texts: Is it more difficult for teetotalers to develop academic contacts?

texts:
I see a number of answers in this site where building contacts over a glass of beer is encouraged. Moreover the cream of academia belongs to the Western world, where beer culture is common. Unfortunately though, I am a rigid teetotaler and I do not know about the ins-and-outs of the preferences of drinking friends of mine. I confess I'd make a terrible company at a public house. But I hasten to add that in general, I am amiable and move around quite well with people within my limitations.

Does my being a teetotaler put me at a grave disadvantage when it comes to establishing intelligent academic contacts?


texts: Who to ask about the update after a campus interview.

texts:
I was in contract with the search committee after a campus interview. A week or two after the campus interview, the search committee chair told me that if I don't have a higher salary expectation, there is a good chance that I will be offered the position given the university is a state university. She also told me that good news coming soon.

Four weeks have gone, nothing heard from them. I texted the Chair. In reply, she told me that she wrote a strong recommendation letter to Dean pushing me the first place. Now she is waiting on deans decision.

Six week later, she told me that they did not heard anything from the Dean. They are waiting on University's action.

It's now seven week? Can anyone infer what is going on there? Is there anyone encounter the same situation? Thanks.


texts: How does the US National Science Foundation (NSF) research funding system work?

texts:
Sometimes here on Academia I read messages referring to American National Science Foundation (NSF), "the USA agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering" (page on Wikipedia).

In this question and this question we discussed about NSF postdoctoral funding possibilities. Since I am in the European Union, I don't know very much about NSF.

How does NSF funding system work?
How does NSF postdoctoral funding program work? Does it fund only American citizens or anyone that wants to work as a researcher in the US?

Many thanks!


texts: Is it easier to obtain H1B / green card as academics in the US?

texts:
I am a social science PhD student (with a quantitative bent) at a U.S. research university. If paperwork is not a concern, I would be equivalently interested in working as an academic and in private industries. However, one of my goal is to be able to stay in the U.S., thus to craft my plan I hope to know whether it is indeed easier to obtain H1B / green card as an academic than as a PhD-holding employee? My industry-relevant skill-set is statistical training and programming.

While this question has far-reaching relevance for any typical international PhD students, I would also be willing to give more details regarding my training, my school reputation, etc. if it helps answering the question.

P/S: This is throwaway account for anonymity. I have been an avid user of StackExchange and would love your input.


texts: Panic Attacks during an exam - Can the student be re-tested?

texts:
I am a student who is currently undergoing therapy for mental health issues and I seem to be making good progress towards normalcy according to my therapist. Recently, I took an exam for a co-ordinated course and I completely panicked on the exam. I made a brave attempt to remain calm and answer the question to the best of my abilities and could only manage to earn 5 points overall.

Based on my predicament, can I approach my professor and department chairperson with a request to re-take the exam? I can of course ask my therapist to provide documentation detailing my case. Do universities make allowances for students who can demonstrate a genuine case for  a panic attack?

EDIT:
I do realize that I should contact the counselling center beforehand to make arrangements to take the test there but unfortunately, I was doing quite well and my therapist did not see a need to supply me with a note documenting my need. I completely blacked out when I saw the questions as they were quite long and bore no semblance to the practice exams or the homework questions.


texts: Is it appropriate to make 1 or 2 statements without providing data in the abstract and summary

texts:
In the paper that I am writing, I am only showing some results from a more rigorous/full-scale study. So as to highlight the importance of the results in the new paper, I am thinking of including one or two statements which state the full results that we have obtained (not published).

However, I can't include all the results from the full-scale study in this paper, because of size limitations. So is it appropriate to include these one or two sentences which demonstrate the results of the full scale study, but not include any data supporting these sentences in the abstract and summary?


texts: Is it plagiarism to copy formulations from others?

texts:
As a non-native speaker of english, I often struggle with always finding new, well-sounding, non-repetitive descriptions for the same thing and I also, to be honest, find it a waste of time of always having to do something different. For example:

Section 1 describes the X while section 2 is about the Y.
The Z is explained in section 3 and section 4 refers to A. The next section is about B...

Is it ok to just copy the formulation of someone else (of course my X,Y,Z,... are completely different) and always use the same thing?


texts: Is worth accepting to review manuscripts in low quality journals

texts:
I usually mention the journals I'm reviewing for, as it can counts as a position of trust (i.e. to improve the quality of science).

My question is, how connected is the reputation of a journal someone is reviewing for, with that part of his/her CV. What effect would it have to the CV (and whoever reads it) adding low quality journals in the list of journals where the person is a reviewer?
Would you consider it negative, neutral or positive?

I think that if they are only bad journals, the lack of good ones might be considered a bad thing, so avoiding mentioning the journals the person is a reviewer might be preferable.

If it's 1-2 in a list of a few respectable ones, then it would be neutral or even positive, as you try to improve the not respectable journals.


texts:
Many postgraduate theses include as part of their front matter a List of Figures and a List of Tables, plus lists of various other special environments. Many institutions, including my own, directly require the inclusion of at least those two Lists at the front of the thesis.

However, I have never really understood why a thesis should have those two environments at all; they've mostly just been yet another page to scroll past on the way to the meat of the thesis.

On the other hand, if you have a print copy of the document, I generally find it much easier to flip through the pages, since graphics tend to stick out, and more so if you have a general idea of where the figure is (such as having a figure identifier that gives the chapter) or what it looks like (as when looking for a figure one has seen previously).

What use cases are lists of figures or tables meant to serve? In what situations are they meant to be useful? Do they still work, or are they simply an artifact of pre-pdf days?


texts: Is it a requirement that at least one of the authors of a paper holds a PhD?

texts:
The editor of a journal asked me “Please confirm the title of XXX XX, Mr. or Dr.?” His title is Mr., as the manuscript was written by two students alone, without a supervisor or anyone with the title Dr.

I replied with this information to the editor’s email. After 10 minutes I got a kind email saying that the manuscript had been rejected by the editor. So did the title of the authors impact the editor’s decision? Does there have to be a professor or someone with the title Dr. on the manuscript?


texts: From thesis text to slides. How to ease the process?

texts:
I spent a considerable amount of time to write my thesis. Now I have to create the slides for the defense. I thought it was going to be easier, but found important difficulties creating them. I would like to have a method to make it easier, at least the first draft. Starting with a section, I will try to create a slide from one paragraph, although they can be further divided in more than one slide. I thought about:

convert to bullets each sentence of the paragraph, or set of sentences of related topic. This slide may be further removed.
in a different slide, replace text from previous slide with images from cited references, and try to memorise the necessary part of the replaced text. This will be specially useful for the introduction. On the other hand, thesis results sections already have their own pictures, so they will be directly taken from thesis.

Do you think this method is OK, or maybe someone has a better one?


texts: How to politely respond to a PhD offer follow-up email from potential supervisor?

texts:
I received an official PhD offer from University A on Jan 30 (15 days ago).

In an interview with the faculty from University A, they asked me where A stands among my applications. I honestly replied that A was among the top 3 universities and said that I need to hear from the other two schools before making any decision. I also expressed that it would be hard for me to make the decision before hearing from the other two schools from my top 3 shortlist. The offer from A arrived soon after the interview (obviously).

Today a professor from University A sent me a very short email asking if I had questions or I was close to making decisions.

Is he implying that I should hurry up?

I have not sent them any email since the offer as I had nothing to update. The offer follows the rule of April 15, but the school would offer me a small amount of fellowship (which I don't care) if I accept before late February. The other two schools just interviewed me several days ago and I would expect to hear from them soon.

How should I politely respond?

Thanks!


texts: Apple or Thinkpads, buying for department

texts:
I'm asking this anonymously. Our department of computer science just received a donation to buy laptops for students. Major activity will be programming and languages used will be C/C++/Python/Perl/Java/R. We will be instituting a lending scheme for students who can't afford them.

As a committee, we now need to decide whether we should be buying Apple Macbook Pro(13") or Thinkpad (T420) both with more or less similar specifications and price. The Apple will run it's OS and Thinkpad will run Debian Linux.

My question is : We are training the students for research and we wish to provide them with an environment close to how it is in the real world. Should we choosing one over the other considering all students have an inclination for research/academia?

This is not meant to be a flame war but rather a question of whether Academia has hidden liking towards Apple and if yes, why?


texts:
I come upon a lot of quotes in academic papers where the following is written:

  Thus “[l]andscape is always being used as a medium for architectural ideas“ (Gilles 1986)

Why is l in square brackets? Does that mean that the author that cited this line, modified it to suit their point in the process?


texts: How to offset poor undergraduate performance in core classes?

texts: I recently did not do so well in a couple undergraduate core classes, what are my options to make up for this on a grad school application?


texts: writing the learning outcomes and the syllabus

texts:
I'm confused when it comes to writing learning outcomes. When searching online I become more confused.

How can I understand how to write good learning outcomes.

