texts: Can a new paper be published with only slight modifications to a published paper?

texts:
I have seen that some researchers in my field, that is Computer Science, do this:

They publish a paper, for example titled "The use of the Fourier transform for problem X". The paper gets accepted.
Then after a while they have another paper titled "The use of the Fourier transform for solving the problem X under these constraints". I read the paper and I see this is the same as before with only the title changed a little bit and published in another conference.
Again, the same paper in another language "l'uso della trasformata di Fourier...", which has the same content, but submitted to a local conference

Is this alright? For me it just seems that it should only be put like one publication under their CVs and not "resell" the idea over and over. I have this question because they had asked me to translate one of my papers to a local conference, but I do not consider that to be like a new publication. Should I translate and claim a new publication?


texts:
I am enrolled in a master in CS, and finished all course work. Professors were happy with my work and I managed a 3.7 GPA -good for my university-
 without too much effort.
When it came to the thesis I had a lot of trouble, every problem was exciting right until the point when I settled on it, then it became uninteresting and bland.
I eventually started working on a particular problem and had some preliminary results, not very promising, but something.

Then lots of things started to happen, with the end result that during the past six months later I changed jobs, sold my house, moved to a foreign country, married, but made no progress and had no contact with my advisor.

Now the question: I want to get back in touch and finish the degree as all-but-thesis is not a status I want to remain in. I would also like to change my advisor since my current one is not very engaged nor gives much time or attention to the advised students. Most of the students under my advisor finished six to 10 months after other students, despite no particular trend in the complexity of the thesis.

Is there any recommendations you can give as to how to word the first communication? I was planning on being simply honest and get to the point fast, but I have no clue if this is a good approach.

Thanks. If something is unclear please ask away, english is not my first language.


texts: What does the typical workflow of a journal look like?

texts:
What steps does a manuscript typically go through from submission to publication (or rejection) in a typical journal? How are these steps referred to, in particular by editorial systems, and how long do they each typically take?

Note that this question is about the typical situation and hence not about:

Journals with an atypical workflow, e.g. those that allow for an instantaneous reviewer–author interaction.
Exceptional steps or rare occurrences such as withdrawal or clerical errors.

This is a canonical question on this topic as per this Meta post. Due to its nature, it is rather broad and not exemplary for a regular question on this site. Please feel free to improve this question.


texts: What to do when students bring me questions related to other courses and subjects?

texts:
I teach all of the writing courses for one of my college's STEM department. Occasionally, students bring me questions related to their field, e.g. they are doing some project for another course and they want to know what tools I used for a similar real-world project I did before.

If I help the students (which would amount to suggesting some books, tools, Web sites), perhaps the department will feel I am interfering in matters where I should not, as this is not my teaching area.
If I turn away the students, perhaps the department or (students themselves) will feel I am not committed to serving the students.

What is the accepted procedure for such a situation?


texts: Multiple accounts of plagiarism (?) during literature study: are my standards too high or should I take action?

texts:
I'm currently doing my literature review in preparation for my graduation (masters degree) thesis work at a Dutch university. The past semester I worked as a student assistent on a first-year project, that had quite a heavy focus on learning to properly cite and refer to source material. Together with the project supervisor, we'd run all student reports through plagiarism checking software. If we found anything wrong or suspicious, we confronted the students and explained them that their current practice was not the way to go. For example, when a group failed to put quotation marks if they'd literally copied something, we gave them a warning, even though they did include a reference. We upheld high standards.

Fast forward to my current work doing my literature research, in which I'm trying to figure out and document the exact workings of a number of software programs - in order to make a detailed comparison supporting selection of a subset of these programs for inclusion in my thesis research. Some of these codes are well-known and open source, others are quite obscure. Especially for the less-known ones, I'm coming close to the point of having read (or at least: knowing about the existence of) all sources there are on that program, and where I'm able to basically guess what paper a numerical reference points to - simply based on content.

Today, I've come across a PhD-thesis in which a full paragraph was directly copied (not formatted as a blockquote or similar) from a journal publication, not written by the PhD-candidate or supervisors. That paper is mentioned (on a previous page), but quotation marks are absent from the copied paragraph. This is not the first time I've seen something like this (also noted a few conference papers doing this) and it leaves me quite confused.

If this is acceptable, aren't the standards I used to teach to my student groups ridiculously high? I'm also adhering to these standards, which not always comes easy. For example, I'm sometimes going through hell and back again to find the original source of something and/or including secondary references, other times including lengthy footnotes on how I think contradictory information might have been mangled up in a chain of citations and pointing out potential errors in peer-reviewed publications. Similarly, I feel I'm walking the line when putting "The information in this section is obtained from reference X, unless indicated otherwise", rather than including a reference after every individual sentence in that section.
If this is not acceptable (and the 'high' standards are indeed the standards), what should I do about the plagiarised texts I have come across - and might come across in the remainder of my review? Accept it, shrug it off and do better myself, or take this up with somebody from university?

I realise there might not be an absolute, factual answer to this question - but I'm hoping it is 'allowed'. Other knowledgeable sources that I know are employed at this university and I'd rather first get some external advice/ideas - before becoming the whistle-blower or wrongly accuse people.

Edited the first and second paragraphs (italicized parts) for clarity.


texts: I submitted an LOR online for a student to a US school. Student claims they want a physical copy. How should I respond?

texts:
The student claims that the department contacted him asking for all letters in printed form with full contact details and signature.

Is this a common request?  How do I know it's authentic?  How should I respond?


texts: How can a conference paper publication be guaranteed? Is such a "guarantee" even possible?

texts:
My cousin, a freshman in college, recently heard from a private education institute that a conference publication will be guaranteed if she joins their research tutoring program. In their program description, they mention that their student will be promised to have their paper published in Scopus indexed conferences.

This intrigued my curiosity- how can someone promise that a college student who has never done any research before will be granted a conference publication? I don't think they would dare to write the paper on behalf of the student.

So here comes my question - how can a conference paper publication be guaranteed?


texts: How to work with relocation issues during phd?

texts: I have worked for 3years as phd researcher at universityin country A. Because of some critical family relocation issues, i had to move to my family in country B. My maximum research work is done but due to travel restrictions in country B, i can not go back to country A for longer period of time . What are thr possible options available?


texts: Would an online masters degree help me to become a professor?

texts:
This question seems to indicate the answer is no but I don't know enough to see whether being accepted into a PhD program equals getting a teaching job. I attended a private four-year school at which the professors did minimal (if any) research and spent a lot of time personally assisting students outside of class. Because I've never attended a large, state school, I don't know if this is what it's like but I've heard it isn't.

I am much more interested in what I described (teaching and helping students) than in having large, impersonal classes and conducting research.

Would an online masters degree increase my chances of getting a job teaching computer science (the subject of my four-year degree) in the manner described above?


texts: Literature searches in publications when you have limited access to journals

texts:
I'm currently at an institution that has a phenomenal library system.  I think every journal article or book I've ever needed, no matter how old or obscure, was available to me.  I consider myself very fortunate, and always try to hold on to resources that I may not have access to in the future.  I may be transitioning to a new institution soon, where a colleague of mine tells me the library is significantly smaller, and has far less access to journals, especially to those in science/engineering, which can be pretty pricey.

I'm concerned that in the future my manuscripts will be rejected because my literature searches will be limited to only the journals I have access to.

I was trained to never cite articles that I have not read, understood and could justifiably show are relevant to my work; I agree with that philosophy, so picking citations as "filler" is not something I am comfortable doing.  If all that is available is an abstract, I know that can help, but it's no substitute for the article itself.

I know that reviewers and editors are supposed to consider your contribution as a whole, and not just look at whether or not you cited the articles they think you should have, but the world is an imperfect place.

For those at institutions with limited journal subscriptions/small library systems, how do you justify your literature searches that are missing articles that the reviewers and editors feel are necessary?  Aside from your research contribution itself, assuming it is sound, worthwhile, and well-written, is it just the case that, those at institutions with fewer resources inherently have to publish in more accepting (less competitive) journals by default?

UPDATE  Thanks for everyone's interest and suggestions.  The answers so far have focused on how to get those tough-to-find sources, but I'd really like to see some suggestions on how to handle the other side:  communicating reference shortfalls to reviewers when the aforementioned suggestions don't pan out.  Thoughts?


texts: How to gain research experience after undergrad?

texts:
After graduating with B.Sc Computer Science last year, I got interested in compilers and kernel. I started reading research papers and finally decided to pursue masters, but most programs favour research experience.

I am an Indian student and reseach opportunities are very rare here, I approached my professors but haven't received any positive responses. Is there some other way I can gain some research experience, especially in India? or find someone who can guide me to perform some research Individually, Since I'm not sure where to start exactly.


texts: Can I edit my paper after submission if I discover additional literature?

texts:
While writing my paper, I was unaware of the existence of a sequence and I named the sequence (say X). Later I found that the same sequence is already known with some other name (say Y). Currently if my paper is under review, then can I change to Y according to the literature and resend? Or is it okay to continue with the name X I sent?

