texts: Applying for a PhD. Is it OK to reach out to a member of the lab who gave me his card before for advice?

texts:
I am currently in the process of applying to graduate school in the US. Earlier this year at a professional conference, I met a research scientist in one of my top choice university labs who told me I should "reach out when I'm applying" and gave me his card, to which I followed up later that day telling him I would be in touch.

A couple of months ago, I reached out to the professor who is head of the lab asking if he was taking student, who told me I should apply and we can talk further after being accepted.

I would like to follow up on the offer of the scientist and ask for some advice on my application now that I'm applying, but I'm not sure what is considered too much to ask him for. Ideally, I'd like for him just to look at my SOP and tell me if he thinks my goals are clear and align well with the group. It's worth noting that the university isn't too far from where I am, so I could potentially offer to meet him for lunch or something of that nature.

However, if he ends up discussing it with the professor, I don't want the professor to think that now I'm going around pestering members of his group after we spoke and trying to push my way in, so I think it would be important to somehow remind the scientist that he told me I should get in touch and that's my motivation for contacting him.

My question is: is there a way I can accomplish this without anyone being insulted or annoyed? Is this asking too much of his offer? Should I forget about it and look for my advice elsewhere?


texts: I want to submit a paper to arXiv.org, but I'm not affiliated to an Institute. What can I do?

texts:
I have a paper which I'm interested in submitting to arXiv.org.

However, the submission guidelines say an institutional affiliation is required for submission. I've graduated in physics from Unicamp in Brazil, but I didn't follow a scientific career. My current employer doesn't relate to physics.

What do you suggest that I do? Is there a way to submit my paper? Or is there an alternative to arXiv.org?


texts: What to do when paper is under review in two journals, because first journal did not act on request to withdraw?

texts:
I want your opinion on this issue.
I submitted a paper to Journal A. It had been with the editor for two months without being sent to peer review. So, I sent a withdrawal email to the editor. I waited for few days to get an email back, but I thought it is already done since I informed them. Then, I sent the paper to Journal B. It was sent to peer review after two days of submission.
Recently, I checked the online submission system of journal A, and they did not withdraw the paper, they actually sent it to peer review four days ago (three months from submission to intitiang peer review, which is too long in my field); I noticed that they have a new editor. Now, the paper is under review in two journals, which I know it is misconduct, but I assumed that the paper was withdrawn because I sent an email requesting that.
What do you think I should do?


texts: Writing postdoc fellowship before contacting postdoc advisor?

texts:
I'm in my last year of PhD (in the US studying biomathematics) and I didn't know how early I was supposed to start applying for postdocs. My main concern is funding. Apparently, the NSF postdoc grant is due in less than 30 days and the NIH F32 series is due in less than 2 months.
These grants all require research statements and some kind of sponsor statement. Since I haven't contacted anyone about postdocs, I can imagine a few routes of action:

I quickly write a research proposal -> send it to potential postdoc advisors along with CV and application -> ask if they are willing to advise me + write a sponsor statement for me within 2 weeks or so
Contact postdoc advisors now -> explain that grants are due in a month or so and ask if they want to quickly draft up something together

Which one is better? Finally, how many postdocs are funded by their own grant?
How many are funded by PI's grant?
Of course I will speak to my PhD advisor about this asap.


texts: Can I get into an Australian PhD program in computer science without a masters degree, with a dual BSc degree?

texts:
I am following a dual degree program in my home country (Sri Lanka). One degree, B.Sc in Computer Science will be awarded by an Australian University and the other degree which is a B.Sc (Hons) in Software Engineering will be awarded by my home country University.

Will I be able to get in to an Australian PhD program without doing Masters with these two degrees?


texts: Can a course title be similar to a book name or a course at other university?

texts: Is there any issue with using a course title that is similar to a book title or a course at other university, or it would be better to have a unique name?


texts: Fine to put as an appendix to my statement of purpose the paragraph explaining the gaps in my transcripts?

texts:
I am applying to doctoral programs in the US, and, because I have two breaks in my studies as what shown in my transcripts, I want to find somewhere to explain these.

But I am concerned with that if I simply put this short paragraph explaining my breaks in studies somewhere in my application package as a supplemental material, then it may be ignored (would it?)! Thus I decided to include it in my statement of purpose as an appendix.

The number of the words in my statement of purpose is not a problem, for even when the paragraph is included, my statement of purpose still contains less than 800 words.

So would such deed of mine have any chances to annoy any member of the committees?


texts: Can post-docs serve as reviewers for grant proposals?

texts: I am always hearing that being a grant reviewer is  a great experience in learning how to write proposals. I am a post-doc with an eye on an academic career so would like to do this. Does it happen? How do I sign up? I am in physics and in USA, if that matters.


texts: What are "executive members" of a conference or journal?

texts:
I am working in the Computer Science field and when working on one internal review of our department, I am asked to fill in the following items:

List of important committees of which you were an executive member (these committees typically own A-journals or A-conferences)
e.g., ACM SIGSOFT, ...

May I ask what are executive members? Surely I have served as PC of a number of Rank-A conferences in our field, but to my best understanding, there are no such executive members in anywhere. For instance:
https://sosp19.rcs.uwaterloo.ca/organizers.html
Could anyone shed some lights on this? Thank you very much.


texts: Is it possible to get IRB approval after the fact?

texts:
Generally speaking, peer reviewed journals will not publish research on human subjects that did not receive IRB approval.

If a study was done without the proper IRB approval, but the study itself was ethical and clearly would have passed IRB approval if it had been properly submitted, is it generally possible to get a post-facto IRB approval that is sufficient to publish in most journals, or is the work forever "tainted"? Is the fact that post-facto IRB approval is not often considered an option because it literally isn't allowed, or because research conducted without IRB approval almost always contains ethical infirmities that would have prevented IRB approval from the start? In other words, is the requirement to obtain IRB approval truly a "You absolutely must have prior IRB approval", or is it really more like "You absolutely must not conduct research unethically, and obtaining prior IRB approval is part of Best Practices in accomplishing this, because nearly all proposals that you or I might come up with are actually unethical and we need the wisdom of the IRB to show us the light and put us on the right path. If you forgo prior approval, you are wading in crocodile-infested waters, and you will have no one to blame but yourself, not the IRB, not your mom, not your advisor, but only you yourself, if you get your leg bitten off"?

To be clear, I'm not asking whether it is possible to "whitewash" unethical research to make it look like no one was harmed when in fact people were harmed, but about institutional procedural violations in otherwise ethical research. I am well aware that one of the primary reasons for seeking prior IRB approval (other than because journals expect it) is to avoid committing unethical acts, so for the purpose of this question, assume that the researchers either just get lucky or are just so competent in ethical practice that their actual research demonstrates sublime virtue (just without IRB approval).

Clarification: Some people have seen fit to warn me that I am in danger of losing my job. I am not currently facing this issue. I'm simply curious as to what would happen or what typically happens in cases like these - that is, whether there are Best Practices on how to mitigate the fallout or even how serious it truly is - whether this is more of a "Calm down, it happens all the time, all you have to do is write an apology letter, sit through a five hour 'naughty, naughty bad boy, sit in the corner' lecture, be ritually spanked on the rear by your department head or the Dean, accept a 5% penalty pay cut for six months, and go through a retrospective IRB review." or a "Your career is doomed, don't dream of ever teaching or doing research ever again, you will be lucky if you ever find work cleaning floors."


texts: Using proprietary software to demonstrate work in conference

texts:
I am going to conduct a workshop on my research work and for that I need to show how it is done on the software. I want to know,

Is it ok to display the proprietary software (through TeamViewer) from my university?
or Should I use screenshots?


texts: Journal for machine learning applied in finance

texts: I've written a new paper where I'm proposing methodological improvements to neural network training. I have simulation data and empirical results in financial markets to backup my algorithm. I'm now looking for a journal to submit my paper. Initially, I've thought of submitting to a finance journal and have tried Quantitative Finance but was rejected. The nature of the comments from one of the reviewers suggest to me that perhaps he/she didn't understand my paper. Where should I try next? Should I try other computational/empirical finance journals or should I target an application-heavy machine learning journal?


texts: Is it unethical to use a published code in my PhD thesis work?

texts:
I have used a code published in a published Masters thesis into my PhD work. I have modified just 10% of the code to suit my research requirement. However, most of the code is as developed by the original researcher. I had to use the code from the literature because I currently don't have the time, the resources or the motivation to write the code from scratch.

However, I am in a dilemma whether I am doing something unethical by using the code developed by someone else for my research. I will cite the original thesis in my papers and thesis. I will cite it in the following manner:

The code used in this thesis has been developed based on the work published by John Doe at the University of Agartha [1].

[1] Doe, J. Implementation of a code. University of Agartha, 2008.

Also, I am not going to add the code in my thesis or my paper. Will this be unethical and violation of the original author's copyright?


texts: Is it OK to write recommendation letters for two students for the same institution and how to avoid the competition?

texts:
I am a teacher in a high school for gifted students and a student (let's call him A) asks me for a recommendation letter some time ago to apply to a top-level university (say AU: Awesome University) in our country. His level is below the average but he is very motivated and worked very hard. He is also a very nice, dedicated student with a good sense of ethics. His rather low score is explained by the high standards of my school: it is highly considered at the national level and in some countries around, and senior students can validate in advance some university courses. So I am sure that A will do well at university and I really want him to enter in AU.

