texts:
Today`s publications lack of the possibility to be extended by others after being published. A data base paper could for example benefit when contributors would gain authorship by opening data with a meta description.

Blockchain is a technology which offers the inheritance of documents. Each block can be seen as a single owner.

In case of scientific publications that means:

Paper x00 is written by x.
Paper x00 is taken by z and extended to xz0.
Paper x00 is taken by y and extended to xy0.
Paper xz0 is liked most by q and extended to xzq. q finds the advanced paper
xz0 better than xy0 or the original x00.

There would be no merge options (xy0 and xz0 are merged to xyz), but fields within science would develop interesting publication trees over time with self pruning capabilities. Most useful contributions will inherit, none useful extensions will "die out". You can still cite other sources.

I worked as an informatician in the barely digitized field of forestry and found myself citing a technology called optimization developed in the 50`s.
Specifically the "Downhill Simplex" method developed by two authors Nelder and Mead.
I also know that only the basic principle of the algorithm is used in today's
libraries. Details have been changed. Multiple thousands of method clones exists published over half a century. The implementation I rely on differs from
the original published one. I always wondered who contributed most over the decades. Might have been a lot of scientists who made advances on the algorithm which others did rely on. But I do now know.

What benefits and what negative effects would such an application have I do not think of? Energy costs could be another issue which I cannot quantify.

To clarify, the benefit I see is the expandable authorship.


texts: How generous should I be with citations?

texts:
I am wondering if it is a bad thing to cite a paper in a scientific publication for a trivial or irrelevant reason.

The specific instance I have in mind is the usage of certain terminology. I basically want to make a point along the lines:

"We define a set to be flabby if it obeys conditions X, following the convention in [Smith]. We note that other authors (e.g. [Jones]) also require flabby sets to satisfy a condition Y".

Now, it is clear that if you use some definition (which is not very classical), it should be attributed, or at least a reference should be given to some reasonably good introduction to the topic. In this case, the reference the paper of Smith does the job just fine. But what about Jones? The only reason for citing him is that he happens to be using a different convention than I. On the other hand, I cannot convincingly make the point I want to make without some reference; and I'm concerned that I might be confusing the reader if I don't make this point. It could be that Jones gets an extra epsilon of recognision because of one more citation to his paper, which I personally don't mind at all. But it is maybe slightly weird that I cite a paper which I am not, strictly speaking, using.

I suppose this particular case is not really that important. What I am would really like to know - although that's perhaps too vague for SE - is whether it is generally OK to cite papers just because it is convenient for me, without worrying about whether I actually use the results of that paper in my work.

(If relevant, my field is pure mathematics.)


texts: A postdoc joining my group is interested in my experiment. How to proceed with respect to leadership on the project?

texts:
The situation is the following: I have been researching, in an experimental science, the capabilities of a new way how to perform a given experiment. Due to the challenging nature of the project, I have encountered several pitfalls until now and after several years have found a main line of projects within this scope that can yield a good outcome.
The peril: a new postdoc will join our group and he already stated his main interest in also working in the same experiment.

Since I feel like being held back by my advisor, who is agreeing on this situation, my question is: How should I proceed in this case with regard to the division between our leadership? The postdoc will probably perform some of the experiments that took me (a PhD student) two years to find the right track.


texts: What is a reasonable number of grad schools to apply to for a PhD in computer science?

texts: I'm applying straight out of undergrad, and I'm not sure how many schools I should apply to.


texts: What points should I consider when applying for/accepting a position at another department?

texts:
I specialize in Computability Theory which is part of Mathematical Logic at the intersection of Theoretical Computer Science and Mathematics. Therefore I could potentially apply for jobs (e.g. a lecturer) to philosophy (because of logic and foundations of mathematics), computer science and mathematics departments.

However, my research is of very mathematical nature. Hence, if I am going to collaborate with some other researchers, they are almost certainly going to be mathematicians. If I am going to have a PhD student, I would prefer if he/she took mathematical graduate courses since these are going to be more related to my research and the research I can supervise. Similarly, I would prefer to supervise the final year students writing their thesis more related to my research.

I am afraid this may pose a conflict, if I for example am not interested in the research of my employing department and do not collaborate with the colleagues there or do not attend their seminars. On the other hand I can imagine that the interdisciplinary collaboration with colleagues from other departments may be welcomed.

The reason why I ask this is because getting a job in academia is competetive and one cannot always get the preferred position. Therefore: what points should I consider when applying for/accepting a position at another department outside my nominal specialization?


texts: UK MSc vs MEng when applying for PhD and Chartered Engineer

texts:
I did my BEng electrical and electronic undergraduate degree in UK university. It was 3 year degree. So I want clear idea of MSc and MEng and also about Chartered Engineer qualification. Please kindly clear my doubts.

MSc is postgraduate degree in UK, USA, Canada and so on. Is it right?
UK MEng is undergraduate degree in USA, Canada and so on. But UK MEng is  postgraduate degree. Is it right?
Therefor If I did MEng electrical and electronic in UK, Is it equal to BSc in USA, Canada and so on? Because MEng is undergraduate degree and BEng + MEng is 4 year undergraduate degree.
I can get Chartered Engineer qualification in UK but I can't get engineering courses membership in other counties because BEng is 3 year degree. If I did MEng, can I get USA engineering courses membership? Because then I have  4 year undergraduate degree.
If I did MEng undergraduate degree, can I did directly PhD in USA or Canada?  or Do I want to do MSc  postgraduate degree to do PhD in USA?


texts: Should I rewrite completely an extended paper?

texts:
If I submitted a paper on a conference, and now a special journal about that conference has asked for submit extended versions of our previous work; I was wondering if I should rewrite completely the first accepted version of my paper. I mean, I already have the additional material, but can I not add it into the original paper? also should I change the title in this situation?

I have seen articles of some authors that the extended version is almost identical to the previous one, only with the extension of some parts. That thing is not a case of self-plagiarism?


texts: Withdrawing from PhD with or without a Master Degree

texts:
I have taken a leave of absence from my PhD program due to health reasons and since my health has improved dramatically over the past year, I am seriously considering never coming back.

I have completed 3 years worth of classes but only completed one qualifying exam out of two, so I am currently not eligible for a Masters Degree from my program.

I already have a Masters Degree from a slightly less ranked school but in pretty much the same subject.

Would it benefit me to spend all summer to study for the other half of a qualifying exam to get the second MS?

From your experience, would employers look at me more negatively if I had dropped out without any diplomas from the degree or would it be worse to have two MS degrees in the same discipline?


texts: What does the "C" mean in "Mater. Sci. Eng. C"

texts:
ISO4 standard naming for the "Material Science" field is as follows:

Mater. Sci. Eng. C
Material Science & Engineering: C

What does the C mean?


texts: Overlap between individual parts of BMBF funding proposals (Germany)?

texts:
I'm in the middle of writing a funding proposal for a BMBF programme (BMBF = the German federal ministry of education and research). I'm part of a consortium with a company, a local city government, our university, and another university.

We've already submitted a combined proposal, which got accepted, and are now supposed to submit additional individual proposals from each project partner.

This being Germany, we've been asked to submit forms upon forms within forms, and it seems to me that there is a huge amount of redundancy - the individual proposals don't seem to request any information that wasn't already part of the combined proposal.

Since this is my first time writing a proposal for this particular funding programme, I'm now wondering if I can just copy parts from the joint proposal into my individual one? I honestly don't quite understand why the individual proposals are requested at all, except for adding a bit of details in some parts... any insights welcome :-)


texts: Why do supervisors hide my rights from me?

texts:
the question title above is deliberately provocative.
I am in the UK. A few days ago I have explained my situation - many problems with a Department that was not able to support me adequately.

Generally, both my supervisor, co-supervisor (the co-supervisor has just become a lecturer, so he is probably just inexperienced) and head of department (who was the arbitrator during my viva, after I raised all my problems) have constantly avoided to discuss with me the reports from my examiners, just recommending (almost demanding) that I do follow those. They have constantly denied that I can appeal to a "revise and resubmit". However I have recently contacted the student service of the University, and there I was told that not only I can appeal for further opportunity to submit, but that I can also submit a complaint to dispute tuition fees liability.

Now, I can understand the latter option was avoided - nobody is happy with money, but why was the former option (appeal) completely denied rather than discussed? Do academics get some reputation issues if students submit an appeal against a "revise and resubmit"?


texts: Difficult student would dispute every grade in the course and now wants letter of recommendation

texts:
I had a student in one of my courses that for every graded assignment would come to me and challenge the grade given, even though I provided a rubric to show exactly why the points where taken off.

For one of the last assignments, which was a class presentation, this student went off into another topic and for half of the presentation time essentially filled the time with an interesting topic, that unfortunately, although interesting, was not what the assignment for the presentation required. There were other problems with the presentation, which I outlined in the rubric, but twice the student came to me to challenge the grade, because they "worked so hard on the presentation," and that they "did cover what was required" and did not deserve a B (which in retrospect, should have been a C), I explained why again the student got the grade they deserved...and after a while the student saying that they did not agree, left.

