texts:
ibid or Ibid?

Context:

In my efforts to use footnotes for the first time in my essay, I've come across a few problems (which you might know if you've seen Part 1 of the ibid journey.
I recently read online that it makes a difference whether you use ibid or Ibid (capitalization) in your footnotes and that there are even rules around this, at this site (I don't go to the school running this site).
They say:

‘Ibid’ should always be capitalized when it appears at the start of a footnote. If there is a pinpoint reference, that is, a reference to a specific place in the cited text, and the next footnote is to the same work and to the same place in the cited text, use ‘ibid’.

But, isn't ibid (or Ibid) always at the start of a footnote, so shouldn't it be always capitalised?

The Question

When should I use "ibid" or "Ibid" in my text? What difference does the capatilisation make?


texts: Non-consensual authorship order change after paper submission?

texts:
After submitting a paper to a conference, my advisor told me that he was going to change the authorship order (putting him as first author, me as last) because he contributed more to the final manuscript, even though I conducted all the experiments. He proceeded to change the order without my consent.

Is this common in academia? I'm a new master's student and I'm not sure if I should just get used to it or change advisors.


texts: No change in submission status for a long time even though statement is "revision completed"

texts:
We have submitted an article in a moderately reputed journal in November. We got the first decision on our manuscript in February (after 4 months). It was a major revision, less technical but more linguistic in nature (several pages). We completed the revision point by point, except for one or two points. We completely agreed with the comments of the referee (on those one or two points) and politely mentioned the cause from our side to not execute the same. We were given a time frame of a month and submitted it one day early.
The status changed from editor assigned to under review in one day. Surprisingly, the review was completed in 7 days. However, it has been a month now with the status "reviews completed" since then.
What should I do? Is it a bad indication?


texts:
I am writing a thesis at a university. In my thesis, I directly copy a figure from an article published on Sciencedirect. I have obtained permission to use this figure over Rightslink. I now would like to add a caption to the figure that looks like this:
Figure reproduced with permission from Author (Year); copyright Year Copyright.
However, I have no idea which Copyright I should mention. Since I had to obtain permission, I assume it is not a CC license.
Thank you!
EDIT:
I am using the following guideline to write the caption:
Guideline


texts: How can I find papers that are not sponsored by industry?

texts:
Are there any databases or search filters for published peer-reviewed articles, particularly concerning environmental issues, that are neither affiliated with nor funded by corporate interests?
I am trying to find peer-reviewed articles on the history and impact of plastics pollution. Most articles I have found either have authors affiliated with petroleum/packaging/fast-moving consumer good companies, were commissioned by those companies, or received funding influenced by those companies.
I am not asking whether industry-sponsored papers are less accurate, as this has been asked before. I understand that high-quality independent research can emerge from (and be enabled by) corporate funds, and that every funding source has biases of some kind.
I would just like to know how to find articles whose authors and funding have no corporate ties.
Additionally, I understand that not all connections with industry are apparent. As an example, one article encouraging plastics packaging had no author affiliations but received funding from a major English research council. Although this council describes itself as independent, its directors' declarations of interest contain many corporate ties, including to petroleum giants. Since this is indirect, I would not expect it to qualify as "industry-sponsored."


texts: How to review papers for conferences without comparing/contrasting each other?

texts:
I'm usually assigned to review one or a couple of papers for a conference. The problem is: I only have access to these single submissions.

How can I give a score (reject/weak reject/neutral/weak accept/accept) to a submission without having access to the other papers, so I could compare and contrast the contributions and originality of them?

Even if I had access to the others dozens (or hundreds) of submissions, the question would still hold, as I surely would not be capable of evaluating all of them in the desired timeframe.
Each conference has a different impact level and overall quality of submissions. But I'm not sure if I should use this information while reviewing submissions.
I know the editor is the one imbued with the responsibility of accepting or rejecting a paper based on the reviews. But then a demanding reviewer could reject a paper, and because he reviews only a few submissions, this would clearly harm the overall process.


texts: Can I start such a contact with one researcher that does not know me in one online conference?

texts:
I have a major in Mathematics and a masters in Physics and am currently starting my PhD in Physics. Since I've started my masters I am very interested in one particular research field. The main developments in this field have been carried out by a group lead by a very respected researcher. Moreover the book he wrote about the subject together with the papers of his group are what made me be interested in the field.
For my PhD I wanted to work with this field. My supervisor works in related stuff and he spent one year in the US doing his own research, but in a group that was actively discussing the subject I'm interested in, so that he got interested as well. In that case he accepted to supervise me. We are right now deciding on what to take as a concrete objective.
In that sense I had one particular idea that my supervisor really enjoyed and said it could really be the way to go. We are discussing now the particular details.
Now, I'm participating on one online conference and that physicist who leads the group which is making the most significant contributions to the field is participating. Moreover people say that he is approachable and there is one particular moment every day in the conference on which people are encouraged to talk to one another.
In that setting, I have been considering starting an interaction with that professor and ask him his view on the general idea of my proposal. In fact, in one of his papers there is one very short footnote briefly saying that one could perhaps do something related to what I have in mind, but his group followed a distinct direction.
Now while I think that trying to talk to him could be beneficial I fear whether or not I can do it and how to approach it in this online environment.
For starters he doesn't know me and we don't have any common acquaintances. Isn't it a bit of too much asking him privately in one online conference an opinion about an idea I had for my PhD project?
In that sense my question here is: can I try starting such an interaction? And if so how is the correct way to approach it given that he doesn't know me?


texts: If I develop a product as part of a project at university, does the university have any ownership over it?

texts:
To specify further, this is an undergraduate project, not a PhD, so (I think) that this is not directly funded by the University, and I am studying in the UK.

I ask because I have a few ideas about what I am going to make and I'd rather not use some of the better ones if I am going to get into legal debates if they do somehow manage to be successful.

It's worth noting that the "good" ideas aren't necessarily better from a technical standpoint so the only thing I'd gain from using them is a years head start on development. I guess I am just curious.


texts: Feasibility of a partially remote postdoc

texts:
(This question is somewhat related to those answered here and here, but is different in the "partially" remote aspect, and in a few other details I list below.)
I am currently finishing my PhD in theoretical physics in the UK, and have received a funded offer for a 3 year postdoc on the US east coast. I also have at least one postdoc offer from the UK. Both positions come from individual PIs, and are not tied to e.g. teaching requirements.
At the individual group level the difference between the offers is not huge, though I do slightly prefer the US position. However, in my field the US is very strong and active, and I have been advised by my supervisor that it can be a significant advantage to my later career prospects to have exposure to the US scene, especially early on in my career. Ultimately I would be aiming for faculty positions in the UK.
My dilemma is that I have significant ties to the UK (e.g. two-body issues, though no children), and I am not sure whether it is worth disrupting this for the potential long-term benefit of being in the US. One possibility my partner and I have floated is a "partially remote" postdoc. By this I mean something like spending ~2/3 of my working time in the US, and ~1/3 of my working time in the UK. In practice that could mean spending, say, 6 weeks in the US and then 3 weeks in the UK.
I am asking this question because I am wondering whether anyone here has done something like this, and how they found it personally and professionally. Other answers about the balancing of long-term benefits of exposure to the US vs personal situations would also be helpful.
A few notes:

Since my field is theoretical in nature, it is in principle possible to work remotely. Of course there are still significant benefits to working in person, but the hope is that being available in the US ~2/3 of the time would provide enough time to do this, and also get most of the other benefits of "US exposure".
This question is conditioned on my potential supervisor agreeing to this. They have mentioned that many of their collaborations have been largely remote (even pre-Covid), so they may be used to this mode of working. However, I think this has mainly been with US-based collaborators, so the 5 hour time difference may present an issue.
I have worked out the personal finances of this, and think it would be doable.
I am not sure about the visa and tax implications of this arrangement. My initial impression is that if I am on an H1-B visa then there shouldn't be any visa issues. If anyone has any idea about the tax implications that would be very helpful.


texts: Do researchers from some universities not attend top CS conferences anymore because of conflicting open access requirements?

texts:
From this question and this answer, it seems like the open access policies of institutions like Harvard and University of California conflict with the requirements of the top conferences in computer science.

Can researchers from these institutions really not publish in top CS conferences anymore? How has the change been received, and how has this impacted their careers?


texts:
How do professors deal with loneliness?  I feel that professors, specifically in the STEM fields, have to constantly project an image of seriousness to the public - an image that math and science are no. 1 in their lives.  Any projection of any other feelings is discouraged, e.g. feelings of romance.

Professors earn a special social status in society, for better or worse, and this means that they are more intensely scrutinized and they have to adhere to extra morally restrictive standards.  If one lands up in a small college town as a professor, there is virtually nobody that's a suitable dating partner or a suitable friend - other than one's colleagues.  The college town will comprise mostly of students.

Am I on point with my assessment of the life of a professor in the STEM fields?  If so, how does a professor deal with a relatively lonelier lifestyle than non-academics?  The acquired social status of being an academic and scientific leader seems to come with an enormous cost.


texts:
To my understanding, there are pros and cons to inviting (well respected) researchers to co-author a paper.

Pros: Being a co-author with well-respected researchers puts one in a good light. They can make valuable contributions. You improve your chance of being invited to work on projects with them in future. All these points can advance one's academic career.

