texts: Is it a good idea for an applicant to a graduate program to call a potential supervisor, if he does not answer emails?

texts:
I am going to apply for a graduate program, whose outcome totally depends on the potential supervisor's propensity to recruit any applicant for his/her research group.

One of the professors' research interests have a myriad of overlap with mine. But he does not answer my emails. He is not in sabbatical, but very busy, such that I am suspicious whether my email has been read or not.

The last chance to know his opinion would be calling him by phone. But I am afraid that this way would not be so gratifying in his perspective.

As a rule of thumb, is calling a professor by an applicant a good idea?


texts: Do I have recourse if one professor's section has a higher average grade and "easier time" than my course's section?

texts:
From my observations comparing syllabi, grades, and coursework with a few of my peers, their professor's section of the same class has a significantly lighter work-load, more lenient grading policy, and a higher overall class-average (we're talking a letter-grade higher).

Do I have a case for a legitimate grievance?


texts: Will a MS with ~3.7GPA with good research experience and strong recommendations offset my horrible U-GPA to get into PhD?

texts:
My u-GPA is about 2.8 and GRE is 330, from now on is a hypothetical scenario as I haven't done my masters yet so if you could treat it as an actual case and give me subjective answers that would be great. For the masters I have found this growing researcher who is doing amazing work and is eager for me to join his lab from the start of the program. Assuming that by the end of the MS, I get ~3.7GPA, a couple co-authored pub and 1 first authored pub in reputed journals along with going to conferences to present my work, altogether getting strong recommendations from the advisor and his colleagues. Will this in any way offset my u-GPA. Also apart from research in masters I have had about 2 years of research experience during undergrad (in and out of school) and have published a paper in a peer-reviewed journal.

I am looking to get into the biomedical engineering PhD programs at university of chicago, northwestern university, university of pittsburgh, john hopkins university, york university, and university of pennsylvania. Do you think that I am aiming too high? If so, what else should I look to do to improve my chances? Also if I start MS this Fall should I apply for PhD at Fall 2022 or Fall 2023?

Additional Info:

I did a decent undergrad thesis (not great, 8 months), soon after I did a 2 month internship a another research lab. During my undergrad I worked w/ a prof for 1.2 years (Got two papers out - one in a conf and another in a journal). Currently I am working in a top research lab, now remotely due to covid-19 outbreak.
Some people have mentioned other questions thinking that those had the same information that I wanted. But, they did not as the questions talked about how to get into "a/some" PhD Program after a low U-GPA and maybe decent masters. The schools that I have mentioned above are ranked pretty high and  would appreciate if you could tailor your answers to my specific question of getting into these schools.
I picked these school not to show of the "rank" or "prestige" which seems stupid honestly. I chose the because of the strength in the field (F1) that I'm looking to do research in. In one of my previous questions I had mentioned that I got a PhD offer from university of houston which does the research in F1 but it isn't very strong in other area such as: number of grants that they pull in to do amazing research on large patient populations, intellectual cohorts, and industrial connections and startup resources. I picked these schools as I believe them to be the best in F1 and NOT for the main purpose of prestige. So if you don't have anything to suggest I IMPLORE you to not ask me to look at other schools as I did not ask for alternatives but solutions or ideas


texts: overlapped results in tables for research journal

texts:
In research papers (for examples, computer science journals), may I have overlaps between multiple tables containing experiment results?
My situation is like this. I have two tables Table A and Table B in the experiment section. Table A contains performance results from model-a,b,c. Table B contains performance results from model-c,d,e.
Thus, the two tables has an overlap as both contain the same reulst of model-c.
Each table highlihgts a distinct point. That is, each table is made to verify a different claim.
If I simply combine them into one table that shows all results of model-a,b,c,d,e, it will seriously degrade readability and make the points unclear.
So I am wondering if it is okay to contain overlap in diferent result tables.


texts: Is it ethical to remove your co-authorship shortly before submission?

texts:
I am in a situation when I am a co-author of a manuscript. I returned back to this manuscript after several months and I don't think it should be published as it is. I am not the main author and my co-workers want to publish it as soon as possible. I do not want to block them in publishing it, but there are some parts which I do not agree with. The paper can have impact on public policy and I have a bit different views. My colleagues already postponed the submission because of my comments. A colleague of mine suggested that I should care more for my own papers rather than the papers of others.

Is it ethical to submit the paper as a co-author and wait for the reviews and trying to improve the paper later or is it more fair to remove my co-authorship before the submission?


texts: Tips for being a good jury member for Master's defense

texts:
I am a 2nd year PhD student. My supervisor ask me to be a jury member in a Master's thesis defense presentation. This is a first for me, so I have some questions.

Any tips and guidelines I can follow?
What are the things I need to consider while reading the report?
What are the criteria I can use to evaluate their presentation?
I know I am the most junior person there, is it a good thing if I starte analyzing everything in detail?

I know sometimes it is frustrating when the student's work gets "judged" by how it is presented and not by the core of their contribution. I've experienced this feeling a lot every time I present, I don't want to make the same mistake. For example, I've seen presentations where each jury member talks only about the grammatical mistakes and doesn't ask a single question about the whole contribution.


texts: Can student be the corresponding author?

texts: I am working in a research project (not PhD and after Master's degree). I have completed a work which my adviser thinks is publishable. But he has such a heavy schedule that he hardly has time to respond. Can I take the whole charge of writing the manuscript and communicating the paper with his permission. (I have not yet asked him.)


texts:
Some say that a person should change the work field every 5 to 7 years in order to stay productive and avoid stagnation. How does this apply to academia, for example, changing a research focus?

For example, some universities advise to take a sabbatical every 5 years or so.

Edited as suggested: What are the indicators to show that it is time or an opportunity to change the research area? Perhaps, there is a good answer based on your experience?


texts:
Is it legal to paraphrase questions taken form test prep books/service to a new audience in another country for a different exam? Do fair use apply?

About my business

It is not the same exam

Not the same country

No copy/Paste only paraphrasing.

It is for profit.

What is legal here and what isn't legal ? If it is not how to make it so

I've been noticing that Grockit doing the same thing without any issue.
For example the GMAT questions that I have seen on Grockit's platform are a close copy of the actual official GMAT questions, not all of them but a good number. I have attached an image of a question from Grockit and the original GMAT question which is from the Official Guide to GMAT 2015(Question#228).

Grockit is test prep company.


texts:
Background: CS Undergraduate applying for Fall 2022 session. (MS/PhD CS USA)
Knowing (and for obvious reasons) that it is "easier (higher chances)" to get into a masters program than a PhD Program:
Question: Should I apply for a PhD program at a lower ranked school than apply to a higher ranked masters program?
Please Note:
I love research and will go for a PhD even after the masters. My main motive is research. I ask because I can apply only to only a handful of programs and want to know which path is better.


texts: Are teaching assistants responsible for grading assignments not in their course?

texts:
I am currently a teaching assistant for a lab course. I've been told to grade part of 1 of the 3 exams for the associated theory course. (There are multiple lab TAs and each is assigned one of the three exams.) The problem with this is that the theory course has its own TA, and best I can tell my responsibilities only cover the lab course.

In the past I was a TA for the theory course as well, and I had to grade almost everything (weekly homework, weekly quizzes, and 6 exams) for about 200 students in two separate lectures with two different professors. One professor offered to grade 2 of the 3 exams in his class to lighten my load, but I didn't request this. I am told my experience TAing the theory course was very typical (no help from the lab TAs). It was a lot of work, but it was manageable, and to be honest I'd rather be a TA for the theory course than the lab.

From what I hear, the theory course this time around has more than just a TA. The homeworks (easily over 1/2 the grading effort!) are graded by undergraduate graders to reduce the workload for the TA. Given the reduced amount of work for the theory TA and that I don't see these exams as part of my responsibilities, I am considering refusing this request as simply ridiculous.

After speaking with my advisor, he agreed that this is highly sketchy. He talked with some of the people involved and indicated this would not happen in the future, but for now I need to do what I was told. I get the impression that some department politics are involved and he doesn't want to step on more people's toes than necessary. But those people are stepping on my toes, and I honestly don't have the time to grade these exams.

I am meeting with the professor for the theory class soon to get the exams to grade. How should I bring up that I don't think grading these exams are my responsibility, and that I don't want to grade them? Any other ideas about how to handle this situation would be appreciated.

(I asked my advisor if he could figure out if there are any extenuating circumstances involved with this, e.g., the theory TA being ill. I could be accommodating in that case. While I did not get a direct answer to that, what my advisor told me when we last spoke about this indicates the answer is no. I do not know anything about the theory TA otherwise.)


texts: Handling a case of reviewer reporting a result he read in a paper he had rejected

texts:
Long ago, as a new researcher to an established field, I submitted a paper to the leading journal, with the first time experimental observation of a weak but theoretically predicted quantum transition. The paper was rejected by the reviewer, a professor and leading specialist in the field, claiming my observation was impossible.  I did not resubmit the paper elsewhere.  I have discovered that this same reviewer and his group published a later paper claiming to have observed the same transition first, which I had submitted.

What are my options for handling this situation?


texts: Is it good syntax to thank the reviewer for every comment in peer review?

texts:
I received a template from a senior student where every response to the reviewer's question begins with thanking the reviewer. For instance,

  Question 1: Please resize Figure 4.

    The authors thank reviewer #4 for the suggestion. We....

  Question 2: Why was this test performed?

    The authors thank reviewer #4 for the insightful question. We....

