texts: How to address title-field inconsistency?

texts:
I have recently defended my thesis in Sweden and started to look for positions, pretty much anywhere. As a part of the process I am currently trying to update and freshen my CV, linked-in profile etc.

I noticed that I am having difficulties in fitting into the existing templates when describing my profile. My work is of a rather interdisciplinary nature, in a research group that is not very close to what the other research groups within the department work with.

So say my research groups is working on Bowling and our department is named Joggling. This rather odd organization of research groups is due to the "common use" of bowling pins. In this rather silly metaphor, my own research would be on Wood wax, relevant for bowling but not so much for circus trickery. So calling myself a "PhD in Joggling" would be extremely misleading when looking for jobs, whereas "PhD in Woodwax" is technically lying.

Given space, I can describe what I do and effectively dodge the bullet by something like "I have a PhD from Department of Joggling, focusing/working on Woodwax". However when the number of characters is limited it becomes rather tricky.

Are there any good ways of handling this?


texts: Asking an academic for a cursory look at a paper

texts:
Suppose that Alice has a PhD but then left academia more than a decade ago. Alice has written a short paper on a topic unrelated to her thesis. Suppose moreover that :

the paper has been submitted a few months ago to a respectable journal, and is currently under review as per the submission system
the paper has not been put on the arXiv (both for fear of publicly claiming something that turns out incorrect and having to retract it, and of being scooped by someone with access to a fast-track journal)

Now Alice fears the review process may take a few more months at least, and really wants to know very soon whether or not the paper is indeed correct (it does feel so, but maybe something has been overlooked).

The question is then : how to indentify an academic that would be

of impecable ethical standards (no risk whatsoever of scooping the paper)
willing to have a cursory look within a few days (not a proper review, but maybe half an hour to think about it) and say whether or not it may well work

Or would you just submit to the arXiv, and accept to look like a fool if you have to retract it the next day ?


texts: Copyright issue for uploading books to Mendeley

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I wonder whether importing a pdf file of a book that I downloaded in my Mendeley library is illegal or not.

Any advice?


texts: Proper resignation date based on relocation date for spouse

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I'm an assistant professor at a large public University, and I'm planning to make the move into industry for a variety of reasons.

My spouse is also an academic and has accepted a position in a different city 7 months before the position starts. Because I was planning to leave for industry anyway, I am making the move with my spouse and will begin a job search when I move to the new city.

My question is about a proper resignation date - it's February and I already know that I'm leaving but it seems very early to let the administration know. I am also supposed to be teaching a summer class that begins in May, so they'll need to find a replacement for me to teach that. I'm not sure what to do etiquette-wise; If I resign now I give them approximately 10 weeks to find a replacement for my summer course and all of my courses in the fall, but I'll need to deal with the inevitable peer negativity and rumor mill that'll spring up.

While it feels too early to give a resignation, I'm tired of fielding questions about the courses I'll be teaching in the future when I already know I won't be around. Any advice is appreciated!


texts: Ask professor if she is 'still' willing to write me a LoR?

texts:
I asked her 2-3 years ago whether she would do that for me, when I was still a BA student, she said yes. I then did not need that letter because I had personal problems, now I am out of uni for some time but would like to apply for grad school. Should I somehow remind her that she once agreed to do that, or ask whether she would 'still' be willing to write me a letter, or will it come across impolite?

I don't want to be impolite, I would just like to somehow remind her that we talked about it previously and maybe remind her a little bit of who I am, since it's been a few years and I cannot show up in person.


texts: Can i Start a M2 Master in France with non completed MSC in Budapest?

texts:
I'm planning to apply for an M2 master in France, so long story short I did 2 years of Master MSC computer science in Budapest Hungary but I couldn't graduate because I failed to fulfill only 5 credit course...
However, my question is t possible to apply for M2 directly in some France universities with the same specialty?
is there something like subjects equivalence or subject credit equivalence?
Thank you all in advance!


texts: How is the Scimago journal ranking (Q1-Q4) defined?

texts: What does it mean that a journal is ranked Q1 according to Scimago Journal and Country Rank?


texts: Multidisciplinary Science & Engineering - Too overwhelming for industry/ academics?

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Is being multidisciplinary a bad or under appreciated feature?

I ended up graduating with a solid mechanical engineering (MechE) degree, but made my record extremely multidisciplinary through research and other classes. I claim to have experience at least 3 domains of engineering, including MechE.

I get that some people have one main focus and maybe switched entirely to another, but what if they are like me, with 3 or more disciplines? They’re all interrelated, so I feel like I can bridge seemingly unrelated domains to come up with new ideas.

Do I leave all of this on my resume/CV, OR should I only highlight only a couple expertise on one resume and try not to say too much else?

Thanks!


texts: How to email current students in graduate programs you're considering?

texts:
What is the right approach for sending emails to contact the graduate students in the graduate schools that we are applying to?

Some questions to ask current graduate students are suggested in this related question.

When asking such questions by email, what are things to consider to maximize the chances of a useful response?


texts: How much do grades matter for a future academia position?

texts:
I am completing my PhD and I was wondering how much does the PhD coursework grades affect future academia applications? My undergraduate and master's was somewhat decent grade wise (3.8/4) in both. However, I had taken two mandatory courses during my PhD and I got B+ and A- in them. It was not because of the difficulty in the coursework, but I was burned out with courseworks from master's and did not put any effort. My GPA turned out to be 3.56. I did not take any other coursework as my qualifiers committee found my theoretical knowledge adequate for continuing with my PhD.

Back of my mind, I am concerned that this will affect my postdoc and subsequent professorship applications.

Is there any academic out there in same boat as me but have made it successfully in the professional world?


texts: How do schools determine their curricula?

texts:
What is the process that gets a textbook into the course schedule? To what extent is the degree program considered, rather than just the individual course? What part does each party play, from administration to professor to publisher/author? Further, how is it done for alternative media such as videos or video courses and software?

A bit of context: I have a business that sells videos of CME conferences and would like to explore how I may provide access to that content to the students (and faculty), whether part of a curriculum or not. With this in mind, I'm looking where my business might fit in and make a deal with a school.

For example, I'd be happy to offer access to individual lectures to augment a course, entire courses to augment a program, or just exposure that might convince students to purchase the videos for their own interest (e.g. a link on their website, a place in the book store, email list, professor's "extra reading", etc.)


texts: Best practices for keeping a campus computer network from getting brought down by inappropriate use?

texts:
I work at a California community college that has chronically underinvested in computing and networking. The school has been gradually increasing wifi coverage, which now includes all but a few areas of campus.

As a result, you can walk through the cafeteria or the halls of the natural science building and see one student after another watching TV shows on a laptop. Yes, it's conceivable that they have an educational reason for doing so, e.g., maybe they're watching "I Love Lucy" in order to research a paper on media stereotypes for their women's studies class. But in reality, I think they just want to watch Spongebob for entertainment.

This causes severe problems, because the network was never designed to be a TV conduit for thousands of students. It apparently was one factor leading to the fact that the entire wifi network went down for the first 6 weeks of this semester.

My school's Acceptable Use Policy forbids various uses such as commercial activity, chat, and playing games, but it does not forbid binge-watching "Breaking Bad" over the school's wifi network. I can understand the concern that once the school starts blocking certain web sites, there is a slippery slope leading toward violations of academic freedom. However, it seems farfetched to say that we have to let students access Netflix while logged in to a student account.

Are technological solutions such as bandwidth caps for student accounts a good option? This would seem to sidestep the issue of academic freedom. Spending our way out of the bandwidth deficit does not seem to be an option; not only do we not have the money, but there is every reason to expect that demand would expand to saturate supply.

Can anyone describe best practices for keeping a campus computer network from getting brought down by inappropriate use?  An ideal answer would describe both a successful policy and how it was successfully enforced without infinging academic freedom.


texts: Worth to fight examination office for English transcript of records?

texts:
I am finishing up my B. Sc. degree and thought it would be nice to have a fully English transcript of records (ToR). Although my university already offers an English version, the translations are picked from what lectureres have entered into the database. Consequently, some terms are missing. For example it shows:

  Minor subject: Mathematics

  Functional Analysis
  Klausur: Funktionalanalysis(*)
  Übungsleistung: Funktionalanalysis(*)

  (*) denotes that English translations are missing

You see that it is even inconsistently translated. The overall second bullet point is in English while the "sub bullet points" for the exam ("Klausur") and the tutorials ("Übungsleistung") are in German.

How important is it to have a fully translated ToR for B.Sc. for applying internationally?

The question "Sending non-fully translated academic transcripts for US PhD admissions" is related, although currently my ToR is not yet printed. The exam regulations are in my favor. They state that I have the right to request an English copy. However, I have been told that people responsible for fulfilling them are not fond of translations.

Is it important enough to make the examination office not like me anymore?

