texts: Poster session includes a "poster" + "article"?

texts:
When we are accepted in a poster session, does it mean that we need to provide a "poster" (usually in A0 size) + an "article" which explains the topic in a separate file ? Or both poster and article are included in a single PDF file ?

And also this article must include an "abstract" like usual papers?

I ask this question because I have received a strange email from a workshop as follows :

  Posters have to  be formatted in LNCS-style and not exceed 1 page in
  length, with a PDF  draft of the proposed poster included as page 2 of
  the submission (A0 size  in portrait mode,  W 841mm x H 1189 mm, with
  all fonts embedded in the  PDF file). In addition, poster titles
  should always start with the  phrase "Poster Abstract:"

Here is the website of the conference : http://deic.uab.cat/conferences/cbt/cbt2018/

.


texts: Can I send my accepted research paper to IEEE conferences?

texts:
My paper in IEEE Transactions journal got accepted one month ago. I wonder if I can modify it a little bit (changing the test case and remove one contribution of the paper out of 3)?
If yes, How much does it worth for applying for a phd?
Note: I have 2 papers in Elsevier journal and 1 in IEEE trans. I was thinking to publish something in a conference to show my interest of being amongst others in my field.


texts: Adding a short example after explaining the part of the method

texts:
I am writing my paper's (social science) methodology part and it consists of several steps that I express mathematically. However, I have a feeling that one of the steps might be better explained if I also add some kind of an example to it right after formulas.
How acceptable is it in academia? Generally, does it mean that I have to explain my methods in a way they do not need an extra explanation?

I intend to publish this paper (maybe this is irrelevant, adding as extra info)


texts: Conference reviews contains the whole range of ratings

texts:
We have received reviews for a paper we submitted to a top tier CS related conference, which holds a rebuttal phase. The ratings we got are:

strong accept (expert)
weak accept (knowledgeable)
weak reject (expert)
strong reject (knowledgeable)

which covers the whole spectrum of ratings for this conference. There aren't any major technical comments, and reviews are mainly about the reviewer's taste of the model.

Does it happen often? Is there a way to present this scattering as a possible strength of the paper (being controversial)? Should we address this fact in the rebuttal process? Any tips for the rebuttal concerning this issue?


texts: Working at a Liberal Arts College in Mathematics

texts:
I am finishing my Ph.D. in mathematics and am currently applying to many different schools. I would like to customize my cover letter somewhat for liberal arts colleges.

In general, what defines a liberal arts college? What is it like to work at one? My university career has consisted solely of reasonably large state institutions with a research focus. I have only the vague notion that liberal arts colleges focus less on research and more on teaching.

What kinds of achievements/work should I point out to a hiring committee at a liberal arts college? The answer to this may be obvious based on the answer to the previous question, but a little redundancy would be appreciated.


texts: Using a statistical method in an applied context for (probably) the first time. How do I convey this?

texts:
I am a graduate student in statistics, writing the methods and data analysis section of an epidemiology paper. I used an obscure but highly relevant statistical method to analyze our data. I genuinely believe this is the first novel application of this method outside of toy problems in highly theoretical paper.

What I want to say is: Previous research on METHOD XX has been limited to statistics and econometrics literature

This seems too sweeping a claim for me to make though. It's entirely possible that someone, somewhere has used this method before. It is also a nightmare to cite. How do you cite the absence of evidence?

So, what is the best way to convey this? Is it as simple as tempering my initial statement a bit: Previous research on METHOD XX has largely been limited to statistics and econometrics literature. Should I get rid of this statement all together?


texts: How to cite paper with several co-first authors in APA style?

texts:
It's common in my field to have articles with many (>>6) authors including several "co-first authors." For example:

  A. Anderson*, B. Brown*, C. Clark, D. Davidson, ..., Z. Zed

  * These authors contributed equally to the work.

When citing a paper with many authors in APA style, one would normally use the following citation (Anderson et al. 2017).

However, in this case where there are multiple co-first authors, would it be appropriate to include all co-first authors in the citation e.g., "(Anderson, Brown et al. 2017)"?

Obviously, once there are 4 or more co-first authors, it gets cumbersome to include all of them. Also, I realize that this alternate citation format is by no means necessary if it's even allowed at all.  My gut reaction is that this still would be inappropriate since it would look out of place; at the same time, I want to acknowledge all of the main authors' work on this article.


texts: Secondary citation MS Word 2013 (APA Style)

texts:
I can't believe I can't find an answer in Google for this. I need to insert a secondary citation like this

  AuthorX 2013 (as quoted in AuthorY, 2010)

The closest answer I could find was editing the field and referencing the secondary author by tag with an '\m' switch but that cuts the whole thing too short.


texts: How to handle newly discovered problems in second and third round reviews

texts:
For the first time, I had to review a revision of an academic paper (I have already reviewed several other papers, but they were all rejected after the first round). While the authors had clearly improved the paper (after the first round, major revisions were requested by the editor (and myself)), several major issues mentioned in the first round of reviews were still not (or not correctly) addressed. Furthermore, due to the improvement in writing and structure, the paper was easier to read, and I was able to identify several flaws or strong limitations that I did not report in the first round. Consequently, I, again, recommended major revisions (while I hesitated with rejection due to the major flaws).

After having submitted my review, I received the reviews of the two others reviewers. To my surprise, both were positive (1 line comment such as "Issues have been addressed and I have no further comment") and the editor requested minor revisions.

In view of this, I am wondering if I have misunderstood how I should review a paper after revision as I did not make a real difference between round 1 and 2. Therefore my question is how far can/should we go in reviewing a paper? If at each round, improvements are made but new flaws or mistakes are spotted, should we stop mentioning them at some point?
This process might be theoretically infinite. Furthermore, as an author, I know that several rounds of reviews are exhausting and stressful so I do not want to be "that reviewer" (the one who is too picky and who completely slow down the publication process).


texts: Scientific character in tech related bachelor thesis

texts:
So I am currently on the task to find a question or specific topic for my bachelor thesis.
The field I am looking in is the micro service approach.
There are few topics I consider writing about, e.g. evaluating technologies (e.g. Netflix stack, docker, kubernetes ..), challenges of microservices and how technologies deal with them (resilence, performance, load balancing, scalability), analysing/evaluating state of the art technologies (probably new trends and such).
I would like to hear if you think these topics are having a scientific character or if its more some kind of summation.


texts: How strict are listed minimum requirements for admission to a graduate degree program?

texts:
I'm a rising senior at a Chinese university. I'm really interested in pursuing a master degree (as a stepping-stone to a PhD) in the US.

I do not know what "Minimum Requirements" for admission really mean. For example,

  Applicants should have at least a B average (3.0 on a 4.0 scale) in an undergraduate curriculum which includes a strong emphasis on mathematics.

My undergraduate school applies a mixture of the British and Chinese grading systems. While 4.0 represents a perfect average, less than 5% of students have an average above 3.5, and only about 25% of students achieve a 3.0 (I do not know exact number).

Do minimum requirements like the one above mean "if you get grade lower than 3.0 in any grade system, do not waste your money on applying," or something else?


texts:
The background: I work in a quite narrow field in physics. Recently I submitted a comment on a published paper. Before doing this I discussed my remarks with the authors directly and they gave me some interesting suggestions and comments. In the end they suggested to publish as a rapid communications instead of a comment. However, I was more convinced that it was something it should be corrected and replied that I find a comment more suitable (assuring them this is of course nothing personal). However, a bit after this my doctoral advisor said: "feel free to submit but please remove my name (you can acknowledge me for useful discussions and proofreading)". I have a feeling this is related to the fact that he has some limited contact with the authors.

My questions: Did I make the right decision of submitting?  Will there be any consequences in the future (regarding Refereeing). I really have nothing personal against they authors (which are in fact very competent authors who have published many interesting works).

I would like your opinions on this situation.


texts: Considering applying for a third PhD Program after having bad experiences in two

texts:
I am totally lost and devasted mentally and physically, I have been in a program and left after one year because of lack of experiment as well as racist supervisor. I have accepted to lower job in other country to sustain living until I got another phD in different country with the same subject, now I am seven months in and had a qualifier today, one of the examiners didnot understand what I am doing and cannot judge and they decided to have another qualifier in three months which I wasnot expecting, normally every student pass the qualifier.

The project coordinator was offensive to me and to me mani supervisor who is nice.

The project lack of experimental data and that is the curse of interdisciplinary project. I saw a lot of red flags happening and it is hard to taken in since i am alone and also worked hard and having a side activity related to the field which is successful.

I hope you can advise me as I really need support, I asked them to leave since we dont have data we cannot validate.

I have received an offer from other university where a supervisor wants me to join and he said I can do all the experiment I want.

I am crying because I stucked with two wrong places, I am actually working at university at my homecountry and I have to get PhD for returning,but now it seems I have to start all over again.