It seems a bit odd to thank the reviewer for each and every question. Then again, this seems to be a popular format for the journal.
I have already prepared a response file in this pattern, but just before uploading it I had second thoughts. Should I go in and remove the thanks from every question, or is this a common / expected pattern?

EDIT: This is meant to go to an IEEE journal for Remote Sensing.


texts: Should I go back for 2nd PhD in applied field this time?

texts:
I finished my PhD in 2017 in a psychology field that is mostly academic (non-clinical), so it is basically impossible to find jobs outside of academia that don't require a huge move.

I have a current visiting position that will expire potentially next year (though previous VAPs at the school have been extended). My research productivity has declined while teaching- and I really enjoy teaching and have gotten good reviews, but there do not seem to be many positions that hire only on that basis. Additionally, I've grown a bit tired of the prescribed way research is incentivized and framed in my field.

To add to that, my girlfriend is attached to the current area with permanent work and family/friends are all connected to where we currently live. Jobs in this area pertaining to my work seem nearly impossible, but the location is ideal.

However, there are a lot of applied types of jobs in the area in psychology. Should I consider going back for a PhD in for example, counseling psychology so as to increase my work potential? To me it sounds crazy but the very real possibility of having no work or having to take crummy adjunct positions for the rest of my life is enough to make me consider it. I've considered applied masters degrees as well which would be enough to get a job, but not great ones for the cost (although maybe best for my circumstance?). I also should mention that I really find the applied aspect of this work appealing, and would love to be more involved with people through it so it's not as though my heart wouldn't be in it.

The job market is truly terrible as far as I can tell, and I feel that I'd have a much better chance if I got out of my current field which feels completely pigeonholed. However, spending another 5 years (assuming I get in) in school being broke again plus whatever supervised work comes after makes me tired just thinking of it.

The bottom line is, I want job security. Outside of tenure lines, which feel like a far flung possibility at this point, I don't know how to feel secure with my current degree. I know the real kicker is probably my location restriction, but I just don't think it would be worth it to give up my relationships at this point in my life when things finally seem to work out. If anyone knows of/has had any similar experience, I would greatly appreciate any advice.


texts:
I am an undergraduate student in math.

I have attended a few conferences/workshops and was wondering what is the best way to distinguish between the following on my CV:

conferences/workshops with only invited participation
conferences/workshops where I applied for and received funding
conferences/workshops where I only needed to register

or if such a distinction is even meaningful.


texts: How can I get into computer science research as a high school student?

texts:
I am in High-School but want to pursue research in Computer Science, but as you know High-School usually does not offer any such options or tasks.

So I want to explore avenues where I can get these options and tasks as I am very very interested and really want to do it.

I would also like to say that I have good-strong knowledge of C++, C and assorted APIs from that (3 years programming for 5+ hours daily). So I wouldn't call my self too new to programming and think I can handle programming and so on.

Now, these are my questions:

How can I get involved in research?
How can I contact academics to ask them for research position or even an intern position in research for that matter without coming across as a "waste of time"?


texts: Career change at 37: Should I start an Electronic Engineering MSc?

texts:
I have a BS in Electrical Engineering (2010) and a MSc in Computer Science. I completed the MSc with distinction at a British university in 2011 and have worked here in various IT roles since.
Now, at the age of 36, I would like to change careers and would like to work as an electronic engineer. I'm confident I can excel in the new career. Would a good 1 year MSc in Electronic Engineering here at a good UK university help me find a job? If I start the master's it would have to be in Autumn 2021 and by then, I will already be 37.


texts: I put off taking some important classes until my senior year, should I still apply to grad school during my fall semester?

texts:
I'm a junior economics major who wants to get a masters and then possibly a PhD. I know that math background is a very important component of economics grad school admissions and so I'm also minoring in math. The problem is is that I haven't taken either real analysis or an upper-level linear algebra course yet (I did take an undergrad linear algebra course over the summer and got an A in it). While I have the GPA needed to get into most masters programs and I expect to do well on the GRE, I'm afraid that my transcript as of my junior year isn't very reflective of my math abilities. During my sophomore year I was in a really bad place dealing with both anxiety and depression (I know everyone uses this excuse, but I have the doctor diagnosis to prove it) and I got a C in my calc 2 class and a B in vector calculus even though I could have gotten an A.

Since my math background is so important for econ grad school, should I even bother applying before completing these upper-level courses that will better showcase my ability to do the math that economics grad school requires?


texts: Time organization for an engineer who works full-time and pursuing PhD

texts:
I am an engineer working in Germany. I got my M.Sc. two years ago, and how I am going to pursue Dr.-Ing. along my job. I know that it will be tough, but I am motivated, and have time to invest.

My biggest problem is time. I need help how to organize myself the best, since I am not only working on my PhD, I have regular job as well. I am mostly interested in ground work (literature research and how to organize it, as well as tracking the progress). I would much appreciate experiences from people who are in same position (PhD and job).


texts: How should I prepare my write-up for an internship program?

texts:
I am going to apply for an internship programme. It is written that the selection is based on write-up. To apply for the program I need to include an write-up with 1200 words. Also, some outlines of the project is given in the website.
But I am little bit confused. Which things I should include in the write-up? Should I include only "Why I am interested for the program?" or the part which includes what I have read earlier about the topic that I  want to pursue in the internship?
I have no idea.  Please advise me.
Thanking in advance.


texts: Stating PhD scholarships that I turned down on my CV

texts:
This is probably only relevant to the UK, because in the USA, PhD funding usually come from the department/university through fellowships/TA/RA.

I applied for PhD at a UK university and got admission. The university also runs an extremely competitive named scholarship competition (for example, this one - not the one I got, just an example) that offer holders can compete in. I was fortunate enough to have won the scholarship. However, I am going to turn it down for a funded PhD at another school.

Is it alright to state that I won this scholarship on my academic CV but turned it down? If this was a typical USA PhD funding offer (fellowship/TA/RA), I would not consider stating it on my CV.

Edit: This is a similar but slight different question from the "duplicate" because I am not asking about the "typical" PhD fellowship/TA/RA that is awarded to candidates admitted to PhDs in the USA. I am talking about competitive/prestigious scholarships like Rhodes and Gates-Cambridge scholarships that one has to apply for outside of the regular admissions process.


texts: Journals that only publish online. How reliable are they?

texts:
There are lots of journals that only publish online. However they are indexed by scopus and ISI so they are unlikely to be predatory journals. Are they safe? What are the chances that some hacker erases the journal’s database and all the records of publications are lost?

Surely it’s better to have printed copies of volumes and stuff. At least that way there is always proof that one’s article has been published.


texts: Would a high stack exchange rep make a difference in a job interview?

texts:
So, quick background information. I am a PhD student in mathematics going into graph theory. I hope to either do a post-doc or (hopefully!) get a tenure-track position at a research-oriented university after graduation. I don't have a super high mathSE reputation, but it has been steadily increasing from answering questions.(I have only asked a few, but I answer a lot.)

While I don't think it would be a good idea to put my mathSE reputation on a CV(or am I wrong?) I could potentially see myself mentioning SE at an interview. While I know answering questions on MathSE isn't anything like publishing original research, I think it shows a dedication to mathematics and teaching.

What I want to know(hopefully from people who do interviews, but all answers are welcome) is if something like that would ever make a difference?(especially if it would be frowned upon similar to having trivial papers on your CV.)

Note: answering questions on MathSE is something I do in my leisure time or times when I cannot work on my course work/research such as while I am on my daily bus ride to campus, so I don't need to see answers that say "spending the time studying/researching would be a better use of your time"

Edit: my main concern is in an interview setting. Only if you have reason to believe that it would be good to put on a CV am I interested in that as I already had a feeling that it would not be well suited for a CV.


texts: Getting a job and quitting PhD at university in UK

texts:
I am going to be straightforward in here. I am currently doing PhD at university in UK within the field of power electronics. However my previous background was related to general Energy Engineering (i had some modules in electrical engineering, however majority was related to thermodynamics, heat transfer, some chemistry, fuels, combustion), thus I had a lot problems in adjusting to the topic (systems modelling, Matlab Simulink, signal processing) and I am still not feeling confident in this field. But straight after graduation I did not have many options and one of my module leaders told me about available PhD position at the same university, where I did my master. I started by the end of November 2017. I participated in a few, very professional progress meetings and all the time I felt lack of confidence in power electronics' field. Thus it was full (extremely) of stress. Since then relations with my supervisor become very cold, however I got some friendships with my office colleagues (but I have a lot of problems talking about my research project being aware that I can easily make a mistake and say sth stupid). Suddenly (like 3 months) ago I noticed Graduate Scheme job offer in the building close to department and I made an application. It's not a typical job as the 'company' is on the campus and project is research-based but with normal salary. I was rejected after assessment day, but suddenly (yesterday) i got an offer. They asked me whether I am still interested, I said yes - waiting for formal contract etc.

I am aware that many people regret decision about withdrawing from their PhDs as it become difficult to come back. But this job is not a typical office one, it's in the lab with manufacturing, processing etc. and even description said that can lead to PhD. What would you do? I am ware that some tough decision will be in front of me - asking university to withdraw me from PhD program, but I know that I will not get better offer than this, maybe ever. Other question - how long time before I have to inform university about withdrawal?


texts: What will I spend to license historic images?

texts:
I want to license illustrations (drawings, paintings, maps) for a black and white scholarly book. The fair use approach looks impractical, so the rights holders will dictate the terms, as yet unknown to me. In another question I learned that I will only contact them once I have a publisher lined up. Presumably there will be no licensing budget in my book deal. I need to know what images I can afford to use.

