texts:
I was initially in the field of pure math, but I successfully transitioned to being a researcher of machine learning with much less effort than I expected. My strategy was, instead of learning CS and ML from scratch, to read many interesting recent ML papers and, whenever I encounter with unfamiliar concepts or papers that are cited and seem to contain the information necessary for my understanding, I tried to find the relevant documents online to understand it.

While there is a vast amount of knowledge accumulated in ML, this unstructured way of pursuit strategy of knowledge turned out to be sufficient for me to cover the important information to contribute to the current state of research in a way I like, probably much more efficiently than by learning in a more structured way. I call this "backward learning strategy."

I think this may be similar to how researchers learn when they transition from an area to an area after PhD. Of course, feasibility of this learning must be dependent on the field. Even for pure mathematicians, one cannot understand an arithmetic geometry paper without at least having learned AG in textbook-level. However, it was not difficult for me to understand a paper on a certain kidney disease after reading some relevant papers, without much knowledge in medicine.

Unfortunately, I've not been able to find relevant information about this strategy online. I want some paper references for this learning.

Edit: Asking for anectodes may be not suitable for this site, so I changed it to paper references instead.


texts: Is beautifying a dissertation looked upon unfavourably by the examiners?

texts:
I'm writing an Msc dissertation on planning space projects and I would like to add interesting bits of information on the opening page of each chapter. Though the image and the accompanying information are not directly linked to the central thesis, they add some interest around the main arguments.

Will this be looked upon unfavorably? As an academic reading this work, will this bother you or make you feel distracted / think this is unnecessary?

For example, I have this on the introduction page:


texts: Advisor associated with the U.S. Army want their name removed from the text of a published article

texts:
I have been contacted by an individual with a request to remove their name from an article our journal published two years ago. The individual was identified as a Culture and Foreign Language Advisor of the U.S. Army; their post location (city) was also mentioned. This person claims that the author of this article did not asked their permission to include their name in the article, and did not give informed consent to do so.

Is this a valid request? I mean, it may be valid ethically as it may put this person and their relatives at risk, by associating their name with a military program, but since two years have passed since publication and our journal is open-access, this article has been archived on a number of other sites we do not control. So, the info is already out there, no matter how we proceed. Do you think this is also a legal problem? (The journal is located in Central Europe)


texts: When are there reasons to cite more or fewer sources?

texts:
As a young scholar I was paranoid about accusations that I hadn't read the literature, so I tended to cite lots of papers. More recently, I've noticed an  elegance in relying on fewer of them.

Trimming the fat in general results in fewer citations, but is the number of citations in an article itself of any interest? Are there contexts when loads of sources, or few sources, are preferred?


texts: Request an extension of revision deadline over the holidays

texts:
I have submitted a paper to an Elsevier journal.
They sent the first decision on my paper as a major revision on October 28 and gave me two months to revise the manuscript.

Currently, the deadline is so close while I am stuck in a problem with my manuscript. I sent a request of extension on the night of December 24 to the editorial office of the journal.

Now, I am worried about not hearing from them before missing the deadline due to the holidays.

Is their office closed on December 26? (I think their office is located in the UK.)

What is your suggestion in this case?

If I miss the deadline without no hearing from the editor due to holidays, the editor will extend the deadline after seeing my request sent on December 24?


texts: Should I mention industrial experience in an academic CV when applying for a PhD?

texts:
I have about six years of entry-level experience in a certain field acquired before entering university and during its first years. Should I mention such experience when applying for a PhD? By now I also have research and teaching experience, which is much more relevant.

The work experience includes some relevant aspects for the PhD, e.g. programming. The companies were small (start-ups). Two of them no longer exist (it is more than 10 years since the first job). Could I just write this along the lines

  I have also xx years of experience in yy field working as a zz. My tasks involved mostly blah blah.


texts: If I have a question about a paper which has multiple authors, who should I email? The professor whose lab the paper came out of maybe? The first author named on the paper?


texts: Showing research experience in graduate applications

texts:
As an undergraduate, I have heard this term a lot. I have not graduated but will graduate soon.

When applying to graduate programs, research experience is what everyone tells.

Research Experience is used rather recklessly. Many students, even if they had to just type in data for professors/researchers, check some test tubes in laboratory or whatever depending on discipline mention they had research experience.

Last year, I had an internship at a renowned research organisation. The only thing they do is research and development. As an intern, I did not specifically join saying, I wanted a "Research Experience". I were involved in their project which was a research project. My task consisted of API development, working with Matlab and various stuff important for the project.

Yet, I did not come up with something new. Well, they did.

So, this is far better than what many students mention as research experience. But, is it worth calling this a research experience in my CV or applications? Shall I call this reaserch?

Making the question specific, what does a "Standard Research Experience" consist of? When graduate schools say undergraduate research experience, what kind of activities are they expected to have been involved in?


texts:
OpenWetWare and Google Sites have been effective strategies in curating lab knowledge. I was curious about what are effective ways to create an effective wiki. Factors include:

Ease of use and low learning curve
Speed of sharing and diversity of shared files
Privacy and protection from sabotage
Organizational flow
Legally sharing papers/manuscripts


texts: What can a publisher offer to its best reviewers?

texts:
As a publisher, every now and then I saw reviews which are so good, I thought I should thank the reviewer with something more than "thanks". What can a publisher offer that will actually be useful?

Ideas:

Cash. This is probably not happening. Cash is too liquid, too precious a resource to offer. The only conceivable way top management might be persuaded is to have a small pool of best reviewer prizes (say 5 prizes/year @ $500 each), company wide. That makes it hard to reward all good reviewers, since there're tens of thousands of reviewers a year. I also suspect that if top management were to entertain such an idea, they'd prefer to have a best paper award.
Best reviewer certificate. I don't see this as very useful though, since it's just a computer graphic. Plus they're easily hacked - I changed one of these to put my name on it instead of the reviewers', which might be enough to deceive a casual observer.
A free book from the publisher's collection. This is more doable but is not cheap (since it also requires postage), so I won't be able to do send many of these - maybe one / year.
Cheaper open access. This is doable: there's a discretionary range with open access article processing charges (to e.g. offer bulk discounts and to waive them for authors from developing countries). However many reviewers never publish in the journal they review for, and even if they do they might not want to publish open access. I am not sure how useful this is.
A personal subscription to ___ journal. Not sure how useful this either since the reviewer probably already has access to the journal via his or her institution, and if not, there are (usually) other ways to access a needed paper.
Something else?

Edit: Thanks for all the answers.

Make best reviewer awards public: this should be easily done. My only concern is that this can break reviewer anonymity for small journals. Still, a central list of all the best reviewers who have reviewed for the publisher should be doable, with the only drawback being someone will have to compare reviewers from different journals (or there'll have to be set numbers of best reviewers for each journal, which would favour small ones at the expense of larger ones).
Give reviewer feedback: unfortunately only the editorial board can do this. The publisher can suggest, but cannot force the editorial board to do it.
Appoint as editors: it's potentially doable, but needs the approval of the rest of the editorial board.
Free store credit: this is doable, maybe even better than providing free books from the perspective of the publisher. After all, the publisher would not have to pay postage charges, and it's a revenue-generating activity. Making it transferable would be a nice touch!
Free mugs/T-shirts etc: considering publishers make books and journals (instead of mugs and t-shirts), I am not sure this is a good idea.
Reception at conference: the problem with this is the cost. First one would have to rent the necessary space (expensive) followed by send staff there (also expensive). It would be pretty hard to get some kind of personalized welcome; the staff that attend will probably not be those handling the journal for example, and there might be reviewers for multiple different journals at the same reception. I can float the idea, but not hopeful.

Again, thanks for ideas.


texts: Posting a paper on a preprint repository (SSRN) before publishing (economics)?

texts:
I am a young scholar and I have a paper that is virtually finished. I was thinking about posting it as a working paper on SSRN to get more feedback and comments. However, I worry if it will be still possible to submit it to a journal.

After a search on an internet, I found that people from various fields disagree on this and I am not sure how it goes in economics. I am especially confused because my paper is almost finished, but I worry I might have overlooked something, but it is also possible that the final version will not differ at much. Thanks in advance for any useful advice.


texts: What is common in most PhD application procedures in the UK?

texts:
I am almost done with my master's degree in mathematical finance. I'm done with thesis and have one course left to take. I am taking it in a 3rd world country and am interested in applying for a PhD in stochastic analysis in the UK.

I am told that, in general, the application process for PhDs, unlike applications for masters or bachelors, involves first speaking to faculty and then to the school. Is that right? That is, when I apply I should already have a professor in the university willing to be my doctoral advisor?

The exact procedure I heard is something like:

Read up various literature on your desired dissertation topic which should include several textbooks and even more for recently published articles. (If necessary, study for IELTS, GRE, etc.)
Come up with a PhD proposal.
Contact relevant faculty of the universities to which you intend to apply.
Discuss your proposal with them if they're up to it.
One of the following: Revise proposal if needed, completely change proposal or get referred to different faculty member.
Actually apply to the university.

So, is that how it actually is?


texts:
I’m writing a master’s thesis in theoretical and mathematical physics, specifically in general relativity.
To better organize the thesis, I’m using the well-known division in works in mathematics to organize important results in lemmas, propositions, theorems and corollaries.
Outside those blocks there are also equations relating to the overall discussion connecting the results.