Cons: Too many cooks spoil the broth. There is more chance of conflicting idea and styles, which might lead to frustration and delayed publication. They might not contribute as much as you hoped. More authors means less credit for the work per author.

I would like to hear your views on this.


texts: Is there a tool that can retrieve subject area listings for a journal using an API

texts: I'm attempting to characterise a corpus of journal articles by their subject area and categories. I can do this for individual journals using e.g. The SCImago Journal & Country Rank (https://www.scimagojr.com), but I'd like to retrieve the data in bulk. Does anyone know whether this data exists, or whether it's available via an API?


texts: Do I need to report that the professor I have been assigned to TA hasn't assigned any work for me to do?

texts:
The professor I have been assigned to TA hasn't assigned any work and has stonewalled me. I have sent three emails to check in and he hasn't responded. How should I respond? Should I bother reporting this to my graduate advisor?

UPDATE!! - He finally responded. He did have some issues, but is doing much better and is going to be more responsive moving forward. Thank you for all the great advice on this forum!


texts: verbal agreement to convert masters to PhD but reconsidering

texts:
I am currently doing a Masters of Philosophy, with my key interests being ecology and evolution.

When I enrolled earlier this year, I had an agreement with my professor that I would continue to a PhD. Unfortunately in the first two months, my first project fell through to lack of funding. My professor then showed me another project I could do. This project is very similar to my honours research...in fact, it is almost exactly the same, with very few new techniques included. I had a few weeks to think about if I wanted this project, but did feel a bit of pressure to make a decision. I decided to continue with this project despite my reservations.

My main issue now is that I have realised (at 5 months) that this project, while interesting, isn't going to get me a job when I finish. While I am doing some lab based work and doing some phylogenetic analyses, I'm not doing any of the field work or statistical experience that I need to be competitive for post-docs.

I've considered reworking my project, however I've had a number of concerns about it. First of all is that my supervisor doesn't seem keen to rework it to a large extent and doesn't seem to understand the time it takes for me to read and analyse papers to determine how to change my project.
The second issue is that no one in my lab is an ecologist, statistician or evolutionary biologist (primarily genetics and bioinformatics) and I will not be able to get the support I'll inevitably need down the track. The final issue is that I am getting no funding. My supervisor is paying for my labwork, but I am not able to conduct more field studies or more complex genetic analyses because we can't afford it.

I've sort of come to the realisation that this isn't what I want from a PhD. The only issue is I have a verbal agreement to change to a PhD at 1 year into my masters. I love my supervisor and the lab, so don't want to burn bridges by changing my mind on them. I also feel guilty as my supervisor is paying for my lab work, and I don't want to put him out. I am just stuck as to what to do in this situation, and how to bring this up with my professor without ruining my chances of working with them later or affecting my relationships with them.

Basically, this can be summarised as: I don't want to do this PhD project and would like to keep it as a masters, but am not sure how to go about discussing this with my supervisor, and am not sure how it would impact me if I decide to do a PhD in the future.

Has anyone been in a similar situation and can offer advice? Is there a way to do this without impacting my career as a researcher, or my relationships with my lab mates and supervisor?

I would love any advice you have on this because it's really distressing me!

Thanks


texts: Resusing my own poster abstract for another conference

texts:
I have to write an (poster-) abstract for a conference in April. Back in November I already wrote an abstract for a similar conference. Since I have not gained many new results on the same research topic, I made some minor changes to the 'old' abstract and was thinking about submitting this 'reused' abstract for the conference in April.

Is that professional? Or is this even plagiarism, since I copied work that is already published (I am first-author of the 'old' and 'reused' abstract)?

I am not lazy, but the abstract that I wrote last year seems to be very good and I don't see the point in rephrasing it.


texts: What do recruiters think of candidates who left their PhD midway?

texts: Let us assume person X and person Y. Both entered grad school in the same year, X as a PhD student (without a prior masters degree) and Y as a masters student in the same field. Towards, the end of second year, X realized that a PhD was too much for him and decided to quit but was eligible for a masters degree ( he had enough credits to do so). Both X and Y graduate with a masters degree with good grades. Let's assume both of them were nearly equally matched in their profile ( w.r.t. projects, internships e.t.c). Who would a recruiter prefer for a technical position at their company : X or Y ?


texts: Resubmitting elsewhere without any key change when a paper is rejected

texts:
While not necessarily being an expert, I have extensive experience in biomedical scholarly publishing as author (>500 scholarly papers published) and reviewer (>1000 manuscripts reviewed).

Most of my manuscripts have been rejected several times before eventually getting accepted and published, as this is quite typical of cardiovascular research. Indeed, I mostly dedicate myself to incremental research, such as meta-analyses and observational clinical studies, and often submit first to a top tier journal (e.g. with impact factor above 10), then trying to lower impact journals.

I now tend to favor not changing substantially my manuscripts after a rejection, even if accompanied by peer reviewers comments, as I feel that in most cases this has to do with a priority judgement rather than with the work strengths and weaknesses. Of course, I address major mistakes or issues, but I typically avoid adding ancillary but time consuming analyses in such cases.

Is this acceptable and efficient, or actually unethical and disrespectful of the peer review process?


texts:
I am writing my own R package which relies heavily on several others (namely 'biomaRt', 'grasp2db').  I feel as those who use my package should also cite these packages because the code I wrote would not be possible without them.  Do I add this to the citations function for my package or because 'biomaRt' and 'grasp2db' are listed as an 'Import' is this somehow already covered?  Thanks very much for any guidance.
Kate


texts: Can I apply for a masters' if I already have one? (USA/Canada)

texts:
I am planning to apply for another Masters' degree in CS in USA or Canada. But, the thing is I already have one masters' degree. Well, the reason I want to apply for another Masters' degree is because the one I have now is pretty...useless. I didn't learn any advanced courses like AI, Machine Learning, Distributed Systems, HCI, etc etc. Anyway, the list of reasons is very long so I will just skip it.

I worked for two years after my graduation and now I feel I want to go back to school to actually LEARN these CS courses.

I heard that if you already have a Masters' degree, you cannot apply to universities in USA or Canada? So, I wanted to know if this was true?

If yes, how can I find which universities will allow me to apply? I could go to each school website and look, but if someone already has a list, that would be very helpful.


texts: Assume an undergrad has something worth publishing: how might (s)he get it published?

texts:
I study undergraduate philosophy.

I wrote a paper (beyond the coursework) that presents a solution to one of the unsolved problems facing our conceptions of personal identity. I regard it as worth publishing, but I get that, as an undergrad, I may not have much of a sense of what qualifies a paper as "worth publishing." So I took a few precautions:

I read the recently published arguments, and the arguments that preceded them.
I critically thought about whether the argument could contribute to the field
I presented the argument to some people accomplished in fields that depend on logical thinking {a physicist, a lawyer,a mathematician}. The mathematician told me of a few useful concepts in math that I should incorporate into the argument, I studied them, incorporated them, and re-presented the paper to him, and he felt it was clear and logically sound.
I asked some academically successful people {two medical doctors and a Harvard mathematics graduate} for their opinion on it. They agreed with me; however, none of them had much experience publishing research.
I presented it to the prof.

The prof's responses seemed defensive. However, I get that I may have had a defensive bent  that disposed me to regarding her criticism as her 'just responding defensively'. So I recalled the conversation to people who I believed would tell me that I had mischaracterized her responses, if they suspected that I had done so - and none of them did.

I also get that,

most professors -like anyone- want to make the most of their time, and that
most people usually see what they expect to see, and that
most professors probably would not expect an undergraduate paper to contain much worthwhile.

So, I suspect that most wouldn't want to read it, and that if a prof agreed to read it, an extra measure of prejudice would affect her assessment of it.

I say all of that to say that I have reason to believe I should try and publish the paper, but I didn't succeed when I tried the most obvious path to doing so (presenting it to the prof), and I don't suspect that I'd have much success asking other profs to read it.

So, how might I get a journal or a professor to give the paper a fair shake?


texts: Is it legal to make submitted research paper public

texts:
I have submitted a research paper to IEEE.

Now my research supervisor is saying to make it public by writing a blog on Medium and giving a link to the paper. He also shared research paper on some channels without my consent.

I want to know

Is it legal to write a blog on Medium regarding research paper that is not published?
Is it affects my research paper acceptance?
Can anyone copy it and publish it in a journal or write it on a website with his/her name?


texts: What can a student do regarding conflicting meeting times for desired courses?

texts:
As it currently stands, my department offers two necessary courses at the same time every spring. One of them I must take before I am a senior, and another I must take before I graduate (I will soon be starting my third year). So I must take the former next spring, and I will have to wait until the spring of my senior year to take the latter. The problem is that the latter is a course that is very relevant to what I wish to study in graduate school. I'd hate to apply to graduate schools before having taken such a necessary course in my desired field (I feel it would weaken my application), and at the same time, it bars me from taking more advanced courses in the field before I graduate.

Of course, these courses are always taught at the same time by established professors, so I'd hate to ask the department to change all of that for one student. Is there any course of action I can take? Or would this be regarded negatively?

I hope that this is not off topic (merely because I am an undergraduate), as perhaps the desired rescheduling of course times is something that would be relevant to graduate students as well.


texts:
I submitted a paper about 20-25 days ago in this conference http://ctceec.org/ knowing about IEEE involvement here.