But then on the following class, the student came to talk to me about their grade again and was even somewhat aggressive towards me, and very confrontational raising their tone of voice and won't give up on the point that s/he deserved an A. I said that I would be happy to grade the presentation again, but that I was often very lenient and that the grade could either improve/or decrease if I were to grade it again. The student then gave up, and said that s/he would focus then on the final paper and asked whether I give full points (100) in the final paper, to which I replied, "yes, if you exceed my expectations." (haven't graded this assignment yet).

Well, a week went by and then this student asks me for a letter of recommendation! Granted s/he currently have a A- in my course, but after the way the student spoke to me, with complete lack of respect, I was very surprised that s/he would ask for a letter.

...and at first the student did not want to waive their rights to the letter, claiming that we had to sign the page "together" whenever they would pick up the letter. I explained that the student could actually fill out the top part, if s/he wanted to waive the rights, and I would fill out the bottom part, include the form with the letter in a sealed envelope. But that if s/he did not want to waive the rights, that would be fine as well, and I would just sign the bottom part...then the student decided it would be best to waive their rights...

I am now in the process of writing the letter and was wondering if anyone was ever put in the same situation, and what did you do? This is a good student, however, clearly lacks respect for their professors. Any advice/guidance/help? How/Should I mentioned this in the letter?


texts: Will Leaving a tenure track position after one year for a postdoctoral position at a better location hurt my future academic career?

texts: I'm leaving a tenure track position after one year, I have a tenure track offer and a postdoctoral offer. The postdoc position is in the very nice city and I like the research projects there. But the school is not that high ranked. Will going down to postdocs hurt my future transition to faculty position?


texts: Conceptual graphs in a business subject PhD thesis

texts:
I have my thesis ready now. I don't have many graphs apart from some for my findings. After reviewing papers and a couple of thesis in my field I noticed many of them presented conceptual graphs throughout their project. I am wondering if adding such conceptual graphs to my each chapter or specific section will make a good impact on the overall look of the thesis.

I figured out it's not an easy task. I read my thesis a few times now but I can't think of any graphs that I can make to conceptualise the main themes in chapters. The nature of my thesis is exploratory and I have narratively explained what I found.

So the question is, should I ignore the idea of making graphs? Or if it is a good idea to add graphs, what are some techniques that help in this process?


texts: Which bibliometrics index to trust more?

texts:
We've already discussed about which bibliometric indeces are diffused the most, and how they work.

We all know that, along the most common h-index, there are many other parameters deriving from it or similar to it.
From Publish or Perish website, we can list:

g-index: Egghe's g-index
hc-index: the contemporary h-index
individual h-index: its three variations hI-index, hI-norm, and hm-index

Between these (and other) bibliometrics indeces, which one do you trust more?
Which one do you think is the best one to get the scientific excellence of an author?
Why?

Thanks!


texts: Looking for advices to stay motivated working with my master degree advisor

texts:
As English is not my native language I apologize for any mistakes in my following post.

I did my Bachelor Degree in Mathematics in University "A" with advisor "a". The strees level of this University was hard, the admission tests for master degrees also are so hard , and it was so competitive. But I really enjoyed working with my thesis advisor there, it was also hard but I really learned a lot working with him, as he was a great teacher . Also he was such a supportive person.

Nowdays Im in my second semester studying a master degree in mathematics in University "B" with advisor "b" in other city. So far, I´ve enjoyed the academic system of the school (subjects, less level of stress than university a, most of teachers so far, the city, etc). The problem is that I dont feel motivated working with my advisor, he is the person who is more closed to the topics I like at university "B". Im wanted to do a topic in lets say "Categories" and he agrees as he is even  an organizer in the  categories congress here at UNiversity B.

So far, my impression so far is he doesnt really knows the subject of categories as he is more specialized in other topics in Algebra so I asked for some theses topics in the subjects he knows more but he answered weird. He sometimes talks bad  without any good arguments about the academics I worked at University A including my undergraduate advisor.

He proposed to work with me and another student in some article but I dont really feel in as sometimes he is not clearly explaining something or also answers weird or angry.

I expose him my advances in my master thesis once or twice at week and most times he is O.K, but sometimes he was weird like always correcting me how I talk every few minutes. Making jokes about the topics I expose to him which for me only show me his ignorance and lack of professionalism. There was an error in the book I study for my thesis but he responded saying that the authors are not really knowers of its field but the authors were really experienced mathematicians which again show me his bad mood and ignorance. A few minutes checking the error by my own I deduced the entire proof and I think the error was typographical.

Im doing all the research in my master theses by my own as it results he dont really knows the topic, I stay motivated by the sake of learning a topic I like.But he realy not valuates what I am doing or at least I dont feel valuated by him.

My idea is to do my PHD in another university or maybe returning to University A with my first thesis advisor. Any advices will be aprecciated in order to deal with this lack of motivation working with advisor b. Thanks


texts:
In many European countries, PhD salaries are incredibly low if compared with industry salaries. In my field, computer science, a young programmer can gain in one in one year what a PhD student gains during all the PhD.  Which are the practical reasons of this?

Some possibilities:

Money: university have not enough money to pay higher salaries to PhD students. I don't think this is the cause of the low PhD salaries, as given a budget for a project, the PhD students are hired in function of the budget.
PhD is not considered a job. This, in my opinion, is wrong. PhD actually is a full time job, that requires skills that in many cases (for instance in computer science) will be highly paid in the industry. Projects faced during the PhD are often more complex than homologous industrial projects. The real fact is that a PhD student often (but not always) doesn't produce revenues; but this is true also for professors, for people who take care of the cleaning of the university, and for all the staff of a university, that receive a higher salary then PhDs.
PhD students are the weakest group of the academia. Nobody, when salaries are decided, says "PhDs should gain more!", because, when salaries are decided, actually they don't have any voice.


texts: When you no longer want a professor on your dissertation committee

texts: If I already asked a professor to serve on my dissertation committee but I now longer want him on my committee for various reasons, how can I politely tell him this through email? I just don't know how to say this in a polite and not at all prideful way.


texts: How to address the ability to work with culturally diverse populations and on interdisciplinary teams in an academic job application?

texts:
Sometimes it is mentioned in the US academic position announcement that "Applicants must address in their application their ability to work with culturally diverse populations and on interdisciplinary teams" where the following documents are asked from the applicants:
1) resume,
2) work-related references,
3) letter of application,
4) official employment application

I would like to know how to address one's ability to work with culturally diverse populations and on interdisciplinary teams in an efficient and effective way through these above-mentioned documents. No.3 (i.e cover letter, usually not more than 2-pages) could be the most probable one where the applicant may claim briefly that he or she has the ability ...... Is there anything else the candidates should be doing in this regard?


texts:
The screenshot beneath is from Prof. James Goudkamp's profile. See the red arrow.

What's meant "by resolution"?
Why was this MA obtained after all his other degrees?

I know that the Oxbridge MA "is an academic rank, and not a postgraduate qualification", as

  Bachelors of Arts with Honours of these universities are promoted to the title of Master of Arts or Master in Arts (MA) on application after six or seven years' seniority as members of the university (including years as an undergraduate).


texts: I'm working on my final thesis for a CS grade course and I want to use a common sorting algorithm (quicksort for the curious ones). Do I need to include a reference to this algorithm (cite or quote)? Or it is so common that I don't need to? Take into accout that it was first published on 1961 and it is extremely used and known by almost anyone in the CS world.


texts: How do journal editors check word count on pdfs?

texts:
I've read posts from journal editors on Academia Stack Exchange that the first thing they do is check the word count of submitted articles.

How do journal editors check the word count of submitted articles, considering that authors may submit articles in pdf format with numerous tables and figures?

To check my own articles, PDFs produced in LaTeX, I open my PDF, select all, then copy-paste into Microsoft Word. This method overestimates the number of words since it includes all page numbers and all numbers inside tables, but I prefer it to TeXcount (http://app.uio.no/ifi/texcount/online.php) since it includes references and bibliography.


texts: What unusual/innovative methods are there to deal with late submissions of assessment?

texts:
Some context: I was intrigued by a short discussion in another answer relating to dealing with late submissions of work by students, where Jeff suggested giving students a limited number of 12-hour "late tokens" that they can use at their discretion when submitting work late during a course.  The idea of this is to give each student a "budget" for lateness, so that mild sporadic lateness would be okay, but repeated or extreme lateness would break the budget.  This seems like a very clever idea to me.  Hence, the purpose of this question is to solicit information on any other unusual/innovative practices lecturers use to deal with late submissions of assessment in their courses.
Question: What kinds of unusual/innovative methods do lecturers use to deal with late submission of assessment?


texts:
I'm attending a talk that will be given by a professor that runs a social-cognitive development lab at our school, and the topic will be about his work that attempts to explain why women are less represented in STEM fields and how early in life this occurs.

I suspect that plenty of STEM faculty and students will attend; moreover, I expect there to be uncomfortable topics regarding gender and race.

