texts: Copyright of microscopy data acquired by myself

texts:
The question is the following: What is the copyright of imaging data (microscopy) I acquired during working in a research laboratory? Can I use this on my homepage / personal website?
I took the images with a microscope on my own. So is this my data?


texts: Faculty TT verbal offer made, but no written offer (it's been about 10 business days)

texts:
I went through 2 rounds of interviews with a public university in the United States, was given a verbal offer 10 business days ago. The professor who spoke with me said that I should get a written offer the following week (last week) but so far - silence. I reached out to my contact person last week and they said the Provost (who needs to sign off on the tenure track line) was out last week. I waited to check in again with my contact person yesterday and they said that they will check, but still silence.
This is my only offer so far, but I do have interviews lined up beginning and mid-January and February with other schools. This public university is my 1st choice and the verbal offer was excellent.
Is this a bad sign? What is the customary timeframe to expect a written offer following a verbal offer? 2 weeks? Can the university change its mind? What is the best action on my part?


texts: Are the IEEE Standardized Keywords Madatory For The Index Terms Section?

texts: In an IEEE paper template, it has been mentioned that "Keywords should be taken from the taxonomy" and they gave a list of keywords, they have also mentioned elsewhere that these keywords can make an article more easily and reliably discoverable. However, I'm not quite sure whether they are mandatory or not.


texts: How to specify in presentation that permission to use a particular image is taken?

texts: I am presently undertaking research on a particular topic in control systems. That particular topic has a long history and I found a image which summarizes the history in one image only. I want to use that particular image in my presentation. I have also taken permission from the authors of that image to use it. But, while using it in my slide, I want to show in the same slide that I have taken permission to use that image so that professors understand that I am not stealing that image but I have taken the requisite permission to use that image. What line or a sentence should I include in that particular slide, so that the professors get that point automatically. I mean something like "Used with permissions". Like that what is the precise line which can be included ?


texts: What is the difference between department and faculty?

texts:
Some universities have independent departments, but some put departments under supervision of a faculty. For instance, a university has fifty independent departments, but another has 5 faculties containing departments. In the former, the Dean of Faculty is intermediate between the department chairs and the university administration.

I understand that most of these structures come from the university history, but how these structures affect the department performance, and why universities prefer different structures, instead of a standard one (which should be most efficient).

For example, what is the different of Department of Computer Science in one university, and Department of Computer Science in another university which is part of Faculty of Engineering?


texts:
TLDR: Can a researcher include an entire paragraph from another article for which they were a co-author on a new, single-author article?
Copy-editor for an academic journal here with an issue I've never come across before. We work with Chicago-style footnotes.
I have a solo-authored article by someone (let's call them Alex) that includes an entire paragraph from another article in which Alex was a co-author. I only found out that the entire paragraph was lifted from another article through my own background research. Giving Alex the benefit of the doubt, I asked how they would like to address this paragraph: Would they like to rewrite it? Cite the paragraph in a footnote? They would like to cite it in a footnote; however, I am now unsure of whether this is an appropriate fix given that it's an entire paragraph from another article in which Alex was listed as one of many authors, and for which Alex was not mentioned as one of the writers. I'm not sure what to do given that an entire paragraph seems like it's enough to warrant including all the other authors from the other article.
Here are the questions I'm wondering about that will help me determine what path to take with this article:

Do I go ahead and cite the entire paragraph as a quotation? If so, do I need to tell Alex that they need permission from all other authors in the previous article?
Do I tell Alex that they need to include all the other authors as co-authors on this paper if they want to include this paragraph?
Should I just change my mind and say that, after reviewing best practices or consulting with others, Alex needs to rewrite the paragraph?


texts: What prevents a reviewer from stealing the idea?

texts:
The reviewer has the copy for manuscript and they are generally top notch in the field in which the paper was written. What prevents the reviewer from exploiting his/her power? As in, rejecting it and publishing a slightly modified version himself?

I am new to this, so forgive me it is a foolish question.


texts:
First of all I wanna say I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this question, so apologies in advance.
My objective is something like that:

Which software allows these kind of figures?
Many thanks!


texts: What is the academic argument against Sci-Hub?

texts:
I know that some consider certain activities of Sci-hub to violate the law in some jurisdictions. Many of the previous questions and opinions related to Sci-hub have focused on these legal aspects (and they are certainly important to consider).

However, I am wondering what are the main harms or downsides associated with the existence of Sci-hub and similar services from the perspective of academics, researchers, and students. I am asking because this topic is relatively new to me, and I would like to better understand the main cons of Sci-hub as perceived by fellow academics (as opposed to publishers or lawyers).


texts: What are issues to consider when making your code for an experimental paradigm, which was conceived by someone else, publicly available?

texts:
General background

In the cognitive sciences, it is often necessary to program/script experimental paradigms to conduct your studies. Basically, these programs present stimuli and collect responses, such as in the Eriksen Flanker task. However, programming capacities are typically limited in my field because it is rarely taught during graduate education (at least in my country). Also, it seems there is a somewhat reluctant culture of sharing this software unless there is some sort of scientific cooperation.

Consequently, when designing a study the decision for one of several paradigms used to measure a given construct can, among other things, be motivated by availability of the software or the effort necessary to implement it. With respect to sound science (choosing the most appropriate rather than available paradigm, software bugs, etc.), reproducibility (incomplete descriptions of methods, lack of programming skills, etc.), speed of scientific development, and, more generally, open science this is less than optimal.

The situation at hand

For a current study, I have started to implement three paradigms from scratch for different reasons:

One paradigm is publicly available from the authors but implemented in a commercial development environment for which I don't have a license (I, therefore, can't run it).
Another paradigm, to my knowledge, is not available from the authors at all. I contacted the authors for a copy of the software but got no reply.
The third paradigm is commercially available but is also closed source and only grants access to a limited set of the response data. For my analyses, I'd like to have access to richer data.

Given my prior general considerations, I think about releasing my implementations of the paradigms under an open source license, once they are finished. Now my question is:

  What are issues to consider when I release my software to collect data in an experimental paradigm, which was conceived by another scientist, under an open source license?

Here are some of the things I'm wondering about:

Are there legal issues, such as copyright infringement, to be considered for commercially or non-commercially available software? Note, I created all of the code and  all images based on low resolution prints in publications. I'm merely copying the concept.
Would such a release conflict with common etiquette in the case where the software is simply not available from the original authors (remember, I asked but got no reply)? Is it necessary to ask each author before releasing my code?
Can I be held responsible morally if the software is used and turns out to be faulty? I'm less concerned about legal responsibility because the license I intend to use does not provide warranty. More importantly, I certainly intend for the software to work since I'll use it my self but you never know.
If my study ends up being published and points to the availability of the software, can this benefit the citation count of the publication?

I'm sure there are more things to consider that I haven't thought of. But that's why I'm asking the question. ;)


texts:
We have been asked by the powers that be to move away from Academia.edu and ResearchGate and adopt services like orcID.

https://orcid.org

The one big thing missing in orcID is that there’s nowhere to describe the lab or research team, all groups are on the faculty level only.

Do any of you have some creative work-around?


texts: What is on stake for a supervisor in having a PhD student succeed or failing?

texts:
I'll turn the question in a different and more precise way:

Can a supervisor profit somehow from the failure of one of his students?

I'll try now to list some possible reasons for supporting this:

Purely for revenge (must be considered... we are humans after all)
The student placed the supervisor in some awkward position (by exposing some irregularity, for instance) thus, the supervisor might profit to delegitimize the student in the community.
The student has adverse opinions toward the subject of the research.


texts: Imminent unemployment, I have a screwed up CV; incompetent in my own field of PhD. Hoping for some perspective and advise?

texts:
I did my PhD recently and it took 5.5 years to complete. I had just 2 courses in my PhD, so the timeline is excessive owing to my lack of motivation during my 2-3rd year.

I have also not taken any advanced graduate level courses in my PhD and am entirely relying on my publications for portraying my quantitative, technical and programming experience.

I had changed my field from materials engineering (undergrad) to mechanical engineering during PhD. But, I did not take any courses to address the lack of technical background (advanced mathematics and computational fluid dynamics).

My research was not that rigorous programming and technicality wise. So, I kind of survived through it. Studying other publications, self studying concepts through books was enough.

But now, since I have graduated, I am finding it severely uncomfortable to apply for positions that seek a different more rigorous job description.

I think, I made some terrible decisions along the way. I should have taken the courses as that would have built up my confidence.

On top of that, I have no job experience or internship experience. I have lost hope on academia and chances in industry appears slim too.

I have 6-7 months of a temporary gig to regroup myself and survive from imminent unemployment. Hoping for some perspective and advise?


texts: University metalshop / makerlab - metric or imperial?

texts:
I'm applying for some funds to set up a small makerlab-type metalshop in my department (American research university, although I should note that I'm in the social sciences). My plan is to get a CNC mill and lathe along with some 3D printers for rapid prototyping of equipment.

My question is whether to get metric or imperial CNCs. Yes, it's easy to flip the display controllers between metric and imperial, but the gearing of the mill itself is usually based on a metric or imperial leadscrew, so that 1 turn of the handwheel turns a certain metric/imperial based distance.

