texts: Is it OK to change my research tools/methods completely after/at the end of my PhD?

texts:
In my Phd, I was using tools of stochastic geometry for my research. But I realize now that the juice has mostly been drawn of this tool at this stage and the new kid around the block is now Game theory, Machine learning (ML), and AI in my field.

I don't have any idea of ML at this stage, but while I am writing my thesis, I am now taking an online course for it. I just want to ask if it is OK to change my tools of research after I have done my PhD with another tool, and if I apply for a post-doc position, how will my recruiters judge me.


texts: IEEE Conference Paper: Different Author Blocks, Different Information?

texts:
I am currently preparing my very first paper. Since the conference to which I am going to submit my paper to requires the authors to use the IEEE conference paper template.
The template says that if the authors have no more than 3 affiliations, we should adopt this format:

If the affiliations are more than 3, this format should be adopted.

The 2nd format is quite clear about the order of the authors, but as for the 1st, the 3rd and 4th authors are grouped together. So is there any distinction between the authors who are grouped together? Do these two formats convey the same contribution information about the authors?


texts: Appropriate to mention using a lab's dataset when seeking grad student position in that lab?

texts:
I'm in the scenario where I'm approaching my final year of undergrad and am looking for a potential advisor for grad school; I've done my research on their research, including reading through several of their papers and have a pretty good handle on what they're doing.

Now, obviously I'm interested in this research, and I find that some of these papers have some great datasets that I could use in (potentially) interesting ways (that the paper did not do). So I take this data and start playing with it, and let's say that I serendipitously arrive at an interesting find. In the eventual e-mail that I send to the researcher asking about the possibility of him/her taking me on as a graduate student, where I talk about their research and what interest I take in it, would it be appropriate to mention that I have worked with a dataset they had published in a previous paper?

I'm not sure how this might be taken, and I'm afraid of appearing disrespectful or full of hubris; just generally where it hurts instead of helps my case.

Potentially (?) Relevant:

In this scenario I'm just playing around on my own and my results aren't published or in the process of being so.
By 'playing' I mean in a bioinformatics sense, just manipulating the dataset.
Would the answer to this question be impacted if I didn't find anything interesting?


texts: How to stay motivated when working on projects by yourself?

texts:
My advisor told me that I needed to be an independent researcher, so I came up with a project by myself.  But I don't really work on it because there are no deadlines and no one else is involved with the project.  Also I stopped having regular meetings with my advisor, so he is no longer there to kick me in the butt when I don't do any work.

I spend most of my time procrastinating, working on coursework, and being a TA.  TAing and problem sets are things that actually do have hard deadlines and involve other people, so I end up working on that stuff instead of my research project.

How can I stay motivated to work on my research project?  I have barely done any research for months.


texts: Post-doc position/fellowship application - PhD limited results due to no supervisor support and small research group - explain in positive way

texts:
This is not to blame the supervisor for obtaining few results, but clearly phd students working in large groups or under good guidance can exploit more their potential. Also phd students working in large groups often publish as a co-author just because there is a lot of collaboration within the group. So at the end of the phd students from small groups have had less chances of publishing more.

When applying to post doc positions or fellowship, the applicant must explain what results were obtained during the PhD, the skills that were developed (management, research, etc). Say that during the phd the student did not receive any guidance or support from the supervisor and that the lab only had 1-2 phds and no chance of collaboration within the lab, how can this be explained in a good light and also to show that
1) the student truly acted as an independent and mature researcher without complaining about the lack of supervision
2) to convey the message that the few results achieved during the phd should be evaluated in light of this lack of supervision, and that not being in a large lab did not allow to get those 'extra' papers that phd students in large labs might have chances of publishing.


texts: reviewing other articles for a conference

texts:
I have been appointed to take part in reviewing papers for a conference. At the beginning I received an email in which the program chair told me to mark my fields of expertise, so I did that.

After a few days, it appeared in the reviewing page a list of all the papers submitted. But when they assigned me the papers, they do not assign me those in which I have expertise in the field and that I put in a previous email.

So now I have reviewed my assigned papers. I have seen that I can see all the papers submitted and there is also the possibility to put my review in those that there have not been assigned to me. Should I do that with the papers that are my field of expertise? or should I only review those that I have been assigned.

Thanks


texts: Do I need to sign the cover letter to the editor?

texts: When submitting a paper to a journal, often a cover letter to the editor is submitted as well. When this letter is sent by mail / uploaded to the journal's website, do I need to sign the cover letter? And if yes, how? With a certified electronic signature, or with a digital scan of my handwritten signature?


texts: Why are engineering departments so large in U.S. universities?

texts:
For a math or physics department at a good university in the United States, there might be 20 or so full-time faculty members, while in the engineering department, I've noticed that there can be more than 100 faculty members -- even over 200 -- and many laboratories.

Why are engineering departments so large, in comparison to, say, math or physics departments?

Is there more funding for engineering research?  If so, does most of this funding come from the government?

I'm thinking of schools with math, physics, and engineering programs that are typically ranked Top 50 or higher (more like Top 30 or higher).


texts: Do some or most universities allow retiring faculty to retain their faculty email accounts?

texts: Upon retiring after decades with the same university and rank of full professor I did not realize that I would lose my faculty email account until it was too late to save years of correspondence including correspondence concerning a paper currently being refereed for publication. Are there any recommended policies on this issue for faculty retiring from colleges and universities?


texts: Are there specific organizational processes or tools (not necessarily software) that can help in developing and structuring research ideas?

texts:
I am doing research in computer Science as a PhD student. I have some research ideas and for months I've been continuously thinking about them, developing them and make them more specific. I mean, these ideas continually change until one day they are finalized. Over time they are more specific and complex.

I use Evernote to write down my ideas, and sometimes maybe also brainstorm mapping tools like Mindmeister. But I found these tools are not good enough, e.g. not easy to structurize my ideas, or modify, elaborate them, in a word, manage my ideas.

Do you have any good methods or tools for the organization/management of your developing research ideas? How do professors and professional scholars and researchers deal with this issue?


texts: Does one need a specific field in mind to apply to a PhD program in mathematics?

texts:
When applying for the PhD program in mathematics, usually, one is not required to specify in what field (e.g., PDE, dynamical system, etc.) he/she intends to do. However, I don't know whether it will be disadvantage that one does not have a specific field in mind at all.

I ask this question because some people suggest the students who are applying to the graduate school should talk to or connect with the professor who is in the school he/she intend to apply for. But if one does not even have a specific interest in mind, how can he/she talk to a professor about his/her application? (Even if the student is interested in analysis, say, there are lots of sub-field in analysis.)

So, here is my question:

Does one need a very specific field in mind to apply a PhD program in mathematics? Would this be thought as advantage or disadvantage of an application?


texts: Applying to graduate school after the deadline

texts:
I was about to submit my application to one of my top choices for graduate school (PhD) and realized that the deadline was Dec 15.
Somehow I confused the PhD deadline (Dec 15) with the MS deadline (Jan 15).
Should I still submit my application?


texts:
I'm not sure if this question is on-topic here, but I imagine lots of people here deal with this problem.

In a few weeks, I'll have to grade about 500 exams. I'll receive them in paper form, and I need to give out the grades fairly quickly.

The last time I did this, I got the worst cold of my life and was totally incapacitated for the next week. What precautions can I take to make sure this doesn't happen again?


texts: Submitting article to journal where I committed misconduct

texts:
I am interested in submitting an article to a journal that has previously identified misconduct from me. The misconduct occurred several years ago and was caused by a disability.
How should I proceed if I am to submit an article to this journal?


texts: How to gain admissions to graduate school with postgrad diploma, but no degree?

texts:
At the age of 21 I entered an (UK) M.Sc./Postgraduate Diploma Programme in Software Engineering.

I entered without an Undergraduate degree based upon modules I undertook in a distance learning Masters Programme from a reputable UK University that required no formal entrance requirements (very unusual situation that I took advantage of).

Out of a cohort of 40 students on the new M.Sc. course I was the only one without an Undergraduate degree although I had Postgraduate credits as mentioned. Again this was unusual.

I graduated with a UK Postgraduate Diploma (but not an M.Sc. as I could not fund the remaining twelve week/3 month project), however my marks were excellent.

Here I am twenty years later with no degree. I wish to undertake further study in Software Engineering and am at a loss to effectively know where to start. I am way too late to go back and do the three month research project to get my M.Sc.

[For those outside the UK a Postgraduate Diploma is effectively the taught/exam component of an M.S/M.Sc. and usually compromises 75% of the course. It is an M.Sc. in all but the three month research project. Most students complete the project but some do not, usually due to funding or academic reasons. My reason was purely funding.]

I am not qualified for an Undergraduate Degree in Software Engineering (effectively a waste of time as I'm somewhat beyond that syllabus) as I do not hold School level University entrance qualifications and I'm not qualified for an M.S/M.Sc. ironically (even though I previously were on an M.Sc!) as I have no first/Undergraduate degree.

If I had finished the extra 12 weeks I'd be qualified to enter a Ph.D. programme but the failure to do the twelve weeks (wholly due to the fees at the time which were huge for the Project) makes me qualified for nothing even though I hold a formal Postgraduate level qualification.

