PhD in field B for some reason. Is it acceptable to apply for PhD positions in field B in other universities without notifying their current university until after they have been admitted to a program of their interest? The reason for doing this is to ensure that if they don't get accepted anywhere, then they could just continue pursuing their PhD in field A (which is also an acceptable option for them).


texts: Is it okay that my supervisor insists for me to work from my room at night?

texts:
I am a female PhD student in the end of my second year, and my supervisor has been acting weird lately. He asks me to run the experiments from my laptop and not from my PC in the lab (it does not affect the test), and he does that when it's 11 or 12 at night.
We usually do a voice call to discuss work, but very recently he asked for a video call and it was late at night… and just today he insisted that I work from my room and not from the lab.

I just want to know what you guys think. I don't know if it's a culture difference thing or that I should really be careful. I think it's really weird considering that I've been working with him for two years and he wasn't even nice to me.


texts: How are "workshop style" lectures conducted?

texts:
Descriptions of graduate (and advanced undergrad) courses sometimes indicate that the lectures are going to be conducted in a "workshop style". I am unsure what a "workshop style" lecture entails and how it is usually conducted over a two hour span?

How does a workshop-style lecture differ from formal lectures?


texts:
I am applying to a few Ph.D programs in mathematics and I found that most schools only admit about 5% of applicants. I know most programs fund students; some schools give stipends to all incoming students; some schools give stipends to only a fraction of students, but no one pays out of pocket.

Why not admit a larger percentage and have those pay their way through?


texts: If I 'publish' something online -as a blog article, or pdf- will it be less attractive to publishers?

texts:
If I 'publish' something online -say on my blog as a blog article, or on my website as a pdf for people do download it and give me feedback- will it then be less attractive to publishers to take that on? Am I shooting myself in the foot?

background for anyone who is interested:

I wrote a 'book' which introduces a certain topic, because out of interest mainly. I think I did a good job, but I am not in a position (academically) to publish this because I am not expert in the field, haven't got the credentials etc. So I am thinking of just offering it for free, and maybe contact publishers later, after my PhD. This way, I could also revise and improve it. But I am worried now that this will affect my chances.


texts: Writing the GPA in the application form, even though the studies have not finished yet

texts:
In the application form of the master's program that I'm applying for, I'm obligated to write my GPA, and I cannot leave it blank, as the form cannot be submitted in that case. I still have one more semester to complete my Bachelor's degree studies.

What do you suggest to write in the field? Should I simply write my GPA, or should I add any phrases afterwards such as: 4.9 out of 5 (5 semesters)


texts: How should I cite something learned second-hand (eg, from Wikipedia) when I haven't seen the primary source?

texts:
I want to cite something that I have learned from a Wikipedia page. However, I'm loathe to cite Wikipedia because of the perception of it by my tutors, so I try to cite the original source.

What should be the correct thing to do when I'm unable to have sight of the primary source myself, or find it in a collection (for clarity, I should add that I have the details of the source - I just can't find it in collections available to me)? Should I just cite as much original information as I can, or should I defer to citing Wikipedia? I'm hesitant to do that, because a glance at the citation would suggest that I was 'too lazy' to source original material or just dig deeper.

For additional clarity - I know that citing Wikipedia is 'bad' etc.  The emphasis is on how to cite something that has been learned via Wikipedia (as an example) but for which the original material cannot be seen or retrieved from available collections or searches.


texts: How to politely ask supervisors for a 1-2 month contract for finishing some work?

texts:
I've been doing my PhD in a research centre for four years with a contract, and abroad from my hometown. My contract finished 3 months ago and I recently defended my thesis (consider the economical effort from my side for that period).

Now I am looking for a postdoc and my supervisors are pushing me to publish some results and to write additional manuscripts. However, I have no contract anymore. No income. How could I politely let them know that I require a contract for at least 1-2 months in order to finish that work? I cannot live much longer without income, as my savings will be seriously affected (I have already lost money).

I have a fairly good relationship with them, but I think they are taking advantage on me in an unethical manner, but they may believe I owe them this because I have been their PhD student so far and very proactive. So I think it's complicated.

I do not want to be impolite and to keep a good relationship, but just to let them know that they have to pay me if they want my work now because it's money and time that I'm losing.

Sorry for the long text and thanks for any help that you can provide.

Some remarks:

My supervisors always complaint about the difficult economical
situation due to the crisis (Maybe I'm wrong, but the crisis was 10
years ago?).
They have recently made another contract for one year to a postdoc
who has been here for 6-7 years already.
Last year the 5 permanent positions of the group (and any PhD
student) went to 1 or 2 conferences in US for a whole week, with the results
of the students. Considering the overall expenses of those conferences, that is more than a whole year salary of a PhD student here.
I achieved the highest mark possible in the dissertation defense. I
have also published several manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals
with high impact factor and Q1 in my scientific field. So I think that I have
been highly productive.
I consider that some of the works that they push me to publish have been delayed by them because they claim to be "busy". I do not complaint about their organization skills, but their delay is our delay.

I have also made administrative tasks which do not correspond to PhD students during my PhD.


texts:
Last year, I was helping a colleague with statistical analysis. Originally, I was on the paper but after a personal falling out with this colleague, I removed myself as a co-author. Because I am passionate about open science, I told them that they could use the analysis I did (and the computational script I wrote to do the analysis) for their paper. I did not explicitly ask to be credited.

The paper has been published in a relatively good journal. The authors used my analysis but also used my exact words in the methods section from a write-up of the methods and results. It is around 2 paragraphs of direct copy-and-paste. They have also published the computational script along with the paper and have not changed it in anyway (it still has my settings for setting the working directory path on my computer).

I have copies of my original analyses.

On one hand, you could say: what did you think was going to happen? And - you don't have a leg to stand on. However, I am quite irked that they lazily copy and pasted my words into their paper without even attempting to make it their own in any way.

What would you do in this situation? Anything? Suck it up and move on?

EDIT: They also use figures I made in their paper.


texts: Is it appropriate for a student to have an advisor who is also a family member?

texts: We know that family can have a lot of impact on academic direction of a student, but is it appropriate for a student to have a supervisor/advisor who is also a family member? For example, a dad might supervise their son. What would make this more or less appropriate? What conditions might be required to make this appropriate?


texts: Ethics of not referencing StackExchange in a publication?

texts:
So I'm feeling a bit guilty. I've been working on a publication proof (my first) of an interesting theorem. The issue is I've been using StackExchange (Mathematics) to answer some similar questions when I get stuck on much smaller parts of the proof.

So the question here is, is it generally ethical to put just my name on a paper, even if I may not have come up with the lemma's using only my ideas, or is there a good way to I should reference StackExchange in a publication?

On one hand, most of the stuff I received answers for was for a learning purpose, similar to  that of me asking a professor or teacher, not so much as a co-author. And although relevant to the publication, the answers I received could be very common in other proofs as well and were not directly related the lemmas themselves.