Note that the novelty of the paper does not completely rely on the sequence used.


texts: Can an energy drink or chocolate before an exam be useful ? What sort of other edible goods be helpful?

texts:
At the end of a session, we have to give an examination where 2 years worth of syllabus is asked and it is the most important examination. It takes place in 2 sessions 9-12 and 2-5. I have heard from some of my peers that having things like energy drinks or consuming chocolate could help boost the performance, while others tend to thing it's useless and might even have a negative effect on our performance. We get only 1 shot at this exam and I don't want to take any chance with it. So what I want to ask is,

1) Can consuming energy drinks or chocolate have any effect on my performance (Positive/negative)

2) Are there things whose consumption or general recommendations which can boost my performance on the final day as after giving a 3 hour paper is quite exhausting mentally and physically. And also since it's lunch time, the type of food that I should consume (eg should I have more carbs to get energy or will it make me feel sleepy ??)


texts: Introducing abbreviations in an abstract for a repeated term

texts: I use a long term (e.g. "artificial neural network") more than once in the abstract of a paper. Is it best to introduce the abbreviation (e.g. "ANN") after the first occurrence, or repeat the non-abbreviated term each time?


texts: Prospective student’s first email to a potential advisor?

texts:
I am applying for an MSc program and I need to find an advisor prior to sending in my application. I have heard conflicting advise regarding what to put in my first email. I would like some opinion on this matter.

Do I include my CV in the first email?

Do I mention my GPA?

Do I straight-up ask them if they are accepting students? Or, do I first attempt to establish a relationship?


texts: What does "Awaiting Reviewer Scores" mean within the context of a ScholarOne submission system?

texts:
I submitted a paper to a Taylor and Francis journal that uses the ScholarOne submission system. The manuscript status has changed from "Under Review" to "Awaiting Reviewer Scores".

What does this change mean?
What is the flow chart of the different statuses for a manuscript?


texts: Professor only teaches what is already in textbook. Should I quit going to the lectures?

texts:
I've become quite upset with how lectures for my courses are conducted.

Everyday, I attend lectures where the teacher simply writes definitions and theorems on the board straight from one of our textbooks (or another professor's published lecture notes). They then prove a handful of the theorems, or part of them, and leave more than half as an exercise. They do little to motivate the material or provide insight based on their professional experiences, and are often scribbling material onto the board as fast as possible to cover some predetermined amount. And sometimes the professor writes proofs straight from their notes and, when questioned, has a hard time explaining the gaps between steps (as they are simply regurgitating and not really even attentive to what they are explaining).

Ultimately, I feel like these lectures are a waste of my time. To be blunt, I can read a book and I can do exercises. I don't need someone to paraphrase a book for me and then tell me to fill in the rest myself. Moreover, since I cannot afford to live on/near campus, I have to commute an hour each way to sit through such lectures, which hardly seems validated.

I would like to attend lectures where the professor engages the students. Often, my professors are so rushed to scribble things on the board that they take few questions and relegate them to exercises (yes, I had a professor answer a simple question about his proof by assigning it as an exercise). If an instructor wants to cover some predetermined amount of material, I would prefer they assign this as reading beforehand and then take questions on that material in class. It'd also be nice if they presented us with hard problems in class and then we all worked through them together (with students presenting them, everyone critiquing, etc.).

Should I approach my professors about my feelings? How should I go about this?

To be honest, I am becoming quite bored (and frustrated) and starting to skip lectures in favor of office hours (which are far more engaging), reading the book on my own, and working extra problems. I do not like that I am not enjoying my educational experience (since I love to learn math!).

Or should I quit going to lectures and move on to doing what I am tending towards now, anyways?


texts: Self studied courses during my PhD. How to fill the relevant courses section in the CV?

texts:
My PhD thesis is on numerical modeling using finite element methods and non-linear continuum mechanics. My university did not offer these courses during the first two years of my PhD. So, I had to self study them from different books to the best of my ability. As I got completely engrossed in my research after my second year, I decided to not take the courses which were then being reintroduced.

I am finishing up with my PhD thesis and have started writing a CV for postdoc applications. In many sample postdoc CV's, I have seen people mention about the relevant courseworks carried out. I think that my lack of relevant coursework will be a huge negative in my applications. Is there a way, I can address the self-studied courses in my CV?

Additionally, since in the future, I will be applying for tenure track positions, do courses taken during graduate school carry weightage in shortlisting a candidate for a position if they are expected to teach exactly those courses too? Like, I might be required to teach finite element methods and non-linear continuum mechanics at the university, won't it be an issue as I have not done the courses in a structured manner myself?


texts: Is "passed" a valid word for a grade in 4-level grade system?

texts:
I have recently had a university diploma translated from Russian to English, and the translator used words Excellent, Good and Passed for 5, 4 and 3 marks correspondingly. However, I could not find usage of such nomenclature on the Internet, it is always mentioned as "Satisfactory".

Will this create problems when I apply to universities? Or is this word also alright to signify lowest passing grade?

(I am mostly planning on applying to universities in Netherlands, but maybe other establishments that teach in English.)


texts: Should I apply to grad school as an international or as a domestic student? (Canada, Engineering)

texts:
I'm interested in going to grad school in Canada. I'm a foreigner but I can relatively easily obtain my PR as I satisfy all requirements.

Admission-wise, would applying to grad school as an international student give me any leverage? Considering that the tuition fees would be far higher and Canadian universities are run with a business mindset.

I did my undergrad in Canada but my GPA is far from stellar (well below 3.0). I'm trying everything to improve my chances of admission.


texts: What does it mean when a paper is rejected but encourages resubmission without a suggestion of new experiments?

texts:
My paper has been rejected but encouraged re-submission. The reviewers were overall positive said it was well written and that all the analyses were correct. The problems pointed out were changes to the introduction and conclusion to change the scope of how the experiments are framed, not to any of the experiments themselves. There were no mentions of lack of novelty or other common reasons for rejection. There was also no mention that anything I wrote was overstated or incorrect.

I am unsure of whether to  re-submit when it has been rejected for this reason because I don't understand how a manuscript could be rejected if the experiments were correct and found to be novel?
If the problem is that I need to modify my introduction and conclusion than why not accept the manuscript, since re-writing the introduction/conclusion would not be very difficult. I would consider doing so would be a minor revision.

I am wondering whether anyone has had this type of rejection before and if they decided to re-submit or submit elsewhere?


texts: Doing PhD on computer vision with an engineering background

texts:
I'm coming from an electrical engineering / telecommunications background; I studied extensively in hardware-related areas and took lots of courses in wireless communications and signal processing. Although I took several classes in signal processing, some image processing courses, and some classes in mathematics (e.g. calculus, linear algebra, probability) during my bachelor's and master's studies, I lack the typical computer science background where one is exposed to courses like data structures, algorithms, and specialized software engineering courses. I also never took a formal computer vision course at the university.

I recently developed a passion for computer vision, and I'm convinced that it is the right path where I would like to develop myself, publish, and obtain a PhD degree. I'm planning on building an academic career around computer vision. However, when I look at and go through the papers from top-tier academic computer vision conferences such as CVPR, ECCV and ICCV, I realized that although I can follow most of the arguments and math in the papers, I certainly need some fundamental academic knowledge on computer vision if I want to produce such publications myself. Based on my technical abilities, I don't think that creating the necessary (research) software would be the main problem but rather, coming up with the algorithms and making effective use of the building blocks of computer vision would be very challenging for me. Especially, some necessary techniques from machine learning and optimization are not very familiar to me. Moreover, although I have some up-to-date knowledge about the recent methods such as deep learning with convolutional neural networks, I do not really know the working details of the older, classic algorithms (e.g. SIFT, SURF, HOG) that could have many applications under different branches of vision.

Considering my background, how would you recommend me to proceed on my way to doing research on computer vision? More concretely, should I first go through a full computer vision course online (unfortunately, since I'm not at a university, I can't go on and attend to a real lecture), or should I first try to fill the wholes in my more fundamental knowledge such as machine learning, optimization, and matrix computations/linear algebra? Another (more practical) possibility would be to go through an OpenCV book such as this one, and develop an all-around working knowledge more quickly. I'm more apprehensive about this approach since I'm afraid it would not give me the more solid theoretical knowledge that I need to be able to come up with creative solutions to computer vision problems. How do you think one should approach to the balance between practical and theoretical knowledge from a beginner's point of view?

My second question is: How can I find an interesting problem in a certain subfield of computer vision, which I could take on as a PhD topic? I have already figured out that I'm more interested in the semantic understanding of images/videos rather than geometrical or 3D scene modelling. For example, I like problems such as multiple person tracking and pedestrian detection. However, I'm having a hard time coming up with a concrete research problem that I will devote my attention to and bring together in the end as a coherent PhD thesis. This confusion is mostly caused by the lack of a supervision from an experienced researcher, since I don't yet have an official supervisor/professor who would give me a research topic. I know that is unusual, and makes one question whether obtaining a PhD is feasible at all in my current research environment, but that is just how the things are. Unfortunately, in my situation, it is hard to approach a professor without any concrete research proposal and even some initial results in hand.

Thank you for your time and kind interest, and I apologize for any possibly vague parts in my question. I would be happy to clarify and elaborate.


texts: What are the pros and cons of submitting same paper to more than one open repository?

texts:
What if I submit a same preprint to several open access repositories, e.g. arxiv, vixra, philica etc.?