What to do?


texts: How do you ask someone what he or she would prefer to be called?

texts:
For example, if you are talking to another researcher from a foreign university, how do you ask him or her what title would he or she be preferred to be called by?

"What's your preferred title" sounds too formal.

"What do you like to be called" sounds too informal.

"Can I call you by your first name" sounds too demanding.

"Are you comfortable with me calling you Doctor. John" sounds...awkward.

Can someone please teach me some academic etiquette?


texts: Job prospects after completing graduate studies in Geology

texts:
Background

I am in my mid-30s' and have recently found myself in a dilemma. Around 4 years ago I completed a MSc. (Geology) and two professional courses (in other fields) in Northern America as an international student. After concluding them I had to leave Northern America for personal reasons (I came back to Europe).

Problem

I applied for 1000s and 1000s of job worldwide (related and unrelated to my background) and consulted several career counselors to introduce myself to the industry at best, asking for help or suggestions to all the people within and outside my network. Unfortunately, I didn't find any job. I had even a lot of complications due to VISA issues.

Possible solution?

Now there seems to be the opportunity to take a PhD in my field. The fact is that I never really wanted to take a doctoral program, as I have always felt uncomfortable in academia and I am not very interested in research itself.

Question(s):

Is it too late to do a PhD at my age?
How do you know PhD is a good fit for yourself?
What job prospects are there for a PhD in Geology (in this challenging economy)?
Are my job prospects better or worse with a PhD?


texts:
I was looking at a document describing setting arrangements for a ceremony and ran into the phrase:

  The president of the Student Guild shall sit in the front row, with
  the Vice-chancellor, the Chancellor, and the Pro-Chancellor

What is a Pro-chancellor?
I've never heard of one before.

In-case this is a regional term, I am at a Australian university.


texts:
I’m currently supervising an undergraduate senior project in the Department of Physics. I’m responsible for supervising a last year physics student who will be graduating by the end of June.  As a new lecturer and supervisor, I was wondering about several aspects and I would like to gain a deeper understanding of how supervision is normally carried out. Please note that I neither have previous experience in supervising students, officially speaking, nor I did a senior project during my Bachelor degree. For that reason, I would really appreciate if you can share your valuable experience and kindly advise me to the following questions I have on my mind:

Since I didn’t do a senior project during my undergraduate studies, I would like to know what a senior project is and what should the student work on during his last semester? To be more specific, what is the difference between a master degree thesis and a senior project?
Should the project include research work or just reading about a certain subject (literature review only)? What if the student worked on a research topic and did not obtain any result, what should be done in this case?
Since the project spans over a semester, may the student work on a research topic? Do you advise publishing a research paper on the Bachelor degree level?
If it is not a research-based project, what kind of topics the student would be able to work on? Should he choose his own topic?
I understand that the grading criteria differ from one university to another, but in general, what are the main points the student will be assessed on?
Besides, on the day of the presentation, what type of questions should be asked by me to the senior students of different fields?

Any advice, ideas, suggestions, and other aspects I should be aware of or consider. Sharing your experience is much appreciated.


texts: Letter of recommendation from Post-Doc or Professor

texts:
I was guided by a Post-Doc for my undergraduate thesis, but the one responsible for all and offering the thesis was a Professor, who I only talked to when discussing the thesis, agreeing to it, and the explanation of the grade in the end. Who of both would be the one to ask for a letter of recommendation?
More general, should you always ask the person with who one was mostly in contact during work, or the person responsible for it all, if they are not the same person?


texts: Should I tell my advisor that I have an autism spectrum disorder?

texts:
I am a graduate student and as the title says, I have an autism spectrum disorder. My advisor is a very nice person, at least, that is the impression I have gotten. The last few months however, I worry that I have made myself misunderstood many times because of my failure of communicating or not following certain social codes. I have not done anything that is inappropriate at all, I just might have come off at times a tiny, tiny bit rude, which I did not mean to be! In social situations I often get nervous and I think it might have shown in some situations. I am considering whether I should tell him about my autism spectrum disorder or not - I don't want to have it as an excuse for any behaviour, just more of an explanation and maybe better understanding in the future.

Are there any general guidelines on what to do in cases like these?


texts: How can I accredit my Russian kandidat nauk in biology to PhD in USA?

texts:
I have a kandidat nauk in biology from Russia, and as I know it's equivalent to a PhD degree outside post-Soviet countries.
My question is what do I need to do to accredit my degree in the USA? Which organization in the US do I have to contact?


texts:
Many of the research papers that I have read are not dated in terms of publication date. By dating I mean including at least the publication year. The papers I refer to are mostly free PDFs from the internet on various topics, usually affiliated with some academic institution (mostly universities).

One can then only guess the publication date from the dates of newest references. Does this weird trend have some reasoning? If I wrote a paper or even its draft and made it public I would clearly date it.

Edit:

It seems I have missed the option of checking the PDF document properties which show a creation date. But this still does not answer the question of not including the date within the body of the document itself.


texts: Is there a repository for copyrighted academic video lectures?

texts:
As the Covid-19 pandemic spread out everybody’s moving to teach online. Would it be possible to post online my video lectures, without sacrificing copyrights, i.e. posting them with a warranty that (at least) any university could not reuse them to teach online courses without my permission?
My question is somewhat similar to this other one Is there a repository for academic slides?. However I don’t care so much about the option to download the video lectures.
Is this feature already available in YouTube or Vimeo instead?


texts:
I'm interested in finding all undergraduate/graduate study programmes on the topic of "Sustainable Consumption".

Is there a global database across all universities and teaching institutions that allows the user to search for study programmes filtered by a certain topic?


texts: A professor at a university replied to my PhD application email with a yes. I asked him further about his current research projects but haven't heard from him for nearly 2 weeks now; should I write him a reminder email? if so, how can it be in the politest way possible?


texts: Is it ethical to seek a PhD program if you suspect you may want only a Masters?

texts:
I'm considering a PhD or Master's in engineering in the US, and I haven't really decided which makes the most sense for me. There are many questions and answers here that mention leaving a PhD program with a Master's and how it's not a "failure" or "dropping out", but it occurs to me: what effect does this have on a person's adviser/professors?

What about references, future relationships, etc? Is it taken negatively or as an insult, or cutting ties, to bow out with the lower degree?

What prompted this question is that a few programs that most interest me state explicitly that there is very little funding available for Masters students (so you are mostly expected to pay your own way), but full funding and additional opportunities are available for those admitted to a PhD program. The way they are worded, they seem extremely interested in good PhD candidates, and not at all interested in Masters students.

I'm not considering seeking a PhD solely to get a Masters/funding, because that's just outright dishonest and I wouldn't stomach such deceit. But, what might the ethics be of not being certain whether you want a PhD or a Masters, but applying for a PhD program?

If one's adviser and/or program and/or professors are explicitly harmed by having someone complete their Masters requirements, then I'd be much more hesitant to even consider a PhD application unless I was certain that's what I wanted. If being unsure is considered normal and the "harm" caused by bowing out of the program with a Masters not so great, then that would certainly ease things the other direction.

To be clear, these departments also specifically suggest you pick Masters OR PhD, and generally discourage you from applying to both. Thus my quandary!


texts: How does one figure out how hard it would be to get tenure in a given department?

texts:
Anecdotally, I've heard that it's easier to get tenure in UK/Canada than in the US.
I've also heard that some departments have a reputation for denying tenure.
Are there statistics about this? (related question: Tenure and tenure denial rates by universities)
How can a job seeker determine how difficult it will be to get tenure when weighing offers from multiple departments?
EtA:

For instance, are there polite/coy ways of asking about this?  Would students or post-docs know and be in a more honest position than the profs?  Are reputations widely known and so just asking some senior people would likely give you a good sense?
Another aspect of this question: are there regional differences, as I alluded to?


texts: Want a recommendation letter, but the professor passed away

texts:
I am in the process of collecting recommendations for my PhD.
I was the best-performing student in final exams on three different courses, all given by a single professor. (The results of the exams are anonymized and published for a short period in my university.) These were the courses related to the fields I want to do research in.
There is nothing else this professor could have written about me - I didn't do any research in their group.
Sadly, the professor passed away after a short and severe illness last month.
Is there any way I can get a recommendation letter which acknowledges that I was the best student in these courses? Would another professor write that, given the death of the professor in question?


texts: Why haven't we hosted research publications as repositories yet?

texts:
This just makes so much sense for several reasons:

Let's say I find errors in a very long research publication - A code repository like issue system would allow me to highlight this and notify the owner
Let's say I want to add to a research work incrementally in an effort to make it complete - A code repository like PR mechanism would enable me to publish my work and notify the author without "citing" the said work and having to mention all the details again.
Let's say I want to make updates on continued research and not just stop at one publications - A code repository like version control would allow making several releases based on work that could be published, moreover it allows maintaining a timeline of all releases for better clarity.

Every shortcoming I can think of can possibly addressed by treating research publications as repositories instead of standalone PDF documents.

What are your thoughts on this and has anyone thought of implementing this already?

Shouldn't one of the primary attributes of research be to enable collaboration after publication for the study of a subject?