I am hitting 29,  and I see it is failure for me to experience, I hope I can chatt with someone for help in figuring out what is the problem as I really need it.....


texts:
Why did the UK throw away something that has been one of their most valuable assets in higher education?
It is a bit like a company that has successfully manufactured items which generated the lion's share of their sales for a very long time, and now saying "despite the massive hit to our income, we can somehow successfully survive without that product". No doubt that the EU are now going to retaliate by blocking UK from related schemes, e.g. Horizon Research Grants...
Context: Erasmus+, details about UK participation in Erasmus


texts: How to know whether a visiting professor will charge the university to present a lecture to academic staff?

texts:
In the faculty that I am currently working on we have contacted a Professor who would be giving a workshop in my city. Because of that we have invited him for a meeting for discussing collaboration issues for making research in his area of expertise. Also he would be willing to give a lecture to the lecturers of our faculty about the current trends in his research area.

The question that I have is how to know if this lecturer will charge us for the lecture? It is in the field of Computer Science. If this is the case we need to make the necessary administrative paperwork to cover this expenses (my place of work is very bureaucratic by the way). This lecturer has not mentioned anything about charges so how we ask him nicely if he would charge anything for this meeting and lecture? also what would be the necessary arrangements that we should do in this case?


texts: How to get access to university resources after graduation?

texts:
I'll get a B.S. in math this December and (hopefully) go to graduate school next fall. In the coming spring semester, I will stay around my undergraduate institution (in the U.S.), auditing classes, attending seminars, talking with faculty and so on. But since I will not be enrolled during the spring, I will lose my access to a lot of University resources. Specifically (not limited to),

I will lose access to the secure University Wifi network on campus.

I will not be able to borrow books for free from the University library unless I pay some money to become a member of the alumni association. But more importantly, even if I become a member of the alumni association, I will not have access to any math database (e.g. MathSciNet).

I will not have access to computer labs in my college where I can print 600 pages of papers for free every semester when enrolled.

I can understand University is also a business and I hope I could get used to my situation soon after graduation. But I wonder if there are some ways to improve such an embarrassing situation. What is the best way for me to get access to math databases for instance?


texts:
I am a graduate student working on a double major, one in mathematics and the other in geology. The minimum required workload/semester for a grad student in my school is 9 credit hours/semester.

This semester, I am taking 13 credits hours, the majority of them are math classes. There is no research credit. That said, I still have to work on my research (both in geology and mathematics) independently. I am also a teaching assistant, working on average 9 hours/week.

I found the workload overwhelmed, but only after the deadline to drop courses without being counted as withdrawal (meaning a 'W' in the transcript). The instructor for the math course I want to drop, my advisors, and the maths department head all advised me to drop the course so that I can focus on finishing my thesis in geology by the end of this semester. FYI, there has been no grade/test/exam so far in the course.

My school has a petition form for students to fill out so that they can drop a class after the deadline. I submitted the petition with all the approval signatures from the advisors, course instructor and department head to the office of the registrar. In the petition, I told them the same reasons as above. However, my petition was disapproved by the university registrar. He left a comment:  "I see no basis for drop, but withdrawal".

I am looking for a way to get my petition accepted. I believe my reasons are valid and they shouldn't make it hard for me. I am dropping the course not because I am slacking off or failing the course. In fact, I am already doing extra workload, more than most other graduate students.

Could you please give me some advice about how to convince the university registrar to approve my petition?


texts: 6 months is all I have, what would be your method to finish your dissertation?

texts:
I will ask this question trying to be simple, but hoping to be understood on the complexities of my problem. I have looked for questions alike and my answer is not in any of them or, combined, the answers cannot make up for what I need to know.

a) I am a PhD Student, no fund is available at my university right now, it is a very good university, but they will not make anything in my favor, as I could see last week from their attitude towards me. They will rather have me working for free and pay another one when they have more money. Two PhD students for the price of one.

b) I took this position because I wanted to study with professor X and he would care about my situation/he does, but the faculty now is cutting professors and professor X is going away to a much better, 1st-tier university.

c) I got this position and cannot just give up because it would be the very bad thing for my career. I come from a country where you need to study 7-8 years prior to PhD, so I am rather old compared to the European or American students, even though I have much more experience, it is not an advantage when it comes to finding a job and etc.

d) To go join the professor X is not possible right away, to stay in this program with no money is not possible. I can, however, sustain myself for more 6 months and it is all I really can do. I know is a ridiculous question, believe me, I know, but if you had 6 months and 3 months prior to research at the PhD program, it sums 9 months, how would you manage to finish your dissertation to get out of this problem? I have the first draft of my dissertation (80p.), more research needs to be done. It is not the result of 3 months research, but prior to accepting the offer I was doing my work anyways.

The question: How would you organize with the rest of the research and really finish it within 6 months? Have in mind that your supervisor would agree to that because he knows what you can do, and if you have a good dissertation, he would go with you to the defense committee.

Thank you all, sorry for the errors, I am writing with my phone on the train, I have not the time to write at home or in my office.

I really appreciate your time.

Edit: I study Philosophy (continental philosophy, but with much of analytic in it).
I started my PhD 3 months ago.
I have worked 1 year on my project before start the PhD.
I need to finish the argumentation on the basic work of others (some of the secondary literature). It is the lesser important, but without it, my work will show up as a weak, incomplete, an amateur attempt of an essay, it will not even be a dissertation.  (It takes time, but if I could find a strategy, I could do it working 10-12 hrs a day).
I have my idea almost complete or as complete as it can be, but it could always be better, simpler, more transparent. It needs to be better displayed.
I need to do it in 6 months or I need to give up on this career I have struggled for my entire life.
I think I can make it, but I would like to know what would be your strategy in your particular case, so I could learn something from you. I, unfortunately, have not the privilege of doing it in the mood of "maybe it will work". I have just one option, make it work.
Above all, there is always a bit of depression and despair that makes the work even more difficult.

Thank you all for your support.


texts: Time for journal reviewing / referring in mathematics - Is there a recent study?

texts: In the question: Lengths of review process of mathematical journals a nice question was asked and answered: how to compare journals in terms of time for the review processing. The article cited in the answer is quite nice http://www.ams.org/notices/201310/rnoti-p1390.pdf but is from 2013. Seven years after, are there some similar studies which can tell what kind of backlogs/ times needed for mathematical journals to accept / reject articles? A young mathematician asked me this today and I gave him the link, but a more recent one would certainly be more helpful.


texts: Is it possible to claim my Elsevier submitted papers on my ORCID publication list?

texts: Elsevier submission portals (normally) have a link to your Orcid number. Regarding this, is it possible to add your submitted papers to Orcid, directly by a link?


texts: Why are small cap and old style numerals not used in technical writing?

texts:
According to the de facto standard book for typography, The Elements of Typographic Style, when we write abbreviations with 2 or more letters like SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope), small cap should be used and in LaTeX this would be \textsc{sem}.

Another case are old style numerals. When we write Arabic numerals in the passage, according to the book, old style numerals should be used and in LaTeX this would be \oldstylenums{1234567890}. I know mathematical equations or numerals in a table should not use old style numerals as they are considered standalone and do not disturb the flow of passage.

For me, I have never seen any publications with small cap abbreviations and old style numerals, and this seems to go against the typographic style suggested. The author of The Elements of Typographic Style said actually there is no rigid rule for typography when we aware we are breaking it. So my question is why are small cap abbreviations and old style numerals not used in technical writing when they appear on the passage? Why are these rules are broken in technical writing?

EDIT:
The papers I usually read are from natural science like physics, chemistry and biology without computational nature. It seems to me the use of small cap and old style numerals is very rare in these fields.


texts:
The Australian government pays for the research study fees.

Who will, in such case, have the intellectual property rights for the research: the PhD student or the university?


texts: Peer reviewing process in top math journals

texts:
I submitted a a short note, less than 10 page long, to a very prestious journal in mathematics. It has been about 4 months and I have not heard back. I wonder if that means the note made it pass through the initial assessment and is under review or it simply doesn't mean anything. The status of paper reads: reviewing.
How does the reviewing process differ from lower tier journals to much more selective and reputable( whatever that means)journals?


texts: Co-authors decided to remove most of my contributions from a Nature paper without my consent

texts:
I am a postdoc and have dedicated the past five years to working on a big project spanning several groups and countries.
My and my supervisor’s contribution was to interpret their results in light of our knowledge in my field.
For me, the project was an “aside” project, i.e. I have done volunteering work and the other authors explicitly said repeatedly that they were not the boss of this project.
We submitted a manuscript to Nature, with me being one of the first authors.
This article contained insightful information interesting for both our fields.

We got feedback from five different referees. Most of them saw our results as interesting but had many questions and one did not like it. The editor’s decision was that the manuscript could be considered again if the issues were addressed correctly. They did not request a change of format or length, respectively.

We have been rewriting the manuscript to make things clearer, and people from the other field have worked on their side for the past six months without giving me any updates. I discovered a couple of weeks ago that it is now a short letter and most of my contributions have been removed. I remain on the authors list.

When I asked why, no one answered. A rumor is that the part on my field was too complicated for them so they cut it because they believed that my contribution on their field is sufficient for submission. So in the end, the project started as multidisciplinary but it ended with a short letter addressed only to scientists of their field, not mine.

