texts: Is there a way to get an academic job without recommendation letters? Who else besides supervisors/collaborators can be referees?

texts:
I am at a stage to apply for an academic job, but can not find enough recommendation letters (3 typically). Currently, I am on my own grant, and mainly working alone on some relatively small, independent projects. Thus little collaborators.

When it comes to job application, they typically requires three recommendation letters. It there a way to get around the recommendation letter requirement? Apart from the supervisors/collaborators, who else can write those letters?


texts: How dificult is it to get into a PhD program years after quitting another?

texts:
I am in my 5th year of a PhD program, with the deadline for my dissertation just a few months away and barely any results to report, never mind writing an entire dissertation.*

I am considering quitting this program and working for some time. I already have a job, and they have made it clear that my PhD or the lack of it are not going to make a difference in my employment.

I am wondering if ther is anyone who has found themselves in similar circumstances and, years later, has succesfully applied for another PhD position, and how did they present the fact that they left the program just a few months before the deadline.

Thanks

*After browsing for a bit, I believe some people may be tempted to say things like "if you are on your 5th year, surely you do have enough material for your dissertation". While I appreciate it, this is not what I want to discuss here.


texts: Where can I find standard high school textbooks used in the US and UK?

texts:
So for example, India has this government organization called The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). They produce their textbooks which are also available to download for free here, for the grades 1-12 for all subjects. From my experience they are one of the highest quality textbooks in India.
Similarly, where can I access such textbooks which are of the highest quality, and are used in the US and/or UK? I'm mostly interested in searching for textbooks for the grades 8-12. I want to get a flavor of what kind of education do students get exposed to in the US/UK and I plan on reading their textbooks for the grades 8-12.


texts:
Got into the Art History program and see that I have to pass a language exam at some point during my studies.

Has anyone here taken the exam? I'd be taking it in Spanish.

I can maintain a conversation and am about a fourth grade reading level. I'm not terribly disciplined so I'm considering taking a non-credit Spanish course this summer to prepare. I know one's mileage may vary, but how difficult is it on the whole?


texts: Google Scholar: Will having HTML and PDF in different subdirectories lead to incorrect indexing?

texts:
I am trying to get our department's green OA repo at my university's web-site properly indexed by Google Scholar.
The PDFs in our repo for a large part legacy scans with no structure. This means that there is little hope of Google being able to scrape usable metadata from the PDF, so having an HTML abstract with metadata linked to the PDF is in our case essential for providing Google Scholar with the correct metadata.
Our repo is based upon on the Drupal 7 CMS: The author fills in the Google Scholar Metadata, which is stored as a regular Drupal node (HTML), and then uploads the full length PDF to the site.  The PDF is stored in the server's file system.
The way Drupal works means that the URL of the HTML abstract becomes http://example.org/node/NNN, while the uploaded PDF will have an URL like http://example.org/sites/default/files/XXXXXXX.pdf. The two are then linked together through the citation_pdf_url metatag in the HTML.
I was happy with this, until I spotted the following paragraph in section H of the Indexing Guidelines  for Google Scholar:

The content of the [citation_pdf_url] tag is the absolute URL of the PDF file; for security reasons, it must refer to a file in the same subdirectory as the HTML abstract. (my emphasis)
Failure to link the alternate versions together could result in the incorrect indexing of the PDF files, because these files would be processed as separate documents without the information contained in the meta tags. (their emphasis)

Given that this means what I think it means, indexing of my repo will break as node/  is indeed not the same "subdirectory" as sites/default/files/.
However, who keeps HTML content in subdirectories in 2014?  The current webdesign paradigm is to separate content (such text rendered with HTML) from assets (such as PDF files), and only the latter is actually stored in the file system. To me, this requirements is outdated and will also probably break almost every repo that is built on some sort of CMS.
I am prepared to bite the bullet and write the code that is needed in order to spew out static HTML files that can be saved in the sites/default/files/ subdirectory along with the PDF - if that is what it really takes to make Google Scholar index my repo.
However, before embarking upon this task, I wanted to hear from other that have repos that provide metadata for Google Scholar if this "same subdirectories" is absolutely required if you want the HTML abstract and full length PDF to be linked by means of citation_pdf_url tag.
Will having HTML and the PDF in different subdirectories really lead to incorrect indexing or no indexing of the PDF files?


texts: "Storytelling" in the introduction: Math papers

texts:
This question is about best practices of writing manuscripts in mathematics.

Q. How much "storytelling" in the introduction section of a math paper is "appropriate"?

To clarify what I mean by "storytelling" let me give an example but of course one can find numerous of such cases:
In the introduction of a math paper(which I'd rather to keep the names anonymous) almost half of the first page is dedicated to saying what happened in friends gathering and that the author bet on bottle of wines that certain problem has solutions and what not. It was really annoying to me. I wondered why readers need to know all that and how are these stories are even relevant?

Side note: It seems to me sometimes journal editors demonstrate double standards and approve/disapprove this "story telling" matter depending who you are and where you stand in the field.


texts: How to know if I have done and am doing good research?

texts:
My research field is a "hot" one. It is in modeling of additive manufacturing process. Majority of the research being carried out is experimental and some research is theoretical/computational. My research is entirely computational. Publications in my research topic don't go to top journals like nature or science but to applied journals like journal of thermal spray and technology, surface and coatings technology, additive manufacturing or computational materials science.
I read computational papers published by other groups from good universities (in the US and other places) and I often find them quite straightforward (that is, not much novelty in their work). In my research work, I always try to implement something extra (be it a different modeling technique, a different analysis method) to develop a distinctive new knowledge rather than a small incremental knowledge. Nevertheless, my work ultimately gets published in these journals only.
In such scenario, how do I know if I am doing a good work? My experimental collaborators are happy with my work and so is my postdoc advisor. But, how do I know that I am not generating noise? My past entirely computational papers have got just 3 unique citations each in 1-1.5 years. But my collaborative work (with experimentalists) has over 15 citations in same amount of time.


texts: Tool to generate feedback based on test results

texts:
My mom is a tutor and she was hoping for some software to help her speed up her grading process. Currently, she has her students take a test and she needs to generate something for the student with what they need to work on.

For instance, the student takes a test and they get questions 3 and 4 wrong. Question 3 is on long division and question 4 is on exponents. Ideally, she would be able to put in what questions the student got wrong and get something in a presentable format she can email to the student and their parents:

  Areas to work on:

  Multiplying exponents
  Long division with numbers greater than 3 digits

Is there any software out there that can do something like this?

Thanks,

Eric


texts: My submission has been processing for two days now, is this normal? I know that submissions might get the tag [on hold] and take a long time, but arXiv says that if this does not happen, submissions tend to stay in the "processing" phase for a relatively short time. My question is whether two days classifies as a "relatively short time" and, if so, how long does a submission usually take to process? If it does not classify as a relatively short time, who should I go to to ask for help?


texts: Pros and cons of CV and cover letter for Ph.D. position in the same document

texts:
I am going to present my candidacy for a Ph.D. position. For this, I have prepared a version of my CV using Latex and moderncv. The moderncv template includes both the CV and the cover letter in the same document. This is the first time I have seen this, and I wonder what are the pros and cons of including both of them in the same document vs. sending them in separate PDF files. Also, which approach is the most common?

Just in case it is relevant: several positions are offered (each one in a different topic under a different advisor) and I am presenting my candidacy for the subset of topics that I am interested in. The recipient of the email is the department account, so I have no idea who is actually receiving and dispatching my request.


texts: A negative graduate class experience and maybe some factors in cultural differences

texts:
I am a master's student in the US studying international relations, and I had a negative experience in one of my classes last week. It is my last semester of my master's program, and I feel very exhausted from being a student. I have a story about what happened in one of my classes last week, and would like to know how I should cope in the class for the rest of the semester.
Situation
Last week, in one of my classes (in a subject I am not too familiar with), I had to give a presentation based on a paper I wrote. The assignment involved writing a paper based on the course readings for the week that we signed up for and presenting it on the due date. I presented, but I admit that my presentation was quite poor because of my lack of confidence in my paper. This was definitely a situation of the input being much greater than the output, which is definitely one of the greatest frustrations that anyone could ever have. I know that it is a stupid calculation on my part, but I was just planning to present in a dull way so that other people would not ask any questions; the presentation did not seem to be weighted much.
The professor attacked my presentation in front of the class and gave it as an example of what not to do. However, I would have preferred that I just receive a bad grade in private, as opposed to having to feel embarrassed in class. I could tell that the professor was quite disappointed. 'Humiliated' might seem like a strong word, but I felt very embarrassed and helpless for the rest of class.
Now, there are three weeks left of the course, and I feel like I would not want to stare at anyone in the remaining class sessions. I am considering training my mind to think of myself as a corpse for the two-hour duration of each of the remaining classes. The papers for last week are already graded, and based on what happened in the class, I am already mentally prepared for the worst in relation to my paper grade.
I am from an eastern culture, and in my culture, it is considered one of the worst insults to publicly embarrass someone; this is done in cases when the person is mean-spirited or it is likely that the people involved will never see each other again.
Questions

Is the professor's reaction common and justified in the US or other western countries in situations like mine across different fields?