On the other hand, it was not necessarily my ideas that first assisted the lemma, but those of others through SE.

Take for example a question I asked earlier today. I wanted to see an alternate proof to an equation, so that I could use it as a new method of proving a lemma related, it as the original proof (Euler's Thereom) could not be generalized with such a method Proving $a^{(p-1)p^{k-1}} \equiv 1 \pmod {p^k}$ without Euler's Theorem. The proof I was looking for was simply done using the Binomial Theorem. Therefore the idea of using the Binomial Theorem in my proof will assist me in my own similar generalization. But even though I was just given the tool, the work will be done myself.


texts: How can I tell if an honor society is legitimate?

texts:
I recently received an acceptance letter from a honor society (I am leaving off the name for now but can include a link to the website).

The offer said I qualified because of my grades or a nomination. I read a little into it and it a lot more like a sales pitch. Offering discounts, exclusive scholarships, and career services in exchange for a biannual fee.

The website does look very professional. I am not sure if it is a scam, a profit driven real honor society, or what else. Aside from intuition is there any ways to tell what an invitation entails without all the hype?

Also, even if they are a profit driven business is it likely worth time to invest in a short term membership?


texts: Can/should one put a copyright notice on one's CV or resume? Why/why not?

texts:
I have not yet seen anyone in academia put a copyright notice on their CV or resume. Why is this?

One might expect that even if the content is implicitly copyrighted, the layout/format/style of the document -- perhaps more so for a graphic designer -- is part of one's intellectual property.


texts: Is a corrigendum required for this error?

texts:
Our manuscript, for which I am  the first co-author, got accepted in a journal. However, upon careful review of our manuscript, I noticed that there are errors in one table. The percentages were calculated as: % = (total number of positive samples/total number of samples analyzed) x 100. The value for the total number of samples analyzed was wrong, so we reported the wrong percentages.

I tried to calculate the correct percentages, but they are very much in line with the erroneous percentages we initially reported and they will NOT affect the conclusions in our manuscript.

Does this error warrant a corrigendum? Or should I wait for someone to notice our error and send a letter to the editor?


texts: Number of slides for 45 minute defense presentation

texts: I have 100 slides but most are light weight with pictures. I am afraid it is too much because I can't get it under 1 hour in my rehearsal. I have noted that some slides take me more time to explain. Any suggestions other than reduce number of slides? Maybe use some kind of timer.


texts: How important is it to choose the right editor on journals that require you choose an editor?

texts:
Not sure whether this is common practice, but in the journal to which I am submitting a manuscript (JMEMS), I have to choose an editor. I am not 100% sure whether this is a mandatory requirement, but it seems like there are over 40 editors.

I know some of the editors have good relationships with my advisor. For this paper, I am solely responsible for publishing the paper. My advisor is not helping me much, and I have not directly submitted paper before.

The journal also doesn't mention who is in charge of what research areas. I can possibly guess, but I will have to do a lot of legwork to figure out the best match.

How critical is choosing the correct editor? Is it best to choose editors who know my advisor?


texts: Vacation for Summer Graduate Research Assistantship

texts:
First year PhD student here, in Computer Science

I will mostly likely be on a research assistant ship this summer. Is it too much to assume I will be able to take two 1-week vacations at different points during the summer? As a graduate student with a family, my family time is very important to me.

I know the answer to this will likely be "ask your advisor," so my follow-up question to that is: how do I talk to my advisor about this without seeming like I am lazy and don't want to work?


texts: What is the downside of not pursuing postdoctoral fellowship position?

texts: Suppose after graduating from a PhD program, you don't do a post-doc. Are the chances of getting a tenure-track position severely reduced? Also is it possible to do a post-doc after a completion of a masters program (probably should be called a "post-masters")?


texts: How should I handle reviewer comments when grammar makes the meaning unclear?

texts:
I have received reviewer comments on a paper that I had sent to a journal. Now although the reviews look good, there are lot of grammar mistakes in it making it difficult to understand some of them.

How do I handle these kind of reviews? Is it okay to write to the editor’s office for clarifications? I guess that way, the process would take a long time.


texts: Is it always acceptable to publish working papers on your website before submission to a journal?

texts: Or will some journals reject submissions if you have already published them on a website?


texts: How to draft a recommendation letter for myself after professor asked me to do so

texts:
I asked a professor I have been working for about a year to write a recommendation letter for graduate school. She agreed but says she usually ask students to write for themselves and she will do some editions on it.

I was supposed to ask her for a template at that time... And now I have no idea how to draft one for myself. Anybody has any advice?


texts: Is there documentation on how long it takes before publications are indexed by Scopus and Web of Science?

texts:
The two major bibliographic databases - Scopus and Web of Science\Web of Knowledge - have one very badly-documented limitation; their update lag. While the majority of papers are added quickly, it can take several months for individual papers to be added.

As an example, I ran a search in Web of Science looking for all papers published by my institute in 2014. In November 2015, it reported 290 papers. In January 2016, 293. In February, 305.

In other words, a few percent of the papers took a year or more to be added to the database, which startled me - I was expecting a lag of perhaps three months. Some of these delayed entries are from relatively obscure journals (specialist Australian publications) or book series, and it seems reasonable that these might take longer, but most are from mainstream titles - one is even from Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, as established a journal as it's possible to get.

Scopus is comparable. In November 2015, it reported 340 2014 papers, 356 2013 ones and 351 2012. Running an identical search three months on brings us to 341, 367 (!), and 353 respectively - so a few papers are still being added up to three years after publication. (Unfortunately, Scopus doesn't expose the date items added to the database, so it's not possible to identify which ones were added most recently - it's possible that some were due to journals being added to Scopus for the first time along with their back-issues.)

This is, of course, something of a headache for producing stats. But more practically, it could be a real problem for disseminating science - something being unintentionally missed or delayed from one of the big indexing services can make it much less discoverable and much less likely to be read, built upon, or cited, especially in that important first year.

So, the core question: does anyone know of documentation (or research) into how substantial these delays are; how they're distributed; and whether they're getting better or worse?

(I've spent some hours searching for this but to no avail. I'm wondering if I may just be looking in all the wrong places.)


texts: Co-authors request that others do not use "he" as a pronoun - is this reasonable?

texts:
We are a bunch of people writing a collection of papers. Two of the writers are from Iran (where the common language does not have gendered pronouns), and they have expressed to me some concern with regards to the lack of gender-neutrality in our papers.

As you may know, English writing often exhibits some degrees of gender-bias, mainly the use of "he" to refer to a person with an unspecified gender. These co-authors would like to avoid such bias if they are to put their names on the papers.

