texts: Several questions about getting a master degree in mathematics in US

texts:
Currently I am a junior at UCLA. I have taken some math classes and they seem really interesting. However, I am not sure whether I should pursue a PhD in mathematics. So instead I'm thinking about getting a master degree. However there's very few information about master in mathematics online.

Question 1: How rare is it for people to go to industry first and then go back to academia (after 2 years, for example)? How should they deal with the recommendation letter part?

Question 2: Some of my friends have been taking honour classes since they were freshman. However I used to be a math/economics major so I've been taking regular courses. How would that impact my application? (suppose I'm NOT talking about master in computational finance or financial engineering. I took a class in option pricing and interest rate model, worst "math" class ever)

Question 3: Is there any "rule of thumb" of determining whether someone should pursue an advanced degree (master and PhD) in mathematics? I remember once one of my TA told me that "if you cannot get six A's, then probably this is not the right path for you". Now, my major GPA is 3.8. Got 3 A's in upper (analysis and linear algebra), bunch of A- (complex analysis, differential geometry, probability), and B+ for abstrac algebra.

Any advice/insight is greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.


texts: How to establish a presence at a community college that might lead to adjuncting

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I'm an engineer with a M.S. and 20+ years of industry experience. I always wanted to teach but I left grad school for industry to help pay the bills.  I have no regrets, but I do have a very strong desire to go back into academia.  I remember my first real engineering class was taught by a adjunct who had a full time industry job.  I really appreciated the advice he gave about being an engineer in the real world.  I'd like to return that favor to future engineers by being an adjunct.

I'd like to start by establishing a presence at local community colleges.  I'd love the opportunity to do some volunteer work, collaborate, substitute or sit on an advisory board. I'd offer a unique perspective still being connected to industry, but with a strong interest in academia.  What would be  realistic?  What position should I contact at the community college and how should that conversation start?

Country United States


texts: How to handle sexist questions toward a faculty job candidate by other undergraduates?

texts:
I am an undergraduate in the U.S., and my university is currently interviewing for an open faculty position. The department arranges lunches with the job candidates and current undergraduate students, where we can ask the candidate questions and get to know them. Students fill out an evaluation of the candidate following the lunch (which is in theory taken into consideration for the hiring decision). However, the atmosphere of this meeting itself is quite informal and conversational.

Two of the candidates are currently expecting a baby. The male candidate said on their own that he was expecting a baby. One fellow undergraduate specifically asked the female candidate (in front of 20 other undergrads) if she would be able to balance a new baby and the job at the same time. However, she did not bring this up with the male candidate, who is also expecting a baby. We met with the male candidate first.

As a fellow undergraduate, how could I respectfully address this?


texts: How to resolve: Reviewer #1 says remove section X vs. Reviewer #2 says expand section X

texts: I am experiencing conflicting reviews with my manuscript that recently received its reviews. The reviewer #1 wants me to delete the analysis X for the clarity and focus of my MS, while reviewer #2 wants me to further discuss the results of analysis X, as it appears to be interesting for him/her. Both comments have important points. Reviewer #1 will make the MS short and clear, while reviewer #2 will make the MS longer and open more discussions.


texts: Back in France I had a few teachers handing back exams in order from the highest grade to the lowest grade, and I recall there was some tense suspense, especially for for the people at the bottom of the stack. Is there any point in handing back exams ordered by grade? Assume there is no online platform to release grades.


texts: How do you verify facts claimed by a deceased author?

texts:
The question is not a arising in my capacity as an academic.  I was recently reading a book, and I came across a claim that seemed dubious; so I wanted to find out whether it was accurate.  I thought of contacting the author, but then I disovered that the author had been dead for a few years.

My question is, what is the appropriate thing to do in such a case, where the author is the only one who has the information necessary to verify a claim, and yet the author is deceased?  Assuming you cared about it enough, would you contact the family of the author, to see if they had notes the author had used in writing the book, or is that impolite?  What else can be done?


texts: Will my student insurance in US, as an international student cover my pre-existing ileostomy caused due to Crohn's disease?

texts:
I am planning on applying abroad for my further studies. But I have this disease called Crohn's, due to which currently I am having an ileostomy. Few of the costs associated with ileostomy are I need to buy accessories to maintain my ileostomy. And also I would need to take medication for my Crohn's, which I heard are quite costly abroad. So my question is:

1) Will the student insurance that the University collects help me with the accessories and the medications required?

2) Also, if at all I am eligible for the insurance, if something were to happen to me abroad(like an emergency surgery due to my pre-existing condition) would I have to pay for it from my pocket?

3) I heard that health care system in US is quite brutal. So is there any other country you would probably suggest for me to pursue my studies.

Correct me if I am wrong about the idea of health care. Thank you for your time.


texts: How to attract student attention in difficult/technical topics

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When teaching, at some points I sometimes have to go over "boring" technical stuff. By doing so, I see students attention decreasing: they look at their mobiles, at their laptops or, in lab environments, fool around in facebook, youtube etc. Their attention comes back when the lecture moves on to "lighter" subjects.

The thing is that you cannot just omit the content from the slides, as it is crucial for the course (e.g. IPv6, TCP/IP protocols etc.). However, only a small percentage of the students seems to be interested, even after I underline that the material will be examined in the final exam.

The question is: how to increase student interest and maximize the percentage of students that actually assimilate the lecture content?


texts: How do I convince my professor to keep me as his student?

texts:
This is a continuation of my previous question, I believe my advisor doesn't think I am smart. How should I deal with this?

It just so happens that when I asked my prof for feedback, he decided to just drop me. Obviously I had asked for feedback when I saw some signs recently which indicated that he wasn't very happy.

Now what do I do?

I really liked talking to this prof. I was enjoying the discussions. I thought things were well. But he seems to think that I get stuck with simple things! He probably also thinks that I am overambitious (in the few instances that I have tried discussing some other topics with him).

I wrote to my prof asking him to reconsider his decision and reflecting on what could be the issues of his disappointment and what I could do to improve. Obviously he didn't reply.

I met the grad coordinator.
He has schedule another between with all three of us.

I wonder whether I should be optimistic about that meeting!


texts: How do I replicate simulations on a research paper?

texts:
I am a student and I have to replicate the simulations of a research paper about electrical engineering using Matlab, but I have seen that often the research papers don't say much about how the various plots of the simulations are obtained.

Is there any strategy I can follow to replicate the results on a research paper?


texts: Prizes and awards: what about travel grants?

texts:
I am applying for various postdoc grants at the moment. They all have some section concerning Prizes and Awards. While I understand that this obviously includes things like 'best poster presentation' or 'best dissertation', I wonder whether competitive travel grants fall under this category? Often they involve the writing of a research proposal, have a low success rate and can entail large sums of money so I am sure this is relevant for applications.
If not under this section, where should I mention these things? I have never seen a field specifically dedicated to travel grants and I do not think they can be mentioned under something like research grants.


texts:
I am looking for a data set that would list patent trials that involve an academic institution, if possible with the date, the parties involved and the outcome.

I am aware of this list of number of US patents awarded by academic institutions in 2014, as well as (1), which lists the evolution of yearly aggregate costs for resolved lawsuits, unresolved lawsuits,
and nonlitigated assertion for patent trials (non-academic specific), but I couldn't find a similar data set for academic patent trials.

(1) Bessen, James, and Michael J. Meurer. "The Direct Costs from NPE Disputes" Cornell L. Rev. 99 (2013): 387.


texts: Are summarized reviewer comments a thing?

texts:
I recently got a rejection from an Elsevier journal. What struck me as odd was that each reviewer comment was three sentences each. To me they look clearly summarized, possibly by the editor. This is also suggested by the wording ("[...] from reviewer (sic!) pointy (sic!) of view [...]"). Colleagues argue that this might just be the way some people review papers.

Is it common that the editorial office summarizes the reviewer comments?
Would I have received more complete feedback in case of a conditional acceptance?
How can it be justified that Elsevier doesn't pass on the feedback to the authors? Personally, I review papers ''for the love of science'', not to support a listed corporation.

Additional information: Three reviews/summaries in total, one of them enthusiastically positive.


texts: How to cope with feelings of powerlessness on a PhD?

texts:
I am currently a third year PhD student of pure mathematics.

I've been dealing with a feeling of burn out for a long time now. Quite frankly I struggle to find interest in anything related to my branch of science right now and am all but fully decided not to pursue academic career afterwards anyway. This furthers the feeling of disinterest in my field as anything I do seems irrelevant to me in the future.

Furthermore, I have a major personality clash with my supervisor in that I would like to approach PhD as a regular job, establishing a routine et caetera, while he is a very spontaneous person, often coming up with a brilliant idea in the middle of the night and wanting to share it ASAP. Also I am sure that if I told him I want to abandon academia he would be quite disappointed in me (to put it mildly).

Because of that I find it very hard to motivate myself to read papers or even textbooks on my chosen subject. The feeling of falling behind furthers the depression and inability to progress in anything. While everyone talks about how much new skills and knowledge they have mastered throughout their PhD, I feel as if I haven't learned almost anything new since I finished my Masters. I look at my PhD and don't know what I can do to make it better and I am very unsatisfied with how it is going so far. I thought that maybe trying to just write up everything I have so far would rekindle the motivation in that I would at least see I already have 20/50/100/whatever pages worth of work, but just thinking of writing everything up is so intimidating I am unable to even start doing it.