I guess doing so would give to a paper more visibility. But would it be a bad practice? Would it be unethical? Scientific community would complain or blacklist me? Is there any copyright issues, or other notes that I should know? What do you advice?

I know it's unethical to submit a paper to more than a journal (or maybe conferences), but here I want to know about preprints and open repositories.


texts: How to get recommendation letters for graduate admissions when my social anxiety makes it difficult for me to make connections?

texts:
I understand references make a huge difference when applying to graduate programs.

Over my years in university, I have spoken to professors about projects / exams / papers. I definitely make use of their office hours.  I also go to a top school and am set to graduate with high honors. I am an extremely determined and motivated person. Although I have made use of the available resources, this is an extremely difficult/rigorous school and thus very few people achieve anywhere near a 4.0. My cGPA is a 3.5 and my GPA over the last 2 years is a 3.7. I have also been involved in a lot of organizations related to my field of interest/research. Including, volunteer on three projects at a renown research hospital and research for an undergraduate science magazine.

However, I have severe social anxiety. I understand this is “no excuse” in academia for not making connections, but it is extremely difficult for me to be around other people. It is severe. It has been a huge step for me to even go to the office hours (which I am proud of myself for doing), but I have not stood out from the crowd and I doubt any remember my name. I have never wanted anything more (graduate school), and yet my mental illness is a severe restriction on my life. I have been seeing a psychiatrist and have made huge improvements since high school (when the social anxiety became severe).

Is it necessary that I only acquire references from professors with whom I have developed a close relationship? Should I discuss these struggles in my application?


texts: Co-author refuses to share final manuscript or list of submissions

texts:
While completing my PhD, I was assisted by my advisor in writing three papers. Because he had to go on medical leave for a period, we have been slow in getting them submitted for publication. (He did not allow me to submit the papers myself. He insisted on controlling the submission). I am first author on each of these papers.

Now that my former advisor is back from his leave of absence, he has begun submitting the papers without my knowledge. (I emailed him to ask about plans for submission and he informed me that he had already submitted the papers a few weeks prior). He has refused to share the final manuscripts or a list of journals that he has submitted the papers to. He just tells me to wait until the papers are accepted, then he will contact me. From what I can determine, he has told the same thing to another co-author (who was also one of his PhD students).

I find this behavior to be not only odd, but moreover incredibly unprofessional. While I am still a young researcher, I am not a complete push-over. I believe it is completely reasonable to ask that I be included in the publication process.

One major issue that I worry about is the authorship order. When I became his PhD student, a few people warned me that he would try to creep his way up to being listed as the first author on the final publications. (I guess that he did something similar to a previous student: drag on the submission process until the student graduates, then secretly slide his way onto the publications as first author).

What steps can I take to ensure that I am given a more reasonable say in the publication of these papers?

Side note 1: My advisor was fired from his previous position (where he was my advisor). As such, our former university is not likely to be willing to do much about this. He now works as an assistant professor at a different school. Because he is almost 10 years into his career and still not tenured, he is becoming desperate to get some first author publications.

Side note 2: I am in a stable position currently and am not reliant on my advisor for anything. My career is not leveraged by him.


texts: grid line is necessary for CS academic paper?

texts:
Is it necessary to add grid lines to a line chart in academic paper?  (I'm interested especially in computer science field.) Is there any rule, say, not necessary for time axis?

Google tells me that most part of line chart does not have grid line, but seems there is not consistent rule.


texts:
I submitted a paper to SciTechnol, I paid the article processing charges. The paper is now published on their website with a DOI which is inactive when checking on Crossref metadata and DOI.org  I contacted Crossref why is that, they replied that the publishing website has not paid their subscription fees to Crossref for a year.
Now, my paper is published but not traceable on SciTechnol.
Multiple requests to withdraw the article failed to bring any answers or replies from SciTechnol.
I am considering submitting the paper to another journal. Is that possible?
Is there a way to get this publication DOI active from my side ?
What are the ethical issues here? Can I take this publishing website to court to claim damages?

Thanks for the interactive discussion. I must say that I learnt a lot listening to you all.
I did not transfer copyright for this open access as I did not sign documents for that. Would this allow me to submit somewhere else since they turning a deaf ear to my request to withdraw the paper?
Searching the paper title on Google, it does come up (but not when using the DO The reason I wanted the active DOI is that it makes referring to paper easier. SciTechnol insisted that the DOI would be activated once I paid the APC what a cheating trickery.
I now read about this FTC ruling, what a revelation. Had I known about this or Beall's list, I would have looked away at that time.
Shayn from CrossRef emailed me back to answer that SciTechnol did not pay their Crossref subs, he made no reference to FTC ruling.
Now, since I paid with a Visa Card, I started a case dispute via my bank. At least to limit the damages


texts: Should a Kickstarter funding be in an academic CV?

texts: In humanities, would a successful kickstarter project which supported relevant professional work belong in an academic CV? I think a "grants and fundraisers" category can have crowdfunding, but my friend thinks not. This is in the context of faculty job application in the US.


texts: What should I do if I attended a conference but forgot to register?

texts:
Due to some unexpected personal events, I left the conference earlier than intended. The lines to register had been so long and from past experience, I knew the trick was to wait until the last day when there are zero people in line. It's been two weeks and I was filling out my travel reimbursement when it hit me. I never registered...

I presented a paper and chaired a panel. I feel terrible about it, but at the same time, I'm a brand new assistant professor and my student loan payments just started and well, I'm flat freaking broke.

I was just going to say screw it and be sure I pay next year and also sign up to volunteer for some things next year. But now I'm really concerned that my university is going to ask me why my registration isn't on my travel reimbursement form. I don't want to give them the impression that I did I'm the kind of person that would intentionally sneak into an academic conference without paying.

What should I do?


texts: Why computer science discipline has different publications requirements: conferences as well as journals

texts:
Why is it like in CS, people expect from you both kinds of publications: conferences as well as journals?
I read some articles which says some conference have low acceptance ratio and you should count them. On the other hand, in academics, people also ask about the journal publications, when you face an interview.
These requirements also vary from country to country and university to university.
How to keep balance of both when think of publishing papers in CS?
Also which one has more weight theoretical vs. practical research publications, when apply for a job?

Thanks.


texts: How to get in situ anonymous global evaluation from students about the works of their peers

texts:
My undergraduate students are going to present their group works to the whole class. I would like that their companions globally and anonymously evaluate them, so that each team can in situ get a grade for their work in this way (besides the evaluation they would get from me as teacher).

My questions are if someone can provide some previous experience about this evaluation strategy (either as a teacher or as a student); and which app or tool could be used for this purpose (i.e. so that the class can vote and we instantly know the points for each team).


texts: How to get started with submitting first peer reviewed paper based on PhD?

texts:
I am not based in academia so unsure what the protocols (and the underlying and unwritten conventions are) in regard to getting my first paper published in a peer reviewed journal.

The paper will come out of my PhD dissertation.

How do I start the ball rolling?


texts: What is the difference between Elsevier's 'waterfall system' and 'cascading peer review'?

texts:
A lot of people are grumbling about USPTO 9,430,468, "Online peer review system and method", which describes (if I'm reading it right) Elsevier's system of reallocating papers rejected from Journal A to a potentially more suitable Journal B. Parts of the patent describe the general process of peer review and (partly because of this) some of the criticisms currently circulating seem to think that this is a patent on the process of online peer review itself, which would clearly be ridiculous. However, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has picked this as its 'stupid patent of the month' for August, pointing out various examples of a similar process called cascading peer review dating back to at least 2009 (example 1; example 2). Eff clearly has concerns about the novelty of this patent.

My question: what, if any, are the differences between Elsevier's now-patented 'waterfall system' and 'cascading peer review'?

(I'm not sure if this would be a better fit for Law.SE, but thought the audience here would be more familiar with the important areas of the peer review process)


texts: What is equivalent degree of Masters by research degree in the USA?

texts:
There is a degree called “Masters by research” in Australia, in which a researcher basically researches for two years(full time) on the topic or research problem(differs from Phd on many aspects especially minimum requirements).

What is its equivalent degree in USA?

Is it MPhil? Are they both same or are they different? (may be based on entry requirements, task done and degree completion requirements).

As far as I know, both require dissertation but there are not many taught courses in Masters by research and you are expected to make some unique contribution to knowledge body.

Is MPhil restricted to certain faculty such as arts or it can be in any fields (For e.g., computer science)?

I am bit confused as some Australian universities also offer MPhil in addition to master by research degree and I could not find degree called "Masters by research" in US universities.

Can anyone please clarify?


texts: Does doing an undergraduate math major make an applicant for philosophy phd programs more competitive?

texts:
I'm majoring in philosophy at my undergraduate university but I've also taken a fair number of math classes. I've generally found that taking math classes is very time consuming and dramatically limits the amount of time I can spend working on philosophy classes. On the other hand, I feel like I learn a lot in the math classes that sometimes influences how I think about philosophy. I'm a junior and I would need about 4 more math classes for a math major (I have three semesters left before I graduate). For purposes of admissions to philosophy phd programs, should I continue to take math classes and get a math major (in addition to philosophy), or should I just focus on philosophy?

