texts: How can I politely request that an authority figure respected protocol?

texts:
I am in a postgraduate program, part of which is to do an internship at an organization or school recommended by the program, mostly by observing a class or by shadowing a professor at his job.

There is a requirement of a two-week internship. After that the school or organization is supposed to sign a form that the student has, in fact, fulfilled their internship obligation.

I have already started my internship in one of the locations but I have only gone twice. I am supposed to go at least eight more times.

I am in weekly contact with the person I'm "shadowing", about the day and time of my internship.

Problem:

This program is, as it turned out, a cash cow for the specific University and some of the faculty. There are way too many students and not enough places to intern so I assume this is why some professors/schools are willing to say that the student has completed their ten-day internship requirement even if they haven't. The director of the program knows about it and is aware or even encourages that it be done this way.

During the last communication I had with the professor I'm shadowing, she asked me to bring the form so that "you finish up slowly".

I have a feeling she'll say something like "There is a huge waiting list..." and that I can't do the ten days but she'll sign the form anyway.

If this happens, I would like to stand my ground and ask that I do the full ten days as required, even if it means doing it at random days and times or stretching it until I'm done with the program itself.

My main argument is that I am there to learn and I can't learn much by doing a three-day internship. I'm sure she knows but I still want to be able to kindly demand that she respected protocol so that I gain as much experience as I can in the field. I'm paying them anyway. They aren't paying me.

How can I best achieve my goal, if she insists on the waiting list and tries to rush me?


texts: Asking a question in SE might be considered a breach of anonymity?

texts:
I find the SE sites, especially Math.SE, MathOverflow and CompSci.SE, extremely useful for solving specific problems I encounter during my research. But I have one concern: if I ask a question in an SE site, and then describe the same question in a paper (whether I got an answer or not), then this might be considered a breach of the anonimity requirement, because, one of the reviewers might be a member in one of these sites, see my question and know that I am an author of that paper.

Is it possible that my paper will be rejected because some parts of it were published as questions on the web?


texts: I'm an invited speaker. Can I send a coauthor in my place?

texts: I was invited to give a talk at an upcoming conference. The abstract has myself and two other authors listed. Is it unreasonable for me to back out of the presentation (they were only paying for the hotel, food and conference registration fees and not flight) and have a co-author do it? The reason for me backing out would be over extending myself due to a combination of poor planning on my part and some luck on grant pre-proposals.


texts: How much time should I spend to prepare to teach a class?

texts:
In the last few years,
I've taught a course which was developed by my colleagues.
The first year, I spent about 6 hours a week
preparing for a 3-hour lecture.

I'm currently teaching a course for the first time.
I find that I'm spending about 15 hours a week
preparing for a 1-hour lecture + 2-hour lab.
In addition, the course material is often floating around in my brain
even when I'm not actively preparing for the course.
I feel like I'm spending too much time and energy preparing for classes
and this is hurting my research productivity.

I'm looking for rules of thumb about how much time is "normal"
to spend to prepare to teach a class.

Question: What is a reasonable amount of time to spend preparing to teach a class?


texts: How to interpret a postdoc rejection letter?

texts:
Few days ago I appeared in a postdoc interview. The PI was very much impressed with my resume and the interview went very well. The PI asked me when do you want to join. The next day he asked recommendation letters from two of my references (I am sure that they will give me a very good recommendation). After 2 weeks I got the rejection letter. How to interpret this rejection (he told me that the position is filled by some other candidate). This will be useful for my future postdoc endeavors.

I politely asked him the reason. He did not reply.

Thanks in advance. Sorry if this question is inappropriate.


texts: Can the peer-review process be "emulated" in class?

texts:
For graduate students such as Masters by coursework students who may not really pass through the rigour of research, is it possible to have them review the write-ups (e.g articles for assignment) of their peers? Of course, it would be highly sought that the review is of good quality and anonymous. A single round of review may also be acceptable.

Edit: Based on Nate Eldredge's comment which affirms the possibility of peer-review using learning management systems. I would like to know how the quality of the review could be improved. For instance, in conventional peer-review systems, the editor tends to trust the level of expertise of the reviewer. This may bring some challenges in this case. How can this be properly dealt with. Also, do we have free learning management tools to implement this system?


texts: Can I use my master's degree thesis as a Research Project Proposal for a phd application?

texts: Can I use my master's degree thesis (a pilot study not published) as a Research Project Proposal for a PhD application?


texts:
Lately, I have scored 165 in Quantitative Reasoning part of the GRE. The schools I consider applying requires scores that fall above the 90th percentile. with 165 Quant score, I am just at the 90th percentile. (just for a background, very good GPA (almost in %1 of my cohort), good academic references, a related job experience etc.)

There is no time to retake it, as the funding deadlines for graduate schools are approaching and I need to use this score to be evaluated for scholarships.
If I have another GRE test immediately, the results will only be helpful for being assessed without scholarships as the funding deadline will be already passed at that time.

However, I wonder what is the difference between a 165 Quant score or 167-68 band? The graduate schools need it from different nationalities than they are, especially to compare candidates. However, do you think higher GPA, good recommendation letters are as crucial as GRE?

I would be quite sad if I am not admitted to the schools I want just because of this low Quant score. Is it really to low?

Btw: department: Economics.


texts: One of the coauthors withdraws their authorship after submitting a paper

texts:
Is there a problem to change (reduce) list of authors of a paper after it has been submitted to a journal? I am one of the (ten) co-authors of this paper. After the review and changes we made in the paper, one of the coauthors withdrew as a co-author of this paper.

Is this OK? What is the procedure in such cases?


texts: Where and how to publish research paper as a non-academic independent researcher

texts:
I am an independent researcher with out a PhD and because of my curiosity in science in my free time I carries out some minor experiments. Using those experimental data I wrote a paper and I want to publish it as a research article.

My first question; Is there any journal available where an independent researcher can publish his/her work?

As I believe no such journals are available I thought of sending my articles to other peer reviewed journals?

But the problem is how will I address my author information

In this paper author information is given like this

Nora D. Volkow,1,2 Gene-Jack Wang,3 Joanna S. Fowler,3 and Dardo Tomasi2

1National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892
2National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892
3Medical Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973
Nora D. Volkow: vog.hin.adin@woklovn

As I am an independent researcher who is not working in the similar field of my research work, how should I give my author information?

Do I give my current employment details as author information

Eka,
Supervisor,
XYZ company

or my last school details

Eka,
University of Earth


texts: Why forbid previous employers as references?

texts:
Very rarely I have seen in faculty job application forms:

Please list below names, addresses, and telephone numbers of references. Do not list the names of relatives or previous employers.

Why would a search committee not want the previous employer as a reference?


texts: Master thesis possibly does not work out as expected

texts:
I'm currently working on my CS masters thesis. The timeline is set up to 5 months with developing the software and writing the thesis itself. My supervisors and me had a nice idea that would (if it were implemented successfully) be a great contribution to a currently running research project of one of the supervisors.

I started out with checking whether the first of the two main problems of the thesis would work at all (I implemented that part of the software, it worked and so we were fine with that). After that, we felt confident to finally and officially register the thesis, so that eventually, with that day, those 5 months of officialy working on it started.

Today, 2.5 months later, I'm stuck with the second part of the problem. Since starting to work on that two months ago this one great problem was cut down into many smaller ones of which a few are solved, others aren't.

Those few unsolved problems are a major issue now. On the whole, our "great idea" with which we started works under the condition that those few unsolved problems would some day work, but currently I feel

that some of the unsolved problems can't be worked out in the remaining time
few of them I might not be able to solve at all - literature on them is very rare or non existend; I suppose we're the first people to try to accomplish that fuctionality with these tools

In conclusion I currently don't believe that the whole "great idea" we initially had can be put into software within the time horizon of my thesis (or at all).

The questions now are:

I think I need 6 weeks (more likely 8 weeks) for writing the text of the thesis, so my time is running and I fear I cannot finally and certainly find out which of the remaining problems can be solved; What to do (and write) in that case in my thesis?
I think my supervisors expected this whole thing to work out, being implement in code. I fear I'll not satisfy that expectation. What to do about them telling me I could have done better, worked more, harder?


texts: If I am willing to relocate, is it true that Pure Functional Analyst very hard to land a tenure-track faculty position?

texts:
Background: Currently I am a first year PhD student in Mathematics in Singapore, doing functional analysis (doing theoretical stuff, not on PDE).

My hope is to get a tenure-track assistant professorship somewhere and I am willing to relocate.
However, a lot of my friends told me that even though I do not have any geographic concern, it is still very hard for Pure Maths to land a tenure-track position as competition is very stiff, so I might have a better life if I venture into industry.

With this in mind, I browse through mathjobs to get a sense of current market on post-doc and tenure-track position.
I notice that there are 300+ tenured-tenure track faculty positions and 100+ post-doc positions (of course, not all positions are for analysis).

Above figures makes me wonder whether what my friends told me is true.
Particularly,

  Question: Given that I am willing to relocate, is it true that Pure Functional Analyst very hard to land a tenure-track faculty position?


texts: Is it common for supervisors to approach their student and ask to work on publishing the student's masters thesis?

texts: My supervisor emailed me asking if he can work on trying to publish my masters thesis, with me being the first author. I have said yes, is it common for supervisors to approach students asking to publish students research?


texts:
I've got 2 interview offers for a PhD application from 2 different professors (say A and B). Prof.A contacted me regarding the application in mid Sept. and informed me that he'd conduct an interview in mid. Oct while Prof. B contacted me a few days ago and informed that he'd conduct an interview next week.

