texts: Sending M.Sc. dissertation to a big conference

texts:
I am a very recent Ph.D. student (since October 2014), and the deadline date of the conference in which I want to participate is quite near.  I don't want to miss the conference, but as I am so new in my Ph.D. program, I don't have something really concrete for the moment.  For this conference, however, it is possible to revise the paper until 15 days before the conference.

Accordingly, I am thinking of submitting my M.Sc. dissertation to the conference. As I think I will have an improved version of my M.Sc. in 3-4 months (at least, I really hope), I suppose that it is worth doing this.

Is it really a bad idea to submit a M.Sc. dissertation to a conference? Are there some ethical issues to consider?


texts: My code is published as original work by a different group. What should I do?

texts:
I've found some code that I've posted online that has a BSD license published in a supplementary material of a different group in a high impact journal. The authors have replaced the name on the license with one of the co-author's names and added a header on my code. They weren't too careful and didn't delete my name and email some lines below that header.  I've contacted the corresponding author that promised me that he'll contact the publisher to correct it and nothing has happened in the past 3 months or so.
What would you do?
EDIT - Update.... It took 6 months from the moment I contacted the authors, and 3 months after I contacted the publisher to issue a Correction\Corrigendum that gave me credit for my code.*


texts:
My GPA of bachelor is about 3.0, and I just want to know how much it would approximately be in German Grade? Would it be lower than 2.7 in German Grade?
I have read other questions on this website, but none of them could help me, can you simply tell me how to convert GPA to German grading system?


texts: Is conflict of interest applicable for independent research?

texts: How should I answer the conflict of interest question during submission of paper if I have worked independently without any funding agencies and as a sole author?


texts: After PhD in Aerospace Engineering, could I be admitted into a top university for a second PhD in Computer Science?

texts:
I currently work as an Aerospace Engineer for the Department of Defense for nearly 6 years now, and I have a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from a top-10 university in the United States. I am seriously thinking of doing a 2nd PhD in Computer Science, because I want to eventually own an Algorithmic Energy Trading Firm and need to become an expert in Machine Learning algorithms.

As of now, I am working on a few journal papers to publish and I am not going to have any problems getting strong letters of recommendation from my employer and professors on campus.  I ought to be able to get a letter from the Dean of my college as well.  So, I am thinking of a second PhD in Computer Science because I really want to immerse myself in Machine Learning and figured a PhD was the way to go.

Question for everyone:  Would it be a challenge for me to acquire entrance into a top 5 school in Computer Science for a PhD?

I ought to mention that my PhD research was in Computational Fluid Dynamics, Turbulent Flow and I had to develop my numerical solver and turbulence models in Object-Oriented C++.


texts: How to approach a professor giving a presentation to work with him?

texts:
I am a master's student in Applied Math with two undergraduate degrees in physics and math. There is a professor who is coming to my university to give a talk on his research, and I read his abstract for the presentation as well as part of his most recent publication and I really would like to work with him doing this over the summer. He is from a National Lab I have interned in before as an undergrad. There is almost no programs for graduate students at that lab and, since I am an international student, I am ineligible for the only one I found there. Is there any way for me to approach him to ask him for the possibility of working with him?

I have a pretty strong research background, and professors I work with at my university will be at the talk he is giving. I don't know if this could help me in any way.


texts: Do PhD advisors allow students to collaborate with faculty from other institutions?

texts:
I would like to know if PhD advisors allow students to collaborate with professors from other institutions in a major way. The context for me here is that I will be joining a Top-50 institution for a PhD in Physics. Considering the job prospects in academia, I think it would be worth collaborating with the topmost people in the field directly (who generally reside at topmost universities like Stanford, MIT, Princeton, etc.) to get solid recommendations from them along with my advisor's recommendation (assuming I produce good quality research with them). I would like to know how such an arrangement can be made possible without making my advisor feel bad. Are such arrangements common?

Of course, my current institution has brilliant professors as well and I would like to do my best to produce good research with them too. This is why the consent of my advisor in whatever I do is very important to me. I just want to make things as productive as possible in my current PhD program and have the best people in the field write recommendations for me so that I could continue working in academia.


texts: Why don't university courses report percentiles together with absolute grades?

texts: In any course in university, grades will be reported on an absolute scale, such as A+, A, B+, etc. Why don't these courses also report percentiles to indicate how hard the course was? This is very similar to what the GRE does. For example, I could be in the 95th percentile, which means that I did better than 94% of the students in the class. This would also eliminate the need to adjust grades to fit a particular distribution.


texts: Is it bad if I am not a teaching assistant during my PhD?

texts:
I've applied to be a teaching assistant (helps with running undergrad labs and marking reports/tests/exams) every year so far during my PhD, but have never been successful. I'm getting to the end of my PhD, and despite my best efforts, have no teaching experience, thus that section of my CV is blank.

Would this be a bad sign for post-PhD employment?


texts: I realize I made a huge mistake in my thesis and am not sure what to do. I'm defending very soon (days away). What should I do?

texts: I realize there is a somewhat similar question posted, but my question is different in that I found a pretty big mistake in my thesis. It's such a big problem, it changes my results. I almost wish I hadn't noticed, and been so careful to go back and check every thing, because I really don't know what to do about it except fix the errors/interpretation errors and discussion (today). I defend very soon (in days). It's possible that my committee won't notice it, but I feel like the guilt might drive me insane. I'm worried that my chair noticed it in the past, but they didn't correct me because they feel I'm incompetent (which I feel in ways I am when it comes to stats). Should I re-write it and let my chair know and ask what to do? I need to defend soon in any case. I wonder if I could just present as though I'd already corrected it and e-mail the revised manuscript beforehand. I'm just not sure how they would perceive someone who overlooked such a obvious mistake. Any advice would be appreciated.


texts: Can external thesis examiner object to inclusion of so many unwanted co authors in published papers?

texts:
My friend is working on material science and he published 3 papers in very good SCI index journals. In all papers he is first author and second is his supervisor and rest are co-authors like incharge of lab where test were conducted, teacher of his supervisor who is working in other university, some other scientist from USA who suggested the problem to his supervisor but was not involved in work in any other way and last co-author is student of his supervisor from same semester working on slightly different problem. In each of three papers the order and number of authors is same.

Now he is afraid of external examiner of his PhD thesis who may according to him might raise objection on inclusion of so many coauthors. All the papers were communicated by his supervisor so there was no chance for him to decide of his own. I told him that, this is a usual practice and nothing to worry about. Am I right ?


texts: Phd Application follow up contact the lecturer or the school

texts:
After applied to a phd offer in a cluster group in Germany.
I've had a promising phone chat with one professor of the group.  Our research interests are closely related and he told me i will receive a mail from the administration not from him.
The interview went well, he was even querying about the visa procedure. But it's almost 20 days now and i did not received anything. I'm confused.
Should i contact him to ask? And what to write?  As he as warned me that the administration always took too much time.
And i do not have any contact with the administration since the beginning.


texts: What order should teaching experience be listed in a teaching dossier when applying for teaching jobs?

texts:
Should a teaching dossier list teaching experience in chronological order (starting with most recent) or should I order things by relevance to whatever I'm applying for?

I'm applying for a job which has listed teaching Calculus and Linear algebra as the primary expectation.

My more recent experience has been with Adult Basic Eduation which is not relevant to the posting, so my gut says not to emphasize this first.

Are my instincts correct?  Should I put my older work experience at the front?


texts: Academic Hiring Process and Practices for Junior Professors in Germany

texts:
I am being considered for a job in Germany (W1 junior-professorship) and I was hoping to get some insights regarding the process as I come from the US system and am unfamiliar with how things work in Germany.

I notice that the application packages do not require inclusion of recommendation letters. In the US, the typical requirement is that the application package includes at least 3 letters. Will the schools require recommendation letters once selected for an interview or the job? Do letters or references play any significant role at all?
Selection: I know this should vary by case, but how many people do they tend to put on their short list?
Interviews: I get a feeling that the interview process is brief and a lot less tiring than the American system (for a R1: Typically a 3-day campus visit, job talk, endless meetings with professors, deans, grad students, teaching demonstration, etc, etc). What do they focus on in Germany? (I am asking this as I was invited for an interview, but I was not even asked to do a job talk or teaching demonstration) Are there typically multiple rounds of interviews?
Selection committee: That some European departments practically have a one-person decision making body came as a surprise when I first came to Europe. How is the case in Germany? How many people in the department are typically involved in the decision making process?
Final decision: How fast do they move with their final decisions? For example, the job I am considering only has about a four month gap between application deadline and position start date. This is significantly shorter than a typical US-Search where many schools begin examining applications a year before the position start date, and tells me that they should be moving fairly fast with the decision. Any inputs?

I know these might be a lot of questions. As someone unfamiliar with the system, I am hoping to gain as much insight as possible.


texts: Does it have any value getting a PhD in engineering after 45?

texts:
I am talking about academia and research.

Suppose, a person doesn't have either professional or academic credentials or experiences. Suddenly he decides to study engineering because he wants to change his stagnation both financially and socially. So, he enrolls in BSc in an engineering program at the age of 40. He completes his BSc at the age of 44, completes his MSc at the age of 45-47, and then completes his Ph.D. in engineering at the age of 49-55.

