texts: Is it bad manners to mark your territory?

texts:
Is it a bad idea to mention in a paper that I plan to address some of the questions it rises in a future paper?

Background: While discussing some results from a recent preprint with other people, we came to the conclusion that with similar methods we can prove a much more general statement. In fact, we are working on it now, and already have some preliminary results (not quite as general as we hope to get though). Now, while revising the original preprint, which I hope to send to a journal soon, I am faced with a dillema: Should I mention that we are currently working on the more general problem, and hope to publish its solution in an upcoming paper? It is a very natural generalisation, so I certainly should mention the problem itself as a possible future direction.

Positives: The positive aspects of mentioning the future project are, I think, quite self-evident. For us, it gives marginally more peace of mind (people are less likely to try and obtain our future result if they know we are working on it), and marginally more publicity (possibly someone will be interested in the problem after reading the first paper and will look up the upcoming one later). For the public, it gives a fair warning (so less chance someone will start working on this problem and be disappointed we did it first) and a reference for where future results might be found.

Negatives: There are also several reasons why mentioning the future project may be counterproductive, and/or/hence put us in bad light. I'm not sure how valid the following concerns are.

I'm claiming rights to something that's not mine. Until we have a proof of the new result, we have no special rights to it; while here I am, claiming the problem as ours. This may especially irritate people who would also like to work on the problem, but now feel compelled not to.
I'm obstructing future progress. Perhaps someone would have produced a better solution to our problem if we didn't deter them. This is especially important if at some point we discover that our project was overly optimistic and that we do not have a solution in the end.
I'm putting irrelevant things in the paper. Someone might argue that the purpose of a mathematics paper is to communicate mathematics. References to past papers serve to give credit where credit is due and to enable the reader to look them up. Conjectures and divagations about future directions are also fair game, as they are ultimately about mathematics. But writing about our future directions is about as relevant as saying that I'll be working on the problem while listening to classical music and doodling on a piece of white paper with a green pen.

(If relevant - my field is pure mathematics. Perspectives from other disciplines are very welcome.)

Edit to clarify: My impression is that for questions like that, there is a clear-cut (but often unwritten) set of rules which say what you can and cannot do in a paper. If this is a border-line case where the decision is genuinely opinion-based, then I would be very eager to learn this as well.


texts: Finance paper with different decimal places

texts:
I am writing a finance paper and I change my data frequency from monthly to daily data,

With monthly data, two decimal places is fine. However, my daily results look strange with two decimal places.
For example, 1.0042 becomes to 1.00; then I have a tables full with 1.00, which is not informative for my readers.

Can I increase the number of decimal places for the daily results?

Any examples of this would be appreciated!


texts:
I'm applying to Computer Science PhD programs (subarea is Theory). Due to Covid, I think there are roughly 4 types of schools in terms of GRE General requirements:

Don't even send your score (they will be ignored)
Optional (sometimes accompanied with "we expect most students won't have a GRE score" or "we perform a holistic review and you won't be at a disadvantage if you don't send")
Not required but (encouraged)/(can help if application has weak sides)
Required

My question is about the 2nd and the 3rd type. How do I decide if I should send them my scores for each type? Unfortunately they don't generally publish the average GRE scores either (some do).
More specifically, my case is as follows. I'm applying to top 20 CS schools in the US, and I am an international student from a not-famous country and school. My GRE score is Quantitative:170/170 (96%), Verbal:161/170 (88%) and Analytical Writing: 5.0/6.0 (92%). If it matters, I'm particulary concerned about my verbal score and my GPA is 3.9+, my TOEFL score is strong (110+).
Since I can't know if people generally took the GRE or not or if they're sending their scores, I can't decide whether to send. Would my score help me, hurt me or simply not affect me?


texts: How to write a sincere reply to a very positive reply from a professor?

texts:
My roomie has recently been applying for PhD programmes. He's particularly interested in the one led by prof X, so the other day he sent an email presenting his research experiences and showing his interest in prof X's research. He got a very positive reply from prof X today:

  Hi XXX, Yes I am planning to accept PhD students this year. I strongly encourage you to apply... please indicate theory as your interest and/or mention my name as faculty of interest in your application.

This sounds like great news. So my roomie decides to reply and tell X he's really enthusiastic about applying to this programme. But neither of us has any idea what would be an appropriate way to do this. Would simply writing like "thanks for your help prof X I will definitely apply!" be too short and not show enough enthusiasm? Could anybody give some advice?


texts: How to prepare for Thesis defence presentation?

texts:
I am doing Master Thesis which is now in a final stage. My Thesis submission is in around 3 weeks and i am almost done with documenting my findings. This is my first ever Thesis writing in my whole academic career. So I am already thinking about Thesis defence presentation.
I want to know that how to prepare for the defence presentation? and how to overcome or reduce stress regarding this?.


texts:
I am taking a graduate class which is based on "notes" written by former students of the course years earlier.

This notes are a bad translation of a published book by a renowned author, and the class consists entirely on expositions from the students based on this notes and the book.

At the beginning of the course, the lecturer suggested that his idea was to collaboratively write some notes of the material covered in class, but so far, he has not given a single lecture, nor any help, insight or even references for the gaps found in the notes, everything has been done by the students. Now he is asking us to write all the expositions of the material we have found to fill the gaps in the notes.

I don't want to contribute to the notes because there is no guarantee that they will be published as a collaborative project instead of as something of the lecturer's authorship, but it might hurt my grades if I refuse to write something.

I am thinking in writing something to be included in the notes but posting it with me as an author in my blog first. Do you have any suggestions?


texts: A research validity issue and a work around

texts:
I am working for a company that wants me to do a research related to using some sort of a technology. The research (which is going to be published) requires me to use a piece of a hardware which uses that technology. The company demands that I do all the analysis and the experiments to achieve the goal without mentioning the name of the hardware used which is an important part of the research.

Should I mention the hardware without referring to the name of the hardware?

I have used many resources related to that piece of hardware and I will not be able to mention them in the bibliography. Is this legal?

Does this affect the validity of the research?

What do researchers do in such a situation?

According to your experience is there a work around?


texts: Question on whether I have committed plagiarism (modifying paragraphs from an unpublished document sent as email attachment for PhD thesis)

texts:
Background

My colleague and I are both PhD students (My colleague started about 8 months after me) from the same research group (and share the same PhD supervisor) in a UK university. We were collaborating on a research project with a Prof. 'X' from another university in the EU.

Early on in the project (March 2017), over a phone call, Prof 'X' requested my colleague to provide them with a 1-page project summary to support a small grant application. My colleague and I worked on this at my colleagues work desk for a single afternoon (about 2 hours) to produce this document. Both of us thought out aloud, iterated the words & phrases a few times to write and polish this document. Since we were working on the colleague's computer, after writing we just opened the email client on that machine and sent the 1-page doc as an email attachment to Prof 'X'.

The document itself contains only 5 paragraphs of pure text. It does not contain any title/authorship or any other information whatsoever (such as header/footer). My colleague signed the email as "Best Regards, A & B". where "A" is me and "B" is my colleague. Later on, the colleague forwarded the same email (with the attachment) to our common PhD supervisor (as an FYI).

As we proceeded further into the project, the involvement of my colleague and mine became intricately interwoven. It soon very became hard for our common PhD supervisor to separate out individual contributions. There was a huge authorship dispute of the resulting paper (manuscript) which lasted 8 months but eventually got resolved, nevertheless leaving my colleague and me in not good terms.

Since this project was important to our respective PhD theses, it became crucial to clearly identify who contributed what. As part of this forensic examination, both of us gave our evidences to our common PhD supervisor, who apportioned the contributions suitably on a high-level basis. It was decided that both our theses shall have a suitably detailed "attribution of content" section for this relevant chapter, and the contents of the scientific reporting shall be minutely scrutinised by our common supervisor to prevent any allegations in the future.

Present Situation

I recently passed my PhD viva. Examiners were happy and the outcome was to submit minor corrections in 90 days time which were to be checked and approved by them. However, just before leaving for Christmas holidays, my PhD supervisor ran my submitted version of thesis in turnitin (against all relevant docs for this project) and found that I had large chunks of text (2 lightly modified paragraphs) copied verbatim from the email attachment.  Our PhD advisor then inquired with my colleague about this, who insisted that the document was entirely written by him albeit with intellectual inputs from me . Therefore, our PhD supervisor asked me to re-write these 2 paragraphs and said they had no choice but to inform the internal examiner about this.

I am really worried. I copied and modified the 2 paragraphs because I thought I was entitled to reuse these words from that email attachment. Did I do something egregious? Am I in deep trouble? I am happy to re-write these 2 paragraphs from scratch, but I cannot afford to lose a degree I worked for 4 years for something little like this.  What are my options if I am accused of plagiarism?


texts: Googling my name reveals silly things from when I was younger. I am embarassed. How will this affect me in my future academic career?

texts:
I am a masters student at one of the top two universities in the UK and will be applying for PhD positions soon. When I google my (unique) name, the first few results are what you'd expect, my LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and some university web pages.