Why haven't there been the tools to do that yet?


texts: Can university revoke the degree when data were edited/fabricated? Is student or supervisor at fault? Can the student be sent to prison or fined?

texts: Say a M. Tech thesis contains original experimental data, but some results were edited to show significant results, and is this is later found out. Can this editing result in a cancelling/revocation of the awarded degree, even if found after some years? Who can be held responsible for this fabrication (faculty, student, and/or supervisor)? What action will/can the university take on the student? Can the student be punished legally with prison and/or fine?


texts: Parent's education levels in US graduate applications

texts: Why do some US universities request parent's educational level in graduate admissions application?


texts: Are PhDs in Engineering worth it for working in the labour market?

texts:
I am a undergraduate electrical engineering student in Canada. Programming courses aren't offered in our EE degree. So, to overcome this lack, I learned to program in Java, C++ and in Python by my own. I also learned to use Git and to do bash scripting, with a colleague of mine who wants to work as a developer.

By learning by my own, I discovered that I liked microcontroller programming and programming in general. I maybe want to pursue a professional career in electronic engineering, in computer engineering or in software engineering, but I know that I will not be qualified enough compared to someone with a CS degree.

Hence, I started looking at doing a Master's degree in Computer Engineering or in Electronics Engineering, after I'm graduated from my B. Eng. I found some informations about course-based master's degree that could help me get on the labour market, so I can get accredited as a P.Eng. with professional work experience.

But, my parents, who both work at a university (my mom is a professor), want me to become a university professor. For this purpose, they push me to do a PhD, and therefore a thesis-based master's degree.

So, I wanted to know if PhDs in Engineering are worth it for working in the labour market. If yes, could I simply work as an electronics or computer engineer, with a PhD ?


texts: Can I publish a paper from a work group that I happened to work on it alone?

texts:
A few months ago, I was assigned a task by my lecturer to create a Decision Support System program in a group of three. The task itself was intended as the final assignment of the course. My group discussed for some minutes and in conclusion my idea was accepted because it's new as far as we know and could really help those who need it.

Unfortunately due to conflicting schedules throughout the last half of the semester I was forced to do it alone. One was on internship and the other guy seemed to be quite difficult to contact.

Well, I don't care how important they see this assignment, but looking at the deadline I thought I'd rather do it alone than abandoning the assignment. I know it was wrong and foolish, but I needed the grades. I could always teach my group members how to make programs like this one. I thought as long as I ensure they too experience something like what I did in this work, I guess I can let it slide for that single time (of course with a stern warning as a minimum bonus).

OK, so I made the program by myself back then. I asked my other friend about the matter. He was a graduate student and excel at this field to teach me whether my program was effective enough or not. He was surprised that I made the program alone and told me that he thought this work I've done might be eligible to submit as a scientific paper. I've pondered over it and I think he could be right.

As a side note this other friend I'm talking about is actually the one whose master's thesis inspired me to make this DSS.

Then here comes the problem. I want to publish this as my first scientific paper but if I included my groupmates' names it would be a problem. A big problem as they didn't do the work themselves. But at the same time I think it would be weird if I suddenly publish it under my name only.

As they too have their names written on the student's report (and I can't really change that), do I need to make some kind of an agreement letter that state they grant all the research materials to me?

PS:

Please notice that I'm asking about authorship. I've learned that it was foolish of me to write their names on the report.
I certainly need to ask my lecturer's opinion about the material, but my predicament above (or perhaps my guilty conscience) barred me from directly asking the lecturer.
I want to limit my question to authorship matter. Thank you. :)


texts: Reference management tool with ability to add custom fields

texts:
I am currently trying to manage around 100 references from ISI Web of Knowledge. To manage them in a useful way, I need to manage a table, one row for each reference, with 4-5 user defined structured columns (like: which climate variable they correlated with which demographic variable etc.).

So for this purpose I need to add custom fields to each reference; then display the table of selected references, and be able to sort and filter using these fields. Is there any reference manager that supports this? Unfortunately Zotero doesn't and is not going to.

PS: Of course I don't like the idea of having separate excel table besides. I would then miss the comfortable link between the table rows and the PDF and personal notes and other things which I manage through the reference manager (currently Zotero).


texts: I'm writing an article for a conference that has very strict style guidelines and I'm therefore very careful not to mess with the style. However, when using the style for the placement of author names, the 4 names (arranged in a 2x2 matrix) end up unaligned. It is not completely clear to me why - all of the names are of reasonable length. Should I try to edit the LaTeX style or how should I proceed?


texts: Can the US general schedule (GS) scale be mapped to academic rank?

texts: There are a number of US government jobs that are in essentially academic research labs that are unaffiliated with a university (e.g., the NIH and the national laboratories). The salary for some of these jobs are based on the General Schedule (GS) salary scale. Is it possible to roughly map a GS grade to an academic rank? For example, GS-11 requires a Masters degree and GS-12 requires a PhD so presumably step one as a GS-12 would be a new post-doc, but how do GS-13, GS-14, and GS-15 fit into the mix? Is it fair to say a GS-13 is like an assistant professor, GS-14 is like an associate, and GS-15 is like a full professor?


texts: What is an “invited submission” to a journal?

texts:
The website of the journal Philosophy and Phenomenological Research says:

  This site only accepts invited submissions.

In general, what is an invited submission? Is this how special issues of journals are published? Why would a journal invite submissions? How does publishing as an invited submission look compared to a normal submission?


texts:
I'm currently a third year student studying mathematics in Australia, and things have taken a very bad turn in third year. I developed tremors in my writing hand and it meant I wasn't able to use a pen properly and couldn't take good notes during lectures. I was then put on a beta-blocker which had some side-effects and I have seen my grades for maths slide again. I might even fail a course this semester. It looks like I will not be a able to gain entry to honours year. Does that mean the end of my goal of pursuing a career in academia? Would any institution take a student for a masters degree in maths if he's failed a course in undergraduate study?

I also feel I didn't learn Galois theory well in my undergraduate study. Is there any way to redo the material in a serious way? It seems difficult to juggle a job and reviewing this material at the same time.


texts:
Is there a non written rule to which person to use in the PhD thesis, 5 years of using "We" in the papers have brought me to the innate necessity to do it every time I describe something.

Recently, though, one of my lab-mates told me that I should use I, since it is your work, if the thesis were co-written, then it would be a different story.

Is there any standard in your universities, or do you have any preferred practice.


texts: How can I lookup the registering info of an ISSN number?

texts:
While applying for an ISSN, applicants are asked to provide publisher name, country/city, contact info and editor name. How/where can I look up an ISSN number to get these info?

Of course for a single ISSN number, I can google, find the journal site and contact them via the website. But I am doing a research on a big number of ISSNs.

Moreover, how can I be sure it is not a fake number?!! Anyone can comeup with an 8 digit number, and call it an ISSN! IS there a main ISSN portal/service, where I can lookup ISSN numbers?

thanks


texts: Publishing in a SSCI indexed journal for Computer Science Researcher

texts: I am working in an interdisciplinary area and most of my area specific journals are available in journal which are indexed by SSCI instead of SCI. But some people told that for computer science resaerchers SCI is preferred one. What should I do ? I have an option where I could publish in SCI journal which have much less IF as comapred to that of available SSCI indexed journals


texts: Finding all communication related to any research paper

texts: Is there any resource (blog or website) where one can find all communication related to any published scientific paper? For example I found some advise on how to write a "rebuttal letters" but not a "real life" rebuttal letter. Same is true for cover letter or reviewers comment. Is there any open-access journal which make everything public (or any researcher have done so)?


texts: Do I have to sign a recommendation letter that will be submitted online?

texts:
I am a lecturer at a public university in Bangladesh. I am going to give recommendations for students from my class who are going to apply for graduate admission to some US universities. These letters will be submitted online.

My problem is related to the signature. Please check the my recommendation style: I have written my name as a recommender. Is it essential that I also sign the recommendation?

  To who it may concern,

  [actual letter]

  Regards,

  Maria S. Sultana

  **** University

  email: ****

  mob: ****

I am talking about a signature like this (below red marked): I will upload a letter in the style of that shown below in the (online) recommendation  form.  Is it necessary to put a signature on a letter, like the one I have marked below?


texts: Is using an old book's solution considered cheating?

texts: I'm currently solving a coding problem. I remembered that i came across this problem in another book i studied myself to improve my coding in the summer.  That book has the same problem to this assignment. I understand the answer and know how to explain it but not sure if it is cheating to use that piece of code for my assignment.


texts:
I have recently submitted a paper to arXiv, but the arXiv moderators put my paper in status "on hold", because they have to make a decision on the right classification for the paper.

To those who have experienced a similar situation, how long did it take before they made a decision and published the paper on the arXiv? I just want to have an idea of how long I will have to wait.


texts: Minimum residential requirements For PhD

texts:
I have a permanent Job that I don't intend to give up. I wish to pursue PhD. All I can manage to get is 2 years of leave. Beyond that I will have to resume my job and I can continue research work along with that. What are the typical requirements?

I am aiming to get a PhD position in CS/EE department. Are there some departments which would accommodate such cases. Please share your insights/suggestions.


texts: Does a PhD application decision letter give the reasons for the decision? Why or why not?

texts:
Out of curiosity, I am wondering if a PhD application decision letter gives the reasons for the decision?