How should I cope for the last few weeks of the semester?

I just can't wait for this course to finish. If such an experience were to occur, I would have preferred that it happen on the last day so that I would not have to look at familiar faces in the classroom ever again.


texts:
In U.S. colleges, in quantitative fields of study like engineering and mathematics, how do instructors curve their courses?  That is, how do instructors decide, in a given course, how many As to award, how many Bs, how many Cs, and so on?

I do not ask the opinion-based question of how an instructor should curve his or her course. Rather, I ask the fact-based, or at any rate experience-based, question of how a normal, responsible, experienced instructor does curve his or her course.


texts: Can a single college course section be taught by two professors?

texts:
For example, having half of the lessons taught by one professor, and the other half of the lessons taught by another professor.

If this isn't possible, why isn't it possible?  Can you provide any links to further information on how it's done (e.g. dividing the compensation)?


texts: How does laboratory funding and money management work in grad school?

texts:
there's something I've been curious about regarding the funding of labs in graduate schools. I imagine it's different in different schools, but there's probably a most common scenario.

How is money managed for a lab? My most naive understanding is that the lab mostly gets money from grants. But what happens when a lab runs out of grant money? I assume the school doesn't want a major lab supporting several students and postdocs just folding, so I'm guessing they lend them money.

For example, the are several common facilities at my school that charge the lab when students use them (electron microscopes, etc). I know we're short on money right now, but I've never heard of anyone not being able to use the facilities. I would definitely make sense to me that the school internally lets a lab rack up debt to them with the expectation that it'll be paid back when they get grants in the future.

But how does it work for peoples' paychecks, and non-school payments? I know our lab also has a p-card. Does that mean we may be racking up debt externally?


texts: Is it possible to do good research on a certain area through self-learning the state-of-the-art of the area?

texts:
I’m currently doing my masters in chemical engineering in a relatively unknown university here in the Philippines. For my master’s thesis, I am planning to theoretically model transport processes of spray drying of nutraceuticals. Neither my advisor nor any other professors here are experts on the subject.

I wish to know:

Is it still possible to do publishable or even outstanding research by learning the state-of-the-art of the area, specifically about transport modelling, by myself?
How can I approach this dilemma? (I just need the extra boost in confidence since I am wading through unknown waters here.)

I do have experience on research and writing papers as I have experienced it during my bachelors. Also, I do think people in my current department will be able to understand my research since the topic that I want to pursue largely deals with basic chemical engineering principles. Although, I'm quite in doubt really in my current course of action since none of them are experts on theoretical modelling.   I didn't publish anything from my bachelor's work, and I am still relatively a neophyte at research.


texts:
I got my article with major revision from "Renewable Energy" but as per my knowledge the major revision are seen to be like minor questions were asked by the two reviewers. After submitting my revised manuscript, after 15 days my status was in "under review" the next day it was changed to "required reviews completed". Now so far, for 16 days my article still in "required reviews completed". Why is the editor taking very long time after the second review completed? Please, any one of you gives me the answer.

Why you all people have marked the duplicate of an existing question. My question may be old to everyone, But this question what I raised is new to me....if you are willing to give the proper answer to the question, I am very thankful to them. But don't say existing question for what I asked


texts: I did not include all undergraduate schools in the university I graduated from. Have I lost my chance at ever applying to graduate school?

texts:
I've been really looking forward to the idea of returning back to school to complete my higher studies in a field that's both similar to my undergraduate degree, and the nature of my work. There are a couple of graduate schools I am interested in, located in Canada and in the UK, now I graduated from the United States. The university I graduated from contains transfer credits from another college I attended, but in total I attended 2 colleges (one is included in the transcript) and one community college.

The college and community college I attended were roughly 11 years ago, I rarely attended the classes in those two schools, and I took some time off to travel and work before I made the commitment of going back to school. I graduated with an undergraduate degree 2 years ago in a science-related field with a GPA of 3.8, and I still maintain a great relationship with most of my professors from my program.

It seems that I've made a grave mistake by not including my entire academic history when I applied to my last undergraduate university, should I forget about graduate school?

*Edit

@NateEldredge That's brilliant. I took classes at College A and CC B, I traveled and worked for a couple of years and enrolled in College C. I then decided to move back to the United States, and applied to College D with only College C mentioned as my academic history. Now I'm thinking of applying to a graduate program, using the degree I earned from College D, with the included transcript from College C. Whew.

*Further Clarification
Sorry. I'm not thinking all that clearly right now. I am worried that by applying to the graduate programs my full academic history will come to light, I did not mention the other schools in the application from the university I graduated from. By omitting them from the university I actually graduated from, I will be omitting them in the application to the graduate programs. Maybe it's my older age, but I feel like this is ethically reprehensible. Now I'm thinking of contacting my undergraduate university and explaining my full history, I'm afraid they will revoke my undergraduate degree.

Around 11 years ago I graduated from high school, I went to straight to a university. I never attended class, I eventually went to a community college, and I found myself in the same situation. I realized then, I needed to leave the environment I was in. I traveled, and worked for a couple of years. I eventually decided to go back to school, and started fresh at an international university in the country I was working in at the time. From there, I transferred to a university in the United States, and only mentioned the last university I attended and did not mention any of the other schools I attended.


texts: Figures of Merit (Erdős number) in Resume/CV

texts:
I've noticed recently that colleagues, friends, and others seeking employment, have shown, among other things, their Erdős number on their resume/CV.  I've also seen some put down their h-index, or their publication with the most citations (the running tally of citations for that publication), or the Impact Factor journal that they have ever published in, etc.

I know there is a question on just h-index in a CV/resume (so please do not mark as duplicate), but this is a broader question about other figures of merit, especially Erdős number.

I realize that having a CV/resume that stands out is important and can give an edge to getting that coveted position, but is listing these types of things appropriate?

Let me just make clear that I am not endorsing doing this or saying that I have done it, I am just asking if this is common, acceptable, or purposeful.


texts: Do Australian universities pay expenses to attend a faculty interview?

texts: I have been invited for an interview for a lecturer position at a university in Australia. I am based in Europe at the moment. It is not expicitly clear, at least to me, in the invitation email that they will pay for the travelling and accommodation expenses, whether in full or in part. I thought I should ask them for clarifications, but I am not sure how to ask it, and perhaps it is better to find out more about the custom before asking.


texts: Discussing authorship/sole authorship with supervisor

texts:
This is a borderline IPS question, but I feel the academic aspects will be more relevant.

One year ago I switched supervisor. Went to him with a formulated project (but no concrete results yet) and I am now at a stage where I should discuss authorship, which I haven't done before. This supervisor provided much needed guidance and support in meetings, but I am personally of the opinion that I should be the sole author of the paper, though this is obviously a grey area.

My question is then two-fold:

Does his contribution qualify him objectively (i.e. in most academic situation) as a co author ?
I have a hard time telling whether his contribution is enough for him to ask me to include him as a co-author.

On my part I have:

Formulated the core idea around which the paper revolves
Found a fitting mathematical formalism
Run all numerics
Ideated and wrote all mathematical proofs required

On his part he has:

Guided me in what could be considered an interesting result in the field (e.g. this would be an interesting statement, can you show that it is true?)
Guided me in constructing a coherent story around my idea compatible with the field

On the one hand, this paper would have never been born without his guidance. On the other hand I believe is contribution to the content is not big. I would like your thoughts on this, so that I can ponder the various sides of this and be ready if a discussion arises.

How do I discuss this with him?
I have a feeling he won't ask me for co-authorship, but I might be wrong and indeed he might expect it as a counterpart to the time he dedicated to me.

I would like to bring up the topic in a way that recognizes the value of his support and express my opinion on authorship without causing conflict (with the person that will in all likelihood write me references for the future)?

One way I thought this could go is to just ask something like: "I will be writing up. Do you think such and such journal would be a good outlet for this work? Do you think we should author this together?"

I believe this sends the message: I am somewhat open/uncertain about  co-authorship, what do you think? and leaves the initiative on the topic to him.

Some clarification : sole authorship is considered a good thing in my field, I am at a loss in assessing how much.

Also, I am responsible for my own funding which comes from a scholarship, none of my supervisor had anything to do with it.

Finally, my previous supervisor has explicitly stated he wouldn't require authorship on this (saying he didn't contribute enough).


texts: Etiquette of wearing the wrong academic robes at graduation as a lecturer in the UK

texts:
I have graduated three times from UK universities. First was a bachelors' degree, then a Masters' degree, then a PhD. The graduation robes associated with my PhD graduation are absolutely horrible. I am now a lecturer in a UK university and if I attend graduation ceremonies at this University (or others, I suppose), I am supposed to wear the academic robes from my highest degree, i.e. the horrible PhD ones.

So my question is this, is it considered acceptable to wear the robes from my 'lower' degrees at such occasions, or even the equivalent PhD robes from the university I now work at (much nicer!)?

Basically, can I get away with wearing the wrong robes to graduation ceremonies?


texts: Can I call a professor to ask for a letter of recommendation if I can't show up in person?

texts:
I am applying for a PhD. There is a professor at my undergraduate institution I would like to ask for a LOR. I emailed him, but after a full week he has not replied.