However if you keep scrolling and go through the pages of Google's search results, you see some silly forum posts from when I was 12-14 years old, and some poorly written Yahoo Answers questions from the same time. I am now 22 so this was almost 10 years ago.

I know it's stupid but when I was that age no one really taught me how to use the internet properly and so ended up using my full name in a number of places.

I've not written anything offensive and my name isn't on anything objectively bad, but it's just childish silliness (memes, poorly written stories, Yahoo Answers nonsense, and just weird forum posts) and I'm a bit embarrassed to be honest. I feel like as I continue to progress academically, it will become more likely that people will Google me and see all this which might make it likely that I will be judged. Again, it's nothing offensive or objectionable just old young teenager stuff. Benign but embarrassing.

Should I just ignore it and hope that as my career develops these old results get pushed further back in Google's search results? Should I try to remove this stuff from the internet (very difficult as I have lost all these old accounts)?

The stuff I posted back then has little to nothing to do with who I am now professionally, and I would hate for people to think it is. Having a unique name does seem like a curse sometimes and I have made it worse by being extra foolish when I was young.


texts: Risk register for 'office-based' research

texts:
I'm writing a grant application for a 1.5-year research project in which

I'm the only member
a systematic literature review (some papers may be pay-walled) will be performed
the main study data (de-identified) have been already collected in a previous study
the only required logistics are an average computer (already provided by the University) and open source software.

Of course, the application includes conference presentations, travel to meet collaborators, and open-access publications, etc.

From the funders' perspective, what kind of risks that should be addressed in such a research project?


texts: Is there an entrance exam I can take to get admitted directly into a European PhD program in electrical engineering without a masters?

texts: I'm an undergraduate electrical engineer. I have studied up to 80 percent of a masters in electrical engineering program and have two IEEE published papers. Is there such a thing as a PhD entrance exam that I can take to prove my ability to pass advanced electrical courses and get admitted directly into a PhD in a university in Europe?


texts: Polite message for my supervisors who do unfair things that would totally leads me to lose my study

texts:
I am currently working on finishing my PhD thesis. For about 3 years and 6 months of my study, I am suffering from the absence of my supervisors. She always travels for 6 months, sometimes two months without contact. My second supervisor takes only 20% as supervision.

Any help, please?


texts: Scanned Letter of Recommendation versus Saved as PDF

texts:
Question from my professor :

While filling in a request for Recommendation Letter, portal said

  Please upload PDF File. Do not print recommendation and scan as PDF

My professor had printed the letter on college letterhead, signed it, scanned and saved as PDF well in advance.
And now he is confused about what should be done.

Kindly advise
1. Upload the Scanned PDF
2. Save the letter from docx to PDF and upload. This document won't have letterhead or the signature.

I was under the impression that most universities use OCR to process letter, hence scanned documents would suffice.


texts: What to do when asked to do something that seems unethical by a co-advisor which might result in losing credit for my work

texts:
I am doing a course project, and my co-advisor contributed to my design with tips and comments - nothing major. When the system started working he told me no to reveal all the details while presenting my work in the class.

That didn't feel right. I believe that the course instructor has the right to know all details about my design, and naturally, his name should go on any publication that comes out of this.

I heard my co-advisor telling another professor that my work is "his vision". I hate being in a such weird situation. I feel like my co-advisor is willing to unethical things for his own benefit (As an example, he refused to write me a recommendation letter to prevent me from leaving the university).

Also, because designs have to go through a fabrication step which takes along time, I feel that if he put his hands on my design I will lose credit for my work. He already told me that he will have one of his other students complete the other step. I am afraid that he will say that the other student did more work so he should be the first author of any publication coming out this or even remove me from the whole picture. Given his history, I cannot trust him now.

Moreover, I intend to leave the university for PhD somewhere else in about six months (he doesn't know that), so I won't be there when the work finishes.

How to handle this issue ? Should I reveal everything to the course instructor and start a fight with my co-advisor ? or accept this which is byound my tolerance?


texts: What does "author title" mean in a manuscript submission system?

texts: What does the author title mean in a manuscript application form? Does it mean {professor- assistant professor- lecturer} and if he/she isn't a university's staff what would the title be? Presuming he/she is master degree student in a medical specialty?


texts:
Hope this doesn't fall into the category of personal advice, but I just have  a general question about academia today (particularly in Philosophy).
I have read many articles on the internet indicating that it's extremely difficult, if not impossible, to find a tenure track position in a relatively highly ranked university (top 100 nationally, say) after completing a PhD in today's job market, even from a very highly ranked program. Is this true, and is it a bad idea to get a PhD if the only thing I'd be able to do with it is teach? Does the internet exaggerate how difficult the market is? Would I have to move across the country, potentially, to find a T.T. position somewhere? Thanks.


texts: PhD in Cryptography after Masters with experience

texts: I hold a masters in mathematics and philosophy (emphasis on logic) and, for personal reasons, I will be joining the US Navy as an officer doing cryptology.  I'm curious if I apply afterward to programs (math or computer science programs) specifically doing cryptology (or number theory or related) will they see my experience as a plus to my application, especially since I will not be able to say what I did (being top secret and whatnot).


texts: Translating French Academic Titles to English

texts:
I am an International student who's planning to continue his graduate studies in Canada, my referee who goes by the title "Enseignant-Chercheur" [1] taught me in a Statistics tutorial class and agreed to write a letter of recommendation on my behalf, the university I'm applying to asks me to enter my referee's title but I do not know what is the most appropriate translation for the above mentioned academic rank, the literal translation is "Teacher-Researcher," but the problem is does such title even exist or make any sense in an North American (and other English speaking countries) context? Should I translate the title? If so, what would be the most appropriate translation? And if not, should I just enter it without translation?

[1] https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enseignant-chercheur


texts: Can a predatory journal have a quite high Impact factor?

texts:
A journal from MDPI is ranked 114 out 272 in its category according to Web of Science Journal Citation Reports. Can it still be a predatory journal?  Can a predatory journal obtain an impact factor at all ?
Thanks


texts: Should chapter introduction and conclusion be included in the table of contents?

texts:
In my thesis, I have five chapters, each of which includes sections and subsections. Each of the five chapters has an introduction and conclusion.

Should chapter introductions and conclusions be included in the table of contents?

If yes, should they be formatted as a first heading, like that of the APA style?


texts:
I am trying to find the origin of an idea based on journal articles.

To elaborate more:

Let's say object A affects object B in a certain manner and this was originally discovered by Researcher A a long time ago, say in the 1960s.

Subsequently, until now, there are many variations of studies around the idea that object A affects object B. Many journal articles revolving around this central idea have been published.

My dilemma is:

I do not know who (i.e. Researcher A) or which was the original paper published regarding this idea.  Is there any facility/journal resources that allow me to track the origin of this particular idea? Does Scopus have such a citation tracking ability?


texts: Exemption from language requirements for MSc?

texts:
My friend found a MSc program in Germany whose professors guaranteed to him full English courses plus they would let him write his thesis in English. However, the admission office at the University asks for a high level (C1) of German language proficiency.

Up until now he did not have any luck in explaining this to the people in the Admission office. My question is - is it possible for an exemption of the language requirements to happen, or would you advice that this sounds like a time wasted? Have you heard of any case that this was a obstacle, but it got solved?


texts: Restriction on working hours for full-time students

texts:
I know that 20 hours/week when school is in session and 40 hours when school is out is the legal maximum working hour for international full-time students in United States. I was wondering whether this also holds for students other than international students. The website of U.S. Department of Labor mentions the same, but it is not clear whether it holds for all. Here is the extract from the website.

"Full-Time Student Program
This program is for full-time students employed in retail or service stores, agriculture, or colleges and universities. The employer that hires students can obtain a certificate from the Department of Labor which allows the student to be paid not less than 85% of the minimum wage. The certificate also limits the hours that the student may work to 8 hours in a day and no more than 20 hours a week when school is in session and 40 hours when school is out, and requires the employer to follow all child labor laws. Once students graduate or leave school for good, they must be paid at least the federal minimum wage.
There are some limitations on the use of the full-time student program..."


texts: How important is it to cite the earliest report of something?

texts:
As a general rule I try to put in some due diligence to cite the authors who first provided strong evidence of something that I'm referencing, even if I wasn't aware of their work before I started writing. However, with the biblical flood of COVID-19 literature in the past 9 months, it's a hard to pinpoint some of the firsts. You can sort by date on a lot of databases, but a journal's publication date often doesn't reflect when a report was first made available to the public, especially in the era of pre-prints. I've got citations that I know I read in March or April showing up with publication dates of July or August.
Anyways, I'm referencing evidence of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2 virus) shedding in stool. At this point there are dozens, if not hundreds of case reports, cohort studies, meta-analyses, and reviews covering this. Does it really matter if I find the first reported case?
TBH, I might be a little bummed if some random review paper were cited for a thing I first proved, but it's also not like this took years (or even weeks) of work to confirm.


texts: Is it appropriate to email a professor asking for a possible summer project, through online correspondence?

texts:
I'm an international Masters student, aiming for a certain reasonably competitive pure math PhD program in the US next year. In Dan C's answer here, he suggests to try and get a recommendation letter from one of the faculty in the school you apply to, by doing some work under him/her. There are a couple of professors in the program whose work interest me, and one of whom I might select as my advisor (given that I'm selected for the program, of course. And assuming my interests don't shift by the next year). However, since I'm not from the US, it would not be possible for me to meet the professor in person.