The same for me when it comes to the syllabus, I don't know how to start writing it.


texts: Should I include proof of my extenuating circumstances when applying for a PhD?

texts: My performance in my bachelor's degree was adversely affected by some medical extenuating circumstances (related to physical injuries). I am currently in a master's program and my performance is much better. Should I mention these extenuating circumstances in my PhD applications and should I include the relevant documents (doctors' statement, diagnostic report, etc)?


texts: Project guide asks for authorship without any contributions – how to proceed?

texts:
Our computer-science curriculum mandates that we produce a paper about a research project:

We set the topic.
We get a professor assigned as a project guide.
The paper has to be published at a peer-reviewed venue.
The paper is also reviewed and marked by some professors.

For us the project guide was assigned at random and not according to our wishes. Her domain is completely different from what our paper is about.

Our project guide never reviewed our project, helped write the paper, or contributed anything else to the project.
She did not show any interest in our project and kept putting us down.
She was only interested in the publication scope of the project.
We sent our paper to the project guide multiple times for review and she didn’t notice her name was not among the authors then.
The paper has already been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Now, our project guide asked me why her name wasn’t included, and the college is saying they wouldn’t award marks because of her name not being included.
I don't believe my college has specific rules for authorship.

What would my next action be?


texts: Navigating the Thorny Issue of Receiving Job Offers While in a PhD Program

texts:
Question
I'm wondering about people's experiences with navigating job offers while pursuing a Ph.D. How did you make the decision to stay or leave? If you left, how did you break the news? Were you satisfied with the decision you made?
Context
I'm currently in an internship, which is required as part of my program. The internship is outside of academia. I've been doing great work there, and there's already been some insinuation from management at the internship that they'd like to keep me around. Honestly, I really like the work I am doing at the internship.
In regards to the work:

I am working on projects where I can showcase my strengths.
I am working at a level where I can see lots of potential for professional growth, and I am in the midst of experiencing that growth.
The work I am doing is boosting the marketability of my resume by orders of magnitude above and beyond what I have, could or would get from my program.
I've been able to take on a leadership role with high level projects and contribute in valuable ways.
I think the work I am doing is meaningful and has the potential to make a difference in the world. It also has the potential to end up as a brief that sits on someone's desk, but potential exists nonetheless.

In regards to the job/employer:

I'm surrounded by very smart people. I'm quite sure that management thinks of me as an A-Team caliber employee, but I know that there is a lot to learn from the people I am surrounded by at the internship. Honestly, I have not felt this way in my program.
There is a great work life balance. Full time salaried employees can work no more than 39.5 hours a week. Anything above that is considered overtime, and employees are compensated appropriately.
The benefits for full-time employees are better than what many people in my field will likely have when they are employed.
Compensation is slightly above average, but stable with guaranteed incremental raises.
There's modest potential for career advancement. If I did go to work for them, how much I could advance would likely be due to the level they hired me at. Honestly, at the higher levels (i.e., the level of my current boss), there's really not a huge difference in pay as you move to other levels in the company.
MA/MS with experience are not compensated less than those with a PhD.

Bottom line: It is a place I could see myself putting in a decade for sure. I'd leave the job after that decade in a good position to work in a variety of other contexts.
Tension
I really don't want to piss anyone off too bad if I get an offer at this job and leave. It's never been my intention to stay in academia or even in the research firm circuit, which is still kind of academia. I've always been very clear and direct with my advisor about that point. My advisor has been fine with that, although very pointed in telling me that she/he has never worked outside of academia and all he/she really knows how to do is prepare me to be an academic... so if I want something additional from my experience in grad school I need to figure it out myself. My advisor has largely been supportive of allowing me to find my own path in graduate school, and I've been successful at finding that path and not too much wandering along the way. So, really it's a question of whether or not I owe it to my advisor to stay and forgo being paid an actual salary that I can live on, passing on a potentially great job opportunity, etc. A part of me says yes, but I'm wondering if the more mature answer is no. Everything I wanted in a job appears to be right in front of me. Would you take it?


texts: Is it polite to ask my mentor to recommend me to Professors she knows in the graduate school?

texts: I am currently applying for the doctoral program. One thing I am keep considering is that should I politely ask my mentor who will write me the ref letter to recommend me to professors that she knows in those schools that I will be applying to? I am having a good relationship with my mentor and she knows me well and I think she had good impression on me. The reason I am considering this is because she was the alumni of two of my target schools and also used to be a faculty at one of my other target school. Could someone gives me some suggestion about whether should I politely ask her? I am a little afraid of making her feel like I am trying to rely on 'connection' but I also feel like if I don't ask and maybe she will be willing to, I might feel very regret of not asking so. I will be very appreciated for all suggestion and helps!


texts: Can a scientific article (of an non-tested idea) in computer science be accepted in a high-ranked journal?

texts: I'm doing a PhD in computer science. I've been working in my research question for a year and a half now and I still didn't publish any article yet. Lately, I found out an idea that can improve the current solutions. I believe my idea can provide better results than current tools. But, my question is as follows: Is it possible to submit my paper to a scientific journal and hopefully get it accepted without implementing my idea (i.e. without testing my idea)?


texts: Is it okay to ask prospective supervisor to recommend some article to read before joining his group for PhD?

texts:
A few days ago, I received my offer letter to join the Ph.D. program. I was about to inform my prospective supervisor (via e-mail) that I have received this letter from the graduate office. I will be joining the program in August 2019.

I don't want to waste my 4 months. Is it okay if I ask my supervisor to recommend me some articles/topics to read in these four months?


texts: Withdrawing a chapter proposal: Is anything else required here?

texts:
I have been invited to write a chapter with a publisher, so I wrote a proposal for the chapter using the abstract of a write-up (short primer paper) I had. After sending the proposal, I eventually found out that the publisher’s reputation is controversial.

So I gave it a second thought and wrote an email shortly (within two days) indicating I will like to withdraw my proposal. The next day after sending the email, I got an email from the author service manager stating that the editor has accepted my proposal and 'he has no further suggestions for you at this time. Please continue with the writing process' and that after the review of the chapter, I will get an email of definitive acceptance.

Now, I am about to send the short paper to a magazine. Is there anything else required of me with respect to the first publisher to absolve my work from their publication process.


texts: Updating my resume for industry. I switched labs in grad school - what to put on my resume for this time period?

texts:
I went to graduate school in the United States for biological sciences. The first year was coursework + graduate rotations. I then spent 2.5 years in a lab and left (on good terms) but did not complete any research requirements with this adviser. I started over completely in a new lab and new field (neuroscience and bioinformatics) in the same school/program and finished with a PhD. Up to this point, I have always been in the biological sciences so I would simply list the biology-related work I performed prior to the lab switch on my resume.

However, I am now leaving my postdoc in computational neuroscience to pursue a career in industry as a data scientist. I am restructuring my resume to include relevant information. Everything I did prior to my lab switch is irrelevant to this industry and takes up a lot of space. I'd like to remove it but I am not sure what to put here so it doesn't look like I have a gap in my work experience.

One option is to have separate sections for "Relevant Work Experience" and "Work History" but this is redundant and takes up too much space.

What is the best option in this situation?

(The tag says C.V. but I am aiming for something more like a 1-2 page resume rather than the typical, much longer academic C.V.)


texts: Strict prohibition on overlapping data. Why?

texts:
The journal Immunity says on this webpage

"As a matter of publishing ethics, we cannot consider any paper that contains data that have been published or submitted for publication elsewhere."

Why not? What if the two papers analyze rich sources of data that overlap only partially? What if they have completely different ambitions? Is the only meritorious activity in science the act of gathering data, and to hell with the analysis? And what does this have to do with ethics?


texts: How to react when professor wrongly corrects you in public?

texts:
I recently defended my master thesis.
One thing only went wrong: I said a certain method was rather new (which it was!) and the most senior professor in the room (my supervisor was not there, he had an unexpected meeting) contradicted me, telling me that it was old and had been done in the lab for ages.
Honestly, I just gave in. He seemed so sure and I did not dare contradict him.
However I was sure before and of course I have since checked, the method is indeed new, the professor was just plain wrong.
What should I have done in the situation?


texts: Two researchers want to work on the same extension to my paper. Who to help?

texts:
I recently presented a paper in a top-tier conference in a computer engineering field. I did that work as a research assistant under a Professor but now I am working in the industry. Two different researchers, let's call them John and Sam, wish to work on an extension to this work. But both need help from me since they feel I will be able to solve their problem quickly based on my experience. John is a PhD student with whom I had worked with and was the second author of the paper. Sam is a PhD student, in another university, who I met at the conference. Since both have a request for help and both are working on the identical extension of the work, who should I help out?

Background:
I originally planned to work on my paper alone along with my advisor. After I was done with about 80% of the work, I met John (who is a Phd student under my advisor) and decided to collaborate with him because he too was working on a similar problem (he at that time was working on the extension itself). John didn't contribute directly with the work (I was sole author of all code and did all analysis with help my the advisor) but he helped me with conference selection and writing of the paper. As John was sponsored by a company, having his name as an author meant that now all the ownership of the work laid with the company, at least that was what I was told by John and the advisor. This meant they had all the rights to the code (though I never signed away my rights explicitly). My advisor is particular about legal issues and hence don't want me to make the code open-source. But since the company was not interested in using the code and I didn't want my work to go to waste, I have made the code open-source, unknown to my advisor or John.

Question: I wish to maximize the use of my work (since it is my first research work). So should I continue to help both John and Sam who are both working on the same topic? My concern is that one of them will have wasted their time if the other is successful in publishing a paper first.