ADDED: I understand that math will be helpful to me in studying philosophy. I am specifically interested in whether it is worth studying in the remainder of my undergraduate career given the opportunity cost for my ability to focus on philosophy.


texts: Information technology requirements and issues for academic research

texts:
I am on a committee tasked with advising my university's Information Technology  office on institutional needs and issues regarding IT.  They are pretty knowledgeable about how to support the university's general administrative IT requirements (office applications, business IT infrastructure, securing personal data, etc) as well as instructional technology (smart classrooms, learning management systems, etc).  But they have less insight into the needs of academic research.

I try to bring up issues that I face in my own research, but I am only in one discipline (math), and I am sure there are many things I am missing.  It would help to be able to anticipate some of these issues, rather than reacting after discovering problems or omissions.

What special IT resources or support are commonly needed for academic research?

I am looking for issues that are fairly unique to research, that wouldn't be as commonly encountered in other generic large organizations, or in other university business.  (So no need to mention general things like email, wifi, etc.)  It needn't be limited to STEM disciplines, though I imagine they will have the most.

It would be especially great if there are lists developed by professional societies or the like; this would be more "authoritative" than general suggestions from the community.  Especially if it explains the rationale for the benefit of non-researchers.

A few that I thought of, to get started:

Specific operating systems that might not match the organization's "standard" OS
Installing third-party and open-source software without waiting for administrator intervention
Storing and backing up unusually large amounts of data
Transferring large amounts of data between institutions, through firewalls
Access to a variety of communication and conferencing tools that might not match the organization's "standard" conferencing solution
Remote login access to work computers


texts: How to disclose a major change in scope from orignal F31 submission

texts:
I am trying to pull together my first progress report on my F31 fellowship. My concern is due to to COVID19 my ability to work with certain collaborators was diminished and my PI thought it was best to go in another direction. Since I really have no say in the matter, my objectives changed. As a result my aims and objectives have changed drastically. My PI does not want to say my objectives have changed; but they most certainly have.
How do I handle this? Ideally I would have one more report before I can make a run for it. I could hand wave this one and come clean on the 2nd report, but by then I would be almost ready to go so if they stopped it the financial pain would be minimized.
Is this a stain on one's career? Does this really matter at the F level?


texts: How should I reference the institution in my grad school applications if I went to a satellite campus?

texts: I go to a well respected University of X. However, I actually attend a campus that is smaller and separate from the main large campus. As I look at graduate schools and begin drafting my statement of purpose, should I specifically mention (every time) that I go to U of X, City campus, or just mention the university as a whole?


texts: What are the impacts of closing STEM departments?

texts:
To encourage new answers, I will award the bounty to any new answer. (e.g. answer and you will get the bounty) I understand this question is difficult to tackle and do appreciate all new insights.
According to this UK report:

There were 48 UK institutions offering physics degrees in 2005. This is 31 fewer than there were in 1994.
Since 1996 26 universities have ceased to offer chemistry degrees.
5 [mathematics departments] have closed since 1999.

While the report may be from 2007, this is still a current issue. The Royal Society for Chemistry has reported on a proposal to close the chemistry department at Bangor University. Apparently, Bangor Needs Chem.
Additionally, Bangor University no longer has a mathematics department (source). Also from Bangor University, the Computer Systems Engineering major states:

This degree has been designed especially for candidates without the usual qualifications in Mathematics and Physics to be able to pursue their interest in electronics and computer science to degree level.

Looking specifically at the words "without the usual qualifications in Mathematics," doesn't this speak negatively to the reputation of the college and its graduates?  Is there a benefit (e.g. and in addition to financial) to closing STEM departments?
In summary, what are the effects (both positive and negative) of closing STEM departments? It is preferable if answers draw upon both theory (research studies, government reports, etc.) and practice (historical studies, your original research on past events and effects).
While the examples are from the UK, the question is about the effects of closing STEM departments in general and not specifically in the UK.


texts: When can I safely use CC-BY license on arXiv?

texts:
On arXiv one can license a preprint on one of the following (see also a note on arXiv on licenses):

arXiv.org perpetual, non-exclusive license to distribute this article (Minimal rights required by arXiv.org. Select this unless you understand the implications of other licenses.)
Creative Commons Attribution license
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike license
Creative Commons Public Domain Declaration

For cases when it is fine to submit a paper on arXiv.org perpetual (see also Does publishing a paper on arXiv prevent me from submitting it to a non-open access journal?), when I can safely use CC-BY (Creative Commons Attribution license)?

Ideally, I would use it all the time, as it is the most permissible (=open) license, which requires attribution. (However, I used it only once, it a case where I don't intend to send it to a journal; so, except for that case, when one should (or shouldn't) be afraid of using CC-BY on arXiv?)

EDIT: Here the emphasis is on arXiv perpetual vs CC, not on choosing between CC licenses.


texts: Applying for a PhD in Engineering. Crappy Undergrad GPA, Good Masters GPA. Help!

texts:
I plan on applying for a PhD in Engineering next fall. I've already started to make connections with professors at a few schools I'm interested in. Recently I sent a CV to a professor (who requested it) and he responded asking what my undergrad GPA was. I graduated with a 2.7 undergrad, mostly because I didn't find my passion in engineering until I almost graduated. During these last three semesters of undergrad I averaged a 3.5 GPA. After this, I completed a masters in engineering with a 3.6 GPA and currently working on a second masters in engineering with a 4.0 (different branch, more related to the field I want to work in).

I sent him a short narrative explaining the low GPA, without sounding too defensive or desperate, but in reality I am a little defensive and desperate. I also have 5 years worth of professional experience and a professional engineering license. Any word for those who have showed continual improvement, despite initial bad grades?

Thanks.


texts: How to recover one's career opportunities after a period of poor performance

texts:
I read this question about falling behind, but my question is more about the long term.

I find myself becoming depressed at lack of overall opportunities in graduate school (in mathematics, specifically, though this question is more about the general case). I had a bad relationship that messed up a few semesters for me at the beginning of grad school. I'm more or less recovered now, but I'm having difficulty trying to support my progress in any way outside of classes.

My field is computational, so I really want to get a summer internship at a software company, government agency, or some other place where I can get exposure to research and skills that are not immediately available in the department (like coding). My advisor's perception of me formed during my period of low performance, too, so he hasn't invested much in teaching me. I have some mediocre grades on my transcript from this time, so the profs from these classes so far don't have such a good impression of me, either. I don't know who to ask for recommendation letters or networking opportunities. I had shining recommendations from undergrad, but that was years ago, which will raise obvious questions on any application.

Meanwhile, my friends are doing interesting projects they can associate with their name. They're giving talks, going to conferences with their advisors, being awarded fellowships, etc. Feeling like I have nothing going on except for classes and an advisor that doesn't believe in me is no good, and though I'm performing better than before, I am still far under what I know to be my potential.

In other words, I feel like I'm stuck in a cycle of poor opportunities, and I'm not sure how to break out of it. I had a lot of momentum when I came here. People were offering me all manner of things, I had many side-projects in different areas, and I was beginning to make a name for myself in research. Now, all I do is try to get my homework in on time. I'm just bored, and don't know how to get back to a successful state of mind.

How could one recover from this type of setback?


texts: How to provide English translation of non-English words scattered in a thesis

texts:
I hope this is the right place to pose my question.

I'm writing a thesis in English, but it's based on a project aimed to Italian native speakers (and so am I) and therefore I have often to refer to Italian terms.

Since its main language is English, I want it to be completely understandable by English speakers, without the "gaps" due to Italian words. What is the best way to address this problem?

My current solution is to write translations in parentheses or footnotes, but I don't like it very much.

Is there a better solution?


texts: I wonder in some good journals, there are articles that are quite short. Maximum 10 pages. How come such papers, with quite a short introduction with a brief lit-rewiew, are published? They are because of the quality, to do point conclusion and precise findings?


texts:
I was just thinking, universities (as a public institution) are one of the most long-lived institutions in a human society. The may survive changes of government
and they evolutionate with the community they belong.

Is there any serious study that somehow correlates the duration of a university and a style of education with the society it belongs?

What are the most ancient universities that are still active?


texts: Is it OK to thank the examiners in the acknowledgements of the final draft of a PhD thesis?

texts:
The examiners of a friend's PhD thesis required revisions which they needed to approve before they would accept the thesis. The requirements were fairly demanding but overall reasonable and helpfully explained, and my friend wishes to acknowledge the examiners' contribution in the final submission, in anticipation of their approval.

However, it seems to me that examiners are not supposed to be friends; and any implication that they are seems to suggest that the examination process was too cosy, or that the examiners were perhaps rather a push-over or even somewhat corrupt. Are such concerns well founded, or am I worrying unduly?


texts: I mistakenly chose the CC BY 4.0 license on arxiv. Can anyone take my paper and publish it in a journal or conference?

texts: I recently submitted an under-review paper to arxiv. I mistakenly chose CC BY 4.0 as the license. I suddenly found out that I've done that mistake. Can anyone publish my paper in a journal or conference? Is there any way for changing the license? Would you please guide me on how bad is the situation for me? What are the consequences? I have worked hard on this paper and it is important to me.


texts: Help writing a follow-up letter asking a professor to act as an academic reference

texts:
I need your help on how to write a follow-up letter requesting a professor to act as an academic reference.

