texts: Is a professor obligated to provide feedback on an assignment?

texts:
I have recently completed a course where a very large assignment was handed in just before the exam. After the course finished, we were never given feedback on this assignment. I am very frustrated about this because, even though I can see my grade and that I did well, it means nothing to me--I pay tuition so that I can learn and not so that I can get a grade. I have emailed the professor and have not received a response. I have also emailed my program's coordinator and she has told me that she has "no leverage with other departments and their profs". If it is of any value, the course was in Psychology.

I see this as a business transaction. I have paid the university for the service of teaching me. The professor is made responsible by the university to teach me. Teaching requires providing feedback. Therefore, if the professor is not providing feedback, the university is not fulfilling their part of the business transaction.

What are the professor's obligations with respect to my education once I have been put in his class?

How should I deal with this? The professor does not answer emails and I've never been fortunate enough to run into him at his office.

Edit: I've trimmed unnecessary information.


texts: PhD outside of Germany after a Master's from a German Fachhochschule

texts:
Can I go for Phd in USA, Canada, Australia or any other European country with my master's degree from a German Fachhochschule? I am planning to work for two years as a lecturer and researcher in my home country (Pakistan) and look for PhD fundings/admissions from there. I believe the experience gained during these two years will make my application stronger.

Secondly, is there something I should do before leaving Germany (extra courses for more CPs, degree recognition or any such thing)? I'm enrolled in 120 CP Master's degree with following division:

Course work = 60 CP
Mandatory internship = 30 CP
Master Thesis = 30 CP

Do universities from these regions require more CPs? I've heard this is the case for German technical universities.

This question is related but it is about PhD in Germany only.


texts: What is the equivalent of the laboratory notebook in the humanities?

texts:
As a scientist, the idea of a "research notebook," or its functional equivalent, has been well ingrained into me. However, it's not clear to me if this is a universal phenomenon, or if it's limited to the sciences.

For students working in the humanities and other fields—such as literature, economics, or philosophy—what is the working equivalent of the laboratory notebook? If not, what is the preferred method of keeping records in those fields?


texts: applying to graduate school during the final year

texts: I am applying to a graduate school in the USA, and they accept receiving an application during my final year in bachelor's. If I am given admission based only on the previous years of study, will the transcript of the final year, affect in any way after I finish the bachelors?


texts: How can I find a PhD position to work on a highly specific idea of my own?

texts:
I know exactly what I would like to research within my field, however, the ideas are too specific and indeed one of my feedbacks for the reject of one of my PhD applications based on my personal statement was that the university did not have the staff researching my interests.

My friend told me that being too specific, I limit my opportunities. On the other hand, being more general I would risk that I would have to research what the supervisors tell me to and therefore postpone solving the question I am interested in.

What are general strategies for finding appropriate places for studying PhD for someone who has a specific research problem one would like to solve? I am afraid that I may face a similar problem later when searching for a postdoc or an academic place in some research group.


texts:
I'm currently preparing a paper for a conference and I'm struggling a bit to stay within the page limit imposed by the Latex layout of this conference. I'm trying to make some extra space for my content without having to use any Latex related tricks (like reducing margin sizes, font sizes, etc...) as this would probably just annoy the reviewers.

Instead, I'm trying to reduce the size of the references by removing unnecessary contents. However, the question is: What is actually unnecessary?

I consider the following to be essential:

Name(s) of the author(s)
Title of publication
Date of publication
Journal or conference of the publication
Page number if the publication was published in a book or proceedings volumes

But what about additional information like DOIs, keywords, abstracts, etc...? Could I safely remove those items to save space?

Thank you very much for your input.


texts:
Can a lecturer from another faculty write a reference letter for me for my masters degree.
This lecturer has introduced me to many parent to teach their student based on my field and the result has been so good and he us willing to write me a reference letter.
Can he?


texts: When is it wrong for students to ask about previous exams known to change?

texts:
Variation of When is it wrong to look at previous exams?

Suppose students are taking a certain subject and are divided into classes A and B at different times but under the same professor.

Say the students are assigned an exam that is said to be sometime in a certain week. Is it wrong for the students of the other class B to ask the students in class A about the exam if they know that the teacher will change the questions in the exam?


texts: does conference presentation topic need approval from PI

texts: I want to present a piece of work done with a former PI in a conference. If I go to this conference, I use my own funding. Do I need this PI's approval to allow me to present this work in that conference? I need answers considering the 2 different scenarios: the work is either published or not published yet.


texts: Is it appropriate to apply again for an internship you've previously turned down?

texts:
I am in the process of applying to summer PhD research internships in industry (I'm in CS). Last year I had two appealing offers, but of course could only take one. This year I am still interested at working at the company whose offer I declined last year. However, I am unsure if it's considered inappropriate to reach out to the lab director again to inquire (this is how I approached it last year). It's not as though I burnt any bridges previously, it just feels strange, kind of like saying "Hey, I didn't want to work with you before, but what about now?"

Is this appropriate? It is research and I am in a research program, so I don't want to ruin potential future collaborations, and I hope I have not already done so by declining a previous offer.

And more generally, if inappropriate, when making a decision between multiple offers, should it factor into your choice that you may declining for this, and all future, internship opportunities?


texts: How to give crtitical feeback without sounding obnoxious?

texts:
I'm going to a conference in a few days. Among the presentations I'd like to listen to, there's one paper that is nicely written but is extremely flawed methodologically. In short, the authors violate at least three assumptions of causal inference like it's no big deal - and they don't even discuss these assumptions. Due to that, any attempt to interpret the results is laughable. (I'll edit in more details, if needed).

The point is, if it were a good paper, I'd love to keep contact with the authors. I'm familiar with their previous work, they are usually good in doing what they are doing. We work in neighboring sub-fields. It's unlikely we'd work together - we just happen to use similar methods for different things. But it is likely we'll keep bumping into each other at other conferences or will review each other's papers.

Right now I see three options:

go to their panel, raise my hand during the Q&A time, list everything that's wrong with their paper. The presenter is really not going to like it (I know I wouldn't).
talk to the presenter before or after the panel over coffee, list everything that's wrong with the paper, but save him public humiliation. Problems: we are not presented to each other, so he might go on the defensive and stop listening to my comments right after the first "Man, you can't do it this way." Obviously, if he reacts like this, any "let's stay in touch" would be impossible, too.
say nothing, hoping that reviewers would say it instead. Problems: I don't establish any contact with the authors; it might be quite some time before the paper goes through the review process; the reviewers might not be that rigorous and familiar with the methodology (the latter depends on the submission venue, I guess).

If I decide to give feedback, how to use these options to make this feedback useful without sounding like I'm trying to trash these authors' work?

Additional details that might affect the responses:

Quick googling shows that the paper now has a "working paper" status and is under submission somewhere. And the results have been already featured in The Financial Times. Oh, well...
Seniority: both the presenter and I are at the post-doc/assistant professor level. Two other coauthors of the paper are senior professors.
"Are you sure you got the flaws right"? I'm sure.


texts: Health issues in grad school - how many extensions are acceptable?

texts:
I'm a graduate student in physics, and I've been having some major health issues.  For the sake of anonymity, I don't want to say what they are, but they are NOT mental-health related, though they certainly have caused quite a bit of depression as a byproduct.  I make this distinction not due to some prejudice, but simply because mental health problems come with their own specific challenges that are not always shared by other illnesses.  I chose to mention physics with the hope that someone with knowledge of the physics-specific culture could comment. Also, I think it's worth mentioning that physics seems to have a particularly brutal academic culture (though I haven't experienced that in my program...yet).  I'm currently struggling to complete my assignments on time, and it's very frustrating.  I've done well in all of my courses so far, but now I'm falling behind.

There is one class in which I'm particularly behind, and I asked the professor for a two day extension on a problem set.  That day came and went, and I still was not able to complete the assignment.  I would need another two days most likely, and if I can't complete it then I will have to drop the course.  I would like to ask for another extension, but I don't want to appear flaky or unreliable, and I'm concerned about gaining a reputation in the department since I've asked other professors for extensions in the past (which have been granted and I was able to get the work done). If I had an advisor already, I would be more willing to just ask for the extension, but since I don't have one yet, I'm very self-conscious of being perceived as one of the "good" students.  This class is not required for my program, but could establish me as a more capable student by going beyond the basic intro courses.  Other students my year are taking similar "above and beyond courses", so it seems to be a way of proving yourself to a potential advisor.  Plus, I just really don't want to drop the course, since it's interesting and I don't want to let it "beat me", silly as that sounds.

Is it acceptable to ask for another extension?  I've done well on all the other assignments, and I could explain what's been happening.  However, I'm also concerned that explaining my situation could backfire if having an illness could make potential advisors more wary of taking me as a student.


texts: I could see what part of the exam paper another student seemed to be focusing on, now I'm worried I was cheating

texts:
I suffer from OCD and intrusive thoughts.

I was once in a test and we were given this extract on a page. I had been analysing the top part of the extract, only. Then, I may have seen the other candidate analysing the bottom part of the extract - I saw nothing of their answer, just their pen moving around that area. The area was quite cramped, in terms of the paragraph space, so I'm not sure what exactly happened, but there definitely wasn't any words or answer/notes she was making on that area. The question was on nostalgia and the quotes that were at the bottom actually referred to remembering and ditching memories. This may have prompted me in referring to the quotes in that certain area. Is this cheating and I feel that this helped me, but I didn't see her notes on it.