If yes, why? If not, why?


texts: Transition from Computer Science to Statistics

texts:
I have a B.Tech in Computer Science & Engineering and I want to apply for statistics gradschool. My interest is in stochastic calculus. I'm from india and I have limited exposure to statistics. I have a work experience of 3 years in software development.

Will I get rejected from decent level schools ? What should I do to improve my chances ?


texts: How to prevent desk rejection when trying to publish papers which are counter to the prevailing view (but still legitimate)?

texts:
I wonder if there exists, at least in plans, a centralized system that examines editors' decisions in journals, a kind of "appellate court" in peer-review publishing.

Recently I have been trying to publish a paper which tends to support a hypothesis heavily counter to the prevailing view in the field. I had to try eight journals before it was accepted. In most of those trials the paper was rejected without going to peer-review, but editors didn't point out specific flaws. Instead, they used general statements like "your paper is certainly interesting, but we get so many even more interesting papers, so unfortunately we cannot publish yours". In one journal the editor simply replied that the paper is out of the journal's scope, which is plain-out false (the paper deals exactly with one of the major topics of the journal). In another journal the editor passed the paper to peer review. In two months it was rejected "in view of reviewers' comments". But - amazingly! - all reviewers recommended publication, with certain revisions. I tried to contact the editor, but he did not respond. Clearly, this is utterly unethical, with respect both to the author and reviewers (at least, the editors could reject it right away, why stealing two months?).

Now I am going to submit a follow-up paper, but I am sure I will face the same difficulties and lose a lot of time. Could anyone give any recommendations as to how to safeguard oneself against unethical situations like those described above?

UPD: I do not mean here any complaints or rants. If in one of those journals my paper had been rejected after peer-review in which reviewers did actually recommend rejection, there would be no this topic here.


texts: What should be in a cover letter for a mini course/summer school application?

texts:
I'm a graduate student in STEM applying for some mini-courses and summer schools, most ask for a cover letter. I haven't done much research yet as a grad student yet, and the projects I am working on aren't really related to what will be covered in these courses.

I've done a fair amount of coursework that relates to the topics that will be covered in this courses, and I'll mention that, but I'm not sure what else they want to hear about. What else should go in a cover letter for this kind of application?


texts: Should I include the country when citing government agencies in APA?

texts:
I use APA citation style. When I cite a government agency as the author or publisher of a work, should I include "United States", "U.S.", or omit the country entirely? Is it ever appropriate to include a country in brackets or parentheses when it isn't part of the agency name?

Some agencies have United States as part of their formal name, even if they don't often use it, eg. United States Drug Enforcement Administration. Other agencies don't have "United States" as part of their formal name, eg. the Federal Bureau of Investigation. If there is potential for confusion with the agency of another country with a similar name, can I put the country name in parentheses or brackets, eg "Federal Bureau of Investigations [U.S.]. (2019). ..."?

I'm in the United States in a context where documents from the executive agencies of other countries are unlikely to be cited, so I tend to omit the country. However, if I do cite, say the Department of Education of South Africa, do I need to add U.S. to my references to disambiguate them? This is not a minor change, as it effects alphabetization.

What I found online:

The Pen and the Pad uses examples which omit U.S.

Washington & Lee University library guide uses this example:

United States. Department of Justice.  Office of
     Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice.
     (1998). High school youths, weapons, and violence:
     A national survey by J.F. Sheley and J.D. Wright.
     Washington DC: National Institute of Justice.
     (Research in brief)   (J 28.24:Y 8)

All those periods in an author sure seems clumsy to me. I probably would have done "National Institute of Justice [U.S.]. (1998)." or "United States Department of Justice. (1998)."


texts: professor interfering in postdoc offer from another professor

texts:
I am an Indian student in the United States and I am a Lawful Permanent Resident (Green Card). After my PhD in STEM (computer science), I had a postdoc offer from a professor in a new university (I'll call him Prof. A).

I'm really looking forward to start that project, as it totally fit my skills and expertise.

Another professor, Prof. B, stepped in proposing to be a second advisor. Prof. A and B and their colleagues met many times to figure out a co-advised project.

After a while, Prof. B proposed to work only with him, saying that my citizenship would be an issue to get a tenured position and work in the same research field as Prof. A's (due to sensitive information-->clearance). I turned down Prof. B's offer because I want to work with A.

After some days, I met Prof. A, and he seemed to be almost convinced by Prof. B that it is in my best interest to go on with Prof. B, for the same reason as above.

What Prof. B is forgetting (or, most likely, pretending to) is that in a year I will apply for US Citizenship and that I will be a Citizen by the end of the postdoc. I had to be very insistent on this to re-convince A to hire me again. He still accepted to hire me, but I've seen him somewhat doubtful (he was always so enthusiast about me).

Two questions:

1) Is Prof. B's behavior ethical?

2) Is it legal to talk on my behalf about my alleged "best interest", without informing me and without my consent?

3) Should I cut B out?

As stated above, the country is the USA.

Thank you all.

AS


texts: What do profs actually think when writing a letter of recommendation for an average student for grad school

texts:
Grad school application starts now along with all the anxieties associated with it.

One of the question I ask myself and repeatedly get asked by my peers is that what would the profs think when the transcript and resume reveals that they are just an average student (i.e. 3.3 GPA, at minimum of grad school acceptance requirement).

Of course, the top factor here is that we are being evaluated by people who are exceptionally talented and likely the top students back in their days. And plus we may have built an amicable relationship over a long period, no one wants to appear like a useless person. Lastly, there may exist a significant time period between when an application is sent out to when the letter is received, during this time I find a lot of students will question whether the profs are still open writing the letter for them.

What if a professor doesn't like what he sees in the transcript, or feel that the resume does not reflect any exceptional talent, what would a prof usually do in this case?


texts: PhD application asking what other insitution I am applying to, how to answer?

texts:
I understand that schools are trying to gauge the chances of an offer being accepted by a potential candidate. Similarly to what has been described for job applications and other questions that a lower ranked program might not offer admission to someone who applied to just top schools.

How much should a candidate divulge about the other schools he/she is applying to? If applying to a top school will it decrease your chances if you are stating you are applying to another top school?

I find this kind of questions a bit intrusive and that might even compromise to some degree my application. Perhaps some people that have been in admission commitees can shed some light on the dynamics related to applicants that applied to several schools.


texts: Career advice - Getting a Math PhD admit in a good program with computer engineering background

texts:
I have read other threads along similar lines but I am looking for slightly different advice. And I am posting this anonymously because I would rather my current employer did not find out my intentions!

So, I have a bachelors and a masters degree in computer engineering and currently work in one of the top microprocessor companies, which would otherwise be considered the "dream job" for someone with my degrees. However, every day I realize how much I miss Math and really want to go back and have an opportunity to work more with math, particularly in the field of numerical analysis, scientific computing, matrix algebra and the like.

Supporting factors -

I have always done well in math. I can get great recommendation letters from math professors I have taken courses with.
I am a CRLA level 3 certified math tutor. I used to be one when in undergrad.
I am preparing for Math GRE and am confident I can do well in it.
Good undergrad math and engineering GPA.
My masters thesis involved quite a bit of dealing with numbers, since I worked with various LINPACK benchmarks and linear algebra solvers.

Negative factors -

I am not from a very highly reputed school.
I have not published any papers, even though I did write a thesis for my MS in Computer Engineering.
My math courses are the basic math courses engineering students take, along with graduate level math courses in numerical analysis, scientific computing and the like.

How do I go about getting a PhD admit in a reputed Math graduate school? How do I begin to convince professors / hiring committees that I am capable of doing a PhD in Math? I am only looking at quitting my company and switching to PhD studies around either of Fall 2013 or Fall 2014, so I have time. What are some extra-curricular 'outside my day job' activities I can pursue that would further solidify my application in the meantime?


texts: How to determine if an institution is a research or teaching university in the United States?

texts: I came across a faculty vacancy announcement at a US university where it is mentioned that the candidate will be expected to perform teaching, research and guidance duties in area(s) of expertise. In addition, the candidate will share responsibility for committee and department assignments including administrative, supervisory, and other functions. From this statement, can it be determined that it is a teaching university where I will be primarily involved into teaching and administrative duties? There is no point of contact mentioned in the announcement whom I could contact with in order to know the details.


texts: Ph.D. Topic Problem- Changing Topics/Labs

texts:
Even though title itself seems quite similar to other questions asked here, my question is a bit different from other similar questions. I know it's a bit long, but I do appreciate anyone who has a read through it.

I am a Ph.D. student in UK and it has been 5 months since I started. My topic was something completely new (to me) so as one might guess, I've spent these 5 months reviewing the literature and covering what I didn't know. Problems started right here.

I am working at a Research Institute that has expertise on something totally different than my Ph.D. (let's name it field A, and name my Ph.D. field B). Simply, A and B have nothing in common (except both are engineering topics, but sub-fields are different). As a result, this laboratory doesn't have the required equipment or facilities that I need for my Ph.D. most importantly, there is not a single person around me in the lab who has a single bit of knowledge about my topic, thus no practical help or chances of hands on experience. Speaking of the good parts; I am getting a proper work experience (since this research institute has industrial focus), my scholarship is a substantial amount and my supervisor (even though he is sort of clueless about my topic, he is a huge figure in field A) is quite impressed with my progress.