They've told me this as we are close, but haven't talked to anybody else (there are 3 others). Is this a reasonable request? What's the correct thing to do here? I could just ask the others, but what do I do if somebody gets offended by the request and refuses? I doubt it'll happen, but in the current public discourse where "political correctness" is the new pejorative buzz word, I am not so sure.


texts: Is it okay to directly copy a diagram/image from another research paper into yours?

texts:
We are writing a research paper and for our experiments using a model/architecture that was created by other researchers for a specific task. We are using the same model in a modified way for a different task, but the model at its core is the same.

Is it okay for us to directly lift the image/drawing/diagram of the model/architecture and post it in ours? We would give due credits of course. We thought about drawing it on our own again and posting it but we did not want it to seem as if we are hiding the fact that we are using someone else’s model and trying to pass it off as ours.

The paper in question is available in the open domain, so I doubt there will be any copyright issues.


texts: Is it legal to run interviews for an academic job when the post has already being assigned?

texts:
The normal UK process to hire new academic staff would be:

The position is placed on job adverts, websites, specialized magazines
The curricula and forms from prospective candidates are collected
A filter is applied and a short-list produced
The short-list candidates sit in a workbench for an interview
The position is assigned to the most qualified candidate

I happen to know of a case where the position is already assigned, but the job avert has been published, so it should be open to all candidates. Since the position has already been assigned, steps 2 through 4 are a waste of time and paperwork as other responding candidates will not be seriously considered.

Is this superfluous search process legal?


texts: Is it okay/common practice to reuse reference letters?

texts:
Prompted by this question about "exporting" a reference letter, I am now thinking about the question if it is okay or even common to re-use already used reference letters.

For a little context: I am in the process of applying for postdoc positions. I have requested and gotten very nice letters for one position and - as they were similarly relevant - have used those letters once more for another application, after asking the people who wrote them if they are fine with that.

I have, similar to the OP of the previously mentioned question considered what I should do when I get deeper into the process of applications and will write more and more of them. Would it be okay to just use the letters I already have over and over? In general, I think in my case those people would have nothing against that, but I still feel oblidged to at least let them know who they are "refering" me to, before they might get any requests for further information out of the blue.  Repeatedly pestering them every time I want to submit another application might get old fairly soon, though.
I honestly have no idea if there is any common practice about this. As we all know, the academic job market is not that... easy, so it might be necessary to apply for quite a bunch of positions before getting one. I can't imagine that every new PhD keeps repeatedly asking the same people for letters until they find their position (asking different people once in a while would be an option, but then I would kind of "loose out" on the best letters by the people who know me best at least for some applications.), but I also would feel awkward "admitting" to have reused it to get a position without telling the writer about it beforehand.

To those in the position to write such letters:

Is it okay for you if they are reused without your direct knowledge?
Would you prefer to be asked every time or once ("Can I keep using this letter?")
Is there some option I completely miss out on?
How did you handle this previously (in case someone asked/reused them without asking and you were contacted/...)?


texts: Should I number all formulas in published documents for citations?

texts:
When I write something that contains formulas, I only number the ones that I refer to myself. However, I found that some books or papers just number ever single formula. And that makes it really easy to cite individual formulas.

Is there some general rule to this?


texts: Interdisciplinary Problem Session hosted by Mathematics Department: Advice

texts:
I work in a Department of Mathematics in the Irish Institute of Technology sector.

Funding for mathematics research has been reduced by the Higher Education Authority and between this, a heavy teaching load and other reasons, staff are either not very active or completely inactive in research. There are a number of departments who are very active in their research.

I am interested in exploring the idea of setting up a problem session in the institute where the research community would be invited to present problems they are having in their research that they feel mathematics department staff might be able to shed light on.

At the moment questions I have include:

has this been done in other institutions?
if yes, has it been beneficial to both communities?
will researchers share their problems; will the sessions sustain themselves?
how regularly should such a problem session take place?
should problems be presented at the session and solved in the next session or presented prior to the session?

I feel there are a number of obvious benefits that could come from such an endeavour and I am looking for help in seeing potential problems, etc.

I hope this question, although quite open-ended, is appropriate for this site.

Edit: Regarding the comments below

Thank you all for your help. These sessions would be primarily focussed on staff in the institute and incubated industry. I wouldn't envisage them being of the duration of a workshop: rather just a single afternoons. I am looking at something a lot less formal than the workshops ye survive. I have heard of the ESGI thank you Ruadhaí.


texts: Will a master student publishing several short papers come across in a bad way?

texts:
I am a master student in a relatively small research field in humanities. I am a relatively good student: at the moment I’m preparing my bachelor’s thesis for publication in an A journal, and an abstract I submitted for a conference next year got accepted.

Many of my courses are tested with a paper (of varying lengths, anything between four and twenty pages is common). I spend more time on those papers than my peers and in them interact with very recent research papers. I am then tempted to think I could submit a revised version of such a paper (shortening it to 4–8 pages or so, perhaps with a title like “Some notes on...”) to a journal in which the papers I interact with were published. I do not have the illusion a journal would give me the full twenty pages, nor that all of my course papers are valuable enough to be submitted, even in shortened form.

I would like to get published because the review cycle is rather long and starting to submit now could give me some publications to show when applying for a PhD position later. Also, I truly believe that my results are worthwhile.
On the other hand, I’m afraid it may come across as arrogant. All these course projects are relatively narrow-scoped, so perhaps it would be better to keep the results in mind and work them out later, in the master’s thesis for instance, and submit them to a journal then.

Yes, I can ask the teachers in these courses what they think, but don’t want to come across as overly self-confident. I understand you cannot judge my work without seeing it – but perhaps you can give some advice based on the general impression you would get from a master student publishing several relatively short papers.


texts: What is expected from a post-doc application?

texts:
More clearly;

Is it possible to apply with a proposal like "I want to make international publications based on my PhD Thesis during my post-doc"

or

Does someone have to formulate an entirely new research question/proposal in the application?


texts: How many papers accepted in Special issue call For paper?

texts:
I have a paper that I am working on . I found a special issue on the area I am working on.
My advisor told me special section have a good chance for acceptance.

What is good about special issue call for paper on journals ?

How many papers are usually accepted?


texts: How to get a PC member's attention to comment on or review my submission?

texts:
I have submitted a thesis abstract to PhD consortium and my submission was accepted.
I just noticed that one of the program committee is well known professor on my thesis area. Actually, many of the paper citations contain his name. Now, I believe he was not a reviewer for my submission (I know because I didn't get critical -deep- questions about my work) but I don't have hard evidence for this.

what is the right way to get his attention to comment on my work?
is it adequate to email him my submission?


texts: Is referencing another PhD dissertation or Master's thesis a reasonable practice in a Master's thesis?

texts: Not much literature can be found on what I'm working on and it's all by the people I work with. Am I able to reference their work/text in my thesis or I should just stick to referencing material published in journals and conferences, however remote they might be and just get away with whatever's not published and not back them up?


texts: Is it unusual to apply for a degree without finishing your current one?

texts:
Consider the following situation: a student has started a bachelor's/master's/PhD at a lesser-known university program but feels that he would benefit from a more prestigious institution with better professors, equipment, and learning environment.