Recently, after I accepted writing a recommendation letter for A, a second student, B, asked me for a recommendation letter for the same university AU. B is a great student with excellent grades. She always works with passion and could be considered as a dream student. I of course would be very happy to write her a recommandation letter and I have no worries about the outcome of the application of her application to AU. But I am worried on how my recommandation letter for A will be compared to the letter for B and whether writing for B would lower A's chances to enter university.

The shorter, the better, here are my questions:

Is there any (maybe unofficial) policy about writing recommendation letters for two students for the same institution?
Do my worries about one of the two recommendation letters disregarded by comparison with the other one make any sense?
If my worries are founded, how can I avoid the competition between the two letters?


texts: If I receive a large scholarship (i.e. greater than $20,000), should my supervisor top up the award? If so, do I simply ask my supervisor, or is a top-up seen as a "gift"?


texts: Appropriate process for following up on university job posting

texts:
I figure someone on here is involved in hiring in academia, so here we go.

A few years ago I left university work for private industry, and have since decided I hate it. I'm looking at moving back into a university. To that end, I found a job at a local school and applied 1.5 weeks ago. The job is now off the website.

I just found the managing director of the program on LinkedIn, and it's very tempting to follow up with him. In private industry this would be fine, but I'm not sure how this would work for a university. Would it be acceptable, or should I just keep refreshing my application on the university website? What is the appropriate process for following up on a job application in academia ?


texts: Reply to a professor's response to my email or not?

texts: So I sent a thank you email to a professor who wrote me a reference letter. I updated her on the results of my applications. She replied back in a really nice email congratulating me and giving me some suggestions for my future career. I feel kind of rude ending our conversation this way, but at the same time, I also think it might be annoying for her to see another thank you email from me. If I do reply, I will most likely just say thank you again, this time for your kind words, and so on, which sound a bit repetitive. What would be an appropriate thing to do in this situation?


texts: What are the consequences to the researcher in cases of academic fraud?

texts:
The purpose of this question is to attempt to generate a concise but comprehensive answer to the question, what happens to the researcher after fraud is discovered? I'm familiar with some consequences:

Listing on the NIH Office of Research Integrity website
Retraction of relevant publications
Prevention from publication in journals for X years

What other are some other typical (and atypical) outcomes?


texts: How do academics in the Social Sciences use "mental maps" and why should college-bound students study them?

texts:
I teach secondary school Social Studies. As you may know, public school teachers must teach to state standards. My state's standards for Social Studies includes many references to the importance and use of "mental maps".
E.g. here are some quotes from the standards: "construct and use mental maps of locales, regions, and the world that demonstrate understanding of relative location, direction, size, and shape;"
"describe ways that mental maps reflect attitudes about places;"
I took many undergraduate and graduate courses in history, geography, cultural studies, linguistics, musicology, and various social science disciplines, but never remember mental maps ever being a topic, nor being used as a tool by academics.
Is it just a fun exercise or of some general value to the greater contribution of knowledge in the world? What sort of academics will use this and how is that an important concept for my secondary students, who are in a college prep track, to understand?


texts: Is the phrase "We can see that ..." appropriate in research papers?

texts:
Today at work, we had a discussion about writing styles of research papers. One of the topic was if the phrase "We can see that..." is appropriate for research papers or not.

While some people were convinced that the phrase does not belong there others had no problem with it. Since my mother language is not English and I am a "writer beginner" I was tactically silent.

I tried to google.scholar the phrase and it showed me a lot of papers with it. However, we all know that not all papers out there have proper writing style.

So the question:

Is the phrase "We can see that ..." appropriate for a research paper? If so, at which circumstances? At which circumstances it is not?


texts: Graduate school applicant visiting a department he has applied to - advantageous?

texts: I've applied to several graduate schools in the US for a physics PhD. As I currently have some free time, I'm willing to travel around and visit graduate schools that I've applied to. My current research advisor (who is also one of my letter writers) can possibly establish contact between me and some of the people I have expressed interest in at different schools. My question is that whether in your opinion this is something that can actually boost my chances of getting admitted (provided a meeting with a person of interest goes well). Could pursuing this plan be advantageous?


texts: What are some bad effects of bullets in presentations?

texts:
I get confused with some comments of JeffE on this question. Those are:

  ...avoid bullets entirely.

  Powerpoint doesn't kill people. Bullets kill people.

The comments got a lot of upvotes, so there are many people agree with them. And I don't understand why.

I use block and itemize extensively, and I think they provide a clear structure to my presentation. The bullets are the key points that I want to present on that slide.

So why people think they are so bad?

I have to emphasize that the question above asked about teaching, while I only give presentations. Are there any differences?

UPDATE

Thank you for the excellent answers (I still want to hear from JeffE). I can kind of understand that using only bullets is not enough, but avoiding them entirely is a personal opinion, not a general rule.

By the way, the best presentation I've seen so far is the last lecture of Randy Pausch, in which he used a fair amount of bullets.


texts: Is one year enough for a postdoc position to be a fruitful experience regarding my CV?

texts:
I have to decide about a postdoc position for which the contract would be only one year long. The position is in computer science and as a collaboration with an industrial sector. In fact, I want to join the industry after finishing my postdoc period, and I believe that collaboration can be add a bit of value to my CV.

My concern is that I'm not sure if one year is enough for doing high-quality research and publishing in top venues (which is important in CS).

Also, I have imagined that I have to spend the last 3-4 months of my contract on the job hunt to join a company. So, it remains me only 8-9 months to invest on research.


texts: Unexpected Extra Travel Costs and Grants

texts:
When traveling, there are many things that can possibly happen or go wrong that would require extra money to fix.  While these things may not be directly related to the research travel one is doing, these expenses would not pop up if you weren't traveling.

For example, if one gets stuck in the airport on the way back to one's home institution, you may need to get an extra night at a hotel before you go home.

The question is the following: When is it appropriate to claim such an expense on one's grant?

There are clearly varying levels of such events. One is something out of your control like weather pushing your flight back a day. Some are completely in your control and you messed up, e.g.,  you miss your flight and need to pay a fee to get on a later flight. Others are due to scheduling conflicts and new plans arising, e.g., another talking engagement shows up and one needs to pay the flight change fee in order to make sure one can present at both conferences.

Are all/some of these scenarios appropriate for claiming against a grant or asking reimbursement for?


texts: How to reply to students' emails that show anger about their mark?

texts:
I always find myself in a difficult situation on the rage of students who are upset about their marks they just received. I feel it is kind of difficult to reply to students' emails that sound very angry. Especially when they first receive their marks.

Why did I get this MARK!
How could I get this mark, when my colleague got higher!
I will provide my mark to the dean! (some already done so!)

I know that this is not uncommon, but I feel we have the duty to know how to deal psychologically with this behaviour.
How do you deal with this situation?
Some say, do not reply to this email before at least a week so that the student acknowledges and time for them to relax.
The issue is that I will have to deal with these same students in a module next term and I am worried about how they will portray me.


texts: NIH grants - moving to another institution as PI

texts: If you submit an NIH grant (e.g. RO1) as PI and then move to another institution prior to study section review, or after an award is made, what are your options under both scenarios?  Also, what is the NIH policy regarding such PI changes?


texts:
I have started publishing papers this year - 3 so far, of which 2 are in an international journal, the 3rd in a local journal.

My question is, is there any particular disadvantage with publishing the majority of papers in one or a very limited array of journals? Or is it a case that it makes no difference either way?


texts: What is the best way to see if students understood?

texts:
I am teaching classes of a size of 20-25 persons.

During a class, what is the best way to get feedback from students? Concretely, I would want to get the following questions answered every ~15-20 minutes:

Did the students understand what I was explaining?
Are there any questions related to what was just discussed?

Ideally, I would also like to encourage weaker students to ask questions---without them being afraid of asking those questions.

Do you have any advise on how to best phrase such questions from my side?


texts: Can you reject a postdoc offer after the PI has paid a large sum for flights/accommodation for your visit?

texts:
I am being considered for a very nice industry scientist position but this involves many interviews and assessments and can take some time.

However I have also accepted an invitation to the US (I'm in Australia) to give a presentation in relation to high likelihood of employment as a postdoc in a research institute.

The postdoc supervisor has arranged for sightseeing and lab visits and hotels. I feel bad if somehow I wish to pursue the industry position.

Has anyone had a similar experience and have you turned down something like that before?


texts: How should I refer to PIs in a statement of purpose (US)?

texts:
I am applying for PhD programs at graduate schools in the US and I am wondering how I should refer to researchers that I name in my statement of purpose? In particular, I am wondering whether to refer to people that have titles of 'Assistant Professor' or 'Associate Professor' as Prof. or Dr.? I have heard that the prefix 'Prof.' tends to be reserved for full, tenured Professors - is that true?

