texts: Why is Paper Publishing and getting a patent completely unrelated?

texts:
I know that not all, but many papers (that are accepted and published) are based on ideas that can be patented as well. So, why is that there is no system in which a person can apply for a Publishing a Paper and also getting the Idea patented at the same time?

Is it possible that I publish a paper, do not get it patented (going to patent it at a later point of time - because of not having sufficient money to pay for the patent application or whatever) and during that time someone else patents my work in his name? Or Someone else picks up my theory, develops it further and gets a patent? How would the situation be then? What should I do under such a situation?


texts: Can I annex fewer certificates for a shorter application?

texts:
I want to apply at a German university for Computer Science. The instruction tells me to annex documents about additional qualifications.

So I decided for the ten most important and most related qualifications and awards I got and wrote an overview page for them. They are grouped by field and date, and there is a short description of about two lines for every qualification.

Now I need to annex the actual copies of the certificates. I feel uncomfortable with handing in ten copies, plus some other documents. I think providing the certificate for every qualification might result in too much pages which won't get read but make a negative impression.

Can I just provide a few of the copies and tell the University staff to ask for more if wanted?


texts:
Background: I was born and raised in the United Kingdom and have a number of GCSEs and A-Levels. I am now living in the United States (by marriage/green card), and am looking to apply for jobs. Some of the jobs that have just caught my eye was Tutoring either Writing or Study Skills, at a community college. One job has the following requirement:

  Documented two-year degree from a regionally accredited institution or its equivalent (junior level status at a college or university)

So, I am wondering, could my A-levels could be considered the equivalent of a US Associates degree?. I realise this is somewhat ambitious (especially as I only have two A-levels and a one-year BTEC roughly equivalent to an AS; but I do have other educational work experience)

I am aware there is no official rulebook for equivalency, the US Department of Education states it (source), but I am hoping there may be some unofficial but persuasive equivalency out there - like an agreement made by all the Russell Group universities or their US equivalent, or a court case, or something else quite decisive.

A summary of my reasoning and research so far is as follows:

Arguments For A-Level = Associates

The University of Michigan will accept Freshmen who only have 5 GCSE's (source), putting the beginning of A-levels on par with beginning a Bachelor's as a Freshman. (However they add that "IF A-levels are being taken", give predicted grades...)

Arguments For A-Level = High School

A-Levels are completed at 18 years old, the same as the US High School Diploma

Arguments For A-Level = Something In Between High School and Associate's

UCAS in 2013 listed the US High School Diploma as being equivalent to GCSEs, but gives UCAS points for US Advanced Placement Tests anywhere between 20 and 120 points (on the old UCAs system, 120 was one A-level at A grade, source), without giving points for Associate Degrees (presumably because they are too high?) (source from University of the Arts, London)
Various students have stated that their institutes have treated A-Levels as being equivalent to US Advanced Placement courses (anecdotal sources)
Chavagnes Private School (UK) states without source that UCAS treat AP as A-level; and also mention that a student with A-levels could expect to find themselves discounted for some of the first year's work of a 'university'. (source)
A US Associate's Degree is listed as being equivalent to a UK HNC, that is, equivalent to the first year of a UK Bachelor's Degree. (source from an e-learning provider) That is, above A-levels, but not by much.

 I have asked my American wife, who completed two AP's while in high school, what the different grades and groups for the Advanced Placements, given in the UCAS document, actually mean, and she doesn't know.

If there is any more evidence I can use in addition to the above fragments, especially statements by a university like my one from Michigan, I would be very grateful for them to be provided.


texts: How do I ask my teacher for his honest opinion about my capabilities

texts:
I just ended my internship on bad terms. Both the company and my teachers think that my programming skills are insufficient for a passing grade. We decided to end the internship as continuing would be a waste of time. I now have two options.

Take a step back and enrol in a study that is at a somewhat lower level
My teachers will train my programming skills. This will take about a year and after that I can look for a new internship. This no guarantee that my programming will be good enough after (depends on myself)

I find it very hard to choose between the two. It's about my future after all. That is why I want to ask one of my teachers for some help. This is the question I would like to ask:

"You have taught and known me for some years now. Do you think I have it in me to complete option 2 with success and finish a next internship?"

I realise this is fairly personal question that maybe difficult or awkward to answer. His opinion matters greatly to me however. It would provide me with information to make an educated decision. Some extra details:

He has been my teacher for almost 7 years
The atmosphere at the study is fairly informal at times. I can call teachers by their first name for example
Programming was never my strongest asset
I tend to overestimate my programming skills so an outside opinion is greatly appreciated

What I would like to know is how to approach this. Do I send him an e-mail with this question or do I ask it in person? I would also imagine that someone has to think about this type of question. Or should I request a meeting to discuss this? Or not ask at all?


texts: What are the pros and cons to writing the same paper in two languages?

texts:
I am a bilingual student and soon starting on thesis. I will be writing it in English although my native language is French and I am considering writing it in both languages so that the people closer to me can also read it. This is obviously more work but I am wondering if there would be any other advantages/disadvantages to writing papers in two languages. For example, would this increase the chance of publication? Would this make tracking citations more difficult?

I already saw another question regarding if it's better to write in X language first but I am not specifically wondering about the order in which it should be done.


texts: Literature for commercialisation of research

texts:
What are some good books to read for people who have been in academia their entire career (regardless of length of that career) and now want to commercialise something from their research? I am looking for tips for people who have no education in law or business, including patent rights and the business side on how to start a research-company etc.

I understand that it is a broad question, but I hope and think that it could in fact be relevant to more researchers than me.


texts:
Most educators have some policy regarding cellphone use in class. Often this policy is "no phones" or "I don't care."

I would like to take different approach. I would like to learn of ways to incorporate the use of cellphones in the learning experience of the students. As such my question is

How can cellphones be used in a class to the benefit of the learning of the students?


texts: Confusion - “CV including a summary of teaching experience”

texts:
I am going to apply for a visiting lecturer position at a US university. The job posting is mentioning that applicants should send (email) CV including a summary of teaching experience, and a teaching statement. I have two questions.

I am confused about the part "CV including a summary of teaching experience". Does it mean the usual work experience part in the CV, or do I need to send a separate essay of "summary of teaching experience" along with CV?
The posting is not mentioning anything about a cover letter. Do I need to send a cover letter anyway?

Thanks.


texts: Is there something I could do considering I'm not really happy with my master's thesis?

texts:
On the begining of this year I've started a graduate course in Physics to obtain a master's degree. I have a major in mathematical physics and mathematics and wanted to work with General Relativity, Quantum Field Theory on Curved Spacetimes or related topics, but with focus on fundamental physics. In particular I'm quite interested in the infrared structure of gravity and gauge theories and the application to soft hairs on black holes.

There was a professor that was going to advise me on a very nice project about black hole radiation, but unfortunately he passed away. I started then searching for another one, but the ones I found were from the math department and was quite hard to get a permission to have them as advisors on the physics department.

I was talking to two of them, one of which was my advisor in a undergraduate research project. He didn't work with what I wanted but proposed one work on extended bodies in GR, but he didn't tell much details. It didn't interest me but said it was interesting just to be nice.

The physics department ended up allowing some students to have advisors from the math department. The one that could advise in what I wanted needed to advise someone else. This other professor and the coordinator ended up "assigning me" to work with the extended bodies work professor.

I wasn't feeling good about it, but I was being pressed by the deadline to find one advisor and, because it was already one exception, I felt bad to refuse and accepted in august.

I'm working on this for three months now and I can say I'm not fully happy about it. I have quite a few complaints:

It is not fundamental Physics and it is not what I would call GR. It is dynamics on GR. Up to now I've studied two papers and no deep thing about GR was needed. Some students say they discussed with their advisors for quite a long time what would be done. In my case I was handed what should I do.
The advisor requires that the work be devoted to computing examples, like solving a really hard toy model. He find this extremely important but I can't see it like that.

I didn't want that, and I know it is not a requirement. I've seem master's thesis from there and other universities focusing on the fundamental physics aspects and the structure of the theory.
My advisor doesn't know the theme. I have to study the papers alone and present seminars twice a week so he and another student of his can learn the subject. This is making me feel extremely pressed because the papers are very hard and I have not much interest.
Although studying the papers for learning more about how extended bodies can be dealt with in GR is something I would happily do in my free time, dedicating that much is preventing me from studying what I really want to do afterwards. I believe this combined with how much I'm being pressed is the big deal.

The issue is: I'm on this for four months now and I feel it is too late to do something. I think that if I go search for another advisor they'll say there is too little time left (one year). I don't even know if I'll find one. If my advisor finds out I'm searching for another one it could also create a difficult situation I think.

Plus, I don't want to offend my advisor or start a fight, after all, he is a good person. It is just that for all this time I felt embarrassed to say I wasn't really interested in this, and I feel even more embarrassed to say that after all this time. I've tried implying a few times I'm not interested, but he didn't understand I think.

What can I do in this situation? I mean, is there some option other than continuing with this even being unhappy? Is there some way to change things, without offending anyone, starting a fight or creating an embarrassing situation? I need some piece of advice.


texts:
findaphd.com is an excellent website to search for PhD studentships (PhD funding on specific projects) in the UK. Also, UK universities often advertise PhD studentship opportunities in their "job vacancies" section. However, after much googling, I have yet to find similar sites or departmental advertisements for PhD studentships in the USA.