I am more confident about Sam's skills (based on his past papers and John doesn't have much experience in this field) but John has indicated to me from the start that he was more interested in the extension than the work that I did in the paper.

My other option is to reveal to both of them about each other so that they can possibly collaborate. But since I have told Sam that my code is open source, Sam can possibly tell John this information which might irritate my former advisor. I would like to avoid this because I might require future favors such as a letter of recommendation should I choose to pursue PhD.

Edit: I have open-sourced the code via GitHub (changed the repository from private to public). I still haven't added any license (so legally by default it is not open-source as in free to use but anyone can browse through it) so I still retain all rights. Basically, I used the wrong terminology, the code is public (instead of open-source).
I haven't talked with any representative from the company, only my advisor and John have been in contact with them. From what John tells me, the company is no longer interested in the project and I think John's funding is also stopping because of this.

Based on the answers, I am going to ask Sam and John to work together (at least tell both of them about each other) and ask Sam not to reveal about the public code. I am still not convinced about making the code private again because this being a computer engineering field (applied field), just based on paper, it will be hard for anyone to replicate the work (the evidence is that both John and Sam need my help).


texts: What does Graduate school mean: Master, PhD, or both?

texts:
In the US one seldom reads about Master and much more about Graduate schools. I have the feeling that Graduate school can also mean doing a doctorate/pursuing a PhD degree; thus I am confused with the lack of clear separation here as it isn't a problem with the European distinction of Bachelor, Master, and Doctorate.

Is there a general rule that can be applied to understand what educational level is meant? Like for PhD there is an department admission process required and for Master there isn't, or something like this?

Moreover, one could say to have graduated from High school, from college, from Master's...from kindergarden if you want. Wouldn't it therefore be more logic not to use "graduate" when talking about some specific educational level and instead use terms such as Bachelor, Master, PhD?


texts: How to design an undergraduate internship project?

texts:
I am postdoctoral fellow working on computer science and bioinformatics, and it seems I might have the possibility soon to supervise some undergraduate internship students. Internships should last around 3 months.

To do this, first I have to design some undergraduate internship project proposals to make available for these candidate internship students.

I never did this previously, so I do not know very well how to design these project drafts. There are many question marks: what should I expect from these students? What should I expect from these projects? what amount of work should I expect? What skills should I suppose the students have before joining the project? What should be the goals of these projects, both for the students and for the advance of science?

In the end, in case you were a potential supervisor, what's a good way to design an undergraduate internship project proposal?


texts: Published and unpublished dissertation; DOI assignment

texts:
I have recently defended my Ph.D. dissertation and submitted it to my graduate school's e-repository of scholarly works as well as to the ProQuest database. I have not heard yet from ProQuest about the respective publication, but my work appeared blazingly fast in my school's repository, which is great, as I already can cite it in my CV and elsewhere, where appropriate.

As I understand the terminology in the area, dissertation or thesis, submitted to ProQuest (or another scholarly database, for that matter) is referred to as published. On the other hand, the same document, submitted to university's e-repository or similar archive, is referred to as unpublished. Also, while I expect the ProQuest to assign a DOI to my work, my university's e-repository doesn't seem to include this step. Considering all the above-mentioned information, I am curious about the following:

What is the optimal strategy for maintaining and citing both unpublished and published versions of my dissertation? Since the published (ProQuest) version will not be available to people, lacking access to ProQuest, does it make sense to maintain and cite both versions, so that other interested people will be able to access and cite the unpublished version?
What is the optimal strategy for assigning DOI to my dissertation report (either to both versions, or to the unpublished, if ProQuest will assign DOI to the published one)?


texts:
I'm co-organizing a workshop in conjunction of a leading conference. Since the topic is quite close to my work I'm considering to submit my own paper to the workshop.
Given the fact that I'm serving as one of the workshop chairs (and the review process is single-blind)- Is it ok to submit my own paper there?


texts: Improving work relationship with my advisor

texts:
I'm new to the research scene. I asked my advisor questions about the suggestions he gave in a couple of meetings. From then on, he insulted me a few times whenever he has to provide feedback on my work in our project meetings and he responds in an aggressive way when I ask him doubts as well. One time, he questioned my degree and skills for the feedback of 'bolding a boundary in a visual illustration' and we had a poster deadline then in a few days. I'm not sure if he did this in spite, but he asked us to send him a final draft, which we did before the poster deadline. And he did not provide us any feedback or response on the draft or us submitting the deadline.
Earlier it was fine, he responded politely more or less. How do I fix this now?


texts: How to tactfully "decommit" from projects?

texts: As a young academic recently flown from the nest, I am starting to figure out my own research interests. I now feel like I have too many, though. During a postdoc where I struggled to fit in and produce papers, I started or agreed to take part in something like 8 projects, a couple of them well outside my field, requiring the acquisition of new skills. I've tried principal-component-like analysis to prioritize projects, splitting my week up into chunks of time devoted to particular projects, and various other methods to make meaningful progress. I think, though, I really just need to decommit myself from a couple projects or push them off by six months. What is the best way to do this without building up a bad reputation and alienating future collaborators? Or will most senior folk understand the situation as the mistakes of a young buck and not take it personally?


texts: Why do graduate engineering schools ask for academic reference letters?

texts:
I'm applying to study a master of engineering in Canada from Australia. As part of my application I'm required to provide two reference letters.

Now universities in Australia are very commercialized. Even in my third year courses, there are at least 300+ students in a course. I don't see the professors outside of lectures and consultations and as a result I am not 'close' with any professors. I was volunteering and working a lot during my undergrad degree and have thus provided my work and volunteering supervisors as referees. The enrollment team have responded by rejecting my referees and asking me to provide academic referees instead.

I am really frustrated by this as I fail to comprehend the purpose for academic referees in engineering degrees. If it's my academic performance you want to see, you have my transcript for that. If it's my character and capabilities, my supervisors knows it better than any professor ever could.

The only explanation that I can come up with is that this is an outdated system from a time when there were few students at universities and professors back then had closer relationships with students than they do now.

I know this feels like a rant but I am genuinely interested to hear the story from an enrollments perspective. why would graduate engineering schools ask for reference letters specifically from academics?


texts: Returning to academia after a year in industry

texts:
I need an advice about returning to academia as a visitor/post-doc after working for a year in finance.

I finished my PhD in summer 2013 with a good record of publications (3 papers in high impact journals). Both my bachelor and PhD were in applied mathematics and theoretical physics. Towards the end of my PhD I felt burned out and was unsure if I want to continue the same line of research.

Furthermore, almost all my colleagues who finished their PhDs around the same time struggled to find positions and all moved overseas, which was not an option for me at that time.

During this time a have kept in touch with my supervisor and colleagues. I also kept reading and searching for new interesting ideas. Recently I started to feel enthusiastic again and full of fresh ideas.

My question is do you think it is acceptable to approach my supervisor/colleagues and ask for a position and what is the best way to go about this?


texts: How to appropriately email a researcher to ask for details about their paper?

texts:
Often when I am reading a newly published article, I will encounter some points that are difficult to understand. For example, some details of the methodology that I think the authors did not explain in enough detail.
I'm not sure how to write an appropriate email to ask for clarification, especially on how to phrase, so as to be polite. For example, should I write "Ask for details on methodology" or "Inquiry on details on methodology" or ...?


texts: Postdoc without letter of recommendation

texts: What if my PhD advisor doesn't want to give me a letter of recommendation, because he doesn't want me to leave on postdoc? No one of his young assistants have never been on any postdoc or fellowship exchange.


texts:
I have a question.

  Can all the professors in a department see a particular student's grades?

Can the chair of a department see a student's grades?


texts: Academic publishing: why placing figures on top/bottom of pages in single-column layout?

texts:
When you turn in a manuscript to an academic publisher, they may insist (referring to their style guide and publication process) that all figures are placed on top/bottom of the manuscript's pages rather than exactly where you need them (e.g., in the middle on one page and on top on another page). Why? Assuming single-column layout and that no huge line stretching, no huge vertical gaps, and no vertical overflows occur, what good reasons could exist nowadays for figures to be moved out of the very place where you need them?

An example could be the figures in the CSP book: they are placed typically where the reader needs them rather than always at the top/bottom of the pages.


texts: What citation style is mainly used in political science?

texts:
According to Wikipedia, the most pertinent styles are Chicago and APSA, which is a variant of Chicago. But I could not find stronger references about this.

EDIT. The purpose of my question is the following. I am trying to build a quick help-sheet for scholars and students about the "citation" topic. Political science seems to be a discipline not very careful about the citation styles issue (compared to the STM fields), so I can't find clear information about the practice of its community.


texts: How do I deal with diverse interests when applying for a PhD program?

texts:
I have a master's degree in Computer Science. I have applied to PhD programs, and decisions are trickling in. I may soon have to choose between two or more PhD programs.

Unfortunately, I have diverse interests. I was advised that a successful PhD application is usually quite specific, so I made each of my applications very specific. I wrote to a professor working in decision making (AI), another working in computational learning theory, another working in computer music, another working in quantum & parallel computing, another working in logical foundations & philosophy of computation. With much enthusiasm, I informed each professor that I was interested in pursuing a PhD in his / her field. This is true. I am interested in each of these fields, and know something about each of them. When advised to apply, I did.