Does this Ph.D. degree have any material value for this person?

There are multiple factors to think about.

Firstly, this person never had any corporate and academia related job experience. It is hard to believe that he would be able to get along with these work environments. It is generally hard to mould someone's brain and personality at the age of 40+. So, I believe that he will find hard-times finding a job.

Secondly, most people are forced to retire at the age of 65-68. If he starts his job at 49-55, he has only 16-13 years of his life left for earning money. The amount he earns with his Ph.D. is highly unlikely to compensate for the earnings he sacrificed while getting his degrees.

So, my view would be: this person is not gaining much with his Ph.D.

What do you think?


texts: Where do other countries fall on the US-Europe continuum for PhDs?

texts:
My understanding is that for most US PhDs:

applicants are expected a bachelor's but not a master's
applicants are required a statement of purpose but not a research proposal
applicants apply to school before choosing doctoral adviser
first year or two is coursework followed by exams then finally dissertation

while for most European PhDs:

applicants are expected a master's (and has to be a research master's and not a taught master's?)
applicants are required a research proposal
applicants choose doctoral advisor before applying to school
almost no coursework

So:

What countries or states outside Europe and aside from the US are like the US?
Which are like Europe?
Which are in between Europe and the US?

For example, PhDs in Country A seem to be somewhere in the middle:

most PhDs require master's but...
...may waive the requirement if the applicant has bachelor's with honors (or bachelor's without honors but in an honors course or something like that)
some universities require research proposals (and choosing a doctoral advisor first) for PhDs in certain fields but only statement of purpose* in other fields in the same university
some universities require research proposals (and choosing a doctoral advisor first) for PhDs in certain fields but other universities require only statement of purpose* for the same field

*or something which in my opinion is closer to a statement of purpose than a research proposal


texts: Is it acceptable for professors to send letter of recommendation via a personal email?

texts: I am applying to mathematics graduate programs in the United States. One of my professors does not like to use his official university email address that is listed on the departmental website. According to him, it is difficult to use and he never monitors it. He wants to use his personal (AT&T) email address to submit the letter. I am worried that if he uses his personal address, someone could think it is a ploy by me to submit a fake letter or something. That being said, a quick Google search immediately yields several links from his official university website that lists his personal email. Is this acceptable?


texts: How to establish ties with the industry as a young engineering professor?

texts:
Next January, I will start as an assistant professor in a respected university. My field of work is civil engineering, and I have diplomas (Masters, PhD) in the engineering studies (Hydraulics, Geotechnical, Construction, ...). What I lack, however, is an experience in the field since I have devoted my time to academia.

I am clueless as to how I could establish ties with the industry: consulting firms, labs, ... Many professors in my field are expert consultants, and are renowned in the community of engineers, even though their main activity is research.


texts: Should I reply to a non-automated email from the editor acknowledging manuscript submission?

texts:
Suppose I submit a paper to a journal which does not use an electronic submission system, so I just e-mail it to an editor.

When I receive an e-mail acknowledging the submission (no personalisation beyond [insert my name] and [insert the name of the paper] kind, but it seems not to be automated in any way except perhaps copy-and-paste), should I reply to it (to say thank you), or is it more courteous/established to just not reply?


texts: APA Citation of Website With No Author Mentioned

texts:
I get conflicting information about APA website citations from different sources. What is the best way to cite website documentation in APA style? For example, if I want to cite an announcement website about Apache Struts project releases (with no author given), do I cite it as:
Apache Struts Team. (2018). Announcements 2018. Retrieved from https://struts.apache.org/announce-2018.html

And in-text citation would be given like this?  Struts 2.3.36 was released as a "General Availability" release on October 15, 2018 (Apache Struts Team, 2018).


texts: What does EE processing in peer review process mean?

texts: I sent a technical paper for peer review at Manuscript Central and after 5 days the status is Awaiting EE Processing. What does this mean?


texts: Citation Style Language (CSL) style for resume / CV

texts:
I have my own publications on Zotero, and would like a convenient way to export these references directly to my resume/CV so I only have to update them once. Is there a CSL style that can generate resume-style publication lists? They should appear in the following format and be sorted in reverse chronological order:
2020  Full bibliographic reference, formatted
      in whatever sensible style can be found.


texts: Can i go to university without finished high school?

texts:
I wasn't sure if this would be off-topic or not.

Basically i have half finished high school here in Slovenia, it's slightly different here, i went to 3+2 program. I have finished 3 years but i don't wish to continue the extra 2 years, especially because they're not teaching me anything, in 5th year they teach about programming stuff i knew when i was a first year. And the extra two years would earn me a diploma for finished high school, not sure how the 3 years are called in English. So instead of wasting 2 years i thought if i could even apply for University in UK? I have a friend who lives in UK which would make it easier to move, but my question is if i can even apply? I've seen undergraduate courses and the requirements, but nothing there can apply to me? Or at least i'm not sure, is there some kind of exam that i can take or something similar?

Thanks in advance!


texts: Can I include under-review content in my PhD Thesis?

texts:
In the verge of writing up a PhD thesis, is it fine to include the content of the work which is submitted to a conference and is "under review" at the time of writing up. More specifically if the conference has 'double-blind' review process.Or is it advisable to wait till the review decision on publication is out.

Please suggest.

Thanks, KR


texts:
I came across the following statement by the Chicago University Press:

  If your book has its origins in a dissertation, your acknowledgments should not draw attention to this fact, as it will discourage library sales and book review attention.

Why are dissertation-based books looked down upon?

A dissertation-based book is not necessarily of low quality. I was surprised to read such a statement from a respected publisher. Isn't this unprofessional? If there is such a stereotype, shouldn't a publisher like the Chicago University Press refrain from nurturing it?


texts:
I recently wrote a scientific article (let's say, about a methodology for predictive analyzes) I would like to submit. The article is beneficial for my PhD as it has close relationship with another paper I am currently writing.

However, I am concerned about its publication:

I don't want to put the name of my supervisor since he has (almost) no knowledge about what I wrote about. I barely think he can even provide constructed critics (if he checks the paper), and I am very unsatisfied about his way of not doing research (only participating to conferences) and taking appropriation of others work. I know, this is probably common in academia but I am the type of person working 8-10 hours everyday (week-end included) to get the job done (plus to get recognition).
To develop the methodology, I needed to learn and implement some mathematical models (and related algorithms) over the last 4 months. However, I have started everything from scratch, which means I am not an expert with 10 years of experience that can accurately see if the work I did requires strong modifications or not.

I am not quite sure about publishing alone since I don't think an editor would be convinced to do it that way. I was thinking about looking for a scientist (in conferences possibly) with whom I can work with so that he could make a proper review about my work (and add his name on it). I am not quite sure about this though, I don't think someone can steal my research (if we consider worse case of doing this).

My supervisor proposed me a post-doc already, I don't really want to envenom our relationship but let's say this is the type of person who (probably) doesn't care about recognition (thus having his name on papers). I may be wrong though.

My question is, do you think I should accept publishing with my supervisor or consider an alternative option?


texts: Why do sites that host papers not have a comments section for each paper?

texts: Why do sites that host papers such as IEEE's not have a comments section for each paper? Sometimes there is something that needs to be added, corrected or clarified by the community but as far as I know there is no such a thing... or is there?


texts:
I am a PhD student and I wrote a paper in the social sciences. The contribution of my paper is that it's the first non-North American analysis on the subject.

There is a working paper I found online from a doctoral student in another university, whose research is semi-similar to mine, and who looks outside of North America.

I am submitting my paper to an academic Journal. I have not cited the other students paper. It's been two years since they uploaded the working paper, and there is no sign of it published anywhere, and no update on the students (now a post doc) own research website. I tried to contact the author to ask if they intend to publish, I got no response.

I did not reference their paper in my research, because I don't think it's right that I should forfeit my contribution for an incomplete paper that doesn't seem to be heading to a journal and undergo peer review.

I am seeking opinions/guidance as to whether I am right. My supervisor has provided no guidance, and I can't find information on the internet.


texts:
I have BS in Biotech, an MS in Neuroscience and applying MD-Phd next June. I have always wanted to go into academia and eventually establish my own lab. However, I have been receiving a lot of critical feedback about MD-Phd programs. Suggesting that to be a good Physician, you don't need a PhD, and good PhDs don't need the MD. That most MSTP graduates end up utilizing only one degree. I was under the impression to do good translation research--an MD-PhD would be the best option. What are the befits/disadvantages of applying MD-PhD?

I know the faculty I would like to work with, already. Would contacting them improve my chances during the application process?


texts: In computer science, what should be the typical author list if it's postdoc's idea and professor's student?

texts:
In computer science (particularly AI), in a project where a postdoc proposes an idea and guides a junior PhD student, and the student does most of the dirty/labor work,  what is the typical author order? Is it one of the following?

Student Postdoc Professor
Postdoc Student Professor
Student Professor Postdoc


texts: What are some examples of famous scholars with low h-index?

texts:
The h-index is often used to measure a 'quality' of a scholar, and it is also often criticized as a lousy measure, since there is more into quality than just the number of papers and citations.
What are some examples of arguably great and famous scientists with low h-index?


texts: How to know when its time to quit grad school, due to my own failings

texts:
I am in my second semester of a MS in engineering.