Questions:

I don't suppose there is a similar site for the USA that I missed during my search?
Are there even off-cycle PhD studentships for specific projects in the USA, like those in the UK?


texts: What is the general protocol to name something after somebody (some people)?

texts:
In mathematics (and other sciences) there are thousands of concepts, theorems, lemmas, etc which are named after some mathematicians (scientists). However, this nominations are not always very straightforward, especially if we are going to assign a new name for new concepts. For example, I can imagine the following scenarios and I would like to know what general protocol we should apply in each case:

A concept may have several origins in different fields and due to several individuals.
A concept is built on another concept which already have a name and this can happen several times. For example "Hecke pairs" is a concept in mathematics, then Bost and Connes make a particular Hecke pair famous, so we have "the Bost-Connes Hecke pairs". Should we name all influential people  in each stage of advancement of a concept?
If an author invents a concept, is it appropriate to name it after him/herself,  or he/she should wait others call it after his/her name?
A concept was invented by some author "X" in long time ago, and then it has evolved to something very modern and somehow different. Should we still call it by the name "X"?

Please do not hesitate to add new items if you can imagine other scenarios too.

Finally, I would like to ask another related question:

Can we use acronyms in stead of the full names, especially if the names of several people are involved?


texts: Can a PhD student transfer to another graduate school after advancing to candidacy?

texts:
I am in a PhD program in mathematics, and I am in my last year in the program. This is the last year that they will fund me for. If I need more time, I will either need to pay the tuition on my own, or not complete my degree.

I feel that my advisor and department do not support me well. I am not going to go into the details, but if I had known better, I should have left with a Master's three years ago and applied for another PhD program. I was wondering how feasible it would be to re-apply into a PhD program at another institution. Keep in mind that I am entering my sixth year into the program, and I've already passed to candidacy. I realize that this may look bad on my part, that I've stayed at my own institution and at the last moment decided to leave. I am looking for advice and thoughts on this.

I realize that the reasonable thing to do would be to stick it out in my own program and try to finish, and if that doesn't work, then possibly try to apply somewhere else. One of my professors told me that it may be just as hard for me to get a postdoc as it is for me to be accepted into another PhD program. So I am curious if anyone has any experience with a similar situation. The reason why I am considering re-applying to grad school is that I feel that I may thrive at a different institution and have a better possibility of landing a postdoc or an academic job if I started all over.


texts: Expecting students to use a code base that is known to be buggy?

texts: Suppose an instructor is teaching a course on a particular field in computer science. He uses a language that is popular for said field, but itself is not the topic of the course (though its use is still required).  The instructor provides a code base he wrote that the students may base their course project upon.  However, this code base is very buggy and does not follow many accepted "best practices" in the language's usage.  You are not technically required to use this code base, but to use anything else is most likely impractical given time constraints.  Is it justifiable to expect students to use a buggy code base you prepared, or is it lazy?  Or neither?


texts: Education gap in Between Graduation and Master degree

texts:
I had completed my graduation in 2013 and after that due to some family problem, I had to go home and help my father with his business. Now I have started preparing for a master degree, but how can I compensate for my two years gap in education?
 graduation completed in june 2013

gap 2.6 years

master start january  2016


texts: Should I do a post doc? Good thesis but no papers (yet)

texts:
I am finishing writing my thesis in physics, where I present a new kind of microscope. I think it's a good work but I have no papers out yet, also because of a perfectionist supervisor. I have been told two papers should be ready within a few months, but I don't really believe this and I don't know I will have the energy to work hard for them... I feel a bit worn out, and I know I need a break.

On the postdoc side, I got a few rejections, submitted a good application for a fellowship and I guess I could do a postdoc with a professor at my department, but I would prefer to move somewhere else. To put things in contest, I'm 30 and European.

With these premises (good work and no publications, while the other students I know have 3 papers out at least), do you think it would be a good idea to do a postdoc?


texts:
I am currently lecturing at a private tertiary education college where I am obliged to lecture, on average, 12 distinct subjects per year at both diploma and degree level. I lecture 6 to 8 subjects per week or around 4 or 5 unique subjects per day across all graduate levels (first, second and third year students). Some of these classes are repeated identically up to 7 times each week for 7 different groups of students for around 30 to 35 lecturing hours per week.

I am currently feeling a little overwhelmed by the workload. Is this normal for a private education institution?


texts: Normal career path for lecturer in Computer Science

texts:
I'm 27 and looking for advice on the career path for lecturing in Computer Science. At the moment I have just started a job at a blue chip company in Software Engineering. However my prime goal is to become a lecturer.

My education background is a little sidewards in terms of fundamental knowledge in Computing (details in algorithms, memory, programming) as I have a BA in Graphic Design and a conversion Masters in Computing (which skimmed the subject).

I would be interested in pursuing a Phd in Computer Science focusing on HCI/ software engineering. However my concern is whether or not I have the confidence in the fundamental knowledge as I only achieved a Pass on my Masters.

So my question is, would taking a postgraduate diploma in Advance Computer Science benefit before fully undertaking a Phd?

Both courses would be undertaken part-time whilst working.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!


texts: Can blogging about research results first affect your ability to publish them later?

texts:
There are the obvious worries about getting scooped (discussed here http://www.quora.com/When-is-it-wise-to-blog-or-talk-about-your-academic-research-work-before-you-submit-it-for-publication).

But I'm wondering if there are more subtle concerns. Could it hurt your chances of publishing in a venue that doesn't allow preprints?  Should I cite myself if I copy text?


texts:
Should I put details in the scope and limitations if it is already mentioned in the objectives?
For example, we have already mentioned that we will be analyzing trends in the data. Should we also mention that as the scope of the study?


texts: Showing figures from a paper in presentation

texts: I'm giving a talk summarizing someone else's paper and I'd like to show some figures from their paper during my presentation.  It's an informal talk to fellow students and a few professors at my school.  Would it okay to just have a PDF of their paper up on the screen showing the figures needed?  Should I obtain permission before I do this?


texts:
I read two papers just published online (paper no.1 accepted about 1 month before paper no.2) in the same journal by the same authors.
Two papers have the same topic, using the same numerical method, same at least one simulation object. I found in paper no.2 some figures that very similar to paper no.1. The example of the figure in these papers shows in the picture below. Fig C is exactly the same in the two journals (just change the view angle a bit) while Fig A, B, C, and D are different. However, there is no statement that the data in Fig C has been published in paper no.1 and no citation. Additionally, there are also some similar figure data in the two papers but just change the axis scale.
So can it consider as duplicate data?


texts: Which format(s) for citation files should I offer for my references?

texts:
As I want to make my publications easily available for citation, at my website I am offering, together with my references, a citation file. For the moment I am offering a .bib BibTeX file with every citation.

The question is, if it is recommendable to use further citation formats. I have seen that Google Scholar offers 4 possible formats: BibTeX EndNote RefMan RefWorks. Is it recommendable to offer such a variety or it is enough to use BibTeX?

Thanks.


texts: How should to-be-published articles be referenced?

texts:
Can I use an unpublished but about to be published soon paper as a reference for a conference paper?
Suggestions would be appreciated.
Thank you!


texts: Can I develop software that solves a problem as a Master's thesis?

texts: I have designed and developed software that solves a problem (In healthcare if it matters) for my master's degree, and I'm having some doubts about whether it could be considered an actual research to write a thesis about or not, especially that I'm going to do PhD afterwards.


texts: Have there been attempts to get around "DeWitt clause"-like license restrictions?

texts:
(This is a complementary question to: Has the DeWitt Clause, which prevents publication of named DBMS benchmarks, ever been successfully defended in court?)

Several commercial database vendors include an end-user license agreement provision, known as the DeWitt Clause, that prohibits researchers and scientists from explicitly using the names of their systems in academic papers.

There are several concievable approaches to circumvent this prohibition, including:

In the US: Ignoring the prohibition and claiming "fair use" which supersedes the Copyright, or general un-enforcability like Spitzer did (see the related question) - risking legal action.
Outside the US: Some states in the world allow download and certain kinds of non-commercial use of copyrighted works without permission from the author / rights holder, in which case the researcher never accepts the restriction in the first place.
Outside the US: Some states have laws regarding "standard contracts", as opposed to contracts specifically worded by two parties negotiating - e.g. the conditions for opening a bank account, your Internet Access Provider's terms of service etc. Such laws declare certain kinds of terms and conditions in such contracts as null and void if they are injurious to the weaker party - the many individuals who must accept the contract. One could publish a benchmark result, claiming s/he wasn't bound by the DeWitt clause.
Loopholes in the condition itself. For example, Microsoft's SQL server license says:

  BENCHMARK TESTING. You must obtain Microsoft’s prior written approval to disclose to a third party the results of any benchmark test of the software.

Well, you must obtain Microsoft's prior written approval to disclose to a third party the results of any benchmark. But you're not required to go any significant effort to prevent third parties from learning about these results. So, for example, Joe Smith (not you) runs some benchmark and writes down the results in a file. It's not in a public folder, but - you or a friend of yours have access to that folder. You're not bound by the conditions of the license, and can supposedly publish the benchmark result. Joe Smith should also not be liable, since he did not actually disclose the results to anybody, nor did he solicit others to check out his results.