To what extent should I participate in question and answer with the speaker, if I see my own colleagues in the audience?  I would like to participate actively if I feel I have something interesting to add but that could necessarily be a question about gender and race.


texts: Sending minor correction to a journal before getting a copy for proofread

texts:
Recently the European Journal of Physics accepted my paper. Right now I'm waiting for them to send me a final copy for proofreading. Today I was just going through the revised manuscript and spotted a  minor typo in an equation. As in, it should have been \tan ^{-1}(ab) rather than \tan (ab). It might have missed the reviewer and my eyes back to back.
Should I inform the journal about this minor mistake now or wait for them to give me a copy for proofreading?


texts: Is alumni success a valid parameter for selecting a group?

texts: I will be starting my Masters degree and intend to be fully committed to working on interesting problems with a lot of impact. I have a few groups in sight which seemingly work on very important problems and publish in major conferences but looking at the 'alumni' section on their website, I haven't noticed MS alumni getting into top PhD programs. Does this say anything about the group's quality or could it be just because of the students?


texts:
I was reading the other day this blog post, about "how to peer review", and one passage struck me:

Don't review like a grad student
Reviews written by graduate students are among the most negative.
Grad students are often on the receiving end of negative reviews, because they are just learning how to write papers.

So, even though I'm no longer a grad student, I sometimes have the feeling that I tend to be a more negative reviewer than others, but it's actually hard to measure (maybe I'm just reviewing mostly bad papers?!), since I don't always have access to the other reviews of the papers I'm reviewing (due to the fact that I've been more often acting as an external reviewer than as a PC member).
I believe that the quality of my writing has improved with the feedback I've received from the reviewers of my paper, but because I don't have any feedback on my reviews, it's hard to know if and how I can improve them. So my question is: is there a way to measure my own reviewing bias?
The first thing that would come to my mind would be a set of papers reviewed by many other reviewers, and a result like: "you're in the x% more negative reviewers". Of course, I'm not implying that I would be automatically less severe when reviewing, but sometimes, in case of doubt, it's good to know one's own bias.


texts: How to balance looking for fast journals and avoiding predatory journals?

texts:
I found a question (What are "fake", "shady", and/or "predatory" journals?) regarding a list of predatory journals (https://web.archive.org/web/20170111172309/https://scholarlyoa.com/individual-journals/). This list is said to record many fake or shady publishers.

I am under special circumstances where I would benefit from "speedy" publication but I by no means want to avoid peer editing and submit to falsifiable journals. I have found many shady sites such as http://gssrr.org, which I assume are scams (they look really scammy to me) but are not on the aforementioned list.

I want to avoid things like this at all cost. My question is how/where to search for reputable journals that have a fast publication time (maybe journals which publish short articles?).


texts:
I heard from an administrator of a different grad program than mine that TA salaries are in fact negotiable -- a little known fact to be aware of.

Given this tip, how can I effectively negotiate my pay for the classes I will TA for, before signing my contract with the human resources department?

Unlike in industry, I don't have TA salary information from, say, other schools around our campus location to make an effective argument for more money.


texts: Can PhD students turn down teaching assistantships?

texts:
This question deals with PhD programs which guarantee their students funding via teaching assistantships in the US.

In order to have more time for themselves (e.g., for PhD research, or for working a higher-paying part-time job), are PhD students normally allowed to decline teaching assistantships, as long as they're willing to forgo the department's stipend?

In addition to losing the stipend, are there other disadvantages to declining a TA position? (E.g., would tuition no longer be free?, could the department be frustrated?, etc.)


texts: Posting what I learn and notes from my classes moral dilemma

texts:
So basically, I have my own personal site where I write about what I learn and study. I use it to write notes and details on what I am working on.

I specifically try to avoid posting anything directly copied from class and anything that included what rightfully belongs to the professor i.e. the professor's lecture notes and etc.

The only things I share are my notes taken from the textbook and what I write for the class after it's been graded. Also, the site is hidden from search engines, but can be still found if people have the link (which only 5 people know of and none are classmates).

That being said, is it still immoral to post what I learn and so forth? I do my best to make sure to give rightful credit, but I still doubt the right to share.


texts: Who/what determines the order of articles appearing in an issue of an academic journal? Does the editor or the publisher decide this? A few examples reveal that it is not alphabetical by author or title. Is order determined by time (i.e. when each paper is accepted), or does the order indicate how the editor/publisher perceives the potential impact of each piece?


texts: How should course content be shared between instructors?

texts:
I am a PhD student at a fairly large university, and I have twice taught a 200 level course for my department. The course is a new course that I developed. All of the lecture and lab content for this course was developed from scratch. As I will be graduating shortly (fingers crossed), a faculty member is scheduled to take over this course. My question is, "should I pass my course content on to said faculty?" I am primarily concerned about passing my slides on verbatim. Some issues I am concerned about are my indebtedness to the department (I developed some content while a TA and some while an adjunct.), ownership of the slides (What rights do I have to my content?), and distribution of content (How can I prevent the material from being further distributed?). I am interested in the issue of sharing content in general and not just in this one instance. Any guidance is much appreciated!

edit - as a colleauge of mine pointed out, I think there is a power imbalance issue as well. The faculty at my university are generally disinclined to share material with graduate students. Most grad students have to develop their own content. On the other hand, grad students are being asked to pass on material to faculty.


texts: arXiv is running out of IDs -- is their solution known?

texts:
I just noticed that arXiv.org is basically running out of monthly IDs, as can be seen in this graph (source [13-12-09]):

They have gone over 8000 monthly submissions 3 times in last 1.5 years. With the steady increase in the number of submissions, it can be expected that it gets over 10000 in cca 2 years. However, the current ID format is restricted to 4 digits, i.e., 10000 submissions.

I haven't found any information regarding this on the webpage. So: How will the submission IDs look like if they don't fit into the scheme? It interests me because in some helper applications, I tend to rely on the yyyy.xxxx format of the IDs.


texts:
I am doing PhD in IT
I have Bsc in Math (there wasn't writing in my study)
and my masters was course based not research.

Today I got my paper returned with many comments

some of these comments are (boring, need more focus)

There are papers that I enjoy reading, as they have nice flow, they take me from one sentence to another smoothly.

When I write I put what I want to write in bullet points and then struggle connecting sentenses and have the flow from one sentence to the other.

I wonder if there is right way to do academic writing.

Shall I read many papers about the topic I am writing about then squeeze my brain to put that in a paper format.

or shall I take notes from each sentence in the papers I read and then connect them together.

or is there any other way to do the writing?

There must be a way most people use.

I appreciate any help here.


texts: Is it appropriate to email a professor saying you enjoyed their class, after doing well in it?

texts:
I recently finished taking an undergraduate class and I enjoyed it. I was thinking of emailing the prof and saying this, but I don't know if it's appropriate or not, for a few reasons:

I would have already said this in the class evaluations, which the prof will read.
More importantly, I recently received my final grade and it was good. If I email now, it might come off as an implied "thank you" for giving me a good mark, even though I mean nothing of the sort.

My question is whether or not such an email would be appropriate.


texts:
When comparing different universities, various factors are common to be reported such as number of students (undergraduate, graduate), student-to-staff ratio, number of staff, physical spaces, etc.

However, when it comes to financial data, the amount of endowment is reported (e.g. in Wikipedia).

Is there any reference for comparing financial data of universities (mainly in the United States)? Total budget, tuition fee, funds spent on education, research, campus life, etc!

I mean a comparative database, not attempting to find such diverse data from each university website.


texts: Why are recommendation letters crucial for scholarships or graduate admissions?

texts: I saw a question asking how to write recommendation letters and I wonder why this is so important? Why are recommendation letters crucial for scholarship applications for studying in Masters or research ? They should be more interested in the student willing to work hard and be loyal to the studies, not cheat, or plagarise or use unfair means to win. What will a recommendation do instead?


texts: Is it realistic for a postdoc to negotiate for a private office?

texts: If a postdoc requests a private office when negotiating an employment contract, is there a possibility the request would be granted?


texts: How important is the language of the bachelor thesis?

texts:
My university requires me to write my Bachelor thesis in my mother language. How detrimental and devastating is it to have your Bachelor thesis in non-English when it comes to applying for PhD positions and language requirements in other countries?

My thesis is on p-adics and my wish is to pursue a career in mathematical physics, so I'd be particularly interested in how mathematics faculty rank their candidates in this regard.


texts: What can I do to convince my advisor of my ideas?

texts:
I started my PhD within the last one year in a STEM field in the US ,and I cannot seem to convince my advisor about any of my ideas.

I usually don't get concrete research directions from my advisor, ie. a direction of research that might be valuable to look more into. I am completely free, which can be good and bad.

I only get one out of two types of feedback:
(1): Lets find a project together, so generate more ideas so I can grasp what you are interested in
or
(2): When I suggested some ideas, all of them don't satisfy my advisor, and I should "look for more ideas".
My advisor might be right with the arguments, but I didn't get any advice yet on how to improve my "research".

The more senior students of my advisor seem to have the same/similar problem, so I don't feel like I want to make the same mistakes as they did and get stuck at this stage.

But I cannot get beyond this point and so I can't really start a project. I could ignore the advice and work on my own without letting my advisor know, but wouldn't then the point of the "advising" role be gone? How can I get my advisor to be convinced of one of my ideas, and ideally get more "useful" feedback?

At this point I really feel like its somehow a communication problem. Maybe judging about the "quality" of my advisor is not the question I look to answer (I assume there are "pro's" and "con's" to have hands-off advisors), but rather if you have any tips on how to overcome this "infinite idea finding loop" and get more in-depth with one specific project in this situation. And, to be more general, how can I establish a better communication?


texts: Doing bad in undergraduate but good in a masters program

texts: Suppose you do bad in undergraduate school in say computer science. But you do very well in a masters program in computer science. If you want to apply to a PhD program in computer science, will the masters degree grades offset the undergraduate degree grades?


texts: How can I maximize my chances of a professor of another university accepting to be my undergraduate research advisor?

texts:
Next year I'm going to college and would like to do undergraduate research in the second semester under the supervision of a certain professor, who I'll call Prof. M.