While talking with Prof. B (via Email) today, I somehow happened to mention about Prof. A and an interview offer from him. So, Prof. B stated that he'd not be able to conduct an interview with me and informed me that I would have to go with either of the professors for an interview.

I don't want to blow my chance for an interview with Prof. B since it'd be extremely risky to just wait for an interview with Prof. A, as the result of an interview with Prof. A is not assured.

I may be chasing two hares at a time here, but I don't want to take any risks here unless they are unavoidable. So, what am I to do now?

P.S.: I've not yet contacted Prof. A regarding my situation yet.


texts:
I am wondering how can I split my research into two or more research article.
I heard that there's a type of papers that called revisiting which basically relies on previous work with some enhancements.

The question is what's the structure for the revisiting paper and what's the structure for the revised paper and what are the differences between them.


texts: How to decide if an advisor should be considered as a co-author of a paper or not?

texts:
I’m a PhD student working in CS. My advisor does not understand the subject I’m working on as it’s a bit off-topic compared to the topics addressed in the lab. He does get the main idea, but does not have enough technical background to input valuable comments that could contribute to the project.
Plus, he does not seem to be that much interested in the topic: I barely see him, and he does not write any papers with me. He rather waits for me to finish the paper, then reads it lazily and comes up with one or two typos and advice about putting figures in a box and such. Quite disappointing and not the kind of contributions I’d expect from a co-author!

The first time I submitted this paper, I put him as a co-author hoping that it would get him to at least try to grasp some of the technical subtleties.
Unfortunately, that didn't work.
The paper got rejected eventually and I am now working on a new improved version. But I’m considering authoring it solo this time. When I hinted at it, my advisor told me that he pays for my PhD, and that my work belongs to his institution. So this is supposedly why he should be a co-author of this paper.

Do you have any thoughts or advice about what to do? I'd also like to know if this is common in CS: Advisors neither participating in the research nor writing papers with students?


texts: How much say does an associate professor have in accepting a foreign intern into his lab?

texts:
Let's say the professor had a lecture abroad and met a very keen and promising student there. He agreed on giving him a position as a student intern in his research at a university laboratory. It is completely outside of any publicly open positions but the prof seems to be very impressed by the student's smart questions and interest. However, apparently, it's the university who has the final say whether they will officially invite him or not. The university is Japanese. What are the factors upon which they make the decision? And what are the odds they will agree to that?
I am sorry if this question is off. It's torturous not to know if there is any hope or not.


texts:
I am doing a literature review in the medical field, which is as many other fields heavily impacted by publication bias. Is there any standard way to account for it?

When am I e.g. allowed to say that treatment X successfully treat condition Y, despite the fact that a certain amount of studies may have been left unpublished as they did not show statistically significant "positive" results, i.e. that those unpublished studies did not successfully show that treatment X does treat condition Y?

Or shall I just ignore it?


texts: Are overlapping dissertations ethically acceptable?

texts:
Would it be ethical for students working on the same team to include in their Ph.D. theses results arising from joint publications, ending up in different dissertations containing almost identical chapters?

Of course, the students should at least mention that the common chapters are excerpted from a joint publication. However, wouldn't a significant overlap at least indicate that the students have been unable to come up with enough strong and coherent results to make their own independent dissertations?


texts: Is it possible to survive as a researcher being a dispassionate person?

texts:
I heard a lot of tips for (upcoming) researchers by top professors and researchers.
Almost all of them told that passion of a candidate is one of the quality that drives her research life.
All of them told the same fact in different ways. Some says that the element of surprise or shock is necessary in-order to lead research life.
It is true that anticipation/passion/element of surprise etc., may lead to a great research life. But, I am thinking the other way round.
Suppose there is a professor named dispassion. She won't get surprised or excited to the results of great researches of researchers. She is neither passionate nor dispassionate towards research or results. She does it as a routine task without any excitement or surprise.
Is it possible for her to survive as a productive researcher in academics?
Note: Dispassionate here does not refer to the unwillingness towards work. She feels that whatever results that can be obtained by research are normal or ordinary and hence she is not excited or influenced by them. As a lecturer has anxiety, researcher is dispassionate here.


texts: Is it acceptable to decline to review a paper due to lack of familiarity?

texts:
I have recently started my PhD studies. My advisor, as member of a program committee, has delegated a the review of a conference paper to me. This is my second peer review.

Since I have not done research in the area of this paper, I find it very hard to review. Not only does it require much effort for me to grasp the content. First and foremost, I do not think that being able to understand the content of a paper is sufficient for reviewing it. Ideally, reviewing would mean judging the paper for its scientific merit as a peer, considering content, presentation, relevance and relation to other work in the area. Especially the latter aspects I feel unable to judge.

I consider declining to review, but this seems like a drastic step with conflict potential. Certainly, there is an incentive to formally complete the assignment and write a review of little value to the authors, the venue and the scientific community in general. Would it be acceptable or prudent to decline?


texts: Should I submit a conference paper (extended abstract) to this chemical engineering conference?

texts:
The deadline for uploading conference papers (extended abstracts) for presentations at the AICHE conference (http://www.aiche.org/conferences/aiche-annual-meeting/2013) is tonight.  I have already been accepted to present on the basis of my abstracts submitted a while ago.  (I wasn't invited to this conference; it requires registration and submission of material).

I emailed the event organizer and received the reply: "We strongly encourage a paper (synonymous with extended abstract) submission. However, it is not a requirement to present."

I can submit something today, but I would prefer not to.  For one thing, some of the material needs a little more polish.  And for another, I'd rather not reveal research results before the presentation date in November.  I meant to ask my advisor his opinion earlier when I met with him today, but it slipped my mind.  I've just started year two of grad school and this will be my first conference presentation.

Is there a good reason to go ahead and submit anyway?  Having no conference experience, I am not even sure what/who these papers/extended abstracts are for.  Am I skipping something that I really should be doing?

Thanks

EDIT: Checking the online presentations, it appears that most people have not uploaded an extended abstract.  Not sure if that makes a difference...


texts: Can I get a refund if I bought an article that contains a major flaw?

texts: Is it possible to get a refund from a publisher if I bought an article that contains a major flaw (i.e.,one that invalidates the main results or the main conclusions)? Assume the article was bought through one of the main academic publication's paywall.


texts: What is the difference between letter, communication and journal paper?

texts: Scientific literature has items called letters, communications and journal papers. They all seem quite similar in terms of format and content. What are the differences between them?


texts: Statement of Purpose length and bibliography

texts:
If the desired length of a SOP is 1.5-2 pages, is it okay to have an extra page for bibliography? (so that I cite books/papers in the formal way)
Clarification: I mean 2 pages of text, plus 1 page of bibliography.


texts: Should I prepare new homework exercises each year, 20% of the final grade is homework?

texts:
This year I prepare a new course (in programming, but it could be any other course). I spend a lot of effort in creating homework exercises. This is fun, but also very time-consuming.

I wonder if I can use the same exercises next year, when I teach this course again. The main problem is that, once the solutions are out, surely some students next year will be able to get them and copy them. It may be possible to use some automatic plagiarism detection tools, but it is quite difficult and not very reliable.

I believe the copiers will not gain much from copying, since the homework grade is only 20% of the final grade. On the contrary, they will lose since they will be less prepared for the exam, which is 80% of the final grade. My fear is that the temptation to copy will harm these students. So maybe I should create new exercises to avoid the temptation to copy.

On the other hand, the students are grown-ups, if they choose to copy, it is their problem and they should bear the consequences of not knowing the material well enough. Should I work so hard each year, only to protect the copiers from their own faults?


texts: Is a Masters Degree mandatory to gain entrance to a PhD in US

texts:
I have been working as a Research Assistant in a university for 2 years under the supervision of a supervisor who has a doctoral degree.

I have fair knowledge about research and a first class for my Bachelors Degree. I wish to apply for a PhD in United States.

Is it possible to secure a PhD opportunity without a Masters Degree?


texts:
I sent a paper to a top tier journal in science a few weeks ago. I received the feedback from the editor saying he declined to publish/ accept my paper at the moment but if I corrected/ responded to the comments provided by reviewer, he/ she would consider to publish my paper.

I went to paper tracking website only to discover that my paper is classified as "reject and resubmit". Does that mean if I responded/ did everything suggested by reviewer, there'll be high possibility my paper will be outright rejected?

The comments from reviewer was not that harsh, but I wonder whether I'll be wasting my time if I went back to the lab and did what he said. I only have 2 months to respond.

Also, what is the difference between "reject and resubmit" and "major revision required"? This is my first submission and I'm confused.

Hope anyone can enlighten me.


texts: In my graduate application, should I briefly mention a family issue?

texts:
Last summer I wasn't able to get much research done due to a complicated issue in my family which cost me a lot of time and emotional attention. Since it was not simply that I was sad and lazy for an entire summer, but that I was actively helping with an urgent issue in my family, I feel like it may help to briefly - in a sentence or two - explain what caused the setback and why I have grown from the experience. However, I don't know how harshly admissions committees will critique this "excuse".