While classwork is fine, research is not going well. I wrote the first few pages of my thesis and basically everything was wrong: formatting, writing style, poor graphs and figures. The results my codes are calculating show that my method makes no improvement to current methodology and sometimes its actually worse.

My adviser and I keep having miscommunications, and I keep disappointing compared to what I originally showed when we first starting working together. He won't ever tell me directly that I am failing but I can sense his attitude while we talk.

Due to my job, classes, and thesis work, I have no hobbies and I only sleep every other day.

Is this a normal amount of struggle everyone goes through and I'm overthinking it. Or is this an indication that grad school is not for me?

If I do quit, I will not be able to get a job at a good engineering company due to an average GPA in undergrad.

EDIT: This is an edit for anyone else who might have tendencies to get stress paranoia and start spiraling down negative paths.

I entirely overestimated the situation, my adviser was perfectly chill about everything, and the issues I thought I was going to get reamed over, were discussed and resolved in about a minute. Instead of criticism, he helped explain a math issue I had, and even let me know some higher-level industry folks he knows were interested in my work.

PSA for people like me (who probably are going to be like me and still worry over everything), making mountains out molehills in your own head is not a wise course of action.


texts: How to write a letter to an editor for pointing out needed corrections in my submitted journal manuscript

texts: Few days back I communicated a paper in a journal and some silly mistakes are there. While citing some other author's paper in my paper, instead of reference number it is showing a sign of question mark. I know that's a mistake while running the LaTeX code. I didn't check in hurry. Shall I inform the editor about my mistake? If yes, then how should I write a letter to convey this?


texts: Thoughts on Business Ownership Experience in the Academic CV

texts:
So, I'm on the job market, preferably a liberal arts university (I'm an economist). As part of that, I had three discussions with members of my committee about my job market packet.  There is quite a bit of disagreement of the importance of one item of my CV, my business.

I started a software company where I developed an SaaS CRM and project management tool (not to mention all of the marketing, documentation, videos, etc.).  This company has existed for over 10 years, it put me through my undergraduate degree, and meant that I wasn't living on "my stipend" during my PhD.  And probably more to the point, I consider my own identity intimately tied to the company: after all I decided everything it did and did all of the work and I'm passionate about the products I made and how they are different than the competition (why they "deserve to exist").

When it came time to put my CV together, I said to myself, screw the normal order.  Everyone has a PhD applying for a given job, why should that be first?  So my order was:

Business
Research
Teaching
Presentations
Education
Everything Else

I went and talked to a committee member who is more of a friend than anything else, he thought it was strange, but probably good.  My chair thought it was fantastic idea.  Then I spoke to another committee member, she thought it was just wrong -- and she has been on many search committees.

Not only just wrong, but deserving of no more than a bullet point under "industry experience", she compared it to working for a company (like working for a company and running a company are the same thing).

Now, I have a huge amount of respect for all three of these people (I'm unusual in that I actually like my committee).  However, what I think happened is that the first two people understand what my company does.  They get that product development is really hard and is very similar to research (and in fact harder than research in some cases).  And a huge reason that I've been a productive researcher is because of the skills that I gained from the business (not to mention the "real world" perspective).  However, when I explained that to the third person, she didn't buy any of that.  And I think it is quite possible her reaction is more representative of someone who doesn't know me.

I get that the most important thing is research (and I have more research than most of my cohort, so I'm not suggesting this is a substitute).  But people list absurd things on their CV.  They list their community service (which I have as well, I just don't list it).  Or not real awards (like travel grants).  In fact, in this same conversation she suggested I list some extremely minor volunteer work for a grant she applied for.  Certainly, the thousands of hours of work involved in my business has to be worth a lot more than that!

So this is my current thoughts.  I list the "standard" order, but I still have a good half page on my business, albeit on page 5 of the CV.  Thoughts?  Does this really not matter at all?


texts: In control engineering, will having zero published papers significantly reduce my chances of getting into elite universities' PhD programs?

texts: I am a fourth year dual degree student (5 year program of B.Tech + M.Tech) who will be applying for PhD programs this year and I have been doing research in the field of control engineering. I mention this specifically because of this answer. It just dawned upon me that I might not have a single paper published by November-December, which are usually the deadlines for US schools where I plan to apply. My long term project has been delayed a bit and still I may even write a paper within coming three-four months but from what I have read online (although this may not hold for control engineering field), journals take 3-4 months, in the very best case scenario, to tell you whether your paper was accepted. So, there are chances that I might not even be able to tell if my paper has been selected or not, let alone have it published, by the time application deadlines roll in. Is it something that I should be worried about? Does it close the door to elite universities for me since my CGPA is also just above average and not excellent/extraordinary and I was banking on getting a couple of high quality papers but now it seems unrealistic.


texts: When should I tell a potential employer about a spousal accommodation?

texts: The title sums it up: At what point during the interview/negotiations do you let a potential academic employer about  spousal accommodations?


texts: Is publishing with SpringerBriefs vanity publication for a beginner researcher?

texts: I am a beginning researcher and am unsure as to the academic worth/usefulness for my career to publish with SpringerBriefs. Would it be seen as a vanity publication?


texts: How early should a graduate student begin their job search?

texts:
Generally speaking, are there good "milestones" to suggest that a graduate student should initiate their job search? Roughly a year from completion? More? Less? Is there a particular time of year a job search should be kicked off?

Basically: The job search, how do I time it?


texts: Total Grant Amount or Amount from Government on CV

texts:
There are several questions on here that talk about adding dollar amounts of grants onto CV's. The consensus has been that it is a good idea.

I just won a national fellowship from the government to fund me. The funding amount is X units of currency. One of the contingencies is that, if successful, the university throws in X/5 and then the UK government funds 4X/5.  I am not sure if I should put X or 4X/5.

The offer letter states X, so it makes sense to put that number on there; however, the publicly available amount that the government posts on their website is the 4X/5 total. I am fearful that if I put X then people will fact-check and see the 4X/5 amount and think that I'm exaggerating. Which is the appropriate number to put on a CV?

Thank you for your time!


texts: What is the motivation for a graduate student to help to develop a professor's MOOC?

texts: I've seen graduate students act as course developers for their advisor's MOOC or play a key role in helping their advisor with some other endeavour that is not related to research. What is the motivation for them to do this if it does not help them graduate or get publications?


texts: What is the standard way to include math equations in a CS research paper?

texts:
I am currently working on a research paper in Computer Science which involves quite a few math equations. I am using MS Word currently to write the paper. I haven't yet included the equations. I am planning to send it to a journal.

I have a previously published paper in IEEE Digital Xplore for which I used LibreOffice Writer in Ubuntu to specify the equations and the content. I thought it wouldn't matter what platform I used because I would later convert the document into PDF format. But in the actual paper available on the website, the equations all look pixelated and downright illegible.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7518940/

My question is, what is the standard way of specifying equations for a research paper? Should I convert the whole document to LaTex and specify equations there? If so, should I look up on the particular journal format to use before including the content?


texts: Finishing PhD and didn't secure a postdoc position: how to proceed?

texts:
Disclaimer: My PhD supervisor, while not a bad person, is a bad mentor and has given me bad advice in the past. So discussing this with him isn't really productive. I have talked to other people in real life about this, and the opinion of this community would also be welcome.

I'm set to finish my PhD in theoretical physics in September 2020. I applied to several postdocs, got three interviews, and in one I was rated among the top choices but, in the end, I didn't secure any position.

I don't know how similar this is to the fields, but for context I'll explain how postdoc appointments work in (edit: high energy) theoretical physics. In my field, postdoc applications run in cycles. The majority have roughly the same application periods and deadlines (around November), most offers are made at the same time (early January following year) and they all start roughly at the same time (September). There's the occasional outlier, but that's the basic pattern. This means that it's more or less hopeless that I can continue looking for a position, ask professors, etc, for September 2020. If I wanted to stay in academia, I would need to look for a postdoc in the next cycle, starting September 2021.

I am unsure how realistic it is for me to try again or if I should simply throw the towel and quit academia.

First, there's the issue of staying one year academically idle (obviously not professionally idle, that would be insane). I could work on leftover projects from my PhD on my free time, but between finishing my PhD in September 2020 and the deadline for the next cycle on November 2020, that leaves very little time to do so.
Second, how do I even explain the gap in my cover letter? If I flat out say I failed the previous application cycle, it's a guaranteed trip to the garbage can. Some people have recommended me just lying in vague terms, like I didn't pursue a postdoc immediately after completing my PhD due to "health concerns that have since been resolved". I'm unsure if this is a good idea...

If anyone has any other advice regarding my situation besides these two concerns I've raised, that would be welcome too. Basically, I would like to stay in academia as a first preference, but I have no desire to bang my head against the wall against something that, at this point, might be very close to impossible. I don't have any preference for country to work in, so feel free to give country-specific advice.


texts: How to assign authorship when publishing with Bachelor's and Master's students

texts:
The usual recommendation I have read here is that when you publish together with a (PhD) student of yours, the student should be first author, and the supervisor will be second author. Although this is not explained explicitly, the context seems to be that the student is the one who does the major part of the analysis and writing up the article. The supervisor might have defined the research design and approach, identified relevant previous literature and might have revised the article.