I checked the other metalshops at my university and they are use imperial-unit Bridgeport mills and lathes. I myself grew up in a metric country (i.e., somewhere other than the US, Liberia, and Burma) and so find this incredibly backwards.

Is there any good reason to go with imperial-based lathes and mills -- except for the cost of finding a good metric one?

Note 1: For lathes, it is relatively easy to change the gearing for metric, so this is not as much of an issue as it is for mills where the X, Y, and Z leadscrews and indicators  would need to be swapped out. Not to mention the difficulty in sourcing metric borers and bits...


texts:
My friend is soon to obtain her doctoral degree in applied physics and start postdoc. She is provided by the department a chance to choose what to be displayed on the degree (between D.Eng. and Ph.D., but both in applied physics). She is actually doing purely theoretical physics although the department is named applied physics. She says that she will try to stay in the same academia, but not excluding the possibility of moving out if not going well.

She asked me and it's not quite clear to us what the difference might be and what might be affected in the future.


texts:
I recently obtained my Ph.D., and I am looking in various states for an assistant professor or instructor position. Since I will be moving to another state, I would ideally like to find a tenure-track position. However, some of the jobs postings  I found do not mention whether or not the position is tenure-track. They usually list the position as full-time 9/10 month, with no mention of a contract or fixed term.

Is it considered impolite to email the university's HR and ask if the position is tenure-track? If not, what would be the best way to ask?


texts: Can I take credit for contributions to study materials on my CV?

texts:
I currently work for a well-known company that publishes study materials for a certain branch of mathematics. I have done quite a bit of work under them that has been published through their website (and is used to profit the company), however, no one's particular name is labeled on the materials (they just state the company's name).

Would I be able to include such work on a mathematics graduate school application CV other than mentioning it briefly in my work experience? If so, should I create a section "Publications" or  with some other title? ("Publications" seems misleading to me, as it suggests a peer-reviewed journal or other scholarly text of some sort.)


texts: Is it normal for a graduate student's fate to depend on the success of a breakthrough idea?

texts:
I am officially a graduate student in a different department than where I have been working for the last ~6 months. (..(un?)fortunately this department where I were I now work is ranked almost the highest in that subject in the US than my previous...)

For a start, I work with two amazing assistant professors on an exciting project. The work we are doing is breakthrough historical stuff IF it works out. Obviously its insanely hard!

But then its also problematic that this project is so so hard. I get the feeling that my official status in the university and my prospect of getting any of these professors as my official advisers depends on the success of these projects! (I am not sure how to feel about it - its like I can continue in the PhD. only if I can may be also crack the most breakthrough question out there and get a Nobel! - thats what it feels like!)

How do I deal with this situation?
The psychological pressure is immense - its one thing to be involved in a cutting edge idea but its all together a different game when one's livelihood depends on its success! Is this a normal situation?


texts: Can reviewers ask questions of or communicate with the author outside of the formal review process?

texts:
It's typical in my field that after we post to the arxiv, people from the community reach out to the authors to ask questions about the paper. Every time this has happened to me, I've responded with more explanation to try and address their specific questions. Sometimes it does seem like the person is arguing with the central results of the paper, and frequently the communication extends past what I'm willing to do (asking us to generate more data or wanting additional plots beyond what are in the paper) and I usually decline these requests. I don't really have the time, and I also don't like the idea of sharing plots/data over private communication. I would be happy to show additional plots in a more public forum, like for example in a seminar talk, where it's clear where the work originated, and where I get some credit for the labor I've done in preparing the presentation.
Recently I've been wondering: what if someone participates in such an exchange, and is then tapped to be a reviewer of our work during the journal submission process? Is this ethical? Should they disclose that they had informal previous communication with the authors? Should I factor this possibility in when I think about how accommodating I should be?


texts:
I currently am writing a paper which uses regressions (from statistics) heavily. The objective is to show (as far as possible) that A causes B.

The main analysis of my paper uses regressions to show that A is correlated with B.

After showing this correlation, I wish to show that A occurs before B occurs so as to give further evidence of a causal relationship. This requires another set of regressions. (The set of explanatory variables changes significantly, so I need to specify the new regression equation.)

Furthermore, I need to show that factors C, D, E mediate the relationship between A and B. (Again, I am much better off specifying the new regression equation. Even if you doubt this, just believe me on this)

How should I go about this?

Option 1: Explain all methods (correlation, temporal precedence, mediation) in the Methods section. Then give all results in the Results section.

Option 2: Explain the methodology for detecting correlation, then give the results. Then explain the methodology for temporal precedence, give the results. Then explain the methodology for mediation, and give the results.

The problem is, no matter which way I do this, I get criticism that the structure is confusing, along with suggestions that I should do the alternative approach. For example, if I try option 1, people say that temporal precedence and mediation only make sense if I detect a correlation, so these analyses should be shifted to the back. On the other hand, if I try option 2, people say that my methodology should all be neatly encompassed in a single Methods section.

I'm curious as to what most people do when they are in a similar situation?


texts: Is "short paper" or "tool paper" valued less than full version paper?

texts:
Some conferences provide both the regular paper track and the tool paper (sometimes called short paper) track. My question is: Is the latter category of papers generally regarded as of lower standards than the former one? What would be your first impression before you start reading a  paper that comes with "short paper" in its description or title?

An example of such regular paper vs. tool paper can be found in the recent call-for-papers of the Computer Aided Verification conference.


texts: Citing propositions etc. in a master's thesis

texts:
So in my mathematics master's thesis I am mainly following a certain paper, trying to understand it and present it's results in my own way. Now for a few chapters in my thesis I am basing them off of chapters in the paper and I'm unsure on how and what I need to cite. I generally start of these chapters saying something like "this chapter looks at ...blah blah blah....following (cite source)". Also for remarks and analysis I've taken from the paper I also cite those. But what about Propositions or proofs I've taken from the paper? (Stuff which is not'common knowledge').

As these are generally interspersed throughout the chapter, writing things like "this result taken from (cite source)... nearby each of the results seems clumsy and breaks the flow of my writing, so I would prefer not to do something like this if it is necessary to cite each of them.


texts: Alternatives for when your institution doesn't provide you an e-mail address

texts:
I study in an institution that never provided me or any other student with an institution e-mail. I feel that this is highly prejudicial to my academic success because a) it forbids me to access closed content, except if I'm accessing it through an institutional computer; and b) it prevents me from being acknowledged by the scientific community. My profile at Google Scholar isn't showing on searches because I don't have a valid institutional e-mail. I cannot create a Scopus profile for the same reason. I really feel that's holding me back when it comes to fully participating in the academic sphere. I've already filed 2 requests for an e-mail, but they simply answer that they don't hand them to masters' students.

My question is if there are alternatives that are suitable to my case that doesn't envolve arguing with the dean about it, because I'm literally days away from my graduation, and if I'm not mistaken, I believe those expire when you graduate. Am I wrong?


texts: What are the essential points that should be covered in a dissertation abstract?

texts:
I need to prepare a 2-page abstract of my dissertation as part of a funding application. What are the essential points that such an abstract should cover?

This opportunity (and my PhD) is in the social sciences, and I know the points regarding tailoring the abstract to the opportunity advertised. But still what is the sort of information that the recruiter would scan my abstract for? For instance, I have seen Profs run their finger down a 2 page list of publications in an application; only occasionally pausing at some journal names. What are the fingers of my evaluators going to pause at?


texts: What can be done about the problem of bullying in post-PhD academia?

texts:
I recently wrote a piece of advice to a bullied postdoc that made me sad.

Abbreviated, original here,

  "It is unlikely you can fight this culture, and academic settings have
  practically no good ways to address bullying of this nature. If you
  find what seems to be one, look for evidence that it has worked for
  past students. Recently. Your best strategy? Leave. Keep your head
  down, and start planning your exit now."

I personally have seen no post PhD success stories that include bullies being stood up to and punished by the system, AND the individuals bullied subsuquently moving forward in their academic careers. I facilitated a conversation with a dozen colleges last night which kept that total. Zero. We all work with different highly ranked R1 universities in the northeast. Between us, we have worked within over 30 US universities.  We agreed that bullies inhabit different roles in academia than in industry and government settings. We also agreed that the topic of bullies is more taboo in post-doctoral academic settings than in upper echelon government and industry settings.

Two questions we think are key:

What unique aspects of post- PhD academic culture allow bullies to persist?

What can be done to end this?


texts: Chicago manual of style block quote reference placement

texts:
In the Chicago manual of style Author-Date format, what is the preferred way to place the reference to a block quote, if the author name is mentioned in the text.

As Smith (2000, 3) wrote about this issue,

       this is a block quote which is
       spanning more than three lines
       so that it definitely deserves to
       be indented.

Next paragraph ...

or

As Smith wrote about this issue,

       this is a block quote which is
       spanning more than three lines
       so that it definitely deserves to
       be indented. (Smith 2000, 3)

Next paragraph ...

It is clear that Chicago prefers says that the reference should be as close as possible to the quote, but in the case above I'm unsure.


texts: Is it permissible to ask the advisor if she has funding to support me as a postdoc for a year?

texts:
I am about to defend my thesis and I have not yet secured a postdoc position elsewhere. I want to ask my PhD advisor if she can support me as a postdoc till I secure a position elsewhere. Usually in other groups, it is the advisor who offers a position to their performing students. In my group, graduates have always secured position and have moved away so no one had to have this conversation with the advisor. She has not offered me any position till date.