But, as always, I have an alternative. There is another lab in my university which has expertise on field B (my Ph.D.). In this lab, there are people who have expertise in field B and of course, director of the lab is a powerful figure in field B. I know it sounds good so far, but here are the cons of this alternative: Lab director  can't give any sort of guarantees regarding a scholarship (which means I have to pay tuition fees as well, good old UK) and  wants me to work in a new project(a new field, field C). This field C, again completely different from A and B, is a newer topic compared to B and there are lots of research going on in this field. Field B is sort of an established field, I am just trying to squeeze whatever's left out it.

So on one side, I have a good working experience, Ph.D. in field B, an impressed supervisor, yet no practical help about field B or collaboration whatsoever. On the other side, I have a group of people who have expertise in field B and C, yet no money. I personally don't have any problems about changing my Ph.D. from B to C, the only disadvantage will be losing 6 months of work and naturally, getting 6 months of extension in the end. On the plus side, I already have a paper waiting to be published (in field A though, not in my Ph.D. topic field B). Therefore, these 6 months won't be "that" lost.

So, both sides are waiting to hear from me as soon as possible. I have to make a decision by this Friday. Last thing that should be mentioned is my current lab is located in city 1, whereas the other one is located in city 2. I hate city 1 (current city), whereas I am in love with city 2.

Financially, I am promised by the other professor that depending on my performance, I can get funding. I do know I can't trust this, though I believe I can cover my expenses throughout my Ph.D. including tuition fees. So, money is not a big problem right now.

If I go to the other lab, field C will be my Ph.D. as well as my work, hence shielding me from dividing into two as I do right now for field A and B.

My question is simple, what would you do if you were me? I have exhausted my friends and my family about this issue and I need a fresh pair of eyes and neurons to help me out.  I do appreciate any questions and comments.


texts: Is dropping one of my major considered "bad" if I were to study related to that field?

texts:
I'm a third year Physics & Mathematics student, and through the years, I have done lots of self-study in semesters/winter breaks/summer breaks.

Now the thing has come to a point that I can learn almost anything by myself as long as I have the necessary prerequisites for studying that subject.In fact, what I have observed in these last 2 years is that I barely learn anything in the lectures I take compare to my self-studies. That is why, if I didn't have to take exams, I would spend all my time self-studying the lectures I need to graduate, and more.

Now the problem is, I'm not taking not much (in fact not at all) benefit from my physics major, and it seems to me that it just wastes my time. That is why, I was thinking to drop of physics, and just graduate from my mathematics major.

However, if I were to study in a field related to physics, would this have negative impact in my future career [In fact, I want to study to in a field that is the intersection of Physics and Mathematics; so I'm not planning to go for pure mathematics]? I mean after all, I'm dropping out that major, but the only reason that I'm doing is so that I can have much more time to self-study by which I learn better.


texts: How should a teaching-assistant deal with an angry student?

texts:
This happened two semesters ago, when I was teaching-assistant to a class of bachelor students. The lecturer had such marking weights, 30% for teaching assistant class including all the homework and his quizzes and 70% to the midterm and final exams.

At that semester, one of the students did not even attend one of my TA classes, did not solve any homework and also did not take any quizzes. I also gave some extra time to the students to give me their homework if they have missed some of them, but he did not give me any in that period of time.

He passed midterm and final exam with a passing mark and normally, I did not give him any mark for his TA part. His final mark was about 65%. I did not even know this guy personally.

After he was announced of his final mark, he called me by my mobile phone and started shouting and swearing to me over the line. I tried to calm him down and explain his wrong attitude towards the TA class but he did not pay attention. He continuously shouted and told me I will do this and I will do that to you! He never tried to make it clear why he was not working on homework or not attend the class. He expected that because he was good at final exam, I have to neglect his weak work in TA class.

I told him that if I give you extra mark for the homework you did not solve and the exams you did not sit, this will be unfair to other students who came to the class and worked on the course. I did not continue that conversation and turned my phone off. I really wanted to help him, but I found no way indeed.

After that, I did not even report him the the university police or the professor for his behaviour.

Was my attitude toward this lazy and angry student correct? How should teaching-assistants deal with such students who behave crazy? How should a TA calm his angry student down and talk to him logically and what should he do when they behave really bad to them?


texts: Self-plagiarism of thesis for public report

texts:
I am writing a non-academic report based on the research I did for my PhD thesis. The report is a condition of the funding that supported my research. It is non-academic and will be published publicly.

Much of the work in the thesis has also been published or is under review as journal articles or conference papers. This has been declared in the thesis in line with the guidelines of my institution. The thesis is awaiting a few final revisions so has not yet been submitted.

My questions are about reproducing the work in the report:

1) Where the public report includes results from the papers, the papers have been referenced in the normal way, and any direct quotations identified as such. Should I ALSO cite the thesis in these cases? (My initial view is that this would be unnecessary.)

2) There are sections of the report, particularly in the introduction and conclusion, that could be written by cutting and pasting paragraphs from the thesis, with some editing to maintain the flow, etc. Obviously, in an academic publication, this would be self-plagiarism, but is this an issue for a non-academic report? Would this be considered self-plagiarism? Could it be covered by a general citation ("Some of this report is reproduced from (Author, Thesis Title....)" or "Some passages have been quoted verbatim from the following source.....")? Or do I need to rewrite / paraphrase these paragraphs?

3) Neither the report nor thesis have yet been published. It is likely that the report will be published before the thesis is published, and possible that the report is published before the thesis is submitted. Would I therefore need to cite the report in the thesis, to avoid self-plagiarism in the thesis?


texts: Are there differences between academic papers and industrial papers?

texts: Are there differences between academic papers (f.e. a (conference) paper written by PhD students and/or professors) and industrial papers (f.e. a conference paper written by engineers working for a company)?


texts: How portable are NSF grants between institutions and internationally?

texts: I'm a fixed-term lecturer (2016-17 academic year) on the job market. I'm hoping to apply for an NSF grant this winter to fund new research. Very hypothetically, if I am awarded the grant, how portable are NSF grants between institutions and internationally? Or if I got both the grant and a job (particularly outside the US), would the protocol be to defer the start of the appointment? Are there obstacles I should know about that aren't listed on the NSF FAQ page?


texts: Twitter changes behavior after submitting a research paper about it to conference. What to do?

texts:
Twitter announced it would begin distancing itself from the requirement that all tweets could only contain 140 characters by no longer counting some things – like media attachments or @ replies – towards the character count.

I am doing research in that area of social media analysis, and I have submitted a research paper to a conference in which I have mentioned in the introduction a little about the Twitter character count restriction (limited to 140 characters), which has since been updated to let users write more than that.

What happens now when the reviewer/referee reads my input in the paper and sees that the regulation has been updated?  Will they ask me to update it or simply accept or reject it?


texts: Referee suggests to split the paper into two. How is it done?

texts:
I recently submitted a paper to a journal. It came back with a "revise and resubmit" recommendation and two referee reports. Both of them were quite positive. One of them suggested that I remove from the paper a certain topic and publish it separately in order to give it more visibility. The other referee and the editor did not say anything about splitting.

The referee's suggestion seems reasonable, but I am not sure how it should be done technically:

Should I submit the two sub-papers into the "resubmit" form? (but what if the other referee does not agree to the split?)
Does the other paper have to go again through the entire review process, including finding new reviewers?
How much additional work does this split entail for the editorial board, the reviewer and the authors (in addition to the obvious work of writing a new paper)?


texts: My supervisors take long time to respond to me

texts:
I am a PhD student. I need to finish my study in 6 months.

My story and problem:

I always send my work to my supervisors on time. For each work (objective), they take about one to two months to respond to me. Therefore, I need to send them a reminder after one month. After my reminder, they ask me to resend it again as they forget it and do not want to search for it. Then, they take about 2 weeks to respond.

After that, they asked me to do some more work, which I do and resend my work to them again. They agree that this version is good and ask me to do my next objective based on my study plan.

After finishing all my tasks and sending them my thesis, they asked me to go back through all my objectives and do further work. These objectives have been already proven many times in many different areas and are not related directly to my topic. I explained to them that I will be in trouble if I do not finish my study at the time that is specified by my sponsor. The university has put me under review as I did not finish on time already. Also, I have had to request two extensions from my sponsors.

In addition to their delay in responding, they sometimes travel overseas for about 6 months without regular contact. This happens every year.

What do I have to do now? Any help, please?


texts: What does YEAR: NNff means in research papers? eg 1965: 47ff

texts:
I am reading a book called Foundations of Statistical Natural Language Processing, in which there is a section called further reading. It states the following:

  Chomsky (1965: 47ff, 1980: 234ff, 1986)

I am not able to find any paper of Chomsky written in 1965! Any help?


texts: Job prospects in case of an unwelcoming mentor

texts:
A friend of mine, let's call him Jim, is a postdoc in Germany. Jim's contract is ending soon, and he talks to me often about this issue, so I decided to ask here. (Perhaps, this community can provide a piece of advice though I'm not directly involved.)

Jim publishes about one paper per year in a high-rank computer science conference or journal and does some teaching (seminars + teaching assistant for a lecture or teaching assistant in charge of a lecture). Otherwise, he is completely clean (no academic fraud, no convictions).