I'm not saying I know for a fact these avenues of circumvention are bullet-proof. And I'm not asking whether they are. I just want to know whether there are known cases of people using one of them, or any other course of action, to openly and notoriously circumvent DeWitt clauses (in Software or w.r.t. access to materials of academic interest).


texts:
What terms should be better to set when creating a Startup with your PhD supervisor?
I had the PhD project idea before starting the PhD and working on it for some years. Now my PhD research looks promising for commercial use and I am thinking to create a startup. I recognize the prestige of my PhD supervisor and he is willing to participate in the startup.
Which are considered fair terms for both me and the professor for our new startup, based on the fact that i have done all the development (spending countless hours of work the past years) and came up with the project idea, but the professor has the prestigious name to make the startup more credible (and maybe better funded)?
Share equal equity? Have equity based on hours spent on the startup? Something else?


texts: How can a book's copyright year be in the future?

texts:
I recently noticed that in the book "Investing for Dummies" by Eric Tyson, the copyright is listed for 2021, even if at the time of making this post the year is still 2020. How is this possible? How can a copyright year be in the future?
Copyright and Publishing information for the book


texts: My co-supervisor wants authorship in a paper he didn't contribute

texts:
I have two supervisors, in different countries, one in home institute who sent me as an exchange student to the host institute, where I closely worked with another co-supervisor who significantly contributed to my work, taking place of the last author in the conference paper I have submitted (not published). He reviewed my work, my paper and also was a really good advisor. My other supervisor, one from the home country had nothing to do with my project except on record. His domain is completely different from what I have worked on.

Now, in my master's thesis that I presented in the home institute in front of my co-supervisor and other faculty in the institute, I mentioned that I've submitted a paper based on the work I had done. I was questioned about the authorship of this co-supervisor, and was told it is unethical to leave him out of authorship, because by default, the supervisor must get the last authorship.

Now I fear that due to ego issues, they will reduce my grades because I didn't mention this co-supervisor's name in the paper.

How do you suggest I tackle this situation and am I wrong to leave him out? His only contribution was to provide me recommendation for sending me to the exchange program, and review my final thesis and presentation which I suppose every supervisor must do, whether or not a paper is published.

P.S. In my institute, having a paper published gets us better grades and hence I decided to mention about the submission. But now it looks like everything is going to take a U-turn on me.


texts: What is the benefit of writing lecture notes for an introductory course vs using a textbook?

texts:
Background: I am a junior university staff member, and I will teach an introductory course in linear algebra for the first time in a few months.

I see that many teachers devote time to writing lecture notes. To me, this looks odd. Whatever I can write will not be half as good as a well-written textbook. so my first choice would be looking for a good book, recommend it to the students, and stick with it as much as possible for my lectures. "Everyone writes their own notes" looks like a model in which there is a lot of needless duplication of work.

Why do people write detailed lecture notes for basic courses? What is the advantage with respect to following closely a textbook?

Are the two approaches really alternative, or am I misunderstanding the role of lecture notes? Should I do both?


texts: I got accepted to PhD program, but I am not sure with whom I want to work. Is it bad to change advisors?

texts:
I got accepted to a top PhD program. I did not expect this to happen, but I am quite happy about this. A certain professor A voted for me (e.g I was accepted to a program because he liked me during the interview and voted for me). He expects me to work with him when I arrive. But, I am not sure if I want to work with him. I know nothing about the area he works in and most of his students did not join academia after graduation (which is bad for me). I would like trying to work with professor B, but I am not sure if this will work out either. Professor B might not want to work with me, or I might fail in his lab (the work that professor B does is harder and expectations are higher). So I afraid that if I try working with professor B - how will I explain this to professor A? What if I will not succeed with professor B, then most probably I cannot expect to work with professor A again, since nobody wants to feel like a back-up option.

How does it usually work for students in PhD? Can students easily try working with different professors and then choose the one they like? Is switching advisors/ coming back to them easy? Or most often students stick to the professor who accepted them?

Country: US, field: CS


texts: Can I slightly change the title of my conference presentation?

texts: I'm going to a conference in December and I will have a 20 minute talk there. Originally, a colleague of mine was supposed to go, but personal circumstances resulted in my taking part instead. My colleague and I cover the same area, so this is not the problem. But since my colleague handed in the title of the talk we have reevaluated our use of field-specific key words. Therefore, I think the title as it stands is a little misleading. Is it common practice to adapt conference presentation titles? I found one topic covering a similar matter, but it hasn't got much attention.


texts: Non-salary fellowships and US income taxes

texts:
In general, are fellowships which are granted to individual researchers, but do not constitute salary and are not held in a personal bank account, considered taxable for US passport holders?

For example, if a US national has a postdoctoral contract which gives them an income, and they are awarded with a supplementary fellowship for travel and research expenses, does the researcher need to declare only their salary when they file income taxes, or do they need to declare salary + the fellowship?

I understand that fellowships can now be considered taxable under some conditions:

  Taxable

  You must include in gross income:

  Amounts used for incidental expenses, such as room and board, travel,
  and optional equipment. Amounts received as payments for teaching,
  research, or other services required as a condition for receiving the
  scholarship or fellowship grant. However, you don't need to include in
  gross income any amounts you receive for services that are required by
  the National Health Service Corps Scholarship Program or the Armed
  Forces Health Professions Scholarship and Financial Assistance
  Program.

However, it is not clear how it would apply in this case.

I'm also confused as to the specific circumstances of a US national who is working outside of the US in this situation (postdoc salary and fellowship are both of non-American origin). I know that they must file their taxes in any case, but that their tax payment is usually 0 due to the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion. If this researcher's salary is ~$50k/yr and the fellowship is ~$50k/yr, this puts the researcher near the exclusion limit if the fellowship is also taxable.

It would seem that if the fellowship is awarded to somebody for purposes other than obtaining a degree, the fellowship is indeed taxable. However this seems like a very undue burden for a researcher, where getting fellowships and grant funding is considered vital for their success. Am I missing something?


texts: Can I use my maiden name professionally if it isn't my legal name anymore?

texts:
My bachelors lists my maiden name. I took a 4 year break - during which I got married and took my husband's last name - and will soon be starting my masters and eventually PhD in a STEM field. I would like to use my maiden name on my degrees and professionally.
I have not published and am not yet established in my field. My married name is extremely ordinary in the US and shared with a well known celebrity. My maiden name is very unique. It may seem arbitrary, but when I do eventually publish and become established in the field, I would like to do so with distinction. I'd like to use my maiden name consistently throughout my professional life, not just in publications but on resumes, staff, in person, etc.
Is this legally possible since I didn't retain my maiden name at all? Hyphenating would be way too long and sound weird. I like my middle name, but I would consider adding my maiden name as a second middle name if that is my only option.
Thoughts? Comments?


texts: Almost all of the Postdoctoral positions requires to attach publications while contacting. Can a manuscript under review be sent to address this?

texts:
I have submitted my PhD thesis and am searching for postdoc positions. However, every position has something on the lines of "Postdoctoral applicants should also attach your most important publications." I had published a work from my PhD two years back, while one is under review at the moment. The one under review being the accurate representative of the novelty of work done in my PhD.

My question is: Can I send the manuscript under review as an example of my work? Is there an accepted/legal way of doing it, like sending the submitted copy generated by the journal?


texts: First-year PhD giving a talk among well-established researchers in the field

texts:
I am currently a first-year Ph.D. student, before that (as I have posted about before) I was forced to leave my Ph.D. program after one year because of a bullying supervisor. Previously, I made a good relationship with other researchers in my field and other scientific volunteering activities.

Now, there is a workshop at a highly ranked conference, and I asked about the possibility of sending a paper for the workshop. They don't solicit papers, however, I have a good relationship with the professor who is the main organizer of the workshop, and they voluntarily  asked me to be a speaker in the workshop for 30 minutes.

The other speakers are the most well-established researchers in my field, I felt excited but afraid in the same time. I don't have yet any publications concerning the current research. I don't know if I should apologize, maybe the professor does not know that I have been kicked out from the earlier program. I don't know what I should do, all the speakers are the elite and I think I am not deserving to be among them as I don't have the same experience.

Should I try or would this be counterproductive to my future career?

EDIT 1

Thanks for answers encouraging me to try, while there are pragmatic answers that I don't have to waste the audience time, honestly, I have self low esteem since all peers have papers published in top journals and conferences, I don't know why the organizers listed me as a speaker, I am not doing great as other students or there is no indication in the right moment that I am doing fantastic research.


texts: Is it illegal to cite books that were illegally downloaded or accessed from a library?

texts:
How illegal is it to cite books that were illegally downloaded?

If they aren't available in the university library, if you can't really afford the books (maybe you will make one reference in one article and the book costs $250+), if there isn't anything else you can use (published articles, reports, etc)... it's one more citation for the author. So in fact you might be helping the authors academic career (here I am considering only academic authors).

I do try my best to find other articles that I might be able to use in my work, but sometimes there is nothing else written, or not enough time to do the extra search.