Roughly how much do authors pay to republish archive materials? Do quoted licensing costs tend to vary depending on which publisher is involved?

Here are some of the institutions that hold and license images potentially useful to my project: Bancroft Library, California State Library, Getty Images, Huntington Library, Santa Barbara Mission Archive.


texts: Whether to use the author name with numeric references when describing a particular study

texts:
I am a little bit confused regarding the best way to attribute a research paper in my thesis.
Example:

" The work in [1] proposed a new method for ..."
" John et al.[1] proposed a new method for ..."

Also, when I have the following context:

" our method results outperforms the results in [1] ... "
" our method results outperforms the results provided by John et al.
[1]"

Sometimes, due to space limitation, I can not mention the names of the authors every time which pushes me to use the paper only (like examples 1 and 3). Also, I think it is unnecessary redundancy to mention the authors every time.

My question is, is that OK? should I mention the authors of the work every time?
Are examples 1 and 3 accepted or weak?


texts: Alternative title for research assistant

texts:
I’m taking a (non-student) job as a full time research assistant in a university engineering department, and am wondering what alternate title I could use for this on my resume that isn’t misleading.

Research assistant has a connotation of being a lower level student job, and I have a MS degree and ten years of work experience, so I’m hesitant to put that title on my resume.  If this was in industry I could use research engineer, but in academia, that has a connotation of someone who is a principle investigator and has a PhD.

My job description is a hybrid between these: I’ll be doing research and publishing, but in support of someone else’s project.  Also some departmental work setting up labs, learning and maintaining the equipment and helping teach students to use it.  Most of my time will be spent on research activities.  Suggestions for an alternate job title?


texts:
I've had to support several ESL graduate students in the past. In general, they were smart and capable but really struggled with the reading and writing aspects of graduate work. They did complete the prerequisite ESL courses and passed one of the standard English test to enter university studies (IELTS, TOEFL, TOEIC, etc) but there seems to be a disconnect between their preparation and their performance

I would like to know what other educators have done to support graduate students with limited English proficiency?


texts: What is the difference between research intensive vs. research extensive universities?

texts: I keep hearing these terms being thrown around at conferences, but I'm not really sure what they really mean, if there is any difference between them.


texts: Paper from my already published PhD thesis -- How do I cite it?

texts:
Two years ago I finished my thesis, at the time I wasn't interested in writing papers but I have since changed my mind.
The thesis has been made available online by the department. It has been cited by someone else since that time.

I would like to take a chapter of my thesis and publish it as a journal paper. And based on this question here, it seems that could work:

Can I publish parts of the Ph.D thesis as a paper in a journal?

However, I have a follow-on question. Should I be citing my own thesis if I write a paper from one of the chapters?
Notes:

I would not be adding any extra analysis
I will be using the same figures

Extra for experts: Should I be paraphrasing all or most of the text? At the moment I have paraphrased most but perhaps one or two sentences remain unchanged because I considered them to be in the most clear and succinct form I could manage for an explanation.


texts: Paid leave for a graduate teaching assistant

texts: For quite some times this question has popped up to my mind. In many jobs, you can take paid leave for some days. As a PhD student (F1-visa) in US, I am being supported by the department in the form teaching assistantship (TA) . Is there a provision for taking paid leave for TAs?


texts:
Finished bachelor's and master's in mathematical finance. Applying for PhD in math, which may or may not be in a university that requires General GRE or Math GRE

Based on my other questions (like this) and what I read online, the General GRE and the Math GRE are taken only as required for application or taken with the intention of possibly applying somewhere where it is needed. Like a high grade helps little in admission but a low grade helps a lot in non-admission.

So showing a high grade in Math GRE to a school that doesn't require it in general would be all the more not very helpful in applications?

Let's say I apply to a set of universities in different countries where none of them require any GRE.

It seems to me that the only reason for someone to take for example the Math GRE other than being required is to strengthen your application based on your bachelor's or master's not being math.


texts: Undergrad GPA: Will a C affect grad program application?

texts: I am currently in a public university (top 50 nationally, top 10 among public schools) for undergrad (3rd year), double majoring in operations research and economics. The past quarter I took 5 major courses because two of them were easy, and I ended up with 3 A's, an A- and a C. The C is a core math upper level course (real analysis serial B, about Riemann integral and Jordan regions) and the reason that I got the C is because of the professor's harsh policy that nearly 80% of students received C or worse grades. I planned to apply for master programs next year, and I am not pretty sure is that C a big problem to me? I am interested in master programs like applied economics, business analytics or finance.  My GPA overall now is 3.43 with operations research overall 3.2 and Econ 3.6. This is the first C on my transcript. Thanks!


texts:
What are “ad hoc” reviewers/referees for journals? Is this a different role from (regular) reviewers/referees? If yes, how are they different?

I see some people use the term ad hoc somewhere in the referee-service section of their CV, and some people don’t. Is there any difference? What is the proper practice?


texts:
I am currently in my first year of PhD at a good university, and despite everything being "in order" (my supervisor is happy with my progress, I am doing well with the teaching, a have a good life alongside my studies...) I feel that, below the surface, stuff isn't really so "in order".

For the past 3 years I have been followed by a psychiatrist and a psychologist and diagnosed with OCD, Anxiety, ADHD and Autism. These conditions led to me taking an interruption during my Master's (which I then completed with top marks) and to having "special arrangements" in my previous job before starting a PhD.

For the past months, in fact since I started my PhD, my conditions have been an ongoing issue affecting my quality of life on a daily basis. (I have difficulties developing a relation with my housemates, I barely manage to be in the office because of social anxiety, etc.) Anxiety has not improved and, in the past weeks, I feel it has been worsening and can feel I am flirting with a burn-out.

On a couple of occasions, the student advice service has advised I took an interruption. Speaking to my "advisor" (each student is assigned a staff member as advisor alongside their main supervisor), they seemed to hint at the fact it wouldn't be as big a deal as I might be making it to take an interruption.

Part of me really wants an interruption. I feel I need some time off to "catch my breath", the past years have been extremely demanding and I feel I'm not able at present to work at my best. However, part of me also feels guilty about it. I know that there are a lot of students who would like my same opportunity (academic offer, funding, etc..)

In short, I guess I'd just like some advice. Should I apply for a 3-6 month interruption?


texts: Co-author responds to email by mistake cc'ing the EiC

texts:
I (first author) received a decision on a manuscript recently (minor revision). All my co-authors were cc'ed in the decision email and some of them replied to the decision email saying "congratulations" to me while cc'ing the other co-authors.

One of them accidentally cc'ed the Editor-in-Chief (EiC) of the journal!!! Actually, his reply was to the EiC of the journal with me in the cc. I think this horrible as formally the paper is still pending minor revision before publication.

How should I react? Should I just ignore this or send an email to the EiC apologizing for the misdirected email of this co-author? I do not want to overreact but this got me anxious as I have been eager for this paper to get accepted.


texts: Can I submit a paper under an alias so as to avoid trouble in my country?

texts: I have done research on a topic that is very sensitive in my original country. I want to submit a paper to a (well-rated) Computer Science conferences, but I do not want to use my real name or university at all (neither for submitting nor publishing). Have you ever heard of such thing? How doable is it?


texts:
I realize why plagiarism is morally wrong and punishable.  This is not a question about why it is wrong.

This question is about why plagiarism is dealt with so harshly compared to other violations.  This might be because I'm uninformed but as per this question and what I've often read plagiarism can easily mean being expelled or suspended.

Here's a short list of offenses that typically get lighter penalties:

Stealing from another student
Doing illicit drugs
At my university (NYU, where discipline is handled through the housing staff), physically hitting someone would result in a combination of warnings/sanctions/being moved with the harshest outcome being kicked out of housing.  This is definitely an odd system, but I wouldn't be surprised if other universities had a similar imbalance between the punishments for violence vs. plagiarism.

I'm sure you could add a lot more to this list.

Plagiarism is essentially fraud + stealing, but I've always found it strange that the gut reaction many people have towards it seems to be worse than for getting punched in the face.  We definitely don't expel people the first, second, or even third time they get in a fight.


texts:
Is it possible to add some additional results after submitting the "complete" thesis to advisor. I must add that my advisor has already sent the thesis to Ph.D commission.

The additional results are not a correction of the thesis. I just want to add some more results to it.


texts: tips for Assistant Professors applying for new Assistant Professor positions after being cut

texts:
The major at my school was cut and I am first to go in the department.
What do I do different when applying for new AP (in US) now compared to when I was coming off a post doc?
Do I address the reasons for being let go in my cover letter?
What other tips are there for coming up with a good application under my unfortunate circumstances.


texts: Is it possible to continue a PhD program in a different university (PhD transfer)

texts:
I am a final year PhD student in a EU country (in bologna). I have already completed my MSc and Advanced studies diploma (MPhil eq.).
I am self-funding my project and I have been doing research since 2013. Some time ago, my supervisor was sincere with me and told that he is very overloaded with work that he will most likely take 2-3 years to read and correct my thesis. I am paying a LOT for my tuition fees, and I am not willing to lose another 2-3 years of my life. I am thinking of alternatives, such as going to Germany, where PhD programs do NOT have a tuition fee (If I read right) and just complete all the formalities, have a supervisor read my thesis, then present it. I would be working in the meanwhile (I can speak German)

Is this possible? Do universities accept transference of PhD programs while keeping the same topic? I know that a workplan examination may be needed, and this is not a problem. Please let me know.