From this I can infer that either he doesn't want to write the letter, or he is behind on email. I have to hope it is the latter, since he is the only professor I did research with, therefore my application would be much weaker without his letter. If he is behind on email, I have no way to tell how long it might be before he will see my email.

I would have gone in person, but I live very far away and cannot easily visit his office. Should I phone his office and:

leave a message?
phone during his office hours so I know he'll be there?

Applications are not due for approximately another two months; should I just wait a few more weeks before asking someone else for a (weaker) letter?


texts: How to demonstrate excellent undergraduate and graduate teaching capabilities in academic position applications?

texts:
It is quite common in almost all position opening announcements in academic institutes to demonstrate EXCELLENT teaching capabilities. For instance sentences like below:

  Applicants are expected to demonstrate excellent undergraduate and graduate teaching capabilities

But the question is HOW to demonstrate that excellence? Is just listing subjects taught during last couple of years sufficient? I guess we can use teaching statement or teaching philosophy to demonstrate that ability too. But, what type of sentences show that excellence in teaching statement?


texts: Should one mention outside influences that negatively impacted grades on their PhD applications?

texts:
I'm applying for PhD programs at the moment in pure mathematics and was wondering if there was any sort of general wisdom regarding mentioning bad things that happened to you that have negatively impacted your grades. In the winter and spring quarters of my junior year my father was in and out of life threatening surgeries and it generated a lot of anxiety in my life that made it difficult to keep up with school the way I had in the past. He is thankfully doing alright now and is only getting better, but it was really touch and go for a while.

Before those terms I had taken a lot of graduate level courses in mathematics and consistently got As, but there was a dip during that period to B+s and Bs. The difficult thing for me is that, now that I'm not dealing with those things anymore, I don't really have time to show on my applications that it was a temporary issue for me. Is this sort of thing worth mentioning on my applications?

Personally I'm a very private person and the thought of mentioning it makes me a little nervous, but my application before this happened was quite unambiguously strong and I don't really know if it's appropriate to mention or if people would take it into consideration when looking at my transcripts.


texts: Does applying for FAFSA make a school less likely to offer you funding?

texts:
I have applied to a number of Ph.D. programs in mathematics, keeping in mind up until this point that the generally accepted wisdom is: "If you aren't fully funded, don't go."

Now, luckily, I have received full funding (TA position and full tuition waiver) from one university, and I still have five more places I'm waiting to hear back from, but the one funding offer I've gotten so far is from one of my safety schools.

I got accepted into another university that I would much better prefer attending, but without much of a chance of a full funding offer.

Now, I have already taken out significant (~40,000$) student loans for my undergraduate degree, and by no means plan on significantly increasing that to get my Ph.D, but I came to thinking: "What if I got accepted into a really good school, got decent, but not 100% funding, and decided to take out a small loan to attend?" and so I decided I should fill out FAFSA "just in case".

However, now that I am filling out the form, given that it requires you give a list of universities to send your information to before you receive information on how much funding you are eligible for, I wanted to know whether or not supplying this information to the schools I haven't heard back from decreases my chances of getting a tuition waiver or TA position from them, since they see that I already have funding? (which of course I don't want)

So is this a legitimate concern? Or should I go ahead and fill out the FAFSA?


texts: Professor is planning on delaying our paper

texts:
I'm working on the project of a professor in my school, expecting its results to help with my graduate admissions. We're already on the process of writing the research paper, but my professor told me he's planning on delaying its publication so he can work on another project while getting funding for the work we're doing. So I have two questions about this:

Is this a common practice in a professional level?
What can I do to get this paper going? Even if it's not published. I was thinking about presenting a preprint as part of my applications, but I'm not sure if it'll work since it hasn't started a peer-review process or something of that matter.


texts: Is it ethical for advisors to automatically coauthor papers?

texts:
I work in a field (Philosophy) where co-authorship is uncommon and advisors and grad students very seldomly co-author a paper. I've seen a lot of posts on Academia.se though about the ethics of co-authoring papers with mentors, such as this question.

My sense is that it must be somewhat common in the natural sciences for the head of the lab/dissertation advisor to be automatically added as a co-author to every paper that his or her graduate students produce.

My questions are:

Is this really common, and if so, in which fields?
Is this really ethical?

My view is that adding your name to something that you had no part in creating is just plagiarism: it's taking credit for the work of others.

The opposite argument, that the work wouldn't have been possible without the PI's grant funding also cuts no ice. I wouldn't have been able to write my dissertation if my parents hadn't had sex, but that doesn't mean they should get credit as coauthoring my work.

That's the way it seems to me, but maybe somebody from these fields can give us a better rationale for (what seems to be) the widespread practice.

Edit:
Another argument against the practice. Suppose I'm a billionaire who knows nothing about science, but I take it into my head that I want to be (regarded as) a famous scientist. Suppose I just spend billions of dollars to fund other people to do research. But, I ask each of those people to come and report to me for fifteen minutes ever week about what they've worked on, or discovered that week. Then, every time one of them finds a result, I demand that my name be added to the paper as a co-author, since we have "discussed" the work in progress and it is, after all, by my grace that the funds for the work have been provided. Suppose I just have hundreds of these postdocs, producing thousands of papers a year, all of which I am a coauthor for.

Now ask yourself if I really deserve to be regarded as a famous scientist at all? It seems to me that I don't, because I haven't done any of the science--I haven't suggested any research methods, I haven't designed any experiments, I haven't collected any data, I haven't even helped junior researchers know the shape of the existing literature. You might regard my existence as good for science in some sense--you might think of me as a beneficial patron of the sciences. But you wouldn't think of me as a scientist, right? And you wouldn't think I deserved to be considered for a Nobel Prize, or membership in the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences, or whatever. If I demanded that I be given those awards because of the thousands and thousands of papers that I have coauthored, which have been cited tens of thousands of times, you would call me an idiot, right? We give those prizes for discovery, not for being rich. The same thing is true of tenure too. You shouldn't be able to buy your role as a tenured professor. You should have to prove that you, personally, are capable of making a serious contribution to your field. And of course you demonstrate that capability by publishing papers.

So when a prof is automatically added as a coauthor to a paper that he or she did not contribute to in any way except financially, then she is trying to buy a reputation as a scholar, or the other perks like tenure or membership in the AAAS that come with that reputation in just the same kind of way that the absurd billionaire is doing.


texts: Fighting for academic fairness: My authorship is unaffected but my PhD advisor pushed up authorship of a co-author at the expense of other co-authors

texts:
I’m Nick, a postdoc currently working on publication of my PhD work. There are several authors on the paper - two former graduate students as co-first authors (myself and Aubrey), followed by five undergraduates (all of who have graduated now) and another younger current graduate student as the last author (Pax, who overlapped with Aubrey and me during our PhD years) before the PI's name (i.e. PI is senior/corresponding author).
We are preparing a submission to a journal after three failed submissions.
In this version, our advisor moved up the position of Pax to be second author, after myself and Aubrey. We only noticed from looking at the manuscript version she sent to us with comments. In other words, she didn't discuss the change with us.
After several days of contemplation and looking through the manuscript to see if Pax really added so much to the changes in the manuscript, both Aubrey and I decided that Pax didn’t deserve to be second author - and the answer is pretty obvious because all the remaining authors contributed intellectually and experimentally to the paper. Pax, on the other hand, has never added much to manuscript meetings and doesn’t know the data from the paper as well either. Despite that, my advisor decided to move up the position of Pax to be second author.
When we questioned my advisor on this, she said that Pax contributed intellectually to the current layout of the paper (which didn’t change significantly from the last version) and gave another unconvincing answer about how intellectual contribution is difficult to assess (which in this case, I feel the answer is pretty black and white).
Aubrey and I really think there is a hidden reason that my PI is unwilling to admit, but what bothers us is that our PI is being non-transparent. I figured this is academia and the PI gets the final say in what she does.
Neither my or Aubrey’s authorship position is affected. But I know that since I am the first author on this paper, I can fight for the authorship positions of undergraduate authors all of who have really contributed a significant amount of work to the paper. This way I can learn to fight for fairness within academia.
What shall I do? Pursue this issue further with my PI or resign myself to the situation?


texts: Why do journals require authors to provide funding information?

texts:
Recently I have communicated a manuscript to Springer journal. In editorial system I was required to furnish funding information. If the funding information is available then does that mean that I have to publish my work through open access by paying fee from funds that have been sanctioned  to me?

Although the journal is not open access journal but I am afraid if they ask for article processing fee after acceptance of manuscript. My sanctioned funds does not cover article processing charges


texts: What contributions from your advisor must you specifically acknowledge in your dissertation?

texts:
When you're writing your dissertation, your advisor will undoubtedly make many contributions. They might suggest literature to look into or ways of tackling a problem. Many of these contributions I assume would be acknowledged sufficiently in the acknowledgements section where you thank those who helped, your advisor above all.

But what about when you're discussing something specific, maybe trying to figure out some problem. When you're working through it together, your advisor says "What about you try X?". It turns out that X solves the problem.