I feel like a terrible student and a horrible person in that I am wasting so much time I am, in principle, getting paid for (from my funding). What can I do to get as much out of my PhD as possible and to finish it to satisfaction of all interested parties?


texts: acceptance letter with no letter of financial support

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I have received my admission letter for a graduate program from a Canadian university. However, the letter contains no information about funding. I have already talked to my professor about the availability of funding by this email for two times.

Hello Professor,

I am writing to follow up on the letter of financial support we had discussed a while back. I was wondering if you had a chance to write it, or if you needed more documentation from me. Please let me know if I need to do anything on my end.

Best, Nikki

each time he said that he will send me a letter of financial support. So far he has not sent me said the letter. What should I write to ask him again for this letter? Could you send me a template of an email which shows my concern about visa process? any other suggestion? I am fed up with sending so many emails and I really don't know what to do...
I will miss the winter semester if he doesn't send me the letter in 2weeks.


texts: Which is better, a paper with pedantic vocabularies or a paper easy to read?

texts:
Many say that

  A good paper is a paper which is easily understandable by a reader.

Actually when I am reading lots of papers in good journals, however, they are written with a sort of pedantic vocabularies, even though I can find simple and easy words which can replace the former.

Should I use a pedantic vocabulary but clear sentences in order for other people (reviewers, readers) not to underestimate me? I think the previous statement (clear sentences with pedantic vocabulary) sounds like contradiction, or irony.

What do you think about it?

FYI, I am EE/CS graduate student and good journals can be IEEE TMC, TWC and so on.


texts: Chance Of Getting A Research Internship In US/Canada For Non-US Residents?

texts:
I completed my undergraduate study in computer science outside of the US. I hope to obtain a PhD degree in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) in the US, but I don't feel that I am qualified enough (in terms of research experience). So I am hoping to find a research internship opportunity in US/Canada.

I could probably find relavant projects in my own country, but I feel that trying US/Canada first is more straightforward. After all, it's in US/Canada where I am looking for a PhD degree.

I have a few HCI professors in mind, with whom I would like to work very much. Should I contact them for internship opportunities? What are my chances and more importantly, how can I improve my chances?

Some facts that I think are relavent to the question:

I am not a US resident so I will need a VISA. I don't expect assistantships (it's up to the professor). I have already learnt the basics of HCI and I know the fundamental research methods (through reading and auditing classes). My undergraduate university is not the best, but it's surely one of the best universities in my country.


texts: Regarding changes in the accepted manuscript

texts:
My paper got accepted before 13 days back in AEU journal. But I want to make several changes (only word change) to the accepted manuscript. How do I request the editor to send my corrected manuscript. Will they allow several changes in the accepted manuscript.

Changes are not in the result, tables, graphs.
Changes means reedit some words...

Need help urgently.


texts: How to Find Peer-Reviewers Who Aren't Busy (During the Summer)

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TLDR: How do I figure out who to ask to review an article (who isn't too busy)?

I was asked to submit an article for an upcoming thematic issue for a well-regarded, peer-reviewed journal in my field. Several months after the initial submission, the issue's editor mentioned that they've had issues with finding a peer-reviewer for my article. They asked a handful of people: some have disappeared, some are too busy. As such, they would like for me to suggest names. I don't have an issue identifying people in my field who can review my article. However, I don't know who to identify as someone who would have enough time, especially because it's summer. I know the top people in my field -- the superstars -- but not so much about others I could ask.


texts: Which part of the GRE is more important to admissions committees?

texts:
I graduated from the University of Michigan with Psychology and Communication Studies degree.
I am planning to apply to Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) master's degree and Information Science master's degree.

For those of who do not know, HCI is an interdisciplinary field, combining mainly computer science, cognitive psychology, and design.

I have two GRE scores and I have trouble deciding which one to send for my application.

Score 1: Verbal: 158 (78%) / Quantitative: 165 (91%) / Writing: 4.0 (58%)

Score 2: Verbal: 162 (89%) / Quantitative: 161 (81%) / Writing: 4.5 (78%)

The second set of scores has higher verbal and writing values, but the first has a higher quantitative value.  Which should I send?


texts: Will a journal reject a paper for citing an Encyclopedia?

texts:
When writing a paper, when I identify some area I'm uncertain of, I try to track down a good source in JSTOR, the library, etc. I am in a situation where I found there is no academic source available on the subject. Scholars studying the topic within the confines of a specific territory, I could find none presenting the information globally.
To be really specific about the case, I need info on the territories a European nation acquired globally, changes to that territory over time. All sources I uncovered were territory-specific, and it would seem silly to cite 10 separate books for this general information.
So that leaves me citing the Encyclopedia in about 10 places in the article, which I normally stay away from except for building background knowledge. Is that something that will be a problem to publishers if I have citations to something like Encyclopedia Britannica?


texts: How to find out the impact factor of a journal?

texts:
My paper was accepted in "International Journal of Knowledge and Web Intelligence". It has been indexed in notable websites like DBLP, ACM, .... However, I can't find any impact factor on the website or on the web.

How to find the impact factor of a journal?


texts: How to organize email recipients in professional group email?

texts:
Situation is work related matter about clients in the following group.
Assume the group of people consists of

Prof.
Assistant Prof.
Doctor 1
Doctor 2
Doctor 3 (only been 6 months in the house so so-called resource worker)
Assistant 1
Assistant 2
Personal assistant

Doctor 1 puts email recipients in the given order, which is correct by the status.

Personal assistant changes the order to the similar but with one exception where he puts Doctor 3 at the bottom of the list although is mainly responsible of the work during the time period:

Prof, Assistant Prof, Doctor 1, Doctor 2, Assistant 1, Assistant 2, Personal assistant and Doctor 3.

Culture: Sweden where little hierarchy.

Problem: manipulating the common way of the workplace to have email discussions.

I am interested in how you would deal with such email senders.


texts: Competition in department among professors

texts:
My professor that I've worked for, and other professors that I've met in undergrad, often complain about how it is "publish or death" situation in their department. Specifically, they have told me that they feel like they are under heavy pressure to publish, often having to work for late nights and weekends. It's somewhat ironic because they thought that life would get much easier once they finish PhD and perhaps get a tenure, which is exactly what I'm thinking now.

However, they told me that they are often over-worked and burnt out as well, just like many other PhD students. It might be worst because for many of them, it's been a long marathon, working day and night to obtain PhD, just to compete with many outstanding candidates fighting for limited positions in universities, and if they have successfully secured the job, to work insanely to impress other colleagues and get tenured.

Even for tenured professors, while they won't be fired for not publishing, they have told me that they are often looked down upon if they don't publish many papers in good journals, especially since they are now 'senior researcher' in the department. While these are purely anecdotal with very limited sample, I feel that there might be some truth in their complaints.

My question is: Is it common for professors in university to be under such high pressure and constant competition? Why do people want to go into academia if they are under such stress?

I personally would not want to go into academia, if I know that for the rest of my career, I'd be under constant pressure to outperform others and publish as many papers as possible in the best journals. I may be naive, but I feel that workload in academia easily exceeds that of industry job with fixed 9-5 hours, and I doubt many industry jobs have such fierce competition among the 'best of the best'.

I'm aware that this may be field-dependent, so I'm interested to hear from people's experiences in many fields. I'm currently in US, but I want to hear from experiences in other countries if they have different cultures.


texts: Should funding be listed under "distinctions and honours" on a PhD application?

texts:
In one of my Ph.D. applications, there's a section where I must "List any academic distinctions or honours or paricipation in olympiads etc." I don't know exactly what this means.

Would this include:

A scholarship I earned to study a semester abroad at an (important) university.
The funding I received to attend a summer school abroad? (I didn't present anything, just attended the school).
My current MAs scholarship.


texts: How to not lose focus after each disruption in flow

texts: I have observed that whenever I'm studying something, or solving an assignment, whenever I would hit a question which I am unable to solve or is taking too long for me to do, my mind wanders away from that task, no matter how urgent or important my current task is. I would maybe end up surfing the net, or thinking about a conversion ,etc. I end up wasting 15-20 minutes of my time . This is very frustrating. How can I curb this problem ??


texts: How much would writing a thesis help for a person's career in industry(not in academia)?

texts: There are many people who pursue a thesis-based master's degree but do not want to pursue academia after graduation. If people just want to have a good job, is thesis writing helpful to them? My major is electrical engineering.


texts: What do you call research that has no hypothesis?

texts:
Background:
I'm just wondering - I'm writing my bachelor's "thesis" in information-systems management, which should in theory be a paper about a hypothesis I make, an experiment and an evaluation.

I have an "experiment" which is comparing reality of information-systems management to various theories of information-systems management.
I have my evaluation.

But my "thesis"... is basically my assumption based on experience that says: "theory is based on assumptions that practice do not always exist". And my "experiment" neither proves nor disproves this triviality, but is supposed to show how you can tailor the management theory for it to be useful under economic constraints to a real specific problem.

Question:
What should I call this thing, since it isn't a thesis?


texts: When to switch PhD projects if you are hitting roadblocks

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When is it advisable to switch PhD projects if you are not making progress and have a promising alternative project? Is it worth going from guaranteed research assistantship funding to less reliable teaching assistantship funding?