Thanks,
KingBaboon


texts: Techniques for teaching reflection and critical analysis to unprepared students

texts:
I have a group of undergraduate students who are best described as 'unprepared' meaning that they were not well prepared for life in university. They are, as a group, under-performers, although there are certainly stars contained within the group. One more point of complexity is that the students are studying in English, which is not their native language.

Reflection is something that has been identified as useful not just for performance while at university but also for encouraging life-long learning for the students. While strong students might take to reflection quite readily, critically analyzing the countless decisions that they have made on any given academic project, unprepared students seem to have a much more difficult time with this.

My question is, are there particularly effective techniques for teaching reflection to unprepared students (or academically weaker students)?


texts: How to effectively balance research, teaching and project work?

texts:
Starting from the upcoming semester besides my research for the PhD, I will also have to work on a loosely related project (w.r.t. my research), and do teaching as well.

I am overwhelmed from this. It seems that I will never have enough time for the actual research while the project work (50%) and teaching will eat up all my time.

Besides these duties there are also students to supervise, lab to maintain etc.

How do the more experienced ones in AcademiaSE deal / have dealt with such situations?


texts: How to resolve grading dispute between TA and Lecturer?

texts:
On a math exam recently, the students were asked to use the definition of a limit of a sequence to prove that the sequence given by 3n/(3n+5) converges to 1. Given a positive number Ɛ, the definition requires proving the existence of some number N such that if n>N then |3n/(3n+5) - 1|<Ɛ.

As a consequence of the definition, once a sufficiently large N is found, any larger value of N will also suffice. Many students set |3n/(3n+5) - 1|=5/(3n+5)<Ɛ and solved for n to find N = (5-5Ɛ)/(3Ɛ). However, the professor decided to include an extra step: 5/(3n+5) < 5/n <Ɛ, which leads to another sufficient value N = 5/Ɛ.

Although most students gave a correct proof (consistent with the definition in their book), the lecturer took off points because they didn't find the "best" value of N. The lecturer claims that the author would have used some (unnecessary) inequalities to find the "better" N, which is probably true.

When students complain about losing points, I tell them that their answer is correct and that they should seek full credit for their work. The lecturer suggests that I am putting the students in a position in which they may "pick a side" and that ultimately the lecturer is in charge.

Who's wrong here?

Update: I was not notified about the lecturer's decision to remove points until after I gave the midterms back to the class. Once students started asking me about the missing points, the only written justification left by the lecturer was "not best N."

By "best N," the lecturer was referring to the N value found by using the additional inequality 5/(3n+5) < 5/n <Ɛ. By "best," he does not mean "smallest" (and by definition, there is no largest N).


texts: What do "mention", "promotion", and "situation within your promotion" mean in this paragraph describing a CV?

texts:
I am applying for an Eiffel scholarship, and my school required me to send a CV as follows:

  CV outlining the following information: mention, rank of classification, situation within your promotion, number of students in the promotion, diplomas with indication of specialty, date of graduation, mentions/honors and final marks certified by the institution.

I could not understand what do they actually mean or refer to. I have emailed the Coordinator, but have not received her reply.

Please help me correctly understand these terms! Thank you so much!


texts: Is there any reference management software that supports hierarchical tagging?

texts:
At the moment I'm using Zotero to organize my paper collection and for my current work I'm very happy with it's possobilities to organize content (folders and tags).

However, working on bigger projects a hierarchical tag structure would come in handy where subtags can be assigned to lead-tags (or something similar). Is there any reference program that can do that?


texts: How harmful is it to submit side-results that are not new?

texts:
During my research I often have side results. By a "side result" I mean e.g.  a mathematical lemma, that I use to prove something in my game-theory paper, but that may be useful in other contexts.

Since mathematics is not my main area of research, nor the area of my advisors, I find it hard to tell whether these side-results are new. I can Google, but I since this is not my field, I don't know what keywords to use. I can do an extensive literature review, but this might take me months and it is too much time to spend for a side-result.

What if I just submit a side-result to a medium-class journal? The reviewers will probably know whether the results are new. Then:

If the results are new, they will be published and this may help other people.
If the results are not new, the paper will just be rejected. This is not a big deal for me since these are only side-results.

My only concern is that the editor and reviewers will be angry at me for having wasted their time on results that are not new. This may be harmful to my reputation.

So, my question is: how harmful is it to send side-results that are not new?

EDIT: Many thanks to all the repliers. The solution I actually used was slightly different: I asked a game-theory expert! I thought that, just like I thought of this mathematical lemma in the context of game theory, other researchers in game theory may have come across it as well. He did not provide a reference, but immediately provided a very short proof of my lemma. So, now I am quite sure it is not worth publishing.


texts: If my paper was published in IEEE Xplore, can I upload it to arXiv

texts:
A research paper from a computer vision conference I made was published in IEEE Xplore, but also in some other places (where it is open).

Can I publish it to arXiv?

paper in IEEE Xplore

paper in Conference Repo


texts: Journal published a paper, ignoring my objections as a referee

texts:
A few months back I received a request from a reputed journal to review an article. The article was in a fast-track mode because of its assumed importance. I did review it, and found that it makes some improvement over the existing models, and hence does not rate high on the novelty axis. Moreover, there were serious problems in the article both conceptual and mathematical. Lastly, the English used was erroneous. I wrote these things to the editor, and he made it a regular article and asked the authors to revise it.

They did, and the manuscript came back to me. Unfortunately, the mathematical problems were simply ignored by them, and only cosmetic changes were done. I wrote back to the editor about this, and requested him to ask another review with all the clarifications/modifications. But after that journal did not communicate with me. Today, I was surprised to see that the paper has already been published! I went through it, and found that some minor changes that I had suggested (like changes to a figure to make it more informative) have been done, but the main issues that I had raised have been pushed under the carpet. I find this to be a complete insult to the reviewer, and also a kind of scientific dishonesty. I thought of writing to the editor, but I just want to know if something like this is regular, and if it has happened to anyone. If yes, how should I proceed from here? Just shut my mouth and carry on?


texts: Is an erratum justified for a weak result?

texts:
A few years ago I had published a mathematics journal article where for one of the results I had imposed extremely strong assumptions to ensure that given conclusion is true.  Figuratively speaking, I now realise that I have used a hydraulic press to crack a peanut.   Indeed, the same conclusion can be obtained with minimal assumptions.

Needless to say, I am deeply ashamed by this sloppiness, but I am not sure if this merits publishing an erratum.  One co-author strongly opposes publishing an erratum, saying that we should simply add a remark to a follow-up paper we are writing,  while the other couldn't care less.   As the original result isn't strictly incorrect, I'm not sure what the appropriate approach is.


texts: Summary high School Mathematics in the USA

texts:
I am a young postdoc at a large crowded university in the USA. Also, I am not from the USA, so my school experience has been very different from the high school experience of my students.

Since I am teaching mathematics classes, I wonder whether there is a good and comprehensible summary the American students have seen in their high school mathematics classes.

Given the fractured education system in the USA, good and comprehensible may be mutually exclusive, but the question is worth a try.


texts:
I have the following basic questions regarding my name on a research paper.

Is it compulsory to write the complete name on a research paper (if it is a long name)?
Is it acceptable for an author to use a sligthly different name on a paper than on a previous paper?

For example, if the author’s name would be K. Manoj Kumar Reddy and the shortened name would be K. Manoj Reddy.


texts: I had an interview for a position in a math department. At the end of interview, is it necessary to ask them about the approximate time of releasing result?


texts: Can I submit a paper to an IEEE/ACM journal even if a similar paper is already published by someone else recently?

texts:
I'm an undergrad computer science student who has been working on a paper for the past few months, and quite recently I saw a similar paper already published by someone on IEEE.

Can I still publish the paper?
Are there any ways in which I can prove that its an independent paper?


texts: Does anybody know why some journals have "Topical Collections"?

texts: What does it mean "Topical collection" within a journal? Are the papers published under "Topical Collections" better promoted?


texts: Is it absolutely necessary for a researcher to have an institutional email?

texts:
I was creating a researchgate account and it says it wouldn't let me in if I can't provide institutional email.
I do research in an University and I don't have any Institutional email. But the way researchgate website is creating account, makes me think like is it an absolute necessity to have an institutional email to do research.
Bonus question: What are the benifits of having an institutional email address?


texts: How to reply to unprofessional negative review from a journal?

texts:
Some time ago I submitted a paper to a preeminent journal, and yesterday I received the review letter from the editor.
The email contained reviews from two reviewers.

Reviewer 1 has been very professional, and wrote a detailed, constructive, useful report of the main aspects of the paper to improve.

Reviewer 2, on the contrary, did the opposite: he/she just wrote five superficial sentences. Some of his/her comments are just false, some of them don't make any sense, and some of them are even incorrect in English!

In fact, this reviewer wrote: "The data of the manuscript are NOT available", when the truth is that our data file is publicly available online! It has always been available before submission, during the submission, and now; we the authors wrote this in the manuscript and in the cover letter. I wonder how it is possible that he/she wrote that!

Regarding the English grammar, I'm very surprised to see such poor usage of the language in this review.
This is one of his/her original comments, for example:

  How did you use the data to contruct and evaluate the models? I didn't see any mechnism for these purposes

Can you believe it? This sentence is very scarce and ambiguous, and even contains two English mistakes.