Today I have got an acceptance email for my paper, The astonishing thing to me is, I knew at least 1-2 month is required to review this type of conference paper.

The conference date is 8 September, 2017 which is very near. Is there anyone who can assure me that this conference is not scam?


texts: "The file is not eligible for Reference Checking and was not processed"

texts:
While submitting a paper to a journal of a famous publisher, the submission system added the following link in the top of my PDF file: "Click here to view linked References". When I clicked the link, I got to a page that says  "The file '[my-file].pdf' is not eligible for Reference Checking and was not processed."

How can I make my PDF file eligible for reference checking?


texts: Is there an easy/good way for professors to connect with corporate consulting projects?

texts: I'm not an academic (sorry!), but at various points over my career I have been interested in working with professors on a variety of projects.  I never found an easy way to find a professor who might be a good fit (e.g. is in the right field and interested in consulting work) and I'm wondering if there is one?  I suppose that part of my question is whether professors in general are interested in consulting work - I know they are extremely busy, so I'm not sure if this type of work is even attractive.


texts: How do I stay motivated in my PhD research when my advisor doesn't seem to like me very much?

texts:
My PhD advisor and I simply do not get along. I think it has a lot to do with the language and cultural barriers (we are in Germany). We had an argument this week that almost led to me quitting, but on Friday we discussed how things could be improved. However I still can't shake the notion away that he doesn't seem to like me very much and that things won't get any better.

Here is my situation: I got a fully funded, 100% research position throug the Deutscheforschung Gemeinschaft in what is loosely translated in English as a "graduate school" (Graduiertenkolleg). We were told that we could concentrate on our own research (no teaching requirements), but our funding only lasts 3 years, so we have to finish by then. When I took the job, I thought I would be working more closely with the other fellows hired by the graduate school, even though we are based in the research teams of our PIs. In my case, my PI has 3 other PhDs with teaching obligations, i.e., not under my funding scheme.

I had thought I won't have any other obligations other than my own work. But little did I know that my PI has been harbouring a grudge against me this whole time. Here's a list of things he mentioned:

He told me that I always seem so depressed, so I should think about whether I really want to pursue this path. I have been diagnosed with depression, so this is unlikely to go away overnight. He never once asked me what was wrong.
He says I "don't seem interested" in the research going on in his team because "I don't ask any questions".
He also told me that I hadn't followed through on my promises to help out with the team. I had once offered to set up a social media strategy, and he just said "sounds good" and moved on to the next point, so I didn't think he was interested.
He says I never engage in team discussions or offer helpful suggestions to my other PhDs. This is categorically not true, since I always tell my colleagues whether I see something (journal articles, workshops) that could be interesting for them.
He says I didn't offer to supervise any bachelor's or master's theses.
He is always critical about the way I present information. For example, I have sent him presentation slides and he says it has too much unnecessary information. Then I send him presentations that he says lacks crucial information. I never know which information he needs, and I get shut down either way.
He says I favor the events of the graduate school over his team, since I have had to miss some meetings to attend required coursework.
I explained to him that I had thought my obligations are to the graduate school, that I have to finish on time.
When I explained to him what I had thought I was hired for (no teaching obligations etc) he told me that he doesn't believe me, that I should have known that I was part of his team primarily and that the graduate school was just a funding scheme.

I felt like he couldn't see my contributions simply because I wasn't behaving in the way he was expecting and doesn't seem to understand that I don't have it all figured out. Later on, when things calmed down a little, he explained to me that in Germany, most positions in my field are only supported up to 65% (if you're lucky), so I should think of my work as a fully paid position for work that can be done in a 65% position. But how was I supposed to know that?

It's worth noting that he is very accommodating to the circumstances of other PhDs in his team (e.g., one home office day a week for those with children). But for some reason he doesn't seem to care all that much that I have depression or that there are some things about German academia that I don't know about. I still want to continue with my PhD, but how do I motivate myself from here on?


texts: I am writing a paper with a co-author. I need to explain some terms in the preliminaries section. I am copying the definitions from my co-authors previous paper. Afterwards, I want to include the paper into my thesis. If I use the same definitions word for word in my thesis, would that be considered plagiarism?


texts: If I use most of the references from a thesis but not the exact same sentences, is it plagiarism?

texts:
There is a PhD thesis which is inline with my MSc thesis topic.

The author has collected and classified a huge number of references for the background.
While I am writing the background section, if I use the references he used, but not the sentences and organization, is it still plagiarism?

I am talking about 50-60 references out of 250. They are very well classified and right-to-the-point.

I also cited his thesis. However, referring to one thesis for 40 references is silly.

What should I do?


texts: How do I use internet comments in my research?

texts:
I want to use comments on the internet to gather user requirements.

I plan to collect these comments, read them and decide what the person wants based on what they've written. These list of "wants" will form the user requirements.

For example:

  John: I hate the way the program keeps asking me if I'm  sure I want to exit.

Could form the requirement:

An option to disable exit confirmation prompts.

What's a suitable methodology for this? I need a process to follow or guidelines to do it correctly. Is it classed as qualitative research?


texts: I was sexually assaulted by a professor writing me a LOR for grad-school applications. What should I do?

texts:
I’m a foreign student currently applying to extremely competitive doctoral programs in the US. Recently, one of the professors writing a letter of recommendation sexually assaulted me. I live in a country where things like this, when reported, are usually unpunished and even more difficult for the victim. I’m currently deciding what to do, all while trying to get my applications done and finishing up my last semester of my master's program. To put it bluntly, my life is currently hell.

Severe trauma and everything aside, I’m really trying not to let this derail my academic career. My question is, would it be possible for me to contact the universities that I’m applying to and ask them if I could submit just two instead of the required three letters of recommendation? With some deadlines less than a week away, I’m worried that this professor might write a bad LOR to try to keep me out of academia, or threaten me with it. Most importantly, it’s too late for me to find another professor to write my letter of recommendation at this point in time (unless I can explain the situation to them, but even then, that would be extremely difficult).

However, I’m also wary of spinning what might seem like a sob story to admissions committees, even though this is not my intention at all. I’m not sure how something like this would be viewed in the US. Please, I would appreciate any advice on this matter.


texts: Breadth vs. depth of reading in preparation for postgraduate study

texts:
I am considering returning to university to begin postgraduate study, but before that I plan to spend a year or two in industry to earn some money and also gain perspective on the idea. However, I'd like to continue reading about the area I plan to study while on that break.

My question is: Would I be better served, as far as preparing for postgraduate studies in an informal way:

Staying up-to-date with relevant research in the area I plan to specialise in, thereby having a relatively good idea of how things are at the moment, etc., or
Reading more widely, covering for example most of the important/foundational texts for the whole area of study (or at least more of it than I otherwise would), and so having a better understanding of the issues and key idea in most areas at the expense of in-depth knowledge of the specialisaiton area

Of course, I will likely be doing a bit of both, but I was wondering if either is more worth aiming for than the other.

EDIT: Regarding similarity to this question: I read that before posting and they seem to be asking more about the depth in which they should read given articles, while I am asking more for whether the articles/etc that I choose to read should be broad or deep in their subject matter. This question is different.


texts: Can I and how to offer to translate papers (on COVID-19)?

texts:
In light of the recent pandemic of COVID-19 spreading in the world, there have been many Chinese papers with only English abstracts published in Chinese journals. Some western papers have cited the Chinese papers, but only based on the abstract as the author would say they do not understand the Chinese full text.

I am a graduate student in the medical field with a good grasp of Chinese and English. Can I translate without permission, or offer to translate, these papers and publish in an indexed English journal/source? If I make the offer, what is the appropriate etiquette and considerations?


texts: Writing a report/paper etc. - How to deal with citations that have poor English?

texts:
I've tried looking for suggestions on the internet to my question but haven't found any useful information.

I'm writing a paper and I'm quoting/citing various books, journals etc. However, I'm coming across of papers that are relevant to my paper that I would like to take quotes from, but were either originally written in another language and have been poorly translated, or were written with bad English to begin with.

Can I quote/cite the papers with corrected English or put the quote as-is? I'm worried if I don't correct the spelling mistakes/poor grammar etc. that the reputation/validity of my paper will be impacted. On the other hand I don't want any corrections I make in the quotes to be considered plagiarism. What should I do?

Edit: I'm writing a literature review section for the paper, if that is relevant.


texts: How can a master thesis in STEM approach the level of a doctoral thesis?

texts:
Can someone shed some light on the subtle difference between a master thesis and a doctoral thesis so that a master student can arrange his or her research strategy geared to produce work at near the level doctoral thesis assuming that time is not a factor.

Note: I come from an engineering background so research encompasses both theoretical work (derivation of equations, modeling) and experiments (software analysis, characterization of physical devices)

Please also feel free to comment on the feasibility of actually producing PhD level dissertation at the master level


texts: How much code to include in a Physics paper?

texts:
This question is related to Physics research papers, particularly one that will be coming up for my ongoing PhD research (4th paper in all).

A core part of the research is developing, testing and validating relevant self-written code.  So, my question is how much of the code should be included in the upcoming paper?  Should it be the whole thing, or a written summary of the main components/subroutines used?


texts: Why do so many people apply to so few PhD programs?

texts:
Most of the schools that I've looked at for PhD programs in Computer Science have between a 9-15% acceptance rate.  I've noticed similar acceptance rates for other programs outside of computer science; yet almost everyone that I've ever spoken to has only applied to a handful of schools.  This just doesn't make sense to me.