Background:

I've been working on a particular funded research problem for 2 years now. So far, I'm still trying to reproduce previous results and learn. I am making progress, but it's very slow and frustrating. I don't anticipate finishing a PhD on this topic in less than 5 years, and think 7 or more is likely. At this point I am frustrated with this project and losing motivation.

This is mostly due to certain unanticipated faculty changes at my university. I originally came to work with 2 professors in a field that overlaps with both of their previous research. Unfortunately, one of these professors left and has declined to participate further. Had this professor stayed, I'm confident I would have made a fair bit more progress already. My current advisor is capable, but they freely admit they are far out of their comfort zone with my project. I'm making many basic mistakes that would be easily recognized and fixed if my advisor was more knowledgeable on my topic. My advisor has tried to interest other faculty in the project, but unfortunately none at my university consider themselves adequately competent in the subject to advise.

For fun, I recently published a paper on a particular solution to a problem which grew out of a homework assignment. I have received a surprising number of positive comments on this side project so far and see many research opportunities in this field. This topic fits my advisor's capabilities much better than my current research topic.

I think I'm at a juncture where switching projects may be a good idea. I discussed this with my advisor, and they said either way is okay with them, but I think they are leaning towards me switching. We have no funding for the second project, but my advisor thinks it's worth trying for a grant application and they told me they would support me financially either way (even if it's making sure I get TA positions).


texts: Publish a significant but brief improvement of a Mathematics paper

texts:
I am a PhD student and I started studying a recent article of my advisor. During the study, I realized that some of the reasonings and results used in the article could be considerably improved. Moreover, the result of the main theorem of the paper could have been much more general. My advisor agrees on this.

Thus, the changes are significant. The problem is that the novelty of the idea belongs to the previous paper and that my changes, although significant, would be 4 or 5 pages of length (the original article is 10 pages length).

My question is whether significant but brief improvements of papers in the field of Mathematics can be published in some journals. Should I forget about this idea? Should I send the improved version to the same journal than the previous paper? Are there special journals for papers dealing with significant but brief improvements of extant articles?


texts: Who writes the solicitations for funding agencies? The program directors or possibly other invited researchers.


texts: I submitted my paper in one of the Energy journal in Elsevier. After 2nd revision of my article, I got no update. So, I gently sent an email. Then after 2 days the status said " Required Reviews completed". But this status did not change for almost 2 months. Should I send another email to the editor? Is there any possibility to reject my article?


texts: I don't feel confident about my place in research. I am objectively less equipped for this career. How to move forward after a PhD?

texts:
I got my PhD earlier this year. I have been productive during my PhD, published 4 papers during my 5.5 years duration in decent journals. My advisor was not an expert in my area of research, so my research ideas, methodology and analysis were completely isolated endeavour. This helped me become independent researcher but it also made me seriously unconfident in my technical know-how and research abilities.
My PhD was on a different field than my Masters and Undergrad degree. I took some courses to come up to speed, but I did not do many of the necessary courses because I thought I could self study them. I did self-study, but since I did not give exams or diligently solved many exercises in the book, I have a gap in the understanding of the core fundamentals of my field.
For example, one of the course I had to self study was numerical methods. I read the theory, made notes, did some exercises. But only retained a part of the subject because I had to add Newton-Rapson method in my code, so I just remember that.
Similarly, another course was Finite element method. I read the theory, made notes, did some exercises. But only retained a part of the subject because I did not have to develop FEA codes in my research. I used an opensource solver and focused on getting results for my research.
All these half-baked fundamentals made me realized that I am not equipped well for a career in research. I get overwhelmed when I start to revisit the fundamentals now. I feel I missed my chance when I should have studied more seriously and asked for help for the topics I was facing difficulties.
I had so much time in PhD to improve my knowledge and technical knowhow. After PhD and during postdoc, I am finding it harder to concentrate as I have to produce results at a much faster pace than my PhD and I cannot dedicate time to study and develop fundamentals. How to address this knowledge gap after a PhD?
Please don't say its imposter syndrome. I am just asking on how to improve technical/fundamental knowledge outside a university environment? Because, I feel it is not possible to gain deep understanding about a subject without the university/classroom setting.
I am really troubled and am worried about my career prospects. I have been looking for jobs in industry and at the moment I am not getting responses. So the postdoc position I am in currently will support me for the next year. However, I have to find something till then. If I don't have confidence in my abilities, none of this would matter. I would not be able to get a job.


texts: What to do with a very long research paper?

texts:
Some background first.
I recently graduated (a couple years ago) with a Master's in applied mathematics. During grad school I began working on a paper, which I continued to work on in my free time post-graduation. A complete rough draft of the paper is nearly done and is ~115 pages in length. The work contained in the paper is completely original and solves an open problem (the problem is open but not anything necessarily revolutionary).
It was of my opinion that the paper contained publishable material.  To verify, I emailed a professor at my alma mater with a copy of the current draft. The professor did reply stating that the work was publishable and even suggested some Q1 and Q2 journals that might accept this type of work. While this was useful feedback, I received the reply in just a few days so I doubt the professor in question had the ability to read my paper in depth.
The problem:
I have published a couple papers before and thus have some experience in the world of academic publishing.  That said, the scale and complexity of this paper is something I have never dealt with before and so I am not comfortable with proceeding to publish it without help/guidance, i.e. on my own. In particular, I suspect I am going to have to divide the work into small portions and publish a few separate papers but don't know how to do this. Also, the paper is very dense and I am concerned that its "readability" is not exactly optimal. Given that I do not have a ton of experience and am essentially working in a vacuum, I also really desire to get feedback on the quality of my proofs, which I suspect are not as concise as they should be. My situation seems a little unusual and I suspect that the feedback I am looking for would typically be provided by an adviser in a PhD program (not claiming the paper is worthy of a PhD).

Given that I do not have an adviser that can provide detailed feedback, what should I do?

I thought about reaching out to professors/experts with relevant backgrounds and proposing to add them as coauthor in exchange for helping navigate the process of publishing my paper.  Is this an absurd proposition?  I wonder how such a request may be viewed. Are there any other routes one might suggest I consider?


texts: Is it ok to include references to a book in a report even if I have not quoted the book in the text?

texts:
I am writing a report based on activities performed during my internship as a  webmaster. It is to be written in the format of a thesis in APA format. In the report I reference  examples that I found on the Internet. However, I have been asked to include references to books.

Is it okay to include references to books in my thesis-style report even if I have not quoted these books?


texts: Conference held in year X, proceedings published in X+2 - which to use?

texts:
A certain conference was held on year X, but its proceedings were published in print in year X+2.

When I cite an article submitted to that conference (which I read in the published proceedings) - how do I indicate the correct year?

I'm asking specifically about BibTeX field values, but a less-specific answer would also be ok I guess.


texts: Editing example written work for PhD opportunity?

texts: For an interview for a PhD, I have been asked to provide 'an example of some written work from a project I have worked on in the past'. I'm assuming this is generally intended to be previous coursework I have completed for my undergraduate degree. Should I send an example of my work as it was when I submitted it for marking, or make changes to it so that it is further improved/more appropriate for the role?


texts: what factors affect your admission in PhD in Biological Sciences

texts:
I am a student with both Master's and Bachelor's degree in Biotechnology with a good aggregate. But, i have a low GRE score of 295. My TOEFL score is 107 along with a research project going on.

What do you think are my chances of getting in in a PhD program for Biological sciences?

I have had a good academic as well as extracurricular career.

Apart from GRE what factors should i be concerned about which might affect my admission?


texts: Outsourcing a mathematical research problem

texts:
During my Ph.D. research I encountered a mathematical problem. I found solutions in some cases, but in other cases I couldn't find a solution. My advisors also could not help with this. I asked at Math.SE and MathOverflow, even offered a boundy, but got no hint.

Although I can proceed in my research without a solution to these cases (there are many other problems to solve anyway), they are very interesting and can contribute a lot to understanding the general problem.

The problem itself is very simple, such that even high-school children can understand it. So, I thought of the following idea: give the problem to talented high-school or under-graduate students that go to math olympiads, and offer a monetary bounty (in addition to co-authorship) to the first solver. Hopefully a fresh young mind can succeed where older minds have failed.

What do you think about this idea? Is this ethical? Useful? Done in the past?


texts: Would it be unethical to not cite a figure obtained from a Q&A forum?

texts:
We are writing an article in which we should give a figure (a satellite image; not a real map) to make the 'preliminary' section complete and understandable.

However, drawing the image ourselves is not possible. However, as the image is related to a well-known problem, it is available in various Q & A forums. The same image can be found in multiple such forums and we do not know the original source of the image.

In such a scenario,

Would it be unethical to not cite the forum in our research paper?
If we must cite any of the available forum links, how are we supposed to cite the image?


texts: International Student Funding for Graduate Programs outside North America

texts:
I'm considering doing a masters or a PhD program outside of North America, in particular Europe or Australia. I had originally expected every graduate program to fund students the way North American universities do - as in, they (basically) fund every accepted applicant for somewhere between 12-24,000$ a year. I also was under the impression that funding covered your tuition and more. But the other day I talked to a representative from a small Australian university and she said that they did not fund international students at all unless they got a specific scholarship, which most did not.

I am curious as to which major universities in Europe and Australia fund all / most of their accepted students, and if so approximately how much. My girlfriend (who is coming with me) has EU citizenship and I do not, so I'm wondering about both cases. We are both currently in Canada and applying for mathematics/statistics.