Reviewer 2 did not suggest a decision but just wrote:

  This research is interesting, but I have a few concerns

I cannot explain in detail the comments of Reviewer 2 right now, but I can tell you that most of them make no scientific sense.
I am very surprised and sorry to see that my paper, that my collaborator and I wrote in months of energy and effort, has been treated so unprofessionally, both by Reviewer 2 and by the editor who selected him/her.

The editor’s current decision is "major revision". The editor wrote that we should address the flaws of both the reviewers.

Question: What should I do now?

How can I communicate politely the issues of Reviewer 2's report to the editor?
Should I address these non-sense comments in the new version of the manuscript or not?
I strongly believe this person does not have the skills and knowledge to judge my paper. Can I ask to remove him from the reviewer list?


texts: intellectual property during paid research

texts:
I was working on a project as a researcher. The whole project was financed by an external grant from a private foundation (nonprofit organization) and my salary was paid through this grant during my work as a researcher.
During the project, I faced a problem that I had to solve it numerically. I had my own license and I paid for the software, the software that I used to solve the problem, I have not asked the principal investigator (PI) of the project to refund my license payment.

I solved all the numerical problems, I sent the results and outputs to the PI and we wrote the manuscript out of our findings.
Now at the end of my contract, the PI of the project asked me to send him all the data that I have produced during my work and I said I will send all the data except that I cannot send him the input file of the numerical solutions using my software; I mean the method that I used to solve the problems. He said I have to send them as I was paid to work on project. I said I sent you the results, but the method of solving the problems is my intellectual property and I have paid for the software by myself, but he insisted that does not give me any right to keep them.

Who is right? Are these my intellectual properties?

I have to mention that in the contract that I had signed there was nothing about the copyrights and intellectual property.
The solutions are not a big deal, but the point is, there is a possibility that they use them in their future research without mentioning my name.


texts: Is doing a research internship during MSc. studies worth exceeding the standard period of study?

texts:
Is doing a 3-6 months research internship during MSc. studies worth exceeding the standard period of study?

I am in my 3rd semester for my (course and thesis based) CS MSc. degree. The standard period of study is 4 semesters, but most students exceed it anyway by 1-3 semesters, judging by hearsay.

I have a good relationship with a professor, with whose research group. I will probably have published 2-3 conference papers in a few months.1 The professor would very well recommend me to some peers of theirs such that I could do a 3-6 months "research internship" at another lab in the same field.

Advantages

networking
strengthening my CV - I'd like to keep doing research later anyway, be it in academia or industrial research labs

Disadvantages

I will probably need 7-8 semesters, significantly exceeding 4.
As other labs are very close to ours, I could probably combine internship and thesis work. But my advisor already noted that in gneral time in internship >> time spent on MSc thesis there.
Instead, I could shorten my MSc studies to do a PhD soon afterwards (in Europe you usually need an MSc for starting a PhD)

I don't think the prolonged studies are a problem financially or from the side of the examination office. I much more fear that it could look bad on my CV having necessitated 7-8 instead of 4 semesters.

Does a research internship strengthen my academic CV enough to outweigh the disadvantages caused by overlong Master studies?

1 one paper got already accepted, another two are in progress.


texts: How important are graduate courses to a successful PhD and beyond?

texts: I am enrolled at a small graduate program in the US. I came here because the PhD advisor I will be working with has a great reputation and because I wanted to work with her. However, the courses I am taking here are simply not up to the mark from what I expected good graduate courses to be. I am worried that if I start my PhD without having good courses I will be under-prepared to handle challenging problems later, and my exposure to interesting physics would be limited the ones I encounter during my research. People who are past their PhD programs, how important do you think coursework is? Do you think it is worthwhile transferring to another PhD program now?


texts: Dataset of retraction fines per publisher

texts:
I read in the Nature comment Reproducibility: A tragedy of errors authored by David B. Allison, Andrew W. Brown, Brandon J. George& Kathryn A. Kaiser and published today

  Science relies essentially but complacently on self-correction, yet scientific publishing raises severe disincentives against such correction. One publisher states that it will charge the author who initiates withdrawal of a published paper US$10,000.

(This Nature comment uses the term withdrawal in lieu of retraction)

Is there any dataset that lists retraction fines per publisher?


texts:
The following question was posted on Math SE, but seems to be more related to Academia SE:

Next year I will start studying maths at university. I'm highly interested in biomathematics, but in my country there aren't specific courses for students. At least there are very few Ph.D. programs. So I'm thinking of taking a 3-years degree course here and then a Master degree and Ph.D. in another country. Are there such courses in UK or US? If so, which are the entry requirements (in terms of, say, English language certificates, couses taken, etc)? How can I prepare to such courses? Are there any suggested readings?


texts: What is the least amount of effort needed to ensure no copyright issue of using online pictures in lecture notes/slides

texts:
I have noticed that in many university's course notes/slides, particularly those in the CS department, and in particular those dealing with computer animation/graphics, a large amount of instructors tend to reuse images from textbooks or the media (Hollywood) without credit or from other courses. There is an immense amount of examples, just pull up any course notes nowadays to see.
This seems to be a wide spread and common practice according to Can I use images showing up in Google search for my presentation slides without violating any copyright?
Here is my question:

What is the least amount of effort needed to ensure no copyright
issue of using pictures in lecture notes/slides?

Obviously these instructors think it is ok to say something in class, or perhaps the image/picture is so famous that it is immediately obvious where it is from.
Does it suffice? If not, how to properly credit a picture of something that just exists?
For example, I want to use a scene from a 3 hour long movie, say lord of the rings. This picture does not appear anywhere on the internet except in the movie itself, which I paid for. What is even the citation format for an image that appears in 1 micro-second of this movie? It seems to be an overkill to perform a full citation to the movie, is it not?
As another example, I want to use @offense_name_handle's original content on DeviantArt/Tumblr. Do I say, "This image belongs to @offensive_name_handle"? Obviously I do not want to post this in my slide. But I want to use the image nonetheless. How to deal with this grey area?
Google has some suggestions, but I really don't want to contact a lawyer for a duck image. https://support.google.com/legal/answer/3463239?hl=en
In any case, what is the least amount of effort needed to provide a citation that avoids copyright issue?
Or should I always try to generate my own content or use published academic reference to be safe?


texts: Is there a "Facebook" for researchers? (to collaborate on projects)

texts:
I'm writing my PhD-thesis in economics at a fairly small university.
Accordingly, there are relatively few scientists in my department.
I am planning to write a research paper on a specific topic that nobody else at my university is researching.
However, I think that it makes sense to write this paper with several people so that the expertise of others can also be included in this study (and many more reasons).

My question now is where I can find other researchers on this topic. Is there a "Facebook" for researchers? And how can I contact them?

I would also be pleased if someone would tell me about their experience on this problem.


texts: Sending a full Transcript, or only a part?

texts: I have a quick question. I have to send in official transcripts to some graduate schools. I am trying to apply for Mathematics. However, since i am also doing a B.A in Philosophy and Economics, the last semester has no mathematics classes as I have some classes I have to take. I have the option to not disclose that in my official transcript and "cut off" the future semester. Would that be seen as disingenuous? I don't want the admissions to think I am "avoiding" mathematics, there is sim ply no math courses my school offers that I would like to take and I need some courses for my other majors.


texts: What should I do if I found a citation error in a published paper?

texts:
I've found a mistake in a published paper, and am unsure what to do now.

I was looking at all cited articles from a paper over 10 years old, and found one that is citing the paper in error.

A variant of a certain protein and a fusion protein made of 2  proteins have been confused, that is the citation points to a paper on a protein which shares an abbreviation but is entirely different - this is a pretty big mistake and suggests they haven't actually read the paper they referenced!

The Elsevier journal published this in 2013 and I don't know how to report it, or what the etiquette is here. I can't see contacting the authors to be of much use as it is already printed, and they could very easily delete my email and forget about the error, whereas an editor or some such person would surely be able to take reasonable steps to address it.

For the record I'm an undergrad and have no professional link/competition/other conflict of interest with this researcher or department!


texts: How to prepare a Journal Club (or Methods) presentation?

texts:
I recently gave a presentation that was poorly received by my PI. I presented a technique that I have been trying to master (Patch Clamp). My PI thought I was not adequately prepared but gave no further feedback.

I spent three days putting together my presentation and read chapters  (Springer books) and papers, listened to lectures on the subject--over two weeks.  I have been giving presentations since undergrad. I just finished my M.S. I hope to enter graduate school in Fall of 2012.

I don’t know what I am doing wrong. What is a more effective way to prepare a talk or presentation? How much background reading is sufficient? What types of questions do ask yourself when preparing a talk? How do you know you have truly mastered the material?


texts: Including a note to reviewers in a submission

texts:
I submitted an article to a journal, and it was rejected. The reviewers criticised some configuration values I used in my software. The comments were very helpful.

I have since improved the software, re-run the experiments, and extensively rewritten the article. I plan to submit it to the same journal. I suspect there's a good chance it will go to some of the same reviewers.

The controversial configuration parameters are no longer needed, and so are not mentioned in the article. I'm worried that if the reviewers saw the earlier version of the article, they may be confused by the "missing" parameters.

For this reason, I am tempted to include a note explaining the change. Is this a reasonable thing to do, or would it seem amateurish? Would it be better to just communicate this to the editor instead of including a note in the submission itself?


texts:
I found the following bibliography in a book:

Is there a website which generates this kind of references automatically, that is short references?

