texts: Conference Title - shall abbreviation and year be listed uniformly?

texts:
I'm just had a look at my citations and they are in an aweful state. Most conference papers that I imported into my citation manager have different styles, e.g.:

IEEEE Conference on Emerging Txxx Bxxx Qxxxxxxx, 2009 (ETBQ 2009)
IEEEE Conference on Old Wxxx Yxxx Sxxxxxxx (OWYS), 2009
IEEEE Conference on Txxx Txxx Xxxxxxxx, 2009, (TTX 2009)
IEEEE Conference on Gold. 2009 (Chicago)

Am I allowed to bring all conferences into the same format?

What format would you recommend? Should I drop abbreviation, year, or place of the conference as it is repeated? I think the year might have to stay because e.g. a coference might be held in Dec. 2009 and the papers are only published in Feb. 2010, hence the 2009 date would be lost. I also like the abbreviation as it helps my to identify the coferences in one glimps.

Second question: Should I add "Proceeding of the" in front of every conference?


texts: White paper justifying the publication of a survey paper

texts:
We are currently trying to submit a comprehensive survey article I have been working on for a while as a journal paper. Some of the journals we're considering (I'm in Computer Science) require, for survey articles, submitting a 2-5 page white paper to the Editor-in-Chief, in order to evaluate the relevance of the proposed survey (upon which the EiC would either discourage or encourage the submission of a full survey):

  Authors interested in submitting overview articles are required to consult first with the Editor-in-Chief (EiC) of their Transactions of choice before submitting a white paper proposal. White papers are limited to 2-pages and should motivate the topic, justify the proposal, and include a list of relevant bibliography including any available tutorial or overview articles related to the subject matter. (...) The EiC solicits input from the Editorial Board on whether to encourage submission of a full paper.

  (specific requirements example taken from: http://www.signalprocessingsociety.org/publications/overview-articles/)

I have found some questions on the topic if white papers, but it looks to me like all of those are either concerning short standalone papers, or white papers for grants, which differs a bit from my situation.

Just to summarize, this white paper (2-5 pages, depending on the journal) is not ment to ever be published, but rather to help the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board in deciding on the relevance of the proposed survey. So, for me as the author, the goal of this white paper is to motivate the EiC to invite me to submit the full survey manuscript.

So, my question is how to structure and what information to include in a white paper, meant as a proposal for publishing a longer survey paper. Some specific questions I'm thinking about:

Should I divide it into sections, similar to a regular (short) paper (introduction, discussion, etc.) or should it have some different, (specific or not) structure?
The reqirements mention including a "list of relevant bibliography": as this is meant to be for an survey article, my complete list of bibliography is much larger that 2 pages. Do I just mention "related work" and omit the references used as sources for the survey from this white paper, or something similar to that?
Should I repeat some parts of the survey, or just include the motivation and explanation of the survey topic in this white paper?


texts: How to list both journals and conferences on your CV when you have worked in two fields with different publication cultures?

texts:
I used to be in a field where journals were much more prestigious than conferences, so I kept journals and conferences in separate sections (assuming that people would care a lot less about the conferences).  Now I have switched to computer science, where conferences are the main venue of publication, and my only first-author paper is now a conference paper.  Do I still keep journals and conferences separate?  It feels weird to put my only first-author paper in the same section as a random poster presentation my coauthor gave.

I'm also thinking of having one section for "publications," and listing all the papers reverse-chronologically, except for the non-important conferences, which I'd put at the end.


texts:
I'm writing a paper on a board game,
Labyrinth, and I need to use some parts of the rule book. How should I reference this? I'm using Harvard reference style.

EDIT: I hadn't notice this earlier.

What can be found in the start of the rule book is this:

  Author: Max J. Kobbert

And in the end, this:

  © 2007 Ravensburger Spieleverlag

EDIT 2: I found a link to the rule book. The real one contains for several more languages but the content is the same.

Link to rule book


texts: Beall's List of Potential Predatory Publishers on Weebly shutdown?

texts:
Most academics would be familiar with Beall's list of Potential Predatory Publishers.  His project was shutdown some years ago, with the publicised reason being a "personal decision" (see link above), but it is widely acknowledged this was due to targeted harassment and pressure from publishers on the list and potential lawsuits.

However, many academics continue to rely on lists like his to help differentiate between legitimate and predatory journals, publishers, and even conferences.  As a result, Beall's original list was preserved on other websites and extended to add new entities as they were created.

One such website was "BEALLSLIST.NET" (http://beallslist.weebly.com/) which contained Bea'lls original list and extended version.  I regularly used this site when asked to review articles in journals I am not familiar with.  However, recently (sometime since Oct 2019 by my estimate), this site also appears to have been shutdown.

Why (and when) was this site taken down? Was this due to targeted harassment from publishers too? Are there any other good alternative sources that contain Beall's original list and extended lists?


texts: Citing published papers while using their pre-print versions

texts:
Is it unethical if we cite a paper with mentioning the publication venue (e.g,. author, "paper title," journal name, year) when quoting or mentioning some idea from it, while we have not even seen the paper in its final published form and what we have read is indeed previous versions of it (e.g., because we got it from the author's homepage, arXiv, etc., which are not copy-editted and may have some differences with the final version)?

If yes, what is the solution? (Having many references without any publication venues and e.g., by mentioning the url of the file we have, makes our paper ugly)


texts: Withdrawing a doctoral application and re-applying before deadline

texts:
I applied for a doctorate programme and got a confirmation email that it was successfully submitted. Later, I realised I omitted some important information in my application that I need to add.

If I am still within the application deadline, can I ask for a withdrawal of my application and then re-apply before the deadline date?


texts: Switching PhD programs after earning M.S

texts: This fall, I will be a 2nd year PhD student in Microbiology. My ultimate goal is not to work in academia, but industry or government. After being a year in the program, I started to realize a masters degree may be more aligned with my future career goals. I find I like clear cut goals for my laboratory work, and very applied research. However, I would still like to keep the option of a PhD available. I have now found out, that I may need to move to a new program. My fiancee is a 4th year medical student who has matched into a residency across the country. While I never thought I would leave a program for a person, I can't imagine spending 4+ years long distance. Would leaving with a master's degree from my current program burn bridges with professors? Is it even feasible to start over at a new program? I have not yet advanced to candidacy. Would it be wise to wait until after? Any advice would be wonderful.


texts:
It's been less than a year since I graduated and my university e-mail address is still active. Therefore, I have been able to receive invitations to review papers (presumably from my publications).

As per university policy, the e-mail account will be terminated soon. They offer an alumni.xyz.edu account but do not offer any forwarding for the xyz.edu account.

Apart from petitioning the university to change this ludicrous policy, has anyone else experience this problem?


texts: Effective way to organize a course so that it can be followed from abroad

texts:
I'm reaching out because I'd like to take a Master's Degree in Spain (which starts in October), but my current job will end in December, and I'm trying to find an effective way to organize classes with the course's professors to study from home for the first few months, if possible.

The course is a programming one, and a big part of it is interaction between students and with teachers. What I thought would be an acceptable solution is a mix between Realtime Board and Skype, but it would require someone to watch over my assigned "station", and would in my opinion disrupt the flow of the class. Are there any alternatives?

In short, I need two things:

A tool like RB, but specifically for code (although RB itself could be used if no alternative is found); basically an online, self-refreshing collaborative space.
A communication tool. Skype is sometimes unreliable with my current connection, but maybe there are other ways other than recording each lesson to do this?

If anyone needs more information to answer properly feel free to ask, and if the question is not appropriate for Academia, do suggest a better site, I'm all ears!


texts: Why do theoretical computer science people use Comic Sans in their slides?

texts:
I have no data to back up this observation, but it's something I have noticed consistently in research talks and teaching material: People from the theoretical CS community seem to use Comic Sans a lot, a font-face that emulates the look and feel of hand-drawn fonts in comic books. Is this merely a convention or is there a deeper reason behind it?

EDIT1: Since a couple of users requested examples, here's what I came up with in a 5-minute search:

Probabilistic model checking in practice
Symbolisches model checking
A complexity measure on Büchi automata
Fundamentals of programming languages
Formal modeling methods

EDIT2: The point of this question is not to collect opinions, but to find out reasons why TCS people use Comic  Sans (and the answers so far already did an excellent job in this matter).


texts: Supervisor getting another PhD student with the same project?

texts:
I just started a PhD supervised by a clinician and a bioinformatician. The bioinformatician informed me they have received funding to get another PhD student to work on the same disease/ broad question of machine learning.
I love this PhD topic, but I am very concerned about a new student working on the same question. I wonder about how we will divide up our research. I do not like the idea of it as I do not know how our research will grow organically, and I had big plans for what I wanted to publish during this PhD, which is longer than average in duration.
Is it usual or right for 2 students to have the same question? Has anyone got experience of this and how did it work?
When I was doing my Master's I had a similar thing. A different clinician wanted to add another Master's student to my exact project, but in the end the other supervisor blocked it. In retrospect, now I know the topic better,  there could have been space for another student and I to go down different routes. I think it would have occurred in the much longer term however (after the 1 year mark), and would have limited and been to the detriment of my research. Of course the commitment of a masters is much smaller.
I suppose I also wonder if it's a reflection of their perception of my capabilities.


texts: How many professors are there in technical fields with no degree whatsoever?

texts:
Peter Beck has recently been appointed an Adjunct Professor in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Auckland. As you know, Peter Beck is the founder of Rocket Lab, which has put payloads into space, but Peter Beck also never attended college and even dropped out of high school.