My biggest anxiety is cheating. There was a weird compulsion to look around to assure myself that I'm not cheating, if you see what I mean? Yes, I saw the other person analysing that part of the extract, but not her notes or answers on that part/quotes. The question was on nostalgia, and the part that the other candidiate was analysing was right at the end. So, I thought, how about I read the ending, since I was only using quotes from the top. When I read the quotes at the end, they were perfect but I thought that I didn't deserve to use them. Then, I thought, it's on one page, why can't I use it? What if I read this part and summarise it so I can use it. It is really frustrating, because I'm not sure I looked with intent towards her direction; it was a hard extract. I feel like killing myself. This is not the true me!


texts: How to find a new PhD advisor if relationship with current advisor is not working out?

texts: Currently I am not in a good relationship with my research advisor and I do not think it will be good as previously. So I decided to change my research advisor if it's possible. Would you guide me how I can find another research advisor? Is it possible to have two PhD advisor?


texts: Citation or inclusion of name in conference paper

texts:
I am part of a team working on the second phase of a project. The project hasn't been published in any journals or conferences yet, mainly because not a lot of work has been done completely. Practical work of a certain significant part has been done by a previous team. My team started two months ago and we have enough exposure to write a conference paper proposing the design and the theoretical work completely.

My project guide asked us to start writing a publish-ready paper encompassing everything, including the previous years practical work. He says, cite their term project and use their data. He was the guide of their term project too. I'm unsure as to whether it's right to just cite their unpublished thesis work. I think maybe they should be co-authors too since their work does comprise a significant part in the paper.

Am I right and should I bring it up to the professor? If so, how should I do it without offending him? If the question is vague, I could give more specifics.

EDIT: The field is control and robotics. The practical work is calibration of the equipment in question. The overall paper does include control strategy, dynamics and other sections that the previous researchers have not touched upon.


texts: What should I do if my advisor is forcing me to vote on a specific candidate in IEEE elections?

texts:
The IEEE holds yearly elections for senior positions in its societies. Every member of the IEEE has the right to vote in these elections, including me. My advisor, however, has candidates who, for one reason or the other, he supports and wants to get elected.

The issue is that he is forcing all of his students to vote for his candidates. Voting is done online. He even asks his Assistant Professor to personally stand next to the students and watch them vote on the specified candidates.

This makes me extremely uncomfortable, as I find it morally incorrect. However, my professor is in a position of power over the students and I am afraid of standing against him and losing my graduate course and scholarship.

Has anyone gone through something similar? What should I do?


texts: What do I do if a professor at a foreign university doesn't respond to my emails?

texts:
I want to know about appropriate actions to take when not receiving an e-mail reply from professors after 2 to 3 weeks of sending an e-mail.

When writing my e-mails, I try to highlight questions and important points leaving other details in normal style to make the reader quickly understand what am I asking for. Additionally, I start the e-mail with Dear Professor , I conclude with a respectful salutation form and I proof read the text of the e-mails multiple times. I am sending e-mails to professors asking them for a graduation project proposal.

E-mails are sent to professors responsible for European or North American funded research projects.
Professors to whom I sent e-mails are from various institutions and countries (USA, Canada, Switzerland).
The same problem is faced in previous occasions when I needed to send e-mails for various purposes but I don't receive replies except for one or two times.
I tried twice sending reminders after a reasonable time (one to two weeks) of sending the first e-mail but no response is received!

N.B: if it's helpful to mention, my field is not covered by any research lab and not taught in any university in my country.
And this is what makes the problem more complicated!


texts: My advisor has only met with me twice in the past year. Is this enough cause for me to change advisors?

texts: Social Science PhD student (in the US) here. My advisor does not meet with me (met twice in a year, did not meet the entire summer, took 2 months to reply to email). I feel extremely demotivated. I see other students in my program meeting with their advisors weekly, working out a dissertation topic, finding datasets and co-authoring. Should I change advisors? I am concerned because that would mean I'd need to change my research area and faculty can always put the blame on me and question my performance. I am 2 years into the PhD program, about to take comprehensive exams.


texts: Awaiting ME decision and reviewers selection

texts:
I submitted a manuscript through ScholarOne two months ago. During the first week they asked me a few doubts and once they were answered, the manuscript status appeared as "awaiting reviewer selection". Then they change the status to "awaiting ME decision" and stayed this way until a week ago, when they changed iy back to "awaiting reviewer selection"
I'm a bit confused. Can anyone give me an explanation? Thanks


texts: The professor I am trying to contact has multiple email-ids listed on the department page. I mailed to one and got no response sice two weeks, then I mailed to the other and still no response since a week. I was wondering if he was receiving my emails at all and I decided to check more into the department page and found out that it hasn't been updated for about a good 10-15 years. All the student lists refer to people who passed out decades back, this made me think that the email-ids listed may also be outdated. His recent papers show a different email-id, at this point I am in a bit of a fix, since I don't want to sound rude by pestering him with emails (if he indeed did receive it and chose not to reply) but at the same time I'm not sure if he received them at all? Would it be good idea to mail him at his most recently used email-id?


texts: How to teach law to multinational classes?

texts:
I am professor in an internationally oriented university, meaning it was created to have students from half a dozen different countries. It doesn't offer any law-related degree, but some degrees do require teaching legal subjects.

In those classes, I am supposed to teach [some specific kind of] law [in each one] to future professionals who will work in all these different countries. One builds a bridge (or operates an eye surgery etc.) the same way regardless of the country one's in, but law is different everywhere. How would you cope with this, i.e., how would you simultaneous teach law (or any other essentially conventional, thus localized knowledge) to many diverse (differently-originated) international students?

BTW, it is not possible to hire one law professor per country covered by the university's scope (and it would effectively distort the faculty into a law-focused one).


texts: How to determine the merit of an encyclopedia?

texts:
Scholarly articles and books have citation counts (in for example Google Scholar), as do specific people in citation metrics such as the Arts and Humanities Citation Index. Even universities have ranking systems, such as the QS World Rankings. If I wished to familiarize myself with the reference materials in another language efficiently, is there any way of simply searching for the most "cited" or perhaps widely circulated encyclopedias in that language - to hone in quickly on the analogous publication of Encyclopedia Britannica in, for example, German, Chinese or Hindi?

I have considered searching for encyclopedias in a certain language on worldcat.org, but I cannot order the results (so far as I know) by "number of copies held by libraries worldwide". Google Scholar does list the number of citations for an encyclopedia, but I can't get a list of all encyclopedias ordered by citation (so far as I know). Web of Science, so far as I know, does not index encyclopedias.

Is there any way to achieve this?

Thank you.


texts: Why don't Universities provide staff/post-graduate with stationery?

texts:
When I worked in industry,
I had unchecked access to a huge stationery cupboard.
As did hundreds of other employees.

Full of useful things like:

Files, folders, binders
coloured pens, mechanical pencils, markers
BlueTack, bull dog clips, coloured masking tape
index cards, A3 sketch books
postage paid envelopes

and the list goes on. We got some more exciting stuff as it was Agile company.

A friend of mine working for the tax office had similar access to stationery, though without the extra Agile arts and crafts supplies. She did get all the pocket calculators she ever wanted, though.
I'm sure some companies even treat USB drives as disposable.

Point being in industry, the disposable tools you need to do your job were provided to you.

What I have found recently working as a research assistant is that nothing disposable is provided. There is no stationery cupboard to raid.  When I need paper to throw together some math, I often end up using the back of a journal article I printed to read.

I can understand not supplying undergraduates, there are so many it is impossible to keep track of them. But there are a lot fewer staff/postgrads.

Is this normal for universities?

Is there likely to actually be a stationery cupboard (or fund) that I have just never noticed, and that I should ask my supervisor about?

If this is normal practice, what is the history/reasoning behind it?

It is not so much a issue of cost, it is tax deductible (for staff at least), and the pay (for staff) is generally high enough to dwarf these expenses, but of practicality.  The same cost vs payrate, and tax deductions are true in industry, but big (and small) companies judge the productivity gain of no one spending 20 minutes going down to the store to buy a pen worth the costs (I guess).


texts: Does ORCID matter for a person who would like to work in academia?

texts:
I just noticed the following words from arXiv:

"You are encouraged to associate your ORCID with your arXiv account. ORCID iDs are standard, persistent identifiers for research authors. ORCID iDs will gradually supersede the role of the arXiv author identifier."

I thus wonder if a person's profile in ORCID is really that important, given that the person would like to pursue a career in academia?


texts: Do PIs contact other references which are not listed on CV?

texts:
Normally, we have to include contact details of three referees for PhD/Postdoc position application. So let’s say we apply for an opening postdoc and include three PhD supervisors as reference. Is there any case that PI (of the Postdoc position) will contact the not listed one (e.g. Msc supervisors) for reference?
PS: let’s say the Msc supervisor is famous and included in CV but not as reference.


texts: In commercial companies you will mostly only have a handful people per manager. For example in a law firm it might be four or five and rarely that I know of more than a dozen.   But in academia a department can have 60 academics in it. How does line management work with such a huge ratio of staff to heads of department?  Are there a lot of line managers below the head of department that academics report to?


texts: What is the best career choice for a social psychology graduate?

texts:
I have a background in Psychology and Fine Arts. My passion lies with doing scientific research and making art. So ideally I would be able to do both, or use one to support the other. However, I've found that finding a job in the social sciences is pretty difficult, if not impossible without work experience (pretty much a vicious cycle).