(note, that I have edited the question due to its similarity to this one, to focus specifically on the context of a statement of purpose for US grad schools)


texts: Should I leave out research in my NSF fellowship application if I'm not getting an LOR from the professor I worked with?

texts:
I'm pretty sure that my former advisor lied to me, manipulated me, and thinks I'm an idiot, so understandably I don't think it's a good idea to ask him for a letter of recommendation for the NSF graduate fellowship. However, my most recent academic research experience was with him, during the Spring quarter, and it's probably the most impressive research I've done, especially since he's a well known professor. I do have other research experience to talk about, but it's not quite at the same level.

But if I write about that project in my application, I imagine the committee is going to wonder why I don't have a letter of recommendation from that professor. Should I strive to minimize that research or even leave it out completely? Or is the benefit of talking about that research experience greater than the risk of being judged for not having a letter from him?

EDIT: This is why I think my advisor lied to me, manipulated me, and thinks I'm an idiot:

1) He said I couldn't work on a certain type of research project I wanted to work on because I hadn't taken a particular class. He then let two other students (undergraduates) who had not taken that class work on that type of project. One of those projects led to a publication.

2) I asked him why he let those other students work on those projects and he said it was because, while they were working on the projects, they learned stuff from that class on their own. I asked why I couldn't have also learned that stuff on my own, and he just said, "ehhhh" and refused to answer any further. [Response to comment below: those students, former classmates of mine, had not learned the material from that class on their own prior to being assigned the projects.]

3) There was only one project he said I was capable of working on. I asked if he thought it was publishable, and he said yes. I worked on it for months, and then met one of his collaborators, who said that it was not in fact publishable, but reassured me that they would post it on the internet somewhere. [Response to comment below: The collaborator didn't say this because something in the project was revealed to be less promising than they originally hoped. He said this because he viewed the piece I was working on as a small addendum to the larger project, which had already been published.]

UPDATE: In case anyone is curious, it turned out that my advisor did in fact lie to me and think I was an idiot. He did not, however, manipulate me -- that part was due to a misunderstanding.


texts: When you email a professor to inquire about an available PhD position is it a good idea to ask if they have any available projects?


texts: Getting a coder to perform triangulation

texts:
I am a PhD student currently working on a qualitative study. I have analysed my data and few reviewers have advised me to get another coder to code my data.

My data include video recording of about 40 hours. So analyzing those data would take minimum 80 hours in my experience.

Currently I am finding it difficult to find another person who can dedicate that time for coding my data. What are the common ways that PhD students follow to get coders to code their data?


texts: How to justify selection of existing algorithm for a new application area?

texts:
So, I have found an application which could benefit from a machine learning algorithm:

There is a pretty standard method in my area of research for design of experiments and I have discovered that one step could be automated to save time. The automation can be done with a variety of standard machine learning algorithms and I've selected one that:

is used pretty often, according to literature
provides very satisfactory results (high accuracy) on my data

I am currently writing a paper on my findings. My question is, how could I rule out the alternatives or at least justify my choice (for example, in the "related work" section) against other algorithms that could possibly work better/be more suitable?

Considering machine learning is not my strongest skill, I have tried to implement most of the other state-of-art algorithms to compare to, but for some of them I just don't have the knowledge to do so.

*My question is similar to this one: What's the best way to justify your choice of baseline methods for academic paper?, but the difference is that my paper's novelty is about the new application area, rather than a new algorithm.


texts: How can I ask a professor for time-sensitive information when they are out for a family emergency?

texts:
I'm an undergraduate student, and at the start of the semester I was trying to organize something like undergraduate research (but more basic) with one of my professors. I have to fill out a form due at the end of the third week of the semester describing what the work would be, so I went to this professor during the first week of classes to discuss potential options.

About a week later, near the end of the second week of classes, I sent an email with additional research I had done on potential topics that looked promising based on what I found on their CV. They responded and told me that they would get back to me later with what they felt would work best.

The form is due at the end of this week, but the professor just sent an email out to the class that their office hours were cancelled and they would not be in class due to a family emergency. I obviously don't want them to feel any pressure, but at the same time, this is a time sensitive process for me.

What's the best way to ask for basic information about the project so I can begin working on the form?


texts: How much study gap is acceptable in New Zealand?

texts: I got my Master about 4 years ago from Iran. Since then, I have been working in a research group and published 4 papers in journals with IF between 1.767 to 4.594, including a paper related to my dissertation, and still working on 2 other research projects with my former supervisor in the university in Iran, based in Tehran. I was about to apply for pursuing my Ph.D. in New Zealand in the fields of Mathematics and Industrial Engineering when the pandemic emerged. I am a bit worried that the educational gap affects my plan negatively. Plus, I am at the age of 44 with 18 years of practical experience in industries and research, and I cannot fall asleep because of my worrieness.


texts: Letters of recommendation from undergrad professors after you have a masters

texts:
I'm in a masters program in mathematics (in the United States) and I plan to apply for PhD programs in math (in the U.S./Canada) in a few months. I'm going to need at least 3 letters of recommendation for my PhD applications. I'm definitely going to ask my masters thesis advisor for a letter, but the other two letters can come from any of the following categories:

Other professors from my masters program (which are all lecturers/postdocs)
Undergrad research advisors (I have three)
Other professors from my undergrad program

My question is this: after completing a masters degree, will letters of recommendation from my undergraduate professors carry much weight? Would it be better for me to ask for a letter from a postdoc who taught one of my masters-level classes than to ask for a letter from my undergrad research advisor (who's been teaching for 10+ years)?


texts: How can I change a typo in the author affiliation after publication?

texts:
I am really needing help. There is a typo on my University Name, however  the paper is already published. Is there any way to still change it? The paper has been published on ACM Platform.

I am very concerned about the reputation of my research with this minor typo. I spent a lot of effort to this research and just realize that...


texts: Trouble handling simultaneous PhD application in two different teams of the same institute

texts:
So, there are team A and team B of the same institute and I have been interested in both since I started looking for a PhD, especially in team B.

I have been writing an application for team B but had trouble finishing it because they asked for so many thinks it was discouraging (like I had a hard time writing a two pages research statement because I did not really get what they were expecting from me in this letter).

In the meantime, I met a professor from team A that talked me about a PhD subject A. I had a good feeling so I applied and I got invited to the institute for interviews with the team A. At this point I have thought it would be weird to apply to team B too.

It went well and after this visit, I thought team A and the institute were amazing, however, talking all day long with researcher about what I wanted to do, I realized that 50% of the subject A is not really aligned with what I want to do, while team B researches really fit more what I want to work on. So I really regretted I did not apply to them. I mentioned to Supervisor A that I was also considering applying to team B.

So the following day, thinking I would regret it too much if I did not try, I finalized my application for team B, which was then far easier to do since thanks to the interviews, I finally knew what they wanted to know from me in the research statement. Since the leader of team B was also one of my interviewers, I also wrote him a short mail to let him know that I applied to his team as well.

The thing is, he answered me that "he would not interfere with my application in team A.."
I guess he can't "steal me" while I am in an application process with team A, I did not see it that way when applying...

So now I am concerned about 3 things:

Did I made a faux pas by sending this mail?
It seems that my only chance for my application to be considered by team B would be to refuse team A proposal and I don't want to find myself without any option since my other applications did not succeed.
Moreover, I am not even sure Team B would have any vacancies for a PhD


texts: Applying to transfer to a different PhD in CS program while still enrolled in a PhD program

texts: I am 1.5 years into my PhD in CS program. I cannot change my program to MS since I already have a masters. My research interests have been diverging from my advisor's and he told me that he might find it difficult to fund me as a research assistant from Fall 2018 onward. I still have a teaching assistantship for Spring 2018. He encouraged to look around my home CS department and also other PhD in CS programs. I am still not sure if I am even allowed to apply to PhD programs while still enrolled in one? I am just wondering if the programs I apply to will look suspiciously at my current enrollment as a PhD in CS student with 1.5 years completed. As long as I honestly explain my situation in my statements and any interviews, do I stand a chance? I would encourage commenters to tell me if they themselves have seen similar cases.


texts: How do professors change research interests?

texts:
My question is along the lines of How do professors usually discover "new" research interests? but more to do with "HOW"? The above question deals with how professors discover new areas, my question is once a professor or a grad student has found an interesting lead, how do they pursue it?

Consider Prof. X who is a mathematician and just talked to his old MS student who is now working on Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence. He speaks to the student for 20 minutes about how is applying math to AI. Where does he go from here?

Does he:

Go to Wikipedia/Encyclopaedia to get a rough overview of the subject.
Search for papers.
Search for a good book to read.
Speak to someone in his institution who works on AI and ask them for reading references.
Something else?

How does a professor make sure he gets the right resource considering his expertise in some subject? For instance, the professor would definitely want a book which starts from a primer on Linear Algebra


texts: How familiar should I be with research topics of a potential PhD supervisor?

texts:
I'm about to finish my master's degree in physics (theoretical physics). I'm applying for several professors in Europe. I want to do my PhD in another field than my master's thesis, but both fields are theoretical and to some extend related. But, I didn't take some relevant courses on this topic in my undergraduate studies, instead I took courses which were related to my master's thesis. My question is the following:

How much details should I know about the research field of the potential professor?

I don't understand his papers quite well, although I'm passionate about the topic and have many ideas or maybe fantasy.


texts: How to deal with unavoidable failure in my first year of tenure-track applications?

texts:
I got my PhD recently. I applied to many tenure-track positions and got selected for several onsite job interviews. Yay. However I have actually been told in no uncertain terms by several trusted people that this year, my chances are extremely close to zero, considering my short track record.