There are three points against me and three in my favor. They are the following

Prof. M. works at another university, which is about 100 miles away from the one I'm going to. If he does accept to advise me, my plan is to travel to his university every week or every other week.
I am worse than terrible when it comes to social aspects: I talk too fast, lack common sense, and I feel horribly nervous when talking to other people (specially people I don't know), often leading to awkward behavior for not knowing how to act.
Prof. M. is a (local) bigshot. (I'm assuming he might be more selective because of this)
I have self-studied math and physics more or less to have approximately the technical understanding a second year graduate student would have. Of course, while I know about e.g. locally ringed spaces or bosonic string theory (or insert buzzword here), I lack most of the skills and experience a real graduate student would have, such as being able to critically read research papers or having research experience. Also, this is a self-assessment, thus possibly a faulty one;
The professor is welcoming and has a nice personality (I got this information from a friend that has a friend who was a phd student in the same university as Prof. M. and who talked to him personally);
He has supervised* undergraduate students in the past (about five years ago);

So,

should I talk to Prof. M. personally or by email?
should I mention a paper he wrote that I find particularly
interesting and ask if he would accept advising me to do similar
research?

In short, what is the best path to be taken here?

*Though all undergraduate students are from his university. See Professor Eldredge's comment below.


texts: Should I cite a paper for its literature review?

texts:
Let's say I'm writing a report about sociological consideration of Aurora borealis in hipster communities. I want to support the value of my paper by showing that the way in which people consider Aurora borealis is a major and recurrent question.

I have found a paper saying in its literature review: "Aurora borealis have been written about for at least 4000 years, starting with Chronicles of a Minoan watching the sky by Ithurts Myneck (~ 2100BC)". So this is a perfect example of an information I want to report in my paper.

However, this paper turns out to deal with the physics of charged particles in solar wind - that means neither the scope of this paper, nor the scientific discipline it belongs to are related to my topic. Moreover, the reality of the book Chronicles of a Minoan watching the sky is evidenced by other means (i.e. this paper is not the only one that is talking about the book). But I cannot access the book to read it.

Question: I want to write in my report that Aurora borealis has been a concern for a long time, and prove this assertion by giving the example of the Chronicles of a Minoan watching the sky. Should I credit (i.e. cite) the paper where I found this information, even if it is not related to the core/added of the paper?

I want to give credit for the information I found, however, it is sometimes said: "When you cite a paper, you will be citing from [result] section. If you find yourself citing a paper based on something in the Intro [= literature review?] , you're just citing another citation."


texts: Do arxiv moderators not work on Sundays?

texts:
I have noticed one thing that whenever I submit a paper in arxiv  on Friday, they keep "on hold" from  Saturday to Sunday and then accept it later Monday or Tuesday.  On the other hand, it happened that when I submit a paper during Monday, Tuesday etc,  then process of submission becomes much faster. On Sunday and Saturday, the system seems to stop.
Thus: do the arxiv moderators not work on Sundays?


texts: If a journal has optional costs, is it bad form not to pay them?

texts:
I've noticed that some of the journals I submit to, most of which are top tier, have optional costs.  For instance, there is an optional page cost that I could pay even though my paper is not open access and is under the page limits.  This cost is revealed upon acceptance.

I've always said no to pay it, but I wonder why the costs exist in the first place and if it's bad form to say no?

EDIT: I just realized how arrogant it sounds to say "most of which are top tier" :-P I meant "most of which are reputable journals that would not appear on Beal's list.


texts: Is it possible to work from my parents' home on a postdoc?

texts:
I have a postdoc (in mathematics) lasting for less than 8 months. In the UK, at the area of the university, I find it difficult to find accommodation since no one wants to let to me for such a short period of time, which is very annoying.

I was thinking I could live with my parents, and visit my adviser once a week or so. The journey would be about 3 hours each way. And we could Skype.

As a PhD student, this would have been acceptable, but I wonder if it is different since I am now a member of staff. Is it frowned upon? Will it cause problems for the department (eg. desk space) or for myself due to tax purposes? It's an EPSRC funded grant, so I wonder if that may also be an issue.


texts:
I noticed an obvious minor mistake in an in-press article. It is related to the description of symbols in an equation, but it does not alter the rest of the manuscript in any way (they were used properly in the rest of the manuscript). Also, any attentive reader could note (and fix) it.

Should I contact to the editor or what to do?

EDIT: I also thought in contact directly to the editorial team due to the smallness of the changes.


texts: Can I still participate in conferences, while I'm no longer an academic student?

texts:
Can I still participate in conferences and use the university name, while I'm no longer an academic student at the university?

As I could not complete the study, but I'm still interested in my unfinished research and want to continue it somehow! is it possible to use my university name in the paper?


texts: How to follow up with a professor who had received my transcripts but did not reply?

texts:
I inquired a professor at a reputable university regarding the per-requisite for his research group and if a certain knowledge is required, with a CV of mine. He asked for my transcripts. I mailed him my transcripts but have not got any reply yet. It has been 4 days.

How should I approach the matter?


texts: Restrictions on use of a commercial database in publications

texts:
I am considering purchasing a commercial database of retail transactions for a certain industry and time period. My intent is to do basic summary statistics and regression analysis, and publish those results on an open platform (arXiv or SSRN) and ultimately submit this to a peer-reviewed journal. I don't want to publish any information that can identify individual companies in that database, let alone the entire data set.

The database vendor has a very restrictive license that mandates prior written consent of any publication based on their database.

Questions: does my intended use of such a database fall under a fair use policy, and do I really need to submit my draft publication for prior written consent? (I am located in the Netherlands, and the vendor is US-based and I have been in contact with their sales persons from Germany and Belgium).


texts: Is it financially worth it to teach a MOOC (e.g. Coursera)?

texts:
I am not sure what the requirements are to teach a MOOC. I guess it is a little different, depending on which platform one is going to teach. As far as I undestand, Coursera offers only 15% of the revenue to the teaching team. Somewhere else it might be more, but the number of participants is smaller. Does someone have experience whether it is financially worth to teach a MOOC?

For this question please leave aside other benefits like getting known or the satisfaction of teaching. I see those as benefits, but that is not the question for now.

Also I am only counting money that flows from the MOOC platform to the team/organisation/company, not compensation from a university to the lecturer for doing the course (like discussed in How are instructors compensated for teaching a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)?).


texts: Are there any journals where I can publish a research proposal?

texts:
Just curious, are there any journals  where I can publish research proposals?

I know there is one (Research Ideas and Outcomes) out there, but are there any others?


texts: PhD application: should I mention more than one faculty member in my SOP?

texts:
So I am confused by this for quite a while. Intuitively, mentioning more than one faculty member in SOP can backfire since it put the people you mentioned into a pretty awkward situation. But in another way, it might be a good thing for the board to see an applicant is flexible. Out of idea. Looking for advice.

Thx


texts:
When I started at university I could perform with a fresh mind all of the time -- doing a problem set all weekend without reduced performance.
A couple of other students and myself seemed to be several times faster and have larger working memories than others. I made quick work of my studies.

Now that I have gotten to the ripe old age of 22, I seem to be in perpetual brain fog, and even coffee does not bring me back to my original abilities.
 This disturbs me because I want to go to graduate school.

What do you professors do (especially those who do mostly research) to keep your brain able to function near peak for 40+ hours a week? Are you simply stupider than you were at 18 but abuse coffee and persist in your research anyway?


texts: Etiquette regarding multiple letters of recommendation

texts:
Several months ago, I was undergoing the process of transferring to another university overseas, and I asked my undergraduate adviser if she could write me a letter of recommendation. However, since she gave the letter of recommendation to me (I was supposed to include it in the mailed transfer application), I've had some money issues, and now I'm not entirely sure that I'll be able to transfer after all. If I don't transfer, I will be applying for various scholarships/internships at my current university, most of which will require letters of recommendation.

I'm pretty close with my adviser and I think that, out of all of my professors, her letters of recommendation would be the most genuine/positive; however, I feel like asking for two/ letters of recommendation over the course of several months gives off a negative impression, especially since I didn't even end up using one. I don't want her to think that I'm unreliable or that I don't appreciate the time/effort that went into the first letter. Taking all of this into consideration, should I ask her for another letter of recommendation? And, if so, would it be possible for her to just modify the first letter she wrote me so I don't waste too much of her time?


texts: Why does a professor cite his own works with unbelievable proportion?

texts:
There is a professor X who publishes as many as 20-30 research articles (usually in journals) every year. It is quite obvious that these are the outcomes of his big lab and multiple collaborations.

I usually follow his works. However, his publication surprises me in terms of the number of his own published works he cites in each paper. For example, in one of his latest paper, there were 145 references out of which 70-80 were his own publications. Many of the cited references are not so related to the latest published work and cited like this ([1,7,8-10,12-18]).

Moreover, it should be noted that he has been the top-cited researcher in his field as per Thomson Reuters.