My situation is a little different:

I occasionally have a small number of Bachelor's and Master's students who have written an excellent Bachelor's/Master's thesis. Because they have worked on topics (which I recommended) that are relevant to research efforts in the field, their results are so interesting that I feel they should be published (and I think there's a good chance they will).
The students rarely have any interest in publishing their results, if it involves any further work. They will most probably not pursue a PhD. Most of them will become teachers, and having published a research article will likely provide zero benefits when trying to find a job, so they don't want to invest time in publishing their results.
Because of this they don't want to invest any (substantial amount of) time in writing up the results in a way that they can be published. I don't think they would mind seeing the results published with their name as a co-author (and then they will have to at least read through the final manuscript), but they might also consent to not being given authorship.
Consequently, if I want to see the results published, I will have to write up the article. I most cases some reanalysis of the data will also be necessary (and sometimes a more substantial effort will be necessary).
The major contribution from the students is that they collected and coded the data (which takes a substantial amount of time), and some of the analyses they did might be usable in a publication.

Does the students' contribution merit first or second authorship even though their contribution doesn't match the ICMJE criteria for authorship? What's the ethical and reasonable thing do do?

Even if it doesn't, should I take into account that hiring/tenure committees might like to see proof that I actively involve students in my research and publish together with them? (I read this in an answer to another question here, but can't find it anymore.)


texts: Which factors in PostDoc opportunities choice?

texts:
Many of you probably have already lived these career turning point: your PhD program is going to end, and you have to choose an university research group to apply for a postdoc position.

Which factors do you consider as more important in this choice?

Take research group X at university Y.
Which factors you consider to decide if it's worth to write to them for a postdoc opportunity?

Research group project's affinity with your PhD research work?
Research group's excellence, and international ranking of its team
leader researchers?
Research group members' human affinity with your personality (if perceptible)?
Research group project's scientific novelty and genius?
University excellence, and its international
ranking?
Distance from your hometown? Proximity to your hometown?
Salary?
Going abroad?
The university city/country way of life?
Other elements?

Please tell which of these (and other) elements you consider the most important (or by giving a percentage to each, if you want).

Many thanks! :-)


texts: What early career development questions to ask during a Postdoc Interview? Is is polite and acceptable?

texts:
I recently finished my PhD. I am going to have a Zoom interview for a postdoc position (in life sciences).
My postdoc goal is to get a better experience in Research and become independent in R&D -project management. Mostly, after postdoctoral training, I would move to the industry.
I love this lab research project, mostly similar to my PhD project. So I will easily get adapt to the methods and I am happy to learn new techniques.
However I want to know their lab culture, importantly how supportive this PI for career development.
During Ph.D. I had to be in a toxic environment, I felt almost trapped, where no support was given, mentally abused.
So, I don’t want my next move going to be in the same environment.
What kind of polite, professional questions I can ask this Professor during the interview?
My main concern is how much he supportive of career development and giving opportunities?
Also, what are other questions I should be ready to answer and ask him during the interview?


texts: Citation for a processor instruction set?

texts: I am writing a paper where I am talking about the SSE and AVX instruction sets.  For a hardware feature like an instruction set, I am wondering how to figure out what is an appropriate citation to use, or if it should be cited at all?


texts: Industry certifications as program entrance requirements?

texts:
I've noticed several academic programs that require, or accept in lieu of more traditional entrance evaluations, industry credentials for admissions.

Is there a comparative analysis of programs that allow industry licensing/certification versus those that adhere to more traditional entrance requirements like the GRE?

The specific credential that I'm thinking of is the CISSP (1).  This certification has been eligible for transfer credit equivalency for some time (2), but I've only recently seen the certification as an admissions requirement (3) for an academic program.

Some data points that I would would be interested in are:

How do examinations, such as GSE/CISSP/CISM/etc, compare to the GRE in terms of overall academic preparedness?
Is there is measurable difference in the comparative difficulty between the different categories of examinations?
If you've taken both types of examination, industry and academic, is one class of examination better or worse for gauging candidates, and why?

Refs:

The Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) is an industry standard credential and certification.
For example: American Public University System (private, for-profit) and Walsh College, MI (private, non-profit)
Capitol College, just one of several examples.


texts: What is the timeline for academic job postings in the humanities in Australia?

texts: What is the timeline for the humanities (specifically literature) job search in Australia? In the US, jobs begin to be posted in September. Any advice for a US candidate looking for a level B (lecturer, equivalent of US assistant professor) position?


texts: Accepted by potential thesis supervisor while still waiting to hear back from two others. How to respond?

texts:
I wanted to know your opinion about this: I had interviews (separate) with three professors that they know each other. One of them which is not my first choice has accepted me, the others still have not answered. How should I reply to his email? Is it okay (=accepted) to tell him I am waiting for other professors' answers? I am asking since the fact that he accepted me I see it as a favor, so I am not sure if it is polite or nice to tell him I am waiting for other professors' decisions. What do you think?

P.S. The reason that I contacted all of them at the same time is that they have a deadline for choosing students, so if I had missed them or none of them took me, I would have to wait sometime with no supervisor.


texts: Identifying reputable journal indexing services

texts:
I am part of a committee tasked to create a policy on creating incentives for publications of university employees.  Right now, the highest incentive award is given to publications in journals "indexed in Web of Science or Scopus."  I would like to rewrite the policy so that it is more general, that is, open to the possibility that there are other highly regarded bibliographic database and index services.  I am aware that there are many predatory journal indexing services, and I want to exclude these.

How do I define a reputable journal indexing service?


texts: Chances of Being Accepted for a Book Author as a Graduate Student

texts:
I recently identified a textbook which is currently looking for authors of chapters. It states "For selected and invited authors" on the website, so I am wondering, if I submit a chapter proposal, if it has any chance of being accepted having myself being the only author, and not having graduated with any graduate degree yet. I also have no publications, but several are in the process.

I asked my PI if he would coauthor it, and he responded stating that he gets several requests to write book chapters per year and does not do any of them because he does not have time.

My question to the more experienced: if a chapter proposal has content which is completely golden and is well-written, does it have a chance of being accepted to be included in the book? Are book authors generally desperate to find authors for currently-researched topics, or is it generally competitive? Would they even consider a graduate student author? If it matters, the field is physics/nanomaterials.


texts: Is it OK to publish the slides for a conference paper on a personal Web site?

texts: Due to copyright issues, I cannot provide the full-texts of my conference publications on my personal Web site. Can I make the presentations of these publications available on my Web site?


texts: What are the advantages or disadvantages of using LaTeX for writing scientific publications

texts:
What are objective advantages or disadvantages of using the markup language LaTeX instead of a WYSIWYG word processor like MS Word or LibreOffice Writer?

Please use objective arguments to prevent a flame war...


texts: Advice about the copyright in research work as a research associate

texts:
I need advice regarding the copyright of the work done as a research associate.

I am working for a university as a research associate and my principal investigator insists on publishing my work without my consent. She thinks that she is entitled to do so because i worked on her idea and she paid me the salary. So she has a right to publish my work without my consent and I have no right on that work any more.

Is this true?


texts: One of my former professors no longer works as an academic, Can I still ask her for a recommendation letter?

texts: I am applying for a graduate school which has a special reference form to be filled. On the form, the referee should write his/her name and position. Does that mean all referees must be current academics?


texts: How do you decide how to categorize a new idea? Patent? Present at a Conference? or Publish in a Journal?

texts:
I came across a patent that proposes an idea for a device, and in the background section of the patent, other similar devices that were published in conferences (not even journals) were cited. Seriously nothing unique about the proposed design - not a jaw-dropping.

So consider the following scenario. You are sitting on a front porch, and you come up with an idea.

How do you know if it is worth to be filed as a patent, submitted to a journal, or presented at a conference?

Also, I came across a number of patents, and they were merely theoretical, without proving if the concept works flawlessly. So, how does this concept convince the people in the patent office? I’d like to know what elements make a patent too.


texts: In our institute the professor dispatches papers to certain employees(research fellows/assistants who are graduates or have a PhD degree) for peer reviewing. The professor takes responsibility for the reviews, still I wonder if this is the way the review process is meant to be.


texts: The aggregated chance of admissions to top program in the humanities

texts:
Let's look at admissions to top PhD programs in English, where it seems like the top 10 schools each receive about 300 applications for an average of about 6 spots (these are approximations only). Across this sampling of schools, assume that there are 600 unique applicants. If all schools select different candidates, which admittedly is very likely not the case, the chances of being admitted to a top 10 program bounce from something on the order of 2% to more like 10%.

How overly optimistic is this calculation?


texts: When submitting a journal article, can I cite a paper which cited my arxiv preprint?

texts:
I had uploaded an arxiv paper about 4 months back which developed an algorithm. After uploading the preprint we got some good feedback from a colleague, following which we have added additional simulation results and a more detailed discussion.

In this span of 4 months, the paper has been cited a couple of times. The original work was primarily theoretical, whereas the papers which cited our work successfully applied our algorithm (with minor modifications) to power systems. Hence, when submitting to the journal, I would like to cite these papers to show that our methods have practical application.

