texts: How to minimise student's discomfort when suggesting they need to improve his/her English?

texts:
The standard of English grammar, spelling and syntax is abysmal in my country. High school students generally learn such things by studying a foreign language.

As a result, the written work I receive from students whose native tongue is English frequently has many errors - including the usual:

Typographical errors
Apostrophes in the wrong place (its, it's)
The following fails: their/there/they're; whose/who's
And, generally, failing to check spelling, grammar and to proof read thoroughly.

The typos and failure to proof read thoroughly I can understand and treat accordingly, namely encourage students to proof read and check their work carefully, or get a friend/colleague/family member to help.

The failures in English grammar, syntax and punctuation - which I suspect arise from a deficient treatment at school - I find hard to forgive.

Our University has extensive support for improving the English for both native and non-native English speakers.

I feel concerned, however, about suggesting to those students who are native English speakers, but who need more training, to attend the help workshops available to them. This is for fear of embarrassing or alienating the students. Is there a sensitive way of dealing with this? Should I even try to spare the students' blushes?


texts: How should I phrase an important question that I need to ask a professor?

texts:
When needing to ask a professor about something important and potentially delicate, what is an appropriate way to phrase the question or write the email?

Examples include:

Requesting a recommendation letter
Asking for exceptions to policy (e.g., ignoring a course prerequisite, rescheduling an exam)
Asking if you can do research with them, join a group, get into a program
Scheduling a meeting, exam, or defense
Letting them know about a change of plans
Letting them know about a life event affecting your work or studies (e.g., wedding, funeral, sickness, vacation)


texts: Is it advised to give a suggestion how to cite in the thesis document itself?

texts:
I am thinking about including a statement as follows in my thesis (e.g. at the second page).

  Please cite this thesis as "X.Y, My fancy title, Thesis, University of XZ, June 2019, https://doi.org/10.15420/882.2249."

One the one hand this could be very helpful for someone who wants to cite the thesis. On the other hand it might come across as begging for a citation or that I prefer to be cited with a particular citation style (what I do not, of course).

Is this a sensible idea?
If not, is there a preferred way to mention at least the DOI?
If yes, is there a better wording?


texts: what happens to the grant I wrote with my PI if I switch institutions

texts:
I am an international master's student at a top US institution and I am graduating from my program in September. I do not have a PhD lined up yet, I am planning on applying in this fall. Towards the end of my master's studies, I came up with an idea for a project and already did the ground work (separate from the project that my PI was funding me for). However, because I am an international student, I cannot write a grant / fellowship for this project idea myself. I've pitched this idea to my PI and she is interested in applying for a grant for this project together, provided I do all the work to write the grant. I am OK with writing the grant and submitting it under my PI's name but my question is: what happens if we get the funding for this project from a federal agency (e.g., NSF) and I end up starting my PhD in a different institution next year? Does the grant money stay with the PI? If so, can that money still be used towards funding my research on the same project in a different university (in a lab where I can do similar research)?

More info upon questions below:
I am worried that I will get the grant with my PI, but won't be accepted for a PhD position in my current institution (I will be applying to a different department -BE- than the department I'm completing my master's in -EE-). The reason for this assumption is that I already applied to BE and was rejected. My PI did write me a recommendation letter but she is not in the admissions committee and she told me that she has no leverage in who is admitted to BE. I'll still apply again this year, but I may be rejected again. So, I'm just trying to see whether it is worth putting the effort in writing the grant if the only way to benefit from that grant is to be a PhD student in my current institution. I'm wondering whether some sort of agreement may be made between my current PI and the future PI in wherever I'll be admitted (still in the US) such that I can still use that grant to work towards my project? There are many labs in other US institutions with overlapping interests as my current lab, so finding a relevant place won't be hard. I'm just curious if anyone had / heard of a similar experience?


texts: What happens when two papers prove the same result?

texts:
A hypothetical situation: two (groups of) authors have independently proven the same result. How do we determine who gets credit?

There are some obvious bounds - if Group A posts a paper to the arxiv, and Group B posts the same result to the arxiv n time units later and claims to be independent; if n=10 years, then clearly Group A gets credit. If n=1 week then it's less clear to me.

Other than posting a paper to the arxiv, to what extent do talks count? What about talks containing nearly complete proofs?

ETA: I'm aware that such situations occur not infrequently; I only say "hypothetical" in the sense that I'm not personally involved in such a situation and I'm just curious to know the community's opinion.


texts: Is it possible for an international medical graduate to take their residency and fellowship training in Singapore?

texts: I am graduating medicine in 2 years time.  I am from Indonesia. I tried inquiring what the requirements are, but I have not been getting any straight answers thus far.


texts: How does one approach a professor to volunteer in his/her lab?

texts:
In particular if one has little practical experience with research in the field (neuroscience), and has limited research experience in another area though did not fit well (computer vision).

What does one put on the email?  Classes taken?  Experiments done?  Skills (reading primary literature, matlab, statistics and writing)? Or just a request for a meeting?

Should I mention in the email my major research requirements that specify I must work in the same lab for two semesters with paperwork (which my advisor suggested volunteering in first to see how I fit)?


texts: I found a paper with a similar structure, method, and conclusions from an attendee of a conference I presented at. Is this plagiarism?

texts:
Facts:

In 2019 I gave a presentation at an international conference. The paper, a systematic review of my field of study, was uploaded on the website of the conference.
One person in the audience approached me and asked me questions on the methodology of the paper.
A few months later, this person invited me to submit my paper to a journal that she was curating. I refused because my paper was already under review in another journal.
Yesterday, I found out that she has published a paper in her journal with the same structure, method, and conclusions of mine.

To be noted: the bibliometric datasets are slightly different, but the images are very similar. Also, the conclusions of her paper resemble mine.
Anyone doing a systematic review of the field of study would reach similar conclusions, but existing work with similar findings should be cited. My unpublished work was never cited or mentioned. Moreover, my study was the first one to do a quantitative thematic review. Now, her paper is the first one to do it.  I feel the novelty of my paper has been largely lost.
To be honest, this seems like a case of plagiarism. It is too convenient to copy the structure of an existing paper and change the wording to not make it look like plagiarism.
It can happen that similar papers get published at the same time. But her paper did not happen by chance. She copied my idea and decided to publish it before me.
I just find the behavior highly unprofessional, but I am not sure if copying the method, the topic, and the structure of a paper constitutes plagiarism. The fact that she never cited my unpublished work tells me that she had ill intentions. But maybe I am wrong. What do you think I should do? Can I ask the journal to retract the her paper?


texts: Emailing professor: Is my profile good enough for this position?

texts:
I am applying for PhD positions nowadays. Recently, few PhDs are announced (in CoQus, Austria) and I am very interested in these positions. But it looks like these positions require very high profile candidates. They have asked about publications (if applicable) in nearly each paragraph of advertisement. It is also written that a candidate can only apply once for PhD in that institute in whole life.

I have written a paper during my M.Sc. but its status is "submitted". So, technically I don't have any publication yet.

I don't want to lose my chance by applying without publication. So, my question is:

Is it a good idea to email professor of my interest asking about if my profile is good enough to have any chance to get this PhD?


texts:
Let's say Paper A was recently accepted by a fairly prestigious journal (the top in my subfield).  Now, there is a new Paper B, half of which gives a more detailed description of an object in Paper A for pedagogical reasons. This half of Paper B  may not technically be new, but there are lots of pretty pictures in it (not merely pretty, of course, they accurately illustrate the particular object of interest). Much effort went into creating the illustrations, and this will probably be apparent to the reviewer.

What are the odds that the same journal would accept Paper B, if the first half of Paper B would not be accepted on its own merits?  To what extent can an editor's or referee's judgement be affected by nice colorful images?


texts: Is there a way to get a job in biology for chemistry graduate?

texts: Now I am ending my PhD in chemistry but love to switch to research in biology (bioinformatics or biochemistry). I already have wide knowledge in biology via university courses and latter learning with MOOCs, as well as programming. Please give a hint on getting a job in biology.


texts: Can I have a PhD in one field, and be an avid academic contributor in another?

texts:
Disclaimer: I'm an undergrad with very limited knowledge of how academia really works and what the atmosphere and culture is like.

I'm very interested in pure mathematics, and I think I'm pretty good at it. I'm currently an undergraduate in my university's Pure Math program. However, I'm also incredibly interested in mechanical engineering and entrepreneurship, and want the skills to be able to build things, to be involved in and lead engineering projects and design systems and products that will one day (hopefully) make the world a better place.

So I was thinking, maybe I should finish my pure math degree, then enter mechanical engineering and possibly work towards a PhD in that field. However, I would still love to be an avid contributor and active member of the pure mathematics research community.

In a hypothetical situation where I get a PhD in mechanical engineering, what would be the best way to get involved in the pure math academic community, to the extent of:

writing and publishing papers
contributing to the works of other established pure math researchers
potentially being a part of research groups or committees
etc.

Basically, I want to have a PhD in one field, and somehow be able to participate in the lifestyle of a PhD in another field sometime later in life. How might I accomplish this? Is there a generally accepted path academics take to achieve this, or is it frowned upon by academics to attempt to be an active member of two, divergent academic fields?

Edit: I wanted to clarify that I wouldn't get the PhD in mechanical engineering, only to then be an active member in a different academic community. Ideally, I would participate for a large portion of my life in mechanical engineering, and another large portion of my life in pure math.