In the section of my dissertation where I discuss the problem and present my implementation of solution X, should I include something like a footnote stating explicitly that X was suggested to me by my advisor in conversation? I'm interested more in the issue of academic honesty/integrity than issues surrounding my relationship with my advisor (e.g., whether it might tick him off to not be specifically acknowledged in the section on X).


texts: How to handle not having my PhD advisor as a reference?

texts:
I received my PhD in 2009 and my adviser will not provide a good recommendation for me. This is mostly because we have fundamentally different approaches to science, and in retrospect I see that I could have avoided a breakdown in our relationship if I had been more deferential.

At this point, I leave his name off of my list of references, but I suspect that a diligent potential employer might call him anyway. I would be willing to discuss any concerns that were brought up in such a call - indeed I think that doing so will help me to find a good fit in a new position - but I do not know if I should, or how to state this fact in my job applications.

I am currently finishing my post doc, and one recommendation has been to take another post-doc so that I at least have two supportive references from postdoc advisers - and that the additional publications will place less weight on recommendations. Still, others have told me that not having a good reference from my adviser is a kiss of death.

How can I most effectively handle this situation?


texts: Should a teacher help if the student does not ask for it?

texts:
Alice is teaching a class and one student is clearly not understanding the material very well. Should she approach the student (e.g. ask to meet after class, write an email, or during class itself if it's not a lecture) and offer to help?

The argument for "yes" is that although the student might not ask for help, he or she wants to pass the course, so the teacher's intervention is appropriate. Some students also come from conservative cultures, are afraid to be seen as a fool, or are simply shy.

The argument for "no" is that it's possible the student wants to puzzle it out himself/herself. Instead, Alice should just make herself available for consultation. If the student does not make use of all the resources at his or her disposal, it's not her fault.

Is there any evidence that one style of teaching or the other is preferable?


texts: Having a Promising Assistant Professor vs Well- Known Full Professor as a PI

texts: If one's ultimate goal is to obtain tenure (as a professor of chemistry or some other STEM field, for example), is it honestly better to have a more well-known professor as a PI versus an assistant professor (assuming both have equally good research and are in top-tier institutions)?


texts: Bad GRE with an otherwise good record - is it possible my application will not even be considered?

texts:
I will try my best to remain anonymous. I have studied my bachelor and master's degree in a university outside the US. The math department is very strong and my adviser is well known - he has several papers with over 200 citations. I have good grades with many advanced courses, in fact I believe I have already studied beyond what is required in some PhD programs. My MSc thesis features some new results known to experts but not otherwise. I believe I will have good letters of recommendation.

I am trying to apply to the top 10 math departments. I believe that my record is overall strong but my GRE scores are extremely bad, in fact much below average. I did my math GRE under very bad circumstances, both physically and personally. Is it possible that my application won't even be considered by the committee? I am worried I won't pass the initial filter and that nobody would even look at my letters of recommendation. Is this reasonable?


texts: Importance of having a "connection" while applying to PhD

texts:
I am applying for a PhD to top schools in engineering. Whenever I talk to my peers I hear the word 'connection' very often. I started thinking that it is almost impossible to be admitted to these schools without knowing a professor ! (I am an international applicant)

How important is having a connection when applying? What If I don't know one and I believe that my profile qualifies me for admission? Should I apply or just not bother?


texts:
I'm a phd student of Mathematic. I have following question. Recently, I proved something that I got main idea from some paper. To be honest, I don't like my proof, because I use the proof of  paper, then I changed a bit, and proved new result.  Though, when I show that my result to my supervisor he really likes. I told him that I used idea of some paper. In fact, 90% of proof is the same, but he said, it's okay, if someone didn't before.

Since that's my first paper, it is very important for me. I don't know what I can do. Do I neglect it? Do I need to mention that I use that paper? Is it possible referee reject my paper?


texts:
It's come up in our lab that we should probably have business cards for when we attend conferences, however, we've been given very little guidance for what is appropriate for a graduate student.

Some questions that have come up:

Should we be trying to standardize the cards to look like the official university's cards? (e.g., with the university logo, etc)?
Related to the first question, should we be going for standardized or for something that will make us stand out?
Should we be putting our current status on the card?  It seems like if we haven't hit ABD yet then it might be counterproductive because then we'd have to buy new ones each time we made progress.
Should we be adding our research interests directly on the card?  What about advisor?
Any other information (other than contact/website) that we should be including or tips on this?


texts: import all references of a paper into a bibtex file

texts:
I have a paper that has say 100 references. I'd like to use a lot of them as references to a paper I'm writing, but it seems pretty laborious to go on each and everyone of them, search in google scholar and get the bibtex info.
Is there a tool available that given a paper\pdf\book etc, harvests all the references of that paper into a list or bibtex file?


texts: Can I drop the “Lond.” in “Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond.”?

texts:
Background

I would like to cite journal articles published by the Royal Society, specifically in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
Apparently, sometimes an of London is included in the name, and I have seen the journal’s name abbreviated as both:

  Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond.
  Philos. Trans. R. Soc.

Example

A prominent example is the Wikipedia page of the journal, citing amongst others:

  Maxwell, J. C. (1865). "A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. 155: 459.

  Hawking, S. W. (1983). "The Cosmological Constant [and Discussion]". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. 310 (1512): 303.

Question

Should I simply remove the of London (resp. the Lond.) whenever I see it in order to be consistent? Or is there any specific reason to include of London in some cases?

Remark on standardized abbreviations

According to Wikipedia, the ISO 4 Abbreviation of the journals in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society series is

  Philos. Trans. Royal Soc.

This raises three sub-questions:

Why do I see Royal abbreviated to R. so often? Is it wrong?
What is the correct way of including the series names (such as B: Biological Sciences) in the abbreviation?
Was there another official abbreviation in the past, possibly including Lond.?


texts: When writing a review article, do I need to compare to or discuss limitations of previous review or primary articles on the topic?

texts:
I have been told that having a published review article is viewed as an advantage for higher education. The topic of my review article is the impact of information technology on the practice of human resource management.

What are the sequential steps that I have to follow to make my review article acceptable to renowned publishers and university graduate professors?

I have heard that to make a review article acceptable, the first task is to read vastly about the subject related topic of review article. After reading extensively, how can I proceed - I mean how can make linkage of writing in every parts of review article?

Is it necessary to make a comparison, to find a gap or limitations,similarity of the previous primary and review articles on the same topic in writing my review article?

Do I have to present the information about what others authors have done or shown? or do I have to include my own thought, ideas, decisions along with the other scholars?and if I intend take some information,graph from copyrighted books,will I need to take permission from real authors or just paraphrase the information on own my words?


texts: How substitutable is Statistics for Mathematics in graduate admissions?

texts:
In some undergraduate programs, "Statistics" courses (including probability) are listed under the "Math" department. In others, they are "cross listed" with Math courses. And in some others, they are listed as entirely separate disciplines.

Switch over to the admissions department of an American graduate school, with distinctly separate Math and Statistics departments. The informal requirement for admission to the Math graduate program is ten Math courses. But a particular candidate (yours truly, perhaps), has "only" eight math courses, but two statistics courses also. If you treat those as "math" courses, the candidate has ten. The relevant GPA is 3.5; four A's and four B's in Math; one A and one B in Stat. The candidate's GRE score is about 60th percentile for your program; letters of recommendation are solid, but not outstanding.

How might various American graduate programs look upon an application where two statistics courses "replaced" two math courses? Suppose it was four statistics courses; two As and two Bs? People in your school believe that Statistics is "soft" Math, but in the latter case, the candidate has two "extra" courses, FWIW, and maybe some extra preparation and demonstration of dedication.


texts: As a Ph.D. student, should I spend time reviewing papers?

texts: I am a PhD student halfway through my journey. After I published a few papers, I am getting review requests from some medium rank conference and journal editors. While certainly it is an honour for me, doing good review takes some time since I am not an expert of my broad field with everything at my finger tip. Does review experience add something to my CV particularly if I want an academic career? I am really sorry if the question sounds too shallow or cynical but I want to know whether I can cite the review experience to prove my worth as a researcher to a prospective hiring committee.


texts: How to come up with research questions that are well-defined and suitable in scope and relatedness for a thesis?

texts:
I have decided on the area I want to contribute to, and have found a basic but huge problem for my research. Now my professor told me to redefine the area, so to break the, at the moment, huge area down into subquestions to create an interesting closed problem, which is addressed by my thesis.

At the moment I have come up with several different questions I have found. However, I do not see any pattern where these questions are related to each other. My questions also seem quite loose and do not define the closed problem I am aiming for.

A related question on this site is how to come up with research ideas. My question is not about how to come up with ideas in the first place, but how to define these ideas so that they can practically become a thesis.

Hence, any suggestions how to come up with several subproblems, which define a closed corpus for my thesis?


texts:
I attended a 2y MSc mixed mode (Coursework+Thesis) program which is incomplete as of today. I have completed two semesters and still 2 more semesters to go.

I have dropped 3rd semester and never attended the 4th one. Coz,

I ran out of money.
I didn't like the program as it contained too much coursework. A whole load of coursework unrelated to my area of research interest was hindering my effort towards getting into research. Suppose, I am interested in Machine Learning. But, I have to study Economics and so on.