My question is: would this form a citation loop which is undesirable? They have cited my work, and I cite their work. Is this firstly even allowed?

Field of research: Intersection of applied mathematics, engineering, and computer science. The paper is likely to be submitted to a SIAM journal.


texts: Is it appropriate to email some new information to my recommendation-letter writers on Thanksgiving if the deadline is a few days later?

texts: I just found out one of my grad school electronic applications is having problem with a third party letter service company. So I have to ask the letter  writers themselves to upload the recommendation letters. The deadline is the first day after returning from Thanksgiving so I am thinking to email them today (Thanksgiving) would that be inappropriate? (But if I do, of course I will say Happy Thanksgiving but sorry to bother you....etc)


texts: When and how often is an associate editor not starting review process?

texts:
Very simple question. Reading some Q&A here and experience from my own papers and reviews I'm actually wondering when and how often the associate editor managing a possible review process of a submitted paper declines to start the process.

Maybe for not reaching formal standards of the journal, or wrong scope. If these points are fullfilled, will the associate editor always start to look for appropriate reviewers?

Once I heard in a talk of a physical review letters employee they get 10.000 submissions per year and 1.000 articles are finally published. I cannot believe they start 10.000 review processes, this would be a waste of everybody's time. On the other side every physicist knows PRL is the most prestigious journal in the field and you cannot submit garbage. So I believe most of the 10.000 submissions fulfill the formal standards. Based on which criterions the associate editor will then not start the review process? Age/quality of references, abstract, his historic and topical background and expertise? I never was associate editor myself but I guess they don't read the full article, but skim abstract, introduction, figures, references and conclusion maybe?


texts: Rules of thumb: when do you really hear good/bad news from NSF unsolicited proposals

texts:
Things keep changing and trends evolve. I submitted my first grant proposal in January. The "external review began on" date shows as late March, which is date when the NSF panel met (it was on the NSF website). I haven't had any contact from them.

Is this a good or a bad thing? Some colleagues say that the sure rejects are informed within couple of weeks of panel meeting, then those that will definitely recieve funding, whilst the rest are in limbo until the official six month deadline (or even later).

Can anyone tell me what to make of it ?


texts: Do I need to send e-mail to follow up a PhD interview day?

texts:
I had an inteview day for a PhD program at a US institution. I met 4/5 professors and a few phd/post docs students. Should I send a thank you email to my host professor or not? What about the other professors?

I think the interaction we had that day was good enough so I am not sure if an email follow up is really that necessary.


texts: How to efficiently find citations for quotations after writing?

texts:
I wrote a long document about mathematics with a lot of quotations.
I must provide a citation for every quotation, but did not do this so far.
Now I’m stuck because I can’t efficiently find the origins of these quotations, given the plethora of available references.

What kind of workflow can I use to handle this task efficiently?


texts: Can a fellowship be stopped suddenly? If not, why do PhD courses charge a fee?

texts:
I've been considering a PhD, but the details of how it works confuses me. For example, this course charges 45K per semester as fees, but offers a monthly fellowship of 38.5K. Why do they even need to charge a fee then? Can't they just deduct it from the fellowship amount?
Also, if there's a fellowship, doesn't it mean that somebody is sponsoring the work? So if a full-time scholar is sacrificing a corporate job to solve a technical problem and comes up with a new discovery for someone, isn't this a service being provided? Why is the scholar being charged a fee then? It's like asking a mechanic to pay me when he discovers a solution to a problem with my car.

This institution seems to provide scholarships based on entrance exam scores. So as I understand it, unless a person has good scores, doing a PhD is a financial risk for approximately 5 to 7 years.

If a scholar starts a PhD with a promise that fellowship will be provided for 5 years, can the fellowship still be withdrawn before 5 years? Won't that put the scholar under financial duress? I'm asking these because before I choose to do a PhD somewhere, I need to know the financial risks.

I've seen this explanation, but the concepts are still unclear.

  A PhD scholarship is likely to be full-funding that isn’t attached to    a specific project. Some scholarships are also more specific,
  perhaps    being limited to a payment for fees or living costs, but
  not both.
  A PhD fee waiver removes the need for a student to pay for their    tuition, but doesn’t cover living costs. Essentially this is a way
  for universities to offer partial funding by not charging you to
  study your PhD with them.
  A PhD stipend is a regular payment for living costs. It functions a    bit like an annual salary, but is usually paid tax-free. It’s rare
  for a separate funding package to be referred to in this way, but
  full scholarships and studentships include a stipend.
  A PhD bursary is money paid to a student during a degree. If this is    paid for living costs as part of a full-funding package it may
  be    referred to as a PhD stipend (see above). Otherwise the term
  ‘bursary’ is used for more general funding.
  A PhD grant is a specific payment, usually made on a one-off basis in    order to assist a student in carrying out research. It might be
  a    substantial amount intended to provide all (or almost all) of the
  funding you need; or it might be paid for a specific purpose, such as
  research travel or the purchase of equipment.


texts: How long does it take for a citation to show up online?

texts: How long does it take for a cited paper to show up online? I can see a couple of papers that were cited very recently and the papers containing those citations are currently online since a week or two. How long should I expect it to take before those citations show up as citations through Google Scholar or other indexing services?


texts: Does a research paper automatically get published online publicly if accepted?

texts: Does a research paper automatically get published for the public to read on the journal website if accepted?


texts: Two students having separate topics chose to use the same paper format

texts: Two students decided to consult each other about term paper formatting, because the teacher didn't provide guidance on the format. They used the same format, but different topics and totally different content on the subject matter. Is deciding to use the same format plagiarism?


texts: When applying to a PhD program whose strength is not my concentration field, should I adjust my statement of purpose to match their area of strength?

texts:
I am applying to a PhD in Economics; I am a big in Macro Economics as my background is entirely in macro.

One of the schools I am interested in is more focused in game theory. They have some economists focused in macro & monetary theory but it's just 2-3 members, extremely small compared to the other PhD programs I am applying to.

Should I reword my statement of purpose to areas they have more focus in? I like the school a lot!
Do I make myself more or less competitive by being interested in an area a university isn't its best strength?

Two ways of looking at it:

If I say I am interested in X and most of the faculty is doing Y and the students and program are more focused in subject Y, less of the faculty vote for my admissions and I am rejected.

Or

I am interested in X and most of the faculty is doing Y, subject X is underrepresented, I become a minority and they vote me in.

Which one do you  think is the more likely outcome? Should I reword my SOP to the school's strength?


texts: Need help distinguishing between a primary and secondary source

texts:
I am trying to figure out if the following article is a primary or secondary source.

http://genome.cshlp.org/content/20/5/547.full.pdf

I'm leaning towards secondary but here are my cases for both.

Primary: Published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Secondary: It seems to be mostly a summary of other works so it might not be original research.
Can anyone confirm this for me? Thank you!


texts: How can I collect popular questions from my students?

texts:
This is a question about moving my courses online. I'm aware of the FAQ posted on this site to help these issues, but haven't seen my specific question addressed there. I also asked a version of this question on softwarerecs.stackexchange a few days ago that has not received any attention.

I'm teaching three different math courses. The students will be working on exercises assigned from the textbooks and also on exercises written by me. I am planning on posting videos of my lectures at the beginning of each week and treating normal "class time" as office hours via the zoom service. I can record and post these office hours in case any students miss them or would like to use them as a reference.

I imagine that many students will have questions about the same exercises. I'd like to be able to do some sort of triage on these questions. I'm curious if there is any online platform that would allow me to:

Collect questions from my students.
Allow students to "upvote" questions to measure popularity.

Such a tool would allow me to gauge where the students are struggling as a group. As far as I can tell, tools like google forms and surveymonkey do not have these features.

Does anyone have ideas?


texts:
Im preparing my master's thesis and to build my conceptual framework i need to specify who was the first researcher to use the term All But Dissetation (ABD). Please dont forget to cite the source.
Thanks so much!


texts: How to complete part of PhD in foreign lab but still get PhD from home insitution?

texts: I am doing my PhD work in India, but for my research work I wish to work in foreign lab conditions. So I wish to work in any of the foreign research institutes without quitting my current PhD work. What I mean exactly is I want a foreign guide as my co-investigator, whilst also getting a degree from my current institution.


texts: How to handle lecturer who doesn't let me use my phone?

texts:
Inspired by another question where a user asks how to handle students with a phone, my question is from the opposite perspective: what is the correct response when a lecturer asks one to put away the phone?

This actually recently happened to me (a few months ago), and for obvious reasons (not wanting to interrupt the flow of the lecture, not wanting to have a falling out with the professor, etc), I just put my phone down.

But to be honest, I don't think that's the correct response, or at least I feel this is not the way it should be, because I find such demands inappropriate for a number of reasons, and so I shouldn't be giving in to them, should I?

My reasoning:

First of all, and this may sound immature, but what I do with my phone is none of the lecturer's business. As long as I am not disturbing anybody (audio is always off, I am never typing loudly because it's a touch-screen, and nobody is distracted by the screen because I make sure to sit in the back), it shouldn't be a problem.