How many Adjunct Professors are there in technical fields like Aerospace Engineering without any college degrees? How many high school dropout professors without degrees?


texts: Contact professors whom are not listed on application

texts:
I forgot to include one of the faculty members who works in my area of interest in my application for grad school.
Since I have not mentioned him in my application, would contacting him and requesting a review help my admission?
As far as I know, every professor in the department (CS) could put a review on an application even if he/she is not listed in the potentials. But I think he might ask himself why the applicant did not include his name in his application and simply ignore the review request.


texts: Are there any trustworthy Mathematics fee-based open access journals?

texts: Some open access journals, like Integers for example, don't charge the author any fee for publishing their article. Other open access journals do charge the author a fee and the author has to pay the fee so that their work can be posted online. Are there any trustworthy fee-based open access journals?


texts: Switching research topics to something less interesting?

texts:
I'm finishing my undergraduate degree this year, and I'm deciding which PhD program to attend: School A, or School B. I do have other offers, but these two stand out to me. My background and current interests are in topic X.

School A has exactly one professor working on X, but my would-be initial advisor works on topic Y. I don't oppose doing research in Y, but my background and current research interest really is X. This initial advisor is recruiting me very aggressively, so it'll really hurt turning him down.
School B has 2-3 professors working on X, but I can't see myself working with anyone here whose research is not in X, which would be bad if I lose interest in X someday. If the would-be initial advisor at School A weren't recruiting me so aggressively, I'd choose School B.

All of the aforementioned professors are quite productive, though the students at School A are slightly more productive than those at School B. If it matters at all, I prefer the location of School A slghtly.

tl;dr: School A is aggressively recruiting me and may be the better place overall, but for my current research interests, School B is the place to be.


texts: Tools for PDF presentations commenting that respect slides

texts:
For my problem-solving classes I prepare presentations which include a reminder on the theoretical parts, statements of the problems to be solved, some (partial) solutions, tips and so on. These presentations are then displayed to the students by means of the screen sharing. Then we discuss the problems, try various approaches and do the usual stuff one would do in an offline class with a black- or whiteboard.

We mostly use Zoom which includes commenting tools which we actively use in the process. The comments and the drawings stay where they are when I go over the pages of the PDF, so when we switch to another slide, I have to clear the comments. It is mostly okay, but there are two issues:

When one of the students asks to get back to one of the previous slides, all the comments are gone (this is even more relevant for the research seminars).
The comments are not saved, meaning that the presentation I would share after the class contains no comments we made during the session (in particular, the solutions to the problems we solved in class). We record the video, sure, but the students told me that the slides themselves are more convenient for later use.

Now Adobe Reader and other PDF reading programs also contain the commenting and drawing tools, and all the comments can be saved in the document, but the comments are attached to the pages of the PDF and not to the slides, so I cannot combine drawing on top of the slide while also turning the pages of a single slide (in order to reveal something I prepared in advance).

  Q: Is there a way to combine these features, so that the comments are not lost, while also not tied to specific pages, but rather to the blocks of pages (say, for the sections of the PDF)?


texts: When should I release deadlines for assignments?

texts: Some students have been asking that I release all the assignments and their due dates at the beginning of the course. I suppose that I could create some estimates, but I suspect that we will end up moving slower that I would hope (this seems to always be the case) and may even have to drop an assignment or two. I'd prefer to release the deadlines and assignments as we approach them, but the students allege that knowing this information ahead of time will help them manage their schedule.


texts: Should my math teacher talk about my grades in his letter of recommendation?

texts:
I did really well at school except for the final exams where I got terrible grades. Thoughout the years, my grades were above average but I got terrible grades in my finals(which count for 50% in my country) and that caused me to get a GPA of 2.4.
Should my math teacher talk about how/why i got bad grades in my finals? It's quite clear that I almost failed because of those grades but it's also quite clear that I was an A student before those grades.
If he doesn't talk about my math abilities(or disabilities) then what should he talk about?
Please help me, I need to send this letter next week


texts: Should I mention in my thesis that a live demonstration motivated me to implement an algorithm instead of others?

texts:
I am currently writing my bachelor thesis, in which I compare different algorithms for solving a specific problem to each other.
Since there are a lot of available published approaches, I did a literature review to choose algorithms relevant for me to implement.
In my thesis I would like to justify my choice of algorithms.

For one of these, I was convinced by a live demonstration on an exhibition-like event, where the algorithm was shown to perform reasonably well in real-time on the target platform.

My questions regarding this situation are

Does my personal, subjective experience with this algorithm justify its implementation?
If so, what would be the appropriate way to mention this in a thesis context?

I imagine this kind of question could also potentially be relevant to other types of theses or publications, which is why I chose the respective tags.


texts: How to request a professor to let you into their class

texts:
For various valid reasons, I was not able to sign up for a certain math course that I need. The professor is amazing, and I really hope to get into her class. I went to her class every day for a week, and hoped to continue doing so until the last day to add, which is two weeks after the term starts. However, she had far too many students sitting in until Thursday of the first week, so she asked people who weren't enrolled to stop coming, otherwise there wouldn't be enough physical seats for the people who actually enrolled in the course. As a plus she is such a sweet lady, and I was hoping to take math in an unintimidating environment, so that I can actually learn (I've had many horrible experiences). I emailed her multiple times, and told her my situation of why I couldn't enroll on time, and simply requested if I could continue coming to the class for the second week, and I would sit in the back of the room, just in case someone happens to drop the class. She kindly denied my requests, but I genuinely want to be in her class. Not to mention, all the other math classes are also waitlisted, so I won't be able to get into other professors' classes either. I even took the quiz for her class on Friday, and got 20/20. I studied hard, so that she can see that I am serious about her course. I showed up on time/early every day. I am so disappointed, 1) because I need this course to graduate on time, since it's in a sequence of math courses 2) because this teacher was so genuinely great! I've never had such an amazing learning experience in a math class, and this was just in 4 days! She even stopped replying to my emails, which I understand because she is busy.

Is there anything else I can do? I just want to sit in until next week to see if someone drops. The cap is 40 students, and she let in 43. Please help me out. Sorry for the long message.

*By the way, only two extra students including me showed up to the class on Friday, and took the quiz. All the other students who wanted to get in didn't show up.


texts:
I have noticed in a number of papers, including those in top journals, a common dirty practice which consists of self citing your previous works and omitting other important references in the area (I admit some of them at least include the classic references). For instance Prof. John Doe writes a paper and his references look like:

[1] John Doe (1970). Paper 1.
[2] John Doe (1971). Paper 2.
...
[200] John Doe (2014). Paper 200.
[201] Issac Newton (1687). Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica.

I am aware of the concept of Publication Bias, which is related to a bias with regard to what is published. I wonder if there is also something related to self-citation bias or citation bias (it might also be the case that a person only cites a group of researchers (friends?))?
This, of course, is not just a matter of taste, but it is a practice that complicates the literature review in a certain area.


texts: Asked to referee a paper on a topic that I think another group is working on

texts: I have been asked to serve as the (only) referee on a paper that is in my field, but is not within my specific area of expertise. As far as I can recall, this paper seems to be on a topic that is also being independently worked on by a large collaboration of established researchers in the field. The work I am reviewing seems to be OK, though not especially good. I am under the impression, though I am not sure, that the large collaboration is working on a much more detailed and thorough version of the same work, but they have not published it yet. Should this affect my review in any way?


texts: Will going part-time in undergraduate affect my graduate admission?

texts:
I'm a fourth year undergraduate student in a university in the U.S., and this is my last semester. I have already applied to graduate schools, and I'm currently awaiting responses. Since I have already finished all my requirements and am ready to graduate, I wanted to go part time this semester. I am aware of how it affects my financial aid; however, I do not know if it has an effect on my admittance to graduate school. I do not mean whether or not I get accepted (the decisions will happen without knowledge of my current semester), but whether I am eligible to attend graduate school if I have been part time for a semester. That is, will there be any potential issues when the schools that have accepted me see my final transcript and see I was part time? Is there a universal answer to this? Or should I contact each school individually and ask about their policy?

Also, are there any other potential issues with going part time that I haven't mentioned? Anything noteworthy I might have missed?


texts: No reimbursement from grad school for canceled open house flight expense

texts:
Expedia and the airline I booked a trans-Atlantic flight with, have told me I cannot get a reimbursement. Only a refund for airline credit for a future flight. I do not need this.

The grad school I was traveling to for the open house (which was canceled obviously) is not reimbursing me because I was given the option for a refund/flight credit.

I have extremely tight funds... this flight's price was highly non-trivial on my budget.

How can I handle this?


texts: Do any universities, other than Pontifical (Vatican) universities allows for presenting a thesis in Latin?

texts:
What, if any, universities, permit candidates to put forth their thesis in Latin (classical or ecclesiastical)?

For this question, I would like to exclude any Pontifical Universities.