I cannot help but get my hopes up. How do I deal with this upcoming unavoidable failure and put a good spin for myself on my situation?

It may sound stupid but like many people in academia, so far I have been quite successful and have not had to deal with professional failure much... (Consider this: good in school, good in university, graduated with honors, got accepted to masters, got accepted to PhD, got the PhD - most people in academia follow this kind of path. I hope this does not come across as immodest, I am very aware that I am just a cog in the grand (grant?) scheme of academia. I am good at what I do but not at the rest.) Of course I met failure very often in my private life, but this does not feel the same.


texts: How do I refer to myself in a postdoc application research proposal?

texts:
I'm writing up a STEM postdoc application and the major component is a lengthy research proposal. I'd like to speak to my specific strengths in the area and provide examples (some of which may not have associated publications), but I'm not sure about language choice. I'm aware of this SE question, but that's more for journal publications. It's easy to say "we" in a journal article, even if I did all the work, because my PI's name is always last author.

Some proposals I've seen have included language like "the applicant's expertise in..." or "this researcher's previous investigation into..." but that seems inelegant and forced. What's the best way to do this?


texts: Are contributions to the American Political Science Review labeled "Letter" peer reviewed?

texts:
I suspect that in general, they are not, but perhaps someone who knows better could clarify.

However, I am looking specifically at the American Political Science Review, where contributions labeled "Letter" are much longer than is typical in other journals. Are these "Letters" peer reviewed?


texts: How to write a thesis to transform into a book?

texts:
I am starting to write my thesis by the start of August this year.
I want to write it in a format so that later I can publish a book out of it.
How is it possible? Any suggestions?

Also, does this account for self-plagiarism? What are the key points I should keep in mind before start writing?


texts: How much effort should weekly homework be worth?

texts:
Background: Just completed my PhD, have to teach one part of a graduate course in EE. Remaining course is taught by another senior prof. Course has two classes, totalling 3 hours per week, and one assignment every week which involves one or more of simulation (SPICE), some programming (MATLAB) and some hand-calculation / circuit design. The assignments are worth 40% of the course eval, the remaining being in-class exams.

How long should each assignment be? For instance, I can design the assignment such that it takes the average student (who has attended the lectures) X hours of effort. How do I choose X?


texts: Are user surveys considered "human experiments" by the U.S. National Science Foundation?

texts:
I'm applying for a grant to the National Science Foundation of the United States of America.

The grant is to fund our research in numerical methods for fashion. I want to conduct a survey where I show two images to a human subject. One of the images shows the original dress and the other one shows our simulation. Then, I ask them to grade 1-5 how good they think is the simulation.

I think this is quite harmless stuff for humans (beyond the trauma of our bad taste in fashion), so is this considered experimentation with human subjects for the National Science Foundation of United States of America?


texts: Get in touch with potential PhD supervisor without a topic? How specific should I be?

texts:
I would like to work with a very specific person. That person has an interest in the overall topic I want to write my PhD in, but I have no idea what exactly that topic is going to be. But I am sure that I want to work with this person, and that this is the general area I want to tackle.

How do I get in touch? Should I better have some proposal ready? How specific would I need to be? Or do you think it's ok to just say it how it is?

I am worried to make a bad impression if I just contact him and say "I would like to do my PhD with you, but I have no idea what specific topic yet". I am in the political sciences and the person is in very high demand, which complicates things a bit further I guess. I am in the UK by the way.


texts:
Two friends of mine, Alice and Bob, enrolled in two different Ph.D. programs, have been collaborating in a research project and writing a paper together.  They have submitted the abstract to a certain conference and hope to publish the paper in the future (the conference allows this).  Alice, expecting to graduate sooner than Bob will, asked Bob by email if she could include the paper into her "staple" dissertation.  Bob is completely fine with that, but he is confused at the same time, since her email was lengthy for the seemingly simple favor.  He thinks that perhaps the favor would have consequences according to some customs in the academia; he is worried that the decision might make it impossible to use the paper as part of his own dissertation.

Question: Can a single co-authored paper be part of two stapled dissertations (by two people)?

(Alice is in the Netherlands, and Bob is in the U.S.  They both are enrolled in interdisciplinary programs, but the closest fields include mathematics and theoretical computer science.)


texts:
My school uses D2L for all classes. When I submit a paper (or other file) to D2L, I can see in the "Dropbox" whether or not the professor has read a submitted file. In most of my courses, I see the indicator change from "unread" to "read" and then I see the grade posted.

I have one course where I've been receiving grades without every assignment being changed to "read". This course is led by a professor who is... I'll say, less than enthusiastic about the course.

While this is a general education course for which I'm not expecting any significant feedback on my work, I am concerned that this professor is forsaking grading assignments altogether and simply providing an A.

Does D2L have a way for the instructor to access my submission while it appears "unread"?

Should I address this? If yes, with whom?


texts: How are unusual thesis topics looked at?

texts:
So at my university, there have been professors who partner with industry, including a sex products company, one which develops devices.
What I'm curious about is how a PhD thesis is looked at which in part involves an area like this? Practically speaking, many skills involving machine design, control theory and perception systems are used so it's not a joke topic but I'm curious if the area itself has a negative impact on career development.


texts:
I'm taking the last and hardest exams of my master degree. During the exams we aren't allowed to use anything else but our brain. Cheating is pretty easy though: one has the lecture notes and all the past exams with solutions on the phone and can easily consult them without being caught, therefore the majority of the students does it. I scored pretty good on the first exam but didn't get the best mark like some cheaters did. I feel at a disadvantage here with respect to the majority of my colleagues who will take better grades in these exams and I'll end up with the US equivalent of a C

My main problem here is my disadvantage towards everyone else, especially in PhD application where the transcript of records plays a role.

I also firmly believe that the cheaters will be be caught sooner or later by showing their own incompetence when they for example do research, but this isn't helpful since they may have been given the chance to do research instead of me.

So should I put morals aside and simply go there and cheat if I need to? Is there any justification for someone to do it?

I never did it so far but this time I've taken I've been very tempted.

I can't actually think of any way of justifying me cheating in the next exams. On the other hand I'm not having a fair competition at all here and even if I know some of them are better physicists than me and I'd finish behind them anyway I also know that some of them are worse than me.

I know I'm basically asking if cheating can be condoned, can it?

I don't want to report them, I probably don't have the guts to do it, especially because it's such a socially accepted practice.

Do I have any alternatives beside taking the exams while pretending other students don't exist, pass the exams and go on without looking back?


texts:
Since it takes a lot of time to type presentations out using Beamer, PowerPoint, etc. (I need lots of equations) I have been thinking of shifting to handwritten slides (example).

Does anyone here have experience with handwritten slides that are not "transparencies"? What hardware/software will I need to prepare slides like these?


texts: Factors contributing to Research apart from publishing Technical Papers

texts:
I want to pursue M.S. from USA.
I know that it is required to have a background of publishing technical papers for getting admit in a good University.
But I wanted to know whether is there anything else apart from publishing a paper that constitutes as "Research" by the Admission authorities?
Thank You.


texts: Is TA-ing worth the opportunity cost (of having more time for research)?

texts:
If you already have funding, is TA-ing (i.e. being a teaching assistant) worth the opportunity cost of doing more research?
What are the relevant considerations?

I've always heard that focusing on research is a better use of time for boosting one's CV for applying for competitive and research-focused faculty positions, and that they really don't care very much about teaching experience. But recently, I've heard a lot of people saying the opposite.

I'm sure it depends on the field somewhat.
I'm in machine learning, some characteristics of the field which seem relevant are:

It is fast-paced and highly collaborative.
Professors often act more as project managers and don't do as much research.
Successful grad students often publish several papers a year.

In particular, I'm curious about how it looks on a CV, not about other benefits (e.g. learning useful skills)


texts: What to name a section at the end of thesis containing original material for future development?

texts:
I have written my master thesis. The last chapter is "Summary and Conclusions". After this chapter which ends the thesis, I want to add a specific note of my own. It is a new idea which needs lengthy explanation and it does not directly relate to the contents of the thesis. It is a new algorithm which is not used in the thesis but I want to introduce this algorithm for future development of the field.

I want to know under which section I have to write it. Should I write it as an appendix? Thanks in advance.


texts: Will having multiple published work in well-established journals increase my chances for acceptance to a master's program?

texts:
I have published two research works in Q1 and Q2 journals, working as a research assistant (co-author). I am wondering whether the published work increases my chances of acceptance for a master's program, if all other factors are good but not exceptional. The two works improved the state-of-the-art in a particular subfield and my involvement in both works was very much in every aspect of the research, from idea development, modeling to writing.

Note: my field is electrical engineering

Edit: To add more substance, would having such publications and research experience make me an equivalent candidate to, say,  someone applying with ~4.0 GPA but no research experience?  Which usually aims high when applying (for reference, my GPA is 3.7)


texts: Is it a good idea to have really busy advisor?

texts:
I would like to have one of my department professors as an advisor mainly because he is an expert on the field that I am interested in and I'd like to work in.