But since finding a steady income with a degree in fine arts is even more difficult, I would very much like to provide a steady income for myself by working in the social sciences. I've had countless bad jobs to support myself through both of my degrees, and I don't see myself becoming very happy doing that my whole life.

At this point, I have several options, and I would like some advice on what you think would be the best way of proceeding (the points are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and if you have a better idea, please, do suggest it):

I could further specialize myself: do a masters (or even a PhD) in a field which aligns with my academic and research background. However, this could risk another worthless degree with no job and waste of time and money
I could move to another geographic location, where a degree in my field is in higher demand, get a job and support my other passions.
I could freelance to build experience but this is usually as taxing as a normal job minus job security and pay.


texts: Can a graduate student on a university stipend work a remote internship concurrently?

texts:
Due to the current public health situation, my graduate studies and research work have moved entirely online. I was offered a remote full-time internship for summer. Both being online, I am able to work on tasks from both the internship and my research in my own time. There is also significant overlap in my graduate research and the internship. That is, research I do in one benefits the other as well.
My advisor wants me to get an internship over the summer. They expect I will focus on the internship, and work on a reduced basis on my graduate work as well. This I want. The expectation is that I will stop getting the stipend while I am on an internship. This I do not want.
I want to work both jobs. One, for the financial incentive. And two, to continue working on my graduate research and degree, and be paid for the work I do.
What are the legal, ethical, and practical implications of having another job while being on a research stipend? It it generally disallowed or discouraged? How do I negotiate such an arrangement with my advisor?
Visa issues are not a concern.


texts: Can an undergraduate attend a conference without a supervisor?

texts: I am an undergraduate student graduating next month. I have submitted my paper (my own paper) to a conference and it has been accepted. Is it okay to attend the conference and present without any supervisor since it is my own result?


texts: Applying for a different PhD, should I say I am already in one?

texts: I am considering on applying for a different PhD position in a different university and even different country, but I don't know if I should mention I am already in one, and I'm planning to leave it, or just address that as a research assistant position, what should I do?


texts: Why would a top department hire a less experienced researcher for a tenure-track position?

texts:
Suppose that a top-N department at a big research university (for very small N) has the choice between two candidates for a tenure-track position:

Candidate A: a bright young researcher just done writing her dissertation, and
Candidate B: a more seasoned veteran with a several years of successful teaching, advising, and grant writing her belt (though not already tenured).

In other words, suppose Candidate B has already demonstrated that, in addition to doing great research, she can successfully navigate other important aspects of the job.  Candidate A seems like a bigger gamble: perhaps she will succeed in these other roles... and perhaps not!  Assume that the department in question can essentially hire whomever it wants, with very little competition from other institutions.

Question: What incentive would such a department have for hiring A instead of B?

I ask this question, of course, because I am a young candidate about to interview for a job at a top department, and I know that I am competing with more seasoned candidates.  How do I make a compelling case, despite my relative lack of experience?  What are some potential pitfalls to look out for during an interview? (E.g., questions that might expose my relative naiveté?!)  Do top departments really hire freshly-minted PhDs for tenure-track positions?  Or are they just panning for gold?

Thanks!


texts: How to deal with an abusively condescending professor?

texts:
I am a beginning graduate student in Mathematics. I have a professor who always brings up the fact that my GPA is not great in my undergraduate degree even though my performance is above the norm in the institution I am enrolled at the moment, so far I got straight A's in the graduate courses that I have completed. He always tries to point out at my flaws in my undergraduate years to humiliate me in front of other professors and my colleagues. What would be a wise reply/reaction to such abuse?

I feel bad about it cause I feel like I am harassed and I don't reply.
I am also currently taking a course with that professor.


texts: Can someone else publish a paper based on independently achieving a result that is in a preprint of mine?

texts:
I have a paper that is currently in review but that has been available via bioRxiv for a while. While my paper was in review, a paper was published elsewhere which essentially scoops my paper. I am wondering how this could affect my paper in review seeing as my results were available earlier.

To clarify, I guess my question is about priority. We uploaded the manuscript because we were scared of being scooped. We thought that by uploading the manuscript, it would make it impossible for another group to publish the same results. The question is twofold:

  Is it ethical that the other group published the same results whilst they were aware of the preprint? Secondly, would a journal take preprint priority into account when assessing a manuscript which has been scooped by another paper?


texts: Emailing HOD to enhance faculty application

texts:
I am a postdoc in the process of applying for faculty position in universities. Most applications require you to apply all the materials on an online portal or careers page, which I do.

Now there must be hundreds or more applications. To stand out from the rest of the applicants and to bring to attention the application to the head of the department (HOD), would emailing the HOD enhance my application or would it affect it negatively. If it helps, what should the content of the email be?

I have seen a similar question on SE: emailing contacts after applying for faculty jobs, but my question deals with an unknown person at the university.


texts: Recommendation Letter Request: No response

texts:
I am applying to graduate school, and I am having a problem with recommendation letters. I need three recommendation letters with two of them being academic reference letters. Honestly, last year, I had requested two recommendation letters from two of my former professors for my law school applications. However, in the end, I decided not to pursue law school for a number of reasons, despite being accepted to one. Currently, I am applying to a number of different schools' masters' programs in the field I plan to study.

As I mentioned earlier, I am having difficulty with the recommendation letter process. I wrote emails to those two professors about my situation, and one professor was willing to revise her former recommendation letter for my new masters' programs applications. However, I have yet to hear back from the other professor. I had written a senior thesis under that professor, and I was hoping to receive a letter from him. After I sent an email to that professor a few weeks ago, and received no response, I sent him a follow-up email yesterday. I received no response to that follow-up email either. If there is no response, does that mean a discreet "no"? Should I send another follow-up email a few days later? Or, should I find another academic recommender at this point? My first application deadline is in the middle of December.


texts: I am a bit confused about my research design. If anyone would be willing to give some feedback, I would be very appreciative

texts:
I'm currently writing my Bachelors thesis in communicational studies, but I am confused about the aspect of research design. I believe my paper has a bit of both qualitative and quantitative characteristics, and I'd love some feedback.
To outline my plan:

I am looking for two types of framing in tweets: a) framing of the problem, and b) framing of the action to solve the problem. While the specific content I am looking for is theory-based (theoretical framework says that this kind of framing will occur), the specific framing categories that emerge are not. In that regard, I am letting the categories and the overall answers to my research question emerge from the data. Can I confidently say that this is inductive research?

Next up, after having determined the framing categories present, I will put them in a table to find out the frequencies of each kind of framing. Now, while I think the first part of this was qualitative, as it was essentially a content analysis (?), looking at frequencies hints me towards a quantitative approach. And at the end of my paper, I am conducting a chi-square analysis of whether the variables of "framing of problem" and "framing of action" is related or independent. This is also very quantitative, correct?
So to recap: I seem to be doing a content analysis (looking into tweets for framing categories), but then I'm looking at the frequency and doing a chi-square analysis of the two variables. Would I be calling this a quantitative study then, or is it rather a mixed study?

Oh, and if I may ask a follow-up question - last one, I promise - is this type of approach compatible with social constructivism? - Which is the philosophy of science that I personally "believe in" and fits the whole topic of framing.
It got a bit long, sorry about that!
I appreciate any help that I may get. Thank you!


texts: Is a postdoctoral scholar expected to work during the summer?

texts:
I am considering applying for postdoctoral positions in the US.
However, I would like to find more information about
how it is like to be a postdoctoral scholar.

Question 1:
Is a postdoctoral position a full-year position (12 months)
or an academic-year position (9 months)?

Question 2:
How should I interpret postdoctoral salaries?
For example, an MIT postdoctoral information page (see link)
lists the minimum postdoctoral salary
for a person with 0 years of experience at $42,000.
Is this salary for 12 months, or for 9 months?


texts: How to handle authorship issues in an international multidisciplinary collaboration?

texts:
I am writing a paper that is co-authored by researchers at several national and international universities. The collaboration is also interdisciplinary, meaning that conventions for authorship vary a little regarding where to set the bar for inclusion/exclusion and how to order the names.

One of the co-authors would like to inflate the authorlist too much that I am comfortable with. There's several people I have never even met but who were involved in planning this big project some years ago.

I think we can discuss the situation just fine but I would like to find some material that I could use when arguing my views. What would be some good strategies here? Is there any guidelines for this kind of collaborations?


texts: As a postdoc with a one-year contract in Switzerland, am I allowed for a B visa?

texts: I worked for a year in Switzerland, but I have been given an L visa, even as a European. This has strong limitations in terms of rentals and bank services. Other people got a B visa for the same contract. Was this a mistake, and how can my university enforce a request for a B visa ?


texts: Is IEEE Signal Processing Society Membership enough to add "Student Member, IEEE" on a Journal author list?

texts:
Is being member of the IEEE Signal Processing Society enough to add "Student Member, IEEE" on a Journal author list?