I also wanted to point out that I recognize that getting two PhDs isn't a valid option, nor is it one I necessarily want to pursue. I also don't want to do a bachelor's degree and a PhD at the same time.

Finally, I would like to add that I am not in any form attempting to prognosticate my life; maybe in two years I won't be interested in mechanical engineering and entrepreneurship anymore. I'm just curious about the nuances of such a path.


texts: Create journal database: is there any easy way to auto download all the citations of a volume or all the volumes of a journal?

texts:
I am trying to create my own research database, the first step I do is to identify the journals that I need to read and refer to. The way I create the searching database is copying all the articles titles and authors one by one, or downloading the endnote citation format and input it into the endnote database. I found this process very time-consuming and wonder if there are ways to download all the citations of a volume/journal at one time or a few times?

Thank you!


texts: Using relative numbering for tables and figures

texts:
I'm producing documentation for an A-Level Computing project. Throughout my project I've been numbering my tables and figures relative to the chapter and section they're contained in. So for example, instead of doing:

  2. Design

  ...
    2.3. Object analysis
    Figure 4 - diagram of objects

I've done:

  2. Design

  ...
    2.3. Object analysis
    Figure 2.3.1. - diagram of objects

I'd like to know if the latter style of numbering is considered bad practice. Should my figures instead always be absolutely numbered? Or should I use absolute numbering and restart the number for each section? I'm not required to conform to an academic style, so this is more for myself.


texts: What are reasons to update your website and CV frequently, when not on the job market?

texts: When I was looking for jobs, my website and Curriculum Vita (CV) were more or less updated in real-time, since I needed to make sure recruiting committees were aware of my latest work. Since landing a position, I have become a lot more lazy about putting up my latest papers on the website/CV. I was wondering if there are any compelling negative consequences to my tardiness. For context, I am in a field where everyone uses the arXiv, so I would imagine anyone interested in my latest work will just look there.


texts: If my PI received research grants from a company to be able to pay my postdoc salary, did I have a potential conflict interest too?

texts:
I was a postdoctoral fellow at a university and received nothing but the regular postdoc salary. I received no grants myself, but worked on various projects, many of which happened to be industry sponsored. My PI disclosed them as sources of potential conflicts of interest, but I never did. Assuming that my position couldn't exist without the industry research grants received by my PI, did receiving money from a company, although indirectly, generate a potential source of a conflict of interest for me?

Edit: Just to clarify, I am not interested in how to disclose/report this financial relationship, but in the ethical repercussions.


texts: Trying other PhD opportunities while accepting an offer from my master supervisor?

texts: I will finish my master study soon, and my master supervisor is happy about my work and would like to give me an offer of PhD. I am also happy on this, but I really want to try other opportunities. Should I give up the current opportunity, and try to apply other universities? By doing this, I have a risk I will have nothing if all my application fail. Is it ethical or appropriate to accept the current offer first, then keep on applying other universities? Is there any way I can balance the risk?


texts: Can I be admitted into a PhD program with non-thesis MS degree?

texts:
If I do a non-thesis MS program in statistics, will I be eligible for an admission in to a PhD program in Statistics later in my life? The MS program I am looking into is a non-thesis program but I still have to complete a research project requirement (which involves oral presentation as well as some form of a written report) towards the end of the program...I am still not sure if it can lead to a PhD program though.

Thanks!


texts: I am preparing an updated CV for application for postdoc positions. Is it necessary to put a photo on a CV for postdoc positions?


texts: What is the purpose of "issues" and "volumes" in journal publications in relation to DOIs and citations?

texts:
I think I have stumbled once again over the meanings of "issue" and "volume".

So I have found this article which declares both fields. Now I used JabRef's DOI to BibTeX to pull the info and it worked as expected. But it only pulled the volume number.

But sometimes I noticed the DOI database only pulls the issue number for an article, more than only giving the volume number. Why?

I suppose one should prefer using the issue because there are (usually) issues of a journal ("magazine") in a year... right?


texts:
How useful is the GRE for the academic career/research/daily academic tasks?

It's not required in my country but I'm wondering about the intrinsic value of its study material.


texts: If I receive written permission to use content from a paper without citing, is it plagiarism?

texts:
Let's say I find an article online. I contact the writer of this article and, without expecting anything in return, they agree to give me full, unrestricted rights to use any portion of their article, including directly using quotes from the article, without citing it. The agreement even allows me to claim the work as my own, even though it isn't.

Because I have all the rights to do this, would this be considered plagiarism?


texts:
I'm reformatting a manuscript from author-date referencing to Nature's (superscript) numbered referencing. How can I include citation signals such as 'e.g.,' or 'see'? For example, how should I reformat the following sentence?

  It was demonstrated that pigs can't fly (e.g., Smith, 1901).

I can omit the citation signal completely:

  It was demonstrated that pigs can't fly1.

but then important information about the non-exhaustiveness of the citation is lost.

Someone suggested this:

  It was demonstrated that pigs can't fly (e.g., 1).

But it looks somewhat strange. Any idea?


texts: Should I apply to tenure-track positions if I'm fairly certain I won't be staying?

texts:
I hope to receive my PhD in Mathematics in May of 2015, so I am currently applying for jobs.  Due to life circumstances, I'm fairly certain that I will only be staying at my next position for about 2 years.  Does this mean I shouldn't even try to apply for tenure-track positions?  Will a hiring committee not even consider me for the position if I'm not willing to commit to staying with them for a certain amount of time?

I would love to get a teaching/lecturing position at any institute of higher education (4-year research university, liberal arts school, community college), but as I look for openings, a lot of them are tenure-track assistant professor positions.  Should I go through the effort of sending in an application, or will that be a waste of my, and the committee's, time?

Thanks for any advice you have!

Edit (to address Nate's comment):

My wife is currently applying for 2 year graduate degree programs in various cities in the US, so I'm applying for jobs in the same cities.  When she finishes her program, we plan to move outside of the US (Africa or Southeast Asia), where I do hope to remain in academia, teaching mathematics to college-aged students.


texts: First author researcher on a manuscript left job without publishing

texts:
A grant-funded researcher wrote a manuscript that they were first author on. All co-authors were awarded time to make edits. Before getting departmental approval for submitting to publication, the grant-funded researcher started a new job. Considerable time passed before departmental approval was awarded.
The original first author has expressed concern that they will not have time to work on the old manuscript because they started a new job. However, the PI for the grant (and co-author on the paper) wishes to publish the manuscript. The PI has stated if minimal to no edits are required, the authorship order would remain the same. If the slightly outdated paper comes back from review with a decent amount of edits to be made, potentially new portions of analysis, while the first author states that they do not have time to work on the old manuscript, can one of the co-authors potentially take over as first author? Does the original first author have to give consent? Keep in mind that the manuscript is already written up.
In the field which the manuscript is written, it is generally accepted that authorship order is determined by amount of effort involved for each author.


texts: "Institution" on submission for a former student between jobs

texts: I'm about to submit a paper where one of the authors is a past student who got a master's degree at my university a few months ago (I was his advisor). He plans to apply for PhD positions at the next deadline, but is presently unemployed. What should we write on the manuscript for his institution? "Master's graduate, previously at XXX University"? "Former student at XXX University" (this doesn't specify that he actually got a degree, though)? The dreaded "Independent researcher"?


texts: As a 2nd year undergraduate, what should I do to enhance my maths grad school application if I don't get into noteworthy summer programs?

texts:
Sorry for the long title, but I just received some of my marks for the semester including a C+ in a programming course and F in a cell biology course) and am worried that have ruined all my chances at getting into summer program (I'm in Canada, so I'm looking at the few US REUs that accept foreign students on a limited basis).

What should I do if I don't get into any summer activity to help my graduate school application if I want to pursue mathematics? I'm in second year and haven't taken too many higher level maths courses, so I don't know how that would look when applying for NSERCs at my school.

I was thinking of maybe just doing some reading in mathematics and working on some personal projects that may help me look like I can actually do something on my own. I am also currently self-learning combinatorics and graph theory in the hopes of working with my discrete maths prof who does combinatorial optimization (and has asked and received my CV already).

If anyone has any advice as to what I can do to enhance my grad school application if I get rejected from everything I apply to? I feel ridiculous for doing badly this semester as it was just too much to handle and doesn't reflect my work ethic at all. I want to redeem myself but don't know how? Thanks in advance for the advice!


texts: Asked Professor for Reference - No response for 3 weeks now

texts:
I have asked a professor for a reference for a graduate study application by email and havent heard back in 3 weeks and the deadline is in a few days.
Does this mean no ?  I just got no response at all.
Should I follow up - he is a slow email reader in my past experience with him.  I can't call him since he is working from home.
What is the protocol/etiquette here ?  Should I follow up again by email ?
Sent email from email address they have answered me from before.


texts: When should a college graduate attend a professional academic conference?

texts: When should an undergraduate attend their first professional academic conference if they have nothing to present and traveling isn't cheap? Would while enrolling for a masters degree be a better time? I'm thinking American Stat Association.


texts:
I'm currently applying to the masters program at my undergraduate institution for a degree in mathematics.  Due to my rather ambitious nature and biting off much, much more than I could chew at times (sitting in on multiple graduate courses and doing the coursework for them as an undergraduate for example), my GPA is not ideal for applying to graduate school (3.13) with my in-major GPA being even lower (just below a 3.0 I believe).