I am particularly curious about the University of Amsterdam, ETH Zurich, the National University of Australia and the University of Melbourne, because those are the ones that I really can't find information about. However we are also considering other European countries (France, Germany, Spain, UK, Hungary, other places with good programs) and I would appreciate any information you had about institutes there too!

Thank you!!


texts: Should I ask my master's advisor and co-advisor for a recommendation letter?

texts: I'm doing a master's, and I plan to start a PhD next year. All the admission processes I've checked so far require two or three recommendation letters. My question is: should I ask my advisor and co-advisor for them? On the one hand, they are the ones who know me the most and who certainly have the most writing material for the letters. On the other hand, I've been wondering: if I get a letter from each of them, could this be seen as biased by the evaluators? Also, another related question: my co-advisor has a PhD, but is not currently employed as a full-time professor (he recently finished his postdoc). Should I only ask professors for LORs, or is it OK to ask him too?


texts: Can authors from certain origins really not know about the gravity of plagiarism?

texts:
With respect to some cultures, in particular Asian ones, one often hears statements such as the following:

  In this country, copying is regarded as flattery and thus people do not know the evils of plagiarism.

or (taken from here):

  In some traditional cultures in Asia and the Middle East, for example, college students are expected to quote or paraphrase the best known political or religious authorities without attribution because readers, especially professors, are expected to know what texts are being circulated. Indeed, it might be a serious insult to the teacher if the student writer formally cites the text being borrowed.

Such statements may nourish prejudices or lead to it being considered an extenuating circumstance that a plagiarist comes from a such a country (see, e.g., this answer or this case).
I wonder whether this phenomenon really has the extents that would justify the latter, more specifically: Is it conceivable that somebody makes it to the point where they author a paper or a PhD thesis without knowing that they must not plagiarise? Or: Can authors really commit plagiarism out of inexperience on this level?

Note:

I am primarily interested in anything going beyond personal experience (there are individual statements in this article). A scientific study would be ideal, but is probably not the only possible way to fulfill this criterion.
This is not directly about how the respective academic cultures nourish plagiarism and what aspect of the culture is behind this.

As all the answers so far have ignored this: I am not asking whether cultures differ in their attitude towards plagiarism – they clearly do. I am asking whether these differences reach a certain level.


texts: Is it appropriate or acceptable to thank a professor for their dissenting public opinion?

texts:
This is a question mainly in case I haven't foreseen any potential repercussions.
The pandemic is a contentious issue, and a particular academic in my country has been outspoken with the same view as me. I'm currently a PhD student, and would just like to send an e-mail in support to said academic, especially considering that I imagine they would be the victim of many negative and/or abusive communications, again given the contentious nature of the topic.
Their field is also an application of mine, so I would be interested in discussing some of their research in that vein.


texts: Requirements for getting into a German physics MSc

texts: I am in my second year of a BSc in Physics in India. I want to pursue my physics graduate degree (MS) in Germany. I want to know what graduate schools are looking for in my application there.


texts: Explaining switch of research interests in Statement of Purpose

texts:
For most of my Masters studies, I worked in the area of Quantum computation and wrote my thesis on that. But following that, I lost my interest and switched to Computer Vision and worked as an intern for a few months. Now I plan to pursue a PhD in the field of Computer Vision even though my Masters thesis was on a different topic. How should I convince the admission committee about this switch ?

I had published 2 papers while working on Quantum computations (one from my Thesis and another one as a student job) and 1 in Computer Vision from my internship. But I was not interested in Quantum computations because it consisted mostly coding and there was no hardware to work on (at least in my university). Whereas computer vision is a branch I am very comfortable with since I directly get to see the impact of the changes in algorithm visually. I also have very good grades in the area related to computer vision. But I cannot really frame a convincing story as "visual feedback" is not enough concrete to convince a potential guide.

Please give me your inputs. Thank you.


texts: Getting into a doctorate program with B-

texts:
So I am doing a master's degree in mathematics in a large state school that is not very high ranked. I am planning to go for a doctorate, but not necessarily at a top school, but still an R1 school. My undergraduate degree is from Europe, and my GPA is not that great, since there was a lot of grade deflation in that school. However, it is a very good school, in top 80 on the planet.
Now, my master's GPA is quite good (3.7) right now, but the problem is: I have a B- in a core class, which is real analysis / measure theory. My previous analysis grades are pretty much all A's. I've taken other classes as well, such as algebra, number theory, topology, probability, statistics, advanced linear algebra, numerical analysis and have pretty much all A's in those. My question is: how much would this one B- affect my chances of admission?


texts: Is it rude to ask for accommodations due to a learning disability?

texts: I have a learning disability where I can only learn through seeing (not seeing and hearing). As a result, I need to have headphones in class to block all sound. Should I just tell the professor this?


texts: Citations: What do I do when the article writer's name is the same as mine?

texts: What should I do to give credit to an author whose first name is the same as mine and last name is not provided anywhere? I don't want it to look like I wrote the article which I am citing in any way, shape, or form, but I also don't want to make a big deal out of that one citation. I am using MLA formatting.


texts:
I had a hard time deciphering conference and journal rankings in order to find good places to publish. [Disclaimer - I am a computing PhD and this post is intended to have a strong focus in CS]

I think it would be beneficial to have a list of websites which rank conferences and journals (deffo. for my self and maybe others too). My question is, could you all help me build this list?

Conferences:

Conference Ranks
Core Conference Portal
Computer Science Conference Rankings

Journals:

Scimago
Core Journal Portal

Other posts readers might be interested in:

How to find reputed conference and journal?
Impact factor vs journal ranking
Rankings of Computer Science conferences and journals
Difference between conference paper and journal paper


texts: How to buy plane tickets for job interviews?

texts:
I am currently on the academic job market, and scheduling on-campus interviews with institutions that might want to hire me.

Suppose I am invited to an on-campus interview at the University of X, and must travel there by air.  They handle travel on a reimbursement basis: I buy the plane ticket, and then they reimburse me.

However, the interview is a few weeks away.  Since the job market sometimes moves fast, there is a chance that by the time of the scheduled interview, I may have already accepted another offer (say from the University of Y).  Of course I should then decline the interview at X, but I would have already bought the plane ticket.

How should I plan for this contingency?

I could buy a refundable ticket to X.  However, these are normally several times the price of a non-refundable ticket, and if I do end up traveling to X, they might balk at reimbursing me for such an expensive fare.
I could buy a non-refundable ticket to X.  If I end up not going there, I could ask X to reimburse me for the cost of the ticket (or at least the "change fee" charged by the airline to let me use the ticket's value for a future flight).  However, I suspect they will be reluctant to reimburse me for a trip I'm not making, and might refuse to do so altogether, in which case I am out-of-pocket.
I could wait until the last minute to buy a non-refundable ticket for X.  But it may still be expensive for them (or may exceed their limits), and the most convenient flights may be sold out.
I could contact University of X and ask them for guidance.  I'm a bit hesitant to do this, as I am afraid that if I bring up the possibility that I might accept another position, they might think I am not seriously interested in theirs.

Is there a standard way to handle this situation?

This is in the United States, if it matters.


texts: I am a secondary school student and I think I have proven an open result, how do I get it out?

texts: I am pretty firmly convinced that I have proven the non-existence of odd perfect numbers and now I am wanting to write it up (Qi: What is the best way or writing maths on a computers?). I also desire to know the general standards of publishing small results such as this so being pointed in the direction of any of the literature to give me idea what I need to write up would be much appreciated. Finally, I need to know where I can submit the result for review and (hopefully) publication. thanks in advance!


texts: What are acceptable "relationships with referees"?

texts:
I am applying for a job and need to give referees, and their relationship with me. I am not sure how to phrase things. My referees are:

A colleague in my department I publish with
A previous boss in another university I still publish with
Senior people in my field who I have not published with (yet)

None of those things seem formal enough! Is there standard phrases I should be using?


texts: Estimating the effort for applying architectural research projects to calls for entries by public organisations

texts:
In this year I will become occupied with finding and applying for government grants like open calls by the European Commission (so called "Drittmittelbeschaffung" in Austria). I am working for a department at a university in Austria that focuses on architectural design and urban design. Thus, I will focus on grants supporting work concentrating on culture, society, and architectural and urban design. One of the projects I am looking for grants emerged from my master's thesis, which I completed last year. The other projects are by Ph.D. candidates. Also, I will be looking for ideas for new research proposals based on existing or upcoming calls that match the general orientation of the department.

The details haven't been set yet, but I guess that I will prepare the project that emerged from my master's thesis on my own, while I am only going to support the other Ph.D. candidates with their application.

The department will employ me for this work and as a teaching fellow. However, I have no experience with fund-raising. I would like to know how many hours of work per week I have to expect for finding and applying for funds, so I can figure out if the contract is fair. Are there any rules of thumb or is there a guideline how to estimate this effort? Secondly, what factors impact the amount of needed time most? What is the ratio between the effort required for preparing a project for an application and just supporting others in their application?