Especially, if I stay for my M. Sc. at the same university.


texts: Publishing a result that is aesthetically pleasing, but has no practical value

texts: I am currently writing a paper that I wish to publish in a mathematics journal. During the course of my research, I have discovered a result that is aesthetically pleasing, i.e., contains a form of symmetry in its definition that can be seen by some as "elegant", and moreover connects several distant theorems together. However, this result turns out to be useless for practical use, furthermore it adds nothing to the other proofs and theorems presented in the paper. Is it worth publishing/mentioning, even as a corollary?


texts: My advisor refuses to write me a recommendation for my PhD application unless I apply to his lab

texts: I got my master’s degree in China and had worked for two years as a visiting student in the US. Although my master thesis’s supervisor promised to write me a recommendation letter, my visiting student advisor refused. He is the corresponding author of all my publications. What's more, research experience in his lab was included in my personal statement. He said he would offer me a recommendation letter only if I apply for his lab. When I asked whether he could recommend me for other universities, he did not reply to my email. Is there any possibility that I get an offer without his reference letter? How should I explain this to an admission committee?


texts:
TLDR: what's the smoothest way of getting a professor as a third advisor in the penultimate year of my PhD without offending my current advisors?
(Note: I know I am lucky and this is not a big problem, I just want to know the best way to proceed.)
I'm a penultimate year PhD working in field A in a top US university of that field. Since my masters, I've had two advisors that work in fields A&B. The relationship is great, they leave me great flexibility and they don't seem to care nor need recognition. My research started being close to another professor who was interested in my research. Last year I started meeting this professor weekly, separately from my weekly meetings with my regular advisors, and going to his lab meetings (and I told my advisors and they were fine with it). I've also now co-authored a paper with all three professors in it.
This Fall I will be on the job market. My current advisors are extremely well-known in field B, and one of them is also well-known in my field A, but this third professor is just extremely popular in field A. He also has a very good history of having students going to top places after graduation. Finally, our research interests align very well and his insights have been very helpful. I think it would be beneficial for me (and possibly for the third professor) to have him as an adivosr. I also know this is possible since a friend of mine has this same triplet of professors as advisors.
I really like my PIs and don't want to offend them. Is it offensive/unfair to my current PIs if I try to get this third professor as an advisor so late in my PhD (without dropping either of them)?
If so, who should I ask first? And, is it better to do it via email to give them freedom to think about it or in one of my face-to-face meetings?


texts: Publishing a paper that's already been cited

texts:
I do theoretical CS. A few years ago, I did some research and wrote a paper on my results, posting it on arXiv. I thought about getting it published, but between applying to programs after graduation and starting my new job, it fell by the wayside. Recently, I found a new paper is coming out that cites mine, disproves a conjecture, and extends a result.

Does the existence of the new paper hurt or help my chances of eventually getting the paper published? More likely, I would aim to present it at a conference because I've been told that that's much easier in theoretical computer science, especially for unknown authors or niche topics. Does the new paper hurt or help me chances of presenting the paper at a conference? It would feel weird presenting research that's no longer the state-of-the-art. Should the paper be modified to acknowledge the existence of the citing paper?


texts: Career path to professor with an engineering background in Germany

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I am in the final year of my master in mechatronics engineering in Germany, and I want to work as a researcher or a professor in a  university since i believe a professor/researcher has more freedom than an engineer within a company.

I don't have any experiences in the academic field, so I suppose I have to get some somehow.

What are good option to pursue as a career path in Germany to get a professor position at a university? Do I need to get a PhD? Is it better to become assistant professor on that path, or a research engineer?

Thank you


texts: How to search for upcoming conferences that will be held in a specific subject

texts: What is the best way to search for conferences all over world? I need to participate in one in the near future.


texts: Are there any good job directories for academic work?

texts: I'm currently looking for a PhD position and have started to realize that a lot of my time goes into sporadeously surfing the web in hope of finding an open position. Are there good job directories for academic work that lists available positions?


texts: Can I rewrite sentences after my article has been accepted, when reviewing proofs?

texts: My paper got accepted in AEÜ. I want to make some changes in my article. Can I rewrite some sentences when reviewing the proofs from the journal?


texts: Must graphs in a mathematical PhD thesis be drawn nicely?

texts:
I am writing my PhD thesis in mathematics and there are several graphs to be included (on knots, braids, and other related objects). I know that there are several software available for drawing graphs like this, but I am not experienced with any one of those. Also I do not have much time to learn a new software to draw graphs. I have asked a related question before but am frustrated by the time that is needed in learning the drawing software. Am also considering using hand-drawn graphs.

My question: It is generally a requirement for the graphs to be drawn very nicely in a mathematical PhD thesis? (I know that different universities have different rules and here I am asking about the general principle.) Is it generally considered acceptable if I draw some graphs by hand, scan them and include them in the thesis?


texts: Is it widely followed that only some parts of academic books are taught to undergraduates?

texts:
I'm an undergraduate student studying psychology using English language in a non-English speaking country. I'm graduating soon, and I'm applying for master programs. We mostly use McGraw Hill publications for our undergraduate curriculum.

My concern is this: Our instructors teach us through slides, and books are secondary learning sources—that is if they are used at all. These abbreviated slides use the same chapters of the book, yet not all chapters are covered, in fact some courses cover as little as half of the relevant book's chapters.
Is this normal across the world?
A friend of mine told me that academic books are made to accompany both bachelor-level topics, and master-level topics, and this is why some parts were excluded for undergraduate programs. Is this correct?

I'm asking this because I don't want to get shocked when doing my masters and discover that I'm under-prepared or under-trained.


texts: Following literature - What is a good configurable publication notifier?

texts:
I would like to keep up to date with public literature in my research field. All relevant publications are of too big a volume to follow and so the problem invites some automatic mechanism of filtering and notification.

Do you know of any good mechanism (desktop\online application etc.) that could be configured to alert on new publications according to specific criteria?

Three criteria that I would think would be very useful in such a mechanism are :

Follow by researcher name - I would like to know of any new publication Prof. X was involved with.
Configurable  citation filter - I would like to know of any new publication which cites any of Prof. X papers or a specific one.
And\Or\Not keywords - I would like to know of any new publication that has both keywords A and (B or C).

Do you know of such existing app? Any recommendation to such (or similar) applied functionality would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!


texts: How to ignite your research career when your advisor is so disappointing?

texts:
How can I ignite my research career when my advisor is so disappointing and I can learn nothing from him?

He rarely publishes academic papers, but he has his fingers in many pies(engineering projects) and has no time to give any suggestions and directions for my MS project. I think nothing can be learnt from him. How can I startup my own research career under such a condition?


texts:
In a article I saw this expression:

  ... initial sample (cfr. Härdle et al. (2004))...

What is the meaning of cfr. or does it stands for?


texts: In Chinese academia, what is the significance of the corresponding author, beyond 'public relation'?

texts:
I am a PhD candidate currently preparing a manuscript for journal submission in the environmental modelling and engineering field. One of my authors is from China, and contributed some data and ideas for the methodology that I found quite useful.

This person wants to be the corresponding author for the study with the argument that being the corresponding author is the only way to secure future funding for the study in China/from Chinese sources. Yet he is no way in a position to explain and defend the study, as he wasn't really involved in modelling, analysis and writing, and has limited understanding regarding the main model functioning.

I have so far refused to let him be the corresponding author, but he is really putting pressure on me to be the corresponding author.

Can someone give me some pointers on why it is so important for a Chinese academic to be the corresponding author? Does his argument about funding generally hold true?


texts: Is it ethical to blog about your publications to communicate your research without being restricted by the journal?

texts:
I've always been interested in communicating research to the public. I also strongly believe that research publications should be in the public domain, especially if the work was funded with public money.
I found the responses to this question to be pretty interesting, and they got me thinking about scientific blogging as a solution.

So my question is -- can I put up my scientific findings on my blog or webspace that is not written exactly like my published article but contains essentially the same data and results?

Edit: I am not suggesting blogging as an alternative to publishing, but as an additional mode by which I can communicate my research and not be handcuffed by any publishing magnate.


texts: Academic Gowns and Hood Colours for Overseas Students Where the University Does Not Have One

texts:
My university has asked me (actually, a friend) to process in a graduation ceremony, and expects me to wear full academic dress. However, my home country and home university does not have an academic dress.

Is there a standard hood colour in the UK which means "master's degree; overseas university (unspecified)"? And indeed the same for a bachelor's / doctorate degree?


texts: How to ignore a presenter's bad english?

texts:
I recently attended an average international conference in Computer Science. This was the first time I actually attended an international conference.

The level of English that I heard during the talks ranged from average to extremely bad (ignoring the native speakers/people that lived a long time in an english speaking country).

I am not a native English speaker, and I do not expect other researchers in the same situation to be as fluent as a native speaker either. But I have worked hard to improve my accent and my elocution to a point where I feel very comfortable speaking the language without stuttering every two words or mispronouncing a lot of things.

As such, I felt extremely frustrated during the entire conference: a speaker with bad English would quickly annoy me, because I felt as if they did not work hard enough on their English elocution, which I believe is an inherent part of being a scientist (especially in Computer Science, where conferences are very common). Therefore, I ended up not being interest in the vast majority of the presentations, even if the subject might have sounded appealing.

How can one improve at looking (or rather, hearing) past the researcher's English, and focusing on their actual contribution?


texts:
A study compared two groups (differing on factor A) on ability X and found that X differs between the two groups (effect of A). However, the groups also differ on a not interesting variable B (say, "age"). When using B as covariate in the analysis of A on X, there is no effect of A.