He decides to apply for a bachelor's/master's/PhD (the same degree as his previous level) program at top schools, planning to abandon his current program if he is accepted.

Is this unusual or frowned upon? Is the fact that the applicant has already started a program likely to hurt the applicant's chances? (Do the answers to the above questions depend on the current level of the applicant?)


texts: Resubmission of arxiv paper after rejection

texts:
I submitted my first paper to a peer-reviewed journal a few months ago. New as I am to the publishing scene, I submitted the paper to the arxiv preprint server before it was accepted. The paper ended up being rejected by the journal but with a bunch of helpful comments from the reviewers.

Now, I would like to make some substantial revisions to the paper before submitting to a journal again. When I do, will the preprint of the current version that is already on arxiv affect the acceptance of the newer version (asssuming that the journal has no policy against arxiv preprints) ? If yes, what can I do to prevent that?


texts: How to deal with journals requesting incomplete / incorrect attribution for images taken from other sources?

texts:
I recently submitted an article containing several images from other publications. I made sure to give the appropriate attribution both for open access images (including stating e.g. CC BY 4.0), as well as those I asked permission for. From those sources I had to ask permission for, some had clear and lengthy requirements as to how I had to attribute (e.g. permission obtained from / name of journal / name of paper / year / name of all authors / copyright / copyright holder).
After my article got accepted, I received a message from the journal editor to proofread the article and to change the image attribution and limit them to: "reprinted with permission from [1]. Copyright / year / copyright holder", and even only "reprinted from [1]" for open access images.
In short, the journal asked me to omit a lot of the information that I am actually supposed to (or even legally required to, if I understand correctly) attribute to use the images in question in a sound and appropriate way.
So my question is: can I insist that the correct attribution remains with the images even if this is against journal practice, or is this something that regularly happens and in case the copyright holders complain, the journal (and not I, the author) can be held responsible?


texts:
I know there are already many similar questions posted on this website, but I need someone to comment on my email to potential advisors.
I should mention that I've been sending emails to potential supervisors for over one month now, and very few of them have replied, which makes me think there's something wrong with my email. Also, I personalize these emails for each professor and investigate their research before sending the email.

Here is an example:

Dear Professor X,
I am a graduate student of X from X University, highly interested in X and have recently published a paper in X. I have achieved a great deal of training and experiences in the field of targeted drug delivery. I’ve enjoyed reading your papers and ideas such as "assessing the impact of anti-PEG IgM on the biological performance of nanoparticles and using chelating zinc ions" and "optimisation of pH during nanoprecipitation to increase insulin loading into PLGA-PEG nanoparticles". Your research is best compatible with my research interest because I am looking for positions that I can both exploit my skills in drug delivery and further explore the field of X. I am very eager to know your opinion regarding my case in joining your research team as a PhD candidate for fall 2020. For more information, I have attached my resume as a PDF file. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,
XX

I would appreciate your comments about the email.


texts: What is the difference between a thesis and a dissertation?

texts:
I have seen some sites that distinguish a dissertation as what is written as the requirements of a doctoral degree.

Others that distinguish a thesis as a document written for the fulfillment of any degree (Bachelors, Masters or Doctoral) while a dissertation is a more general name for a document where someone is presenting findings.

I am curious if there is any more rigorous definition which distinguishes the two, but my more immediate question is this:

I am writing the document to fulfill a doctoral degree. Within the text of the document do I refer to it as a "Dissertation" or a "Thesis"?

For example: "A more thorough review of this analysis is presented in Chapter 5 of this ________."

Maybe the fact that the [thesis] is the tag used for all of these documents is an indication of the answer?

I've also seen this question on this site, but it doesn't seem to answer my question:
What are the main differences between undergraduate, master's, and doctoral theses?


texts: Is it OK to contact authors of the research paper requesting an implementation?

texts:
Given the research paper itself and having a complete understanding of the proposed system, I could implement the system on my own. If my intention is not to re-implement it myself, but rather study the original implementation(probably by the authors of the paper), I've got the following line of questions

Is it acceptable if I seek the original implementation of the paper?
Is it OK to contact the author(s), and request their implementation by giving a valid reason?
Are IEEE papers intellectual properties, that such a task of seeking implementation is entirely stupid?


texts: How important is being in a good institute for a theoretical physicist?

texts: Will being in a underfunded institute and with mediocre colleagues hinder the performance of a theoretical physicist to a great degree?


texts: Is it reasonable to request an exemption from certain degree requirements?

texts:
I am a physics student at a small North American university. As part of the requirements for my degree, the current policy dictates that all students must take 6 humanities courses before graduation.

I believe I understand the benefit of this requirement: it ensures that students are well-rounded. However, this requirement is making it difficult for me to take two extra math courses that are relevant to my future and my degree.

My goal is to continue my education further after graduating. I have asked two of my professors and they have told me that these two math courses would probably be relevant to my graduate studies. Moreover, I am very keen to take them because they are interesting and challenging. The reason these courses are not in the current curriculum is just due to the large number of physics courses required for the degree; they simply do not fit in the usual honours degree pattern.

As a student, is it reasonable for me to ask for this exemption? If so, what should I say to the department chair to increase the likelihood of getting the exemption?

For context: I am a physics major and the courses I want to take are Discrete Mathematics and Real Analysis.


texts:
What is the best way of using abbreviations? Can I use them frequently or rarely?

For example, I use "Expectation Maximization" 4 times in first 3 sections, but I have to use it 10 times in section 5 and I have limited space. So can I start using EM (Expectation Maximization) starting from section 5? Or if I am going to use an abbreviation does it have to be in the entire thesis starting from the first usage of the abbreviated word pair?


texts: Is there any dedicated, academic channel i could use to establish contact with other universities on an international scale?

texts:
I'm a doctoral student at the fine arts faculty of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Spain (European Union), in the Art and Technology department, and i have a question about the elaboration of my thesis that you might be able to help me with.

To acquire a sizable part of the information needed to conduct my research, i need to establish contact with forty two universities spread across the globe, mostly to conduct interviews in text, audio and video formats about culture, art, and technology.

I already asked both my thesis directors and faculty administrators about what the best way to contact this universities would be, but they have been unable to offer me a proper answer so far. I could contact them with my personal university email, but i still think that it would be more appropriate to do so trough a dedicated channel, but i wonder about the existence of a dedicated, international channel that i could use to do so in a more formal way.

To recap, my question would be as follows:

As a doctoral student and citizen of the European Union, is there any dedicated, preferably free of charge, academic channel i could use to establish contact with other universities on an international scale?

Thanks a lot for your time.