I wrote to the professor a couple of weeks ago but so far I have not had any response. The original e-mail explained how we met (I was a visiting student at her lab), how long ago that was, what I´ve been doing since then and why it is important for me to have her recommendation. I know she travels a lot but she always uses an out-of-office auto-reply, which I didn´t get this time, so I don´t know whether she even got the e-mail or not. Should I write a brief note indicating that I sent her an e-mail a few weeks back and then include the content of the original e-mail? (I am writing from another e-mail address in case the first one was blocked by the spam filter). Or should I merge the brief note and the original content in a new e-mail? Any help will be greatly appreciated!


texts: I am a graduate student at a US university. I work for a professor as a TA. Recently, we graded students' tests by scanning them, and marking them electronically. After submitting grades, the professor asked me to email the electronic copies of the tests back to the students. Not being one to do work by hand that a computer can do for me, I wrote up a little program to email the tests for me. It all worked pretty well. I mentioned my program to another professor (not the one I work for), suggesting that he could use my code if he wanted. But he said that he thought emailing tests may be insecure, and might be a FERPA violation. Is he right? I did make sure to use an SSL encryption when sending the tests, but I don't know how secure this really is.


texts: Is there a bias in top tier PhD admissions at top tier universities to favor those with undergraduate degrees from other top tier universities?

texts:
Out of 9 applications to graduate schools ranked in the top 25 according to US News, I was accepted to only one PhD program in Electrical Engineering, and just barely (see note below). According to my GPA, GRE scores, letters of recommendation, and previous relevant research/industry experience I thought that I had a much better chance of being accepted to these programs. The only thing that I can see that sets me apart from many of my peers is that my undergraduate alma mater is pretty obscure (barely top 200 R2 university).

Here's some extra information about my application in case something else here sticks out:

Undergraduate Majors - Dual Computer Science & Electrical Engineering

Undergraduate GPA - 3.97

Research/Industry Experience - Two summer internships at NASA resulting in two conference publications. Four years as a professional Electrical Engineer doing R&D for a defense contractor which resulted in two more conference publications.

GRE - 166 Quantitative, 159 Verbal, 5.0 Writing

Maybe these schools are just monumentally difficult to be accepted into? I'm curious if anyone here has some insider insights.

Note: The reason I say just barely is because, after not hearing back from most schools, and being rejected outright from 3, I called the one I was most interested in going to and told them if they still had me on their list of viable candidates and were willing to make me an offer that I would accept. I received an offer letter the next day, two weeks before the deadline. I received rejections from the remaining schools not long thereafter.


texts: How often do professors accept new graduate students?

texts:
I know it has a lot to do with who is graduating and how many students the professor has already, but I just want to get a feel of how this process works. Do professors take in 1-2 students each year until they don't have any more room? and then wait for some to graduate before taking in more?

Someone I want to work with isn't taking new graduate students next year, and I'm wondering whether that means I need to wait one year or more.

Also, It would be nice if someone had an estimate of what the chances a professor isn't taking new graduate students for any given year.

Thinking about PhD for cognitive psychology/science.


texts: Can I ask a DST INSPIRE faculty for a recommendation letter?

texts:
I will be applying for PhD in USA this year, so I will be needing recommendation letters. Can I ask a DST INSPIRE faculty who used to work in same lab as me (apart from my principal investigator)? Will US universities consider this reference because I don't know if they are aware of what is a DST INSPIRE faculty. Will it pose a problem because DST INSPIRE faculty have a tenure of 5 years and I don't know if will they become permanent after that. Also, they are not given the designation of an "assistant professor" and are call "DST INSPIRE faculty" so I had this question?

DST INSPIRE faculty: It is a scheme by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) to offer an opportunity to young talents in India through contractual and tenure track positions for 5 years in both basic and applied sciences area. And INSPIRE means Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research.


texts: Should I use abbreviations for university names while writing my Statement of Purpose?

texts: I am specifically asking for University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. I am writing a Statement of Purpose for the university and have to mention it a few times. Should I write the complete name or can I use UIUC or Illinois instead?


texts: Do (scientific) editors complain with the publishers about user experience?

texts:
This recent question on the Elsevier online submission system prompted this question to me.

It seems like there are lots of outstanding examples of bad usability and overall negative user experience with the workflow between scientists and journals. For instance, citing only things from the top of my mind:

bad copy-editing (as in: they introduced many more errors instead of fixing them);
old, unwieldy, and non-standard LaTeX templates;
confusing or outdated instructions to authors on websites;
confusing e-mail interface: for instance, in my experience, in all the e-mail I get from Elsevier journals, the editor in chief is listed as the "From" address, even when it comes from another editor. Another example that comes to my mind is a Springer journal which has no online editorial system whatsoever, and editors treat the submissions by bouncing e-mails manually back and forth with the authors and reviewers, with all the problems that this entails.
the copy-editing phase taking months, and then corrections on the drafts  needed "within 48 hours".
complicated submission processes, in which the authors have to fill in manually lots of data that are unnecessary at the refereeing stage. or could be inferred automatically from the TeX source.

If one compares them with commercial websites, where the philosophy is "the customer is king; let's do everything so that they won't waste 30 seconds more than necessary filling our forms", the user experience seems poor, overall. It's not the kind of treatment I get on Amazon, Booking.com, or Google, for instance. Far from it.

I am not an editor at any journal, but if I were one, I would definitely try to complain about these practices and general approach. So, my question is:

Do editors (and editors-in-chief especially) complain about usability problems like these ones? If the answer is yes, why don't things get fixed? If the answer is no, why? Is it because they don't realize that there are these problems, because they don't care, or because they know no one would listen?


texts: Should a figure/table go before or after the first paragraph that references it?

texts: Should a figure/table go before or after the first paragraph that references it in an academic paper? I cannot find a definitive answer on this. The general advice is to place the figure/table as close to the reference as possible.


texts: When citing a book (Harvard) what should year be?

texts:
I always see tutorials on Harvard referencing saying things like:

  Last name, First initial. (Year published). Title. Edition. City published: Publisher, Page(s).

What do I need to put for year published?

Is that the year of the book's first publication, or the year that the copy I have was published.

Specifically, I am trying to cite a translation of A Doll's House.

It was originally published (in its original language) in 1879.

This translation was first published in Great Britain in 1994. Reprinted 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009 (twice)

Its ISBN number is 978 1 85459 236 1


texts: Yesterday I was accused of plagiarism by my professor. who earlier in the  week I had called him out for one of his policies being against  the school policy. I feel like now I'm experiencing some kind of personal vendetta on his part. Then yesterday that professor pulled me aside  and said theses are the facts and said I had deliberately done falsification and plagiarism and It was a bit overwhelming at that point . so I took a few minutes to collect myself then marched myself into his office and sat down and tried to discuss the matter with him. He began to show me what I did and I had always thought plagiarism was not giving credit to the authors but I had done In text citations and a bibliography citing the authors and I was under the assumption that this was a research paper so I was just putting in the cold hard facts and didn't think I was committing any academic dishonesty. Then my professor  gave me two options the first one was to take it to an higher authority which he repeated several times that it would not be wise for me to do so and if I did he would tarnish my academic reputation at this university  2nd was to go through the rest of the class and act like nothing happened and know I would automatically be getting an failing grade at the end of this semester. I feel like I'm being black mailed here idk what I should do.


texts: How to professionally inform of my intention to quit my masters

texts:
After long thought, I have decided to quit my master's program.
I fully understand the shame and failure that this is.

What is the professional way to leave, I do not wish to waste anyone's time but I feel just ducking out with an email would look bad.
Should I simply arrange a meeting with my thesis advisor and let them know then, and should I indicate my desire to quit within the email I send?

I know whatever happens, I will be viewed as a failure by them and will never get a reference from them.


texts: How to tell my advisor that I am quitting my PhD and what to say to an employer about why I am leaving

texts: I got a job offer shortly after starting my PhD. So my question is: What should I say to my advisor about why I am quitting my PhD? Is it fair to tell her that I have accepted a job offer? And What should I say to an employer about why I am leaving my PhD? Will it not cause them suspect that I can't survive a PhD, let alone a job with them?


texts:
Many years ago I was studying with the Open University. During that time I bought a revision aid. The basic principle was that you wrote out all you knew about a topic immediately after learning it. The note pages were marked so that they could be referenced against a sort of calendar. The idea was that you read through your notes something like the next day, again a week later and again something like 4 weeks later.

I recall that the thinking was that the frequency set coincided with the way your brain moves stuff from short- to long-term memory.

I'm just about to start studying again and I wondered if anyone might know what the frequency for reviewing one's notes might have been.


texts: In applications for academic jobs that ask for a "copy of transcript", is a "copy of transcript" an unofficial or official copy?

texts: I am confused in a lot of applications for academic jobs, such as assistant professor, lecturer, instructor, at academic institutions. Many of them ask for a "copy of transcript," but I am unsure about what this means. Does this mean I need to get my official sealed transcript, open it, and copy it, or does it mean I can use the unofficial transcript?


texts: Are there any negative consequences to an instructor attempting to achieve "all A's from everyone"?

texts:
Instructors can use reflective teaching to analyze their teaching, in the hope that they can improve their course for subsequent terms. If a teacher focused on insuring that all students earned A's, would that bring about unintended negative consequences.