I’m quite unsure about the equation numbering. I see several options:

I number all equations.
I number only the important ones which I’ll need later.
I number just the equations on the discussions and not those inside the proofs of the lemmas, propositions, theorems, corollaries, etc.

What are the pros and cons of these approaches?


texts: Is it bad to submit applications for two different degree programs in the same department of a same university?

texts:
I am referring to US graduate schools here. I am now having schools that I like very much, but I am not sure whether I can withstand the competition towards PhD admission so I am thinking about also submitting an application for the less competitive master degree program (if admitted, I could apply to PhD in the same department after graduation as an alternative route to research). Is it bad to do so?
The reason I am worrying is that I have seen people say that submitting 2 applications like this will convey a sign to the committee that you don't know what you want to do in the future. See the answer of this post


texts: What is the timeline for using arXiv in computer science?

texts:
In mathematics, the timeline is typically as follows.

Upload a completed draft of the paper to arXiv.
Wait a week or so to see if anyone suggests changes, then submit to a journal.
Once the paper is accepted or major revisions are made, update arXiv. The final arXiv version is the journal version but minus any journal-specific formatting.
When the paper is actually published, add the "Journal ref" to the arXiv entry (this updates some data without creating a new version).

How is this done in CS when there is both a conference version and a journal version of the same paper, which nonetheless may be rather different? I know that the journal version is submitted after the conference version, but what is the timeline, and are the papers different versions of the same arXiv entry?


texts: Should you go for computer science if you aren’t interested in it?

texts:
I am from India and am preparing for the JEE exam for admission to engineering colleges in India.
I am very much interested in physics, chemistry, biology, and maths. I am not interested much in computer science. But my family says you can only get a job with BTech in computer science but will not get from BSc in basic sciences. I have done C++ and Java as well before. I just don’t find them as interesting as basic sciences. How should I choose my career in engineering and need to get a job after BTech?
I am very much interested in behaviour of light, cells, electricity, and time.
They also say that from electrical engineering, you can’t get a good job after BTech.
Also, if I understand a concept clearly, I am very good at relating it to real-life examples.


texts: A published paper stole my unpublished results from a science fair

texts:
I'm in junior high, and earlier this year, we had a science fair. My science project was mostly experimental pure math, and came in first overall in our grade.

Today, I was doing some research on a related topic, and came upon a published paper in a moderately respected journal. This paper had the same title as my science fair project, the layout was the same, the method was the same (down to the variable names), and the results were the same. The only thing that had changed was the wording, and the addition of an abstract. I have no idea how the author of this paper even came upon my project, presumably it was published on my school's website for some period of time or one of my teachers sent it out, but I really don't know what to do.

So, I really have two questions. Firstly, what can I do about this, and secondly, it had never occurred to me that my work may be of the quality to publish, so once I do get this situation sorted out, could I possibly think of publishing my results myself?

EDIT: Glad to finally be able to provide an update. Thank you all for the immense response this question received. I took Dr. Clark's advice and started at the level of my school. Apparently, my paper was shared with the local university's algebraic number theory professor, who shared it with his students. From there, even with that professor's help, I've been unable to trace it, but I'm almost sure that's how it got out.

A very long time ago I emailed the journal, simply making them aware of the situation and stating I have proof if it's needed, and got no reply. About two months ago, the paper mysteriously disappeared from the journal. And around that time, too, I got an opportunity to submit my paper to a state-wide high school competition. I just found out this Saturday that I won, and will be having my paper published in the state STEM journal. Again, thank you all for all the incredibly helpful advice. I would be lost without it.


texts:
This is a follow-up question to What does a head of department do?

The University of Waterloo has a document that describes the answer to this question; however the document is rather vague, and it seems to imply that if all the individual heads of departments have their departments in order (which they presumably will most of the time), the dean barely has to do anything. That's at odds with how most deans don't seem to teach/conduct research anymore however. It also seems awkward to be dean unless one is also head of department: the two people would be subordinate to each other depending on situation.


texts: Statistics for how many different authors post on categories of the arXiv

texts:
I would like to know how many different authors have posted something on the different categories of the arXiv. Are there any statistics somewhere about this?

To be precise what I'm looking for:

Astrophysics: 2014 - 92348 authors
High Energy Physics - Lattice: 2014 - 45121 authors

If there are no such statistics, a pointer to a search engine that provides such data for different scientific fields would be a great help.


texts: I am an engineer by qualification. But want to do a PhD in marketing. Is it possible? Or am I day dreaming?

texts:
I wish to get into a PhD program at a US/Canada university in marketing. I have five years experience in international marketing. By qualification, I am an engineer. I graduated from LSU with a masters degree in Electrical Engineering.

I have a little research experience of about 8 months, but that was in electrical engineering.

With this background, will it be possible for me to get into a PhD program in marketing at all? I know what I want to research on, and I am sure I can prepare a decent SOP. But will that be enough? I am targeting fall 2017.


texts: What to do when reviewer wants p-values, but I prefer to use significance stars to prevent clutter in table?

texts:
My regression tables have coefficient estimates, standard errors, and significance stars indicating the range of p-values (e.g. two stars means p < 0.05).

A reviewer wants the exact p-values. I personally think it would make the table more cluttered than it already is, and I have 12 regression tables.

Should I adopt the reviewer's suggestion, simply because they are the ones who will play a big role in determining whether my paper is accepted? Or should I attempt to explain, saying that the p-value can be calculated from the coefficient estimates and standard errors (besides, the significance stars already give a good guide to the p-value?)

=====

Edit: I decided to get rid of the significance stars and insert the p-values. Thanks for the feedback! (Interestingly, the paper was accepted, and the reviewer recommended the paper for acceptance, but they suggested I have both the significance stars and the p-value. But I didn't take their comment)


texts: About to write my PhD thesis and I don't know the basics and fundamentals. I am feeling unworthy of the PhD title. What should I do?

texts: My PhD work is on modeling a 3D printing process using a commercial FEM software. But I am not confident with basics of finite element theory, non linear Finite element analysis to be accurate, which I learnt by self study. My work was mostly application of established models, so I didn’t have to do any numerical work in my research. It's my final year (starting to write my thesis) and I am not happy with my level of expertise. I am freaking out. What do I do? Sad part is I am in 6th year of PhD.


texts: scholarships/fellowships/funding not available to Masters in the US and UK

texts: Is this generally true? If so, how to find those scarce sources of them?


texts: Low undergraduate GPA. Strong research profile. Any chances of getting into the likes of MIT, Caltech, etc?

texts:
I am a final year undergraduate student of Mechanical Engineering from Nepal. I plan to do master's in aerospace engineering (propulsion systems, to be specific) at a prestigious university in the US. With virtually zero scope for aerospace engineering research in our country and little to no guidance from experts, I have been involved in many research projects for years and have already got a number of papers published so far. I hope to add at least three more conference papers to my profile before I apply to any graduate school.
But the problem is that I am going to have a very low CGPA, anywhere between 2.4 - 2.7. I have heard that many schools don't bother to look at anything else in an application when they see a low GPA and reject it straightaway. Does that mean I have no chances at all? I have been working very hard to offset my low GPA and make my resume look better than those of most other applicants.
MIT, for example, recommends a minimum of 3.2 as a guideline. What does that mean for me?
Please respond.


texts: What do I do as a depressed and incompetent TA?

texts:
My mental health is declining and as a result I haven't been a good TA.  For example I let my students out of section early because I was too tired to present some of the material, and I did not understand some of my section notes because another TA prepared them, and I didn't read them in advance.

I also have trouble helping students during office hours, and often ask students to repeat themselves, and I don't do adequate preparation (by reading the solution sets in advance).  I often don't know how to answer questions and I ask the students to collaborate with each other and solicit help from people who have already solved the problem.  I wasn't the best TA to begin with, but now that I'm depressed, I am basically useless, and embarrassingly so.

I feel pretty bad about this and I am also terrified that my students will complain to the professor, who is friends with my advisor.  What should I do?  I haven't told the professor or anyone about my diagnosis (of bipolar disorder).  And I am afraid to talk to the people at the school counseling center, because they might force me to take time off (this happened to me in college), and I can't really do that in grad school without irreparably burning bridges.


texts: Just starting in grad school, I haven't heard from my advisor in three weeks …

texts:
I just started grad school this year. I met with my advisor over three weeks ago, on the first week of school. We talked about the school, she told me a bit about the department and showed me around the office. She also talked to me a bit about putting together an advisory committee, but that's it. It lasted an hour, but we didn't really talk about my research project. She told me to get settled into grad school over the next couple weeks. She did recommend I watch some videos to help me get more familiar on the nature of the project, which I did.

I'm worried I haven't heard from her in so long. She's someone who likes to set up weekly meetings for her students, too. And now I'm worried to email her because she may have been expecting an email like two weeks ago. What do I do? Should I email her? What should I say? I was thinking of mentioning to her that I watched the videos she recommended. I think I'm already making a bad impression in grad school.


texts: My adviser submitted an abstract to a conference that we submitted elsewhere before but changed the authors orders

texts:
About two months ago me and my adviser attended a conference, where he had a talk about my PhD project. For this talk, he submitted an abstract, where I was the first author and he was the second one. Yesterday, accidentally I became aware that he submitted the same abstract for an another conference but just flipped the order of authors. I didn't know that he's going to talk about my PhD project in that conference, but my main concern is that why he flipped the order of authors?! The title and abstract of the talk are the same verbatim as previous conference, so why the order of authors should be flipped?! My guess is that because this conference is much more prestigious than previous one, maybe he wanted to be first author, but that's not fair...