I have a good rapport with my advisor, but I don't know how to phrase the request so that it doesn't sound awkward and desperate? I am feeling very hesitant in approaching her with this request but I don't see any other options.

I constantly fear that, probably she didn't like me as a student and wants to get rid of me asap. So, that's the reason she has not offered me a position yet.


texts: Slides for conference talk with no affiliation

texts:
It is (of course) a rule that the speaker's affiliation appears alongside their name in their presentation at a conference.

What's the best practice in the case of no current affiliation? Did you have personal instances, either as speaker or audience?

(Please note: The question is not about publications, which has already been discussed e.g. here.)

EDIT:

Saying that one can simply write their name and nothing else should be obvious and straightforward to everyone. What the question is about is suggestions that either look better than this "trivial solution", or address the fact that it is unusual.


texts: How to find GPA distributions for US universities

texts:
I have been tasked with making a grade equivalence table for a small list of US universities to translate to grades at a European university.  To do this I thought it would be easiest just to look at the GPA distribution and try to map percentiles. However, I am having problems finding them.  Can this data be found for

University of California
University of Maryland
University of Texas at Austin
University of Wisconsin

This is for students in their third year of university who will be spending one year in the US.

The subject of particular interest is computer science but any data would be better than none.


texts: Organizing committee of conference announced publication of papers, but one year later, this hasn't happened. What to do?

texts: I participated one year ago in a conference. The organizing committee asserted that they were planning to produce a publication from the papers presented at the conference and they announced they secured a contract with Palgrave, but I haven’t received any updates regarding the book since the conference. By the way, The Association which organized the conference has a good reputation. Should I send an email to ask them about the book? What’s the best formula for such email ?Thank you


texts: Can I mention interest in two somewhat different research areas in my SOP?

texts:
I am applying to 8 schools in research area X of applied physics. I have some research experience in a very closely related area and one publication in a solid journal.

One of those schools has a professor working on very interesting topics in area Y. I emailed him and his reply was quite positive, saying I have an excellent record, but had the usual "the admissions committee makes the decisions not me, but I will be sure they carefully consider your application". I also know at this school we don't pick advisors till the summer of the first year. I have 3 years of experience in the theoretical side of area Y, 3 journal publications and a few talks/posters.

There are 3 scenarios I can think of:

Mention both X and Y, but I'm worried it would hurt my chances. I could focus mainly on X and mention Y in 1 or 2 sentences in my intro. I would also add 2 sentences to mention this professor's research near the end + 2 more professors from area X.
Mention only X, it makes me look more focused and this university has many more faculty in that area, but I'm worried this will burn bridges with the professor from area Y.
Mention only Y. I wouldn't be very keen on this as I would waste the tens of hours I spent on a mini-literature review of area X before writing my statement.

Edit: To clarify, I'm not asking whether I should mention my work on area Y or not. I certainly did mention all my prior research experience. I am asking whether it's okay to mention future interest in BOTH areas. e.g. "I am interested in topics A, B, C (from area X). Moreover, I am interested in topic D (from area Y)."


texts: The assistant professor doesn't answer e-mails

texts:
I'v already read the similar questions here, but i'm sure those are not applicable in my case.

The assistant reminded us during the last session that we can contact him via email, he is only responsible for a chapter not the whole course. Usually my professor teaches the theory and his assistants handle the exercise sessions.

I tried to contact the person twice via email about fifteen and five days ago respectively, but I have not received any response yet, and I'm not expecting any response at all based on his behaviour before.

I really need an answer before the deadline, so I decided to to contact the professor himself, explaining why and pose my question to him, but after consulting with some academic people this is going to be highly irregular. I don't really know how to handle this in an academically manner.


texts: Is it rude to ask an adviser at my current university to help me transfer?

texts:
I'm an undergraduate looking into transferring from my current university to another college overseas, the application for which requires a letter of motivation detailing why I want to study there. The problem with this is that my reasons for transferring basically boil down to "this college is cheaper and seems to care more about its students than my current university".

My current university offers help with application essays for undergraduates applying to law and medical school, and I really think that this service could help me write a decent letter of motivation. I'm just wondering if it's rude to go to an adviser at my current university and essentially ask him to help me transfer to another university. I've met the adviser before and he jokingly critiques my current school quite a bit, but if I go to him for help, I will basically be talking to him about how much I hate his place of employment. Any advice?


texts: Co-organizing a workshop, does diversity matter?

texts:
I am planning on organizing a workshop as a part of a scientific conference (neuroscience). I have observed that some workshops are organized by a single person, and others are organized by multiple people. When it is organized by multiple people, they were associated with different institutes, and were not from a common academic family.

My question: is it preferable to have people from different institutes as organizers? Does it look "bad" if people from the same institute/lab organize a workshop together?

I am planning to invite around 10 people as speakers, and the organizers will have at most 1 talk altogether (except introductory/organizing short speeches).


texts: Effects of changing majors in undergrad on graduate admission

texts:
I'm posting this on behalf of my friend. I'll address my friend as 'I' in this question to make it more readable.

I'm currently an undergraduate studying podiatry outside US. Over the course of 3 years, I've moved around to 5 different universities, studying 5 different majors, in 3 different countries, for personal reasons. I've finally settled down in one country, but I've quickly realized that I'm not interested in podiatry. I'm thinking of applying to US universities for masters program in speech pathology, which is vastly different from podiatry. Since I know that I won't be pursuing further degree in podiatry, I'm thinking of changing to another school (my school does not offer anything related to speech pathology), but I'm afraid that with so many transfers in my record, another transfer may not look favorable in grad school admission.

My question is:  Is it better, in terms of admission to master's program, to change school to study something more relevant to grad school major, or stick with the current school and get over with undergraduate?


texts: Is it acceptable to ask a professor who is not your supervisor to provide comments on your thesis draft?

texts: I want my thesis to be the best it possibly can be. My supervisor is away for one month right before my thesis submission. Is it inappropriate or poor etiquette to ask another professor in the field who has shown interest in the topic to read the paper and offer any suggestions? This other professor teaches at a different institution, and will not be part of the panel or defence process.


texts: How likely is it for a student to be expelled from university for online posts they wrote as a minor?

texts:
There have been stories recently of students who were expelled from university for derogatory things they said online. It got me wondering if a student would be expelled for saying something derogatory online, except when they were a minor. In this scenario the student wouldn't have been 17 (right before they entered college) but more around the age of 13-15 when they made the comments (many years before enrolling).

I know this probably depends on each university's own code of conduct, but I have no specific institution in mind. Answers based off your own university are fine, and I'm more interested in Canadian universities (although members of universities in the US, Europe, etc are also welcomed to share any info).

To me it doesn't make much sense for a student to be punished for something they said years ago as a young teenager, but I digress.


texts: Dis-/advantages for faculty position in private vs public university hospitals in Germany

texts:
In Germany, several private medical universities (e.g. MSH Medical School Hamburg) have formed and partnered with companies such as Helios and alike running the hospitals. Looking for a new senior position (patient care and research) in a university hospital - what are the advantages/disadvantages compared to public universities? E.g. regarding "freedom of research", economical interest of the private holding vs. public mandate in public university, burocracy of separation of patient care vs. research...?
I have seen similar discussions for the US, but I am asking specifically for Germany, since I am not sure if these are comparable to the big US private universities.


texts: Someone plagiarised my entire paper. What should I do now?

texts:
I am a high school student who published some academic. Today, I saw a paper which looked quite similar to a paper that I published back in May. I was shocked to notice that the author of that paper had plagiarised my entire paper verbatim. He went as far as saying that his results were novel and found out all by him and his co-author.

Now, this paper was published in a junk journal. I am worried because, although I do not want to pursue a career in academia, these papers mean a lot to me as I have worked so hard on them. Moreover, I believe that they can play a major role in securing me admissions at graduate college in the years to come.

I have already notified the journal but I doubt that I will get a reply. Could you please let me know the further steps to be taken too?

Thank you for your time.


texts: What's a good way out when research is stuck?

texts:
Consider a mid-level PhD student in a STEM field (maybe 2-3 years into the program), he and his advisor are working on something relatively new and interesting but they have reached a point where the research isn't moving ahead. How do you get out of this situation?

All papers have been read, colleagues have been consulted and top-of-the-head alternatives considered but the problem isn't moving ahead. No theory, computation or intuition helps. The only possibility left is to (optimistically) wait for a Hollywood moment when it all comes together.

Where do you go from here assuming that you cannot completely abandon that topic? At what point should you "start searching for other problems"? How do you choose what to work on next (should you start anew or pick something allied)?


texts: How broad should the research Interests of an undergraduate applying for grad school be?

texts:
I'm an undergraduate student applying to grad school. In my Research Interests section in my CV (or somewhere else), I wonder how broad should my interests be.

For example, I have worked on topics about plasmonics that fall under condensed matter physics. Now can I write condensed matter physics as a research interest? I actually like most of subjects in condensed matter physics, and have quite accidentally worked on this specific subject plasmonics. Limiting the research interests to just plasmonics may limit my choices for application, while being too broad may cause me look like someone who has not even explored current research areas.