Or the IEEE membership is different from the IEEE Signal Processing Society membership? I pay this annually. Never understood well the differences between them.

thanks


texts: What is Summa cum Laude and how do you get it? (USA)

texts: What is Summa cum Laude and how do you get it (USA)? Is this equivalent to First Class Honors in Australia? What is the equivalent of an Australian University medal in the USA?


texts: arXiv preprint and final paper differing by sections and appendices

texts:
Because of the style of a journal, and the space limit, I was asked to remove a section and all appendices.

While I have no problem with that, I want to preserve it in the arXiv preprint.

So:

Is it OK to have different final papers and its arXiv version? (perhaps with the comment, e.g. "Sec 3.4. and Appendices A and B only in the arXiv version")
Is it OK to cite in a paper its own arXiv version? (e.g. derivation of (15) is in [5]?)


texts: whether necessary to continue to work on unfinished academic work

texts: When one finishes a degree or a research position, the boss asks to carry on sth unfinished (unpaid), does one need to agree to do so?


texts: Should I convince my advisor that thesis work is not finished yet?

texts:
I am a third-year Ph.D. student in computer science. I have finished all course requirements and I work full-time as a software engineer at a FAANG company. I am doing my best trying to balance time between work and school. But today I had a meeting with my advisor and he said by the end of summer he expects me to wrap up all my thesis work.
Basically, I did

One year of study the research material and taking graduate-level courses to study the problem
One year of research to understand the problem and come up with the solution
One year of solving the problem, coding, and showing my method worked

What is remaining is writing a paper and defense.
My advisor is very strict and I am kind of surprised he said that. I don't feel like I have accomplished anything yet and there is more to the problem. Should I try to explain the work is not finished yet? Or maybe he is getting tired of me and wants to focus on other problems.


texts: When refereeing a paper, stating I am not an author of suggested literature

texts:
When getting reports for papers submitted to a peer-reviewed journal, referees sometimes suggest that some missing items be added to the list of references. In my short career I have seen all possible cases, from honest additions that were clearly necessary, through border-line literature where one could cite any one of a long list of possible sources, to blatant cases of citation shopping where the reviewers ask for 10 of their own papers to be added to the list.

Here, I am looking at the problem from the other side (the reviewer side). I recently refereed a paper for which I suggested that the authors look at a very recent paper, authored by researchers totally unrelated to me, that touches on a couple of issues that I thought were very relevant. Since that paper is so new, it is likely that they were not aware of its existence. Because of all the misbehavior I talked about in my first paragraph above, I am afraid that the authors of the paper I reviewed might assume I am one of the authors of the suggested paper.

I know I should never disclose my identity in a report, but what about stating who "I am not"? Something like this:

  I think the authors should have a look at recent paper Nice New Paper, which might help with the interpretation of their results. This reviewer would like to add that he did not participate in said study.

In my opinion this would serve two purposes. 1) Clarify the legitimacy of my suggestion (I do not get anything from it) and 2) prevent the authors of the reviewed paper from suspecting it was the other guys who reviewed their paper and they are shopping for citations.

What are possible ethical considerations against this course of action from the points of view of editors and authors?


texts: Advice on what to do about academic situation that ended badly?

texts:
(Content warning - some people may find this post distressing due to discussions of mental health and self-harm.

Hello academic community - I could use some advice! I’m a 1st year PhD student, and I went through a difficult time during my MA that I’d like to get some help with.

I worked as an Residential Advisor (RA) on campus for 4 years before my MA and during. It was a great job, but was also a lot of responsibility. The final year I was there (which was during my MA) I had a student living in my halls who was experiencing severe mental health issues. This was not a new situation, as sadly lots of students need extra support, and I had worked with students like this before.

One night, I received a call on the emergency cell from this student, at about 3am. They had attempted to take their own life, and due to issues within my RA team, I was the only one available to help. I went to the student’s room and saw the situation, carried out emergency first-aid, phoned the ambulance and then accompanied them to the ER.

I stayed with the student for the night until they were discharged, and arranged for further support. However, to cut a long story short, the student began to contact me both day and night via email and phone, saying that if I didn’t go to their room to speak to them as and when they asked, they’d do it again.

In the end, I was diagnosed with PTSD in relation to what I saw when I went to the student’s room that first night. After this, they called me repeatedly, hourly, 2, 3, 4am, and sent emails several times a day.

I sought help from the higher ups in the RA team, as we were supposed to in this kind of situation, and though they were aware of this student and the issues going on, they said they couldn’t do much to help me. I began to experience severe anxiety myself and became quite ill. In the end, I quit my job as an RA and had to move back to my parents’ house. This was over 2 hours away from campus. After this, I found my MA very difficult, and due to a combination of all of these circumstances, I was rejected for PhD funding a few months later. I wanted to explain to my Department what had happened, but felt too worried about breaching confidentiality agreements myself and getting into trouble in terms of the contracts I'd signed to be an RA.

When I didn’t receive funding, I spoke to the Head of Department (as in, my academic Department, not my RA team) about what my possible next steps could be in terms of funding, and almost told them, but instead I ended up getting upset and crying in their office. I said that I felt that I had been abandoned by my academic Department. The Head of Department was clearly upset themselves that I felt this way. It wasn't a nice interaction (though wasn't an argument) and after that, I didn't speak to any staff in the Department again. I just stayed home and tried to study and get better.

In the end, I left the University with my MA but also with no one and very few support networks, having isolated myself from everyone. Now I’m a PhD student and I did get funding. However, I feel regret about the way my education ending at my MA institution, which was a fantastic place and which I loved.

I also feel terrible every day about what I said to the Head of Department. They were the best teacher I’d ever had and they are also one of the foremost scholars in my current field. Eventually, the investigation into what happened with the student was closed quite recently - nothing ever came of it, and they graduated after an extra year out as far as I know.

My question is whether I should try to reach out to this academic to explain what happened to me and why I acted how I did and to apologise? If so, how should I do it? Via email, or in person? Or maybe it’s too late? I just feel terrible because to them, it must have looked like at one point that I just withdrew myself from the Department (when I was previously a hugely active member of the PG community there) and then blamed it on them.

Thanks in advance.


texts: Is it normal that my adviser presented my work at a conference while I was there?

texts:
A couple of month ago, I was in a conference with my adviser. I had a poster and he had a talk. His talk was about my project. In fact, it was newer results that I presented in my poster. After he gave his talk, someone asked me "why while you are here your adviser present your work instead of yourself?"

At that time I basically didn't answer that question and just moved on with a smile. I thought that was not so important but right now, I think is it really ok ? Is it normal among academia?

Any idea or suggestion is appreciated!


texts: What to do when visa is in administrative processing and PhD program is starting?

texts: I'm a 1st year admitted Ph.D. student at an Ivy League University and a former Fulbrighter. I'd like to ask for your advice on my situation. I have applied for the F1 visa at the American Consulate and had the interview on July 17th. My application is under the "administrative processing" since then despite submitting all of the required documents on the same day of the request, July 17th. Note that I'm fully funded by the graduate school. My program starts September 1st, and I'm worried that I won't make it on time. Should I ask the school to defer my admission (which is unlikely as I've been told by a faculty), or ask my university advisor to try to reach the concerned authorities? I have worked very hard to receive such an admission offer by an extremely selective university and program and I'd appreciate any help in how to overcome this unnecessary delay.


texts: Petitioning to leave PhD program with terminal masters due to illness in family - how should I expect my request to be handled?

texts:
I'm currently debating whether or not to stay in a PhD program. My mother  was diagnosed with a potentially terminal cancer last week. While I'm waiting to hear back from further analysis/prognosis, has anyone had any experience with this type of situation.

I'm currently in my second year and would very much like to leave with my masters. In my department, you have to "petition" to the department to receive it and its pretty much up to the sole discretion of the faculty members. Are they likely to give my masters, considering I have been in the department for 2 years? What type of information can they ask me for? Can they ask for certification of my mothers illness? When should I tell them?

Thanks.


texts:
Is there any survey which shows the schools that current professors have attended in the past?

For example, "10% of current tenure positions in EU are held by Cambridge PhD graduates"

I'm interested in theoretical physics and I'd like to know if there is any way of finding such information.


texts: Should workshop papers be cited (computer science)

texts:
In my subfield of computer science I observe that workshop papers often are not thoroughly reviewed. It even appears (attention, possibly controversial assumption incoming) that workshop-paper acceptances are used to increase the number of participants at the conference, because authors of accepted workshop papers are required to register for the conference. Moreover, workshop organizers are often desparate to get enough submissions in order not to be forced to cancel the workshop. Hence, they are happy to accept submissions even if they do not completely fulfil certain quality standards.

Speaking about the quality of the papers, they often do not contain rigorous evaluations, hence, the presented results possibly are not really reliable (please note, that, of course, there are many terrific workshop papers out there!). I have a feeling that these papers would not get accepted at a (good) conference due to lack of maturity etc. I am aware that (especially in computer science) the publication path is often like this: early/initial work in progress is submitted to a workshop → if the work gets more mature it is sent to conferences → after some more work it is probably sent to a journal.

My question is: Given the above circumstances, should workshop papers be cited?