I disagree with this move since it was in my opinion illegal to take such an important decision without my consent and because the paper has lost a lot of interest for my publication list, now that a big part of my original work has been cut out.
Since I have worked on this for five years, this decision jeopardizes my career. My own director does not care but I do.
The rest of the authors do not really care about my opinion and are saying that even without my consent, the paper will be quickly published with my name removed. I don’t think that is right.
They indeed asked me to write a new paper and publish it on my side, but I certainly won’t be able to publish it in the same journal (Nature) and the problem is that I finish my contract in a month. I guess it is somewhat possible to justify five years of work for a Nature paper, but for lower-ranked journal, it is more difficult.

If I decide to retract, can they publish the work as it is? Meaning that they still use my contribution to this work? If not, who and what department/lawyer can I turn to?


texts: How to overcome fear of answering/asking questions in big class

texts: Maybe it's because I'm a very shy person, but whenever I am in a big classroom setting (lecture), I am too afraid to raise my hand and ask questions or answer questions in class. It's really odd to me how some people can just do it so naturally. Recently, I've been trying to participate more in class, but after I say what I want to say, I completely zone out due to the pressure. So when my professor asks me something again, I tend to almost freeze. There's also the knowledge that there's a lot of smart students in the room, which adds to the fear of getting humiliated. Is there a way to overcome this?


texts: Can graphics created with Wolfram Mathematica be freely used and distributed?

texts:
This is just a simple question. I would like to know if one can use graphics generated by Mathematica (for example, plots) in one's paper and then upload that paper anywhere on the internet.

I would also like to know if one can freely use and upload the graphics alone (for example, in PDF or JPG format) anywhere on the internet.


texts: Can a highly experimental paper with potentially controversial concepts published on a preprint server (not in a journal) damage one's career?

texts: Imagine a paper which has unconventional ideas which could be controversial. Does publishing it on a preprint server have the same negative career implications as publishing in a journal? Or is a preprint server actually an appropriate place to get feedback on this type of paper?


texts: Are single author publications given more weight in math hiring?

texts:
Suppose candidate A has only published alone, and in an alternate universe candidate B has an identical list of publications, most of which are with coauthors. All else being equal, would a typical hiring committee rate A higher?

I suspect the answer depends highly on the field; I'm especially interested in (pure) math.


texts: What to do about top students making other students lose confidence?

texts:
About once a year, I end up with a section with a student who is well ahead of others in the course. Often, these are students auditing the course, but sometimes are senior students attending 100-level courses or students majoring in the subject attending a course for non-majors in a made-simpler-for-non-majors course.

Such students are often eager to learn, quick to volunteer to come to the board or volunteer their work for peers to check (e.g. in a writing course), active in discussions, and they tend to take charge of group work. This does not seem like behavior I should discourage. Yet, in such sections, I notice significantly reduced confidence, participation, and engagement among other students, who seem uncomfortable with having a strong student constantly outdo them. Other sections tend to have active lessons, with many students eager to volunteer or join in a discussion, but in these sections, the class atmosphere is quiet and I'm reduced to calling on names and getting unwilling participants to carry the course along.

What can I do to turn this situation around?


texts: Is there a way to check for similarities within a single text?

texts:
I am reaching the final stage of my dissertation which means editing, rewriting, and more editing. I am looking for a tool which can help me in this process by checking for similarities within a single text of 150-200 pages. I will probably detect similar phrasings of key points manually, but I could use some automated help to make sure I don't repeat things in the same words. I know Word and other software can compare documents to look for similarities between two documents, but is there a way to look for similarities within a single document?

Thanks.


texts: What are the pros and cons of giving students assignments to write Wikipedia articles?

texts:
The Wikimedia Foundation initiated an education program at U.S. universities that in 2010 encouraged government, law, and public policy students from 33 classes at 22 programs to contribute to Wikipedia (https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education). Surveying 463 students in the public policy program revealed that they were motivated to work on Wikipedia articles that could reach a larger audience and could impact the society more than traditional class paper. In addition, classroom characteristics, and level of class engagement were strong motives to engage students to contribute in the future. You can find more information about this research at:

  Roth, A. Student contributions to wikipedia. Tech. rep., Wikimedia Foundation, 2011.
  Lampe, Cliff, et al. "Classroom Wikipedia participation effects on future intentions to contribute." Proceedings of the ACM 2012 conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work. ACM, 2012.

In addition, the following paper shows that researchers in collaboration with the Association for Psychological Science (APS) involved 640 students from 36 courses in editing scientific articles on Wikipedia. As a result, students improved the content of over 800 articles and both students and faculty endorsed the benefits of the writing experience that would be read by a large number of people.

  Farzan, Rosta, and Robert E. Kraut. "Wikipedia classroom experiment: bidirectional benefits of students' engagement in online production communities." Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, 2013.

Before relying on these studies and defining Wikipedia based assignments for my students, I want to consult with you about pros and cons of this idea.

For which types of courses does it work and for which it doesn't?

For which types of assignments does it work and for which it doesn't?

Will it improve students' motivation to learn?

How can one define a rubric for this type of assignment?

More importantly, I was thinking asking students to contribute to Wikipedia for credit, might mitigate the altruistic nature of contribution to the public good.

Is there any study investigating the behavior of these student accounts on Wikipedia after the end of the semester? Does in absence of the personal incentive, the contribution decrease?


texts: Why is there a general dislike for asian universities?

texts:
I had intentions of applying for higher education in Korea or Japan, but I was told many times that "Doing PhD in an Asian university is a career suicide".

Why is that?

My field is cognitive neuroscience, and to be more specific I'm interested in a  PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience at the Seoul National University.


texts: Should I do an MBBS before/after taking a doctoral program in neuroscience?

texts:
My goal is to become a professor in neuroscience. At the moment I have a master's degree in computer science. During my studies, I did research in neuroscience but from a computational aspect. I succeeded in publishing two papers during the program. I am mostly interested in clinical neuroscience. Therefore, there are two questions I would need an answer to:

Does the degree MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) allow me work as a doctor? Treat patients? And, most importantly, run clinical studies as the person in charge?
Should I get the medical degree before or after doing a science PhD?

It seems there are some PhD/MD programs (I don't understand the difference between MD and MBBS) but they would take +9 years in most places. Doing a PhD and medical degree separately seems to be a faster route (3 year PhD and 4 year MBBS, if this MBBS is sufficient).

I would really appreciate any help, there's a huge amount of variation in information I can find from the web.


texts: Keeping track of all you have to do in academia

texts:
Back when I was in graduate school and as a post-doc, life was fairly blissful. Only one big responsibility: research. Now as a faculty member I find so many things to do. Teach, supervise undergrads and grads, publish papers, perform research, participate in service/administrative activities, get funding, etc. Plus throw in family life, friends, etc.

I've looked at all sorts of productivity systems over the years (GTD, 7 Habits, etc.), and have settled on a simple todo list method, where I have a master list of tasks in a todo list  that I periodically review. The problem is the list just seems to get bigger and bigger. More gets on  the list than comes off, especially during busy seasons, like when teaching or when grants are due.

I realize that busy is part of the game, but how do you keep track of everything and not go crazy?


texts: Comparison of current work to the state of the art in a (journal) paper

texts:
My last paper evaluations in journals (rejects/major reviews decisions) emphasized I should make more clear the novelty and strengths of my work in comparison to the state of the art.

Which style is preferred?

After presenting each related work, make a brief comparison with my work when possible, or:
Make a summary of the strengths/novelties of my work as the last paragraph in the "Related Works" section, and point the differences and advantages over the cited works


texts: As a PhD student, I want to limit myself to 40 hrs/week. How to maintain this boundary?

texts:
So I am considering a PhD position as it appears one opened up and I was contacted about it by a professor. I'm not desperate to get a PhD. I think it's a nice goal and I am interested in the subject but its completion is not something I am dead set on.
I have read some horror stories about hours worked which I refuse to fall into. I plan on documenting my hours worked and limit it to about 9-5, mon-fri, basically view it as a very poorly paying industry job while maintaining time for personal projects/startup ideas.
So my question is if my advisor starts to get pushy and demand I spend more time working, what's the best way to respectfully maintain my boundaries?
I figure the worst that could happen is my advisor cuts my funding at which point I would terminate. Practically speaking my MS is complete so besides giving me a bad reference there's not a ton that could be done to me.


texts: Has a "portfolio" of orthogonal projects ever been acceptable for a PhD thesis, instead of a single large project?

texts:
My interests are very broad. Before grad school I did a lot of things, but now it's expected that I only do one thing. Provided that I can demonstrate research competence in more than one field, by publishing for example, is it possible to write a thesis that consists of several smaller, orthogonal projects instead of a single great push? I understand why this isn't encouraged - diluting yourself is not an efficient way to get things done and it's unlikely that one would be able to become a PhD-level "expert" in more than one deep subject. But provided that one is very industrious and willing to give up the prospect of having any kind of normal life, which I am, has this ever been done?

Also: I realize this is funding-dependent - assume that I have external funding from a fellowship.


texts: Value of having done applied math research when applying to PhD programs in pure math

texts:
I will be a second year math under-grad in September, and currently doing an internship at applied math research institute. Most probably, I will come up with a research paper at the end of the internship.

However, my interest after my bachelors is to do PhD in pure math from a top math school.My question is this:

  Would the admission committee consider my current research since it is in applied math?