In the statistical analysis (ANCOVA) the authors present the statistics for X corrected for B (i.e. "no significant effect of A on X"), however, next to this analysis, they present the effect sizes (Cohen's d) of the raw/uncorrected values of X as support for their hypothesis ("large effect of A on X"). They do not attempt to make it obvious that these effect sizes are based on scores without correcting for B.

I think they have to present the effect sizes of A corrected for B (i.e. after regressing out the effect of B on X). However, they don't want to, possibly because they have a strong hypothesis about A affecting X.

Is what they are doing correct, is it normal, is it misleading or even fraud?


texts: How do I find abbreviation of the journal name Engineering?


texts: How to build a list of seminal papers in a field?

texts:
This question is similar to this one, but focused on papers rather than on authors. Does anybody know of a systematic way to build a list of the most cited and/or influential papers in a discipline?

I've tried to use Google Scholar, but I was not able to search papers by label, as you can do in the case of authors (see the accepted answer here).


texts: How many marks should I take off for a student using an incorrect value?

texts: I am marking tests and a student wrote down 64 instead of -64 for one of the questions. This obviously changed the entire question and they would have gotten full marks otherwise, (i.e. all their steps are correct). They also did really well on the rest of the test. I do not know how much I should penalize them since full marks on this question would give them 87%, and anything lower would be an <85% mark. Even half marks would drop their mark to as low as 60%. How many marks would you penalize them?


texts: Is a Double Degree equivalent to 2 single degrees?

texts:
I want to study Bachelor of Mathematics at university in Australia. While I was surfing the various courses, I came across something interesting. It was Bachelor of Mathematics and Bachelor of Computer Science at University pf Wollongong (which takes 4.5 years to complete). I was like wow how does this work, Same qualification, and two degrees for 4.5 years. A single degree alone takes 4 years. But then I started to think, wait a minute this seems too good to be true.

(Note that my intention is to study Mathematics and do a PhD in Mathematics, I don't want to get some limited mathematics knowledge if double degree has half of both. At the same time I would love if this is full of both, so in that case I will apply to this.

Please help me on how this works , what are the limitations, will I get the same recognition and knowledge as students studying Math alone?


texts: Why isn't literature search a waste of time if centralized documentation is a better alternative?

texts:
I am asking this question regarding to the documents (thesis, research papers, and publications) that contain original, novel work.

Before starting to write a research paper/ thesis, searching for a problem statement, submitting to a journal, staring research work for Ph.D., etc., every researcher has to do a proper literature search. It is a well-known fact that literature search is mandatory for every professional researcher.

There is a finite number of existing disciplines and each discipline has a finite number of existing topics to research and to publish upon. Why is there no centralized mechanism to document the research that has happened till the previous year? If the discipline or topic is totally new anyway there is no need for the literature search.

If there is such a mechanism, then there is almost no chance for rediscoveries and there is no need to search for the whole literature that is randomly distributed across the Internet, paid journals, libraries, etc.


texts: Cold emailing another grad student at your institution to ask a question

texts:
I’m stuck in my research (I'm a PhD student) with a task/question that neither I nor my advisor are knowledgeable about (we are looking for vendors of a niche item and have had very little success in that). I have found a group on campus that I think may use this tech (based on their published research) and I want to reach out to a grad student there that I think may know where they get this tech from or who makes it for them.
Would it be inappropriate to email them just to ask this question? It isn’t really a scientific question so I don’t want it to come across in a bad way.


texts: I wonder if I can cite an unpublished thesis (Ph.D or Master) in a research paper. If so, how do I do it? Should I also include a link to the thesis?


texts: How do I add a label or keyword to my Google Scholar account?

texts:
I notice that some people have labels or keywords associated with their Google Scholar profile - e.g., biochemistry, DNA, etc.
How do I add these to my profile?
Thanks!


texts: Harvard referencing and in-text referencing for Chapters

texts:
Say in the reference list you have referenced a book: can you reference a chapter in that book in-text as such: (Doe 2011, Chapter 3)?

I don't necessarily want to go with the option of referencing each chapter in the reference list.


texts: Is it disrespectful to invite a renowned lecturer if I know that he will be travelling through my city?

texts:
Actually I am working in an Information Systems Faculty in the main capital of my country. A few days ago I receive an email in which a university located in other city of my country; will have a renowned lecturer to make a small conference for the students in that university. I would like to invite that lecturer for a very brief speak with the faculty and some students, because I know that this professor will arrive first to the capital before moving to the other city.

The question that I have is how can I make him an invitation so that it does not sound disrespectful, because I think it will be a great opportunity for us to have this type of academic contacts. Should I write him directly to his email to see if he will available? or should I travel to the other university to see if I can catch him up after his lecture? The problem with the last option can be that he could be on a rush to return to his country and it will be a missed opportunity.

Any advice?

Thanks


texts: When developing a course, how to determine number of credits?

texts:
I am a graduate student helping with the development of a course and will be teaching at least part of it.  However, I found out recently that the program wants to offer it as a 1-2 credit course.

It's being sold as a "journal club" format, but requires a lot more outside work than the typical journal club because it's being developed as a sort of flipped classroom style course.

Is the amount of in-class work used to determine credits?  Overall work?  Something else entirely?  I don't want to bring this up to them if it I'm not even understanding it properly.

So, how do you determine how many credits a course is "worth"?


texts: Relative importance of journal citations compared to classroom performance by academic field

texts:
With regard to tenure decisions how drastic are the different weight placed on journal articles compared to teaching ability in the classroom?

I know some in the STEM fields that seem narrowly focused on research prior to obtaining tenure and others in other academic fields that seem to spend very little time on research.

Is the relative weight of importance really as drastic as it appears? Or is it exaggerated by those who have a bias one way or the other?


texts: Is there any research done on ideal proctoring algorithms?

texts:
I am a grad student TA and I proctor exams. I want to know, what is the best way to proctor? As in, paths to take while walking, when to stand, when to walk, etc.

Is there any rigorous studies on what catches the most cheating? How does the algorithm change for larger or smaller classrooms?

I am interested in scientific studies, not anecdotes. Are there any rigorous studies for this?


texts: When applying for a postdoc, the contact person is not the professor I want to work with, what shall I do?

texts:
My situation is that I want to work with Prof. A, but in the advertisement another professor (B) is the contact person. Now, I need write an email to send my CV and research statement to the contact person. What shall I write in the email? I will write in the email I want to work in the institution and my previous research activity very briefly (The institution does not want the cover letter, so the email will serve as my cover letter). Then the problem is: Shall I simply write "Dear Prof. B,..."? If so, I worry that Prof. B would think I want to work with him. But if not, I would write "Dear Prof. A", which sounds weird because the email is sent to Prof. B.

What shall I do in this situation?


texts: Which level of sloppiness is forgivable at PhD thesis completion

texts:
The question can be really irritating for most of the people and I am sorry for that. Surely, the right answer should be "no inaccuracies, everything should be right!". However, let's take a look at real situation...

...when you realize that you were sloppy PhD student and carrried some experiments in inaccurate way, but there is no time to repeat them again.
You try to explain it in your thesis that the observed effects are still there, just the exact quantification is not clear because of raised issues.

Is it possible still "defend" thesis? You learned from your mistakes how you should not do it in the future and PhD thesis is a qualification work, so...are mistakes forgivable at this position of PhD student?
How to formulate an answer for the defense, which reflects that you understood it was not right what you did and you will do better next time?


texts: What is the point of a cover letter in journal submission?

texts: Many journals do specify that cover letters are optional. From my experience, most people write cover letters in journal submission, but I am also aware that articles can also be published without the cover letter. Therein arises the question: why are cover letters written if they are not necessary for the publication process?  My guess is that perhaps it helps to prevent the desk-reject from the editor.


texts: How to gain admission to a math PhD program when as an undergrad, I didn't do research, take pure math classes, or form relationships with professors?

texts:
I just graduated college in May, and I spent my entire college career convinced that I would never study again. I had a plan for my future, and it involved working- no more school. I had considered grad school, but never very seriously.

Now, however, I am very much considering a grad or PhD program. Unfortunately, because of my intentions before, I hadn't done much research in college, opting instead for leadership and work experience. I also didn't foster any significant relationships with my professors. I talked to them enough to learn the material and pass the class, but, in my opinion, not enough for a glowing recommendation.

Now, I feel like I wasted something. How can I get into grad school when I am unable to procure stellar recommendation or show that I took classes in pure, theoretical mathematics? (I took more classes that concerned mathematics applied, like statistics and practical life models and such)

Would it be necessary for me to take more classes? Go back to school? That seems unnecessary, since I already have a bachelor's degree in Math, but I don't know what I can do.


texts: Can I submit an abstract for an unwritten paper which will form part of my PhD?

texts:
I am applying for my PhD to start this Autumn. There is a conference coming up soon with a theme which is very relevant to my PhD topic and I would like to submit an abstract for it, write the paper and then develop parts of it for my PhD at a later stage. Is it OK to write a paper for the conference and then later use parts of it for my PhD seeing as it is so relevant?