Let's just say that each school that I apply to has ~15% acceptance rate, then if I only apply to only 6 schools, I have roughly a 63% chance of getting accepted to at least one (1-probability of getting declined everywhere).  That doesn't seem horrible, but if I know I want to do a PhD, I would like to have much higher odds, plus most of the programs are closer to a 10% admissions rate.  I understand that applications are costly both monetarily and temporally speaking, but having a 37% chance of not getting into any programs is pretty bad.  Whereas if I apply to 14 schools, I have about a 10% chance of not getting accepted anywhere.  Can someone please explain the thought process behind this?


texts:
I just realized that I forgot to mention an important detail to my professor, who already submitted his recommendation.

Is it typical to update the letter, given that the piece of information is very important?


texts: Relation of lecture mandatory attendance and lecture quality

texts:
My university recently made a direction that lectures attendance is mandatory. Now my question is, are there any studies that compare mandatory and not mandatory lectures quality? The university is trying to increase its quality and this was its main step this year.

More description:
As lecture quality comparison I mean, when is it easier to concentrate, study, teach and learn? When lectures are mandatory, there are a lot of students that doesn't have real interest in subject and are disturbing and making noise. That influences all students, as you can't hear what professor is saying, professor is disturbed and interrupted in teaching. So are there any studies that prove this?

Is this in overall a good step of university? I believe that good professors can motivate students to come to lectures, and if lectures are empty, it's a sign of something (not necessarily bad quality of professor) and this doesn't solve it at all, or am I wrong?


texts:
What does "Associate Faculty" mean, as used for example in this job advert headlined

  FACULTY AND ASSOCIATE FACULTY POSITIONS

and this brochure from the Perimeter Institute in Canada:

  In just 11 years since the Institute’s inception, PI has grown to
  include:
   - 16 full-time Faculty
   - 15 Associate Faculty

Given the adjective 'full time' above, perhaps 'Associate' just means 'part-time', but I've never heard that usage before.


texts: Precedent of country (or large institution) that did teaching reform: reducing number of tutors while increasing salaries for the rest

texts:
I am looking for a Precedent of a country that would have done a teaching reform: From many tutors with minimal (or low) salaries to a fewer teachers with bigger salaries and how did it work out...

I was a bit reluctant inquiring here, so have asked this on meta and it seems this question does not break any rules as long as we are talking about universities.


texts: How to protect scientific open research from being patented?

texts:
For instance, say a published paper demonstrated new possible invention or technology by analysing the data and publishing it publicly.

Is there any way to protect such research or its data which can lead to unauthorised private patents worldwide?

If not, is prove of being first into specific area of research/technology (such as publication date) enough to protect from and avoid such situation?


texts: What is the best way to appeal an unfair qualifier exam decision?

texts:
Recently, I took the PhD qualifier exams for my department. In my dept. there are 3 exams, each covering a subfield (say subfield A, B, and C). First you are given an hour to work through several problems, and then you have another hour to present to several professors, who critique your answers and ask supplemental questions.

I was well prepared for all of my exams, and did excellently on exams B and C. Exam A did not go as well. During the oral part of the exam, I was asked a question using term Z'. I stated that I am unfamiliar with this term and asked for clarification on its meaning. I was given a vague and unhelpful explanation, along with some chastisement about how this term was "fundamental" knowledge. This wasted perhaps 5 minutes or so of the exam and make the remainder of the oral part fairly awkward. Though I believe I solved the problems correctly, I left with a bad feeling about the terminology issue.

After the exam, I looked term Z' up on Google. Seems it's a very uncommon term for Z. The textbook I was being tested on used Z, as did all 3 of the courses I've had on subfield A.

A few days later I got the results of the exams. I failed exam A, but will be allowed to retake it in the future.

For the sake of identifying what I did wrong, I spoke with one of the professors who administered my exam. I asked what I should focus on for the next time. He said "the fundamentals." I asked whether the terminology issue was the deciding factor and it apparently was not. Instead, he thinks I don't understand absolutely fundamental concept Y. Oddly, he also complained that I used a more general form of Y. (So, which is it? Do I understand Y really well or not at all?) The most I can make of this is that the terminology issue made him and the other committee member think I'm an idiot, and then they were much less fair to me from that point on.

He then asked me to solve a problem which he made up on the fly. I used one version of Y to solve this problem, and he complained that (though correct) how I did this demonstrates that I don't know what I'm doing. The annoying thing about this is that I'm a TA for undergrad class A right now and the way I solved this problem is exactly the way the book the dept. uses does. It seems that he'll complain regardless of how I do things.

I now believe this exam was not fair, and this professor likely will be on my exam committee next time. I doubt I'll be able to pass if he continues being so unfairly critical of me.

At this point, what are my options? I am considering appealing to the dept. head, but I don't want to make things worse than they are right now. I could make enemies in the dept. if I appeal, and I'm not sure if there are other options I should consider.


texts: Why don't grants from publicly-funded organizations systematically demand code and data to be released?

texts: I wonder why publicly-funded grants do not systematically demand from the recipients that code and data to be released, and results/papers to be publicly accessible. (put aside data that raise privacy issues)


texts: PhD Thesis: citation for common knowledge and high level summary

texts:
Background: Neuroscience, India
My thesis is based on the use of machine learning for some neuroscience data. Since I do not expect the readers to be aware of machine learning details, I have written a high level summary (a few pages) before the literature review which summarizes the basic principles of machine learning (like introducing what is cross-validation, how to measure accuracy, false positives, etc.). The idea was to let the reader gain some high level understanding before diving into the actual literature review so that the reader would be able to better appreciate the work previously done and the knowledge gap.
This part of the thesis is based on my understanding, clubbed with courses on machine learning and generally reading around on the internet. As far as I can see, the ideas are simplified 101 which can be easily found from Wikipedia (such as the page describing confusion matrix) and from online blogs. To summarize, as far as I can see this is borderline common knowledge.
My thesis reviewer has raised a concern with this part saying that I have not cited any sources and I should cite academic sources for these concepts. I don't quite see how that is possible as the concepts I have described are very elementary. Most textbooks that describe these ideas do not cite any papers and I don't even know how I am supposed to find citations for concepts like precision and recall!
Question: is my understanding of "common knowledge" incorrect? How could I reply to this concern/find sources for these introductory concepts?


texts: How easy is it to game the altmetric score?

texts:
The altmetric score is a summary of the online attention a publication has received. More tweets, hits and chatter makes a bigger score. But what does the popularity contest mean?

I've heard of researchers being officially judged by their Research Gate scores, but this one is new to me.

Have you ever tried to boost your altmetric score? Is it as easy as just posting a link? http://dx.doi.org/10.18352/lq.10289 Here's my two cents to help with the experiment.


texts: If an author does not intend to make much revenue from a book, why not make it open-access?

texts: Many authors do not intend to make much revenue from books (textbooks or research books) they contribute to, yet they don't make it open access. Why?


texts: admission in UK university for Masters/ PHD program

texts: I graduated with Computer Science degree from a Russell Group University(Leeds) in 2016. I managed to find my first job as a software developer 3 months after graduation. I am 2 years into my career development in the industry learning and developing software every month. I am considering going back to University to get masters degree or Phd. My dilemma is weather to go for a MSc in Computer Science or straight go into Phd. I don't thing I can learn that much more from a MSc course just because I can learn anything on the job or read the books at home. However I might have problem with admission straight into Phd because of my grades from my Bsc. I graduated with 3rd Honors degree. I needed to work through my bachelors to support myself which resulted in less time for studying. I have managed to learn everything in order to do my job very well as a software developer(frontend/ backend / best practices/ clean design). Will my industry experience be enough to compensate for bad grades in my Bsc degree when applying straight for Phd or they will tell me I need to do MSc first?


texts: Publishing the same results at multiple conferences

texts: I presented my psychology thesis at an undergraduate conference, an international conference in France, and am now interested in submitting it to be presented at the 2013 APA conference in Hawaii. Since it's been presented to different audiences at each presentation is this unethical? Also, the first two presentations were simply poster sessions. If I elect to present the paper as a 10 minute talk rather than a basic poster session, would that be unethical?


texts: How to condense academic CV in one slide

texts:
I am giving in the next days a presentation to a UK university, as a part of an interview for a post-doc position.

The PI of the lab asked me to put one slide at the beginning with my academic CV.

However, academic CV is in general long and I have no clue on what I should put in this slide and what not, beside the obvious things.

What should this slide contain?
Which is the common practice for this?

I am sure I will need to add:

Previous degrees (Bsc, Msc).
Phd

What I do not know:

Professional experiences?
Teaching experiences?
List of papers?
List of conferences?
List of journals for which I served as a reviewer?


texts: Paper submission with company affiliation

texts:
A friend of mine submitted a paper to a conference, about a topic he was working on in his company. Recently, he got fired from his company so unfairly due to colleagues jealousy (seriously). He already got approval for publication when he was there, but the submission was made arter the firing. The work was a side project, not exact responsibility for him. And he was the only author from the company.