In addition, if anyone can suggest me some ideas on how can I bridge the gap between my paper in applied math and my interest in analysis, I would be extremely grateful.

P.S.: Here is a related but different question also of mine.


texts: Conflict of interest with Professor's own business entity

texts:
First time caller, long time listener :)
I'm an assistant professor in a research group. The professor leading our group (and my long time mentor) told me, roughly one month ago, that he got involved into creating a legal entity together with an old pal of him (not in academia). They plan to be commercially active in our field of study.
I don't find this problematic in itself, but I'm worried about conflicts of interest: he does not plan to make his involvement in this entity public any time soon, and surely not before it is commercially active (they are setting up things right now). Moreover, He already mentioned to me that he plans to use interviews carried out within the scope of our research group activities (which, of course, we carry out on confidentiality premises) to the benefit of this company.
As I was uncomfortable with all of this, I shared my concerns with him. He told me that he doesn't see it as I do, that he'll make his involvement transparent 'when the time is right', and that it's common for people in his position to have their side-business (which is true, but I guess there are specific procedures?).
Finally, he told me that if I show enthusiasm and support for this idea he sees me in a shareholder role in the future. I am of course intrigued but at the same time disturbed by the offer in response to me expressing concerns.
Am I overreacting? What should I do? I confess I feel lost and destabilised. So any advice is welcome.


texts: Do UK's 1-year taught MSc programmes provide any scope for research roles either in the industry (R&D positions) or in academia (through PhD)?

texts:
Context - need to understand the 1-year taught MSc programmes offered by universities in the UK, in order to make a choice regarding higher studies (masters level) in Computer Science.
Specific confusion - Generally, an MS degree elsewhere will be of 2-years duration with enough time for lectures, electives and projects/thesis, thus equipping students for both jobs and research in the future.
How does a 1-year taught MSc programme in the UK differ? Are they only for students who have no interest in research? Do they not cover the subjects in depth? (I am aware of the MRes programmes but they seemed apt for students who're 100% sure of pursuing a PhD.)
Basically, I am confused if pursuing a 1-year taught MSc programme in the UK will add no value at all. I mainly want to learn specific subjects in much more depth and want to keep open options for research roles / PhD in the future.
Any guidance will be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.


texts: What is the difference in the structure of a conference paper and journal paper?

texts:
Is there a general difference in the structure of conference papers vs journal papers? Take the following examples:
(1) The following is the structure/outline of a published conference paper (source):

(2) And a different conference paper (source):

Notice they have the same general form (intro, background, method, results, conclusion).
(3) Now - the following is the structure of a published journal paper (source):

(4) And finally, one more example of the structure of a published journal paper (source):

I have 2 questions:

Question 1: should the 'related work' section come before or after the 'results' section?
Question 2: is there a general difference in the structure of conference papers vs journal papers?


texts:
I am in a math PhD program, and I feel that my long interest in a particular area of mathematics is discouraged here.

I have an interest in an area of mathematics, but the leading person doing the research at the institution which I am going for PhD is not very approachable. I went to office hours for one of the classes I am taking and this person (to me) seemed very stand-offish and was ready to let me go out the door for a simple question regarding the class material. The professor was also very critical of my background and where I got my previous degrees/experiences at after a brief conversation. Thus, the experiences with said individual lead me to feel discouraged and potentially lead me away from my interest in said specialization within math, as they are the leading faculty in this institution doing the type of research I am interested in.

What should I do in this case? Should I just accept things how they are and try a different approach, or is it even worthwhile to try to transfer somewhere else?


texts: I recently wrote an invited book chapter containing figures from different of my own papers that were previously published at ACM conferences. Can I reuse them (with citations to the original papers) without permission, or do I need some type of permission from ACM?


texts: The difference between literature review and background sections of a dissertation

texts:
I was assuming these two were the same. What is the difference between them? How does one relate to another? The context here is an MA (Master of Arts) level social science dissertation in UK education system.

Should background talk about relevant research done? If so why does literature review exist? Or should the background chose only a few literature and discuss them throughly?


texts: PhD - How dependent are public universities on funding from the US Government?

texts:
I had a conversation with a potential PI regarding the funding situation from a public university and he left me with the following - "There is a threat of funding cuts for science (due to Donald Trump's policies) but the department will fight to ensure that this doesn't affect students"

That sounds good but in the end, is there now a strong reason to opt for private universities to avoid issues with funding? I'm an international student picking between a very strong (top 10) public program and a top 25 ish private program. Most other decision factors are roughly similar for the two.


texts: What are motivations for companies to fully fund your degree and how do you find those companies?

texts:
I have heard the military can fund your M.S./Ph.D. completely, provided that you give them X number of years of service after degree completion.

But aside from providing X years of service after degree completion, are there other motivations for a non-military organization (companies or civilian government organizations) to fund your degree?

Here is what think:

Perhaps a company would be interested in fully funding your M.S./Ph.D. only if

you put their name at the top of all your published papers.
any patents that come out of your research are owned by the company

Are there more?

Also, how do you find companies or civilian government organizations that will fully fund your degree(s) and not require X years of service after degree completion?


texts: Grad School application that's submitted early with a decent LOR vs Application that's submitted rather late but with a better LOR

texts:
I am a final year bachelor's student in physics and I am applying to masters programs in physics, in the UK.

The places I am applying to have a rolling admissions process and I wanted to submit my applications by mid Feb latest, but still haven't done so.
At this point, one of the professors I had asked for an LOR (a few months ago), says he is still not ready with his letter. Owing to time constraints I requested another professor who is now ready with his letter. Any letter in the application portals needs to be uploaded as a PDF so I will have access to it, before I hit submit. I have reason to believe that the first professor might write a better letter, since he has mentioned (to me and generally) how he normally approaches an LOR and he seems quite specific about where I'm applying to and the like. However, it seems like he may take atleast another week to complete his letter.

I wish to apply for a few external scholarships which have a late March deadline, but I can only apply for them if I have an acceptance from some university.

The letter that I currently have, seems rather basic and the same professor has given another student from my class an LOR for almost identical applications.

Do I wait, and hope that the first professor gives me an answer (and a letter hopefully) or do I submit the application now as it is?


texts: Why don't all disciplines follow a double-blind review system?

texts: I'm new to the journal publishing world, and I can't but help wonder why the review process isn't completely blind?  By blind, I mean the reviewers don't know who performed the research or (more importantly) what university the research came from.  It seems that knowing the identity of the authors could influence the review such that the quality of the research no longer stands by itself. You should be able to read an article and, assuming that the experiment was conducted accurately and ethically, decide if it is a significant scientific advancement. Why are reviews not routinely double-blind?


texts: How far can one expect a external examiner to travel to be on defence/viva committee?

texts:
I'll base the scenario of this question on the PhD thesis defence committee recommendations in place in my university in Ireland. Similar may apply to other countries.

A PhD Defence/Viva committee in made up of a Chairperson, internal examiner and external examiner. The internal comes from within the university and the external from another institution (with some restrictions on affiliated universities).

Assuming for this question cost of travel is not an issue as it would be covered by your university and you/your supervisor agrees with choice of potential external examiner; is there any rule of thumb on how far you could reasonably expect a external examiner to travel to be on the committee?

One downside I can think of asking someone to travel a large distance is the possible time they have to take away from their work. Again taking Ireland as an example, an external examiner from Ireland/UK/EU could probably travel on the day or 2 max. If it was someone travelling from the US they may have to take a few days off. Areas with poor air connections may mean longer trips.

So the question is largely two fold. Should how far away a potential external examiner factor into the decision to ask them to be on the committee and how far you could reasonably expect a external examiner to travel to be on the committee?


texts: Grey literature, point it out as such in the bibliography?

texts:
For my project I rely on several sources of information including such that is not peer reviewed (conference proceedings, industry reports, master thesis, interviews). I wonder if I should mark them as being not peer reviewed in the bibliography, for example adding the nature of the publication:

  Boo 2013: "A question on grey literature". Stack Exchange April 2013. Forum post.

or

  Boo 2013: "A question on grey literature". Stack Exchange April 2013. (not peer reviewed).

Are those sources included within the list of peer reviewed articles or is a separate chapter within the bibliography necessary (as is often done for websites)?


texts: Do invited talks given via video-conferencing have the same weight on a CV as talks given in person?

texts:
Appreciating that what even counts as an invited talk in the first place for CV purposes will vary by field (links to related questions: Do presentations given during interviews count as invited talks?; Should I list talks I invited myself to give on my CV?), I wonder whether talks presented remotely via video-conferencing carry less weight on a CV than a presentation in person being physically present at the hosting institution or venue.

A rule of thumb I have learned in my field is that financial reimbursement from the host is a strong indication that the talk counts as invited (this means job talks and presentations given as a proxy for the supervisor are considered invited). With current travel restrictions (2020) and the likelihood that video-conferencing for virtual conferences and interviews will continue to grow in importance, the measure of reimbursement as an indicator of the importance of the talk cannot be applied, as no travel is required.