Given this premise, is it appropriate to contact the professor asking for a possible summer project through online correspondence? Also, should I mention that I would be applying to the program next year?


texts: What's more important in choosing a PhD program, advisor or institution?

texts:
In terms of judging a doctoral program--and possibly also relevant for postdoc-ships(?)--which is the more important consideration, who your advisor is or the institution at which you study?

Obviously both are important, but when it comes down to it, which should weigh more heavily?

For example:

Professor Alpha is a premiere name in the field, but he's set up at Southern State University, an otherwise middling school. Perhaps he's there because he's a big fish in a small pond and gets carte blanche and limitless resources to do what he wants. His graduate students are thus treated similarly.

On the other hand, Professor Beta is a new, unproven professor at Top University, a world-renowned, leading institution. He personally may not have the resources and freedom as Professor Alpha, but he's at an institution whose name carries weight. Therefore the school certainly has the capacity for the same, if not more, resources, but access for Professor Beta's grad students will be more limited as they must be shared with other professors' groups.

Assuming all else is equally appealing (funding, location, research topics, etc), which offer do you choose, or which program would you hold in higher regard?

(The situation doesn't have to be so stark as like Harvard vs. Middle-Of-Nowhere University, but it makes the point clearer.)


texts: How do I check the indexing of journals in databases?

texts: Various journals claim to be indexed by worldwide databases like INSPEC, Google Scholar etc. How can I verify these claims?


texts: Are there any benefits for a researcher or university in terms of number of grants submitted?

texts: I was talking with a faculty member and her strategy is to submit to as many grant proposals even if the quality is not high. And in fact, one of her grants was accepted. Are there any benefits for a researcher or university in terms of number of grants submitted even if the quality is low-medium and they were not awarded?


texts: What are some useful workflows for keeping track of interesting but not immediatly relevant books/articles?

texts:
I read lots of academic literature to stay up on my field (law). The articles fall into one of three categories:

immediately relevant;
clearly irrelevant or of low quality; or
very interesting, and may prove useful in some future, as-yet-unimagined research project, but not immediately relevant.

My question is: what is the best way of managing articles in category 3—i.e., taking notes on them, organizing those notes, and then periodically revisiting them? The issue is that I have limited time and so taking detailed notes on all of the interesting articles that I read isn’t an option. However, I want to absorb them in sufficient depth such that, at some point in the future, I can recall that I read them, that they may now be useful to my current research project, and that I should revisit and re-read them.

I’m less interesting in specific software/tools, but rather in an overall workflow/approach. Many thanks.


texts: How would one fail a master thesis defense?

texts:
So I have to defend my master thesis in computer science in two weeks. It's in Germany and the thesis is 30 credits. I'm wondering what could make someone fail his defense? In my thesis I mainly compare different approaches and algorithms and did experiments on them to answer some research questions. Would I fail if, for example, during the discussion a mistake in my comparison and evaluation approach is discovered which makes my results meaningless? Although I discussed my approach and everything I did with my advisor (postdoc not the prof), yet I still fear that I might have done something wrong and then everything collaps.

I still remember reading a question on this site where someone mentioned that he discovered a vital mistake in his PhD thesis after two years of the defense which made almost his entire thesis useless. Yet of course he didn't lose his PhD degree. So if something like this happens, but during the defense, what could happen?

So how would one fail his master thesis defense? Just to calm down a bit and feel safe and secure!

Edit: I passed with an excellent grade :D.


texts: Correctly licensing someone else's photo for publication in open-access journal

texts: When articles are accepted by open-access journals such as PLoS journals, the editors sometimes ask for a 'striking image' to attract attention to the paper on the contents page (see examples here; every paper has an accompanying image). When in this situation in the past we have used images which I or my institute own, but I know a couple of very good commercial photographers and can easily see situations where their images would be more suitable. What sort of license would I need to buy the photos under in order to have the authority to give the journal permission to publish them under a CC-BY-3.0 license?


texts: Is it worth doing a postdoc from China in the field of Materials Chemistry?

texts: I will be doing a postdoc from Beijing Institute of Technology, China where the lab is working on electrocatalytic water splitting and Li-ion batteries. The PI does good research in terms of publications and citations. I am concerned whether it is favorable to do postdoc in China to built an academic career as I am aspiring to go for more postdoc experiences in the West like UK, Canada, etc. Will this decision affect my chances as China has a not-so-good reputation especially in publishing authentic research.


texts: Is it okay to request to do a reading project with a professor at a later time if he had politely denied it before?

texts: I was planning to do a reading project with a professor in my institute and had asked him in the last semester whether it would be possible for me to do it under his guidance.  However he had politely denied the request saying that he was a bit busy at that time and maybe we could try it at a later time. Since the semester had ended, I was wondering  whether it would be appropriate for me to approach him again with the same request especially as he had told me that he was busy at that time. However, I was wondering whether it would be considered as bad manners as I might be forcing him to reject this for a second time even though he had hinted to me before. Does someone have any experience with this kind of experience and if so could you please help about what is my best course of action?


texts: How to cite my earlier paper which is submitted to the same conference?

texts: I actually wrote two papers on my work, and I want to publish both in same conference. I have now submitted first paper and it is yet to be selected and my second paper is extension of my first paper. I want to publish the second one also. So can anyone please tell me how to cite my first paper? Both are IEEE papers.


texts:
Are they tenured / on tenure track?

Are they more like clinical teaching professors?

Do they perform research?

I recently saw this job with lots of teaching duties but no research listed.


texts: If I accept a PhD offer but change my mind about attending, do I have an obligation to attend for some number of years before dropping out?

texts:
I know there's alot of questions on S.E. about dropping out of graduate school after having started.  My position is similar, but also different:

I was accepted into a prestigious university's program for a PhD in Computer Science earlier this year.  I am expecting to be fully funded for up to 5 years, the school and program are great and well known, etc.

This summer I have been working at this same school as a Research Associate, doing very similar work to the kind of work I understand that a PhD student would be doing in order to work towards their completion of their Thesis and I've come to realize several things:

Upon class signups I realized that I didn't have a particular yearning to take any of the graduate school's offered courses.  I've come to a late realization that I'm not looking forward to any future course work.
Having been working 60+ hour weeks since early May, I've come to the conclusion that I'm not capable/willing to work this many hours.  I would like a life outside of my work/schooling.
The geographic area in which the school is in (and by extension, I am living in) is not one I am used to.  I am finding it extremely difficult to adjust to these new living conditions (Large city, deep south, etc).
This is exacerbated by my perception of the fact that my graduate school is highly composed of work-oriented and often culturally different individuals that I am finding it extremely hard to relate to.  I'm discovering a lack of anyone willing to "hang out" outside of lab or classes.
Personal and family issues are calling me home most weekends, and the school is a bit further from family than I'd like.

That being said, I think all indications point towards me dropping out of the program as soon as my work contract is finished (just before the start of fall classes).  However, I would like to do this as gracefully as possible without burning any bridges, but am unsure of a few things.

Due to the April 15th resolution, am I obligated to spend any amount of time at this university as a graduate student? (I'm technically employed now, not a grad student). If so, how long?
If above obligation is not present, should I try and remain to attend classes for an amount of time before dropping out to make an effort for the graduate school?  I'm fairly certain at this point nothing short of a miracle change in many factors would be enough to change my mind about wanting to stay for a 3-5 year period.
If I choose to leave in either case, what is the best way to professionally explain the situation?  Who should I explain it to?  My graduate school does not assign advisors until the end of the first year, so there isn't a sole advisor to ask.


texts:
I am going to apply for a postdoc position and one of the required documents is

  letter of interest.

Is it the same with research statement?

The requested documents are cv, list of publications and thesis and recommendation letter.


texts: What is the difference between "enabling", "remedial", and "developmental" courses?

texts: In particular, what differences are there in how these three things are taught?  Is the terminology regional?


texts: Re-applying PhD after already starting one

texts:
I would like to re-apply for PhD at top US schools, after already (1 month in) starting PhD at a good (non-US) school. The program starts with a preparatory year, so theoretically I am not committed to a specific supervisor yet.

The school I am in is quite good in several aspects, it is an 'up-and-coming' young university, with good pay for grad students, a nice atmosphere and well connected professors. However, I think that it does not have the same name recognition of US universities or professors that are exactly specialized in my area of interest.

I had previously applied to Caltech and UC Berkeley, along with the one I got accepted in as a safety school. I got an online interview for Caltech, I and I was told the reason I did not get in was 'it is a small school, and my background made it difficult to find a professor for me to work with'.

Part of the reason I would like to re-apply is that I do not want to feel like a failure down the road, which is admittedly not the greatest reason.