Now, I found that I, actually, can apply to Ph.D. programs without completing an MSc program (there are a lot of universities which accept Ph.D. students without MSc). I have good GRE score, so the chance of getting into a Ph.D. program is very high. But, I am worried that my previous incomplete MSc program will discredit my CV and statement of purpose as the dropped semester would be considered as failed courses.

Would it be a crime to not to disclose the incomplete MSc program? What would be the possible consequence of concealing an incomplete degree?


texts:
In the second half of the 20th century there were a large number of English-language journals published in the West that carried only translations by Western academics of Russian-language articles.  The original versions of these articles were written by Soviet academics and had appeared in Russian-language journals published in the Soviet Union.  The English journals were commonly known as "translation journals" (not to be confused with translation studies journals, which are about the art and science of translation).  Perhaps the most famous translation journal was Soviet Physics Uspekhi, though Physics Today once listed sixteen further translation journals published by the American Institue of Physics and associated societies, and there may have been many many more in other scientific fields (and humanistic ones too, for all I know).

Were such translation journals unique to the Cold War, or do they still exist today?  A successor to Soviet Physics Uspekhi is still published today, under the name Physics-Uspekhi, but I think it operates quite differently and for quite different purposes nowadays.  In particular, its editorial office is in Russia, not in the USA, and it seems that it is Russian academics (possibly the authors, or someone working at their direction) who are supplying the English translations.  So rather than serving the interests of English-speaking academics who wish to discover or disseminate the work of their Russian-speaking counterparts, the journal today seems to be serving Russian-language academics who want to bring their work to a wider English audience.

Are there any scholarly fields today where a lot of research is being published in non-English journals, where these articles are being routinely translated into English by translators unconnected with the original authors, and where these translations are being published in dedicated journals?


texts: How do I professionally communicate to a colleague that I am not interested in helping with his project anymore?

texts:
I'm a PhD student in a pretty large lab, and have come from a more theoretical background than the other members, so sometimes they ask me to help out with theoretical parts of projects. Generally I like this, but a postdoc recently asked me to help out with his project, and I tried to help but it has gone poorly. We've gotten nowhere, I find his problem ill-defined and don't actually understand what he wants from me, and he even seems to want me to take lead on the project. At this point, I'm not interested. Recently he emailed me asking for progress and I told him I hadn't had time to work on it, because I had 3+ other projects that I'm working on.

Then he suggested emailing my supervisor to ask if my supervisor could "give me more time to work on his project". I don't want this. Also, I briefly talked to my supervisor about this, and he agreed that it wasn't worth allocating time to if I wasn't interested. How do I communicate to this guy that my supervisor doesn't dictate what I spend time on, and I'm just not interested in following up at this point - politely? I literally just don't know what to say.


texts: Is it possible to get a bachelor's degree just by having more than the required credit hours?

texts:
I have around 126 completed credit hours and I know the required amount is 120. My major is in education and I was originally planning on becoming a teacher however I am no longer sure if that is the route I want to pursue and I have not entered the teaching program at my university. I have not been back in the classroom for at least a year mainly because I don't want to waste money and time continuing something that I'm not sure I want to do for a good chunk of my life. I know not every university is the same but is it possible to acquire a Bachelor's just by having more than the required credit amount or will I have to change my degree plan around?
PS. i have emailed the last advisor i spoke with but it's been awhile and i havent recieved a response


texts: Computer Science: Workshop paper in top conference vs. Paper in mediocre conference?

texts:
What do you think would be the better choice prestige wise? Prof I'm working with gave me the choice to choose which to submit to. To be clear, the top conference is CVPR and the mediocre conference is a relatively new ACM conference.
I care about prestige because I'm applying to graduate school, and I want to make the best impression.
--Edit--
To clarify further, it's a short paper in the CVPR workshop which wouldn't go into the proceedings and rather would just be a poster.


texts: my article has been evaluated since 17 months. what do you think about this situation?

texts: I submitted my article to a journal on 12.01.2016. I asked many times about status of my paper. I have not received a reply from the editor even though my article has been evaluated since 17 months. what do you think about unethical situation?


texts: How often can the reviewers correctly guess the identity of the authors when the review is double-blind?

texts:
Is there any research/study/survey/dataset that looked at how often the reviewers correctly guess the identity of the authors when the review is double-blind?

I am aware that the answer is likely field-dependent, or even publication venue dependent. I am mostly interested in computer science, machine learning and natural language processing, but curious about other fields as well.


texts:
A performance profile is a particular type of plot popular in optimization. Basically, for each ratio R on the x axis, the y axis shows what is the fraction of the number of total tests that were solved within a ratio R of the best result, under a certain performance measure. See for instance this blog entry for an introduction, or Section 22.4 of Higham and Higham's book Matlab guide.

For instance, in the picture below, the blue algorithm gives the best result on about 95% of the examples, and solves the remaining ones within a factor of about 1.2 of the best algorithm.

What is the clearest way to label the axes of such a plot?

I have included an attempt above, but it might be too verbose for a label. The linked blog uses "problems solved" and "performance ratio". Higham and Higham use no axis labels. Other sources put unenlightening letters such as $\theta$ on the x axis.


texts: Is a PhD in a specific field of mathematics (combinatorics) instead of a mathematics PhD disadvantageous in faculty applications?

texts:
In recent years I have become aware of a few PhD programs specifically in combinatorics and optimization. Most notably, Georgia Tech and Carnegie Mellon both have PhD programs in Algorithms, Combinatorics, and Optimization, and the University of Waterloo has an entire department of Combinatorics and Optimization with a PhD program. (I'm not aware of any other such PhD programs, but please let me know if I've missed any.)

What are the advantages and disadvantages of getting a PhD in combinatorics rather than a PhD in mathematics, specifically career-wise. Really I'm asking if anyone who has completed a PhD in combinatorics has been disadvantaged from getting a faculty position in mathematics.


texts: Status meaning: report on revised version promised by referee

texts:
Status of my submitted paper has changed to:

28 November: Sent to referee 1
28 November: Sent to referee 2
28 November: Sent to referee 3
29 November: Report expected from referee 2
29 November: Report on revised version promised by referee 2

What's the meaning of last status? Considering that  I haven't submitted a revised version yet!


texts: Requesting a recommendation before the end of the course

texts:
I am applying for PhD school and I need to 3-4 reference letters. I have 3 references but 2 of them are from my undergraduate institution and the 3rd is my current master's thesis advisor. I was told that it is not good to have just one recommendation from my graduate institution. I decided to try to get a fourth letter.

I took courses with many professors during my master's study but none of them really know me that well. I am taking a course this semester with a professor for the first time and I don't know what he thinks of me, but we have a final project which I tried to do so well that I can get a very good recommendation. After showing my project to my peers who already took the course they said that he will like it a lot and you can expect a very good impression. The problem that I have now is that the deadlines are very close to the final project presentation (only four days apart).

Also, We still have a final exam so I really don't know if it would be ok to get a recommendation is such a circumstances.

Is it OK to explain the situation to the professor and give him an early presentation of my work so that he can use it in his recommendation?


texts: Should I inform my old supervisor of new insights that lead me to think his hypothesis must be adapted?

texts:
I wrote my undergraduate thesis on the topic my supervisor was then doing research into. He now has a paper on that topic under review, which I had read and commented on while working on my thesis.

I am now in a graduate programme on another university, and for some course I needed a small project to write a paper on. After consulting with my old supervisor, I took a research question that is relevant in the light of his work, but also readable separate from it, because the teacher supervising this new project has -of course- not read the paper under review.

While working on the project I found new data that leads me to question a minor section of the article under review. I (think I) can't expect my old supervisor to go into much discussion on the topic - after all, he is not supervising my current project.

I want to stay on good terms with him, first of all because I hold him in high esteem but also because his research group is a serious option for a PhD position later. But should I inform him of the things I found out? On the one hand, I suppose it would be appreciated - on the other hand, the article is already under review. Also, the work is never finished, so finding new insights is part of life and we have to accept that publications are never perfect.

I have seen Should I email old supervisor about my progress?, but this is a more delicate situation.


texts: Different research area in undergraduate and graduate

texts:
I am in my last semester of a double degrees in the bachelor of electrical engineering (honours) and bachelor of mathematics in Australia. During my studies, I watched a series of video lectures about convex optimization by Stephen Boyd from Stanford university and I got very interested in control theory however my university does not offer research in control theory. As a result, my honor thesis is about signal processing and not control theory.

I am thinking of doing research in control theory for my PhD in the US. Will the graduate admission committee look down at my application because all my research experience is in signal processing but I wish to study control theory as a graduate student?


texts: Chance of getting into engineering PhD if I have good references and research experience but don't satisfy 3.0 GPA requirement?

texts:
I graduated with 2.7 undergrad, and currently pursuing a masters degree and will graduate with 3.3. I plan to apply for PhD programs in engineering for 2017 Fall.

Here is my question: Many schools state that they require 3.0 GPA or so, but how do I know that whether they intend undergrad GPA?