So, my main question is that should I say something or just let it go?


texts: Is it ethical/legal to use the University's resources for a personal project?

texts:
I am currently pursuing a PhD at Technion (Israel). My area of study lies in computational fluid dynamics (CFD), which involves high performance computing. My research requires me to develop/use complex code on large clusters (hundreds of CPUs) made available for me by my university.

I have a few projects (which might one day be monetized) on which I am working on my personal time. One of them involves using code very similar to that I am already using for my research. Is it OK (from an ethical standpoint) for me to use my university's resources (both solvers and actual hardware) for my own projects? Note that I always make sure that these projects do not affect my research, and only work on them once I am ahead of schedule.

Would it be legal for me to do so in the United States? Or can the University be entitled to a piece of the company if it found out I had been using their resources for my projects? Note that the Israeli law system is also based on common law, so I am interested in knowing if it would be legal in the US.

Note that about 70% of the cluster's processors are never used since we are currently understaffed. Also, my own solver would use at most 10% of those unused processors.


texts: What makes good research questions good?

texts:
I am in Computer Science and currently in my proposal phase. For my problem statement, I want to come up with good research questions. However, at the moment I am struggling with the definition of "good" research questions. My professor usually comments that my current questions are not "why" questions, but instead are "yes/no" questions.

Any recommendations what make good research questions good?


texts: Awkward situation with editor several month after submission: advice

texts:
I am observing from some distance the following situation.
Two young mathematicians -- call them A and B -- submitted a paper to a quite strong journal and indicated a much senior colleague C as a possible handling editor. The corresponding author of the paper is A. Several month later C writes to B alone and hints that (s)he might decline the handling because of a conflict of interests. After some astonished requirements from B, C states plainly that the reason is the pending review for the same journal (s)he is awaiting from B. Since, in C's opinion, B is working too slowly on the review, (s)he, C, can't conceive how (s)he will be hurrying the reviewers of B's (and A's!) paper. In C's opinion, this constitutes the conflict of interests.
I have several questions about this situation.

(Definition) Is the trivial fact that C got annoyed by B not corresponding to C's expectations (B gets of course no money for reviewing) sufficient to constitute a conflict of interests?
(Strategy) What are A&B's options concerning their paper? It is pretty clear that B will now finish the review of this not-particularly-nice-to-review (unnecessary long, very heavy, very  technical, not that exciting results) paper for C as the first priority. But will this save their own submission to this journal? C most probably has good memory; (s)he can decline the publication anyway. Would it be better to withdraw the paper right away?
(Ethics) Some details in C's behavior are suspicious. Why didn't (s)he claim the conflict of interests immediately when (s)he got the paper of A&B on the table? At that point, B has been already reviewing the paper for C. Why is C writing only to B? To me, it looks like C is blackmailing B: now C gets from B what (the review) and when (quickly) (s)he wants and frees themselves from all work concerning A&B's paper. This way, C is "punishing" B (and btw A who has nothing to do with this review) for not standing to C's expectations by prohibiting the publication of their really nice result in a really good journal. Am I too paranoid here? Should  A&B write to editor-in-chief?


texts: Is it problematic to not include a reference letter from home institution?

texts:
So I have done an one year exchange program in the US and one summer research project, which give me three letters (I have asked the professors before I leaved there). However, my friend warns me it is bad if none of the three letters is from my home institution. Will the admission committee regard this as something like a red flag?

By the way my home institution isn't that famous. In case it is useful, I want to apply for phd program in (pure) math.


texts: Is it possible to become a research mathematician without lecturing duties? I couldn't find any information on this.


texts: How do you manage to study and have a balance in your life at the same time?

texts:
Over the last couple of years, math and programming have become a big part of my life; I know I’ll pursue a career involving CS and math (most probably machine learning) and usually, my days revolve around these two. Now, I do not have a problem with doing either of those things; in fact, I love doing math and programming. I literally can’t tell you how much I enjoy opening my number theory book and tackle difficult problems for hours, or create a neural network that plays a video game. My main issue is the things I miss - since I go to school, I only have so much free time and most of that time is spent doing math or programming so I don’t get to do anything else. No more exercising, reading books, hanging out with friends, etc. On a normal day, I do around 4 hours of math and programming and the rest of it is taking a shower, eating, just basic things, with no time to do fun stuff. So every now and then, I try reducing that 4 hours but I feel like if I study for less than 4 hours a day at least, I won’t be able to be a top tier data scientist or mathematician.

My question is, how do you manage to study and have a balance in your life at the same time? Is that even possible or do you have to sacrifice one in order to achieve the other?

A couple of things to note:

If it matters, I’m in grade 9.
One of the reasons I feel like I have to study at least 4 hours a day is because there are so many things I’m currently studying - for olympiad: number theory, geometry, and algebra; grade 10 math; competitive programming; and machine learning. I don’t study all of these in one day - I usually only do 3 of these a day but even then, if I spend 80 minutes, that’ll take up 4 hours. So maybe stopping doing one of these things is a good option?


texts: Do bachelor programs in Germany with no Numerus Clausus accept any a level grades?

texts:
I am planning to apply to a bachelor program in Germany with no Numerus Clausus, using my cambridge A-levels.

If I am eligible for a direct admission, does this mean that I can be sure that I will be accepted regardless of my A-levels grades?


texts: Saving handwritten notes for future reference

texts:
I have more than one hundred pages of handwritten notes.

I made these notes while writing different chapters of my PhD dissertation. The notes include summaries of journal articles, my thoughts, suggestions by others and anything that I thought could be potentially useful for my research.

I am wondering what is the best way to organise and store them. Converting them into pdf is one way of doing it but I want to organised them in some way e.g. by chapter, or date or key words.

Is there any program or software that can be useful in this regard?


texts: Is using uncited references in master thesis a good idea?

texts:
Do you think uncited references can add extra value to a master thesis?

If yes, what is the best way to include it in the master thesis? Maybe it can be mixed with the main references or can be listed in the appendix.


texts:
Im currently in the middle of writing my masters thesis and was hoping I could receive some guidance with regard to my literature review.
I currently have discussed two topics in my literature review; 'populism' and 'nationalism' and was wondering if this is okay, or is a literature review meant to focus on one?
Thanks in advance.


texts: Does one page LOR hurt my chance of getting to graduate school

texts:
I recently asked from the professor whom I have done research with him and I also did great in his class for LOR. He agreed to write a positive letter of recommendation for me however when I talked to him further he said his letter is going to be one page double spaced. I am thinking this is really short letter according to some pages in the internet and also a post in this page

How long should letters of recommendation for students be?

Do you think this will hurt my chance of getting into top graduate school in US?


texts: How to cite different chapters of a book in the same paragraph?

texts:
Background: I'm writing a master's thesis with APA citations.

In one paragraph, I cite two unrelated pieces of information that happen to come from different chapters of the same textbook. It's obvious from the chapter titles where in the book the second piece of information is located, but it's not obvious where the first piece is located. For the reader's sake, I'd like to be able to write something like:

  Here's what I'm doing. Here's an interesting fact (Trout, chapter 2, 1946) and this is what it implies in the context of my research. I then fit this interesting model, described by e.g. Trout, chapter 8 (1946).

  References:
  Trout, Kilgore. (1946). Ice-9 and its Applications. Ilium, NY: Slaughterhouse Press.

I've never seen this done before and I couldn't find anything like it in the Purdue OWL APA style guide. Another idea would be to cite each chapter separately, as in:

  Here's what I'm doing. Here's an interesting fact (Trout, 1946a) and this is what it implies in the context of my research. I then fit this interesting model, described by e.g. Trout (1946b).

  References:
  Trout, Kilgore. (1946a). Why ice is nice. In Ice-9 and its Applications. Ilium, NY: Slaughterhouse Press.
  Trout, Kilgore. (1946b). Containment methods. In Ice-9 and its Applications. Ilium, NY: Slaughterhouse Press.

How should I cite this? Is there an established convention for this? Am I worrying too much?


texts: Is it ok to call the professor in this situation?

texts: I had a telephone conversation with a proposed Ph.D. supervisor last Monday and he agreed that he will double-check my research proposal before I submit it. Then I emailed him the proposal. However, I haven't heard from him for a week, so I sent a reminder email to him this Monday. And yet still no feedback from him so far. I know that professors are busy and slow responders, but Christmas is coming and I do not want to miss the deadline. I wonder whether it is ok for me to call him at the same time as last time if I do not get his response before next Monday? Or are there any other solutions in this situation?


texts:
As a Ph.D graduated in mathematics (combinatorial algebra), I would like to apply for jobs in industry such as finance and/or Data science. I have some knowledge on programming but no real-world experience. Do I have any chance to get a job in industry? I looked for industry jobs, in most finance and data mining sector jobs, there exists

  mathematics

as one of the field of studies that students of them can apply for.  My question is about my chance for these types of jobs.


texts: Should I stress highlighted articles in my CV

texts:
Part of my research attracted some attention like:

Nature research highlights
Monthly DOE (Department of Energy, USA) highlights
Institute newsletter (Is also read by other labs)
Editors suggestions on paper (like PRL)

My question is should I mention those in my CV or publications list or not at all, since the former three are not written by me but only about my work and as such not my work to claim.