Is he obliged to add his company name as his affiliation? They are not going to pay for the registration and travel sponsorship. He doesn't want to mention he even worked there.


texts: (How) Do journals keep kook papers from clogging up the review system?

texts:
I have written two papers and submitted them to two different journals, and in both instances the process was as simple as registering an account and uploading the paper. While this system was quite convenient and in the spirit of open sharing of knowledge, I can't help but notice that any kook could stick their paper into the publication pipeline.

I looked at this answer, which tells me how the kook publication would be caught by the peer review process. However, this means that some time and resources have been allotted to finding the reviewers and the reviewers have at least looked at the paper, and maybe even taken the time to replicate the experiment.

So, my question is: what sort of safeguards, if any, are usually in place to keep kook papers from tying up resources?


texts: I am a high school senior. One of my friends did a research project in a certain field of Computer Science 2 years ago and it won a lot of awards. He is now at university. I read his paper and relevant work in the area and the research area looks really interesting. I want to do research that's closely related to this idea and I have a few ideas on how to extend the research. Is it ethical to do this project? My main concern is that he/other mutual friends will think that I just used the same idea so that I could win as well.


texts: How do some researchers have such beautiful figures in publications, while their homepages look simple?

texts:
Do some PIs who publish in Nature, Cell or Science collaborate with professional designers?

The thing is that I have never seen it mentioned in their work. Is it a service offered by the journals? Or do the PIs pay for these services and outsource them?


texts: Why not notify faculty candidates of the position being filled?

texts:
There is a certain faculty position (Associate Prof) that has been offered to someone, and got accepted. Is there some reason for which other candidates have not been notified of this?

I find this meaningless and rude, given that the other candidates may make serious career choices, thinking that they are still considered / there is a possibility of them getting this position (eg declining other expiring offers).

To give more context, the interviews for position happened around 2 months ago, and the offer/acceptance was made around a week ago.


texts: Submit an extended version, of a paper presented as short one in a conference, to a journal?

texts:
I have presented a paper in a conference as a short paper, now I want to submit an extended version of it to a journal without cite the previous paper, this extended version is a completly different version but is the same idea as a short paper.
Is it possible to do that ?


texts: What are the standard practices for hyphenating/spelling scientific words

texts:
I would like to know what are standard practices when words are spelled differently across the literature and/or dictionaries (when these words can be found in dictionaries). A few examples of the kind of discrepancies I see:

  flow field vs flow-field vs flowfield
  sub-critical vs subcritical
  mass flow-rate vs mass-flow rate vs mass flowrate
  sub-grid vs subgrid

Is the most important thing for my own work (i.e., PhD thesis) to be consistent? For example, just make sure flow-field is always hyphenated?


texts: Ethics - Asking someone to work for free

texts:
This happened a few months back. By that time I had just finished my masters and was looking for a research position.

I approached a professor who was working in a field in which I did my masters. After some initial conversation about my masters' work. He asked me if I will be ready to work for free. Puzzled by this, I asked him what he meant by that. He said that he had some projects down the line and will not have access to the funding for another 3 or 4 months. Then to clarify things I asked him if he will pay me for this 3 or 4 months once he has access to the funds. He simply smiled and shook his head implying 'no'. After that, I just took my resume and left his office.

TL;DR:
I just want to know, is it very common in academia to ask people to work for free? If so, is it ethical?


texts: Potential Post-Doc supervisor visit: should I give a talk or just have a meeting?

texts:
I am a PhD candidate in computer engineering. I saw an announcement for a post-doctoral position on the internet.

I wrote to the professor having that open position asking him if I could come to visit him and his lab, and talk about the position.
He replied yes. We agreed on the date and I asked him if he wanted me to prepare a talk with slides to give during the visit.

He answered:

  You are welcome to give a talk or we may just have a meeting. It's fully up to you.

So, what should I do?
Talk or just a visit?

A meeting would be more relaxing and confortable, and provide no stress and no extra work.The talk would need time to work on it, and would be more stressful, but may explain better my previous research projects..

What do you suggest to me?


texts: Unsure whether to continue maintaining research account on Facebook re Cambridge Analytica

texts:
I maintain a Facebook account purely for research purposes. I have about 30 or so friends on my account. I have always disagreed with FB and its ethics, however, recently, in the light of the CA scandal I have found myself increasingly questioning my use of the site.

The benefits that FB provide to the researcher of virtual communities are undoubtedly strong. Much of my master's research focused on virtual communities in Iraq and Syria, and much of this would have been impossible without FB. However now I am considering deleting my account in the wake of these - unsurprising - revelations.

As a PhD student, the benefits of being part of an online social community are notable. As a Linux user and a supporter of Free and Open Source Software I also have to wrestle with the occasional difficulties of trying to get software to work which Windows or Macs users would breeze through with ease, but I am happy to do so because of my support for free software and the additional learning/skills I inherit.

Maintaining an ethical standard re software and software companies becomes increasingly difficult in the modern climate. Does one just put one's ethical beliefs on the back burner in the interests of research and should one be perpetually plagued with the decisions one has made to maintain a FB account in spite of disagreeing strongly with the company? Or does one delete one's account and potentially miss out on the great research opportunities it provides?


texts:
I just finished my master's degree in a university, and I got accepted at a university for a PhD about a certain topic, starting from September (meaning I am "officially" not a student of any of the two until then)

My future supervisor brought to my attention a workshop that is taking place in the last week of July and the first week of August that is exactly about my research topic. Moreover, most of the "big names" in that area are going to be there. He actually told me that if I am able to go there, it would be

The problem is that the workshop is in a rather expensive country, and it lasts two weeks. I did the math (lol) and between travel and accomodation it would cost me about a month's stipend.
Now, as I am sure you all know, the economic situation of a Ph.D student isn't exactly marvellous, so I am rather hesitant to spend this amount of money on any thing.

I have, therefore, two questions for you:
a) Would it be appropriate to ask one (or both) the universities for any amount of funding they may get me?
b) Is there any external way, like some small scholarship, some organization or I don't know (wanting to go to an unfunded conference should happen quite often), that may help me with the expenses?
c) Would it make sense to spend my money on this and start my PhD life abroad with basically no savings?

One last thing: if it helps, I am an EU citizen, and all this is taking place in EU.

Ps: to answer the most common questions: the registration period is over (but I may get in anyway if my supervisor sends an email), and there was no planned funding in the first place (so no chance of getting any later)


texts:
I am an early career researcher from India. I had earned a PhD from a top European University four years ago and then I moved to my home country early this year. I have been working on a century old problem, in the area of dielectrics, almost past five years. I believed that I had finally solved the problem and hence wrote the manuscript and submitted it to the prestigious APS journal, Physical Review Letters (PRL), as a single author. The manuscript has undergone three rounds of review and in the final round, number of reviewers were increased to six. Three of them recommended the manuscript for PRL, other two because of the specialised content of the manuscript recommended it for the journal, Physical Review E (PRE), which is another good journal from the APS family. The sixth reviewer rejected the paper without giving any reason.
I was elated to see the reviewers comments and almost majority of them were in my favour. It would have been great for my career if as a single author I had published the manuscript in the PRL. However, the editor said that the manuscript warrants publication but PRL may not be a good venue for it. He recommended Physical Review Research (PRR), a new open access journal from the APS family. I had then resubmitted the paper to PRR, but they rejected the paper claiming that it does not fit into their journal. I then transferred the paper to the PRE and explained the history of the manuscript in my cover letter. However the editors of PRE rejected the paper citing that a manuscript that has been rejected by PRL and PRR, cannot be published in the PRE, though the editor suggested that I could make an appeal against their decision. If I do, an editorial committee will be set up to look into the matter.
After I had uploaded the paper on Arxiv, I had received emails from well known researchers of the field praising my work. I am not sure what is wrong? My theory predicts experimental observations quite well. This has been almost heart-breaking for me. Why they do not want to publish it?
In the last two weeks, I have received two emails from an Editor of an open access journal, Condensed Matter, MDPI publisher. I had not contacted them at all, I believed someone informed them about my paper, or they themselves found it on Arxiv. The editor has offered me to publish the paper without any publication charges. Normally, they charge around 1500 USD as article processing charge (APC). The journal "Condensed Matter" is indexed by ESCI (since 2017) and Scopus (since 2020). Its a new journal (2016), and has published only 265 papers so far in last 4 years. The editorial board has got Profs from Universities of British Columbia, Oxford, Max Planck, MIT, Rome, Penn State, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Minnesota, Waterloo, Los Alamos. But, they have not released the impact factor yet.
So which direction I should go?
Please share your opinion.


texts: A PhD student I know was terminated because of mental illness without any accommodation. What is the possibility of legal action?

texts:
This question is related to the experience of a close relative. He was a PhD student in the US. During his PhD, a little over a year ago, he was hospitalized with his first episode of mental illness. His advisor immediately terminated his employment telling me that my relative was not fit to do a PhD in his lab. He further told me that he had worked with a mentally ill student in the past and it was a mistake and he cannot repeat the same mistake with my relative. While it hurt to hear that, I didn’t think much about the termination at that time as my first priority was helping with the relative's treatment and getting him back on his feet. He had to leave the country since he could not be on a student visa without employment and he has been staying at home since. The drastic life change and not having an independent source of income have been stressing him out and he recently had his second episode. I know this is a complicated situation but am I crazy in thinking that the professor discriminated against my relative by not considering any reasonable accommodations before letting him go? My relative is not a US citizen and is living outside the US now but is there a legal course we can follow? This has been an excruciating experience for our family and any advice/tips are greatly appreciated.