If I included e.g. video faculty interview talks as invited talks on my CV, I would feel that the place of the talk should indicate video-conferencing: "Host institution (virtual)". Would this limit the value of such a talk on a CV?


texts: Good books/resource on mathematical writing

texts:
I am a freshly graduated Ph.D. I want to improve further my mathematical writing (in English, if this matters).

I am looking for books/resource that address good mathematical writing. I can find some books, for example, A Primer of Mathematical Writing by the AMS. But I wonder if there are any other new books or resources.


texts: Why do most talented children still enter college after the age of 18?

texts:
Considering how the complexity of science is growing with each passing year, it would make sense for people to start working on their degree as soon as possible. However the academic system in place in most countries doesn't seem to accommodate for that, as even the talented children still graduate after the age of 18.

Why isn't there a push to lower the age of people entering college and is it a rational decision on behalf of the government?


texts:
So I'm a really bored french student and there's a thought that occurred to me of something that could kill three birds with one Stone : improving my English, allowing me to learn New things and making research more broadly available to the ones who are interested in them but are blocked by the language barrier.
And this is translating articles or papers of researchs or studies in french. I would guess that there's not really anything preventing me to do that for personnal use, but what if I wanted to, as I stated, make the translated versions available on a website or a database ? What should I know about that or what should I do in order to meet both the legal and ethical requirements of such a thing ?

Thanks in avance for your answers.


texts: What does "International Journal of" mean or imply?

texts:
It can be argued in this day and age that virtually all academic journals are international, since they are online. Anyone with an internet connection can read and submit their work to journals, independent of their physical location or nationality (assuming they are not paywalled, which is still an international issue). The editorial boards of most reputable journals are international, and so are the reviewers. Even the companies that dominate the academic publishing are multi-national entities. Despite this, many journals include the term international in their name, usually in the form: International Journal of [Something].

What does it mean or imply for an academic journal to be international and so entitled?

Does it mean that the founders of the journal were an international team? Does signify that its policies somehow promote internationality among the journal's editorial board, reviewers, and/or paper authors? Does it pertain to the journal's policy in selecting content to avoid focusing on the issues relevant to a locale and reflect a culturally diverse range of concerns? Is it merely a historical artifact from back when being international was a significant achievement, no longer practiced by founders of new journals?


texts: Need suggestion on simultaneous submission in journal and conference

texts:
Is it correct to submit a revised version of a paper to the same journal while some application part of the paper is under review in a conference?

I have received a request for revisions on a journal paper, and am thinking to submit some part of it to a conference. I can't wait for the conference decision, as that will cross the journal revision deadline. Therefore, my question is can I submit it to the same journal while the paper is under review in conference.

The conference and journal version have similarities, but they are significantly different at the same time.


texts: What happens if your manuscript is accepted as a filler?

texts:
I just got a response from a journal of the MAA that my manuscript is accepted as a filler.

The correspondence reads:

  "The Editorial Board likes your submission and has asked me to move it
  to the "Filler Archives." Filler pieces are used only on a space
  available basis. Hence, it is now in a queue with other filler pieces
  awaiting publication. It is impossible for us to predict if or when we
  will use it, but if an opportunity to publish it arises, then we will
  let you know. If you choose to publish it somewhere else, please
  inform us so that I can remove it from the archives".

Since it is impossible to predict "if or when" they will use my submission, this could mean that I might wait "forever" for publication? I am a little bit confused and I would like if anybody has any similar experience to give me some advice.

What should I expect about the publication of my paper given its acceptance under "filler" status?


texts: What if I forgot to bring my poster to the conference?

texts:
Until all conferences provide digital screens, this could happen. One may leave the poster at home/office or lose it in the train. I think what to do next should depend on the value of the work and the participation in the conference, the poster content, and the conference policy.

Options:

just talk about my work
present it on my laptop/tablet screen
print it on an A4 sheet, or get a larger sheet (e.g., from a flip-chart) and draw the outline and handwrite the key parts of my poster
withdraw from the conference (no poster, no presentation), but some people may be wondering why I'm not there.

What are the pros and cons of these options in regards to academic prestige and reputation? Usually, are there other better options?


texts: Why don't colleges and departments teach social skills?

texts: After all, to do research with a professor, a student has to have good social skills. So why not have classes that teach social etiquette and social skills? It seems that many courses in college are "book courses." Yet, when students graduate, what really matters is how they present themselves and their social skills.


texts: How to proceed when graduate advisor treats me terribly, possibly because of age?

texts:
I am an older graduate student who went back to school after getting laid off.

Going back to school wasn't easy and I had to take some classes to prepare myself for graduate work.

I had one professor who later became my graduate advisor and demonstrated a very harsh attitude toward me. For example, one class he taught was advanced statistical analysis which he did not use a book but used his own notes. I checked out a few books at the library to help with the subject. However, during a visit during his office hours I mentioned that I was using a book as well as his notes and he literally blew up at me. This wasn't the first nor the last time this happened. During one of the classes, he basically yelled at me and told me I was wrong when I answered one of his questions. But oddly, this seemed to back fire on him because another student rose his hand and asked why I was wrong? The professor then back-peddled immediately and stated that I was technically not wrong but would not explain further why I was wrong. As well, I have noticed that it seems that my grades are always marked down despite being equal work or better work than fellow students: I have compared solutions, quizzes, and exams numerous times. As well, to make things even harder during the second class I took with him, he called my cell phone at 10 PM on a Saturday and asked me, “What issues I had with him?” I felt this was completely unorthodox and weird. I replied I had none and even asked was there something in particular that I did to merit him calling me; he replied "no."

I know this sounds weird but I really think he is biased against anyone who is over 35 year old. I have had one other older graduate student tell me that he treated him in a similar fashion.

I currently have completed all required classes and electives but I need to finish my project to graduate. However, he is my project adviser. After much asking, he basically gave me the project late and I didn't finish on time. I am now into another semester. I now believe this is his weird attempt to play some final games with me in an effort to block me from graduating.

I have become so frustrated that I want to leave the university. It is hard to deal with him and he is very nasty at times.

I had a class with an associate professor who ended up leaving the university for full-time faculty position elsewhere. She never came out and said that this program wasn't good but she hinted that there are some better programs out there. I began to look around and actually found several that are about 35 minutes away that offer similar programs and may actually allow me to transfer with some credit.

I need to get a better job and that MS on my resume would open a lot of doors.

So I have several choices, I can either continue to try to work with a hostile university adviser or leave for another university. But if I transfer I will end up staying at the crummy job for about another 1.5 years. I would like to hear any suggestions.

Update October 2019

Not to drudge up the past but the short of it is, I graduated and the university awarded my MS degree.

That professor whom I had issues with or had issues with me, ended up leaving the university. What I ended up doing was taking some of the advice that JeffE posted. I contacted the former professor I had a good report with, and asked for a reference. She basically asked me why I would want to leave the program when I had basically finished, and I explained to her what had happened. Apparently, she is still on good terms with the department chair and actually called him on my behalf. I then contacted him per her advice and he assigned me a new adviser; within about three/four months of that, I had my final work submitted, presented the results to the graduate board, and it was approved. I graduated following semester.


texts: What should a proper email signature look like for graduate students?

texts:
So far, what I have is

First and Last Name
Title

Group/Lab Name
School Name
Address and Phone

I'm especially confused about the "title". I'm not sure if it should say "Graduate Student", "Research Assistant", or "PhD Candidate".. What do you think is more appropriate?


texts: Citation depth dilemma (writing sci. article for peer review journal)

texts:
The scenario:

in an article, found a point/claim/fact that would fit/support perfectly a broader point I'm trying to construct (@Related works section)

The dilemma:

Whom to cite?

a) only the article in which I found the [whole] point/claim/synthesis
b) the original sources, the author cited during his construction of the point
c) both i.e. the complete paragraph or part of the paragraph that serves my purpose

Pros and cons:

a)

Pro: I pay proper respect to the author from whom I learnt about the sources/facts. + the article is the only source I really read
Con: I would have single reference to support the point, while in reality there are several relevant sources (used by the author)

b)

Pro: I would provide the reader with deeper/direct references for further researching
Con: it is a form of plagiarism, as it would seem that it was me that read all the sources and drawn conclusion presented. The conclusion is not the issue, I discuss that particular point anyway (in my paper), but the first part bothers me: it wasn't me that studied all that sources, but the author

c) seems to me as just solution but I'm not sure how it should be formulated so it is clear for reader what is reference (let it be: [1]) from the article and what (sub) references are just taken from the article (let them be: [1.a] [1.b])

Alternatively, (and this is what I would normally do):
- I follow his references, find the articles, read them and then use (some or all of) them together with other references (known to me from earlier research). The issue with such practice: too often there is no justification for referencing his article -- and it seems not to be not right i.e. smells to me like a tiny plagiarism-sin.

The example:

....