What do you do?

ps1: I do buy books that are important to my research.

ps2: I do download books that can be important to my research.


texts: Complaining about an ISI journal's unreasonable behavior

texts:
I submitted one of my paper to an ISI journal in September 2011. While I was waiting for it, I inquired about its status (I needed the paper to complete my PhD), and the journal wrote back saying that my paper was under review and the referee was not answering. I was thus waiting.

But after more than two years (about 26 months), the journal sent me this:

  By a QUICK view on your paper, it is not interested for our journal and so we reject your paper

I think they could have answered earlier. Unfortunately, now my work is still not published and some authors published my results in another journal. So, I want to complain to the journal, and possibly get them eliminated from Thomson's lists. How can I achieve this?


texts: Can I be work on several project as a post-doc?

texts:
I'm applying to a post-doc, with a specific project. I'm wondering how much freedom can I get as a post-doc.

I'm currently supervising a master student and I'm planning to supervise more during the post-doc. I'm also still collaborating with my PhD advisors and would like to do some extra analysis, on the side.

Having said that, I was wondering how much freedom do I get as a post-doc? I obviously need to work for the project I'm hired but I'm hoping to get some time to pursue other research interests and writing papers.

Would this be acceptable as a post-doc? Can I work on more than one project at a time?


texts: Is teaching a graduate course with 30 students an unreasonable expectation for a PhD student with a TA contract?

texts:
I am a PhD student in a social science field, and am on a teaching assistantship. My contract stipulates that TAs are to work no more than an average of 15 hours per week.

For my particular department, the past protocol was that 10 hours were devoted to teaching duties (class time, office hours, prepping, and grading), while the remaining five hours are devoted to research with an assigned faculty member. Overall, I do not think that is unreasonable.

However, that setup was determined when the PhD students mostly taught undergraduate courses. I have been assigned a graduate course, and have been told to expect an enrollment of "at least 30 students."

I have never taught before, at any level. I am also still taking a full-time course load of my own.

Does this seem like an unreasonably high expectation from the Dean and program director? Or am I just being a wimp?

I definitely want to teach, and I want to make sure that my students receive the best quality education from me that I can provide. And I would like to do this without sacrificing my own academic progress, nor what is remaining of my sanity.

Just curious to know what other people's experiences in this area have been.


texts:
Many APIs come with code examples on how to use them.
Is it necessary to add attribution if one adapts these examples or copies them.
Does using lines of code examples for api usage require attribution from a license (e.g. BSD) standpoint and/or from a plagiarism standpoint.


texts: Can we write a case study by referring our previous work instead of re-writing?

texts:
I have been writing some papers for a while in computer science. Now when I look at my case study, I found it too long to be as a section in a paper. Instead, i want to write a separate paper for the case study.
I don't want to re-phrase the introduction, related work, the algorithms and our proposed methods etc.
Will it be OR is it permissible to write a pure case study only and referring my previous papers for the details. Of course, i will add some introduction to just let the user know what is going on in this paper and if the reader is interested can refer to other papers. what I have in mind is the flow of paper be like

Abstract

Introduction

Case study parameters

Case study Setup

Case Study working

Case Study Result

Conclusion

also if a reliable source is provided will be much appreciated


texts: How to provide in-text citation for Appendix

texts: My master's dissertation has been sent back to me for copy edits before publication. One of the comments from the editors is "please provide in-text citation for Appendix". Now, I haven't actually referenced the appendix anywhere in the paper, it's more just extra information that relates to the topic and some of my interviewees who provided field data. How shall I go about doing this?


texts: Can I use images from my published papers in my thesis without copyright infringment?

texts:
I have to fill in copyright form for my PHD thesis submission.
I have used some of the images already published in my IEEE/IET journal and conference papers.
I signed copyright forms during the publication process of those papers.

Do these figures fall under the copyright act?

Can I confidently say that

  My thesis does not contain ANY material of which Copyright belongs to third parties.


texts: Is being an event planner also part of being an academician? How do you cope?

texts:
My question is, is being event planners every semester (unrelated to deep research) considered part of being an academician? And how do you navigate or balance all of your tasks (including organizing events, teaching preparation, revamping teaching strategies, supervision, research and also family life)?
Context (you don't need to read if you don't want to):
From my observation, the culture of my university (a teaching university in South-East Asia country) and faculty is to engage in community services and organizing lots of events unrelated to deep research. Not much effort is made to make deep research, if any, it would only be grants with direction to commercialization and business.
Most of these tasks of organizing events are pushed to the assistant professors, aside from administrative academicians, especially the new staffs. If the events involve organizing conference, the research involved is usually superficial and they are just for gathering participants. The tasks are usually low-level tasks including menial clerk tasks, logistic management, financial management, and other tasks included when organizing events, not only chairing sessions. (Chairing sessions looks wonderful in comparison). They are not that difficult but they are a lot and taking too much time, months or even a year, and not contributing much to our performance index.
These new assistant professors don't have enough time to prepare for teaching (9 to 12 teaching hours) and redesigning teaching strategies, let alone doing deep and meaningful research. I've tried googling about academic workload, but they are mostly about teaching and research, which from my perspective, is quite wonderful, compared to be spammed by menial tasks of becoming event planners every year.
I've tried voicing out this opinion to my faculty members and administrative academicians, but I get the feeling that they do not agree with it. Since we don't have many staffs, they need every help they could muster, and maybe organizing events comes naturally to them. The advantage is we might get jobs as 'experienced' event planners if we would like to opt out of academia :)
Would love to hear any insight to fix my way of thinking on how to cope. Thank you.


texts: From whom do I get references when my original advisor leaves academia?

texts:
This is similar to a previously asked question, but deals specifically with addressing the problem on the CV. My adviser had a bit of a personal meltdown and left the department while I was finishing analysis of field data/writing up. His students were assigned the following year to a non-tenured professor.  This new professor was of little help to me my last year of writing up, sat on my dissertation with no comments for over 6 months and only produced comments after I went to the departmental chair. He did not think much of the type work I was doing and went so far as to say so during my defense. I will add here that I have a number of publications (>5) including single authored ones-which for my field is significant- as well as an excellent track record of funding and in presenting my research. I have a strong CV but have had no success thus far in securing a job. I once saw one of the letters he had written for me (it needed to be included in a single PDF so he had to send it to me) and it was terrible. It talked mostly about him and how he really did not know me well and with a few generic sounding "he will no doubt exceed" sentences that just sounded fake. Months later a colleague suggested that I find a different reference than my adviser (but was not clear as to why).

So, my question is this: since committees will no doubt look at my list of referees and wonder at my lack of an adviser-I have taken to including a short "note" in the "reference contact information" section explaining that 1) my original adviser left academia at the end of my time as a student and 2) that my new adviser was up for tenure the year I defended and very busy and was in a different field than mine, so instead "below are three people who are in a better position to judge me on my research, teaching, writing skills".

Is this providing too much information or is this instead ensuring that rather than questioning and then rejecting my application the committees will stop and think "oh okay, I can see why the applicant did not include their adviser"?


texts: High Latency Communication with Potential Thesis Supervisor

texts:
I'm currently pursuing my Masters in Switzerland and got in touch with a Professor at a major UK university a month ago via E-Mail for a potential thesis project. I immediately got a positive reply mentioning my interesting background and the good fit with his current research.

Two weeks ago we talked on the phone for a little more than an hour. It was almost exclusively him explaining three research projects that would fit my background and interest. It all sounded very positive and ended with his request for me to think it over and tell him as soon as possible if I was interested in any of the projects, as he was "super busy".

I decided on one of the projects that I really liked and wrote a nice E-Mail the same day.

I have not heard back from my potential supervisor yet (2 weeks in now). I wrote a brief follow-up E-Mail one week ago, asking if he knew whether he wanted to go ahead with our collaboration. This week he will be attending a conference abroad (according to search results on Google), so surely he is very busy.

While I have had Professors not reply to E-Mails about thesis opportunities in the past, I am confused both because of the good conversation we had on the phone and what we had agreed on in that conversation.
After all, if he really has lost interest in a collaboration, he could easily drop me a line via E-Mail.

Right now I think another E-Mail by the end of the week would be the only option - reaching out by phone is difficult, because he seems to rarely be in his office. How do I come across without making the impression of being pushy or annoying?


texts: Is there such a thing as a permanent academic assistantship position?

texts:
It's common for graduate students and postdocs to fulfill various "assistant" positions in academia. They may grade papers or conduct research under the direct supervision of a faculty member who is ultimately responsible for the work product. These are functions that require real academic skills, but not up to the level expected of a faculty member. The important thing about these positions is that they are intended to be temporary, a type of brief apprenticeship training on the road to professorship rather than an actual stable career that one could stay in for a few decades.

Is there such a thing in academia as a permanent, full-time assistantship, one not temporary or tied to student status? That is, is it reasonably possible for someone to do this as a career? Obviously, this sort of thing probably wouldn't pay as much as a full-time, regular faculty appointment, but that is neither here nor there for this question.

I'm not thinking about Adjunct Professors. Adjuncts are usually temporary, part-time employees that actually hold faculty-level responsibility. I'm talking about a situation where a person might hold a full-time, indefinite appointment grading student papers, finding citations, or checking petri dishes for bacterial growth under the supervision of faculty, but wouldn't do (and isn't in training to do) their own research or teach unsupervised.