My questions are:

Why might he be doing it? (Is it just to increase [self-]citation?)
If this is the case, then the claim that he is the 'top' cited researcher does not hold. Isn't it?


texts: How do I come up with a "thesisy" thesis title?

texts: My advisor said my thesis title should be something I would like to see on someone's bookshelf.  How do I choose a thesis title with the appropriate level of grandeur?


texts: How much should poster/talk prizes be spread at a symposium?

texts:
I am one of a group of students organising an institute-wide symposium (by and) for PhD students.
PhD students will be invited to apply to give a short talk (about 8 spaces in total) or to present a poster (~40 perhaps).

We intend to award prizes for best talk and best poster. It is my view that it is fairer and kinder to have two runners-up in each category and to spread the prize so that more individuals are recognised for their good work and effort. To me, awarding prizes only for 1st place, or 1st and 2nd, ends up assigning reward in a noisy fashion or according to bias in the judging, which ignores the fact that there are many good students doing diverse work at the institute.

My peers did not seem to find this nor the format of judging important - but I feel that spending institute money on rewards in a competition style ought to be done thoughtfully and properly. Having a narrow prize spread acts as a greater incentive in tournament theory; but in my mind the symposium is an infrequent instance of recognition, not incentive, and assigning the prize will be noisy or biased which is smoothed out by spreading the prize.

How much prize spreading do you think is appropriate or optimal? Also, how much monetary value of prize do you think is appropriate in this setting? £100 for first place talk has been suggested. Is this better/worse than a £25/£25/£50 spread? I'd like to hear about people's previous experience with running these competitions and/or winning one of these awards.


texts: Whether to tell my PhD advisor about transfer

texts:
Similar questions have been asked but my specific concerns have not be addressed.

Like many others, I'm currently in the first year of a PhD program (A) in US and resolve to transfer (reapply) to other programs because of unmatched research agenda here. Last year I was also admitted to another program (B) and, after communicating with the target professor there, I decide to reapply to that. For the re-application this year, logistics are simple because I could retrieve all the materials from last year and I've found potential reasons to convince. Of course, there is no guarantee: I could probably end up being rejected by B. If that happens, I will decide to try again next year.

Now the problem comes. I really hesitate to tell my advisor at this time (before my first attempt). If he knows and I get rejected this year, I might end up nowhere at all. Even if he lets me stay, I think it's hard to tell about the second attempt next year without irritating him.

As in the first year of PhD I focus on coursework and get less involved with his research projects, I do not use his recommendation letter for my first attempt of transfer. That way, it seems safe to tell him only if I get accepted at my first attempt. If rejected, I will simply ignore this attempt and only tell him about my second one next year (also I will need his letter then). What's your advice?

Additional info:

I'm in a social science discipline, where it's not uncommon for students to change advisors halfway and/or simultaneously work with multiple professors within the same program. But I still resolve to transfer because there's no other professor in my field within program A.
I will be funded through my current advisor's project funding from next spring semester.
The target professor at program B knows my current advisor, but when I talked to him about my intention to transfer he didn't discourage me, which is why I feel it a decent step to take.


texts: How much of an academic presentation should be spent on preliminaries?

texts:
Considering a presentation is for a group of academics whose specialties are to some (unknown) extent related to the topic, how much of the talk should be spent on explaining the preliminaries?

I often have this problem when preparing slides for a talk where I know that my audience is a group of professors, postdocs, or/and graduate students in the same field or related fields, but I don't know how much background they have on the topic of discussion. The preliminaries are usually topics that could be covered in an upper-level undergrad course (or a first course on that specific topic), but are not a core topic in the field. I know that there could be academics out there who are either not acquainted with the topic or they need a refresher for their knowledge of the material, but I also know that with a very high probability, a considerable number of audience are so comfortable and deeply familiar with the topic that the preliminaries would be extremely boring and trivial for them (and I'm even afraid that it might sound offensively easy to them, especially when it is presented by a student).

Should I just skip the slides on prelims in such cases, or should I always consider the possibility that some members among the audience may be unfamiliar with the topic and the presentation would sound completely meaningless to them if I skip the prelims? I've seen both approaches in academic talks given by experienced professors, so I'm confused about how they decide when to choose which approach.


texts: Approaching researchers about collaboration?

texts:
This question is quite premature for the current state of my studies, but I already have a few people in mind to which this question applies.

In Academia, would it be considered normal to approach a researcher you respect (who's work has great personal value or interest to you) and suggest that you would be interested in assisting with their future research efforts? In this case, I'm speaking less about full collaboration/co-authorship, and more about being willing to assist with the 'grunt work' of a given research project, purely out of interest in the subject matter.

Would this be construed as insulting to the researcher?

Is this sort of offer commonplace?

Is there an expectation of credential equality in this situation? For example, would it be inappropriate for an Undergraduate student to make such an offer to a PhD?


texts: Submit paper before or after going on holidays?

texts:
Context: As PhD candidate, I'll have my first journal paper ready to submit around July 15th. My lab will be closed due to summer break for 5 weeks from July 23rd to August 29th. I will not work full-time during this break, and my supervisors/co-authors might not respond to their emails. Moreover, I won't be able to work (or maybe even to answer my emails) during the two last weeks of August, because of travel conditions.

Question: Would my potential lack of reactivity during this period depreciate my submission? In other words, should I submit my paper right before going on holidays, or should I wait until I return from vacations in order to be more reactive to reviewers comments?


texts: Is it normal to feel a bit unmotivated at the start of PhD programme for not getting the exact topic of interest for my PhD?

texts:
I am a second year PhD student in Canada. My first year was spent pursuing courses and getting a hang on the PhD topic that I am supposed to work for the next 4-5 years.

I always wanted to work in nanomechanics of materials, however, after applying for a year, I got accepted in just two programs ( one in the US and other in Canada).

The position in Canada was the most aligned to my interests (computational mechanics) and thus chose to come here for my PhD. However, a point to be noted, I did not get the exact research topic that I wanted work on, it's close but not exact.

This was disheartening at first, so when I started my PhD in Canada, I was bit unmotivated and wasted time feeling sad about not getting to work on the exact topic of interest.

I was not very enthusiastic about my research topic last year and wasted sometime thinking about what might have been. Is this something PhD students usually face?


texts: Do academics/researchers benefit from permanent access to conference paper abstracts?

texts: Generally, abstracts for papers to be presented at conferences are published, prior to and during such conferences, in online and printed program books. However, in many cases, such abstracts are no longer available after the meeting is over. Would academics/researchers benefit from permanent access to conference paper abstracts?


texts: What makes a MSc in Computer Science difficult for someone who has no specific background but 10 years of experience as a programmer?

texts:
I enrolled at my current MSc in computer science program last year having never completed a single computer science course in college. I decided to apply because 10 years after college I had a fairly successful career as a front-end web developer and figured it would be great to have a degree so as to look like a more legitimate programmer than what my anthropology B.A. degree might imply. I had taken several math and physics courses in college and did well, so I figured a computer science degree could be manageable.

Now, it's been over a year since my program started (I attend part-time). I dropped a core class in basic algorithms in my first semester because I couldn't understand algorithms and decided to enroll in the same course offered this summer. I'd hoped to do well this summer, but it looks like if I pass I'd be just barely scraping by. It feels like everyone is doing much better than me and can solve problems faster and more accurately. If you were me would you quit the program? I'm not sure if it is:

a lack of a background in undergraduate computer science
the fact that I am an older student who is nearly 40
a lack of aptitude for this subject

Any thoughts from others in computer science, engineering, and mathematical sciences would be much appreciated.

EDIT: It's been 7 months since I posted this and I've realized the problem. Front-end web development quite frankly is nothing like computer science. Many concepts in my basic algorithms course requires a good grasp of recursion, which I didn't have before entering the program. All the programming I had done in the past was iterative. Once I was able to understand and (more importantly) correctly apply recursion to everything from Towers of Hanoi to dynamic programming the algorithms course got much easier. To anyone starting graduate school in computer science--never underestimate the importance of recursion! Even if you think you understand it, test yourself with other students to make sure your understanding is solid!

More generally, my advice to anyone starting out in computer science is to figure out what it is you are weak at and work to get stronger in it. That can be hard to do initially if you are overwhelmed by the material and everything just appears really difficult, but talk to your professor and ask him or her to help identify your areas of weakness, never give up, and you will be able to master the material soon.

Btw, I did take a one year Intro to CS course for students without engineering/math backgrounds, but it mostly focused on object-oriented  programming and glossed over recursion.


texts: At what point does my practical software project become an academic research project?

texts:
I am a working software developer getting a MS in Computer Science. I've really enjoyed the courses -- but I have never done any academic research. Now I have an idea for a graphics-driven iOS application that I would like to build for my upcoming year-long thesis. (It's a variation on a particle simulator). The other students in my program have told me that a thesis is about generating a paper on a new technique or unsolved problem -- not building a polished program or application. They say that the code can simply be a proof of concept or prototype.

With that said, how should I approach building this particle simulator and pitching it to my advisor? Should I focus on underlying structures that would allow me to render complex physics-based graphics efficiently? Is there a name for that area of CS research?  Are there papers in a certain area that I would want to start reading?


texts: Best way to translate paper? Services for hire?

texts:
I need to read an article that is in Russian.