As an applied physics and engineering student, how broad should by research interests appear on my application?


texts:
I am citing papers in Statement of Purpose.
I am only using - "first author et al". instead of the recommend cite as per the paper's norms.
Would that be okay or should I just use the normal reference which goes into writing papers?


texts: What is the difference between TV-L E13 and TV-L E14 positions? Is it negotiable?

texts:
I am trying to wrap my head around the German research system since I have an offer for a position. I understand the TV-L concept, and that you can go up a step depending on your prior relevant experience.

I do not however understand what distinguishes the TV-L E13 from TV-L E14 positions for postdocs. What are the differences and is it something that you can negotiate with the institute (seeing as TV-L E14 is better paid)? Sounds like there should be a difference somehow.

In my case, I have a 4.5-year-long PhD and an additional 4 years of research experience. If my understanding of the documents is correct, I would land in Grade (Stufe) 3, is that correct? If not, could anyone elaborate on how the prior experience is calculated for this purpose?

EDIT: the follow-up is now moved to a separate question


texts: Is it possible to publish a simple result that refutes prior work in a leading journal? (without support from your advisor)

texts:
In a certain field of science, it has been known that X leads to Y and assumed that if Y is observed it is caused by X. Using a relatively simple (mathematical) experiment, I have shown that also A, B, C, ... (class of certain objects), lead to Y, which means that observing Y does not guarantee X.

In my opinion, this is something that should have been checked years ago. In fact, this finding can be used to refute or at least considerably weaken the work done in a certain sub-field over more than 10 years. (though there's some prior critical work on this but the people do not seem to have cared)

Is it usually possible to publish such findings in leading journals?

Another problem that I have is that the work challenges a major part of my supervisor's work, which rests on the mentioned assumption. She seems quite upset, and tries to see the work just as some technical quirk, which it is not. I joined the lab quite recently, so I have no idea what to do. Anyway, I am very serios about this: I'll resign if it necessary to get thing published as soon as possible. It could even end my career altogether but if science is not about truth I don't see why I would like to stay in it.

I am very early in my career and the most technical (mathematical) person in the lab. What I have shown is kind of similar as finding a counter-example in math.


texts: Is the following publishing strategy convenient?

texts:
I work in the field of CS, and recently published one of my works (Algorithm A) in arXiv (not peer-reviewed), as a short technical report which introduces a new method along with relevant mathematical analysis/proofs/etc.

I want to submit a paper-X to a conference by using that method in some practical applications and in combination with other methods. I decided to not introduce Algorithm A in that work due to space limits and enough contributions that paper-X has by itself.

But i want to also submit an extended version of paper-X to a journal along with introducing Algorithm A with proper further analysis/proofs.

So:

1- Is this allowed?

2- Is it convenient / advised?


texts:
From time to time a paper is submitted that has (at least) one of the following characteristics :

extreme length
technical tour de force
obfuscated/confusing wording

What are examples in your area where it took a mammoth effort from the anonymous referee to get the paper eventually accepted, and were said paper became an important milestone ?
Was that benevolent work later recognized in a somewhat non-anonymous fashion ?


texts: What does one do the summer between graduation and graduate school?

texts:
I am about to graduate with a B.S. in mathematics and will (hopefully) be attending a PhD program somewhere starting in the fall.

What is one supposed to do the summer between?  I don't have any money, so I can't "travel."  I would love to do another REU, but I don't think they generally admit graduates.


texts: Is there an equivalent of the journals Science or Nature for engineering?

texts: The journals Science and Nature seem like they are basically the flagship journals for most of the hard sciences, such as biology, physics, or chemistry.  Is there an equivalent high-caliber journal for general engineering?  For example, if somebody discovers a new algorithm that revolutionizes robotics (and is so profound that it might be of interest to mechanical engineers or computer engineers as well), is there an appropriate outlet for such a thing?


texts: What does the title "Burgerlijk ingenieur" in Belgium mean?

texts:
I finished the Master of Science and got my diploma in Belgium. Before obtaining my Masters, I did a Bachelor's in Architecture in Serbia. Altogether I studied six years (4+2).

"The holder of this degree can use the title of Master. The holder of this degree is also authorized to bear the Dutch language title of Burgerlijk ingenieur."

Since I would like to work in Germany, it is important for me to prove to German authorities that I have completed my engineering studies, in other words that I am an "engineer". In my opinion, this is enough but I am not quite sure what it means exactly .


texts: How should an administrative assistant reply to student addressing them as "Professor" or "Doctor"?

texts:
As an administrative assistant at a major university, I regularly field questions from prospective applicants and students. Occasionally, in response to my reply the author will address me as "Professor" or "Doctor".

What is a concise yet polite way to reply with regard to this (in my case) misattribution? I am flattered to be sure, but my flattery is exceeded by my concern for honesty in advertising – I'm neither a PhD/ScD/MD, nor a professor. On the one hand, if I just ignore it I feel I'm tacitly accepting the misattributed title, on the other hand if I reply with a correction, I fear that I misrepresent the values of our community as being overly obsessed with titles and protocol. Any suggestions for a tactful and honest way of addressing this kind of misattribution is appreciated!


texts:
A professor, call X, who is with strong probability about to be my future MS Thesis supervisor/advisor, seems very interested to work with me. Mostly on lectures, X seems interested in my ideas and is very encouraging.

However, out of the class, X is totally unreachable, uninterested in my problems. e.g. very slow to respond questions, once I needed an important paperwork to be done and X totally slacked it, although a ceratin mouthful "sure I will do it" promise. I had really hardtime to fix related issue with much frustations, because of X's attitude. And X did not give me any apologies for this situation.

I understand that profs are busy beings, managing tons of stuff at the same time, but I expect not to break a given promise or not to give promise at all to do something. I am really fed up and tired of this repeating behavior.

I have started to think that, it is not a good idea to work with X. I seriously doubt that professor would be reachable in my thesis study, not to mention to be helpful in my future academic pursuits, such as a strong letter for a Ph.D. application.

Am I expecting a lot ? Also, I want to kindly inform X that, I do not want to involve any future studies with X. What kind of wording should I use ?


texts: How to find one or two good recent PhD theses (that are internationally recognized as best) in your chosen area

texts: I am finding it difficult to select a topic for my masters thesis (my advisor is unwilling to offer suggestions on the matter). I intend to do thesis in the field of internal combustion engines. To get some good ideas about finding a good topic I want to study some recent PhD theses in internal combustion engines but I don't know where to find them. Also I would like to know about modern research trends in that field.


texts: Research team writing using different tools

texts:
I work on a research team of four people. However, different members use different tools and this makes working together more challenging. I'm wondering if there are any solutions to this problem (besides insisting everyone use one set of tools, angering at least some of the team members).
For example, two of us use Zotero and two use Endnote. Likewise, two of us use Word and two of us use LibreOffice.
The challenge is that those who use LibreOffice were sick of Word and do not want to go back. However, others are comfortable with Word and do not want to change away from something they know and works well for them. Another challenge is some use Linux and Word on Linux is less simple than Word on Windows or Mac.
It is not as simple as "LibreOffice can edit Word documents" because of the way each handles reference links.
The same problem exists with reference managers. For example, Endnote does not run on Linux.
What we end up with is someone writes 10,000 words in Word and Endnote. Then someone else edits it down to 7,000 in LibreOffice and Zotero. When the original author goes in to make some additions / edits, things get very messy and it requires significant efforts to go back and fix everything. Sometimes, when the first person re-opens the document (which was edited in LibreOffice) in Word, the in-text references will actually be missing.
Has this problem been solved (other than mandating the tools to be used)?
Is editing papers online (Office 365 / Google Docs) a workable solution (do any work with reference managers)?


texts: Is hiring a proofreader beneficial in the long term?

texts:
I am an Early Stage Researcher in a bigger project. I am non-native speaker of English and I find my level of English in my articles not satisfactory, especially when I consider that it is not just my reputation but also the reputation of the project.

I am thinking about hiring a proofreader for my future articles or other texts for publication.

My long term goal is to improve myself enough so I would not need a proofreader in the future. Does the possibility to see your corrected text help you improve your writing skill in the long term, or are English classes necessary?


texts: Does publishing a paper on arXiv prevent me from submitting it to a non-open access journal?

texts: If I publish a pre-print paper on arXiv, how can I guarantee exclusive rights to the publisher afterwards? Am I unable to publish on non-open access journals after I publish a pre-print on arXiv ?


texts:
I am an integrated master student doing a rather short project of only 4months in the lab (due to covid). The project is quite a weird one as it either works or it doesn't and if it doesn't I have no data at all cause it is a cell based project. I'm about a month in and my cells keep dying and I have no data. I am super concerned that I'll have nothing to show or write up at the end of my project. I want to ask my supervisor if I could simultaneously work on something that would generate data fast as a backup project if this fails to generate any data but I'm not sure if it would look like I'm "giving up" on this project. Also, I have only 3 months left to start a new project. I'm not entirely sure how to deal with the situation. Additionally, I am currently applying to PhD and would need my current supervisor's to act as a referee.
Thanks!


texts: Which kinds of academic revolutions has philosophy of science indentified so far and when?

texts:
Recently, I had an interdisciplinary discussion with some friends about Industry 4.0, internet of things,...which brought up the question, which kind of academic revolutions apart from industrial revolutions have happened so far. Unfortunately, we are all working in STEM and not humanities and are no experts in philsophy of science or sociology.