In other words, I would like to know if any other universities allow a candidate to put forth their thesis in the Latin language, at the present moment in time.


texts: Asking a High School Teacher for a Letter of Recommendation

texts:
I am an undergraduate senior applying to graduate programs in Computer Science (with math-y specialties, such as Machine Learning and Data Science), and am trying to figure out who the best people to ask for recommendations are. I've already asked a professor whose class I did well in and tutored for, and a former manager of mine who has a PhD in the same field. As for my third one, I'm thinking about two options:

a) My high school math team coach: Math Team was my life back in high school, and I feel that my coach is one of the few people who truly knows how much I love math and learning in general. In addition, he also has a PhD in the field (in fact, he and my former manager did their PhDs together!). The only downside to this that I can see is that he is not familiar with my work in college, but I think the fact that he knows academia and my own academic potential makes up for that. Unfortunately, I have read that recommendations from high school teachers are generally looked down upon, so I don't know how great that would be.

b) My current Machine Learning professor: Machine Learning is what I really want to do, and a recommendation for someone who actively teaches it and is involved in the field would be great. However, I am worried that since the semester is not over yet, he may not have an accurate feel for my academic ability (although I have been doing well in the class so far). Additionally, I do not know him very well - I have been talking to him a little bit about grad school and advice for a career in ML in general, but I don't know if that is enough for him to write a strong recommendation with.

Given this background, which recommendation do you think would be stronger?


texts: A course-based letter from a named professor or a research letter from a young no-name researcher?

texts:
I can get a letter from a course instructor that I got a highest possible grade. He is a very well known professor at a top 5 institute. Of course, he can say little about my research.

I can also get a letter from my research collaborator who just got his PhD from a not-so-famous school. We worked on three papers so he can definitely comment my research in details. He is an assistant professor in a research-focused school rank at 100.

Which one is better for a research (PhD) program?

The program I am applying to requires two letters. The first letter is from a big name who I've done research with.


texts: Change of email address in peer-review system

texts: My goal is to serve as journal reviewers as much as possible, and I have recently changed affiliation. I have published several papers using my old affiliation's email address which is now closed since leaving, but I have set up an automatic reply message informing senders of my new email in the Office365 system which is good for 1 year after account closing. I wonder what will happen if an editor finds me as a potential reviewer based on my publications and reach out to me using my old institute's email address. Do most submission systems (eg. Manuscript Central) handle automatic replies well? Do journals or editors typically take effort to research on reviewers' recent contact info before reaching out? Also I do have an ORCID account and a personal webpage, but as my name is very common I don't think it helps much in this situation.


texts: Do PhD students work alone in American universities?

texts:
I came from India to UK for my PhD as I hoped to work in a team and learn from others. However, I am all alone as other students of my professor are. As I inspected this is the case in all UK universities.

I understand that a PhD student is responsible for completing his project but I expected that my project is part of a bigger project and people who work on different parts have regular scientific discussions.

I want to quit and apply in the US but now I am pessimistic if this is the case in the US too.


texts: Can one compensate for poor funding performance elsewhere in determining academic promotion?

texts:
Follow up question to How does research funding work in determining academic promotions? since it was too broad.

Take two equally talented researchers, Alice & Bob. To what extent will it matter if Alice has a large amount of grant funding, compared Bob who has little or no grant funding? Can Bob compensate for his lack of grant funding by, e.g., having better teaching evaluations or supervising more undergraduate students?


texts: Possible to return to a PhD years later (at the same or a different uni?)

texts:
Here's my challenge: I took a suspension of studies about a year and a half ago from my UK PhD program (in ancient history) and moved back to the US after my funding ran out, and now have to decide whether to pony up for part-time tuition or just drop out entirely.

I have no hope or interest in pursuing the PhD for a career; I've got a career in an unrelated field. But my subject and my thesis add something to my life that I don't want to give up. But I'm not eager to dump $10,000 for just part-time tuition when right now that would be a doable but poor financial decision, especially since I doubt my rate of progress would improve. I've finished about 50% of my thesis.

Is it possible to just quit and then reapply again in the future? It's never been stated outright, but the vibe from the university is it's finish or quit forever. I don't really care if it's at the same university or not. (As long as it's not in the US; I have no interest in a longer than 3 or 4 year program).

Has anyone else left a program only to complete it or another one years later?


texts:
I am interested in the field of combinatorics and I would like to track new papers in journals on combinatorics (mainly the top of this list http://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php?category=2607).

How should I do that? For example, Journal on Graph Theory has email alert service but with some of the others I do not see such option.

How do you, personally, track new papers in your area?


texts: Refusing the postdoc offer (email acceptance of the offer only)

texts:
I have a classical situation, but as it is the first in my live, I would like to know: if it is acceptable to refuse a postdoctoral offer. The contract is not signed, the paperwork are going to start, my official commitment was 'Yes, I am taking your offer' by email).
The reason is having an up-to-the-minute offer from the other University, which I like more. That offer however is agreed only by email, no papers are prepared.
Thank you for any tips.


texts: Where can I publish the proceedings articles of a small conference?

texts:
I am responsible for publishing the proceedings submissions of the Scandinavian Symposium on Physical Acoustics, a smallish yearly conference with about 50 participants. After the symposium, participants who held a presentation are encouraged but not required to submit articles to the symposium’s proceedings. Typically, these proceedings end up with 5–10 articles, all of decent quality.

My aim is to publish the proceedings through a channel which makes the articles visible and searchable through at least Google Scholar. In 2016 and 2019, when I was previously responsible for publishing the proceedings, I uploaded the proceedings to arXiv.org through a process that I established with arXiv moderators and later described on my blog. This gave us the visibility and searchability that we wanted.

In 2016, this went fairly smoothly, but in 2019 there was an issue. Our symposium accepts a wide range of proceedings articles, including working papers that present a research setup and briefly describe preliminary results. However, arXiv have a stricter policy saying that “arXiv only accepts submissions in the form of an article that would be refereeable by a conventional publication venue”. The arXiv moderators therefore rejected one of our proceedings submissions, as they judged it not to be “in a format appropriate for publication in a conventional journal”. This is of course their prerogative, but it left the uploaded proceedings incomplete. (We ended up uploading the last article to ResearchGate instead.)

My question is therefore whether there are any other channels that we can upload such a proceedings to, which would give us similar searchability and visibility to arXiv, but where we can also be certain that we will be able to upload all of our proceedings submissions. Could ResearchGate, HAL, or another site be an option?


texts:
I am writing a review/tutorial paper in the field of computer science. Review articles in the journal where I want to publish tend to be long, with in-depth explanations. Now I'm in my third section of the article and I am not sure where to put a signpost paragraph. I can either:

Start a new section with it, the rationale being that a reader gets to know what is in this section straight away.
Put it after 2-3 paragraphs, so the reader gets to "taste" what the section is about and then can decide it he wants to continue reading for in-depth explanation or go to next section that might be more interesting for him. I would prefer this option, but then the signpost paragraph interrupts the flow of ideas that was started with the first paragraphs.

The journal's guide of style has nothing about signpost paragraphs. Reading other articles, I noticed both usages and would like to know what others think.


texts: Best Practice To Provide Contact Information in Paper

texts:
On the first page of most papers the authors are listed, as well as their affiliation and email address. The given email address is usually hosted by the university. Now this looks professional and everything, though it is not always a good long-term solution, as researchers join other universities and their email address does no longer work (after a while). In my field (physics/cosmology) I rarely see a different solution, but I thought maybe other fields might have found a better approach. What contact information can be provided that does not get outdated?

a link to a website that then relinks to an always up-to-date email address?
a personal email address?
researchgate profile
?

Does anyone work in a field where there is a better solution widely used?
Thank you very much for your thoughts on this topic.


texts: Asked about bibliographic search skills for application

texts: I’m applying for a postdoctoral role in the UK, and I am asked to have ’bibliographic search skills’. I’m sort of at a loss as to what that means, specifically – does anyone know? I’m assuming it doesn’t just mean ‘can read a bibliography’. I have a Ph.D., so I’m sort of embarrassed not to know what this means, but there you go.


texts: International Medical student who wants to do a math phd

texts:
I am a medical student at the number one ranked university in the MENA region (AUB). I have been interested in the mathematics of bio-imaging and a lot of my research deals with this field. I am keenly interested in applying for a mathematics PhD at a top research school in the US after I complete my MD. I am aware I may be an nontraditional applicant, especially that my undergrad preparation was in chemistry. I took all the calculus series courses, along with ODEs, real analysis, linear algebra, and abstract algebra. I scored above 90% in all of the classes, and our institution is known to have considerable grade deflation. Many of these courses I took while in medical school as well, so I had to juggle between a busy medical school curriculum and the additional coursework.

If I hopefully manage to do well on the math subject GRE, would this put me in a good position as an applicant to a PhD program (top 20)? My medical degree will obviously have no value in terms of assessing my readiness, but perhaps it speaks to my work ethic and ability to handle great volumes of work. I am also a US citizen if that makes any difference.


texts: Interviews for academic teaching positions and "diversity"

texts:
I am a Masters student in math, who loves teaching, and rather than go on for a PhD would rather teach at a community college. I've noticed in many of the schools to which I am applying the they emphasize the need to understand diversity and teaching to diverse ethnic, economic, and ability populations.

Now I'm just a simple boy from the farm, so can somebody explain why this is important to teaching mathematics? Aren't people, well people? And if a person knows how to do deal and relate well with others, knows how to respect other's differences and is a good teacher, what more is there to say really?