I also recognize that academic departments often have general office positions such as secretaries, human resources professionals, IT help desk technicians, etc., but these sort of roles do not typically involve the use of advanced academic skills.

There are various reasons a person could want to do this. They might want to work in academia but lack the talent to do truly original research, or they might actually have it but realize part-way through their PhD that they hate doing original research but truly enjoy grading papers or holding tutoring sessions. They might like going out into the field and applying best practices in digging up soil samples but enjoy the fact that their career is not in jeopardy if the research hits a dead-end (rather, the faculty that decided to dig there faces the setback).

As an example, someone might say, "Ok, I'm wrapping up my MS in Chemistry and I don't want to go for a PhD, my thesis was hard enough! I'd really like to spend the next ten years grading freshman homework, TA'ing the Organic Chemistry I lab, and designing data-gathering protocols for others' research projects. Those were the parts of the past two years that I truly enjoyed."


texts: How do you choose a textbook for a new class

texts: I am teaching a new class next term and I need to choose a text book (or create a reading list) for it. The class is a hands on introduction to programming with MATLAB. A quick search of my library's catalogue returns nearly 300 titles, 100 of which are on-line books. When you are creating a new class from scratch how do you go about choose the text book?


texts: Colleague indirectly accusing me of plagiarism? Help?

texts:
I recently got my PhD degree.

2 years of my PhD were done under supervision of X under their department. The rest was done under supervision of Y in another department. When we separated and I moved to Y, there was an agreement about which artefacts I was allowed to keep to continue my studies *.

Some time ago my boss sent me an email telling me one X's employees has made allegations I have plagiarized their work. There was an email stating 5 separate "cases" where they believed I had done this. The majority included re-creating a figure representing an experimental set-up, and using software developed by X's department, and usage of artefacts I was previously allowed to use (see * above) which I had cited.

I have prepared a response document addressing every point and elaborating how I have not plagiarised any work, nor have taken credit for the work of others (the exception to this MAY be the figure I mentioned earlier, but this was unintentional and I have already contacted the publisher with the intention to amend the acknowledgment section of the paper, if possible). I have developed my own software and have derived my own results.

However, these false accusations were delivered to third parties first. I learned of this case from my boss. Why did X not speak to ME or Y (coauthor)? How do I protect myself in a case where third parties are being told I have plagiarised material when this is not the case?


texts: If I accept an offer of admission to MSc in UK, can I later decline to accept another offer?

texts:
I have applied for a MSc in a UK university for the academic year 2017/18. I was offered an unconditional offer and I have to make a decision on it within 4 weeks and now two weeks have passed. But as I have not yet heard from other universities, I would like to take more time before accepting the offer. When I requested for more time to consider my decision the university informed me that it is better to accept the offer as I can always decline it.

But I would like to know whether there are any rules which state like I have an obligation to study at the university if I have accepted a place because if I get a place at another university which I am interested in, then I may drop this offer. Would the process allow me to decline the offer after accepting it, should I need to, and accept the offer at some other university?

I am not a student from UK, so if anyone can provide me guidance on this it would be helpful.


texts: Is there something like Qnotero for Mendeley?

texts: I've been using Zotero for bibliography, citation and reference management for a long time. Particularly, I came to love Qnotero, which is a stand-alone application, providing a handy way of accessing PDFs from the Zotero library even when Zotero isn't running: One just presses a customizable hotkey, a popup appears on the desktop, where you enter a search term (e.g., title or author of a paper), hit enter, and the PDF opens. However, I recently discovered Mendeley, and it's really appealing to me. Still, I'm missing the Qnotero functionality. Is there something similar to Qnotero available for Mendeley?


texts: Is an acknowledgement worth putting in a CV?

texts:
Of course, the bread-and-butter of an academic CV are degrees and publications, and citation index is a primary means of judging the value of said publications, but it's also common for academics to give out acknowledgements to people who contributed to a paper, but not in a way deserving of a citation or authorship.

Is a history of being thanked in acknowledgements worth putting on one's CV or otherwise touting in the context of academic faculty appointments?

I can come up with arguments both ways. On the one hand, an acknowledgement without a citation or authorship implies that one's contribution was non-academic in nature or, if academic, was too minor to merit being cited or granted author status, but on the other hand, an acknowledgement could be seen as demonstrating so-called "soft skills". For example, one might claim,

  My biochemistry citation index speaks for itself, but also see that Dr. Jones acknowledged me for "faithful emotional support while [he] was undergoing cancer treatment while also teaching a heavy load", and Dr. Smith acknowledged me for "standing firm in support of the department's goals and [her] projects in particular as major funding cuts rocked through the university in 2018 and 2019". I have thus demonstrated excellent hard academic skills as well as organizational and interpersonal soft skills, and that is why I am the best candidate for department chair!


texts: How will the success of my previous projects affect future funding?

texts:
I have two funded projects. One works great but the other is terrible (probably wrong postdocs and PhD students). When I send future proposals, my history is evaluated against the overall research output, right? There is no factor indicating one of my projects has failed, right?

I have two options:

Let the weak project fail and focus on the successful one to improve my overall research output. Then, I have a strong record of publications for the future proposals.
Use some funds from my successful project in the problematic one (e.g., hiring more people) to save it at the cost of sacrificing the successful one.

By the way, I am an assistant professor of chemistry (close to promotion) and the projects have been funded by European schemes, if it matters.


texts: Can a company use a method published in an academic paper to make money?

texts: Academics do not usually apply for patents for the methods published in academic conferences/journals. Can a company use the ideas/code/results in these publications in a product they make money from? How binding the university or journal licensing is? And is the situation different for the publications that are open-access (eg eLife) vs paid-access (eg Nature)?


texts: Do I have an obligation to pay publication fee to predatory journal?

texts: Accidentally submitted to predatory journal (very naive and stupid first time researcher here) accepted with no evidence of peer review. Could not pay submission fee so they reduced cost substantially so I submitted an updated manuscript. Then realised it was predatory and they also have already uploaded my article online! Have not paid fee and confronted journal on predatory status. Can I get away with not paying the fee? No copyright transfer signed.


texts:
I am an undergraduate who will be applying to graduate school in the fall.

In my academic career, I have published 1 paper in a not so well known journal (International Journal of Applied Pattern Recognition) and I believe the paper is sub-par, especially compared to the rest of my CV. Should I still list it in my CV when I apply for graduate school?

I am worried that the paper might stick out like a sore thumb in an otherwise adequate list of experience and accolades. But on the other hand, since I do not have any other papers, this might be an additional evidence of research experience, especially since I published it at the beginning of my sophomore year (I doubt the admissions committee will look too deeply at the dates and come to that conclusion though..).


texts: Asking for recommendation letters for math PhD applications

texts:
Fall 2018 application cycle has started and I have a couple of (hopefully not too specific) questions regarding recommendation letters. I am applying for a PhD position in pure mathematics in the USA, with lots of top schools included.

(1)  Does the status of the letter writer matter greatly to admission committees? For example, I have done research with a full professor, an assistant professor and a lecturer in my department. The latter two got their PhDs in 2011. If the three of them write me a letter, does that automatically put me at a disadvantage because two of them are not full professors or one of them is a lecturer? I have heard that, in principle, letters from people that are known in their field are looked upon more favorably by committees, particularly because they might be familiar with the letter-writer and can 'read between the lines' and get more information out of the letter.

(2) Should I bother asking for a letter from professors that only know me through classes? I have a potential fourth person in mind for a letter - he is a professor I took two classes with and did well in both. In my understanding, "so-and-so was a good student in my X and Y class" will probably impress no-one, even if it comes from an established professor. All programs require 3 recommendation letters, so would you think it is worth the effort to have an extra letter if it comes from such a professor?

Thanks in advance for any responses.


texts: Is it possible to receive federal Pell Grant payments retroactively for prior unclaimed semesters?

texts:
I recently became aware that I'm eligible to receive federal Pell Grant aid for my education expenses. I was unaware of my eligibility in the past. While reading some Pell Grant information, I came across this excerpt concerning retroactive payments:

  The school can pay a student retroactively for any completed
  payment periods within the award year if the student was eligible for
  payment in those periods. Thus, if the school receives a valid output
  document for the student while he or she is enrolled as an eligible
  student in the summer term, but the student was also enrolled and
  eligible for payment in the previous fall term, that student must be paid retroactively for the fall term.

Link to the source pdf file: https://ifap.ed.gov/sfahandbooks/attachments/0304Vol3Ch4.pdf

I don't fully understand its meaning. Can anyone clarify whether I might be able to claim the previous Fall 2015 and Spring 2016 Pell Grant funding retroactively, or perhaps back even further? (I could provide appropriate documentation to show eligibility for those periods)


texts: How to compensate for previous low grades when applying to PhDs in the UK?

texts:
I want to know how to compensate a low overall grade for past education for a Ph.D. application in computer science in the UK ?
Thanks


texts: How should I respond to a reviewer comment that I didn't make changes when I did?

texts:
I received an email from the editor, including a quote from the reviewer saying "I regret to inform you that the authors failed to address the points I raised in my previous review of this manuscript, in this case, any further comments on this manuscript is pointless."