Here are some examples:

If some students did not earn an A because they failed to understand some material, the teacher would attempt try harder in the next term to explain this material more clearly and to also identify or correct the course readings.
If some students did not earn an A because they were uninterested and unmotivated, the teacher should try harder to make the lessons more interesting.

Assume that students only earn an A by demonstrating that they have achieved the course goals, the teacher never lowers their standards for what is an A, and students not made aware of this goal, would such an "all A's from everyone" focus create any intended problems?


texts: Can I make a case for authorship if I spend two weeks running a series of repetitive experiments for my PI?

texts: I am a postbac working at a national lab. I have a project that is funded through an outside source, but my PI and postdoc informed me that they need me to spend the next two weeks completing a series of repetitive experiments they don't have the time to do for an alternative project. These experiments are required to satisfy the peer review criteria of the paper. Can I make a case for myself to attain authorship within the paper?


texts: Student and advisor applying to same job - conflict of interest with recommendation letter

texts:
I'm currently a Ph.D. student. I'm applying for a post-Ph.D. faculty job, and so is one of my two Ph.D. co-advisors. I think we have a good relationship, and I am thrilled they are applying, and truly hope they get the job. I think this is mutual.

They recently decided to apply. Prior to their decision, they agreed to review my application and be listed as a reference.

Now that we are both applying, they have agreed to review my application, but only after they have finished with theirs, to keep them independent. Furthermore, they suggested they should not be a letter writer, but then said they would remain as a reference if I want, since I don't have that many others to choose from (being somewhat earlier in my career, having collaborated with others a bit less).

I've asked the Search Committee head if they are OK with me listing them as a reference. If my advisor and I agree to do it, does the committee have a problem with it? Their reply will guide my answer.

But I seek advice here too. Is it OK to keep the advisor as the reference? I trust them to write a good letter, even in the unlikely event that we are both selected, or I alone am selected. Is this unwise?


texts: Is this an experimental or observational study?

texts:
We are conducting a study to validate an educational game on PC. A number of subjects are invited to use the game to go inside a virtual office room and put markers on the places where they "like" and "don't like". Then, the places where subjects'  left markers along with their rankings (like or not) are compared to a quantitative indicator of comfort (calculated by an algorithm based on various parameters of the place in question). For example, if point A was evaluated as (liked) by a subject but the algorithm says it should be (disliked), then there is a discrepancy between the subject’s opinion and the algorithm.
The puzzling question is would this be classed as an observational study (as we don't intervene or create control groups), and in this case, how the variables should be defined? But if it is an experiment, what would be the independent and dependent variables?


texts: Organizing discussion groups in online conference

texts:
I am organizing a math conference of about 70 people later this summer, and we have decided, in light of COVID-19, to make it an online conference. I would like to have opportunities for small discussion groups, such as naturally happen at coffee breaks, as well as having standard talks.

I am imagining having a wiki area of the conference website where people could indicate what they were interested in talking about when, so that other people could coordinate with them and plan a conference call. Has anyone done something like this? Does anyone have recommendations for software or for other ways to streamline this?


texts: Which e-mail address should I give for a recommender in an application?

texts:
For an application, I have to fill in the contact information of somebody who wrote me a recommendation letter. The person owns three e-mail accounts: permanent (on Gmail), my university’s e-mail service and another university’s e-mail service (where he is the chairman).

So, I feel a little bit confused which e-mail address would be best to give? Does it matter at all?


texts: Can I still claim the novelty of my PhD contribution in later publications?

texts:
I understand that it is common to publish a number of conference papers while working on PhD and, then, publish conference/journal articles from your thesis afterwards.

However, when the main contribution has already been introduced in the thesis, can I still claim that the contribution is novel?


texts: GPA calculation in German Grading system

texts:
I am studying in a German University where the GPA grades are :
1.0 , 1.3, 1.7, 2.0, 2.3, 2.7, 3.0, 3.3, 3.7, 4.0 with 1.0 being the best score a student can get in exam and below 4.0 it is fail.

However, My score card looks like this:

Clearly, graded average = 204.6/108 = 1.89 and my actual result in the scorecard is 2.2. (I also have seen the related questions for this in forum and they don't answe my question.)

Could anyone please explain the calculation behind this ?


texts: PhD to be advised by Mr. Enfant Terrible?

texts:
I have been admitted to a generally well-regarded Computer Science PhD program.

My potential advisor's research interests match very well with mine. However, he appears to be an extremely controversial figure within the community - someone whose research always evokes strong reactions.

Some people consider him to be an innovative out-of-the-box thinker whose research is always fresh and interesting. Others, perhaps the majority, consider much of his work to be ridiculous, outrageous, and gimmicky. In either case (for both the right and wrong reasons), he appears to enjoy plenty of publicity. He is also a full professor and the chair of his department (which is a well-regarded department).

I really want to accept the offer, but these issues are making me uneasy. Should I be worried at all? What do you think? For obvious reasons, I don't want to name my potential advisor here. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!


texts: What's the editor's benefit in setting deadlines for manuscript revision?

texts:
In many journals of my field, upon acceptance of a manuscript for publication with minor revisions, the editor sets a deadline (4 weeks, in many journals) for submission for the revised manuscript.

While I usually resubmit these papers as fast as possible, I don't see the benefit for the editor to set a deadline. After all, once a paper is “almost accepted”, the authors are motivated enough to get it over the final line, aren't they?


texts: Can I reuse parts of a chapter from a text book in my thesis?

texts:
This question is related to this one. Only this time it's not about a journal paper but a chapter in a text book.

I am first author of the chapter in the text book that was published by a renowned publisher. I would like to reuse parts of the chapter for my PhD thesis (including a citation, of course).

Is this acceptable? Is there anything different with respect to the situation with a "normal" paper? Is there anything I need to pay special attention to?

EDIT: The publisher allows reusing my own work in my thesis.


texts: Can I withdraw an accepted paper if the fees are higher than expected because the proof is longer?

texts:
I have received the acceptance of my paper from Editor board. However, the print charges is much higher than I expected. My original manuscript contained only 12 pages but the proof (final version), which was sent to me contains 24 pages. So the print charges are doubled.

Now I want to withdraw this paper. Is it ethical/acceptable/legal?


texts: How should faculty implement STEM classes that require hands-on lab experience in online learning platforms given COVID-19 pandemic?

texts:
I am a STEM teaching assistant. I know some professors were using physical class materials in engineering classes. How do you think they should respond to COVID-19-forced online education and still ensure the quality of their classes?

It is a purposefully broad question. I was curious to hear what you think about the near term or futuristic/ideal approaches that could change STEM education.


texts: How to deal with guilt turning down non-tenure track faculty offer at current institution?

texts:
I recognize my questions have some overlap with this one and this one. I feel those are largely talking about different things, though.

I am in a situation where I have been offered a non-tenure track faculty position at my current university. This is also the institution in which I did my PhD, but the tenured faculty I would be working for is not the person I did my PhD with; I have been working with them since finishing my PhD though. So I feel a great deal of appreciation for the institution and the faculty member I'd be working with.

However, there are a few issues with the position, and I am considering a competing offer in industry that seems to better fit my personal goals. I (and some mentors without a dog in the race) feel  that I would grow more in my area of research in the industry job. The non-tenure track position has been very hard for the faculty to fill, and they tend to lose whoever they hire to industry anyway because industry offers far better compensation. If I accept the industry job and turn down the faculty job, I will still be working with the faculty for a few months. I am not worried about the faculty seeking retribution, or that I will be burning a bridge, especially because I have been open about other offers and my goals from the beginning. Despite that, I still feel a sense of guilt considering the industry offer, and I think that might be clouding my judgement in the decision of which offer to accept.

So the question is as stated in the title, but I can be more specific. I recognize this may not be a question that can be answered with concrete steps, but what I am looking for is how to decline the faculty job in a way that will be palatable and not seen as greedily choosing industry over what I'm offered here.


texts: Ex supervisor published last month a photo from my PhD (5 years ago) with other co authors

texts:
Can anyone of the members of the committee of a PhD thesis use data of the former doctoral student’ PhD thesis without attribution to the PhD thesis?

An ex-supervisor used data at a conference with some co-authors. Unfortunately this data has been already presented in another conference as a poster 6 years ago by myself with different co-authors. This data was derived from my PhD thesis 5 years ago.

When I asked her, she told me that she had the right to. In my PhD thesis, I wrote that I retain the intellectual property rights. However in my PhD program, the university policy is that results from a PhD thesis can be used by both the student and its supervisor.


texts: Do universities maintain secret textbooks?

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Textbooks are highly important resources for course work as well as for research work.

Some textbooks are freely available over internet. Some textbooks can be purchased.

Is it true that there exists secret textbooks available only for the students of that particular university and for no others?

I had this doubt because one of my batch mates claimed that there is a university (say X) has its secret textbook for students as well as researchers of that university only and it is a common practice for many top end universities.