Martin


texts: COVID-19 - how do I navigate this situation with my advisor?

texts:
I am a Master's student in epidemiology. It's an insane time in our field right now. Of course, I find what's going on fascinating (that's why I am in this field), but extremely stressful as well.

I have 2 advisors. My primary advisor is not working on COVID-19 related stuff. So, although she's really busy trying to re-plan all of her classes to be remote and just reorganize everything, she is not responding directly to the outbreak. My co-advisor, however, is on the response team for the outbreak in my country. Basically, she is working with the government to create models to predict the trajectory of the disease. I had a meeting with her 1.5 weeks ago and she said basically all she has on her mind is COVID-19. That was before the world went into quarantine so I imagine things have become even busier for her.

My primary advisor sent me an email today talking about how to move forward and in the email she mentioned that it does depend on how busy my co-advisor is (but also assured me we would figure this all out).

Unfortunately, the project I am working on now is a modelling project and my primary advisor isn't a modeller, so it's my co-advisor that needs to move the project forward. I still have other things to do for my thesis, but I am almost done those other things and I am just in the editing stages. I have a lot more to do on my modelling project, but my co-advisor is extremely busy right now. I am finished what she asked me to do a couple of weeks ago and want to send it to her.

Sorry for the long post explaining my situation. My question is, should I send her the things the I have finished or would that be a bit tone-deaf? What should I even say in the email? I don't want to come off as not caring about the biggest health crisis in at least a decade while asking her to review something that's not even related to COVID-19. How should I even frame the email or should I hold off from sending her things for a few weeks?

If it makes a difference, although I do have an office, I can do 100% of my work remotely (and do usually work from home at least 3 days a week).


texts: How to attend conferences without funding

texts:
I would like to attend some conferences this year, but we are running out of funding until 2015, so I need to look for other options. For instance, I organized a special session in a conference, and attained 12 speakers, so accommodation was free and also registration but not travel expenses. So my question is, if you do not have funding, which other options you know for attending conferences?

P.S. Given my position (PI of a research group), I can not ask for student travel grants, etc


texts: Is three citations per paragraph excessive for undergraduate research paper?

texts: I've had a teacher tell me that I needed to have 3 citations per paragraph in my paper. The paper is to be 20 pages long. Is this level of citation (over 200 individual in-text citations in the paper) too much for undergraduate work? The way that she phrased it left uncertainty whether this was for every paragraph, or only for the quoted ones, so the context of whether similar works have this level of quotation in them is the only standard I have to go by.


texts: Double blind review: anonymise data source?

texts:
Apologies if this has already been answered: but I could only find questions relating to paper citations and grants in relation to double-blind reviews on academia.

If you are submitting a paper to a double blind review, are you permitted to talk about the source of your data-set at length if it is not publicly available? This may include, for instance, mentioning the company name and/or country of origin.

For instance, imagine being given a data-set by IBM in its European wing and you make your paper based on this data. Is it legitimate to name the origin if you are not directly identifiable?


texts: How to handle research advisor meeting stress

texts:
I'm starting my master's thesis work with a new professor and had a really bad meeting with them recently. They asked me questions I am supposed to be able to answer, but I was so stressed I couldn't think. I couldn't write stuff on the board. It was just a mess.

He said some things that made me feel pretty bad about myself and I really don't want that to happen again in the next meeting. Could someone please share their ways on how they prepare for research meetings they are nervous for?


texts: Asking questions in class: how can I "exit" a Q&A when I haven't really understood?

texts:
I'm an undergrad and I tend to learn better when I understand the concepts behind things instead of rote repetition. As a result of this, I often have questions.

There are times when I don't understand concepts, so I'll ask questions. If after a line of questioning, I still don't understand something, I'll just concede and say, "Oh wow! I totally get it now! Thanks!"

I do this because I:

want to avoid wasting class time
don't want the lecturer to feel like maybe they've done a poor job of explaining when perhaps I'm just not grokking an underlying principle.
don't want to other students to think, "Wow, what's her deal? She is not getting this, is she?"

However, this prevents me from learning. Because of my second bullet, even when I ask a professor in a one-on-one scenario and am just not understanding, I still do this "I totally get it! K thx bai!"

I feel like if I just say, "I don't get it," and ask the same thing over again, it gets circular and we don't get anywhere and I'm worried I'll frustrate my professor.

Is there a better way to handle this or is this a sign that I need to seek an additional resource for learning (ie. a different textbook, Khan Academy, etc...)? I read my book thoroughly and use alternative resources, but am hoping I can figure out:

Is "giving up" in order to exit a continuous loop on non-understanding fair
to me? The professor will clearly think I'm fine and that I've moved on from it.
Is it fair to the professor who may potentially learn from it as well?
For example, other students may be making similar mistakes built on a false premise the professor could easily clear up.
I've potentially robbed myself of a learning opportunity if there is
a better way to exit the conversation. What better strategies could I use?

Perhaps if I admitted (somehow) that I'm not understanding something, the professor might say, "You know who might explain it differently! Dr. ____" or "a really great resource is ___."

But I don't know how to get to that point. I don't want to just say, "Yeah, I'm not getting it, so what now?" I feel like that would be so incredibly rude!

Edit: I don't repeat a question continuously. I try to attack a problem from various angles, but sometimes I get in these situations where I feel the back and forth isn't working out or by listening to an answer, I learn a detail that confuses me more. In this case, I can say, "Wait, so why are you using A to compute B, when earlier we used C to compute B?" But in these cases, sometimes this leads to further backpedaling and confusion.


texts: Where is your line with students on social media?

texts: I will be giving lectures for the first time this semester starting in 2 weeks (online due to covid), some students already started to add me and follow me on social media (LinkedIn mainly for now). I rarely use LinkedIn, and really %99 of the people there are people I know in real, collaborated with, from college etc. It is already a messy jungle. I see sometimes an overly passionate kid who made a request and I don't mind accepting their request, but I also want to be fair to all so I don't. I recently began to enjoy Twitter and although most of my followers are professionals I sneak in personal likes, comments, tweets and I enjoy it that way, but with students following I don't know if I will be able to 'act human' (which I wouldn't mind if I were already an experienced, confident, accomplished professor (those are the best of the people) but at this time I am not comfortable with it). Do you change your name to not be found easily (I want colleagues to find me though)? Do I go private? I post during workshops/conferences (which makes most of my new connects) and often like/comment on others as well.  Do you accept their requests? Where is your line with social media?


texts: Some collection of students' theses or dissertations

texts: I want to looking for information in graduating level. Is there any collection or library which provide students' theses or dissertations of many universities? Googling just find library for each university.


texts:
Short version: a potentially upcoming 5-authors maths paper already have authorship dispute drama. I am not among the 5, but I believe I found the solution to the part they got stuck on. Should I tell them?