On google scholar there are only long references:

EDIT: I tried to do it with endnote, but there is not the style that I want. I used all Nature styles.

Thank you so much for your time.


texts: How to mention an amendment to the U.S. Constitution in text in APA style

texts:
In the dissertation, several amendments are mentioned in a general way. Do you spell out the amendment numbers or not or does it matter?

Justice Douglas addressed the Eighth Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment ...
Justice Douglas addressed the 8th Amendment and the 14th Amendment ...

The university handbook is silent on the matter, so APA style prevails. I looked in the APA 6th edition, which shows examples for in-text citations and for reference entries. But could not find any examples of a general nature.

I also do not have access to the Legal Bluebook.


texts: On the Internet, I have found that some people have graduated with a PhD by means of a “sandwich thesis”. Could anyone explain what it is?


texts:
I have a serious, artistic hobby and I write an application for a scientific job. The hobby is music. I studied music for three years, but didn't conclude, because I decided to pursue a scientific career. I kept playing horn1, however; since lately I play in a (non-student, serious) orchestra.

I've seen that professors add information of this kind to their, say, online CV's. But first, they probably do not apply for grants using that version of their CV. Secondly, they are already somehow "respected".

That hobby was an important part of my life, thus I'd feel somehow dishonest to exclude it from the CV. It also explains why I'm about two years older than an average PhD student is where I studied.

Is including an artistic hobby in my CV detrimental for my application?

[1] This is not really the instrument but just an example.


texts: Email to a professor after long time for recommendation

texts: I did my bachelor at university A in which Prof. X supervised my graduation project. I asked him for a recommendation when I was applying to university B for masters and he wrote me a great one. That was a year and a half ago, and now I am applying for PhD at university C. I need his recommendation again but I feel bad for not emailing him for a long time. I don't know how to write my email. I don't want to jump directly for the recommendation. Could you share your suggestions on what to write ??


texts: Should I explain to the graduate admission committee why I am older than most prospective PhD students?

texts:
Firstly, I know that there are plenty of questions here like this one but hopefully this is not a duplicate.

I was born and grown up in Iran and belong to a religious minority (Bahai faith). As you know Bahais are not allowed to attend universities in Iran because of their faith. I was no exception and so could not study at university because of my religious beliefs. Between the age of 18 (when I finished my highschool in Iran) and 24, I worked as a construction laborer. At the age of 24, I together with my family (my parents and sister) travelled to Turkey and became refugees in UNHCR  and two years later UNHCR sent us to Australia. I studied English for two years and after that I repeated year 11 and 12 because Australian universities did not accept my Iranian qualifications. At age 30, I started my undergraduate studies in Bachelor of Electrical Engineering and I will graduate very soon. I am now 35 years of age and would like to apply to be a PhD student in the first 5 or 10 top engineering schools in the world. I have maintained a GPA of 6.9, a WAM of 93 and was on Dean's merit list every year except the first year of my undergraduate studies. There is a possibility that I also get university medal but that is not certain yet.

Should I explain these details to the graduate admission committee explaining why I started my undergraduate studies very late at the age of 30? and what I was doing before that?


texts: Placement of illustration: before/after text?

texts:
I've been reading conflicting advice on SE about the placement of an illustration (figure, table, algorithm). My questions are thus (refer to Section 3.3.1 in the attached figure):

I understand that, ideally, an illustration should always be placed inside the section where it is first referenced. Should an illustration always be placed in a section after it is referenced? Could it be placed in the same section before it is referenced?
Can an illustration be the last entity in a section (as shown in Section 3.3.1)? Or does there need to be text after it, such as a short line on what is to be discussed in the next section?

Thanks!


texts: When should you publish code on GitHub? Work-in-progress or after publication?

texts:
What is policy are you following about publishing data analysis code on GitHub? Do you do it after publishing or as a work-in-progress?

I developed a number of Python algorithms to analyse a large dataset, and I would like to make my work visible.


texts: What is the proper way to denote coauthorship in a presentation?

texts:
I have attended many presentations where one person is presenting work that was completed by multiple people. In most of these presentations, the presenter listed the names of each coauthor in a different way. For instance, two common styles I have seen are:

presentation slide with presenter's name first and coauthors listed underneath

presentation slide with presenter's name listed in bold at the same level as coauthors' names

Is there a proper (or more polite, or generally accepted) way to list the names of coauthors in a presentation?


texts: At what stage of the project should you apply for NSF funding? Before working on it at all? Once you have a working paper? I'm mostly thinking in terms of economics or similar social sciences without large lab costs.


texts: Reviewing article and bad-faith citation

texts:
I did my PhD topic in mechanical engineering. A decade later, I agreed to review an article on the exact same topic, that has a great number of similarities with mine. OK, that can happen.
The authors do cite my PhD manuscript (not the related peer-reviewed articles, by the way) but only once throughout the paper and in a short misleading sentence. Let's say my PhD was about counting from 1 to 20, an analogy would be to say something like "X managed to count up to 2 [ref]". OK, reading too fast can happen too.
The main thing I am uncomfortable with is that the submission is supervised by someone who was in the jury of my PhD defense ten years ago and knows my work well and acknowledged it is a strong text. I am certain that this conduct is intentional. I see several reasons why they would try to minimize my work:

Their article brings nothing new (the novelty claims have all been already addressed during my thesis);
I proved that the scope of the article should be achieved computing some certain quantities, and they never did that (because it is much more difficult). They have several possibilities. Manage to compute the quantities: they apparently do not want to. Disprove my claim: very unlikely. Ignore my work from the literature review: dangerous. Inappropriately cite my work: what they chose.

I am convinced that they purposely omitted nearly all of my PhD thesis to have a higher chance of having their article published. They have been citing my articles inappropriately every couple of years, but the consequences were minor (in terms of science).
What would you do?
Edit One comment and one answer indicate that whether this behaviour is intentional or not does not matter at all. That is precisely what is not clear to me. When someone submits wrong data supporting a claim in an article, if they just plotted the wrong curve it is a mistake. If it they made up data, it is fraud. That makes a difference to me...


texts: At what stage of computer science PhD should you start looking for post-doc?

texts: I am exactly mid-way in my PhD in computer science. Is this the right time to start looking for a post doc?


texts: Will the admission committee actually read a student's paper mentioned in resume?

texts:
(This question is set up under the EECS context, but any generic answer is much welcomed)
It is said that publications during one's undergraduate time will be an advantage in his/her PhD application. Usually, an undergraduate only starts publishing papers in his/her junior (3rd) year, and the application deadline usually comes at the end of his/her junior year. Hence, it is very likely that although the paper has been accepted by or even already presented in a certain conference, yet it has not been included into IEEE Xplore.
If the student has not uploaded the paper to some preprint database, such as arXiv or ResearchGate, then the admission committee will have no access to the paper. Of course, they may still be able to find some information about the paper, e.g., a tittle and an abstract appearing in the conference schedule, but after all they cannot go deeper into the paper content.
Questions

Does the admission committee even bother to go through the paper to assess the work quality? (Sometimes, you can have a rough quality assessment by looking at which journal/conference the paper is accepted by)
If the answer is positive, is it a good idea for the applicant to upload the papers to arXiv and provide the committee with the links so that the committee can read the papers as they wish?


texts: How to represent and cite a patent using BibTeX?

texts:
I need to cite some patents for a paper in BibTeX format. Google Patents provide me a BibTeX like this one:
@misc{spangler1988method,
  title={Method and system for measurement of road profile},
  author={Spangler, Elson B.},
  url={http://www.google.it/patents/US4741207},
  year={1988},
  month=may # "~3",
  publisher={Google Patents},
  note={US Patent 4,741,207}
}

I do want to cite Google as the publisher. Rather the patent is from the US Patent and Trademark Office.
What is the correct way to do this?
Note that this patent, e.g., is expiate due to failure to pay maintenance fee.
NOTE
I have found this instructions on IEEE:

Patents
Basic Format:
[1] J. K. Author, “Title of patent,” U.S. Patent x xxx xxx, Abbrev. Month, day, year.
Example:
[1] J. P. Wilkinson, “Nonlinear resonant circuit devices,” U.S. Patent 3 624 125, July 16, 1990.
NOTE: Use “issued date” if several dates are given.


texts: Why does Switzerland prevent foreign students from studying medicine?

texts:
I have been browsing for information on language requirements for universities in Switzerland, and on a page studyineurope.eu I accidentally read a quite interesting note about studying medicine in Switzerland. They say:

  foreign students are not allowed to apply for study programs related to medicine, dentistry, veterinary and chiropractic in Switzerland

Now, I'm not interested in studying medicine, but I'm curious about this policy, because it seems unusual. Googling the topic gave me no results, so I thought I would ask it here. Do you know or have any idea why would they have such a bizarre policy?


texts: Postdoctoral grants for writing review papers

texts: I am a PhD student in Bioinformatics at a big university in Canada working in the area of molecular biology and computational models. Due to the nature of medical research, we often approach very tiny problems and often lose the big picture of the real world problem that should be addressed in practice. What I have in mind to do after the PhD is to spend a year or so to study all research aspects of a specific disease (e.g. Multiple Sclerosis) to gain a big picture of everything that is happening within the field and then extend it to some industrial applications. I am wondering if it is common or at least possible to receive a grant for a series of review studies on a field with deliverables like review papers?


texts: Can professor terminate student's stipend at anytime?

texts:
A friend of mine who is a last year international PhD student in the US got his monthly stipend terminated by his advisor. He still has GTF and is working for as a RA for the last three years. During that time, he has published several papers and his research results also brought in money via grant for his advisor. However, he got stuck in a project recently and could not get it done properly, thus after a few bad individual meetings, his advisor threatened to cut his stipend due to bad performance and he actually did. Although he still have two other ongoing and working project and close to graduation, his advisor still admanat about not paying him. He still need to work in the lab in order to graduate.
Can professor has right to terminate stipend for student like that? What can PhD students do to protect themself in this situation?


texts: How can I (masters in mathematics) prepare for an admission for PhD in economics?

texts:
I finished my master’s in mathematics a year ago from ETH Zurich.  Now I want to do a PhD in economics, preferably at a top graduate school. My questions are:

Would admission committee give minus points for me if I have a gap for two years at the time of PhD application? I want to apply in the US in December 2020, and it would be two years of my masters completion by then. I will be teaching mathematics at undergraduate level during these two years.
How can I prepare myself for an admission into a top PhD program for economics? Would getting involved in a research project in economics with a local economist be seen an advantage for me? Would working at a local research institute be helpful? How can I make my application competitive? How can I exhibit the knowledge in economics that the top PhD programs demand?