As far as I understand, Jim failed to integrate himself into the current research lab at a university paying him. (Probably, Jim took way more time than he expected to publish on his old topics unrelated to the activity of the lab and, AFAIK, is still not fully done with it.)  Jim did everything necessary for the project which he was working on in this group and for required teaching; but the project ran out, and now the head of the group seems to try to get rid of Jim as soon as possible. The head is not very welcoming: the head does not finance conference travel despite earlier promises and does not answer e-mails.

So, given the fact that Jim is starting to apply for other positions, what are his chances on the job market in 1st world developed countries (North America, Western Europe, Israel, Australia, Japan, ...) where a good command of English and German is actually sufficient to live? It's not his first postdoc position, and it is not known whether Jim's current mentor (= the head of the lab) would actually send any reference letters for Jim at all when asked. How would Jim approach applying for tenure-track academic positions (or even industrial positions) if it is not known whether any reference letters would be actually sent out? (At certain stages, which is 1.5 till 5 years back, all Jim's previous mentors have confirmed to him that they will send the reference letters, but Jim is not sure whether they would actually send the letters, and Jim seems to have no chance even to find out whether the reference letters have really been sent or not.) What incentives (that Jim could trigger now) could cause a previous mentor to actually send a reference letter rather than simply replying "done" or moving the request to the trash bin? The situation is exacerbated by the fact that Jim promised to never ask for any reference letter from his PhD advisor. (It was a private promise for some private reasons, but still a valid one. Perhaps, Jim overestimated himself in the past or the like.) Even if all the prior mentors (except the PhD advisor and the current one), which are two or three, do actually send reference letters, but the current one is excluded, would it be worth to apply?

Each proper job application for a tenure-track position takes Jim a couple of full working days, so he is not wishing to invest his time into something which is doomed to fail.


texts: I have seen a lot of negative reviews and even boycotts of some Elsevier journals. I do not want to jeopardize the future of my academic career by publishing in illegitimate journals. Am I correct in assuming that the journals on Elsevier are considered "legit" but just "very pricey," and this is the source of the negative reviews? Would it be safe to publish on any journal of Elsevier?


texts: Authors' names and links while submitting for a double-blind review

texts:
I am about to make a submission to a computer science conference which adopts a double-blind policy. The submission is through EasyChair portal. My questions are as follows:

Should I remove all authors' names in the manuscript before submitting?
Since this is a computer science conference, I have some code in Github which shows the proof of my experimentation and reproducibility of my claims. How should I give the link to the code in my Github account in the manuscript without giving away my identity?

Note: I am not talking about camera-ready submissions but about submitting for the reviewing process.


texts: Could you get a doctorate based solely on a thesis written in your free time?

texts:
I am a very enthusiastic person academically and I love to gather new (sometimes irrelevant but useful) knowledge about my field in my free time. I am now at the point where I would like to start writing a paper on something in my field of interest and based on my own research.

If my paper is credible, contributes to my field and fulfills the standards that apply to any PhD thesis, would I be awarded a doctorate if I applied for the degree and publish the paper?

As an undergraduate, I don't know much about a PhD program. From what I know, it's simply you and your research that counts. I understand that, in the last analysis, it is the contribution to your field that counts. Am I missing anything?


texts: Does taking graduate course as an undergraduate increase chances of getting into graduate school?

texts: I would like to know does it help if I take a graduate course related to my major in engineering as an undergraduate and do very well in it? will it increase my chance of getting to graduate school in case if graduate school committee sees the graduate course in my transcript?


texts: Is it common to end a Marie Curie IF fellowship early?

texts:
Is it common for Marie Curie Individual Fellowships to end early? For example, if the scholar were to take up a permanent lecturing position after 1 year of a 2 year Marie Curie.

Would this be considered a bad thing to do?

I'm curious if others have been in this position.


texts: How should one address negative circumstances with past advisor in a Statement of Purpose?

texts:
I am referring to a situation described in a previous question of mine:
How to deal with an abusive advisor?

To summarize for those who don't want to read the lengthy story: I had a difficult relationship with my previous Master's advisor, who was psychologically abusive towards me. I was also dealing with (unrelated) clinical depression at the time, which affected my productivity.
Eventually I decided to switch to a different advisor in an unrelated field. I am happy with my new advisor, and am being more productive, and the split from the previous advisor was on decent terms (that is, he still had a bad impression of me as a student, but he supported the decision).
Due to the previous issues and the switch of field, my degree took twice the "standard" time to finish (4 years instead of 2, although at my university/in my country even the top students often don't finish in 2 years).
In addition, my previous advisor's name will appear on my graduate transcript (along with the period of time during which he was my advisor).

In my PhD application (specifically, the "Statement of Purpose") I will probably have no choice but to address this issue. Since there is no option for anonymity, the story is not just about me, it is an "accusation" against him, which means the committee might want to hear his side of the story, in which case it will of course not go in my favour. Also, while he is not very famous, he is friendly and popular with colleagues, so if someone knows him personally they might simply not believe me.

What should I do? Should I actually mention it? For those of you who are a part of admission committees, would something like that be a red flag? Would you investigate further, or take it as a reasonable explanation given positive letters of recommendation from other professors (and current advisor)?

Also, is past depression which caused lack of productivity considered as a red flag?


texts: Is it okay to ask to "waive" the stipend when offered a fellowship for PhD program?

texts:
John just got accepted to a Ph.D. program in Computer Science. He also received a fellowship in the form of TA-RA-ships which comes with a stipend of $34,000/year for 4 years.

However, John is currently receiving Disability Supplemental Security Income (SSI) from the U.S government which prohibits him from having any income.

He is only interested to have his tuition covered without receiving extra money.

1) Is it okay for John to ask the university to forfeit the stipend? (or for any other reasons than the above).

2) Can John ask rather to receive the stipend, to have the amount apply to his tuition after the 4th year?

John appreciates your thoughts on this... Thanks :)


texts: from editor assignment pending to "Reviews Completed"

texts: I submitted a paper to one of the Springer Journals through Editorial Manager almost 2 months back. The status changed from "editor assignment pending" to  "Reviews Completed" since past three days. Can anybody suggest what does it actually mean ? D


texts: Pursue master's in Cybersecurity if I am not a US Citizen?

texts:
I am applying for masters in computer science. Is a Master's at CyberSecurity possible?

Can I pursue a Master's in a field like CyberSecurity if I am not a US Citizen? Most research is sponsored by DARPA or the government(I suppose requires security clearance). It would make it difficult for me to be involved with anything even after been admitted and maybe it will steer the admissions from rejecting my application.


texts: What format should the Methods & Materials section of a thesis be in?

texts:
I am writing my thesis in biology, and am not sure how to format the M&M section of my thesis.

One option is like an experiment protocol, with a lot spaces, itemized lists of steps, etc...

Another option is more like an article, which is usually more dense, and harder to comprehend, but takes up less space.

Which format is the norm for a thesis?


texts: Is following an online tutorial plagiarism?

texts: This might be a silly question, I'm doing a primary education uni degree and my subject study is computing. For our assignment, we have to create a basic website from scratch using HTML. I'm completely new to coding so I'm fumbling my way through it. I want to follow a video on coding parallax scrolling but would this be considered plagiarism as it's not my original code? My head is telling me no because surely there is only a certain amount of ways you can achieve this? Thanks.


texts: Asking the professor to advocate my application in admission committee?

texts: What should I write in an email to a professor who encouraged me to apply after applying for the Ph.D. program? I want to ask him to advocate my application in the admission committee. But, I am not sure how I can do that.


texts: How does one find an advisor doing research on a niche interdiscipinary subject?

texts:
I am very interested in in-situ resource utilization (ISRU), the use of lunar/martian/asteroidal resources (generally regolith, atmosphere, and water ice) to produce propellant or construction materials on those bodies. It's a new & growing topic--the first instrument to test production of rocket fuel from the Martian atmosphere is due to launch a month from today (June 20th, 2020) aboard the Perseverance rover--and it's an interdisciplinary one, lying at the intersection of geology, mineral extraction, and aerospace and chemical engineering.
How do I find potential doctorate advisors working in this field? I have been looking through Google Scholar & conference catalogs (eg.: AGU) to find the names of those writing & presenting on ISRU techniques. However, the majority of the papers authored on ISRU implementations are by industry & government authors, and there are no dedicated graduate programs I am aware of aside from Colorado School of Mines' Space Resources program. The majority of academic work in ISRU seems to be by faculty in either the aerospace or mining engineering departments.
This concerns me. I am not an engineering student: I am a geology & math undergraduate, and I am worried about the quantity of deficiencies I may need to take entering into an engineering graduate program (if I can get into ISRU research, it's absolutely worth it though). More importantly, I doubt I am exactly the type of student engineering programs are looking for. My grades are good, I have a lot of undergrad research experience, but like I said, at the end of the day, I have no engineering background. I anticipate rejection, and I anticipate a lot of it. Even if it's not outright rejection, odds are there won't be that many doctorate positions available with funding when I am applying (for next fall).
Therefore, I'm trying to track down almost everybody I can find who is active in both academia and ISRU research, to maximize my chances of making a connection with a potential advisor and finding a place for me in their department. But as I mentioned previously, it's difficult to do so because a) authors on IRSU in academia are few & far between, and b) the departments in which people are doing ISRU research are much broader than my interests.
Do you experienced people have any advisor-finding advice for a lowly undergrad?


texts: Is attending conferences while teaching considered an absence?

texts: Is attending conferences considered an absence? If not, then is there a limit on how many conferences a faculty can attend?!


texts: I am the second author of a book chapter, can I use chapter in my dissertation?

texts:
My advisor asked me to use the book chapter (still not published, but will be published soon I guess) that we wrote with 4 other people. I am not the first author although me and 1st author made the same amount of contribution.