Is it generally better to write about it, or to ignore it altogether? I'm asking this because I don't want to seem like I'm trying to hide a potential setback in my application, but I also don't want to shoot my own foot by rescuing what was never in danger in the first place.

I am applying for physics PhD programs in the US.


texts: What is the benefit of 'voluntary page charges'?

texts:
There are quite a few journals which ask for voluntary page charges. Some may do for the whole journal and most for the first couple of pages.

Take IEEE Transactions on Forensics and Security for example.

  Voluntary Page Charges. Upon acceptance of a manuscript for
  publication, the author(s) or his/her/their company or institution
  will be asked to pay a charge of $110 per page to cover part of the
  cost of publication of the first ten pages that comprise the standard
  length (two pages, in the case of Correspondences).

  Mandatory Page Charges. The author(s) or his/her/their company or
  institution will be billed $220 per each page in excess of the first
  ten published pages for regular papers. [...]

Surely $110/page is not a charitable amount for an average author. What is the benefit the author/institution receive for agreeing to pay these voluntary charges?


texts: Are you supposed to come up with a thesis problem on your own in math?

texts:
It seems like every other graduate student I know is working on some problem that their advisor has suggested, and I've just been spending a year reading papers and trying to think of a problem for myself. Is something wrong here? Are you supposed to come up with a thesis problem on your own?

I am only looking for answers which are specific to pure math. I have friends in compsci and various sciences, and their research lives are not similar to mine at all.

Individual background:

I am interested in an area of math which has a similar flavor to the one that my advisor works in, but is quite different. My advisor thinks that this area is a good one to work in and knows of some of the major results, but doesn't know any of the details of the proofs or what people are working on now. I am finding it very hard to come up with good problems on my own. I can come up with ideas for problems, but I cannot judge whether they are interesting to other people who work in this area or feasible at all. I also can't tell for sure whether something has been done before, as I have to rely on mathscinet since I am not an expert in my field and do not have experts to talk to. I think these are the things that an advisor should be able to help with, but right now I feel like I'm just all on my own, even though I meet with my advisor frequently to check in. I also feel like I'm getting behind in graduate school because I still haven't found a single problem to work on after two years.


texts: When can a museum be considered an academic institution?

texts: I must admit that although I deeply believe museums, no matter how small, play a very important role in almost any sort of research, proving their scientific character can be sometimes quite awkward. Is there any set of fixed criteria that would allow a museum to be considered as an academic institution if met?


texts: Proportion of journal submissions by developing countries

texts:
Is there any source that details the ratio of journal submissions that come from developing countries to those that come from developed countries?

I see extremely low acceptance rates in my field and wonder about the contribution of developing country submissions to this high rejection rate.

EDIT: Feel free to answer the slightly different question of the ratio that comes from extremely low ranked institutions (e.g. below 1000th in the world).


texts: Is there any referencing style analyzer?

texts:
As different journals and Conference proceedings have different reference styles, it is very much important to quickly identify the specific reference style they prefer.

To do this, is there any reference style analyzer which can analyze a given example reference style and give the name of the style?


texts: Can a prof affect my admission to a highly reputed department even though I don't have the perfect background for that department?

texts:
I am a prospective PhD applicant at a highly reputed department of an Ivy college. I have been in touch with one of the top profs in the department for the last one year and he has been supportive of me. Even though I was rejected last year, he offered me an internship but due to the pandemic it was scrapped.
Now I mailed him highlighting what I have been upto and he mailed me and the grad committee head prof that I would be an idea student in his group and if the head could help me with my application.
I don't have the perfect background for the department but I have an ideal background for his research group.
I am assuming this is a very positive sign... am I reading too much into it?
Edit: He cc'ed the admissions committee head as well as the head of grad admin


texts: What are strategies for handling multiple students visiting office hours?

texts:
Context: I am an assistant professor of mathematics at a small liberal arts college in the US.

I hold a scheduled office hour every weekday, plus additional hours near exams.  Office hours are a significant part of my institution's culture, and they are regularly used by our students.  As such, it is not uncommon for multiple students with entirely different questions to visit at the same time.

I am somewhat unsure about how I should handle this.  If they all have the same question, I can easily work with a small group simultaneously on the white board in my office.  Otherwise, I can only think of the following options:

Work with students on a first-come, first-serve basis.  Move to the second student once finished with the first, then to the third after the second, etc.
Work with students on a first-come, first-serve basis, but only give each student 10-15 minutes before I move to the next one.
Rotate between students, answering a few minutes worth of questions before going to the next student, and eventually circling back.
Tell students that if they want to meet for more than 15 minutes they must make an appointment outside office hours.

Our department has several tables in the hallway, so I usually go with option 3.  That said, this method seems inefficient for the students and can be exhausting for me, so I am wondering if I can do any better.  Most of my own undergraduate professors used option 1, but I really disliked how a single student could consume nearly all of their time.


texts: What to do if following website redesign, an online-only journal no longer lists my paper?

texts: Because of a website redesign, a peer-reviewed, online-only journal no longer lists or provides access to an article I published with them. I have e-mailed the editorial board about the omission; is there anything else I should do while waiting for a response?


texts: Does publishing in multidisciplinary journals undermine perceived work quality or impact?

texts: For example, Heliyon is Elsevier's multidisciplinary journal which I'm considering publishing in. Is publishing in a broad-scope journal such as this one or PLOS necessarily detrimental to one's career or the likelihood of the paper being impactful?


texts: Where can I download a large sample bibliography collection in BibTeX?

texts: I'm developing an application that works with BibTeX files, and I'd like to test it with a large collection produced not by myself, to be sure that the application will handle it correctly and to assess its responsiveness (with large I mean at least a thousand of entries). But I cannot find any such collection available for download, even though there are many resources that provide bibliographies for queries online via html-pages. Does anyone know where I can download a large .bib file? (The topic of the collection is irrelevant.)


texts:
A recent question about reducing stress in oral examinations asserted that

  Oral exams can have various pedagogical benefits in certain circumstances

Based on the reputation of the poster I'm inclined to believe this, but what exactly are these benefits? As an engineer who has never had an oral examination in my academic career (excluding thesis and standard presentations), it's not clear to me what the benefits are. The only intuitive benefit I can think of is for courses where the oral aspect is inherent in the subject matter, such as foreign language or debate. Are there benefits that are more general and not directly tied to the subject? Are there subjects for which an oral exam is never appropriate?


texts: Options for someone who didn't take Math Subject GRE

texts:
I was to take the math subject GRE for the first time today, for my application to math Phd programs this December.

I receive accomodations because of my disability and ETS did not get back to me in time, though I did submit my paperwork well in advance of the exam.  Because of this I could not take the GRE with my accomodations so I did not take it.  I was doing very well on practice tests with my accomodations.

I have done research at top rated REU's, have taken nearly all graduate courses, since I was in high school, and I have good letters of recommendation, and I am interested in Homotopy theory.

I want to ask the stackexchange community if you know of any options that I have right now.  Do foreign universities require GRE scores?  I am open to learning Japanese for instance to study in the RIMS, or learning French to study in Paris-Sud.

I am not sure that waiting for a year is a good idea for me because a lot of my application is based off of having accomplished a lot at a relatively young age, and I want to do everything I can at this point to avoid it.


texts: How do we prevent a professor from releasing our class project as his own research?

texts: I don't want to release too many details in this inquiry, but I do have a very legitimate question to ask. My senior class (aerospace engineering) has been hard at work for nearly nine months reverse engineering a particular X-Plane. We have done detailed analysis on almost all the aspects of the craft and we have just heard that our supervising professor intends to release this research as his own for future technologies in SSTO vehicle analysis. What options do we have to prevent this blatant plagiarism by an adviser and how soon should we act?


texts: Should diacritics be kept when citing a paper written in an abundant diacritics Latin-based script language?

texts:
Diacritics, or tone marks (as what they're called in my language), are symbols added to letters to change their sound. For example, diacritics for the letter a in my language can be ă, â, à, á, ả, ã, ạ, ắ, ẳ, etc.

What should I do with papers written in such language when citing them in an English context?

For example, the APA Style guide says:

  Book/article titles and names written in Latin-based scripts (French, Spanish, German, etc.) can be cited with only minor adjustments.

My language (Vietnamese) uses Latin script, so logically, I should preserve the diacritics. However, I think the guideline is only aware of Western languages, which may not have so many diacritics. If I follow the guideline, the title of my work may be cited like this:

  So sánh năng lượng liên kết tĩnh điện giữa các thể đột biến của protease HIV-1 khi liên kết với thuốc lopinavir (Compare the Electrostatic Energy between Mutants of HIV-1 Protease when binding to lopinavir)

Is there any problem if I keep the diacritics? I think the title will only be copy-pasted, so there is no big problem if I cite it like that. It may be hard for foreign readers to read, but I think they wouldn't care at all; there is a translation of it in the bracket anyway. A common practice is to "transliterate" it to a non-diacritic version, which can be typed in any unsupported keyboard, and that is readable to the native speakers. However, it will make a lot of adjustments, and regarding to the guideline, this should only be used for non-Latin scripts.