  To achieve the first goal, the crawler has to visit as many web sites as possible, and to achieve the second goal, the crawler has to
  maintain the freshness of the previously visited web sites, which can
  be achieved by re-visiting such web sites in a routinely manner. In
  the following, the most frequently used re-visiting policies are
  summarized: (1) Uniform policy: in this policy, the entire web sites
  are downloaded at each visit (Bhute and Meshram, 2010; Pichler et al.,
  2011; Leng et al., 2011; Sharma et al., 2012; Singh and Vikasn, 2014).
  Although this approach enriches the databases, it requires a large
  processing time. (2) Proportional policy: this policy is performed in
  many ways, such as: • Downloading only the pages that have a rank more
  than a threshold value specified by the crawler administrator (Bhute
  and Meshram, 2010;)

From the article:

  ALQARALEH, S., RAMADAN, O., & SALAMAH, M. (2015). Efficient watcher
  based web crawler design. Aslib Journal of Information Management,
  67(6), 663–686. http://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-02-2015-0019

In my article I want to explain/define these two policies, together with his remarks, my own remarks, and, potentially, to expand (support) it with other sources.

I'm not sure if I formulated the issue properly, so please, do not hesitate to demand clarification. Any comments/thoughts are welcome, even if you are not sure what would be the right way.

Thanks in advance!


texts: IEEE journal or conference total number of publications?

texts:
Pardon me if it is a basic question but I don't seem to get the solution. Is there any way to get total number of IEEE publications for a specific journal. e.g. I would like to know the total number of publications of IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering from all of its issues but I don't see any option of that on journal's home page. Is there a way to do it?

I have tried Scopus as well but It does not seem to include all the publications from this specific journal.

Any help would be appreciated.


texts: How to handle possibly subtly flirtatious emails from students?

texts:
I got a series of emails from a student. At first, I thought she was being over-polite. But now things are making me very uncomfortable. For instance, at every email she thanks me for giving her good grades; it gave her motivation, encouragement etc. (this makes me very uncomfortable since it might imply I'm giving her preferential treatment) and I am the best TA she has ever seen. Her emails bear a tone which can be interpreted as either overly polite or very subtly flirtatious e.g. using emoticons, signing emails with only "Yours", "have a good night", "lovely day".

I am willing to give the student the benefit of doubt. English may not be her first language, so she may not know some phrases in emails are only appropriate with your closed ones. I want to tell her that she should avoid these phrases in formal emails not so directly. How can I convey this to the student?


texts: No response after PhD interview with good feedback + follow-up emails

texts:
I interviewed ~1 month ago for a PhD position at Institution A. The first email contacts went very well - really quick and nice replies from the PI. I had the interview which went well - as the PI told at the end of the interview and he gave me a comparison with other candidates he had already interviewed.
He told me to expect news from him at the end of the week but unfortunately, I did not get any. So I sent a follow-up email 1 week after the interview, with no reply (~3 weeks ago)
I received another offer from Institution B - a really good one but I still prefer the one at institution A. I need to give my decision ASAP (paperwork, relocation etc). So I sent another email to ask for any outcome to PI from insitution A and to tell that I have received an offer elsewhere.
It's been several days with no news again.
I am quite disappointed. It's okay if I am rejected but well, I think it is important to end things in a good way.
Anyone has an idea of what's happening ?
Thank you !


texts: Is it Possible to switch to Theoretical Physics from Chemical Engineering ? If so,  how can i do it ?


texts: Should I include volunteer work in my SOP and/or CV?

texts:
I have been involved in two volunteering groups for the past two years and I'm not sure If I should ever mention it in the SOP/CV.

Should I mention it in one or both my SOP and CV? Also, how detailed should I write on the type of activity/nature of the work/vision/reasoning/accomplishments, etc.

Note: I'm applying for Electrical and Computer Engineering for a master's degree.

The volunteering work is totally unrelated to the degree. The activities are focused on aiding homeless and abused animals


texts: Is there a need to always check for plagiarism?

texts: If you carefully and adequately paraphrase and quote in a given school assignment or a master's essay or thesis (i.e. act ethically), should you use a software or a website to check for plagiarism? Is there a need for such an act? You know, 'just in case'?


texts:
I am a third year student in a U.S. university and for the past two years I was funded by dept. TA-ship.

The new semester is coming but I have not got the TA-ship. I contacted my advisor for help and he sent a note to a professor who is taking charge of all TA stuff and he also told me to hope for the best(My advisor and dept. secretary told me there would be a second round assignment).

Here is my question: How many chances do I have to get a TA offer? And I also want to ask my dept. why this thing is going to happen (because my GPA is over 3.5 and meet all requirements). I feel very frustrated and eager to know why. Would you please give me any advise?


texts: How can I proof-read my own work more effectively?

texts:
After an article/book has finally reached the pre-publication stage, the authors have to check the proofs for errors (introduced by themselves or during type-setting). I find this one of the least enjoyable aspects of my work and also think I might not be particularly efficient. It varies with the length of the manuscript. A five-page article in conference proceedings is obviously less of a problem than a monograph.

When proof-reading my own contributions, it is the umpteenth time that I am reading the same text. I find it exceedingly boring, which might make me ineffective (taking a long time to read the text, and potentially overlooking errors).
The delay between the actual research and publication of the work can be quite extensive. After such a long time, I am less likely to recall all the details of the analysis, making me more likely to overlook errors in the manuscript.

Asking colleagues to help with this also seems ineffective. They might be less bored while reading the text, but (a) might not be very attentive because they have more pressing issues at hand and (b) can only spot clear inconsistencies, but not other errors you can only notice if you did the research yourself.

How can I make my proof-reading more effective and enjoyable/increase my motivation?


texts: Is it common to get a job (industry) after getting a PhD degree in Germany? (engineering field)

texts:
I am an engineering PhD student in Germany. I am planning to get a job in industry after finishing my degree? Is this common in Germany?

Thank you guys in advance.


texts: How to create a collaborative list of references

texts:
I am working in academia in a very wide field of research mixing a lot of different domains. This broadness is also a problem, since there is no proper references for the basis of the theory, and we have to deal with a lot of material scattered in very different places, often in the form of lecture notes, conference proceeding or unpublished documents.

Therefore, I would like to propose a collaborative online list of these references, in a light way so that anyone could add or improve the list. The best current list of references is here, which is neither up to date nor really easy to use (no tags, list by authors, etc). I would like something slightly more powerful, I though about some framework like Django but don't really know if it is a suitable solution.

I would like to be able for anyone to

sort in different ways
add tags
add or edit references entries
rate difficulty (this is a bonus)
comment (this is a bonus)

Moreover, it should be better if the list were accessible without any amount on a simple webpage.

Any suggestion in order to do such a list is welcome!


texts: Can I show my co-author the final version of an accepted publication I reviewed?

texts:
I was reviewing a journal paper recently that is closely related to work a colleague and I are doing. We are currently in the process of writing up our paper, and I plan to cite the paper I reviewed in ours. The paper I reviewed has been accepted after two rounds, but has not appeared in print yet. The author does not have a preprint on their website (or other preprint services). We don't build on the reviewed paper I want to cite directly, but our work is closely related. In the future we will probably start building on the reviewed paper, so I want my co-author to be aware of it as soon as possible.

Can I send the last version of the reviewed paper (that I saw) to my colleague? Can I cite the paper as "(in press)" if I submit our paper before the reviewed paper finally appears in print?


texts: Is it considered plagiarism if I use my OWN answers twice

texts: I am re-doing a module that I have failed, My first assignment have some questions that are identical to the ones I answered last year, would I be violating any laws or academic practices by copying my own answers from last year and re-use them?


texts: Is there any reason to not make course details public?

texts:
While attending a course sometime back, I recall an instructor saying, "I need to warn (other instructor's name)...their course syllabus is available to anyone!"

I do not have access to an LMS for my classroom-based course, so I just post my course details to a regular Web hosting service. On the Web site, students, or anyone else, can easily locate:

the syllabus
exam study guide
homework instructions

I cannot think of any reason why this would be a problem, but recall the comment, so wonder if there might be some issue I have overlooked. Is there any reason why any of this information should not be open to the public?


texts: PhD thesis defense - is there a separate defense session with one's graduate committee?

texts:
I was watching a math PhD thesis defense on YouTube and it seems that after about an hour of the talk, a committee member tells the audience to leave except for the graduate committee and the PhD candidate.

What typically happens next?  Is there a separate defense session with the graduate committee?

For reference: United States


texts: How to get students engaged in more basic topics in programming?

texts:
I have been teaching various subjects in programming for a couple years. What I struggle with most is getting the students engaged in the basics - the first few lectures.

For example, it's simpler to come up with a design pattern or a hands-on project when you are talking about intermediate or advanced subjects like database connectivity, security, networking, and so on. There's so much more to work with in those later topics. Where I have trouble is with the absolute basics - the data types and basic logic statements. It's hard to think of a sample project that is simple enough to build without getting too advanced too quickly, but still enough of a challenge to get them experience with the basics.

I get a lot of comments from students saying that they learn the material better when there is a hands-on project to do, yet for something as simple as data types, this is difficult to come up with.

Class Setup: It is a professional setting and I have been given two different formats to use. One format is an hour lecture with an hour lab or coding exercise afterwards, once a week, and the other is a condensed workshop format where students watch videos on their own about the material and then they come to a workshop for Q&A about the video content, and then we spend most of the time on a lab or exercise. The videos take the place of lectures, that way we have more time in class for in-person interaction and Q&A during hands-on project work. The workshops are two hours long, and take place every three weeks, and the videos they watch cover material from three of the subject units from the standard format.