Note: There were no warning signs of the illness before it manifested and my relative was in great standing with the advisor - his research was going well, he had good grades and was not a cause of concern in any manner.


texts: Why would one choose a particular advisor, other than having shared interests?

texts:
I'm applying to a graduate program, and one of the application's requirements is to select at least one advisor, along with a reason for the selection. Specifically, this is the requirement:

  In order to match you with a faculty adviser, tell us which faculty member's work most closely aligns with your interest.

And there is a list from which I should choose the advisor's name, and a text field in which I'm asked to write a reason for the selection.

I already know the advisors whom I'd like to work with, and the reason is simply that I'm interested in what they do (based on their recent papers/projects). But I'm not sure if this is what they're looking for, because they've already said this in the quoted text above, and also I will choose more than one advisor, and writing the same reason doesn't seem right.

My question is: What other reasons that one may have for selecting an advisor, other than having shared interests?


texts: Is it normal for a supervisor to never talk to you or give you any direction?

texts:
My master’s supervisor talks to me once every six months and is uninterested in my research unless I have a half-written paper with a working model already.
There are also no post-docs or assistants managing the students or providing alternative guidance. It is only a professor. And he has about five master’s students and PhD students each under his supervision.

Is this standard operating procedure? I thought I would have more guidance.


texts: How much plagiarism would you consider too much in an academic book?

texts:
I appreciate the technical answer to this is "zero", but in reality, there is probably some room for pragmatism.

I have identified a senior academic, who in two published books has copied and pasted short sections (up to a paragraph) without citiation, or copied and pasted verbatim without using quotes, but citing the source, to make it look they have paraphrased the work.

I have identified so far around 50 examples. Would you consider this a serious case of plagiarism, or would it be assessed as minor?


texts: Are my chances of getting into a PhD higher if I choose a "not-so-accomplished" supervisor?

texts:
Some professors are very accomplished, others are younger and maybe not yet so accomplished (although admittedly this does not need to correlate with age of course). I presume everyone wants to work with the accomplished people, and not so many people want to work with the people who have just started their careers.

However: Say I really wanted to get into uni X, because of personal reasons (I can't move to a different city because of my wife etc., so just personal reasons; also I do not aspire an academic career after the PhD, I have other reasons for wanting to complete one), would my chances be increased if I were to target a not so accomplished/famous/senior advisor (all other things being equal)?


texts: I defended my PhD thesis over 5 years ago and obtained my PhD, but I was not happy with the thesis (a classic saying of many an academic, I know), but felt pressured to submit and move on to new things. Whilst I still like the thesis idea, what I wrote, the references, and the results, I now know I should have used a totally different mathematical theory to describe the proposed system/algorithm. Would a University allow someone to update a thesis after it has been "published" in the sense it's in the library and departmental library? Is there any point in asking the University or will this just be thrown out?


texts:
I earned my Bs.C. in Computer Science five years ago. Two years ago I started taking courses of advanced level from Computer Science department. Now I am thinking about applying to M.Sc. studies abroad.

The usual requirement is to submit three references. The problem is I don't have someone to write a reference. I wasn't very successful in these advanced courses, therefore I don't think I could ask a lecturer to write a reference, nor his assistant who was checking homework assignments. As option, I could find a professor and start working with him for a while; I am not sure that the result of this work will be a paper, but at least he will be able to somehow evaluate my ability to do a research, the problem is I need three of them.

In addition, I am not sure I could ask someone from my B.Sc. studies to write a reference, just because I lost touch with them.

In your opinion, what is the best way to get three references?


texts: Approaching lab head about getting my name last on paper

texts:
In my field, computational condensed-matter physics, the last author name in a paper is regarded as having a supervisory role. I know this is common to many fields but not all (notably, math).

I am a postdoc associated to a professor's group. By "associated" I mean that I have my own project and funding, on which I am officially and practically the PI. However, I am also carrying out supervisory work of a student in the professor's group, paid from a project on which the professor is the PI. Incidentally, I designed and wrote a large portion (circa 50%) of the proposal for that project, but I have no official attachment to it. Since the project kicked off, I have been redesigning the scope and methods of the project as we progressed through it, and the student is working basically on testing my ideas under my guidance. The professor knows about the main features of what we do but is not familiar with any of the details nor is proposing/contributing significantly to either science or supervision.

Everybody is more or less happy with the arrangement, since the professor sees progress, with minimal cost of his time and effort, on this research area of interest in which he can contribute little due to his lack of background on computational physics. I get some extra manpower to extend my ability to test some of my ideas, and the student gets supervised by someone who can provide expert guidance on the topic of this PhD thesis. The professor is easy going and everybody is in good terms with each other.

However, I am starting to apply for senior positions. In one of my applications, I was rejected mainly on the basis of being too junior, and a piece of critical feedback was on my lack of "last author papers". It had been agreed with the professor that I would be last author in some of the student's first authored papers (actually, he suggested that). However, in a recent manuscript draft where the student put my name last the professor corrected the author list and put his name last instead. This could be because he forgot about the agreement or (I suspect this one) he realized the paper was much more significant than originally expected and wanted to get some "extra" credit for it. This credit is needed for him to increase his chances at future funding in this research direction. However, I feel that this undermines my contribution and does not accurately reflect the role that each author had on the study, since I designed the project, proposed the ideas, did the actual supervision, and even contributed to getting the funding (and thus, the convention in my field dictates that my name should go last). Further to this, I desperately need to get this credit to just stay "afloat" in academia (whereas the professor "only" needs it to increase his funding pool).

I think it is only fair to work out a list of authors that more accurately and fairly reflects my contribution to our upcoming papers. However, I want to avoid falling off with this professor or introducing undue strain into our working relationship. How should I approach a request for my name to appear as last author in subsequent papers?


texts: When a professor commits scientific fraud, are the journal reviewers and editors of the paper also discredited?

texts: If a researcher publishes a paper found to be fraudulent, are the reviewers and editors of the paper also discredited for having approved the fraudulent paper?


texts: Same person as supervisor/co-promotor and professor/promotor

texts:
I've just started a PhD. Currently I only have one person who is supervising me (the professor). So he is now both my supervisor and my promotor.

Now other (ex) PhD students are telling me that these roles should be filled by different people, to prevent mix of interests. But I don't have sufficient insight on what they are referring to.

Should I be worried? Should I talk to my department head to change the situation?

edit, let me clarify:

With "promotor" I mean the main project supervisor, being a professor. He has the final responsibility.
With "supervisor" I mean the daily supervisor, sometimes also called co-promotor. To my understanding this is often somebody else, for instance an associate professor or assistant professor.


texts: Is it possible to ask about RA positions after being rejected by the same lab for a PhD?

texts:
I am currently looking at PhD programmes (mainly in the US) and have been advised to email potential PIs before I put in an application. I am afraid my profile isn't very competitive and my back up plan is to go get more research experience if I get rejected by all the programmes I apply to. In the case that occurs, would it be acceptable/is it normal to email the same PIs I wanted to work with to ask about research assistant positions? And if I re apply in the following year, is it acceptable to email the same PIs asking about their work since the PIs I have short listed and people I really really want to work with!
I hope I haven't rambled on too much!
EDIT: So is RA positions are given to grad students, how do I get more research experience to strengthen my application for grad school after I have graduated from my degree with a masters? (I'm international and so would need some financial support and visa sponsorship and can't "volunteer")
Thanks!


texts: Copyright Complications - Cumulative Dissertation & Elsevier

texts:
I am bit puzzled over the copyright issued involved in the publication of a cumulative dissertation.
Lets imagine you publish a paper in an Elsevier journal. The process of publication usually requires you to transfer the exclusive copyright to Elsevier. This would basically mean, you are not allowed to publish the paper as part of your cumulative dissertation (e.g. in the repository of your institution).
However I found a multitude of exceptions that allow specifically the publication within the context of a dissertation. Examples:
Source

Theses and dissertations which contain embedded PJAs as part of the
formal submission can be posted publicly by the awarding institution
with DOI links back to the formal publications on ScienceDirect

Source 2 - FAQ

Can I include/use my article in my thesis/dissertation?
Yes. Authors can include their articles in full or in part in a thesis
or dissertation for non-commercial purposes.
Can I use material from my Elsevier journal article within my
thesis/dissertation?
As an Elsevier journal author, you have the right to Include the
article in a thesis or dissertation (provided that this is not to be
published commercially) whether in full or in part, subject to proper
acknowledgment; see the Copyright page for more information.  No
written permission from Elsevier is necessary.
This right extends to the posting of your thesis to your university’s
repository provided that if you include the published journal article,
it is embedded in your thesis and not separately downloadable.