Regardless, I would like to know if (1) it is worth it to re-apply or should I just stick with where I am, and if so,(2) how do I ask for recommendation letters again without my professors feeling that I am wasting their time. (3)Is there a cost to re-applying again? (4) What should I change this time?


texts: I am writing a paper and want to reference another source. In academic Hebrew, this would be said using the abbreviations for, "See (source)" or "as explained in (source), see there". Is there a comparable abbreviation in latin?


texts: Should all subsections of a paper start on a new page?

texts:
I am finalising a paper that is around 85 pages long. It consists of six main sections with a bunch of subsections. Should every subsection start on a new page? What is the convention concerning this? And should a subject also start on a new page after an introductory paragraph of its parent section? For instance:

3. Balloons are funny
In this section I will first present reasons why balloons should not be used on occasions that are depressing. For
instance, bringing balloons to a funeral will not cheer people up.
Secondly I will discuss different colours that can lead to different
reactions. As an example one should not bring red balloons to a bull
pen. Lastly I will make clear why clowns should always have balloons
with them as to not come across evil.

<-- PAGE BREAK? -->

3.1 Balloons are not a go-to cheer up tool
When confronted with a sad or depression situation, a first reaction might be to try and
cheer everybody up. One should be careful with the methods he uses
though. Do not tell a joke about cancer patients if someone just
deceased after months of chemo. Do not bring balloons to a funeral.

Hopefully this ad lib writing makes my question clear. (If it is any help, my institution uses APA as a style guide.)


texts: How long is the waiting time for having a phone/Skype interview?

texts: I applied for some faculty positions, starting from Nov 01 to Nov 15 and one on Dec 01. I was wondering how long it takes for the search committee to shortlist the candidates for a phone/Skype interview?


texts: Can someone change PhD topic within a department after admission?

texts:
Suppose that someone applies for a PhD in the US with publications in topic X, and hence the whole SOP and
the target group both revolve around X. They get admitted, and realise soon after entering that there is another topic they would love to work on, albeit it is worked on by a different group.
Is it possible to switch? Or are they supposed to work on X with the same group during the whole PhD?


texts: How can I do solid, publishable research without having a postdoc position?

texts:
I just earned a Ph.D in Mathematics, but there are no available postdoc opportunities for me. What should I do?

After four years, I have finally limped and hobbled to a Mathematics Ph.D while working full time at other places - and at the ripe age of 40 at that. It is my second attempt at earning a Ph.D, as my first attempt ended in failure due to poor life choices a decade ago.

Now that I am finished with my Ph.D, I have discovered that I am more interested in research in general than I thought I would be. I am a realist - I probably have a middle of the pack dissertation at a school representing the middle of the pack in my discipline. However, as my writing developed, I found myself not really wanting to stop, and perhaps even do research in areas not related to my discipline.

Applying to a postdoctoral position is the most logical route; however, my family is here in our midwestern city to stay, my alma mater is the only reachable university with postdoc opportunities, and I permanently burned bridges when I left the program the first time. On top of this, I am currently employed full-time at a private nonprofit nursing and pre-med company, and although the choices of courses to teach are far more limited than they were even when I taught at community college, my current employer is wonderful.

To be very specific, given my history above, my Asperger's syndrome and my advancing age, I want to understand the best way to publish independently.


texts:
Every now and then, a journal retracts a paper for some reason or another.  I'm wondering what impact retraction has on copyright, assuming the journal (or its publisher) was given its copyright.

Question: Does a journal retracting a paper also renounce copyright?

The notion of "retracting" a paper implies "we don't want it" to some extent (particularly if it is a journal-initiated retraction), which I feel may be interpreted as renouncing copyright altogether.


texts: How can I remain motivated while studying for comprehensive exams?

texts:
At my university, the MS and PhD programs in Computer Science have comprehensive exams.  The exams retest the student on topics from designated core courses.  The exams are separate from the course and may be written by a group of instructors instead of just the instructor who taught the course.

Students are given a list of books to read.  Some of the books indicate selected chapters, others are expected to be read and understood cover to cover.  The scope of the exams is daunting and preparation for the exams is expected to be a major undertaking by the students taking months of preparation.  For full time students this is difficult.  For part time students like myself who work full-time and have family this effectively sidelines research during the preparation period.  If you do not pass the exams on your first try, it can be very demoralizing.

I was able to stay motivated by following the strategy I described in a similar question: strategy

What other strategies have people used?


texts: Should I "offer" something when asking for a letter of recommendation?

texts:
I'm an undergraduate and currently applying to summer research programs that ask for letters of recommendation. Last summer, I did research at a university with a professor who I'm planning on asking for a letter. He mentioned how he would like more people who are studying computer science to apply to his summer program, so I was thinking of telling him after the request for the letter that as a token of my appreciation, I would be happy to encourage people in the computer science department to apply to the program.

Another professor who I was considering asking is thinking of teaching a course in the fall that I want to take. I was also thinking of asking him following the request for the letter of recommendation about whether he is still planning to teach the course and that I would like to take that course with him in the fall.

My intention is to give something to get something even if both professors would most likely write me a letter regardless of whether or not I "offered" them something in return. Are these things that most professors would appreciate, or do they sound too business-like and Machiavellian (in that they are part of an email asking for a letter of recommendation)? Should I just straight up ask for the letters?


texts: How to deal with people judging your 'overproductiveness'?

texts:
I am in 4th year postdoc working in applied math areas in which 1-3 papers a year is considered a good publication rate. I have been publishing 10-13 papers a year for the last 4-5 years (have never gone for a 'low-quality' journal as considered in my respective areas). I would think that my hardwork would be looked upon in a good way by my colleagues. But I gradually realized that some of my peers have been seeing this publication rate in negative spirit. I keep on having to explain them how I could publish so many papers - that I work hard is not a good answer for them. I feel strange that  hardwork is being judged, e.g., the quality of my work, or that my coauthors may have worked harder than me, or that I might have found some low-hanging fruits, etc. I don't know how to deal with such a reverse peer-pressure.

Moreover, sometimes, merely answering that 'I work hard' may be taken offensively by the other person.

Is there any better ways to explain 'overproductivity' to peers, in a non-offending way, how I publish more (and good quality) papers than the average in my field?

This question may be related to Productive but not respected advisor - Should I continue with him? , though the OP also states that his advisor's citation count was 'too low' which I think is not the case here.

This question is definitely not meant to self-praising nor to demean my colleagues who are generally very nice people. I feel that this issue could come up when searching for permanent job-search and the search committees may also see the record in a wrong way adversely affecting my chances. Hence, the question.


texts: Is it necessarily an advantage of a mathematical work to find connection between two different fields?

texts:
EDIT: My question in the title was motivated by the following situation.

A mathematician from my field has solved a problem in this field which was considered to be important. In fact he even was awarded an international prize for this work. To solve this problem he has used methods from a completely different field of math which are not known to experts in his original field.

He managed to use these methods to solve few other open problems in the field, although less known than the first one. However he has failed to get other people to be interested in these tools since they require a really different education. For the same reason he cannot suggest such kind of problems to his students since they also would need to spend a lot of time to master the background from different fields, but even if they do, they would probably feel isolated.

Thus I am wondering to what extend this situation is typical, and whether there are other examples of mathematical works whose interdisciplinary character played a negative role in one's career.


texts: Sign of researcher's professional maturity

texts:
When one applies for an academic position (especially for a permanent one) or for a significant funding, (s)he is often asked to show his/her professional maturity in research in the motivation letter/research proposal (or sometimes one is asked to indicate how (s)he would reach this maturity).

The questions is: what are the signs of professional maturity in research that might be mentioned?

My background is theoretical mathematics but the question has little to do with a particular field as usually the positions and funding in question are for researchers from a broad range of scientific areas.


texts:
Is it OK to use bullet points in the statement of purpose for graduate school applications?

I'm applying for a PhD program in physical science. I want to organize some information in a bullet points form. However, I didn't see this done in any of the statements that I have seen online.


texts: Attend conference without a published paper

texts: What are the advantages for a new grad student to attend a conference without having a published paper?


texts: Is it ok to ask my professor about a project for a second time?

texts:
Note that I am currently an undergrad.

One month ago, one of my professors agreed to let me work on a research project with him. After a few weeks of not hearing anything from them, I emailed the professor asking about the project (1.5 weeks ago). He replied saying that he would be contacting a collaborating researcher (at a different institution) in the project within two days and can discuss a roll for me with them. Based on the language of the email, it seems that he had been waiting for me to email him. He said that he would contact them in two or so days, so 1 week ago, and then get back to me.

I still haven't heard back from them and so I am wondering if it is inappropriate for me to email the professor and ask about the project a second time? (note that based on the current situation, we can only email each other and not talk in person). I realize that many times going through such a process can be a bit slow but I am in a position where a recommendation letter from this professor (who is well known in their field) would be significant, as he could then talk about my academic experience with him as well as my research experience with him.


texts:
PLEASE SEE CLARIFICATION BELOW

I noticed that one of my citations is "problematic". It is from a book, but I found a Scopus reference that show it as a conference paper, with no authors. So I thought it was simply a mistake (because the paper is very old) and added the authors of the book normally, as the book or paper were published on the same year and the chapters are in fact other revision papers, but they are all the same.