I choose the APA style because it is the first thing come up in my mind. I think other styles will recommend the same. Some other styles suggest that I just need to provide the translation, but that is the easy case.


texts: Paper accepted in journal, should I remove style file for arXiv preprint?

texts:
I recently sent a paper to a journal (which I put on arXiv beforehand) which has now been accepted with some corrections. I want to put the corrected version on arXiv. The corrected version is written using the style file supplied by the journal.

Should I remove this style file? Does it matter if I don't? Will the journal get mad?


texts:
I'm presenting a poster at a conference in the coming months and I unintentionally left out authors (the senior authors) on my work due to my lack of familiarity with the submission program on the website. Unfortunately, I did not go back to correct this until it was too late and the deadline for adjustments had passed.

I'm now faced with presenting the poster without all authors listed on the poster. I'm fairly embarrassed that I let this happen. I've reached out to the organizers and was told no more adjustments can be made. How do I handle it from here? Do I just disclose during presentation that I unintentionally left them out and credit them at that point?


texts: Possible that one dissertation in Computational Archaeology could earn two degrees?

texts:
I'm planning on my PhD to be in CS, but it occurs to me that my research as it applies to archaeology/anthropology will be just as unique and valuable (hopefully) to that field in and of itself.

I haven't been able to find anything on this specifically as in most cases the two fields concerned are closely related and two separate degrees would be unnecessary. In this case, however, it seems fair to ask the question as the two fields are both widely different and at the same time this research in particular would be completely overlapping between the two disciplines.

If this isn't a thing I'd appreciate any insight on schools which have strong graduate programs in both of these fields; regardless of whether I can earn two degrees (which I'm not expecting) I want to tailor my research and my access to experts/labs/programs as much as possible.

TIA!


texts: How should I direct readers to a reference work that is riddled with errors?

texts:
I am using a somewhat obscure mathematical technique in one of my papers, and there is only one reference text (so far as I am aware) that collects all the important examples of the technique that I need.  However, I am leery of pointing my readers to this book without a warning, because the reference book has numerous problems.

The book was clearly compiled from a number of earlier sources, including the original research literature.  These were put together without much care.  Notation for the various functions involved changes from one table to the next.  (The same object may be referred to an upper case U, lower case u, or a cursive letter.)  Even more seriously, there are many misprints, some of which are more obvious than others.

I feel like when I reference this text, I should put some caveat lector—something like, "Details about the transformation and all the important examples that will be needed in this paper may be found in [1]; however, the reader should be advised that [1] contains multiple typographical errors."  But that sounds somehow unprofessional to me.

Is that kind of statement unprofessional sounding?  If so, how can I convey the information that this is a poor quality source—it just unfortunately happens to be the only comprehensive source in existence.


texts: Are universities run more and more like businesses? What are the consequences?

texts:
I watched an episode of "Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj" called "Is College Still Worth It?"
In there the point was made, with ample evidence, that universities are increasingly resembling businesses with dire consequences for the professors. The amount of tenure-track professors is steadily declining while the amount of low-paid, adjunct professors, who are seemingly abused by the institution, is increasing.
I am a graduate student in mathematics and I am getting close to finishing my degree. It was always my dream and intention to go into academia and contribute original research to the fields I am interested in: Differential Geometry and Mathematical Physics.
After watching this episode and witnessing for myself what being in academia is like, I am actually considering other options. Now, my question is, how many other academics have seen and are upset by the way academia is going in terms of being run like a business? How are you handling it? Or do you think it's not really a big deal? Any advice for someone who wants to do pure math research for a living but doesn't want to be tied to a university? Or are my options rather limited?
As brought up in a comment, this show and my experience are referring to US universities but I am interested in hearing anyone's perspective on it. I can imagine similar situations might be faced by academics in other countries.
I would like to emphasize what I see as the important parts of this question. People are mainly addressing the title, which is only part of the story. How are you handling this situation? How is effecting your work/life? Are you okay with this, as a professor/instructor/person in academia?
Here is an article that nicely describes what I am talking about with a good amount of evidence. I am sure there are counter-viewpoints. I am posting this to clarify that I am not talking about universities simply covering their costs: https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/156375


texts: Online master's degree in CS at the Georgia Institute of Technology

texts:
I am a working student (working in software engineering) and this year I'll be completing my CS Bachelor's degree in Italy. I am doing the online degree as I can't attend lectures, due to my job.

I would like to continue my studies with a Master's Degree in CS so I googled a bit and found out that GaTech is offering an online master's degree I am interested in.

Here in Italy the online degree has the same value as the on-campus degree: we take exams on campus, study online with videos and materials provided by the professor, we have conference sessions with the professors for any questions or we can go visit them in their office. The exams are exactly the same as the on-campus degree, so are the professors.

I was wondering if this is the case in the USA and if doing an online degree will be a limit for me to pursue, in a remote future, a PhD. Should I move to the USA to study (I can work remotely) or I can study here, in Italy, and just go to the USA to take exams?


texts: My adviser is leaving. Can I ask him to support my application for an other PhD position?

texts:
A little background:

I started my PhD in August 2019 at university X. I wanted to work on project A, but after I joined PhD, my adviser asked me to work on project B. He said that if I start working on project A, he won't be able to help me in any matter. He's a very nice guy, he said that I can work on whatever the project I want. I decided to start working on project B because I don't want to get lost and have nobody to help me out. (I had a horrible experience in my MS where I worked on a project about which my MS adviser didn't have any knowledge).

For the last 4 months, I have been working on project B. It's okay, but I don't feel happy about it. It doesn't motivate me. It doesn't give those internal joy-feelings.

Current situation:

My adviser is leaving this university and moving to university Y. He has offered me three options:

Change research group and stay in university X
I stay at university X and he will supervise me from university Y (he becomes an adjoint faculty, if department chair allows)
Move out with him to university Y and start working on a new project (which is also not of my interests)

I don't want to choose option#2, for sure. Option#1 is also not quite suitable for me because no professor here is working on something that interests me (quantum machine learning). The salary that I am getting from university X is much more than the salary that I will receive from university Y. I might choose Option#3, because at least I know that this professor is a very open-minded, nice and genius guy. I have to make a decision before June 2020.

Question:

I want to apply for an other PhD position, the one which really interests me. Is it okay if I ask my current adviser to give me a recommendation letter and support my application? What reaction of him should I expect?


texts: Academic Writing other than Publication for Grad School Admission

texts: I've graduated from a Chemical Engineering department and I am planning to apply for a Master's degree. I wasn't involved in research that produced a publication when I was an undergrad. Is there any other option for academic writing that I can use to strengthen my application?


texts: As a PhD student, should I list a conference travel grant in CV?

texts:
I know there is a similar question here (Should PhD students mention small grants on their CV?) but there is a slight difference between my question and this.

I recently went to a conference as a student. The conference awards a travel grant for some participating students. This stipend is based in part on need (e.g., distance), but it is also based on level of participation, i.e. merit--only students who presented a full paper at the conference got it (as opposed to an abstract or workshop paper).

Are things like this worth listing on the CV of a starting PhD student, or should I not bother? A follow up question, if it turns out that it's good to list this, is how to list it.


texts: Attribution of authorship within undergraduate group project reports

texts:
I teach a senior design course for undergraduate engineering students at a public university. Our senior design projects are all team based, usually with three to five engineering students per team. The teams are all multidisciplinary--e.g., electrical engineers, computer engineers, mechanical engineers, etc. all working collaboratively on a given project.

At present each student team coauthors a GROUP report that documents their project-level information--e.g., project history, problem statement, project concept, engineering merit and innovation, project goals and objectives, project requirements, risk management, constraints, budget, timeline, project evaluation, etc. Each student also individually authors an INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTIONS report which details that student's contributions to their group's senior design project.

Because these reports are scholarly works performed within academia, I need to devise a method of identifying which student(s) authored which sections(s) within the GROUP report for feedback and course grading purposes. Right now I'm considering requiring the use of bylines throughout the report so that I can unambiguously determine which student(s) authored which section(s) within the report. This copious use of bylines might appear unappealing in the finished product, and it's a practice that's not commonly used in industry, but it does solve my necessity of ascribing authorship to specific students.

If multiple students coauthor a given section of the GROUP report, I will require that there be a principal author and one or more contributing coauthors. The principle author's name shall be listed first on the byline, followed by the coauthors' names. For course grading purposes, the principal author shall be fully responsible for all written content provided under their byline.

I would, of course, provide rules that define the criteria for qualification as a coauthor (for example, see section "2. Who Is an Author?" on the web page titled "Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors" on the Internal Committee of Medical Journal Editors website).

I might also allow an additional and separate contributors byline to identify students who do not qualify as an author, but who contributed in some way to the writing in a given section of the report. I'm thinking of placing the contributors' byline on a new line immediately under the authors' byline:

By: Jane Smith, Frank Cedars
Contributions by: Huan Sung

I'm wondering if anyone has comments regarding this proposed use of bylines, or perhaps has other suggestions for identifying authorship within undergraduate group reports produced as scholarly works within academia.

(n.b. Assigning a single group grade is ill-advised for a number of reasons. Different students have different levels of writing competence--e.g., foreign nationals for whom English is a second language. In an undergraduate course, skilled authors should not be held responsible for, nor unfairly burdened with the task of, editing / correcting other students' writing in order to ensure the entire group receives a decent grade. Indeed, if the skilled authors do all the work there is neither accountability nor incentive for lesser-skilled writers to work at improving their writing skills. For what it's worth, these students receive feedback on their writing via peer review, rubrics, project advisors, and course graders. The project advisors and course graders are the ones who need to know which student wrote which sections of the GROUP report for feedback and assessment purposes.)