The problem is - being interested in each of these fields also means that I'm interested in all of them. (There are more areas of CS I'm interested in. What's worse - my interests are not even restricted to CS. For the purposes of this post, I'm restricting myself to only the mentioned areas.) So when I choose between PhD programs, I'm choosing between completely different areas - and that is surely going to be excruciating.

This is not a case of not knowing my 'true interest' now, only to discover it later. I have no 'true interest'. I have always pursued numerous unrelated things in parallel. I love all my interests equally. In fact, I love the feeling of 'being interested' more than the interests themselves. Whenever I've tried to restrict myself to one topic of study - even for a month - that feeling is lost, and I am quickly bored. As a result, my skill-set is a classic case of a jack of all trades - master of none. The worst part is - everybody knows that a PhD is about getting deep into one specific topic. It's not about breadth - it's about depth. Even if I were to choose one of the PhD programs (and I must choose one), I have a feeling that I might get bored quickly and be prone to constant topic-changing / transferring. Again, this is not about being fickle - it's about following my heart, and my heart takes me to different things at different times.

Do you think I'm likely to fail / never complete my PhD? Does anyone have any advice about dealing with diverse interests? Has anyone felt the same way and dealt with it? I'd love to hear from you.


texts:
I'm elaborating a tutorial/guide about the software I used on my thesis.
The tutorial and the thesis won't be part of the same document. So, I was thinking about using other than times/arial.
Any sugestions?
Also, any design sugestions? I think the document looks very plain.


texts: How do universities verify qualifications?

texts:
I want to apply for an academic job in the US or UK. I am curious how the universities verify my academic degrees. Do they call/write to my home university to verify my qualifications. In my home country, universities are not responsive to requests. Even, they do not ship the transcripts to employers (it's only available for pick up).

Can they reject my application because of no response from my university?


texts: If my professor is retiring at the end of the semester, would his letter of recommendation carry weight when I apply for PhD programs eventually (later on)?


texts: How do I prepare for a postdoc position with requirements in working with the theoretical basis of the software, which I have never worked with?

texts:
I am 5th year PhD, about to submit my thesis in few months and defend in around September this year. My computational materials science PhD thesis involved using a commercial software (ABAQUS) to model a machining problem. I had to come up with material models and write python codes to build new geometries and stuff. I did decent in my PhD with 3 publications in decent journals and few in preparation.

Now, I learnt the theory behind the working of the commercial software while beginning my work. I did it entirely through self study. However, my PhD thesis did not involve any manipulation or working with the actual theoretical formulation of the software. So, I don't have any working experience with the formulation of (Finite element method) FEA form of a problem and implementing it.

Now, all the jobs or postdoc positions in FEA application requires one to be able to solve a problem by hand, compare with analytical solutions, be proficient in implementing FEA weak forms into the commercial software...and so on. I don't know if I would be able to do it when required as I have not worked with it till now.

I don't know if I am even eligible to call myself a PhD as I feel unconfident/ashamed in my abilities to be called an expert in the numerical analysis field. What do I do?


texts: How to become a supervisor? Finding students to supervise

texts:
I'm currently finishing the corrections of the PhD I've done in the UK. In the meantime, I've returned to my home country, Portugal, and started working at a hospital as a medical statistician. I have several (no scientific tasks) to do and I would like to continue doing research. I have several projects that I would like to carry one. Some are not very complicated and I believe they could be interesting master degree thesis. While in the UK, I've supervised some undergrads and I really enjoyed. I would like to continue supervising students.

Does anyone have any experience or guidance about how could I start to supervise research students (proposing small projects)? I don't need to be affiliated with a university to be a supervisor as my master thesis supervisor was not a teacher there. But, do I need to be affiliated with a university to propose projects? I imagine I can only be a supervisor in Portugal or has anyone heard about master degree supervisors from other countries? I understand this may differ between countries. I'm looking for some tips/advice/comments on how to start supervising students.

Thank you!


texts: A bad feeling about first published papers

texts:
I was taking a look at my first published papers, which are published in (peer-reviewed) A*/A/B level proceedings. Thanks to these papers, I finished my PhD a few years ago.

I was surprised by the quality of the papers and I felt ashamed that I wrote these papers -Of course, this was not my feeling a few years ago-. I found that my assumptions were naive and the conclusions can be valid only for the used dataset (there is a high chance that they are not valid for other datasets). I found also that I lacked some fundamental knowledge and I could explain my approach differently.

Overall, if I receive these papers now as a reviewer, I would definitely recommend to reject them.

I don't know whether this feeling is just because 1) I gained knowledge over the past years, 2) the domain (CS) has evolved significantly or 3) the papers were indeed bad and they shouldn't be published.

In the case of (3), I am wondering what I should do.


texts:
What is a good way to license your research projects?

Diving into the details of most licences, a lot of their wording and concerns seem centered around 'redistribution', and are not so much driven by the concerns of the spirit of academia.

Personally, I have been active in diverse fields; from fields with great standards in terms of code dissemination, to fields with abysmal or almost complete absence of any standards of code dissemination.

When it comes to making code available for academic use, I am somewhat opposed to 'permissive' licenses, and id prefer to release under the absolute most aggressive 'copyleft' principles. I resent the idea of other so called 'scientists' cranking out non reproducible papers that make use of my carefully packaged and documented work, in any way whatsoever. Yet going over for instance the AGPL, considered one of the most 'copyleft' licenses, it seems to be barking up all the wrong trees.

For instance, technical details concerning 'distribution' like static versus dynamic linking are completely unimportant to me. In fact that whole debate about what constitutes 'redistribution' is rather moot when it comes to research I think. Claiming you did something using some piece of software is arguably always fine under any license that seeks to restrict redistribution; since none is involved.

All I care about is that if you seek to build on my work in any way, that you are bound by the same standards of dissemination. That is, not just some passive duty to make code available upon request (I know how that pans out in practice); but a proactive duty to have your code available on a publicly accessible service, and to have it contain runable examples that I can get going with minimal effort on at least one major platform. That is, without spending days to reverse-engineer your development environment. I suppose that could be formalized by requiring use of some CI service; if you can run some tests automatically, everything needed to run your software must be available as code.

For the specific library I have in mind, I am actually quite happy if people adopt it for commercial use free of charge, and redistribute it in whatever way. Id prefer if they contribute back but whatever. But I am absolutely not fine with perpetuating some of the abysmal code dissemination standards going on in some fields of academia.

Is there any license that covers such an intent? Or is it about time one gets written?


texts: Removing a part of a paper during major revision

texts:
I submitted a paper and got it back with a major revision recommendation. There were many revision comments, and to answer some of them, I added appendices. Now I got the paper back with a second major revision (with many other comments). When I look at the paper as a whole, I see that it has now grown very long. Moreover, some of the results I put in appendices are stand-alone results that can potentially be published separately. I would like to remove these appendices from the paper and make them stand-alone technical reports (e.g. put them on arXiv). This has several advantages: shortening the original paper, increasing the visibility of the side-results, and maybe allowing me to expand them and publish them as a separate paper.

My question is: is it common for an author to do such a thing during the revision process? I understand that I can ask for the editor's opinion, but I would like to know how common is it to ask for such a thing?


texts: How to contact professors for PhD vacancies?

texts:
I know many master's students who get an opportunity to talk to their potential PhD advisors well before applying. In most cases this opportunity is available by the professors with whom they worked for their master's. Moreover, there are many others who establish a contact with professors by mailing them and enquiring about PhD vacancies.

My questions are:

How important is knowing an advisor prior to applying for PhD?
Does an email interaction play a vital role when the department makes its admit decisions?
If email contact is important, can a student send out mails to 2-3 professors (working in the same area) in case one of them does not bother to reply?
To sum up, is applying of any use (especially in top universities) when you have no contacts and only your credentials to bank on?


texts: What qualities are organizing committees looking for in a reference letter for a summer school?

texts:
How would you write a reference letter for someone who is applying to a summer school intended for Ph.D. students/postdocs? The summer school only lasts for 3 days up to a week and I am curious as to what qualities and traits the organizing committee is looking for in participants. Do the participants have to be able to think very fast, for example?

What skills are sufficient to be able to participate in a summer school successfully? I am writing a reference letter for someone who is relatively new to a field and is interested in doing research on topics relevant to the summer school. The student has more or less the prerequisite knowledge needed for this summer school if that's worth mentioning. Also, the student is seeking for funding so I want to be serious about this letter.

From where I'm from, there weren't many opportunities for summer schools so I would appreciate your suggestions.

Thanks!


texts: Are there any differences between Master's admissions and Ph.D admissions in the US?

texts:
I notice that the majority of admission questions on this site regarding admissions specifically refer to Ph.D admissions. That being the case, are Master's applicants evaluated any differently in regards to focus on research, grades, letters of recommendation, etc.?  For instance, research potential is a big determining factor for Ph.D admissions I know, but the Ph.D is a research oriented degree. Is there the same focus on research potential for Master's students?

This is specifically focused on STEM fields, particularly the "E."


texts: Are masters degrees treated equivalently in academia on both sides of the Atlantic?

texts:
This is just a general question regarding UK (and I suppose Western European) masters degrees vs. US masters degrees.