The last time I studied economics was during my high school, where I did two basic courses on micro- and macro-economics.


texts: How can a graduate student most efficiently become an expert at his research topic?

texts:
Taught courses typically do not reach research level, so there is a significant gap in knowledge that has to be bridged by a graduate student in order to make meaningful contributions to their field. What is the most efficient way to bridge this gap? I could come up with the following possibilities:

Find advanced textbooks, prove all the theorems [if maths] and do all the exercises yourself.
Organize seminars with other graduate students with related interests
Go to conferences or talks given by staff about their research

Is this list exhaustive or is there anything I missed? Which methods of learning are recommended in which situations?

For definiteness, by 'expert' I mean the level necessary to understand current research articles and (in principle) independently reproduce the calculations/proofs.


texts:
My university is offering a "designated emphasis" in a topic area, that grad students can add to their transcript.  I think that the idea is that it can provide some sort of signal that the student has a competency in this area, like a minor for an undergrad.

Has anyone else ever heard of such a thing?  What possible practical use could it be to the students getting it?  Why might the idea have been conceived of?


texts: Advisor recommended reuse excerpt of master's dissertation in Ph.D. Thesis

texts:
I am finishing writting my Ph.D. thesis and a bit short on time. Part of my Thesis would be a review of literature, regarding the method used. This method was used as well in my Master's work (under the same advisor) and thus, my Master dissertation contains a portion in which a literature review is performed. My advisor suggested that it would be good to reuse this from my dissertation.

Now, I went to look at my dissertation to select the excerpts, and I see that it amounts to around 16 pages in a 150 page dissertation. My thesis is currently with 103 pages and I believe that in the end it will have approximatelly the same length as my dissertation.

Of course, when I saw the numbers, a red light of self-plagiarism lighted up. Of course, there would be some addaptations. For instance, there are occasions in my dissertation where I refer to a previous chapter, which would need to be adapted. And of course, I would clearly state which parts are repeated.

However, it is a large excerpt, which makes me really scared about this and I seek a second opinion on the matter.


texts: How to overcome lacking teaching experience for admission to Master of Education

texts:
I'm nearing the completion of my undergraduate degree in mathematics. The handful of experiences I've had tutoring students are among the most satisfying ways I've applied math to real problems. My academic record is good but not honors material. I'm convinced that teaching mathematics at the secondary school level is an excellent way to apply my math degree where it's needed.

I am applying to a 13-month Master of Education program at an American university. Through coursework and internships teaching at a local school, students are fully prepared to certify to teach Secondary Education.

This is a highly selective program.  Applications, essays, PRAXIS scores, and interviews are all part of the application process.

Does inexperience teaching totally defeat one's chances of admission to an education program? This may also apply to teaching at a university.  Is there any way to convince them to see past the inexperience? How does one overcome this?


texts: Given a journal policy that authors must share original data, am I free to use this data without granting original authors authorship?

texts:
There is a large database maintained by a group of scientists. This group of scientists have made a considerable effort to get many other scientists to contribute to this database, and make it available to other researchers, on the condition that to access some of the data, some data contributors may request authorship. This project has been very successful and many publications have resulted from this database.

Recently, some authors used the entire database in an analysis, and gave associated authorship to respective authors when requested. However, this analysis is published in a journal with a specific data sharing policy that reads,

"(Journal X) requires authors to ensure that data and materials integral to the paper are available to readers in a form which allows for verification and replication of the results in the paper. Where feasible, data should be included as part of the article or as supporting information, however if this is not possible, we expect authors to make use of public data repositories and include the appropriate links and identifiers within the article. It is the strict requirement of the journal that authors will agree to make their data and materials available to readers upon reasonable request, and corresponding authors will be reminded of this at acceptance stage. Please note that this policy also applies to any custom software described in the paper."

To me, this means that if I request this data, then the original authors can no longer require me to include them as authors in any subsequent analysis I generate and choose to publish. However, it only says they have to share the data with me. It says nothing about how I am allowed to use said shared data.

Question: if I request this data, am I somehow obligated to offer authorship to the original data generators?


texts: Keeping your throat comfortable after hours of lecturing

texts:
After lecturing for 3-4 hours my throat is often quite sore. Some days, I must lecturer for 6 hours (in past semesters, I've had some days which require lecturing for 8 hours). The problem is that for my later classes I have difficulty speaking comfortably.

I drink a lot of water, don't smoke, and use lozenges from time to time (when I'm in pain).

Are there any other known (scientific or folklore) solutions to this problem of getting a sore throat after lecturing for 3-4 hours?


texts: Does two-ninths month NSF rule apply to non-tenure track research assistant professor positions?

texts: I wonder if the NSF two-ninths months rule applies to Research Assistant Professor positions? This is a non-tenure track position, however I may submit a sole-PI grant and I wonder if I can cover 100% of my salary using NSF grant.


texts: How to decide whether to write a "methods paper" or a "results paper"?

texts:
I'm a grad student in planetary science, and I'm writing my first academic paper. This will be the first paper from my numerical model.
My results are timely: recent rumors in my community indicate that my model's predictions may be on the right track.

Papers in my field often fall in one of (at least) two categories:

"Methods Papers": These papers aim to completely describe the research methods, equations, data sources, and results in great, reproducible detail. Consequentially, they tend to be long, and results can be buried in the details.

In the context of numerical modelling, such papers might derive the important equations used. They might also describe the details of their numerical implementation, including the governing equation(s), boundary conditions, and so on.

"Results Papers": These papers aim to be concise and to the point, which is to highlight the results of their research. Sometimes, such papers are rushed in order to present timely results before competing groups do. The methodology is kept to a minimum so that the results take center-stage.

In the context of numerical modelling, such papers might cite the method/equations/data/etc. from another paper, perhaps with certain modifications, rather than writing them out explicitly. Only the most important equations would be given.

How should I decide which approach I should take? What factors should I consider?

I see this as really asking how to balance the following factors:

Thoroughness — ensuring exact repeatability
Conciseness — so that the reader doesn't have to read a bohemoth, and/or doesn't accidentally skim over the important parts
Highlighting results — emphasizing the model's predictions/implications
Timeliness — getting it published soon

I feel like I can emphasize one, pick two others, and let the remaining factor fall by the wayside. (Did I miss any other factors?)


texts: publishing on arxiv a journal paper that is under revision

texts:
I submitted a paper to an ACM journal, and it's under revision.

Can I publish it in arxiv in meanwhile? because the revision process will take time.


texts: How can I get sufficient guidance from an advisor who's always travelling?

texts:
How can I get the most out of my advisor's knowledge if s/he's always travelling and out of office?

We communicate by email, but I find it uncomfortable as I am new to the field I am working in and sometimes questions/answers are not very clear.


texts: If you work at a university and take courses, is the degree the same?

texts:
I know someone who works at a university and is considering taking courses there (which the university allows and subsidizes for its employees). If they take enough courses to make up a masters degree, will they be accredited a masters degree? Will employees, schools, etc. See this as the same as if they had just done the masters program regularly?

EDIT: In this case, their work isn't directly related to the MS program. Instead they work more generally for the university, in a capacity that isn't related to any particular department. They also hold a bachelors of science in the given field so I don't think prerequisites would be an issue.


texts: As a student with questions about a paper, can I email the author myself or should I ask someone else to contact him?

texts:
I am reading a paper and have questions about the details of the procedure described. I have read other papers by the same team but they don't explain too much about that procedure anyway. I think it might be common, but my supervisor doesn't know it too.

I am stuck and I want to get out of it. As a student working on my master thesis, can I email the contact author for the manuscript cold out, or should I ask someone to contact him for me? I would ask my supervisor but I don't want it to imply that I'm avoid taking initiatives when I could do it on my own.


texts: Does changing department affect my rank?

texts:
I am a PhD graduate from department of CS. I might get an offer to join as an assistant professor at a different department (industrial design) to work in a multidisciplinary project. My question is that if I change my department or even my institution in future would it affect my rank? Will my researching effort being counted in future?
EDIT
I need to clarify that after the end of my contract, I will be evaluated to be promoted as an associated professor. My question is that since I might work for industrial department, the rank given to me would be valid if I join, say, CS department?


texts:
I am not sure how should I cite this concrete thing -
https://www.credit-suisse.com/media/assets/corporate/docs/news-and-expertise/articles/2016/07/global-investor-2-15-en.pdf

I am using bibtex, but could not figure out type nor fields in it.