Note that I am asking about textbooks only, not regarding teaching material and others.


texts: Doctor of Design (or Other) as PhD Equivalent, Future Risk

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From another question regarding Doctorate equivalency, I found the link to this wiki article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_doctoral_degrees_in_the_US

I have a few questions that are interlinked.  I'm sure someone will have a different opinion, but it seems to me these questions are clearer within the context of eachother, which is why I am not making multiple posts.  For one:

  For the purposes of this survey, a research doctorate is defined as "a
  doctoral degree that (1) requires completion of an original
  intellectual contribution in the form of a dissertation or an
  equivalent culminating project (e.g., musical composition) and (2) is
  not primarily intended as a degree for the practice of a profession."

The quote above is categorizing doctoral degrees by their intention.  However, it is not clear how this intention is defined.  One school may consider a doctorate as a specialized version of a PhD, while another refers to it for industry.  Case in point, from the Doctor of Design at Harvard:

  Thesis topics investigate more specific issues within individual or
  combined research areas, and do not necessarily correspond to
  individual academic disciplines. Instead, they are often
  interdisciplinary in nature, involving faculty and resources from
  other graduate schools at Harvard and contribute to expanding the
  intellectual range of design research.

This states there is a thesis, research, and contribution to the field.

On the other hand, NCSU states their Doctorate of design as:

  Established in 2016-17, the professional Doctor of Design (DDes)
  program is an advanced degree program for established design
  practitioners, which complements the existing PhD in Design.

Which seems to fall under the category defined as (2) in the wiki quote "is not primarily intended as a degree for the practice of a profession".  Maybe I am reading into it wrong, but it does seem to suggest there are differences in how a school interprets the role of one program over another.

1) So is the equivalency based on what type of program you went through, or based on an assessment of the supposed meaning, averaged over schools?

Second, based on either the assessment, or university specific approach to the degree purpose, it seems the NSF keeps changing equivalency. From the wiki article:

  part of an ongoing program of assessment that saw the number of
  recognized research degrees reduced from the 52 recognized from 1994
  (the earliest report archived online) to 1998, falling to 48 from 1999
  to 2003 and to 24 in 2004.The number rose to 20
  in 2007, with the Doctor of Design and Doctor of Fine Arts being
  re-recognized after being removed from the 2006 list, before falling
  again to 18 in 2008 when the Doctor of Music and Doctor of Industrial
  Technology were dropped.

2) If the acceptance keeps changing, such as the case in Doctor of Design, is the year received connected to the recognition of it as a research degree?

And finally,
3) is it then risky to get a degree that does not specifically say Doctor of Philosophy, as one day NSF may decide it doesn't accept it anymore?  If there are any examples within the community that this has happened to, or schools/tenure committees that have run into this issue, those answers would help.


texts: Potential PhD supervisor expressed interest, then didn't follow up about meeting. Should I continue with admissions process or move on?

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After a Skype conversation and several correspondences with an Irish professor, the professor wrote that he will take me as PhD student.

Although we had agreed on which project to work on and we planned to discuss about research questions, we have yet to discuss about research questions and proposal. As I feel that he was really busy, I wrote him research questions to ask for his comment without having any prior discussion and mentioned that I need to make a decision if I am going to his University end of this month. Following that, he mentioned that I can put in Online application, will direct HR to advise me on Visa application, and maybe we would have another Skype conversation last Friday. In the email, he also sent me two papers and mentioned one research area of particular interest to be included as research questions.

However, the research area is really very new to me and so I told him in the last correspondence and ask him about time to have Skype conversation last Friday. I didn't hear from him since.

I really interested to go to his university. Now, Should I put in online application first or I should forget about this opportunity and move on?


texts: Is it normal/advised to finish your masters to get a better PhD offer?

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Let's say someone finishes their honours degree and would like to do their PhD.

However, the scholarship offers they receive aren't at the places they'd have hoped.

My question is whether it is worth doing an additional year to finish their masters with the hope of getting into their preferred university.

My personal situation is that I would like to study in Singapore or Hong Kong, but only received offers from Australian universities.


texts: Can tenured professors do more about injustice in universities?

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This question pertains only to tenured professors, because untenured staff may fear and risk loss of employment if they protest or campaign against the university.

How much can tenured professors do, to combat and protest injustice and misconduct by the university (eg: exorbitant accommodation or food prices or libary fines, horrible teaching, low faculty-student ratio, scant attention and support to undergraduates, etc.)?

Please correct any errors in this conjecture, but it seems that if many famous tenured professors (eg: Nobel laureates, Fields Medallists, etc...) unite against an injustice, and perchance even threaten to leave the university because they can easily gain tenure elsewhere with their excellences, then certainly the university would address it?


texts: How much effort do researchers take to publish their source code?

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When publishing a paper, some researchers publish the source code used for the paper.

Is there any research/study/survey/... that looked at how much effort do researchers take to publish their source code? I.e. how many hours do researchers take to publish the source code for a given paper?


texts: How much should I charge a colleague for a translation project?

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I have come across a situation that I'm not entirely sure how to handle and am curious if there are any norms in the United States for it.

I teach in my university's foreign language department.  A colleague in another department approached me to see if I could assist in translating an article for a book that he was working on.  The article is in the language that I specialize in and also very closely related to my research area.

If it were just a paragraph, I would of course do it without question.  However, given its length (about 13k words), I'm not sure how to approach.  He has offered to pay, but is it normal to charge the same amount as I would were it a private business?  Or is it expected to offer a reduced rate in the name of "service"?


texts: Is it possible to change PhD department, but keep supervisor if he has joint appointment in the other department?

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I am  in my first year at grad school, and I am thinking about changing from EE/CS to BME. My supervisor is the professor in both departments (actually, full professor of the first and joint appointed of the second).

I have taken some modules that are required by both departments, and my project is related to biomedical science. I wonder if there are any possibilities that I can switch? Should I go and talk to the BME administrative before I mention it to my supervisor?


texts: Asked to tutor in a class I am currently taking

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I am in an accelerated Master's program in Engineering, we are taking a Probability course. At this time the class is review for me (I have a B.S. in Mathematics), we are moving very fast though.

One of the other students asked if I would be willing to tutor them, and offered to pay me for the time.

My main worries are that 1. I will get to a point where I am trying to summarize information I have just learned, 2. That I will have a good mathematical explanation but miss the point in plain English, and 3. that tutoring will cause me to not have enough time to study myself.

With those misgivings in mind, would it be more ethical/reasonable to just give some advice for free or to set up payment plan? I am not just going to say "No, I won't help" but if I was charging I would want to be able to give their money's worth.


texts:
I have a question about a paper of mine, which is highly likely to be published. Do you think I could put the following disclaimer: "This paper gives the views of the author, and not necessarily the position of the...(name of university)"?
If yes, where is the right place to put it?
Thank you in advance!


texts: Suggested tablets/writing pad for online teaching and giving maths lectures

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I am a maths masters student, and am looking to buy a tablet/writing pad device. I will primarily be using it for writing when collaborating with a group on a paper, giving lectures/talks, and online tutoring.
I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for something suitable (that can be purchased/shipped to the UK), ideally under £50. I would love something that is a decent size (at least 6x8 inch), and which has a screen on which you can see what you are writing.
A related question was closed as being off topic- as a 'shopping question', though I think that it was a perfectly valid. I don't know where else I could ask for advice for this; the students\lecturers that I know have something similar generally have high-end tablets or ipads that are out of my price range, and I am sure many users of this site have good suggestions.


texts: My advisor said that I should be more modest, and we should meet more often. Should I tell him about my impostor syndrome? If yes, mail or personal?

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I am a PhD student in Europe, currently in my second year, and I have some attitude problems concerning my work.  I really want to work on my problem, that's fine, but what bothers me is the following. I struggle with "impostor syndrome", so I always think that I know nothing. This leads me to the thought that it's not worth meeting with my advisor, because I am afraid of saying stupid things (which happens!), asking stupid questions (which has led, after all, to the solution of many important problems!), not knowing things which I should know (but if I don't ask, it will be even harder for me to learn these things), and am just afraid of wasting my advisor's time.

You see that I know that I know that my thoughts are completely irrational, but they just won't go out of my head.

Now my advisor (currently abroad for several weeks) sent me an e-mail that he thinks that I should be more modest and that we should meet more often. While I agree with the fact that we should meet more often, I disagree with the statement that I should be more modest. Not being modest means for me (in this context) thinking that I don't need my advisor because I can do everything on my own (correct me if I misunderstand his statement). But the opposite is the case.

Should I tell my advisor about my thoughts about not being good enough, as described above? If yes, should I respond to him via e-mail (note that he's abroad for some time), or should I prefer to talk to him in person about these issues?


texts: Is it Common to hire and fire people in lab frequently?

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I have never seen this happen in other research labs in my university and I am trying to get into the mind of my advisor and understand what his intentions are! We are an HCI lab of two people. In last year, we have hired and fired seven people. They get hired, work for a month or two, my advisor is not satisfied them and removes them from the team.

My professor is new to the lab, it was given to her upon joining in Summer 2012. Another PhD student and myself have been working since beginning of the lab before the professor. We are the only permanent fixtures.

I am the defacto programmer and I program all the projects in lab. I had asked my advisor for PhD last week, as I completed my thesis defense last year, but she said she needs to check her funding and will get back to me. At same time she is putting out a word to other professors that she needs good RAs.