Now it came to my attention that the "authors" are in fact the editors of the book/paper, and I don't know whether I have done something wrong or not by citing them. If someone looks the reference using the "authors", volume and year they will find normally the book, but not the journal I referenced in the paper, which is from the same publisher as the book.

Would it look like plagiarism or another ethical problem just because I mixed the two references, which are identical, but are written differently?

EDIT To be more clear, my citation is similar as if I cited a whole issue of Science (Science, 4, 2010) with the author name appearing as the editors of that particular issue.


texts: How to tackle papers filled with unknown vocabulary

texts:
Background

I am having a lot of trouble wrapping my head around papers for my distributed systems class. I and two partners have to write a research paper, and we must cite around 20 research papers for the paper in our bibliography and also use them as a jumping off point for our material.

I am a computer-science student. I see a lot of stuff in the paper about discrete mathematics, and algorithms. I took a discrete mathematics class, however I have forgotten much of it by now, and I don’t know if I was too competent after leaving the class. I did well, but I don’t know how to apply outside of problems. I am new to distributed systems as well. Everything in the papers are so overwhelming.

Question

I am so used to thinking, speaking, and seeing things in vernacular. There’s so much jargon in these papers that I feel like I am reading a different language and I am so lost. I will read through multiple paragraphs or sentences and just not comprehend a thing. I don’t know how to grasp the main points from the abstracts and then pull those out of the rest of the paper.

How can I deal with this?


texts: Does the letter of completion for degree (PhD) allow me to use the degree officially in Europe?

texts:
I received a letter of completion for my degree (PhD) from my University in the United States.
"He should be granted all privileges of this degree"
Can I use the degree by now in Europe for applications / official use? Or do I need to wait for the official date when I receive my diploma / transcript?


texts: Is the phrase "results show" appropriate in academic writing?

texts:
I once heard of a professor saying that it is not appropriate to say that "results show", because it is not the results that actually "show" anything, and a more appropriate way of putting it would be that the results "support" the idea of something.

I am not sure if this is overthinking or there is actually a point made.


texts: I am a first semester math PhD student who needs to transfer to a different school: how should I talk about my current program on applications?

texts:
Background

I am a first semester math PhD student and for personal reasons I need to transfer to different PhD program in mathematics or applied mathematics (the reason has to do with going to a program in a more favorable geographic location and not with any shortcomings of my current program: I am actually pretty happy at my current program). I have talked it through with the graduate head at my current PhD program and they don't think there should be any issue with me transferring. Many of the schools that I am applying to have deadlines before my current school's semester grades are released. Thus I have very little information to offer these schools about my performance at my current program. I feel that I am doing fairly well with my current courses and I anticipate passing two qualifying exams before the next semester begins, putting me on track to complete most of the "pre research, master's level" coursework by the end of the year. However, all of this will occur well after the deadlines for most of the schools to which I am applying. I am hoping that the graduate schools I am applying to will understand that I am not just applying to attend a higher ranked program

Question(s)

How should I mention my current PhD program? I have read elsewhere on this site that transferring graduate programs is not easy and most schools don't feel favorably about it, so how will my current program effect my chances? What should I do about the fact that some schools have application deadlines before my current semester grades will be posted, thus making it impossible for me to release my transcript to them? Should I just not mention my graduate program at all?


texts: Can you present an image without knowing who originally created it?

texts:
I would like to present the image located on this website during a presentation I am giving next week.
http://www.taopatch.com/blog/quantum-dots-entangled-with-single-photons/

The image does not say anything earthshattering, it is well accepted that the structure of a CdSe/CdS core-shell quantum dot is as they depict in the image, but the image does a great job of illustrating it. I do not believe the website was the original creator of the image, after all they refer to a certain paper that was published and in no way reference it. I believe this is the paper: doi:10.1038/nature11573  The image that they use is not in that paper.

edit: Here is another website containing the same image: http://en.rusnano.com/press-centre/news/88604

Can I present this image without knowing where it originally came from? I suppose I could cite the website as a source, but since it appears that they took the image without citing the original creators, I do not want to list them as the source.


texts: Award, Scholarship, and Grant on educational financial sponsorship

texts:
My Master's fee is sponsored (funding) by the Company where I am working currently. But, the university does not have any sponsorship scheme for my faculty. So, My company provides my fees as a financial sponsorship and I pay it as a regular fee to the university.
Now, I would like to add this sponsorship to the Research gate.
In the research gate there is a field for such cases.

Grants, awards, and scholarships

Which field satisfies my sponsorship scheme among Grants, Awards, Scholarship?

Info : Discussions like in here have no accepted answer on the given question.


texts: What could be a next thing after my theoretical physics career has not worked out?

texts:
Perhaps this question is about leaving the academia, but hopefully it's still in the right place. Given that many people have been there before, I'll spare you most of the personal details. Late in my first postdoc doing abstract theoretical physics (related to string theory) I'm seriously entertaining the idea that I should quit. First, I doubt that I'll be competent enough to keep up with the field and do the research at the level I want. Second, although I think I should be able to continue with another position somewhere, and then again, I'll hardly get to choose the places and people to work with, but rather the other way around. I never had plan B, so I'm inventing it right now.

Sure, there are a lot of jobs you can do with good mathematical background. Although I must say I have no specific skills beyond that. My problem is that I'm utterly non-interested in most practical things. The word "industry", for example, only rings a slight aversion in me. So the most usual routes people suggest just don't click. Maybe someone knows of a more science-oriented things one can do? My dream job would be to crack an artificial intelligence on a quantum computer at google, the only problem being that I have to particular skills in these areas and turns out I'm not as brilliant as I once hoped to be. But you see the point, right? The point is that I need to be disillusioned:)

So, what are some possible jobs to take that would feel like a pure research, be paid well, but have a less competitive market then, say, string theory, but require no special skills beyond that and be just as cool? Is there a list somewhere?

Sorry for the exaggerating tone, and lots of personal details in spite of promise given, perhaps I feel a bit nervous writing this:)

Added

Community decided that the question is too personal, and perhaps this is indeed the case. I will have no problem with closing/deleting it, but I would be very grateful for suggestions of other on-line resources I may try to consult with my questions.


texts: What should I put in the "about me" section of an academic job talk?

texts:
The question says it all... I know I shouldn't put personal details, I'm thinking something like:

How I got into my field
My interesting career path
Hobbies
Half of my work is collaborative and half independent

How much is about me as myself versus about me the professional?


texts: Is it appropriate to ask a professor how I may be able to improve my letter of recommendation?

texts:
Background
I graduated with a BS in math about a year and a half ago from a not well known school and with a less than stellar academic record. I did not go to graduate school (I was not accepted). Since then, I have improved my mathematical ability considerably, but I have not kept in touch with my professors. I can demonstrate this improvement in many ways, the most obvious of which is by referring to my subject GRE score.
Given that I was a mediocre student, I assume that my professors' letters of recommendation did not paint me in as positive of a light as they would have if they knew me now.
I am now interested in applying to graduate school again but this time I would like to secure stronger letters of recommendation.
Question
Is it appropriate to ask a professor the following question:

"Is there any way I can demonstrate my current mathematical ability
and thereby improve your letter of recommendation for me?"

If so, how should I ask this question?
Further Considerations
If the answer to the above question is "Yes", then for at least two of the professors, I can suggest showing them my typed solutions to every question (save the trivial ones) in the textbook used for their class. These classes were both upper level classes (second level Linear Algebra and second level Real Analysis). With the last professor, I can demonstrate knowledge of Calculus of Variations (a subject that this professor is interested in) as well as Functional Analysis. Should this be my approach?


texts: Has the relation with students changed significantly in the last 20+ years?

texts:
I left academia 20+ years ago but I am closely following SE Academia (mostly because it is interesting and gives a different perspective from industry).

I noticed several questions regarding the "well-being" of students (broadly speaking), an example being a recent question on whether to adapt to their request to cancel lectures.

When I was a student, and then a teacher, the rules were that the lecturer is coming to provide a lecture, at a given time, and if someone is not present then they had to catch-up a way or another. This was the same in primary, secondary school (in Europe, mostly Germany and France).

Has the relationship with students changed in these 20+ years?

I am specifically not looking for an opinion about these changes (which can range from "in my time professors were demi-gods" to "now everyone is equal and the ones who pay set some rules"). I rather want to understand whether the dynamics between lecturers and students is different today, and ideally why (because of, say, how technology helps to provide up-to-date lectures?, or that the number of commercial school is higher?, ...).

I am mostly interested in a European perspective, but anything is welcome.


texts: Is It Acceptable to Contact the Professor of a Publicly Uploaded Lecture?

texts:
A full graduate level course is publicly uploaded as a series of videos on Youtube.  Within the housekeeping section at the beginning of the course, the professor provides an email address as a means to contact him with questions.  No attempt is made to obscure this email address when the video is later uploaded.