Do you think should I apply to such school that states that

  Minimum GPA: The MS and PhD program has a minimum GPA requirement of
  3.0 on a 4.0 scale.

?

Is it waste of my time if I have stellar letters of references and cool research experiences?


texts: Should I seek professional help because I have a lot of math books?

texts:
I’m a graduate student in mathematics. One day, there was a discussion between graduate students about how many books a working mathematician has. Then each student would talk about their personal math library and then they would name their preferred book in each area of math.
All the students had a relatively small library. When it was my turn, I simply said the truth that I have around 1,000 ebooks and 100 physical books and that I have bought all of them and have not downloaded any of them illegally. I also explained that I like to learn a lot of math and I’m passionate and enthusiastic about math. I also explained that I have not studied all of these books thoroughly.
Then suddenly a professor stated (when others were also present) that I have more books than the university library. He then said that I should immediately seek professional help.
I was very offended by what this professor said but I never discussed it with him because I thought that I was in an emotional state and I did not want to speak to him when I was not calm. After a while, I thought that it was my own mistake and I should not be so honest about my math library.
So I have now two questions:

Is the number of my books unreasonable compared to how many books a graduate student or working mathematician own?
If I need professional help because I buy math books regularly?


texts: As a PhD-Advisor: How do I discourage a student from continuing?

texts:
I know it is slightly controversial, but I am supervising a student who started with the right attitude, but is now less and less engaged with the research. We are at a point where there's no end in sight, and the student still wants to finish within unmanageable time limits.

The context is peculiar (but I would like to keep it detached from the generality of the question): he's a part-time student, he's paying his own fees (as opposed to a PhD funded by a project), and he's after the PhD "title" more than the research that he has to put in for the title itself.

All these factors make it more difficult to dissuade him from his PhD choice: the endless excuses of putting more work when there will be time (he's a part time student); and the fact that I am proactively chasing him to arrange meetings are all things that are taking their toll.

My (general) question is therefore: how do I dissuade a PhD student from wasting his time and money, when it's clear that she is not PhD-material?


texts: I'm applying to math PhD programs in the US.  In my statements of purpose, should I include references to the literature?  I haven't done so yet, but I keep thinking I probably should.


texts: Is there a more positive term for "desk rejection"?

texts: I wish to ask a journal's editor if my manuscript will be "desk rejected" (for, if not, it will be peer-reviewed).  He and I both know what that means, but I'd rather say it without prejudicing my submission.


texts: Would it be better to drop a class or receive a D?

texts: I have hit a wall.  I will receive a D in a math course (my major), C- but doubtful.  D is passing according to university.  It would drop my gpa from 3.6 to 3.3. Two more courses after this to take, so a lower gpa might follow.  Does gpa matter when applying for jobs in the math/science field?  Let me say, I am not going to grad school, I am an older return student, so being a single mom, I would like to wrap this Bachelor's in Math up.  Will keeping a D negatively impact job prospects in any way, or having the degree is the only thing that matters?


texts: Technical editor changed author order of the paper

texts:
Recently, I attended a conference as a corresponding author of a paper with five authors. After the paper was published in the conference proceedings, I realized that the technical editor changed the authors order by grouping them according to their affiliations. Is this acceptable?

I feel a bit responsible to my coauthors (being the corresponding author) even though this publication style also affected other papers in the proceedings. But what should I do?


texts: How does the ranking of a university relate to a future career in mathematics?

texts:
Although I am an active user of SE, I have chosen to remain anonymous because of the nature of this question. I am currently a graduate student at a university that lands in the mid 70s among U.S. News' top graduate schools in mathematics, which by my understanding is very poor. My grades were quite good and although I didn't do terrifically on the subject GRE, I had a few offers from schools in the mid 40 range which I turned down. This was partially because I think I undervalued the importance of choosing a better school, and for a variety of personal reasons. My university has some unique opportunities in applied math, but is otherwise unremarkable.

As I enter my second year, I am increasingly convinced that a career as an active research mathematician is what I want for myself. However, I've heard so much contradictory information that I'm unsure if this is a realistic goal given the status of my university. While a variety of people have told me that there are plenty of desirable jobs available in "industry," the general consensus is that graduate students from low-ranking schools tend to end up as community college professors. The fact that most universities (including my own) are full of doctors from strictly high ranking schools seems to support this.

I have the chance to receive a terminal masters at the end of this year, rather than continue on for another four and complete my PhD, so I'm considering trying to retake the GRE and reapplying (I am unclear whether this is frowned upon in the math community in general, although at my school I have been reassured it is not). On the other hand, my university has a few professors who seem to be well known within their niche, mainly because their particular specialties are very unique.

My general questions are these: How important is the quality of the university when it comes to having a full career in pure mathematics research? Is a well known adviser a factor, possibly outweighing the school? Is this significantly different among applied mathematicians?


texts: Contemplating about a second PhD in statistics/machine learning

texts:
I have been thinking about a second PhD for the last year. I am currently a doctoral candidate in civil engineering at University of Texas at Austin (ranked 6th in my discipline) and working as a student statistical consultant at the university consulting center. I am working on spatio-temporal modeling of count data using Bayesian hierarchical models, with computationally efficient techniques for my dissertation. (I will have publications on this very soon; two of them are in review). I do have 2 publications in my area but their topic is the application of statistical models. I am also going to get a Masters in statistics next semester along with my PhD in civil engineering. I have done many courses related to Bayesian statistics including graduate level mathematical statistics, theoretical MCMC, stochastic volatility and time series models, statistical consulting, advanced econometrics (non-Bayesian), discrete choice modeling and one course on data mining (graduate level). In my field, I see massive datasets but very minimal statistical expertise, particularly on the big data side. This has motivated me to pursue something beyond my Phd and beyond my discipline.

I am very interested in handling large datasets and perhaps, machine learning applications. I would like to know whether a PhD in machine learning is going to help me realise my dreams. I do not have any formal research experience in data mining or machine learning. But, I do a lot of Bayesian hierarchical modeling on smaller datasets. Given my experience, I am not sure whether I can secure admission to a good program in the machine learning area. I appreciate any suggestions and advice on whether to pursue another PhD and the feasibility of securing admission to a good program in a PhD machine learning track. I am assuming basic financial assistance for any PhD program.

Thanks much in advance.


texts:
I am relatively new to academic publishing. However, there is an uncomfortable situation which I have already encountered multiple times by now (about five). It is what I would call "low-key plagiarism". I will explain what I mean by this (completely made-up) term in the following.
I don't have many papers and citations yet, so I tend to check out papers that cite me to see how my work is being used and if the new result is relevant to my own work. In the mentioned occasions, I found that the authors used my work extensively or built directly on it. The way the citation was phrased, however, implied that my result was only tangentially relevant or somewhat helpful. Sometimes the relevance is also disguised by citing further irrelevant literature.
The goal of the authors in both cases seems clear: to mislead a reviewer or readers into thinking the result is more significant or innovative. Of course, an ideal reviewer should spot this. However, in highly specialized fields and if the formulation is sufficiently vague, this is very difficult and does not happen practically.
I am not sure if this should really be called plagiarism. It is the kind of borderline case where, most likely, nobody will bring up the argument publicly. If someone does, the authors will most likely say "but we cited you here and there". No matter if plagiarism or not, it is certainly misleading to reference in this way.
When I find a citation like this, it feels very uncomfortable to me. Especially for interdisciplinary research, people might start citing the newer result and forget the older one completely if the citation chain cannot be tracked properly. This is the exact same effect as completely leaving out the citation (i.e., plagiarism) would have.
How can I deal with this kind of misleading citation practice? Should one just get over it? Should one contact the authors to express disappointment without asking for consequences? Should one fully escalate and demand a correction or bring the editor's attention to it? Should one do it even if the chance of success is low and the chance of hurting one's own reputation by being perceived as petty is high?
Concrete example
As suggested by Dan Romnik, I've tried to come up with a fictionalized example for what the misleading paper might be saying. The example contains three tricks which I have encountered on separate occasions. 1. List citations to hide relevance. 2. Shifting the citation to a supplement and omitting the citation in the main text summary of the method. 3. Attaching the citation to a meaningless side sentence instead of to the main result.
Here is the example: Let the main text contain no reference to the paper, except for a bit in the introduction citing it as previous literature as part of a list citation. Instead, it is stated in the methods that

We derive our main result using some abstract formulation of the method for brevity.

The method summary thus misses the citation, which is shifted to a supplement.
In the supplementary material, it is stated that

Introductory discussion to notation. Eq. (1) coming straight out of my paper. We derive our main result based on this equation by solving some integrals for a special case. This includes a completely standard step, which was also investigated in [1]. Our result is then obtained this way: concrete formulation of the method which was abbreviated in the main text and which is a special case of my method.

where [1] is my paper. Therefore, even if the reader looks in the supplementary material, they will not know that the central Eq. (1) is straight from my paper. The citation is there, but attached to a completely meaningless side-sentence. Of course, a careful reader could go and compare the two papers, but without that, it is not clear how the result was used.
Even if the example is not great, maybe this gives an idea of what kind of tricks I mean. One of those can be accidental; in sum, they are likely intentional and designed to mislead. They certainly do mislead, but are they plagiarism?


texts:
From this MathOverflow question:

  William Sealy Gosset published a result under the pseudonym Student. (Because his employer, the Guinness brewing company, did not allow their employees to publish for fear of divulging trade secrets.)