The reason for asking is that I have heard that US masters are considered at the same academic level as UK Bachelors with Honours degrees. This seems like pure hearsay but I'd like to understand if there is any thing concrete in this assertion.

And does equivalency tend to manifest itself in the same ways in commercial environments too?


texts: Change of rules & regulations after accepting faculty contract offer

texts:
I have recently accepted a new academic position in the Netherlands. Netherlands has a generous so-called 30% rule for high skilled expats:

you are paying taxes only for the 70% of your income and the rest 30%
is given to you as a tax-free allowance. This, in practice, means
about 20% higher net salary.

I easily got this rule 2 years ago for another academic position again in NL. The duration for the 30% rule is 8 years so I should have it for the next 6 years and nobody from HR mentioned any plans from the government of reducing it. Unfortunately, yesterday I read in the news that Dutch government completed a draft proposal which reduces the 30% rule from 8 to 5 years.  What is worth noting is that, in case the draft becomes a law (which most probably will, since this is the final proposal) will have a retroactive effect :

Concreet betekent dit dat het kabinet in het pakket Belastingplan 2019
zal voorstellen de maximale looptijd van de 30%-regeling met ingang
van 1 januari 2019 voor zowel nieuwe als bestaande gevallen met drie
jaar te verkorten.

One of the factors that made me accepted the new offer was the 30% rule for the remaining 6 years (I planned to buy house immediately). Now I see that this might not very well be true. What is even worse is that I turned down a great Research position (in a high tech company) offering about 60% more salary. I thought the 30% rule would partly compensate about it, but probably it will not.
I will not ask about the legal aspects of the draft law nor about the ethical dimension of this although you can see here what the relevant tax authorities say about shortening the period of 8 years.

Is it too late to turn down the academic offer? I have accepted it on e-mail but I haven't signed anything yet and haven't even seen the contract. If yes, what is the best way to do this?
Is anything similar happening to any other country and how do academics people deal with it?

Apparently, a lot of expats taking advantage of this rule get frustrated and set up an e-vote against the draft.


texts: Copyright-related advice for graphic designer creating content for academic publications

texts:
I'm in the following situation: I'm a researcher and hold a degree in life sciences. I also like graphic design and occasionally doodle up a figure to include in a report or such. I'm not a professional graphic designer and not being paid for that specifically (though see it as part of my academic obligation). Now my supervising professor noted this and now starts to ask me to create figures for other academic publications I haven't worked on personally. This happened twice so far. Some figures I just modified from existing sources but others are my very own work based on, and tailored to, the academic publication in question. There are a couple of questions arising from this situation but I'm most concerned about the copyright aspect.

I'm a firm believer in the benefits of open access and creative commons and have no problem with anyone reusing and modifying my work for noncommercial purposes. I do have a problem however with academic content being locked away behind a paywall, possibly along with my images. I do not have any influence on which academic publisher is chosen for the articles I design the figures for.

My questions are,

Are my designs still mine after being published? This may depend a lot on the publisher in question but can it be generalized? Any experience?
Do I have a choice of the copyright licence to be applied to the figures?
Can I use my graphics afterwards in any way I like and apply any copyright licence I wish, possibly mentioning “also used in Academic publication x”? For example, could I put them on Wikipedia?

In general, I want to avoid a situation in which I can be hold legally responsible for using my work as I please.


texts: Professor has no interest in the topic of my research proposal

texts:
For a research paper in my course we had to come up with a topic proposal.
When I talked with my professor about my topic he did not seem interested in my proposal and only talked about a topic of his interest, in which I am totally inexperienced and not really interested in. He didn´t even comment on my research proposal.
The problem is, that my professor is really into this topic. How could I politely ask him to discuss my proposal instead of only his proposal?


texts: Flexibility (or lack of) at the Open University

texts:
I'm thinking of doing a maths degree at the Open University. This course

"BSc (Honours) Mathematics"

The problem is, I'm expected to do the most basic of courses, starting with "Discovering Mathematics"

http://www.open.ac.uk/courses/qualifications/details/mu123?orig=Q31

Considering I have

BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering
MSc in Microwaves and Optoelectronics
PhD in Medical Physics

this seems a bit of a waste of my time and money. Unfortunately I got my Ph.D in 1999, so whilst the OU permit "credit transfer", they will not count the Ph.D, or any earlier degrees.

I did their online test to see if I was ready for the next course "Essential Mathematics 1", and got every single answer correct. You have to select what your highest qualification was, and there was HNC/HND, but no choice of any sort of degree. Doing "Discovering Mathematics", which is said to be "Introduces and helps integrate key ideas from statistics, algebra, geometry and trigonometry into your everyday thinking to build your confidence in learning and using mathematics." really is a waste of my time and money.

I have telephoned, and asked about this credit transfer, and I was told there's no flexibility - the fact my last degree was more than 16 years ago, means it does not count.

I run an engineering company, doing fairly advanced maths. In fact, the reason I want to do the degree is that my maths is not good enough for some of the things I wish to do. But it is certainly much better than needed for a really basic course called "Discovering Mathematics"

Has anyone had any success in negotiating credit transfer after more than 16 years?

Results of doing their test to see if I'm ready for Essential mathematics 1 (MST124)


texts: Can I submit my paper to arXiv with a header that says "Under review at X" when it isn't?

texts:
Previously I submitted my paper in MS Word format to arXiv.  Now after almost two years, I decided to submit an updated version in LaTeX format.

To create the LaTeX version of the document, I downloaded a template from here that added a line at the top of each page saying:

  Under review as a conference paper at ICLR 2016

Do I have to remove that notice, or is it OK to leave it as is?


texts:
Do all countries have the same gender imbalance in science?

That is, while some countries may have a higher proportion of women in science, while others have a lower proportion of women in science, if you compared the gender ratio in physics compared to the gender ratio of biology in a country, would you always see the same or similar results? Or could you see a higher proportion of women in physics compared to biology in one country, but see a higher proportion of women in biology compared to physics in another country?


texts: What to do when a referee asks for changes I am not willing to make?

texts:
I have submitted a paper later that was reviewed by four reviewers. I submitted my revisions to all reviewers. Three accepted the review, while the last is still asking for modifications.

The problem is that the reviewer is asking to measure the performance of our work using performance metrics that were never taken into consideration before in the literature (and our problem is well studied - at 30 references !) ..

These performance metrics would require a complete Master Thesis.

Is it fair to judge a paper based on performance metrics that were not taken into consideration by the authors at the first hand ? (noting that none of the previous work considered these metrics) ..

I hate to say it, but the reviewer seems to be reading a paper about my problem for the first time ever, and some of the reviewer comments are contradicting.

Note: I am sorry if this have been asked before. I could not find any thing related.


texts: Do the authors need to ask for permission from institutes/companies for including their name in acknowledgement section of their publication?

texts:
In the acknowledgement section of a thesis or paper, the authors usually thank the funding institution of their research project and people who had significant impact on their publication.

When acknowledging companies/institutions in a publication, should they be informed beforehand? I mean, should authors ask for permissions before acknowledging any names in a publication?


texts: I am a co-author in a paper. How can attending a conference be beneficial to career and resume since I am not sure whether to attend it.


texts: Focusing on one specific academic field?

texts:
This question has already been asked, albeit not so much, in this thread. This, however, still gets me thinking. I am an early career research (not even done with my PhD yet). A PhD candidate told me that despite all my papers being focused in one country, I am "all over the place." Meaning, my published works are in different fields (i.e. sociolinguistics, politics, anthropology, international relations) - all of which I have a good grasp with. What is common among all my publications are my ideological standpoints. I remained consistent.

My degrees are in area studies, and I did (and still does) all the researches for my degrees in the fields of sociolinguistics, the politics of language, and political rhetoric. Area Studies is so broad enough that it can be considered multi- and interdisciplinary.

However, will writing and being able to have my works published in various fields in the social sciences affect my profile (positively or negatively) when I apply for faculty positions in the future?


texts: Should I adress myself as a doctor (Ph.D.) when I am only waiting for the diploma to be signed?

texts:
I have publicly defended my doctoral thesis over a year ago now, and it is published online. I have also finished all the other doctoral studies that are required for a Ph.D. in my field (I have an official e-mail regarding this from the Head of study affairs of my faculty). All that remains for the final and official Ph.D. status are the official papers signed by my university. This is due to the fact that I have continued extracurricular studies (some minor subjects, methodological studies etc.) at my university under my postgraduate student status and thus have not requested the official papers yet since it would end my possibilities for further studies. I have also applied for postdoc grants, but for the time being without results.

Against this background, would any of you recommend addressing myself as a doctor (Ph.D.) until I receive the official certificate from my university? For example, I have been part of multiple academic peer-reviewing endeavors within the past year, and the journal editors always refer to me as a Dr. in their correspondences. So I have just followed their lead.