The problem is that he is a really busy professor:

He is currently enrolled doing his PhD, he is  teaching 2 student groups, he is married also a father of two kids and I have heard recently that he is usually late so that he does not even have lunch at home. However he put his name on the list of 'available teachers to do thesis with'.

So my question is if would it be a good choice to have him as an advisor?

Is it possible for a professor to do ALL these activities and also an advisor?

I really doubt that he could give me the attention and help that I might need as a thesis student.

What do I do?


texts: How to deal with racial insensitivity in an academic environment?

texts:
I am an undergraduate research assistant in a biology lab. I was having an informal conversation while working at lab with my professor and a colleague of him. In the middle of our conversation, my professor passed a racially insensitive remark at me (I can reproduce here if someone wants to know). However, he realized it and walked away immediately. I am very upset.

But after few hours, he came back and he was conversing with me like nothing happened, but I am still upset. Can you all tell me how to handle this? My options are to ask him if he did that unknowingly or to keep quiet. But I really want to know if he feels sorry for what he said. I really don't want to complain to his superiors, but I want him to apologize to me for what he said. Is this unreasonable? if not, how should I go about dealing with this person?


texts: Science Ph.D. to a sociological post-doc?

texts:
I am finishing up my phd, with a heavy climate change/plant physiology/molecular focus. Would it be possible to now enter a more sociological post-doc (e.g. connection between economic models and climate change, or gender vs. climate change, etc.)? How disparate can your phd and postdoc be when your phd is in a hard science?

My goal after my postdoc is a teaching position at a liberal arts college focusing both on hard science, and sociology if at all possible.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!


texts: How do journals and conferences verify if the results in paper are genuine

texts: Most of the conferences and journals doesn't ask for code to be submitted along with the paper. How common is it to detect fake or incomplete results in such conference/journal review ? In my field of study in Computer Science, sometimes overwhelming claims are made in some papers, but since the field is still growing, how do reviewers/editors determine the authenticity of the results ? Is it common to ask for code or working demo in such cases.


texts: How do admissions committees perceive poor grades in "core" classes in the major, for students with better grades in "harder" classes?

texts: I prefer to avoid the "do I have what it takes to get in?" question, and would rather focus on how a particular graduate committee contemplates a few poor grades on a transcript, particularly in core introductory courses related to the major. Let's say person A gets 1 or 2 C's in his core classes (maybe discrete math and intro to programming), but then has A's and B's across the board in harder subjects such as Machine Learning or Combinatorics. How does the admissions committee view this? Do they care about the C's at all in that case? That is to say, taking other factors such as the GRE or Recommendations into account, what really matters?


texts: Special Needs student with disruptive behavior (racial slurs towards teacher)

texts:
There is a student at a university of a friend of mine who has Asperger's Syndrome, which is a milder form of Autism. My friend, who is a teacher there, has told me that the student mostly does OK work but he is not always aware of socially acceptable behavior.

The major problem, and I mean major, is that he has literally shouted racial slurs at the teacher in the middle of class (over 5 times) as a way of expressing "friendship" with the teacher (not out of malice). Normally, this is grounds for having to be dropped from the course and even be removed from the campus even if the purpose is to try and be "friends". However, because the student is a special needs student with distinct problems and does not truly understand the impact of such behavior, my friend wants to seek alternatives. This is a challenging situation as it is still mostly uncommon for students of this nature to enrolled at university.

What disciplinary/counselling measures are appropriate for a teacher to take, in the case of a special-needs student whose actions are detrimental to the learning environment?


texts:
I noticed during my application process for post-doc jobs that several say "1-2 year appointment" or "possible renewal for second year". I understand from this answer that it is in everyone's benefit to not be "stuck" in a postdoc situation for too many years for fear of starving oneself.

My question is, if not mentioned, what is the general criteria for a renewal of postdoc appointment to a second year (or perhaps to a third)? Most of the applications I have put in to labs/univs. are not clear at all on renewal criteria. Is it based on need? performance? Mutual understanding? Does anyone have examples on some of these situations?


texts: What should be the order of references in a research text?

texts:
In many research articles numerical values are used for citing references in the text. I have seen the numbering of such references in pretty weird orders.
In some texts, the references are sequenced as they are cited in the article. For example,

Case 1:

  Statement X[1], says that the technique ABC[2] solves the problem by utilizing the Y method[3]

While in a few, they seem to follow random ordering like

Case 2:

  Technique X[95,46,38] has been long used for solving the problem
  discussed in [12]

In some others

Case 3:

  Technique X[56] has been used in [23] to solve Y.

Are there any standard conventions or best practice for ordering the references ?

(My field is computer science)


texts: If I am enrolled in Bachelor's degree taught in English, Can I in the future continue with Master's Degree taught in different language?

texts: Is it possible?, do Universities recognize the knowledge you have and believe in your billingual skills in the field that you are studying, or is it completely not being acknowledged, and require you to retake the degree in the language you want to get Master's degree as if you were without the degree in the first place?


texts:
I want to pursue a PhD at an institution in Japan that I don't know first hand. As lab websites or personal webpages don't really reveal the personalities of professors, it isn't easy to know in advance which professor's working style and personality could match my own.

Are there ways to determine whether a professor will be a good match for me?


texts: What is the recommender address and his/her title or position in graduate applications?

texts:
I was trying to fill out the graduate school application for graduate school. However in the "recommender info" part it asks me to enter the address, city, institute and title or position but I wonder what they are? should I enter the university address? is title or position like assistant or full professor?
I would be very appreciated if anyone can help me with that.


texts: I've developed a close relationship with my past graduate teaching assistant, and I'm very interested in her: is it appropriate to pursue this?

texts:
The graduate teaching assistant I'm interested in taught one of my introductory courses. She needed research assistants, so I decided to join her lab. From all this we became very close. Ever since the end of that semester, we talk nonstop.  It's been more than a year since I was in her class, but I am still an undergraduate. I am also applying to essentially the same graduate program she is in. We are not working with each other right now, but it is extremely likely we will work together again.
Would it be inappropriate to pursue this? The people in her lab know me. Would this make her look bad?


texts: Colleague stole my work and is publishing it as his own; my PhD supervisor supports him; I got the paper to review. How to proceed?

texts:
By chance, I am reviewing now the paper which I recognised as a paper of my colleague. We are from the same institution and I am surprised that I got this paper to review, but, on the other hand, I am lucky to see it before it's published.  My colleague mentions in this paper the methodology like it was his idea but actually, I am the one that developed it, made it work and applied it,  together with the help of my supervisor. In short, he wants to be the author of the idea and the methodology. This is, in fact, what comes out from the paper.

I am now preparing my own paper about this methodology and my work, and I don’t have any publication on it, so far, just a poster from when I participated at a conference six months ago.

I talked to him about it but he doesn’t feel that it is wrong or ethically incorrect.

On top of that, we have the same supervisor. I talked with him as well, and he was threatening me, in a political correct way. He claims that it is okay, and in my paper, I will have just to cite their work in the introduction. He also stated that my work has a different approach in a small detail, so I will criticise their method and put mine as the better one. However, it isn’t true, because my approach is based on the methodology mentioned in the paper which I am reviewing now.

I really don’t know what to do. I was thinking to not review the paper, but it doesn’t solve the problem. If I reject it, I will have to write the reason why I am doing that, and it may turn my supervisor against me.

I would like to act in the most appropriate and ethically correct way. Just don’t know how. I would be grateful for all insights.


texts: PhDc - how long can you use it if it has not been completed?

texts: Many things came up during my PhD program, including personal and a horrible committee chair after two of mine left for other schools. I completed all my coursework, successfully completed my comps, and had all 3 chapters written and was in process of editing my chapters when they cut me off as it had been 5 years. I had a case against the school but the time to go to court and money it would cost would be enormous. It ended up that my advisor was retiring. When I apply for other jobs, I was a PhDc. How long can that be used for. I'm not claiming i have my PhD but want to claim I was a candidate. I am now back in school for a different doctorate, so until that is completed, I want to use PhDc. Thoughts on legality of this - has anyone done this?


texts: How to motivate myself to do more than the bare minimum that is required of me?

texts:
First, I should assure you this is a question about life in academia.

I am currently studying for a Master's degree in mathematics at a top university. I also have a Master's degree in Artificial Intelligence from another top university.

I get a lot of pleasure when I study and understand new ideas. I won't say studying mathematics is easy but in general I do not encounter significant difficulties to understand theorems and proofs when I sit down and go through them. I have also done a fair amount of research. I am preparing for publication my previous Master's dissertation and my current supervisor wants to take me on for a PhD.

I know I can handle research and I know I can understand thoroughly a subject.  However, I feel extremely superficial. I almost always do the bare minimum. For example, the way I study for an exam involves reading all of the lecture notes to get a feel for the general ideas. Then I understand how these ideas fit together. I go through some of the details and I ensure that in principle I could understand them.

At this point I get in a conflicting state. I feel complacent because I have determined that in principle it is just a matter of time to work out the details and this just feels tedious. When I do try to work out the details I feel extreme repugnance. Forcing myself to do it leads to breakdowns but I've learned to manage that. This struggle continues with the result that I usually get an A or a B or the bare minimum to satisfy my supervisor if I'm working on a research project.