Since the quality (hence, the results) of such papers is often lacking, I ask myself whether it's a good idea to make a reference to it. One further thought is that references are often used to show that something has already been done or addressed. Therefore, the reference is used to argue that the problem addressed by the workshop paper should not be addressed anymore which is probably a wrong assumption if we assume that the work done in the workshop paper is sub-par.


texts: What does the With Editor status mean for an Elsevier journal after being with the Managing Editor (ME)?

texts: I submitted a paper to an Elsevier journal, but it was not assigned to a reference number. They sent me a mail stating that the paper with the managing editor for initial evaluation . After tow weeks later, I got mail stating that the paper is with the Editor. And it was assigned to a reference number. What does this mean? Thanks in advance.


texts:
I have a written thesis, as my Final year project. I have submitted in university.

but now i want to make it professionally mine.

I want to publish it some where but i don't have such kind of experience before. I am total Rookie in this field.

Any Expert Opinion?

Note: Thesis in About "Handwriting Recognition "


texts: How to find the state of the art algorithm for a specific problem

texts:
Are there any good methods for doing this? I can find papers with algorithms, but they usually do not show their computational results with the same problem sets and the publishing year of two papers is usually different so they will most likely use different equipment for solving the problems.
Edit:
By problem, I am referring also to the specific size of the problem, memory usage and other characteristics of the problem.


texts: Does ranking of journals matter in Bioinformatics?

texts: Does the rankings Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, and Q5 by Scimago Journal & Country Rank matter when looking for post-doc? I am interested to know about Bioinformatics and Computational Biology.


texts: What are good tips/ways to improve my writing on chalkboards?

texts:
Recently, I have started to regularly write on chalkboards. I have also found out that I am quite terrible at it, although my handwriting is quite good.

Any tips or strategies for a beginner are welcomed.


texts: Why don't journal publishers ask for proof of affiliation?

texts: It seems like journal publishers do not require credentials for proof of your affiliation and identity. There are many places where such credentials are important, but even the most popular journal publishers do not ask for them. Why is that so?


texts: I sent a proposal for public sector transformation to the Ministry of Economy  and received a reply from the Federal Minister, who highly appreciated my suggestions. I would like to know this: can I put "Email of Appreciation" by the Federal Minister of Economy in my CV?


texts: Forwarding Email of a future employer to my Supervisor. Broken code of confidentially?

texts:
I am applying for postdoc positions. A faculty member sent me an Email encouraging me to apply for his open position. He disclosed with me the name of two famous companies that are involved in his project. He also mentioned the name of a famous scientific problem he is currently working on, as a part of this project.

I forwarded his Email to my supervisor, asking for his advice on this position. Have I done something illegal, in terms of breaking the code of confidentially?


texts: Can a student write their undergraduate thesis on the main result of a paper under review for a journal?

texts:
I think it's fairly common practice to isolate some parts of a thesis, if interesting enough, and publish them as a paper after properly changing structure and style.

Is the opposite possible, if the paper has been submitted to a journal and is under review? And what if it actually gets published before the dissertation?


texts: Can non-reviewers influence the decision about a paper in a program committee?

texts:
In a Program Committee (PC), can PC members non assigned to a paper still have a look at it and make comments influencing the decision, assuming that the reviewing system allow them to access the papers and the reviews?

If they only make a comment, should this comment be sent to the authors (EasyChair, for instance, does not forward the comments to authors)? For instance, consider the case where a PC member thinks that an important reference is missing, regardless of the overall quality of the paper, what should she/he do? Add a comment? Ask to be assigned as a reviewer?


texts: How to help reduce students' anxiety in an oral exam?

texts:
Oral exams can have various pedagogical benefits in certain circumstances, but can also make some students feel anxious. After watching several students nervous-sweat their way through such an exam, I'm looking for ways to help them.

How can an instructor help students relax and feel less nervous during an oral exam?


texts: Do academic journals check plagiarism against papers in student repositories?

texts:
I was recently checking one of my paper for similarity. However, TURNITIN checked the similarity against the papers present in student repository in its database. Surprisingly, the paper which matched 72% from the student rep is the same one which I had checked few days back. Now, the similarity comes around 81%.

I wanted to know, whether the journals check plagiarism against such student papers? Because, if they do, it will check against the same paper present in the rep and results will come out to be higher SI.


texts: What is difference between PhD and Postdoc?

texts: I am a PhD student in Mathematics. I wanted to know what exactly is the difference between PhD and Postdoc. Is it just the research that one does after PhD(kind of second PhD?)?


texts: How to proceed when a professor is not answering emails requesting for a grade? and not awarding bonus points as he said?

texts:
Some key facts:

I am a master's student.
The professor in question is also our director of studies and teaches 3 mandatory classes in our program.
Several students have sent emails that never received a reply.

The situation:

The professor in question is not answering emails regarding the grades for two of the seminars. I contacted this professor by email about two weeks ago to know what was my grade for the last project and to have feedback on what I did well/wrong and also to know how was the class graded in general, but I never received a reply. At this point, I will like to mention that other students have also emailed this teacher about the same topic and to this date, no one has received an answer. Yet, he does answer emails for other type of inquiries we might have.

This brings me to next point, it appears to be that in both of the seminars he did not add in the grade bonus points we were promised (as a matter of fact, he was the one proposing the bonus points after some of us complained directly to him about the tasks\projects in question).

At last, if we know our final grade is because the department sends them to each student once the professor has given them the final grade which in the case of this professor it took about 2 months longer than the rest of the seminars. The issue here is that we never got the grade for the last project we did in both of the seminars, but only got a final grade. Therefore, there was no possibility to know if the grade for the project was fair and it has not been possible to have some feedback on why we got the given grade.

At this point, I am pondering whether it is necessary to contact an Ombudsperson from the university or to resend him an email or contact him personally instead of escalating the situation?

Thank you for your valuable feedback on this matter.


texts: Categorizing relationships between research articles

texts:
When a research article X cites another article Y, it could be because of any of the following:

X develops the ideas of Y
the ideas presented in X bear a degree of resemblance to those of Y
X compares its results to those of Y
etc.

When I study the literature in my research area, I would like to categorize the relationships between papers in a way similar to the above example. However, I would prefer to use an existing categorization that people have thought through instead of inventing a wheel. I performed a few searches, but have not discovered any such categorization. Do such categorizations exist? I would appreciate some pointers.


texts: Difficult adviser and personal improvements: How do I move forward?

texts:
I am a second year clinical psychology PhD student. I have had some difficulties with my adviser in terms of never feeling good enough or that my efforts are acknowledged. The adviser has recently made more explicit comments regarding the lack of progress I have made on my critical/academic writing skills. As background, I came straight from my undergraduate psychology program (with a BS) into this PhD program. All the other members of my cohort have had 2+ years of research and this type of writing experience. So from the start I have felt that I have had to make up for my deficit. However, I'm not making the improvements that my adviser wants to see. The most recent discussion with my adviser ended with telling me that I am causing serious concern about my ability to complete the program and that maybe a less writing focused career would be better. Needless to say- I lost it. I have no plan b, and this is my dream. I have clinical and research plans that I am very passionate about but I do recognize that I am in the "needs to improve" category in terms of my academic writing ability. So it's this balance of seeing I do need to improve, which is virtually why we enter grad school. I have only had the last year and one month (I began my program in Sept of 2014) to begin developing and working with this academic writing style.

The first of my two questions is, has anyone else experienced such words of discouragement from an adviser? I don't know how to un-feel or un-hear those words that felt like a punch to my stomach.

Secondly, have any other psychology (or any discipline) students experienced difficulties in academic writing? If so, how you did you improve or what helped you make the necessary strides to improve at a faster rate? I have bought various writing books, I have writing meetings with my lab, and what seems to be the best advice from friends in the field and the books-- practice.

I want to improve and exceed. I just feel so discouraged when the person who is meant to mentor me has virtually given no helpful feedback on how I can improve, because the response to my inquiry on how to improve was I don't know and I feel so discouraged.

Thank you to all who read this. Everyone have a great day!


texts: What is the ethical way of writing co-author names?

texts:
I want to know how much a contribution a person should have to be the co-author, ethically in computer science and engineering field.

If a person help you to collect some amount of data (not all), either giving you permission or  participated himself to help you in data collection
Proofread the paper once or twice
Supervised you or co-supervised you but did not work in paper writing nor reviewing because of time constraints
The head of departments or labs
The one who supports you financially.

So I want to know, whom you will consider the co-author and whom not in the above list. What should the order of authorship in above scenario?


texts: Why reference articles from and/or submit articles to low impact factor journals?

texts:
I recently read this FAQ that explains a bit about impact factors. After reading, I was curious... what would be some reasons why researchers would use papers from a low-impact factor journal, say, a journal with IF = 1?

Wouldn't all researchers concentrate their efforts on starting their literature search from the highest impact factor journals, and then develop their new work on this basis?  That seems logical to me and also most beneficial to a researcher's career in academia.


texts: Sometimes I get papers for translation, larded with repeated citations of publications of the authors’ friends and teachers, two to three times within a paragraph and as often as possible throughout the manuscript….I try to replace with “the latter”, “the former” etc, but is there any tried and tested rule about how often and within which distance references may be re-cited?


texts: Why is colour use in academic writing disapproved?

texts:
This question involves only wary use of ≤ 3 readable colours (e.g. an author used 3 colours: black for text, green for quotations, and blue for headings). One benefit is immediate distinction of an author's, from others', writing.
Drawbacks
The use of multiple colours by many textbooks substantiates both drawbacks as conquerable.