Secondly, I find that such demands can impede my learning. I often use the phone to look up information related to what the lecturer is actually talking about. If a topic is mentioned that I don't quite recall, a quick google search or a 10-second glance at the topic's Wikipedia page brings me up to speed. Or perhaps the textbook for the course is on my cloud server and I need to the phone to actually access the book, if I didn't bring (or even buy) the physical copy.

Finally, I find it highly disrespectful to call a student out for being on a phone in the middle of a lecture in front of all others. Such conversations, if they need to be had, should be had in private. Approach me after the lecture or during the break if you have a problem. Don't call me out in front of the entire class.


texts: Is it impolite to not reply back during the weekend?

texts:
When someone writes to me while I am online during the weekend (a student or a colleague), is it impolite to not reply back, especially when they can see that I am online (on Mattermost for example or on any other app ...), although I reply back first thing Monday morning?
Edit: First of all, thank you all for your answers! :) I would like to clarify something: Even if I am working on the weekend, would you still say that it's not impolite to not reply back?
Edit edit: Since it was pointed out in a recent answer that this might depend on the location of the university, for me it's in France, but I guess (?) it would be more or less the same around Europe, though outside Europe, there seem to be other etiquettes..


texts: Average time alloted for manuscript review across disciplines

texts:
I am asking this question because I've always had the impression that manuscripts submitted to a journal in my field (theoretical linguistics) take an insanely long time to get published, and sometimes I get the impression that this is because, most of the time, nobody other than the author cares about getting things done within a reasonable amount of time. Some examples from personal experience follow.

For the last paper I submitted before getting my PhD, I had to wait nine months from the submission date to get reviews back from the referees.
Last week I got a review request from a journal I had never reviewed for previously. The review deadline is March 15 (almost four months).
In early October, I submitted a manuscript to a journal that I know asks reviewers to return reviews within 6 weeks. I checked the status of the manuscript online and it still says "with editor".
Earlier this year, I was about to start writing a review when my wife went into labor. By the time we came back from the hospital, I had forgotten about the review, so I missed the deadline. The editor didn't contact me to ask about the review until two months after the deadline.
Late in 2013, I was asked to write a survey chapter for a handbook. The expected publication date of the handbook is summer 2016.

All of this is not me being unlucky with editors and referees. In private conversations through the years, many colleagues have confirmed that it is virtually unheard of to get reviews back within 3 months of submission; 5 or 6 months seems to be a good average, but in some cases it can take longer (see my first point above). In general, everybody seems to have accepted that the submission-to-printed-journal process is going to take a bare minimum of one year, and that's assuming that the manuscript is accepted without revisions. If revisions are required, two years is not out of the question. Also, it's not like our papers are ridiculously long. I've reviewed about 100 papers so far, and the longest one was about 50 single-space pages; 30-35 single-spaced pages is closer to average.

I remember that, when I was a postdoc, my astrophysics housemate mentioned that in his field the entire submission-to-printed-journal process took only three or four months. I really can't see a good reason why theoretical linguistics shouldn't operate on similar timeframes, other than the fact that everybody seems to have grown used to things taking way longer than they really need to. What are the wait times in other fields? How do you manage to get things done quickly?


texts: Etiquette for providing manuscript /poster feedback

texts:
I am occasionally asked by other students in my research group to read their manuscript/poster before it is submitted/presented. I would assume that the main reason to get another person in the same field to read your work before submitting it is to check that the content comes across clearly and without errors (although in my case I am also one of the native English speakers in the group so this might also be a factor) and that this is something different from the responsibility that the editor has.

To what extent is it acceptable to:

  (1) make suggestions for fixing frequent, small grammar issues (missing articles, noun-verb disagreement etc.)

and

  (2) make suggestions for modifying formatting even where it does not affect understanding of the work (e.g. inconsistent capitalization of labels in figures, bulleted lists that are not consistently either full sentences or clauses)?

I guess that the consensus is (1) is acceptable and (2) is less so, but I would be interested to hear other opinions as I am always somewhat uncomfortable making a large number of trivial suggestions when the content of the work is good and I find limited real issues to comment on.


texts: How would you classify these types of research publications

texts:
This question relates to medical publications but it is surely relevant to other fields. Consider the following publications:

The first is a textbook type of paper, its goal is to describe the best practice in a field and it contains minimal, if any, original research. There will be a vast breadth of citations from different topics.
The second is a medical study by a single team where they perform a repeatable process to learn more about subjects. They will mention N=500 or however many subjects they have.
The third is a medical study that reviews several studies of type #2 above. The goal is to aggregate multiple single case studies (N=1) and other studies with N>1. The goal of this paper is to increase reliability by having a higher N, or it may be to repurpose the data into different categories. E.g. it may take five studies of N=100 and then separate them into N=250 females and N=250 males.

Are there a commonly-used terms that describes these three situations?


texts: A specific term was first coined in a preprint but publication took many years. What to cite?

texts:
In my literature research for a paper I am writing I want to state that a specific term was first coined in a preprint from let's say 2000, but the paper was not published until 2005.

Unfortunately other papers I want to cite that were published in the years between used this term since it was known by then from the preprint. It would be strange if I mentioned both, the preprint from 2000 and the published version from 2005, but saying the term was first coined in the 2005 paper would not be correct.
Any ideas on how to handle that issue?

Thanks a lot in advance :)


texts: Huge gap in the deadlines for graduate programs in US and Germany. How to commit to one?

texts: I am finishing up my Bachelors in Physics from a US university and have applied to graduate programs in both USA and Germany (PhD programs in USA and Masters in Germany, because German uni's require a Masters to apply to their PhD programs). For German universities, I will be able to apply only to their winter semester that starts in October, because the summer semester starts in April, and I am still in school during this time. I was accepted to couple PhD programs in the US, but I have to accept the offer by mid-April. However, the deadlines for the winter semester of German uni's isn't until July. I was wondering if German universities get this question every year, and if there is any way to know the decisions from Germany before I have to accept the offers from US.


texts: Will an undergraduate math or economics degree better position me for a top economics PhD program?

texts: I'm currently a rising sophomore (just wrapped up my first year) at a top US university, and time has come for me to start taking decisions about major classes, now that I'm done with required introductory classes. I don't really know what I want to do after college yet, but one possibility is definitely getting a PhD in economics, which is something that combines all my interests really well. At the same time, I'm very very interested in pure math as well. I've heard people say that your math education is more important than your economics education at the undergrad level if you're interested in going to grad school for econ. Is this true? Should I focus on taking the hardest math classes I can, or should I balance the hard math ones with the hard econ ones (though I'll admit that the math ones are generally considered to be way "harder"). Do I need an economics major at all, or is it sufficient to become as good at math as I can?


texts: Is it crass to acknowledge a colleague that passed away in my thesis?

texts:
A PhD student in our school recently passed away unexpectedly, to the shock and  grief of a large number of research students and academics, including me.

I had little to do with him on a daily basis, and he had little to nothing to do with the content of the thesis, but nonetheless it occurs to me to make a mention of his passing in the acknowledgements of my own (Honours) thesis.

Is this appropriate, or could it come off as disrespectful?


texts: How to deal with particles in a last name in a reference list

texts:
Let's say I am citing a person called Emilia Di Martino. How would she go in my MLA reference list?

Possibilities I can think of:

Martino, Emilia di.
Martino, Emilia Di.
Di Martino, Emilia.

And how would I refer to her work inline?


texts: ResearchGate: an asset or a waste of time?

texts:
There are now may different ways of increasing your research visibility: Google Scholar, laboratory/faculty/industry or even personal websites, LinkedIn, to name a few.

In your opinion, how does ResearchGate fit into all of this ? Is it really a good way of increasing the visibility of your publications and finding fellows with common research interests, or is it just a "waste of time"?


texts: Is it wise to contact the editor of a journals with my concerns regarding the length of the acceptance process?

texts:
I have finished writing my first paper to be published in a journal. My intent is to try to publish in a high-impact journal (there are two candidates from the IEEE Transactions class). However, my advisor and another professor, who is close to our research, both suggest that I should refrain from trying to aim that high, i.e. first publish in a lower ranked journal. They state that the reason is not the insufficient quality of the paper, but rather the length of the acceptance process, which is in their experience particularly for first-time authors very prolonged. The argument is, that I would lose many months, perhaps even more than a year in the back and forward process of rejections and resubmitions, when all this could be cut significantly, if a l. All that seems a bit pessimistic to me, of course, I don't want to wait so long, but I was under the impression that such a process would take at most 3-4 months.

Are those considerations regarding first-time authors deemed accurate?
Would it be appropriate/advisable to contact the editors of the journals with my concerns regarding the length of the acceptance process?

PS: the field is computer science


texts: Tracking dissemination of open access publications

texts:
I recently published a paper in an open access journal, allowing me to archive the post-print in other platforms, e.g. in my university's repository, or on ResearchGate.

I wonder however whether I should attach the PDF directly on these secondary platforms, or just share a link to the journal's website, where the paper is anyway freely available.