I sent them an email to ask about the point that we failed to address because I made the changes in the manuscript that the reviewer ask for it. The reviewer said that the authors failed to update the reference list. I add 3 more references to support the old one because he said in his review paper that if the authors don't want to omit old references at least can use them together with more recent ones.

This is the reviewer's comments on my original manuscript:

  The references list needs to be updated. There are old references (1980s – 1990s) that can be replaced with more recent ones. Please see below a number of suggested recent papers that can replace old references. If the authors are not willing to omit old references at least can use them together with more recent ones.

And this is his comment after I updated my manuscript:

  Unfortunately, the authors failed to update the reference list, and failed to respond to these comments. There are no changes on the manuscript. Authors should address any comments given by reviewers, in a point-to-point response; even if they do not want to consider the comments or suggestions from reviewers they must address their reasons for not considering these comments and suggestions. Given that there are no changes on the manuscript, and there is no point-to-point response from the authors, this review is pointless. Thank you for given me the opportunity to review this manuscript, I leave the final decision to you, since there is no response from the authors.

Please advise me if there is anything that I should be doing? The other reviewer recommended that my manuscript be accepted "as is."


texts:
So here is the situation:

I am a Math student in a very well ranked French university, and I am going to finish my degree (i.e. 2-year MSc, after a 3-year BSc) in August. Therefore, it is time to think of the future: graduate school. In particular, I have been thinking to apply in the US, where many very good groups in the field I'm interested in are located. I have the highest possible GPA, followed advanced courses, research and teaching experience, potentially very good recommendation letters from well-know professors, received awards, and I'll be writing my MSc thesis at a well-known university on the East Coast.

However, I haven't been able to register for the GRE subject test soon enough due to personal reasons, and when I look at the US math graduate school, they almost all require the GRE subject test. Most of them even say that the applications without the GRE and Subject GRE will not even be reviewed, or will be very disadvantaged. The next session is in April, and the results must be submitted in December.

What is the reality of the graduation admissions system in the US? Should I try to apply anyway without the GRE Subject (i.e. are applications without GRE automatically rejected)? Should I wait one year to apply, until I can pass the GRE?


texts: How widespread is the practice of delegating LoR writing to the applicant?

texts:
At least two questions (1, 2) on this site indicate that in more than a few isolated cases at least, letters of recommendation are in fact written by the applicant and only signed off (or perhaps rephrased somewhat) by the recommender, who would actually be responsible for writing the letter.

Is there any evidence about the prevalence of this practice that goes beyond anecdotes? I realize that cross-country (cultural) difference may play a role.


texts: What if I got an idea that has been recently published, should I invest time considering it?

texts:
I got an idea for my master's work but when I did some research it turned out that someone published it in 2016. Should I stick to my idea as maybe I can do some improvements or at least I can give other interpretations or raise some questions or should I leave it behind. Can you propose me some solutions?

Thank you!


texts: Will focusing on statistics experience be beneficial for math job applications?

texts:
I've had a PhD in pure mathematics for the last 5 years, and have found several good positions, including a tenure track position I amicably left for personal reasons.
However, the job market is getting pretty tight in mathematics for tenure track positions.
I just recently have one year of statistics teaching experience (the most recent year). While interviewing for my current (temporary) position at a small liberal arts college, some of the interviewers were highly interested in my statistics experience, and I was told that statistics experience was essentially a requirement for the position.

I'll have taught for a second year, when I apply in the fall.
Is this a valuable experience that I should emphasize in my resume
(compared to my  several years of calculus/algebra/linear algebra
teaching)? If so, how can I  effectively highlight it?

I can't tell if it was just a fluke (like the occasional combined math/comp sci positions), or a general rule that those with statistics expertise are preferable at liberal arts colleges.


texts: Are there any studies on the effectiveness of Qualifying examinations in Graduate Schools

texts:
Is any of you aware of studies that show how a Qualifying examination affects things like success in an Academic career, publications, etc.

As many of you know, there are many countries that do not have Qualifying examinations in Graduate school. I just would like to know if there is solid research on this topic.


texts: What can be done to possibly avoid corrupt practices in the blind peer review process?

texts:
During my short career as a researcher I observed a few seemingly unethical behaviors by Editors and Associate Editors:

being asked to include a particular new author in order to be accepted
being asked to cite articles with no apparent link with my article
being told by the conference TCP (one of the top conference) to reject all the articles I review
In one unique case, I reviewed an article and recommended strong rejection, it was subsequently accepted without revision. Reviewing the authors profile and handling editor, I found one of the author is an Associate Editor for another journal. It appears that both help each to publish articles in their journals.

All the above experiences were observed in well-reputed journals and conferences. Given all this, how what can I do to "clean this mess" in academic the journal/conference review process?


texts: Chances of getting in at a world top 50 graduate school for Economics with a C+ in Calculus II?

texts: My GPA (Economics) at the moment is 3.7 but I have a terrible grade on Calculus II (C+)- the reason being that Calculus II clashed with another mandatory course of mine, and I couldn't attend most of the Calculus II lectures (furthermore, the Calc II Professor refused to accept my homework since I wasn't attending all the lectures, and all the grade weight fell on my final exam- most people who attended the lectures got super nice grades; also, the homework problems for that course were easy). On the other hand, I have perfect scores on all of my other Math and Statistics courses that did not have clashes. Furthermore, I will probably have my name on 4 papers by the time I graduate next year (please note that I have made significant contributions to the paper, and it's not just "some helping out on the research and my Profs. are too kind" thing). Apologies for the lengthy question.


texts: Reality check on advice for statement of purpose

texts:
I'm about to write a statement of purpose for graduate admission and my advisor passed along to me the following pieces of advice to keep in mind while writing  (based on his style and experience in admission commitees).

I completely agree with every point he has made. However, I'd like to have further insight and suggestions and yet another reality check on the soundness of these pieces of advice.

  Advice from my advisor:

  Don't try to sell me my own research area by explaining to me how fascinating it is. Do show your interest by showcasing your previous
  experience working on (or studying) related topics (not necessarily
  very closely related).
  Don't tell me how amazing, prestigious, perfect my institution or research group is. I know more than you do about that. Also, chances
  are that you are applying to a lot of schools and don't have
  inflexible interests yet, which is fine. Just tell me that you may be
  willing to work with a certain research group that seems more or less
  in line with your previous experience or future directions.
  Don't tell me a cute story about how you fell in love with my field when you were a kid (or high school senior or college freshmen). I
  just don't care. I want to hire a soon-to-be professional to join my
  research group, not a little boy with a cute story. I only need to
  know factual information that show your commitment to the field (for
  example, courses/conferences attended, projects undertaken).
  Ban ill-crafted, pseudo-literary, flowery, cheesy narrations. Just  write facts. Straightforwardly. Succintly. Accurately. I'll draw conclusions for myself.
  Ban any buzzwords, meaningless adjectives and adverbs. If they don't add concrete information, but are there just an ill-advised attempt
  to impress, cut them!


texts: Why is it so hard to convince professors to write recommendation letters for me?

texts:
I am trying to shift graduate schools to change subjects and over the last year I have been studying the new subject in my current graduate school. I have good grades and in collaboration with a few professors and over the last year, I have been working on an insanely hard research question in this new field. The progress is invariably slow.

But I am unable to convince any prof to write recommendation letters for me to do this shift! I don't understanding this. (Does it not count that I started a new subject directly at the grad level and could get good grades and start attacking one of the hardest questions in that field?)

One prof says that if another professor at a different place wants to work with me as their grad student then that prof can contact this prof here to talk about me. Should I take this option in lieu of not getting recommendation letters?
Officially some profs say that they are not comfortable writing letters for someone who doesn't come with the usual background of having done an undergrad in this new subject. (somehow this gap is not offset by me having done some of thee advanced grad courses in this new subject)


texts: Asking for a letter medical school letter of recommendation from a class you failed, retook, and got an A in?

texts:
I failed one of my classes (E and M) and during the subsequent retake got an A. I was considering asking the professor for a letter of recommendation because I think the episode shows my willingness and ability to bounce back. Also, I asked him for help a bunch outside of class, so he got to see me putting in effort.

I'm of two minds:

On the positive side, this letter would address the F on my transcript in the best possible light.

On the negative side, I'm worried medical schools won't understand the effort that goes into something like E and M, and write this off as a fluff letter. Or that they will assume that getting an F in the first place (without a serious excuse) means I lack the academic prowess for medical school.

My specific question is, has anyone actually done this for medical school admissions and did it come up in an interview?


texts: How can a working professional getting into a new field

texts:
I have EE major and CS minor in my bachelor degree (overseas, GPA ~3.7) and a CS master degree (US, rank about 30 in CS, GPA ~3.5). I've worked in tech industry for 9 years as a technical staff, but I don't have any publication or patten. I got a green card and have sufficient saving.
I'm thinking about getting into pure math. Although in my undergraduate years, I learned calculus, linear algebra, some engineering math, complex analysis, but the strengths are not comparable.
I see little chance of getting into a good math Phd program due to my thin and outdated profile. Redoing the whole bachelor degree seems impossible in terms of time and finance. Is there a way to strengthen my profile? Is there an "intermediate" program to learn just the mathematical knowledge and bridge me? I see some "Post-Baccalaureate Program" but they're not for mathematics. I'm willing to go abroad if the school is good and I'm accepted.


texts: What to do if a co-author is delaying announcement of results?

texts:
I am finishing writing a joint paper with a collaborator and we are both extremely excited about the results. However, we cannot agree on when to announce the results.