(n.b. I've already considered and rejected the idea of a two document solution where one document is the GROUP report itself, and the second document is a "key" that identifies which sections within the GROUP report were authored by which students. This "key" document adds extra work, its upkeep is clumsy and unreliable, it's another piece of paper that must be tracked, it slows down the grading and feedback process, etc.)


texts: Can I study Fine Arts at the age of 26/27

texts:
I am Indian and I don't know , is there any possibilities to join Fine arts colleges at the age of 26/27. My background is Bachelor of Science and working in a small IT company.But I am not happy with my current situation.I would like to change the scope , Can I start over again in Fine arts? Because , I am still a good painter.And I want to be a good artist.From my childhood everyone use to say ,I paint awesome.
Apart from that, I love paining still now , and I want to study more in this field.
Is it possible ? please help.I have none in my life to guide me.


texts: Using well-established abbreviations for new concepts in the same field

texts:
Should a researcher try her best to avoid using existing abbreviations (such as IEEE, WHO, DNA, ANOVA, BMI, CERN, NASA, UNESCO, OPCW, NHS, CDC ...) that are (well-)known in her fields, when creating abbreviations for new concepts (methods, substances, studies ...) in the same field?

Or is it OK if the abbreviation for the new concept is just defined where it is used (e.g., in a publication)?


texts: Are there any databases filtering authors and comparing author-level metrics as to a given keyword? In example, can all German authors of articles on derivatives be ranked according to their h-index?


texts: Found a figure duplication problem in an already published paper

texts:
I published a peer-reviewed article several years ago. Recently when I look back on my paper, I suddenly realized there had a figure duplication problem in one of the main figures (That main figure has more than 20 sub-figures, I only have a duplication problem in two cases). What is worse, the original data is lost due to the broken laptop (This is a great lesson I have learned) so the original data is not available anymore.

However, (1) I can run an experiment again to show the same outcome; (2) this mistake does not hurt the main conclusion; (3) and the result has been validated by other groups. I am wondering in such a situation, should I talk with my mentor, rerun the experiment, update the figure, and ask for a correction for this paper. Or I should ask for a withdrawal since I can not provide the raw data anymore (I have seen the author retract their papers because of unavailable raw data e.g., https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2045615/).


texts: Why is Reddit not a reliable source of experts?

texts:
Some people say that you should take for granted for opinions on Reddit, because comparing it to academic journals is like comparing kindergarten to university. But I don't understand. Well, it's true that it is incomplete from a scientific point of view, but most active users in a specialized subreddit likely know what they are talking about. It also has the same peer review mechanism like Stack Exchange, and you can always visit users' profiles to evaluate their expertise. Saying a frequent redditor is not necessarily an expert is like saying top users in Academia Stack Exchange are not necessarily academics I think.

So if you can trust (to a certain degree) ideas from TED talks, Wikipedia, or Stack Exchange, then why should Reddit be an exception?

PS: I think the keyword specialized subreddit hasn't been implemented enough in the answers. Yes, all of the points are applicable in a generic subreddit, but I'm talking about subs that the fact one is in there means that they must have a certain level of knowledge, or else they can't never find out the sub. Any random person can create accounts, upvote, and write hilarious comments, but only those who actually have the knowledge can write serious ones and show the holes in my knowledge.

Related:
• Are TED presentations academically credible?
• Are there instances where citing Wikipedia is allowed?
• When should we ask questions on Reddit? (quite a misleading title in this context, but anyway)


texts: Should I explain change of major in my statement of purpose?

texts:
During my masters program I changed my major from Molecular Biology to Biotechnology.
Should I explain in my statement of purpose for PhD programs why I changed my major?


texts: Do PhD Committees separate applicants based on whether they are a fresh undergrad or have MS/Work experience? (USA)

texts:
Does the PhD admit committee look at applicants differently based on the number of years they have invested?
Example:

Set 1: Undergraduates directly applying
Set 2: Master's applicants
Set 3: Undergraduate plus Work Experience

Set 2 and 3 are obviously way more experienced than simple undergrads. So is there any striking differences the committee tries to search for, or are there pre-defined number of seats for the various sets?
Or is all looked at the same? If so, is that really a fair judgement?


texts: What should be included in the Multimedia Attachment of a Journal Submission?

texts:
I have recently completed a paper on Humanoid Robot, and I am willing to submit it to the Robotics and Automation Letters(RA-L) journal. What should be submitted as part of the Multimedia attachment?
Are result videos sufficient? Or Is the code also necessary to be attached?

Also, I have a citation which is not yet available online, can I include a copy of this in this attachment?


texts: For articles with more than 7 authors, is it compulsory to shorten it or just suggested?

texts:
I have quite some articles with more than 7 authors. I read here that when an article has more than 7 authors you shorten it in the reference list. So for example:

  Hampel, H., Y. Shen, D. M. Walsh, P. Aisen, L. M. Shaw, H. Zetterberg,
  J. Q. Trojanowski, andK. Blennow. 2010. Biological markers of amyloid
  β-related mechanisms in alzheimer’s disease. Experimental Neurology,
  223(2):334 – 346. Beta-amyloid and tau protein abnormalities in
  Alzheimer’s disease

becomes:

  Hampel, H., Y. Shen, D. M. Walsh, P. Aisen, L. M. Shaw, H. Zetterberg,
  ... K. Blennow. 2010. Biological markers of amyloid
  β-related mechanisms in alzheimer’s disease. Experimental Neurology,
  223(2):334 – 346. Beta-amyloid and tau protein abnormalities in
  Alzheimer’s disease

if I'm correct.

Do I have to shorten every reference with 7+ authors this way? Or is this just a suggestion for if the article has an excessive amount of authors (as here where the citation took up half the page)?

Thanks!


texts: Chapter in printed thesis vs. journal article

texts:
My computer science PhD thesis contains a chapter which is heavily based on an already published conference paper. I have published my thesis online, and fulfilled the requirements for my degree this way.

Nevertheless it is customary in my group to also publish the thesis as a proper book, to get shiny printed copies and to make it available to libraries etc.

Now I was invited to submit an extended version of my conference article to a journal, and since the thesis chapter was already an extended version of the conference article, I used material from there and the journal paper turned out to be very similar to the thesis chapter.

Will the journal publisher (Elsevier) likely accept a paper that has significant overlap with a chapter in a book that is not peer-reviewed, but (by then) is commercially published?

(This question is about copyright and publishing, not about citations and giving proper attribution to the other work.)


texts: Should I consult my professor before sending my newly written research paper to a journal?

texts:
I have written a research paper (in the field of Education & Social Science, and I am not a professional) and I want to publish it in a reputed peer-reviewed journal.

I am not in cooperation with any of my professors in terms of research activity.

Should I give my writing to one of my professors for a review before sending it to a research journal? Is there any possibility of stealing of ideas?


texts: The decoration of language in proposal writing

texts:
I am a newbie to proposal writing although have been writing research papers for several years. After the rejection of my first NSF proposal, I am becoming aware that the proposal language is quite different from research paper language, where the later one emphasizes on its accuracy and objective, while the former one, according to my current understanding, needs more fine-tuning on the "tone and the sales pitch".

I guess that's where the decoration of language could  come into play. Could anyone shed some lights certain systematic approach such that I can train myself and master the needed skills? Or, is there any systematic approach that can quickly turn my research paper-style proposal by setting the mood and tone as a "sales pitch."

I am not a native speaker and that could be hard, I guess. Any suggestions would be appreciated very much.


texts: Do I have to be worried about copyright infringement when digitally copying and collecting excerpts from published literature?

texts: I can't find any information regarding this scenario. Related answers are always about publishing said excerpts in one's own works, and my question is specifically about copied texts that are never going to be published. My initial thought was that it was surely fine to do so, but the current book I'm working through is so dense in information that I've probably digitally recreated half of the book, and that got me thinking, and has lead to this question.


texts: Mention a potential adviser in Statement of Purpose who is in another department

texts: I am very interested in the work of a professor who works for department X. His work is interdisciplinary and I am interested in the engineering aspects of his work. I contacted him and he agreed to be my primary mentor as long as I had a secondary mentor through engineering school since I am not going to apply in his department. He mentioned a specific name in the engineering school who shares the same research interests. Is it a good idea to mention his name along with the name of the professor in the engineering school in my Statement of Purpose (SOP)? For instance, that I would like to join the engineering lab and conduct a collaboration with the other lab? Is it a good idea to show an interest in a lab who is not in the department but still related to engineering?


texts: Generally how much time is spent in reviewing an undergraduate/graduate applications to universities

texts:
Generally, how much time does a professor grant to review a single application?
With thousands of applications, how is it ensured that each application is given proper weightage and importance because applying filters might not always work.
Some person who is good at one thing, might not be for the other. So predefined filters would act against him.


texts:
I have done a literature review, but every time I send my article to the journals I receive either major changes or a rejection because I have only searched in journals indexed by Scopus and Web of Science (40). The journals say I have to search the databases. I am in the last year of my thesis and I have to publish my work in an indexed journal. How to do so?