That said, I have heard of people getting into graduate school here with less than a 3.0 and I believe I have a decent opportunity of getting in, but I'm struggling to decide who should write my letters of recommendation.

In high school my GPA was much, much higher, so I got good letters of recommendation from both my teachers as well as people who knew me in other areas of my life.  Of course now, I'm guessing that graduate schools are completely uninterested in letters of recommendation from anyone that isn't a professional in your field.  Because I haven't had any internships or done any summer programs or anything, this pretty much just leaves my undergraduate professors to write letters of recommendation for me.

Given how small my school's pure math dept is and that we are required to have 3 letters of recommendation this is very limiting.  There are very, very few professors I've had more than once, and those I have had I haven't necessarily done well in thier classes.  So I've given the question of who should write my letters of recommendation a lot of thought and see the following 3 options and am wondering what might be viewed as the best option:

3 letters of recommendation from professors of mathematics in the pure math dept of my university.  This would certainly conform to standards but they would not likely be glowing letters of recommendation due to my less than stellar undergraduate performance (the highest grade I would have gotten in any of these individuals classes is an A-...less in others)
Given that you ideally have letters of recommendation from professors whose courses you did very well in, I could get letters of recommendation from math professors whose classes I've gotten A's in.  The problem with this is that these classes are few in number and the professor's that taught them were in either applied mathematics or mathematics education (the 3 classes I got an A in were one in pure math taught by an applied mathematician, one in applied math taught by an applied mathematician, and one in math history taught by the dept head who's in math education).  I also do not know most of these professors very well at all.
3 letters of recommendation, from a more diverse pool of people, but would be closer to what you'd consider a "glowing letter of recommendation".  I'd of course have 1 from a math professor that knows me well, but then two others perhaps from a professor of physics (I'm very interested in mathematical physics, but I'm applying to the pure math program not the applied math program and this physics professor's research is in physics education), and then one from either an acquantince who knows me well who is in the graduate program now, or a lifelong mentor of sorts who can speak to my work ethic and who I am as a person, but is not at all in the field.

Sorry for such a long post, I don't often use the academia site, but I'd really like to know what my best option is.  Thank you!


texts: What is the difference between the promoter and the advisor?

texts: I am applying for a Ph.D. position at Netherlands and I see that there will be a promoter and an advisor. I have never seen such a title as "promoter". What is the difference between the two titles?


texts: How to highlight a novel dataset creation in a research paper?

texts:
I'm currently working on a minor problem in information extraction. The idea behind the system is relatively simple and contains small modifications of existing algorithms. However in the process, I ended up creating a whole new dataset of a different kind - which did not exist before. This dataset would foster new novel research in my subdomain (call it problem X).

How can I stress the quality of my data and upcoming innovations it can drive and inspire rather than worrying about the simplicity of my algorithms (and reiteration and experimentation of other non-novel ideas)? There has been lot of significant research in problem X recently and my method doesn't stand anywhere in comparison with state of the art.

However I expect some great upcoming works (from the whole research community) in Problem X in upcoming couple of years. If I don't publish this dataset, someone else would definitely produce something similar within a year (think of it as need of the hour) along with some hi-fi "mathy" solutions to Problem X though I just experimented with existing data mining tools and libraries.

I have one more week to go. What should I do that would improve my chances of getting this simple work on Problem X but with an awesome new dataset published?

EDIT:

Raw data of this kind is available publicly in massive amount but considered as noise, though it's easy for human perception and conveys a lot of sense.
My contribution in creating dataset is annotations and analysis (basic statistical distributions etc)
My approach to solve Problem X is not mathematically complex - but at par with regular Tier-II papers being published in this area.
There IS a need of this kind of systems in the industry. (any citations would disclose my solution)


texts: How to appeal against an unfair decision - conference paper

texts:
My papers were rejected from a top conference venue in computer science due to laughably fallacious arguments. The reject decisions were based upon the following comments:

The one's complement checksum of an all zero bit sequence is zero!
O(n2) can be more efficient than O(n), because for n = 0.9, 0.92 < 0.9 !

What should I do now?


texts: Math: Perception of only or mostly doing research in Master's for Ph.D. admission folks

texts:
Background: I'll be starting a 1.5 - 2 year master's program in mathematics this coming Fall in the US. Because of my non-degree graduate courses relevant to the program and my research interest, I can easily fulfill the requirements of this program within a year. However, my main goal is to gain and tangible research experience in preparation for a Ph.D program so I plan to remain in this program for 2 years.

Question: Will my application to Ph.D programs and fellowships be diluted if admissions folks see that my second year in this Master's program consisted mostly of research with at most one class per semester?

I want to reduce the course load as much as possible in order to give me time and flexibility to do research with the benefit of less tuition fees (if any). However, this all would be moot if such decision would raise red flags among admission committees.

Besides focusing more on research than classes, any other things I should look into while in this program?


texts: Should I mention that my work is providing me with a full scholarship to study my masters in my Statment of purpose?


texts: Is it ethical to withdraw paper that received poor reviews in first phase of reviewing and resubmit it without significant revisions?

texts:
Many conferences in my field use two-phase reviewing: in the first phase, 2-3 reviewers review the paper; their reviews are made available to the authors; the authors are given a chance to respond; and then in the second phase, the reviewers read the authors' response and the program chairs might optionally solicit additional reviews.

If a paper receives poor reviews after the first phase, so that it looks like the paper is likely to be rejected, is it ethical to withdraw the paper and submit it elsewhere, without making significant changes?

I read Ethical implications of withdrawing a paper during the rebuttal phase and submitting it somewhere else, which asks about a similar question, but I am interested in the specific case where the authors were well-intended (they submitted to the first conference with the legitimate hope it would be accepted) but do not plan to make significant revisions before re-submitting -- a case that is not covered by the answers there.  For instance, it is not uncommon to submit to a selective conference in hopes that it will be accepted, discover that the reviewers don't consider it strong enough for publication there, and then consider submitting to a less selective conference.  (So it's not that the paper is flawed, but it isn't strong enough in its current form.)


texts: Is it true that having no prior connections with the university makes me a less desirable candidate?

texts:
I've just finished a conversation with a professor at University X. The majority of questions were on topics regarding the graduate admission. A quote that has both negative and confusing effects on me

  It is almost impossible to get accepted normally. Aside from sending in all the required documents, passing the tests (GRE, IELTS), having a good GPA score, etc. the only chance to be admitted is to have ongoing, strong research and collaboration with the faculty.

However, the admission criteria states that only the particular set of documents is required. Can it be true that having no prior connections with the university makes me a less desirable candidate?


texts: Is there an upper limit on the number of students interested in a particular specialisation that a university will admit?

texts: I am applying to an MS in CS program. I know most people apply for AI and Machine Learning. Does a university have a fixed number of slots for AI students? Or is this true for the Ph D program and not the MS program?


texts:
I have a personal relationship with a psychology professor. We have 2 situations where I may have some claim on authorship but I'm not confident.

I was a participant in a research project in the spring semester. Due to my performance, I was asked to continue. The theory behind the research is that getting 2 types of training will improve learning of a specific task. Each session, I received both types of training.

He wasn't happy with the data from the spring semester. After spending hours looking at the data, he found some way to eek out an abstract. As we continued, I started to realize that although my performance varied from session to session, I either increased or decreased on both tasks. In other words, I thought that if I did better with Training A on Tuesday, I also did better on Training B. If I did worse on Wednesday, I would do worse on both tasks.

I told him about this. He looked at those particular data and I was right. There was a clear correlation. Within a few hours, he was saying it would be publishable.

My contention is that he provided the theory for the study but I proposed the hypothesis. He said "You don't think I would have eventually looked at that?" Then I pointed out that he hadn't looked at those data when he was struggling for an abstract. He says I'm just a subject who provided feedback but I did more than that. I predicted the correlation between specific data.
He's been working on a book chapter. His original plan was to write about his subject from the perspective of a different branch of psychology, one in which I hold a masters. His original interpretation was not good and I told him. We spent hours discussing this. I found the main reference on which he is basing this claim. Also, I spent hours teaching him the principles of my area. I gave him the interpretation from the perspective of my discipline which is the point of that section of the chapter.

He had me read the relevant part of the chapter. I found it confusing. He failed to explain some things and implied information that was incorrect. Also, he explained things in an order that would leave the reader confused. He was frustrated because he had not planned to rewrite that section but said "You're right." To be helpful, I sat down and wrote that section myself. Initially, I had given him an example that I'd heard elsewhere. This time, I included a new example that explained things more clearly. I shared the document online and he continued working.

A few hours later we were discussing it and I asked if he was using my new example. He said "No, because I don't want to give you a co-authorship." I was stunned. It's one thing not to give me credit but he is going to a great deal of trouble to avoid crediting me. Later he said he was excited for me to see the acknowledgement.