My question is that if it is ok to put it as a chapter of my PhD thesis? I find it weird since my advisor asked me to put it as part of my dissertation. Is it ok in terms of academic reputation because I am 2nd author of the chapter, although I made same amount of contribution as 1st author.

In other words, if I was 1st author would it be ok as well?


texts: Postdoc application, cold contact, funding proposal

texts:
Backgrounds: I’m an international researcher (biologist) in Europe; with a PhD and one year postdoctoral experience. I want to increase my chances to get a second postdoctoral position through contacting potential PIs and expressing my willingness to apply for my own funding and to write a postdoctoral research grant applications.

Questions:

1)  When I cold contact professors for postdoc positions, what is the most polite way; Should I immediately (with my cv) send a cover letter including research ideas and informing them that I want to apply for my own grant? Or just present myself and my research interests and wait for a reply. Then if it is a yes I fellow up with my ideas etc..

2)   Often Professors are busy and have big research group to handle so I feel like they might not be interested in hassling for a grant with a new postdoc. Especially if they don’t know him or his PhD advisor, so they tend to not reply. (I don’t blame them though).
So is it better to contact the second most senior researcher in the team, to improve the chances to get a reply?


texts: Publishing code in order to improve my chances to be admitted to a CS graduate school

texts:
I am 32 years old now and I want to apply for a degree in computer sciences at a European university. I am afraid they could consider me to be too old. That's why I want to show them somehow part of my code and improve that way my chances to be admitted at my age.

I thought about uploading a video in Youtube showing how my program runs and publishing the code of the program in other place, and then putting the links inside my CV. I am not sure how to do all this. My code is an unfinished emulator. It is about 20 000 lines of pure ASM and it hard to read. I feel that I need a way to prove that the video shows a real existing program and not only fake animation I may have done.

First, I wish to know if it is good to put the links to my code and videos inside the CV.
Second, I would like to know the best site (and simplest to use) to publish my code. It would be not lucrative at all for somebody to steal my code. Still I think it would be painful to find out some day that someone copied and pasted chunks of my code and said that he made it. I need a basic protection against plagiarism provided by the site. Maybe based on the date I posted the code.
Third, I am very worried about critics. This is 20 000 of ASM code(only part of the nearly 50 000 lines long project). It is messy! It looks really ugly. It is cool and highly optimized but I know there is always place for more optimization. I love it, it uses lot of SMC and code reusing. I love it but always there are people who could say it is junk.
Fourth, it is not finished. It works perfectly, but part of the OP-codes are not coded yet. I coded more of them, the ones I think would be used more frequently.

Given a situation like this, what would be the best way to proceed with sharing code to help boost chance of admission?


texts: High impact PhD thesis? Or just incremental improvement?

texts:
As a PhD candidate, I finally got my first conference paper published in a good reputation conference. My professor said that, even though the paper contained good theory and analysis, the results were only of incremental improvement over the state of the art techniques. He told me that I need to come up with another idea that is big (i.e., has substantial improvement over competing techniques) to be able to graduate. Even though I felt disappointed, I tried to accepted his comment as a challenge to make myself feel better.

Do you think my professor is right? Don't you think that a PhD should be centered around well defining/formulating your problem and proposing/evaluating feasible solution(s), regardless wether incremental or not, as long as originality is preserved. I tend to -respectfully- disagree with my supervisor, and hope that someone else can convince me otherwise. Any thoughts?


texts: Segregation rules for females studying in Saudi Arabia

texts:
Saudi universities are best in Middle East with nice modern programs and financing and scholarships. Unfortunately, as some of you may know, Saudi Arabia has special segregation rules for women entering the country (they must be followed by a guardian - male-relative or husband) and studying in colleges/universities.

What are exact segregation-related conditions for a foreign woman to study in the Kingdom? Can somebody here share their own experience? Not touching every university, but the situation in the country as a whole.


texts: Collaborator omitting my name from their CV

texts:
I started working at a new university one year ago. Within this year I started working with a colleague, who before we collaborated had no experience on research, i.e., he was on the teaching side. We developed a couple of proposals, with me as principal investigator. One got rejected, and a second got accepted. We also started to work on initial ideas for a couple of papers, without any substantial work or input from him, i.e., I identified the journals, the theme for the paper, the structure, etc.

With the initial funding that got accepted we made a research trip to the university of my previous employment, where I still have collaborations. Within this process my colleague decided to apply for a position there, and while preparing his CV he omitted my name from his CV listing, for example, the projects with only his name as co-author, or co-investigator with no investigator listed, under directions from the new Head of my previous place of work that a disassociation or omission of my name might make it easy for my former colleagues to offer him a position, as I did not get along with a couple of them. I found out when he gave me his CV to review and I asked him to add the credits to those projects and future papers, indicating that there were credits messing for other people as well. I mentioned how this was unethical, including the fact that papers that were not yet written should not be mentioned. He disagrees and believes that this was acceptable, so long as he did not claim he did the whole work himself, alluding to the readers of his CV that other people are involved as he is a co-author.

Having spent all my academic life being extra careful with details and credits in my CV and others', as some time that is all a person gets for academic effort, I wanted to ask whether you find this behaviour ethical or unethical within academia?


texts: How do I properly cite a research paper?

texts:
I know this question already has a similar answer but, please bear with me. I am writing my thesis and I realize there are cases I do not know how to properly cite, as illustrated in the following scenario:

In literature review articles, for example, the author gives a summary of an idea that has been previously discovered by other papers. Although I thoroughly read these papers before I include the idea into my thesis, who should I give credit to? The review paper from which I got the idea in the first place or the paper that discovered the idea?
In other cases, the author gives his own educated guess. Yes, he does provide justification for his reasoning but in the end, it is clear his conclusion is only a guess-work. In my case, one famous author came up with a new theory that refute the existing one. The theory is becoming accepted by many researchers but it still holds lots of holes that, to some extends, seem like it is a backward step compared to the existing theory. When it is clear that the famous author is only making speculations to support his theory, how can I properly cite this and distance myself from the claim? I don't wanna say I believe what he says (because he cannot convince me with evidence) but I need to include his paper for completeness of my literature review.
I know I should paraphrase the author's idea and only use quotation marks when I use word-for-word what the author said. However, how much paraphrasing should I do? I am finding myself looking for a synonym of something that clearly does not have any. And in some cases, using a synonym would actually obscure the meaning of the sentence.
For those of you with experience, please add any other citation-related issue you would like me to take into consideration.


texts: Anonymous reviewer disclosed his identity. Should I thank him by name?

texts: A "friendly" reviewer purposely disclosed his identity to me (the author) during a previous round of reviews of a paper that was not published back then. However, he helped me to make the article better. If I publish the paper now, should I thank him by name or as an anonymous reviewer?


texts: How to approach someone who has stopped replying?

texts:
Recently, I applied for an advertised post-doctoral position with a researcher in an well-known institution.

After two weeks of not getting a reply, I sent him a reminder, and he replied

"Oh, thanks for getting in touch again, I hadn't seen your previous email. Can we have a chat on Skype tomorrow at X?"

He never showed up for the chat, and has not contacted me since.

Would it be sensible to approach him again, or shall I write it off as a lost cause?

Perhaps it would it be a bad idea anyway to work with someone who lacks the professional skills to keep up with email contact, and stick to commitments?


texts: Is it wise for an undergraduate to contact a professor they would like to work under for a PhD program

texts: Would it be wise to ask my current undergraduate research advisor to put me in contact with the people he knows within the math department at his former Ivy league school. I really need help to best navigate the academy.


texts: Do cheats profit from their dishonesty? How widespread is it? Are there any studies of this?

texts:
I'm retired and this doesn't affect me personally but I'm curious. I don't remember cheating with an exam or an assignment even once, nor was I aware of others doing it. Going by what I read here and elsewhere, cheating is now something of an industry.
I can't help wondering how people who need to cheat get on when they reap the benefits of their dishonesty. Can they do the job that they are supposed to be qualified for?
Question
Do such people get jobs? Are they easily filtered on interview? Are they easily detected once in post, and what happens to them eventually?
Is there any research on this, formal or informal and, if not, does anyone have any anecdotal evidence?

Personal observation
If I qualified for the Olympics by cheating, as soon as I started performing (at my age I would have to walk the 100m sprint), it would be obvious to everyone that I was an impostor. Surely it's the same for academic cheats.


texts: Re-sending a rejected paper to the same conference next year

texts:
I sent a paper to a top-tier computer-science conference, it was rejected and I got several useful suggestions for improvement. I improved the paper accordingly and I consider to submit it to the same conference in the following year. It is likely that the paper will be reviewed by the same referees.