EDIT: For a little more information, this is for a conference on music and the research has not been carried out yet. Additionally, the area that is being researched is one that has very little scholarly coverage. Due to this, the focus will not be so much on looking for a particular kind of result, but any result that will arise from literature review/qualitative interview data. Interviews have not been conducted but there is quite a bit of time to do so, I feel. I understand if this were a scientific conference that submitting an abstract would be a little risky, but seeing as this is the humanities, I think there is more room for interpretation.


texts: Is transferring to another university an option for an unhappy PhD student?

texts:
I've heard of people transferring between graduate schools because of their advisor moving to another school and taking their students with them.

Do students ever transfer for other reasons? If a student isn't happy at the school they choose, could transferring be an option? Presumably they would frame it as something positive such as "turns out I really want to work with Professor X" rather than "I hate my school", but does this ever happen? Is there a certain timeframe in which this is possible? (Assume it's a 5 year PhD program.)

If the answer varies by subject please mention the subject in your answer.

(Context: many friends have told me that if it turns out I'm not happy with my choice, I can always transfer. My impression is that this is actually difficult since many schools don't accept transfer students and in any case not being able to stick with a program looks bad -- but I don't have evidence either way so wanted to ask people who are in academia. Of course the ideal would be to pick a school one is happy with in the first place!)


texts: How to indicate obscurity in a translated quotation?

texts:
I'm writing a historical work about a German philosopher, in which I use some of his unpublished notes.

One quotation contains an almost untranslatable, hardly intelligible expression - it's not essential to the point I'm making with the citation (which is perfectly clear), but by cutting it out using [...] I mangle the quotation even more.

Can I translate it literally (which turns into nonsense) and write [sic] behind it? After all, it's not what was actually written but my translation, so I feel like this isn't really an option. Or should I chose one of the different possible interpretations that make some sense of it, but thereby pushing some particular reading, even though I don't need that to make my point?


texts: How to Scale or Curve the Grades for an Examination?

texts:
I am the teaching assistant for a course in economics, and one of my responsibilities is marking examinations.

I had just finished marking the midterm, and the grades were very poor. The details are (approximately):

Mean: 23%
Standard Deviation: 5%
Min: 4%
Max: 68%
Number of Students: 84

Upon consultation of the professor, I was told to scale the grades. The method he had given me  was to add a fixed amount to each student's grade such that the mean would be 72%.

To me, this seems to be an inadequate way to correct the distribution of grades and would be unfair to the students who did score much higher than the class mean.

My question is, what is the best way to rescale the grades for an examination such that the it is fair to all the students in the class?


texts: Which form of English (US or UK) should be used for Elsevier journal publication?

texts: I am intending to write a journal paper for Elsevier Gait & Posture publication, but so far I found contradictory answers to the above question.


texts: Is asking an author I'm reviewing to cite me a conflict of interest?

texts:
I'm reviewing a paper whose work is quite related to some of my early PhD work, that was about 2 years ago. I have a paper published in a Journal that proved that method A had good solutions for the problem X.

Now I'm asked to review a paper that does a variation on method A, although they never cite my paper at all, is not exactly the same, but I think there should be a reference, if not because it is my paper, but because by the time I did the survey no one else had used that method.

Now, that said, is it a breach of interest to ask the authors to cite my work, or at least read it?


texts: Is it bad if my mom comes to a conference with me?

texts: I am going to my first conference and my mom wants to join.  (She can probably get funding from her university to accompany me, even though she is in a different field.)  Will it reflect badly on me if we stick together?


texts: How much does one explain on a PhD application if an MA took 3 years instead of two?

texts:
I am applying to History PhD programs, and recently finished my MA thesis and coursework in August 2016.  But I began initially began MA studies in Fall 2013, and so it took me three years instead of two.  Basically I took a full-time course load for one year and then shifted to part-time (my undergraduate study was completed in the common 4 years).  I would think that my reasons for delay would be fairly common, but I'm entirely unsure on how decisive the admissions committees typically look at these kinds of things, if it is necessarily to explain them, and if so, to what level of detail:

1) I'm a veteran, but ran out of GI Bill funding after first year of study (Fall 2013-Spring 2014).  MA students aren't funded where I went, so I was strapped for cash and had to stretch money and span out my education expenditures.

2) I'm married, and from Spring 2014-Spring 2015 the marriage basically exploded and ran off the rails.  The catalyst was the intensity of time/being I devoted to graduate study and undergraduate study previously, which ignited the underlying marital issues type of thing.  So we cut back on everything and took time to work on the relationship.  Everything now is resolved in its entirety, and except for a medical emergency requiring me to care for my partner, none of these previous issues can really possibly arise any longer.

3) I did fieldwork and took extra time in revising and extending my thesis, which ended up to be more like a mini-dissertation.  At least as my professors told me, they all supported the project because of this potential and weren't too concerned about me taking Fall 2015-Summer 2016 for its completion (and its still a work in progress with numerous gaps).  Most of the professors in the department I worked with have encouraged me to apply to the top PhD programs (Harvard, Yale, Brown, etc.).

Number 3 seems easy to explain and incorporate if I need to.  But number 1 and 2, I'm not sure.  I do not want it to appear as if I could not handle the workload or something; although, I could see that in the most immediate, practical sense, I couldn't actually handle it, since I could not balance my marriage/family issues with my scholarly pursuits.

Anyone been in the same situation when applying to PhD programs?  Any advice or tips?


texts: Should I accept to review a re-submission to a different conference

texts:
(My field is Computer Science, where conference publications are the norm.)

I reviewed a paper submitted to conference A six months ago. The paper was borderline, and was eventually rejected. I wrote a reasonably lengthy review.

I've now been asked to review a re-submission of the same paper from the same authors for conference B. At first glance, the differences between the versions A and B are quite minor.

While I would have no problem reviewing the re-submission, I am worried about any bias (real or potential) that could occur from having access to a previous version of the work. This may be seen as preventing version B from standing on its own merits and having a "fair" shot at this conference.

It's possible that my review of paper B will have the same comments as paper A, or at the very least my review will be written in a similar style. As such, while the reviewers are anonymous, it's quite possible the authors will realize the same person reviewed the two versions of the paper.

Should I accept this review, or suggest an alternative referee?


texts: How is a student perceived if he took more time to graduate?

texts:
Suppose, a student completed his MSc in 4 years, instead of 2 years, but has a CGPA of A.

Would he have any disadvantage as a Ph.D. applicant?

Edit:
I can think of two possible reasons:
 1. financial difficulty.
 2. took some time to develop the necessary knowledge to cope with some courses. For instance, he has to complete a course X (e.g. Stochastic Process) but found that he doesn't have the necessary background knowledge (e.g. Probability and Statistics) to obtain a good score. So, he took some time studied at home and then came back, and he scored an A or A+.


texts: Who evaluates Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship proposals?

texts: Who are the evaluators of the Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship proposals? Other academics ? How are they selected ?


texts: Can computer science student do PhD under supervisor in mathematics?

texts:
I am masters in information security. I want to do PhD in cloud security. I am currently studying homomorphic encryption. My supervisor knows abstract algebra and has PhD in mathematics(abstract algebra). Can I do PhD under her supervision, seeing that she only knows abstract algebra which is required for homomorphic techniques?

Any guidance will be great help.


texts:
The situation maybe a little bit unusual, and I am asking for your opinion.

I have taught an undergraduate course on differential geometry of curves and surfaces last Fall semester. One of the students in my class, whom I think is really bright, told me that he found the proof of a certain well known theorem is a little bit hard to understand. We had some discussion on it, but I was quite busy so I wasn't paying too much attention on it, so we didn't get any good conclusion.

Recently I was revising my lecture notes and I was reminded of his question. Then he and I found that no fewer than three books (two textbooks and a research monograph) give wrong proofs of that theorem. We are quite satisfied with what we found, and his question was settled. Then he asked whether we should write a paper on this issue and submit it to some undergraduate research journal, like Involve. At first I didn't think it was a good idea because finding a mistake of a proof of a theorem in three books isn't really a big deal, and I told him we could send an email to the authors of those books about the mistakes. But then I think his idea might not be as bad as it seems to be because, essentially, when an undergrad can find some mistakes in well-known textbooks that (it seems to me that) nobody can find, it means something to me. My concern is I don't know even if we are talking about an undergraduate research journal, do the editors think it's certainly not worth a try or the opposite?

On the math side of that theorem, those three books use the same techniques but with different assumptions (or you may want to call simplifications). However, the proof in each of those books have different mathematical mistakes (i.e., not just some simple typos). So far we only found one textbook which gives a correct proof. The other books which contain a correct proof of this theorem are either too sketchy/wordy or those books are research monographs.

Since I have no experience on writing a paper based on the "discovery" of this nature, any comment is welcome. On one hand I think it's something to an undergrad student and on the other hand, I am not sure about what the editors think.

Thank you.


texts: What is a "full-time teaching faculty" (and does advising count)?

texts:
Ed Tufte offers a discount to his seminars for "full-time teaching faculty" (as well as full-time students).

Does "full-time teaching" exclude full-time faculty who spend part time doing research? Does advising count as teaching?