I've searched and read different forums around the topic i.e., "when it is proper to be called a doctor?" There seem to be somewhat ambiguity within the responses given.


texts: Does Utilitarian ethics have a place in Academia?

texts:
Most academic ethics (indeed, most professional ethics in general) are heavily focused on Kantian/Deontological principles. For academics, the basic rules are blatantly Deontological - don't plagiarize, don't falsify data, don't cheat on exams, don't abuse research subjects, don't divert grant funds to unauthorized activities, don't engage in discrimination, etc. Is there a place in Academia for Utilitarian "greatest good for the greatest number of people" ethics? At first this seems absurd - that anything worth doing is worth doing right, and that the damage done by violating ethical principles simply can't be quantified in any meaningful manner.

There are plenty of examples of post-facto ethical issues with respect to using past data obtained through problematic methods, but I'm asking about present day research. Can someone give an example of a scenario where an ethics committee, IRB, or other social establishment in academia might advise a researcher to go ahead and commit what would normally be misconduct because the likely benefits are just too great to pass up? For example, "This research is so important and so urgent that you need to do anything you can to finish it as soon as possible. Take restricted funds from other departments, bribe government officials, look the other way while your co-researchers sexually harass their grad students, inflate your own students' grades in exchange for extra work hours from them, do whatever you have to to finish it. Once you publish it will truly all be worth it as it will save countless millions from impending doom, balance the national budget, and restore Order to the Galaxy."

Note that I'm not asking about any specific scenario, but about whether utilitarian ethics even apply - that is, if having the basic rules (don't plagiarize, don't falsify, etc.) is normally just the most efficient way to do research (e.g. unfalsified data is worth much more than falsified data, a subordinate who is not being sexually harassed is less likely to quit in the middle of a big project and much less likely to sue, etc.), or if they are truly indispensable in all cases. I also recognize that the cases I am talking about are somewhat rare, probably more at home in a bad sci-fi movie than a real-life university, and that most people probably won't encounter them.

While "Nazi data" can be considered an example of this, I want to concentrate on other things that are less politically charged - say, deciding not to censure a professor for sexual harassment because of the importance of his current research, or falsifying a minor paper in order to qualify for grant money that you intend to use to do much more good than the harm caused by the falsified paper.


texts:
How can I find out which authors cite a certain author X most often?

This question is different from Influence of author on other authors because here I ask about the number of citations (a very specific metric), whereas the other question and answer are about other metrics.

(Regarding background research I tried as required by the quality standards of this site: I checked scholarly but a solution isn't obvious. Maybe following id_scholarcitedby there could work. Also, http://www.semanticscholar.org/ provides similar info (weighted influence as estimated by AI etc), but that does not perfectly correlate with the number of citations.)


texts: Is it appropriate for a TA to say "My Students"?

texts:
I am a teaching assistant for the first time this semester. A couple of friends have asked how it is going, and I have used phrases like "some of my students..." or "my students are ..." when telling them my experiences.

I'm not so concerned when talking to my friends, but in an academic setting (ex. talking to another professor) is it appropriate for me to say "my students" when referring to the students in the class which I am TA'ing for?

I'm definitely leaning towards "no", because I am not the one instructing the class, I am just helping instruct the class, but I'd like to get SE's opinion.


texts: Can I copy parts of a glossary verbatim in my thesis?

texts:
My thesis uses domain language of a (software) project that needs to be precisely defined because those words are ambiguous in the "natural" English language. This software project hosts a glossary using Attribution 4.0 International that I would like to include partly (ca. 20 out of 60 terms).

Can I write the following?

  Glossary

  The XYZ project glossary¹ defines a set of terms that are used throughout this thesis:

  A [Verbatim text defining A]

  B [Verbatim text defining B]

  ....

  ¹ https://link.to.project.website.glossary

I saw several questions about copying normal text but I think this does not apply here, because I am not copying scientific findings but merely a definition of a "language"?


texts: Explanation needed for university program titles (MScDiplomaCertificate)

texts:
What does it mean when a university has a program which title is 'program name' MSc/Diploma (MScDiploma).

When a person graduates, does he/she get MSc or Diploma (MScDiploma). What is the difference between these two?

There are also variations like MScDiplomaCertificate

Noticed that UK universities use such titles


texts: When reading papers, what's the most convenient way to check a citation without disrupting the reading process?

texts:
Papers can include clickable-link formatting with in-text citations.  It's convenient to click a link to check the citation, however, it's disruptive to have to manually scroll back up to continue reading.

Is there an easier way to resume reading after checking a citation?  Alternatively, is there a less disruptive method for checking a citation?


texts: Dropped out of maths PhD - options for later on?

texts:
Over the last month or so I wrote a couple of posts about me worrying a lot about the way my mathematics PhD supervisor was dealing with things. Looking back on these my worries were unjustified and I have since done a lot of reflection upon what went wrong with my studies which made me feel that way. I decided to withdraw from my studies and move back home for a good while to re-evaluate my interests and think about where I want to be in life. I withdrew because:

the PhD was heavily analysis-based, whereas my background was much more towards the applied side (so the jump turned out to be too great for me in the end), and the choice of my PhD topic was based more on what I felt I "ought to know" rather than what I enjoyed and what I was already good at (out of the PhD offers I had at the time, the one I went for was probably the least suitable for me in terms of background, and this choice was exacerbated by the fact I was under pressure to choose a PhD programme during my final year of my undergraduate course)
the above led to me finding it difficult to adapt to a routine and I was rapidly losing interest in the topic which had a very negative effect on my work ethic and research progress
I was experiencing mental health difficulties and having trouble looking after myself
the above were leading to my supervisors to worry a lot about my progress and so my main supervisor suggested that perhaps I withdraw from the studentship.

For now, my plan is to take a pause from academia and consider doing some teaching work in the meantime (or getting some other real-world experience), whilst being able to rectify any personal issues. So far I feel this has been a really positive move and I have been able to think much more clearly about my future and where my heart is. Furthermore, during my (limited) experience of being a research student, I learned a lot about what happens in a typical mathematics department, what research work usually involves, and what responsibilities a PhD student and his/her supervisor has.

I feel that there is a possibility that I would like to return to PhD studies in the future (I'm not ruling it out, at least), but with much more care and consideration towards the subject area and my suitability for research work.

However, I am aware that having dropped out of a PhD already might potentially hurt my chances if I consider reapplying later on - but I feel my justification is sound, and if I do consider applying for a PhD again in a year or two, then I can explain the situation to potential institution/supervisor and hopefully they would understand.

So my question is - would having withdrew from a PhD programme that wasn't a very good match for my mathematical background and strengths disadvantage me if I wanted to consider doing a PhD later on in something that was much more up my street? Furthermore, if I decide to take this route, would it be worth returning to my original institution where I know the faculty really well and have a good track record with them? (I obtained a 1st class Masters degree from there and was given numerous awards during my studies.)


texts: How would graduate studies in Japan differ from those in the US, specifically for mathematics?

texts:
I have decided to make an academic transition from Electrical and Electronics Engineering into Mathematics after graduation. Although my first degree is from an Asian country it is a well accredited one. Japan is at the top of my list of countries where I wish to do my graduate-level studies. I'm particularly interested in doing a Master's program taught entirely in English and I see some National universities in Japan are conducting such courses under the G30 program (There might be other programmes as well).
But I have concerns regarding language being a barrier, as well as the rigour of the curriculum I will be studying there. My goal in the near future as of now is to get a good postdoc position.
In general, how would graduate studies in Japan differ from those in the US, specifically for mathematics?
Note: I've deleted my previous ambiguous question. Thank you @LoneAcademic for the suggested edits.


texts: How to recognize motivated applicants in PhD interview?

texts: I am going to interview multiple applicants for a PhD position. Previously I had a student which was very smart, but he didn't work hard because he was not motivated enough. He left the job after one year. I am afraid of the similar cases. Is there any way to know how motivated is the person for the position?


texts: If you are being interviewed for a job and find out afterwards that a member of the interview\hiring committee had a past romantic relationship with another candidate what should you do?


texts: How should I go about doing meaningful academic outreach as a graduate student?

texts:
I am a Hispanic student (senior undergraduate) from a socioeconomically disadvantaged background pursuing a graduate degree in Physics in US (I just finished submitting my applications). I do not know anyone from my neighborhood that attended college, much less pursued an advanced degree, and I find myself abhorred by the educational inequality in the US (and the world) on a daily basis. I've undertaken some personal outreach endeavors thus far, I act as a mentor via email for minority students in K-12 (for example, I send them updates about what projects I'm doing and links that I think are suitable for their age group) and I stay in contact with minority undergraduates in STEM whom find themselves faced with (socioeconomic) obstacles similar to those that I have faced.

My parents were hard workers, but they had little time (or money) to stimulate me intellectually as a child, and they also had no idea what it meant to pursue a PhD in anything besides a medical doctor. Thus, I really only became familiar with the notion of pursuing a career in scientific research when I arrived at college; prior to arriving at college, engineering was my idea of what it meant to be a "scientist", or, to "do science" as a career.

I would say that over the course of the past three years I have become a relatively successful researcher, and in some ways I have made up for lost time, but to this day I can only cringe thinking about where I (or someone in my same shoes) might be today if I had been exposed to science at a younger age.