I searched also non-Scopus and non-Wos journals. They say that I have to search articles in the databases directly and not search in the journals indexed by these databases and then searching articles in these journals.


texts: How to professionally quit a student job?

texts:
I'm a CS master student in a German university currently writing my thesis. Three months ago I saw an advert from a PhD student in the group where I'm doing my thesis asking for a student assistant (HiWi) to work on a programming project. I went  and said I'm interested in the job but specified I can only work 5 hours a week since I must work on my thesis. It was agreed  saying "I don't care how much time you will take to finish it".

Since I'm writing my thesis and was about to finish when asked: "how long are you staying here" and I said that I don't know yet and asked why; the reply was "because now I'm concerned that you might leave me if you finish soon" and I mentioned that I will stay to do my PhD.

So I started working. After the first week I noticed that the Phd student is actually quite weird. Once I mentioned that I'm going to use framework "X" for a particular part of the project, and was told: "No I want you to use framework Y, because what if you die then I have to continue doing the project". I didn't like how it was said, but I considered it a joke. Then the weird stuff continued. I won't mention them because it will take too long.

Because of administrative issues they couldn't start my contract for two months, so I worked two months for free. It was said that for the coming months they will put more hours in my contract and I can skip some weeks without working so I can make up for the two months.

However the most annoying thing happened 4 weeks ago. I was told that we need the project done earlier than thought (never mentioned any deadline previously). Then I thought OK I will work twice the time (10 hours a week) for two weeks and then once I finish the main functionalities in the project I will ask to skip two weeks so I can make up and work on my thesis.

Surprisingly after those two hard weeks I was told  that  the project is wanted done by the end of next week! I said that I was already working overtime and was replied "I don't care I just want it to be done by the end of next week because I have a workshop and I need to present it"!

That was the time I made the decision to quit since it was known very well that I can't do this because I have to work on my thesis, also because of the Phd student's weird behavior. However after receiving the shock I decided that it's not professional to quit at this stage since there is a deadline for the workshop. Also I finished 60% of the project and we made the deal to finish only until 70% for the deadline.

However I want to quit after the deadline but I have the following concerns:

The atmosphere in our work group is very familial. I have lunch with all PhDs and postdocs and jokes and everything. I'm now concerned that quitting would make the atmosphere negative between us.
Whenever I think about quitting I remember when I was asked  about how long I will stay because of the worry that I might leave, to somehow not to screw up things. It's the main concern since the project will be 70% done and hiring a new student would be painful since they would have to read what I did and so on and will delay the project.
The professor is also concerned about this project and now I'm afraid that quitting this project at this stage would make my image look bad as a quitter.

So how do you recommend me to quit this job?

Edit:

One way I thought of quitting is to go  after the deadline and say that I won't work for 2 weeks because I need to work on my thesis. Now if  told that I can't do that, then I will tell say "then I'm probably not a good fit for the requirement of this project and I don't want to be an obstacle for its progress. I think it's a good idea to find someone who is a better fit". Then I will pray that the response is "Yes you are right". The issue is that we have a lack of student assistants so he might still want me to work under my conditions, but I don't want to continue working for them!


texts: What determines the copyright year for a publication?

texts:
I wonder what determines the copyright year for a publication. I thought that the copyright year would be the same as the publication year, but seeing in (1)

put me in doubt (publication year: 2011; copyright year: 2012).

(1) Sutton, Charles, and Andrew McCallum. "An introduction to conditional random fields." Machine Learning 4.4 (2011): 267-373.


texts: What criteria should be used to shorten the list of references?

texts:
I want to submit a paper to a natural science journal, and there is a limit in the number of references.
All the current references are relevant since a reader can double-check what I claim.
But if I had to cut the references, what criteria should I use? I referenced some news articles that back my claims about current development. I certainly would cut those for other journal articles in a science journal. What is the recommended way to go here?


texts: When is it ok to cite handbook instead of original source?

texts:
When I cite papers in my work I always try to go to the original source of the information I can find. However, I noticed that sometimes authors just cite handbook/textbook in the field even though the information in handbook/textbook still refers to primary sources. One one hand I feel that one should always try to give credit to the original authors but I am tempted to just start referring to handbooks/textbooks more often as it saves my work. This being said, I am mainly concerned that citing the handbook could be perceived as lazy or lower the quality of the work.

So my question is if such practice is in general considered or perceived by referees or other authorities in academia as lazy or indication of low quality or should handbooks be cited only when they are primary sources?


texts: Do I need to add answers to the reviewers’ comments to a conference paper?

texts:
We submitted a paper to a conference and received a mail containing this clause

  Please see the reviewers’ comments below on your paper. These comments are
  intended to help you to improve your paper for final publication. The listed
  comments should be addressed, as final acceptance is conditional upon
  appropriate response to the requirements and comments. The conference
  committee retains a list of certain critical comments to be addressed by
  authors, and will control that these have been addressed in the camera-ready
  version.

It seemed to me that along with the main camera-ready paper, we need to send a response like this. Can anyone please suggest what should be done? Should we create a response (like the PDF) along with revised paper or should we only send the revised paper according to the suggestions of the reviewers?


texts: Publishing datasets as a journal articles

texts:
We have created an NLP dataset out of written texts of a certain group of people.
I thought perhaps we can publish the dataset as a journal paper (the data is an external appendix to the article and published somewhere on the internet).
Data in Brief and Nature Scientific Data publish such articles. However Data in Brief charges $600 and Nature has a very high quality expectancy.
Are there other journals where we can publish our NLP data sets?


texts: How To Cope With The Stigma of Quitting a Second PhD for a Third one?

texts:
As per the title, I quit my second Ph.D. after 10 months, having quit my first after one year.

My first supervisor was narcissistic and a sociopath. (Nonetheless, I received prizes for my research.) After one year I left.

I took a lab position, in an isolated country, whilst seeking a second PhD program. The lab took advantage of my situation (low salary, humiliation, harsh work conditions). After 5 months, I was about to commit suicide, until I started a second Ph.D. I thought this was the salvation.

I didn't know my second supervisor. They seemed nice. Ultimately, I took the position out of desperation. However, after several months, I found myself stuck with a supervisor who was always jealous, in a constant fighting mode, moody, angry like infant. The final straw came when I was nominated for an prestigious award, which I was to collect at a conference, which waived the usual conference fee: My supervisor refused to support my travel, even though it was only around 500 Euro. They weren't constructive at all. Perhaps more importantly, the lack of dataset from our collaborators, sketchy understanding about my research which leads to lack of feedback,  this was a wrong match in all levels.

I've found another lab in a different country. They are interested in my work and I've joined their
group.

My question: I feel so much stigma about the situation and I feel sometimes insecure about what happened. In my current position, they know my situation, but they did not know all the story.

Now, I have to move by the end of the month. But, I am torn. I feel a failure because this situation doesn't sound good. Even though I asked many wise people and having a discussion for hours to split the emotion and facts about my situation that my decision to leave is right, I am stuck somehow emotionally about all experience, I saw a psychoanalyst, but not so much helpful, how can I get out of this stigma, I am afraid this would jeopardize my academic career? How I can remove this past?


texts: Found errors in draft of researcher's book. Is it acceptable to ask for a review of my statement of purpose if I contact him regarding the errors?

texts: This researcher says something along the lines of "I welcome all contact regarding this book".


texts: Refereeing papers on behalf of a professor: should it be listed on a CV?

texts:
My professor sometimes asks me to referee papers for him.
Should I list the corresponding journals in the professionals activity section of my CV?


texts:
Some universities do not publish the list of persons who obtained a degree from their institution. In order to verify whether an individual obtained a degree there, one needs to call them, for instance.

Example:

  Contact the Registrar's Office of the appropriate school to request degree certification or enrollment verification.

Why do some universities not publish the list of persons who obtained a degree from their institution? Among other advantages, this would allow to check claim of degrees more easily.


texts:
I earned my PhD in continental Europe. Except going to a few conferences outside Europe, my network, collaborations and events were all in Europe so I was pretty much living in a European bubble. I am still here, but now that I am in a faculty position I started collaborating with people from everywhere and travel quite a lot outside Europe. As much as I try to avoid generalizing and I am aware that much is field dependent, there are some things I noticed about the general perception of European PhD degrees (and this can probably be extended to universities in general) outside Europe:

Students from Asia (especially from China and Korea) I met said that they prefer going to the US for a PhD, and Europe is only a second option because of less prestige.
When I was considering applying to positions in the US, a few people told me informally that I don't have good chances as those who apply with PhD degrees from US universities, without even considering my CV.

But my experience is conflicting and makes me confused:

I visited a few universities in the US, and noticed that people doing a PhD are treated as students rather than as employees, financially they struggle and most of them have to work on stuff other than research (taking courses, teaching). Frankly the whole system looks miserable to me. In many European countries they would be employed with a decent salary and benefits, focus only on research, have a better travel support, among other benefits. If one was given the choice between the two, I don't understand why anyone would go to the US to do a PhD instead of Europe (no hard feelings) and consider it a better option.
Judging from job applications I get from fresh PhD graduates around the world, on average those with a PhD from the US are not better than others (I am aware that this might be biased because good PhD graduates in the US often prefer staying there).
American PhD theses I have seen are not as good as those from Europe. For example, in the Netherlands most PhD students must publish a few journal papers before they graduate (some have 4-5, and this doesn't include conference papers). The theses are usually of high quality, and are even published as books. Looking at recent PhD theses at elite US universities like Stanford, Harvard, Berkeley and MIT, I cannot help but consider them less good and with less contribution.