Update

I contacted the organizer and they clarified that "full-time teaching" excludes most "research" faculty; it is intended for faculty whose primary job is to teach, not research faculty who also teach.


texts: Is there any scientific reference about position of the LGBTQ community in STEM academia?

texts:
According to the Nature article "LGBTQ scientists are still left out" there are some "heteronormative assumptions" in the STEM field which artificially suppress the number of LGBTQ people in the field. This view of the sciences¹ doesn't match my own experience and anecdotal evidence. (I have seen evidence of a sexism issue but it is a separate issue from LGBT.) In my (admittedly subjective) experience, people in STEM tend to be more open-minded than any other profession.

The Nature article cites a few studies, but none seems to be directly on-point (one study focused on government workers rather than scientists in academia-proper, and another had results that were not statistically significant and whose authors admitted they had made mistakes). Again maybe I'm wrong, but I would like to see a more relevant peer-reviewed study (gender studies or social science) explaining this problem.

What robust studies exist on the representation of LGBTQ individuals² in STEM fields within academia?

¹ The idea that STEM fields are especially constrained comes up in other contexts, too. For example, according to an opinion piece by Manil Suri published in the New York Times, in science it is also not appropriate to talk about hobbies.
Manil Suri is a famous scholar; his description of the situation in academia is worrying, and gives the impression that behavior is constrained and under close scrutiny.
Being too expressive of personal identity can be viewed as running counter to scientific neutrality. In competitive venues, where complete immersion in one’s field might be the promoted ideal, the mention of an extracurricular pursuit can even be seized upon as a lack of commitment. I remember a young mathematician at a prestigious research institute sharing his love for piano playing after hearing I wrote fiction. “Don’t tell anyone in my department I own a piano,” he requested in the next breath.
This is a shock to me because I perceived the STEM field as most open-minded.

² Representation could measure the percentage of LGBTQ faculty in STEM fields in comparison to other academic disciplines, or something like dropout rates for LGBTQ students in STEM fields compared to dropout rates for other students.


texts: Is it bad style to include a list in an abstract?

texts:
If I am writing a study paper and I have given some descriptors as to which systems will be measured (things such as "openness" and "availability" in my case) is it acceptable for me to provide a list of this after with a short sentence expanding on what metrics that word in intended to include?

e.g.

Openness - Measured by the proportion of the human population has access and the ease of entry for those who meet the requirements
etc...


texts: Verifying that cited results are still current before publishing

texts:
Assume you are knee-deep in a project, going through a series of papers that are seemingly relevant to your project. You found this ~10 year old paper, which looks very promising indeed. A lot of interesting results, good discussion, etc.

At this stage, I think it's obvious that you should check whether or not the results and conclusions in the paper are still valid by searching for any correspondence related to the article (e.g., pointing out that some claims do not hold, etc). However, I have yet to find anyone that digs into such information. You normally find a paper, read it, find more interesting papers through references and keep on digging in this manner until you have accumulated "enough" articles to form an educated opinion.

My questions are as follows:

Is this (or any other) type of quality assurance process, when it comes to cited literature, common practice?
Is there a way to streamline this process? PubMed does not seem to include all correspondence related to each article.

I should perhaps note that, if you are in biomedical sciences (especially related to complex diseases), about half of the publications turn out to be wrong or misleading after some years, and perhaps a quarter more are shown to be incomplete in its findings. I believe it's in the nature of biology, in contrast to more human defined sciences like mathematics or computer science. There are no formulas or calculations to check the integrity of the work published.


texts: Terminating with Master's after several years in a PhD program. How to indicate on CV/Resume?

texts:
I am not happy with my PhD program, and after several years I am graduating with a master's this month. I earned the M.S. along the way as a PhD student, but have never formally requested it before this semester. What is the best way to indicate this situation on a CV or resume? I don't want to put just M.S. because then it looks like it took me a really long time to get a master's and I can't put that I am a PhD student because I no longer am.

Right now, I am thinking something like

M.S. in <field>, <University>, May 2016
PhD student in <field>, <University>, Aug. 2011 - May 2016
B.S. in <field>, <Undergrad University>, Aug. 2007 - May 2011

Would that be clear what's going on? Alternatively, should I list PhD above M.S. even though I didn't complete it? Should I list both M.S. and PhD in same line since it is the same university and span of time?


texts: Does applying for a patent first make it more difficult to publish (or vice versa)?

texts:
After working on a project some times, some results are obtained and we decide to publish it. I know publishing a paper and applying a patent can actually happen in the same time, but is there any difference for their priority?

For example, if I obtain a patent first for my results, will it make it more difficult to publish the same results in academic paper, or vice versa?

If I do it together, will there be any conflict between them?


texts: Should I talk about my poor academic performance due to financial situation in my SOP?

texts:
Background

So, I got into a premier institute of my country but had a hard time there. I always had to look for some sort of a job to support my family and as a result I graduated with six technical internships and a very poor GPA.

Now after four years I got myself into research and have an otherwise good profile, it's just that my GPA is so low that I have to explain about it in my SOP.

Is it okay if I talk about this? Or will this further hurt my chances?


texts: How much is the teaching duty of university administrators?

texts:
Due to the time-consuming nature of administrative jobs, university administrators normally reduce their teaching duties. This reduction is normally proportional to the level of administrative job: Chair/Dean/Vice President/Provost/President.

I am curious if it is only matter of personal preference or there is institutional regulations for minimum and maximum teaching tasks?

In general, how university administrators are involved in classroom teaching, supervising graduate students, and academic research projects?


texts:
I am a math instructor at local community college. I am in mid 60's and in good health except for a minor mobility issue. Teaching is mentally very rewarding. Beside teaching, I am also tutoring students on Calculus by Skype in my spare times. In fact, I have a corner my home converted to a mini studio complete with big whiteboard, HD camera, special lighting, etc. Although I have only a few students right now but they all express great satisfaction with my distance tutoring for its convenience and flexibility.

In my thought of thoughts, I used to muse that, wouldn't it be great if I am able to work as adjunct online math instructor, such that I may still have a rewarding activity in my retirement years when my mobility issue become a major issue? I would like to make small baby-steps one at a time. But I do not have any distance teaching experience. I have been trying to gain a foothold in this online craft by applying to small part-time online teaching position but without success. Here are my two questions:

(1) Is there any prep that I can do right now to improve chance of getting hired in the future? Certification perhaps, but what certification? Maybe volunteering at a non-profit institution, but where?

(2) My understanding is that almost all online classes are either on BlackBoard or Moodle platform. Does this mean that my experience with Skype distance teaching is irrelevant when applying online position?

I would appreciate any help or suggestion from you. Thank you very much for you time.


texts: After the draft was accepted, can I ask the Editor to publish it as soon as possible?

texts:
One of our drafts was accepted for publication in Nov. 30, 2020. It has not been published online yet. I have not even received the first proof. Is it appropriate to push the Editor?
Thanks!


texts: Is it OK if I hate a piece I wrote several months after publishing it?

texts: I wrote a blog post for a magazine run by scholars. A few months later, I read the post again. I hate it! I can think of three-four different ways I could have written it differently. Granted, I was asked to comment on an ongoing political issue at the time and didn’t have enough information back then. However, I could have organized it differently, omitted paragraphs, and focused on different issues. Is this normal? Do you have similar experiences? If I don’t like what I wrote four months ago, what would have established scholars thought of my piece back then?


texts: Should I consider legal action if my attempts to persuade my university to allow me to complete my PhD prove unsuccessful?

texts:
My situation

I could go into the details of the situation in some detail here, but I fear it would read like a shaggy-dog story. For the moment I'll limit myself to these (what I hope are) salient points:

I enrolled for PhD in October 2011.
I made a breakthrough in my second year, which would be the subject of my thesis. This work has been ratified by colleagues both within and outside of academia.
After this, I took a considerable time off for personal reasons.
The likely earliest date I would have completed is October 2015.
If I were allowed to do so, I could likely complete in October 2018, so three years late.
Some would say that because my PhD is two years long, I would be five years late. I would counter that that's two years of funding the institution has saved (this irony would not be lost on anyone familiar with the workings of academia).
A senior and respected academic is on my side and is currently doing his best on my behalf to persuade the powers that be. However, I no longer think it is fair to drag him into the dispute. He is kind and reasonable, and for that reason this has become his burden. I want him out of it.
Nobody has told me that I cannot complete my PhD yet. The university has not responded yet, and I suspect they never will.
I don't need any funding. I just need to be allowed arrange the final examination and get this out of the way.

My question

I'm wondering whether I shouldn't just force the institution's hand with (at least) the threat of legal action, rather than expecting someone else to fight my battles for me. At the same time, however, I don't want to start issuing threats. I would do anything to avoid this course, to be frank.

Can you offer any wisdom on doing this?
Are there any relevant precedents? The institution is UK-based.


texts: Label to report percentage of recurrent/new authors in conference submissions

texts:
We would like to report some stats on the submissions for a specific conference, but we are unsure whether similar statistics have been reported elsewhere, and if we should consequently adopt an existing label.
More specifically, we are interested in reporting the (i) % of submissions with all authors being recurrent; (ii) % of submissions with at least one recurring and one new author; (iii) % of submissions with all new authors. Recurrent authors denote those who have submitted to the conference for > 1 year. The idea is to learn e.g. whether recurrent authors have brought new ones to the conference.
I've been looking into reports of the CHI and AAAI conference series but found nothing related. Any pointers would be appreciated!


texts: High school student scooped by PhD student in the same lab

texts:
When I was in high school, I spent one of my summers working in a lab.  The professor had a small lab, so I was given my own project, and made enough progress on it to publish a paper.