Does anyone have advice as to how I can begin making a significant impact in scientific outreach as a graduate student? I have a knack for programming, and the majority of my research is computational in nature, so I think I might be well suited for helping individuals learn programming remotely, or something of that effect.


texts: I noticed that there are some significant variation in the salary of post-docs in Germany. The post-doc salary could be given in TVL13, TVL14, TVL15, and even TVL15U scales. This means that the net income could change from 2,000-4,000 Euros. I have currently an offer to start my post-doc with TVL-13 (Stufe 4) which gives a net income of 2,900 Euro. Is this something reasonable?  What factors are important in determining the post-doc salary? and how could I change them?


texts: Is it worth attending the Grace Hopper conference without presenting anything as a first year PhD student?

texts:
My university sent out the GHC 2016 emails recently. I have always wanted to go, because every year I see every single one of my female CS friends go there. The vast majority of them are sponsored by their companies, so they don't really have anything to present. My question is, is attending GHC in such a situation of any use at all? I have always felt that you get more respect in a conference and also more contacts (because of people wanting to talk to you) when you actually contribute something to it as opposed to being a passive observer. But I am not sure.

My second question, as the title says, I am a first year PhD student, so I don't really have any one big project I'm working on, just small projects I've been doing to get a feel for my field. So I can't present anything worthwhile. As a student, is there a way to go to GHC as only an observer (not presenter)? I mean, in case I conclude that simply attending will be useful too, I'd like to give it a shot, but can't find anything like on their website.

Thanks!


texts: What classes to take in undergraduate for graduate school instead of graduating early

texts: I am an undergraduate sophomore but  I will be able to finish and graduate at least a semester and maybe a year early if I take the classes I need to get my BS. Either way I will have space in my schedule (I had a lot of credit coming in from high school) However, I have a scholarship and I would like to stay in school for the full 4 years.  I plan on attending graduate school.  Can I take graduate classes as an undergraduate and have them transfer to graduate school?  What should I so with the extra space in my schedule to be productive or to help me get into graduate school?


texts: What is a good amount of time to wait to check up on a recommender after the initial request?

texts:
So, about a month ago, I sent three requests for letters of recommendation. Since then, two of them have finished their letters and one (I imagine) is quite busy and told me he probably won't be able to get to the letter for another two weeks [about a week prior to the application deadline], and the application is due on January 1 [which is a bit less than a month from now].

Would it be wise to send a reminder e-mail to him, and if so, how long should I wait?

[Please feel free to edit the title; I realize it's not very clear.]


texts: Need a CSL style that uses the month field in Bibtex

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I do a lot of academic writing where I need to cite magazine and newspaper articles.  My workflow is to write in Markdown / Org-mode and then export to docx using pandoc.  So I use the citation facility provided by pandoc-citeproc to generate my bibliography from an old BibTex file that I've been using for many years.
I know that standard BibTex doesn't support newspaper articles directly, so for years I've been using the kludge mentioned here and adding the day to the month field.  This has worked fine for several years.  But over the last several months I've been running into problems - the standard default csl format for pandoc-citeproc drops the month field entirely when producing the bibliography.  The same happens with apa.csl, chicago-author-date.csl, and several other styles I've tried from the CSL Library.
I don't want to manually rewrite the hundreds of entries in my BibTex file.  Is there a CSL file that will include the month information in the bibliography entries?  Is there another way to get that information easily?


texts: To What Degree is Graduate School Acceptance Contingent on You Choosing a Specific Potential Adviser?

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I applied to a graduate school in CS and got in. However, between application submission and acceptance a professor reached out to me and requested a phone conversation. It went well, as far as I could tell, and then a week after that I got an acceptance.

The problem is that I listed more theoretical people on my application and not him at all. While he does interesting work, it's decidedly applied work. There's nothing wrong with that, I'm still interested in the applied person, but I'm not sure if my acceptance offer (which comes with partial funding) is contingent on me working with this person.

How does this generally work? Am I stuck with this person because I didn't reach out to the other people? To what degree can I still 'pick' my advisor? Thanks!


texts: Maintaining a conference advertisement list

texts:
For managing submissions and reviewing for scientific conferences, EasyChair is a great solution, free and well-tuned for the needs of volunteer organizers.

Is there any similar sort of site that supports mailing lists for conference advertisements (e.g., calls for papers, calls for participation)?

I ask because this is a problem that a number of interdisciplinary groups that I participate in have been struggling with, for which a number of the obvious solutions do not seem to be workable:

Institutional mailing lists don't transfer well when you have a shifting group of organizers.
Google Groups is problematic for China, won't let you add people without emailing them immediately, and isn't a stable platform since they keep changing how it works.
Most other commercial mailing list services I've found seems to be either spammy, pricey, and/or otherwise tuned for businesses rather than academic conferences.
Setting up a collectively owned and managed server seems pretty heavy-weight.

This feels to me like a good niche for someone to have filled with an EasyChair-like service, but I do not know if such a thing currently exists.


texts: Wrong PhD project choice for PhD - stick it out, change, leave?

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I have just passed my transfer for a PhD project I don't enjoy, and am trying to decide what to do next.

Some background first:
I graduated originally as an MEng, but have been out of engineering practise for approximately 10 years. I started my PhD at a UK Doctoral Training Centre with a view to re-entering engineering with some more up to date knowledge/discovering academia was where I wanted to be and staying. With 20-20 hindsight, I should have probably done a Masters to find this out, but anyway.
I had a fairly free project choice, and chose something I thought would be interesting, but in a new area for me. I have had doubts for about six months, but told myself that I was just stressed about transfer, and shouldn't make any decisions until I had got through that and could think clearly. In doing so I may well have dug myself in deeper. I have two years of funding left, and could leave with a Masters at any time.

Anyway, as far as I see it I have three options:

Re-shape my project to see if I can finish it. My reservations about this are that I am not really part of a research group and one of the difficulties I have faced is not having anyone to guide me when I get stuck. I'm pretty much learning everything for the first time, alone. While I could reshape the project, I worry that I will just find myself back here again in a few more months. I have convinced myself a number of times already that "it will be alright" but it still isn't.

Approach other academics at the Uni to start again with something completely new (I am funded, not the project). Has anyone else completely changed their project a year in and completed on time? Has anyone changed after transfer/upgrade - is this even possible?

Go to the engineering industry and try and convince them that the masters I have as a result of the first part of my studies is useful, and that the career path I have had to date (which has been varied) will settle with a return to engineering. How I convince them that I have the sticking power and the skills after 10 years off and a half-finished research degree is another matter...

I have started to talk to my tutor at University about option one and two, but would appreciate some advice from those not invested in the outcome. Thanks


texts: Can I use the same PhD application for consecutive years without paying extra fees?

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I am applying this year for a PhD program in US schools.

My chances to get accepted will be higher next year, but I don't want to miss the chance of getting accepted this year. should I wait for the next year, or should I apply this year and ask the university to reconsider my application for next year? The problem is with the application fees, it would be very hard to apply for 2 years, the application will cost me around $200 (including the scores of GRE, GRE Physics and TOEFL), and I am intending to apply for 10 universities.


texts: Should the length of a research statement and a teaching statement be the same?

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I am applying to a faculty position that emphasizes both research and undergraduate teaching. The application asks for a research statement and a teaching statement.I realize that both documents are usually recommended to be 1-2 pages long and that you should always err on the side of brevity.
My question is: would it be an issue if the lengths of the 2 documents are significantly different? For example, if my teaching statement is 2 pages but my research statement is only 1 page. Will a hiring committee automatically view this as the candidate being unbalanced? In other words, does disparity in length between the 2 documents outweigh the content of the documents?
Lastly, would it make a difference depending on the emphasis of the program? For example, should the research statement always be longer (or as long as) a teaching statement if the school places greater emphasis on research (and vice versa)?


texts: I submitted the correct essay in an exam, but I did not remove my draft outline at the beginning of the essay. Is it going be a problem?

texts:
I was taking a language exam that asked us to finish writing an essay. Because of COVID, the exam went online and used Canvas as the platform. Neither scratch paper nor any other software was allowed so we had to use the textbox to draft the outline. The textbox was tiny. Therefore, I had to scroll the sidebar and I could not see what I wrote at the beginning while proofreading.
I finished the essay and submitted it. However, after submission, I realized I did not remove the draft outline at the beginning of my essay and submitted it as well.
The exam was super important for me and I am now literally freaked out. Is it going to be a huge problem? What should I do?


texts: Does anyone know a good resource for statement of purpose critiques?

texts: I have been out of academia for about eight years and am looking to go back to graduate school. I would like to get some feedback on my statement of purpose, outside of the circle of friends and family I have available. Does anyone know a good resource I might be able to turn to. Thanks in advance!


texts: Asking for help regarding Statement of Purpose

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I am a Masters' student applying from India to US graduate schools for a Ph.D. in Mathematics(some of them are top departments like Stanford, MIT, UCLA, Berkeley, Illinois Urbana-Champaign). I wish to work at the interface of Analysis and Differential Geometry. Hence, I wanted to explore Geometric Analysis and took extensive differential geometry courses, a winter course on Geometric Measure Theory and did self-study on Geometric Analysis. However, as we did not have anyone in our department working in these areas, I did my Masters' thesis (ongoing) on noncommutative geometry. For this, I studied operator algebras, followed by compact quantum groups and am currently working with quantum isometries of noncommutative manifolds.