This will likely strongly depend on the field, but in general I find that the average PhD experience, student wellbeing and quality of work in Europe is no worse than in the US, if not better. Yet, people worldwide seem to favor US degrees.

Is a PhD degree from a European university considered equally valuable as one from the US?
If not, why is there this gap and lower perception of PhD degrees from Europe?


texts: When to remove college leadership positions from CV/resume?

texts:
This easily could be moved to the Workplace site, but I ask it here because I am in grad school and it's relevant to me finding internships, jobs, and/or academic positions.

When is it time, or is it ever time, to remove college leadership positions from one's CV or resume?

I was captain of a varsity athletic team in college and president of a social fraternity. Given only that, I could easily see someone saying "big deal, how does that show me you can write my software/prove this theorem/etc." However, in grad school, I have been president of my department's grad student association and started a popular journal group in my department (to list things that could be bullet-ed). I assume my adviser would also likely highlight similar leadership activities within our research group in any professional recommendation.

The reason I ask this question is primarily because I think those positions show a behavioral theme or track record. In all positions (other than the reading group, obviously), I was elected by my peers, and I can name specific accomplishments associated with each. Even if I am looking for research positions, I imagine that leadership/entrepreneurial spirit is a desired quality (?). Maybe I'm completely off-base. Hence my question. If relevant, I am within a decade of my undergrad.

So should I draw attention to those roles on my CV or website?


texts: Citing draft papers found on academia.edu

texts:
I have noticed an article published in a peer-reviewed journal in which the author cites a draft paper posted by another person to academia.edu. The former gives the whole bibliographic information of the aforesaid draft (including the URL) at the exact place where it is cited, but does not mention that draft at all in the bibliography, even though she does give all other sources she has cited in the bibliography.

Does it mean that a draft paper can be cited but should not be included in the bibliography? If it does mean that, is this because it is not yet peer-reviewed? I am rather curious here.

(For those who need to know, the field is religious studies.)


texts: Dropped out of Grad school after withdrawal period

texts: It's basically the end of the semester. I was going through the motions the whole time. Withdrawal period has clearly gone. I sent an email that I'm withdrawing from the whole program.. what exactly happens now? Are my grades all F's? Do I even have a transcript? I paid all of my fall semester tuition. I'm not expecting my money back. Knowing it's too late.. just want to know about the transcript or is it not even on record?


texts: How do top graduate school in Mathematics view BS (Mathematics) from a top engineering school?

texts: One of top engineering institution in my country offer Bachelor of Sciences in Mathematics. They start actual mathematics (Real analysis, Abstract Algebra etc) from sophomore year. By the senior they offer graduate level classes and I am sure I won't run out of it. However this school is primarily known for CS undergraduate program. Every year one or two graduating CS majors go to the best graduate programs (CMU, MIT, Stanford etc). As I want to major in pure mathematics I am pretty skeptical how top graduate programs (Princeton, MIT, Harvard) will view my application as they will be unsure of the rigor of Math degree at my institution?


texts: Why do departments fund PhD students instead of postdocs?

texts:
If I'm not mistaken, most PhD students (at least in the sciences, which is the field I'm most interested in) are funded. They're provided with a stipend, and all tuition fees are waived. In other words, it's effectively a low-paying job for them. My question is, why fund PhD students instead of postdocs?

I'm dismissing the altruistic reason ("we fund PhD students as a service to the community") immediately since it doesn't make sense - presumably if someone is spending money in this fashion, they'd fund need-based scholarships. The only other reason I can think of is that the department wants something out of the PhD students - presumably research output; can't think of anything else - that they think they're getting a good deal on.

Now according to Google, the typical PhD stipend is about $20-25k / year. Meanwhile, the typical postdoc is paid $47k / year. That means that a department can hire approximately one postdoc per two PhD students. To that we can add:

Postdocs have already been trained; PhD students are in training. Postdocs should hit the ground running while PhD students take time to get up to par.
PhD students especially in 5-year programs spend the first couple of years taking courses, i.e. not doing research work.
Postdocs can do other things like supervise Masters students that PhD students can't.
PhD students apparently have a high attrition rate, as high as 50%. Postdocs have been in the business longer, so presumably are also more aware of what they're going into.

It seems more sensible to me that departments should concentrate all funding on postdocs, and leave PhD students to pay for their own education. This is already the case for undergraduate studies. Why do departments continue to fund PhD students?


texts: Student comments from meetings frequently overreacted to by senior 'management'

texts:
I've worked at several UK institutions over the past 10 years and one aspect that consistently raises my eyebrows is the reaction to student-staff liaison meetings* from senior members of the team. Often, these meetings are merely an opportunity for the 'representative' to voice their own concerns and are clearly, obviously, not representative. Yet, time after time, when a far fetched and often untrue complaint/comment is made in one of these meetings, senior staff go into full meltdown and start firing off perplexing and demotivating e-mails asking for things to be fixed because the students are unhappy. The simple matter is, as previously stated, these are often not representative views and the sample size is one: the person who said it.

In any other context, a sample size of one would be immediately disregarded by those with only rudimentary scientific knowledge. No sound conclusion could ever be drawn from that sample. Yet, if this sample happens to be one student in the context of a 'staff-student liaison' meeting then it appears to be absolute fact to senior 'management'.

My question is for fellow academics from across the world, do you have this nonsense to deal with? What do you tell 'management' if they ask you to change based on comments from a single source? Am I being too touchy about it?

I am a lecturer at a UK institution.

*These meetings are usually bi-yearly where student 'representatives' voice any matters arising on their degree

For the those thinking "Jeez, this guy gets a lot of bad comments". I have not once been on the receiving end of this but I know good colleagues lose sleep over it.

I also see the benefits of these meetings, I do not wish for them to be scrapped.


texts: In ABET accreditation criteria, what is the meaning of "one year of X"?

texts:
The ABET accreditation criteria document for Computer Science lists some course requirements as

One year of Science and Mathematics
At least one half year of Mathematics
One and one-third years of Computer Science
At least one year of up-to-date coverage of fundamental and advanced topics

How many courses is one year equivalent to? It may mean 10, going by 5 courses per semester. "One year of X" may mean a year where there is at least one course on X every semester. In either case, "one and one-third years" of courses does not make sense.


texts: Any advice about having children during grad school, from the perspective of (a) female grad students and (b) students without stay-at-home partners?

texts:
I've seen a lot of "kids-in-grad-school" advice that's geared towards male PhD students with stay-at-home wives. I'm a female MD PhD student married to a male MD PhD student, and neither of us is going to quit our career. We are both willing to put in the time needed to raise a family.

I'm interested in hearing from the following perspectives (EDITED FOR MORE DETAIL):
(a) For women who had kids while they were in graduate school -- how did you decide on when to have kids? earlier in grad school vs. later? (since pregnancy can be very difficult for some women e.g. severe morning sickness, I think optimal timing could potentially differ depending on if the grad student is male or female.)
Also, how did you approach being pregnant in an academic environment? (i.e. did anyone harass you as being 'less dedicated'? I know this is not a reason NOT to have kids, but I'm just curious about it. Men who are expecting a child can keep it a secret. Women can't keep it a secret because everyone they meet including total strangers can see that they're pregnant after a certain point.)

(b) For men or women who had kids while they were in graduate school and did NOT have a stay-at-home partner - how did you deal with childcare? Reason for asking: if you have a stay-at-home partner, childcare for the bulk of the day has already been solved. If you don't have a stay-at-home partner, it's a very big issue.
So - what approach did you take? (e.g. alternating schedules between caregivers? nanny? au pair? daycare? relatives? friends? babysitters?)

This question is different from Advice for having children during graduate school  because the vast majority of those answers are written from male perspectives and from perspectives of people with stay-at-home partners.


texts:
I  would be happy to have a short comment by somebody on following simple situation: I submitted my paper in beginning of January. In the end or January the status changed from the administration (Editor) to "under review". After that, this has not changed, it is still "under review". Is this normal. My field is history.

The journal doesn't indicate the review-times in the pages, but from the same publishing house's pages I have seen other journals of the same field and noted that the time may vary from 3-4 months up to one year.

I have decided that I will patiently wait, but I am starting to feel insecure about if they have forgotten to push the status-button. So, it would be nice just to know, does this sounds normal? Another article a couple of years ago in another journal didn't take that long.


texts: I am a PhD student and I am often faced with several ideas to explore. Two criteria often I consider in making a choice between approaches are based on the value proposition/ addition and the uniqueness of the approach. However, in the  process of research (which I don't have any idea about and I am only in the exploratory phase of an idea) I have to make compromises in choosing between approaches which are not unique but add value and vice versa. I am faced with tradeoffs between the two until I find (or modify/improve) approaches that have both the qualities. My question is to the experienced researchers to share their strategies when they had to choose among approaches based on these two parameters. Which one among the two help in quicker publications or acceptance rate?


texts: How do I handle inaccessible DOIs when citing papers?

texts:
When writing a paper, it's not that seldom, that I want to cite papers where a DOI is given but cannot be accessed (anymore). Quite frequently, the corresponding DOI is also presented within the PDF document of the paper that I want to cite, which is also not accessible (anymore).
The intention of DOIs was to guarantee permanent access to documents and unify it, but in reality, some are broken over time. Furthermore, not every DOI lookup website does have a complete list of all DOIs.
My primary question is: Is there some common practice how to handle this situation? Should I provide the DOI as well in my references, even though it is not accessible anymore? (Maybe it could still be accessible with some other DOI lookup website?)
What is the best DOI lookup tool? Is there something better than https://doi.org?


texts: Regarding self-archiving embargos, what is the "official publication" date?

texts:
Springer's self-archiving policy states:

  Authors may self-archive the author’s accepted manuscript of their articles on their own websites.
  Authors may also deposit this version of the article in any
  repository, provided it is only made publicly available 12 months
  after official publication or later...

http://www.springer.com/gp/open-access/authors-rights/self-archiving-policy/2124

Many other journals specify a similar embargo period.