Updated on 2018-11-08 to answer the questions raised by @MassimoOrtolano.


texts: What are the aspects associated with working in a 'liberal arts environment' in academia?

texts: I am asking with respect to decoding a job ad for an assistant professor position at a US University. The ad essentially asks how my talents and goals relate to a 'liberal arts environment'. Previously I associated 'liberal arts' with the major that goes by that name, or thought that it simply meant well-rounded, which is something a student could get at any school. So I guess another version of my question is, what isn't a liberal arts environment at a US university?


texts: Should someone who wants tenure (or a research position) have hobbies totally unrelated to their work?

texts:
Or in Sean Carroll's words, is it true that "you are better off if your hobbies are nothing like your work"?

  Carroll, Sean. "How To Get Tenure at a Major Research University:
  Cosmic Variance." Cosmic Variance. N.p., 30 Mar. 2011. Web. 09 Oct. 2014.

This question applies for both cases of tenure and cases of applying for academic positions.


texts: Waiting for thesis corrections from supervisor, how should I write an email reminding him?

texts:
I sent part of my thesis to my supervisor a month ago. He replied that he would contact me as soon as he finished the correction.
I'm afraid he forgot that.

Would you have an example of a formal email to boost the demand?


texts:
I am aware of this post
Some questions about math postdoc offers but please let me ask a similar question.

I am currently on the math postdoc job market. Some of my friends were informed that they are on the short list but I haven't heard anything from the job market after 2/3 of January. According to the above post, the most job offers are made in the second half of January. I am afraid that all good positions are already taken and I now feel I need to apply for more positions to avoid the worst case.

My webpage counter does not say that many people visited my webpage since Nov. Is this a bad sign? Do hiring committees really visit candidates' webpages?
Are most of the good positions such as "****** assistant professorship" already taken around this time?
Should I send inquiries about my application this week? Or should I wait for another? I hesitate to ask my advisor to do this, so I think I have to do this by myself.


texts:
This might be a dumb question, but since I couldn't find what I am looking for, I decided to ask here. I think that cumulative GPA is the average of all each semesters' GPA, however the part that I don't understand is if I have the below points for three semesters,

1st semester = 3.1
2nd semester = 3.4
3rd semester = 2.9

would the cumulative GPA for the three semesters be calculated as:

((1st + 2nd)/2 +3rd)/2, or
(1st + 2nd + 3rd)/3 ?


texts: Is an unaccredited online Master's degree comparable to a typical Master's if from a reputable university?

texts:
I'm considering applying for an unaccredited, online, Master's program at a university in the UK that is itself fully accredited.

I'm interested in pursuing a Master's degree purely for my own interest and to broaden my knowledge. I don't want to switch careers or necessarily pursue a PhD afterwards. I unfortunately have too many financial obligations to quit my job in order to pursue postgrad education full time.

I have my bachelor's in psychology from an accredited university here in Canada.

So, I'm just wondering: are there any reasons why I shouldn't apply for this online Master's program, given that it isn't actually accredited? Will the lack of accreditation cause me problems down the road?


texts: Is it appropriate to use University/Company logos for Biography Slide?

texts:
I'm making a presentation for a close-group conference, and it's the first time when I am making a Powerpoint slide with my bio. I have decided to put the Academic Degrees + the acronyms of the University names as bullet points, then add the logos from each University/Company at the bottom of the slide. The reason why I would like to do that is to add Design quality to the presentation. This also leads me to the question: when is it appropriate to use logo's of universities/companies when they don't belong to you?

I saw in a previous post this advice about using the letterhead:

  Once you're no longer affiliated with the university because you
  graduated or separated, then you should not use the letterhead.

Can it be the same for the logo on a presentation?


texts: What's the best way to ask a professor for their syllabus before the term starts?

texts:
"I am taking your course in Spring 2021. Is it possible for you to send the syllabus if there is one ready?"
Is the wording okay?


texts: How long to wait for an optimal/good PhD thesis/program, should settle for less exciting topics?

texts:
When I started applying for Phd programs I had big dreams and goals on working on certain topics and spending lots of time in the field. I also had in mind some location and universities but I was flexible to some degrees on the university/location. It took me about 1 year to find a program I was (am) excited about and got accepted (top 10 US institution). Along the way I turned down possibilities with good funding because it was not my focus topic of interested.

Now after a year at my current program there are no funds in place and I am considering moving to programs that have already funding in place but in topics that are not my main interest because there is generally more money in these other topics. I am wondering at this point if I should settle for any topic that fits my skills and falls somewhat in my interests or stay in this roulette situation not knowing when I can really start the research I am interested in. I want to get started on a project and work on my thesis but I also am concerned of doing something that might set me on the wrong track or compromise too much (less interesting research field, worse PhD program, less known university, no fieldwork).

Given the current funding situation especially for certain fields, do PhD students these days have to lower their expectations on pursuing their topic of main interest? . I mean these days people struggle to find a regular job. I would like to add that I am also flexible on the questions I want to pursue within my field, I have flexibility but the funded projects are rare.


texts: Is asking practice exam questions on the web cheating?

texts:
Is asking practice exam questions released by a professor on the web cheating?
If you asked questions from a past exam, that was already released, and graded, is that cheating?


texts: What should I do as a TA if the instructor is not teaching properly?

texts:
Some background: I’m a TA for a low-level course at a major university on the US east coast. This is my second time TAing this course: the first time, I did it under a professor who has taught this a ton of times and knows his way around very well. This time around, the instructor is a second-year grad student who’s teaching anything at all for the first time.

(I’m a second-year graduate student as well. I was actually offered this course to teach this semester, but I said no and so they dropped me in as a TA, which is fine. I have a great deal of sympathy for the current instructor since in another universe that would definitely have been me.)

I’m seeing a noticeable difference between the two. As a TA, I’m getting a lot of feedback from students that they don't understand what’s going on, that the instructor doesn’t relay concepts clearly, that they’re leaving the class more confused than before. The difference is also clear in the homeworks: we’re reusing the old homeworks with minor detail changes, but they’re struggling a lot more in even basic concepts compared to last year.

My responsibilities in this course are grading, homework fixing, and office hours. I don’t have to teach in this course at all, and I do help those who come in during office hours. Even from my relatively isolated position from the students, though, I’m still getting a ton of pushback regarding the instructor. Should I do more beyond the scope of my duties? If so, what?

Edit regarding those who advised me to tell the instructor: they definitely know about their performance reviews. They pointed out their RMP link to me, and while RMP isn’t the end-all be-all of academic measurement, the feedback there is unusually negative and corresponds with what I’ve been hearing from students. I don’t want to kick the instructor while they’re down, because they already know pretty definitively, and they’re a good person to work with. Just not a good teacher, I guess.


texts: What is the meaning of posting a position-opening announcement multiple times at a research-focused institution?

texts: There was a position-opening announcement posted in a department's homepage of a research-focused institution in the US on February 14, 2015. I firmly believe my experiences and track record make me an excellent fit for this opening. Therefore, I applied for this position on-time. It was mentioned in the opening description that  application material must be received by April 14, 2015 to receive guaranteed consideration, though the search will remain open until the position is filled. However, the strange thing which I noticed that the same opening was posted again in their homepage with new a submission deadline (i.e. June 14, 2015). I then reapplied for this opening. Two months later from this new date, I contacted the Chair of the search committee and asked the status of my application. However, I did not get any response from him.  Just today I got notified from job search engine (verified also in their homepage) that the same opening has provided a new application-submission deadline which has been set to November 1, 2015. I am curious to know what this means. Does it mean that they have not found any suitable candidate for this opening or something else?


texts: Is it possible to agree on feasible expectations with my supervisor or should I surrender to her demands?

texts: My supervisor told me I’d need 5 papers (preferably all published) in order to get my PhD degree. However , attending a PhD workshop, I was advised to discuss a feasible plan with my supervisor within my allotted time (3 years) . The formal guidelines of my faculty say that there are no number of papers or chapters to get your degree as this depends on the quality of the work done, however my supervisor says there are “informal” guidelines in the department that I should follow, this is having 5 papers for submission. Do you think there is a way I could fight this battle?


texts: Is "inadequate referencing" a euphemism for plagiarism?

texts: I am aware of a professor, who wrote two published books that had to be corrected. On the publisher's website it states that these two books had been corrected due to  "inadequate referencing". Is inadequate referencing essentially a euphemism for plagiarism? Or is it possible that inadequate referencing can really be a lesser sort of offence?


texts: Good first-time study pre-registration website/service

texts:
For my PhD thesis in artificial intelligence, I am designing a human study where subjects interact with multiple versions of an algorithm and rate their experience. I like the idea of pre-registering a study and want to try it out on this project.

Do you have any suggestions for a good pre-registration website/service? A collegue recommended https://aspredicted.org/, which I like for its simplicity - is it reputable? Are there any better? (I have struggled to find any that seem to be in use) First-hand experiences are very welcome and I hope they will benefit other readers of this site as well.


texts: I got better and improved results later of one chapter of my published PhD thesis

texts:
I defended my thesis in 2015. Later during the preparation of publications from one of my chapter, I got improved and better numerical simulation results than the one in my original thesis. Although almost all the conclusions remain unaltered. I published the modified result in a journal later. Sometimes I feel depressed thinking about that and I didn't make any corrections in my thesis because it was too late, but I have incorporated all the modifications in the journal paper later.

In another chapter 2-3 small mistakes are there during the writing of thesis, but they have zero influence on my results.

Will that create any problem in future? Please advice.


texts: Showing research to professor who is not my advisor

texts:
I am a PhD student in mathematics. I am going to participate in a conference. I want to show my research to some great mathematcian who is a specialist in the area that I am working on.