Background: I'm drafting my CV for a young investigator grant. My overall resume is solid but nothing that keeps you awake at night. Especially empty are the two sections: received grants and won scientific awards.


texts: Does the bad (broad) master's thesis title have significant impact on graduate admissions?

texts:
My Master's Thesis title will be something like "The clinical use of robots for individuals with X disorder" but I was actually researching perception of individuals with X disorder towards robots in a clinical setting. I needed to explain what is the aim of my research so I indeed wrote about clinical use of robots in X, still the title is too broad.

I have two concerns: (1) how bad is the impact of this title on my application for the Doctoral Program, and (2) can I somehow overcome this issue in my CV?

I need to add that my Master's Thesis isn't in English and I am not sure how much I can change my original title in the (English) summary. I tried to change my original title, but I couldn't do it and I don't know if I can somehow overcome this situation in my CV.


texts: Is it reasonable to ask other researchers to send me their previous grant applications?

texts:
My university administration pushes all lecturers to apply to competitive grants from a national science fund. I am new to this and do not know how to start. So I thought to ask my previous advisors, or senior lecturers in my department, who work in related topics, and received such grants in previous years, to send me their past applications to the same fund. This may help me a lot to see how a successful application looks like.

However, I fear that this might be perceived as rudeness, since my application competes with theirs. The fund is very competitive, and if I send a competitive application, it reduces their chance to win a new grant. It's like asking a competitor in a code competition to show me their code..

Is it really considered rude to ask other researchers for their previous grant applications?


texts: How do you answer "Oh, you're a professor? What do you teach?"

texts:
I suspect anybody who's a professor knows this story: you meet someone new in a social setting and it comes up that you're a professor.  The inevitable next question is, "oh, what do you teach?"

It's a perfectly reasonable question, and one simple answer is: well, tell them what you teach!  But the question also implicitly suggests that professors do nothing but teach, and to answer it directly feels like you're only reinforcing that perception.  It also does nothing to steer the conversation toward your other passions, like doing research and writing grants.

Q: How do you answer this question without being rude, while still painting a more representative picture of what a professor actually does?


texts: Manuscript hasn't been sent to peer-review for two months

texts: The status of my manuscript has been "editor invited" for one month, and now a month later, it's still "editor assigned". Should I inquire about the status of the manuscript? The journal stated that it takes 4 months from submission to first decision, but I am unsure what first decision is, and whether it includes desk rejections or not.


texts: How should disallowed collaboration on a freshman homework set be handled by a TA?

texts:
I'm a TA for a freshman calculus class, and I've just finished grading the first homework set.

It's fairly clear that there has been some collaboration going on, which is disallowed in my institution. For instance, a pair of students both put exactly the same (very) incorrect solution to a trig problem, and a group of four whose work is next to each other in the pile (i.e. they sat near each other in recitation) have all made the same (more common) errors.

The course started last week and this was the students' first ever assignment: it was set on the second day of class and due on the fourth day of class.

I'm aware of what I "should" do, i.e. report it to the instructor and let him follow the necessary disciplinary procedures. But is this necessarily the right course of action? It would probably be just as beneficial to these kids' academic integrity in the long run to tell them I'm onto them and never to do it again, as it would be to have them officially disciplined. It's likely that many of these people (should but) don't know the policy on collaboration.

Advice would be greatly appreciated.


texts: How does the family background mentioned in the statement of purpose affect a PhD application for admission in U.S.?

texts:
Suppose there are two students applying for math PhD programs in U.S
Student A mentioned in his  statement of purpose that he was born in a well-educated middle class family with both parents scientists/mathematicians. He chooses to pursue math because he grew up in  excellent family circumstance and his parents told him that "mathematics is the best field because it has an amazing internal consistency and a level of rigor and certainty unmatched by any other intellectual endeavor..."(quoted from Dr. Pete L. Clark)
Student B, however, mentioned in his statement of purpose that he was born in a poor family with bad-tempered, quarrelsome parents who had never gone to colleges. His motivation for pursuing math is that he believes that knowledge changes fate, doing math can help him find peace while his parents are fighting and math research doesn't cost much money.
Given that A and B have similar GPAs, test scores,LoRs, undergraduate institutes, etc., does

A has an advantage over B in graduate admission because he grew up in a well-educated family so that the committee believe that A is more likely to be successful as a research mathematician than B(for instance, A's parents have strong social networks which can help A to be successful in the future) OR
B has an advantage over A in graduate admission because the graduate committee believe that it is much more difficult for B to achieve what he has achieved today so that he has more potential to be successful in math?

A further question is that if an applicant's family background is so unusual(good or bad, like A or B) that it affects one's motivation for pursuing math, is it better to mention it(to increase one's chance of admittance) or not to mention it(just for safe)?


texts: My work is being used without acknowledgement

texts:
So I was helping a friend of mine out with his master thesis, as he had no idea about a specific topic in which I had a few years of industrial experience. However, he had no idea about what I was talking about, so I coded a lot of his solutions for him (this is in the field of signal processing, so the programming part is quite important).

Now I find out that he has directly used my code in his thesis and plans publications with this code, all without acknowledging or crediting my contribution in any way. Talking to him yielded no results, as he is convinced that he is right, and since he edited and rewrote my code he doesn't need to acknowledge me. Is this ethical? Is there anything I can/should do?


texts: Updating a paper on arXiv that was accepted by a non-open access journal

texts:
I have uploaded a paper on ArXiv a few months ago, and then submitted it to a non-open access journal. After appropriate revisions, the paper has been accepted by the journal, and will be published in the future. At the moment I would like to replace the old version of my paper on ArXiv with the current one that has been accepted by the journal. The journal’s guidelines are as follows:

On a noncommercial free-access preprint server such as arXiv:
The right to:

Post the preprint prior to submission and/or acceptance for publication by AIP Publishing.

Post the AM immediately after acceptance by AIP Publishing.

Update with the VOR 12 months after publication.

(An appropriate credit line must be included that references the full citation for the published paper, along with a link to the VOR on AIP Publishing’s site.)

I have a few questions:

What do AM and VOR abbreviations mean?

Where do I add the credit line? On the research paper itself? On the front page at the bottom? Or elsewhere? How can I reference “the full citation for the published paper with a link...” at this stage if it hasn't been published yet?

I appreciate all feedback. Thanks.


texts: How much does the ranking of your Master's program/school matter when applying to PhD programs?

texts:
I'm applying for research-based Masters in Oceanography. So far, I've lined up advisors at University of Massachusetts (an intercampus program), South Florida, Georgia, and New Hampshire.  According to here,they are in top 150 globally for oceanography. Moreover, my current work supervisor says 3/4 are well-known.

I've also been talking to a UCSD prof. He told me he is unsure if he will be taking on students but is more inclined to accept a PhD student (since they'd be with him longer). I would really like to go to UCSD for my PhD.

Will going to a lower ranked MS have a big effect on PhD applications?

What can I do to distinguish myself in PhD application 1.5 or 2 years from now should the MS be low rank?


texts: Problem in finding out the referencing style

texts:
I want to send an article to a Springer journal, but I have problem in understanding the referencing style of the journal. Here is an example of a citation in previous articles of this journal:

  Li, Z., Huang, Y., Liu, G., et al.: Challenges, designs, and
  performances of large-scale open-P2SP content distribution. IEEE
  Trans. Parallel Distrib. Syst. 24(11), 2181–2191 (2013)

Which style is this? It is not similar to Harvard, Vancouver etc.


texts: In the Philippine Grading System, my GWA is 1.6250, is there any chance to know the standing of this grade in the UK GRADING SYSTEM?


texts: I wrote a research paper and just realized that my idea has been published before. Must I cite?

texts:
I work as an engineer in industry. I have been working alone in a project of my firm for four months. In the course of this, I invented a technique which can optimize and reduce considerably the cost for my firm.
The R&D manager said my work is original, he hasn't seen it before. Therefore, my work will be presented to the director of my firm in the committee meeting next month, and he agreed with me that I can publish my work.
Yesterday, when I made some verification of citation sources, I found a thesis, published in December 2016 with the same idea as mine.
I made up this technique on my own, and I have never known this thesis before. But the key idea is already published in the thesis.
I understand now that I can no longer publish my technique. Even if I find my technique is actually more general and seems better than the technique in this thesis, it is not sufficient to publish unless I make more improvement.


texts:
I teach at a small liberal arts college in the midwest, and am two years through a four year tenure clock (I came in with two years of constructive credit).  After my recent pre-tenure review, the Personnel Committee, in their letter to the Dean, recommended an additional pre-tenure review next year.

My question is: is such an additional pre-tenure review likely to be a condition of my employment?  Can I just refuse, and take my chances at the actual tenure review in two years?

NB: I understand that you may think it unwise to refuse the advice of the committee which will then be reading my actual tenure file (with I assume largely the same members).  My question is about the legal matter.  Do they have the legal right to fire me if I refuse to do an additional pre-tenure review?


texts: Is poor English grammar and writing style overlooked in otherwise strong math paper submissions?

texts: Is poor English grammar and writing style overlooked by peer reviewers and editors in otherwise strong math paper submissions?


texts:
I am a microbiologist in the UK with a specialism in Mycology.