I cannot overcome this dreadful feeling and this issue often stands in the way when I try to develop my own ideas. The first glimpse of understanding the principles of a concept leads to inability to invest any more effort in developing my ideas. Then, I find myself reading some easily digestible article on the internet.

I want to continue doing research and stay in academia. But I often feel helpless. I have tried a lot of schemes to motivate myself, including trying to talk myself into persisting, reading self-help books, and devising an axiomatic system to explain to myself what it means to be interested in something.

There is of course incremental improvement but far from efficiency. I cannot imagine myself doing anything else but research. However, I feel that once I get into pure research and there is no more explicit structure I would get completely lost.

How can I motivate myself to persist in such a situation? How can I overcome such complacency?


texts: What is the difference between volume editors and series editors?

texts:
I am filling out a "Consent to Publish" form and I need to fill out the Volume Editor(s) field. I tried to find out who these editors are, but all I found was the series editors and the main editor.

For example for the Lecture Notes In Computer Science there are 12 series editors. I doubt that I should list all 12 of them. Are the volume editors a subset of series editors, or are these two concepts unrelated?


texts: Is it ever harmful to submit extra recommendation letters from somebody outside of my department?

texts:
I'm a senior applying for admissions to Ph.D. programs in mathematics. The departments I'm applying to all ask for three recommendations and encourage (but don't usually require) them to be from math professors.

I have three math professors whom I plan to ask for letters, and I believe all of them will be strong, but perhaps not superlative.  In addition, I know a professor who is primarily from the philosophy department (whose interests are related to math) who I believe would write a stronger letter than the other three. (He supervised an unusual independent study course for me and it was fairly successful).

The subjects I studied with him were entirely mathematical (logic), but his own work is more distinctly on the philosophy side (philosophy of science/math and related topics, not mathematical logic) .

Could asking this professor to write a fourth letter harm my application in any way? I think the letter itself would represent me in a good light and highlight an unusual aspect of my resume, but I don't want it to replace a letter from a mathematician for fear of admissions committees looking negatively at a letter from someone in the wrong department.

EDIT In response to the comment: I've worked closely will all three math professors. I've done long-term research projects with two of them (my university requires a junior and senior thesis; they were my advisors), and a year-long independent study with the third. I believe they were all reasonably happy with my performance, but I'm not sure I was able to blow them away. The independent study project I did with the professor from the philosophy department was more unusual, took more initiative on my part, and I believe I made a stronger positive impression.


texts: I found out that my PhD topic has been done before, what can I do , to make it an original topic without changing the main idea

texts: I am a PhD student , and I am in my first year, started four months ago


texts: What to add to paper where another team just beat you to the novelty

texts:
I want to know what the best option is for adjusting an article in prep under the following circumstances:

I've been working on this new model of a natural system for a while. I established the theoretical basis for it, and showed that it is in agreement with empirical evidence. I have a second draft at this point.

Then I find one of the folks I was already citing was also clearly thinking about the same exact things for awhile. Their paper is published, and they did an awesome job. Darn! But no hard feelings.

However I still plan to publish my paper because
1) They did not provide the theoretical basis, so we have different justifications for the model
2) My model comparisons to the data point out different things (but together my paper and their paper both confirm the model)

What are the standard adjustments that can be made when this happens? Is it best to:
1) Devote a couple sentences to this
2) Devote an entire paragraph (or more?) comparing and contrasting our models and conclusions
3) Simply emphasize that my work is now an extension of their work?


texts: Writing a paper about the algorithm of a patented feature

texts:
We've seen lots of questions like "how to patent an idea from a paper", but let's do this the other way 'round.

Let's say there is a commercial software product that has a nice feature: a user can use mouse gestures to draw on a virtual canvas using a realistically looking brush. The company patented this feature. The patent states what the user can do and what the result is. It does not describe the supposedly extremely complex algorithm(s) used to achieve the output.
The company chose not to publish a paper on the algorithm(s) although a tremendous amount of research must have been done.

So the algorithm exists but is unpublished. This is an ugly situation for science.

What could be the reasons the company did not publish a paper on the algorithm when it is most likely only usable in the patented use-case scenario?

And, more importantly, what is the scientific community's take on finding an algorithm that behaves the same (might as well be the same, the researcher cannot know that) and publishing it?


texts: What is the expected level of commitment for postdoc positions?

texts:
Recently there have been a couple of questions generating discussion on the level of personal commitment required for PhD positions and what kind of personal sacrifices students should be willing to make if they want to do a PhD. I wanted to ask similar questions but as someone thinking about pursuing a postdoc.
I love doing research. I love the freedom to think about projects that I find interesting and chipping away at them piece by piece. I also love university/research environments and having the resources to constantly be learning. The thing is, more than a year ago, I had a period of burnout and poor mental/physical health that I am still recovering from (actively, with the help of therapists etc). Part of this recovery is that I can no longer work as hard and for as long as I previously could. I sometimes struggle with 8 hour work days. While I am now much better than I was, I don't know how long it will take before I can again function at my best. Possibly it will take at least several more years. Given this, I don't plan on ever applying for a professor position since I think I physically will be unable to handle the tenure track years. But I was hoping to stick around in academia for as long as I can doing postdocs (in my area, doing at least two postdocs is common prior to applying for tenure-track) to keep doing what I love. Luckily during this time, money is not likely to be much of an issue, and probably when people stop hiring me after I've done too many postdocs, I will look for a more boring job.
In terms of my research output, I have had remarkable luck in the projects I have been working on, and have been producing results despite reduced effort. I still have a few years before I'm due to finish my PhD, but currently, I may finish as a competitive candidate for a postdoc. The question I'm now mulling over is whether I should be applying for one when the time comes. Will it be unfair to the PI who hires me to insist on a work-life balance? Will it be dishonest to take up postdoc positions if I do not intend to go further in academia (and taking them away from candidates who might)? Is it even realistic to expect to be able to do a postdoc with (on average) ~8 hour days? I'm also considering the possibility of taking a few months to a year off between PhD and postdoc to more intensively work on my recovery, but I've heard that these breaks might make me look bad as a candidate -- just how bad would this be?
If it is ok to apply, would it be dishonest to not reveal to the PI that I do not intend to stay in academia? Also at what point in the hiring process ideally would a conversation about expectations take place?


texts: Why are all authors credited equally with authorship regardless of level of contribution?

texts:
Normally, the credit of a scientific paper is equally distributed among authors. In the real world, it is almost impossible to write a paper with equal contributions of all authors. Usually, one author is the main one who is the idea maker or discoverer by subtle analysis of data.

In most cases, contributions of some authors are trivial, e.g., consultation on a specialized area, analysis of a part of data, etc. With this system, there are many famous professors who are co-authors for tens of hundreds of papers.

Why when judging the research records of a researchers, only the quantity and quality of papers are considered, and no one cares about how much s/he has contributed to those papers?


texts: Do graduate school admissions look at first grade of a repeated course in the undergraduate transcript?

texts:
I wanted to know if graduate school admissions committees(specifically for Computer Science) look at all the grades for a repeated course (re-taken once after freshman year) even though all grades except the last one isn't valid anymore as it isn't included in the GPA.

On the same note, is improvement between grades of a course valued more than a bad grade gotten in the first place?


texts: Has a reference manager ever accidentally shared unpublished data?

texts:
I was looking through my reference manager and noticed a box in the 'Details' section which says 'Unpublished work, exclude from online catalogue'.

I was wondering if there was ever a case of a paper ending up publicly available by accident by this method, eg: if a reviewer accidentally made the pdf public through their reference manager.


texts: What are common questions in an interview for a faculty position (W2/W3) in Germany and who is part of the panel?

texts: Which questions are commonly asked in an interview for a faculty position (W2/W3 professor) in Germany (German "Berufungsverfahren") and who is usually in the panel (dean, student respresentative)?


texts: Citation and reference to a figure: which comes first?

texts:
This may be a bit of hair-splitting, but maybe there is a proper way to do this: In my thesis I present an external application. I want to give a literature reference to the application and a reference to a screenshot. What comes first, the literature reference or the screenshot reference?

  The SuperFramework [1] (cf. Figure 1.1) ...

or

  The SuperFramework (cf. Figure 1.1) [1] ...

Figure 1.1 is the screenshot.


texts: How to format for a useful journal club?

texts:
I've been attending my lab's journal club for a while, and I'm wondering whether there are better ways out there of conducting a journal club. To make the question more generic, our club seems to have two purposes:

Ensure that the students in the lab are reading papers in the field
Discuss the latest research findings in the field

Regarding goal (1), that's kinda what I'm spending all my time doing; I'm doing research, and much of that involves little more than reading a ridiculous number of papers. Insofar as accomplishing goal (2), I'm not sure we do it the best way possible. The journal club I'm currently attending is run by a professor. In general, one person prepares a presentation, and the professor grills that person on the paper. Other people chime in if they're interested, but more often than not it's an hour of watching the prof duel with the student. If the student is well prepared, I'll learn a lot, but when the kid has clearly not read the paper well, it's just a waste of everyone's time. What successful journal club formats have you encountered?


texts: Is there any way to get accepted in PhD program without masters?

texts: I am applying for a PhD position for last few months but all the Professors say they need a masters whereas I have quite good lab experiences than a masters student even. I am very much depressed nowadays. What should I do now? If the professors do not trust the skills written in the CV, they can give a conditional offer; but they don't.


texts: Is it good to compare universities in motivation letter for student visa?

texts:
I'm a computer science student from Iran. I'm applying for student visa to study master in Germany. Germany's embassy requires students to write a motivation letter in visa process.