While I was working there, one of the PhD students started taking a keen interest in my work, and she kept wanting to discuss the problem, asking about details of my methodology, etc.  She even started replicating my work and literally rewriting my code to produce the same graphs that I was getting.  She was not originally assigned to the project, but I was happy to discuss the problem with her, because I enjoyed my project and wanted to talk about it with as many people as possible.

At the end of the summer she asked me to send her the slides from the talk I gave at group meeting.  A few months later my supervisor told my brother that she presented my work at a conference without mentioning my name.  (He never told me directly, probably because he thought I'd be sad.)

Anyway, my dad (who is a professor) was very mad about this, and told me I should write a draft of the journal paper myself so the professor would feel obligated to give me first authorship instead of that PhD student.  A few months later I sent him the draft, and he didn't give me first authorship, but did give me coauthorship on three different papers, one of which was only marginally related to what I did.  I got into my top choice of college (and graduate school), but this was one of the more traumatic experiences I had as a teenager, and ever since this incident I've sworn off academia as a career option.

Do you think I should have done anything differently, and what would you have done in this situation?


texts: Does adjunct teaching help a PhD application?

texts:
I burned out while pursing a PhD in mathematics but have a masters, and am currently pursuing a masters in philosophy with the hope that it may show continued interest in academia before I re-apply to competitive PhD programs in either mathematics or philosophy (of math or logic etc.) I'm currently teaching calculus 3 and a basic math course as an adjunct, and it looks like this will be my schedule next semester as well.  Where I am currently teaching (a private four year university) it looks like I may be teaching a basic philosophy course next semester as well.

[Side note: I've taken my time away from the math phd to get a high GRE and math subject GRE score; what I'm most afraid of is my "burn out" in the math program and distancing myself from that. This is, in part, why I pursued the philosophy program.]

I certainly don't think it can hurt, but what do graduate committees think of teaching experience?  Is it advisable to get a letter of recommendation from the chair of the department you teach at when applying to a PhD program (in addition to my other letters from people I was a student of)?

This question is targeted to anyone, but especially those in mathematics, philosophy, and of course philosophy of science and philosophy mathematics folks.


texts: How to deal with a team colleague submiting a bad article?

texts:
My friend and I have been researching on a topic since when we were doing our master degrees. We were preparing to submit the next chapter of the research to a publication (we already have an article published on the matter), when the coordinating teacher decided to introduce another individual, one of his phD students, into the team, probably to get a higher count of published articles.

Now, this guy never worked on the project, and he didn't really know what it was about. Worse, the coordinating teacher asked him to write the article for us (so as not to give him an article for free), and boy he screwed it up.

He made really bad English mistakes, he didn't format the document properly, he left things in our native language and he forgot to delete some of the template text from the document.

The worst part is that he never sent the "final form" of the article to either me or my friend. As a result, all of these mistakes came down on our heads when the reviewers declined the "paper", rightfully so. He even "forgot" to put me as an author in this research, but my friend caught word of this and forced him to put me in there too. This could have easily escalated to legal trouble in my country, since this is intellectual theft.

I sent to them both (coordinating teacher and new guy) an email in which I said that this problem could have been easily avoided should the new guy had actually played as a team player and send the paper for peer review to the rest of the team. Was I wrong in doing so?

EDIT: I am more concerned about the fact that the teacher forced this guy into the team so he can get "free" research points without actually doing any research. As this guy is backed by the teacher, by calling up on his mistake may worsen the relationship between me and that teacher.

So the question can be rephrased to a more general one: how to deal with such a situation when the responsible for the failure is someone backed up by the teacher, but who has no actual contribution to the research?


texts: How to reconcile desire to succeed in academia/willingness to prioritize research with ethical concerns about fair work practices?

texts:
I'm not 100% sure how to phrase my question, but I've been grappling with this for sometime and thought maybe the responses would provide me some insight.
I'm currently at PhD student soon to be on the market for postdocs with the goal of staying in academia. My dilemma is this: I am reasonably content spending a large amount of time/mental energy on research. However, I worry that this contributes to a culture of overwork and reinforces academia as a "ivory tower" inaccessible to those without the privilege of being able place such an emphasis on research.
To expand: Much of my life is spent directly or indirectly on research. I don't really subscribe to the idea of having to work "X hours a week" and regularly take day or week long breaks from my research when I'm not feeling like I'm making progress. I also regularly see a therapist and try to take care of my mental health as well as possible. However, even with this in mind, my desire to manage my mental health seems to be rooted in the desire to be more productive. When inspiration does strike, I'm happy to stop whatever I'm doing and follow up on the idea for as long as I'm captivated. Thus, even though I'm not always "doing" research, in the back of my mind I'm usually thinking of something related to research.
So far this seems to have worked reasonably well for me and feels sustainable long term.
However, one effect is that I spend more time on research than I'm paid for (honestly this is probably true of any PhD student). What I worry about is that my willingness to research in this way helps to reinforce a lot troublesome aspects of academia. In particular, I wonder about what the effect on the work-life balance of my fellow PhD students, both in the sense that it normalizes what may be an unhealthy work-life balance for many people and in also the sense that there are many people, for whatever reason, who cannot do this even if they wanted.
Unpaid internships/adjunct faculty positions are perhaps a similar and more self-contained example of a similar dilemma- they may be individually beneficial, but certainly reinforce societal barriers and limit who is able to succeed.


texts:
As part of my research I am using data was provided by hospitals to my research.  The data is for medical reports, but no patient information has been identified at all.  No patient privacy has been affected at all.

My aim is to make a business project from my research, which will be an artificial intelligence predictive model using that data for training purposes.  (I did not declare this as it is just an idea at the moment.)

Can I build a product coming from my research and sell it?  Will this have an ethics issue?


texts: Why does art history exist as a distinct discipline separate from the discipline of history?

texts:
Art history is an established academic discipline and you can do degrees at all levels in it.

Why is this the case?

Why isn't it considered a sub-discipline of history?  It seems to stand separately as its own subject.

Why don't you get a BA in Music History, for example?  I am sure people study music history, but its much less well known as a discipline than art history.


texts: Why scientific articles do not include year/date?

texts:
I noticed that (most?) articles do not include the date of publishing/writing.

For example see this paper (on researchgate.net).

If I click for a citation on that page, I see there the year listed as "2018". But in the article itself, there is no indication when it was written.

Why is that? Or did I miss something?

PS: To clarify, I am not asking about the duration of the work, but the information when the work was done (realizing that a single point in time can not be picked). For example if there is a paper about "Method for better battery capacity", then it is a substantial information whether it was written or published in 1899, 1989 or 2018.


texts: Do you place endnotes (in vancouver reference style) after colons or before?

texts:
I have some references I would like to tie to all the dot points I've written after my colon and hence I thought it would be a good idea to put the relevant references after the colon, in endnote form. Here is an extract from the text I am putting together that illustrates what I mean:

These acute attacks are typically triggered in genetically susceptible individuals by at least one of the following:2-4
•   Stress
•   Medications (especially sulfa-containing antibiotics, barbiturates, synthetic oestrogens, certain antiepileptic drugs and a few others. See http://www.drugs-porphyria.org/ for details regarding safe and unsafe drugs)
•   Dietary changes (high protein diets, low-carbohydrate diets and fasts are especially notable for causing acute attacks)
•   Endocrine factors (fluctuations in the levels of the different hormones present in the body; usually the sex hormones such as oestrogens and androgens [e.g. testosterone, dihydrotestosterone]. Acute attacks are often triggered by the hormonal changes that occur in the different stages of development, e.g. puberty, menopause, etc.)


texts: I am developing a digital literacy course in Persian. Do you know where can I find a similar course or quality content in English?


texts: Age restrictions for teaching in united states

texts:
I am asking this question in a general sense (in the majority sense) and is not particular to any institute or topic.
Is there any upper age limit to join as an assistant professor in the US?
If a person completes her post-doc by the age of n, with no prior teaching experience. Is she eligible for assistant-professorship for 60 >= n >= 35?


texts: Should I ask for a Letter of Rec from a Newer or Older Colleague?

texts: I want to apply for a program where I will be doing research in a particular area for roughly 6 months.  This is an area of research I'm very deeply interested in, but I don't have any experience yet.  The program asks for a letter of recommendation and I'm a little torn who to ask to write this letter for me.  I'm currently a visiting assistant professor at a college and I have a colleague in my department who knows about my interest, but he's honestly someone who isn't super familiar with my work.  He's offered to write a letter with the caveat that this would be a relatively weak (albeit positive) letter.  On the other hand, I'm considering asking my thesis adviser to write a letter for me.  My concern however is that this would like like I'm relying too much on my grad school experience to get me into this program (it's been almost 2 years since I finished my PhD).  Unfortunately neither one will be able to speak that much to my experience in the intended area of research (since I have none).  Are there merits to relying on a newer colleague at this juncture, or is it safer to rely on someone more familiar with my work?


texts: Is it necessary to discuss the reason of the algorithm choice in my paper?

texts: In my paper, I used a specific ML algorithm for modeling and I wonder if it necessary to discuss the reason why I chose this algorithm instead of the others?


texts: Can you exclude issue numbers in references based on APA 6th edition?

texts:
I'm currently working on my thesis (communication science), and I'm wondering about the issue number in the reference list.