In my opinion the paper is essentially ready and we should announce the results very soon. The field in which we are working in is booming right now, there are several brilliant, quick people we are competing with. We have a breakthrough result and in my field it is not unusual to see people arrive at the same results simultaneously and independently. Seeing a lot of activity and knowing more or less what people are working on I feel that we need to secure priority essentially immediately. This would mean e.g. circulating the current version of the preprint among colleagues or, ideally, posting it on a preprint server.

My co-author on the other hand would like to explore other potential applications of our results. The main result of the paper is complete, and the only question is how many applications we can have. We currently have 5 very nice applications but my co-author would like to look for more. If they are found they would be certainly good, but at this point it is more of a fishing expedition. However, because of this my co-author demands that we announce our results three months from now and is insisting on a gag order until then. (In our field it is not uncommon to lose results to dishonest researchers who learn about your result early and can try to publish/attach their name to it before you).

Basically, I feel like we are sitting at a roulette table with a million dollars but instead of cashing in we are waiting to see if we can win another 100k.
I would really appreciate some advice on how to reasonably resolve this situation.


texts: Is there a better measure of undergraduate academic performance than GPA?

texts:
An answer to a recent question about the importance of looking at a student's whole transcript got me thinking.  Is there some other way of summing up a student's academic performance, other than the GPA?  Something that would distinguish among the three types of 3.5 students described in Jake's answer:

  This student is pretty steady, but not great, and tends to get an even mix of As and Bs across all of their classes, obtaining a 3.5 GPA.
  This student always takes the class with the easiest grading policy whenever they can, and tends to get mostly As in the "easy" classes. When they cannot evade a "hard" class, they get mostly Cs, resulting in a 3.5 GPA.
  This student is very strong and gets mostly As, but there was one semester when family problems disrupted their life, and missed assignments caused them to get Bs and two Fs, also ending up with a 3.5 GPA.

In other words, is there a way of summarizing a student's transcript, that doesn't ignore so many important details?

I suspect that incorporating just class rank doesn't help much (an anecdotal, subjective contribution): my high school allowed one to choose to take classes with credit/no credit (C/NC).  I chose to be graded with letter grades for a handful of classes, and received A's in all of those.  I suspect this may have been why I graduated with a laughably high class rank.


texts: How am I supposed to go to conferences with a reimbursement system as a poor TA?

texts:
I don't get paid much as a TA. I wanted to go to conferences but all of them operate on a reimbursement system. Between flights, shuttles, hotels, etc. it can be up to like $1000 not including food. They offer funding but with reimbursement. I don't have $1000 in my bank account to pay with in the first place. Most other TAs I know are in a similar position.

Why do programs use a reimbursement system? I went to one conference where they reimbursed the flight and paid for the hotel. That was a month ago and I think my reimbursement check is still a ways away. Why does it take so long? Why not just buy me a ticket? How am I supposed to go to conferences?


texts: Advisor going over and unhelpfully modifying my presentation structure and slides

texts:
At our institute, PhD students carry out presentations on the advance of their projects once a year. The presentations are "internal" in the sense that only undergrads, PhD students and professors of our institute may attend.

I am about to carry out my second such presentation corresponding to my second year progress. For my first presentation (one year ago), my advisor asked for my presentation and called me into his office one day before the presentation and went over it, changing it in a non-trivial way, i.e. deleting slides, changing titles, content, etc. I found most corrections counterproductive or superficial at best. In the end I did not include all corrections, just enough to keep him/her happy.
I was quite frustrated and stressed since the overall tone was "this is terrible", "we are way behind in our project", "this is bad". After the presentation I got very good feedback from professors and colleagues (my advisor is not a professor). Once he saw the feedback, he changed his mind from "this is bad" to "good work, good presentation".

This has also happened a couple of times with other internal presentations at our institute. I am pretty sure this will happen again in the next days.

My questions are:

Is it common for advisors to carry out extensive and minute corrections on the presentation structure and slides of its PhD students?
What is the best way to communicate that I will not follow corrections with which I do not agree?
Or, are PhD students obligated to follow the commands of the advisor?


texts: A famous scholar sent me an unpublished draft of hers. Then she died. I think her work should be published. What should I do?

texts:
A famous scholar sent me an unpublished draft of hers. It was to convince me that a certain philosophical position is wrong (the paper debunks that position). Then she died. I think her work should be published.

What should I do? Who should I contact?


texts: Asking same professor for rec letters for 2 different grad programs?

texts: I'm an undergrad applying for graduate programs next year. Is it a bad idea to ask the same professor to do two different letters for two different programs (Philosophy programs, and Law school)? My gut says no, since this would require the professor to kind of "lie" to each grad program about how dedicated I am to each. However, I do know this professor very well as I did research for him and the programs are somewhat related. Thanks!


texts: PhD sanity check on project description and advisor

texts:
I'm an industrial PhD student (Europe) and recently I'm finding myself reflecting over some events.

As industrial student I'm working for a Company. It is important to note that the Company (superiors/supervisors) have decided what subject (and its scope) I'll be working on. Basically, it was their idea for a new product.

It is worth noting that my boss is also my main supervisor (she is doing 20% at university and 80% at the Company).

Having this in mind, I'm finding some things odd:

I had to write PhD project description (milestones, etc. ) on my own.
A year after PhD commenced, my supervisor commented that "she still does not have vision about the project".

I just want to make sanity check and establish how often this happens and is it normal thing or not.


texts: Should I remind potential mentors to look at my graduate application?

texts:
An instruction email from one of the graduate schools I applied states the following:

"for the potential mentors you list on the application, after the January deadline passes, it’s a good idea to email them directly with a nudge to look at your application"

Is this necessary and is this a common practice?


texts: Do admissions care how close a TOEFL score is to the minimum?

texts: I work with some students who will attend graduate school in the US. The schools they are applying for list minimum required TOEFL scores. Some have just reached the minimum scores required for admission to their schools of choice. Do admissions departments ever care about how close this number is to the minimum? In other words, will the students be at any greater advantage if they retake the test and get a higher score, or is the "score level met" simply a "met" or "not met" variable that goes into deciding whether or not the students are accepted?


texts: Someone cited citations I used without citing my work and effort in finding the references

texts:
Recently I came across a conference paper that tried to solve the same problem I solved couple of years ago and published a workshop publication about, but using a different algorithm. In their introduction they mention and cite 6 applications that can benefit from the solution to this specific problem. Out of the 6 examples 4 are exactly the same in my publication word for word with 3 of them using the same exact citations I used. Which made me believe with zero doubt that the one of the conference paper authors read my workshop paper and found those applications and citations useful and decided to reuse them in their publication without giving my work proper citation for finding those references.

I have read through academia stack previous questions and all questions I found were researchers trying to figure out if citing the source without citing the middle resource was okay:

Attributing Second-order Citations
I have found theses on a similar subject to my own, and want to use
their references with my own text and a similar flow. Is this
plagiarism?
Citing a citation from a paper?
Is it okay to incorporate a block of citations from a review paper
into my own paper?
Is there a problem with citing the original source instead of the
source where the information was first found?
If I use most of the references from a thesis but not the exact
same sentences, is it plagiarism?

The consensus form the answers of these questions is that the middle resource should be also cited.

Since in my case my work was not cited at all, I contacted the conference committee chair about this issue and showed that the citations I have used have been reused in the paper that was accept in his conference without citing my work. His response was "this related work discussion does not amount to plagiarism." and continued to say that if I am not satisfied with his conclusion that I can contact the journal and ask them for a full investigation of this issue.

So currently I am a little bit conflicted, is this a case of plagiarism? If so how can I proof that it is a clear case plagiarism to avoid a similar response from the journal editors.


texts: Where to find documents/information about research group policies

texts:
Due to different problems I have had in my research group (I am the PI) and in order to solve them I have decided to write down in a public document, what is our research group policy.

I considered did useless before since I considered it to contain laws that are straightforward in most of the cases, but now I realize about its importance, with the hope that previous problematic situations will not happen again.

The document will contain directives about who and how will lead research projects, what can be expected from the PI and the members, authorship and participation in papers and patents, who can add new members, how will be new collaborations established, etc.

Therefore I wonder if you know or can point where such documents from another groups can be found, I would like to read as many as possible in before I create ours.


texts: Is there such thing as too many references for one paper?

texts:
I'm currently reviewing a paper that has an uncommonly large number of references compared to the average number for that particular venue (more than 60 versus around 30). This is a regular paper, not a survey one, and although there does not seem to be wrong references, it feels like some are not really necessary, and the fact that one particular author is cited more than 15 times makes me worry that this paper is used to inflate the number of citations of that author (the submission is anonymous).