Google scholar reveals that the term "academic revolution" exists and is broadly used in scientific literature. But, even on wikipedia, I could not find a good overview of the timeline and kind of academic revolutions that happened so far or are thought of by scientists in humanities.

Intuitively and discussed in our group were:

Gutenberg printing press invention
International postal service
...
Internet
...
Artificial intelligence/"singularity" (by Ray Kurzweil)
...

I hope there are also some non-STEM users and scientists here who can possibly shed some light on this or link a good review article or website.

Personally I'm more interested in the methodological and scientific indication of an academic revolution (e.g. strong increase in exchange of scientists between countries and disciplinaries, interdisciplinary referencing, number of research articles, open science, peer review changes etc...). Some of those phenomenological academic discruptions can probably be quite well recognized by bibliometric analysis as in a recent question here about "global number of publications over time". But my short googling left it unclear to me, if all of above bullet points are actually agreed on as single academic revolutions by the research community. Also the changing interdependency of universities - industry - government seems to play a bigger role in identifying and arguing for an academic revolution. But apart from technological disruptions, of course also financial disruptions of the funding of academia is an important factor as well as the historical cultural disruptions like the french revolution or the cold war. In the end I would like to be able to extrapolate from a good answer on this question and the past revolutions, which future academic revolutions are to come or if artifical intelligence is the next and last one thought of.


texts: To what extent do monetary incentives encourages researchers to publish in ISI Journals?

texts:
There is an argument in my institute that ISI journal publication incentive (in ISI journals only) should be omitted. However, the opposition, including me, believe that such monetary incentive would motivate young researchers who are low paid researchers to publish their work in ISI journals. I checked some of the international universities and found similar discussions tend to agree that incentive is necessary for young publishers and researchers.

What is the status in your institutes and to what extent do you think payment for ISI journal publication encourages researchers to work more seriously?

NOTEs:
1- Please consider that the focus is on legitimate peer reviewed ISI journal publication ONLY, not any other publications such as conference or predatory open access journals.

2- FYI, in Computer Science, publishing in a legitimate peer reviewed ISI journal takes from 6 months to 2 years. If a novice researcher can publish in 6 months, he/she is considered very lucky and brilliant.


texts: Is it my responsibility to refute misinformation in social situations?

texts:
Seldom does a day pass without a juicy piece of misinformation catching my eye. Generally these are the regular thoroughly debunked myths. Be it that vaccines cause autism, or humans cannot possibly influence the climate system since 'we're so small compared to the Sun'. Sure, I utter to myself after a four pi-radian eyeroll.
Is that all I should be doing?

Voices in my head

A second-year chemistry student hardly possesses sufficient experience in climatology or immunology.

But established basic scientific facts do not need a PhD to communicate. After all, science is not about arguments from authority. Rather it bases upon peer-reviewed research published in reputable journals. As far as I restrict myself to citable argumentation, I should be fine.

Good luck with that! This individual has already made up their mind. Any mention of a myth will have them in a defensive position, ready to turn on caps lock. Then you will only reinforce the erroneous beliefs you set out to disprove.

Fine, I shall not proceed.

(repeat)

Ultimately, these are my friends. Former training buddies, in some cases relatives, or even an occasional lecturer. Sitting idly has not worked once. If anything, one myth seems to build on the other. A guy who thought Coca-Cola Zero contained no calories now shares blogs which propose that smoking is beneficial. Not a true story (yet) but you get the idea.
Is it my responsibility as a student of science to embark on this quest? Or is the exercise in vain, at best up to representatives of the corresponding fields of study?
By the way, there is no evidence that the Earth is round... (Yes, a bad joke I left for last.)


texts: To apply to PhD eventually, how important is it to do an MS program with thesis if I have strong undergrad research experience?

texts:
I want to apply to PhD in chemical engineering in the US.

I have had three papers as undergrad (one first author), but my undergrad GPA was rather poor, at around 3.2. GRE scores were all over 90 percentile and recommendations should all be good. Since grades are my weakest link in my application, and I have demonstrated my ability for research, I was thinking of doing a coursework-only MS program to show that I can handle classes and exams as well before applying to top schools in my research area of interest.

This has the advantage of taking less time than an MS, and I am skeptical of how much research I would be able to get done in an MS program anyways because professors are more concerned with supervising PhD students, and I may only end up getting on a paper as a second or third author.

I have noticed that basically everyone says that to apply to good PhD programs, a thesis in the MS program is a must. The only exception is my prof; I talked to him about it, and he thinks that I would be okay with just doing a coursework MS to show that I am capable of getting a good GPA as well. Is a thesis still necessary in my case, since I have a strong research background from undergrad?


texts: Ghosted? PI of >1 year not responding to emails for new mentor?

texts:
I'm currently an undergrad who has been working at this lab for 1 year. In the beginning, I was pretty slow with research and I still make mistakes sometimes. For instance, it took me 4 months to get a western to properly work and 1 month to properly clone something. I'm not as bright as the other interns, but I learned a lot this 1 year about techniques and scientific knowledge. Granted, I don't know if I'm 'competent' enough for research.

Anyways, my research mentor (post-doc) left for a new position, and now I'm pretty much without a mentor. I emailed my PI for a new mentor assignment if possible a week ago, no response. My former mentor emails my PI and gets no response. Now, I decide to follow-up with him yesterday - still no response. So in total, 3 emails (2 from me, 1 from my former mentor) sent to my PI about this topic in the last week.

I'm not the closest to my PI. He seems always busy and I haven't spoken to him very often. However, it's unlike him to take a very long time to respond to emails, as he usually responds within 1-2 days.

Does this mean I've been ghosted by my PI/given a boot from lab? My former mentor told me that my PI would be willing to let me continue working, but I don't know if he was just saying that.

I'm not sure if I should reach out to other post-docs/grad-students in the lab and ask them if they can be my new supervisor mentor. So far, I haven't had much work to do so I've been staying back home and reading papers the lab has published/to see if any of interest. The other people in the lab familiar with my name; I hope they're not thinking about how stupid I am since I did make lots of dumb mistakes. I know the lab manager doesn't like me that much (one time I was giving a lab presentation and she was shaking her head), and usually she's the de facto person people turn for conflicts such as these.

What should I do?  I've been in a state of rumination about this for a long, long time. I'm really interested in the work of this lab.


texts: Is there any point in submitting application earlier?

texts: Do admission committees start evaluating applications before deadline? I mean is there any point in sending application before deadlines? My main concern is USA universities.


texts: How to do undergrad summer research in philosophy, when there aren't any programs?

texts:
I am a first year undergraduate student studying natural sciences at highly reputed university, and am pretty sure that in the future I would like to pursue studies in philosophical theoretical physics and mathematics, and philosophy of artificial intelligence, perhaps also dabbling in philosophy of mind. I wanted to explore this during the summer, however there aren't really any philosophy summer programs for undergraduates. I would be very interested to hear any suggestions that anyone has. I have come across the Summer School for Mathematical Philosophy for female students at the University of Munich, for example. However, it is only a one week long course and I have a 3 month long summer vacation!

I was wondering if there are any other options? Perhaps I could email a professor at another university and I could spend the summer there? The problem is, I don't really know what this could entail, so I am not quite sure what to put in an email. If I were to spend, for example, 6 weeks in a department, what could I hope to achieve? Is it common for a humanities student to write a short paper during the summer while working under a department? I would rather not spend the summer at my university -- I think it would be good for me to spend some time in a different environment as well.


texts: When an academic researcher decides to file for a patent, where does the budget to pay for the patent-related costs typically come from? From the academic researcher's budget? From the University's intellectual property/legal budget? From somewhere else?


texts: Why are academics expected to pay out of their pockets for society memberships?

texts:
I had a discussion with a colleague about paying to become a member out of our own pockets. His argument is that we have to support a society if we care about it.

I don't understand the argument. The best way I can explain it is if we compare it to industry. You would not be asked to pay out of your own pocket to do the job you were hired for. Instead, your employer would have to pay it.

However, with respect to memberships in academia we are supposed to pay to do the job we were hired for (by the way, in my contract it says "give presentations in academic meetings"). It might be my experience in industry that makes me think this way, but again, I do not find it appropriate at all that we have to pay to do our jobs.

Why is there this discrepancy between academia and industry?

PS. I know in some cases one can use certain funds to pay for membership, I am not asking about that. I am asking that if you have the options of (1) not being a member or (2) pay it yourself, you are expected to pay it yourself.