A teacher told me that I don't need to include the issue number. But I can't find anything about it, so I wondered if somebody here knows about it.

The current mark-up that I'm using now is as follows (I mainly cite scientific journals):
Lastname1, Initials.,  & Lastname2, Initials. (Year). Title. Journal name, volume number (issue number), page-page. DOI / Link

Can I exclude the issue number or is imperative to include it?


texts: Unintentional Plagiarism in my Masters Thesis

texts:
About four months ago I graduated from a reputable university and received great feedback from the committee who judged my masters defense as well as my thesis. Prior to my defense, I was asked to prepare my paper — not my thesis — within 5 weeks of graduating. There were a few problems regarding the quality and quantity of the data and figuring out the appropriate analysis took considerable time. During this period I wrote and rewrote all the sections that are essential to a paper, keeping in mind that these exact sections would form my thesis as well. A colleague also edited my introduction, at times embellishing my sentences that went beyond what the cited authors stated. The time crunch resulted in lower quality work.

Once the paper was “approved” I was given the green light to work on my thesis, at just two weeks prior to graduating. All I had to do was copy and paste my paper into my thesis document, but I wanted to improve my literature review and make sure all the sections flowed well. In the end, even my thesis document did not turn out to be at the quality I hoped for. It was well received, but I believe that it is highly unlikely my supervisor even looked at my thesis, much less even read the first few pages.

I just re-read my thesis and upon scrutinizing it I have found that I have unintentionally plagiarized from other authors in different areas, including the literature review, methods and materials, and one line in the introduction, all which was likely due to negligence and carelessness (can I call it that given the time I had?) of finishing on time. I didn’t outright copy, but sentence structure and wording are strikingly similar.

My friends (many who are in academia), family, and therapist (psychologist) have all advised that I use this as a learning experience for the future, as the university nor my supervisor would be willing to give me a second chance as such rarely is offered for something of this magnitude.

At this point I’m looking for any sound advice... What do I do? How do I move past this? I worry about my future :(


texts: How to make programming lectures more effective and stimulating?

texts:
I've been assigned the position of Teaching Assistant for the programming part of my university courses in Bayesian Inference, at the MS level. I previously taught a course, a few months ago, in Computational statistics. My experience doing this, with no previous teaching experience, has been not so great because of generally poor student's performance, probably due to a lack of familiarity with the programming language used (R).

I am preparing slides lecture by lecture, with embedded code that I run and comment upon on-the-go. Occasionally I propose exercises but execution is often sketchy and I find many people cannot use the basic constructs of the language with enough fluency to create code that runs "on the spot". Given that I have a program to cover and I would not know what else to propose to the students other than exercising more and studying the syntax of the language -- I am, myself, in most regards self-taught about this, meaning that my programming abilities have little to do with the coursework I did during my studies -- do you have any advice on how to make my lectures more effective and stimulating?


texts:
What proportion of course material mastery should we consider is "passing?"

In the US a typical grading rubric is
A = 90%-100%
B = 80%-89%
C = 70%-79%
D = 60%-69%
F = below 59%

As a professor I often curve the numerical range of grades in my course, and depending on the class, the raw score for a passing grade might end up being even lower than 50%. My question is, at what point does this stop?

A professor could decide that mastery of only 15% of the course material is "passing" because a curve can make 15% into any number. If the professor writes and grades the test he or she could also just decide to only teach and test over 15% of the actual syllabus. In each case students are happy, administrators are happy, etc. because of the "nice grade distribution." But it seems a bit disingenuous to say that a student who learned only 15% of the course material actually passed.

I've heard that accreditation boards have various requirements for a university to maintain its accreditation. For instance, students have to pass enough courses or their major. But is there any accountability for the students to actually learn a minimum amount of material? It seems that everyone in a university could agree that the only requirement to pass a class and graduate is that the student pays tuition. Obviously this is would be big disservice to society.  But what incentives do professors have (other than moral ones) not just teach less, and pass more students?


texts: What if my focus of undergraduate research does not match what I want to study in the graduate program?

texts:
Good morning/afternoon/evening and good night

I am a psych major-undergraduate senior and have actively engaged in being part of and/or conducting research for past 2 years.

My past undergraduate projects are, in a good way, "interdisciplinary": developmental psychology, cultural psychology (immigrant's cultural identity development) quantitative (machine learning approaches in big data analytics) psychology, cognitive psychology (priming studies), educational psychology (academic performance), health psychology (drug addition)etc.

This may also means that I am just very-all-over-the-place, indecisive, impulsive, ADHD, and so forth.

I look forward to applying to graduate programs for cognitive psychology or developmental psychology (and if I can pursue developmental clinical psychology later on the way).

However, as you can see, my undergraduate research experience lacks "any kind of" focus in neither discipline.

I am concerned whether this counts as minus.
I just enjoy doing research & running analyses, but perhaps I should have been certain with what kind of research I wanted to be part of in past years.

Thank you as always,
I appreciate any comments!


texts: What should I be doing now to get a good recommendation letter as a graduate student?

texts:
I am currently doing a Master's degree in applied mathematics. I am worried though about after I complete my degree and I apply to another graduate school for an applied mathematics PhD program. While I have a good relationship with my supervisor an expect to get a good recommendation letter, most graduate schools and research award applications require three.

My question is what should I be doing now to ensure that I can easily get good recommendation letters when I graduate?

Right now I spend most of my time doing research which by it's nature in my field is a solo activity in collaboration with my supervisor. The rest of my time is being a teaching assistant, and doing a few extra circulars. I want to start working on getting good recommendations while I still have time before I graduate.

More Personal Notes

I am in my first year, started September 2017.
Things I do outside of research and being a teaching assistant include being part of my school's graduate society, and mentoring undergraduate students in the department.


texts: If a reviewer makes significant contributions to improving a paper, may he/she suggest becoming a coauthor?

texts:
I was asked by the editor of a mathematical journal to review a submission by an author (unknown to me) which heavily relies upon some of my earlier work. I do not have much experience with writing peer reviews, but I have a good grasp of the topic of the submission.

The new results in the submission build heavily on earlier results in my published work; they are interesting and, in my opinion, worth publishing. However, while reading the mathematical proofs, I couldn't shake the feeling that they were overly complicated. Indeed, after thinking about it some more, I found that the proofs can be dramatically shortened by using insights that the author may not have had. For instance, one proof would go from roughly three pages to around half a page. For another proof, it seems that it can be reduced to a more standard situation, again drastically shortening it.

My work-in-progress report on the paper now 1) sketches the shortened proof for the first situation, 2) describes the needed insight to reduce the proof in the second situation to the more standard situation. At this point, the suggested changes seem to amount to a significant contribution to the paper since they touch not just minor parts of the paper, but the bulk of it.

At this point, I wonder what the best way to proceed is. Should I just submit the report with these suggestions? Or may it be appropriate in this situation to suggest to the editor that, if the original author is interested, he may contact me so that we can co-author a revised paper together? Or would that be considered unethical?

I do not want to overstep my bounds as a reviewer, but on the other hand I don't know how common it is for reviewers to contribute significant improvements to a paper anonymously.


texts: Academic Misconduct with alternate exam? Minimizing damage?

texts:
An individual I know is in an interesting situation and I was just wondering what you guys thought about it.

This individual had an exam conflict and emailed the instructor to arrange an alternate exam time to get rid of this conflict. Meanwhile the rest of the class would be taking the exam for this course at a later time that day.

After the alternate exam was finished, this individual answered questions and provided specific topics regarding the exam by his peers who would be taking that course exam later that day.

Now this individual received an email from the instructor accusing him of leaking information and reported it to the academic misconduct board.

Now I was just wondering if this is truly a form of academic misconduct.

Just a few notes to add:

I have fellow peers who have done the exact same thing and not face a single threat of being reported to the academic board.
Is it not the instructor's responsibility to prepare a different version of the exam for both the individual and rest of the class?
Furthermore, is it not also the university's and/or the instructor's responsibility to highlight the confidentiality of an alternate exam and notify the possible consequences? In all the rules and regulations, there are no clear cut rules for alternate exams or any offences that can take place.
Does this just come down to miscommunication and failure to provide reasonable notice?
From the rumours going around, the evidence gathered is a screenshot of a facebook conversation, is this even enough evidence?
And if so, would it not be a breach of privacy?
Another update: The individual did not know that it was going to be the same exam.

Thanks again and I would love to hear your thoughts about this.