Should I mention this in my review, and try to examine which submissions are "abusive", or just let it go?


texts: I'm afraid of chemicals. How do I handle my required uni biology class?

texts:
I have a freshman requirement as a science student for at least 3 core science classes, and I picked physics as often as I could. However, I must choose either chem or bio as my third. I chose bio.

The thing is, I'm deathly afraid of chemicals. I don't know when it started, but I can hardly touch household cleaning products without obsessively washing my hands afterward. I broke down crying a few times in high school bio, to my embarrassment. Oh yeah, and I'm also pretty much a hypochondriac. It's not something I can control.

I'm afraid that my grades will be hurt because of my phobia. There are several hands-on labs in the course, though I am not sure if we are working with very hazardous chemicals. The exact course name is cell and molecular biology. How should I approach the course, and does anyone have any advice for avoiding chemicals in the lab? I wish I could opt out of a class due to fear, but alas.

What should I do? Thanks in advance.


texts: Should I consider my conference paper as published, if fee is paid but I didn't attend the conference?

texts:
I submitted a conference paper some time ago to a trusted highly ranked conference. Strangely enough there's almost no communication from their part, no replies most of the time to my inquiries.

The paper got peer-reviewed and accepted, I paid the fee (around 500usd), I asked just a week before the conference if it's necessary to attend it because it was difficult to book a ticket given that I had only one month left in my old passport and I didn't have the new one, I provided a proof of that (scan of my old passport), but I got no reply and considered this as "ok" since this is what I wanted.

Now I am running out of time to graduate my PhD and I need to know whether it's considered published or I can submit it somewhere else. Should I bring something stronger in my email to catch their attention like "legal fight, submit somewhere else,etc" or just wait longer (presentation was exactly 10 days ago)?
what I am missing in all of this?

conference link if that helps


texts: Is there an academic\ethical reason for omitting place names in environmental science papers?

texts:
I hope this is the right SE site for this question. To be clear, I am not asking anything about the contents of the paper, but on the practice of omitting certain information that I thought should be included for completeness and clarity.

I have been reading a paper titled: "Spatial and temporal occurrence of pharmaceuticals and illicit drugs in the aqueous environment and during wastewater treatment: New developments", which deals with measurements of drugs' concentrations in river water in the UK.

I was surprised to see no mention of the name of the river anywhere in the paper or the supplementary material. This seems on purpose, since the authors describe the river's properties that are relevant for the study, but neglect to mention which river was it.

Could it be related to some academic practice I am not aware of, or perhaps is it a safety measure to prevent mass panic among the residents of the area?


texts: My PI assigned me to a direct supervisor who is academically incompetent. What should I do?

texts:
This is very closely related to this question. However in that question on top of the academic problems there are also major safety issues and the answers correctly focus on that. But this still leaves an interesting question unanswered: What should you do if you perceive your direct supervisor to be academically incompetent?
Suppose you start in a new lab as a masters or PhD student. The PI is great but very hands off. You are assigned a PhD student or a postdoc for your every day supervision. You get the impression that this person is failing academically. The linked question has a good list of clues. They have no plan for their own research, seem to have trouble understanding the surrounding literature or even the prerequisites, don't come up with new ideas to look into and maybe on top are technically inept and very bad at handling the lab equipment. Essentially you feel like you already are academically ahead of your supervisor and this person doesn't have anything to teach you.
What do you do? And in what time frame, having this impression after two weeks might be different than having it after 6 months but maybe waiting six months before doing anything is too much already.


texts: Keeping the same supervisor/thesis topic upon transferring to MSc

texts:
I am currently a second year PhD student going on to a third year. I have made the decision to transfer my candidature to masters instead. I would like to ask the following:

Do people usually switch advisors/thesis topics upon transferring from PhD to masters? As with many stories shared here, I too, am losing interest in my current research area (which is one of the main reasons of me deciding to drop to masters degree).

But for those who decided to change their advisors/ topics, what are your reasons behind doing so? I am open to learning new areas but the maximum duration of candidature for masters in my university is up to 3 years. So I only have a year left to write my masters thesis. I will have to spend a lot of extra time and effort into reading up on a new area if I do decide to switch.

Even if one decides to continue doing the current topic they are on, how vastly different is the aim of your master thesis as compared to say the initial goal of your PhD research? Most PhD research topics aim to resolve some open research problems. However, when one decides to transfer to master, they may not have the time or resources to give a positive answer to the problem at the end. In such cases, how would one change the approach to writing their thesis?

I am asking this because while I have made some progress on my reading and research with my supervisor, I feel that I will not be able to provide a full positive solution to my current topic at the end of the year. Granted, I could probably press on with my current topic and just write whatever progress I have and call it my masters thesis.
I would to love to hear your inputs and comments. Thank you!


texts: During recitation sections, should I ask students for help in coming up with the answer?

texts:
Typically when teaching recitation sections (in lower level applied math classes), I bring a problem or two, and ask students to fill in the steps in the solution.  Usually 4 or 5 people (out of 10-15) are engaged in this process.

On the one hand, I think the engaged students benefit from the class discussion, and enjoy it more than listening to a lecture.

On the other hand, I worry that the students who don't participate in the discussion will find it boring, or get confused (because sometimes the other students suggest wrong approaches, and I humor them a bit before explaining why it's wrong).  It also makes the problem-solving process longer than it could be, and in that time I could cover more types of problems or just let students go home early.

What do you think is the best practice?  (And is it different in regular lectures than in recitation sections?)


texts: Are references with indication of page number uncommon in computer science?

texts:
I am writing a computer science paper in which I cite several lengthy sources (text books and standard specifications). Whenever I cite such a source, I add the page numbers of the subsection to which I refer, e.g.:

  Bla bla is considered very important [52, pp. 210-214].

One of the reviewers of the paper remarks the following:

  Do not use references with indication of page numbers (e.g., [52, pp. 210-214]), this is very uncommon.

Is this really true (in computer science)?

Am I wrong to include the page numbers in the reference?

The reference in question is a 400+ page book that broadly covers a whole subject area and I thought knowing which pages I actually refer to might help the reader. There are several other (and longer) sources, such as technical standards, which I cite in the same fashion.


texts: What are the differences between M.Sc, M.Tech and M.Eng.?

texts:
Based on this other question where the OP asks whether or not a second Masters degree is possible, I realized that I am not sure what the difference is between Master of Science and Master of Technology.

I have graduated from a Swedish university and after 5 years of studies (Bologna process) I got my undergrad (kandidat) and masters (examen) together as it is very common here. I double checked my diploma now and even though I have graduated from the technical faculty and an engineering program, I am given a Master of Science. I believe there is no Master of Technology degree in Sweden, so I am not sure what it means. To make the matters worse, I stumbled upon another similar degree, Master of Engineering.

I would really appreciate some insight into the differences of these degrees, and whether or not they would be considered interchangeable abroad (read: outside Europe).


texts: Where can i study academic english in an English-speaking country?

texts:
I am an electrical engineering PhD student, from an African country and the official language here is French, but since most of journals and revues are in English, I always struggle to write my papers and most of them are reject because of the language. I tried to study English in local schools but the result is not so good.

Until a friend of mine suggested that i should try to studying English in an English-speaking country (Preferably the US or the UK), because the interaction with people will also count as practice, So i am looking for a school or training which is specialized in teaching PhD student how to write a scientific paper ? Does a such thing exists in the USA/UK, if yes please point me to them.


texts: What to do on immediate rejection from journal citing "Similarity Score" that is too high, but specific instances are just boilerplate text?

texts:
I have received an immediate reject notice from the journal ACM CSUR mentioning that my written survey had 13% similar materials with respect to the online available sources. Passing through the instances one by one, it sounds to me that the majority are just the text of the references to the citations, e.g., "Authors et al. [first_author et al. Year]", some standard terms such as "performance", "tuning", and many standard ACM sections such as the ACM Copyright section, etc.

P.S:

1- To be noted that I am aware of plagiarism policy and I strongly support it. However, the fact that we are dealing with a survey journal instead of a regular computer science experimental research paper made me confused on the outcome of the similarity check and the immediate rejection.

2- The application that does this check is called "iThenticate".

Had anyone experienced the same issue ? Normally what do we do to proceed in this status? Does ACM have a fixed threshold on this similarity score?


texts: Is it considered okay to ask for the opinions of admission staff or committee after their decision of declination?

texts:
If one applies to a graduate school and gets declined, is it considered okay to ask for the opinions of admission staff or committee, about their thoughts on the person's application package (gpa, experience, personal statement, recommendation letters), for better adjusting his plan of applying to other schools and career?

Thanks!


texts: How to transition from pure biology PhD to bioinformatics/biostatistics?

texts:
I've been working as a PhD student in biology and currently in my last year. However I realised just a year into my PhD that I hated doing experiments, I really hated it. I think one of the reasons may be that in the beginning, most of my experiments did not work. Also, I couldn't justify spending years of my life working on a tiny protein that no one cared about, all in the name of basic science. I initially wanted to quit but it was a difficult decision because I am an overseas student and may have had to immediately return home if I did.
During this period, I did find that I enjoyed working on statistics and taught myself to code a bit, mostly at night. I'm currently taking online coding courses and I really enjoy using computational methods within my field especially in statistics. My main question is: is it realistic to switch to a career in bioinformatics and statistics, and how can I go about this immediately after my PhD?