Extra information: I asked around in my office and all (but me) frown upon academics that are not members of any society. In practice, this means (as far as I know, told this in confidence) that colleagues in my department do not consider you a committed professional and can use this as an excuse to minimize your achievements and maximize your weaknesses. One of the comments was similar to one of the answers here "if someone is not committed, then he/she should change careers, they have no place in academia"


texts:
I have to add a table to my thesis but it is detected as plagiarism. I have used data from this table in my thesis.
However I wish to prevent this table to be detected by Turnitin. Is there any way I can paraphrase my table without changing its contents?


texts: How to upload my journal articles to Google Scholar and get it appeared immediately?


texts: I can request to have my PhD certificate name a more specific research area than "PhD in Computer Science". What should I have it say?

texts:
I have already been enrolled in a PhD program and published a couple of papers. When I eventually get the certificate, it will state that I have a PhD in Computer Science. However, I can submit a request to change that to whatever I find more appropriate. I am asking here to be better informed before I raise the issue with my supervisor.

My research paves the way for machine-learning based solutions to be used for solving a particular software engineering problem.

I find (PhD in Computer Science) too broad of a description and (PhD in Software Engineering) too narrow. I also find (PhD in Artificial Intelligence OR Machine Learning) not to be an accurate description of what my thesis is actually about.

Should I, for example, use (PhD in Applied Artificial Intelligence) or (PhD in Applied Machine Learning)? Other suggestions will be appreciated.


texts: Asking an exam question that requires a specific technique

texts:
This question Inadmissible theorems in research mentioned a scenario in which a student was not allowed to use a theorem that he knew because it wasn't in the course.  I've administered exams in which the instructor said "using X technique, solve for Y", and grades of 0 were assigned when a different, admittedly simpler, technique was used.  Students seemed to consider the question to be giving a hint, rather than a requirement.

Students often get angry about this, since they feel they got the right answer.  The instructor's goal, though, was to get the students to prove that they could use the particular technique, and therefore the answer itself was not relevant.

To complicate matters, there are often times in which not using technique X results in a simpler method for the particular question.  This is usually because X is a more general method and is only really powerful when the problem exceeds what is reasonable on an exam.  A student could reasonably walk away from the exam thinking that X is just "more complicated" and not worth the trouble.

How can you ask a question like that that tests their ability to use a particular technique in a way that gets them to understand the purpose of the question?  Especially, how can such a question be asked to avoid having students erroneously discount the importance of technique X because a simpler method exists for the particular problem?


texts: Collection and return of homework and exams

texts:
I am about to teach a class with about 100 students.  The class has weekly take-home exams, and multiple in-class exams.  I have TA's, but still the task of collecting and returning the students' write-up is non-trivial, and if not done well can take significant time away from the class (including because of people not always coming to class, reportedly missing write-ups, etc).

What system (electronic or not) is better for collection, grading, and return of take-home homework and in-class exams?

Specific starter points: I heard some people use Blackboard for electronic submission, grading, and return of homework.  Is it good?  I also heard of Watson.  Is anyone using these?

What about in-class exams?  Is there anyone who scans them and returns them electronically?

What about paper-based systems?  Do you have a submission box?  Do you leave write-ups for the students to pick at each class?


texts: Applying to multiple fellowships simultaneously

texts:
I am considering applying for three different postdoctoral fellowships, from three independent funding bodies. Each of these is a rigorous multi-stage process, including an expert peer review. Most likely, these reviewers will be at universities within my own country, rather than international reviewers.

What I am worried about, is that the same reviewer may be sent my research proposal from more than one of these fellowship applications. Therefore, it may appear, as far as the reviewer is concerned, that I am not dedicated to that particular fellowship. Furthermore, the research proposals are likely to be very similar for all three of the fellowship applications.

Will this cause a problem?


texts: What is the standard way to include introduction and references parts to a masters thesis?

texts:
I have seen that students have two ways to write their thesis,

They have a separate chapter to write an introduction to their thesis. This chapter usually consists of a literature review of their research topic.
They have an introduction section at the beginning of each chapter and they write a separate introduction to each chapter and they don't have any introduction chapter for literature review.

Also, I have seen such behaviour in references part;

some prefer that each chapter having its own references part;
some other prefer all the references come at the end of the thesis report.

Could you please help me know which of these are standard and if any official guide to each exists, I will be happy to know and read them.

EDIT:

Thanks to the answers to this question of mine, I read the writing guide for masters thesis at my university and consulted my question with my advisor, and looked at the previously submitted theses, I wrote the introduction and literature review of my thesis in the very first chapter exactly after printing the abstract of my thesis and brought all the references at the very end just before the final page of my thesis.


texts:
Suppose I have envisioned a concept that I am fairly certain has been explored before. I can describe its nature and its characteristics, but I do not know the formal name of the concept, nor its history and prior development. My objective is to formalize my research by identifying the concept’s formal name and basing my research on its preexisting foundations. (My research may or may not elaborate/extend the current state of research; it could simply be a search for an existing concept I want to investigate). What would be the name (ie. the definiendum) of the process of finding both an existing concept and porting your notions of that concept onto the formalisms previously established for that concept?

Up to now, I have been informally using the terms rebasing and porting, as in

  rebasing/porting my own informal understanding of the concept onto its formal foundations

If no such word exists for what I’ve described, I do offer rebasing and porting as self-descriptive definiendums.

Perhaps the first part of my definition, i.e., finding an existing concept, can be considered optional as it is well-described by reverse lookup; however, the latter part is key.

To make it more clear what it is I am after, here is an example: Alice is studying networks, and exploring how to permit communication between any two nodes using the fewest connections possible. As she develops this concept, she suspects it might have already been fleshed out in academia, so she searches for the name of the concept and finds spanning trees. Now that she knows what it is she has conceived, she can explore the concept further. She can also translate (port, “rebase”, etc) her personal, informal language, notations, conventions, and concepts onto their corresponding formal equivalents previously established in academia. What is the name of the translation/porting/rebasing/etc process described in italics in the previous sentence?


texts: Should I acknowledge institutions where I did internships on unrelated works?

texts: I'm a PhD student at a university. I have a main research topic that I started a while ago. I did a summer internship at another institution in my major field but unrelated to my main research topic. If I write a paper on my main research topic, should I mention the other institution? If so, as an affiliation or in the acknowledgements?


texts: Papers about raising awareness within a domain about open source technologies

texts:
Part of my (computer science) research work involves a relatively new open source technology that I feel has been overlooked by the research community. It would seem valuable to raise the awareness of this technology to the research community in a few different subdomains of the field. Would a paper that describes the open source technology, explains how it works, and demonstrates its utility with some original, albeit simple, work be ethical? While I have contributed to the open source technology, I am by no means a primary creator, and would intend to include some of the main contributors and original creator as secondary authors.

The question Should I write a paper on open-source software I've built? is related, but this question is asking about open source software that I only contributed to, as one of hundreds of contributors.


texts: Can I resubmit my accepted paper after I withdraw it from the same journal?

texts:
I have withdrawn my paper after it was accepted for financial reasons.

Can I resubmit it to the same journal ?


texts: Why do I underestimate my own research ideas?

texts:
Before continuing on working on a specific problem, I do plan on few things which have not been explored in the available literature. However, instead of developing them (in terms of mathematical models), I feel that my ideas are quite simple and not so novel. Sometimes, it also happens to me while I read research papers.

I feel this is one of my weakness which makes me unfocused on a particular problem and makes me switch to various such ideas which are flushed by me.

Is it normal in research? How should I deal with this problem?


texts: Does arXiv prevent your work from getting scooped, or the opposite?

texts: On the one hand, it seems like a preprint can discourage dishonest reviewers or editors (who get to see new work before anyone else) from running off with ideas since you have proof of originality with a preprint. On the other hand, a preprint puts the ideas out there to the world at large. What do you think is the safest approach, submitting to journals with or without a preprint?


texts: Is it okay to have 2 strong and 1 good recommendation letters for an MS in Computer Science in the US?

texts: 1 good reco here would mean that it is not a strong one but might talk about my abilities and skills based on a short internship. Is it necessary to have all 3 strong LORs? I might have asked one of my professors for one but I chose to go with my internship advisor (though it may not be a very strong LOR) because it would help the admissions committee understand my acumen outside classroom setting.


texts: Is having five letters of recommendation for STEM PhD programs (math, specifically) ok?

texts:
I know the minimum number of reference letters required at many U.S. PhD programs in the STEM fields is three -- and that it is also not uncommon for someone to submit a fourth letter.

What about a fifth letter?  Would a fifth letter of recommendation be perceived as "too many"?


texts: If I address which professor I want to work with in SOP for PhD application, what are the actual odds that I end up working with them? (pure math, US)

texts: I am preparing for math PhD application next year, and I've seen many advice that it would be a good idea to address who I want to work with and what area of math I want to specialize in. But I was wondering if it's actually worth the time investigating each professor in different universities and consider my potential advisor over overall prestige of each school, when I vaguely know each area of math. Pure math PhD students have to pass qualifying exams and finish 2 years of masters program, and those are not short periods and one might change his areas of interest, so I'm unsure it's actually worth choosing advisor over prestige. Or, one may argue that top 30 programs usually take students who already know what they are going to do. Any advice?


texts: I want to help out my Professor, how do I ask? (Humanities)

texts:
I would really like to help out my professor and get some 'research experience', and I asked her the other day, but she said that me writing my thesis would already be 'research experience'.

Does she maybe not want me to help her? Or is there no need? How can I prove myself useful?


texts: Do researchers at schools that publish good journals get priority in publishing in those journals?

texts:
Take mathematics, for an example.