Yes, I should have discussed authorship with him before making these contributions. Setting that aside, do I have a claim to anything beyond an acknowledgement? I feel like I made "significant intellectual contributions" to both. The study has not been written but I provided a lot of the material for the chapter.


texts:
I have my GPA in the 100 point system,
how could I calculate it in 4.0 point system?
I searched, and I didn't find a good answer,


texts: What to do when a co-author submitted corrected proofs without the first author's knowledge?

texts:
I finished my PhD studies about a year ago, and am no longer working at the university. My supervisor, and co-author of three papers, urged me to work with him on the fourth paper in order to get it published. In fact, his contribution to the paper was very small. He should act as corresponding author and deal with the submission, which -- I thought -- would be a relieve. However, this did not work out. First, he made changes to the revised version of our manuscript before submitting it, which resulted in a revised paper among other things missing a figure.

The paper was accepted anyway, and we received the uncorrected proofs. I cannot say exactly why, but although I told him I am working on it (which he said did not notice), my co-author just submitted the corrected proofs without my knowledge. Now, among other errors, a whole paragraph is missing, and I fear this version of the paper is published online very soon.

I am really disappointed and angry. I make a lot of mistakes myself, and I do not expect my co-author to agree in everything I write, but does team work not imply that you inform your team before submitting the final work?

Of course, I tried to submit a revised version of the corrected proofs and convince the journal to use these, but I assume this is pointless. Once the proofs are uploaded there is usually nothing that can be done.

Maybe, there is no real question here, besides: What can I do now?


texts: What are useful tips and tricks for collaborating remotely?

texts:
What techniques have you found to improve collaboration with a remote colleague, in particular to make it feel more like collaboration in person?

The majority of my collaborations are with colleagues outside of my state.  The simplest model I've used is that we each write up certain proofs, and then eventually one of us organizes the various pieces into a draft of a paper, which gets passed back and forth via email until we agree that we're ready to submit.  However, this typically feels quite different from collaborating in person.  One technique that I've used with surprising success is to skype with my colleague.  He was actually able to write on the chalkboard so that I could read it.  What techniques have worked best for you?


texts: Is a professor required to provide homework solutions?

texts: For graduate school classes, if a professor writes his own homework questions and creates his own problem sets, is he required to provide solutions to the homework problems, after the homeworks have been turned in and graded by his teaching assistant(s)?


texts: How do mathematics graduate committees view Mathematics subject GRE scores around the 60th percentile?

texts:
I am a little curious as to how mathematics graduate programs in the United States view subject GRE scores. Does a low score in the range of 60th percentile rule one out of top 20 programs?

I am quite slow and I probably got 35-38 (attempted 38) out of 66 questions right in the subject test which will probably put me somewhere between 55th and 65th percentile. As an international student, I have no idea how terrible such a score is and I am considering stopping the application process to US universities since I doubt if I stand a chance.


texts: Undergraduate thesis credit is too expensive. Can I turn my thesis into 1-2 research papers & publish instead?

texts:
I’m a highly competitive (currently undergrad) student with the end goal of getting a position in academia. I’m about to graduate undergrad this summer; afterwards, I will do a Fulbright research grant, and try to apply for the top graduate schools.
Now due to the difficulties of the semester, I couldn’t finish my thesis in Spring 2021 but instead moved it to Summer 2021. Normally my scholarship (fully paid, public university) would cover tuition fees. However, this scholarship has just ended for me and will not cover the summer fees. And I’ve realized that the summer tuition for this one thesis credit — in which I’m getting minimal guidance from my busy advisor and am taking no classes — is $1,750.
I do have enough money saved to cover this, but it’s really a stretch. I’m kind of pissed really, paying this much money for literally a thesis credit is insane!! However I see my education as an investment. I really wanna be super competitive, and if doing a thesis is part of that, I’ll go hungry to make it happen.
But at the same time, I’m really doubting whether a thesis will be so much better than  turning my topic into 1-2 research papers. Plus I’m about to do a year long Fulbright research project, which I think will overshadow my senior thesis anyway?
Can you guys help me sort this out? Any advice is helpful!!! I’m so angry my public university is so exploitative and not sure if I should buy into that.


texts: Will taking a post-doc position harm my future chances in industry?

texts:
I am 29 years old and am about to finish my PhD thesis in the field of remote sensing (i.e. somewhere between computer sciences and geosciences in a broad sense or applied signal and image processing in a more narrow sense) at a university in central Europe.

Due to the fact that there are only few tenure positions available in science and I would rather stay in my (economically strong) home region, I want to find a position in industry in the long term. However, I have received an interesting offer for a post-doc / scientist position in a new-to-be-founded research group with great funding and cutting edge research in the applied signal processing field.

My question now is: Will some additional years in academia harm my chances concerning a job in industry?

Some additional points to consider:

in the post-doc position, I would be the deputy of the group leader (who is soon to receive a full professor/tenure position)
I'd be responsible for staff management and some budget issues (about 20% of time)
I'd have the chance to travel to international conferences
the application the signal processing research is carried out for is not directly industry-relevant
I have received an invitation to an interview for an R&D job at an automotive company, but it is scheduled only in 3 weeks, while I have to decide for the post-doc offer sooner rather than later


texts: I submitted my paper in a hijacked journal

texts:
I encountered a huge problem, I submited my paper in a faked journal. I sent them several times about the result of reviewing process. The email answer was:

  Dear Author
  Please clarify what exactly is your problem regarding your paper.
  We are at your service and ready to assist.

  Regards
  Ciencia e Tecnica Vitivinicola Journal Editorial

They told me also if I have submitted successfully I will get the review answer at most after 2 weeks, but I have the proof of a successful submitted paper. Now what should I do? I want to resubmit it in another journal, I have an examination in the summer and I need a published paper in my resume.


texts: Can I exclude my own thesis submission on Turnitin repository saved by mistake?

texts:
I uploaded my thesis to a Turnitin ID which my friend got from some other university than where I am studying. Due to some reason, my thesis got uploaded to Turnitin repository and the university is very far away from my home. I made a blunder mistake.
Now I have to make my thesis submission this month but the plagiarism is showing 100 %. It is comparing my own thesis with the one I submitted earlier to the other university. I cannot contact the university turnitin administrator regarding deletion of my thesis.
In my thesis submission, can I exclude the student paper source of my own work?


texts: What's the etiquette for a short visit to a US university department by a faculty member from another university?

texts:
In May, I'll be visiting a department at Columbia University in the US for a few days. What's the etiquette on visiting (answers relevant to US in general are welcome, to prevent this question getting too localised)?

I'd like to spend some time with quite a few of the researchers, and compare notes on ongoing work. I'll read their recent publications in advance. Should I be inviting staff out for a coffee and a chat; or dinner; or a talk in the lab?

Context: I'm a faculty researcher, and would be looking to spend a bit of time with postdoc researchers, and those professors whose jobs are primarily research, rather than admin or teaching.


texts: Would it be a good idea to take online Master's program in Statistics?

texts:
I have BSc. in Statistics and I am interested in pursuing a Master's degree in Statistics.
I have looked at several master's program in Statistics, and I have narrowed my options down to few.

But it turns out that I can take all these master's program either via distance learning (i.e. online) or on-campus. Personally, I want to take my master's program via distance learning if I can, mainly because the issues that I have with relocation. But some people has been telling me to take the program on-campus because of the following reasons:

Taking program on-site is better because you don't get to chance to build a connection with people from industry or with your professors if you are an online student.
The employers will notice that I took the Master's program online, and it will serve as a disadvantage when I look for a job after graduating from the program

Can I overcome these issues while being a online student? Also, what are the pros of taking graduate program online compared to taking it on-site?

Thank you,


texts: TA-ship requirement for funded international applicants

texts:
As I have read from other questions in this SE site, for all international students who apply in PhD program, it is required that to be TA for that department they have applied to. And in the other hand amount of money that will be paid as fund to that student is highly dependent on his/her progress on teaching and being a TA.

So with regard to this context, as a MSc. student with unfortunately severe stuttering, cannot become a TA or teacher (only in such cases that I should speak to teach a group of students, however in any non-speaking ways to teaching or being TA I have no problem)

My questions:

Is speaking required in all types of TA-ship and teaching? In other words, are there any other tasks that are considered to be part of TA-ship and teaching which do not require speaking/lecturing?
What are the chances of me being funded? (Are there any exceptions for getting funded for such students?)

More context about me

Currently MSc student (in Iran) and interested in applying for PhD program to North American universities.
Field of study/interests : computer science/software

My background/achievements

BSc. and MSc. GPA > 18 out of 20 (Also #1 in BSc.)
Graduated from most prominent university in Iran, Sharif Univ. of Tech.


texts: Changing supervisor before starting the PhD - not selected

texts:
I approached a supervisor about a PhD application. At this university, you must have two supervisors, so after a meeting, he invited the other "supervisor" to discuss the topic.
Honestly, this new supervisor doesn't suit my topic. In fact, he proposed some topic changes that I am not happy to do. However, for the rush of the moment and the nervous, I said yes. After, I checked the credentials of the new supervisor. He just graduated last year and I would be his first PhD student.
I received the offer letter and this last supervisor was appointed as the main supervisor.  I received a scholarship from my government (not from the university), so no funding is attached to the supervisors or topic. I haven't "officially" started the PhD.

I will have a meeting soon and I was wondering how I could ask to change the main supervisor? I will argue that I want to focus on my original topic, but what to do if they say that I can change the topic, but with the same team?  Is it wrong that I would like to have a more "experienced" supervisor as the primary supervisor?