I feel that the British Mycological Society is no use and does not offer enough support to mycologists in the UK.

I want to form my own society for Applied Mycologists.

I was wondering what is the protocol for this? If anyone has any experience.


texts: Can I take two consecutive classes simultaneously?

texts:
For example, I would like to take Intermediate Spanish I AND Intermediate Spanish II at the same time.
Can colleges, in general, allow that? If my advisor says to me that they think it cannot be done, how can I insist and persuade them (without any illegal activity obviously)? Where do I see these policies?
This question is about US Colleges in general. Not about my specific college.


texts: Can a supervisor share the research reports of his/her PhD student?

texts:
In responses to the answers given to this question, I asked a question. From the answer to my question, I think the problem is rooted in different interpretations of the original question. Since I cannot speak for the OP, I simplify the case based on a logical interpretation (since my previous question has an answer, I cannot entirely change it, and ask a new question here).

Despite the controversial opinions, almost anyone considered the OP's strategy unreasonable or illegitimate.

Which of the following points is unreasonable or illegitimate?

The supervisor asks his/her PhD student to deliver a progress report every few months.
The supervisor instructs the PhD student to read his/her report in front of webcam instead of writing it on paper.
The supervisor shares the video reports of research projects undergoing in his/her group.

One may consider consent for the last step, but it is not the case, as the OP stated each PhD student initially agreed to the public release of the videos.

As I emphasised before I personally don't approve the OP's strategy, but don't understand what justifies such a strong attack to the OP.

My Understanding

Some people stressed that PhD students might not have the required skills. Since the OP did not mention video making, I interpret the task as "explaining their achievements" in front of the camera only.
Some said activities in the social networks is not the responsibility of the PhD students. Again, the OP said, "we have a youtube channel". Thus, I interpret, s/he edits and uploads the videos.


texts: How can I best approach journals and academics about paying to re-use content from their papers?

texts:
Apologies if this is off-topic - please close away if it is.

I am currently engaged in writing a book. This isn't speculative - I have a commission and an advance and a budget to spend on securing additional things required such as images and photographs. And the subject matter isn't the sort of new-age nonsense academics get occasionally pestered with during their careers.

Although it's not an academic text, one of the chapters is quite academic in nature, and discusses some niche topics in archaeology. I'd really like to secure some photographs of the finds in question: they're easy to track down online.

This question - I'd like to use a figure from a paper; what's the best way to do this? - makes it clear that, as I suspected, I'd need permission (and like to pay a fee) to republish the photos. That's fine, and of course someone deserves remuneration for my profiting from their work.

The trouble I've got is that no-one I've contacted seems the least interested in helping. I've mailed several journal editors and contributors alike, asking for permission and offering to pay, but I've had no responses at all.

I was once a PhD student myself, and I'm aware that many academics are disinterested in such relatively trivial requests. But I don't know what else to do: if I can't secure at least a few photos, the whole book is likely to be cancelled. Who am I best off approaching about this, and how am I best off approaching them to try and generate some interest and engagement?


texts: Group/lab guide for new students and post-docs: what should it contain?

texts:
Large research groups have guides for newcomers, which contain both important information, both high-level and practical, on their new position and the group. I don't have such a large group, but I can see the value in keeping all important information in one central place.

So, if I get to writing such a document, what information should one put in a group guide for new group members?


texts: Respected journal uses only a single reviewer and has a high acceptance rate (>85%); could this be an acceptable practice?

texts:
I have recently noticed a failed case of peer review at The Astrophysical Journal (ApJ). It is a solid journal in which researchers of astrophysics can present good science without worrying about the topic being fashionable (as opposed to, e.g., Nature and Science). The peer-reviewed paper in question was published in ApJ but retracted by the journal within a week after it was reported as a case of plagiarism.

However, the issue I'd like to raise is not about plagiarism but about the review process of the journal. In the aforementioned paper, there are obvious technical errors that do not even pass a basic sanity check. I believe that had it been properly reviewed, the paper could in no way have been accepted in the first place, plagiarized or not.

(For more information, see my comment on Jeffrey Beall's blog post about the incidence of plagiarism. Moreover, my Astronomy SE post contains some technical details. The latter was posed as a question but I'm now sure that my suspiscion---that there are blatant errors in the paper---is well-founded. I had at first shied away from the obvious conclusion just because I have no expertise in astrophysics.)

It is disturbing that the acceptance rate of the journal is very high (between 85--90%) while only a single referee participates in the review process. (ApJ seeks an additional opinion only if the acceptance decision cannot be made without one.) As the low quality of the retracted paper demonstrates, any such a single-reviewer model falls apart when a referee hastily signs off the paper.

This incident seems to show the poor review process of ApJ. Could this be justified simply on the grounds that no better practice is available in the field? Or is this worrysome even after acknowledging that academic customs greatly vary across different fields?


texts: Why is a job interview needed if I am the only suitable candidate for a research-assistant position?

texts:
I have recently applied to a research-assistant position at a university in the European Union. I got admitted into the interview. However, I am the only suitable candidate to this job, as I could see by the official documents.

I have several doubts about this situation:

Why would they want to interview me, if I am the only candidate, and they find me suitable for the job?
What type of questions/discussion in the interview should I expect? It is a fact that I am not facing any competition, so what will the purpose of this interview be?
Is there any chance of not getting the job? I am really interested in the job, and I did not lie about anything on my CV. Can I still be considered not adequate for the position?
Is the interview just a formality? The original job posting says that the evaluation methods are curricular assessment plus interview thereafter.


texts: How to ask a potential postdoc supervisor to give me the postdoc interview results sooner than he planned

texts:
25 Mar 2018
I had a Skype interviewer with a potential postdoc supervisor, and he mentioned that those who passed the first Skype interview will be informed after he interviews all people, which is around 2 weeks prior to a second formal interview held at his institute.

I am in another country and will need 2-3 weeks to apply for a visa to go abroad for the second interview. If I am told the results after he finishes interviewing all people, I am very likely not able to obtain a visa in time for the scheduled second interview.

Could you please give me suggestions on how to write to him about this situation without being rude. Thank you very much!

----20 June 2018
Sevel months have passed! How time flies.
To follow up, I didn't ask him to give the results sooner than he planned.
And I didn't get the job either.

That was my first skype interview, so I didn't have much experience and failed it.
But now, I have received a great offer.


texts: What is an academic's responsibility when a high-level administrator makes false statements to the media?

texts:
In a recent media article on the quality of education and curricular changes at our university (elimination of remedial courses), a high-ranking administrator asserted that no changes to any credit-bearing courses would be made. However, I have an internal memo from this same administrator demanding that new, easier, credit-bearing courses be developed by our department and others, so as to facilitate graduation by the student population in question.

I'm at a large public university in the U.S. I do not yet have tenure. Should I respond to this, perhaps anyonymously?


texts: Citation for trade paperback edition in APA 7

texts:
I've been looking at the online guidance from APA (and others) for how to handle editions of the text other than the first. In particular, using the guidance here: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/book-references

Whole Authored Book
...

Use the copyright date shown on the book’s copyright page as the year of publication in the reference, even if the copyright date is different than the release date.
Include any edition information in parentheses after the title, without italics.

and

Republished Book, with Editor
...

Provide the year of the republication in the main date element of the reference. Provide the year of original publication at the end of the reference in parentheses after the words “Original work published.”
Both publication years appear in the in-text citation, separated with a slash, with the earlier year first.

My question is whether a paperback printing should follow the first form or the second form, or some combination of the two.
Relevant text on the book's title page:

Title of Book
Firstname Author
Publishing House Paperbacks
New York

Relevant text on the book's copyright page:

Publishing House Paperbacks
A Division of Publishing House, Inc.
Copyright (c) 2006 by Firstname Author
First Publishing House trade paperback edition September 2007

Would the proper citation in APA 7 be:
Author, F. (2006). Title of Book (First Publishing House trade paperback ed.). Publishing House Paperbacks.
or:
Author, F. (2007). Title of Book. Publishing House Paperbacks. (Original work published 2006)
or some other combination such as:
Author, F. (2007). Title of Book (First Publishing House trade paperback ed.). Publishing House Paperbacks.


texts: Part III at Cambridge (pure math) through scholarship, and US PhD applications

texts:
In some other questions, it has been noted that for certain programs at Cambridge, such as Part III of the Mathematical Tripos, one will not have had sufficient faculty contact to obtain strong recommendation letters. Additionally, no courses will show up on your transcripts until the end-of-year examinations (is what I have gathered from the answers to the above questions).

Thus, I imagine attending Part III may not significantly strengthen an application. Does attending Part III, such as on a Churchill Scholarship, carry significantly more weight to a graduate admissions committee?


texts: Is it possible for an academic to successfully claim their Google knowledge panel with an institution-hosted webpage and a Google Scholar account?

texts:
Edit: I rewrote the question based on the associated discussion on meta.
Context
Google created a "knowledge panel" about me which appears when my name is searched in Google. It consists mostly of a link to my Google Scholar profile, a couple of my publications and a picture of a person who has the same name as me. I want to replace the erroneous picture so I claimed the panel, and this involves an apparently strict identity verification process.
In particular, this verification process requires the person to prove that they can edit the content of at least two of the profiles which appear in the search results for their name.
Problem
I provided proof that I can edit my professional webpage hosted by my institution and my Google Scholar account, but my claim was rejected (after 3 months). When I asked for clarifications I was told that:

the login screens to your web profiles that you submitted in your verification application did not match with the social web profiles that appear on the first few pages of search results next to your knowledge panel.