Class Scope: As for the class topics, the class is on Java and we go from the very beginning, primitive data types and logic, for those who have never used Java or even studied programming, then we move on to object oriented design, logging and string processing, collections and streams, working with input/output, exception handling, working with tools like Eclipse and Maven, writing test code, and by the end of the class we go through database operations, security and threading, web services, and more advanced language topics like generics and lambda expressions.

Audience: The audience varies pretty widely but everyone has at least a bachelor's degree in a technical field, most of them in computer science or CIS. It is as varied as your average IT workplace would be.

Does anyone have any ideas, or know of a coding project (of any size) that would be effective at helping students grasp the more basic subjects (like data types, language syntax, and logic), and yet interesting enough to keep them engaged and want to finish it?

EDIT: As suggested by eykanal, I reverted this question to its original form which is specific to computer science. I understand that when a question concerns graduate level pedagogy as this does, it is still on-topic.

EDIT2: I've added more information about the class setup and audience that I typically work with.

We basically made a one dimensional battleship game just to start with, then converted it to 2D and talked about data types and arrays and such, then converted it to an object oriented design, then upgraded it to have saved games (for I/O and exception handling material), etc.


texts: How do I effectively solicit a strong letter of recommendation from a professor?

texts: I have been asked to write many letters of recommendation over many years.  In some cases, the requesters have made this task easy and enjoyable, and others, less so. I'd like to offer some guidelines that work for me, and solicit others.


texts: Tips for useful note-making when learning by oneself

texts:
When I'm learning new material, it helps me if I take notes (I usually use emacs org-mode). I read on Xournal (annotating on the way) and Alt+Tab to emacs to punch in important points. My question is:

How organized should my notes be while I am authoring them?

The way I see it, I can either make chapters-sections-subsections etc. while I am writing the notes (but this breaks the flow and is sometimes I feel it is irritating since I'm fretting on unnecessary details) or I could write the notes as bullets and organize them later (Something I like but overhead time is spent on organization after reading).


texts: How long before you need them should you ask for letters of recommendation for academic jobs? I've heard the etiquette is to ask 3-4 months in advance, but haven't found much corroboration for that. Honestly, that seems like quite a long time. Would asking as late as 6 weeks in advance come across as rude?


texts: Is it okay to work on a research project with a professor at a different university, in addition to main PhD project?

texts:
In the context of a social sciences PhD in the UK, I want to know (i) whether it is permissible to work on  another research project; and (ii) whether there are any general practices, if I choose to work on a research project with a professor in a different university, in addition to my existing PhD research project with my main supervisor. The topics of my main PhD research project and the other project are closely linked.

Not sure if this is relevant, but both my main supervisor and the other professor at a different university frequently collaborate on projects.

Edit: I asked my advisor about this, and she stated it was fine (and we had to figure out details), but I could sense that she was very hesitant about it. I am not sure if I offended her by asking at all, but I am very keen to work on this other project.


texts: Can I cite email communication in my thesis/paper?

texts:
In e-mail correspondence, the author of an competing paper has admitted a shortcoming of their method, roughly: "Yes, our method X does not work when used with Y." This is not obvious from their paper and is quite a big point from my perspective.

Can I cite this e-mail correspondence in my master thesis/paper (is there a difference?) and use as motivation for my work? Is this impolite?
If I just say, X does not work with Y without citation, I feel reviewers will not believe me/say I did not apply the method accordingly.


texts: From academic collaboration to research contract, best practices

texts: We started to collaborate with another research group. We make computational predictions and they evaluate them at the lab, for bioactive compounds. We have not yet established a research agreement, just talked in person, but we would like to establish a research contract with them. This is since in our country (Spain) and given the financial crisis, groups that establish such research contracts are more eligible for further funding from national government than those that publish in Nature or Science. Since we need as many contracts as possible, price is not important, we think we can offer our services for a very small fee. The point is how to convince the other groups that we need to do this not for the money, but for our future. So the question is, what is the best way to propose them a research contract?


texts: Why do people buying things for UK universities have to pay VAT?

texts:
In the UK, Value Added Tax (VAT) is added on to prices when things are bought by consumers / end users. However, VAT can normally be reclaimed by companies with a turnover of over approx £20k, and by charities (this is highly simplified; please do not quibble unless the details are important to the question).

Universities certainly have turnover of >£20k, and most of them are charities. Yet, when ordering things on behalf of the university, charging to university budgets, staff have to include VAT in the amounts.

Why is this?


texts: Meaningful research in PhD with no publications

texts:
I have been doing my PhD in Computer Science for one year and a half now (Europe-based) and I feel my research is not going much far.
I choose to do this after my master studies because I actually like to do it: I like reading about new solutions, new problems and try to solve them myself. I also really liked taking university courses.
Lately, I started to notice more and more how many of my peers managed to publish in some conferences, while I still have nothing close to submission. Also, I had a talk with my supervisor few months ago, where he hinted that my approach to the PhD was not going to be productive, and that a change was needed. He mentioned the need for more independence on my side, when finding and developing research ideas.
To make it (hopefully) more explicit, it may be that I like doing research for my own fulfillment and curiosity, but I cannot spot questions or problems that needs to be addressed or can have a chance during the review process. I don't know how to explain the current situation in another way. In the meantime I also got a bit discouraged, and asked myself if, career-wise, it is worth to pursue a path where I am happy with my day-to-day activities, but ultimately don't get any "public" acknowledgement. I think I learned a lot in this year (also, my level was maybe not so high as my peers'), so I am not unsatisfied with myself, but the issue here is that progress is measured on papers and not self-achievements. Working hard is also okay for me, so I would say motivation is not the issue here.
Should I consider quitting my PhD, or moving to a lower-rank institute? I'm fine with my work at the moment, but I'm worried it may not get better -- and I don't like the idea of finding myself at the fourth+ year of PhD, still with no publication. I don't think I want to keep on with research afterwards, and I fear those years will not be meaningful career-wise.


texts: Writing a book chapter. Figure etiquette

texts:
I am writing a book chapter in theoretical computer science. I would like to add figures based on figures previously published in relevant papers.

In the caption of each Figure I will cite the original source. Obviously, the figures that I will include are not the original ones but are made by myself.

However, since the figures are explaining abstract proof concepts there is not much freedom to make them really different from the originals apart from minor changes.

Am I still at risk of legal retaliation from publishers?


texts: Can I cite information from a report summary, if the report is locked behind a paywall?

texts:
I've found a market research report which has some really useful information for me, but the report itself is locked behind a paywall, and I've received no response to the mechanism for requesting a free copy.

My question is, can I just cite the info from the report's summary (it's actually still quite detailed) and if so, should I cite that as a separate source (webpage) rather than saying that I'm citing the report itself?


texts: Do I have to ask permission for a one day leave from graduate school?

texts:
I am a Masters student in maths in Toronto and changed supervisors one year into my Masters program. My new supervisor was expecting me to to a PhD with him, but within two months of switching to him, I mentioned to him that I would not be pursuing a PhD. I mentioned to him that I haven't decided what to do after my Masters, as I would like to work hard on my Masters thesis and write a good thesis.

Even though I said this, I am spending half my time learning data science because I would like to transition to data science after my Masters. The fact that I have only been putting in a minimal amount of effort to my thesis is reflected in the amount of work I complete every week before my meeting with him.

I have recently decided to fly to Chicago for a networking event in data science, which means that I will not be on campus for one working day of the week and also I will miss my supervisor's group meeting. I have already mentioned this to the course instructor for which I am a TA this term and he's switched my office hours for next week.

Now, the course instructor and my supervisor are in the same research group, and I am afraid to ask my supervisor for a leave for one day because I have been putting in a minimal amount of effort for my Masters thesis.

Should I ask my supervisor for a one-day leave, or should I not tell him and miss the group meeting and just return to work the next day?


texts: What's the benefit of delaying a tenure-track position for doing a postdoc (when you already have a tenure-track offer)?

texts:
I've seen candidates for tenure-track positions in computer science that managed to negotiate a starting date that is a year later than originally planned. During that additional year, they all seem to be doing a PostDoc in various places.

I'm wondering what the benefit of this is. Many departments provide you with a lighter teaching load during your first year, so it seems to me that the overhead with moving to a new place (for just a year), working on a postdoc salary, and then, before the 12 months are up, moving again, doesn't strike me as an efficient way to develop one's career.

Is there some big advantage of doing such a postdoc rather than immediately starting your tenure-track position that I'm missing?


texts: Strategies, approaches, methods for motivating innovation adoption in academia

texts:
I'm curious about what strategies, approaches and/or methods people (successfully) use in academia for motivating colleagues to adopt innovative research collaboration mechanisms, workflows and/or tools. Please share your experience or point to proven range of approaches.

The following is in lieu of background information. Currently I'm leading a university project for developing a software platform for scientific research and e-collaboration in a particular scientific domain. Earlier I have installed, configured and publicized another software platform with a goal of increasing research productivity and make scientific collaboration and reproducibility easier within our group and beyond. Unfortunately, after initial decent interest of some people, most of them (and the rest) went back to "doing business as usual". I understand that researchers are busy and are under a lot of pressure to meet/exceed expectations and due to career advancement demands. I don't want to shove innovation down people's throats, but, at the same time, I'm quite frustrated that people do not see (or don't want to see, or don't care) significant potential benefits of some new ways in doing research and/or scientific software development in academia.