Also this .PDF by elsevier explicitly allows the use of the published journal article in a dissertation.
So now, this looks to me like it would be okay. However, I also read about that this is usually only allowed after an embargo period of for example 12 month. This would be highly problematic to my time schedule. Also in this document by Elsevier on Hosting Policies there is also an embargo period mentioned.
Does anyone of my fellow PhD students has experience with this issue?
Am I supposed to wait now for the 1 year embargo, or would it be permitted to publish an Elsevier article as part of a cumulative dissertation on our institutional repository.


texts: Can an advisor use part of an unpublished paper in a project deliverable without your consent?

texts:
A previous position of mine was funded by a EU research project, which requires publishing a project deliverable. These project deliverables are public and citable documents that are available online and are usually indexed by research databases. In a deliverable of this project, my ex-advisor used text, figures, and tables of an unpublished research paper of which I am the lead author and which I still intend to publish. Initially, I was not listed as an author of the deliverable; in a later version I was. Most importantly, I was never informed about this or asked for my consent.

My question is: Is this ethical/correct/appropriate? I’m not against of reporting my work to the deliverable as I have done it during the course of two years contributing to several of the deliverables. My problem is that I think as the lead author I have the right to be informed that the text and results of the paper that I wrote are going to be used in a deliverable.


texts: Contacting multiple professors for supervision

texts:
I am an Honours student in the process of contacting professors and senior lecturers to request supervision/joint supervision.

So far, I had been in contact with a pair who were more than happy to supervise me, but after a meeting or two with them, I felt that
1) we probably would not click
2) their area of research, whilst on the outset seemed similar to my interests, is quite different.

So with that said, I have also been in contact with another pair.
These two seem extremely nice and supportive. I feel their research interests/expertise is more closely aligned with mine and that I would probably be better suited to working with them.

This is in Australia, so the semester will begin in about 3 weeks, and final supervisors are chosen in late march/early april - so I still have lots of time.

I wanted to know - should I flat out tell the first two academics that I am speaking to other academics, and may not end up going with them, even though the second set of academics are not confirmed supervisors?

Did I do anything ethically wrong? I feel bad for having had the first two (potential) supervisors have a phone/skype meeting with me + send me all their papers/manuscripts, if it was all in vain.

Finally, to add, would it be wrong to ask the first set of academics if I could be a TA for any of their classes, knowing that there's an 80% chance I won't be going with them as my supervisors?

Any advice is appreciated.


texts: Previous postdoc supervisor removed my name in the published article

texts:
In my previous postdoc, I had completed work with my supervisor. The idea was provided to me and I did all the mathematical derivation and generating all the results. We published two conference papers, one with me as the first author, and the second one in which he was the first author. We also submitted the work to a journal but it was rejected. Then, I moved out and took another academic job. I did not have time to work on the rejected journal paper and incorporate all his suggestions. Therefore, we stopped discussing it. Very recently I found that this paper is accepted in a journal paper, and he is the sole author of this paper.
The published paper is 80-90% the same as the rejected paper that was submitted to the journal, and 60% the same to the conference paper that he is the first author (in IEEE they allow the same work to be published in conference and journal). This is completely unethical, to remove my name from the article. In this case, can I complain against him to the editor of the journal, and IEEE? What action can they take, retraction?


texts: Do you need published papers to apply for a postdoc?

texts:
A friend of mine has a conundrum: He finished his PhD and wants to stay in academia (in Physics). Problem is, his supervisor is very unsupportive in everything. I think he switched research interests and left my friend hanging. He's extremely slow in working on a draft they want to submit to a high-tier journal, and my friend believes that without this work published it doesn't make sense to even start applying for postdocs.

Problem is that this has been going on for years now and thus his career has stagnated.

I feel that this can't be quite right, but since I never bothered to look into postdocs I might be wrong.

In my opinion, my friend should just apply for postdocs anyway, with or without all of the PhD work published. I have a hard time imagining that a successful application lives and dies with one particular paper. That would mean that anyone whose supervisor stops working for one reason or another would be forever stranded in limbo.

Tips and advice on how my friend could move forward would be appreciated.


texts: Resubmission of a manuscript to another journal which has been already published in Arxiv

texts:
Suppose Dr. X has submitted his manuscript to a journal A and published a pre-print in Arxiv before receiving the review results. Unfortunately, journal A rejected it and he decides to submit it to a different journal B with only minor modifications.

The problem now is that the major of Dr. X's paper with the results and figures are left unmodified and will be reused in journal B as it is in the Arxiv version.

Will this be considered plagiarism?


texts: How do I cite a result that I've only seen stated without a proof, and I prove myself?

texts:
I am writing my PhD thesis in mathematics.

It happens frequently that I use results that I don't have a reference for except

textbooks stating "it is easily seen that ..." or "it is well-known that..."
it is stated on Wikipedia (without proof)
I have derived it with colleagues or people from Q&A sites

Then I try to find a source for some time, before I write down a proof by myself. However, most probably, there has been an earlier mention of this result that I could  reference instead.

How should I proceed in such cases?


texts:
I am currently an undergraduate student looking to work on a senior thesis. Over the course of the past summer and sporadically throughout the Fall semester, I worked with a professor in extremal graph theory. There has been some (from my point of view) subtext between us that I would continue this work into my senior year, though this was never explicitly said.

However, I want to pursue something more algebraic, and have been in contact throughout the Fall semester with a professor working in algebraic graph theory.

How do I tell my current research advisor I want to work in a related field with another professor?


texts: Ways of developing non-core skills during PhD studies?

texts:
Working on a cross-disciplinary project, in an increasingly cross-disciplinary field, I often find myself wondering whether or not I am developing skills in multiple different areas of my work. I intend this question to be as general as possible, but for the sake of clarity I will give my case as an example:

I have a MSc in applied mathematics, and have been working with biomedical research for three years now. Being branded as a bioinformatician I feel very appreciated on one hand, and absolutely disregarded on the other. In many cases I am expected to learn more of the biology and develop an understanding of "the real science" while all the tools and analysis should just work. I mean many of the seniors have absolutely no idea of the time and effort it takes to develop at software tool, maintain and further develop it. It appears as all that is given once and for all in the engineering school, after all programming is just programming... (please note the sarcasm here)

Be as it may, I have been trying to improve my knowledge and experience in the technical aspects of the work on my own; learning new algorithms, new languages, new tools... It is surprisingly hard to get accustomed to these when you are not in the university anymore. Consequently, I have given up on learning Maven for my Java projects, or Perl for speeding up my day-to-day scripting.

So my question is; what are good methods for learning or developing techniques that are not immediately in the scope of your project but is still very relevant in your development as a scientist?

Follow up question: am I mistaken in thinking that I should develop a broad set of skills in order to become as efficient and competent as possible?


texts: How to write an apology letter for a professor?

texts:
A couple of months ago, I defended my Master's thesis and got graduated. One of the referees, a professor of mine with a history of verbal contentions between us, did me an overt injustice and despite all my efforts, attacked me with her unfair judgement. I got angry and sent her an e-mail the other day, one could say explicitly offensive and disrespectful, implying her lack of knowledge and her biased criticisms. I also commented on her wasting too much time in social networks, rather than doing academic research.

I may have gone too far obviously for I heard she burst into tears after reading the e-mail, and has notified almost all other professors about it.
As a professor, do you still believe I have a chance to apologize the lady and ask for her forgiveness? If in her shoes, would you expect an apology e-mail or you'd prefer no more words from the arrogant student? If yes, what would you prefer to hear in the regret letter? And do you evaluate my reaction as provocative?


texts: Which are the funding options for a Postdoc in Denmark?

texts:
I am willing to apply for a position in Denmark at Copenhagen university. However, the putative PI told me that has no money to fund a postdoc position and recommended some fellowship options to apply. (Curie and Lundbeck). I come from Argentina and European calls are out of my range.

I would like to know if there are other options to obtain funding to do a postdoc in Denmark.


texts: Seriously conflicted about a graduate program option

texts:
I graduated in 2013 with a degree in Botany from a state college on the west coast. Since then, I've worked for the Forest Service on a rare plants/ invasive weeds survey crew, and currently, work for the USDA as part of the Agricultural research service as a biological science technician. When I took the job, I was clear to my supervisor that I planned on attending graduate school after the two years I was committed to on the project. He was excited about this and very supportive of me. I went to work for on a number of projects involving plant physiology, plant biology, remote sensing etc. My goal with this position was
to take my academic record from my times as an undergraduate and supplement it with some applied experience, then to apply to graduate schools for the 2016/17 school year as a top tier candidate. I've worked hard to make sure my undergraduate grades, GREs, and letters of recommendation are of sufficient quality to single me out from a crowd of well qualified applicants. My thought was that this two years of experience would take me over the top, that this experience would take me from being a well qualified applicant to a top tier applicant/ the top applicant. I had been looking at applying to 3-4 top tier schools in plant genetics/ plant physiology (UC Davis, UC Berkeley, Cornell, Michigan State).

So fast forward a year and a half (this summer) and my boss approaches me with an offer. He wants to fund me to do a graduate program at the local land grant university. It would be a full assistantship and tuition waiver for the two years, which is an incredible offer. I wouldn't even have to apply to the school.

Here is my conflict: The offer is for a program I'm only tangentially interested in (weeds biology), from a department I don't really want to be involved with (crop science; but could make do), at a fairly low ranked state university.

I also feel like I've set myself up for one good shot at getting into a highly competitive program, and that taking this offer will throw that away. I won't get the chance to use the letters of recommendation, undergraduate grades, GREs, that I worked hard for, only to go to a middling school to do a degree that I'm only kind-of interested in.

At the same time, it's a convincingly good offer, one that I would be incredibly unlikely to get again.