Thank you.


texts: How do you actually select colleges for Ph.D. application

texts:
If I have to pick 5 to 6 colleges to apply for a Ph.D. program, how do I go about it?
If I find the work that a CS professor at let's say UC Davis to be interesting. How do I actually know if I have a realistic chance of getting in? I cannot reach out to the professor and ask him if he will let me be a Ph.D. student in his lab because he hasn't seen my transcripts, read my LORs, or doesn't know me at all. If I write him an email, in all likelihood, he will just ignore my email.
At the same time, I cannot ask my recommenders if I have a chance of being accepted at UC Davis. Because (a) They don't know what the other recommenders will write in their letter. (b) They might not know exactly, what sort of profile gets admitted at UC Davis. (c) It's been 3.5 years since I graduated with a Master's degree and 6 years since I graduated with a Bachelors. People might not even recognize who I am, let alone write me a letter of recommendation.
Applying to colleges costs money. Also, people who write me a LOR, have to upload their LOR to each place where I am applying to. If I am applying to colleges way out of my league, I will be wasting my time as well as the time of the people who would write me a LOR.
So my question is, how do you find colleges that are in your league.


texts: Chances at funded cs PhD with high GPA and GRE scores but no research experience or professor connections?

texts:
I see a lot of questions about grad school prospects with poor grades and/or gre but what about the prospects of getting into a funded PhD program with no research experience or professor connections but good grades and gre quant (3.9 and 165 respectively)?

I graduate in December (BS CompEng from 2nd tier US college) and don't really have time to get interested in undergrad research (though i'd love to but I can't afford to quit my job).  If I just blanket applied to the top 20 CS PhD programs do I have a good chance at picking up decent funding (say $18k+)?

Also is there an online resource to profile what kind of applicants get accepted to which schools?

Edit: I received some good advice but no one has responded to my original question: can I get into a decent funded cs PhD program with good grades and gre while lacking research experience.  I can certainly ask my professors to write letters of recommendation and 'top 20' is a somewhat arbitrary number.  I would really be happy in any school that is actively outputting interesting machine learning or combinatorial optimization research.


texts: Undergrad CV – listing posters you presented but did not author

texts:
There seems to be a bias, particularly among more established researchers, to only include posters that they presented. There seems to be a trend towards not including (or including as abstract accepted) posters where they are listed as an author, but someone else presented.

My question is the reverse of that: If you were not involved in the project (thus no authorship), but presented the poster at a conference, would you include that on your CV?

Example: I attended a conference this year; my PI was supposed to present two of their posters, but couldn’t make it at the last minute. We’re currently working on extensions of that research, so I was familiar with the topic, but I wasn’t involved in those particular projects. I was also presenting at that conference, and so I presented my PI’s posters as well.

Is it acceptable to include those on my CV, with a note about “presented by [self] at [event]”?


texts: Should I include that someone cited my dissertation as part of their master's?

texts:
In my CV is it appropriate to include a master's thesis that cited my dissertation?

If so how would you include this in a CV and how would you title it.
I am excited to include that someone referenced my work.


texts: I want to take a gap year and travel after getting my undergraduate degree in Physics. Is it possible to apply for a research grant that would cover my expenses that year? Can someone travel a lot as long as they meet the expectations of a research grant?


texts:
I want to apply for an advertised PhD position by email not by the university website but I dont know what to include as the title of the email.
Just notice that it is not the supervisor I want to email to.
Thank you soooooo much.


texts: Is ethical approval needed for online studies?

texts: An online study, the participants had the full choice to fill the questionnaire and they signed (a check box) that they agree for sharing their data in the study. In this case, Do we need an ethical approval ?


texts: Is it rude for me to ask professors for assignments in advance of the class starting?

texts:
I will be starting my first semester of an online graduate program in ~20 days. Because of my full-time position, I am expecting things to be quite chaotic over the next month or so and I have considered asking the professors whose classes I will be taking for homework assignments (not exams or lecture notes) in advance, prior to the courses starting, so that I can finish them as soon as possible.

The material in this program is not new to me; judging by the textbook, I am very familiar with a lot of the material and would rather spend the time teaching myself what I don't know now before the courses begin, if possible.

Would making such a request be considered rude, and if not, how would you suggest wording such a request?


texts: How and when to cite code from MATLAB File Exchange

texts:
What are the rules/etiquette to cite MATLAB File-exchange submissions on paper publications?

There are different scenarios where I am curious what is best:

FEX submission is clearly code from a paper written by the same person.
Code is from a paper, but the author of the code is not the same author than the paper.
Code is a nice tool, but has no available citation. E.g. inpaint_nans, nice tool to fill "missing" data.
Code that is a nice tool, someone coded it, but its little effort to rewrite as it's not a complex tool. Still, someone write it and, time==gold!
Code that is a nice tool, takes little effort to rewrite, but its code referencing more than one paper. E.g. 3D Shepp-Logan Phantom, references 2 papers, and its a short function.

MATLAB uses the BSD license in FEX, meaning all software can be used and redistributed as long as the copyright is maintained an disclaimer kept.

This means that legally, one can just copy-paste the code and use it without any worry, as long as the license file is kept. But law aside, how should one act in the above mentioned cases?


texts: Do 90% of all German Chemistry graduates start a PhD?

texts:
Can someone corroborate the fact above? If it’s true, how did it come to such a high number, do they have some slots reserved, or is it easy to enter German PhD programs? Would it also be easy for foreign graduates (in my case chemistry) to join a German PhD program?
Source 1 (German Wikipedia):

Rund 91 % der frisch diplomierten Chemiker begannen nach ihrem Abschluss mit der Promotion.
91 % of the recent chemistry graduates enrolled in a PhD program. [This does not imply they completed it.]

Source 2 (Universität Duisburg–Essen):

Wie jährlich durchgeführte Erhebungen der Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh) zeigen, begannen in den letzten Jahren über 80 % der Absolventen nach dem Diplom bzw. Master mit einer Promotion.
According to yearly inquiries by the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh) [Society of German chemists], 80 % of diploma or master graduates enrolled in a PhD program in the last years.


texts: Finishing the physics graduate curriculum as undergrad

texts:
I am a year ahead of my physics curriculum, but I plan to stay as an undergrad for the 4th year to increase my chances at top graduate schools in physics. In this 4th year, I will take all the graduate courses in physics a typical 1st/2nd year PhD student would take: two semesters of quantum mechanics and a semester each of statistical physics and electrodynamics.

My question is: is it worth it taking all of these graduate courses as an undergrad? From what I know, most universities don't accept transfers in graduate courses and I would have to take them again.

I would still like to take them because I am eager to learn them, and also achieving good grades in them would help me demonstrate my readiness for graduate school.

Other option would be taking courses in other disciplines that would benefit me, such as math or electrical engineering.


texts: Over-qualified candidate for a master programme?

texts:
Yesterday I had an interview with a professor. She was trying to show me that I am a over-qualified candidate for the master program... I asked her would it affect my chance? She told me she wouldn’t definitely introduce her ‘personal opinion’ in this decision and she emphasized that will be my decision... After the interview, I think I couldn’t convince her why I applied to the master program (I couldn’t apply for the Ph.D. program this year at that school).

However, I’m too worried... I haven’t yet received any email regarding my application... Should I send a followup email to her telling what my reasons are for applying to the master? Is a ‘over-qualified’ candidate meaningful in a master program in natural sciences like physics, chemistry and etc.?

Should I send a follow-up email to her explaining my reasons after the interview? I really don't wanna lose this position...


texts: How not to be like a rolling stone in research?

texts:
As a young researcher, it is really interesting for me to gain knowledge in different topics related to my major. I attend many conferences and seminars in my field, I read papers and books which I find related to my major.

However, I sometimes find it disturbing to my research productivity when I read a book or two about one research field and then I find another interesting research paper and try to read some papers about that field of research.

I have the feeling that this changing of research path is disturbing my research productivity. Now, I have read so many papers and books in many branches of my field, but I have not gone in depth of any of them. Although I have good vision about the research fields I have studied, but I think that having no concentration on one or two research fields will be disturbing for me in long period of time.

Reading many books and papers in many fields gives me good vision about those fields, gives me ideas on some interesting research topics but also disturbs my concentration on one research field. I have the feeling that this is a good path for short period of time that I want to find my way; but in long term, I will miss my concentration on a research field.

As a young researcher who is just trying to find his research path which I want to stay in, how should I make sure that this is the topic I want to do research in my whole academic life?
How should I stop my interest to learn new topics disturb my research productivity in future?
How should I overcome my desire to do research in many research fields and work on different research topics and stick to just one or two research fields and read papers and books only related to the research topic which I want to work on in long period of time?

The questions above are so close to each other and I think they can be answered under one question post.


texts: What information to share and what to hide?

texts:
Science and research is open knowledge. We should always share our knowledge with each other. However in current competitive world, scooping research is very common (specially in bioinformatics, methodology and medicinal sciences where research has immediate applications). This has further downstream effects like less chance of getting published in good journal, loss of novelty etc. I was wondering what kind of information generally people share openly versus hide. I know this will depend on kind of research you and your rivals are doing but still is there any commonality ?