I'm not trying to be obtuse or controversial, but I just don't see what these factors really have to do with being an effective educator and they simply come off as being PCish to me, but I'm hoping someone can perhaps give me a substantive answer.


texts: How to respond to peer review - a step by step guide to my first response?

texts:
I'm in the process of responding to my first peer review (major revisions).  There seems to be a lot of advice out there, (even some stuff here: How to write good Response Letters for the reviewers) but there are still a few etiquette and structural things I'm not sure about.

How do you structure your response? Do I respond to the comments chronologically in the order they appear in the paper, or do I create two separate sections for each reviewer?  Maybe a "general" section, followed by separate comments for each reviewer?
Do I write a cover letter thanking the reviewers for their helpful comments?
How casual/formal should I be?  Should I use contractions and a conversational (yet professional) style, or keep it as formal as the article itself?
Any dos/don'ts that would be helpful for me to know?


texts: I've been rejected from every research program/professor I've applied to for summer. What do I do?

texts:
I'm a sophomore biology major. I'd like to be in a research lab, but am willing to do anything related to my major: interning for environmental consulting, working for the state epa, etc. The issue is EVERYTHING I've applied to and every professor I've emailed has rejected/ignored me. I'm staring down a long, empty, lonely summer at the same minimum wage job I had last year. I'm panicked and depressed at the prospect. Please help. What do I do? Is it too late to find something?

Edited to add: I have 2 weeks until I'm done with this semester and summer starts


texts: What to do when you notice that a value in your paper is wrong, once it is accepted but before it is published?

texts:
8 months ago, I have submitted my paper to the top journal in my field and finally it got accepted. Unfortunately, I have found one wrong table entry (Experiment Section), which is not a logical value at all. More precisely, I was copying from my raw data (in cm) to the paper (in mm) and I forgot to convert one value. Actually the mentioned value is not possible at all and the change does not affect the conclusion of neither the corresponding subsection in the experiment section nor the conclusion of the paper. This paper is very important for my PhD which will take place in few weeks.

I am pretty sure that reviewers did not deeply examine that table, otherwise they would find out the error because it is too obvious. Now, I am wondering how to deal with this issue.

Ps. Another problem is that in the policy of that journal, the paper which needs another major revision will be rejected. Now, I have one week to provide the final revised version.


texts: How to say "I'm not interested" in a polite way?

texts:
I'm a PhD student, sending cold emails to potential PIs for postdoc positions these days.
I sent an email to this one PI that I've been interested in and asked him about the possibility of joining his lab as a postdoc, elaborating potential projects I would like to study in his lab.
He replied to my email saying that his lab is taking a different direction recently which hasn't been reflected on his lab website yet and asked if I'd be interested in this new line of research.
However, I'm not really interested in this new research. My interest in working with him was based on his past work. He wanted me to let him know whether I'm interested in this new direction. It was nice that he replied to my email and informed me of his new interest. Honestly, I don't feel like I would excel in this line of research (because I don't know much about it). Also, it doesn't sound fascinating to me. I tried to read papers about it (to get a better sense of what exactly it is), but they were so boring, and I couldn't even finish reading any of them.
The situation is a bit weird because I'm the one who first sent an unsolicited email and he hasn't offered me a job yet. So, it's kind of my rejection when there is no actual offers made in reality. I just don't think working with him would be a good fit (not only from my side but also from his side). There must be someone else who better understands and is passionate about the topic than I do. In this case, how can I say "I'm not interested in doing your new research" in a polite way in an email?
Any suggestions would be appreciated!


texts: Chances of publishing paper(s) in last year of PhD

texts:
We have a recent rule in our institution that at least two papers need to be published in SCI journals for being awarded a doctorate degree.
Students were well aware about the rule since the first year of their PhD degree. I called it a recent rule because the university never had this rule prior to this, and this is the first batch of students to whom it applies.
Almost 95% of the students do not have a SCI journal publication in the last year of their PhD. Those who do are from physics or physics. Almost all the rest belongs to computer-science subjects like cryptography, machine learning etc.
We do not have any statistics regarding the possibility of publishing two papers in the last year by PhD students since the rule is relatively new. So, stats of seniors are not much helpful for us.
Most of the seniors published their research papers in the last year of their PhD. But, almost all of these publications are in non-SCI journals. So, their stats are no longer relevant to us.
Many users may answer that it totally depends on the student, supervisor, environment etc.,  But one can observe that only 5% of students get their papers published in their early years and 95% didn't have any progress in publications. So, I am hoping that there would be statistics related to this phenomenon.
Is there any survey or stats regarding this? What percentage of students get their papers published in standard journals in their last year of PhD?


texts: Is it fair for a professor to grade us on the possession of past papers?

texts:
My English professor recently asked us to bring in all of our graded essays from the whole semester in order to fill out a 'rubric' of sorts which tallied the various types of mistakes we had made. She will be grading the rubric, and previously stated that if we did not have all the essays from the past semester in class that day, our grade would be comparably lower than otherwise. She made no mention of 'keeping all graded work' at any point during the course, and in my current institution, I have never been expected to keep past work for any specified duration. There are a multitude of reasons why a student may not have been able to keep particular (or any) essays, which my professor did not take into consideration.

Is it fair for my English professor to expect us to keep all of our past graded work, and then grade us on our possession? If unfair, how can I bring this issue up with her and dispute her expectation?

Note that I doubt that this is because she lost the essays; they’ve already been averaged into our final grades.


texts: On agreeing on length of PhD program in advance and three year studies

texts: I know people say in Europe (say in Computer Science) a PhD normally takes three to four years. My concern is: is there no way to know the number of years in advance? Is it not something I can "agree" with the supervisors before hand how long it will take? Exactly? Not approximately, rather exactly. In other words are three year long phd programs common?


texts: Is it reasonable to get the university's legal team to advise on an open source licensing issue that affects software developed for research

texts:
I am developing some open source software for use in research.
I intend to publish a paper about it.
(It is marginally novel, and there is a venue I have in mind that accepts such.)

One piece of existing code I would like to derive from to make my tool,
is released under a problematic crayon license.
It basically boils down to the code is either public domain, GPL, or all rights reserved. (and I can't determine which, and nor can Open Source stack exchange).

So it seems like maybe interpretting the license is a job for an actual lawyer.
I know my university has a team of them on retainer.
(and I know they do process some documents for students. I had an undergrad unit that required working with a business and we were instructed to forward any NDAs to the lecturer who would get them checked by the university lawyers.)

Making this code is not the primary goal in my research, but it is a stepping stone, and it does furfill some of the stated objectives of one of my supervisor's grants that has been funding me. but it is not a primary part of either.

I can't directly request anything from legal myself, but I could get my supervisor to do so.
But I don't know if it is a waste of everybody's time.


texts: What are the stages for pursuing medical sciences in America

texts: I am not an American citizen but wish to pursue my degree in America. I am currently enrolled in a bachelor's program and I am expected to graduate in 2020. Do I need do a master's program in America to pursue PhD ? Or there is direct enrollment ? (In my country the understanding is first you do a bachelors then a masters and then pursue PhD. My area of interest is Virology.


texts: Is there any mechanism to prevent an author from cross-sending a manuscript?

texts: Is there any mechanism to prevent authors from sending a manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously ?  Is there any internal private mechanism between journals? Is it totally an ethical obligation?


texts: Is there any minimum and maximum allowed time-span for acquiring a PhD degree?

texts:
Can someone finish a PhD, say, in 2 years in the USA or in 1.5 years in the UK?

Can someone take, say, 16 years in the USA or 12 years in the UK to finish a PhD?


texts: How to prepare enough material for my class?

texts:
I have recently been admitted to teach some TOEFL courses in an institute and the course I lecture is reading and writing. According to the institute policy, each teacher is free to have his/her own material of teaching.
I am spending a lot of time observing classes and I prepare powerpoints to present in my class which takes a long time to prepare them every session. The students have been pleased so far but in one of the classes another instructor has given the students 7 gigabyte of additional material and also sends them about 10 sample writings each session and all in all has a wealth of teaching stuff to give to the students. They  have about 3 years experience teaching TOEFL.

I am new but I know I am doing my best. However, I feel bad for my students to be deprived of the material that other students have the privilege to have just because their teacher is someone else.

The other instructor does not share his material with anyone and it is of no use to ask him. I would appreciate if someone let me know how I can compensate for my students and if you know any good sources of TOEFL writing samples please let me know.


texts: 5 credits/year is a full time undergrad course load - why would a full-time 2-year masters require the student to earn 5.0 credits to graduate?

texts:
5.0 credits/year describes a full-time undergraduate course load at my school.
5.0 credits/2 years describes a full-time graduate course load at my school.
Students may not enroll in more than 3 credits/term (6/year or 1 extra class/term).
400 level courses at my school can count as a 0.5 credit toward either an undergraduate degree or toward a master's degree.
An undergraduate student may take a full course load of 400 level courses.

My attempt to answer my question:

Perhaps graduate courses require twice the work that undergraduate courses do.
But if that were the case, then one could take mostly 400 level courses and do nearly half as much work as she would do if she took graduate courses.
Perhaps 400 level courses require the same amount of work (say twice as much) as lower level graduate courses require.
But if that were the case, then an undergraduate student who enrolled in a full course load of 400 level courses would have enrolled in a course load equivalent to 5 credits/term when the university calls 3 credits/term an overload and prohibits students from enrolling in more than 3 credits/term.