The article is located here, and the PDF is freely downloadable. The journal is very well known in my area of research (Topology) and publishes almost everything in English, just not that paper apparently.

What is the best way to translate it?  That particular PDF will not allow me to select the text, so I can't even copy and paste into Google translate (even then, it is an arduous process and requires an additional interpretive translation on my part).

How would you do it?  Are there any services I can pay to translate it?

EDIT: I checked some translating services, and it looks like it will be too costly (in the hundreds of dollars).  So I need tools to do it myself...


texts: I think my degree isn’t great. What to do?

texts:
I'm a full time employee (20 years), adjunct instructor (10 years), and student (off and on, currently on and about done with a 4-year degree) all at the same institution.

I've been programming for 25+ years, and have had an AS (Assoc. of Science) degree in "Systems analysis and programming" for 18 (2-year degree, fewer general education courses than an AA, focused on technical work - nursing, respirator therapy, xray or nuclear med tech, nursing RN, etc.).

Unfortunately, for me to move up or to change jobs I need a bachelors or a masters. So I got a "general sciences" AA degree (to finish off gen eds) and am almost done with a BAS (B. of applied science - LOTS of in-depth technical work).

I also happen to teach at the same college I work full time (support online learning).  The courses I'm allowed to teach due to my lack of a masters are limited to classes that ONLY apply to an AS degree - 2 linux admin courses, a intro to SQL course, a intro to Java course.

And while I am 4 classes away from having my BAS, I think the degree isn't set up properly and I've not formally learned any of the things I'd hope to learn.  Got plenty of programming - but none of the other skills that go with it.  No unit testing, use of version control systems, no working with other peoples code (except for minimal reviewing of others code - no actual passing of code back and forth to work on it), minimal exposure to development methods like Agile, Scrum, etc.

So... do I just shut up and deal with it, and try to find a masters program that will give me what I want (had enough programming, thinking of IT Project Management related things)?

I've considered writing a letter to the lead instructors, department adviser, department chair, the various VPs over technical ed at our institution, and the provost (who all know me, like me, and appreciate the things I've done for them over the past 20 years), but I'm not sure if making them aware of my disappointment will do anything about fixing the program for future graduates, or if it will just be me whining....

Not exactly sure what tags to use, so I hope I got 'em right - give me a comment if they should change, or feel free to edit.

Edit for the comment about content -

The degree I'm finishing the programming core gave me a 3rd semester of Java (JavaFX and Tomcat web apps), Android development, Angular/NodeJS development, and MongoDB.  This is on top of what my AS had me do - 2 terms of Java, C, C++, Access & SQL, HTML/CSS/Javascript, and PHP.

The common overall program core stuff (that the networking track students also do), has had a few business courses (intro to management, principles of e-commerce, security policy), covered some planning - a UML/diagramming class (only exposure to dev methods, and that was just a list of comparisons of waterfall vs up vs agile) and a business dept. based project management class - we got to plan building a bird house :(.  Technology wise the common area also includes operating systems and security models, ip networking and routing, and a bits-and-bobs hardware class.

So, plenty of technology and language-specific skill set stuff.  But none of those things I'd expected to cover (unit testing, version control, working with a true team, etc) that aren't language-specific but ARE critical job skills.


texts: How do I lift my spirits after giving a bad examination paper today?

texts: I had my Mathematics paper today. Its of 90 marks. In the past, I have always scored 90 or at least 88. Today, the paper was extremely lengthly and I made a silly mistake in a question of 4 marks although I knew the answer perfectly well. I am sure other answers are correct. But I am feeling very depressed for failing my expectations. I have got my Science, Social Studies and English Paper in the next week. I think I will mess up in other papers too. I am afraid my classmates will tease me. I am afraid someone else will get full marks. How to lift my spirits?


texts:
What does awaiting reviewers reply mean?
And how long does it take


texts: Possibly fraudulent journal: cite or not to cite?

texts:
When I was doing literature review, I came across a paper published in a journal Research Journal of Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology.

Now, I can't find this paper anywhere else, no citations, or anything. Just the pdf that I linked above. Also, the journal website looks shady as links don't work and it just does not have the make or look of an academic journal. Additionally, I couldn't even find anything about the authors.

What should be done in such cases? Should the paper be completely ignored or put in the review section?


texts: what is the research strategy to adopt to compile my notes into a scientific article for a conference?

texts: Suppose I read multiple scientific articles related to a specific topic, what are the kind and the research strategy to adopt in order to compile my note-taken into a scientific article for a conference ?


texts: Is Facebook a necessary tool for a student?

texts:
I'm starting a master's degree in the autumn, and I recently received an email from the university inviting me to join the Facebook page for the course.

However, I don't currently have an active Facebook account -- I deleted my account several years ago due to concerns about privacy as well as its overall usefulness.  (Mostly a case of "so why am I spending time on this site?")

Is there any explicit advantage I would get by joining the course's Facebook page, or equivalently, is there any disadvantage of not joining?

EDIT: I understand there is not likely to be an explicit requirement to join the group as official communication will be via email and university websites.  I'm asking more from the point of view of networking, socializing, etc.  Would the lack of Facebook be a handicap?

EDIT: Clarification: By "course" I mean the UK definition: The course is the entire year-long degree program.  In this instance, the department has created a Facebook page for everybody who is doing the same degree program starting this year, and that's what they invited me to.  However, my question applies to other possible applications of Facebook as well.


texts: Shall acronyms in scientific papers be expanded exactly once?

texts:
There's no way to evade having a lot of acronyms in a scientific paper, often already in the title.

I use the latex package glossaries to automatically expand the first use of every acronym (except usage in the title), but for a scientific paper, I do not include a table of acronyms (for my thesis I do).  In a long paper, if someone does not remember all acronyms or does not read sequentially, it could be difficult to look up the meaning.

If I use a not very well known acronym in, say, line 100, and again in line 500, should I expand it again, or is it a better style to stick with expanding only and exactly once?


texts: Asking potential advisor about their post-interview opinion on my profile for PhD application

texts:
I mailed one professor inquiring about her research and possibilities of working with her if admitted through the graduate program (in US). We had a nice skype interview and she even obtained recommendations from my previous advisors. All of this happened before even applying for the PhD program.

I'm applying for spring and the graduate coordinator says that spring admission at their school is very unusual. So I'm kinda assuming that if the professor likes my profile, she might send out a word for me to the graduate committee. I'm confident I don't have any red flags on my profile, so if she roots for me then I should be able to get in. However, I haven't got any clear statement from her expressing that she will make a mention for me to the admission committee. Would it be a good idea to ask her about this? Because if she doesn't give me a mention, I really won't have any reason to apply to this school. But if she does root for me (and I do get in), then I'm definitely joining this school. And in that case I won't have to apply for fall admissions at other schools and I would save a lot of application money. Hence would it be a good idea to ask her about how she likes my profile and my chances of getting accepted, considering its an unusual time of the year for admissions?
I kind of want to have an informal/indirect confirmation from her, without trying to come off as asking for too much.


texts: Impossible further progress on problem of PhD thesis

texts: I am a PhD student in Mathematics. My advisor proposed me a problem 6 months ago, and I did a lot of progress on it. I have reached a point where I have quite substantial results (admittedly, adapting techniques from other areas, so not a great deal of originality). They can surely form a paper, though not a great one. The original question remains unanswered in its full generality, but I felt that a complete answer would be impossible from the very beginning, and now I have very concrete reasons showing that a complete answer is indeed very hard (in the sense that a general answer/formula might simply not exist). My advisor wants me to keep working on this, but I honestly don't know what to try anymore, and he did not suggest anything. I guess this is a common occurrence during a PhD, what should I do?


texts: How to write your research work in simple way

texts:
I am a PhD student works in the theoretical computer science. I am facing a difficulty while I have to write my work in a good manner. I try to write but when other students, collegues read my drafts they are not able to understand the idea I want to convey. I have written one or two research paper in my previous years. I try to look at the research papers which I am referring for help, it gives me some help but not that much. The problem I am facing is not able to write the things in a simple way, some time mix the  things. To me it appears that writing is much more challenging than solving a research problem.

Question : How to write your research in a simple way? Simple just means  other people can understand my work and the idea behind it at least.


texts: Why do American universities receive lots of endowments?

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The amount of endowments that American universities receive is much more than European counterparts. Why alumni of American universities and other people have such a big desire to donate money to universities.

This happens in Europe too, but much less than America. Almost all American universities (at least major ones) have many named chairs (funded by external donors), but you see it rarely in Europe.


texts: What is the proper method of citing from a video

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I have been thinking for a while, some time especially nowadays, you want to cite some interview, documentary or any such material available online as a video or audio. For example I am writing about a cure for AIDs, and there is an interview of some famous scientist on the issue on YouTube or other source, and I want to refer to some part of that interview actually say 15th minute and 23rd second.

Is there any proper way for referencing such?


texts: I understand most parts of the hiring process for an academic job, except for the reference check. How do they check it, who checks it, and when do they check it? Do they check what we write in the cover letter, cv, teaching/research statement, etc.? Do they run a background check, credit score check on you?


texts: Is it acceptable to put a future event in one's CV?

texts: I'm working on my CV for graduate school applications and was wondering about my "Presentation" section. I know that I will be attending the American Chemical Society Conference in Spring 2017 (they accepted my abstract), so is it acceptable to list that as one of my presentations?