Colour printing costs feel paltry and immaterial, as readability ought be prioritized. A reader of a PDF can always choose to print in black and white.

The visually impaired who are harmed by colour, can again print in or convert to BW.


texts: How to aproach when thesis supervisor just "disappear"?

texts:
My thesis supervisor is not reviewing my thesis. I wanted to discuss for my three years degree the development of my 3D engine (Computer science thesis). I mailed to the professor about my intention, he wanted to see me for a brief meeting (June) where I explained him what's different in my work and a short roadmap of work that had to be done and what I was already developing.

I completed my thesis PDF in last days of August. I mailed about that to the professor and he replied he was busy so I had to skip the graduation session of October, he just asked to hold on. Then I mailed him again, I got no reply until it was too late for session of December.

In last email he just took a quick look at my thesis saying stuff "it is not a typical thesis, however for a 3 years degree it should do even if it has ingenuities I will contact you before Christmas, I should have enough time to follow you until Genuary the 10th, however I remember you it was your initiative".

Shouldn't be a thesis anyway my initiative?

However now we are After Christmas and still got no reply. What I should do? it has been almost 6 months without having been followed. I do not want to skip also the March session. What should think someone hiring me? I completed all exams in time and with good rating.

Now Employeers will just see someone "graduated in 4 years instead of 3" just because a teacher did not review my thesis when I did a enourmous amount of work in research, study and development.

Why simply the professor didn't told me "I have no time to follow you, search someone else"?


texts: How to remove my name from the editorial board of a journal on Beall’s list?

texts: My name is listed on the editorial board of a journal on Beall's list against my will. I emailed them multiple times to ask them to remove my name from their website. They did not reply. How do I deal with this?


texts: Do famous works of literature need citations?

texts:
Specifically, in a scholarly paper on philosophy of math I want to mention Mo Yan’s novel Red Sorghum Clan.  It is just as an example of literature, not quoted and not used for any specific purpose.

Suppose I were to say:

  Think of any famous play, say Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

would I need a citation to some edition of that play?

Of course if I wanted to refer to a particular edition of any novel or play I would have to cite it. And if I were offering a statistical analysis of language in the novel I would have to cite a particular edition.  But I am not doing those things.

When I look at the text, saying “Mo Yan’s Red Sorghum Clan (1986)” looks ridiculously stuffy to me.  This is no journal article or even an academic book.  And as far as the practical issue of readers who want to find it, the title by itself will be far more helpful than any reference to a particular edition which the reader might or might not have any way of finding.

Or am I being ridiculous?  Should I just make the citation?


texts: Why would a security agency distribute research funds?

texts:
I was reading this excellent paper by Alexander Berkovich and Will Jagy.

And at the very bottom of the very first page it says:

  The first author was supported in part by NSA grant H98230-09-1-0051.

(The NSA is the US National Security Agency.)

What does this mean? What does a security agency have to do with distributing funds?


texts: Processing of GRE subject scores at the institution

texts:
I took the physics GRE and at test time sent my scores to my physics department at my school. I later saw my scores and realized that I did very poorly. I am now in the process of applying back to the same school but to a different department which does not require the physics GRE ("Subject test scores are optional but desirable, preferably in Physics...").

If the department looks for my GRE scores, will they get my Physics GRE scores along with my general scores?

The department I am applying to does not have a specific code, just the school code, whereas I sent my score using the physics department code. I am interested in finding out how GRE scores are handled when they are sent from ETS to a school.


texts: Should I use schema.org/CreativeWork to publish my list of talks/papers/publications?

texts:
What's the best practice on publishing your list of talks/papers/publications on the web?

Is there any benefit with annotating it with http://schema.org/CreativeWork properties?

Are there any samples/examples of any famous people doing just that?

Is there any immediate benefit in having any such markup?


texts: Postdoc application: professor verbally committed to hire me, but now says that regulations have changed and keeps delaying the process

texts: I applied for a post doctoral position a few months ago. The initial response from the professor in charge was warm and enthusiastic and he even made a verbal commitment to hire me. But then he just stopped replying to my mails for sometime and then out of the blue he told me that the regulations have changed and I would have to be interviewed by another person. Following that, he scheduled my interview several times only to be canceled at the last minute. Now he has again stopped responding to my queries, which I make at intervals of at least 10 days. Is this normal in post doc recruitment? How long does it take to process post doc applications? Should I start looking for other positions?


texts:
I want to link to a scientific article (actually so I can ask a question on another SE site) and I was wondering what is the proper way of doing so? I know going around a paywall is illegal and I don't want to do anything like that?

So what is the proper way to link to an article so that I may ask a question about it?

How do I maximize access to it? For example, I'm seeing the article behind Paywall A, but another user has access to Paywall B (where the article may also be available, but would obviously have different link.)


texts: Obstacles to collaborative research between experimentalists, theorists, and computational researchers

texts:
As an undergrad, I'm just starting to get a feel for the academic world. Obviously, the ability to communicate well in a collaborative relationship is extremely important. As a fledgling STEM experimentalist, I'm beginning to learn like one.

However, can someone educate me on why there can sometimes be a communications barrier between researchers of different types (e.g., experimentalist versus computational versus theoretical researchers)? What types of obstacles cause these communication barriers? What are some examples of common sticking points?


texts: My main research advisor refuses to give me a letter (to help for apply US physics program). What should I do?

texts:
By "main" research advisor I mean: with him, I got my most valuable research experience, greatest results and of course I invested most of my research time. Our field is Physics and I am making some achievements, but when I asked him for a recommendation letter for my PhD application, he refused and said I would not want his letter if he really writes one. I'll give his reason at the end, but I want to state my own question here first.
Will it be weird that I state my research experience with him very clearly (I think it will make a strong part) in my SoP but without his recommendation? Will the admission committee wonder where this advisor's recommendation is? If this is not a problem, does it even help that I merely mention this experience in SoP without the support of a letter? I have another piece of research experience from a very prestigious place and I have the LoR from my supervisor there, but that one doesn't have strong results as this main piece of experience and I am counting on this experience to make my application strong.
Here is his reason why he doesn't want to recommend me which might be trivial to my question but I guess you would want to know.
First, my undergrad major is an engineering field that has almost nothing to do with Physics. My advisor said if he is recruiting graduate students, he would only consider Physics Bachelors to be graduate students because it will be very hard and even impossible for students trained in other majors to shape their thinking to be suitable to do research in Physics. I am no exception, although I am doing part-time research with him and have taught myself most Physics core coursework (Damn, another equally prestigious Physics Professor in the neighbouring office just holds the opposite view). For me, his suggestion is that I should treat Physics as a hobby but forget about going to graduate school. (We encountered a nasty math problem which was important for logical completeness of our work some time ago, and he got around it with a trick which to me was "ridiculous" by then. I proposed my own alternative method, but in his view my method is rigid, and he then used my failure of understanding his trick to tell me that my thinking is already not suitable for Physics.)
Second, he is really really an "idealist" in doing research. Since I am applying for grad school, I want to speed up a little bit to revise our work to have a presentable draft (I had already derived the results by then, we were polishing the writing and dealing the above-mentioned math problem). He said I was appearing to be like a "pragmatist" because I was not acting or thinking slowly and calmly like an idealist. He even got a bit unhappy with me when I was arguing with him, wanting him to explain his trick (mentioned in the first reason) more clearly, when I was so desperate to understand it.
As a result, he said I would not want his letter since his opinion is just he won't recommend me to a graduate program although I did research with him.


texts: What is the difference between international, economy, and retail editions of textbooks?

texts: I am looking to buy a used textbooks for my topology class. Some textbooks that I am finding online either have the labels international edition, economy edition, or no label at all (retail edition). My instructor did not specify which type, so I'm assuming he meant retail. Can I still buy one of the other two?


texts: Why would a paper uploaded to Academia.edu have words whited out?

texts:
A paper I looked up on Academia.edu today turned out to be a scan of pages in which many words have been whited-out with typists' correction fluid. This is a typical sentence:

Unfortunately, the Dirac-Baez Determinant is ill-conditioned for assessing the isomorphism structure of Pauling's high-order valence-bond bundles. [WHITE-OUT] Mac Lane's 2-categorification of taxogellation coefficients on the [WHITE-OUT] [WHITE-OUT] hints at such an outcome ([WHITE-OUT] 1972b; also 1973), while Gordon Pask's electro-neural–swarm dimensionality compression (Pask 1961), as well as Stafford Beer's POSIWID analysis of [WHITE-OUT] (Beer 1972), and Ron Atkin's multidimensional [WHITE-OUT] (Atkins 1972), confirm it for non-dense επι–recodings.