So why would a full-time master's program require a half-time course load?


texts:
My question is inverse of the following question:
How can you find the DOI of an article that doesn't seem to have one?

I am looking for the ISBN number (it's a requirement for getting permissions on copyright.com) for the following paper:
http://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/6.2000-519

I found its DOI to be doi:10.2514/6.2000-519 from the citation data, however I couldn't find the ISBN. Is this typical? In the sense that can there be a DOI but not an ISBN for a manuscript?


texts: Would doing machine learning during my PhD disqualify me from becoming a professor at a statistics department?

texts:
I would like to call myself as a statistician; I have been in statistics programs for seven years now (four year undergrad, two year master’s, one year PhD). I always thought that if I become a professor after my PhD, I would be hired in a statistics department.

But lately I started to doubt the above statement. My PhD research field is machine learning, more specifically I am trying to improve performance of the existing neural network model called “Transformer”, which is commonly used in natural-language processing (NLP) in data science. I don’t know how math-intensive my PhD dissertation will be, but I think my research is going in a direction that I won’t be publishing a lot of (math-intensive) papers in journals like JASA or other strictly statistically oriented journals, but instead I will be publishing in some of the deep-learning journals and attend a few machine-learning and/or computer-science conferences to present my work. My research involves a heavy Python programming, and I see my research as more of data science than traditional statistics.

If I keep on pursuing the current research road that I am on, would this eventually disqualify me from getting employed at statistics departments, since my research does not involve a heavy (traditional and math-intensive) statistical theory? Will I have a better chance, for example, to get hired at an engineering or computer-science department than a regular statistics department with this kind of research background? Would it be possible for data Scientist like myself to be hired at a statistics department? The thought of not being able to get hired at a statistics department amazes me since statistics is the discipline that I studied throughout my entire academic career.


texts: Transferring PhD programs due to parent's sickness

texts:
I am a PhD student that has just started my third year in a scientific field. Since I have started my program, my mother has been diagnosed with a serious form of cancer. It has recently gotten worse and I am worried sick. I am considering applying to another PhD program that would be much closer to home.

This other department would also meet my research interests better than the current one. I have not been super excited about my current research so that is a factor in my consideration too (although I was not seriously considering leaving before this happened). I am much better aware of my research interests now than when I first applied to graduate school, since my undergraduate degree was in a different field.

I should mention that the program that I would be applying to is generally higher ranked, although my current one is respectable too. I have not applied to that department before. I have four publications, two first-author papers in good journals and one in Science (not first author). My advisor is very well-known and is very sympathetic to my situation. I have not discussed the possible transfer yet and although they would be saddened if I left, I'm sure they would write a great reference letter. My grades in the PhD program are not outstanding since I was mostly focused on research. I will likely have my master's degree by the time I would be applying in the winter.

I know transferring PhD programs is generally not easy, especially when it's to a more prestigious department, and given that by the time I would start I will have completed 3 years at my current department. But considering my situation and my publication record, how understanding would an admissions committee be? Does anyone have any experience with a similar situation or advice?

Thank you so much.


texts: What should I do, as my submitted paper is still under review after 1 year?

texts:
I'd just submitted a manuscript to Robotics & Autonomous Systems Journal on Mar. 1st, 2015. Right after 1 month, its status changed to Under Review. I just waited up to Jan. 2016 and send a letter to editor-in-chief to clear the status of the paper and any potential problem due to this delay. He did say this after that 10 months!:

  you are right with your criticism. However your paper deals with
  research topics, where only a few of roboticist are familiar with.
  Hopefully we can get now the final required review. Sorry for the
  inconvenience.

Now, 2 extra months are passed, yet the paper's status is still Under Review.

They should have considered responsibility regarding the case. They could easily announce us about their inability to find any interested reviewer for the manuscript, and we would find the other journal. I'm frustrated a little bit. As a matter of fact, I am reluctant to withdraw the submission as they have wasted my time, NOTICEABLY, over the last year. I wonder if they have completely neglected it.

Is there any way to handle this case, and ask them POLITELY and REASONABLY, leading to the finalization of this manuscript's situation?

Thanks

Edit: After 2 weeks from sending an email to the editor about the manuscript, he has not still replied.


texts: How should a social scientist deal with envy of disciplines that are more quantitatively rigorous?

texts:
I am a student in social science who got into quantitative research at the start of my graduate school. Since then, I have had the valuable opportunity to take many Statistics classes and become aware of this world I had not known before. However, with it comes the curse of envy, as I cannot help but feel that my discipline, albeit using quantitative methods, is not as sophisticated (i.e. using a method without understanding the assumption and the derivation, basically relying on canned statistical package that others recommend). Outside of academia, the industry job market has also spoken that these quant researchers are more valuable than I am.

With this attitude of mine, I've become increasingly cynical about my discipline. I don't feel that the work that we do is "scientific" and "accumulating knowledge." I don't think that my industry job market can be competitive. This obviously has harmful effect on both my mental health and my research. I just want to learn more stats, write more code, instead of doing the research of my field.

On rare moments of clarity, I suppose this envious feeling is turtle all the way down perhaps. I'm envious of the statisticians, but maybe the statisticians are envious of the mathematicians, etc. This is why I decide to ask Academia Stackexchange for perspective.

From my occasional conversations, I get a sense that some of my fellow students may have the same feelings. However, given the toxic nature of my thoughts, I can't really discuss them widely with friends, not to mention with my professors.

How to deal with these thoughts?

PS: The relevant xkcd that will inevitable show up in the comments :-)

PPS: Given the gravity and scope of this question, I don't feel entitled to picking a "correct" answer. Thus I will just let the community upvotes decide the visibility of the answers. I hope that the answerers don't mind -- thank you for your insights.


texts: Master's student without internship or publications in final semester; how to accomplish something worth putting on my resume?

texts:
I am a 3rd-year Masters CSE student. Since I am a 3rd-year student, my advisor has asked me to work on my thesis since 1st year. I picked a problem and worked very hard for around 1.5 years only to realise that nothing new could be done out of it. I have asked my advisor multiple times to let me go for some internships, but he doesn't allow it, telling me that I should get some research output first.

The problem is that he doesn't really have a good problem statement to work on. I am in my final semester now and I have no accomplishments like a research paper or any internship experience. He doesn't have any collaborations either. I am very depressed because I worked so hard reading multiple research papers but now I have nothing on my resume.

Question:  What could I do to avoid graduating at the end of the semester without accomplishing anything worth putting on my resume?


texts: How many external reviewers is typical for a tenure case?

texts: If someone is on a tenure track in a science or engineering department at U.S. institution (Tier 1, if that makes the question more focused), and it is time to review his case to be tenured and promoted to associate professor, what is a typical range for the number of the external reviewers for his file? Does the number vary if the case is for professorship promotion?


texts: Could a journal reject an article due to the style or quality of accompanying code?

texts:
I'm a student working on a doctoral thesis. We're working on a paper for which I've done most of the coding for the statistical analysis (the field is microbio/bioinformatics). I'm new to coding and the whole thing is more of an add on to my "real" career, which is medicine. Therefore, my style of coding is more than basic I'd say. Now I fear if we're handing in the manuscript plus the code to a journal for peer review it will be rejected or ridiculed. Is this possible?
edit: I use R to conduct a large statistical analysis. If someone would like to point out online learning resources, esp. for the fields of medicine/biology, I'd be very grateful.


texts: Must a Masters thesis involve original research? Can it be merely a review of some recent research direction?

texts:
I am currently completing an Masters degree in physics. My M.Sc requires a thesis. Now I applied to Ph.D. programs in the United States and got admitted to one of them. I finished all my M.Sc course requirements. I am still to complete the thesis. Now, I can not find a thesis supervisor currently. Can I just drop the Masters's? Will my admission be affected?

Another question: I am currently doing some independent studies myself. My area of specialization is theoretical physics. Now I think it might be possible to convert what I am independently studying into a Masters's thesis. However, I am not sure if this thesis must involve original research ideas. What I am currently doing is to study some advanced topics in theoretical physics. Can I do a Masters thesis which consists in review of a modern topic of research?

My last question: Can I do a Masters thesis without a supervisor?


texts: Failed in PhD candidacy and applying to a new graduate school

texts: I failed in PhD candidacy and planning to apply in a new graduate school. Should I mention or hide the failure in my SOP as it is a negative in my profile. Please help


texts: How to ask current grad student in a lab for advice about getting a position in the lab?

texts: There is this lab that I want to work for as a graduate research assistant (I'm a masters and hoping for research experience and funding) and before I email the PI, I thought of emailing the grad student who was already working there to get a better understanding of the lab and what kind of skillset that I should develop to make myself more competitive. With that being said, how can I email the grad student without coming off as annoying or ingenuine?


texts: Definitions and proofs in extended abstract(mathematics)

texts:
I have to submit an extended abstract of my paper for a competition. The extended abstract must be about 2~4 pages, and the competition requires it to include all the methods and results. Of course, specific definitions and proofs are included in my original paper(about 20 pages), but I can't just summarize them all into 2~4 pages without omitting some ideas or methods. So my questions are

I have some concepts that are not frequently used. Should I write them in my abstract?
Do I have to write precise definitions?
How should I summarize my proof? Can I skip the specific processes and only state main ideas? Can I omit proofs of lemmas?