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Full story:

A is a new graduate student, never have any papers, decided to work with B a post-doc (who had a few paper before) on a topic. They did some significant amount of work, but still nowhere close to a result. A tells his friend C (another graduate student with 1 paper), not to ask for help but just to let him what kind of thing he is working on. But unexpectedly, C got interested and work on it for a while and get some new results, before telling A and B. The work is significant, but A claims that give it a few more weeks and they could have gotten that themselves. C's advisor come to his defense and insist that it is only fair that C got credits as well. Unfortunately, C asked D - an undergraduate in his junior year - to develop a computer simulation, which ended up allowing C to realize that a tweak to the hypothesis is necessary. C never told D what it is for, but D realized that after chitchat with B. Now D's advisor also want him on the paper, since he did some work, and it would really help him in applying to grad school if the paper can be done soon. Neither A nor B is happy about this of course. To make thing worse, E a post-doc from CS department, happen to see the problem and some work on the blackboard. He knew some papers in CS that happen to solve some aspect of the problem, and told B about it, which eventually cause their earlier work to be much more simplified. B thinks E deserve coauthorship too, much to A's resentment.

Now I was not there for the drama. A told me about this over beer a few months ago. I curiously asked what the problem is, and A told me everything including what they are stuck on, after making me promise to never work on this and never tell anyone else about the problem (A don't want to have a 6-author paper). I kept the promise, until recently, when reading some papers, and I found something and realized that this could be as well the key to the problem. After some more computation, I am 90% sure that this method would solve the problem, but I promised not to work on it, so I did not work out everything. Now I am torn. They are unlikely to ever know about this method (I'm in a very different specialty), but their effort had been walking in circle for a few months now. I had never had a paper before, so if I do put effort into this, at least I wanted to be recognized for it.

EDIT: as far as I know, there are only 10 people who know about the paper, us 6 and 4 professors who don't really care nor contribute; it is not public. I think A considered me his emotional crutch which is why he told me about it. The work is probably not good enough for publication, right now it consists of a bunch of different approaches and reformulation that all seemed very close to solve the problem, but did not.


texts: What is the use and importance of recommendation letters?

texts:
In my country recommendation letters to enter the equivalent to an MBA or PHD are just a suggestion, not necessarily, and/or irrelevant. In some cases they are shunned because they are considered related to nepotism. The only time they are needed is when applying abroad.

The question is: Why are recommendation letters considered important (if they are) in your universities and how is that importance measured?


texts: Finding the total number of papers published in a given journal, for a given year

texts:
Is there any way that one can find the percentage of papers from a certain journal that meet a given keyword?

The numerator of that fraction (the number of papers that conform to the keyword who were published in a given journal) can be found easily enough with a simple search. But the hardest part really comes down to finding the denominator of the fraction, that is, the total number of papers that were published in a given year, across multiple journals (thus, using the same metrics for all to enable comparison).

Services from Web of Science/Knowledge (InCites JCR etc) don't seem to help here. The only resource I found that gives this total number is https://scirev.org/, but many important multidisciplinary journals or general-psychology journals are not listed there.


texts: Which arXiv license to use for archiving an ACM CSUR journal?

texts:
I would like to submit the preprint version of my ACM CSURjournal (used acmsmall format of acmart latex) to arXiv. As of now, the work is peer-reviewed twice ( passed one major and currently in its minor revision), thus, has not been accepted.

Can anyone suggest an appropriate arXiv license that does not conflict with ACM 2017 authors' policy?


texts: Would I be disadvantaged in PhD admission if I took only few courses each semester during my Bachelors and Master’s?

texts:
I recently applied to a PhD program, and right now I am waiting for their decision.
My GPA from my undergrad and my Master’s program were 4.0/4.0, however during my undergrad I only took 3 courses per semester and during my Master’s, I took one or two courses per semester. Would this put me at a disadvantage when compared with other applicants?

Thank you,


texts: Can I use a method I developed or a data collected with a group in my project with another group?

texts:
I have developed a method/measure in a project supervised by my PhD advisor, and (a rather limited version of) this method appeared very useful in a project I'm working on in collaboration with a different group (let's call it group X), which has nothing to do with my advisor or my institution. I was wondering if I need to involve my advisor in the project with group X to use this method in the project. Can I just use it without having my advisor as a co-author or do I need to ask for a permission from my advisor for that?

Conversely, the useful of the method for studying the data collected in the project with group X (by other members of group X, not me!), is a good example for how useful the method is, so I'm also considering showing this application on that data as an example later in the paper for this method. Do I need to have anyone from group X as a co-author if I do that?

More information about the situation:
This particular method itself is new, but is building on previous research done (and published) by other members of my advisor's research group. The project on this method focuses on the significance and useful of the method and has a long way to publication, but the very simple and primary version of this method at a very limited scope has an application in the project I'm doing with group X, and we're going to submit the first paper for that project pretty soon (hopefully).


texts:
I was wondering if there already exists a software/service that allows to build a tree of references/citing articles starting from a selected paper X. For example paper X has a list of references, call it bibliography[X]. This list of references is usually presented in the journal's webpage and, in fortunate cases, the list is also accessible by cross-reference. The idea is then to go to all the papers Y in bibliography[X] and repeat the process for the papers in each bibliography[Y] up to some depth.

On the other hand, we could also look at the citing articles of X, which is also displayed in the journal's webpage as well as in other resources, e.g. Google Scholar.

In this way the tree of references/citing articles of X up to some depth can be obtained and plotted in a nice graphical framework and perhaps display relevant information of the vertices of the tree like title, doi, etc. In my opinion this would be a very nice and efficient way of discovering new papers related to some paper, e.g. a seminal paper (citing articles tree) or to look into the history of a subject (references tree).

I have been looking for something like that for some time but so far nothing. I think Microsoft Academic Search would have the potential to do this by using the same framework they use for the Co-author path. Also there is this project for JabRef but it is not what I'm looking for.

Edit:
Something like this would be perfect but unfortunately it is not available to the public.


texts: Can the postdoc adviser withdraw our paper against my will?

texts:
I'm a postdoc in Computer Science. Recently submitted a paper, co-authored with my adviser. I'm the first author, corresponding author and am primarily responsible for the content.

Less than a day before submission deadline my adviser asked me to withdraw the paper. There was no sign that he disagrees with submission before that. I was keeping him updated with the progress and asking for reviews. Today he gave me a list of unconvincing arguments why we should withdraw. When I refused, he said he'll use his legal authority to withdraw it. Does he have any legal authority to do this?

No ethics policy that I'm aware of links authorship rights with employment status. From what I know a co-author may chose to withdraw his co-authorship, but cannot ask a conference to withdraw the paper against the will of other authors. Anyone encountered such situations?

I have not signed any legal agreements regarding publication policy.


texts: Can I publish a paper in mathematics education on a computer program?

texts:
I am a PhD student in mathematics education. As a part of my thesis, in the last year I designed a learning environment for tablets, similar to a computer game. The program is designed for children ages 6-10.