(I have altered words so that I don't identify the person who uploaded the paper.)
The paper is a chapter of a recently published book, and I haven't found any open-access copies. Is this a case of what WBT describes in an answer to Citing paywalled articles accessed via illegal web sharing? WBT says that "Sometimes, the differences [between official paywalled copies of papers and unofficial free ones] are honeypots intentionally inserted by publishers designed to get the message out that only official sites can be relied upon for accurate information."
To clarify following a comment: knzhou suggests this is likely to be a scanning or rendering error. I was going to post a screenshot, but don't have enough reputation. It's immediately obvious to anyone who has used these correction fluids — which I have when cartooning — that that's what they are. Give-aways include the colour, thickness diminishing towards the long edges, brush streaks on the surface, and the way the marks follow the words. I'm not worried about this, though it's annoying to lose the information in the publication, but I am curious. I've never seen this before.


texts: I see some PhD candidates except a supervisor, they do have a co-supervisor as well. What is co-supervisors duty? What are the advantages and disadvantages having a co-supervisor?


texts: How to write tedious algebraic manipulations

texts:
In some of my papers, some of the results require tedious but straightforward algebraic manipulations. I am not sure what is the best way to present these manipulations:

I can write them at the paper body, then they might disturb the continuous reading of the text and distract the reader from the main results.
I can put them in an appendix, but then they will appear out-of-context and will be difficult to verify by the few readers who will want to.

One solution I thought of is to present them in their place in the paper body, but surround them in a gray box and in a smaller font. Then, most readers will be able to skip them easily, but the few interested readers will be able to read and verify them in context. Is this a good practice?


texts: Where to describe the pros and cons of the related work in a paper?

texts:
I just start writing a paper. This is also my first time doing so.

I have a problem describing the pros and cons of the related literature. I am not sure where I should place them.

Some of the papers address the pros and cons of related work in INTRODUCTION section so that they can claim why their research is superior. e.g. after pointing out the cons of the related work, one may claim that they work has fixed this and thus superior. So it is like the research motivation and work desctiption come directly after the pros and cons. They are all in INTRODUCTION.
The second style I have seen is writing them in RELATED WORK section.

Both ways seem fine to me. And I am even confused with these two sections! I notice that there is usually some related work described in both INTRODUCTION and RELATED WORK.

So where should I put them? INTRODUCTION or RELATED WORK?

FYI, I am in EECS field. But any generic advice is welcomed.


texts: Are "how", "why" or "is it possible" good for a research question?

texts:
I am working on Informatics and I am trying to formulate a research question. The thing is I read a lot of examples where the research question has a lot in common with hypotheses, where 2 alternatives are compared. But in my topic, there is no alternative to compare. The way of achieving "task X" have no alternative for the involved actor, therefore I can not ask thinks like "is technique A better than technique B".

The only solution I had in mind was trying to prove if the problem is really feasible. In this sense I asked myself: "is it possible for the actor to do task X?". I run an small experiment with 8 users and they did it, in different times and achieving requirements at different levels. it was feasible. Now, I wonder if I just have to throw all this effort because I have no hypothesis, but then someone told me that "research questions may be good for new areas of inquiry" and I want to be sure that it is ok to use this question. I can not find a good reference supporting research questions like mine, nor "how", "why" questions.

Can you help me? Thanks in advance


texts: Is it okay to include a very long appendix (for MS thesis)?

texts:
I am currently doing my MS thesis and I have to include an appendix to describe a mathematical subject. However, I added extra details in that appendix and it is now too long.

My Prof. suggests I better not include it "at all", or if necessary just make it shorter (though he admits that it is very well written and referenced).

Is it unusual to include a very long appendix in a thesis?

My thesis is now 150 Pages; 20 pages are for that appendix.


texts: Making a standalone publication out of the English translation of a paper

texts:
I came across two venerable and valuable papers that are not so well-known in their community of interest. One of them is a short technical report, both concern mathematical and physical matters, for what matters. The publications are some 60-year old, and the authors have possibly passed away. These articles are written in no lingua franca. I would be quite inclined to translate them into English and revive their relevance.

My gratification would be to provide as accurate a translation as possible, so I don't intendedly aim to add anything of my own. Yet, I would like to have these translations published so that the documents are clearly recognisable (a DOI would be nice) and widely accessible. I would also want that my effort is acknowledged, for personal recognition and as a validated item in my track record: a footnote would do.

Were this original research, the natural destination would have been a paper in a scientific journal. But it clearly isn't.

I have probed the publisher of one of these articles, who have showed the least interest in making any room for a translation, even at zero cost.

I am struggling figuring out a way to achieve these aims. Is there any institution or virtual place hosting/publishing these kind of intellectual products? Any other ideas?


texts: I exchanged an email with a professor on Thursday and he asked me if I am available to call him on a specific time next Monday. I replied the email to confirm the time but no reply from him. Therefore, I resent the email on Friday to re- confirm that he knows that I will make the call. However, no reply as well. So I am wondering if it is appropriate for me to call him at the time he indicated next Monday even without his reply?


texts: I recently tried submitting a paper to a journal. It was mandatory to suggest three reviewers. Is this a norm in journal submissions? If yes, how should one choose reviewers if I do not personally know any experts in the field? I have been submitting papers to conferences and never found such conditions there.


texts: Three reference letters, two academic and one professional

texts:
I am applying to a highly prestigious university in the UK for a PhD position. The usual norm here is that PhD's usually (unlike the US) require 2 rec letters, however this specific program asks for 3, and these 3 are for the course itself, it's not like one is for a scholarship and the other 2 are for the application, all three are for the application.
The PhD is in bioelectronics/neuroscience, and I have 2 solid rec letters from my uni supervisors, so that's fine but I don't have a third one! so I'm thinking of asking my manager at an oil company I have worked at before, ofc the letter won't have as much impact as the first two, but would something like this be really bad? or really wrong?
Thanks in advance for your time.


texts: Job sites for applied/interdisciplinary jobs in Mathematics?

texts:
I was wondering whether there're job sites that post jobs in applied/interdisciplinary mathematics, more specially, say postdocs or higher positions in mathematics and medical imaging, mathematics and computer vision. I'm aware of mostly all the popular job sites, mathjobs, euro math jobs, jobs.ac.uk, nordic math jobs etc etc, but most of the jobs there are of 'pure' nature, with very few for applied/interdisciplinary. I find it a little strange, since it seems (I might be mistaken) that they've more funding in the interdisciplinary areas, which should mean they'd have more available jobs too, but I don't see any!

For my particular case, I'm trying to find postdoctoral position in mathematical imaging problems, which would use significant amount of conformal/quasiconformal mappings, Riemann surfaces, differential geometry etc. I guess looking into individual group's webpage is an option, but that's just too much work, since you've to google them first, then see what groups actually work in your areas, then look at their sites etc. But if there's an webpage containing all the information, that'll be much better!

So, if you know any such website for the above (for Europe and the US), I'd appreciate if you could pass them onto me. Thanks! And sorry for having sounded so shameless about the funding comparison.


texts: Is Hindawi journal credible and valuable publication?

texts:
I have received several times an email from the Hindawi journal to invite me for submitting my article to this journal. However, I do not know this journal and I afraid if this journal a credible, trust-able and valuable publication? Or I have to ignore it?

Here is the link I received by email: https://www.hindawi.com/journals/scn/si/732327/cfp/

Note: My question is not that if an open access journal, in general, is valuable or not, but also there are some "Fraudulent" peer reviews publications (open access or not). I read an article on this journal from here: Fraudulent peer review strikes another academic publisher; 32 articles questioned which causes I aske this question.


texts: Is it legal/ethical to use data grabbed from a Stack Exchange site in a paper?

texts: For example, I download all the content of Academia@SE, later analysis it in a data mining paper, and submit the paper in the end. Is it OK to do so? Do I have to ask the permission from the administrator of the website? And does he or she have rights to forbid my academic use? Thank you.


texts:
Oral examination for PhD is common in many countries.

However, most (all?) Australian PhD degrees don't require oral examination. Any particular reason?


texts: Is it advisable to try and avoid attending a PhD program from a U.S. public university?

texts:
I read this Sunday's New York Times, which had a big article on the funding crisis of public universities - the Times went into detail about the school system, CUNY, but stated that similar problems are occurring at many other public universities across the country (United States.)

The Times writes of the horror stories such as overcrowded classes, lack of lab equipment to teach science classes, chronically leaky ceilings, bathrooms with no toilet paper, faculty who haven't gotten raises in six years now, and other stuff.  At CUNY, the Times writes that the morale is extremely low, and, in the fall semester, the faculty have vowed to walk out, if the contract disputes are not resolved.

Meanwhile, the administrative leadership at these public universities have gotten significant raises and big bonuses for their work.

So, my question is:  should I be worried as a math PhD applicant, who might possibly apply to some public universities, e.g., CUNY Graduate Center?  (CUNY is a "Top 50" math department, according to the U.S. News and World Report.)

Should I avoid applying to public universities to do a math PhD and instead try to attend a privately funded school?

Are the STEM fields perhaps better protected from this funding crisis, and that it is the humanities fields that are the most adversely affected?  (The example of lack of lab equipment probably shows that STEM subject areas are not doing any better...)

Thanks,


texts: Student taking a make-up exam sees exam she would've taken: Unethical?

texts:
Suppose we have a Psychology class of 20 people. They have an exam scheduled on, say, Tuesday April 12 2016. One of them, Shion, is sick and so takes a make up exam on Tuesday April 19 2016.