  For the summer semester 2016 I have received admission from TU
  Darmstadt, TU Stuttgart and university of Freiburg. Also I have been
  rejected from TU Dresden. For the reason of course contents, I have
  chosen to study in TU Darmstadt.

I have written above paragraph in my motivation letter. Is this considered negative to write such things (compare universities or list my admission results)?


texts: What's the best way to share a Zotero collection (without creating a new "group" collection)

texts:
I've got a large Zotero library split into several large collections. I know that I'm able to share collections by creating a group in Zotero and then creating a collection within that group. Is it possible to share a pre-existing collection, though?

Alternatively, can I synchronize a collection in a group with a collection that is already in my local library? Sharing a collection within a group is great, but if that collection starts off as a copy of a collection I already have in my Zotero then I'm going to have to maintain two collections independently.


texts: What makes a didactically effective lecture?

texts:
I have made the experience that even the most excellent academics are often didactically mediocre lecturers. I also watched some of last years Nobel lectures and realised many laureates are actually not particularly good at teaching.

What is it that makes some lectures didactically effective and others not, regardless of how knowledgable the lecturer is?


texts: I am good in my topic and field of study, but I am clueless about the rigor expected in other related fields. Is this normal?

texts:
My area of research is thermal spray modeling. I have used various places' modeling techniques to simulate the process. I have a decent amount of publications in decent journals. I have collaborated with people from other universities and research institutions. But as a postdoc, I feel ignorant about other related fields.
I received a postdoc interview invitation the other day. They forwarded me few papers to study before the interview. The PIs field of research is related but still distinct from my expertise. They work in additive manufacturing.
I was reading their work and it seemed so rigorous and well researched. I have published in the same journal as they have, and our research area was different. However, I felt I could never write such an excellent paper or even work so rigorously.
Now, I don't know if I can perform confidently in the interview knowing I am not intelligent enough to perform well in their research topic. I am even having a hard time understanding their paper.
Is this normal or I am just too dumb to be in academia or research world in general?


texts: Applying to a masters program based on university rankings?

texts:
I'd very much love to study Math at the University of Copenhagen.

Since I am an International Student and cannot really see the university before I apply, university rankings will greatly affect my decision.

My only problem is that this university ranks quite low according to Times Higher Education (160th)

I relied on rankings to choose to come to Canada and do my undergrad at UBC (32nd) And it has worked well for me so far.

If I happen to be clever enough to get into a top 50 university, would it be stupid to still go to Denmark?


texts: Should the marker be responsible for explaining assignments and exams or the instructor?

texts: Some instructors tell their students to ask the markers about the questions on assignments and exam papers after they are marked. But many markers are not quite familiar with textbook or other teaching material. Who do you think should take the most responsibility in answering students questions on assignments and exam papers, markers or the instructors?


texts: What should I do about a bad TA as another TA for the same professor?

texts:
I have been a math TA since my freshman year, and this year as a junior I was made head department TA. One of the TAs under me is what I deem to be a poor fit.

He is incredibly sexist(at a liberal arts school, so a huge no-no, and he is especially so to me), he talks down to students instead of trying to correct them or nudge them in the right direction, and the smallest mistakes set him off. When we TA the same class, he acts as if I am always wrong, belittles me, then teaches students the incorrect way(i.e. , the students are just beginning to learn limits, and instead of giving them the basics, he's trying to teach them derivatives).

The biggest, in my opinion, is that this student is a known cheater, and didn't get the grades needed to TA the honest way, and I am worried he will encourage our shared students to follow in his footsteps(he was discovered cheating in every class he attended last semester, and a couple of them the semester prior to that).

Unfortunately, he is the department head's favorite so I am at a loss of what to do. I don't have control over who is hired or fired, I am just head TA in the way that I have been doing it the longest, and I answer the questions the others can't.

Should I bring my complaints to the department head or my adviser? Do I risk my position to help my students? I can't bring myself to work with him any more, and don't want to lose the job I love because of a sexist, cheating TA.


texts: Prolonging undergraduate school to do research

texts:
I am an electrical engineering (communications) undergraduate student. But my main interest is physics ( and/or CS, esp. it's common fields with physics - but it doesn't affect my question here ), and I want to pursue my graduate studies in physics or computer science. However for application, as an engineering student  I'm at a disadvantage as

I think my major is not considered rigorous enough by people in those fields
I don't have much (official) coursework in those fields, although I have studied (and am studying) even more than is expected from physics majors
because of the time I've put in studying ( and more importantly, exploring different areas of) physics and computer science,  my GPA so far is not good in electrical engineering.

So with these circumstances, I think the best or maybe the only way is to continue my studies in physics (and/or related areas) more seriously to do more rather good quality research projects and this way, show my ability and qualification for graduate studies in physics (and/or CS).

But, doing so I'll need more time for these additional studies and projects, and  I think I have to stay one year more at undergraduate school (5 years). Is this considered a negative point in application for graduate school?


texts: How to represent a tensor/matrix/vector/array in blackboard?

texts:
While teaching in the blackboard, I find it difficult to represent a vector/matrix/tensor. In latex, we represent $\mathbf{x}$. But, how do we represent it while writing in chalk? Is it okay to write an underlined variable $\underline{x}$ instead? What is the usual practice?

I think, avoiding the bold text might confuse the students.


texts: How to gauge the prestige of an individual researcher when selecting a PhD advisor

texts: Is there a process one could follow when assessing the prestige of a specific supervisor when evaluating PhD programs? I ask because in the academic world, the professor almost trumps the school. I am not sure if that statement holds for industry. How can one assess if the PI's reputation is large enough to offset the fact that conferring institution is not in the top 5 or ten schools for that discipline. I am aiming for of an entrepreneur/industry trajectory and in an ideal world this would not matter. I want to believe that as long as you stellar work experience, the sky is the limit. I just have in the back of my mind in a hypothetical situation where you are trying to pitch and idea for VC funding having that pedigree may be helpful.


texts: Can I add more corrections to page proofs?

texts: After my paper was accepted, I was sent page proofs with few corrections to some words and some references. Is it possible to add something to this page proofs. I want to change wording of a line that they didn’t mention so it makes better sense is that possible?


texts: Are gap semesters frowned upon in graduate school applications? Should I explain mental health situation that led to the gap?

texts:
Disclaimer: not all of what follows is relevant to the question.

I am a math student currently doing a Master’s. I plan on taking a break in the spring semester because due to many personal circumstances, my mental health had severely declined (I attempted suicide twice), and I completely lost my focus.

I am really passionate about mathematics and I do a lot of extracurricular reading. I have a GPA of about 4 (from a fairly reputable school) and I have excellent relationships with the professors in my department, so I can guarantee strong recommendation letters (especially that they seemed totally fine with my current plan). Furthermore, although I am not from an English-speaking country, I have a very good TOEFL score, and to me, the GRE is pretty much a piece of cake.

Ultimately, my goal is to get into a top 5 school. I decided to get a Master’s for that very purpose. I am worried about two things: first, that I do not have an undergraduate research experience (I never had a real opportunity anyway, though I will have written a thesis by the end of my Master's); second, and most importantly, I am worried that this break which I am about to take will look bad on my application, especially that I will be having a lot of therapy sessions and that I have a lot of personal and social challenges to face, so I am probably not going to do any math whatsoever. Also, it doesn’t seem like I’m getting any job in the meantime because there aren’t many offers and most of my applications have been declined.

So my question is: would such a gap semester look bad on my application? (or at least get frowned upon by the admissions committee?)

And if so: How much should I go into details about my situation? Should I mention real-life incidents, or should I just say that I had excruciating circumstances, and I had to back off and I couldn't find something interesting to do in the meanwhile?


texts: Is there a ranking of mathematics positions at a given university?

texts:
What is the difference between, say, a postdoc and a lecturer? A senior lecturer and an associate professor?

More generally, is there a ranking of mathematics positions at a given university?


texts: Is there any reason to register the copyright to your PhD dissertation with the US Copyright Office?

texts:
I am in the process of submitting my thesis online. I think most of the people here are familiar with ProQuest. One of the option you have is to have them register the copyright to your thesis with the US Copyright Office (in your name).

From my point of view, a thesis should not be copyrighted simply because I think of it as an extended paper. I will gladly let people use my work and cite me appropriately.

Having seen that option though, I am wondering if there is any reason to register the copyright to a thesis.


texts: Tax incentives for private companies to fund academic research

texts:
I wonder what tax incentives private companies have to fund academic research. As it is sometimes difficult to assess financial impacts of tax laws, I would even more interested to have some numbers reflecting the importance of these tax incentives, e.g. "For 100kUSD for funds coming from a private company, the later saves 20kUSD of taxes on average" (which would mean one could consider such funding to be actually ~20% funded by taxpayers).