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Is there any journal that publish on urgent matters? For instance, papers on epidemiological issues on animals.
I am aware of the existence of journals on the topic, however, the normal course of publishing can take minimum 6 months, the disease that I am working on, can take less than 6 months to be introduced in the area of interest.
Thank you!


texts: What is the most effective way to take notes in class?

texts: I'm a freshman in college, so I'm pretty new to the lecture style of classes where you do most of the work outside of class, and the professor discusses it and gives more information in class. Well, to start the year I took notes basically word for word, concept for concept what my professor in any given class was talking about. However, I found later throughout the year that I didn't remember concepts that the professor was conveying because I was so busy writing. What should I do in the future? What has worked well for you all?


texts: How to respond to a tough referee report?

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We received two referee reports from the editor, who made a major revision decision. One referee has a long list of comments, while on the whole it is positive towards our paper. But the other one gave only half-A4-page comment with strong criticism on the paper as well as some other works in the community, as you can see as follows, which is very tough.

Review report:

  The manuscript considers proposition. The authors carry out their study in the framework of an approximation. Unfortunately, the approach used in the manuscript
  is totally wrong since reviewer's scientific objection. This issue representing a pitfall for many
  researchers in the past (and unfortunately sometimes in the present)
  is thoroughly described in one reference deleted here, which is an article of another author.

  Therefore, I recommend to reject the manuscript. I do not see a
  possibility to repair it and to reduce it so that it will fit for
  publication.

After I read the reference provided, I think that the approach used in our work is correct and the results presented are reasonable, because none of which directly contradict with the reference cited by the referee.

My questions are: what is the best practice to respond the editor and how do I refute the criticisms of the referee?

I apologize if my question is too general for this site. Thanks for your help!


texts: Lab computers: high end now or average system and repurchase in a couple of years?

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I have been asked to recommend systems for upcoming computer labs. I see 2 options.

Buy high end systems now. They will be expensive but will last longer.
Buy average systems now and buy again in a couple of years when these become obsolete.

Option 1 makes more sense to me with the bonus that the lab systems will actually qualify as high-end for some time. Option 2 may seem cheaper now but current systems will become dinosaurs in a couple of years and new systems will have to be bought. The total cost of both options may actually come out to be the same in the long run. However, Option 2 involves scrapping systems in a couple of years which I see as needless waste.

Can anyone here comment on this?

NOTE: I understand this may not be the right forum for this question. If so, I will be happy to be pointed to one that is.


texts: Pursuing a new graduate degree after academic expulsion

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I was in a master’s program. I completed one year completed, but got expelled due to my GPA dropping below what was needed.  I was put on probation and was given one semester to pull up my average by getting an A in all three classes I was taking, but I only got an A in two of them.

I have the option to apply for re-admittance and will do so, but just in case I want to apply to other programs, perhaps as a transfer. If needed, I’d apply fresh and start over.

In my new applications, should I explain my situation (life changes, job loss), or would it be better to not dwell too much on it?


texts: My former adviser published an article from my master thesis in a predatory journal without my consent, what should I do now?

texts: My former master adviser published an article, which is derived from my master thesis, in a predatory journal without my consent. He put my name as the first and corresponding author and his name as the second author. I just found it when Researchgate sent an alarm to me that you have a new publication! Right now, I'm a PhD student in the US and he is a professor in a different country, which these kind of activities are common and there is not strong infrastructure against research misconduct like the US or Europe. I don't want to make my CV dirty by putting an article in it, which is published in a predatory journal. I sent an email to the editor and editor-in-chief of this journal in order to retract the article but I didn't receive any response after a week. I'm wondering is it possible to request a DMCA take down to Google by myself to at least remove it from Google Scholar or Google search or it needs to inform my current university and they do an action?


texts: Publishing vs. putting work online under a free license

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Suppose a work (a book with abstract math research) is presented as LaTeX source under a copyleft license available at a public Git hosting service.

Will scientists be reluctant to cite such a work, because it was not published "officially"?

Having asked this question, I mention that in my opinion that publishing under copyleft in a Git repository is a better means to hunt errors than traditional peer review, because everybody can track and patch errors in the book. But will this real security convert to enough sense of security of academic community?


texts: How should PhD Students/Researchers take notes?

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When taking notes while studying papers or concepts I'm always torn between

classic pen & paper approach, which I personally find more productive;
digital approach, will make it easier to find/sort/filter information later

I'm going to be a Computer Science Ph.D student, so I have to be quite productive (solution 1), but also, to work on the long term, so building my own "knowledge database" (sol. 2) makes sense.

I am currently thinking about developing my own tool based on markdown notes, git version & a query tools to find information, to tag/link items as well a generate bibliography etc.

What is considered the most useful way of taking notes, particularly for non-class settings?


texts: What can I learn at open-house events for PhD programs that would be difficult to learn through other channels prior to accepting an offer?

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I have received a few offers for PhD programs in the US that I am interested in, and several of these have open-house events coming up in the next few weeks.  I have been in contact with potential advisors at several of these programs, but have had very limited or no contact with current graduate students there.  My current information on these programs comes from offer letters, interactions with professors (both my undergraduate advisor, and professors at institutions hosting these open-houses), and departmental websites.

My primary goals with these events are:

Meet with potential advisors, and determine who I could work well with, and
Talk to current PhD students; see if I can learn anything about departmental politics, the funding situation, and anything else that the department doesn't advertise to prospective students.

Which questions should I be sure to ask, and to whom?  What opportunities do I have at open-houses that I will never have again before I need to accept an offer?

If it matters, the programs I am considering are in physics, geophysics and Earth sciences departments, depending on which department the space sciences faculty happen to be in.


texts: How to compile "Comprehensive summary of teaching evaluations," given long teaching record

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A job posting for an assistant professor job at a liberal arts college in the United States requires that I include a "Comprehensive summary of teaching evaluations" with my application.

What exactly is this (or does this mean)?

Do I include summaries from each of my previous 15 semesters of teaching individually? Do I split evaluations up by course? Do I just include the most recent year(s)?

Do I create a new summary combining all evaluations I have ever received?

Some previous courses are just 25 copies of individual responses (sometimes short answer sometimes scale-ratings) and other times they include a summary of that given semester's course. Do I just use the school-generated summaries or do I compile my own?

Do I include just evaluations for courses relevant to the job posting or any course evaluations?

Is this a general type of request, or something that only this school will "define"?

This question is more specific than one that I asked previously here, which hasn't gotten significant response anyway.


texts: Nervous about submitting a paper - what if I made a mistake?

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I'm an undergraduate and I've taken part in a summer internship. Part of the internship was writing a paper based on a model we developed, which we're hoping to submit.

The paper is "finished" now, and so we're ready to send it off for peer review. I'm really nervous about this as while I've checked over the code time and time again there's always the chance I'll have made a mistake somewhere which might not get picked up on.

How do people cope with this? If there is a mistake that I haven't identified, and isn't picked up in peer review, how damaging will it be if someone else identifies it later on? I'm kind of nervous given what I've heard about retractions and breaches of ethics.

To the best of my knowledge the model is working, and to my knowledge the results it is generating are correct.


texts: submission of paper to journal/ conf containing confidential data after leaving an institution

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Please refer to the link
Prelude

My research paper is almost completed and I have submitted a draft to my boss recently. My research tenure ends on the end of July.

I was told (today) that I would not be allowed to utilise my affiliation with my current research institute for submission to a journal after the expiration of my tenure - this is fine.

What is not fine is that my boss has removed himself from this paper and has also advised that another co - author (a student who has recently graduated from the overarching faculty of this research institute) not be an author as she is neither a student nor an employee.

This leaves only me and a visiting scholar in this research institute on secondment on the paper. This means that the submission of this paper to a journal/ conference would not be one where either of us are affiliated with this research institute.

Why does this matter?

In this research project, we utilise confidential data accorded to us by a number of countries via a national agency.

What should I expect and how should I circumvent this?


texts: Vetenskapsrådet (the Swedish Research Council) international post doc - criteria

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I'm currently working on finding some funding opportunities for a post doc project. I'm currently in my final (4th) year of my PhD in Uppsala (Sweden) studying evolutionary biology. I'm looking to do a post-doctoral project (in the UK).

Vetenskapsrådet - the Swedish Research Council - offers a fund for International Post Doctoral positions of two years abroad and one year repatriation in Sweden.

I am struggling to find any information about qualifying criteria, can anyone offer some insights about who can apply and what can be applied for? I have two questions right now...

1) Is it required that the PhD must be attained before applications are made or can I apply before being awarded my PhD?

2) Is the fund open to people without Swedish citizenship?


texts: Is the adoption of IS0 9000 principles, or even actual ISO certification very common in universities?

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I'm not sure if this is on-topic but nothing seemed conclusive that it wasn't in the help center, so let's see what happens.
The ISO 9000 family of standards has been adopted by well over a million organizations in the world, most of them are of course businesses with customers, but not all of them are.
I'd like to know if the adoption of IS0 9000 principles, or even actual ISO certification is very common in universities.
The two areas I'm interested in are

Large science efforts that handle substantial funding, where the standardization of procedures might improve efficiency of use of funds and project completion
Universities of no particular size or areas of research, but where the procedures are of a departmental nature i.e. paperwork, human resources, departmental budgets and management, etc.