Considering the high visibility of my current project, I started thinking about / trying to come up with novel strategies and approaches to motivating colleagues in academia toward adopting innovative methods/tools (i.e., Agile) through emphasizing their potential benefits and/or lost opportunity in research productivity and other aspects, when such innovative methods/tools are not used.


texts: Academic Curriculum Vitae Template (possibly in LaTeX)

texts:
It seems that I'll have to prepare my first academic curriculum vitae within few weeks. However, I lack a good template to use to organize it.

  Question: Could you suggest an easy to read yet somehow elegant,
  "professional" (according to current standard) template for an academic cv (possibly in LaTeX)?

I see that there are many cv templates available online, but very few are specifically academic and even less in LaTeX; plus, this is my very first time, so I'd really appreciate experts' suggestions and some guidance.

Thank you.


texts:
I am having a hard time creating citations for new literature.
I get a new work (either electronic or printed) and I want to incorporate its citation to my library by means of a citation file  (no matter if .bib, .ris, or whatever). And then I spend a lot of time in Internet looking for an appropriate citation file.

Could you tell me a website or a method to get a complete citation file for any work?
Thanks!

My known options are following (I tried to rank them based on completeness of entries):

WorldCat
SemanticScholar
GoogleScholar

Sadly, at those websites, I find quite incomplete citations, for example, ISBN, DOI, and publisher are often missing.


texts: Is it ethical to purchase someone else's work and submit an edited version for assignments?

texts: I have a friend who purchased work (a computer program assignment) from somebody else. He hired them to do it. However, he made a significant effort to make the purchased work into his own (he rewrote everything, he made the whole program into something different while preserving the output after receiving the purchased work), then submitted it. Was what he did ethical?


texts: Importance of the current postdoc advisor's letter in TT job search

texts: I have strong publication record in my Ph.D. and 1st Postdoc that went for two years. Got 4 TT interview calls before last year.. but not successful in any. Last year did not apply, but this year, after fixing a few shortcomings noticed in my previous interviews, started the search again. In the meantime I published a couple of top journals as the corresponding author. However, I am not in harmonious professional relation with the present postdoc advisor. I am working for a little over one year in this position but did not yield any journal publication. I am sure that this advisor's reference will have negative impact on my search, if at all he agrees to write one. The only best way for me is avoid this advisor's letter, since I can arrange the required number of good letters from my previous affiliations. If I proceed with out my present advisor's reference, will it have any bearing on my chances? Expecting some suggestions from the people having experience in search committees.


texts: How many choices of postdoc jobs a PhD student normally get?

texts:
At the end of the PhD experience, how many choices of postdoc jobs a student can normally get?

It depends totally from the PhD supervisors or there can be other factors influencing the matter, such as e.g. the student desire to join a particular university/research group, the PhD research topic, number and quality of papers?

Thanks


texts:
For example, if a person holds not just "Dr." but "Priv.-Doz. Dr." or "Prof. Dr." should we include the full title after "Dear ..."?

Thank you.

P.S.
July 20, 2014 UPDATE: as some repliers correctly guessed I faced the question when I was writing an email to a German person.


texts: What should I do the day before submitting my PhD thesis?

texts:
I am submitting my PhD thesis in less than two days. I have checked all the tables, figures, appendices, references, and also checked spelling and any potential typos (which I believe there might be more!). I would like to ask, in addition to all of this, for those of you who have submitted PhD theses before, what would you recommend doing the day before submission? Anything that I should check again? I am planning the read through the thesis again to spot more spelling issues, I would like to hear your thoughts.

Update two days later. I successfully submitted my thesis this morning, WOHOOO! Due to COVID-19 restrictions, however, all the submissions in my university are online now (no pic of holding the printed thesis in front of the library unfortunately etc :/)
I ended up spending the last day checking the format (my ToC crashed for no reason when I was formatting yesterday!), making sure no page numbers are missing (it turned out that the page numbers are missing in some horizontal layout pages, glad that I checked!), and finally reading through the lit review chapter (which I had first drafted three years ago, though I had revised it since then) and making sure citations are correct.  Thank you everyone for your great suggestions


texts: Is it good to try to present every interesting paper I study?

texts:
I am a Masters student in Mathematics. As part of my Masters project, I have to do independent study and try to "do" something: like tackling a problem of recent interest. So these days I am reading a lot.

However I also have a tendency of trying to present the things I know before my professors. I believe a lot in sharing of this knowledge. In my university there aren't too many lectures and people work on their own, so this social dissemination of ideas/information is not much in vogue. I wish somebody did that to me also as then I would be in a rather better position.

But is it stupid to try to expose the recent knowledge in my field? Now, when I say Mathematics, I really mean a particular subarea of Mathematics, where my interests lie. So please do not have the impression that I am spreading out too much.

I am just anxious that people will get tired of hearing my presentations if I hold such talks too regularly. But there are really so many things to learn, so many new things to do, how can one sit still without realising that life is short, and knowledge is progressing at an exponential rate? I often feel only I am the one really interested to know/do things, and others don't really share this spirit.

So, although I am reading a lot, should I try to present every small bit I have come across? Or only the major papers and recent breakthroughs? And what do you think about the frequency of such presentations?

Note, I have been told I am a very good expositor.


texts:
I have a professor that pulls slides from the internet to fill his lectures. He does occasionally attribute the slides to the original author (in class, not on the slide itself) but the majority of the time his slides are either scans from a book with zero attribution or slides that can easily be found on Google with either a text or image search, again, with no attribution. His latest homework assignment is copied directly from another college's online course documents.
He is not a good educator in any sense of the word and seems to be teaching just to fulfill a teaching requirement. He comes to class, reads from his notes for 2 hours and leaves. If anyone has a question in class, he repeats what he just said and tells the person to read the book. While I obviously can't say for sure that he does not have permission from the content creators to use their lecture material without attribution, his in-class behavior lead me (and others I've spoken to in the class) to believe that is not the case.
Is this the kind of thing that should be brought to an administrators attention or should I just keep my head low and deal with another bad professor?


texts: Is a Research Assistant/Associate in UK equivalent to a Post Doctorate elsewhere?

texts:
I am at the verge of completing my PhD in South Africa, and I started applying for Post PhD positions around the world. However, I am a little bit disturbed by all the therminology of academic titles which differs a lot from a country to another? So,

Is a Research Assistant/Associate in the United Kingdom equivalent to a Post Doctorate elsewhere?


texts: Can I wait to take my GRE until after my bachelors, thus delaying my application dates for graduate school

texts:
I'm panicking quite a bit at the moment. I realized far too late that I need to be applying to graduate school yesterday. The problem is I'm completely broke. I have 1000 dollars to my name and I need for gas it to commute to school.

I'm a theoretical mathematics major, chemistry minor, and I'm also worried about my performance. I can handle as much Abstract Algebra, Linear Algebra, Combinatorics, an the like as they want to throw at me but taking limits and manual integration and the more elementary things have not been in my life for a long time. Also I haven't yet completed/taken the full analysis series or topology yet.

I have a lot of questions, I also don't know where to expect to be accepted. I've got decent grades, I have to calculate some stuff but I think I
m sitting above a 3.7. I have kids and cant travel far (I already commute 75 miles) And what to do if I don't get in anywhere. I LOVE mathematics, I love learning, but did I just waste 80,000 dollars and 5 years of my life because I couldn't be better. I'm more competent than most of my classmates 99% of the time (I'm taking two graduate level classes this semester so it's a bit different), I feel like I have something special to offer.....

Anyways I'm rambling, I'll save those questions for other threads, I could spend my gas money and hope it works out in the end, but I think I may do very poorly. I'm looking for a job. What should I do?


texts: No response to formal Chair application. Is this normal?

texts:
I have applied to a Chair position, in response to a public advertisement from a US University (not one of the top ones, of course). This included investing some good time, sending several documents, and a formal application (the first, and probably last one).

In 2 years, I never heard 1 word in response (apart the application reception acknowledgment). I was wondering if this kind of rudeness is the standard in the USA, and it is to be normally expected.


texts: Value of a degree from an unknown univeristy

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  University rank/stature - How much does it affect one’s career post-Ph.D?

I graduated with a Bacholars from a top university and did quite well, however, I was recommended to a professor in an unknown (read as not highly ranked) university for a PhD program. I had certainly not heard of the university before, and I don't believe that it has much of a reputation. It is not a new university by any means (established 1800s).

Is a degree from such an University likely to add value to me? Also, how do I know whether this is a step in the right direction (before I take it)?

Edit: I am considering it because the research that is performed by the professor there interests me.


texts: What happens to consumables purchased with startup money?

texts: I am a faculty member at a US academic institution and am leaving for another position. I know that large equipment purchased with start up money is the property of the university but what about consumables such as antibodies, cell lines, and other molecular reagents? Do I leave what is left over behind? What generally happens to this stuff?