To be more specific, I am looking for research in computational biology. Let's say I want to present a poster in a conference where my rival group (working on similar topic) is also presenting. Now how much information about my current research I should present?


texts: Consequences of not attending a conference

texts: So I did research over the summer and applied to and got funded to go to a conference in Hawaii. I would have to leave to the conference early Wednesday morning and wouldn't return until about 1am Monday morning. The main problem I have is that since I'll be expected to be at the conference for most of the day and be pressured into having fun by my peers during the night, I don't think that going to this conference would help my goal of getting an A on the test's I have to take on Monday/Tuesday. I told my professor that this conference would be a burden on me and my studies so I wouldn't be able to go. She replied and said "I was making a huge mistake and that I would have to face financial and other consequences for my decision." Is she trying to scare me or can the university punish me financially for wasting funding money that I earned In order to attend to my studies. It's not like I'm blowing this conference off because "I'm not feeling it" Going to this conference would really set me back in all of my classes. Any advice, this is really stressing me out.


texts: Failed the preliminary PhD exam because the committee members rejected my already accepted publication

texts:
My paper got accepted in a very high-ranking peer-reviewed conference and will be published in the proceedings. However, my university PhD committee members are saying it is ‘weak’ and they did not accept that as one of the required publications for PhD, so I failed the preliminary exam. How should I deal with this situation?
EDIT: I am taking the doctoral course at a Japanese university. My academic advisor, unfortunately, will not be of help in this regard, as we are not on good terms (I guess he gave up on me once I mentioned I might not proceed the academic career, so it was partially my mistake).
One paper about an experiment I conducted has been chosen for publication in conference proceedings of an internationally high-ranking university, but the committee and my advisor chose to evaluate it as insufficient nonetheless.
I have two more papers with a high probability of getting published (final stages of the reviwing process), but due to the pandemic situation the review process is taking longer.
The official rules mention only that the thesis should be partially be published in national or international peer-reviewed journals, but do not say how many articles are required, and if they should be already accepted at the preliminary exam, or when I hand in the thesis.
Usually there should be a way to retake the preliminary exam, but my academic advisor did not make any such offers, instead recommended to leave this university and try my luck at another one.
Could anybody tell me if there is a possibility to retake the exam and apply for my Ph.D. at the same university, or what the necessary steps would be to apply for the degree at a different university (Japanese or otherwise)?
Any help would be much appreciated.


texts: Does more knowledge enhance your chance of doing better and 'original' research (in mathematics)?

texts:
NOTE: I had asked this question in here, in my edit, but since it is irrelevant to that question, I moved it here as it is a separate question...

I chose to study bulky books instead of attending lectures or studying lecture notes, because I thought that studying every line of the books would enable me to have a rich access to the largest possible knowledge in my mind (not in the library) to have more creativity in time of doing research. By that, I mean I thought that the more techniques I would know, the more able I could be to test many 'keys' to open impenetrable problems. Unfortunately, due to never being in a university environment (as I am a high school student) I couldn't ask it whether I am wrong or not. I would truly appreciate it if someone would please guide me regarding that issue: Does more knowledge enhance chance of solving challenging problem in mathematics?

(Supposing that someone who has learned a lot of stuff will not forget it with the passage of time)

Added to express my question more clear - My personal opinion is that the more problems (few from each of many different types not many from each of limited diversity) you solve the more expert you become in maths. This can include 'slow'-extension (i.e. not a breakthrough); e.g. after learning definitions and some theorems regarding different types of spaces in General Topology finding their relationships with each other as exercise. This approach can be (IMHO) helpful for many different situations from IMO participants to graduate research students. But, Does it helpful or harmful for being sharp to do a breakthrough research in Mathematics (like works of Gödel or Perelman)?


texts: Why is 3.0 GPA used as cut-off for job offers, etc.?

texts:
My GPA is 2.97 and I am a junior in University. My resume is pretty strong, having around 2 years experience in the industry as a software engineer. I also include work samples with my resume, including small games and web apps. Recently I have been applying to several co-op jobs. In a few of them, I have been contacted by the employer and asked "Do you have a 3.0 GPA?". I respond honestly and say "no". Many of them seem to completely decline based on this alone, despite everything else I have on my resume.

This always seemed odd to me, because in and of itself, this focus on grade-point average influences poor academic behavior. It influences students to avoid taking anything challenging because the risk is too high. Also, many students have the advantage of being full-time students, whereas people like me work full-time while in school.

So why do companies base so much on GPA? And why is the 3.0 cut-off so strictly enforced?


texts: Etiquette for publicizing postdoc position

texts:
What is the etiquette for publicizing your postdoc decision on your professional website once you've accepted a position?
I've seen people write something like "Starting in Fall 2020, I will be an X Instructor/Fellow/Researcher at Y University" on their website but I don't know when these kinds of public statements typically go up. Are you supposed to wait until late in the process when most people know where they'll end up? Or if you're lucky enough to get a position early, is it ok to post then?
I'm specifically interested in comments relevant to math positions, but I'm assuming the etiquette is similar throughout STEM.


texts: Should I hide the fact that I did a group assignment completely by myself?

texts:
Three students and I were assigned a small (~14 hours of work) group project. Because there was no effort on their side to meet and work, my e-mails regarding their progress remained unanswered and from previous experience I know that their quality of work is much lower than mine, I decided to do it myself and already spend around 10 hours doing ~2/3 of the work. The reaction of the others was something along the lines of "Wow, thanks man. This looks great. You're the man!"

Later I asked them to help me out with the rest because I had another assignment due and thus my time was limited but the contributed work was much less in quantity than what I asked for and also of very low quality, hinting that they did not bother reading the assignment thoroughly or did not really spend time actually thinking of something substantial to contribute. As it stands now I will have to do the remaining 1/3 by myself as well.

Because I had a question for the lecturer I was writing him an e-mail and one of the sentences was

  I already did most of the work but we need to...

then I thought whether it would be better to write

  We already did most of the work but we need to...

The reason I even mention it, is that it is very close to the submission deadline and I do not want him to think that I/we only started now. My intent was not to slip by this information and blame the others.

Is there any reason to be "diplomatic" and actively hide the fact that I did everything myself?

I am mostly interested in the impression I will leave on the lecturer. On the one hand I do not feel like I owe the others anything, on the other hand I also want to avoid the lecturer seeing my behavior as tactless or arrogant.


texts: Should I provide feedback to a PhD application I have received?

texts:
I usually reply to e-mails from students asking for PhD positions to let them know if I am interested or if they are competitive / up to standards for continuing with an application but this tends to be more on the admin / funding and suitability to my lab. Yesterday, I received one such PhD application and the project / research proposal was so outside the "state-of-the-art" (effectively the proposal was to research something that already exists as a commercial product) that I think I should also comment on that.

Should I let the student know and give him some feedback (which is going to be on the harsh side) about his proposal. Is it common or should I not bother at all? To be clear, I have no intention of considering the application.


texts: Getting credit/ownership for improved software

texts:
I recently made some changes to a piece of (proprietary) code that my group uses which has made it two orders of magnitude faster.  The code I updated wasn't mine and the original algorithm IP was published a few decades ago so I can't claim I did anything other than some clever refactoring/parallelizing (which somehow everyone else said wasn't possible).  The impact of this update is such that work that would have taken months can now, in principle, be done in under a week (or from hours to minutes).

Unfortunately academia doesn't really reward 'enablers' for improving software so I'm not really sure what I can gain from this beyond some ideas in my own PhD that were not possible previously.

The critical point, compared to other questions I've seen on this topic, is that the code is now commercially viable.  Understandably my supervisor is very happy and wants to keep things under wraps for the time being.

I'm aware that the university probably owns every line of code I just wrote. Do I have any ground to request compensation if the software starts being licensed?  I don't want to sour the relationship I have with my supervisor which has up until now been very good (and I've just earned a lot of respect for this work).

If I was working in industry this is about the time I'd be going to my line manager and at asking for a salary bump or a promotion.  In academia it seems like this sort of work is relegated to a pat on the back and a footnote.  I suspect I'm being sour, but is this just the way it goes?

Am I allowed to ask that people cite the software even if it's not a publication (not that we have a website!)?  For instance one can cite R, Numpy, etc.


texts: Is it better for a mathematical paper to have a citation or a nice theorem + another coauthor?

texts:
I'm publishing my first paper soon with three collaborators.  We made a conjecture towards the end of the paper and intended to publish with the question still open.  Another mathematician heard of the problem and found a solution to the conjecture.  Now we have two options:

publish our current paper on our own, with the conjecture open, after which our friend would publish their solution as a separate paper, or
include their work at the end of our paper and make them a co-author.

Though our paper is pretty good already, the new work is strong and would make a nice addition, so the first option seems nice.  On the other hand, I'm an undergraduate senior (entering graduate school this Fall) and so are two of the other collaborators.  Thus it seems like adding another professor as a co-author may make my contributions (which I have worked very hard on) appear less substantial.  Also in favor of option 2: if the other professor publishes separately, the citation may make our paper look good.

What do you think?


texts: Job Advice for Pursuing a Tenure-Track Position in the U.S. (Postdoc in the U.S., Teaching-track/lecturer in the U.S., Tenure-track abroad)

texts:
I am a PhD candidate in the U.S. institute, who wants to pursue a tenure-track job in the U.S. eventually. This year, my applications for TT jobs in the U.S. are unsuccessful (one offer of a TT job in Asia). I was told that applying to a TT job in the U.S. from Asia would become more difficult than staying in the U.S. Thus, I am looking into other opportunities (e.g. teaching-track, a post-doc in a U.S. institute).
Among a tenure-track job in Asia, a teaching track in the U.S., and a postdoc in the U.S., I wonder which options would be better to pursue a tenure-track job in the U.S. eventually?


texts: Etiquette to recontact the editor when he says the he will give the news as soon as he has some

texts:
Assume that the last time that one has contacted the editor of a journal (about 10 months ago) to obtain the progress of submitted manuscript, the editor has said that he will give news as soon as he has some news.