Obviously, the professor's primary intent was for members of the class to have a way of contact, but would it be within the bounds of etiquette for a Youtube viewer following the course to email a question about the course material?  Suppose the question is of a sort that would not be well suited to ask in a Youtube comment.  Perhaps the question is long and includes images for clarification, but let's assume that the answer would not be proportionally long, that the professor could answer it fairly quickly and easily.  Would it be okay for a Youtube viewer not enrolled in the course (perhaps after the course had ended) to send such a question to the professor, maybe with the qualification, "Please do not feel compelled to take time out of your busy schedule to answer this, but I was watching your lectures on YT and was wondering..."?


texts: What are examples of experiments or studies where pre-registration would not be feasible?

texts:
The incoming editor of Psychological Science mentions in an interview that pre-registration isn't feasible for all submissions to the journal:

  In instances in which preregistration is feasible... we will continue to encourage authors to take these steps. Yet we must be fully cognizant that in some areas of the broad discipline of psychological science, these actions may not be possible or may be ill-advised.

What are examples or types of experiments or studies (in psychology or elsewhere) where pre-registration wouldn't be possible or would be ill-advised?


texts: Is there any guidance on how to properly cite when using the alphabetic style from BiBLaTeX?

texts:
I am looking for some specifications on how to use the alphabetic style for citing properly. I know that there are different solutions and that this is highly related to personal preference or specific requirements. But maybe there is some common way to do it. Consider the following three examples:

  [...] was already shown in 1998 by Johnson et al. [JHS98] to demonstrate the specific deployment.
  [...] was already shown in 1998 by Johnson et al. to demonstrate the specific deployment [JHS98].
  [...] was already shown in 1998 by [JHS98] to demonstrate the specific deployment.

Which one would you consider the most standard or most used way?


texts: Corporate branding of chair professorship

texts:
For obvious reasons I will not be too specific, but I am aware of a situation (at a private research university) where a company with a somewhat less-than-stellar public reputation has endowed a chair professorship.  The concerned department and dean want one of their current professors to accept the chair (though some of the faculty would much prefer a new search to fill the position).  There is some reluctance to accept this offer, in large part because the professor being offered the chair balks at becoming a "brand ambassador" for the company making the endowment while getting no explicit benefit (the chair would cover only the salary that is paid anyway).  This professor (who is evidently preferred as having the best research profile in the department) and some colleagues also claim that an endowment named after some individual(s) would have been more acceptable.

So my questions are:

Is it generally the norm that any academic offered a chair professorship will accept it, for collegiality?
Is it standard for such an endowment to cover only the professor's salary but not offer any grants, etc.?
Also, is there a real difference in perception between an endowment named after a person/family vs. one named after a company?


texts: How should one respond to 'Call for Paper' e-mails?

texts:
Of late I have been receiving a number of e-mails with subject 'Call for Paper' and invitations to contribute to new and/or open-access publications. While most of them immediately qualify for the trash bin, some do have a professional looking layout and language. Sometimes their publisher name looks very similar to reputed publishers.

Should I create a filter to delete and mark spam for all mails with 'Call for Paper' in the subject?

Do reputed publishers ever advertise or invite authors to contribute to their journals?


texts:
I have written multiple opensource programs as part of my PhD, and some of these programs require a dedicated server somewhere on the internet to work. Mainly it is online databases, but also things like project homepages, version update checks, usage-metric logging, etc.

I currently host all these website/databases for free from my own stipend, but as the services have grown, I'm now paying about 10-20% of my monthly stipend on hosting bills. It's not much, only about €100 a month, but you certainly feel it when you're main source of nutrition is unguarded coffee and biscuits.

So my question is how best to monetize software to academics if you're a one-man-band. I could set up a paypal account, or something similar - but never in a million years could I see my PI setting up a lab PayPal account. Donations for server costs would then most likely come from generous students/post-docs, and I don't really see that as a fair or acceptable system. I want people to pay from their grant money, as it should be. What is the best way to do this?

EDIT:
In light of the answers, I feel that "pay for it with your own grant money" is somewhat of a non-starter. Here's two reasons why:

The software developed was not a requirement or goal of the PhD. It was created as a side-reaction of the PhD as the software I wanted to use to analyze my data was difficult to use, expensive, non-existant, etc. Based on no real data, just my observations from working in the Open Source community, 99% of OS software is written to solve the author's current problem, which then gets generalized to solve other people'e problems too, so I don't see my situation as being unusual. Still, I cannot reasonably ask my PI for money on something that was never originally part of the PhD plan. One would even have a hard time justifying that the software was required for the PhD, if the original plan did not foresee using it. For example, one program gives highly-detailed Quality Control reports. Our data passes all of these strict/new QC tests. Therefore, was it even a requirement?
Following on from point 1, but really this is a separate issue, what my PI would be paying for would be for other people to use the software. To handle just the needs of my project, I don't need any online servers - I could make do with just local services and disk space. In fact i've already applied all this software to the project, so now it could just be deleted. No need to register domain names, no AWS hosting costs, no evenings spent making sure the community around my software is happy and productive, etc. In short, if my PI was generous enough to see my software as an integral part of the PhD and worthy of funding (part 1), he would also have to come to the conclusion that it's worth spending his grant money on other people's projects, which I am confident he not only would do out of principle, he might not even be allowed to.

So - I really only see two possible options going forward:

I apply for a new grant, totally separate from my PhD project, to cover the costs of hosting.
The community using the software/services pay directly, using some mechanism that I currently do not know about. Some way a PhD student can buy software online and charge it directly to their grant, rather than with personal funds.


texts: High grade/GPA versus finishing studies in the expected timeframe

texts:
Situation:
Where I study (edit: Greece) we are generally not expected to pass all lessons on the first attempt (it is very rare actually) and often we fail multiple times before we can pass them. It is also rare to finish a school in the expected time (4 years for most schools, 5 for polytechnic) because of that, so most students finish two to three years later.

The only way to get a better grade on any lesson in the university I attend is by telling the professor to give you a failing grade, and even in other universities you can only take a few lessons again without this method, so this applies everywhere in the country.

Now, due to both a consistently bad timetable over the past 5 semesters (often ending the lessons at 9PM or even having 11 hours in one day), as well as a lot of extracurricular activity in my case (but related to the studies), it is hard to get a good grade (an equivalent GPA of 3 out of 4 is considered good in fact, not special but above average). Some malpractices by a lot of professors also play into this, but I am hoping that I am building a strong enough CV as to overcome this.

Actual Question:
Given a strong CV with a lot of related work on my own, certifications, and activity, should I try to finish in the expected 5 years of studies, but at the risk of a not-so-good GPA, or should I take more time but increase the GPA?

I am mostly interested in an academic career, for the industry I am confident that the CV I have built is more than enough to compensate for the grades.


texts: Canadian Ph.D. for a master of engineering science degree holder without transcript

texts:
I am master of engineering science graduate from Malaysia and here, the M.Sc. doesn't have any course work so it is pretty much like a 2 years Ph.D. thus I don't have any transcript or what-so-ever, only my publications, thesis and graduation letter. I want to know if it is acceptable to apply in Canadian universities without having any masters degree transcript or grading. Unfortunately the university graduate office is not willing to answer my question unless I pay the application fee and wait for 12 weeks.

P.S: I also have talked with a supervisor (in Uottawa) and he has already stated that he is willing to supervise me.


texts: Why upload to academic preprint sites like arXiv?

texts:
The recent question about the legality of uploading to arXiv made me realize that I don't have any understanding of why one would upload to a preprint site.  (I don't work in a field where they seem to be common.)

Why would one be concerned about getting a manuscript on arXiv, if it's already under review with a journal?

Is it because of the long publishing timeline of journals?  (That could explain why computer science — which publishes much more in conferences — doesn't seem to do much with them.)


texts: Post doctoral while working on self employed job

texts: I am in need to know if there is a provision wherein I could do a post-doctorate in the USA for a year or two, while I am owning my own Biotechnology firm back in my home country?


texts: Institution refuses reimbursement for grant awarded?

texts: After managing a project at a research institution in the US, I was awarded a grant (did it for free, so this is the remuneration). The grant covers travel, books, research equipment ("that does not contain a hard drive") and some other things. They strongly recommended confirming with their representatives if certain expenses are covered by the grant. I decided to purchase PC components and just build it myself. Last August I contacted them to check if they would cover the components cost (2 reps said it should be fine, both were in 1 email thread). Over Black Friday I purchased all parts and sent them all receipts for reimbursement. Now, middle of January, they claim they did not realise I was building a PC (although I explained everything in detail in our email communication back in August) and would not reimburse me as the institution tracks parts "as part of their on campus computing inventory". It is past return period time now for the components I purchased. What should I do now? All communication was over email, so I have everything in writing.


texts: How to find related work in academic writing in the most time-efficient way?

texts:
I noticed that, for each research project, there comes a point where I have to consult the literature, and find all the previous research related to the current project.

Unfortunately, I seem to be very inefficient in my approach. I spend a lot of time digging through papers that are really interesting, but only of tangential importance to my current work, just to find the few papers that actually do similar things. (The pile of "cool paper, read when time" just keeps growing.)