Won't multiplying the sources of the pdf make it more difficult to reflect the actual number of views or downloads of the paper? Although citations should anyway be counted properly, I assume number of reads/downloads also might influence potential readers in finding relevant papers, and I'm not sure if e.g. ResearchGate synchronizes counting with other platforms.


texts: Is it better to negotiate a faculty offer by email or phone?

texts: When negotiating a faculty offer with a search committee chair, is it better to do it via email or phone? Which one is more efficient and can get better results? For example, email have the advantage of written points, while in phone you can sense the other person feedback.


texts: Is it better to list a non academic reference that knows me really well, or an academic reference that is less familiar with my work?

texts:
During university I had 3 professors I did close work with and that were really familiar with my work. Unfortunately one of them retired and as such is no longer willing to give me a reference letter.

I have been working in my field at a startup, and the CTO of the startup knows my work really well and is willing to write a recommendation letter for me.

Is it better to contact professors that remember who I am but with whom I only took a couple of courses and as such may not be totally familiar with my work ethic/skills, or is it better to list my CTO who doesn't have a PhD.

Edit: Field of study is Computer Science


texts: Should you provide citation for an professional organization or learned society?

texts:
I am writing a paper in which I refer to a database maintained by a learned society. Something like:

  We performed this analysis on 7,195 structures taken at random from the Poisonous Substances Database [1] maintained by the Democratic Chemical Society [2].

Ref. 1 will be the URL of the database, but I am wondering about the learned society: should I include its URL as a reference? Or should I simply not give any citation along with its name?


texts: Is it rude not to take a course with your adviser?

texts:
This semester I need to take a course that is offered in two sections, one of which will be taught by my M.Sc. thesis advisor.

The problem is that I personally prefer to take the course with the other professor instead of my advisor because:

The teaching quality of my advisor is not as good as the other professor.
If I take the course with my current advisor, the TAs would be my labmates, and it makes me a little nervous that my grades and activities be exposed to them (and also to the professor).

I want to know generally: is it OK to not take a course with your advisor, especially if that course is the main focus of your lab and your work.


texts:
I am a first year undergraduate student, wanting to major in physics especially looking forward to have a research career in HEP - ph or Mathematical Physics. To go into these areas of research, a lot of mathematics should be understood with some programming.

What topics should I study in this free time and which programming languages should I learn so that I could have a smooth career.


texts: Completed writing a first author paper, not submitted

texts:
Hello so i completed a first author paper that has been revised with my PI. I have left for grad school without the final version submitted to a journal.
What happens now? Can the paper be submitted? Canned?  Should i expect to see it submitted?  Or should i kiss it goodbye?


texts: Two papers rejected from conference. One of them was judged based on the other

texts:
I have recently submitted 2 papers to a top tier IEEE conference; both were rejected.

The reviews for paper B included two accepts and one reject.

However, some of the comments the reviewer who rejected gave us seem to relate to paper A. In fact, he actually named an algorithm appearing in paper A (in his review for paper B), saying its evaluation "is not convincing".

While there's definitely a possibility both options were not good enough, shouldn't they each be judged based on their own merit? Should I mail the PC chair about this?


texts: How to find a reviewer/editor for my paper?

texts: I wrote a paper, which I would like to submit to a convention. I've never written a paper before. I'd like it to be thoroughly reviewed, not to say edited, before I submit it. I'm willing to pay for a reviewer. Where can I find a reviewer? The orientation is mathematics related to computer science (specifically formal methods).


texts: Is there any research funding for Independent researchers to work staying at home?

texts:
If somebody hold a PhD with good number of publications in high indexed journals and 2-3 years postdoctoral experiences, then is there any kind of research funding to carry out his/her own research as an independent researcher staying at home. If so, then would you please share some of such sources. Will a research proposal be sufficient to apply for such funding?

Please Note: The independent researcher has no affiliation except his home address and the background is in atmospheric science field.


texts: As an editor, what measures can I implement to prevent image/photo manipulation?

texts:
There's been a case of alleged data manipulation in a recent Nano Letters paper (initial report here; now-retracted paper):

You can surely make your own opinion on whether the images have been digitally modified, given the above snapshots (look for gray rectangles around the rods); I was careful to write “alleged” because the paper’s PI threatened legal action against the blogger who reported the issue.

Now, this case lead to a large number of comments here and there about whose responsibility it was to catch this issue (reviewers or editor). I tend to agree that the reviewer should probably have caught it, but this lead me to wonder:

As editor of a scholarly journal, what measures can I implement to prevent image/photo manipulation? And what about data manipulation? Organic Letters has made the news two months ago when they hired a in-house data analyst. Is that the way to go? Are there other measures one could take to reduce the threat of image and data manipulation?


texts:
It is becoming common for authors to upload raw data of their research when publishing their papers. However, it is still a small fraction of papers include the dataset.

Is there a way to search for papers whose data are available in repositories?

My field is computational chemistry, and I hope to find papers which have posted the raw data for the DFT analysis.


texts: Using a case study without company's permission

texts:
In addition to academic work, I have done private work in industry that is directly related to the material I'm presenting. For one of my lessons, I would like to do a case study, where I take a problem posed by one of my clients and discuss the thought process and methodology I utilized to solve the problem.

For the case study, I do not intend to reference the company name (instead referring to them as "Company X"). I intended to keep the industry and solution mostly the same, although I would not present or divulge any source code from the deliverable or data from the actual company.

My concern is that the technology I developed for the company may be considered proprietary or a trade secret by the company. While I wouldn't be presenting enough for someone to identify the client or exactly how I solved the problem, I fear that I may no longer have the right to present on this information without explicit permission from the former client.

To enumerate, my question has the following facets:

Do I have an ethical or legal obligation (in the United States) to ask the former client's permission before doing an anonymized case study, even if none of their data or my deliverable is presented?
Is there any standard or rule of thumb for using personal real-world examples in an academic setting while respecting a company's right to maintain trade secrets?

To clarify, there was no NDA/Intellectual Property transfer document or other legal document that could complicate the situation. The work was performed as a independent contractor in the United States.


texts: How does one become an Affiliate Professor?

texts:
I've noticed that several faculty members (both in my institution and beyond) are affiliate professors in some other institutions (beside being a professor in their own institution, of course). What caught my attention is that the vast majority of them wasn't in any way affiliated with the institution prior to holding the affiliate professor title (the source are their biographies). Afterwards they naturally collaborate on a regular basis.

Example: The professor did their BSc and MSc at my university X, went to university A in the US for a PhD, returned to my institution X (where they are now) and became assistant professor but in the same year became an Affiliate Professor at university B.

So, how does one become an Affiliate Professor?


texts:
In the reviewer comments of an IEEE journal, I noticed that the comments were preceded by a two-letter abbreviation such as OP, MA, MI, etc. What do these abbreviations stand for?
Can you point me to the IEEE document/link where these abbreviations are explained? Thanks.


texts: In a scholarship application that asks about "overcoming challenges," does this refer to financial challenges or other kinds?

texts:
I am applying for a university scholarship program, and as part of the application I have to write some essays but I don't understand what they want exactly in the first essay. The question is written like this:

  Household information and Statement of Need

  Describe the challenges you have faced in your path to education until
  this point. Please include the following:

  Who has supported your academic achievements until now? (financially and/or other)
  Which challenges did you overcome during your secondary education?

So my question is: when they ask "Which challenges did you overcome during your secondary education?" are they only asking about financial issues/challenges or also other kind of challenges?

Is it OK if I talk about family problems(non financial) that have negatively affected some moments of my education?

I would like also to ask if anyone could give me a link to an article or some other other online resource that has tips to writing a good essay, I have already googled but I can't find anything very useful.


texts: How to abort one post-doc sub-project politely

texts:
Right after starting a post-doc, another post-doc in the new group came and invited me to collaborate in one of his projects (only a side thing; not my main research project; somehow independent from my advisor). I agreed to participate, but recently I've been procrastinating that work because, to be honest, it doesn't seem quite appealing now.

Of course, I have other projects of my own -which are going ok-, but this one is a bit of a bug in my head. How can I gracefully tell my colleague that I'm quitting?


texts:
One of my papers has been accepted to a reputable conference's Poster Session part. Currently, the only financial support I can take is from my school which partially finances my travel to the conference abroad.
I have just finished my masters (the field is Economics fyi), and in two-years time, I may apply for a PhD as well.
The papers that will be presented in usual ways are probably much ahead of mine, so that mine was just selected for the Poster Session.
Do you think I, as a young researcher who just finished a MA degree and work at the same time (at a Research Dept. of a bank), should attend it?
The concerns I have in mind are that:

I may not get as much feedback in a Poster Session, if I am to present it to an audience
This is just a Poster Session and that's it. Is it worthy during graduate applications etc.?

I need your advice about it.

P.S.: The school finance around half of the expenses btw. And I can more or less afford the rest.


texts: How secure is it to receive a verbal offer for an academic position in UK?

texts:
I recently accepted academic offer from a UK university. I comminicated wtih the head of school via phone and email, and I have not yet received the official offer letter. I am wondering how secure this situation is? In particular if this is a good time to decline other offers (I feel bad to let them wait too long and decline their offer eventually)? Or should I wait until receiving the official offer? Thank you for your input in advance.