I don't understand what this answer means, as my institution-hosted webpage and my Google Scholar scholar profile appear as first and third link in the search results. The issue seems to be about the definition of "social web profiles":

acceptable web profiles on SRP are Facebook, LinkedIn, Soundcloud, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Official website.

This list doesn't even include Google Scholar, although it's the source of the knowledge panel so to me it wouldn't make sense if they don't count it as a valid profile.
This list includes an "official website", but I suspect that they don't accept an institution-hosted webpage since it's harder and less standard to check a proof of ownership.

Of course I contacted Google support, but so far their answer has been disappointingly vague. They were not even able to answer the simple yes/no questions of whether my academic page or my Scholar profile counts as proof.
I assume that a professional webpage and a Scholar account are probably the two most common types of online "profile" for an academic. I've seen a few other academics' knowledge panels, according to my observations these always include at least another social media profile, such as a twitter account. Since Google employees/contractors themselves cannot explain the rules precisely, I suspect that there is some subjectivity involved. This is why I would like to know if any academic succeeded securing control of their knowledge panel without any social media account.
Question
Is it possible for an academic to successfully claim their Google knowledge panel only with an institution-hosted webpage and a Google Scholar account?
If yes, is there an effective way to prove ownership of the institution-hosted webpage?
My experience tends to show that the answer is no, but I want to check because it looks like their criteria are unclear. In other words, I don't know if they apply the same criteria to everyone, that's why it would be useful for me to know if anybody else succeeded in this way. I might also not have provided the kind of proof that they expect for a professional webpage or misunderstood their (vague) instructions, so I would appreciate any tip from fellow academics who went through this process.
Side notes
I don't have a clue why:

They implement a strict verification process for the knowledge panel which depends entirely on the Scholar account that I already own (and didn't have such a verification process).
Their system picks up a random picture instead of the one on my Scholar account.

Thanks to the people who explained the problem with my original question on meta. In this version I tried to target the specific problem that I have as an academic, I hope it's now clear that I'm looking for other academics' experience with this.


texts: Declining an unreasonable request from a superior

texts:
I've been involved in the publication of a volume, as a collaborator. I did all
the typesetting, among plenty of other things. After the publication, a few
authors asked me to send them a PDF of the final version of their article. I
obliged. Some other authors asked the same thing to the scientific editor of the
volume, who in turn asked me to send her the requested PDF files.

I then learned from a third party that the authors who have received their
article put it online on a well-known academic platform, and that there might be
legal issues about this with the publisher. I told the scientific editor about
this and asked her whether I should create new files with a publisher notice or
something. She answered me to "please tell these researchers to wait a bit
before putting their articles online", so that she can examine the issue.

There's no way I'm going to do that. The scientific editor is a well-known
researcher, and these authors are well-established professors. I'm a PhD student
with zero authority, who got paid for doing the kind of menial/boring work
nobody wants to do.

How should I go about this? I'd tempted to just ignore the request and go on
with my life, but I'm not sure this is the best way to proceed. I don't want
to be in bad terms with the editor of the volume.


texts: What is FLA in the Elsevier manuscript submission checklist?

texts:
Elsevier Clinical Biomechanics journal requires the submission of a mandatory checklist along with the manuscript. One of its entries include the following.

  The section heading 'Introduction' should be used for all FLAs.

What is FLA in this context?


texts: What would be my affiliation if I'm a Masters student?

texts: The question title pretty much says it all. I'm now a graduate student pursuing my Masters degree. Will the university I'm enrolled in be my affiliation when writing a paper?


texts: Problems in coping with my PhD Supervisors

texts:
I'm a PhD student at a reputable institute in my country. I joined the group of a supervisor who is good at experimental and not so good in analytical front. I also have a co-supervisor who's good at analytics and numerical stuff. Neither know my research problem well.

Initially I had lot of difficulties in understanding the problem. I was a little slow in understanding the analytics. They told me to do lots of stuff here and there. All of them failed. Now I'm in my third year, supervisors are asking me "Are you really interested in your problem, or do you want to leave the course?".

Leaving course mid-way does not make sense for me. But without getting much help from supervisors and working on my own is manageable. Sometimes I get mentally disturbed by their attitude. How do I cope with these supervisors who talk so crazily and seriously at this point of time?


texts: Using a link as a reference is often problematic as the link might disappear at a future time. However, the content might be of high relevance to the reader, so it might be worthwhile to add it as a reference. Do some publishers offer to host a mirror of webpages used as a reference?


texts: Is it possible to get admission to masters for theoretical physics with a bachelors in electronics engineering?

texts: Can I get into masters for theoretical physics without having a bachelors in physics or maths? I have a bachelors in electronics engineering, and I can get a recommendation from the physics department for the admission.


texts: What is the purpose of the presentations section in the CV?

texts:
I do not understand what exactly I should bring in the presentations section of my CV? In fact, during my Ph.D., I presented my papers at the conferences/workshops and internal presentations in my graduate-school colloquiums. Do I have to mention them in the presentations section or it is mainly about other sorts of presentations?
BTW, I study CS.


texts: Can a conference paper be an extended version of a previous conference paper? Will it face copyright issues?

texts: I am currently reviewing a conference paper, which I found is just extended version of a previous conference paper. I have heard that a journal paper can be a new version of a conference paper with some new stuff added, while the paper I am reviewing is something like this. Would this paper be rejected simply because of the copyright issue?


texts: Should a postdoc talk about his depression with his mentor?

texts:
I am a postdoc in mathematics and I work in the US. Two months ago I was diagnosed with moderate depression. In retrospect, I can  say that I must have starting suffering from it last spring, though I was completely unaware of it at the time. I am currently under treatment, and symptoms are getting better. In particular my work rhythm is back to be  usual. Anyway, I was told that I should continue the treatment for a few other months for safety.

I was wondering whether I should talk about this to my mentor, coauthors or somebody at the department. On one hand, my concern is that they might have realized my slowing down and thought that I was lazy or that I was not interested in doing research on our projects; on the other hand, I am afraid of being stigmatized in the future as a non-reliable person because I had depression.


texts: When applying to a Phd in Physics or Math , do grades in unrelated courses I took have any effect on my admission?

texts:
I'm currently studying (Undergraduate) Physics in a University where, regardless of their department, every student must take some English, Turkish and History courses, which I don't want to attend. Turkish and History courses are non-credit but not English, so it affects my GPA. Moreover, I will take violin, astrophysics and philosophy courses as non-included.

So here is my question: when I am applying for a PhD in Physics or Mathematics, does any of these courses have any effect on my admission?

Note: My main concern is whether having  low grades in English ,which is not a non-credit course, affect my Phd admission ?


texts: While applying for PhD in mathematics, am I better off dropping a course I'm performing poorly in?

texts: I may or may not 'drop' my Point Set Topology course since I performed very poorly in it (also I am partially inclined to 'drop' the course so as to avoid a low GPA ),  but I do not have any idea whether it will be a problem during my PhD application or interview. I want to know how much it matters.


texts: What is the proper way to include a link to a web archiving site in a list of references?

texts:
This is a reference in a list of references presented in Harvard style:

Beard, M. (2003). Non-terrestrial channels overtake BBC1 and ITV1 in ratings for first time. The Independent. [online] Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/non-terrestrial-channels-overtake-bbc1-and-itv1-in-ratings-for-first-time-116550.html [Accessed 18 May 2017].

Here is a perma.cc archival link to that reference:

https://perma.cc/9TR9-WBRG

What is the proper way to incorporate the archival URL into the citation in the list of references?


texts: Appropriateness of prospective PhD supervisor reviewing scholarship application before submission

texts:
I'm currently in the process of writing an application for a PhD scholarship at a British university. The school's system requires a CV (resumé) with attached cover letter, along with a few other documents.

My intended supervisor is someone I've already worked with for my MSc thesis, and he has said that he's willing to proof read and suggest changes for my cover letter, using his knowledge of the university's system and what the interview panels are generally looking for to help word it in such a way to tick the boxes that he anticipates the selection panel will be looking for.

He hasn't shown my cover letter to anyone who will actually be involved in the selection process, and he himself will not be involved in the process in any way, but a part of me is still concerned that such help might be giving me an unfair advantage over other applicants who don't have the same kind of relationship with their prospective supervisor. Is receiving this kind of help OK or not?


texts: Author title for ex-student in research paper

texts:
I have graduated from a Masters program recently. After graduating, my Masters thesis supervisor and myself decided to write a paper based on my dissertation. I have a question about the format in which my name should appear in the paper, given that I am now an ex-student of the university. Is something like below acceptable?

  John Doe, MS in XYZ, University of ABC, Current
  Residential Address, me@gmail.com

Do I need to remove/add anything?


texts: Are letters of recommendation usually meant to be tailored to a specific programme?

texts:
I am hoping to be applying for a PhD programme in the UK in the next few months. I have already asked the appropriate people if they would be up to writing me letters of recommendation and they responded positively and enthusiastically.