Hence, I'm wondering: What is the most time efficient way to get a thorough overview of the literature in a specific niche of a field?

While searching for an answer I came across these questions:

How can I do a literature review efficiently? - This question is quite similar and I liked the approach. I debated with myself if this is a duplicate, but I think it is focused more on how to be sure the search was exhaustive, whereas I'm worried about time efficiency. (Also, I'm a bit curious if things have changed since 2012.)

How to locate most important literature in an unfamiliar area
- The answer provides tips on how to identify what literature generally is important in a field, but I am looking for the most cost effective (least time consuming) way to do it in an area, where I know the broad literature, but not the specifics.


texts: Is it possible to publish research paper independently?

texts: Is it possible to publish independent research paper without any academic or industrial affiliation in a reputed journal?


texts: Which among an LoR for startup work and a "good student" LoR, will be more effective?

texts:
I am applying for Master's program in CS. I have the following two alternatives:

An LoR from a startup founder for significant and relevant work. The possible problem is that the entire team consists of final-year undergraduates including founders, however they are from a relatively well-known university in the country that I am applying to (USA).
An LoR from one of my professors with whom my interactions have been only during courses and labs which are not directly relevant to my area of specialization.

Which of these would be more effective as part of my application?

My other LoRs are from a professor with whom I have worked on a relevant R&D project for almost a year, and one from a professor about coursework and labwork, which is relevant to the field.


texts: Are professors generally straight forward about admission decisions?

texts:
I had applied for a PhD to some colleges in the US, and am waiting for admission results. A professor at a college that I am hoping I am accepted at has responded to my queries of "Is my application likely to be accepted, or should I just accept school B's offer?" with the same answer "your application will be considered in the second round, so you should wait for it. However, I cannot make any promises".

I feel that if the professor thought I had a good chance of getting in, he might have stated so in his replies. "I can't make any promises" seems to be a polite but safe reply, indicating I might be accepted, but thechances do not appear too bright. Should I just accept school B's offer?


texts: "Electronics and Communications Engineering" equivalent in the U.S.A

texts:
I graduated from a European University with a Bachelor of Science Degree (Engineering Degree) and I'm about to move in the United States.
My specialization/ major would be Telecommunications Engineering.

What is the US equivalent of this ? I've noticed US colleges usually have EE(Electrical Engineering programs), which is the closest I've found.


texts: Just got tenured and promoted, but need to move for family reasons

texts:
I just got tenured and promoted to an associate professor, the contract for which will start from Fall this year. However, my partner, who is also in academia just accepted an position in another city starting from this Fall. Our plan is to give up our current tenured positions and move the entire family to the new city (for a better environment and better education for our children). The question is: when would be a good timing for me to move?

We have small children (toddler and infant), so it seems to make most sense if we all move together this summer. I am not currently on the job market, but I am open to giving up my tenured position (to trade with a better location for the family) while trying to find something in the new city (I am ready to apply for adjunct teaching positions, contract based faculty positions, or tenure-track positions in the new city, whatever becomes available, or to find some creative ways to engage in work meaningful and inspiring to me while trying to meet our financial needs).

Now, should I at all consider the possibility of staying behind and teaching as an associate professor for a year before leaving my current job?

In other words, in thinking about future career trajectory, would having one actual year of experience as a tenured associate professor make a big difference on the prospect of future job applications? Or, would showing evidence of having achieved tenure/promotion in a previous institute be equivalently useful?

What are some other possible alternatives?

Any advice on this would be much appreciated!


texts: How do you convey your idea when you can't convey your idea?

texts: I am PhD student works in a computer science. I have given lots of presentations in the institute level and one or two at the conference level. I have been told by my fellow researchers that they did not get much from my presentations/talks. Even I have presented one paper in the conference also and got the same feedback. I spend more time on making slides as well practise at least two three times on the projector also. I think I am kind of person who is worst at presenting the work. Assuming this Is there any way through which I can deliver a good talk?


texts: Where can I get a cheap, virtual, high-performance server suitable for academic use?

texts:
I am working on a machine learning project for which I need proper computational power. Assuming that my local university can't provide a server to run the code, I am looking for an online website which sells virtual servers for limited time — as in a month or less.

I heard that some companies provide free servers for students if they prove their status as students — but I failed to find anything with a search on Google. Is there anywhere which provides virtual high performance servers suitable for academic use?

One of the reasons I ask this question on Academia Stack Exchange is that most of the VPSs you can find on the net are more focused on the quality of bandwidth and connectivity, but I am just focused on CPU and Memory setting (I just need to run a Matlab or Octave program).

P.S.: This question is related to the subject matter at Server Fault and Super User, but those sites are almost completely focused on servers suitable for web-based applications. Also, they don't know about the opportunities provided for students for free or at low cost.


texts: How to build research paper based on a unpublished paper?

texts:
A few days ago, I read an article that I found through Google. I analyzed it and find that article is correct, and then I prepared a paper of my own built on the basis of that article.
But when I tried to complete the references section, I realized that the source article had not been published.

Now I do not know what to do. On the one hand, the article is correct, but on the other hand, it has not been formally published.

How to send my article based on another paper that has not been published?


texts: Update frequency of BASE open-access repository?

texts: How often does the BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine) recrawl the considered open-access repositories?


texts: Is the order of authors' names important?

texts:
I am trying to publish a paper based on my MSc. thesis in software engineering.
I have considered myself, as the first name of the paper, and my supervisor as the second one, since I was the person behind everything. He was much concern about the structure of the thesis, and in scientific contribution, his share was something around %16.

But someone told me, a supervisor should always be the first name, because he has supervised the research. Is it true? But, i think it is not fair?

The questions are:

1- Does the order of authors' names convey some message?

2- Is it true that supervisor should be the first name?


texts: How do I use potentially copyrighted images in my course material?

texts: I teach at a school and I create PowerPoint presentations to use in my classroom.  I also need to upload the PowerPoints to my school website for my students to access.  Access is restricted and students must sign in with their school codes.  Can I use images I find on Google search?  Are all images copyrighted?  If they do not have an "ownership" stamp on them, are they ok to use in this manner?  Nothing is being sold and the presentations are taken down at the end of each year.


texts: What is the optimal way to publish the first scientific article?

texts:
I am a doctoral student (economics) and I'm about to finish my first scientific article.
Unfortunately I have no experience in publishing.

Can someone explain to me how best to publish this article?

I have some questions to which I am looking for an answer.

A) How do I search for the journals and how do I contact them or submit my article?

B) How do I recognize good journals and is it realistic that I can publish without any scientific reputation in a good journal?

C) Should I have the article professionally checked beforehand? (I am not a native English speaker)

D) How long does a normal process take from the first contact to the publication?

E) What are the advantages and disadvantages of an open-acess publication? I see this positively, because I want to share my results with as many people as possible.

F) What costs will I normally have to pay?

A kind of checklist for publishing would also be good. I think there are many more points I have not thought about.

I hope that someone can help me with his experience. Also I am grateful for further hints about things I have not considered.

Many thanks in advance!


texts: What is a correct way for "marketing" non core PhD achievements on a CV?

texts:
Reading this question and its answers got me thinking, once non-core PhD skills are learned and perhaps mastered, how can we make these achievements clear on a CV when applying for academic positions?

For example, my PhD majors in atmospheric physics and photobiology, but a significant part of it is in Android programming (the basis of the 3 published papers so far) and a few other skills not directly related to the major disciplines, but important nonetheless.

Related, would having peer reviewed published papers be considered as proficiency in the non core subjects without taking away the focus from the major disciplines?


texts: Wanting to return to university, but I have a Master's degree. Funding options?

texts:
My undergraduate is in Biology, I'm a US native.

I'm thinking about going back to school to study a more quantitative discipline like statistics or computer science.

Does anyone know of any scholarship websites, fellowships, or other ways to pay for school expenses?

Right now I'm looking at taking out more loans.  If I work for the government, I'll qualify for their "Public Servant Loan Forgiveness" program which will help.

If anyone has been in my position please let me know how you managed to retrain while not owing your soul to Sallie Mae.  Already having a graduate degree really hurts when it comes to finding financial aid.

Thanks in advance!


texts: How to cite a conference paper similar to thesis topic published during research?

texts:
I have been working on a topic for my PhD thesis, since mid-2017. I have found a recent article published in 2019, focusing on the similar topic. Since my research started earlier - I also have published papers on the topic as well -, how can I cite this article? Should I simply tell that these guys also worked on this topic in 2019 as well?

So far, I did not cite my own papers in my own thesis (this is what my professor told me). Now, it is not clear when I started doing my research. And of course, I would like my research to be considered novel in the thesis.


texts: How important is it for the corresponding author to be known in the field he/she is going to publish? Is the academic position of the corresponding author influential? How about the co-authors?


texts: Can I cite a secondary source if the primary source is available?

texts:
Assume that there are two papers A and B that give two different approaches to the same problem.

Paper A. This paper presents the method I used in my assignment.

Paper B. As reported in paper C (and some other sources):
  Paper B improves and combines the ideas in papers D and E. Without understanding D and E, it would be hard to understand B.
  Paper F shows that the method in paper B is no longer good/usable/recommended.