A friend of mine had a bad experience with showing her result to some great mathematician. In fact, she showed her result to the guy and he said that it was good and to keep up the good work, but two months later he put an article in arXiv and most of the parts of his article were as same as my friend’s. As such, I am bit scared to show my result to someone. On the other hand, I need to show my result to someone for completing a minor thing.

Does someone have any idea what I have to do?


texts: Teaching duties in Italy for researchers, associate professors, and full professors

texts:
What are the teaching duties in Italy for researchers (RTDa & RTDb), associate professors, and full professors?
In particular, I'd be interested to know, for each position, the number of courses/hours per week per semester and any additional obbligation that are involved (exams, seminars...?). Is there a minimum number of hours per week and any addition is paid as a bonus?
Is there an official table available with the details?
Also, in addition to the teaching duties, are is there any compulsory administrative tasks (faculty meetings, paperwork, budget management) that come along with these positions?


texts: What are "General Quality Indicators" for scientific research?

texts:
I am currently filling in a CV in the Spanish CVN online system (https://cvn.fecyt.es/).

In the section "Scientific and technological activities" it asks to specify "General Quality Indicators" in up to 3500 words.

I am a mathematician and I have never heard of such indicators, what are relevant things to put here? I.e., seminars organised, papers published?

A side question, at some point it refers to the h-index (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-index), have you ever seen this been used in mathematics?

TIA


texts: Corrections PhD thesis after publication

texts:
I just finished my PhD and my university probably already published it.
Now I found out that the published version I have sent to the university is not the very latest version. I added some references before submitting, and those seem to be missing now. So I submitted an outdated file.
The missing references are in the literature review, the other 3 chapters have all been published in peer-reviewed journals already.
Of course, I want to correct my mistake as I do not want to be accused of plagiarism.
Is it still possible to make any corrections at this stage?


texts: Presentation of 'relevant research' for a postdoc interview, when switching fields

texts:
I have been invited to interview for a postdoc position, and as part of the interview I've been asked to give a 30 min presentation of my relevant previous research.

This particular position would be a change in direction from my PhD in terms of skills and subject area. However, I have had some relevant experience from previous positions - which I explained in my cover letter for the application.

My question is, for this presentation what would be the best approach:

Talk at more of an overview level about bits and pieces of relevant work from various positions -  most of which were years ago.
Pick one or two relevant research stories from my previous experience, and present more like a traditional research talk.
Highlight the relevant parts from my more recent research, i.e. my PhD.
Other?


texts: Paper submitted by co-author without authorization

texts:
I'm one of the three coauthors (A, B, C) of a research paper, to which I (A) contributed extensively in providing results and drafting the initial version (I'm academically younger than B and C). The corresponding author is B.

We have recently received the third round of reviews for this paper (it's been quite a lengthy process, approaching two years). The Editor gave us 120 days to resubmit the new version. This happened just before I was going to be unavailable for two weeks. Therefore, I emailed B and C explicitly asking to hold the paper until I provide comments on my return.

However, when I was back I found out that B sent the paper the day after my email without waiting for me, justifying it with a need of speeding up the process. C supported B's justification. Note that this is the second time in a row that this happens, as well as other B's unprofessional behaviours, which I all raised personally with B to no avail (with C in copy).

The complication is that the paper has now been accepted (and the journal is rather good), but having had a careful read of the paper, I'm not happy with some of changes B made, which I wasn't given a chance to check for two times in a row (I've reasons to believe that C hasn't reviewed it either). Besides typos, there are some incorrect statements and very confusing parts (e.g. reference to parts of the text that have been deleted, including in the conclusions!), which however they won't twist the essential content and outcome of the research.

I'll notify my dissatisfaction to B and C soon, but I do not expect that B will bring this to the Editor, as he/she should.

My questions are:

What is your best suggestion to have such amendments in the published version, without losing acceptance? I believe they can be too significant to be picked up at the proof stage.
Perhaps writing directly to the Editor? In this case, how to justify the situation without jeopardizing acceptance?
Finally, do you recommend writing to B's Head of School to inform him/her of B's repeatedly unethical behaviour? I'm not interested in working with B any longer, but I'd like to keep fairly good relations (e.g. references) with C, who is a highly-ranked academic and unfortunately is de facto more or less tacitly supporting B's unprofessional behaviour.


texts: Research results obsolete while publishing

texts:
Consider the following situation. Scientist A obtained a novel cool result and submitted it to a respected journal after putting the preprint to arXiv. The journal started the peer review process which will take 2 years. During this time scientist B drastically enhanced A's achievements thus making them obsolete. B also put his preprint to arXiv, so the reviewers can easily access it too.

What will happen then? Will the journal publish A's work? If not, why?
And what should A do to have any credit for his (pioneer) work?


texts: Including additional authors to reduce time

texts:
I tried to find the same question and failed, so here it goes.

Imagine the following scenario: you have invested time (say 8 months) ona  research project. You would probably get a publication in 4 more months of full time work. However, if you include two experts (who provide code) you could reduce the additional time to roughly one month. In both cases you would remain a first name author.

The trade-off is between the number of authors of the paper and the time you invest.

Would there be a rule of thumb to help me with this decision? Is there a clear answer, or is it completely subjective?


texts: What can I do if my professor says he won't let me publish my biology research?

texts: My professor firstly approved everything I've written, and now he is telling me the paper is unworthy and even contains plagiarism. His words also were 'I don't want to be a part of your failure so I won't approve it'. I don't know what could possibly go wrong and why he acts like this. Can you tell me what should I do?


texts: There is a language/cultural barrier between me and my supervisor, what can I do to improve this situation?

texts:
I am a PhD candidate at a university in Germany. My supervisor, along with all of my colleagues, are German. I am a native English speaker, hired for a position that does not require German. However, I can speak some German, although it is not as good as the English of most of my colleagues.

In the 4 months I've been in this position I can tell that my supervisor and my colleagues don't like socializing in English. They try their best to speak English around me during lunch time, but I can tell that it's really taking all of their energy and effort to string a proper conversation together, to the point that it's really hard for me to understand their English. I encourage them to speak in German because I can understand more than I can speak. But of course I end up not participating in the conversation as much, which I can tell also makes my colleagues uncomfortable.

Any tips on how I can improve this situation from my end?


texts: Is it appropriate to ask one of my thesis-committee members for a postdoc position?

texts:
I'm about to give submit my Ph.D. thesis to my selected reviewers. Among the external reviewers, I really like the research themes that one of them is working on. So, I want to ask him about any possibility of working in his lab as a postdoc by sending him my CV and a proper statement of interest in the specific research topic(s) he works on.

However, he is going to read my thesis during the next 3 months, and I'm not sure if my request is going to have an effect on that process or vice versa.

Also, I cannot wait for 3-5 months to see his feedback on my work (and the disputation outcome) before asking him about the position as it will be too late for me. So, either I should ask him now or not asking him at all! :D


texts: Wrong proof in a research paper, will the paper be rejected?

texts: We submitted a research paper to a journal for publication and we received the reports of the reviewers. However, the two reviewers pointed out a flaw in one of our proofs. Unfortunately, we cannot find another proof and we cannot also find an exemple in which the result doesn't work. One of the reviewers said that we can remove the result. The editor-in-chief asked us to send the revised version as new submission. What we can do in this case?


texts: Will the research activity during my Master's program seriously impact my PhD or career path?

texts:
I've posted a few questions here seeking advice on my life as a first-semester graduate student. I have a question that is somewhat related to those, and also related to this question (What happens if you don't enjoy your research partially through your degree?) but felt it was slightly different and wanted to ask my own.

TL;DR

The lab that I'm at now has recently been heavily focused on one specific field of research, and I'm also expected to conduct research activity in that field and squeeze in time to work on things that I personally want to pursue later as a more serious PhD student and possible career. Will my research being heavily focused in an irrelevant area impact my future prospects of applying to PhD programs?

Long version

I'm currently enrolled in a Master's/PhD integrated program at a Korean University. The lab that I'm at does AI/deep learning research. My personal interests lie in computational linguistics, and I made it clear to my advisor that it's what I want to pursue and I wanted to work with those in the field at his lab, which he was happy to hear. I also told him that I have plans to complete my Master's here and go for a PhD to the US. He recommended that I finish my PhD here and go for a postdoc abroad, but that he's also "more than happy to let me go if it's what you want."

Recently, he's really taken a "passion" into this thing called "AI-driven drug discovery," where you're basically using deep learning techniques to find which chemical compounds may potentially become new drug components. It's interesting and important for sure, but it's not really what I had in mind when I first came to the lab or what I imagined to be doing later in life.

The fact that 1) I'm fluent in English, and 2) I'm "technically enrolled in a PhD program" and so will be at the lab longer than regular Master's program students has caused my professor to take a liking to me and him and other senior lab mates have really urged me to at least take a look into the field of bioinformatics. I thought "what the hell, I'll give it a try and if it's not for me then I'll talk to my advisor and back out."
 It is a bit naive of me to think that backing out of  research I've been engaged in will be easy.

I've talked to other seniors at the lab about my concerns, and  they all understand where I'm coming from and advise me to "do the bare minimum to keep me out of trouble" while spending all my time and resources doing research in things I want to and prepare for applying to PhD programs abroad (publishing papers, attending seminars and conferences, etc.)