UPDATE:

As a user pointed out, the second part to this question is how can this individual minimize the damage and not face severe academic misconduct?


texts:
I graduated with a 6.4/10 GPA from a Non-IIT University in India - BE in CS in 2019. I pretty much messed up during my early 2 years of UG while taking part in non-academics such as workshops and research. Only later I have realized that it was too late to improve and now I am facing the consequences of neglecting good grades. I wasn't a lazy student, I worked 16 hours a day learning something new for research, solving math and leetcoding because I couldn't stand the classroom environment.
I hate blaming the University but they were rather a scam ridden cash cow run by unprofessional people and did not encourage any sort of research activities or any funding for it. Luckily, my time in research did not require much funding yet I have managed to publish 12 papers during my 5 years (9 during undergrad) at well reputed domestic and international conferences - IEEE, Springer, etc, 3 winning awards. I frankly enjoyed the lab work and research part of my UG because it gave me complete freedom to explore my skills and work, yet it's frustrating how marks is always given the first preference. I have graduated with most publications compared to anyone who have studied in my University. I feel really cheated as I was told publications were preferred over GPA.
I was an aspiring MS and PhD candidate for Natural Language Processing. And now I'm seeing that I have been rejected by ASU and I'm pretty sure it was because of my GPA, which probably never made it to the AdCom. This is my first post on stack exchange and I really want to know whether my career has hit a dead end here. I'm feeling tired and frustrated, thinking about a career change since a second chance elsewhere to prove my worth would at least take me beyond a bachelors degree.


texts: How to apply to a prestigious American university as an international student?

texts:
I am planning to do a Ph.D. in theoretical physics in the US, more specifically California, and recently started looking into potential Universities that offer a good physics programme. A number of questions came up.

I understand that an American Ph.D. program is very different from a European one in that it usually takes around 5 years to complete and involves coursework. If a master's degree was already obtained, do American universities allow for a more European style Ph.D. completed in around 3 years? Does a Ph.D. necessarily involve paying the university's tuition fees?
Ph.D. students in Europe are employed by their university, receive a monthly salary and don't pay tuition. Does this model exist in the US, i.e. is there any way to avoid paying tuition fees as a Ph.D. student?

I appreciate any helpful advice including to questions I did not ask but maybe should have.


texts: I feel that my professor didn't notice a mistake I made on an assignment. Should I have informed the professor of my mistake?

texts:
This morning, I took my third math quiz of the semester. On the last question, I had solved the presented problem but had not written out the answer according to the directions before time was called, so I simply circled the answer that I did have.

Later this afternoon, I got a notice on my phone that my grade on the quiz had been posted. As it turns out, I got 100% exactly. So, I sent a message to the professor pointing out my mistake.

Should I have done that?


texts: How to know whether my submission to a mathematics journal is significant enough?

texts:
I have received the following referee comment:

  This paper is well-written and the results appear to be correct. But I don't think the research is significant enough to warrant publication in ....(math journal name). Perhaps it would fit better with ......(another math journal name)?

How could I know that my article is significant enough?


texts: Importance of grades when applying to Master's degree program?

texts:
I am planning on applying to a Master's degree program (in Canada, if it matters) and I've noticed that there seems to be quite a few grade cut-offs for applications. I've read elsewhere that these are not set in stone, however, how important are they compared to other criteria such as references and research?

In my opinion, which I have no proof for, it seems almost absurd to put an emphasis on grades without knowing a class average or having a detailed knowledge of the course when examining a grade. However, this is my personal biased opinion, so I would like to see the rationale behind the opposite view. One argument I have heard is that school build up a database of GPAs from a certain school and classes (from the comments to this question), so I can see how this might be considered mildly accurate.

This is similar to this question, consequently if the response is similar, I will not be surprised. I'm applying to a researched focused engineering program, but a developed answer with respect to multiple faculties and multiple types of programs would be ideal.


texts: Do I need to reason why I use a particular technology in my research proposal?

texts:
I have started doing a research related to NoSQL databases for the master's degree and I have submitted the research proposal.
Proposal evaluation results have been released and the examiner has added some comments.
My question is about one of his comment.
In my research I have mentioned that I am going to use Yahoo! Cloud Serving Benchmark (YCSB) for the evaluation process of the research. The examiner asks me to justify the appropriateness of use of YCSB for the performance assessment.
What does this mean? Does that mean I need to reason all the tools or technologies I have chosen to assist the research process?
The real reason for choosing YCSB is because it has been used in many recent past researches related to NoSQL databases and also there seems to have limited standard available bench marks in the field.


texts: I work in a field where a group of about 20 people all have a different role on a project.  When a project wins an award in this field, they typically do not list people individually.  How can I put awards like this on my CV?


texts: University advocates for students facing academic misconduct charges

texts:
I sit on my department's academic misconduct committee. When students are suspected of academic misconduct they are invited to a meeting with the academic misconduct committee. The university polices are pretty clear that students not only can, but should, have an advocate attend the meeting. The policy also states that the advocate cannot be a lawyer providing legal representation, but can be a friend/family member who happens to be a lawyer. The university student services provides an advocates if students request it. At our last meeting we had a case of suspect collusion by two students. Both students had been assigned the same university advocate.

These collusion type meetings tend to be messy and involve bringing one student in and hearing that side of the story, sending that student out and bringing the other student in and hearing the other side of the story, and then often iterating a number of times. We attempt to keep the students isolated so they do not hear each other's side of the story. In the case of the same advocate representing both students there is obviously a confidentiality issue.

Based on the evidence we had it was clear student A had copied/worked with student B and produced a "joint work product" and turned it as her own. This expressly prohibited and constitutes academic misconduct. We did not have evidence that student B had knowingly colluded with student A and therefore were going to let student B off.

We called student B and the advocate in for a final meeting and began explaining to the student that they had not done anything wrong and no penalty would be applied, when the advocate proverbially threw student B under the bus and said that student B had colluded with student A. The end result was that both student A and student B were penalized. It is not clear if we applied a lighter penalty to student A because of admission of wrong doing by student B. I walked away from the incident feeling dirty.

We have not referred the case to the central university committee because of "procedural irregularities" because the central committee is consistently harsher than us and we are confident the central committee would have penalized both students (even without the admission of student B) harsher than we did. Should that matter or should we just report it to the central committee?

This incident has raised a number of related questions for me. Should the advocate be reported? Do we need to convince the university to change its advocacy policies for claims of joint work? Is there a fundamental conflict of interest of the university advocate and should students be encouraged to get their own independent advocate?


texts: Why do formal research papers keep statements that should be interpreted informally?

texts:
In several domains, I came across many popular research papers that do contain statements that should be interpreted informally. If someone interprets them formally, it leads to a totally wrong perception.
The issue is that the authors use the formal terms in-order to make the statements that has to be interpreted informally. The statements I am referring are not the plain English statements, which can be equivocal in nature.
For example, consider the following answer from other stack site

You're right! The generative model f is not the same as the
probability density (p.d.f.) function pdata. The kind of phrases
you've referred to are to be interpreted informally. You learn f with
the hope that sampling a latent vector z from some known distribution
(from which it is easy to sample), results in f(z) that has the
probability density function pdata. However, merely learning f does
not give you the power to estimate what pdata(x) is for some image x.
Learning f only gives you the power to sample according to pdata(⋅)
(if you've learned an accurate such f).

I interpreted in wrong way and tried to understand for much time and I end up in asking that question (on other site). I came across many such formal phrases from research papers.
In general, there will be no explicit remainders or hints or guidelines or suggestions to know which statements to be interpreted formally and which statements has to be interpreted informally in a formal context.
What is the primary reason behind encouraging such phrases either by journals or authors?


texts: In-class, allowing students to address professor informally ('tutoyer' / 'tutear')

texts:
Supposing that Dr. A is teaching an undergraduate-level course, what would be the pros and cons for Dr. A to allow students to address himself in an "informal" manner?

By "informal" here I mean using what is employed in a number of languages for informal conversation. For example, this would be tutoyer in French or tutear in Spanish. (Hence, the question does not apply for an English-speaking classroom, but does apply for a French or Spanish-speaking one).

EDIT (clarification, thanks j91): In Spanish, French, German and other languages, the second person singular has two versions: "Tú", "Tu" and "Du" are the informal versions in Spanish, French and German, respectively, and "Usted", "vous" and "Sie" are the formal ones in the same order. "Tutear" is the act of using systematicaly the informal version and, in theory, should be avoided when speaking to a person in a position of authority.


texts: How much does it hurt admissions if I don't take an essential class until after I apply to schools?

texts:
I've asked a related question about dealing with two courses that I need that are scheduled at the same time. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get it resolved yet, and so it's been on my mind.

One of the courses I need to take is very important for my desired field of graduate study (as in, it's important for the specific field of research), and it's possible that I won't be able to take it until spring of my last year, which means it wouldn't be on my transcript when I apply for graduate schools. Will this hurt my application if I say I want to do work in this field while not having taken the necessary course yet? For reference, I've got plenty of research experience, I should have great letters of recommendation, and potentially a 4.0 GPA, and I will have taken many upper-level courses in my major, so while my application may be strong in those areas, I'm wondering how detrimental not taking this course early on will be (particularly when applying to top 15 schools). Of course, I will have taken the course by the time I graduate, but perhaps that wouldn't mean much to admissions committees (who wouldn't know my grade in the course).

For further reference, my interest is in antenna engineering, and the course I'm referring to is a standard engineering electromagnetics course. Also, if it makes a difference, I plan on applying to masters programs, and so if there are differences between what is looked for in masters vs PhD admissions, please keep that in mind.