My question is, what counts as the date of "official publication"? This could refer to:

date of acceptance
date first available online, or
date article first appeared in print

This may seem like a nitpicky question, but for some journals, publication online precedes publication in print by 6 months or more.


texts: I found a mistake in my master thesis's code

texts:
I defended my master thesis couple months ago in a German University. It's a thesis in Computer Science. In my thesis I mainly implemented some machine learning methods and compared their performance. The implementations of the methods and making them available as open-source are considered one of the main contributions of my thesis. I published the source-code online on Google's Code.

However, recently I was browsing the source-code of two methods' implementation and I found two bugs. One of the bugs makes the results of one experiment useless since the method became simply wrong.

Now I'm very worried about that and don't know what to do or what I must or have to do. (They're not going to take my certificate back, right?)

My questions:

Since one of the main contributions of the thesis is the release of the source-code, am I obligated to fix the bugs?
Am I required to keep my source-code online? In other words, can I now decide to take it down and not give it to anyone? I'm the only one who has a copy of the source-code. My professor never asked me to put the source-code on a CD-ROM and put it in the thesis. I also mention in my thesis the online repository for the code.
I had very difficult memories of academia and I was so relieved when I finished. I don't want to contact them again to tell them about the bugs. But am I obligated to do that? I just want to start a new life and never think again about the past.

I'm asking those questions just to know my rights and if I have any obligations. However, since I'm passionate about my thesis topic, I'm actually considering fixing the bugs but I'm not willing to contact my professor and tell him, simply because I just don't want to communicate with someone from the past and still feel that I'm still stuck with academia or have obligations toward them.

Nobody has used my code yet, so if I fix the bug then the person who will clone the project will get a correct version (hopefully! I mean every software is subject to bugs!).

Edit:

I was asked "obligated by whom?". Well what I'm thinking is that since one of the main contributions of my thesis is the source-code, and since my examiners passed my thesis because it has contributions, then I thought that I must have that source-code always available. It feels to me like a contract:

Make contributions (source-code as the main contribution) -> thesis passed -> you get your degree.

Now revoke contribution -> thesis failed -> you don't deserve your degree.

Isn't it like that?


texts: Recently, I applied for two positions at one university. I received a quick reply for a video interview and immediately thereafter the campus visit. Right after my campus visit, I got a call back on the second application. After much deliberation, I recinded the application for the second position interview. Is this appropriate? Is there etiquette for applying to one or two positions at the same institution?


texts: How to read and organize academic materials

texts:
It's a questions that haunts me for some day. I am a phd in computer science and recently when I need to read materials of different forms and take note, I somehow don't know how to decide. With the research area of mine increases, I have to remember vividly more classic materials, or systemically build a way to review them. Currently, the materials include

Papers : only-mathematical wise, normally of pages 20-40, some are typically lengthy to 60 pages.
Classic books : 1) code/system wise, which I prefer to read on pc so I could probably code at the same time; 2) more mathematical wise, which I prefer to read on ipad so I could do derivation and take note.

The trade-off is that, the pc has larger screen and is more natural for me to read the books, while less convenient for me to take notes, especially for hand-written note. And it's even hard to collect the annotations and highlight on pdf reader. So I would like some sharing / suggestions / ideas of how to read materials(papers, books), organize and take notes ?
Notice that this is not a question about reference manager as Reference manager with note-taking/quote-storing capabilities, it's rather to balance the usage between pc and ipad for different materials and find a systematic way to combine the note-after-reading.


texts:
I'm writing a cross-language thesis. In other words, my thesis is about a foreign culture.

Is it common to include foreign terms in the title of a thesis?

If yes, should I include the translation of the term (in parentheses, for example)?


texts: How to get better at identifying research gaps?

texts:
One of the crucial skills of a scientist is to identify research gaps. Unfortunately, students rarely receive much formal training in this skill during their studies. How can one get better at identifying research gaps?

Some problems that I have seen which make identifying research gaps difficult:

The best problems are already identified or solved by other people.
Authors of publications sometimes avoid being overly critical of their own work, and try to phrase their publication so as to make it seem definitive, and avoid admitting that they failed to explain a phenomenon.
Some scientists are wary of being scooped, and avoid mentioning what they see as future projects in the discussion section.
Due to publish or perish culture, there is pressure to split research efforts into minimal chunks - such chunks may seem like they are steps along the way to a solution, but in reality, trying to work on the apparent next step is risky because the author is likely to scoop you.
High-profile journals such as Nature, Science or PNAS probably prefer papers which answer many questions, rather than presenting many uninvestigated open ends.
Lesser journals may have publications that have only solved part of a problem, but those may be buried under a sea of uninteresting publications. (also the lesser journals are much more numerous and harder to get abreast of)
It is easy to confirm that an idea has already been done, but it is difficult to confirm that an idea is truly novel.


texts: Is it a faux pas to not have your phd supervisor write a letter of recommendation as a post doc?

texts:
Here is the current situation I face:

I am currently a postdoc but have begun to apply for jobs as a faculty member for the 2019 academic year. My issue is in securing letters of recommendation.

My PhD supervisor is currently going through chemotherapy and I do not want to worry them with a letter of recommendation on my account. My supervisor seems to be taking a small break from academia during treatment.

My question is, for search committees, if my letters of recommendation include my postdoctoral supervisor but not my phd supervisor, will that be considered a faux pas?


texts: Is it normal for a PhD student to be asked to contribute to a grant proposal?

texts:
Is it common for a PhD student to be asked to contribute to a grant proposal (one of those that require faculty to submit them, the "big" ones)?

I've been asked to write a small section but I'm really worried that whatever I will write will be used to shoot down the proposal and that if that happens it will be my fault. I have no experience whatsoever writing grant proposals and have only minimal experience writing research (I'm a first year).

This is a big proposal for a multi-million dollar project. I don't want to be the reason for its failure.


texts: Will a certificate from my University Professor that I have worked under him can be shown as work experience for my graduate admission abroad?

texts: I am planning  on working under a professor after my UG completes. However the professor has said that it would be an informal arrangement between the two of us, as the formal process is a bit complicated and would require intervention from the institute. So, the question is, could I take on this offer and get a certificate from the professor(of course signed by him) and state it as a work experience in my CV?


texts: In the social sciences, is it easier to get a post doc than a PhD?

texts:
I am completing a PhD in Global Studies in Germany, and would like to apply for a post doc in North America, especially Canada. However, I am not sure if there is funding for post docs in the social sciences. For international students is it easier to apply for a PhD than for a post doc?
 I have a publication in an edited book from a prestigious publisher, another in English in a peer reviewed journal published from Germany.


texts: What to think when asked to self-fund research?

texts:
I applied to a funded advertised PhD position about 7 weeks ago... I heard nothing between then and a few days ago when I got an email from them saying that they “wondered” whether I would be willing to self-fund my research. I let them know that I wouldn’t be able to do that and have heard nothing back from them since... The issue here is that I don’t know how to take this.

I’m under the impression that my application was well above average (I had it looked over by several academics I know) and I’m pretty sure that I was one of the first people who applied, if not the first.

I just want to know if I should take their question to mean that they are not willing to fund my research. Is this standard practice? And if it is, what does it mean?


texts: How to make a paper's author willing to help me with his source code like a semi-supervisor?

texts:
I am really in trouble. I am doing my MA thesis on wireless sensor networks, and I have a source code with more than 16 files and each one more than 5000 lines. It's very complex and has no documentation and that source code is all I have to do my thesis.

I am totally dependent on the author's help. I have been working on his code for almost three months now but because of the lack of documentation, my progress is very very slow. Also, my supervisor has no knowledge of the concept or the source code, and I have no time to change the supervisor, concept or source code.

So, how I can tell the author of the code please help me? How can I make him willing to help? What should I tell him in the emails?

By the way, he answered my questions in the past. I asked three questions and he answered them. I've previously asked about the etiquette of repeated emails to him in this question.

But I need his help like semi-supervisor. By the way he is a kind person as far as I know.


texts: Should I change the format of preprint before publishing it as a working paper?

texts:
I submit a paper to a journal which allows to publish the preprint as a working paper. After submission, I thought I can just take the version I just submitted and publish it on ResearchGate. But then I thought that it might be problematic to use the same format I used for submission, since then everyone knows to what journal I submitted (or at least, to what publisher). Then, if my paper gets rejected, everyone knows that.

Is this an important consideration? Is it important to change the format of the paper before putting it in a preprint archive?