(My advisor said that he has no idea of how to write an extended abstract, so I hope I can get some help from here)


texts: How much of a role tuition revenue plays in underwriting research?

texts:
I knew that TA positions in American schools are usually borne out of tuition revenue. Tuition revenue (that is, the cash that comes from the sometimes exorbitant undergraduate tuition) is usually unrestricted so one would wonder whether tuition money is directly used in order to fund research.

But other than start-up research funds, what other research expenditures are borne out of tuition money, if any? Would a university use tuition revenue to make up for a shortfall in research grants?


texts: École Normale Supérieure's students' class rankings and ranking on the national concours exam for agregation?

texts:
Are the École Normale Supérieure's academic records publicly available anywhere?

Specifically, I would like to know what class rankings were historically there, as well as its students' rankings on the national concours exam for agrégation.

thanks


texts: Is it considered rude to enroll at a funded conference and then retract your enrollment?

texts:
For background, I am a mathematics graduate student.

Now, it happens once in a while that I find an interesting conference/workshop which I would be happy to attend, but which I'm not sure about (for reasons which might appear later on, such as not enough funding, finding a better conference etc.).

Suppose that in case of acceptance, the organizers offer some travel/accommodation funding, and that enrollment closes a relatively long while before the conference takes place. Also, suppose that I am not offering to give a talk.

Is it inappropriate to enroll with the knowledge that there is a relatively big chance I won't be able to participate, and retract my enrollment after being accepted if I realize that I indeed can't go?

Does the answer change if I enroll at several conferences "just in case" and then go to one of them if I'm offered enough funding to cover my expenses?

Is there a point after which cancelling my participation is considered rude? What is the polite way to do it? Is it common, in your experience, that (student) participants cancel their participation after having been accepted?

Thanks!


texts: How important are GRE analytical writing scores for graduate admission in STEM fields?

texts:
What is the importance of scores in Analytical Writing section of GRE for graduated admission in STEM fields?

Does a score below 3 means that the applicant will be rejected by all good schools?


texts: Can I ask again about a postdoc position after a year has elapsed?

texts: Last year I sent an email to a professor to ask her about a postdoc position, and she showed her interest in my work but didn't have a grant. She told me that she will inform me in the case of having some grants. Is it appropriate to send her again to ask about grants again? Or I must wait until she will send me any information?


texts: How to write a research proposal for a PhD position where the description of the project is given?

texts:
I saw an offer for a PhD position where the title and the description of the project was given.

Now, in the form they ask the applicant to write a research proposal which will include 'Why I'm interested in the field/project described in the advertisement; 2. Why and how i wish you complete the project; 3. What makes me suitable for the project in question.?' (maximum 3 pages).

In my university, in one course what I learned was a complete idea how i will do the work and finish that work. But where should I write the reason why i m applying there? I mean, if they need a new proposal then would why they write the project name and description? And how is one supposed to know how the supervisor wants to complete the project?


texts: Does work experience help in (US) graduate admissions?

texts:
I have around 8 years of work experience. At this stage, the possible step is to go along management track. But, I am neither interested nor does it appeal to me. Thinking more on this, I have decided to go back to school, preferably for a PhD or, in the worst case, a master's degree.

My GRE and GPA are not so strong: 1100 GRE with 770 in math and 3.0 GPA (out of 4.0).
My experience includes companies like Amazon and Zynga, but I have no research experience whatsoever.

Am I a good candidate for PhD or master's with research? My primary interests are in computer graphics or applied mathematics in simulation/visualization. What do you  suggest I do? I am aiming for top 20 schools, but not sure if it will be right thing to do.


texts: Does Title IX require U.S. universities to have grade expungement policies?

texts: Under U.S. law, Title IX sets requirements on how universities must deal with sex discrimination, including making reasonable accommodations for victims of assault or harassment.  One possible accommodation is grade expungement (removing courses from a transcript if the grades were affected by this situation).  Are universities required to have a publicly stated policy on this issue, or can they handle it on a case by case basis?


texts: Lack of mathematical work during PhD and coping up with the requirements of postdoc positions

texts:
I am a recently graduated 31 years old PhD in a STEM field. I have been applying for postdoc positions for the past few months, and have received rejections from almost all of them, with few yet to respond. With the academic year coming to an end, I don't have any hope of getting a position and I will continue as a postdoc or Research assistant in my PhD group.

However, one common reason mentioned in all the responses to my applications was that I don't possess the required mathematical and programming skills to work on the research field. My PhD research involved using Fluent CFD software to model has flow in a nozzle. I did not develop any code for that. I used python programming to develop different nozzle geometries and used it to study the flow.

I did not take any Finite volume method or Finite element method course or fluid dynamics course in my undergraduate or graduate school as my supervisor told me to self learn the concepts. I have published 4 papers in decent journals.

However, all the postdoc positions I apply to require code development for CFD and having academic background with the numerical methods. And since I don't have any experience with code development, I don't know if I will be able to do the job considering my lack of formal training.

Is this dilemma expected after PhD? What should I do to improve my chances in getting a position?


texts: Authorship issues in numerical mathematics

texts:
I have been working on a draft in the area of numerical mathematics for several months.

My PhD advisor recently discussed this draft with me. He wants to be mentioned as an author for (i) some discussions (ii) financing the research.

However, I am not sure about the authorship guidelines in my discipline. Numerical mathematics sits between pure mathematics, computer science, and the sciences, and it is comparatively young. So what is the appropriate norm on (i) choice and (ii) order of authors?


texts: What should the chemist who synthesized a drug expect regarding coauthorship of papers on clinical trials?

texts: Should the  industrial chemist who conceptualized , first  synthesized , characterized and patented a novel drug , transferred the synthetic technology (at the 3 Kg scale ) to a CRO for preparation under cGMP conditions,substantially helped in drafting the CLINICAL TRIAL INVESTIGATOR BROCHURE , and provided advise throughout the trial be granted coauthorship of the paper reporting the trial ?


texts:
What is the purpose of an undergraduate viva for a dissertation?

In the viva the supervisor is present who moderates the viva and a second examiner who asks the questions.

Lets say that my supervisor knows that a certain topic included in the dissertation is not my strongest point, would it be fair for a large number of the questions to be directed on this topic?
Should my supervisor have made this clear to the examiner in the viva?


texts: Conference/Journal publication author's name (surname)?

texts:
I am just wondering if I can legally use a nickname or not to use my official name (Passport name) as the author's name of a conference or a journal publication?

My official name is quite long and I am planning to change it in the future. Is it possible to put the name that I am going to call myself in the future as the author's name?


texts:
I know some advantages and disadvantages of using absolute grading as well as curve grading. Next semester, I plan to combine both by first grading absolutely, and then use curve grading to add points to the students.

For example, if one gets 80% (usually an A) absolutely, but when curved he gets a B, then I will use only the absolute letter which is the A. However, if one gets 70% (B) absolutely but when curved he gets an A, then I will use the A.

My reasoning is just like those who support curve grading. I might prepare too difficult exam tests or some things might not go according to plan during my course. While I actually support absolute grading, I think this might be a good idea. (?) I don't like the idea of just purely using curve grading that can lower high grades, or purely using absolute grading which is not always appropriate as university students' and instructors' performance are not absolute.

Of course, evaluating each course will always be the top priority, but this grading I hope can provide some small "healing" to error-prone college courses each semester.

ADDED:

The curve I use is the usual bell curve for distributing A, B, C, D, and F..
I am teaching mathematics for undergraduate.
There are less than 30 students each batch.
This is a new program in this university..and there are only 2 batches..so "past grades" are not recorded just yet unless I take data from other universities..which might not be a good idea?

All the inputs are very helpful. I do not plan to strictly use curve grading as I mentioned. I also believe the longer this program goes the better we can get..


texts: What are "post-deadline paper submissions"?

texts:
I'm still in the beginnings of my life as a graduate student researcher. My advisor is pushing me to submit my work to upcoming conferences. Now, I'm a complete novice to these procedures, so I began to sift through various conference websites to learn a bit more. I noticed that some conferences have post-deadline submissions for research papers. What does that exactly mean?

Do post-deadline papers get vetted differently, or do they basically receive an extended deadline?

(Physics, if it matters.)

Edit:

Example: http://www.ofcconference.org/en-us/home/submit-papers/


texts: Is there a site that can provide me a feed of scholarly works that cite another scholarly work as they are published?


texts: Half good and some not good results in a research paper?

texts:
I have made some research about a computer science topic. The initial idea seemed good, but when I implement the idea; this works in some cases and in some others it does not bring conclusive results.

How can I write a paper about this subject in particular? I mean, I do not want to hide the bad results. I want to include them, but I feel scared that my paper could not get accepted because of that.

I was thinking also to submit it in a not so prestigious conference, but also I do not see any advantage on doing so.


texts: What recent research looks at how scientific theories are established?

texts:
I'm interested in quantitative understanding of where new scientific theories come from, and the process by which they grow/develop/become established.  This is intended as mainly a sociological/practical question (what sequence of events leads to a new theory, and how can this be helped along) rather than as a philosophical or epistemological question.

It seems like one of the qualitative landmark works in that area is Thomas Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions".  Kuhn describes a sequence of finding anomalies, a crisis, and then (sometimes) a scientific revolution.