Do Princeton math professors get any sort of priority / preferential treatment in publishing in the Annals?

Do Duke math professors get any priority in publishing in the Duke Mathematics Journal?

What about more applied places - do NYU Courant professors get any priority in publishing in Communications in Pure and Applied Mathematics?

My question is generally about priority / preferential treatment, not about specific schools or journals.


texts: Accused of copying code for autograded assignment

texts:
I'm an undergraduate studying computer science at a local community college. Currently, I'm enrolled in an intro computer programming class that I unfortunately am unable to test out of (I asked my advisor). It is the prerequisite to the OOP class at my college (the class that AP Computer science would transfer to), which I took four years ago as a freshman in high school. I have already taken data structures and algorithms and am presently taking discrete math. The point being, I have very little to learn from this class. Last night, I received an email from my professor saying that my code on a recent assignment was identical to the solution in the textbook.
I will admit that I did search to find the answer code because:

The autograde is extremely bad and requires spaces and other punctuation to be identical, all while not telling you what is wrong unless you look closely. It runs a series of units tests and compares the text output.
Again, I won't learn from this class, so I'm not hurting myself by not properly learning
The tests are worth 80% of the score, and I have been doing those fairly, so anything I do on the assignments will have little affect on my grade.
The problems are incredibly fake and are nothing like the real world problems I engage in at work.

Generally, I've been searching to find a solution to a similar problem and then editing it until the autograde accepts it (so what I'm copying serves as a template to save time). In this case, I stumbled upon what turned out to be the actual answers.
So technically I did copy the answers, but it was not me attempting to get out of work that I would actually learn from or need to do to pass the tests. I am very frustrated with how awful this class is and please note I would not do this for any other class.
What I am not sure of is what to do now. I already have received a zero for that week's work (a tiny percentage of my grade) so I could go forward as if nothing had happened and ignore the remaining assignments (each week is about 55% easy work that I have been doing, 45% horrible labs that I often skip) and end up with about 85% on the course assuming my future test scores represent those in the past.
Looking at the academic policy on the syllabus, as my first offense I will likely not see any other actions against me, but I don't want my professor to think I am a cheater. I have never cheated in any class and I don't consider what I did in this case to be a problem (I would argue it breaks the letter, but not the spirit, of the rules). How should I respond to this and go forward?


texts: What should I do if my master's advisor used a figure from my thesis in a publication without citation or acknowledgment?

texts:
A year ago, I finished my Master's degree and ended 6 months of working for an incredibly manipulative and demanding supervisor.  We started working on a publication of my Master's results, which is awaiting final approval (post-corrections) at the journal we submitted to.

Last week, I read a paper this supervisor had published recently, which had a figure taken directly from my Master's dissertation.  Our in-press article wasn't cited, and I wasn't co-author, referenced, or even mentioned in the acknowledgements.  No direct reference was given for the figure, but the text surrounding it made it sound as if it had come from another article by my supervisor from last year.

It seems pretty clear to me that this is plaigarism - we worked on this project together, certainly, but the final product was a result of my work and their guidance.

My problem is, I don't know how to deal with it.  We are currently co-authoring a paper, so I don't want to cause a rupture.  I also plan to continue working in this field, and would like to avoid having a senior researcher and previous supervisor to be angry.  At the same time, I don't want them to get away with using my work, and taking all the credit for it.

I will certainly tell them that I feel uncomfortable with how they used my work, but realistically, what can I expect/hope to happen here?

UPDATE - the figure in question is an overview of a simulation model I created, so is pretty much the core part of my Master's work.


texts: Can the publication conference choice affect one's admission to a new academic job?

texts:
Sometimes, I have been noticing some postdoc open position announcements that, besides the usual prerequisites (PhD, an excellent CV, programming skills, etc.), asked the candidates to have publications in the most important conferences in the field.

For example:

  [...] Candidates need to hold an earned Ph.D. (or be near completion)
  in computer science or in a related field with good programming skills
  in C/C++/Java/Matlab. Successful candidates are expected to be
  self-motivated and have a good publication record (at least have one
  paper accepted by premier conferences or journals like KDD, NIPS,
  ICML, IJCAI, AAAI, SIGMOD, VLDB, ICDE, TKDE, TKDD, etc.) and good
  command of English. [...]

I was quite surprised to read announcements like this (if one made an excellent research, who cares where it has been published?).

Are cases like these rare or quite common?
To get hired for an academic position (like postdoc for example), is it so important to publish in top-level conferences?

Is the conference fame considered more important than the paper scientific relevance for a hiring process?


texts: Alma mater (USA) refuses to remove my name from public search

texts:
The professor of a US university where I graduated from with a master's degree maintains a website that he makes available for public search. He lists students that attended one of his courses, including the groups they were in and the topics they chose for presentation. When someone does a public search with my name using google or yahoo, this information comes up.

This has been published for many years and I recently requested the IT department and the professor to block my name from public search. I do not provide such information myself online and it is more than annoying for me that this information is available on the internet. So far, the university has refused to remove my name.

Which department of a university handles complaints of such a nature? Is there any law that entitles me to get a removal? Do I need to hire a lawyer for such a silly issue? What course of action do you recommend?


texts: Are there usually consequences for attempted duplicate publication?

texts:
I recently reviewed a paper for a (reasonably reputable) journal and found that it was already published (verbatim, by the same authors) in another journal (a fake one).
I wrote the following review: "This is a duplicate publication, it appeared two weeks ago in Journal X, here is the link to the copy on Journal X's website."

The timing suggests that they submitted the paper to Journal X around the same time they sent it to us.

In retrospect I should have emailed the editor instead of going through the review site. But anyways, within a day or two the review site showed that the associate editor had seen my review, and the editor listed for the piece changed from the associate editor who was originally assigned to the editor-in-chief.

However, the decision letter that went out to the authors was just a standard rejection letter, with my review appended to the bottom. (The standard rejection letter thanks the author for submitting the piece for consideration and wishes them success in finding another venue to publish it in...)

It seems to me that this is a poor strategy for disincentivizing attempts at duplicate publication; at worst, one risks a rejection if found out.
 (Disregarding for the moment what the consequences would be if they were successful, both papers were published, and then they were found out by someone else.)

I checked the publisher's website and though it specifies clearly (and authors have to certify at the time of submission that the piece is not published or under review somewhere else) that duplicate publications are not permitted, I didn't find any specific details on what the consequences might be.

Is this normal procedure? Do editors usually follow up and try to impose consequences for attempted duplicate publication?

If so:

What kind of consequences are usually imposed for trying to publish the same paper twice, if caught by a journal while in review?


texts: Framework Analysis: Can framework analysis (Ritchie, Spencer & O'Connor) be applied to open-ended survey question responses?

texts:
Details:

I am building a web application for teachers and educators. The web application takes a new approach to looking at educational apps. I want to know if this approach is worthwhile, so I am going to survey some of the teachers who use it. In this survey there will be some open-ended questions regarding the benefits and drawbacks of the application. I would like to use these responses as data in my research project and I was wondering about the best way to use them. After doing a bit of looking around, it seems framework analysis might fit, though it is used primarily for interviews.

Questions:

Can framework analysis be used in this way?
Is there a better way of using survey responses as data?


texts: Should I send a follow up mail to my potential supervisor

texts: Last friday I received an email from my potential supervisor that my application was positively reviewed and that they will further progress with my application if I'm still interested. I replied that I'm happy to hear that and that I'm still interested. However, up until now, I didn't hear from them anymore. Is this normal? I though they would invite me for an interview as soon as possible. I know I might be panicking, but I'm afraid they forgot me. Can I send a second email to ask what the next steps are? Or should I just be patient...


texts: What should a PhD in physics put in a CV?

texts:
The countdown to ending my studies has begun, with less than a year left to finish my PhD. I'm currently very confused about whether or not going for a post-doc, considering that I have recently found out that physicists can do something outside academia. I might therefore look for a job in the private sector.

I work in a mathematical physics sub-field called quantum chaos. I have been programing in Python and Mathematica for the past 3 or 4 years. Although my research does not include data analysis, I do have some small experience in neural networks using Keras, which I believe would not be too hard to fine tune. At the end of my PhD I will have published no more than two papers, both possibly in Physical Review A (impact factor 3), but maybe one will be accepted in Physical Review Letters (impact factor 9). I will also have participated in two or three international conferences. I do speak some four or five languages.