Now, I am not fully certain about the exact programmes I'll apply to. I have a few picked out but I'm also looking into a couple others - not really related to my original picks (think research in A vs. research in B by means of A.

Question: should my referees tailor their letters of recommendation to the specific programmes I'll be applying to, or is the convention usually for letters to be more destination-agnostic? Is it ok to ask a letter-writer to make the letter relevant to many degrees or asking for multiple separate letters is the usual practice?


texts:
This is a follow-up question to How are junior professors evaluated for promotion? and probably an even more naive question. If I'm understanding the answer correct, professors need funding to do research, but once they get it, the university takes some of the grant as overheads (to pay for office space, electricity, etc), and the cut the university takes is substantial.

Given that then, why do professors need universities? One could just apply for the grant as per normal, and once one gets it, buy a slightly bigger house and convert one of the rooms into a lab. One loses nothing to overheads, gets to work from home, has zero teaching duties, can choose to settle anywhere (no two-body problem!), and can even monitor an experiment 24/7. This gets even easier if one works in a field that doesn't need a physical lab. Further, presumably the grant covers postdoc salaries, so one would still be able to pay for postdocs (although probably not PhD students since a professor without a university will not be able to award a degree).

The obvious answer is that one cannot apply for a grant without a university, but Google indicates that's not the case, e.g. NSA grants in mathematics only looks at one's previous accomplishments & potential applications of the research result, both of which are independent of the university. I suppose one could lose journal access, but there's always stuff like arXiv / ResearchGate, emailing the authors of the desired paper, or even Scihub (oops). It's conceivable that not working for a university loses one some prestige, since one can no longer claim to be a professor. However even then I'd expect at least some academics to choose this path, valuing the convenience & extra research funding over prestige.

If the answer to this varies from field to field, I'm most interested in the sciences.


texts: How to refer to a method from a workshop in a conference paper?

texts:
I had a paper accepted in a workshop that only publishes its proceedings on its website; one of these workshops that tell you that submitting to the workshop does not prevent you from submitting elsewhere. The paper proposed a new method A, and applied it to problems B and C.

Now, I want to write a conference version of the paper. The conference version will present method A, apply it to problems B and C with extended experiments, and additionally to problem D.

How do I refer/cite the method A in the conference paper? Does the workshop count at all? In my field (CS), I have been told that the workshops do not count. Yet, it feels wrong to call it a novel method. Is the method A contribution of the conference paper or not?


texts: Independent publishing of paper resulting from a project

texts:
[To clarify I am in an European university, have never published anything]

As part of my Masters curriculum in Electrical Engineering I had to do a research project during the semester along with the lectures. This is intended as a hands on methodology in investigation and research in general.
The project turned out to be pretty great (got the highest grade possible), and my supervisor (a PostDoc student at my university) and I were very happy with the results.

I did not consider it at the moment (or get it proposed by my supervisor), but with some formatting I think it should be at least good enough to be sent to some journals/publications.

Here are were my questions, considering I am not considering to get for a PhD after my Masters is done:

1) Since the project finished my supervisor ended his PostDoc and left the university. I don't have any contact info from him, and haven't found any from a quick Google search.

Question: should I contact my supervisor to publish along with him?

The ideas and theoretical proposal came from him. He did assist and help me during the project, but I did all the implementation and writing of the projects paper.

2) Not knowing what I am doing after graduation, I think there is little chance I pursue a PhD.

Question: should I be trying to get it published altogether or ditch the idea?

I think that even if I do not continue in academia, it is helpful for later on applying to certain industry jobs. I also would like to share the ideas and findings, since I think the work was well-structured and investigated interesting ideas.

3) As mentioned, I never published before, so I don't know the procedure, the jounals where I should aim, etc.
The field was Systems Biology, which is not technically my area, but the project dealt mostly with modelling, simulation (MATLAB), etc. (I followed a Control / Robotics heavy program)

Question: if 2) applies, where should I try to send my work?

Any help, ideas or similar experiencies would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!


texts: How to reference the official oracle documentation?

texts:
I would like to reference some material from the official Oracle documentation for my bachelor thesis. The piece of documentation I want to include is giving information about data types. The problem I have is that I didn't find any information about the author, address, year, etc.

How do I reference that then? Or does anybody of you found some information about a specific author, year, etc. ?


texts: How important is it to tailor personal statements to different departments, in mathematics?

texts:
I'm applying to math graduate programs at the moment. How important is it to tailor the personal statement to the different departments to which I'm applying?

It is difficult to understand precisely what someone researches (outside of broad categories such as "geometric analysis" and "higher category theory") as well as get a sense of the department. Should I try to indicate who I would like to work with and why I would like the department even if I have only a shallow knowledge of it?


texts: Can I get a letter of recommendation from a professor who didn't teach me BUT I did research with?

texts:
I am an undergraduate student wanting to transfer to another institution for undergraduate studies. I am a research assistant for a professor at an institution that I do not attend.

Would the university which I which to transfer to, accept the recommendation letter from this professor? Again, I have not taken any courses with this professor, nor go to the institution where he teaches.

Related (except for Graduate Admissions): Copied Letter of Recommendation?


texts: Is it fine to use a startup as an affiliation?

texts:
My situation: I have finished university more than 10 years ago. I work for company X. I also own a small startup company called Y (no employees). I am in the process of publishing a paper and I was asked to provide an affiliation. Not providing one is not an option, in the sense it's a mandatory field on the form. I asked X and X said no, as I worked on the paper in my spare time.

Does it make sense to use Y as my affiliation (which is 100% true though not necessarily relevant)? The other option would be to try with something like "Independent researcher" and hope the journal is fine with it (idea came from here; example).

Relevant questions:

Does one need to be affiliated with a university to publish papers?
Using home address when submitting an article with no affiliation?


texts: How do I response "accept (minor edits)" without suggestions? (IEEE ACCESS)

texts:
I just received a decision letter from IEEE ACCESS. The recommendation of reviewer1 is "Accept (minor edits)" and the recommendation of reviewer2 is "Reject (update and resubmit encouraged)".

While reviewer1 did not give any suggestions need to be revised. Did I need to respond to him in the "response document"?

Thank you.


texts: Working in industry before pursuing a PhD in a different field

texts:
I am an undergraduate student in mechanical engineering and would like to pursue my graduate studies in computational Physics in UK/US. The two subjects only align with respect to the 'computational' aspect, otherwise, they are pretty different. I have some relevant research in Physics.
But before applying for graduate schools, I'll have to work in the industry for a few years for financial reasons. My work in the industry will most likely be related to mechanical engineering,  such as structural analysis or aerospace engineering or with some luck, computational work.
How will working in the industry, say for 2-3 years in mechanical engineering, affect my graduate school application for Physics? Will it be a major disadvantage? If yes, is there anything I can do to counter that?


texts: Are there widely accepted rules related to union officers being on faculty senate?

texts:
The faculty senate at my school recently took a position on a professional issue that was highly confrontational toward the administration. After union negotiations resulted in a pay raise, the senate reversed itself on this issue. It was later revealed that the original position had been advocated by the union as a way of applying pressure in contract negotiations. Some but not all members of the faculty senate knew about the union's advocacy of the action. There was no direct or logical connection between the professional matter (the hiring of a vice chancellor) and the contract negotiations. A large number of union officers are also on the senate.

Do other schools have rules or standards of ethical conduct that cover this type of conflict of interest? Is it considered normal for there to be so much overlap between the union leadership and the senate, or for the senate to act so closely in concert with the union as part of labor negotiations?


texts: How to sort issues over authorship in my manuscript with PhD supervisor?

texts:
After two years of extreme hard work I managed to finish my first manuscript. In my department there is a trend that if a professor has some collaboration with other people in any project then their name would appear in the publication originating from that collaboration... to which I totally agree, but the second part of this unsaid rule is that if no publication originated from this collaborative effort, then in that scenario the name of the collaborator still ends up in the publication from any other project of the same Professor.

So the problem here is that my supervisor has a collaborator who has nothing to do with my project but since he is a collaborator of my supervisor and their collaborative project was not fruitful, hence to appreciate the effort of this collaborator my supervisor is forcing me to put his name in my manuscript. Though I don't agree with this policy, I don't know how to solve this issue as I do not want to fight with my supervisor either nor do I want the name of this person on my manuscript. Please suggest what I could do in this situation?


texts: What is the procedure with regard to unfinished thesis if I am terminated from the program?

texts:
I am an international student and was enrolled in a PhD program for the last 4 years. My GPA is above 3.8.

I was recently given a termination letter(without any warnings) from my department regarding my PhD program. Apparently my termination is because I missed a deadline for an article submission. I am surprised as I was not given probation for even one semester before termination. It could be because in the last 6 months my progress on my thesis was slow because I was busy with a few personal commitments.
i was getting married and had a couple of unexpected deaths in the family.

EDIT: "The deadline I missed first was a mutually set one to review the final draft of an article to publish. I missed it by more than 10 days as I had a death in the family. I sent the final edition of the draft 5 days before actual submission date for the journal. But got no response. I missed the submission date as I had no feedback from him."

I am in the last year and finishing my data analysis. I was outside the US for my research and my I-20 expired last week and now I am stranded outside the US.
As it is the summer vacation, the staff and my adviser are unavailable on the phone.
I got a reply to my emails as follows:
For the i-20, since you are currently no longer in the program. I cannot complete a graduate student program extension form for you.
I wish it had turned out better for you. I am available at any time to talk.