Why isn't publishing under a pseudonym a breach of academic ethics? It seems that the common idea is that publishing under a pseudonym is ethical, unless they are deliberately used with intention to defraud or deceive. But, given that we don't know who a pseudonymous author is, how can his peers have any trust in that (or even check it)?


texts: Does posting my work on the Internet protect me if someone else tries to publish it with peer review under their own name?

texts:
I'm in a very unique situation. I have ideas of something potentially valuable for science and I want to get it published but I haven't been able to go through the peer-review process, yet. That is why I'm thinking about simply putting all I have on the Internet and leaving it be there to see would any "real" scientist (with the equipment and the position) be interested in them. I don't work in anything related to science and although I have a degree I don't have PhD so it's like I'm nobody.

What is my "protection" if one of those experts (who obviously know much better how to publish) just takes it and puts his/hers name on it even if I manage to show files containing the same ideas loaded on the Internet for public access (so I have the site administration to verify my publication dates) much before his/her work was submitted to a journal?

Does such obviously public documents have any weight against peer-reviewed paper or is the fact that s/he managed to go through the process but I didn't make these ideas his/hers? Is any value in the fact that a document is publicly displayed before the submission date or does the fact that it's publication anyways make it "the real deal" while the other document, even if it can be shown to be earlier by outside source (like the administration of the web site)? If I just "publish" it on the Internet under the Creatice Commons license does it give it any authority in any way measurable to a peer-reviewed publication or anybody who has one can claim ownership over the ideas?

P.S. Can the entire issue be "dissolved" quickly if the one who got it published in a peer-review journal just mentions my work in the acknowledgements and says these ideas were mine and s/he just "used" them. Then is the authorship of the ideas automatically transferred to me and the issue is non-existent? But what if I ask him/her and s/he refuses. Then, can I claim authorship of the ideas or are they out of my reach now and I would just have to be satisfied with the fact that at least now they have gained some form of recognition (although I'm not their author in the eyes of the community)? (The issue is I just want scientists to view my work seriously, I don't do it for the money, the job or the fame. I just want to know am I right or wrong, so what if someone just uses and claims authorship-should I be satisfied only with the fact that I was right all along or should I try to pursue him/her for non-proper use of my ideas.)


texts: Why don't some encyclopedias have references?

texts: Encyclopedia Britannica doesn't have references for its articles, even though some contain bibliographies for general reading at the end. This may be to save space and for a smoother reading experience, but isn't this against the grain of academic conduct, since we can't easily verify the articles' assertions or pursue primary sources? Why is this allowed and accepted?


texts: Will publisher waive fee if currently unaffiliated?

texts: I am in between jobs and want to send a quick note to a journal. However, I do not have any lab to pay the ridiculous publishing fees, is there any way I can ask the journal to waive the publishing fees? Is being unaffiliated sufficient grounds for this?


texts: How to enter graduate school in a social science discipline from a computer science background?

texts:
I am a senior computer science major at a state school in the US. I have done internships at "Big 4" companies in my field as well as CS research with NSF grants.

I am interested in getting a Master's degree in a social science (history, English, or something related) but am not sure how I could get a school to look at my application. They are looking for students who have extensive experience and internships in related fields, which I don't have.

For what it's worth, I write very well and read copiously in my free time. My standardized test scores bear this out; when I took the SAT in high school, I got perfect scores on the reading and writing sections. Professors have also been very impressed with my analyses in humanities classes, though I haven't taken very many of them.

I understand that it probably wouldn't be so hard to get into a state school, but it would be nice to be accepted to a top 10 or so university. Is there a good way to get these schools to consider my application?


texts: How can I choose ahead of time where my research should be published?

texts:
Ten Simple Rules for Getting Published states:

  Rule 7: Start writing the paper the day you have the idea of what questions to pursue.

This sounds like very good advice, not just because you would pace out the act of writing your paper over the entire duration of your research, but it would also help you stay focused and keep track of your progress.

However, in practice, how is this possible? To start writing a paper, I must first know what format and style it should be written in. To know that, I would consult the guidelines of the journal in which I want publish. But the choice of journal depends on the quality of the research and notability of findings. But if I start writing on the day that I start my research, how can I know what journal the research will be good enough for?

For instance, if I shoot high and assume I am going to have a Nature paper, what do I do if a year down the line, it turns out that I was unable to succeed in reaching my goals and Nature would not possibly accept my research? Now I have to rewrite from scratch for another journal, and the time I spent slowly building up my Nature manuscript is wasted. I might as well have focused on research only at first, and left the writing part for last.

What journal's submission guidelines do I pick to follow this Rule 7? The most prestigious journal? The humblest journal? Some generic set of guidelines for "no journal"?

Rule 9 from the same text says:

  Rule 9: Decide early on where to try to publish your paper.

But how can you know ahead of time where you will be able to publish, especially if you don't have much experience publishing?


texts:
I recently found out that bioRxiv, the main biology preprint server, actually does not allow postprints to be submitted (even if allowed by the journal) according to its policy. This is in contrast to arXiv (after which biorxiv was modelled) which does allow submission of postprints.

To clarify, preprints are the authors' version of the paper prior to intial submission, and postprints are the authors' version of the paper which was accepted for publication (typically without the editing performed by the journal). The term "postprint" is a little confusing because the paper will often be accepted by the journal but not printed or released yet.

I can understand that these two types of manuscript are different and should probably be tagged differently, but I can't really see a significant benefit in not allowing postprint submission - after all they do provide access to otherwise paywalled information, often before it is actually published.

I would be interested to know if there are any alternatives to bioRxiv which allow postprint submission.


texts: How to follow and contribute to a research discussion when less experienced?

texts:
I am a second year PhD student working in math.
I find that in most discussions with postdocs or even my own supervisor, the pace of the discussion is too fast. The other party invariably seems to think faster and go through to the next step before I have fully processed the current step. I usually have to take photos of the whiteboard, go back, work it through and then realize either that the argument is correct or that there was an error. At conferences or talks, the same is true - the pace of the discussion is too fast for me to meaningfully contribute. I mostly end up listening and this makes it difficult for me to find collaborations because the conversation is too one-sided. If there is no whiteboard and the discussion is over a meal, or when there are multiple people involved, it is that much harder!
While some of it is down to experience, I imagine that even experienced researchers working in fields that are new to them face this issue. How does one "informally" brainstorm with others in an effective manner in technical fields?


texts: What to do after missing the registration deadline for the GRE subject test in mathematics

texts:
Having missed the registration deadline for the GRE math subject test, I've been looking into the option of working for a year and then applying to math PhD programs once I have my test results. While I could try applying to the top programs I'm interested in this year, they generally say that my application will either be at a disadvantage or it will be disregarded entirely without a subject test score.

Since there are some (less competitive) US graduate programs that don't require the GRE, I was wondering if it would be a bad idea to attend one of them for a year and then try to transfer out? I thought it'd be a cost-effective way to take more math classes, but I read in this answer that:

  It's difficult to transfer to a substantially more prestigious department. [...] No matter why you say you want to transfer, there will be some suspicion that your goal is to end up in a stronger department or a more desirable location. If you have another reason, you'll have to make a powerful argument for it.

So, I'm trying to figure out which idea is better: apply to a second-tier PhD program with the intent of transferring to a first-tier program, or find a job and just apply to schools after I take the subject test?

(Note: I recently asked a more general question about my options if I choose to take a gap year.)


texts: My fears and resentment about my supervisor

texts:
I have now submitted my thesis. My advisor didn't help me at all during this 3 and half years time. My thesis hasn't been read properly and I fear about the outcome. Unfortunately the culture of my school is not something where you can change things but nothing I can do except getting on with it.

I will feel burdened If I see my supervisor's name with my papers the ones I will get out of this PhD. She hasn't contributed anything than only accepting me to do this project. I also worry she has hand on my data and she can use it for her own publication once I get out of the University.

So I would like to ask, Are these just my own fears or is it something I really deal with it? Has it happened with someone else too? What are the strategies I should adopt?
Thanks for help!


texts: How do I complain to chair if my advisor regularly writes to scam journals to get tenure?

texts:
My advisor and his PHD Students are writing regularly to journals published by a publisher, which is on Beall’s list of Predatory Journals. I emailed Beall and he told me that the journals were advertising as non-profit but usually publish if you pay them.

I am in US. So recently the PHD Student and advisor published to this predatory journal’s conference taking place half way down the world and obviously it got accepted. So my advisor approved the student’s trip to that country (almost 1500 $, so it had to be approved by chair), but the chair rejected it saying it’s not worth the expense.

Now I want to directly email my chair and point out to him about my advisor’s publishing record. I am angry that instead of publishing to genuine journals, my advisor (who I believe is incompetent but has good political clout in the university) is publishing to these scam journals and wasting university money to achieve her tenure requirements.