I am a little confused about what I should include or exclude from my Statement of Purpose(SOP). I have written that I am interested in both Analysis and Geometry and have mentioned: (1) Geometric Analysis, and (2) Operator Algebras and Noncommutative Geometry, as the fields that interest me. Then I explain my background in both. Is this a valid approach? Or will it give the impression that I don't have a well formed research interest and work against my selection at the graduate school?

While I was towards the end of my school life, I had a publication modelling a small physical problem. I am currently developing it into pedagogic material with a retired professor in the USA. Also, during my undergraduate studies I had two more publications in applied mathematics (control theory). I am including the first one in my SOP to illustrate my motivation in research from younger days. But should I include the other publications? I am afraid that I might run the risk of giving the committee the false impression that I am too inclined in applied mathematics.


texts: What is a good answer for an interview question "Why do you want to teach at this teaching university?" (when there are several others nearby)

texts:
Assume there are 3-5 teaching universities near each other. What would be a good answer for an interview question : why you want to teach at this teaching university?

To me I see no difference and it does not matter which teaching university to work at.


texts: When to reject a manuscript for publication?

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As a reviewer, when would it be appropriate to reject a paper (rather than recommend "major revision") for publication? I am interested in views from seasoned reviewers/editors who served for journals with moderately high importance factor (IF > 4.0) - primarily in engineering/science fields.
Thank you,


texts: How can I appropriately bring up topics of agenda to my professor in a meeting?

texts:
I have been working as an undergraduate research assistant in my professor's lab for about a year now. I've enjoyed working under his supervision, and though I wish I am acquainted with him more, I haven't been able to have much engaging discussions with him due to his tight schedule and partially due to my inability to start conversations with him.

I will be meeting with him in a few days in preparation for my presentation for the summer research project at school. He's been away for a couple of weeks due to personal reasons, and I wish to take this opportunity to bring some agendas to the table.

I want to take about a week off before the semester starts to see my family and to visit my country's consulate for official reasons. He seemed a bit hesitant, though he agreed, when I previously asked for a leave, most likely due to a very late notice.
My professor met with me before his leave and informed me that my funding will be paid out in time for the beginning of another research project around mid-August. However, my money is dwindling dangerously, so I wish to ask him specifically when I can get paid.
I have been working on the research project that my professor and several other professors and PhD students have contributed to over the past several years. My primary adviser, a PhD student, encouraged me to take my role as the lead author on a conference paper. He told me that it would be up to the professor to decide what conference (level of recognition) I will shoot for. Before his leave, he briefly mentioned that I should be the coauthor for a tier 1 conference and support my adviser who will be the lead author,but the decision has not been finalized yet. While I do not want to sound too greedy, I want to express my desire to work diligently as the lead author and aim for the tier 1 conference. I also feel the need to talk about this as soon as possible because the deadline for the submission of papers for the tier 1 conference is less than two months away.

I am not well informed of the culture of the academia, so I am not sure how to bring up these topics to my professor or if the topics themselves are too arrogant for me to mention. How should I approach him about these topics? Also, how can I let him be well aware of my wish to continue to graduate studies when he seems to be occupied most of the time and doesn't have much time for conversations. Thank you.


texts: Should I ask for a recommendation letter even if I have not applied for any programs yet

texts:
I emailed some tutors from several years ago to ask for a meeting (as described in this question). I am happy to tell you that I have received another reply from my former school teacher. She had a trip to Japan for weeks and had not read any emails. She agreed to meet me at my former school.

I want to further my study and I want to seek more information from her.

I know that she is very busy, so should I make use of this opportunity to ask her to write to any recommendation letter for me even if I have not applied for any programms at a university?


texts: Undergraduate research field different from PhD field

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I am a Physics undergrad who is interested in pursuing a PhD in pure maths in the future (algebraic geometry/topology) but I am a bit unsure. My question is quite general, and I don't wish to provide more background for fear of bias in the answers.

My question: Is it is advisable/possible/unfavorable/favorable to apply for a PhD in a field, different from that in which you have done most of your undergraduate research?

My research (includes just reading and understanding papers, writing summaries until now, I havent published anything) mostly includes Quantum field theory, and gauge theory. Would the selection committee turn down an application to a pure maths field, if I have no research experience whatsoever?

I would also like to ask the question other way round. What if I concentrate my undergraduate research SOLELY on topics in pure maths such as algebraic geometry/topology and take other physics courses, would I be able to apply to a string theory PhD with a high chance of success?

Should I consider spending time on both of these (which is almost an impossible task), to improve my chances in both the areas or would research in one area, and grad level courses in the other suffice?

In brief: Should the PhD field you are applying to be the same as your undergraduate research area?


texts: Should I say "few literature" or "little literature"?

texts:
I am currently writing an introduction section, which says "this is an important question but currently there is few (or little?) literature available".

Which one should I use, few or little?

Thank you!


texts: How can I select really nice project ideas for undergrad research projects?

texts: I wanna do a challenging project at the end of each course I take in college and am interested in bigger projects with wider scope as well. But I'm unable to come up with good ideas. Where can I find research papers or sites to help me, given my limited knowledge as an undergraduate? I study Electronics & Communication Engg. while I also take courses from CompSci.


texts: Interview not reimbursed if offer is made but not accepted (UK)

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I'm applying for Lecturer positions in the UK (entry-level faculty, other academic systems might call the position "Assistant Professor").

I just got short-listed for one of the positions I have applied to, and am currently arranging the interview details (time, date, and expenses reimbursement). Going through their forms, I have noticed the following statement:

  Candidates who are offered a contract of employment by University of XY but reject the offer lose their entitlement to claim reimbursement of interview expenses.

There is a similar question already. However, the candidate noticed such a clause only after buying the tickets, while I am trying to react to it beforehand.

This strikes me a bit odd. My questions are:

Is this a typical procedure for interviews for such positions? Is it a red flag? (Or at least, a yellow one?)
Is there a polite way to respond to this, indicating that I do not agree to this policy, but without sounding like I just want them to pay for a tourist visit?
These positions have a fixed salary range in the UK, however the call is made across two ranges (simultaneous call for Lecturers and Senior Lecturers), and after all it is still a range. What prevents the University from extending an insultingly low offer to a candidate they do not want to hire, hoping that the candidate would reject it and therefore forfeit their right to expenses reimbursement?
I was planning to evaluate this University further as a potential good match for me at the interview (see context below). Since I expect the expenses to be relatively small, should I just risk paying them on my own and go check the University out, even if I decide it is not a good fit?

Some context: This particular University was at the low end of the openings I am applying to. The research profiles of the staff did not look overly attractive, but the facilities were well equipped and I could find a couple of interesting people.

I had almost decided not to apply, when a colleague told me about a Research Centre associated to their University. I haven't originally noticed the Centre as it was not affiliated to the Department I am interested in, but a very different one. However, this Centre is very interesting for my current application domain, and could provide me with invaluable data to continue research in that direction (and bring that domain over to that University).

This Research Centre was the number one reason I decided to apply in the end. I've mentioned my definite interest in it in the application, figuring they would not call me if they were not interested in a collaboration with that Centre.

However, even after deciding to apply, the truth is, this particular University is at the low end of my list. I am serious in considering it as a potential place of employment, due to the presence of the Research Centre. However, with all the negative points still in place, I was going to form my final opinion about that University at the interview, which I think is a reasonable approach - both the candidate and the interviewers should look for a good fit.

When I was in a similar situation before, I rejected to go to the interview and have requested to not be considered further, specifically as I did not think the position was a good enough fit to risk the expenses. This was, however, for an industry interview, the travel expenses would have been much steeper, and they were not covering interview costs under any circumstance.


texts: Could your supervisor decide what you post on social media?

texts:
I am a first year PhD student in Europe, I started in November. My supervisor has recently take a liking into posting on social media and communication-related issues (style, words, hours etc), even for subjects that are not strictly related to our laboratory academic activities. Since he was also my supervisor for my master thesis, I know for a fact that he discovered Altmetrics only a year ago or so.
Problem: today he basically demanded that whenever he posts on social media something that's related to the lab activities, it is mandatory that all members have to like and share on their personal account the post or whatever that will be.
There are other issues with him, but in this case I think that this is a violation of personal space: I should decide what to post or like with my personal social media account, not my supervisor or future employers.
Question: could he even think of making this kind of demands?
Edit: I know that for someone could sound like a rhetorical question (to me, it sure does), but I wanted to hear others' opinion on the subject.
Update: I managed to apply and then win a PhD position abroad in a better university, with a more stimulating working environment and a more professional group.
It was fair on my end to tell my supervisor that I was about to sign a contract and quit the current PhD program: it was fun that in this situation, while I was explaining that I was planning on leaving, my behavior was labeled by him as "unethical". Furthermore, if we were to collaborate in the future for any kind of reason/project, I would be stigmatized, as in labeled as "unreliable" for the decision of quitting/leaving (a low-key professional threat basically).


texts: Do you include papers that you contributed to but weren't cited as an author in on your CV?

texts: I'm an undergraduate and about to apply to graduate school. I did summer research that contributed to a paper and was asked to extend my time there to write the publication but could not stay due to academic reasons. Because I contributed to it, is it appropriate to include it on my CV?