I'm still a bit concerned though, as bioinformatics is a little distant from computational linguistics. My undergraduate degree wasn't even from a STEM field or linguistics either (international relations major and computer science double major). Has anyone either been down this road, or seen anyone go down it? From a professor who's seeing my application as a potential PhD candidate, how would it look if much of my prior research is in bioinformatics when it says I want to do PhD-level research in computational linguistics?

Any tips or advice are greatly appreciated. Thanks.


texts: Have technical reports been subsumed by preprints?

texts:
As someone who has recently gotten into the research world, I read a lot of preprints and occasionally dig up some technical reports to access older publications.

To me, it seems like technical reports were the paper version of preprints. Many technical reports appeared later as peer-reviewed articles or chapters of books. Nowadays, there are far fewer technical reports appearing. My department used to produce multiple dozens each year in the 70s and 80s, but they have only produced one so far this year.

Does this mean that preprints have taken the place of technical reports? Is there any reason why a researcher would choose to publish a technical report with their university or organization?


texts: What does referee mean in The Computer Journal?

texts:
In The Computer Journal I was looking at the Instruction to authors page, I did not understand the below instruction-

  Authors should supply a list of between three and five referees who
  would be suitable to referee the paper. Please enclose full name,
  email and full postal addresses.

I thought after paper submission, the editors will review it & recommend if there any changes are necessary. But according to above instruction it seems that author has to provide suitable referee list. Then editors will review submitted paper.

In this specific context,
What does referee mean? How does it differ from editor? Also if an independent researcher needs to submit paper, where does he find more than 2 referees? Is referee equivalent to peer?


texts: Tongue slip problem in presentation even after a good amount of practice

texts:
How can I overcome the tongue-slip problem in conferences, meetings and seminars? I have read many discussions regarding conference presentation, such as delivering a good presentation, staying confident during presentation, avoiding nervousness, maintaining time and many more. But I have not found a proper answer to the tongue-slip problem.

I recently faced it in a presentation, only once, but in my title slide. The word was extreme, which I could not pronounce even in 5–7 seconds and felt much shame, finally pronounced it as esteem. I had previously done very good practice such as in front of a mirror and closing my eyes. I would also like to mention that I have used the same word several times very clearly in past conferences and also used same word very clearly in my next slide onwards.

How to overcome this problem? Many times I face similar problems, maybe with different words, but I have been noticing that it always happens in first few minutes of a presentation.


texts: What is the typical academic career path following a PhD in computer science?

texts:
I have a MSc in Physics (computational physics); however, after finishing school I didn't move out of province so now I'm doing software development as a full time job. I miss the challenge of the harder tasks, which do not feel like assembling lego like the ones I currently work on.

I'm currently debating doing a PhD in Computer Science. Perhaps Numerical Analysis, High Performance Computing. I've also loosely been interested in Artificial Intelligence, but have nowhere near the experience as I would in the other two types.

In Physics I know you do your PhD followed by a bunch of 2 year post-docs then go into a professorship somewhere; but, I do not know how it works in the Computer Science field. I have a publication in the high performance world from a course I took during my masters, but that is the extent of my experience.

I'm also interested in moving to a more challenging area, but not sure where to be looking. Sifting through the mounds of job posts rarely yields anything that would be in the area I'm considering.

Any advice, thoughts, would be much appreciated.


texts: Which licence choose for a new academic computing language?

texts:
Disclaimer: I am not sure this is the right place to ask the question, but since it is directly related to academic work, I though I'll give it a try. If it is not, please feel free to redirect

Together with colleagues from different institutions (all academic), we have been developing a new information language (more precisely a format), based on XML, to store a specific type of information. This format is primarily directed to the academic world and will be open source

My question is: do we need to attach a licence to this new format and, if yes, what type of licence is suitable for that?


texts:
On my grad school applications for an American Statistics MS, the application asks for the Professor title. I've always referred to my professors with the "Professor" title, but I'm wondering if title on a grad school application is concerning their official position / ranking in the department?

For example, one of my professors has a PhD from my Alma Mater but on the department website, it indicates she is a Lecturer. Should I indicate she is a Lecturer on the application? Or is it still appropriate to list her as a Professor?

Another one is indicated as "Professor & Graduate Vice Chair". Is it relevant to include the Graduate Vice Chair part or should I only include Professor?

Please point me in the right direction or provide some clarity if you can. I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks!


texts:
What shall I do with a student who self-plagiarized large parts of one of his previous work (for another class and another professor) for my own assignment (without stating it)?

Is it fair, considering he obviously chose to work on the same topic but without telling me that it was the case? I guess it happens all the time among students, to "recycle" like this...

Best


texts: Is it usual for a PhD thesis to have two distinct subjects?

texts:
In my PhD studies I have slipped off my original track of research. This was also caused by the fact that I found out that my work can be generalized to a broader scope. It is not so bad, during this detour I did a lot of work.

But then I tried to get back to my original subject and did a lot of work there too. So now after 3 years of studying, I have several papers and a lot of data for both tracks. I don't think that the results in any one of these tracks are sufficient to graduate, but together they are.

Should I:

try to find a unifying theme and try to make my thesis seem unified on the outside, or
should I transparently say that my thesis is about these two subjects?


texts: Unclear whether professor will provide assistance after sending through CV and an essay

texts:
I am a graduate civil engineer and want to pursue to academic career in the same field. I have been in contact with a professor, entirely by email, since March and he is responding me since March very well. I want assistantship to pursue my MS degree from the professor.

About a month ago he told me to write an essay about a topic and also to attach my latest CV. I have written an essay and send it to him. Its been a month and I have not received a reply.

He have sent me his last email on September 21 stating that he has received my essay. Now I don't know whether he has decided to provide me an assistantship or not.

Now I don't know how to follow up whether he is willing to provide me an assistantship.


texts: What should I put as the "subject" in an email request for masters research interviews?

texts: I have to send emails to make an appointment with people to interview them for my Master's research. What would be the best "subject" to put in the email to get their attention and get a response?


texts: What journals do not allow open access to published material?

texts: An increasing number of funding organizations require publications on the research that they fund to be open access, i.e. available to the public without having to subscribe to a journal or pay a fee. Does anybody know where I can find a list of journals/publishers that do not allow material that they publish to be published this way?


texts: Can you get a PhD based on work or life experience?

texts:
Is there any possibility that I could be awarded a Ph.D. degree based on my work or life experience and good educational background?

Can you guide me to any institution offering such Ph.D.s?


texts: For an industry-sponsored project, should one apply for IRB approval before or after accepting the funding?

texts:
Is there a standard customary timeline for applying for IRB1 approval with an industry-funded project?

Should you apply for IRB approval first, then accept the funding for the project, or accept the funding for the project and then apply for IRB approval?

It seems the latter could be dangerous if IRB approval is not granted.

1 An IRB (Institutional Review Board), also known as an independent ethics committee or ethical review board, is a group that reviews and monitors research involving human subjects.


texts: Do graduate schools pay attention to joining Phi Kappa Phi or other honor societies?

texts:
Recently I received an invitation for Phi Kappa Phi honor society. I do not know too much about those organizations and I was wandering what are the benefits (or possible disadvantages) of joining?

I was searching online and people keep mentioning that it is good for your resume, networking etc. However, it seems to me that I just need to pay for membership and they will put me on the list, how could it be beneficial for me?

Could you please tell me if worth considering? And is it really beneficial to have those things on my resume? Do graduate schools or employers pay attention for those?


texts: How can I find out whether I am permitted to re-use an online questionnaire in my own research?

texts: So, I get this page's link: User Interface Usability Evaluation with Web-Based Questionnaires from my friend. I want to make one of them as Questionnaire for the design I made for Academic Research. But I'm confused, is that only an example, a guideline, or can I use the Questionnaire as it is? Is there any license for those questionnaire? I've tried to read the page, but don't really know if there's something like that.


texts: How to treat papers or other work from dyslexic students?

texts:
I know that as a student with dyslexia you get all kinds of benefits such as extra time for work, exams, access or licenses to spell checkers, etc. (Never used or been offered any, not that I needed it.) However, I cam imagine that by the time you graduate you would be expected to have a competence level of at least a certain degree. I myself am currently graduating for a bachelor's degree in Business IT. While the focus here mainly lies in IT, I have been told that my use of language is seriously sub-par for the degree despite knowing of my dyslexia.

Now, I have been told that my work is well above average (average of 8/10) but that due to my use of language, the grade doesn't reflect the work. Having teachers fail me fully based on language has become quite common for me. In particular my use of the Dutch language; I should note English is my second language.

Just to clarify, the spelling is not the problem, the way I build up my sentences is (think of starwars-yoda). While the text can be understood, it's not something you can breeze through with a martini like some other papers.

So as the final question here: How should students with dyslexia be handled? How would one get them to improve on their language? Should we even need to help them improve their language? Other than just redirecting them to some dyslexia institute. And, how should their work be looked at?

Edit:
To clarify, I'm interested into how both students and teachers alike could approach this. Not just myself personally.


texts: How many academic STEM PIs are there in the United States?

texts: Are there statistics that are more specific than the NSF Science and Engineering Indicators that can tell me how many PIs doing STEM research there are in the United States?


texts: A generic academic reference from a random professor vs. strong reference from my Technical Authority at work?

texts:
I am planning to apply for a PhD programme (probably in the UK). I have two solid sources for academic letters of recommendation (my Director of Studies and my Master's Project supervisor. Now, some places I'm applying to require three letters of recommendation and here I have a dilemma: I could go for a  generic academic reference from a random professor or strong reference from my Technical Authority at work.