In this circumstance isn't it rude to recontact him again to obtain news from the progress of the manuscript?

Other relevant informations: (1) The editor is very responsive and the journal is reputated.

(2) I have submitted my paper 26 months ago to this journal.

Edit: The question How long after first contact, where editor says "manuscript is still under review", is it okay to enquire again about status of manuscript? is relevant but the difference between my question and that one is that since my last inquiry 10 months has passed but in that question 2 months has passed.


texts: Condensed citation of multiple GitHub issues

texts:
I have submitted around ~12 bug reports and want to cite this factoid in my paper. But I don't want to cite 12 different links for each GitHub issue. The links all have this common prefix:

https://github.com/ConsenSys/mythril/issues/

So, when I added the link in my citation, I was thinking of using https://github.com/ConsenSys/mythril/issues/[584, 1270, 1232, 1235, 1293, 1294, 988, 1300, 1303, 1291, 1238, 1295].

There is no single suggested citation format (e.g., MLA, APA, IEEE), but an answer that somewhat, but not quite, resembles my query is here. Is there any documentation that anyone could point me to? If not, I will go with that answer.


texts:
At my university, there is no grading on a PhD transcript. There is no exam or predefined coursework (i.e. you can work on any aspect of the dissertation and in any order, which is not assessed but reviewed by the supervisor). At the end of the program (three years), the candidate must submit a dissertation for examination.

The PhD dissertation is examined by internal and external examiners and their reports give either a  pass or a fail. There are various shades (e.g. pass, pass with minor revision, pass with major revision, fail, fail but allowed to resubmit, fail with a lesser award, fail with no award etc.).

The final transcript states "satisfactory progress" for each semester of enrolment and "pass" for the final semester. The graduation then takes place and the degree is awarded.

I recently had a request to provide the transcript of my PhD. The problem I have is that "satisfactory progress" and "pass" can both be seen as equivalent to a "C" grade (as per the key to grading that explains the grading for all university programs e.g. bachelors degree) I know this is not the case for a PhD. (I got some outstanding feedback from the examiners!)

How do I reconcile this situation?

I know I can alawys provide the examiners' reports but each report is close to 10 pages, with positive and negative comments. The award of the PhD is subject to the candidate making changes to the dissertation as per the examiners' comments (or otherwise defending why the examiners' comments are not valid in regard to the study). The final dissertation is not the same as the one the examiners assessed and in almost all cases it is a better product (hence the examiners's comments are no longer a true reflection).

How does the grading of PhD work in other universities?

EDIT: The 'issue' with no grades being available is that the Official Academic Transcript lists the six semesters (three years) with "Satisfactory Progress" for the first five semesters and "Pass" for the last semester. On the back is the grading information (i.e. what "Satisfactory Progress" and "Pass" mean). "Satisfactory Progress" is coded SP and means meeting all requirements to progress to the next course in a sequence of courses in a postgraduate research program and "Pass" is coded "C" and means demonstrated satisfactory levels of achievements in all objectives designated as essential for passing the course. The grading information also provides information on the highest grade which is HD (High Distinction) through to the lowest grade F (Fail). In this situation, why shouldn't a person see "Pass" as a C grade for a PhD!


texts: How to review a paper that relies heavily on references to unpublished work?

texts:
I am currently doing a (blind) review of a paper for a Journal in the engineering field. The manuscript seems okay so far but relies to a large extent on a unpublished paper, cited as Miller et al. forthcoming. That publication was not submitted along with the manuscript. The author seems to be involved in that publication, but is not co-authoring it. Since no journal or publisher is given, I am assuming that the manuscript is under preparation and to be submitted to a Journal.

Furthermore, there is no summary of the central data and results e. g. in the supporting information. That makes it hard to follow some of the assumptions and conclusions.

How should I proceed?
And does this in principle justify a rejection of the paper?


texts: Differences between lit review in dissertation and articles

texts:
I am wondering if there is a difference between the lit review of a dissertation and that of a journal article. I tend to think that a dissertation will contain more extensive background information, meaning that part of the challenge is showing that you know all if the information and can communicate it in a coherent way to support new research.

Are there differences between the literature review of a dissertation and article? What is the purpose of each (in terms of the rhetorical structure and any graduation requirements)?


texts: Should I start writing a paper early or after all research is finished?

texts: I am working on research that will lead to a paper. The research isn't finished but I've finished enough that I have a good idea of what the basic idea of what the paper will say and look like. Is it better to start writing the paper now and make revisions as my research progresses or is it better to finish the research, have firm conclusions already in place, and then start writing?


texts: Is it wise to upload all the publshed research works to the Standard Paper Repository of Turnitin?

texts: My organization is using Turnitin software and I am the Administrator. Will it be a wise decision to upload all our published research works to the Standard Paper Repository of the software in order to avoid plagiarising of them in the future?


texts: From post-assessment to interview in a faculty recruitment in Denmark

texts: I have heard about cases in Denmark where candidates for a faculty position got through an assessment by some committee members as "qualified" but did not get interviews eventually. What is the process to go from post-assessment to interview in a faculty recruitment? For example, is there a ranking from the assessment committee? I am just curious since this procedure (post-assessment -> interview) seems obscure and hardly written in a university's hiring policies, even in a highly transparent system like in Scandinavian countries.


texts: How to deal with inappropriate comments during interviews for academic positions?

texts:
My friend told me this story that happened to him a few month ago during an interview for an assistant professor position in a north-american university:

I was on a campus tour as a part of a full-day interview program and was accompanied by two members from the selection committee: the department head and one of the senior professors (in his mid-50's). Everything was normal and they were showing me the facilities each building has etc. Now, we are at the gym and out of nowhere the senior professors tells me while pointing at the climbing wall:

  This climbing wall is the best place to watch young girls, I like doing that when I come to the gym.

The department head heard him and shushed him right away. He also told him to lower his voice otherwise someone will hear him and he might get in trouble (or something along this line). Honestly, I didn't know how to react, so I just kept quite and didn't comment. It still bothers me so much that I didn't respond to make him know how inappropriate his comment is.

My question has two parts:

Should he try to reach out to someone at the university (and who is this person?) to let them know what one of their professors who deals daily with female students said?
How should anyone react to such comments given that this person is on the selection committee? I know this might be a Workplace question, but I felt it fits here given these circumstances.


texts: how to get accepted back into a phd program in the US?

texts:
I was accepted into a US PhD program and then switched to the MSc due to personal reasons. After I got the MSc I wanted to continue to the PhD but then I was told that I have already graduated and was no longer a student there and I should reapply for the following term (spring 2018). So, I could no longer mantain my F1 visa status and had to leave the US.

I have written some emails to the new graduate studies director but they do not repply to me.

I want to reapply but only if I have a good chance to go back. For me it is very expensive and difficult to do so from abroad, especially for the currency exchange rate.

And as far as I know, there are top applicants from Russia and Germany. And I do not know if I will be even considered.

What should I do? How should I approach to the graduate committe?

By the way, I already passed my three PhD qualifying exams. But I stil have no replies to my emails.


texts: How can self taught mathematicians contribute to the progression of mathematics?

texts:
I am a self taught engineer and mathematician with 20+ years of product engineering experience. I have various patents and have sat on global standards committees--mostly for occupant safety systems. I work today as an in-house consultant.  I've been able to contribute to the safety of drivers all over the world and yet when it comes to mathematics I haven't found a way to participate.

I have shared some of my ideas with professors and others in my field with masters and doctorate degrees with a positive reception and have used my math skills to great success in solving a wide range of problems. I have methods and ideas that I feel can help Americans appreciate mathematics beyond the scope of the classroom but I keep hitting the '...you must have a PhD (from an accredited college), wall'. Is there a way for people like me to contribute?


texts: To what extent is the students' perspective on the lecturer credible?

texts:
I am giving a master course with another colleague, but since I am more experienced in the subject, I took the most difficult lectures.
My lectures contain a lot of mathematical equations and require deep knowledge in algebra. I tried to make them as easy as possible and even made extra videos to explain parts which I felt were difficult. I checked all available lectures to make sure I explain well. Therefore, I find my lectures among the most intuitive and informative ones.
It seems that my students (or most of them) are not that good in mathematics and found the lectures very difficult. They are rating my lectures with very bad scores although I made a lot of effort in these lectures (I have been teaching this subject for several years) this year as they are online. I see my colleagues just recording their old lectures.
As a lecturer, I try to transfer knowledge, so satisfying my students is my priority. However, I feel that my efforts were not acknowledged and I have lost motivation to prepare good lectures. I am planning to simply record lectures and read the slides as most of the lecturers at my university are doing.
Did anyone go through this? Also, how informative is this evaluation to me? In other words, how credible is it to validate if there is really an issue with my lectures or if it is just a biased opinion?
EDIT
It seems that the students are comparing my lectures and the lectures of my colleague with whom I am sharing the course. I assume they think the difficulty of the lectures is related to the lecturer and not the topic.


texts: University asking for documents I just uploaded online

texts:
I just applied to University online (since that is the only way to apply). However, they say we must get previous Universities to mail them official transcripts, but everything else is done online.