So what? I understand that if I apply for a post-doc my achievements can be seen as standard, and I already have a CV aimed at presenting my research work. The problem is: what should I put in a CV aimed at triggering the private sector's attention? I see my work as immensely irrelevant. I understand that physicists are quick to find patterns and solve problems, but they must be employed to get a chance to show it. Are they really going to care if I add that I have experience dealing with harmonic analysis in cotangent bundles or that I have shown that a certain coherent state propagator is not actually an element of a Bargmann-Segal space? I have absolutely no experience working in any sort of industry, and the only assets I can offer are a reasonable knowledge of Python and Keras and the languages I speak. Any imaginable CV I write will probably make an employer laugh at me. Do I even have a chance here?


texts: In a peer review system, what does "accepted for first look" mean for a submission?

texts: As the title puts it, what is the real meaning of this stage of a peer reviewing process and how are the odds for having a submitted paper accepted change if it's accepted for this stage? (Does it mean anything other than the editors decided not to reject it from the start?)


texts: A number of students requesting a number of reference letters. What to do?

texts:
I teach two medium size groups (~100 each), supervise BSc and MSc dissertations, and have ~35 tutees. When applications to postgraduate programmes open, I tend to receive a number of requests for reference letters due to a combination of several students asking me to write letters for them, and them applying to a number of places (usually 30+ students × 5+ programmes), so I need to spend quite some time writing and submitting reference letters.
Are there any guidelines in terms of how many reference letters lecturers in UK should write per year?


texts: Requesting endorsement for arxiv from future professor as a high-school graduate

texts:
I finished high-school, and would like to publish articles on arxiv. I got into university, and found out that a professor of the institue of mathematics is submitting papers to the site. I start my first semester next month, and do not know him, however I would like to publish an article this week.

Is it a good idea to ask for endorsement from him? If so, what is the “best” way to ask?

I would like to do research in the future too, as I am extremely interested in the subject (analysis) and I have been learning it for a long time.


texts: Is it OK to write first initial of some authors on a paper and full first name of others?

texts:
Suppose there are two authors Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton on a research paper. Is it OK to write them as A. Einstein and Isaac Newton or vice versa? Similarly, if there are more authors, is it OK to write initials of some of them and not all? If it is not OK, is it wrong and unacceptable, or bad?

My question is about writing the authors' names on the top, with the title of the paper.


texts: Is it possible to start a PhD at 36 without taking a huge hit financially?

texts:
I'm currently working as a Senior Engineer (Mechanical) for a large company. However, I am increasingly finding the work to be dull and lacking in challenge. I don't think I can bear to spend the next 20-30 years like this - I feel that I am not making use of my true abilities and I yearn to be doing something more novel and breaking new ground.

I live in the US (Boston area) and I have been looking around at what other opportunities are available; however, it seems that many of the more interesting-looking positions (which are more research-based) require a PhD. I majored in fluid dynamics and have some experience in CFD, so I am looking at positions that lean towards that area.

So, I am considering whether I should do a PhD, which seems to be a logical choice if I want to be doing more intellectually-challenging work. However, right now I am earning a good salary; I have a big mortgage to pay and a 3 year old kid to support. Doing a PhD seems like it would be a very difficult path to take, from a financial standpoint: not only would I have to give up my healthy salary, but I would also most likely have to pay a lot in tuition fees, in which case I would go from earning ++$ to -$, which would be very difficult to manage.

So, my question is: is it possible to do a PhD at my stage in life, whilst also paying the mortgage and supporting my family? What is the best way to balance this?

I should probably also mention that I have a Masters Degree in Aerospace Engineering from a top UK university (I moved to the US from the UK a few years ago).


texts: When is it necessary to consult a university lawyer?

texts: A comment on this answer of mine about e-book lending suggested that it would be better to talk to a lawyer. The situation is as follows: My head of school asked me to explore means of providing our core text books in electronic form to our students. I talked to Library services and IT services and they recommended iPads with standard consumer licensed e-book versions installed. I passed this information on to my head of school, who instructed the school manager to buy the iPads, copies of the books, and other associated hardware needed for running an iPad lending service. Have I, my head of school, or my school manager been negligent for not consulting a lawyer in this manner? Should academics really be consulting university lawyers on a regular basis?


texts: What to do when an advisor asks you to draft your recommendation?

texts:
A friend of mine is applying to graduate schools, and his research advisor asked him to write the recommendation and he would sign it as his own.

It doesn't seem possible for my friend to write a genuine letter about himself. I would think admissions committees would be able to spot it right away.

He has a very strong application otherwise, with a first author publication in a reputable journal (STEM field) with the very same advisor as an undergraduate!

Would you write the letter yourself? Would you get a recommendation from someone else? Could this be a deal breaker for his application?


texts: Should I attend a job interview after I've already accepted another offer?

texts: I applied for several postdoc positions recently. One made an offer which I accepted. Since then I've been invited for an interview for one of the other positions. Is there any benefit to attending? Is it an opportunity to make potentially useful contacts (in a relatively small field)? I should add that I have no experience with academic interviews (the position I secured was through contacts). Expenses will be paid.


texts: Does an Israeli PhD grant you the right to call yourself Dr. in Germany?

texts: I am a German citizen currently studying for my master’s in Germany. I am thinking about pursuing a PhD in physics in Israel (TAU) and I am wondering if the PhD in Israel is fully equivalent to the doctorate in Germany. Will I be able to use Dr. as part of my name when I eventually return back to Germany?


texts: What does status "Undisclosed" means for a conference paper

texts:
I had sent a paper in a reputed conference. The status changed from "Under review" to "Decision pending" to "Undisclosed".

What is the meaning of status "Undisclosed" ? Does it indicate something?


texts: Software for recommending papers -- does this exist?

texts:
I spend a lot of time on google scholar making sure I haven't missed relevant literature. Usually this means scrolling through the "cited by" list one by one for at least 5-10 major papers on the topic.
It occurs to me that this could be done better and faster by a computer. Has anyone made software that does something like the following?
Input: A collection of papers
Output: Some papers similar to the input papers, based on citations or semantic analysis
I have in mind something like the "related papers" link on google scholar, but accepting more than one paper as input.


texts: How should I structure exams when individual problems could use up the entire class time?

texts:
I am currently preparing for a new class in an area in which the individual problems can be very long. (My writeups for individual homework problems were often three or four pages long when I took the same course as a student!)

Solving a typical problem involves:

Identifying the correct differential equations and boundary conditions to solve.
Making the correct assumptions and simplifications.
Identifying the correct solution strategy.
Implementing the strategy and solving the problem.

All of the above steps are of critical importance, as we introduce new methods and approaches for each.

Given that, an in-class exam would only have enough time for one problem—so there would be no easy way to evaluate mastery of the breadth of the material. So I’ve been thinking of doing an out-of-class exam. The time would be long enough that the students would have time to think through things, but not long enough that they could spend a lot of time trying to look things up on the internet. The class is also small enough that it would be fairly easy to detect plagiarized work or students copying off of one another. (I suspect four to six hours is sufficient.)

Are there more viable or effective strategies for testing in such circumstances?


texts: professor pushing me to get result when nothing is right!

texts:
Background

My professor assigned me a project as part of a course. The project is part of another student's thesis and has several flaws. I explained the problems of the project to my professor. However, the professor seems to believe that I just don't understand the project and don't know how to code.

The professor now sent the other student on a work trip for seven or eight months, starting in 10 days.

In the meantime, the professor asked me to fix the project and produce the results.

Unfortunately, the project is so flawed that I can't produce results with it. I believe that it's the other student's responsibility to fix the project. S/he also knows the project and it's issues much better than I do.

The professor still doesn't consider my concerns and just pushes me to finish the project. He wants to grade the course based on a publishable paper from this flawed project. (My other classmates already have required information to design a controller, and assigning this flawed project and grading like this is not fair.) Meanwhile, the professor does not even want to talk about a topic for my own thesis. I feel taken advantage of and don't know what to do.

Questions

What can I do to convince the professor that I should no longer waste time on another student's broken project but rather start my own? Would it be okay to refuse to work on this project?


texts: Should I report a PhD student’s incompetence to their supervisor?

texts:
I had a short exchange of mails with a PhD student who wished to ask some questions about a paper of mine, which was troublesome in many respects:

The student had a blatant lack of basic knowledge and techniques of their field. (Imagine a computer scientist not knowing what object-oriented programming is, a mathematician not knowing what fields are, etc. They did not change fields for the PhD.)
The student should be able to answer some of the questions with very little work.
Initially, the student did not give me even remotely the information I needed to answer their question in a useful manner.
The student seemed utterly overwhelmed with their project.
There were strong hints of a “do my work for me” attitude.

For the purpose of this question, assume that I am very likely correct in my assessment.
Going into details about why I arrived at this conclusion would be beyond the scope of this question and be disclosing too much.
I also wish to make clear that I am not annoyed by the questions or similar, I am just worried about the situation.

I am now wondering whether I should write a mail to their supervisor (whom I don’t know and who is not at my institution) informing them about this incident.
My considerations so far are:

I am pretty confident that this student will not finish their degree (by honest means).
As long as they continue with this, they waste time and resources: their own, their supervisor’s, and other researchers’ whom they are emailing.
If I were this student’s supervisor, this is something I would like to know since it can prevent me from wasting my time and resources on them.
On the other hand, I hope that I would quickly notice these qualities in a PhD student.
This problem will likely escalate soon anyway.
It’s the supervisor’s job to talk to the student and give them the possibility to clarify in case I misjudged them.
However, if I am wrong, my information may wrongfully harm the student if the supervisor overreacts or the student’s image is tainted subconsciously.
Depending on the situation, such a communication as mine may allow the supervisor to smoothly get rid of the student – which is good if I am right and the student is incompetent, but bad if I am wrong.

My question is this: Is there anything else I should take into account when making this decision? (I know that, at the end of the day, I have to weigh the arguments myself.) Note that I already sent a mail to the student but am skeptical whether they got the message.