In contrast to qualitative inquiry, what quantitative research has been done in this field?  Are there any particularly important articles/books that propose a quantitative model?


texts: FizzBuzz for Academia, Questions to Gauge Research Understanding

texts:
Is there a simple line  of questioning which gives an up front indicator as to a    persons ability to do research?

FizzBuzz is an interview question which is used to determine whether an applicant knows how to program. It is a simple problem, with a simple solution which can seperate those who can, from those who can't.

Are there common equivalent questions for gauging someones ability to do research?

(Granted, there are a wider variety of  perspectives of what research is, especially across disciplines so it is unlikely there is as clean-cut an answer to this question.)


texts:
I was wondering how co-advising works in graduate school, specifically:

Is funding primarily provided by one advisor, or equally shared between two advisors?
Does the student work on two separate projects in parallel or a single project guided by both advisors?


texts:
I am a 16 year old who is currently at an intermediate German level. I also have previous experience on working with data science - specifically, Bayesian statistics. I would like to do a summer internship at a recognised German-speaking university for practising my German and getting work/research experience. How should I go about this?
After contacting many professors, many have excused themselves with COVID-19 or their lack of open positions for interns. What can I offer them that they don't have?


texts: How well does "Applied Mathematics" cover "pure math?"

texts:
Ill be going into my first year of college fairly soon, with a prominent interest in studying and researching (as a career) pure/theoretical mathematics (especially number theory). However, the college I'll be entering only offers an "Applied Mathematics" major, which I understand may be more suitable for engineers, economists, physicists, etc (but my perception on that point may be incorrect). Given this conflict, I have been considering transferring to another university.

My question is: Is an Applied Mathematics major still satisfactory for my interests in pure math, or should I transfer to pursue a major more closely connected with these interests?

Thank you kindly!


texts: How common is it for a professor to agree to review a bachelor thesis outside of his subfield?

texts:
I am asking for a professor to review my undergraduate thesis. I like him a lot and I don't want someone else who is an expert on the field.

How common is for a professor to accept to review my Bachelor thesis outside of his field, in computer science?

Is there anything I can do to maximize my chances of him accepting?


texts: How to ask for lettler of recommendation from supervisor when he would be interacting very little with me?

texts:
I am an undergraduate student in my final year and started doing my bachelor's thesis in a research lab. My official thesis supervisor is head of the lab, and a highly experienced expert and equally busy person. He has assigned a junior Professor and a PhD student as my direct points of contact.

I will be applying for masters in another university in a year and would need letter of recommendation from the head of the lab. But, since the interaction with him would be very minimal (2-3 meetings in 6 months), how can I ask him for the letter of recommendation? Also, is there anything I can do at this point in time to get the strong letter from him later?


texts:
I joined a new lab a while ago, and am having an issue with keeping the credit for my work. Two instances so far:

I co-authored a series of papers with the professor and a senior graduate student. I was always the first author, and it'd be fair to say that I contributed 95% of the research work and 70% of the writing. Somehow the other student was invited to give several talks on our work at various department seminars. I hadn't known until recently when I accidentally discovered his slides in our shared repository. The problem is that, in his slides, he only put his name, and there was no mention of my name/no credit given to me.
Before joining the lab, I developed a research software, which was quite successful and widely used. When I joined the lab, I transferred the development to the lab, and a graduate student helped me to extend the software a bit. When programming, I always sign my code with my name: (C) 2010-2013 by My Name (Email). Just today, when I looked at the code (publicly shared on github), I discovered that the student had deleted my name from all the files and replaced with his name: (C) 2010-2013 by His Name (Email). He even hadn't joined the development until 2012. If people just look at the code, they would think he were the sole author.

Of course I want to keep the credit for my work. But I don't know what I should do. I feel that there is a culture in the lab that people just don't respect the credit for shared work. I don't want to cause heat in the lab. Both those students have been in the lab for longer than me.


texts: Persistent URL for each DOI pointing to open access papers when available

texts: The Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) maintains a persistent URL for each DOI. Example: http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR06849. However, the link often points to some pay-walled article, even when it is freely accessible somewhere else. Is there any alternative service that maintains a persistent URL for each DOI, which points to a open access article whenever possible?


texts: A university's odd rule that inevitably affects students' final grades

texts:
My university had a quite strange rule that set an upper limit 78 on the average grades for each course. To be more specific, even if you're the number one student in your school, your GPA will still be lower than many other applicants who are applying for grad schools.
My question is "Should I address this problem in my Statement of Purpose?"
P.S. the official transcript does mention this rule, but I'm afraid that admission offices will overlook these tiny tiny texts.


texts: How tightly enforced are open-access embargoes?

texts:
Many academic journals have copyright policies which forbid authors (possibly for a finite embargo time) to make their papers (either preprints, accepted manuscripts, or camera-ready versions) freely available (either on their personal websites or on repositories such as the arXiv). How tightly enforced are these policies? Are there known cases of publishers pursuing legal action against an author for posting copyrighted academic papers? Or would such cases normally be dealt with private requests to cease-and-desist?

This answer seems to indicate such cases are rare, but there could be privately-dealt with cases that are not visible. Or is there a large body of public-repository-published papers that possibly / probably / demonstrably have been publicly posted in breach of a copyright policy?


texts: Any way around letters of recommendation requirement?

texts:
I'd like to apply for an MBA (sick of working in IT and want to change) but seemingly every university I look at requires multiple letters of reference, one of which from a current supervisor.

Is there any way to get around this requirement?

I have zero trust in my current boss, and given that writing the letter would take effort for no benefit to him (since I'd be leaving the company and he'd have to find a replacement), odds are a letter by him would work against me. Also, I'd really rather not owe him a favor.

Former bosses/colleagues would be a safer bet, but I left my previous workplace about two years ago and haven't had any communication with them since (moving continents doesn't help either, I can't just invite them for coffee).

As an aside, how come one can't get access to higher education (not just MBAs) on their merits alone anymore? When I applied for my undergrad degree acceptance didn't depend on who one was friends with.


texts: Will an industry funded PhD hurt one's research career?

texts:
Most students I know in computer science are funded either by the NSF or their professor's startup package [in the US]. But it also isn't completely unheard of for a company to give a gift/grant to a professor to fund a student.

This seem to have a few implications, such as the student's dissertation being tied to the company's interests and the student would probably be expected to work onsite each summer.

The students I have known to do this, go on to industry after graduating (not necessarily the company that funded them). This brings up the following questions...

Would a hiring committee at a university consider the close ties to industry a negative?
If the student continues publishing regularly, is there anything about this scenario that can hurt one's research career?

Note: Suresh's answer to the question Will self funding a PhD hurt employment chances? is very relevant, but I think there are some different obstacles for industry funding.


texts: What is the gross salary like for university engineering teachers in India?

texts: What is the gross salary like for Assistant professors in India in publicly/privately funded universities in the area of engineering?


texts: Second round of review is taking longer than the first one

texts:
Few months ago, I have submitted my manuscript to a very reputed journal. After 80 days, I got the first decision (major revision) with very simple comments from 3 reviewers. The status in the last 15 days was "Awaiting Editors Decision".

After submitting the revised version, I am still waiting for almost 3 months with one status "In peer review". Up to my knowledge, the second round should be shorter than the first one. In addition, I checked published papers in the same journal, where the second round was very short in all of them.

I am wondering, what is heppening with my submission.


texts: How to find if a paper is in top 10% most cited articles in a journal?

texts:
I saw in some applications that some researchers state that their papers are in top 10% most cited articles, but they never state how they calculated this. I have tried Web of Knowledge and there are some metrics there, but the don't really match the text from those applications. For instance, I found this kind of formulation in one of the applications:

For the articles published Engineering category in 2015, the average
number of citations is only 1.22. This article is therefore one of the
top 10.00% most cited articles published in Engineering in 2015.

I saw that it was calculated using Google Scholar, but I don't know how they do it. Can anyone please help me to understand how can you see if you paper is in top xxx% most cited articles like in the text above? Is there a software for that? Or is there any relation with the h-index that can give that for a certain year?


texts:
What is the best approach to learn a new topic in postgraduate Mathematics with a solid basis?

I'm about to start my thesis in postgrad Theoretical Physics but looking to learn a few topics for interviews on the side e.g. Combinatorics / Advanced Probability etc.

I am unsure if the best method is through books; online notes or a combination by following a specific course.


texts: Will my undergrad thesis be considered for my Master's admission given that my areas of interest has changed a bit?

texts:
During my undergrad, I published a paper on a topic relating to Natural Language Processing since I was fond of learning algorithms. I wish to pursue a Master's degree in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Graphics.
Does the paper that I published during my undergrad still be considered by an admission committee, at least for my research skills that I have been able to demonstrate? Given that the area in which I wish to pursue my Master's is fairly different from my undergrad thesis.


texts: I recently wrote a research paper and want to submit it to a journal but as I wrote it on my own and it's my first paper, I would like someone (a faculty member or a PhD student) to review my paper and in exchange I offer them an authorship. How do I approach faculty members and have them do so?


texts: Are PhD Students and PhD Researchers the same thing?

texts:
Similarly to how a Postdoc researcher is a researcher, I think that a PhD student should be considered a researcher. Especially when:

A salary is obtained for the research that is done as part of the PhD studies. Per definition, I would say that students pay, they are not paid.
A research master has been studied before and there are no lessons, classes, exams, etc. So in fact the person is not a student, but "at least" an "apprentice".