Up until now, I have not tested the program with any children, only some preliminary tests with fellow students.

Is it possible to publish this?

The program is quite complex and I fear that a single article detailing the program structure and the mathematics it can transport as well as the findings in the working sessions and interviews with the children may turn out to be too long.


texts: How to Refer to Enumerated Subsections and Subsubsections?

texts:
Body

There is Subsection 1.2.
There is Subsubsection 1.4.1.

Referring in the body now

See Subsection 1.2.
See Subsubsection 1.4.1.

I would like to replace all sub parts simply by section etc the following but not sure if correct

See Section 1.2.
See Section 1.4.1.


texts: Change of author sequence after accept with shepherding

texts: Is it ethical to change the author sequence in paper that has been accepted with shepherding at an ACM conference? How likely is it that the shepherds will raise questions on such a change?


texts: Undergraduate not doing homework (case method)

texts:
I've recently started teaching undergraduate students using the case method (management subjects). However, I'm finding that most of the students simply don't do the reading at home. Even though I (so far) have used only short cases (just a few pages), they still just don't do the work.

For those unfamiliar with the case method, if the students do not do the reading before coming to class, there is little to discuss in class. In the end, I feel like the class time is wasted.

Because of the design of the course, I actually don't have the flexibility to have this affect their grade other than to simply fail them. I cannot, for example, reduce their grade by 10%.

If anyone uses the case method with undergraduate students, I'd love to know how you get students to actually do the reading / thinking work required before they get to class.


texts: How to denote the contribution of a co-author who did not do any experiments or analyses?

texts: We are resubmitting a paper. One co-author was part of the project from the beginning, assisted in all group discussions, gave intellectual feedback, but did not do any experiments/analyses. He also wrote a small part of the discussion. What should I write regarding his/her contributions in the respective section?


texts:
Here is my situation, I have obtained a MSc in Computer Science in Europe with some publications in the field. Actually I would like to follow PhD studies, but the problem is that a lot of them are asking to have a proven track in Machine Learning (also in Europe). I have not followed any course on that topic and the things that I have learned about that field was from books, Coursera, or the Internet. I really like the field, but I regret that I did not follow any course beforehand, even though I know theoretically and practically the basics.

How I can address that in my PhD applications? or should I follow another MSc with specialization in Machine Learning?

Any suggestion?


texts: One of my students has a Master's degree but was offered admission to another Master's programme. What could be reason?

texts:
One of my former undergraduate students (overseas student), whom I still have contact with, has got a Master's degree from a very, very prestigious US university.
That student recently applied to a lower ranking US university for a PhD program. They send a rejection for the PhD program but offered an admission into their Master's program instead (almost the same field).
What could be reasonable motivation for such an offer? I suspect they didn't read my student's application properly, or it's just rejection that comes with a generic just-in-case offer of paying tuition fees?


texts:
I completed a project while I was an undergraduate student performing an internship at NASA-JPL. I recently graduated and I am editing the paper I wrote to make it conference paper ready, following AIAA guidelines. I also have a new job and master's program lined up at another institution starting in a month.

I don't understand what to use as my Affiliation for this paper. I did the work as an undergraduate student and was in the internship program of NASA-JPL.

Should I list my undergraduate institution as my affiliation and my current address/contact information at my new institution? Or is my affiliation NASA-JPL for the time of work? The work I did has nothing to do with anything at my undergraduate institution. My co-author is my JPL mentor.

Thank you!


texts: Copyright and reference for explanatory diagram

texts:
I have a schematic diagram that I created and have used in a published peer-reviewed conference paper. It is not part of the method or the results for the paper, just an explanatory diagram giving context, explaining teh terminology used in the text. I want to use the same diagram in a journal paper on a similar subject. Do I need to
1) reference the original conference paper in the article caption?
2) seek copyright permission from the conference organisers?


texts: As a Head of Department, how can I make my faculty happier?

texts:
I am HoD for a department with over 30 members.

The dept is socially inactive with only one or two social gatherings per academic year.
No politics or "serious personal issues" among members.
Just teaching while doing some research.

I got a green light from (very) top management to make them happier. But I really don't know how!


texts: What does it mean to "succeed" in mathematics?

texts:
I don't know if here is the right place to ask this question but I would be glad if you could help me.

I am currently a first year PhD student in pure mathematics, and I have some issues that seem like are preventing me to try to become a mathematician, and come in my mind every now and then.

I start with my background, when I was in high school I tried a lot to be in our national IMO team but I didn't even get close to it, after that I tried a lot of university math books and almost finished undergraduate material in my high school, but after getting to university I didn't have any success in my first years, and after that I got to some "CV-filling" places, that I used to get to a rather good university in math for my PhD, but when I see young great mathematicians, almost all of them have had some of the great successes in their high school and undergraduate, and seems like everyone is looking at them like a great mathematician because of that, and they do not need to put a lot of effort on what they're doing, for example, one of my colleagues got to one of the best universities in math without trying to learn a lot of mathematics - even those that I knew from high school- but has a lot of "success" in mathematics.

In my undergraduate I tried to continue my way of reading mathematics, and learned a lot in my undergraduate studies (from books not courses, and for that I didn't have the best GPA in class), also worked with some professors and other things that not so bad undergraduate students usually do.

My questions are the following:

1) What is a mathematical success?

(for example, I know that in PhD working on good things and having great ideas about core problems in mathematics is a success, but it seems that I'm doing something wrong because it seems that I will not get good things in math by just doing what I'm doing)

2) how can I have motivation to become a great mathematician and be sure that all my efforts are not in vain?

(for example, in my department, everyone talks about having some number of papers published to get to a better place (which I think is something bad to be someone's goal in math) , and when I see former graduate students of my department, almost all of them are in big data analysis and stastics and these non-pure mathematical jobs, even after having a good understanding of some part of pure mathematics)

I would be happy to see other questions similar to this, if there are any in this website, but I would be happy to not put duplicate to this one, if there are duplicates, I would be happy to see answers in my case.

Regards,
Sorry to put anonymous, I'm a little insecure when asking these questions!


texts: Are journal papers published in journals more useful than arXiv papers when applying for a postdoc?

texts:
I am a PhD student in applied probability looking for postdoc jobs after submitting my thesis. What is the value of arXiv papers (not yet published in a journal) compared to papers published in a journal while applying for postdoc? For example, if I have two journal papers and one arXiv paper, whereas someone else has three journal papers, will he gets any benefit over me in applying?