Since I am still working in lab, I need advice on how to approach my chair so that I can keep myself safe from possible wrath of my advisor and at same time negate the contributions of these journals for his tenure.

Edit 1: The conference listed Google Scholar as one of its sponsors, so I emailed Google and they told me they never sponsored this journal and will order removal of their name from the sponsors list. So yeah, these are all first rate scam journals and I have all these emails, if I ever need to communicate with the chair. I have done my investigation; I just need to get my results across.


texts: What college education could help an experienced executive climb the ladder?

texts:
I’m an executive in digital marketing for a Fortune 100. I have 14 years of experience. But I am a college drop out. To grow in my career I’m competing with highly educated people.

What are my options academically to add to my resume?


texts: I am about to be a senior in high school and I just have a question about doubling majors, minoring, and getting Phd's

texts: So i am really interested in psychology, law, film studies, and writing. (very different topics) Could i double major in psychology and say political science and minor in film studies and something like English, and then go on to get a Phd in either law or psychology? By the time i get to college i am sure my interests will change and i could go into quantum physics or something else, but i am starting college applications and for some colleges it is smart to have a good answer on your desired major instead of putting down "undecided." I am just very interested to see what graduates think of doubling majors and minors and if it is even a smart decision to do so. thanks


texts: Will pursuing master degree increase the chances of Ph.D. admissions if the Ph.D. is in different field than Undergraduate is the goal?

texts:
I am a Pure Physics and Pure Math graduate. I wanted to do Ph.D. in Computer Science on AI. I am currently a research assistant on AI. if my undergraduate is not related to my area interest for Ph.D., will pursuing a master degree in CS increase the chances of Ph.D. CS admission? Or should I focus on research and getting publications and go directly to Ph.D.?

Are there any other disadvantages to go to master in different fields? Is it better to stay at undergraduate focusing more in research experience?

Related:
The first answer said that there are disadvantages getting M.Sc when applying to Ph.D. rather than staying in Bsc, but I guess it doesn't cover
the case when the Undergraduate and Ph.D. area are different.

Would getting a faster MSc instead of just BSc affect admission chances for PhD?


texts: What should I do about my previous self-plagiarism?

texts:
I came across the question "Attitudes towards self-plagiarism" on this site, which asks whether it is OK to reuse text from your own papers without quotation formatting. It seems the answer is no. I didn't know this and I have in fact done this in the past, before I even heard the term "self-plagiarism."

Here is the precise situation: I wrote and published paper A. Then I kept working in the same area and I extended the results, so I decided to write paper B two years later. When writing paper B, I started by taking paper A and editing it. Consequently, much of the text in paper B is directly copied from paper A. In particular, many paragraphs in the introduction, related work, and background sections are either identical or lightly edited. There is no indication which sentences are copied and which are not.

Of course, paper B clearly explains the difference between the results of paper B and the results of paper A. In particular, paper B solves an open problem posed in paper A. As far as content goes, there is no problem, in the sense that, if I had rewritten the copied parts, there would be no problem.

When I did this, I didn't know it was considered bad practise. I figured that, since the motivation, related work, and background for both papers is  essentially the same, there was no point in writing paper B from scratch, given that paper A had already covered these things.

What should I do about this (if anything)? I don't think I did anything malicious, but it seems this is not acceptable.


texts: What is the difference between an academic CV in the US and an academic CV in France?

texts:
I am currently applying for graduate school in France. How (if at all) would I modify my existing CV in the standard US format to conform to French academic standards?

I have searched online, but most results are comparing a standard US resume to a European CV.


texts: Can we get a PhD in mathematics without publishing?

texts: Do many universities allow students to get a PhD in mathematics without publishing a paper?


texts: Conducting a systematic literature review and paywalls

texts:
I am writing a systematic literature review but I was wondering how to handle  papers which fit the inclusion criteria but are hidden behind paywalls.

Is it ok to exclude them and state as an exclusion criterion in the methodology section "works that are not freely available are excluded."? Also some papers are accessible from my University without me noticing the paywall so should I rewrite the criterion to "... that are not freely available or included in the authors university contract"?


texts: How can I zip and share my files in my Mendeley favorite

texts: My professor asked me to send the pdf files of my articles. However, I have about 80 articles in my Mendely favorites. The pdf files are on my PC but in different folders. I would like to know if there is any way to select them all, then zip all the physical files, or export or copy them to a folder, or any method so that I can have them together. The other option could be synching them with the Web; however, I don't know how then I can share the link of them to the prof. I prefer to have the pdf files in a folder.


texts: Should I use the filing, publication, or grant date when citing a patent?

texts: What is the standard for citing granted patents and patent applications in a paper? For granted patents, three dates are available: filing, publication, and grant dates (see for example this patent). Which one should I use? The grant date seems to be missing from the original document itself. I would think that since the publication date is the date that is always present, it should be the date to use when citing granted patents or patent applications. However, the filing date is probably more important for the patent itself. So, which should I use?


texts: Does a letter of recommendation from a postdoc who's been my instructor carry much weight?

texts:
In large universities, undergraduate students tend to receive instruction mostly from recent PhD graduates or post-doctoral fellows. This is especially true during the first two years, when students may also have PhD students as instructors for their classes.

During the application review process, how much weight would you put for letters written from post-doctoral fellows? Is the job title something that people care a lot about?


texts: apply US professor/faculty position without PhD advisor's reference letter

texts:
I got my PhD degree from the one of the most excellent universities in Asia and am currently postdoc in US. However, I had the worst nightmare PhD advisor who thought his own students as potential competitors and tried to disturb their future career. He usually did not write reference letters for his own students and I saw most of my seniors leaving the lab without reference letters. Fortunately I got a good postdoc position in US and escaped from the previous lab.
After postdoc, I would like to continue research work in US, because I am so exhausted with my PhD advisor and never want to see. Is it difficult to get a position if I do not list my former PhD advisor in the reference list? I can get recommendation letters from postoc supervisor and other professors. In fact, I usually have nice relationships with other people. Also, my PhD advisor has different research interest field from mine.
This situation is causing me such difficulty. Please give me any good advice to overcome this situation.
My current aim is working in the tenure-track academic position or national lab than industry. However, if this problem is distracting me too much, I am considering of working in the industrial field.


texts: Variation in drop dates, and effect on student outcomes

texts:
(This question may be specific to US university systems.  Also, sorry it is long.)

US universities usually have some provision for students to drop a course.  Within the first N weeks of the term, if they decide they don't want to continue with a course they are taking, they can drop out of it.  Their official transcript will show no record that they ever took it, and it will have no effect on their GPA.  If they are paying tuition per course or per credit, they may get a refund.  Usually they have to stay enrolled in some minimum number of courses, so this can probably only be done for one or two courses per term.

Students may have many reasons for dropping a course, but obviously one common reason is that they are not doing well in the course and are afraid they may fail it.

(There may be another option to withdraw from the course up to N+K weeks, but with a note on the transcript saying that they enrolled in the course and later withdrew, maybe listing the pseudo-grade of "W".  This usually doesn't affect their GPA but may look bad to prospective employers, graduate schools, etc.)

I realized the other day that there is very wide variation between institutions in the value of N.  At Institution A, the medium-sized public university where I currently work, we have N=2.  At Institution B, the small private college where I got my bachelor's degree, we had N=11!  (I had vaguely remembered that N seemed to be larger at B, but I was still startled when I looked back at an old B calendar to check.)

(One significant difference: at A, students very often pay by the credit, and get a refund if they drop, so the university has a financial disincentive to let them go.  At B, most students paid a flat tuition fee per semester, and didn't get any refund if they dropped a course.)

Anyway, it seems like this could have a rather profound effect on student outcomes.  When N is small, students have only a short time to commit to their schedule, and can more easily get in over their heads.  By the time they've had a midterm exam and realized they are in trouble, N weeks have already passed and they are stuck in a course.  Most likely, they end up with an F (or several, if the time they spent trying to pass the hard course hurts their work in their other classes).  Their GPA drops, hurting their eventual job prospects.  It may drop below the institution's minimum for continued enrollment, in which case they may quit college altogether.  I'd expect an overall negative effect on retention and graduation rates, job placement, and other common measures.

On the other hand, if N is large, then by the time the drop date approaches, students may be more than halfway through the course, and may have taken several exams.  If they are likely to fail the course, they probably know it by now, and the obvious course of action is to drop it.  In an extreme case, the result may be that students hardly ever get D's and F's (because they drop those courses), and grades may inflate.

So I have two questions:

What factors do universities actually consider in choosing or changing their value of N?
Is there any research studying the effect of N on student outcomes?


texts:
I am writing my dissertation, and things came out somewhat different to what I had thought three years ago. Back then, I had three hypotheses. Two turned out to be true. The third, last and flimsiest, looks false. The question is: how should I describe the third hypothesis in the short list of hypotheses?

I could phrase it the way I did three years ago. In the results and conclusions section, I could try refuting it.
I could phrase it the other way around, as if I always thought it was untrue. There a billion problems to that, the least being: how does one then describe the experimental plan? I can't really say I wanted the null hypothesis to come true? Surely different kinds of experiments would have been more useful.
I could leave that section out. That is madness, it's a lot of work down the drain.