Reading all of papers B, D, E, F would take me a lot of time.

I did not use the method in paper B, but it is still part of the literature and has historical significance.
In the background/literature review section,

Should I omit paper B in my report (background section), or
Should I cite paper C as a secondary source?


texts: What is the impact of a radical change of opinion for early-career academics?

texts:
I'm wondering what are the potential consequences of a change of mind in the social sciences and humanities. More specifically, what would happen concretely if I publish a peer-reviewed article in which I develop a fierce critique of, say, Rawls and then, change my mind and publish another peer-reviewed article in which I adopt a Rawlsian approach to politics?

Another example would be beginning an academic career as a liberal and then changing to a socialist perspective (or vice versa). John Stuart Mill changed his mind and, more recently, John Gray also did.

But what happens if a regular young academic like me does it? Would my peers consider this as a weakness?


texts: Everybody cheats, administration does not care, what to do?

texts:
Context: A friend of mine is ending their first year in a community college (in France, called IUT, 2-year diploma) near my school, and apparently the school administration is quite lenient about cheating during exams ; I asked a few other friends of mine that are currently in second year there, and they have confirmed that nearly everybody cheats during exams, mostly because the questions don't change from one year to the other, allowing students to get the exams in advance and preparing for the questions. An important part of the exams are Moodle quizzes, which show the correct answers after submitting, and don't get modified from year to year either.

Problem: My friend does not want to cheat, for obvious reasons. The problem is that the way this kind of college works (in France) puts students in competition with each other ; your ranking among the other students is very important and is a determinant factor in your chances of being accepted in engineering schools after your second year (which is what most people in that community college do).

Multiple people have already tried reporting the cheating to professors and the college's administration, to no avail. Most professors don't seem to care, and the few that say they do care about cheating never act upon it. This results in mediocre (excuse the harsh term) students having an unfair advantage over good students trying to keep their integrity. This whole situation, combined with the Sars-Cov-2 lockdown has had quite a toll on her mental health.

My stance is to never cheat, but I'm having more and more trouble telling her to stay strong and do the same. It's gotten to the point that not cheating can have a significant negative impact on her future, and I couldn't help but feel responsible if she were to fail her year because of other people's dishonesty.

What is the best behavior to adopt here?


texts: I don't want to disclose "other schools" in my application

texts: I am making a graduate application that requires me to fill "other schools" that I am applying to. It is not a mandatory field. If I choose not to fill, will my application be negatively impacted? Why do they want this?


texts: Should I separate research into professional and "citizen science" or amateur?

texts:
This question was prompted by the sign-up of researchgate, which has three sections for new users; Academia, Corporate/Government/NGO, and Citizen Science.

If I am being paid to do research, regardless of my skill level, then I feel this makes me a "professional" in my field. After all, it's my primary source of income and my "profession". I would count myself as an "amateur mathematician", however the term "amateur" implies I'm not being paid for my work. This work is my livelihood, even my skills are far below that of a genuine mathematician.

However I am also investigating a wider range of topics than my training, and it involves fields where I am unable to make any contributions however I am studying those fields and even writing small literature reviews for in-house/corporate use.

While I feel it is fair to claim I am a "blockchain researcher", when I am investigating fields for my company which may have applications but I am currently unqualified in, should I count this investigation as a part of my profession or closer to recreational activity?

While I am being paid for this rather than it being purely recreational, it is still a field which I am not at the frontier of nor deeply knowledgeable of.


texts: Supervisor demanding impossible workload at the very end of my PhD. Considering change of supervisor

texts:
I am a PhD student in computer vision and I managed to publish 2 conference papers (one as first author and other as co-author) as a side project, since I had low quality data during my PhD.

Currently my supervisor is demanding a huge amount of work to be completed in 6 months - he is telling me to write 2 journal papers and a thesis!

My PhD always had problems with lack of data, but my supervisor never acknowledged that. After my papers had been rejected because of the low quality data, he acknowledged we needed to develop a better dataset.
So, I have been working for one year developing a novel high quality dataset for my PhD. But the problem is, I just have 6 months left and he is demanding at least 2 journal papers before the submission of my thesis.

I suggested to him to extend my PhD. He replied that I am allowed to take more time to complete my PhD, but he won't give funding to me after the original time passes. My supervisor actually has money for funding, since a post-doc left the project. But he said he will use this money to extend the contract of the other post-doc (the latter post-doc already has a 2 year contract).

It took 2 years to convince my supervisor that we needed a better dataset. I could be developing it from the first day of my PhD. Therefore, I consider it not my fault that I am in this situation where I am experiencing a major setback and now I am being rushed to complete my PhD.

To add to this, after I had developed the dataset, my supervisor is now giving it to new PhD students...

To give a bit of context, we had access to some prototypical sensor from the physics department, which I can use to collect lab data (the low quality data  that I had to work with in the beginning), but the sensor is really bad for the type of computer vision research that I am conducting. I always wanted a commercial sensor so I could collect more realistic data that would represent my PhD topic. I used the lab data for my research as I had no other choice at the time, but my paper was rejected because the reviewers claimed my dataset was not realistic, so they could not evaluate if my method would work for more realistic scenarios. After I developed the new dataset (after I managed to get my supervisor to buy a new sensor from my funds allocated for PhD travel), my supervisor is requesting to me to still work with the lab data and publish it before I move to the new realistic dataset.

Furthermore, my supervisor doesn't have knowledge about my research topic - all the meetings that I had with him were me explaining very basic concepts to him. I have been working completely alone, and I do not benefit from real academic discussions with him.

I suggested that I could work just with the lab data and write my thesis about it, and he could hire me as research assistant afterwards and I could publish more papers on the new dataset. But he wants me write 2 journal papers (one with the lab data and other with the new dataset) before the end of my PhD!

I never had a good relationship with my supervisor, he constantly criticises my work and never shows an alternative solution. And changing supervisor in my case is a bit more challenging since my PhD is industry funded and we have to sign a NDA.

I really think I don't have time to write both journals. I don't know what to do... I won't work without funding. I am really considering going until the end and asking for change of supervisor at any cost (but afraid of the consequences).


texts: If I quit my PhD, would it make my advisor look bad?

texts:
I am considering quitting my PhD in computer science, because after doing a software engineering internship I realized I enjoy that kind of work much more.

My advisor has been very kind to me, on both a professional and a personal level, and if I quit it might make her look bad. She is an assistant professor and I was her first student. I do not want people to think she was the one who made me quit.

Are people going to wonder if she was the reason I quit?

How much of an effect would this have on her career?


texts: Don't PhD programs in Europe always inform the application result?

texts:
Earlier this year I applied to 3 PhD programs in physics in Europe, and one (Germany) informed me they can't provide me a PhD position while the other two (Germany, Netherlands) didn't inform me their review status or decision. I afterwards sent them e-mails to inquire about the status but they didn't reply me.

Last month I applied to a PhD program in physics in Europe again. The program (Germany) doesn't specify when they will inform their decision and how they will inform the applicants. It has been 3 to 4 weeks since my submission of the application. I haven't got any of their notice and wonder whether they will eventually give any notice.

So is it a common convention of European PhD programs that they don't inform all the applicants the application status and those applicants who don't get any notice can just automatically assume they are not admitted? I don't like this way because the application is not an effortless process. To apply to a PhD program, I spend much time to check its research profile, including the publications of the principal investigators therein, to compose the essays they require. Therefore I expect each program I apply to informs me the definite result.


texts: ABD information and assistance with statistical information

texts:
I am presently in a PhD program and was an ABD student. I am curious as to the following information, which will also assist me in formulating my dissertation topic:
1. How many students are ABD on this site?
2. How did many of you end up in an ABD status?
3. How many ABD students are searching for ways to complete their degree?
4. What opportunities have you found that will assist you with your degree completion?
I hope to help as many ABDs as possible and I would appreciate it if you could help me by responding to these questions. Please feel free to ask me any questions as well.


texts: Using movie clips in a conference presentation

texts:
I'm a drafting a presentation for an upcoming conference. To illustrate some points I'd like to include some clips from well-known scifi movies about VR. Would this be considered "fair use"?

Could said powerpoint file be made available for download (which would include the movie clips I guess) afterwards?


texts: Financial resources for M.Sc. students in the U.S. universities

texts:
Most universities in the US provide financial aid to Ph.D. students. When the universities accept a student they inform him/her what are they offering (scholarship, stipend as TA, etc.). What is the situation with the M.Sc. students? Do they also get (sometimes) offerings about financial aid?

Maybe their offerings are based on resources that remain after some Ph.D. students decline their admittance. Is it possible for some M.Sc. students to get scholarships (from the university - not counting outside resources) or positions as TAs or RAs and thus they can pay their tuition and maintain a monthly stipend? Is the situation dependent on the student's nationality?

It is not an answer to a single question. I would appreciate it if someone explains the whole procedure that is followed for the M.Sc. students in the U.S. universities regarding the financial aid that they can get from the university.

EDIT: I mostly interested for computer science, but in general, the same situation should be true for other engineering majors in general.