I saw a similar question, but that is for postdoc positions and I suppose it is not exactly the same.


texts: When should one publish code publicly on GitHub: during or after journal review?

texts: Similar to the following question, I have developed a code to produce results in a manuscript that I've written which I wish to now share with the community. But this manuscript, which is currently on arXiv, is still under journal review (which has taken several months and still sits with the referees). Therefore, I was wondering if I should put the code publicly on Github while the manuscript remains under review or only after the manuscript has been fully accepted/published by a journal? Does the right answer depend on the journal? Is it better to wait for any reason(s)? Any and all insights are welcome.


texts: Learning More CS, Physics, or Math on side as a Physics and Electrical Engineering major

texts:
Background and Context: I'm a rising sophomore double majoring in physics and electrical engineering. My research interests lie in quantum computing, theoretical physics, energy (renewable energy and grid-scale energy storage, robotics & AI, and space exploration and tech. I'm just interested in physics and engineering and doing really cool, impactful research. Currently, I spend my time doing robotics and AI/neuroscience research full time at my university. I'm slated to take classes like Advanced Linear Algebra, Intermediate Electrodynamics (uses the Griffiths book), and some electrical engineering classes this upcoming Fall.
Question: My dilemma lies in how I'm spending time on the side to learn more. Physics, Math, CS, etc. are all very interesting to me. In the time outside my robotics research, I'm stuck between deciding whether to advance my mathematical problem solving skills by working through books like the Art and Craft of Problem Solving and learning more combinatorics and graph theory, advance my physics problem solving by working through Morin's Mechanics (if I were to go to advance my physics problem solving skills on the side, should I get a head start on E&M by going through Purcell/Griffiths or advanced mechanics like in Morin Mechanics), or advance my CS skills by doing some more low level programming and learning more in depth about CS like working through the Structures and Interpretation of Computer Programs book and some algorithms or data structures or operating system stuff. What would you guys recommend in order for me to maximize the utility of my learning in my free time and maximizing my chances to gain more intuition in what I'm learning and the research I'm interested in? All seem fun to me, so I'm not sure how to decide. I feel like the CS one would still be relevant to physics because I think it might arm me with a new kind of perspective in physics research (even theoretical physics). I've been trying to go about this with the perspective of doing on the side what I will not learn later in my classes, but I don't know if that's a good way to look at it because I'm not sure if I'm going to be learning mathematical problem solving like in the Art and Craft of Problem Solving book (which goes over olympiad math topics and problems), and maybe if I work more on my physics problem solving now, then when I take those classes later, I can understand the topics a lot deeper/understand it better and go into other related topics. I want to be able to gain the most fundamental skill that will have ripple effects on my other skills, abilities, and research.
Edit: My goal is to prioritize the time I spend on the side learning new things -- rather than splitting up the time on the side for all three of physics, CS, and math as I described in my question, I would want to focus on one area that will serve as the best use of my time compared to the others. All three are equally interesting to me. I am having trouble choosing which to pick. Ideally, I would choose the subject that would serve as best use of my time (I'm talking about perhaps 1-2 hours on the side per day or spending my weekends on it) and improve my skills as a whole -- I guess I'm asking which skills are the most transferrable.


texts: How does the American PhD system works for foreign students?

texts:
I'm a MSc Theoretical Physics student from Italy, and I'll most likely graduate around the end of next year: for the Italian academic system, this means that I'll be ready to try to get into a PhD program (after 3 years of BSc and 2 of MSc).
I'm considering other countries' universities too, and since I spent a year of High School in the US I was looking for information about it. For what I understood, their post-secondary education system is college (4 years) for a BSc, then either Master or PhD (? years). Is this understanding correct? If so, do they have special rules for foreign students who already have a BSc and a MSc?


texts: What is the best repository for Engineering research work in pre-print format?

texts:
I'm a civil engineer myself and found no options for depositing engineering related pre-print papers in any online repositories. Is there any easy solution to this? For example, academia.edu lets one upload their papers but other people must have account to download the paper which is kinda turn off.

In short, I want a repository like ArXiv from where people can download anonymously and also with easy submission procedure.

EDIT: This is about already published articles in journal or conferences, so that people can download the pre-print anonymously.


texts: Asking direct question about attitude in online survey

texts:
I want to ask my participants directly about their attitude. What is the best way to do it?
Is it enough if I only ask:

I have a positive attitude (rating with 5-point Likert scale from totally agree to totally disagree). Because if they click on totally disagree, I can translate that to having a negative attitude and if they click in the middle of the scale it can be translated as a neutral attitude?

Or should I let them rate all three options:

I have a positive attitude (from totally agree to totally disagree)

I have a neutral attitude (from totally agree to totally disagree)

I have a negative attitude (from totally agree to totally disagree)

(It has to be with a 5-point Likert scale)

Thank you!


texts: I wanted to apply PhD in Clinical Psychology, but my research activities and research interests are a bit different

texts:
A bit background about myself after finishing my bachelor degree in Psychology from a private university in a developing country. I worked at my family business for a couple of years before realizing that I wanted to become a clinical psychology scientist and part-time practitioner.

Research activities in clinical psychology field in my country is sadly not too active and rigorous compared to other branch of psychology. Most of the lecturers in clincial psychology are much interested to become a practitioner, thus research activities was so low in the clinical psychology field. However, luckily, by the time I became interested in the clinical psychology research, a suicide prevention (SP) organization with quite high research activity was founded and I became a part-time researcher for the organization.

Currently, I am planning to apply for a PhD program in Clinical Psychology in the West (specifically USA or Canada, because UK, Australia, and New Zealand PhD Clinical Psych programs rejects bachelor holders from non-English speaking countries, I cannot speak German or other European native language, so I will not apply there) because the reason mentioned above. However, my biggest problem is that I wanted to do research in marital and sexuality issues, but most of my research experience is heavily related to suicide topics. What should I do?

The good news is recently a lecturer from a different from mine graduated from a PhD Clinical Psychology abroad and she seems to have certain interest in marital issues topics. Should I approach her to gain up experience in conducting research in that topics? However, I am rather difficult position because I have to balance my obligation in my family business and SP organization. Also, she seems to be very busy and she said that it would be rather difficult to accomodate my research project.


texts:
I'm currently a PhD Candidate in Theoretical Physics.

After getting into the program, I realized that studying and being able to teach Physics is one thing and doing research is another. My adviser is giving me problems and I'm working on them.

how does he know that such a work doesn't already exist?
how does he know the problem in the first place?
how do you search for problems to work in so that I may do the same thinking as him?
When I am working on a theoretical question/problem, I catch myself wondering, is this work really going to help others? If not, which is generally the case, what am I doing?
When do I know, if the paper I'm working on is worth publishing?


texts: Is there a "scientific" online source for famous direct qoutes?

texts:
I'm searching for an online source that is considered "scientific" to look up some well-known quotes such as "There's no such thing as a free lunch." (Milton Friedman).

I may want to use kind of an insinuating quote about risk in my term paper.


texts: How to obtain the h-index or number of publications for a given academic as a function of time?

texts: Services like Google Scholar can provide you with the h-index of a given author at present. Is there a way or a service that provides a time series of the h-index (or the number of publications) as a function of time, or even provides a plot of this time series?


texts: Does a conference poster count as a publication for PhD application?

texts:
I'm preparing a CV and required documents for PhD applications and I've been asked to provide references to publications. I've been wondering if it's appropriate and a good idea to put my student poster there?

The field is Computer Science and the poster has been presented during one of the top conferences. Posters were not part of proceedings and are not officially available (only online abstracts).


texts: How to write the information related to referees in an application form?

texts:
What's the best way to give information about the person who's going to give recommendation letter, in an application form?

John Clark, Ph.D. in Physics and Mathematics
Associate Professor
Teacher of 'Web Programming' course during the 6th semester
Email address: email.address@example.com
Telephone Number: +00 1234 5678

Is there any need for the 3rd line, at all? Do I need to add information related to the department the person is working in?


texts: How do academics make money from applying their research?

texts:
There are a lot of very smart people in academia. They are at the front of human knowledge and push it further. Obviously, the research that comes out of academia is very new. My question is who applies this research? In other words, why don't these smart professors start a company and sell their new findings by applying it to a problem and sell a service or product?

I mean if I was a very smart researcher, and discovered something that no-one has known before, then first thing for me would be to create a company and sell it. Yet what I see is that all these researchers remain relatively poor compared to business people, and they publish some papers and then someone else applies their findings and makes a lot of money, while they do not get anything.

I might be wrong though. I don't really know how it goes.


texts: I am studying at a university where only one faculty member speaks the same language as me. How can I get 3 recommendation letters?

texts:
For my Masters degree I am studying at an Armenian university. There is only one professor at the department who speaks English, who I do my Masters by research under. None of the other professors speak English and I have not learned Armenian.

If I want to continue my studies in Canada/US I need two or three recommendation letters to get admission for a PhD program. How can I acquire 3 recommendation letters when only my advisor knows me well enough to write a letter?


texts: Do I need to embargo my dissertation if I submitted portions to journals?

texts: It seems that most math journals, including the one I'm submitting to, are very forgiving when it comes to preprints (ArXiv).  But what about dissertations? Will they consider it previously published material?


texts: Elsevier "Computers & Security" journal latex template

texts: I am trying to target the Computers & Security journal to publish my research. I opened the journal's page but I didn't find the latex template that is used in the journal such as this paper's template. I searched for a template and I found  this one but it seems an old template and it also different than what is used in the papers published in it. Please where can I find such template?