But the office line is still under answered. I don't have any other number. I have emailed him asking for a time and number I can contact him.
Weirdly got an email today saying let's talk on 17th June. The other members havnt responded.
An old student of the my advisor told me something similar has happened before where a student was told to look for another advisor by my advisor. But she was in her first year. It was because he felt the performance wasn't up to the mark. It was also very unexpected as he was always very cordial with her too in team meetings and department meeting. The girl took up another professor and completed her PhD.

What options do I have?

Should I wait to get back in contact with my department or should I look for other universities and programs?

What happens to the data I have collected? As I was outside the USA during the data collection, I was not given any stipend while I collected the data. Do I have rights on my data or does my adviser or does the department? The data is in audio format collected by me using a set of guidelines created by me but approved by my adviser.

I might be getting ahead of myself, but I am, to say the least, feeling panicked right now.

UPDATE Jan 2020: The advisor never explained properly, but 5 years down the line I understand what happened. My advisor wanted to leave the institute. I believe his contract/commitment made it impossible to do so while I was a student there. He did write me glowing recommendation and helped me secure a good institute in my own country. Due to the setback and credits not transferring, I had to "sit" through some courses but I will be defending my PhD this year. In the mean time I have written chapters and articles with my new and my old advisor. The old advisor runs his own research institute. The data is mine to use without issue.

I do not like being in the dark and my life partner helped me live through those times. What I will say is that power dynamics for an international student make the advisor more powerful than should be. And without an option I had to spend more time than I should have to complete an already long PhD.

Thanks for all the responses. As you can tell I opened this account and have worded everything to ensure that there is anonymity for all involved. The advisor is highly regarded in my field and his willingness to work with me is a disincentive to reveal/smear his name. Now that he has a private research institute without any international students, I hope the same will not be repeated with others.


texts: Is it a bad idea to express my personal feelings about the subject when writing email to a professor for PhD application?

texts:
I'm looking for PhD positions and I just recently came across an option in Germany. This team is working on a subject that is very really truly interesting for me. I want to write to the head of the team to express my interest and ask if there is a chance for me to do my PhD in their team.

Now here is the issue: Should I mention the fact that what they are doing is my dream? In all honesty, I like my current field and what they are doing is where my field and my dream intersect. But should I express this fact?

I'm afraid if I mention that this program is my dream PhD it will be interpreted as a gesture of hypocrisy, while at the same time I think it is important to emphasis on my passion for the subject.

If adding my feelings regarding the field of research is not a bad practice, how far should go with it? It would be great if you support your answers with some examples.

P.S. To add to the dilemma, they have just won a very big grant and this increases the fear of wrong interpretation of my statements.


texts: Potential advisor asking which other programs I got into, but I haven't gotten into any others?

texts: I was recently accepted into a graduate school in my field, but I haven't heard from any of the other PhD programs I applied to (and am assuming that they're all rejections/waitlists if I haven't been contacted by now. In e-mails with a potential advisor at the school I was accepted to, he asked which other schools I was admitted to since graduate schools of a certain tier generally accept the same group of students. How do I tell her that I haven't been accepted to any other groups (only MS programs) and do I tell her this at all? I don't want her to feel like she was the only person to make a mistake by accepting me.


texts: Part of my function is to head the committee that ultimately oversees the system of rules used in faculty governance.  I was wondering if anyone had experienced a governance system that was particularly effective in giving faculty time to consider upcoming issues and in amending or altering committee driven work in an effective manner?  I am wanting to increase the amount of deliberation external to committees, without slowing the process down significantly.  Still, I am looking for someone who has experienced a very effective rules structure or communication structure and who could share it.  We are a small private institution, but we are surprisingly formal in governance.


texts: Is it acceptable to reference equations in a thesis instead of writing them out?

texts:
I am writing a technical report for my Bachelors degree in Computer science. When writing the background section I noticed that, for one specific topic, there will be a whole lot of equations. After describing some mathematical models and the flow of data between different nodes and such, would it normally in a thesis be OK to reference the equations to a book? The reason for even asking this is that if I were to give the equations in my own report, it would basically just be copying them straight out of the pages where the author of a specific book has collected them.

I am not asking about plagiarism. As I would reference to the book correctly, I assume that would not be a problem. But I am wondering if this would be considered OK, or is it "lazy", or something like that.

The models themselves are central to my work, but the instructions for the background part we've been given at my university are to provide basic knowledge. Therefore I think that the equations may be unnecessary to include.

Also, I am aware that I should speak to my supervisor about this, but he is on vacation and I am trying to work diligently. Of course I could just write the equations anyway, and maybe add a bit of explanation as well, and if it turns out to be redundant I can just remove it.


texts: which option should i prefer Thesis vs Non-thesis for MS in CS?

texts: I've got admission for MS in Computer Science in a US university. Which option is better Non-thesis or thesis ? How do I decide which one I should take ?


texts: At which point in your PhD should you feel like you're in the edge of human knowledge/ know exactly what is your contribution?

texts:
I am a first semester PhD student. The standard time for finishing a PhD is 3 to 5 years in the part of the world I'm in. I have to defend a thesis proposal or project by the end of the second year. I have changed my area of research since my master's, so I only have conference papers in my current field.

I feel like my research proposal was a little open, a bit too general. I have an idea of where the current state of the art is in my field (let's say I read a few tens of articles in my field to write my proposal). However, i don't think I "am" at the state of the art. My coursework, experiment planning and helping the research group in other tasks are taking a lot of time, and I haven't evolved much on this for the first 3 months.

How far in the PhD should I be when (in parentheses when I think I can manage to accomplish these phases):

I am able to understand to a very detailed degree state of the art work (15 months)?
I am able to reproduce state of the art results with my models (18 months)?
I publish in a journal something related to my work (21 months)?
I know very well where I intend to "push" the boundary of knowledge in my field and the methods I will use for that (24 months)?


texts: Our school is publishing an academic journal soon. It will be printed annually.  How do we label it – should we use the term volume or issue?  What is the difference?


texts: Got caught for similar answers on an assignment

texts:
So recently my professor reported me and my colleague for cheating and reported both of us to the Board. We haven't heard from them yet, its been a week.

This was a class assignment for a masters course and it accounts for 15% of the grade. The plagiarism is about 30 - 35%.

Now, I've already apologised to the Prof saying that I had asked my colleague to help me because I was going to personal issues due to COVID as an international student. He has not replied to that email yet.

What can I expect next?

I'm really scared and I'm not sure what is going to happen. I'm already stressed about staying away from home during this crisis and now this.


texts: If I am going for a second masters and my previous GRE score is expired, do I have to take the GRE again?

texts: I am already done with my masters but I want to go back to school for another one. The only thing is that I got my masters 9 years ago. I know GRE is only valid for 5 years. Since I already done with one masters, would I be required to take the GRE again if I want to go for another one?


texts: To what degree does earning a pure math PhD in dynamical systems limit my career options outside of academia

texts:
I am a 2nd year math PhD student. If one specializes in pure math (say dynamical systems with no particular real-world application in mind), how difficult can it be to transition into industry after the PhD? What are measures one can take to make this a smooth transition? I am not particularly interested in applied math at the moment, but I'm not too optimistic about the future of the pure mathematician (unless he/she solves some Millennium Prize Problem!!). I would like to think that I have the option of switching from academia to industry if I had to. I am haunted by words of one of my undergrad math professors: "No one should major in pure math. You major in applied math and you continue to study pure math if you're interested in it."

I have a M.A. in math, and my thesis was concerned with estimating the fractal dimension of sets arising in dynamical systems. My ideal profession with a PhD in math would be to teach and to do research. My research need not be limited to pure math.


texts: How to cite a paper as shortened first author name and year [Ste2002]?

texts:
The way I'd like to cite papers in my work is 3 characters of the last name of the first author + year of publication without spaces, 'et al.' and comas.
I'd like to use Citavi, as it has convenient Word add-on, but I haven't found how to shorten last names there so far. After all, if it is possible in another program, I will give it a try.

Such citing style was chosen to enhance reading experience, as reader can relate to the cited paper much easily by the last name and the year of publication and trace it throughout the document. This style is yet shorter, than patterns officially available in Citavi.


texts:
I am taking an Introduction to Differential Equations class. There is assigned homework. It is specified that we must turn it in on paper.

Is it wrong or odd to use LaTeX and turn it in as computer generated instead of handwritten? I am in fact using a computer to do the assignment so it would be extra work to write it on paper.


texts: Who to ask to write letter of recommendation: the professor who knows me better or the one that gave me a better grade?

texts:
I have a question in regard to choice of recommenders.

I'm applying to my dream school and I want to make the best choice for my LOR. I have two recommenders, one is a professor and he doesn't really know me, but I got an A in his class. Another one is a faculty, he knows me better than the other one, and he asked me a lot of questions in detail before writing the letter, but I only got a B in his class.

Which one should I choose to have him write me an LOR that's going to my dream school?

PS. I asked them both because I wasn't sure which one would be willing to write me the letter, but I only need one letter.


texts: Should I include journalistic articles in my CV?

texts:
I have written a couple of articles for two different daily newspapers. In them, I have discussed the issues of my academic field. Should I include these articles in my CV?

If so, under what title? Is press release appropriate? What is the most common and accepted term?