I am mostly interested in the United States but curious about other countries as well.


texts: Looking for advice when academic referees are scarce

texts: I want to apply for a Research Masters but will have trouble finding two academic referees. I have worked in education, had research published, even won a best paper prize. However, things ended very badly with the HoD in a previous job to the point where I left, and had a breakdown. Attempts to re-connect with close colleagues have met with silence. I don't know what was said but enough to warrant people turning away. Unfortunately, it's a small field. I have a good research proposal ready and am committed to doing it to the best of my ability, and if being truthful, need to regain confidence and move on. I have a solid and provable work/ research record but fear not being able to raise two recent referees to match that work will look odd. A former colleague/teacher overseas of many years ago, and a researcher in another state who has been supportive in the past have offered to be job referees. I have not asked them to be academic referees yet. They are both wonderful people, and the latter knows of the bad job experience. Should I ask them? I don't want the prospective course to worry about anything but the quality of my proposal and what I can offer them. Any advice gratefully received.


texts: Will a paper in A help PhD application in B?

texts:
I understand that as an undergraduate student, when you apply for a PhD degree in the US, you have to demonstrate adequate research capabilities, such as publications. But will areas matter?

Let's say that a undergraduate student Q has been working on a networking project and she published a paper about that work. But Q is applying for PhD study in human-computer interaction. Will that paper help Q in getting the HCI PhD she wants?


texts: How should I respond when monetary contribution to potluck will affect grade?

texts: I am currently taking an Art History course. Today was the first day of class, and my professor informed us that we are required to bring a monetary contribution for a potluck. I wouldn't be opposed to this. However, I was taken aback when she mentioned that we are not required to participate, but if so we would not be getting points for the event, which will prevent us from getting full point completion in her class. What should I do?


texts: Asking my PhD advisor for a postdoc position. Is it bad to appear desperate?

texts:
I am soon to defend my PhD thesis in computational materials science. I have just two publications, which I believe is the most important reason for getting no response from postdoc applications. The lack of publications is majorly due to my initial slow productivity and subsequent delays from my advisor in manuscript corrections.

Earlier this year, my advisor said that if I am unable to find a postdoc position then I can remain as a postdoc in the lab after my PhD for 6 months and work on a different projects and publish the remaining papers. She also offered that alternatively, I can extend my PhD to next semester (till April) and look for positions in between (it's cheaper to pay for a PhD than a postdoc). I have already spent 5 years 2 months on my PhD. I don't want to extend it anymore.

Now, it's already November and I have no offers or responses. I am trying hard for any position. I am not sure if I will get one.

I want to ask my advisor for a postdoc position and want to let her know that I am desperate for an immediate position so that I can improve my CV.

Will that look bad?


texts: Can a paper be rejected for only detailing an algorithm mathematically and not programmatically (via pseudocode)?

texts: Imagine you are a peer reviewer presented with a paper that states an algorithm was implemented in python to test an analytical process on large datasets. The details of how the algorithmic process are detailed extensively via mathematical denotation and formulas, but no actual pseudocode or programming examples are shown. Would you consider the paper to be incomplete, or would the mathematical examples suffice (provided they are robust enough and don't withhold any information whatsoever)?


texts: Let the second author to go to the conference instead of the first author who also wants to go

texts:
There was a master student who was supervised by a lecturer for his dissertation. They also decided to write and submitted a paper, whose first author was the master student, based on the dissertation. The paper is accepted but it also creates an issue about who should go and present it since there is enough funding for only one person to go to the conference.

The master student wants to go as he is the first author and did most of the work. On the other hand, the lecturer wants to go for networking purposes, e.g. meet other reseachers and find potential collaboration. Moreover, he also reasons that as the student is about to graduate and won't work in academia anymore, it does not have much benefit to fund him to go to the conference.

My question is that whether the lecturer's decision is reasonable.


texts: How to properly reply to regret email for PhD application?

texts: I applied for PhD position and later I received an email telling that: I regret to inform that you have not been selected for this position, how may I send a follow up email, if should I do so?


texts:
I am a student at my local community college taking prenursing classes. my professor for A&P II requires a 360 camera while taking all the tests online on response. I have two small kids who I take care of solely because my husband has to do multiple jobs to keep us alive. we also live in a very small space and I can't have any privacy for tests or a calm environment. last year fall was my first semester and I had instances where I had to do an exam while feeding the baby or have them play next to me while I do my assignments. I was lucky on instances that something happened while taking tests and had to attend to kids immediately because the professor was understanding and would allow me to finish the exam.
I feel embarrassed about having to explain my living situation to my professor. I have tried to avoid anything that would make me have a virtual meeting and this camera issue make me think if I should stop school for now or reach out if I can get help
what should I do in my situation? any advice will be appreciated.
NB: I'm a new immigrant and I have no support here not even anyone to help me think through this process


texts: What does affiliation (for a publication) signify?

texts:
This question is triggered by the (somewhat off topic there) comment thread about an employer who does not want to appear as affiliation for a paper, and the subsequent thoughts of whether an employer can deny an employee the right to give them (employer) as affiliation for a publication.

My question is whether affiliation means

the author publishes on behalf of the affiliated institution, i.e. while the author takes personal responsibility with the content of the publication, the affiliated institution also approves the work (typcially to the extent that their facilities were used and possibly they did pay the author wages for performing the work).
The relationship between institution and work may be somewhat more loose if there's a disclaimer that the publication expresses the author's personal opinions and not necessarily the insititution's.
versus
the author is merely employed at (or associated as student with) the affiliated institution, without any implication of whether the institution approves of the work or not, did pay the employee vs. the author did it in their free time, etc.

Or, in other words, how much of a connection to the publication does an affiliation imply?

This is similar to the questions posed in this answer.

Edit: of course, affiliation is part of the address. But assume here that "how to contact the author" is taken care of in the correspondence (email) address.


texts: Is it considered okay to mention all the correction in an accepted article which is typeset by the press

texts:
Let's say that I got a paper accepted to a nice journal (feels so good!), in fact of a very reputed publisher. Then, the press / editorial office asks me to submit all the source files for preparing the proof for publication and I have submitted all the source materials (in word / .tex format).

Here it is worthy to mention that the accepted manuscript is already respecting the journal's format (closely). But of course, the press will completely change the article's looks to match the journal's own proprietary style(s) etc.

A few weeks later, I receive the proof (in the native journal format) and much to my surprise, I see that the original mathematical equations in the manuscript got vandalized (in terms of alignment, even missing some equations etc.), subfigures (in a whole figure environment being named as a, b, c, d, ...) getting copy pasted (even including the subcaptions etc.), texts running across the borders, tables being sloppily copy pasted as images and even what not the mathematical symbols in bibliography are typeset as images!...
If that is the case, could you advise, whether I can mention each and every mistake that is present in the proof that is sent to me?

Honorable mention: I deeply feel bad for my paper, because, even after giving all the source files for compiling the proof, the typeset is being subpar given the journal / publishers standards (IMO).
Update: Today,

I got an email from the publisher that the corrected proof is available online --> which accoring to their definition means ready for  production.

Upon seeing the so-called corrected proof I found that it was an exact replica of the one they sent before.

I thank all of you for your suggestions :)


texts: How necessary is a List of Figures and a List of Tables in a dissertation?

texts:
I am writing my dissertation (word-limit 10,000 words) and am wondering if I should include a separate List of Figures and List of Tables Section after my Table of Contents? The university guidelines do not specify whether they're required or not.

I will have about 3 figures and 4 tables when I'm finished.


texts: What are the disadvantages and advantages for a senior graduate student to restart after 6 years' study?

texts:
I am a graduate student in a physics department in US. My department's ranking is really low. In fact, you cannot even find the ranking in, say, usnews. This year is my 6th year and I am seeking a postdoc position in high energy phenomenology, and gravity related postdoc positions.

But I have a strong feeling that I will fail because of my background. Even if I got a postdoc position, I would still go to a low ranking institute. Having studied in this department for 6 years, I did not get very good training. There are many reasons, but one of them should be related to the department. I want to continue studying physics and do not quit completely. So I think I might transfer to a good university. But the problem is I already finish nearly 6 years graduate program now. It would be a waste of time to restart a new Ph.D program in a different university in some sense. But if not, I cannot see my future in academia.

I have no idea now. I really want to hear your advice and your experience. Thank you very much!

I stated that I did not get very good training. I think I need explain that a little bit more. There are many aspects. Firstly, I should blame myself. I should have transferred earlier. After I decided not to transfer, I should have worked harder. Perhaps, I am one of the best students in my department: probably, there are only two best students with whom no body else can compete no matter how hard they work. So I kind of lost motivation: I am not good at motivating myself. Although I did not motivate myself very much, I did like learning stuff. However, I liked learning mathematics by myself. Probably I spent too much time on math which is not very useful. (I like highly formal, abstract things, eg, topology) And there are many others...

On the other hand, I just want to say some thing about my department. Professors in my department are really nice. But they are not devoted to teaching very much. I am pretty sure that they understand their courses very well, but I could not get any deep insight after class. All I got was "plain text": I could even just read textbook instead of listening to their classes. There are only 3 professors in our group. Two are very old. One is too young.

Finally, about my own project. I am working on a project which is outside of my advisor's expertise. He does not have good projects, so he find a professor outside my department and asked him to offer a project. That professor is far away and, he did not work on related area either... Probably, I should not choose this project...  Edit based on comment:  Probably, I should not have chosen this project...