When sending a revised paper to a journal, the authors should indicate where exactly they revised the paper, so that the referees do not have to read everything again.  Should I do the same in this case?  If so, how can I indicate to the referees the locations in which I corrected the paper according to their comments from previous year?

My concern is that, if I do not indicate where I revised the paper, the referees might think "we have already reviewed this paper and rejected it last year, and it looks similar, so we should reject it again".


texts: My adviser threatens to kick me out if I am not to be a full time student

texts:
Background: I have been in the Phd Program since fall 2010, I have made great academic progress (two papers published in journals). From the 4th semester (spring, 2012), I have started working in a company and still a part time student in school. Till now, I am still keeping doing research and publish another paper and one conference paper. As I have finished all coursework requirement (72 semester hours, I transfer some credits from MS), I plan to work in the company and be a part time student to finish the degree.

From last month, my adviser kept asked what's my plan. I told him I will make my decision in mid-July as I can know my H1b working visa is approved or not. He send me another email ( I post here for information). My impression is he is threatening me...

Any suggestion? Again, it's difficult to look for a job for international students in such economics. I hope I can work and study as a part time student to finish the degree.


texts: Applying for Masters when Family Member is Associated with Department

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I intend to apply for a masters program in the coming months. A parent is a professor in the same field at a nearby institution and is also an adjunct in the department I am applying to.

Do I have any ethical obligation to "disclose" (or, for that matter, to avoid) this fact in my application? If I do not address it, could it be seen as trying to hide a conflict of interest? If I do address it, will it be seen as inappropriate name-dropping? If I must mention it, what is the proper way to do this?

I have an uncommon last name which will probably be recognized, and some members of the faculty already know that I am the child of their colleague.


texts: Professor asked me to hand in a plagarism report. How do I do it?

texts: My professor told me to submit plagiarism report of my project work. How do I do it? I have tried online softwares but they are not working.


texts: What costs should be covered when inviting a university professor from another country to attend your university?

texts:
What costs should be covered when inviting a university professor from another country to visit your university?

For example, imagine you wanted to invite a university professor from Harvard to a European university.


texts: Re-using a paper from one class for another?

texts:
Last year, I wrote a 10 page term paper for a geology class that focused on the geochemistry of certain rock deposits.  I received an A on the paper.  This year, I'm taking a geochemistry class at a different university and have to write another thesis paper.  This assignment has the same criterion as the other paper did and the topic I wrote on before is on of the allowed topics.

Would it be acceptable (morally and/or academically) to submit a slightly edited version of the first paper I wrote in the new class?

The paper was not published/distributed in any way (to my knowledge), and is entirely my own work with proper citations.


texts: Should I get post-bacc in Mathematics or go straight to Computer Science Research?

texts:
I have just been hired to work in the IT Division at a top 10 University in the U.S., and they said that I can take classes at the college.

Currently, I have a B.S. in computer science and a minor in mathematics.  I'd like to do research in machine learning, and its application to computer security in graduate school.  I have a very cool idea for a research topic, which appears that no one else has written papers on.

There are two caveats to this.  One is I only have a 3.0 GPA, which is required for acceptance into graduate school.  Second, the mathematics required for machine learning seems to go beyond what I learned for my math minor.  Advanced statistical concepts, such as Hidden Markov Chains, which I've noticed is a topic covered in graduate level mathematics courses.

Should I go for a post-bacc in applied mathematics?  Should I teach myself the advanced math topics, and try to raise my GPA by taking some higher level undergrad classes in Computer Science?

Any guidance or suggestions are greatly appreciated.


texts: I am submitting a publication to IEEE.  In the course of the process, they've asked for a cover letter.  Is this request typical of journals and other publications?  What is expected to be on such a letter?


texts: What does it mean when one month after submitting a paper we receive a request for clarification?

texts: We submitted a paper more than one month ago, today we are asked to clarify one question in our paper. Does that mean the paper is just on the borderline right now?


texts:
I am soon submitting my first paper to a journal (in the humanities) and am unsure of the proper etiquette/practices of doing this. Some questions I have are:

Do I include the acknowledgements in the initial manuscript I submit, or should these be added after review and acceptance?
Is it appropriate to thank professors who have given general good writing and research advice (during office hours and emails instigated by me) when they did not specifically relate to the content of my paper (but have been helpful in the writing and research of it)?
Do I need to notify people I am planning to thank in advance? For example, if I received constructive feedback from a noteworthy person in my field, could it be potentially damaging to their high reputation if someone (new) like me thanks them?
Do I need to thank my home university when most of the research has been conducted during time off between BA graduation and MA program acceptance?


texts: How do I explain to a prof who is not happy with my actions which were simply a mistake due to miscommunication?

texts:
I had emailed a professor for a summer internship opportunity. He had accepted me and aksed me write a proposal for applying through a fellowship.

I replied back putting down some points for my proposal. I got no reply from his side. I emailed him again after 2 days and continued to do so for the next 3 weeks. Afterwards, due to no response, I believed he was not interested in me due to no email response and stopped mailing.

But now, after the deadline is over, I found out from another source that he was not happy with my behaviour for not applying for the fellowship.

How do I convince him that this was a honest mistake and I did not intend to be rude and am still interested in working under his guidance?


texts: Formalities for video submitted with paper?

texts:
A conference mentions "Supplementary material (images, video, etc.) may optionally be submitted with papers, must be submitted as a single zip file and be no larger than 100MB.".
So along with my conference paper, I'm considering submitting a video that shows the working of my program. Few questions:

I couldn't find any specific info on how to mention or cite in my paper that there is a video included with the paper as a supplementary file. Can I just mention "...in minute 2:05 of the video included as a  supplementary file..."?

Since the video has no audio, I'm considering adding to the video, some pleasant background music that's from a website which allows such music to be used royalty-free, but asks us to cite/attribute the creator of the music. So firstly, is it proper etiquette to use such music in a conference paper submission, and secondly, how would the attribution be mentioned? In a separate text file or as a citation in the paper itself? Also, is citing it enough, or do I have to explicitly obtain the creator's permission, in the same way, publishers ask for proof of copyright consent from the creators of images when I include somebody else's image in my paper (even after I've cited the source)?


texts: How do I know if I am fit to do a PhD in my area of interest, specifically, theoretical CS, when my background was mostly applied EE?

texts:
I have a Master's degree from a good (top-15) school in Signal Processing and my Master's research involved mainly helping out PhD students in very applied projects. The idea of the project was nice (and it even resulted in a patent and several publications), but the individual contributions to the team - and this includes mine - were not novel, just implementing existing algorithms.

I was dissatisfied with my MS research lacking any real novelty (but at that time I joined that lab because the professor had funding), so after graduating, I worked for a bit in the industry and then came back to (a different) grad school for a PhD, hoping to do theoretical work.

Over the summer, I am reading papers with potential advisors in math/applied math/theoretical CS departments at my university. I am now wondering - while I am liking the ideas in the papers I am reading, am I trained enough to make novel contributions in theory? By aiming to do theoretical work for my PhD while having a such an applied background, did I gravely confuse liking an area with ability to do something new in it?

My question is: How do I know I can do something new in the theoretical field I am reading papers in? Of course I like these papers - they have been written by leaders in the field who know how to write well; the ideas are great, which is why they are famous papers. But I have been so stupid to have assumed, all this while, that liking these papers is some sort of indicator that I can be in this field. People who actually wrote these papers are mathematicians and theoretical computer scientists who, after years and years of training, have come up with these novel ideas. Will I ever be able to do that?

I will start my second year in a few months; I just don't know if I should stick to trying to solve theoretical CS/math problems of the kind I am reading now, or if I should stick to what I have training in - applied signal processing.


texts: PhD course grade impact on postdoc and fellowship applications?

texts:
This past spring was the second semester of my PhD program. A professor of a core course refused to grade my final assignment because it was late after deadline had been extended. The professor had read and provided feedback on various drafts of the manuscript throughout the semester.

However, I only missed the deadline because of an emergency. A couple of days before the deadline I had to drop everything I was doing to tend to urgent institutional review board (IRB) issues. On the day the manuscript was due, my  old thesis advisor emailed me demanding to withdraw a presentation from a national conference immediately until IRB exemption was granted. This was more urgent than submitting the paper because there were serious legal implications attached.

Thank goodness the Chair of my Doctoral Committee was made aware of the issue. I spoke to the Chair, who suggested I explained to the professor I had an emergency and even told me to drop their name. I did just that, but the professor still refused to  accept the paper and gave me a C+ (38.9/50) without counting my final. I also explained the emergency situation, to no avail.

I don't want to push too hard on this matter, but I am very worried that a C+ will prevent me from receiving fellowships and getting a good postdoc position in the future.  For those of you out there with first-hand knowledge of the impact PhD-level course grades have on one's career, will a  C+ diminish my chances of getting a fellowship and being strongly considered for competitive postdoc positions?


texts: Should I put an apostrophe to indicate a plural or past tenses?

texts:
Technically, plurals shouldn't be indicated with apostrophes.

However, in maths and computer science textbooks, I've often seen people write things like "if we combine the x's and y's" or "string A is the same as string B xor'd with string C".

Is that right? Should I adopt this convention when writing an academic paper, or is there a better way?