Before pressing Validate and Submit button, I checked and rechecked (several times) whether I filled in everything and included

Three letters of recommendation
Current resume
Statement of purpose.

Then I submitted the application online and get confirmation email that says

  Please submit the following required documents to complete your
  application:

  Official University Transcripts
  Two Letters of Recommendation
  Resume or Curriculum Vitae
  Statement of Purpose
  GRE or GMAT (if applicable)
  TOEFL, IELTS, CAE, or PTE Academic (if applicable)

Ok, I understand I have get previous Universities to send official transcripts, but why is it asking for letters of recommendation, resume, and statement of purpose again?

Is this simply a canned response?

My question: How inform graduate admissions that I uploaded letters of recommendation, resume, and statement of purpose online, and to confirm whether they received it.

Please advise.


texts: How to further follow up after contacting project supervisor twice?

texts:
I am applying for a foreign research internship/ scholarship that requires the applicants to first approach their potential adviser over email.

I had sent my first email around the end of August and then a follow up email around September 18.
I heard back from the professor the next day, who said that my application will go through a pipeline and then he will let me know if there is a further possibility for me.
It has already been a month since that.

Now here's the thing, the deadline for application is approaching fast and there is a need for a number of documents to be prepared and processed both by me and my potential supervisor before that. Also, my institute has declared an official holiday of about two weeks, so it won't be possible to get the signatures and stamps from my home institute before that (nearly October 25 and the deadline is November 1).

Should I send a second email? If I should, then how can I structure such an email without sounding impatient and unprofessional?


texts: How does a book editor's scientific reputation affect how the work of the chapter authors is evaluated?

texts:
When considering to publish a paper in a research journal, the journal's reputation itself is what people usually care about, rather than the editor's expertise and scientific status (although high-standing journals usually have well-known researchers as their editors).

Does the same rule apply to handbook-style books (that cover recent research papers, with each chapter written by a different group of authors)? I have seen a couple of times that a relatively unknown person in a research area is the editor of such a book that is published by a well-known publisher, such as Wiley or Springer.

When considering to write a book chapter for books like this, how should one weigh the editor's scientific status against the publisher's reputation? For example, is it a good idea to publish a book chapter in a book published by a very well-known publisher that has an editor unknown in the research community? (Being unknown while serving as the editor of a title published by a big publisher can raise some red flags such as being a fraud, too.) How would the book editor status affect the writers and the perceived value of their work?

(To clarify, I'm asking this as an applied physics graduate student who is mainly interested in getting a Ph.D. admission and is helping to write the book chapter. This may lower the bar a little compared to an established researcher)


texts: Best word/phrase for peer-reviewing service

texts:
I am a PC member and reviewer for a few conferences. I would like to list these services on my CV. However, I am not sure what would be a good title word for it?

Community Service??

Academic Service??

Just plain Service sound incomplete

Please suggest.


texts: Should I Quote Scholars (Dead or Alive) in Past or Present Tense?

texts:
In a research paper, when quoting previous literature on a given topic, should the scholar and position quoted be presented in past tense? (i.e. Johns suggested ...) Or should it be simple present tense? (i.e. Johns suggests ...)

Also, what if the scholar is no longer alive? Should I then quote the dead scholar and his/her position in the past tense or present?

I've tried looking everywhere for this and I cannot seem to find an answer. (Please note, the paper is in Chicago Style.)


texts:
Back when platforms such as edX were launching, every online course was new and exciting. Forums and mailing lists were active, and there was a strong sense of interaction with everyone involved.

Currently, plenty of the courses on these platforms are reruns of old courses—often converted to a "self-paced" format. The experience is simply not the same.

I don't see a filter for "premiere" courses on any of the major MOOC platforms. Is there a way to find out about new courses?


texts: My new supervisor wanted to collaborate with my ex-supervisor who bullied and destroyed me

texts:
I was in a lab since two years ago for a PhD and I wasnot lucky since I had faced bullying and all the bad things you could imagine. I left one year and for the bad luck I thought that this would be end, however, I got hired for a new PhD and for irony that wanted to use a software where I had learned since I was there and my ex-supervisor is also well known in our field.

I had another PhD student who literally makes things out of the thin air, he make up things and since I know the topic very well, I know he is a sketchy understanding, but my new supervisor is not really expert in that point in particular. This student brought the idea of collaborating with the guy and tried to make contact with my ex-supervisor.

I felt I am destroyed.I told my new supervisor that the relationship of my ex-supervisor wasnot got to me, and he was quite okay with that, however, after two weeks this PhD student persist on including my ex-supervisor although I am aware of the topic,  this student ignore all what I said for suggestions and is so welcomed by my new supervisor which baffles me. Next week they will have a meeting and this so much pressure to me.

I dont know what to do again! I felt the most unluckiest person on this planet, moreover I am a girl from underrepresented community.

I think this the last shot, my academic aspiration is doomed, I am tired. I dont know what I can do again?


texts: If my paper is accepted in a Springer journal, can I submit my version of the manuscript to arXiv immediately after acceptance?

texts:
I have read the Springer copyrights and self-archiving policy, but they are a bit confusing. For example in the first of them, you may find this:

  Author may self-archive an author-created version of his/her Contribution on his/her own website and/or the repository of Author’s department or faculty.

And here is the quote from the second source:

  Authors may self-archive the author’s accepted manuscript of their articles on their own websites. Authors may also deposit this version of the article in any repository, provided it is only made publicly available 12 months after official publication or later. He/ she may not use the publisher's version (the final article), which is posted on SpringerLink and other Springer websites, for the purpose of self-archiving or deposit. Furthermore, the author may only post his/her version provided acknowledgement is given to the original source of publication and a link is inserted to the published article on Springer's website.  The link must be provided by inserting the DOI number of the article in the following sentence: “The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/[insert DOI]”.

Do I understand correctly that I can put my own version of the manuscript at my own (or my institute's) website immediately after acceptance, but I can submit it to arXiv only 12 months later after official publication? If so, it seems to me it doesn't make sense. If the manuscript is made publicly available just after acceptance at my own website, why cannot it be made publicly available at the same time at arXiv?


texts: Advice for getting professor to submit letter of recommendation

texts:
I'm applying to four master's programs. My former professor submitted his letter to the first two schools last month. But he has not submitted to the other two schools. One of them is rolling admissions so sooner the better, and the other had a "priority deadline" that passed last week so is now also rolling admissions. I've emailed him three times over the past 10 days but have not heard back.

One of the schools is clear that they won't look at your application until the letters are received.

I have the professor's cell number, should I text or call him about it? Should I give him more time before bothering him again?


texts: How to ensure committee reads and comments on dissertation draft prior to final examination?

texts:
The constructive question is, What practices/strategies could help ensure the committee reads the dissertation?

I am wondering if those who already hold a PhD, or advanced graduate students finishing their dissertations have experience where they suspected that their committee (besides their Chair) have not read their dissertation prior to the final defense examination. I would guess this issue is far from unique, as there is a variety of reasons for this. Here are some general reasons:

Gap in Access: Committee members become separated from the department/institution, either completely or to some significant extent. Examples include retirements, where the individual might remain tangentially involved in a part time or 'emeritus' role; leaving for another job at a different institution, etc. (both are often associated with geographic relocation).

This creates additional distance between the student and that individual, making an "office drop-in" unfeasible and communication more lopsided, as the individual may feel less press to respond to emails/calls.

Note: difficulties with communication can be a standalone category, but I thought it was too broad as it applies across the board.

Gap in Motivation: This is essentially a gap between committee member's current priorities/interests and the thesis. Committee members, who have been added to the thesis committee because their area of expertise complements the knowledge capital on the committee, might feel disinterested from the particular dissertation topic selected by the student. Because the topic does not directly tie into their work, there is little incentive for them to spend time carefully reviewing the dissertation.
Lack of time/low priority: Related to the previous reasons, although this  issue might surface even if the faculty member is reasonably accessible (on campus etc.) and reasonably interested in the thesis. Despite their 'well meaning' and 'best intentions', the thesis nevertheless keeps slipping to the bottom of their to-do's and they don't get around to reading/commenting for months. The pattern may recur despite regular polite reminders by email from the student and/or the committee chair.

Whatever the underlying reason (or their combinations), the result is the same: the thesis does not receive as thorough review as it technically should. The obvious negative consequences may be summarized as:

lower overall quality of the thesis (more eyes on the writing helps
spot all sorts of issues that may be visible only from the unique
vantage points of highly competent readers);
lower quality of the student's learning experience (less feedback = less learning);
longer time to complete thesis (since the student has to compensate for lack of feedback by trying to work out all the kinks on his/her own, plus the time it takes to simply wait for committee members to respond to requests for feedback).
difficulties during the final examination (thesis defense), since lack of committee's familiarity with the content of the thesis directly impacts their ability to be more "plugged in" to the examination presentation and 'grilling' of the candidate. As a result the candidate might have incorrect assumptions/expectations of the committee's knowledge of what he/she is talking about, and the resulting general confusion (can anyone relate to that one? ;)

What to do. How to reduce the chances of the 'neglected thesis syndrome'?