Note also, that the offer was made at a very strategic time. The offer would be for the 2015/16 school year (I wouldn't finish my 2 years under my original contract). He made the offer in such a way that it preempts my ability to apply to other schools and cultivate a counter offer.


texts: Can I recreate/redesign a peer reviewed journal article findings (giving proper credits to author, journal)into powerpoint and sell it?

texts: Can I recreate/redesign a peer reviewed journal article findings (giving proper credits to author, journal) into powerpoint slide and sell it for profit?


texts: Is a paper with no citations likely to contribute to citation metrics in a way which reduces my job prospects?

texts:
Last year I did some work to help out my friend and his supervisor on a project that they were working on. I wasn't very involved with the project, but the work that I contributed was important for them to be able to find the main results that they were interested in. I asked at the time if they would they be happy to include me as an author on the paper based on this contribution, and they said they would be happy to do that.
I think it's quite likely that the paper might not get very many citations. The most closely related paper to the one they will publish soon was written by my friend's supervisor, and it has only one citation. It was published in 2015, and I think it's in an area that doesn't have so much research interest in general.
I've been wondering what different people think about whether being an author on this work would look better or worse for me, with respect to future positions in academia. I'm hoping to look for a postdoctoral position in the near future, in a different but related field.
I feel like it might look better: I would have more publications and it's showing more of my skills. I could put it on my CV.
Or it might look worse: I know there are different metrics which take into consideration how many citations papers have, and having a paper with no citations might reduce my score on them.
I'm currently at the end of my PhD and I have 6 publications, one has 4 citations and the rest have between 10 and 25. I think at this point it would be reasonable to ask them to include me only as an acknowledgement on the paper, if I decided that was the best option for me.
Any opinions/perspectives on this appreciated.
I appreciate that it's my choice whether I put the paper on my CV or not, if I choose to stay as an author.
Thanks


texts: What should a work supervisor put in a recommendation letter for someone applying to statistics PhD programs?

texts: This fall, I'll be applying to PhD programs in statistics in the U.S. I'm currently a full-time student in an applied math master's program in the U.S.; until this fall, I was a part-time student and a full-time data analyst at a financial services company. It looks like I'll only be able to get two good recommendation letters from professors, so I'm considering asking my former work supervisor to write one for me. She was my supervisor for two and a half years, during which time we worked together closely on many projects. She doesn't have a PhD in statistics or any other field, but she was a data analyst before becoming a manager. What sorts of things should I ask her to write about in her letter? The professors I'm going to get letters from taught statistics classes that I took and are supervising statistical research that I'm doing; I'm guessing that I should ask my former supervisor to write about things that my professors might not touch on, but I'm not sure what those things should be.


texts: Enroll in an online program such as Open University provides for PhD, or wait 5-10 years and enroll at a 'normal' school?

texts:
I have a BSc and an MS.  My GPAs for both are pretty good.  I'd like to start doing more advanced coursework, though there are a couple of things impeding that at the moment.  The first is, I work full time.  The second is, I change my location quite often (once every year or so, typically).

I understand this is a subjective question to an extend but, please give me your opinions.  I am approaching middle age.  Is it worthwhile to pursue an online PhD program (e.g. through Open University), or would I be better off waiting 5-10 years until I am more settled, near a traditional school?


texts: Marking a journal paper as “Minor revisions needed” for minor typos?

texts:
I’m doing my first review of a journal paper.

The paper looks good other than a few spelling/grammar typos and one formatting issue where a line has a single letter extend into the center margin between the two columns. These issues are not ones that confuse the content of the work in anyway.

My decision options include accept, minor revisions needed, major revisions needed, and reject. Should I be choosing accept or minor revisions needed? Do these small types warrant a revision for journal papers? Or is it ok to accept these issues?


texts: Standard for figure description in main text and its placement in a report/paper

texts:
I heard of this rule/recommendation (or may be its opposite) - Always let the figures come after they are described in the text.

What is the correct rule? What's the logic? Is it always followed?

What if (in a single column format) there are two smaller figures side-by-side and second figure's description comes later in the text?


texts: How to ask someone to be cited in their paper?

texts:
I have published a paper last year (with other colleagues) where, among other things, we demonstrated a certain formula.

Recently another paper, independently, demonstrated basically the same formula but in a more abstract language and which applied to a much more general case. We are not cited in their paper.

I don't think their intentions were wrong at all, probably they were just unaware of our work. They certainly did not ''plagiarize'' us, but I feel that we should appear at least in a footnote or something.

My question is: what is the most polite way to write to them asking to be cited? If it's acceptable to do this in the fist place.


texts: How to report GPA, if minimum letter grade credits not reached?

texts:
How would a graduate student, at the University of California, Santa Cruz, report their GPA, on fellowship applications, if they have not yet accrued enough letter grade credits?

UCSC seems to not report a formal GPA until the student takes 25 credits of letter grade classes. This excludes credits received from pass / fail classes, which count toward graduation but not toward the 25 credit letter grade GPA threshold.


texts: PhD Advisor is lying about funding and doesn't write their own grants

texts:
I am currently enrolled in a science research PhD study in Canada. I am co-supervised by 2 people in different fields. The problem is that I started my PhD ~1.5 years ago and was told that there was funding but there wasn’t; something didn’t work according to plan, I am not sure what happened. Since 2017, I have written every grant and submitted it under my primary supervisor’s name to get my PhD funded. The issue is that my primary supervisor told my co-supervisor that they had funding and told the department they had funding when they didn’t. However, I am not sure how the primary supervisor is funding the situation, but at times I have to incur expenses and am told I will be reimbursed. Is that normal? I also heard that grad students are not required to write the whole grant applications but can assist in sections if required? Should I speak up about having added stress of writing grant applications, which isn’t even my job? Furthermore, at one point, I would have to constantly ask for my monthly stipend. I have repeatedly asked them about the funding situation and the primary supervisor seems to be quite nonchalant about the whole issue and does not have any urgency regarding the matter. I am not sure if I should speak up to anyone about these issues, but I also don’t want to go over my primary supervisor’s head, betray them, and besmirch their words.

Summary questions:
1. should I tell anyone that all our grants are rejected and there isn’t any funding?
2. Should I be having to incur expenses for my own research? (edit: costs related to research expenses, not conference or food. Even in the past the conference expenses were not covered and I had to pay out of pocket)
3. Should I speak to my advisor about how I shouldn’t have to write the grant applications?


texts: Can I exclude papers from my CV/Google Scholar when my contribution was marginal?

texts:
Years ago, when I had no academic experience and no sense of what constituted authorship, I worked as a software developer in a biology lab whose PI was very generous with authorship. If you gave another student some analysis code or met with them a dozen times to get them up to speed on a new project, you were listed as an author on any subsequent paper. For example, a year or two after I left this lab, I got an email notification about an accepted paper from this lab that I was n-th author on. Why? Because I had helped a summer student a handful of times—maybe half a dozen meetings, less than a few hours of work. I didn't speak up because the PI had an outsized impact on my application to graduate school. While I wondered if he was being too generous, I didn't actually know what constituted authorship, and it felt safer to just ignore the issue.
Now I'm nearing the end of a PhD in CS/ML and considering postdoc or research scientist positions. I've developed my own research taste and collaborated with others who are much more rigorous and intentional about what academic authorship means. I've learned a lot. This biology work (1) is not in my field, (2) clutters my CV, and (3) is embarrassing to discuss since my contributions are so marginal. This problem is compounded by the fact that a few of these projects are well-cited. One paper has nearly 2000 citations. My contribution was to help write the documentation (it's bioinformatics software). It has nothing to do with my chosen field; my contribution was non-technical and uninteresting; and yet it dominates my Google Scholar. It's plausible that for the rest of my career, this paper could be at the top of my Google Scholar.
Ethically speaking, can I exclude these papers from my CV? Can I delete them from my Google Scholar? When I was in college, I mowed lawns, but I don't put that on my resume because there's nothing to talk about. I wonder if the same rules apply even to papers that you're officially an author on.


texts: How is it possible to get into PhD in a different institute than Masters when publications take so long?

texts: Usually to be accepted by a PhD program by a reputed university the admission committee looks for candidates who have made research contributions to the desired field (specially through publications). A Masters student however only starts his/her research work in the last semester and even if something substantial is done during that time, getting it published would take a fair amount of time. How is it possible then for a masters student who's applying for PhD showcase their publications in the application?


texts: Pedagogical reasons for closed-book exams in graduate-level courses?

texts:
Is there any research/study/survey that looked at the pedagogical benefits of assessing students with closed-book exams for graduate-level courses (vs. open-book exams)?

I'm mostly interested in computer science and math education in the USA, if the answer is field- or country-dependent.


texts: How can I increase my productivity through my daily habits?

texts:
I recently posted this similar question here but I guess even this site could help me with that it or could even be better.

I am student how can I increase my productivity for studies by adapting/incorporating some habits into my lifestyle that will help me in the long run.

It got me curious because my teacher's keep telling me but getting a goods score, it's not all about studies , but other practices /habit that help too. I think what he means is  more on the line of smart work v/s hard work. And the earlier you'll incorporate them in your life , the more/better results one can see.

So what I want to ask is that are there few practices taht I can incorporate in my life that will help me in my studies in the long run or can be beneficial for me, both physically and mentally.