My arxiv paper got rejected from a very top-tier journal after almost two years of review. I am working on the reviewer's comments; then I will submit to a new journal.


texts:
I am at the end of my fourth-year in the Ph.D. program at an average university and I am trying to decide if it's the right decision to leave without getting Ph.D. degree. I have an M.Sc. degree and it's ABD. Although I published many conference papers, I didn't publish a journal. One reason is that I worked a lot for many projects as the lead research assistant. Other reason is that my motivation to work on these journals keeps decreasing. I am making very small progress and I always feel very bad about it. I feel like I will never be able to finish these papers. Quitting will give me relief but it also means that I wasted at least two years of my life. Also, I don't want to regret this.
My relationship with my supervisor is not good. Working with him made me really depressed. I lost all my self-confidence. I sought professional counseling but it doesn't help much. Also, my partner is graduating next semester and needs to leave and find a job. I don't need a Ph.D. to get a job. I've already got many job offers. I don't want to work in academia.


texts: Can scientists be categorized according to temperament and working style?

texts:
I'm doing a bit of informal research about scientists. I would like to know if scientists, at least in the hard sciences, can be categorized according to their working style. And if so, what are some of the different categories?

For example, one might be a conservative researcher who likes to clean up theories, while another might be more of a visionary who likes to explore new frontiers. Another might like data collection. Another may like to teach and mentor. Yet another might be gifted at communication.

I have an idea for forming a collaborative network based around this, which is why I'm asking.

EDIT:

I think it would be helpful to quality the kind of categorization I have mentioned above:

By no means am I suggesting forcefully and artificially imposing a category onto a researcher, like tagging their profiles with keywords. I meant it more in a way that is similar to how economic preferences work -- i.e. almost as a kind of self-selection. In other words, would scientists be ok with describing themselves as having more of one quality than another, just purely stated as a preference. If these preferences could be elucidated and made explicit, it would foster greater collaboration, and therefore would add value to any collaboration network.


texts: How can I find an expert to help review my PhD thesis?

texts:
I need someone to peer review my thesis.  My supervisor does not have enough time to fix my thesis. In addition I am holding all things by myself.

I need someone who is expert in this field.
How can I find someone to help review my PhD thesis?


texts: Does the duration of doctoral and postdoctoral phase *always* matter for a W1 position in Germany?

texts:
Junior professorships in Germany are claimed to have, essentially, restrictions in terms of the speed of progress: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juniorprofessur says

  In principle the employment before the graduation and as postdoc altogether must (in some federal states: may) amount to not more than six, in the medicine not more than nine years, whereby the regulations differ among the federal states.

The above text (due to "in principle", whatever it might mean) is somewhat imprecise.

1) Which laws/regulations, if any, improse such a restriction in the 16 federal states? (@Roland pointed to http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landeshochschulgesetz, but I failed to find the corresponding passages, for Bavaria, Bremen, Hessen, NRW, and Saxony-Anhalt. Moreover, some passages in the corresponding laws say "bleiben außer Betracht". E.g., if for Hamburg we see "Behinderungsbedingte Überschreitungen dieser Zeiträume bleiben außer Betracht.", does it mean that impaired applicants get an extension?)

2) In practice, have there been any junior professorships without restrictions concerning the duration of the prior academic career?


texts: Can my proposed supervisors for my Masters by dissertation be my referees?

texts: I am applying for grad school, and its the same institution as my undergraduate studies. Can my proposed supervisors write me their recommendation letters as they are the ones that I interacted most closely with?


texts: Should I tell my tertiary education provider about my autism and ADHD diagnosis?

texts:
I have high functioning autism / aspergers syndrome comorbid with ADHD.

During highschool I went undiagnosed, but always suspected I was autistic. I had a few Dr's comment but I didn't really agree with them at that time.

Fast forward now, I got my psychiatric diagnosis, and also found out that I had ADHD. I don't care about being autistic, but finding out I had ADHD and treating it is what really impacted my life the most.

I can conduct myself well socially but have significant difficulties in particular social situations in specific contexts -- ones that I do not have any experience. In addition, I learn in very specific ways and methods.

I'm hesitant to inform my school about this because I don't really consider it a disability. I don't really care that I'm socially clueless (I prefer to be alone most of the time anyway) and my ADHD is being treated and working well so far. I have a few sensory issues and routines but they are under control. My emotional regulation is fine. I'm very "anal" at particular things.

My degree somewhat aligns with my special interests, and I've learnt to better manage doing things I don't like (which was legitimately impossible without my ADHD medication).

Country: Australia, but will appreciate other perspectives

Age: 19, M


texts: What is the proper response when a professor teaches a side topic related to the course but the information is wrong?

texts:
I've been a software developer for about 10 years or so and am familiar with various security related concepts (SQL injection, server-client validations, man-in-the-middle attacks, etc.)

I'm upgrading from a college diploma and found myself sitting in an "Enterprise Application Development" class learning about SQL.

The core content is very basic and normally doesn't cover security, but the teacher decides to talk about it. He advised students to use mixed cased table names as "security" so that it is harder to guess. This is known as "Security Through Obscurity" and is one of the least effective form of security (it is treated as insecure). Security is talked about throughout the class and they're all forms of the same thing and extremely dangerous since it is completely ineffective.

As a professional that knows better, if he was an employee I would've had to sit him down and have a thorough talk, and probably advise some security training.

What can do I do as a student? Since the other students are probably clueless
and security is not even one of the program's topic, there is no foreseeable chance for correct learning and they will probably end up doing this in the future, possibly jeopardizing their own career, the company, and all the data they work with.


texts: Be a member of TPC of a low quality conference

texts: Recently I have recieved few emails from conference organisers to become a member of conference technical program committee. Three of them are international conferences and going to held in China and Thailand. I am a fresh PhD is it good to participate in low quality conferences as TPC member?  it will have a positive or negative impact in my resume?


texts: How to write source information for tables if I'm using data from multiple sources?

texts: I am using data from 3-4 different sources in my table. How to cite the source information in MLA format? As far as I know, Source information is written below tables in the MLA style. But is it okay to mention multiple sources below the table? Won't it look cluttered?


texts: Does listing several research directions in SOP give the impression that I have a shallow research interest?

texts:
I am applying to MS in CS degree. In my SOP I wish to talk about four distinct, non-overlapping research directions. Two of these pertain to computer vision and the other two pertain to machine learning. (I am interested in how computer vision utilizes the theory of machine learning.)

Now my question is, if I talk about all four of these distinct, non-overlapping research directions and quote a paper each in these 4 directions, will it give the impression that I have a shallow superficial research interest? Also I don't have any particular research idea in my mind for any of these directions yet.

As I am still in college, I don't get enough time to conduct research on these directions. My college coursework keeps me busy for most of the time. So as of for now I can't narrow down to one of these directions.

Over the course of the last four years, I read papers whenever I got time and I saw a pattern in all these papers. I realized that the papers I read fall into these distinct directions. I realized how one paper builds on top of the other. It's just that I was casually reading this stuff not with an intention to contribute to either of these directions. But if you ask me to write a grad level thesis I would definitely choose one of these four directions.

Edit: The papers are pivotal papers to those directions. None of them are older than 2012 and they have established that direction. So omitting them could potentially jeopardize the coherence of my SOP.