Due to several random factors, I have not managed to establish a particularly strong connections at my university(ies) with anyone apart from the two people I already mentioned. I've worked with some people personally but I know if I ask them for a letter I shouldn't expect anything more than "SaladButt had been a good performing student, he grasped things fast and got good grades THE END". Being one year out of school does not help. On the other hand, I could ask my Technical Authority at work to write me one. I know it would be a solid letter as I have already seen the feedback she wrote me for annual reviews. On top of that I'm pretty convinced my field (engineering/robotics) values hands-on experience and that I could prove with my work history.

I have seen many people here say that letters from academics always win over ones from employers. Do you think it also applies in this case?


texts: I submitted a paper to two journals, and the first published it, but I agreed to publish in the other; what can I do?

texts:
I submitted my research paper in journal X on 7th July, 2014. Journal sent me one thanks email immediately. After that I waited for one month for any response from editor but nothing came from editor side.

Than I submitted my paper in other journal Y. My paper was accepted in that Journal and sent for review from editor side.

At 30 August, 2014 I received one acceptance email from the editor or journal X that my paper has accepted and I was asked to submit publication fee of 90$. But I could not reply this email due to busy schedule and I was also not interested to publish my paper in journal X. After that I could not receive any email or revision or anything from this journal X.

I continued to work with journal Y, modify paper according to reviewer comments, sign copyright agreement and now paper is in publication phase.

Yesterday, by chance I open my Google scholar account and find paper that was published in journal X to whom I was not interested and who was demanding 90$. When I checked the online paper, I was astonished that the journal published my paper in its July issue and date of publication was 1st July, even I send this paper on 7th July and journal X notify me about acceptance and fee payment on 30th August.

How its happened that Journal X published my paper without my consent and published it in back dates. Now what I should do because the same paper is in final publication phase in journal Y to whom I have signed copyright agreement also. Please guide me tell me any forum to raise voice against that journal X. Because I send many emails to editor of journal X but receiving no reply from editor side. Any penalty or any other thing which I can do.


texts: Is being the second author out of two authors for papers from my PhD thesis going to affect my future job prospects?

texts: I have completed my PhD recently and will be looking for academic jobs. During my Phd thesis work I published two papers with my thesis advisor and have put him as a first author. It was out of reverence for the guide and I have never discussed this openly with him. Both of these papers have two authors with me as second author. My question is that since I am not the first author, will that create a major issue for me while applying for academic jobs? My field of research is in computer science.


texts: For STEM fields, is there self-segregation in United States academia?

texts:
I notice that often a lot of Chinese mathematicians collaborate with other Chinese, and Americans collaborate with other Americans.  Many of the journal papers that I look up seem to indicate this sort of self-segregation too.

Is this real or perceived?

If it's real, is it due to racism, familiarity with people of one's own background, or perhaps a combination of various factors?


texts: Most graduate students in the USA work as lab assistants or teaching assistants. But some people have fellowships from the school just to study. I know you probably need a very good GPA and GRE to get a fellowship. What else does a department look for to decide about who gets a fellowship? Does it help if you have a masters degree?


texts: Explaining undergrad transfer on application to grad school

texts:
I'm applying to PhD programs in math.  The thing is: I went to a great school coming out of high school, but it didn't work out.  (No GPA problems thankfully; just personal stuff.)  I ended up going to an engineering program, where I eventually understood math was my calling, and everything has been going swimmingly since then.

The question is: do I need to explain myself?  Every program I apply to will be getting the transcript from my first institution.  It seems to me I should explain why I left and how I've gotten to where I am.  That said, only one school I'm applying to actually requires a statement about this kind of circumstance, which has left me a bit confused.  Presumably my having transferred will raise questions that I should strive to address in my application, rather than letting the admissions committees' imaginations fill in the gaps.  That said, I feel as though anything I can say to explain the situation will detract from the positive developments that transpired after I transferred, particularly given the prestige I chose to give up.


texts: Why are 31.8% of retracted papers not noted as retracted?

texts:
I read on STEEN, RG. Retractions in the scientific literature: is the incidence of research fraud increasing?. Journal Of Medical Ethics. England, 37, 4, 249-253, Apr. 2011. ISSN: 1473-4257. that:

  Journals do not do a careful job of alerting the naïve reader to a
  retraction notice (table 2). The most common way to alert readers
  about a retraction is with a watermark on the pdf (41.1% of retracted
  papers). A total of 149 papers were given such a watermark and noted
  as retracted at the website as well. Among 305 watermarked papers,
  48.9% were also retracted at the website; of 248 papers retracted at the website,
  60.1% were also watermarked. However, 31.8% of retracted papers were not noted as retracted in any way at all so the naïve reader would not
  be alerted to the fact that retraction had happened.

How comes 31.8% of retracted papers are not noted as retracted?


texts: Is it ethical to cherry-pick reviewers based on their previous reviews of your manuscript?

texts:
The academic review process is usually supposed to be blind, in that authors are not told the identity of the reviewers. But frequently it is possible to guess who has reviewed your work, or the reviewers themselves may let you know informally.

Say my manuscript is rejected from journal A after one very positive and one more critical review, and I think I know who the reviewers were. After some revisions I submit to journal B, who ask me for a suggested list of reviewers. Is it ethical to list the reviewer whom I suspect gave the positive review the first time, but replace the one I suspect has a negative opinion of my work with another reviewer? What if the positive reviewer is someone whom I did not originally suggest to journal A - is it ethical to suggest him/her to journal B in the light of their previous review?


texts: How to cite a table that has been significantly modified (see example)?

texts:
Based on what I have read, the options are to say something is either reprinted or adapted. But "adapted" seems to suggest, according to a college website I was looking at, mere aesthetic changes. I'm dealing with much more significant changes.
What I am doing is this: First, there is a psychology article with a table. I'm taking about half of the info in the table (12 of 20 statements), mixing some of it together (e.g., Number 1 and 3 are now mixed together into Number 1) so they become 8 statements overall, and then adding my own 12 statements (e.g., Numbers 2, 3, 6, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 20) are mine.
You might suggest I separate my statements and put them in another table but I can't because I'm basically filling in the gap in the information from the original table. To give an example, imagine the writer talks about issues people have in different age groups, and the info is presented in a random order and with only some age groups. What I'm doing is putting them in order and filling in missing age groups with my own knowledge.
Would "adapted from" suffice in such a case?


texts: Am I being a "mean" instructor, denying an extension on a take home exam

texts:
I am currently teaching part time at a community college (in the US) and I have one student who is about 16, I think he is a senior in high school (at least he is about to graduate HS in the spring).  He is currently applying to MIT, Harvard, etc...  and he is taking my differential equations course. But he wants an extension on his take-home exam.

I gave my students their exam last Monday.  It was too hard... if anyone is interested in what "too hard" means, I can post it, but trust me, it was difficult... anyway, so I give them their exams back this past Monday (after our Thanksgiving break) and I tell them "give thanks, the exam is take-home now and due Wednesday".  He didn't show up for class that day (which when I was in HS was called being delinquent) and I told the class I would also make the announcement on our "online blackboard" so that anyone who missed would get the announcement.  I forgot to do this, and Wednesday I made the announcement that I forgot to post it Monday and so I said it was due Friday (this time I didn't forgot to post it online).

In any case, the student in question (and only one other student) weren't there Monday but did show up Wednesday.  He asked for me to make it due this coming Monday.  I told him that was not reasonable because the final is next Wednesday and I need to get the grading done in time plus I want to post solutions to the exam so they can study it to help them for their final (but I obviously can't do that if he hasn't submitted).  So their submissions are due in just about 1.5 hours and he is the only person who has yet to submit his exam.  This past Wednesday after class he said he wishes I would "work with him" because he has 7 other classes he's in (I think I'm remembering that correctly.... that's insane) and he has some winter concert he has to perform in for his school band and... he's never had a B ever... but in my class he has a C, many of my students by the way have A's.  I think he lacks maturity and I told him if he wants to go to MIT that he should act like an MIT student and quit complaining and get his work done.

Main Points:

I have a young student applying to MIT who is a dual credit student in my differential equations course.
He is complaining because he has a C in the class, but I feel he isn't putting in the appropriate work.
He claims there is a lot of work to do in high school and wants an extension on a take-home exam.
I disagree with his request for an extension, and I wonder if his request is reasonable and if I'm the person being unreasonable here.


texts: When to assume the submitted paper has been withdrawn formally (Springer)?

texts:
We had submitted a manuscript in September 2016. Till now the paper remains with the editor showing status "With Editor".

After several reminders, we could not get any reply from the journal side. Only it was the editorial manager (staff) who responded with standard reply "I have forwarded your mail to the editor...".

Finally (approx. 20 days back), we decided to withdraw the manuscript from the journal and hence we wrote a formal mail to the journal. Till now, we have sent 3 reminders regarding the same and have received no confirmation from the journal side. However, the status of the paper remains the same "With editor".

Question:
Now, should we consider the paper has been withdrawn from the journal and submit the paper elsewhere?

I am really inexperienced in such process and suggestions would help me learn it.