In the interim, an established tenure professor in our department in operations research had asked me to join his lab as PhD student for a project in data mining. He said I am very good at Computer Science and he needs my skills for his projects. I had asked him if its common in his lab to change people constantly and he told me there were only four people working in his lab for past 5 years and he said always asks for input from his own students in lab before contacting anybody for RAs.

The professor I am currently working with has never asked me or the other PhD student for advice before taking on people or firing them. It puts an uncomfortable pressure on me as I feel that she is not happy with my work and looking for replacement. I really don't like working with new people every two months. So why is my advisor doing this?

How frequently do you hire and fire people in your labs?


texts: Making corrections to PhD application after submitting it

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I am currently finishing up my applications for PhD programs (in the humanities) and, in working on a draft of my statement of purpose for one school that I have not yet turned in, I noticed an error. It is a typo of sorts, the omission of a verb which renders a sentence "nonsensical." The intention of the sentence is still clear but it is quite noticeable. Think something along the lines of "Excited by the interdisciplinary dialogue at Harvard." as the uncorrected sentence, missing an "I am" at the beginning.

The problem is, I have already submitted this mistake in my statement of purpose for four or five other schools. A friend, who submitted corrections to his applications when he was applying, says that it would be no problem to contact the department/admissions administrative secretary with a corrected PDF. I am afraid of making it worse by submitting corrections, but also would love to fix it if I could.

Any thoughts on what I should do? I am kicking myself for not noticing it... what's really annoying, is that I noticed and fixed it in two applications, but must have reverted to a previous draft for the rest of the schools.

All advice/reassurance/chastisement is appreciated, especially if you have experience with such a blunder yourself.


texts: Repeat same table or figure in different chapters or use cross references?

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It's my understanding that APA discourages repeating the same data in different tables; i.e., if you find yourself doing that, then maybe you need a table that combines the data in a different way.

However, what about repeating exactly the same table (or figure) in different chapters of a dissertation?

From a reader perspective, it's easier to see the table or figure on the same page where it is discussed vs. seeing a cross-reference and flipping back and forth.

And, if you do repeat a table or figure, then it's also better for readers if the caption of the duplicate item indicates that it is a duplicate (otherwise in the table of contents there appears to be a mistake).

The following may be relevant to those who want to answer my question.

I am editing someone else's dissertation.
The student has successfully defended.
This is the final edit before publication.
The university standards do not cover this situation.


texts: Are undergraduate courses grades matter, if one change major in graduate schools?

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Suppose a physics undergraduate student wants to change their major to pure/applied mathematics in graduate school.

The student has already taken few courses in mathematics (suppose Introduction to Complex Analysis, Introduction to Real Analysis, Probability Theory, Advanced Partial Differential Equations) and is doing fine but no A's grades, only B's and B-'s grades, for the mathematics courses and at overall (for every physics and mathematics courses that already taken), the student has upper second class grade (3.3-3.6 grades from 4).

How does the graduate school see this student, given the student really shows interest in mathematics and has at least one publication or attended a pure/applied mathematics conference once as presenter?


texts: What was offensive about the "ladies lingerie department" joke, and how can I avoid offending people in a similar way?

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Moderator note: A follow-on question about how to avoid the behavior described here has been posted.

In recent news, two academics are at odds over this incident full article here:

  The fuss started when [Prof. X] and [Prof. Y] ended up in the same crowded elevator during a conference at a Hilton in San Francisco last month.  [Prof. Y] said she offered to press the floor buttons for people in the elevator, whom she described as mostly conference attendees and all, except one other woman, white middle-aged men. Instead of saying a floor, [Prof. X] smiled and asked for the women’s lingerie department "and all his buddies laughed," [Prof. Y] wrote in a complaint, the details of which he disputed, to the association later that day.

This incident has escalated to the point that the academic organization that organized the conference has decided to sanction Prof. X.

I don't understand why the joke was funny, but that's not really important.  I would like to understand why it was offensive.  Specifically, I'm wondering

In what way was this comment offensive?

The bullets above are not rhetorical or sarcastic; I am completely sincere.  I am worried because I don't understand precisely what was offensive, so I fear that I might do something similar.  I have wondered whether the remark was offensive because:

It referred to underwear
It referred to women (in any way) and was cause for laughter
There is some unstated assumption about his reason for supposedly going to a lingerie department

But I really have no idea, and I want to understand.  I could not find an answer in any of the news pieces on this incident.

I realize that this question might get closed as off-topic.  However, I think it is wrong to assume that no part of this is specific to academic culture (if that's the case, that's part of the answer).  Certainly it occurred in a uniquely academic environment, and is a dispute between academics and an academic society, that seems to jeopardize at least one academic career.

Please refrain from using this as a place to express your opinion on who is right in this dispute.  That's not what I'm asking.


texts: Should I disclose invisible disabilities to my supervisors during my PhD?

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Long story short, I'm halfway through my PhD and have recently started receiving help for invisible disabilities from the university, although I have not disclosed the details of these disabilities to my supervisors. My supervisors know that I receive university support for 'medical issues' but they do not know specifically what these are.

A recent discussion with my supervisors lead to them saying they cannot support my request for accommodations or advocate on my behalf without knowing exactly what 'medical issues' I have. I have no problem disclosing specific situations I sruggle with (e.g. that I can be distracted easily, that I often misunderstand people etc), but do not want to put a label on the actual diagnoses as it does not describe how these disabilities affect me specifically and there can be a lot of misunderstanding around these diagnoses.

So my question is, do you think it is fair for me to not disclose my exact disabilities to my supervisors but request their support for accommodating my 'medical issues' and impairments?

As an aside, as per university policy I am not required to disclose to anyone except our disabilities branch (which I have done), through which we can request accommodations, support, and advocacy without needing to disclose to other university staff (lecturers, professors, supervisors) our disabilities (for example, someone who is visually impaired can request audio recordings on medical grounds without being obligated to tell the lecturer the reason for the request i.e. being visually impaired).


texts: Does experience at a startup for a couple of years increase the chances of getting into a good Ph.D programme in a US university?

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Background:

I'm a non-US undergrad majoring in Computer Science. I will have published a couple of research papers in a few months before I graduate, have worked on a couple of research-based academic projects, made some significant contributions to a big FOSS project, have done an internship from a small US startup, and a project in a big company (the size of Microsoft, Yahoo) - kind of a university-company mentorship. I intend to pursue my Ph.D from a US university.

3 questions:

If I join a US startup after relocating to US, work there (coding work - PHP, Python, iOS development) for a year or two before taking the GRE test and applying to MS/Ph.D programmes, will it increase my chances? I really want to work at a startup and want to found my own.
What if the work at the startup is based on data analysis and machine learning (along the lines of which I intend to pursue my Ph.D)?
Also, does having already founded a small startup (supposing I've got an investor or two too) help my chances in gaining admission? Considering I will co-found my own startup anyway someday, for sure.


texts: What is a good system for generating BibTeX reference keys?

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When using a reference manager (or even when tracking references on a handwritten draft), it is common to have a key for each entry when referring to items, which the computer (or you in a final form) replaces with a properly styled reference later (in the style of the journal).

E.g., in BibTeX, which I am most familiar with, writing \cite{Box2015a} might be replaced with "[1]" or with "(Box, O. 2015)" or with "(Box, O. 2015, Meaningful reference key format)" depending on style -- the key in question being the Box2015a part.

Having a good format for the key seems useful, since one would spend a lot of time only seeing the key, rather than the full reference. Simply the author name and date, and a letter to break conflicts doesn't seem ideal.

Was Box2015a Box's work on Meaningful Reference Key formats? Or was it his work on Bicycle Speed Dependency on Weather? Getting that wrong would be embarrassing, and also accidental plagiarism (since credit was not given to the right paper).

What is a better format for reference keys?


texts: Which publications actually count for tenure?

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I have been told in no uncertain terms that papers published with your PhD advisor simply Do. Not. Count. when it comes to tenure. Quote: "Publications with your advisor will be crossed off the list."

An assertion that strong makes me insecure about collaborating with any senior researcher.  Will these publications also be tossed out?  How senior is senior?  For instance, suppose I collaborate with junior faculty at another institution who was hired at roughly the same time.  Will outcomes from that collaboration be deemed "more significant" than with, say, a full professor from that same institution?  And what about the field?  Am I "safer" publishing with senior people from a different field, because there will be an easier perception that I am "carrying my weight?"  Or should I simply avoid collaboration altogether, and publish exclusively with my own grad students and postdocs?  How do the real discussions go, from those who have actually been in the trenches?

Honestly, I would much rather just collaborate with the people I do the best work with.  (Isn't that the best thing for the field anyway?) But I am terrified of having years of good work "crossed off the list" because I did not pick the right dance partner.


texts: How does a dropout influence one's later scientific career?

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Dropping out/Take one's leave from college or Master school. It happens and the reasons are almost infinite.

Assuming dropping out/leaving from college but still wanting to pursue the same career and give a come-back after some time off. How will this failure in CV influence the admission to a later program? E.g. admission to some Master program or admission to a PhD in a public R1 university? Will the persons responsible for admission listen to the reasons?
What would help in this situation?

I heard that being expelled from a specific college would be much worse than just droping out but before being forced to leave. So will expulsion have more severe consequences than droping out?