Edit: The make-up exam is different from the original exam. It is also significantly more difficult.

Edit: Shion has an advantage of seeing the original exam which is nothing like a random sample of homework questions.

Is it cheating for Shion to see the exam taken on Tuesday April 12 2016?

I have a feeling the answer might depend on the university, department or professor (which seems weird: If professors can compel students to not see or discuss original exams why not extend this to exams since the beginning of time? Why is the most recent exam any different?).

If not, ignore what follows.

If so, another question:

How can the answer depend on the university, department or professor? One university could allow it while another can't? Can some universities really leave the decision up to the departments or professors? Can two professors in the same department have different decisions about this? I understand if people have their own opinions so two professors could have their own personal opinions, but I don't think their personal opinions should matter.


texts: Finding number of publications in a subject

texts:
I have often seen in review papers in which the author mentions that there are more than # number of publications in the subject, to highlight the importance of the subject.

How are such numbers determined? While searching for certain keywords in websites such as Scopus or ScienceDirect may be useful, it does not necessarily give an accurate number, as some publications may mention the keywords but not actually deal with the subject, while others may use synonyms of the keywords.


texts: Is it necessary for a grad student to respond to phone calls, as long as they're responsive on email?

texts:
I am asking this for a friend who hopes to enter grad school for a PhD next year in science.  This person has a cell phone but almost always turns it off and has no voice mail (meaning there is no way to leave a phone message). I think not answering phone calls or being available by phone would make it difficult for my friend to be successful as a grad student, esp. as a RA or TA.

My friend has a variety of reasons for not wanting to have phone on or voice mail set up that I will not specify here.

So I am looking for thoughts from grad students or professors.


texts: Multiple paper submission deadline extension (three times in few days)

texts:
Important Announcement – Paper Submission Deadline Extension
The paper submission deadline has been extended to May 25, 2015 June 1, 2015.

This is the third extension of the deadline for the meeting where I have submitted my paper.

To May 1, 2015 May 18, 2015.
To May 18, 2015 May 25, 2015.
And now, to May 25, 2015 June 1, 2015.

I do not know what think. I have submitted the paper on the afternoon of May 18, 2015. That evening I saw the second extension (like Cinderella, not at midnight but close).
Now I have seen another extension, and I am concerned because I have worked very hard in this project.
The question is: there is a concrete risk that the conference could have had a few submissions and could be canceled?


texts: Fast way to find out the ISSN number of Publications

texts:
I like to know can i get the Publications ISSN form DOI link?

Or what is the fast way to find the ISSN of Publications to find its impact factor ( any online site to find the impact factor for DOI link or ...)

Update: (Solved)

According the anpami  answer i have tried to do it for this paper, and don't find any ISSN number on the result:

And importing on this:

So does ISSN not exist for conference and only of journals or this answer is not correct?(Solved based on the anpami comment)

Thanks.


texts: What questions could I ask students in an online questionnaire to improve my online teaching?

texts:
Like many of us, I imagine, I have been giving online lectures, tutorials, Q&A sessions, exams, etc. for almost a year (and I just realized that it has, indeed, been almost a year...).
I have been frustrated by many aspects of online teaching, and I am not sure that I am meeting students' expectations. Now that this second online semester is coming to an end, I would like to send them a questionnaire to ask them what they thought of this whole ordeal, what they would like to see improved, what they enjoyed, etc. However, I want to make sure that my questions are not biased, and that they cover everything, I don't want to miss some aspects.
What are good questions that I could ask students? What are resources that I could read on such questionnaires?
Note: There isn't a culture of systematically asking for students' evaluations of courses in my country. Everything is organized by individual instructors. I teach math if it makes a difference. I have myself taken a class a fews years ago on collecting students' opinions, but it proved useless to me and completely out of touch with the reality of teaching that I was familiar with (the class instructors were coming from social sciences, where I believe the teaching is done in a different manner – I am not trying to disparage, just saying that teaching e.g. math and teaching e.g. sociology isn't done in the same way).


texts: Is it possible to create a bachelors programme that focuses on being able to read any/most scientific article?

texts: I was thinking about whether it would be possible to create a 3/4 year bachelors programme which goal is to teach the student to be able to read any/most scientific article? If so, do you think this programme would be valuable? What would you think the prime courses should be? I myself would believe high level mathematics would definetly be a must.


texts: What does graduated mean in the Netherlands?

texts:
I have been admitted to a Master in the Netherlands, but my diploma will be awarded after the enroloment date there. However, the university says they can process my admission if I send them an official letter stating that "I have graduated", completed my course work, and that the diploma will be awarded later.

In my country and university, the list of students that will receive the diploma is authorized by the Academic Council first and diplomas awarded later. When the list is issued, the Council gives a letter stating that you are graduating. I am not sure if such letter is the equivalent to what the Dutch University needs. Anyone at a Dutch university knows what they exactly want?

Edit: Official documments at my University are issued in Spanish, not in English, therefore I have to get the document translated by an official translator. Hereby, I want to the document to be sharp enough to avoid changes in sense or missinterpretations in any stage.


texts: Answer "Justification for travel support" in conference registration form

texts:
In a conference registration form I found a slot to be filled having the header "Justification for travel support". I don't quite understand what they are asking precisely. What is the appropriate way to fill this in?

I remark that they ask for resume and research statement in different sections of the registration form for the purpose of attributing funding.


texts: Funding in mathematics from large companies as undergraduate

texts:
I am currently a second year mathematics undergraduate and will be undertaking a research placement (in topology/decision problems in group theory) at a maths faculty in England this coming summer.

My supervisor has asked that I apply for research grants. Currently I have the potential to be funded (at least partially) by the maths faculty, and also the London Mathematical Society (LMS). To be safe though I would like to apply to as many places as possible.

I have heard of large company funding research in mathematics so perhaps I should just email large companies and ask them if they are willing to help fund my project? Has anyone heard of success of this before?

Are there any other kinds of funding sources I have not mentioned above?


texts: Publishing with APS open access with a CC-BY license on a preprint server

texts:
This is a follow-up on these two questions:
When can I safely use CC-BY license on arXiv? and
What arXiv CC licenses are compatible with American Physical Society publishing?

From the answers to these questions, it seems that it is not possible to publis an article that is already on a preprint server (in particular arXiv.org) with a CC license in the American Physical Society (APS).

However, in Physical Review Letters (PRL), it is possible to publish open access (by paying a higher fee), and in that case APS use the CC-BY license. This license is also available for posting on arXiv.org.

My question therefore is: If an article has been posted on a preprint server using the CC-BY license, will APS accept it for publication in PRL, either using their normal "Transfer of Copyright" (I guess not), or open-access? It looks to me as if it should work for open access, because the license under which APS would publish the article is exactly the same under which the article was posted on the arxiv.


texts: Requesting a professor I barely know a recommendation letter for postdoc

texts: I met a professor (a big name in our field) at a workshop and we worked on the initial idea for a paper as part of a group project. We stayed in touch for a couple of weeks but our conversation ceased as the other group members stopped working on the paper and the project ran out of steam. I was applying for postdoc fellowships at the time and one of the fellowships required four recommendation letters. I only knew three researchers in our field well enough that I could ask them for recommendation letters. Since I felt like I impressed the professor from the workshop while working on the paper with some good results, I sent him an email explaining my situation and asking whether he would be willing to write the fourth recommendation letter. I never heard back from him, so it's most probably a no. However, I now worry that his impression of me has been tarnished since I feel like I asked him for a letter after doing only a small amount of work. How do professors look upon these things? How badly have I messed my future prospects given that he is a big name in the field and sits on various funding committees? I don't think I will be able to see him face-to-face for a while.


texts:
I recently sat down with a trusted confidant and went over my statement of purpose and personal statement. Although the overall message and commentary was positive, what I realized was that I needed to metaphorically pull myself from the sky and back to earth. In other words, a head-shrinking was in order. My topics were far too lofty to be accomplished in half a decade.

As I continue to procrastinate from writing by asking this question, I wonder how can one ground themselves as they move forward in their graduate education and post-graduate career.

In times past, I've came across a blog post by a computer scientist who has made great work into the field of medicine and bioinformatics despite not having a medical background, all in effort of finding a diagnosis and cure for his child's disease. But I cannot find it.

Found it, thanks Nat!

But what the post doesn't address is a means of pointing out the flaws of a given bias, in the day to day events of life.

How do we keep ourselves humble as researchers and intellectuals?

Least amount of knowledge to do unpaid research in the field of drug development against "harmless" viruses like the common cold?
Allowing Questions that warranted a Deletion, but has an answer that addresses the question


texts: Shall I go and see my advisor's father who is on his death bed?

texts:
In my country in East Asia, it is extremely impolite if I don't do it when I have this information.
However, the US and the EU are known to be more "professional", in my humble opinion. So, in the US, is asking the advisor about his father generally considered "impolite" or "unprofessional" from a professional point of view?


texts: Should I apply with a non-subject LoR to a university?

texts: I am applying for a master’s program in computer science. I am using two letters of recommendation from the computer science field and one LoR from the language department where I learned a foreign language. Although the foreign language was part of my undergraduate education, does using a non-department LoR create a problem for graduate admissions?