Thank you for your help


texts: Grad school with 2.62 EE GPA. Does self study help?

texts:
I'm highly interested in going to grad school in electromagnetics (eventually a Ph.D.) but for various reasons, most of which are my fault, and some aren't, I graduated with a horrible GPA. In short, my transcript sucks.

My initial attempt to get around this was that if that I do extra-curricular research that is impressive/relevant enough, it will at some point outweigh the GPA and let someone consider working with me.

I volunteered at a professor's lab for a year (not interested in his field, but it was the best opportunity I found). I studied on my own for an average of 4hrs/day on online grad course material for about 2 years and can say that I now have a somewhat solid understanding of the field, comfortable reading and understanding published papers, wrote my FDTD solver, as well as other self-study projects that are directly relevant to the field. Left my full time software job after 2 years to fully devote myself to this cause because I didn't want to waste more time.

After almost 3 years from graduation, I started contacting potential supervisors but never heard back positively (aside from a professor stating that her work is Chemistry and not EE based and stating that my background is "super interesting" which might be just a compliment.)

My question is, will this approach get me anywhere? I'm confident that my background in the field will consistently get better the more I keep doing this, but what if it is a dead-end as far as graduate admissions are concerned?

EDIT (with GRE information):

My GRE scores are slightly above average, 158 quant. and 156 verbal.

I did pretty awesome at my job, in fact I was called the "brightest person in the company" by my supervisor, and the "smartest person in the team" by a VP. That team including two fellow classmates that graduated with distinction.

However, I quit because I felt I was wasting my life doing something I didn't like. I tried getting a job exactly my field of interest (electromagnetics/optics) but I wasn't successful.

The push for grad school is because I believe my horrible grades are not a reflection of my ability, and are at least partly due to mistakes that I have learned from. The other part is rampant cheating and serious unprofessionalism on part of some of the professors, but I don't like stressing that part as I believe owning my mistakes is far better than blaming others.

I truly find myself in doing research work, contributing to the field I like, and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get there.


texts: Introduction slide of myself on first slide (after title page) in faculty job seminar

texts: I have a faculty job seminar coming up in a few weeks. Since this seminar will be attended by most faculty members in the department, I am wondering if it would be good to start the first slide (after the title slide) with an introduction of myself. That is it would be a brief bio of myself, where I got my Bachelor's, Master's, Ph.D., postdoc experience. It is highly likely that the department members already know or have this information. Would it be a good way to start the talk with such an introduction of myself (on one slide)?


texts: What is the best way to see if my students understood?

texts: What are the methods you use to check if your students really understood the material you presented them with?


texts: Are there any actions professors can take online to contribute towards "service requirements"?

texts: I would like to fulfill my service requirements for the tenure review process.  My question: Is it possible to help fulfill these requirements through on-line activities?  E.g. Mentoring students online, or participating in some sort of on-line collaborative community?


texts: What should be done when the theory behind a PhD thesis turns out to be wrong?

texts:
I have a friend who has been working on a PhD dissertation for over 3 years and he is supposed to be wrapping it up. Unfortunately, his thesis involves a complex model and populating the model with hard-to-obtain data. After having finally gathered all the data and plugged it into the model, he is finding that the theory is more or less non-predictive and does not work. In other words, he had an interesting theory, having been tested against the data it turns out the theory is wrong.

So, in this situation what would you do? Just write a dissertation that says, "well four years of research shows that this theory is wrong"?


texts:
I am writing a research paper for the first time and I submitted my paper to a journal, in which the references in my paper were addressed in parentheses, as follows:

".....be preferentially located in the nuclear interior (Saccone et al. 2002; Cremer et al. 2015), consistent with a less compact organization and an enrichment of long-range chromosomal contacts with other active TADs and potentially multi-TAD hubs (Yaffe and Tanay, 2011; Olivares-Chauvet et al. 2016)."

The journal rejected it, and I submitted it to another journal which wants the references as follows:

".....be preferentially located in the nuclear interior [1-2], consistent with a less compact organization and an enrichment of long-range chromosomal contacts with other active TADs and potentially multi-TAD hubs [3-4]."

Saccone et al. 2002
Cremer et al. 2015
Yaffe and Tanay, 2011
Olivares-Chauvet et al. 2016

In the current format I have, all my references have the name and year in the parentheses and the full references at the end of the manuscript. The new journal wants it as numbers in order of occurrence in the manuscript.

Does anyone know any easy way to change the formats, without buying any software? If this question is out of scope of this forum, is there an appropriate one where I should ask?

Any help would be hugely appreciated, thank you so much!

Cheers,


texts: What are the differences between a PhD in Statistics and a PhD in Applied Math?

texts:
Both types of programs will have predominantly undergraduate / master's level mathematics majors, both programs' students will likely take courses in measure-theoretic probability theory (so that knowledge of introductory real and complex analysis are prerequisites), mathematical statistics, develop programming backgrounds, and learn some differential equations, e.g., ODEs, PDEs, SDEs.

Both types of PhD students are well aware of the (current?) opportunities in data science, machine learning, etc, and are giving these areas of study some considerable emphasis.

Those are the similarities.  What are the differences?

It seems that people apply to the Phd in Stats as a way to avoid taking the Math subject GRE test, or that perhaps it is "easier" to get into a good PhD in Stats program, from having an undergrad math background.

Thanks,


texts: Are picture-perfect acknowledgement sections the norm in Academia?

texts:
When I read other theses, I am often astonished by the sheer number of people whose help the writer is acknowledging in a multitude of ways. Here's an example to demonstrate what I am talking about, but I am sure you get the point: http://www.mit.edu/~alvarso/thesis-phd/Acknowledgements.pdf

In comparison, in the thesis that I am currently writing, I am getting close to the end, and the draft for my own acknowledgment section is currently

  I would like to thank my advisor **********, as well as my close colleagues at the department of ********** at *****************.

I might spice it up with some adjectives, but that's pretty much it.

Are acknowledgement sections, like the one I linked to, the norm? If so, would a paper with a lackluster acknowledgement section be considered potentially subpar?


texts: Postdoc job market in relation with PhD topic

texts:
I switched from Software Engineering to Machine Learning when started my PhD in France. After 3 yrs with 3 (average rank) conference papers, I finished my PhD with an on-going journal manuscript that I'm still working on it with PhD supervisor. I was struggling to get my first postdoc and got it after several months. Now it's coming to an end with no publication after more than 1 yr, and again I'm trying hard to find the next one.

My questions are:

Does the PhD topic have a significant impact on academia job opportunity afterward? I got publication and now realize that it is not in "mainstream" as postdoc jobs mostly require "mainstream knowledge". On the other hand, it could have been harder for me to publish during PhD if I chose "mainstream" as I have had no background of it (Statistics). The lack of Statistics knowledge of a Software Engineering guy inconvenienced my 1st postdoc and my job search.
How long should it take to convert a Software Engineer to Statistician?
Data Science is trendy in general, but does its academia job market become more and more competitive?


texts: How should a student mention or cite his published article in his honours thesis?

texts:
In my current place of work, the undergraduate students who are following a Honours Degree in the field of CS should submit a thesis as a requisite for their graduation. This thesis should be also defended in front of a group of lecturers of the faculty,

This thesis is focused at the undergraduate level, so the contribution to knowledge is limited, but it has happened that some students have managed to discover interesting facts that were described in a research paper and submitted to a conference. So that means that in the process of doing their undergraduate thesis, or almost when they were finishing it up they wrote an article and submitted to a peer-review conference.

The question that I have is how and where these students, the ones that manage to make a publishable academic work, should mention that as a fruit of their thesis writing process they manage to write and get accepted a research work in a conference?

The issue is that faculty asks for a level of novelty in the thesis work, but this situation has happened in parallel (submitting an article and writing the thesis).

How to deal with this situation without being accused of plagiarism or something similar?


texts: How to Reference a Long Breakdown of a Mathematical Model from Another Thesis?

texts:
I am writing my Master's thesis, and I need to describe and break down a complex mathematical (physics-based) model. This model is absolutely central to my thesis, and all of my work essentially revolves around it. I was about 5% done the task of understanding and summarizing the model when I came across a previously written Master's thesis that used the exact same model in the exact same manner as me, and includes an incredibly detailed, yet concise step-by-step breakdown of it. It is all that author's original work.

The breakdown of the model in this previously written thesis is approximately 20 pages long, far too long for me to quote it, even in part. There's really no way for me to interpret or explain this model other than the way this author has described it. This author was pretty clearly a genius... I feel like any information I add will be superfluous; while at the same time if I were to remove or greatly modify any of the information it would be extremely detrimental to my thesis as a whole.

I feel completely stuck. This breakdown of the model is going to account for around 1/5 of the total length of my thesis, so even if I were to be able to get permission from the author/publisher to copy the information, I'd essentially be taking 20% of my thesis directly from another source. That just doesn't feel right to me.

What should I do? I'm a mere 2 months away from my defence deadline (long story short I was forced to start this new thesis topic with less than a year left in grad school, so I'm extremely far behind where I wanted to be) and this model breakdown is the only thing I have left to finish before sending in my thesis for editing.

I'm quite literally pulling my hair out over this. Any help would be appreciated.