I know that naming things in one way or another may not make a big difference for those in academia that read the CV, but it may evoke different ideas for those out of academia that read it.

AFAIK, they are absolutely equivalent, even if one is more used than the other (mistakenly, IMHO). Nevertheless, I would like to get confirmation, if possible from an authoritative source (like a dictionary for titles), and at the same time I think that the question may be useful for many people.


texts: What constitutes a conflict of interest by minimum?

texts:
When writing a scientific paper, one of the important sections to fill in are the possible conflicts of interest. Typically, I get to write

  The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Now, however, one of my co-authors has moved to a for-profit company before the study has been published. I am arguing whether it constitutes a conflict of interest.

What is a conflict of interest, by minimum?


texts: Quality of English in a college recommendation letter

texts: Does the quality of English in a letter of recommendation matter? Should it be really good or just average English with occasional mistakes suffice as long as the meaning is clear? Is a perfectly written letter with no grammatical mistakes better then a letter with few mistakes without flowery language if the points mentioned in both are the same?


texts: Submitting an improved result before the acceptance notice of another result

texts:
I have submitted RESULT 1 to conference A. The notice of acceptance/rejection of conference A is in 1 month. This is the kind of conference with a rebuttal phase. During the rebuttal phase my paper got very good reviews, and all referees recommended acceptance. But that does not mean it is accepted yet.

Some months after submitting RESULT 1, I obtained RESULT 2, which generalizes RESULT 1, but whose proof requires completely different techniques. I want to submit RESULT 2 to a conference B whose deadline is in two weeks.

I'm hesitating in submitting RESULT 2 to conference B before receiving the notice from conference A because of the following:

RESULT 1 gets accepted. Great!
RESULT 1 gets rejected. This is bad, not only because of the rejection, but also because since RESULT 2 implies RESULT 1, I think this would invalidade the possibility of submitting RESULT 1 to another conference
while RESULT 2 is under review, or if RESULt 2 is accepted. I trully believe that RESULt 1 should be published independently, since the proofs therein are much more elegant, although not being the strongest result.

My impression is that from the reviews RESULT 1 has a good chance of being accepted at conference A. However, I have had papers in the past with three recomendations to accept and which where rejected at the end.

Additionally, I am afraid that by submitting RESULT 2 to conference B, my chances of being accepted at conference A would be decreased. For instance, a common referee could point out that a paper with a better result is being submitted to another conference before the acceptance notice, and this might influence in the decision of the programm commitee.

QUESTIONS:

What is the best way to proceed in this kind of situation?
Is it correct to think that submitting an improvement to conference B would decrease the probability of acceptance to Conference A?


texts: Alternatives to Grad School Political Science

texts: I'm planning to apply to political science grad school. However, I've been having second thoughts. I'm incredibly burnt out this semester and don't want to be a workaholic in the future, though I see many saying you need to put in 60 or 80 hr/wk to be successful in academia. Though I love research and I don't know what else I'd do. Does anyone have any advice on what I should do or potential non-academic research jobs w/ a better work-life balance (my interests are broadly media and political psychology)?


texts: Affiliation when I have already resigned and am currently unemployed

texts: What should I use as author address for my paper when I have already resigned from my job and am currently unemployed? Also, my previous supervisor and I did not part in good terms, so I am hesitant to use my previous employer as address.


texts: Can anyone use the JEL classification system?

texts:
Can anyone use the JEL classification system, or is it only reserved for published (scientific) papers? This is the information I got on AEA's site

''JEL Codes are used to classify articles, dissertations, books, book reviews, and working papers''.

I'm working on a university thesis related to finance, and I wanted to use the JEL classification system. Does this fall under the category 'working papers'?


texts:
Within my college, teachers generally allow any student who earned a D or lower on an exam, to retake the exam. While I do not need to follow this policy in my courses, many students expect their instructors to offer retakes.

I would like to offer retakes, but see two problems:

Setting a fixed cut off at a "D" seems unfair to students. If a student earns a single percentage point more than this, they cannot retake it, but the student who retakes it stands a chance to earn a full A.
Allowing all students to retake would create too much extra work for me. Some students who earned a 95% would still try to retake it to get 100%.

If there a fair method of allowing exam retakes that discourages every student from taking them?


texts: “Awaiting EE Decision” in Manuscript Central – what does it mean?

texts:
I submitted my paper to a journal twelve days ago. In Manuscript Central, there were some changes of the paper’s status during the first two days, and as far as I can remember, these were Awaiting ADM Processing and Awaiting technical editor selection. At the third day, I saw Awaiting EE Decision which is still there.

From some previous posts I assume that such decision status is normally shown for a paper that is already reviewed by peers. Given that, it’s been only twelve days since my submission and the paper has not been sent out for peer-review yet, what could be the possible implications of the status? Just a bit curious and worried as well.


texts: Citing a Youtube video in New Hart's Rules style?

texts:
I'm preparing a paper for publication with Taylor & Francis Group. The journal follows the TF no. 1 style but there is no mention on how to cite a source such an online video. Rather, at the end of the style guide they say to refer to New Hart's Rules for usage that is not specified in the guide or uncertain. However, New Hart's Rules seems to refer to Butcher’s Copy - editing 10.6. So, I'm rather confused on how to cite such a source.

The citation in APA Style would be as follows:

  Sesame Workshop. (Producer) (2010). Sesame Street. Journey to Ernie: Beach [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnRnxkX2U2U&feature=plcp

Does anyone know how should be adjusted to meet Taylor & Francis no. 1 / New Hart's Rules / Butcher’s Copy - editing 10.6 style?


texts: Is it reasonable to worry about lack of potential for dating in postdoc positions?

texts:
I am 25 years old, and in a few months' time I will have to decide whether to get a job in London or apply for a postdoc somewhere.

Apart from all of the usual pros and cons (eg. job security, salary, lifestyle) associated to each path, one thing that worries me most is my loneliness. I am worried that if I were to get a postdoc (say at some small university in some small city), that I would never meet someone to date and get married to eventually. Most math postdocs tend to be male (I believe) which is fine for me since I am gay. But it seems to me more likely that I will find true love taking a city job in a metropolitan environment where there are many more people. And I am really not sure that the "single life" is amenable for doing a postdoc in a foreign country (where I'll likely have to look to find a postdoc in my field).

I apologise if this thread is not suitable for this board, but it is an important consideration in a potential academic's life. I would truly appreciate your thoughts and experiences.

Edit: I guess I am asking whether I am right to be worried about the lack of potential for dating in a studious and bookish environment like academia, and whether anyone has any advices about how to deal with this.


texts: How good do master's rec letters have to be?

texts: I'm going to be out of undergrad working for 2-3 years before I go back to grad school. My end goal is a PhD, but I would do a Master's first because I think I would be able to hack it financially and my research experience is sort of weak. My only concern is being out of school for that long and needing to go back and get letters. Which brings me to my question: do letters for MS programs have to be as good and detailed as those for PhD programs, or is it O.K. for them to be positive but generic if everything else in my file looks good? Assume I want to get into some >40 rank programs. I'm in the US and my field of study is (the neighborhood of) CS/Applied Math.


texts:
I am currently figuring out what would be better to do: would it be better to select one or multiple conferences first and then write for these conferences (if their topics match your topic(s) of interest)? Or would it be better to write and once completed writing, see which conferences do match your paper? What would you do? What would be your advice?
Thanks in advance!


texts: What to do about not receiving credit in a paper (lack of acknowledgment)

texts:
Recently there have been a few instances of preprints I've seen on arXiv where I felt that I didn't receive due credit (an acknowledgment or at least a mention) for certain things. Here are a couple examples:

I mentioned a fact to a collaborator at a conference. It wasn't a deep, just an interesting construction that was surely bound to be useful in certain situations. A year or so later I see a paper by the collaborator on arxiv, where one section of the paper involves developing this construction and applying it (in ways that were certainly new to me). However I wasn't acknowledged or mentioned.
To another collaborator I wrote an email, with another construction and a formula that I expected it to satisfy with some strong evidence. Several months later I saw that the collaborator wrote a paper where the definition plays an almost central role and a version of the formula is proved. No acknowledgement again.

Basically my question is what is the best way for me to deal with situations like this? I am a young post doc recently out of Phd. I don’t like to be the one who wants credit for everything. However it does feel annoying when even close collaborators don’t have enough respect for me to not steal my ideas (ok, maybe that’s a harsh wording choice). But the core of it, now that I write this question, is really that I feel disrespected. Especially, since I tend to acknowledge people quite freely.  It’s obvious to me that if I was a senior and/or well-known mathematician, they wouldn’t have “forgotten” to acknowledge me.  The only options I can think of are:

ignore and move on. Don’t change my behavior, just learn to accept this accept of academia culture.
Ignore and move on. Be more protective of my ideas in the future. Be more proactive about writing down and publishing my ideas as soon as possible. Choose different people to collaborate with.
Confront the people in question and ask them to acknowledge me. I don’t like this option because I’m a non confrontational person. And I don’t want to damage good relationships. Also, i don’t want to get a reputation for being someone who asks people to credit him with things.

By my nature I’m leaning towards option 2. But it saddens me to realize how cynical I become since starting my Phd when I imagined the mathematics community to be so kind and generous.