My guess is that there may indeed be some adoption in the first category and only small, scattered or isolated instances of the second, but it's only a guess.


texts: How to Deal with Unfair Grading in Team Work?

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I was a part of a project course for about four months working as a team member in one of the teams, the project was extremely hard for all of us, but we were working real good together keeping up, but out of three of us, one was being a bit lazier than the other and usually me and one other of team members was doing most of the things, I hate to say I did everything, but as far as this is a case of rights and equality, I want to say that preparing all the presentations, writing the final reports, programming-side, all was on me.. Now when the grades have come out, the person that did the least has got the highest grade (5), while me and the other team member who did most got lower grades than them (we got 4). It wouldn't irritate me as much if all three of us had gotten 4, but it's ridiculous when the person who had put the least effort has gotten 5..

Grading was based on team members grading each other plus the instructors in charge of the course grading people too. In grading team members, I gave everybody full points, and I am very sure everyone else in my team also gave me full points, I have no doubts about that.

How would you deal with such an unfair case?


texts: Is it acceptable to ask for the original bibtex file of a paper?

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I am reading a review paper which includes hundreds of useful citations for my paper. I would like to import some of the citations into a bibtex file. The only thing I know to do is to search them on google one by one, and then click on "export bibtex".

Is it acceptable (ethical) to ask the author of a paper for the original bibtex (Latex) file?

Or I wonder if there are any program could do the repetitive job: searching each citation on google one by one and export the bibtex from google scholar.

Thanks for the Scopus answer. It works for most of the published (not working papers, though) papers!!


texts: Updating a preprint when it is under review

texts: I know that preprints deposited into a preprint server should be in a polished state. However, what should happen once it starts the review process? Should those copy-edits be updated on the preprint? What about updates when replying to reviewer's comments? What if the manuscript is rejected and I am rewriting the manuscript to be resubmitted to another journal in another format?


texts: How should I write literature review for a paper that is an extension of my own research paper?

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I am a Masters student in Computer Science. I am planning to write two papers. The first is based on computer simulation and queuing theory. I have written its literature review and everything else. The second paper is parallelization of my first paper.

I am just making the code for my first paper parallel in my second paper. The problem is I don't know what to write in the literature review section as this paper is just an extension of my previous paper. I can't write about past attempts at computer simulation and queuing theory because I already wrote about it in my previous paper. I also can't write about previous attempts at parallelization because nobody has tried to parallelize my work before and I don't think it would be relevant to list other parallel speedups in the literature review of my paper. What should I do?


texts: Does publishing books help with PhD admissions?

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Say I have a deep knowledge of an advanced technical topic, and have written a book on such a topic. Though this book does not contain any original research ideas, it is a well written and thorough treatise on a technical topic that is relevant in both academia and industry.

Would writing (and hopefully publishing) such a book help with PhD admissions, or do admissions committees generally only care about research publications (as far as publications go -- obviously they care about recommendations, grades, etc in addition to research)?

If the book were published with a major publisher such as O'Reilly Media, would this make a difference?


texts: Which LaTeX template to pick if I want to write a paper that will stay unpublished?

texts: I'd like to choose a scientific paper template in LaTeX for a Deep Learning (Artificial Intelligence) project. I think the AAAI or the IEEE are interesting, however, I'd like to know under which terms I can use their templates if my work is not intended for publication. (I am also open to suggestions of other templates or styles to consider.)


texts: "Under Editor Evaluation" to "Under Review"

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I have submitted a paper in an Elsevier journal. The paper has gone through the "Under Review" stage and was subsequently given the status "Under Editor Evaluation".

The paper is now back to "Under Review". What does this mean in practice?

This is not a duplicate question. I am aware of the journal workflow. This is a specific question about a particular scenario.


texts: Postdoctoral fellowship -- what is it about?

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Assume you are just about to finish your PhD and you are facing the decision of whether to go for a postdoc position or for an assistant professorship. Which one should you choose?

Let's ignore the salary for the sake of this question. Then which of the two is better? What about the benefit of short-time employment and getting to work with lots of different people (in case of postdoc) vs. being stuck at one place for several years (assistant professor). Is it beneficial to work with different groups or is it irrelevant?

Does a career involving several postdoc positions look like the individual could not get other (''better'') employment (even if they deliberately chose one over the other)?

Will a postdoc position give you more time for research because you don't have to teach or have to teach less?

Is it generally better to seek professorship rather than postdoctoral fellowship?


texts: Use and costs of Creative Commons licenses in scholarly publishing

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How often is which Creative Commons license used in scholarly publishing and are there differences between their use in gold (fully) open acces (OA) and hybrid articles?

I am looking for a table like this, with the amount of articles:

license       gold OA    hybrid OA
CC-BY         A          B
CC-BY-NC-ND   C          D
...

Additionally, what are the average charges for both types of articles (gold open access and hybrid) depending on the different licenses?

I am looking for a table like this, with the average costs of the license:

license      gold OA    hybrid OA
CC-BY        A          B
CC-BY-NC-ND  C          D
...

Update: Some results of my further research:

As mentioned in a comment, there is a study for gold open access journals. Hybrid journals are not investigated.
There is data availible from OASPA members. They provide a chart showing the growth of Fully Open Access (OA) journals using a CC-BY license. Additionally, there is an Excel file including also data for hybrid open access journals. Unfortunately, there is no information about the charges and the source of this data.


texts: What books, biographies or survival guides are helpful for women in engineering in academia?

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Recently, I was giving a small informal talk in a local college. The audience comprised of engineers and my talk was based on current research in engineering. One of the girls asked about the position of women in academia. I answered that stating that academia was like just another field for women but now that I think of it, it might not be entirely true.

I thought that perhaps I could refer interested female student to resources explaining any gender specific aspects of academic life. I've read 2 books "Surviving your Stupid Stupid Decision" and "What you came for." Both were books to read before PhD to discuss common problems and their solutions presented as a preparatory handbook or survival guide. I am looking for something similar, but specifically addressing the aspect of gender in academia. I don't have a specific question in mind. A cursory Amazon search failed to yield any fruitful results.

I'd like to find resources applicable to female students:

Engineering in North America but maybe even Europe. These students showed some statistics of bias within academia.
Interested in joining faculty positions or industrial labs.

Are there books, biographies, or survival guides for women in academia?


texts: How should bathroom breaks be handled during written exams to avoid cheating?

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It seems to me that it is impossible to prevent cheating (as in: communicating and getting help from outside) if one allows students to use the restroom during written classroom tests.

Excluding creative solutions involving full-body searches, Faraday cages or invigilators in the stalls, the most practical way to prevent it seems to completely forbid the students to leave the room.

Of course, this seems overly penalizing to students with small health problems or personal emergencies, since they would have to retake the test.

How is this problem dealt with in practice in universities? What is the best solution?


texts: How to get academic search engines only search in open access journals?

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Sometimes I work from home, and for security reasons it is not possible to connect to the campus computers. I use Google Scholar for finding papers and so, but from home, most of the journals can not be accessed.

Is it there some way in which Google Scholar or another academic search engine searches only in open access journals?

PS1: There is no way in which I can access my campus, really.

PS2: OK, I will give more details, since it seems that PS1 is not clear enough. I am working with other collaborators that are not affiliated to any University. I could do VPN and similar but I can not pass them such information, or any other way of passwords or access to the campus, etc. We can only work with the open access papers they find. If the interesting papers are under a paywall, then they are useless for us. I hope this clarifies my questions, and thank everybody for the useful comments.


texts: Should I change my PhD advisor when I find I got not enough advising?

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UPDATE: My program is Computer Science and Engineering.

I chose the current advisor for mainly three reasons:

I'm interested in a general research area, and he's in a group doing the stuffs.
He has good publications in top conferences and journals in recent years.
Applying for other graduate schools is exhaustive, and I didn't search for other programs.

Here are some reasons which make me consider changing an advisor:

I have no regular individual meeting with him. In the first semester, I had no idea about what I should do to find a research topic. Then in the second semester, I only talked with the post-doc in our lab, who graduated with a thesis in another area very different from the general topic in our lab.
In group meeting, we present our works to him and he gives some advice (for me, you don't understand the paper you need to redo it; for others, this paper was not published in a good conference/journal...). I think he doesn't try to understand some meeting contents, because he's even not focusing on the it, doing something else. Once he left early because he thought the presentation was not interesting.
I wrote weekly report, and he forwards it to the post-doc for how I'm doing.
We are not doing the research that attracts me. And no one in our group knows how to do it.

But I still have considerations to change advisor:

I have few options in choosing a new advisor in a related research area.
I don't have a target group I want to move to.

Could you give some suggestions on how I could handle this situation?


texts: As a master's student, will a GRA or GTA position provide a greater benefit for PhD applications?

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I am a Master's student with goals to pursue a PhD. I am currently a graduate research assistant (GRA), but have been offered a GTA (graduate teaching assistant) position in Machine Learning. The course in question is challenging and is probably considered more competitive/desirable than most other GTA positions.
Which is better in terms of PhD applications? Also, is it considered better to have both GTA and GRA experience? I am asking for a generalization. How would you view this on an applicants resume? Let's assume average performance in both positions.